A knight, a miller, a prioress, a wife with five husbands behind her and a pardoner selling fake relics — Geoffrey Chaucer gathers them all on the road to Canterbury Cathedral and lets each one tell a tale to pass the time. Written in the late 14th century, this landmark of English literature swings from bawdy comedy to courtly romance to biting satire of church and class, capturing an entire society — noble and common, pious and corrupt — in a single unforgettable journey. Six centuries later, The Canterbury Tales remains the founding masterpiece of English storytelling.
