DANTE’S INFERNO
CANTO I
• The story opens with Dante experiencing a mid-life crisis. Kind of. When describing
his mid-life crisis, he uses ambiguous pronouns, saying "our life’s way." More on that
later. Basically, he has strayed from his path and finds himself lost in a dark wood.
Creepy.
• Yeah, it’s so creepy that "death could hardly be more severe!" (Yes, exclamation point
included.) Foreshadowing, anyone?
• Dante is confused about how he got into such a no-man's land.He was "full of sleep"
when he strayed from the true path. Now he’s at the bottom of some hill.
• Dante’s gaze wanders up the hill and he finds the summit all beautifully lit up like
Christmas lights by the sun, a real contrast to the dark wood he’s stuck in. Predictably,
his heart lifts at this sight.
• We learn he’s just endured a "night of sorrow." In an elaborate metaphor, Dante
compares himself to a shipwrecked swimmer who has just found land and, safe on the
beach, turns back to look at the frightening waves. In Dante’s fancy language, he’s just
endured "the pass / that never has let any man survive."
• Wearily, our hero starts climbing the hill (towards the light), but lo and behold
suddenly a sinister beast appears to block his way. Actually, it’s just a leopard.
• Dante backs away from the big, bad leopard. He notices that day has dawned and
that lifts his spirits a little.
• Until he’s faced with a ferocious lion. And then a hungry she-wolf.
• Dante screams and runs back down the hill.
• At the bottom of the hill, Dante runs into a ghost. He promptly crumples into a fetal
position and begs for mercy.
• But this is a gabby ghost. The ghost starts talking about where he’s from (Mantua),
when he was born (during Emperor Augustus’reign), and what he was (a poet).
• Dante suddenly isn't so scared anymore. In fact, he recognizes the ghost.
• It’s the famous Roman poet Virgil, who is Dante’s inspiration and all-time favorite
idol.
• Dante says something like: "I’ve totally read everything you wrote and when I write I
try to be just like you. So could you please make that scary wolf-thingy go away?"
(But in more formal epic-like speak.)
• Virgil is all stern and says, in his wise listen-to-me-or-else way, that Dante must take
another path because the she-wolf is always hungry (she’ll eat you) and always
interested in sex (she’ll fornicate with you). But never fear, in the end the good
Greyhound will come and kill her and send her back to Hell and restore Italy to its
rightful glory.
• Translation: the she-wolf is a symbol of greed, the defining quality of Florence, at least
to Dante. The Greyhound symbolizes Italy’s redeemer, though scholars can’t decide
exactly whom it represents. So, basically, the Greyhound will come and kill the greed
of Florence and everything will be good again.
• Virgil’s point? Hey, Dante, you should entrust your life to me while I take you on a
journey through Hell and Purgatory and maybe even Heaven (if you’re worthy).
• Predictably, Dante agrees.
• And so the adventure begins.
CANTO II
• Like all good conversations, the one between Dante and Virgil has apparently lasted
all day. Seriously. The sun is setting and Dante mentally fortifies himself for the
upcoming night. (Picture an internal pep talk, complete with the you-can-do-it
coaching.)
• To give him courage and virtue and whatnot, Dante invokes the Muses.
• But he’s still afraid and doubtful of his own abilities. So he asks Virgil in a long,
convoluted way why he was chosen for this journey. This includes comparing himself
to "he who fathered Sylvius" (meaning Aeneas, from Virgil’s Aeneid) and the "Chosen
Vessel" (meaning St. Peter), both of whom traveled in a divine realm (Underworld and
Heaven). Dante claims that he’s not nearly as great or heroic as these figures. So, "why
me?" he asks.
• Virgil understands that Dante’s "soul has been assailed by cowardice" and so explains
why he (Virgil) was chosen for this task in order to calm Dante’s fears.
• Virgil’s tells the story of how he came to be here with Dante. Let's jump back into that
story:
• Virgil's soul is hanging out in Limbo (more on this later) when a lady with really pretty
eyes appears and asks him to help out her lost "friend." (She overheard news of her
"friend’s" trouble in Heaven.) She says she wants Virgil's help because he has a silver
tongue or "persuasive word".
• This lady calls herself Beatrice, and Virgil learns that she’s doing this out of "Love"
(yes, with a capital "L") for Dante.
• Virgil is curious as to why Beatrice came all the way down to Hell (from her boudoir
in Heaven) just to tell him this. Beatrice responds that God has arranged it so that the
misery of Hell cannot affect her.
• And the orders for Virgil don't come from just Beatrice. The Virgin Mary herself is so
upset by Dante’s predicament that she cried buckets for him and then sent for her very
best friend, St. Lucia, to carry her message. Beatrice, even though she loves Dante,
cannot possibly do anything for him since she’s a woman (what's up, sexism), so she
brings the message down to the decidedly male Virgil.
• She makes a big deal about Virgil’s wonderful way with words and cries.
• Smitten, Virgil rushes off and finds Dante just in time to rescue him from the big, bad
wolf.
Virgil's story ends.
• Dante’s chest swells with gratitude and he demonstrates his own way with words by
comparing himself to drooping flowers that straighten out once touched by sunlight.
• In fact, he’s so pumped up now that he has a mind-melding moment with Virgil.
Observe: "A single will fills both of us."
• And with that, our emboldened heroes strike out to conquer the world. Or Hell.
CANTO III
• Dante and Virgil stop to look in awe at the Hellgate, on which encouraging words like
"ABANDON EVERY HOPE, [YOU] WHO ENTER HERE" appear.
• There is more to the inscription, which describes the origins of Hell—how it was made
by "Justice," "the Highest Wisdom," and "Primal Love."
• Dante tells Virgil he doesn’t understand the inscription.
• Virgil, in his sage way, doesn’t really answer Dante’s question, but tells him to be
brave. He also describes Hell’s sinners as people who have "lost the good of the
intellect." (This is a good place to stick a big bright sticky note because this is an
Important Concept.)
• Dante’s first impression of Hell: it’s noisy. It’s full of "strange utterances, horrible
pronouncements, / accents of anger, words of suffering, / and voices shrill and faint,
and beating hands…"
• Horrified, Dante asks Virgil who these people are that scream so loudly.
• Virgil explains that they’re neutrals, people who failed to choose either good or evil in
their lifetimes and so are condemned to exist in a kind of ante-Inferno...pre-Hell, if you
will. The "coward angels" are here too—those that sided with neither God nor Lucifer
in the great battle that created the Devil.
• When Dante repeats his question, Virgil (slightly peeved) answers shortly:
• These sinners have "no hope in death" and their entire existence is driven by envy for
any other kind of existence… even one in the true circles of Hell. Virgil says this so
quickly and tersely that he implies that these sinners aren’t even worth wasting many
words over.
• While sightseeing, Dante notices the neutrals’ punishment: various insects sting their
naked bodies, irritating them and making them run around in big circles under a long
banner. Dante is blown away by the sheer number of them; in other words, there are
a lot of neutrals.
• Among the horde, Dante recognizes the one "who made […] the great refusal."
Scholars have interpreted this sinner as Pope Celestine V, who abdicated his papal seat
just five months after taking office. This paved the way for the election of Pope
Boniface VIII, whom Dante hates with a passion.
• Dante observes a big crowd of people gathering on the banks of a big river and asks
Virgil why they seem so eager to cross the river.
• Our wise man tells Dante to quiet down; he’ll find out why when they actually get
there. "There" being the banks of the river Acheron, one of the five rivers of the Greek
Underworld.
• When they do get there, Virgil doesn’t even get the chance to explain before an old
man with a long white beard comes up to them and basically says, "No chance the two
of you are getting on my boat. Only dead people allowed." This guy is Charon, the
ferryman that takes people across the river.
• Then Virgil gets all up in Charon’s face and one-ups him with "God sent us, so let us
through." Or something like that.
• So Charon is forced to ferry them across, but he’s pouty and sullen about it.
• Dante, in poet mode, compares all the dead souls gathering on the riverbanks to falling
leaves in autumn and later to hunting falcons returning to their masters when called.
Dante is big on metaphors.
• Virgil explains that only sinners ever have to undertake this crossing.
• All of a sudden, an earthquake hits, complete with a tornado and a "blood-red light."
• Dante loses consciousness.
CANTO IV LIMBO
• Dante wakes up to find himself at the edge of a great dark valley, in which he cannot
see anything. (Yes, they crossed the Acheron while Dante was unconscious.)
• Virgil says "Let’s go." But he’s really pale.
• Dante mistakes Virgil's paleness for fear and balks. But Virgil explains that his
alabaster complexion does not indicate fear, but rather sympathy for his neighbors.
Because this is his home in Hell—Limbo.
• Here, the sinners sigh as well, but not nearly as loudly or painfully as the neutrals.
• The inhabitants of this circle of Hell are those who had no control over their salvation:
they were either not baptized at birth or born before the coming of Christ. Thus, they
don’t suffer as much as other sinners; they only feel the absence of God’s love as a
constant ache. Otherwise, they frolic in their pretty fields.
• (We know what you’re thinking: this is Hell? But trust us, it gets much worse.)
• Saddened by these sinners’ plight, Dante earnestly asks Virgil whether or not anyone
is allowed to leave this place (and presumably enter Heaven) if they are good people.
• Kindly Virgil answers yes; in fact, he saw it happen. With his own eyes, he saw Christ
enter Limbo and take Old Testament worthies like Noah, Moses, Abraham, David,
and Rachel into his all-forgiving arms and transport them up to Heaven. (Trivial
Pursuit tidbit: this was called the Harrowing of Hell.)
• Suddenly, Dante sees a fire break up the darkness. The fire is the glow of a luminous
castle and men are there.
• To answer Dante’s inevitable question, Virgil introduces the men as his best
buddies, fellow poets like Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan.
• Virgil chats with his friends for a little while before they notice Dante and invite him
in. Dante is ecstatic at being "sixth among such intellects."
• This circle enters the shining palace and its countless flowering courtyards and
gardens. Inside, they encounter a bunch of Greek and Roman heroes like Hector,
Aeneas, Caesar, Socrates, Plato, and many more.
• When they’ve had their fill of reciting poems, Dante and Virgil take their leave.
• Every step forward brings them into darker and darker territory.
CANTO V LUSTFUL
• As they descend into the second circle of Hell, Dante notes that it’s a little smaller than
the first circle. (This is because Hell is shaped like a funnel, with each successive
circle shrinking a little.)
• There, the huge bull-like judge Minos appears, looming over a great crowd, out of
which each individual steps forward to have his say.
• Dante explains that Minos judges where all sinners go by twining his tail into coils.
The number of coils determines which circle the sinner goes into.
• The very ugly Minos pauses his perpetual dissing of sinners long enough to warn
Dante and Virgil to be careful whom they trust.
• Virgil shoots back with a "God protects us" line, but we can see right through
him. He’s as scared as Dante.
• On that note, they come to the edge of a cliff and see a hurricane-strength whirlwind
buffeting the souls of the Lustful (promiscuous, impulsive).
• Dante compares them to birds like starlings, cranes, and doves because of their
helplessness against the wind and because of the cacophonous cries they emit.
• Virgil, trying to show off, names a bunch of the souls trapped there: Semiramis, Dido,
Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Paris, Tristan…
• Star-struck by such names, Dante feels sorry for them and calls out to a couple,
wanting to talk to them.
• They approach and the female soul speaks. She’s really polite and talks in
a highfalutin’ style, as if she’s stuck in the rhetoric of courtly love. She thanks Dante
for being so kind as to speak nicely to her, then tells her story.
• She’s Francesca da Rimini, an Italian (from Ravenna) and, in terms of blood,
something like a princess. During her life, she was forced into a loveless political
marriage with a guy called Gianciotto Malatesta.
• However, she fell in love with her husband’s younger brother Paolo and had an affair
with him. When Gianciotto discovered their adultery, he killed them both. (Yes, he’s
in a deeper level of Hell, Francesca tells us.)
• Dante is so moved by the unfairness of it all that he starts crying. He tends to do this a
lot. And he asks how exactly she fell in love.
• Francesca says that one sunny day, she and Paolo were innocently reading a book. But
not just any book. This one portrayed the knight Lancelot being hopelessly smitten by
Queen Guinevere. When they get to the part where Lancelot kisses Arthur’s queen,
Paolo and Francesca followed suit and shared a passionate kiss. We know it’s
passionate because "all his body trembled" and on that day they "read no more."
• Francesca blames the book for her sin, calling it a Gallehault (the character in
Arthurian legend who encourages Lancelot in his forbidden affair with Guinevere).
• As Francesca concludes her story, her soul mate Paolo bawls his eyes out.
• Dante, the deepest fibers of his soul stirred to the extreme by their tragic story, passes
out, as if dead.
CANTO VI GLUTTONOUS
• Dante awakens and finds himself surrounded by new sufferers. Thus, he concludes
he’s in a new circle of Hell.
• Now for a weather report: it’s raining. Correction: it always rains in the third circle,
where the Gluttonous dwell. Not pure water, either, but filthy polluted stinky rain and
hailstones. The earth itself reeks.
• The sinners here are so traumatized by this rain that they turn back and forth, trying
unsuccessfully to keep some part of their body clean and dry.
• Above these writhing sinners looms Cerberus, the gigantic three-headed guard dog of
the Underworld. He snarls at the pilgrims as they approach.
• Unfazed, Virgil picks up handfuls of stinking mud and hurls them straight into
Cerberus’s jaws. The dog actually eats it and, in the meantime, grows quiet. Get it?
Cerberus is a glutton too.
• As Dante and Virgil tour this circle of gluttons, none of the sinners pay attention to
them, except one who sits up and demands that Dante recognize him. The sinner
knows that Dante is a Florentine (someone from Florence).
• Dante, being a poet, gracefully asks the glutton to remind him of his name.
• The sinner suddenly isn’t so free with his words. He introduces himself as Ciacco (also
a Florentine), names his sin as gluttony, and then clams up.
• Dante doesn’t seem at all interested in Ciacco’s life, saying only that Ciacco’s
suffering moves him to tears. Then he changes the subject to the future of Florence.
• So Ciacco goes into prophet mode. (Of course, what he "foresees" is history by the
time Dante writes the Inferno.)
• In very cryptic language, Ciacco presages political strife between the Blacks and
Whites (see "In A Nutshell" for more on this). First the Whites will win a battle and
drive the Blacks out. But then the Blacks will return with the help of the hated Pope
Boniface VIII and crush the Whites, eventually driving many of them into exile,
including Dante. Ciacco sees the two parties ignoring reason in favor of "envy, pride,
and avariciousness."
• On that note, Dante continues interrogating Ciacco, naming a bunch of famous
Florentines and asking where he can find them now. Ciacco answers that they’re all in
Hell, so Dante will see them later.
• To top off his speech, Ciacco requests that Dante make his name famous in the living
world. Then he falls silent. With that, Ciacco lowers himself into obscurity.
• Virgil interjects with some prophesying of his own. He states that Ciacco will not rise
again until Judgment Day.
• Dante inquires if these sinners’ punishments will get better or worse after Judgment
Day.
• In his convoluted way, Virgil answers with "worse," because then the sinners’ bodies
will be reunited with their souls and it won’t be just their souls that are suffering.
• Our two heroes ponder this sad fact as they walk towards the next circle. Along the
way, they meet Plutus, whom we’ll learn more about in the next canto.
CANTO VII AVARICIOUS AND WRATHFUL
• This canto opens with Plutus crying out unintelligibly to Satan as Dante and Virgil
sally by. Although Dante shows signs of fear, Virgil reassures him that the demon has
no power to stop them.
• When our pilgrims pass Plutus, he falls to the ground like sails that suddenly lack wind
to propel them forward.
• Then he does it again, comparing the sinners’ movements to the waves breaking
around the mouth of Charybdis, a famous mythological whirlpool.
• So what are the sinners actually doing? Pushing heavy wheels of weights around in a
big endless circle.
• The Avaricious (greedy people) and Prodigal (reckless spenders) are punished
together, divided up into two groups, one for each half of the circle. When they meet at
the midpoint pushing their weights, they cry insults to each other: "’Why do you
hoard?’ ‘Why do you squander?’" Imagine a square dance where every time you pass
your partner, you shout, "Why are you so uncoordinated?"
• Dante, with his eagle eyes, notices that some of the sinners are tonsured (have shaven
heads) and wonders if they were clergy while alive. He asks Virgil, who confirms his
suspicions. Another strike against the Church.
• Dante hopes to recognize some faces amongst these sinners, but Virgil undercuts this
wish because "the undiscerning life that made them filthy / now renders them
unrecognizable." In other words, they’re dirty. So dirty that filth has crusted over their
true identities.
• Virgil, fully atop his soapbox now, sermonizes that this punishment is no more than
what these sinners deserve for squandering and hoarding what Fortune gave them.
Now, all the gold in the world cannot save them.
• Dante interrupts the story to go on a totally unrelated tangent. He asks Virgil to
expound on what Fortune is.
• Now Virgil is in his element and gives a long speech, explaining that Fortune is God’s
manager of all material goods and that She shifts these assets between nations and
peoples in ways that man can neither understand nor predict. Even though people curse
her, She is deaf to their insults and goes about her work blissfully.
• When Virgil has talked himself out, they move on since it’s getting late.
• Our two heroes find a stream of black water, which leads down through ever drearier
fields and finally drains into the nasty swamp of the Styx. (Which means that black
stream was the river Styx —Underworld river #2, if you’ve been counting.)
• Now in the fifth circle, Dante witnesses muddy figures of sinners getting sincerely
down and dirty. These mud-fighters are earnestly trying to rip each other’s throats out.
So it should come as no surprise that these sinners are the Wrathful.
• Virgil, just as mesmerized as Dante, adds a helpful tidbit of information: beneath this
lovely sludge is another group of sinners, the Sullen.
• Resentfully silent in life, the Sullen now are forced to recite hymns while submerged
in this mud, so that their words come out only as gurgles.
• Thoroughly disgusted by these "swallowers of slime," Dante and Virgil trudge
onwards until they come to the base of a tower.
CANTO VIII RIVER OF STYX AND GATES OF DIS
• Belatedly, Dante tells us that this tower—something like a lighthouse—has been
guiding them towards itself for a while.
• As they approach it, Dante notices another flame flickering in the distance. He asks
Virgil why.
• Trying to cultivate his air of mystery, Virgil tells Dante to look harder. Dante does and
goes "I see it! It’s a boat!"
• The boatman gruffly stops them. He, like Charon, has issues with Dante's alive-ness.
By the way, his name is Phlegyas. Try to say that five times fast.
• Virgil puts him in his place, Phlegyas pouts, and they board the boat, which promptly
sinks a little under Dante's weight. (Live people are heavier than dead ones.)
Thankfully, it doesn’t stop them from crossing the Styx.
• While on the boat, Dante leans down towards the river and asks one of the mud-
encrusted sinners: "Who are you, who have become so ugly?" Seriously.
• When the sinner gives an ambiguous answer, Dante becomes infuriated and curses
him. Which is… well… different from his usual responses to sinners, like crying or
fainting.
• When the sinner reaches out towards the boat (presumably in a gesture of longing),
Virgil pushes him back into the river.
• Then in another switch of personality, Virgil joyously hugs and kisses Dante.
• Why? Dante is making Virgil proud by feeling righteously indignant enough
to not sympathize with sinners and instead to rage at them.
• He continues, using his prophesying skills to predict that before reaching the far shore,
Dante will see a sight that justifies his insult to the sinner.
• A bunch of muddy sinners attack the same guy Dante did, crying, "At Filippo
Argenti!" At which point Filippo goes crazy and starts biting himself.
• Having filled his meanness quota for the day, Virgil turns into Mr. Explain-Everything
again, telling Dante they are approaching the city of Dis.
• Dante catches sight of it on the horizon and is struck by how red everything is.
• Yes, red. Apparently, this comes from the eternal flame that burns within the city,
signaling that it is within lower (worse) Hell. So says Virgil. In other words, you ain’t
seen nothin’ yet.
• When they arrive at the gates of the city, they find a thousand enraged sinners trying to
bar Dante from getting through. Because of his alive-ness.
• To recap, we’ve got a thousand angry sinners waving their pitchforks around and
spitting at Dante. So Virgil "makes a sign" to fend them off and has a private chat with
them.
• Dante can’t hear what they’re saying. Probably because he’s freaked out by the mad
sinners and wants to go home.
• The citizens of Dis agree to open their gates, but only for Virgil. The live guy has to go
back.
• Dante freaks out at the thought of having to go back on his own, so much so that he
tells the reader directly about his fears.
• Then he begs Virgil to come back with him if these sinners are so intent on blocking
their way.
• Virgil, his ego puffed up now, scoffs at Dante’s words and says he’ll take care of it.
• So while he does the fast talking, Dante wrings his hands with indecision.
• And then the crucial moment: the gates slam shut in Virgil’s face and he’s forced to
make the slow shameful walk back to Dante. Virgil failed? (Hmm, Important Passage.)
• Virgil rants at the sinners, but reassures Dante that he will win against them.
• He tells Dante that this has happened before at the entrance of Hell (when Christ
harrowed Hell) and that an angel is now descending to help them. Thank goodness.
CANTO IX GATES OF DIS
• At the news, Dante turns even paler than Virgil, quite an accomplishment, considering
Virgil is a ghost.
• In a fatherly way, Virgil tries to reassure Dante. But he is so distressed that his
words—usually smooth and eloquent—come out choppy and incoherent. Virgil
is stuttering.
• Dante notices his hero’s broken phrases and this only deepens his fear.
• In an indirect way, Dante asks if anyone from Limbo has ever descended this far down
in Hell before.
• Virgil answers that even though it’s rare, it has happened. In fact, he has traveled down
to the deepest level of Hell before, on a mission to recover a soul for the witch
Erichtho. (No, this doesn’t mean Virgil is evil, but simply shows that he has an
extensive knowledge of Hell and its inhabitants. Besides, the mission wasn’t really
evil.)
• Dante's gaze has drifted up one of Dis’s towers, to take in a horrible sight: three blood-
spattered women hanging pell-mell from the turrets. And they have snakes as hair.
• Following his gaze, Virgil reacts with disgust, identifying the terrifying trio as the
Furies. He names each one for Dante’s benefit: Megaera, Allecto, and Tisiphone.
• The three ladies scratch their chests with their talons and threaten Dante, warning him
that Medusa is coming to turn him into stone.
• Virgil understands this danger because he reacts by turning Dante away from the
Furies, ordering him to close his eyes, and even covering them himself.
• Dante hears the wild rush of something approaching. Something big and possibly
scary.
• Virgil tells him to open his eyes to witness Heaven’s messenger.
• Dante sees a figure coming with the force of a hurricane, scattering thousands of souls
before it, yet its only movement is to thrust the air out of its way with its hand.
• When this Heavenly Messenger reaches Dis’s gates, he has only to wave his wand to
open it.
• Then he speaks, admonishing the inhabitants of Dis for resisting God’s irresistible
will.
• Dante, awestruck, describes his words as "holy."
• After the wonder has worn off, Dante and Virgil enter the city to see more pain and
suffering.
• This time, the ground is pockmarked by open tombs, out of which flames burn. There
are sinners inside those burning graves, screaming in agony.
• Here in the sixth circle, Virgil explains that the arch-heretics are punished. Reading
Dante's thoughts, Virgil tells him that there are many more suffering here than he
might think.
• On that note, they proceed.
DECAMERON
2ND DAY, 7TH STORY
Alatiel
Intro
• Storyteller: Panfilo
• Panfilo opens by calling Fortune a fickle wench. No one's immune from the
"accidents" of Fortune.
• If you want to be happy, you've got to accept your lot as it falls.
• Then he gives a shout-out to the ladies: women sin through their desire to be beautiful.
• So he's going to tell a story that combines these two ideas, about a woman who was
"unfortunately" beautiful.
Story
• Beminidab is the name of the Sultan of Babylon even though it sounds like a new
treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.
• He has a smoking hot daughter called Alatiel.
• She's been promised in marriage to the King of Algarve (modern day Morocco).
• So the Sultan fits out a ship and sends Alatiel off to her bridegroom.
• But here comes Fortune, the grumpy harlot. A storm blows up and destroys ship and
crew.
• Alatiel survives with a few of her women, but now they're alone on a foreign shore.
• A nobleman named Pericone da Visalgo finds her.
• He can't speak her language, but beauty speaks for itself. Pericone falls hard for
Alatiel.
• He decides to keep her as his mistress, if he can't actually marry her.
• Alatiel instructs her maidens to keep their identity a secret.
• Meanwhile, Pericone's getting hot and bothered—he doesn't know how to get Alatiel
into his bed.
• So he tries what many another young man has done: he plies her with alcohol.
• It works. Alatiel doesn't know what she's been so worried about. The whole sex thing
is pretty enjoyable.
• But Fortune is fickle. Have we said that?
• Pericone has a brother called Marato. He's into Alatiel, too.
• So Marato and his friends break into Pericone's house, murder him, and steal his stuff.
• Including Alatiel.
• They get on a ship for Corinth.
• Alatiel's freaked out, but apparently Marato has, um, his ways of consoling her.
• But, you know, Fortune.
• The ship's captained by two Genoese men, both of whom fall in love with Alatiel.
• They conspire together to get her, but they don't work out the fine details (like who
gets her first).
• So they wind up pushing Marato overboard and then fighting each other for the girl.
• One dies and the other is injured. Body count=3.
• But the remaining guy "inherits" Alatiel and takes her to his house in Corinth.
• Beauty of this caliber can't be hidden for long. The Prince of Morea (The Peloponnese)
hears of Alatiel's beauty.
• And a Prince trumps a sea captain, so he "wins" her.
• Because Alatiel's very high-class, the Prince treats her more like a wife.
• Alatiel feels fortunate and that makes her more beautiful. And that causes more
trouble.
• Now, the Duke of Athens hears about her beauty.
• He murders the Prince (that's 4) and shoves him out his bedroom window.
• The Duke discovers Alatiel sleeping naked and is so aroused that he makes love to her
with the Prince's blood still on his hands. Ew.
• Alatiel's spirited away by the Duke. But the Duke has a wife, so he keeps Alatiel
secretly.
• Back at the Prince's house, they've figured out what happened and prepare to go to war
with the Duke of Athens.
• The Duke prepares to defend himself and gathers his allies. And this is where the
family tree comes into play.
• The Emperor of Constantinople sends his son, Constant. Constant is the brother of the
Duke's wife.
• Did we mention that the Duchess is NOT happy about Alatiel?
• Constant's eager to meet Alatiel. Guess why?
• So instead of making war, Constant fakes illness and goes back to his sister. He
promises to help her out by removing Alatiel. Because, you know, that's the kind of
good bro he is.
• So he fits out a boat and abducts Alatiel, who has to take her pleasure where she can
get it.
• But it's not over yet. Meet Uzbek, King of the Turks.
• He sees that Constant puts all his attention on his mistress and knows it's a good
opportunity to attack.
• Uzbek conquers Constant and takes prisoners.
• Guess who's among them?
• Constant's father is not pleased about all this, so he works with the King of
Cappadoccia to attack Uzbek.
• Together, they kill him and conquer the land.
• We've lost count of all the men who died for Alatiel.
• Alatiel's been left in the hands of Antico, Uzbek's faithful servant.
• Who's—you guessed it—smitten with Alatiel's beauty. But he also speaks her
language, so Alatiel is won over.
• They flee together to Rhodes after Uzbek's death. Antico becomes ill and dies.
• He bequeaths his property to a Cypriot merchant. This property includes Alatiel.
• Now Fortune's wheel turns again. An old servant of her father's spots her. His name is
Antigono.
• He urges her to tell of her misfortunes so that he can help her. She does.
• Antigono comes up with a plan to restore Alatiel to her former life. He instructs her in
what to say.
• Then he negotiates with her father to bring Alatiel home.
• Alatiel tells an, um, "allegorical" version of her adventures to her dad, including a stay
in a nunnery and adventures that are all chaperoned at every step.
• The Sultan falls for it, and makes arrangements for Alatiel to marry the King of
Algarve. Again.
• But this time it sticks, and Alatiel is somehow able to convince her husband the King
that she's a virgin.
• Which means, in this world, that they live happily ever after.
• Fun fact: the translator points out that Alatiel is an anagram for " la lieta," which
means "happy woman." Boccaccio is maybe slyly suggesting that he knows what it is
that makes women happy.
2ND DAY, 8TH STORY
The Count of Antwerp
Intro
• Storyteller: Elissa
• All the ladies sigh after the story of Alatiel. The author suggests maybe they're wishing
they were Alatiel with her many lovers.
• Elissa rejoices that there are so many stories she could choose to tell on the topic of
Fortune
• But she has to choose one, so she picks a story about a time of transition (the Roman
Empire moving to the hands of the Germans) and how Walter, the Count of Antwerp
gets pulled into it all.
Story
• So this Walter, Count of Antwerp is left behind to govern all of France when the King
and his son go off to war against the Germans.
• He's a good-looking guy and recently widowed, so it's no surprise that the King's
daughter-in-law soon falls for him.
• One day, she summons Walter to her boudoir so that she can confess her passion.
• Walter's astonished and because he's a loyal subject, he asks her if she's completely out
of her mind.
• She doesn't take it well. Instead of accepting the situation, she musses her hair and
begins to scream that Walter's trying to rape her. (FYI, this episode uses the Bible
story of Potiphar's wife).
• Walter doesn't wait around to find out if the household staff believes in his innocence.
He takes off for his estates.
• Gathering up his children and taking nothing else with him, he heads for England.
• Meanwhile, news reaches the King and his son about Walter's naughty behavior.
They're so enraged that Walter's banished forever and his estates are destroyed.
• Walter knows that he and his children need to travel incognito, so he gives the children
the new names of Jeannette and Perrot.
• Jeanette's taken in by the kindly wife of a King's marshal in London; Perrot is fostered
by another of the King's marshals in Wales.
• Walter's heartbroken at the loss of his children, but he knows he had to give them up.
He heads over to Ireland and becomes a servant to a baron.
• Meanwhile, Jeannette grows up to be a stunner. Her foster mother realizes that she
must really be a nobleman's daughter, even though she can't prove it. Old trope:
beauty=nobility.
• The lady's son—who is gorgeous and accomplished—falls desperately in love with
Jeannette. But he assumes that his Mom won't approve because Jeannette comes from
lowly parents. (Which she really doesn't. Are you following this?)
• He hides his love for Jeannette and we all know that doing this will only result in dire
illness. (Hey, it's a courtly love story.)
• Pretty soon, the young man's on his sickbed and everyone despairs of his life.
• A clever young doctor quickly realizes that his patient's in love with Jeannette, so he
tells the parents what he thinks is going on.
• Jeanette's foster mother tells her son that he should get well soon, because she's going
to see to it that Jeannette will be his.
• She has no intention of marrying her son to a person with a questionable background,
but she believes a little fling will cure him.
• But she doesn't anticipate Jeannette's unwillingness to become anyone's lover.
Jeannette wants marriage and nothing less.
• In the end, the parents have to consent to the marriage because they don't want their
son to die.
• So Jeannette marries the young man of the house and everyone's happy.
• Now back to Perrot, who's on the other side of the country. He's grown up to be
handsome, courageous, a good jouster, etc., etc.
• As luck would have it, a plague of some sort strikes the area and everyone in the house
where he grew up dies—except one daughter of his master and mistress. Naturally, she
marries Perrot.
• The King of England elevates Perrot to the position of marshal, to take the place of
Perrot's dead father-in-law.
• Walter decides it's time to look up his kids and see how Fortune has treated them.
First, he goes to check on Perrot.
• But before revealing himself, he wants to see how Jeannette's doing. He's taken into
the house out of pity by Jeannette's husband (whose name is Jacques) and fed in the
kitchen.
• Jeannette's children take a shine to the old man and won't be separated from him.
• Despite his father's insults and grumbling, Jacques gives Walter a position in the
household to take care of their horse and amuse the children.
• Back in France, the political tides begin to turn. The King dies and his son (the one
with the lying wife) ascends the throne.
• Long political story short, the King of England sends some of his men to help the new
King of France with a war and both Perrot and Jacques are sent to lead the English
forces.
• Walter goes along with Jacques' crew. He performs his duties well but still flies under
the radar.
• Meanwhile, the mendacious Queen of France is about to die. On her deathbed, she
decides to confess her false accusation against Walter of Antwerp.
• The King of France feels just awful about the banishment of Walter, so he proclaims a
reward for anyone who can find him and return him to France. He plans to elevate
Walter even higher than his former rank.
• Walter brings Jacques and Perrot together, reveals his identity and tells Jacques to
claim the reward from the King of France as the dowry he never received when he
married Jeannette.
• Jacques is happy to do this. Walter appears before the King in his ragged clothes, just
to shame him more. It works. The King restores Walter to his proper rank.
• Walter tells Jacques to take the enormous reward back to his snob of a father and rub it
in his face.
• The whole family's joyfully reunited for a time in France where Walter remains for the
rest of his life.
8TH DAY, 9TH STORY
Master Simone and the Secret Society
Intro
• Storyteller: Lauretta
• Lauretta shows once again that she believes in ironic retribution: she thinks it's okay if
a person plays a deserved trick on someone else.
• It's also okay to humiliate someone if they're asking for it. She wants to tell a story that
demonstrates this.
Story
• An idiot of a doctor, Master Simone, comes from Bologna to set up shop in Florence.
He tries to learn as much as possible about the people his new neighborhood.
• One day, he spots Bruno and Buffalmacco (of Calandrino fame) and asks his
companion about them.
• He learns that they're penniless painters, but Master Simone thinks they look too
carefree and cheerful to be totally broke.
• He decides to find out their secret source of income.
• So he makes friends with Bruno and asks him outright how he manages to be so
cheerful without money.
• Bruno knows a blockhead when he sees one and wants to see how much he can
squeeze the doctor.
• He tells Simone that he and Buffalmacco "go the course" in order to pay for their
happy lives.
• Wait, what?
• Simone asks for clarification and Bruno convinces him he could be killed for revealing
the secret, but since the doctor's such a great friend, he'll give it up.
• Bruno says that two disciples of Michael Scott, the great sorcerer and World's Best
Boss, have established a secret society of 25 Florentines. When they meet, each
member is granted two wishes on the spot.
• Because Bruno and Buffalmacco are BFFs with these two magical disciples, they're
among the 25.
• He goes on to describe the lavish banquets held in their honor, which include exotic
women from all over the world brought in to provide for their every pleasure.
• Bruno tells Simone that he and Buffalmacco always request the "company" of the
Queens of England and France, and it's granted to them along with whatever money
they need.
• Now Master Simone's all hot to become part of this secret society, so he wines and
dines Bruno to get into his good graces.
• Bruno paints some lovely murals in Simone's house just to appear grateful for the
physician's attentions.
• Finally, Simone summons the courage to ask Bruno to bring him to one of the secret
meetings. He's just dying to get his hands on a serving wench he met in an alley.
• Bruno can see that Simone's a true dunce, so he makes him promise on his honor as a
"gentleman and a moron" that he will never breathe a word of what he's about to
reveal.
• He suggests that Simone should butter Buffalmacco up, since very soon he'll be an
important head honcho in the secret society.
• So Simone wines and dines both Buffalmacco and Bruno in the hopes of being
inducted to this secret society of pleasure.
• The good doctor brags of his own wisdom to both men, saying that when he was
among the other doctors in Bologna, he was worshipped as a god.
• The two men decide to have some real fun with the doctor. They promise to help him
gain entrance into the society since he's so wise, and to find favor with the "Countess
of Cesspool."
• Bruno and Buffalmacco have a grand time making jokes about farts and poo, all in the
service of tricking the foolish physician.
• Finally, they decide that the day's come for Master Simone to be inducted into the
society. They give him very specific instructions on how he's to be conveyed to the
pleasure palace and tell him he has to be brave, because the ride over will be very
scary.
• Simone is to wait for his ride on the tombs outside Santa Maria Novella and get on the
back of a horned beast that comes for him. He must not call out to God or the saints for
help.
• So Simone's picked up by Buffalmacco, who's dressed like the devil, but Simone can't
help it and calls out to God for help.
• That's Buffalmacco's cue to take him outside of town and dump him in a ditch filled
with waste
• Master Simone has to return home to his wife stinking like a medieval Florentine
cesspool.
• In the morning, Bruno and Buffalmacco appear at Simone's house. They've painted
themselves all over with bruise marks and give Simone a dressing down for his
cowardice.
• Simone is so sorry that he treats them to even fancier meals than ever.
9TH DAY, 6TH STORY
Pinuccio and Adriano
Intro
• Storyteller: Panfilo
• The name of Calandrino's crush reminds Panfilo about another woman named
Niccolosa whose quick thinking prevents a scandal.
Story
• First, another literary shout-out: this tale is a source for Chaucer's "Reeve's Tale".
• There was a poor man who made his living by offering food and drink to travelers.
• Sometimes he offered lodging, but as his house was tiny, he only took in people he
knew well.
• Amazingly, he also has a beautiful wife and a 15-year-old daughter, named Niccolosa.
• A young gentleman named Pinuccio (not to be confused with Pinocchio) falls in love
with Niccolosa.
• She falls in love back.
• Pinuccio gets his friend Adriano to help him hook up with the girl.
• The two pretend to be coming home late to Florence one evening and to be in need of
a place to sleep (the city gates are locked at a certain point, so no one can get in or go
out).
• In the tiny house, the sleeping arrangements were like this: two beds against one wall,
one bed against the opposite wall.
• The host placed the two men in one bed, his daughter in the second and he and his wife
in the third. The wife placed a cradle with a baby at the foot of her bed.
• Cozy, right?
• After lights out, Pinuccio finds his way to Niccolosa's bed. After everyone is asleep,
they, uh, entertain each other.
• But then the darn house cat knocks something over in the other room and wakes up the
wife.
• Naked as she is, of course, she gets up to see what's going on.
• Adriano also gets up (call of nature). He bumps up against the cradle and moves it
beside his own bed to get it out of the way.
• The wife returns to her own bed, but doesn't feel the cradle. She's mortified that she
nearly got into bed with one of her guests!
• So she gropes around until she finds the cradle and climbs into bed.
• Adriano can't believe his luck and takes advantage of the situation. The wife thinks
she's is in bed with her husband, so she goes along with it.
• Pinuccio realizes he now has to get back to bed with Adriano before he drifts off to
sleep next to his girlfriend and gets killed in the morning.
• So he finds the bed without the cradle and hops in. Thinking the bedmate is his buddy
Adriano, Pinuccio talks about how exquisite young Niccolosa was in bed. Oops.
• The host freaks out and then the game is up. The wife realizes she's in the wrong bed
with the wrong man.
• But she's a quick thinker, so she hops in bed with her daughter. She convinces her
husband that Pinuccio's lying, because she's been in bed beside her daughter the entire
night.
• So she manages to save both their skins.
• Adriano helps by teasing Pinuccio for his stupid sleepwalking habit.
• It works.
• Because of their quick thinking, the men make it out of the house alive in the morning.
Pinuccio and Niccolosa figure out other ways to continue "meeting."
SINBAD
1ST VOYAGE
• After spending the little fortune that his father left him, Sindbad decides to recreate his
wealth as a merchant. He sets sail on a ship with other traders. They reach an island,
which happens to be a resting whale on which trees have grown.
• The sleeping whale awakens when the sailors start a small fire to keep themselves
warm. When the whale dives deep into the ocean to destroy the fire, Sindbad is pulled
into the water but manages to come back up and holds on to a wooden log that he
luckily finds. Unluckily for him, the ship departs without him.
• With the help of that log, he reaches another island, where he helps save the King’s
horse from a supernatural sea monster. The grateful king offers Sindbad a place in his
court. Soon he becomes one of the king’s favorites and rises in rank and wealth.
• After a few months, the ship that abandoned him comes to the port and Sindbad
expresses his desire to go back home. The King approves, gives him a few gold coins
and sends him back home. on his ship.
2ND VOYAGE
• Thanks to the wealth he made during the first voyage, Sindbad the sailor has a lot of
leisure time on his hands. But he is bored and wants to get back on a ship to see the
world. So he sets off on another voyage, and during one of the breaks, he is
accidentally abandoned by his crew on an island.
• On the island, he finds a giant Roc (a giant bird) egg and attaches himself to it. The
giant bird picks up the egg, and along with it Sindbad, and flies to the nest. He passes a
valley of giant snakes, big enough to swallow an elephant. The snakes protect the
diamonds and gems in the valley, killing anyone who enters it. The snakes are also
Roc food.
• It so happens that smart merchants throw large chunks of meat on the diamonds in the
valley to lure the Roc. The diamonds get stuck to the meat that the birds carry. When
the birds come out of the valley with the meat and diamonds, the merchants trick them
into leaving the meat to collect the diamonds.
• Sindbad smartly straps himself to one of the meat pieces when his Roc picks one up.
He also collects a bag full of diamonds and gems when the Roc swoops into the valley.
The merchants then rescue Sindbad from the Roc’s nest and take him back home, with
the riches he got from the valley.
3RD VOYAGE
• Sindbad’s craving to see more of the world takes him on another journey. As fate
would have it, Sindbad and all his shipmates end up on an island, on which there is a
castle. The castle belongs to a giant monster, with canine teeth, fiery eyes, a gaping
mouth, and extremely dark skin. The giant captures the sailors and decides to eat them
one a day, starting with the captain, a fat man.
• Worried about their fate, Sindbad and his mates decide to trick the giant. They manage
to get the red-hot iron spits on which the giant roasts the person he wants to eat. They
successfully blind the monster and escape on a raft made from wood on the island. The
crew escapes assaults by the other giants and somehow ends up on another dangerous
island, filled with fruit and fresh water, which has huge serpents that attack them.
• Fearing death, the crew runs into the woods, only to find that there are more of the
large snakes in there. They get scattered and Sindbad, alone now, builds himself a
shelter with wooden sticks to keep the serpents from coming close to him. He spends
the night in fear and by morning, moves towards the shore, where he finds another
merchant ship sailing by.
• The merchants on the ship rescue him and are awed by his adventure stories. Lucky for
Sindbad, this is the same ship that had accidentally abandoned him during his second
voyage. The captain, an honest man, gives Sindbad the money they made from selling
his merchandise, making Sindbad wealthier yet again.
4TH VOYAGE
• Sindbad joins another group of merchants to go on another journey. They travel from
port to port, peacefully, for a while. But one day, a storm makes the sea wild and
fearsome. The wind also becomes powerful and turns the ship upside down, throwing
all men and goods into the sea. The sailors, barely make it to an island, by holding on
to whatever was floating. They move into the wooded island from the shore and reach
a fire house.
• The residents of the house welcome the crew and give them food. The sailors eat as
much as they want until evening when the hosts move them into a barn-like place. The
sailors would eat whatever the hosts fed them and then sleep the rest of the day.
Sindbad didn’t like this animal behavior of his fellow sailors, and soon, he realizes that
the hosts are fattening them up to eat them.
• With the help of one of the guards, Sindbad manages to escape the cannibals. He
reaches another part of the island inhabited by ordinary people. Being the merchant he
is, Sindbad soon finds a way to make money on the island and impresses the king with
his creativity. The king requests Sindbad to live in their city and also gets him married
to a nobleman’s daughter.
• The kingdom has an unusual custom of burying the living spouse along with the dead
one. So when Sindbad’s wife dies of illness, he is forcefully buried in the pit with her,
with a jug of water and seven pieces of bread. He survives for a few days, and one
lucky night, he finds a burrow dug by a fox or another scavenger animal.
Malnourished and thin, he slowly and painfully crawls through the tunnel, which leads
him to the shore.
• A merchant ship rescues him and takes him home from there.
5TH VOYAGE
• You might think that Sindbad would give up sailing after a near-death experience
during his fourth journey. But his love for the sea compels him to make the same
mistakes again. So this time, Sindbad buys a ship and hires an entire crew, including
the captain of the ship.
• A few weeks into the journey, the sailors halt near an island, the one with the Roc
eggs. Out of curiosity, some sailors break open the egg, thinking it to be a stone of
some kind. When the little chick comes out of it, they make a meal out of it.
• When Sindbad notices what the crew has done, he senses they are in danger and orders
the captain to set sail immediately. A few hours into the journey, two giant Rocs use
boulders to attack and sink the ship. Sindbad somehow escapes and manages to swim
to the nearest shore. On exploring the land, he finds that the island has sweet smelling
flowers and low hanging fruits. He eats and sleeps that night.
• The next morning, he finds an old man dressed in a palm-leaf skirt, sitting across him
and watching him. He asks Sindbad to help him pluck the fruits, by carrying him on
his shoulders. Sindbad agrees reluctantly and takes the old man from one tree to
another, until evening.
• The old man holds on to Sindbad by wrapping his legs around his host’s neck, almost
strangling him. Sindbad carries the burden day after day after day, as the old man
punches, kicks, and chokes Sindbad each time he asks him to get off.
• One day, Sindbad and the old man come across a guard-like vegetable and grapes. He
breaks the guard vegetable in half, clears the insides of it to make a cup. He then
crushes the grapes and ferments the liquid in the vegetable bowl, to make wine. He
offers the wine to the old man, who continues to drink until he passes out. Somehow,
Sindbad manages to free himself from the old man’s stranglehold and makes his way
to the shore, where a passing merchant ship rescues him.
• On his way back home, Sindbad the merchant amasses money on an ape-infested
island and goes back home wealthier than before.
6TH VOYAGE
• Sinbad had all the money and peace he wanted, but his mind tricked him into going on
another trip, for the thrill that the adventure gave him. He sets sail on a ship with other
merchants and trades at different ports, making money on the way. One day, the ship’s
captain comes wailing to the merchants, for they have gone off course and he has no
idea about the seas they are traveling on. Even as the captain is pouring his heart out,
the ship runs into some sea rocks and eventually, crashes.
• A lot of people on board the ship drown, leaving Sindbad and a few others on their
own to survive. Sindbad and his friends reach an island, which has precious stones and
gems for pebbles. The crew mates go crazy collecting all the treasure, and by the end
of the day, they are tired. Sadly, the island has only a few herb plants for food, and one
after the other, all of Sindbad’s shipmates die of hunger.
• With a strong will to live, Sindbad explores the island further and comes across a river.
He builds a raft, places all his collected treasure on it, and sets sail on the river. He
enters an opening in a wall, like a cave, and when he comes out of it on the other side,
he finds civilization. On talking to the people, he realizes he is in Sri Lanka. The king
Al Hind is happy to see Sindbad and hear his stories. He sends the sailor back home
with more gold as a gift for the caliph and Sindbad.
7TH VOYAGE
• Sindbad was not very happy sitting and doing nothing after his last adventure. So he
joins a group of merchants and goes on yet another voyage. For a while, all was well,
but one day, a fierce storm steers the ship in an entirely different direction. After the
storms subsided, the captain climbs the mast to see where they have landed.
• He comes down and says in a rather sad tone that they have reached the furthest corner
of the world, called The Sea of the King. This is where Solomon lies buried, under the
waves. The captain is sure that there is no way out for the crew and that they will soon
be killed by large fishes and sea monsters that are known to inhabit the waters.
• After escaping three giant snakes in the sea, the ship crash lands on a reef, leaving the
sailors in dangerous waters. Sindbad manages to grab a plank and uses it to stay afloat
for two days. Then, he finally reaches an island. He quickly finds some food to restore
his energy and builds a boat to get back home. He reaches a valley and just before his
boat goes down a waterfall, he is rescued by a fisherman.
• The fisherman takes him to the town, where a wealthy merchant hosts Sindbad.
Having heard of Sindbad and his travels, the old man believes that Sindbad is a
prosperous businessman who has Allah’s blessings at all times, for he escaped
dangerous seas seven times! He asks Sindbad to marry his daughter, and the sailor of
seven seas agrees.
• During his stay there, Sindbad encounters evil bird-folk, a giant serpent, and servants
of the Almighty himself. After a rather dangerous adventure with the bird people,
Sindbad returns to the safety of his home. He and his wife then decide to move to
Baghdad, and Sindbad vows never to travel the seas again.
A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN
• The dramatic setting of A Room of One's Own is that Woolf has been invited to lecture
on the topic of Women and Fiction. She advances the thesis that "a woman must have
money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." Her essay is constructed as a
partly-fictionalized narrative of the thinking that led her to adopt this thesis. She
dramatizes that mental process in the character of an imaginary narrator ("call me
Mary Beton, Mary Seton, Mary Carmichael or by any name you please—it is not a
matter of any importance") who is in her same position, wrestling with the same topic.
• The narrator begins her investigation at Oxbridge College, where she reflects on the
different educational experiences available to men and women as well as on more
material differences in their lives. She then spends a day in the British Library
perusing the scholarship on women, all of which has written by men and all of which
has been written in anger. Turning to history, she finds so little data about the everyday
lives of women that she decides to reconstruct their existence imaginatively. The
figure of Judith Shakespeare is generated as an example of the tragic fate a highly
intelligent woman would have met with under those circumstances. In light of this
background, she considers the achievements of the major women novelists of the
nineteenth century and reflects on the importance of tradition to an aspiring writer. A
survey of the current state of literature follows, conducted through a reading the first
novel of one of the narrator's contemporaries. Woolf closes the essay with an
exhortation to her audience of women to take up the tradition that has been so hardly
bequeathed to them, and to increase the endowment for their own daughters.
WATERLAND
• Waterland is a 1983 novel and work of magical realism by English author Graham
Swift. Set in The Fens, a coastal plains in rural eastern England, the novel utilizes
loose, fragmented narrative and an indefinite temporality, in order to explore themes
of the human subject’s unreliability, memory, and the psychological interaction
between past and present.
• The novel begins with the character of Tom Crick, a fifty-two-year-old history teacher
for several decades in a secondary school in Greenwich. Greenwich functions in the
novel as a symbolic place for its association with Greenwich Mean Time, the base
time zone for the world clock; Greenwich is therefore a metaphor for the place where
time originates. For his entire teaching career, Crick has been married to Mary, and
 they have foregone having children. Reflecting the era’s scientific progress, the a chronic internal pain that has worsened ever since her abortion in adolescence, Mary
curriculum has become more involved in science, and the headmaster, a physicist is placed under arrest when the child is returned. Crick learns she is later committed
named Lewis, shares no passion for Crick’s subject. to a mental asylum.
• One day, Crick’s student Price interrogates the importance of learning about historical • The plot returns to a concluding flashback, detailing Dick’s mental breakdown upon
facts. In the wake of this question, the class’s overt skepticism compels Crick to teach learning that he was born out of an incestuous relationship between his mother and his
by drawing from his personal past. In doing so, he incorporates himself reflexively grandfather. He realizes the conditions of his birth have been what kept his adoptive
into his subject, recounting local history and genealogy, which are seemingly foreign father from ever accepting him the same way he accepts Tom Crick. Dick becomes
matters to his students. Irritated by the curriculum change, Lewis tries to incentivize extremely drunk on liquor he forages from the same chest where he recovers the
Crick into accepting an early retirement. Crick knows that his departure would result letters revealing his real parents. He flees on a motorbike and his family pursue him
in the termination of the entire history program and catalyze the dissolving of the using a friend’s boat. They find him miles away on the shore of the river intending to
entire General Studies curriculum. Soon after, Crick’s wife is arrested for abducting a jump in. They beg him not to jump, telling him he will be valued as equal to Crick.
baby. The resulting media attention on Crick is a bad look for the school, and he is Nevertheless, Dick jumps in and never comes up. His death is a specter that presides
finally forced to retire. In his remaining time, he leverages his forced retirement as a over Crick for the remainder of his life.
reason to tell a story to his students. The following content of Waterland focuses on • The complexity of the trauma haunting Waterland’s characters reflects a
both 1937 and the present time thirty years later, via the perspective of an adolescent psychological closeness of past and present inherent in narratives of human tragedy.
version of Crick. The topics Crick covers: murder, suicide, infertility, abortion, incest, and insanity,
• The adolescent Crick uses as his narrative base the past three hundred years of local against the backdrop of the World Wars and the opaque natural history of England,
and family history, in the context of their relation to the broader historical context of comprise a meditation on both history’s meaning and the inability of a family to truly
subjective change. Most of the plot is fixed on Crick’s turbulent relationship with survive together. Its fluid and unreliable narrative structure categorize Waterland also
Mary. This narrative starts during their teenage years and involves the evolution of as a work of postmodernism and magical realism.
hatred and jealousy in Crick’s brother Dick, who suffers a mental handicap and fights
with him over their mutual affection. The turbulence lasts through their marriage.
Mary lives on a farm near Crick’s family, where Crick lives with his brother and
father, a lock-keeper, in a cottage adjacent to a tributary of the Great Ouse, a famous
British river. When Crick is eight years old his mother abruptly dies. Similarly,
Mary’s mother died in childbirth, precipitating a hard, religious upbringing under her
traumatized father. As Mary grows older, she becomes romantically inclined with
Crick, and they fall into a secret relationship. Dick is aware of their relationship and
resents them, and they become unexpectedly pregnant. Dick interrogates Mary over
whether the baby is his brother’s, hoping that if it is, he can leverage his familial
relationship to control part of Mary. Mary lies and tells him that a different friend,
Freddie Parr, is the father. Devastated to learn this, Dick confronts a drunken Freddie
and pushes him into a river where he drowns, having never learned to swim. Dick and
Tom’s father pulls Freddie’s body from the river, believing his death to be accidental,
a conclusion that the coroner inquest later confirms. Mary tries to induce her own
miscarriage and fails. As a result, she and Crick travel to an old woman who induces a
makeshift abortion that leaves Mary completely infertile. Enraged, Mary’s father
forcibly isolates her from Crick. Her seclusion lasts for three years. Eventually, Crick
and Mary’s father decide to reconnect their children, not knowing that they have
maintained a long-distance relationship via post as Crick fights in World War II. They
marry when Crick returns from the war. Tom starts his first teaching role; Mary goes
to work for a senior living home.
• Next, the narrative shifts to the present day. Crick’s horror over his wife’s abduction
of the child compels him to act and give it back to its real mother, despite Mary’s
pleas and fervent belief that it is a gift from God. Clearly mentally ill, suffering from