The Prioress’s Tale, The Tale of Sir Thopas

This volume was edited by Lilian Winstanley and originally published in 1922. It presents the full texts of ‘The Prioress’s Tale’ and ‘The Tale of Sir Thopas’, accompanied by thorough, comprehensive notes. Winstanley further enhances the reading experience through extensive introductory chapters, focusing on Chaucer’s life and the historical, social and literary contexts of his writing. She addresses common themes within The Canterbury Tales as well as providing a useful guide to pronunciation, grammar and metre within Chaucer. Furthermore, this book contains sound critical readings of both texts, discussing the historical relevance and religious connotations of ‘The Prioress’s Tale’, and the form, satire and intertextuality of ‘The Tale of Sir Thopas’. These tales, of a child martyr and a child knight respectively, will be enjoyed not simply because of their literary merit, but through the pains of the editor to produce a text that is both informative and accessible.