The Decameron

By: Giovanni Boccaccio

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

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.

Easy listen, fun stories, great readers.

Easy listen, fun stories, great readers... The best audiobook I have heard in a few years, and I go through 20-40 hours of audiobooks pr month. Try this one.

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.

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.

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.

How Aristocrats Quarrantine

I started reading this book for an art history class and knew I'd never make the time to properly appreciate the translation. That being said, I am so glad to have found this particular audio recording. There is a full cast of excellent readers who bring the stories to life! I had been listening while self-isolating due to Corona virus, and a side benefit of listening to a full cast was feeling like there was a whole group of storytellers in my living room.

Boccaccio uses the framing narrative of young Aristocrats fleeing a the plague to tell his stories. Listening to their fanciful flight across the Italian contryside was a welcome contrast to my own shelter-in-place reality. Well read.

wonderful

If you are a fan of medieval literature and you'd like to hear this read as a refresher, this performance is sublime.