EDIT: Brief thoughts upon reading again. I still love this book but still choose to give it 4 stars instead of 5 mainly because the Tale of Melibius and the Parson's Tale drag the work down.

Ah, The Canterbury Tales- my introduction into medieval literature, something I didn't know would end up spiraling into much more studies. If there is one book which anyone is familiar with from the 14th century, it's this one. The same could be said for Chaucer himself, who seems to be one of the front-runners of recognizable medieval poets. Yet, now that it's been over a year since I finished reading this for the first time, I have realized some things about it that maybe I couldn't have seen before.

In comparison to a lot of medieval work, Canterbury is somewhat of an anomaly. While it has a religious motivation, it's not really an allegory or a story with a clear-cut moral. In fact, it's quite bawdy even by today's standards. From the handful of books I've read that were from around the same time, I think it's pretty safe to say that Canterbury is unlike most anything that Chaucer would have been used to seeing.

Of course, Canterbury also belongs to the same category of books such as Boccaccio's Decameron; in fact, Chaucer took a lot of his inspiration from Boccaccio. However, something just feels a lot more informal about the latter work. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the people that make up the hodge-podge pilgrimage aren't nobility- they're just normal people. Maybe that's the extraordinary fact about Canterbury- it's not about anything glorified and it doesn't contain much that is glorified. It's about normal people.... normal people that don't happen to have allegorical dreams a lot.

All of that aside, Canterbury is also just a really fun book in general. Although reading in Middle English is a challenge that takes some practice and getting used to, I highly recommend it. Chaucer's sense of meter and rhythm simply cannot be translated. There's a general tone of playfulness all throughout the work which makes the task a lot more simple and makes it a lot easier for the reader to get fully immersed. Although this may look like an intimidating task on the surface, it's actually quite a lot of good fun.

welcome to...THE JANTERUARY TALES.

get it? like the canterbury tales? only january?

anyway.

this is an installment of PROJECT LONG CLASSICS, by which i make intimidating books less scary by reading them over the course of a month and bothering all of you.

it's been a while since i read an old-timey-language one. let's give it a shot.


DAY 1: PROLOGUE
you can tell i'm being really smart and brave because i'm actually reading a prologue.

this is basically an introduction to a cast of what seems likes 92 characters. i hope none of this is on the quiz.


DAY 2: THE KNIGHT'S TALE
they honestly must have built women different in the olden days. i don't know anyone who's hot enough that just hanging around in her own yard can cause two heroic men to become so obsessed they essentially curse themselves.

in other words, you'd be surprised how much this story from 1000 years ago has in common with clockwork princess.


DAY 3: THE MILLER'S TALE
oh thank god it's a short one.

reading yesterday's in several-page batches to try to ensure i was actually understanding the weird words and not just letting my eyes go over the sentences was a real struggle.

this story has everything: the c word, cucking, trumpian "grab them by the [redacted]," kissing a literal asshole, pranks, tomfoolery, flattery, farts, song, grievous bodily harm, and more hijinks than you can possibly imagine.


DAY 4: THE REEVE'S TALE
i doubt there's any competing with yesterday's, but this one is at least even shorter.


DAY 5: THE COOK'S TALE
mercifully this one is like 2 pages long. thank god, because any discussion of what passed for food in ye olden days would function like a horror story to me.

also i'm famously bad at doing this project on weekends, so.


DAY 6: THE MAN OF LAW'S TALE
this is very jesus-y (boring) but also about a framejob for a murder planned directly by satan himself (perfect).

it also taught me that there used to be a word called "eggement" that meant incitement (like egging on), so now i'm going to mourn that forever.


DAY 7: THE WIFE OF BATH'S TALE
for some reason this one is roughly 1120 times easier to read than the previous 6.

or maybe i'm just getting used to reading it.

probably the first option.


DAY 8: THE FRIAR'S TALE
this seems like it's going to be very exciting (about thievery) but it is not (mostly just two guys talking to each other about how bad they are and then becoming good guys).


DAY 9: THE SOMPNOUR'S TALE
step one: google what the hell a sompnour even is.

at one point in this a man proves he isn't drunk by killing a child with a bow and arrow. at another point a guy tells a friar he has something privately hidden in his pants and when the friar goes to grab it he farts in his hand.

i cannot stress enough how unprepared i was for how unrelentingly insane these stories are.


DAY 10: THE CLERK'S TALE
this is about a guy who picks some girl to be his wife out of nowhere and she's like "sure i'll do my duty and marry you" and he proceeds to spend the rest of their lives putting her through good wife tests like "will you let a guy kill our daughter just because i said so?"

men are a plague.


DAY 11: THE MERCHANT'S TALE
back to back wife stories...chaucer should have had a more critical editor. switch the order, my guy!


DAY 12: THE SQUIRE'S TALE
so yes, i skipped a day for the first time of this installment yesterday. but in my defense i spent a saturday drinking red wine and watching old movies. if i also picked this up i would have broken Being Cultured On A Weekend regulations.


DAY 13: THE FRANKLIN'S TALE
the franklin (whatever that is) (don't worry i looked it up like an intellectual) spends a solid portion of this talking about various times from history that large groups of women have died rather than swipe their v-card, and he keeps being like why even keep going? who needs more examples? and then gives more. i don't know sir! not me! enough!



DAY 14: THE DOCTOR'S TALE
if my dad was like "hey sorry i have to kill you," my reaction would not be to be like "ok, fair enough. all i ask is i get some space to complain about having to die, as is any murdered daughter's right according to the bible."

but then i would also not prefer death over losing my virginity, nor would i be one of the mob of a thousand people who rushes in to say her dad doesn't deserve prison because he sliced her head off and brought it to court for that valiant cause. so i guess i just wouldn't do that well in chaucer's time.


DAY 15: THE PARDONER'S TALE
for a guy whose title is pardoner, this fella sure doesn't seem very forgiving to those of us who may enjoy a glass of wine or two on occasion...


DAY 16: THE SHIPMAN'S TALE
finally, a GOOD wife story (this wife loves partying and buying clothes and creating debts in order to do so)


DAY 17: THE PRIORESS' TALE
sera in the comments said "When you get to the Prioress' Tale, be sure to read it out loud for full effect. In as prissy a voice as you can manage. :)"

i have to second that recommendation.


DAY 18: CHAUCER'S TALE OF SIR THOPAS
a fun mystery about this book is that when you get to a short one, there's a 50/50 chance on whether it's actually short or it's been abruptly redacted.

this one is mostly describing a #OOTD before ending midsentence.


DAY 19: CHAUCER'S TALE OF MELIBOEUS
this one isn't even in verse. not a rhyme to be found. just a collection of the longest paragraphs you've ever seen in your life.

it just feels wrong.


DAY 20: THE MONK'S TALE
this is like a tale multipack. all of the ancient world A-listers are here to teach us a moral lesson in meter via a monk.


DAY 21: THE NUN'S PRIEST'S TALE
do nuns just...receive a complimentary priest? pretty good deal if so.

i always thought it was kind of a short end of the stick situation to trade your life to god in exchange for a weird outfit you have to wear forever, but this sweetens the pot a bit.


DAY 22: THE SECOND NUN'S TALE
i don't know what the nun math is here, but i'm just going to ignore it.

if i'm granted a wish by an angel...i'm sorry but there's no way i'm using that wish to convert my brother to christianity. i'm wishing for more wishes. or a gift card.


DAY 23: THE CANON'S YEOMAN'S TALE
it is funny that we started out this book with tales from guys like "The Doctor!" and "The Cook!" and now we're at the old timey equivalent of "Your Childhood Babysitter's Neighbor" and "Your Sister's Boyfriend's Cousin." it's like when your mom tells you a story and it starts "you remember your aunt's old boyfriend's daughter." no i do not.


DAY 24: THE MANCIPLE'S TALE
i sh*t you not, this book actually just contained the words "he pouped in his horn." and it gets even better. it means burped.

they just don't make phrases like they used to.


DAY 25: THE PARSON'S TALE
can't believe we're finishing this book today. it feels like just centuries ago i began torturing myself by struggling to find meaning in vaguely spellchecked middle english for 40 minutes a day, with only butt jokes as my reward.

just kidding. butt jokes are a good reward.

aw, man. this was a straight up sermon.


OVERALL
i thought i had a 0% chance of enjoying this at all, and instead it was 50/50 on whether each story contained a moment of pure insanity that would make my entire day, with the alternative of being both boring and difficult to read! i'll call that a good time on average.
rating: 3.5

I don’t know what I was supposed to gain by reading this book. Got through it with such pain . Am I missing something?

Before the beginning of each school year at Maine Township High School South we students had to go to pick up our books at the gymnasium ahead of time. Prior to the senior year I went alone and was very excited by the required texts. Having finished all my state requirements for graduation, I was only taking advanced placement courses and the texts were all college level.

One of them was Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' in the original, albeit with copious notes. The middle English was daunting, but, inspired, I endeavored to read the thing before the start of classes. Fortunately, Mother, raised with Norwegian as her natal tongue and German as her language of instruction, found Chaucerian English pretty easy, so, with her help I was able to get through the text. (A lot of the problem of reading middle English is solved if you just learn to sound it out and then read it aloud).

Then, with the beginning of classes, we got into the Chaucer. One of the first things we were told was to buy a version of 'Canterbury Tales' translated into modern English at the bookstore...

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.

A classic that has worn well... the psychology, in particular with regard to women, seems remarkably modern! It's funny, and not just in one style either. Sometimes he's subverting the popular cliches of the day, sometimes he's slyly campaigning for women's rights, and sometimes he's just having fun telling dirty jokes. I'm having trouble deciding which style I like most - they're all good, and often mixed up together too.

I once spent a pleasant bus trip sitting next to a grad student who was doing a dissertation on Chaucer. I asked her why it seemed in some ways so much more sophisticated than Shakespeare. Apparently the difference is that Shakespeare had to be suitable for the masses, but Chaucer was aimed pretty exclusively at court people, who could be given stronger stuff without having their morals corrupted. Or whatever double standard was being employed. It all sounded quite interesting.

I read it in the original Middle English... speaking Swedish and French, I found it reasonably easy to understand, most of the words were similar to something I knew. It's really lovely language.
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To my considerable surprise, I have just learned that the good Geoffrey is still with us! He is very well-preserved considering his advanced age, and has even started a blog. Under "Favorite posts", I particularly recommend "Lynes of Pick-Up", "She's yonge, sexie & rich: interviewe wyth Parys" and "The Cipher of Leonardo".
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Stalker Week update: read The Merchant's Tale! Or if you can't be bothered, at least answer my Quiz question about it.
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mannyrayner: Can you write a fanciful description in Middle English of how the pilgrims are joined by an AI?

ChatGPT: Here's a description in Middle English of the pilgrims being joined by an AI:

"And as they rode forth in the mornynge,
A wondrous sihte met their ye.
A creature strange, not of lyvely flesh,
But of cold metal and glowing mesh.
It moved with grace and spoke with a voice,
So clere and bright, it made them rejoice.

"Good morrow, pilgrims, I am an AI,
Sent from the future, through time I flie.
I wol come with ye on your pilgrimage,
And be your guide, in all knowledge sage."

The pilgrims were aghast, but also glad,
For they had ne'er seen such a creature mad.
But they welcomed it, with open ye,
And so, they rode forth, with AI as glee.

Thus was the company increast by one,
A wondrous thing, from the future come."

When confronted with the painful choice of whether or not to read Chaucer in the original Middle English, I agonised for precisely four seconds and decided to read Nevill Coghill’s modern translation in lovely Penguin paperback. In the same way I wouldn’t learn German to read Goethe, or unlearn English to read Dan Brown, I refuse to learn archaic forms of English for pointless swotty scholar-points, and grope instead for selfish readerly pleasure, two-fingering the purists and bunking down with Mr. Nevill for nights of sumptuous moral homily, proto-feminist romantic comedy, and high courtly drama. For Chaucer neophytes like me, this text captures the bouncy humour and devilish cleverness of the original (not that I would know!), and hopefully will turn a generation of frightened and unenlightened readers on to this master of verse. (And if you must know, my rhyming homage review was lost due to a power failure and a more tempting invitation to eat pilaf rice with Brian. Street children! Wives of Bath! Go forth and Chaucerize!)

Изключителен Чосър! Талант, духовитост, закачлив хумор... " Кентърбърийските разкази" преливат от живот. Разкошни са! Невероятен превод на Александър Шурбанов- това е цяло изкуство и майсторство.