Sign-In
Cart
Piers Plowman: A New Annotated Edition of the A-Text
Paperback
Series: Exeter Medieval
Literary CriticismPoetry CriticismGeneral Poetry
ISBN13: 9781804132708
Publisher: University of Exeter Press
Published: Sep 22 2026
Pages: 224
Weight: 0.71
Height: 0.52 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English
The earliest version of William Langland's Piers Plowman shows this elusive and centrally important fourteenth-century poet inventing the forms that his life's work will take. Piers Plowman is a sinuous cycle of dream visions in alliterative verse comprehending many aspects of medieval English culture from tavern life, plague, homelessness, and labour politics to religious devotion and theological controversy. At once socially capacious and spiritually electrifying, Langland's poem was an instant bestseller in its own time and has provoked strong reactions from the fourteenth century to the present.
At under 2,500 lines, the A-text is significantly more compact than the later B- and C-texts, yet it contains much of the poetic thinking that Langland would elaborate in the longer versions. The poem proceeds as a spiritual quest, undertaken by the dreamer Will, to discover how to save his soul, reform church and society, and attain an ethical mode of life in this world. The action oscillates between the cultivated fields of England's West Midlands and the commotion of London and Westminster.
Piers Plowman poses both textual and interpretative difficulties. This is the first critically considered edition of the A-text supported by an introduction, side glosses, and on-page explanatory notes with undergraduate, postgraduate, and scholarly readers in mind.
1 different editions
Also available
Also from
Langland, William
The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman: In Three Parallel Texts; Together With Richard the Redeless; Volume 1
Langland, William
Paperback
The Vision of Piers the Plowman: By William Langland; Done Into Modern English
Skeat, Walter W. 1835-1912
Langland, William
Hardcover
The Vision of Piers the Plowman: By William Langland; Done Into Modern English
Skeat, Walter W. 1835-1912
Langland, William
Paperback
The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman: In Three Parallel Texts; Together With Richard the Redeless; Volume 1
Langland, William
Hardcover
The Vision of William concerning Piers Plowman, together with Vita de Dowel, Dobet, et Dobest: Part 1
Langland, William
Hardcover
The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman: In Three Parallel Texts; Together With Richard the Redeless; Volume 2
Langland, William
Paperback
The Visions Of William Concerning Piers The Plowman, Dowel, Dobet, And Dobest
Langland, William
Hardcover
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Piers the Ploughman
Neilson, William Allan
Langland, William
Webster, Kenneth Grant Tremayne
Paperback
Piers Plowman. Prologue and Passus I-Vii. Text B.: Revised by E. S. Olszewska. Second Edition
Olszewska, Elizabeth Stefanya
Langland, William
Davis, John Francis
Paperback
Piers Plowman. Prologue and Passus I-Vii. Text B.: Revised by E. S. Olszewska. Second Edition
Langland, William
Davis, John Francis
Olszewska, Elizabeth Stefanya
Hardcover
The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman: In Three Parallel Texts; Together With Richard the Redeless; Volume 2
Langland, William
Hardcover
Langland's Vision Of Piers The Plowman: An English Poem Of The Fourteenth Century, Done Into Modern Prose
Langland, William
Paperback
Piers the Plowman and Richard the Redeless: Volume I: Text
Langland, William
Skeat, Walter W.
Paperback
The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman: Part. III.
Skeat, Walter William
Langland, William
Paperback
The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman: Part. III.
Langland, William
Skeat, Walter William
Hardcover
The Vision of William concerning Piers Plowman, together with Vita de Dowel, Dobet, et Dobest: Part 1
Langland, William
Paperback
Langland's Vision Of Piers The Plowman: An English Poem Of The Fourteenth Century, Done Into Modern Prose
Langland, William
Hardcover
The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman: Vol. IV
Langland, William
Skeat, Walter W.
Paperback
The Vision of William: Concerning Piers the Plowman. Fourth Edition
Skeat, Walter W.
Langland, William
Paperback
The vision of William concerning Piers Plowman, together with Vita de Dowel,: Dobet, et Dobest, secundum Wit et Resoun - Vol. 2
Langland, William
Paperback
The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman: Volume 1 (Cram Edition)
Langland, William
Wright, Thomas
Paperback
The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman: VOL. II. (Cram Edition)
Langland, William
Wright, Thomas
Paperback
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Piers the Ploughman
Neilson, William Allan
Langland, William
Webster, Kenneth Grant Tremayne
Hardcover
Also in
Poetry Criticism
The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry
Addonizio, Kim
Laux, Dorianne
Paperback
Letters to a Young Poet: With the Letters to Rilke from the ''Young Poet''
Rilke, Rainer Maria
Kappus, Franz Xaver
Searls, Damion
Hardcover
Economy of the Unlost: (Reading Simonides of Keos with Paul Celan) (Nobel Prize Winner)
Carson, Anne
Paperback
Faeries, Sprites & Malevolent Spirits: An Anthology of Classic Poetry & Stories
Thorne, Aurora
Hardcover
Poem a Day: 366 Poems, Old and New - One for Each Day of the Year
Albery, Nicolas
McCosker, Karen
Paperback
A Literary Dog for Every Day of the Year: Mischievous Mutts and Faithful Friends - Literature's Waggiest Tales
Richardson, Tara
Hardcover
Man Who Would Marry Susan Sontag: And Other Intimate Literary Portraits of the Bohemian Era
Field, Edward
Rosebrough, Amy L.
Paperback
Leaves of Grass: The Complete 1855 and 1891-92 Editions: A Library of America Paperback Classic
Whitman, Walt
Paperback
Three Simple Lines: A Writer's Pilgrimage Into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku
Goldberg, Natalie
Hardcover
Poetry from Spaceship Earth: Empire and Ecology in Post-1945 American Poetry
Rahimtoola, Samia
Paperback