Chaucer: An Oxford Guide ed. by Steve Ellis (review)

REVIEWS73 vestiges of meaning obscured by the passage of time. In the process it establishes a sense, at least, of the cognitive gaps between early modern English and its modern readers, gaps both actuated and elided by metaphor. MICHAEL HOUSEHOLDER Southern Methodist University steve ellis, ed., Chaucer:An Oxford Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pp. xxiv, 644. isbn: 0-19-925912-7. $35. This compilation of essays by diverse hands is a book best begun at the end, with Peter Brown's essay 'Chaucer and his guides,' for there, in a history of the genre originatingwith Thomas Betterton's guide of1712, we learn how the present title fits into the constellation ofnearly fifty guides to Chaucer, thirty-eight ofwhich have been published in the last forty years. We also learn that the present title is a 'blockbuster,' one of those 'not designed to be read cover to cover, but as reference works.' Not to be confused with the pricier OxfordCompanion to Chaucer (2003), which is organized alphabetically, Chaucer:An OxfordGuidepresents a pre-modern Chaucer for post-modern readers, organized into five comprehensive critical sections, the lion's share given over to 'Historical contexts,' including 'Chaucer's life' (focusing on the Cecilia Chaumpaigne release), and essays on such customary contexts as 'London,' 'Religion,' 'Chivalry,' 'Philosophy,' 'Science,' 'Love and marriage,' each significantly reframing its subject in the light ofcurrent theoretical approaches. This section contains as well, however, a number ofessays on less traditional topics, such as 'Nationhood,' 'Visual culture,' 'Sexuality,' and 'Identity and subjecthood.' Section II provides essays on 'Literary contexts,' with one each on the classical, English, French, and Italian backgrounds, as well as a final essay on the Bible, (including discussion of the Wycliffite controversy, and 'Robertsonianism'). The third section supplies a set ofcritical readings, ranging from 'Feminisms' through 'New historicism,' 'Queer theory,' 'Postcolonialism' and 'Psychoanalytic criticism.' These essays typically begin with an overview of the critical approach at hand, often with a review of the most significant recent applications to Chaucer's poetty, followed by an exemplaryreading ofa particular text. Section IV details Chaucef's reception from the fifteenth to the twenry-fifst century, with essays also on translations and 'Chaucer in performance.' Finally, the fifth section, 'Study resources,' reviews print and electronic materials thatsupplement the notes and suggestions for 'Further reading' following each essay. An adjuvant Web site contains four additional chapters on the history of teaching Chaucer in Great Britain and the U.S. Setting aside for the moment BarryWindeatt's observation as to 'the condescension ofclaiming Chaucer as some harbinger ofpostmodernism,' the Guide speaks as an authoritative text, providing direction and knowledge genetally well adapted to its intended undergraduate audience, both British and American. Some essays, Elizabeth Robertson's fine survey oftwentieth-century criticism comes to mind, will be repeatedly useful as will Kevin J. Harty's survey ofChaucer in performance, Peter Brown's essay on Chaucer's guides, Richard Utz's on philosophy, Jim Rhodes's on religion, and S.H. Rigby's 'Societyand Politics.' Notso othefs—the curious excursion 74ARTHURIANA in Marion Turner's essay, 'Who can forget, for example, the Iraqi dethronement of Baghdad's giant statue of Saddam Hussein in April?' for instance, signals its short shelf life. There is, too, tendentiousness in varying degrees ('Since the same man who kills his brother kills him, it is possible that Troilus dies in a similar way. We never actually see the demise ofTroilus, but. . . ') and omission ofimportant material (H. A. Kelly's Studies in theAge ofChauceressay on raptus and Susan S. Morrison's ChaucerReview essay on the biographers' treatment of it are not cited; Ardis Butterfield might have mined the political poems of Laurence Minot for symptoms of nascent 'English' nationalism; Alan Gaylord's TheArt ofChaucer's Verse should surely be mentioned, although in general there is scant attention to poetry,per se), and there are errors of fact (Wendy Scase, for instance, wrongly avers that the only echo of the alliterative revival in Chaucer's poetryoccurs in 'The Knight's Tale,' missing the more frequently celebrated description of the Battle of Acriurn from The Legend ofGood Women). Occasional false notes occur in a writer's addressing an undergraduate audience (medieval London...