Provides an introduction to various critical debates surrounding "The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales". This book includes extracts and essays from early as 1368, when Eustace Deschamps paid the first recorded tribute to Chaucer's genius. It addresses the opinions of editors of Chaucer as well as the interest in the poet by other writers.

Taught in schools and universities around the world, and the constant subject of books, essays, and articles down the years, "The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales" has long been central to the English literary canon. Jodi-Anne George provides a detailed introduction to the most important critical debates surrounding "The General Prologue". The extracts and essays included here date from early as 1368, when Eustace Deschamps paid the first recorded tribute to Chaucer's genius, and move chronologically through to the late 1990s. The selections address the opinions of early editors of Chaucer as well as the continuing interest in the poet by other writers throughout the ages. Sociological, gender-based, historical, and structural readings of "The Prologue" are also represented.