He started writing in 1387 and continued working on it until his death in 1400. The Canterbury Tales is a collection of 24 stories, but Chaucer had planned more than 100. The Canterbury Tales is still incomplete.

In his later years, he devoted himself to The Canterbury Tales. His other works include The Book of the Duchess, written for his patron John of Gaunt praising his deceased wife the tragic story of Troilus and Criseyde and dream-vision poem The House of Fame. He led an eventful life: He was a page to Elizabeth de Burgh, countess of Ulster was captured and ransomed by the French in 1359 was a diplomat sent to Europe on various missions worked as a customs officer at Wool Quay in London (wool export was a major contributor to the economy in the 14th century) and oversaw the construction of royal buildings.Īmid all these duties, Chaucer wrote in whatever spare time he had. Chaucer did much more than just write The Canterbury Tales.Ĭhaucer was born to a wine merchant somewhere between 13 in London. Chaucer illustrates characters of different classes in medieval England, so the stories are rude, vulgar, moral, and funny, depending on who’s telling them. To while away the time on the road, the innkeeper suggests that everyone tells two stories on the way to the shrine and two on their way back. In the famous epic poem, which dates back to 1387, a group of around 30 pilgrims, including Chaucer, are traveling from the Tabard Inn in Southwark to St Thomas Becket’s Shrine in Canterbury. The “father of English literature” has written many texts, but none loom as large as The Canterbury Tales. Poets all over the world have a lot to thank Geoffrey Chaucer for-after all, the 14th-century English bard gave them the iambic pentameter.

The canterbury tales books