Elmer Gantry, Chaucer's Pardoner, and the Limits of Serious Words

Author / Editor
Killough, George.

Title
Elmer Gantry, Chaucer's Pardoner, and the Limits of Serious Words

Published
James M. Hutchisson, ed. Sinclair Lewis: New Essays in Criticism (Troy: N. Y.: Whitson Publishing, 1997), pp. 162-74.

Description
The Pardoner and Elmer Gantry are "charlatan preachers," who are "comic satirical types." Both characters "reveal their own very human limits" and exemplify their authors' concern with the inadequacy of serious words to convey truth.

Contributor
Hutchisson, James M., ed.

Alternative Title
Sinclair Lewis: New Essays in Criticism.

Chaucer Subjects
Pardoner and His Tale
Chaucer's Influence and Later Allusion