Chaucer: 1340-1400: The Life and Times of the First English Poet

Rating:
Summary: Good book, I guess, UNLESS you're looking for a biography
Review: Chaucer: 1340-1400, The Life And Times Of The First English Poet is an engaging new portrait of the life and times of Geoffrey Chaucer whose career included courtly offices situated him at the center of cultural activity in medieval London, and whose poetry became a primary force in the evolution of modern English. Richard West is a distinguished journalist who has meticulously researched Chaucer's life and blends biography with history and literary criticism into a coherent presentation of a literary genius who survived the Black Death as a child, fought in France during the Hundred Years War, was a diplomat to Italy, served in the English court during the Peasants' Revolt and murder of Richard II -- and whose central work, The Canterbury Tales, illuminated the nature of human life in the Middle Ages in such a way as to capture the respect and attention of readers for more than six hundred years. Highly recommended, essential reading for students of Chaucer and his writings.

Rating:
Summary: A Canterbury Retail
Review: The title is a little misleading. West does not focus on many of the more mundane aspects of Chaucer's life, nor does he spend much time in biographical matters (of which we know little). Rather, "Chaucer" is a wonderful introduction to the cultural and literary settings in which the great poet wrote.

West's "Chaucer" is an engaging introduction to the works of the man--great for beginners--but is not an academic work, or even a thorough, critical analysis on Chaucer's writings.

Rating:
Summary: A Canterbury Retail
Review: The title is a little misleading. West does not focus on many of the more mundane aspects of Chaucer's life, nor does he spend much time in biographical matters (of which we know little). Rather, "Chaucer" is a wonderful introduction to the cultural and literary settings in which the great poet wrote.

West's "Chaucer" is an engaging introduction to the works of the man--great for beginners--but is not an academic work, or even a thorough, critical analysis on Chaucer's writings.

Rating:
Summary: Shew forth thy swerd of castigacioun
Review: We know more about Chaucer than Shakespeare. Sure, Will gets all the press and accolades for his works in Modern English. "Modern", relative to Chaucer, anyway. Today's average reader can still dope out the Elizabethan English, even if he has to keep a dictionary handy or read a few footnotes. But reading Chaucer in the original idiom of "Middle" English requires extensive aids, such as a modern translation or enrollment in an upper-level college class.

Thus, other than the Prologue and maybe a Canterbury Tale or two (esp. the Miller's Tale), Chaucer is underappreciated as a writer whose works survived 600 years.

But Chaucer deserves a lot of literary credit as well. Chaucer, for example, set the stage for the modern novel. He was, to quote the author, "not just a pioneer but part of mainstream of European literature. . . [Chaucer] became a model or inspiration to subsequent poets, esp. Shakespeare. Troilus [and Cressida], even more than Canterbury Tales, allows us to think of Chaucer as a pioneer of the novel."

Readers of West's book will appreciate Chaucer as an innovator of the written word. In addition, the reader will learn a great deal about Chaucer's cultural and historical milieu. There are chapters dealing with the Black Plague and the Civil War of his time. Interestingly, the Plague seems less important, notwithstanding the opinion of another historian, Barbara Tuchmann.

Chaucer's life was intertwined with Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V, whose lives were put on stage by the greatest playwright of all time who put these words in the mouth of Chaucer's patron, "Old John of Gaunt, time-honored Lancaster": "For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite The man that mocks at it and sets it light."

Perhaps he had Chaucer in mind.

Rating:
Summary: Shew forth thy swerd of castigacioun
Review: We know more about Chaucer than Shakespeare. Sure, Will gets all the press and accolades for his works in Modern English. "Modern", relative to Chaucer, anyway. Today's average reader can still dope out the Elizabethan English, even if he has to keep a dictionary handy or read a few footnotes. But reading Chaucer in the original idiom of "Middle" English requires extensive aids, such as a modern translation or enrollment in an upper-level college class.

Thus, other than the Prologue and maybe a Canterbury Tale or two (esp. the Miller's Tale), Chaucer is underappreciated as a writer whose works survived 600 years.

But Chaucer deserves a lot of literary credit as well. Chaucer, for example, set the stage for the modern novel. He was, to quote the author, "not just a pioneer but part of mainstream of European literature. . . [Chaucer] became a model or inspiration to subsequent poets, esp. Shakespeare. Troilus [and Cressida], even more than Canterbury Tales, allows us to think of Chaucer as a pioneer of the novel."

Readers of West's book will appreciate Chaucer as an innovator of the written word. In addition, the reader will learn a great deal about Chaucer's cultural and historical milieu. There are chapters dealing with the Black Plague and the Civil War of his time. Interestingly, the Plague seems less important, notwithstanding the opinion of another historian, Barbara Tuchmann.

Chaucer's life was intertwined with Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V, whose lives were put on stage by the greatest playwright of all time who put these words in the mouth of Chaucer's patron, "Old John of Gaunt, time-honored Lancaster": "For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite The man that mocks at it and sets it light."

Perhaps he had Chaucer in mind.

Rating:
Summary: Good book, I guess, UNLESS you're looking for a biography
Review: While the author writes well and entertainingly, I had made the fatal assumption when I ordered this book that something subtitled <> would, in fact, discuss his life.

However, the book mentions Chaucer's wife only once in the main text, plus a mention in the chronology -- and doesn't even acknowledge that Chaucer had three known children, let alone discuss them -- though he does have a one-liner about the birth of Thomas Chaucer in the chronology. The cbronology, BTW, says Thomas was the first-born. An old book (1970s) I have says the first-born was Elizabeth. If that's been discredited, a short paragraph would have been most useful.

A book which omits the most important people in a subject's life is, to my mind, most definitely not a <> The omission is, for me, most frustrating, because there is or was a controversy about the paternity of Thomas Chaucer and perhaps Elizabeth on which I assumed this book would provide the latest insights.

I gave up about halfway through. IMO, the real subject of this book is a lengthy backgrounder on Chaucer's poetry. When my interest in what influenced Chaucer revives (as it frequently does), perhaps I'll give it another try.