Chaucer, Peter Ackroyd
Chaucer, Peter Ackroyd
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Chaucer
Ackroyd's Brief Lives

Author: Peter Ackroyd

Narrator: Simon Vance

Unabridged: 4 hr 28 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/01/2005


Synopsis

In the first in a new series of brief biographies, bestselling author Peter Ackroyd brilliantly evokes the medieval world of England and provides an incomparable introduction to the great poet's works.

Geoffrey Chaucer, who died in 1400, lived a surprisingly eventful life. He served with the Duke of Clarence and with Edward III, and in 1359 was taken prisoner in France and ransomed. Through his wife, Philippa, he gained the patronage of John of Gaunt, which helped him carve out a career at Court. His posts included Controller of Customs at the Port of London, Knight of the Shire for Kent, and King's Forester. He went on numerous adventurous diplomatic missions to France and Italy. Yet he was also indicted for rape, sued for debt, and captured in battle.

He began to write in the 1360s, and is now known as the father of English poetry. His Troilus and Criseyde is the first example of modern English literature, and his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, the forerunner of the English novel, dominated the last part of his life.

In his lively style, Peter Ackroyd, one of the most acclaimed biographers and novelists writing today, brings us an eye-opening portrait, rich in drama and colorful historical detail, of a prolific, multifaceted genius.


About Peter Ackroyd

Peter Ackroyd is an award-winning historian, biographer, novelist, poet, and broadcaster. He is the author of the acclaimed non-fiction bestsellers London: The Biography, Thames: Sacred River, and London Under; biographies of figures including Charles Dickens, William Blake, Charlie Chaplin, and Alfred Hitchcock; and a multi-volume history of England. He has won the Whitbread Biography Award, the Royal Society of Literature's William Heinemann Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award, and the South Bank Prize for Literature. He holds a CBE for services to literature.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Vaishali on December 06, 2016

A fascinating account of Chaucer's privileged and acclaimed life. The book is best when Ackroyd paints details of a bustling, medieval London. It's more trying with his analysis of Chaucer's verse. Excerpts : --------- “From the age of fourteen to the end of his life he remained in royal service… and......more

Goodreads review by Roxana on February 26, 2018

A decent, short biography - combined with a bit of history, short descriptions of medieval life in the period, literary influences on Chaucer, Chaucer's literary influences on others, all gathered together in a coherent, readable story.......more

Goodreads review by Karen on May 06, 2019

I have always thoroughly enjoyed Peter Ackroyd’s work. It is well written, researched and erudite. This shortish book on the medieval poet, Geoffrey Chaucer, is no exception. Able to succinctly portray what was a varied life and view it through the lens of both contemporary sources and, at times, th......more

Goodreads review by Brian on July 22, 2016

Quickly and energetically surveys the times that Chaucer lived in and the works he produced. Chaucer was an insider. That is not a popular term in 2016, but in 1380, it allowed Chaucer to make a living and to see the behaviors and characters that would populate his fiction and poetry. Other than the......more