Chaucer and the Imagery of Narrative Author : V. On the way, each pilgrim has to tell a story to keep the others amused. This is one of the most famous books in the English language and was written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the mid-fourteenth century. The stories are often funny and sometimes sad but they show how little human nature has changed.
It is spring time and a group of 30 people from all social classes is gathering together in the Tabard Inn in Southwark near London to plan their pilgrimage to Becket's tomb at Canterbury. To kill time during their journey a story-telling contest is created. Each pilgrim has to tell a story and the winner of the best story will get a free supper.
The Canterbury Tales are structured as a frame narrative. The General Prologue mainly builds the frame where all the characters are introduced and the story-telling competition was invented. Its structure is very simple. After an introduction in lines , the narrator begins the series of portraits lines Afterwards the Host suggests the tale-telling contest which is then accepted by the pilgrims lines In the following the pilgrims gather and decide that the Knight should tell the first story. The frame in which the story is embedded has a long tradition.
Boccaccio's "Decamerone" was for example written in this style and Chaucer read it when visiting Italy. Unfinished at the time of his death, The Canterbury Tales is widely regarded as Chaucer's masterpiece and one of the greatest and most influential works in English literature.
This stunning full-colour edition from the bestselling Cambridge School Chaucer series explores the complete text of The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales through a wide range of classroom-tested activities and illustrated information, including a map of the Canterbury pilgrimage, a running synopsis of the action, an explanation of unfamiliar words and suggestions for study.
Cambridge School Chaucer makes medieval life and language more accessible, helping students appreciate Chaucer's brilliant characters, his wit, sense of irony and love of controversy. It is spring time and a group of 30 people from all social classes is gathering together in the Tabard Inn in Southwark near London to plan their pilgrimage to Becket's tomb at Canterbury. To kill time during their journey a story-telling contest is created. Each pilgrim has to tell a story and the winner of the best story will get a free supper.
The Canterbury Tales are structured as a frame narrative. The General Prologue mainly builds the frame where all the characters are introduced and the story-telling competition was invented. Its structure is very simple. After an introduction in lines , the narrator begins the series of portraits lines Afterwards the Host suggests the tale-telling contest which is then accepted by the pilgrims lines In the following the pilgrims gather and decide that the Knight should tell the first story.
The frame in which the story is embedded has a long tradition. Boccaccio's "Decamerone" was for example written in this style and Chaucer read it when visiting Italy. Originally Chaucer wanted each of the pilgrims to tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back. This would have led to single stories, but he never finished this enormous work. In fact there are only 23 tales, some of which are even incomplete. Essential reading for students of Chaucer.
In The General Prologue, Chaucer introduces his pilgrims through a set of speaking portraits, drawn with a clarity that makes no attempt to conceal their peculiarities. The four tales that follow - those of the Knight, Miller, Reeve and Cook - reveal a wide variety of human preoccupations: whether chivalrous, romantic or simply sexual. Brilliantly bawdy and subtly complex, each of these tales is alive with Chaucer's skills as a poet, storyteller and creator of comedy. The twenty-four tales, which range from high romance set in ancient Greece to low comedy in contemporary England, are adapted into graphic novel form by Seymour Chwast-a pitch-perfect transposition of Chaucer's pointed satire.
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