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.