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(see revs) This study of the manuscripts of the Canterbury Talescalls into question previous efforts to explain the complexities, the different orderings of the tales and the extraordinary shifts in textual affiliations within the manuscripts. Owen sees the manuscripts that survive, most of them collections of all or almost all the tales, as derived from the large number of single tales and small collections that circulated after Chaucers death. This theory takes issue with all modern editions of the Canterbury Tales, which in Owens view reflect the effort of medieval scribes and supervisors to make a satisfactory book of the collection of fragments Chaucer left behind. It is this collection of fragments, the authentic Tales of Canterbury by Geoffrey Chaucer, which reflects the different stages of the plan that was still evolving at his death. CHARLES A. OWEN Jr is former Professor of English and Chairman of Medieval Studies at the University of Conneticut.
List of contents
The six earliest manuscripts; the "a" manuscripts; the four manuscripts certainly written before 1440; the "d" family of manuscripts; eight additional manuscripts; the decade of the fiftiess; the decade of the sixtiess; after 1470; single tales and small groups.
