Every now and then I stumble on a book that blows my kind. In preparing for my research trip I was lucky enough to come across Marion Turner’s Chaucer: A European Life (just published earlier this spring) that was the perfect resource as I finalize novel one and move into the latter half of novel two.
Turner captures new research on Chaucer, providing never before insights into his life and writing. I didn’t know, for instance, that when he was a teenager he wore (at the Duchess of Lancaster’s behest) a tight-fitting, very revealing partook that showed off his legs and crotch. it was de rigueur for the French court of Edward III, and Chaucer was paraded about as an object of desire. Not at all the picture I had of him a bit later in life – portly, bookish, nerdy.
Turner is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of English at Oxford University – see more here. Her book is readily available.
