Customer Reviews

The Canterbury Tales (Dover Giant Thrift Editions)

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While you claim to have read it in "old English" in school, you most likely were reading an updated version as well. The original was in MIDDLE ENGLISH not Old English. And looks a little something like this...

Heere bigynneth the knyghtes tale.

Whilom, as olde stories tellen us,
Ther was a duc that highte Theseus;
Of Atthenes he was lord and governour,
That gretter was ther noon under the sonne.
Ful many a riche contree hadde he wonne,
What with his wysdom and his chivalrie;

Very little like your "old English" of the KJV Bible...

I want to correct an earlier reviewer.

Chaucer wrote "The Canterbury Tales" in Middle English, not Old English. The King James Bible is written in Modern English.

Thanks as always to Dover for publishing this inexpensive and unabridged version (yes, in Modern English) of Chaucer's Tales. Unabridged versions have been hard to find at any price.

I had no idea that this was not the original text, but a translation from old English to new. I read the old English in high school and didn't have a problem with it, perhaps because I was used to the King James bible. I certainly am not going to read this translation and will put it up for sale. I really enjoyed the original text and prefer to read that.