Ernestine Gunther’s Annotated Chaucer Book, Women’s Education in 1897

Item Details

1897

A 1897 School Edition of Chaucer, The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, notable for its extensive pencil notations by one Ernestine Gunther. Ernestine has written her name on the title page and has annotated almost every page of the main text (not the fore-matter or end-notes), and also crammed notes on the endpapers as well! The notations mostly seem to be defining unusual or archaic words in the text, and on the endpapers she also adds information about various aspects of the text, such as “Prioress”, “Wife of Bathe”, and “Yeoman”.  A wonderful glimpse into the thought processes of an 19^th century student as she contemplates Chaucer.

Also laid in is a handwritten sheet “Essay Subjects”, such as “Chaucer’s treatment of women, his humor and satire, his love of nature, his versatility”.

The book itself was edited by Walter E Skeat (second and revised edition), published by Henry Frowde, printed in Oxford at the Clarendon Press. In good plus condition with a little bubbling to front cloth and some splitting of endpapers, still tightly bound.