"McWilliam's finest work, [his] translation of Boccaccio's
Decameron remains one of the most successful and lauded books in the series." –
The Times (London) "The
Decameron, by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), made a great impression on me. . . . Ten youths–seven women and three men–take turns telling stories for 10 days. At around the age of 16, I found it reassuring that Boccaccio, in conceiving his narrators, had made most of them women. Here was a great writer, the father of the modern story, presenting seven great female narrators. There was something to hope for. . . . The seven female narrators of the
Decameron should never again need to rely on the great Giovanni Boccaccio to express themselves. . . . The female story, told with increasing skill, increasingly widespread and unapologetic, is what must now assume power." –
Elena Ferrante, The New York Times