Product Description

Famous for its ingenuity and wit, The Canterbury Tales is a major part of England's literary heritage. From the exuberant Wife of Bath's Arthurian legend to the Miller’s worldly, ribald farce, these tales can be taken as a mirror of fourteenth century London and medieval society. Incorporating every style of Medieval narrative – bawdy anecdote, allegorical fable and courtly romance – the tales encompass the blend of universal human themes and individual personal detail that have fascinated readers for over 600 years. Here they are retold in full by Peter Ackroyd. The edition also includes an introduction by Ackroyd, detailing some of the historical background to Chaucer and the Tales, and details why he has been inspired to translate them for a new generation of readers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6969 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 464 pages

Review
The welcome appearance of Peter Ackroyd's new prose version of The Canterbury Tales ...Ackroyd's "retelling" is compulsive, bold and rare and will surely become a vital crib for generations of students to come.
--Robert McCrum, Observer, March 30, 2009

Review
This prose adaptation...gives the reader a chance to relish the narrative patterns that are repeated and transformed throughout the splendid patchwork. Ackroyd's stitching and unstitching do Chaucer a fine service.

About the Author
Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400) was an English author, poet, philosopher, courtier and diplomat. 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. He wrote many works but is best known for The Canterbury Tales. Peter Ackroyd is a well known writer and historian. He has been the literary editor of The Spectator and chief book reviewer for the The Times, as well as writing several highly acclaimed books including a biography of Dickens and London: The Biography. He resides in London and his most recent highly acclaimed work is Thames: Sacred River.

Customer Reviews

Peter Ackroyd, A retelling of Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales"
The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling by Peter Ackroyd (Penguin Classics) Long an enthusiastic reader of Ackroyd's fiction, intrigued by his biography of Dickens and forgiving of his account of Roman London, I was shocked by this so-called retelling of one England' greatest works. It is shot through with bad translation, mistranslation and a general lack of sympathy with the work. Nicholas in "The Miller's Tale" does not "rub the juice of sweet herbs over his body", rather he "decked his chamber with sweet herbs ".A few lines on "His wardrobe was draped with an old scarlet curtain": why is it old and where do the girls who notice this come from? In the "Reeve's Tale" the scholars "were both from a town called Newcastle": why then ,four pages later, are they talking as if they are from 21st century South London? Ackroyd's prose is flat and fragmented, as though he translates one sentence or even one line at a time with no regard for the overall sweep of a passage. Poetry into prose is not easy but it needs to be much better than this. A student presenting me with work like this would have been lucky to get C minus. Thank goodness Penguin still has Nevill Coghill's masterly translation in its list.

A wonderful accessible new prose version of this classic
If you ever found Chaucer's poetry a bit difficult - esp. over 400 pages - this new prose version is for you. Peter Ackroyd, an accomplished novelist, historian and biographer of Chaucer is the perfect match for this most famous of all texts in English literature. He's produced a fluent, accessible and thoroughly enjoyable retelling of the Tales. You can tell how much fun he's had doing it, too, as the best of the stories are as ribald and laugh-out-loud as you could hope. This edition is very nicely produced, too, with a ribbon marker, newly commissioned illustrations by Nick Bantock and a full introduction by Ackroyd himself. Highly recommended.

Brilliant Retelling
I enjoyed reading Peter Ackroyd's retelling of the Canterbury Tales immensely. I was slightly intimidated by the idea of reading The Canterbury Tales, because I didn't enjoy it at school, but I found the stories really entertaining and funny. They are naughty too!