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The Canterbury Tales (original-spelling Middle English edition) (Penguin Classics) (Middle English) Paperback – August 30, 2005

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Geoffrey Chaucer (Author)
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Geoffrey Chaucer (Author), Jill Mann (Editor, Introduction)
3.9 out of 5 stars 88 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 1328 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; Reprint edition (August 30, 2005)
  • Language: Middle English
  • ISBN-10: 014042234X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140422344
  • Product Dimensions: 5 x 2.4 x 7.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (88 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #92,459 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

152 of 157 people found the following review helpful
Worth its weight in gold
By Jordan M. Poss VINE VOICE on May 29, 2006
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
I bought this Penguin Classics edition of Chaucer last year during a visit to Canterbury. I already owned the modernized edition edited by the late Nevill Coghill, but I figured: Hey, I'm in Canterbury--I have to buy a copy. So I bought this one.

For starters, this is the complete text of the Tales, and it is in the original Middle English. While the language may take a while to get used to (for beginners, especially) it's a blast to read. Another plus for this edition is the heavy, heavy glossing and a really extensive notes section which helped even an experienced reader of Chaucer like myself.

If you're new to Chaucer, or even if you're not, this is the edition to have. It's a paperback, so it's portable, and it's complete. You won't be left wanting an odd tale or two with this book.

Highly recommended.
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91 of 94 people found the following review helpful
Great inexpensive complete edition of Chaucer
By Arthad on October 23, 2006
Format: Paperback
Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (Original-Spelling Edition). Edited by Jill Mann. Penguin Classics, 2005. ISBN 014042234X.

The Canterbury Tales itself needs no review, as Chaucer is universally acknowledged to be the greatest English poet after Shakespeare and Milton. As Chaucer's Prologue explains, the Tales are stories told by pilgrims en route to Canterbury. They range from tales of courtly love to bawdy farce to fable. Chaucer is a storyteller, and it might surprise some modern people just how entertaining a seven-hundred-year-old collection of stories might be.

Unfortunately, the English language has changed since Chaucer's time, making it difficult for modern English readers to enjoy the Canterbury Tales without a bit of work. Chaucer wrote in a dialect of Middle English (ME) which is a direct ancestor of Present Day English (PDE). This relationship makes Chaucer much easier to read than other dialects of ME further removed from PDE, such as that in which the Gawain poet wrote. Chaucer's vocabulary, consisting mainly of words derived from French and Old English, is also easier than the Gawain poet's. With a little concentration, the modern reader will probably find many ME words that looked unintelligible are actually similar to PDE words. (This edition includes a note on "Chaucer's Language" which explains Middle English grammar well, but due to its use of grammatical terminology, it will be helpful only to those who already know what such things as pluperfect and genitive singular mean.) Getting used to Middle English will take time, but it's worth it.

Now for this particular edition. I found it well edited, with glosses at the bottom of each page and detailed endnotes, which occupy about a third of the volume.Read more ›
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51 of 53 people found the following review helpful
A perfect edition
By ced on February 25, 2007
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This is an unbelievably great edition of The Canterbury Tales. All I wanted was the original, complete version with definitions for archaic words. But the Penguin Classics edition was all I could find, so I got it. It comes with over 500 pages of extras!!! Super-detailed notes, a great glossary, and lots on Chaucer, his times, literary genres, etc., etc. Multiple interpretations are given for parts scholars don't agree on. I can't believe I paid $80 for the Riverside Chaucer in college! ...which I later sold back for much less. This edition blew me away, and it's relatively cheap.

If you haven't read Chaucer and want to read him in old English, it's tough at first, but it gets easier with practice. There are long tales, short tales, noble tales, bawdy tales, etc. If you just want to read a few, there are cheaper paperbacks with just a few. If you want the complete tales but not the essays and things, they exist, but they're more expensive than this edition!
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36 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Beware the Kindle version!
By tlm on April 26, 2012
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
The Kindle version is a Wonder bread modern English version and not a copy of the expected Penguin Middle English version. The reviews for the Kindle version are non-applicable carryovers from the Penguin Classics version. Thank goodness the Kindle version is only 99 cents, so not too much loss.
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39 of 41 people found the following review helpful
Doesn't really work on a Kindle
By Simon Crown on November 23, 2010
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
I bought the Kindle version of this book because it was cheap and it received a lot of rave reviews. Unfortunately the Kindle version is only useful for somebody who is proficient in middle English. I haven't seen the paper edition, but the book states that difficult words are translated as footnotes on the same page they appear. No doubt this is makes for a great reading experience as you can enjoy Chaucer's original text and use the footnotes on the same page to pick up what you can't understand. Sadly this doesn't work on a Kindle as you have to continually page back and forth between the translations (maybe 5 or 6 times per page).
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
THIS ONE CERTAINLY WORKED FOR ME
By D. Blankenship HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWER on March 30, 2009
Format: Paperback
There is no getting around the fact that I am one of those individuals who struggled with this work and struggled with Middle English. I was first introduced, to some degree, to this early ancestor of our language in high school. I am sorry to report that most of it went well over my head, for the most part due to laziness on my part. Later in college I received strong doses of Middle English, and strong doses of this particular work. Being older helped; there was greater understanding on my part, but still, I felt I was missing much. Yes, I did the work and produced the grades as all must do if they want to graduate, but still, I just did not get it. I am also one of those people who has been blessed or cursed, depending on how you look at it, with an acute literary curiosity and can be at times, rather tenacious when I go after something. I dearly wanted to have some understanding (at least more than I had) of this particular work. Enter this book!

I have never been and never will be, nor do I have a desire to be an expert in Middle English. That being said though, and in lieu of my statement above, I have always been drawn to this particular work and have searched through many different translations and editions of Chaucer's writing to find just the right one, the one I could connect with. I found it in this chunky edition.

As has been stated, it does take some work; but that is okay as this edition is well footnoted, has a wonderful glossary of explanatory notes and gives the full tale, which makes the reading much less intimidating for someone like me. When I feel the need, this is the volume I turn to. Now I have found that if I hear something and then read it, I get far more out of the work. I have approached this work with a three pronged attack.Read more ›
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