The Canterbury Tales And Other Poems World Classics Unabridged
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The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems (World Classics, Unabridged) by Geoffrey Chaucer Pdf
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.
'Whoever best acquits himself, and tells The most amusing and instructive tale, Shall have a dinner, paid for by us all...' In Chaucer's most ambitious poem, The Canterbury Tales (c. 1387), a group of pilgrims assembles in an inn just outside London and agree to entertain each other on the way to Canterbury by telling stories. The pilgrims come from all ranks of society, from the crusading Knight and burly Miller to the worldly Monk and lusty Wife of Bath. Their tales are as various as the tellers, including romance, bawdy comedy, beast fable, learned debate, parable, and Eastern adventure. The resulting collection gives us a set of characters so vivid that they have often been taken as portraits from real life, and a series of stories as hilarious in their comedy as they are affecting in their tragedy. Even after 600 years, their account of the human condition seems both fresh and true. This new edition of David Wright's acclaimed translation includes a new critical introduction and invaluable notes by a leading Chaucer scholar. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
The Canterbury Tales and Other Poems (Annotated) by Geoffrey Chaucer Pdf
Differentiated book- It has a historical context with research of the time-The Canterbury Tales is a collection of twenty-four short stories written in Middle English by the English writer Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. They were mostly written in verse, although there are two in prose, and are presented as part of a storytelling competition by stories of a group of pilgrims during a trip from London to Canterbury to visit the Tomás Becket shrine in the cathedral of this city.The prize is a meal at the Tabard tavern in Southwark on their return. The stories have a structure similar to Boccaccio's Decameron. The Canterbury Tales is one of the most important works of English literature, and perhaps the best work of the Middle Ages in England. It was the last work of Geoffrey Chaucer, who in 1386 was appointed Comptroller of Customs and Justice of the Peace and in 1389 Scribe of the King's work.The prevailing version of the work today comes from two different English manuscripts, the Ellesmere and the Hengwrt manuscripts. His greatest contribution to English literature was the popularization of vernacular English in literature, as opposed to French, Italian, and Latin. However, English had been used as a literary language centuries before Chaucer and several of his contemporaries such as John Gower, William Langland, the Poet Pearl and Juliana de Norwich
The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems - Geoffrey Chaucer by Geoffrey Chaucer Pdf
THE object of this volume is to place before the general reader our two early poetic masterpieces — The Canterbury Tales and The Faerie Queen; to do so in a way that will render their "popular perusal" easy in a time of little leisure and unbounded temptations to intellectual languor; and, on the same conditions, to present a liberal and fairly representative selection from the less important and familiar poems of Chaucer and Spenser. There is, it may be said at the outset, peculiar advantage and propriety in placing the two poets side by side in the manner now attempted for the first time. Although two centuries divide them, yet Spenser is the direct and really the immediate successor to the poetical inheritance of Chaucer. Those two hundred years, eventful as they were, produced no poet at all worthy to take up the mantle that fell from Chaucer's shoulders; and Spenser does not need his affected archaisms, nor his frequent and reverent appeals to "Dan Geffrey," to vindicate for himself a place very close to his great predecessor in the literary history of England. If Chaucer is the "Well of English undefiled," Spenser is the broad and stately river that yet holds the tenure of its very life from the fountain far away in other and ruder scenes. The Canterbury Tales, so far as they are in verse, have been printed without any abridgement or designed change in the sense. But the two Tales in prose — Chaucer's Tale of Meliboeus, and the Parson's long Sermon on Penitence — have been contracted, so as to exclude thirty pages of unattractive prose, and to admit the same amount of interesting and characteristic poetry. The gaps thus made in the prose Tales, however, are supplied by careful outlines of the omitted matter, so that the reader need be at no loss to comprehend the whole scope and sequence of the original. With The Faerie Queen a bolder course has been pursued.
The procession that crosses Chaucer's pages is as full of life and as richly textured as a medieval tapestry. The Knight, the Miller, the Friar, the Squire, the Prioress, the Wife of Bath, and others who make up the cast of characters -- including Chaucer himself -- are real people, with human emotions and weaknesses. When it is remembered that Chaucer wrote in English at a time when Latin was the standard literary language across western Europe, the magnitude of his achievement is even more remarkable. But Chaucer's genius needs no historical introduction; it bursts forth from every page of The Canterbury Tales. If we trust the General Prologue, Chaucer intended that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back. He never finished his enormous project and even the completed tales were not finally revised. Scholars are uncertain about the order of the tales. As the printing press had yet to be invented when Chaucer wrote his works, The Canterbury Tales has been passed down in several handwritten manuscripts. " When confronted with the painful choice of whether or not to read Chaucer in the original Middle English, I agonised for precisely four seconds and decided to read Nevill Coghill's modern translation in lovely Penguin paperback. In the same way I wouldn't learn German to read Goethe, or unlearn English to read Dan Brown, I refuse to learn archaic forms of English for pointless swotty scholar-points, and grope instead for selfish readerly pleasure, two-fingering the purists and bunking down with Mr. Nevill for nights of sumptuous moral homily, proto-feminist romantic comedy, and high courtly drama. For Chaucer neophytes like me, this text captures the bouncy humour and devilish cleverness of the original (not that I would know!), and hopefully will turn a generation of frightened and unenlightened readers on to this master of verse. (And if you must know, my rhyming homage review was lost due to a power failure and a more tempting invitation to eat pilaf rice with Brian. Street children! Wives of Bath! Go forth and Chaucerize!)" "My biggest fear about this book was that it would be like The Pilgrim's Progress. Although they followed a similar format, they couldn't have been more different for me. The Pilgrim's Progress was boring and preachy, whereas this was delightfully bawdy. There are many translations, from Middle English, to Victorian verse, to modern day prose. So sample a few and read what you're comfortable with. Then dive in and enjoy the stories. They can be read independently of one another, but often play off each other so they're best read in order, though this differs between editions. If you happen to hit one you don't like, feel free to skip it, as there'll be another riotous tale along soon enough. These can be read lightly, laughing at the rudeness and humour, or studied more in depth, to find hidden subtleties and meanings. It's the sort of book that re-reading will enrich your experience and it's one I'm glad to have tried for my first time. So don't be scared of stuffy or complex tales because it's 600 years old. Really, not that much has changed today." ABOUT GEOFFREY CHAUCER: Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 - October 25, 1400?) was an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales. Sometimes called the father of English literature, Chaucer is credited by some scholars as being the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language, rather than French or Latin.
"A romp for the ages" (Vanity Fair)—now with a graphic cover and deluxe packaging Renowned novelist, historian, and biographer Peter Ackroyd takes on what is arguably the greatest poem in the English language and presents it in a prose vernacular that makes it accessible to readers while preserving the spirit of the original. A mirror for medieval society, The Canterbury Tales concerns a motley group of pilgrims who meet in a London inn on their way to Canterbury and agree to take part in a storytelling competition. Ackroyd's contemporary prose emphasizes the humanity of these characters-as well as explicitly rendering their bawdy humor-yet still masterfully evokes the euphonies and harmonies of Chaucer's verse. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
The Canterbury Tales - Literary Touchstone Edition by Geoffrey Chaucer Pdf
This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition includes a glossary, sidebars, and reader's notes to help the modern reader appreciate Chaucer's richly layered tales.Includes General Prologue and Five Most Popular TalesIn 1367, King Edward III of England addressed Parliament in the crude language of the masses?English. Before then, the language of the Court and aristocracy had been French, and the language of the University and Church was Latin. In that same year, Geoffrey Chaucer, a young man in the court of the King, began to translate poetry from French into English. He would soon begin to write his own poetry in English'against the best advice from literary and scholarly friends, who insisted that no one would read works written in this vulgar language.They were wrong, and six hundred years later, The Canterbury Tales still reverberates with the keen observations and acerbic wit of this first truly English poet. Chaucer's understanding of human nature has given the world some of the most unforgettable characters in English literature. Travel with the Knight, the Miller, the irrepressible Wife of Bath, and the rest of the pilgrims to Canterbury as they tell the tales that have delighted, instructed, and shocked six centuries of readers.
