MB UNIUD

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of tales told by pilgrims going to the shrine of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury. The poet meets twenty-nine pilgrims at the Tabard Inn near London.The Host suggests that they travel all together and each one tells two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back to entertain their travelling companions.

There are only twenty-four tales in the book because the work is incomplete. The General Prologue describes the pilgrims one by one. They are vividly portrayed and represent different social classes and social groups: for example, the military, the clergy, the middle class and the trades.