Author(s): Marion Turner

Forthcoming

Ever since her triumphant debut in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath, arguably the first ordinary and recognisably real woman in English literature, has obsessed readers-from Shakespeare and Voltaire to James Joyce, Passolini, and Zadie Smith. Few literary characters have led such colorful lives or matched her influence or capacity for reinvention in poetry, drama, fiction, and film. In The Wife of Bath, Marion Turner tells the fascinating story of where Chaucer's favourite character came from, how she related to real medieval women, and where her travels have taken her since the fourteenth century, from Falstaff and Molly Bloom to #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. Entertaining and enlightening, funny and provocative, this is a one-of-a-kind history of a literary and feminist icon who continues to capture the imagination of readers. This edition includes discussion questions for reading groups.