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The Canterbury Tales
Peter Ackroyd’s prose re-telling of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales makes the Middle English classic accessible to a new generation of readers. Using expletives and avoiding euphemisms, the tales are presented in all the glorious splendor, colour and grime of their originals. From the exuberant Wife of Bath`s Arthurian legend to the Miller`s worldly, ribald farce, the Canterbury Tales tales can be taken as a mirror of fourteenth-century London and incorporate every style of medieval narrative – bawdy anecdote, allegorical fable and courtly romance, all of which encompass a blend of universal human themes. Ackroyd has also written a historical introduction to Chaucer and the Tales which sheds light on why he felt inspired to ‘translate” them for a modern day audience.