Jean De Meun

H lo se's personal reply to Abelard's 'letter to a friend', the very public Historia calamitatum, began an exchange of epistles between the former lovers, by turns tender, practical and theological, and which only began to be circulated in the late thirteenth century, eventually attracting the attention of the accomplished translator and poet, Jean de Meun. Leslie Brook's edition of this French translation provides a reading text through a comparison with the Latin original and correction of obvious errors of the single manuscript witness. Leslie Brook was formerly senior lecturer in French at the University of Birmingham.

H lo se's personal reply to Abelard's 'letter to a friend', the very public Historia calamitatum, began an exchange of epistles between the former lovers, by turns tender, practical and theological, and which only began to be circulated in the late thirteenth century, eventually attracting the attention of the accomplished translator and poet, Jean de Meun. Leslie Brook's edition of this French translation provides a reading text through a comparison with the Latin original and correction of obvious errors of the single manuscript witness. Leslie Brook was formerly senior lecturer in French at the University of Birmingham.

`If any man or woman should ask what I wish this romance... to be called, it is the Romance of the Rose, in which the whole art of love is contained'. Guillaume de Lorris's own introduction to his allegorical account of the progress of a courtly love affair gives no indication of the eventual scale and scope of the work, which became the most popular and influential of all medieval romances. In the hands of Jean de Meun, who continued de Lorris's work, it assumed vast proportions and embraced almost every aspect of medieval life, from predestination to the right way to deal with premature hair-loss. This new translation into modern English, based on the French edition by Félix Lecoy, is intended as much for the general reader as for students of French and English literature. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Many English-speaking readers of the Roman de la rose, the famous dream allegory of the thirteenth century, have come to rely on Charles Dahlberg's elegant and precise translation of the Old French text. His line-by-line rendering in contemporary English is available again, this time in a third edition with an updated critical apparatus. Readers at all levels can continue to deepen their understanding of this rich tale about the Lover and his quest--against the admonishments of Reason and the obstacles set by Jealousy and Resistance--to pluck the fair Rose in the Enchanted Garden. The original introduction by Dahlberg remains an excellent overview of the work, covering such topics as the iconographic significance of the imagery and the use of irony in developing the central theme of love. His new preface reviews selected scholarship through 1990, which examines, for example, the sources and influences of the work, the two authors, the nature of the allegorical narrative as a genre, the use of first person, and the poem's early reception. The new bibliographic material incorporates that of the earlier editions. The sixty-four miniature illustrations from thirteenth-and fifteenth-century manuscripts are retained, as are the notes keyed to the Langlois edition, on which the translation is based.