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Canterbury Tales

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Canterbury Tales


Publisher Location: London
Publisher Name: John Murray
Publication Date: 1946
Additional Information:
Tayler's illustrations for this edition of the tales are black-and-white images, each very square in their construction.  Tayler provides ten images, portraying both particular pilgrims and memorable moments in the tales; for example, she provides a rendering of Chaucer himself, sitting at a writing desk, at the start of the work, along with a portrait of the Wife of Bath and the scene from the Pardoner's Tale in which the three men drink poisoned wine.  These images tend to be blocky, and several (such as the one of Chanticleer and the Fox) are enclosed within a solid black border.  Their style imitates that of woodcuts, and they make extensive use of shadow.

For many of the tales, Hitchins includes only "descriptive notes" that describe the events of the tale; this retelling includes only the Prologue, the Reeve's Tale, the Shipman's Tale, the Prioress's Tale, the Nun's Priest's Tale, the Pardoner's Tale, the Wife of Bath's Prologue, the Friar's Tale, the Canon Yeoman's Tale, the Manciple's Tale, and Chaucer's retraction in full translation.  It also includes several of the links, such as the one leading to the Pardoner's Tale.