One Hundred Merrie and Delightsome Stories: Right Pleasaunte to Relate in All Goodly Companie by Way of Joyance and Jollity

Here is a book that pulls back the curtain on medieval life with absolutely zero propriety. Supposedly told by courtiers gathered at the Duke of Burgundy's court, these tales reveal what really happened behind closed doors: affairs, schemes, seductions, and vendettas across every rung of the social ladder. A knight tricks a miller's wife; a nun gets her comeuppance; a shepherd somehow marries a noblewoman and no one quite knows what to do about it. The monks are lechers, the husbands are cuckolds, and the cleverest person in the room usually wins. Originally composed in 15th-century French as the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, this 1899 English edition preserves the ribald wit and sharp observation that made the collection foundational to European prose fiction. It's Boccaccio meets Chaucer meets a gossip column, with more anatomical humor than you'd find in a Victorian parlor. If you've ever wondered what medieval people actually talked about when the clergy weren't listening, wonder no longer.