The Alchemist in Literature: From Dante to the Present.
- Author / Editor
- Ziolkowski, Theodore.
The Alchemist in Literature: From Dante to the Present.
- Published
- New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
- Physical Description
- xiii, 237 pp.
- Description
- Surveys the figure of the alchemist and the uses of alchemical imagery in western literature, focusing on how satire and trivialization of the subject gave way to more esoteric uses, especially as the practice of alchemy gave way to chemistry. Includes a summary (pp. 28–32) of CYT as an early example of satire with touches of esoteric knowledge, and suggests in passing how John Lyly's "Galathea" (1592) is "indebted extensively" to Chaucer's tale.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Canon's Yeoman and His Tale
Chaucer's Influence and Later Allusion