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ph1lb's review against another edition
3.0
The copy I read was translated by Richard Aldington in 1958 who does not get a good review in Wikipedia. My book only covered five days out of the nine, but even that seemed long.
The description of the plague in Florence in 1348 was horrific and credible.
I am not a fan of short stories and they did get a bit repetitive.
One thing that struck me was that servants were non people. The story is about seven women and three men escaping from the plague. What is only mentioned in passing is that there are in addition, seven servants, despite the fact that servants were said to be hard to come by during the plague. The servants are preparing all the food for everyone while the ten noble women and men sat around and told stories, sang and danced.
In addition, in one of the stories, a young woman awakes and is all alone. She then calls out to a servant (doesn't the servant count?).
The description of the plague in Florence in 1348 was horrific and credible.
I am not a fan of short stories and they did get a bit repetitive.
One thing that struck me was that servants were non people. The story is about seven women and three men escaping from the plague. What is only mentioned in passing is that there are in addition, seven servants, despite the fact that servants were said to be hard to come by during the plague. The servants are preparing all the food for everyone while the ten noble women and men sat around and told stories, sang and danced.
In addition, in one of the stories, a young woman awakes and is all alone. She then calls out to a servant (doesn't the servant count?).
tombomp's review against another edition
5.0
I find it hard to rate this because like 75% of it is funny stories and they're *really* funny. The translation (the Penguin Classics edition) does a really great job of conveying subtle jokes in the original. The funny stories are really clever, extremely bawdy and made me laugh out loud many times. If the book was just that I would have no hesitation in describing it as one of my favourite books ever.
The problem is that the author is a sexist - I assume about as much so as most other male medieval authors - which sometimes comes out in gross discordant ways. Most stories aren't really affected or you can play the 1 or 2 sexist comments off as tongue in cheek but a few make uncomfortable reading in that they emphasise violence against women as if in a "justified" way. So one story is a typical "fool" story where people play a prank on a man... and then at the end of the story he beats up his wife, with a description of the pain she suffers, and she didn't even have anything to do with the prank. Which obviously completely sours the story. The worst is VIII, 7 (which the translator emphasises his disgust of in the footnotes) where a widow a man is trying to woo pretends to be interested but leaves him out in the cold all night instead. So he takes revenge in a horrific fashion where she nearly dies and the injuries she suffers are written about in grotesque and disturbing detail. It's also the longest story in the book (!).
There's also some stories which are tragic romances or fairy/folk tale style retellings of things like nobles suffering and then later being restored to their rightful place. That style is... OK. They don't really stand out but they're still well told.
Obviously it's sort of a ridiculous thing to want but if the book had the worst offenders for sexism cut I would wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone. As is, I still think it's definitely worth reading but you probably want to read the quick summary of the story which introduces each one and skip any which have obvious dodgy plot points. In fact, this approach is endorsed by the author in his epilogue!
The problem is that the author is a sexist - I assume about as much so as most other male medieval authors - which sometimes comes out in gross discordant ways. Most stories aren't really affected or you can play the 1 or 2 sexist comments off as tongue in cheek but a few make uncomfortable reading in that they emphasise violence against women as if in a "justified" way. So one story is a typical "fool" story where people play a prank on a man... and then at the end of the story he beats up his wife, with a description of the pain she suffers, and she didn't even have anything to do with the prank. Which obviously completely sours the story. The worst is VIII, 7 (which the translator emphasises his disgust of in the footnotes) where a widow a man is trying to woo pretends to be interested but leaves him out in the cold all night instead. So he takes revenge in a horrific fashion where she nearly dies and the injuries she suffers are written about in grotesque and disturbing detail. It's also the longest story in the book (!).
There's also some stories which are tragic romances or fairy/folk tale style retellings of things like nobles suffering and then later being restored to their rightful place. That style is... OK. They don't really stand out but they're still well told.
Obviously it's sort of a ridiculous thing to want but if the book had the worst offenders for sexism cut I would wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone. As is, I still think it's definitely worth reading but you probably want to read the quick summary of the story which introduces each one and skip any which have obvious dodgy plot points. In fact, this approach is endorsed by the author in his epilogue!
rclyburn's review against another edition
5.0
I can't believe this was only translated in 1972.
Hated the fourth day.
Hated the fourth day.
serrasa's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
3.0
fauxpunk's review against another edition
4.0
This book is delightful in every way. It's hilarious and irreverent, although it sometimes gets a bit old after awhile. It's the kind of book you can put down for months and then come back to without losing the thread of the narrative. Still, definitely worth a read if you're at all interested in the middle ages (and if you know anything about Chaucer, you'll see where he borrowed liberally from this text), as it's compelling, highly entertaining and full of lovely medieval weirdness that'll make you think "what on earth am I reading?" every few stories.
It's also fun to recount the stories to your friends and then watch their bemused reactions.
It's also fun to recount the stories to your friends and then watch their bemused reactions.
haaris's review against another edition
5.0
The Decameron is a merry ride through a hundred stories told by 7 women and 3 men in the shadow of the Black Death. At its core is a message that resonates through the ages: even in the darkest of times, perhaps especially, we need stories to survive. To liven up our spirits. To entertain and to be entertained. To feel human.
After a charming and iconic prologue, where Boccaccio demonstrates his brilliance as a writer, and sets the wise yet frothy tone that carries throughout the book, we dive into a plague ravaged Florence, possibly around 1348. Maybe it's because of the time we live in, but I found some passages of this introduction to be absolutely riveting.
This compelling introduction is far from the best part of The Decameron. Even from Boccaccio's perspective, it simply justifies the frame for the rest of the book, an incredibly well-written set of stories covering a mind-blowing array of human circumstances.
In a nutshell, The Decameron is a rich exploration of the emotions that drive the world of human beings, a Human Comedy in contrast to Dante's Divine Comedy. Boccaccio explores human fallibility; there are stories that show its inevitability, and there are others that even celebrate it.
As GH McWilliam points out, the forces of Love, Fortune, and Intelligence, and their interplay, form the major themes of the stories. The frame used by Boccaccio (the cornice) is delicate and brilliant: the author himself; the setting of the backdrop and an introduction to the ten individuals who are our narrators; and finally the stories themselves.
Beautiful stuff. Stories that delight, fascinate, and entertain. A daunting read -- there are a 1000 pages to get through -- but as with other amazing collections of stories such as the 1001 Arabian Nights and the Panchatantra (which, by the way, are seen as influences for the book) it is well worth the effort.
After a charming and iconic prologue, where Boccaccio demonstrates his brilliance as a writer, and sets the wise yet frothy tone that carries throughout the book, we dive into a plague ravaged Florence, possibly around 1348. Maybe it's because of the time we live in, but I found some passages of this introduction to be absolutely riveting.
Some people were of the opinion that a sober and abstemious mode of living considerably reduced the risk of infection. They therefore formed themselves into group and lived in isolation from everyone else. Having withdrawn to a comfortable abode where there were no sick persons, they locked themselves in and settled down to a peaceable existence, consuming modest quantities of delicate foods and precious wines and avoiding all excesses. They refrained from speaking to outsiders, refused to receive news of the dead or the sick, and entertained themselves with music and whatever other amusements they were able to devise.
Others took the opposite view, and maintained that an infallible way of warding off this appalling evil was to drink heavily, enjoy life to the full, go round singing and merrymaking, gratify all of one's cravings whenever the opportunity offered, and shrug the whole thing off as one enormous joke...
...There were many other people who steered a middle course between the two already mentioned, neither restricting their diet to the same degree as the first group, nor indulging so freely as the second in drinking and other forms of wantonness, but simply doing no more than satisfy their appetite. Instead of incarcerating themselves, these people moved about freely, holding in their hands a posy of flowers or fragrant herbs, or one of a wide range of spices, which they applied at frequent intervals to heir nostrils, thinking it an excellent idea to fortify the brain with smells of that particular sort; for the stench of dead bodies, sickness, and medicines seemed to fill and pollute the whole of the atmosphere. Some people, pursuing what was possibly the safer alternative, callously maintained that there was no better or more efficacious remedy against a plague than to run away from it. Swayed by this argument, and sparing no thought for anyone but themselves, large numbers of men and women abandoned their city, their homes, their relatives, their estates and their belongings, and headed for the countryside, either in Florentine territory or, better still, abroad. It was as though they imagined that the wrath of God would not unleash this plague against men or their iniquities irrespective of where they happened to be, but would only be roused against those who found themselves within the city walls; or possibly they assumed that the whole of the population would be exterminated and the city's last hour had come.
Of the people who held these various opinions, not all of them died. Nor, however, did they all survive. On the contrary, many of each different persuasion fell ill here, there, and everywhere, and having themselves, when they were fit and well, set an example to those who were as yet unaffected, they languished away with virtually no one to nurse them. It was not merely a question of one citizen avoiding another, and of people almost invariably neglecting their neighbors and rarely or never visiting their relatives, addressing them only from a distance; this scourge had implanted so great a terror in the hearts of men and women that brothers abandoned brothers, uncles their nephews, sisters their brothers, and in many cases wives deserted their husbands. But even worse, and almost incredible, was the fact that fathers and mothers refused to nurse and assist their own children, as though they did not belong to them.
This compelling introduction is far from the best part of The Decameron. Even from Boccaccio's perspective, it simply justifies the frame for the rest of the book, an incredibly well-written set of stories covering a mind-blowing array of human circumstances.
In a nutshell, The Decameron is a rich exploration of the emotions that drive the world of human beings, a Human Comedy in contrast to Dante's Divine Comedy. Boccaccio explores human fallibility; there are stories that show its inevitability, and there are others that even celebrate it.
As GH McWilliam points out, the forces of Love, Fortune, and Intelligence, and their interplay, form the major themes of the stories. The frame used by Boccaccio (the cornice) is delicate and brilliant: the author himself; the setting of the backdrop and an introduction to the ten individuals who are our narrators; and finally the stories themselves.
Beautiful stuff. Stories that delight, fascinate, and entertain. A daunting read -- there are a 1000 pages to get through -- but as with other amazing collections of stories such as the 1001 Arabian Nights and the Panchatantra (which, by the way, are seen as influences for the book) it is well worth the effort.
eszetela's review against another edition
5.0
A towering work in the literary canon, and a veritable doorstop. I've read Les Miserables, the longest book, full stop, but Boccaccio comes close. This will take some serious investment, even broken into one hundred tales. It is however, worth the effort.
The world of the Italian Renaissance in the fourteenth century was one of endlessly feuding city states, powerful families, and political intrigue thick enough to cut with a knife that could kill you very readily. Wit, erudition, and rhetoric were the most important weapons of the nobility. The peasantry, by the way, are background scenery, when seen at all. But what is a rich young noble to do with themselves, given the concept of work was as alien to them as the moon? The endless series of prayers and Masses only occupied so much of the day. Boccaccio gives us the answer: sex.
Obsessed with lust, the nobles will do quite literally anything for a good time and Boccaccio gleefully catalogues the base venality of man and woman in a long series of tales full of sexual escapades. Literally nothing is off the table here. Despite all being married--scions of the nobility were married off in their early teens for political and economic advantage--and savage penalties for adultery including being burned at the stake, seemingly every husband and wife is passionately in love with somebody else, sometimes several at the same time.
The tales are often just uproariously funny. Modern people tend to have this idea that those in the distant past were somehow more reserved, more proper, less wantonly randy than a lust addled twenty year old of today. Nothing could be further from the truth. From slapstick antics where a lady hides her lover in a trunk when her husband comes home too early to sword fights and insane plots involving great personal danger all in the name of getting it on, the characters of the stories go all out.
Boccaccio spares absolutely no one with his incredibly sharp pen. The Decameron has been scandalizing readers for centuries. Banned and consigned to the flames innumerable times, it just will not go away. It is just that good. Monks who drop their vows of chastity in an instant for a good looking girl, rulers who think nothing in banging anything that moves, and knights who put their lances to good and proper use are everywhere. And do not imagine that a modern, libertine reader will be able to stick their nose in the air and be above such medieval sensibilities. Boccaccio offends everybody.
Wanton trickery--lies, impersonation, getting her hammered, etc.--to bed your target is nothing here. The Decameron is packed full of outright rape. And not the more vague types that proliferate now. We're talking direct application of force when a young buck wants a lady and she won't give it up. Wife beatings happen repeatedly. Characters die all the time. Physical torture is rampant and described in loving detail. Necrophilia! One entire day of the ten is dedicated to tragic stories where nobody wins in the end, but winning in many other cases involves getting what you want by truly any means necessary.
Is the point here just medieval stroke fiction to titillate and make his readers blush? Oh no. There are morals here and deep philosophy. There are a ton of layers for scholars to peel back and argue over. Many of them offensive to the readers of Boccaccio's time and many more just as offensive to the modern day reader. A wife's duty to serve her husband despite massive physical and emotional abuse, even as he runs after every skirt in the region, is beaten home with savage ferocity. And the very next tale will then be a ribald tale of a wife tricking her husband so she can have the lover she wants. Savage satire right next to high minded and totally sincere worship of God followed immediately by bestiality. This book is a roller coaster that will make the reader work.
Do I say this to dissuade someone from reading this monument to great literature? Far from it. Just go in with your eyes open and be ready to be challenged. The Decameron stands not as a window into a time long ago where things were done differently than today. It is a mirror to the human condition itself. The foibles, lusts, grace, charity, needs, kindness, brutality, and complexities that make us human.
I've never read any other translations. Are you kidding me, this book is 900 pages. The G. H. McWilliam translation is, however, excellent. Read the notes at the back after every story. Use two bookmarks. They are essential and give great insight into not only the setting but Boccaccio's masterpiece itself including funny bits about older translations faking it when a story was just too ribald for the translators to take.
The world of the Italian Renaissance in the fourteenth century was one of endlessly feuding city states, powerful families, and political intrigue thick enough to cut with a knife that could kill you very readily. Wit, erudition, and rhetoric were the most important weapons of the nobility. The peasantry, by the way, are background scenery, when seen at all. But what is a rich young noble to do with themselves, given the concept of work was as alien to them as the moon? The endless series of prayers and Masses only occupied so much of the day. Boccaccio gives us the answer: sex.
Obsessed with lust, the nobles will do quite literally anything for a good time and Boccaccio gleefully catalogues the base venality of man and woman in a long series of tales full of sexual escapades. Literally nothing is off the table here. Despite all being married--scions of the nobility were married off in their early teens for political and economic advantage--and savage penalties for adultery including being burned at the stake, seemingly every husband and wife is passionately in love with somebody else, sometimes several at the same time.
The tales are often just uproariously funny. Modern people tend to have this idea that those in the distant past were somehow more reserved, more proper, less wantonly randy than a lust addled twenty year old of today. Nothing could be further from the truth. From slapstick antics where a lady hides her lover in a trunk when her husband comes home too early to sword fights and insane plots involving great personal danger all in the name of getting it on, the characters of the stories go all out.
Boccaccio spares absolutely no one with his incredibly sharp pen. The Decameron has been scandalizing readers for centuries. Banned and consigned to the flames innumerable times, it just will not go away. It is just that good. Monks who drop their vows of chastity in an instant for a good looking girl, rulers who think nothing in banging anything that moves, and knights who put their lances to good and proper use are everywhere. And do not imagine that a modern, libertine reader will be able to stick their nose in the air and be above such medieval sensibilities. Boccaccio offends everybody.
Wanton trickery--lies, impersonation, getting her hammered, etc.--to bed your target is nothing here. The Decameron is packed full of outright rape. And not the more vague types that proliferate now. We're talking direct application of force when a young buck wants a lady and she won't give it up. Wife beatings happen repeatedly. Characters die all the time. Physical torture is rampant and described in loving detail. Necrophilia! One entire day of the ten is dedicated to tragic stories where nobody wins in the end, but winning in many other cases involves getting what you want by truly any means necessary.
Is the point here just medieval stroke fiction to titillate and make his readers blush? Oh no. There are morals here and deep philosophy. There are a ton of layers for scholars to peel back and argue over. Many of them offensive to the readers of Boccaccio's time and many more just as offensive to the modern day reader. A wife's duty to serve her husband despite massive physical and emotional abuse, even as he runs after every skirt in the region, is beaten home with savage ferocity. And the very next tale will then be a ribald tale of a wife tricking her husband so she can have the lover she wants. Savage satire right next to high minded and totally sincere worship of God followed immediately by bestiality. This book is a roller coaster that will make the reader work.
Do I say this to dissuade someone from reading this monument to great literature? Far from it. Just go in with your eyes open and be ready to be challenged. The Decameron stands not as a window into a time long ago where things were done differently than today. It is a mirror to the human condition itself. The foibles, lusts, grace, charity, needs, kindness, brutality, and complexities that make us human.
I've never read any other translations. Are you kidding me, this book is 900 pages. The G. H. McWilliam translation is, however, excellent. Read the notes at the back after every story. Use two bookmarks. They are essential and give great insight into not only the setting but Boccaccio's masterpiece itself including funny bits about older translations faking it when a story was just too ribald for the translators to take.
clarkness's review against another edition
4.0
The Decameron is something that I had wanted to read since 10th grade when I first heard about it. The concept is simple: 7 young ladies and 3 young men decide to get away from the plague for a few weeks by heading to the countryside. Once they arrive, it is decided that they will each tell one story per night for the ten days they are there. So it is a collection of 100 short stories.
However, I never realized how raunchy and hilarious the stories would be. These stories are crazy clever and several of them would be a little bit questionable if they were published for the first time today, let alone in 1353 when they were first published. Obviously, not all of the stories stick with you after reading a hundred, but there are a few that really made an impression and there is a diatribe by one of the storytellers in which one of the most enlightened arguments for free speech I've ever read is presented. I'm shocked by how ahead of its time this book was.
It does suffer from its length a bit, though. Each day is devoted to a particular theme and the stories have a tendency to get repetitive within those confines. Additionally, it is a little too easy to take a break from a long set of short stories and find that a substantial period of time has passed. There isn't much to drive you forward because you aren't working towards a conclusion of some sort and 800 pages is a lot of pages. Nevertheless, it is worth committing to this monster for a month or two or three because it really is just a fantastic triumph of writing.
However, I never realized how raunchy and hilarious the stories would be. These stories are crazy clever and several of them would be a little bit questionable if they were published for the first time today, let alone in 1353 when they were first published. Obviously, not all of the stories stick with you after reading a hundred, but there are a few that really made an impression and there is a diatribe by one of the storytellers in which one of the most enlightened arguments for free speech I've ever read is presented. I'm shocked by how ahead of its time this book was.
It does suffer from its length a bit, though. Each day is devoted to a particular theme and the stories have a tendency to get repetitive within those confines. Additionally, it is a little too easy to take a break from a long set of short stories and find that a substantial period of time has passed. There isn't much to drive you forward because you aren't working towards a conclusion of some sort and 800 pages is a lot of pages. Nevertheless, it is worth committing to this monster for a month or two or three because it really is just a fantastic triumph of writing.
joha_010's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0