[EJR]⋙ PDF The Decameron Penguin Classics Giovanni Boccaccio G H McWilliam Books

The Decameron Penguin Classics Giovanni Boccaccio G H McWilliam Books

Download As PDF : The Decameron Penguin Classics Giovanni Boccaccio G H McWilliam Books

The Decameron Penguin Classics Giovanni Boccaccio G H McWilliam Books

I can't believe how entertaining and easy it can be to read a many hundreds year old book. I usually don't like 800 page books because I get bored somewhere after 300 pages. Being basically 100 somewhat unrelated chapters it is very easy to pause in your reading at natural breaks. This is a very recent translation so you don't have to first figure out what the words mean. Most stories are 3-10 pages long, or maybe 15 so it's very easy to keep track of the characters. Before I started reading cover to cover I selected individual stories from the synopsis in the front of the book. Each story stands on it's own and is not dependent on the chapters before or after. Get it......you won't be sorry.


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The Decameron Penguin Classics Giovanni Boccaccio G H McWilliam Books Reviews

I'll admit - I have not yet finished The Decameron, however I've read enough to say that it is highly readable (i.e., good translation), highly enjoyable (this ain't no boring classic filled with highfalutin prudery), and, because it is 100 stories, it can read a bit at a time over long periods of time because the stories are not connected in any way (ala the original Star Trek frex). Buy it, read it, share it - it's a classic after all.
Very beautiful Renaissance prose. If you are into romance novels you will never understand this writing. This is for someone who has the time to think about the writing style. It conveys beautiful thoughts so elegantly.
This is a wonderful translation, and it made Boccaccio accessible. I have a degree in English Literature, and had never encountered any of Boccaccio's work prior to purchasing this complete work. A part of me wishes I'd stuck to an abridged version, because many of the stories are one-dimensional and uninteresting, which could make a complete read a daunting task for your average reader with a non-academic interest.

Still, I rate it 5-stars because I'm glad I purchased this copy.
The young-adult children of wealthy Florentines flee to the hills during the Plague and tell each other stories to keep themselves amused. Boccaccio's classic has stood the test of time for hundreds of years and is still going strong. This is a very good translation, at a very reasonable price.
Watching medievalists fight is not a pretty sight, even though it is a funny one

To prompt the brawl, ask a bit too loudly who was the first great national poet.

Watch as Green King Abbot Ale and Moretti bottles are smashed, fail to break like in the movies and a bunch of guys in tweed look around for something bigger than a bar napkin to stop the blood flow. Teaching assistants will enter with towels, bandages, and the hope their mentor lasts long enough for a good letter of recommendation.

Once the prof's are stabilized the cases for England and Italy will be phrased.

Britain gets Chaucer whose wit, use of irony in irony, is remarkably fresh even today. There is a humanity found in his characters—the most vile prejudice in the work comes from a nun, who given her airs, reveals the heart of darkness in us all.

Italy gets Dante, a writer who appears to have known more even than Borges, who created a new poetic form, and sustained intellect and near perfection in three volumes. His effort would be the equivalent of walking into a dojo and fighting every master but downing each in the sequence for mastering each step of the many katas.

Nobody is going to mention Boccaccio and nobody is going to fight for the poet who wrote Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Sir G’s poet made the mistake in writing in the wrong dialect.

Boccaccio wrote the first book made up entirely of short stories. He pulled together snippets from earlier stories and his efforts were pillaged by later writers (Shakespeare, chief among them).

Skillful, occasionally elegant, hilarious, engaging, and with a very high ratio of great to so-so stories, Boccaccio might be viewed as we do Stephen King, a masterful artist who is grotesquely undervalued.

Great story tellers of their times often fade more completely than do old soldiers.
I'm not a fan of classical texts, but I was assigned this for a class on Roman Antiquity and the Italian Renaissance. This was by far my favorite we read all semester and, though I have nothing to compare it to, I really enjoyed the translation.
Boccaccio's The Decameron and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales will forever be some of the greatest literature that came out of medieval Europe. Who said that they were The Dark Ages? Much of the culture we have today stemmed out of this period. Anyway, this edition is wonderful in that it is a perfect size to carry around without looking like you are carrying around an encyclopedia! Although this edition is great, I would not recommend to anyone who has trouble seeing as the print is rather small and pressed together. Other than that, I am in love with the book. If you are reading Boccaccio for the first time, I wish you luck and safe travels as you journey through the European countryside with our protagonists!
I can't believe how entertaining and easy it can be to read a many hundreds year old book. I usually don't like 800 page books because I get bored somewhere after 300 pages. Being basically 100 somewhat unrelated chapters it is very easy to pause in your reading at natural breaks. This is a very recent translation so you don't have to first figure out what the words mean. Most stories are 3-10 pages long, or maybe 15 so it's very easy to keep track of the characters. Before I started reading cover to cover I selected individual stories from the synopsis in the front of the book. Each story stands on it's own and is not dependent on the chapters before or after. Get it......you won't be sorry.