Chaucer: 1340-1400: The Life and Times of the First English Poet - Softcover

West, Richard

3.27

60 ratings by Goodreads

9780786709250: Chaucer: 1340-1400: The Life and Times of the First English Poet

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786709251 ISBN 13: 9780786709250

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2002

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The year of the millennium marks the 600th anniversary of the death of Geoffrey Chaucer. This first poet of the English language stands before the gateway of the early modern age at a time when the elite languages of French and Latin were giving way to the vernacular of the common people.

Richard West weaves a fascinating picture of a man whose own character has always puzzled lovers of his comic masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales. How did he remain so apparently cheerful and serene through one of the cruellest eras of history? As a child he survived the Black Death, later he fought in France during the Hundred Years War, served as a diplomat in Italy, and became an MP at the time of the Peasants' Revolt and the murder of Richard II.
Richard West sees Chaucer as the creator not only of English poetry, but of the national character and humour, the forerunner of Shakespeare and Dickens - in many ways, as the first Englishman.

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Review:

A sheer delight . . . West can look Macaulay and Trevelyan in the face. (Alan Massie, Daily Telegraph)

A lively and entertaining study which . . . provides the history of a period as well as the biography of one man. (Peter Ackroyd, The Times `A few pages into Richard West's superb [biography] one wonders why Defoe is not a more significant figure in our cultural history.' Kate Saunders, Observer)

Book Description:

A new biography of the first English poet and his age - on the 600th anniversary of his death

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