The Canterbury Tales-坎特伯雷故事集

作者：Chaucer Geoffrey

书名：The Canterbury Tales《坎特伯雷故事集》

中文简介：《坎特伯雷故事集》（The Canterbury Tales）是一部诗体短篇小说集，作者是英国诗人乔叟。故事叙说有30名朝圣者聚集在伦敦一家客店，整装前往70英里外的坎特伯雷。店主哈里‧贝利自告奋勇担任导游，并在晚饭后提议在往返途中每人各讲两个故事，以解五天旅途中的无聊寂寞，看谁的故事讲得最好，可以免费吃一餐好饭。这些朝圣者，有骑士、僧侣、侍从、商人、匠人、纺织匠、医生、地主、农夫、海员、家庭主妇等，代表了广泛的社会阶层。他们讲述的内容，主要包括爱情和骑士探险传奇、宗教和道德故事、滑稽故事、动物寓言等23个故事。

英文简介：The procession that crosses Chaucer's pages is as full of life and as richly textured as a medieval tapestry. The Knight, the Miller, the Friar, the Squire, the Prioress, the Wife of Bath, and others who make up the cast of characters -- including Chaucer himself -- are real people, with human emotions and weaknesses. When it is remembered that Chaucer wrote in English at a time when Latin was the standard literary language across western Europe, the magnitude of his achievement is even more remarkable. But Chaucer's genius needs no historical introduction; it bursts forth from every page of The Canterbury Tales.

If we trust the General Prologue, Chaucer intended that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back. He never finished his enormous project and even the completed tales were not finally revised. Scholars are uncertain about the order of the tales. As the printing press had yet to be invented when Chaucer wrote his works, The Canterbury Tales has been passed down in several handwritten manuscripts.