Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Malmö : Världslitteraturen, 1928
Description
Of the adherents of these divers opinions not all died- neither did all escape; but rather there were- of each sort and in every place- many that sickened and by those who retained their health were treated after the example which they themselves- while whole- had set- being everywhere left to languish in almost total neglect.' (Excerpt from text)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Helenliz
Review of Volume 1.
The surmise is quite simple, 10 people in plague riven Florence decide to decamp to the country and isolate themselves from the contagion. To while away the time, on each day they each tell a story. This volume held 4 days and so 40 stories, plus explanation of how they set out,
The days each take a theme, so you are told 10 rather similar stories in a set.
It is difficult not to compare this to Chaucer's Canterbury tales. It has a similar set up, a group of people each tell a tale. I would say that, so far, Chaucer has the edge. Here all the stories are told of someone else, they are no first person tales. The story tellers are largely anonymous, they don't interact with each other or the stories to any great extent. They are also like of estate and degree, there are no voices of the common people here. Compare that to Chaucer and the liveliness of the Wife of Bath is absent.
I read a significant portion of this on a trip to Germany, And it works quite well as a travel book, most stories being between 2 & 10 pages, making it easy enough to stop & pick up again.
The surmise is quite simple, 10 people in plague riven Florence decide to decamp to the country and isolate themselves from the contagion. To while away the time, on each day they each tell a story. This volume held 4 days and so 40 stories, plus explanation of how they set out,
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the servants they bought with them, where they were and how they arranged themselves. The days each take a theme, so you are told 10 rather similar stories in a set.
It is difficult not to compare this to Chaucer's Canterbury tales. It has a similar set up, a group of people each tell a tale. I would say that, so far, Chaucer has the edge. Here all the stories are told of someone else, they are no first person tales. The story tellers are largely anonymous, they don't interact with each other or the stories to any great extent. They are also like of estate and degree, there are no voices of the common people here. Compare that to Chaucer and the liveliness of the Wife of Bath is absent.
I read a significant portion of this on a trip to Germany, And it works quite well as a travel book, most stories being between 2 & 10 pages, making it easy enough to stop & pick up again.
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