Preface and Day One

[Emil]

Which stories appealed to you the most? And do they all succeed as stories?..."

My favorite is the 4th story (the one with the monk, the abbot, and the ravishing girl). Here we have gems like:

"If you hide your sin is already half forgiven"

"One thing led to another until she didn't mind if he took her back to his cell"

[Clarissa]

I am very much behind on the schedule but have very much enjoyed perusing the discussions here.

I enjoyed the introduction and the first day of stories, although I'll confess my ignorance in that I didn't really understand the witticism story 5 with the chickens, or story 10 with how the older man turning the tables on the young ladies he admired.
But both those stories still added to my overall impression that a running theme might be the power of words; that you can change a person's whole outlook with the right phrase or story; in the midst of the absolute devastation of an outbreak of plague, when they are surrounded by death, stories can amuse and bond the teller and the listeners, and create an idyll within the depths of loss and grief. Although in a modernist sense, the first story told seems to undercut this, by displaying how easy it is to lie even on the brink of death to a holy man. Boccaccio, to me, seemed to be pointing out centuries before it became a fashionable literary trope, the device of the unreliable narrator, that just because someone is believable doesn't mean they should be believed.

I am looking forward to reading on and see if any of the characters develop beyond being devices to relate stories. And also has mentioned in several posts, what the dynamics between the men and women are and how that translates to us as 21st century readers.

[Lily]

Clari wrote: "I am very much behind on the schedule but have very much enjoyed perusing the discussions here.

I enjoyed the introduction and the first day of stories, although I'll confess my ignorance in that ..."

Glad you are here! Look forward to your further comments, Clari!

[Clarissa]

Thank you, Lily. It is a much easier book to read than I thought, so hopefully I can catch up before you finish, although I always like reading through the comments anyway and learning so much.
My copy of 'The Decameron' has been in the loft for years so it's wonderful to see it as the group read here and finally being prompted into reading it :)