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.