Paul Olson argues that Chaucer's narratives emerge from his deep concern about the crises of late fourteenth-century England and his vision of the renewal of that troubled society through the ideal of parlement, the various orders of society speaking together, and through a perfective religious discipline. Originally published in 1987. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.