Product Description

Travel back to Medieval England and join Chaucer and his band of Canterbury pilgrims in this wonderful introduction to one of Britain's greatest literary legacies. These nine well-loved tales, from a host of colourful characters – the Knight, the Miller, the Reeve, the Wife of Bath, the Summoner, the Clerk, the Franklin, the Pardoner and the Nun's Priest – are brought to life with Marcia Williams' trademark witty, comic-strip art, allowing this classic text to be enjoyed by all ages.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27663 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 48 pages

About the Author
Marcia Williams has illustrated and retold many literary classics for children with her distinctive cartoon-strip style. Among her highly acclaimed titles are Greek Myths (9781406303476), Mr William Shakespeare's Plays (9780744569469), God and His Creations: Tales from the Old Testament (9781844285280) and Charles Dickens and Friends (9780744598384). Marcia lives in London.

Customer Reviews

A fantastic cheeky introduction to a literary legacy.
This brilliant picture book tells nine of the better known tales from Chaucer's medieval classic, each one energetically repackaged into a brief, lively episode with simple modern-English prose and bright witty comic-strip illustrations.
The original Canterbury Tales was a collection of stories written by Chaucer in the 14th century, in Middle English and mostly in verse. Those tales, written for adults not children, were a mixture of originals and retellings within an outer story - a group of very different characters on a pilgrimage from Southwark to Canterbury each told a tale to while away the time on the journey.
This book is an inspirational approach as it makes this classic text enticing to a wide range of twenty-first century readers. It's is a wonderful bluffer's guide for adults who would like to know a bit more about these famous Canterbury tales without wading through 600 pages of medieval original. Chaucer has hitherto passed me by, and I bought this book for me. However, with its beautiful light-hearted illustrations, it's also a lovely taster or starting point for anyone from age 5. My five and seven year old children enjoyed it as much as I did and, though the tales are tastefully told, two of the nine stores have an integral farting or bottom incident which always help keep a little reader entertained. In addition to the main text, the additional speech bubbles are in old English (with the tip to read them aloud) so you can get a taster of the language back in the fourteenth century without having to wade through unfamiliar spelling and vocabulary.
This is an absolute masterpiece making Chaucer delightfully accessible to teenies & oldies alike with good humour and flair.