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La donna di Willesden
A prima vista I racconti di Canterbury, una raccolta di storie scritte alla fine del XIV secolo, sembrerebbero non avere granché a che vedere con i dibattiti contemporanei sulla sessualità e l’empowerment. Ma – come dimostra Zadie Smith in quello che è il suo debutto come drammaturga – non è assolutamente così. Il racconto della donna di Willesden è una rivisitazione del “Racconto della donna di Bath” di Geoffrey Chaucer, ambientata nella periferia nord della Londra del XXI secolo. Zadie Smith ci trasporta dalla taverna medievale di Southwark all’odierno pub Sir Colin Campbell in Kilburn High Road. Ed è in questo pub rumoroso, affollato e pieno di vita che facciamo conoscenza con Alvita, una donna sui cinquant’anni, che è stata sposata cinque volte, parecchio esplicita sulle faccende sessuali, vestita di rosso, con Jimmy Choo tarocche ai piedi e grande fan del cunnilingus. Alvita spiega come si sia sempre rifiutata di farsi dire (dalla società, dalla Chiesa, dai suoi mariti) come comportarsi o vestirsi. Ne viene fuori un personaggio indimenticabile: una donna schietta che parla in modo sfacciato, onesto, salace, oltraggioso e senza vergogna del potere del suo corpo sui suoi mariti.
In un’epoca in cui anche le donne più famose possono faticare a esporre e rendere pubbliche le loro storie contro uomini influenti, questo racconto che ci parla del potere femminile non sarebbe potuto riuscire più importante e tempestivo.
In un’epoca in cui anche le donne più famose possono faticare a esporre e rendere pubbliche le loro storie contro uomini influenti, questo racconto che ci parla del potere femminile non sarebbe potuto riuscire più importante e tempestivo.
120 pages, Hardcover
First published November 4, 2021
121 people are currently reading
5003 people want to read
About the author
Zadie Smith
116 books16.1k followersZadie Smith is an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Her debut novel, White Teeth (2000), immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards. She became a tenured professor in the Creative Writing faculty of New York University in September 2010.
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March 24, 2023
Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales comes to life in the modern day London borough of Brent with Zadie Smith’s uproariously fun The Wife of Willesden, her debut play and retelling of the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale. Here Alyson becomes Alvita, an outspoken Jamaican-born English woman in her 50s full of life and wit, with her tale set during the time of Queen Nanny of the Maroons in Jamaica. A surprisingly faithful adaptation that feels at home in the modern world and while Smith herself says she is merely ‘hiding in the folds of [Chaucer’s] garment,’ her work here is extraordinary and this is just as exciting for those unfamiliar with the tale as those who have studied it at length. And, for the lucky few, it is even being performed on stage, having done a sold-out run at the Kiln—a theater Smith grew up with—and now making a U.S. premiere.
Alvita (played by Clare Perkins) w/ 3 of her former husbands
I’ve not read many plays but this was an absolute delightful way to spend an evening reading it with a drink (in keeping with the play itself, a boozy experience is certainly recommended). Much like the way the Wife’s Prologue—which, in keeping with the original, is much longer than the Tale and serves as wonderful character study of Alvira who ‘has been that bitch since 1986’—the story behind the play is just as interesting as the play itself. According to Smith, this came about when a miscommunication with the press announced to the world that she had written a play (she intended at most a monologue for the London Borough of Culture’s 2020 program celebrating Brent), with Smith finding out the whole of the internet was eagerly anticipating it when she got off a plane to a slew of congratulatory emails. Not wanting to disappoint, she actually did it and, honestly, it’s amazing. She was even awarded the 2022 Critics Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright for the play.
This is just so much fun though. She writes entirely in ten syllable lines delivered in rhymed couplets, like Chaucer, and I enjoyed the way speakers will blend into each other to complete the 10-syllable lines. While it is written in modern English, the language is sprinkled with diction and colloquialisms, with the variety of accents intended to create a ‘tapestry’ of international sisterhood of women. This is full of fantastic word-play and lots of puns, most of them sexual ('You don't get something for nutting' ba-dum, ching). It's really lyrical and flows so well ‘and sing without ever actually becoming music.’
The message is primarily the same here, with an emphasis on not being ruled by men, and there are some laugh-out-loud moments here. I was amused by her update that the abusive, fifth husband becomes a raging misogynist who collects stories about women being “evil” after reading Jordan Peterson (Alvira tears up his copy). Though many of the examples given remain the same, such as Ovid’s tale of King Midas. Smith’s stage direction is wonderful and makes for a very visual read—I imagine this is fantastic on stage. It is set in a bar, with Smith herself a character, and the patrons all play the various roles in Alivra’s prologue and tale, from the husbands, to a church service going on ‘in a separate reality,’ to characters like Nelson Mandela, Black Jesus and Socrates. The whole this is hilarious and punchy, though as Smith says, Alvira isn’t written to be a mouthpiece for modern feminist issues, she is existing on her own while not caring what other people think and remains quite true to Alyson.
A quick but joyful read, The Wife of Willesden is a fantastic retelling of The Wife of Bath that keeps Chaucer’s spirit alive in modern day London. I really want to see this on stage, though Smith’s writing is so engaging I feel like I’ve already seen it as her words danced through my head. This edition contains both Smith's play and the Chaucer original text so you can compare the two. Highly recommended, even if you are not a theater-type person. The story is familiar with a few surprises, and overall it is a really fun time.
Alvita (played by Clare Perkins) w/ 3 of her former husbands
I’ve not read many plays but this was an absolute delightful way to spend an evening reading it with a drink (in keeping with the play itself, a boozy experience is certainly recommended). Much like the way the Wife’s Prologue—which, in keeping with the original, is much longer than the Tale and serves as wonderful character study of Alvira who ‘has been that bitch since 1986’—the story behind the play is just as interesting as the play itself. According to Smith, this came about when a miscommunication with the press announced to the world that she had written a play (she intended at most a monologue for the London Borough of Culture’s 2020 program celebrating Brent), with Smith finding out the whole of the internet was eagerly anticipating it when she got off a plane to a slew of congratulatory emails. Not wanting to disappoint, she actually did it and, honestly, it’s amazing. She was even awarded the 2022 Critics Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright for the play.
This is just so much fun though. She writes entirely in ten syllable lines delivered in rhymed couplets, like Chaucer, and I enjoyed the way speakers will blend into each other to complete the 10-syllable lines. While it is written in modern English, the language is sprinkled with diction and colloquialisms, with the variety of accents intended to create a ‘tapestry’ of international sisterhood of women. This is full of fantastic word-play and lots of puns, most of them sexual ('You don't get something for nutting' ba-dum, ching). It's really lyrical and flows so well ‘and sing without ever actually becoming music.’
The message is primarily the same here, with an emphasis on not being ruled by men, and there are some laugh-out-loud moments here. I was amused by her update that the abusive, fifth husband becomes a raging misogynist who collects stories about women being “evil” after reading Jordan Peterson (Alvira tears up his copy). Though many of the examples given remain the same, such as Ovid’s tale of King Midas. Smith’s stage direction is wonderful and makes for a very visual read—I imagine this is fantastic on stage. It is set in a bar, with Smith herself a character, and the patrons all play the various roles in Alivra’s prologue and tale, from the husbands, to a church service going on ‘in a separate reality,’ to characters like Nelson Mandela, Black Jesus and Socrates. The whole this is hilarious and punchy, though as Smith says, Alvira isn’t written to be a mouthpiece for modern feminist issues, she is existing on her own while not caring what other people think and remains quite true to Alyson.
A quick but joyful read, The Wife of Willesden is a fantastic retelling of The Wife of Bath that keeps Chaucer’s spirit alive in modern day London. I really want to see this on stage, though Smith’s writing is so engaging I feel like I’ve already seen it as her words danced through my head. This edition contains both Smith's play and the Chaucer original text so you can compare the two. Highly recommended, even if you are not a theater-type person. The story is familiar with a few surprises, and overall it is a really fun time.
February 15, 2023
This winter, by some felicitous coincidence, the Wheel of Fortune has delivered two delightful books about Alison from Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales." One, “The Wife of Willesden,” is an exuberant, modern-day play by the novelist Zadie Smith. The other, “The Wife of Bath,” is an illuminating analysis by Oxford University professor Marion Turner, who published a critically acclaimed biography of Chaucer in 2019.
Smith had no intention of writing for the theater, but a coincidence of misunderstandings left her committed, and in the end, she says, she found the process of transferring Chaucer’s most famous character to modern-day northwest London “one of the more delightful writing experiences of my life.”
That joy now redounds to us in this book, which contains Smith’s charming introduction, her script from the sold-out production playing in London, and the full text of Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale.”
Smith anticipates purists’ objections. “It must seem, to many, an odd partnership,” she admits. When she started working, she felt the same way. The distance between Canterbury and her Kilburn neighborhood looked as epic as the distance between the 14th century and the 21st. But quickly, she writes, the time fell away, and the Wife of Bath felt “absolutely contemporary.”
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
Smith had no intention of writing for the theater, but a coincidence of misunderstandings left her committed, and in the end, she says, she found the process of transferring Chaucer’s most famous character to modern-day northwest London “one of the more delightful writing experiences of my life.”
That joy now redounds to us in this book, which contains Smith’s charming introduction, her script from the sold-out production playing in London, and the full text of Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale.”
Smith anticipates purists’ objections. “It must seem, to many, an odd partnership,” she admits. When she started working, she felt the same way. The distance between Canterbury and her Kilburn neighborhood looked as epic as the distance between the 14th century and the 21st. But quickly, she writes, the time fell away, and the Wife of Bath felt “absolutely contemporary.”
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
January 15, 2022
This was so much FUN. Zadie Smith re-writes the Wife of Bath's prologue and tale, in which the Wife of Bath is a Jamaican woman in present-day London. The inn turns into a pub during a lock-in. Going in, I wasn't so sure, but I should have known better than to doubt Zadie Smith, who definitely pulls it off.
December 6, 2021
As someone who actually prefers Zadie Smith's fiction over her essays, I was very excited to find out she published her first play this year. "The Wife of Willesden" was written as a commision to celebrate Brent's year as Borough of Culture 2020. I enjoyed Zadie Smith's foreword in which she explains how the play came into existence as it is a really fun story of misunderstandings.
The play itself I appreciated more as an idea than as a reading experience (I can't, of course, speak to the experience of watching a production of the play which is a whole other thing). The Wife of Willesden takes Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale and sets the story on Kilburn High Road and in Jamaica (the tale). Written before 1400, The Wife of Bath is a fascinating scource and starting point as the wife in the prologue (and the tale relates to that) speaks about her several marriages and women's sovereignity. Smith both engages with the specific, very structured style (meters, rhymes) and the content.
While I feel the style was pretty well translated (though I am not super well-versed in Chaucer's writing, so I judge more from an enjoyment and feeling factor), but on a content level it fell a bit flat for me. For me, it could have gone even more far away from the source than it did. There were a lot of parameter which were never really touched. In the end, I do not regret reading the play but it felt a bit like a writing exercise which might be more interesting as a process for the writer than as a result for the reader.
The play itself I appreciated more as an idea than as a reading experience (I can't, of course, speak to the experience of watching a production of the play which is a whole other thing). The Wife of Willesden takes Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale and sets the story on Kilburn High Road and in Jamaica (the tale). Written before 1400, The Wife of Bath is a fascinating scource and starting point as the wife in the prologue (and the tale relates to that) speaks about her several marriages and women's sovereignity. Smith both engages with the specific, very structured style (meters, rhymes) and the content.
While I feel the style was pretty well translated (though I am not super well-versed in Chaucer's writing, so I judge more from an enjoyment and feeling factor), but on a content level it fell a bit flat for me. For me, it could have gone even more far away from the source than it did. There were a lot of parameter which were never really touched. In the end, I do not regret reading the play but it felt a bit like a writing exercise which might be more interesting as a process for the writer than as a result for the reader.
December 31, 2022
Zadie Smith has managed to astound and amaze me once again with this modern retelling of Chaucers' The Wife of Bath's Prolouge and Tale. This play is set in Willesden, North East London. The wife is a brash Jamaican women who gets about town, jumping from one husband to the next, all the while enjoying her life and retelling her tales. The play is set in the local pub which adds to the humour and atmosphere of the play. Smith has completly captured the essence of Chaucers original dialogue in this play, so if your a fan of the original then you will love this.
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September 17, 2025God (in his big God voice):
Everyone. Asexual. NOW.
Everyone. Asexual. NOW.
March 18, 2022
Questo è il debutto di Zadie Smith come drammaturga.
E in quest’opera si vede tutto il suo estro creativo e la sua genialità. La adoro perché pur essendo molto profonda, sa essere anche leggera, fluida, come sa esserlo una donna mentre balla.
Zadie Smith parte dal "Racconto della donna di Bath" di Geoffrey Chaucer, contenuto nei Canti di Canterbury è ambientati nel XIV secolo e lo rivisita, ambientandolo nella periferia nord della Londra del XXI secolo.
Ne viene fuori una donna poliedrica che è così libera da non curarsi delle etichette né di rispettarle.
“AUTRICE
Qualcuno disse cose “coraggiose”
che non richiedevano alcun coraggio
a dirsi, o noiose, non coinvolgenti –
citando il proprio “percorso” con aria
trionfale. Già perdevo le speranze…
Poi vidi Alvita. Ovvero: la donna
di Willesden. La storia della sua vita
merita certo d’essere ascoltata.”
La lettura è piacevole, divertente con tanti spunti di riflessione. Bellissima la metafora del fuoco:
“Immaginati che io ho un roveto ardente,
e lo porto nella casa più buia.
Da qui a Lake Victoria, chiudo la porta,
e vengo via. Tu pensi che lui bruci
più forte che se ventimila uomini
lo stessero a guardare? Al fuoco mica
servon testimoni per esser fuoco.
Brucia naturalmente e poi si spegne.
Cambia qualcosa se lo guardi? No.
Perciò vedi che la bontà di un uomo
non ha niente a che fare coi suoi avi.
La gente fa quel che fa, come il fuoco.
Non puoi fargli fare quel che vuoi tu.
Malgrado tutti i nomi aristocratici
che gli hanno dato, i figli dei più nobili
poi spesso vengono fuori cattivi.”
Un invito a guardare oltre le semplici apparenze, alla vera ricchezza:
“Caro marito, a me sembra, lo ammetto,
che anche se i miei eran gente di campagna,
poveri, io posso vivere lo stesso
una buona vita, sì, a Dio piacendo,
e far le cose che è giusto che io faccia.
E mi definirò buona soltanto
quando avrò imparato a sostituire
il peccato con la bontà nel cuore.
E quando mi insulti perché son povera,
chi indossava i sandali e non chiedeva
nient’altro? Visse in povertà assoluta,
e di certo ogni uomo, ragazza o donna
capirà che ciò che era sufficiente
per un povero ragazzo di Nazareth
va più che bene a me. Non c’è vergogna
ad esser poveri. O ad accontentarsi.
Guarda i matti che vogliono esser ricchi
più di ogni altra cosa, ma non ci riescono
mai… quelli son uomini sofferenti!
Ma chi sa dire “è abbastanza” è contento
anche se non ha neanche la camicia.
Non gli manca niente. È ricco nell’animo.
Anche se per te forse è un criminale.
ALVITA
La vera povertà, davvero, canta!”
E in quest’opera si vede tutto il suo estro creativo e la sua genialità. La adoro perché pur essendo molto profonda, sa essere anche leggera, fluida, come sa esserlo una donna mentre balla.
Zadie Smith parte dal "Racconto della donna di Bath" di Geoffrey Chaucer, contenuto nei Canti di Canterbury è ambientati nel XIV secolo e lo rivisita, ambientandolo nella periferia nord della Londra del XXI secolo.
Ne viene fuori una donna poliedrica che è così libera da non curarsi delle etichette né di rispettarle.
“AUTRICE
Qualcuno disse cose “coraggiose”
che non richiedevano alcun coraggio
a dirsi, o noiose, non coinvolgenti –
citando il proprio “percorso” con aria
trionfale. Già perdevo le speranze…
Poi vidi Alvita. Ovvero: la donna
di Willesden. La storia della sua vita
merita certo d’essere ascoltata.”
La lettura è piacevole, divertente con tanti spunti di riflessione. Bellissima la metafora del fuoco:
“Immaginati che io ho un roveto ardente,
e lo porto nella casa più buia.
Da qui a Lake Victoria, chiudo la porta,
e vengo via. Tu pensi che lui bruci
più forte che se ventimila uomini
lo stessero a guardare? Al fuoco mica
servon testimoni per esser fuoco.
Brucia naturalmente e poi si spegne.
Cambia qualcosa se lo guardi? No.
Perciò vedi che la bontà di un uomo
non ha niente a che fare coi suoi avi.
La gente fa quel che fa, come il fuoco.
Non puoi fargli fare quel che vuoi tu.
Malgrado tutti i nomi aristocratici
che gli hanno dato, i figli dei più nobili
poi spesso vengono fuori cattivi.”
Un invito a guardare oltre le semplici apparenze, alla vera ricchezza:
“Caro marito, a me sembra, lo ammetto,
che anche se i miei eran gente di campagna,
poveri, io posso vivere lo stesso
una buona vita, sì, a Dio piacendo,
e far le cose che è giusto che io faccia.
E mi definirò buona soltanto
quando avrò imparato a sostituire
il peccato con la bontà nel cuore.
E quando mi insulti perché son povera,
chi indossava i sandali e non chiedeva
nient’altro? Visse in povertà assoluta,
e di certo ogni uomo, ragazza o donna
capirà che ciò che era sufficiente
per un povero ragazzo di Nazareth
va più che bene a me. Non c’è vergogna
ad esser poveri. O ad accontentarsi.
Guarda i matti che vogliono esser ricchi
più di ogni altra cosa, ma non ci riescono
mai… quelli son uomini sofferenti!
Ma chi sa dire “è abbastanza” è contento
anche se non ha neanche la camicia.
Non gli manca niente. È ricco nell’animo.
Anche se per te forse è un criminale.
ALVITA
La vera povertà, davvero, canta!”
November 16, 2022
Alvide is such an icon in this outstanding playwrite: funny, brave, wise and unapologetically herself in the best and worst way. She is flawed for sure and i think that’s why u can keep listening to her stories and her life!
Her feminist quest and dialogues are on point!! She is a warrior throughout abusive relationships and husbands that were truly mean.
Her feminist quest and dialogues are on point!! She is a warrior throughout abusive relationships and husbands that were truly mean.
December 13, 2021
What a wonderful reading experience! Genius.
February 7, 2024
a quick and hilarious rewriting of the wife of bath: incredibly fun, witty, and smart, which from what i've heard seems to always be the case with zadie smith! (and that made me realize that this is the first zadie smith i've actually read, which is APALLING... gotta get to The Fraud soon!!) it was upbeat and funny and a perfect book to read on my breaks at work - and now i desperately want to see it performed. the perfect book/play to experience with a mimosa in hand.
September 14, 2022
Een fantastische herbewerking van Chaucers "The Wife of Bath's Tale", verplaatst naar hedendaags Brent, London. In Smiths zoektocht naar de diepste vrouwelijke motivaties en wensen, resoneren de gedachtegangen van hedendaagse feministische schrijvers als Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie en Bernardine Evaristo.
June 11, 2024
zadie smith is such a gem
December 1, 2021
This is actually my first time reading any Zadie Smith and I’m pleasantly unsurprised by how brilliant she is. This is a modern theatrical retelling of Chaucer’s Wife of Bath set in a pub in contemporary Kilburn. It’s Smith’s first play and the playfulness of her dramaturgy, its metatheatricalility, the way characters multi-role, ventriloquise and clash with the protagonist’s perspective, are all very entertaining. The titular Wife, Alvita, is a commanding yet loveable presence; her prologue and subsequent tale scrutinising misogyny, men and marriage, offering a striking depiction of a powerfully modern sexual politician, crystallising the proto-feminism which was latent in Chaucer. It’s a funny, clever reimagining, full of energy: a “half-sister” of the medieval original which deals with timely topics from consent to privilege to sexual positivity and slut-shaming; transplanting settings from Canterbury to the “Ends”, Arthurian England to Jamaica, with comic cameos from Black Jesus, Nelson Mandela, for example, scenes of self-conscious cultural appropriation and amusing ascents into patois. I read a review on here which likened the play to a Lin Manuel Miranda-esque rap battle and I agree; Smith’s creative adherence to the iambic pentameter rhyming couplets of her Chaucerian forbear (mostly) creates a markedly hip-hop flow which still feels faithful and reverent, in all its updated ribaldry, to the original. Where for me modern adaptations of the ancients, such as Kae Tempest’s Paradise, fail for trying to cram in every topical reference but the kitchen silk and dilute themselves in the process, Smith’s play works in the precision of its formal and thematic scope. This is no watered-down pint.
January 28, 2022
Sex-positive Chaucerian frolics on the Kilburn High Road: a rambunctious tale of modern manners, adapted from The Wife of Bath and translocated from the Old Kent Road to NW6, and worth reading at a single sitting. Smith is at her most amusing, lighthearted and local in this, written as it was for Brent’s year as Borough of Culture. Fun for all the blended family.
December 4, 2023
It was good. I don’t really have any strong feelings about it tho
March 12, 2024
You don’t have to have read the original Chaucer to appreciate this immense tour de force. Zadie Smith did an amazing job updating the language whilst keeping to the rhythm. The story is wonderfully sexpositive and fiercely feminist, and funny at the same time.
December 19, 2024
for my writing black britain final. everyone should read this or at least see the performance. alvita is a chef’s kiss
February 13, 2025
This was impressive. A quick read, I really enjoyed the cadence (it’s all written in rhyming couplets).
April 20, 2025
Loved this retelling of the Wife of Bath as a play!
August 11, 2023
It’s hard to go wrong with Chaucer’s attack on misogyny, religion, prudery. Is it carping to say Smith echoes today’s dominant values rather than giving it a current edginess?
September 12, 2025
3 because I had no idea what was going on lol
February 1, 2022
How could anyone not love a play in which God, Black Jesus and Nelson Mandela are among the dramatis personae?
At first blush, Zadie Smith and Chaucer might seem worlds apart, but this play makes verily apparent the innate similarities between the two. In particular, Smith and Chaucer both adhere (albeit in different ways) to an inherently democratic principle regarding writing, the same dictate shared by Wordsworth and Coleridge in their early work: that is, that language in literature should represent and emulate the spoken language of men (and, in Smith’s writing, women). This play is ventriloquisic, tongue-in-cheek, humorous and loud; the people of Kilburn are all embodied in their myriad voices, and the verse - like Chaucer’s! - is waggish and clever. I especially liked Smith’s wry apology in the play’s retraction for the ‘swearing and cultural appropriation’ in her first novel (White Teeth), and the ‘dodgy sex’ in her third (On Beauty). A must-read for any Zadie Smith obsessives like me.
At first blush, Zadie Smith and Chaucer might seem worlds apart, but this play makes verily apparent the innate similarities between the two. In particular, Smith and Chaucer both adhere (albeit in different ways) to an inherently democratic principle regarding writing, the same dictate shared by Wordsworth and Coleridge in their early work: that is, that language in literature should represent and emulate the spoken language of men (and, in Smith’s writing, women). This play is ventriloquisic, tongue-in-cheek, humorous and loud; the people of Kilburn are all embodied in their myriad voices, and the verse - like Chaucer’s! - is waggish and clever. I especially liked Smith’s wry apology in the play’s retraction for the ‘swearing and cultural appropriation’ in her first novel (White Teeth), and the ‘dodgy sex’ in her third (On Beauty). A must-read for any Zadie Smith obsessives like me.
November 14, 2021
This is how to bring Chaucer up to date. Can you imagine what the author could do with Shakespeare? Raucous, ribald and highly entertaining. More of a rap battle than a play. More like Lin-Manuel Miranda than sacred text. I loved it and want to see that patois in a live show. Brilliant
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May 2, 2022Fun little play that is simultaneously innovative and nostalgic for the original Wife of Bath tale. Smith reinvents characters and ideas while sticking close to the themes and tone of the original. A nice and quick in-between read.
November 9, 2024
Pues para ser la primera obra de teatro que escribe en su vida, Zadie Smith lo hace genial.
Ahora toca pensar críticamente sobre esta obra y escribir un essay. Me ha gustado mucho, así que espero que me salga bien.
Ahora toca pensar críticamente sobre esta obra y escribir un essay. Me ha gustado mucho, así que espero que me salga bien.
November 22, 2022
Uma peça que fala sobre assuntos muito importantes e tabu para alguns de uma forma super leve e engraçada.
November 10, 2023
I don't normally read plays, but this was an enjoyable adaptation of Chaucer's "Wife of Bath," from the Canterbury Tales, for a modern audience to celebrate the Brent area of London. I especially liked reading the introduction, in which Smith details how the play came about almost by accident, because of misunderstandings about her contribution to celebrating her neighborhood winning an award.
Smith does a great job of maintaining the attitudes of the original - I also appreciated that the original is included in this edition, so you can check out what she was working from. The characters felt true to the ones in Chaucer's edition, even if the time frame and ethnicities were changed. I enjoyed these changes and plan to recommend this book to any high school students reading "the Canterbury Tales" for school. I also enjoyed reading the odd spelling and strange phrases from Chaucer's version, as it's so different and also funny to read.
It would probably be a lot of fun to see this play performed.
Smith does a great job of maintaining the attitudes of the original - I also appreciated that the original is included in this edition, so you can check out what she was working from. The characters felt true to the ones in Chaucer's edition, even if the time frame and ethnicities were changed. I enjoyed these changes and plan to recommend this book to any high school students reading "the Canterbury Tales" for school. I also enjoyed reading the odd spelling and strange phrases from Chaucer's version, as it's so different and also funny to read.
It would probably be a lot of fun to see this play performed.
February 28, 2023
Not being familiar with Chaucer and The Wife of Bath, I cannot make comparisons. But this first piece by Zadie Smith entertained me quite a bit, despite the fact that I don't usually like "reading theater", just as I don't like screenplays. Maybe someday I will get to see this text actually performed on a stage, so I will have come full circle.
Non conoscendo bene Chaucer e La moglie di Bath, non posso fare paragoni. Peró questa prima piece di Zadie Smith mi ha divertito parecchio, nonostante "leggere il teatro" di solito non mi piace, cosí come non amo le sceneggiature. Magari un giorno mi capiterà di vedere questo testo davvero rappresentato su un palcoscenico, cosí avrò chiuso il cerchio.
Non conoscendo bene Chaucer e La moglie di Bath, non posso fare paragoni. Peró questa prima piece di Zadie Smith mi ha divertito parecchio, nonostante "leggere il teatro" di solito non mi piace, cosí come non amo le sceneggiature. Magari un giorno mi capiterà di vedere questo testo davvero rappresentato su un palcoscenico, cosí avrò chiuso il cerchio.
June 25, 2023
My sister gave me this weird fun little one because I love Zadie's writing (fiction, essays, all of it) and initially I balked bc: it's a play, so it's inherently not suited to just reading rather than watching, and it's an adaptation of Chaucer?? which I've never read. But! It's Zadie, so it's funny and good, and it is a very short piece, and I guess I have now vaguely learned about a tiny section of Chaucer? She gives an impressively concise and clear intro of what the heck this project was and then launches you into her Jamaican/London version of Chaucer's character. Surprisingly quick read for a rhyming play! I do recommend that you read it out loud to yourself in various overheated British accents (sincere rec) and the rhythm will be clearer.
May 8, 2023
Trying to update Chaucer is right up there with revising Shakespeare in my book - you've got to be brave to risk the comparison! I remember reading "The Canterbury Tales" as a teen and being stunned by how bawdy and explicit they were. I think the only reason we were allowed to read them was that the 'adults' didn't understand what was actually happening. Zadie Smith does a great job with the Wife of Bath (now Willesden). In the author's notes she describes what a delight it was to write this play, and it was certainly a delight to read.
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