Author(s): Geoffrey Chaucer; A. C. Cawley (Editor and Introduction by)

Literature, Mythology, Legends - Classical/Medieval (including Studies) | Poetry, Verse, Prose, and Poetry Essays/Criticism | Middle English

The precise, unerring, delicately emphatic characterizations for which The Canterbury Tales is so famous are no more extraordinary than Chaucer’s utter mastery of English rhythms and his effortless versification. Ranging from animal fables to miniature epics of courtly love and savagely hilarious comedies of sexual comeuppance, these stories told by pilgrims on the way to the shrine of Thomas à Becket in Canterbury reveal a teeming, vital fourteenth-century English society on the verge of its Renaissance.These tales bring together a band of pilgrims who represented most of the occupations and social groups of the time. The diversity of the narrators in turn made possible a varied collection of tales including chivalric romance, spiritual allegory, courtly lay, beast fable and literary satire.Poem in Middle English, supplementary text in English.

Fair to good condition. Some tanning on page edges, and scuffing and wear at edges of cover. Several pages have short notes in margin. Name at top of first page.