Problem is, I read these for the first time so long ago that I simply don't remember if I was surprised or not. I think I was about eight when I first read "Huck Finn" and started the Holmes Canon -- precocious little runt. I must have been in 9th grade when I first read Chaucer (in "translation") -- I would have been about 14 or 15 years old then and yes, we read "The Miller's Tale."