The Canterbury Tales: The First Fragment

Front Cover
Penguin, 1996 - Literary Criticism - 293 pages
A selection of the best-loved and most frequently studied of The Canterbury Tales

This collection is the perfect introduction to one of the cornerstones of English literature. The General Prologue provides picturesque character sketches of the colorful band of pilgrims who gather at a London inn on their way to Canterbury. The nine tales chosen range from the noble Knight's story of rivalry in love to the boastful and hypocritical Pardoner's moral treatise, and from the exuberant Wife of Bath's Arthurian legend to the Miller's worldly, ribald farce. Incorporating every type of medieval narrative--bawdy anecdote, allegorical fable, and courtly romance--the tales selected here encompass the blend of universal human themes and individual personal detail that have enthralled readers for more than six hundred years.


From inside the book

 

Selected pages

Contents

THE KNIGHTS TALE
53
THE MILLERS PROLOGUE AND TALE
184
THE REEVES PROLOGUE AND TALE
228
THE COOKS PROLOGUE AND TALE
255
Copyright

Other editions - View all

The Canterbury Tales: The First Fragment
Geoffrey Chaucer
Limited preview - 2005
The Canterbury Tales: The First Fragment
Geoffrey Chaucer
No preview available - 1996

Common terms and phrases

Absolon adoun agayn Allas anon Arcite Atthenes aventure berd biforn Boccaccio Boethius Canterbury Canterbury Tales carpenter Chaucer clerk compaignye deeth doon dooth doun Emelye eyen felawe gentil Geoffrey Chaucer Goddes goon gooth greet grete gyse hath heed heere heigh herte highte hire hond Hoost hous hymself knew Knight Knight's Tale kyng leet litel lord Mars Miller's Tale millere moore moost moot myghte namoore Nicholas noght noon nyght oother Palamon pilgrims prisoun Prologue pryvetee queynte quod REEVE'S TALE saugh seyde seye seyn shal sholde soore sorwe speke sterte swich Symkyn Tabard tale Thanne Thebes thee ther therfore therto Theseus thilke thise thou thow thurgh thyn thyng toun trewe Troilus and Criseyde tyme unto Venus weel Wel koude weren whan wight withouten wolde wood mad woot knows wyde yeve

About the author (1996)

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London, the son of a wine-merchant, in about 1342, and as he spent his life in royal government service his career happens to be unusually well documented. By 1357 Chaucer was a page to the wife of Prince Lionel, second son of Edward III, and it was while in the prince's service that Chaucer was ransomed when captured during the English campaign in France in 1359-60. Chaucer's wife Philippa, whom he married c. 1365, was the sister of Katherine Swynford, the mistress (c. 1370) and third wife (1396) of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, whose first wife Blanche (d. 1368) is commemorated in Chaucer's ealrist major poem, The Book of the Duchess.

From 1374 Chaucer worked as controller of customs on wool in the port of London, but between 1366 and 1378 he made a number of trips abroad on official business, including two trips to Italy in 1372-3 and 1378. The influence of Chaucer's encounter with Italian literature is felt in the poems he wrote in the late 1370's and early 1380s - The House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls and a version of The Knight's Tale - and finds its fullest expression in Troilus and Criseyde.

In 1386 Chaucer was member of parliament for Kent, but in the same year he resigned his customs post, although in 1389 he was appointed Clerk of the King's Works (resigning in 1391). After finishing Troilus and his translation into English prose of Boethius' De consolatione philosophiae, Chaucer started his Legend of Good Women. In the 1390s he worked on his most ambitious project, The Canterbury Tales, which remained unfinished at his death. In 1399 Chaucer leased a house in the precincts of Westminster Abbey but died in 1400 and was buried in the Abbey.

Bibliographic information

TitleThe Canterbury Tales: The First Fragment
Classics Series
Penguin classics
AuthorGeoffrey Chaucer
EditorMichael Alexander
PublisherPenguin, 1996
ISBN0140434097, 9780140434095
Length293 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Literary Criticism / Poetry
Poetry / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
  
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