The Decameron - Penguin Classics

2nd Edition

Paperback (27 Mar 2003)

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Publisher's Synopsis

In the summer of 1348, as the Black Death ravages their city, ten young Florentines take refuge in the countryside...

Taken from the Greek, meaning 'ten-day event', Boccaccio's Decameron sees his characters amuse themselves by each telling a story a day, for the ten days of their confinement - a hundred stories of love and adventure, life and death, and surprising twists of fate. Less preoccupied with abstract concepts of morality or religion than earthly values, the tales range from the bawdy Peronella, hiding her lover in a tub, to Ser Cepperallo, who, despite his unholy effrontery, becomes a Saint. The result is a towering monument of European literature and a masterpiece of imaginative narrative that has inspired writers from Chaucer to Shakespeare .

Translated with an introduction by G.H. McWilliam

'McWilliam's finest work, his translation of Boccaccio's Decameron remains one of the most successful and lauded books in the series'
The Times

Book information

ISBN: 9780140449303
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint: Penguin Classics
Pub date:
Edition: 2nd Edition
DEWEY: 853.1
DEWEY edition: 21
Language: English
Number of pages: 909
Weight: 732g
Height: 194mm
Width: 130mm
Spine width: 53mm