The Canterbury Tales: Seventeen Tales and the General Prologue

“This book has been more helpful to the students―both the better ones and the lesser ones―than any other book I have ever used in any of my classes in my more than a quarter century of university teaching.”
―RICHARD L. KIRKWOOD, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire


This Norton Critical Edition includes:

• The medieval masterpiece’s most popular tales, including―new to the Third Edition―The Man of Law’s Prologue and Tale and The Second Nun’s Prologue and Tale.
• Extensive marginal glosses, explanatory footnotes, a preface, and a guide to Chaucer’s language by V. A. Kolve and Glending Olson.
• Sources and analogues arranged by tale.
• Twelve critical essays, seven of them new to the Third Edition.
• A Chronology, a Short Glossary, and a Selected Bibliography.

About the Series

Read by more than 12 million students over fifty-five years, Norton Critical Editions set the standard for apparatus that is right for undergraduate readers. The three-part format―annotated text, contexts, and criticism―helps students to better understand, analyze, and appreciate the literature, while opening a wide range of teaching possibilities for instructors. Whether in print or in digital format, Norton Critical Editions provide all the resources students need.