Fallible Authors: Chaucer's Pardoner and Wife of Bath

by Alastair J. Minnis

Can an outrageously immoral man or a scandalous woman teach morality or lead people to virtue? Does personal fallibility devalue one's words and deeds? Is it possible to separate the private from the public, to segregate individual failing from official function? Chaucer addressed these perennial issues through two problematic authority figures, the Pardoner and the Wife of Bath. The Pardoner dares to assume official roles to which he has no legal...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812240308
• ISBN13: 9780812240306
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 2.07 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.2" x 9.1"