The News
A “sexy” new Netflix show takes its inspiration from a 14th century collection of short stories set in the aftermath of Europe’s bubonic plague. Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron, written in the 1350s, explores sexuality “in a way that can still make readers blush,” the BBC wrote, and it was described by The New Yorker as “probably the dirtiest great book in the Western canon.”
The book enjoyed a resurgence during COVID, and the premise of its namesake Netflix show involves 10 young nobles who flee from pandemic-struck Florence to a luxurious estate outside the city.