Giovanni Boccaccio's "The Decameron" unfolds as a masterful collection of one hundred tales, set against the backdrop of the Black Death that ravaged 14th-century Europe. Composed in prose that is both vivid and engaging, Boccaccio employs a frame narrative structure, featuring a group of ten young people who escape the plague by retreating to a secluded villa outside Florence. Each character recounts stories ranging from the ludicrous to the profound, interweaving themes of love, social strati ...