Langland's Fictions.

Like the Mountain of Middle-earth in Piers Plowman B. 11, this book provides its readers with a salutarily wide perspective that draws together the complex diversity of the poem and offers the opportunity for introspective reflection. The opening paragraphs pose a question whose answer determines the vantage point from which Professor Burrow approaches the poem: how do interested modern readers of Piers Plowman 'justify their . . . preoccupation' with the poem, especially if they do not share its author's religious beliefs? For Burrow, the justification lies in the power of Langland's 'fictive imagination', his 'ability to create imaginary figures and scenes, dream-fictions and allegories, that haunt the mind' (1-2).

Burrow's careful analysis of how this fictive imagination operates in Piers should be stimulating to other expert readers of the poem, not so much in requiring agreement or disagreement as in challenging them to …