Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140771859 ISBN 13: 9780140771855

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1989

This is an account of all Chaucer's narrative poems and most of the lyrics, offering a critical introduction in each case. The author encourages response to, and understanding of, Chaucer's achievement in narrative poetry, which accommodates extraordinary varieties of humour and genuine pathos. He also illuminates Chaucer's formidable learning in the classical, Christian and courtly traditions and in science, with frequent cross-references to the chapters on specific poems. Chaucer's transformations of material drawn from Ovid, Virgil and Dante, his use of "the romance of the rose" and his grasp of sermon and devotional literature receive attention.