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The Pardoner's Tale

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The Pardoner's Tale

By: Geoffrey Chaucer
Narrated by: Richard Bebb
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About this listen

Three tales from The Canterbury Tales, read in the original Middle English by Richard Bebb under the direction of Britain's foremost Chaucer scholar, Derek Brewer.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2007 Naxos Audiobooks, Ltd. (P)2007 Naxos Audiobooks, Ltd. Ancient, Classical & Medieval Literature Collections European World Literature

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Editor reviews

"The Pardoner’s Tale" is surely among the more scathing and ironic entries from Geoffrey Chaucer’s eponymous Canterbury Tales. Here, the medieval bard takes on moral and spiritual hypocrisy. Performer Richard Bebb is stunning, his mellifluous Middle English brogue betraying wry warmth and playful humor as he relates this tale of religious hucksterism. To be sure, Chaucer’s language is unlikely to be readily comprehended by the casual listener: indeed, part of Bebb’s appeal lies in his ability to extract emotions and atmospherics from the melodious, if archaic, verse.
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Suggest you listen with the original and translated text from Chaucer.fas.harvard.edu. Excellent reader means that you can follow much of it anyway

Fantastic narrator

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Would you consider the audio edition of The Pardoner's Tale to be better than the print version?

I find astonishing that many poor reviews that I've read on various classic works of literature are due to stupidity on the buyers part. In this example it states clearly, on the description, that this is in Middle English and the sample is also in Middle English. Duh! However the second half is in Modern English. So a poor review in that regard is wholly unfair and should be removed. The writer of the review should also be fined for being a trolling dumbass.

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