The Canterbury Tales
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Narrated by:
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Neville Coghill
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Cecil Trouncer
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Robert Ross
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By:
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Geoffrey Chaucer
About this listen
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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Unbelievable
- By Anonymous User on 11-06-20
By: John Milton
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Oedipus the King
- By: Sophocles
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 1 hr and 46 mins
- Original Recording
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In Sophocles' tragedy, Oedipus discovers that he has been caught in his terrible destiny, unknowingly murdering his father and marrying his mother.
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Superb
- By Mark on 11-24-09
By: Sophocles
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Falstaff
- Give Me Life
- By: Harold Bloom
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Falstaff is both a comic and tragic central protagonist in Shakespeare's three Henry plays. He is companion to Prince Hal (the future Henry V), who loves him, goads him, teases him, indulges his vast appetites, and commits all sorts of mischief with him. Award-winning author and esteemed professor Harold Bloom examines Falstaff with the deepest compassion and sympathy and also with unerring wisdom. He uses the relationship between Falstaff and Hal to explore the devastation of severed bonds and the heartbreak of betrayal.
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Falstaff brooks no rebuttal.
- By Darwin8u on 02-06-20
By: Harold Bloom
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- By: J. R. R. Tolkien
- Narrated by: Terry Jones
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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A collection of three medieval English poems, translated by Tolkien for the modern-day reader and containing romance, tragedy, love, sex and honour.
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An absolute delight!
- By Shannon Slee on 07-15-18
By: J. R. R. Tolkien
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The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights
- By: James Knowles
- Narrated by: Eric Brooks
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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King Arthur was a legendary British leader of the late fifth and early sixth century who, according to the medieval histories and romances, led the defense of the Romano-Celtic British against the Saxon invaders in the early sixth century. This book gives an account of the life of this great legend of all times.
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This was painful!
- By T. Rod on 09-05-14
By: James Knowles
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The Song of Roland
- By: Unknown
- Narrated by: A Full Cast
- Length: 2 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Since his youth, living in poverty in a cave in Italy, Roland's mother has taught him that someday he will be a brave hero like his father, Milon, and serve with the great army of Charlemagne. He learns from her that he is descended from great heroes of old and that his mother is Charlemagne's sister, the Princess Bertha.
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Surprisingly Excellent!
- By Paul on 06-14-11
By: Unknown
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Faust
- By: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, is a poem, translated by Bayard Taylor, which tells the beautiful and emotional story of a man who has seen and done it all. However, despite all of his learning and education, his life still feels empty and unaccomplished. He believes wholeheartedly that there is something else out there. Faust, having exhausted all other fields of study, turns to magic for fulfillment. He summons the devil and makes a pact - that if the devil can show him something rewarding and fulfilling, he will give the devil his soul.
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Misleading
- By Grant Pajak on 03-29-17
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The Canterbury Tales
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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.
- By Craig L. Seasholes on 11-01-24
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The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling
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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
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The Canterbury Tales
- A New Unabridged Translation by Burton Raffel
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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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Lack of coherant "chapters"
- By Jensophie on 02-24-10
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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The Canterbury Tales: The Prioress's Tale (Modern Verse Translation)
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: Rosalind Shanks
- Length: 15 mins
- Unabridged
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This is a story from the Canterbury Tales III: Modern Verse Translation collection.
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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Overall
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Performance
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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 Canterbury Tales
- The New Translation by Gerald J. Davis
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: John Hanks
- Length: 20 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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The classic collection of beloved tales, both sacred and profane, of travelers in medieval England. Complete and unabridged.
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Excellent.
- By MD on 06-29-21
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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The Canterbury Tales
- Penguin Classics
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer, Nevill Coghill (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.
- By Craig L. Seasholes on 11-01-24
By: Geoffrey Chaucer, and others
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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
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Performance
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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 Canterbury Tales
- A New Unabridged Translation by Burton Raffel
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: uncredited
- Length: 22 hrs and 21 mins
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Overall
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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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Lack of coherant "chapters"
- By Jensophie on 02-24-10
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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The Canterbury Tales: The Prioress's Tale (Modern Verse Translation)
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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- Length: 15 mins
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This is a story from the Canterbury Tales III: Modern Verse Translation collection.
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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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 Canterbury Tales
- The New Translation by Gerald J. Davis
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: John Hanks
- Length: 20 hrs and 1 min
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The classic collection of beloved tales, both sacred and profane, of travelers in medieval England. Complete and unabridged.
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Excellent.
- By MD on 06-29-21
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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The Canterbury Tales
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: Jack Wynters
- Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
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The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories, written in the Middle English vernacular, supposedly told among a group of pilgrims traveling from London to Canterbury. Chaucer uses the form, possibly based on knowledge of Boccaccio’s Decameron gained on a visit to Italy in 1373, to provide a highly varied portrait of his society, both secular and religious. The journey of the pilgrims, unlike that of, say, Homer’s Odysseus or of Dante in the Divine Comedy, is relatively unimportant compared to the tales themselves, where Chaucer’s true interest lies.
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The Canterbury Tales
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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
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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The Canterbury Tales II
- Modern English Verse Translation
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: Philip Madoc, Frances Jeater, John Rowe, and others
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Four more delightful tales from one of the most entertaining storytellers of all time. Though writing in the thirteenth century, Chaucer’s wit and observation comes down undiminished through the ages, especially in this accessible modern verse translation. The stories vary considerably from the uproarious Wife of Bath’s Tale, promoting the power of women to the sober account of patient Griselda in the Clerk’s Tale.
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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The General Prologue and The Physician's Tale
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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- Unabridged
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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
- By Celia on 09-14-08
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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The Canterbury Tales: The Prologue
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: Philip Madoc
- Length: 22 mins
- Abridged
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This is a story from the Canterbury Tales I: Modern Verse Translation collection. 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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The Canterbury Tales' Prologue
- By Asheley on 07-27-18
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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Beowulf
- By: Seamus Heaney
- Narrated by: Seamus Heaney
- Length: 2 hrs and 13 mins
- Abridged
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New York Times best seller and Whitebread Book of the Year, Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney's new translation of Beowulf comes to life in this gripping audio. Heaney's performance reminds us that Beowulf, written near the turn of another millennium, was intended to be heard not read.
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Why, oh, why is it abridged?
- By Tad Davis on 09-25-08
By: Seamus Heaney
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Canterbury Tales
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: Katie Haigh
- Length: 44 mins
- Abridged
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Geoffrey Chaucer, born around 1340, was the first great English poet. The immense popularity of the "Canterbury Tales" is shown by the number of manuscript copies still in existence. It was one of the first books printed in England. The vividness with which the author describes scenes and events and people, as if he had them before his eyes, is one of his greatest charms as a writer. Those who know him best, place him second only to Shakespeare as a writer of delightful English.
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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The Canterbury Tales: The Knight's Tale (Modern Verse Translation)
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: Edward de Souza
- Length: 55 mins
- Abridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
This is a story from the Canterbury Tales I: Modern Verse Translation collection. 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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The Knight's Tale
- By Asheley on 08-02-18
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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The Knight's Tale
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: Richard Bebb
- Length: 2 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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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 III
- Modern English Verse Translation
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer, Frank Ernest Hill - translator
- Narrated by: Timothy West, Charles Kay, Stephen Tompkinson, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, a collection of narratives written between 1387 and 1400, tells of a group of 30 people from all layers of society who pass the time along their pilgrimage to Canterbury by telling stories to one another, their interaction mediated (at times) by the affable host - Chaucer himself. Naxos AudioBooks’ third volume presents the tales of six people, here in an unabridged modern verse translation (by Frank Ernest Hill, 1935).
By: Geoffrey Chaucer, and others
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The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: Terry Jones
- Length: 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is one of the most influential pieces of writing in the British literary cannon. 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.
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A joy
- By Tad Davis on 09-25-16
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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The Canterbury Tales
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: Flo Gibson
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In this first version of Chaucer's classic to be presented in modern English by John Tatlock and Percy Mackay, the tales told by a Miller, a Knight, a Frira, a Nun and many more are often bawdy, bloody and full of religious zeal
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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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- William H. Daffer
- 07-31-24
Why are the chapters not titled?
Hi very much like the readings, but the chapters aren't titled which makes it impossible or nearly impossible for me to find the section of the book so that I can read along while it is being recited.
This is a severe shortcoming in my opinion.
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- KAZ Vorpal, aka Michael Karl
- 07-31-23
Understand What This Is
This is better than a translation. It is read in the original Middle English, but with the vowels shifted to the modern pronunciation. Chaucer's English was different than ours, both sound and with even a few grammatic differences. We retain much of the vocabulary, but our versions of the words are often different as well.
Therefore, this takes a little time to understand, if you haven't studied middle English or older. But if you are patient or persistent, or just love language, learning, or a challenge, you WILL eventually understand it, and it will be worthwhile.
The other good news is the shifted vowels. Chaucer wrote this masterpiece 200 years before Shakespeare (who borrowed from this work, among others), in between the two writers, the way vowels in words were pronounced changed dramatically. The original pronunciation would be much more difficult than this.
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Performance
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- Matthew Ball
- 06-15-24
poor editing hindering an otherwise good reading
this audiobook contains excerpts from The Canterbury Tales, first read in Middle English, and then in Modern English. The editing is jarring at times, with many chapters cut short and without indication of which particular tale I was listening to. there was also some background noise during the readings of the first few chapters.
chapter 1 is the first page or two of the prologue.
chapter 3 is The Nun's Priest's Tale.
chapter 4 is The Pardoner's Tale.
Other than that, the other chapters are various excerpts, the last in modern English.
I was able to follow along with the Bantam Books translation for most of it, but there were several sections that were either missing or added, probably due to differences in the translation.
I believe the readings to be mostly faithful, although no Middle English reading is perfect.
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Overall
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Performance
- H. McKnight
- 11-17-19
can't understand the dude
i barely made it to chapter two. The narrator was very hard to understand. Needs to read without any accents.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Michael
- 09-17-10
Terrible Recording Quality
Sounds like an old 78 rpm record. Very uneven sound, complete with clicks, tape hiss, and wheezing.
In bad need of remastering!
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4 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-08-19
Not a quality product
The volume of the performances are not consistent. There is no documentation so you don't know what excerpt that you are listening to. If you try to read along, good luck. I would not buy this again. It was cheap, but it isn't helpful. There are 12 chapters called "Chapter 1..... Chapter 12".
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2 people found this helpful