This serves as an excellent summary of modern criticism. It takes the tales and the prologue on an individual basis and discusses: date and text, genre, sources, structure,themes, and the tale in context. for each one. If you are setting out to read the canterbury tales more or less in their entirety then this is an excellent companion. I found myself reading the tale then Cooper's criticisms and then reading the tale again to check on ideas gleaned from this book.. The final chapter looks at imitations or attempted completion of the tales up to the age of Shakespeare and is a lively read. ( )