The Canterbury Tales

Penguin Classics

By: Geoffrey Chaucer, Nevill Coghill (Translation)

Narrated by: Lesley Manville, Daniel Weyman, Derek Jacobi, Seroca Davis, Jay Bernard, Michael Balogun, Roy McMillan

Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by Lesley Manville (winner of the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress and known for Phantom Thread and Mum), Derek Jacobi (winner of the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor and known for Gladiator and Gosford Park), Michael Balogun (known for National Theatre Live: Macbeth), Jay Bernard (writer of Surge, artist, film programmer and activist) , Seroca Davis (known for Prime Suspect and Doctor Who), Daniel Weyman (winner of Audiobook Narrator of the Year at the Audio Production Awards 2016 and known for Gentleman Jack and A Very English Scandal) and Roy McMillan (winner of an Earphone Award for narration on Conclave and award-winning producer). This definitive recording is translated by, and includes an Introduction by Nevill Coghill.

In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer created one of the great touchstones of English literature, a masterly collection of chivalric romances, moral allegories and low farce. A story-telling competition between a group of pilgrims from all walks of life is the occasion for a series of tales that range from the Knight's account of courtly love and the ebullient Wife of Bath's Arthurian legend, to the ribald anecdotes of the Miller and the Cook.

©1951 Nevill Coghill & 2019 Nevill Coghill Ltd (Translation) (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Very jarring voices

The sample gives you one attractive voice, but the subsequent voices include some that are shrill and many that overact in a way that is unpleasant. The narrators change OFTEN, so that the intro of a story is told by a different speaker from the storyteller. Often the gender is mismatched. Really is disturbing. I hope this is re-recorded one day. It’s a great translation.

Not over performed but wonderfully performed

Love this translation and the work. Beautiful language and bawdy content. Loved all the voices and will seek them out. The golden standard in my Audible experience.

Modern language retained rhyme structure.

Voice actor variety was good, though might have been expanded to make each tale's author unique.

Great translation but a pity about the reading.

An excellent rendering into modern English. However, the reading is variable and sometimes so bad that it interferes with one's enjoyment.

Excellent Narration

A well-done audiobook. The cadence of the readers served to enhance the translation (though I’m no expert on Chaucer or the translation of Middle-English to Modern English) and listening experience. I do wish the titles of the tales were given as chapter titles when you select your chapter rather than chapter numbers. Thankfully only one tale, The Knight’s Tale, extends to over multiple chapters (2-3, chapter 3 begins part III of the Knight’s Tale) making this audiobook even helpful when referencing a particular tale and its prologue. Since, each tale’s title is mentioned by the narrator at the start of the chapter, apart from chapter 3, the continuation of the Knight’s Tale, helping to ease the process of locating a particular tale.

This was a great collection of stories and they were very well read!

l loved the beauty of Chaucer's writing and the window into the daily life of his ancient world.

Terrible reading from some of the actors

This is a great translation with some very poor reading iin parts which make it almost impossible to listen to.