3essen

A collection of 100 short stories written in the 14th century, written not in a "high" or scholarly manner but for everyday folk, and not in Latin but in Italian. The book is overall very good, though the stories run the gamut from excellent to page-filler. The best stories are the funny ones, particularly the ones told by Dioneo, whose tales conclude each set of ten stories and which are at times amazingly and hilariously vulgar. The story about "putting the Devil back into hell" made me laugh aloud, as did the one about the gay husband who catches his wife cheating on him. The more serious stories are also good but can sometimes run into these long-winded passages that can seriously detract from the action. Boccacio is merely decent at the history and the tragedy, but excellent at the comedy. A really good book for subway-commuters like myself, as you can usually get in a few stories to and from work each day.

2022-11-14 18:40