This collection of sixteen tales by the master story tellers of the Italian Renaissance resonates with Italian folklore, popular culture, and the often earthy humor that formed the basis of Renaissance notions of paradox and irony and later found their way into Italian opera and the plays of Shakespeare. Authors include Matteo Bandello, Gentile Sermini, Antonfrancesco Grazzini, Masuccio Salernitano, Giovanni Gherardi, and Lorenzo de' Medici. First English edition, illustrated, introduction, glossary, and bibliography.
Renaissance Comic Tales of Love, Treachery, and Revenge
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
These 16 post- Decameron tales are testaments to Boccaccio's literary revolution, demonstrating his then-new style of entertaining tales written in the vernacular, and showing (again) that Shakespeare swiped all the best plots from the Italians. These liberated tales cast off the notion that literature should teach, and instead portray the triumph of cleverness over conventional morality. Two major themes prevail: lovers who must deceive to unite, and gentlemen who go to great lengths to play scandalous practical jokes on each other. The collection's stars feature both, such as "Giacoppo" by Lorenzo de' Medici, in which a simpleton ends up begging his wife to sleep with her heart's desire. Shakespeare might have lifted Romeo and Juliet from Gentile Sermini's "Montanina's Deception," only Montanina and Vannino must overcome Montanina's unwanted marriage rather than, more nobly, the political history of their families. Sermini's lovers fake a death which deceives an entire city in grand comic style, so that Montanina can return to town years later to wed her love as "a Milanese lady" who--amazing!--resembles Vannino's deceased love. The tricksters always win, and in today's post-minimalist fictional haze, these stories seem bawdy in the extreme (the Renaissance Italians had a fabulous way with sexual euphemism) and a little bit bad for you. The translators capture each author's gift of gab with clarity and distinction, and the result is truly entertaining.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"I enjoyed the diversity of the offerings and the excellent choice of representative authors. The stories are amusing, entertaining, sometimes silly but always reflective of the human condition. The translators are true to the original, reflecting the richness, bawdiness and colloquialisms of the language." -- VIA, vol. 6, no. 1
"The stories themselves are entertaining, offering a good introduction to the prose fiction of the Italian Renaissance, and the translations are very readable. The result is a collection with broad appeal to general readers and undergraduate students." -- Choice, Jan. 1995, vol. 32, no. 5
"The stories themselves are entertaining, offering a good introduction to the prose fiction of the Italian Renaissance, and the translations are very readable. The result is a collection with broad appeal to general readers and undergraduate students." -- Choice, Jan. 1995, vol. 32, no. 5
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Amusing, thought-provoking introduction to Renaissance Italy,
By A Customer
This review is from: Renaissance Comic Tales of Love, Treachery and Revenge (Paperback)
The Martones have provided clear, graceful, & funny translations of Italian Renaissance tales in the tradition of Boccaccio. Excellent introductory or background reading for the period, plus you may want to retell some of the stories to your friends! Authors whose novellas are in the collection include Bandello and Sermini
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
If only there were written records of the past, there's no doubt that people's memories of the past would be more perfect now, and they would remember things just as they once were. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Gian Simone, Sir Dolcibene, Sir Mellon, Sir Floriano, Mona Nuta, Saint Bernardine, Sir Giovanni, Sir Ugolino, Mona Chiara, Mona Pippa, Sir Ambrosio, Brother Antonio, Masuccio Salernitano, Santa Maria Novella, Gerardo Lanzetti, Neri Chiaramontesi, Old Market, Sir Galeazzo, Gentile Sermini, Matteo Bandello, Saint Dominic New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
If only there were written records of the past, there's no doubt that people's memories of the past would be more perfect now, and they would remember things just as they once were. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Gian Simone, Sir Dolcibene, Sir Mellon, Sir Floriano, Mona Nuta, Saint Bernardine, Sir Giovanni, Sir Ugolino, Mona Chiara, Mona Pippa, Sir Ambrosio, Brother Antonio, Masuccio Salernitano, Santa Maria Novella, Gerardo Lanzetti, Neri Chiaramontesi, Old Market, Sir Galeazzo, Gentile Sermini, Matteo Bandello, Saint Dominic New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 45
books:
See all 45 books this book cites
3
books
cite this book:
- Twelfth Night (Shakespeare Collection) by Jan Dean in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Front Matter (3)
- The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (Penguin Classics) by Jacob Burckhardt in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Back Matter
- Theatre of the World by Frances Amelia Yates in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Back Matter
- Twelfth Night (Folger Shakespeare Library) by William Shakespeare in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Front Matter (3)
- The Fat Woodworker by Antonio Manetti in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Back Matter
See all 45 books this book cites
- Fairy Godfather: Straparola, Venice, and the Fairy Tale Tradition by Ruth B. Bottigheimer in Back Matter
- Benvenuto Cellini: Sexuality, Masculinity, and Artistic Identity in Renaissance Italy by Margaret A. Gallucci in Back Matter
- Better a Shrew Than a Sheep: Women, Drama, and the Culture of Jest in Early Modern England by Pamela Allen Brown in Back Matter
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
