The Life of the Author: Geoffrey Chaucer by Simone Celine Marshall - Paperback - 9781119987291

The Life of the Author: Geoffrey ChaucerAuthor: Simone Celine MarshallFormat: PaperbackPublisher: John Wiley and Sons LtdPublished: 2026ISBN: 9781119987291About this bookExplores how generations of biographers shaped, reinvented, and fabricated the life of Geoffrey Chaucer Very little is known with certainty about Geoffrey Chaucer’s life, yet he has long been enshrined as the “Father of English Poetry.” Over six centuries, biographers have sought to craft a version of Chaucer that meets the needs of their own time, culture, and readers. In doing so, they have often blurred the boundaries between evidence and invention. In Life of the Author: Geoffrey Chaucer, Simone Celine Marshall takes a distinctive approach that examines not just Chaucer himself, but the ways in which his life story has been repeatedly fabricated and reshaped to reflect broader social, cultural, and literary currents. By analyzing over two dozen biographies, Marshall demonstrates that each one is less a faithful record of Chaucer’s life than a mirror of its own era’s priorities and prejudices. Marshall situates Chaucer within a 625-year tradition of biography-making, showing how the image of the poet has been reframed over time—from Renaissance humanist, to national literary figure, to contested cultural symbol. Structured both chronologically and thematically, the book traces episodes that have particularly exercised biographers, including Chaucer’s travels, his alleged authorship of The Testament of Love, his English identity, his entanglement with accusations of rape, and even his role in colonial contexts such as New Zealand. Throughout the text, Marshall highlights how each retelling of Chaucer’s life is also a response to shifting societal concerns—about authorship, nationhood, morality, and cultural authority. A fascinating study of how lives are written, rewritten, and continually reimagined to serve evolving generations of readers, The Life of the Author: Geoffrey Chaucer: Draws from more than two dozen biographies of Geoffrey Chaucer, spanning from 1532 to 2019Examines how biography functions not just as historical record, but as cultural and societal reflectionOffers fresh insights into Chaucer’s international reception, with particular attention to colonial and postcolonial contextsInvestigates how issues of authorship, nationalism, morality, and gender shape portrayals of Chaucer over centuriesProvides a timeline of Chaucer’s known life events alongside contemporary historical and literary milestones The…--Disclaimer-- While every attempt has been made to ensure stock availability, occasionally we do run out of stock. To confirm availability or book cover version, please chat with our store before purchase.