Want to know what books Jenni Nuttall recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Jenni Nuttall's favorite book recommendations of all time.
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Shortlisted for the 2014 Costa Poetry Award.
When Chaucer composed Troilus and Criseyde he gave us, some say, his finest poem, and with it one of the most captivating love stories ever written. A Double Sorrow, Lavinia Greenlaw's new work, takes its title from the opening line of that poem in a fresh telling of this most tortured of love affairs.
Set against the Siege of Troy, A Double Sorrow is the story of Trojan hero Troilus and his beloved Criseyde, whose traitorous father has defected to the Greeks and has persuaded them to ask for his... more Shortlisted for the 2014 Costa Poetry Award.
When Chaucer composed Troilus and Criseyde he gave us, some say, his finest poem, and with it one of the most captivating love stories ever written. A Double Sorrow, Lavinia Greenlaw's new work, takes its title from the opening line of that poem in a fresh telling of this most tortured of love affairs.
Set against the Siege of Troy, A Double Sorrow is the story of Trojan hero Troilus and his beloved Criseyde, whose traitorous father has defected to the Greeks and has persuaded them to ask for his daughter in an exchange of prisoners. In an attempt to save her, Troilus suggests that Criseyde flees the besieged city with him, but she knows that she will be universally condemned and looks instead to a temporary measure: pretending to submit to the exchange, while promising Troilus that she will return to him within ten days. But once in the company of the Greeks she soon realises the impossibility of her promise to Troilus, and in despair succumbs to another.
Lavinia Greenlaw's pinpoint retelling of this heart-wrenching tale is neither a translation nor strictly a 'version' of Chaucer's work, but instead creates something new: a sequence of glimpses from the medieval poem that refine the psychological drama of the classical story through a process of detonation or amplification of image and phrase into original poems. In a series of skillfully crafted seven-line vignettes, the author creates a zoetrope that serves to illuminate the intensity with which these characters argue each other and themselves into and out of love. The result is a breathtaking and shattering read -contemporary and timeless - that builds into an unforgettable telling of this most heartbreaking of love stories. less 
Jenni NuttallIt’s the most moving set of lyrics. If you know Troilus and Criseyde, there are poems which utterly capture Chaucer’s spirit for a split second or two. There’s a brilliant interplay between the original and this book. (Source)
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Jenni NuttallThis is an exhaustive, brilliant thinking-through of almost every detail in Chaucer’s Troilus and Crisyede. The tragic argument is that Troilus is a noble figure, through his philosophy and through the ennobling features of love, who loves Criseyde too much, and falls into all sorts of follies. (Source)
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The Oxford Guides to Chaucer are written to summarize what is known about his works and offer interpretations based on recent advances in both historical knowledge and theoretical understanding. Following the successful Oxford Guide to Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales, this volume looks in depth at Chaucer's masterwork. The guide includes the fullest and most convenient account of Chaucer's use of sources, analysis of the poem's genre, and a readable commentary on all aspects of its themes, structure, and style. The most comprehensive guide to the poem yet written, this work will be invaluable... more The Oxford Guides to Chaucer are written to summarize what is known about his works and offer interpretations based on recent advances in both historical knowledge and theoretical understanding. Following the successful Oxford Guide to Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales, this volume looks in depth at Chaucer's masterwork. The guide includes the fullest and most convenient account of Chaucer's use of sources, analysis of the poem's genre, and a readable commentary on all aspects of its themes, structure, and style. The most comprehensive guide to the poem yet written, this work will be invaluable to all scholars and serious students. less Jenni NuttallThis book is so efficient in the way it gives you the information you need to see the range of possibilities in the poem in 300 or 400 pages. None of the editions of Troilus and Criseyde quite have space to do this. Windeatt gives you information about the sources that we’ve been talking about, and about Chaucer’s structuring of the plot, its symmetry and repetitions, the architectural mirroring... (Source)
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Geoffrey Chaucer, Stephen Barney | 4.04
This Norton Critical Edition of Chaucer’s masterpiece is based on Stephen Barney’s acclaimed text and is accompanied by a translation of its major source, Boccaccio’s Filostrato.
The editor’s lucid introduction, marginal glosses, and explanatory annotations make Troilus and Criseyde easily accessible to students with no prior knowledge of Chaucer or Middle English. Also included is Robert Henryson’s Testament of Cresseid, the poignant "sequel" to Troilus and Criseyde from fifteenth-century Scotland.
"Criticism" includes ten essays by a diverse... more This Norton Critical Edition of Chaucer’s masterpiece is based on Stephen Barney’s acclaimed text and is accompanied by a translation of its major source, Boccaccio’s Filostrato.
The editor’s lucid introduction, marginal glosses, and explanatory annotations make Troilus and Criseyde easily accessible to students with no prior knowledge of Chaucer or Middle English. Also included is Robert Henryson’s Testament of Cresseid, the poignant "sequel" to Troilus and Criseyde from fifteenth-century Scotland.
"Criticism" includes ten essays by a diverse group of distinguished Chaucerians, among them C. S. Lewis, E. Talbot Donaldson, Karla Taylor, Lee Patterson, and Jill Mann, that illuminate the major scholarly issues raised by this complex and challenging poem.
A Glossary and Selected Bibliography are also included. less Jenni NuttallThis edition contains the source—the springboard from which Chaucer is writing, Boccaccio—on facing pages in an English translation of the Italian. I like it because you can see where Chaucer is translating word by word. But there are also these wonderful moments where you get blank space on one side, and you realize Chaucer is expanding and inventing. (Source)
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