The subtitle says it all: "The Life and Times of the First English Poet."

Dear Mr. West: Ever hear of Beowulf? It's in (Old) English, and was written at least four hundred years before Chaucer was born. How about Caedmon, as in Caedmon's Hymn? He lived in the seventh century, and is the oldest English poet whose name is known. Or how about Caedmon's approximate contemporary Cynewulf?

If you don't allow "English" to include Old English, there are still poems in Middle English from before Chaucer -- "King Horn," for instance. And Layamon's "Brut," an important link in the development of the Arthurian legend, was written c. 1200.

Of course, book titles can be the fault of editors, not writers. The true test of a book is its content. In the case of this book, the content is easy to sum up: "Gossip." There are, for instance, no footnotes -- which is understandable, since if there were footnotes, author West would either have to admit how much he's taking from worthless "sources" or how much he's just making up. For instance, on page 3, he refers to "Sir John Froissart, the leading chronicler of the Hundred Years War." It is widely agreed that Froissart made up a large amount of what he wrote. Indeed, it strikes me that West's technique -- a little fact combined with a lot of shavings from the axe he's grinding -- very much resembles Froissart.

Froissart's one virtue was dramatic readability. We find that here, too. If you want to read about a fourteenth century that never happened and a Geoffrey Chaucer who never actually existed, this book is for you. But read the book being aware of what it is: Mostly fiction. ( )

I picked this book up by chance having heard the author speak about the great poet. I certainly enjoyed it though it is far from a traditional biography. The title almost tells it as it is, though perhaps the ordering should be different: 'The Times and a Little About the Life of Chaucer' might be more accurate.

It is readily apparent, however, that Richard West has read widely throughout the whole of Chaucer's oeuvre and not just the Coghill translation of 'The Canterbury Tales', and he also quotes extensively and adroitly from Boccaccio, Petrach and Virgil. He has also clearly researched deeply into the history of the fourteenth century ad offers up fascinating chapters on the Black Death and the Hundred Years Wars. Too often, though, I felt as if this was really just a straight, simple history book (and let's be honest there is absolutely nothing wrong with that), with a contrived link to Chaucer thrown in.

Still, it has led me to dig out my old copies of the original Middle English texts and recapture some of the magic that I enjoyed so much as a student. ( )

I picked this book up by chance having heard the author speak about the great poet. I certainly enjoyed it though it is far from a traditional biography. The title almost tells it as it is, though perhaps the ordering should be different: 'The Times and a Little About the Life of Chaucer' might be more accurate.

It is readily apparent, however, that Richard West has read widely throughout the whole of Chaucer's oeuvre and not just the Coghill translation of 'The Canterbury Tales', and he also quotes extensively and adroitly from Boccaccio, Petrach and Virgil. He has also clearly researched deeply into the history of the fourteenth century ad offers up fascinating chapters on the Black Death and the Hundred Years Wars. Too often, though, I felt as if this was really just a straight, simple history book (and let's be honest there is absolutely nothing wrong with that), with a contrived link to Chaucer thrown in.

Still, it has led me to dig out my old copies of the original Middle English texts and recapture some of the magic that I enjoyed so much as a student. ( )

An incredibly bad book about Chaucer, sort of. Full of inaccuracies.