The Canterbury Tales [The Penguin Classics L22]

by Chaucer; translated by Nevill Coghill

The Canterbury Tales [The Penguin Classics L22]

528 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1951

Reviews

[TRE · Rating 3 out of 5]

6.5/10

Finally finished what felt like a never-ending book of surprisingly low-brow medieval humor.

There were probably 3-4 snippets I really thought were clever and timeless, the rest was disappointing as I had to slog through multiple cuck stories and one extended fart joke.

I understand the technical skill and intelligence Chaucer must have had in creating all these stories in metered rhyme (there were supposed to be more) but the groundling-type humor and cavalier attitude toward the religious was depressing, even though it was likely indicative of the era.

I am no longer confused why my Catholic high school had us memorize the first 50 lines of the Prologue in Middle English but mysteriously forbade us from reading any of it after that lol

The Wife of Bath's Tale was funny for prefiguring boss girls. I "love" how the story-teller woman essentially says all problems will be solved if men just agreed with whatever the woman in their life told them to think. The longhouse really is an age-old and very real concept.

All in all, I think these stories can be very insightful for the period and even timeless human behavior, but be prepared for lots of crude humor (The Summoner's Tale).

[Tim Palfreman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book in so many ways.

This is a verse translation into ‘modern’ English, but it retains many old-fashioned turns of phrase and words, so it retains a medieval feeling. It’s very cleverly done.

I’ve had this book for many years, I started it once but didn’t get very far. I came back to it recently when I signed up for an evening class on The Canterbury Tales, having enjoyed Chaucer at school.

The frame story, the pilgrimage, is itself very enjoyable, as told in the General Prologue, and in the prologues to many of the tales. The characters are an eclectic mix, spanning a broad swathe of medieval society from a knight to various religious figures, to the Wife of Bath, to humble occupations such as a miller and a cook. The banter and arguments between them are hilarious, and their tales are correspondingly varied.

The tales themselves have several themes, including love, marriage, religious and secular corruption. Chaucer is unsparing in his caricatures of several corrupt religious figures such as the Summoner, Friar and Pardoner, but interestingly he only once mentions the Lollards, who were active at this time as a movement against religious corruption, and that is as a mild insult. As an establishment figure, Chaucer is careful not to appear too radical. Many tales have a moral or lesson which is drawn at the end of the tale. The tales are enjoyable in themselves, and also give a fantastic insight into the medieval mindset including elements such as courtly love, fate and predestination, astrology, and alchemy, as well as offering insight into the daily lives of people at that time.

So altogether a wonderful reading experience. I can understand why Chaucer is considered to be the preeminent figure in Medieval English literature. I’ve been inspired to read more medieval literature.

[Ricardo Gordillo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This version is missing the Melibee's Tale and just summarizes the Parson's Tale, which I think is kind of important and, to me, the most interesting. The Parson's Tale, in my uneducated opinion, describes the moral pinnacle 0f the time and place.

[Johns · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the very book I carried and studied in my semester long college class on Chaucer six decades ago. Now I'm giving the Prologue another lick (as well as re-sampling some of the following tales themselves.)

My interest was generated by a recent reading of C. S. Lewis' posthumously-published work, The Discarded Image. In this seminal work, Professor Lewis details many of the ancient and medieval literary works that formed the primary intellectual Model taken for granted by educated folk in the middle ages.

Lewis repeated mentioned the centuries-long influence cast by earlier writers Boethius, Dante, Chaucer and a few others. So I thought I'd give Chaucer another look.

Very thankful for this author's translation of this Chaucerian masterpiece into modern English from the Middle English I was briefly toiled through in the mid-1960s. My English professor's strict requirement for all her students to memorize and recite the opening stanza of the Prologue in the original still pungently sounds in my head!