Short-stories shortfall

One of the most enduring compilations of short stories is Geoffrey Chaucer’s vaunted literary classic, The Canterbury Tales. The work comprises 24 short stories, each featuring one of the pilgrims as they travel from London to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. However, though that may seem a more-than-adequate number of stories with which to entertain his readers, many critics believe he intended it to be a much larger volume, perhaps containing up to 120 stories. The reason for that is that the Prologue to the tales introduces 30 pilgrims and states that each of them would relate four stories each – two on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back. Sadly Chaucer, aged 56, died in October 1400 when scholars believe his magnus opus was less than a quarter complete. What’s also sad is that he never saw his book in print. That didn’t happen until 1476 when it was printed by William Caxton, who that year introduced the printing press to England.