Library Guide to Chaucer

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Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400) is considered the most important English writer of the medieval period. A longtime diplomat and civil servant during the reigns of Edward III, Richard II, and Henry IV, Chaucer is remembered chiefly for his poetry. Among his most important works are Troilus and Criseyde and The Canterbury Tales.

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To Find Books

Use the MERLIN Library Catalog and the MOBIUS Union Catalog to find resources relevant to your research. Relevant works can be found using subject headings (Library of Congress) such as:

• Chaucer, Geoffrey d. 1400
• Chaucer, Geoffrey d. 1400 - Bibliography
• Chaucer, Geoffrey d. 1400 - Canterbury Tales
• Chaucer, Geoffrey d. 1400 - Wife of Bath's Tale
• Chaucer, Geoffrey d. 1400 - Criticism and Interpretation
• Chaucer, Geoffrey d. 1400 - Political and Social Views
• Chaucer, Geoffrey d. 1400 - Troilus And Criseyde

Materials relevant to a broader study of Chaucer and his times can also be found by using subject headings such as:

• English Literature - Middle English, 1100-1500 - History and Criticism
• Literature and Society - England
• England - Civilization - 1066-1485
• Great Britain - History - 14th Century

To find the location of a book in Miller Nichols Library, see the Location Guide.

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To Find Articles

Remote (off-campus) access to databases is available only to UMKC students, faculty, and staff. All other users must access online resources within the Libraries. Begin searching by selecting a database. After selection you will be prompted to provide a UMKC Single Sign-On user name and password OR a 9-digit UMKC ID number followed by the letter k (example: 0123456789k) and last name, as needed.

• Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost) 1975 - present.     Save to del.icio.us
  Selected full text 1975 - present.
  This multidisciplinary database indexes and abstracts journals in a broad range of subjects. Full text is available for a large proportion of the titles. A high percentage of titles are peer-reviewed. Dates of coverage vary widely by title. All content of Academic Search Elite is included in this resource.
• JSTOR 1838 - present.     Save to del.icio.us
  Full text. Coverage varies by title.
   New   Additional journals are now available with the addition of these collections: A&S Complement, A&S V, and Business II.Contains fully searchable scanned articles from selected journals in a broad range of disciplines, including African-American studies, art, ecology, economics, education, history, law, literature, music, general science, sociology, and statistics. (To see a complete list of discipines and journal titles, link to the JSTOR browse list.) Covers the full run of journals from the first issue of volume one; however, the most recent three to five years of journals are not generally available.
• MLA International Bibliography (Chadwyck-Healey) 1884 - present.     Save to del.icio.usAn index to scholarship in literature, linguistics, film, folklore, and cultural studies. The print version of this bibliography is available in the Miller Nichols Library and covers 1921 - 1999. The location and call number are Reference Index Wall Z7006 .M64. See the MLA Directory of Periodicals for a list of periodicals indexed.
• Project MUSE (Premium Collection)     Save to del.icio.us
  Full text 1993 - present.
   New   Additional journals are now available with the upgrade to Project MUSE Premium Collection. Supplies full-text articles from scholarly journals in literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, and gender studies.

NOTE: To find the full text of articles or other information that you have identified using the databases and indexes above, visit the Libraries' Website on Resources for Finding Journals and Articles.

University Libraries Photocopying and Printing Services

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Reference Sources: Encyclopedias, Handbooks, Directories, Statistics, Bibliographies

Reference sources are useful for locating background information, definitions, general descriptions, and basic facts. Use these books to help you select or focus your research topic.

All call numbers in this guide refer to the UMKC Miller Nichols Library, unless otherwise noted. Titles are linked to the corresponding MERLIN Library Catalog record.

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

A Chaucer Dictionary: Proper Names and Allusions, Excluding Place Names	Ref PR1903 .D5
A Chaucer Glossary	Ref PR1941 .C5
Chaucer's Bawdy	Ref PR1903 .R6
Who's Who in Chaucer	Ref PR1927 .S34

Bibliographies

Bibliography of Chaucer, 1954-63	Ref Z8164 .C79
Chaucer, a Bibliographical Introduction	PR1903 .L49
The Essential Chaucer: An Annotated Bibliography of Major Modern Studies	Ref PR1905 .A43
A New Introduction to Chaucer	PR1905 .B72
The Year's Work in English Studies (1919- ) This "narrative bibliography" to scholarly research on the English language and literature written in English is published by the English Association, and regularly includes a section entitled, "Middle English: Chaucer."	Ref PE58 .E6

Additional Sources

Blackwell’s Companion to Chaucer	PR1906 .5 C66
The Cambridge Chaucer Companion	PR1924 .C28
The Canterbury Tales	PR1874 .C64
The Canterbury Tales: The New Ellesmere Chaucer Monochromatic Facsimile	f PR1866 .W66
Chaucer's England: Literature in Historical Context	PR1906 .5 .C48
Chaucer and the Late Medieval World	PR1933 .S59 B57
Chaucer: His Life, His Works, His World	PR1905 .H58
The Ellesmere Chaucer: Essays in Interpretation	q PR1874 .E44
An Introduction to the Canterbury Tales	PR1874 .P48
The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer: A Critical Biography	PR1905 .P43
Oxford Guides to Chaucer	PR1874 .C64
The Text of the Canterbury Tales, Studied on the Basis of all Known Manuscripts	PR1874 .M35

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Web Resources

• Studies in the Age of Chaucer
  Yearbook of the New Chaucer Society.
  (http://artsci.wustl.edu/~chaucer/sac/)
  • SAC Bibliography
    A searchable, annotated bibliography of books and articles on Chaucer.
    (http://artsci.wustl.edu/~chaucer/bibliography.php)
• Chaucer MetaPage
  This project was initiated at the 33rd International Congress of Medieval Studies by a group of medievalists interested in promoting Chaucer studies on the WWW.
  (www.unc.edu/depts/chaucer/)
• The Chaucer Review
  (www3.baylor.edu/~Chaucer_Bibliography/)
  • An Indexed Bibliography
    An indexed and annotated bibliograpahy of the first 30 years of The Chaucer Review.
    (www3.baylor.edu/~Chaucer_Bibliography/bibliography.html)
• Geoffrey Chaucer Website
  This site provides materials for Harvard University's Chaucer classes in the Core Program, the English Department, and the Division of Continuing Education.
  (www.icg.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/)

For additional resources, please consult the Guide to Literature.

Use search engines linked on the Internet Search Tools page to identify additional Web resources.

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For further assistance, please contact the
Miller Nichols Library Reference Desk at (816) 235-1534.

Revised by Carrie Donovan