Customer Reviews

Chaucer: Ackroyd's Brief Lives (Ackroyd's Brief Lives (Audio))

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... and history of the late 14th century. Ackroyd is more than just an excellent writer and distiller of information. He is clearly well-versed in the significance of Chaucer's writings and impact upon English literature. I am one who greatly appreciates the fact that many lives can be elegantly presented in under 800 pages. Ackroyd proves this point, bringing his slim volume in at 175 pages. Generally, something would have to give in this smaller dosage, either Chaucer's other writings or a sense of the historical time in which the subject lived. Both, however were well presented, creating a rich tapestry of a time long ago.

Geoffrey Chaucer, most famously the author of "The Canterbury Tales," is a challenge to modern day profilers in search of the kind of detail that fills steamer trunk sized biographies. The 14th century England in which he breathed was a long, long time ago, in a far-off turbulent galaxy at that. Yet, he left behind a remarkable contribution to literary tradition, one that continues to hold influence and pleasure, and his emergent literate and litigious culture left behind enough public records to save him from total obscurity. Peter Ackroyd, known for novels and more voluminous biographies, here creates in CHAUCER a concise yet multidimensional and very satisfying look at the man and his achievement.

Even without his literary legacy, Chaucer bears attention because of what he represents of the changing medieval English social structure. A member of the merchant class, he was able to move into the royal circle, signaling the monarchs' reliance on commerce. Before he came to moonlight as the favorite court poet, he was a talented negotiator sent abroad and it was during a fortuitous sojourn in Italy that he encountered the literary models of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio that he would internalize and make uniquely his and England's own new vision.

Working with what is definitely known and leaving guess work to others, Ackroyd offers an agile, chronological review of Chaucer's works and the events of his life, forming a vivid picture of an artist's growing awareness of the possibilities of art and his role in fulfilling them. It is good historical reading, it is fine critical reading and it is delightfully intelligent general reading rendered in a firm and graceful voice. This is supposed to be the first of a series of "brief lives" by Ackroyd and on the basis of CHAUCER, I'm signing up to read them all.

This is a very informative book. I knew very little about Geoffery Chaucer before reading this book. I was surprise to find out the he was more than just a poet. Overall, I was pleased.