Geoffrey Chaucer was the son of vintner, John Chaucer. He encountered Ovid in the schoolroom which proved to be a great influence on his work. He completed the trivium, grammar school. He served King Edward in a war with France and had to be ransomed. He was a sort of civil servant at a very high level. He was related to one of the wives of John of Gaunt.

His early love poetry has not survived. His choice to write in English was peculiar. French would have been the more reasonable language, it was particularly suited to poetry, it was in use as the language of the English nobility and the English court. French was the language Chaucer used in his education. Chaucer was sent as a member of a trade commission to Italy. He visited Florence. By the spring of 1373 Dante was long since dead. Boccaccio expounded Dante's art. Both Dante and Boccaccio composed some of their works in the vernacular. Literary issues could scarcely have escaped the notice of the English commissioner.

Chaucer left behind a number of unfinished works. He was busy and he was an optimist. THE CANTERBURY TALES itself was cast in broad general terms. It was supposed to consist of 120 tales. Chaucer went on a mission to France in 1377. The mission concerned the marriage of the king's grandson, Richard. Unfortunately the proposed bride died. A further trip of Chaucer's was to Milan. Chaucer would not have known Boccaccio's name, but did know some of his works through unsigned manuscripts. Chaucer's PARLIAMENT OF BIRDS evidences familiarity with some of Boccaccio's works, and it shows an advance over his earlier work, THE HOUSE OF FAME. The great thing that Chaucer got from Boccaccio was the gift of construction.

Chaucer returned from Milan in the autumn of 1378 and resumed his duties as comptroller. Chaucer had 12 years of service in the custom house. Chaucer said in one of his poems that he had 60 books. Books were not ornaments as far as Chaucer was concerned, they were necessities. Chaucer was also a producer of books, the job being difficult since scribes were ill-paid. He ended TROILUS AND CRISEYDE with the hope that no scribe would miswrite or mismeter his book.

Chaucer went on to serve the court in other capacites. He ended as a deputy forester, really a sinecure, permitting him time to write THE CANTERBURY TALES, unfinished. He also received an annuity from the state. THE CANTERBURY TALES gave Chaucer an opportunity to use everything he possessed. He used apologies and disclaimers since the work contained realistic character portraits highly unusual and original in a medieval context. Chaucer died in 1400.

Marchette Chute's book is a joy to read. Her character portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer seems just right.

Marchette Chute has a very gentle, incredibly direct style of writing. Having read her biographies of both Chaucer and Shakespeare, her love of the writing habits of those two classic authors is clear and she has managed to make some of those strengths her own. This biography is enhanced immeasurably by the fact that Ms. Chute knows the not only the history of the period, but the history and craft of story telling. In this volume, she also supplies a great deal of information regarding the sources of Chaucer's own works.

So, yes, I do like her comfortable style, how about the content? Superb. She furnishes as much honest detail as the distance of the period and the shyness of her subject allows. The traits of her historical writing that I value most are her ability to keep speculation to a minimum and her consistency in not confusing possibility with fact.

Since abundant details of Chaucer's personal life have not survived, much of the content of the book concerns other contemporary historic figures; literary, political, and religious conventions of the time; and brief analyses of many of Chaucer's works. She weaves this information skillfully with enough personal facts of Chaucer's life to gather a real sense of the man and his times. I thoroughly enjoyed the book - it left me feeling that I had the honor of briefly meeting the man.

Kenneth Josephson's Retrospective is a phenomenal view of life through the artistic eye of black and white photography. Josephson's pictures-within-pictures are interesting and fresh, a new take on a theme that others have tried, but not mastered as well as Josephson. If you like black and white photography, this book is a must. I saw the exhibit at the Whitney in NYC, and purchased the book afterwards. Unlike some photography books, where the pages don't capture the magic imparted by the prints when seen in person, this one does -- beautifully.

If you're looking for great decorating ideas, this is a pretty nice book, BUT, it also has pictures of flowers and food, so it's not wall-to-wall decorating. There are no earth-shattering decor revelations here, but if you collect books to flip though to get ideas, or just love looking at pretty things, this one's not too shabby.

This is a book I like to page through when I want to relax. The pictures are beautiful and inviting. If you enjoy the simplicity of Shabby Chic but not necessarily the strict adherence to flea market items then this may help define your decorating style. I would recommend this book to any one interested in decorating and looking for inspiration.

The authors took their subject seriously. They considered it as theme that had to be illustrated long various style-lifes and types of architecture. You will find a different point of view with Julia Bird and Pia Tryde "The simple home". In this other book, style is uniform, yet wonderful and easy to get inspiration from. White on white is a powerful concept well illustrated. This book will please everyone.

I bought this book thinking that it was a collection of short stories by some favorite authors. Boy, was I wrong! I was unpleasantly surprised to find out that they were just condensed versions of previous published novels, one that I know for sure I already own. The stories have been distilled down to just basically dialogue and sex scenes - any meaningful character development has been cut out, along with descriptions of settings and motivations. The sex scenes lose much of their impact when you don't really know enough about the characters to even care what they're doing.

The hatchet job done to Jayne Ann Krentz' two stories (one as Stephanie James) was horrible (and the Krentz original story to begin with wasn't one of her best anyway). Continuity was the worst with the Stephanie James story. The Sherry Woods story tried to fit too much into too small a format - a lost love, losing the family farm, a tornado, a child falling down a well, etc. - all that in forty pages! Probably the best of the collection were the stories by Candace Schuler. They seemed to fit the format the best, but still, the conflicts were reduced to their most simplistic terms - white woman fitting into the Navajo world and lust, ex-spouses finally learning to compromise and lust.

My recommendation? Don't Take 5 - take your five and buy full-length novels.

This book has 5 condensed versions of previously published books (meaning old). I bought it thinking it was a new collection of stort stories. Not only were the stories previously (and I do mean previously) published, they were condensed to the point that they were silly. As I was reading, it was very obvious when the story was being condensed, as the continuity of the story was ruined. If you like Jayne Krentz, and/or the other authors in this book, buy the previously published non-condensed works. They are easy, quick reads anyway!