The Canterbury Tales

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By (author): "Jill Mann, Geoffrey Chaucer"
Publish Date: 1390
The Canterbury Tales
ISBN014042234X
ISBN139780140422344
AsinThe Canterbury Tales
Original titleTales of Caunterbury
SeriesThe Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer #4
One of the greatest and most ambitious works in English literature, in the original Middle EnglishThe Canterbury Tales depicts a storytelling competition between pilgrims drawn from all ranks of society. The tales are as various as the pilgrims themselves, encompassing comedy, pathos, tragedy, and cynicism. The Miller and the Reeve express their mutual antagonism in a pair of comic stories combining sex and trickery; in “The Shipman’s Tale,” a wife sells her favors to a monk. Others draw on courtly romance and fantasy: the Knight tells of rivals competing for the love of the same woman, and the Squire describes a princess who can speak to birds. In these twenty-four tales, Chaucer displays a dazzling range of literary styles and conjures up a wonderfully vivid picture of medieval life. This is a freshly established Middle English text with standardized spelling and punctuation and on-page glossing. It Features an introduction by Jill Mann, a chronology of Chaucer’s life and works, detailed explanatory notes, suggestions for further reading, a full glossary, and a bibliography.