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The Decameron (Oxford World's Classics) - Giovanni Boccaccio
The Decameron (Oxford World's Classics)
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The Decameron (c.1351) was written in the wake of the Black Death, a shattering epidemic which had shaken Florence's confident entrepreneurial society to its core.In a country villa outside the city, ten young noble men and women who have escaped the plague decide to tell each other stories.... show more
The Decameron (c.1351) was written in the wake of the Black Death, a shattering epidemic which had shaken Florence's confident entrepreneurial society to its core.In a country villa outside the city, ten young noble men and women who have escaped the plague decide to tell each other stories. Boccaccio's skill as a dramatist is masterfully displayed in this virtuoso performance of one hundred tales, vivid portraits of people from all stations in life, with plots which revel in a bewildering variety of human reactions. Themes are playfully restated from one story to another within an elegant and refined framework. One of Chaucer's most fruitful sources for the Canterbury Tales, Boccaccio's work artfully combines the essential ingredients of narrative: fate and desire, crises and quick-thinking.This new translation by Guido Waldman captures the exuberance and variety and tone of Boccaccio's masterpiece.About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
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Format: paperback
ISBN: 9780199540419 (0199540411)
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Pages no: 752
Edition language: English
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Community Reviews
Lisa (Harmony)
Lisa (Harmony) rated it
5.0 The Decameron (Penguin Classics)
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 da...
Julian Meynell's Books
Julian Meynell's Books rated it
4.0 The Decameron
A good book and worth reading. It is a collection of a hundred short stories with a frame tale. This book is sometimes seen either as a response or a complement to the Divine Comedy. While it is very aware of Dante, I don't think that it is that at all. It prefigures in a lot of ways the renaiss...
Florencia
Florencia rated it
Bueno, ya que estoy, hago la misma aclaración para este libro. Como no se sabe qué aclaración es, ya que luego se pierde el hilo de las "actualizaciones", remito a la reseña-aclaración de [b:Inferno|15645|Inferno (The Divine Comedy, #1)|Dante Alighieri|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/133...
So Many Books, So Little Time...
So Many Books, So Little Time... rated it
4.0 The Decameron (Penguin Classics)
The Decameron, by Giovanni Bocaccio **** Bocaccio followed hot on the heels of Dante but in many ways the books for which they are both known could not be more different. “The Decameron” is almost the exact opposite of Dante’s “Comedia”, written in prose instead of poetry, concerned with things ea...
Chrissie's Books
Chrissie's Books rated it
0.0
I have this dusty old, black hardcover book sitting there in my library. It has been there for over 30 years, and I still haven't read it. I guess I shouuld at least give it a try. But I don't like short stories and won't it all feel so "out of date"?if there is someone out there who has read this a...
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