I finally entered the universe of Penguin Little Black Classics with Book #1 - Mrs Rosie and The Priest. Written in the 14th Century Florence, i’m really glad this medieval literature has been translated to English, and did its part in making me chuckle on a weekend morning. This collection of 4 short stories (the book itself is only about 50 pages long) surprised me by its wit and glimpses of life back then. 8 centuries apart and yet the stories are still relevant. The tale of a man being scammed (multiple times) reminds me of the various channels people can be scammed in our current world, yet the mindset of the duper and the one being duped remains unevolved. The second story is of a judge who married a much younger woman but expects her to simply follow his lifestyle and wants, and not doing his part in making sure she lives a happy life, or satiated in bed. She was then kidnapped and the story pans out from there. This made me think of the power dynamics imbalance in such a couple, and how women in this century mostly don’t get the same kind of freedom of expression that this lady got at the end of the story. The third story, which got dubbed as the book title is easily my favourite. It tells the story of a cunning priest who goes around and preys on women whose husbands are travelling. The amount of double entendres in this story is unbelievable, and the way the story is told is hilarious! I’m surprised this was written in 14th century due to how blatantly the story is told. This just proves that i’m missing out a lot by not reading more classics. The final story really got me enraged as it tells the story of a rich man who married a poor lady, and spent most of their marriage testing her submission to him. The kind of tests he inflicted on her were absolutely outrageous. Though the story had a happy ending, this toxic masculinity is precisely the thing that turns the world upside down and should not be given any airtime by anyone. All in all, my first foray has been enlightening. I now have 79 more titles to go through, and i’m looking forward to continue this adventure!