Mrs Rosie and the Priest

by Giovanni Boccaccio

Four hilarious and provocative stories from Boccaccio's Decameron, featuring cuckolded husbands, cross-dressing wives and very bad priests.

Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375).

Boccaccio's Decameron is available in Penguin Classics in both a complete and selected edition.

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Fiction, Italian Literature, Italy, Literature, Adult

54 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1353

About the author

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian author and poet, a friend and correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist in his own right and author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular. Boccaccio is particularly notable for his dialogue, of which it has been said that it surpasses in verisimilitude that of just about all of his contemporaries, since they were medieval writers and often followed formulaic models for character and plot.

Reviews

[Marpapad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately, the rest of the short stories were not as good as the first one. Especially, the last one was about a husband who tested the patience of his wife in a very sadistic way and I can admit that it was quite infuriating.

[Leonard Gaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This booklet, № 01 in the Little Black Classics collection, includes four short stories —out of more than a hundred— from the Decameron (possibly a significant inspiration to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales). These are primarily morality tales about swindle, dupery, even cruelty, where sex, used mostly for bartering, plays a central part. In many ways, these stories reminded me of the style and ribald subject of Medieval literature, especially in the One Thousand and One Nights, the Roman de la Rose, as well as later Spanish picaresque novels.

Some of the sexual metaphors are particularly charming. For instance, a slutty young woman rebuffs her old impotent husband saying: “Squeeze you till you squeaked, and you still wouldn’t produce a spoonful of sauce”. Or a priest boasts to a pretty village girl: “I tell you, we do a much, much better job (than other men). And do you know why? It’s because we let the pond fill up before the mill starts grinding.”

Very informative… Read this like you’d drink a glass of prosecco.

[Sean Barrs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first in the series of Penguin’s Little Black classics, and is an amusing opener to the collection.

There are four stories in here. Mrs Rosie and the Priest is by far the best. The plot is very simple: the priest wants to have his way with Rosie so he gives her his cloak as payment for her bedding him. Except afterwards he realises he wants the cloak back.

“You’re not doing anything to me,” said the Priest, “but you don’t let me do what I’d like to you, which is love my neighbour as god commanded.”



These short tales come from The Decameron, which is a Florentine collection of tales featuring lovers and intellectual women of a seductive nature. I did enjoy this sample of the stories, but not enough to procure a copy of the full work. It is not to my personal taste, however, I do recommend this to those that enjoy tales about lust filled flings, and those that enjoy Renaissance literature as a rule.

Penguin Little Black Classic- O1



The Little Black Classic Collection by penguin looks like it contains lots of hidden gems. I couldn’t help it; they looked so good that I went and bought them all. I shall post a short review after reading each one. No doubt it will take me several months to get through all of them! Hopefully I will find some classic authors, from across the ages, that I may not have come across had I not bought this collection.

[Darwin8u · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Wrongs of long ago are more easily criticized than put right."
- Boccaccio



Vol 1 of my Penguin Little Black Classics Box Set. I've read theses stories before (2014), but it was nice to revisit the cheeky stories from the mid 14th century. For more on Boccaccio's Decameron, go here.

This book contains the following 4 stories from the Decameron:
1. Andreuccio's da Perugia's Neopolitan Adventures (Day 2, Story 5; tale 15)
2. Ricciardo da Chinzica loses his wife (Day 2, Story 10; tale 20)
3. Mrs Rosie and the Priest (Day 8, Story 2; tale 72)
4. Patient Griselda (Day 10, Story 10; tale 100)

[Lucinda Garza Zamarripa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boccaccio escribió esto en el siglo XIV. Pero su frescura y picardía siguen vigentes, sigue entreteniendo con estas historias subidas de tono con personajes ridículos de morales dudosas.

Es como leer chismes exageradísimos de hace cientos de años. Tengo que hacerle lugar al Decamerón completo en mis futuras lecturas.

[Melora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bite-sized Boccaccio! Volume 1 of Penguin's Little Black Classics gets the series off to a lively start. Four short stories, all featuring a “battle between the sexes.” The first three are cheerfully, shamelessly bawdy, but in a good-natured way. The young man who leaves home in the first story for his first business trip is taken advantage of by a crafty lady, but education has always been a costly process, and he breaks even in the end. The husband in the second story, a judge who fails to account for his … limitations when choosing a wife, also learns a tough lesson, but in his case we feel that he was old enough that he should have known better. The third story, “Mrs. Rosie and the Priest,” seems to end in a draw, with the priest getting what he wants, but, then, it seems that Mrs. Rosie does too, and the duped husband gets what he, perhaps, deserves. The final story, Patient Griselda, was the only one I already knew, and also the one I really loathed. A psychopathic misogynist marries a helpless young woman and abuses her horrifically for thirteen years. And she accepts his abuse without complaint. Really makes the resourceful, if criminal, prostitute of the first story seem almost appealing. Sigh. Still, three out of four isn't terrible for a collection. No subtlety here or depth of character – these are just silly stories of lusty lads and lasses (and priests), plus the awful last story, which is highly skippable.

[Floor tussendeboeken · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the first two stories the most. Boccaccio's writing is easy to read, which is not always the case with classics. This is a good place to start if you haven't read (a lot of) classics yet and want to ease into it. Though keep in mind that the last two stories are misogynistic

[Wout Landuyt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suuupergrappig en leuk, misschien doe ik wel quirky en lees ik eens de hele decamerone 🤪

[Iza Brekilien · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is this pretty Penguin little black classic collection, that you've probably heard about ; it appealled irresistibly to me. It's a perfect way to discover of bit of different styles and authors I would have never thought to read. Number 1 is Mrs Rosie and the priest, by Giovanni Boccaccio.

This little book of 53 pages comprises four short stories issued from The Decameron.

The first, Andreuccio's da Perugia's Neapolitan adventures, is close to a farce, like those I've read from the French Middle Ages. It wasn't wonderful, but it was a nice read, telling the story of how a young man was tricked and finally learned from his mistake. Predictable but fun.

The second, Ricciardo da Chinzica loses his wife, was the one I preferred. An old man marries a young wife, has a hard time satisfying her sexually and invents all kinds of excuses to avoid his marital duties. It was really fun and made me laugh.

The third, Mrs Rosie and the priest, gave its title to the book. It was nice, but not great. How a priest wants to sleep with a farmer's wife and manages to trick her so he doesn't have to pay her price.

So far, I would have given the book 3 stars, but here we come to the fourth story, Patient Griselda. It should have been called "Stupid Griselda and the sadist". A rich lord marries a poor girl and tests her - for years ! - to prove that she's a good wife. Nowadays, he'd end up in a tribunal for harassment. But if he's a sadist, she's a masochist. I know she's poor and used to obey but come on, she could have pushed him down the stairs when there was no witness ! I still need to cool down after reading that final story because it made me mad ! Her husband (inwardly) praised her by calling her wise while he mistreated her and did awful things to her... Here goes : 2 stars and I won't read The Decameron anytime soon.

[Isabell (Taylor’s Version) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story 1: He's an idiot sandwich with more luck than sense.
Story 2: The one in which an older man loses his younger wife to the pirate who stole her from him; but plot twist, she likes the pirate more and chooses to stay with him because he (unlike her husband) is young, hot and knows how to f*** her good and proper. When her husband dies alone and miserable, she doesn't shed a tear and marries her pirate. Good for her.
Story 3: The one with the horny priest who sneakily sleeps with the wives in the village. Sexual coercion is not cute, and he deserves a kick in the balls and to stay in horny jail for the foreseeable future.
Story 4: Men, derogatory. (or: the one where a man completely loses his mind and tests his wife's loyalty most cruelly. No one’s loyalty should be tested like this, and he should get sucker punched and castrated and killed, but that's just my opinion 🥰)

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have decided to read all of the Penguin little black classics and because of my OCD I am starting with book 1, the only sane way to do these things.

Book 1 has 4 short stories by Giovanni Boccaccio. The first 3 are pretty quirky and I really enjoyed them. They were pretty racy for the time they were written, old school porn wooooooo

The fourth story though made me angry, so angry in fact that I deducted a star for it. A husband abuses his new wife for 12 years and the ending is so dumb I am struggling to actually write this review without putting spoilers.

All in all a good start to the series of books.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a remarkably terrible selection of writing. Who at Penguin thought, "Oh, yes. Let's start our celebration of classics with a trashy misogynistic trifle. That will surely mark the diversity of our publishing endeavors!" The funniest thing about this was that any modern reader might find these stories funny. Really, why no. 1?? Why, Penguin? Why? #smdh

[~Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

[re-read jan 6th 2022]
again, the first three stories are banging but the last one is just weird and gross.
-




read- jan 1st 2021
I loved the first 3 stories but the last story made me so uncomfortable :/

[Lea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so stoked to get the first 80 "Little Black Classic" books as a boxset for christmas, so I dived right in and started at the beginning. The books are so short that I can read them quickly even if the subject matter or the writing wouldn't hold my attention for a whole novel. This way I hope I can expose myself to some things I'd normally probably wouldn't pick up.

Well, "Mrs Rosie and the Priest" is something I'd definitely wouldn't have picked up. Wikipedia tells me Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist from Tuscany, who is "noted for his realistic dialogue which differed from that of his contemporaries, medieval writers who usually followed formulaic models for character and plot." I had heard the name before but didn't know much of anything about him.

The four stories are all taken from Boccaccios story collection The Decameron written between 1348 and 1353. All the stories are pretty straight forward, easy to read and mildly entertaining. My main gripe with them is that they're all humorous stories, which are hardly ever my thing - mainly because I don't find them funny. Humorous stories about sex don't fare much better.

"Andreuccio da Perugia's Napolitan Adventures" is about a rather naive man who gets tricked by a prostitute into believing she is his sister so she can steal his money.

"Ricciardo da Chinzica loses his wife" is, as the title suggest, about a man losing his wife because he is too concerned with his studies and doesn't have enough sex with her for her liking.

In "Mrs Rosie and the Priest" a priest wants to sleep with a married woman but after having done so realizes he doesn't want to pay what she asked for.

"Patient Griselda" is about a woman whose husband tests her loyalty by treating her horribly. He convinces her that he killed their children and kicks her out of their home naked. Because she remains loyal to him and never talks back, he invites her to return home and reunites her with their children. This story was a bit different to the other three. I'm unsure if this is supposed to be a moralizing story, if so, it's a pretty horrible takeaway. I'd hoped in the end the woman wouldn't want her husband anymore and he'd be punished for treating her so badly. But no, they're both happy with his cruelties.

I don't regret reading this book (also two stars for me really means it was "ok", not "bad") because it was interesting to read these kind of stories as someone who hasn't read a lot of Renaissance literature, especially not of this kind. But I guess it's just not really my thing in the end. I did enjoy the extensive use of mortar & pestle metaphors for sex, though. I'll have to keep these in mind.

[Marjolein (UrlPhantomhive) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com

Mrs Rosie and the Priest is the first of the (up to now) 126 Little Black Classics. As they occupy an entire bookcase, I'm planning to read them all in the near future. This was a light starter.

When people think about 'old' literature, they often assume that it will be higher or more moral than recent works. Not so for the four stories, collected from the Decamerone, published in 14th century Florence.

A very fast and light read. I hope more will follow as I continue to collection.

Little Black Classics #1

[amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't love this translation (maybe I'm being too picky, but phrases like "fancy-free" are glaringly anachronistic in a medieval text).

[royaevereads · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was totally (though I shouldn't have been because humans are humans) surprised by how crude this was, who knew 14th century literature could be like this! I had mixed feelings about the four stories and will be talking about this more in a video review - but the first one, Andreuccio da Perugia's Neapolitan Adventures was my absolute favourite. It had me in hysterics, one of the funniest texts I've ever read and probably now up there with my favourite short stories of all time. It's like The Hangover if it were set in the 1300s.

[su ୨୧ · Rating 3 out of 5]

“You shouldn’t have married, if you liked studying law more than studying your wife.”

The last story, where a husband tested his wife’s “patience” and “virtues” by being so utterly vile and horrid to her, was absolutely chilling in the worst way there is to it. To me, it was a mere humiliation ritual aimed at the feminine gender altogether.

And so, I wish it hadn’t been written in such a way where a man is praised and glorified, while a woman is mocked and dishonored.

[David]

And I wonder why I never manage to save any money...

[ტუნგუსკა · Rating 4 out of 5]

თავისი ეპოქისთვის გონებაგახსნილი იყო ეს კაცი

[Shervin R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Were they actually this sexist in the 13 century?

[Liam · Rating 2 out of 5]

[Edited.]
Ok, I thought long and hard about what rating to give this book, considering how the lack of enjoyment might come from my lack of knowledge underlying the themes of these stories, but they either pissed me off or didn't effect me at all. I know the book was written a long time ago and obviously it's not for the 21st century, but I couldn't really tell what their purpose was or what they were trying to say, which wasn't fun.
I'll probably do a bit more digging and I'll update if anything changes my mind about the rating or the review.
Edit: So, I was searching in the wrong place. I should've searched about the book these stories come from, because that one is the one with literary significance. These are the things I've learned about The Decameron, through a friend, and why it was important to select a number of stories from this author and publish them as one of Penguin's black classics so that we could go see what the book itself was about. Otherwise, we might never have understood that such a literary work exists.
This book, written during the plague years of 1348 to 1353, contains references to that same plague and the physical, social, and psychological effects of the event. In the book, ten people, consisting of seven women and three men, spend the plague period in a villa away from the city, and every night for ten nights, one of these ten is chosen as king or queen who must tell a story for ten consecutive nights. The name The Decameron comes from this concept of ten. The original book has a frame narrative where the reader experiences both the hundred stories and the story of these ten individuals. It not only addressed the ugliness of that era but also some of its stories were written with the aim of helping people psychologically cope with the plague and survive. This is why the tone of the book is somewhat exaggerated.
Another aspect that makes this book significant from a literary standpoint is its language, which during that time—if I'm not mistaken, in the fourteenth century—was not in Latin, allowing more people to read it without needing specific literacy skills. Additionally, it held political significance as it embedded concepts within these humorous and short stories, such as "religious leaders are not as infallible and innocent as they claim," which truly required courage for its time.
I personally did not like any of the four stories that Penguin published in this single book, and to be honest, I didn't see any of what has been said about the book reflected in them, so I felt a bit frustrated. However, on the other hand, it makes sense. No old book is written in such a way that its purpose remains clear to readers hundreds of years later, and its target audience was not the twenty-first century. Nonetheless, it was still interesting to read and learn about the book itself. Honestly, I was even a bit tempted to read the original book, but perhaps at another time.

[Shruthi Mudireddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What rompy, lewd tales!! And they were extremely funny too! I can't believe this was from the 1300s! It was only during the Victorian era that there's so much emphasis on modesty and propriety. I guess before that period, people didn't care about no modesty!! Now I've got to pick up the whole Decameron for some more obscenity from the 14th century!

[Galadrielė · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Rikke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tales of disastrous marriages, deceit, tricks and fortune in the tone of familiar folk tales.

These small snippets reminded me that I really do need to read The Decameron soon.

[Andrew Sztehlo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weird horny strange funny stories from 14th century Florence? More of this please.

[catie · Rating 2 out of 5]

i loved the first story, the second was fine, and then the other two were bad

[V]

no.1
14th century: weird times, pretty shitty for women

[Ecem Yücel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just bought this Penguin Little Black Classics box set of 80 books as a sub-challenge within my 2021 reading challenge and started reading from this one, since it is numbered as the first one of the set.

I read only one story from Boccaccio's "The Decameron" for a class before, and have been curious about the whole work ever since. This little book has 4 of the 100 stories The Decameron includes, and they are fun ones, full of trickery, betrayal, sex, and cunning characters. It made me want to read The Decameron, which I'll definitely get around to when it's possible.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

HILARIOUS!! I must get a copy of The Decameron!!