Chaucer: Ackroyd's Brief Lives [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Peter Ackroyd (Author)

Book Description

Series: Ackroyd's Brief Lives | Publication Date: January 18, 2005

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Series of brief bios are old hat by now, but perhaps only the prolific novelist/historian Ackroyd would singlehandedly undertake an entire series—on English cultural figures—himself. This slim volume is not so much an account of the life of Geoffrey Chaucer (1343?–1400) as a consideration of his role in shaping England's national identity. The poet is hailed as the "progenitor of a national style," and deft literary analysis explicates Chaucer's innovations while acknowledging the influence of other poets. (Readers will also be glad to know that an appendix provides modern translations of Chaucer's extensively quoted Middle English.) Ackroyd doesn't ignore the biographical side of the story; much is made of Chaucer's position in the royal court, which provided the financial means to live comfortably while writing his verse—and indirectly introduced him to the work of Boccaccio, one of his most significant influences. Early vivid passages discuss how Chaucer's descriptions of medieval London can still resonate with modern readers, linking the poet to the "eternal vision" that has been a central theme in nearly all of Ackroyd's work. Thus the work can serve as an effective introduction to its author as well as its subject—and this series may be more approachable for many readers than Ackroyd's weighty histories London and Albion. 21 b&w illus.
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Richard West's big Chaucer (2000) is period history and literary analysis as much as biography, implicitly because the established facts about the first great English poet are so scanty. The little book that inaugurates the Ackroyd Brief Lives series, however, feels very much like a biography. Ackroyd, whose 11 novels include, most recently, The Clerkenwell Tales [BKL S 1 04], set in Chaucer's London, uses his skills as a limner of fictional characters to produce, out of what is known about the activities of the diplomatic and customs-official roles Chaucer played under Richard II, and what his writings convey about his temperament, a vibrant portrait of a great writer who was "circumspect, and reticent, to the end." That is, he was a man who looked around, because he had to watch his back in government service, and didn't put himself forward, because the conspicuous got cut down. While he looked around, of course, Chaucer observed all kinds of people, high and low, and found all kinds of books from the advanced literary cultures of the day (French and Italian)--which people and books he transmuted into his great narrative poems, the fonts at once of English poetry and English fiction. Ackroyd has set the bar very high for subsequent books in his new series. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Nan A. Talese (January 18, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385507976
• ISBN-13: 978-0385507974
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 7.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #917,696 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderfully concise biography..., March 31, 2005

By 

Glenn Miller (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chaucer: Ackroyd's Brief Lives (Hardcover)

... 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.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great thing in a little package, December 5, 2005

By 

C. Ebeling "ctlpareader" (PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chaucer: Ackroyd's Brief Lives (Hardcover)

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.

2 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Chaucer: Ackroyd's Brief Lives, August 15, 2005

By 

Paul Cherry (Tuscaloosa, AL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chaucer: Ackroyd's Brief Lives (Hardcover)

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.