Eric Weiskott Ordre des livres

The book explores the significance of alliterative meter, tetrameter, and pentameter in shaping literary history, challenging the conventional medieval-modern divide. Eric Weiskott's analysis reinterprets the metrical evolution of English literature from 1350 to 1650, offering fresh insights into how these forms influenced literary periodization and the broader trajectories of English literary development.

This revisionary account of the 900-year-long history of a major poetic tradition sheds new light on poems from Beowulf to Piers Plowman and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and challenges the idea that the alliterative tradition falls into two halves divided by the Norman Conquest.