Rating: 
Summary: A valuable new edition...
Review: The Riverside Chaucer has managed to do the impossible- preserve the pristine vigor of the original texts, while providing informative glosses for those readers unfamiliar with Middle English. I have read several editions of Chaucer's various works, both in the original dialect, and in translation, and this is by far the best text available for both the casual reader who wishes to appreciate the vitality of the author's repertoire, and the serious student of literature.
Rating:
Summary: The Best English has to offer
Review: The Riverside Chaucer is quite simply the best collection and presentations of the best poet the English language has ever known. Witty as anything with the ability to skewer just about anyone who will stand still long enough, Chaucer displays a command of English rivaled perhaps only by Shakespeare and Milton. (Yes, I know...the dead white men again.)Benson's edition is probably the best on the market but it is not without its flaws. The glosses are adequate at best and I found the notes to be a bit lacking though the ones that are there are certainly top-notch. To anyone picking up this book I would only recommend that you read beyond the Canterbury Tales. Chaucer's lesser known works are no less impressive or rewarding than his magnum opus. Oh, and while you are on the Tales be sure to read more than a few and don't be afraid of the lengthy prose sections. The man's work has survived 600+ years for a reason.
Rating:
Summary: THE Chaucer collection.
Review: The Riverside Edition is by far the best Chaucer collection available. Everything one could need to enjoy the tales, from background info to language references. Pick this one up, and brush up on your Middle English.
Rating:
Summary: In a word: Awesome!
Review: This book is an essential addition to the library of any serious student of English literature. The critical commentary is both useful and illuminating. The editors have taken the Middle English manuscripts and made them accessible to both the casual reader and the graduate student alike. A lot of thought and care was put into this volume and the end result is well worth the price. The words of Chaucer seem vibrant and alive in this well crafted text. In a word: Awesome!
Rating:
Summary: This book is WONDERFUL!
Review: This book is WONDERFUL! The glosses are generally very helpful, except for omitting sexual connotations when there are plural meanings. The notes and glossary are good and editorial assistance is not invasive at all for those interested in reading the text without help of the editors. Plus Chaucer is hysterically funny. Buy this book!
Rating: 
Summary: An Acceptable Edition
Review: This was one of the better editions I've worked with. The notes were comprehensive and very helpful. A large and useful glossary helped where the notes failed. And when that all failed, there was extensive introductory material including short descriptions of what various critics and scholars have said about the various tales and other works. The only problems I have with this book is that the notes are not adequately linked with the text (they only list the line numbers at the bottom of the page instead of putting an indicator next to the glossed terms) and this often slows down the reading and comprehension. Otherwise, this was a very enjoyable volume.
Rating:
Summary: An Acceptable Edition
Review: This was one of the better editions I've worked with. The notes were comprehensive and very helpful. A large and useful glossary helped where the notes failed. And when that all failed, there was extensive introductory material including short descriptions of what various critics and scholars have said about the various tales and other works. The only problems I have with this book is that the notes are not adequately linked with the text (they only list the line numbers at the bottom of the page instead of putting an indicator next to the glossed terms) and this often slows down the reading and comprehension. Otherwise, this was a very enjoyable volume.
Rating:
Summary: Why read Chaucer?
Review: Why read Chaucer? Well, in the first place for the beauty and masculine vigor of his English, an English one soon catches on to after a bit of practice. Why else? Well, because Chaucer was intensely human and his stories are interesting, and either truly poignant or richly comic and sometimes even both. Also for the rich gallery of unforgettable human types his stories bring before us, types such as: The rejected Griselda - 'Lat me nat lyk a worm go by the weye;' the frisky Alisoun - ''Tehee!' quod she, and clapte the wyndow to;' the amorous Wife of Bath - 'Allas! Allas! that evere love was synne!', the scurvy Pardoner - 'Of avarice, and of swich cursednesse / Is al my prechyng, for to make hem free / To yeven hir pens, and namely unto me', and a host of others both high and low, noble and despicable, lovable and contemptible. Of course, Chaucer isn't for everyone. Those with no feeling for his language and no sense of humor, and whose own humanity is not their strongest point, may lack what is needed to appreciate Chaucer at his true worth. The present edition is a mammoth volume of 1327 pages which includes the complete and newly edited texts of everything Chaucer wrote - The Canterbury Tales, The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, Anelida and Arcite, The Parliament of Fowls, Boece, Troilus and Criseyde, The Legend of Good Women, The Short Poems, A Treatise on the Astrolabe, The Romaunt of the Rose. Brief language glosses are given at the foot of each page, while fuller Notes are found at the end of the book. Unfortunately the lines of the texts are numbered in the conventional way - 10, 20, 30, etc. - instead of having numbers occur _only_ at the end of lines which have been glossed or given Notes - e.g., 9, 12, 16, 18, 32. Such conventional numbering involves readers in the tedious and time-wasting hassle of line counting, and the equally time-wasting frustration of searching through notes only to find that no note exists. The book also includes a full Introduction (Chaucers' Life, The Canon and Chronology of Chaucer's Works, Language and Versification, The Texts), a General Bibliography, 300 pages of Explanatory Notes, 100 pages of Textual Notes, an extremely detailed 100-page Glossary, and an Index of Proper Names. Despite the many helps provided by the editors, and since the needs of readers are insatiable, no-one is going to find everything they would like to find. A complete text of this nature is best considered as one for the beginning student; scholarly texts of individual works are going to be needed by anyone who wishes to go deeper, and the Bibliography is there as a guide for those wishing to explore critical and other issues in greater depth. But in the presence of so much scholarship, there is a danger of forgetting that so much of Chaucer's power is in the sheer music of his lines. Those new to Chaucer would be well advised to learn how to read Middle English _aloud_ as soon as possible by listening to one of the many excellent recordings. If they were to do this they'd soon find their pleasure in Chaucer magnified enormously. Robert Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy,' points out that 'when a thing has once been done, people think it easy; when the road is made, they forget how rough the way used to be.' All those who love Chaucer are indebted to the editors of the present volume for having smoothed our way towards a fuller appreciation of the work of a truly marvelous poet.
Rating:
Summary: Why read Chaucer?
Review: Why read Chaucer? Well, in the first place for the beauty and masculine vigor of his English, an English one soon catches on to after a bit of practice. Why else? Well, because Chaucer was intensely human and his stories are interesting, and either truly poignant or richly comic and sometimes even both. Also for the rich gallery of unforgettable human types his stories bring before us, types such as: The rejected Griselda - 'Lat me nat lyk a worm go by the weye;' the frisky Alisoun - ''Tehee!' quod she, and clapte the wyndow to;' the amorous Wife of Bath - 'Allas! Allas! that evere love was synne!', the scurvy Pardoner - 'Of avarice, and of swich cursednesse / Is al my prechyng, for to make hem free / To yeven hir pens, and namely unto me', and a host of others both high and low, noble and despicable, lovable and contemptible. Of course, Chaucer isn't for everyone. Those with no feeling for his language and no sense of humor, and whose own humanity is not their strongest point, may lack what is needed to appreciate Chaucer at his true worth. The present edition is a mammoth volume of 1327 pages which includes the complete and newly edited texts of everything Chaucer wrote - The Canterbury Tales, The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, Anelida and Arcite, The Parliament of Fowls, Boece, Troilus and Criseyde, The Legend of Good Women, The Short Poems, A Treatise on the Astrolabe, The Romaunt of the Rose. Brief language glosses are given at the foot of each page, while fuller Notes are found at the end of the book. Unfortunately the lines of the texts are numbered in the conventional way - 10, 20, 30, etc. - instead of having numbers occur _only_ at the end of lines which have been glossed or given Notes - e.g., 9, 12, 16, 18, 32. Such conventional numbering involves readers in the tedious and time-wasting hassle of line counting, and the equally time-wasting frustration of searching through notes only to find that no note exists. The book also includes a full Introduction (Chaucers' Life, The Canon and Chronology of Chaucer's Works, Language and Versification, The Texts), a General Bibliography, 300 pages of Explanatory Notes, 100 pages of Textual Notes, an extremely detailed 100-page Glossary, and an Index of Proper Names. Despite the many helps provided by the editors, and since the needs of readers are insatiable, no-one is going to find everything they would like to find. A complete text of this nature is best considered as one for the beginning student; scholarly texts of individual works are going to be needed by anyone who wishes to go deeper, and the Bibliography is there as a guide for those wishing to explore critical and other issues in greater depth. But in the presence of so much scholarship, there is a danger of forgetting that so much of Chaucer's power is in the sheer music of his lines. Those new to Chaucer would be well advised to learn how to read Middle English _aloud_ as soon as possible by listening to one of the many excellent recordings. If they were to do this they'd soon find their pleasure in Chaucer magnified enormously. Robert Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy,' points out that 'when a thing has once been done, people think it easy; when the road is made, they forget how rough the way used to be.' All those who love Chaucer are indebted to the editors of the present volume for having smoothed our way towards a fuller appreciation of the work of a truly marvelous poet.
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