'That night the abbess was enjoying the company of a priest, whom she often arranged to be transported to her room in a chest' Bawdy, hilarious, tragic and surprising, Boccaccio's fourteenth-century masterpiece the Decameron is a collection of stories told by a group of young people taking refuge from plague-ridden Florence. This selection brings together the Decameron's most celebrated tales of secret lovers, cuckolded husbands, lascivious priests, smart women, practical jokes, wise lessons and strange twists of fate, brought to life in an accessible new translation which preserves all the humour and verve of Boccaccio's storytelling. Translated with an introduction by Peter Hainsworth