{"product_id":"the-portable-chaucer-revised-edition-paperback","title":"The Portable Chaucer: Revised Edition - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eGeoffrey Chaucer\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eTheodore Morrison\u003c\/b\u003e (Editor), \u003cb\u003eTheodore Morrison\u003c\/b\u003e (Translator)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the fourteenth century Geoffrey Chaucer, who served three kings as a customs official and special envoy, virtually invented English poetry. He did so by wedding the language of common speech to metrical verse, creating a medium that could accommodate tales of courtly romance, bawdy \u003ci\u003efabliaux\u003c\/i\u003e, astute psychological portraiture, dramatic monologues, moral allegories, and its author's astonishing learning in fields from philosophy to medicine and astrology. Chaucer's accomplishment is unequalled by any poet before Shakespeare and--in \u003ci\u003eThe Canterbury Tales\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTroilus and Cressida\u003c\/i\u003e--ranks with that of the great English novelists. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBoth \u003ci\u003eThe Canterbury Tales\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTroilus and Cressida\u003c\/i\u003e are presented complete in this anthology, in fresh modern translations by Theodore Morrison that convey both the gravity and gaiety of the Middle English originals. \u003ci\u003eThe Portable Chaucer\u003c\/i\u003e also contains selections from \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Duchess, The House of Fame, The Bird's Parliament\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Legend of Good Women\u003c\/i\u003e, together with short poems. Morrison's introduction is vital for its insights into Chaucer as man and artist, and as a product of the Middle Ages whose shrewdness, humor, and compassion have a wonderfully contemporary ring.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eGeoffrey Chaucer\u003c\/b\u003e was born in London, the son of a wine-merchant, in about 1342, and as he spent his life in royal government service his career happens to be unusually well documented. By 1357 Chaucer was a page to the wife of Prince Lionel, second son of Edward III, and it was while in the prince's service that Chaucer was ransomed when captured during the English campaign in France in 1359-60. Chaucer's wife Philippa, whom he married c. 1365, was the sister of Katherine Swynford, the mistress (c. 1370) and third wife (1396) of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, whose first wife Blanche (d. 1368) is commemorated in Chaucer's ealrist major poem, \u003cb\u003eThe Book of the Duchess\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom 1374 Chaucer worked as controller of customs on wool in the port of London, but between 1366 and 1378 he made a number of trips abroad on official business, including two trips to Italy in 1372-3 and 1378. The influence of Chaucer's encounter with Italian literature is felt in the poems he wrote in the late 1370's and early 1380s - \u003cb\u003eThe House of Fame\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003cb\u003eThe Parliament of Fowls\u003c\/b\u003e and a version of \u003cb\u003eThe Knight's Tale\u003c\/b\u003e - and finds its fullest expression in \u003cb\u003eTroilus and Criseyde\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1386 Chaucer was member of parliament for Kent, but in the same year he resigned his customs post, although in 1389 he was appointed Clerk of the King's Works (resigning in 1391). After finishing \u003cb\u003eTroilus\u003c\/b\u003e and his translation into English prose of Boethius' \u003cb\u003eDe consolatione philosophiae\u003c\/b\u003e, Chaucer started his \u003cb\u003eLegend of Good Women\u003c\/b\u003e. In the 1390s he worked on his most ambitious project, \u003cb\u003eThe Canterbury Tales\u003c\/b\u003e, which remained unfinished at his death. In 1399 Chaucer leased a house in the precincts of Westminster Abbey but died in 1400 and was buried in the Abbey.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 624\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.5 x 7.6 x 5.1 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e May 26, 1977\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51758935474464,"sku":"9780140150810","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/6917edc12b991aa632d8d4c2aba8c9cc.webp?v=1780139382","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/the-portable-chaucer-revised-edition-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}