We’ve all heard of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, with The Wife of Bath being once of the most popular poems. But now it’s time for the Wife of Bath to tell her story in her own words. Eleanor is married for the first time at the age of twelve. With a mind for business, Eleanor manages to turn her first marriage into a success, and with each subsequent husband she rises through society from a cast-off farm girl to a woman of fortune. Some marriages are happy; others, not so much. Eleanor endures several pilgrimages, many lovers, murder, and mayhem in her pursuit of the one thing that all women want: control of their own lives. 

Phyllis’s Former Students Book Club January pick! We all decided this year that we wanted to read adaptations of well known stories rewritten from the perspective of female characters, and The Good Wife of Bath was a great start. Eleanor was an amazingly strong and persevering character, and I loved seeing things from her perspective. She was so courageous. I loved her quest for independence and how many times she was able to make the most of terrible situations. She really created a found family throughout the course of the book and I loved her relationships with the maids and other workers in her households. The writing was filled with wit and humor, especially Eleanor’s letters from her pilgrimages, but also didn’t shy away from how difficult life was for women in medieval times. The book really rounded out The Wife of Bath as a more complete woman and I loved this take on the tale.