Fig. 1. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales., Folio #: fol. 142r, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
Geoffrey Chaucer was recognized even in his own time as one of the greatest of English poets and is now regarded as the foremost writer in English literature before the time of William Shakespeare. The outstanding characteristics of Chaucer’s work include its diversity — covering a spectrum of genres extending from pious saints’ lives to bawdy fabliaux, from romance to tragedy — and its consistently humorous quality, allowing Chaucer to combine the serious treatment of moral and philosophical questions with a pervasively comic and entertaining style. His masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, has proven to be one of the truly inexhaustible classics of world literature, appealing in new ways to each new generation of readers.
Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales., Folio #: fol. 142r, c. 1450-1460. Artstor, library.artstor.org/asset/BODLEIAN_10310371838
Nelles, William. "Geoffrey Chaucer." Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition, January 2009, pp. 1-8. Literary Reference Center, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=103331MSW10749850000073&login.asp?custid=magn1307&site=lrc-live&scope=site&custid=magn1307.
Full biography may be found in the Literary Reference Center database.