John Gower: Recent Readings

In recent years, Gower’s reputation has begun to evolve. Scholars and critics have opened his books once more to discover there a talent worthy of respect, rather than something to be viewed as tedious or dull. Recently it has seemed easier to understand Chaucer’s good will toward the moral friend and fellow author into whose tutelary watchfulness he commended Troilus and Criseyde-and easier to assess the positive value Chaucer’s adjective must have borne. The thirteen essays included here all represent a fresh approach, an effort by North American and European scholars to offer a representative sample of the many diverse directions taken by Gower studies today. The essays demonstrate the life still present in Gower’s work and serve as both an excellent introduction and update on the state of Gower scholarship.