Introduction -- The prologue -- The knight's tale -- The miller -- The wife of Bath -- The merchant -- The franklin's tale -- The pardoner -- The prioress -- The nun's priest's tale.
THE CANTERBURY TALES gathers twenty-nine of literature's most enduring (and endearing) characters in a vivid group portrait that captures the full spectrum of medieval society.
Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London about 1340, the son of a
well-to-do and well-connected wine merchant. In 1360, after his
capture while fighting in the French wars, Edward III paid his
ransom, and later Chaucer married Philippa de Roet, a maid of honor
to the queen and sister-in-law to John of Gaunt, Chaucer's
patron.
Chaucer's oeuvre is commonly divided into three periods- the French
(to 1372), consisting of such works as a translation of the Roman
de la Rose and The Book of the Duchess; the Italian (1372-1385),
including The House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls and Troilus
and Criseyde; and the English (1385-1400), culminating in The
Canterbury Tales. In 1400, he died, leaving 24 of the apparently
120 tales he had planned for his final masterpiece. Chaucer became
the first of England's great men to be buried in the Poet's Corner
of Westminster Abbey.
Peter G. Beidler is the Lucy G. Moses Distinguished Professor of
English at Lehigh University. He is the author of a dozen books and
more than 150 articles. In the summer of 2005 he directed a seminar
for high school teachers on Chaucer's Canterbury Comedies (the
seminar was supported by the National Endowment for the
Humanities). He and his wife Anne have four children.
“A delight . . . [Raffel’s translation] provides more opportunities
to savor the counterpoint of Chaucer’s earthy humor against
passages of piercingly beautiful lyric poetry.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Masterly . . . This new translation beckons us to make our own
pilgrimage back to the very wellsprings of literature in our
language.” —Billy Collins
“The Canterbury Tales has remained popular for seven centuries. It
is the most approachable masterpiece of the medieval world, and Mr.
Raffel’s translation makes the stories even more inviting.”—Wall
Street Journal
Like Charles Lamb's edition of Shakespeare, Hastings's loose prose translation of seven of Chaucer's tales is more faithful to the work's plot than to the poet's language. This is not a prudish retelling (even the bawdy Miller's tale is included here) but the vigor of Chaucer's text is considerably tamed. In the original, the pilgrims possess unique voices, but here the tone is uniformly bookish. The colloquial speech of the storyteller is replaced by formal prose; for example, while Cohen (see review above) directly translates Chaucer's ``domb as a stoon'' as ``silent as stones,'' Hastings writes ``in solemn silence.'' Cartwright's startling paintings skillfully suggest the stylized flatness of a medieval canvas, but often without the accompanying richness of detail. Like Punch and Judy puppets, the faces and voices of these pilgrims are generally representative but lack the life and charm of the original text. Ages 10-up. (Oct.)
"A delight . . . [Raffel's translation] provides more opportunities
to savor the counterpoint of Chaucer's earthy humor against
passages of piercingly beautiful lyric poetry."-Kirkus
Reviews
"Masterly . . . This new translation beckons us to make our own
pilgrimage back to the very wellsprings of literature in our
language." -Billy Collins
"The Canterbury Tales has remained popular for seven
centuries. It is the most approachable masterpiece of the medieval
world, and Mr. Raffel's translation makes the stories even more
inviting."-Wall Street Journal
This unabridged edition features some of the BBC's best narrators giving voice to the outrageous personalities of Chaucer's motley crew of medieval pilgrims. Essential. (Audio Oldies but Goodies, ow.ly/6s5xH) (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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