The Canterbury Tales

Front Cover
Penguin Books, 1977 - Fiction - 373 pages
A collection of twenty-four stories, all but two of which are in verse, related by members of a company of thirty-one pilgrims who are on their way to the shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury in medieval times.

Contents

Chaucers Life
9
THE PROLOGUE
21
THE KNIGHTS TALE
47
Words between the Host and the Miller
105
The Reeves Prologue
127
THE SKIPPERS TALE
139
Words of the Host to the Monk
152
Words of the Knight and the Host
179
Words between the Summoner and the Friar
238
The Friars Prologue
252
The Summoners Prologue
263
The Merchants Prologue
280
Epilogue to the Merchants Tale
313
Words of the Franklin to the Squire
335
Chaucers Retractions
359
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
371

The Pardoners Prologue
198
The Wife of Baths Prologue
215
Copyright

Other editions - View all

About the author (1977)

Geoffrey Chaucer, one of England's greatest poets, was born in London about 1340, the son of a wine merchant and deputy to the king's butler and his wife Agnes. Not much is known of Chaucer's early life and education, other than he learned to read French, Latin, and Italian. His experiences as a civil servant and diplomat are said to have developed his fascination with people and his knowledge of English life. In 1359-1360 Chaucer traveled with King Edward III's army to France during the Hundred Years' War and was captured in Ardennes. He returned to England after the Treaty of Bretigny when the King paid his ransom. In 1366 he married Philippa Roet, one of Queen Philippa's ladies, who gave him two sons and two daughters. Chaucer remained in royal service traveling to Flanders, Italy, and Spain. These travels would all have a great influence on his work. His early writing was influenced by the French tradition of courtly love poetry, and his later work by the Italians, especially Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch. Chaucer wrote in Middle English, the form of English used from 1100 to about 1485. He is given the designation of the first English poet to use rhymed couplets in iambic pentameter and to compose successfully in the vernacular. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is a collection of humorous, bawdy, and poignant stories told by a group of fictional pilgrims traveling to the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket. It is considered to be among the masterpieces of literature. His works also include The Book of the Duchess, inspired by the death of John Gaunt's first wife; House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls, and The Legend of Good Women. Troilus and Criseyde, adapted from a love story by Boccaccio, is one of his greatest poems apart from The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer died in London on October 25, 1400. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, in what is now called Poet's Corner.

Bibliographic information