Congratulations to Steele Nowlin, whose article “Whil thilke mirour laste: Virgil’s Mirror and the Work of Avarice in Gower’s Confessio Amantis” recently appeared in The Chaucer Review.

The article, Steele says, draws on object studies to reveal the strangeness of the titular object in Gower’s “Tale of Virgil’s Mirror.” Sitting atop a tower in the center of ancient Rome, the mirror prevents invasions of the city by reflecting everything in a 30-mile radius–that is, until a greedy emperor unwittingly enables its destruction. Gower presents the mirror as an analogue for narrative form to explore the potential efficacy of narrative poetry in his larger ethical project.