During the second term, I read a novel that is the Italian Renaissance writer Boccaccio』s The Decameron.
This book is mainly described the plague epidemic in 1348 in Florence, when people infected with plague in order not to, even if their loved ones will be ignored, there are a lot of people are suffering from mistaken being buried alive and died of the plague.
In such a situation, three boys and seven girls came together in the church of Saint Marie, with refuge in a villa in the countryside for two weeks. Apart from enjoying the scenery, feast dance, there are the stories will be open, in which the 10-day period, per person per day to tell a story, by the alternation of power between "The Queen" or "King" theme of the provisions of the story, then one sing a song as the story will end. They say a total of 10 days of 100 stories, named The Decameron.
According to Boccaccio, the story is to describe and praise the earthly life, to honor the noble love is the source of wisdom, praise free love is precious, so certain people's intelligence. It also revealed the brutality of the feudal emperors, Christian sin, hypocrisy and so priest』s nuns.
In the book there is such a story, a wicked person called Chappelet Prat , he had done many bad things of his life ,when he worked for Musciatto , he became ill .He invited a pure monk , he was afraid of not pardon his crimes, so he deceived with a long list of lies . Later, Chappelet received blessings from the monk, and then he weakened and died not long. The monk believed his lies of confession. So monk tells people his actions, his reputation growing well, and then he became a saint. Although he lives all kinds of evil, but in the dying moment, he sincerely repents and be forgiven of God, he is received into the kingdom of heaven.
The book can not help but also reflect such a truth: The difference between good and bad nature of a leopard change its spots, it is not easy to change. The good guys and bad guys, although the quality of different, they have a similar nature. The thoughts, methods and objectives are different between good and bad people.
I think these stories are humorous and sarcastic. This book is a good reading.