Review
Ser Cepparello, Andreuccio, and Calandrino have never come across so well in English Wayne Rebhorn s vibrant new translation makes Boccaccio s scoundrels and victims alike come back to life. --Jane Tylus, New York University"
This superb, powerful, beautifully crafted, and indeed definitive translation of The Decameron introduces readers anew to the sparkling and colorful writing of a pre-Renaissance Italian master. --Valeria Finucci, Duke University"
A lively, readable translation of the greatest short story collection of all time. The laugh-out-loud quality of Boccaccio s delicious vernacular is admirably preserved. --Leonard Barkan, Princeton University"
Fluent and elegant . . . the achievement genuinely honours its original. "
The Decameron, an inexhaustibly rich late-medieval feast of narrative cunning, bawdy humor, and sly wit, is a celebration of the sheer pleasure of being alive With gusto and energy, Wayne Rebhorn has risen to the daunting task of translating this great work into lively, contemporary, American-inflected English. --Stephen Greenblatt, Harvard University, author of The Swerve"
A thoughtful piece of work . This is the version [of The Decameron] I would recommend. --Joan Acocella"
Wayne A. Rebhorn deserves our gratitude for an eminently persuasive translation of Boccaccio s collection of tales I celebrate his accomplishment. --Edith Grossman, translator of Don Quixote"
From the Back Cover
In the early summer of the year 1348, as a terrible plague ravages the city, ten charming young Florentines take refuge in country villas to tell each other stories - a hundred stories of love, adventure and surprising twists of fortune which later inspired Chaucer, Keats and Shakespeare. While Dante is a stern moralist, Boccaccio has little time for chastity, pokes fun at crafty, hypocritical clerics and celebrates the power of passion to overcome obstacles and social divisions. Like the Divine Comedy, the Decameron is a towering monument of medieval pre-Renaissance literature, and incorporates certain important elements that are not at once apparent to today's readers. In a new introduction to this revised edition, which also includes additional explanatory notes, maps, bibliography and indexes, Professor McWilliam shows us Boccaccio for what he is - one of the world's greatest masters of vivid and exciting prose fiction.
About the Author
Giovanni Boccaccio was born in Florence, Italy, in 1313, and he died there in 1375. His life thus coincided with the flowering of the early Renaissance and indeed his closest friend was Petrarch, the other towering literary figure of the period. During his lifetime, Boccaccio was a diplomat, businessman, and international traveler, as well as the creator of numerous works of prose and poetry. Of his achievements, The Decameron, completed sometime between 1350 and 1352, remains his lasting contribution—immensely popular from its original appearance to the present day—to world literature.
