Geoffrey Chaucer Popular Books
Geoffrey Chaucer Biography & Facts
Geoffrey Chaucer (; c. 1340s – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The Canterbury Tales. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific A Treatise on the Astrolabe for his 10-year-old son Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament. Among Chaucer's many other works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women, and Troilus and Criseyde. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin. Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as "the firste fyndere of our fair langage" (i.e., the first one capable of finding poetic matter in English). Almost two thousand English words are first attested to in Chaucerian manuscripts. As scholar Bruce Holsinger has argued, charting Chaucer's life and work comes with many challenges related to the "difficult disjunction between the written record of his public and private life and the literary corpus he left behind". His recorded works and his life show many personas that are "ironic, mysterious, elusive [or] cagey" in nature, ever-changing with new discoveries. Life Origin Chaucer was born in London most likely in the early 1340s (by some accounts, including his monument, he was born in 1343), though the precise date and location remain unknown. The Chaucer family offers an extraordinary example of upward mobility. His great-grandfather was a tavern keeper, his grandfather worked as a purveyor of wines, and his father John Chaucer rose to become an important wine merchant with a royal appointment. Several previous generations of Geoffrey Chaucer's family had been vintners and merchants in Ipswich. His family name is derived from the French chaucier, once thought to mean 'shoemaker', but now known to mean a maker of hose or leggings. In 1324, his father John Chaucer was kidnapped by an aunt in the hope of marrying the 12-year-old to her daughter in an attempt to keep the property in Ipswich. The aunt was imprisoned and fined £250, now equivalent to about £200,000, which suggests that the family was financially secure. John Chaucer married Agnes Copton, who inherited properties in 1349, including 24 shops in London from her uncle Hamo de Copton, who is described in a will dated 3 April 1354 and listed in the City Hustings Roll as "moneyer", said to be a moneyer at the Tower of London. In the City Hustings Roll 110, 5, Ric II, dated June 1380, Chaucer refers to himself as me Galfridum Chaucer, filium Johannis Chaucer, Vinetarii, Londonie, which translates as: "I, Geoffrey Chaucer, son of the vintner John Chaucer, London". Career While records concerning the lives of his contemporaries William Langland and the Gawain Poet are practically non-existent, since Chaucer was a public servant his official life is very well documented, with nearly five hundred written items testifying to his career. The first of the "Chaucer Life Records" appears in 1357, in the household accounts of Elizabeth de Burgh, the Countess of Ulster, when he became the noblewoman's page through his father's connections, a common medieval form of apprenticeship for boys into knighthood or prestige appointments. The countess was married to Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, the second surviving son of the king, Edward III, and the position brought the teenage Chaucer into the close court circle, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. He also worked as a courtier, a diplomat, and a civil servant, as well as working for the king from 1389 to 1391 as Clerk of the King's Works. In 1359, the early stages of the Hundred Years' War, Edward III invaded France and Chaucer travelled with Lionel of Antwerp, Elizabeth's husband, as part of the English army. In 1360, he was captured during the siege of Rheims. Edward paid £16 for his ransom, a considerable sum equivalent to £12,261 in 2021, and Chaucer was released. After this, Chaucer's life is uncertain, but he seems to have travelled in France, Spain, and Flanders, possibly as a messenger and perhaps even going on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Around 1366, Chaucer married Philippa (de) Roet. She was a lady-in-waiting to Edward III's queen, Philippa of Hainault, and a sister of Katherine Swynford, who later (c. 1396) became the third wife of John of Gaunt. It is uncertain how many children Chaucer and Philippa had, but three or four are most commonly cited. His son, Thomas Chaucer, had an illustrious career, as chief butler to four kings, envoy to France, and Speaker of the House of Commons. Thomas's daughter, Alice, married the Duke of Suffolk. Thomas's great-grandson (Geoffrey's great-great-grandson), John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, was the heir to the throne designated by Richard III before he was deposed. Geoffrey's other children probably included Elizabeth Chaucy, a nun at Barking Abbey, Agnes, an attendant at Henry IV's coronation; and another son, Lewis Chaucer. Chaucer's "Treatise on the Astrolabe" was written for Lewis. According to tradition, Chaucer studied law in the Inner Temple (an Inn of Court) at this time. He became a member of the royal court of Edward III as a valet de chambre, yeoman, or esquire on 20 June 1367, a position which could entail a wide variety of tasks. His wife also received a pension for court employment. He travelled abroad many times, at least some of them in his role as a valet. In 1368, he may have attended the wedding of Lionel of Antwerp to Violante Visconti, daughter of Galeazzo II Visconti, in Milan. Two other literary stars of the era were in attendance: Jean Froissart and Petrarch. Around this time, Chaucer is believed to have written The Book of the Duchess in honour of Blanche of Lancaster, the late wife of John of Gaunt, who died in 1369 of the plague. Chaucer travelled to Picardy the next year as part of a military expedition; in 1373 he visited Genoa and Florence. Numerous scholars such as Skeat, Boitani, and Rowland suggested that, on this Italian trip, he came into contact with Petrarch or Boccaccio. They introduced him to medieval Italian poetry, the forms and stories of which he would use later. The purposes of a voyage in 1377 are mysterious, as details within the historical record conflict. Later documents suggest it was a mission, along with Jean Froissart, to arrange a marriage between the future King Richard II and a French princess, thereby ending the Hundred Years' War. If this was the purpose of their trip, they seem to have been unsuccessful, as no wedding occurred. In 1378, Richard II sent Chaucer as an envoy (secret dispa.... Discover the Geoffrey Chaucer popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Geoffrey Chaucer books.
Best Seller Geoffrey Chaucer Books of 2024
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Geoffrey Chaucer
John Norton-SmithOriginally published in 1974. This book discusses those aspects of Chaucer’s art which are concerned with the problem of specific form. These aspects have been concentrated on by t...
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Geoffrey Chaucer
Derek BrewerThe Critical Heritage gathers together a large body of critical sources on major figures in literature. Each volume presents contemporary responses to a writer's work, enabling s...
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A Short Introduction to Geoffrey Chaucer
John LordThe age which produced Chaucer was a transition period from the Middle Ages to modern times, midway between Dante and Michael Angelo. Chaucer was the contemporary of Wyclif, with w...
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The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer & Walter W. SkeatReverend Walter W. Skeat’s second volume on Chaucer, from 1899, focuses on the poet’s translation of “The Consolation of Philosophy” by Boethius, in addition to his poem “Troilus a...
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Study Guide to The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Intelligent EducationA comprehensive study guide offering indepth explanation, essay, and test prep for Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, arguably the most famous of all Middle English literatur...
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The British Classical Authors. Select specimens of the national literature of England from Geoffrey Chaucer to the present time. Poetry and Prose, by L. H. Second edition.
Ludwig HerrigThe FICTION & PROSE LITERATURE collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The collection provides readers with a perspective of the world from s...
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Geoffrey Chaucer
Mary FlanneryA new critical biography of medieval England’s most famous poet.For over six centuries, Chaucer has epitomized poetic greatness, though more recent treatments of The Canterbury Tal...
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The Dream Visions of Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey ChaucerThe Book of Duchesse, The Parliament of Fowls, The Legend of Good Women, The House of Fame and other short poems.
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Geoffrey Chaucer
Derek BrewerThe Critical Heritage gathers together a large body of critical sources on major figures in literature. Each volume presents contemporary responses to a writer's work, enabling st...
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Geoffrey Chaucer
David WallaceCovering Geoffrey Chaucer's life and work, David Wallace considers the influence and enduring appeal of his body of writing, exploring the wide ranging geography and iconic cha...
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The Canterbury Tales - Original and Modernised Text
Geoffrey ChaucerThis eBook features the unabridged text Chaucer's ‘The Canterbury Tales' in the Original medieval text and a Modernised Text, from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of...
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A Haunt of Murder
P. C. DohertyAs night sets in, Chaucer's weary pilgrims find themselves in a Kent copse, rumored to be haunted. Huddling around the fire, they persuade the Clerk of Oxford to tell a ghostly ta...
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Chaucer
Peter AckroydIn the first in a new series of brief biographies, bestselling author Peter Ackroyd brilliantly evokes the medieval world of England and provides an incomparable introduction to th...
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Geoffrey Chaucer as a sociolinguistic observer
Katharina SchäferCenturies before the first dictionary was available, Chaucer used a wide range of words from various origins and worked with intellectual or technical terms as well as vulgar expre...
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The Canterbury Tales And Other Poems By Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer<p><b>Step into the world of medieval English literature with "The Canterbury Tales And Other Poems" by Geoffrey Chaucer</b>. Geoffrey Chaucer, the Father...
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The Canterbury Tales. Being selections from the tales of Geoffrey Chaucer, rendered into modern English with close adherence to the language of the poet. By Frank Pitt-Taylor.
Geoffrey Chaucer & Frank Pitt TaylorThe FICTION & PROSE LITERATURE collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The collection provides readers with a perspective of the world from s...
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The British Classical Authors. Select specimens of the national literature of England from Geoffrey Chaucer to the present time. Poetry and Prose, by L. H. Second edition.
Ludwig HerrigThe POETRY & DRAMA collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The books reflect the complex and changing role of literature in society, ranging ...
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The Dream Visions of Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey ChaucerCompiled here are some of Chaucer's shorter poems. These poems are all written using the Dream Vision. To name a few of these peoms: The Book of Duchesse, The Parliament of Fowls, ...
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Summer of Blood
Dan JonesFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Crusaders and a top authority on the historical events that inspired Game of Thrones, a vivid, bloodsoaked account of one of the ...
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The Collected Works of Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer, Haweis & John DrydenThis comprehensive eBook presents the complete works or all the significant works the Œuvre of this famous and brilliant writer in one ebook 8950 pages easytoread and easytonavi...
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The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer
Walter W. SkeatThis 1899 edition of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales presents the work in its original Middle English and contains extensive scholarly notes.
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The Wife of Willesden
Zadie SmithZadie Smith's first time writing for the stage, a riotous twentyfirst century translation of Geoffrey Chaucer's classic The Wife of Bath“Married five times. Mother. Lover. Aun...
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Geoffrey Chaucer
G. A. RuddSo many questions surround the key figures in the English literary canon, but most books focus on one aspect of an author's life or work, or limit themselves to a single critical a...
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Works of Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey ChaucerThis collection was designed for optimal navigation on iPad and other electronic devices. This collection offers lower price, the convenience of a onetime download, and it reduces...
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Contes de Canterbury de Geoffrey Chaucer
Encyclopaedia UniversalisBienvenue dans la collection Les Fiches de lecture d’UniversalisGeoffrey Chaucer (13401400) est surtout connu par ses Contes, dont la rédaction commence vers 1387. Une fiche de lec...