<p>Talent shows like <em>The X Factor,</em> <em>Got Talent</em> and their many spin offs began in the 1380s, not the 1980s! They were invented by Geoffrey Chaucer, who wrote his masterpiece <em>The Canterbury Tales</em> at the end of a successful and glamorous diplomatic career in medieval Europe.</p><p>This is the literary pilgrimage to top all literary pilgrimages, the imagined story of a group of medieval odds and sods, who meet up to in a London pub and walk to Canterbury Cathedral. The owner of the pub, a local MP named Harry Bailey (a real guy), decides that they’ll have a storytelling competition to pass the time while they travel. The winner will get dinner at, you guessed it, Harry's pub.</p><p>No one had ever written anything remotely like this before, and Chaucer’s version of pub-mike night became a literary sensation.</p><p>The <em>Canterbury Tales</em> is one of the most famous works of English Literature ever, and a perennial favorite on "Intro to English Lit" syllabuses. It's written in Middle English, which isn't an easy read now, but has a lot of fascinating local color that has disappeared from modern English. In the first installment of our “Long(ish) Poems” series, Sophie and Jonty explain why the <em>Canterbury Tales </em>remains an evergreen literary staple, what makes Chaucer’s characters so brilliant, and what’s important about the "General Prologue" that kick-starts the whole tale cycle. [Editor's note: work on your titles, Geoffrey!]</p><br><p>Here is Harvard's easy to use version of the Canterbury Tales in Middle English with a modern English translation: https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/pages/general-prologue-0</p><br><p>Become a subscriber by signing up at Apple: http://apple.co/slob</p><p>Or join our Patreon community here: https://www.patreon.com/c/secretlifeofbookspodcast</p><p>Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>