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Explores 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 2019
- Examines how biography functions not just as historical record, but as cultural and societal reflection
- Offers fresh insights into Chaucer’s international reception, with particular attention to colonial and postcolonial contexts
- Investigates how issues of authorship, nationalism, morality, and gender shape portrayals of Chaucer over centuries
- Provides a timeline of Chaucer’s known life events alongside contemporary historical and literary milestones
The Life of the Author: Geoffrey Chaucer is ideal for undergraduates and postgraduates in English literature, medieval studies, and cultural history, particularly courses such as Medieval Literature, Author and Authorship Studies, and Histories of Biography within BA and MA degree programs. It is also suitable for general readers interested in Chaucer, medieval poetry, or the broader study of how literary figures are remembered and reimagined.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction: Fabricating the Life of Chaucer 1
Defining Biography 3
The Impact of the Reader 6
Structure of the Book 7
Chapter One: Chaucer and The Testament of Love 8
Chapter Two: Chaucer, Boccaccio and Petrarca 8
Chapter Three: Chaucer and Englishness 9
Chapter Four: Chaucer and the Church 9
Chapter Five: Chaucer and Rape 10
Conclusion: Chaucer in New Zealand 10
Biographies of Chaucer 11
Timeline of Geoffrey Chaucer 19
1 Chaucer and The Testament of Love 23
The Testament of Love 27
The Testament of Love Through the Centuries 28
Proving Authorship 35
Conclusion 39
2 Chaucer, Boccaccio and Petrarca 40
Chaucer's European Travels 45
Chaucer in Milan in 1378 52
Conclusion 54
3 Chaucer and Englishness 55
The Birth of the Father of English Poetry 55
The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer 1532 57
John Stowe and Thomas Speght 60
Conclusion 71
4 Chaucer and the Church 72
Chaucer and the Lollards 72
John Foxe's Book of Martyrs 75
The Biographia Britannica 77
Conclusion 83
5 Chaucer and Rape 84
The Accusation of Rape, 'de raptu meo 85
The 2022 Revelations 93
Conclusion 95
Conclusion: Chaucer in New Zealand 97
References 105
Index 120
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