Updated Title: The Canterbury Tales for Beginners

The procession that crosses Chaucer's pages is as richly textured and full of life as a medieval tapestry. When it is remembered that Chaucer wrote in English at a time when Latin was the standard literary language across western Europe, the magnitude of his achievement is even more remarkable. The Knight, the Miller, the Friar, the Squire, the Prioress, the Wife of Bath, and others who make up the cast of characters -- including Chaucer himself -- are real people, with human emotions and weaknesses. Chaucer's genius needs no historical introduction; it bursts forth from every page of The Canterbury Tales.

If we trust the General Prologue, Chaucer intended that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back. Scholars are uncertain about the order of the tales, as the printing press had yet to be invented when Chaucer wrote his works, and The Canterbury Tales has been passed down in several handwritten manuscripts. He never finished his enormous project, and even the completed tales were not finally revised.

The magnitude of Chaucer's achievement is even more remarkable when it is remembered that he wrote in English at a time when Latin was the standard literary language across western Europe. The procession that crosses Chaucer's pages is as richly textured and full of life as a medieval tapestry, and the Knight, the Miller, the Friar, the Squire, the Prioress, the Wife of Bath, and others who make up the cast of characters -- including Chaucer himself -- are real people, with human emotions and weaknesses. Chaucer's genius needs no historical introduction; it bursts forth from every page of The Canterbury Tales.

Scholars are uncertain about the order of the tales, as the printing press had yet to be invented when Chaucer wrote his works, and The Canterbury Tales has been passed down in several handwritten manuscripts. If we trust the General Prologue, Chaucer intended that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back. He never finished his enormous project, and even the completed tales were not finally revised.

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