Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (Selected): An Interlinear Translation - Softcover

Geoffrey Chaucer; Vincent F. Hopper (translation)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0812000390 ISBN 13: 9780812000399

Publisher: Barrons Educational Series, 1977

Synopsis

Begun soon after 1386 and written during several years that followed, Geoffrey Chaucer's great narrative poem The Canterbury Tales presents a richly detailed, highly entertaining, and sometimes bawdy picture of English society in the fourteenth century. Rich with humorous insights into the many foibles of humanity, this poem is considered by most literary critics and scholars to be the first great example of literary art written in vernacular English. Its narrative opens as a party of 30 men and women from various walks of life gather at the Tabard Inn in London, from where they set out on a holy pilgrimage to Canterbury and its shrine dedicated to Thomas à Becket. As they travel, each person has a story to tell.

The most famous and beloved of Chaucer's stories are presented in interlinear form this intensely readable volume. Alternating each of Chaucer's original lines with its translation into modern English, this book encourages readers to savor the genius of Chaucer's original poetry while following each line with an easy-to-understand modern translation of his Southeast Midlands dialect of Middle English. This scholarly yet truly approachable translation of Chaucer's original poem is the work of Vincent F. Hopper, a longtime professor of English literature at New York University. He opens with the famous Prologue--

Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote
When April with his showers sweet
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote,
The drought of March has pierced to the root

--and then goes on to present

The Miller's Tale

The Reeve's Tale

The Prioress's Tale

The Nun's Priest's Tale

The Pardoner's Tale

The Wife of Bath's Tale

The Franklin's Tale . . . and more.
This fine volume also includes an enlightening introductory essay on Chaucer's art, with Professor Hopper's commentary on England as it existed in the fourteenth century. He concludes with a short list of recommended reading on Chaucer's time and his art.

About this title

Review:

"Builds a needed bridge for the general student between the 20th and 14th centuries."
--Kent Williams, Troy State University, AL
"Readers coming to 'The Canterbury Tales' for the first time should...buy Vincent Hopper's interlinear translation...To my knowledge, Hopper's rendering is as close, as word for word, as any translation of 'The Canterbury Tales'... It places the new word directly under the original word -- a device that makes the syntax feel old-fashioned but that will also quickly teach you Middle English, which is not hard."
--Joan Acocella,The New Yorker

About this edition

• Publisher: Barrons Educational Series
• Publication date: 1977
• ISBN 10: 0812000390
• ISBN 13: 9780812000399
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 530