The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale (Worldview Critical Editions)

"The aim of this edition of The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale is to make it as easy as possible for the students to read one of Chaucer's liveliest tales in the original language. The authoritative text is presented with normalised spellings and glosses are printed alongside. Explanatory notes appear at the foot of the same page. The Sources and Background section includes the description of the Wife from the General Prologue, and other selected passages from Chaucer's works that are relevant to the themes of The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale. To enable the student to experience at first-hand some medieval attitudes to women and marriage, extracts from Chaucer's chief sources have been translated and included. The student will also find the relevant passages of the Bible conveniently available in this section. Five critical essays by well-known Chaucerian critics offer a range of views, from Christian to feminist, with substantial information about the economic conditions and cultural contexts of the time. The essays are: D. W. Robertson ""Chaucer's Exegetes' Mary Carruthers ""The Wife of Bath and the Painting of Lions' Susan Crane Alison's Incapacity and Poetic Instability in the Wife of Bath's Tale' Peggy Knapp 'Alisoun Looms"" Peter Brown and Andrew Butcher The Wife of Bath's Tale' HARRIET RAGHUNATHAN is an Associate Professor in Department of English Jesus and Mary College, Delhi University."