Sometimes there is something to be said for disorganization.

This volume attempts to supply a sort of introduction to the art of Chaucer criticism. A distinguished list of authors supply essays on aspects of Chaucer -- ranging from the social background to the poetic structure to the genres of Chaucer's writings. And there is no denying that there is a great deal of interesting and useful material here.

And yet, I find several problems. For starters, "This book is intended for students approaching Chaucer for the first time at whatever stage in their lives." This presumably means that they don't know Chaucer in detail. And yet, there is almost no attempt to remind readers what Chaucer's writings are about -- bad enough for the Canterbury Tales (quick, anyone, do you remember which one is the Canon's Yeoman's tale?), but almost hopeless when dealing with an obscure, incomplete work like Anelida and Arcite. Textual issues are largely ignored, too.

The worst thing, perhaps, is that there is so little insight into what things mean. For instance, I learned far more about The Franklin's Tale from a few words in John Stevens's Medieval Romances than from this whole book. Despite the attempt to explain Chaucer's world, there really doesn't seem to be much that explains Chaucer. The attempt to cover a little bit of everything means that hardly anything has been explained in full.

Don't misunderstand this. There is a great deal of useful material here, and this is a good addition to a Chaucer library. But if you're a first-time student of Chaucer, all I can say is, Get Benson's The Riverside Chaucer, and digest that, and if you still want more, there will be plenty of time to read this book at that stage. ( )