The Canterbury Tales

13th century stained glass window from Canerbury Cathedral which depicts pilgrims on their way to the city.

The Canterbury Tales (Middle English: The Tales of Caunterbury) is a 14th-century English work by Geoffrey Chaucer. It is a collection of twenty-four short stories, some of which are incomplete. Apart from "The Parson's Tale", which is a sermon written in prose rather than a story, all of the tales are written in verse. Chaucer is believed to have begun work on the first story which would eventually become part of the collection in 1380 but it was unfinished when the author died in 1400.

The set-up for the tales is a trip by a set of religious pilgrims from all walks of life, Chaucer himself is part of the group of pilgrims. They are on their way to Canterbury Cathedral, hence the collection's name. The pilgrims are traveling together for safety. On the first night they agree to take turns telling tales to entertain each other, each telling four stories, two on the journey to Canterbury and two on the journey back. The leader of the party, an innkeeper, says that he will judge which of the stories is the best and reward its teller with a meal. However, beacause Chaucer died before finishing the work, only one tale is told by most of the pilgrims, an exception being the character of Chaucer himself. Chaucer begins to tell "The Tale of Sir Thopas" but is stopped by the innkeeper because the story is so boring. He then begins to tell "The Tale of Melibee" instead. As a result of its set-up, the book is made-up of a series of relatively, unrelated stories: some comic, others dramatic. They reflect the variety of different social positions of the storytellers and their different points of view.

People who know Modern English can usually read Middle English, the form of the language in which The Canterbury Tales is written, without much difficulty but are unlikely to understand every word. Modern English translations are readily available at bookstores and online.

List of tales

The pilgrims as depicted in in the 1877 book Chaucer for Children by Mary Eliza Haweis.

Detail from an early 19th century engraving by William Blake which depicts the Summoner, the Manciple, the Pardoner, the monk and the Friar.

• The Knight's Tale
• The Miller's Tale
• The Reeve's Tale
• The Cook's Tale
• The Man of Law's Tale
• The Wife of Bath's Tale (the prologue of which is longer than the tale itself)
• The Friar's Tale
• The Summoner's Tale
• The Clerk's Tale
• The Merchant's Tale
• The Squire's Tale
• The Franklin's Tale
• The Physician's Tale
• The Pardoner's Tale
• The Shipman's Tale
• The Prioress's Tale
• The Tale of Sir Thopas
• The Tale of Melibee
• The Monk's Tale
• The Nun's Priest's Tale
• The Second Nun's Tale
• The Canon's Yeoman's Tale
• The Manciple's Tale
• The Parson's Tale

The Canterbury Tales begins with the "General Prologue" in which the book's framing device is established and most of the pilgrims are introduced. It ends with "Chaucer's Retraction" in which the author apologizes for some of the more sinful works which he has written and asks readers to pray for his soul.

External links

• Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales on Wikisource.
• Quotations from The Canterbury Tales on Wikiquote.
• Selected stories from The Canterbury Tales, Middle English text with a parallel Modern English translation on the SparkNotes website.
• Free public domain audiobook of The Canterbury Tales from LibriVox.