This descriptive history surveys the entire canon of Old and Middle English literature, and provides both general reader and student with the basis for a sympathetic understanding of this impressive body of work. It gives a detailed account of the first Anglo-Saxon creative ventures from "Beowulf" and the Cynewulfian poems to the works of Alfred, Aelfric, and Wulfstan. It discusses the effects of the Norman Conquest, the early Middle English romances, the origins of the Arthurian legends, the medieval dramas, "Piers Plowman", the Pearl Poet, John Gower, and the monumental works of Geoffrey Chaucer.
"Old and Middle English Literature" is the first book in the four-volume "A History of English Literature", under the General Editorship of Hardin Craig, which will encompass the complete body of English writing from its beginnings to the First World War.