Chaucer Books

I love these books and have read everyone now. This one is as a good as the others. I am glad that Owen has finally returned to Wales for a time. Brother Michelo's growth is fascinating.

I agree totally with the reader who wrote that a simple list of characters would have helped. I too, thought the names were very confusing, Dafydd, Dyfrid, the dogs names so close to the men's names...ahhh. The names were also very long. I found myself having to go backwards to read to figure it all out. It was more work than enjoyment. I have read about 5 other Candance Robb books and I enjoyed this one the least. The others were very good.

How do I rate the best thus far in a series of 5-star books?!?! If there were more stars, this book would get them from me. I read it in one day, devoured it like Belgian chocolates. What can I say? I loved the journey through Wales, the pilgrimage. It was great to meet Martin the Fleming again (Jasper's old friend). Sir Robert and Michaelo were wonderful. Tangwystl, yes what a beautiful name. It was fascinating to find out Owen's feelings upon revisiting Wales, crossing the Severn, meeting up with countrymen and family. The author does a phenomenal job of characterizations. The bard Daffyd was fascinating, as were his friends Cadwall and the two dogs. Great books, all of them so far, but this is my favorite. I've been to Wales and this book captures the mystery perfectly!

Spring 1369, Owen Archer, one-time soldier and spy is out recruiting archers for the Duke of Lancaster, but he is also on a mission to find out whether the Duke's own steward is betraying him to the Welsh rebels. Trouble goes before them and a body in the Duke's livery is left at the city gates.
All of Candace Robb's novels have great appeal to those interested in the medieval period and this one is no exception. Owen Archer is a believable hero and the area of York in which he lived is not too far from my own home which lends a extra dimension to the novels from me.

I think this is my favorite so far of the Owen Archer series. It certainly gives one much to think about. Although A Gift of Sanctuary takes place in Wales and lacks the Archbishop's Spy Owen's charismatic wife, Lucy, the apothecary, it does expand on the characters of her father Sir Robert D'Arby and of the Archbishop's secretary, the mercurial Brother Michaelo. These are characters with which the reader has become familiar in earlier works. When the elderly knight and the irritating brother are thrown together as companions on pilgrimage to a sacred site in Wales and travel with Owen who is on a mission for the Duke of Lancaster, the reader has the opportunity to know them better. Both individuals grown in depth throughout the story, adding human interest to the story of murder and love betrayed. Indeeed, the story focuses as much on the development of these two people as it does on the mystery itself.

Haunting too is the tale of Owen's long separation from his family and of the many changes that are wrought by time in one's absence from home. In the years during which the action takes place, travel is a dangerous pursuit undertaken only rarely and then usually for religious or commercial reasons. Most people had not travelled more than a few miles from their home. For Owen, who left home years before to become an archer for the Duke of Lancaster, returning home to Wales is a bitter sweet experience at best.

Interesting too is the reintroduction of the poet Chauce--he appeared in an earlier story as well--and of a Welsh bard (with whose name I am unfamiliar). Both add some comic relief to the story, especially Dafydd ap Gwilym who plays a wise fool throughout. I took a class in Middle English, reading Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, when I was working on my MA in history, and although I struggled through the unfamiliar and vaguely familiar words of the poetry, I never learned much about the man himself. Robb's recreation of his personality, while it may not be perfectly accurate is probably not far from the truth.

Again the author provides an interesting summation of the history of the period, including the political climate of the Welsh-English frontier of the 14th Century.

Chacuer's Tales have lived on because they address the human condition with keen insight, humor and honesty. Walking to Canterbury by Jerry Ellis is a highly recommended read for those who want to follow the author on a fun walking adventure along the route of the Canterbury Tales. It is easy reading and filled with heart, humor and amazing little known facts about the Middle Ages.

This is an unbelievably great edition of The Canterbury Tales. All I wanted was the original, complete version with definitions for archaic words. But the Penguin Classics edition was all I could find, so I got it. It comes with over 500 pages of extras!!! Super-detailed notes, a great glossary, and lots on Chaucer, his times, literary genres, etc., etc. Multiple interpretations are given for parts scholars don't agree on. I can't believe I paid $80 for the Riverside Chaucer in college! ...which I later sold back for much less. This edition blew me away, and it's relatively cheap.

If you haven't read Chaucer and want to read him in old English, it's tough at first, but it gets easier with practice. There are long tales, short tales, noble tales, bawdy tales, etc. If you just want to read a few, there are cheaper paperbacks with just a few. If you want the complete tales but not the essays and things, they exist, but they're more expensive than this edition!

As a reader of Middle English tales in the original spelling and structure, I found this edition to be a good publication. It makes for good adventure and humor and suspense. I enjoy reading Chaucer in front of my fireplace on snowy winter nights.

Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (Original-Spelling Edition). Edited by Jill Mann. Penguin Classics, 2005. ISBN 014042234X.

The Canterbury Tales itself needs no review, as Chaucer is universally acknowledged to be the greatest English poet after Shakespeare and Milton. As Chaucer's Prologue explains, the Tales are stories told by pilgrims en route to Canterbury. They range from tales of courtly love to bawdy farce to fable. Chaucer is a storyteller, and it might surprise some modern people just how entertaining a seven-hundred-year-old collection of stories might be.

Unfortunately, the English language has changed since Chaucer's time, making it difficult for modern English readers to enjoy the Canterbury Tales without a bit of work. Chaucer wrote in a dialect of Middle English (ME) which is a direct ancestor of Present Day English (PDE). This relationship makes Chaucer much easier to read than other dialects of ME further removed from PDE, such as that in which the Gawain poet wrote. Chaucer's vocabulary, consisting mainly of words derived from French and Old English, is also easier than the Gawain poet's. With a little concentration, the modern reader will probably find many ME words that looked unintelligible are actually similar to PDE words. (This edition includes a note on "Chaucer's Language" which explains Middle English grammar well, but due to its use of grammatical terminology, it will be helpful only to those who already know what such things as pluperfect and genitive singular mean.) Getting used to Middle English will take time, but it's worth it.

Now for this particular edition. I found it well edited, with glosses at the bottom of each page and detailed endnotes, which occupy about a third of the volume. Very rarely did I have a question that Mann did not address in one place or the other. There is a 140-page glossary which includes (I think) all words glossed. Archaic characters such as thorn are replaced with their modern equivalents; otherwise spelling is unchanged. My only complaint is its bulkiness: at 1254 pages, it's quite fat.

Here's a sample of the Canterbury Tales as edited by Mann:


Whilom, as olde stories tellen us,
Ther was a duc that highte Theseus. 860
Of Atthenes he was lord and governour,
And in his time swich a conqueror
That gretter was ther noon under the sonne.
Ful many a riche contree hadde he wonne,
What with his wisdom and his chivalrye. 865

859 Whilom: once upon a time 860 highte: was called


Here's my prose modernization:Long ago, as old stories tell us, there was a duke that was called Theseus. He was the lord and governor of Athens, and such a conqueror that there was none greater under the sun. He had won many a rich country with his wisdom and chivalry.

Now Chaucer can be more complicated than this, but Mann's glosses almost always make him intelligible to the enterprising reader. Many words are very similar to their modern equivalents: "tellen" = "tell," "ther" = "there," "swich" = "such." The French influence is obvious in such words as "riche" and "duc."

As you can see, glosses are identifiable by line numbers at the bottom of the page, but they are not set off in the text. Line numbers correspond, I believe, to the standard lineation of the Tales.

At about twelve dollars on Amazon, this edition is a bargain. It's complete and cheap. I highly recommend it to those who want to read the actual words that Chaucer wrote.

I bought this Penguin Classics edition of Chaucer last year during a visit to Canterbury. I already owned the modernized edition edited by the late Nevill Coghill, but I figured: Hey, I'm in Canterbury--I have to buy a copy. So I bought this one.
For starters, this is the complete text of the Tales, and it is in the original Middle English. While the language may take a while to get used to (for beginners, especially) it's a blast to read. Another plus for this edition is the heavy, heavy glossing and a really extensive notes section which helped even an experienced reader of Chaucer like myself.
If you're new to Chaucer, or even if you're not, this is the edition to have. It's a paperback, so it's portable, and it's complete. You won't be left wanting an odd tale or two with this book.
Highly recommended.

I first bought this at a school book fair while still in junior high. Half a lifetime later it is still a treasure to me, albeit a well-worn treasure. Time for a new copy. I only wish for Donne's Holy Sonnet XIV: Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God, and Hopkins' Hurrahing in Harvest ... "Up above, what wind-walks! what lovely behaviour/Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, wilful-wavier/Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies? ..." This is missing, but there is still enough (and but the beholder wanting). I wish, also, there were more high school English teachers who are excited, passionate about the great poets, but they've become mired in the cult of relevancy. Such a loss. Such a loss.

This book should be in the collection of every person that desires to write poetry. Study it from cover-to-cover before beginning your own writing. I especially like the way it is arranged "historically" - chronologically - so you can more easily understand the changes that occurred during the English history of poetry.

This is an excellent collection of British poetry, and all for the price of a paperback novel. A relatively large selection of poets are represented, focusing mostly on the Elizabethan poets up to the nineteenth century, wisely leaving most of the modern stuff out. Not only are the classic poets like Shakespeare, Herrick, Milton, and Wordsworth present, but also some of the more often overlooked poets such as Emily Bronte, Henry King, and Sir Walter Raleigh. If you are a lover of poetry you probably already own a larger collection of poetry and don't need a relatively small volume like this one. If, however, you are only just discovering the beauty of poetry, this is a worthwhile purchase. "Immortal Poems of the English Language" is also excellent for new poetry lovers. I just wish more people loved this beautiful and uniquely human form of emotional expression.

If you want a good collection of "famous" English poetry, but don't want to spring for the pricey "New Oxford Book of English Verse," this is a very good choice. It's acceptably thick (589 pages), and covers over 120 poets. The editors allot 10-30 pages each to the big names, so you get a good overview of their work. The book has a good-sized, attractive typeface, and is well-indexed.

Drawbacks are minor, but include its age. It was published in 1955, and includes almost no 20th century poets, women, or minorities. There's no biographical or critical data, just the poems themselves. But as a resource for classics, this is a great collection, and a real bargain.

You'll find all of these poems elsewhere... in thick, expensive volumes. You know who to expect here, and, depending on your knowledge of poetry, might be, as I was, pleasantly surprised and introduced to unfamiliar poets. Buy this book because you can. Read it because the poems are great.

One stop shopping for all your British poetry needs? Not quite. While that fellow Anonymous gets a few selections, as does his various collegagues and peers, consider this a sampler. A few selections from everyone. Yes, yes.. a 589 page sampler. That's the beauty of it.

I'm a Hopkins fans, and was pleased to see his best pieces. I expected those. New to me were Marston, Oldys, Googe, and a myriad of others. Now I am intrigued to read more of their work.

Portable, and easy to stuff in a coat or briefcase, you'll like the friendly size of the book. The poets are indexed by last name, but organized by chronology in the text itself. The typography is readable (not that teeny tiny stuff some publishers think is good for anthologies).

What more could you want?

I fully recommend this book.

Anthony Trendl

I began reading this catchy translation only to find that it omitted material which other modern renderings have and also appeared to be poorly edited. I personally would recommend reading Chaucer in the original, but if you must have a translation, try Ecker and Crook's (ISBN 0963651234) instead. It is slightly more difficult to read but is both edited properly and faithful to the original. It is also one of the few complete translations, covering all 22 poetry tales and 2 prose tales of the 24 we have (of the intended 120 of this never-completed work).

I enjoyed two courses in Chaucer with recognized authorities in the field and enjoyed teaching the Prologue and various tales in survey courses almost every semester for forty years. Although I was dubious about the shortened line, I found Glaser's modern verse translation the most enjoyable read of this material I had ever experienced. I think the skill and wit of the translator has made the real Chaucer easily available to any intelligent reader of English. I think this work belongs right beside the Riverside edition of Chaucer's works on the bookshelf of every student of Chaucer and in the hands all who would enjoy this monumental narrative.
Hoyt E. Bowen, Professor Emeritus

At this point in my life I'm reading for fun and enjoy a good story telling. This version of the classic is enjoyable to read and moves fast. Read the Authors notes in the beginning. It will truly make you appreciate this translation and Chaucer's original intent. You also get a nice history lesson as a bonus.

I'm not an English major, or into great literature. I just like to read good books. As part of my search for a good read, I stumbled across this translation of Chaucer, and it caught my interest.

I'm glad it did. I found this translation of Chaucer simply fantastic. This translation is different in that it doesn't constrain itself to using the same number of syllables per line as the original. So instead of forcing things, it used a more modern form that is really fun to read. English has changed, and we don't pronounce words the same any more, and this translation realizes that, and so produces something that is probably closer to the original intent.

Sure, reading the original, or a totally "faithful" translation might seem to be more "pure" to hard core literary folks, but this translation in many ways is more pure to the original spirit of the work. I would imagine that the contemporaries of Chaucer could enjoy the original as much as I enjoyed this translation. And it didn't take lots of effort to read - it was just fun.

So, if you were exposed to Chaucer in high school or college, and just never got it, or hated trying to make sense of the original or translations that tried to follow the original meter exactly, then I think you should re-visit Chaucer with this great translation.

Congratulations to Joseph Glaser for this bold translation that makes Chaucer accessible to the modern reader.

We started (my 10 yr. old son and myself) to read this book with high hopes but when we got to the naked bottoms, farts, etc.. we put it down. This definitely should not be in the children's section of the library.

My pre-reader son loved this book. Its a comic book version of Cnaterbury Tales with wonderful art. Two of the stories revolve around farts. Its a beautiful thing. He carried it around with him for days, and still tells the stories.

Marcia Williams' CHAUCER'S CANTERBURY TALES uses a cartoon-book format and easier language to translate the Middle Ages to grades 3-5. Nine travelers take turns swapping stories in this lively retelling of classics from the Tales: an unusual and perfect literary introduction for the lower grade levels.

This is a wonderfully illustrated retelling of some of the Tales. It even includes snatches of Middle English in the artwork, which my children found fascinating. BUT BE WARNED: Chaucer is known for bawdiness, and this book has not been cleaned-up and made as child-friendly as some might expect. There is A LOT of farting, naked bottoms, and bed-hopping. The farting isn't really a problem (the kids love it, as did Chaucer, obviously), but The Reeve's Tale is really not adaptable to children, and should probably have been left out. This aside, it's a terrific book.

Having trudged through literally dozens of books on the fourteenth century, it was delightfully refreshing to read _Daily Life in Chaucer's England_. I do Medieval Re-creation in my spare time, and found this one of the best resources in print. No more searching through dozens of books to find what a peasant's shoes look like, or what a wealthly merchant would be wearing. From the Lord's Prayer in Latin and Olde English, to the rules for a medieval version of backgammon, this book has it all. With just enough detail to give a thorough idea of the times, and a detail bibliography, this book should be the launch pad for anyone interested in the fourteenth century

This book is a well presented look at medieval life in the late 14C. I doesn't dwell for long on any particular subject, so if you need more in depth information on a subject you will need another moe specific book to compliment this one. It does however, touch on, as the title implies, the things that everyday people did, most books are either about the nobility or the combat, great for the high medieval re-enactor.

This is a good book as a general introduction to the mid-late 14th century. It is well organised with a nice assortment of information to get you started on the wonderful road of re-enactment.

This book will take you right away in what life raelly was in Medieval England. It covers all social classes and let you know the differences between them, not only on wealth amount, but also on diet, pastimes and clothing. It also contains some clothing patterns and recipes of the time.After you read it, you'll be able to understand the mentality of these people and how it is reflected in their literature.

... and history of the late 14th century. Ackroyd is more than just an excellent writer and distiller of information. He is clearly well-versed in the significance of Chaucer's writings and impact upon English literature. I am one who greatly appreciates the fact that many lives can be elegantly presented in under 800 pages. Ackroyd proves this point, bringing his slim volume in at 175 pages. Generally, something would have to give in this smaller dosage, either Chaucer's other writings or a sense of the historical time in which the subject lived. Both, however were well presented, creating a rich tapestry of a time long ago.

This is a very informative book. I knew very little about Geoffery Chaucer before reading this book. I was surprise to find out the he was more than just a poet. Overall, I was pleased.

Geoffrey Chaucer, most famously the author of "The Canterbury Tales," is a challenge to modern day profilers in search of the kind of detail that fills steamer trunk sized biographies. The 14th century England in which he breathed was a long, long time ago, in a far-off turbulent galaxy at that. Yet, he left behind a remarkable contribution to literary tradition, one that continues to hold influence and pleasure, and his emergent literate and litigious culture left behind enough public records to save him from total obscurity. Peter Ackroyd, known for novels and more voluminous biographies, here creates in CHAUCER a concise yet multidimensional and very satisfying look at the man and his achievement.

Even without his literary legacy, Chaucer bears attention because of what he represents of the changing medieval English social structure. A member of the merchant class, he was able to move into the royal circle, signaling the monarchs' reliance on commerce. Before he came to moonlight as the favorite court poet, he was a talented negotiator sent abroad and it was during a fortuitous sojourn in Italy that he encountered the literary models of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio that he would internalize and make uniquely his and England's own new vision.

Working with what is definitely known and leaving guess work to others, Ackroyd offers an agile, chronological review of Chaucer's works and the events of his life, forming a vivid picture of an artist's growing awareness of the possibilities of art and his role in fulfilling them. It is good historical reading, it is fine critical reading and it is delightfully intelligent general reading rendered in a firm and graceful voice. This is supposed to be the first of a series of "brief lives" by Ackroyd and on the basis of CHAUCER, I'm signing up to read them all.

This book has a collection of many short stories in it. Each with humor and each with a theme. It takes place in a inn where a group of pilgrims are staying for the night. Then the inn keeper tells them they each must tell a story, so each of the different pilgrims with different occupations and personalities tells a tale, tell morning is reached. Most of the tales our body comical and have a theme. The book takes point from one of the pilgrims named Chauser who listens to the different tails but never interacts in the story. The pros of this would definitely be it's comedy, poetry, challenge, action and love. Also the point of view of one to another's occupation is interesting. The cons of this book would be it's tendency to decrease in interest to find words that rhyme. It also is easy to loose track of the main story with it's rhyme and old English text. I am definitely going to recommend this book to some friend. Also many of my friends are good readers and will love it. I hope you do to.

Romantic in feeling: Love ,Lust Greed: all told throught different experences and understandings. Quotes such as "If the gold rusts, what will the iron do? For if a priest is foul in whom we trust, no wonder a layman shows a little rust."

This book has a collection of many short stories in it, each with humor, and each with a theme. It takes place in an inn, where a group of pilgrims are staying for the night. Then the inn keeper tells them, they each must tell a story. So each of the different pilgrims, with different occupations and personalities, tells a tale, until morning is reached. Most of the tales are bawdy,comical, and have a theme. The book takes the point of view from one of the pilgrims, named Chauser, who listens to the different tales, but never interacts in the story. The pros of this book would definitely be it's comedy, poetry, challenge, action and love. Also, the point of view from various occupations, one to another, is interesting. The cons of this book would be, it's tendency to use unmeaningful words just to complete a rhyme. It also is easy to lose track of the main story with it's rhyme and old English text. I am definitely going to recommend this book to some of my friends, who are good readers and will love it. I hope you do to.

If you have any interest in Chaucer or The Canterbury Tales, then THE COMPLETE POETRY AND PROSE OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER is a volume that you must own. As the title says, this is the complete poetry and prose of Chaucer, written in the original Middle English. The Canterbury Tales and Chaucer's longer poems are relatively easier to find, but some of his other writings are more difficult to obtain, such as some of his shorter poems. This is one of the only collections that I know that includes all those works and in the original Middle English. The book is quality bound and the text includes some very useful introductions, footnotes, and commentaries. A great gift for any person who loves the work of Chaucer.

This book is really nice. It looks good. The print is nice - not too big or too small. And it's really well bound. If you're looking for an all purpose book of Chaucer, this is the one. The volume also includes great foot notes, glosses, and historical commentary. It is heirloom quality. It is expensive, but if you like quality literature AND quality binding, you've found your match.

It's obviously meant as a college text book, but where else can you find all of Chaucer's stuff with a reasonable amount of commentary ? Beware that this is in the original English, not a modernization.

This book was wonderful and exciting. Chuacer, a old Greek writer, was a magnificent author and this book deserves a look. Reviewed by many historians, this book reveals much about Greeks past and is worth the 1.60 price (compared to 2.00 at bn.com). RECOMMENDED

Please realize that the above reviewer is mistaken; Chaucer does not chronicle the lives of Greeks WHATSOEVER. The Tales recount a pilgrimage in England!

Chaucer begins a literary tradition by writing about everyday people, not just the nobility. He depicts the characters with humor and insight. The tales themselves say much about the times and people. Just because it's a classic doesn't mean it isn't good. This edition saves you money but still gives you the Chaucer "flavor."