The Canterbury Tales Book By Geoffrey Chaucer [PDF-Summary-Review-Online Reading-Download]

The Canterbury Tales Book By Geoffrey Chaucer (Middle English: Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of 24 stories covering more than 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. In 1386, Chaucer became Customs Controller and Justice of Peace and, in 1389, Secretary of the King’s work. It was during these years that Chaucer began working on his most famous text, The Canterbury Tales. The stories (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a storytelling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the sanctuary of Saint Thomas Becket in the Cathedral from Canterbury. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn in Southwark upon his return.

After a long list of works written earlier in his career, including Troilus and Criseyde, House of Fame, and the Bird Parliament, The Canterbury Tales is seen almost unanimously as Chaucer’s masterpiece. He uses the stories and descriptions of his characters to paint an ironic and critical portrait of English society at that time, particularly of the Church. Chaucer’s use of such a wide range of classes and types of people was unprecedented in English. Although the characters are fictional, they still offer a variety of ideas about the customs and practices of the time. Often, this knowledge leads to a variety of discussions and disagreements among people in the fourteenth century. For example, although several social classes are represented in these stories and all pilgrims are on a spiritual quest, it is evident that they are more interested in worldly things than in spiritual ones. Structurally, the collection resembles The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, which Chaucer may have read during his first diplomatic mission in Italy in 1372.

It has been suggested that The Canterbury Tales’s greatest contribution to English literature was the popularization of the English vernacular in conventional literature, as opposed to French, Italian, or Latin. However, English had been used as a literary language centuries before the time of Chaucer, and several of his contemporaries – John Gower, William Langland, the Poet of Pearls, and Julian of Norwich – also wrote important literary works in English. It is not clear to what extent Chaucer was instrumental in this evolution of literary preference.

While Chaucer clearly states the recipients of many of his poems, the intended audience of The Canterbury Tales is more difficult to determine. Chaucer was a courtier, which led some to believe that he was primarily a court poet who wrote exclusively for the nobility.

It is believed that the Canterbury Tales were incomplete at the end of Chaucer’s life. In the General Prologue, about 30 pilgrims are presented. According to the Prologue, Chaucer’s intention was to write four stories from the perspective of each pilgrim, two on the way to and from their final destination, the sanctuary of St. Thomas Becket (which makes a total of approximately 120 stories). Although perhaps incomplete, The Canterbury Tales is revered as one of the most important works of English literature. It is also open to a wide range of interpretations.

AuthorGeoffrey Chaucer
Original titleTales of Canterbury
CountryEngland
LanguageMiddle English
Publication date1387

Book Summary

The procession that crosses the pages of Chaucer is as full of life and as richly textured as a medieval tapestry. The gentleman, the miller, the friar, the squire, the prioress, Bath’s wife, and others that make up the cast of characters, including Chaucer himself, are real people, with human emotions and weaknesses. When it is recalled that Chaucer wrote in English at a time when Latin was the standard literary language in Western Europe, the magnitude of his achievement is even more remarkable. But Chaucer’s genius does not need historical presentation; It springs from every page of The Canterbury Tales.

If we trust the General Prologue, Chaucer intended that each pilgrim tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and two stories on the way back. He never finished his huge project and even the complete stories were not finally reviewed. Scholars are not sure of the order of the stories. As the printing press had not yet been invented when Chaucer wrote his works, The Canterbury Tales has been transmitted in several handwritten manuscripts.

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Book Review

Like the hems of skirts that go up and down with current fashion, many books are loved in their time before resting quietly on dusty shelves. There are some who manage to endure, surviving their authors and being relevant for the following generations. Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is one of these long-lived books that has been incorporated into literary criticism, English reading lists 101, cultural awareness, and English language history. The new translation by Gerald J. Davis offers readers an accessible entry to this early English literature.

Set in Chaucer’s England in the late fourteenth century, a group of pilgrims prepares to leave for Canterbury. Extracted from a wide variety of caste and character sections, pilgrims join together only on their religious walk. At the inn where your trip begins, the host of travelers offers a challenge so that time passes more easily: the pilgrim who can tell the most attractive and enjoyable story will have a free dinner upon his return. The result is a collection of stories drawn from folklore, classic Greco-Roman tales, biblical texts, and the narrators’ own lives.

Davis is not a rookie in translating classics into modern English, as he has published translations of Gilgamesh, Beowulf, and Don Quijote, along with his own fiction work. This experience is shown when he tries to walk the tightrope described in his introduction of “making Chaucer’s voice and tone in a prose form accessible to the modern reader.” Although much of the translation is successful in this balancing act, there are times when some may want a footnote or two for certain references from sources such as Plutarch.

Those who expect a good collection of stories of godly pilgrims may be surprised by the obscenity of the text. Chaucer’s characterizations are not Christian allegories of good virtue, but of ordinary people who contain the high and basic qualities of human nature. Humor, which includes the love of horn jokes, humanizes the text and highlights why The Canterbury Tales is such a lasting book.

This pocket edition is simply packaged, with a minimalist design that focuses on translation. However, the page margins are narrow, and there are times when the text runs too close to the inner edge of the page.

This is a reliable option for those looking to join the road to Canterbury. Davis’s translation highlights the relaxing flow of Chaucer’s stories, which remain fun and moving centuries after their first publication.

About The Author

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – October 25, 1400?) was an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier, and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales. Sometimes called the father of English literature, Chaucer is credited by some scholars as being the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language, rather than French or Latin.

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