Chaucer's "Troilus and Criseyde," Re-imagined by Francesca Abbate

The Rumpus is really pleased with scholar/poet Francesca Abbate's new book, Troy, Unincorporated. This reinterpretation of Geoffrey Chaucer's "Troilus and Criseyde" pays homage to the original work using thoroughly modern language.

The good news about "Troy, Unincorporated" by Francesca Abbate, is that though it is a re-imagination of Chaucer’s “Troilus and Criseyde” from his Canterbury Tales, you don’t have to have been an English major or a Chaucer lover to appreciate her accomplishment. This is a book that is deeply American and as steeped in classics as some of the best writing from our heartland over the centuries. Abbate is an associate professor of English at Beloit College in Wisconsin, and though she clearly knows Chaucer well and is fascinated by the subject, her diction is her own, and she has a strong grasp of place, one reason so much of Chaucer is still so satisfying and why his stories can inspire.

...Abbate’s accomplishment continually rises like an unexpected yet inevitable encounter . Criseyde is concerned with dams that daily give out, in a contemporary flood and in her encounter with it, Abbate mixes newspaper quotes with Chaucer’s line, this litel spot of erthe,’ and here we are again, with forceful scholar and gifted poet mixing it up with perfect balance.

Read the full review, with sections of the work included, over at the Rumpus.