Book Review: 8 Canterbury Tales

8 Canterbury Tales by Albert Seligman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve made a few attempts over the years to read the Canterbury Tales since they are considered Chaucer’s crowning achievement. But I never made it very far. I must admit that the flowery language, while frothy and fun to pronounce, made it difficult for me to comprehend the story. Here’s an example from “The Knight’s Tale of Emily’s Lovers”.

WHILOM, as olde stories tellen us
There was a duke that highte Theseus.
Of Athens he was lord and governor,
And in his time such a conqueror
That greater was there none under the sun.
Full many a riche country had he won.
What with his wisdom and his chivalry,
He conquer’d all the regne of Feminie,
That whilom was y-cleped Scythia;
And weddede the Queen Hippolyta
And brought her home with him to his country
With muchel glory and great solemnity,
And eke her younge sister Emily,
And thus with vict’ry and with melody
Let I this worthy Duke to Athens ride,
And all his host, in armes him beside.

It’s all just too much for me. Until 8 Canterbury Tales, I didn’t know of John Erskine’s 1942 paraphrased stories. He took the time to use contemporary (for 1942) wording and make sense of the tales for modern minds. For example, that same bit of “The Knight’s Tale of Emily’s Lovers” looks like this:

Theseus, ruler of Athens, made war on the Amazons and carried off their Queen, Hippolita, if you remember your history. Once captured she gave up cheerfully and gave up war for matrimony, bringing to Athens her sister Emily, to have someone to talk to when Theseus might be busy.

Ahhh. I can wrap my brain around that. I enjoyed learning what the selected eight Canterbury Tales were all about, and had a few smiles at Erskine’s occasionally snarky judgement of the strange, eccentric characters.

All that’s left to make the experience complete are some glorious illustrations to go along with the stories. In 1942, The American Weekly magazine printed these eight Canterbury Tales as paraphrased by John Erskine, along with illustrations by Edmund Dulac, who was adept at portraying characters from classic and biblical fantastical stories.

Now here we are in 2025. Editor Albert Seligman, an avid collector and preserver of Dulac’s work, has pulled together a beautiful volume that includes those eight Canterbury tales as told by John Erskine, paired up with Edmund Dulac’s illustrations. Seligman also includes biographies of both men and a history of The American Weekly to turn this book into a well-rounded education that will help you appreciate Erskine, Dulac, and of course, Chaucer.

After decades of avoiding Chaucer, I found myself enjoying his outrageous stories (they really are rather crazy!) for the first time in my life. Perhaps this is the book you need to get over that hurdle, too.

The book will soon become available at Amazon.