Research Catalog

Title

Geoffrey Chaucer / Velma Bourgeois Richmond.

Author

Richmond, Velma Bourgeois.

Publication

New York : Continuum, 1992.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

215 p.; 22 cm.

Summary

Aside from writing The Canterbury Tales and generally being considered the first poet to create a substantial body of work written in a language that is recognizably like modern English, Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?-1400) was also an accomplished translator and all-around gentleman of fourteenth-century England. Nearly five-hundred items detail his public career, testifying to his importance in his own time. He was a soldier, a member of the king's household, a controller of customs, a member of diplomatic missions abroad, a justice of the peace, a clerk of the king's works (and thus in charge of extensive building), and even a forester. But it is as author of the uncompleted Canterbury Tales as well as Troilus and Criseyde and other masterpieces of Middle English that Geoffrey Chaucer is best remembered. This biographical-critical book begins with a thorough consideration of Chaucer's life, his language, his milieu, and religious beliefs, before going on to a detailed discussion of the Tales - a treasury of medieval story telling that evokes the Middle Ages while being thoroughly timeless in its inventive richness. Several chapters are devoted to the study of the Canterbury Tales (secular romances, fabliaux, religious romances and saints' legends, tales with satiric warnings, and sermons). The following chapters examine lyrics, translations, and other works, including "An ABC" and "Complaint unto Pity," The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, Boece, The Parliament of Fowls, and Troilus and Criseyde. Like Shakespeare, Chaucer has a universal quality that appeals and has been accessible from his own time to the present. His remarkable body of work continues to attract readers nearly six-hundred years after his death and will likely do so for all time.

Series Statement

Literature and life. British writers

Uniform Title

Literature and life. British writers.

Subject

• Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400
• 1100-1500
• Poets, English > Middle English, 1100-1500 > Biography

Genre/Form

Biographies

Note

• "A Frederick Ungar book."

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [208]-211) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

1. A Man of the Fourteenth Century. Language. Chaucer's London. Religious Belief -- 2. "God's Plenty" -- The Canterbury Tales. The Text and Order of the Tales. Collections of Tales and Framing. Pilgrimage. The Pilgrims. Dramatic Interplay and Authorial Suggestions. Connections through Subject and Tone -- 3. Secular Romances. The Knight's Tale. The Squire's Tale. The Wife of Bath's Tale. The Franklin's Tale. The Tale of Sir Thopas -- 4. Fabliaux. The Miller's Tale. The Reeve's Tale. The Cook's Tale. The Shipman's Tale. The Merchant's Tale -- 5. Religious Romances and Saints' Legends. The Man of Law's Tale. The Clerk's Tale. The Physician's Tale. The Second Nun's Tale. The Prioress's Tale -- 6. Tales with Satiric Warnings. The Friar's Tale. The Summoner's Tale. The Canon's Yeoman's Tale. The Manciple's Tale -- 7. Sermons. The Pardoner's Tale. The Tale of Melibee. The Monk's Tale. The Nun's Priest's Tale. The Parson's Tale -- 8. Beginnings with Love and Fame. "An ABC" and "Complaint unto Pity" The Romaunt of the Rose. The Book of the Duchess. Anelida and Arcite. The House of Fame -- 9. The Consolation of Philosophy in Love and Politics. Boece and Boethian Ballads. The Parliament of Fowls. "Complaint of Mars" and "Complaint of Venus" The Legend of Good Women -- 10. A Romance of Love and War "ful blisfully" Completed -- Troilus and Criseyde -- 11. The Comic Vision of Geoffrey Chaucer. "Lenvoy de Chaucer a Scogan. "Lenvoy de Chaucer a Bukton. "The Complaint of Chaucer to His Purse" "Chaucers Wordes unto Adam, His Owne Scriveyn" "Proverbe" Chaucer's Retraction.

ISBN

0826405452 (cloth)

LCCN

^^^91015955^

OCLC

• 23731434
• SCSB-11180865

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library