Das Dekameron - Vollständige Ausgabe (Winkler Weltliteratur Dünndruckausgabe)

Summary: A classic collection of one hundred stories told for amusement over ten days by seven women and three men escaping the plague of 1348 in Florence.

A hundred year old copy of Decameron resides in the depths of my bookcases. I don't suspect it was ever read, with pages still uncut but my mom spoke of these stories as if she knew them. I never picked them up until this spring, when a reading group I'm a part of decided to read this. The first challenge was to chose an edition. We looked at the classic (and free via e-book) translation by John Payne. It read formal and dense, and we decided we would never survive a book of this length without finding a more readable translation. Wayne A. Rebhorn's recent translation more than fits show more the bill. It is lively, vernacular, and brings out the humor and earthiness of Boccaccio's tale, combining readability and nobility without ever becoming stuffy.

"Decameron" means "ten days," which alludes to the framing story for these one hundred stories. It is 1348 and the plague has struck Florence. Seven women and three men fleeing the city meet up and decide to travel together and take up lodgings in the course of the stories at several idyllic country estates with separate bedrooms (!) and verdant gardens and servants to supply their needs. For amusement, they agree to meet together each day for ten days (with breaks extending the ten days of storytelling over fifteen days abroad) and each tell a story for the others. One of their number presides as king or queen each day, both arranging meals and most importantly, setting a theme for the stories each day for the group--for all that is but Dioneo. Dioneo claims special privilege to tell the concluding story and choose his own theme. Two of the days are storyteller's choice. Other themes include misfortunes turned to happiness, resourcefulness in action or wit, loves that end unhappily or happily, tricks played by women on husbands, on men in general, men on women, and men on men. The collection concludes on a high note with stories of those who act with magnificence in love or otherwise.

How does one summarize these stories? They are earthy, and often the women are as lusty as the men, and affairs seem to be accepted and generally inconsequential unless one is caught, and even then, the test is whether one may escape by one's wits. The lack of the sad consequences that follow such affairs in real life seemed somewhat disconcerting, and an indulgence in unreality--some of us thought of it as a male fantasy world. Some stories are fairly crude, as is the case where a friend is called to cast a spell to turn a man's wife into a mare, and for the spell to work, the friend must pin his "tale" on the mare.

The church hardly escapes this earthiness as bishops, priests, and nuns (in one case a whole abbey) succumb to sins of the flesh. One of the most telling commentaries is the second story in the collection in which a Jew goes to Rome and on return converts because, given the low estate of the church that he saw, it can only survive because there is a God (sadly true at several times and places in our history!).

Sometimes they are downright hilarious, particularly the tales of Buffo and Buffalmacco and their witless friend Calendrino, who they dupe in several stories. One wonders how he can be so stupid to let these guys deceive him, and why he retains them as friends.

While earthy, they retain a certain focus on style. Day Six's stories where a witty response or quick retort saves the day or puts one in their place is an example. One example is an uncle who suggests to his vain niece that she not preen in the mirror if it is true that she does not like looking at disagreeable people! We thought that this kind of wit, of which Ronald Reagan was the epitome, is desperately needed in our public life.

Style extends to nobility of spirit and action. Perhaps my favorite story in the volume was that of Torello and Saladhin. Torello extends generous hospitality to Saladhin, traveling incognito. Later when captured by Saladhin in a Crusade, the tables are turned in a marvelous way that transcended these wasteful conflicts.

Not all is noble, however and there is a dark undercurrent running through these stories of how men exercise power over women, sometimes with great physical and psychological cruelty (one husband tests his wife's loyalty by seeming to kill her children, and then send her off to her father, feigning to marry another). Yet often women find way to give as good as they get. One wife, caught in an affair and dragged before the judge, exposes her husband's "inattentiveness" and gets the law changed through her witty defense. Women trick their husbands, often without the husbands knowing they have been tricked.

In the epilogue, Boccaccio gives a defense for the bawdy or unseemly character of some of his stories. He argues both that when these are written with elegance, and read by people of character, they do no harm but simply amuse or delight. And it seems that this is indeed the case for the young women and men who tell and listen to these stories. It might be argued that the survival of these stories to our own day suggests the power of Boccaccio as a story teller. Boccaccio reveals humanity in our pretensions to greatness, and the realities of our desires, our blindness and folly, sparks of wit and the thrill of romance, unseemly greed, and noble generosity. We still like stories that explore all these things and perhaps the genius of Boccaccio was to combine them through a compelling framing story into a single volume. show less

12. The Decameron (Penguin Classics) by Giovanni Boccaccio
translated by G. H. McWilliam
written: ~1353, translation 1972, revised 1995
format: 909-page paperback
acquired: January 3
read: Jan 4 – Mar 23
time reading: 46:25, 2.8 mpp
rating: 5
locations: Florence, and lots of specific places around Italy, and some beyond.
about the author: Boccaccio: 1313-1375, Florentine author, diplomat. G. H. McWilliam was a former Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and Professor Emeritus of Italian in the University of Leicester. He passed away in 2001

That I put three months into this and took pages and pages of notes on these hundred stories is a little more overwhelming rather than helpful in trying to write up a little response.

In brief, I liked it. The show more frame story is entertaining - a group of ten young single ladies and men escape plague-overwhelmed Florence, and, in a pleasant, isolated setting, with servants, leisure and comforts, begin to tell stories. They spend ten days, each member telling one story every day. (They also take breaks on Fridays and Saturdays for religious observation and washing. So, it's a 14-day retreat.) The 100 stories begin with a long story that I found trying because I was worried about 100 stories like this. But that would be my only complaint about length until the near the end (stories 97, 98, and 99 tried me. I was ready to be done. Story 100 is terrific). Story two was quick, a little entertaining, surprisingly respectful of a non-Christian character. Story three equates the three Mediterranean religions. But, anyway, religion aside, I was mildly entertained, and then again and again. As we get into day 2, the stories start to get racy, and in entertaining ways. It clearly makes the stories better. These are bawdy tales full of comedy, cleverness, lust and sex, but they mostly stay very light. Individually mildly entertaining, but read one after another, they relax the reader's natural intensity of trying to grasp what they read; and natural worry about what's coming next. They lie easy on the reader, and I started to see them as they were maybe partially intended, as an escape. I would hang-out with Boccaccio and the rest of my day, usually ahead as I read in the morning, could be set aside. I was never enraptured, but I was in this storytelling place. It was notably non-threatening, non-tiring and non-demanding. If good writing comes across as effortless to the reader, then this gets full marks.

A lot of ideas have been put forth for the themes and trends within Boccaccio's story arch. I think, to his credit, they are at best loose fitting. Yes, ingenuity, love (or really just lust), and arbitrary Fortune (capital 'F') make the main themes. The hypocrisy of the Christian clergy and the wantonness of the women are there, repetitively, including in many rants. Values and savviness of 14th century Italian mercantile bourgeoisie - check. Code of conduct of old feudal aristocracy - check. Supremacy of natural laws over this and all codes of conduct - check. Contrasts of reality and appearances - check. And storytelling itself - a defense (partially in satire) and critique - also check. But the collection of stories has an apparent randomness to it, such that all these theories, when you think about them, undermine the fun. You're not supposed to be thinking about theory, or what Boccaccio was thinking about when he was constructing, or whatever he does with his prose, or what his morality is (since he cuts through all moralities sometimes). You're supposed to just enjoy it. I found the sexism contrast and occasional cruelty (days 7-9) a little tough to overlook. The sexism is annoying because it's framed as a book for ladies and has many indicators of feminism. They're all false leads. It's as sexist as anything I've read. And cruelty just isn't entertaining to us in this time and place. Mostly Boccaccio provoked without getting any readers upset. Of course, each reader will have their own responses, their own levels of comfort and discomfort, and the less the latter the more they will enjoy these.

In the literary trend, very briefly, Boccaccio had a lot of sources of stories to pull from, does so freely. And he has had an immense influence on literature going forward, notably on Chaucer and Shakespeare. And, like Apuleius's [Golden Ass], he lays his influence in a fun way. He's an enjoyable source. In my own head, I associate him with Ovid's [Metamorphoses], and Spencer's [Faerie Queene] in the sense of how easily he takes the reader, well some readers, into a removed mental storytelling wordy space.

So, with a hundred stories, what stands out? Well, to a large extent this is dependent on the other reading I did about the Decameron. Ultimately i read so much about story 1, that long one, that I've come to see its value in a variety of lights and it's become important to me. The others are Alatiel and her nine lovers (story 2:7), Masetto, who plays dumb in a nunnery and sleeps with all the nuns (story 3:1), the story that introduces day 4, on a child isolated by his father in a cave for moral purity, who, seeing pretty ladies for the first time (he calls them gosslings), is struck my natural lust, the story of the parents finding their daughter with a lover on a balcony, holding his "nightingale" (and noticing the touches Shakespeare picked up for his Romeo and Juliet love scene)(story 5:4), the story where the priest, father Gianni, pretends to turn his friends wife into a horse, while he watches (story 9:10), and, a pleasant surprise, the famous last story of Griselda, the common girl tormented by her deranged noble husband, who withstands it all. After all I had read about Griselda before this story, and how awful it sounds, I was surprised how charmed I was.

Only recommended to everyone.

2022
https://www.librarything.com/topic/337810#7803176 show less

The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio was published in 1353 and demonstrates that the popularity of gross humor did not begin with the puerile teen comedies of our own era, but can be traced back to the middle ages and before (cf. Plautus and Aristophanes). I am in the midst of a reading of The Decameron using the translation by Mark Musa and Peter Bondanella. Selected stories from the first three days have introduced me to a polyglot of defrocked Friars, larcenous ladies, and virgins whose virginity remains in the imagination alone, although they can fool the King when necessary (the Kings and Priests and Aristocrats seem most likely candidates for the title "fool"). Even in translation the humorous style shines through and it seems all show more great fun, as long as you don't think of the Black Death that hovers in the background and provides the raison d'etre (pardon the French, I don't know the Italian equivalent) for the tale-telling.

As I completed the days through to the tenth I was impressed with the fecundity of the tales, the breadth of the characters covering multiple vocations and classes, and the author's stylish ability to reach the reader - even in translation. These are tales that have inspired many writers as well as readers since the fourteenth century with good reason. With each tale I found myself looking forward with more desire for the next and now that I am done I am sure I will return to this humane writer. show less

The year is 1348 and the Black Death is plaguing Europe. To escape almost certain demise, seven young noblewomen, attended by three well-bred young male friends, flee the city of Florence into the safety of the surrounding hillside. There, over a period of two weeks, they live a life of leisure, amusing themselves by eating good food, drinking wine, singing and dancing, and telling each other stories to pass the time. In particular, taking turns serving as king or queen for a day whose task it is to select a common theme, each of the ten companions tells a related tale that vary widely in nature from the humorous to the tragic to the ribald to, some would say, the blasphemous and heretical.

Such is the clever narrative frame of The show more Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio’s celebrated masterpiece of morals and manners in pre-Renaissance Italy. Of course, the charm and lasting impact of this seven century-old novel is not in its overarching concept but rather the content of the 100 short stories themselves. Several of these vignettes are very entertaining and enlightening, although it is also fair to say that not all of them are successful and there is more than a little repetition in some of the themes that are presented. Still, taken as a whole, this collection of stories is remarkable for its ability to engage the modern reader as well as provide an important glimpse into the thoughts and motivations of people who lived so long ago. (For instance, it turns out that the pursuit of fame, wealth, and a lot of sex is not an invention of the present age!)

Another point worth mentioning is that there have been many translations of The Decameron over the years and the one you choose to read matters greatly. I read the English language translation by G. H. McWilliam, which was produced in the early 1970s and appears to preserve the playful, lyrical quality of Boccaccio’s prose while presenting a complete and faithful rendition of the original novel. As McWilliam points out in his own introduction, previous translators have not always been as scrupulous, either omitting entire stories deemed to be too offensive to readers of that era or changing material details of some other tales to avoid incurring the wrath of clergy or government officials.

Finally, other critics have noted that many of the stories in this volume present an overtly misogynistic portrait of women that attributes to them an inferior set of qualities and characteristics. Judged solely in modern terms, that may well be true. However, in the context of the mid-14th century mindset, my guess is that Boccaccio was likely considered a feminist who championed the intelligence, cleverness, and emotional fortitude of his myriad female protagonists. Wherever the truth actually lies, this is a historically significant text that has managed to retain its ability to delight and amuse so many over the past 700 years. show less

Humorous. Tragic. Bawdy. Violent. One might think that 100 short stories written 660+ years would be pretty dry, but on the contrary, these are full of life, earthy, and engaging. They reveal shocking aspects of medieval times, while at the same time describing things between men and women true today. They expose the corruption of the clergy, and this combined with the overall licentiousness of the book led to it being burned in Italy and banned for centuries afterwards, yet happily it survived.

The premise is that ten young Florentines have taken refuge in the country in 1348 as the plague ravages their city. Over the course of ten days, each tells us a short story, so that the collection includes a total of 100 stories in all. The show more plague was of course real and repeated over generations spanning hundreds of years in the medieval age; Boccaccio was 35 when it took the lives of 60,000 to 75,000 of Florence’s 100,000 inhabitants. It’s interesting to read his account of its effects, and how the Florentines carry a “a posy of flowers, or fragrant herbs, or one of a wider range of spices, which they applied at frequent intervals to their nostrils…” in the primitive attempt to safeguard themselves (recall the nursery rhyme ‘ring around the rosy, a pocket full of posy…’).

The book is historically relevant because of its age and its influence on others. I don’t think there’s any doubt that Chaucer was influenced by the Decameron (and possibly met Boccaccio) prior to writing Canterbury Tales 40-50 years later.

At the same time, it’s highly entertaining. I marked 41 of the 100 stories as being particularly good, a pretty high number in such a collection, and liked reading it to the end. If you think the modern age is the first to enjoy sex and violence, think again. The 10th story on the 3rd day, involving a hermit seducing a girl and teaching her about sex by likening it to putting the “devil” into “hell”, only to find her insatiable and having her wear him out was particularly eye-goggling, and there’s plenty of other ribald sporting about as well.

Boccaccio revered Dante and some have likened The Decameron as a “Human Comedy” to Dante’s “Divine Comedy”; that may be true, but all I can say is that The Decameron was far more enjoyable to me than The Inferno, which featured eternal suffering and torment. It’s quite an investment at 800 pages, but highly readable, and well worth it.

Quotes:
On art, from Author's Epilogue:
“Like all other things in this world, stories, whatever their nature, may be harmful or useful, depending upon the listener.
...
What other books, what other words, what other letters, are more sacred, more reputable, more worthy of reverence, than those of the Holy Scriptures? And yet there have been many who, by perversely construing them, have led themselves and others to perdition.
...
And the fact remains that anyone perusing these tales is free to ignore the ones that give offense, and read only those that are pleasing.”

On God, from Sixth Day, Ninth Story:
“However, Messer Betto had never succeeded in winning him over, and he and his companions thought this was because of his passion for speculative reasoning, which occasionally made him appear somewhat remote from his fellow beings. And since he tended to subscribe to the opinions of the Epicureans, it was said among the common herd that these speculations of his were exclusively concerned with whether it could be shown that God did not exist.”

On parenting, from Second Day, Eight Story:
“It was really quite unnecessary for you to feel ashamed about revealing it [the son's love for a girl], for this sort of thing is perfectly natural in someone of your age. Indeed, if you were not in love, I would think very poorly of you. Do not hide things from me, my son, but acquaint me freely with all your wishes. Get rid of all the sadness and anxiety that are causing your illness, and look on the bright side of things. You can be quite certain that I will move Heaven and earth to see that you have whatever you need to make you happy, for your happiness means more to me than anything else in the world.”

On religion, from Third Day, Third Story:
“...the priesthood consists for the most part of extremely stupid men, inscrutable in their ways, who consider themselves in all respects more worthy and knowledgeable than other people, whereas they are decidedly inferior. They resemble pigs, in fact, for they are too feeble-minded to earn an honest living like everybody else, and so they install themselves wherever they can fill their stomachs.”

On sex, from Fifth Day, Tenth Story:
“I grant that you keep me well supplied with clothes and shoes, but you know very well how I fare for anything else, and how long it is since you last slept with me. And I'd rather go barefoot and dressed in rags, and have you treat me properly in bed, than have all those things to wear and a husband who never comes near me. For the plain truth is, Pietro, that I'm no different from other women, and I want the same that they are having. And if you won't let me have it, you can hardly blame me if I go and get it elsewhere.”

And this one which I thought was cute, from Ninth Day, Third Story:
“"Look here, Calandrino [a man], speaking now as your friend, I'd say that the only thing wrong with you is that you are pregnant."
When Calandrino heard this, he began to howl with dismay, and turning to his wife, he exclaimed:
"Ah, Tessa, this is your doing! You will insist on lying on top. I told you all along what would happen."

Lastly, on the “younger generation”, from First Day, Eight Story:
“And the man who is held in the greatest esteem, who is most highly honored and richly rewarded by our base and wretched nobles, is the one whose speech and actions are the most reprehensible. All of which is greatly and culpably to the shame of the modern world, and proves very clearly that the present generation has been stripped of all the virtues, and left to wallow abjectly in a cesspit of vices.” show less

Over the course of ten days, ten people sheltering from the Black Plague in 1348 Italy tell one story each on a variety of themes, adding up to one hundred in total. At first this seems like a mighty feat of originality, but (like Shakespeare) Boccaccio took at least the plots from prior telling. In his introduction he states an intention to ease the romantic pains of young women by making them wiser about the world, but this must be tongue-in-cheek. I might say instead that the theme is "If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, don't make a pretty woman your wife." The stories are mostly forgettable, but shed light on the values and virtues of this period and place. Boccaccio is at his best when he's harmlessly funny, at his show more worst when he's disrespecting women.

First Day (theme: any topic) - the first of this day's stories is best, the remainder mostly featuring a protagonist who with a single sentence unconvincingly inspires the antagonist to be a better man. In the worst of the bunch a Jew is convinced to change his faith, which is portrayed as a happy outcome.

Second Day (misfortunes leading to happiness) - the second day improves over the first, offering stories that are mostly humorous. Practical jokes go awry, husbands disappoint their lusty wives, shipwrecks lead to happier circumstances, bets don't turn out the way anyone expects, etc. I was more impressed this time.

Third Day (achieving some object) - despite the wide open theme, every one of these ten stories zeroes in on acquiring a lover as the object. Several of them are amusing, like the hoodwinking of a friar into acting as go-between, and feature some clever ideas. A couple of the others take a dark turn, casually featuring non-consensual sex.

Fourth Day (love ending in tragedy) - with a couple of exceptions this is mostly cringeworthy Romeo-and-Juliet stories, extreme demonstrations of love that's meant to last beyond the quickly approaching grave.

Fifth Day (love ending happily) - in the first story a man murderously crashes a wedding and steals the bride, forcing her to marry him instead; love ending happily?? The rest essentially continue the theme of the third day. The ninth story is a standout, the first that I would give a perfect score to for its wonderful construction.

Sixth Day (witticisms) - especially short stories that are basically scenes to highlight a "take that" line of dialogue.

Seventh Day (wives fooling husbands) - a terribly repetitive premise about wives cheating on husbands. The fifth story however impressed me with its trick-plus-betrayal plot, and the seventh has some nice twists to it.

Eighth Day (tricks played generally) - predictably more stories about illicit love affairs. Fortunately the trickster pair Bruno and Buffalmacco appear three separate times to add welcome variety.

Ninth Day (any topic) - ten leftover stories that fit various prior themes. The sixth impressed me with its elaborate hijinks that all come out well in the end. The moral of the ninth story is literally that husbands should beat their wives when they get out of line, coming from the wisdom of Solomon himself.

Tenth Day (generous deeds) - relating such astounding acts as a man who restores a wife and child to her husband rather than holding them captive, a king who forebears from committing pedophilia, and another man who cheerfully surrenders his newlywed wife to his best friend. How commendable.

For easy future reference, my favourites: 5-9, 7-5, 7-7, 9-6 show less

When the plague hits Florence in 1348, 7 women and 3 men decide to escape the city and retire to the countryside -- and once there they tell each other stories. 10 days, most of them with a specific topic, each of the 10 youths tell a story of love, hate and whatever else they can think of. But the book is not just the stories - there is also a framing story around them, complete with the reactions of the people who are not telling the story, with songs, with details about the countryside and there is Boccaccio - defending his own work and adding an extra story to Day 4 (incomplete around to him; actually complete if you compare it to the rest of the stories).

Very few of the stories are original ones - some had been moved in time or show more space, some had been mixed together but they are mostly preexisting stories from the existing literature at the time - in Latin, French and Italian; some of it translated into the language from more exotic languages (including Arabic tales). How familiar that had been for the people reading the book in the Middle Ages is unclear; these days one is a lot more likely to have heard one of the books and stories which had used Boccaccio's tales as their base - from Chaucer through Shakespeare and to the authors of today, everyone had been borrowing parts of stories (and occasionally complete ones) and made them their own.

But despite that, the collection is worth reading. Not all stories worked for me (but then this would be impossible considering the number of stories). There were some disturbing elements (women being punished for not accepting the love of a man; both men and women managing to get in bed with someone by misrepresenting themselves and still getting a happy end; making jokes of what is essentially the village idiot), there were heartbreaking stories and there is human cunning and cruelty. The attacks on the church and its representatives was not exactly unexpected but still a lot more pronounced than I expected.

As the days progressed, the stories got occasionally repetitive -- especially when the topic was too concrete, it felt like the same story wa told over and over again. It helped to let the stories breathe a bit. The irregular lengths did not help much with planning either.

The translator G. H. McWilliam added a lot of geographical, historical and linguistical notes (combined with notes on the sources for each story) which are not essential but put the stories in context (and can be amusing at times - especially when he comments on earlier editions and translators). His introduction is also extremely informative although as usual, it really should not be read as an introduction unless you want the few surprising stories to get spoiled for you.

At the end I liked the book quite a lot. But one needs to be prepared for it - it is a 14th century book after all - as progressive it might have been, it is still almost 7 centuries old at this point. So there is the occasional story which is sexist enough to make you want to grind your teeth, there are the not so occasional notes and hints towards the fragility of women (although there are also some strong women), there are the behaviors which are creepy and borderline criminal and yet considered normal in the book. But then that is part of the charm in reading old literature - the world had changed and these books are the only mirror we have into the past. And then, especially with books which had been as popular as this one for centuries, it is always fun to recognize a plot you had read elsewhere (and that's where the notes on the sources also helped - showing how the stories traveled from book to book and from writer to writer and culture to culture). show less