Chaucer

The first volume in Blackwell’s new “Guides to Criticism” series, Corinne Saunders’ Chaucer lives up to the series’ stated goals: “to enhance enjoyment of literature and to widen the individual student’s critical repertoire”. The selections are carefully chosen and intelligently introduced, providing an overview of various areas of Chaucer criticism and situating each extract not just in terms of its historical moment but also within the continuing critical conversation.

The volume is divided into eight chapters. Four present Saunders’ overview of a Chaucerian topic; four consist of critical extracts on that topic. In the first chapter, “The development of Chaucer...