Chaucer: The Wife of Bath, the Pardoner, and Shakespearean Character

Author / Editor
Bloom, Harold.

Title
Chaucer: The Wife of Bath, the Pardoner, and Shakespearean Character

Published
Harold Bloom. The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages (New York, San Diego, and London: Harcourt, 1994), pp. 105-26.

Description
Appreciative criticism of Chaucer and his contribution to Western literary tradition, especially his anticipation of Shakespeare as a comic ironist and creator of self-conscious characters. Focuses on CT--in particular, the Falstaffian vitality of the Wife of Bath and the Iago-like genius of the Pardoner, the "first nihilist, at least in literature."

Alternative Title
The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages.

Chaucer Subjects
Chaucer's Influence and Later Allusion.
Wife of Bath and Her Tale.
Pardoner and His Tale.