Piers the Ploughman

Front Cover
Penguin Books Limited, 1966 - Literary Collections - 314 pages
Piers the Ploughman, the work of an unknown minor cleric of the late fourteenth century, was perhaps the most widely read work of its day and is now recognized as the great representative English poem of the late Middle Ages. While it offers a vivid picture of fourteenth-century life and is placed firmly in the world of every day, its theme is the pilgrimage of man's soul in search of ultimate truth. Alone among English poets, Langland combines satirical comedy with a rare power of prophecy and vision.

About the author (1966)

Born in about 1332 in Shropshire, the son of a small Oxfordshire landholder, William Langland trained to be a priest but due to the death of his patrons he only took Minor Orders and was unable to advance in the Church. He wandered a good deal in England and lived an unconventional life, constantly writing verse. He died at the end of the century.

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