Poetry Books

The Canterbury Tales (Penguin Classics)

Geoffrey Chaucer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The strength of Chaucer's verse shines through.... 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Chaucer was a master story teller. He was a master poet. He was a master writer. He was just blessed, gifted... there aren't enough words to express the depth of Chaucer's talent... his gift.

This collection reminds me why I fell in love with Chaucer's work back in college. It's one of the more complete collections and I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end.

I will read it a thousand times in my life and will undoubtedly love it more with each reading!

Too bad I bought this book. 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 43 people found this review helpful.

I find it very unfortunate that I wasted my money on this book when I could have read the entire story on the Internet. Of course, the story is out of copyright, and you'll find it all over the Internet, in complete.

Don't waste your money like I did. Even worse, I never even read the book.

My rating is only on the size of the book, because like I said, I never read it, and I am forced to issue a rating (I only wanted to enter a comment).

Editorial Review:

With their astonishing diversity of tone and subject matter, The Canterbury Tales have become one of the touchstones of medieval literature.

Translated here into modern English, these tales of a motley crowd of pilgrims drawn from all walks of life-from knight to nun, miller to monk-reveal a picture of English life in the fourteenth century that is as robust as it is representative.

Translated by Nevill Coghill

Selected Canterbury Tales (Dover Thrift Editions)

Geoffrey Chaucer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Classic 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 11 people found this review helpful.

Chaucer begins a literary tradition by writing about everyday people, not just the nobility. He depicts the characters with humor and insight. The tales themselves say much about the times and people. Just because it's a classic doesn't mean it isn't good. This edition saves you money but still gives you the Chaucer "flavor."

Chaucer was ENGLISH! 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 14 people found this review helpful.

Please realize that the above reviewer is mistaken; Chaucer does not chronicle the lives of Greeks WHATSOEVER. The Tales recount a pilgrimage in England!

Selected Canterbury Tales 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 36 people found this review helpful.

This book was wonderful and exciting. Chuacer, a old Greek writer, was a magnificent author and this book deserves a look. Reviewed by many historians, this book reveals much about Greeks past and is worth the 1.60 price (compared to 2.00 at bn.com). RECOMMENDED

Editorial Review:

Delightful collection includes the General Prologue plus three of the most popular tales: "The Knight's Tale," "The Miller's Prologue and Tale," and "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale." Recast in modern English verse that captures the lively spirit of the originals.

Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained (The Signet Classic Poetry Series)

John Milton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Amazing book, Terrible book quality 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

The star rating is given purely for the edition of Paradise Regained published by First World Library. This book is every bit as fascinating as its predecesor Paradise Lost, however I highy dissuade you from buying this particular edition because the words are in size 14 Times New Roman, thus extremely difficult to read, and it is much too expensive for an edition of its quality.

Magnetic Poetry 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This is what illegal drugs will get you "Paradise Lost," even if it is regained!

Paradise 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is a sequel to Paradise Lost. It also is written as classic literature.

This book is about when Jesus was baptized and the temptation in the wilderness.

Recommend reading at several sittings.

Editorial Review:

Here in one volume are the complete texts of two of the greatest epic poems in English literature, each a profound exploration of the moral problems of God's justice. They demonstrate Milton's genius for classicism and innovation, narrative and drama-and are a grand example of what Samuel Johnson called his "peculiar power to astonish."

Edited by Christopher Ricks
With a New Introduction by Dr. Susanne Woods

The Canterbury Tales (Norton Critical Editions)

Geoffrey Chaucer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This Norton Critical Edition includes the most admired of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Each is presented in the original language, with normalized spelling and substantial annotations for modern readers. Among the new added to the Second Edition are the much-requested "Merchant's Tale" and the "Tale of Sir Thopas."

"Sources and Backgrounds" are included for the General Prologue and for most of the tales, enabling students to understand The Canterbury Tales in light of relevant medieval ideas and attitudes and inviting comparison between Chaucer's work and his sources.

"Criticism" includes nine essays, four of them new to this edition, by leading Chaucerians, among them F. R. H. DuBoulay, E. Talbot Donaldson, Barbara Nolani, and Lee Patterson.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

About the Series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide.

The Canterbury Tales: (original-spelling edition) (Penguin Classics)

Geoffrey Chaucer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Worth its weight in gold 5 out of 5 stars.
50 of 51 people found this review helpful.

I bought this Penguin Classics edition of Chaucer last year during a visit to Canterbury. I already owned the modernized edition edited by the late Nevill Coghill, but I figured: Hey, I'm in Canterbury--I have to buy a copy. So I bought this one.
For starters, this is the complete text of the Tales, and it is in the original Middle English. While the language may take a while to get used to (for beginners, especially) it's a blast to read. Another plus for this edition is the heavy, heavy glossing and a really extensive notes section which helped even an experienced reader of Chaucer like myself.
If you're new to Chaucer, or even if you're not, this is the edition to have. It's a paperback, so it's portable, and it's complete. You won't be left wanting an odd tale or two with this book.
Highly recommended.

Editorial Review:

One of the greatest and most ambitious works in English literature, The Canterbury Tales depicts a storytelling competition between pilgrims drawn from all ranks of society.

The tales are as various as the pilgrims themselves, encompassing comedy, pathos, tragedy, and cynicism. The Miller and the Reeve express their mutual antagonism in a pair of comic stories combining sex and trickery; in "The Shipman's Tale," a wife sells her favors to a monk. Others draw on courtly romance and fantasy: the Knight tells of rivals competing for the love of the same woman, and the Squire describes a princess who can speak to birds. In these twenty-four tales, Chaucer displays a dazzling range of literary styles and conjures up a wonderfully vivid picture of medieval life.

The Canterbury Tales (Oxford World's Classics)

Geoffrey Chaucer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 81 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

On a spring day in April--sometime in the waning years of the 14th century--29 travelers set out for Canterbury on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas Beckett. Among them is a knight, a monk, a prioress, a plowman, a miller, a merchant, a clerk, and an oft-widowed wife from Bath. Travel is arduous and wearing; to maintain their spirits, this band of pilgrims entertains each other with a series of tall tales that span the spectrum of literary genres. Five hundred years later, people are still reading Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. If you haven't yet made the acquaintance of the Franklin, the Pardoner, or the Squire because you never learned Middle English, take heart: this edition of the Tales has been translated into modern idiom.

From the heroic romance of "The Knight's Tale" to the low farce embodied in the stories of the Miller, the Reeve, and the Merchant, Chaucer treated such universal subjects as love, sex, and death in poetry that is simultaneously witty, insightful, and poignant. The Canterbury Tales is a grand tour of 14th-century English mores and morals--one that modern-day readers will enjoy.

Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God: The Life Story of the Author of My Utmost for His Highest

David McCasland

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An Excellent Biography on a Fascinating Man of God! 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

For a number of years I have thoroughly enjoyed reading and being blessed by "My Utmost for His Highest". While I have been greatly blessed, I knew little of the author other than he served British troops in Egypt as a servant of the YMCA. Thankfully, McCasland has written a most interesting read of Reverand Chambers.

Among the areas covered in Chambers' life include:

1. Early life and large family he belonged to - parents and siblings.
2. How and when he came to Christ.
3. His education at various schools.
4. Marriage to his beloved "Biddy" and enjoying his daughter Kathleen.
5. His service for the YMCA and other Christian-related organizations.
6. Ministry to British troops in Egypt during WWI.
7. Many travels and friends he made throughout his life.
8. Circumstances leading up to his death at the early age of 43.

The book was so well-written and detailed about Chambers' life that I have grown to respect and appreciate the man even more. I (in addition to many others I'm sure) am also deeply grateful for his wife Biddy's efforts to publish many of his addresses to the British troops that ultimately resulted in the devotion "My Utmost for His Highest".

Read and enjoy the book and come to appreciate Reverand Chambers even more! Highly recommended.

Editorial Review:

Oswald Chambers was born in Scotland and spent much of his boyhood there. His ministry of teaching and preaching took him for a time to the United States and Japan. The last six years of his life were spent as principal of the Bible Training College in London, and as chaplain to British Commonwealth troops in Egypt during World War I. After his death, at age 43, the books that bear his name were compiled by his wife from her own verbatim shorthand notes of his talks.

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (Selected): An Interlinear Translation

Geoffrey Chaucer, Vincent F. Hopper (translation)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

An Inexpensive Aid to Mastering Chaucer's Middle English 4 out of 5 stars.
29 of 30 people found this review helpful.

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, published by Barron's Educational Series, uses an interlinear translation format in which each line of Middle English is followed by a modern translation (in a literal form to make the comparison easier). I like this approach.

Sometimes Middle English is recognizable. This line describing the knight - Ful worthy was he in his lord's werre - is readily understood if you recognize that werre is war.

Contrastingly, this sentence about the prioress is less clear: And sikerly she was of greet disport. Or in modern usage: And indeed she was very diverting.

I initially used a 1948, yellowed first edition with 448 pages, but more recently I found a copy of the "new enlarged edition" with 530 pages. This 1970 edition is no longer new, but copies can still be found with little trouble. It has been reprinted many times; my copy is the fourteenth printing.

Both editions include The Prologue, The Knight's Tale, The Prioress's Prologue, The Prioress's Invocation, The Prioress's Tale, The Nun's Priest's Prologue, The Nun's Priest's Tale, The Nun's Priest's Epilogue, The Pardoner's Prologue, The Pardoner's Tale, The Wife of Bath's Prologue, The Wife of Bath's Tale, The Franklin's Prologue, and The Franklin's Tale.

The new enlarged edition includes four more sections: The Miller's Prologue, The Miller's Tale, The Reeve's Prologue, and The Reeve's Tale.

Both editions offer a short introduction and a short section of notes. The translator is Vincent F. Hopper.

Editorial Review:

Each line of the original Middle English is followed by a line of modern English "translation." Includes biography of Chaucer, interpretive introduction.

Piers Plowman (Norton Critical Editions)

William Langland

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Piers Plowman is one of the most significant works of medieval literature. Astonishing in its cultural and theological scope, William Langland's iconoclastic masterpiece is at once a historical relic and a deeply spiritual vision, probing not only the social and religious aristocracy but also the day-to-day realities of a largely voiceless proletariat class.

E. Talbot Donaldson's translation of the text has been selected for this Norton Critical Edition because of its skillful emulation of the original poem's distinct alliterative verse. Selections of the authoritative Middle English text are also included for comparative analysis.

"Sources and Backgrounds" includes a large collection of contemporary religious and historical documents pertaining to the poem, including selections from the Douai Bible, accounts of the plague, and legal statutes.

"Criticism" includes twenty interpretive essays by leading medievalists, among them E. Talbot Donaldson, George Kane, Jill Mann, Derek Pearsall, C. David Benson, and Elizabeth D. Kirk.

A Glossary and Selected Bibliography are also included.

About the Series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide.

The Canterbury Tales: Complete

Geoffrey Chaucer, Larry Benson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Travelling mercies... 5 out of 5 stars.
16 of 18 people found this review helpful.

In Chaucer's work, 'The Canterbury Tales', perhaps the greatest of English literary works from the period of the language known as Middle English, there is one particular piece that have always stood out for me.

'A Clerk ther was of Oxenford also,'

This is perhaps my favourite character, as when I first read it, it seemed to epitomise what I hoped for in my own life.

'That unto logik hadde longe y-go.
....
For him was lever have at his beddes heed
Twenty bokes, clad in blak or reed,

Of Aristotle and his philosophye,
Than robes riche, of fithele, or gay sautrye,
But al be that he was a philosophre,
Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre,
But al that he mighte of his freendes hente,
On bokes and on lerninge he it spente,
and bisily gan for the soules preye
Of hem that yaf him wherwith to scoleye.
....
...gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.'

Every now and then I cannot help but re-read this part of the Prologue, for a reminder of what I'm aiming for in my own life.

Chaucer was son of a wine merchant, something near and dear to my heart. Chaucer was well-read, well-phrased, well-mannered, industrious in literary and legal/administrative pursuits, as I trust I will become, if not already so qualified.

As one can see from the above examples, English has changed much over the past 600 years, but not so much as to make these passages unrecognisable. Compare for yourself with a modern translation, and see how much you can decipher.

Chaucer is one of the first great English authors of name; most (but not all) literary output in English prior to this time was anonymous. Living in the 1300s, he held administrative posts of importance under Kings from the time of Edward III to Henry IV. Never one to shrink from spending too much money (he had to reapply for pensions and ask for advances several times in his life) or shying away from controversy (he fell out of and came back into favour several times). When he died, he was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey, in a section on the south side that has since become Poet's Corner, largely due to Chaucer, the first great English poet, having been buried there.

In addition to his magnus opus, 'The Canterbury Tales', a collection of stories with prologue told by pilgrims on their journey to Canterbury (car radios and in-flight movies were rare in those days), Chaucer wrote minor poems to suit various occasions (his first record as poet comes from having written a poem as elegy on the death of John of Gaunt's first wife, Blanche, in 1369), and the major work for which he was noted for 'Troilus and Criseyde', which showed his sense of humour, power of observation and attention to detail, and keen dramatic skills in language. This work is often compared to Dante and Boccaccio, perhaps the most famous poets of the day. 'The Canterbury Tales' is actually intended to be much longer - 120 tales told by 30 pilgrims (two each on the way to Canterbury, and two each returning). As it is, there are only 24 tales plus a prologue - had it been completed, it would be by far the longest poem in the English language.

There is a strong, practical side to Chaucer's writing, sophisticated yet not aloof and removed from the affairs of the world, cultured yet in tune with the better (and more interesting) aspects of the common people, too.

This edition by Larry Benson is designed for those who only want the Canterbury Tales, not the other writings of Chaucer, but want a set of the complete tales and prologue from standard texts. This comes from the Riverside Chaucer, with introductory notes explaining plot, versification, and various issues that might arise in the translation of the tales. The indexes include one for proper names. There is also a timeline showing Chaucer's life that is handy for students.

For those who want the Canterbury Tales in good form, this is a good volume to get.

Editorial Review:

Based on the definitive Riverside Chaucer, this edition of The Canterbury Tales contains the complete text of all 24 Tales, thoroughly updated scholarship from the past 20 years, and extensive editorial support. This volume is ideal for instructors who want to assign only the Tales and have no need for the complete Chaucer.

An overview briefly outlines the basic plot and main idea of each Tale, while a section on language and versification helps students with pronunciation. Explanatory notes provide information on sources, problematic passages, and critical interpretations. Additional pedagogy includes a glossary, a section on Chaucer's life, an index, a general bibliography, and a list of abbreviations.