Showing posts with label David Wright. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Wright. Show all posts

Saturday, January 7, 2017

The Canterbury Tales – Translation by David Wright, c. 1387 ★★★★

Game Suspended on Account of Death

Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is a lot of things; one it is less credited for is being the longest-suspended marquee competition in English literature.

A tavern owner announces a challenge to tell the finest story, “of best sentence and most solas,” as he puts it, whereupon seven-innings-worth of batters step up to the plate.

Generations have been able to judge the results for themselves, but Chaucer himself didn’t live long enough to declare a winner. In limbo, his characters wait.