Troilus and Criseyde

If "variety distinguishes Chaucer's handling of his materials," as Allen J. Frantzen writes his preface to this volume, it also distinguishes Frantzen's handling of his materials - the contents and contexts of Troilus and Criseyde. Of the few available introductory studies on Chaucer's poem, fewer still accommodate the multiplicity of ideas at play both within the text and among the various interpretations of it that have fallen in and out of vogue since the work first appeared in medieval London. Troilus and Criseyde's story of failed love amid the ruins of war often yields discussion of the traditions of courtly love and other nuances of medieval aristocratic and intellectual life. Frantzen, offering a complex analysis of the narrative that asks readers to grapple with its social, sexual, philosophical, and even comedic motifs, challenges many preconceived ideas about medieval culture and about Chaucer as its chief spokesman.