Penguin Classics Decameron [Paperback]

I very much enjoyed 'The Decameron.' It is interesting and easy to read. The characters in the various stories are ordinary people and this makes them seem very real. Many of them actually are based on real people. Some of the stories, too, are inspired by actual events, though not all. This particular edition is an excellent translation. It is very user-friendly while still retaining the 14th century 'feel' of it. I also liked the organization of the book, as it was always very easy to find a 'stopping place.' With some novels, it's hard to set them down, but since The Decameron is a collection of short stories, one can always stop at the end of any particular story and come back later.

Boccaccio claims that his goal in writing 'The Decameron' was to entertain and 'provide succour and diversion' (Prologue 3) to young women who are in love - presumably those whose love lives are not going well at the moment. He says he wishes to 'offer some solace' (Prologue 2) to these women, and also 'some useful advice' (Prologue 3). While this sounds like a noble aim on first glance, I have to wonder about his sincerity. A good many of the stories involve characters who go to rather immoral ends to achieve their aims, and I find it odd that such examples would be given in a book intended to instruct a young lady.

Nevertheless, the book is great fun to read. The stories are lively and colorful, and often quite humorous. It provides an excellent insight into the everyday lives of people during this time period. I will caution, however, that most of the stories involve sexuality in some way, and many revolved around it completely. If you are easily offended by bawdy humor, this may not be the book for you. Nearly all the characters of the various tales are sexually active, most with more than one partner. There are also homosexual and bisexual characters. Sexual infidelity is treated here as not only acceptable, but widely encouraged. Characters who cheat on their spouses regularly come out on top, while those that are cuckolded are laughed at and made to look like fools. The unfaithful partner is rewarded and the faithful one shamed and called a prude.

The one thing I do wish Boccaccio had talked more about is the ten people who were actually telling the stories. There are hints of Filostrato having a romantic interest in fellow-storyteller Filomena, but this is never followed up on, except to hint that Filomena is herself interested in someone else not of the company. I would like to know if anything more ever came of Filostrato's interest. I would also have liked to know more of what happened to the ten storytellers upon returning to Florence at the end of the book. Had the plague passed? What had happened to those they left behind? Did any of the ten themselves catch the plague? All of this is left out and I found the ending to be somewhat abrupt.

Perhaps most unclear to me, however, is how the ten were even able to flee the plague as they did. There is no talk of preparation, and it seems that they just dropped everything and left. The places they stayed were abandoned estates that they simply happened upon. Boccaccio says of the second place they stayed, 'she brought them [. . .] to a most beautiful and ornate palace. [. . .] They explored it from end to end and were filled with admiration for its spacious halls and well-kept, elegant rooms, which were equipped with everything they could possibly need, and they came to the conclusion that only a gentleman of the highest rank could have owned it' (Introduction, Third Day, 189). Why were places such as this abandoned? Had its owner/s died of plague? Or if the owners were not dead but had instead fled from the plague, why did they not take some of their things with them? Why was everything left in these places as if nothing was amiss? It all seems a bit unreal to me.

Overall the book is written very well for what it is - a collection of short stories. It is, however, lacking in character development. Most of the storytellers were very flat emotionally, and it would have been nice to see them fleshed out a little more. But in the context of a short story or group of short stories this lack of depth is more forgivable than it would be in a novel. With the exception of Dioneo, who seems to be the most creative and fun-loving of the ten, and Filostrato, who seems absorbed in moping and self-pity for much of the book (presumably over his unrequited interest in Filomena), I found it hard to distinguish one storyteller from another. But the focal point of the book is the stories themselves, and these are all highly entertaining. Though the frequent sexual references may make the book inappropriate for younger audiences, I would highly recommend it for any mature reader.