"Canterbury Tales"

by Helen Cooper

Published December 1989
Each volume in the "Oxford Guides to Chaucer" series has been written with the purpose of summarizing what is known about Chaucer's works and offering interpretations based on recent advances in both historical knowledge and theoretical understanding. They provide readers at every level with new interpretations and ideas, with up-to-date information on such matters as dating and sources, and with analyses of thematic issues, structure, style, rhetoric and generic relations. This volume, which analyzes the "Canterbury Tales", tackles these issues both for the whole work and for each individual tale. It includes a survey of literary responses to the "Tales" over the two centuries following Chaucer's death.