The Pub in Literature

If English Literature begins with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales then it begins in a pub, The Tabard. Steven Earnshaw traces the many roles of the drinking house in Literature from Chaucer's time to the end of the 20th century, taking in the better-known hostelries, such as Hal's and Falstaff's Boar's Head in Henry IV, the numerous inns and public houses of Dickens, and the Black Cross in Martin Amis' London Fields. The author also discusses lesser-known works where the drinking place is central.