Reading Chaucer in the original Middle English is a monumental chore; I certainly don't recommend it to the faint of heart or the dictionary-phobic. There are, however, some moments that are worth the effort, and almost all of them are found in the Canterbury Tales rather than in the many other works included in this volume. The Parliament of Fowls is a good read too, and a good pair with the Tales (both address Chaucer's feelings about the hierarchy of social classes). The best of the Tales are the Miller's Tale, the Wife of Bath's prologue (which is considerably longer than her tale), the Franklin's Tale, the Merchant's Tale, and, if you are an astrology nerd, the Knight's Tale. The Franklin's Tale is one of the most cerebral ones, relying less on the filthy and fun humor of the Miller's Tale and more on the traditions of good and thought-provoking storytelling (the fact that Chaucer and his family were actually Franklins (landowners) probably has something to do with his choice to show that character in a flattering light). Reading Troilus and Criseyde was a nightmare: if you want to read Chaucer and enjoy it, stick with the Tales and the Fowls.

Okay, if you're even THINKING about getting this book, understand one thing up front: it is in the original. I don't recall if it has a "translation", but I do recall having to learn how to adjust my thinking to wrap my head around Chaucerian middle english. All in all, though, I'm glad I read it in the "original" - you get things that you normally wouldn't otherwise.

Second thing - this book is heavy. Really heavy. Like I could club an endangered species over the head with this and do some serious damage kind of heavy. You've been warned.

The master. Ground zero for literature-minded folk. Better than Shakespeare -- Geoffrey C. captures the complexity of human nature in a way that's never been matched. If the Nun's Preist's Tale doesn't make you laugh, you don't have a pulse.

Canterbury Tales is certainly one of those books, like Ulysses or Proust or Golden Bowl, that no one's actually read or if they have they hated it or if they didn't they're lying because they think it'll impress you. But I took a whole class on this in college and I had this terrific professor, and she showed me how awesome this is. Really, it's a heap of fun. Are you impressed?

ps my actual review of Canterbury Tales is here

This is a beautiful text! It is well formatted and contains Chaucer's work in Middle English (with, of course, tools to help the uninitiated reader). This is a classic that I will always have on my bookshelf.

So far I've read The Book of the Duchess, Troilus and Criseyde, and I'm just starting The Legend of Good Women.

I have read the majority of Chaucer's works now after taking a class on him this semester. I love these medieval writings! Chaucer manages to be hilarious still after hundreds of years! How is that possible? His stories are always so crazy, and it is a blast trying to piece together meaning after reading.

Everyone should read and love Chaucer! :-D

We used this book extensively in my 2 favorite upper-level Chaucer courses and it was great. It probably helped that the professor was very engaging and enthusiastic about Chaucer. He helped us with the linguistics and made it interesting. It actually really helped with my later Shakespearean studies. I highly recommend this collection.

been reading this on and off since college and everytime I open it up from my bookshelf, I end up reading it for hours, it's utterly seducing. So fucking good.

The Holy Grail for Chaucerians. It pleased me to no end that this was on the list of required texts for my grad-level course in Chaucer because it gave me an excuse to add it to my library! There are very few works of literature in the English language as diverse as The Canterbury Tales - in turns deadly serious, baudy, unapologetically sexual, and meditative, this is arguably one of the greatest collection of stories ever written. I've read through The Canterbury Tales three times in their entirety, once in the Modern English and twice in Middle English, and each time the text produces something new and delightful, either on a microtextual level or a realization about the work as a whole.

I won't write separate listings for them, but the four critical works that really helped open Chaucer up for me were:

The Art of the Canterbury Tales by Paul Ruggiers (University of Wisconsin Press 1967)
Chaucer and the French Tradition by Charles Muscatine (University of California Press 1964)
Chaucer's Sexual Poetics by Carolyn Dinshaw (University of Wisconsin Press 1989)

The Riverside Chaucer, however, also has his lesser known, but beautifully written, Book of the Duchess, the hagiographic Legend of Good Women, the dreamlike Parliament of Fowls, and much much more.

In the interest of full disclosure: I haven't yet read his Troilus and Criseyde, but would like to get to it some day.

Chaucer is good fun, but I doubt I’ll tackle him in Middle English again.

one of the Top three books on my shelves that I will grab on my way out if the house catches fire.

This is the greatest edition of one of the greatest authors. Perhaps Shakespeare is greater. Perhaps.

Chaucer's ability to capture the variety and earthiness of human life is unparalleled. He is the poet of human nature.