The Canterbury Tales (Oxford World's Classics)

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Author: Geoffrey Chaucer
Creator: David Wright
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

9 reviews
Sales Rank: 2575

Media: Paperback
Pages: 412
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8 x 4.8 x 1.2

ISBN: 0199535620
Dewey Decimal Number: 821.1
EAN: 9780199535620
ASIN: 0199535620

Publication Date: May 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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•	ISBN13: 9780199535620
•	Condition: New
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Also Available In:

•	Kindle Edition - The Canterbury Tales

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
David Wright's new translation of The Canterbury Tales into modern verse--the first to appear in over thirty years--makes one of the greatest works of English literature accessible to all readers while preserving the wit and vivacity of Chaucer's original text.

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 1-5 of 9

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Some Tall Tales... September 8, 2010
holly (Michigan)
As soon as I cracked open this monstrous book I was delighted by the lyrical way in which the stories were written although it did take some getting used to. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is a collection of tales told by pilgrims on the way to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket. To pass the time they have a contest amongst themselves to see who can tell the best tale. What follows are tales told by each character, some being better than others.
Ones I enjoyed:

* The Knight's Tale which tells the story of two brothers from another kingdom who are captured, imprisoned, and fall in love with the same woman who they spy from their cell. What follows is a contest to see who will win the love of the fair Emelye.

*The Clerk's Tale which tells the story of a local noble who when told he can marry whomever he wants decides up Griselde, a poor but beautiful peasant. The noble tests her love and loyalty by sending away their children and by pretending he is going to cast her aside and marry another.

* The Prioress's Tale which tells of a young Christian boy who attends school in the Jewish Ghetto. Every day he walks to school singing a certain hymn he loves. The Jews decide to murder the boy so they don't have to hear him sing anymore but the mother is able to locate the murdered boy when his corpse continues to sing the song.

Ones that were ok:

* The Reeve's Tale tells the story of an unscrupulous Miller who tries to steal the corn two local men bring him to grind. To accomplish this, the Miller unties their horse and they don't catch it until nightfall and are forced to spend the night in the Miller's house. One man seduces the Miller's daughter while the other seduces his wife. When this is discovered a fight ensues but in an effort to help her husband defeat the men, the wife accidentally knocks her husband out instead. The men get their corn back and flee.

* The Wife of Bath's Tale tells the story of a young knight who rapes a local girl. To give him a chance to save his life, the Queen sends him on a quest to find out what women really want. He comes across an old woman who agrees to tell him the correct answer if he promises to do whatever she wants. She tells him and her price is marriage. The knight is grossed out having to marry and old crone so she gives him a choice to either have a beautiful and unfaithful wife or an old and faithful one. He tells her to choose and because he left the choice to her she uses magic to make herself beautiful and she remains faithful.

And one that even literally bored me to sleep:

* The Tale of Melibee- a group of Melibee's enemies storm his house and mutilate his daughter. He acts rashly at first but when confronted by his wife Prudence he agrees to put the punishment of the offending men in her hands. She delivers a lengthy counsel referencing several scholars and Bible verses on why the husband should act a certain way and why he should not take certain actions. I just could not through all the "For so and so says (insert wise advice here).

Overall I enjoyed the tales but after awhile it became much more difficult to read. Several of Chaucer's tales tell of unfaithful women and a few stories even revolve entire around farting. There is only so much promiscuity and flatulence I can take before I get bored of it ;)

Also some of the stories are unfinished or the narrator stops the character from telling the story and moves on to another character's tale which is kind of jarring. Still I liked the variety and I have to admire the fact that Chaucer wrote something in the 14th century that is still entertaining today.

5 out of 5 stars

Very Good Condition August 24, 2010
Robert P
When I recieved the book it was in great condition, and I got the book fast. Thanks again!

5 out of 5 stars

Chaucer Pilgrimage Poems Resonate in Today's World July 29, 2010
Yuri Vanetik (California)
Oxford World Classics - This is a superb edition - probably the best I have read. The writings tell a story about thirty travelers who are on a journey to show their gratitude to the martyr who helped them in their times of great need. The themes in Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th century "poem-stories" (Chaucer's "magnum opus") is a poignant critique of his society - its elite, its faithful, the Church, and the petty, self-seving, but crumbling conventions embraced by people surrounding him. The unifying concepts of the series of poems is pilgrimage, decay of social norms (i.e. Chivalry), and religion.

After the Black Death, Europeans started to question the authority of the Church. Chaucer uses two characters, the Pardoner and the Summoner, whose roles are to apply the Church's secular power, are deeply corrupt, greedy, and nasty. A pardoner in Chaucer's day was a person from whom one bought Church "indulgences" for forgiveness of sins, but pardoners were often thought guilty of abusing their office for their own gain. Chaucer's Pardoner openly admits the corruption of his practice. The Summoner is a Church officer who brought sinners to the church court for possible excommunication and other penalties. Corrupt summoners wrote false reports and scared people into bribing them in order to protect their interests. Chaucer's Summoner is portrayed as guilty of the very kinds of sins he is threatening to bring others to court for, and appears to have a corrupt relationship with the Pardoner. In The Friar's Tale, one of the characters is a summoner who is shown to be working on the side of the Satin. This parallels curruption we see today in organized religion, manifesting itself both through more conventional medium, and television, Internet, etc. Decay of values portrayed by Chaucer is applicable to Westen society's transcending values, not only in the Sartian sense, but almost to the point of nihilism, entirely devoid of dignity or accountability.
Pilgrimage was a very prominent feature of medieval society. Travel to exotic destinations is the modern day pilgrimage. The ultimate pilgrimage destination was Jerusalem, but within England Canterbury was a popular destination. Pilgrims would journey to cathedrals that preserved relics of saints, believing that such relics held miraculous powers. Saint Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, had been murdered in Canterbury cathedral by knights of Henry II during a disagreement between Church and Crown. Miracle stories tied to his remains surfaced soon after his death, and the cathedral became a popular pilgrimage destination. The pilgrimage in the work ties all of the stories together, and may be considered a representation of Christians' striving for heaven, despite weaknesses, disagreement, and diversity of opinion. In our society it is a way to detox, but also to start a new life, as is the case with immigrants.

3 out of 5 stars

The Canterbury Tales May 31, 2010
Howard Faulkner (Maine,USA)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful

Excellent translation.

Frequent problems with Kindle edition however. The font/type size does not remain constant.

Kindle was purchased due to my very poor vision and I must use the largest possible size available.
Unfortunately, when a new page is advanced it will frequently appear smaller than the previous page and at least one size smaller. This is very inconsistent and unpredictable and very annoying. There seems to be no 'fix' for this.

If this continues on other books this Kindle will be returned to Amazon.com for a full refund.

5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful stuff! March 12, 2010
Geoff Puterbaugh (Chiang Mai, T. Suthep, A. Muang Thailand)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

First, a random comment for those who think that the Middle Ages were stupid, backward, and stinky: read Chaucer and enter an entire fascinating world made memorable by one of our finest writers.

Rather than the review the whole sprawling book, I am going to limit myself to what might seem unpromising material: The Prioress's Tale.

We meet this dame in the General Prologue, and if you read superficially, you may just classify her as a "good woman of religion," but if you read a bit more carefully, and have some knowledge of human nature, you are like to shudder a little. In particular, Chaucer's description of her table manners -- never spills a single drop, completely elegant, never stains her immaculate blouse -- is so uncannily precise that I remember seeing a similar woman dining in Bangkok, Thailand: the most "elegant" table manners imaginable, well-slathered in makeup, and wearing a completely artificial smile which was returned by her female companions at lunch that day. At the time, it was one of the strangest spectacles I had ever seen, this sort of affected, upwardly-striving, totally fake elegance: and in fact, it made me shudder and clear out of the place as soon as I could. These women were ALL affected hypocrites, and all ACCEPTING one another's show of affected elegance, and it made my hair stand on end a bit --- "a nest of vipers" came to my mind.

The Prioress is cut from the same cloth, an affected lady who actually aspires to the aristocracy, not to any religious accomplishments. She has little pet dogs whom she spoils, feeding them food more suitable for human infants (there might be a reference to Matthew 15:26 there), and, fatally, wears a bracelet reading "Amor Vincit Omnia" ("Love Conquers All") --- which might be carelessly taken for a Christian motto but is nothing of the kind.

And then she launches into her "tale," which is a short, horrific, and pointless tale of an "innocent Christian boy" who is foully murdered by the foul Jews for practicing his Christian hymns as he went to school through their neighborhood. Oh, those Jews: they slit his throat and threw him in the privy. Later, some Divine Agency brought him back to life, and killed all those nasty, nasty Jews.

Behind the affected elegance of the Prioress lurks a person who really knows how to hate.

So, Chaucer surely knew how to create a devastating portrait of religious decadence and hypocrisy, in a few short pages. How many modern writers can do that?

The book as a whole could not be more highly recommended!

Showing reviews 1-5 of 9

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