Josh’s Reviews > Decameron > Status Update
Josh
is 30% done
Finished day 3. More charming, with nearly every story allowing an affair to continue as a happy ending for all parties. Three different 80s-comedy-style schemes to trick people into sex (but one is gender-swapped!), III.6 is pretty abhorrent. But then you read about them afterwards and they're adapting like, 4th century Sanskrit stories with translations floating around Europe. Huh!
— 8 hours, 50 min ago
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Josh’s Previous Updates
Josh
is 20% done
Done with Day 2. In spite of Boccaccio's awareness that both men and women enjoy sex, and allowing some happy endings for promiscuous women, it's an exception to the norm of constant maddening "as we all know" sexism. Boccaccio is increasingly grating on me, and knowing he wrote a misogynist screed (Corbaccio) after this doesn't help pin it as just being in character. Maybe the Day 2 theme just lent itself to these.
— Jul 21, 2026 10:29PM
Josh
is starting
I finished reading the highly recommended 140pg introduction of the Penguin copy, now the plan is to read this periodically over a year or two. Unless I get sucked in!
— Sep 17, 2025 04:02PM