| V-Chip.Org | Audio Books Home | Fiction Audio Books | Action & Adventure | Classics | Comedy | Detective | Erotica | Foreign Language | General | Historical |

| Horror & Suspense | Religious | Romance | Sci-Fi & Fantasy | Short Stories | Thriller | War & Military | Western |

Download Audio Books from our partner company Talking Bookstore

Google


WWW v-chip

 

Canterbury Tales - Volume II, The
Play Windows Media Sample  Play Real Sample

Canterbury Tales - Volume II, The

Written By : Geoffrey Chaucer
Narrated By : Full Cast Production
Published By : NAXOS
Runtime : 3 hours 30 minutes
Categories : Poetry
Classic Literature
Dramatizations
Classics
Short Stories
Download Price : $14.99
Purchase...

The Wife of Bath's Tale
The Clerk's Tale
The Reeve's Tale
The Nun's Priest's Tale

Four more delightful tales from one of the most entertaining storytellers of all time. Though writing in the 14th century, Chaucer's wit and observation comes down undiminished through the ages, especially in this accessible modern verse translation. The stories vary considerably: the uproarious Wife of Bath's Tale, promoting the power of women; the sober account of patient Griselda in the Clerk's Tale; the ribald Reeve's Tale and the diverting tale of Chanticleer told by the Nun's Priest.

The group continues its pilgrimage to Canterbury, talking with each other, their interaction mediated (sometimes) by the affable Host - Chaucer himself.

The Canterbury Tales, written near the end of Chaucer's life and hence towards the close of the fourteenth century, Is perhaps the greatest English literary work of the Middle Ages: yet it speaks to us today with almost undimmed clarity and relevance.

Chaucer imagines a group of twenty-nine pilgrims who meet in the Tabard Inn in Southwark, intent on making the traditional journey to the martyr's shrine of St Thomas a Becket in Canterbury. Harry Bailly landlord of the Tabard, proposes that the company should entertain themselves on the road with a storytelling competition. The teller of the best tale will be rewarded with a supper at the others' expense when the travellers return to London. Chaucer never completed this elaborate scheme - each pilgrim was supposed to tell four tales, but in fact we only have twenty-four altogether - yet, with the pieces of linking narrative and the prologues to each tale, the work as a whole constitutes a marvellously varied evocation of the medieval world which also goes beyond its period to penetrate (humorously, gravely tolerantly) human nature itself.

Chaucer, as a member of this company of pilgrims, presents himself with mock innocence as the admiring observer of his fellows, depicted in the General Prologue. Many of these are clearly rogues - the coarse, cheating Miller, the repulsive yet compelling Pardoner - yet in each of them Chaucer finds something human, often a sheer vitality or love of life which is irresistible: the Monk may prefer hunting to prayer, but he is after all a manly man, to be an abbot able. Perhaps only the unassuming, devoted Parson and his humbly labouring brother the Ploughman rise entirely above Chaucer's teasing irony; certainly the Parson's fellow clergy and religious officers belong to a Church riddled with gross corruption. Everyone, it seems, is on the make, in a world still recovering from the ravages of the Black Death.

Other titles you may be interested in

Fugitive, The

Fugitive, The

Written By : Marcel Proust
Narrated By : Neville Jason
Published By : NAXOS
Runtime : 4 hours
Categories : Classics
Download Price : $14.99
Albertine has finally made her escape from Marcel's Paris apartment, where his obsessive jealousy had turned her into a virtual prisoner. Not only is Marcel quite unprepared for the effect on him... See full description...
Beowulf

Beowulf

Written By : Author unknown
Narrated By : Robertson Dean
Published By : Blackstone Audio Inc
Runtime : 2 hours
Categories : Classics
Download Price : $17.95 $9.95
Beowulf is considered the finest heroic poem in Old English. It celebrates the character and exploits of Beowulf, a young nobleman and warrior who proves his superhuman strength and endurance in hi... See full description...
Tale of Two Cities, A

Tale of Two Cities, A

Written By : Charles Dickens
Narrated By : Frederick Davidson
Published By : Blackstone Audio Inc
Runtime : 15 hours
Categories : Classics
Download Price : $39.95 $29.95
This captivating tale, set in London and Paris at the time of the French Revolution, uses the contrasts between the cities' "beliefs" to reveal the central choice confronting all of society: should... See full description...
Pickwick Papers, The

Pickwick Papers, The

Written By : Charles Dickens
Narrated By : Anton Lesser
Published By : NAXOS
Runtime : 4 hours 45 minutes
Categories : Classics
Download Price : $18.25
The Pickwick Papers, Dickens' first novel, is a glorious romp through the pre-Reform Bill England of 1827. Travelling by stage-coach, the innocent but well-intentioned Pickwick and his equally... See full description...
Have you always loved reading but sometimes find it hard to find the time? Theres nothing quite like curling up with a good book but many of us cannot do that as much as we would llike. We sacrifice this special time because we have so many other things to do each day. It is a common problem and it is the reason why people on average are not reading as much as they once did. Audio books bring the story to life just as the storytellers of the past did. They allow you to experience the book in a whole new way; in the way the writer felt and heard it in their head. You can feel the emotion when you allow audio books to let the story come to life.