{"product_id":"the-idea-of-the-canterbury-tales-9780520359291","title":"The Idea of the Canterbury Tales","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cblockquote\u003eDonald R. Howard's The Idea of the Canterbury Tales reimagines Chaucer's masterpiece as a deliberate whole, exploring its artistry and coherence through intellectual history, medieval aesthetics, and close readings. He argues that the Tales is an anatomy of human experience, interweaving irony, morality, memory, and form, and situates it within Chaucer's cultural milieu while insisting on its originality and lasting vitality. By treating the poems idea as something shared across time rather than locked in the author's intentions, Howard offers a compelling account of its artistry and coherence. \u003c\/blockquote\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat\u003c\/strong\u003e: Hardback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLength\u003c\/strong\u003e: 420 pages\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublication date\u003c\/strong\u003e: 13 May 2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher\u003c\/strong\u003e: University of California Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e The Idea of the Canterbury Tales , by Donald R. Howard, offers a fresh perspective on Geoffrey Chaucers masterpiece, challenging the traditional view of it as an unfinished fragment of medieval literature. Instead, Howard presents it as a carefully crafted and complete work, exploring its intricate anatomy of human experience. Through a blend of intellectual history, medieval aesthetics, and close readings of the tales and their framing devices, Howard situates the Tales within Chaucers cultural milieu while emphasizing its originality and enduring relevance. By treating the poems idea as something shared across time rather than solely confined to the author's intentions, Howard provides a compelling account of its artistry and coherence. The book delves into how Chaucers comedy of pilgrims on the road to Canterbury transformed into a book about the world itself, examining the role of its digressions, multiple voices, and unfinished design in the fabric of everyday life. It also explores why readers across centuries continue to find in it both laughter and profound moral inquiry. The Idea of the Canterbury Tales is a bold reinterpretation of Chaucers achievement and a meditation on the experience of reading medieval literature in the modern age. It reminds us that Chaucer wrote for his contemporaries and for us, crafting a vision of literature as a shared act of memory and imagination. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates the University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible to a wide audience.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWeight\u003c\/strong\u003e: 635g\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDimension\u003c\/strong\u003e: 210 x 140 x 28 (mm)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN-13\u003c\/strong\u003e: 9780520359291\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Donald R. Howard","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":46697996779770,"sku":"9780520359291","price":64.74,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0522\/4297\/2845\/files\/1727444499259_book.jpg?v=1727547813","url":"https:\/\/shulphink.com\/products\/the-idea-of-the-canterbury-tales-9780520359291","provider":"Shulph Ink","version":"1.0","type":"link"}