The year 1343 may have been the greatest year for English literature; this was the year that Geoffrey Chaucer was supposedly born. He was born in London, England. He lived a great life. Chaucer has been considered the greatest English writer to date. .
Chaucer's first audience may have been to a select few. He may have read his works aloud to fellow courtiers and officials, which might have included members of the royal family. Chaucer claimed to have translated le roman de la rose. His first important work is about an elegy for john of Gaunt's first wife, the book of duchess. The house of fame and the Parlement of Foules are also the same style as Chaucer's first important work. In the house of fame, although unfinished, gives funny accounts of a poet-frustrating journey in the claws of a giant golden eagle. In the Parlement there is a debate about love among different classes of birds. All three of these books were written from 1373 to 1385. These stories are all poems. Chaucer has translated many books into English; he also adapted religious, historical, and philosophical works. Some of these works include: a life of saint Cecilia, a series of medieval "tragedies", the consolation of philosophy. His later work was influenced by these translations. This was proven by Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde written about 1385, as well as The Knights tale. Both of these works were adapted from romances by Boccaccio. Troilus is a poem that has more than eight thousand lines. This is one of Chaucer's major works, besides the Canterbury tales. Chaucer has many works besides the one that I have mentioned. Chaucer's best piece of literature is the Canterbury tales. This story is a collection of stories in one story. The whole story is about a pilgrimage to Canterbury cathedral. The story resembles a 14th-century English society. Chaucer completed less than a Quarter of this plan. He only finished 22 verse tales that contains two unfinished and two long prose tales.