John Gower wrote at the same time as Chaucer, whom he knew, and on many of the same subjects. Although well known and respected in his time and after, he has often been relegated to a paragraph
in Chaucerian biography. In this interdisciplinary collection of essays, Urban (medieval literature, Queen's University, Belfast) brings together essays that look at Gower's work in Latin,
French and English. The fact that there are many extant manuscripts showing the author's own revisions, either for artistic reasons or to slant the work toward a particular patron, gives
students of manuscript tradition a rare opportunity to make comparative analyses, not only of the evolution of his writing but of translations made in his lifetime. Gower's philosophy and use
of Aristotelian rhetoric is also discussed. His plentiful use of fragmentary quotations in Vox Clamantis sheds light on his view of the state of his own society. Attitudes to foreigners in
London in the late fourteenth century are seen through his loathing of Lombard merchants. The final essay seeks for clues about Gower's wife, Agnes, whom he married late in life. The essays are
all scholarly and of interest to students in several disciplines. However, the lack of an index or a bibliography is an obstacle for finding references. Distributed in North America by The
David Brown Book Co. Annotation 穢2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
