A Reading of the "Canterbury Tales."

Author / Editor
Whittock, Trevor

Title
A Reading of the "Canterbury Tales."

Published
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968.

Physical Description
309 pp.

Description
Interpretive, evaluative, tale-by-tale reading of CT, focusing on how Chaucer's "mingling" of various styles, tones, genres, conventions, source materials, and world views come together as a unifying perspective that supersedes any one perspective . Considers several tales as pairings (FrT and SumT, Th and Mel, ManT and ParsT), and offers opinions of how and where individual tales succeed or fail, often gauged in light of recurrent themes presented as timeless concerns. The Introduction (pp. 1-53) justifies appreciative criticism, remarks on Chaucer's other works (especially TC), comments on questions of unity in CT, and praises the vitality and spirituality of GP.

Chaucer Subjects
Background and General Criticism
Canterbury Tales--General
Style and Versification
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Troilus and Criseyde