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Fiction

The Decameron by Boccaccio
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The Decameron

by Boccaccio

Recommendations from our site

“The premise of the book is that a group of young noblemen and -women, people of great privilege who have been able to flee the plague-ridden city, are telling each other stories to while away their time together in the luxurious villa to which they’ve retreated. The description of the plague in the frame narrative is very vivid and quite horrifying; it sets a dark tone.” Read more...

The Best Books to Read in Quarantine

Jenny Davidson, Literary Scholar

“The Decameron specifically is a story about ten people who decide to escape the plague by going to a lovely country house with their servants. They tell stories there: ten stories a day for ten days, so there are 100 stories. The stories tend to be very, very funny. A lot of them are very rude.” Read more...

The Canterbury Tales: A Reading List

Marion Turner, Biographer

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  • The Left Hand of Darkness
    by Ursula Le Guin

  • World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
    by Max Brooks

  • Beloved
    by Toni Morrison

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