The Decameron

What can I say about Boccaccio's Decameron? Well, for starters, its the best dirtiest book in the western canon. A group of noble young women and three men decide to travel and tell tales for ten nights, amongst the ten of them, telling ten tales, thus equaling 100 tales. There's some significance to the number ten as relating to the Greeks, which is where the Decameron name comes from.  It provides a document of life at the time. Written in the vernacular of the Florentine language, it is considered a masterpiece of classical early Italian prose.

Not every story here is a ten out of ten. In fact, every night perhaps three out of the ten tales that they tell aren't that great. But those other seven in fact have everything you would want in a story, book, or novel; adventure, picaresque, nobles, kings, queens, lords, peasants, farmers, thieves, murderers, a threesome even.

There's sex, lots and lots of sex. But the sex isn't described in a saucy or offensive way, rather it's more interesting albeit still provocative such as "the resurrection of the flesh," "they made the nightingale sing many times," phrases such as that. 

One of my favorite stories was the one where a young girl goes through a series of unfortunate events and finds herself getting fucked by nine different men over a short period of time. At the end of her misery she marries a King, who believes she is a virgin, and she fakes how good the sex is making it seem as if she really is a virgin. It was comical yet still realistic, showcasing something within the human condition. 

What is so fascinating about this book is that the stories are mostly about everyday people; nobles, lords, and peasants, there are lots of common ordinary peasants in the Decameron, and it seems that Bocaccio has a lot to say about them, the way the live, their wants and desires, which always somehow come back to lots and lots of sex. 

Most of the stories have an ABCD format. Something begins, then three things happen, and then the story is over. Some of the stories are only a page or two long, others are more complex. Although the stories are pretty simple, there's always something unexpected here and there to bring the stories to a climax. Usually in the form of actions and/or dialogue. 

Women take on a very important role here although they end up being the butt of a lot of the jokes. However, there are many stories where the wife commits adultery, right under the husband's nose and gets away with it, the wife being the better for it in the end even in terms of the morality of some of these stories. Consequently, you could see why in terms of morality, this book was condemned by the church and religious peoples. 

Boccaccio uses actions and dialogue to move the stories along. One of the finer details to note is that the language the people use is the common tongue and language of the people of the times, making the Decameron something noteworthy as a historical literary work in addition to being the best dirtiest book in the western canon. 

Again, some of the stories don't really go anywhere or are just for giggles, and that's okay. This book is a must read for readers of the western canon, medieval literature, and Italian literature. I was so inspired by Italy with Boccaccio that I've started reading Purgatorio of Dante's Divine Comedy. Before now, I've only read the Inferno. 

A must read for the western canon crowd or those interested in historical literature from the 13th century. 

Dante's Inferno

Dante's Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th century epic poem Divine Comedy, its followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. Inferno tells the story of Dante going through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. Hell is depicted as nine circles located within the Earth. Its a famous novel despite being written 700 years ago. People know what Dante's Inferno is, even if they've never read it.


This is a challenging piece of fiction, mainly because its about hell, anguish, weeping, and gnashing of teeth. Not only that but because the original work was written in Italian, its can be tough to get a great English translation. But I think my copy from the library was pretty good. If you don't see the book as horrifying and/or an evil grip on your literary senses, you can see the book the way I do, as a fantastical tale, albeit a much darker one.


The writing itself is written in cantos, in which is a form called terza rima, where every three lines rhyme. Getting that literary rhythmic sensibility has been a challenge for every translator that puts it from Italian into English. But once you start reading the book every day and don't stop, you get a sense of the physicality and repetition of the poetry, its rhythmic sensibility.


The lines are quite difficult to get used to at first. I was sort of easing myself into these epics. I started out reading a little bit of the Illiad and then I started reading Milton's Paradise Lost, and then I went ahead and finished Inferno after that, after I had a taste of epic poetry. Its not for everybody. But at the same time its not just for college lit majors either. I think of myself as someone who is intellectually stimulated by these sorts of archaic, classical works. They enrich my literary palette. I have to look up words online, learn ancient slogans, and really move up to speed, learning much along the way. I would say its all worth it.


Inferno is emotionally gripping but that's the reason why I couldn't put it down. It was exciting, human drama. It literally doesn't get more terrifying than Satan at the bottom of a frozen lake, with three heads, of which are Judas Iscariot, Brutius, and Cassiaus, accusers who got Jesus Christ crucified. It was kind of exciting that Achilles' teacher, the centaur Chiron was in hell, leading a brigade of centaurs that shoot arrows at sinners, a sort of mythology religious hybridization.


Most of the people Dante meets in hell are political celebs of that era, people everyone of that time period would have heard of and known about. There's devils torturing humans, and at the bottom of hell there's a frozen lake where people are chewing on each other for eternity, zombies anyone?


Certainly Alighieri is a religious man, a schooled religious man. His ideas on church and government are heard here in sections. Dante makes a note of it that religion is for spiritual purpose and that the state/monarchy's role was primarily secular order, and that the two complemented each other.


The work shows that Hell is a horrible place for sinners, full of real fire and brimstone. As this is only the first part of a trilogy, I'll be reading Purgatorio and Paradiso when I find the time.


Read this if you like classics and poetry