The Canterbury Tales (Wordsworth Poetry Library)
Product ID: 62533870
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During his life, Geoffrey Chaucer (born c.1340) was courtier, diplomat, revenue collector, administrator, negotiator, overseer of building projects, landowner and knight of the shire. He was servant, retainer, husband, friend and father, but is now mainly known as a poet and ‘the father of English literature’, a postion to which he was raised by other writers in the generation after his death. It was Boccaccio’s Decameron which inspired Chaucer, in the 1390s, to begin work on The Canterbury Tales , which was still unfinished at his death in October 1400. It tells the story of a group of 30 pilgrims who meet at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames opposite the city of London, and travel together to visit the then famous shrine of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury cathedral. The tavern host, who accompanies them, suggests that they amuse one another along the way by telling stories, with the best storyteller awarded a meal in the tavern (paid for by all the others) on their return. The stories told by the pilgrims range from bawdy comedies through saints’ lives and moral tracts to courtly romances, always delivered with a generous helping of Chaucer’s own sly wit and ironic humour. Although basing his characters on the stereotypes of ‘estates satire’, Chaucer succeeds in his aim of producing an overview of his times and their culture, for posterity, in the manner of Italian, proto-Renaissance, writers. This transcription and edition is taken from British Library MS Harley 7334, produced within ten years of Chaucer’s death. The on-page notes and glosses aim to enable readers with little or no previous experience of medieva Review: The best complete Chaucer out there - This is an excellent edition and a complete must given the price. Here you get Chaucer in the original Middle English (the only way to enjoy him in my opinion) but with extensive parallel translations of obscure words along with explanatory footnotes. The book also contains informative introductions to each of the tales by Chaucer scholar Lesley Coote of Hull University along with extensive further reading lists and questions on the text to encourage deeper analysis of the text. Such scholarship used to be the preserve of the much more expensive Oxford and Penguin editions so it is no wonder that Wordsworth is causing such concern amongst those publishers. This book is ideal for a student or for anyone who wants to be enlightened into the fascinating world of Chaucer. Review: A nice translation - This is a great version of the complete Canterbury tales. I found the use of the explanatory notes was well balanced and were used just enough to be helpful without being a distraction. The further I got into the book, the easier it became to read the Medieval English text. Highly recommend this version.
| Best Sellers Rank | 20,835 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) 62 in Classical, Early & Medieval Poetry 1,239 in Fiction Classics (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 130 Reviews |
M**B
The best complete Chaucer out there
This is an excellent edition and a complete must given the price. Here you get Chaucer in the original Middle English (the only way to enjoy him in my opinion) but with extensive parallel translations of obscure words along with explanatory footnotes. The book also contains informative introductions to each of the tales by Chaucer scholar Lesley Coote of Hull University along with extensive further reading lists and questions on the text to encourage deeper analysis of the text. Such scholarship used to be the preserve of the much more expensive Oxford and Penguin editions so it is no wonder that Wordsworth is causing such concern amongst those publishers. This book is ideal for a student or for anyone who wants to be enlightened into the fascinating world of Chaucer.
A**1
A nice translation
This is a great version of the complete Canterbury tales. I found the use of the explanatory notes was well balanced and were used just enough to be helpful without being a distraction. The further I got into the book, the easier it became to read the Medieval English text. Highly recommend this version.
Y**C
Good
Paper quality is cheap
E**H
Never enjoyed.....
This at school and never appreciated this fine work in English Literature, until now. I thought buy an copy and see what I was missing all those years ago!
T**D
excellent
Well presented, plenty of information and then the tales and prologues, a good slow read! A paperback that rewards and revives interest in Chaucer's writings.
M**N
Good book, good value.
Good edition and decent quality paperback Surprisingly cheap and well worth the money
N**R
Quick delivery.
Quick delivery. Very happy.
A**R
Five Stars
Certainly provides a very interesting insight into English language.
S**0
The Canterbury Tales (New Edition) (Wordsworth)
libro fatto leggere a mio figlio su disposizione dell'insegnante di inglese: di facile lettura e apprendimento. buona impaginazione e grafica
P**Y
Best value for Chaucer in Middle English that I've found.
There aren't very many options to get the full Canterbury Tales in Middle English. The Norton Critical Edition has great notes, but is incomplete. I don't have the Penguin Classics edition, but I suspect it's comparable to this in terms of quality, but costs more than twice as much new. (I have a used Penguin Classics edition of Troilus and Criseyde, which is comparable). I have the excellent Riverside Chaucer, but I wanted a smaller copy of The Canterbury Tales by itself, which fits in a book bag and is much easier and more convenient to carry around. I'm really happy with this edition, and strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to (or has to) jump right in. There are still some helpful notes in the introduction regarding the language, but otherwise this edition is fairly lean, very conducive to jumping in and enjoying the book. I'm very impressed with what I get for the price, and am likely to buy other Wordsworth Editions in the future. One note: as in all other editions of Chaucer that I've found, the letters yogh and thorn have been replaced by their modern equivalents (usually gh and th, respectively). Otherwise, text is printed as in the MS, with no further modernization. Enjoy!
R**A
A MUST
Prologos interesantes. Cuentos que aunque escritos en la Edad Media se pueden extrapolar a la actualidad y analizar como ha cambiado el modo de pensar con el tienpo. Toda persona que estudia inglés debería leerlo ( temática, pentameter, frame tales, quids, etc)
A**Y
A+ RATING
My book arrive in good condition and on time.
V**A
recensione canterbury tales
Il prodotto corrisponde alla descrizione sul sito la spedizione è stata rapida. Questo libro lo consiglierei a chi vuole migliorare il proprio inglese perché è ben scritto.
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