The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling

By: Peter Ackroyd

Narrated by: Keith Moore, Toby Leonard Moore, Colin McPhillamy, John Curless, John Keating, Graeme Malcolm, Davina Porter, Steven Crossley

Author Peter Ackroyd has won the Somerset Maugham Award, the Whitbread Novel of the Year, and the Guardian Fiction Prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Based on Geoffrey Chaucer’s immortal work, this retelling of The Canterbury Tales follows a party of travelers as they tell stories amongst themselves about love and chivalry, saints and legends, travel and adventure. Through allegory, satire, and humor, the tales help pass the time during their journey.

©2009 Peter Ackroyd (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC

Excellent variety of narration

I was searching for an easier to read version of the Canterbury tales and discovered this true gem! The voice actors really bring each character and their story to life!

So little has changed!

It surprised me how bawdy the stories were- and how easily the various characters teased one another, and how the clergy were seen as corrupt. How little has changed in almost 700 years!

Errrmazing

The voices actors nailed it! I like the variety of the voices for the different stories.

An engaging retelling

I'd searched in vain for a Middle English recitation of the Canterbury Tales. But, on the strength of Peter Ackroyd's wonderful books, I chanced his "retelling" of Chaucer's great work. This is a lively Modern English version of all the prologues and tales, told in the tongues of the various Canterbury pilgrims and their host, with sensitivity, great good humor, and differentiation of character and diction. A real gem, and a wonderful resource for anyone not quite up to reading the Middle English original. But, still, I'd love to hear the Tales in Geoffrey Chaucer's own words.

Modern retelling ruins

A lot of the flavor of Chaucer is lost - or maybe I just prefer it as poetry rather than prose or maybe different readers would help.