The Canterbury Tales: Six of the best tales

The LitSalon invites you to join us on a literary journey through The Canterbury Tales. Imagine it is spring, the rain and mud behind us, nature bursts with new life. It is the season of love and pilgrimage. We are gathered around rustic wooden tables at the Tabard Inn, near London. Tomorrow we begin our walk (or ride, if we can afford it) to St. Thomas Becket’s shrine at Canterbury Cathedral. Our host suggests that each of us tell a story on the road.  

What an astonishing variety of characters and stories Chaucer gives us! We see the full range of medieval society, from the noble Knight to the bawdy Miller, from the vitality of the Wife of Bath to the hypocrisy of the Pardoner. The Canterbury Tales offers a masterful sense of irony throughout.  Join us as we read and discuss six of the best tales in modern English along with selected Middle English passages.  

PLEASE NOTE:  You are welcome to sign up for this study whether or not you have been part of the Canterbury Tales General Prologue group.  

JOINING DETAILS:

• Six meeting study: The Knight’s Tale, The Miller’s Tale, The Nun’s Priest’s Tale, The Wife of Bath’s Tale, The Shipman’s Tale and The Pardoner’s Tale, led by Sean Forester (on Zoom)
• Sundays, 4.00 – 6.00 pm (UK) 
• 16 & 23 February, 2, 16, 23 & 30 March 2025
• Recommended text: either the prose version by David Wright  (ISBN-13: 978-0307743534) or the verse version by Nevill Coghill (ISBN-13: ‎978-0140424386). You may also find the interlinear translation of The Canterbury Tales on the Harvard University Chaucer website useful.
• £180 for six meetings, including notes and resources.