Chaucer's Miller's, Reeve's, and Cook's tales /

Edited by two medieval literature scholars (Univ. of Adelaide), this is the fifth of 18 planned volumes in this series. One can only agree with Thomas Hahn (the series's general editor), who asserts that the distinctive feature of these volumes is that their annotations are long, full, intellectual descriptions of works. This volume's annotations are concise and rich; the contributors make very effective use of brief quotations from the cited works. The annotations (all signed) also are accessible to all levels of readers; the contributors make only minimal use of esoteric language. The volume's other distinctive feature is the depth to which these three Chaucer tales are covered bibliographically. The only comparable bibliography in terms of length of annotations and number of entries is Mark Allen and John H. Fisher's The Essential Chaucer: An Annotated Bibliography of Major Modern Studies (CH, Mar'88), but their work covers all of Chaucer and so does not cover these three tales as comprehensively. The contributors analyze 755 items written in this century up to 1992, including books, chapters, articles, and reviews. Entries cover all languages and are cross-referenced. There are indexes, an assessment of scholarship of these tales chronologically 1900-92, and introductions to each section. Recommended for all readers but especially for upper-division undergraduates and graduate students. N. G. Stewart; Georgetown University