English Audio - English Audio Books

In this, Chaucers finest work, the poet tells of meeting at the Tabard Inn with thirty others to make the usual April pilgrimage to Beckets shrine at Canterbury. He describes his companions, who are of widely varying classes and occupations. It is agreed that each traveler will tell four tales during the course of the trip and the host of the inn will reward the best storyteller with a free supper upon their return. Thus we have The Knights Tale, The Merchants Tale, The Millers Tale, and The Wife of Baths Tale, among others. Between the stories, the travelers converse, joke, and argue, revealing much of their individual outlooks on life.

Geoffry Chaucer (1343-1400) was the son of John Chaucer, a London vintner. In 1357 he served with Lionel, afterwards duke of Clarence. In 1359 he was in France with Edward III's invading army, was taken prisoner, and ransomed. He married, perhaps in 1366, Philippa, the daughter of Sir Paon Roet of Hainault and the sister of John of Gaunt's third wife, Katherine Swynford. Philippa died in 1387 and Chaucer enjoyed Gaunt's patronage throughout his life. He held a number of positions at court and in the king's service, and he traveled abroad on numerous occasions on diplomatic missions; as well as missions to France. In 1374 he was appointed controller of customs in the port of London and leased his house over Aldgate. He was knight of the shire for Kent in 1386 and probably lived in Kent for most of the rest of his life. His last official position was deputy forester in the King's Forest at Petherton in Somerset and it is possible that he lived there for some time. He was buried in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey where a monument was erected to him in 1555.

Fred Williams, a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, works in theater, film, TV, and radio in England, Ireland, and America. Besides narrating audiobooks, he is a performer in living-history re-enactments, an archer, and a poet.