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The Canterbury Tales (World's Classics)
 
 
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The Canterbury Tales (World's Classics) (Paperback)

by Geoffrey Chaucer (Author), David Wright (Translator)
4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 510 pages
  • Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks (17 April 1986)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0192815970
  • ISBN-13: 978-0192815972
  • Product Dimensions: 18.5 x 11.4 x 2.5 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 517,705 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description
Provides a modern verse translation of the story of a group of pilgrims who pass the time during their journey by telling each other tales.

From the Back Cover
Chaucer's tale of his motley band of travellers on their pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas a Becket have become legendary and still represent, in John Dryden's words, "God's plenty."

The Canterbury Tales, compiled in the late fourteenth century, is an incisive portrait, infused with Chaucer's wry wit and vibrant, poetical languauge. He evokes a spectrum of colourful characters, from the bawdy Wife of Bath to the gallant Knight, the fastidious Prioress and the burly, drunken Miller. As they wend their way from Southwark to Canterbury, tales are told to pass the time, and the stories are as diverse as the narrators, encompassing themes such as adultery, revenge, courtly love, lechery, avarice and penitence.

As humorous today as when it was written over six centuries ago, The Canterbury Tales remains one of the most popular and enjoyable of the classic works of literature. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews
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 (9)
4 star:
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3 star:
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2 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Canterbury Tales, 4 May 2004
This review is from: The Canterbury Tales: A Selection (Penguin Popular Classics) (Paperback)
Steeling myself for the hell I remember this book to be from my school days, I was delighted to find reading it to be a completely different experience!
I couldn't put it down - I can't admit to understanding absolutely all of it, but the notes at the bottom of each page really help to bring the text to life and the book itself brings to life this period of the middle ages.
It gives indepth social commentary which I believe anyone would benefit from having sight of.
I would recommend this book most highly; it is fantastic! (My only regret is there is no sequel)
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28 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Ourselves and the Fourteenth Century, 26 Aug 2002
This review is from: The Canterbury Tales: In Modern English (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
This modern translation is for those who struggle with Chaucer's original language. Coghill's melodious verse captures the timely flow of the original text, thus preventing the reading from becoming a slow and erudite undertaking. Chaucer's Tales were not designed for sluggish meditation, but to be read aloud in an engaging manner, which is what makes this translation an ideal buy for those who wish to experience the Tales for their original charm.

The immortal Canterbury Tales is a must for all lovers of great literature. What we can witness in this noble poem "is the concise portrait of an entire nation: high and low, old and young, male and female, rogue and righteous, land and sea, town and country", as Nevill Coghill describes in his introduction to this translation. The past has become magical to us through the great works of Epic poetry; where the Greeks had Homer, and the Roman's Virgil; the English have none other than Geoffrey Chaucer.

It is only infrequently that we can find classic ideas that have captured readers throughout the ages, be it Pickwick's proposed adventure to study his fellow men, Dante's quest for his beloved Beatrice, or indeed Chaucer's undying Pilgrimage; The Canterbury Tales manifests its own unique appeal in an immortal journey through the Tales of many different voices.

On the Eve of a Pilgrimage from a London Cheapside Inn to St Thomas a Becket's shrine in Canterbury, a group of thirty pilgrims are challenged by the inn's Host to a competition: to while away their morrow's journey by each telling a tale; on returning to London their Host will then decided the best storyteller: and their reward? a luxurious meal on behalf of that Pilgrim's fellows. What follows are many tales, of many varieties: those of courtly love, bawdy comedy, fresh wit, menacing macabre, didactic fables, in short, to use John Dryden's words "God's plenty".

But it is the prologue to Chaucer's great collection of tales that marks its individuality from the Likes of Ovid, Petrarch and Boccaccio - of whom some of the tales are largely indebted to. The translator of this edition advocates that "in all literature there is nothing that touches or resembles the prologue". And this is by all means a cogent argument: what we witness at the beginning of Tales is patchwork quilt of Medieval England, a Tapestry of Chaucer's times, or if you like: a doorway into a world long faded away.

The prologue simply follows the task of introducing the diverse tellers of the Tales, and yet in doing so it records a valuable sample of history. William Blake faithfully promulgates the Prologue's vitality by declaring that: "Chaucer is himself the great poetical observer of men, who in every age is born to record and eternize its acts". The Pilgrims are not only well presented characters, they are also true embodiments of normality. What we see in the Tales is not just a snap-shot of Olde England, but something indeed far bigger: a blueprint of our own society's individuals - "the perennial progeny of men and women". What Chaucer portrays to us in his Canterbury Tales is nothing greater than our very selves.

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars We were not so very different, 700 years ago..., 30 Aug 2007
By Brian Levine - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Canterbury Tales (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)
As is proved by the delightfully wicked set of stories mirroring in some respects Boccaccio's Decameron, which predated Chaucer, but which expand on bawdiness and give a fascinating insight into human nature: the very language is stripped of all ambiguity: for example, 'and sodeynly anon, Damyan gan pullen up hir smock and in he throng' is almost something out of a Jilly Cooper, although far more exotic!

And if you don't like the olde English, you can read the translation, which I think is extremely helpful if you're new to Chaucer or don't warm immediately to the lingo.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Understandable and Enjoyable
The book I am reviewing is the Bantam Classic Edition translated and edited by A. Kent Hieatt and Constance Hieatt. Read more
Published on 3 Mar 2006 by Peter Kenney

5.0 out of 5 stars Travelling mercies...
In Chaucer's work, 'The Canterbury Tales', perhaps the greatest of English literary works from the period of the language known as Middle English, there is one particular piece... Read more
Published on 9 Feb 2005 by Kurt Messick

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful to Hear in the Recorded Books Edition
This version will appeal most to those who have read and studied The Canterbury Tales and enjoyed them.

The Canterbury Tales are best heard aloud. Read more

Published on 7 May 2004 by Professor Donald Mitchell

4.0 out of 5 stars Just to clarify...
Despite having a v.high helpfulness rating, the review below is of a completely different edition ! This is the Everyman edition in original Middle English (with marginal... Read more
Published on 23 Oct 2003 by R. Ball

5.0 out of 5 stars Chaucer's Poetry
The Canterbury Tales are not to be read as a lesson in living modern life; they are based on a set of values that do not apply to the society we live in. Read more
Published on 18 April 2001

2.0 out of 5 stars For Simpsons fans.
If you like the television series "The Simpsons," you will probably like Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Read more
Published on 21 Jun 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars I wish 6 stars were an option!!
I just adore Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. I felt a connection to many of the characters. I hate to admit it, but the prioress embodies my feminine side. Read more
Published on 3 Jun 1999

3.0 out of 5 stars for anyone who likes a good story
the collection of tales is a good and honest reflection on the value structure of society, in 14th century England. Read more
Published on 30 May 1999

3.0 out of 5 stars Chaucer was banned in Lake City, Florida schools...
If you want to read a fascinating account of how a classic can be banned, take a look at Claudia Johnson's STIFLED LAUGHTER. Read more
Published on 18 May 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars The root
The Modern Library's Middle English edition of this book will let you enjoy the book as it was intended to be read. Read more
Published on 20 April 1999

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