#48 in Short stories
The Canterbury Tales
- 506
- Pages
- about 9 h
- Reading time
- Film 1972
- On screen
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Our view
“The Canterbury Tales” is a cornerstone of English literature and a remarkably varied collection. Geoffrey Chaucer frames twenty-four tales, most of them in verse, as a contest between pilgrims on their way from London to the shrine of Thomas Becket. Some readers treat it as essential for anyone who cares about English literature, the root of so much that followed. In the original Middle English, the opening lines are a pleasure to read aloud.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Canterbury Tales are an anthology of twenty-four short stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. They are mostly in verse, and are presented as part of a fictional storytelling contest held by a group of pilgrims travelling from London to Canterbury in order to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen once.
- FilmThe Canterbury TalesIMDb
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 6.8 across 59 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 29% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Short stories average of 7.8. That is how 7.5 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 6.5 | 33 | 56% |
| Hardcover | 7.1 | 26 | 44% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Canterbury Tales?
It has 506 pages — longer than 96% of the ranked books in Short stories.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Short stories — with scores between 7.3 and 8.2, closest to this book.
