Chaucer's Tale: 1386 and the Road to Canterbury

A lively, concise biography of the father of English literature and the tumultuous year that led to The Canterbury Tales

At the beginning of 1386, Geoffrey Chaucer--lauded today as the father of English literature--was a middle-aged Londoner with a modest bureaucratic post; his literary successes had been confined to a small audience of intimate friends. But by year's end, he was swept up in a series of disastrous events that would ultimately leave him jobless, homeless, separated from his wife, and exiled in the countryside of Kent. Unbroken by these worldly reversals, Chaucer pursued a new life in art.

In this highly accessible social history, Paul Strohm, one of the finest medievalists of our time, vividly recreates the bustle of everyday life in fourteenth-century London while he unveils the fascinating story behind Chaucer's journey from personal crisis to rebirth as the immortal poet of The Canterbury Tales.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 10/27/2015
ISBN: 9780143127833
Pages: 304
Weight: 0.50lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.30w x 0.90d