Chaucer is one of the forerunners of the English novel

Answer

Question: Chaucer is one of the forerunners of the English novel. Do you agree?

Or, The best exposition of the novel’s spirit is found in The Canterbury Tales- discuss.

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) is the father of English poetry and grandfather of English novels. He is the first representative poet in the history of English literature. A writer becomes a father when his contribution crosses his temporary and previous writings in a particular branch of literature. Chaucer was far ahead of his contemporaries, and his poems are characteristically related to all literary branches. The elements of English novels are the most abundant. Let us examine what the characteristics of English novels are found in Chaucer’s poems, for which he is called the forerunner of the English novel.

Large and Realistic Representation of Human Life: Chaucer, in his The Canterbury Tales, presents the detailed facts of human life. The lifestyle of people, their culture, morality, success and failure of their life are all seen in Chaucer’s poem. Again, Chaucer presents the bond of love in a very beautiful way. These are important features of the English novel which Chaucer wrote before 1400. How subtly Chaucer represents human life is found here,

“She leet no morsel from hir lippes falle,

Ne wette hir fyngres in hir sauce depe.

Wel koude she carie a morsel and wel kepe

Thát no drope ne fille upon hire brist;”

First Narrative Artist: Chaucer is the first narrative artist in English literature. No writer had written a poem with a full description before him. Chaucer’s poem gives a complete picture of a person or someone’s life. In “The Canterbury Tales: The General Prologue,” Chaucer describes 30 pilgrims very delicately. That is why Gearson and Smith say about Chaucer’s pilgrims, 

“They are all with us, today, though some of them have changed their names.”

These characteristics were absent in Chaucer’s contemporary writers. Chaucer describes an event so perfectly that no modern novel can surpass it. Chaucer has described his themes