Written sometime in the 1380s, The Canterbury Tales -- the first selection of short stories in English -- is about a group of pilgrims who agree to tell stories while they travel together to Canterbury, the seat of the English Church (still Catholic) and the site of the shrine dedicated to Thomas a Beckett, who was martyred for his faith.

The language of Chaucer -- Middle English -- is closer to Old English, the language of the Anglo-Saxons, and Norman French, the language of William the Conqueror (invasion, 1066).

The idea of a frame story (story within a story) comes from a long tradition: The Arabian Nights and The Decameron. Chaucer read The Decameron when he visited Italy.

Originally, he proposed 124 stories; he actually wrote 24.

The Canterbury Tales is a cross section of medieval society: feudal, ecclesiastical, urban; Chaucer's interest in middle class characters, such as a cook, carpenter, miller, priest, prioress, pardoner, lawyer, merchant, clerk, physician reflects the rise of the middle class in the 14th century.

Literature is moving away from the questions of the genre, romance, to a more personal vision, a domestic vision. Chaucer is interested in individuals, their foibles and individual differences; interested in realism; interested in middle class people, the merchant class, peasants, etc., who reflect the rise of the middle class in the fourteenth century.

Subject matter: sex, lust, greed, jealousy, native cunning (tricksters), the credulousness of the stupid, marital problems, infidelity, corruption of the church.