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Walking to Canterbury: A Modern Journey Through Chaucer's Medieval England
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 942.203
EAN: 9780345447067
Edition: 1
ISBN: 0345447069
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: March 04, 2003
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: March 04, 2003
Studio: Ballantine Books
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Editorial Review:
A decade ago, Jerry Ellis followed the long Trail of Tears to explore his Cherokee lineage, a journey he recounted in his well-crafted memoir Walking the Trail. Now, honoring the English side of his heritage, he offers this lively sequel: an account of a short but adventure-filled hike from London to Canterbury.
Canterbury, of course, is the site of a great cathedral, and the place where St. Thomas à Becket was murdered in 1170. Throughout the Middle Ages, pilgrims made their way there from all over Europe to seek the miraculous powers of his blood and spirit, as Geoffrey Chaucer recounts in The Canterbury Tales. But it is also a resolutely modern and all too worldly place of cell phones, fast-food restaurants, and freeways. For every present-day traveler and artifact he encounters along his path, Ellis finds just the right counterpart from the past. His engaging narrative shifts between eras and continents, joining personal and universal history while commenting on forgotten times and customs.
Ellis's altogether enjoyable memoir deserves a place alongside the writings of Bill Bryson, Paul Theroux, and other intrepid walkers--and it is a welcome treat for fans of Chaucer, too. --Gregory McNamee
More than six hundred years ago, the Archbishop of Canterbury was murdered by King Henry II’s knights. Before the Archbishop’s blood dried on the Cathedral floor, the miracles began. The number of pilgrims visiting his shrine in the Middle Ages was so massive that the stone floor wore thin where they knelt to pray. They came seeking healing, penance, or a sign from God. Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, one of the greatest, most enduring works of English literature, is a bigger-than-life drama based on the experience of the medieval pilgrim. Power, politics, friendship, betrayal, martyrdom, miracles, and stories all had a place on the sixty mile path from London to Canterbury, known as the Pilgrim’s Way.Walking to Canterbury is Jerry Ellis’s moving and fascinating account of his own modern pilgrimage along that famous path. Filled with incredible details about medieval life, Ellis’s tale strikingly juxtaposes the contemporary world he passes through on his long hike with the history that peeks out from behind an ancient stone wall or a church. Carrying everything he needs on his back, Ellis stops at pubs and taverns for food and shelter and trades tales with the truly captivating people he meets along the way, just as the pilgrims from the twelfth century would have done. Embarking on a journey that is spiritual and historical, Ellis reveals the wonders of an ancient trek through modern England toward the ultimate goal: enlightenment.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Don't bother
This only mildly interesting book weaves tales of the author's 1999 walk from London to Canterbury with English history and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
Despite a potentially interesting premise and loads of unusual historical facts to link past and present, the author's ego distracts throughout the book; however it does get to a point where it's almost comical rather than irritating. He's just a bit too dramatic and evidently has had more Very Deep Thoughts and Mystical Life Experiences ... Read More
Rating:  - Walking to Canterbury
I am partial to travel commentaries. The best ones have history and sociology lessons embedded in a moving narrative with rapidly changing settings and characters. The author's role is indispensible for he must impose a theme on his trip and package it engagingly for the reader. Jerry Ellis does this quite well. He treks from London to Canterbury along the 60 mile route established in medieval times. The cathedral where Becket was murdered has been drawing pilgrims for centuries. Ellis is of English ... Read More
Rating:  - Past and Present Blend Into Wonderful Journey
This investigation of modern and medieval England is done in a lively hands-on approach by the author in a unique way, as he walks the route of Chaucer's piligrims. A real pilgrimage route in the Middle Ages, the reader feels that he is there every step of the way. If you like adventure, heart, soul, humor and history, you'll love this journey.
Rating: - Not a Much of a Pilgrimage and Not Much of a Story
I have to take exception to most of the other reviews. Please hear me out.
The author, a man of Native American and English heritage, wrote an earlier book, Walking the Trail, about a several month walk tracing the infamous Cherokee "Trail of Tears" backward from Oklahoma to his home in northeast Alabama, as well as two other books tracing historic American routes. Mr. Ellis says his trip to England to follow the medieval Christian pilgrims' route from London to Canterbury Cathedral, described ... Read More
Rating: - A Beautiful Book!
Walking to Canterbury is a lyrical journey by foot from London to Canterbury. The marriage of history, adventure and soul in this book, spiced with medieval illustrations, is a delight from the first page. I read it for my book club and the discussion that followed among ten of us was a treasure.
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