"Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it."
— P.J. O'Rourke
Geoffrey Chaucer | First Editions
1343 - 1400
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400) is known as the 'Father of English literature'. Chaucer is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages, and was the first poet to be buried in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. Among his many works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde. He is best known today for The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer's work is seen as integral inlegitimising and popularising the literary use of the Middle English vernacular, at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin.
Chaucer is known for metrical innovation; he invented the rhyme royal, and was one of the first English poets to use the five-stress line (a decasyllabic cousin to the iambic pentameter) in his work. The arrangement of these five-stress lines into rhyming couplets, first seen in his The Legend of Good Women, has become one of the standard poetic forms in English. Moreover, his humorous use of writing phoenetically to convey the 'funny' accent of a regional dialect has since been replicated repeatedly, and not just for comic effect; the device has gone on to influence celebrated writers such as Anthony Burgess and Irvine Welsh, among countless others.
See below our stock of Geoffrey Chaucer fine bindings, sets, illustrated editions, and other collectible material.
Results 1 - 4 (of 4)
Troilus and Criseyde. Edited by Arundell Del Re with wood engravings by Eric Gill, printed and published at The Goldren Cockerell Press at Waltham Saint Lawrence in Berkshire England, A.D. MCMXXVII.
London: The Folio Society, 2011. [Middle English Poetry] FINELY BOUND AND ILLUSTRATED LIMITED EDITION, a Facsimile of the original 1927 edition. Quarto (34 x 23cm), pp.[2] xii; 310 [4]. Number 610 of 1250 copies thus, illustrated with wood engravings by Gill throughout, printed by Memminger MedienCentrum on Rigoletto Panna felt-marked..... More
The Canterbury Tales.
London: W.H. Allen, 1934. [Illustrated Literature] LEATHER-BOUND FIRST UK EDITION THUS, first impression. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.[2] xviii; 627 [5]. with numerous dichromatic wood engraved plates by Kent, including a frontispiece. Recently rebound in red half morocco, with raised bands, gilt titles to twin black labels on the spine..... More
The Works of Our Ancient, Learned, & Excellent English Poet, Jeffrey Chaucer: As they have lately been Compar'd with the best Manuscripts; and several things added, never before in Print. To which is adjoyn'd, The Story of the Siege of Thebes, by John Lidgate, Monk of Bury. Together with The Life of Chaucer, shewing His Countrey, Parentage, Education, Marriage, Children, Revenues, Service, Reward, Friends, Books, Death. Also a Table, wherein the Old and Obscure Words in Chaucer are explained, and such Words (which are many) that either are, by Nature or Derivation, Arabick, Greek, Latine, Italian, French, Dutch, or Saxon, mark'd with particular Notes for the better understanding their Original.
London, 1687. [Middle English] FINAL BLACKLETTER EDITION, Speight's third edition. Quarto (34 x 22cm), pp.[34] 660 [24]. With the copper-engraved frontispiece portrait of Chaucer. Introductory matter in italic font, main text blackletter. Recently re-backed, with the original panelled and speckled calf boards, and the original plain speckled calf laid over..... More
Tales from Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales done into Prose.
London: The Medici Society, 1930. [Illustrated Literature] FINELY BOUND AND ILLUSTRATED, first thus. Octavo (22 x 14cm), pp.[2] xii; 245 [5]. With 12 colour plates by Russell Flint, including a frontispiece. Contemporary navy full calf by RIVIERE & SON of London, with raised bands, gilt titles to contrasting red and..... More
Results 1 - 4 (of 4)