Geoffrey Chaucer
1 book analyzed
Biography
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400) was not a professional writer but a civil servant, diplomat, and customs controller who wrote on the side. Born into a prosperous wine-merchant family, he served as a page in a royal household, fought in the Hundred Years' War (where he was captured and ransomed), traveled to Italy on diplomatic missions (where he encountered Boccaccio, Petrarch, and Dante), managed the customs house at the Port of London, and served as a justice of the peace and Member of Parliament. He knew every social class in England firsthand — from the royal court to the docks — and the Canterbury Tales draws on all of it. He was the most worldly English writer before Shakespeare.
Geoffrey Chaucer at a glance
Works analyzed
1
Publication span
1400
Total pages
700
AP Lit appearances
8
Recurring themes
class-satirereligious-hypocrisygendersexualitystorytellingpilgrimage
Genres
poetrysatireframe-narrativeestates-literature