The Wife of Bath's Tale
The Clerk's Tale
The Reeve's Tale
The Nun's Priest's Tale
Four more delightful tales from one of the most entertaining storytellers of all time. Though writing in the 14th century, Chaucer's wit and observation comes down undiminished through the ages, especially in this accessible modern verse translation. The stories vary considerably: the uproarious Wife of Bath's Tale, promoting the power of women; the sober account of patient Griselda in the Clerk's Tale; the ribald Reeve's Tale and the diverting tale of Chanticleer told by the Nun's Priest.
The group continues its pilgrimage to Canterbury, talking with each other, their interaction mediated (sometimes) by the affable Host - Chaucer himself.
The Canterbury Tales, written near the end of Chaucer's life and hence towards the close of the fourteenth century, Is perhaps the greatest English literary work of the Middle Ages: yet it speaks to us today with almost undimmed clarity and relevance.
Chaucer imagines a group of twenty-nine pilgrims who meet in the Tabard Inn in Southwark, intent on making the traditional journey to the martyr's shrine of St Thomas a Becket in Canterbury. Harry Bailly landlord of the Tabard, proposes that the company should entertain themselves on the road with a storytelling competition. The teller of the best tale will be rewarded with a supper at the others' expense when the travellers return to London. Chaucer never completed this elaborate scheme - each pilgrim was supposed to tell four tales, but in fact we only have twenty-four altogether - yet, with the pieces of linking narrative and the prologues to each tale, the work as a whole constitutes a marvellously varied evocation of the medieval world which also goes beyond its period to penetrate (humorously, gravely tolerantly) human nature itself.
Chaucer, as a member of this company of pilgrims, presents himself with mock innocence as the admiring observer of his fellows, depicted in the General Prologue. Many of these are clearly rogues - the coarse, cheating Miller, the repulsive yet compelling Pardoner - yet in each of them Chaucer finds something human, often a sheer vitality or love of life which is irresistible: the Monk may prefer hunting to prayer, but he is after all a manly man, to be an abbot able. Perhaps only the unassuming, devoted Parson and his humbly labouring brother the Ploughman rise entirely above Chaucer's teasing irony; certainly the Parson's fellow clergy and religious officers belong to a Church riddled with gross corruption. Everyone, it seems, is on the make, in a world still recovering from the ravages of the Black Death.
Written By : William Shakespeare
Narrator : Full Cast Production
Published By : BBC Audiobooks Ltd
Length : 2 hours 15 minutes
Type : Dramatizations
Classic Literature
Audio Theater
Shakespeare
Price : $24.49
Father and son Julian and Jamie Glover star as King Henry and Prince Hal in Shakespeare's stirring history. More... |
Written By : Hans Christian Andersen
Narrator : Erica Johns
Published By : Select Music & Distribution
Length : 2 hours 35 minutes
Type : Fairy Tales
Classics
Classic Literature
Price : $11.99
Andersen's tales have become part of universal folk lore. More... |
Written By : J.B.Priestley
Narrator : Ralph Richardson
Published By : Heritage Media Ltd
Length : 25 minutes
Type : Dramatizations
Classic Literature
Audio Theater
Old Time Radio
Classics
Price : $5.25
Theatre Royal: In this episode from the series, Ralph Richardson stars in a fully dramatised adaptation of the famous Private Rooms classic by J.B.Priestley... More... |
Written By : George Eliot
Narrator : Nadia May
Published By : Blackstone Audio Inc
Length : 31 hours
Type : Classic Literature
Price : $59.95
Middlemarch is a multilayered work centering around two expertly constructed characters: Dorothea Brooke, an idealistic young woman who traps herself into a loveless marriage, and Tertius Lydgate, an ambitious young doctor. This work is epic in scope and unsurpassed in its depiction of human nature. More... |
Written By : Katherine Mansfield
Narrator : Marguerite Gavin
Published By : Blackstone Audio Inc
Length : 6 hours 30 minutes
Type : Classic Literature
Price : $14.95
The fifteen stories collected here demonstrate the genius of Katherine Mansfield, who was compared to Chekhov. These are not tales of violent incidents or dexterous plot but sensitive revelations of human behavior in ordinary situations. The men, women, and children whom Mansfield portrays are... More... |
