Geoffrey Chaucer

&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LI&&RThe Canterbury Tales&&L/I&&R, by &&LB&&RGeoffrey Chaucer&&L/B&&R, is part of the &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R&&LI&&R &&L/I&&Rseries, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R: &&LDIV&&RNew introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics &&L/I&&Rpulls together a constellation of influences--biographical, historical, and literary--to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R &&L/P&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&RPilgrims on their way to worship at the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury stop at the Tabard Inn. Representing a cross-section of medieval English society, the group includes a knight and his squire, a prioress, a friar, a miller, and a wife. To amuse themselves on their journey, they agree that each will tell a tale. These stories--by turns bawdy, hilarious, scurrilous, romantic, heroic, and moving--reveal a great deal about the tellers and the world they live in, which, despite the distance of six hundred years, seems remarkably like our own. Indeed, the structure of &&LI&&RThe Canterbury Tales&&L/I&&R and the sophisticated, intricate interplay between the stories, their narrators, and the general narrator (himself a complex comic character) give the book its strikingly modern flavor.&&L/P&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R &&L/P&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&ROften called the first book of poetry written in English, &&LSTRONG&&RChaucer&&L/B&&R's masterpiece is also the first anthology of English short fiction, one that will resonate with readers for as long as folly and courage, deceit and generosity, love and jealousy remain part of the human personality.&&L/P&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R &&L/P&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R&&LSTRONG&&RRobert W. Hanning&&L/B&&R is Professor of English at Columbia University, where he has taught since 1961. He has published &&LI&&RThe Vision of History in Early Britain&&L/I&&R, &&LI&&RThe Individual in Twelfth-Century Romance&&L/I&&R, &&LI&&RThe Lais of Marie de France&&L/I&&R (co-translated with Joan Ferrante), and &&LI&&RCastiglione: the Ideal and the Real in Renaissance Culture&&L/I&&R (co-edited with David Rosand), as well as many articles on Chaucer's poetry and other medieval and Renaissance subjects.&&L/P&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R &&L/P&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R&&LSTRONG&&RPeter Tuttle&&L/B&&R's most recent poetry is &&LI&&RLooking for a Sign in the West&&L/I&&R, published by Back Short in 2003.&&L/P&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R

The texts are extensively glossed and are accompanied by individual introductions and explanatory annotations. A lightly regularized system of spellings has been adopted. No prior knowledge of Chaucer is assumed. “Contexts” connects the poems to their classical and medieval foundations and includes works by Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, Boethius, Dante, and Boccaccio, among others. From the wealth of scholarly work available, the editor has chosen for “Criticism” six essays that address the poems’ central themes. Contributors include Charles Muscatine, A. C. Spearing, R. T. Lenaghan, Richard Firth Green, Elaine Tuttle Hansen, and Steven Kruger. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

The editor’s lucid introduction, marginal glosses, and explanatory annotations make Troilus and Criseyde easily accessible to students with no prior knowledge of Chaucer or Middle English. Also included is Robert Henryson’s Testament of Cresseid, the poignant "sequel" to Troilus and Criseyde from fifteenth-century Scotland. "Criticism" includes ten essays by a diverse group of distinguished Chaucerians, among them C. S. Lewis, E. Talbot Donaldson, Karla Taylor, Lee Patterson, and Jill Mann, that illuminate the major scholarly issues raised by this complex and challenging poem. A Glossary and Selected Bibliography are also included

A landmark dramatisation for the Royal Shakespeare Company of one of the foundation stones of English literature. This two-play adaptation of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales encompasses all 23 stories. All the famous characters are here – as well as many less well-known but equally full of life. Each of the stories has its own style – heroic verse for the Knight's Tale, vernacular rhymes for the Miller's Tale etc – echoing the many narrative voices employed by Chaucer himself. Mike Poulton's adaptation of The Canterbury Tales was first staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company in the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in 2005.