What is the Decameron, and is it fun to read?

Boccaccio (1313-1375) wrote his masterpiece in the years just after the Black Death reached Florence in 1348. Treccani dates its composition to between 1349 and 1353 on the most reliable hypothesis. The title is Boccaccio showing off his Greek: it means something like "the ten-day work". Written in the Florentine vernacular rather than Latin, it is considered a masterpiece of early Italian prose, and it shaped storytelling across Europe, from Chaucer onwards.

The frame

Seven young women and three young men leave plague-stricken Florence for a villa in the countryside near Fiesole. To pass the time, they agree that each day one of them will be king or queen of the group and choose a theme, and each of the ten will tell a story on it. According to Wikipedia's article on the book, the themes include the power of fortune, the power of human will, love stories that end badly and love stories that end well, quick-witted replies that save the speaker, tricks women play on men, tricks people play on each other, and examples of virtue. One storyteller, Dioneo, the group's wit, is usually allowed to tell his story on any subject he likes.

Between the stories, Boccaccio describes the company's days: walks, meals, music, dancing and songs. It is a little piece of idealised summer, set against the darkness they have left behind, and it gives the book its rhythm.

What the stories are like

Short, quick and varied. Some are romances, some tragedies, many are comedies of deception: clever wives, foolish husbands, gullible townspeople, smooth talkers. Boccaccio borrowed plots from many sources, some of them centuries old, and real Florentines turn up as characters, including the painter Giotto and the poet Guido Cavalcanti. The tone moves from earthy to elegant in a single page, which is a large part of the fun. Fair warning: some tales are frankly bawdy, and the book's irreverence got it into trouble with censors more than once over the centuries.

Where to start

You can open the Decameron anywhere. A good first sampling:

• Andreuccio of Perugia (Day II, story 5). A naive young man from Perugia stumbles from one misadventure to the next. Treccani picks it out as a model of Boccaccio's taste for adventure.
• Federigo and his falcon (Day V, story 9). A ruined nobleman, the lady he loves, and his treasured falcon. Short, perfect and much retold, including by Longfellow and Tennyson.
• The Calandrino stories (Day VIII, stories 3 and 6; Day IX, stories 3 and 5). A gullible Florentine and the pranksters Bruno and Buffalmacco who torment him. Treccani notes that these comic tales mix mockery with real sympathy for the victim.
• Griselda (Day X, story 10). The final tale, about a wife's patience under extreme tests. Uncomfortable, unforgettable, and retold by Petrarch and Chaucer.

Then go back to the beginning and read the opening description of plague-time Florence, which is grim but gripping, and settle into one day at a time.

How to read it

• One day, one sitting. Ten stories plus the frame make an evening.
• Use a modern translation with notes; the jokes and references land far better.
• Don't be put off by the opening. The first pages describe the plague in detail. The mood lifts once the company reaches the villa.
• Read a tale aloud. They were meant to be told, after all.