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Appendix 1 SYNOPSIS When Samuele, an American student who continues his study about ancient history in order to reach Ph. D. degree, goes to Rome with his friend, James Blair, an archaeological adviser in a motion picture company in Sicily, he learns about the existence of a certain group known as the Cabala, which consists of talented and wealthy aristocrats. Blair, a bookish person, is familiar with some of its members, and he introduces his friend to that group. One of them, the Duchess d'Aquilanera, has a son, Don Marcantonio, who becomes the youngest Cabalist. He has five or six love affairs with various women, and she is disturbed by his unsettled habits. In an effort to show him the errors of the life he is leading, she asks Samuele to talk to her son. Before meeting Marcantonio, Samuele has a talk with Cardinal Vaini, a friend of the Duchess, who says that Marcantonio begins his wild deed by imitating his older friends. Later his vicious morality becomes a habit, and finally a mania. Since the boy's problem is so complicated, Saniuele decides to ask hitn to have a long conversation in Duchess'villa. Through that conversation, Samuele knows that actually Marcantonio has great interest in driving automobiles as fast as possible and he wishes to participate in the Olympic Games. Unfortunately, after the conversation is over, the next day, Marcantonio feels depressed and kills himself. Samuele is shocked and grieved. However, he is soon involved in the strange conduct of another Cabalist, the Princess Alix d' Espoli. Because of her unhappy marriage with her Italian husband, she continually falls in love with men who cannot possibly be attracted to her. One day she goes to visit Samuele and finds James Blair in his apartment. Though Blair is rude, she falls in love with him and proceeds to get his affections. At last she is convinced that she succeeds in attracting him for Blair gives her a book that once has been mentioned in their casual conversation. She begins going to his rooms uninvited. When Blair becomes upset, Samuele suggests that the only way out for liim is leaving Rome. After he goes on a trip to Spain, Alix cannot control herself. Finally, she contemplates suicide, as away to express her despair. Samuele also spends much of Ms time with Astree- Luce de Morfontaine, a deeply religious Cabalist. As she has great faith in prayer, she asks Samuele to contact the powerful churchman, Cardinal Vaini, to discuss with her about what she believes about prayer. Unfortunately, he underestimates prayer and speaks about it derisively. The Cardinal says that there is no difference whether people pray very sincerely or not because they cannot change God's mind. After hearing his opinion, Alix breaks down and her faith is badly shaken. She invites the Cardinal to her house for a party, during the evening she accuses him of being the devil, takes out a pistol, and shoots at him. Fortunately, he is not hurt, and later, the Cardinal decides to go back to his mission in China. On his way, he catches a fever, dies, and is buried at sea. Appendix 2 BIOGRAPHY Thornton Niven Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin, on April 17, 1897. He was the son of Amos Parker Wilder, an editor and publisher of a newspaper, and Isabella Thornton Niven Wilder, who was the daughter of a Presbyterian Minister. Amos Wilder was appointed to the post of American consul general to Hong Kong for six months. In 1906 Thornton attended a German school in Hong Kong. Later, in that same year, he was sent to Berkeley, California, for his schooling. In 1911, when he returned to China he went as a boarding pupil to an English mission school at Chefoo for a year. He was again in the United States in 1912, going to school first at Ojai, California, and then at Berkele}' High School, from which he graduated in 1915. From 1915 to 1917 he attended Oberlin College, where he lost no time appearing as a writer in the Oberlin Literary Magazine, In 1917 he transferred to Yale, Ms father's old college, and the family was reunited at New Haven. Having found his vocation, young Wilder kept the Yale Literary Magazine plentifully supplied with his works. In 1918, after having been frustrated because of poor eyesight in several efforts to enlist in the armed services, lie was at last accepted by the Coast Artillery. In 1919 he returned to Yale. and in the next year took his B.A. degree. In 1920-192 1, he spent a year as a resident of the American Academy at Rome, where he began writing The Cabala, Back in the United States he taught French at Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, and presently began doing graduate work at Princeton, where he was awarded his M.A. degree in 1926. In that same year his first volume was issued, but The Cabala Was largely ignored by the critics. In 1927 the American Laboratory Theatre produced a play, The Trumpet Shall Sound, that he had published in Yale Literary Magazine, but it attracted little attention. Although his first novel did not give Wilder great success, his other principal works can prove that Thornton Wilder is a talented writer. In 1928. he worked on a new novel that became a best seller. The Bridge of San Luis Rey, which was converted into a popular movie and brought him the Pulitzer Prize. In 1935. he continued writing Heaven's My Destination. His play Our Town was met with great enthusiasm when it was performed in New York in 1938 and earned Wilder his second Pulitzer Prize. The next play which was awarded a Pulitzer Prize is The Skin of OurTeeth in 1943. This play caused a deep response to audiences both in the Lfnited States and abroad. Besides, he also wrote a novel The Ides of March, which was published in 1948. In the early 1960's, he retreated to Arizona to write The Eighth Day. By the end of the decade his pace had slowed, and on December 7, 1975 he died in his sleep. .

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