Geoffrey Chaucer Books

Cliff Notes was purchased for my husband to try and get through "Canterbury Tales". That about says it all. Great participation.

I'm one of those rare people who have actually read all of THE CANTERBURY TALES in the original Middle English. However, when teaching the tales for the first time to my senior high school students, I realized there was a lot I had forgotten. The first place I went for assistance was CLIFFSNOTES: THE CANTERURY TALES by Dr. James L. Roberts. The book includes a brief biography about Chaucer's life, an introduction to the work, a list of characters, a summary and commentary about each one of the tales, character analysis of selected characters (Harry Bailey, the Knight, the Miller, the Wife of Bath, the Pardoner), a few selected essays, a review, and a list of further resources. I found Cliffsnotes extremely helpful in preparing to teach THE CANTERBURY TALES for the first time and I know that some of my students found it just as useful as well (Middle English and high school students don't mix very well together). A great tool to supplement one's reading, studying, and teaching of Chaucer's THE CANTERBURY TALES.

The CliffsNotes booklet on THE CANTERBURY TALES is a helpful supplement which will lead the user to a deeper understanding of a fairly difficult subject. It contains information about Geoffrey Chaucer and his work in addition to an introduction, brief synopsis and character map. Critical commentaries on The Prologue, individual tales and Chaucer's Retraction are included as well as character analyses of Harry Bailey, the Host, the Knight, the Miller, the Wife of Bath and the Pardoner. Three critical essays are added plus an index. Properly used this guide will make the learning experience more meaningful as long as the student reads the entire literary work and completes all classroom assignments.

Since "The Canterbury Tales" can be rather daunting for the student, I think this is an exceptional way to garner more of the needed information. The definitions are to the point, and the summaries aren't lengthy and over-bearing. If this is something to be read in the classroom, I see no reason why this shouldn't accompany the text.

The notes are really helpful as a supplement to the book. I had to do a paper on it, and it gives a lot of insight on important topics to consider.

This is a wonderful book that gives the reader a feel for all social levels during the medieval times. I especially enjoyed The Wife of Bath's Tale. I recommend this book to anyone. It is interesting while being entertaining at the same time.

It was so lovely

Chaucer has given me a greater insight into life in the 14th century. We see the hypocrisy of the "genteel" people of the time. He has also transcended the boundaries of time for we can still see evidence of this hypocrisy in todays society. The Wife is a strong female character and the reader can not be certain if she is feminist or anti-feminist nor can they be certain if Chaucer is laughing at her or with her. This was a very crafty device by Chaucer's and he must be commended for it. This device is shown in how long Chaucer allows the Wife to speak about herself, it is the longest prologue in the book except of course for the General Prologue. The Wife's views and issues can also be seen in her choice of tale but her voice seems somewhat more subdued here and we can distinctly see Chaucer's own views and ideas coming out in the tale.The very poetic style in which it is written also intices the reader to read on. Altogether quite an insightful piece of literature.

There is no poet in any language of more extravagant wit and wisdom than old Geoffrey Chaucer, and no more universal, but for the challenge of the language. Like Homer in Greek, Dante in Italian, Chaucer set the bar too high for anyone ever to exceed him. And how fundamentally English he was, as if all the "personality" of our literature flowed from the same cultural spring!

My generation may have been almost the last to memorize the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales and to learn the few easy rules of pronunciation and syntax we needed to enjoy Chaucer. Helas! The times, they are a-changing. Still, a few years ago I had an irrational lust to revive my ability to read Middle English, just for fun. I discovered that there were audio-books of many of the Canterbury Tales, including the Wife of Bath's salacious masterpiece. Of all Chaucer's dramatis personae, the Wife of Bath is surely the most humanly convincing, the randy old dame! "Why, I'm probably just the right age to be husband number six," thought I. So I ordered this CD. By the time the CD reached me, I'd forgotten my urge to make use of it. In fact, I forgot I had it until yesterday, when it somehow popped out of the shelf at me.

Elizabeth Salter and her unnamed male foil speak the poetry of Chaucer with enough 'naturalness' to persuade me, particularly since recording technology was still rather crude in the 1300s. With the ability to pause the disk by remote, I find that I can follow the most familiar parts of the Wife's narrative comfortably. For most of the tale, however, I have to keep my eyes on the text. I wouldn't mind if Salter had delivered her words just a trifle slower, but then perhaps the rollicking cadences wouldn't have frolicked so mirthfully. There are lots of editions of the Canterbury Tales available with old and new English on facing pages, making the effort much easier.

This is probably not everyone's idea of fun, what with movies of Beowulf starring naked babes as Grendel's Mother and such. But Chaucer is too good to be lost. If YOU the parents of America no longer have the willpower to compel your teenagers to labor through the Canterbury Tales, then it's YOUR obligation to do so yourselves!

This book has historical context; The Wife's prologue and tale; New Historicism Criticism regarding The Wife; Marxism and Psychoanalytic Criticism; and Deconstruction and Feminist Criticism. For anyone doing a paper, class, or any type of study regarding The Wife of Bath, this is an excellent book to have. It is easy to read and understand. You get to view the Wife of Bath from 5 different critical perspectives and each chapter ends with a Works Cited page which is an excellent reference for further research.

I recommend this book to anybody interested in Sir Geoffrey Chaucer's Wife of Bath or the Canterbury Tales. The essays and articles are insightful, well-written, and extremely thought provoking. If you are a fan or a student studying the Canterbury Tales and you need to read more about the Wife of Bath, this is the book for you. I love the style and design of the book. It is well structured and organized. No other book out there covers the Wife of Bath like this book.

Beilder takes a whirlwind review of the world of Chaucer criticism. In his introduction, Beidler shows the reader the many levels of thought that are still occuring about Chaucer to this very day.

Having just read this scholarly yet lively and witty presentation of Chaucer, his works and his times, I have to praise it to the skies. I obtained it in prime condition from an Amazon bookseller for under $6, and it is worth infinitely more--if one can find it.

Chute's book should suffice for anyone who wants to become intelligently acquainted with Chaucer. About 50 pages are given to exploring the characterizations of the Canterbury pilgrims, what they represent and how Chaucer's personal associations led him to understand as living people those who in previous medieval literature would only have been types. Expecially valuable is the selected bibliography, with 9 pages of general and literary background materials.

It is worth noting that Anya Seton gave credit to Chute's scholarship and friendship in the development of Seton's historical novel "Katherine" which covers this period with great detail and fidelity--and lovingly includes Geoffrey and Philippa Chaucer and the courts of Edward III and Richard II.

I came to this after reading G.G. Coulton's genial and gentle "Chaucer and his England" and Peter Ackroyd's "Short biography" of Chaucer. (The latter became increasingly superficial the more I read from Chute.) An added pleasure is her own charming endpiece map of Chaucer's London and her witty little "rubrications" at the beginning of each chapter--her adornments of the opening capital letter-- in the period's style of, to quote her, "affable imbecility."

In her discussion of each characterization in "The Canterbury Tales" Chutte proves herself a worthy commentator and companion to Chaucer. She ends her book with this summation: "Setting himself against the weight of medieval authority, Chaucer wrote of English men and women and wrote in the English tongue. He did not do it for approval or for money or for fame. He did it for love, and there is the evidence of six centuries to show that a love like that is not betrayed."

Geoffrey Chaucer of England is a charming book with an elegant gravitas that becomes the subject and the century. If the fourteenth, whose sobriquet is `that unfortunate century', was a time a-swirl with violence and chaos, it was also the world thru which Chaucer, no stay at home, dreamy-eyed, garret-loving poet, moved with dignity, grace and humor. The depth of detail provided by Ms. Chute's impressive scholarship and the clarity of her lucid writing make that distant time clear and accessible. This book will charm you, as will Ms. Chute herself.

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

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.

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.