Books by Ann W. Astell

Calling into question the common assumption that the Middle Ages produced no secondary epics, Ann W. Astell here revises a key chapter in literary history. She examines the connections between the Book of Job and Boethius' s Consolation of Philosophy...

The author offers a new understanding of the rhetorical nature of allegorical poetry in the late Middle Ages. She shows that major English writers of that era - including Langland, Gower, Chaucer and the "Gawain" poet - offered in their works timely commentary on current events and public issues.

Ann W. Astell explores the ambiguity of the phrase "eating beauty." The phrase evokes the destruction of beauty, the devouring mouth of the grave, the mouth of hell.

The order of the fragments making up the Canterbury Tales and the structure of that collection have long been questioned. Ann W. Astell proposes that Chaucer intended the order that is preserved in what is known as the Ellesmere manuscript. In...

The Song of Songs in the Middle Ages is a wide-ranging and insightful book that is carefully researched and gracefully written. It is of importance alike to those interested in mysticism, Middle English, the twelfth century, the fourteenth century...

A host of modern authors have portrayed Joan of Arc as a heroine, telling her story as a way of commenting on their own situation in a world where the power of art has decreased. Astell argues that many authors have seen their own artistic vocation in the visions and voices that inspired Joan.