In The Canterbury Tales , Chaucer created one of the great touchstones of English literature, a masterly collection of chivalric romances, moral allegories and low farce. This version of the text has been translated into modern English by Nevill Coghill.

Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. But his delicate mission is overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey where extraordinary things are happening under the cover of night.

Composed towards the end of the first millennium of our era, the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf is a Northern epic and a classic of European literature. In this new translation, Seamus Heaney has produced a work that is true, line by line, to the original poem.

Describing Dante's descent into Hell midway through his life with Virgil as a guide, this work depicts a cruel underworld in which desperate figures are condemned to eternal damnation for committing one or more of seven deadly sins. Led by leering demons, the poet must ultimately journey with Virgil to the deepest level of all.

A green knight on a green horse rudely interrupts the Round Table festivities one Yuletide, casting a pall of unease over the company and challenging one of their number to a wager. The virtuous Gawain accepts, and decapitates the intruder with his own axe.

On 15 August 778, Charlemagne's army was returning from a successful expedition against Saracen Spain when its rearguard was ambushed in a Pyrenean pass. Written by an unknown poet, this book tells of Charlemagne's warrior nephew, Lord of Breton Marches, who valiantly leads his men into battle against the Saracens, but dies defiant to the end.

Tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known; of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect - a man divided in his soul; and of the beautiful, elusive Lady Aliena, haunted by a secret shame.

This work begins with the birth of Arthur and the establishment of his kingdom and the fellowship of knights. It describes courtly society which is outwardly secure and successful, but which is, in reality, torn by dissent and ultimately treachery.

A translation of the complete correspondence of Abelard and Heloise, this volume also includes a translation of The Calamities of Abelard , of the letters of Heloise and Peter the Venerable, and of selected songs, hymns, and laments of Abelard. It also includes a chronology, map, and index.

Recasts the storytelling heritage of the ancient and medieval worlds into perennial forms that inspired writers including Chaucer and Shakespeare. This book hovers between the fading glories of an aristocratic past - the Crusades, the Angevins, the courts of France, the legendary East - and the squalor of contemporary life.

A title in the Bristol Classical Press French Texts series, in French with English notes, vocabulary and introduction. In the 12th century, Marie de France, one of the earliest female writers of medieval Europe, composed 12 poems, known as the Lais , which offer a blend of romance and realism.

The story of the eventful and controversial life of Margery Kempe wife, mother, businesswoman, pilgrim and visionary is the earliest surviving autobiography in English. Here Kempe (c.1373 c.1440) recounts in vivid, unembarrassed detail the madness that followed the birth of the first of her fourteen children, the failure of her brewery business, her dramatic call to the spiritual life, her ...

Described variously as the greatest poem of the European Middle Ages and, because of the author's evangelical purpose, the 'fifth Gospel', the Divine Comedy is central to the culture of the west. The poem is a spiritual autobiography in the form of a journey - the poet travels from the dark circles of the Inferno, up the mountain of Purgatory, where Virgil, his guide leaves him to encounter ...

Depicting a realm of intense sensation and physical experience, this poem transforms the traditional Christian idea of Purgatory by showing how the free will of the aspiring soul could change wordly perversions into perfection.

Selected titles, third edition.

The Arthurian Romances contains prose translations of all five of Chretien's verse romans - Erec and Enide , Cliges , Lancelot , Yvain , Perceval .

The 11 tales of the Mabinogion combine Celtic mythology and Arthurian romance. This new translation recreates the storytelling world of medieval Wales and re-invests the tales with the power of performance.

Bede's 'Ecclesiastical History' was completed in 731 and still ranks among the most popular of history books. In this edition, the Latin text is accompanied by a English translation; the introduction provides an historical background and a survey of surviving manuscripts

It is April 1204, and Constantinople, the splendid capital of the Byzantine Empire, is being sacked and burned by the knights of the Fourth Crusade. Amid the carnage and confusion, one Baudolino saves a Byzantine historian and high court official from certain death at the hands of the crusading warriors, and proceeds to tell his own story.

A specially priced edition to mark the 25th anniversary of the original publication of the first chronicle of Brother Cadfael.