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Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron is a collection of novellas or short novels written during the 14th century. There are 100 tales contained in the book which is presented together. The book’s title The Decameron combines the two Greek words “deka” meaning ten and “hemera” meaning day. The title can be literally translated as “ten day,” which is also the time frame in which the stories are told by the 7 young women and 3 young men. In the book, each of the ten persons took their turns to tell stories for a day. They did this during their stay at a villa in Fiesole in which they stayed to be safe from the Black Plague. The stories they told vary from love stories, narratives which have tragic endings to erotic tales. This book was originally written in vernacular Florentine and was subsequently translated into many different languages including English. Wayne Reborn’s recent translation of the book into English in 2013 was praised by many critics for being “modern” and it made the book more “readable” to younger audiences. Like most of the literature from the medieval times, this book is full of symbolisms. The book’s subtitle “Prince Galehaut” is an allusion to Galehaut, a character in the tale of King Arthur who made a way for his friend Lancelot and Guinevere to meet and express their love for each other. It was believed that Boccaccio used this subtitle to express his sentiment about women during his time who have no social liberty and can’t freely express themselves. The seven young women in the book are believed to symbolize the four cardinal virtues and the three theological virtues while the three young men represent the classical belief of the Greeks in which the human soul has three parts: reason, spirit and appetite. In the passage of time, other authors eventually borrowed the storylines of the tales told in the book. Modern readers may be amused to learn that the plots of some of the stories they know today were just borrowed from this The Decameron.
I was beginning to think my ear was becoming tuned in on the accent, but.... I'm sure this would be an interesting book (from what I could understand),but I was just unable to keep listening.
The female reader is difficult to understand. I got tired after a few minutes because I could not concentrate on the story.
Wendy, I agree with JT and Debone..... "Be grateful" you say? What on earth for? For the HORRIBLE AMATEUR reading made worse by the incomprehensible THICK accent while reading in English? Just bec it is free does not mean they have to release this mediocre rendering..... I assure you that even I can do a much better job that readers like JT and Debone wld find it way more pleasurable to listen to bec they can actually understand what I wld be saying....
Terrible accent that is hardly comprehensible... definitely torture to have to listen to.... Surely they cld have found one who spoke english that wld have been more pleasurable to listen to.
Loved it. A very good reading. Thanks for the effort. D. Suttner
@ Wendy, lets not fool ourselves. Constructive criticism is what reviews are for. This isn't a popularity contest.
Very much enjoyed these readings. Shame the one lewd chapter was left in Italian!
@ JT How about you read a book out loud then start complaining. Be grateful!
The reader has an accent thicker than the average unabridged dictionary. Decent story and fine effort and all, but the reading is barely understandable.