Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales — father of English poetry
The father of English literature. The Canterbury Tales — a pilgrimage frame containing stories in every genre from bawdy fabliau to courtly romance to sermon — is the most vital portrait of medieval English society and the work that established English as a literary language.
Key works
- The Canterbury Tales~1387-1400— 29 pilgrims, 24 tales — all of England
- Troilus and Criseyde~1385— The greatest narrative poem in English before Paradise Lost