The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer
Translated by Nevill Coghill.
First published in Middle English in the 12th Century.
Overall, this is not a book I'd recommend. It is interesting in some ways, giving an insight to the different social strata of 12th Century England, as well as discussions about the sorts of things considered socially acceptable(!), but it is also (in some of the stories) very bawdy and in fact rather coarse. I sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that old books will have more 'conservative' sensibilities, but although this is somewhat true if you go back to, say, Victorian Literature, going too far back comes out the other side of that era of history and back into the ribald.
The structure of The Canterbury Tales is that a group of travellers, making pilgrimage to the grave of St Thomas Beckett in Canterbury, are challenged by their first-night host - who will be travelling with them - to each tell two stories in order to win their expenses paid for. Although each member only tells one story (Chaucer apparently died before completing the work), they widely vary in topic, length, and tone, and there are definitely enough stories by the end.
The work is almost entirely in poetic form - which Nevill Coghill has updated so that it still rhymes in Modern English - although occasional stories change the poetry style or fall into simple prose, often for comedic effect. For example, Chaucer himself tells ones of the stories and does so in a fairly cliché 'minstrely' rhyme, only for the host to interrupt the story halfway through and tell Chaucer that "My ears are aching...That must be called doggerel-rhyme" (page 201). He then instructs Chaucer to tell a story without rhyme, which Chaucer does, launching into a prose morality tale.
Unfortunately, the two prose tales have not been translated by Coghill except in summary. I say unfortunately, because both have theological elements to them and would have been intriguing to read as someone interested in that topic. However, from the summaries of these I can also see why Coghill may have felt their inclusion a bit dry.
Anyway, some of the stories are interesting, and with a variety of topics it is likely that different readers will each find something they can enjoy, but the level of bawdiness in some left me feeling a bit uncomfortable. I could revisit some stories - The Squire's Tale, for example (another unfinished story), is set in the court of Genghis Khan (Chaucer calls him Cambuskan) and sets up an interesting group of magical items - but would not reread the whole thing again.
Still, it does mean I can tick off "C" from the Alphabet Soup challenge!
Completed 2 September 2021.
(Alphabet Soup Books)
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