1880 Rare Victorian Book - The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer illustrated by Corbould.

Author: Geoffrey Chaucer. (Edward Corbould, illustrator).
Title: The Canterbury Tales. By Geoffrey Chaucer. From the text and with the notes and glossary of Thomas Tyrwhitt, condensed and arranged under the text.
Language: Text in English.
Publisher: London, George Routledge and Sons, no date (1880).
Size: 7.5 "X 5 ".
Pages: xxxiv-586 pages + publisher's catalog. 
Binding: Attractive and very good original decorated full-cloth binding (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a removable protective mylar cover. All edges gilt.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, rare light foxing and staining - as shown, gift note of a previous 1881 owner on the first endpaper - as shown).
Illustrations: Complete with the frontispiece and the full-page illustrations by Edward Corbould.

The book: Beautiful Victorian edition of The Canterbury Tales (Middle English: Tales of Caunterbury) -- a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's magnum opus. The tales (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return.

The author: Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340s – 25 October 1400) -- an English poet and author. Widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages, he is best known for The Canterbury Tales. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific A Treatise on the Astrolabe for his 10-year-old son Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament.

The illustrator: Edward Henry Corbould, R.I. (5 December 1815, in London – 18 January 1905, in London) was a British artist, noted as a historical painter and watercolorist.