The Wife of Bath

A Biography

Marion Turner, Marion Turner

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Hardback

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English

Princeton University Press
01 June 2023

Literature, Poetry & Criticism; Feminism & feminist theory

Ever since her triumphant debut in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath, arguably the first ordinary and recognisably real woman in English literature, has obsessed readers — from Shakespeare to James Joyce, Voltaire to Pasolini, Dryden to Zadie Smith. Few literary characters have led such colourful lives or matched her influence or capacity for reinvention in poetry, drama, fiction, and film. In The Wife of Bath, Marion Turner tells the fascinating story of where Chaucer’s favourite character came from, how she related to real medieval women, and where her many travels have taken her since the fourteenth century, from Falstaff and Molly Bloom to #MeToo and Black Lives Matter.

A sexually active and funny working woman, the Wife of Bath, also known as Alison, talks explicitly about sexual pleasure. She is also a victim of domestic abuse who tells a story of rape and redemption. Formed from misogynist sources, she plays with stereotypes. Turner sets Alison’s fictional story alongside the lives of real medieval women — from a maid who travelled around Europe, abandoned her employer, and forged a new career in Rome to a duchess who married her fourth husband, a teenager, when she was sixty-five. Turner also tells the incredible story of Alison’s post-medieval life, from seventeenth-century ballads and Polish communist pop art to her reclamation by postcolonial Black British women writers.

'Those who foreground alternative voices must reach for innovative forms and reworkings of genre. Turner does this brilliantly, allowing Alison of Bath to speak for the legions of contemporary women otherwise silenced by history.' — Daisy Hay, Financial Times

'A] superb biography…Turner's beautifully written, rewarding and thought-provoking book about this imaginary woman shows how much her literary existence has to say about actual women’s lives.' — Willian Kenny, The Spectator

'This is a wonderfully witty, thoughtful and authoritative meditation on one of English literature’s most astonishing characters — a woman both ahead of her time and yet very much emblematic of the social changes under way in 14th-century England.' — Carolyne Larrington, Literary Review

By: Marion Turner, Marion Turner
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 140mm,
ISBN: 9780691206011
ISBN 10: 0691206015
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 01 June 2023
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Marion Turner is the J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language at the University of Oxford, where she is a Professorial Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall. Her books include the prize-winning biography Chaucer: A European Life.

Reviews for The Wife of Bath: A Biography

"""A Financial Times Best Summer Book"" ""A New Yorker Best Book We've Read This Year"" ""Those who foreground alternative voices must reach for innovative forms and reworkings of genre. Turner does this brilliantly, allowing Alison of Bath to speak for the legions of contemporary women otherwise silenced by history.""---Daisy Hay, Financial Times ""[A] superb biography….Turner's beautifully written, rewarding and thought-provoking book about this imaginary woman shows how much her literary existence has to say about actual women’s lives.""---Gillian Kenny, The Spectator ""This is a wonderfully witty, thoughtful and authoritative meditation on one of English literature’s most astonishing characters – a woman both ahead of her time and yet very much emblematic of the social changes under way in 14th-century England. ""---Carolyne Larrington, Literary Review ""The history of women in the Middle Ages is fraught with uncertainties, especially when it comes to source material and authorship; Turner unfurls this complexity in elegant, quietly angry prose, grounded in deep scholarly research. . . . Turner’s biography of Alison of Bath demonstrates the stunning resonance of medieval prejudice in the present.""---Erin Maglaque, New York Times Book Review ""A wonderful biography.""---Mary Wellesley, Telegraph ""Marion Turner writes from a feminist perspective, but she is not a presentist—the kind of person who faults the past for failing to live up to the standards, or some people’s standards, of the present. . . . You are grateful for Turner’s thoroughness. She is especially adept at drawing meaning not only from characters’ similarities but also from their differences.""---Joan Acocella, New Yorker ""Turner’s immensely entertaining ‘biography’ will make you fall in love with the Wife of Bath, whom she crowns ‘the first ordinary woman in English literature.’ . . . Wonderfully accessible and briskly entertaining.""---Ron Charles, Washington Post ""[A] passionate literary ‘biography’. . . . Turner’s prose is straightforward, artful, and occasionally biting. . . . Fans of Chaucer’s work and literature lovers more generally shouldn’t miss this."" * Publishers Weekly * ""This engrossing academic study helps you appreciate why, nearly eight centuries after Chaucer brought her to life, this funny, sexually confident middle-aged woman remains a titan of literature.""---Martin Chilton, The Independent ""[A] lively biography.""---Eleanor Parker, History Today ""Turner’s scholarly yet lively portrait of her [The Wife of Bath] reveals much about the real-life women who were the earliest readers of her tale, and about the cultures that have been captivated by her ever since.""---Pippa Bailey, New Statesman ""Written in elegant, accessible prose, The Wife of Bath reinvents literary criticism to tell the extraordinary story of one of English literature’s most memorable, norm-busting characters."" * Foreword Reviews * ""Erudite.""---Susie Goldsbrough, The Times ""A brilliant commentary on Chaucer’s ‘Alisoun’ and the posthumous relevance of Alison in our fractious world of gender politics.""---Timothy Mowl, Country Life ""[A] superb exploration of the most memorable character in The Canterbury Tales.""---Matthew D’Ancona, Tortoise ""An intriguing combination of the fantastically bawdy and the deadly serious [...] thrilling.""---Katy Guest, The Guardian ""As Marion Turner’s thoroughly engaging book makes clear, Alison has thrived nonetheless; she remains a woman ‘who intimidated and frightened so many male writers and artists across time, but who … would not be suppressed'""---Mary C. Flannery, Times Literary Supplement ""Turner’s enthralling take on Chaucer is so rich, inspiring and relevant.""---Lucasta Miller, The Critic ""[The Wife of Bath] finally gets the lively, full-length study she’s always deserved in Marion Turner’s new book The Wife of Bath: A Biography. . . . It’s fun, thought-provoking popular scholarship at its best.""---Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Review ""[A] fascinating book."" * The Week * ""[Marion Turner] writes in a companionable way that makes this a most engaging book about a fourteenth-century woman.""---Sean Sheehan, The Prisma"