Just Finished Reading: Mrs Rosie and the Priest by Giovanni Boccaccio [54pp] 

First, some background.... Although I’ve been *aware* of these books I only really, really, thought about actually going ahead and buying the boxset of 80 of them after Marianne posted a review of an Oscar Wilde short book in this series on 14th March. What I’d failed to realise was that the boxset – if I’d actually paid attention – only contained the first 80 booklets (as far as I know there’s now around 127 in the set). The Wilde booklet is number 119... However, after the initial ‘disappointment’ I’m still pleased I purchased the set especially as they were on offer (half price) which makes each one about £1 each – which isn’t too shabby! Actually, I was SO impressed by the idea behind the boxset that I also bought the equivalent Penguin Modern classics which ‘only’ contains 50 booklets of which more later. My 'excuse', as if I need one, is that its my birthday soon so purchases like this simply don't count.  

Finally, the book itself... This was actually four stories extracted from the much larger work The Decameron and included the title story itself. My two favourite stories were, however, Andreuccio’s de Perugia’s Neapolitan adventures which was honestly a very funny farce where a young man on his first business trip to Naples gets scammed by a local beauty out of all of his money. Then, through a series of mishaps and adventures gains a ring far more valuable than any purse of gold he started with. Ricciardo da Chinzica loses his wife is somewhat less amusing but is an interesting critique of husbands who don’t pay enough attention to their much younger wives. I guess some themes are eternal! Overall, the four stories are rather amusing, somewhat ‘bawdy’ but not a patch on such tales today and often deeply critical of the Catholic church which got the author into a lot of trouble! 

Translated from the Italian by Peter Hainsworth. 

From Wiki:  The Decameron or Decamerone, subtitled Prince Galehaut and sometimes nicknamed l'Umana commedia ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dante Alighieri's Comedy "Divine"), is a collection of short stories by the 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375). The book is structured as a frame story containing 100 tales told by a group of seven young women and three young men; they shelter in a secluded villa just outside Florence in order to escape the Black Death, which was afflicting the city. The epidemic is likely what Boccaccio used for the basis of the book which was thought to be written between 1348–1353. The various tales of love in The Decameron range from the erotic to the tragic. Tales of wit, practical jokes, and life lessons also contribute to the mosaic. In addition to its literary value and widespread influence (for example on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales), it provides a document of life at the time. Written in the vernacular of the Florentine language, it is considered a masterpiece of early Italian prose. 

So, we’re definitely off to an ‘interesting’ start. What the set of booklets will allow me to do is expand my reading – I don’t think I’ll ever regard myself as ‘well-read’ but I’m going to try – read books translated from a host of other languages and maybe (at least) press up against the boundaries of my various comfort zones. One of the things it will do, and something I haven’t done in at least 50 years or so, is get me reading Poetry... Not usually my thing, but I’m willing to give it a try in booklet size chunks. It’ll be interesting to see where things lead.