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The Canterbury Tales Audio Book
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The Canterbury Tales
Author:
Geoffrey Chaucer
Multi-Voice Presentation
Dubbed the "well of English undefiled" by Edmund Spenser, Chaucer is the pure embodiment of our language's essential power. Members from all parts of 14th-century English society reflect on life as they travel from Southwark to Canterbury.Lively, absorbing, and entertaining, these stories manifest an astonishing diversity of tone and subject matter. In modern English.
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Available Audio Book Editions:
| F2B973 |
UNABRIDGED |
Audio MP3-CD ( 2 ) |
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Publish Date: 10/01/2008
ISBN: 9781433249730
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| F9B972 |
Unabridged |
CDs (17) |
$29.95 |
More Info > |
| FP2562 |
Unabridged |
Playaway (1) |
$79.99 |
More Info > |
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Synopsis:
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The "Canterbury Tales" were originally planned to include over 100 stories, but Chaucer completed only 22. The device of using a pilgrimage as a setting for the telling of tales was not uncommon--medieval pilgrims traditionally told stories to liven up the long trek--but Chaucer's version is infinitely more sophisticated, matching the teller and his tale in a way that greatly enriches the content. This, and the interactions between the pilgrims, give the "Canterbury Tales" the complexity of a good novel. The Tales reflect Chaucer's wide experience with all levels of English society: the royals, the aristocracy, the clergy, the middle class from which he came, and the lower classes, for whom he invariably shows sympathy and understanding. They are also notable for the dialogue that is set up about marriage, its virtues and liabilities, and the proper role of husband and wife--giving the work a coherent unity and an even greater resonance.
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Book Reviews:
| "As a fact of literary history, Chaucer was one of the most original men who ever lived. There had never been anything like the lively realism of the ride to Canterbury done or dreamed of in our literature before. He is not only the father of all our poets, but the grandfather of all our novelists." |
| - G. K. Chesterton () |
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Author Bio:
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Son of a prosperous wine merchant, Chaucer grew up helping his father in the business that made his family part of the increasing English middle class. In his teens, Chaucer became a page in the household of one of the sons of Edward III--a post that would affect the remainder of his life, which he spent as part of the circle of friends of the various reigning monarchs. His wife was a member of this aristocracy who held her own post at court. Chaucer fought in the king's army and served as diplomat to Italy and France. He was also a Justice of the Peace and Knight of the Shire (i.e. a member of Parliament) for Kent. At his death, he lived in a house situated in the garden of Westminster Abbey. Throughout his long, busy, and distinguished career, Chaucer was also composing his memorable poems. Among his early endeavors was a translation of the courtly, allegorical 13th-century "Roman de la Rose", a permanent influence on his own work, as were the Latin writers Virgil and Ovid. During his 1372 sojourn in Italy he discovered Dante, Petrarch, and--chiefly--Boccaccio, whose work was an enormous influence not only on the "Canterbury Tales" but on "The Parliament of Fowles" and "Troilus and Criseide". His first major work was "The Book of the Duchess" (c. 1370), an elegy for the wife of one of his patrons, John of Gaunt. The last 14 years of his life were devoted to the "Canterbury Tales", which he worked on obsessively while continuing to perform his court duties. If Chaucer has one outstanding quality as a writer, it is the ease with which he enters into the daily lives of people from all walks of life--as well, of course, as the ability to communicate that experience in verse tales full of bawdy wit, inventive language, and the harsh but affectionate clarity of a sensitive, observant man of the world. Chaucer is now considered the first great English poet.
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