Essay, Biography or Paragraph on “Geoffrey Chaucer” great author complete biography for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer is remembered as the author of The Canterbury tales, which ranks as one of the greatest epic works of world literature. Chaucer made a crucial contribution to English literature in using English at a time when much court poetry was still written in Anglo-Norman or Latin. Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London. Little is known of his early education, but his works show that he could read French, Latin and Italian.
In 1359-1360 Chaucer went to France with Edward III’s army during the Hundred Years’ War. He was captured in the Ardennes and returned to England after the treaty of Bretigny in 1360. Troilus and Cressida (c. 1385) was amongst his best poetry that was based on a love story by Boccaccio. His first narrative poem, The Book of the Duchess, was probably written shortly after the death of Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster, first wife of John Gaunt, in September 1369. His next important work, The House of Fame, was written between 1374 and 1385. Soon afterward Chaucer translated The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, and wrote the poem The Parliament of Birds. The Canterbury Tales depicts a pilgrimage by some 30 people, who are going on a spring day in April to the shrine of the martyr, St. Thomas Becker. On the way they amuse them-selves by telling stories. The stories are interlinked with interludes in which the characters talk with each other, revealing much about themselves. The framework of the book gives him a chance to give us descriptive portraits of the pilgrims, a varied and fascinating group. (One notes, with a wince or a cynical wink, that Chaucer takes it for granted, and expects his audience to do like-wise, that a mendicant friar or member of certain other religious groups will of course be a fraud.). Most of the stories deal with the question of the proper attitude toward marriage, love, sex, and the connections between them. In Chaucer’s days, the upper classes, at least, held that it was a man’s highest privilege to select a lady and lay his heart at her feet, counting her smile an ample reward for years of faithful service.
According to tradition, Chaucer died in London on October 25, 1400. He’ was buried in Westminster Abbey, in the part of the church, which afterwards came to be called Poet’s Corner. A monument was erected to him in 1555.