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A twist in the Tale; Has the BBC's modern interpretation of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales lost the spirit of the original.

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From: The Mail on Sunday (London, England)
Date: 20030824
Author:

Byline: DEREK BREWER

Derek Brewer, Professor of English Literature at Cambridge University, compares old with new

Most people in Britain have heard of Geoffrey Chaucer, although probably the only thing they remember about him is that he told bawdy stories in an almost indecipherable early form of English. A man who had never read a word of Chaucer once said to me: 'How can you read such dirty stuff?' Does the BBC have a more accurate sense of the 14th-century poet's genius? Ever anxious to be seen to be educating as well as entertaining, it is to bring Chaucer's The ...

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