The Decameron (Penguin Classics)

I'm reading this for a college assignment. Hate it. Hate it. I don't see why anyone likes it. I'm not Italian or Middle English. Give me a modern translation. If they can translate the Bible into readable English, surely they can translate this.

This book is WAY too long. Boccaccio tells story after story, and they all start to seem the same. They're not very clever or funny, either. He needed an editor who would have cut out half of what he wrote. It gets very boring after about 150 pages.

Some of the material is pornographic. Also, Boccaccio seems to have a problem with Christianity and/or God.

If you want to enjoy it, read a quarter of it and stop.

Giovanni Boccaccio is one of the three supreme literary masters of the Italian Renaissance--sharing those laurels with Dante and Petrarch--and he is also the most accessible. Written in the 1350s, in the wake of the worst part of the Black Plague (which would kill off one-third of Europe's population), THE DECAMERON is a collection of one hundred surprisingly light, hilariously funny and frequently bawdy short stories. In his preface, Boccaccio claims to have intended them to entertain Italian women who spent most of their lives indoors. Seven young Florentine ladies and three young gentlemen sojourn together to a Tuscan villa to escape the contagion-filled city. They pass each of their ten days in the picturesque countryside with long walks, good food and wine, jovial games, and oh yes, telling stories. Each of them is crowned queen or king for a day and gets to choose the order of the telling. This framework combined with the beautifully described rural setting makes the reader, too, feel warm, welcome, and one of the party.
Boccaccio indulges in a popular form of satire against the foul and corrupt members of the fourteenth century clergy--one of the ten actually admits that it's "too easy" to pick on such scoundrels. With humor and the power of shame he attacks both the hypocrisy of the clergy and the hypocrisy toward which the Catholic Church's sexually repressive laws drove people. Here we find a group of nuns fighting over the sexual favors of the convent gardener; there a wily cleric indulges his prurient urges by convincing a foolish woman that he is the Angel Gabriel; still another adulteress cows her angry husband by claiming he is not enough to satisfy her lust--is it fair that she throw the surplus to the dogs? But the prize is taken by the hermit who persuades a young girl that there's only ONE WAY to fight the devil! Quite often one or another of the chaste storytelling party finishes a tale of illicit pleasure on a note of "May we, too, always have our desires fulfilled." THE DECAMERON is not all lust and corruption, of course, there are tales of great bravery and loyalty in the face of high odds. Great sacrifices are made, fortunate coincidences occur, true faith is rewarded.
THE DECAMERON is easy to dip into again and again and feel rewarded every time. It is impossible to read these wonderful stories without thinking that Boccaccio was enjoying himself inordinately as he wrote them. However he may revel in the permissiveness brought on by the terror of the Plague, much more importantly does he praise life and love and passion as precious and worth grabbing. Boccaccio's generation had certainly seen enough of pain and suffering and death, after all--we should begrudge them nothing.
One of the world's finest literary treasures, THE DECAMERON belongs on the shelf of everyone who loves great storytelling.

This review is for the unabridged Blackstone audio book narrated by Frederick Davidson. I have a rather long commute, so I pass the time listening to audio books and I have been working my way through several of the classics. I saw that the Decameron was available and that it had good reviews so I gave it a shot. It turned out to be a very enjoyable listening experience.

The reader has a very appropriate voice for this book. He does a good job changing his voice to match the different characters. The translation is somewhat archaic and was initially hard to follow until I got used to the terms. I actually got to enjoy some of the terms after awhile. For example, when addressing the women in the storytelling group, the men would call them `lovesome ladies'.

The 100 stories in the Decameron were delightful. They were told in groups of ten, with a theme for each. Some were very bawdy, and I'm hoping adultery wasn't as common of a practice in the 14th century as indicated. I recognized many of the storylines in movies I have seen or books I have read. It's amazing how much creativity one man can generate. The stories occurred mostly in Italy, but covered much of Europe and the Muslim world as well. Boccaccio clearly used his satire to skewer the hypocritical churchmen of his time. It was very interesting to see what the world was like in those days.

This is clearly a classic that deserves to be read. The audio book was also very good, but be aware that it may take the first hour or two to get used to the archaic language. After the adjustment, it turns out to be a gem.

The grim, solemn portrayals of humanity in most medieval art would lead us to think of the Middle Ages as a harsh, heartless time of disease, ignorance, oppressive piety, and puritannical drudgery, but "The Decameron" shows that people back then did indeed have a sense of humor, and they needed it more than ever during the Black Plague of the mid-14th Century. Boccaccio's intention is to present a lively diversion to the reading public of the time, and he makes no apologies to those who would be easily offended by silliness, sexual innuendo, or unflattering portrayals of hypocritical, licentious clergymen.
The book's background is an eerie reflection of the time in which it was written. Seven young ladies and three young men from Florence, Italy, depressed and frightened about the plague that is currently sweeping throughout the lands and taking large chunks out of the population, decide to escape to the countryside, camp out in vacant castles, and tell each other stories to distract themselves from the horrors of the plague and bide their time until it passes.
Each of them tells a story per day for ten days -- one hundred stories total -- and each day has an established theme which the stories told that day must follow. The stories are simple fables about love, adultery, deception, generosity, and fortune, in which stupid or gullible people are fooled, selfish people are cheated, arrogant people get their comeuppance, and smart, honest, or virtuous people are rewarded. Running the gamut from farcically ridiculous to decadently ribald to melodramatically sad, they are apparently the kinds of stories people back then probably would have found entertaining.
Because of the unifying daily themes, the stories on any given day can start to seem homogeneous after a while, so it would not be unreasonable to skip some. Don't take that comment as a slight against Boccaccio's accomplishment, though. If we must look to the ages for wisdom, we should be pleased and grateful to find this 700-year-old pre-Renaissance book, which serves as a reminder that humor is, and always has been, an effective drug to numb the pain from even the worst tragedies and catastrophes.

Somewhere between literature and culture itself, we have the Decameron, an incredible look into the year 1350. As a frame story, ten nobles flee from the decimation of the black death by inhabiting two villas in and around Florence. They amuse themselves through narratives, whose themes stretch from despair to lust to religious philosophy.

As one reflects upon the Decameron, it's importance as a landmark of literature grows. This novel is a photograph of the black death as it occurred, the shifts of thinking that occurred to people as it happened, and a fugue from a bygone method of looking at the world. The introduction paints a portrait of just how deadly the plague was, pigs killed off by sniffing on a scrap of infected clothing, former manors in the hands of servants who were lucky enough to survive. The economy gripped by terror, the church losing it's grip in a world where survival of the fittest and not divine judgement determined who lived and who died, the stories reflect disdain for the church's ecclesiarchy and endorse a new, sophisticated ethic of living. Decameron may be the novel that separated the dark ages and the new world of the renaissance. From the renaissance, the world as we know it today.

The tales contained are to be devoured and savored slowly. A lot of tropes in both literature and culture first appear in written form here. Ever heard the expression being able to look yourself in the mirror? The origin's right here. I noted some story elements later used by Tolstoy in War and Peace and Shakespeare as well. Talk about influence!

Turn the pages with reverence. The Decameron served as a new dawn for both literature, and the philosophy of the world.

Ten young Florentine noblemen and women escaping the Black Death in Florence in 1348 entertain themselves by each relating a story per day for ten days - 100 entertaining stories in all, mostly set in and around medieval Florence. Although famously naughty, none of these stories strikes a modern reader as more than mildly erotic. Rather, they consistently astonish by their thoroughly modern message that women are as good as men, nobility doesn't come from birth, sanctity doesn't come from the church, and - above all - true love must never be denied. Amazingly, Boccaccio often delivers this message while pretending to say the exact opposite; sometimes he presents very sympathetic characters who get away with things thought scandalous in his time, offering a mere token condemnation at the end, while other times he depicts someone actually following the accepted code and committing some horrible act of cruelty in the process. Either way - and despite his claims to be upholding convention - we always know what he really means, and apparently he didn't fool too many people in his own day either.
But one doesn't need to focus on the revolutionary aspects of the Decameron to enjoy the book; each of the stories delights the reader with a different tasty morsel, and, you can read as much or as little at a time as you please. Once you get past the introduction, (and that's probably the most serious part of the book, so be sure not to give up before you get to the first story) the stories will make you laugh, make you cringe, and make you sit on the edge of your seat. Inspiring authors from Chaucer to Shakespeare and entertaining audiences for over 700 years, the Decameron continues to delight.

'The Decameron' is a fascinating example of classic literature that remains fresh and entertaining today. Written in the mid-14th century, it concerns the first major outbreak of the black plague in Europe, which first emerged in Italy in approximately 1347. Boccaccio begins, in the prologue, by stating his purpose for writing the book - namely, to entertain literate women with nothing else to do with their time. The story itself concerns ten young Florentines (seven women - Pampinea, Filomena, Neifile, Fiammetta, Elissa, Lauretta, and Emilia; and three men - Panfilo, Dioneo, and Filostrato) who flee the city in hopes of escaping the plague. To occupy themselves during this time, they tell each other stories, with each person telling one story per day to make a total of 100 stories over the course of the entire book. At the beginning of the first day, Boccaccio provides an excellent and detailed description of the plague itself. The book ends with the refugees returning to their homes, and a closing epilogue from the author.
I very much enjoyed 'The Decameron.' It is interesting and easy to read. The characters in the various stories are ordinary people and this makes them seem very real. Many of them actually are based on real people. Some of the stories, too, are inspired by actual events, though not all. This particular edition is an excellent translation. It is very user-friendly while still retaining the 14th century 'feel' of it. I also liked the organization of the book, as it was always very easy to find a 'stopping place.' With some novels, it's hard to set them down, but since The Decameron is a collection of short stories, one can always stop at the end of any particular story and come back later.
Boccaccio claims that his goal in writing 'The Decameron' was to entertain and 'provide succour and diversion' (Prologue 3) to young women who are in love - presumably those whose love lives are not going well at the moment. He says he wishes to 'offer some solace' (Prologue 2) to these women, and also 'some useful advice' (Prologue 3). While this sounds like a noble aim on first glance, I have to wonder about his sincerity. A good many of the stories involve characters who go to rather immoral ends to achieve their aims, and I find it odd that such examples would be given in a book intended to instruct a young lady.
Nevertheless, the book is great fun to read. The stories are lively and colorful, and often quite humorous. It provides an excellent insight into the everyday lives of people during this time period. I will caution, however, that most of the stories involve sexuality in some way, and many revolved around it completely. If you are easily offended by bawdy humor, this may not be the book for you. Nearly all the characters of the various tales are sexually active, most with more than one partner. There are also homosexual and bisexual characters. Sexual infidelity is treated here as not only acceptable, but widely encouraged. Characters who cheat on their spouses regularly come out on top, while those that are cuckolded are laughed at and made to look like fools. The unfaithful partner is rewarded and the faithful one shamed and called a prude.
The one thing I do wish Boccaccio had talked more about is the ten people who were actually telling the stories. There are hints of Filostrato having a romantic interest in fellow-storyteller Filomena, but this is never followed up on, except to hint that Filomena is herself interested in someone else not of the company. I would like to know if anything more ever came of Filostrato's interest. I would also have liked to know more of what happened to the ten storytellers upon returning to Florence at the end of the book. Had the plague passed? What had happened to those they left behind? Did any of the ten themselves catch the plague? All of this is left out and I found the ending to be somewhat abrupt.
Perhaps most unclear to me, however, is how the ten were even able to flee the plague as they did. There is no talk of preparation, and it seems that they just dropped everything and left. The places they stayed were abandoned estates that they simply happened upon. Boccaccio says of the second place they stayed, 'she brought them [. . .] to a most beautiful and ornate palace. [. . .] They explored it from end to end and were filled with admiration for its spacious halls and well-kept, elegant rooms, which were equipped with everything they could possibly need, and they came to the conclusion that only a gentleman of the highest rank could have owned it' (Introduction, Third Day, 189). Why were places such as this abandoned? Had its owner/s died of plague? Or if the owners were not dead but had instead fled from the plague, why did they not take some of their things with them? Why was everything left in these places as if nothing was amiss? It all seems a bit unreal to me.
Overall the book is written very well for what it is - a collection of short stories. It is, however, lacking in character development. Most of the storytellers were very flat emotionally, and it would have been nice to see them fleshed out a little more. But in the context of a short story or group of short stories this lack of depth is more forgivable than it would be in a novel. With the exception of Dioneo, who seems to be the most creative and fun-loving of the ten, and Filostrato, who seems absorbed in moping and self-pity for much of the book (presumably over his unrequited interest in Filomena), I found it hard to distinguish one storyteller from another. But the focal point of the book is the stories themselves, and these are all highly entertaining. Though the frequent sexual references may make the book inappropriate for younger audiences, I would highly recommend it for any mature reader.

This fascinating fourteenth-century text is as complex as it is misunderstood. The premise is simple enough: the author creates a fictional set-up where, over ten days, seven female and three male characters who are cooped up in a country estate tell one another a total of 100 stories. The title, "The Decameron," literally means "ten day's work."
But this framing technique of ten narrators is hardly the point. The star of this work are the tales told by these sequestered characters. These 100 stories are chillingly sneaky in how they will mess with your mind. At first the tales will appear shocking, overtly sexual, or even knee-slappingly funny. (Think "Monty Python.") But in fact, like Aesop, the great Italian prose author Boccaccio tucks an ambiguous, gnawing moral into each tale. You will laugh at first, and then the bittersweet truth of each story's lesson will zap you.
The true brillance of "The Decameron" is that it is kaleidoscopic in nature: while all the tales are somewhat similar to one another, each story is truly unique in how it aligns its characters, its structure, its action, and its moral. The basic ingredients are similar in dozens of stories, and yet their outcomes prove to be wholly different. So instead of getting "re-runs," you the reader wind up in a quicksand-like universe where some good-hearted characters are punished, others rewarded, and some scoundrely characters are quashed while other soar.
It is Boccaccio's humorous (yet ultimately grim) portrait of our herky-jerky, you-never-know world, where a person can never be sure of his destiny despite his conduct, that makes this work brilliant. Behind the ribaldry and the chuckles, this late-medieval author proves that our world (sometimes benevolent, sometimes cruel, but always inscrutable) is, indeed, nothing but a human comedy.

It seems almost redundant that I bother to rate this with yet another 5-star review, but this is one of the books that changed my life.

As a mind struggling to repair the damage caused by the American education system, I set out to follow other curriculums from times when learning was actually valued. Since many of the so-called "classics" American students today are forced to read in school are thinly-disguised socialist propaganda, I chose to look to much earlier times. I picked up The Decameron by chance, having remembered it from an off-hand statement a high school history teacher had made once. The book had everything, exalting adventure, romance, heroism, virtue, and other things I had been taught were subjective and dangerous. I found it the most refined and tastefully deviant book I had ever read and I have never been able to understand why students are not exposed to it as the basis for the study of literature.

Boccaccio's stories (told one per day, by each of the ten characters over ten days) give great insight into the midieval paradigm while poking fun at its obvious problems. The tales cover the whole of Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor, which was very unique for their time. The rolls of heroes involve characters of every culture, race, religion, and background in the known world-- something unheard of before this book. Boccaccio's great love and understanding of women also shines through, the expression of which tops the list of reasons as to why he was exiled from Florence! Most of the stories are based on actual people and events, though the author takes a great deal of artistic license in some cases. A great many little-known facts can be learned by reading the historical notes (one reason why I chose the Penguin Classic version). Boccaccio surpasses every other man of letters, before him or since, in ability and creativity and will no doubt do so for centuries to come.

100 stories to read time and again.

The Decameron contains many references to the church and its influence. The first story of Ser Cepparello pokes fun at the church, but the storyteller, Panfilo, precedes his tale with a pious preamble: "It is fitting that everything done by man should begin with the marvelous and holy name of Him...I intend to start with one of His marvelous deeds, so that when we have heard about it, out faith in Him will remain as firm as ever" (25). Panfilo goes on to tell the story of the worst sinner in Europe who becomes a saint merely by duping his confessor. At the end of the tale, Christians worship the false saint, and Panfilo concludes with another tribute to God. The effect is hilarious. The tale makes religion a farce, but the opening and closing take religion very seriously. This disguises the biting satire of the story. By framing stories with prayers, the contents within the frame seem less irreverent. The second story fits in the same framework, as Neifile tells a story to promote "His infallible truth so that with firmer conviction we may practice what we believe" (38). She goes on to tell the story of a Jew named Abraham, who converts to Christianity after he observes the wickedness of the clergy in Rome. Abraham finds Rome to be "a forge for the Devil's work" and is amazed that "in spite of all this...your religion grows and becomes brighter and more illustrious" (42). The incredible corruption of the church, coupled with its success, baffles Abraham enough that he has to conclude that God must favor the Christians if they are allowed to be so evil. Like Panfilo, Neifile concludes her tale by praising God.

The third story also focuses on religion, but this time the main characters are a Saracen and a Jew. The Jewish lender, Melchisedech, posits Saladin with the question of which of the three religions is the one true religion. Saladin is portrayed as wise. The story shows tolerance to the Saracens through the characterization.

The fourth story returns to the Christian world, as a monk and an abbott succumb to "the warm desires of the flesh" (48). The two holy men sleep with a girl and invite her back for sex time and again.

Boccaccio avoids attacking the doctrine of the church, but he exposes certain realities of human nature. Those employed by the church cannot escape themselves, despite their appearances. They are as fallible as the peasants. In "The Author's Conclusion," Boccaccio defends his stories against protest by saying, "A corrupt mind never understands a word in a healthy way" (804). The addendum to The Decameron acts as a line of defense for the author from overzealous Christians who he predicts will take offense at the stories and accuse him of "taking too much license in writing these tales" (802). He points out that "my stories run after no one asking to be read," and implies that the sensitive reader should avoid the book altogether. The conclusion has comical elements as well. He gets a final poke at friars, saying, "they all smell a little like goats" (806). Boccaccio manages to make his point while keeping the tone light.

Boccaccio's work itself is timeless - a collection of traditional narratives woven into a framing device that gives readers a glimpse of Italy (and by extension Europe) during the Black Death. They're amazing stories as literature and the work is a wonderful primary source for any historian of the period. The Signet volume also has a great introductory section that gives readers a solid background on the work and provides some useful suggestions on how to go through the anthology of stories in some interesting ways (organized by theme, etc.) A great volume at a good price.

An Italian version "Canterbury Tales". A simple premise: there's a plague in Florence and 10 affluent young people (7 women and 3 men) decide to sit it out in the countryside. To amuse themselves, each one has to tell a story each day. 10 days, 10 people = 100 stories.
This is a great book in reading about medieval life in an amusing, non-dogmatic manner. There are tales of trickery that rival the Arabian Nights in their ingenuity. There are tales which relate to agriculture, injustice, knighthood, love and valour. Some of the days have all the tales on a specific topic.
One theme that I found most interesting was the treatment of sex. So many of the tales deal with it and it's done largely in a slapstick and carefree manner. This book is a sign that no church or social norm was ever successful in suppressing the popular erotic imagination in Europe. But even so, the licentiousness of some tales (in relation to the time they were written) surprised me - there are stories of amorous encounters between clergy and the opposite sex, of homosexuality, of multiple affairs etc.
Some of the tales are too long as they're stretched out to fit a literary style reminiscent of the medieval romances. But I found almost all the stories to be interesting.
As a note, I read the translation by Aldington which was very good but it feels to me after reading this work that many translations on the market would be just as good.
Thoroughly recommended and thoroughly entertaining!

When I was in high school, History class mentioned the Index of Books, the books that the reactionary Catholic Church had banned. Got all my homework done at school, so I went to the library (of a small town) and started looking up books on the Index. Several of them were either at the library, or readily order-able. Two hard-bound copies of the Decameron were there. In fact, the original binding had worn out and each copy was in at least its second binding. That's how good this book is!

Before I was out of high school, I'd read the whole thing at least three times, very unusual for me!

The Decameron has 100 stories. Some stories you'll love, some you'll hate! My favorites probably got read 10 times. Too funny!

Also discovered how it got on the Index! Stories that explain how kids turn up at convents and others!

Funny stories about cuckolds, how they tried to catch the culprit, who might be right under their nose!

Perhaps there's most of the 100 stories that are not risque, but those, I don't remember.....40 years later! ;^)

Giovanni Boccaccio's, The Decameron, is a series of 100 short stories. The setting is Florence, Italy during the middle of the 14th century, a period when Europe was besieged by the Black Plague. With people dying all around them ten young people, seven women and three men, take refuge in a church. They then decide to go to the countryside to try to escape the ravages of the disease. While there they while away their time with various amusements including telling stories. Each person is to tell one story a day for ten days. There is a theme for most days, but the stories are independent from each other.

In these stories Boccaccio demonstrates his great expanse of knowledge. The stories are varied and often humorous, but also have a with a moral to tell. Some are risqué. One example from the first day is the story of a young monk who meets a comely girl in the woods. He takes her back to his cell and they engage in sexual activity. The abbot happens by and, peeking into the cell, sees what is going on. He determines to punish the monk for his misdeed. But the monk is too clever for him and contrives to trick the abbot into engaging in the same behavior. When both realize the situation they agree to keep the whole thing quiet between themselves.

Eight of the ten days have a theme: stories about people who attain a state of unexpected happiness after a period of misfortune, people who attain difficult goals or recover something lost, love stories with unhappy endings, love stories with happy endings, how intelligence helps to avoid difficulties, tricks played by wives on their husbands, tricks played by men and women on each other and stories about those who have performed generous deeds. The cast of characters spans virtually every possibility from nobles and the rich to the lowest of the low and covers a range of geographical places.

One interesting facet of these stories is that women are generally equal to men--both in positive and negative aspects. In this sense the work is quite modern. The stories are action packed; Boccaccio is not concerned with description or preaching, but rather with letting the actions of his characters speak for him.

The Decameron is not a great work in the same category as The Canterbury Tales and some may find it to be less interesting than the works of such short story masters as O. Henry and Anton Chekov. The characters have strange names to the modern ear and, given the shortness of the story, it is difficult to identify with them.

Yet The Decameron is well worth reading. It can be undertaken in a number of short sessions, reading one or a few stories at a time.

The "Decameron" is a collection of 100 short stories written by the Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio between 1350 and 1353.
It's about a a group of seven young women and three young men who flee Florence during the plague and end up living together in a villa in Fiesole for two weeks. To pass the time, each person tells a story to the others in the group. In this manner 100 stories are told which revolve around different amorous episodes, the lust and greed of the clergy and the adventures of a few merchants. The author elevates different moral values like the power of intelligence, quick wit, ethics and good manners and takes up different social behaviors like the tricks that women play on men or that people play one each other.
The book is realistic, historical, philosophical, satirical and human.

This is an awesome collection of a hundred stories told over ten days, by the young people Fiammetta, Dioneo, Filostrato, Neifile, Emilia, Elisa (or Elissa), Filomena, Panfilo, Pampinea, and Lauretta, who have temporarily left Florence because of the scariness of the Plague. Each of them also brings also a servant. The introductory chapter is really gripping, told from the pov of someone who actually lived through that devastating and frightening time when this mysterious deadly disease was sweeping through Europe, killing nearly everyone, devastating families and churches, destroying morality, and generally creating a very terrifying atmosphere. The young people spend more than ten days on hiatus from Florence, taking some of the days off for religious purposes, but most of the time is spent telling stories. Most of the days have a theme to be followed, like love stories that began sadly but ended happily, though Dioneo gets to tell a story on whatever topic he likes. Because of this privilege, he always must tell his story last.
This came before the Canterbury Tales, and I consider it a lot better. Chaucer seems to have been greatly influenced by it in that a number of his own tales are suspiciously similar to stories in here; one is admittedly even a practically word-by-word retelling of the final Decameron story. There are all sorts of people in these stories, from all walks of life, doing all kinds of things, things which many people would never think of people of this time period doing. Nearly everyone commits adultery or has premarital sex, people deceive priests and friars with false confessions, women are just as sexually demanding as the men, people cheat one another out of goods and money, women get rid of unwanted suitors, monks, nuns, friars, and priests violate their vows of chastity, even a (for the time) very risqué tale about a gay man who marries a woman as a cover for his ongoing affairs with other men. A lot of the stories are also very funny, like the priest who makes a vain woman believe the Angel Gabriel is in love with her and is using the priest's body to sleep with her every night, or (my favourite) the tale about how to put the Devil back into Hell. Women were second-class citizens and property at this time in history, yet there are plenty of spirited female characters who get what they want and are smarter than the men in their lives.
There are only a few stories in here I would consider dated doozies. The story where the moral is to learn to beat your wife so she won't assert herself and disobey her husband's every last word is repugnant, and I hate the eighth story of the fifth day. Nastagio has spent nearly all of his money trying to court a woman who doesn't like him, and after seeing a bizarre supernatural scene involving a man in his same position, a man who killed himself, he decides to invite the woman and some friends and family over to lunch the next time this scene occurs. Because he threw his weight around, this poor woman was terrified she would end up in Hell and be chased by a phantom knight and mauled by phantom dogs every Friday, and so gave in to this bully. The first story of the fifth day, about Cimone, also is very dated...how is it a happy ending to a love story when the man throws his weight around and bullies the woman into being with him? The second story in the book is also way dated and offensive-a merchant bullies his Jewish friend (typically only called by his name thrice during the story) into converting to Christianity, and the man makes a pilgrimage to Rome and comes back convinced he must convert, since Christianity thrives despite the corruption of the Vatican. That's pure Christian fantasy and just historical inaccuracy; the huge majority of Jews who changed religions in that era of time did not do so out of conviction but rather for improved social, business, or educational status. Though in the second of the stories where Saladin, the legendary Muslim ruler, appears, he is treated as one of the two heroes of the story, not some "heathen" who has no virtues and who must be converted asap.
A lot of books written during the Middle Ages are no longer remembered or in print today. There's a reason why this has stuck around for hundreds of years and is regarded as a timeless classic.

A "human comedy" to parallel Dante's Divine Comedy, the Decameron is an earthy and often uproarious work. Ten Florentine aristocrats, trying to escape the plague, tell ten stories each over ten weekdays (like good Christians, they take Sundays off). The prologue is one of the best eyewitness accounts of the Black Death that has come down to us. The stories themselves are famously ribald and often turn medieval social conventions on their heads, in the manner of all good comedy. The translation by G.H. McWilliam is readable and fairly literal.

This mammoth collection of short stories was written in the wake of the Bubonic Plague which killed a third of the population of Europe back in the 14th century. The stories are for the most part really good narratives, and they're told through ten young noblemen who are trying to hide out from the plague to save themselves and tell these stories to pass the time. Written in a clear, classical, controlled, strongly plotted style, these are tales about sex, violence, intrigue... but nothing gratuitous of course. Good, easy-to-read translation!
David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"

The Decameron (Penguin Classics) is an amazing literary classic and one of the few that will forever be read. Giovanni Boccaccio has here created such a literary masterpiece that it can be compared with other amazing authors such as Homer, Shakespeare, Sidney and Tolkien. Boccaccio shows here a vibrant mideval world full with wit, intelligence and humour. Penguin Classics does as ever an amazing job presenting this timeless classic and the translation and the introduction and the notes by G. H. McWilliam are very interesting, well-written and thought worthy. Highly recommended. 5/5.

I can't emphasize enough how enjoyable this book is. It is similar to Chaucer in some respects because the collection of tales are supposedly told by seven ladies and three gentlemen when they meet in a Florentine church to discuss how to avoid the Black Death. Each tale is a masterpiece in its own right. The tales are as lewd as Chaucer's, but the wit is dealt with a very light hand. But Boccaccio presents a very human world with his tales, and through this we get to know each of his storytellers very well. I recommend this book highly. It's a lot of fun, and it will make you laugh out loud.

Ten young people flee medieval Florence during the plague and take refuge on a beautiful country estate, where they amuse themselves telling stories for ten days. For me, the stories were more intriguing than entertaining. It was interesting to see what sorts of stories people told at that time.

Some of the "clever" speeches or retorts made by characters don't seem to transcend time and translation, but the values these admired characters espouse are timeless. On the other hand, many other characters are applauded for their trickery, and at times the storytellers laughed over a story when I thought the outcome was cruel. There's an overabundance of stories about men trying to lock down their wives and daughters, and women tricking their husbands and fathers so they can be with their lovers. Then there are guys who trick the ladies, too.

It's a long book, but the individual stories are short, so it's easy to put it down and pick it up another time without having to remember what was going on. If you read a couple here and there, eventually you're finished -- and sorry to see it end.

the store has incorrectly linked the thumbnail of the Penguin edition of McWilliam's translation to an edition that is NOT that of McWilliam. There is no info in the Kindle version to even state the translator's name, but I compared my paperback copy of the Penguin McWilliam translation and it sure ain't what was shipped. However, kudos to the store for a smooth and quick response to my request for a refund.

I discovered this work in college literature class, and have since bought a copy to keep and read again. The setting is as interesting as the stories. In Italy, a group of young nobles (mostly ladies) gather at one family's country estate for a few days, hoping to escape the Black Plague.

Their attitude is, "What the hell, we could all die any day anyway, so let's have some fun." There's no mention of hanky-panky among the group, but the stories are full of it. Each day after their evening feast, they take turns telling stories of love based on a theme announced the the evening's appointed "queen" or "king."

The themes read like soap opera plots with trickery, foolishness, happy and sad endings, hard-won victories, convoluted and simple plots. The tales are universally human and continue into modern-day literature.

For history-lovers, medieval scholars and anyone interested in the development of story-telling in the written as opposed to verbal form, this book is very important. I started by dipping into it, reading one story here and one there (it is a collection of a hundred short stories) and then slowly reading the whole book. Some of the stories could have benefited from a more 'up-beat/modern' translation but overall the book works well and Boccacio is good, although, I have to say, nothing beats reading Chaucer in the original Middle English. It's like Strindberg - great in Swedish, dreadful in English. Boccacio in Latin would probably be awesome but beyond me I'm afraid!!!

Consistent with the superlative audio productions that Naxos provides, this reading of selections from Boccaccio's Decameron is outstanding. The actors are gifted professionals, all of whom are sensitive to the demands of the text. This recording is a joy to hear. Particularly when one recalls that the text is over 700 years old, then one ought to appreciate that human issues are not so very different today. Boccaccio wrote these tales with grace, humor, and humility. These are tales for the ages, rendered elegantly by the cast on this recording. This is a must for the 21st century listener!

The translation that you choose will have an impact upon your enjoyment of any work written in a foreign language. In the case of The Decameron, the translations recommended by "The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation" are those by (1) G.H. McWilliams and (2) Bondanella and Musa.

I purchased the McWilliams translation and found it to be enjoyable, although slightly wooden. There were also several howlers (e.g., addressing the women in the group as "Delectable Ladies.")

There's a 100+ page introduction, which I found to be overly academic and tedious. This is, as far as most readers are concerned, a fun book to read; the introduction should not detract from that experience.

This volume has extensive endnotes at the end of the book. Most of them are of little interest to the general reader and add nothing to one's enjoyment of the stories. Since they are short, and given modern editing technology, they could just as easily been included as footnotes at the bottom of the page on which they appear, which would have been more convenient. (Inexplicably, the notes to the Introduction are footnotes.)

The book is bawdy, but not obscene. McWilliams, justifiably I think, is of the opinion that certain passages are misogynistic and homophobic, which seemed to me to be correct. The latter is odd, because Florence during the Renaissance was notorious throughout Europe for its large homosexual population (most of its great artists reputedly were gay). Forewarned is forearmed.

I have not read the Bondanella and Musa translation, but McWilliams (who appears to be remarkably fair) speaks well of it in his Second Preface. Based upon the foregoing, I would choose it instead.

Don't be intimidated by this medieval masterpiece. It is actually just a collection of very loosely related short stories, most of which are rather comical. You need not read them in one sitting and you need not read them all. In fact, the editors provide a list of their favorite stories (an alternative view is that they are telling you which ones to skip).
Great modern translation.

Es sorprendente que un libro escrito have casi mil años pueda ser tan presente, tan relevante, tan universal.

Boccaccio es un Aristófanes popular y un maestro del cuento corto. Sin más, recomiendo El Decamerón, a sabiendas que traerá risas y asombro.

A wonderful work, these refreshing pieces have a verve that is hard to find in medieval literature. Irate Italians who complain of Chaucer stealing from Boccaccio should consider medieval thought on authority and originality. A complex collection, rightfully earning its place as one of Italy's greatest literary products.

Caveat emptor. The the store page for the Penguin edition of the Decameron (trans. McWilliam) included a link to this Kindle edition, but it is *not* the McWilliam translation. It as an absurdly archaic, unattributed English translation.

Yes, the Decameron is an iconic classic, and a fascinating and valuable piece of medieval literature, and I did find some of the stories funny and entertaining, but is it really of value today on its own merits or only as a historical/literary artifact? Most of its very predictable stories revolved around casual adultery, fornication and/or scatalogical humor, which doesn't necessarily condemn it as a piece of art, but I personally found the majority of the tales to be either silly or prosaic. Read it if you have the yen; it's divided into easily digestible tales that will enable you to put the book down for any length of time and not lose any sort of continuity when you pick it up again. Just try to read it without any preconceived notions of veneration, just because of its age.

My daughter will be an English major and was absolutely thrilled with this 2 volumn set. Although many years old, both books were in great shape. I'm so please my daughter understands the value of antique books.

Finally, a masterpiece that explicitly and thoroughly through its 100 stories explains what makes us humans and unique. As a sexologist I realize the importance of details in the book, and I recommend the penguin uncensored edition to anyone.

Boccaccio teaches us what the cosmopolitan does nowadays and more. And not to mention the realism in it, that is, all people have been into a situation as at least one of these stories.

Either this book doesn't describe reality or does so with horrible accuracy. Your take on this precept will color the Decameron's perception. For me, it was heavy overdose of the human condition. Too much so, it left me sick at points with the backbiting, the lying, the scheming, the broken promises, and the general malaise towards covenantal bonds. The low points covered were many, perhaps reflective of humanity itself. There were high points, however, (Madam Beritola and Griselda come to mind) and many of these were later incorporated in the Canterbury Tales as well.

Funny, extremely entertaining, which is kind of shocking for medieval literature. I read the whole book in just 12 hours while sitting in the airport. It was the fattest book in the shop - great value for money.

Finally, a masterpiece that explicitly and thoroughly through its 100 stories explains what makes us humans and unique. As a sexologist I realize the importance of details in the book, and I recommend the penguin uncensored edition to anyone.

Boccaccio teaches us what the cosmopolitan does nowadays and more. And not to mention the realism in it, that is, all people have been into a situation as at least one of these stories.

Either this book doesn't describe reality or does so with horrible accuracy. Your take on this precept will color the Decameron's perception. For me, it was heavy overdose of the human condition. Too much so, it left me sick at points with the backbiting, the lying, the scheming, the broken promises, and the general malaise towards covenantal bonds. The low points covered were many, perhaps reflective of humanity itself. There were high points, however, (Madam Beritola and Griselda come to mind) and many of these were later incorporated in the Canterbury Tales as well.

Funny, extremely entertaining, which is kind of shocking for medieval literature. I read the whole book in just 12 hours while sitting in the airport. It was the fattest book in the shop - great value for money.

The Decameron is a a collection of ribald, irreverent jokes in the form of implausible tales featuring one-dimensional characters in pursuit of instant gratification. How appropriate these jokes are is a matter of personal taste and preference. Boccaccio managed to narrate them without using any profanities, thus – in his view – making them suitable even for a mixed company. It is spicy yet presentable. Instead of from graphics, the extra kick comes from transgressing the rules and breaking taboos. Unlike some other “gems” of the Italian Renaissance that were dismissed as mere obscenities, and faded into obscurity, the language of The Decameron is impeccable.

The Grimm brothers collected folk tales; Boccaccio collected bawdy jokes from various sources, and polished them. I do not know if that adds up to a great literary piece. But if it is your cup of tea then, by all means, enjoy. After all, people need to unwind once in a while. The same can be said about pulp literature or, for that matter, raunchy videos. These genres are usually not held in high esteem.

Some people are offended when The Decameron is described as the p-word. It is not quite the same. While The Decameron is lascivious it is not explicit, and it is eloquently written. That makes all the difference. Does it? In any case Boccaccio had already been known as a writer and scholar, so his naughty Decameron got shuffled in a respectable category. The humor is based on illicit affairs. When you want to titillate your audience without getting into specifics, there is not much else to talk about. It also gives the reader an opportunity to fantasize about the forbidden fruit. Perhaps another purpose is to astonish the reader.

How did The Decameron become well known? There is nothing profound or uplifting in it, nor is is it the most humorous book ever written, and the stories are a bit repetitive. No doubt, the sex factor is one reason. (Plus you can say you are reading it for the artistic value.) Probably some people found it stimulating and hilarious. But maybe other people had mixed feelings. I suspect that one reason why The Decameron achieved notoriety is that it was controversial. But the form was socially acceptable. Thus it became a “classic.” Nowadays it is just copied from one textbook to another. Some people are searching for a deep meaning in it.

As much as I appreciate the historical value of the book as well as I hold understanding for its popularity through the ages, I don't find this piece of work to be particularly clever or funny as other readers did.
The book from what I've read in the preface was based on the popular folk tales and anecdotes, which says more about human mentality at those times (and not only), when secularization and social changes took place, than creativity of the author himself. Many of those stories were enhanced by the Boccaccio's narrative talent (star for that) with additional descriptions of luxurious surroundings and daily, joyful routines of the attending party.
That stays in huge contrast to the introductory, dramatic description of the black plague, which in my opinion was the best and most fascinating part of the book (not enough to appreciate the entire piece though).
As much as many of those stories were to certain extend amusing, contradictory to the writer's repetitive statements, I didn't find them wise, witty, funny or particularly realistic.
Huge part of those tales are based on lust - carnal desires, which is much confused with, what in my opinion, define real value of love. Adultery and disloyalty to the spouses, family members and close friends, together with disregard of religious vows seem to be not as much wrong or disastrous as being outwitted or mocked by other human beings.
Many of those tales are based on cruel pranks, unrealistic circumstances and foolishness to the point of absurdity (not even the worse male idiot would believe in his own pregnancy as well as any woman wouldn't recognize in the darkness her sexual partners).
I strongly believe that readers who through ages found themselves delighted in "Decameron" anecdotes are related to the same group of contemporary humans, who now enjoy reading celebrity gossips, watch soap operas, believe in trashy stories written in second-handed magazines and heartily laugh at someone's broken-leg-knocked-teeth-out accidents. That of course explains popularity of the book, its social and psychological phenomenon.