The Decameron

By: Giovanni Boccaccio

Narrated by: Simon Russell Beale, Gunnar Cauthery, Alison Pettitt, Daisy Badger, Carly Bawden, Lucy Briggs-Owen, full cast

Length: 28 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

The Decameron is one of the greatest literary works of the Middle Ages. Ten young people have fled the terrible effects of the Black Death in Florence and, in an idyllic setting, tell a series of brilliant stories, by turns humorous, bawdy, tragic and provocative. This celebration of physical and sexual vitality is Boccaccio's answer to the sublime other-worldliness of Dante's Divine Comedy.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2008 Oxford University Press (Translation) (P)2017 Naxos AudioBooks

Loverly

The Decameron is a bit like Metamorphosis. A very large collection of short punchy stories. The stories here are just that. No philosophy or metaphors, no language experiments. Just great fun. The cast and performances are splendid.

Wonderful narrative!

This was such a great listen! The stories were fanciful, there was lots of humor, and it was nice that you could hear a few short stories and then come back to the book and not miss anything really. Lots of satire, commentary on society, and philosophy woven into each entertaining story grouping. I loved it!

Wonderful translation and presentation

That is it. A very modern and approachable translation, and the readers are all superb.

Clearly a classic

The Decameron is bonkers. I've always heard of it, but never had the patience to sit and read it. Listening to it makes you feel like you are one of the 10 Florentine youths escaping the plague. And just like they react to some stories with disgust, boredom, or irritation, you will too. Some of the stories are truly gross for any number of reasons, and a lot of the witty repartee doesn't translate well. Still, many of the stories are truly entertaining and I'm happy I listened.

My favorite part though is that Boccaccio breaks the fourth wall. On one of the days, he just starts justifying his high regard for women and entertaining them. And he spends like 15 minutes at the end preemptively defending how crude the book was. They were some of the funniest parts of the book I thought.

The cast is solid, and I appreciated the change in narrators. The best is the guy who played Dioneo was the best. He's the character who tells the creepiest (perviest) stories. If this was a movie, the guy would be chewing the scenery. I'm not sure what the audiobook equivalent is, but I loved it.

Fantastic voice work

The voice work on the was fantastic and the readers didn't hold back even when it came to songs. It should be noted that this was written in a very different time and should be appreciated with that in mind. There are some scenes and stories that go counter to the modern western sensibilities. That being said it was well written and is a good window into the past.

The best production of an audiobook I’ve listened to.

The stories and characters are human and sometimes oddly relatable. The production of the audiobook is commendable because separate voices for each character and performances for each of the songs makes the book easy to follow and engaging.

A delightful listen!

Who would have thought that a book written in 1350 could be so much fun? The cast (British) do a wonderful job here and the stories are very funny. It gives a great feeling for life in the Renaissance. I highly recommend this recording.

A Medieval Masterwork

The Decameron by Boccaccio is one of the great works of Medieval Italian literature. When I decided to read and study it, I had no idea that it would be so much fun. It consists of 100 short stories said to be invented by a group of young people needing respite from the Black Death. The themes tend to focus on sex and misbehaving clergy all told with wit and charm. The group of actors for this recording do a fabulous job of keeping the listener entertained through the 28 hours of the entire work. My only complaint is that nothing is indexed. I wanted to look up certain stories and could not easily find them.

Great rendering and very enjoyable

Excellent performance and interesting translation, although not the most accurate. The tale rubrics are missing.

Listening to the voices of the past

After listening to this, I wish I understand Italian love to listen to girls voices in the original language