Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales. He is the widely accepted author of the collection, which was composed in Middle English between about 1387 and 1400, though Chaucer did not complete the entire planned cycle of tales.
About the author
- Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343–1400) was an English poet and civil servant, often hailed as the father of English literature for pioneering the use of vernacular English in major literary works.
- His broader body of work includes The Book of the Duchess, Troilus and Criseyde, and The Parliament of Fowls, among others.
About The Canterbury Tales
- The Canterbury Tales is an anthology of twenty-four short stories told by a group of pilgrims traveling to Canterbury; Chaucer did not finish the complete planned order of tales.
- The work is celebrated for its vivid array of characters representing many social classes of medieval English society and for its use of Middle English at a time when French and Latin dominated serious literature.
If you’d like, I can summarize the prologue or provide brief overviews of some of the most famous tales.
