This is a reissue of Muriel Bowden's 1964 introduction to Chaucer which argues that an examination of his works is not valid without a consideration of the 14th-century environment in which they were created. An initial broad discussion of Chaucer's life and works is followed by three sections which examine the influence of 14th-century social principles, religion, philosophy, chivalry and literature on The Canterbury Tales , the Love-Vision poems and Troilus and Criseyde . Although this book is now almost forty years old, its argument remains a valid one.