The Canterbury Tales
" 'Tis sufficient to say, according to the proverb, that here is God's plenty."
That's how the poet John Dryden described The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th-century masterpiece in which pilgrims, representing a cross-section of English society, take turns telling tales as they travel together from London to a saint's shrine in Canterbury.
Now, in a translation by Ronald L. Ecker and Eugene J. Crook that has become widely adopted as a college course text, students as well as general readers are provided with:
- a complete translation of Chaucer's classic that includes the long-neglected "Tale of Melibee" and "The Parson's Tale"
- a work as faithful to the Middle English original, in both its poetry and prose, as a modern-English rendering permits
- line numbers--found in Robinson's edition and other editions of the original text, but absent in other translations--for ease in locating passages
- a glossary of people, places, and terms.
"It is difficult to imagine anyone doing a better job than Ecker and Crook."--Choice
Enjoy a Canterbury Tales excerpt, featuring Chanticleer and the fox, or go to the complete online edition.
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