Selected Canterbury Tales

by Geoffrey Chaucer, Candace Ward (Editor)

At the Tabard Inn in Southwark, in the London of the late 1300s, a band of men and women from all walks of life have gathered to begin a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas à Becket at Canterbury. To relieve the tedium of the journey, the host of the inn proposes that each of the pilgrims tell a favorite story, promising that the best storyteller will be treated to a fi ne dinner on the group's return to Southwark.
So begins one of the earliest masterpieces of English literature, a collection of stories as much prized for the portraits of its story tellers as for the stories they tell — portraits that reveal much of the rich social fabric of 14th-century England. Now three of the most popular tales — along with the charming General Prologue have been selected for this edition: The Knight's Tale, The Miller's Prologue and Tale, and The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale.
Animated by Chaucer's sly humor, flair for characterization and wise humanity, the stories have been recast into modern verse that captures the lively spirit of the originals. Highly entertaining, they represent an excellent entree to the rest of The Canterbury Tales and to the pleasures of medieval poetry in general. A selection of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

Genres: Classics, Poetry, Fiction, Literature, School, Short Stories, Read For School

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1390

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

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read half of the Knights Tale and then gave up and just read the sparknotes. As much as I LOVE middle english, this was far too much for me to comprehend. The story though was a great one and I really liked it.

[Robert Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

⭐⭐ A Demanding Classic That Requires Commitment

The Canterbury Tales is one of the most important works in English literature, and its influence is undeniable. Chaucer’s command of language is remarkable, and engaging with Middle English offers a fascinating look at the evolution of modern English. The rhythm, lyricism, and sound of the verse reveal a writer with extraordinary skill and an ear for speech that was far ahead of his time.

At the same time, meaningful understanding requires effort and support. While I genuinely enjoyed encountering Middle English and appreciated the musical quality of Chaucer’s writing, much of the nuance, humor, and context depended on frequent reference to outside resources. In particular, the Chaucer materials provided by Harvard University were invaluable in helping clarify language and meaning for a reader who is not fluent in Middle English.

Ultimately, The Canterbury Tales functions best in an academic setting, ideally with the original text presented alongside a modern translation. It rewards patience, close attention, and study far more than it does casual reading. While I admire Chaucer’s artistry and found intellectual value in the experience, it was not a book I could read simply for pleasure. This is a text that needs to be appreciated and studied, not casually read.

[Connie G · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few years ago I read about half the stories for a class, and found the translations be very readable. The book is set up with the Middle English on the left and the contemporary English on the right. Chaucer looks at medieval society with humor and a deep understanding of people.

[Hana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having recently finished Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, I was eager to revisit Chaucer and get a feel for the literature of the calamitous 14th century. I was struck by how cheerful the whole thing was--bawdy, funny, touching and full of memorable characters. And the language! It is so rich and inventive, changing as each character tells his tale. I tried Peter Ackroyd's retelling, which I cannot recommend, and then turned to this as a bridge back to the original

Vincent Hopper produced in this small volume a very helpful, highly readable, very close translation of six of the original twenty-four Canterbury Tales, along with the famed prologue. Published in 1948 it is a great way to teach yourself Middle English and get a feel for the Tales in the original. Each line is shown in the original in Times New Roman and the translation just below it in italic typeface. It is extremely easy to scan both nearly simultaneously and before you know it, you'll be reading the original without much effort.

Hopper's translation includes the prologue and tales told by the Knight, the Prioress, the Nun's Priest, the Pardoner, the Wife of Bath and the Franklin.

As I worked my way through this version of Chaucer it quickly became clear to me that I wanted to read more of the tales in the original, but that I would still need a little help with Middle English. eChaucer's amazing website came through with the original in beautifully formatted and cross-referenced HTML and text, superb verse and prose translations, concordances, glossaries, timelines--in short everything a relative beginner like me needs to understand and enjoy Chaucer in the original.

https://machias.edu/faculty/necastro/...

[h i n d · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the worst book I have had the misfortune of reading (we had to for school)

Times like this is when I wish Goodreads has an option of negative stars like 0 and -1 star

[cool breeze · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it is technically possible to read Chaucer in the original Middle English, doing so is arduous, time consuming, and interrupts the flow of the poetry. This 2011 translation by Sheila Fisher was just what I sought. The left-hand pages contain the original text and the facing right-hand pages have a translation into modern English verse with the meter and rhyming scheme largely preserved. It includes a useful introduction and footnotes explaining the less obvious references in the text.

That said, Chaucer turns out to be one of my least favorite writers from over 400 years ago. He is not in the same league as Shakespeare, Homer, Virgil, Dante, Cervantes and others. The individual tales are uneven in quality, with only a few approaching 4 stars, most being 3-star, and some being worse, even in this abridged edition which presumably omitted the real dregs. Yes, it has humor and incidentally sheds light on life in medieval England, but what do we learn? Relations between the sexes were terrible as a rule. Corruption was pervasive, from tradesman like the Miller to clergy like the Pardoner. And the Church was a terrible drag on society, diverting a staggering amount of wealth and labor from more productive secular undertakings, and giving credence to Gibbon’s thesis that the rise of Christianity led to the The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, from which civilization had not really recovered 1000 years later in Chaucer's time.

I don’t regret reading this, but won’t be reading any more Chaucer. 4.5 stars for the translation, but only 3 stars for the original work.

[Melanti · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do plan on finishing up the rest of these tales in another edition, so I think I'll wait until then to comment on the stories themselves, and I'll focus on the translation for now.


I managed to tackle 90-95% of this in the original Middle English.

It's admittedly slightly harder than Shakespeare, but the interlinear translation made it really easy to flick my eyes down a fraction whenever I needed, so I didn't have to go too far out of my way when I needed help.


Since this book is so bulky and hard to read with one hand, at one point I did reach for a e-book edition that was more or less the same but had modernized the spelling of many of the words. I actually found that harder to read, since the modern spelling had me pronouncing the words in the modern fashion and the poetry just didn't flow anymore and it felt really awkward.

That makes me wonder a bit about Shakespeare. Of course, I've seen those videos where they discuss performing Shakespeare in the original pronunciation, and I've always thought that would be cool to see/hear. But it never occurred to me until now that maybe I should attempt to read Shakespeare with the original spelling. I wonder if that would be harder or easier? It would at least be a fun experiment even if I didn't get very far. Maybe I should try that for some of his sonnets since rhyme and meter will be so important there.

Either way - I think after spending weeks reading Middle English, Shakespeare's Early Modern should make next month's Shakespeare play a lot easier to decipher.

[Adrian Colesberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightfully bawdy. There are stories in here that sound like stock jokes. I think this is where the man is bedding the miller's wife and to prove that the miller is asleep, they keep pulling hairs out of his arse before they do it. The miller wakes up an one point and says they can have sex all they want but stop taking a talley on his arse.
Or maybe that is a stock joke. Many moons ago.

[Tress · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who loves Middle English and poetry, I’m honestly a bit baffled by this translation and selection (Penguin Popular Classics: A Selection of Canterbury Tales). Since the book is only a selection I’ll plan to return to Canterbury Tales to finish the work in its entirety eventually. This version felt almost disjointed and it was very challenging to follow a single tale, which is uncommon for me. My favorite story, which I told in middle school for a class is a version of The Wife of Bath’s Tale (or as I knew it The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell). I hope a different version of Canterbury will make me appreciate it more as I understand it’s known for its humor, and the tales have continued into modern retellings. Maybe I’ll try to continue the unread stories and reread fully in 2026!

[Mariana Jourdan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As much as I love middle english, this was far too complicated for me. As a non-english speaker, I tried to understand how to pronounce and read correctly every word and I ended up hating the reading experience. But it is a good giant poem/tale that I'd recommend to everyone who's studying english literature or, failing that, medieval literature.

Not a good starter on medieval literature for non-english speakers though, try reading Beowulf instead (in your native language, of course)

[Sadie Clark]

✨NO RATING✨

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greate stuffe.

[Philip Grace]

I only read the Miller's Tale this time; I was gratified that I can understand the original pretty well and rarely needed the facing-page translation. It's remarkably vivid about the details of medieval life, with details that no modern author would dare to invent.

[Hailey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Crass

[fio ✧ · Rating 3 out of 5]

*IMO* The social history behind the Canterbury Tales? Fascinating, invigorating. The actual tales? So boring.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Crown Jewels of English literature as funny, saucy, thought-provoking and dramatic as they were when they were written some six-hundred years ago, full of memorable characters and tales that beg to be re-read and re-read.

I put off reading Chaucer for years, worried that the language would be too old to be easily understood and I did not want to read a modern prose translation. But thankfully Chaucer spells phonetically and with a little perseverance one gets used to his idioms and dialect quite easily. He certainly is no harder to read than Shakespeare. I would recommend anyone with an interest in history or early English literature do the same. It is so very awe-inspiring to think how close Chaucer's English is to our own.

Just a warning, the Penguin edition I ended up with, although in original Middle-English, is actually a rather abriged version (I didn't notice at the time I bought it, but the editor seems to have just cut out the lesser known, longer tales that he personally found 'dull' for some reason). If you want to read all of the surviving tales, be careful which editon you choose.

[Ostap Bender · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a little surprised at how enjoyable "Canterbury Tales" was, as it was written from 1386 to Chaucer's death in 1400 and I suppose I had the misconception that it might be a bit dusty and dry. The editorial "selection" by Hopper and the "interlinear" translation putting modern English next to ye Olde variety were surely helpful, but it's Chaucer himself who is the star. In his stories he paints a picture of life in the Middle Ages and displays a great deal of insight into human nature, all the while doing so in a way that is informal and fun. It's a pity that the work was only about a quarter finished relative to his original plan.

Quotes:
On Adultery, from the Franklin's Tale:
"Let such folly disappear from your heart.
What pleasure would a man have in his life
to go love another man's wife,
who has her body whenever he pleases"

On Censorship, from the Prologue to the Miller's Tale:
"And therefore, whoever prefers not to hear it,
turn over the page, and choose another tale;
for he will find enough, large and small,
of storied things that concern gentility,
and also morality and holiness;
don't blame me if you choose amiss.
The Miller is a churl, you know this well;
so was the Reve, and many more of the others.
And both of them told bawdy tales.
Make up your minds and don't put the blame on me;
and besides people should not take fun seriously."

On Death, from the Knight's Tale:
"Alas, the severing of our companionship!
Alas, my heart's queen! Alas, my wife!
My heart's lady, ender of my life!
What is this world? What do men ask to have?
Now with his love, now in his cold grave
Alone, without any company."

Also:
"And certainly a man has most honor
to die in his prime and flower,
when he is sure of his good name;
Then has he done no shame to his friend or himself.
And his friend ought to be more glad of his death,
when with honor he yielded up his breath,
than when his name had faded with age;
for all forgotten are his exploits.
Thus it is best, for a worthy reputation,
to die when one is in the height of fame."

On God, from the Knight's Tale:
"How is mankind more beholden to you
than the sheep that huddles in the fold?
For man is slain like any other beast.
and also dwells in prison and detention,
and suffers sickness and great adversity,
and many times guiltless, God knows!
What justice is in this Omniscience,
that torments guiltless innocence?
And yet this increases all my torture,
that man is bound by his obedience,
for God's sake, to restrain his desires,
whereas a beast may fulfill all its appetites."

On Love, from the Knight's Tale:
"He fell suddenly into a study,
as lovers do in their changeful ways,
now in the treetops, now down in the briars,
now up, now down, like a bucket in a well,
just as on Friday, to state a fact,
sometimes it shines, sometimes it pours."

On Old Age, from the Prologue to the Reeve's Tale:
"The poor tongue may well ring and chime
about follies that happened long ago;
except for dotage there is nothing else for old folk."

On Religion, from the Prologue to the Pardoner's Tale:
""Of avarice and of such cursedness
is all my preaching, to make them liberal
to give their pennies, and especially to me.
For my intention is only for profit,
and not at all for correction of sin.
...
For in truth, many a sermon
comes often out of evil intention;
some for the pleasing and flattering of people,
to have advancement by hypocrisy,
and some for worldly fame, and some for hate.
...
Thus I spit out my venom under color
of Holiness, while seeming holy and sincere."

On Sex, from the Prologue to the Wife of Bath's Tale:
"Tell me also, for what purpose
were the organs of generation made,
and for what purpose was a body made?
Trust it right well, they were not made for nothing.
...they are made for both,
that is to say, for function and for pleasure
of begetting, where we do not displease God.
Why otherwise should men state in their books
that man shall pay his debt to his wife?
Now with what should he make his payment,
if he does not use his instrument?
...
In wifehood I will use my instrument
as freely as my Maker has bestowed it.
If I be grudging, God give me sorrow!
My husband shall have it both night and morning,
whenever he wants to come forth and pay his debt."

Also:
"What ails you to grouch so and groan?
Is it that all you want is my tail?
Why take it all, here, have every bit of it:
Peter! Curse you but you love it well!"

On Sorrow, form the Nun's Priest's Tale:
"'...My heart is full of joy and satisfaction.'
But suddenly a sorrowful event befell him;
for the latter end of joy is always woe.
God knows that worldly joy is soon departed..."

On Women and Men, from the Prologue to the Wife of Bath's Tale:
"But in our bed he was so fresh and gay,
and, besides, he could cajole me so well,
when he would have my pretty thing,
that even though he had beaten me on every bone,
he could very quickly win my love again.
I guess I loved him best because he
was miserly of his love to me.
We women have, if I do not lie,
a curious notion in this matter;
pick out whatever thing we cannot easily have,
that we will crave and cry for all day."

Also:
"Some said, that our spirits are most soothed,
when we are flattered and spoiled.
That comes very close to the truth, I will not lie;
a man shall win us best with flattery;
and with attentions, and with thoughtful acts,
are we caught, both the strong and the weak."

And:
"Women desire to have sovereignty
over their husbands as much as over their lovers,
and to be masters of them;
that is your greatest desire..."

Finally from the Franklin's Tale:
"Love is a thing as free as any spirit;
women by nature desire liberty,
and not to be held down like slaves;
and so do men, if I speak the truth.
Observe him who is most patient in love,
he has the advantage over all others."

On the Loss of Youth, from the Prologue to the Wife of Bath's Tale:
"But Lord Christ! when I think back
upon my youth, and on my gaiety,
it tickles me to the bottom of my heart.
To this day it does my heart good
that I have had my day in my time."

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great way to peruse this title and teach it effectively without missing the major points, plus being able to avoid the terrible Chaucer language that is worse than seeing Shakespeare for the first time. The five-star rating is for this quality of this No Fear edition, and I appreciate Sparknotes for continuing this line of reading for teachers and students alike. Aside from that, the story itself (or the myriad of stories within) were quite different...some are better; some are worse. Some things never change in human nature though, THAT'S for sure!

[Amy W · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introduction to The Canterbury Tales. The pictures were good and the essence of the stories remained despite being rewritten for younger readers.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly good! The modern text helped A LOT! Another classic I can check off my list 😊

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

This particular book is an example of the hazards of making a selected translation.  This is by no means a short book (although the fact that it is a dual-language book doubles its length), and keeping the book under a certain length was important for business purposes.  But I wanted to read this book mainly for one reason, and that reason was not present here, namely the (admittedly somewhat dull) Parson's Tale where the word creation appears for the first known time in the English language.  I do not feel it is fair to blame someone who spent a great deal of effort seeking at providing a verse translation of a neglected classic in the hopes that it would find a wide and appreciative audience for ignoring the very specific aspect of that sprawling epic that I was looking for.  I suspect there are few people like me who are looking for something so narrow and so specific in a book like this one, and it must be admitted that there is a great deal to enjoy about this particular volume even if it did not have what I was specifically looking for from it.

This particular book of the unfinished and massive Canterbury Tales is over 700 pages long, with all of the left in Chaucer's original Middle English and the right pages in the translator's excellent contemporary translation.  The book begins with a very lengthy introduction including the background of the story and Chaucer's own life before getting to the core material, namely the prologues and tales.  The following materials are included in this particular compilation:  the general prologue, the Knight's tale, the Miller's prologue and tale, the Reeve's prologue and tale, the Cook's prologue and tale, the wife of Bath's prologue and tale, the Clerk's prologue and tale, the Merchant's prologue and tale, the Franklin's prologue and tale, the Pardoner's prologue and tale, the Prioress' prologue and tale, the Prologue and tale of Sir Thopas and the prologue to the tale of Melibee, the Nun's priest's prologue and tale, and the Parson's prologue (but not his tale), and Chaucer's retraction.  After this there are suggestions for further reading.

Although this particular book is not very familiar to the general reading public in the same way that Shakespeare's plays are, there are still a lot of reasons that this book is well worth reading and reflecting upon.  Chaucer himself lived at the period where English was finally returning to literature after a period of hundreds of years (since the Norman conquest) when it had been submerged in popular speech but out of the mainstream when it comes to literature.  Not only is this book historically significant, though, it has a lot to say about the manners and morals of the English people at Chaucer's time and long afterward as well.  The Prioress' tale contains one of the most powerful and shocking examples of the blood libel that can be found in the English language.  A large percentage of the stories themselves deal with both the concerns of men and women and how they are to get along (and how each of them tries to take advantage of the other) and also the concerns about people living and marrying within their proper place.  The clerk's tale, about a self-sacrificing woman who is tossed aside by her noble husband when he has the chance to marry someone of his own rank, is heartbreaking in its recognition of the vulnerability that comes to people who try to rise above their native station, a concern that remains with us now, no matter how much we may cluck about our egalitarian society.  The book also contains one of (and perhaps the first) examples of stories about the strutting rooster Chanticleer, that rooster who reminds us of the nun's priest who had plenty of clucking hens around him too, which was later retold and expanded in the classic Book of the Dun Cow.  This is a book that deserves to be read and has much to tell us still about our past and even about ourselves.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I finally realized my decades-long dream to read Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in the original Middle English, albeit in a selection and in an edition that makes a couple of concessions to modern spelling. And honestly, it wasn’t very much fun as fiction. Chaucer’s stories are warmed-over Boccaccio or classical tales, told in annoying rhyming couplets (I kept thinking back to Milton’s remark on rhyme). The tales are sometimes crass, sometimes such a tiresome display of Chaucer’s erudition that a highfalutin’ catalogue of authors and historical figures from Antiquity will run to dozens of lines, while the story action itself is relayed in a hasty handful of lines.

What was enjoyable was the glimpse into 14th-century English society, both the urban society of Chaucer’s London and the very different way of life of the countryside. A reader learns everything from what foods were enjoyed by rich and poor alike, to contemporary dress and figures of speech. On one hand, much of that era remains similar enough to our own that we feel close to some characters and Chaucer’s jokes come through, on the other hand the past can be quite a foreign country. Reading the Tales in Middle English also revealed that many words common in other Germanic languages, like Dutch or Swedish, still survived in English at this late date, and only became obsolete somewhere between Chaucer and Shakespeare.

The Canterbury Tales is famous for its critique of Roman Catholic clergy – a significant portion of the pilgrims are clergy and depicted in an unflattering light. After reading this work, I have come to suspect that the Protestant Reformation, which had already quietly begun at this time and exploded little over a century later, can ultimately be traced to the Roman Catholic Church creating orders of monastics who were not bound to a particular monastery under strict rule. Free to roam around town and countryside, without the discipline of an abbot and a cenobitic community living in poverty, it is not surprising that some members of these orders, founded in the late Medieval era, took to enriching themselves, laid with women, and otherwise abused their status. Thus, things went in a very different direction from Eastern Christianity where monasticism remained more strictly regulated.

I read the Canterbury Tales in the abridged version in the Penguin Popular Classics series. As mentioned, the Tales are presented in the original Middle English, but to make things much easier for modern readers, the letter i is widely used where the original manuscript had y. Difficult words and expressions are glossed at the bottom of each page. This apparatus must have taken a great deal of work to create, but curiously no one is credited for it anywhere in the book. I wonder if this was something that was insisted on when Penguin got the rights to reissue a book that had appeared from another publisher (the copyright page does say this edition was originally published in 1969).

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super fun - I thought it would be a heavy read but it’s basically just tales of chivalry and bar stories about men trying to sleep with other men’s wives. The most memorable ones for me were the Knight’s tale and the Miller’s tale.

The Knight goes first and tells a story of courtly love and honor between brothers Arcite and Palamon who compete for the love of Emily, Theseus’ daughter. They call upon the Greek gods and battle for her. Arcite wins but Jupiter strikes him down and Palamon ends up with Emily. I really liked this story - very classic medieval, chivalrous. I thought it was funny honestly because of how obsessed Arcite and Palamon are with Emily after seeing her one time that they become sworn enemies and lament about they are they the most wretched creatures to walk the earth and how they want to die with longing. I thought it was hilarious how the temple to Mars randomly included Caesar and Antony and the narrator acknowledged they weren’t even alive yet. And how Theseus’ father Aegeon was still alive.

The Miller’s tale was super brawdy and honestly contrasted so much to the Knight’s tale that it was hilarious. So few things makes me laugh out loud but the absurdity and childishness of this story made me laugh so much.

I also enjoyed the Wife of Bath’s tale about the man who has to marry the old, ugly woman and the Manciple’s tale preaching to not be the messenger (in fear of shooting the messenger) when the crow tells Phoebus of his wife’s infidelity.

The only thing I wish was different is that the lines actually all rhymed like in the old English original. I don’t think it would’ve been too difficult considering middle and modern English are very similar.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ich wollte die Canterbury Tales" schon lange lesen, habe in unserer Bücherei nur eine sehr gekürzte Ausgabe gefunden, die sich "Selected Canterbury Tales" nannte. Direkt beim Ausleihen habe ich kurz ins Buch geschaut und dachte mir, dass es ein eher anstrengendes Lese"vergnügen" werden würde, weil mich die Sprache zunächst abgeschreckt hat.

Als ich aber mit dem Lesen angefangen hatte, hatte ich mit der Sprache keine Probleme. Manches fand ich sogar verständlicher als das heutige Englisch, weil mir viele französische, niederländische oder auch der eine oder andere deutsche Begriff über den Weg gelaufen sind. An manche altmodischen Begriffe musste ich mich erst gewöhnen, aber schon nach ein paar Seiten waren sie kein Problem mehr, sondern haben den Charme der Erzählungen mit ausgemacht. Allerdings glaube ich, dass man am Buch dranbleiben muss und keine zu langen Lesepausen machen darf, dann fällt die Sprache leichter.

Mich hat überrascht, wie leicht mir das Lesen gefallen ist, aber auch wie gut mir die Geschichten und die Atmosphäre beim Erzählen gefallen haben. Ich konnte mir richtig vorstellen, wie sich die Reisenden ihre Geschichten erzählten.

[Brandon Whitaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chaucer is the sort of name that, when thrown around in casual conversation, can sound weighty and sophisticated, especially to someone like me who was until now unfamiliar. Let it be said that the Canterbury Tales are the farthest thing in the world from weighty and sophisticated. On the contrary, they are very approachable and human stories. Chaucer explores all sorts of people and situations, ranging from noble integrity to vulgar mischief. It is not necessarily the sort of thing which arrests the heart or convicts the soul, but it is a loyal rendering of real folk. The interlinear was also quite refreshing — I liked being able to enjoy the cadence and rhyme of the original line while still understanding the narrative. I had not read much of middle English before, and the variability of the language to suit the flow of the line is interesting as a poet and fun as a reader. I'm not sure if it ends up ranking high on my list, at the end of the day. But it was fun to read, and it's good to be familiar with such a classic.

[Arvid Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very time consuming to read, as the English is quite old. The stories retain some kind of universal themes through time, while also giving insight into life in the 1300s. Chaucer's ability to turn anything into rhymed verse is almost magical, and so even though this is not my favourite book in terms of content, everyone should give it a read as a relic of time to see how much, yet how little, humanity has changed.

Loved the character of the Wife of Bath by the way, super charming. I also want to mentally abuse three husbands to make them do what I want. You go girl.

The tale of the Knight January and his wife May is also a favourite, just as the one with the knight finding the right way to please a woman. I sense a theme of me liking tales about knights...

[Davy Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cult classic.
I enjoy trying to read Middle English, but the modern crutch is there.
Dylan could have easily inserted Chaucer for Shakespeare in his "alley" lyric.
Bill was really good too. His grandad was in the glove business I learned from Shakespeare in London yesterday. I am culling books, thes mentioned are keepers. A dude can only be so minimalist.
Chaucer even mentioned an English knight that helped the Teutonic Order vs the pagan Poles and Lithuanians. With friends like those....

[Dazaiesque · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great translation and a good selection of texts. I found this adapted Middle English easier to read than the original texts they gave us in class. I don't really like the Middle Ages, but Chaucer is indeed very funny and entertaining. This compilation saved my grade! ✨

P.S.
The tales are easier to understand if read aloud.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The editor's note skillfully assists in the reading of this historical English language. The tales themselves require patience to truly understand them: but the reward is great with wonderful bawdy fun!