The Wife of Bath A biography

This book is divided into two parts, each comprising five chapters preceded by a prologue. The first part examines the "ordinary" women of Chaucer's time, women who served as models and sources for Alison, the Wife of Bath. In a masterful close reading of literary and historical sources, Turner (Univ. of Oxford, UK) shows that Chaucer based Alison on four key elements of women's lives--work, marriage, storytelling, and travel--and she discusses what each of these elements would have meant to Chaucer's late-medieval audience. The second half of the book is a true revelation: here Turner explores the afterlives of Alison (1400--2021), showing how authors have embraced the character as a source of inspiration for their own works. A good number of these later texts are grounded in misogynistic beliefs and actions, and Turner is deft in exploring why that is and what that means. Scholars interested in scribal commentary--John Gay, Shakespeare, Dryden, Voltaire, Joyce, Atwood, Pasolini, Bergvall, Agbabi, Breeze, Zadie Smith--will find much to consider in these chapters. This is an invaluable study not only for those who research and teach Chaucer and his Canterbury Tales but also for those who are engaged with women and gender studies from the Middle Ages to the present day. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Alexander L. Kaufman, Ball State University

In this passionate literary "biography," Turner (Chaucer: A European Life) delves into the legacy of Chaucer's Alison of Bath. As Turner writes, "the story of Alison in the world... crosses continents as well as centuries, languages as well as gender, popular as well as high culture. Her story is still very much alive." Broken into two parts dealing with Alison's medieval and modern presence, Turner's study investigates the historical context, fictional characters, and working women that inspired Alison's creation: a large part of her "project," Turner posits, is to "shine a light on the fact that there is usually no place in stories like this for reasonable older women." The character influenced Shakespeare (in Merry Wives) as well as Zadie Smith (who wrote a play about her), Turner writes, and one of Alison's most notable aspects is her nonconformist nature: "whether readers and writers are more worried about her as a sexual, political, or religious rebel, those who wish to silence her are all motivated by seeing Alison as a threat to established authority and order." Turner's prose is straightforward, artful, and occasionally biting--"Across time, the point at which girls become sexually available is generally the point at which they become interesting to writers." Fans of Chaucer's work and literature lovers more generally shouldn't miss this. (Jan.)