# Chaucer 1340-1400

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/richard-west/chaucer-1340-1400/9781841194639

![Chaucer 1340-1400](https://quivercdn.com/covers/robinson/richard-west/chaucer-1340-1400_978-18-4119-463-9.jpg?v=2026-05-18%2009%3A41%3A45)

- Book: [Chaucer 1340-1400](https://www.bookquiver.com/richard-west/chaucer-1340-1400) ([Chaucer 1340-1400.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/richard-west/chaucer-1340-1400.md))
- Authors: [Richard West](https://www.bookquiver.com/richard-west)
- Publisher: robinson
- ISBN: 978-18-4119-463-9
- Pages: 1
- Published: 2002-02-21
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

This first, and some would say greatest, poet of the English language stands before the gateway of the early modern age. He lived at a time when the elite languages of former conquerors, French and Latin, were both giving way to English - no longer just the vernacular of the common people, but increasingly the language of the court, the law, and of literature. Richard West weaves a fascinating picture of this extraordinary man, whose character has 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 angry beginnings of the Protestant Reformation, the Peasants' Revolt and the overthrow of Richard II.