Chaucer Books

Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" has long been acclaimed one of the earliest classics of the English language. His original text has been converted to modern spellings and aptly edited by Michael Murphy. Readers are treated to informative articles on the language of this edition, a brief life of Chaucer, and a short note on how the text may be read. The Canterbury Marriage Tales presents The General Prologue (Beginning and End); the continues with the portrait, prologue and tale of "The Wife Of Bath"; "The Clerk"; "The Merchant"; and "The Franklin". Canterbury Marriage Tales is a "must" for all Chaucer students and enthusiasts!

With the original Chaucerian "Old English" aptly editeed and translated into modern spellings by Michael Murphy, Canterbury Marriage Tales: A Reader-Friendly Edition presents four of Geoffrey Chaucer's well-known, racy stories of love and marriage gone awry. In this edition, however, the sometimes confusing Old English of Chaucer's day has been made reader-friendly with modern spelling and numerous notes and references. Such meticulous annotation is especially helpful considering that the four stories in this volume - The Wife of Bath, The Clerk, The Merchant, and the Franklin - are all written in lyrical verse. Ribald, lusty, yet often thought-provoking, perhaps the true soul of Chaucer's work is best summed up in his own words: Love will not be constrained by mastery. When mastery comes, the god of love, anonm beateth his wings, and farewell, he is gone! Canterbury Marriage Tales is a strongly recommended addition to Chaucerian Studies reading lists and literary collections.

unabridged versions in the original middle english (not translated). Great for listening to along with the text to get a real feel for what the language sounded like. The full cast does a great job--each tale with it's own famous narrator.

The Canterbury Tales are hard to read -- the language is enough different to frustrate even the most dedicated of modern readers. The audio CD version changed this; Chaucer went from being a burden to a joy. Actually, this makes sense from the historical contect, where Chaucer's tales were primarily communicated in the spoken language.

For studying Chaucer, I had the following:
The Canterbury Tales (Penguin Classics) by Geoffrey Chaucer and Nevill Coghill
The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer by F. N. Robinson
A Companion to The Canterbury Tales by Margaret Hallissy

Why the Norton edition -- which preserves these tales in their original Middle English dialect -- over the "translated" versions of Chaucer's classic stories? Because it's only in their original form that they retain the poetry and power of Chaucer's intent. I read these stories with a professor who could passably read Middle English and it was a revelation. Before, with translated versions, I had never quite understood why Chaucer was considered so great, so necessary to the canon. Hearing them in the original form, I suddenly understood. The tales are funny, dirty, odd stories (like an English version of "The Decameron") told in striking, blood-stirring rhyme and rhythm. Hearing them read aloud was like music to the ear. Which makes the smoothed-over versions feel flat and dead to the ear.

Buy this edition. Try to learn enough Middle English to get along. Discover for yourself the power of Chaucer's poetry.

Critical editions from Norton have demonstrated they are usually the best for me.

Patterson's book is a true tour de force. It combines provocative insight with impressive scholarship, and is already a model for literary studies.

His is not always a highly legible book since there is so much going on, and occasionally one gets the feeling that Patterson has too much to tell us (the sheer number and volume of the footnotes are indicative of his erudition).

This is not the forum to get into a scholarly discussion of the pros and cons of this title, and a short review could never do justice to Patterson's range and command of discourse. Allow me to point out one tiny thing: Patterson, in choosing mottos for his chapters from Don DeLillo's "Libra," manages to show how Chaucer studies are indeed still relevant, how the works of an author (Patterson doesn't limit himself to the "Canterbury Tales"--see his discussion of "Anelida and Arcite") dead for hundreds of years still is meaningful, if one reads him carefully, not just but also against the grain.

Patterson's book remains the classic new historicist study of the Chaucerian corpus. Construing his argument around the emergence of the self-aware subject in the late Middle Ages, Patterson opens his study with a an eloquent explanation of the interrelatedness of modernity and subjectivity. Chapters 1 & 2 set forth the parameters of his main thesis, noting how the subject is always constructed through history, rather than in opposition to it (despite the claims of these subjects to the contrary). While chapter 3's examination of the Knight's Tale is perhaps overdetermined by the theoretical models of the first two chapters, the rest of the book, particularly chapters 6 and 8, demonstrates Patterson's thinking and writing at its best, especially in his riveting analysis of the relationship between te Pardoner's nihilism and the construction of his subjectivity. All in all, the book provides an illuminating new assessment of Chaucer's place in the historical development of the modern subject. It is still a standard in Chaucer studies and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Although I have not personally read this book, I was taught its content by the author. He is Head Of the English Department at Southampton University in England and is an absolute genius. He has a way of explaining the literature, drama and culture of the Medieval period in a way that is both clear and amusing. He brings the period to life and draws cross-historical comparisons which bring it right up to date. If you want to understand Medieval Literature, Drama and Culture, whether for study or personal interest, buy anything you can get hold of that was written by this man. Your money will certainly not be wasted. At the risk of repeating myself, he is a genius.

Often texts like this one end up being dry, boring writing that one must plod through in hopes of getting some insight that doesn't dissect beyond recognition the literature it is examining. Happily, such is not the case with McGavin's 'Chaucer and Dissimilarity'. Examining primarily Chaucer's works 'House of Fame' and 'Troilus and Criseyde', McGavin proceeds to draw comparisons and contrasts, including looking out toward the Pearl-poet and Chaucer's magnum opus, the Canterbury Tales.

McGavin looks at different devices, such as the imago, the similitudo, and exemplum. The imago he describes as being the literary equivalent of a painting such as that of saints, kings or even abstractions -- there is a recognition, but no true likeness for comparison, so the dissimilarity and similarity are both impossible to fully grasp in many ways.

With regard to similitudo, the uses of similies can be important in setting up dissimilarities for poetic or dramatic effect. McGavin says that Chaucer tends against the norms for use of similies, creating a give-and-take dialectic between similies and context.

Many works of writers of Chaucer's era, and in one possible interpretation Chaucer's work itself, are capable of being classified as examples of exemplum, an example or standard by which others, including real life situations, are to be judged. McGavin argues that Chaucer destabilises his characters and situations in key ways so that, while they might seem to be exempla, they in fact fail to be standards because of the key interplay of dissimilarities. Whereas in many cases of exempla, the audience are comparing their own lives with the work they are reading, This often becomes difficult with Chaucer's work,

McGavin states that 'reading dissimilarity is an activity which Chaucer insists upon at all levels of his mature work.' The understanding of this is crucial to deep, mature comprehension of the stories, the devices in the stories, the contexts, and the subtexts in Chaucers major works.

More work with the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer's most famous and widely-read work, would be welcome here. The book ends with a good index and a generous bibliography of primary and secondary texts.

I'm a fool for historical mysteries, and I was out of any lightweight fiction to read. I grabbed this book on a whim as I passed through my local library... and now I'm putting the author's other books on my wishlist.

Basic premise: Before Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, he was asked to do special projects on behalf of the crown... well, asked indirectly at least. He's just returned from one adventure and is asked to look into a small matter in Dartmouth involving the loss of a cargo that's important to a trade agreement. While trying to follow his instructions, he becomes distracted by other events... which include a dead body or two.

It's a well crafted tale, and the author kept my attention even with a lot of things going on. The author kept me guessing and kept me turning pages. I liked and believed the characters, and the history lessons came through with absolutely no sense of being lectured to. In short: this is a fun read.

I confess that I've never read the Canterbury Tales. I'm familiar enough with them generally to catch that in-jokes were being told; I suspect they'd have been even more entertaining if I'd bothered to take more traditional literature classes. Also, this is clearly the third (? well not the first) book in the series, but that never presented a problem. The relationships here don't hinge particularly on earlier events, so this worked fine as a standalone novel.

Good story. A fine choice for a lazy Sunday afternoon, any day of the week.

After the disappointment of "Chaucer and the Legend of Good Women," I was happy to find myself deeply absorbed with the goings-on in "Chaucer and the Doctor of Physic." Suspenseful and intriguing, this third Chaucer installment is definitely the best mystery novel in the series so far and is worth recommending as an excellent read.

Geoffrey Chaucer has only just recently returned from his diplomatic mission to Italy and is enjoying a brief respite with his family, when he is once again summoned by his king to go and sort out a spot of trouble in Devon. The captain of an Italian ship had stored his valueable cargo at the mayor of the seaport of Dartmouth's warehouse while his ship was being repaired. Unfortunately, the cargo has now been stolen, with both the sea captain and the mayor accusing each other of the theft. And because these accusations and counteraccusations could disrupt the good and lucrative relationship the English have with the Italians, Chaucer has been asked to investigate the matter and resolve it as soon as possible. Not an easy task at all given that the Mayor, rogue though he is, is a very popular figure, and the townspeople's natural hostility to foreigners and Londoners. Could that be the reason why Chaucer and his party are attacked just a few miles outside the town? Things become even more complicated and dire when a murder is committed at Richard Storey's (Chaucer's host) house and Storey's own son is implicated in the murder. Chaucer, however, is not convinced that everything is so cut and dried. There is something dark and sinister going on in the town of Dartmouth and Chaucer means to discover what it is and put and end to it...

If you enjoy the dark and atmospheric West Country mysteries that Michael Jecks pens, you will definitely enjoy "Chaucer and the Doctor of Physic." Philipa Morgan's latest effort possesses many of the same qualities that a book by Michael Jecks would possess: the dark and threatening atmosphere, the detailed descriptions of scenes, the clever layering of historical fact into the mystery at hand, an intriguing and suspenseful mystery subplot, red herring suspects, clever plot twists and turns, and credible and believably portrayed characters (I, especially liked her portrayal of Chaucer and the clever way with which she inserts characters easily recognised from Chaucer's works into her mysteries). I was hooked from the very first chapter and simply had to finish the book in one go. All in all, this was a fantastic read, and I'm eagerly looking forward to the next "Chaucer" mystery novel.

Great book for any cat lover or animal lover

author of "Hobo Finds A Home"

A super book of stories that bring together folk tales of a variety of cultures in a setting that will delight any young reader. The illustrations bring the text alive.

Calabrese writes in a witty style that informs as it delights. This is a great book for students, teachers and anyone interested in Ovid's influence on the writings of the father on English poetry. Bravo!

Insightful, witty, and exceptionally well-written commentary on the complex nature of love and desire ("ernest" or "game"?) in Chaucer's time--and our own.

I (or the powers that be) left out an "is" in the last sentence of my review. I would appreciate a correction.

Thanks!

Lucidly, entertainingly, and meticulously, Wallace dismantles popular notions of Chaucer and (more importantly for medievalists) of the traditional division between the medieval and the early modern worlds. By tracing Chaucer's interaction with "Trecento" authors, he charts the poet's interest in a society organized around "associational forms" (the model for this is Florence) versus one structured around a single and despotic ruler (the model for this is Milan). Although many chapters focus on specific tales, Wallace does a great job of reading across all of Chaucer's works to argue his point, and the book moves in a natural progression through various themes and dialectics. (I'm thinking here of two chapters in particular: "Powers of the Countryside" and "Absent City.")

In sum, for anyone who wants some good beach reading, you should buy this book and cancel your trip. Wallace's meditation on Chaucer serious and important; it should not be taken lightly.

This is a great place to start for anybody interested in the influence of alchemical symbolism on english literature. The alchemists (and especially those who produced alchemical texts) did all kinds of strange, obscure, difficult, puzzling, and therefore fascinating things with language. This fact was not lost on the many important literary figures who never got their hands dirty but found alchemy useful as a theme or symbol in their work, and as this book demonstrates they had many good reasons to take an interest. So will you. Alchemy has been too long neglected as a key element in the religious life of the renaissance and after, and the texts of literary authors dealing with alchemy are an important source for our understanding of this--which still has yet to be fully researched and explained. This book is an important first step, and hopefully will inspire many future studies.

Occultists and spiritual alchemists with an interest in literature and the history of alchemy will find much of value here, although it does not speak to the post-19th century occultist reading of alchemy as much as the renaissance and medieval tradition.

Linden is probably one of the few serious scholars to have taken into consideration the importance of the use of alchemical registers in various central works of late medieval and early modern English literature. Together with an impressive knowledge of the fundamental and less known works of sixteenth century English alchemy, Linden provides his readers with a fisheye view on the idiosyncratic uses authors like Chaucer, Donne, Herbert and others, have made of basic alchemic concepts. The text is important for those scholars and amateurs of the field who still think that alchemy occupies a central position in the "languages", in Pocock's words, spoken in Early Modern England. A work of admirable seriousness and impressive documentation.