Geoffrey Chaucer has 16 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 36 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 724 ratings. The most-rated is The Unhoneymooners.
The Unhoneymooners
Summary
For two sworn enemies, anything can happen during the Hawaiian trip of a lifetime - even love - in this witty and swoon-worthy romance from the New York Times best-selling duo who “hilariously depict modern dating” (Us Weekly) and authors of Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating and Roomies. Olive is always unlucky: in her career, in love, in...well, everything. Her identical twin sister, Amy, on the other hand, is probably the luckiest person in the world. Her meet-cute with her fiancé is something out of a romantic comedy (gag), and she’s managed to finance her entire wedding by winning a series of internet contests (double gag). Worst of all, she’s forcing Olive to spend the day with her sworn enemy, Ethan, who just happens to be the best man. Olive braces herself to get through 24 hours of wedding hell before she can return to her comfortable, unlucky life. But when the entire wedding party gets food poisoning from eating bad shellfish, the only people who aren’t affected are Olive and Ethan. And now, there’s an all-expenses-paid honeymoon in Hawaii up for grabs. Putting their mutual hatred aside for the sake of a free vacation, Olive and Ethan head for paradise, determined to avoid each other at all costs. But when Olive runs into her future boss, the little white lie she tells him is suddenly at risk to become a whole lot bigger. She and Ethan now have to pretend to be loving newlyweds, and her luck seems worse than ever. But the weird thing is that she doesn’t mind playing pretend. In fact, she feels kind of...lucky. With Christina Lauren’s “uniquely hilarious and touching voice” (Entertainment Weekly), The Unhoneymooners is a fun and charming romance that is perfect for anyone who has ever felt unlucky in love.
©2019 Christina Lauren (P)2019 Simon & Schuster
The Canterbury Tales
Summary
Lively, absorbing, often outrageously funny, Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is a work of genius, an undisputed classic that has held a special appeal for each generation of readers. The Tales gathers 29 of literature's most enduring (and endearing) characters in a vivid group portrait that captures the full spectrum of medieval society, from the exalted Knight to the humble Plowman. This unabridged work is based on the new translation.
©2008 Burton Raffel. All rights reserved. (P)2008 BBC Audiobooks America
![Cover art for The Canterbury Tales [Blackstone]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51hYW6lZBaL._SL500_.jpg)
The Canterbury Tales [Blackstone]
Summary
At the Tabard Inn, 30 travelers of widely varying classes and occupations are gathering to make the annual pilgrimage to Becket's shrine at Canterbury. It is agreed that each traveler will tell four tales to help pass the time and that the host of the inn will judge the tales and reward the best storyteller with a free supper upon their return. Thus we hear, translated into modern English, 20-some tales, told in the voices of knight and merchant, wife and miller, squire and nun, and many more. Some are bawdy, some spiritual, some romantic, some mysterious, some chivalrous. Between the stories, the travelers converse, joke, and argue, revealing much about their individual outlooks on life, as well as what life was like in late 14th-century England.
©2003 Gavin Menzies (P)2008 Blackstone Audio
The General Prologue and The Physician's Tale
Summary
The Canterbury Tales, written near the end of Chaucer's life and hence towards the close of the 14th century, is perhaps the greatest English literary work of the Middle Ages: Yet it speaks to us today with almost undimmed clarity and relevance. How do we know what Chaucer's English sounded like? The simplest way for the present reader to learn what Chaucer's pronunciation sounded like is to listen to Richard Bebb's superb reading of the current recording of The General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales. The knowledge it represents has been built up by the work of many scholars over centuries, which is now available in many competent studies and editions of Chaucer's poems. The Physician's Tale is in origin a primitive folk tale about an "honor killing" that Chaucer found in Livy and elsewhere and enhanced. The wicked judge Apius wishes to abduct and rape the beautiful and virtuous Virginia, aged 14. Her father cannot save her. Rather than be dishonored, she allows him, to his utter grief, to behead her. But the people rise up against the cruel and wicked judge so that he is banished and his subordinates hanged. The rather strange moral drawn is that your sin will always find you out. Presented in Middle English and in modern verse translation.
©2005 Naxos Audiobooks, Ltd. (P)2005 Naxos Audiobooks, Ltd.
The Pardoner's Tale
Summary
Three tales from The Canterbury Tales, read in the original Middle English by Richard Bebb under the direction of Britain's foremost Chaucer scholar, Derek Brewer.
©2007 Naxos Audiobooks, Ltd. (P)2007 Naxos Audiobooks, Ltd.
The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
Summary
Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is one of the most influential pieces of writing in the British literary canon. It helped to establish English, rather than Latin or Norman French, as an acceptable language for literature. It was also one of the earliest pieces of work to have story linking - what had previously been just collected writings which the author deemed interesting. Following the model of such early masterpieces as Boccacio's Decameron, Chaucer collected several styles and types of stories together - political treatises, bawdy pub stories, courtly romances and moral tales - joining them together under the conceit of a group of pilgrims bound for Canterbury, swapping tales, somewhat competitively, in an inn in Southwark, South London. The prologue to the tales is therefore an important piece of literature in its own right. Before The Canterbury Tales and its like, it didn’t really matter in what order you read the works collected in one volume; the first item could just as well be read last. The prologue not only introduces all the characters you are about to meet; it also sets the scene for you, painting a picture of what has become one of the most famous of literary Aprils and linking the forthcoming stories with a series of jousting type attempts by the tellers to top each other and exact revenge for previous insults.
Public Domain (P)2008 Silksoundbooks Limited
The Canterbury Tales: The Lawyer's Tale (Modern Verse Translation)
Summary
This is a story from the Canterbury Tales III: Modern Verse Translation collection. Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, a collection of narratives written between 1387 and 1400, tells of a group of 30 people from all layers of society who pass the time along their pilgrimage to Canterbury by telling stories to one another, their interaction mediated (at times) by the affable host - Chaucer himself. Naxos AudioBooks' third volume presents the tales of six people, here in an unabridged modern verse translation (by Frank Ernest Hill, 1935). This is an ideal way to appreciate the genuinely funny and droll talent of England's early master storyteller. Seven leading British actors bring the medieval world into the 21st century, and at least in terms of character, not much seems to have changed!
Public Domain (P)2004 Naxos AudioBooks
The Miller's Tale
Summary
In his own inimitable style, Terry Jones leads you through Chaucer's filthy and very funny tale of adultery, the feared coming of the second flood and burnt bums. The Canterbury Tales broke the literary mould in many ways. It established English as an acceptable language for literature, where previously it had been almost exclusively Latin or Norman French. It was also one of the first books to create a link between all the pieces of work in a literary collection. Before that an author had merely put together a group of pieces that he considered interesting, in no particular order and with no connecting narrative. Chaucer chose a meeting between pilgrims at the Tabard Inn on the road to Canterbury to provide the linking narrative for his Canterbury Tales. A group of pilgrims swap their tales, with a thoroughly human competitiveness and retaliatory jousting. The choice of pilgrims for his characters allowed Chaucer to put together types that wouldn't usually associate let alone talk. This recording of The Miller's Tale is a translation from the Middle English into modern language by the leading Chaucerian scholar, Terry Jones - yes, the Python one - who adds to his truly scholarly rendition of the text a smattering of highly useful and fascinating notes, recorded as he read. He also, of course, adds a particular dimension all his own to a tale of wicked bawdiness and bare asses.
Public Domain (P)2008 Silksoundbooks Limited
Troilus and Criseyde (Dramatised)
Summary
A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde by poet and writer Lavinia Greenlaw.
One of the great works of English literature, this powerful, compelling story explores love from its first tentative beginnings through to passionate sensuality and eventual tragic disillusionment. Lavinia Greenlaw's new version for radio brings Chaucer's language up-to-date for a modern audience while remaining true to his original poetic intention.
After seeing the beautiful widow Criseyde at the temple in Troy, Troilus falls instantly in love with her. Inexperienced in love, he is unable to act on his feelings and locks himself in his room to compose love songs. Criseyde's Uncle Pandarus becomes the matchmaker for the couple, but what will happen when Criseyde is handed over to the Greeks at the gates of Troy to join her 'traitor' father?
The cast includes Tom Ferguson as Troilus, Maxine Peake as Criseyde and Malcolm Raeburn as Pandarus. Also starring Kathryn Hunt, Kevin Doyle, Terence Mann and Declan Wilson. Directed by Susan Roberts.
Public Domain (P)2010 AudioGO Ltd
The Canterbury Tales
Summary
Chaucer's greatest work, written towards the end of the fourteenth century, paints a brilliant picture of medieval life, society and values. The stories range from the romantic, courtly idealism of "The Knight's Tale" to the joyous bawdy of the Miller's; all are told with a freshness and vigor in this modern verse translation that make them a delight to hear.
(P)1995 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd,; ©1995 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.
The Canterbury Tales
Summary
The classic collection of beloved tales, both sacred and profane, of travelers in medieval England. Complete and unabridged.
Public Domain (P)2020 Gerald J. Davis
The Knight's Tale
Summary
The Knight's Tale of medieval wars and chivalry is the first tale told to the pilgrims as they set out to Canterbury. It concerns Theseus, returning from fighting at Thebes, and two brother knights Palamon and Arcite, imprisoned but yearning for their loves. But the real hero of this recording is Richard Bebb who, with the help of Professor Derek Brewer, the leading expert on Chaucerian pronunciation, make the original Middle English not only comprehensible to the modern ear, but exciting. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2006 Naxos AudioBooks (P)2006 Naxos AudioBooks
The Canterbury Tales
Summary
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
The Canterbury Tales III
Summary
Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, a collection of narratives written between 1387 and 1400, tells of a group of 30 people from all layers of society who pass the time along their pilgrimage to Canterbury by telling stories to one another, their interaction mediated (at times) by the affable host - Chaucer himself. Naxos AudioBooks’ third volume presents the tales of six people, here in an unabridged modern verse translation (by Frank Ernest Hill, 1935). This is an ideal way to appreciate the genuinely funny and droll talent of England’s early master storyteller. Seven leading British actors bring the medieval world into the 21st century, and at least in terms of character, not much seems to have changed! PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
Public Domain (P)2004 Naxos AudioBooks
The Canterbury Tales II
Summary
Four more delightful tales from one of the most entertaining storytellers of all time. Though writing in the thirteenth century, Chaucer’s wit and observation comes down undiminished through the ages, especially in this accessible modern verse translation. The stories vary considerably from the uproarious Wife of Bath’s Tale, promoting the power of women to the sober account of patient Griselda in the Clerk’s Tale.
Public Domain (P)2002 Naxos AudioBooks
The Canterbury Tales: The Franklin's Tale (Modern Verse Translation)
Summary
This is a story from the Canterbury Tales I: Modern Verse Translation collection. Chaucer's greatest work, written towards the end of the fourteenth century, paints a brilliant picture of medieval life, society and values. The stories range from the romantic, courtly idealism of "The Knight's Tale" to the joyous bawdy of the Miller's; all are told with a freshness and vigor in this modern verse translation that make them a delight to hear.
©1995 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd. (P)1995 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.