The distinctive features of Chaucer's World are the limitation of the material largely to Chaucer's period and its focus on aspects of life with which he was familiar. Many of the selections deal with people, places, or events that Chaucer himself knew or knew of. The items, from widely diverse sources, are fitted into a pattern which forms a mosaic of fourteenth-century life, picturing Chaucer's London and illustrating chronologically typical aspects of the life span of people from various social classes and occupations.