Chaucer Criticism, Volume 1: The Canterbury Tales

Eighteen varied yet strikingly complementary approaches to The Canterbury Tales challenge the reader to fuller appreciation of Chaucer’s art both in its formal aspects and in its larger human implications. Numerous artistic and historical problems are treated in these essays, including the narrative point of view established by Chaucer the pilgrim, the possible architectonic function of The Parson’s Tale, the medieval controversy over the friars, the pronouncements of the medieval church on...