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...