Troilus and Criseyde (Folio Society Limited Edition)
CHAUCER, Geoffrey. Troilus and Criseyde. London: The Folio Society, 2011. 2 vols.
Folio. Main volume bound in full black goatskin. Cover illustration blocked in 22-carat gold, designed by Neil Gower. Spine lettered in gilt. All edges gilt. Contents printed on Rigoletto Panna felt-marked paper. 5 full-page illustrations. 328 pp. Commentary volume bound in quarter black buckram and blue boards, cover titling on white panel. 48 pp. Housed in black buckram solander case lettered in gilt. First Folio Society edition. Limited to 1,250 numbered copies, this being number 83.
Troilus and Criseyde is among the greatest long poems in the English language, and the work in which Chaucer's powers are most fully and consistently sustained. Written in the 1380s in the rime royal stanza of seven pentameter lines, it tells the story of the Trojan warrior Troilus — youngest son of King Priam — who falls desperately in love with the widow Criseyde, is aided in his pursuit by her uncle Pandarus, achieves happiness, and then loses everything when Criseyde is exchanged in a prisoner swap to the Greek camp and there, under pressure of circumstance, takes a new lover. The Trojan War provides the doomed backdrop; the poem's subject is the nature of love, fortune, and human freedom in a world governed by forces beyond individual control.
Chaucer drew on Boccaccio's Il Filostrato but transformed his source utterly. Where Boccaccio's poem is relatively direct in its psychological movement, Chaucer's is dense with irony, philosophical reflection, and a compassion for all three of its central figures that gives it a moral complexity unusual in medieval literature. The narrator's own relationship to his material, simultaneously invested and distanced, is itself one of the poem's most sophisticated achievements. It has been described as the first great novel in English in everything but form.
The Folio Society edition of 2011, produced in a strictly limited edition of 1,250 numbered copies, presents the poem in a production of exceptional gravity. Neil Gower's cover design, blocked in 22-carat gold on full black goatskin, gives the volume the character of an object of value rather than mere decoration. The five full-page illustrations and the accompanying commentary volume complete an edition that takes both the poem and its reader seriously.
Fine throughout. All volumes and solander case impeccably preserved.
This book is currently on display in our Paddington store. If you would like more information or to arrange a viewing, please contact: [email protected]
Catalogue Number: HH000159
Please note: This item is large and heavy. Within Australia it may require additional postage costs. For international shipping please contact us for a quote.
Description
CHAUCER, Geoffrey. Troilus and Criseyde. London: The Folio Society, 2011. 2 vols.
Folio. Main volume bound in full black goatskin. Cover illustration blocked in 22-carat gold, designed by Neil Gower. Spine lettered in gilt. All edges gilt. Contents printed on Rigoletto Panna felt-marked paper. 5 full-page illustrations. 328 pp. Commentary volume bound in quarter black buckram and blue boards, cover titling on white panel. 48 pp. Housed in black buckram solander case lettered in gilt. First Folio Society edition. Limited to 1,250 numbered copies, this being number 83.
Troilus and Criseyde is among the greatest long poems in the English language, and the work in which Chaucer's powers are most fully and consistently sustained. Written in the 1380s in the rime royal stanza of seven pentameter lines, it tells the story of the Trojan warrior Troilus — youngest son of King Priam — who falls desperately in love with the widow Criseyde, is aided in his pursuit by her uncle Pandarus, achieves happiness, and then loses everything when Criseyde is exchanged in a prisoner swap to the Greek camp and there, under pressure of circumstance, takes a new lover. The Trojan War provides the doomed backdrop; the poem's subject is the nature of love, fortune, and human freedom in a world governed by forces beyond individual control.
Chaucer drew on Boccaccio's Il Filostrato but transformed his source utterly. Where Boccaccio's poem is relatively direct in its psychological movement, Chaucer's is dense with irony, philosophical reflection, and a compassion for all three of its central figures that gives it a moral complexity unusual in medieval literature. The narrator's own relationship to his material, simultaneously invested and distanced, is itself one of the poem's most sophisticated achievements. It has been described as the first great novel in English in everything but form.
The Folio Society edition of 2011, produced in a strictly limited edition of 1,250 numbered copies, presents the poem in a production of exceptional gravity. Neil Gower's cover design, blocked in 22-carat gold on full black goatskin, gives the volume the character of an object of value rather than mere decoration. The five full-page illustrations and the accompanying commentary volume complete an edition that takes both the poem and its reader seriously.
Fine throughout. All volumes and solander case impeccably preserved.
This book is currently on display in our Paddington store. If you would like more information or to arrange a viewing, please contact: [email protected]
Catalogue Number: HH000159
Please note: This item is large and heavy. Within Australia it may require additional postage costs. For international shipping please contact us for a quote.
