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The Decameron cover art

The Decameron

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

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

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

What listeners say about The Decameron

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Excellent production

First class. It is well produced and well read and maintained my interest to the end of the book.

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8 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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14th Century Fun

Simon-Russell Beale and a fantastic young cast bring the Decameron to vivid, raunchy, funny life, with beautiful, newly-arranged songs and real spirit. Uplifting and joyful.

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3 people found this helpful

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Excellent

Decades after being urged, at uni, to read The Decameron, I’ve noe finished listening to it and thinking I might doon reread it.
Prrhaps you, like me, will find echoes of Chaucer and of Skakespeare, of vice versa, in the book.

This is definitely a book for your Desert Island.

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3 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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Depends on the narrator

The male narrator(s) do not know any Italian so he (they?) keep mispronouncing Italian names, which is very annoying. It is so easy to learn the rules for pronouncing Italian words so I really wish they prepare a little. It only takes a few hours of learning or asking someone who knows a little Italian. Really sad when male narrator speaks. The female narrator(s) was pretty good though!

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2 people found this helpful

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A must for lovers of renaissance litterature

Lengthy but a classic and well worth the time. Well read and cheeky fun too!

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2 people found this helpful

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Excellent performances!

An engaging and energetic telling of the tales, well put together and competently acted. First class!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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4/5

Kind of repetitive after a while, but still manages to entertain. A classic for a reason.

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Great insight into medieval values.

Great insight into medieval values, sometimes marred by a bit of a Benny Hill reading, where the narrator overemphasized anything "naughty'. Also the names were all mispronounced which may jarr with Italian speakers For some reason, poor people were generally given North English accents.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Chapter locations make no sense

The audio chapter locations make no sense whatsoever. I like to do a combination of listening, listening and reading as well as reading on my own. The audio chapter locations make this an impossible task. If I start reading on my own I would never find corresponding audio chapter to continue listening later. Also changing the audio chapter on the last sentence of the book chapter, instead of one sentence later at the beginning of a book chapter? As well as not to announce the day and story? Why? Seriously, why would you do that?

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent rendition

Masterful reading by talented actors. An added pleasure to the book was the chanted rendition of the songs

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