A great starting point for students seeking an introduction to Geoffrey Chaucer and the critical discussions surrounding his work.

Geoffrey Chaucer, fourteenth-century master storyteller and comic genius, was the greatest English author of the Middle Ages. This volume includes essays that help explain why Chaucer is called ""the father of English letters."" Essay topics include Chaucer as an international poet, gender and horror in The Canterbury Tales and Chaucer's links to Shakespeare.

Each essay is 2,500 to 5,000 words in length, and all essays conclude with a list of ""Works Cited,"" along with endnotes. Finally, the volume's appendixes offer a section of useful reference resources: A chronology of the author's life; A complete list of the author's works and their original dates of publication; A general bibliography; A detailed paragraph on the volume's editor; Notes on the individual chapter authors; A subject index.