Chaucer's Tale Paperback by Paul Strohm

Product Details

• Publisher: Penguin Books (2015-10-27)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 304 pages
• ISBN-13: 9780143127833
• Item Weight: 254.02 grams
• Dimensions: 8.0 x 5.4 x 0.7 cm

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.

About the Author

Paul Strohm has taught medieval literature at Columbia University and was the J. R. R. Tolkien Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford University. He and his wife live in New York City and Oxford, England.