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 14thcentury 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 14thcentury social principles, religion, philosophy, chivalry and literature on The Canterbury Tales , the LoveVision poems and Troilus and Criseyde . Although this book is now almost forty years old, its argument remains a valid one.