The Canterbury Tales is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's magnum opus. The tales are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return.
Geoffrey Chaucer was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The Canterbury Tales. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific A Treatise on the Astrolabe for his 10-year-old son, Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament.
Anthony Trollope was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, which revolves around the imaginary county of Barsetshire. He also wrote novels on political, social, and gender issues, and other topical matters.
Barchester Towers is a novel by English author Anthony Trollope published by Longmans in 1857. It is the second book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series, preceded by The Warden and followed by Doctor Thorne. Among other things it satirises the antipathy in the Church of England between High Church and Evangelical adherents. Trollope began writing this book in 1855. He wrote constantly and made himself a writing-desk so he could continue writing while travelling by train. "Pray know that when a man begins writing a book he never gives over", he wrote in a letter during this period. "The evil with which he is beset is as inveterate as drinking – as exciting as gambling".
Framley Parsonage is a novel by English author Anthony Trollope. It was first published in serial form in the Cornhill Magazine in 1860, then in book form in April 1861. It is the fourth book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series, preceded by Doctor Thorne and followed by The Small House at Allington.
Bedivere is one of the earliest characters to be featured in the legend of King Arthur, originally described in several Welsh texts as the one-handed great warrior named Bedwyr Bedrydant. Arthurian chivalric romances, inspired by his portrayal in the chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae, portray Bedivere as a Knight of the Round Table of King Arthur who serves as Arthur's marshal and is frequently associated with his brother Lucan and his cousin Griflet as well as with Kay. In the English versions, Bedivere notably assumes Griflet's hitherto traditional role from French romances as the one who eventually returns Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake after Arthur's last battle.
The Chronicles of Barsetshire is a series of six novels by English author Anthony Trollope, published between 1855 and 1867. They are set in the fictional English county of Barsetshire and its cathedral town of Barchester. The novels concern the dealings of the clergy and the gentry, and the political, amatory, and social manoeuvrings among them.
The Last Chronicle of Barset is a novel by English author Anthony Trollope, published in 1867. It is the sixth and final book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series, preceded by The Small House at Allington. The novel is set in the fictional county of Barsetshire and deploys characters from the earlier novels, whilst concentrating on the personnel associated with the cathedral. The main narrative thread is catalysed by the loss of a cheque which had been in the possession of the Reverend Josiah Crawley, and the subsequent reactions of his friends and enemies. Trollope drew inspiration from his father and mother in the creation of the Rev. and Mrs. Crawley. In his autobiography, Trollope regarded this novel as "the best novel I have written.", although later commentators do not agree with this judgement. The serialisation was illustrated by G H Thomas who was selected by the publisher, though Trollope had wished for Millais who had illustrated The Small House at Allington.
Doctor Thorne is the third novel written by Anthony Trollope in his Chronicles of Barsetshire series, between Barchester Towers and Framley Parsonage. It was published by Chapman and Hall in London in 1858. The idea of the plot was suggested to Trollope by his brother Thomas. Though set in Barsetshire, Barchester and its residents take little part in the proceedings. The novel is mainly concerned with money and position.
The Warden is a novel by English author Anthony Trollope published by Longman in 1855. It is the first book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series, followed by Barchester Towers.
Bicorn and Chichevache are fabulous beasts that appear in European satirical works of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Bicorn is a creature—part panther, part cow, with a human-like face—that devours kind-hearted and devoted husbands and is plump and well fed. Chichevache, on the other hand, devours obedient wives and is thin and starving.
In medieval and ancient philosophy, the Wheel of Fortune or Rota Fortunae is a symbol of the capricious nature of Fate. The wheel belongs to the goddess Fortuna who spins it at random, changing the positions of those on the wheel: some suffer great misfortune, others gain windfalls. The metaphor was already a cliché in ancient times, complained about by Tacitus, but was greatly popularized for the Middle Ages by its extended treatment in the Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius from around 520. It became a common image in manuscripts of the book, and then other media, where Fortuna, often blindfolded, turns a large wheel of the sort used in watermills, to which kings and other powerful figures are attached.
The Palliser novels are six novels written in series by Anthony Trollope. They were more commonly known as the Parliamentary novels prior to their 1974 television dramatisation by the BBC broadcast as The Pallisers. Marketed as "polite literature" during their initial publication, the novels encompass several literary genres including: family saga, bildungsroman, picaresque, as well as satire and parody of Victorian life, and criticism of the British government's predilection for attracting corrupt and corruptible people to power.
Canterbury Tales is a series of six single dramas that originally aired on BBC One in 2003. Each story is an adaptation of one of Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th-century Canterbury Tales. While the stories have been transferred to a modern, 21st-century setting, they are still set along the traditional Pilgrims' route to Canterbury.
The Canterbury Tales is a 14th-century English collection of stories, mainly in verse, written by Geoffrey Chaucer.
A wife is a female participant in a marriage.
Barchester Pilgrimage is a 1935 novel by Ronald Knox, published in London by Sheed and Ward, in which Knox picks up the narrative of the original Chronicles of Barsetshire where Anthony Trollope breaks off. Knox follows the fortunes of the children and grandchildren of Trollope's characters up to the time of writing (1934), with some gentle satire on the social, political and religious changes of the 20th century. The novel was reprinted in 1990 by the Trollope Society.
Rachel Ray is an 1863 novel by Anthony Trollope. It recounts the story of a young woman who is forced to give up her fiancé because of baseless suspicions directed toward him by the members of her community, including her sister and the pastors of the two churches attended by her sister and mother.
The Three Clerks (1857) is a novel by Anthony Trollope, set in the lower reaches of the Civil Service. It draws on Trollope's own experiences as a junior clerk in the General Post Office, and has been called the most autobiographical of Trollope's novels. In 1883 Trollope gave it as his opinion that The Three Clerks was a better novel than any of his earlier ones, which included The Warden and Barchester Towers.
