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A review by eszetela
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
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.