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Search tags: Giovanni-Boccaccio
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review 2019-11-17 19:17
Penguin Little Black Classics #01
Mrs Rosie And The Priest (Little Black Classics #01) - Giovanni Boccaccio

I received my box set of Little Black Classics about four years ago, in November, 2015, but hadn't really dipped into them. They survived the purging process from earlier this year, and have a place of honor in my bookshelves, taking up half of a book shelf. 

 

I finally decided that it was time to move them up onto the "reading" list. I'm going to read one or two of them a month, on Sundays. They are nice little bite-sized bits, around 50 pages long, that I can read in an hour or so. I'm thinking that I will go in order, but I'm not fully committed to that at this point.

 

The first one is by Boccaccio, and are 4 excerpts from the Decameron: Andreuccio da Perugia's Neapolitian Adventures, Ricciardio da Chinzica Loses his Wife, Miss Rosie and the Priest and Patient Griselda. The back matter says "Bawdy tales of pimps, cuckolds, lovers and clever women from the 14th century Florentine masterpiece the Decameron."

 

Bawdy is an understatement, you guys. Certainly the second and third tales are basically medieval pornography. Not to say that they are graphic, but Boccaccio is certainly the master of the allusion - we have patches being plowed (or not) and priests using their pestles to grind in the mortars of other men's wives. They are very funny.

 

Patient Griselda, though? Her husband was a straight up abusive jackass and she should've stabbed him in the throat.

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review 2016-11-03 08:00
Mrs Rosie And The Priest
Mrs Rosie And The Priest (Little Black Classics #01) - Giovanni Boccaccio

Mrs Rosie and the Priest is the first of the (up to now) 126 Little Black Classics. As they occupy an entire bookcase, I'm planning to read them all in the near future. This was a light starter.

When people think about 'old' literature, they often assume that it will be higher or more moral than recent works. Not so for the four stories, collected from the Decamerone, published in 14th century Florence.

A very fast and light read. I hope more will follow as I continue to collection.

Little Black Classics #1

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review 2015-03-06 00:00
Mrs Rosie And The Priest (Little Black Classics #01)
Mrs Rosie And The Priest (Little Black Classics #01) - Giovanni Boccaccio 14th Century debauchery and bawdiness from Toscana's Giovanni Boccaccio, book one of the Little Black Classics.

Four short tales about women in an era that doesn't sound too far removed from our own. Whilst the tales are, probably, supposed to show the endeavour and cleverness of women, it does it in a way that is of its time. Well written but obviously translated. An interesting look in to the era of another country, where it's obvious these kinds of themes are universal.
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review SPOILER ALERT! 2013-10-13 05:12
This will take some time...
Haunted - Chuck Palahniuk
The Decameron - Giovanni Boccaccio

I'm still trying to think of what I should say about this book.  Reading Palahnuik is rather a crap shoot for me-either he's very enjoyable, or I'm incredibly bored.  I am vacillating between the two at the moment with regards to this book. 

 

Some of the things I found myself questioning made me wonder about my own sanity.  For instance, can you really chew through your own intestines without dying?  Is that possible?  And have I ever read a book with characters whom I was hoping would ALL be dead by the end of the book?

 

I was really reminded of Boccacio's "The Decameron" in the style of story telling, in a much more screwed up sense.

 

I guess another dilemma I had with this book was, why?  What is the purpose in writing something this absolutely disturbing?  

 

"That's how a scary story works.  It echoes some ancient fear.  It recreates some forgotten terror.  Something we'd like to think we've grown beyond.  But it can still scare us to tears.  It's something you'd hoped was healed." (pg. 343). Perhaps that explains it.  

 

There are so many random thoughts about this book running through my brain.  

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review 2013-10-11 19:50
The Decameron (Penguin Classics)
The Decameron - G.H. McWilliam,Giovanni Boccaccio These are 100 short stories and like the earlier Arabic 1001 Nights or Chaucer's later Canterbury Tales told within a frame: Ten Florentine nobles, seven women and three men, flee the city to the country to escape the Black Plague for ten days. Each in turn is established as Queen or King for the day and sets a theme, then all tell a tale. This is fabulous stuff. One of those classics that isn't like eating your veggies, but having a feast. The stories are not just entertaining in themselves, laden with wit and irreverent humor, but are great pictures of life in Medieval Europe. Not often pretty pictures to our eyes--as when they show us misogynist or anti-Semitic aspects--although in neither case is it one-sided, and there are positive depictions of Jews, Muslims and women. Taken altogether, it gives us the bad, the good, the ugly, and only once in a while does it bring a modern sensibility up short with a Huh??? The book is nigh unkillable--although some translations can be rather dire. With Chaucer there might be good reason for reading if not the original Middle English, then something that hews close to it--but there's no excuse imo for "doth" and "verily" in a translation from the Italian, so you might want to scan some of the editions to make sure you find the prose amenable before purchase.
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