justgina93's review against another edition
4.0
Read in highschool for a class it was interesting to figure out how a frame story works.
waywardwraith's review against another edition
4.0
Read this for school and THE WIFE OF BATH? QUEEN!!! LOVED HER
jessicaminster's review against another edition
Got through the Miller's Tale and then decided that my life is too busy to be reading lukewarm Middle English literature word for word with excruciating carefulness and note-checking and crossreferencing and shit. Maybe I'll return at a later date but I'm real sick of it already. Harder to read than Shakespeare but not nearly as good.
errina2's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
gray_ghost's review against another edition
4.0
Clever, but difficult. The reader willing to focus will find the Tales rewarding.
steven_nobody's review against another edition
4.0
First, I think my favorite one segment of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales occurs in the ending sermon. It's the description of fashion, parti-coloured tights, and men's crotch bulges. Funny - even if I'm not sure Chaucer meant it to be so - but also enlightening because I love fashion history (though I have mixed feelings about men's bulges).
However...
Now that I've read both, my opinion is that Boccaccio's collection is way better. Even though he gave us one hundred stories, I never felt bored. Not the same for Chaucer. The first half of his collection holds together and was greatly amusing. I think the General Prologue, The Miller's Tale and The Wife of Bath's Prologue deserve all the kudos they get. My favorite, though, was the Pardoner's Tale of the three men who go to kill Death. But then there's a significant drop off in entertainment. It all fractures into a mess of I don't know what all: antisemitic propaganda, a biography of Saint Cecilia, an encyclopedia if short biographies, a lot of quotes by Seneca and Solomon disguised as a story, someone complaining non-stop about his job and his boss, a 3-hour sermon on the seven deadly sins, and then a quick repudiation by Chaucer of nearly all his writing. Not that I didn't get something positive out of the B-side, but next time I will just stick to the hits and be glad Chaucer didn't finish his project.
Some of these garments actually and clearly show the swelling of such wicked parts, horribly swollen male members that look like dangling hernias, wrapped around by these men’s stockings, and their buttocks go up and down like the rear end of a female ape, at full moon.
However...
Now that I've read both, my opinion is that Boccaccio's collection is way better. Even though he gave us one hundred stories, I never felt bored. Not the same for Chaucer. The first half of his collection holds together and was greatly amusing. I think the General Prologue, The Miller's Tale and The Wife of Bath's Prologue deserve all the kudos they get. My favorite, though, was the Pardoner's Tale of the three men who go to kill Death. But then there's a significant drop off in entertainment. It all fractures into a mess of I don't know what all: antisemitic propaganda, a biography of Saint Cecilia, an encyclopedia if short biographies, a lot of quotes by Seneca and Solomon disguised as a story, someone complaining non-stop about his job and his boss, a 3-hour sermon on the seven deadly sins, and then a quick repudiation by Chaucer of nearly all his writing. Not that I didn't get something positive out of the B-side, but next time I will just stick to the hits and be glad Chaucer didn't finish his project.