内容简介：
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.