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A review by whimsicallymeghan
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Tyrwhitt
2.0
I think this is my most daunting classic read yet. I knew going in, it wasn’t going to be easy… but I guess I thought it’d be easier than the time I’m having. I’ve read 3 tales out of the 25 so far. I feel like this book is going to cause me to hate reading. Picking it up is not fun, but I also want to give it a chance since I know it’s something I have to get used to. I’m starting to find a bit of a flow… but I’m still paying too much attention to the individual words and not to the actual story being told so I’m always confused. Like I say, I’m hoping this changes with more exposure, but we shall see.
I’m now 6 tales in and well, it’s still an uphill battle. I will admit that reading the words has gotten slightly easier, but understanding that there is an actual story being told is still a struggle for me. I’m not ready to give up yet… even though it’s really tempting. I’m going to push through to see if I can actually start to understand it. Like the story I finished reading today, I think it’s about a daughter who is reunited with her father. Okay, after a quick Google search I realized I understood the end of the story, because the daughter of a Christian Emperor does come back after she married a Syrian sultan who’s evil mother has all the Christian’s killed and the daughter managed to survive. I’m proud I got the ending, that’s progress!
I’m a little behind on my updates on the Canterbury Tales, but I am still reading it. In the last few weeks, I think I’ve finally found a rhythm and it’s easier to read the words… getting the actual stories is still a struggle, but I’m finding I am retaining more than when I first started, so progress. I’m now 10 tales in and still a little shy from the halfway mark, but I have more faith in myself about completing this book now. The tales have been interesting, not exactly my cup of tea (even though I still have to look up what I read - which I find helpful because I’ll read something on Google and go, oh yes this makes sense to what I read, so comprehension is working 😂), but the tales are sorta strange in a very Middle English kinda way I guess you could say.
I’m officially past the halfway mark and that makes me happy! I’m also not hating this as much as I did when I first started. I’m now 17 tales in, I have 7 more to go, which boggles my brain how I got here, but I can say with confidence I’m going to finish this. Like I said in my last update, I’ve definitely found a rhythm to reading this and it’s not as daunting as when I started. I’m starting to be able to really read the stories, my comprehension of them is still iffy, but I think that’s how it’s going to be with this until the end. Some of the stories I like more than others (some I understand more, too), but I’m curious what happens, if anything once the last tale is told.
This is going to be a brief update this week since I haven’t made much progress.The reason for that is I’ve hit a tale that was told in prose, rather than in the poetry/stanza format the rest of the tales are told in and it was a bit of a doozy - it took me 4 days to read. And even after googling the synopsis I went, I missed a lot. The one thing I did agree on, was that it was a long debate. The debate was apparently on what Melibee and his wife should do after thieves break into their house and beat their daughter to death. It’s rather tragic, but I never read it as such, probably because I didn’t catch that part… too much debating. 😅 I’m now 19 tales in, with 6 more to go, I’m hoping next week will bring further progress.
I’m so close to the end, with one last tale left, I hope to have one more update after this… we shall see as it’s a long tale. But before that, this week I managed to get through 5 tales, that’s pretty impressive (yes I’m proud of myself! 😂) I finally read the Nun’s Priest Tale, one I think is probably the most popular, although I personally don’t get why. I found that one harder to grasp. When I looked up why it’s so popular Google said it was for its literary style and maybe that’s why I struggled with it. The tale I read today, the Manciple’s Tale was very metaphorical, which had me looking up what I read. Like I understood the words, but having to realize the cat and bird symbolized more was hard to grasp in Middle English. Here’s to one last tale!
The day is finally here! I have made it through the entirety of the Canterbury Tales! I will be honest, I didn’t think I’d make it; there were moments I wanted to give up because it was such a struggle, but I’m glad I made it through. That to say though, I don’t think I can rate this higher than a 2 star because as much as my reading comprehension got better, it didn’t get to the point where I understood the stories or the overall arc of their travels to Canterbury. I like that I read it in its original Middle English, but if a modern day retelling existed (or exists) I’d be interested in reading that to fully grasp what I missed here. Because I felt like I was constantly looking things up, it made the content drag and just feel ok to me, especially this last tale that I read The Parson’s Tale. That was a long tale where it just talked about The Seven Deadly Sins in great detail and the dos and donts of living a good life for your soul; it came off preachy, although I will give it the benefit of being written in the 1400s, so it was definitely a lot more accepting and renowned then. I will admit some of it was interesting, but most of it was just kind of whatever to me. In the end, I’m glad I read this, but I don’t see myself ever rereading it again. One experience was good enough.
I’m now 6 tales in and well, it’s still an uphill battle. I will admit that reading the words has gotten slightly easier, but understanding that there is an actual story being told is still a struggle for me. I’m not ready to give up yet… even though it’s really tempting. I’m going to push through to see if I can actually start to understand it. Like the story I finished reading today, I think it’s about a daughter who is reunited with her father. Okay, after a quick Google search I realized I understood the end of the story, because the daughter of a Christian Emperor does come back after she married a Syrian sultan who’s evil mother has all the Christian’s killed and the daughter managed to survive. I’m proud I got the ending, that’s progress!
I’m a little behind on my updates on the Canterbury Tales, but I am still reading it. In the last few weeks, I think I’ve finally found a rhythm and it’s easier to read the words… getting the actual stories is still a struggle, but I’m finding I am retaining more than when I first started, so progress. I’m now 10 tales in and still a little shy from the halfway mark, but I have more faith in myself about completing this book now. The tales have been interesting, not exactly my cup of tea (even though I still have to look up what I read - which I find helpful because I’ll read something on Google and go, oh yes this makes sense to what I read, so comprehension is working 😂), but the tales are sorta strange in a very Middle English kinda way I guess you could say.
I’m officially past the halfway mark and that makes me happy! I’m also not hating this as much as I did when I first started. I’m now 17 tales in, I have 7 more to go, which boggles my brain how I got here, but I can say with confidence I’m going to finish this. Like I said in my last update, I’ve definitely found a rhythm to reading this and it’s not as daunting as when I started. I’m starting to be able to really read the stories, my comprehension of them is still iffy, but I think that’s how it’s going to be with this until the end. Some of the stories I like more than others (some I understand more, too), but I’m curious what happens, if anything once the last tale is told.
This is going to be a brief update this week since I haven’t made much progress.The reason for that is I’ve hit a tale that was told in prose, rather than in the poetry/stanza format the rest of the tales are told in and it was a bit of a doozy - it took me 4 days to read. And even after googling the synopsis I went, I missed a lot. The one thing I did agree on, was that it was a long debate. The debate was apparently on what Melibee and his wife should do after thieves break into their house and beat their daughter to death. It’s rather tragic, but I never read it as such, probably because I didn’t catch that part… too much debating. 😅 I’m now 19 tales in, with 6 more to go, I’m hoping next week will bring further progress.
I’m so close to the end, with one last tale left, I hope to have one more update after this… we shall see as it’s a long tale. But before that, this week I managed to get through 5 tales, that’s pretty impressive (yes I’m proud of myself! 😂) I finally read the Nun’s Priest Tale, one I think is probably the most popular, although I personally don’t get why. I found that one harder to grasp. When I looked up why it’s so popular Google said it was for its literary style and maybe that’s why I struggled with it. The tale I read today, the Manciple’s Tale was very metaphorical, which had me looking up what I read. Like I understood the words, but having to realize the cat and bird symbolized more was hard to grasp in Middle English. Here’s to one last tale!
The day is finally here! I have made it through the entirety of the Canterbury Tales! I will be honest, I didn’t think I’d make it; there were moments I wanted to give up because it was such a struggle, but I’m glad I made it through. That to say though, I don’t think I can rate this higher than a 2 star because as much as my reading comprehension got better, it didn’t get to the point where I understood the stories or the overall arc of their travels to Canterbury. I like that I read it in its original Middle English, but if a modern day retelling existed (or exists) I’d be interested in reading that to fully grasp what I missed here. Because I felt like I was constantly looking things up, it made the content drag and just feel ok to me, especially this last tale that I read The Parson’s Tale. That was a long tale where it just talked about The Seven Deadly Sins in great detail and the dos and donts of living a good life for your soul; it came off preachy, although I will give it the benefit of being written in the 1400s, so it was definitely a lot more accepting and renowned then. I will admit some of it was interesting, but most of it was just kind of whatever to me. In the end, I’m glad I read this, but I don’t see myself ever rereading it again. One experience was good enough.