Geoffrey Chaucer

1. Geoffrey Chaucer By Jared DiPrima Period 3 January 29, 2013

2. Early Life • Chaucer was born to a prosperous French-Norman family in London, 1340. • He became a court page at age 17, and fought in the Hundred Years war. • He was taken prisoner and later ransomed. • Afterwards he was at the king’s service, and obtained the patronage of John of Gaunt

3. Early Life Depiction of the Hundred Years War John of Gaunt

4. Later Life • Chaucer went on to become a respected messenger to the king, and embarked on several diplomatic voyages through various European countries. • He married the royal Philippa Roet in 1336. • He was able to gain first-hand experience on cultures, like Italy, during diplomatic endeavors.

5. Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales • Seeing that Chaucer was a traveler, he probably characterized the figures in his Canterbury Tales, based some of his experiences, or on actual people he had met. • He originally wanted to write a total of 4 stories for each character; 2 to be told on the way there, and 2 on the way back. • However, The work was not completed, and he was unable to do a final revision. • Despite this, it remains a very highly acclaimed early work written is middle English.

6. Canterbury tales • The Canterbury tales was written in an omniscient perspective, which many see as Chaucer himself. • The narrator tells of different tales, describing many characters met along a journey.

7. Fun Facts! • Geoffrey Chaucer worked for the government, part-time, as a scrap metal collector. • He wrote many other commended works, including 9 notable poems. • There is a crater on the moon named after Chaucer. • His Facebook page has 11,570 likes.

8. Sources • http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/c#a144 • http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/index.html • http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/chaucer/works.html • http://www.smithsonianjourneys.org/blog/2010/09/13/geoffrey-chaucer/ • http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/canterbury/context.html