Description
Romancero del Decamerón
Book Summary
The Romancero del Decamerón is an ambitious poetic adaptation of Giovanni Boccaccio's masterpiece. The author, JM Dorlitch, transforms the famous prose tales into more than seventy thousand octosyllabic verses, maintaining a constant rhyme throughout the entire work. The reader will find a rhymed and musical version of the Italian classic, where love, death, deception, and jealousy intertwine in the stories told by ten young people fleeing the Black Death. A literary endeavor that unites the tradition of the Spanish ballad (romancero) with Renaissance narrative.
What is it about?
The work recreates the narrative framework of the original Decameron: over ten days, a group of seven women and three men isolate themselves in a villa near Florence to escape the Black Death. To entertain themselves, each person tells one story every day. The author has poured these stories into the form of Spanish romances, using octosyllabic verses and a constant basic rhyme. The themes that run through the stories are universal: love in all its facets, death, wit, deception, jealousy, and the cunning of highly varied characters. The work maintains the spirit and structure of the original source but offers a completely new reading experience by being versified.
Main themes
- Poetic adaptation of classics: transformation of Renaissance narrative prose into the octosyllabic verse of the Spanish romancero.
- Love and its many forms: from courtly love to more earthly passions and romantic deceptions.
- The Black Death as a historical context: isolation and the need for escape as the narrative framework.
- Human cunning and wit: characters who use their intelligence to overcome obstacles, deceive, or save themselves.
- Jealousy and death: tragic passions that drive many of the stories narrated.
Who is it recommended for?
For readers interested in universal classic literature and poetic adaptations of great works. Also for those who enjoy narrative verse, the traditional romancero, or original versions of canonical stories. It is a work especially indicated for those who already know Boccaccio's Decameron and wish to rediscover it from a different formal perspective, as well as for lovers of extensive narrative poetry.
What this book offers
- A unique reading experience by presenting Boccaccio's classic in the form of a romance, with more than seventy thousand rhymed octosyllabic verses.
- A deep immersion into the original stories, which, by being versified, acquire a rhythm and musicality distinct from prose.
- A work of great length that allows for a prolonged journey through medieval and Renaissance literature, ideal for readers seeking ambitious reading projects.
- The possibility to compare and appreciate the differences between the original prose and this poetic adaptation, enriching the understanding of the source work.
Technical specifications
- Author: Dorlitch, JM.
- Publisher: PUNTO ROJO EDITORIAL
- Language: Spanish
- Subject: LITERATURE AND LITERARY STUDIES, FICTION AND RELATED TOPICS, CLASSIC FICTION
- Collection: PUNTO ROJO
- Binding: Paperback
- Publication date: April 2022
- Number of pages: 1100
- Weight: 1659 g
Editorial review
This is a work of great magnitude that demonstrates a remarkable feat of adaptation and versification. Its main appeal lies in the boldness of translating a fundamental work of European prose into the mold of the romancero, a poetic format of great tradition in Spanish. The length of the book (1100 pages and more than seventy thousand verses) makes it a demanding yet rewarding read for those seeking an original approach to the classics. It may be of particular interest to scholars of comparative literature, poets, and readers with a curiosity for formal recreations of canonical works.