This lesson introduces students to one of the most admired characterizations in Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales," the Wife of Bath. Students read Chaucer's description of the Wife in the "General Prologue" to consider how he represents her, both as the poet of "The Canterbury Tales" and as a character in his own poem,…

This selective bibliography, written as a guide to scholarship on Chaucer and related subjects, attempts to cover the major works and topics, with emphasis on work published in the 20th century. Omitted are school editions, short articles on minor points, popular and semi-popular books and articles, and unpublished doctoral dissertations. General…

This bibliography of scholarship in Old and Middle English Literature (before 1525) attempts to cover selectively the major works and topics and to represent adequately the minor ones. English and American scholarship since 1965 is emphasized. For the Old English period, entries are under the following headings: Texts; Reference and General Works;…

This work provides students of English Literature with a selective guide to important writers and their works from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present. The first chapter presents reference materials on English literature in general; each entry includes complete bibliographic information. A chronological arrangement is used in chapters two…

The teacher can sucessfully present Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" to 11th- and 12th-grade students by concentrating on "The Prologue" and one of the tales--e.g., "The Pardoner's Tale." The structure and plan of the entire work, however, should first be considered before its various parts can be fully understood.…

Seventeen reprinted essays and an unpublished one are contained in this collection and organized under five headings: History of Ideas, Approaches to Medieval Literature, Chaucer and Fourteenth-Century English Literature, Language and Linguistics, and Essay-Reviews. Topics discussed include the origin of the concept of the Seven Cardinal Sins;…