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In Florence, in 1350, Giovanni Boccaccio writes the Decameron, a collection of 100 stories told ostensibly by a group of noblemen and women hiding in the countryside from the Black Plague, the effects of which are described at the beginning of the Decameron in one of the world’s most horrifying pieces of journalism. The stories themselves are generally bawdy and funny, and in fact this was made into a porno in 1970, and here are some butts to prove it:


butts

It was influenced in part by the brilliant collection of Middle Eastern tales, the Arabian Nights. It was a big hit in its time; it was probably read by Chaucer, who probably borrowed parts of it for his great epic The Canterbury Tales.

I've read a bunch of non-fiction books recently that at least touch on Italy in the 14th century, and I keep thinking, "Yeah, I understand this from Boccaccio." Corruption in the church, the role of women, the lives of the nobles and the common people... I get a better sense of these things from the Decameron than from the history books. So if Boccaccio's goal was to describe what life was like in his time, from every imaginable point of view, he has nailed it.

Some are bawdy and funny, yes, but there are also a number stories about violence and rape. Like II.7, for example, in which a woman is kidnapped and raped by eight different men in succession, and they're often played as sorta funny and I haven't been sure how to deal with that, but it's true that Boccaccio's exposing the darker things that were happening in his time - along with all the other things. It's an unflinching tour, but it's misted by this irreverent tone that throws you off balance.

The intro to this edition claimed that Boccaccio was in some ways a sort of feminist, because his female characters are as strong and willful as his male ones, and this is one of the first times we have female characters portrayed as enjoying sex. I see the point, but it's also true that they're handed around like paperbacks pretty often.

I've been reminded recently how grotesquely hateful the last story in this collection is, and I feel like it's a public service to warn potential future readers about it: it leaves a very bad taste in your mouth. Horrifically misogynist. Skip it - or at least read it out of order, somewhere around the middle, so it's not your last impression.

Apparently Boccaccio himself wasn't crazy about the Decameron, but I think it's pretty dope.

Translation
Not that I have anything to compare it to, but I found Michael Musa's translation easy to read and entertaining, modern without being over-modern. Thumbs up to that.

This is a lot of stories, shit
I consulted two different lists of the "best" stories in The Decameron, reading any story that appeared on either list, around 2/3 of them in all. The first was translator Mike Musa's, from the introduction to my edition; the second was Jack Murnighan's, from a book called Beowulf on the Beach, which is fine but Murnighan can be a bit of a twit. Here are the lists:

Introduction

I
Musa: 1 - 3
Murnighan: 1, 5

II
Musa: 4 - 7, 10
Murnighan: 1 - 6, 7, 10

III
Musa: 1, 2, 9, 10
Murnighan: 1 - 4, 6, 10

IV
Musa: Prologue, 1, 2, 5, 9
Murnighan: 1, 5

V
Musa: 1, 4, 8 - 10
Murnighan: 4, 9, 10

VI
Musa: 1,4,5,7,10
Murnighan: 5, 6, 9

VII:
Musa: 2,9,10
Murnighan: 2, 5, 9, 10

VIII:
Musa: 3, 5-10
Murnighan: 1, 2, 6 - 9

IX:
Musa: 2,3,5,6,10
Murnighan: 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10
(Murnighan actually says 9 is "ultra-misogynistic and not to my taste," but after a comment like that you sortof have to read it, right? Turns out it's ultra-misogynistic and not to my taste.)

X:
Musa: 3,4,8-10
Murnighan: 4, 7, 9, 10