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A selection of romances from medieval literature can be used successfully in undergraduate literature classes to trace the appearance and relevance of medieval themes, motifs, and characters in works of modern poetry, fiction, and film. New scholarly editions, historiographies, translations, and modernizations give both teachers and students more authentic materials with which to work. For example, in "Tristan and Iseult" students find the tale of a love that survives denunciation, entrapment, and long separations to become a symbol of faithfulness for centuries to come. T. S. Eliot, in "The Waste Land," uses echoes of this poem and of Chretien's "Perceval" to point up the impermanence of relationships and the moral disintegration of twentieth-century life. Other themes can be traced from "Yvain,""Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," and "Le Morte Darthur" to "The Wizard of Oz,""Star Wars,""A Book of Common Prayer," and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." Papers and class discussions have revealed that students can learn to recognize and appreciate the Middle Ages as a time of creativity and wit. (KEH)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert