You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
I've read 600 pages out of 1,000 and I quit. All the stories are very similar, and virtually all involve "love," which apparently meant kidnapping and rape more often than not in the 1300s. And everything is solved by either coincidencidental interventions or by the woman (who has just been raped) falling in love with the rapist because he's just so good at "making love" that she decides he's the man for her and they live happily ever after. Not all the stories follow this pattern, but enough of them do that I can't keep reading the same thing over and over and over. I understand things were different back then, but I've had enough.
P.S. This review is brought to you by the same person who loved Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
P.S. This review is brought to you by the same person who loved Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
This is not a short book. It is, actually, quite long. Despite this, not once did I feel lethargic reading it, as one often does with books as long as this one is. No: thanks to its format of a series of interconnected short stories with an overarching plot, with each story being hilariously entertaining and tantalisingly blasphemous, it is impossible to be bored. Had this book been merely a set of well-crafted, humorous short stories about love, generosity, and deception, I would have rated it four stars, but what really makes its reading experience special is the boldness of Boccaccio in flagrantly and extravagantly lauding such controversial heresies as adultery, disrespecting the clergy, and even a bisexual ménage a trois! The liberality of Boccaccio's social values caught me completely off guard (it was published in 1353!), which is exactly what makes a great book.
Nulla da dire, un capolavoro. Ringraziamo la mia università che me l’ha fatto leggere :D
Heerlijke verhalen die je echt ´pakken´. Schrijfstijl is niet voor ieder weggelegd, maar gelukkig houdt de schrijver je binnen door momenten die aanspreken met her en der een beetje humor en schunnigheid.
Years ago I read and loved the first 20 or so stories in The Decamaron. I have been meaning to read it all ever since and was excited about the great reviews of the Wayne Rebhorn translation a few years ago. In January I decided I would read it over the summer, little realizing just how relevant the timing would be. Originally I planned to read a story a day but I found that I got into them and wanted to read 5 or 10 at once but then need a break of several days or weeks. It ended up taking me 113 days—which is 13 days more than there are stories and 103 days more than the frame tale itself is supposed to take.
And I loved it. Almost every tale was a marvel and collectively they are something even more marvelous. It is amazing that one person composed this nearly 700 years ago, even if he was drawing on other stories. The stories are funny, surprising, shocking, filled with sex and violence, have a consistent morality to them but almost no moralizing, and work together in a nice rhythm. In general I love frame tales and tales within tales like the Arabian Nights and even have the unfashionable opinion of loving the interpolated tales in Don Quixote Part One. This is a spectacular set of them that I will certainly return to in the future, hopefully not waiting for the next pandemic.
And I loved it. Almost every tale was a marvel and collectively they are something even more marvelous. It is amazing that one person composed this nearly 700 years ago, even if he was drawing on other stories. The stories are funny, surprising, shocking, filled with sex and violence, have a consistent morality to them but almost no moralizing, and work together in a nice rhythm. In general I love frame tales and tales within tales like the Arabian Nights and even have the unfashionable opinion of loving the interpolated tales in Don Quixote Part One. This is a spectacular set of them that I will certainly return to in the future, hopefully not waiting for the next pandemic.
I've read this book when I was 15, I remember really loving it. It was a very engaging collection of 100 atmospheric novellas. In the beginning the author states that a few young women and men fled from Florence because there was some sort of plague there, so they're staying in an isolated villa for 10 nights. Then, to pass the time, each one would tell a story/tale every night. Some were okay, others were great. Overall, it's a recommended read for people who like classics.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Fun stories showing not all old tales are what you'd expect