Anatomy of the Novella: The European Tale Collection from Boccaccio and Chaucer to Cervantes

Author / Editor
Clements, Robert J., and Joseph Gibaldi.

Title
Anatomy of the Novella: The European Tale Collection from Boccaccio and Chaucer to Cervantes

Published
New York: New York University Press, 1977.

Physical Description
xii, 254 pp.

Description
Describes the development of the Renaissance novella, particularly the fourteenth-to-seventeenth century traditions in Italy, France, Spain, and England. Deeply influenced by the model of Boccaccio's "Decameron," the genre is distinct from the later traditions of German "Novelle" and modern short novels. Locates Chaucer's CT in this development, in relation to its roots in classical oratory, analogues in Eastern fiction, and several characteristic concerns of Renaissance rhetoric, particularly brevity and variety, characterization, and social and political satire. Assesses the importance to the genre of framing devices, and summarizes its impact on Elizabethan drama. Includes an appendix of titles of novella collections.

Chaucer Subjects
Canterbury Tales--General
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations