Geoffrey Chaucer was born around 1343 in London, the son of a vintner who had enough connections to place his son in the households of English nobility. This early exposure to court life influenced him greatly. Chaucer spent decades navigating different roles — soldier, diplomat, customs official, clerk of works — and he paid close attention to everyone he encountered. This depth of experience is evident in his writing; he had a genuine curiosity about human diversity that no amount of book learning could match.
He served under Edward III and Richard II, traveling to France and Italy on diplomatic missions that were just as significant for his poetry as for his political duties. In Italy, he discovered the works of Boccaccio and Petrarch, which sparked a change in him. He returned with a newfound understanding of what vernacular literature could achieve — that serious and meaningful writing didn’t have to be in Latin or French.
“Chaucer wrote in Middle English at a time when that was a daring choice.”
The educated classes read French, and the Church communicated in Latin. By choosing English, he made a statement, albeit a subtle one. He had a talent for absorbing various influences — from classical mythology and Italian narrative to French courtly love poetry — and transforming them into something that felt distinctly his own and thoroughly English.
His work before The Canterbury Tales was already impressive, including titles like Troilus and Criseyde, The Book of the Duchess, and The Parliament of Fowls. However, it was The Canterbury Tales, started in the 1380s and left unfinished at his death, that established his enduring reputation. The frame narrative — a group of pilgrims traveling to Canterbury, each sharing stories to entertain one another — allowed him to explore comedy, tragedy, romance, and satire all within a single work. The variety is remarkable, and so is the humor.
