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The Canterbury Tales
- Narrated by: Seán Barrett, Anita Wright
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Classics
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Summary
Peter Ackroyd's fresh, modern retelling infuses The Canterbury Tales with new and vigorous life. Here are the best stories ever told, reborn for a new generation.
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What listeners say about The Canterbury Tales
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Performance
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- Isabelle
- 09-04-15
Good performance, disappointing translation
The readers here are excellent, and the stories entertaining, but the more unusual choices in the translation prove gimmicky and distracting rather than revealing. The few glimpses into the original that are provided make you wish versification had been kept.
The translator explains his choices (no verse, plenty of f-words) as an attempt to woo the modern reader, but his assumption that a modern reader cannot enjoy verse, and requires innuendoes to be turned into explicit swear-words feels patronising, and doesn't really add anything to the text.
11 people found this helpful
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- Ms. C. T. Bell
- 06-10-13
What a revelation!
Now I know why this has survived so many centuries. The version I was taught at school was entirely devoid of spirit, interest and life - they should be teaching this version instead! The intro was excellent giving a background to the language, Chaucer and life at the time. The sample provided by Audible was the intro - I took a chance that when it got to the tales it would not be incomprehensible and indeed it wasn't - instead the material came to life as never before. You just need to get throught the Knight's tale which was just a boring as could be - but it's worth it to get to the Wife of Bath (which was laugh out loud funny - she's my new hero!) and many of the others.
8 people found this helpful
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- Vanessa Barrett
- 05-12-14
Superb re-telling of a timeless classic
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I have both read and listened to the stories from The Canterbury Tales several times, but I found Peter Ackroyd's version one of the most enjoyable.
What other book might you compare The Canterbury Tales to, and why?
I don't think there's another that comes close! For all our present-day enjoyment of historical novels, the medieval mindset which is expressed in the original can never be captured by the modern author.
Have you listened to any of Seán Barrett and Anita Wright ’s other performances? How does this one compare?
I'm not sure, but I really like the interplay between the male and female story-tellers.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
It is too long for one sitting, but the individual stories make for easy breaks .... even though I always wanted to get on to the next one!
7 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-07-20
Good in parts, though avoid the Knight's Tale!
It's all in there, skip the more wordy tales as they do drag on interminably.
3 people found this helpful
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- Julaybib Ayoub
- 28-06-19
Splendid
Barrett and Wright do a splendid job of performing Ackroyd’s sprightly retelling of Chaucer’s classic.
2 people found this helpful
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- andrew beeston
- 20-03-22
The version for the modern listener
I originally bought the Penguin Classics version (trans Nevill Coghill). Very well read by Lesley Manville and Derek Jacobi. I was not so impressed with the other readers. Unfortunately I found I was constantly listening for the rhyme and did not get the benefit of the story. I got about half way through but it was hard work. So I returned it and got this version (trans Peter Ackroyd) instead. I'm glad I did. The text not being in verse means the translator can select the most appropriate word in modern English rather than the one that rhymes. I think the translation pitches it just right. It is also very well narrated, with suitable voicing to the different characters. I don't often listen to books a second time but I will come back to this one.
1 person found this helpful
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- J Z A
- 15-05-22
Very very dated
Disappointing. The tales are crude and uninformed. Historical sure but no longer fit for purpose.
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- Andy
- 18-10-15
Ye Olde One Track Minde
I haven't read the original and I thought that this looked like and accessible way of plugging a gap in my education - this tomb being purportedly the first of it's kind and written in plain english.... it popped up on a 2 for 1 and being inquisitive I forgot all about curiosity boring the cat and here I was.
It seems to have a main theme of chastity running through it wasn't long before the ooh errs turned into - oh not agains... I kept giving it the benefit of the doubt though eventually I just had to give up on it. I'd say that the narration was nicely paced and timbre of the voice was good.
Unless you really need this for research then give it a miss - the stories have little to entertain and provide little insight into the period... If this is anything to go on then no wonder shakespear became so popular.
1 person found this helpful
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- Henna
- 29-04-16
Classic but not for me
I enjoyed some of the stories but some were long-winded and others just too cruel.