The Canterbury Tales, A Selection – Second Edition
A Selection
  • Publication Date: July 15, 2013
  • ISBN: 9781554811366 / 1554811368
  • 450 pages; 6" x 9"

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The Canterbury Tales, A Selection – Second Edition

A Selection

  • Publication Date: July 15, 2013
  • ISBN: 9781554811366 / 1554811368
  • 450 pages; 6" x 9"

Drawing from the same text as the complete Broadview edition of the Tales, which is based on the famous Ellesmere Manuscript, this selected edition also features a critical introduction, marginal glosses in modern English of difficult words, and explanatory footnotes. The most widely taught appendix material from the complete edition is included, along with ten illustrations from the Ellesmere Manuscript.

The second edition includes a new glossary, a timeline of Chaucer’s life and times, and detailed headers showing the section and line numbers, making it easier to find a specific section of the poem. Several popular prologues and tales have also been added to the selection: The Cook’s Prologue and Tale, The Friar’s Prologue and Tale, The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale, and The Parson’s Prologue.

Comments

“Boenig and Taylor have produced a welcome addition to the already-rich offerings available for the study of Chaucer in the classroom. The text hews closely to the Ellesmere Manuscript, making it useful for discussions of manuscript contexts of The Canterbury Tales. And both students and teachers will find the materials that frame the poem to be valuable aids in its study; the introduction offers a concise history of Chaucer and the reception of his work while the excerpted source texts that follow the poem are well chosen and provide crucial context.” — Timothy Stinson, North Carolina State University

Praise for the complete edition:

“With its meticulously edited text, generous glosses and notes, abundant selections from relevant medieval sources, and attractive reproductions of the sumptuous pages of the Ellesmere Manuscript, the Broadview Canterbury Tales will become the obvious choice for teachers, students, and general readers alike.” — John T. Sebastian, Loyola University New Orleans

“This is the best edition of the Tales I’ve found to date.” — John Marlin, College of Saint Elizabeth

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAUCER TIMELINE

THE CANTERBURY TALES

The General Prologue
The Knight’s Tale
The Miller’s Prologue and Tale
The Reeve’s Prologue and Tale
The Cook’s Prologue and Tale
The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale
The Friar’s Prologue and Tale
The Summoner’s Prologue and Tale
The Clerk’s Prologue and Tale
The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale
The Franklin’s Prologue and Tale
The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale
The Prioress’s Prologue and Tale
The Nun’s Priest’s Prologue and Tale
The Parson’s Prologue
Chaucer’s Retraction

APPENDIX: BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS

  1. Saint Jerome, Against Jovinian (400)
  2. Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy (524)
  3. The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards (1395)
  4. Jean de Meun, The Romance of the Rose (c. 1275)
    1. False Seeming
    2. The Old Woman
  5. William Langland, Piers Plowman (1360s–80s)
    1. The Fair Field of Folk
    2. The Friar
  6. Guillaume de Machaut, The Judgment of the King of Navarre (1351)
    • The Plague
  7. Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron (1353)
    1. The Black Death
    2. Patient Griselda
  8. Rudolph of Schlettstadt, The Host and Libels against the Jews (1303)
  9. The Remedy against the Troubles of Temptation (late fourteenth century)
    • An Exemplum about Despair
  10. The Tale of Beryn (1410–20)
    • The Pilgrims Arrive at Canterbury and Visit the Shrine

    A BASIC CHAUCER GLOSSARY
    BIBLIOGRAPHY
    TEXTUAL SOURCES LIST

Robert Boenig is Professor of English at Texas A&M University.

Andrew Taylor is Professor of English at the University of Ottawa.