Troilus and Criseyde

About the book

Troilus falls in love with Criseyde during the siege of Troy, and Pandarus undertakes to help bring them together. The relationship unfolds through persuasion, hesitation, secrecy, and the difficulty of interpreting another person's feelings. Events beyond the lovers' control then expose the limits of promises made within a seemingly secure moment. Chaucer gives his narrator a conspicuous presence, combining sympathy with reflections on fortune, desire, and the act of telling a painful story. The five-book poem's stanzaic form allows emotional detail and argument to develop together. This text retains Middle English, making its language a significant part of the reading experience. The poem asks readers to follow changing circumstances carefully before settling into an easy judgment about love, loyalty, or the people caught between them.

• Love and uncertainty
• Fortune
• Judgment and sympathy

Why read it

For a psychologically attentive love poem whose narrator makes sympathy and the difficulty of judgment part of the story itself.

Five-book poem · Middle English text