The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems

by Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales and Poems is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales (mostly in verse, although some are in prose) are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. In a long list of works, including Troilus and Criseyde, House of Fame, and Parliament of Fowls, The Canterbury Tales was Chaucer's magnum opus. He uses the tales and the descriptions of the characters to paint an ironic and critical portrait of English society at the time, and particularly of the Church. Structurally, the collection bears the influence of The Decameron, which Chaucer is said to have come across during his first diplomatic mission to Italy in 1372. However, Chaucer peoples his tales with 'sondry folk' rather than Boccaccio's fleeing nobles.

The book includes illustrations, an active/navigable table of contents, and a Free audiobook link for download (which can be downloaded using a PC/Mac) at the end of the book.

Genres: Classics, Poetry, Fiction, Literature, Historical Fiction, Classic Literature, Fantasy

457 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1387

About the author

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The Canterbury Tales. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific A Treatise on the Astrolabe for his 10-year-old son, Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament.
Among Chaucer's many other works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women, and Troilus and Criseyde. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin. Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as "the firste fyndere of our fair langage" (i.e., the first one capable of finding poetic matter in English). Almost two thousand English words are first attested to in Chaucerian manuscripts. As scholar Bruce Holsinger has argued, charting Chaucer's life and work comes with many challenges related to the "difficult disjunction between the written record of his public and private life and the literary corpus he left behind". His recorded works and his life show many personas that are "ironic, mysterious, elusive [or] cagey" in nature, ever-changing with new discoveries.

Reviews

[TheQueensBooksII · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was a maid of twelve plus two
A teacher me this book did shew.
I loved it! Mesmerized. No lie . . .
I committed the Prologue to memory.
The first four lines only, I confess,
Yet four decades on yet they rest
Solidly in my brain. And eke
(Which means ‘also’ . . .) did I learn
So many new words, expressions . . .
And more to confess that I am eke
Undisputedly a language geek
In metered rhyme I think and so do muse
And talk out loud like Dr. Seuss…
But certes there is no author rival
In bawdy tales, both sad, and ribald
To Chaucer, ‘cept Shakespeare, certes . . .
I’ll end, with one encouragement
To read this book with full
Delight and for enlightenment.
‘Twas fun to be sure! And a milestone for me.

[Kelly Egan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to say that I loved this, but it was such a long and difficult read. It took me about 6 months of reading and putting it down and picking it back up again to get through. Some of his Canterbury Tales were wonderful and amusing and others, like The Parson's Tale which almost killed me with boredom. I would love to take a class on Chaucer's writing though, because it is very beautiful and I would love to hear what Chaucer experts have to say about his work.

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first time I have read this book and I'm not sure I chose the right edition. The free edition from Amazon is apparently a 19th century translation which combined language from that period and Chaucer's period. I found it was truly a slog and if it wasn't for Wikipedia, I'm not sure I would have understood anything. I get points for trying!

[Sonnet Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caveat: I only read the Canterbury tales out of this collection, for book club, but this edition was free online.

I remember reading the Canterbury Tales in high school and really enjoying it, but that was 25 years ago. It was time to give it another go!

So I started off eagerly, and got into the Knight's Tale, and found with joy that I still really, really like reading old texts in Middle English. The language is so fun, and the variant spellings and uses of words we don't see today give amazing insight to the story. I had a lot of fun with that. But I've always liked to read stuff like that: Chaucer, Beowulf, the Iliad, el Poema del Mio Cid.

That said, I got a bit farther in and also remembered what I hated about medieval works: The long, pointless rambling, irrelevant details, and sermons. I'm sure they were the height of excitement in their day, but my modern ear can't tolerate all the unnecessary text. Skim, skim, skim.

Some stories like the Miller's Tale or the Pardoner's Tale read nice and tight, with comedy and twist endings much like you'd see today. Others? Not so much.

If you are reading this for the first time, I would definitely encourage you to experience this great work of English literature, but with some advice: Get a more modern translation unless you have a background in medieval language, and don't feel bad about skimming through or skipping the parts that drag on and on pointlessly. You'll understand and enjoy the text much more, and that's worth making some adjustments for.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the last two years I read all of The Canterbury Tales in Chaucer's original Middle English, and it has been such an enriching, glorious experience. On Goodreads, I can't find the edition I actually read, which I bought second hand in 1976 for 60pence. It was an Everyman's Library book (307), first published in 1958, with excellent notes and prompts by Professor A C Cawley of the University of Leeds. From the scribblings in my copy, it appears that I studied the General Prologue and the Reeve's Tale for my degree. Ah, happy days.........

[Deanna Hoard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had a class in Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales. The professor read the Tales in the Middle English they were written in and we had the luxury of putting the stories into context. I had read the translations to modern English in high school and was not impressed, but hearing Chaucer in his own language was sublime and more than worthy of five stars.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never can go wrong with the classics

[Wayne Kraus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chaucer is the great granddaddy of western lit. There is no substitute for reading him in the original early modern English (or late Middle English, as some docents say) but this edition, a prose paraphrase, is a good companion volume to clarify difficult passages, or the one to read if you want to get acquainted with Chaucer and you want to do it quickly. But as I say, no paraphrase or interpretation can preserve the charm of the original.

[Timothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know how do you rate a classic book with 3 stars? The problem is the way the story is formatted, footnoted, and annotated. It makes reading this difficult. I felt like I could never get into the rhythm and flow of the poetry, there was always a definition or other note in the way. Normally I love the book but this version isn't my favorite.

[Lara Lleverino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting introduction to the stories of The Canterbury Tales. Some unfaithful spouses and some cussing. I'm not sure that enough of the wit of Chaucer survived this retelling to make it worthwhile. If a student is too young for the adult topics of the Canterbury Tales maybe it is just best to wait to read the book.

[Duana King · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book

[Alexey · Rating 3 out of 5]

My expectation was too high and the book was not so interesting as I expected. Nevertheless, it was not only for marked it out in the list, some places are marvellous.

[Uday Ravi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice book

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read The General Prologue, The Miller's Tale, The Franklin's Tale, The Wife of Bath's Prologue and The Wife of Bath's Tale. That counts as reading The Canterbury Tales.

[Nathan Hatch · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I liked

It's a window into 14th century England. The cast of characters comes from all levels of society: everything from a nun to a miller to a "clerk" (i.e. scholar) to a "manciple" (apparently, a person charged with managing food provisions for an institution like a convent). It's especially interesting to see how these characters interact with each other in the "framing story" (the events along the journey to Canterbury, as opposed to the many stories that they tell along the way). There were many bizarre ways to make a living back in those days.

Although the book is very religious, it is also critical of religion. There are several stories denouncing religious authority figures for abusing their power.

It's got so many tales, at least one of them is bound to interest you. Topics include: a swindling miller, the virtuous martyr Saint Cecile, a corrupt judge, the Sultan of Syria, greed and betrayal, a bird-whispering ring, the thing that women love the most, and alchemy.

Regarding this particular edition, I like that the editor (D. Laing Purves) translates a lot of the Middle English, but leaves it untranslated when necessary for meter or rhyme. This way, you can learn a bit of Middle English as you go along, rather than being completely overwhelmed diving headfirst into an untranslated version. You'll learn a lot about English etymology. (Middle English explains a lot of bizarre features of Modern English. For instance, the "silent e" at the end of a word used to be pronounced!)

Even better, you can get this e-book free in the Kindle store. (You know you're reading an old book when it has high-quality critical editions already in the public domain!)

What I did not like

Fair warning: Chaucer died before completing this book. You won't get to hear a tale from all of the characters, and a lot of the framing story is missing. Still, what does exist is plenty interesting.

Some of the tales are jarring to modern morals. There's one about "cursed Jews" murdering a Christian boy, and several that joke about rape.

The margin notes format was designed for 80-character-wide monospace text, and is sometimes a bit confusing on the Kindle. It's quite legible once you get used to it, though.

Two of the stories are prose, and the editor of this edition (D. Laing Purves) abridged about half of each of those stories. I was mostly fine with this, except that in the latter story (the Parson's sermon) he cut the discussion of Lechery. I guess, being a citizen of Victorian England, he didn't want to talk about sex. Anyway, you can find other translations of this "tale" online, which I recommend doing---it's quite interesting.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure, I did not read the entire book - I read the General Prologue, The Pardoner's Tale and The Nun's Priest's Tale, in an old edition of the Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Chaucer is someone I've been wanting to read for a while, and it was just as interesting as people say it is. There were three aspects that stood out to me in particular.

First, the Tales were excellent ways of learning about period English society. The General Prologue, especially, introduces all the characters (the Knight, the Miller, the Pardoner, etc.) and gives you an idea of what the stereotypes of the day were, and how people spoke, and socialized. Although more religious on the surface - the Church is clearly a far more powerful and important figure in most people's daily lives than today - for the most part, the scene of travelers gathering at a pub to hear each other's tales is fairly universal.

Second, the language of the text itself is a real pleasure. I did not read it "in translation" - in fact, once you get used to the spellings and occasional French borrowings, most of the sentences are easily understood, and there should be glosses for anything else. It has a nice rhythm, and is obviously well suited to being read aloud. I was surprised, in fact, at how close to our time the language felt.

Third, the tales themselves are maybe not quite as interesting in and of themselves. The telling of them tends to meander, and it's easy to get lost in epic digressions. And the tales don't really seem to be about the plot, really, so don't expect Dan Brown or something. But they can be quite funny, with a biting, sarcastic wit and a keen insight into a human nature that remains familiar to anyone of our time.

Having read this portion of the Tales in the Anthology, I don't think I would go on to read the rest of the tales by myself, but I would definitely enjoy working through them as part of a course.

[Cory Briggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alot to take in.

What started me to read Chaucer was the fact that he seemed to be close friends to John Wycliffe. Wycliffe translated the Bible into the English language of the time . Wycliffe was also a reformer who spoke against the abuses of the catholic church of the time. Contrast that to Chaucer's tales of blood y knights, greedy pardoner, farting shepherds, and fart reverting monks, and all; well what can you say? These stories give you a good picture of what life was like during the Middle Ages in England.. Moral tales that are gross, ribald, serious, and some times hard to swallow. I gave the Tales 3 stars because it is tedious to read at times. They do a good job of translating the old English into modern words. However I think you would be better served if you read the Cliff Notes of "The Canterbury Tales" before you read the book.

[P B Harrison · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rubbish - avoid this

Not so much as a table of contents. You would at least expect to be able to go to the start of each tale; you have to find the page. And I had to pay for this.

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've read the The Decameron you've probably read most of the same stories in the Canterbury Tales. I preferred Chaucer's original poems to his translations, but it seems that most of his famous work was translations from Italian, French, Greek and Latin. A classic is a classic, however, so that alone makes it worth reading.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Canterbury Tales are a true classic. They are a series of stories told by various on a journey. Some scholars now believe that Chaucer did not write them, but I choose to believe that he did. It is one of the best written pieces of classcal writing.

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth the long read

It takes a while to read, but it is worth it to skim past all the college level analysis to get back to the meat of the tales. I can't believe it took me this long to read it.

[Ricky Kimsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Influential Works

The Canterbury Tales is an influential work that is still influencing modern artist. The Disney animated feature Robin Hood is partly based on Raynard the Fox a character from this book.

[Jared · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a book about a story telling contest, I expected the stories to be better. Didn't love it.

[Joe Dillenburg]

I am listening to an audio version from librivox. The text used is from the Project Gutenburg ebook.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read parts of it mostly,

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read for the 5th time. Never gets old!

[Samadrita]

Incompletely read.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

I love poetry and wordplay. This is both of those at the top of their game. Chaucer is one of the best.

[Adam Shake · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Canterbury Tales are a series of ancient stories that are written as if the author were on a journey. A good look into ancient history.

[Patricia Ferreira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, an interesting view of life in the middle ages, and although it is compared to Bocaccio's Decameron, in my opinion the latter is funnier.