Chaucer's Miller's Reeve'S, and Cook's Tales

This volume, the work of a group of Chaucerians from the University of Adelaide, is the latest in the University of Toronto Press's Chaucer Bibliography series, a series which aims to provide annotated bibliographies for all of Chaucer's works. It summarizes twentieth-century commentary on the three fabliaux of Fragment 1 of The Canterbury Tales: the Miller's, the Reeve's, and the Cook's tales. There are separate sections for editions, translations and modernizations, sources and analogues, lexicographical and linguistic studies, for the tales considered as a group and for each tale considered separately. Annotations are arranged chronologically within each section, facilitating a quick grasp of the changing critical attitudes towards these tales, and showing how earlier neglect (resulting from embarrassment at the naughtiness of their subject matter) has given way, in the second half of the twentieth century, to universal admiration for their astonishing artistry.

The general introduction and the separate section introductions comment on and evaluate the varying critical approaches. The detailed index facilitates research on particular characters, themes, or approaches, as well as on the work of individual commentators.

T.L. (Tom) Burton is a Reader in English Language and Literature at the University of Adelaide, where he has taught since 1974. He is the founder of the Chaucer Studio, a non-profit organization recording the works of Chaucer and other medieval writers using reconstructed pronunciation for use as teaching aids. He is also the author of Words, Words, Words, a book based on a series of short talks, broadcast on Adelaide's university radio, discussing the evolution of word meanings and usage.
Rosemary Greentree is based at the University of Adelaide and is completing an annotated bibliography of Middle English songs and lyrics. She has also recorded for the Chaucer Studio.