The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer A Critical Biography [Paperback]

This important new critical biography traces in carefully considered detail what is known of Geoffrey Chaucer's personal life while exploring the fascinating relationship between the man of affairs, who made so many 'improvisations and accommodations' to ensure his own survival, and the poet. A major reexamination of England's greatest narrative poet, it is supplemented with reproductions of Chaucer portraits and other illustrations, including maps of medieval England.List of figures and illustrations.

List of Abbreviations.

Introduction: Writing a life of Chaucer.

1. Beginnings (c.1340-1360).

2. Early Career (The 1360s).

3. Advances (The 1370s).

4. Fame (1380-1386).

5. Reversals, New Beginnings (1386-1391).

6. Renewal (The 1390s).

Epilogue.

Appendix I The Chaucer Portraits.

Notes.

List of Short Titles and Bibliography.

Index.

Few can write so interestingly, fewer Chaucerians. Notes and Queries

In this rich and comprehensive book, Professor Pearsall combines his expert knowledge of modern Chaucer scholarship and criticism with a refreshing directness in expressing his own opinions. He sees the same `aloof and uncomitted' spirit in Chaucer's poems as in his career; and it is hard to believe that there will ever be a more coherent and convincing account of the life and works of this elusive poet. J. A. Burrow

... highly readable, built on a sound scholarly base with wit and judgment.... Derek Brewer

... it is the merit of Pearsall's book that he returns England's first true poet to the muddle, viciousness and disorder of 14th-century London. He insists continually that we divest ourselves of modern preoccupations... ilD