Book description
Spanning Chaucer's working life, these four poems build on the medieval
convention of 'love visions' - poems inspired by dreams, woven into rich
allegories about the rituals and emotions of courtly love. In The Book
of the Duchess, the most traditional of the four, the dreamer meets a
widower who has loved and lost the perfect lady, and The House of Fame
describes a dream journey in which the poet meets with classical
divinities. Witty, lively and playful, The Parliament of Birds details
an encounter with the birds of the world in the Garden of Nature as they
seek to meet their mates, while The Legend of Good Women sees Chaucer
being censured by the God of Love, and seeking to make amends, for
writing poems that depict unfaithful women. Together, the four create a
marvellously witty, lively and humane self-portrait of the poet. Born
in London to a wine merchant, Geoffrey Chaucer (c1340-1400) became a
royal servant and travelled as a diplomat to France, Spain and Italy. As
well as being famed for his translations, his own work includes Troilus
and Criseyde, The Book of the Duchess and The Legend of Good Women
