Product Description

A reissue of Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #411922 in Books
• Published on: 1998-03-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 412 pages

Review
"David Wright's new verse translation of the poems from the Canterbury Tales is lively, readable...it should lead many delighted readers to Chaucer."--Manuscripta
"Indeed the best translation I have seen and will replace the version I had been using. The binding appears able to withstand constant use, and the price is fine for student budgets. This text, with Kane's biography and the Chaucer Glossary will make a fine course!"--The College of Staten Island, City University of New York
"With Wright's translation in print, there is no excuse for withholding Chaucer from any class offering an introduction to literature."--Anthony Ugolnik, Franklin & Marshall College
"I have found this translation to be the most thorough and easily read. I will recommend it to all my students as a companion to our main text."--Paul R. Lehman, University of Central Oklahoma
"I reviewed all the versions of Canterbury Tales in print and yours was by far the most lucid translation--real resonances of the original."--Dean Rader, SUNY, Binghamton

Customer Reviews

We were not so very different, 700 years ago...
As is proved by the delightfully wicked set of stories mirroring in some respects Boccaccio's Decameron, which predated Chaucer, but which expand on bawdiness and give a fascinating insight into human nature: the very language is stripped of all ambiguity: for example, 'and sodeynly anon, Damyan gan pullen up hir smock and in he throng' is almost something out of a Jilly Cooper, although far more exotic!

And if you don't like the olde English, you can read the translation, which I think is extremely helpful if you're new to Chaucer or don't warm immediately to the lingo.

Understandable and Enjoyable
The book I am reviewing is the Bantam Classic Edition translated and edited by A. Kent Hieatt and Constance Hieatt. This volume includes a critical introduction and a helpful glossary written by the editors. The text is arranged in a format utilizing a facing-page translation.

Chaucer spoke and wrote in the London dialect of Middle English which was popular during his time. In THE CANTERBURY TALES he used the device of having a diverse group of people tell two tales each while traveling together on a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury, the location of the Shrine of St. Thomas A' Becket.

Almost every social type of the fourteenth century is represented among the pilgrims such as a knight, lawyer, doctor, cook, miller, nun, merchant, monk, priest, squire and several others. Chaucer is also one of the pilgrims. Readers will recognize many of the characters as being reminiscent of their twenty-first century contemporaries. The physician, for instance, loves gold and makes a lot of money during times of pestilence. He also has a close and mutually profitable relationship with an apothecary.

Anyone who recalls being introduced to Chaucer as a student long ago will find the modern texts and translations a welcome change. The result is a Chaucer who is both understandable and very enjoyable.

Just to clarify...
Despite having a v.high helpfulness rating, the review below is of a completely different edition ! This is the Everyman edition in original Middle English (with marginal glossary) but the review below is of the Penguin edition rendered into modern English. It is therefore irrelevant here. IMO the original Middle English versions are far preferable in capturing the earthy, period quality of Chaucer's prose, but if you must have it in modern english,look elsewhere.