Chaucer's Canterbury Tales—witty, bawdy, zany, satirical, and literary. From the late medieval period on, Chaucer has been considered the "father of English poetry." Indeed, his Middle English verse electrified the day with its satire of English society. Writing in the later 14th century, he caused ripples with his bold move to write in the vernacular English instead of the expected literary Latin. With prophetic wisdom, he sensed the potential of English to absorb elements from many languages, making it the literary language of the future—opening the way for Shakespeare.
In the tales, a group of pilgrims bound for Canterbury Cathedral agree to pass the weary miles by taking turns at storytelling—and thus begins English literature's greatest collection of chivalric romances, bawdy tales, fables, legends, and other stories.
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