The Wife of Bath: A Biography by Marion Turner review – Chaucer’s feminist hero | Literary criticism
Will any literary character written this decade still be as famous in the 27th century as Chaucer’s Wife of Bath is today? The most memorable pilgrim from The Canterbury Tales, with her five husbands, her gap teeth and her big red hat, is still inspiring novels and plays, bars of soap and even organic cheeses (as one enterprising maker has it: “New Wyfe of Bath: now merrier and extra mature!”). She’s been translated by Voltaire, Dryden and Pope (who cut out the rude bits, leaving her prologue about half its original…