Chaucer's Italy

Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-1-909961-83-8
Verlag: Haus Pub.

Buch, Englisch, 208 Seiten, Format (B × H): 126 mm x 200 mm, Gewicht: 340 g

Reihe: Armchair Traveller

Geoffrey Chaucer might be considered the quintessential English writer, but he drew much of his inspiration and material from Italy. In fact, without the tremendous influence of Francesco Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio (among others), the author of The Canterbury Tales might never have assumed his place as the ‘father’ of English literature.

Nevertheless, Richard Owen’s Chaucer in Italy begins in London, where the poet dealt with Italian merchants in his role as court diplomat and customs official. Next Owen takes us, via Chaucer’s capture at the siege of Rheims, to his involvement in arranging the marriage of King Edward III’s son Lionel in Milan and his missions to Genoa and Florence. By scrutinising his encounters with Petrarch, Boccaccio, and the mercenary knight Sir John Hawkwood – and with vividly evocative descriptions of the Arezzo, Padua, Florence, Certaldo, and Milan Chaucer would have encountered – Owen reveals the deep influence of Italy’s people and towns on Chaucer’s poems and stories.

Much writing on Chaucer depicts a misleadingly parochial figure, but as Owen’s enlightening, short study of Chaucer’s Italian years makes clear, the poet’s life was internationally eventful. The consequences have made the English canon what it is today.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Owen, Richard

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Einzelne Autoren: Monographien & Biographien
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur

Über Autor(innen)

Owen, Richard
Richard Owen was The Times correspondent for 15 years. He was previously the paper’s correspondent in Moscow, Brussels and Jerusalem, and also served as Foreign Editor. Owen has written several works of non-fiction, including Crisis in the Kremlin: Soviet Succession and, with Haus, DH Lawrence in Italy and Hemingway in Italy.

Richard Owen was The Times correspondent for 15 years. He was previously the paper’s correspondent in Moscow, Brussels and Jerusalem, and also served as Foreign Editor. Owen has written several works of non-fiction, including Crisis in the Kremlin: Soviet Succession and, with Haus, DH Lawrence in Italy and Hemingway in Italy.