The Canterbury Tales recounts the stories told by pilgrims to one another as they make their way from London to the shrine of St. Thomas � Becket in Canterbury. This volume contains the introduction to those tales by describing the characters who will be travelling companions on that journey.This special edition has been designed to meet the particular needs of school and college students. Here, each odd-numbered page contains Chaucer's original Middle English text printed in a large font. Alongside, there is plenty of room in the wide outer margin for students to add their own brief notes or to define unfamiliar words. Immediately opposite, there are blank ruled pages for students to construct their own translation into modern English or to make more detailed notes. At the end of this book, there is a new translation into modern English which differs only slightly from those found elsewhere. Here, the key difference is that lines are translated separately, thereby avoiding the problem seen in some translations that words are borrowed from adjacent lines to help maintain Chaucer's rhyming structure. Accordingly, this translation adheres more closely to Chaucer's own words; although, in doing so, it may occasionally contain rather more descriptive explanations than is usual in translated works. Nevertheless, this 'word for word' approach will greatly assist those new to Chaucer's middle English.Parents will be pleased that The General Prologue contains no lewdness or vulgarity as can be found in some of the other Canterbury Tales. In this regard, it may appropriately be studied at Middle School level.This special edition contains the complete and unabridged text (with line numbers), a personal study or translation notebook and a full translation into modern English. Accordingly, it offers excellent value for money as a complete resource for studying one of the greatest treasures of English literature.