Origin
Chaucer was born in London, most likely in the early 1340s (by some accounts, including his monument, he was born in 1343), though the precise … 展开

Chaucer's first major work was The Book of the Duchess, an elegy for Blanche of Lancaster, who died in 1368. Two other early works were Anelida and Arcite and The House of Fame. He wrote many of his major works in a prolific period when he worked as customs … 展开

Early criticism
The poet Thomas Hoccleve, who may have met Chaucer and considered him his role model, hailed … 展开

Chaucer was a close friend of John of Gaunt, the wealthy Duke of Lancaster and father of Henry IV, and he served under Lancaster's patronage. Near the end of their lives, Lancaster and Chaucer became brothers-in-law when Lancaster married Katherine … 展开

Chaucer respected and admired Christians and was one himself, as he wrote in Canterbury Tales, "now I beg all those that listen to this little treatise, or read it, that if there be anything in it that pleases them, they thank our Lord Jesus Christ for it, from whom … 展开

Linguistic
Chaucer wrote in continental accentual-syllabic metre, a style which had developed in English … 展开

The following major works are in roughly chronological order, but scholars still debate the dating of most of Chaucer's output. Works made up of a collection of stories may have been … 展开