General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales Reviews

• 
  mia :•)

  yes I am going to log all of these separately so it looks like I've read more sorry Geoffrey
• 
  Vaishali

  ** Note: I'm reading each Tale piecemeal to ensure I complete the entire massive work.
  
  What a synopsis! Masterful word weaving and multi-dimensional characters. I can't wait to read the rest of the Tales.
  
  I recommend first listening to Dr. Masullo's video on Middle English etymology: (
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLKAD...)
  
  I then listened to Prof. Andrew Keating's lovely rendering of Nevill Coghill's translation:(
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3YP2...)
  
  
  .
• 
  Jacky Chan

  And here begynneth my Chaucerian journey, or whatever.
  
  Some reading notes, so I don't forget everything come start of term:
  
  - Jill Mann's idea that the prologue is an estates satire, and that the characters are less individuals and more types (yet James Winny finds them outpourings of creative energy?).
  
  - Marion Turner: opening of prologue depicts life as cycle, things will come as they do (cf. the 'Whan [...] Whan [...] then' structure; especial prominence as writing in the wake of the Black Death?
  
  - Clothing: read Laura F. Hodges' scholarship, but also cf. Turner on how clothing became a hollow symbol of class and social status after the Black Death?
  
  - The vibrantly diverse cast of characters here very much influenced by Chaucer's cosmopolitan existence; again see Turner for details.
  
  - Role of the Host and the Chaucer-figure, relationship to the section's metapoeticity? Host very assertive, rational, able to group the pilgrims together--rational power and frame, according to Winny?
  
• 
  Kitty Red-Eye

  
  https://opencanterburytales.dsl.lsu.edu/
  
  Should one want context.
  
  Below the line is me nagging about my own situation. It’s part of my experience with this book, but hardly relevant to anyone else. So just keeping it out of the TLDR zone.
  
  The prologue is very promising. Much easier to read than feared. I’m dragging myself out of a demotivated state, one tale at the time.
  
  Verdict: Yes! Yeah! I can read this. In modern English translation, it’ll be a challenge, but (Jesse Pinkman voice) YEAH B***H, I think I can do this.
  
  *****************************************************
  
  I have been so afraid to start this book. I always want to read «everything». By that I mean the good books, the important books, the classics and the less known pearls... not every silly book in existence, but still a kind of everything. The good everything.
  
  But, the flesh is oh-so-weak, and I guess the spirit is struggling too. If a book is too difficult (or boring), I tend to give up. But that always feels a bit like losing. And I didn’t want to lose out on this.
  
  Well, I’m lost anyway: Almost everything bores me, and I don’t know why. I have no patience. Don’t wanna, don’t wanna, don’t wanna. It’s not how I’m used to think about myself, which again feeds into the fear of this book: What if that too is too demanding?
  
  So why not give it a try. Things can hardly get any worse. (Or, things can. But my lack of motivation can not.)
  
  A major pro is that it consists of many short stories. Yeah, I’ll try. Why not.
  
• 
  krešo

  Quite long, yet also a very nice introduction into pilgrims' stories. It gives off an idea that each one is going to do everything in their power, no matter how devious it may be, to get the free dinner. I might actually read the stories one day (without them having anything do with my uni work).
• 
  Pritam Chattopadhyay

  As the title designates, the poem is a prologue or preamble to Chaucer's collection of Canterbury Tales.
  
  In it the poet sets forth the juncture of these tales, name if the annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas-a-Becket in Canterbury. It describes in the author's characteristic humour and acute insight the band of twenty-nine pilgrims besides the poet, drawn from all classes of society, moving jauntily on the way to Canterbury in the month of April, with its 'shoures soota', that pierced to the 'root' the draught of March.
  
  The company of people includes all classes of English society from the Oxford scholar to the drunken miller. The jovial host of the inn suggests that to enliven the journey, each of the company shall tell four tales, two going and two coming. The best teller of stories would be given a fine supper at the general expense on their return.
  
  The prologue is a sort of picture gallery. Chaucer creates a host of vital and individualised characters. He is the first English writer to bring the atmosphere of romantic interest about the men and women and the daily works of one's own world - which is the aim of all modern literatures.
  
  Beowulf and Ronald are ideal heroes, fundamentally creatures of the imagination; but the merry host of the inn, the fat monk, the Parish priest, the kindly ploughman - all are recognisable characters true to life. In the Prologue, all people from all walks of English life are described with a quiet kindly humour which seeks on impulse the best in human nature.
  
  Chaucer's swift astounding strokes characterize the pilgrims at once as types and individuals.
  
  The greatness of the Prologue may be said to reside in the vividness of its individual portraiture. In it, the essential humanity is emphasised - each is measured by absolute standard of manners. Langland with his allegory of heaven and hell gains much in grandeur and impressiveness, but Chaucer with his individualised types, gains considerably in reality and in human sympathy. This realism of painting human life is the abiding gift of Chaucer to literature.
  
  The dramatic method adopted by Chaucer in the representation of characters anticipated the character-portrayals in the drama and the novel that developed in the subsequent ages.
  
  The wife of Bath is typical of certain primary instincts of women, but she is given local habitation. There is a merchant who represents his class in his greed but he is dressed in a neat and gaudy dress. Chaucer's humour is gentle and ironical.
  
  The vivacious wife of Bath had fixed her mind on a sixth husband after the fifth had died. The prioress is more interested in cultivating courtly manners than holiness of life. She is a woman of exaggerated sensibility. She would weep if she sees a mouse caught in a trap. The Knight enumarates in an exaggerated manner the distant places he had visited in the course of his holy campaigns.
  
  The two-facedness of religious men and women (Monk, Summoner, Pardoner) is glanced at with tolerant humour.
  
  In rich comedy, variety of humour and descriptive powers and study of characters, the Canterbury Tales is a unique achievement and has great historical importance.
  
  
• 
  M

  3.5 STARS
• 
  Sobia

  Archaic English was sooo annoying !!!
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  Anastasia Hale

  Set in England in the Middle Ages, stories of peasants, noblemen, clergy, and demons are interwoven with brief scenes from Geoffrey Chaucer’s home life and experiences implied to be the basis for the Canterbury Tales. In the prologue, Chaucer introduces all his pilgrims in true colors without any reservation and they are individualized with touched humor or irony. The narrator is resting at the Tabard inn in Southwark before his journey on a pilgrimage to Canterbury. He is a devout Christian and there is a sense of fellowship with the pilgrims who have arrived at the Tabard Inn. While the prologue is a little too descriptive, it paints every character with utmost realism and humanism which in turn helps the reader to get to know them fairly well. Although I only read The Miller’s Tale in the past, Chaucer’s writing is exactly how I remember it – lyrical, humorous, scandalous, and thought-provoking.
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  Lynne

  Although studied for A Level English years ago, it is thanks to The Archers that this has been reread, and it has to be said, finally, fully appreciated. Luckily, in the years that have passed since those days as a 16 year old trying to translate this (very badly, it must be said) the familiarity with Middle English has hugely increased so that it is now enjoyable.
  Each pilgrim is slyly described in Chaucer's typical witty style and seemed, surprisingly like distant relatives, infrequently seen yet consistently somehow a part of life.
  
  Thank you Lynda Snell!
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  Nick Saba

  I'm not giving this one a rating but needless to say I'm incredibly interested. I read this and the Wife of Bath's Tale for a class and I'm actually very excited to read the entirety of the piece. I really enjoy the rhyming schemes and the allusions. Great fun!
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  Cristóbal G. Torrubia

  Un clásico que te ayuda a comprender un poco mejor la sociedad medieval de por entonces.
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  Matthew Duke

  Very boring. I had to splash water on my face regularly just to get through it
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  Adam

  [2nd reading - 12.10.80]
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  Carl

  Reread for class.
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  Kay

  3.5
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  Nahuel Pucetta

  Las ganas de hablar con 30 personas
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  lourdes

  My wit is short, you can well understand.
  
  
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  Jeanne Castle

  It's hard to give this a star rating. It's rich and amazing, but definitely not my favorite of Chaucer's tales. I love reading the history behind the Tales. It's all pretty fascinating.
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  Shani Lila

  it is what it is
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  Makara Hunsaker

  I just thought this was boring, and it was something I had to read for school, the irony (or sarcasm) was the only thing I really cared for.
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  eve

  didn’t understand a word but at least now i can say that i’ve read some chaucer
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  Bronte Madeleine Ellis-Calcott

  if this doesn’t get your juices going for what’s to follow then i don’t know what will, A* chaucer
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  abby murrill

  BRIT LIT I.
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  Elinor

  Honestly reading this just reminds me of my old English teacher telling us how when she worked in the Canterbury Tales some old dude called her uniform hat the kind a medieval prostitute would wear
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  Alba

  I was reallly suprime while reading this text. It was amazing even tough quite difficult. It has help me a lot to understand the period and the society
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  Nour

  Fascinating