For centuries commentators have sought a particular attribute by which Chaucer earned the title of "the father of English poetry." Now the secret of his genius no longer lies merely in his incomparable narrative powers, nor in his technical mastery. His unfailing vitality and his myriad attachments to reality and imagination reveal the true scope of the man and the poet. The Modern Library edition of The Canterbury Tales makes his masterpiece available to scholar and general reader alike in its most authoritative version, the famous Walter W. Skeat edition.