This is a review of Nick Havely's edition of Geoffrey Chaucer's The House of Fam

Petrina, Alessandra

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PETRINA, ALESSANDRA

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Original Citation:Nick Havely, ed., Geoffrey Chaucer: The House of FameIndiana UniversityPublisher:Published version:DOI:Terms of use:Open Access(Article begins on next page)This article is made available under terms and conditions applicable to Open Access Guidelines, as described athttp://www.unipd.it/download/file/fid/55401 (Italian only)Availability:This version is available at: 11577/3172041 since: 2016-01-10T18:50:01ZUniversità degli Studi di PadovaPadua Research Archive - Institutional RepositoryThe Medieval Review 15.10.13Havely, Nick, ed. Geoffrey Chaucer: The House of Fame. DurhamMedieval and Renaissance Texts, 3. Toronto: Pontifical Institute ofMediaeval Studies, 2013. pp. xiv, 272. $22.69 (paperback). ISBN:978–0–88844–563–6 (paperback).Reviewed by:Alessandra PetrinaUniversità degli Studi di Padovaalessandra.petrina@unipd.itThe Medieval Review, 2015 ReviewsIn his review of the first edition of this book, which appeared in 1994, John M. Fyler rightlynoted that such an edition, complete and detailed yet eminently approachable, would be anideal tool for students dealing with this one poem and not with the larger Chaucerian corpus,and thus not needing the bulky and expensive Riverside Chaucer. The reviewer, however,also wondered which student would ever deal with The House of Fame alone, given the lowpopularity of this poem in classrooms, even at university level. More than twenty years afterthe appearance of that first edition, the poem has certainly seen an increase in criticalattention, with excellent studies by, among others, Robert Meyer-Lee, Dean Swinford, SarahPowrie, Helen Cooper, and Simon Meecham-Jones (most of whom are carefully taken intoconsideration in Havely's updating of his work); but it remains difficult to fit The House ofFame into the university curriculum in which, traditionally, The Canterbury Tales or Troilusand Criseyde take precedence.Yet it may be argued that this comparatively short poem would be an ideal choice tointroduce students to late medieval English literature, given the wealth of topics and motifs itoffers, as well as the links with contemporary and previous poems. Starting from thispremise, the present edition would be an invaluable tool, since one of its great merits is toprovide starting points for discussions that might explore different areas of late medievalthought and culture, from the structure of dream visions to the relation between English andother European cultures. More than twenty years after the first appearance of this book, asecond edition has become necessary, given the number of recent critical studies on thepoem, and given the fact that no other edition has appeared in the meantime; the textualevidence, on the other hand, remains the same, though the availability of databases such asEEBO (Early English Books Online) makes the comparison between the extant early printedcopies easier--something of which the present editor is very much aware. Havely hasseamlessly incorporated his new material in the already existing work, maintaining a highlevel of scholarship. Aimed at both students and scholars, the book maintains throughoutHavely's typically informal and friendly tone, while offering a rigorous survey of the(sometimes complex) textual and linguistic problems associated with the poem.Though, in the words of the introduction, this does not claim to be a critical edition, editorialstandards are high. All five witnesses to the poem are taken into consideration, and thevariants presented in the textual notes are far more than the ones present, for instance, inthe Riverside Chaucer, while the thorny question of the different endings is dealt withseparately, in an appendix to the textual notes (the reader will have to look for it, however,as it is not explicitly indicated in the table of contents). Wisely, textual notes, together withthe long commentary, are confined to the end of the book, while the text of the poem isaccompanied only by some light glossing that makes reading easier without becomingPetrina http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/rt/printerFriendl...1 di 2 10/01/16 18:23intrusive. In this way the book reaches out to a wide range of readers, offering also wry littleobservations such as the fact that the Eagle's interest in poetics and its use of specialised andsometimes arcane language shows that the character "has (like George Eliot's Casaubon) agood deal in common with its author" (13). The rigorous division of the introduction intosubsections may also guide readers towards the areas of their interest, though a reader lessacquainted with Chaucer might have wished for a general introduction that would helpdealing with the overall structure of the poem. Each of these sections is accompanied byplentiful (although not always fully updated) footnotes, offering a rich bibliography to readerswho might want to pursue specific topics.As is to be expected of a scholar who has devoted much of his work to Anglo-Italian literaryrelations, Havely is especially at ease with a poem he himself defines as "omnivorous" (17).His exploration of the possible influences that might have been at work in the composition ofThe House of Fame does not deviate from what was offered in the first edition, but there areinteresting new observations in the section devoted to Dante (it should be noted that Havelyhas also recently published a major study on Dante and the British Public), while hisinvestigation into contemporary scientific texts pursues his previous original work on NicholasOresme. The real strength of the edition, however, is in the commentary, presented as longerendnotes. Havely shies away from presenting an overall interpretation of the poem, whichwould in any case be out of place here, and prefers to concentrate on detail, giving the readerall the elements with which to pursue a critical investigation, and offering analogies andcomparisons with an impressively wide range of classical and contemporary European texts.His work on Virgil in particular is extremely detailed and useful, while the other Chaucerianworks are constantly kept in the reader's mind. A bibliography, a select (but generous)glossary, and an index of proper names complete the book.The new edition emends some of the few omissions or infelicities present in the first, andHavely has taken into due consideration the observations and occasional criticisms of pastreviewers, while keeping his own counsel on some disputed interpretations. All theseelements confirm the high standard and solidity of this edition, and its value for students andscholars alike.Petrina http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/rt/printerFriendl...2 di 2 10/01/16 18:23

Nick Havely, ed., Geoffrey Chaucer: The House of Fame

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Nick Havely, ed., Geoffrey Chaucer: The House of Fame

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