The Clerkenwell Tales [Audio Cassette]

Peter Ackroyd (Author), Nigel Graham (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2004

London, 1399. The last year of the fourteenth century and there is talk of an apocalypse. The people are restless, disenchanted with the Church and their King. The streets of London are rife with rumour, heresy, espionage, murder. A nun from the convent of Clerkenwell. Sister Clarice, is at the centre of all this confusion. She has been vouchsafed visions of the future -- but is she a genuine orphetess, or a tool of earthly powers?

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Isis Publishing Ltd (2004)
• ISBN-10: 0753119668
• ISBN-13: 978-0753119662
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Canterbury Tales with a twist, January 22, 2005

By 

K. Huff (Radnor, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Clerkenwell Tales (Hardcover)

Peter Ackroyd draws on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales to tell a tale of suspense and intrigue in late-14th century London. The characters are all Chaucer's, but Ackroyd chooses to display them in a much different light.

In the 14th century, there was much dissention in the church. The advent of the Black Death earlier in the century had changed people's belief systems. While most of England remained Catholic, there were many people who wanted to break away from the Church. One of these groups was the Lollards, declared heretics for their liberal views on religion. In this book, there is a group of people who want to rock the foundations of the church to its core, and the burning of churches in London is ascribed to the Lollards. The fictional story also includes the mad prophesies of a nun called Clarice.

Like the Canterbury Tales, the Clerkenwell Tales have a structure, though the vignettes are in a different order than the original Tales. Ackroyd does a great job of discussing each character in great detail, adding on to what we know of the characters from Chaucer. While Ackroyd does not stick with the genres of the Canterbury Tales (ie fabliau, romance, etc), he does give his reader a peak at another aspect of medieval English life: the mystery plays, or the stories of the Bible as performed by the members of the town's trade guilds. Ackroyd does a fantastic job of pulling bits and peieces of medieval English life together in one coherent whole.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars veritable time-travel, September 28, 2004

By 

Donald Kerr "video-audio-bibliophile" (Turtle Creek, Pa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Clerkenwell Tales (Hardcover)

the author has created a delightful, pensive, historical fiction whose genesis is Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales." This 213-page opus is recommended to all medievalists, early-renaissance lectors and avid readers of English history. If one enjoys "The Canterbury Tales" one should find pleasant satisfaction in this delicious re-creation.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For the literati, a mighty tasty bit of a tome, October 5, 2004

By 

KatPanama "katpanama" (Readerville) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Clerkenwell Tales (Hardcover)

It's 1399; do you know where your Chaucer is? Ackroyd borrows both form and characters but puts them to different tasks. Who knew (I guess I should have) that the Puritan concept (also Presbyterian) of predestination actually had its roots in an intense debate within The Church in the 13th and 14th centuries. Wonderfully written and enjoyable. E.g., Part of the secret tunnels that connected the Clerkenwell cloister to the priory of St. John of Jerusalem now can be seen in the basement of the Marx Memorial Library at 37a Clerkenwell Green, London. Who says history doesn't have a sense of humor?