This daring new translation of 21 of the tales, most of them rendered in iambic tetrameter, conveys the content, tone, and narrative style of the original in a line as expressive as it is economical. An Introduction treats Chaucer's works, influences, life, learning, and the world of 14th-century London. Includes a glossary.

Readers of this witty and fluent new translation of The Canterbury Tales should find themselves turning page after page: by recasting Chaucer's ten-syllable couplets into eight-syllable lines, Joseph Glaser achieves a lighter, more rapid cadence than other translators, a four-beat rhythm well-established in the English poetic tradition up to Chaucer's time. Glaser's shortened lines make compelling reading and mirror the elegance and variety of Chaucer's verse to a degree rarely met by translations that copy Chaucer beat for beat. Moreover, this translation's full, Chaucerian range of diction--from earthy to Latinate--conveys the great scope of Chaucer's interests and effects. The selection features complete translations of the majority of the stories, including all of the more familiar tales and narrative links along with abridgments or summaries of the others. To reflect Chaucer's interest in poetic technique, Glaser presents the tales written in non-couplet stanzas in their original forms. An Introduction, marginal glosses, bibliography, and notes are also included.

This daring new translation of 21 of the tales, most of them rendered in iambic tetrameter, conveys the content, tone, and narrative style of the original in a line as expressive as it is economical. An Introduction treats Chaucer's works, influences, life, learning, and the world of 14th-century London. Includes a glossary.

This is the first and only edition of The Canterbury Tales that presents Chaucer's poem word for word in modern spelling. It retains the inimitable charm of Chaucer's language while eliminating the obstacle of archaic spelling. This text is eminently more readable and accessible, and will encourage students to read and appreciate Chaucer, not deter them.

"A truly remarkable achievement." —Barry Unsworth In the tradition of Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf and Marie Borroff’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sheila Fisher’s The Selected Canterbury Tales is a vivid, lively, and readable translation of the most famous work of England’s premier medieval poet. Preserving Chaucer’s rhyme and meter, Fisher makes these tales accessible to a contemporary ear while inviting readers to the Middle English original on facing pages. Her informative introduction highlights Chaucer’s artistic originality in his memorable portrayals of surprisingly modern women and men from across the spectrum of medieval society.

It's the Middle Ages, and an ill-matched band of strangers is setting off on a pilgrimage to Canterbury. To amuse themselves along the way, they hold a storytelling competition. But the tales soon turn from ripping yarns to slanging matches... With a cast of unforgettable characters, from the blue-blooded Knight and the merry Wife of Bath to the shifty Pardoner, the story is as much about the riotous pilgirims as the weird and wonderful tales they tell. Clearly written in a modern, approachable style to introduce young readers to this much-loved classic story.