The Canterbury Tales

by Geoffrey Chaucer
List(s):"Carp 500"
"Racine Library List"
Category: "Fiction - Adventure"
Pages:508
Year of Publication:1387
Date Read:02/20/1994
Notes:The framing device for the stories is a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas à Becket in Canterbury, Kent. The 30 pilgrims who undertake the journey agree to hold a storytelling contest as they travel. The 24 tales present a highly varied collection of literary genres: religious legend, courtly romance, racy tale in verse, saint’s life, allegory, beast fable, medieval sermon and alchemical account.

COMMENTS — If you want a challenge, read an untranslated edition in the Middle English it was written in. Here are the first few lines to get you started.

Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote/
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote/
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,/
Of which vertu engendred is the flour …
My Rating: 6

Reviews for The Canterbury Tales

No reviews were found for this book
Back to the list