The Canterbury Tales Books

No one does medieval mysteries better than P.C. Doherty! In HANGMAN'S TALE, part of his "Canterbury Tales" series, Doherty relates the hair-raising tale told by Simon Cotterill, the 'Carpenter' character from Chaucer's classic, to his fellow pilgrims enroute to Canterbury. It's one great read!

Though a big fan of Doherty's work, I was blissfully unaware of the Canterbury Tales series, which began in 1995, until I purchased a remaindered copy of HANGMAN'S TALE from Edmund Hamilton. My loss!

A would-be carpenter, Cotterill's life changes dramatically after he joins the band of Gloucestermen responsible for public hangings. When the crew hangs three witches who are part of a vicious coven preying on Gloucester residents, things go really, REALLY wrong and the hangmen find themselves facing the wrath of three not-so-dead witches. It then becomes a race against time as Cotterill & Co. struggle to break the coven and unmask its leader before they perish at the hands of that unholy group. The end result is a scary, spooky, page-turner of a tale. Great stuff!

If HANGMAN'S TALE is representative of the series, I need to read the other volumes asap! And so do you!

Paul Doherty was born in Middlesbrough and is the consummate professional when it comes to writing historical mystery novels. I for one do not know how he can be so prolific with his offering of books and yet make sure that each of them is well researched. Whether they be 13th, 14th, or fifteenth century they are always true to the period. He also writes about Ancient Egypt and Alexander the Great.

A group of pilgrims have joined together, both for company and also for protection, as the roads and forests are littered with thieves and rogues, only too willing to relieve a traveller of their purse and most probably their lives as well. What adds even more spice to the journey is that several of the pilgrims know their fellow travellers but are not letting the fact become public knowledge.

The pilgrims have agreed that at the end of each day's journey when they stop at an inn or other resting place one of them will entertain the others with a tale. Whether the story is true or not only the storyteller will know.

During their journey to Canterbury the Pilgrims stumble upon an execution. Hangings are a common occurrence in these times, but this one affects the carpenter very badly and leaves him in a dead faint.
That evening, he narrates the tale of a Gloucester hangman whose involvement in the secretive punishment of three witches unleashes a vicious spate of revenge killings. Is this just a tale drawn from the carpenter's fertile mind or is the tale true and he was in some way involved in the punishment of the so called witches?

I don't usually like period mysteries, because they often seem to have a certain self-consciousness about them in how they work to include period details, speech patterns, etc. Plus, I always wonder if the manners and habits of thought of whatever the era is would have allowed the characters to act as they do - it seems that often these book feature characters with quite modern ways of thinking that can seem out of place. So I'm glad I overlooked my prejudice and read this book. I find that the time period adds color and meaning to the tale, but it's the human interest that seems timeless, and caught my interest. The author's knowledge of the period allows him to integrate the characters' different habits and customs into the story in a way that reveals medieval thinking and ideas while pointing out the fact that human nature doesn't change. The mystery itself is fascinating - I couldn't put the book down - and I learned quite a bit about the society of the time without even noticing it! Very enjoyable, and it prompted me to look for the earlier titles in the series, all which are well worth reading.

Paul Doherty's Canterbury Tales of Mystery and Murder series is probably my favourite historical mystery series. I look forward to each and every installment and am usually very disappointed that, because he is a very prolific writer with so many different mystery series in the works, new installments in this particular series take a while to be published. For those readers who are not familiar with the series, I will attempt to paint in some background details about the series. The series is based on Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales;" the pilgrims are all bound for Canterbury and in order to make the journey more agreeable, everyone has agreed to take turns at telling two kinds of tales each day -- a merry tale or fable during the day, and an eerie tale of darkness at night. Doherty's series revolves around the mysterious tales of murder and evil that are told each night. Another gimmick involved that makes this series all the more interesting and intriguing is that the pilgrims are connected to each other in some way or the other. So far, there have been four books in the series. Each has been a truly absorbing and chilling read, and a real page turner. And "The Hangman's Hymn" (the fifth intallment) was no exception to this rule!

The pilgrims are now deep in the Kent country, when they stumble across the chief tipstaff to the lords of assize about to dispense justice by having a few felons hanged at the place of their crime. The law of the times demand that because the pilgrims have chanced across this, they stand witness to the deed. One of the pilgrims however, the cheerful dark haired carpenter is so affected by the sight, that he faints from the horror. That night, as the pilgrims take their rest at St. Bardolph's Priory, the others quiz the carpenter about his faint-heartedness; he in turn tells a hair raising tale of horror and pure evil -- about a poor carpenter, Simon Cotterill who comes to Glouchester for love's sake, who ends up joining the local hangman's crew, and who becomes involved in hunting down and killing a coven of murderous witches who are terrorizing the Glouchester country side. A tale of such darkness and evil, that the pilgrims are held completely spellbound, even as they wonder to themselves if the tale is a true one and if the carpenter is the unfortunate Simon Cotterill...

From the very first page, I was hooked. Yes, some of the plot twists were fairly obvious; but the charm of this series (and much of Doherty's writing style) is the manner in which he tells the tale. Paul Doherty has a fairly compelling and engaging prose style, one that keeps your interest and makes you read on in order to see how things pan out and what will happen next. I really love this series. Each and every installment has chilled; and I've looked forward to discovering which pilgrim is tied to the other and how. I have yet to be disappointed by this series, and cannot recommend it highly enough. (And if you have not had the good fortune to read any of the previous installments, the paperbacks can be easily purchased through amazon.co.uk. Unfortunately they are hard to come by in the US). My advice is to wait until it's dark, and then settle down to enjoy this creepy and superbly entertaining mystery novel, hopefullt without too many distractions!

Paul Doherty's Canterbury Tales series continues marching on to its path of medieval mystery success! In his latest episode, "The Hangman's Hymn," Doherty singles out the Carpenter to be the teller of these "tall tales"! In fact, so far in this series, this one, the fifth, seems to be the best written, although perhaps not the most suspenseful.

The merry group of pilgrims, numbering 29 in all if we recall our English lit days and according to Geoffrey Chaucer, are on their way to Canterbury to pay homage to their beloved Saint Thomas a Becket. These pilgrims have accepted the challenge by the host of the Tabard Inn, one Harry Bailey, to help pass the time by telling four stories each, two on the way and the others in return. All of this is to be narrated by Chaucer himself.

Doherty steps in to help "the father of English literature," some seven centuries later, by relating more of these tales and in so doing deserves much praise, not only for his abilities to capture the "spirit" of Chaucerian England but in presenting a modern version that easily holds the readers' attention.

The carpenter's tale is a tale of gruesome, frightening murders, of hangings, of poisons, of evil incarnate, of witchcraft, and even a little romance! On their way to Canterbury the group comes upon a legal hanging, which causes a quick reaction of Simon Cotterill, the carpenter.

As the pilgrims pause for the night, the carpenter begins to tell his story. This is no tale told by an idiot, but it is full of sound and fury, of deceit, of bravery-indeed, it's a story not easily put aside. In the story, three witches are hanged and, before their hanging, vow to extract vengeance on all who were involved in their execution. Murder and mayhem, as they say, follow. Doherty's story, of course, is a mystery and with his usual cleverness he's able to bring the culprits-the real ones-to justice.

The other pilgrims are uneasy over this story and even begin to wonder if it's true, adding to the mystique of this series! Doherty seems to work simultaneously with a number of historical mystery series, from Alexander the Great to Chaucer, and each is well worth the read!

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.

Paul Doherty is the consummate professional when it comes to writing historical mystery novels. I for one do not know how he can be so prolific with his offering of books and yet make sure that each of them is well researched. Whether they be 13th, 14th, or fifteenth century they are always true to the period. He also writes about Ancient Egypt and the Greek period in history of Alexander the Great.

This is the first book in the series of mysteries called the Canterbury Tales. It is The Knight's Tale of Mystery and Murder As He Goes on Pilgrimage from London to Canterbury.

A group of pilgrims have joined together, both for company and also for protection as the roads and forests are littered with thieves and rogues, only too willing to relieve a traveller of their purse and most probably their lives as well. What adds even more spice to the journey is that several of the pilgrims know their fellow travellers but are not letting the fact become public knowledge.

The pilgrims have agreed that at the end of each day's journey when they stop at an inn or other resting place one of them will entertain the others with a tale. Whether the story is true or not only the storyteller will know

. The Knight begins his tale with the destruction of a sinister cult in the reign of William the Conqueror, and then moves on 200 years to a series of terrible murders that seem connected to the legends of the cult. True, or false?

If you're anything like me, you hated reading the Canterbury Tales at school. OK, Chaucer is a literary genius of classical verse, and his work has undoubtedly had an enlightening effect on post Dark Age literature, but weren't 'The Tales' just really boring confessions of a medieval window cleaner? Reader, I must apologize to Chaucer - his pervasive influence is clear in Paul Doherty's series of Pilgrim's Tales. This first episode - The Knight's Tale, is a morbid and suspenseful adventure - and it's simply one of the best books ever written. Michael Crichton, learn from the best! And Mr. Spielberg, when you're ready to make the movie... give me a call!

This is probably one of the bloodiest medieval tales that I've ever read, but it is extremely well-written. In it we meet a brave knight and his clerk as they try to rid the town of Oxford of a huge evil. We also meet dark lords, satanic priests and members of the living dead. The valour of the knight and the constancy of the clerk are very convincingly portrayed, but so is this rampant evil. The background behind the tale is also interesting. We are all aware of Chaucer's pilgrims to Canterbury and the tales that Chaucer had each of them tell. This book is the first in a series of tales told by these same pilgrims, but the difference is that these are tales of mystery, murder and evil. P.C. Doherty brings medieval England to life, and the book is a page-turner from start to finish.

This is the first book in Mr. Doherty's Canterbury Tales type stories. The Knight tells a tale of vampires and strigoi(shapechangers) set in the city of Oxford, England. Students come up missing, towns people are found dead with their throats ripped open and the King sends out his Knight Sir Godfrey and his clerk Alexander McBain to ferret out the evil doers. Sir Godfrey comes up against an ancient evil that had supposedly been taken care of two hundred years earlier.

This novel is full of enough medieval history, blood sucking monsters and mystery to keep the most ardent reader of historical mysteries engrossed.

As an avid reader, B & B lover and traveler, this book appealed to me on many levels. Herman is truly a modern-day Chaucer who weaves such an artful tale that you feel like you're at the table with him. I only wish I had gotten to stay at the now famous Abacrombie before it left his hands! Anyone who enjoys a great story will love this book!

"The Innkeeper Tales is a compendium of true stories about a group of strangers who are snowed in at The Abacrombie (a bed-and-breakfast located in the cultural district of Baltimore, Maryland). These are stories told by the guests as they candidly share their life experiences with another - experiences that range from the heartbreaking to the heartwarming. It should be noted that entrepreneur John L. Herman, Jr. Owns and manages the Abacrombie Bed & Breakfast and so brings a great deal of personal experience and expertise to "The Innkeeper Tales", which is highly recommended for both personal reading lists and community library collections as being an entertaining collection of stories that reveal life lessons for obtaining true success and happiness in our lives.

Reviewed by Beverly Pechin for Reader View (12/06)

One look at the book, "The Innkeeper Tales," and you know that you've come upon an establishment that offers nothing but class. The hunter green hardcover, etched with gold lettering seems a shame to cover up; but, the beautiful sleeve that takes the wear and tear reiterates the classiness of the book itself.

Open the pages and enter a life of complete relaxation as you meet the guests of the Abarcrombie Bed & Breakfast, while stranded in a winter storm that insists upon you staying one night longer.

Presented in a fashion that makes the reader truly feel like a guest in the B&B itself, you are gently introduced to many of the characters that have frequented the B&B over the years all while tucked away safely inside the walls of the Abarcrombie and served a continuous flow of spectacular food and drink. The many characters you meet will show the absolute diversity of characters the house itself serves. Starting with Enzo, the man who encompasses what work ethics once truly were and ending with the author himself, giving you an inside look of his own world.

Characters gather around the table to share their stories, some much more flamboyant than others. You learn some often very well-kept secrets as the characters open up to each other, knowing that this once-in-a-lifetime moment will never happen again and they will never have to truly ever save face with any of the other guests so why not tell it all. Nothing is held back as they easily let the stories of their life and dreams flow from their lips sometimes without care as to if it's being told properly and with taste. After all, this is the real world and their real life they're talking about and sometimes proper things don't really happen.

I found myself ready to shoot Randy, the very long winded businessman but every time I thought I was going to lose my mind he came up with yet another twist in his long but interesting story. Randy becomes the butt of a few jokes as he continues his life long history, making you somehow appreciate him as much as the guests he's with seem to learn to do. The touching and romantic story of the innkeeper's step-son and his newlywed wife will end the story with a smile. You will quickly appreciate their young love and determination as they work together to make the B&B a success. Laugh with Burt and sympathize with his wife as you hear about his escapades as a baseball team "owner," realizing that truth be told, nobody could make up these stories!

Each story's character finds a place in your heart as you cheer him on to win this race called life. Hardly a life situation seems to have been missed as the characters share their story. You'll find a womanizer, a businessman, a romantic couple, an aging builder and so much more as you open the pages of this wonderfully written book. Canterbury Tales move over, you have a more modern and just as classy competitor at your tail! Kudos to Mr. Herman, for a job well done, in his book "The Innkeeper Tales." And did I mention the ending? Let's just say it takes a little twist you weren't exactly expecting!

In my world of reviewing, I find some authors that just have that certain touch in their words that grabs hold of you and won't let go. Our author John Herman posses such and I am glad that I have had a chance to taste of his words.

In his book, "The InnKeeper Tales," we become one of the guests at Abarcrombie Bed and Breakfast. Stranded by a last minute winter snow, we settle in and begin to enjoy good food, good drink, and hours of storytelling from our fellow travelers. Our peers of isolation at first maybe reluctant to open up, but after a while it is as if their hearts become bare with perhaps deep seeded long lost emotions of their life coming forth, almost relieved to have a chance to share their heart;and with each story we hunger for more.

Listening to these stories we sit in awe, share some laughter and joy, shake our heads in understanding of certain situations and happenings, wonder if others are true, and often feel the tear of perhaps a long lost hurt that for a brief moment was allowed to surface. The stories of each traveler are both entertaining and enlightening in so many ways. Life issues and moral values are discussed as we share victories and defeats and come away perhaps a little wiser by listening to our fellow man.

However, what our author says at the end of the book was a total surprise and one I am not going to reveal; truly the icing on the cake, if you will. If you like storytelling at its best, that promises to be truth told, get this book and settle back for an enjoyable reading and life experience.

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.

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.

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.