The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer proved itself to be more entertaining than I'd expected. It doesn't have to be read in its entirety because it is composed of smaller stories within a larger one. It almost reads like a book of short stories with dark fairy tale morals and with a big dose of humor at the expense of human folly. I loved the stories particularly: The Pardoner, The Wife of Bath, and The Squire. The ending of these tales became Middle Age preachy, but I suppose it needed redemption after the tales of lechery, bloodshed, idolatry, adulatory, and so on. For example, The Wife of Bath's tale and The Pardoner's tale embrace love of lust, power and greed with outright defiance. These two characters don't care what others think of them and firmly know who they are. They are in stark contrast to characters like The Nun, and The Knight, so for me to fully grasp the importance of the most entertaining stories, I had to read the other stories that contrasted them, so I recommend reading The Canterbury Tales in its entirety even though the stories can be read separately.
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