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Title: The Twentieth Century's Best Book About the Middle Ages
Review: What had been intended as an account of the traveling scholar-clerics of medieval times outgrew its original purpose to become a history of the preservation of the poetic impulse, from the decay of antiquity up to the eve of the Renaissance. "The Wandering Scholars" is not only a significant contribution to scholarly knowledge, but is itself a work of pure poetry, made all the more poignant in our own day by knowledge of the tragic fate that awaited the author. The buyer should be warned, however: although the book created a publishing sensation when it appeared in 1927, finding enthusiastic admirers ranging from the ranks of the University to the inmates of His Majesty's prisons, the steady decline of educational standards may render the book difficult for the general reader of today, and even the best-prepared could spend a lifetime exploring the many levels of meaning and allusion in Miss Waddell's pioneering work of genius.
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