Chaucer's Pilgrims: The Allegory [Paperback]

Dolores L. Cullen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2000

A demonstration that Chaucers pilgrims all correspond to heavenly bodies in the night sky--the signs of the zodiac and all of the then-known moveable stars, or planets--and reflect, in their name and their appearance, the characters after whom the stars are named.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

WHAT NEW CAN BE SAID ABOUT A POET WHO’S BEEN DEAD FOR SIX HUNDRED YEARS? “Cullen’s Chaucer’s Pilgrims is a thought-provoking addition to literature on this well-studied classic.” --Library Journal, September 15, 2000 October 25, 2000, is officially the 600th anniversary of the death of Geoffrey Chaucer. It’s hard to imagine that any new insight could surface about a writer who’s been dead that long, particularly one who’s been read, studied, taught, and analyzed by the academic community for centuries. Geoffrey Chaucer, one of the first poets in what we now consider the English language, is admired and enjoyed to this day, and not only by the English majors. He is rightly considered a literary giant: an entertaining, wise, ribald, and reverent craftsman of poetry and the fine art of storytelling. Plenty has been “discovered” and written about Chaucer’s work by academics from medievalists to Freudians. Can anything more be said? According to Dolores L. Cullen, plenty remains to be said, and she has made it her business to say it. Unwilling to accept established theories as the whole story, Cullen has read The Canterbury Tales with a fresh and inquiring eye and has seen things about the work that nobody has seen or written about before. Her new ideas are presented in a trilogy of new Chaucer scholarship published by Fithian Press.

Cullen’s first book, Chaucer’s Host—Up So Doun, argued that the host and moderator of The Canterbury Tales is the personification of Jesus Christ. The second book, Pilgrim Chaucer—Center Stage, demonstrated that one of the tales is Chaucer’s confession, celebration, and atonement for his own sins. The third and final work, Chaucer’s Pilgrims—The Allegory, whose publication date coincides with the anniversary of Chaucer’s death, reveals the allegorical meaning of the full cast of pilgrims. Cullen has discovered, and she convincingly reveals, the startling relationship between these pilgrims—who show up at dusk—and the other nocturnal wanderers, the stars and planets.

It’s not unusual that Chaucer would look to the heavens for inspiration. After all, astronomy and astrology were taken seriously in his day, as was theology. What is unusual is that no scholar has discovered this interpretation of Chaucer’s pilgrims before. Perhaps it took a fresh and iconoclastic Chaucer enthusiast to come up with such revolutionary ideas. Perhaps it took a centennial anniversary to bring those ideas to the attention of Chaucer fans worldwide.

About the Author

Dolores Cullen first encountered Chaucer as a middle-aged college student. She received her B.A. in 1972 and her M.A. in 1978, both from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She is also the author of Chaucers Host: Up-So-Doun and Pilgrim Chaucer: Center Stage. Cullen lives and writes in Claremont, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 423 pages
• Publisher: Fithian Pr (October 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564743349
• ISBN-13: 978-1564743343
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,721,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "must" for all serious readers of Chaucer!, January 4, 2001

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chaucer's Pilgrims: The Allegory (Paperback)

Any studying the Canterbury Tales will find this a fun examination of Chaucer, providing a fresh new look at Chaucer's intentions and the scholarly debates about his works. This reveals the allegorical meaning of his full cast of pilgrims, from their relationships to their nocturnal wanderings. A 'must' for serious readers of Chaucer.