Geoffrey Chaucer - World's Greatest Classic Books

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Born: Circa 1343, in London, England

Died: October 25, 1400, in London, England

Chaucer was a fourteenth century poet whose major work, The Canterbury Tales, was a significant influence on the development of English literature. What is known about him was obtained primarily through the records of his employers: King Edward III, King Richard II, and King Henry IV.

He was the son of John Chaucer, a wealthy London wine importer. He may have attended the Latin grammar school of Saint Paul's Cathedral, and it is possible he studied law at the Inns of Court. By 1357 he was a page to the daughter-in-law of King Edward III, the countess of Ulster. In this position he most likely learned the use of arms and the ways of the court. Later, his access to royal courts may have provided him with an audience for oral readings of his written work. From 1359 to 1360 he served in the Hundred Years' War, during which time he was taken prisoner and ransomed.

In 1366 he married Phillipa Roet, a lady-in-waiting to the queen and sister of John de Gaunt's third wife. His first published original work was an elegy to the first wife of John de Gaunt, entitled The Book of the Duchess. Gaunt was a patron to Chaucer for most of the latter's life. By 1367 he was employed by Edward III as an esquire, and he continued to serve in various government and diplomatic capacities until at least until 1391. Some of his positions included controller of customs for London, clerk of the king's works (responsible for the maintainance of parks, roads and royal buildings), justice of the peace, and representative to Parliament. He also translated philosophical, religious and political texts.

Chaucer's visits to Italy as courtier and diplomat enabled him to encounter, and be influenced by, the works of Dante and Giovanni Boccaccio. Troilus and Criseyde, published in about 1385, is one such adaptation of Boccaccio's writings. This text is a poem over 8000 lines long with such complex characterization it has been called the first modern novel. Chaucer's masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, is a collection of stories consisting of over 18,000 lines of poetry. The tales are unified by the umbrella story of a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral. Each pilgrim tells stories to pass the time, and part of the genius of the work is the interaction amongst the different storytellers, and between the tales and the overall framework of the work.

This work is also significant in that Chaucer was writing in Middle English rather than in French as current fashion decreed. In addition, many different positions from fourteenth century society are represented and effectively characterized in the tales, from Knight to Reeve to Plowman. The satire that Chaucer employs against the abuses of the church, however, are retracted in his conclusion and the ensuing 'confession.'

Chaucer was instrumental in proving the capabilities of English as a literary language, and was the first to use particular poetic forms in English, such as iambic pentameter, the seven line stanza and the [heroic] couplet. His writing was a notable influence on such significant writers as Shakespeare, Dryden and Spenser. After his death in 1400, he was buried in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey which was a great honor for a "commoner."

The Canterbury Tales
are told by traveling pilgrims who meet at a tavern and have a storytelling contest to pass the time.
Each tale is preceded by an introductory prologue.

Troilus and Criseyde
Tragic verse romance by Geoffrey Chaucer, composed in the 1380s and considered by some critics to be his finest work.

The Cambridge Chaucer Companion
Essays by international Chaucer experts provide a challenging introduction to the poet. They establish a context for Chaucer, discuss the significance of his position within it, and apply detailed and innovative analysis to his poetry.

Chanticleer and the Fox
King of the barnyard, Chanticleer struts about all day. When a fox bursts into his domain,dupes him into crowing, and then grabs him in a viselike grip, Chanticleer must do some quick thinking to save himself and his barnyard kingdom.

Chaucer: The Life and Times of the First English Poet by Richard West	West's biography of the first great English poet whose name we know quite resembles his Life and Strange, Surprising Adventures of Daniel Defoe (1998). Its overall strategy is to discuss the history surrounding its subject's achievements and those achievements in tandem with tracing the events of his life. It differs markedly, though, from West's account of the first modern English novelist, because, at the distance of 600 years from Chaucer's death, nearly no records exist of any strange, surprising adventures on his part. Undismayed, West raids the historical and critical literature and polishes his own sensible opinions about Chaucer's writings to produce a book every bit as readable and fascinating as his life of Defoe. Individual chapters take up such matters as the Black Death's impact on the anti-Semitism evident in the Prioress's Tale ; why Europe quickly forgot the Black Death; how the thirteenth-century French poem Roman de la Rose and the great Florentine poets Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio influenced Chaucer; the impact of the great English Peasants' Revolt of 1381 on Chaucer's worldview; how Troilus and Criseyde anticipates the modern novel; how to read the lengthy Knight's Tale , the boring bane of generations of students, as a satire; and the interpretation of the Wife of Bath as a feminist. A treat for English history and literature buffs who prefer journalistically vital prose to the stodgy varieties usually used to rebury England's liveliest bard.

Chaucer and His World by F. E. Halliday	Few writers have been so honoured by their contemporaries as Geoffrey Chaucer. His influence on fifteenth-century English literature, and later on Spenser, was remarkable, and he still remains the supreme master of narrative verse - his dramatic sense, understanding of character and technical innovations were brought to perfection three centuries before Shakespeare. He was also a most engaging man, well balanced, humorous and endlessly interested in people. Halliday traces Chaucer's life and his poetic career to his death in 1400 *About the Author* Literary scholar and Cornwall historian, Frank Ernest Halliday, was born in Yorkshire. He taught English and History at Cheltenham College before moving to St Ives, in Cornwall, where he settled permanently and devoted his time to writing books. His vigorous, uncluttered and well informed work includes numerous volumes on Shakespeare, as well as studies of Thomas Hardy, Geoffrey Chaucer, Robert Browning, Doctor Johnson and William Wordsworth.

Geoffrey Chaucer by G. K. Chesterton	Chesterton expounds the 'genius of Geoffrey Chaucer' in this literary biography which explores both the writer and his time. He claims that Chaucer and his Age were 'more sane, more normal and more cheerful than writers that came after him' and the characters he portrayed have an immediate contemporary relevance. Beautifully and sensitively written, this biography about the 'Father of English Poetry' will inform and inspire. *About the Author* G K Chesterton has been described as one of the most unjustly neglected writers of our time. Born in 1874, he became a journalist and later began writing books and pamphlets. His work includes novels, literary and social criticism, political papers and spiritual essays in a style characterised by enormous wit, paradox, humility and wonder. He converted to Catholicism in 1922 and he explores the nature of spirituality in many of his books and essays, including the mighty Orthodoxy.