Geoffrey Chaucer: English Poet and author

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London sometime in 1843. His father John Chaucer, the son of Robert le Chaucer, might have been a successful wine merchant and an important member of the business community there. About Geoffrey’s mother only the name Alice is known. Geoffrey Chaucer is believed to have attended the St. Paul’s Cathedral School.

Geoffrey Chaucer known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages.

In 1369 Chaucer wrote the “Complaint of Pity” and joined the army in France. He made a number of journeys abroad. The turning point of his literary life followed -he was sent to Italy

While he achieved fame during his lifetime as an author, philosopher, alchemist and astronomer, composing a scientific treatise on the astrolabe for his ten-year-old son Lewis, Chaucer also maintained an active career as a public servant to Countess Elizabeth of Ulster and continued in that capacity with the British court throughout his lifetime.

Among his many works, which include The Book of the Duchess, the House of Fame, the Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde, he is best known today for The Canterbury Tales. The Canterbury Tales contrasts strongly with other literature of the period in the natural flow of the text in the form of a direct narrative written from the perspective of each of the characters and their own personal experience of pilgrimage.

His work “The Parliament of Fowls” is preserved in 14 manuscripts - only a small part of the original - and was more known than his previous works. It is written in the popular form of a dream-vision.

He is believed to have died in London on 25 October 1400 and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey.
Geoffrey Chaucer: English Poet and author