If I remember correctly, the first time I was introduced to The Canterbury Tales was in high school. I remember instantly falling in love with Chaucer’s tongue-in-cheek humor and how he infused that humor with parables that left one with a lesson learned. When I was at the bookstore and found that a graphic novel version existed, I of course needed to buy it and see how creative Seymour Chwast was in his interpretation of Chaucer’s great work.
For those of you not familiar with The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer writes the tale of 30 pilgrims that are making their way to the Canterbury Cathedral. Chaucer originally intended for each pilgrim to tell a tale to and from the Cathedral, for a total of 60 works. Unfortunately, he died after completing 24 tales, of which we will never know the true order in which they are meant to be told. What is complete, however, are the funny, serious, intriguing, intelligent, and overall entertaining tales of these pilgrims. From the shockingly raunchy and funny tale of the Wife of Bath to the pious tale of the Prioress, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales cover the whole emotional spectrum and evoke both laughter and sorrow from the reader.
One thing that I think makes people frightened to read The Canterbury Tales or any other Medieval literature is the language barrier. When I first read the tales it was when I was still in school, and was therefore being taught how to translate the text. Once I was able to understand fully what each tale was about, why certain themes were important, and what made them funny, I developed a love of them. What’s great about the graphic novel version is that it’s written not in its original text but a hip, modernized version of today’s English language. Even the illustrations got in the “modern game”, depicting the pilgrims riding motorcycles instead of horses. In doing this Chwast has opened up The Canterbury Tales to not only a new generation of readers, but also a whole new audience in general.
My only critique of the graphic novel is that some of the tales’ adaptations weren’t written cohesively. The Canterbury Tales is a huge undertaking in its normal format, so to squeeze all of that into 144 pages of text and illustrations is definitely not a simple job. I felt that some of the stories could have used a little more tender loving care in their adaptation. Despite this, the humor and morality of the tales still shone through well enough for any newcomers to the tales.
4 out of 5 Stars
This is my twelfth completed review for the Around The Stack In How Many Ways Challenge
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer and Seymour Chwast
Bloomsbury USA (2011)
Hardcovers: 144 pages
ISBN: 9781608194872
Reflections of a Book Addict 
I read the Canterbury Tales in college, so this looks fun to me. I had an easier time with the language back then because the book we used had the old English on one side and the modern translation on the other.
That’s how I learned to read Shakespeare – modern language one side, original text other side. It’s interesting to read that way, you get to see how much language has changed and evolved over the years.
Like you, I struggled (as a teen in school … & later in college) with the language. The professors always seemed to demand that we wallow through the confusing medieval Eng. rather than simply getting a glimpse of the story itself.
Hallelujah for Cliff’s Notes.
You’ve made me want to give the C. Tales another try … now that it’s newly illustrated and with modernized language.
Definitely do it. This version illustrates a lot of the tounge-in-cheek humor!
I’ve read it in the original and in translation, and it’s beautiful both ways. Love the rhythms of medieval English!
Have you ever read Beowulf or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight? Great medieval lit choices
Read both, and LOVE Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. My son was almost called Gavin in Sir Gawain’s honour, but then Gavin got really trendy in my area, so we went with a different option,
I love when people name their children after literary characters. If I ever had a son I’d name him Darcy 😀
Very cool!