In which century was Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" written?

Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales was written in the 14th century.

Chaucer is generally believed to have begun the work in the 1380s, with composition usually dated from about 1387 to 1400. Written in Middle English, it presents a group of pilgrims traveling from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket. To pass the time, they tell stories in a competitive storytelling contest.

The surviving work contains 24 tales, although Chaucer’s original plan was far larger: each pilgrim was supposed to tell two stories on the journey to Canterbury and two on the return. Chaucer died in 1400, leaving the collection unfinished, and scholars still debate the intended order of some tales.

The work helped establish English as a major literary language alongside French and Latin. Its narrators represent a broad cross-section of medieval society, including a Knight, Miller, Wife of Bath, Pardoner, and Plowman. The 15th century belongs mainly to the manuscript and early print circulation of the Tales, not to its original composition.