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The Wife of Bath: A Biography
From the award-winning biographer of Chaucer, the story of his most popular and scandalous character, from the Middle Ages to #MeToo
Ever since her triumphant debut in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath, arguably the first ordinary and recognisably real woman in English literature, has obsessed readers―from Shakespeare to James Joyce, Voltaire to Pasolini, Dryden to Zadie Smith. Few literary characters have led such colourful lives or matched her influence or capacity for reinvention in poetry, drama, fiction, and film. In The Wife of Bath , Marion Turner tells the fascinating story of where Chaucer’s favourite character came from, how she related to real medieval women, and where her many travels have taken her since the fourteenth century, from Falstaff and Molly Bloom to #MeToo and Black Lives Matter.
A sexually active and funny working woman, the Wife of Bath, also known as Alison, talks explicitly about sexual pleasure. She is also a victim of domestic abuse who tells a story of rape and redemption. Formed from misogynist sources, she plays with stereotypes. Turner sets Alison’s fictional story alongside the lives of real medieval women―from a maid who travelled around Europe, abandoned her employer, and forged a new career in Rome to a duchess who married her fourth husband, a teenager, when she was sixty-five. Turner also tells the incredible story of Alison’s post-medieval life, from seventeenth-century ballads and Polish communist pop art to her reclamation by postcolonial Black British women writers.
Entertaining and enlightening, funny and provocative, The Wife of Bath is a one-of-a-kind history of a literary and feminist icon who continues to capture the imagination of readers.
Ever since her triumphant debut in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath, arguably the first ordinary and recognisably real woman in English literature, has obsessed readers―from Shakespeare to James Joyce, Voltaire to Pasolini, Dryden to Zadie Smith. Few literary characters have led such colourful lives or matched her influence or capacity for reinvention in poetry, drama, fiction, and film. In The Wife of Bath , Marion Turner tells the fascinating story of where Chaucer’s favourite character came from, how she related to real medieval women, and where her many travels have taken her since the fourteenth century, from Falstaff and Molly Bloom to #MeToo and Black Lives Matter.
A sexually active and funny working woman, the Wife of Bath, also known as Alison, talks explicitly about sexual pleasure. She is also a victim of domestic abuse who tells a story of rape and redemption. Formed from misogynist sources, she plays with stereotypes. Turner sets Alison’s fictional story alongside the lives of real medieval women―from a maid who travelled around Europe, abandoned her employer, and forged a new career in Rome to a duchess who married her fourth husband, a teenager, when she was sixty-five. Turner also tells the incredible story of Alison’s post-medieval life, from seventeenth-century ballads and Polish communist pop art to her reclamation by postcolonial Black British women writers.
Entertaining and enlightening, funny and provocative, The Wife of Bath is a one-of-a-kind history of a literary and feminist icon who continues to capture the imagination of readers.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 17, 2023
184 people are currently reading
2009 people want to read
About the author
Marion Turner
11 books42 followersMarion Turner is associate professor of English at Jesus College, University of Oxford.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
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.
Turner’s immensely entertaining “biography” will make you fall in love with the Wife of Bath, whom she crowns “the first ordinary woman in English literature.”
And that’s no put-down. By “ordinary,” Turner means “the first mercantile, working, sexually active woman — not a virginal princess or queen, not a nun, witch, or sorceress, not a damsel in distress nor a functional servant character, not an allegory.” No, here in this poem from the year 1400, we discover “a much-married woman and widow, who works in the cloth trade and tells us about her friends, her tricks, her experience of domestic abuse, her long career combating misogyny, her reflections on the ageing process, and her enjoyment of sex.”
Turner’s greatest skill is her ability to present years of arcane research in chapters that are always wonderfully accessible and briskly entertaining. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
Turner’s immensely entertaining “biography” will make you fall in love with the Wife of Bath, whom she crowns “the first ordinary woman in English literature.”
And that’s no put-down. By “ordinary,” Turner means “the first mercantile, working, sexually active woman — not a virginal princess or queen, not a nun, witch, or sorceress, not a damsel in distress nor a functional servant character, not an allegory.” No, here in this poem from the year 1400, we discover “a much-married woman and widow, who works in the cloth trade and tells us about her friends, her tricks, her experience of domestic abuse, her long career combating misogyny, her reflections on the ageing process, and her enjoyment of sex.”
Turner’s greatest skill is her ability to present years of arcane research in chapters that are always wonderfully accessible and briskly entertaining. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
May 1, 2023
Is it possible to write a biography of a woman who happens to be a fictional literary character? After first addressing the uniqueness of the character in its introductory section, this book takes two approaches to the subject of biography. In Part I the author provides a historical look at what’s known about lives of women in the late Medieval era. Part II examines numerous ways in which later authors used and were influenced by Chaucer’s Wife of Bath character.
The book's Introduction explains why the Wife of Bath character is so fascinating and unique. The following excerpt describes why Chaucer’s creation was so unique for its time.
In Part I the author compares the Wife of Bath's fictional story with historical records of real medieval women. I was surprised to learn how relatively common the practice of pilgrimages to holy sites included unmarried women who had to be relatively wealthy to afford the related expenses.
One interesting account was of a hired maid who accompanied her lady employer on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. While in Rome she decided to leave her employer and take new employment at a hostel that catered to English visitors. The only reason we know about this story of a non-literate maid was from the written diary of her wealthy traveling employer who was quite angry at her absconded employee.
There's also an account of a sixty-five year old duchess whose fourth husband was a teenager. From this and other stories it became apparent that the Wife of Bath having had five husbands would not have seemed as extraordinary in Chaucer's day as it would now because in those days early death was a frequent occurrence. Likewise quick remarriage after the death of a spouse seems to have been common perhaps because there were plenty of widows and widowers to choose from.
In Part II the author explores examples of how other writers have reinvented the Wife of Bath in their own poetry, drama, fiction, and film.
The author points out in the years subsequent to Chaucer's time that the Wife of Bath has often been reviled or revised in misogynistic ways to make her more socially acceptable.
The book's Introduction explains why the Wife of Bath character is so fascinating and unique. The following excerpt describes why Chaucer’s creation was so unique for its time.
The Wife of Bath is the first ordinary woman in English literature. By that I mean the first mercantile, working, sexually active woman — not a virginal princess or queen, not a nun, witch, or sorceress, not a damsel in distress nor a functional servant character, not an allegory.It's worth also noting that among the stories she tells in the Canterbury Tales includes a story of rape, instances when she was a victim of domestic abuse, and then describes the experience of redemption. She sounds much like a modern feminist as she questions the traditional misogynist literary canon and wonders how it might be different if women were the ones doing the writing.
In Part I the author compares the Wife of Bath's fictional story with historical records of real medieval women. I was surprised to learn how relatively common the practice of pilgrimages to holy sites included unmarried women who had to be relatively wealthy to afford the related expenses.
One interesting account was of a hired maid who accompanied her lady employer on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. While in Rome she decided to leave her employer and take new employment at a hostel that catered to English visitors. The only reason we know about this story of a non-literate maid was from the written diary of her wealthy traveling employer who was quite angry at her absconded employee.
There's also an account of a sixty-five year old duchess whose fourth husband was a teenager. From this and other stories it became apparent that the Wife of Bath having had five husbands would not have seemed as extraordinary in Chaucer's day as it would now because in those days early death was a frequent occurrence. Likewise quick remarriage after the death of a spouse seems to have been common perhaps because there were plenty of widows and widowers to choose from.
In Part II the author explores examples of how other writers have reinvented the Wife of Bath in their own poetry, drama, fiction, and film.
The Wife of Bath is one of only a handful of literary characters — others include Odysseus, Dido, Penelope, and King Arthur — whose life has continued far beyond their earliest textual appearances.One example of influence on another author is Shakespeare's character Falstaff. The author points out many similarities between the two characters, and it is no coincidence that the Falstaff character has also had a continuing literary influence on later writers.
I can think of no other examples of this kind of character — a socially middling woman — who has had anything like Alison’s reach, influence, and capacity for reincarnation.
(Note: Alison is the Wife of Bath's name.)
The author points out in the years subsequent to Chaucer's time that the Wife of Bath has often been reviled or revised in misogynistic ways to make her more socially acceptable.
When examining her adventures across time, it is striking that this is not a story of decreasing misogyny. Many twentieth-century responses, which often focused on her body and her sexual appetites in an extreme and caricatured way, were more misogynistic than fifteenth-century engagements with Alison, which were often more concerned with combating her rhetorical power.Upon reflection Chaucer appears to have been six-hundred years ahead of his time.
January 29, 2024
I'm thrilled to own a copy of this book because I'll surely read and dip into it time and time again. This is where I admit that I've not read The Wife of Bath's Tale (my husband did bring into our library a lovely edition of The Riverside Chaucer when we were setting up house and I do wish to read it at some point).
The first part of the book gives way to detailing how Chaucer's famous character represents the times and civilization in England. The second part delves into how Alison's influence has affected the literature and the arts since Chaucer's writing of the tales to the modern day.
I really had no idea the influence Alison has had all these hundreds of years upon authors, famous works, and culture. I was not aware before that Joyce was a medievalist and that Molly Bloom was inspired by Alison of Bath.
I'm also quite intrigued by Black artists and how they've developed their art from the Wife of Bath's sway (Zadie Smith, Patience Agbabi, Jean 'Binta' Breeze).
It was interesting to read a biography about a fictional character. Turner did an amazing job with this book. I found it to be very accessible for me, an ordinary reader.
The first part of the book gives way to detailing how Chaucer's famous character represents the times and civilization in England. The second part delves into how Alison's influence has affected the literature and the arts since Chaucer's writing of the tales to the modern day.
I really had no idea the influence Alison has had all these hundreds of years upon authors, famous works, and culture. I was not aware before that Joyce was a medievalist and that Molly Bloom was inspired by Alison of Bath.
I'm also quite intrigued by Black artists and how they've developed their art from the Wife of Bath's sway (Zadie Smith, Patience Agbabi, Jean 'Binta' Breeze).
It was interesting to read a biography about a fictional character. Turner did an amazing job with this book. I found it to be very accessible for me, an ordinary reader.
January 27, 2025
Marion Turner’s take on the Wife of Bath is as shocking as Chaucer himself might have hoped for.Hard to imagine a woman of that period was every bit as feminist in her outlook as we expect to encounter these days. And from time to time, some small thing, otherwise left undiscovered through a casual reading, is pure delight.
As an attempt to deliver an historical perspective it works well and Turner’s erudite literary interpretation is certainly welcome.
The only drawback for me was not to have the original text included in the book but with a copy of Chaucer by your side, it’s well worth the read.
As an attempt to deliver an historical perspective it works well and Turner’s erudite literary interpretation is certainly welcome.
The only drawback for me was not to have the original text included in the book but with a copy of Chaucer by your side, it’s well worth the read.
April 9, 2023
If you are a fan of Chaucer, or exploring women’s history within culture and text, this is a fascinating read. It had been a while since I’d read Canterbury Tales so I would suggest rereading The Wife of Bath before reading this book to get the most out of it. I was intrigued by the history of women pilgrims, book patrons during Chaucer’s era and it’s connections to the creation of Allison. The comparison of Allison to Shakespeare’s Falstaff was really cool too! It’s a incredible to see how we as a culture keep returning to Allison, throughout all the misogyny to see the power she has today through regaining agency through postcolonial British authors such as Zadie Smith.
October 29, 2024
A women's studies treatment of Chaucer's "ordinary person," the Wife of Bath. After reading the author's take on this six-times-widowed, landowning merchant whose hobbies were traveling, having sex, and telling bawdy jokes, I suddenly felt OK about being a widow - a normal, accepted, appreciated member of society (vs a dark reminder that bad things happen). Using Alison of Bath as one of the few women of the merchant class portrayed in literature, Turner finds other examples to show how these women were actually respected, powerful economic engines who became more so each time they were widowed and inherited land and responsibility for business. She also gets into how this character was taken up by authors over the centuries to credit or discredit their stance on women and feminism.
4 stars because it was basically listening to the reading of an academic paper, but it was short so that was fine with me. #I AM THE WIFE OF BATH!
4 stars because it was basically listening to the reading of an academic paper, but it was short so that was fine with me. #I AM THE WIFE OF BATH!
March 1, 2023
Saw a review of this right before going to see Zadie Smith's play, The Wife of Willeston, which is an adaptation of Chaucer's Prologue and Tale of the Wife of Bath, so picked it up for background. The first 5 chapters of Turner's book lay out the roles, rights, powers and lives of women in the 14th and 15th centuries. As a college medieval history major who never heard a professor discuss women's historical roles, I thought these chapters fascinating. Who knew that the Black Plague killed so many people that it caused a sort of golden age for medieval women, allowing them economic and political freedoms they didn't have before and lost after when populations rebounded? Great stuff.
The second half of the book segues from history to literary criticism and traces how the character of Alison, the Wife of Bath shows up in other works of fiction from the 15th century to the 21st century. The Wife of Willeston shows up in the last chapter. Interesting enough to read a theory that Shakespeare's Falstaff is based on Alison, but most of the other writers she references I've never read and this part wasn't as interesting to me.
Possibly worth checking out of the library just to see a photo of a 14th century pilgrim's brooch in the shape of a vulva.
The second half of the book segues from history to literary criticism and traces how the character of Alison, the Wife of Bath shows up in other works of fiction from the 15th century to the 21st century. The Wife of Willeston shows up in the last chapter. Interesting enough to read a theory that Shakespeare's Falstaff is based on Alison, but most of the other writers she references I've never read and this part wasn't as interesting to me.
Possibly worth checking out of the library just to see a photo of a 14th century pilgrim's brooch in the shape of a vulva.
September 15, 2023
A really interesting read with a really strong end (continue to call out Jordan Peterson’s “12 Rules” as the woman-hating piece it is) - this book is more about the wife of bath and more about an analysis of literature, as it intersects with gender, language, and race, and who gets to write it and why.
March 24, 2023
3.5* but not sufficient to round up.
I came to the wife of Bath via an English mystery novel, “The Stone Wife”. The book whet my appetite for more about Chaucer’s Wife of Bath and coincidentally, Dr. Turner’s book was released. The reviews were raves so onto the library’s wait-list I went.
Once my copy came in I realized I was the first reader. But until I got the book, I hadn’t registered the fact that the publisher was the Princeton Press. That should have been a warning. For though the author has allegedly set out to make Medieval literature accessible to the general public, I think she mostly fails in this effort.
I consider myself well-read and well-educated, though I have no depth in classic English literature. So I would have expected to be in her target audience. But alas, this is more scholarly than not. And therefore, often tedious.
I took off one star for her unwillingness to translate any medieval text — whether Middle English, Latin, or French — into modern English. So, frequently that means having her argument/text interrupted by lengthy quotes in a language you can’t read, with no direct translation of any of it. Be warned, if this turns you off as it did me, this book will be a challenge.
The first half of the book explores how the Wife of Bath (WoB) represents what was happening to women in society at the time and how her character deviates from other portrayals of women in English, French or Italian literature. There was much to learn in this half and I appreciated nearly all of it. That said, the amount of detail brought to bear to make a point seemed unnecessary. Again, it often read more like a dissertation or academic paper than a work for ordinary humans without a degree or two in English literature.
The second half of the book nearly did me in. I almost abandoned it several times and will confess to having nodded off more than once while trying to slog through it. In this section she explores how the WoB has influenced literature since Chaucer’s age. Even some reviewers found this boring. The final chapter, in which she discusses WoB as an inspiration to British Black women poets and playwrights was really great. I’m a fan of Zadie Smith and she is discussed at length for a play she did based on Chaucer’s character. So, the book ended on a high note as well as a feeling of relief. Recommend with significant reservations as noted above.
I came to the wife of Bath via an English mystery novel, “The Stone Wife”. The book whet my appetite for more about Chaucer’s Wife of Bath and coincidentally, Dr. Turner’s book was released. The reviews were raves so onto the library’s wait-list I went.
Once my copy came in I realized I was the first reader. But until I got the book, I hadn’t registered the fact that the publisher was the Princeton Press. That should have been a warning. For though the author has allegedly set out to make Medieval literature accessible to the general public, I think she mostly fails in this effort.
I consider myself well-read and well-educated, though I have no depth in classic English literature. So I would have expected to be in her target audience. But alas, this is more scholarly than not. And therefore, often tedious.
I took off one star for her unwillingness to translate any medieval text — whether Middle English, Latin, or French — into modern English. So, frequently that means having her argument/text interrupted by lengthy quotes in a language you can’t read, with no direct translation of any of it. Be warned, if this turns you off as it did me, this book will be a challenge.
The first half of the book explores how the Wife of Bath (WoB) represents what was happening to women in society at the time and how her character deviates from other portrayals of women in English, French or Italian literature. There was much to learn in this half and I appreciated nearly all of it. That said, the amount of detail brought to bear to make a point seemed unnecessary. Again, it often read more like a dissertation or academic paper than a work for ordinary humans without a degree or two in English literature.
The second half of the book nearly did me in. I almost abandoned it several times and will confess to having nodded off more than once while trying to slog through it. In this section she explores how the WoB has influenced literature since Chaucer’s age. Even some reviewers found this boring. The final chapter, in which she discusses WoB as an inspiration to British Black women poets and playwrights was really great. I’m a fan of Zadie Smith and she is discussed at length for a play she did based on Chaucer’s character. So, the book ended on a high note as well as a feeling of relief. Recommend with significant reservations as noted above.
March 21, 2023
The first middle-aged, middle class, sexually active woman in English literature to have her own starring role within a man’s written world: the Wife of Bath, aka Alison, is one of the twenty-nine people on a pilgrimage in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
This academic book is rife with research, scholarship, knowledge, and pride for a revolutionary fictional character who was inked on the page by Chaucer in the late 1300s. Turner looks at Alison from a historical, literary, and feminist lens through the lives of real women of the same period — how was it to be a widow (“widows make the world go round” the author says of that era), a woman during and after the plague (paradoxically, a golden age for women professionally and economically), and a middle class working woman in England who has earned and has control of her own money. A woman with her own money has a room of her own, her own pursuits, her own life. “My world. My time.” as the Wife of Bath says in her prologue.
The author then looks at how the Wife of Bath was adapted by other authors through the ages up to contemporary times, from Falstaff and Shakespeare to Zadie Smith.
This academic book is rife with research, scholarship, knowledge, and pride for a revolutionary fictional character who was inked on the page by Chaucer in the late 1300s. Turner looks at Alison from a historical, literary, and feminist lens through the lives of real women of the same period — how was it to be a widow (“widows make the world go round” the author says of that era), a woman during and after the plague (paradoxically, a golden age for women professionally and economically), and a middle class working woman in England who has earned and has control of her own money. A woman with her own money has a room of her own, her own pursuits, her own life. “My world. My time.” as the Wife of Bath says in her prologue.
The author then looks at how the Wife of Bath was adapted by other authors through the ages up to contemporary times, from Falstaff and Shakespeare to Zadie Smith.
March 11, 2023
Alisoun, the Wife of Bath, is such a modern character that it feels like she was somehow airdropped from the 20th Century into "The Canterbury Tales." Turner's book is mostly interested in looking at how the people and authors who encountered this proto-feminist bomb dealt with it: how they understood her, argued with her, and re-wrote her in order to try and make sense of her.
The first half of the book looks at the reality of women like Alisoun, generally concluding that while her experiences are exaggerated, they're not out of the realms of possibility, and then moves on to the strongest section, in which men of the late medieval period try and deal with her and what she means. The second half of the book looks at later iterations: there's a compelling link made between her and Shakespeare's Falstaff and some groan-inducing re-writes and bowdlerizations after that. Turner eventually moves into the 20th and 21st centuries, bringing in versions like Zadie Smith's. Turner, who is an accomplished Chaucer scholar, is on surer ground in the late medieval period, and the closer the book gets to the present, the less interesting it gets. Still, worthwhile as an exploration of an important, vital fictional character.
The first half of the book looks at the reality of women like Alisoun, generally concluding that while her experiences are exaggerated, they're not out of the realms of possibility, and then moves on to the strongest section, in which men of the late medieval period try and deal with her and what she means. The second half of the book looks at later iterations: there's a compelling link made between her and Shakespeare's Falstaff and some groan-inducing re-writes and bowdlerizations after that. Turner eventually moves into the 20th and 21st centuries, bringing in versions like Zadie Smith's. Turner, who is an accomplished Chaucer scholar, is on surer ground in the late medieval period, and the closer the book gets to the present, the less interesting it gets. Still, worthwhile as an exploration of an important, vital fictional character.
August 10, 2023
This book covers the literary antecedents and descendants of the Wife of Bath from Chaucer's Canterbury tales. It also goes into how closely her life as described in her prologue tracked to the lives of real fourteenth-century women.
The reason for only three stars is that the first half of the book was a bit of a slog for me. In the first half, the author makes a good case that, in inventing Alison, Chaucer took character in English literature to a whole new level. Literary characters before Alison were generally "types" meant to illustrate some point. In this century, we call those two-dimensional characters. Alison, by contrast, is three-dimensional, fully-developed and delightfully eccentric. Then, the author goes on to compare Alison's life to the lives of real women of her time. She makes a pretty good case that it wasn't as unusual as we might think for English women of her time to travel widely, to work at jobs, and to talk frankly about sex. It wasn't even that unusual for them to tell or write tales; they just didn't always get credit for their work. This was where the book bogged down for me. As the author makes her case, the book's tone is that of a Master's thesis: here's the position I'm taking and here's the evidence for it. It was pretty dry and I almost stopped reading.
But the book picks up in the second half, when the author talks about Alison's impact on later literature. I especially enjoyed the chapter on Shakespeare. I'd never considered the similarities between Alison and Falstaff, but Turner makes her point very well, and even somewhat humorously. I also appreciated the book's feminist perspective.
I hadn't read the Canterbury Tales since high school, at which time I'm pretty sure I didn't enjoy the book. But this book inspired me to re-read the Wife of Bath's tale and prologue and they are just delightful.
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Author of The Saint's Mistress
The reason for only three stars is that the first half of the book was a bit of a slog for me. In the first half, the author makes a good case that, in inventing Alison, Chaucer took character in English literature to a whole new level. Literary characters before Alison were generally "types" meant to illustrate some point. In this century, we call those two-dimensional characters. Alison, by contrast, is three-dimensional, fully-developed and delightfully eccentric. Then, the author goes on to compare Alison's life to the lives of real women of her time. She makes a pretty good case that it wasn't as unusual as we might think for English women of her time to travel widely, to work at jobs, and to talk frankly about sex. It wasn't even that unusual for them to tell or write tales; they just didn't always get credit for their work. This was where the book bogged down for me. As the author makes her case, the book's tone is that of a Master's thesis: here's the position I'm taking and here's the evidence for it. It was pretty dry and I almost stopped reading.
But the book picks up in the second half, when the author talks about Alison's impact on later literature. I especially enjoyed the chapter on Shakespeare. I'd never considered the similarities between Alison and Falstaff, but Turner makes her point very well, and even somewhat humorously. I also appreciated the book's feminist perspective.
I hadn't read the Canterbury Tales since high school, at which time I'm pretty sure I didn't enjoy the book. But this book inspired me to re-read the Wife of Bath's tale and prologue and they are just delightful.
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Author of The Saint's Mistress
January 26, 2024
I love the idea of taking a fictional character and writing a biography of her. The Wife of Bath, indeed, has a life of her own outside of Chaucer's pages, and Turner takes us on a literary journey. Tracing Alison's "ancestors," from mythological and male-created hags and witches of yore to Alice Chaucer herself, we see how astonishing and fresh the Wife is. She gives herself a voice and agency that literally leaps off the pages. There is a lot of historical background about women trying to find a way to have their say, to contribute to the voice of humankind, and the many ways in which they were marginalized. Makes you wonder how many women have been shut up, verbally and physically. If you are a Millenial or Gen Z who has not read much on women's struggles and the forces they faced, or just in general wondered why there were so few women authors and artists in the past, this is a must read. But this book is not a testicle-crushing, feminist diatribe. There is warmth, humor, witty logic, and most of all a great sense of personality showing Alison and her legacy as a living thing. Fun but serious.
January 29, 2024
Professor Turner does an excellent job of placing Chaucer’s fictional character in her historical context, showing the ways that Alison, the outspoken Wife of Bath, both reflected and challenged the roles of real women at the time. Among other things, I learned how the devastation of the Black Plague opened new economic and social opportunities for women, similar to the changes in this country during WWII.
The second half of the book, which examines the influence of the Wife of Bath on later literature and drama sometimes appears to be aimed at a more scholarly reader (particularly in the chapters on Shakespeare and Joyce). But the book ends on a strong note, examining the ways in which Black women writers have adapted Alison’s feisty temperament and loquaciousness to their own ends.
The second half of the book, which examines the influence of the Wife of Bath on later literature and drama sometimes appears to be aimed at a more scholarly reader (particularly in the chapters on Shakespeare and Joyce). But the book ends on a strong note, examining the ways in which Black women writers have adapted Alison’s feisty temperament and loquaciousness to their own ends.
January 24, 2024
A very lively, engaging book that offers wide-ranging historical context for the Wife of Bath’s tale, and then goes to on to explore the character’s literary afterlives. I particularly enjoyed the discussions of the Wife of Bath and Falstaff, and of Zadie Smith’s play The Wife of Willesden (which I definitely want to read now). I did find it a little curious that Turner explores the Wife of Bath almost as if she were a genuine historical character (the book is called a biography and it really does resemble one). As a result Chaucer himself isn’t foregrounded much. But maybe this is partly because Turner has already written a biography of Chaucer.
December 13, 2024
An interesting mix of history and literary criticism. Turner takes the ‘breakout character’ of the 14th century Canterbury Tales, Alison of Bath, and examines her both in terms of contemporary female businesswomen, travellers and writers, and how her character has been rewritten by later authors. The most interesting part of the book is how hated she was from the 17th to 20th centuries, when her frankness about sexuality was either mocked or erased, and then how contemporary women of colour have embraced her bawdy honesty. A bit too ‘scholarly’ at times, but full of feminist historical nuggets.
January 16, 2024
A really good read. I didn’t know anything about this book before picking it up, and it’s now one of my favorites over the past year. An enjoyable and interesting mix of medieval history and literary analysis, this book is definitely a unique read that has sparked a new found interest in Chaucer and medieval social history for me. The author’s narration was also very good - adeptly read with pauses and inflections that added to her conclusions and exposed nuances. She also spared me the need to pronounce Latin…
November 20, 2023
Tour de force, tracing the sources of the Wife of Bath, and changes Chaucer made to them. Reception and repackaging of the Wife of Bath in the Middle Ages, and then her legacy down to her adaptations now by Zadie Smith. Anybody who knows me would know I couldn't resist this book and it is well worth the effort. A single anecdote is the story of the Edenton glossator, who annotated the margin of a manuscript of Chaucer with outraged misogynistic quotations from the Old Testament at all the places where the Wife of Bath was saying doing the risqué things Chaucer attributes to her. A joy on every page.
July 1, 2023
this was awesome and so informative. love this, want more books like this please any recs anything like this would be incredible
February 1, 2025
My first audiobook!
May 1, 2023
I found it absolutely fascinating to read about how the Wife of Bath’s legacy has continued throughout literary history- from Shakespeare to post-colonial black female writers. Alisoun’s voice is so versatile and malleable to any given context.
January 28, 2025
The wife of bath is dancing at the pink pony club in 2025.
Fun, scholarly read about a character I feel I should understand better as an English major
Fun, scholarly read about a character I feel I should understand better as an English major
May 7, 2023
I learned a lot from reading this book. I went into thinking it was a fictional retelling but ended up fascinated by this well written academic treatment of the Alison. It makes me want to go back and read Chaucer again as it has been a few decades. And I want to read different translations to see where the differences are.
January 2, 2024
A very thorough exposition of The Wife of Bath, its historical context, the mores of the middle ages and the role of women in society, etc. as well as Chaucer's intention in creating this character and how it was a novel way of writing about women. It addresses themes of equality and independence of women, their standing in the society of the time and how their contributions to the workforce, wealth or independence were judged. The last part also addresses how other writers have picked up these themes and imitated the character in more modern terms.
February 24, 2023
Marion Turner has written a fascinating book focused on the imagined life of one of Chaucer’s most popular but also controversial characters. Turner situates ‘Alison of Bath’ in medieval society and we get a vivid picture of how medieval women (of means) lives their lives. She also follows the character (and ones like her) through literature and history to the present day. She shows how more mature, sexually actively and rich women have been both celebrated and vilified. This is a well written account which straddles both history and literature and is written for the non-academic reader. At times this becomes an English Lit text book but (thankfully) rarely.
March 6, 2023
The Wife of Bath” was a fascinating journey of a Chaucer fictional character that has traveled thru time from the 14th century thru to the 21st century as if she was a real person. The research, analysis, comparisons and examples presented by the author are exceptional in their presentation and of how this fictional character, “Alison” appears in literature and multiple countries. The book exhibits the author’s extensive research and presentation of the material but too many words were devoted the explicit description of promiscuity and detracted from the author’s scholarly work. Experienced as an Audio Book
November 21, 2023
The vibrant Wife of Bath, a major character in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” is thoroughly examined in this work … the first part demonstrates how she reflects medieval culture, and the second illustrates her impact on subsequent literature and art … well-researched and articulate …
August 25, 2022
I absolutely loved this book. Alison, so-called Wife of Bath, pilgrim from The Canterbury Tales, in all her glory. This book presents the conditions that allowed for her creation and all the agitating she has done since, inspiring countless from Shakespeare to Zadie Smith.
June 27, 2023
Alison, The Wife of Bath, appears in Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" which was written in 1392. He is writing about a group of pilgrims setting off from the Tabard Inn in Southwark to the shrine of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. I read the Tales back in school where we started with The Prologue in the first year and ended up 5yrs later having read all of the tales, and taken exams in them as well. Bit difficult 5yrs later trying to remember something which came up in the Prologue, so much scratching of heads and chewing on ends of fountain pens.
I liked the Wife of Bath much more when I re-read her years later when I had a bit more of life tucked under my belt, and with reading this book it was good to get back to her again. She is a very interesting character and wouldn't be out of place on stage or screen today. Alison had been married and widowed several times, there is mention of miscarriages, abortions but I think only 1 child, a son. She was first married at the age of 12 and she talks of her sexual exploits and we hear of her abusive marriages and rapes in and out of marriages. However bawdy she may be she is someone whom you listen to and have empathy with. Yet she isn't a depressive, she takes life head on and does her best to live a happy life and thinking more of herself now, being a widow again, she can do what she pleases and when she pleases. We hear that she went on pilgrimages abroad too.
There have been plays about the Wife of Bath over the decades and some do present her in a positive light, it is interesting to see if those written by men presented her in a negative light! After all in 1392 she must have come across as quite bawdy! I would like to see a play about her set in today's times. I think Zadie Smith wrote a play about her some years ago, and there was Jean Breeze on youtube 17yrs ago (I had to find this again!) who walks through Brixton market and speaks Alison's words from the book. That was quite thoughtful.
This book took a while to get into, it read a bit like a textbook and I confess to restarting it, twice, until I got into the rhythm of it, I still had to re-read some bits though! And it did take me back to sitting in a huge school hall having just done an english to latin translation "O" level paper and now facing an english one with a Chaucer content, seeing dust motes moving through the sunlight from the windows and thinking I wish I was sitting outside on the grass again. I didn't go on to do an "A" level in english, I loved latin and went down that route and took some more modern languages than that as well. I am particularly good at reading tombstones though. Maybe I should have that on my tombstone.
I liked the Wife of Bath much more when I re-read her years later when I had a bit more of life tucked under my belt, and with reading this book it was good to get back to her again. She is a very interesting character and wouldn't be out of place on stage or screen today. Alison had been married and widowed several times, there is mention of miscarriages, abortions but I think only 1 child, a son. She was first married at the age of 12 and she talks of her sexual exploits and we hear of her abusive marriages and rapes in and out of marriages. However bawdy she may be she is someone whom you listen to and have empathy with. Yet she isn't a depressive, she takes life head on and does her best to live a happy life and thinking more of herself now, being a widow again, she can do what she pleases and when she pleases. We hear that she went on pilgrimages abroad too.
There have been plays about the Wife of Bath over the decades and some do present her in a positive light, it is interesting to see if those written by men presented her in a negative light! After all in 1392 she must have come across as quite bawdy! I would like to see a play about her set in today's times. I think Zadie Smith wrote a play about her some years ago, and there was Jean Breeze on youtube 17yrs ago (I had to find this again!) who walks through Brixton market and speaks Alison's words from the book. That was quite thoughtful.
This book took a while to get into, it read a bit like a textbook and I confess to restarting it, twice, until I got into the rhythm of it, I still had to re-read some bits though! And it did take me back to sitting in a huge school hall having just done an english to latin translation "O" level paper and now facing an english one with a Chaucer content, seeing dust motes moving through the sunlight from the windows and thinking I wish I was sitting outside on the grass again. I didn't go on to do an "A" level in english, I loved latin and went down that route and took some more modern languages than that as well. I am particularly good at reading tombstones though. Maybe I should have that on my tombstone.
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