Suddenly, with the onset of September has come the onset of Autumn. This morning there was a distinct chill - by lunch time the sun was really hot and I sat out -but now at half past seven that chill is back with a vengeance.
My book group meeting is on Tuesday this coming week and we have been reading the 'modern' version of Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales'. We are all reading The Prologue and then each choosing one more tale to read. I have read my choices earlier in the month but my brain is such these days that it is not brilliant at keeping information. So on my Tesco order yesterday I bought a new notebook and today I have re-read The Prologue making a list of the pilgrims in the order they follow The Knight and with a little bit of information about each one. I feel much happier about reading about them now.
Now tomorrow I shall re-read The Miller's Tale and make notes. Have you read it? Golly the whole lot is sexy to say the least. I certainly never read it at school but as I went to a single-sex Christ's Hospital Girls' High School in the days when all women teachers had to remain unmarried that could have had something to do with it because there is an awful lot of sex in it and virtually nothing is left to the imagination'.
My son said last night that some scholars think T S Eliot based the way he started 'The Waste Land' on the start of The Prologue. Anyone out there heard that?
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12 comments:
I know about, but have not read the books you've talked about Pat, but re the unmarried women teachers.. I was on the tail-end of the era when employers would terminate women's employment if you married (early 1970's). I worked for a radio station as a copywriter, and I, along with newly-engaged others had to sweat it out until the decision came through from a board meeting. The wheels were turning in our favour at that stage, but we were supposed to accept the decision with a great deal of gratefulness, all before the Womens Liberation Movement.-Pam Aust.
..."and then I left to get married" is not uncommon in older womens life stories.-P.
I have vague memories of The Canterbury Tales from school and being told which ones we could read. I never questioned the teacher. I will have to go and re-read the whole thing now.- Caroline
I had to read Canterbury Tales in college, in ye olde English. There was plenty of sex in it, and quite understandable.
I was surprised that Canterbury Tales was such a bawdy story. I can't remember when I first read it, but I was graduated. Maybe when I was in the Army.
If I remember correctly, The Miller's Tale involves some 'mooning'.
I've just finished one of the best books that I've read in ages, read it in only a couple of days, "The Salt Path" by Raynor Winn. It's the account of the journey of the author and her partner walking the 630 mile South West Coastal Path through Cornwall. I've just ordered the sequel to it.
You could tie in your thoughts on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales with your post of a few days back when you wrote of sex and contemporary Britain. As Tom said at the time, sex is nothing new and nothing has changed. Chaucer wrote his tales over 500 years ago.
Bawdy humour...Chaucer's speciality ! I went to a Convent Girls School...didn't study Chaucer but three of us who were doing Ancient History honours had to read Suetonius...Goodness Chaucer pales in comparison. We were told never to mention the contents to the other girls and never discuss it with each other without the teacher present!
I found the fact that an innkeeper would put up travellers in his own bed - with his own wife - if all the rooms were occupied more shocking than the sex. Imagine going to a Holiday Inn and sleeping in the same bed as the manager.
Yes Derek we read The Salt Path with our Book Group when it was first published - totally inspiring as is the sequel.
Still a long way to go in many countries Pam.
Thanks everyone for your contribution.
Gosh this is a learned group. I feel like the uneducated American and that will only worsen with the local book-banners in political office today. I'm off to buy some Kindle books.
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