Decameron

The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio is one of the masterpieces of medieval European literature — a hundred tales told by ten young Florentines who have retreated to a country villa to escape the Black Death of 1348. The stories range from bawdy comedies to tragic romances, from satires of corrupt clergy to celebrations of wit and intelligence, creating a portrait of medieval life and human nature of extraordinary richness and variety. Boccaccio’s influence on subsequent European literature — on Chaucer, Shakespeare, and their successors — was immense: many of the plots and characters of Renaissance drama originate here. Published by Wordsworth Classics in an accessible translation, this is a landmark of world literature that rewards readers with pleasure, laughter, and a vivid sense of a world that is both very different from and surprisingly similar to our own.