Piers Plowman: An Introduction

Simpson’s introductory study is based on the B-text, the most widely read and studied of the three versions of Piers Plowman. Aimed at undergraduates, it is the only truly introductory book on the text in existence. Its structure follows that of the poem’s eight visions and its introduction situates the poem in literary and political history. This fully revised edition takes account of scholarship over the last 15 years and includes a revised and updated bibliography.

James Simpson is Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English at Harvard University.  He is a co-editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature and co-edited the Yearbook of Langland Studies.  He is the author of Reform and Cultural Revolution (2002) and Burning to Read: English Fundamentalism and its Reformation Opponents (2007).