‘Ever since the world began, men have been subject to various tricks of Fortune’ In the summer of 1348, as the Black Death ravages their city, ten young Florentines take refuge in the countryside. They amuse themselves by each telling a story a day for the ten days they are destined to remain there – a hundred stories of love, adventure 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.
The book is actually a collection of 100 novellas strucutred as a frame story.
You can download The Decameron for free at Project Gutenberg.
If you're not up to reading the whole book (it's very long), you can read a summary of the tales instead.
Have you read it (or even heard of it)?
