Page "The Canterbury Tales" Paragraph 2

After a long list of works written earlier in his career, including Troilus and Criseyde, House of Fame, and Parliament of Fowls, the Canterbury Tales was Chaucer's magnum opus.

He uses the tales and the descriptions of its characters to paint an ironic and critical portrait of English society at the time, and particularly of the Church.

Structurally, the collection resembles The Decameron, which Chaucer may have read during his first diplomatic mission to Italy in 1372.