The year is 1348. The Black Death has begun to ravage Europe. Ten young Florenti
nes seven women and three men escape the plague-infested city and retreat to the
countryside around Fiesole. At their leisure in this isolated and bucolic setti
ng, they spend ten days telling each other stories tales of romance, tragedy, co
medy, and farce one hundred in all. The result, called by one critic "the greate
st short story collection of all time" (Leonard Barkan, Princeton University) is
a rich and entertaining celebration of the medley of medieval life.
Witty, ear
thy, and filled with bawdy irreverence, the one hundred stories of The Decameron
offer more than simple escapism; they are also a life-affirming balm for trying
times. The Decameron is a joyously comic book that has earned its place in worl
d literature not just because it makes us laugh, but more importantly because it
shows us how essential laughter is to the human condition.
Published on the 70
0th anniversary of Boccaccio s birth, Wayne A. Rebhorn's new translation of The
Decameron introduces a generation of readers to this "rich late-medieval feast"
in a "lively, contemporary, American-inflected English" (Stephen Greenblatt, Har
vard University) even as it retains the distinctly medieval flavor of Boccaccio'
s rhetorically expressive prose.
An extensive introduction provides useful deta
ils about Boccaccio's historical and cultural milieu, the themes and particulari
ties of the text, and the lines of influence flowing into and out of this toweri
ng monument of world literature."
