The Life of the Author: Geoffrey Chaucer

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.

UK Delivery:

• Free delivery on all orders of £10 or more.
• £1.49 delivery fee on orders below £10.
• UK orders are shipped via Royal Mail 2nd Class.

International Delivery:

• Flat rate delivery charges vary by country.

Dispatch and Delivery Times:

• All orders are shipped from our warehouse in Northampton, UK within 48 hours of receipt during working hours.
• UK mainland orders typically arrive within 3-5 working days via Royal Mail 2nd Class.
• International estimated delivery times:
• Europe & Channel Islands: 7 to 10 working days
• USA: 7 to 15 working days
• Rest of the World: 9 to 21 working days

View our full delivery infomation here.