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Information about this book was provided by its publisher in 2011. The description given is not an independent review. All details are subject to change, especially pricing. Please use the contact links at the top of this page to notify any innacuracy.

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Geoffrey Chaucer; trans. David Wright; notes & intro. Christopher Cannon.
The Canterbury Tales: new edition.
Publisher: Oxford University Press.
Series: World's Classics.
Publication due: August 2011.
Size: 196x129mm.
Page count: 560pp.

Publisher's recommended price
Paperback ISBN 9780199599028, £7.99

Description:

New to this edition:
Introduction by Christopher Cannon.
Up-to-date bibliography.
Abridged translation of The Tale of Melibee.
Abridged translation of The Parson's Tale.
Comprehensive notes by Christopher Cannon.

In Chaucer's most ambitious poem, The Canterbury Tales (c. 1387), a group of pilgrims assembles in an inn just outside London and agree to entertain each other on the way to Canterbury by telling stories. The pilgrims come from all ranks of society, from the crusading Knight and burly Miller to the worldly Monk and lusty Wife of Bath. Their tales are as various as the tellers, including romance, bawdy comedy, beast fable, learned debate, parable, and Eastern adventure. The resulting collection gives us a set of characters so vivid that they have often been taken as portraits from real life, and a series of stories as hilarious in their comedy as they are affecting in their tragedy. Even after 600 years, their account of the human condition seems both fresh and true.

Readership: Readers of poetry and classic literature, students of medieval literature and history, social history, cultural studies, Chaucer.