Review by AnxiousSocks -- The Miller's Tale

[AnxiousSocks]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Miller's Tale" by Geoffrey Chaucer (Brian Lamont translator).]

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2 out of 4 stars

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The Miller’s Tale is the second of Geoffrey Chaucer's epic Canterbury Tales, originally written in the fourteenth century. This version of the tale is translated from Old English by Brian Lamont. It tells the story of an aging carpenter named John and his teenage wife named Alison. Alison begins an affair with a scholar and tenant of her husband’s named Nicholas and the two form a plan to run away together. Since Alison’s husband does not treat her well, she seeks to escape from him. Absolon is a parish clerk who is very jealous of Nicholas and tries to woo Alison as well. What will Alison do?

The story is told once in the form of a play and once as poetic prose. It was immediately clear to me how much effort had been put into the translation, especially since the original meter was kept. Unfortunately, Lamont’s insistence on being true to the original made some rhymes sound quite forced. Some crude language and situations were also present, sometimes taking over the more important elements in the story itself.

I wanted to enjoy the story. I tried my best to look past the blatantly sexist nature of the story’s perspective, something which became harder as the story progressed. The events were vulgar enough that the comedic moments couldn’t do much to soften them. I did enjoy some of the lines very much. The humor woven into the tone of the story was much more amusing to me than the so-called comedic events in the plot itself. In other words, the ways in which situations were explained were far more interesting to me than the occasional fart or butt joke, of which there were quite a few.

The writing quality was very good. I am happy to report that I could not find any issues with grammar, punctuation or spelling. The story flowed quite well and was a breeze to read. I appreciated the prologue Lamont wrote that explained the linguistic differences to contemporary English and what he had to do in order to stay as true to form as possible. It could not have been an easy task to translate from Old English, a form of language that has not been used for over five hundred years.

I give this a 2 out of 4 stars. The story itself was not compelling enough and the translation did not always seem natural. Recommended to those who are interested in translations of Old English texts.

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The Miller's Tale
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