The Real and the Ideal in the Novella of Italy, France and England: Four Centuries of Change in the Boccaccian Tale.

Author / Editor
Rodax, Yvonne

Title
The Real and the Ideal in the Novella of Italy, France and England: Four Centuries of Change in the Boccaccian Tale.

Published
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1968.

Physical Description
138 pp.

Description
Includes (pp. 8-28) impressionistic appreciation of CT for its fusions of realism and idealism in poetic narrative, discussing it as a prelude to assessment of the Boccaccian tradition of novella writing. Treats PrT and NPT as the two best of the tales, with the others failing to quite meet their standard in one way or another—especially the prose tales for their lack of style. The GP bursts with life, but lacks a "rich and mysterious vein which shines intermittently throughout the tales." Generally, CT benefits from a "double vision which reveals things not only as they are but as they ought to be; Chaucer is a "true poet, modestly making light of the celestial afflatus for the most part, but allowing it to flow into musical and pictorial patterns."

Chaucer Subjects
Canterbury Tales--General
Style and Versification
Prioress and Her Tale
Nun's Priest and His Tale