Chaucer's Tale 1386 and the Road to Canterbury [Paperback]

A lively, concise biography of the father of English literature and the tumultuous year that led toThe 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 ofThe Canterbury Tales.Praise forChaucer's Tale: 1386 and the Road to Canterbury

“Strohm’s victory-from-the-jaws-of-defeat account is touching, but the real thrill is his portrait of Chaucer’s London, one square mile of church bells pealing, neighbors gossiping, politicians conniving, severed heads rotting on spikes (quite near Chaucer’s windows), and poetry rising out of all this.”
—The New Yorker

“Paul Strohm illuminates how 1386 marked a decisive year for Geoffrey Chaucer, one in which he went from accomplished coterie poet to the popular author of the work of genius for which he is celebrated to this day:The Canterbury Tales. InChaucer’s Tale,Strohm, one of the finest medievalists of our time, brings this turbulent moment in Chaucer’s England to life, recovering in vivid detail the professional and creative pilgrimage that led Chaucer to compose so memorable a fictional one.”
—James Shapiro, autholCÅ