Warwick Goble – Illustrations from The Modern Reader’s Chaucer 1912

Warwick Goble (1862 – 1943) was an illustrator of children’s books. He specialized in Japanese and Indian themes.

In 1909, he became resident gift book illustrator for MacMillan and produced illustrations for The Water Babies, Green Willow, and Other Japanese Fairy Tales, The Complete Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Stories from the Pentamerone, Folk Tales of Bengal, The Fairy Book, and The Book of Fairy Poetry.

During World War I, he was employed in the drawing office of Woolrich Arsenal, and volunteered for service with the Red Cross in France. He worked occasionally for New York MacMillan, and produced editions of Treasure Island and Kidnapped. Goble gradually gave up illustration to pursue sculling, cycling, and travelling. He died in his Surrey home in 1943.

The Modern Reader’s Chaucher is a short collection of tales from The Canterbury Tales ( is a collection of 24 stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It was during these years that Chaucer began working on his most famous text, The Canterbury Tales. 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.

Presenting the illustrations from the First edition of The Modern Reader’s Chaucer. Published by Macmillan & Co, London, 1912.

For a list of illustrations by Warwick Goble available on our site. Please visit our Warwick Goble Illustrated Books Art Gallery.

Art Gallery: Warwick Goble – The Modern Reader’s Chaucer 1912