Everyone knows about this book, right? A collection of stories, told in rhyme, some bawdy, some chivalrous, a lot of preachy and religious sermons, written long long ago in a far away land in the archaic language.

So, this is the thing: I think I enjoyed this on the level of Decameron, although it’s not very fair, because Boccaccio had to produce 100 of them and Chaucer didn’t. And also there’s nothing as hilariously bawdy in this one as Day 3 Tale 10.

Definitely enjoyed less than The Arabian Nights and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, both of which are filled with magic, gods and strange creatures from the far away lands.

And much, much less than Orlando Furioso. Not even close. For me, Ariosto is a much better storyteller and it helps that Orlando Furioso is a surprisingly very nonreligious work even though it’s about literal religious war. But my boy Ludovico just doesn't care about religion and I can relate. Chaucer is not so. And one of the consequences is that this work is antisemitic. The Prioress's Tale, do I have to say more? Vile hateful tale I prefer to ignore completely.

Also, just like others, who wrote for wealthy patrons, Chaucer has his fun at the expense of the lower classes, nobility is beyond reproach, after all, these stories are for John of Gaunt to chuckle at the bawdy ones and for Kathrine to sigh at chivalric ones.

I read Coghill's translation while having an original at hand to check passages, and if you aren’t a snob or an experienced in French, Germanic language, I would recommend this translation. My idea was if I would fall in love with tales in translation, I would return to Chaucer. After all, when I finished Ariosto, I went to Gutenberg just to stare at his lovely Italian that I don’t understand. But alas no magic happened here. Sigh

One of the rare moments when I enjoyed this was when the Host was struggling, listening to Chaucer’s (the character) simple rhymes (the author is a character in the book) and asked him to never write poetry again, you have no talent, Geoff! It was funny.

After so many years of having this classic on my to-read list, I finally did it and read all of Chaucer’s masterpiece. The fact that the book was banned for such a long time now makes sense because the fun stories are highly sexual and there is lots of promiscuity. The tales were overall wonderful and fun to read and I am happy I read them now at this point in time because I believe I wouldn’t have enjoyed them as much had I been forced to read them in my 20s.

The Knight’s Tale and The Clerk’s Tale were beautifully written; The Miller’s Tale, The Reeve’s Tale, The Shipman’s Tale and The Wife of Bath’s Tale were absolutely hilarious; The Man of Law’s Tale, The Nun’s Priest’s Tale, The Physician’s Tale, The Friar’s Tale, The Merchant’s Tale and The Franklin’s Tale were interesting; the fact that Chaucer’s own tale of Sir Topaz was interrupted and he was told basically to shut up because he was boring everyone to death was extremely funny which also happened to the Squire’s Tale.

The rest of the stories were mostly religious and quite boring and if you only want to read the good ones don’t bother with any tale I have not listed here.

What’s to say? The must-read medieval tales to be under one’s belt. A vast array of humanity and the human condition in the Middle Ages. But oh, the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale are the best, and the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale of alchemy struck me as very funny, poetic and enjoyable.

It’s strange that we don’t think of this book as a collection of short stories, and yet having recently finished a collection of Raymond Carver, I gotta say, I’m Team Carver! Overall, I loved Carver’s work way more.

Los “Cuentos de Canterbury” son, junto al “Decamerón” de Giovanni Boccaccio y “La divina Commedia” de Dante Alighieri, las obras más representativas del Renacimiento.
Geoffrey Chaucer es considerado, junto con William Shakespeare uno de los padres de la literatura inglesa, más precisamente porque fue el primer autor en escribir en inglés puro, apartándose de la dominación normanda ejercida por los franceses en Inglaterra.
En estos cuentos podemos notar claramente una riquísima diversidad de temas y tratamientos literarios, que incluyen al cuento clásico, la picaresca, el romancero, la poesía, la fábula e incluso la narrativa cervantina dada la naturaleza de la historia que nos cuenta el desafío que un hostelero hace a personas de distintas profesiones en su camino a la catedral de Canterbury para agradecerle al mártir santo Tomás Beckett.
Otra característica de esta obra de Chaucer es que como los cuentos son relatados por los mismos personajes, podemos afirmar que es un antecedente directo de la novela tal cual la conocemos (lo mismo sucede con el “Decamerón”), ya que todo está atado por un hilo argumental afín a todos los personajes.
Cado una de estos personajes debe contar un cuento de la índole y temática que él elija.
A mi entender, es esa diversidad que Chaucer le da al conjunto de cuentos lo que diferencia claramente a este libro del “Decamerón” de Boccaccio, quien se centra en temas que sólo rozan la religión y los desvíos sexuales transformando al “Decamerón” en un decálogo machista y misógino. No es esto lo que sucede en estos cuentos aunque ciertos relatos sí rocen esos temas.
En líneas generales he disfrutado varios cuentos, muy especialmente los cuentos del Caballero, del Mayordomo, del Marino, del Monje, del Bulero, del Estudiante, del Mercader, del Escudero y del Terrateniente.
Y cada vez son menos los clásicos que me quedan por leer.
La de los “Cuentos de Canterbury” es otra deuda saldada.

I've yet to read all of them, but this rating will obviously stand for the whole thing. I didn't really like Chaucer for several years and failed to understand what all the hubbub was about, but then I got the Riverside Chaucer and read the Middle English. Bada bing, he's now one of the authors from whom I receive the most unadulterated delight. He simply is the Medieval World Picture; just as Dante illustrates it for the cosmos, Chaucer illustrates it for material reality. As Dryden said, here indeed is God's plenty. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to read in the original language. It really is not very hard at all—take the time to learn the 30-40 unfamiliar words that appear most often, and then use the annotations to get through the rest (knowing Latin and/or German will also help immensely, but is, of course, not necessary). No translation can capture the sheer vigor, beauty, songfulness, and élan of this poetry. As of right now, the Knight, the Nun's Priest, and the Franklin hold the top prizes for me, but some day I will sit down and read it straight through for the first time. Then the winner of the contest can finally be objectively declared.

"It's that you each, to shorten the long journey,
Shall tell two tales en route to Canterbury,
And, coming homeward, another two,
Stories of things that happened long ago.
Whoever best acquits himself, and tells
The most amusing and instructive tale,
Shall have a dinner, paid by us all,
Here in this roof, and under this roof-tree,
When we come back again from Canterbury."

One of the most legendary books from the Middle Ages, the Canterbury Tales is a wonderful collection of short stories about life in medieval England.

Chaucer’s world at the time of writing is one of plague, famine and war. The Hundred Years’ War had just come out of one of its most violent phases when the author penned these words. And yet the Canterbury Tales are filled with humour, lightness and parody. There is little of the dark, war-torn oppressed society that some might expect.

Throughout the collection, Chaucer fills his pages with wit, exaggeration and an illustration of how medieval English society was outside the religious texts and formally written histories. That makes for rather interesting reading.

The Canterbury Tales is far from the best book ever written. The language, despite sometimes being incomprehensible, is sometimes beautiful, but not something truly outstanding. The tales themselves are far from perfect, and the characters are a mixed bunch, both in morality, complexity and pure quality.

Nevertheless, this is a classic for a reason, and that reason isn’t only that the book through a twist of fate actually has survived down the centuries. It provides a fun and light-hearted insight into the English Middle Ages, and it’s been inspiring European culture for centuries.

IF I HAD TO SPEND AN ENTIRE SEMESTER STUDYING THE MAN OF LAW'S TALE WITH A NANOWRIMO'S WORTH OF ESSAYS DEDICATED TO IT THEN I'M PUTTING THIS BOOK ON MY GOODREADS SHELF (don't worry I'll leave the date empty until I actually read the rest of the tales).
I am leaving a portion (since there are character limitations) of my Man of Law's final paper for you to view and become irrevocably entranced and inspired by. To a fellow student who may be reading this, please don't copyright. But feel free to take quotations/ideas. I hope this will serve as a help to your class, should you so happen to be writing about the Man of Law's tale. This essay is probably the messiest and most frustrating thing I had to write, so far in my university career. And I don't even agree with everything I wrote. This Goodreads review is a testament of the blood, sweat, and tears I gave to this bloody class:

EMBRACING THE DIVINE FEMININE IN CHAUCER’S MAN OF LAW’S TALE

Geoffrey Chaucer’s Man of Law’s tale sets forth a variety of religious themes that have sparked significant discussion about Constance’s nature and the deeper symbolism embodied in her character. Chaucer writes Constance as a symbol of the Divine Feminine, a term used to describe feminine aspects of character that are associated with values such as creation, community, spirituality, empathy, and intuition. Constance’s character, particularly her redeeming devotion to God amidst hardship, is reminiscent of the feminine aspects of Jesus Christ, who is paradoxically one of the greatest examples of the Divine Feminine. By symbolically likening the sufferings of Constance to that of Christ, Chaucer gives license to his readers to interpret the Man of Law’s tale as a story of achieving spiritual transcendence through embracing the attributes of the Divine Feminine.
Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales during the time when the Catholic Church was the preeminently powerful institution in medieval English society. The Church had become so politically and economically powerful that its clerics, who should have been focused on spirituality and the salvation of souls, focused instead on temporality and the salvation of the state. These clerical leaders forfeited their spiritual power by cleaving to secular masculinity and failing to embrace the Divine Feminine.
Chaucer consistently lampoons clergymen as hypocrites and liars throughout The Canterbury Tales. In his masterwork, Chaucer satirically attempts to draw attention to the corruption of the Church with the apparent intention of promoting reform within the Church. Specifically, Chaucer uses his Man of Law’s tale, particularly through the character of Constance, to highlight the transcendent spiritual power that has been lost by the Church as a result of its devotion to secular power structures and rejection of the Divine Feminine. This essay will discuss how Constance’s character serves as a mediatory, Christ-like figure who inspires the type of spiritual transcendence that is only available by embracing and emulating the feminine qualities that Christ embodied. By so doing, Constance presents a pattern for corrupt clergymen to escape the corrupting influences of secular institutions that plagued the Catholic Church of his day by rejecting masculine power structures and embracing the Divine Feminine.
Chaucer employs Constance’s character arc and personal journey to illustrate the necessity of separating oneself from secular power structures in order to obtain spiritual power. After the assassination of many of her Christian people, Constance is forced to flee into the wilderness. While she is cast out from society and separated from institutional Christianity, Constance faces a variety of trials that compel her to call upon God and search for spiritual guidance. Constance places her trust in the Lord and submits herself fully to Christ’s power and will when she exclaims, “But Crist, that starf for our redempcioun / So yeve me grace his heestes to fulfille!” (Chaucer, 283-284). Constance’s willingness to submit to God’s will and suffer for a cause greater than herself is a similitude of Christ’s willingness to drink the bitter cup and save mankind through His sufferings.
Chaucer uses Constance as a symbolic Christ-like figure who embraces the redemptive suffering of the Divine Feminine for the benefit of her Christian community. As presented in The Gospel According to Saint John, Christ was the spiritual embodiment of the Divine Feminine. He was nurturing, meek, submissive, humble, and full of love as he suffered the will of the Father in all things. The character of Constance is likewise nurturing, meek, submissive, humble, and full of love as she experiences a host of trials set forth in the Man of Law’s tale. Christ was persecuted by the Pharisees and Sadducees as He went about teaching the gospel. Similarly, Constance was persecuted on account of her Christianity by pagans. Christ’s teachings were motivated by a devotion to God and a love for mankind. Constance too was motivated by her devotion to God and love for others. Christ saves mankind from sin and death through His redemptive sufferings. Likewise, Constance’s sufferings ultimately lead to the redemptive conversion of the pagans. Thus, by mirroring Christ’s feminine attributes in the character of Constance, Chaucer symbolically highlights the need to embrace the Divine Feminine in order to obtain spiritual power.

SKIPPED MIDDLE PORTION TO GET TO CRAP CONCLUSION

Constance’s story is Chaucer’s way of expressing how the purest and sincerest forms of spirituality, in this case the Divine Feminine, are manifested within individuals only after they separate themselves from corrupt groups that inhibit personal spiritual flourishing. Thus, Chaucer’s essential critique of the medieval clergy is that one can come closer to God by moving farther away from the institutional Church. However, the path to spiritual power is a difficult one. Indeed, in Constance’s symbolic life path, individual spiritual flourishing only comes through the path of personal suffering.
Although Chaucer appears to advocate for obtaining spiritual power by embracing the Divine Feminine, Pragna Patel seems to argue that only secular institutional changes can bring about feminine flourishing. In her United Nations Presentation, Patel specifically advocates for structural changes that will assist women and remove the misogyny and discrimination that is placed upon them. Patel seems to disagree with Constance’s path to spiritual power through submissive suffering. Patel appears to argue that Constance’s suffering is not a manifestation of her deep connection to God and her embrace of the Divine Feminine, but instead indicates the deep systemic issue of discrimination against women and their intersectional identities. In conceptualizing the intersectionality of feminine identity, Patel states, “It specifically addresses the manner in which racism, patriarchy, economic disadvantages, and other discriminatory systems contribute to create layers of inequality that structures the relative positions of women and men, races and other groups.” With respect to Constance’s intersectional identity, Patel would probably argue that Constance’s identity as a Christian woman, during the time of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, is what place Constance at a disadvantage in her society. Specifically, in the pagan land, Constance becomes a target for oppression because of her female identity and because of her Christian identity.
Although Patel and Chaucer seem to agree that the separation of Church and State is necessary, their approaches and end goals are markedly different. Patel essentially calls for the use of secular power structures to separate Church and State for the purpose of removing institutional barriers, particularly religious and cultural barriers, to equality of the sexes. On the other hand, Chaucer calls for the embrace of the Divine Feminine for the purpose of moving the Church away from secular power structures for the purpose of refocusing the clergy on its spiritual mission and restoring the spiritual power of the Church. Both approaches seek to combat a certain form of corruption, but they seek the separation of church and state for markedly different purposes.
The question remains as to which form of change is the most readily achievable and the most likely to bring about human flourishing. Fortunately, these two approaches are not mutually exclusive. Patel’s vision of separation of church and state for the purpose of promoting equality of the sexes is not necessarily in tension with Chaucer’s separation of church and state for the purpose of obtaining increased spiritual power. Patel’s approach seeks to remove outward oppression and free the body. Chaucer’s approach seeks to remove internal oppression and free the soul. One thing is clear, the separation of church and state is necessary for human flourishing to occur. Embracing the Divine Feminine is a good place to start.

Works Cited (for this particular portion) I don't even care if these citations are not entirely correct. I'm so tired.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Man of Law’s Introduction, Prologue, and Tale.” The Canterbury Tales, edited by V.A. Kolve and Glending Olson, 3rd Norton Critical Edition, 2018, pp. 99-129.
Patel, Pragna. “Notes on Gender and Racial Discrimination: An urgent need to integrate an intersectional perspective to the examination and development of policies, strategies and remedies for gender and racial equality.” 2016.
The Bible. Authorized King James Version, Cambridge UP, 2004.

THE THING THAT PISSED ME THE MOST ABOUT THIS PAPER WAS THAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO INCLUDE PRAGNA PATEL'S UN PRESENTATION ABOUT INTERSECTIONALITY IN MY CRITIQUE (which I didn't know about) WHEN I FELT I WAS GOING IN A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT DIRECTION. IT WASN'T UNTIL THE NIGHT BEFORE I WAS SUPPOSED TO SUBMIT THIS STORMING CREMLING OF A PAPER (the day I am writing this 12/8/2020) THAT I HAD TO INCORPORATE SOMETHING NOT IN MY ORIGINAL IDEA. SO I TOTALLY FELT LIKE I WAS GRASPING AT STRAWS BUT THANK GOODNESS I SLIPPED BY JUST BARELY. ALSO THANK YOU MOM AND DAD FOR ALL YOUR HELP. THESE CAPS ARE OBNOXIOUS AND I'M SORRY IT'S FINE I'M FINE I JUST WANT TO SCREAM INTO THE VOID.

I loved the very well done audio. I am giving it 5 stars for sheer surprise at how much I enjoyed it.

WHAN that Aprille with his schowres swoote
The drought of Marche hath perced to the roote,t
And bathud every veyne in suich licour,t
Of which vertue engendred is the flour:

What is The Canterbury Tales
It is the month of April, nature is fertile, the time when people fall in love, travel, and go on pilgrimages.
Chaucer decided to go on a pilgrimage and he encountered in Tabard Inn 29 other people that were also going on a pilgrimage to Canterbury to visit the shrine of St Thomas Becket who was murdered inside the Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. T. S. Eliot's play Murder in the Cathedral is about his murder.
The host (innkeeper) says that since the journey from London to Canterbury will be a long one in order to kill boredom they should say 4 stories each: 2 on their way to Canterbury and 2 on their way from Canterbury back to London. And the one who tells the best tale will win a free meal. That means 30 people x 4 stories each = 120 stories. But what we have is 24 stories running over 17000 lines and over 700 pages. Imagine how longer this piece of work would have been if in the end Chaucer had managed to complete it. At least 3000 pages. On the one hand I'm happy because it would have taken me 3 months to finish it, but on the other hand it's sad that this great piece of work is incomplete.
The inspiration for this poem is obvious; The Decameron written by Giovanni Boccaccio 3-4 decades before The Canterbury Tales.
Some say that Chaucer met Boccaccio in Italy and/or read the Decameron since many stories are more than similar and both works end with an apology. Both works also, became part of a trilogy by Pier Paolo Pasolini along with The Arabian Nights
The end of the Canterbury Tales is a sort of apology where Chaucer renounces the Tales and many of his previous works for the vulgar parts in these works and asking for forgiveness from Christ.
An apology I feel he had to make in order to escape death or persecution (?) #religiousterror
I don't agree with him. Your works are great! Keep writing. Oh wait. . .

The Language
The language is Middle English; the 2nd stage of the development of the English language after the first which is Old English (Beowulf) and before the 3rd which is Early Modern English (Shakespeare). The 4th stage is the English we use today.

Even though I was reading this book in glossed Middle English with a lot of footnotes, as the time went by I got used to it and it became easier to read, much easier than Joyce's Ulysses
I'm honest on this, trust me.
And of course I learnt many 'new' words while reading this work:
swyve=fuck
wight=person
queynte=cunt
eek = also
woot=knew
It is through his work that over 2000 English words were first attested in written manuscripts such as (mercenary, shelf, moral, award, vomit, and many more)

My Experience
At the beginning I was scared because this is
a) a long book and
b) a long book written in Middle English.
But as I said I got used to it and enjoyed it with one exception, The Parson's Tale, which wasn't a tale at all but a religious rant err... sermon on the seven deadly sins(with their many sub-branches) and really complex ways of how to repent, and when &c.
Many stories where written as fabliaux (comic farces usually including sexual and scatological obsenities): The Miller's Tale, The Reeve's Tale, The Cook's Tale, The Merchant's Tale

Some where chivalric romances: The Knight's Tale, The Squire's Tale
Some where animal fables: The Nun's Priest's Tale
But let me stop here because this list won't end soon. . .
So, do I recommend this book. No, for many reasons:
a) It's poetry, and not many people read poetry let alone a 'poem' that runs around 700 pages
b) It's in Middle English so reading in Modern English or any other language will diminish the experience, unless you read it in Middle English which is tough for those who don't have a good level in English.
c) It's long and needs time to be read.

BUT, that being said, it certainly is a worthy piece of literature, written by the father of English Literature, Geoffrey Chaucer, and when you'll finish it you will feel that you crossed off one more thing from your bucket list.

I cheated. I read Chaucer’s classic collection of tales in an edition transposed into modern English. And I make no apologies for it. Unless you are a scholar, a literary snob, or a masochist, there’s really no reason not to.

My reactions to Chaucer’s tales varied widely, from utter fascination to bored skimming. The best of these can still delight a modern reader, yet they are interspersed with real snoozers. Chaucer ended his collection with The Parson's Tale, which is no story at all, but rather a sermon, endlessly droning on about penance. It is not a choice that a modern author would make. Still, the fact that so many of these tales still resonate and entertain over six hundred years after they were written is a compelling reason to add this book to your must read list. Not only is it a fascinating window into the mindset of the 14th century world, but a striking example of the constancy of human nature.

Blackstone Audio audiobook provided my window into Chaucer’s work. It’s a great way to experience it. Rather than a single reader, an entire cast is used to dramatize the different tales. The J.U. Nicolson translation into modern English flowed easily, was accessible and enjoyable.

مهما قرأت تظل للكتب القديمة مكانتها التي لا تنازعها فيها أيّ كتب أخرى، فهي تحمل في طياتها جمالًا ملموسًا ومختلفًا، جمالًا فقد من هذا العالم.
هذه الأعمال لا يُمل منها، فتقرأ وتعاد قراءتها وتُحفظ بعض سطورها ونصوصها، ويُقتبس منها دائمًا، وكأنها كتبت لتبقى جزءً من ذاكرة البشر إلى الأبد...

المقامات وكليلة ودمنة وألف ليلة وليلة-والعشرات من كتب التراث الأخرى، وكوميديا دانتي وحكايات كانتربري هنا، جميعها تشترك في هذا، لغة شعرية وحكم وقصص متنوعة ونفحة أصالة.
وأنا أحبُّ هذه الأَصالة لأنه إن كان من شيء يفتقر إليه عالمنا فهو هذه الأصالة.

I first read the Coghill translation. Then I struggled through the original text, slowly at first enjoying the colour and richness of the original language, then reading it again and again, enjoying more each time.

If you have a little French or German from school and can be flexible enough to understand that 'sonne' is 'sun', then give it a go. Once you're comfortable with it the language becomes a rich pleasure of it's own. The shift from modern to middle English might be daunting, but I feel it is also one of the attractions and delights of the original text.

It's become a book that I like to return to and reread. There's lots to enjoy, the variety of stories and the different styles they are told in, the different regional voices (that are different to those we hear in William Langland or in Gawaine) and Chaucer's interpretation of stories from Boccaccio. Langland's Piers Plowman has the power of a sustained allegorical vision while Chaucer offers a bizarrely over ambitious programme, we are told in the general prologue that all the pilgrims will tell two stories each on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back, a modern complete edition isn't a slim book and even so not all the pilgrims even get to tell one story. Each story is of a different type: chivalric romance,moral fable, bawdy story, animal fable and so on told by a different pilgrim who has a distinct social status and character, a nun, an innkeeper, a knight, an alchemist assistant, so incomplete as it is, abandoned at the point of death or due to the demands of everyday life the poem offers tremendous variety - something for everyreader.