Six-hundred-year-old tales with modern relevance. This stunning full-colour edition from the bestselling Cambridge School Chaucer series explores the complete text of The Merchant's Prologue and Tale through a wide range of classroom-tested activities and illustrated information, including a map of the Canterbury pilgrimage, a running synopsis of the action, an explanation of unfamiliar words and suggestions for study. Cambridge School Chaucer makes medieval life and language more accessible, helping students appreciate Chaucer's brilliant characters, his wit, sense of irony and love of controversy.

The classic respected series in a stunning new design. This edition of The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale from the highly-respected Selected Tales series includes the full, complete text in the original Middle English, along with an in-depth introduction by James Winny, detailed notes and a comprehensive glossary.

Six-hundred-year-old tales with modern relevance. This stunning full-colour edition from the bestselling Cambridge School Chaucer series explores the complete text of The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale through a wide range of classroom-tested activities and illustrated information, including a map of the Canterbury pilgrimage, a running synopsis of the action, an explanation of unfamiliar words and suggestions for study. Cambridge School Chaucer makes medieval life and language more accessible, helping students appreciate Chaucer's brilliant characters, his wit, sense of irony and love of controversy.

An engaging classroom playscript. Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer is dead! In a dramatic attempt to bring him back to life, four medieval alchemists invite a group of Chaucer's best-known pilgrims - the Knight, the Wife of Bath, the Pardoner, the Nun's Priest, and the Miller - to tell their Canterbury Tales. New, innovative activities specifically tailored to support the KS3 Framework for Teaching English and help students to fulfil the Framework objectives. Activities include work on Speaking and Listening, close text analysis, and the structure of playscripts, and act as a springboard for personal writing.

During his life, Geoffrey Chaucer (born c.1340) was courtier, diplomat, revenue collector, administrator, negotiator, overseer of building projects, landowner and knight of the shire. He was servant, retainer, husband, friend and father, but is now mainly known as a poet and 'the father of English literature', a postion to which he was raised by other writers in the generation after his death. It was Boccaccio's Decameron which inspired Chaucer, in the 1390s, to begin work on The Canterbury Tales, which was still unfinished at his death in October 1400. It tells the story of a group of 30 pilgrims who meet at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames opposite the city of London, and travel together to visit the then famous shrine of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury cathedral. The tavern host, who accompanies them, suggests that they amuse one another along the way by telling stories, with the best storyteller awarded a meal in the tavern (paid for by all the others) on their return. The stories told by the pilgrims range from bawdy comedies through saints' lives and moral tracts to courtly romances, always delivered with a generous helping of Chaucer's own sly wit and ironic humour. Although basing his characters on the stereotypes of 'estates satire', Chaucer succeeds in his aim of producing an overview of his times and their culture, for posterity, in the manner of Italian, proto-Renaissance, writers.This transcription and edition is taken from British Library MS Harley 7334, produced within ten years of Chaucer's death. The on-page notes and glosses aim to enable readers with little or no previous experience of medieva

The third edition of the definitive collection of Chaucer's Complete Works, reissued with a new foreword by Christopher Cannon. Since F. N. Robinson's second edition of the The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer was published in 1957, there has been a dramatic increase in Chaucer scholarship. This has not only enriched our understanding of Chaucer's art, but has also enabled scholars, working for the first time with all the source-material, to recreate Chaucer's authentic texts. For the third edition, an international team of experts completely re-edited all the works, added glosses to appear on the page with the text, and greatly expanded the introductory material, explanatory notes, textual notes, bibliography, and glossary. In short, the Riverside Chaucer is the fruit of many years' study - the most authentic and exciting edition available of Chaucer's Complete Works.

This edition presents all of the surviving manuscripts, together with textual apparatus and commentary. The poem is also presented in parallel with its principal source, Boccaccio's "Filostrato", enabling the reader to compare the two poems in charting the evolution and achievement of Chaucer's "Troilus". This edition has been revised and corrected in order to make the text fully accessible to the reader unfamiliar with Chaucer's work. An introduction discusses the text, metre and sources of "Troilus" and assesses the literary importance of Chaucer's translation method.

Marion Wynne-Davies' detailed feminist reading of "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale" and "The Clerk's Prologue and Tale" is the first edition to address the social and cultural context of these poems' production. Her analysis of the original manuscripts of the tales, and of the questions raised about gender and cultural history, is accessible and illuminating. With glosses on the page and a bibliography to assist with further reading, this edition may be an essential study aid for all students of Chaucer, whether familiar with the poems or coming to them for the first time.

This Norton Critical Edition includes: * The medieval masterpiece's most popular tales, including-new to the Third Edition-The Man of Law's Prologue and Tale and The Second Nun's Prologue and Tale. * Extensive marginal glosses, explanatory footnotes, a preface and a guide to Chaucer's language by V. A. Kolve and Glending Olson. * Sources and analogues arranged by tale. * Fourteen critical essays, eight of them new to the Third Edition. * A Chronology, a Short Glossary and a Selected Bibliography.

This new addition to the Longman Critical Readers Series provides an overview of the various ways in which modern critical theory has influenced Chaucer Studies over the last fifteen years. There is still a sense in the academic world, and in the wider literary community, that Medieval Studies are generally impervious to many of the questions that modern theory asks, and that it concerns itself only with traditional philological and historical issues. On the contrary, this book shows how Chaucer, specifically the Canterbury Tales, has been radically and excitingly 'opened up' by feminist, Lacanian, Bakhtinian, deconstructive, semiotic and anthropological theories to name but a few. The book provides an introduction to these new developments by anthologising some of the most important work in the field, including excerpts from book-length works, as well as articles from leading and innovative journals. The introduction to the volume examines in some detail the relation between the individual strengths of each of the above approaches and the ways in which a 'postmodernist' Chaucer is seen as reflecting them all. This convenient single volume collection of key critical analyses of Chaucer, which includes work from some journals and studies that are not always easily available, will be indispensable to students of Medieval Studies, Medieval Literature and Chaucer, as well as to general readers who seek to widen their understanding of the forces behind Chaucer's writing.

The first feminist edition of these two tales. Wynne-Davies addresses the social and cultural context of the poems' production in a critical commentary to the texts. Also includes a line by line gloss and a historical introduction.

This new addition to the Longman Critical Readers Series provides an overview of the various ways in which modern critical theory has influenced Chaucer Studies over the last fifteen years. There is still a sense in the academic world, and in the wider literary community, that Medieval Studies are generally impervious to many of the questions that modern theory asks, and that it concerns itself only with traditional philological and historical issues. On the contrary, this book shows how Chaucer, specifically the Canterbury Tales, has been radically and excitingly 'opened up' by feminist, Lacanian, Bakhtinian, deconstructive, semiotic and anthropological theories to name but a few. The book provides an introduction to these new developments by anthologising some of the most important work in the field, including excerpts from book-length works, as well as articles from leading and innovative journals. The introduction to the volume examines in some detail the relation between the individual strengths of each of the above approaches and the ways in which a 'postmodernist' Chaucer is seen as reflecting them all. This convenient single volume collection of key critical analyses of Chaucer, which includes work from some journals and studies that are not always easily available, will be indispensable to students of Medieval Studies, Medieval Literature and Chaucer, as well as to general readers who seek to widen their understanding of the forces behind Chaucer's writing.

Chaucer's masterpiece is one of the most astonishing productions of the Middle Ages. Completely original in concepts and method, its range and variety have never been surpassed within the confines of a single work. Believing that much has been lost (and not only the poetry) in the many verse translations that have been attempted, David Wright has produced this brilliant rendering of 'The Canterbury Tales' in contemporary prose in order that the general reader and the student may gain a more immediate awareness of their freshness and of the skill, homour, irony and pathos of Chaucer's narrative art.

"I have nothing but praise for david Wright's prose version. Something of this kind has long been needed, but success was far from assured, and I am truly astonished at Mr Wright's brilliance."
ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS

"Most of the tales, of course, are relaxed and sensual. Mr Wright who can be as coarse as Chaucer revives the mood without giggles or affectation. Modern novels are rarely as readable as this."
TRIBUNE

HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics. 'Full wise is he that can himselven knowe.' Written at the end of the fourteenth century, the poet Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales are a collection of stories told in Middle-English. Thirty pilgrims leave Southwark to travel to a shrine in Canterbury and become the narrators, telling each other stories of chivalrous romance, fable, parable, debate and comedy as they journey. Their accounts of the human condition remain as resonant today as when they were first written.

"A romp for the ages" ("Vanity Fair")-now with a graphic cover and deluxe packaging
Renowned novelist, historian, and biographer Peter Ackroyd takes on what is arguably the greatest poem in the English language and presents it in a prose vernacular that makes it accessible to readers while preserving the spirit of the original. A mirror for medieval society, "The Canterbury Tales" concerns a motley group of pilgrims who meet in a London inn on their way to Canterbury and agree to take part in a storytelling competition. Ackroyd's contemporary prose emphasizes the humanity of these characters-as well as explicitly rendering their bawdy humor-yet still masterfully evokes the euphonies and harmonies of Chaucer's verse.

In the tradition of Seamus Heaney s Beowulf and Marie Borroff s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sheila Fisher s The Selected Canterbury Tales is a vivid, lively, and readable translation of the most famous work of England s premier medieval poet. Preserving Chaucer s rhyme and meter, Fisher makes these tales accessible to a contemporary ear while inviting readers to the Middle English original on facing pages. Her informative introduction highlights Chaucer s artistic originality in his memorable portrayals of surprisingly modern women and men from across the spectrum of medieval society."

Readers of this witty and fluent new translation of The Canterbury Tales should find themselves turning page after page: by recasting Chaucer's ten-syllable couplets into eight-syllable lines, Joseph Glaser achieves a lighter, more rapid cadence than other translators, a four-beat rhythm well-established in the English poetic tradition up to Chaucer's time. Glaser's shortened lines make compelling reading and mirror the elegance and variety of Chaucer's verse to a degree rarely met by translations that copy Chaucer beat for beat. Moreover, this translation's full, Chaucerian range of diction--from earthy to Latinate--conveys the great scope of Chaucer's interests and effects. The selection features complete translations of the majority of the stories, including all of the more familiar tales and narrative links along with abridgments or summaries of the others. To reflect Chaucer's interest in poetic technique, Glaser presents the tales written in non-couplet stanzas in their original forms. An Introduction, marginal glosses, bibliography, and notes are also included.

‘Now as I’ve drunk a draught of corn-ripe ale,
By God it stands to reason I can strike
On some good story that you will all like’

In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer created one of the great touchstones of English literature, a masterly collection of chivalric romances, moral allegories and low farce. A story-telling competition between a group of pilgrims from all walks of life is the occasion for a series of tales that range from the Knight’s account of courtly love and the ebullient Wife of Bath’s Arthurian legend, to the ribald anecdotes of the Miller and the Cook. Rich and diverse, The Canterbury Tales offer us an unrivalled glimpse into the life and mind of medieval England.

Nevill Coghill’s masterly and vivid modern English verse translation is rendered with consummate skill to retain all the vigour and poetry of Chaucer’s fourteenth-century Middle English.

Pearson English Readers bring language learning to life through the joy of reading. Well-written stories entertain us, make us think, and keep our interest page after page. Pearson English Readers offer teenage and adult learners a huge range of titles, all featuring carefully graded language to make them accessible to learners of all abilities. Through the imagination of some of the world's greatest authors, the English language comes to life in pages of our Readers. Students have the pleasure and satisfaction of reading these stories in English, and at the same time develop a broader vocabulary, greater comprehension and reading fluency, improved grammar, and greater confidence and ability to express themselves. Find out more at english.com/readers

The procession that crosses Chaucer's pages is as full of life and as richly textured as a medieval tapestry. The Knight, the Miller, the Friar, the Squire, the Prioress, the Wife of Bath, and others who make up the cast of characters -- including Chaucer himself -- are real people, with human emotions and weaknesses. When it is remembered that Chaucer wrote in English at a time when Latin was the standard literary language across western Europe, the magnitude of his achievement is even more remarkable. But Chaucer's genius needs no historical introduction; it bursts forth from every page of The Canterbury Tales.

Geoffrey Chaucer is rightly regarded as the Father of English Literature. His observant wit, his narrative skill and characterization, his linguistic invention, have been a well from which the language's greatest writers have drawn: Shakespeare, Pope, Austen, Dickens among them. A courtier, a trade emissary and diplomat, he fought in the Hundred Years War and was captured and ransomed; his marriage into the family of John of Gaunt ensured his influence in political society. For more than a decade, he was engaged on his most famous work of all, The Canterbury Tales, until his death around 1400; there is no record of the precise date or the circumstances of his demise, despite vivid and colourful speculation. Bernard O'Donoghue is one of the country's leading poets and medievalists. His accessible new selection includes a linking commentary on the chosen texts, together with a comprehensive line-for-line glossary that makes this the most approachable and accessible introduction to Chaucer that readers can buy.

The classic respected series in a stunning new design. This edition of The Merchant's Prologue and Tale from the highly-respected Selected Tales series includes the full, complete text in the original Middle English, along with an in-depth introduction by Maurice Hussey, detailed notes and a comprehensive glossary.

The editor s lucid introduction, marginal glosses, and explanatory annotations make Troilus and Criseyde easily accessible to students with no prior knowledge of Chaucer or Middle English. Also included is Robert Henryson s Testament of Cresseid, the poignant "sequel" to Troilus and Criseyde from fifteenth-century Scotland. "Criticism" includes ten essays by a diverse group of distinguished Chaucerians, among them C. S. Lewis, E. Talbot Donaldson, Karla Taylor, Lee Patterson, and Jill Mann, that illuminate the major scholarly issues raised by this complex and challenging poem. A Glossary and Selected Bibliography are also included"

Making a major part of England's literary heritage accessible to a new audience, Peter Ackroyd's The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling renders Geoffrey Chaucer's timeless tales in lucid, compelling modern English prose, with illustrations by Nick Bantock in Penguin Classics. On a pilgrimage to Canterbury, a group of travellers agree to a storytelling competition. As they make their way on the road, they drink, laugh, flirt, argue and try to outdo each other with their tales. 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. Incorporating every style of medieval narrative - bawdy anecdote, allegorical fable and courtly romance - the tales encompass a blend of universal human themes, retold here for our times by bestselling author Peter Ackroyd. The edition also includes an introduction by Ackroyd, detailing some of the historical background to Chaucer and the Tales, and why he has been inspired to translate them for a new generation of readers. Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400) was an English author, poet, philosopher, courtier and diplomat, best known as the author of The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer is credited as being the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language. The first poet to have been buried in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey, his other works include The House of Fame, Troilus and Criseyde and The Book of the Duchess. Peter Ackroyd (b. 1949) is an award-winning writer and historian. Formerly literary editor of The Spectator and chief book reviewer for the The Times, he is the author of novels such as Hawksmoor (1985) and The House of Doctor Dee (1993), as well as non-fiction including Dickens: Public Life and Private Passion (2002), London: The Biography (2000), and Thames: Sacred River (2007). 'Ackroyd's retelling is compulsive, bold and rare ... as fresh as new paint' Observer 'The only version to read' Time Out