How do I use jQuery to decode HTML entities in a string?
Security note: using this answer (preserved in its original form below) may introduce an XSS vulnerability into your application. You should not use this answer. Read lucascaro's answer for an explanation of the vulnerabilities in this answer, and use the approach from either that answer or Mark Amery's answer instead.
Actually, try
var decoded = $("<div/>").html(encodedStr).text();