Welcome to Litsy!

Day 3 of my bookish holiday calendar! Canterbury Tales! 😍📚

Enjoyed the audiobook.

Thank you for the tag @dabbe 🥰

1. The wife of bath in the Canterbury tales. Shouting down the male pilgrims to tell a fairytale story about consent and free choice for women 🎉
2. Death in the sandman series. Rereading this right now and I love her so much, maybe my favourite literary Death
3. Got to be Jane eyre - a classic never to be beaten

#threelistthursday if you‘d like to play you‘ve been tagged!

For starters, I am not a big fan of traditional prose, it is tedious, repetitive, and boring in execution, especially when written in Olde Middle English. Also, I can‘t fathom why this work has received such praise when I can think of a hundred other works that far exceed it in execution, storyline, character development, style, class, and especially a much more compelling plot than any of the tales that Chaucer had written. 1/5 at best.

#OnThisDay in 1397 Geoffrey Chaucer gave a reading of his Canterbury Tales at the court of King Richard II. He read in English, the language of the common people, rather than the Norman French spoken at court. Up to this point, English had been dying out but Chaucer was hoping to increase its use at court. Inspired by Boccaccio, he began writing his tales of medieval life in the common tongue. 👇 #HistoryGetsLIT

#pub #SavvySettings
@Eggs @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Despite some regressive stereotypes portrayed in relation to marginalized communities (especially in the prioress‘s tale) multiple stories in the book are humorous and preposterous. With a few stories exempt, this book is relatively enjoyable. However, it has become apparent to me that I would not of been able to make my way around mid to late 1300s Britain.

It was all rather interesting and entertaining: some tales are bawdy while others chivalric, fable-like, inspiring... But then we get to the “The Parson‘s Tale” which is an extremely long lecture/sermon/treatise on Penance, Contrition, the Venial Sins and, the Seven Deadly Sins. All detailed and with examples. The last tale in the collection, it absolutely killed any good will I had for this Classic. In the future, I‘ll probably just read selects.

So, my brain is too busy decoding the Early Modern English of Shakespeare to *also* try and work out the Early Middle English of Chaucer— so I got the modern translation by the late Burton Raffels— and in audio.

I‘ve been surprised at the cynicism, relative morality/amorality and, sexually crude uh, “events” and mostly entertained.

Will probably go back to my old trusty Norton Anthology next time I decide to tackle this one!

#SameBookDifferentColor - Both gifts!
#BiblioMAYnia
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620

This might take a while...

#NamasteNovember #CautionaryTale The Canterbury Tales consists of many different types of tales, some of which are cautionary tales.
@Eggs

Not light reading. Some of the tales in this work are fun, funny, and even a bit exciting. Some, however, are extremely boring. Of note, The Tale of Melibee is perhaps the most boring thing I have ever read! If one wants to complete this to earn the achievement of reading the classics, good luck! If one would rather read select tales, it would prove more enjoyable.

I read a prose translation of the Canterbury Tales (my book was titled The Story of the Canterbury Pilgrims) and it was very readable. This may have been the first stories within a story book (but maybe not) and featured stories the characters on their pilgrimage told to pass the time as they traveled on horses. My favorite was probably Patient Griselda or The Knight‘s Tale. I compared my version to the Middle English and can see value in both.

Read in Middle English- much more enjoyable for the challenge

Here's a picture of the completely-made-from-scratch peanut butter pie I had while I read The Canterbury Tales at lunch today. 😁

I started The Canterbury Tales today, of which I've previously only read two of the tales. I really just wanted to post this picture of the fabulous lunch our culinary program made today. 😁

For class we only read the Miller‘s Tale, the Wife of Bath‘s Tale, and the Nun‘s Priest‘s Tale. Now I know why. Listened to it on audiobook and, damn, some of these stories never ended it seemed! Of course, those three were good and I enjoyed them again but the rest? Meh.

I immediately thought of the tagged book for #ALittlePriest ...the myriad of characters who have tales to tell on their way to Canterbury; some are pretty scandalous! I‘ve yet to read Chaucer‘s classic in its entirety, but I do remember reading a few of the characters‘ tales for classes over the years. Not in Old English. #MusicalNewYear

I remember nothing about it, probably because I didn‘t understand it then. It and Beowulf. I must have had some sadists as English teachers. #tuesdayTidbits

Engrossing

#2018Book101
I was fortunate enough to have a great high school English teacher who took the time to explain Chaucer to us. I might have been the only one in my class who enjoyed this, but it really got me into The Canterbury Tales. I like the subtle (and sometimes outright) humor and the way Chaucer shows us who these characters are based on the stories they tell. Classics usually aren't my thing, but I'm a big fan of most of these stories.

#TBRTuesday

An English legend. Chaucer has his share of problems in life, just like all of us have. This work was the first I read in college. I made a “C.” Wake Forest was hard for me. Nevertheless, I reread it recently. No wonder I made a “C.” Lol.

My last year of high school I had to read the tagged book. I ended up liking the story, but cliff notes were definitely used to get the nuances and help me pass the test (which was like half my grade). I'd like to read it again as I don't remember even what happened despite all that 😂

#requiredreadingredo @ErinSueG @WhiskeyMistress

The #BookishFather of English Literature...Chaucer!

#readingresolutions

A hilarious read if you can wade through the Old English.

#LadyMadonna contains the line (I've always heard as) "Sunday morning creeping like a nun". So here is the Second Nun from The Canterbury Tales ?
#HeyJune

A mixed bag for me. There were some really funny parts, but there were also some tremendously dull parts (e.g., the tales told in prose 😵). I should track down a print copy with commentary and background, now that I have some idea of the story.

Catching up on Serial Reader and eating leftovers from the bridal shower: my signature shrimp dip and some grape punch I bought to mix with the rest of the club soda (which I won't drink neat).

Happy St Patrick's Day!

@catchinglivesbookshop
Excited to announce the launch of Catching Lives Bookshop Instagram! A second-hand bookshop in Canterbury run entirely on donations and good will of volunteers. All profits go to the homeless charity Catching Lives. More than a wonky door!

#bookshop #canterbury #secondhandbookshop

#RiotGrams Day 19: I was hard pressed to think of my #FavoriteSchoolRead - much of what I remember are novels of my own choosing (from Flaubert to Pasternak to Dostoevsky). This one was required reading when I was in high school. I think our class only managed to read the introduction, but not much more 😭😭 - but I was still fascinated by it. If only I had the version on the left to make the reading more accessible, that would have been awesome.

I have a feeling things won't end well for Absalom if he's said to be "a bit squeamish of farting" ?

😂😂💩

November 8: #classicliterature - Bought this book for high school English and still have it! #canterburytales #chaucer #lilbookishthanks

This was a hard one! #MonsterMadness2017

But perhaps The Summoner's foul breath could match Godzilla's atomic breath in a battle for halitosis supremacy?

#Godzilla #itsastretch @LibrarianRyan

I can't hear the song #goldenyears without thinking of the ballroom scene from A Knight's Tale. I love this movie. (Film photos from IMDb). #septembowie

https://vimeo.com/49968062?platform=hootsuite

I quit my job the other day and was given this beautiful parting gift by my colleagues 💕💕

I'm on vacation in Alaska🌦
I was pleasantly surprised to see that the ships library mostly consisted of classics from penguin🐧
Book love always❤👏🏻

This is currently at the top of my #ClassicsTBR, but it's pretty slow going. #JuneBookBugs

Lots of Penguin black spines in my #ClassicsTBR. #junebookbugs