Chaucer's interest in individuality was strikingly modern. He was profoundly aware of the pressures on individuality exerted by the past and by society - by history. Chaucer investigated not just the idea of history but the historical world intimately related to his own political and literary career. Patterson's chapters on individual tales clarify and confirm his provocative arguments. ""Chaucer and the Subject of History"" is a landmark book, one that has profoundly shaped the way that Chaucer is read. Chaucer was the winner of the 1992 Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award and the winner of a 1992 Choice Outstanding Academic Books Award.
