The Decameron - Giovanni Boccaccio

The Decameron (Boccaccio, 1350-1352; trans. Mark Musa, Peter Bondanella)

When the Black Death descends on Florence, seven young ladies and three young men leave the city for a couple weeks of idyllic escape. Against this backdrop, Boccaccio presents a compendium of fables, practical jokes, urban legends, tragedies, fantasies, and adventures of the Middle Ages. More striking than the stories themselves is the picture they present of a society very different than ours, yet just as fallibly human.

Boccaccio's stated purpose for writing is to amuse and distract ladies languishing in love, though with the constant praises of love found within the pages, he might be trying to kindle love in hearts where it doesn't exist. Romantic love is definitely the theme of the collection. All the Hollywood cliches are born out: characters fall in love and can't help it; usually, the high precepts of love are used to justify sex; the person loved is attractive, rich (or secretly of noble birth), and practically perfect; and any other earthly consideration should be ignored or cast aside in order to pursue love/sex, no matter how unwise. Love is held up as a separate deity, equal with God in pre-Reformation Europe.

The deification and reappropriation of Love is very seductive and contemporary, but the stories run the gamut and perhaps undercut the idealization. Affirming stories of love and devotion between husband and wife can be found alongside stories of unhappy marriages and faithful loves tragically divided. Many adulterers end their stories happily (and discretely) in each others arms, but many more are caught, shamed, punished, or worse. Young lovers overcome odds, enemies, and fate to end up together, while others lose all in the name of their love. And then there are the people who do all they can, through wit, deception, flattery, or outright manipulation to use each other, usually with hilarious results. In this respect, The Decameron might be the prototype for the sitcom.

Not all the stories are great, but there are more gems than junk. To summarize a few:

* A young man goes to the big city and survives a series of misadventures involving a thieving temptress, a latrine, a well, and an open grave.

* A lascivious friar tells a vain woman he is the Angel Gabriel to convince her to sleep with him; when she starts telling people who her lover is, the whole town determines to get a glimpse of the angel.

* A young woman can't stand the sight of annoying people, and her loud complaining prompts her uncle to suggest she get rid of all her mirrors.

* Growing tired of the constant advances of two men she doesn't love, a woman asks them to prove their love with tasks designed to keep them out of her hair for good.

There are a series of stories involving the buffoon Calandrino and his friends Bruno and Buffalmaco that are particularly amusing. I would guess these stories are the redneck jokes of Boccaccio's day. In one, Calandrino thinks he has found a stone that makes him invisible, and his friends play along. In another, Bruno and Buffalmaco steal one of Calandrino's pigs and then prove Calandrino stole it himself. They also enlist a doctor and convince Calandrino he is pregnant in order to sell him some medicine. In distress, Calandrino berates his wife, "You're the one who always wanted to be on top; I told you this would happen!"

On the whole, I would definitely recommend this classic of world literature. The foibles and philosophies of a different age illuminate those of our own. The characters, plots, and sentiments present a wide range of human experience, and they're a lot of fun to read, too. The best moments come when, more often than not, a very recognizable humanity stares across the years, with a laughing countenance despite unthinkable tragedy.

Arbitrary rating: 4 out of 5 pregnant buffoons