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The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
- Narrated by: Terry Jones
- Length: 59 mins
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Publisher's summary
Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is one of the most influential pieces of writing in the British literary canon. It helped to establish English, rather than Latin or Norman French, as an acceptable language for literature. It was also one of the earliest pieces of work to have story linking - what had previously been just collected writings which the author deemed interesting.
Following the model of such early masterpieces as Boccacio's Decameron, Chaucer collected several styles and types of stories together - political treatises, bawdy pub stories, courtly romances and moral tales - joining them together under the conceit of a group of pilgrims bound for Canterbury, swapping tales, somewhat competitively, in an inn in Southwark, South London.
The prologue to the tales is therefore an important piece of literature in its own right. Before The Canterbury Tales and its like, it didn’t really matter in what order you read the works collected in one volume; the first item could just as well be read last.
The prologue not only introduces all the characters you are about to meet; it also sets the scene for you, painting a picture of what has become one of the most famous of literary Aprils and linking the forthcoming stories with a series of jousting type attempts by the tellers to top each other and exact revenge for previous insults.
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Story
Read in a mixture of Middle-English and modern English, The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.
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Terrible Recording Quality
- By Michael on 09-17-10
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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The Canterbury Tales (Unabridged Selections)
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: David Butler
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Abridged
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This modern English edition of Chaucer's classic begins on a spring day in April. Sometime in the waning years of the 14th century, 29 travelers set out for Canterbury on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas Beckett. Among them are a knight, a monk, a prioress, a plowman, a miller, a merchant, a clerk, and an oft-widowed wife from Bath. Travel is arduous and wearing; to maintain their spirits, this band of pilgrims entertain each other with a series of tall tales.
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Still enjoyable, relevant, and beautiful
- By Sean on 05-27-03
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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The Canterbury Tales [Blackstone]
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: Martin Jarvis, Jay Carnes, Ray Porter, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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In this edition, we hear, translated into modern English, 20-some tales, told in the voices of knight and merchant, wife and miller, squire and nun, and many more. Some are bawdy, some spiritual, some romantic, some mysterious, some chivalrous. Between the stories, the travelers converse, joke, and argue, revealing much about their individual outlooks upon life as well as what life was like in late 14th-century England.
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A helpful index
- By Ruth Green on 03-06-09
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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The Pardoner's Tale
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: Richard Bebb
- Length: 2 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Three tales from The Canterbury Tales, read in the original Middle English by Richard Bebb under the direction of Britain's foremost Chaucer scholar, Derek Brewer.
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great fun
- By Dorothea on 04-11-08
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
What listeners say about The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
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- Francie
- 10-27-16
In Plain-speak -- There's Only One Terry Jones
There's only one Terry Jones -- and a unique, plain spoken, honorable specimen of weird humanity is he.
Leave it to TJ to reveal to us moderners those now hidden corners, wry twists and turns in Chaucer's Old English narrative as set down by Chaucer himself. The secret is in one's love for language - for promulgating humanity's wagging common tongue.
Terry Jones brings everything he touches to vibrant life -- and at once having defined that suchness he then proceeds to wring the humor and compassion out of each portrait of every man, woman, beast or child. (Not unlike a python. Wink. Wink. Nudge. Nudge.)
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5 people found this helpful
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- Tad Davis
- 09-25-16
A joy
The only problem with Terry Jones' reading of the prologue to the Canterbury Tales is that it leaves you wishing he'd done it all. He reads from his own translation, stopping every once in a while to make an explanatory comment. His joy is infectious: he loves Chaucer and clearly wants everyone else to as well. Whether you've read the Tales before or you're looking for an easy intro, this is a great listen. (Jones DID record the Miller's Tale - that's next on my list.)
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8 people found this helpful