The Decameron (Mentor) [Paperback]

Giovanni Boccaccio (Author), Mark Musa (Translator), Peter Bondanella (Translator), Thomas G. Bergin (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Mentor | Publication Date: October 5, 1982

An entertaining series of 100 stories told in a country villa outside the city of Florence by ten young noble men and women seeking to escape the plague. Vivid portraits of people from all stations in life. An Oxford University Press World Classic.

Product Details

• Paperback: 736 pages
• Publisher: Signet (October 5, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451627466
• ISBN-13: 978-0451627469
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #240,628 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars could be the best book you've ever read, January 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Decameron (Mentor) (Paperback)

I picked up Decameron expecting it to be dry and boring-- after all, it is hundreds of years old. But as soon as I started reading it, I was hooked-- first by Bocaccio's vivid description of life during the Black Plague, then by the hundred fabulous stories. Definitely more fun to read than any other book. Each story is entertaining, clever, and so humorous. This could be the best book you've ever read; I know it will always be one of mine.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The precursor to Chaucer's Cantebury Tales, April 3, 1998

By 

Dragondazd of Shadowwings (akim01@lausd.k12.c... (Southern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Decameron (Mentor) (Paperback)

If you read Chaucer's Cantebury Tales and found it twisted and amusing, this books is even better. A loose (in more ways than one) collection of 100 tales, this book was written to keep Italian maidens entertained during the Rennaissance. Want a highly amusing tale? Take your pick. An idea for a prank? There's plenty! Including pranks that have backfired...... This book is also loaded with rather bawdy if not outright shameless tales. Do not be mistaken by the literary merit of this masterpeice! It is indeed rather naughty, while something you could read for an English class. I suggest not trying to read the whole thing like I did(it too me a whole summer), but a story a day is well worth the read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stories your mother never told you, September 19, 2011

By 

IRA Ross (LYNDHURST, NJ United States 07071) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Decameron (Mentor) (Paperback)

God created heaven and earth in 6 days and rested on the 7th day. These often funny and sexy tales were told in ten days--100 stories in all--by 10 women and 3 men, taking a break from the black death in the middle ages. Each of these individuals was crowned queen or king when it was his or her turn to relate stories.

These are stories of husbands cheating on their wives, wives cheating on their husbands, for which a woman could be put to death or at the very least be beaten by her husband. In one tale a wife complains of the unfair and unequal treatment of women in the punishment statutes. She succeeds in having her execution commuted.

There are a set of tales where women play tricks on men, where men play trick on women, and where men play tricks on other men. There is a surprising and bawdy story of an abbott and an abbess sleeping together. In another story a priest is encouraged to live temporarily in a nunnery just to prove how lonely nuns could get. There are some tales that speak of an entombed "dead" person being brought back to life. Such is the power of true love.

One of my favorite stories speaks about the enduring and healing powers of true friendship.

Boccaccio helped lay the ground work for Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_. As much as I enjoyed Chaucer's work, I found _The Decameron_, in the end, deeper and more affecting.