I have been searching abe.com for a week or so now and am in need of help. I was told that anyone truly interested in late 14th C / early 15th C England should have the Paston's Letters (sp?)... well, which version would be the best?

At the moment, it's only on back order at buy.com, but you can get if for a couple of bucks at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/offering/list/-/0060172649/all/ref=dp_pb_a/002-1343934-9980833

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Paston family. Paston letters and papers of the fifteenth century, Part I
Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library

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Originally posted by D.W. Peters:
Hello All,

I have been searching abe.com for a week or so now and am in need of help. I was told that anyone truly interested in late 14th C / early 15th C England should have the Paston's Letters (sp?)... well, which version would be the best?

Thanks in advance!

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That depends on your goal in studying the papers. If you're looking for a general overview of the Paston family, any of the modern edited editions is appropriate. If you're delving into the minutiae of mid-C15 households, inventories, and mechanics, there are editions which are merely collations of the available material, edited for clarity. If you're studying etymology or paleography, I am unaware of an edition appropriate for your use. I recommend the _Kingsford Stonor Letters & Papers_ to that end. For that matter, the Stonor Papers are just as important to us as the Paston papers are (in fact, I prefer them to the Pastons); it's just that there are more (and more available) editions of the Paston papers out there.

My half-groat!