The Nun’s Priest’s Tale
Seemingly a beast fable about a cock, a hen, and a fox, this tale proves to make fun mostly of human foibles. There are frequent mock-heroic "drops" in tone when we are reminded that we are mostly listening to a book-reading rooster and a tempting fox who is also a reader of texts.
The Pardoner’s Tale
The Pardoner's moving exemplum or sermon story to illustrate that the root of all evil is avarice. The irony is that the Pardoner himself is avaricious, as his long prologue reveals, though he hopes to save other from his own deadly sin.
The Parson's Tale
This is the last tale and Chaucer's Retraction of all of his tales that "sounen unto synne."
The Physician's Tale: Two Readings
One of Chaucer's more troubling tales to a modern audience, this short tale is read by Professor Tom Burton and Kathryn Dineen in two complete versions: one by a male voice; another by a female voice
The Prioress’s Tale:Two Readings
Though this tale is a miracle of the Virgin by genre, many readers may wonder whether by including it in his collection of tales if Chaucer was giving vent to anti-semitism? Is the Prioress revealed as flawed by the tale, or is the Virgin Mary glorified?
The Reeve's Tale
The tale of two Northern lads who, in trying to protect the wheat grown to feed fellow students at their hall in Cambridge University, get entangled with a miller and his family.
The Second Nun’s Tale
The Nun accompanying the Prioress tells this tale of St. Catherine: one of the legends or lives of the saints stories included in Chaucer's selection of most of the genres of narrative available in his day.
The Shipman’s Tale
A tale that may have been meant for the Wife of Bath originally, the Shipman's fabliau satirizes a Parisian merchant who is not paying his wife enough attention, making her an easy target for the merchant's good friend, the monk Don John.
The Squire's Tale
Recorded in Somerset in July 2006 with Tom Burton and Paul Thomas and with Zina Peterson in 2010 in Provo, Utah.
The Summoner’s Tale
The Summoner and the Friar trade tales demeaning the other's profession in the Church. In this tale the friar ends up with an offering just about anyone could give him. But the scholastic dilemma becomes how to share his gift with his brothers?
The Tale of Melibee
One of two prose tales included in the twenty-four extant Canterbury Tales. After having been stopped telling his "drasty" "rime dogerel" Tale of Sir Thopas, Chaucer tells this "litel thyng in prose."
The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale
The Prologue here exceeds the length of the Tale. The Wife is surely one of Chaucer's "types," but she is also a wonderfully complex character at the same time. Has this woman turned the medieval world upsodoun? What is it women want most?