Books with title Canterbury Tales

This edition of the Canterbury Tales, complete and unabridged, was specially prepared for Everyman's Library by Professor A. C. Cawley. Since its first publication in 1958 it has been acclaimed by critics throughout the English-speaking world, and has become a standard textbook among students everywhere. The text is not modernized; it is based partly on that of the Ellesmere manuscript, an early fifteenth-century copy of all the ten separate fragments in which Chaucer left the Tales at his death in 1400. This beautifully decorated volume, now in the Huntington Library, California, is the work of the very best professional copyists of the immediate pre-printing era, and is therefore of the highest textual authority. Professor Cawley provides marginal glosses and footnotes, which enable readers unfamiliar with Middle English to understand even the most difficult passages without having to turn the page in search of explanatory material.

Geoffrey Chaucer created this book in 1387. At that time the religion was the most important thing for European people. It was very popular to go on pilgrimages. It means travelling to famous Christian cities to be near to God. People said their prayers and asked for well-being or repented about something and supplicated for help. A group of people went on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, a town in England. Their aim was Canterbury Cathedral. At the beginning of their journey one member of the group suggested a game to entertain everybody. All of them had to tell one story. The best story would win a prize at the end of the journey. Everyone had something he wanted to share. The stories were very different. You'll hear much interesting from a Knight, a Clerk, a Merchant, a Franklin and a Pardoner.

Lively, absorbing, often outrageously funny, Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" is a work of genius, an undisputed classic that has held a special appeal for each generation of readers. "The Canterbury Tales" gather twenty-nine of literature's most enduring (and endearing) characters in a vivid group portrait that captures the full spectrum of medieval society, from the exalted Knight to the humble plowman. A graceful modern translation facing each page of the text allows the contemporary reader to enjoy the fast pace of these selections from "The Canterbury Tales" with the poetry of the Middle English original always at first hand.

This introductory guide places the Canterbury Tales in the context of the crisis in English society in the fourteenth century. It examines the social diversity of Chaucer's pilgrims, the stylistic range of their tales and the psychological richness of their interaction. The volume offers students a clear image of the powerful representation of the social reality that makes the Canterbury Tales one of the most important texts in English literature. Emphasis is placed on the language of the poem, the place of Chaucer in subsequent literary tradition, and an entire chapter is devoted to the General Prologue which is widely studied on undergraduate courses. Finally, the volume offers a helpful chronology of the period and an invaluable guide to further reading.

Geoffrey Chaucer created this book in 1387. At that time the religion was the most important thing for European people. It was very popular to go on pilgrimages. It means travelling to famous Christian cities to be near to God. People said their prayers and asked for well-being or repented about something and supplicated for help. A group of people went on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, a town in England. Their aim was Canterbury Cathedral. At the beginning of their journey one member of the group suggested a game to entertain everybody. All of them had to tell one story. The best story would win a prize at the end of the journey. Everyone had something he wanted to share. The stories were very different. You'll hear much interesting from a Knight, a Clerk, a Merchant, a Franklin and a Pardoner.