The Canterbury Tales

by Geoffrey Chaucer

Book Overview

The General Prologue is the first part of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Set out in 858 lines of Middle English, this text includes general notes on the text; discussion of themes, issues and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1857591135
• ISBN13: 9781857591132
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Scala Books
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Whanne that Aprille with his shoures soote

The Prologue is the summarized essence of ' The Canterbury Tales' It contains the descriptions of the pilgrims who are to each ideally tell two tales . Chaucer never completes this plan but he does in the prologue give us wonderful character sketches of everyone from the ideally virtuous Knight to the scandalous Wife of Bath . These small portraits outline clearly what is to come but in themselves reveal the world of the Tales . The Prologue is filled with humor and piety, with sacrasm and wit, with beauty of language and harsh social criticism. It is the microcosm of the whole set of Tales which are to come. A masterpiece though marred to my mind as the whole work is by the Nun Prioress and her unfortunate blood- libel tale.