Years of thoughtful reading lie at the back of Howard Rollin Patch’s fresh and original study of one of the greatest geniuses in the whole history of English literature and the mediaeval world. Chaucer is thoroughly modern, especially in his sense of humor. An examination of his characters from the point of view of modern psychology reveals only the more clearly the closely wrought balance and symmetry of his work. Patch emphasizes his understanding of human beings and their drama, and suggests that his humor is based at least partly on wisdom and a sense of proportion. Although the poet's love of his fellow men and his acceptance of life hardly permit him to be fitted into the category of reformer, yet it is also clear that moral convictions and a moral aim lie behind everything he wrote. His gift as an artist, however, achieves high expression not merely in passages where there may be some point of social influence but also in those where the satiric edge can only be meant to reveal the ironies of life in general. One of the main excellences of the book is that it will send the reader back to Chaucer, to discover there a normal, healthy personality with a special delight for our own day and generation.