Which work is a collection of stories set during the Black Death?

Which work is a collection of stories set during the Black Death?

• A. The Decameron
• B. The Prince
• C. The Divine Comedy
• D. The Iliad

Answer: (A)

Think about a work known for its frame of people telling stories while a plague devastates a city. The Decameron fits this exactly: ten young Florentines retreat to the countryside to escape the Black Death, and over ten days they share a hundred tales to pass the time. This structure—frame narration with a rapid sequence of stories—defines the collection and makes it a landmark of vernacular Italian literature. By contrast, The Prince is a political treatise, The Divine Comedy is an epic journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, and The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic about the Trojan War. So the collection of stories set during the Black Death is The Decameron.

Think about a work known for its frame of people telling stories while a plague devastates a city. The Decameron fits this exactly: ten young Florentines retreat to the countryside to escape the Black Death, and over ten days they share a hundred tales to pass the time. This structure—frame narration with a rapid sequence of stories—defines the collection and makes it a landmark of vernacular Italian literature. By contrast, The Prince is a political treatise, The Divine Comedy is an epic journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, and The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic about the Trojan War. So the collection of stories set during the Black Death is The Decameron.