A lively, concise biography of the father of English literature and the tumultuous year that led to The Canterbury Tales At the beginning of 1386, Geoffrey Chaucer—lauded today as the father of English literature—was a middle-aged Londoner with a modest bureaucratic post; his literary successes had been confined to a small audience of intimate friends. But by year’s end, he was swept up in a series of disastrous events that would ultimately leave him jobless, homeless, separated from his wife, and exiled in the countryside of Kent. Unbroken by these worldly reversals, Chaucer pursued a new life in art. In this highly accessible social history, Paul Strohm, one of the finest medievalists of our time, vividly recreates the bustle of everyday life in fourteenth-century London while he unveils the fascinating story behind Chaucer’s journey from personal crisis to rebirth as the immortal poet of The Canterbury Tales.

Chaucer's Tale: 1386 and the Road to Canterbury

Biographies & Memoirs

Strohm, Paul

Arts & Literature

Penguin??Books

Middle English (Oxford 21st Century Approaches to Literature)

These original essays mean to provoke rather than reassure, to challenge rather than codify. Instead of summarizing existing knowledge after the fashion of the now-ubiquitous literary 'companions,' these essays aim at opening fresh discussion; instead of emphasizing settled consensus they direct their readers to areas of enlivened and unresolved debate. Although 'major authors' such as Chaucer and Langland are richly represented, many little-known and neglected texts are considered as well. Analysis is devoted not only to self-sufficient works, but to the general conditions of textual production and reception. Contributors to this collection include some recognized and admired names, but also a good many newer faces: younger scholars whose groundbreaking research is just coming into full view, and whose perspectives will influence the terms of literary discussion in the decades to come. Encouraged to speculate, they have addressed topics that unsettle previous categories of investigation. Each is oriented toward the emergent, the unfinalized, the yet-to-be-done. Each essay stirs new questions and concludes with suggestions for further reading and investigation that will allow readers to extend their own research into the questions it has raised.

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

Oxford University Press

These original essays mean to provoke rather than reassure, to challenge rather than codify. Instead of summarizing existing knowledge after the fashion of the now-ubiquitous literary 'companions' these essays aim at opening fresh discussion; instead of emphasizing settled consensus they direct their readers to areas of enlivened and unresolved debate. Although 'major authors' such as Chaucer and Langland are richly represented, many little-known and neglected texts are considered as well. Analysis is devoted not only to self-sufficient works, but to the general conditions of textual production and reception. Contributors to this collection include some recognized and admired names, but also a good many newer faces: younger scholars whose groundbreaking research is just coming into full view, and whose perspectives will influence the terms of literary discussion in the decades to come. Encouraged to speculate, they have addressed topics that unsettle previous categories of investigation. Each is oriented toward the emergent, the unfinalized, the yet-to-be-done. Each essay stirs new questions and concludes with suggestions for further reading and investigation that will allow readers to extend their own research into the questions it has raised.

British & Irish

From Cicero and Augustine through the middle ages and into the Reformation, this Very Short Introduction considers conscience as a matter of human rights and obligations, as well as an important issue in contemporary politics. Written by Paul Strohm, an eminent authority in the field and an engaging writer, this compact book provides a thought provoking introduction to a compelling topic. Arranged chronologically to focus on a series of important moments in the history of conscience--from Augustine's episode of conscience to the rise of conscience as a secular ideal--the volume explores a wide variety of texts and events, providing a concise introduction to the evolution of ideas and debates about conscience.

Conscience: A Very Short Introduction

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Taking points of departure from Quentin Skinner and J. G. A. Pocock, Paul Strohm deploys superior powers of textual and linguistic analysis to uncover a 'pre-Machiavellian moment': an historical phase which saw political discourse deployed with unprecedented slipperiness and subtlety; a time when it was thought possible not just to follow Fortune, but to jam her turning wheel. That this should have occurred in the fifteenth century, a period regarded as too dull, tradition-bound, or chaotic for significant discursive innovation, is just one of the surprises of this remarkable book. Little-regarded writers such as Fortescue and Pecock, Whethamstede and Warkworth, emerge as figures of compelling interest; John Lydgate, once dismissed as Chaucer's dullest successor, opens paths to the Mirror for Magistrates and to the heart of Shakespearean history. This book is recommended to scholars and students of medieval and Renaissance history and literature and to all those fascinated by languages of conspiracy, destiny, and government. -David Wallace, University of Pennsylvania

Politique: Languages of Statecraft between Chaucer and Shakespeare (Conway Lectures in Medieval Studies)

University of Notre Dame Press

Politique: Languages of Statecraft between Chaucer and Shakespeare (Conway Lectures in Medieval Studies) (The Conway Lectures in Medieval Studies)

Paul Strohm's strikingly original . . . book offers rich opportunities for thinking about the relationships between textual analysis and historical understanding. . . . [His] analysis of Lancastrian texts and imagination will undoubtedly prove immensely energizing in medieval English literary and cultural studies. If its full implications for medieval history are also recognized and explored, its impact will be even more profound and enduring. -Review of English Studies

England's Empty Throne: Usurpation and the Language of Legitimation, 1399-1422

After the dethronement and subsequent murder of Richard II, the usurping Lancastrian dynasty faced an exceptional challenge. Interrupting a long period of Plantagenet rule, Henry IV and Henry V needed not only to establish physical possession of the English throne, but to occupy it symbolically as well. In this boldly revisionary book, Paul Strohm provides a new account of the Lancastrian revolution and its aftermath. Integrating techniques of literary and historical analysis, he explores the new dynasty's quest for legitimacy and the importance of symbolic activity to the making of kingship.   Strohm reveals the Lancastrian monarchs as masters of outward display, persuasively 'performing' their kingship in a variety of novel ceremonies. Henry IV is crowned with a newly discovered coronation oil. The murdered Richard II is elaborately reburied. Opinion is courted and deceived with invented chronicles, false prophecies, and bogus genealogies. Opponents of the new regime are subject to novel forms of trial and punishment. Far-reaching Lancastrian experiments in domination include the proscription of prophecy; the enlistment of poetry; the use of spies and hired informers; and, most ambitiously, the redefinition of treason to cover not only overt deeds but also things said and even thought.   Strohm's account of the Lancastrian quest for legitimacy, and the uses of symbolic power, illuminates - indeed, recasts - our understanding of a period of unprecedented political upheaval.   'Intriguing and required reading for any historian or serious student of England in the later Middle Ages and Tudor period' Miri Rubin, University of Oxford  Paul Strohm was J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford, and was formerly Professor of English at Indiana University. Among his publications are 'Social Chaucer' and 'Hochon's Arrow: The Social Imagination of Fourteenth-Century Texts'. He was President of The New Chaucer Society.

Yale University Press

A lively microbiography of Chaucer that tells the story of the tumultuous year that led to the creation of The Canterbury Tales In 1386, Geoffrey Chaucer endured his worst year, but began his best poem. The father of English literature did not enjoy in his lifetime the literary celebrity that he has today—far from it. The middle-aged Chaucer was living in London, working as a midlevel bureaucrat and sometime poet, until a personal and professional crisis set him down the road leading to The Canterbury Tales. In the politically and economically fraught London of the late fourteenth century, Chaucer was swept up against his will in a series of disastrous events that would ultimately leave him jobless, homeless, separated from his wife, exiled from his city, and isolated in the countryside of Kent—with no more audience to hear the poetry he labored over. At the loneliest time of his life, Chaucer made the revolutionary decision to keep writing, and to write for a national audience, for posterity, and for fame. Brought expertly to life by Paul Strohm, this is the eye-opening story of the birth one of the most celebrated literary creations of the English language.

VIKING

Social Chaucer

Each generation finds in Chaucer's works the concerns and themes of its own era. But what of Chaucer's contemporaries? For whom was he writing? With what expectations would his original audience have approached his works? In what terms did he and his audience understand their society, and how does his poetry embody a view of society?These are some of the questions Paul Strohm addresses in this innovative look at the historical Chaucer. Fourteenth-century English society was, he reminds us, in a state of accelerating transition: feudalism was yielding to capitalism, and traditional ways of understanding one's place in society were contending with new social paradigms. Those like Chaucer who lived on the fringe of gentility were particularly sensitive to these changes. Their social position opened the way to attractive possibilities, even as it exposed them to special perils.Strohm draws on seldom-considered documents to describe Chaucer's social circle and its experiences, and he relates this circle to implied and fictional audiences in the texts. Moving between major works like the Canterbury Tales and less frequently discussed works like Complaint of Mars, he suggests that Chaucer's poetry not only reproduces social tensions of the time but also proposes conciliatory alternatives. His analysis yields a fuller understanding of Chaucer's world and new insight into the social implications of literary forms and styles.

Harvard University Press

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Books by Strohm, Paul

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Strohm, Paul. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Chaucer's Tale: 1386 and the Road to Canterbury

Middle English (Oxford 21st Century Approaches to Literature)

Middle English (Oxford 21st Century Approaches to Literature)

Conscience: A Very Short Introduction

Politique: Languages of Statecraft between Chaucer and Shakespeare (Conway Lectures in Medieval Studies)

Politique: Languages of Statecraft between Chaucer and Shakespeare (Conway Lectures in Medieval Studies) (The Conway Lectures in Medieval Studies)

England's Empty Throne: Usurpation and the Language of Legitimation, 1399-1422

England's Empty Throne: Usurpation and the Language of Legitimation, 1399-1422

Chaucer's Tale: 1386 and the Road to Canterbury

Social Chaucer