Chaucer's language /

Horobin (Univ. of Glasgow) offers a clear, well-organized, and highly authoritative introduction for students first encountering Chaucer and later Middle English language and literature generally. He stresses historical, poetic, and stylistic matters--included is an excellent discussion of "pragmatics and discourse" (the register and social nuances of communication)--but he also has important chapters on phonology and grammar. The author expertly assesses where Chaucer was original and where not, and he carefully pursues Chaucer's stylistic choices among the fluid options of Middle English. One of the book's greatest virtues is how well it addresses Chaucer's changing sense of the fashionableness and social level of particular words and phrases. Horobin's guide could be a core resource for a later Middle English linguistics course, but it is terse and illuminating enough to fit into any Chaucer or Middle English literary course. This guide updates, surpasses, and for the most part replaces David Burnley's more leisurely Guide to Chaucer's Language (CH, Sep'84), though that book is still valuable on some stylistic, historical, and usage matters less fully developed by Horobin. The book's only downside is its price. Summing Up: Essential. All readers, all levels. A. Galloway Cornell University