Modern ways of presenting Chaucer have often made his work seem 'normal' so that The Canterbury Tales and its much-studied General Prologue are seen as archetypes of narrative and prologue. Tony Davenport argues that study of Chaucer's major work alongside contemporary English poems reveals the odd and extreme aspects of Chaucer's writing as well as the daring and experimental qualities in his work. The focus of the book is on strategies of narrative and discourse, but also includes discussion of other much-studied Middle English poems.