A New Midrashic Reading of Geoffrey Chaucer : His Life and Works

Author / Editor
Simms, Norman Toby.

Title
A New Midrashic Reading of Geoffrey Chaucer : His Life and Works

Published
Lewiston, N.Y. : Mellen, 2004.

Physical Description
x, 486 pp.

Series
Studies in British Literature, no. 89

Description
Reads details of Chaucer's life and works as evidence that he can be viewed as a "fuzzy Jew," who acquired some kabbalistic knowledge through his travels and contact with Jews in London and who disguised this knowledge in ways that anticipate the writings of fifteenth-century Spanish Marranos.
Discusses cryptic aspects of Chaucer's life and the ironies of his works, assessing CT, especially PrT and WBPT. Argues that BD was "inspired by kabbalistic letter combinations."

Chaucer Subjects
Wife of Bath and Her Tale.
Prioress and Her Tale.
Book of the Duchess.
Chaucer's Life.