num_pages: 416
description: E. Talbot Donaldson wrote in his first book on Piers Plowman that Langland 'in his emphasis on the individual...was in advance of his own church and of his own nation--and, indeed, of himself.' Paradoxically, as Donaldson also recognized, Langland was 'a political and religious moderate' whose cast of mind was 'conservative and traditionalist.' The poem that resulted from this curious paradox presents one of the great enigmas of all English poetry, as well as one of the major works of the Middle Ages.
language: English
title: Piers Plowman: An Edition of the C-Text
titlecomplete: Piers Plowman: An Edition of the C-Text (York Medieval Text, 2nd Series)
characters: Piers the Ploughman, William
genres: Literature, Classics, English Literature, Christianity, Religion, Medieval, Fiction, Poetry, 14th Century, British Literature
ratings_count: 2958
publisher: University of California Press