Chaucer's Tale: 1386 & the Road to Canterbury by Paul Strohm
I have this tendency, usually at the beginning of the year, to go through a period where I just am not in the reading mood. It's usually with a book that I'm not entirely jazzed to be reading, and unfortunately this was the book that waylaid me this time. It's not that it's not interesting, although I can't imagine it being on too many people's to-be-read lists.
This book is about the circumstances Geoffrey Chaucer found himself in leading up to his writing The Canterbury Tales. You learn quite a lot about medieval London - the political machinations of not just those in the royal court, but those with pretensions to power; the ins and outs of everyday life, etc. - and it is very interesting. One thing that I didn't realize was that in this time, reading silently to oneself was considered a bit odd. I know I've seen movies where people sit around the fireside reading to the family, but I never would have imagined that to be the standard. Chaucer was writing right at the time when this shift was happening and people were beginning to consider themselves authors and take credit for their works, and though he was before the time when manuscript circulation would become popular, he anticipated it, and that is particularly genius.
However (there always seems to be a "however") this period in Chaucer's life is relatively small, although some major events do occur. To pack a 255 page book with what's going on in his life at this time requires kind of a lot of repetition. It's not so distracting that it makes it unpleasant to read, but I did find myself saying, "Didn't I just read that in the last chapter?" rather too frequently. It will be a rare person who grabs this book and relishes every page, but I know they are out there somewhere.
This book is about the circumstances Geoffrey Chaucer found himself in leading up to his writing The Canterbury Tales. You learn quite a lot about medieval London - the political machinations of not just those in the royal court, but those with pretensions to power; the ins and outs of everyday life, etc. - and it is very interesting. One thing that I didn't realize was that in this time, reading silently to oneself was considered a bit odd. I know I've seen movies where people sit around the fireside reading to the family, but I never would have imagined that to be the standard. Chaucer was writing right at the time when this shift was happening and people were beginning to consider themselves authors and take credit for their works, and though he was before the time when manuscript circulation would become popular, he anticipated it, and that is particularly genius.
However (there always seems to be a "however") this period in Chaucer's life is relatively small, although some major events do occur. To pack a 255 page book with what's going on in his life at this time requires kind of a lot of repetition. It's not so distracting that it makes it unpleasant to read, but I did find myself saying, "Didn't I just read that in the last chapter?" rather too frequently. It will be a rare person who grabs this book and relishes every page, but I know they are out there somewhere.
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