English from Caedmon to Chaucer: The Literary Development of English (Book Review‪)‬

English from Caedmon to Chaucer: The literary development of English. By S. Terrie Curran. Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press, 2002. Pp. xiii, 290. One of the doubts which are likely to befall a potential reader of the publication under review is whether "the world needs another history of the English language" (p. ix). Firstly, many, publications on the subject already rest on the shelves of libraries. Secondly, as the author of the book herself observes in the "Preface" (pp. ix-xi), the study of the history of English has steadily been falling into decline. Given the above, a new history of English should take "a new approach" (p. ix) towards its subject matter. The new approach would consist in offering something more than or something different from the books already in circulation. With this view in mind, the author presents the reader with English from Caedmon la Chaucer, a book delineating the history of English through the prism of its culture, particularly its literary legacy. The underlying thought of the book is to show how the literature found itself under the influence of the language and, on the other hand, how the language itself came to be affected by the cultural vicissitudes of the day. In such a light, literature is seen as being directly moulded by the available linguistic resources and indirectly influenced by its cultural context. It is thus the intention of the author to explore the samples of literature "not merely as linguistic specimens, but as products of speakers who marshaled their talents to record something of their lives and times in chronicle, story, and song" (p. x).