Description
By Mrs. H. R. Haweis. Illustrated with pictures and woodcuts by the author. Colour edition. Unlock the poetry and pageantry of medieval England with this illustrated introduction to the works of Geoffrey Chaucer.
In Chaucer for Children: A Golden Key, writer, artist, and Chaucer scholar Mary Eliza Haweis introduces readers to Chaucer’s poetry through carefully chosen selections from his works. Original Middle English passages appear alongside her modernised versions, accompanied by marginal glosses, explanatory notes, and guidance on pronunciation and metre.
Readers meet the pilgrims of The Canterbury Tales and explore several of Chaucer’s best-known narratives, while learning about the language, customs, dress, and daily life of fourteenth-century England. Haweis explains unfamiliar words and expressions while encouraging readers to hear the rhythm and musical character of the original verse.
The volume combines literary instruction with humour, romance, adventure, and glimpses of medieval society. Haweis’s own illustrations, informed by her study of manuscripts, monuments, and works of art from the period, further illuminate Chaucer’s characters and their world.
First published in 1877, Chaucer for Children: A Golden Key was written to awaken an early interest in Chaucer and make his poetry less forbidding to those encountering it for the first time. It remains a useful companion for students, homeschool libraries, admirers of classic literature, and readers interested in the language and culture of medieval England.
This carefully restored edition preserves Haweis’s introductions, modernised versions of Chaucer’s poetry, explanatory material, and original illustrations.
About the author: Mary Eliza Haweis, née Joy (1848–1898), was an English writer, artist, illustrator, and student of Geoffrey Chaucer. The daughter of painter Thomas Musgrave Joy, she exhibited at the Royal Academy under her maiden name, Miss M. E. Joy, and later illustrated several books written by her husband, the Reverend Hugh Reginald Haweis.
Published in 1877, Chaucer for Children was her first book and established her reputation as a writer and interpreter of Chaucer. She later produced several other Chaucerian works, including Chaucer for Schools, Chaucer’s Beads, and Tales from Chaucer. Her writings also encompassed art, fashion, domestic design, and household management, with titles including The Art of Beauty (1878), The Art of Dress (1879), The Art of Decoration (1881), and The Art of Housekeeping (1889).
