A Retelling Of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales – Peter Ackroyd
English novelist, biographer and poet, Peter Ackroyd’s Retelling of the classic Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer – “reflects the power and glory of Chaucer” Spectrum.
A motley group of travellers meet at a London Inn on their way to Canterbury, where they agree to take part in a storytelling competition on their journey. As they make their way on the road, they drink, laugh, flirt, argue, interrupt and try to outdo each other with their tales.
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Among them is a brave and good-looking Knight, who tells the tragic story of two friends torn apart by their love for the same woman. There is a drunken Miller, who recounts a bawdy anecdote about a bed-hopping young student tricking an old man to sleep with his pretty young wife. The exuberant, red-stockinged Wife of Bath boasts about how she kept her previous five husbands in check and goes on to tell the tale of a man who will be spared death if he can answer the question ‘What is it that women most desire?’. A shipman describes a cheating wife who prostitutes herself to a monk, while a corrupt Pardoner, who sells holy relics and absolution, weaves a spine-tingling tale of three young wasters who betray each other over a pile of gold and get a grisly comeuppance.
Funny, moving, outrageous and life-affirming, all the twenty-four stories here blend comedy and tragedy, heroic adventure, high romance and salacious humour. Peter Ackroyd’s fresh, modern retelling of this unforgettable drama of the human spirit infuses The Canterbury Tales with new and vigorous life. Here are the best stories ever told, reborn for a new generation.
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