14th-century academic ancient anthology black-death boccaccio catholic classic classic-fiction classic-literature classical-literature classics collection comedy disease epic-poetry europe fiction florence historical-fiction history humor italian italian-lit italian-literature italy literature love medieval medieval-literature medieval-studies middle-ages novel plague poetry renaissance romance satire school short-stories stories storytelling tales thesis world-literature

In the early summer of the year 1348, as a terrible plague ravages the city, ten charming young Florentines take refuge in country villas to tell each other storiesa hundred stories of love, adventure and surprising twists of fortune which later inspired Chaucer, Keats and Shakespeare. While Dante is a stern moralist, Boccaccio has little time for chastity, pokes fun at crafty, hypocritical clerics and celebrates the power of passion to overcome obstacles and social divisions. Like the Divine Comedy, the Decameron is a towering monument of medieval pre-Renaissance literature, and incorporates certain important elements that are not at once apparent to today's readers. In a new introduction to this revised edition, which also includes additional explanatory notes, maps, bibliography and indexes, Professor McWilliam shows us Boccaccio for what he isone of the world's greatest masters of vivid and exciting prose fiction.