Middle AgesDante and Chaucer

Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales

Thirty pilgrims tell stories on the road to Canterbury: knights, millers, a nun's priest and a rooster.

✎ Being written

Volume: 19 of the 1990 set
Author: Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343–1400)
Work: The Canterbury Tales c. 1387–1400

Ideas: Comedy and satire How societies work How poetry and stories work Journeys and homecoming

Read it free: search Project Gutenberg for public-domain editions.

A note for parents: Some tales are bawdy; the Knight's, Nun's Priest's and Pardoner's tales suit families.

Being written

This topic's lesson, worked examples and practice are on the way. Here is what it covers and what it builds on, so you can get ready.

15 minutes a day: Harvard Classics readings

Days in Harvard Classics Daily, from the 1930 reading guide to the 1909–10 Harvard Classics, that read this author.

Readings from other works by the same author

October 3Good Enough for ChaucerGeoffrey Chaucer, Chaucer’s Poems

Builds on

Nothing before it: a good place to start.

Leads to

This is one of the top rungs of The Middle Ages.