Lexington Books
Pages: 210
•
Trim: 6½ x 9¼
978-1-4985-6193-8 • Hardback • December 2017 • $117.00 • (£90.00)
978-1-4985-6195-2 • Paperback • February 2020 • $47.99 • (£37.00)
978-1-4985-6194-5 • eBook • December 2017 • $45.50 • (£35.00)
John M. Hill is professor emeritus of English language and literature at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Chapter One - Chaucer’s Neoplatonism: Varieties of Love, Friendship and Community
Chapter Two - Varieties of Supposition and the Truth Value of Story
Chapter Three - Varieties of Friendship: Pandarus, Troilus and Noble Friendship
Chapter Four - Avuncular Form and Pandarus’s Several Embassies
Chapter Five - Varieties of Joy in Troilus and Criseyde
Chapter Six - Varieties of Invited “Compaignye” in the Pilgrimage to Canterbury
Conclusion - Chaucer’s Neoplatonic Art
John Hill’s detailed analysis of Chaucer’s deeply thought, but playful, poetry emphasizes traces of divine forms in human affairs, however tangled with mere sense perceptions and degraded actions. Convincingly challenging the trend of some recent criticism, the poems (especially Troilus and Criseyde) are found to be shot through with Neoplatonic/Boethian notions of knowledge, love, joy, “full” friendship, and community.
— Peggy Knapp, Carnegie Mellon University
An intelligent and wide-ranging reading of the major poems in terms of what Hill sees as Chaucer's loosely applied and rational Neo-Platonism. Staying close to the poetic texts, Hill focuses on Chaucer's varying treatments of the themes of love, friendship and community. Scholars and advanced students will find this book a companionable addition to their libraries
— Howell Chickering, Amherst College
John M. Hill has done that rare thing: a new book on Chaucer that in fact shows us something new. Hill has applied a lifetime of learning to probing the heart of Chaucer's Boethian plenitude. What he finds is a deeply embedded Neoplatonism that, once seen through Hill's eyes, powers fresh, unexpectedly convincing readings of Chaucer's work, from the Book of the Duchess through Troilus to the Canterbury Tales.
— Robert Yeager, University of West Florida