Audiobook · read by volunteers
Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer (1343–1400)
Read by Gesine, Chip, Thomas Hoover, Ted Delorme, Gord Mackenzie, Alex Foster, Kristin LeMoine, Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023), Cynthia Lyons (1946-2011), Joshua Young · 29 chapters · 19 h 23
About the book
A group of pilgrims gathers at an inn near London, and the host proposes a contest: each traveller will tell stories on the way to Canterbury and on the way back, and the best teller will win a free supper. So begins one of the great story collections in English. A knight, a miller, a cook, a merchant, a wife from Bath, a pardoner and many more take turns, and their tales range from courtly romance to bawdy comedy, from beast fable to sermon. Between the stories the pilgrims argue, tease and reveal themselves. This audio edition begins with a preface and a life of the author before moving through the General Prologue and the tales that follow. Ten LibriVox volunteers share the reading over nearly nineteen and a half hours, which gives the company of travellers a lively range of voices.
Introduction
Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) was an English poet and courtier who wrote The Canterbury Tales in the late fourteenth century. Most of the work is in verse, and two of the tales are in prose. He did not finish it: the plan promised more tales than he completed. Chaucer wrote in Middle English, the language of his day, and he is often called the father of English literature because he helped show that vernacular English could carry serious, subtle poetry.
The book is held together by a frame: pilgrims travelling to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral tell stories to pass the time. The General Prologue introduces each of them with quick, sharp portraits, and the tales then reveal their tastes, their trades and their weaknesses. The genres vary a great deal, including romance, fabliau, sermon and beast fable.
The recording opens with a preface and a biographical chapter, and runs to 29 sections in about 19.4 hours. The readers are ten LibriVox volunteers, including Gesine and Chip.
Today the Tales are worth hearing for their humour, their sharp eye for human types and their sheer range. Listen to one tale at a time, or settle in for the whole pilgrimage. Because the tales are independent, you can sample a single one and then go on to another, without needing to hear them in order. The long running time is best taken in instalments, perhaps one pilgrim at a time, which echoes the very structure of the work and makes it easier to enjoy its contrasts of tone.
Public domain
Geoffrey Chaucer died in 1400: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text