Language Redeemed

The contemporary reader of Chaucer's poems is often surprised to discover how bawdy they are. A superficial veneer of Christian culture seems to give way easily in Chaucer to the celebration of a light-hearted hedonism. In this readable study, written for students and experts alike, the eminent literary scholar David Williams guides the reader carefully through Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde and Canterbury Tales. He shows that below the surface Chaucer's narrative reveals an author attuned to the Christian story of creation, fall, and redemption. His characters expose the sophistries, spiritual and intellectual, that Chaucer seeks to mend.