PENGUIN CLASSICS : THE CANTERBURY TALES: THE FIRST FRAGMENT PB B FORMAT – GEOFFREY CHAUCER-MICHAEL ALEXANDER-MICHAEL ALEXANDER

The most complete of all remaining surviving fragments sections of The Canterbury Tales, the First Fragment contains some of Chaucer s most widely enjoyed work. In The General Prologue, Chaucer introduces his pilgrims through a set of speaking portraits, drawn with a clarity that makes no attempt to conceal their peculiarities. The four tales that follow – those of the Knight, Miller, Reeve and Cook – reveal a wide variety of human preoccupations: whether chivalrous, romantic or simply sexual. Brilliantly bawdy and subtly complex, each of these tales is alive with Chaucer s skills as a poet, storyteller and creator of comedy.