Decameron

In the summer of 1348 as the Black Death ravages their city ten young Florentines take refuge in the countryside. In this title the characters amuse themselves by each telling a story a day for the ten days of their confinement - a hundred stories of love and adventure.|Boccaccio (1313-1375) was an Italian writer of both verse and prose. He wrote The Decameron over a period of ten years and is also the author of Teseide and Filostrato.G H McWilliam was the first Professor of Italian at Leicester University.He has also translated Verga's Cavalleria Rusticana for Penguin Classics|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