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The Canterbury Tales
- Narrated by: Philip Madoc, Edward de Souza
- Length: 3 hrs and 21 mins
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Publisher's summary
Chaucer's greatest work, written towards the end of the fourteenth century, paints a brilliant picture of medieval life, society and values. The stories range from the romantic, courtly idealism of "The Knight's Tale" to the joyous bawdy of the Miller's; all are told with a freshness and vigor in this modern verse translation that make them a delight to hear.
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Editorial reviews
The five tales (not including the Prologue) of this production include a good mix of the stately and the satirical in Chaucer's masterpiece. Classical actor Edward de Souza delivers the "Knight's Tale" with appropriate nobility, while Anthony Donovan injects levity into the bawdy "Miller's Tale." In a similar pairing of opposites, the "Merchant's Tale" and the "Franklin's Tale" present contrasting views on marriage, though it might have been nice to include one of the tales narrated by women. Nonetheless, all six narrators are sensitive to the rhythm and rhyme of the translation, and the interludes of medieval music also add a splash of flavor.
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Story
Samson Agonistes, the 'dramatic poem' by John Milton, was published in 1671, three years before the poet's death. Written in the form of a Greek tragedy, with the Chorus commenting on the action, it follows the biblical story of the blind Samson as he wreaks his revenge on the Philistines who have imprisoned him. A powerful subject, with a personal resonance for the blind Milton, it is a perfect work for the medium of audiobook where poetry and drama can be balanced equally.
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Unbelievable
- By Anonymous User on 11-06-20
By: John Milton
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Le Morte D'Arthur
- By: Sir Thomas Malory
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 37 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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To the modern eye, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table have many similarities to our own contemporary super-heroes. Equipped with magical powers, enchanted swords, super-strength, and countless villains to take on, they protect the weak and innocent and adhere to their own code of honor. Comparing Batman, Superman, and Captain America to Sir Launcelot, Sir Tristram, and Sir Galahad isn't a huge leap of the imagination.
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This is my go-to audio version of Malory
- By Arthurian Tapestry on 03-16-19
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The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling
- By: Peter Ackroyd
- Narrated by: Keith Moore, Toby Leonard Moore, Colin McPhillamy, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Author Peter Ackroyd has won the Somerset Maugham Award, the Whitbread Novel of the Year, and the Guardian Fiction Prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Based on Geoffrey Chaucer’s immortal work, this retelling of The Canterbury Tales follows a party of travelers as they tell stories amongst themselves about love and chivalry, saints and legends, travel and adventure. Through allegory, satire, and humor, the tales help pass the time during their journey.
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WOW
- By Mitchell Drimmer on 02-25-15
By: Peter Ackroyd
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The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
- By: James Hogg
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny, Nick McArdle
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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A psychological thriller before its time, James Hogg’s Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, published in 1824, takes us back to the world of 18th-century Scotland, into a mind haunted by religious obsession, and driven to commit murder. The events are told from several different viewpoints, so that truth and reality appear to dissolve in this disturbing story of the dark legacy of Calvinist doctrine, and how it led one man to madness.
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A gripping story
- By fred greene on 04-19-18
By: James Hogg
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Gargantua and Pantagruel
- By: François Rabelais
- Narrated by: Bill Homewood
- Length: 34 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is a grotesque and carnivalesque collection of exuberant, fantastical stories that takes us from the ancient world through to the European Renaissance. At the heart of these tall tales are the giant Gargantua and his equally seismic son, Pantagruel. Containing magical adventures, maniacal punning, slapstick humor, erudite allusions, and just about any bodily function one can think of, here is quite possibly the zaniest, most risqué book ever written.
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The king of all the narrators
- By amazon on 02-13-20
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The Plays of Sophocles
- Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone
- By: Sophocles
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Sophocles was born at Colonus, near Athens in about 496 BC and is considered to be one of the premier playwrights of Greek tragedy. His stories may have been filled with strife, but Sophocles himself was prosperous and came from a good family. It is said that he was handsome, wealthy, and a highly respected citizen of Athens. During his life, he wrote over 120 plays and was instrumental in how plays would eventually be performed, including the addition of stage props.
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Bad Dialogue
- By Zoe Olvera on 08-12-18
By: Sophocles
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Medea
- By: Euripides
- Narrated by: Jonathan Waters
- Length: 1 hr and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Medea is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the actions of Medea, a former princess of the "barbarian" kingdom of Colchis, and the wife of Jason; she finds her position in the Greek world threatened as Jason leaves her for a Greek princess of Corinth. Medea takes vengeance on Jason by murdering Jason's new wife as well as her own children, after which she escapes to Athens to start a new life.
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Great Narrator makes this story work
- By cosmitron on 08-02-18
By: Euripides
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The Canterbury Tales
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Lively, absorbing, often outrageously funny, Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is a work of genius, an undisputed classic that has held a special appeal for each generation of readers. The Tales gathers 29 of literature's most enduring (and endearing) characters in a vivid group portrait that captures the full spectrum of medieval society, from the exalted Knight to the humble Plowman. This unabridged work is based on the new translation.
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In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer created one of the great touchstones of English literature, a masterly collection of chivalric romances, moral allegories and low farce. A story-telling competition between a group of pilgrims from all walks of life is the occasion for a series of tales that range from the Knight's account of courtly love and the ebullient Wife of Bath's Arthurian legend, to the ribald anecdotes of the Miller and the Cook.
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Modern language retained rhyme structure.
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The Canterbury Tales, written near the end of Chaucer's life and hence towards the close of the 14th century, is perhaps the greatest English literary work of the Middle Ages: yet it speaks to us today with almost undimmed clarity and relevance.
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Workmanlike reading in clear Middle English
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The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling
- By: Peter Ackroyd
- Narrated by: Keith Moore, Toby Leonard Moore, Colin McPhillamy, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 55 mins
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author Peter Ackroyd has won the Somerset Maugham Award, the Whitbread Novel of the Year, and the Guardian Fiction Prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Based on Geoffrey Chaucer’s immortal work, this retelling of The Canterbury Tales follows a party of travelers as they tell stories amongst themselves about love and chivalry, saints and legends, travel and adventure. Through allegory, satire, and humor, the tales help pass the time during their journey.
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WOW
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The Knight's Tale
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Overall
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The Knight's Tale of medieval wars and chivalry is the first tale told to the pilgrims as they set out to Canterbury. It concerns Theseus, returning from fighting at Thebes, and two brother knights Palamon and Arcite, imprisoned but yearning for their loves. But the real hero of this recording is Richard Bebb who, with the help of Professor Derek Brewer, the leading expert on Chaucerian pronunciation, make the original Middle English not only comprehensible to the modern ear, but exciting.
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Great recording
- By Kotzer on 06-25-19
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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The Canterbury Tales
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
If you want to understand the daily life and psychology of the late Middle Ages, Ronald Ecker’s classic translation of The Canterbury Tales provides one of the very best means of doing so. Within its audio is to be found a broad range of society - high and low, male and female, rich and poor - who express their innermost beliefs and extravagant fantasies in a series of stories they tell as they make their way to Canterbury Cathedral.
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The book was better
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Lively, absorbing, often outrageously funny, Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is a work of genius, an undisputed classic that has held a special appeal for each generation of readers. The Tales gathers 29 of literature's most enduring (and endearing) characters in a vivid group portrait that captures the full spectrum of medieval society, from the exalted Knight to the humble Plowman. This unabridged work is based on the new translation.
-
-
Lack of coherant "chapters"
- By Jensophie on 02-24-10
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
-
The Canterbury Tales
- Penguin Classics
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer, Nevill Coghill (Translation)
- Narrated by: Lesley Manville, Daniel Weyman, Derek Jacobi, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer created one of the great touchstones of English literature, a masterly collection of chivalric romances, moral allegories and low farce. A story-telling competition between a group of pilgrims from all walks of life is the occasion for a series of tales that range from the Knight's account of courtly love and the ebullient Wife of Bath's Arthurian legend, to the ribald anecdotes of the Miller and the Cook.
-
-
Modern language retained rhyme structure.
- By Craig L. Seasholes on 11-01-24
By: Geoffrey Chaucer, and others
-
The General Prologue and The Physician's Tale
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: Richard Bebb, Philip Madoc, Michael Maloney
- Length: 2 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Canterbury Tales, written near the end of Chaucer's life and hence towards the close of the 14th century, is perhaps the greatest English literary work of the Middle Ages: yet it speaks to us today with almost undimmed clarity and relevance.
-
-
Workmanlike reading in clear Middle English
- By Celia on 09-14-08
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
-
The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling
- By: Peter Ackroyd
- Narrated by: Keith Moore, Toby Leonard Moore, Colin McPhillamy, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author Peter Ackroyd has won the Somerset Maugham Award, the Whitbread Novel of the Year, and the Guardian Fiction Prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Based on Geoffrey Chaucer’s immortal work, this retelling of The Canterbury Tales follows a party of travelers as they tell stories amongst themselves about love and chivalry, saints and legends, travel and adventure. Through allegory, satire, and humor, the tales help pass the time during their journey.
-
-
WOW
- By Mitchell Drimmer on 02-25-15
By: Peter Ackroyd
-
The Knight's Tale
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: Richard Bebb
- Length: 2 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Knight's Tale of medieval wars and chivalry is the first tale told to the pilgrims as they set out to Canterbury. It concerns Theseus, returning from fighting at Thebes, and two brother knights Palamon and Arcite, imprisoned but yearning for their loves. But the real hero of this recording is Richard Bebb who, with the help of Professor Derek Brewer, the leading expert on Chaucerian pronunciation, make the original Middle English not only comprehensible to the modern ear, but exciting.
-
-
Great recording
- By Kotzer on 06-25-19
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
-
The Canterbury Tales
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If you want to understand the daily life and psychology of the late Middle Ages, Ronald Ecker’s classic translation of The Canterbury Tales provides one of the very best means of doing so. Within its audio is to be found a broad range of society - high and low, male and female, rich and poor - who express their innermost beliefs and extravagant fantasies in a series of stories they tell as they make their way to Canterbury Cathedral.
-
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The book was better
- By Lana Whited on 08-28-20
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What listeners say about The Canterbury Tales
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Tad Davis
- 10-28-22
Abridged
Well translated and beautifully read. As they’ve done with some of their other titles, like the Sherlock Holmes stories, Naxos has chopped up and rearranged the Tales to fit across multiple audiobooks. I have no problem with that, but I do have a problem with the other thing they did: significantly abridge some of the selections. The Prologue, for example, omits the following characters from Chaucer with nary a note or comment: the Yeoman, the Friar, the Cleric, the Lawyer, the Cook, the Physician, the Plowman, the Manciple, and the Reeve. In other words, you’re only getting a fragment of the prologue. That’s the only reason I gave it three stars. Verse, narration, and sound quality are top notch. Why did they cripple their own presentation this way?
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