The Canterbury Tales » (Reissue)

V. A. Kolve is UCLA Foundation Professor of English, Emeritus. A Rhodes Scholar, he is the author of Chaucer and the Imagery of Narrative, winner of the James Russell Lowell Award and British Council Prize, The Play Called Corpus Christi, and the forthcoming Christ as Gardener and Pilgrim: A Study in Medieval Iconography.

Glending Olson is Professor Emeritus of English, Cleveland State University. He is the author of Literature as Recreation in the Later Middle Ages.

This Norton Critical Edition includes the most admired of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

Publishers Weekly

Like Charles Lamb's edition of Shakespeare, Hastings's loose prose translation of seven of Chaucer's tales is more faithful to the work's plot than to the poet's language. This is not a prudish retelling (even the bawdy Miller's tale is included here) but the vigor of Chaucer's text is considerably tamed. In the original, the pilgrims possess unique voices, but here the tone is uniformly bookish. The colloquial speech of the storyteller is replaced by formal prose; for example, while Cohen (see review above) directly translates Chaucer's ``domb as a stoon'' as ``silent as stones,'' Hastings writes ``in solemn silence.'' Cartwright's startling paintings skillfully suggest the stylized flatness of a medieval canvas, but often without the accompanying richness of detail. Like Punch and Judy puppets, the faces and voices of these pilgrims are generally representative but lack the life and charm of the original text. Ages 10-up. (Oct.)

General Prologue 1

The Knight's Tale 26

The Miller's Prologue 85

The Miller's Tale 88

The Steward's Prologue [The Reeve's Prologue] 105

The Steward's Tale [The Reeve's Tale] 107

The Cook's Prologue 118

The Cook's Tale 120

Introductory Words to the Man of Law's Tale 122

Prologue to the Man of Law's Tale 125

The Man of Law's Tale 127

Epilogue to the Man of Law's Tale [of disputed authenticity] 158

The Wife of Bath's Prologue 159

The Wife of Bath's Tale 182

The Friar's Prologue 193

The Friar's Tale 195

The Summoner's Prologue 205

The Summoner's Tale 207

The Cleric's Prologue 223

The Cleric's Tale 225

Chaucer's Happy Song 258

The Merchant's Prologue 260

The Merchant's Tale 262

Epilogue to the Merchant's Tale 292

Introduction to the Squire's Tale 293

The Squire's Tale [unfinished] 294

The Landowner's Prologue [The Frat/Hitts Prologue] 313

The Landowner's Tale [The Franklin's Tale] 314

The Physician's Tale 337

Introduction to the Pardon Peddler's Tale [Introduction to the Pardoner's Tale] 345

The Pardon Peddler's Prologue [The Pardoner's Prologue] 347

The Pardon Peddler's Tale [The Pardoner's Tale] 351

The Shipman's Tale 365

The Host's Merry Words to the Shipman and the Prioress 377

Prologue to the Prioress's Tale 378

The Prioress's Tale 380

Prologue to Sir Thopas 387

Sir Thopas 388

The Host Stops Chaucer's Narration 395

The Tale of Melibee 397

The Prologue of the Monk's Tale 431

The Monk's Tale: De Castbus Virorum lllustrium [The Fall or Illustrious Men] 434

The Prologue of the Nun's Priest's Tale 457

The Nun's Priest's Tale of Cock and Hen

Chauntecleer and Pertelote 459

Epilogue to the Nun's Priest'sTale 475

The Second Nun's Prologue 476

Prayer to the Virgin Mary 478

The Second Nun's Tale 481

Prologue of the Cleric-Magician's Servant [The Canon's Yeoman's Prologue] 495

Tale of the Cleric-Magician's Servant [The Canon's Yeoman's Tale] 500

The Provisioner's Prologue [The Manciple's Prologue] 520

The Provisioner's Tale [The Manciple's Tale] 523

The Parson's Prologue 530

The Parson's Tale 533

Here the Maker of This Book Takes His Leave 597

Notes 599