The Canterbury Tales And Other Poems

The Canterbury Tales and Other Poems Geoffrey Chaucer - An oddly diverse group of twenty-nine people meet at an inn. Each of them is on a pilgrimage to a martyr's shrine in Canterbury. The Host suggests the strange bunch journey together and tell stories to pass the time. The group heads off, including a Knight, a Miller, a Wife, a Cook, a Shipman, and a Nun, among others, telling stories that range from bawdy exploits to foolish workers to the lives of saints. A classic of English literature, this unabridged version of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales was first published in the early 1400s and edited into modern English by D. Laing Purves in 1879. Purves's collection of Chaucer's works also contains Troilus and Cressida and additional poems and prose.

"The Canterbury Tales and Other Poems" by Geoffrey Chaucer stands as a cornerstone in English literature, offering a captivating glimpse into the social fabric of medieval England. Written in the late 14th century, Chaucer's magnum opus is a collection of stories narrated by a diverse group of pilgrims en route to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. At the heart of "The Canterbury Tales" is Chaucer's keen observational wit, as he paints vivid portraits of individuals from various walks of life. Through the tales told by knights, clerics, merchants, and more, Chaucer explores themes of love, morality, and human nature, providing a rich tapestry of medieval society. The General Prologue sets the stage for the pilgrimage, introducing readers to the colorful cast of characters and their unique personalities. Each pilgrim's tale reflects their worldview, creating a dynamic mosaic that encompasses romance, tragedy, comedy, and moral allegory. Beyond "The Canterbury Tales," Chaucer's collection includes a variety of shorter poems, such as the dream vision "The Parliament of Fowls" and the elegiac "The Book of the Duchess." These poems showcase Chaucer's poetic range and depth of expression. "The Canterbury Tales and Other Poems" is a literary treasure that not only entertains with its narrative flair but also provides profound insights into the complexities of human experience. Immerse yourself in the linguistic richness and cultural panorama of Chaucer's work, where each tale unfolds as a masterpiece in the mosaic of medieval storytelling.

This introductory guide places the Canterbury Tales in the context of the crisis in English society in the fourteenth century. It examines the social diversity of Chaucer's pilgrims, the stylistic range of their tales and the psychological richness of their interaction. The volume offers students a clear image of the powerful representation of the social reality that makes the Canterbury Tales one of the most important texts in English literature. Emphasis is placed on the language of the poem, the place of Chaucer in subsequent literary tradition, and an entire chapter is devoted to the General Prologue which is widely studied on undergraduate courses. Finally, the volume offers a helpful chronology of the period and an invaluable guide to further reading.

THE object of this volume is to place before the general reader our two early poetic masterpieces — The Canterbury Tales and The Faerie Queen; to do so in a way that will render their "popular perusal" easy in a time of little leisure and unbounded temptations to intellectual languor; and, on the same conditions, to present a liberal and fairly representative selection from the less important and familiar poems of Chaucer and Spenser. There is, it may be said at the outset, peculiar advantage and propriety in placing the two poets side by side in the manner now attempted for the first time. Although two centuries divide them, yet Spenser is the direct and really the immediate successor to the poetical inheritance of Chaucer. Those two hundred years, eventful as they were, produced no poet at all worthy to take up the mantle that fell from Chaucer's shoulders; and Spenser does not need his affected archaisms, nor his frequent and reverent appeals to "Dan Geffrey," to vindicate for himself a place very close to his great predecessor in the literary history of England. If Chaucer is the "Well of English undefiled," Spenser is the broad and stately river that yet holds the tenure of its very life from the fountain far away in other and ruder scenes. The Canterbury Tales, so far as they are in verse, have been printed without any abridgement or designed change in the sense. But the two Tales in prose — Chaucer's Tale of Meliboeus, and the Parson's long Sermon on Penitence — have been contracted, so as to exclude thirty pages of unattractive prose, and to admit the same amount of interesting and characteristic poetry. The gaps thus made in the prose Tales, however, are supplied by careful outlines of the omitted matter, so that the reader need be at no loss to comprehend the whole scope and sequence of the original. With The Faerie Queen a bolder course has been pursued.

Differentiated book- It has a historical context with research of the time-The Canterbury Tales is a collection of twenty-four short stories written in Middle English by the English writer Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. They were mostly written in verse, although there are two in prose, and are presented as part of a storytelling competition by stories of a group of pilgrims during a trip from London to Canterbury to visit the Tomás Becket shrine in the cathedral of this city.The prize is a meal at the Tabard tavern in Southwark on their return. The stories have a structure similar to Boccaccio's Decameron. The Canterbury Tales is one of the most important works of English literature, and perhaps the best work of the Middle Ages in England. It was the last work of Geoffrey Chaucer, who in 1386 was appointed Comptroller of Customs and Justice of the Peace and in 1389 Scribe of the King's work.The prevailing version of the work today comes from two different English manuscripts, the Ellesmere and the Hengwrt manuscripts. His greatest contribution to English literature was the popularization of vernacular English in literature, as opposed to French, Italian, and Latin. However, English had been used as a literary language centuries before Chaucer and several of his contemporaries such as John Gower, William Langland, the Poet Pearl and Juliana de Norwich

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. Apart from the Canterbury Tales, there is also a collection of 21 short poems, The Romaunt Of The Rose, A Treatise On The Astrolabe, The Legend Of Good Women, Troilus And Criseyde, Boece, The Parliament Of Fowls, Anelida And Arcite, The House Of Fame, and The Book Of The Duchess.