The Decameron is a classic of world literature that deserves more attention than I think it gets. Its subtlety, coupled with its similarity to other contemporary narratives, misleads many a reader into thinking it is less than what it really is.

Ostensibly, Boccaccio simply gathered together a bunch of popular stories which were circulating in the Middle Ages in Europe and found a good frame story to provide the stories with a bit of continuity (the frame story being the flight of ten young people from Florence at the height of the Black Death, which Boccaccio had lived through a few years prior to writing the book).

The temptation on the part of the reader, therefore, is to compare The Decameron to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, or to note its parallels in French and Provençal romances of the Middle Ages. Many of the stories can be traced to older tales from the Near East.

In terms of content, the stories betray a feeling of helplessness at the vagaries of Fortune (understandable in the generation that lived through the plague), a cynicism about the behavior of the clergy and a sense that, although pleasure is generally to be taken whenever the opportunity presents itself, notions of honour, honesty and integrity should not be forsaken. All of these ideas are at least partially products of the psychology of Boccaccio's time and are not necessarily unique to The Decameron. Indeed, most of the stories are not Boccaccio's own creation.

However, it should be readily apparent from the structure of the book that there is a deeper meaning to The Decameron than to Chaucer's collection of tales or other stories from the same general period of time. It is precisely this reworking and ordering of the stories involved that sets apart Boccaccio and his book from his contemporaries.

First, the book is divided into ten days of ten stories each, and the placement of the stories and the themes of the days have led to endless speculation on the numerological meanings of the particular stories. Second, that numerology is even more applicable to the speakers. For example, why does the same woman (Pampinea) speak in the seventh story for three days in a row (those being the last three days)? Why are there seven women and three men?

Some of these questions find ready answers. The women are usually said to represent the Four Cardinal Virtues and Three Theological Virtues, and the men are said to represent the tripartite division of the soul (reason, emotion and lust). Moreover, the stories themselves mirror the attributes that the heroes epitomize. For example, Panfilo (reason) tells a tale of a man who went from being a rude, insensitive beast to a refined, dignified man, thus showing the triumph of reason over the appetites. Conversely, Dioneo (lust) tells stories of people debasing themselves in various ways and his stories rarely have a moral.

In many of the stories, and more strikingly in the poems/songs which conclude each day, a close reader can also detect an allegorical element in which the soul is depicted as a lost lover, seeking to return to paradise. Originally a concept from the mystery religions, this allegorical treatment became very popular in the Middle Ages, particularly as an important aspect of the courtly love tradition.

Ultimately, then, the stories of The Decameron can be appreciated at a number of levels. They can be enjoyed at face value, which results in a reading of a collection of clever tales. They can also, however, be read with a more critical eye and provide the reader with a deeper sense of satisfaction.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Decameron and recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it.