The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer
List Price:
Our Price: $5.58
You Save: $4.42 (44%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.95 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Geoffrey ChaucerBrand: Penguin Group USA
Translator: Nevill Coghill
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-02-04
ISBN: 0140424385
Number of pages: 528
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780140424386
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Canterbury Tales
Book Review: A Better Version Of the Tales You Will Not Find
Summary: 5 Stars
Chaucer is an author with unusual staying power. Sure we read classical writing and appreciate it but it doesn't seem to have the impact that Chaucer's Canterbury tales still have on us. We can see ourselves and our foibles in the pilgrims he writes about and the stories he attributes to them. To think that this was written in a time period we relegate as a time period of ignorance and religion! We can imagine that even in a time where superstition ruled there were still people that that saw the world quite similarly as we do today and certainly Chaucer was among that group.
This version is incredibly well translated and provides a succinct introduction including a nice brief biography of the author. Also the notes are pretty good - I just wish they were footnoted rather than all in the notes section.
So if you if you think reading a work that is six hundred years old might be a little boring start in out of sequence and go right to the second tale - The Millers Tale. Like something straight out of a Jerry Springer show if this story doesn't give reason to laugh than I don't know what will. The only hang up you may have is reading in the metered format that the tales are written in. I will say that it is not difficult to get the rhythm o the words and before long you won't even notice. The book is relatively thick but it is fast reading so don't be discouraged by that - its well worth it. Reading Chaucer gives a glimpse of how the secular mind worked in the middle ages. He provides straightforward writing that isnt simple but yet isnt overly complex verbose. Without being totally austere he can tell interesting stories quickly and, since (as we all know) brevity is the essence of wit, be remarkably funny.
If you are reading this for school you should be excited to know that not only are you reading a seminal work of secular English writing that is referenced throughout our culture. Also it is actually fun to read. If you are thinking about reading this just for fun you are doing the right thing I waited too long to pick this book up and but I am really glad I did it is thoroughly enjoyable and while while a little historical background may help I doubt you will need a degree in history to appreciate this one.
-- Ted Murena
Poetry Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Poetry Books
Amenby Charlotte Mae
1st Book Library; Published: 2000-12-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.15
Price in other shops:
Glimpses of Heaven: Poems and Prayers of Mystery and Wonderby Lois Rock
Lion Hudson Plc; Published: 1997-02-21; Hardcover; Book
La Vie de Saint Alexis (Blackwell's French Texts) (French Edition)Basil Blackwell; Published: 1968-06; Paperback; Book
After The Fireby Eric Edmonds
iUniverse; Published: 2001-06-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.96
Price in other shops:
The Dark Night of the Soul (Hodder Christian Classics)by St. John of The Cross
Hodder & Stoughton; Published: 1997-08-01; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
Prayers & Poemsby Monica Furlong
Spck Publishing; Published: 2004-07-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.39
Celtic Spiritual Verse - Poems of the Western Highlandersby G. R. D McLean
Spck Publishing; Published: 2002-11-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.00
Price in other shops:
Blake's 'Jerusalem' As Visionary Theatre: Entering the Divine Body (Oxford Theological Monographs)by Susanne M. Sklar
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2011-12-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $100.43
Price in other shops:
Theory and Theology in George Herbert's Poetry: "Divinitie, and Poesie, Met" (Oxford Theological Monographs)by Elizabeth Clarke
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1997-12-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $117.89
Price in other shops:
Coleridge's Philosophy: The Logos as Unifying Principleby Mary Ann Perkins
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1994-09-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $109.50
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Say I Am You: Poetry Interspersed With Stories of Rumi and Shamsby Maulana Jalal Al-Din Rumi, John Moyne, Coleman Barks
Maypop; Published: 1994-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.42
Price in other shops:
The Portable Dante (Penguin Classics)by Dante Alighieri
Penguin Group USA; Penguin Classics; Published: 2003-07-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.37
Price in other shops:
Revelations of Divine Love (Penguin Classics)by Julian of Norwich
Penguin Classics; Published: 1999-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.69
Price in other shops:
Handbook of Epictetus (HPC Philosophical Classics Series)by Epictetus
Hackett Pub Co; Published: 1983-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.43
Price in other shops:
Inferno (Bantam Classics)by Dante Alighieri
Bantam Classics; Published: 1982-01-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.44
Price in other shops:
The Guide of the Perplexedby Moses Maimonides
Hackett Pub Co; Published: 1995-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.34
Price in other shops:
The Aeneid of Virgil: 35th Anniversary Editionby Virgil
University of California Press; Published: 2007-09-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.99
Price in other shops:
The Arabian Nights (Norton Critical Editions)W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2009-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.90
The Comedies (Penguin Classics)by Terence
Penguin Classics; Published: 1976-11-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops:
On the Nature of the Universe (Penguin Classics)by Lucretius
Penguin Classics; Published: 1994-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops: