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Reviews
The Eaten Heart: Unlikely Tales of Love (Great Loves, #3) by G.H. McWilliam, Giovanni Boccaccio
witchintherain's review
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
maeclegg's review
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
haleyshealy's review
2.0
All the stories had at least one murder. Basically all were about royalty. There was no believability and no variety in story. Blah blah blah.
loudgls89's review
3.0
http://louiseradcliffe.com/2011/08/14/now-reading-james-m-cain-the-postman-always-rings-twice/
manxomemia's review
3.0
While these stories were mostly fun and entertaining, there was not a lot of variety between them. The characters were essentially the same (the highly sexual yet unsatisfied female, the sexual male who can sate her desires, and the cuckholded male) in different scenarios, but the stories were short and generally amusing. My favourite was probably the first one; who DOESN'T want to read about a bunch nuns conspiring to have have sex with the sexy gardener.... as I type this, I feel like I am pitching a porno.
The one interesting, if troubling, aspect I found in this collection was the representation of female sexuality. I'm not very familiar with the attitude towards women in the early Renaissance period, but I did find it surprising to see Boccaccio repeatedly tell his readers that women crave sex as much as men, and are even harder to satisfy (what was the phrase he used? that one woman might satisfy ten men but it would take ten men to satisfy one woman?); if only his reasoning for this assertion wasn't simply that women are made for sex and babies. That aside, what was most disappointing was probably that my excitement to see a classical text portraying normal women (not evil temptresses) as having sexual desire was so quickly diminished as I realised that, despite the many stories in this collection, there was no variety in female sexuality. Or male sexuality. Perhaps I ask too much of older texts.
The one interesting, if troubling, aspect I found in this collection was the representation of female sexuality. I'm not very familiar with the attitude towards women in the early Renaissance period, but I did find it surprising to see Boccaccio repeatedly tell his readers that women crave sex as much as men, and are even harder to satisfy (what was the phrase he used? that one woman might satisfy ten men but it would take ten men to satisfy one woman?); if only his reasoning for this assertion wasn't simply that women are made for sex and babies. That aside, what was most disappointing was probably that my excitement to see a classical text portraying normal women (not evil temptresses) as having sexual desire was so quickly diminished as I realised that, despite the many stories in this collection, there was no variety in female sexuality. Or male sexuality. Perhaps I ask too much of older texts.
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