The study of the Humanities is the study of what makes us human, which is a seemingly infinite and infinitely difficult subject. Most definitions of what make us human seem to break down or melt into definitions of other living beings. One thing that does seem to distinguish humans from other species is our attempt both to discuss the human condition and to record that discussion for future generations. The best of these recordings, which take various forms in arts and letters, help us to understand the world around us and to give it meaning. For this reason, people seeking answers to...

Before Geoffrey Chaucer wrote his most famous work, The Canterbury Tales, he attempted several dream visions: Book of the Duchess, a memorial of Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster, for her widower, John of Gaunt; The Parliament of Fowls, the first Valentine's Day poem in English in which the birds gather to choose their mates; The House of Fame, a literary investigation of fame, rumor, and reputation; The Legend of Good Women, a collection of legends, or quasi-saints' lives, of women from classical antiquity, retold by the fictional Chaucer as a sort of penance for defaming women in his earlier...