The Canterbury Tales (The Penguin Classics)

The edition is gorgeous — the cover design is one of the nicest in the series, and it looks great on a shelf or as a gift. But the real win is what’s between the covers. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is still funny, raunchy, sharp, and human centuries later. A group of pilgrims swapping stories on the road to Canterbury turns into a tour of every kind of medieval voice, from the noble to the absurd, and Chaucer’s eye for character hasn’t dulled at all. A good translation (or a side-by-side Middle English edition if you’re game) makes all the difference. Bawdy, generous, and weirdly modern in its sense of humor.

Liked the explanations at the end of each persons presentation. A difficult story to read. Glad that I didn't have to read it high school or college.

This edition of The Canterbury Tales actually contains the tales combined with other poetry (disputedly written or not written by Chaucer), depending on the work. I am no English scholar, so my review, like my knowledge of poetry, is limited. I honestly purchased this work after wishing to know what a chanticleer was. I'm sure you are familiar with the phrase "biting off more than you can chew". Years ago I read Great Expectations, which is not an easy read. The Canterbury Tales made that seem easy. I am not educated enough to explain the form of poetry within, even knowing it is not the iambic pentameter that Shakespeare used. I consider this the Mount Everest of literature. Even modernized in translation, this poetry from the Middle Ages is not simple to read due to two factors: the juxtaposition of the words in each line throws your present-day reading comprehension for a loop, although sometimes you luckily fall into a rhythm, once you get the hang of it. Also, due to the use of Old (?) English terms we may not understand (followed by asterisks), the modern substitutes for them are provided at the end of the line, helpful but requiring one to start a line, jump to the end and then jump back to continue the line. I understand the meaning of "you knew the job was hard when you took it" and my personal quirks required me to finish this important work of literature once I started it. Reading this work required a substantial time investment. Maybe because this material exceeds my intelligence and a true scholar finds it a cake walk. But, honestly, once I finished, I felt like my brain had climbed Everest and was ready for something lighter. Whatever your motivation to read this, your most important qualities are patience and perseverence as you press on. Enjoy what I consider a hard-won battle to read Chaucer and learn about poetry from the Middle Ages and its contribution to English literature.

This review is for Kindle version of the Penguin Classics edition of the Canterbury Tales, edited by Neville Coghill. This version is in modern English. The Canterbury Tales follow a group of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, a cathedral town in England. Having all coincidentally stayed in the same inn, the group decides to go Canterbury together. The inn's owner, the Host, decides to make the journey more interesting by asking everyone in the party to tell a story: whoever tells the best story, in his opinion, will win a free dinner. The author, Geoffrey Chaucer, is a member of the party and serves as the narrator, and even tells a couple stories himself. Thus follows a series of poems. The topics vary wildly, and include faith, romance, gender equality, and wealth. Western culture has changed a lot since the Tales were written--but in some ways, we haven't changed at all. There is also occasional vulgar and perverted humor (my favorite--and not something I was expecting from medieval poetry). Just as the Tales vary wildly in topic, so too do they vary in quality. Some are quick, enjoyable, absorbing reads, while others are snooze fests that are a chore to get through. This is the main reason I have given the Tales four stars. The Tales are incomplete. Some of the poems were left unfinished with no in-story explanation, while others are interrupted by other characters. The metanarrative is never resolved (ie, the Host never picks the winner). The Penguin Classics edition also cuts the two prose tales, The Tale of Melibee and the Parson's Tale, and replaces them with summaries.

Burton Raffel’s unabridged translation into modern English of The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, and published by Modern Library in a luxurious hardcover sewn binding edition with deckled edges, is a must have in any library or home. A beautiful book, and one of the best translations. Geoffrey Chaucer‘s The Canterbury Tales, is a masterpiece of literature!

great looking book in the format I wanted. Obviously you can read this for free online. I wanted a pretty book to hold and read. That is what I got.

I have purchased several of these well-constructed little Penguin editions. For Chaucer's CANTERBURY TALES I was expecting, perhaps, a bilingual version on opposing pages or an interlinear transliteration of the Middle English original, but these were not to be. Instead, this version contains a very readable "modern English" verse rendition by Nevill Coghill, the first printing of which occurred in 1951. It is certainly not the language of Chaucer, but Coghill does an admiral job of maintaining the humor and spirit of the tales. He is an able rhymer and reminds that there is merit (and considerable effort, apparently) in compiling a version that is accessible enough to unfamiliar readers to be easily followed and understood, but still lyrical enough to signal that they are experiencing something special in the history of English Letters -- the unique underlying forms and style that make Chaucer "the father of English poetry." For readers who wish to graduate to the actual Middle English text, that version is available in a relatively inexpensive Penguin Classics paperback edition that the publisher identifies as the original [Middle English] language of Chaucer. Readers are advised to choose carefully when ordering, lest they receive an inappropriate version for their needs!

I don’t care for the book

EL libro cumplió todas mis expectativas. Lo que más me gustó fue el excelente acabado y calidad de materiales que conforman el libro.

classic

So convenient to re-discover this awesome classic from my Uni days in a compact LIGHTWEIGHT version. To be able to read on the go without hauling the heavy book around becomes a real treat at my age. I can enjoy it on my tablet, Kindle reader and even my cell phone. Keep your eyes open for sales. One can often find the classics for $1.99! Thanks Amazon!

Es ist ein Meisterwerk europäischer Literatur. Sehr hilfreich sind die Übersetzungen mittelalterlicher Wörter in unmittelbarer Nähe - am Ende des jeweiligen Verses - in modernes Englisch.

This work is part of the Great Middle English Poetics. Written by Geoffrey Chaucer " The Father of English Poetry", it was a verse about tales of pilgrims to Canterbury. Note that this work remained unfinished yet as it was the last work of Chaucer. Neville Coghill's fluid translation conveys both the rhyme and readibility.