The Challenging Book Club: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (Session 2/3)

Join us for our challenging book club to discuss the second section of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Jeremy recommends the Penguin translation by Nevill Coghill. We are reading it in three sections of around 160 pages each. Some of us are using two translations to read side-by-side, I'm just using the Coghill translation. You can go as deep or as lightly as you'd like!

In this meeting, we will be discussing the following tales:

The Prioress
Sir Topaz
Melibee
The Monk *
The Nun's Priest *
The Physician
The Pardoner *
The Wife of Bath *
The Friar *
The Summoner *

If you are not able to read all of this, please focus your efforts on the asterisked ones*.

Please feel free to link to any useful sites below in the comments. E.g. I am including a link to an Apple playlist of medieval music, curated by Jeremy. Gone Medieval has a number of podcasts about topics directly and indirectly connected to this text.

Meet at the Folk House Cafe, Park St, at midday on May 23 2026.

The Folk House Cafe offers a good selection of food: salads, soups, and their lush cheese toasties, as well as tea, coffee etc. Please at least buy a drink to support the venue. I will be having lunch here as it's yummy and budget friendly.

Finally, we are planning a pilgrimage of sorts: an accessible walk, plus some tales (if anyone would like to volunteer to tell a tale), bookended with a spiritual/religious place and a pub. All ideas welcome! Date likely to be mid July but tbc.