In the 14th century in Europe, during the devastating times of the Black Death, a group of young Florentines - seven women and three men - decide to flee to seek shelter and escape from the plague in a villa outside of the city of Florence. This is the basic frame used by Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio to tell us one hundred tales of life, love and fortune with The Decameron.After leaving the city, in order to pass the time, an idea of telling stories is brought up and each one of the young group - Pampinea, Fiammetta, Filomena, Emilia, Lauretta, Neifile, Elissa, Panfilo, Filostrato and Dioneo - must tell one story per day. Starting on the second day, Filomena, who was appointed as the queen of the day - they all took turns into being the queen or king - decided that the stories to be told in each day should all pertain to a theme previously chosen by the one in charge. The only exception to that rule is Dioneo, who asked to have the privilege to be the last one to tell his tale each day and to be freed of the requirement of complying to the day's theme. It's been argued that Dioneo served as a way for Boccaccio to express his own views through his stories.I had a lot of pleasant days in the company of the young Florentines, such as the eighth day, where Lauretta chose as a theme stories of tricks women play on men or that men play on women which, of course, is packed with hilarious stories and clever stratagems; or the last day, when Panfilo asked that tales about deeds of generosity be told. I wonder if Boccaccio intended to leave a hopeful message to his readers after many cases of betrayals and misfortunes.But two days were more enjoyable than others:THIRD DAYAs the queen of the day, Neifile ruled that stories where a person has painfully acquired something or has lost it and then regained it should be told for everyone's amusement. In that day, Panfilo narrates a very funny tale (the fourth one) of Dom Felice who, desiring to spend some 'quality time' with Friar Puccio's wife, tells her husband that he should do a penance to gain blessedness. Let's just say that Dom Felice should do a lot of penance after that tale...Other two stories from that early day remained as some of my favorites:FIRST TALEFilostrato tells the story of Masetto da Lamporecchio, a young and handsome man who, deciding to pass as being mute, finds work in a convent of women as a gardener after hearing the old one is no longer there. While working, he is noticed by two of the nuns who, curious to find out what's the sensation of being with a man, decide to lie with him. As word spreads out, Masetto finds himself working very long extra hours. "'Alack!' rejoined the other, 'what is this thou sayest? Knowest thou not that we have promised our virginity to God?''Oh, as for that,' answered the first, 'how many things are promised Him all day long, whereof not one is fulfilled unto Him! An we have promised it Him, let Him find Himself another or others to perform it to Him.'"Boccaccio once again writes an humorous tale packed with religious satire and catholic church criticism. Even the abbess, from whom you'd expect better discernment and leadership towards what's rightful, can't help but to share of Masetto's services.TENTH TALEDioneo tells the tale of a beautiful and young girl named Alibech who, not being religious but hearing many Christians talking about faith and serving God, wished to find out what it was all about. After hearing their response and wandering into the desert in an attempt to become closer to God, she finally meets a monk named Rustico that, tempted by her looks, decided to teach her how to "put the devil back into hell". "Whereupon Rustico, seeing her so fair, felt an accession of desire, and therewith came an insurgence of the flesh, which Alibech marking with surprise, said: 'Rustico, what is this, which I see thee have, that so protrudes, and which I have not?''Oh! my daughter,' said Rustico, ''tis the Devil of whom I have told thee: and, seest thou? he is now tormenting me most grievously, insomuch that I am scarce able to hold out.'"This tale was so "graphic" that in John Payne's translation of The Decameron he decided to include Boccaccio's original words instead of translating them, stating that it was "...impossible to render the technicalities of that mysterious art into tolerable English..."FOURTH DAYOn the fourth day, Filostrato, who was appointed re del giorno, demanded his friends to tell stories of lovers whose relationship ended in disaster. Fiammetta narrates the first tale of the day, telling the story of Tancredi who, after slaying his daughter Ghismonda's lover, sends her his heart in a golden cup. She, then, decides to fill the cup with poison, drinks it and dies.Among other tragic stories, my favorite is the one that follows:FIFTH TALEFilomena tells the sad story of Lisabetta who has her lover Lorenzo murdered by her brothers. In a dream, he tells her where they buried his body and she decides to take his head and to set it in a pot of basil, whereon she daily weeps a great while. "...nor did she ever water these with other water than that of her tears or rose or orange-flower water."-----------------Boccaccio's language and wit in writing here is similar to Cervantes in Don Quixote, as he was able to write about violence, sex or even scatological humor, for example, successfully turning those themes into very light reads, making the episodes funny and enjoyable without shocking his readers. Not that he seemed to be in any way afraid of being offensive and raising some eyebrows: his tales about clergyman being deceitful - or "hypocrites", to borrow one of the adjectives he employed in one of the narratives - or nuns having sex seem to be a direct criticism and a mockery to their status as holy people.One of the aspects that really amused me was the role of women in his work. Boccaccio directly spoke to the "gracious ladies" with the words below in the first day, defining them as the main audience to his book. "As often, most gracious ladies, as, taking thought in myself, I mind me how very pitiful you are all by nature, so often do I recognize that this present work will, to your thinking, have a grievous and a weariful beginning, inasmuch as the dolorous remembrance of the late pestiferous mortality, which it beareth on its forefront, is universally irksome to all who saw or otherwise knew it."On the fourth day, once again, he addressed the ladies by writing about having been criticized for liking the ladies too much and thinking solely of pleasuring them with his tales: "There are then, discreet ladies, some who, reading these stories, have said that you please me overmuch and that it is not a seemly thing that I should take so much delight in pleasuring and solacing you; and some have said yet worse of commending you as I do."Setting the discussion aside of why he would include that odd defense (it seems he was being defensive without having been actually attacked?) on Decamerone, I was amazed by the extensive portraits Boccaccio painted of women: they were cunning, sad, some were cheaters, others were passionate, subjugated and the roles go on. For living in a time where men loved - and idolized, and described women as being the most beautiful things to have ever walked on the earth - women so much, constantly elevating them to goddesses status, it seems that Boccaccio masterfully wrote an array of human-like characters with great range of emotions.Film adaptation: there's been many adaptations, but I've only watched one: 1971's Il Decameron by Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini. Who would be better than the ever so controversial filmmaker to add extra layers of mockery, satire and erotica to Boccaccio's already teasing tales? The director nicely connected nine of the stories through the fifth tale of the sixth day where Pasolini played the painter Giotto. This film is in no way necessary to complement the book, but it was a great one hour and a half of pure fun!Rating: Boccaccio's work proved to be a fine companion as I often read his stories on my commute to work and found myself giggling all the time. I can see myself re-reading some tales from time to time, like you would with a daily reflections book. For that, 4 stars.
The Decameron, a collection of 100 short (to short-ish) stories told by ten young Florentine men and women during the plague over ten days is a fun if often frustrating bit of fiction. The stories range from the dazzling, creative and surprising to the more rote and uninspired. First the good: there are all kinds of crazy shenanigans going on in throughout the course of the collection, and it’s quite a bit of fun to read stories written almost 700 years ago that ends with wife swapping, threesomes, and more torrid love affairs than you’ll be able to keep track of. A couple of endearing recurring characters pop up, namely the endlessly gullible Calandrino and his friends (it’s a loose term) Bruno and Buffalmalco, and Boccaccio is at his best in these stories. The way men and women interact, and are treated by each other, is a fascinating mess of complexities and contradictions. That said, some of the stories are simply not up to the standard of the others. Telling one hundred short stories in one go is an ambitious task for any author to undertake, and when Boccaccio isn’t at his best, it’s noticeable and the pace drags. Some stories are simply too long (Boccaccio himself even anticipated this complaint in his afterward, and states that these stories were designed for noblewomen who really had nothing better to do with their time anyway). And while the framing device is a fascinating concept (ten people escaping tragedy through storytelling), most of the narrators wind up seeming flat and interchangeable. The two exceptions, Dioneo and Philostrato, are occasionally fun or morbid, respectively. But the rest of the cast amounts to repeated iterations of the well-mannered, slightly witty young socialite, and I kept finding myself going back to figure out which narrator was telling which story. It doesn’t particularly damage the individual stories, but it’s quite a bit of wasted potential.The Decameron reminded me more than anything else of Dante’s Divine Comedy. The subject manner and tone are hugely different, with the Decameron more reminiscent of a cocktail party than The Divine Comedy’s theology seminar, but both works are framed by a distinctive and overarching structure. Both works are very, very conscious of time – Dante moves through the clearly delineated circles hell, purgatory and heaven over three distinctive days, with the movement of the sun consistently marked. The storytelling of the Decameron takes places over ten days (with two weekend breaks), with ten narrators per day. But while Dante’s framework gives him a solid platform to which to return after mystical and linguistic leaps, Boccaccio’s is more of a constraint, making a collection of so many varied and lively stories feel restricted and boxed-in.That said, it’s definitely worth a look if you’re at all interested in medieval culture. Given it’s weaknesses, I’d say it’s a great book to read in bits and pieces, a few stories here and there when you’re in the mood.
Do You like book The Decameron (2003)?
My encounter with this book has been a delightful surprise. Expecting a dry and difficult medieval text, I was shocked to find myself unable to put it down. This is a completely rich text that is complex, yet easy and fun to read. Boccaccio has such a fun sense of humor! I found myself laughing aloud. For me, the dirty stories stole the show, but the other stories by no means fall short. His characters and stories are so richly human and he is able to laugh at them, embrace their flaws, forgive them their hypocrisies. It's too bad we all can't view the world with Boccaccio's humor and sense of reason. As a side note, his description of societal breakdown prompted by the plague is really interesting. I had the simple, but impressive realization that I was reading the actual first hand observations of someone who had lived through THE Plague. It's crazy- and so cool! Admittedly, I know there is a lot of critical study around this text that I am missing and things that I have failed to recognize, but Boccaccio's brilliance lies in the fact that he is able to create a work that is valid and entertaining. It's the perfect combination of study and pleasure. I would re-read this in a heartbeat. I recommend it, especially if you doubt that you will like it. (You will.)
—Emm
الديكاميرون مثلها مثل ألف ليلة و ليلة حكايات بالأساس و لذلك لا يبحث القارىء عن أو يتوقع حبكة درامية أو أسلوب سرد مميز, ففي القرن الرابع عشر لا يتوقع الكاتب أن ينتشر عمله بالنسخ المطبوعة و إنما بالحكي, و لذلك فتقييم مثل هذه الأعمال يكون بمدى أصالة و طرافة الحكايات, و على هذا الأساس فإن قراءة الديكاميرون متعة و تسلية في نفس الوقت, و هما أقصى ما تسعى الحكايات لتحقيقه.يلفت النظر أن بازوليني في فيلمه الديكاميرون قام بإختيار عدد من الحكايات ليقدمها لنا, و لكنه تجاهل حكاية عندما قرأتها للمرة الأولى ظننت بأنه كاتبها و هي الحكاية العاشرة في الليلة الثالثة - حكاية الراهب و الفتاة أو الشيطان و جهنم.
—Wael Mahmoud
from amazon: (via my mom) Bawdy tales of love, February 18, 2009This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history. The "Decameron" is a collection of 100 novellas by Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio, probably begun in 1350 and finished in 1353. It is a medieval allegorical work best known for its bawdy tales of love, appearing in all its possibilities from the erotic to the tragic. Other topics such as wit and witticism, practical jokes and worldly initiation also form part of the mosaic. Beyond its entertainment and literary popularity, it remains an important historical document of life in the fourteenth century. Decameron is structured in a frame narrative, or frame tale. Boccaccio begins with a description of the Black Death and leads into an introduction of a group of seven young women and three young men who flee from plague-ridden Florence to a villa in the (then) countryside of Fiesole for two weeks. To pass the time, each member of the party tells one story for each one of the nights spent at the villa. Although fourteen days pass, two days each week are set aside: one day for chores and one holy day during which no work is done. In this manner, 100 stories are told by the end of the ten days. Each of the ten characters is charged as King or Queen of the company for one of the ten days in turn. This charge extends to choosing the theme of the stories for that day, and all but two days have topics assigned: examples of the power of fortune; examples of the power of human will; love tales that end tragically; love tales that end happily; clever replies that save the speaker; tricks that women play on men; tricks that people play on each other in general; examples of virtue. Only Dioneo, who usually tells the tenth tale each day, has the right to tell a tale on any topic he wishes, due to his wit. Each day also includes a short introduction and conclusion to continue the frame of the tales by describing other daily activities besides story telling. These frame tale interludes frequently include transcriptions of Italian folk songs. The interactions among tales in a day, or across days, as Boccaccio spins variations and reversals of previous material, forms a whole and not just a collection of stories. The basic plots of the stories including mocking the lust and greed of the clergy; tensions in Italian society between the new wealthy commercial class and noble families; the perils and adventures of traveling merchants. The title is a portmanteau, or combination of two Greek words meaning "ten" and "day". Boccacio made similar Greek etymological plays of words in his other works. The subtitle is Prencipe Galeotto, which derives from the opening material in which Boccaccio dedicates the work to ladies of the day who did not have the diversions of men (hunting, fishing, riding, falconry) who were forced to conceal their amorous passions and stay idle and concealed in their rooms. Thus, the book is subtitled Prencipe Galeotto, that is Galehaut, the go-between of Lancelot and Guinevere, a nod to Dante's allusion to Galeotto in "Inferno V", who was blamed for the arousal of lust in the episode of Paolo and Francesca. Throughout Decameron, the mercantile ethic prevails and predominates. The commercial and urban values of quick wit, sophistication, and intelligence are treasured, while the vices of stupidity and dullness are cured, or punished. While these traits and values will seem obvious to the modern reader, they were an emerging feature in Europe with the rise of urban centers and a monetized economic system beyond the traditional rural feudal and monastery systems, which placed greater value on piety and loyalty. Beyond the unity provided by the frame narrative, Decameron provides a unity in philosophical outlook. Throughout runs the common medieval theme of Lady Fortune, and how quickly one can rise and fall through the external influences of the "Wheel of Fortune". Boccaccio had been educated in the tradition of Dante's Divine Comedy, which used various levels of allegory to show the connections between the literal events of the story and the hidden Christian message. However, Decameron uses Dante's model not to educate the reader, but to satirize this method of learning. The Roman Catholic Church, priests, and religious belief become the satirical source of comedy throughout. This was part of a wider historical trend in the aftermath of the Black Death, which saw widespread discontent with the church. Many details of the Decameron are infused with a medieval sense of numerological and mystical significance. For example, it is widely believed that the seven young women are meant to represent the Four Cardinal Virtues (Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude) and the Three Theological Virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity). It is further supposed that the three men represent the classical Greek tripartite division of the soul (Reason, Spirit, and Lust, see Book IV of Republic). Boccaccio himself notes that the names he gives for these ten characters are in fact pseudonyms chosen as "appropriate to the qualities of each". The Italian names of the seven women, in the same (most likely significant) order as given in the text, are: Pampinea, Fiammetta, Filomena, Emilia, Lauretta, Neifile, and Elissa. The men, in order, are: Panfilo, Filostrato, and Dioneo. Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.
—Kate
