From BookJive
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| Edition: | Penguin Classics (Paperback) |
| Author: | Geoffrey Chaucer |
| Published: | January 2000 |
| Pages: | 528 |
| ISBN 10: | 0140440224 |
| New: | $19.78 (11) |
| Used: | $0.01 (664) |
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The Canterbury Tales, written in the late 14th century, by Geoffrey Chaucer. The Tales were written in middle English. The Tales are a collection of tales in many forms, written about a group of pilgrims amidst a pilgrimage. The tales are told from the point of view of a narrator, who proves to be unreliable as a narrator. These tales are told as part of a contest among the pilgrims, who are traveling from Southwark to the shrine of St. Thomas Beckett in Canterbury Cathedral.
The structure of the tales changes as the storyteller changes. The pilgrims are a diverse group and their stories show this. From a Knight to a Monk to a Miller, there are stories and themes connected to each storyteller. Often, the different storytellers will respond to another pilgrim's story with their own.
The following is an excerpt from The Canterbury Tales: General Prologue
Here bygynneth the Book of the tales of Caunterbury
1 Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote, 2 The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, 3 And bathed every veyne in swich licóur 4 Of which vertú engendred is the flour; 5 Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth 6 Inspired hath in every holt and heeth 7 The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne 8 Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne, 9 And smale foweles maken melodye, 10 That slepen al the nyght with open ye, 11 So priketh hem Natúre in hir corages, 12 Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages 13 And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes, 14 To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; 15 And specially, from every shires ende 16 Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende, 17 The hooly blisful martir for to seke, 18 That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
