In the time of a devastating pandemic, seven women and three men withdraw to a country estate outside Florence to give themselves a diversion from the death around them. Once there, they decide to spend some time each day telling stories, each of the ten to tell one story each day. They do this for ten days, with a few other days of rest in between, resulting in the 100 stories of the Decameron. The Decameron was written after the Black Plague spread through Italy in 1348. Most of the tales did not originate with Boccaccio; some of them were centuries old already in his time, but Boccaccio imbued them all with his distinctive style. The stories run the gamut from tragedy to comedy, from lewd to inspiring, and sometimes all of those at once. They also provide a detailed picture of daily life in fourteenth-century Italy.

This new translation by Guido Waldman captures the exuberance and variety and tone of Boccaccio's masterpiece.

The Decameron, also called Prince Galehaut, is a 14th-century medieval allegory by Giovanni Boccaccio, told as a frame story encompassing 100 tales by ten young people. The book's primary title exemplifies Boccaccio's fondness for Greek philology: Decameron combines two Greek words, Greek: dÈka ("ten") and (Greek: hemÈra ("day"), to form a term that means "ten-day event". Ten days is the time period in which the characters of the frame story tell their tales.

In Medieval Italy, seven young women and three young men flee plague-ridden Florence for the countryside, where, over the course of ten carefree days, each tells ten stories of intrigue and romance-100 tales in all. First published in the 1300s, these lusty tales are still as entertaining and diverting as they were during the Middle Ages. Here noblemen and ladies, peasants and princesses, cavort together in a magnificent collection of timeless tales brimming with life and love. The Decameron is a big book, and most publishers try to pack it into small newsprint pages with tiny, nearly unreadable type. This edition, on the other hand, has been newly designed and printed on large-format, high-quality paper with easy-to-read type, making it a deluxe volume at a still-reasonable price.

Winner of the 2014 PEN USA Literary Award for Translation This Norton Critical Edition includes: - Fifty-five judiciously chosen stories from Wayne A. Rebhorn's translation of The Decameron. - Introductory materials and explanatory footnotes by Wayne A. Rebhorn, along with three maps. - Biographical works by Filippo Villani and Ludovico Dolce along with literary studies by Francesco Petrarca, Andreas Capellanus, and Boccaccio. - Eleven critical essays, including those by Giuseppe Mazzotta, Millicent Marcus, Teodolinda Barolini, Susanne L. Wofford, Luciano Rossi, and Richard Kuhns. - A Chronology and a Selected Bibliography.

00 Singleton preserves the genius of Payne's language and style, but removes the Victorianisms that intrude upon the enjoyment of contemporary readers. He adds essential annotation and original interpretation to round out this unexcelled English edition of Boccaccio's great work. Singleton preserves the genius of Payne's language and style, but removes the Victorianisms that intrude upon the enjoyment of contemporary readers. He adds essential annotation and original interpretation to round out this unexcelled English edition of Boccaccio's great work.