The Decameron: Selected Tales - Paperback

by Giovanni Boccaccio (Author), Don Beecher (Editor), Massimo Ciavolella (Editor)

A new edition of Boccaccio's classic work by two of North America's leading experts on the literature of medieval and Renaissance Italy.

Back Jacket

This edition presents 33 of the 100 tales, with at least two from each of the ten days of storytelling. Boccaccio's general introduction and conclusion to the work are also included, as are the introduction and conclusion to the first day; the reader is thus provided with a real sense of the Decameron's framing narrative. Extensive explanatory notes are provided, and the volume is prefaced by a concise but wide-ranging introduction to Boccaccio's life and times, as well as to the Decameron itself. A unique selection of contextual materials concludes the volume.

Author Biography

Donald Beecher, Professor of English at Carleton University, is the editor and/or translator of more than twenty editions and anthologies, including a two volume edition of Giovan Francesco Straparola's The Pleasant Nights (University of Toronto Press, 2014); Massimo Ciavolella holds the positions of Franklin D. Murphy Chair in Italian Renaissance Studies and Director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles; he is author or editor of more than a dozen books and many articles on medieval and Renaissance Italian literature.