The Decameron - Boccaccio

jamiedeanna · Post by **jamiedeanna** » 02 Feb 2014, 23:14

I tackled this book after having my Honors Western Civ professor read us an excerpt from it during class. While the length of this book is a bit daunting, the style it is written in makes it seem like a much lighter read. Essentially, it is broken up into different days, each with ten stories giving the book a very nice touch that makes it easy to leave and come back to whenever you have the time.

I recommend this book to anyone that has an interest in Italian history. It adds a colorful narrative that, while not historically accurate at times, does give insight into Boccaccio's role and position during his time.

bookworm1990 · Post by **bookworm1990** » 05 May 2014, 14:12

I read portions of this book for a literature class and I really loved it. I was surprised by how secular the attitudes were while being rooted in a spiritual context. One of the things I noticed was how corrupt and sinful the clergy were portrayed in many of the stories. Nuns and monks were fornication and lying instead of upholding their vows. I think the backlash towards the clergy is understandable. The common people were told the plague was punishment for sin but with thousands of people dying, what's the point of living a pure life when you could be next. Also many people who did choose piety donated goods and money to the church where precious items were hoarded.

DATo · Post by **DATo** » 18 Jan 2015, 22:03

The Decameron is what is called a mise en abyme i.e. a story within a story. In this case it is a hundred stories within a story. It was also the structural inspiration for Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. It can be viewed quite simply as a compendium of short stories set within that period of history (15th century) .

Not a bad read ... some stories more interesting than others as is usually the case whenever you have a collection of stories.

Maria Luisa · Post by **Maria Luisa** » 07 Dec 2015, 16:24

When I was a child (in the seventie's) there was also a tv movie for children :"Calandrino e Buffalmacco" (I don't know in English) from The Decameron. I liked it very much at that time. I couldn't find it on you tube, I'm afraid. Maybe too many years are passed.

Riesgomel · Post by **Riesgomel** » 02 Feb 2016, 19:03

Wow impressive. I was not able to get into this one. Probably I would have liked the TV version as I love fiction set in old world Europe.

Gloria Kaszyczky · Post by **Gloria Kaszyczky** » 17 Jun 2022, 14:41

As an Italian student I must say that The Decameron is one of the masterpieces of Italian literature, even though I didn't enjoy it as much in school as I did at uni where I did a whole course on Boccaccio's tales and let me tell you, I had the opportunity of appreciating such a wonderful book. I love the structure of the Decameron, how it is divided in days and how every character tells a different story everyday, and each one of them has particular qualities in their way of story-telling. Another thing I love is the different levels of narration: the first one is the Decameron as we know it; the second one is Florence in the XIV century during a plague and the main characters feeling to the countryside and deciding to tell stories to kill the time; the third level are the stories themselves: each one represent a reality of its own. Boccaccio really was a genius!