The Canterbury Tales - Translated into Modern English: The Complete Collection - All Volumes in One

by Geoffrey Chaucer, Ira Quill (Translator)

The Canterbury Translated into Modern English – The Complete Collection – All Volumes in One

Journey through one of the greatest works in English literature with this complete modern English translation of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. This edition brings together all five volumes in one collection, offering every tale from the General Prologue to the final story in clear, engaging, and faithful modern prose.

Written over six centuries ago, The Canterbury Tales captures the voices of medieval England with wit, humor, and timeless insight into human nature. In this modern English edition, each tale has been carefully translated to preserve Chaucer’s storytelling brilliance while making the language accessible for today’s readers. Whether you are a student, a literature lover, or a first-time reader of Chaucer, this complete collection offers a vivid gateway into his unforgettable world of pilgrims, satire, and storytelling.

This edition
• All tales translated into modern English prose
• Easy-to-read formatting and consistent style across all volumes
• Faithful rendering of Chaucer’s tone, humor, and narrative energy

Rediscover the journey to Canterbury and the voices that shaped English literature in a collection that bridges the beauty of the medieval and the clarity of the modern.

Perfect for both casual readers and literary enthusiasts, this complete modern English translation invites you to experience Chaucer’s timeless tales as if they were written today.

591 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 2, 2025

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.