Jean Froissart

"The fourteenth-century French writer Jean Froissart has for centuries been best known as the author of the Chroniques, a monumental four-volume account of the Hundred Years' War that provides a detailed view of medieval politics and courtly society. More recently, scholars have turned their attention to Froissart's other large corpus of writing, his poetry, which served as a source for Chaucer and is notable for the complexity of Froissart's use of conventions, his awareness of authorial presence, and the self-reflexive quality of his themes.". "This anthology provides many first-ever English translations of this important writer's works, including three of his major narrative poems (Le Paradis d'Amours, L'Espinette amoureuse, and Le Joli Buisson de Jonece), several of his shorter dits and debats, a sampling of his other lyric genres, and excerpts from the long verse romance Meliador. The varied selections give readers a sense of Froissart's range, and the dual-language presentation allows both scholars and students access to these significant texts, while inviting simultaneous study of the subtleties of the original French."--BOOK JACKET.