Project #1: Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales

We start our discussion with Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Good translations (Penguin's translation by Nevill Coghill is my favorite) make this a very enjoyable read and good place to start. Our plan is to read over the next three months (April, May and June) and discuss different aspects we come across along the way.

General Outline

Generally, Chaucer allows his readers to observe the pilgrimage of 29 random persons from Southwark, a suburb of London, to Canterbury. Along the way, the group tells stories to pass the time. The prologue at the beginning is long, but gives important information about each of the travelers. It might be helpful to read (or reread) sections of the prologue about specific characters before reading that character's story.

Questions to Explore

What are the literary pleasures of the passage?
Which character do you enjoy the most?
Which story do you enjoy the most?


Happy Reading!

Quotes on Reading Classic Literature

"...the best argument for the classics is the classics themselves. If the great classics of Western imagination and ideas are really what we believe them to be - and what they have shown themselves to be - they have their own authority and speak best for themselves."
~Os Guinness


"...we all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books...The only palliative is to keep the clean breeze of the centuries blowing through out minds, and this can be done only by reading old books."
~CS Lewis


"In a time when our current culture is increasingly secular in its aims, one of the most important resources Christians possess is this large treasure trove of works that have already been assimilated by readers and commentators in the nearly two thousand years of Western Christendom."
~Loise Cowen


"It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones."
~CS Lewis


"In a word, our whole civilization, our freedom, our progress, our homes, our religion, rest solidly upon ideals for their foundation. Nothing but an ideal ever endures upon earth. It is therefore impossible to overestimate the practical importance of literature, which preserves these ideals from fathers to sons, while men, cities, governments, civilizations, vanish from the face of the earth."
~William Long


"Great Literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree."
~Ezra Pound


"Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill."
~Barbara W. Tuchman


"While thought exists, words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living."
~Cyril Connolly

A Guide for the Road

This blog is committed to the continual grazing in the green, green fields of these classic works. But we'd be lying to claim we came to this conviction on our own. We have come to the classics by invitation alone and have been so pleasantly surprised by all there is to see and explore in them, we wanted to create an environment to share our gleanings.

An Invitation to the Classics: A Guide to Books You've Always Wanted to Read has been a breath of fresh air in a world of literary smog. I don't know why our formal educations never instilled such curiosity and desire to dive into the greatest books ever written. Perhaps, our ignorant youths were to blame, but whatever the reason, we are glad to be enlightened now. Invitation to the Classics is a book that explores the "masterworks" and the individuals who wrote them. The combilnation of biography and synopsis is a great introduction and means of drawing us in.

We are excited to stir up conversations around dinner tables and in coffee shops across the country. If just one person gets turned on to a timeless book, our blog has served its purpose well. Look for honest reflections from a broad range of academic and vocational backgrounds. We are not experts on literature per se, but are interested in living well, thinking good thoughts and placing proper affections. May our words be helpful and enjoyable and extend the invitation on to you as well.