Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer is a representative of an early English humanistic literature, who in his «The Canterbury tales» managed to show the whole panorama of social life in England of the XIV century. His short stories reflect the epochal change, the formation of new values and a new elite. Chaucer notes the degradation of the secular and spiritual aristocracy, welcomes the enrichment and strengthening of the third estate, connects it with the future of their country, admires workers-peasants that preserved the moral purity of the «corrupt age» of the poet.

In this article an attempt to correlate the ideas of Geoffrey Chaucer’s «Canterbury Tales» with data of historical sources of the considered period is made. The documents give the basis to draw a conclusion, that characters and the plots presented on the pages of «Canterbury Tales» reflect reality contemporary to English writers, and Geoffrey Chaucer by right is possible to be considered as one of the first writers-realists.