Geoffrey Chaucer: (Routledge Guides to Literature)

So many questions surround the key figures in the English literary canon, but most books focus on one aspect of an author's life or work, or limit themselves to a single critical approach. The Complete Critical Guide to Geoffrey Chaucer is part of a unique series of comprehensive, user-friendly introductions which: offer basic information on an author's life, contexts and works outline the major critical issues surrounding the author's works, from the time they were written to the present leave judgements up to you, by explaining the full range of often very different critical views and interpretations offer guides to further reading in each area discussed. This series had a broad focus but one very clear aim: to equip you with all the knowledge you need to make your own new readings of crucial literary texts.

Table of Contents:
Series editors’ preface, Acknowledgements, Abbreviations and referencing, Introduction, Part I LIFE AND CONTEXTS, Part II WORK, Part III CRITICISM, Chronology, Bibliography, Index

Review :
"A series on which Routledge is to be congratulated." -Amy Freeman, University of Washington, for Contemporary Review "This series offers a powerful and timely synthesis of literary history and close reading informed by up-to-date scholarship and contemporary theory: concise and remarkably comprehensive introductions to the life, work and criticism of specific writers." -Professor Rob Pope, Department of English Studies, Oxford Brookes University. "The Complete Critical Guides to English Literature abound in references to the cultural context of each work and to its past and present reception by the public. They take into account a plurality of critical perspectives: beyond mere information, they include a concise and stimulating presentation of the state of criticism nowadays." -Professor D. M. Degrois, Universite de Paris III "In this ambitious book, Gillian Rudd gives an up-to-date account of what is known of Chaucer's life and times, fresh readings of all the poems, and a succinct survey of criticism. As an introduction to Chaucer for new readers of any age her book is remarkably successful, and probably the best single-author study of its kind available." -Professor Derek Pearsall, formerly of Harvard University, USA and York University, UK "It's remarkably lucid and succinct, neither simplifying nor jargonizing. The account of Chaucer's life is very well done, and the entries on the texts extremely well-judged. They give enough information to encourage but not exhaust the reader and their judicious, cogent, and lively treatment of major issues about each text stimulates the desire to read or re-read Chaucer himself. Similarly, the account of Chaucercriticism and the Bibliography are well-chosen so as to cover all the important information and offer valuable guidance, while prompting further thought and exploration, and providing jumping off points for this." -Joycelyn Wogan-Browne, Fordham University