Washoe County Library System

At the Tabard Inn, thrity travelers of widely varying classes and occupations are gathering to make the annual pilgrimage to Becket's shrine at Canterbury. It is agreed that each traveler will tell four tales to help pass the time, and that the host of the inn will judge the tales and reward the best storyteller with a free supper upon their return.

A biography of the English poet focusing on the map, the poet, and the age in which he lived.

A "microbiography of Chaucer that tells the story of the tumultuous year that led to the creation of The Canterbury Tales"-- This is the eye-opening story of the birth of one of the most celebrated literary creations of the English language. The middle-aged Chaucer did not enjoy the literary celebrity he has today--far from it. He was living quietly in London with a modest bureaucratic post, writing poetry for a small audience of intimate friends....

"The Gilded Page is the story of the written word in the pre-Gutenberg age. Ranging from the earliest intact book in Europe, to the only known literary manuscript to be written in Shakespeare's hand, scholar Mary Wellesley reveals the secret lives of these literary and artistic treasures. Traipsing through the remarkable history, she recounts fires (the only surviving Beowulf manuscript is singed at its edges, losing a bit of its matter every decade)...