Making a major part of England's literary heritage accessible to a new audience,Peter Ackroyd's The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling renders Geoffrey Chaucer's timeless tales in lucid,compelling modern English prose,with illustrations by Nick Bantock in Penguin Classics.On a pilgrimage to Canterbury,a group of travellers agree to a storytelling competition. As they make their way on the road,they drink,laugh,flirt,argue and try to outdo each other with their tales. From the exuberant Wife of Bath's Arthurian legend to the Miller's worldly,ribald farce,these tales can be taken as a mirror of fourteenth-century London. Incorporating every style of medieval narrative - bawdy anecdote,allegorical fable and courtly romance - the tales encompass a blend of universal human themes,retold here for our times by bestselling author Peter Ackroyd.The edition also includes an introduction by Ackroyd,detailing some of the historical background to Chaucer and the Tales,and why he has been inspired to translate them for a new generation of readers.Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400) was an English author,poet,philosopher,courtier and diplomat,best known as the author of The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer is credited as being the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language. The first poet to have been buried in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey,his other works include The House of Fame,Troilus and Criseyde and The Book of the Duchess.Peter Ackroyd (b. 1949) is an award-winning writer and historian. Formerly literary editor of The Spectator and chief book reviewer for the The Times,he is the author of novels such as Hawksmoor (1985) and The House of Doctor Dee (1993),as well as non-fiction including Dickens: Public Life and Private Passion (2002),London: The Biography (2000),and Thames: Sacred River (2007).'Ackroyd's retelling is compulsive,bold and rare...as fresh as new paint'Observer'The only version to read'Time Out
Publisher: Penguin Books LtdISBN: 9780141442297Number of pages: 464Weight: 320 gDimensions: 196 x 128 x 24 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
Ackroyd's'retelling'is compulsive,bold and rare and will surely become a vital crib for generations of students to come.
Geoffrey Chaucer
Visit the Geoffrey Chaucer author pagePeter Ackroyd
Equally praised for his formally experimental fiction,his inventive biographies and his ambitious histories (particularly of his home and birthplace of London),Peter Ackroyd is arguably one of the greatest writers of his generation. With a particular partiality for Victorian and Gothic influences,his most famous novels include: Hawksmoor,Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem,The English Ghost and his own re-telling of The Canterbury Tales and The Death of King Arthur. His non-fiction ranges widely,encompassing: London the Biography,London the Concise Biography,London Under,Thames: Sacred River,Venice: Pure City,a multi-volume history of London (Foundation,Tudors,Civil War,Revolution) and Queer City as well as biographies of Chaucer,Shakespeare,Dickens,Blake,Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock.
Visit the Peter Ackroyd author page
Kommentar