Who wrote the collection of stories known as "The Canterbury Tales"?

Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the collection of stories known as "The Canterbury Tales." Chaucer began composing it in the late 1380s and continued working on it until his death in 1400.

The work is framed as a storytelling contest among pilgrims travelling from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket. Chaucer planned for each pilgrim to tell four stories, but the surviving collection contains 24 completed tales and is generally considered unfinished.

Written mainly in Middle English, the collection includes romance, comedy, moral allegory, and satire. Its speakers represent a broad cross-section of medieval society, including a Knight, Miller, Wife of Bath, Pardoner, and many others. Chaucer uses their stories and arguments to explore class, religion, marriage, and human hypocrisy.

John Gower was Chaucer's contemporary and fellow English poet, while Thomas Malory and William Langland were also important medieval writers, but none wrote The Canterbury Tales.