Far too hefty and thorough for any one-semester Chaucer course, the Chaucer Oxford guide will probably serve best as a general resource for a class in the library reserves. In that function, it might well be indispensable for ANY Chaucer class. Most of the essays are very good, and, from what I can tell, it is miles away better than the hoary Cambridge guide (which even in its second edition features, by contrast to the up-to-the-minute readings of the Oxford guide, all the best readings of the 1970s and slightly beyond). ( )