Lots of dirty stories. I guess things really haven't changed in 600 years.

Written shortly after Europe's Black Death in the 1300s, the book tells of a group of three young men and seven young women who quarantine themselves in a Villa outside of Florence Italy in order to escape the plague. Lacking Netflix and video games, they resort to singing, dancing, and telling tales to pass the time. I'm glad I read the book, but it was a bit of a grind. Many of the 100 tales were repetitive, simplistic and improbable. A recurring scene is when one character sneaks into a darkened bedroom impersonating someone else in order to have their way with the occupant who is none the wiser - i.e. highly improbable.

But if you look past the simplistic stories, you'll gain an insight into the people of this age and what they talked about, what they considered amusing, how they dressed, and how they lived their life. You'll gain insight into their views on marital infidelities, class consciousness, religion, food, wealth, general morality, etc.

And even though the characters in the story were in the middle of the Black Death, the subject only really came up in the beginning of the book as they decide to flee Florence. For the most part after this initial description of the terrible plage, the subject never came up. Instead, there were many descriptions of the group walking through flower gardens, lush meadows, vineyards, enjoying lavish meals, etc. I can't help but think of how during the Great Depression, the movies of the days were full of beautiful people singing, dancing and having a great time - People needed an escape from the horrors of the real world, if only for a bit. Some things never change.

The Decameron - interesting to read the different voices in the story Boccaccio created, some funny, a lot smutty, some insightful...

I am not sure if I had the best translation, I had Oxford not the Penguin version. I had a feeling that the translation was dumbed down a tad or maybe the translation was too too modern? Not sure.

I had to overlook all the many "love at first sight" and everyone or most in the stories were the "most beautiful" etc etc. But to put it in its context it makes sense, they are short stories after all. Plus lyrical snap shots and entertainment...middle brow for sure, but not in a bad way.

Given the time 1300s, yep a long time ago. The catering to women and yet consistently mocking and putting them down, even the women did this in many of the stories, I had to overlook as well, roll my eyes and say well it was hundreds of years ago. So I guess we have come a long way baby.

It's a funny light read to page through on evenings you want to add amusement to. I like how even Bocaccio says the book is for rich and bored ladies to pass the time, and it's certainly succeeded with its raunchy, hilarious, romantic, and amusing tales that take you to chivalrous and deadly times and teach you about timeless struggles.

Fascinating to read the medieval proto-novel/ring of short stories, but I'm glad the form kept developing...

Other reviewers have complained of this book's inherent misogyny. You missed the point. Boccaccio is accurately portraying the society of his own time - Italy in the 14th Century - which yes, was very paternalistic and could by today's standard be labelled misogynistic, but he's also challenging the social norms of the period throughout the 100 tales he presents. His female characters are often much more clever than their male counterparts, and often more virtuous. There has been much written on the portrayal of women in The Decameron, plenty of which is available through a quick Google search so I won't get into it beyond what I've already stated.

The point being, if you can't get past a little medieval backwardness where gender equality is concerned, you're going to miss a whole lot of great smut. Handjobs, necrophilia, clergymen with bulging erections, horny nuns, torture... I don't want to spoil it for you; you get the idea. The stories can be a bit repetitive at times, but overall this is very enjoyable and a masterpiece of Western literature. Skip Letters to Penthouse. This is much more juicy.

just pandemic things

DNF @ 17%

This is only the second time in my life that I did not finish reading a book, I never dnf and always push through but this one was honestly making me feel depressed every time I looked at it or thought about reading it. The thing is, the premise is actually really interesting and I've heard so many good things about it but the writing is simply too dry and way complicated for me to like. It was impossible to get into and I'm learning to let things go, so yeah.

That's a whole lot of charming and whimsical Medieval Italian stories.