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wordsmithreads's review against another edition
4.0
When the pandemic started, I read an article about how viewings of the movie Contagion had skyrocketed. The article was analyzing how humans love to hear about terrible events happening in the world. It cited my favorite book, [b:Station Eleven|20170404|Station Eleven|Emily St. John Mandel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1451446835l/20170404._SY75_.jpg|28098716], and mentioned a book I had never heard of, describing it as the first book ever written about the plague (because it was written during the plague and published in the 1350s): The Decameron by Giovanni Bocaccio.
The Decameron, in a nutshell, is a book about the plague in the way that any TV produced during COVID is about COVID. The introduction tells you what the author is experiencing in Italy during the Black Death, and I’d be lying if I told you it sounded unfamiliar.
- “Besides the qualified there was now a multitude both of men and of women who practised without having received the slightest tincture of medical science”
- “Others …. maintained, that to drink freely, frequent places of public resort, and take their pleasure with song and revel sparing to satisfy no appetite, and to laugh and mock at no event, was the sovereign remedy for so great an evil”
- “Some again, the most sound, perhaps, in judgement …. Affirmed that there was no medicine for the disease superior or equal in efficacy to flight”
- “Tedious were it to recount, how citizen avoided citizen, how among neighbours was scarce found any that shewed [showed] fellow-feeling for another, how kinsfolk held aloof…”
This is all just in the introduction. But I promise this isn’t a review all about COVID. In fact, just the opposite.
Why, I am sure you are thinking, did I choose to read a book about the plague during a global pandemic? Well, first it was curiosity. A book written during the plague? What will that be like? Then it was a good challenge, as it’s a 900+ page collection. And finally, once I got further in: because the story at its core has a message of hope: even in the bad, humans look for the good.
Humanity survives because we are able to storify what happens to us, to find meaning in the bad. The novel is written and set during the plague, but the ten characters involved in it have decamped from Florence to the countryside (#socialdistancing) and remain there for 15 days, telling stories that have absolutely NOTHING to do with the plague.
And for being from the 1350s, it’s fairly forward-thinking. Boccacio covers a variety of topics, including:
- the unholiness of holy men (“if he goes to the court of Rome and sees the iniquitous and foul life which the clergy lead there”)
- the injustice of sexism (“when men so act, unmerited reproach will often thereby be cast upon honest women”)
- the injustices of the class system (“Fortune, which not seldom raises the unworthy to high place and leaves the worthiest in low estate”)
- the cruelty of mankind (“we are more prone to laugh at things dishonourable than at good deeds, and that more especially when they concern not ourselves”)
- the importance of not embellishing a story (“as whoso in telling the story diverges from the truth does thereby in no small measure diminish the delight of his hearers”)
The stories are not sad. They are joyful, funny, full of lust and humor. And they have sticking power: my friends have heard me talk about “my plague book” and heard summarizations of some of my favorites — my absolute favorite being How to Put the Devil Into Hell. (Third Day, Novel X)
I learned from the book phrases like “rode the goat downhill” (meaning did something difficult and without reason, because a goat is the hardest animal to ride downhill) and “swink” (meaning to labor or toil). I also discovered the words “blockhead,” “punk,” and “numskull” have been in rotation for 700 years. Sadly, I’ve been unable to define “shitrange” though I assure you it is in print of the book.
I learned that “folk are more prone to believe evil than good” and that “only misery is exempt from envy.”
I learned love is all-seeing (“love, whose eyes nothing, however secret, may escape”) and all-powerful (“the laws of love are of force above all others; they abrogate not only the law of human friendship, but the law Divine itself”).
This is the lesson: companionship, relationships, love — this is the most important thing in life. It is affirmed over and over throughout the hundred stories. This is what sets us apart as humans, that we find joy. In fact, Boccacio even goes so far as to say that if you interpreted any stories in a bad way, that’s your fault: “If any man shall be minded to draw from [the stories] matters of evil tendency of consequence, they will not gainsay him, if, perchance, such matters there be in them, not will such matters fail to be found in them, if they be wrested and distorted.” (Yes, that back half should remind you of the lesson that embellishment is bad.)
Finally, the author ends on two notes that I think we could all learn from:
1. Don’t focus on things you don’t like — “However, whoso goes a reading among these stories, let him pass over those that vex him, and read those that please him.”
2. Don’t be so concerned with what others think about you — “.... [Some will say] It ill beseems a man of weight and gravity to have written on such wise. To these I am bound to render, and do render, my thanks, for that …. They have so tender a regard to my reputation.”
The reason that all of these lessons continue to hold true is that humankind, though we like to think it doesn’t, remains the same. We don’t change even though the world does. We will always seek out light, will always seek out hope and joy and laughter, even when things are dark.
Even in the worst of everything (and it’s pretty bad) we must remember: “as the last degree of joy brings with it sorrow, so misery has ever its sequel of happiness.”
The Decameron, in a nutshell, is a book about the plague in the way that any TV produced during COVID is about COVID. The introduction tells you what the author is experiencing in Italy during the Black Death, and I’d be lying if I told you it sounded unfamiliar.
- “Besides the qualified there was now a multitude both of men and of women who practised without having received the slightest tincture of medical science”
- “Others …. maintained, that to drink freely, frequent places of public resort, and take their pleasure with song and revel sparing to satisfy no appetite, and to laugh and mock at no event, was the sovereign remedy for so great an evil”
- “Some again, the most sound, perhaps, in judgement …. Affirmed that there was no medicine for the disease superior or equal in efficacy to flight”
- “Tedious were it to recount, how citizen avoided citizen, how among neighbours was scarce found any that shewed [showed] fellow-feeling for another, how kinsfolk held aloof…”
This is all just in the introduction. But I promise this isn’t a review all about COVID. In fact, just the opposite.
Why, I am sure you are thinking, did I choose to read a book about the plague during a global pandemic? Well, first it was curiosity. A book written during the plague? What will that be like? Then it was a good challenge, as it’s a 900+ page collection. And finally, once I got further in: because the story at its core has a message of hope: even in the bad, humans look for the good.
Humanity survives because we are able to storify what happens to us, to find meaning in the bad. The novel is written and set during the plague, but the ten characters involved in it have decamped from Florence to the countryside (#socialdistancing) and remain there for 15 days, telling stories that have absolutely NOTHING to do with the plague.
And for being from the 1350s, it’s fairly forward-thinking. Boccacio covers a variety of topics, including:
- the unholiness of holy men (“if he goes to the court of Rome and sees the iniquitous and foul life which the clergy lead there”)
- the injustice of sexism (“when men so act, unmerited reproach will often thereby be cast upon honest women”)
- the injustices of the class system (“Fortune, which not seldom raises the unworthy to high place and leaves the worthiest in low estate”)
- the cruelty of mankind (“we are more prone to laugh at things dishonourable than at good deeds, and that more especially when they concern not ourselves”)
- the importance of not embellishing a story (“as whoso in telling the story diverges from the truth does thereby in no small measure diminish the delight of his hearers”)
The stories are not sad. They are joyful, funny, full of lust and humor. And they have sticking power: my friends have heard me talk about “my plague book” and heard summarizations of some of my favorites — my absolute favorite being How to Put the Devil Into Hell. (Third Day, Novel X)
I learned from the book phrases like “rode the goat downhill” (meaning did something difficult and without reason, because a goat is the hardest animal to ride downhill) and “swink” (meaning to labor or toil). I also discovered the words “blockhead,” “punk,” and “numskull” have been in rotation for 700 years. Sadly, I’ve been unable to define “shitrange” though I assure you it is in print of the book.
I learned that “folk are more prone to believe evil than good” and that “only misery is exempt from envy.”
I learned love is all-seeing (“love, whose eyes nothing, however secret, may escape”) and all-powerful (“the laws of love are of force above all others; they abrogate not only the law of human friendship, but the law Divine itself”).
This is the lesson: companionship, relationships, love — this is the most important thing in life. It is affirmed over and over throughout the hundred stories. This is what sets us apart as humans, that we find joy. In fact, Boccacio even goes so far as to say that if you interpreted any stories in a bad way, that’s your fault: “If any man shall be minded to draw from [the stories] matters of evil tendency of consequence, they will not gainsay him, if, perchance, such matters there be in them, not will such matters fail to be found in them, if they be wrested and distorted.” (Yes, that back half should remind you of the lesson that embellishment is bad.)
Finally, the author ends on two notes that I think we could all learn from:
1. Don’t focus on things you don’t like — “However, whoso goes a reading among these stories, let him pass over those that vex him, and read those that please him.”
2. Don’t be so concerned with what others think about you — “.... [Some will say] It ill beseems a man of weight and gravity to have written on such wise. To these I am bound to render, and do render, my thanks, for that …. They have so tender a regard to my reputation.”
The reason that all of these lessons continue to hold true is that humankind, though we like to think it doesn’t, remains the same. We don’t change even though the world does. We will always seek out light, will always seek out hope and joy and laughter, even when things are dark.
Even in the worst of everything (and it’s pretty bad) we must remember: “as the last degree of joy brings with it sorrow, so misery has ever its sequel of happiness.”
coriandercake's review against another edition
3.0
Some irony in that this a book for women and meant to make women laugh, yet many of these stories are so at odds with modern sensibilities (rape, domestic violence). Begs the question if these stories really reflected what women found entertaining or if they reflected what Boccaccio thought women would like (he, after all, includes several stories that emphasize that women are only good for sex and making babies and lack the higher faculties). How much does this reflect actual medieval gender norms and how much does it reflect only the male perspective?
jennachristinereads's review against another edition
4.0
Technically did not read the whole thing, but I wrote a 15 page paper about this big ass book, so I’m countin it.
fjsteele's review against another edition
5.0
I realized I had never read the Decameron all the way through, but only in selections tied to its influence on Chaucer or Shakespeare. Rebhorn's translation is lively and his notes are supportive without being intrusive. Now, Boccaccio--if you want to understand how much antifeminism, misogyny, and defenses of rape lie at the foundation of western "love literature", read it all the way through. Although this is ostensibly a text "for the ladies" its treatment of women (as a whole) really is mortifying.
xristinaki92's review against another edition
3.0
First book I'm reading in Italian, so I'm very proud of myself right now! Okay the version of the book I read was a much shorter one, but I really don't care!
kianacynthia's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
cheshir42's review against another edition
4.0
В этой книге есть все чего нет в моей жизни:похоть,разврат и прочие многочисленные пороки.Средневековые литературные герои умели развлекаться
alanyoung's review against another edition
4.0
This was a good read. The device chosen to account for the existence of the group and the need to pass the time in story telling was a parallel to other collections, like the Canterbury Tales. In some ways it was, to me, weaker for the device did not give and same variety of story tellers.
The style was ornate in keeping with the refinement of chosen story tellers and, although the stories included examples of less refined activities, the language in which they were described remained refined. (Boccaccio refers to this in his postscript.)
The tales themselves were, to this modern reader, very varied in the way they engaged me. Many were clever and highly amusing. Some described beautiful attitudes and respect. Some disturbed me by finding amusement in the deception of the vulnerable and there was one simple character who was the butt of the humour in many stories.
Overall it was a good read and a glimpse into the lives, expectations, attitudes and foibles of the privileged in a long past era.
The style was ornate in keeping with the refinement of chosen story tellers and, although the stories included examples of less refined activities, the language in which they were described remained refined. (Boccaccio refers to this in his postscript.)
The tales themselves were, to this modern reader, very varied in the way they engaged me. Many were clever and highly amusing. Some described beautiful attitudes and respect. Some disturbed me by finding amusement in the deception of the vulnerable and there was one simple character who was the butt of the humour in many stories.
Overall it was a good read and a glimpse into the lives, expectations, attitudes and foibles of the privileged in a long past era.