The Decameron (World Classics Series)
(Rigg Translation)
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- $1.99
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
John Payne's translation of The Decameron was originally published in a private printing for The Villon Society, London in 1886. Comprised of 100 novellas told by ten men and women over a ten day journey fleeing plague-infested Florence, the Decameron is an allegorical work famous for its bawdy portrayals of everyday life, its searing wit and mockery, and its careful adherence to a framed structure. The word "decameron" is derived from the Greek and means "ten days". Boccaccio drew on many influences in writing the Decameron, and many writers, including Martin Luther, Chaucer, and Keats, later drew inspiration from the book.
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) was an Italian writer and humanist, one of the founders of the Renaissance. He studied business but abandoned it eventually to pursue his literary interests. In 1350 Boccaccio met Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) (1304-1374), one the most important figures in the beginnings of the Renaissance and Humanism.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In time for Giovanni Boccaccio's 700th birthday, Wayne A. Rebhorn, professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin and translator of The Prince and Other Writings by Machiavelli, has provided a strikingly modern translation of Boccaccio's medieval Italian classic. Fleeing Florence and the plague of 1348, 10 young men and women retreat to a country estate, "surrounded by meadows and marvelous gardens," where they spend their days in leisure while the Black Death ravages the city. To fill their time, and affirm life in the face of death, they tell stories: on each of 10 days, every character spins a tale on a theme. Thus, there are 100 stories in total, which range in tone from tragic to triumphant and from pious to bawdy, and which serve as monuments to the rich medieval life and society that the plague was to fundamentally alter. Rebhorn's translation is eminently readable and devoid of the stilted, antiquated speech associated with the classics. Indeed, at times the translator's rendering of Boccaccio's Italian into contemporary idiomatic American English feels jarring: "my cheesy-weesy, sweet honeybun of a wife." But on the whole, his translation's accessibility allows for the timeless humanity of the work to shine through. The Decameron affords a fascinating view into the lost world of late-medieval Italy, and the variety and volume of tales offers us a refuge and relief from the tragedies that haunt our own world.
