How to Read The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

📚 Read the Great Books with the Hardcore Literature Book Club: https://www.patreon.com/hardcoreliterature ———————————— 🎙️https://open.spotify.com/show/70IZA248yNVkrjqzDNm6Lt?si=cadcb1c09ea74a51 (Subscribe to the Hardcore Literature Podcast on iTunes & Spotify) ———————————— 📔Contents Page: https://cutt.ly/CmNhRY3 🎖️ War and Peace: https://cutt.ly/U3nzGma 🎭 Shakespeare Project: https://cutt.ly/B3nxHH7 🐳 Moby Dick: https://cutt.ly/K3nzVKf ☄️ Blood Meridian: https://cutt.ly/P3nz6Qp 🍂 Wuthering Heights: https://cutt.ly/N3nxxYt 🇮🇪 Ulysses: https://cutt.ly/x3nxQmN 🚂 Anna Karenina: https://cutt.ly/vmNhAWv 💀 Crime and Punishment: https://cutt.ly/rmNhFt5 ⚓ Persuasion: https://cutt.ly/amNhX7b 🎠 Don Quixote: https://cutt.ly/cmNjoK4 🇫🇷 Les Misérables: https://cutt.ly/J3YixoA ———————————— 0:00 welcome to Chaucer’s England 2:00 how the Canterbury Tales was born 4:00 how to read the Canterbury Tales 5:00 what is the Canterbury Tales? 6:00 Chaucer’s frame narrative 7:00 pilgrimage as metaphor for life 7:30 Tabard Inn to Canterbury Cathedral 8:00 how long would the journey take? 9:00 Harry Bailey’s storytelling contest 10:00 how many tales are in the collection? 11:00 popularity of story compendiums 12:00 prologues of the Canterbury Tales 14:00 how the Canterbury Tales begins 15:00 juxtaposition, sequencing, patterns 16:00 from Knight’s Tale to Miller’s Tale 17:00 themes in the Canterbury Tales 18:00 Chaucer speaks universally 19:00 three estates social hierarchy 21:00 England’s population post-Black Death 22:00 peasantry in medieval England 23:00 social position of Chaucer’s pilgrims 24:00 Chaucer’s civil service career 25:00 how Chaucer becomes a poet 26:00 Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV 27:00 biography of Geoffrey Chaucer 28:00 society seen as unified body 29:00 the Peasants Revolt of 1381 30:00 Chaucer’s estates satire 31:00 Chaucerian characterisation 34:00 dramatic voice or full persona? 35:00 do we recognise the characters? 36:00 what were pilgrimages like? 37:00 Thomas Beckett’s Canterbury tomb 38:00 why did people go on pilgrimages? 40:00 seeking holy relics and pardons 41:00 the big business of pilgrimages 42:00 the character of the Pardoner 43:00 Great Schism in Medieval Europe 44:00 Chaucer on religious hypocrisy 45:00 taking a great vicarious pilgrimage 46:00 befriending one pilgrim as entrance 47:00 how I fell in love with Chaucer 48:00 appreciating the Wife of Bath 51:00 on experience vs authority 53:00 the Wife of Bath’s Prologue 55:00 the Wife’s relationship advice 57:00 Englishmen of Chaucer’s time 59:00 the Wife of Bath’s Tale 1:00:00 is Chaucer really that difficult? 1:02:00 writing before standardisation 1:03:00 understand the Great Vowel Shift 1:04:00 Middle English pronunciation 1:05:00 why did pronunciation change? 1:06:00 the cultural dominance of French 1:07:00 Chaucer’s English was revolutionary 1:08:00 medieval literacy and oral narrative 1:09:00 impact of dialects on readership 1:10:00 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 1:11:00 medieval versification traditions 1:12:00 what does Chaucer’s English sound like? 1:13:00 reading the General Prologue together 1:15:00 ‘what that Aprille with his shoures soote’ 1:17:00 what I think about Chaucer’s English 1:18:00 comparing with the Gawain-poet 1:19:00 reading Old English from Beowulf 1:20:00 making Shakespeare sound easy 1:21:00 practical tips for reading Chaucer 1:24:00 my hands-on reading approach 1:26:00 common Middle English words 1:29:00 Chaucer book club lecture series 1:32:00 your experience with Chaucer?