In the great tradition of the The Decameron and Canterbury Tales, The Heptameron offers captivating glimpses of a vanished world. Here, 10 people engage in a storytelling battle of the sexes that abounds in tales of murder, adultery, remorse, and revenge, all set in 16th-century France. Translation by Arthur Machen.
Original selection of stories from the privately printed edition published by the Dreyden Press, London, 1886.

Table of Contents for The Heptameron: Selected Tales

Introduction to the Dover Edition
1 (i): The misdeeds of the wife of a certain proctor, who had a bishop for her gallant
2 (ii): The wife of a muleteer had rather death than dishonour
3 (iii): Of a lustful King of Naples, and how he met with his match
4 (iv): Of a young man who attempted the honour of a princess, and the poor success of his adventure
5 (v): How two Grey Friars were by one poor woman left in the lurch
6 (viii): Of one who on his own head engrafted horns
7 (ix): A relation of a perfect love, and the pitiful end thereof
8 (x): Florida, hard pressed by her lover, virtuously resists him, and on his death takes the veil
9 (xi): Of a very privy matter
10 (xii): A Duke of Florence would have his friend prostitute his sister to him; but in place of love meets with death
11 (xiv): A very pleasant piece of cozenage done by my lord Bonnivet
12 (xvi): A love persevering and fearless meets with due reward
13 (xvii): King Francis shows his courage that it is well approved
14 (xviii): A notable case of a steadfast lover
15 (xxi): The steadfast and honourable love of Rolandine, who after many sorrows at last finds happiness
16 (xxii): How a wicked monk, by reason of his abominable lust, was at last brought to shame
17 (xxiii): How the lust of a Grey Friar made an honest gentleman, his wife, and his child to perish miserably
18 (xxv): How a young Prince secretly had pleasaunce of the wife of a sergeant-at-law
19 (xxvi): The love of an honourable and chaste woman for a young lord, and the manner of her death
20 (xxx): A man takes to wife one who is his own sister and daughter
21 (xxxi): The horrid and abominable lust and murder of a Grey Friar, by reason of which his monastery and the monks in it were burned with fire
22 (xxxii): The notable manner in which a gentleman punished his wife whom he had taken in adultery
23 (xxxiii): The hypocrisy of a parson, who having got his sister with child concealed it under the cloak of holiness
24 (xxxv): Of a rare case of spiritual love, and a good cure for temptation
25 (xxxvi): How the president of Grenoble came to make his wife a salad
26 (xxxix): In what manner my lord of Grignaulx exorcised an evil spirit
27 (xl): Wherein is given the cause wherefore Rolandine's father made build the castle in the forest
28 (xlii): How the virtuousness of a maid endured against all manner of temptation
29 (xliii): Of a woman who was willing to be thought virtuous, but yet had secret pleasure with a man
30 (xlv): How a tapestry-maker gave a wench the Innocents, and his pleasant device for deceiving a neighbour who saw it done
31 (xlix): A pleasant case of a gentlewoman that had three lovers at once, and made each to believe himself the only one
32 (lii): How an apothecary's prentice gave two gentlemen their breakfast
33 (liii): How a lady by too close concealment was put to shame
34 (lv): How a widow sold a horse for a ducat and a cat for ninety and nine
35 (lvi): Of a cozening device of an old friar
36 (lx): How a man, for putting too great trust in his wife, fell into much m
37 (lxi): Of the shamelessness and impudency of a certain woman who forsook her husband's house to live with a canon
38 (lxvi): A lord and lady sleeping together were mistaken by an old dame for a prothonotary and a servant maid, and were sharply reproved of her
39 (lxvii): How a woman trusted in God amidst the lions
40 (lxx): In the which is shown the horrid lust and hatred of a Duchess, and the pitiful death of two lovers

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