Product Description
Since its first publication in 1989, Helen Cooper's guide to he Canterbury Tales has established itself as the standard work on the poem. This second edition continues to offer the most comprehensive scrutiny of the Tales both as a whole and individually. In addition, Cooper incorporates the most significant recent scholarship and criticism, reflecting current research in the areas of Chaucer's historical and social context and developments in the interpretation of Chaucer's presentation of women. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Classic
This and Elaine Tuttle Hansen's _Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender_ are, I think, the two single best books of Chaucerian criticism out there. This book provides everything you need to know about the CT: the sources and influences of the Canterbury Tales, the themes and issues for each teller and his/her tale, and the dominant interpretations out there. Plus there's the Cooper-type insight into the tales you just come to expect from her work. This one's a classic. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Bloody Rip Off
Do you see the Cover picture of the book? That's all your going to get. ... Read more

Product Description
THE COMPLETE POETRY AND PROSE OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER is intended to make Chaucer's texts accessible with a minimum of scholary interference. The critical, biographical, and linguistic essays are grouped at the end so as not to impede the approach to the text. By doing so, the student is able to enjoy the richness and humor of The Canterbury Tales as well as the beauty of Troylus and Criseyde. This collection will create a deeper appreciation for Chaucer and his genius. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

More Than Just THE CANTERBURY TALES.
If you have any interest in Chaucer or The Canterbury Tales, then THE COMPLETE POETRY AND PROSE OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER is a volume that you must own.As the title says, this is the complete poetry and prose of Chaucer, written in the original Middle English.The Canterbury Tales and Chaucer's longer poems are relatively easier to find, but some of his other writings are more difficult to obtain, such as some of his shorter poems.This is one of the only collections that I know that includes all those works and in the original Middle English.The book is quality bound and the text includes some very useful introductions, footnotes, and commentaries.A great gift for any person who loves the work of Chaucer.

Gotta Love That Chaucer!!!
This book is really nice. It looks good. The print is nice - not too big or too small. And it's really well bound. If you're looking for an all purpose book of Chaucer, this is the one. The volume also includes great foot notes, glosses, and historical commentary. It is heirloom quality. It is expensive, but if you like quality literature AND quality binding, you've found your match.

good edition in textbook format
It's obviously meant as a college text book, but where else can you find all of Chaucer's stuff with a reasonable amount of commentary ? Beware that this is in the original English, not a modernization. ... Read more

Product Description
DESCRIPTION OF BOOK: CONTAINS THE CANTERBURY TALES AND THEFIVE BOOKS OF TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, AND HAS BEEN EXPANDED TO INCLUDE LARGER PORTIONS OF THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESS AND THE BIRDS' PARLIAMENT, AS WELL ASTHE SHORT POEM "NOBILITY". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Chauser Review
This book has a collection of many short stories in it, each with humor, and each with a theme.It takes place in an inn, where a group of pilgrims are staying for the night.Then the inn keeper tells them, they each musttell a story.So each of the different pilgrims, with differentoccupations and personalities, tells a tale, until morning is reached. Most of the tales are bawdy,comical, and have a theme.The book takes thepoint of view from one of the pilgrims, named Chauser, who listens to thedifferent tales, but never interacts in the story.The pros of this bookwould definitely be it's comedy, poetry, challenge, action and love.Also,the point of view from various occupations, one to another, is interesting. The cons of this book would be, it's tendency to use unmeaningful wordsjust to complete a rhyme.It also is easy to lose track of the main storywith it's rhyme and old English text.I am definitely going to recommendthis book to some of my friends, who are good readers and will love it.Ihope you do to.

Karl review of Chauser
This book has a collection of many short stories in it.Each with humor and each with a theme. It takes place in a inn where a group of pilgrims are staying for the night.Then the inn keeper tells them they each musttell a story, so each of the different pilgrims with different occupationsand personalities tells a tale, tell morning is reached.Most of the talesour body comical and have a theme.The book takes point from one of thepilgrims named Chauser who listens to the different tails but neverinteracts in the story.The pros of this would definitely be it's comedy,poetry, challenge, action and love.Also the point of view of one toanother's occupation is interesting.The cons of this book would be it'stendency to decrease in interest to find words that rhyme.It also is easyto loose track of the main story with it's rhyme and old English text.Iam definitely going to recommend this book to some friend. Also many of myfriends are good readers and will love it. I hope you do to.

Book timelessness
Romantic in feeling: Love ,Lust Greed: all told throught different experences and understandings.Quotes such as "If the gold rusts, what will the iron do?For if a priest is foul in whom we trust, no wonder a layman shows a little rust." ... Read more

Product Description
Spanning Chaucer's working life, these four poems build on the medieval convention of love visions' - poems inspired by dreams, woven into rich allegories about the rituals and emotions of courtly love. In "The Book of the Duchess", the most traditional of the four, the dreamer meets a widower who has loved and lost the perfect lady, and "The House of Fame" describes a dream journey in which the poet meets with classical divinities. Witty, lively and playful, "The Parliament of Birds" details an encounter with the birds of the world in the Garden of Nature as they seek to meet their mates, while "The Legend of Good Women" sees Chaucer being censured by the God of Love, and seeking to make amends, for writing poems that depict unfaithful women. Together, the four create a marvellously witty, lively and humane self-portrait of the poet. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

"The God ofLove his eyes upon mecast ..."
This review relates to the volume -Geoffrey Chaucer:
Love Visions/The Book of the Duchess; The House of
Fame; The Parliament of Birds; The Legend of Good
Women-, Penguin Classics, Translated with an Introduction
and Notes by Brian Stone.1983.262 pp.
This volume is a modern English translation of Geoffrey
Chaucer's four "love visions."As Brian Stone says in
the Introduction: "The four long poems presented in
translation span nearly the whole of Chaucer's working
life. *** Chaucer was the fourteenth-century [Middle]
English poet who, basing his work on that of his French
and Italian peers and also, like them, on the work of
the classical and late Latin poets, created highly
original narrative poems, with a skill in story-telling
in which he equalled , if not surpassed his masters.
Ovid, whose outlook on women and sense of the great
variety of life including the absurd, make him of the
ancients most akin to Chaucer, may beat him for
sensuousness and richness of detail, and Virgil and
Dante for high seriousness and epic scope, but Chaucer
offers a subtle humour which enhances the seriousness
and complexity of what he has to say, as well as a
kaleidoscopic range of tone and subject matter."
Each of the four poems has an excellent Introduction.
The four poems are: "The Book of the Duchess"; "The
Book of Fame" (which is subdivded into 3 Books); "The
Parliament of Birds [Fowles]" (the shortest of the
poems); and "The Legend of Good Women", which has
a Prologue; then meeting of Chaucer with an angry
God Of Love who threatens to take revenge on Chaucer
for writing poorly about the powers of Love, and
causing wise people to withdraw from Love's rule,
thinking that "a person is a perfect fool/Who loves
intensely with a burning fire."Then Queen
Alcestis intervenes on Chaucer's behalf and tells
the God of Love to be "more reasonable" (a lovely
bit of irony). Chaucer has offended the God of

Love by his translation of -The Romance of the
Rose-, and his writing of the poem of -Troilus
and Criseyde- in which he portrayed love and
women in a poor light.In compensation, Chaucer
awakens from his dream concerning this meeting
with the God of Love and Alcestis and begins his
"Legend of Good Women", which is subdivided into the
sections titled: "The Legend of Cleopatra, Queen
of Egypt, Martyr"; "The Legend of Babylonian Thisbe,
Martyr"; "The Legend of Dido, Queen of Carthage,
Martyr"; "The Legends of Hypsipyle and Medea,
Martyrs"; "The Legend of Roman Lucrece, Martyr";
"The Legend of Ariadne of Athens"; "The Legend of
Philomela"; "The Legend of Phyllis"; "The Legend of
Hypermnestra."There are excellent Notes from page
233 253, a Select Bibliography, and an Index of
Proper Names.
These works are very accessible and highly enjoyable
and insightful.For many who might "pass up" on
Chaucer because of the "Middle English difficulty,"
this volume will soothe all your fears and delight
your intelligence and your sensibilities.For these
Modern English translations are excellent, and are
in poetic format [not prose], but they are not
stilted or hard to understand.
-- Robert Kilgore. ... Read more

Product Description
Surveys of English literature inevitably begin with Chaucer, and it is difficult to imagine a literature degree which does not require some knowledge of his work. Chaucer's status at the heart of the canon is in fact one of the reasons students find it difficult to study his work: so much has been written on Chaucer, but where should they start? This useful guide to his life, work and what the critics have said about him supplies everything you need to know in one student-friendly, competitively priced volume. ... Read more

Product Description
Anne Malcolmson has preserved Geoffrey Chaucer's cadence and wording wherever possible, while making his 14th century English text come to life for a modern audience. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Chaucer
The book was an excellent deal. I paid a good price for it, it arrived on time, and the book was in perfect condition.

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

I was very disappointed in this edition of Canterbury Tales.The text is interrupted by numbers and peculiar characters, numbers, etc that make no sense.In some cases footnotes appear in the middle of the text.It was very difficult to read.None of this was apparent from the sample pages made available on the website.I do not recommend this book.

Worked out well
Despite terrible weather, the book shipped out on a timely basis and in great shape.

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales a special interlinear translation
I read about this excellent translation and was pleased to be able to add a copy to my own library. The book arrived in good shape, in short time, and is much appreciated.
As to a tag, I have no idea what is wanted. CW
I do not wish to be identified as part of a marketing system. My purchase was private the review given for the benefit of the company sending the book.

An Inexpensive Aid to Mastering Chaucer's Middle English
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, published by Barron's Educational Series, uses an interlinear translation format in which each line of Middle English is followed by a modern translation (in a literal form to make the comparison easier). I like this approach.

Sometimes Middle English is recognizable. This line describing the knight - Ful worthy was he in his lord's werre - is readily understood if you recognize that werre is war.

Contrastingly, this sentence about the prioress is less clear: And sikerly she was of greet disport. Or in modern usage: And indeed she was very diverting.

I initially used a 1948, yellowed first edition with 448 pages, but more recently I found a copy of the "new enlarged edition" with 530 pages. This 1970 edition is no longer new, but copies can still be found with little trouble. It has been reprinted many times; my copy is the fourteenth printing.

Both editions include The Prologue, The Knight's Tale, The Prioress's Prologue, The Prioress's Invocation, The Prioress's Tale, The Nun's Priest's Prologue, The Nun's Priest's Tale, The Nun's Priest's Epilogue, The Pardoner's Prologue, The Pardoner's Tale, The Wife of Bath's Prologue, The Wife of Bath's Tale, The Franklin's Prologue, and The Franklin's Tale.

The new enlarged edition includes four more sections: The Miller's Prologue, The Miller's Tale, The Reeve's Prologue, and The Reeve's Tale.

Both editions offer a short introduction and a short section of notes. The translator is Vincent F. Hopper. ... Read more

Product Description
Geoffrey Chaucer: A Collection of Original Articles ... Read more

Product Description
This revised edition is based on the first edition which has become a classic in Chaucer studies. Important material has been updated in the text, and its contributions cover recent trends in literary theory as well as in studies of Chaucer's works. The bibliography has been completely revised to provide an indispensable guide for today's student of Chaucer. First Edition Hb (1986): 0-521-30422-9 First Edition Pb (1986): 0-521-31689-8 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Cambridge Companion to Chaucer
Great book that I am using now.It is very beneficial to literature classes.

Cambridge Companions: Generally not worth the money
First of all, some of the companions have contained rather insightful and interesting essays--the companion to Plato's Republic was quite good.I was disappointed in the Chaucer companion (as I am with the Spenser) in that it attempts too wide a breadth in approaching the literature--some of the essays felt like summaries, while others seem to draw counter-intuitive or otherwise irritating conclusions concerning "meaning" of the texts.A good deal of attention is paid to historicist criticism which, unfortunately, is the current academic trend.Perhaps if Cambridge and the editors (Boitani's essay on the Parliament of Fowls was particularly uninspired) did not object to the morally questionable act of publishing a book full of summaries and historical essays (and doing this for the majority of canonical authors) they would spend time producing solid works of criticism and collating these into respectable collections.If you want information on Chaucer, seek out the Chaucer Bibliography Online and locate the books through your school library.If the Cambridge Companion is your only feasible option for secondary criticism, take it with a grain of salt.These books should not be assigned to anyone doing graduate or post-graduate study. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Invaluable Guide
This book is ideal for exploring the sources Chaucer used and, well, abused in his Canterbury Tales. To save the busy scholar from searching endlessly on databases and in libraries for obscure texts and analogues of the Canterbury Tales' subject matter and characters, Miller gathers them all into one volume and provides commentary on the translation process and inspiration behind each of Chaucer's tales. Many of the sources are in the original Latin, French, German, etc., but there is dense annotation provided with each work that compares Chaucer's version of the folklore or literary piece that he utilized.

My Chaucer professor suggested this book for use in preparing for a presentation that various groups in the class were assigned in order to give background information on the history of each tale, and this process was, aside from her lectures, one of the most informative parts of the class. Whether you're a student struggling with Chaucer's relevance to the English language or simply a curious litterateur with interest in the inter-textuality of medieval writing and authorship, then this book will help you immensely. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
1904. The illustrious work of Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, are presented herein as a modern rendering into prose of the Prologue and ten tales. The barrier of obsolete speech is the occasion for this rendering of the Canterbury Tales in English, easily intelligible today. Mr. Mackaye presents a representative portion of Chaucer's unfinished masterpiece in such a form as shall best preserve for a modern reader the substance and style of the original. Handsomely illustrated. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
Literary critic, poet and philologist as well as medievalist, with a particular interest in the powers and effects of poetic language, Marie Borroff brings the full range of her expertise to bear on problems of central importance in the poetry of Chaucer and his nameless contemporary, the Gawain—or Pearl—poet. This collection of essays, much of it previously unpublished, represents a major contribution to the study of late Middle English literature. ... Read more

Product Description
The most comprehensive guide to Chaucer's work available, this volume features thirty-seven specially commissioned chapters by an international team of esteemed contributors. Offering work from both academics with long-standing reputations and newer voices in the field, it combines general essays that provide background and contextual information with detailed readings of specific Chaucerian texts. The book devotes an entire section to Chaucer's "afterlife," which considers his reputation in later periods, his influence on later writers, and his presence in modern and contemporary culture. Guides to further reading for each chapter and a chronology are also included. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A deep forest of at times anachronistic knowledge
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
... Read more

Product Description
In this award-winning biography, the editor of the most popular edition of The Canterbury Tales re-creates the public, private, and poetic life and times of this extraordinary man. 16-page photo insert. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An Important Introduction
This is an important introduction to, as the book's title says, the life, times, and works of Geoffrey Chaucer. For those who are thoroughly versed in the 14th century, or who are intimately familiar with Chaucer scholarship, this work will probably be a rehashing of familiar ground. However, as an introduction for a budding scholar or amateur enthusiast in history or literature, this work is second to none. This book is highly readable, even for those with a casual interest in the subject.

I took a class on Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales", and I read this book as a prelude to the course. I feel that this work provided me with crucial context for Chaucer and his world, and enabled me to appreciate reading the "Tales" in their original Middle English at a much greater level. Thank you Dr. Howard!

comprehensive biography
Extensively detailed biography of this medieval great poet, of interest to anyone interested in the intricacies of medieval history and literature. Definitely not for the dilettante, though much of it is quite readable.
The book is approximately evenly divided between history and literary analysis.We learn of Chaucer's role as a soldier in the wars with France; of his role as appointed court poet and custom's officer; of the black death; of his travels to Italy; we are given a great deal of detail about his literary influences on the Continent and his major literary works, not limited tothe Canterbury Tales.Really more for the literary medieval scholar, though anyone interested in history might like it. We learn that Chaucer was probably in London at the time of the Peasants' Revolt. ... Read more