Monday, June 29, 2026

Anonymous; Sayers trans, The Song of Roland (11thC or 12thC; 1957)

Anonymous.
The Song of Roland.
Translated by Dorothy L. Sayers.
Book Series: Penguin Classics.
London: Penguin Books, 1957.

Book Information : Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.

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Translator Information : Dorothy L. Sayers
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Wikipedia Articles : The Song of Roland; French Literature; History of France; History of Spain
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Some Other English Translations of The Song of Roland :
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Notes:

I recently started reading Don Quixote and following the assigned reading in Roberto González Echevarría's lecture course Cervantes' Don Quixote. The character Alonso Quijano has become obsessed with the literature of Chivalric romance. In his early lectures González Echevarría discusses the literary predecessors of Don Quixote; there is a large body literature from the preceding 500 years before Don Quixote that influenced it and with which I was (and remain) unfamiliar. To satisfy my own obsessive inclinations I wanted to clarify the sequencing, relationships, and characteristics of these literary predecessors. Here is my general outline, with some of the more prominent examples, sometimes with the details of a recently published edition (there are sometimes/often more than one recent edition to choose from).
Disclaimer: This is a rough draft; I have not read this literature.
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  1. General Background Topics
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  3. Chanson de geste [Song of Heroic Deeds].
    A genre of epic poems celebrating martial valor reflecting the warfare-ridden societies of the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries), which were later written down (composed?) during the High Middle Ages (c.1000 – c.1300) perhaps associated with Renaissance of the 12th century.
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  5. Chivalric romance.
    The societies of the High Middle Ages (c.1000 – c.1300) developed significantly since the Early Middle Ages. The Chivalric Romance evolved from the Chanson de Geste with a wider range of themes and reflecting the now more stable societies. This literary genre declined towards the end of the Late Middle Ages (ended c.1500).
    Dorothy L. Sayers discusses this in her Introduction to The Song of Roland.

    NOTE: The word "romance" has been used to describe several different literary forms, themes, and genres in the Western literature of the last thousand years, which may cause confusion. Consult the article Romance (prose fiction) for some clarification on this topic.
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  7. Spanish Literature before Don Quixote
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  9. Miguel de Cervantes (1547 – 1616). Don Quixote (1605, 1615). Translated by Edith Grossman. New York: Ecco / HarperCollins Publishers, 2003.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]

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Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Wood, Seascraper (2025)

Benjamin Wood.
Seascraper.
London: Viking (Penguin Random House UK), 2025.
New York: Scribner (Simon & Schuster), 2025.

Book Information : Publisher UK; Publisher USA; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com, UK ed; Amazon.com, USA ed.

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Author Information :
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Wikipedia Articles :
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Saturday, May 09, 2026

Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (1994)

William Shakespeare.
Twelfth Night, or What You Will.
Edited by Roger Warren and Stanley Wells.
Book Series: The Oxford Shakespeare; Oxford World's Classics.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994, 2008.

Book Information : Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.

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Editors: Roger Warren and Stanley Wells
  • Roger Warren was a Senior Lecturer of English, University of Leicester.
  • Roger Warren edited four additional individual plays in The Oxford Shakespeare series: Cymbeline; Henry VI, Part Two; Pericles; The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
  • Warren, Roger, 1943-, The Library of Congress, LC Name Authority File (LCNAF).
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  • Stanley Wells, his website.
  • Stanley Wells (b. 1930), Wikipedia.
  • Stanley Wells has written and edited many, many books related to Shakespeare. Some of them are described in the Books section of the Stanley Wells website.
  • Stanley Wells, OCLC WorldCat Entities.
  • Wells, Stanley, 1930-, The Library of Congress, LC Name Authority File (LCNAF).

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Wikipedia Articles :

Shakespeare : English Renaissance Literature, Drama : England during Shakespeare's Time :
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Discussions of Shakespeare and Twelfth Night :
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Some Other Recent Editions of Twelfth Night :
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Essays about Twelfth Night :
  • Harold Jenkins, "Shakespeare's Twelfth Night," pages 72-87 in Shakespeare: The Comedies: A Collection of Critical Essays, Edited by Kenneth Muir, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1965.
    [Archive.org; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
    (Roger Warren's and Stanley Wells' Introduction to The Oxford Shakespeare edition of Twelfth Night refers to this essay several times.)
  • Laurence Lerner, editor. Shakespeare's Comedies: An Anthology of Modern Criticism. Penguin Shakespeare Library. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, 1967.
    [Archive.org; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
    (The section on Twelfth Night, pages 265-283, contains four brief essays and suggestions for further reading.)
  • Stanley Wells, editor. Twelfth Night: Critical Essays. New York: Garland Publishing, 1986; Routledge, 2015.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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Note :
I previously read Twelfth Night in 2024. My 2024 blog post is here.

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Saturday, May 02, 2026

Defoe, Moll Flanders (1722; 2011)

Daniel Defoe.
Moll Flanders.
Text Edited by G. A. Starr and Linda Bree.
Introduction and Notes by Linda Bree.
Book Series: Oxford World's Classics.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Book Information : Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.

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Editors: G. A. Starr and Linda Bree
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Wikipedia Articles: Author, Book; English Literature; England during Defoe's times; William Hogarth
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Some other editions of Moll Flanders :
  • Daniel Defoe. The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders. Edited by David Blewett. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 1989.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • Daniel Defoe. Moll Flanders. Edited by Edward Kelly. Norton Critical Editions. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1973.
    [Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • Daniel Defoe. Moll Flanders. Edited by Albert J. Rivero. Norton Critical Editions. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004.
    [Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • Daniel Defoe. Moll Flanders, Second Edition. Edited by Albert J. Rivero. Norton Critical Editions. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2024.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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Miscellaneous Discussions of Daniel Defoe and/or Moll Flanders :
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Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Mori, The Wild Geese (1911–1913; 1959)

Mori Ōgai.
The Wild Geese.
Translated by Kingo Ochiai and Sanford Goldstein.
Tokyo; Vermont; Singapore: Tuttle Publishing, 1959.

Book Information : Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.

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Author Information :
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Japanese Literature :
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Some other English translations of The Wild Geese :
  • Mori Ōgai. The Wild Goose. Translated by Burton Watson. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 1995.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • Mori Ōgai. Gan [Geese]. Translated by Glenn Anderson. Long Island City, New York: One Peace Books, 2014.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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Some other works in English translation by Mori Ōgai :
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Thursday, April 02, 2026

Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719; 2007)

Daniel Defoe.
Robinson Crusoe.
Edited with an Introduction by Thomas Keymer.
Notes by Thomas Keymer and James Kelly.
Book Series: Oxford World's Classics.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007, 2008.

Book Information : Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.

Book Series: Oxford World's Classics.

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Editor: Thomas Keymer
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Wikipedia Articles: Author, Book, English Literature, British History
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Miscellaneous Discussions of Defoe and Robinson Crusoe :
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Some other editions of Robinson Crusoe :
  • Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe. Edited by John Richetti. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 2001, 2003.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe, Second Edition. Edited by Michael Shinagel. Norton Critical Editions. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1993.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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