It’s been a long time since I’ve even thought about the Canterbury Tales, at least since High School. But this volume is retelling of the ancient tales in a graphic format.
I didn’t know by name Seymour Chwast, but I recognized his work. Strong lines with silly caricature designs. I have seen his work in both commercial art and even some illustrations in children’s books here in the library.
As the book starts after the introduction telling the reader about the characters, we read the Knights Tale. Where two knights were imprisoned and both seeing the daughter of their captor fell in love with her. Of course, there is a battle between the two to determine who the daughter will go to.
At the end of this tale, we meet the pilgrims traveling to Canterbury riding motorcycles while they tell their stories to pass the time. Chaucer is also traveling with them and interjects comments during the stories. All very clever and quite fun to read.
But much like the original tales (as I recall), some of the stories are kind of raunchy while others are quite profound. Some are pretty silly while others are somewhat sad. And there was a funny page where is shows Chaucer’s notes to wives. After being told a handful of tales with different types of wives. Some where the woman is kind and giving. Others where the wife is either mean, angry, jealous or lusty, we get to see all the different ways women are portrayed in the Canterbury Tales.
I certainly wouldn’t give this book to someone as a shortcut for their homework assignment. And I can’t imagine a person who loves superhero book or manga reading this. It’s one of those artistic graphic novels that I wouldn’t think would appeal to normal comic book readers, which is a really tough thing for libraries to have in their collection.
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