What is the importance of Canterbury Tales?
Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (1340–1400) is considered a masterpiece of the Middle English language, which was spoken by Anglo-Saxons in England from 1200 to the late 1400s. Chaucer was born the son of a wealthy wine merchant and spent many years traveling in France and Italy, both as a tourist and as a diplomat (official representative of a country). On his travels he collected stories and adventures that he would later weave into many works. The crowning achievement of his literary career was Canterbury Tales, which became an instant favorite during the 1400s in England and has since been reprinted in numerous editions and languages. Chaucer started this 17,000-line poem after 1387 and had nearly completed it by the time of his death in 1400. The work weaves together stories told by twenty-eight pilgrims (people on a religious…
