{"product_id":"canterbury-tales-19","title":"Canterbury Tales","description":"During his life, Geoffrey Chaucer (born\nc.1340) was courtier, diplomat, revenue collector, administrator, negotiator,\noverseer of building projects, landowner and knight of the shire.  He was servant, retainer, husband, friend and\nfather, but is now mainly known as a poet and ‘the father of English\nliterature’, a postion to which he was raised by other writers in the\ngeneration after his death.  It was\nBoccaccio’s \u003ci\u003eDecameron\u003c\/i\u003e which inspired\nChaucer, in the 1390s, to begin work on \u003ci\u003eThe\nCanterbury Tales\u003c\/i\u003e, which was still unfinished at his death in October 1400.\nIt tells the story of a group of 30 pilgrims who meet at the Tabard Inn in\nSouthwark, on the south bank of the Thames opposite the city of London, and\ntravel together to visit the then famous shrine of St Thomas Becket in\nCanterbury cathedral.  The tavern host,\nwho accompanies them, suggests that they amuse one another along the way by\ntelling stories, with the best storyteller awarded a meal in the tavern (paid\nfor by all the others) on their return. \nThe stories told by the pilgrims range from bawdy comedies through\nsaints’ lives and moral tracts to courtly romances, always delivered with a\ngenerous helping of Chaucer’s own sly wit and ironic humour. Although basing\nhis characters on the stereotypes of ‘estates satire’, Chaucer succeeds in his\naim of producing an overview of his times and their culture, for posterity, in\nthe manner of Italian, proto-Renaissance, writers.\u003cp\u003eThis transcription and edition is taken\nfrom British Library MS Harley 7334, produced within ten years of Chaucer’s\ndeath.  The on-page notes and glosses aim\nto enable readers with little or no previous experience of medieva\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wordsworth Editions Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Product","offer_id":54260897743192,"sku":"9781840226928","price":8.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9781840226928__67b31ddfb3878_1c1edbe7-e146-41a8-89f9-3cc9e33b0781.jpg?v=1741128534","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/canterbury-tales-19","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}