Kathleen Forni

This is somewhat intersting book that tries to bridge academia and popular culture. The first chapter requires an intellectual engagement that I was unable to obtain. But as I read through it I could relate to what the auhtor is trying to do. She is trying to bring into sharper focus the use of Chaucer and the Cantergury Pilgrimage in modern books, movies, and television presentations.

There was not enough statistical analysis to determine whether various books using Chaucer's chaacter or themes have had enough distribution to make any difference in the public consciousness.
Although publishers records are notoriously hard to come by, there is the record in Librarything itself. I looked up a few books she mentions in LT to see the ownership of various booked owned by those who catalog in LT and each book's potential relative readership, and this is what I came up with several months ago.

"Death is a Pilgrim", by Gertrude and Joseph Clancy is owned by no one. Paul Doherty's 6-part Canterbury Tales Murders is owned by 85, 81, 77, 70, 70, & 53 respectively. Berle Doherty's (alias) continuation is owned by only 18. Mary Devlin's "Murder on the Canterbury PIlgrimage" is ownde by 4. Duane Crowley's "Riddle Me a Murder" is owned by 3. Philippa Morgan's 3 books are owned by 17, 32, & 17 (Chaucer and the Legend of Good Women, & the House of Fame, & the Doctor of Physic). Garry O'Connor's book , Chaucer's Triumph, is owned by 7. But Peter Ackroyd's "Clerkenwell Tales" is owned by 586, and Terry Jones' "Who Murdered Chaucer, a medieval mystery" is owned by 325.

Regarding the African Diaspora, two seem relatively obscure: Marilyn Nelson, the "Cachoeira Tales" (3) and Kibg-Arbisala's "Kicking Tongues" (11). But Gloria Naylor's, "Bailey's Cafe" (463) is pretty robust.

I thought the foinal chapter of Chauser's brand was pretty well written, being induced to actually underline some passages. Her comment on ″Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog‶ is interesting: "the blog nontheless reflects the spirit of egalitarian anti-elitisim and the resistance to a dominant discourse that infuses the popular Chaucerian aesthetic." Almost to the end Forni then says, "...the Chaucerian brand of pilgrimage as communal, confessional chat is repeatedly appropriated and invoked in the popular creative imagination as a narrative conceit useful for exploring competing discourses, and by extension social divisiveness."

So a mixed report for the more casual reader, but useful addition for those who wonder where current themes in books or the screen come from.… (más)

Do you love Chaucer? Are you a Chaucer scholar? Are you into Mediaeval Literature? Do you know Middle English? If yes, then this book is for you.

Who values Chaucer and why… this is the premise of the book. I took a graduate class on Chaucer and I briefly cover him when I taught a Western Civ Humanities course--- that being said, it was a bit too much for me. While I like Chaucer, I am not a Chaucer Scholar.

The cover depicts an image from “A Knight’s Tale’ starring Heath Ledger and Tom Bettany, this along with the byline “Adaptations in Recent Popular Culture” leads one to assume a rather light, interesting(maybe even fun) read on Chaucer…so not the case. The references to ‘Popular Culture’ were rather obscure in my eyes; a BBC cartoon and a Dale Earnhardt documentary, while contemporary I would not call them popular. I was hoping to be enlightened on adaptations that were either not known to me or worth looking into-- I found neither. While this book will be interesting to hardcore, devoted Chaucer scholars it is a little tough for mere fans of Chaucer. I think the title is a bit of a stretch….… (más)