Geoffrey Chaucer: A Very Short Introduction

The New English Review Review from previous edition Prof. Wallace has produced a superb introduction: an adroit, authoritative, fresh, energetic delight.

Sandra Callard, On: Magazine This is a book which shows up everything you thought you knew about Chaucer, but didn't, and has a knack of making you want to find out even more.

Laura Ashe, Times Literary Supplement This smart and attractive little book is a very quick read, and Wallace's conversational style has warm appeal.

Kirkus Review Showing a solid command of history, Wallace provides fascinating analyses of Chaucer's personal and literary evolution. He is a master of his subject, insightful and provocative throughout.

Paul Strohm, author of The Poet's Tale A thoroughly fresh engagement...which gives us Chaucer as a writer of his moment wide open to the future and the world.

Nicholas Havely, University of York Along with its other mind-broadening features, this introduction offers a timely reminder that Chaucer benefited from a Europe-wide perspective and continues to evoke creative responses across cultures and borders.

David Wallace studied at York and Cambridge. Currently Judith Rodin Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, he has held visiting positions at Jerusalem, Melbourne, London, and Princeton. He has served as President of the New Chaucer Society, is currently Second Vice President of the Medieval Academy of America, and has made a series of documentaries for BBC Radio 3. He most recently published Europe: A Literary History, 1348-1418 (2016) and Strong Women (2012), both with OUP.

1: Beginnings 2: Schoolrooms, science, female intuition 3: A life in poetry 4: Poetry at last: Troilus and Criseyde 5: Organizing, disorganizing: The Canterbury Tales 6: Something to believe in 7: Performance and new Chaucers Timeline: a well-documented life Further Reading Index