
The Canterbury Tales
A New Unabridged Translation by Burton Raffel
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Narrated by:
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uncredited
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By:
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Geoffrey Chaucer
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Rated M for Mature
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completeness
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It is interesting to see how little humans have progressed since the writing of these tales and even earlier, as the sources of wisdom the tales draw from are chiefly from Greek and Roman times, and of course, the Bible. Looking back into the past to the time these tales were written I see a clear reflection of modern human nature that is instantly relatable. At their height, these tales can teach valuable lessons in s surprisingly entertaining way through a cast of vibrant characters.
At their low, however, the tales are little more than droning background noise. The final three hours for example offer no narrative or useful purpose, but are instead a religious diatribe recounting all the various ways one sins and the proper corrective action. There is little redeeming value in such a long, heavy handed examination of sin, and its inclusion really feels off key with the tone of the rest of the tales. I would therefore encourage all to skip the final two and a half chapters (roughly speaking).
This leads to another issue. The chapter formatting splits the book into eighteen roughly one hour and twenty minute long chapters without regard to the structure of the writing itself. It would be much better if each tale was separately contained into its own chapter. There are many tales I would not mind revisiting but I cannot remember where they are (or honestly what some of them are even called).
The performance is great, the voices provide an energetic reading even in the driest of tales.
Overall, the experience was pretty good and I would recommend it to anyone to go through once. I'm sure everybody will be able to find a favorite tale they would like to revisit.
Worthwhile
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a modern translation
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but, sadly, some of the production is lacking. the chapters seem to break for time rather than a more conventional end of story. I had to put in bookmarks with notes at the beginnings of stories since the producers failed me. there are a couple of places with odd volume changes that are also distracting.
overall, I highly recommend this still. the issues taken up by the characters hundreds of years ago are usually still issues today. despite great advances in quality of life it is nice to know we aren't that much different from our ancestors.
great stories, great voices but
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Mostly good
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I doubt that many people will share my disappointment that this audio version isn’t in well-performed Middle English. But for those few of you, be aware that this is translated throughout. There is no “Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour Of which vertu engendred is the flour;...”
Translation- not ME
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But, it is 22 hours of thoughtful poetry and prose that I always remember favorably. Expect many sides of the experience of love and lust. Chaucer portrayed the range of social classes and the range of the search for closeness.
I enjoyed the modern translation and the performance of the voice talent.
What else could you want?
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multiple narrators.
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A caring and active reading of a classic
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