Chaucer Books

This is another standard work in the field of medieval literature. It provides an excellent, general overview, but is most valuable because of its extensive, annotated bibliographies of the Old and Middle English Periods. The bibliographies were prepared by Stanley B. Greenfield--enough said! If you don't know Greenfield and are interested in Anglo-Saxon literature, immediately buy the following (to keep by your side and to treasure): A New Critical History of Old English Literature by Stanley B. Greenfield and Daniel G. Calder.

The Canterbury Tales are difficult to understand, because of the language and because of the social context. The Companion dealt very well with both of these -- So much so, that I would consider this book to be absolutely essential for Chaucer. The Tales are a bit bawdy, and the Companion did not flinch at explaining this.

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
The Canterbury Tales [UNABRIDGED] (Audio CD)-- Michael Murphy ISBN 1402548931

It seems that the very mention of the phrase "D-Day" is always followed by the word "landings" as, together, they conjure up images of small craft and thousands of allied soldiers struggling to create beachheads on a stretch of French coastline fiercely defended by well-entrenched German soldiers. Whilst those landings signalled the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany, there was so much more besides and this book covers them all to great effect.

D-Day, Normandy Revisited is a hard back book measuring approx. 11" x 8" and containing 190 pages of well researched and equally well presented facts and photographs about one of the most pivotal dates in modern history - 6 June 1944.

Five beaches on the coast of Normandy were each given their own code name on being selected for the landing of over 156,000 allied troops. Additional Airborne Forces were also dropped behind enemy lines in order to attack the beach defences from the rear. As each of the 5 beachheads became established so those troops were then able to move inland - fighting running battles in the Normandy countryside as they did so. The book is, therefore, divided into five main sections as it tells the complete story of each of those beaches - Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. In this way the reader is treated to what the publishers aptly describe as a "photographic pilgrimage" - firstly to the beach in question and then to the towns, villages, farms and even individual buildings relevant to the events which followed the establishment of each separate beachhead.

With an easy-to-read style of writing, the author cleverly steers the reader through everything from the first wet footprints to the fierce fighting in the French countryside. With a generous and well-chosen selection of photographs - both modern and historic, we are shown what happened then and what it looks like now - 60 years on. Then, having followed the fortunes of those troops from one beach, we start all over again with another.

In many ways this book is a jigsaw containing all the pieces which make up a complete picture of the events which were D-Day. I have read the book and it seems to me that all the pieces are there but, more importantly, it serves as a most appropriate celebration of those key events which, as I have already mentioned, saw the beginning of the end of an evil regime which once dominated mainland Europe.

NM

I have studied Medieval work quite profusely, and this is one of the most extensive and interesting works I have read regarding Chaucer. Brilliant!

I cannot believe that this brilliant book was permitted to go out of print, containing as it does not only all of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in verse, but also a generous selection of Chaucer's earlier poetry, under the perhaps unfortunate title of "Minor Poems," together with his probable masterpiece, Troilus & Criseyde, and also, especially, Donaldson's brilliant, pellucid commentary on the works. It should also be noted that the poetry is presented in an uncrowded format, in a single column across the page, rather than with two columns, and has very handy fotnotes for further ease in reading, along with, of course the standardized spelling which makes this a very easy-to-read introduction to the poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer by a major scholar and critic. I hope it will soon come back into print again; it is a wonderful book.

There is no doubt that while one can access the "Canterbury Tales" in printed form at a fraction of the cost of the Working Facsimile, yet owning one, seeing the patience, dedication and art that went into scribing such works of a monumental stature at the time - that, in itself, is a thrill. The facsimile, showing all the side remarks in the margins, (including the ravages of woodworm in some cases) offers the scholar of the period enough indications and insight almost as much as the original MS itself. Of course, the most-loved Ellesmere Manuscript has again been safeguarded and rebound in the most sensible way as it originally was. Surely, working on the MS Facsimile has been a joy to me, and nothwithstanding the price which I found a bit staggering, I am sure I would be interested even in obtaining the full colour copy that was issued about two years ago.

Say you have always wanted to know something about Chaucer or read his works but just didn't know where to start, well this book from 1976 is probably the best place to begin.

The hardcover I have contains 32 pages of illustrations "drawn from collections of old prints, tapestries, woodcuts, and artifacts of the period". Author William Woods gives a very good explanation of the daily life during Chaucer's period.

Writing about finding a "marriage partner in the remote, desolate hamlets, the wedding ceremony itself; the lively lecherous Sundays, the all-powerful landlords, the filthy louse-ridden serfs, the rising working class, cases that came before a justice system that was neither just nor a system, examples of the music, scenes of a hellfire church leader terrifying his listeners, the turbulent, garbage strewn cities, the Black Death, the spirited funerals, the rebellion of the poverty-bound workers, the emergence of the new leaders, in short, the whole corrupt seething century when the seeds of the English Renaissance were sown."

If you are interested in both the English high medieval period from 1066 to 1400, or just Geoffrey Chaucer, this may be a book you need to look up.

Semper Fi.

Who is the narrator? By the end of the tale i was confused if Chaucer, The Franklin or one of his characters was speaking to me! Chaucer, the author of Canterbury Tales introdues the Franlin who now has to tell his tale to the rest of a pilgrimage on their way to Canterbury. The franklin who is just below the nobility in rank spells out an exquisite teale in which Arveragus marries Dorigen and promises never to be her master or force her to do anything unwillfully. Arveragus soon departs the scene as he goes to fight abroad and along comes Aurelius who declares his true love for Dorigen. Dorigen is upset and is in two minds what to do so she casts Aureilus away by setting him an impossible task of removing all the rocks in the sea to win her love. Aurelius nearly dies but with help from his brother and a magician an illusion is created whereby all the rocks disappear. Dorigen is now in trouble as Arveragus returns and she cannot possibly confess to love both men at the same time. She tells Arveragus of the situation who forces her to live with Aurelius. Dorigen thinks about committing suicide but then decides to approach Aurelius who forgives her and tells her to live with her husband. Aurelius now has no money to pay the magician for his illusion but all ends well as the magician lets him off. Who is the most kindes of them all? It is difficult to suggest who but this tale is so enthralling that you have to read it to believe it!

Wakefield has not "tried to write a synthesis or general history of Romanticism" nor probe for the origins and definition of the term. Rather, he accepts the common understanding among scholars and lay persons that Romanticism was the dominating art style in France in the first part of the nineteenth century, as it was throughout Europe. From this given, he approaches "the relationship between the two style [of visual art and literature] from a variety of different angles" shedding light on the interplay between them. He does however make references to Rousseau, for example, coming in the mid eighteenth century and the French poet Baudelaire coming in the latter half of the 1800s to help shed light on Romanticism in the central French arts of painting and literature during the decades he focuses on.

French Romanticism of the period was comparatively restrained since writers and painters "rarely went to the extreme of denying their classical birthright altogether." "Considerably bolder in theory than in practice," most leading artists voiced respect and sometimes inspiration or guidance from classical Western art. Delacroix, for example, despite the turmoil in his subjects and florid depictions of them, was not revolutionary or democratic in temperament.

The illustrations of the period art on nearly every page demonstrate the variety of "angles" Wakefield perceives and illuminates in this handsomely-produced work that is part art book and part literary and social history.

The Prologue is the summarized essence of ' The Canterbury Tales' It contains the descriptions of the pilgrims who are to each ideally tell two tales . Chaucer never completes this plan but he does in the prologue give us wonderful character sketches of everyone from the ideally virtuous Knight to the scandalous Wife of Bath . These small portraits outline clearly what is to come but in themselves reveal the world of the Tales . The Prologue is filled with humor and piety, with sacrasm and wit, with beauty of language and harsh social criticism.
It is the microcosm of the whole set of Tales which are to come. A masterpiece though marred to my mind as the whole work is by the Nun Prioress and her unfortunate blood- libel tale.