Love trumps conventional ethics in Chaucer’s work

Love trumps conventional ethics in Chaucer’s work

At the end of Troilus and Criseyde, Chaucer submits his poem to “moral Gower” and “philosophical Strode” for corrections. In this thoughtful and eloquent book, Laura Ashe establishes Chaucer’s credentials as a moral philo­sopher. The argument is not that he wrote philosophical treatises, but rather that his fictions are imaginative “thought experiments” that explore the same big questions that have fascinated modern philosophers. Ashe’s chapter …