Chaucer Bibliography
I’m listing here only book-length studies, both some standard critical studies as well as more recent work. The curious reader should also consult journals like The Chaucer Review (available on JSTOR) and Studies in the Age of Chaucer (also available on JSTOR, I think) for article-length studies.
Aers, David. Chaucer, Langland, and the Creative Imagination. London: Routledge, 1979. [An early Marxist study – dated but still engaging.]
Astell, Ann W. Chaucer’s Universe of Learning. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1996. [A great book – this situates Chaucer well within the heady intellectual climate of Ricardian England and late-medieval Europe. Astell also makes intriguing claims about the overall structure of The Canterbury Tales.]
Burger, Glenn. Chaucer’s Queer Nation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003. [Challenges the heternormativity of Chaucer’s culture and writings.]
Carlson, David. Chaucer’s Jobs. New York: Palgrave, 2004. [An exciting and quite polemic post-Althusserian take on Chaucer as an instrument of the state.]
Crane, Susan. Gender and Romance in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1994. [A thoughtful study of the sources of several of Chaucer’s tales, with an eye toward the poet’s measured treatment of female characters.]
Delany, Sheila. Chaucer’s House of Fame: The Poetics of Skeptical Fideism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972. Repr. 1994. [Still the best book written on Chaucer's dream-vision poems, Delany's arguments for Chaucer's "skeptical fideism" actually continue to be applicable to later work like The Canterbury Tales as well.]
Dinshaw, Carolyn. Chaucer’s Sexual Poetics. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989. [In many ways, this astonishing book is both the culmination of feminist criticism on Chaucer while also inaugurating queer theory approaches to medieval studies. Very readable, and maintains a keen sense of Chaucer’s intellectual heritage throughout.]
Ferster, Judith. Chaucer on Interpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1985. [A compelling analysis of Chaucer as a thinker and ethicist.]
Fradenburg, L. O. Aranye. Sacrifice Your Love: Psychoanalysis, Historicism, Chaucer. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002.
Fyler, John M. Chaucer and Ovid. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979. [Fyler reads Chaucer as the antifoundationalist Ovid to Dante’s authoritarian Vergilianism.]
Hansen, Elaine Tuttle. Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. [A sensitive overview of some of the pressing feminist issues that Chaucer’s works present us with.]
Kittredge, George Lyman. Chaucer and His Poetry. 1915. Rpt. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970. [An amusing study of Chaucer’s characters, with an eye toward identifying the various pilgrims with people Chaucer actually knew. Highly speculative.]
Kordecki, Lesley. Ecofeminist Subjectivities: Chaucer’s Talking Birds. New York: Palgrave, 2011. [Though the title sounds a little crazy, Kordecki’s fine readings make the texts make a lot of sense.]
Lerer, Seth. Chaucer and His Readers: Imagining the Author in Late-Medieval England. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1993. [The best recent book on Chaucer’s audiences.]
Lewis, C. S. The Allegory of Love. London: Oxford UP, 1936. [A standard introduction to the concept of courtly love as a literary phenomenon.]
Mann, Jill. Feminizing Chaucer. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2002. [A balanced and sensitive consideration of the major gender issues surrounding Chaucer’s work – Mann sees Chaucer as largely benevolent in his depictions of women. Note, the original version published in the 1980s was entitled simply Geoffrey Chaucer.]
Muscatine, Charles. Chaucer and the French Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957. [Invaluable source study of Chaucer’s French sources and how he used them.]
Patterson, Lee. Chaucer and the Subject of History. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991. [The definitive Marxist/New Historicist reading of Chaucer’s work and its implications within its social world; Patterson provides some of the best takes on class conflict, and he has compelling chapters on the Wife of Bath, the Miller, and Troilus and Criseyde to boot.]
Pearsall, Derek. The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer. Oxford: Blackwell, 1995. [The standard scholarly biography.]
Robertson, D. W. A Preface to Chaucer. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1962. [A massively influential book that situates Chaucer as an orthodox Christian thinker and moralist.]
Seaman, Myra, Eileen Joy, and Nicola Masciandro, eds. Dark Chaucer: An Assortment. New York: Punctum Books, 2012. [An absorbing collection of recent experimental and cutting-edge theoretical takes on Chaucer’s works, with a focus on the idea of “darkness” throughout.]
Strohm, Paul. Social Chaucer. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1989. [A sensitive and readable New Historicist take on Chaucer as a social writer.]
Travis, Peter W. Disseminal Chaucer: Rereading the Nun’s Priest’s Tale. South Bend, Indiana: Notre Dame University Press, 2009. [A virtuosic reading of The Nun’s Priest’s Tale as the Menippean core of The Canterbury Tales. A great read.]
Turner, Marion. Chaucer: A European Life. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019. [An excellent, informative, thorough, and highly readable biography: it is both informed by the spectrum of contemporary theoretical approaches to Chaucer, but is also solidly historicist, while providing new and insightful readings of Chaucer's poetry.]
Van Dyke, Carolynn, ed. Rethinking Chaucerian Beasts. New York: Palgrave, 2012. [This collection of essays provides a number of different critical approaches to the status and function of animals throughout Chaucer’s works.]
Wallace, David. Chaucerian Polity: Absolutist Lineages and Associational Forms in England and Italy. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997. [This book examines how Chaucer thinks about the relationships between individuals and the state.]
Aers, David. Chaucer, Langland, and the Creative Imagination. London: Routledge, 1979. [An early Marxist study – dated but still engaging.]
Astell, Ann W. Chaucer’s Universe of Learning. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1996. [A great book – this situates Chaucer well within the heady intellectual climate of Ricardian England and late-medieval Europe. Astell also makes intriguing claims about the overall structure of The Canterbury Tales.]
Burger, Glenn. Chaucer’s Queer Nation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003. [Challenges the heternormativity of Chaucer’s culture and writings.]
Carlson, David. Chaucer’s Jobs. New York: Palgrave, 2004. [An exciting and quite polemic post-Althusserian take on Chaucer as an instrument of the state.]
Crane, Susan. Gender and Romance in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1994. [A thoughtful study of the sources of several of Chaucer’s tales, with an eye toward the poet’s measured treatment of female characters.]
Delany, Sheila. Chaucer’s House of Fame: The Poetics of Skeptical Fideism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972. Repr. 1994. [Still the best book written on Chaucer's dream-vision poems, Delany's arguments for Chaucer's "skeptical fideism" actually continue to be applicable to later work like The Canterbury Tales as well.]
Dinshaw, Carolyn. Chaucer’s Sexual Poetics. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989. [In many ways, this astonishing book is both the culmination of feminist criticism on Chaucer while also inaugurating queer theory approaches to medieval studies. Very readable, and maintains a keen sense of Chaucer’s intellectual heritage throughout.]
Ferster, Judith. Chaucer on Interpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1985. [A compelling analysis of Chaucer as a thinker and ethicist.]
Fradenburg, L. O. Aranye. Sacrifice Your Love: Psychoanalysis, Historicism, Chaucer. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002.
Fyler, John M. Chaucer and Ovid. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979. [Fyler reads Chaucer as the antifoundationalist Ovid to Dante’s authoritarian Vergilianism.]
Hansen, Elaine Tuttle. Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. [A sensitive overview of some of the pressing feminist issues that Chaucer’s works present us with.]
Kittredge, George Lyman. Chaucer and His Poetry. 1915. Rpt. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970. [An amusing study of Chaucer’s characters, with an eye toward identifying the various pilgrims with people Chaucer actually knew. Highly speculative.]
Kordecki, Lesley. Ecofeminist Subjectivities: Chaucer’s Talking Birds. New York: Palgrave, 2011. [Though the title sounds a little crazy, Kordecki’s fine readings make the texts make a lot of sense.]
Lerer, Seth. Chaucer and His Readers: Imagining the Author in Late-Medieval England. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1993. [The best recent book on Chaucer’s audiences.]
Lewis, C. S. The Allegory of Love. London: Oxford UP, 1936. [A standard introduction to the concept of courtly love as a literary phenomenon.]
Mann, Jill. Feminizing Chaucer. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2002. [A balanced and sensitive consideration of the major gender issues surrounding Chaucer’s work – Mann sees Chaucer as largely benevolent in his depictions of women. Note, the original version published in the 1980s was entitled simply Geoffrey Chaucer.]
Muscatine, Charles. Chaucer and the French Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957. [Invaluable source study of Chaucer’s French sources and how he used them.]
Patterson, Lee. Chaucer and the Subject of History. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991. [The definitive Marxist/New Historicist reading of Chaucer’s work and its implications within its social world; Patterson provides some of the best takes on class conflict, and he has compelling chapters on the Wife of Bath, the Miller, and Troilus and Criseyde to boot.]
Pearsall, Derek. The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer. Oxford: Blackwell, 1995. [The standard scholarly biography.]
Robertson, D. W. A Preface to Chaucer. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1962. [A massively influential book that situates Chaucer as an orthodox Christian thinker and moralist.]
Seaman, Myra, Eileen Joy, and Nicola Masciandro, eds. Dark Chaucer: An Assortment. New York: Punctum Books, 2012. [An absorbing collection of recent experimental and cutting-edge theoretical takes on Chaucer’s works, with a focus on the idea of “darkness” throughout.]
Strohm, Paul. Social Chaucer. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1989. [A sensitive and readable New Historicist take on Chaucer as a social writer.]
Travis, Peter W. Disseminal Chaucer: Rereading the Nun’s Priest’s Tale. South Bend, Indiana: Notre Dame University Press, 2009. [A virtuosic reading of The Nun’s Priest’s Tale as the Menippean core of The Canterbury Tales. A great read.]
Turner, Marion. Chaucer: A European Life. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019. [An excellent, informative, thorough, and highly readable biography: it is both informed by the spectrum of contemporary theoretical approaches to Chaucer, but is also solidly historicist, while providing new and insightful readings of Chaucer's poetry.]
Van Dyke, Carolynn, ed. Rethinking Chaucerian Beasts. New York: Palgrave, 2012. [This collection of essays provides a number of different critical approaches to the status and function of animals throughout Chaucer’s works.]
Wallace, David. Chaucerian Polity: Absolutist Lineages and Associational Forms in England and Italy. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997. [This book examines how Chaucer thinks about the relationships between individuals and the state.]