The translation I read -- in alitterative verse by E Tablot Donaldson -- was readable and entertaining. Langland's allegorical characters play multiple roles at once -- as vividly-drawn personages, as abstract concepts, and as didactic voices -- and frequently are not what they initially seem. I found the imaginative forms with which these characters appear in the dreamer's mind the text's most evocative feature -- particular favorites include Meed and Gluttony.

Langland's overall ethical vision seems to be of a society which does not do away with hierarchy or distinction, but in which different social roles and obligations are adhered to in an honorable and forthright way (contrasted with his satirical vision of a world filled with hypocrisy and greed, especially among the clergy). The agricultural allegory in which Piers Plowman himself figures is also of note; Langland seems to suggest that most humans will not be able to fully transcend into spiritual abstraction or lives of renunciant piety, but can nonetheless serve Christian unity by laboring honorably and diligently according to their role and station.

That being said, the introduction stresses that Piers Plowman was an ambiguous and problematic text in its own time, and it is even more so in ours. We are out of practice reading allegories or dream visions -- both staples of medieval writing -- and it can be hard to know what to make of significant portions of this work. The preponderance of variously-compromised narrators and the lengthy biblical recapitulations make for a piece of literature that sometimes feels opaque or even tiresome to the generalist reader. Still, there is much that is puzzling and provocative and funny about Piers Plowman; readers who are inclined to take the plunge will likely be rewarded. 

[different edition]