Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales

"too poetic."


"I couldn't finish this. Perhaps it's the translation. Perhaps they didn't translate it enough."


"Terrible. I wouldnt recommend this to anyone. I didnt even finish it. Maybe its because I dont appreciate the poetic side to it or the way its written. Whatever it is, I thought it was a terrible book."


"I realize the time period this was written in, and maybe I'm just too modern of a woman to enjoy this kind of thing, but this was one of the most sexist, elitist, and culturally discriminatory works I've ever read."


"I have so many things to do in my life I just don't want to take the time to read something that isn't appropriate."


"I don't easily understand poetry and traditional prose, so this was very hard to understand for me. I'm very sarcastic and can be quite cynical at times, so if this hadn't been so much work for me to read, I may have enjoyed it more."


"Ugh. This was one of those "Let's read this in Olde English-Middle English!!!!" college reads. That I didn't actually read the whole thing of. It's a metastory in poem form. I just didn't like the stories and I really hated the Olde English (it's seriously like another language). Good thing for 1066. (lol)"


"Gawd. I don't like the language (Old English), and I don't like the style (verse, poetry). I read for pleasure, and reading this is about as much fun as wiping your butt with a Brillo pad."


"Many people can be divided into camps of either liking Chaucer or Milton."


"Very slow moving, reminds me of Aesop's type fable reading."


"Just leave me alone. Yes, I don't understand you and I really don't like you, so what? Am I going to burn on a stick, while Goodreads crowd is going to scream, 'You witch, burn, you witch! You deserve no better!'"


"Chaucer makes you remember that the England of his day had a much smaller population than nowadays, along with a proportionally small amount of persons with an IQ of 100 or above. That's the only way I can see how this book gained its reputation as a classic."


"I hate the freaking Canterbury Tales! I don't care if it is a classic. I don't care if it's older than snot -- I still hate it. Sure, it's cool that it survived and whatever. But I'm not impressed."


"im not a fan of literature for literature's sake. i hated this book with a passion"


"The stories, set as they are in the 14th century, are barely contemporary"


"To me, this is a book that introduces one to the flavor of a certain time and place--Medieval England-- and much like tasting that flavor of time."


"This is another classic that contains sex, violence and language to rival any controversial book of today. And yet, this is required reading in advanced placement English in high school."


"It was fun to read about the tales that were told and retold during that Elizabethan time period."


"Just not what someone raised on modern storytelling can enjoy. At least, not this someone."


"If you like the television series 'The Simpsons,' you will probably like Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. They reflect the same vulgar approach to entertainment which, instead of making us rise above the gutter of everyday life, brings us to the lowest level of crudity. There are some redeeming tales however, such as the Knight's Tale, but as a whole, this book should be avoided by anyone with a sense of honour and decency."


"Garbage
The Canterbury Tales are nothing more than dirty stories in the disguise of eloquent, archaic language. Why this is considered a classic is beyond me. The stories are low class and equivalent to crude comedy. Chaucer was merely a peddler of trash to the British public."


"Some consider this a bawdy, racy, funny book, but seriously modern Saturday morning cartoons are racier than this. I can imagine people hundreds of years ago talking about this "dirty" book on the sly and passing it around, but today it really doesn't measure up with other more enjoyable works."