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I'd say yes, because The Decameron has been translated into English, but most versions of The Canterbury Tales have not. I think most of the problems people have with The Canterbury Tales are related to reading a virtually foreign language.

I'm certainly not an authority, and I'm only up to the fifth story out of 100 so far. But they are entertaining and clever stories, and show traits that people still exhibit today, 660 years later.

As I get deeper into the tales of the first day, I’m beginning to see that the clergy provide a frequent bulls-eye for the storytellers, so I guess my initial impression about hypocrisy among those closely connected to the church was correct. In fact, the ease of hitting ‘sitting targets’ such as the clergy is mentioned in the course of telling one of the later stories on the first day. Wealthy bankers and merchants are also lampooned, just as Wall Street takes its shots today, but they don’t get nearly as much attention as the clergy.

I still think, as I near the end of the first day’s ten stories, that most of them are quite entertaining. That naturally implies that some of them are not. I understand now, in doing a little research on the internet, that there are actually editions of Decameron available which suggest which stories might be skipped over by someone who doesn’t want to read them all. I’ll still try them all, because I don’t always agree with assessments like that made by others. I might ease up on the pace, though, and maybe even start reading something else in parallel, because it will take a while to plow through all 100 stories.

I’m going on radio silence for a while as I think I’m hogging the discussion.

Hi, DickZ. I've been noticing the discussion of The Decameron and would like to join in, but first have to obtain a copy from the library. It might be of peripheral interest that there's a film in the style of Boccaccio called "Boccaccio '70" that was a favorite of mine in high school. I watched it again a couple of years ago, and I realized that it was really only one of the four stories that we were big on. That was one featuring a 50-foot Anita Eckbert on a billboard. She came to life in way very satisfying to 16-year-old boys who could never even imagine a Victoria's Secret catalog.

Yes, organized religion is made fun of quite a bit. Money lenders also take quite a beating. Boccaccio's father dealt with money... I can't recall if he was a money lender or just a merchant. I'll have to look that back up.

I've read most of the second day but I don't have time tonight to post about them. Expect something tomorrow! The great thing about this book is that you can take your own time - each story is so short that you can read another book alongside this one.

The second day is Filomena's! She represents fortitude. She chooses to have the stories told by the other 9 to be about those who, after a bit of suffering, are brought to a state of unexpected happiness.

What a great exercise in storytelling. Each story is assured of having a happy ending. This second day is all about a twist of fortune. The first day had its twists as well. Ciapelleto's , the Jew who turns Christian despite seeing what should have made him a Jew for life, the Sultan... each story has its twist. The second day's is more defined.

The first story on the second day is told by Neifile. Her story in the first day was my least favorite as I recall. Her story on the second day is pretty humorous and had me laughing - having an actor fake being retarded in order to get a special privilege and then he's beaten for it. That's slap-stick, low brow comedy at its absolute best!

Boccaccio has a way of mingling fact and fantasy - history and fiction so well as to create stories that seem very likely to be true, especially to the reader of his day. The names and dates he comes up with, and certain events, are sometimes accurate enough to make a story very plausible. My case in point would be the 5th story of the second day. Off topic, it happens to be probably the longest story so far.

I keep having to go to notes in the back of the book to find out who the people Boccaccio is writing about are. I'm amazed that so many of them are actual people! It makes a person wonder if some of these stories are inspired by actual events that Boccaccio has heard about in his life time. I don't doubt that some of them are - not to take away from his literary genius at all... it still takes a great writer to put pen to paper.

The Second story has to be my one of my favorites of the second day. Rinaldo gets a very happy ending

Third story was a dud as well as the fourth. The fifth was long but good. Now I'm on to the 6th.

Sorry I haven't been able to respond but I'm fighting a cold that just won't seem to go away.

I will certainly agree with your assessment of the fifth story of day two as a long but good story, President Camacho, and it had a little humor as well. How often do we run into stories in which the main character falls into a latrine and spends the rest of the story fouling the air around him, much to the chagrin of all those he meets along the way?

I think my favorite of this batch of ten stories would be the eighth one, The Count of Antwerp. It featured a few instances demonstrating the universality that’s always so welcome in stories from so many years ago. By universality, I mean that while technology marches onward and evolves considerably over time, human nature remains unchanged from what it was hundreds of years ago. Just one example of this in the eighth story would be “when people reach a certain age, they tend to forget what it was like to be young.” I think most of us still do exactly that.

I guess there are different editions of the book, as you say yours has notes in the back of the book saying that many of the characters were real people. I had no idea that any of these folks were real, and my book doesn't have any notes at the end.

The Count of Antwerp story was quite an epic tale for such a short story!!! It wasn't humorous as some of the others were. Although I've yet to read the Odyssey, I imagine Odysseus when I think of this tale. It truly has great potential to be a full fledged novel. Good choice!

These stories are about people. It IS the human comedy. That's what Boccaccio was going for. As far as universality... I know what I think you mean and I can concede your point by blurring my vision a little. Culture has a way of drawing lines between then and now... but on the whole if we zoom out and out and out - I agree with what you say.

Yes, the notes in the back are extremely helpful. Some of the events are real and some aren't some are a mixture of both. You'd be surprised how many characters in the Decameron are real people or based loosely on them.

Hey everyone! I am currently skimming this book for a paper I have to write. I was wondering if you can help me with some insight. To me Boccaccio is putting religion in a negative light.. right??

Yes, Heidi, Boccaccio attacks the hypocrisy of the clergy very vigorously, as we discussed in earlier posts in this thread. I hope you'll read some of the stories carefully so you can draw your own conclusions and give some specific examples, and don't rely too heavily on our discussion. Your professor will be able to tell if your conclusions are your own, or someone else's.

The first story of the third day is a great example of this hypocrisy, and is pretty shocking, at least to me, but I don't want to get ahead of the curve here. You might want to read that one carefully, rather than skimming it. It's better to have a thorough understanding of a few of the stories than a cursory view of all of them. Citing specifics beats tossing out generalities hands down.

There are several examples of this hypocrisy among the ten stories of the first day, so you should study in depth at least three of them as well, to back up whatever point you're trying to make.

Yes, I read the first day and part of the second day. He told us we don't have to read the whole book but I think it will be hard to get everything completely accurate without reading them all. I was very suprised when I started reading it and found his views on religion.