"The Canterbury Tales" is a collection of stories supposedly shared by pilgrims who are traveling together and having a competition to see who can tell the best tale. Geoffrey Chaucer 鈥 the author, who was also a 14th-century philosopher, alchemist, astronomer, bureaucrat, courtier, and diplomat 鈥 infuses several of the tales with a spirit of satire. Chaucer is sometimes known as the father of English literature.