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    The Decameron
    The Decameron
    The Decameron
    Ebook1,064 pages18 hours

    The Decameron

    By Giovanni Boccaccio

    4/5

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    In this bold and bawdy fourteenth-century Italian masterpiece, ten friends escape the plague by telling a series of wise, witty, and irreverent stories.

    It’s the summer of 1348 and Venice is overrun by the Black Death. Taking refuge in an isolated country house, ten young friends agree to tell each other stories to pass the time. Choosing a new theme each day, the seven women and three men take turns spinning yarns about the world they have left behind. Through this framing device, Giovanni Boccaccio delivers a hundred tales that capture the great tragicomedy of Medieval life in all its duplicity, passion, and pathos.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateApr 11, 2023
    ISBN9781504084567
    Author

    Giovanni Boccaccio

    Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) was born and raised in Florence, Italy where he initially studied business and canon law. During his career, he met many aristocrats and scholars who would later influence his literary works. Some of his earliest texts include La caccia di Diana, Il Filostrato and Teseida. Boccaccio was a compelling writer whose prose was influenced by his background and involvement with Renaissance Humanism. Active during the late Middle Ages, he is best known for writing The Decameron and On Famous Women.

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    Reviews for The Decameron

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    • 2/5
      The Decameron (1353) By Giovanni Boccaccio 6/23/23Why I picked this book up: it was the next in The Banned Books Compendium: 32 Classic Forbidden Books by Gringory Lukin (Editor) I was selected for in April, 2023Thoughts: many stories based on class, a lot of lust, religious based disrespect, a lot of death/killing at the end of stories trickery and overall not very funny, rather smutty tales. There is clear difference between love and lust IOM. The woman, the queens telling the stories were just like the men, or kings telling the stories, seemed immature and a waste for me to read. This book was during transition in history. Why I finished this read: I found these stories rather difficult to get through for me. They were not really worth finishing but I forced myself. I will not read them again. Stars rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars
    • 4/5
      Who would have thought a book from the Dark Ages would be relevant in today's world?

      This book is mainly about some people leaving their homeland to find some solidarity elsewhere while the Black Death is spreading throughout Europe. They then tell several different types of tales set up as a frame story. Some of the stories are entertaining and others are slow. Basically this is the Italian Canterbury Tales.

      Why read this now? Well the opening part with Boccaccio describing the plague is way to similar to what is going on right now with COVID-19. You have people who act like this is nothing, you have fools who think it's a hoax, and some just trying to make the best of what they can right now. This is a good getaway, kind of, because the story distracts you that a plague is going on in the book.

      It's a long read, not terribly difficult, but each chapter is set up as a day. There are 10 total and I felt like reading one or two a day. I think the translation was slightly changed at times to make this easier for English speakers to understand. Some phrases and saying sound more like English origins rather than Italian. Sometimes I wish I knew Italian because their old books like this seems to have issues with translation.

      Also, check out Giambattista Basile's The Tale of Tales if you enjoyed this book. Basile is during the Renaissance (so much later), but clearly was inspired from Boccaccio.
    • 5/5
      When the plague hits Florence in 1348, 7 women and 3 men decide to escape the city and retire to the countryside -- and once there they tell each other stories. 10 days, most of them with a specific topic, each of the 10 youths tell a story of love, hate and whatever else they can think of. But the book is not just the stories - there is also a framing story around them, complete with the reactions of the people who are not telling the story, with songs, with details about the countryside and there is Boccaccio - defending his own work and adding an extra story to Day 4 (incomplete around to him; actually complete if you compare it to the rest of the stories). Very few of the stories are original ones - some had been moved in time or space, some had been mixed together but they are mostly preexisting stories from the existing literature at the time - in Latin, French and Italian; some of it translated into the language from more exotic languages (including Arabic tales). How familiar that had been for the people reading the book in the Middle Ages is unclear; these days one is a lot more likely to have heard one of the books and stories which had used Boccaccio's tales as their base - from Chaucer through Shakespeare and to the authors of today, everyone had been borrowing parts of stories (and occasionally complete ones) and made them their own. But despite that, the collection is worth reading. Not all stories worked for me (but then this would be impossible considering the number of stories). There were some disturbing elements (women being punished for not accepting the love of a man; both men and women managing to get in bed with someone by misrepresenting themselves and still getting a happy end; making jokes of what is essentially the village idiot), there were heartbreaking stories and there is human cunning and cruelty. The attacks on the church and its representatives was not exactly unexpected but still a lot more pronounced than I expected. As the days progressed, the stories got occasionally repetitive -- especially when the topic was too concrete, it felt like the same story wa told over and over again. It helped to let the stories breathe a bit. The irregular lengths did not help much with planning either. The translator G. H. McWilliam added a lot of geographical, historical and linguistical notes (combined with notes on the sources for each story) which are not essential but put the stories in context (and can be amusing at times - especially when he comments on earlier editions and translators). His introduction is also extremely informative although as usual, it really should not be read as an introduction unless you want the few surprising stories to get spoiled for you.At the end I liked the book quite a lot. But one needs to be prepared for it - it is a 14th century book after all - as progressive it might have been, it is still almost 7 centuries old at this point. So there is the occasional story which is sexist enough to make you want to grind your teeth, there are the not so occasional notes and hints towards the fragility of women (although there are also some strong women), there are the behaviors which are creepy and borderline criminal and yet considered normal in the book. But then that is part of the charm in reading old literature - the world had changed and these books are the only mirror we have into the past. And then, especially with books which had been as popular as this one for centuries, it is always fun to recognize a plot you had read elsewhere (and that's where the notes on the sources also helped - showing how the stories traveled from book to book and from writer to writer and culture to culture).
    • 4/5
      Over the course of ten days, ten people sheltering from the Black Plague in 1348 Italy tell one story each on a variety of themes, adding up to one hundred in total. At first this seems like a mighty feat of originality, but (like Shakespeare) Boccaccio took at least the plots from prior telling. In his introduction he states an intention to ease the romantic pains of young women by making them wiser about the world, but this must be tongue-in-cheek. I might say instead that the theme is "If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, don't make a pretty woman your wife." The stories are mostly forgettable, but shed light on the values and virtues of this period and place. Boccaccio is at his best when he's harmlessly funny, at his worst when he's disrespecting women.First Day (theme: any topic) - the first of this day's stories is best, the remainder mostly featuring a protagonist who with a single sentence unconvincingly inspires the antagonist to be a better man. In the worst of the bunch a Jew is convinced to change his faith, which is portrayed as a happy outcome.Second Day (misfortunes leading to happiness) - the second day improves over the first, offering stories that are mostly humorous. Practical jokes go awry, husbands disappoint their lusty wives, shipwrecks lead to happier circumstances, bets don't turn out the way anyone expects, etc. I was more impressed this time.Third Day (achieving some object) - despite the wide open theme, every one of these ten stories zeroes in on acquiring a lover as the object. Several of them are amusing, like the hoodwinking of a friar into acting as go-between, and feature some clever ideas. A couple of the others take a dark turn, casually featuring non-consensual sex.Fourth Day (love ending in tragedy) - with a couple of exceptions this is mostly cringeworthy Romeo-and-Juliet stories, extreme demonstrations of love that's meant to last beyond the quickly approaching grave.Fifth Day (love ending happily) - in the first story a man murderously crashes a wedding and steals the bride, forcing her to marry him instead; love ending happily?? The rest essentially continue the theme of the third day. The ninth story is a standout, the first that I would give a perfect score to for its wonderful construction.Sixth Day (witticisms) - especially short stories that are basically scenes to highlight a "take that" line of dialogue. Seventh Day (wives fooling husbands) - a terribly repetitive premise about wives cheating on husbands. The fifth story however impressed me with its trick-plus-betrayal plot, and the seventh has some nice twists to it. Eighth Day (tricks played generally) - predictably more stories about illicit love affairs. Fortunately the trickster pair Bruno and Buffalmacco appear three separate times to add welcome variety.Ninth Day (any topic) - ten leftover stories that fit various prior themes. The sixth impressed me with its elaborate hijinks that all come out well in the end. The moral of the ninth story is literally that husbands should beat their wives when they get out of line, coming from the wisdom of Solomon himself.Tenth Day (generous deeds) - relating such astounding acts as a man who restores a wife and child to her husband rather than holding them captive, a king who forebears from committing pedophilia, and another man who cheerfully surrenders his newlywed wife to his best friend. How commendable.For easy future reference, my favourites: 5-9, 7-5, 7-7, 9-6
    • 5/5
      It gets off to what I thought of as 'a slow start' (even though that's not quite the correct phrase) in that the initial stories are short unto insubstantial, but this soon gives way to more substantial (and fun) narratives. Truly, a fountain of delight.
    • 3/5
      How does one write a review for a book that is usually classified as one of the “Great Books” of the Western Canon? Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th century opus (not really a novel) is such a book. I recently attended (on line) a Great Books Symposium sponsored by the University of Notre Dame in which The Decameron was one of the featured works. The aspect of the book that generated the most controversy was whether it deserved to be called a “Great Book.” The events related take place in 14th century Italy during the great plague known as the Black Death. Ten young wealthy Florentines and their retainers leave the city to repair to a villa in the countryside to avoid the ravages of the plague. To occupy their time, they tell one another stories. Each one tells one story per day for ten days, or 100 in all. All of the stories are short, usually no more than 6-10 pages. Nonetheless, my paperback edition ran to more than 900 pages.Themes that run through the stories include a strong sense of irony, disrespect for the established Church, clerical corruption (both fiscal and carnal), machismo, wily peasants outsmarting nobles, servants outsmarting masters, wives outsmarting husbands, and an occasional tale of heroism or munificent deeds. Despite the passage of nearly seven centuries, the cleverness of the writing often shows through, even in translation, with the use of clever similes, particularly in describing sexual acts. From an historical perspective, the book is significant in that it broke away from the religious themes that were prevalent in the middle ages in Europe. Also, it was written in the local language (Italian), rather than Latin. But is it still a “Great Book” today? The short stories, although often clever, become repetitive and soporific if read sequentially. My advice to scholars: study it hard for historical significance. My advice to the casual reader: read a few stories (no more than four) at a time, put it away, and come back three or four weeks later—and if you actually get through the whole thing, you can cross off one of the “Great Books of the Western Canon.”(JAB)
    • 5/5
      Another epic tome of tales set during the Black Death of 1348 that looks at life of the myriad of characters involved

      College read (06-07)
    • 4/5
      A book in the 'star rating system just doesn't work' category: without Boccaccio, it's possible that prose fiction--the dominant literary form of the last, say, two hundred years--simply wouldn't exist. That's a good enough reason to read it. Another good reason is how fascinating Boccaccio's structure is. The ten narrators don't really have unique personalities, but they do relate to each other nonetheless. To give just one example, the last day of ten is given over to stories about 'munificent' deeds. The first story is about a king; the second about the Abbott of Cluny; the third a noble. The next four are about giving or restraining oneself from taking a woman as a lover (note, if you find this disturbing, that another tactic of the narrators is to follow a story in which a woman is more or less an object to be moved around by men with a story in which a woman is doing the moving for her own damn self). This is followed by an astonishing story about friendship between male 'common' people, rather than royalty--told by a woman. But, according to this classical tradition, women are incapable of friendship. This is answered by another tale about royalty.

      The narrators argue throughout the tale-tellings about who is more impressive: nobles, royals, friends, lovers, and so on. So, although the 'personalities' aren't all that strong, Boccaccio does use the difference narrators to throw different shades of irony on the tales he's telling. And that's without taking into account the differences between the days (which we're encouraged to attribute to the different narrators who 'rule' over the day's proceedings), or the fact that some of the narrators are in love with each other (we don't know who, but each narrator sings a song at the end of a day, which must offer clues).

      All of which is to say: one could read this as a really old collection of short stories, but the stories themselves are rarely that interesting. Funny, yes. Bawdy, for sure. But the fascinating thing about the Decameron is the structure. Paradoxically, you could think about individual instances in Dante's Commedia much more fruitfully than you can think about individual tales in this work, even though the structure of this one seems much less important to the thing as a whole.

      Otherwise, the Penguin translation is less American-colloquial than the most recent translation, and/but* contains a fabulous introduction, which is really a little monograph of its own.

      * Depends on your taste for that king thing, y'all.
    • 4/5
      I was surprised by the wit of each of these 100 stories from the 14th century. (abt. 1353) They were clever, suspenseful, funny and sometimes almost pornographic. The only off-putting theme was the overt domestic violence in a few of the stories; men abusing their wives or mistresses was completely acceptable at the time. They did get even in a few stories though.
    • 3/5
      100 days: 100 stories. The Decameron is a trip to the past, where the ravages of the plague run wild and twenty male and female nobles seek refuse in a villa to lament and to dream. This work encompasses the plight of an entire generation of people and, I felt, tries to garnish meaning from the absurd. The plague itself, I found, was a metaphor of the darkness of the world-- ever looming and closing in. Meanwhile, the stories are hope for the future. The description between all of the darkness that the plague encompasses, and all the loss prevalent in the stories, is paralleled by the facets of love that come through the anecdotes of life. There is so much love in these country tales, of people trying to find themselves through their own strife in an effort to change the world that they live in and try to make it better. Additionally, the book follows from inception of creation myths all the way to the intricacies of moral life and society. This was a different time, but the meaning still applies and remains the same. I believe that this is why the novel still holds up as a great literary achievement for the stamp of Boccaccio.

      A fine read. I recommend it for those interested in deep, literary fiction of the past.
    • 5/5
      When I was looking for a new translation of the Decameron to read, I read a quote by G. H. McWilliam, describing this translation as a "magnificent specimen of Jacobean prose." He went on to describe its serious shortcomings, but I ignored this. I love the Decameron and I love Jacobean prose. As I hoped, I found this cheap e-book edition on Amazon and was able to enjoy it despite minor print-to-electronic text shortcomings.I loved the book and the translation. This book is famous for shocking people and I was surprised that I was shocked by two of the stories. I was not shocked by the bawdy stories. I loved them and wished Florio had not flinched at some of the details. I was upset by two of the serious stories purporting to provide morals for the reader: one, suggested a good beating as a cure for shrewishness in a wife; the other, the famous story of patient Griselda, in which a wife is praised for her willingness to accept an enormous amount of abuse from her husband.
    • 5/5
      Giovanni Boccaccio stated in his prologue to The Decameron that these hundred stories were meant for the entertainment of ladies due to the fact that they had nothing better to do than assuage their boredom by indulging in the sometimes lascivious narratives. After all, a woman's role in the Renaissance was exclusively domestic, unless she had either chosen or been relegated to a nunnery. Not only as an entertainment, it was offered as a solace to those who were pining away as a consequence of Love: I intend to provide succour and diversion for the ladies, but only for those who are in love, since the others can make do with their needles, their reels and their spindles. If Boccaccio is to be believed, romantic love was like an epidemic, a scourge upon the earth, not unlike the plague that The Decameron's storytellers were in the act of avoiding. These storytellers — ten in number, of which seven were young ladies and three young men — had fled the city of Florence in 1348, due to the plague that eventually reduced the population by half, to a locus amoenus — literally "delightful locale" — where the young people were transformed into nymph-like maidens and sylvan swains who entertained themselves by telling stories, ten a day for ten days over a two-week period. But the young women also represent the seven virtues (Prudence, Justice, Temperance, Fortitude, Faith, Hope and Charity) and the men, according to the introduction, reflect the "tripartite division of the soul" into Reason, Anger and Lust.One could go on and on about the frame alone. But as to the stories themselves, they reflect many things that are common in medieval literature. Boccaccio's sources for the stories were fables, old French fabliaux and histories. All but a handful were mere sketches with stock figures and farcical situations. He embellished them and converted various elements to suit his own purposes. The major themes that appeared in the stories concerned Love, Intelligence and Fortune. Most of the stories are eminently forgettable, not much more than inflated jokes. A Renaissance reader would have seen them in an entirely different way than we inevitably do. For instance, the names of Boccaccio's characters in many cases were those of real people or at least referenced well known families. Many of the episodes would have read like a gossip column to a contemporary reader. Adversaries often reflected the contemporary conflicts between Church and State, Guelphs and Ghibellines, the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, or their various representatives. A 14th century reader would have read much into each story based on familiarity with distinguished family names and colorful local characters, and locales from Florence to Naples, Palermo to Athens. The notes are very helpful in identifying much of the lore underlying each story, but the facts still seem remote and the individual episodes seem improbable.Readers who are caught up in medieval and Renaissance literature will find much to enjoy in The Decameron. Others may find it a bit bewildering and may not want to invest the time to read the 140-page introduction and the copious notes. Doors are open to a lifetime of study in this comprehensive Penguin Classics edition, if one so desires. A thoroughly enjoyable and absorbing read for those who are intrigued by this sort of historical literary artifact.
    • 5/5
      When the Black Death hit Florence, six people fled to an aristocrat's abandoned villa and while enjoying everything available, pass the time telling tales to avoid thinking of the Plague. A wonderful book.
    • 5/5
      A collections of tales. Smartness wins against prejudice and religion, love against cupidity. Literature wins over death, joy and laughter win against ignorance and desperation. A positive message from a great book. A book that created a language.
    • 5/5
      It's unlikely that I could say anything about the Decameron that hasn't been said before, but I would like to add my voice to the many who have praised the McWilliam English translation. His prose is hilarious where the intent is humourous, formal where appropriate, and in general both idiomatic and clever. The Decameron is a long read but comes served in bite-size narrative chunks, and it is never not entertaining. This might be one of my favourite Penguins ever.I started reading this after finishing the Penguin edition of Jacobus de Voragine's The Golden Legend, with which it shares many plot structures and twists. But whereas the lives of the saints as told in the Legend are all within the framework of fraught religion, Boccaccio's basic framework is unfraught sex—definitely more fun to read.My only slight regret is that I wish I'd read Dante prior to this, just to give me more of the source background. But I will for sure be adding The Divine Comedy to my reading agenda for the near future.
    • 3/5
      The Decameron is a collection of 100 stories about various themes. Although I like the concept of short stories and most of the themes, it was just too much. I like short stories and stories about love but if you're reading 2 weeks in a book from about 730 pages about mainly romance you just get burnt out from it. There were also things that bothered me, especially things in the stories or the book. Like the woman who were always saying that the men were better, and that woman are not so smart and all... Oke that was probably the time spirit by then, but to read it now so often it's just annoying me.

      Another thing was all the adultery that came in it. I almost began to think that true love doesn't exist anymore. And it was all written so excessively. The woman were the most beautiful of the world, and the men were the most bravest of the world. Sometimes it's nice to read that, but if in every story different men and woman are the best of the world.... Yeah..

      What surprised me though was the critics in the book on monks and other religious persons. I thought they were very catholic in those days.

      Over all it's not a bad book or so, I just think it's a book you should read once in a lifetime. And dosed, like 1 story a day or so. I rented the book from the library so I had to read it in a couple weeks and then it becomes just all too much if you have to read in it every day.
    • 4/5
      This is one of those books that I read in school and enjoyed, but I don't recall if I actually read the entire thing.
    • 5/5
      Humorous. Tragic. Bawdy. Violent. One might think that 100 short stories written 660+ years would be pretty dry, but on the contrary, these are full of life, earthy, and engaging. They reveal shocking aspects of medieval times, while at the same time describing things between men and women true today. They expose the corruption of the clergy, and this combined with the overall licentiousness of the book led to it being burned in Italy and banned for centuries afterwards, yet happily it survived.The premise is that ten young Florentines have taken refuge in the country in 1348 as the plague ravages their city. Over the course of ten days, each tells us a short story, so that the collection includes a total of 100 stories in all. The plague was of course real and repeated over generations spanning hundreds of years in the medieval age; Boccaccio was 35 when it took the lives of 60,000 to 75,000 of Florence’s 100,000 inhabitants. It’s interesting to read his account of its effects, and how the Florentines carry a “a posy of flowers, or fragrant herbs, or one of a wider range of spices, which they applied at frequent intervals to their nostrils…” in the primitive attempt to safeguard themselves (recall the nursery rhyme ‘ring around the rosy, a pocket full of posy…’).The book is historically relevant because of its age and its influence on others. I don’t think there’s any doubt that Chaucer was influenced by the Decameron (and possibly met Boccaccio) prior to writing Canterbury Tales 40-50 years later. At the same time, it’s highly entertaining. I marked 41 of the 100 stories as being particularly good, a pretty high number in such a collection, and liked reading it to the end. If you think the modern age is the first to enjoy sex and violence, think again. The 10th story on the 3rd day, involving a hermit seducing a girl and teaching her about sex by likening it to putting the “devil” into “hell”, only to find her insatiable and having her wear him out was particularly eye-goggling, and there’s plenty of other ribald sporting about as well. Boccaccio revered Dante and some have likened The Decameron as a “Human Comedy” to Dante’s “Divine Comedy”; that may be true, but all I can say is that The Decameron was far more enjoyable to me than The Inferno, which featured eternal suffering and torment. It’s quite an investment at 800 pages, but highly readable, and well worth it.Quotes:On art, from Author's Epilogue:“Like all other things in this world, stories, whatever their nature, may be harmful or useful, depending upon the listener....What other books, what other words, what other letters, are more sacred, more reputable, more worthy of reverence, than those of the Holy Scriptures? And yet there have been many who, by perversely construing them, have led themselves and others to perdition....And the fact remains that anyone perusing these tales is free to ignore the ones that give offense, and read only those that are pleasing.”On God, from Sixth Day, Ninth Story:“However, Messer Betto had never succeeded in winning him over, and he and his companions thought this was because of his passion for speculative reasoning, which occasionally made him appear somewhat remote from his fellow beings. And since he tended to subscribe to the opinions of the Epicureans, it was said among the common herd that these speculations of his were exclusively concerned with whether it could be shown that God did not exist.”On parenting, from Second Day, Eight Story:“It was really quite unnecessary for you to feel ashamed about revealing it [the son's love for a girl], for this sort of thing is perfectly natural in someone of your age. Indeed, if you were not in love, I would think very poorly of you. Do not hide things from me, my son, but acquaint me freely with all your wishes. Get rid of all the sadness and anxiety that are causing your illness, and look on the bright side of things. You can be quite certain that I will move Heaven and earth to see that you have whatever you need to make you happy, for your happiness means more to me than anything else in the world.”On religion, from Third Day, Third Story:“...the priesthood consists for the most part of extremely stupid men, inscrutable in their ways, who consider themselves in all respects more worthy and knowledgeable than other people, whereas they are decidedly inferior. They resemble pigs, in fact, for they are too feeble-minded to earn an honest living like everybody else, and so they install themselves wherever they can fill their stomachs.”On sex, from Fifth Day, Tenth Story:“I grant that you keep me well supplied with clothes and shoes, but you know very well how I fare for anything else, and how long it is since you last slept with me. And I'd rather go barefoot and dressed in rags, and have you treat me properly in bed, than have all those things to wear and a husband who never comes near me. For the plain truth is, Pietro, that I'm no different from other women, and I want the same that they are having. And if you won't let me have it, you can hardly blame me if I go and get it elsewhere.”And this one which I thought was cute, from Ninth Day, Third Story:“"Look here, Calandrino [a man], speaking now as your friend, I'd say that the only thing wrong with you is that you are pregnant."When Calandrino heard this, he began to howl with dismay, and turning to his wife, he exclaimed:"Ah, Tessa, this is your doing! You will insist on lying on top. I told you all along what would happen."Lastly, on the “younger generation”, from First Day, Eight Story:“And the man who is held in the greatest esteem, who is most highly honored and richly rewarded by our base and wretched nobles, is the one whose speech and actions are the most reprehensible. All of which is greatly and culpably to the shame of the modern world, and proves very clearly that the present generation has been stripped of all the virtues, and left to wallow abjectly in a cesspit of vices.”
    • 2/5
      I didn't get a very good translation of this one. But the stories were interesting, and some the ancestors of Shakespeare plots. Give it a try. It's certainly more fun than reading another Belva Plain book.
    • 5/5
      The year is 1348 and the Black Death is plaguing Europe. To escape almost certain demise, seven young noblewomen, attended by three well-bred young male friends, flee the city of Florence into safety of the surrounding hillside. There, over a period of two weeks, they live a life of leisure, amusing themselves by eating good food, drinking wine, singing and dancing, and telling each other stories to pass the time. In particular, taking turns serving as king or queen for a day whose task it is to select a common theme, each of the ten companions tells a related tale that vary widely in nature from the humorous to the tragic to the ribald to, some would say, the blasphemous and heretical.Such is the clever narrative frame of The Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio’s celebrated masterpiece of morals and manners in pre-Renaissance Italy. Of course, the charm and lasting impact of this seven century-old novel is not in its overarching concept but rather the content of the 100 short stories themselves. Several of these vignettes are very entertaining and enlightening, although it is also fair to say that not all of them are successful and there is more than a little repetition in some of the themes that are presented. Still, taken as a whole, this collection of stories is remarkable for its ability to engage the modern reader as well as provide an important glimpse into the thoughts and motivations of people who lived so long ago. (For instance, it turns out that the pursuit of fame, wealth, and a lot of sex is not an invention of the present age!)Another point worth mentioning is that there have been many translations of The Decameron over the years and the one you choose to read matters greatly. I read the English language translation by G. H. McWilliam, which was produced in the early 1970s and appears to preserve the playful, lyrical quality of Boccaccio’s prose while presenting a complete and faithful rendition of the original novel. As McWilliam points out in his own introduction, previous translators have not always been as scrupulous, either omitting entire stories deemed to be too offensive to readers of that era or changing material details of some other tales to avoid incurring the wrath of clergy or government officials.Finally, other critics have noted that many of the stories in this volume present an overtly misogynistic portrait of women that attributes to them an inferior set of qualities and characteristics. Judged solely in modern terms, that may well be true. However, in the context of the mid-14th century mindset, my guess is that Boccaccio was likely considered a feminist who championed the intelligence, cleverness, and emotional fortitude of his myriad female protagonists. Wherever the truth actually lies, this is a historically significant text that has managed to retain its ability to delight and amuse so many over the past 700 years.
    • 5/5
      These are 100 short stories and like the earlier Arabic 1001 Nights or Chaucer's later Canterbury Tales told within a frame: Ten Florentine nobles, seven women and three men, flee the city to the country to escape the Black Plague for ten days. Each in turn is established as Queen or King for the day and sets a theme, then all tell a tale. This is fabulous stuff. One of those classics that isn't like eating your veggies, but having a feast. The stories are not just entertaining in themselves, laden with wit and irreverent humor, but are great pictures of life in Medieval Europe. Not often pretty pictures to our eyes--as when they show us misogynist or anti-Semitic aspects--although in neither case is it one-sided, and there are positive depictions of Jews, Muslims and women. Taken altogether, it gives us the bad, the good, the ugly, and only once in a while does it bring a modern sensibility up short with a Huh??? The book is nigh unkillable--although some translations can be rather dire. With Chaucer there might be good reason for reading if not the original Middle English, then something that hews close to it--but there's no excuse imo for "doth" and "verily" in a translation from the Italian, so you might want to scan some of the editions to make sure you find the prose amenable before purchase.
    • 5/5
      Suck it Boccaccio, I totally read your shit. Well, around 65% of it. I used a couple of different lists of "the best of them," and skipped any stories that weren't on either list.

      I've read a bunch of non-fiction books recently that at least touch on Italy in the 14th century, and I keep thinking, "Yeah, I understand this from Boccaccio." Corruption in the church, the role of women, the lives of the nobles and the common people... I get a better sense of these things from the Decameron than from the history books. So if Boccaccio's goal was to describe what life was like in his time, from every imaginable point of view, he has nailed it.

      I thought about what it would be like if someone did a modern version of the Decameron - 100 stories from all kinds of perspectives on today's world. At its best, that would be pretty awesome, huh? Worthy of being a classic.

      And that got me thinking more about all those stories about violence and rape. Because there are a lot of them, and they're often played as sorta funny and I haven't been sure how to deal with that, but it's true that Boccaccio's exposing the darker things that were happening in his time - along with all the other things. It's an unflinching tour, but it's misted by this irreverent tone that throws you off balance.

      Apparently Boccaccio himself wasn't crazy about the Decameron, but I think it's pretty dope.

      Not that I have anything to compare it to, but I found Michael Musa's translation easy to read and entertaining, modern without being over-modern. Thumbs up to that.

      I've been reminded recently how grotesquely hateful the last story in this collection is, and I feel like it's a public service to warn potential future readers about it: it leaves a very bad taste in your mouth. Horrifically misogynist. Skip it - or at least read it out of order, somewhere around the middle, so it's not your last impression.
    • 4/5
      10 stories a day, 10 days. Boccaccio's often bawdy tales deliver his characters from the sorrows of the plague and allow fair, gentle ladies (his supposed audience) a literary escape.
    • 5/5
      As entertaining now as it was 700 years ago.
    • 5/5
      The book the nuns wouldn't let you read in high school. A collection of riotous short stories of sex, friars, nuns, maiden ladies, married ladies, cuckolded husbands, and cheating spouses in and out of windows, doors, and situations. This must be where the modern sitcom originated.
    • 2/5
      Verzameling verhaaltjes. Erg gelijkend op Chaucer, maar met een veel hedonistischer saus, gefocust op de relatie tussen mannen en vrouwen. Erg overroepen reputatie, hoewel natuurlijk historisch waardevol
    • 4/5
      The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio was published in 1353 and demonstrates that the popularity of gross humor did not begin with the puerile teen comedies of our own era, but can be traced back to the middle ages and before (cf. Plautus and Aristophanes). I am in the midst of a reading of The Decameron using the translation by Mark Musa and Peter Bondanella. Selected stories from the first three days have introduced me to a polyglot of defrocked Friars, larcenous ladies, and virgins whose virginity remains in the imagination alone, although they can fool the King when necessary (the Kings and Priests and Aristocrats seem most likely candidates for the title "fool"). Even in translation the humorous style shines through and it seems all great fun, as long as you don't think of the Black Death that hovers in the background and provides the raison d'etre (pardon the French, I don't know the Italian equivalent) for the tale-telling.As I completed the days through to the tenth I was impressed with the fecundity of the tales, the breadth of the characters covering multiple vocations and classes, and the author's stylish ability to reach the reader - even in translation. These are tales that have inspired many writers as well as readers since the fourteenth century with good reason. With each tale I found myself looking forward with more desire for the next and now that I am done I am sure I will return to this humane writer.
    • 5/5
      This is a collection of tales told within a frame story of a group of young people who have fled Florence to avoid the plague.The frame story is quite weak and uninteresting, but the tales are great!
    • 5/5
      The best I have ever read. An amazing tale of times that have passed but how true they hold hundreds of years later. Amazing how Giovanni was allowed to live after the things he wrote about church, sex and etc.
    • 4/5
      The 100 stories within the story are generally entertaining, and the whole work provides a window into the 1500's. Most of the stories involve the sexual exploits of nobility and clergy, pranks and tricks between spouses and friends, and adventures abroad.

    Book preview

    The Decameron - Giovanni Boccaccio

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