Geoffrey Chaucer (1342-1400) worked in a number of roles relating to the English Court and for many years enjoyed the patronage of John of Gaunt, son of Edward III. On his travels overseas he discovered the popularity of French poetry and started writing English poems. Chaucer never completed his best known work, The Canterbury Tales. This was before the invention of the printing press and hand written sections of the work were circulated amongst those wanting to read it. The order in which Chaucer planned for the parts of the book to finally appear is not known.
The style of English in which Chaucer wrote is very different from today. In 1951 Nevill Coghill translated Chaucer's work into modern English which is what people normally read today. The edition I looked at was in the Penguin Classics series. For those wanting to read a version of the original text, it is available on Project Gutenberg.
In The Canterbury Tales a large group of men and women are making a pilgrimage to Canterbury. To while away the time during the journey each member of the group is provided with the opportunity to tell two stories. Interaction between the group members is often revealed in the general prologue or in the prologue (when provided) before a tale. The tension between some group members - the miller, the reeve and the cook for example -is shown by the tales they choose to tell.
The prologue of The Wife of Bath's Tale was the starting point for Karen Brook's novel. Before telling her story the wife provides information about herself including the fact that she has been married five times, on three occasions to men many years older than her. The prologue and the tale itself deal with attitudes at the time towards women and their place in a society run by men.
This entertaining work has come to be accepted as a commentary on life in fourteenth century England.
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