Chaucer Books

Geoffrey Chaucer's CANTERBURY TALES has been viewed within narrow parameters for nearly 600 years. Recently new insight, well worth considering, has been offered. Dolores Cullen, in her book CHAUCER'S HOST UP-SO-DOUN, tilts the TALES upside down to reveal a previously unrecognized allegorical level.

Written in our modern English, Cullen intends CHAUCER'S HOST to be readable and understood by those with only a passing acquaintance with the TALES. It actually is. Through extensive research, and possibly some divine intervention, Cullen proves that Herry Bailly, the host of the Canterbury pilgrims and judge of their tales, is another Host and judge as well. She uncovers the identity of Christ in Bailly. Given the politic and religious environment in Chaucer's time, it's understandable why he would hide this alternate level of commentary.

Cullen's vision is remarkably clear and makes one wonder why this truth was not seen before. The academic world has been too uptight about how Chaucer was to be interpreted to allow revelations. Cullen's dedication and perseverance are to be commended. Unable to ignore the masterpiece beneath the masterpiece that was unveiled for her eyes, she refused to be silent.

CHAUCER'S HOST is a wonderful gift for anyone interested in great literature, or complicated literary puzzles, for everyone from high school students to book collecters. It is certain to spark a revolution in Chaucerian studies. If any one author is going to change the world of classic literature, it is Dolores Cullen. --Lisa C. Warner

Sheila Delany provides an important insight into Chaucer's view of the world in her definition of his complex perception of religious reality . His ' skeptical fideism' his belief which incorporates doubt and question is a central sign of the sophistication of the Chaucerian world- view. Delany writes clearly and interestingly in a scholarly study which the general reader can also greatly enjoy.

Any studying the Canterbury Tales will find this a fun examination of Chaucer, providing a fresh new look at Chaucer's intentions and the scholarly debates about his works. This reveals the allegorical meaning of his full cast of pilgrims, from their relationships to their nocturnal wanderings. A 'must' for serious readers of Chaucer.

In Chaucer's work, 'The Canterbury Tales', perhaps the greatest of English literary works from the period of the language known as Middle English, there is one particular piece that have always stood out for me.

'A Clerk ther was of Oxenford also,'

This is perhaps my favourite character, as when I first read it, it seemed to epitomise what I hoped for in my own life.

'That unto logik hadde longe y-go.
....
For him was lever have at his beddes heed
Twenty bokes, clad in blak or reed,

Of Aristotle and his philosophye,
Than robes riche, of fithele, or gay sautrye,
But al be that he was a philosophre,
Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre,
But al that he mighte of his freendes hente,
On bokes and on lerninge he it spente,
and bisily gan for the soules preye
Of hem that yaf him wherwith to scoleye.
....
...gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.'

Every now and then I cannot help but re-read this part of the Prologue, for a reminder of what I'm aiming for in my own life.

Chaucer was son of a wine merchant, something near and dear to my heart. Chaucer was well-read, well-phrased, well-mannered, industrious in literary and legal/administrative pursuits, as I trust I will become, if not already so qualified.

As one can see from the above examples, English has changed much over the past 600 years, but not so much as to make these passages unrecognisable. Compare for yourself with a modern translation, and see how much you can decipher.

Chaucer is one of the first great English authors of name; most (but not all) literary output in English prior to this time was anonymous. Living in the 1300s, he held administrative posts of importance under Kings from the time of Edward III to Henry IV. Never one to shrink from spending too much money (he had to reapply for pensions and ask for advances several times in his life) or shying away from controversy (he fell out of and came back into favour several times). When he died, he was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey, in a section on the south side that has since become Poet's Corner, largely due to Chaucer, the first great English poet, having been buried there.

In addition to his magnus opus, 'The Canterbury Tales', a collection of stories with prologue told by pilgrims on their journey to Canterbury (car radios and in-flight movies were rare in those days), Chaucer wrote minor poems to suit various occasions (his first record as poet comes from having written a poem as elegy on the death of John of Gaunt's first wife, Blanche, in 1369), and the major work for which he was noted for 'Troilus and Criseyde', which showed his sense of humour, power of observation and attention to detail, and keen dramatic skills in language. This work is often compared to Dante and Boccaccio, perhaps the most famous poets of the day. 'The Canterbury Tales' is actually intended to be much longer - 120 tales told by 30 pilgrims (two each on the way to Canterbury, and two each returning). As it is, there are only 24 tales plus a prologue - had it been completed, it would be by far the longest poem in the English language.

There is a strong, practical side to Chaucer's writing, sophisticated yet not aloof and removed from the affairs of the world, cultured yet in tune with the better (and more interesting) aspects of the common people, too.

This edition by E.T. Donaldson, published by the Indiana University Press, has 1000 pages of poetry, and an additional 150 pages of commentary, including essays on language construction, vocalisation, and versification.

There has been much published on Chaucer since this edition, but it still serves as an authoritative edition of the poetry (all presented in Chaucerian Middle English without Modern English renderings) as well as a source of interesting commentary.

Dinshaw's book is mandatory reading for anyone interested in the new critiques of Medieval writers. Her ideas are clearly elucidated and thought out. She explores the most important of Chaucer's works from a feminist position that takes the whole of the middle ages into consideration. Her elucidation of "Adam, The Scribe" was especially helpful.

High school and college-level literary collections strong in Chaucer studies will find CHAUCER'S THE CANTERBURY TALES a fine reader's supplemental guide which introduces readers to Chaucer's life and times. Chaucer's history and culture are surveyed in chapters which provide a critical approach to the Tales based on recent critical analysis, blending readings of key tales with ideas questioning approach, genre, language and even culture. Students will find it an excellent approach.

Chaucer's "Troilus and Creseyde" presents more formidable challenges for the modern reader than "The Canterbury Tales," making it a far better candidate for a modern translation should the goal be appreciation of Chaucer's brilliant characterization and intricate psychological analysis. This particular version retains all of the humor, subtlety, complexity of Chaucer's original text. Moreover, whereas I almost prefer prose translations of epic texts such as "The Odyssey," Chaucer's poem should be formatted as poetry. In this respect, score another point in favor of this translation which, if not immediately available, is worth waiting for.

This is an excellent source on medieval fashion, politics, life style, and even tells how the people of the medieval ages told time and wrote the date! It is a pity that it is out of print, but you could try your local library.

This Guide is just what it says, a full guide to Chaucer and his works. It contains thirty-six chapters written by thirty-six authors. It aims at providing the reader with the total sum of what we can know or think about Chaucer and his poems. The general impression we get when we read the whole book is that all possible angles have been retained and explored, all possible orientations and options have been considered. Such a tool is for students and even advanced students, who may read only a few chapters, and for scholars who will read them all. The book is devided in five sections, the first two being dedicated to the historical and literary contexts. The third section considers the various possible readings, particularly the readings of today which are specialized in the voluntarily biased points of view they develop : feminism, postmodernity, queer theory, postcolonialism, psychoanalysis and a few others. The fourth part is an exploration of how Chaucer was received from the fifteenth century to the twenty-first century, received in print, or on stage, or on the screen. Chaucer has become an unavoidable author both in English literature and the English language. Finally the fifth part gives the various study resources we can have and find in the world, particularly on the Internet. Such a heavy and rich book should satisfy everyone because of its wide range of approaches. And yet there is some kind of a flaw. The traditional reading of Chaucer was conservative and extremely locked up in a ? catholic ?, aristocratic, mysoginistic stand, perfectly well adapted to the training of a certain male elite in the English society up to the 1920s. At this time Virginia Wolf, among a few others, started looking at Chaucer with the eyes of the common reader. He was no longer read as an historically dated and linguistically characterized text but from the point of view of this common reader. This is an iconoclastic approach because it imposes onto the text a pre-digested reading determined by the sex or gender, age, culture, ideology, etc, of the readers. They do not try to read the text and find out its potential or potentials (most of which had been neglected and are still neglected), but to verify if the text enables them to project their own interests and convictions into it. If the ? old ? school had done their reading properly, unbiased by their own limited a priori interpretations, most of what these new trends are bringing up would have been considered long ago. These new approaches are nothing but a reaction to the limited approaches of before. In the old days they expurgated the text of some words and passages seen as immoral and slimy. Today they project into the text so much that we are wondering what in the text itself permits these readings and how we can in anyway see, for example, any gay side in Chaucer since our conception of gayness has nothing to do at all with the sexual practices of these distant centuries. It all sounds anachronistic and yet it is essential just to remind us that we should never satisfy ourselves with one vision, one approach, one logic. There is always somewhere a hidden side to things and an unconscious dimension of desires and impulses. All Chaucer lovers will love this book tremendously, even if some chapters make them grunt a little.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Universit? Paris Dauphine, Universit? Paris I Panth?on Sorbonne

I found this book to be a wonderful aid in assisting me in my study of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Gail Ashton writes her book for the beginner who needs assistance in doing a close reading of Chaucer's work. Various passages are given close readings by Ashton. She then explains the techniques the author employs, and provides definitions and questions that the reader should use to approach the work. The book is an excellent resource for how to approach Chaucer's or any author's work.