2011 Reading #43: The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
41. The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien.
42. Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin.
43. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. I have never read this before; for whatever reason it wasn't taught in either my high school or the intro English courses I took in college. (One had a feminist slant and the other a focus on works in translation, especially Latin American works; as I think about it, those courses have had a fairly profound influence on my reading trajectory since.) Anyway, this is an . . . odd . . . work. I love the Wife of Bath, and the dueling bawdy tales of the Miller and the Reeve, and there is some great stuff throughout--the description of the temples of Mars and Venus in the Knight's Tale is one that particularly sticks out. Overall I much prefer the more earthy stories here, and less so the long discourses on marriage and/or morality; some of them, I confess, I largely skipped over because I found them so tedious. I mean, seriously, while I see the value of recording an endless list of proverbs for posterity, it's not much fun to read. (On the other hand, when Snorri Sturluson writes about kennings I'm pretty much with him all the way, so perhaps it's all about who you are.) Anyway, I hope that Chaucer doesn't show up in the comments and tell me what a dick I am for not "getting" it, but while I'm glad that I have now read this I will not be doing so again.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
41. The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien.
42. Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin.
43. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. I have never read this before; for whatever reason it wasn't taught in either my high school or the intro English courses I took in college. (One had a feminist slant and the other a focus on works in translation, especially Latin American works; as I think about it, those courses have had a fairly profound influence on my reading trajectory since.) Anyway, this is an . . . odd . . . work. I love the Wife of Bath, and the dueling bawdy tales of the Miller and the Reeve, and there is some great stuff throughout--the description of the temples of Mars and Venus in the Knight's Tale is one that particularly sticks out. Overall I much prefer the more earthy stories here, and less so the long discourses on marriage and/or morality; some of them, I confess, I largely skipped over because I found them so tedious. I mean, seriously, while I see the value of recording an endless list of proverbs for posterity, it's not much fun to read. (On the other hand, when Snorri Sturluson writes about kennings I'm pretty much with him all the way, so perhaps it's all about who you are.) Anyway, I hope that Chaucer doesn't show up in the comments and tell me what a dick I am for not "getting" it, but while I'm glad that I have now read this I will not be doing so again.