The Decameron - Oxford Worlds Classics
Giovanni Boccaccio, Guido Waldman, Jonathan Usher

Reprint

Paperback (08 May 2008)


Publishers Synopsis

The Decameron (c.1351) was written in the wake of the Black Death, a shattering epidemic that had shaken Florences confident entrepreneurial society to its core. In a country villa outside the city, ten young noblemen and women who have escaped the plague decide to tell each other stories.

Boccaccios skill as a dramatist is masterfully displayed in this virtuoso performance of one hundred tales, vivid portraits of people from all stations in life, with plots that revel in a bewildering variety of human reactions.

Themes are playfully restated from one story to another within an elegant and refined framework. One of Chaucers most fruitful sources for the Canterbury Tales, Boccaccios work artfully combines the essential ingredients of narrative: fate and desire, crises and quick-thinking. This new translation by Guido Waldman captures the exuberance and variety and tone of Boccaccios masterpiece.


ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford Worlds Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxfords commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.


Book information

ISBN: 9780199540419
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Pub date: 08 May 2008
Edition: Reprint
DEWEY: 853.1
DEWEY edition: 22
Language: English
Number of pages: 698
Weight: 516g
Height: 195mm
Width: 129mm
Spine width: 34mm