This collection of previously published essays acts as a companion to Chaucer to Spenser: An Anthology of Writings in English 1375 -1575. It pays particular attention to those critics who have had the most powerful recent impact on our reading of the texts of the period.

Derek Pearsall is the Gurney Professor of English at Harvard University and was Professor and Co-Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of York, 1965-85. His numerous publications include Chaucer to Spenser: An Anthology (1999) and The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer (1992) both available from Blackwell. He is also the author of John Lydgate (1970), Old English and Middle English Poetry (1977), The Canterbury Tales: A Critical Study (1985), An Annotated Critical Bibliography of Langland (1990).