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英美文学选读 (张莹波,李静(南京:东南大学出版社 2018年))
英美文学选读 (张莹波,李静(南京:东南大学出版社 2018年))
本书分两个部分,将英国文学和美国文学按文学史的时间顺序编排,并在每一部分开篇介绍
了相关文学背景,浓缩性地涵盖了基本文学常识、文学术语、概念、思潮、流派、代表作家及其经典
作品等。在各部分各撷选了具有代表性的作家若干人,简要介绍其生平、创作风格、在文学史上
的地位、代表作及篇章选读等,以帮助学习者初步获得关于具体作家的基本知识,为进一步深入
学习奠定基础。
本书适用于“应用型”本科院校英语专业及非英语专业的通识课或选修课,也可用于完成大
学英语基础阶段学习的后续或拓展课程。
图书在版编目(CIP)数据
英美文学选读 / 张莹波,李静主编 —南京 :东南
大学出版社,2018. 5
ISBN 978 7 5641 7695 2
英美文学选读
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前言 !"#$%&#
英美文学内容浩如烟海,国内高校英语专业使用的英美文学教材品种很多,
注重文学史和作品选读的优秀教材也不少,但它们涵盖的内容实在太过于丰富,
对于课时偏少的“应用型本科”普通高校英语专业和非英语专业的学生来说不
太合适。为此,笔者根据多年的教学经验及在对相关院校进行调研的基础上,特
别编写了这本《英美文学选读》教材。
考虑到目前很多高校课时有限,因此本着“够用为度,便于拓展”的原则,本
教材力求在有限的篇幅内为英语专业学生、非英语专业学生和广大英语爱好者
提供一个浓缩了英美文学精华的读本。全书分为两个部分:英国文学和美国文
学,基本按文学史的时间顺序编排。每部分开篇都有相关文学背景知识的介绍,
浓缩性地涵盖了英美文学概况,包括基本文学常识、文学术语、概念、思潮、流派、
代表作家及其经典作品等内容。本教材侧重于英美文学各阶段的经典原著的选
读、理解和赏析,内容包括作家生平和创作、主要文体风格、主要作品目录、所选
作品简介、所选作品人物列表、原著选读、注释和思考题等。附录则包含了重要
且规范的文学术语解释,便于学生查阅。
本教材适用于普通高校英语专业,可作为面向英语和非英语专业学生开设
的通识选修课如“英美文学概况”“英美文学鉴赏”“英美文学赏析”等课程的教
材,也适合“应用型本科”高校非英语专业学生用作拓展课程“英美文学选读”的
教材。
在编写过程中,我们参考了国内外大量的学术著作,在此由衷地感谢相关作
者及出版社。由于编者水平有限,教材中难免存在错误和不足,敬请广大读者批
评指正。
编者
2017 年 12 月 25 日
目录 '()*#)*
Sonnet 18 / 024
Araby / 102
To Helen / 147
!
O Captain My Captain !/ 169
Because I Could not Stop for Death / 171
003
001
Literary Background Information
Old and Medieval English Literature The Germanic people known as the Angles the ,
,
Saxons and the Jutes invaded Britain in the 5 th
and 6 th
centuries ,bringing with them their
language, paganism, and warrior traditions. In the late 6 th
century the process of re
Christianization began,and by the end of the 7 th
century all kingdoms of AngloSaxon England
had accepted the discipline of Roman Christianity. Oral tradition was very strong in early
English culture and most literary works were written to be performed. Epic poems were thus
, , ,
very popular and some including Beowulf have survived to the present day. Beowulf is the
most famous work in Old English and has achieved national epic status in England ,despite
being set in Scandinavia.
After the Norman Conquest in 1066 England developed a feudal system ruled by native and
Norman aristocracy and ordered by a rich and influential Church. The country became trilingual ,
with a literate clergy refined by Latin,Norman French defining the new ruling class,and
English confined to the ruled. A new literary form—romance became popular. Most English
romances tend to present their heroes as knights pursuing a lonely quest. While romances
,
articulate a pious confidence in the values of a Christian society they also stress the importance
of the communal values of a chivalric world. Their subjects include classical Roman legends ,
,
tales of France and British stories. The representative romances are legends of King Arthur
and the Knights of the Round Table ,and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Despite the
political and social disruptions of his age,Geoffrey Chaucer expresses a firm sense of order in
his poetry which is evident in his reflections on the nature and workings of the cosmos,and in
his affirmations of an orthodox Christian belief in divine involvement in human affairs. Chaucer
,
is best known today for The Canterbury Tales a collection of stories written in Middle English.
,
Chaucer is a crucial figure in developing the legitimacy of the vernacular Middle English at a ,
time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin.
In the 15 th and early 16 th centuries the Kingdom of Scotland witnessed a flowering of
literature in English. The Scots poets of the period were aware of the cultural and political
,
independence of their nation from the South thus they began a tradition of poetic composition in
the “Inglis ”language in Scotland to demonstrate their national selfconsciousness. The late
medieval religious writing largely had two orientations. While mystery and morality played for
,
the instruction and entertainment found great popularity among a wide uneducated audience ,
002
some recluses , such as Richard Rolle , chose to express their intense private religious
Literary Background Information
experience.
Literature during the English Renaissance The English Renaissance was a cultural and
artistic movement in England dating from the late 15th to the early 17th century. And the
dominant art forms were literature and music. By the time of Elizabethan literature a vigorous
( —1599),
literary culture in both drama and poetry included poets such as Edmund Spenser 1552
whose verse epic The Faerie Queene had a strong influence on English literature but was
eventually overshadowed by the lyrics of William Shakespeare 1564 ( —1616 ),Thomas Wyatt
and others. Playwrights included such giant figures as Christopher Marlowe,Shakespeare and
Ben Jonson. Queen Elizabeth herself was a product of Renaissance humanism. Elizabethan
, ,
drama took the place of morality mystery and miracle plays. Philosophers and intellectuals
included Thomas More(1478 —1535 )and Francis Bacon (1561 —1626 ). Mores Utopia was a
philosophical novel of fantasy. Bacon wrote great essays and science fiction. Shakespeare stood
out as a poet and playwright as yet unsurpassed. He wrote 39 plays including histories ,
, ,
tragedies comedies and the late romances or tragicomedies. Famous works include comedies
, , ,
The Merchant of Venice A Midsummer Nights Dream Twelfth Night tragedies Romeo and
Juliet ,Hamlet,Othello,King Lear,Macbeth,and histories Henry Ⅳ ,Richard Ⅱ ,Henry Ⅷ .
17 century literature John Milton (1608 —1674 ) was one of the greatest English
th
poets ,who wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval. He was generally seen as the
last major poet of the English Renaissance,though his major epic poems were written in the
Restoration period,including Paradise Lost,Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes,which
reflected deep personal convictions,a passion for freedom and selfdetermination, and the
urgent issues and political turbulence of his day. A new poetic school—the Metaphysical
appeared and the important poets were John Donne (1572 —1631 )and his followers such as
George Herbert (1593 —1633 ) and Henry Vaughn (1621 —1695 ). Influenced by continental
Baroque,and taking as his subject matter both Christian mysticism and eroticism,Donnes
metaphysical poetry uses unconventional or “unpoetic ” figures, such as a compass or a
mosquito,to reach surprise effects.
John Dryden (1631 —1700 )was a poet,literary critic,translator,and playwright who
dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be
known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. He established the heroic couplet as a standard
form of English poetry by writing successful satires , religious pieces , fables, epigrams,
, , ;
compliments prologues and plays with it he also introduced the alexandrine and triplet into
the form. In his poems,translations,and criticism,he established a poetic diction appropriate to
the heroic couplet. Drydens greatest achievements were in satiric verse in works like the mock
( )
heroic MacFlecknoe 1682 .
The publication of The Pilgrims Progress established the Puritan preacher John Bunyan
(1628—1688)as a notable writer,which is an allegory of personal salvation and a guide to the 003
Christian life. Bunyan writes about how the individual can prevail against the temptations of
mind and body that threaten damnation. The book is written in a straightforward narrative and
,
shows influence from both drama and biography and yet it also shows an awareness of the
grand allegorical tradition found in Edmund Spenser.
Literature during Enlightenment Movement The 18 th century advanced in astronomy ,
mathematics , mechanics, physics and optics contributed to the spring of Enlightenment
Movement. Religious mystery was replaced by rational wonder. The bloodless Glorious
, ,
Revolution also called the Revolution of 1688 and its subsequent legislation ensured the rule of
,
law and the dominance of Parliament in England. Thus an ideal of harmony cooperation and a
political order reflecting that of nature seemed to be realized in the triumph of practical reason ,
liberal religion and impartial law. But in many practical ways such ideal remained an illusion.
Neoclassic poetry became popular , which respected reason , stressed conciseness and
,smoothness and refinement, aiming at the perfect form of art. Alexander Pope
balance
(1688—1744)was considered the dominant voice of his century with his masterpieces of the
mockepic genre:The Rape of the Lock and The Dunciad. Joseph Addison and Richard Steeles
The Tatler and The Spectator established the form of the British periodical essay. The
publication of Gullivers Travels ,a satirical prose,in 1726 made its author Jonathan Swift
(1667—1745 )immediately famous. English novel has generally been seen as beginning with
Daniel Defoe (1660 —1731 )s Robinson Crusoe (1719 )and Moll Flanders (1722 ). Robinson
Crusoe marks the beginning of realistic fiction as a literary genre and Crusoe as the hero is a
symbol of the British empire and an image of the English colonial pioneers. Other major
(1707—1754 )who wrote Tom Jones (1749 ),and Tobias
novelists include Henry Fielding
Smollett (1721 —1771 ),whose The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748 )is an important
comicpicaresque novel.
The century also witnessed a fashion called Sentimentalism in both poetry and prose
fiction. Emotion and spontaneity were seen as necessary complements to reason and
deliberation,not as opposition to them. Fictional representatives were Samuel Richardson
(1689—1761),author of the epistolary novels Pamela (1740 )and Clarissa (1748 ),and his
successor,Lawrence Sterne (1713 —1768 ) who wrote an experimental novel The Life and
Opinions of Tristram Shandy with lots of modern techniques such as lengthy comments,
interruptions,music scores,asterisks,ellipses and even blank pages. Poets of the Graveyard
School showed their concern with morality. Oliver Goldsmiths long pastoral poem The Deserted
, ,
Village James Thomsons The Seasons William Collins Ode to Evening and Thomas Grays
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard all expressed the poets aversion to the chaotic society
and desire for the simple natural life. The romantic comedies —Goldsmiths She Stoops to
Conquer and Richard Brinsley Sheridans The School for Scandal enjoyed great popularity
towards the end of the century. Goldsmith also published a sentimental novel Vicar of Wakefield
004
Literary Background Information
, ( —1848 ),
Dickens has been most admired for his later novels such as Dombey and Son 1846
Bleak House (1852 —1853 ) and Little Dorrit (1855 —1857 ),Great Expectations (1860 —
1861 ),and Our Mutual Friend (1864 —1865 ). William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 —
1863 ),an early rival to Dickens,is known for Vanity Fair (1847 ),which follows the lives of
Becky Sharp and Emmy Sedley amid their friends and families during and after the Napoleonic
,
Wars. The novel is a satire of society as a whole characterised by hypocrisy and opportunism.
Women writers make great contributions to the Victorian literature. The Bront sisters ,
, ,
Emily Charlotte and Anne leave behind great works though they all die young. Charlottes
(1816—1855)Jane Eyre breaks new ground in being written from an intensely firstperson
female perspective. Emilys (1818 —1848 )Wuthering Heights challenges strict Victorian ideals
of the day, including religious hypocrisy, morality, social classes and gender inequality.
Annes (1820 —1849 )Agnes Grey deals with the lonely life of a governess. George Eliot,pen
name of Mary Ann Evans(1819 —1880 ),published 7 novels including Adam Bede(1859 ),The
Mill on the Floss(1860 ),Silas Marner(1861 ),Felix Holt,the Radical (1866 ),Middlemarch
(1871—1872)and Daniel Deronda(1876),most of them set in provincial England and known
for their realism and psychological insight. Elizabeth Gaskell (1810 —1865 )is also a successful
writer and North and South contrasts the lifestyle in the industrial north of England with the
wealthier south.
( —1909)is best remembered for his novels The Ordeal of Richard
George Meredith 1828
Fevered (1859 )and The Egotist (1879 ). George Robert Gissing (1857 —1903 )published 23
novels between 1880 and 1903 and New Grub Street (1891 ) is his bestknown. Heart of
Darkness(1899 )and Lord Jim by a Polishborn immigrant Joseph Conrad (1857 —1924 ),an
important forerunner of modernist literature,depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of an
impassive,inscrutable universe and reflect aspects of a Europeandominated world,including
imperialism and colonialism.
( —1928 )is interested in rural matters and the changing social and
Thomas Hardy 1840
economic situation of the countryside and he gains fame as the author of such novels as,Far
from the Madding Crowd (1874 ), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886 ), Tess of the
DUrbervilles (1891 ),and Jude the Obscure (1895 ). John Galsworthy (1867 —1933 ) is
famous for The Forsyte Saga (1906 ) which touches such social issues as gender,poverty,
financial gap. E. M. Forster(1879 —1970 )is concerned with middleclass values. He manages
to mix a sharp social comedy with didactic narrative insistence on the virtues of tolerance and
human decency. Howards End 1910( )and A Passage to India (1924 )are Forsters famous
novels. Arnold Bennett (1867 —1931 ) and William Somerset Maugham (1874 —1965 ) are
influenced by Zolas naturalism,so Bennetts Old Wives Tale (1908 ) and Maughams Of
Human Bondage (1915 )are naturalistic novels.
Adventure novels are popular. Sir Henry Rider Haggard wrote one of the earliest examples,
007
,
King Solomons Mines in 1885. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850—1894 )also wrote works in
, ( ),an historical novel set in the aftermath of the Jacobite
this genre including Kidnapped 1886
rising of 1745 ,and Treasure Island (1883 ),the classic pirate adventure.
Wilkie Collins epistolary novel The Moonstone (1868 ),is generally considered the first
detective novel in the English language,and soon after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle began his
Sherlock Holmes series about a Londonbased “consulting detective”. H. G. Wellss (1866 —
1946 )writing career began in the 1890s with science fiction like The War of the Worlds (1898 )
which describes an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians and The Time Machine
(1895)in which he not only coined the term “time machine”but also put forward the concept
of “time travel”. The Time Machine has been adapted into three feature films of the same name,
as well as two television versions,and a large number of comic book adaptations.
Literature for children developed as a separate genre during the Victorian era,and some
works became internationally known,such as Lewis Carroll,Alices Adventures in Wonderland
(1865). Beatrix Potter was known for her childrens books,which featured animal characters,
including The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902 ).
The leading poets during the Victorian period were Alfred,Lord Tennyson (1809 —1892 ),
Robert Browning (1812 —1889 ),Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 —1861 ),and Matthew
Arnold(1822 —1888 ). The poetry of this period was heavily influenced by the Romantics,but
also went off in its own directions. Particularly notable was the development of the dramatic
,
monologue a form used by many poets in this period ,but perfected by Browning. Mrs
Browning is remembered for such poems as How Do I Love Thee?(Sonnet 43 ,1845 ) and
Aurora Leigh (1856 ). Dover Beach is Arnolds representative work. Irishman William Butler
Yeats(1865 —1939 )is one of the foremost figures of 20thcentury literature. In 1923 ,Yeats
was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature,“for his always inspired poetry,which in a highly
artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation. ” The Wind Among the Reeds
(1899)and The Second Coming are his wellknown poems.
In the last decade of the century major playwrights emerged,including George Bernard
Shaw (1856 —1950 ),Arms and the Man (1894 ),and Oscar Wilde (1854 —1900 ),The
Importance of Being Earnest (1895 ). Both of these Irish writers lived mainly in England and
wrote in English,with the exception of some works in French by Wilde.
Modernism and cultural revivals World War Ⅰ and its immediate aftermath accentuated
,
the feeling that a new start ought to be made in politics and society as well as in art. From
around 1910 the Modernist movement began to influence British literature. Free verse and other
,
stylistic innovations came to the forefront in this era with which T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound
were especially associated. T. S. Eliot (1888 —1965 ) was born American, migrated to
,
England in 1914 and he was “arguably the most important Englishlanguage poet of the 20th
century. ”He produced some of the bestknown poems in the English language,including The
008
Literary Background Information
( )
Waste Land 1922 and Four Quartets 1935 ( —1942). Pound was an expatriate American poet
and critic who started imagism ,a movement derived from classical Chinese and Japanese
poetry,stressing clarity,precision and economy of language. In a Station of the Metro (1913 )
is the very example of imagism.
In the 1930s the Auden Group ,sometimes called simply the Thirties poets,was an
important group of politically leftwing writers,that included W. H. Auden (1907 —1973 )
and two AngloIrish writers,Cecil DayLewis (1904 —1972 )and Louis MacNeice (1907 —
1963 ). Auden was best known for love poems such as Funeral Blues,poems on political and
social themes such as September 1 ,1939 and The Shield of Achilles,poems on cultural and
psychological themes such as The Age of Anxiety,and poems on religious themes such as For
the Time Being. A Welsh poet and writer,Dylan Marlais Thomas (1914 —1953 )was widely
popular in his lifetime,whose works include the poems Do not Go Gentle into That Good Night
and And Death Shall Have No Dominion;the “play for voices”Under Milk Wood;and stories
and radio broadcasts such as A Childs Christmas in Wales and Portrait of the Artist as a Young
Dog.
( —1941)contributed to the modernist avantgarde and is regarded as one
James Joyce 1882
of the most influential and important authors of the 20th century. Joyce is best known for
( ),A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)and Finnegans Wake (1939).
Ulysses 1922
Ulysses is a landmark work in which the episodes of Homers Odyssey are paralleled in an array
,
of contrasting literary styles perhaps most prominent among these the stream of consciousness
technique he utilised. His other writings include three books of poetry ,a play,occasional
journalism and his published letters.
( —1941)was an influential feminist,
Writing in the 1920s and 1930s Virginia Woolf 1883
and a major stylistic innovator associated with the streamofconsciousness technique. Her novels
( ),and The Waves (1931 ),and A Room of Ones Own (1929 ),
include Mrs Dalloway 1925
which contains her famous dictum:“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she
is to write fiction. ”D. H. Lawrence (1885 —1930 ),who wrote with understanding about the
social life of the lower and middle classes,and the personal life of those who could not adapt to
the social norms of his time. Sons and Lovers (1913 ),is widely regarded as his earliest
masterpiece. There followed The Rainbow (1915 ),and its sequel Women in Love published
in 1920.
, ,
An important development beginning really in the 1930s and 1940s was a tradition of
working class novels that were actually written by writers who had a workingclass background.
, ( —1950)works are considered important social
An essayist and novelist George Orwells 1903
and political commentaries of the 20th century,dealing with issues such as poverty in The Road
to Wigan Pier (1937 ) and in the 1940s his satires of totalitarianism included Animal Farm
(1945). Evelyn Waugh (1903—1966 )satirised the “bright young things”of the 1920s and 009
, ,
1930s notably in A Handful of Dust and Decline and Fall. Graham Greene 1904 ( —1991 )
,
explored the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world often through a Catholic
,
perspective. He published 25 novels including Brighton Rock The Power and the Glory The ,
Ministry of Fear and so on.
The “Queen of detective stories ” Agatha (1890—1976 ) was prolific. She
Christie
published 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections,among which Murder on the Orient
Express and Death on the Nile are the most famous.
Contemporary Literature ,
When World War Ⅱ ended in 1945 much of Britain was in
,
ruins. The war the war economy and wartime propaganda had prepared the way for social
change. Stateaided education was much promoted and free medical care became available to all
citizens. There went an air of optimism that fostered the idea Britain was rebuilding itself in a
,
new socially responsive economic dawn. But a sense of anxiety and dissatisfaction with the
reality started to appear in the postwar British literature.
New poets started their careers in the 1950s and 1960s including Philip Larkin (1922—
1985 )(The Whitsun Weddings,1964 )and Ted Hughes (1930—1998 )(The Hawk in the
Rain,1957 ). Northern Ireland has produced a number of significant poets,the most famous
being Nobel Prize winner (1995 ) Seamus Heaney (1939 —). However, Heaney regarded
himself as Irish and not British.
( —1989 )
The most significant play performed in the 1950s was Samuel Becketts 1906
Waiting for Godot. Becketts work offers a bleak,tragicomic outlook on human existence,often
coupled with black comedy and gallows humour. He is considered one of the last modernist
, “
writers and one of the key figures in what Martin Esslin called the Theatre of the Absurd . ”
“ ,
—in new forms
Beckett was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature for his writing which
for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation ”. John
Osborne (1929 —1994 )was the first to question the point of the monarchy on a prominent
public stage. His 1956 play Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre. Harold Pinter
(1930—2008)won 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature. His early works were described by critics as
“comedy of menace ”. Later plays such as No Mans Land (1975 ) and Betrayal (1978 )
became known as “memory plays ”. Arnold Wesker (1932 —2016 )was famous for Chicken
Soup with Barley (1958 ). His plays dealing with such themes as selfdiscovery, love,
confronting death and political disillusion are called “kitchen sink drama ”. Tom Stoppard
(1937—)has written prolifically for TV,radio,film and stage,finding prominence with plays
such as Arcadia,The Coast of Utopia,Every Good Boy Deserves Favour,Professional Foul,
The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Themes of human rights,
censorship and political freedom pervade his work along with exploration of linguistics and
( —2016)was a playwright and screenwriter of numerous award
philosophy. Peter Shaffer 1926
winning plays,several of which have been turned into films,including Five Finger Exercise
010
Literary Background Information
(1962),The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969),The Public Eye (1962),from which he adapted
the 1972 film Follow Me!(1972 ),Equus (1977 ),and Amadeus (1984 ),which won eight
Academy Awards including Best Picture.
, ,
George Orwells satire of totalitarianism Nineteen EightyFour was published in 1949.
Evelyn Waughs Second World War trilogy Sword of Honour (1952 —1861 )was published in
this period. William Golding (1911 —1993 )gave a sure indication of his continuing concern
with moral allegory in his fiction. Lord of the Flies (1954 )established his reputation,and he
won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983.
,
From the mid1950s some writers including playwrights novelists and poets such as John
Osborne,Kingsley Amis (1922 —1995 ),John Wain (1925 —1994 ) and Philip Larkin were
addressed as “Angry Young Men. ”They took up feelings of frustration due to the perception
of themselves as “angry”outsiders of class and literary circles. Holding radical political views,
they described social alienation of different kinds. Not modernists by technique,they also
expressed their critical views on society,reprehending certain behaviors or groups in different
ways.
( —2005 )had been fascinated by repression and the release of sexual
John Fowles 1926
energy that could be equated with personal liberation. His famous novel The French Lieutenants
( ),a Victorianera romance with a postmodern twist,was set in Lyme Regis,
Woman 1969
Dorset,where Fowles lived for much of his life. Because of the contrast between the
independent Sarah Woodruff and the more stereotypical male characters,the novel often receives
attention for its treatment of gender issues. With three endings,the novel is an experimental
success. Fowles books have been translated into many languages and several have been adapted
into successful films.
The broadening of womens perspectives and opportunities proved the most radical and
( —2013)in her fiction argues
substantial of the social changes of the 1960s. Doris Lessing 1919
that the real revolution is women against men. She initially wrote about her African experiences
and soon became a dominant presence in the English literary scene. Publishing frequently she,
won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007. Her novels include The Grass is Singing 1950( ),
( —1869),The Golden
the sequence of five novels collectively called Children of Violence 1952
( ),The Good Terrorist (1985 ),and a sequence of five science fiction novels
Notebook 1962
collectively known as Canopus in Argos:Archives (1979 —1983 ). And there are other women
writers including Muriel Spark (1918 —2006 ),Iris Murdoch (1919 —1999 ),A. S. Byatt
(1936—),Margaret Drabble (1939—)who are all concerned with moral and gender issues.
Spark was a Scottish novelist who focused on revelation of peoples spiritual status in this chao
( )which brought
tic world and her best known work was The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 1961
her international fame. Murdoch dealt with sexual relationships,morality,and the power of the
unconscious. Under the Net (1954 ),The Sandcastle (1957 ),The Bell (1958 )and The Sea,
011
( ) are her representatives. A. S. Byatt was born Antonia Susan Drabble and
the Sea 1978
Margaret Drabble was her younger sister,but their relationship is not close as they do not read
each others books. Possession:A Romance is A. S. Byatts bestseller which is categorized as
historiographic metafiction and won the 1990 Booker Prize. Margaret Drabble touches on
, ,
corrupt propertydevelopers and bombs broken marriages and the alienations of upward social
,
mobility rural withdrawal and Eastern Europe. Each novels setting seems to imprison its
occupants and the negotiation is often dangerous and unsatisfying. Her novel Jerusalem the
( )focuses on topics relevant to women and gender.
Golden 1967
Promising young writers appeared in the 1980s and 1990s,who are greatly influenced by
postmodernism,especially the absurd techniques of “black humor”,magic realism,and whose
works are considered as “newtype historical novels”. Martin Amis(1949 —)won many prizes
for his bestknown novels Money (1984 )and London Fields (1989 )and he has been portrayed
as a master of what the New York Times called “the new unpleasantness ”. Graham Swift
(1949—)published his sixth novel Last Orders which won the 1996 James Tait Black Memorial
Prize for fiction and the 1996 Booker Prize and was adapted into a successful movie in 2001.
( —)early books Flauberts Parrot(1984 ),England,England
Three of Julian Barness 1946
(1998),and Arthur & George(2005)had been shortlisted for the Booker Prize and The Sense
of an Ending (2011 ) won the Man Booker Prize. Peter Ackroyd (1949 —) is an English
biographer ,novelist and critic with a particular interest in the history and culture of London. For
his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of,among others,William
Blake,Charles Dickens,T. S. Eliot and Sir Thomas More,he won the Somerset Maugham
Award and two Whitbread Awards. Ian Russell McEwan (1948 —),a novelist and screen
writer,began his career writing sparse,Gothic short stories. His first two novels,The Cement
Garden (1978 )and The Comfort of Strangers(1981 )earned him the nickname “Ian Macabre”.
The Child in Time (1987 )won him the 1987 Whitbread Novel Award. In 1997 ,he published
Enduring Love,which was adapted into a film. He won the Man Booker Prize with Amsterdam
(1998 ). In 2001,he published Atonement,which was adapted into an Oscarwinning film
starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. This was followed by Saturday (2005 ),On
Chesil Beach (2007 ),Solar (2010 ),Sweet Tooth (2012 ),The Children Act (2014 ),and
Nutshell (2016 ). In 2011 ,he was awarded the Jerusalem Prize.
Sir V. S. Naipaul (1932 —)was an immigrant,born in Trinidad,who won the Nobel
Prize in Literature in 2001. The Swedish Academy praised his work “for having united
perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of
”
suppressed histories . His famous novels such as A House for Mr. Biswas ,A Bend in the
,
River and The Enigma of Arrival reveal the lasting influence of colonialism on the former
colonies and its peoples. Also from the West Indies is George Lamming 1927( —)who wrote In
012
the Castle of My Skin (1953 ), while from Pakistan came Hanif Kureshi (1954 —), a
Literary Background Information
013
Geoffrey Chaucer 1343 ( —1400)
Unit 1 杰弗里 · 乔叟
Biography
Geoffrey Chaucer ,known as the Father of English literature,is
widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was
the first poet to be buried in the Poets Corner of Westminster Abbey.
Chaucer was a crucial figure in developing the legitimacy of the
vernacular , Middle English , at a time when the dominant literary
languages in England were French and Latin.
Chaucer was born into a wine merchant family in London. At 17 he ,
,
became a page in a noblemans household. At 19 he went to France with the English army and
was imprisoned. He was married to a maid of honor to the queen at 26. At 27 he entered the
service of the king. From 1372 —1373 he went to Italy on diplomatic missions. In 1374,he was
made controller of customs in London. He died in 1400 and was buried in Westminster Abbey—
the Poets Corner.
Major Works
The Book of the Duchess 《公爵夫人之书》
The House of Fame 《声誉之堂》
Parliament of Foules 《百鸟议会》
Troilus and Criseyde 《特罗勒斯与克丽西德》
The Canterbury Tales 《坎特伯雷故事集》
014
Unit 1 ( —1400) 杰弗里·乔叟
Geoffrey Chaucer 1343
016
;
They were won and in the Mediterranean Sea
Unit 1 ( —1400) 杰弗里·乔叟
Geoffrey Chaucer 1343
: ,
Synopsis of The General Prologue The setting is April and the prologue starts by
singing the praises of that month whose rains and warm western wind restore life and fertility to
, ,
the earth and its inhabitants. This abundance of life the narrator says prompts people to go on
; ,
pilgrimages in England the goal of such pilgrimages is the shrine of Thomas Becket. The
,
narrator falls in with a group of pilgrims and the largest part of the prologue is taken up by a
description of them. Chaucer seeks to describe their condition ,their array,and their social
degree.
Notes
1. Zephyrus:西风;在英国,春天里从大西洋上吹来的西风是温暖和煦的。
2. grove and heath :树林和荒地
3. ram:one of the astrological signs in the Zodiac,白羊宫,古代用于解释天体运
行的黄道带十二宫之一。 太阳经过白羊宫时正值春天,所以前文称太阳为 “the young
sun ”。
4. palmer:朝圣者,香客
5. martyr:殉道者;这里指坎特伯雷大主教 St. Thomas Becket,他死后被葬于坎特伯
雷,供人朝拜。
6. Southwark:当时伦敦的一个郊区
7. hostelry:旅店,客栈,指 Tabard 。
8. pledged :发誓
9. chivalry:骑士精神,骑士风度,即“忠君、护教、行侠”。 017
10. heathen places:异教徒(非基督教)的领地
11. Alexandria:亚历山大(埃及港市)
12. Granada:格拉纳达,古国名,今西班牙境内。
13. Of Algeciras,and in Benamarin :Algeciras,阿尔赫西拉斯,地名,当时摩尔人的
一个堡垒,在今西班牙境内;Benamarin,地名,当时的一个摩尔人王国,在今天的北非。
14. Ayas and Attalia:地名,分别位于亚美尼亚和小亚细亚。
15. Telmcen :地名,在今阿尔及利亚境内。
16. Palatia:古国名,在今埃及境内。
018
William Shakespeare 1564 ( —1616)
Unit 2 威廉 · 莎士比亚
Biography
, ,
William Shakespeare was an English poet playwright and actor ,
widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the
,
worlds preeminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet
and the “Bard of Avon ”. His extant works,including collaborations,
consist of approximately 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative
poems,and a few other verses,some of uncertain authorship. His plays
have been translated into every major living language and are performed
more often than those of any other playwright.
,
Shakespeare was born and grew up in StratforduponAvon Warwickshire. At the age of
, , : ,
18 he married Anne Hathaway with whom he had three children Susanna and twin boys —
,
Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London
, ,
as an actor writer and partowner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlains Men ,
,
later known as the Kings Men. He appeared to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age
,
49 where he died three years later.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1590 and 1612. His early plays
,
were primarily comedies and histories and these are regarded as some of the best works ever
,
produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608 including Hamlet ,
, , ,
Othello King Lear and Macbeth considered some of the finest works in the English language.
, ,
In his last phase he wrote tragicomedies and collaborated with other playwrights.
Major Works
( —1600)
? Early period 1590
( —1591)《亨利六世》上、中、下篇
King Henry VI 1590
The Life and Death of King Richard Ⅲ (1592 )《理查三世》
The Comedy of Errors(1592 )《错误的喜剧》
Titus Andronicus (1593 )《泰特斯·安德罗尼克斯》
The Taming of the Shrew(1593 )《驯悍记》
The Two Gentlemen of Verona(1594 )《维洛那二绅士》
019
( )《爱的徒劳》/ 《空爱一场》
Loves Labors Lost 1594
Romeo and Juliet(1594 )《罗密欧与朱丽叶》
Venus and Adonis (1593 )《维纳斯和阿多尼斯》
The Rape of Lucrece(1594 )《鲁克丽丝失贞记》
A Midsummer Nights Dream (1595 )《仲夏夜之梦》
The Merry Wives of Windsor (1599 )《温莎的风流娘儿们》
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar (1599 )《恺撒大帝的悲剧》
? Middle period (1601 —1608 )
Hamlet,Prince of Denmark(1601 )《哈姆雷特》/ 《哈姆莱特》
Troilus and Cressida(1602 )《特洛伊罗斯与克瑞西达》
Alls Well That Ends Well(1604 )《终成眷属》
Measure for Measure(1604 )《一报还一报》
Othello ,the Moore of Venice(1605 )《奥赛罗》/ 《奥瑟罗》
King Lear(1605 )《李尔王》
The Tragedy of Macbeth (1605 )《麦克白》
Antony and Cleopatra(1606 )《安东尼与克莉奥佩特拉》
The Tragedy of Coriolanus(1607 )《科利奥兰纳斯》
Timons of Athens(1607 )《雅典的泰门》
Pericles,Prince of Tyre(1608 )《泰尔亲王佩里克里斯》
? Late period (1609 —1612 )
Cymbeline,King of Britain (1609 )《辛白林》
The Winters Tale(1610 )《冬天的故事》
The Tempest(1612 )《暴风雨》
The Life of King Henry Ⅷ (1612 )《亨利八世》
,
Synopsis of The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark
,
Often shortened to Hamlet the play is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare at an
,
uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark the play dramatizes the
revenge Prince Hamlet is instructed to enact on his uncle Claudius. Hamlet is based on a
020
widespread legend of northern Europe. Shakespeare rewrites it ,making it a combination of
Unit 2 ( —1616) 威廉·莎士比亚
William Shakespeare 1564
,
intrigue emotional conflict and searching philosophic melancholy. The play opens with Hamlet ,
appearing in a mood of worldweariness occasioned by his fathers recent death and his mothers
, ,
hasty remarriage with Claudius his fathers brother and the new king and by the horrible news
his fathers ghost reveals to him that he was murdered by the new king. Hamlet is urged to seek
, ,
revenge. Then Hamlet pretends to have gone mad to drift apart from Ophelia trying to find out
proofs of his uncles guilt. He asks a theatrical troupe to put on a play directed by himself ,
which resembles the late kings murder. Claudius is deeply disturbed by the performance and
,
leaves the hall before the play is finished. Hamlet is summoned by his mother who tells him
that he has offended the king. Hamlet reveals Claudius baseness and expresses his indignation at
her hasty remarriage. Suddenly he becomes aware that he is being overheard. Thinking Claudius
, ,
is hiding behind the curtain he runs his sword through it but kills Polonius. Claudius sends
, ,
Hamlet to England orders assassins to kill him on the way but Hamlet returns to Denmark
,
safely. Heartbroken at the death of her father Ophelia goes mad and gets drowned in a stream
,
one day. Her brother Laertes vows to take revenge for his father and sister. Claudius takes
,
advantage of the opportunity. He arranges a duel for them prepares a poisoned sword and cup
of wine beforehand. In the duel,Laertes wounds Hamlet,and is struck with the same poisoned
sword. Out of her alarm,the Queen drinks from the poisoned cup and dies immediately. Before
death,Laertes reveals Claudius plot to Hamlet,who stabs Claudius with his last strength and
dies.
Characters
Hamlet —son of the former King,nephew of the present King
Claudius—King of Denmark,Hamlets uncle
Gertrude—Queen of Denmark,Hamlets mother
Polonius—Lord Chamberlain(宫廷内臣),Ophelias father
Ophelia—Polonius daughter,Hamlets girlfriend
Laertes—Polonius son,Ophelias elder brother
Horatio—Hamlets friend
◆◆◆.%/,#' ◆◆◆
(Act 3,Scene 1,Lines 55—87)
: ,
Hamlet To be or not to be —that is the question:
Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles ,
And by opposing end them. To die —to sleep— 021
;
No more and by a sleep to say we end
,
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to1 . tis a consummation2
Devoutly to be wishd. To die —to sleep.
To sleep —perchance 3
to dream:ay,theres the rub !4
022
Unit 2 ( —1616) 威廉·莎士比亚
William Shakespeare 1564
Notes
:
1. That flesh is heir to what humans have to endure 人类注定要承受的(苦难)
2. consummation :(事件、生命的)完成,终结
3. perchance:perhaps 也许
4. rub :obstacle 阻拦、麻烦
5. respect:consideration 考虑
6. native hue of resolution :(人脸上 )表示决心的天然色晕。(The Westerners
believe when ones face turns red ,he is ready to show strong determination. )
7. sicklied :受到损害,露出病态(指失去了表示决心的红晕)
8. enterprises of great pitch :(pursuit of)great causes(对)崇高事业(的追求)
In modern prose
: ?
The question is is it better to be alive or dead Is it nobler to put up with all the nasty
,
things that luck throws your way or to fight against all those troubles by simply putting an end
to them once and for all? Dying, sleeping—thats all dying is—a sleep that ends all the
heartache and shocks that life on earth gives us—thats an achievement to wish for. To die,to
sleep—to sleep,maybe to dream. Ah,but theres the catch:in deaths sleep who knows what
kind of dreams might come,after weve put the noise and commotion of life behind us. Thats
certainly something to worry about. Thats the consideration that makes us stretch out our
,
sufferings so long. After all who would put up with all lifes humiliations —the abuse from
, , ,
superiors the insults of arrogant men the pangs of unrequited love the inefficiency of the legal
system,the rudeness of people in office,and the mistreatment good people have to take from
bad—when you could simply take out your knife and call it quits?Who would choose to grunt
and sweat through an exhausting life,unless they were afraid of something dreadful after death,
the undiscovered country from which no visitor returns,which we wonder about without getting
any answers from and which makes us stick to the evils we know rather than rush off to seek the
? ,
ones we dont Fear of death makes us all cowards and our natural boldness becomes weak with
,
too much thinking. Actions that should be carried out at once get misdirected and stop being
actions at all.
Chinese version
生存还是毁灭,这是一个值得考虑的问题;默然忍受命运暴虐的毒箭,或是挺身反抗人
世无涯的苦难,通过斗争把它们扫个干净,这两种行为,哪一种更加高尚?死了;睡着了;什
么都完了;要是在这一种睡眠之中,我们心头的创痛,以及其他无数血肉之躯所不能避免的
打击,都可以从此消失,那正是我们求之不得的结局。死了;睡着了;睡着了也许还会做梦;
嗯,阻碍就在这儿:因为当我们摆脱了这一具朽腐的皮囊以后,在那死的睡眠里,究竟将要做 023
些什么梦,那不能不使我们踌躇顾虑。人们甘心久困于患难之中,也就是为了这个缘故;谁
愿意忍受人世的鞭挞和讥嘲、压迫者的凌辱、傲慢者的冷眼、被轻蔑的爱情的惨痛、法律的迁
延、官吏的横暴和费尽辛勤所换来的小人的鄙视,要是他只要用一柄小小的刀子,就可以清
算他自己的一生?谁愿意负着这样的重担,在烦劳的生命的压迫下呻吟流汗,倘不是因为惧
怕不可知的死后,惧怕那从来不曾有一个旅人回来过的神秘之国,是它迷惑了我们的意志,
使我们宁愿忍受目前的折磨,不敢向我们所不知道的痛苦飞去?这样,重重的顾虑使我们全
变成了懦夫,决心的赤热的光彩,被审慎的思维盖上了一层灰色,伟大的事业在这一种考虑
之下,也会逆流而退,失去了行动的意义。
Shakespeares Sonnets
A sonnet is a 14line poem usually in iambic pentameter. Thomas Wyatt (1503—1542 )
introduced it into England in the 16th century. There are two types of rhyme schemes :
Italian / Petrarchan sonnet : abba abba cdecde / cdcdcd
English / Shakespearean sonnet : abab cdcd efef gg
William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets which cover themes such as the passage of time ,
, , , ,
love beauty loneliness death mortality and so on. The first 126 sonnets are said to address to
a handsome young man;the last 28 ,to a dark lady.
◆◆◆01&&#' 23 ◆◆◆
024 1. How does the poet answer the question he puts forth in the first line ?
Unit 2 ( —1616) 威廉·莎士比亚
William Shakespeare 1564
Notes
:
1. more temperate better tempered 更温和的
2. lease:租聘期,这里指夏天延续的时间。
3. every fair from fair sometime declines:前一个 fair 指“美人”,后一个 fair 指“美
貌”或“美丽”;decline:衰败,衰落;变得不那么美丽。 全句意为:再美的美人其美貌也会
褪色。
4. Nor shall death brag thou wanderst in his shade:死亡也无法夸口说把你笼罩
在自己的阴影之下。
5. When in eternal lines to time thou growst:当你使自己融入了永恒的时间。
lines 指诗人的诗行,全句有“美在永恒的诗行中永生”之意。
6. this:指“这首诗歌”
025
Daniel Defoe 1660 ( —1731)
Unit 3 丹尼尔 · 笛福
Biography
, , , ,
Daniel Foe was an English trader writer journalist pamphleteer ,
and spy ,most famous for his novel The Life and Strange Surprising
Adventures of Robinson Crusoe,usually shortened as Robinson Crusoe.
Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel,as
he helped to popularize the form in Britain and with others such as Samuel
,
Richardson and thus is among the founders of the English novel. He was
,
a prolific and versatile writer producing more than five hundred books,
,
pamphlets and journals on various topics , including politics, crime, religion, marriage,
psychology ,and the supernatural. He was also a pioneer of economic journalism. Daniel Defoe
was born in 1660 ,in London,and was originally christened Daniel Foe,changing his name
around the age of thirtyfive to sound more aristocratic. His parents were Presbyterian dissenters
,
and around the age of 14 he attended a dissenting academy at Newington Green in London and
he is believed to have attended the Newington Green Unitarian Church. During this period,the
English government persecuted those who chose to worship outside the Church of England.
,
Defoe entered the world of business as a general merchant dealing at different times in hosiery ,
,
general woolen goods and wine. His ambitions were great and he was able to buy a country
,
estate and a ship though he was rarely out of debt.
,
Defoe began writing fiction late in life around the age of sixty. He published his first
, ,
novel Robinson Crusoe in 1719 ,attracting a large middleclass readership. He followed in
1722 with Moll Flanders,the story of a tough,streetwise heroine whose fortunes rise and fall
dramatically. Both works straddle the border between journalism and fiction. Robinson Crusoe
was based on the true story of a shipwrecked seaman named Alexander Selkirk and was passed
off as history ,while Moll Flanders included dark prison scenes drawn from Defoes own
experiences in Newgate and interviews with prisoners. His focus on the actual conditions of
everyday life and avoidance of the courtly and the heroic made Defoe a revolutionary in English
literature and helped define the new genre of the novel. Stylistically ,Defoe was a great
026 innovator. Dispensing with the ornate style associated with the upper classes,Defoe used the
Unit 3 ( —1731) 丹尼尔·笛福
Daniel Defoe 1660
, , ,
simple direct factbased style of the middle classes which became the new standard for the
,
English novel. With Robinson Crusoes theme of solitary human existence Defoe paved the
way for the central modern theme of alienation and isolation. Defoe died in London on April
, ,
24 1731 of a stroke.
Major Works
The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe 1719 ( )《鲁滨
逊漂流记》
( )《辛格顿船长》
Captain Singleton 1720
A Journal of the Plague Year (1722 )《大疫年日记》
Colonel Jack (1722 )《杰克上校》
Moll Flanders (1722 )《摩尔· 弗兰德斯》
Roxana:The Fortunate Mistress (1724 )《罗克萨娜》
,
1. autobiographical 1 st person pointofview
2. credible,vivid,fascinating stories with minute details
3. mixture of short,crisp sentences with long,rambling ones
4. use of colloquial,vernacular language
5. use of images and symbols
028 stakes in the inside,leaning against them,about two foot and a half high,like a spur to a post,
Unit 3 ( —1731) 丹尼尔·笛福
Daniel Defoe 1660
,
and this fence was so strong that neither man nor beast could get into it or over it. This cost me
a great deal of time and labor,especially to cut the piles in the woods,bring them to the place,
and drive them into the earth.
,
The entrance into this place I made to be not by a door but by a short ladder to go over the
; , , ,
top which ladder when I was in I lifted over after me and so I was completely fenced in and
, , ,
fortified as I thought from all the world and consequently slept secure in the night which ,
; , ,
otherwise I could not have done though as it appeared afterwards there was no need of all this
caution from the enemies that I apprehended danger from.
, , , ,
Into this fence or fortress with infinite labor I carried all my riches all my provisions
ammunition,and stores,of which you have the account above. And I made a large tent,
which,to preserve me from the rains that in one part of the year are very violent there,I made
double,viz. one smaller tent within,and one larger tent above it;and covered the uppermost
with a large tarpaulin ,which I had saved among the sails.
3
And now I lay no more for a while in the bed which I had brought on shore,but in a
hammock,which was indeed a very good one,and belonged to the mate of the ship.
Into this tent I brought all my provisions,and everything that would spoil by the wet;and
having thus enclosed all my goods,I made up the entrance,which till now I had left open,and
so passed and repassed,as I said,by a short ladder.
When I had done this,I began to work my way into the rock,and bringing all the earth
and stones that I dug down out through my tent,I laid them up within my fence,in the nature
of a terrace,that so it raised the ground within about a foot and a half;and thus I made me a
cave just behind my tent,which served me like a cellar to my house.
It cost me much labor and many days before all these things were brought to perfection,
and therefore I must go back to some other things which took up some of my thoughts. At the
same time it happened after I had laid my scheme for the setting up my tent and making the
, ,
cave that a storm of rain falling from a thick dark cloud a sudden flash of lightning happened ,
,
and after that a great clap of thunder as is naturally the effect of it. I was not so much surprised
with the lightning as I was with a thought which darted into my mind as swift as the lightning
: , ! ,
it self Oh my powder My very heart sank within me when I thought that at one blast all my
, , ,
powder might be destroyed on which not my defence only but the providing my food as I ,
thought,entirely depended;I was nothing near so anxious about my own danger,though had
the powder took fire,I should never have known who had hurt me.
Such impression did this make upon me,that after the storm was over,I laid aside all my
works,my building and fortifying,and applied myself to make bags and boxes to separate the
powder ,and to keep it a little and a little in a parcel,in the hope that whatever might come,it
might not all take fire at once,and to keep it so apart that it should not be possible to make one
part fire another . I finished this work in about a fortnight,and I think my powder,which in
4
029
all was about 240l. weight was divided in not less than a hundred parcels. As to the barrel that
, ,
had been wet I did not apprehend any danger from that so I placed it in my new cave which ,
,
in my fancy I called my kitchen and the rest I hid up and down in holes among the rocks so ,
,
that no wet might come to it marking very carefully where I laid it.
,
In the interval of time while this was doing I went out once at least every day with my
, ,
gun as well to divert myself as to see if I could kill anything fit for food and as near as I could
to acquaint myself with what the island produced. The first time I went out I presently
, ;
discovered that there were goats in the island which was a great satisfaction to me but then it
, , ,
was attended with this misfortune to me viz. that they were so shy so subtle and so swift of
,
foot that it was the difficultest thing in the world to come at them. But I was not discouraged at
this,not doubting but I might now and then shoot one,as it soon happened,for after I had
found their haunts a little,I laid wait in this manner for them. I observed if they saw me in the
valleys,though they were upon the rocks,they would run away as in a terrible fright,but if
they were feeding in the valleys,and I was upon the rocks,they took no notice of me,from
whence I concluded,that by the position of their optics,their sight was so directed downward
that they did not readily see objects that were above them. So afterwards I took this method. I
,
always climbed the rocks first to get above them and then had frequently a fair mark. The first
,
shot I made among these creatures I killed a shegoat which had a little kid by her which she
, ,
gave suck to which grieved me heartily. But when the old one fell the kid stood stock still by
, ,
her till I came and took her up and not only so but when I carried the old one with me upon
, ,
my shoulders the kid followed me quite to my enclosure upon which I laid down the dam and ,
took the kid in my arms,and carried it over my pale,in hopes to have bred it up tame,but it
would not eat,so I was forced to kill it and eat it my self. These two supplied me with flesh a
great while,for I ate sparingly,and saved my provisions,(my bread especially )as much as
possibly I could.
,
Having now fixed my habitation I found it absolutely necessary to provide a place to make
, ; , ,
a fire in and fuel to burn and what I did for that and also how I enlarged my cave and what
,
conveniences I made I shall give a full account of in its places. But I must first give some little
account of my self,and of my thoughts about living,which it may well be supposed were not a
few.
,
I had a dismal prospect of my condition for as I was not cast away upon that island without
, , ,
being driven as is said by a violent storm quite out of the course of our intended voyage and
a great way,viz. some hundreds of leagues out of the ordinary course of the trade of
mankind ,I had great reason to consider it as a determination of Heaven,that in this desolate
5
place,and in this desolate manner,I should end my life. The tears would run plentifully down
my face when I made these reflections;and sometimes I would expostulate with my self,why
Providence should thus completely ruin its creatures,and render them so absolutely miserable,
6
030
Unit 3 ( —1731) 丹尼尔·笛福
Daniel Defoe 1660
, ,
so without help abandoned so entirely depressed that it could hardly be rational to be thankful
for such a life.
,
But something always returned swift upon me to check these thoughts and to reprove me ;
and particularly one day,walking with my gun in my hand by the seaside,I was very pensive
upon the subject of my present condition,when reason,as it were expostulated with me the
other way,thus:Well,you are in a desolate condition,it is true,but pray remember,where
are the rest of you?Did not you come eleven of you into the boat,where are the ten?Why were
not they saved and you lost?Why were you singled out?Is it better to be here or there,and then
I pointed to the sea. All evils are to be considered with the good that is in them,and with what
worse attends them.
Then it occurred to me again ,how well I was furnished for my subsistence,and what
would have been my case if it had not happened,which was a hundred thousand to one,that the
ship floated from the place where she first struck and was driven so near to the shore that I had
,
time to get all these things out of her. What would have been my case if I had been to have
lived in the condition in which I at first came on shore ,without necessaries of life,or
necessaries to supply and procure them?Particularly said I aloud,(though to my self )what
should I have done without a gun,without ammunition,without any tools to make any thing,or
to work with,without clothes,bedding,a tent,or any manner of covering,and that now I had
all these to a sufficient quantity,and was in a fair way to provide my self in such a manner,as
to live without my gun when my ammunition was spent;so that I had a tolerable view of
subsisting without any want as long as I lived;for I considered from the beginning how I would
provide for the accidents that might happen,and for the time that was to come,even not only
after my ammunition should be spent,but even after my health and strength should decay.
I confess I had not entertained any notion of my ammunition being destroyed at one blast,I
mean my powder being blown up by lightning,and this made the thoughts of it so surprising to
me when it lightened and thundered,as I observed just now.
And now,being about to enter into a melancholy relation of a scene of silent life,such,
perhaps,as was never heard of in the world before,I shall take it from its beginning,and
continue it in its order. It was,by my account,the 30th of Sept. when,in the manner as above
said,I first set foot upon this horrid island,when the sun being,to us,in its autumnal
equinox ,was almost over my head,for I reckoned my self,by observation,to be in the
7
032
Romantic Poets
Unit 4 浪漫主义诗人
Biography
, ,
Robert Burns a Scottish poet and lyricist is widely regarded as the
national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is one of the
,
best known poets who have written in the Scots language although much
of his writing is also in English and a light Scots dialect,accessible to an
audience beyond Scotland. He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic
,
movement and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to
the founders of both liberalism and socialism ,and a cultural icon in
Scotland and among the Scottish diaspora around the world.
,
Burns was born in Alloway the eldest of the seven children of William Burnes (1721—
1784 ),a selfeducated tenant farmer. Burns grew up in poverty and hardship. He had little
regular schooling and got much of his education from his father. Despite his ability and
, ,
character his father was consistently unfortunate and migrated with his large family from farm
to farm without ever being able to improve his circumstances. He continued to write poems and
songs in Scottish dialect and he also worked to collect and preserve Scottish folk songs ,
, ,
sometimes revising expanding and adapting them. On the morning of 21 July 1796 Burns ,
died in Dumfries,at the age of 37.
Major Works
? Collection of poems
,
Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect 1786 ( )
The Melodies of Scotland
? Famous poems
“Auld Lang Syne”(often sung at Hogmanay—the last day of the year)
“Scots Wha Hae”(serves as an unofficial national anthem)
“A Red,Red Rose” 033
“Major Graham”
“To a Mouse”
“The Battle of Sherramuir”
Burns Style in General
, ,
1. characteristic of spontaneity directness sincerity and tender intensity
2. use of Scots language and Scottish English dialect with natural rhythms
3. use of humor and satire
4. short lyrics full of musicality
Notes
:(= love)爱人
1. Luve
2. melodie:(= melody)曲调
3. bonnie lass:(苏格兰语)pretty and healthy girl 娇美的少女
4. A the seas gang dry:(= all the seas go dry)大海枯竭
5. sands o life:沙漏,古代的计时器,这里是双关语:一为计时用沙漏,二为人生的
短暂。
6. fare thee weel:再见
7. a while:(= for a while)
8. Tho:(= though )
Biography
William Wordsworth was born in a lawyers family at
,
Cockermouth Cumberland. His mother died when he was 8. Six years
, ,
later his father died too. His relatives brought him up and later sent him
,
to Cambridge. Wordsworth grew up in a rustic society and spent a great
,
deal of his time playing outdoors in which he would later remember as a
pure communion with nature. In 1795 ,Wordsworth settled,with his
sister Dorothy,at Racedown in Somersetshire,the lake district in the
northwest of England,where he met his friend and fellow poet Samuel
Taylor Coleridge. They worked together and in 1798 published a landmark book called Lyrical
,
Ballads with Wordsworths monumental preface which serves as the manifesto for the English
Romanticism in poetry and in which he sets forth his poetic theory and critical creed.
Wordsworth thinks that “all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling
originating from feelings with tranquil contemplation. And sweet sensations passed into the mind
in hours of weariness can be felt in the blood ,along the heart. ”According to the theory,
Wordsworth and Coleridge make it their task to write in the simple language of common people,
telling concrete stories of their lives. The explicit emphasis on feeling,simplicity,and the
pleasure of beauty over rhetoric,ornament,and formality change the course of English poetry,
035
replacing the elaborate classical forms of Pope and Dryden with a new Romantic sensibility.
Wordsworths most important legacy ,besides his timeless poems,is his launching of the
Romantic era,opening the gates for later writers such as John Keats,Percy Bysshe Shelley,and
Lord Byron in England,and Emerson and Thoreau in America. Wordsworth was made “Poet
Laureate”in 1843. He was 80 when he died in 1850.
Major Works
? Collections of poems
Lyrical Ballads
( )
Poems in Two Volumes 1807
Guide to the Lakes (1810 )
The Prelude (1850 )
? Poems about nature
“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”
“Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”
“Earth Has not Anything to Show More Fair”
“To a Skylark”
“To the Cuckoo”
“My Heart Leaps Up”
? Poems about human life
”The Solitary Reaper”
“The Sailors Mother”
“The Old Cumberland Beggar”
“To a Highland Girl”
Wordsworths Style in General
1. being natural with simplicity and purity of his poetic language (A love of nature can
lead to a love of humankind. )
2. use of raw materials (things in nature,scenes and events of everyday life,speech of
ordinary people)
3. being fresh,bright and profound with creativity
4. with an eloquence particularly spare (simple)and musical
5. use of symbols,images and other rhetorical devices (Light often symbolizes truth and
knowledge. )
“
Synopsis of I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud ”
036
, ,
The speaker says that wandering like a cloud floating above hills and valleys he encountered a
Unit 4 Romantic Poets 浪漫主义诗人
,
field of daffodils beside a lake. The dancing fluttering flowers stretched endlessly along the
, ,
shore and though the waves of the lake danced beside the flowers the daffodils outdid the
water in joy. The speaker says that a poet could not help but be happy in such a joyful company
,
of flowers. He says that he stared and stared but did not realize what wealth the scene would
, “ ” “ ,”the memory flashes upon “that
bring him. For now whenever he feels vacant or pensive
inward eye / That is the bliss of solitude,
”and his heart fills with pleasure,“and dances with the
daffodils. ”
;
The waves beside them danced but they
3
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee :
,
A poet could not but be gay
in such a jocund company : 4
Notes
1. Fluttering and dancing in the breeze :在阵阵微风中翩翩起舞
2. Continuous :无边无际延伸的
3. Outdid :did (danced )better than :比波光粼粼的浪花跳得更欢
4. a jocund company:愉快的伴侣
5. wealth :珍宝,精神财富
6. In vacant or in pensive mood :心境茫然或心事重重
7. inward eye:心灵
8. bliss:极乐,狂喜
Biography
,
Lord George Gordon Byron an English poet and a leading figure
in the Romantic movement , was as famous in his lifetime for his
“
personality cult as for his poetry. He created the concept of the Byronic
”—a defiant,melancholy young man,brooding on some mysterious,
hero
unforgivable event in his past. Byrons influence on European poetry,
music,novel,opera,and painting has been immense,although the poet was widely condemned
on moral grounds by his contemporaries.
Byron was born with a clubfoot and became extremely sensitive about his lameness. Byron
,
spent his early childhood years in poor surroundings in Aberdeen where he was educated until
,
he was ten. After he inherited the title and property of his greatuncle in 1798 he went on to
, , ,
Dulwich Harrow and Cambridge where he piled up debts and aroused alarm with bisexual
, ,
love affairs. Staying at Newstead in 1802 he probably first met his halfsister Augusta Leigh
,
with whom he was later suspected of having an incestuous relationship. Later in life Byron
,
joined the Greek War of Independence for which many Greeks revere him as a national hero.
He died in Greece in 1824 at the young age of 36 from a fever.
038
Unit 4 Romantic Poets 浪漫主义诗人
Major Works
Hours Of Idleness 1807 ( )
Childe Harolds Pilgrimage 1812 ( —1818)
( )
The Corsair 1814
The Prisoner of Chillon 1816( )
( )
Prometheus 1816
Don Juan (1819 —1824 )
Heaven and Earth (1821 )
The Deformed Transformed 1824 ( )
Byrons Style in General
1. Byronic Hero —a proud,mysterious rebel figure of noble origin
2. being romantic yet focusing more on human feelings and sentiments
3. simple and fresh description glowing with imagination
4. use of the Octave Stanza (八行体)
5. unexpected,easy language characteristic of bitter irony and exaggeration
6. a mixture of energy and vigor,romantic daring and powerful passion
“
About She Walks in Beauty ”
“She Walks in Beauty”written in 1814 is one of Lord Byrons most famous narrative poem
that describes a woman of much beauty and elegance. The poem appears to be told from the
,
view point of third person omniscient. There are no hints as to the identity of the narrator but it
is believed that the narrator may be Byron himself. The poem is said to have been inspired by
, ,
actual events in Byrons life. Once while at a ball Byron happened upon a beautiful woman as
, ,
she walked by. The woman was Byrons cousin by marriage Mrs. John Wilmot who was then
,
in a mourning gown and the next morning the poem was written.
040
Jane Austen 1775 ( —1817)
Unit 5 简 · 奥斯汀
Biography
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic
, ,
fiction set among the landed gentry earned her a place as one of the
,
most widely read writers in English literature. Her realism biting irony
and social commentary as well as her acclaimed plots have gained her
historical importance among scholars and critics.
Austen was born in 1775 at Steventon rectory and publicly baptized
in 1776. Austen lived her entire life as part of a closeknit family located
on the lower fringes of the English landed gentry. She was educated primarily by her father and
older brothers as well as through her own reading. Her novels were published anonymously ,
,
owing to the prejudice prevailing at the time concerning the writing of novels by a woman.
,
Living a quiet life in the countryside she kept her eyes steadily upon the people and incidents
,
about her and wrote about the small world she lived in. She showed contemptuous feelings
toward snobbery,stupidity,worldliness and vulgarity. In style,she upheld those traditional
ideas of order,reason,proportion and gracefulness in novel writing. Austen remained single
and died in Winchester in 1817 ,at the age of 41.
Major Works
( )
Sense and Sensibility 1811
Pride and Prejudice (1813 )
Mansfield Park (1814 )
Emma (1815 )
Northanger Abbey (1818 ,posthumous)
Persuasion (1818 ,posthumous)
Main Characters
Elizabeth Bennet —the protagonist,second daughter of the Bennets,is the most intelligent
and sensible of the five Bennet sisters. She is well read and quickwitted,with a tongue that
occasionally proves too sharp for her own good. Her realization of Darcys essential goodness
eventually triumphs over her initial prejudice against him.
Fitzwilliam Darcy—is a wealthy gentleman,the master of Pemberley,and the nephew of
Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Though Darcy is intelligent and honest,his excess of pride causes
him to look down on his social inferiors. Over the course of the novel,he tempers his class
consciousness and learns to admire and love Elizabeth for her strong character.
Jane Bennet —the eldest and most beautiful Bennet sister,is more reserved and gentler than
Elizabeth. The easy pleasantness with which she and Bingley interact contrasts starkly with the
042
Unit 5 Jane Austen 1775( —1817) 简·奥斯汀
mutual distaste that marks the encounters between Elizabeth and Darcy.
Charles Bingley —is Darcys considerably wealthy best friend. Bingleys purchase of
Netherfield,an estate near the Bennets,serves as the impetus for the novel. He is a genial,
wellintentioned gentleman,whose easygoing nature contrasts with Darcys initially discourteous
demeanor. He is blissfully uncaring about class differences.
Mr. Bennet —the patriarch of the Bennet family,a gentleman of modest income with five
unmarried daughters,has a sarcastic,cynical sense of humor that he uses to purposefully irritate
his wife. Though he loves his daughters,he often fails as a parent,preferring to withdraw from
the neverending marriage concerns of the women around him rather than offer help.
Mrs. Bennet —is a foolish,noisy woman whose only goal in life is to see her daughters
married. Because of her low breeding and often unbecoming behavior,Mrs. Bennet often repels
the very suitors whom she tries to attract for her daughters.
,
It is a truth universally acknowledged1 that a single man in possession of a good fortune
2
must be in want of a wife.
However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a
, ,
neighborhood this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families that he is
considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.
“My dear Mr. Bennet,”said his lady to him one day,“have you heard that Netherfield
Park is let at last?
”
Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.
“But it is,” returned she;“for Mrs. Long has just been here ,and she told me all
about it. ”
Mr. Bennet made no answer.
“Do not you want to know who has taken it?”cried his wife impatiently.
“You want to tell me,and I have no objection to hearing it. ”
This was invitation enough3 .
“Why,my dear,you must know,Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young
;
man of large fortune from the north of England that he came down on Monday in a chaise and
four to see the place,and was so much delighted with it that he agreed with Mr. Morris
immediately;that he is to take possession before Michaelmas ,and some of his servants are to
4
pretend to be any thing extraordinary now. When a woman has five grown up daughters,she
ought to give over thinking of her own beauty. ”
“In such cases,a woman has not often much beauty to think of. ” 7
“But,my dear,you must indeed go and see Mr. Bingley when he comes into the
neighbourhood. ”
“It is more than I engage for ,I assure you. ”
8
“But consider your daughters. Only think what an establishment it would be for one of
9
them. Sir William and Lady Lucas are determined to go,merely on that account ,for in 10
general ,you know they visit no new comers. Indeed you must go,for it will be impossible for
us to visit him,if you do not. ”
“You are overscrupulous ,surely. I dare say Mr. Bingley will be very glad to see you;
11
and I will send a few lines by you12 to assure him of my hearty consent to his marrying which
;
ever he chooses of the girls though I must throw in a good word for my little Lizzy. ”
“I desire you will do no such thing. Lizzy is not a bit better than the others;and I am sure
she is not half so handsome as Jane,nor half so good humored as Lydia. But you are always
giving her the preference. ”
“They have none of them much to recommend them ,”replied he;“they are all silly
13
and ignorant like other girls;but Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters. ”
14
“Mr. Bennet,how can you abuse your own children in such way?You take delight in
vexing me . You have no compassion on my poor nerves. ”
15
“You mistake me,my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old
friends . I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least. ”
16 17
“Depend upon it ,my dear,that when there are twenty I will visit them all. ”
19
Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts , sarcastic humour, reserve, and
20
caprice ,that the experience of three and twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife
21
understand his character. Her mind was less difficult to develop. She was a woman of mean22
understanding , little information , and uncertain temper. When she was discontented , she
;
fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married its solace
23
was visiting and news .
Notes
1. a truth universally acknowledged :举世公认的真理
2. in want of :需要
:对贝内特太太来说,丈夫虽然在与她开玩笑,但也看
3. This was invitation enough
不出他有多少热情。既然他不反对,这就足够等于请她讲下去。
4. Michaelmas:米迦勒节(9 月 29 日),纪念曾率领他的使者与魔鬼撒旦战斗的天使
长米迦勒。
5. tiresome:烦人的
6. I certainly have had my share of beauty:我当然有过漂亮的时候
7. In such cases,a woman has not often much beauty to think of:等女儿长大,
母亲往往也老了,因此也就没什么漂亮可言。
8. engage for:答应
9. establishment:常有“成家立业 ”和 “安顿 ”之意,这里贝内特太太指女儿的联姻、
结亲。
10. on that account:为了女儿的婚事
11. scrupulous:多虑,过于细心。
12. send a few lines by you :请你捎封短信去
13. They have none of them much to recommend them:他的这几个女儿都没有
什么出色的地方特别让人喜欢。 045
14. quickness :伶俐、敏捷。
15. You take delight in vexing me :你拿气我来寻开心。
16. They are my old friends:(妻子的)神经已成了我听惯了的事。
17. with consideration :关切地
18. twenty such :二十来个(这样的年轻人)
19. Depend upon it:放心
20. quick parts:敏捷的才能。parts = intelligence 才干。
21. caprice:变幻无常,让人捉摸不透。
22. mean :平庸的,指贝内特太太智力贫乏。
23. its solace was visiting and news:串门打听消息是她生活中的安慰。
046
Charlotte Bront 1816 ( —1855)
Unit 6 夏洛蒂 · 勃朗特
Biography
,
Charlotte Bront was an English novelist and poet the eldest of the
three Bront sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels have
become classics of English literature.
,
Charlotte was born in Thornton west of Bradford in the West Riding
, ,
of Yorkshire in 1816 the third of the six children of Maria and Patrick
, ,
Bront an Irish Anglican clergyman. When she was 5 her mother died ,
leaving 5 daughters and a son. An aunt came to live with the family to
,
look after the small children but she did not prove to be very suitable. In
1824 Charlotte and her sisters except Anne (1820 —1849 )the youngest were sent to a charity
school at Cowans bridge. They were cruelly treated and her two elder sisters died of
( —1848)were thus withdrawn from the school to be educated
tuberculosis. She and Emily 1818
by their father. In 1839 she took up the first of many positions as governess to families in
,
Yorkshire a career she pursued until 1841. In May 1846 Charlotte ,Emily and Anne self
financed the publication of a joint collection of poems under their assumed names Currer,Ellis
and Acton Bell. The pseudonyms veiled the sisters gender while preserving their initials;thus
Charlotte was Currer Bell. Charlotte published several novels in her short life.
;
Charlotte believed art was most convincing when based on personal experience in Jane
Eyre she transformed the experience into a novel with universal appeal.
Major Works
( )
Jane Eyre 1847
Shirley (1849 )
Villette (1853 )
The Professors (posthumously in 1857 )
,
Jane Eyre is a Bildungsroman which is a novel that tells the story of a childs maturation
and focuses on the emotions and experiences that accompany and incite his or her growth to
adulthood. In Jane Eyre ,there are five distinct stages of development,each linked to a
particular place:Janes childhood at Gateshead,her education at the Lowood School,her time
as Adèles governess at Thornfield,her time with the Rivers family at Morton and at Marsh End
(also called Moor House),and her reunion with and marriage to Rochester at Ferndean. From
these experiences,Jane becomes the mature woman who narrates the novel retrospectively.
Main Characters
Jane Eyre —the protagonist and narrator of the novel , is an intelligent , honest,
, ,
plainfeatured young girl forced to contend with oppression inequality and hardship. Although
,
she meets with a series of individuals who threaten her autonomy Jane repeatedly succeeds in
, ,
asserting herself and maintains her principles of justice human dignity and morality. She also
values intellectual and emotional fulfillment. Her strong belief in gender and social equality
challenges the Victorian prejudices against women and the poor.
Edward Rochester —Janes employer and the master of Thornfield , is a wealthy ,
passionate man with a dark secret that provides much of the novels suspense. Rochester is
, , ,
unconventional ready to set aside polite manners propriety and consideration of social class in
order to interact with Jane frankly and directly. He is rash and impetuous and has spent much of
his adult life roaming about Europe in an attempt to avoid the consequences of his youthful
,
indiscretions. His problems are partly the result of his own recklessness but he is a sympathetic
figure because he has suffered for so long as a result of his early marriage to Bertha.
St. John Rivers —along with his sisters,Mary and Diana,serves as Janes benefactor after
she runs away from Thornfield,giving her food and shelter. The minister at Morton,St. John
is cold,reserved,and often controlling in his interactions with others. Because he is entirely
alienated from his feelings and devoted solely to an austere ambition,St. John serves as a foil to
Edward Rochester.
048
Unit 6 ( —1855) 夏洛蒂·勃朗特
Charlotte Bront 1816
◆◆◆D%&# E+(#◆◆◆
Chapter XXXVII An excerpt ( )
,wandering from one room to
Very early the next morning I heard him up and astir
another. As soon as Mary came down I heard the question:“Is Miss Eyre here? ” Then:
“Which room did you put her into?Was it dry?Is she up?Go and ask if she wants anything;
and when she will come down. ”
I came down as soon as I thought there was a prospect of breakfast. Entering the room very
,
softly I had a view of him before he discovered my presence. It was mournful indeed to ,,
witness the subjugation of that vigorous spirit to a corporeal infirmity . He sat in his chair—
1
still,but not at rest:expectant evidently;the lines of now habitual sadness marking his strong
features. His countenance reminded one of a lamp quenched,waiting to be relit—and alas!It
was not himself that could now kindle the lustre of animated expression:he was dependent on
2
another for that office !I had meant to be gay and careless,but the powerlessness of the strong
3
man touched my heart to the quick :still I accosted him with what vivacity I could.
4
“It is a bright,sunny morning,sir,”I said. “The rain is over and gone,and there is a
tender shining after it:you shall have a walk soon. ”
5
me,any more than the rising sun had rays. All the melody on earth is concentrated in my Janes
tongue to my ear (I am glad it is not naturally a silent one):all the sunshine I can feel is in her
presence. ”
The water stood in my eyes to hear this avowal of his dependence;just as if a royal eagle,
7
chained to a perch,should be forced to entreat a sparrow to become its purveyor . But I would
8
not be lachrymose :I dashed off the salt drops,and busied myself with preparing breakfast.
9
Most of the morning was spent in the open air. I led him out of the wet and wild wood into
: ;
some cheerful fields I described to him how brilliantly green they were how the flowers and
;
hedges looked refreshed how sparklingly blue was the sky. I sought a seat for him in a hidden
, ; , ,
and lovely spot a dry stump of a tree nor did I refuse to let him when seated place me on his
, ? 10
knee. Why should I when both he and I were happier near than apart Pilot lay beside us all :
was quiet. He broke out suddenly while clasping me in his arms :—
“Cruel,cruel deserter!Oh,Jane,what did I feel when I discovered you had fled from
Thornfield,and when I could nowhere find you; and, after examining your apartment,
ascertained that you had taken no money,nor anything which could serve as an equivalent!A
pearl necklace I had given you lay untouched in its little casket;your trunks were left corded and
locked as they had been prepared for the bridal tour. What could my darling do,I asked,left 049
? ?
destitute11 and penniless And what did she do Let me hear now. ”
Thus urged ,I began the narrative of my experience for the last year. I softened
,
considerably what related to the three days of wandering and starvation because to have told
:
him all would have been to inflict unnecessary pain the little I did say lacerated12 his faithful
heart deeper than I wished.
, , :
I should not have left him thus he said without any means of making my way I should
:
have told him my intention. I should have confided in him he would never have forced me to
be his mistress. Violent as he had seemed in his despair,he,in truth,loved me far too well and
too tenderly to constitute himself my tyrant:he would have given me half his fortune,without
demanding so much as a kiss in return,rather than I should have flung myself friendless on the
wide world. I had endured,he was certain,more than I had confessed to him.
“Well,whatever my sufferings had been,they were very short,”I answered:and then I
proceeded to tell him how I had been received at Moor House;how I had obtained the office of
schoolmistress,etc. The accession of fortune,the discovery of my relations,followed in due
order. Of course,St. John Rivers name came in frequently in the progress of my tale. When I
had done,that name was immediately taken up.
“This St. John,then,is your cousin?”
“Yes. ”
“You have spoken of him often:do you like him?”
“He was a very good man,sir;I could not help liking him. ”
“A good man. Does that mean a respectable wellconducted man of fifty?Or what does it
mean? ”
“St. John was only twentynine,sir. ”
“‘Jeune encore ,’as the French say. Is he a person of low stature,phlegmatic ,and
13 14
plain?A person whose goodness consists rather in his guiltlessness of vice,than in his
prowess in virtue ?
15
”
“He is untiringly active. Great and exalted deeds are what he lives to perform. ”
“But his brain?That is probably rather soft?He means well:but you shrug your shoulders
to hear him talk? ”
“He talks little,sir:what he does say is ever to the point. His brain is firstrate,I should
think not impressible,but vigorous. ”
“Is he an able man,then?”
“Truly able. ”
“A thoroughly educated man?”
“St. John is an accomplished and profound scholar. ”
“His manners,I think,you said are not to your taste?—priggish and parsonic ?” 16
050
“I never mentioned his manners;but,unless I had a very bad taste,they must suit it;they
Unit 6 ( —1855) 夏洛蒂·勃朗特
Charlotte Bront 1816
, ,
are polished calm and gentlemanlike. ”
“His appearance,—I forget what description you gave of his appearance;—a sort of raw
curate,half strangled with his white neckcloth,and stilted up on his thicksoled high
lows ,eh?
17
”
“St. John dresses well. He is a handsome man:tall,fair,with blue eyes,and a Grecian
profile. ”
(Aside. )“Damn him!”—(To me. )“Did you like him,Jane?”
“Yes,Mr. Rochester,I liked him:but you asked me that before. ”
I perceived,of course,the drift of my interlocutor . Jealousy had got hold of him:she
18
stung him;but the sting was salutary:it gave him respite from the gnawing fang of melancholy.
19
“No,Jane,you are not comfortable there,because your heart is not with me:it is with
this cousin—this St. John. Oh,till this moment,I thought my little Jane was all mine!I had a
belief she loved me even when she left me:that was an atom of sweet in much bitter. Long as
we have been parted,hot tears as I have wept over our separation,I never thought that while I
was mourning her,she was loving another!But it is useless grieving. Jane,leave me:go and
marry Rivers. ”
“Shake me off,then,sir,—push me away,for Ill not leave you of my own accord . ” 23
“Jane,I ever like your tone of voice:it still renews hope,it sounds so truthful. When I
hear it,it carries me back a year. I forget that you have formed a new tie. But I am not a
fool—go—”
“Where must I go,sir?”
“Your own way—with the husband you have chosen. ”
“Who is that?”
“You know—this St. John Rivers. ”
“He is not my husband,nor ever will be. He does not love me:I do not love him. He
loves (as he can love,and that is not as you love)a beautiful young lady called Rosamond. He
wanted to marry me only because he thought I should make a suitable missionarys wife,which
she would not have done. He is good and great,but severe;and,for me,cold as an iceberg.
He is not like you,sir:I am not happy at his side,nor near him,nor with him. He has no
indulgence for me—no fondness. He sees nothing attractive in me;not even youth—only a few
useful mental points. —Then I must leave you,sir,to go to him? ”
I shuddered involuntarily,and clung instinctively closer to my blind but beloved master.
He smiled.
“What,Jane!Is this true?Is such really the state of matters between you and Rivers?”
“Absolutely,sir!Oh,you need not be jealous!I wanted to tease you a little to make you
less sad:I thought anger would be better than grief. But if you wish me to love you,could you
but see how much I do love you,you would be proud and content. All my heart is yours,sir:
it belongs to you;and with you it would remain,were fate to exile the rest of me from your
presence for ever. ”
Again,as he kissed me,painful thoughts darkened his aspect.
“My seared vision!My crippled strength!”he murmured regretfully.
24
I caressed,in order to soothe him. I knew of what he was thinking,and wanted to speak
for him,but dared not. As he turned aside his face a minute,I saw a tear slide from under the
sealed eyelid,and trickle down the manly cheek. My heart swelled.
“I am no better than the old lightningstruck chestnuttree in Thornfield orchard,” he
remarked ere long. “And what right would that ruin have to bid a budding woodbine cover its
25
privileged to put my arms round what I value—to press my lips to what I love—to repose on
what I trust:is that to make a sacrifice?If so,then certainly I delight in sacrifice. ”
“And to bear with my infirmities,Jane:to overlook my deficiencies. ”
“Which are none,sir,to me. I love you better now,when I can really be useful to you,
than I did in your state of proud independence,when you disdained every part but that of the
giver and protector. ”
054
Unit 6 ( —1855) 夏洛蒂·勃朗特
Charlotte Bront 1816
“Hitherto 27
—to be led:henceforth I feel I shall hate it no more.
have hated to be helped 28
I did not like to put my hand into a hirelings,but it is pleasant to feel it circled by Janes little
fingers. I preferred utter loneliness to the constant attendance of servants; but Janes soft
ministry will be a perpetual joy. Jane suits me:do I suit her? ”
“To the finest fibre of my nature,sir. ”
“The case being so,we have nothing in the world to wait for:we must be married
instantly. ”He looked and spoke with eagerness:his old impetuosity was rising.
29
“We must become one flesh without any delay,Jane:there is but the licence to get—then
we marry. ”
“Mr. Rochester,I have just discovered the sun is far declined from its meridian,and Pilot
is actually gone home to his dinner. Let me look at your watch. ”
“Fasten it into your girdle,Janet,and keep it henceforward:I have no use for it. ”
“It is nearly four oclock in the afternoon,sir. Dont you feel hungry?”
“The third day from this must be our weddingday,Jane. Never mind fine clothes and
jewels,now:all that is not worth a fillip. ”
“The sun has dried up all the raindrops,sir. The breeze is still:it is quite hot. ”
“Do you know,Jane,I have your little pearl necklace at this moment fastened round my
bronze scrag under my cravat?I have worn it since the day I lost my only treasure,as a
memento of her. ”
“We will go home through the wood:that will be the shadiest way. ”
He pursued his own thoughts without heeding me.
“Jane!you think me,I daresay,an irreligious dog:but my heart swells with gratitude to
the beneficent God of this earth just now. He sees not as man sees,but far clearer:judges not
as man judges,but far more wisely. I did wrong:I would have sullied my innocent flower—
breathed guilt on its purity: the Omnipotent snatched it from me. I, in my stiffnecked
rebellion ,almost cursed the dispensation :instead of bending to the decree,I defied it. Divine
30
justice pursued its course;disasters came thick on me :I was forced to pass through the valley
31
of the shadow of death. His chastisements are mighty;and one smote me which has humbled me
for ever. You know I was proud of my strength:but what is it now,when I must give it over to
foreign guidance,as a child does its weakness?Of late,Jane—only—only of late—I began to
see and acknowledge the hand of God in my doom. I began to experience remorse,repentance;
the wish for reconcilement to my Maker. I began sometimes to pray:very brief prayers they
were,but very sincere.
“Some days since:nay,I can number them—four;it was last Monday night,a singular
mood came over me:one in which grief replaced frenzy—sorrow,sullenness. I had long had
the impression that since I could nowhere find you,you must be dead. Late that night—perhaps
it might be between eleven and twelve oclock—ere I retired to my dreary rest,I supplicated
055
, , , ,
God that if it seemed good to Him I might soon be taken from this life and admitted to that
,
world to come where there was still hope of rejoining Jane.
“I was in my own room,and sitting by the window,which was open:it soothed me to feel
the balmy nightair;though I could see no stars,and only by a vague,luminous haze,knew the
presence of a moon. I longed for thee,Janet!Oh,I longed for thee both with soul and flesh!I
asked of God,at once in anguish and humility,if I had not been long enough desolate,
afflicted,tormented;and might not soon taste bliss and peace once more. That I merited all I
endured,I acknowledged—that I could scarcely endure more,I pleaded;and the alpha and
omega of my hearts wishes broke involuntarily from my lips in the words?‘Jane!Jane!
32
Jane! ’”
“Did you speak these words aloud?”
“I did,Jane. If any listener had heard me,he would have thought me mad:I pronounced
them with such frantic energy. ”
“And it was last Monday night,somewhere near midnight?”
“Yes;but the time is of no consequence:what followed is the strange point. You will
think me superstitious—some superstition I have in my blood,and always had:nevertheless,
this is true—true at least it is that I heard what I now relate.
“As I exclaimed ‘Jane!Jane!Jane!’a voice—I cannot tell whence the voice came,but I
know whose voice it was—replied,‘I am coming:wait for me ’;and a moment after,went
whispering on the wind the words—‘Where are you? ’
“Ill tell you,if I can,the idea,the picture these words opened to my mind:yet it is
difficult to express what I want to express. Ferndean is buried,as you see,in a heavy wood,
33
where sound falls dull,and dies unreverberating. ‘Where are you? ’seemed spoken amongst
mountains;for I heard a hillsent echo repeat the words. Cooler and fresher at the moment the
gale seemed to visit my brow:I could have deemed that in some wild,lone scene,I and Jane
were meeting. In spirit,I believe we must have met. You no doubt were,at that hour,in
unconscious sleep,Jane:perhaps your soul wandered from its cell to comfort mine;for those
were your accents—as certain as I live—they were yours! ”
Reader,it was on Monday night—near midnight—that I too had received the mysterious
summons:those were the very words by which I replied to it. I listened to Mr. Rochesters
narrative,but made no disclosure in return. The coincidence struck me as too awful and
inexplicable to be communicated or discussed. If I told anything,my tale would be such as must
necessarily make a profound impression on the mind of my hearer:and that mind,yet from its
sufferings too prone to gloom,needed not the deeper shade of the supernatural. I kept these
things then,and pondered them in my heart.
“You cannot now wonder,” continued my master,“that when you rose upon me so
unexpectedly last night,I had difficulty in believing you any other than a mere voice and vision,
056
Unit 6 ( —1855) 夏洛蒂·勃朗特
Charlotte Bront 1816
,
something that would melt to silence and annihilation as the midnight whisper and mountain
, ! ,
echo had melted before. Now I thank God I know it to be otherwise. Yes I thank God !”
He put me off his knee,rose,and reverently lifting his hat from his brow,and bending his
sightless eyes to the earth,he stood in mute devotion. Only the last words of the worship were
audible.
“I thank my Maker,that,in the midst of judgment,he has remembered mercy. I humbly
entreat my Redeemer to give me strength to lead henceforth a purer life than I have done
hitherto !”
,
Then he stretched his hand out to be led. I took that dear hand held it a moment to my
, : ,
lips then let it pass round my shoulder being so much lower of stature than he I served both
,
for his prop and guide. We entered the wood and wended homeward.
058
Charles Dickens 1812 ( —1870)
Unit 7 查尔斯 · 狄更斯
Biography
Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He created
some of the worlds bestknown fictional characters and is regarded as the
greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented
popularity during his lifetime ,and by the twentieth century critics and
scholars had recognized him as a literary genius. His novels and short
stories enjoy lasting popularity
,
Born in Portsmouth Dickens left school to work in a factory when
his father was incarcerated in a debtors prison. Despite his lack of formal
, , , ,
education he edited a weekly journal for 20 years wrote 15 novels five novellas hundreds of
, ,
short stories and nonfiction articles lectured and performed extensively was an indefatigable
,and campaigned vigorously for childrens rights,education,and other social
letter writer
reforms. Dickens died in Kent on June 9 ,1870 ,at the age of fiftyeight.
Dickenss literary success began with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers.
,
Within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity famous for his humor ,
, ,
satire and keen observation of character and society. His novels most published in monthly or
weekly installments ,pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction,which became the
dominant Victorian mode for novel publication. The installment format allowed Dickens to
,
evaluate his audiences reaction and he often modified his plot and character development based
,
on such feedback. His plots were carefully constructed and he often wove elements from topical
events into his narratives. Masses of the illiterate poor chipped in hapennies to have each new
,
monthly episode read to them opening up and inspiring a new class of readers.
Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. Dickenss creative genius had been
—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell—for its realism,comedy,prose
praised by fellow writers
style,unique characterizations,and social criticism. On the other hand,Oscar Wilde,Henry
James,and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth,loose writing,and a
vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is
,
reminiscent of Dickens and his writings such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive
characters.
059
Major Works
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club 1836 ( —1837)
The Adventures of Oliver Twist 1837 ( —1839)
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby 1938 ( —1939)
The Old Curiosity Shop 1840 ( —1841)
:
Barnaby Rudge A Tale of the Riots of Eighty 1840 ( —1841)
A Christmas Carol 1843 ( )
The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit 1843 ( —1844)
Dombey and Son 1846 ( —1848)
David Copperfield (1849 —1850 )
Bleak House (1852 —1853 )
Hard Times:For These Times (1854 )
Little Dorrit (1855 —1857 )
A Tale of Two Cities (1859 )
Great Expectations (1860 —1861 )
Our Mutual Friend (1864 —1865 )
060
,
age by the name of Estella whom Miss Havisham adopts as her daughter and has reared to be
Unit 7 ( —1870) 查尔斯·狄更斯
Charles Dickens 1812
cruel and distant as her revenge upon the male sex. His visits cease when ,at the age of
, ,
fourteen Pip is apprenticed to Joe Gargery a blacksmith and his brotherinlaw. Then about 4
years later,he is informed by a lawyer that he has “great expectations ” from a mysterious
benefactor,who wishes him to be educated as a gentleman. He believes that he owes this to
Miss Havisham and that she intends him to marry Estella. Pip goes to London for his education,
and snobbishly neglects his childhood friends. He lives idly and unhappily,and he is constantly
snubbed by Estella although he does everything possible to court her. When he is 23 ,his true
benefactor appears,who turns out to be the very convict named Magwitch he met when he was
a small boy of 7. Pip is greatly disappointed. But gradually he changes his snobbish attitude
towards the convict and tries desperately to save him from the punishment which his home
,
coming from Australia has caused. Unfortunately Magwitch is betrayed by Compeyson a villain
,
and his personal enemy and is retaken and died soon. Pip learns his lesson and becomes a
changed man.
Main Characters
Pip —the protagonist and narrator of Great Expectations,begins the story as a young
orphan boy being raised by his sister and brotherinlaw in the marsh country of Kent,in the
southeast of England. Pip is passionate,romantic,and somewhat unrealistic at heart,and he
tends to expect more for himself than is reasonable. Pip also has a powerful conscience,and he
deeply wants to improve himself,both morally and socially.
Estella—Miss Havishams beautiful young ward,is Pips unattainable dream throughout the
novel. He loves her passionately,but,though she sometimes seems to consider him a friend,
she is usually cold,cruel,and uninterested in him. As they grow up together,she repeatedly
warns him that she has no heart.
Miss Havisham —is the wealthy,eccentric old woman who lives in a manor called Satis
House near Pips village. She is manic and often seems insane,flitting around her house in a
faded wedding dress,keeping a decaying feast on her table,and surrounding herself with clocks
stopped at twenty minutes to nine. As a young woman,Miss Havisham was jilted by her fiancé
minutes before her wedding,and now she has a vendetta against all men. She deliberately raises
Estella to be the tool of her revenge,training her to break mens hearts.
Abel Magwitch (“The Convict ”)—a fearsome criminal, escapes from prison at the
beginning of the novel and terrorizes Pip in the cemetery. Pips kindness,however,makes a
deep impression on him,and he subsequently devotes himself to making a fortune and using it to
elevate Pip into a higher social class. Behind the scenes,he becomes Pips secret benefactor,
funding Pips education and opulent lifestyle in London through a lawyer named Jaggers.
Joe Gargery —Pips brotherinlaw,the village blacksmith,stays with his overbearing,
abusive wife solely out of love for Pip. Joes quiet goodness makes him one of the few completely
061
sympathetic characters in Great Expectations. Although he is uneducated and unrefined ,he
consistently acts for the benefit of those he loves and suffers in silence when Pip treats him coldly.
Jaggers —is the powerful , foreboding lawyer hired by Magwitch to supervise Pips
elevation to the upper class. As one of the most important criminal lawyers in London Jaggers ,
; ,
is privy to some dirty business he consorts with vicious criminals and even they are terrified of
him. But there is more to Jaggers than his impenetrable exterior. He often seems to care for
,
Pip and before the novel begins he helps Miss Havisham to adopt the orphaned Estella. Jaggers
:
smells strongly of soap he washes his hands obsessively as a psychological mechanism to keep
the criminal taint from corrupting him.
◆◆◆F(#%' EG9#C'%'51&-◆◆◆
Chapter 39
I was threeandtwenty years of age. Not another word had I heard to enlighten me on the
subject of my expectations,and my twentythird birthday was a week gone. We had left
Barnards Inn more than a year,and lived in the Temple. Our chambers were in Gardencourt,
down by the river.
,
Mr Pocket and I had for some time parted company as to our original relations though we
continued on the best terms . Notwithstanding my inability to settle to anything —which I
1 2
hope arose out of the restless and incomplete tenure on which I held my means—I had a taste for
reading,and read regularly so many hours a day. That matter of Herberts was still 3
progressing,and everything with me was as I have brought it down to the close of the last
preceding chapter.
,
Business had taken Herbert on a journey to Marseilles. I was alone and had a dull sense
4
,
of being alone . Dispirited and anxious long hoping that tomorrow or next week would clear
my way 5
,and long disappointed,I sadly missed the cheerful face and ready response of my
friend.
; , ; , , ,
It was wretched weather stormy and wet stormy and wet and mud mud mud deep in
all the streets. Day after day,a vast heavy veil had been driving over London from the East,
and it drove still,as if in the East there were an Eternity of cloud and wind . So furious had
6
been the gusts,that high buildings in town had had the lead stripped off their roofs ;and in 7
the country,trees had been torn up,and sails of windmills carried away;and gloomy accounts 8
had come in from the coast,of shipwreck and death. Violent blasts of rain had accompanied
these rages of wind ,and the day just closed as I sat down to read had been the worst of all.
9
Alterations have been made in that part of the Temple since that time,and it has not now
so lonely a character as it had then ,nor is it so exposed to the river. We lived at the top of
10
062 the last house,and the wind rushing up the river shook the house that night,like discharges of
Unit 7 ( —1870) 查尔斯·狄更斯
Charles Dickens 1812
,
cannon or breakings of a sea11 . When the rain came with it and dashed against the windows ,
I thought,raising my eyes to them as they rocked,that I might have fancied myself in a storm
beaten lighthouse. Occasionally,the smoke came rolling down the chimney as though it could
not bear to go out into such a night;and when I set the doors open and looked down the
staircase,the staircase lamps were blown out;and when I shaded my face with my hands and
looked through the black windows (opening them ever so little,was out of the question in the
teeth of such wind and rain )I saw that the lamps in the court were blown out,and that the
12
lamps on the bridges and the shore were shuddering,and that the coal fires in barges on the river
were being carried away before the wind like redhot splashes in the rain13 .
,
I read with my watch upon the table purposing to close my book at eleven oclock. As I
, Saint Pauls, and all the many churchclocks in the City—some leading, some
shut it
accompanying,some following—struck that hour. The sound was curiously flawed by the wind;
and I was listening,and thinking how the wind assailed and tore it,when I heard a footstep on
the stair.
,
What nervous folly made me start14 and awfully connect it with the footstep of my dead
,
sister matters not. It was past in a moment ,and I listened again,and heard the footstep
stumble in 15
coming on. Remembering then,that the staircaselights were blown out,I took up
my readinglamp and went out to the stairhead. Whoever was below had stopped on seeing my
,
lamp for all was quiet.
“There is some one down there,is there not?”I called out,looking down.
“Yes,”said a voice from the darkness beneath.
“What floor do you want?”
“The top. Mr Pip. ”
“That is my name. —There is nothing the matter?”
“Nothing the matter,”returned the voice. And the man came on.
I stood with my lamp held out over the stairrail,and he came slowly within its light. It
was a shaded lamp,to shine upon a book,and its circle of light was very contracted;so that he
was in it for a mere instant,and then out of it. In the instant,I had seen a face that was strange
to me,looking up with an incomprehensible air of being touched and pleased by the sight
of me.
,
Moving the lamp as the man moved I made out that he was substantially dressed but ,
;
roughly like a voyager by sea. That he had long irongray hair. That his age was about sixty.
, ,
That he was a muscular man strong on his legs and that he was browned and hardened by
,
exposure to weather. As he ascended the last stair or two and the light of my lamp included us
, , ,
both I saw with a stupid kind of amazement that he was holding out both his hands to me.
“Pray what is your business?”I asked him.
16
once most unintelligible and most exasperating;“Im glad youve growd up,a game one!But
dont catch hold of me. Youd be sorry arterwards to have done it. ”
I relinquished the intention he had detected,for I knew him!Even yet,I could not recall a
single feature,but I knew him!If the wind and the rain had driven away the intervening years,
had scattered all the intervening objects,had swept us to the churchyard where we first stood
face to face on such different levels,I could not have known my convict more distinctly than I
knew him now as he sat in the chair before the fire. No need to take a file from his pocket and
;
show it to me no need to take the handkerchief from his neck and twist it round his head no ;
, ,
need to hug himself with both his arms and take a shivering turn across the room looking back
at me for recognition. I knew him before he gave me one of those aids,though,a moment
,
before I had not been conscious of remotely suspecting his identity20 .
,
He came back to where I stood and again held out both his hands. Not knowing what to
064
do —for,in my astonishment I had lost my selfpossession—I reluctantly gave him my hands.
Unit 7 ( —1870) 查尔斯·狄更斯
Charles Dickens 1812
, , ,
He grasped them heartily raised them to his lips kissed them and still held them.
“You acted noble,my boy,”said he. “Noble,Pip!And I have never forgot it!”
At a change in his manner as if he were even going to embrace me,I laid a hand upon his
breast and put him away.
“Stay!”said I. “Keep off!If you are grateful to me for what I did when I was a little
child,I hope you have shown your gratitude by mending your way of life. If you have come
here to thank me,it was not necessary. Still,however you have found me out,there must be
something good in the feeling that has brought you here,and I will not repulse you ;but 21
“He came faithfully,and he brought me the two onepound notes. I was a poor boy then,
as you know,and to a poor boy they were a little fortune. But,like you,I have done well
since,and you must let me pay them back. You can put them to some other poor boys use. ”I
took out my purse.
,
He watched me as I laid my purse upon the table and opened it and he watched me as I
,
separated two onepound notes from its contents. They were clean and new and I spread them
, ,
out and handed them over to him. Still watching me he laid them one upon the other folded
, , ,
them longwise gave them a twist set fire to them at the lamp and dropped the ashes into the
tray.
“May I make so bold ,”he said then,with a smile that was like a frown,and with a
27
frown that was like a smile,“as ask you how you have done well,since you and me was out on
them lone shivering marshes? ”
“How?”
“Ah!”
He emptied his glass,got up,and stood at the side of the fire,with his heavy brown hand
on the mantelshelf. He put a foot up to the bars,to dry and warm it,and the wet boot began to
steam;but,he neither looked at it,nor at the fire,but steadily looked at me. It was only now
that I began to tremble.
, ,
When my lips had parted and had shaped some words that were without sound I forced
(
myself to tell him though I could not do it distinctly ),that I had been chosen to succeed to
28
some property .
“Might a mere warmint ask what property?”said he.
I faltered,“I dont know. ”
“Might a mere warmint ask whose property?”said he.
I faltered again,“I dont know. ”
066
“Could I make a guess,I wonder,”said the Convict,“at your income since you come of
Unit 7 ( —1870) 查尔斯·狄更斯
Charles Dickens 1812
!
age As to the first figure now. Five ?”
With my heart beating like a heavy hammer of disordered action29 ,I rose out of my
, ,
chair and stood with my hand upon the back of it looking wildly at him.
“Concerning a guardian,”he went on. “There ought to have been some guardian,or such
like ,whiles you was a minor. Some lawyer,maybe. As to the first letter of that lawyers name
now. Would it be J? ”
All the truth of my position came flashing on me;and its disappointments,dangers,
disgraces,consequences of all kinds,rushed in in such a multitude that I was borne down by
them and had to struggle for every breath I drew.
“Put it,”he resumed,“as the employer of that lawyer whose name begun with a J,and
might be Jaggers—put it as he had come over sea to Portsmouth,and had landed there,and had
wanted to come on to you. ‘However,you have found me out, ’you says just now. Well!
However,did I find you out?Why,I wrote from Portsmouth to a person in London,for
particulars of your address. That persons name?Why,Wemmick. ”
I could not have spoken one word,though it had been to save my life. I stood,with a hand
on the chairback and a hand on my breast,where I seemed to be suffocating—I stood so,
looking wildly at him,until I grasped at the chair,when the room began to surge and turn. He
caught me,drew me to the sofa,put me up against the cushions,and bent on one knee before
me:bringing the face that I now well remembered,and that I shuddered at,very near to mine.
“Yes,Pip,dear boy,Ive made a gentleman on you!Its me wot has done it!I swore that
time ,sure as ever I earned a guinea,that guinea should go to you. I swore arterwards,sure as
ever I speclated and got rich,you should get rich. I lived rough,that you should live smooth;
I worked hard,that you should be above work. What odds,dear boy?Do I tell it,fur you to
feel a obligation?Not a bit. I tell it,fur you to know as that there hunted dunghill dog wot you
kep life in,got his head so high that he could make a gentleman—and,Pip,youre him! ”
The abhorrence in which I held the man,the dread I had of him,the repugnance with
which I shrank from him,could not have been exceeded if he had been some terrible beast.
“Lookee here,Pip. Im your second father. Youre my son—more to me nor any son.
Ive put away money,only for you to spend. When I was a hiredout shepherd in a solitary hut,
not seeing no faces but faces of sheep till I half forgot wot mens and womens faces wos like,I
see yourn. I drops my knife many a time in that hut when I was a eating my dinner or my
,
supper and I says ,‘Heres the boy again,a looking at me whiles I eats and drinks!’I see you
there a many times,as plain as ever I see you on them misty marshes. ‘Lord strike me dead! ’
I says each time—and I goes out in the air to say it under the open heavens—‘but wot,if I gets
liberty and money,Ill make that boy a gentleman! ’And I done it. Why,look at you,dear
boy!Look at these here lodgings oyourn,fit for a lord!A lord?Ah!You shall show money
with lords for wagers,and beatem! ” 067
, ,
In his heat and triumph and in his knowledge that I had been nearly fainting he did not
remark on my reception of all this. It was the one grain of relief I had.
“Lookee here!”he went on,taking my watch out of my pocket,and turning towards him
a ring on my finger,while I recoiled from his touch as if he had been a snake,“a gold un and
a beauty: thats a gentlemans, I hope! A diamond all set round with rubies; thats a
gentlemans,I hope!Look at your linen;fine and beautiful!Look at your clothes;better aint
to be got !And your books too,
30
”turning his eyes round the room,“mounting up,on their
shelves,by hundreds!And you read em;dont you?I see youd been a reading of em when I
come in. Ha,ha,ha!You shall read em to me,dear boy!And if theyre in foreign languages
wot I dont understand,I shall be just as proud as if I did. ”
Again he took both my hands and put them to his lips,while my blood ran cold within me.
“Dont you mind talking,Pip,”said he,after again drawing his sleeve over his eyes and
forehead,as the click came in his throat which I well remembered—and he was all the more
horrible to me that he was so much in earnest;“you cant do better nor keep quiet,dear boy.
You aint looked slowly forward to this as I have;you wosnt prepared for this,as I wos. But
didnt you never think it might be me? ”
“O no,no,no,”I returned,“Never,never!”
“Well,you see it wos me,and singlehanded. Never a soul in it but my own self and Mr
Jaggers. ”
“Was there no one else?”I asked.
“No,”said he,with a glance of surprise:“who else should there be?And,dear boy,how
good looking you have growed!Theres bright eyes somewheres—eh?Isnt there bright eyes
somewheres,wot you love the thoughts on ? 31
”
O Estella,Estella!
“They shall be yourn,dear boy,if money can buy em. Not that a gentleman like you,so
well set up as you,cant win em off of his own game;but money shall back you!Let me
finish wot I was a telling you,dear boy. From that there hut and that there hiringout,I got
money left me by my master (which died,and had been the same as me ),and got my liberty
and went for myself. In every single thing I went for,I went for you. ‘Lord strike a blight
upon it ,
32
’I says,wotever it was I went for,‘if it aint for him!’It all prospered wonderful.
As I giv you to understand just now,Im famous for it. It was the money left me,and the
gains of the first few year wot I sent home to Mr Jaggers—all for you—when he first come arter
you,agreeable to my letter. ”
O,that he had never come!That he had left me at the forge—far from contented,yet,by
comparison happy!
“And then,dear boy,it was a recompense to me,lookee here,to know in secret that I
was making a gentleman. The blood horses of them colonists might fling up the dust over me as
068
Unit 7 ( —1870) 查尔斯·狄更斯
Charles Dickens 1812
; ?
I was walking what do I say I says to myself ,‘Im making a better gentleman nor ever
youll be !
33
’When one of em says to another,‘He was a convict,a few year ago,and is a
ignorant common fellow now,for all hes lucky,’what do I say?I says to myself,‘If I aint a
gentleman,nor yet aint got no learning,Im the owner of such. All on you owns stock and
land;which on you owns a broughtup London gentleman? ’This was I kep myself a going.
And this way I held steady afore my mind that I would for certain come one day and see my
, ,
boy and make myself known to him on his own ground. ”
,
He laid his hand on my shoulder. I shuddered at the thought that for anything I knew his
hand might be stained with blood.
“It warnt easy,Pip,for me to leave them parts,nor yet it warnt safe. But I held to it,
and the harder it was,the stronger I held,for I was determined,and my mind firm made up. At
last I done it. Dear boy,I done it! ”
I tried to collect my thoughts,but I was stunned. Throughout,I had seemed to myself to
attend more to the wind and the rain than to him;even now,I could not separate his voice from
those voices,though those were loud and his was silent.
“Where will you put me?”he asked,presently. “I must be put somewheres,dear boy. ”
“To sleep?”said I.
“Yes. And to sleep long and sound,”he answered;“for Ive been seatossed and sea
washed,months and months. ”
“My friend and companion,”said I,rising from the sofa,“is absent;you must have his
room. ”
“He wont come back tomorrow;will he?”
“No,” said I, answering almost mechanically, in spite of my utmost efforts;“not
tomorrow. ”
“Because,lookee here,dear boy,”he said,dropping his voice,and laying a long finger
on my breast in an impressive manner,“caution is necessary. ”
“How do you mean?Caution?”
“By G ,its Death!”
“Whats death?”
“I was sent for life. Its death to come back. Theres been overmuch coming back of late
years,and I should of a certainty be hanged if took. ”
Nothing was needed but this ;the wretched man,after loading wretched me with his
34
gold and silver chains for years,had risked his life to come to me,and I held it there in my
keeping!If I had loved him instead of abhorring him;if I had been attracted to him by the
strongest admiration and affection,instead of shrinking from him with the strongest repugnance;
it could have been no worse. On the contrary,it would have been better,for his preservation
would then have naturally and tenderly addressed my heart35 .
069
,
My first care was to close the shutters so that no light might be seen from without and ,
,
then to close and make fast the doors. While I did so he stood at the table drinking rum and
; ,
eating biscuit and when I saw him thus engaged I saw my convict on the marshes at his meal
,
again. It almost seemed to me as if he must stoop down presently to file at his leg.
,
When I had gone into Herberts room and had shut off any other communication between
,
it and the staircase than through the room in which our conversation had been held I asked him
? , “
if he would go to bed He said yes but asked me for some of my gentlemans linen to put on ”
, ,
in the morning. I brought it out and laid it ready for him and my blood again ran cold when
he again took me by both hands to give me good night.
, ,
I got away from him without knowing how I did it and mended the fire in the room
where we had been together,and sat down by it,afraid to go to bed. For an hour or more,I
remained too stunned to think;and it was not until I began to think,that I began fully to know
how wrecked I was,and how the ship in which I had sailed was gone to pieces . 36
Miss Havishams intentions towards me,all a mere dream;Estella not designed for me;I
only suffered in Satis House as a convenience,a sting for the greedy relations,a model with a
mechanical heart to practise on when no other practice was at hand ;those were the first
37
smarts I had. But,sharpest and deepest pain of all—it was for the convict,guilty of I knew
38
not what crimes,and liable to be taken out of those rooms where I sat thinking,and hanged at
the Old Bailey door,that I had deserted Joe.
I would not have gone back to Joe now,I would not have gone back to Biddy now,for
any consideration:simply,I suppose,because my sense of my own worthless conduct to them
was greater than every consideration. No wisdom on earth could have given me the comfort that
; , ,
I should have derived from their simplicity and fidelity but I could never never undo what I
had done.
, ,
In every rage of wind and rush of rain I heard pursuers. Twice I could have sworn there
,
was a knocking and whispering at the outer door. With these fears upon me I began either to
imagine or recall that I had had mysterious warnings of this mans approach. That for weeks ,
, ,
gone by I had passed faces in the streets which I had thought like his. That these likenesses
, , ,
had grown more numerous as he coming over the sea had drawn nearer. That his wicked ,
,
spirit had somehow sent these messengers to mine and that now on this stormy night he was as
,
good as his word and with me.
Crowding up with these reflections came the reflection that I had seen him with my childish
;
eyes to be a desperately violent man that I had heard that other convict reiterate that he had
;
tried to murder him that I had seen him down in the ditch tearing and fighting like a wild beast.
,
Out of such remembrances I brought into the light of fire a halfformed terror that it might not
be safe to be shut up there with him in the dead of the wild solitary night. This dilated until it
070
,
filled the room and impelled me to take a candle and go in and look at my dreadful burden.
Unit 7 Charles Dickens 1812( —1870) 查尔斯·狄更斯
,
He had rolled a handkerchief round his head and his face was set and lowering in his
, ,
sleep. But he was asleep and quietly too though he had a pistol lying on the pillow. Assured
, ,
of this I softly removed the key to the outside of his door and turned it on him before I again
sat down by the fire. Gradually I slipped from the chair and lay on the floor. When I awoke ,
,
without having parted in my sleep with the perception of my wretchedness the clocks of the
, , ,
Eastward churches were striking five the candles were wasted out the fire was dead and the
wind and rain intensified the thick black darkness.
THIS IS THE END OF THE SECOND STAGE OF PIPs EXPECTATIONS.
072
Victorian Poets
Unit 8 维多利亚诗人
Biography
Alfred Tennyson was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland
during much of Queen Victorias reign and remains one of the most
, ,
popular British poets. He was born in Somersby Lincolnshire England
into a middleclass line of Tennysons and also had a noble and royal
ancestry. When Alfred was only 17 ,he started publishing poems. He
entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827 , where he met Arthur
Henry Hallam and William Henry Brookfield,who became his closest
friends. Yet his fathers death in 1831 forced him to leave Cambridge and
Hallams sudden death in 1833 had a profound impact on Tennyson. He did not stop writing
poems though he lived modestly in London. In 1842 ,he published two volumes of poems,
which met with immediate success. In 1850 he was appointed Poet Laureate, succeeding
William Wordsworth. Queen Victoria became an ardent admirer of Tennysons work.
,
As source material for his poetry Tennyson used a wide range of subject matter ranging
from medieval legends to classical myths and from domestic situations to observations of nature.
, ,
He also handled rhythm masterfully. The insistent beat of Break Break Break emphasizes the
relentless sadness of the subject matter. Tennysons use of the musical qualities of words to
emphasize his rhythms and meanings is sensitive.
Major Works
? Collections of poems
,
Poems Chiefly Lyrical 1830 ( )
Poems (1833 )
Poems (1842 )
(
Enoch Arden and Other Poems 1862 / 1864 )
073
? Representative poems
“In Memoriam A. H. H. ”(1849)
“Ring Out,Wild Bells”(1850)
“The Eagle”(1851)
“Idylls of the King”(composed 1833—1874)
Tennysons Style in General
1. richness of imagery and descriptive writing
2. masterful handle of rhythm
3. use of the musical qualities of words
4. excellent adaptation of the legend such as Legend of King Arthur into his poem
◆◆◆!"# E%8,#◆◆◆
;
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls4
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt5 he falls.
Biography
Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery
of the dramatic monologue made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.
His poems are known for their irony ,characterization,dark humor,
social commentary,historical settings,and challenging vocabulary and
syntax.
,
Robert Browning was born in 1812 the son of fairly liberal parents
who took an interest in his education and personal growth. He read
,
voraciously as a youth and began to write poetry while still quite young ,
,
influenced by Percy Bysshe Shelley whose radicalism urged a rethinking of modern society.
,
However Brownings earliest works garnered him some negative attention for their expression of
strong sensations and their morbid tone. Thus for a time he set poetry aside to work on plays ,
yet most of the plays did not find success and he turned back again to verse.
,
In 1846 Browning married the older poet Elizabeth Barrett in secret who at the time was
considerably better known than himself. So started one of historys most famous literary
marriages. They fled to Italy ,a country he called “my university ”,and which featured
frequently in his work.
,
Browning lived and wrote during a time of major societal and intellectual upheaval and his
poems reflected this world. He responded to the cultural upheavals in the 1840s and 1850s with
poems in which he explored the relationship of morality to art ,and the conflict between
,
aesthetics and didacticism though he never became moralistic or overly strident. Brownings
, :
genius lay not so much in his choice of subject matter or setting but in his craftsmanship the
fascination of his poetry owes to his strong portrayal of characters and his wealth of detail.
,
When Browning died in 1889 he was regarded as a sage and philosopherpoet who through
075
his writing had made contributions to Victorian social and political discourse.
Major Works
Collections :
Men and Women
Dramatis Personae
The Ring and the Book
Caliban upon Setebos
Porphyrias Lover
My Last Duchess
Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister
Fra Lippo Lippi
Dramatic Monologue
:
M. H. Abrams A dramatic monologue is a poem with a speaker who is clearly separate
, , ,
from the poet and speaks to an implied audience that while silent remains clearly present in
the scene. (This implied audience distinguishes the dramatic monologue from the soliloquy—a
form also used by Browning—in which the speaker does not address any specific listener,rather
musing aloud to him or herself. )
The dramatic monologue verse form allowed Browning to explore and probe the minds of
specific characters in specific places struggling with specific sets of circumstances. And dramatic
monologues also allow readers to enter into the minds of various characters and to see an event
from that characters perspective.
“
About My Last Duchess ”
,
This poem is loosely based on historical events involving Alfonso the Duke of Ferrara ,
who lived in the 16th century. The Duke is the speaker of the poem and he tells us he is
entertaining an emissary who comes to negotiate the Dukes marriage (he has recently been
076
widowed )to the daughter of another powerful family. As he shows the visitor through his
Unit 8 Victorian Poets 维多利亚诗人
, ,
palace he stops before a portrait of the late Duchess apparently a young and lovely girl. The
Duke begins reminiscing about the portrait sessions, then about the Duchess herself. His
musings give way to a diatribe on her disgraceful behavior:he claims she flirted with everyone
and did not appreciate his “gift of a ninehundredyearsold name. ” As his monologue
continues,the reader realizes with evermore chilling certainty that the Duke in fact caused the
Duchesss early demise:when her behavior escalated,“[he]gave commands;/ Then all smiles
stopped together. ” Having made this disclosure,the Duke returns to the business at hand:
arranging for another marriage,with another young girl. As the Duke and the emissary walk on,
leaving the painting behind,the Duke points out other notable artworks in his collection.
In this dramatic monologue poem,the speaker is clearly distinct from the poet;an audience
is suggested but never appears in the poem;and the revelation of the Dukes character is the
poems primary aim. And the speaker gets away with his wifes murder since neither his
(
audience in the poem )nor his creator judges or criticizes him. Instead,the responsibility of
judging the characters morality is left to readers,who find the duke of Ferrara a vicious,
repugnant person even as he takes us on a tour of his art gallery.
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands 我下了令: 于是一切微笑都从此制止。
As if alive. Willt please you rise?Well meet 她站在那儿,像活着一样。请你起身
The company below,then. I repeat, 客人们在楼下等。我再重复一声:
The Count your masters known munificence 你的主人———伯爵先生闻名的大方
Is ample warrant that no just pretence 足以充分保证:我对嫁妆
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed ; 22
提出任何合理要求都不会遭拒绝;
Though his fair daughters self,as I avowed 当然,如我开头声明的,他美貌的小姐
At starting,is my object. Nay,well go 才是我追求的目标。别客气,让咱们
078
Unit 8 维多利亚诗人
Victorian Poets
080
Thomas Hardy 1840 ( —1928)
Unit 9 托马斯 · 哈代
Biography
(
Thomas Hardy was born in Dorset a southern country of England ,
which was called Wessex in his novels ), a son of a prosperous
stonemason builder. He began to learn architecture in 1856 and went to
,
London in 1862 continuing his architectural training. He returned home
and began to write fiction in 1867 and became a fulltime writer from
1872. He spent nearly a dozen years toiling in obscurity and producing
,
unsuccessful novels and poetry. Far from the Madding Crowd published
,
in 1874 was the authors first critical and financial success. Finally able
to support himself as a writer,Hardy married Emma Lavinia Gifford later that year. His wifes
death in 1912 caused him to produce many moving poems about her. In 1914 he got married
again. He died in 1928. He was buried in the Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey.
Hardy cannot solely be labeled a Victorian novelist. Nor can he be categorized simply as a
,
Modernist in the tradition of writers like Virginia Woolf or D. H. Lawrence ,who were
determined to explode the conventions of 19thcentury literature and build a new kind of novel in
,
its place. In many respects Hardy was trapped in the middle ground between the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries , between Victorian sensibilities and more modern ones , and between
tradition and innovation.
Hardy lived and wrote in a time of difficult social change when England was making its
, ,
slow and painful transition from an oldfashioned agricultural nation to a modern industrial
, “
one. Businessmen and entrepreneurs or new money ,”joined the ranks of the social elite,as
some families of the ancient aristocracy,or “old money,”faded into obscurity. Tesss family in
Tess of the DUrbervilles illustrates this change.
In Tess of the DUrbervilles and Jude the Obscure (1895 ),Hardy demonstrates his deep
,
sense of moral sympathy for Englands lower classes particularly for rural women. He became
,
famous for his compassionate often controversial portrayal of young women victimized by the
selfrighteous rigidity of English social morality. Both novels engendered widespread public
scandal with their comparatively frank look at the sexual hypocrisy of English society.
While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet his, 081
, ,
first collection was not published until 1898. Hardys poetry though prolific was not as well
received during his lifetime. It was rediscovered in the 1950s ,when Hardys poetry had a
significant influence on the Movement poets of the 1950s and 1960s,including Philip Larkin.
Major Works
? Novels of character and environment
( ,
The Poor Man and the Lady 1867 unpublished and lost )
Under the Greenwood Tree:A Rural Painting of the Dutch School (1872 )
Far from the Madding Crowd (1874 )
The Return of the Native (1878 )
The Mayor of Casterbridge:The Life and Death of a Man of Character (1886 )
The Woodlanders (1887 )
Tess of the DUrbervilles:A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented (1891 )
Jude the Obscure (1895 )
? collections of short stories:
Wessex Tales (1888 )
Lifes Little Ironies (1894 )
? Romances and fantasies:
A Pair of Blue Eyes:A Novel (1873 )
The TrumpetMajor (1880 )
Two on a Tower:A Romance (1882 )
The WellBeloved :A Sketch of a Temperament (1897 )
? a collection of short stories:
A Group of Noble Dames (1891 )
? Novels of ingenuity
:
Desperate Remedies A Novel 1871 ( )
:
The Hand of Ethelberta A Comedy in Chapters 1876 ( )
:
A Laodicean A Story of Today 1881 ( )
? Poetry collections
( )
Poems of the Past and the Present 1901
Times Laughingstocks and Other Verses (1909 )
Satires of Circumstance (1914 )
Moments of Vision (1917 )
Collected Poems (1919 )
Main Characters
,
Tess Durbeyfield a beautiful loyal young woman living with her impoverished family in
,
the village of Marlott has a keen sense of responsibility and is committed to doing the best she
,
can for her family although her inexperience and lack of wise parenting leave her extremely
vulnerable. Her life is complicated when her father discovers a link to the noble line of the
DUrbervilles, and, as a result, Tess is sent to work at the DUrberville mansion.
Unfortunately,her ideals cannot prevent her from sliding further and further into misfortune after
she becomes pregnant by Alec DUrberville. The terrible irony is that Tess and her family are
: ,
not really related to this branch of the DUrbervilles at all Alecs father a merchant named
,
Simon Stokes simply assumed the name after he retired.
Angel Clare —an intelligent young man,has decided to become a farmer to preserve his
intellectual freedom from the pressures of city life. Angels father and his two brothers are
083
,
respected clergymen but Angels religious doubts have kept him from joining the ministry. He
meets Tess when she is a milkmaid at the Talbothays Dairy and quickly falls in love with her.
Alec DUrberville the handsome ,amoral son of a wealthy merchant named Simon
,
Stokes is not really a DUrberville —his father simply took on the name of the ancient noble
family after he built his mansion and retired. Alec is a manipulative,sinister young man who
does everything he can to seduce the inexperienced Tess when she comes to work for his family.
, ,
When he finally has his way with her out in the woods he subsequently tries to help her but is
unable to make her love him.
The night was strangely solemn and still. In the small hours1 she whispered to him the
,
whole story of how he had walked in his sleep with her in his arms across the Froom stream at
,
the imminent risk of both their lives and laid her down in the stone coffin at the ruined abbey.
He had never known of that till now.
“Why didnt you tell me next day ?” he said. “It might have prevented much
misunderstanding and woe. ”
“Dont think of whats past!”said she. “I am not going to think outside of now. Why
should we!Who knows what tomorrow has in store? ”
But it apparently had no sorrow. The morning was wet and foggy,and Clare,rightly
informed that the caretaker only opened the windows on fine days,ventured to creep out of their
chamber,and explore the house,leaving Tess asleep. There was no food on the premises,but
there was water,and he took advantage of the fog to emerge from the mansion,and fetch tea,
bread,and butter from a shop in a little place two miles beyond,as also a small tin kettle and
spiritlamp,that they might get fire without smoke. His reentry awoke her; and they
breakfasted on what he had brought.
,
They were indisposed to stir abroad2, and the day passed and the night following and ,
, ; , ,
the next and next till almost without their being aware five days had slipped by in absolute
seclusion,not a sight or sound of a human being disturbing their peacefulness,such as it was.
The changes of the weather were their only events,the birds of the New Forest their only
company. By tacit consent they hardly once spoke of any incident of the past subsequent to their
,
weddingday. The gloomy intervening time seemed to sink into chaos over which the present
and prior times closed as if it never had been. Whenever he suggested that they should leave
their shelter , and go forwards towards Southampton or London , she showed a strange
“Why should we put an end to all thats sweet and lovely!” she
unwillingness to move.
084 deprecated . “What must come will come. ”And,looking through the shutterchink:“All is
3
Unit 9 ( —1928) 托马斯·哈代
Thomas Hardy 1840
;
trouble outside there inside here content.”
He peeped out also. It was quite true;within was affection,union,error forgiven:outside
was the inexorable4 .
“And—and,”she said,pressing her cheek against his,“I fear that what you think of me
now may not last. I do not wish to outlive your present feeling for me. I would rather not. I
,
would rather be dead and buried when the time comes for you to despise me so that it may
never be known to me that you despised me. ”
“I cannot ever despise you. ”
“I also hope that. But considering what my life had been I cannot see why any man
should ,sooner or later,be able to help despising me 爥 How wickedly mad I was!Yet formerly
I never could bear to hurt a fly or a worm,and the sight of a bird in a cage used often to make
me cry. ”
They remained yet another day. In the night the dull sky cleared,and the result was that
the old caretaker at the cottage awoke early. The brilliant sunrise made her unusually brisk;she
decided to open the contiguous mansion immediately,and to air it thoroughly on such a day.
Thus it occurred that,having arrived and opened the lower rooms before six oclock,she
ascended to the bedchambers,and was about to turn the handle of the one wherein they lay.
At that moment she fancied she could hear the breathing of persons within. Her slippers and
,
her antiquity had rendered her progress a noiseless one so far and she made for instant retreat ;
, ,
then deeming that her hearing might have deceived her she turned anew to the door and softly
,
tried the handle. The lock was out of order but a piece of furniture had been moved forward on
,which prevented her opening the door more than an inch or two. A stream of
the inside
morning light through the shutterchink fell upon the faces of the pair,wrapped in profound
slumber,Tesss lips being parted like a halfopened flower near his cheek.
The caretaker was so struck with their innocent appearance,and with the elegance of Tesss
gown hanging across a chair,her silk stockings beside it,the pretty parasol,and the other habits
in which she had arrived because she had none else,that her first indignation at the effrontery of
tramps and vagabonds gave way to a momentary sentimentality over this genteel elopement,as it
seemed. She closed the door,and withdrew as softly as she had come,to go and consult with
her neighbors on the odd discovery.
,
Not more than a minute had elapsed after her withdrawal when Tess woke and then Clare.
, ;
Both had a sense that something had disturbed them though they could not say what and the
uneasy feeling which it engendered grew stronger. As soon as he was dressed he narrowly
scanned the lawn through the two or three inches of shutterchink.
“I think we will leave at once,”said he. “It is a fine day. And I cannot help fancying
somebody is about the house. At any rate,the woman will be sure to come today. ”
She passively assented,arose,clothed herself and putting the room in order they took up
085
,
the few articles that belonged to them and departed noiselessly. When they had got into the
“Ah,happy house—goodbye!”she said.
Forest she turned to take a last look at the house.
“My life can only be a question of a few weeks. Why should we not have stayed there?”
“Dont say it,Tess!We shall soon get out of this district altogether. Well continue our
course as weve begun it,and keep straight north. Nobody will think of looking for us there.
We shall be looked for at the Wessex ports if we are sought at all. When we are in the north we
will get to a port and away. ”
,
Having thus persuaded her the plan was pursued and they kept a bee line5 northward.
;
Their long repose at the manorhouse lent them walking power now and towards midday they
found that they were approaching the steepled city of Melchester ,which lay directly in their
6
way. He decided to rest her in a clump of trees during the afternoon,and push onward under
cover of darkness. At dusk Clare purchased food as usual,and their night march began,the
boundary between Upper and MidWessex being crossed about eight oclock.
,
To walk across country without much regard to roads was not new to Tess and she showed
her old agility in the performance. The intercepting city,ancient Melchester,they were obliged
to pass through in order to take advantage of the town bridge for crossing a large river that
obstructed them. It was about midnight when they went along the deserted streets ,lighted
,
fitfully by the few lamps keeping off the pavement that it might not echo their footsteps. The
,
graceful pile of cathedral architecture rose dimly on their left hand but it was lost upon them
now. Once out of the town they followed the turnpikeroad 7
,which after a few miles plunged
across an open plain.
Though the sky was dense with cloud a diffused light from some fragment of a moon had
,
hitherto helped them a little. But the moon had now sunk the clouds seemed to settle almost on
,
their heads and the night grew as dark as a cave. However ,they found their way along,
keeping as much on the turf as possible that their tread might not resound,which it was easy to
do,there being no hedge or fence of any kind. All around was open loneliness and black
solitude,over which a stiff breeze blew.
They had proceeded thus gropingly two or three miles further when on a sudden Clare
,
became conscious of some vast erection close in his front rising sheer from the grass. They had
almost struck themselves against it.
“What monstrous place is this?”said Angel.
“It hums,”said she. “Hearken!”
He listened. The wind,playing upon the edifice,produced a booming tune,like the note
of some gigantic onestringed harp. No other sound came from it,and lifting his hand and
advancing a step or two,Clare felt the vertical surface of the structure. It seemed to be of solid
stone,without joint or moulding. Carrying his fingers onward he found that what he had come
in contact with was a colossal rectangular pillar;by stretching out his left hand he could feel a
086
Unit 9 Thomas Hardy 1840 ( —1928) 托马斯·哈代
similar one adjoining. At an indefinite height overhead something made the black sky blacker ,
8
which had the semblance of a vast architrave uniting the pillars horizontally. They carefully
; ;
entered beneath and between the surfaces echoed their soft rustle but they seemed to be still
,
out of doors. The place was roofless. Tess drew her breath fearfully and Angel perplexed , ,
“
said What can it be ?”
,
Feeling sideways they encountered another towerlike pillar square and uncompromising as
; ,
the first beyond it another and another. The place was all doors and pillars some connected
above by continuous architraves.
“A very Temple of the Winds ,”he said.
9
The next pillar was isolated;others composed a trilithon ;others were prostrate,their
10
flanks forming a causeway wide enough for a carriage and it was soon obvious that they made up
a forest of monoliths11 grouped upon the grassy expanse of the plain. The couple advanced
further into this pavilion of the night till they stood in its midst.
“It is Stonehenge !”said Clare.
12
“Thats nothing,dearest. People marry sisterinlaws continually about Marlott. And Liza
Lu is so gentle and sweet,and she is growing so beautiful. O I could share you with her
willingly when we are spirits!If you would train her and teach her,Angel,and bring her up for
your own self!爥 She had all the best of me without the bad of me;and if she were to become
yours it would almost seem as if death had not divided us 爥 Well—I have said it. I wont
mention it again. ”
She ceased,and he fell into thought. In the far northeast sky he could see between the
pillars a level streak of light. The uniform concavity15 of black cloud was lifting bodily like the
, ,
lid of a pot letting in at the earths edge the coming day against which the towering monoliths
and trilithons began to be blackly defined.
“Did they sacrifice to God here?”asked she.
“No,”said he.
“Who to?”
“I believe to the sun. That lofty stone set away by itself is in the direction of the sun,
which will presently rise behind it. ”
“This reminds me,dear,”she said. “You remember you never would interfere with any
belief of mine before we were married?But I knew your mind all the same,and I thought as
you thought—not from any reasons of my own,but because you thought so. Tell me now,
Angel,do you think we shall meet again after we are dead?I want to know. ”
He kissed her to avoid a reply at such a time.
“O Angel—I fear that means no!”said she,with a suppressed sob. “And I wanted so to
see you again—so much,so much!What—not even you and I,Angel,who love each other so
well? ”
Like a greater than himself,to the critical question at the critical time he did not
answer ;and they were again silent. In a minute or two her breathing became more regular,
16
her clasp of his hand relaxed,and she fell asleep. The band of silver paleness along the east
horizon made even the distant parts of the Great Plain appear dark and near;and the whole
enormous landscape bore that impress of reserve,taciturnity ,and hesitation which is usual
17
just before day. The eastward pillars and their architraves stood up blackly against the light,and
the great flameshaped Sunstone beyond them;and the Stone of Sacrifice midway. Presently
the night wind died out,and the quivering little pools in the cuplike hollows of the stones lay
still. At the same time something seemed to move on the verge of the dip eastward—a mere
dot. It was the head of a man approaching them from the hollow beyond the Sunstone. Clare
,
wished they had gone onward but in the circumstances decided to remain quiet. The figure
came straight towards the circle of pillars in which they were.
088
, ,
He heard something behind him the brush of feet. Turning he saw over the prostrate
Unit 9 ( —1928) 托马斯·哈代
Thomas Hardy 1840
; ,
columns another figure then before he was aware another was at hand on the right under a ,
,
trilithon and another on the left. The dawn shone full on the front of the man westward and ,
,
Clare could discern from this that he was tall and walked as if trained. They all closed in with
! ,
evident purpose. Her story then was true Springing to his feet he looked around for a weapon ,
, ,
loose stone means of escape anything. By this time the nearest man was upon him.
“It is no use,sir,”he said. “There are sixteen of us on the Plain,and the whole country
is reared. ”
“Let her finish her sleep!”he implored in a whisper of the men as they gathered round.
When they saw where she lay, which they had not done till then, they showed no
objection,and stood watching her,as still as the pillars around. He went to the stone and bent
over her,holding one poor little hand;her breathing now was quick and small,like that of a
lesser creature than a woman . All waited in the growing light,their faces and hands as if
18
they were silvered,the remainder of their figures dark,the stones glistening greengray,the
Plain still a mass of shade. Soon the light was strong,and a ray shone upon her unconscious
form,peering under her eyelids and waking her.
“What is it,Angel?”she said,starting up. “Have they come for me?”
“Yes,dearest,”he said. “They have come. ”
“It is as it should be,” she murmured. “Angel,I am almost glad—yes,glad!This
happiness could not have lasted. It was too much. I have had enough;and now I shall not live
for you to despise me! ”
She stood up,shook herself,and went forward,neither of the men having moved. “I am
ready, ”she said quietly.
Chapter LIX
Gateway to the mediaeval cross,and from the mediaeval cross to the bridge,that leisurely
dusting and sweeping was in progress which usually ushers in an oldfashioned marketday.
,
From the western gate aforesaid the highway as every Wintoncestrian knows ascends a ,
,
long and regular incline of the exact length of a measured mile leaving the houses gradually
behind. Up this road from the precincts of the city two persons were walking rapidly as if ,
unconscious of the trying ascent —unconscious through preoccupation and not through buoyancy.
They had emerged upon this road through a narrow barred wicket in a high wall a little lower
,
down. They seemed anxious to get out of the sight of the houses and of their kind and this road
089
appeared to offer the quickest means of doing so. Though they were young they walked with
,
bowed heads which gait of grief the suns rays smiled on pitilessly.
One of the pair was Angel Clare ,the other a tall budding creature—half girl, half
woman—a spiritualized image of Tess,slighter than she,but with the same beautiful eyes—
Clares sisterinlaw,LizaLu. Their pale faces seemed to have shrunk to half their natural size.
They moved on hand in hand,and never spoke a word,the drooping of their heads being that of
Giottos Two Apostles22 .
When they had nearly reached the top of the great West Hill the clocks in the town struck
, , ,
eight. Each gave a start at the notes and walking onward yet a few steps they reached the
, ,
first milestone standing whitely on the green margin of the grass and backed by the down ,
which here was open to the road. They entered upon the turf,and,impelled by a force that
seemed to overrule their will,suddenly stood still,turned,and waited in paralyzed suspense
beside the stone.
The prospect from this summit was almost unlimited. In the valley beneath lay the city they
,
had just left its more prominent buildings showing as in an isometric23 drawing —among them
the broad cathedral tower,with its Norman windows and immense length of aisle and nave,the
spires of St Thomass,the pinnacled tower of the College,and,more to the right,the tower
and gables of the ancient hospice ,where to this day the pilgrim may receive his dole of bread
24
and ale. Behind the city swept the rotund upland of St Catherines Hill;further off,landscape
beyond landscape,till the horizon was lost in the radiance of the sun hanging above it.
Against these far stretches of country rose,in front of the other city edifices,a large red
brick building,with level gray roofs,and rows of short barred windows bespeaking captivity,
the whole contrasting greatly by its formalism with the quaint irregularities of the Gothic
erections. It was somewhat disguised from the road in passing it by yews and evergreen oaks ,
but it was visible enough up here. The wicket from which the pair had lately emerged was in the
wall of this structure. From the middle of the building an ugly flattopped octagonal tower25
, ,
ascended against the east horizon and viewed from this spot on its shady side and against the
, ,
light it seemed the one blot on the citys beauty. Yet it was with this blot and not with the
beauty,that the two gazers were concerned.
Upon the cornice26 of the tower a tall staff was fixed. Their eyes were riveted on it27 . A
,
few minutes after the hour had struck something moved slowly up the staff and extended itself
upon the breeze. It was a black flag.
“Justice”was done,and the President of the Immortals ,in Aeschylean phrase ,had
28 29
ended his sport with Tess. And the DUrberville knights and dames slept on in their tombs
,
unknowing. The two speechless gazers bent themselves down to the earth as if in prayer and ,
, :
remained thus a long time absolutely motionless the flag continued to wave silently. As soon
as they had strength they arose,joined hands again,and went on.
090
Unit 9 Thomas Hardy 1840( —1928) 托马斯·哈代
Questions for Discussion
? ?
1. How does Tess react to Clares suggestion that they should leave their shelter Why
2. What is the significance of Tess resting on an altar in the heathen temple ?
3. Comment on this sentence :“‘Justice ’was done,and the President of the Immortals
had ended his sport with Tess”. In what sense is Tess story tragic?
Notes
1. small hours :凌晨一两点钟
2. They were indisposed to stir abroad :他们都不想外出。
3. deprecate:反对
4. inexorable:冷酷无情的
5. bee line:直线
6. the steepled city of Melchester :尖塔之城梅尔切斯特
:收税路
7. turnpikeroad
8. architrave:柱顶过梁
9. Temple of the Winds :风神庙
10. trilithon :三根相连的巨石柱
11. monoliths:独块巨石
12. Stonehenge:巨石阵
13. bide:停留
14. she is my sisterinlaw:英国国会及法律禁止与已故妻子的妹妹结婚。 该法律于
1906 年废止。
15. concavity:凹陷处
16. Like a greater than himself,to the critical question at the critical time he did
not answer:据《新约·约翰福音》记载,当耶稣被带到控告他的祭司长和长老们面前时,他
拒绝回答他们的任何问题。
17. taciturnity:沉默寡言
18. a lesser creature than a woman :不是妇女,而是小姑娘。
19. aforetime:从前
20. convex and concave downlands:起伏不平的丘陵地
21. integument of lichen :覆盖在外面的地衣
22. Giottos Two Apostles:昭托的作品《二门徒》。Giotto :昭托(1267 —1337 ),意大
利画家。
23. isometric:等角的
24. hospice:宗教团体办的旅客招待所
25. octagonal:八角形的
091
26. cornice :飞檐
:他俩的眼睛死死地盯着它。
27. Their eyes were riveted on it
28. President of the Immortals:众神之首,即宙斯(Zeus)。
29. in Aeschylean phrase:用埃斯库罗斯的话说。 Aeschylus:埃斯库罗斯 (525 —
456 BC),古希腊三大悲剧作家之一,另两位为索福克勒斯 (Sophocles )和欧里庇得斯
(Euripides)。埃斯库罗斯有“悲剧之父”、“有强烈倾向的诗人”的美誉,代表作有《被缚的
普罗米修斯》(Prometheus Bound)、《阿伽门农》(Agamemnon)、《善好者》(或称《复仇
女神》Nemesis)等。
092
George Bernard Shaw 1856 ( —1950)
Unit 10 乔治 · 萧伯纳
Biography
, ,
George Bernard Shaw an Irish playwright critic and polemicist
(辩 论 家 ) whose influence on Western theatre,culture and politics
extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond,was born in Dublin,
Ireland. At 16 ,he was on his own,and in 1876 he moved to London.
Later he joined the Fabian Society and became its most prominent
pamphleteer. By the mid1880s he had become a respected theatre and
,
music critic. Influenced by Henrik Ibsen he sought to introduce a new realism into English
, ,
language drama using his plays as vehicles to disseminate his political social and religious
,
ideas. He rejected the idea of art for arts sake and insisted that all great art must be didactic.
, ,
Politically he opposed violence but affirmed gradual social reform. He wrote more than 60
plays. With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory , Shaw
,
became the leading dramatist of his generation and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in
1925.
Major Works
( )
Arms and the Man 1894
Mrs Warrens Profession (1898 )
Man and Superman (1903 )
John Bulls Other Island (1904 )
Major Barbara (1905 )
Pygmalion (1913 )
Saint Joan (1924 )
The Apple Cart (1929 )
Major Characters
Professor Henry Higgins —is a professor of phonetics who plays Pygmalion to Eliza
Doolittles Galatea. He is the author of Higgins Universal Alphabet,believes in concepts like
visible speech,and uses all manner of recording and photographic material to document his
phonetic subjects,reducing people and their dialects into what he sees as readily understandable
units. He is an unconventional man,who goes in the opposite direction from the rest of society
in most matters. Indeed,he is impatient with high society,forgetful in his public graces,and
poorly considerate of normal social niceties—the only reason the world has not turned against
him is because he is at heart a good and harmless man. His biggest fault is that he can be a
bully.
Eliza Doolittle —“She is not at all a romantic figure. ”So is she introduced in Act I.
Everything about Eliza Doolittle seems to defy any conventional notions we might have about the
094
Unit 10 George Bernard Shaw 1856 ( —1950) 乔治·萧伯纳
,
romantic heroine. When she is transformed from a sassy smartmouthed kerbstone flower girl
, ( ) ,
with deplorable English to a still sassy regal figure fit to consort with nobility it has less to
do with her innate qualities as a heroine than with the fairytale aspect of the transformation myth
itself. In other words ,the character of Eliza Doolittle comes across as being much more
instrumental than fundamental. The real (re)making of Eliza Doolittle happens after the
ambassadors party,when she decides to make a statement for her own dignity against Higgins
insensitive treatment. This is when she becomes,not a duchess,but an independent woman;
and this explains why Higgins begins to see Eliza not as a mill around his neck but as a creature
worthy of his admiration.
Colonel Pickering —the author of Spoken Sanskrit,is a match for Higgins (although
somewhat less obsessive)in his passion for phonetics. But where Higgins is a boorish,careless
bully,Pickering is always considerate and a genuinely gentleman. He says little of note in the
play,and appears most of all to be a civilized foil to Higgins barefoot,absentminded crazy
professor. He helps in the Eliza Doolittle experiment by making a wager of it,saying he will
cover the costs of the experiment if Higgins does indeed make a convincing duchess of her.
, ,
However while Higgins only manages to teach Eliza pronunciations it is Pickerings thoughtful
treatment towards Eliza that teaches her to respect herself.
Alfred Doolittle —is a scoundrel who is willing to sell his daughter to make a few pounds,
but he is one of the few unaffected characters in the play,unmasked by appearance or language.
Mrs. Higgins—Professor Higgins mother,is a stately lady in her sixties who sees the
Eliza Doolittle experiment as idiocy,and Higgins and Pickering as senseless children. She is the
first and only character to have any qualms about the whole affair. When her worries prove true,
it is to her that all the characters turn. Because no woman can match up to his mother,Higgins
claims,he has no interest in dallying with them. To observe the mother of Pygmalion
(Higgins),who completely understands all of his failings and inadequacies,is a good contrast
to the mythic proportions to which Higgins builds himself in his selfestimations as a scientist of
phonetics and a creator of duchesses.
◆◆◆A+8/%,51&2 ◆◆◆
(
Act Ⅲ Excerpts )
Whiskers : , [
Maestro2 maestro he embraces Higgins and kisses him on both cheeks . You ]
remember me ?
:
Higgins , ?
No I dont. Who the devil are you
Whiskers: I am your pupil: you first pupil, your best and greatest pupil. I am little
Nepommuck,the marvellous boy. I have made your name famous throughout
Europe. You teach me phonetics. You cannot forget ME. 095
Higgins : Why dont you shave ?
: , ,
Nepommuck I have not your imposing appearance your chin your brow. Nobody notices me
,
when I shave. Now I am famous they call me Hairy Faced Dick.
Higgins : And what are you doing here among all these swells3 ?
:
Nepommuck I am interpreter. I speak 32 languages. I am indispensable at these international
parties. You are great cockney4 specialist. You place a man anywhere in London
the moment he opens his mouth. I place any man in Europe.
[A footman hurries down the grand staircase and comes to Nepommuck. ]
Footman : You are wanted upstairs. Her Excellency cannot understand the Greek gentleman.
Nepommuck :[To Higgins ]This Greek diplomatist pretends he cannot speak nor understand
English. He cannot deceive me. He is the son of a Clerkenwell watchmaker. He
speaks English so villainously that he dare not utter a word of it without betraying
;
his origin. I help him to pretend but I make him pay through the nose5 . I make
![He hurries upstairs].
them all pay. Ha Ha
Pickering: Is this fellow really an expert?Can he find out Eliza and blackmail her?
Higgins: We shall see. If he finds her out I lose my bet.
[Eliza comes from the cloakroom and joins them. ]
Pickering: Well Eliza,now for it. Are you ready?
Liza: Are you nervous,Colonel?
Pickering: Frightfully,I feel exactly as I felt before my first battle. Its the first time that
frightens.
Liza : ,
It is not the first time for me Colonel. I have done this fifty times —hundreds of
times —in my little piggery 6
in Angel Court in my daydreams. I am in a dream
;
now. Promise me not to let Professor Higgins wake me for if he does I shall
7
forget everything and talk as I used to in Drury Lane .
Pickering : ,
Not a word Higgins. [To Eliza]Now ready?
Liza : Ready.
Pickering : Go.
[They mount the stairs,Higgins last. Pickering whispers to the footman on the
first landing. ]
First landing
footman : , ,
Miss Doolittle Colonel Pickering Professor Higgins.
Second landing
footman : , ,
Miss Doolittle Colonel Pickering Professor Higgins.
[At the top of the staircase the Ambassador and his wife,with Nepommuck at her
elbow,are receiving. ]
Hostess: [taking Elizas hand]How dye do?
096
Unit 10 ( —1950) 乔治·萧伯纳
George Bernard Shaw 1856
098
Unit 10 George Bernard Shaw 1856( —1950) 乔治·萧伯纳
Questions for Discussion
1. Why does the Greek diplomatist pretend that he cannot speak nor understand English ?
? ?
2. What do people at the party think of Eliza Why do they stare at her so intently
3. The scene shows that Eliza,the flower girl,now is admired by people for her way of
speaking. What do you think of this?Do you believe that learning a language can change a
person?
Notes
1. Pygmalion:皮格马利翁是希腊传说中塞浦路斯岛 (Cyprus)上的国王,善于雕塑,
后来爱上自己所雕的一座少女像。在他的乞求下,爱神赋予了雕像生命,皮格马利翁与少女
结为夫妻。
2. Maestro :(意大利语)艺术大师
3. swell:时髦人物,头面人物。
4. cockney:伦敦方言
5. pay through the nose:出特别高的价钱。
6. piggery:猪舍,猪舍似的地方。
7. Drury Lane:特鲁里街,位于伦敦西区,是英国著名的戏院街。
8. somnambulist:梦游者
9. débutante:初次进入社交界的人
10. Mrs. Langtry:英国演员,以美丽及与爱德华七世是暧昧关系而闻名。 王尔德的
《温德米尔夫人的扇子》(Lady Windermeres Fan)就是为她而作。
11. Magyar:马扎尔人,匈牙利的主要民族。
12. gutter:贫民区
13. Morganatic:指上流社会男子与出身低微的女子之间的婚姻。 这种结合所生的子
女虽然合法,但这些子女及其母亲均不能继承爵位和财产。
14. incorrigible:不可动摇的,难以说服的。
099
James Joyce 1882 ( —1941)
Unit 11 詹姆斯 · 乔伊斯
Biography
James Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet who contributed to the
,
modernist avantgarde and is regarded as one of the most influential and
important authors of the twentieth century. As one of the most innovative
“
novelists of the 20 th century and one of the great masters of the stream of
consciousness ”,he revolutionized the methods of depicting characters and
developing a plot in modern fiction. His astonishing way of constructing a
,
novel his frank portrayal of human nature in his books and his complete
command of English have made him one of the outstanding influences on
literature in the 20 th century.
,
Joyce was born into a Catholic family in Dublin. When he was young his family was quite
welloff ;but gradually it became impoverished. Joyce got his education at Catholic schools
where he received very strict religious training. He finally rejected the Catholic Church and
started a rebellion against the narrowness and bigotry of the bourgeois philistines in Dublin.
When he studied modern languages at Dublins University College ,he read lots of books
forbidden by the Church. After his graduation,he left Ireland for the continent,living and
,
working in France Italy and Switzerland. He regarded exile as the only way to preserve his
,
integrity and to enable him to recreate the life in Dublin truthfully completely and objectively in
, , ,
his writings. From 1905 to 1915 he and Nora lived in Rome and Trieste Italy and from 1915
,
to 1919 they lived in Zurich Switzerland. Between World War Ⅰ and World War Ⅱ they ,
,
lived in Paris. They returned to Zurich in 1940 where Joyce died in 1941.
Major Works
? Collections of poems :
( , )
Chamber Music poems 1907
Pomes Penyeach (poems,1927 )
Collected Poems (poems,1936 )
? Shortstory collection:
Dubliners (1914 )
100
Unit 11 James Joyce 1882( —1941) 詹姆斯·乔伊斯
Novels :
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 1916 ( )
Ulysses 1922 ( )
Finnegans Wake 1939 ( )
? Play :
( )
Exiles 1918
Characters
narrator —the amorous boy devotes himself to his neighbor Mangans sister. He can do
nothing but think of her day and night. He finally speaks to her,but it is brief and awkward.
When Mangans sister tells the narrator about a bazaar called Araby,he decides to go there and
buy something for her. However,he arrives at the bazaar too late and buys nothing. The
narrator illustrates the joys and frustrations of young love. His inability to pursue his desires
angers him.
Mangans sister —The love interest in “Araby. ” Mangans sister mentions the Araby
bazaar to the narrator,prompting him to travel there. She suggests the familiarity of Dublin,as
well as the hope of love and the exotic appeal of new places.
◆◆◆:(%)+◆◆◆
North Richmond Street ,being blind ,was a quiet street except at the hour when the
1
Christian Brothers School set the boys free. An uninhabited house of two storeys stood at the
,
blind end detached from its neighbors in a square ground. The other houses of the street ,
,
conscious of decent lives within them gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces.
The former tenant of our house,a priest,had died in the back drawingroom. Air,musty
from having been long enclosed,hung in all the rooms ,and the waste room behind the
2
kitchen was littered with old useless papers. Among these I found a few papercovered books,
the pages of which were curled and damp: The Abbot, by Walter Scott, The Devout
Communicant,and The Memoirs of Vidocq . I liked the last best because its leaves were
3
yellow. The wild garden behind the house contained a central appletree and a few straggling
,
bushes under one of which I found the late tenants rusty bicyclepump. He had been a very
;
charitable priest in his will he had left all his money to institutions and the furniture of his house
to his sister.
,
When the short days of winter came dusk fell before we had well eaten our dinners. When
we met in the street the houses had grown sombre. The space of sky above us was the color of
everchanging violet and towards it the lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns. The cold
air stung us and we played till our bodies glowed. Our shouts echoed in the silent street. The
,
career of our play brought us through the dark muddy lanes behind the houses where we ran
the gauntlet of the rough tribes from the cottages 4
,to the back doors of the dark dripping
gardens where odors arose from the ashpits ,to the dark odorous stables where a coachman
smoothed and combed the horse or shook music from the buckled harness. When we returned to
102
,
the street light from the kitchen windows had filled the areas. If my uncle was seen turning the
Unit 11 ( —1941) 詹姆斯·乔伊斯
James Joyce 1882
,
corner we hid in the shadow until we had seen him safely housed. Or if Mangans sister came
,
out on the doorstep to call her brother in to his tea we watched her from our shadow peer up
,
and down the street. We waited to see whether she would remain or go in and if she remained ,
we left our shadow and walked up to Mangans steps resignedly. She was waiting for us her ,
figure defined by the light from the halfopened door. Her brother always teased her before he
,
obeyed and I stood by the railings looking at her. Her dress swung as she moved her body and ,
the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side.
Every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlor watching her door. The blind was
pulled down to within an inch of the sash so that I could not be seen. When she came out on the
,
doorstep my heart leaped. I ran to the hall seized my books and followed her. I kept her brown
,
figure always in my eye and when we came near the point at which our ways diverged I ,
quickened my pace and passed her. This happened morning after morning. I had never spoken
, ,
to her except for a few casual words and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish
blood.
Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance. On Saturday
evenings when my aunt went marketing I had to go to carry some of the parcels. We walked
, ,
through the flaring streets jostled by drunken men and bargaining women amid the curses of
, 5
,
laborers the shrill litanies of shopboys who stood on guard by the barrels of pigs cheeks the
nasal chanting of streetsingers,who sang a comeallyou about Odonovan Rossa ,or a 6
ballad about the troubles in our native land. These noises converged in a single sensation of life
:
for me I imagined that I bore my chalice7 safely through a throng of foes. Her name sprang to
my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand. My eyes
( )
were often full of tears I could not tell why and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour
itself out into my bosom. I thought little of the future. I did not know whether I would ever
, ,
speak to her or not or if I spoke to her how I could tell her of my confused adoration. But my
body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.
One evening I went into the back drawingroom in which the priest had died. It was a dark
rainy evening and there was no sound in the house. Through one of the broken panes I heard the
,
rain impinge upon the earth the fine incessant needles of water playing in the sodden beds.
Some distant lamp or lighted window gleamed below me. I was thankful that I could see so
,
little. All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves and feeling that I was about to slip
, ,
from them I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled murmuring O love: !
!
O love many times.
At last she spoke to me. When she addressed the first words to me I was so confused that I
did not know what to answer. She asked me was I going to Araby. I forgot whether I answered
;
yes or no. It would be a splendid bazaar she said she would love to go.
—And why cant you?I asked. 103
While she spoke she turned a silver bracelet round and round her wrist. She could not go ,
, 8
she said because there would be a retreat that week in her convent . Her brother and two
,
other boys were fighting for their caps and I was alone at the railings. She held one of the
,
spikes bowing her head towards me. The light from the lamp opposite our door caught the
, , ,
white curve of her neck lit up her hair that rested there and falling lit up the hand upon the
,
railing. It fell over one side of her dress and caught the white border of a petticoat just visible
as she stood at ease.
,
Its well for you she said.
If I go,I said,I will bring you something.
What innumerable follies laid waste my waking and sleeping thoughts after that evening I !
9
wished to annihilate the tedious intervening days. I chafed against the work of school. At night
in my bedroom and by day in the classroom her image came between me and the page I strove to
read. The syllables of the word Araby were called to me through the silence in which my soul
luxuriated and cast an Eastern enchantment over me. I asked for leave to go to the bazaar on
Saturday night. My aunt was surprised ,and hoped it was not some Freemason 10
affair. I
answered few questions in class. I watched my masters face pass from amiability to sternness ;
he hoped I was not beginning to idle. I could not call my wandering thoughts together. I had
,
hardly any patience with the serious work of life which now that it stood between me and my
, ,
desire seemed to me childs play ugly monotonous childs play.
On Saturday morning I reminded my uncle that I wished to go to the bazaar in the evening.
, ,
He was fussing at the hallstand looking for the hatbrush and answered me curtly :
—Yes,boy,I know.
As he was in the hall I could not go into the front parlor and lie at the window. I felt the
house in bad humor and walked slowly towards the school. The air was pitilessly raw and
already my heart misgave me11 .
When I came home to dinner my uncle had not yet been home. Still it was early. I sat
, ,
staring at the clock for some time and when its ticking began to irritate me I left the room. I
mounted the staircase and gained the upper part of the house. The high,cold,empty,gloomy
rooms liberated me and I went from room to room singing. From the front window I saw my
companions playing below in the street. Their cries reached me weakened and indistinct and ,
,
leaning my forehead against the cool glass I looked over at the dark house where she lived. I
may have stood there for an hour ,seeing nothing but the brownclad figure cast by my
imagination,touched discreetly by the lamplight at the curved neck,at the hand upon the
railings and at the border below the dress.
When I came downstairs again I found Mrs Mercer sitting at the fire. She was an old ,
, ,
garrulous woman a pawnbrokers widow who collected used stamps for some pious purpose. I
had to endure the gossip of the teatable. The meal was prolonged beyond an hour and still my
104
Unit 11 ( —1941) 詹姆斯·乔伊斯
James Joyce 1882
:
uncle did not come. Mrs Mercer stood up to go she was sorry she couldnt wait any longer but,
,
it was after eight oclock and she did not like to be out late as the night air was bad for her.
When she had gone I began to walk up and down the room,clenching my fists. My aunt said:
—Im afraid you may put off your bazaar for this night of Our Lord.
At nine oclock I heard my uncles latchkey in the hall door. I heard him talking to himself
and heard the hallstand rocking when it had received the weight of his overcoat. I could
interpret these signs. When he was midway through his dinner I asked him to give me the money
to go to the bazaar. He had forgotten.
—The people are in bed and after their first sleep now,he said.
I did not smile. My aunt said to him energetically:
—Cant you give him the money and let him go?Youve kept him late enough as it is.
My uncle said he was very sorry he had forgotten. He said he believed in the old saying :
,
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. He asked me where I was going and when I told
, 12
him a second time he asked me did I know The Arabs Farewell to His Steed . When I left
the kitchen he was about to recite the opening lines of the piece to my aunt.
I held a florin tightly in my hand as I strode down Buckingham Street towards the station.
The sight of the streets thronged with buyers and glaring with gas recalled to me the purpose of
my journey. I took my seat in a thirdclass carriage of a deserted train. After an intolerable
delay the train moved out of the station slowly. It crept onward among ruinous houses and over
the twinkling river. At Westland Row Station a crowd of people pressed to the carriage doors ;
,
but the porters moved them back saying that it was a special train for the bazaar. I remained
alone in the bare carriage. In a few minutes the train drew up beside an improvised wooden
platform13 . I passed out on to the road and saw by the lighted dial of a clock that it was ten
minutes to ten. In front of me was a large building which displayed the magical name.
,
I could not find any sixpenny entrance and fearing that the bazaar would be closed I ,
,
passed in quickly through a turnstile handing a shilling to a wearylooking man. I found myself
in a big hall girded at half its height by a gallery14 . Nearly all the stalls were closed and the
greater part of the hall was in darkness. I recognized a silence like that which pervades a church
after a service. I walked into the centre of the bazaar timidly. A few people were gathered about
,
the stalls which were still open. Before a curtain over which the words Café Chantant15 were
,
written in colored lamps two men were counting money on a salver16 . I listened to the fall of
the coins.
,
Remembering with difficulty why I had come I went over to one of the stalls and examined
porcelain vases and flowered teasets. At the door of the stall a young lady was talking and
laughing with two young gentlemen. I remarked their English accents and listened vaguely to
their conversation.
—O,I never said such a thing! 105
—O,but you did!
—O,but I didnt!
—Didnt she say that?
—Yes. I heard her.
—O,theres a 爥 Fib !Observing me,the young lady came over and asked me did I wish
17
to buy anything. The tone of her voice was not encouraging;she seemed to have spoken to me
out of a sense of duty. I looked humbly at the great jars that stood like eastern guards at either
side of the dark entrance to the stall and murmured :
—No,thank you.
The young lady changed the position of one of the vases and went back to the two young
men. They began to talk of the same subject. Once or twice the young lady glanced at me over
her shoulder.
, ,
I lingered before her stall though I knew my stay was useless to make my interest in her
wares seem the more real. Then I turned away slowly and walked down the middle of the
bazaar. I allowed the two pennies to fall against the sixpence in my pocket. I heard a voice call
from one end of the gallery that the light was out. The upper part of the hall was now
completely dark.
Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity and;
my eyes burned with anguish and anger. (1905)
Questions for Discussion
1. What is the significance of the title of the story ?
2. What are the chief qualities of the boys character ?
3. Is anything gained by the boy through his frustration and humiliation ?
Notes
1. being blind :(= being a deadend street)一条死胡同
2. Air,musty from 爥all the rooms:由于长期关闭,所有的房间都弥漫着一股霉湿
的气味。
3. The Abbot:英国小说家 Walter Scott (1771 —1832 )写的历史传奇小说。 The
Devout Communicant:18 世纪英国方济各会 (Franciscan )修道士 Pacificus Baker
(1695—1774)写的宗教著作。 The Memoirs of Vidocq:法国人 Francois Jules Vidocq
(1775—1857)写的回忆录,此人曾是罪犯,后成为一名侦探。
4. we ran the gantlet 爥the cottages:我们遭到住在那些小屋子里的粗人们的咒骂。
run the gantlet:古代军队里的一种刑法。 受惩罚的人要从两排不断挥舞木棍的人中间走
过挨打。 现该短语意为:“to proceed while under attack from both sides,as by
criticism,gossip ,etc. ”。
106
Unit 11 ( —1941) 詹姆斯·乔伊斯
James Joyce 1882
107
Doris Lessing 1919 ( —2013)
Unit 12 多丽丝 · 莱辛
Biography
, ,
Doris May Lessing was a British novelist poet playwright ,
,
librettist biographer and short story writer. She was awarded the
,
2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. In awarding the prize the Swedish
Academy described her as “that epicist of the female experience,
who with scepticism ,fire and visionary power has subjected a
divided civilization to scrutiny”. Lessing was the eleventh woman
and the oldest person ever to receive this prize.
,
Lessing was born in Iran known as Persia then to Captain Alfred Tayler and Emily Maude
,
Tayler who were both English and of British nationality. Her parents moved to Kermanshah ,
Iran ,in order to take up a job as a bank clerk. The family then moved to the then British colony
of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)in 1925 to farm maize but the farm failed to deliver any
monetary value in return.
,
As a girl Lessing was educated at the Dominican Convent High School a Roman Catholic
( ) ,
convent allgirls school in Salisbury now Harare . She left school at the age of 14 and was
;
selfeducated from then on she left home at 15 and worked at various jobs such as nursemaid ,
,
telephone operator typist and journalist and married twice before she moved to London in 1949.
She earned her living by writing.
, ,
At the age of 15 in South Africa Lessing began to sell her stories to magazines. Her first
, ,
novel The Grass Is Singing was published in 1950. The Golden Notebook which gained her
,
international attention was published in 1962. Lessing was highly prolific. By the time of her
, , ,
death she had issued more than 50 novels 17 shortstory collections some science fiction and
,
autobiographies some under a pseudonym.
Major Works
( )[filmed as Killing Heat (1981)]
The Grass Is Singing 1950
Retreat to Innocence (1956 )
The Golden Notebook (1962 )
Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971 )
108
Unit 12 ( —2013) 多丽丝·莱辛
Doris Lessing 1919
“
Synopsis of A Woman on a Roof ”
This short story with a minimalist plot is about how some men view woman and how they
react to the womans indifference. We discover how three mens preoccupation with sex keeps
them unaware of how their advances may be unwanted and ignorant of their actions possible
consequences.
All three workmen share the desire to get the sunbathing womans attention. Working on a
,
rooftop of a block of flats in the hot sun these men seek a diversion from the relentless heat.
, , ,
They whistle yell and wave at a nearly naked woman on a rooftop nearby but the woman
pays no mind to them. Their isolation on the rooftop and the womans indignation fuels the
,
mens decency into a world of lowed behavior thereby creating an atmosphere of harassment
“ ”
and rejection. They become taunted by this womans indifference to them.
The woman has not offered any attention. She just ignores them. She remains the symbol
of a newage woman who disdains harassment from men.
110
,
When the heat wave is gone the sunbathing woman does not appear. The workmen come
Unit 12 ( —2013) 多丽丝·莱辛
Doris Lessing 1919
,
back to work and everything returns to normal.
Characters
The woman —Without a name,she is an image of newage woman. There exists a whole
class of women in modern Britain who are aloof,complacent,indifferent and selfcentered,
bravely expressing their self at their own will,just like the woman on the roof. They are
financially independent. They say “No”to sexual harassment.
In general,three workers are tough,hard headed,domineering and egoistical as they are
constantly exposed to heat.
Harry —Being the eldest of the three workmen,he tries hard to show his selfcontrol and to
keep his dignity,but he fails.
Stanley the middleaged and newly married,and the most coarse,obscene person yet he
expresses himself directly.
Tom —Being the youngest and the most foolish of the three,he represents men of the
younger generation as he has a very common name. He likes daydreaming so as to satisfy his
,
poor vanity. He dreams so often that he gets confused about the reality and fantasy becoming
hopelessly foolish and foolishly courageous. He tries his fancy luck and is mercilessly hurt.
, ,
However he is maturing gradually realizing his stupidity.
,
It was during the week of hot sun that June.
Three men were at work on the roof ,where the leads got so hot they had the idea of
throwing water on to cool them. But the water steamed,then sizzled;and they made jokes
about getting an egg from some woman in the flats under them,to poach it for their dinner. By
two it was not possible to touch the guttering they were replacing,and they speculated about
1
what workmen did in regularly hot countries. Perhaps they should borrow kitchen gloves with
? , ;
the egg They were all a bit dizzy not used to the heat and they shed2 their coats and stood
,
side by side squeezing themselves into a footwide patch of shade against a chimney careful to
keep their feet in the thick socks and boots out of the sun. There was a fine view across several
acres of roofs. Not far off a man sat in a deckchair reading the newspaper. Then they saw her ,
,
between chimneys about fifty yards away. She lay face down on a brown blanket. They could
: , ,
see the top part of her black hair a flushed solid back arms spread out.
“Shes stark naked,”said Stanley,sounding annoyed.
3
said:“Small things amuse small minds, ”leading the way back to their part of the roof,but it
was scorching. Harry said:“Wait,Im going to rig up some shade , 5
”and disappeared down
the skylight into the building. Now that hed gone,Stanley and Tom went to the farthest point
they could to peer at the woman. She had moved,and all they could see were two pink legs
stretched on the blanket. They whistled and shouted but the legs did not move. Harry came back
with a blanket and shouted :“Come on, then. ” He sounded irritated with them. They
clambered back to him and he said to Stanley:“What about your missus ?”Stanley was newly
6
tolerantly. Toms report was that she hadnt moved,but it was a lie. He wanted to keep what he
had seen to himself:he had caught her in the act of rolling down the little red pants over her
hips ,till they were no more than a small triangle. She was on her back,fully visible,glistening
with oil.
, ,
Next morning as soon as they came up they went to look. She was already there face ,
,
down arms spread out ,naked except for the little red pants. She had turned brown in the
night. Yesterday she was a scarletandwhite woman,today she was a brown woman. Stanley
let out a whistle. She lifted her head,startled,as if shed been asleep,and looked straight over
at them. The sun was in her eyes,she blinked and stared,then she dropped her head again. At
this gesture of indifference,they all three,Stanley,Tom and old Harry,let out whistles and
yells. Harry was doing it in parody of the younger men,making fun of them,but he was also
angry. They were all angry because of her utter indifference to the three men watching her.
“Bitch,”said Stanley.
“She should ask us over,”said Tom,snickering.
Harry recovered himself and reminded Stanley:“If shes married,her old man wouldnt
like that. ”
112
“Christ,”said Stanley virtuously,“if my wife lay about like that,for everyone to see,Id
Unit 12 ( —2013) 多丽丝·莱辛
Doris Lessing 1919
small square projecting roof looking straight down at her,close. She sat smoking,reading a
book. Tom thought she looked like a poster,or a magazine cover,with the blue sky behind her
and her legs stretched out. Behind her a great crane at work on a new building in Oxford Street
swung its black arm across roofs in a great arc. Tom imagined himself at work on the crane ,
adjusting the arm to swing over and pick her up and swing her back across the sky to drop her
near him.
, ,
They whistled. She looked up at them cool and remote then went on reading. Again ,
, ,
they were furious. Or rather Stanley was. His sunheated face was screwed into a rage as he
,
whistled again and again trying to make her look up. Young Tom stopped whistling. He stood
beside Stanley,excited,grinning;but he felt as if he were saying to the woman:Dont
associate me with him,for his grin was apologetic. Last night he had thought of the unknown
woman before he slept,and she had been tender with him. This tenderness he was remembering
as he shifted his feet by the jeering,whistling Stanley,and watched the indifferent,healthy
brown woman a few feet off,with the gap that plunged to the street between them. Tom thought
it was romantic,it was like being high on two hilltops. But there was a shout from Harry,and
they clambered back. Stanleys face was hard,really angry. The boy kept looking at him and
wondered why he hated the woman so much,for by now he loved her.
They played their little games with the blanket,trying to trap shade to work under;but
again it was not until nearly four that they could work seriously,and they were exhausted,all
three of them. They were grumbling about10 the weather by now. Stanley was in a thoroughly
bad humor. When they made their routine trip to see the woman before they packed up for the
113
, , ,
day she was apparently asleep face down her back all naked save for the scarlet triangle on
her buttocks. “Ive got a good mind to report her to the police,”said Stanley,and Harry said:
“Whats eating you?What harms she doing?”
“I tell you,if she was my wife!”
“But she isnt,is she?”Tom knew that Harry,like himself,was uneasy at Stanleys
reaction. He was normally a sharp young man,quick at his work,making a lot of jokes,good
company.
“Perhaps it will be cooler tomorrow,”said Harry.
But it wasnt;it was hotter,if anything,and the weather forecast said the good weather
would last. As soon as they were on the roof,Harry went over to see if the woman was there,
and Tom knew it was to prevent Stanley going,to put off his bad humor. Harry had grownup
children,a boy the same age as Tom,and the youth trusted and looked up to him.
Harry came back and said:“Shes not there. ”
“I bet her old man put his foot down ,”said Stanley,and Harry and Tom caught each
11
others eyes and smiled behind the young married mans back. Harry suggested they should get
, ,
permission to work in the basement and they did that day. But before packing up Stanley
said:“Lets have a breath of fresh air. ”Again Harry and Tom smiled at each other as they
followed Stanley up to the roof,Tom in the devout conviction that he was there to protect the
woman from Stanley. It was about fivethirty,and a calm,full sunlight lay over the roofs. The
great crane still swung its black arm from Oxford Street to above their heads. She was not there.
, , ,
Then there was a flutter of white from behind a parapet and she stood up in a belted white
dressinggown. She had been there all day,probably,but on a different patch of roof,to hide
from them. Stanley did not whistle;he said nothing,but watched the woman bend to collect
papers,books,cigarettes,then fold the blanket over her arm. Tom was thinking:If they
werent here,Id go over and say 爥 what?But he knew from his nightly dreams of her that she
was kind and friendly. Perhaps she would ask him down to her flat?Perhaps 爥 He stood
watching her disappear down the skylight. As she went,Stanley let out a shrill derisive yell;she
started,and it seemed as if she nearly fell. She clutched to save herself,they could hear things
falling. She looked straight at them,angry. Harry said,facetiously :“Better be careful on
12
those slippery ladders,love. ”Tom knew he said it to save her from Stanley,but she could not
know it. She vanished,frowning. Tom was full of a secret delight,because he knew her anger
was for the others,not for him.
“Roll on some rain,”said Stanley,bitter,looking at the blue evening sky.
13
Next day was cloudless,and they decided to finish the work in the basement. They felt
excluded,shut in the gray cement basement fitting pipes,from the holiday atmosphere of
London in a heat wave. At lunchtime they came up for some air,but while the married couples,
and the men in shirtsleeves or vests,were there,she was not there,either on her usual patch of
114
Unit 12 ( —2013) 多丽丝·莱辛
Doris Lessing 1919
roof or where she had been yesterday. They all ,even Harry,clambered about,between
, ,
chimneypots over parapets the hot leads stinging their fingers. There was not a sign of her.
,
They took off their shirts and vests and exposed their chests feeling their feet sweaty and hot.
They did not mention the woman. But Tom felt alone again. Last night she had him into her
:
flat it was big and had fitted white carpets and a bed with a padded white leather headboard.
She wore a black filmy negligee14 and her kindness to Tom thickened his throat as he
remembered it. He felt she had betrayed him by not being there.
,
And again after work they climbed up but still there was nothing to be seen of her. Stanley
kept repeating that if it was as hot as this tomorrow he wasnt going to work and thats all there
was to it. But they were all there next day. By ten the temperature was in the middle seventies ,
and it was eighty long before noon. Harry went to the foreman to say it was impossible to work
; ,
on the leads in that heat but the foreman said there was nothing else he could put them on and
, , ,
theyd have to. At midday they stood silent watching the skylight on her roof open and then
she slowly emerged in her white gown,holding a bundle of blanket. She looked at them,
gravely,then went to the part of the roof where she was hidden from them. Tom was pleased.
He felt she was more his when the other men couldnt see her. They had taken off their shirts
, ,
and vests but now they put them back again for they felt the sun bruising their flesh. “She
must have the hide of a rhino ,” said Stanley,tugging at guttering and swearing. They
15
stopped work,and sat in the shade,moving around behind chimney stacks. A woman came to
water a yellow window box opposite them. She was middleaged,wearing a flowered summer
dress. Stanley said to her:“We need a drink more than them. ”She smiled and said:“Better
drop down to the pub quick,itll be closing in a minute. ”They exchanged pleasantries,and she
left them with a smile and a wave.
“Not like Lady Godiva ,”said Stanley. “She can give us a bit of a chat and a smile. ”
16
quickly. But there was no chance of being left. The other two decided to knock off work at
, ,
four because they were exhausted. As they went down Tom quickly climbed a parapet and
hoisted himself higher by pulling his weight up a chimney. He caught a glimpse of her lying on
, , ,
her back her knees up eyes closed a brown woman lolling in the sun18 . He slipped and
,
clattered down as Stanley looked for information :“Shes gone down,”he said. He felt as if he
,
had protected her from Stanley and that she must be grateful to him. He could feel the bond
between the woman and himself.
, ,
Next day they stood around on the landing below the roof reluctant to climb up into the
115
heat. The woman who had lent Harry the blanket came out and offered them a cup of tea. They
, ,
accepted gratefully and sat around Mrs. Pritchetts kitchen an hour or so chatting. She was
, ,
married to an airline pilot. A smart blonde of about thirty she had an eye for the handsome
sharpfaced Stanley ;and the two teased each other while Harry sat in a corner,watching,
,
indulgent though his expression reminded Stanley that he was married. And young Tom felt
; , ,
envious of Stanleys ease in badinage19 felt too that Stanleys getting off with Mrs. Pritchett
left his romance with the woman on the roof safe and intact.
“I thought they said the heat waved break,”said Stanley,sullen,as the time approached
when they really would have to climb up into the sunlight.
“You dont like it,then?”asked Mrs. Pritchett.
“All right for some,”said Stanley. “Nothing to do but lie about as if it was a beach up
there. Do you ever go up? ”
“Went up once,”said Mrs. Pritchett. “But its a dirty place up there,and its too hot. ”
“Quite right too,”said Stanley.
Then they went up,leaving the cool neat little flat and the friendly Mrs. Pritchett.
As soon as they were up they saw her. The three men looked at her,resentful at her ease in
this punishing sun. Then Harry said,because of the expression on Stanleys face:“Come on,
weve got to pretend to work,at least. ”
They had to wrench another length of guttering that ran beside a parapet out of its bed,so
that they could replace it. Stanley took it in his two hands,tugged,swore,stood up. “Fuck
it,”he said,and sat down under a chimney. He lit a cigarette. “Fuck them,”he said. “What
do they think we are,lizards?Ive got blisters all over my hands. ”Then he jumped up and
climbed over the roofs and stood with his back to them. He put his fingers either side of his
, ,
mouth and let out a shrill whistle. Tom and Harry squatted not looking at each other watching
,
him. They could just see the womans head the beginnings of her brown shoulders. Stanley
,
whistled again. Then he began stamping with his feet and whistled and yelled and screamed at
, ,
the woman his face getting scarlet. He seemed quite mad as he stamped and whistled while,
,
the woman did not move she did not move a muscle.
“Barmy,”said Tom.
“Yes,”said Harry,disapproving.
, ,
Suddenly the older man came to a decision. It was Tom knew to save some sort of
scandal or real trouble over the woman. Harry stood up and began packing tools into a length of
oily cloth.“Stanley,”he said,commanding. At first Stanley took no notice,but Harry said:
“Stanley,were packing it in,Ill tell Matthew. ”
Stanley came back,cheeks mottled,eyes glaring.
“Cant go on like this,”said Harry. “Itll break in a day or so. Im going to tell Matthew
weve got sunstroke,and if he doesnt like,its too bad. ”Even Harry sounded aggrieved,Tom
116
Unit 12 ( —2013) 多丽丝·莱辛
Doris Lessing 1919
, , ,
noted. The small competent man the family man with his gray hair who was never at a loss ,
sounded really off balance. “Come on,”he said,angry. He fitted himself into the open square
in the roof,and went down,watching his feet on the ladder. Then Stanley went,with not a
glance at the woman. Then Tom,who,his throat beating with excitement,silently promised
her on a backward glance:Wait for me,wait,Im coming.
On the pavement Stanley said:“Im going home. ”He looked white now,so perhaps he
really did have sunstroke. Harry went off to find the foreman,who was at work on the plumbing
of some flats down the street. Tom slipped back,not into the building they had been working
on,but the building on whose roof the woman lay. He went straight up,no one stopping him.
The skylight stood open,with an iron ladder leading up. He emerged on to the roof a couple of
yards from her. She sat up,pushing back her black hair with both hands. The scarf across her
breasts bound them tight,and brown flesh bulged around it. Her legs were brown and smooth.
She stared at him in silence. The boy stood grinning,foolish,claiming the tenderness he
expected from her.
“What do you want?”she asked.
“I 爥 I came to 爥 make your acquaintance,”he stammered,grinning,pleading with her.
They looked at each other,the slight,scarletfaced excited boy,and the serious,nearly
naked woman. Then,without a word,she lay down on her brown blanket,ignoring him.
“You like the sun,do you?”he enquired of her glistening back.
Not a word. He felt panic,thinking of how she had held him in her arms,stroked his hair,
brought him where he sat,lordly,in her bed,a glass of some exhilarating liquor he had never
tasted in life. He felt that if he knelt down,stroked her shoulders,her hair,she would turn and
clasp him in her arms.
He said :“The suns all right for you,isnt it?”
She raised her head,set her chin on two small fists. “Go away, ”she said. He did not
move. “Listen, ”she said,in a slow reasonable voice,where anger was kept in check,though
with difficulty;looking at him,her face weary with anger,“if you get a kick out of seeing
20
women in bikinis,why dont you take an sixpenny bus ride to the Lido ?Youd see dozens of
21
118 位贵妇,传说为了使丈夫减免考文垂(Coventry)的苛捐杂税,她赤身露体骑马从街上走过。
Unit 12 ( —2013) 多丽丝·莱辛
Doris Lessing 1919
裁缝汤姆偷看了一眼,顿时遭到报应,双目失明。Peeping Tom(偷窥者)由此而来。
17. the hot spell was due to break:高温期快要结束。
18. lolling in the sun :懒洋洋地躺在太阳下。
19. badinage:(法语)开玩笑,取笑逗乐。
20. get a kick out of doing sth :因做某事而感到快乐或刺激。
21. Lido :意大利威尼斯著名的海滨浴场,这里指伦敦海德公园的一处。
22. fixed :(口)惩罚
119
20 th Century British Poets
Unit 13 20 世纪英国诗人
( —1985 )
Philip Larkin 1922
菲利普·拉金
Biography
, , ,
Philip Larkin an English poet novelist and librarian was born in
Coventry and educated at home until the age of eight by his mother and
sister. He was a representative of the Movement School (运动派). When
he graduated from Oxford University in 1943 ,he became a librarian,a
post he held all his life. In 1945 ,he published his first book of poetry,
The North Ship and he came to prominence in 1955 with the publication
, ,
of his second collection of poems The Less Deceived followed by The
Whitsun Weddings (1964 )and High Windows (1974 ). He won many
honors including the Queens Gold Medal for Poetry. He was offered,but declined,the position
of Poet Laureate in 1984.
Major Works
( )《北方船》
The North Ship 1945
The Less Deceived (1955 )《少受欺骗者》
The Whitsun Weddings (1964 )《降灵节婚礼》
High Windows (1974 )《高窗》
“
About The Tree ”
120 The poem shows Larkins poetic style —very strict meter (rhyming abba,cddc,effe)with
Unit 13 20 th Century British Poets 20 世纪英国诗人
, ,
straightforward chatty diction. Larkin starts with optimism yet he undermines the optimism as
,
the stanza goes on but it ends with optimism. Personification and comparison are mainly used
to compare the life and cycles of a tree to human experiences in the poem. Enjambment (跨行连
续)is used too to undermine the optimism. As the outer layers are reborn,the inner layers are
still growing old. (As it “is written down in the rings of grain ”). It is a false facade or a
“mask”which hides the truth,and like humans,as they begin new experiences / chapters in their
lives,their old experiences are still with them. What an individual experiences is what makes
them who they are. Like trees,people will not fully lose their personal experiences (and the
skills they may have learnt from it),the valuable experiences will collect inside them like “rings
of grain”.
◆◆◆!"# !(##◆◆◆
Notes
1. rings of grain:年轮
2. unresting :动个不停的
3. thresh :猛力扭动,摔打
121
Ted Hughes 1930 ( —1998 )
特德·休斯
Biography
Edward James “Ted”Hughes was an English poet and childrens
writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his
,
generation and one of the twentieth centurys greatest writers. He served
as Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death.
,
Hughes was born in Yorkshire and raised among the local farms.
Hughes loved hunting and fishing,swimming and picnicking with his
family. While attending middle schools,he was encouraged to write by his teachers, and
developed his interest in poetry. Hughess first collection,The Hawk in the Rain (1957 )
attracted considerable critical acclaim. In 1959 he won the Galbraith prize which brought $ 5 ,
000. His most significant work is perhaps Crow (1970 ),which whilst it has been widely
praised,also divided critics,combining an apocalyptic,bitter,cynical and surreal view of the
universe with what sometimes appeared simple,childlike verse.
Hughes was married to American poet Sylvia Plath from 1956 until her suicide in 1963 at
the age of 30. His part in the relationship became controversial to some feminists and some
American admirers of Plath. His last poetic work,Birthday Letters (1998 ),explored their
complex relationship. These poems make reference to Plaths suicide, but none addresses
directly the circumstances of her death.
Major Works
? 18 collections of poems
The Hawk in the Rain 1957 ( )《雨中鹰》
: (
Crow From the Life and Songs of the Crow epic narrative 1970 , )
Season Songs 1976 ( )
( )
River 1983
( )
Flowers and Insects 1986
Birthday Letters (1998 )
? 9 volumes of translation
? 2 shortstory collections
? over 20 books for children
? 16 plays
122
Unit 13 20 th Century British Poets 20 世纪英国诗人
Hughess Style in General
, , ,
1. concrete terse emphatic economical yet powerful
2. natural,masculine and wild—mixture of beauty and violence in the natural world
3. mythic,modern,Jungian and ecological
4. simple and compendious with brutal,plain and direct language
5. full use of images and symbols,irony,purposeful repetition,hard facts of things
6. perfect fusion of tradition and modernism
“
About Hawk Roosting ”
, ,
Hughess earlier poetic work is rooted in nature and in particular the innocent savagery of
animals. He wrote frequently of the mixture of beauty and violence in the natural world.
:
Animals serve as a metaphor for his view on life animals live out a struggle for the survival of
the fittest in the same way that humans strive for ascendancy and success. “Hawk Roosting”and
“Jaguar”are such examples.
In “Hawk Roosting”,Ted Hughes describes a feral land where the predatory nature of the
grim animal excels and the absolute power of primitive violence stands out. He personifies the
, ,
hawk describing it as a survivor and a killer. Physically strong and powerful the hawk also
,
enjoys a kind of mental superiority thinking of himself as a perfect creature from heaven. Like
a God ,he has power over life and death. Hughes compares the hawks freedom to act on
,
instinct with the way we are ruled by thoughts arguments and regulations.
,
The hawks attitude is arrogant and selfconceited as he sees himself as like a king a god
,
or an executioner yet Hughess attitude is more difficult to tell. He leaves the poem open for
the reader to decide on how to react to this fierce spirit.
◆◆◆.%K? <11-'5&8◆◆◆
《栖息之鹰》
,
I sit in the top of the wood my eyes closed. 闭上双眼,立于丛林之巅,
, 1
Inaction no falsifying dream 纹丝不动,梦境毫无虚幻:
Between my hooked head and hooked feet : 弯喙啄刺,勾爪挥舞,
Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat. 把捕杀的绝技演练。
The convenience of the high trees ! 服帖的大树高耸云端,
2
The airs buoyancy and the suns ray 御风展翅,沐浴太阳的光焰;
Are of advantage to me ; 一切便利各尽其用,
And the earths face upward for my inspection. 我来巡视大地仰卧的容颜。 123
My feet are locked upon the rough bark3 . 或者利爪紧扣粗糙的树皮,
It took the whole of Creation 或者羽翼扇动直冲蓝天;
,
To produce my foot my each feather : 这爪与翅由造物尽心造化,
Now I hold Creation in my foot 如今反倒将造物掌管。
,
Or fly up and revolve it all slowly — 我把地球慢慢拨转,
I kill where I please because it is all mine. 生杀全由喜怒裁判;
:
There is no sophistry4 in my body 无须辩术掩饰遮盖,
My manners are tearing off heads— 我的作风就是把头颅掐断———
The allotment5 of death. 直插活物的骨骼,
For the one path of my flight is direct 冲刺疾如闪电;
Through the bones of the living. 就这样分配死亡,
No arguments assert my right : 无须废话论证我的王权。
The sun is behind me. 把太阳置于背后,
Nothing has changed since I began. 万事万物此生从无变换;
My eye has permitted no change. 眼里容不下丝毫更改,
I am going to keep things like this. 我要维持现状直到永远。
Questions for Discussion
1. How does the poet describe the appearance of the hawk ?
“
2. What do you think of the line I kill where I please because it is all mine ”?
Notes
1. falsifying :伪造的,作假的
2. buoyancy:浮力
3. bark:树皮
4. sophistry:谬论,诡辩
5. allotment:分配
124
125
Literary Background Information
Colonial literature Owing to the large immigration to Boston in the 1630s ,the high
,
articulation of Puritan cultural ideals and the early establishment of a college and a printing
,
press in Cambridge the New England colonies have often been regarded as the center of early
American literature. The popular literary forms include sermons , meditations, theological
, , , , ,
treaties journals diaries biography autobiography lyric poetry and even letters and reports.
( —1631 ),William
The early governors and religious leaders such as Captain John Smith 1580
Bradford (1590 —1657 ),John Winthrop (1588 —1649 ),Cotton Mather (1663 —1728 ) are
considered Americas greatest historians who contribute a large number of historical works as
well as religious sermons. Captain John Smith is considered the first American author with his 8
:
books in all reports of exploration A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note
as Hath Happened in Virginia 爥 (1608 )and The General Historie of Virginia,New England,
and the Summer Isles (1624 ). And the latter contains the most famous tale of how the Indian
princess Pocahontas (1595 —1617 )saved him from the wrath of her father Powhatan by laying
her head upon Smiths when the Indians were about “to beat out his brains. ”Anne Bradstreet
(1612—1672 ),Edward Taylor (1642—1729 ),Michael Wigglesworth (1631—1705 )were
outstanding poets at that time. Bradstreets first volume of poetry The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung
,
Up in America published in 1650 was met with a positive reception in both the Old World and
the New World. “Huswifery”,“Upon a Spider Catching a Fly”,“Souls Groan”and “Christs
”
Reply are some of Taylors famous poems.
Revolutionary literature The puritans lives suffered many disruptions in the more secular
Age of the Democratic Revolution. Bostons commercial growth transformed manners and
; ;
morals witchcraft trials weakened trust in the ministry and public officials new rationalistic
;
philosophies associated with the Enlightenment came from abroad the Massachusetts charter was
issued to claim a royal possession of New England. The fervent Puritan hope for self
transformation became the American passion for selfimprovement. Between 1739 and 1742
,
there appeared religious revivals the Great Awakening. The doctrinal target of the Awakening
preachers was that man can earn his own salvation ,which shifted the focus from God to
individuals. Thus the Awakening was seen as the fountainhead of American national self
consciousness and marked Americas leap into modernity. The freedom of mind helped to forge
the demand for national sovereignty. From the 1760s pamphlets and newspaper essays underwent
a secular transformation by which the quest for salvation was translated into the pursuit of
126
Literary Background Information
liberty. Many intellectuals believed that the human mind could comprehend the universe through
,
the laws of physics as described by Isaac Newton. Benjamin Franklin was a scientist man of
,
letters and statesman as one of Americas most influential Founding Fathers whose colorful life
and legacy of scientific and political achievement won him many titles and countless cultural
references. Franklin retained a lifelong commitment to the Puritan virtues and political values he
, ,
had grown up with and through his civic work and publishing he succeeded in passing these
values into the American culture permanently. His successful experience has been exerting great
, ,
influence on American people in their attitudes to life career morality and values. His Poor
Ricards Almanac and The Autobiography have been the popular reading books for hundreds of
, ,
years. The revolutionary period also contained political essays debates and speeches such as
,
Thomas Paines Common Sense and The American Crisis Thomas Jeffersons Declaration of
, ,
Independence The Federalist Papers coauthored by Alexander Hamilton James Madison and
,
John Jay. During the revolution itself poems and songs such as Yankee Doodle and Nathan
Hale were popular. Major satirists included John Trumbull and Francis Hopkinson. Philip Morin
, ,
Freneau wrote poems about Indians flowers and plants in North America and the wars course.
William Hill Browns The Power of Sympathy (1789 )was considered as the first American
novel.
American Romanticism From the early 19 th century , American scholars such as
lexicographer Noah Webster advocated the national identity (characteristic ) of American
literature,“America must be as independent in literature as she is in politics,as famous for the
arts as for arms. ”Romantic writers stressed on imagination and feelings,opposed classic forms
and views,praised nature and individual common man. They celebrated American landscape,
presented the optimism and enthusiasm of the American people. Washington Irving (1783 —
1859 ),James Fenimore Cooper(1789 —1851 )and William Cullen Bryant(1794 —1878 )are
pioneers of American romanticism who tried their pen at the unique American style. Irving is
good at short stories. Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy hollow from The Sketch Book
enjoy great popularity. Rip Van Winkle becomes the first antihero in American literature.
Coopers novels include historical stories ,adventures and frontier saga. The pentalogy The
Leatherstocking Tales includes The Deerslayer,The Last of Mohicans,The Pathfinder,The
Pioneers and The Prairie,in which there appears an archetypal character—Natty Bumppo who
refuses all tradition,flights into nature from society for spiritual freedom. Bryant is the first
American poet admired by English poetic circle. His famous poems such as To a Waterfowl,
The Yellow Violet describe American landscape,birds and flowers,eulogize nature and its
revelation,celebrate this life (not afterlife ) and affirm the optimistic pursuit of American
people.
New England area is usually considered as the center of American romantic movement.
With the founding of the Transcendental Club and the publication of Ralph Waldo Emerson
127
(1803—1882 )s Nature in 1836,Transcendentalism becomes a coherent movement and a
sacred organization. Emerson claims it is possible to dispense with organized religion and reach
a lofty spiritual state by studying and responding to the natural world. Transcendentalism
advocates intuition , opposes ration and authority , takes that man is able to know truth
, ,
instinctively to acquire knowledge by transcending feelings so man is part of the OverSoul
(the great universal soul )—an allpervading power from which all things come from and of
which all are a part. Nature is the language of God,expression of Gods idea,revelation of
truth. Transcendentalists believe that society and its institutions ultimately corrupt the purity of
the individual ,and have faith that people are at their best when truly “selfreliant ” and
independent because there exists the inherent goodness in both people and nature. Besides
, ,
Nature Emersons other works such as SelfReliance The American Scholar influence many
people. Emersons most gifted fellowthinker is perhaps Henry David Thoreau 1817 ( —1862),
a resolute nonconformist. After living mostly by himself for two years in a cabin by a wooded
, ,
pond Thoreau wrote Walden a booklength memoir that urges resistance to the meddlesome
dictates of organized society. His radical writings express a deeprooted tendency toward
individualism in the American character. Thoreau opposes the AmericaMexico War (1846—
1848 )and condemns slavery in the south.
(1819—1891 ),Henry Wadsworth
New England poets such as James Russell Lowell
Longfellow (1807 —1882 ), and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809 —1894 ) are called
“Brahmins in Boston ”. Lowell and John Greenleaf Whittier (1807—1892 ) are the known
abolitionist poets. Harriet Beecher Stowes worldfamous Uncle Toms Cabin is another
abolitionist novel.
Walt Whitman (1819—1892 )and Emily Dickinson (1830—1886 ),two of Americas
greatest 19thcentury poets could hardly have been more different in temperament and style.
, ,
Whitman a poetic innovator and poet of the body published magnum opus Leaves of Grass in ,
which he uses a freeflowing verse and lines of irregular length to depict the allinclusiveness of
, ,
American democracy. Emily Dickinson on the other hand lived the sheltered life of a genteel
unmarried woman in smalltown Amherst ,Massachusetts. Within its formal structure,her
poetry is ingenious,witty,exquisitely wrought,and psychologically penetrating. Her work was
unconventional for its day.
,
Besides Irvings comic fables and Coopers frontier adventures the fiction of this period is
an original and diverse body of work,which ranges from the psychological romances of
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 —1864 ) to the narrative quests of Herman Melville (1819 —
1891 ),from the Gothic tales of Edgar Allan Poe (1809 —1849 ) to the social realism of
Rebecca Harding Davis (1831 —1910 ). A preoccupation with the Calvinistic view of Original
Sin and the mystery of evil marked the works of Hawthorne and Melville. To Emerson and
128
,
Thoreau man is divine in nature and therefore forever perfectible ;but to Hawthorne and
Literary Background Information
, ,
Melville everybody is potentially a sinner and great moral courage is therefore indispensable
,
for the improvement of human nature. Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter The House of the Seven
, , , ,
Gables The Ministers Black Veil Young Goodman Brown The Birthmark and Rappaccinis
Daughter share a similar theme —evil in human heart and pride of intellect. Hawthornes fiction
has a profound impact on his friend Herman Melville who goes on to write romances replete with
,
philosophical speculation. In MobyDick an adventurous whaling voyage becomes the vehicle
for examining such themes as obsession,the nature of evil,and human struggle against the
elements.
,
Among the American romantic writers Edgar Allan Poe emerges from the Old South “ ”,
yet few of his works feature Southern locales and characters. He constructs his work around the
central issue of unconscious psychological revelation and is fascinated with death,violence,
perversity and madness. Ligeia,The Fall of the House of Usher,The Cask of Amontillado are
good examples. Poe is also a poet and the first American literary theorist. But he was not given
much attention to when he was alive though he published more than 100 short stories and two
books on literary theory. His conception of overall effect and precise denouement is quite
, ,
influential. Antitranscendental works from Melville Hawthorne and Poe all comprise the Dark
Romanticism subgenre of literature popular during this time.
American realism (1865—1918 )After the Civil War a systematic program of national
consolidation and expansion was carried out,committed the country to the most rapid material,
industrial, technological development. The epochdefining processes made possible the
nationalization ,the incorporation and the reinstitutionalization of American life and culture. The
rules of social action had somehow changed. There appeared heavy European immigration and
significant movements of the population from rural to urban areas. The city appeared as part of
the national network of modernization actualized by new railroad lines and telegraph wires. A
new gulf had opened between the advantaged and disadvantaged , and an oppressive
consciousness of displacement and separation lay in wait for nearly everybody unadaptable to the
profitoriented business world. American realism was a developing series of responses to such
,
changes and designated an art based on the accurate unromanticized observation of life and
,
nature. In a world increasingly defined by technology and labor flawlessly sketched landscapes
,
of the local colorists came to seem a lost world. Vernacular writing by Mark Twain Sarah Orne
,
Jewett Mary E. Wilkins Freeman ,Joel Chandler Harris,Kate Chopin and Willa Cather
,
manifests that realistic literature must embody the race the milieu and the historical moment of
its author. In their often nostalgic attention to diverse regional customs eroded by standardized
,
urban society they share with British writers like Thomas Hardy that a works realism resides
both in its local details and in the larger transfigurations of national ideology to which it
responds.
William Dean Howells (181837—1920 ),Mark Twain (1835—1910 )and Henry James
(1843—1916 ) are considered the three most important representatives of realism. Howells 129
probes the decay of moral values that seems to accompany the industrialization of agrarian
, “ , ,
America. In his view fiction must be true to motives the impulses the principles that shape
the life of actual men and women ”;while it should be infused with an ethical sense that will
counter the materialism of contemporary life. The Rise of Silas Lapham is his best novel. Mark
Twain is the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. His masterpieces include Life on the
,
Mississippi Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twains style —
influenced by journalism ,wedded to the vernacular,direct and unadorned but also highly
evocative and irreverently humorous—changed the way Americans write their language. His
characters speak like real people and sound distinctively American,using local dialects,newly
invented words,and regional accents. Ernest Hemingway once said,“All modern American
literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Its the
best book weve had. ”Henry James confronted the Old WorldNew World dilemma by writing
directly about it. Although born in New York City,he spent most of his adult years in England.
Many of his novels center on Americans who live in or travel to Europe. With its intricate,
highly qualified sentences and dissection of emotional and psychological nuance,Jamess fiction
can be daunting. Among his more accessible works are the novellas Daisy Miller,about an
enchanting American girl in Europe,and The Turn of the Screw,an enigmatic ghost story.
The naturalists committed themselves to the premise of “absolute determinism ” that
individuals are no longer morally independent but succumbed to the logic of heredity and
environment and they wrote novels in which conditions dictated events. Stephen Crane (1871 —
1900 ), Frank Norris (1870 —1902 ), Jack London (1876 —1916 ) and Theodore Dreiser
(1871—1945)incorporated these assumptions into their works,analyzing social systems that
destroy and dehumanize, and individual trajectories of failure or success. Despite all the
changes ,the confidence about being an American permeated the entire period. Cranes The Red
Badge of Courage is about the Civil War,and Maggie:A Girl of the Streets depicted the life of
New York City prostitutes. Theodore Dreiser,in Sister Carrie,portrayed a country girl who
moves to Chicago and becomes a kept woman. Frank Norris and Hamlin Garland wrote about
the problems of American farmers and other social issues at the turn of the century.
The role of black writers in American realism was special. Charles Chesnutt , Paul
,
Luarence Dunbar W. E. B. Du Bois and Thomas Nelson Page not only added a distinctive
,
voice to American fiction but also challenged the extent of democratic freedoms through their
assimilation.
There appeared some more directly political writings that discussed social issues and power
of corporations. Some like Edward Bellamy in Looking Backward outlined other possible
,
political and social frameworks. Upton Sinclair most famous for his muckraking novel The
,
Jungle advocated socialism. Other political writers of the period included Edwin Markham ,
William Vaughn Moody. Journalistic critics ,including Ida M. Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens
130 ,
were labeled The Muckrakers. Henry Brooks Adams literate autobiography The Education of
Literary Background Information
Henry Adams also depicted a stinging description of the education system and modern life.
By the 19 th century the new woman demanded attention as a powerful socialliterary figure.
—independent,outspoken,iconoclastic—empowered the work
From the 1890s the new woman
of Kate Chopin,Alice James,Charlotte Perkins Gillman,Edith Wharton,Willa Cather and
Gertrude Stein. The new woman is not content to continue the duality nor to sustain its terms of
conformity and concealment. Such new fiction met hostile reception from both distinguished
male writers and conservative women writers in defense of tradition. They opposed the new
woman by proclaiming the sacred doctrines of domesticity. Kate Chopin 1851 ( —1904 ),a
forerunner of the 20 century feminist authors,published The Awakening in 1899 ,which is
th
widely seen as a landmark work of early feminism, generating a mixed reaction from
contemporary readers and critics. The novel focuses on womens issues without condescension
and is unique in its blend of realistic narrative,incisive social commentary,and psychological
complexity. Edith Wharton (1862 —1937 )carefully examined,in her stories and novels,the
upperclass,Easternseaboard society in which she had grown up. One of her finest books,The
Age of Innocence (1920 ),centers on a man who chooses to marry a conventional,socially
acceptable woman rather than a fascinating outsider. Willa Cather (1873 —1947 ) achieved
recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains,including O Pioneers!(1913 ),
The Song of the Lark (1915 ),and My ?ntonia (1918 ). Gertrude Stein (1874 —1946 ),by
then an expatriate in Paris,published Three Lives(1909 ),an innovative work of fiction in style
and form influenced by her familiarity with cubism,jazz,and other movements in contemporary
art and music.
Modernism (1918 —1945 )The 1920s,referred to as the “Roaring Twenties”or the “Jazz
Age ” because of the economic boom following World War Ⅰ, witnessed the economic
prosperity,radical political movements, inventions of planes, automobiles, and domestic
appliance such as color TV,electric razor,fridge,easy chair,hairdrier,all of which greatly
influenced peoples life. The intellectual awakening embraced a broad range of social issues:
education,feminism,Freudian psychology,birth control,penology (监狱管理学 ),industrial
unionism. Authors of the period struggled to understand the changes occurring in society. While
some writers praised the changes,others expressed disappointment in the passing of the old
ways. And experimentation in style and form soon joined the new freedom in subject matter.
Many writers belonged to the group which Gertrude Stein dubbed the “Lost Generation ”.
Besides Stein,E. E. Cummings (1894 —1962 ),Ernest Hemingway (1899 —1961 ),F. Scott
and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound (1885 —1972 ), John Dos Passos (1896 —1970 ), and
Sherwood Anderson(1876 —1941 )are the other expatriate writers in Paris or London.
American writers also expressed the disillusionment following upon the war. The stories
and novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 —1940 )capture the restless,pleasurehungry,defiant
mood of the 1920s. Fitzgeralds characteristic theme, expressed poignantly in The Great
Gatsby,is the tendency of youths golden dreams to dissolve in failure and disappointment. 131
Fitzgerald also elucidates the collapse of some key American Ideals ,such as liberty,social
, ,
unity good governance and peace features which were severely threatened by the pressures of
th
( —1951 )and Sherwood Anderson also
modern early 20 century society. Sinclair Lewis 1885
wrote novels with critical depictions of American life. Lewis was the first American who won
the Nobel Prize for literature in 1930 with his famous social satires like Main Street and Babbitt.
Babbitt is a nobody who cant escape the moneyfame worshiping vogue of the industrial
America and this name of his becomes a synonym of “vulgar snob ”. Anderson created a
,
Midwestern town placed by grotesques isolated both from each other and from themselves.
John Dos Passos wrote about the war and also the U. S. A. trilogy which extended into the
Depression.
Ernest Hemingway (1899—1961 )saw violence and death firsthand as an ambulance
driver in World War Ⅰ,and the carnage persuaded him that abstract language was mostly empty
and misleading. He cut out unnecessary words from his writing, simplified the sentence
structure,and concentrated on concrete objects and actions. He adhered to a moral code that
emphasized grace under pressure,and his protagonists were strong,silent men—Hemingway
Code Heroes. The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms are generally considered his best
novels. Hemingway called his style the Iceberg Theory:the facts float above water;the
supporting structure and symbolism operate out of sight. In 1954 ,Hemingway was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Literature for “his mastery of the art of narrative,most recently demonstrated in
The Old Man and the Sea,and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style”.
The onset of the Depression abruptly changed the debunking style prevalent in the 1920s.
Writers set out to explore and report the effects of the devastation on the population and to assess
the anger and bewilderment of ordinary Americans. The most sensational social protest novel in
( —1968)s The Grapes of the Wrath. Other popular novels
the 1930s was John Steinbeck 1902
include Tortilla Flat,Of Mice and Men,Cannery Row,and East of Eden. He was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962. Throughout the decade the theory and programs of the
Communist party attracted a considerable number of writers and intellectuals who expressed and
masked their personal anxieties in political metaphors and symbols. The Spanish civil war broke
,
out in 1936 after the forces of General Francisco Franco aided by Mussolini and Hitler. In the
next few years,the war prompted an outpouring of antifascist literature. The overwhelming
event in the forties was WW Ⅱ. Between 1941 and 1945 ,the entire country,including most
writers,donned real or metaphorical uniforms in “the fight for national survival. ”
Henry Miller assumed a unique place in American Literature in the 1930s when his semi
autobiographical novels,written and published in Paris,were banned from the US. Although his
major works,including Tropic of Cancer and Black Spring,would not be free of the label of
obscenity until 1962 ,their themes and stylistic innovations had already exerted a major influence
on succeeding generations of American writers,and paved the way for sexually frank 1960s
132 novels by John Updike,Philip Roth,Gore Vidal,John Rechy and William Styron.
Literary Background Information
“ ”
The belief in the heroism and morality of the Souths Lost Cause was a driving force in
“
Southern literature between the Civil War and World War Ⅰ. The Fugitives ”,
also called
“Southern Agrarians ”, a group of poets and critics including John Crowe Ransom Donald,
Davidson,Allen Tate,Robert Penn Warren,and others tried to defend the regionalism of
Southern literature,supporting the agrarian tradition in the South by opposing industrialization.
From the 1880s onwards,a few white Southern authors,such as George Washington Cable and
Mark Twain (considered a Southern writer because he grew up in the slave state of Missouri and
set many of his writings in the South )challenged readers by pointing out the exploitation of
blacks and ridiculing other Southern conventions of the time. And the satirist H. L. Mencken
even provoked other Southern writers to reassert Southern uniqueness and to explore more deeply
the theme of Southern identity. Such writers as William Faulkner 1897 ( —1962 ),Caroline
Gordon,Elizabeth Madox Roberts,Katherine Anne Porter,Allen Tate,Tennessee Williams,
Robert Penn Warren,and Zora Neale Hurston make important contributions to the Southern
Renaissance.
Faulkner encompassed an enormous range of humanity in Yoknapatawpha County, a
Mississippian region of his own invention. He recorded his characters seemingly unedited
ramblings in order to represent their inner states,a technique called “stream of consciousness”.
(In fact,these passages are carefully crafted,and their seemingly chaotic structure conceals
multiple layers of meaning. )He also jumbled time sequences to show how the pastespecially
the slaveholding era of the Deep South—endured in the present. Among his great works are
Absalom,Absalom! ,As I Lay Dying,The Sound and the Fury,and Light in August. He won
the Nobel Prize in 1949. Porter depicted the helplessness of a worn land and the loneliness,
guilt and sin of its people. Many Southern writers of the 1940s,50s,and 60s were inspired by
the writers of the Southern Renaissance,including Reynolds Price,James Dickey,Walker
Percy,Eudora Welty,Flannery OConnor,Carson McCullers,and Harper Lee (whose novel
To Kill a Mockingbird won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 ),along with many others.
The imagist poets notably Pound, Amy Lowell, William Carlos Williams and Hilda
Doolittle,rebelled against standard poetic material and forms as well as traditional expressions of
sense experience,advocating instead the direct presentation of feelings in exquisite images.
Pounds work is complex,sometimes obscure,with multiple references to other art forms and to
a vast range of literature,both Western and Eastern. He influenced many other poets,notably
T. S. Eliot (1888 —1965 ),another expatriate. Eliot wrote spare,cerebral poetry,carried by a
dense structure of symbols. In The Waste Land,he embodied a jaundiced vision of post—World
War Ⅰ society in fragmented,haunted images. Like Pounds,Eliots poetry could be highly
allusive. In 1948 ,Eliot won the Nobel Prize in Literature. During the same time,Robert Frost,
Vachel Lindsay,and Carl Sandburg created different kinds of modernist poetry. Frost,for
example,adopted traditional forms but used colloquial language and the subject matter of
everyday life, showing disbelief in a stable religious faith. E. E. Cummings combined 133
typographic and grammatical experimentation with romantic humanism and occasional social
commentary. Wallace Stevens started his lifelong phenomenology of discourse about the
imagination.
,
American drama attained international status only in the 1920s and 1930s with the works
( —1953),who won four Pulitzer Prizes and the Nobel Prize. He was
of Eugene ONeill 1888
generally acclaimed as Americas greatest dramatist who sprawled realistic plays with an epic
dimension. Long Days Journey into Night is often numbered on the short list of the finest
,
American plays in the 20th century alongside Tennessee Williamss A Streetcar Named Desire
and Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman. ONeills plays are among the first to include
speeches in American vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society. They struggle
,
to maintain their hopes and aspirations but ultimately slide into disillusionment and despair.
Nearly all his plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism.
Black writers appearing in the Harlem Renaissance ,including Jean Toomer,Claude
Mekay,James Weldon Johnson,Langston Hughes Countee Cullen,Sterling A. Brown,Zora
Neale Hurstonwere productive and influential,expressing their black pride and recognizing their
independent and oppositional cultural force. They rejected merely imitating the style of
Europeans and white Americans and instead explored the historical experiences of black America
and the contemporary experiences of black life in the urban North. Another important black
( —1960 ),whose social protest novel Native Son (1940 )tells
writer was Richard Wright 1908
the story of Bigger Thomas,a Black man struggling for acceptance in Chicago.
Mexican American literature took shape in the context of a hybrid frontier environment.
Across the Southwest, Mexican Americans maintained Mexican traditions in response to
irresistible Anglo influences and developed a distinctive culture and literature. Eusebio Chacón
was the most respected Mexican novelist. Asian American writing mirrored the evolving self
image and consciousness of an often misunderstood and increasingly significant racial minority
group. Writers recorded the experiences of Asians in the United States and gave powerful
expression to individual experiences and perceptions. The bestknown writer was Lin Yutang.
,
Women writers of the period suffered conflict repression and decline. While the shift from the
feminist to the flapper as the womanly ideal caused anxiety for women planning literary careers
,
in the 1920s and 1930s the reaction against the feminine voice in American literature in the
colleges and professional associations made the decades more difficult. Despite all the setbacks
, ,Marianne Moore,produced an important body of
women writers such as Gertrude Stein H. D.
work that has finally become influential.
Contemporary literature (1945 —)Postwar American history takes place in the context of
two overwhelming developments:the international leadership of America in terms of economy
and the growth of a postindustrial society. The first determines the political shape of America
while the second determines its social structure. With the emergence of notable writers who are
, ,
America continually reawakens the myths of the melting pot upward mobility and a free and
enlightened public. After the war,many writers deserted their old practice of “socialist realism”
in the 1930s,in part because of the recognition of the horrors of the Soviet state and a renewed
patriotism. Then in the 1960s,revolutionary texts exploded. The subjects included:race and
ethnicity ;sex,sexuality and gender;war,political violence and economic exploitation;and the
destruction of nature. In turn,these statements altered culture in the United States in the 1970s
and 1980s. After 1945 ,blacks had been Americas most formidable voices of protest. During
the 1960s,three other racial groups forcefully claimed literary space:the Native American,the
Hispanic,Puerto Rican and Mexican American,and Asian American. Such women of color,
including Alice Walker,June Jordan,Toni Morrison,Lorraine Hansberry,Maya Angelou,
Gwendolyn Brooks,Margaret Walker,and Zora Neale Hurston claimed a legacy:their own
history,their own communal,familial and linguistic memories. Writing both race and gender,
they rejected,adapted and helped to create the insights and images of the New Feminism that
began in the 1960s. In the 1970s,Adrienne Rich explored lesbianism. Homosexuality had
been considered sinful,criminal and illegal.
During much of the 1960s,one focus of radical literature was war and peace. Rich,Susan
Sontag,Mary McCarthy,Denise Levertov,Grace Paley,Robert Bly used literature to argue
against the Vietnam War. In the 1980s,radical literature exposed American force in Central
America. Some of the wilder elements of the “youth movement”,such as distrust of structure
and rationality,trust of sexuality,a preference for musical over literary texts,a delight in
costumes and performances,drug use were antecedents of Punk sensibility and writing. A
related form of protest,the ecology movement,spoke of the destruction of nature,of the
biological and physical world. In the late 1960s and 1970s,a major strand of radical feminism
fused ecological and feminist thinking. Such writing promised that nature would survive if
women were to liberate and empower themselves.
The beat poets including Allen Ginsberg , Philip Lamantia , Michael , as
McClure
oppositional forces became visible in the 1950s. They boldly combined the mystical, the
political and the physiological and proclaimed naked selfexpression and spontaneous
, , ,
composition. Drugs madness Jazz extreme experiences of all kinds were sought to dislocate
ordinary into visionary consciousness. Ginsberg set the tone of the movement in his poem Howl,
a Whitmanesque work that began:“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness
爥”Among the most representative achievements of the Beats in the novel are Jack Kerouacs
On the Road (1957 ),the chronicle of a soulsearching travel through the continent,and
William S. Burroughss Naked Lunch (1959 ),a more experimental work structured as a series
of vignettes relating,among other things,the narrators travels and experiments with hard
drugs.
Like the beat poets,the confessional poets,most notably John Berryman,Robert Lowell,
Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath,repudiated the orthodoxies of the 1950s. They probe psychic 135
,
wounds and sought emotional catharsis. Unlike the beats the confessional poets had a wide and
deep impact on contemporary poetry by creating an atmosphere of permission for the use of
intense personal emotion amd autobiographical subjects. The Black Mountain poets were
,
socially and closely knit with Charles Olson as its center. Although both beat and confessional
,
poets have placed a new emphasis on physical experience they stress the pain and make it the
subject of their poetry. Olson makes artistic creation a physiological process.
,
Regarding the war novel specifically there was a literary explosion in America during the
post —WWⅡ era. Some best known works produced included Norman Mailers The Naked and
the Dead (1948 ),Joseph Hellers Catch22 (1961 )and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. s Slaughterhouse
Five (1969 ). The Moviegoer(1962 ),by Southern author Walker Percy,winner of the National
Book Award,was his attempt at exploring “the dislocation of man in the modern age. ” In
contrast,John Updike (1932 —2009 )approached American life from a more reflective but no
less subversive perspective. His Rabbit series,Rabbit Run (1960 ),Rabbit Redux (1970 ),
Rabbit is Rich (1981 )and Rabbit at Rest (1990 ),Rabbit Remembered (2001 )describe the
rising and falling fortunes of Harry “Rabbit”Angstrom.
The revival of realism came in the postwar years and directed the novel form. Historical
process had played a powerful part in American neorealist fiction. The writers including Saul
( —2005 ), J. D. Salinger (1919—2010 ), Bernard Malamud (1914—1986 ),
Bellow 1915
Norman Mailer (1923 —2007 ), Joseph Heller (1923 —1999 ), Herbert Gold (1924 —),
Raymond Carver (1838 —1988 ), Joyce Carol Oates (1938 —), Toni Morrison (1931 —),
Robert Stone (1937 —2015 ) and Richard Ford (1944 —) presented the anxiety, the
consciousness of modern nihilism and the desire for moral recovery. In the 1960s and 1970s
there appeared selfreflexive fiction that explicitly concerns itself with the process of narration,
writing and composition. It establishes a relation between author and text,and therefore relates
to the writing process and allows the reader to witness the interplay between author and creation.
Writers use such tools as parody,irony,digression,playfulness to demystify the illusionary
aspect of the story. William Burroughs,Flannery OConnor,John Hawkes,Kurt Vonnegut,
Jr. ,John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Coover and Donald Barthelme are outstanding
representatives. Writers from various cultural origins have emerged and are still surfacing,
bringing about a literature of mixed cultural identities. Such writers include E. L. Doctorow,
Robert Stone,Don Delillo,Maxine Hong Kingston,Amy Tan,Frank Chin,Alice Walker,
Maya Angelou,Rita Dove,August Wilson,Philip Roth,Leslie M. Silko,Louise Erdrich,
Americo Paredes,and Denise Chaves.
The early twentieth century saw the appearance of two pioneering Jewish American
novels:Abraham Cahans The Rise of David Levinsky and Henry Roths Call it Sleep. It reached
some of its most mature expression in the 20th century “Jewish American novels ” by Saul
Bellow,J. D. Salinger,Norman Mailer,Bernard Malamud,Chaim Potok,and Philip Roth
136 (1933—). Their work explored the conflicting pulls between secular society and Jewish
Literary Background Information
tradition. Bellow won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1976 for his great works including The
, , ,
Adventures of Augie March Henderson the Rain King Herzog Mr. Sammlers Planet Seize ,
,
the Day Humboldts Gift and Ravelstein. Salingers The Catcher in the Rye was an immediate
popular success. His depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence in the protagonist
Holden Caulfield was influential. Philip Roth is one of the most awardwinning U. S. writers of
his generation. Eight of Philip Roths 28 novels and short stories have been adapted as films :
, ; ; ; ,
Goodbye Columbus Portnoys Complaint The Human Stain The Dying Animal which was
adapted as the movie Elegy;The Humbling;Indignation;and the upcoming American Pastoral.
In addition,The Ghost Writer was adapted for television in 1984.
Postwar AfricanAmerican literature was colorful. James Baldwins semiautobiographical
( )tells the story of John Grimes,an intelligent teenager
novel Go Tell It on the Mountain 1953
,
in 1930s Harlem and his relationship to his family and his church. Ralph Ellisons Invisible
( )
Man 1952 won the National Book Award in 1953. Lorraine Hansberrys play A Raisin in the
Sun(1959 )focuses on a poor Black family living in Chicago and it won the 1959 New York
Drama Critics Circle Award. A number of important essays and books about human rights were
written by the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King ,Jrs Letter from
Birmingham Jail and Malcolm Xs The Autobiography of Malcolm X are the leading examples.
,
The Civil Rights time period also saw the rise of female Black poets most notably Gwendolyn
,
Brooks who became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize when it was awarded
, ,
for her 1949 book of poetry Annie Allen. Along with Brooks other female poets who became
well known during the 1950s and 60s are Nikki Giovanni and Sonia Sanchez. In 1982 Alice ,
Walker won both the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for her novel The Color
( ),which tells the story of Celie,a young woman who is sexually abused by her
Purple 1982
stepfather and then is forced to marry a man who physically abuses her. Toni Morrisons
Beloved won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988 and she is the first African American to win
the Nobel Prize in Literature.
In the middle of the 20th century ,American drama was dominated by the work of
playwrights Tennessee Williams (1911 —1983 )and Arthur Miller (1915 —2005 ),as well as
by the maturation of the American musical,which had found a way to integrate script,music
and dance in such works as Oklahoma!and West Side Story. Williams shapes his dramas by
lurid violence,whereas Miller stages ethical imperatives. Moreover,Miller sees himself as a
responsible realist whereas Williams is a lyrical romantic. The traditional narrative of American
( —2016),who is celebrated mainly for his early plays.
drama ended with Edward Albee 1928
Besides Albee,later American playwrights of importance include Sam Shepard,David Mamet,
August Wilson and Tony Kushner.
137
Edgar Allan Poe 1809 ( —1849)
Unit 14 埃德加 · 爱伦 · 坡
Biography
, , ,
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author poet editor and literary
,
critic considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known
for his tales of mystery and the macabre ,Poe was one of the earliest
American practitioners of the short story,and is generally considered the
inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with
contribution to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first
wellknown American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone ,
resulting in a financially difficult life and career.
,
Born in Boston Poe was the second child of two actors. His father abandoned the family
, ,
in 1810 and his mother died the following year. Thus orphaned the child was taken in by John
, ,
and Frances Allan of Richmond Virginia. Poe received his primary education in Britain and
,
attended University of Virginia in 1826 to study ancient and modern languages but he dropped
out due to his gambling habit and therefore he became estranged from his foster father over
,
gambling debts. Later he was admitted by West Point but he got removed by breaking the rules
,
in 1831. He was determined to be a writer and to make a living. He wrote for a few journals
and magazines and soon became editor and critic for some literary journals such as the Southern
, ,
Literary Messenger. In 1847 his young wife died of tuberculosis which greatly saddened him ,
,
and two years later he was found dead on the street of Baltimore one cold morning.
, “
Poe was also considered the first American literary theorist advocating art for arts sake ”
, ,
and leaving behind important theories on poetry short story writing and literary criticism most
of which were collected in the two essays —The Philosophy of Composition (1846 )and The
( )
Poetic Principle 1848 .
Major Works
? Collections of poems
( )《帖木儿及其他诗》
Tamerlane and Other Poems 1827
The Raven and Other Poems(1845 )《乌鸦与其他诗篇》
138
Unit 14 ( —1849) 埃德加·爱伦·坡
Edgar Allan Poe 1809
Characters
Montresor is the immoral narrator who tells the story of his revenge against Fortunato.
, ,
Montresor lures Fortunato into his catacombs chains him to a wall and buries him alive.
Fortunato is a friend of Montresors who is unaware that Montresor is plotting to kill him.
He is a connoisseur of wine who is enticed by Montresor to sample some rare Amontillado and
lured into his trap.
140
Luchesi is another wine connoisseur and an acquaintance of Montresor and Fortunato ;
Unit 14 ( —1849) 埃德加·爱伦·坡
Edgar Allan Poe 1809
Montresor urges Fortunato to sample his wine by threatening to allow Luchesi to try it first if
Fortunato does not comply.
,
The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could but when he ventured upon
, , ,
insult I vowed revenge. You who so well know the nature of my soul will not suppose ,
however,that I gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged;this was a point
definitively settled—but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved,precluded the idea of
risk. I must not only punish, but punish with impunity . A wrong is unredressed when
1
retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make
himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.
It must be understood that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt
, , ,
my good will. I continued as was my wont to smile in his face and he did not perceive that
2
my smile now was at the thought of his immolation .
He had a weak point —this Fortunato—although in other regards he was a man to be
respected and even feared. He prided himself on his connoisseurship3 in wine. Few Italians
have the true virtuoso spirit. For the most part their enthusiasm is adapted to suit the time and
opportunity—to practise imposture upon the British and Austrian millionaires. In painting and
gemmary Fortunato,like his countrymen,was a quack —but in the matter of old wines he was
4
sincere. In this respect I did not differ from him materially:I was skillful in the Italian vintages
myself,and bought largely whenever I could.
It was about dusk,one evening during the supreme madness of the Carnival season ,that 5
surmounted by the conical cap and bells. I was so pleased to see him,that I thought I should
never have done wringing his hand.
I said to him ,“My dear Fortunato,you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are
!
looking today But I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado8
7
,and I have my
doubts. ”
“How?”said he;“Amontillado?A pipe?Impossible!And in the middle of the Carnival!”
“I have my doubts,”I replied;“and I was silly enough to pay the full Amontillado price
without consulting you in the matter. You were not to be found,and I was fearful of losing a
bargain. ”
“Amontillado!”
“I have my doubts. ”
“Amontillado!” 141
“And I must satisfy them. ”
“Amontillado!”
“As you are engaged,I am on my way to Luchesi. If any one has a critical turn,it is he.
He will tell me—”
“Luchesi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry. ”
“And yet some fools will have it that his taste is a match for your own. ”
“Come,let us go. ”
“Whither?”
“To your vaults. ”
“My friend,no;I will not impose upon your good nature. I perceive you have an
engagement. Luchesi—”
“I have no engagement;come. ”
“My friend,no. It is not the engagement,but the severe cold with which I perceive you
are afflicted. The vaults are insufferably damp. They are encrusted with nitre. ”
“Let us go nevertheless. The cold is merely nothing. Amontillado! You have been
imposed upon. And as for Luchesi—he cannot distinguish Sherry from Amontillado. ”
Thus speaking,Fortunato possessed himself of my arm. Putting on a mask of black silk,
and drawing a roquelaire closely about my person,I suffered him to hurry me to my palazzo.
9
There were no attendants at home;they had absconded to make merry in honor of the time.
I had told them that I should not return until the morning,and had given them explicit orders not
to stir from the house. These orders were sufficient,I well knew,to ensure their immediate
disappearance,one and all,as soon as my back was turned.
I took from their sconces two flambeaux ,and giving one to Fortunato,bowed him
10 11
through several suites of rooms to the archway that led into the vaults. I passed down a long and
,
winding staircase requesting him to be cautious as he followed. We came at length to the foot
,
of the descent and stood together on the damp ground of the catacombs12 of the Montresors.
,
The gait of my friend was unsteady and the bells upon his cap jingled as he strode.
“The pipe,”said he.
“It is farther on,”said I;“but observe the white webwork which gleams from these
cavern walls. ”
He turned towards me,and looked into my eyes with two filmy orbs that distilled the rheum
of intoxication.
“Nitre?”he asked,at length.
“Nitre,”I replied. “How long have you had that cough?”
“Ugh! ugh! ugh!—ugh! ugh! ugh!—ugh! ugh! ugh!—ugh! ugh! ugh!—ugh!
ugh!ugh! ”
My poor friend found it impossible to reply for many minutes.
142
Unit 14 ( —1849) 埃德加·爱伦·坡
Edgar Allan Poe 1809
“Good!”he said.
The wine sparkled in his eyes and the bells jingled. My own fancy grew warm with the
,
Medoc. We had passed through walls of piled bones with casks and puncheons intermingling ,
,
into the inmost recesses of the catacombs. I paused again and this time I made bold to seize
Fortunato by an arm above the elbow.
“The nitre!”I said;“see,it increases. It hangs like moss upon the vaults. We are below
the rivers bed. The drops of moisture trickle among the bones. Come,we will go back ere it is
too late. Your cough—”
“It is nothing,”he said;“let us go on. But first,another draught of the Medoc. ”
I broke and reached him a flaon of De Grve15 . He emptied it at a breath. His eyes
flashed with a fierce light. He laughed and threw the bottle upwards with a gesticulation I did
not understand.
I looked at him in surprise. He repeated the movement —a grotesque one. 143
“You do not comprehend?”he said.
“Not I,”I replied.
“Then you are not of the brotherhood. ”
“How?”
“You are not of the masons. ”
“Yes,yes,”I said;“yes,yes. ”
“You?Impossible!A mason?”
“A mason,”I replied.
“A sign,”he said.
“It is this,”I answered,producing a trowel from beneath the folds of my roquelaire.
“You jest,”he exclaimed,recoiling a few paces. “But let us proceed to the Amontillado. ”
“Be it so,”I said,replacing the tool beneath the cloak,and again offering him my arm.
He leaned upon it heavily. We continued our route in search of the Amontillado. We passed
, , , ,
through a range of low arches descended passed on and descending again arrived at a deep
,
crypt in which the foulness of the air caused our flambeaux rather to glow than flame.
At the most remote end of the crypt there appeared another less spacious. Its walls had been
, ,
lined with human remains piled to the vault overhead in the fashion of the great catacombs of
Paris. Three sides of this interior crypt were still ornamented in this manner. From the fourth the
, ,
bones had been thrown down and lay promiscuously upon the earth forming at one point a
,
mound of some size. Within the wall thus exposed by the displacing of the bones we perceived
, , ,
a still interior recess in depth about four feet in width three in height six or seven. It seemed
to have been constructed for no especial use within itself,but formed merely the interval
between two of the colossal supports of the roof of the catacombs,and was backed by one of
their circumscribing walls of solid granite.
, ,
It was in vain that Fortunato uplifting his dull torch endeavored to pry into the depth of
the recess. Its termination the feeble light did not enable us to see.
“Proceed,”I said;“herein is the Amontillado. As for Luchesi—”
“He is an ignoramus ,”interrupted my friend,as he stepped unsteadily forward,while I
16
followed immediately at his heels. In an instant he had reached the extremity of the niche,and
finding his progress arrested by the rock,stood stupidly bewildered. A moment more and I had
fettered him to the granite. In its surface were two iron staples,distant from each other about
two feet,horizontally. From one of these depended a short chain,from the other a padlock.
Throwing the links about his waist,it was but the work of a few seconds to secure it. He was
too much astounded to resist. Withdrawing the key,I stepped back from the recess.
“Pass your hand,”I said,“over the wall;you cannot help feeling the nitre. Indeed it is
very damp. Once more let me implore you to return. No?Then I must positively leave you. But
I must first render you all the little attentions in my power. ”
144
Unit 14 Edgar Allan Poe 1809 ( —1849) 埃德加·爱伦·坡
“The Amontillado!”ejaculated my friend,not yet recovered from his astonishment.
“True,I replied,“the Amontillado. ”
As I said these words I busied myself among the pile of bones of which I have before
,
spoken. Throwing them aside I soon uncovered a quantity of building stone and mortar. With
, ,
these materials and with the aid of my trowel I began vigorously to wall up the entrance of the
niche.
I had scarcely laid the first tier of the masonry when I discovered that the intoxication of
Fortunato had in a great measure worn off. The earliest indication I had of this was a low moan
ing cry from the depth of the recess. It was not the cry of a drunken man. There was then a long
, , ;
and obstinate silence. I laid the second tier and the third and the fourth and then I heard the
, ,
furious vibrations of the chain. The noise lasted for several minutes during which that I might
,
hearken to it with the more satisfaction I ceased my labors and sat down upon the bones. When
, ,
at last the clanking subsided I resumed the trowel and finished without interruption the fifth ,
,
the sixth and the seventh tier. The wall was now nearly upon a level with my breast. I again
paused,and holding the flambeaux over the masonwork,threw a few feeble rays upon the
figure within.
,
A succession of loud and shrill screams bursting suddenly from the throat of the chained
form ,seemed to thrust me violently back. For a brief moment I hesitated —I trembled.
Unsheathing my rapier 17
,I began to grope with it about the recess;but the thought of an instant
reassured me. I placed my hand upon the solid fabric of the catacombs,and felt satisfied. I re
approached the wall. I replied to the yells of him who clamored. I reechoed—I aided—I
surpassed them in volume and in strength. I did this,and the clamorer grew still.
It was now midnight,and my task was drawing to a close. I had completed the eighth,the
ninth,and the tenth tier. I had finished a portion of the last and the eleventh;there remained but
a single stone to be fitted and plastered in. I struggled with its weight;I placed it partially in its
destined position. But now there came from out the niche a low laugh that erected the hairs upon
,
my head. It was succeeded by a sad voice which I had difficulty in recognizing as that of the
noble Fortunato. The voice said —
“Ha!ha!ha!—he!he!—a very good joke indeed—an excellent jest. We will have
many a rich laugh about it at the palazzo—he!he!he!—over our wine—he!he!he! ”
“The Amontillado!”I said.
“He!he!he!—he!he!he!—yes,the Amontillado. But is it not getting late?Will not
they be awaiting us at the palazzo,the Lady Fortunato and the rest?Let us be gone. ”
“Yes,”I said,“let us be gone. ”
“For the love of God,Montresor!”
“Yes,”I said,“for the love of God!”
But to these words I hearkened in vain for a reply. I grew impatient. I called aloud—
18
145
“Fortunato!”
No answer. I called again —
“Fortunato!”
No answer still. I thrust a torch through the remaining aperture and let it fall within. There
came forth in return only a jingling of the bells. My heart grew sick —on account of the
dampness of the catacombs. I hastened to make an end of my labor. I forced the last stone into
;
its position I plastered it up. Against the new masonry I reerected the old rampart of bones.
For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. In pace requiescat !19
Notes
:
1. impunity freedom from injury
:
2. immolation killing a person as a sacrifice
:
3. connoisseurship skill of wine judgment 品酒技艺;connoisseur:an expert
able to appreciate the arts,food ,drink,or some other subjects 鉴赏家,行家
4. quack:untrained person who pretends to be a physician 庸医;imposter 骗子
5. the Carnival season 基督教大斋期:just before Lent,it is called Mardi Gras in
some western countries. The word carnival is derived from the Latin words carne
(meat)and vale (farewell ). Thus,it literally means “farewell to meat. ”During
Lent,Roman Catholics do not eat meat on Ash Wednesday and all the Fridays
thereafter,until Easter.
6. motley:apparel of many colors;jesters costume 色彩鲜艳的小丑装
7. pipe:cask holding 126 gallons;puncheon 大木桶:cask holding 84 gallons;
cask:小木桶
8. Amontillado :a kind of dry,amber 琥珀色的 wine made in Montilla,Spain
9. roquelaure:kneelength ,often furtrimmed cloak after Duc de Roquelaure
(1656—1738)斗篷
10. sconce:bracket on a wall for holding a candle or a torch 壁饰烛台
11. flambeaux:torches;flambeau (single)
12. catacombs:underground burial places
13. Médoc:red wine from the Bordeaux region of France 产于法国波尔多的梅多
146 克红葡萄酒
Unit 14 ( —1849) 埃德加·爱伦·坡
Edgar Allan Poe 1809
:
14. Nemo me impune lacessit Latin for No one injures me with impunity. This
sentence appeared on coins of James I of England.
15. a flaon of De Grve :产于法国波尔多的白葡萄酒
16. ignoramus fool:
:
17. rapier twoedged sword
18. hearkened :(Old)listen carefully
19. In pace requiescat!:In peace may he rest!
148
Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804 ( —1864)
Unit 15 纳撒尼尔 · 霍桑
Biography
,
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem Massachusetts in 1804. ,
His family descended from the earliest settlers of the Massachusetts Bay
;
Colony among his forebears was John Hathorne (Hawthorne added the
“w”to his name when he began to write),one of the judges at the 1692
Salem witch trials. Throughout his life,Hawthorne was both fascinated
and disturbed by his kinship with John Hathorne. Raised by a widowed
,
mother Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College in Maine where he met ,
: ,
two people who were to have great impact upon his life Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who
would later become a famous poet,and Franklin Pierce,who would later become president of
the United States.
After college Hawthorne tried his hand at writing ,producing historical sketches and an
, ,
anonymous novel Fanshawe that detailed his college days rather embarrassingly. Hawthorne
also held positions as an editor and as a customs surveyor during this period. His growing
relationship with the intellectual circle that included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller
led him to abandon his customs post for the utopian experiment at Brook Farm a commune ,
designed to promote economic selfsufficiency and transcendentalist principles.
Transcendentalism was a religious and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century
that was dedicated to the belief that divinity manifests itself everywhere ,particularly in the
,
natural world. It also advocated a personalized direct relationship with the divine in place of
,
formalized structured religion. This second transcendental idea is privileged in The Scarlet
Letter.
After marrying fellow transcendentalist Sophia Peabody in 1842 ,Hawthorne left Brook
,
Farm and moved into the Old Manse a home in Concord where Emerson had once lived. In
, ,
1846 he published Mosses from an Old Manse a collection of essays and stories which earned
Hawthorne the attention of the literary establishment because America was trying to establish a
,
cultural independence to complement its political independence and Hawthornes collection of 149
stories displayed both a stylistic freshness and an interest in American subject matter. Herman
, , “
Melville among others hailed Hawthorne as the American Shakespeare. ”
In 1845 Hawthorne again went to work as a customs surveyor,this time,like the narrator
of The Scarlet Letter,at a post in Salem. In 1850 ,after having lost the job,he published The
Scarlet Letter to enthusiastic,if not widespread,acclaim. In 1853 Hawthornes college friend
Franklin Pierce,for whom he had written a campaign biography and who had since become
president,appointed Hawthorne a United States consul. The writer spent the next six years in
Europe. He died in 1864 ,a few years after returning to America.
Major Works
? Novels :
( )《范肖》
Fanshawe 1825
The Scarlet Letter (1850 )《红字》
The House of the Seven Gables (1851 )《带七个尖角阁的房子》
The Blithedale Romance (1852 )《福谷传奇》
The Marble Faun (1860 )《玉石雕像》
? Collections of short stories:
Twicetold Tales (1837 )《重述的故事》
Mosses from an Old Manse (1846 )《古屋青苔》
? Representative short stories:
My Kinsman ,Major Molineux (1832 )《我的亲戚莫里纳少校》
Young Goodman Brown (1835 )《好小伙布朗》
The Ministers Black Veil (1836 )《教长的黑面纱》
The BirthMark (1843 )《胎记》
Rappaccinis Daughter (1844 )《拉帕奇尼医生的女儿》
The Artist of the Beautiful (1846 )《追求至美的艺术家》
Ethan Brand (1850 )《埃森·布兰德》
1. romantic in general
2. long sentences with flowery words
3. full of allegories and symbols
4. deep and ambiguous
150
Unit 15 ( —1864) 纳撒尼尔·霍桑
Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804
Major Characters
Hester Prynne —protagonist and wearer of the scarlet letter “A ”,which signifies that
Hester is an “adulterer”. As a young woman,Hester married an elderly scholar,Chillingworth,
who sent her ahead to America to live but never followed her. While waiting for him,she had
an affair with a Puritan minister named Dimmesdale,after which she gave birth to Pearl. Hester
is passionate but also strong as she endures years of shame and scorn. She equals both her
husband and her lover in her intelligence and thoughtfulness. Her alienation puts her in the
position to make acute observations about her community ,particularly about its treatment of
women.
151
Pearl —Hesters illegitimate daughter,a young girl with a moody,mischievous spirit and
an ability to perceive things that others do not. The townspeople say that she barely seems
human and spread rumors that her unknown father is actually the Devil. She is wise far beyond
,
her years frequently engaging in ironic play having to do with her mothers scarlet letter.
,
Roger Chillingworth Hesters husband in disguise is much older than she is and had sent
her to America while he settled his affairs in Europe. Because he is captured by Native
,
Americans he arrives in Boston 2 years late and finds Hester and her illegitimate child being
,
displayed on the scaffold. He lusts for revenge and thus decides to stay in Boston despite his
wifes betrayal and disgrace. He is a scholar and uses his knowledge to disguise himself as a
,
doctor intent on discovering and tormenting Hesters anonymous lover. Chillingworth is self
absorbed and both physically and psychologically monstrous. His singleminded pursuit of
retribution reveals him to be the most evil character in the novel. He is interested in revenge ,
,
not justice and he seeks the deliberate destruction of others rather than a redress of wrongs. His
,
desire to hurt others stands in contrast to Hester and Dimmesdales sin which had love not ,
,
hate as its intent.
Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale —a young man who achieved fame in England as a
,
theologian and then emigrated to America. In a moment of weakness he and Hester became
,
lovers. Although he will not confess it publicly he is the father of Hesters child. He deals with
,
his guilt by tormenting himself physically and psychologically developing a heart condition as a
,
result. Dimmesdale is an intelligent and emotional man and his sermons are thus masterpieces
of eloquence and persuasiveness. His commitments to his congregation are in constant conflict
with his feelings of sinfulness and need to confess.
Synopsis of Chapter 2
Having settled in Boston , passionate Hester Prynne met the young minister Arthur
Dimmesdale and they fell in love with each other. When their daughter was born ,Hester
became a target of public criticism. Since she refused to name the father of the child,she was
put into prison and forced to wear an “A ”(Adultery ) the rest of her life. As part of the
punishment,Hester was taken out one day to stand in front of the townspeople,whose public
expose served as a warning to all. The audience were buzzing about Hester and her appearance.
,
However Hester was strong and tough as well as beautiful because she was determined to fight
for womens right against the unfair treatment in the patriarchal society.
152 , , ,
THE grassplot before the jail in Prison Lane on a certain summer morning not less than
Unit 15 ( —1864) 纳撒尼尔·霍桑
Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804
, ;
two centuries ago was occupied by a pretty large number of the inhabitants of Boston all with
,
their eyes intently fastened on the ironclamped oaken door. Amongst any other population or
at a later period in the history of New England ,the grim rigidity that petrified the bearded
physiognomies of these good people would have augured some awful business in hand. It could
,
have betokened nothing short of the anticipated execution of some noted culprit on whom the
sentence of a legal tribunal had but confirmed the verdict of public sentiment. But,in that early
severity of the Puritan character,an inference of this kind could not so indubitably be drawn.
1
It might be,that a sluggish bondservant,or an undutiful child,whom his parents had given
over to the civil authority,was to be corrected at the whippingpost. It might be,that an
Antinomian ,a Quaker ,or other heterodox religionist,was to be scourged out of the town,
2 3
or an idle and vagrant Indian,whom the white mans firewater had made riotous about the
4
streets,was to be driven with stripes into the shadow of the forest. It might be,too,that a
witch,like old Mistress Hibbins ,the bittertempered widow of the magistrate,was to die
5
upon the gallows. In either case,there was very much the same solemnity of demeanor on the
part of the spectators; as befitted a people amongst whom religion and law were almost
identical ,and in whose character both were so thoroughly interfused,that the mildest and the
6
severest acts of public discipline were alike made venerable and awful. Meagre,indeed,and
cold,was the sympathy that a transgressor might look for, from such bystanders, at the
scaffold. On the other hand,a penalty which,in our days,would infer a degree of mocking
infamy and ridicule,might then be invested with almost as stern a dignity as the punishment of
death itself.
,on the summer morning when our story begins its
It was a circumstance to be noted
course,that the women,of whom there were several in the crowd,appeared to take a peculiar
interest in whatever penal infliction might be expected to ensue. The age had not so much
,
refinement that any sense of impropriety restrained the wearers of petticoat and farthingale7
from stepping forth into the public ways ,and wedging their not unsubstantial persons,if
occasion were,into the throng nearest to the scaffold at an execution. Morally,as well as
materially,there was a coarser fibre in those wives and maidens of old English birth and
breeding,than in their fair descendants,separated from them by a series of six or seven
generations;for,throughout that chain of ancestry,every successive mother has transmitted to
her child a fainter bloom,a more delicate and briefer beauty,and a slighter physical frame,if
not a character of less force and solidity,than her own. The women who were now standing
about the prisondoor stood within less than half a century of the period when the manlike
Elizabeth8 had been the not altogether unsuitable representative of the sex. They were her
; ,
countrywomen and the beef and ale of their native land with a moral diet not a whit more
, , ,
refined entered largely into their composition. The bright morning sun therefore shone on
broad shoulders and welldeveloped busts,and on round and ruddy cheeks,that had ripened in
153
,and had hardly yet grown paler or thinner in the atmosphere of New
the faroff island9
England. There was,moreover,a boldness and rotundity of speech among these matrons,as
most of them seemed to be,that would startle us at the present day,whether in respect to its
purport or its volume of tone.
“Goodwives,”said a hardfeatured dame of fifty,“Ill tell ye a piece of my mind. It
10
would be greatly for the public behoof ,if we women,being of mature age and church
11
members in good repute,should have the handling of such malefactresses as this Hester Prynne.
What think ye,gossips ?If the hussy stood up for judgment before us five,that are now here
12
in a knot together,would she come off with such a sentence as the worshipful magistrates have
awarded?Marry,I trow not! ” 13
iron on Hester Prynnes forehead. Madam Hester would have winced at that,I warrant me. But
she—the naughty baggage —little will she care what they put upon the bodice of her gown!
15
Why,look you,she may cover it with a brooch,or such like heathenish adornment,and so
walk the streets as brave as ever! ”
“Ah,but,”interposed,more softly,a young wife,holding a child by the hand,“Let her
cover the mark as she will,the pang of it will be always in her heart. ”
“What do we talk of marks and brands,whether on the bodice of her gown,or the flesh of
her forehead? ” cried another female,the ugliest as well as the most pitiless of these self
constituted judges. “This woman has brought shame upon us all,and ought to die. Is there not
law for it? Truly there is, both in the Scripture and the statutebook . Then let the
16
magistrates,who have made it of no effect,thank themselves if their own wives and daughters
go astray! ”
“Mercy on us,goodwife,”exclaimed a man in the crowd,“is there no virtue in woman,
save what springs from a wholesome fear of the gallows?That is the hardest word yet!Hush,
now,gossips!for the lock is turning in the prisondoor,and here comes Mistress Prynne
herself. ”
The door of the jail being flung open from within,there appeared,in the first place,like a
black shadow emerging into sunshine,the grim and grisly presence of the townbeadle,with a
sword by his side, and his staff of office in his hand. This personage prefigured and
17
represented in his aspect the whole dismal severity of the Puritanic code of law,which it was his
business to administer in its final and closest application to the offender. Stretching forth the
, ,
official staff in his left hand he laid his right upon the shoulder of a young woman whom he
154
; , , ,
thus drew forward until on the threshold of the prisondoor she repelled him by an action
Unit 15 ( —1864) 纳撒尼尔·霍桑
Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804
, ,
marked with natural dignity and force of character and stepped into the open air as if by her
, ,
own free will. She bore in her arms a child a baby of some three months old who winked and
turned aside its little face from the too vivid light of day;because its existence,heretofore,had
brought it acquainted only with the gray twilight of a dungeon,or other darksome apartment of
the prison.
When the young woman —the mother of this child—stood fully revealed before the crowd,
it seemed to be her first impulse to clasp the infant closely to her bosom;not so much by an
impulse of motherly affection,as that she might thereby conceal a certain token,which was
wrought or fastened into her dress. In a moment,however,wisely judging that one token of her
shame would but poorly serve to hide another,she took the baby on her arm,and,with a
burning blush,and yet a haughty smile,and a glance that would not be abashed,looked around
at her townspeople and neighbors. On the breast of her gown,in fine red cloth,surrounded with
an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread,appeared the letter A. It was so
artistically done,and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy,that it had all the
effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore;and which was of a splendor
in accordance with the taste of the age,but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary
regulations of the colony.
,
The young woman was tall with a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale. She had
, ,
dark and abundant hair so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam and a face which ,
besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion , had the
impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes. She was ladylike,too,after
the manner of the feminine gentility of those days;characterized by a certain state and dignity,
rather than by the delicate,evanescent,and indescribable grace,which is now recognized as its
indication. And never had Hester Prynne appeared more ladylike,in the antique interpretation of
the term,than as she issued from the prison. Those who had before known her,and had
expected to behold her dimmed and obscured by a disastrous cloud,were astonished,and even
startled ,to perceive how her beauty shone out,and made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy
in which she was enveloped. It may be true,that,to a sensitive observer,there was something
exquisitely painful in it. Her attire,which,indeed,she had wrought for the occasion,in
prison ,and had modeled much after her own fancy,seemed to express the attitude of her spirit,
the desperate recklessness of her mood,by its wild and picturesque peculiarity. But the point
which drew all eyes,and,as it were,transfigured the wearer—so that both men and women,
who had been familiarly acquainted with Hester Prynne,were now impressed as if they beheld
her for the first time—was that SCARLET LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and
illuminated upon her bosom. It had the effect of a spell ,taking her out of the ordinary
18
Hesters rich gown off her dainty shoulders;and as for the red letter,which she hath stitched so
curiously,Ill bestow a rag of mine own rheumatic flannel ,to make a fitter one!
20
”
“Oh,peace,neighbors,peace!”whispered their youngest companion;“do not let her
hear you!Not a stitch in that embroidered letter,but she has felt it in her heart. ”
The grim beadle now made a gesture with his staff.
“Make way,good people,make way,in the Kings name!”cried he. “Open a passage;
and,I promise ye,Mistress Prynne shall be set where man,woman,and child,may have a fair
sight of her brave apparel,from this time till an hour past meridian. A blessing on the righteous
Colony of the Massachusetts ,where iniquity is dragged out into the sunshine!Come along,
21
above it rose the framework of that instrument of discipline,so fashioned as to confine the
human head in its tight grasp,and thus hold it up to the public gaze. The very ideal of ignominy
was embodied and made manifest in this contrivance of wood and iron. There can be no
156
outrage , methinks, against our common nature —whatever be the delinquencies of the
Unit 15 Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804 ( —1864) 纳撒尼尔·霍桑
—no outrage more flagrant than to forbid the culprit to hide his face for shame;as it
individual
was the essence of this punishment to do. In Hester Prynnes instance, however, as not
unfrequently in other cases,her sentence bore,that she should stand a certain time upon the
platform,but without undergoing that gripe about the neck and confinement of the head,the
proneness to which was the most devilish characteristic of this ugly engine. Knowing well her
part,she ascended a flight of wooden steps,and was thus displayed to the surrounding
multitude,at about the height of a mans shoulders above the street.
Had there been a Papist among the crowd of Puritans,he might have seen in this beautiful
23
woman,so picturesque in her attire and mien,and with the infant at her bosom,an object to
remind him of the image of Divine Maternity ,which so many illustrious painters have vied
24
Here,there was the taint of deepest sin in the most sacred quality of human life,working such
effect,that the world was only the darker for this womans beauty,and the more lost for the
infant that she had borne.
爥
158
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 ( —1882)
Unit 16 拉尔夫 · 华尔多 · 爱默生
Biography
, ,
Ralph Waldo Emerson an American essayist lecturer and poet ,
led Transcendentalist movement of the mid19th century. He was seen as
a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing
,
pressures of society and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of
,
published essays and more than 1 500 public lectures across the United
States.
,
Emerson was born in a ministers family in Boston Massachusetts.
,
In 1829 he was appointed junior pastor but he quitted in 1832. Then he ,
toured Europe ,making acquaintance with English literary celebrities such as Samuel T.
Coleridge ,Thomas Carlyle, William Wordsworth. He started to write Nature and make
speeches in Boston,advocating his transcendentalist philosophy and calling on people to throw
off any human bondage. In his famous speech The American Scholar,Emerson declared literary
independence in the United States and urged Americans to learn directly from life,know history
through books,create a writing style all their own and free from Europe.
In 1836 ,Transcendental Club was formed with The Dial as a platform for their ideals. The
club included some female members such as Sophia Ripley,Margaret Fuller,Elizabeth Peabody
and so on. Emersons speech Nature became a manifesto of Transcendentalist ideas. Among the
transcendentalists core beliefs was the inherent goodness of both people and nature. They
believe that society and its institutions —particularly organized religion and political parties—
ultimately corrupt the purity of the individual. They have faith that people are at their best when
“ ”
truly selfreliant and independent. “We will walk on our own feet;we will work with our
own hands;we will speak our own minds 爥 A nation of men will for the first time exist,
because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men. ”
Emerson and his fellow transcendentalists believed every human being has inborn know
ledge that enables him to recognize and understand moral truth without benefit of knowledge
, ,
obtained through the physical senses. Using this inborn knowledge a gift of God an individual
can make a moral decision without relying on information gained through everyday living ,
,
education and experimentation. They trusted their own inner light as a moral guiding force,
159
they were possessed of a fierce spirit of selfreliance. They were individualists.
( )
Transcendentalists believed in the transcendence superiority of the “Oversoul”—an all
pervading power for goodness from which all things come and of which all things are a part.
Emerson believed that man was a part of absolute good ,and Thoreau saw divinity in the
“unspotted innocence”of nature.
Major Works
? Collections of Essays :
: ( );
Essays First Series 1841
Essays:Second Series (1844 );
Poems (1847 );
Nature,Addresses and Lectures (1849 );
Representative Men (1850 );
English Traits (1856 );
The Conduct of Life (1860 );
May Day and Other Poems (1867 );
Society and Solitude (1870 );
Letters and Social Aims (1876 )
? Collections of Poems:
Poems(1846 )《诗集》;
MayDay and Other Pieces(1867 )《五月节及其他诗篇》
Synopsis of SelfReliance
SelfReliance is collected in Essays: First Series, the content of which comes from
Emersons diaries and speeches during 1836 —1837. “Trust thyself”,“do not imitate others but
be bold and independent”,and “try not to live after the worlds opinion”are important virtues a
man must pursue. “The great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect
sweetness the independence of solitude. ”To live your life worthy enough,you must listen to
160
Unit 16 Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803( —1882) 拉尔夫·华尔多·爱默生
, ,
the voice within. When you surrender your liberty to tradition authority and society you are
going against your inner voice. You are suppressing yourself. Men who listen to themselves
rather than to the common herd are true men. And it is true men who leave their mark on
,then all of their activities and institutions would be
history. If all men became selfreliant
better:religion,education,the way they live,the way they think.
◆◆◆0#,6 <#,5%&C#◆◆◆
(Excerpt)
Who so would be a man ,must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal
palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness,but must explore if it be goodness.
1
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself,and you
shall have the suffrage2 of the world. I remember an answer which when quite young I was
prompted to make to a valued adviser who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines
of the church. On my saying ,“What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions,if I live
wholly from within? ”my friend suggested,—“But these impulses may be from below,not
from above. ” I replied,“They do not seem to me to be such;but if I am the devils child,I
3
will live then from the devil. ”No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad
are but names very readily transferable to that or this;the only right is what is after my
constitution ;the only wrong what is against it. A man is to carry himself in the presence of all
4
opposition as if every thing were titular and ephemeral but he. I am ashamed to think how easily
,
we capitulate to badges and names to large societies and dead institutions. Every decent and
wellspoken individual affects and sways me more than is right. I ought to go upright and vital ,
,
and speak the rude truth in all ways. If malice and vanity wear the coat of philanthropy shall
? ,and comes to me with
that pass If an angry bigot assumes this bountiful cause of Abolition 5
his last news from Barbados ,why should I not say to him,“Go love thy infant;love thy
6
woodchopper;be goodnatured and modest;have that grace;and never varnish your hard,
uncharitable ambition with this incredible tenderness for black folk a thousand miles off. Thy
love afar is spite at home.”Rough and graceless would be such greeting,but truth is handsomer
than the affection of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, —else it is none. The
doctrine of hatred must be preached,as the counteraction of the doctrine of love,when that
pules and whines. I shun father and mother and wife and brother when my genius calls me.
,
I would write on the lintels of the doorpost Whim. I hope it is somewhat better than whim
,
at last but we cannot spend the day in explanation. Expect me not to show cause why I
, , ,
seek or why I exclude company7 . Then again do not tell me as a good man did today of ,
? ,
my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor I tell thee thou foolish
, , ,
philanthropist that I grudge the dollar the dime the cent I give to such men as do not belong
161
to me and to whom I do not belong. There is a class of persons to whom by all spiritual affinity
; ;
I am bought and sold for them I will go to prison if need be but your miscellaneous popular
; ;
charities the education at college of fools the building of meetinghouses to the vain end to
; , ;
which many now stand alms to sots and the thousandfold Relief Societies though I confess
with shame I sometimes succumb and give the dollar,it is a wicked dollar,which by and by I
shall have the manhood to withhold.
, ,
Virtues are in the popular estimate rather the exception than the rule8 . There is the
,
man and his virtues. Men do what is called a good action as some piece of courage or charity ,
much as they would pay a fine in expiation of daily nonappearance on parade. Their works are
done as an apology or extenuation of their living in the world,—as invalids and the insane pay a
high board. Their virtues are penances. I do not wish to expiate,but to live. My life is for itself
and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain,so it be genuine and
equal,than that it should be glittering and unsteady. I wish it to be sound and sweet,and not to
need diet and bleeding. My life should be unique;it should be an alms,a battle,a conquest,a
medicine. I ask primary evidence that you are a man,and refuse this appeal from the man
to his actions9 . I know that for myself it makes no difference whether I do or forbear those
actions which are reckoned excellent. I cannot consent to pay for a privilege where I have
, ,
intrinsic right. Few and mean as my gifts may be I actually am and do not need for my own
assurance or the assurance of my fellows any secondary testimony.
,
What I must do is all that concerns me not what the people think. This rule equally ,
,
arduous in actual and in intellectual life may serve for the whole distinction between greatness
and meanness. It is the harder because you will always find those who think they know what is
;
your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the worlds opinion it is
;
easy in solitude to live after our own but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd
keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
,
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds adored by little statesmen and philo
sophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well
,
concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words and to
,
morrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again though it contradicts every thing you
said today.—“Ah,so you shall be sure to be misunderstood. ”—Is it so bad,then,to be
misunderstood?Pythagoras was misunderstood,and Socrates,and Jesus,and Luther,and
Copernicus,and Galileo,and Newton ,and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh.
10
To be great is to be misunderstood.
I suppose no man can violate his nature. All the sallies of his will are rounded in by the law
,
of his being as the inequalities of Andes and Himalayas11 are insignificant in the curve of the
sphere. Nor does it matter how you gauge and try him. A character is like an acrostic or
162
Alexandrian stanza12 ;—read it forward,backward,or across,it still spells the same thing. In
Unit 16 Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 ( —1882) 拉尔夫·华尔多·爱默生
, ,
this pleasing contrite woodlife which God allows me let me record day by day my honest
thought without prospect or retrospect ,and,I cannot doubt,it will be found symmetrical,
,
though I mean it not and see it not. My book should smell of pines and resound with the hum
of insects. The swallow over my window should interweave that thread or straw he carries in his
bill into my web also. We pass for what we are. Character teaches above our wills. Men
,
imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions and do not see that
virtue or vice emit a breath every moment.
,
There will be an agreement in whatever variety of actions so they be each honest and
, ,
natural in their hour. For of one will the actions will be harmonious however unlike they
,
seem. These varieties are lost sight of at a little distance at a little height of thought. One
tendency unites them all. The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks13 . See
the line from a sufficient distance ,and it straightens itself to the average tendency. Your
,
genuine action will explain itself and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity
explains nothing. Act singly ,and what you have already done singly will justify you now.
Greatness appeals to the future. If I can be firm enough today to do right,and scorn eyes,I
must have done so much right before as to defend me now. Be it how it will,do right now.
Always scorn appearances,and you always may. The force of character is cumulative. All the
foregone days of virtue work their health into this. What makes the majesty of the heroes of the
, ?
senate and the field which so fills the imagination The consciousness of a train of great days
and victories behind. They shed an united light on the advancing actor. He is attended as by a
visible escort of angels. That is it which throws thunder into Chathams14 voice and dignity ,
into Washingtons port 15
,and America into Adamss 16
eye. Honor is venerable to us because it
is no ephemera. It is always ancient virtue. We worship it today because it is not of today.
,
We love it and pay it homage because it is not a trap for our love and homage but is self ,
, , ,
dependent selfderived and therefore of an old immaculate pedigree even if shown in a young
person.
I hope in these days we have heard the last of conformity and consistency. Let the words be
,
gazetted17 and ridiculous henceforward. Instead of the gong for dinner let us hear a whistle
18
from the Spartan fife . Let us never bow and apologize more. A great man is coming to eat at
;
my house. I do not wish to please him I wish that he should wish to please me. I will stand
, ,
here for humanity and though I would make it kind I would make it true. Let us affront and
,
reprimand the smooth mediocrity and squalid contentment of the times and hurl in the face of
, , , ,
custom and trade and office the fact which is the upshot of all history that there is a great
;
responsible Thinker and Actor working wherever a man works that a true man belongs to no
, ,
other time or place but is the centre of things. Where he is there is nature. He measures you ,
, ,
and all men and all events. Ordinarily every body in society reminds us of somewhat else or ,
of some other person. Character,reality,reminds you of nothing else;it takes place of the
163
,
whole creation. The man must be so much that he must make all circumstances indifferent.
, , ;
Every true man is a cause a country and an age requires infinite spaces and numbers and time
;—and posterity seem to follow his steps as a train of clients. A
fully to accomplish his design
man Caesar is born,and for ages after we have a Roman Empire. Christ is born,and millions
of minds so grow and cleave to his genius,that he is confounded with virtue and the possible of
man. An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man;as,Monachism,of the Hermit
Antony; the Reformation, of Luther; Quakerism, of Fox; Methodism, of Wesley;
Abolition,of Clarkson,Scipio,Milton called “the height of Rome ”;and all history
19
resolves itself very easily into the biography of a few stout and earnest persons.
,
Let a man then know his worth and keep things under his feet. Let him not peep or steal ,
, , ,
or skulk up and down with the air of a charityboy a bastard or an interloper in the world
,
which exists for him. But the man in the street finding no worth in himself which corresponds
,
to the force which built a tower or sculptured a marble god feels poor when he looks on these.
, , ,
To him a palace a statue or a costly book have an alien and forbidding air much like a gay
equipage 20
,and seem to say like that,“Who are you,Sir?”Yet they all are his,suitors for his
,
notice petitioners to his faculties that they will come out and take possession. The picture waits
: ,
for my verdict it is not to command me but I am to settle its claims to praise. That popular
, ,
fable of the sot who was picked up dead drunk in the street carried to the dukes house washed
and dressed and laid in the dukes bed ,and,on his waking,treated with all obsequious
ceremony like the duke,and assured that he had been insane,owes its popularity to the fact,
that it symbolizes so well the state of man,who is in the world a sort of sot,but now and then
wakes up,exercises his reason,and finds himself a true prince.
Notes
:棕榈叶,此处象征荣誉。
1. palms
2. suffrage:认可,赞许。
3. “But these impulses爥not from above?”:“但这些冲动也许来自地狱,而不是来
自天国。”
4. 爥the only right is what is after my constitution爥:符合我的性情才是唯一正确
的。
5. Abolition :废奴运动
6. Barbados:巴巴多斯岛,西印度群岛的独立岛国,于 1834 年废除奴隶制。
164
Unit 16 ( —1882) 拉尔夫·华尔多·爱默生
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803
165
19 th Century American Poets
Unit 17 19 世纪美国诗人
Biography
Walt Whitman was an American romantic poet , essayist and
journalist. A humanist , he was a part of the transition between
,
transcendentalism and realism incorporating both views in his works.
Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon ,
often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in
, ,
its time particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass which was
described as obscene for its overt sexuality.
Born in Huntington on Long Island , Whitman worked as a
, ,a government clerk,and—in addition to publishing his poetry—was a
journalist a teacher
volunteer nurse during the American Civil War. Early in his career, he also produced a
temperance novel,Franklin Evans (1842 ). Whitmans major work,Leaves of Grass,was first
published in 1855 with his own money. The work was an attempt at reaching out to the common
person with an American epic. He continued expanding and revising it until his death in 1892.
, , ,
After a stroke towards the end of his life he moved to Camden New Jersey where his health
further declined. When he died at age 72 ,his funeral became a public spectacle.
Whitman was concerned with politics throughout his life. He supported the Wilmot Proviso
and opposed the extension of slavery generally. His poetry presented an equalitarian view of the
,
races though his attitude in life reflected many of the racial prejudices common to 19thcentury
America and his opposition to slavery was not necessarily based on belief in the equality of races
per se. At one point he called for the abolition of slavery ,but later he saw the abolitionist
movement as a threat to democracy.
, “
In 1855 when the first edition of Leaves of Grass appeared critics labeled his work poetry
” , , ,
of barbarism because of his formless free verse his incantations and boasts his sexuality his
exotic and vulgar language. Yet it was a compound of commonplaces (平 常 事 ), of
166
, ,
disorganized and raw experience of sentimentalism of true poetic inspiration. The poems had
Unit 17 19 th Century American Poets 19 世纪美国诗人
,
ecstatic perceptions of man and nature united and divine. Whitman had an expansive oceanic
,
vision an urgent desire to incorporate the entire American experience into his life and poetry.
,
He aspired to be a cosmic consciousness to experience and glorify all humanity and all human
qualities,including “sex,womanhood,maternity,lusty animations,organs,acts. ”
Major Works
( )
Franklin Evans 1842
Leaves of Grass (1855 )(1 st
,
edition 12 poems )
Leaves of Grass (1892 )(9 th
edition ,over 400 poems)
DrumTaps (1865 )
Democratic Vistas (1871 )
Memoranda During the War 1876 ( )
Specimen Days 1882 ( )
Whitmans Style in General
(
1. free verse The poems do not rhyme or follow standard rules for meter and line length. )
, , ,
2. simple words no excess of ornaments colloquial and slang phrases regional dialects
, ,
3. rhythm repetition foreign and coined words
( , , ,
4. catalogue lists of names of American birds animals rivers mountains爥 )
5. symbols,metaphors,parallelism and phonetic recurrences
6. full of musicality
,
Ones self I sing a simple separate person ,
,
Yet utter the word Democratic the word EnMasse1 .
, ,
Of Life immense in passion pulse and power ,
,
Cheerful for freest action formd under the law divine ,
The Modern Man I sing.
Notes
1. EnMasse:[法语]全体,一起。此处意为一切存在。
2. physiognomy:相面术,即通过观察脸部生理特征来判断一个人的性格。
3. Muse:缪斯,宙斯的女儿,主管诗歌。
168
Unit 17 19 th Century American Poets 19 世纪美国诗人
“
Synopsis of O Captain My Captain ! !”
,
This poem is classified as an elegy or mourning poem and was written to honor Abraham
,
Lincoln the 16th president of the United States who got assassinated in 1865. The American
,
Civil War was the central event of Whitmans life who was a staunch Unionist during the Civil
, ,
War. He was initially indifferent to Lincoln but as the war pressed on Whitman came to love
,
the president though the two men never met. The fallen captain in the poem refers to Abraham
, ,
Lincoln captain of the ship that is the United States of America the fearful trip to the process
—an organic combination between celebratory
of the Civil War. This poem has a distinctive trait
joy and elegiac quality. Throughout the poem,there is a distinct rhyme scheme—aabbcded,
which is unusual for Whitman. Rhetorical devices such as metaphors,contrast and comparison,
repetition,alliteration,parallel and vivid images are adopted quite skilfully in the poem.
! !
O Captain My Captain Our fearful trip is done ;
The ship has weatherd every rack ,the prize we sought is won;
1
But O heart!heart!heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
! !
O Captain My Captain Rise up and hear the bells ,
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbond wreaths—for you the shores acrowding , 3
,
My Captain does not answer his lips are pale and still ,
,
My father does not feel my arm he has no pulse nor will ,
,
The ship is anchord safe and sound its voyage closed and done ,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won ; 169
,
Exult O shores and ring O bell !
But I with mournful tread ,
Walk the deck my captain lies ,
Fallen cold and dead.
Notes
1. rack :(风暴等)猛烈的震摇
2. “While follow eyes the steady keel,”:“当人们的眼睛注视着破浪前进的巨轮”。
此句为倒装结构,正常语序为“While eyes follow the steady keel”,而且这里诗人采用了
以局部代替整体的提喻法 (synecdoche),用 “eyes”来指岸上急切等待的人们,用 “keel”
(船的龙骨)来代表巨轮。
3. “for you the shores acrowding ”:“为您而海岸上正挤满了 人 群 ”。“a
crowding ”是古用法,将前缀 a附在动词或以ing 结尾的分词前,表示 “在 …… 的进行过程
中”。
Biography
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in
, ,
Amherst Massachusetts to a successful family with strong community
,
ties she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at
,
the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth she spent a short time
at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her familys house
,
in Amherst. Considered an eccentric by the locals she became known for
,
her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or later
in life ,even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore
carried out by correspondence. She never married.
170
Unit 17 19 th Century American Poets 19 世纪美国诗人
Dickinson was a prolific private poetess ,but most of her nearly 1,800 poems were
;
published after death. Dickinsons poems are unique for the era in which she wrote they contain
short lines , typically lack titles , and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional
capitalization and punctuation. Her poems are usually based on her own experiences sorrows , ,
and joys. She addresses issues that concern the whole human beings , including death,
immortality ,religion (the individuals struggle with God),love,assertion of the Self,nature as
a “haunted house”and so on.
Notes
1. Death :死亡,死神
: 指死神,这里死亡被人格化。kindly 一词让死神即
2. He kindly stopped for me He
刻变成一位彬彬有礼的绅士。诗歌的基调也随之由凄冷恐怖变为轻松自然。
3. Carriage:马车,实际上象征灵车。
4. Immortality:永生,永恒。这里 Immortality 被拟人化了,永生和死神同乘一车,其
哲理深意是“死即永生”。
5. Civility:礼貌,殷勤。它与 kindly 呼应,完成对死神形象的人格化,表明诗人对“死”
的到来的顺其自然的态度。
6. Gossamer:薄纱
7. Gown :睡衣,喻指寿衣
8. Tippet:披肩,披风
172
Unit 17 世纪美国诗人
19 th Century American Poets 19
9. Tulle:网眼纱。这一节写了对死亡的惧意,因诗人用了纱巾、薄裳这两个意象而一
扫阴森凄惨,使整个诗节充满飘逸轻灵之感。
10. House,Swelling ,Roof,Cornice:都喻指坟墓,墓地。这些词的使用驱赶了传统
诗歌所赋予墓地的那种阴森恐怖气氛,反而具有美感。
“
Synopsis of Success is Counted Sweetest ”
This poem uses the images of a victorious army and one dying warrior to suggest that only
he who has suffered defeat can understand success.
The poems three unemotional quatrains are written in iambic trimeter with only line 5 in
(and others)end with extra syllables. The rhyme scheme is
iambic tetrameter. Lines 1 and 3
abcb. The poems “success ”theme is treated paradoxically:only those who know defeat can
truly appreciate success. Alliteration enhances the poems lyricism. The first stanza is a
complete observation and can stand alone. Stanzas Two and Three introduce military images a (
, ,
captured flag a victorious army a dying warrior )and are dependent upon one another for
complete understanding.
“Success”was one of Dickinsons earliest manuscript poems and one of only seven poems
published during her lifetime. Its theme was one she returned to a number of times during her
,as in “Water,is taught by thirst ”. The poem,Bloom writes,is one of
literary career
Dickinsons more “masculine”poems and “emphasizes the power of desire and equates desire
with victory. ”From a Christian perspective,Bloom explains,the sounds bursting on the dying
warriors ear may be heavenly music as he passes to his eternal rest. Although Dickinsons
,
poems are often read as poems of losing at romance Bloom points out that the popularity of this
poem can be attributed to the fact that the poems “message can be applied to any situation
where there are winners and losers”.
Notes
1. nectar:花蜜,琼浆玉液,甘露
2. the purple Host:胜利之师
174
Mark Twain 1835 ( —1910)
Unit 18 马克 · 吐温
Biography
Mark Twain was the penname of Samuel Langhorne Clemens who
, ,
was born in the town of Florida Missouri in 1835. When he was four
years old,his family moved to Hannibal,a town on the Mississippi River
much like the towns depicted in his two most famous novels, The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876 )and The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn(1884 ).
At 11 ,his father died. Clemens had to leave school,and worked for
a printer as an apprentice. Later he became a riverboat pilot,and his life
on the Mississippi influenced him a great deal. He even worked as a silver miner in Nevada
,
before he stumbled into his true calling journalism.
Throughout the late 1860s and 1870s ,Twains articles,stories,memoirs,and novels,
characterized by an irrepressible wit and a deft ear for language and dialect,earned him immense
celebrity. His novel The Innocents Abroad (1869 )was an instant bestseller,and The Adventures
of Tom Sawyer (1876 )received even greater national acclaim and cemented Twains position as
a giant as well as a humorist in American literary circles. His books were sold doortodoor,and
he became wealthy enough to build a large house in Hartford,Connecticut,for himself and his
wife,Olivia,whom he had married in 1870. Meanwhile,Twains personal life began to
collapse. His wife had long been sickly,and the couple lost their first son after just nineteen
months. Twain also made a number of poor investments and financial decisions and,in 1891 ,
found himself in heavy debt. However,he continued to devote himself to writing. Huckleberry
Finn and some others all met with great public and critical acclaim.
, ,
Twains way of thinking values language and his humor were believed the native products
of America. So “local color”was the outstanding characteristic of his novels. Colloquialism of
American literature first started from Twains colloquial style. Many later writers such as
, , ,
Anderson Hemingway Faulkner Eliot and Salinger etc. , ,were greatly influenced by Mark
,
Twain just as William Faulkner concluded ,“Mark Twain is the first truly American writer and
all of us are heirs of the author. ”
175
Major Works
? Novels
: ( )
The Gilded Age A Tale of Today 1873
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876 )
The Prince and the Pauper (1881 )
Life on the Mississippi (1883 )
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884 )
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court 1889 ( )
( )
Puddnhead Wilson 1894
Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894 )
Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc 1896 ( )
? Short story collections
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Sketches 1869 ( )
, , !
Punch Brothers Punch and Other Sketches 1878 ( )
Mark Twains Library of Humor 1888 ( )
, ,
The £ 1 000 000 Bank Note and Other New Stories 1893 ( )
? Essay collections
( )
How to Tell a Story and other Essays 1897
Europe and Elsewhere (1923 ,posthumous)
Letters from the Earth (1962 ,posthumous)
A Pen Warmed Up in Hell (1972 ,posthumous)
The Bible According to Mark Twain (1996 ,posthumous)
176
of slavery. Others dismissed it as vulgar or racist because it uses the word nigger. Ultimately ,
Unit 18 ( —1910) 马克·吐温
Mark Twain 1835
the novel has proved significant not only as a novel that explores the racial and moral world of
, ,
its time but also through the controversies that continue to surround it as an artifact of those
same moral and racial tensions as they have evolved to the present day.
The story begins in fictional St. Petersburg ,Missouri (based on the actual town of
Hannibal,Missouri),on the shore of the Mississippi River. Huck,under the guardianship of
the Widow Douglas,finds civilized life confining and he runs away with his drunk father. He
runs away again to escape his fathers violence and meets Jim,a ranaway black slave,on
Jacksons Island. They start rafting on the Mississippi River. Later,they get cheated by the
duke and the king,who sell Jim to the Phelps. Huck goes to the Phelpss farm and is mistaken
as Tom since the Phelps are expecting their nephew Tom. Tom and Huck plan to free Jim.
, ,
During the actual escape and resulting pursuit Tom is shot in the leg while Jim remains by his
, ,
side risking recapture rather than completing his escape alone. Yet actually Miss Watson Jims
, ,
former master has freed Jim in her will. At the end of the story the Phelps plan to adopt and
civilize Huck,but he intends to flee west to Indian territory.
Hemingway once declared,“All modern American literature comes from a novel titled the
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,the best book weve ever had. ”
Characters
Huck Finn —a clever,kindhearted and brave teenager from the lowest levels of white society,
a boy full of sense of logic and fairness,a positive child image with rebellious spirit
Jim—a man of remarkable intelligence and compassion, a noble human being and a
loyal friend
Tom Sawyer —a smart,mischievous teenager from the middleclass level of white society,
an amazingly inventive and resourceful(足智多谋)boy eager for adventures. With a good heart
and a strong moral conscience,Tom takes seriously the responsibility of his role as a leader
among his schoolfellows.
with her,and took a set at me now with a spellingbook. She worked me middling hard for
9
about an hour ,and then the widow made her ease up. I couldnt stood it much longer. Then
10
for an hour it was deadly dull,and I was fidgety. Miss Watson would say,“Dont put your feet
up there,Huckleberry; ”and “Dont scrunch up like that,Huckleberry—set up straight;”and
pretty soon she would say,“Dont gap and stretch like that,Huckleberry—why dont you try to
behave? ”Then she told me all about the bad place,and I said I wished I was there. She got
mad then,but I didnt mean no harm. All I wanted was to go somewheres;all I wanted was a
178
Unit 18 ( —1910) 马克·吐温
Mark Twain 1835
, ;
change I warnt particular. She said it was wicked to say what I said said she wouldnt say it
; ,
for the whole world she was going to live so as to go to the good place. Well I couldnt see
,
no advantage in going where she was going so I made up my mind I wouldnt try for it. But I
, ,
never said so because it would only make trouble and wouldnt do no good.
,
Now she had got a start and she went on and told me all about the good place. She said all
,
a body would have to do there was to go around all day long with a harp and sing forever and
ever. So I didnt think much of it. But I never said so. I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer
, ,
would go there and she said not by a considerable sight. I was glad about that because I want
ed him and me to be together.
,
Miss Watson she kept pecking at me and it got tiresome and lonesome. By and by they
,
fetched the niggers in and had prayers and then everybody was off to bed. I went up to my
,
room with a piece of candle and put it on the table. Then I set down in a chair by the window
,
and tried to think of something cheerful but it warnt no use. I felt so lonesome I most wished
,
I was dead. The stars were shining and the leaves rustled in the woods ever so mournful and I ;
, , ,
heard an owl away off whowhooing about somebody that was dead and a whippowill and a
;
dog crying about somebody that was going to die and the wind was trying to whisper something
, ,
to me and I couldnt make out what it was and so it made the cold shivers run over me. Then
away out in the woods I heard that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when it wants to tell about
something thats on its mind and cant make itself understood ,and so cant rest easy in its
,
grave and has to go about that way every night grieving. I got so downhearted and scared I did
,
wish I had some company. Pretty soon a spider went crawling up my shoulder and I flipped it
;
off and it lit in the candle and before I could budge it was all shriveled up. I didnt need
,
anybody to tell me that that was an awful bad sign and would fetch me some bad luck so I was
scared and most shook the clothes off of me. I got up and turned around in my tracks three times
;
and crossed my breast every time and then I tied up a little lock of my hair with a thread to
keep witches away. But I hadnt no confidence. You do that when youve lost a horseshoe that
, ,
youve found instead of nailing it up over the door but I hadnt ever heard anybody say it was
any way to keep off bad luck when youd killed a spider.
, , ;
I set down again ashaking all over and got out my pipe for a smoke for the house was
all as still as death now,and so the widow wouldnt know. Well,after a long time I heard the
clock away off in the town go boom—boom—boom—twelve licks;and all still again—stiller
than ever. Pretty soon I heard a twig snap down in the dark amongst the trees—something was a
stirring. I set still and listened. Directly I could just barely hear a “meyow!meyow! ”down
there. That was good!Says I,“meyow!meyow! ”as soft as I could,and then I put out the
light and scrambled out of the window on to the shed. Then I slipped down to the ground and
, , ,
crawled in among the trees and sure enough there was Tom Sawyer waiting for me.
179
Questions for Discussion
?
1. Why did Huck run away from the Widow Douglas Why did he obey Tom Sawyer and
?
go back What does this tell you about Tom and Huck ?
2. What did “the good place”and “the bad place”mean?Why did Miss Watson get mad
when Huck said “I wished I was there. ”?Did Huck fully understand their meanings?
3. Why did Huck get downhearted and scared when he was alone in his room?Do you
think he was superstitious?Did you ever have any similar feelings when you were small?
4. What do you think of the description of the last two paragraphs?
Notes
1. light out : < 美口 > 匆匆离去,突然离开。
2. hunt me up :想方设法找到我。
3. start a band of robbers:发起组织一个强盗帮,指孩子们的幻想游戏。
4. feel all cramped up :(硬邦邦的新衣服绑在身上而)憋得实在难受。
5. Moses and the Bulrushers:摩西和蒲草箱的故事。 在 《圣经 · 旧约 》中,埃及法老
曾下令淹死所有的以色列男婴,摩西的母亲为了让儿子,将摩西装入蒲草箱,放到尼罗河中,
以逃避大屠杀。因命运安排,装着摩西的箱子竟然飘到埃及王后的花园里。善良的王后收
养了摩西,并抚养他长大成人。
6. take (put)stock in :相信,重视
7. take snuff:吸鼻烟
8. goggles:护目镜,防风镜
9. take a set at me:“set”为“趋势”,“倾向”,该短语有“故意难为我”之意。
10. She worked me middling hard for about an hour. :此句真正意思应为 “She
had me working hard as a middle school student for about an hour. ”“middling ”一
词既是马克·吐温新造的词用法,又恰到好处地反映哈克的聪明和此刻他的不耐烦。
180
Katherine Anne Porter 1890 ( —1980)
Unit 19 凯瑟琳 · 安 · 波特
Biography
Katherine Anne Porter was a Pulitzer Prizewinning American
, ,short story writer,novelist,and political activist.
journalist essayist
Her 1962 novel Ship of Fools was a bestseller in America that year,but
her short stories received much more critical acclaim. She is known for
;
her penetrating insight her work deals with dark themes such as betrayal ,
death and the origin of human evil.
Porter was born in Texas in 1890 as Callie Russell Porter. When she
was two ,her mother died during childbirth, so she went to live with her grandmother,
Catherine Ann,by whom Porter was much influenced. When she was sixteen,Porter ran away
and converted to Catholicism to marry John Henry Koontz. Koontz was an alcoholic who
, ,
subjected Porter to extreme physical abuse and after eight years of marriage Porter left him to
start a career as an actress in Chicago and Texas. She formally divorced Koontz in 1915 and
,
changed her name to Katherine Anne a respelled version of her grandmothers name. In 1930 ,
, ,
she published her first collection of short stories Flowering Judas and Other Stories which
earned her fame.
, ,
When writing fiction Porter often drew on her own life creating rich blends of reality and
imagination. She blossomed as a writer during the 1930s and 1940s. Porter started her novel
,
Ship of Fools in the 1940s which drew on her trip from Mexico to Germany in the 1931 and
,
took her about twenty years to finish. She finally published the novel in 1962 which turned her
into a widely known and read author. The novel spent twentysix weeks at the top of The New
York Times bestseller list and was made into a film starring Vivien Leigh in 1966. Porter won
more acclaim in 1965 ,when her Collected Stories won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book
Award. That year she was also appointed to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Major Works
? Collections of short stories :
Flowering Judas and Other Stories 1930 ( )
, :
Pale Horse Pale Rider Three Short Novels 1939 ( ) 181
( )
The Leaning Tower and Other Stories 1944
The Old Order:Stories of the South (1955 )
The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter 1965 ( )
? Novel :
( )
Ship of Fools 1962
? Essay Collections:
The Days Before (1952 )
Collected Essays and Occasional Writings of Katherine Anne Porter 1970 ( )
? Other publications :
( )
Outline of Mexican Popular Arts and Crafts 1922
Katherine Anne Porters French Song Book (1933 )seventeen French songs with
Porters English translations
The Never Ending Wrong 1977 ( )Porters reflections upon the 1927 executions
of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
She flicked her wrist neatly out of Doctor Harrys pudgy careful fingers and pulled the sheet
182
Unit 19 ( —1980) 凯瑟琳·安·波特
Katherine Anne Porter 1890
up to her chin. The brat ought to be in knee breeches1 . Doctoring around the country with
spectacles on his nose !“Get along now. Take your schoolbooks and go. Theres nothing wrong
with me. ”
Doctor Harry spread a warm paw like a cushion on her forehead where the forked green
vein danced and made her eyelids twitch. “Now,now,be a good girl,and well have you up
in no time. ”
“Thats no way to speak to a woman nearly eighty years old just because shes down. Id
have you respect your elders ,young man. ”
2
“Well,Missy,excuse me. ”Doctor Harry patted her cheek. “But Ive got to warn you,
havent I?Youre a marvel,but you must be careful or youre going to be good and sorry. ”
“Dont tell me what Im going to be. Im on my feet now,morally speaking. Its
Cornelia. I had to go to bed to get rid of her. ”
Her bones felt loose,and floated around in her skin,and Doctor Harry floated like a
balloon around the foot of the bed. He floated and pulled down his waistcoat,and swung his
glasses on a cord. “Well,stay where you are,it certainly cant hurt you. ”
“Get along and doctor your sick,”said Granny Weatherall. “Leave a well woman alone.
Ill call for you when I want you 爥 Where were you forty years ago when I pulled through
milkleg and double pneumonia3 ?You werent even born. Dont let Cornelia lead you on ,”
,
she shouted because Doctor Harry appeared to float up to the ceiling and out. “I pay my own
,
bills and I dont throw my money away on nonsense !”
,
She meant to wave goodby but it was too much trouble. Her eyes closed of themselves ,
,
it was like a dark curtain drawn around the bed. The pillow rose and floated under her pleasant
as a hammock in a light wind. She listened to the leaves rustling outside the window. No ,
: ,
somebody was swishing newspapers no Cornelia and Doctor Harry were whispering together.
,
She leaped broad awake thinking they whispered in her ear.
“She was never like this,never like this!”“Well,what can we expect?”“Yes,eighty
years old爥”
Well,and what if she was?She still had ears. It was like Cornelia to whisper around
doors. She always kept things secret in such a public way. She was always being tactful and
; :“So good and
kind. Cornelia was dutiful that was the trouble with her. Dutiful and good
dutiful,
”said Granny,“that Id like to spank her. ”She saw herself spanking Cornelia and
making a fine job of it.
“Whatd you say,mother?”
Granny felt her face tying up in hard knots.
“Cant a body think,Id like to know?”
“I thought you might like something. ”
“I do. I want a lot of things. First off,go away and dont whisper. ” 183
,
She lay and drowsed hoping in her sleep that the children would keep out and let her rest a
minute. It had been a long day. Not that she was tired. It was always pleasant to snatch a
,
minute now and then. There was always so much to be done let me see tomorrow. :
Tomorrow was far away and there was nothing to trouble about. Things were finished
;
somehow when the time came thank God there was always a little margin over for peace then :
4
a person could spread out the plan of life and tuck in the edges orderly . It was good to have
,
everything clean and folded away with the hair brushes and tonic bottles sitting straight on the
, :
white embroidered linen the day started without fuss and the pantry shelves laid out with rows
of jelly glasses and brown jugs and white stonechina jars with blue whirligigs and words painted
: , , , , , :
on them coffee tea sugar ginger cinnamon allspice and the bronze clock with the lion on
!
top nicely dusted off. The dust that lion could collect in twentyfour hours The box in the attic
, ,
with all those letters tied up well shed have to go through that tomorrow. All those letters —
Georges letters and Johns letters and her letters to them both —lying around for the children to
,
find afterwards made her uneasy. Yes that would be tomorrows business. No use to let them
know how silly she had been once.
While she was rummaging around she found death in her mind and it felt clammy and
unfamiliar. She had spent so much time preparing for death there was no need for bringing it up
,
again. Let it take care of itself for now. When she was sixty she had felt very old finished ,
,
and went around making farewell trips to see her children and grandchildren with a secret in her
: , !
mind This was the very last of your mother children Then she made her will and came down
, ,
with a long fever. That was all just a notion like a lot of other things but it was lucky too for
she had once and for all got over the idea of dying for a long time. Now she couldnt be
worried. She hoped she had better sense now. Her father had lived to be one hundred and two
years old and had drunk a noggin of strong hot toddy5 on his last birthday. He told the
,
reporters it was his daily habit and he owed his long life to that. He had made quite a scandal
and was very pleased about it. She believed shed just plague Cornelia a little.
“Cornelia!Cornelia!”No footsteps,but a sudden hand on her cheek. “Bless you,where
have you been? ”
“Here,Mother. ”
“Well,Cornelia,I want a noggin of hot toddy. ”
“Are you cold,darling?”
“Im chilly,Cornelia. Lying in bed stops the circulation. I must have told you a thousand
times. ”
Well,she could just hear Cornelia telling her husband that Mother was getting a little
childish and theyd have to humor her. The thing that most annoyed her was that Cornelia
, ,
thought she was deaf dumb and blind. Little hasty glances and tiny gestures tossed around
here and over her head saying,“Dont cross her,let her have her way,shes eighty years old,
”
184
Unit 19 Katherine Anne Porter 1890 ( —1980) 凯瑟琳·安·波特
and she sitting there as if she lived in a thin glass cage. Sometimes granny almost made up her
mind to pack up and move back to her own house where nobody could remind her every minute
, , ,
that she was old. Wait wait Cornelia till your own children whisper behind your back !
In her day she had kept a better house and had got more work done. She wasnt too old yet
,
for Lydia to be driving eighty miles for advice when one of the children jumped the track6 and
Jimmy still dropped in and talked things over :“Now,Mammy,youve a good business head,I
want to know what you think of this ?爥”Old. Cornelia couldnt change the furniture around
without asking. Little things,little things!They had been so sweet when they were little.
Granny wished the old days were back again with the children young and everything to be done
,
over. It had been a hard pull but not too much for her. When she thought of all the food she
, ,
had cooked and all the clothes she had cut and sewed and all the gardens she had made —
, , ,
well the children showed it. There they were made out of her and they couldnt get away
7
, ,
from that. Sometimes she wanted to see John again and point to them and say Well I didnt
, ?
do so badly did I But that would have to wait. That was for tomorrow. She used to think of
him as a man,but now all the children were older than their father,and he would be a child
beside her if she saw him now. It seemed strange and there was something wrong in the idea.
, ,
Why he couldnt possibly recognize her. She had fenced in a hundred acres once digging the
post holes herself and clamping the wires with just a negro boy to help. That changed a woman.
John would be looking for a young woman with a peaked Spanish comb in her hair and the
painted fan. Digging post holes changed a woman. Riding country roads in the winter when
:
women had their babies was another thing sitting up nights with sick horses and sick negroes
, !
and sick children and hardly ever losing one. John I hardly ever lost one of them John would
, ,
see that in a minute that would be something he could understand she wouldnt have to explain
anything !
It made her feel like rolling up her sleeves and putting the whole place to rights again8 .
,
No matter if Cornelia was determined to be everywhere at once there were a great many things
left undone on this place. She would start tomorrow and do them. It was good to be strong
,
enough for everything even if all you made melted and changed and slipped under your hands ,
so that by the time you finished you almost forgot what you were working for. What was it I set
? ,
out to do She asked herself intently but she could not remember. A fog rose over the valley ,
she saw it marching across the creek swallowing the trees and moving up the hill like an army of
,
ghosts. Soon it would be at the near edge of the orchard and then it was time to go in and light
, ,
the lamps. Come in children dont stay out in the night air.
Lighting the lamps had been beautiful. The children huddled up to her and breathed like
little calves waiting at the bars in the twilight. Their eyes followed the match and watched the
, ,
flame rise and settle in a blue curve then they moved away from her. The lamp was lit they
didnt have to be scared and hang on to mother any more. Never,never,never more. God,for
185
, , ,
all my life I thank Thee. Without Thee my God I could never have done it. Hail Mary , ,
full of grace.
I want you to pick all the fruit this year and see nothing is wasted. Theres always someone
who can use it. Dont let good things rot for want of using. You waste life when you waste
good food. Dont let things get lost. Its bitter to lose things. Now ,dont let me get to
,
thinking not when Im tired and taking a little nap before supper爥.
The pillow rose about her shoulders and pressed against her heart and the memory was
: , , :
being squeezed out of it oh push down the pillow somebody it would smother her if she
tried to hold it. Such a fresh breeze blowing and such a green day with no threats in it. But he
,
had not come just the same. 9 What does a woman do when she has put on the white veil and
? ,
set out the white cake for a man and he doesnt come She tried to remember. No I swear he
never harmed me but in that. He never harmed me but in that爥and what if he did?There was
the day,the day,but a whirl of dark smoke rose and covered it,crept up and over into the
bright field where everything was planted so carefully in orderly rows. That was hell,she knew
hell when she saw it. For sixty years she had prayed against remembering him and against losing
,
her soul in the deep pit of hell and now the two things were mingled in one and the thought of
him was a smoky cloud from hell that moved and crept in her head when she had just got rid of
, ,
Doctor Harry and was trying to rest a minute. Wounded vanity Ellen said a sharp voice in the
top of her mind. Dont let your wounded vanity get the upper hand of you. Plenty of girls get
jilted. You were kilted ,werent you?Then stand up to it. Her eyelids wavered and let in
streamers of bluegray light like tissue paper over her eyes. She must get up and pull the shades
down or shed never sleep. She was in bed again and the shades were not down. How could that
?
happen Better turn over ,hide from the light,sleeping in the light gave you nightmares.
“Mother,how do you feel now?”and a stinging wetness on her forehead. But I dont like
having my face washed in cold water!
Hapsy?George?Lydia?Jimmy? No,Cornelia and her features were swollen and full of
10
little puddles. “Theyre coming,darling,theyll all be here soon. ”Go wash your face,child,
you look funny.
,
Instead of obeying Cornelia knelt down and put her head on the pillow. She seemed to be
talking but there was no sound. “Well,are you tonguetied?Whose birthday is it?Are you
going to give a party ?”
Cornelias mouth moved urgently in strange shapes. “Dont do that,you bother me,
daughter. ”
“Oh no,Mother. Oh,no爥”
Nonsense. It was strange about children. They disputed your every word. “No what,
Cornelia ?”
186
“Heres Doctor Harry. ”
Unit 19 ( —1980) 凯瑟琳·安·波特
Katherine Anne Porter 1890
“I wont see that boy again. He left just five minutes ago. ”
“That was this morning,Mother. Its night now. Heres the nurse. ”
“This is Doctor Harry,Mrs. Weatherall. I never saw you look so young and happy!”
“Ah,Ill never be young again—but Id be happy if theyd let me lie in peace and
get rested. ”
She thought she spoke up loudly,but no one answered. A warm weight on her forehead,a
warm bracelet on her wrist,and a breeze went on whispering,trying to tell her something. A
shuffle of leaves in the everlasting hand of God,He blew on them and they danced and rattled.
“Mother,dont mind,were going to give you a little hypodermic. ”“Look here,daughter,
how do ants get in this bed?I saw sugar ants yesterday. ”Did you send for Hapsy too?
It was Hapsy she really wanted. She had to go a long way back through a great many
rooms to find Hapsy standing with a baby on her arm. She seemed to herself to be Hapsy also ,
, ,
and the baby on Hapsys arm was Hapsy and himself and herself all at once and there was no
surprise in the meeting. Then Hapsy melted from within and turned flimsy as gray gauze and the
,
baby was a gauzy shadow and Hapsy came up close and said ,“I thought youd never come,”
and looked at her very searchingly and said,“You havent changed a bit! ”They leaned forward
to kiss,when Cornelia began whispering from a long way off,“Oh,is there anything you want
to tell me?Is there anything I can do for you?”
Yes,she had changed her mind after sixty years and she would like to see George. I want
you to find George. Find him and be sure to tell him I forgot him. I want him to know I had my
husband just the same and my children and my house like any other woman. A good house too
and a good husband that I loved and fine children out of him. Better than I had hoped for even.
,,, ,,
Tell him I was given back everything he took away and more. Oh no oh God no there was
something else besides the house and the man and the children. Oh,surely they were not all?
?
What was it Something not given back爥 Her breath crowded down under her ribs and grew
; ,
into a monstrous frightening shape with cutting edges it bored up into her head and the agony
: , , , ,
was unbelievable Yes John get the Doctor now no more talk my time has come. 11
,
When this one was born it should be the last. The last. It should have been born first for
,
it was the one she had truly wanted. Everything came in good time. Nothing left out left over.
,
She was strong in three days she would be as well as ever. Better. A woman needed milk in
her to have her full health.
“Mother,do you hear me?”
“Ive been telling you—”
“Mother,Father Connollys here. ”
12
“I went to Holy Communion only last week. Tell him Im not so sinful as all that. ”
13
fallen,there was the freshly polished floor with the green rug on it,just as before. He had
cursed like a sailors parrot and said,“Ill kill him for you. ”Dont lay a hand on him,for my
sake leave something to God. “Now,Ellen,you must believe what I tell you爥. ”
So there was nothing,nothing to worry about anymore,except sometimes in the night one
of the children screamed in a nightmare,and they both hustled out and hunting for the matches
and calling,“There,wait a minute,here we are! ”John,get the doctor now,Hapsys time has
come. But there was Hapsy standing by the bed in a white cap. “Cornelia,tell Hapsy to take
off her cap. I cant see her plain. ”
Her eyes opened very wide and the room stood out like a picture she had seen somewhere.
Dark colors with the shadows rising towards the ceiling in long angles. The tall black dresser
, ,
gleamed with nothing on it but Johns picture enlarged from a little one with Johns eyes very
,
black when they should have been blue. You never saw him so how do you know how he
?
looked But the man insisted the copy was perfect ,it was very rich and handsome. For a
picture ,yes,but its not my husband. The table by the bed had a linen cover and a candle and a
crucifix. The light was blue from Cornelias silk lampshades. No sort of light at all,just frippery.
You had to live forty years with kerosene lamps to appreciate honest electricity. She felt very
strong and she saw Doctor Harry with a rosy nimbus around him.
“You look like a saint,Doctor Harry,and I vow thats as near as youll ever come to it. ”
“Shes saying something. ”
“I heard you Cornelia. Whats all this carrying on?”
“Father Connollys saying—”
Cornelias voice staggered and jumped like a cart in a bad road. It rounded corners and
turned back again and arrived nowhere. Granny stepped up in the cart very lightly16 and
, ,
reached for the reins but a man sat beside her and she knew him by his hands driving the cart.
, ,
She did not look in his face for she knew without seeing but looked instead down the road
where the trees leaned over and bowed to each other and a thousand birds were singing a Mass.
188
, ,
She felt like singing too but she put her hand in the bosom of her dress and pulled out a
Unit 19 ( —1980) 凯瑟琳·安·波特
Katherine Anne Porter 1890
,
rosary and Father Connolly murmured Latin in a very solemn voice and tickled her feet17 . My
God,will you stop that nonsense?Im a married woman. What if he did run away and leave me
to face the priest by myself?I found another a whole world better;I wouldnt have exchanged
my husband for anybody except St. Michael himself,and you may tell him that for me with a
thank you in the bargain.
Light flashed on her closed eyelids,and a deep roaring shook her. Coenelia,is that
lightning ?I hear thunder. Theres going to be a storm. Close all the windows. Call the children
in爥 “Mother,here we are,all of us. ”“Is that you Hapsy? ”“Oh,no,Im Lydia. We drove
as fast as we could. ”Their faces drifted above her,drifted away. The rosary fell out of her
hands and Lydia put it back. Jimmy tried to help,their hands fumbled together,and granny
closed two fingers around Jimmys thumb. Beads wouldnt do,it must be something alive. She
was so amazed her thoughts ran round and round. So,my dear Lord,this is my death and I
wasnt even thinking about it. My children have come to see me die. But I cant,its not time.
Oh,I always hated surprise. I wanted to give Cornelia the amethyst set—Cornelia,youre to
have the amethyst set,but Hapsys to wear it when she wants,and,Doctor Harry,do shut up.
Nobody sent for you. Oh,my dear Lord,do wait a minute. I meant to do something about the
Forty Acres,Jimmy doesnt need it and Lydia will later on,with that worthless husband of
hers. I meant to finish the alter cloth and sent six bottles of wine to Sister Borgia for her
dyspepsia. I want to send six bottles of wine to Sister Borgia,Father Connolly,now dont let
me forget.
Cornelias voice made short turns and tilted over and crashed. “Oh,Mother,oh,Mother,
oh,Mother爥. ”
“Im not going,Cornelia. Im taken by surprise. I cant go. ”
Youll see Hapsy again. What about her?“I thought youd never come. ”Granny made a
long journey outward,looking for Hapsy. What if I dont find her?What then?Her heart sank
down and down,there was no bottom to death,she couldnt come to the end of it. The blue
light from Cornelias lampshade drew into a tiny point in the center of her brain,it flickered
18
and winked like an eye,quietly it fluttered and dwindled. Granny laid curled down within
herself,amazed and watchful,staring at the point of light that was herself;her body was now
only a deeper mass of shadow in an endless darkness and this darkness would curl around the
light and swallow it up. God,give a sign!
19
For a second time there was no sign. Again no bridegroom and the priest in the house.
She could not remember any other sorrow,because this grief wiped them all away. Oh,no,
theres nothing more cruel than this—Ill never forgive it. She stretched herself with a deep
breath and blew out the light.
Notes
1. The brat ought to be in knee breeches. :“brat”为称呼小孩的贬义词。“knee
breeches”指齐膝的短(马)裤, 19 世纪和 20 世纪初,英美国家 12 岁以前男孩的普通着装。
这句话的实际意义是“这个乳臭未干的小子。”
2. Id have you respect your elders. :我会让你尊敬老人的。
3. pulled through milkleg and double pneumonia:得了产后股白肿病和双侧肺炎
又活了下来。
4. tuck in the edges orderly:tidy up the loose ends of life
5. a noggin of strong hot toddy:一小杯热甜酒;“hot toddy ”:a sweetened
mixture of whisky and hot water,usually considered good for a cold
6. jumped the track:misbehaved 出轨。
7. 爥she wanted to see John again爥:John 是她英年早逝的丈夫。
8. putting the whole place to rights again. :把整个地方收拾干净。
9. But he had not come,just the same. :“he”即 George, 60 年前将她抛弃在婚礼
殿堂的未婚夫。
10. Hapsy?George?Lydia?Jimmy?:这些都是老奶奶孩子的名字。
11. 爥my time has come:我要生了。(老奶奶想起自己临盆的时候。)
12. Father Connolly:康诺利神父
13. Holy Communion :领用圣餐,这是基督教和天主教主要仪式之一。
14. The whole bottom dropped out of the world 爥: Something very bad
occurred suddenly.
:
15. His Johns
16. Granny stepped up in the cart very lightly爥 :老奶奶轻盈地登上马车。这里波
特运用了一个典故:19 世纪美国女诗人艾米莉 · 迪金森的诗歌 “Because I Could Not
Stop for Death ”描写死神赶着马车来接她,她乘上马车跟死神同游人生的旅途,然后走向
坟墓与永恒。
17. tickled her feet:天主教神父在举行死亡前的仪式,包括两脚涂香油。
18. the blue light:蓝光。波特借用迪金森的另一首关于死亡的诗歌 “I Heard a Fly
Buzz—When I Died —”。
19. Again no bridegroom and the priest in the house. :这里老奶奶又回忆起当年
她在教堂等候未婚夫的情景。
190
William Faulkner 1897 ( —1962)
Unit 20 威廉 · 福克纳
Biography
William Faulkner was born in a declining noble family in New
, , ,
Albany Mississippi in 1897. From the middle school Faulkner became
,
fascinated with poetry. In 1918 he was enlisted into the British Army in
,
Toronto but he never went to the front because the war was soon over.
Then he entered Mississippi University and started to publish poetry. In
,
1924 the first collection of poetry The Marble Faun came out.
,
As one of the twentieth centurys greatest writers Faulkner earned
his fame from a series of novels that explore the Souths historical legacy ,
,
its fraught and often tensely violent present and its uncertain future. Most of his works are
rooted in Faulkners fictional Mississippi county ,Yoknapatawpha,the imaginary setting of
which is a microcosm of the South that Faulkner knew so well. It serves as a lens through which
, ,
he could examine the practices folkways and attitudes that had divided and united the people
of the South since the nations inception.
,
In his writing Faulkner was particularly interested in exploring the moral implications of
history. As the South emerged from the Civil War and Reconstruction and attempted to shed the
stigma of slavery ,its residents were frequently torn between a new and an older,more
established world order. Religion and politics frequently failed to provide order and guidance
and instead complicated and divided. Society , with its gossip , judgment, and harsh
,
pronouncements conspired to thwart the ambitions of individuals struggling to embrace their
identities. Across Faulkners fictional landscapes , individual characters often staged epic
,
struggles prevented from realizing their potential or establishing their place in the world.
Faulkner won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949 and the Pulitzer Prize in both 1954 and 1962.
, , ,
He died in Byhalia Mississippi on July 6 1962 when he was sixtyfour. He wrote 19 novels ,
, ,
more than 120 short stories which were put into 11 collections and 6 collections of poetry.
Major Works
? Collections of poetry :
The Marble Faun 1924 ( )《大理石牧神》 191
, ( )《这片大地》
This Earth a Poem 1932
A Green Bough (1965 )《绿枝》
? Novels:
Soldiers Pay (1926 )《士兵的报酬》
The Sound and the Fury (1929 )《喧哗与骚动》
Sartoris (1929 )《沙多里斯》
As I Lay Dying (1930 )《在我弥留之际》
Light in August (1931 )《八月之光》
Absalom,Absalom!(1936 )《押沙龙,押沙龙!》
The Hamlet (1940 )《村子》
The Town (1957 )《小镇》
The Mansion (1959 )《大宅》
? Short stories:
A Rose for Emily (1930 )《献给艾米莉的一朵玫瑰》
That Evening Sun (1931 )《夕阳》
Dry September (1931 )《干旱的九月》
Barn Burning (1938 )《烧牲口棚》
The Bear (1942 )《熊》
revised versions of the story appeared in subsequent collections of Faulkners short fiction —in
( ) ( )—which helped to increase its visibility.
These 13 1931 and then Collected Stories 1950
Today,the muchanthologized story is among the most widely read and highly praised of
Faulkners work. Beyond its lurid appeal and somewhat Gothic atmosphere,Faulkners “ghost
story ,”as he once called it,gestures to broader ideas,including the tensions between North and
South ,complexities of a changing world order,disappearing realms of gentility and aristocracy,
and rigid social constraints placed on women. Ultimately,it is the storys chilling portrait of
abnormal psychology and necrophilia(恋尸癖)that draws readers into the cold,dusty world of
Emily Grierson.
, :
WHEN Miss Emily Grierson died our whole town went to her funeral the men through a
,
sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument the women mostly out of curiosity to see the
,
inside of her house which no one save an old manservant —a combined gardener and cook—
had seen in at least ten years.
, ,
It was a big squarish frame house that had once been white decorated with cupolas and
,
spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies set on what had
once been our most select street. But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated
even the august names of that neighborhood ;only Miss Emilys house was left,lifting its
stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps—an eyesore
among eyesores. And now Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of those august
names where they lay in the cedarbemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves
of Union and Confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson.
, , , ;
Alive Miss Emily had been a tradition a duty and a care a sort of hereditary obligation
upon the town ,dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris,the mayor—he who
fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron—
1
remitted her taxes,the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity. Not
that Miss Emily would have accepted charity. Colonel Sartoris invented an involved tale to the
, ,
effect that Miss Emilys father had loaned money to the town which the town as a matter of
,
business preferred this way of repaying. Only a man of Colonel Sartoris generation and
,
thought could have invented it and only a woman could have believed it.
When the next generation,with its more modern ideas,became mayors and aldermen,this
arrangement created some little dissatisfaction. On the first of the year they mailed her a tax
, ,
notice. February came and there was no reply. They wrote her a formal letter asking her to
call at the sheriffs office at her convenience. A week later the mayor wrote her himself , 193
,
offering to call or to send his car for her and received in reply a note on paper of an archaic
, , ,
shape in a thin flowing calligraphy in faded ink to the effect that she no longer went out at
,
all. The tax notice was also enclosed without comment.
They called a special meeting of the Board of Aldermen. A deputation waited upon her ,
knocked at the door through which no visitor had passed since she ceased giving chinapainting
lessons eight or ten years earlier. They were admitted by the old Negro into a dim hall from
which a stairway mounted into still more shadow. It smelled of dust and disuse —a close,dank
,
smell. The Negro led them into the parlor. It was furnished in heavy leathercovered furniture.
,
When the Negro opened the blinds of one window they could see that the leather was cracked ;
, ,
and when they sat down a faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs spinning with slow
motes in the single sunray. On a tarnished gilt easel before the fireplace stood a crayon portrait
of Miss Emilys father.
They rose when she entered —a small,fat woman in black,with a thin gold chain descen
ding to her waist and vanishing into her belt,leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold
head. Her skeleton was small and spare;perhaps that was why what would have been merely
2
plumpness in another was obesity in her. She looked bloated,like a body long submerged in
motionless water,and of that pallid hue . Her eyes,lost in the fatty ridges of her face,looked
3
like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough as they moved from one face to ano
ther while the visitors stated their errand.
She did not ask them to sit. She just stood in the door and listened quietly until the
spokesman came to a stumbling halt. Then they could hear the invisible watch ticking at the end
of the gold chain.
Her voice was dry and cold. “I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to
me. Perhaps one of you can gain access to the city records and satisfy yourselves. ”
“But we have. We are the city authorities,Miss Emily. Didnt you get a notice from the
sheriff,signed by him? ”
“I received a paper,yes,”Miss Emily said. “Perhaps he considers himself the sheriff 爥I
have no taxes in Jefferson. ”
“But there is nothing on the books to show that,you see We must go by the—”
“See Colonel Sartoris. I have no taxes in Jefferson. ”
“But,Miss Emily—”
“See Colonel Sartoris. ”(Colonel Sartoris had been dead almost ten years. )“I have no
taxes in Jefferson. Tobe! ”The Negro appeared. “Show these gentlemen out. ”
Ⅱ
194
,
So she vanquished them horse and foot4 ,just as she had vanquished their fathers thirty
Unit 20 ( —1962) 威廉·福克纳
William Faulkner 1897
framed by the backflung front door. So when she got to be thirty and was still single,we were
not pleased exactly,but vindicated;even with insanity in the family she wouldnt have turned
195
down all of her chances if they had really materialized9 .
, ;
When her father died it got about that the house was all that was left to her and in a way ,
,
people were glad. At last they could pity Miss Emily. Being left alone and a pauper she had ,
become humanized. Now she too would know the old thrill and the old despair of a penny
more or less10 .
The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and
, ,
aid as is our custom Miss Emily met them at the door dressed as usual and with no trace of
grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days with ,
, ,
the ministers calling on her and the doctors trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the
, ,
body. Just as they were about to resort to law and force she broke down and they buried her
father quickly.
We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that. We remembered all
, ,
the young men her father had driven away and we knew that with nothing left she would have
,
to cling to that which had robbed her as people will.
,
SHE was sick for a long time. When we saw her again her hair was cut short making her,
,
look like a girl with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows —sort of
tragic and serene.
,
The town had just let the contracts for paving the sidewalks and in the summer after her
fathers death they began the work. The construction company came with riggers and mules and
,
machinery and a foreman named Homer Barron a Yankee, —a big,dark,ready 11
,
man with a
big voice and eyes lighter than his face. The little boys would follow in groups to hear him cuss
,
the niggers and the niggers singing in time to the rise and fall of picks. Pretty soon he knew
everybody in town. Whenever you heard a lot of laughing anywhere about the square Homer ,
Barron would be in the center of the group. Presently we began to see him and Miss Emily on
Sunday afternoons driving in the yellowwheeled buggy and the matched team of bays from
the livery stable. 12
,
At first we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest because the ladies all said ,
“Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner,a day laborer. ”But there were
still others,older people,who said that even grief could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse
oblige —without calling it noblesse oblige. They just said,“Poor Emily. Her kinsfolk should
13
come to her. ”She had some kin in Alabama;but years ago her father had fallen out with them
over the estate of old lady Wyatt,the crazy woman,and there was no communication between
the two families. They had not even been represented at the funeral.
196
And as soon as the old people said ,“Poor Emily,” the whispering began. “Do you
Unit 20 ( —1962) 威廉·福克纳
William Faulkner 1897
?”they said to one another. “Of course it is. What else could 爥”This
suppose its really so
behind their hands;rustling of craned silk and satin behind jalousies closed upon the sun of
Sunday afternoon as the thin,swift clopclopclop of the matched team passed:“Poor Emily. ”
She carried her head high enough—even when we believed that she was fallen. It was as if
she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson;as if it had
wanted that touch of earthiness to reaffirm her imperviousness. 14 Like when she bought the
,
rat poison the arsenic. That was over a year after they had begun to say “Poor Emily,”and
while the two female cousins were visiting her.
“I want some poison,”she said to the druggist. She was over thirty then,still a slight
woman,though thinner than usual,with cold,haughty black eyes in a face the flesh of which
was strained across the temples and about the eyesockets as you imagine a lighthousekeepers
face15 ought to look. “I want some poison,”she said.
“Yes,Miss Emily. What kind?For rats and such?Id recom—”
“I want the best you have. I dont care what kind. ”
The druggist named several. “Theyll kill anything up to an elephant. But what you
want is—”
“Arsenic,”Miss Emily said. “Is that a good one?”
“Is 爥 arsenic?Yes,maam. But what you want—”
“I want arsenic. ”
The druggist looked down at her. She looked back at him,erect,her face like a strained
flag . “Why,of course,
16
”the druggist said. “If thats what you want. But the law requires
you to tell what you are going to use it for. ”
Miss Emily just stared at him,her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye,until
he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up. The Negro delivery boy
;
brought her the package the druggist didnt come back. When she opened the package at home
,
there was written on the box under the skull and bones :“For rats. ”
Ⅳ
So the next day we all said ,“She will kill herself ”;and we said it would be the best
thing. When she had first begun to be seen with Homer Barron,we had said,“She will marry
him. ”Then we said,“She will persuade him yet, ”because Homer himself had remarked—he
liked men,and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks Club—that he was
not a marrying man. Later we said,“Poor Emily ” behind the jalousies as they passed on
Sunday afternoon in the glittering buggy,Miss Emily with her head high and Homer Barron with
his hat cocked and a cigar in his teeth,reins and whip in a yellow glove.
Then some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example
197
to the young people. The men did not want to interfere ,but at last the ladies forced the
Baptist minister—Miss Emilys people were Episcopal—to call upon her . He would never
17
divulge what happened during that interview,but he refused to go back again. The next Sunday
they again drove about the streets,and the following day the ministers wife wrote to Miss
Emilys relations in Alabama.
So she had bloodkin under her roof again and we sat back to watch developments. At first
nothing happened. Then we were sure that they were to be married. We learned that Miss Emily
,
had been to the jewelers and ordered a mans toilet set in silver with the letters H. B. on each
piece. Two days later we learned that she had bought a complete outfit of mens clothing ,
,
including a nightshirt and we said ,“They are married. ”We were really glad. We were glad
because the two female cousins were even more Grierson than Miss Emily had ever been.
So we were not surprised when Homer Barron —the streets had been finished some time
since—was gone. We were a little disappointed that there was not a public blowingoff ,but 18
we believed that he had gone on to prepare for Miss Emilys coming,or to give her a chance to
get rid of the cousins. (By that time it was a cabal,and we were all Miss Emilys allies to
help circumvent the cousins. )Sure enough,after another week they departed. And,as we
19
had expected all along,within three days Homer Barron was back in town. A neighbor saw the
Negro man admit him at the kitchen door at dusk one evening.
And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron. And of Miss Emily for some time. The
,
Negro man went in and out with the market basket but the front door remained closed. Now
,
and then we would see her at a window for a moment as the men did that night when they
,
sprinkled the lime but for almost six months she did not appear on the streets. Then we knew
;
that this was to be expected too as if that quality of her father which had thwarted her womans
life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die.
,
When we next saw Miss Emily she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray. During
the next few years it grew grayer and grayer until it attained an even pepperandsalt irongray ,
when it ceased turning. Up to the day of her death at seventyfour it was still that vigorous iron
,
gray like the hair of an active man.
,
From that time on her front door remained closed save for a period of six or seven years ,
,
when she was about forty during which she gave lessons in chinapainting. She fitted up a
studio in one of the downstairs rooms ,where the daughters and granddaughters of Colonel
Sartoris contemporaries were sent to her with the same regularity and in the same spirit that they
were sent to church on Sundays with a twentyfivecent piece for the collection plate. Meanwhile
her taxes had been remitted.
,
Then the newer generation became the backbone and the spirit of the town and the painting
20
pupils grew up and fell away and did not send their children to her with boxes of color and
tedious brushes and pictures cut from the ladies magazines. The front door closed upon the last
198
Unit 20 ( —1962) 威廉·福克纳
William Faulkner 1897
,
one and remained closed for good. When the town got free postal delivery Miss Emily alone
refused to let them fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox to it. She
would not listen to them.
, , ,
Daily monthly yearly we watched the Negro grow grayer and more stooped going in and
,
out with the market basket. Each December we sent her a tax notice which would be returned
,
by the post office a week later unclaimed. Now and then we would see her in one of the
downstairs windows —she had evidently shut up the top floor of the house—like the carven
torso of an idol in a niche ,looking or not looking at us,we could never tell which. Thus she
21
,
THE Negro met the first of the ladies at the front door and let them in with their hushed ,
sibilant voices and their quick ,curious glances,and then he disappeared. He walked right
through the house and out the back and was not seen again.
,
The two female cousins came at once. They held the funeral on the second day with the
,
town coming to look at Miss Emily beneath a mass of bought flowers with the crayon face of
;
her father musing profoundly above the bier and the ladies sibilant and macabre22 and the very
old men—some in their brushed Confederate uniforms—on the porch and the lawn,talking of
Miss Emily as if she had been a contemporary of theirs,believing that they had danced with her
and courted her perhaps,confusing time with its mathematical progression,as the old do,to
whom all the past is not a diminishing road but,instead,a huge meadow which no winter ever
quite touches,divided from them now by the narrow bottleneck of the most recent decade of
years.
Already we knew that there was one room in that region above stairs which no one had seen
,
in forty years and which would have to be forced. They waited until Miss Emily was decently
in the ground before they opened it.
The violence of breaking down the door seemed to fill this room with pervading dust. A
,
thin acrid pall as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhere upon this room decked and furnished as
: , ,
for a bridal upon the valance curtains of faded rose color upon the roseshaded lights upon
,
the dressing table upon the delicate array of crystal and the mans toilet things backed with
199
tarnished silver,silver so tarnished that the monogram was obscured. Among them lay a
23
collar and tie,as if they had just been removed,which,lifted,left upon the surface a pale
crescent in the dust. Upon a chair hung the suit,carefully folded;beneath it the two mute shoes
and the discarded socks.
The man himself lay in the bed.
,
For a long while we just stood there looking down at the profound and fleshless grin. The
body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace ,but now the long sleep that
, ,
outlasts love that conquers even the grimace of love had cuckolded him. 24 What was left
of him,rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt,had become inextricable from the bed in
which he lay;and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient
and biding dust.
Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted
something from it ,and leaning forward,that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the
,
nostrils we saw a long strand of irongray hair.
200
10. know the old thrill 爥more or less. :体会到多一分钱就激动喜悦、少一分钱便痛
Unit 20 ( —1962) 威廉·福克纳
William Faulkner 1897
苦失望的那种人皆有之的心情。
11. ready:quick in perceiving ,intelligent
12. driving in the yellowwheeled buggy 爥livery stable :一起驾着轻便马车出游,
那辆黄轮车配上从马房中挑出的栗色辕马,十分相称。
13. noblesse oblige:(法语)the obligation of a member of the nobility to behave
with honor and dignity;贵人举止。
14. as if it had wanted 爥her imperviousness:需要同世俗的接触来重新肯定她那
不受任何影响的性格。
15. a lighthouse keepers face:比喻,指脸上带有一种因紧张而扭曲的表情。
16. a strained flag :一面拉紧了的旗子,指爱米丽小姐脸上那种严厉、紧张的表情。
17. but at last the ladies 爥call upon her. :但妇女们终于迫使浸礼会牧师—爱米丽
小姐一家人属于圣公会—去拜访她。
18. a public blowingoff:a long talking about ones feelings 一番送行告别的
热闹
19. By that time it was 爥 the cousins. :这时已经形成了一个秘密小集团,我们都站
在爱米丽小姐一边,帮她踢开这一对堂姐妹。
20. fall away:leave
21. like the carven 爥in a niche:像神龛中的一个偶像的雕塑躯干
22. the ladies sibilant and macabre:sibilant 意为 a hissing sound ;macabre 意
为 gruesome,ghastly;妇女们叽叽喳喳地谈论着死亡。
23. monogram:a design of one or more letters,esp. Initials embroidered on
clothing or printed on stationary 姓名字母图案
24. but now the long sleep 爥cuckolded him. :那比爱情更持久的、那战胜了变态之
爱的死亡早已降临他。
201
Ernest Hemingway 1899 ( —1961)
Unit 21 厄内斯特 · 海明威
Biography
, ,
Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park Illinois in the summer
of 1899. He later portrayed his middleclass parents rather harshly ,
condemning them for their conventional morality and values. As a young
,
man he left home to become a newspaper writer in Kansas City. Early in
1918 ,he joined the Italian Red Cross and served as an ambulance driver
in Italy during World War Ⅰ, in which the Italians allied with the
British,French and Americans against Germany and AustriaHungary.
Hemingways experiences then affected him profoundly and later inspired
,
one of his most celebrated novels A Farewell to Arms. When he got shot and was transferred to
,
a hospital in Milan he fell in love with a Red Cross nurse named Agnes von Kurowsky. Scho
,
lars are divided over Agness role in Hemingways life and writing but there is little doubt that
his relationship with her informed the relationship between Lieutenant Henry and Catherine
Barkley in A Farewell to Arms.
, ,
After his recovery Hemingway spent several years as a reporter during which time he
, ,
developed the clear concise and emotionally evocative writing style that generations of authors
,
after him would imitate. In September 1921 he married his first of four wives and settled in
Paris. Hemingways reputation as a writer was most firmly established by the publication of The
Sun Also Rises in 1926 and A Farewell to Arms in 1929.
,
Most critics maintain that his writing weakened after World War Ⅱ when his physical and
mental health declined. Despite terrible bouts of depression ,Hemingway did muster enough
energy to write The Old Man and the Sea,one of his most beloved stories,in 1952. This novella
earned him a Pulitzer Prize,and three years later Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Literature. Still,not even these accolades could soothe the devastating effects of a lifetime of
debilitating depression. On July 2,1961,Hemingway killed himself in his home in Ketchum,Idaho.
Major Works
? Novels :
202
The Sun Also Rises 1926 ( )
Unit 21 ( —1961) 厄内斯特·海明威
Ernest Hemingway 1899
( )
A Farewell to Arms 1929
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940 )
Across the River and Into the Trees 1950 ( )
The Old Man and the Sea 1952 ( )
? Collections of short stories :
( )
In Our Time 1925
Cat in the Rain (1925 )
Men Without Women (1927 )
The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1932 )
Winner Take Nothing (1933 )
One morning I awoke about three oclock hearing Catherine stirring in the bed.
“Are you all right,Cat?”
“Ive been having some pains,darling. ”
“Regularly?”
“No,not very. ”
“If you have them at all regularly well go to the hospital. ”
I was very sleepy and went back to sleep. A little while later I woke again.
“Maybe youd better call up the doctor,”Catherine said. “I think maybe this is it. ”
I went to the phone and called the doctor. “How often are the pains coming?”he asked.
“How often are they coming,Cat?”
“I should think every quarter of an hour. ”
“You should go to the hospital,then,”the doctor said. “I will dress and go there right
away myself. ”
I hung up and called the garage near the station to send up a taxi. No one answered the
phone for a long time. Then I finally got a man who promised to send up a taxi at once.
Catherine was dressing. Her bag was all packed with the things she would need at the hospital
and the baby things. Outside in the hall I rang for the elevator. There was no answer. I went
downstairs. There was no one downstairs except the nightwatchman. I brought the elevator up
myself ,put Catherines bag in it,she stepped in and we went down. The nightwatchman
opened the door for us and we sat outside on the stone slabs beside the stairs down to the
driveway and waited for the taxi. The night was clear and the stars were out. Catherine was very
excited.
“Im so glad its started,”she said. “Now in a little while it will be all over. ”
“Youre a good brave girl. ”
“Im not afraid. I wish the taxi would come,though. ”
We heard it coming up the street and saw its headlights. It turned into the driveway and I
helped Catherine in and the driver put the bag up in front.
“Drive to the hospital,”I said.
204 We went out of the driveway and started up the hill.
Unit 21 Ernest Hemingway 1899 ( —1961) 厄内斯特·海明威
At the hospital we went in and I carried the bag. There was a woman at the desk who wrote
, , , ,
down Catherines name age address relatives and religion in a book. She said she had no
religion and the woman drew a line in the space after that word. She gave her name as Catherine
Henry.
“I will take you up to your room,”she said. We went up in an elevator. The woman
stopped it and we stepped out and followed her down a hall. Catherine held tight to my arm.
“This is the room,”the woman said. “Will you please undress and get into bed?Here is a
nightgown for you to wear. ”
“I have a nightgown,”Catherine said.
“It is better for you to wear this nightgown,”the woman said.
I went outside and sat on a chair in the hallway.
“You can come in now,”the woman said from the doorway. Catherine was lying in the
narrow bed wearing a plain,squarecut nightgown that looked as though it were made of rough
sheeting. She smiled at me.
“Im having fine pains now,”she said. The woman was holding her wrist and timing the
pains with a watch.
“That was a big one,”Catherine said. I saw it on her face.
“Wheres the doctor?”I asked the woman.
“Hes lying down sleeping. He will be here when he is needed. ”
“I must do something for Madame,now,”the nurse said. “Would you please step out
again?”
I went out into the hall. It was a bare hall with two windows and closed doors all down the
corridor. It smelled of hospital. I sat on the chair and looked at the floor and prayed for
Catherine.
“You can come in,”the nurse said. I went in.
“Hello,darling,”Catherine said.
“How is it?”
“They are coming quite often now. ”Her face drew up. Then she smiled.
“That was a real one. Do you want to put your hand on my back again,nurse?”
“If it helps you,”the nurse said.
“You go away,darling,”Catherine said. “Go out and get something to eat. I may do this
for a long time the nurse says. ”
“The first labor is usually protracted,”the nurse said.
“Please go out and get something to eat,”Catherine said. “Im fine,really. ”
“Ill stay awhile,”I said.
The pains came quite regularly,then slackened off. Catherine was very excited. When the
pains were bad she called them good ones. When they started to fall off she was disappointed
205
and ashamed.
“You go out,darling,”she said. “I think you are just making me selfconscious. ”Her
face tied up. “There. That was better. I so want to be a good wife and have this child without
any foolishness. Please go and get some breakfast,darling,and then come back. I wont miss
you. Nurse is splendid to me. ”
“You have plenty of time for breakfast,”the nurse said.
“Ill go then. Goodby,sweet. ”
“Goodby,”Catherine said,“and have a fine breakfast for me too. ”
“Where can I get breakfast?”I asked the nurse.
“Theres a café down the street at the square,”she said. “It should be open now. ”
Outside it was getting light. I walked down the empty street to the café. There was a light
in the window. I went in and stood at the zinc bar and an old man served me a glass of white
wine and a brioche. The brioche was yesterdays. I dipped it in the wine and then drank a glass
of coffee.
“What do you do at this hour?”the old man asked.
“My wife is in labor at the hospital. ”
“So. I wish you good luck. ”
“Give me another glass of wine. ”
He poured it from the bottle slopping it over a little so some ran down on the zinc. I drank
,
this glass paid and went out. Outside along the street were the refuse cans from the houses
waiting for the collector. A dog was nosing at one of the cans.
“What do you want?”I asked and looked in the can to see if there was anything I could
pull out for him;there was nothing on top but coffeegrounds,dust and some dead flowers.
“There isnt anything,dog,”I said. The dog crossed the street. I went up the stairs in the
hospital to the floor Catherine was on and down the hall to her room. I knocked on the door.
; ,
There was no answer. I opened the door the room was empty except for Catherines bag on a
chair and her dressinggown hanging on a hook on the wall. I went out and down the hall ,
looking for somebody. I found a nurse.
“Where is Madame Henry?”
“A lady has just gone to the delivery room. ”
“Where is it?”
“I will show you. ”
She took me down to the end of the hall. The door of the room was partly open. I could
,
see Catherine lying on a table covered by a sheet. The nurse was on one side and the doctor
stood on the other side of the table beside some cylinders. The doctor held a rubber mask
attached to a tube in one hand.
206
“I will give you a gown and you can go in,”the nurse said. “Come in here,please. ”
Unit 21 ( —1961) 厄内斯特·海明威
Ernest Hemingway 1899
She put a white gown on me and pinned it at the neck in back with a safety pin.
“Now you can go in,”she said. I went into the room.
“Hello,darling,”Catherine said in a strained voice. “Im not doing much. ”
“You are Mr. Henry?”the doctor asked.
“Yes. How is everything going,doctor?”
“Things are going very well,”the doctor said. “We came in here where it is easy to give
gas for the pains. ”
“I want it now,”Catherine said. The doctor placed the rubber mask over her face and
turned a dial and I watched Catherine breathing deeply and rapidly. Then she pushed the mask
away. The doctor shut off the petcock.
“That wasnt a very big one. I had a very big one a while ago. The doctor made me go
clear out,didnt you,doctor? ”Her voice was strange. It rose on the word doctor.
The doctor smiled.
“I want it again,”Catherine said. She held the rubber tight to her face and breathed fast. I
heard her moaning a little. Then she pulled the mask away and smiled.
“That was a big one,”she said. “That was a very big one. ,
Dont you worry darling.
You go away. Go have another breakfast. ”
“Ill stay,”I said.
We had gone to the hospital about three oclock in the morning. At noon Catherine was still
in the delivery room. The pains had slackened again. She looked very tired and worn now but
she was still cheerful.
“Im not any good,darling,”she said. “Im so sorry. I thought I would do it very easily.
Now—theres one—”she reached out her hand for the mask and held it over her face. The
doctor moved the dial and watched her. In a little while it was over.
“It wasnt much ,” Catherine said. She smiled. “Im a fool about the gas. Its
wonderful. ”
“Well get some for the home,”I said.
“There one comes,”Catherine said quickly. The doctor turned the dial and looked at his
watch.
“What is the interval now?”I asked.
“About a minute. ”
“Dont you want lunch?”
“I will have something pretty soon,”he said.
“You must have something to eat,doctor,”Catherine said. “Im so sorry I go on so long.
Couldnt my husband give me the gas? ”
“If you wish,”the doctor said. “You turn it to the numeral two. ”
“I see,”I said. There was a marker on a dial that turned with a handle. 207
“I want it now,”Catherine said. She held the mask tight to her face. I turned the dial to
number two and when Catherine put down the mask I turned it off. It was very good of the
doctor to let me do something.
“Did you do it,darling?”Catherine asked. She stroked my wrist.
“Sure. ”
“Youre so lovely. ”She was a little drunk from the gas.
“I will eat from a tray in the next room,” the doctor said. “You can call me any
moment. ”While the time passed I watched him eat,then,after a while,I saw that he was
lying down and smoking a cigarette. Catherine was getting very tired.
“Do you think Ill ever have this baby?”she asked.
“Yes,of course you will. ”
“I try as hard as I can. I push down but it goes away. There it comes. Give it to me. ”
At two oclock I went out and had lunch. There were a few men in the café,sitting with
coffee and glasses of kirsch or marc on the tables. I sat down at a table. “Can I eat?
”I asked
the waiter.
“It is past time for lunch. ”
“Isnt there anything for all hours?”
“You can have choucroute. ”
“Give me choucroute and beer. ”
“A demi or a bock?”
“A light demi. ”
The waiter brought a dish of sauerkraut with a slice of ham over the top and a sausage
buried in the hot winesoaked cabbage. I ate it and drank the beer. I was very hungry. I
watched the people at the tables in the café. At one table they were playing cards. Two men at
,
the table next me were talking and smoking. The café was full of smoke. The zinc bar where I
, ; ,
had breakfasted had three people behind it now the old man a plump woman in a black dress
,
who sat behind a counter and kept track of everything served to the tables and a boy in an
apron. I wondered how many children the woman had and what it had been like.
When I was through with the choucroute I went back to the hospital. The street was all
clean now. There were no refuse cans out. The day was cloudy but the sun was trying to come
through.
,
I rode upstairs in the elevator stepped out and went down the hail to Catherines room ,
where I had left my white gown. I put it on and pinned it in back at the neck. I looked in the
glass and saw myself looking like a fake doctor with a beard. I went down the hail to the
delivery room. The door was closed and I knocked. No one answered so I turned the handle and
went in. The doctor sat by Catherine. The nurse was doing something at the other end of the
room.
208
Unit 21 Ernest Hemingway 1899( —1961) 厄内斯特·海明威
“Here is your husband,”the doctor said.
“Oh,darling,I have the most wonderful doctor,”Catherine said in a very strange voice.
“Hes been telling me the most wonderful story and when the pain came too badly he put me all
the way out. Hes wonderful. Youre wonderful,doctor. ”
“Youre drunk,”I said.
“I know it,”Catherine said. “But you shouldnt say it. ”Then “Give it to me. Give it to
me. ”She clutched hold of the mask and breathed short and deep,pantingly,making the
respirator click. Then she gave a long sigh and the doctor reached with his left hand and lifted
away the mask.
“That was a very big one,”Catherine said. Her voice was very strange. “Im not going to
die now,darling. Im past where I was going to die. Arent you glad? ”
“Dont you get in that place again. ”
“I wont. Im not afraid of it though. I wont die,darling. “
“You will not do any such foolishness,”the doctor said. “You would not die and leave
your husband. ”
“Oh,no. I wont die. I wouldnt die. Its silly to die. There it comes. Give it to me. ”
After a while the doctor said,“You will go out,Mr. Henry,for a few moments and I will
make an examination. ”
“He wants to see how I am doing,”Catherine said. “You can come back afterward,
darling,cant he,doctor? ”
“Yes,”said the doctor. “I will send word when he can come back. ”
I went out the door and down the hall to the room where Catherine was to be after the baby
came. I sat in a chair there and looked at the room. I had the paper in my coat that I had bought
when I went out for lunch and I read it. It was beginning to be dark outside and I turned the
light on to read. After a while I stopped reading and turned off the light and watched it get dark
outside. I wondered why the doctor did not send for me. Maybe it was better I was away. He
probably wanted me away for a while. I looked at my watch. If he did not send for me in ten
minutes I would go down anyway.
,
Poor poor dear Cat. And this was the price you paid for sleeping together. This was the
,
end of the trap. This was what people got for loving each other. Thank God for gas anyway.
? ,
What must it have been like before there were anaesthetics Once it started they were in the
millrace. Catherine had a good time in the time of pregnancy. It wasnt bad. She was hardly
ever sick. She was not awfully uncomfortable until toward the last. So now they got her in the
!
end. You never got away with anything. Get away hell It would have been the same if we had
been married fifty times. And what if she should die?She wont die. People dont die in
childbirth nowadays. That was what all husbands thought. Yes,but what if she should die?She
wont die. Shes just having a bad time. The initial labor is usually protracted. Shes only
209
having a bad time. Afterward wed say what a bad time and Catherine would say it wasnt really
? ,
so bad. But what if she should die She cant die. Yes but what if she should die She cant? ,
I tell you. Dont be a fool. Its just a bad time. Its just nature giving her hell. Its only the first
, , ?
labor which is almost always protracted. Yes but what if she should die She cant die. Why
? ?
would she die What reason is there for her to die Theres just a child that has to be born the ,
byproduct of good nights in Milan. It makes trouble and is born and then you look after it and
?
get fond of it maybe. But what if she should die She wont die. But what if she should die ?
?
She wont. Shes all right. But what if she should die She cant die. But what if she should
? , ?
die Hey what about that What if she should die ?
The doctor came into the room.
“How does it go,doctor?”
“It doesnt go,”he said.
“What do you mean?”
“Just that. I made an examination—”He detailed the result of the examination. “Since
then Ive waited to see. But it doesnt go. ”
“What do you advise?”
“There are two things. Either a high forceps delivery which can tear and be quite dangerous
besides being possibly bad for the child,and a Caesarean. ”
“What is the danger of a Caesarean?”What if she should die!
“It should be no greater than the danger of an ordinary delivery. ”
“Would you do it yourself?”
“Yes. I would need possibly an hour to get things ready and to get the people I would
need. Perhaps a little less. ”
“What do you think?”
“I would advise a Caesarean operation. If it were my wife I would do a Caesarean. ”
“What are the after effects?”
“There are none. There is only the scar. ”
“What about infection?”
“The danger is not so great as in a high forceps delivery. ”
“What if you just went on and did nothing?”
“You would have to do something eventually. Mrs. Henry is already losing much of her
strength. The sooner we operate now the safer. ”
“Operate as soon as you can,”I said.
“I will go and give the instructions. ”
I went into the delivery room. The nurse was with Catherine who lay on the table,big
under the sheet,looking very pale and tired.
210
“Did you tell him he could do it?”she asked.
Unit 21 Ernest Hemingway 1899( —1961) 厄内斯特·海明威
“Yes. ”
“Isnt that grand. Now it will be all over in an hour. Im almost done,darling. Im going
all to pieces. Please give me that. It doesnt work. Oh,it doesnt work! ”
“Breathe deeply. ”
“I am. Oh,it doesnt work any more. It doesnt work!”
“Get another cylinder,”I said to the nurse.
“That is a new cylinder. ”
“Im just a fool,darling,”Catherine said. “But it doesnt work any more. ”She began to
cry. “Oh,I wanted so to have this baby and not make trouble,and now Im all done and all
gone to pieces and it doesnt work. Oh,darling,it doesnt work at all. I dont care if I die if it
will only stop. Oh,please,darling,please make it stop. There it comes. Oh Oh Oh! ”She
breathed sobbingly in the mask.
“It doesnt work. It doesnt work. It doesnt work. Dont mind me,darling. Please dont
cry. Dont mind me. Im just gone all to pieces. You poor sweet. I love you so and Ill be
?
good again. Ill be good this time. Cant they give me something If they could only give me
something. ”
“Ill make it work. Ill turn it all the way. ”
“Give it to me now. ”
I turned the dial all the way and as she breathed hard and deep her hand relaxed on the
mask. I shut off the gas and lifted the mask. She came back from a long way away.
“That was lovely,darling. Oh,youre so good to me. ”
“You be brave,because I cant do that all the time. It might kill you. ”
“Im not brave any more,darling. Im all broken. Theyve broken me. I know it now. ”
“Everybody is that way. ”
“But its awful. They just keep it up till they break you. ”
“In an hour it will be over. ”
“Isnt that lovely?Darling,I wont die,will I?”
“No. I promise you wont. ”
“Because I dont want to die and leave you,but I get so tired of it and I feel Im going to
die. ”
“Nonsense. Everybody feels that. ”
“Sometimes I know Im going to die. ”
“You wont. You cant. ”
“But what if I should?”
“I wont let you. ”
“Give it to me quick. Give it to me!”
Then afterward,“I wont die. I wont let myself die. ”
211
“Of course you wont. ”
“Youll stay with me?”
“Not to watch it. ”
“No,just to be there. ”
“Sure. Ill be there all the time. ”
“Youre so good to me. There,give it to me. Give me some more. Its not working!”
I turned the dial to three and then four. I wished the doctor would come back. I was afraid
of the numbers above two.
Finally a new doctor came in with two nurses and they lifted Catherine onto a wheeled
stretcher and we started down the hall. The stretcher went rapidly down the hall and into the
; ,
elevator where every one had to crowd against the wall to make room then up then an open
door and out of the elevator and down the hall on rubber wheels to the operating room. I did not
recognize the doctor with his cap and mask on. There was another doctor and more nurses.
“Theyve got to give me something,”Catherine said. “Theyve got to give me something.
Oh please,doctor,give me enough to do some good! ”
One of the doctors put a mask over her face and I looked through the door and saw the
bright small amphitheatre of the operating room.
“You can go in the other door and sit up there,”a nurse said to me. There were benches
behind a rail that looked down on the white table and the lights. I looked at Catherine. The
mask was over her face and she was quiet now. They wheeled the stretcher forward. I turned
away and walked down the hall. Two nurses were hurrying toward the entrance to the gallery.
“Its a Caesarean,”one said. “Theyre going to do a Caesarean. ”
The other one laughed,“Were just in time. Arent we lucky?”They went in the door that
led to the gallery.
Another nurse came along. She was hurrying too.
“You go right in there. Go right in,”she said.
“Im staying outside. ”
She hurried in. I walked up and down the hall. I was afraid to go in. I looked out the
window. It was dark but in the light from the window I could see it was raining. I went into a
room at the far end of the hall and looked at the labels on bottles in a glass case. Then I came
out and stood in the empty hall and watched the door of the operating room.
A doctor came out followed by a nurse. He held something in his two hands that looked
like a freshly skinned rabbit and hurried across the corridor with it and in through another door.
I went down to the door he had gone into and found them in the room doing things to a new
born child. The doctor held him up for me to see. He held him by the heels and slapped him.
“Is he all right?”
212
“Hes magnificent. Hell weigh five kilos. ”
Unit 21 ( —1961) 厄内斯特·海明威
Ernest Hemingway 1899
I had no feeling for him. He did not seem to have anything to do with me. I felt no feeling
of fatherhood.
“Arent you proud of your son?”the nurse asked. They were washing him and wrapping
,
him in something. I saw the little dark face and dark hand but I did not see him move or hear
him cry. The doctor was doing something to him again. He looked upset.
“No,”I said. “He nearly killed his mother. ”
“It isnt the little darlings fault. Didnt you want a boy?”
“No,”I said. The doctor was busy with him. He held him up by the feet and slapped
him. I did not wait to see it. I went out in the hail. I could go in now and see. I went in the
door and a little way down the gallery. The nurses who were sitting at the rail motioned for me
to come down where they were. I shook my head. I could see enough where I was.
,
I thought Catherine was dead. She looked dead. Her face was gray the part of it that I
, ,
could see. Down below under the light the doctor was sewing up the great long ,forcep
,
spread thickedged ,wound. Another doctor in a mask gave the anaesthetic. Two nurses in
masks handed things. It looked like a drawing of the Inquisition. I knew as I watched I could
, ,
have watched it all but I was glad I hadnt. I do not think I could have watched them cut but
I watched the wound closed into a high welted ridge with quick skillfullooking stitches like a
,
cobblers and was glad. When the wound was closed I went out into the hall and walked up
and down again. After a while the doctor came out.
“How is she?”
“She is all right. Did you watch?”
He looked tired.
“I saw you sew up. The incision looked very long. ”
“You thought so?”
“Yes. Will that scar flatten out?”
“Oh,yes. ”
After a while they brought out the wheeled stretcher and took it very rapidly down the
hallway to the elevator. I went along beside it. Catherine was moaning. Downstairs they put her
in the bed in her room. I sat in a chair at the foot of the bed. There was a nurse in the room. I
got up and stood by the bed. It was dark in the room. Catherine put out her hand. “Hello,
darling,”she said. Her voice was very weak and tired.
“Hello,you sweet. ”
“What sort of baby was it?”
“Sh—dont talk,”the nurse said.
“A boy. Hes long and wide and dark. ”
“Is he all right?”
“Yes,”I said. “Hes fine. ” 213
I saw the nurse look at me strangely.
“Im awfully tired,”Catherine said. “And I hurt like hell. Are you all right,darling?”
“Im fine. Dont talk. ”
“You were lovely to me. Oh,darling,I hurt dreadfully. What does he look like?”
“He looks like a skinned rabbit with a puckeredup oldmans face. ”
1
“You must go out,”the nurse said. “Madame Henry must not talk. ”
“Ill be outside. ”
“Go and get something to eat. ”
“No. Ill be outside. ”I kissed Catherine. She was very gray and weak and tired.
“May I speak to you?”I said to the nurse. She came out in the hall with me. I walked a
little way down the hall.
“Whats the matter with the baby?”I asked.
“Didnt you know?”
“No. ”
“He wasnt alive. ”
“He was dead?”
“They couldnt start him breathing. The cord was caught around his neck or something. ”
“So hes dead. ”
“Yes. Its such a shame. He was such a fine big boy. I thought you knew. ”
“No,”I said. “You better go back in with Madame. ”
I sat down on the chair in front of a table where there were nurses reports hung on clips at
the side and looked out of the window. I could see nothing but the dark and the rain falling
across the light from the window. So that was it. The baby was dead. That was why the doctor
?
looked so tired. But why had they acted the way they did in the room with him They supposed
he would come around and start breathing probably. I had no religion but I knew he ought to
have been baptized. But what if he never breathed at all. He hadnt. He had never been alive.
Except in Catherine. Id felt him kick there often enough. But I hadnt for a week. Maybe he
was choked all the time. Poor little kid. I wished the hell Id been choked like that. No I
didnt. Still there would not be all this dying to go through. Now Catherine would die. That
was what you did. You died. You did not know what it was about. You never had time to
learn. They threw you in and told you the rules and the first time they caught you off base they
killed you. Or they killed you gratuitously like Aymo2 . Or gave you the syphilis3 like Rinaldi4 .
But they killed you in the end. You could count on that. Stay around and they would kill you.
Once in camp I put a log on top of the fire and it was full of ants. As it commenced to
, ;
burn the ants swarmed out and went first toward the center where the fire was then turned back
and ran toward the end. When there were enough on the end they fell off into the fire. Some got
214
, ,
out their bodies burnt and flattened and went off not knowing where they were going. But
Unit 21 Ernest Hemingway 1899( —1961) 厄内斯特·海明威
most of them went toward the fire and then back toward the end and swarmed on the cool end
and finally fell off into the fire. I remember thinking at the time that it was the end of the world
and a splendid chance to be a messiah5 and lift the log off the fire and throw it out where the
ants could get off onto the ground. But I did not do anything but throw a tin cup of water on the
,
log so that I would have the cup empty to put whiskey in before I added water to it. I think the
cup of water on the burning log only steamed the ants.
So now I sat out in the hall and waited to hear how Catherine was. The nurse did not come
,
out so after a while I went to the door and opened it very softly and looked in. I could not see
at first because there was a bright light in the hall and it was dark in the room. Then I saw the
,
nurse sitting by the bed and Catherines head on a pillow and she was all flat under the sheet.
,
The nurse put her finger to her lips then stood up and came to the door.
“How is she?”I asked.
“Shes all right,”the nurse said. “You should go and have your supper and then come
back if you wish. ”
I went down the hall and then down the stairs and out the door of the hospital and down the
dark street in the rain to the café. It was brightly lighted inside and there were many people at
,
the tables. I did not see a place to sit and a waiter came up to me and took my wet coat and hat
and showed me a place at a table across from an elderly man who was drinking beer and reading
the evening paper. I sat down and asked the waiter what the plat du jour6 was.
“Veal stew—but it is finished. ”
“What can I have to eat?”
“Ham and eggs,eggs with cheese,or choucroute . ” 7
“Yes,”I said.
“I remembered,”he said. “You took a demiblonde this noon. ”
I ate the ham and eggs and drank the beer. The ham and eggs were in a round dish —the
ham underneath and the eggs on top. It was very hot and at the first mouthful I had to take a
drink of beer to cool my mouth. I was hungry and I asked the waiter for another order. I drank
several glasses of beer. I was not thinking at all but read the paper of the man opposite me. It
was about the break through on the British front. When he realized I was reading the back of his
,
paper he folded it over. I thought of asking the waiter for a paper but I could not concentrate.
It was hot in the café and the air was bad. Many of the people at the tables knew one another.
215
There were several card games going on. The waiters were busy bringing drinks from the bar to
the tables. Two men came in and could find no place to sit. They stood opposite the table where
I was. I ordered another beer. I was not ready to leave yet. It was too soon to go back to the
hospital. I tried not to think and to be perfectly calm. The men stood around but no one was
,
leaving so they went out. I drank another beer. There was quite a pile of saucers now on the
,
table in front of me. The man opposite me had taken off his spectacles put them away in a
,
case folded his paper and put it in his pocket and now sat holding his liqueur glass and looking
,
out at the room. Suddenly I knew I had to get back. I called the waiter paid the reckoning9 ,
,
got into my coat put on my hat and started out the door. I walked through the rain up to the
hospital.
Upstairs I met the nurse coming down the hall.
“I just called you at the hotel,”she said. Something dropped inside me.
“What is wrong?”
“Mrs. Henry has had a hemorrhage . ” 10
“Can I go in?”
“No,not yet. The doctor is with her. ”
“Is it dangerous?”
“It is very dangerous. ”The nurse went into the room and shut the door. I sat outside in the
hall. Everything was gone inside of me. I did not think. I could not think. I knew she was
, ,
going to die and I prayed that she would not. Dont let her die. Oh God please dont let her
die. Ill do anything for you if you wont let her die. Please,please,please,dear God,dont
let her die. Dear God,dont let her die. Please,please,please dont let her die. God please
make her not die. Ill do anything you say if you dont let her die. You took the baby but dont
, , ,
let her die. That was all right but dont let her die. Please please dear God dont let her die.
The nurse opened the door and motioned with her finger for me to come. I followed her
into the room. Catherine did not look up when I came in. I went over to the side of the bed.
The doctor was standing by the bed on the opposite side. Catherine looked at me and smiled. I
bent down over the bed and started to cry.
“Poor darling,”Catherine said very softly. She looked gray.
“Youre all right,Cat,”I said. “Youre going to be all right. ”
I took her hand.
“Dont touch me,”she said. I let go of her hand. She smiled. “Poor darling. You touch
me all you want. ”
“Youll be all right,Cat. I know youll be all right. ”
“I meant to write you a letter to have if anything happened,but I didnt do it. ”
“Do you want me to get a priest or any one to come and see you?”
216
“Just you,”she said. Then a little later,“Im not afraid. I just hate it. ”
Unit 21 ( —1961) 厄内斯特·海明威
Ernest Hemingway 1899
218
Eugene Glastone ONeill 1888 ( —1953)
Unit 22 尤金 · 格拉斯通 · 奥尼尔
Biography
Eugene ONeill was born in a hotel room in New York City on
October 16 ,1888 to James and Ella ONeill. James was a successful
touring actor and ONeills mother, Ella, accompanied her husband
touring around the country. Eugene spent most of his childhood on the
road with his family. ONeill was educated at boarding schools in his
,
early years and then attended Princeton University for a year from 1906
,
to 1907. Over the next six years he shipped to sea lived destitute on the
, ,
waterfronts of New York Buenos Aires and Liverpool became alcoholic
,
and attempted suicide. At age 24 ONeill finally began to recover from this state and held a job
as a reporter for the New London Daily Telegraph. Then he became extremely ill with
,
tuberculosis and had to be hospitalized for six months. While in the hospital Eugene began to
reevaluate his life in what he later termed his “rebirth ”. After his hospitalization,ONeill
studied the techniques of play writing at Harvard University from 1914 to 1915 under the famous
theater scholar George Pierce Baker. In 1916 ,ONeills first play Bound East for Cardiff
appeared,which brought him fame. Then ONeill worked as a dramatist and playwright,and
won many prizes. Beyond the Horizon,Anna Christie,Strange Interlude,and Long Days
Journey into Night won Pulitzer Prize for drama 4 times. In 1936 ,ONeill received the Nobel
Prize in literature.
All of ONeills plays are written from a personal point of view and reflect on the tragedy of
the human condition. There is no doubt that ONeills early history contributed to his writing.
,
Like ONeill as a boy many of his characters are caught in destructive situations and paths that
,
they cannot escape. Before ONeill most American Drama was farce or melodrama. ONeill
embraced the theater as a venue to work out serious social issues and ideas. He transformed the
American Theater into a serious and important cultural institution. ONeill has been compared to
virtually every literary figure in the Western world and is considered the first great American
,
playwright. His plays deal specifically with the American tragedy rooted in American history
and social movements. ONeill had broad vision and was sometimes criticized when this vision
seemed to exceed his skill. His dramas are marked by expressionistic theatrical techniques and
219
symbolic devices that function to express religious and philosophical ideas. ONeill even used
the Ancient Greek Chorus as a device to comment on the action of many of his plays. By
,
bringing psychological depth poetic symbolism and expressionistic technique to the American
,
theatre ONeill raised the standards of American theatre. Most of his plays are tragedies ,
: ,
dealing with the basic issues of human existence and predicament life and death illusion and
disillusion,alienation and communication,dream and reality,self and society,desire and
frustration etc.
,
The last twenty years of his life ONeill battled a crippling nervous disorder similar to
Parkinsons disease. He died in a hotel room in 1953. ONeill completed 30 long plays and 20
shorter ones.
ONeills famous remarks :
“I am far from being a pessimist 爥On the contrary,in spite of my personal scars,Im
tickled to death at life!
”
“I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room and died in a hotel room. ”
Major Works
? Fulllength plays :
, —Pulitzer Prize,1920
Beyond the Horizon 1918
Anna Christie,1920 —Pulitzer Prize,1922
The Emperor Jones,1920
The Hairy Ape,1922
Desire Under the Elms,1924
Strange Interlude,1928 —Pulitzer Prize
Long Days Journey Into Night, written 1941 , first performed 1956 —Pulitzer
Prize 1957
? Oneact plays :
,
Bound East for Cardiff 1914
,
In The Zone 1917
,
The Long Voyage Home 1917
Moon of the Caribbees,1918
A Wife for a Life,1913
Where the Cross Is Made,1918
The Dreamy Kid ,1918
Characters
Robert Smith ,“Yank”—the plays antagonist,works as a stoker on a Transatlantic Ocean
Liner. The play follows his quest to find a sense of belonging in modern,industrial society.
Yank was born in New York City and was brought up in a lower class family. Yank,a burly,
sometimes menacing figure,has difficulty with thought. He is known to take the physical
position of Rodins “The Thinker”when processing information or dealing with a problem.
In the beginning of The Hairy Ape,Yank seems fairly content as,if not proud to be a
fireman,he defends the ship as his home and insists that the work he does is vital—it is the
force that makes the ship go twentyfive knots an hour. Mildred Douglass reaction to Yank is
the catalyst which makes Yank come to class awareness. His attempt to get revenge on Mildred
Douglas widens to revenge on the steel industry and finally the entire Bourgeois. Throughout 221
“ ” “ ”
this struggle Yank defines belonging as power. When he thinks he belongs to something he
gains strength ,when Yank is rejected by a group,he is terribly weak. However,Yank is
rejected by all facets of society:his fellow stokers,Mildred,the street goers of 5th Ave. ,The
I. W. W. ,and finally the ape in the zoo. Yank symbolizes the struggle of modern man within
industrial society—he cannot break class or ideological barriers,nor create new ones. Yank is
the outsider,and eventually just the freak at the zoo for people to cage and point at.
Mildred Douglas—is the pale and feeble daughter of the owner of Nazareth Steel. She has
been lavishly spoiled and enjoyed every possible privilege money can buy. In college,Mildred
studied sociology and is on a crusade to help the poor. Mildred has previously worked with the
disadvantaged people in New Yorks Lower East Side. Mildreds Aunt is accompanying her to
Europe where she will embark on more service projects. While on the Ocean Liner Mildred asks
permission to visit the lower portions of the ship to view how the “other half”(Yank and the
) ,
stokers live. As if on a trip to the zoo she wears a bright white dress down into the stoke
,
hole ignoring the Engineers warning that will get dirty from the coal dust.
,
Although Mildred should be considered the antagonist of The Hairy Ape she is equally
victimized by class as Yank. Though Mildred has more education and cultural experience than
,
Yank she still cannot escape her cultural identity. Mildred describes herself as the waste of her
, ,
fathers steel company as she has felt the benefits but not the hard work that brought them.
,
She shares with Yank the need to find a sense of usefulness or belonging. Thus Yank and
Mildred desperately search to find an identity that is their own.
Paddy —is an old Irishman who likes to drink heavily,and he is known for his rendition of
“Whiskey Johnny”and spouting philosophy and stories of the past when intoxicated. Although
Paddy is quite a thinker,ONeill describes Paddys facial features as “extremely monkey—with
the sad,patient pathos of that animal in his small eyes”. Of the men on the ship Paddy could be
considered the “extrememonkey”because he has been doing labor jobs longer than most of the
firemen—labor jobs fit for monkeys.
Paddy brings historical perspective to The Hairy Ape. His extensive monologue in Scene
One details how shipping used to be aboard Clipper Ships. Without Paddys presence the
audience would not have as much perspective about the revolution brought about by machines.
,
Paddy has experienced life on the sea that was free where he was empowered and valued.
, ,
Paddy unlike many of the men knows what it is like to not do slave labor.
Yanks continual references to Paddy as “dead”and “old”and not “belonging”with the
other men aboard the Ocean Liner reveals Yanks own rejection of freedom. The acceptance and
attachment to the modernship machine enslaves men like Yank. The need for belonging ,
222
without the knowledge of what else to belong to ,is dangerous as exemplified by Yanks
Unit 22 ( —1953) 尤金·格拉斯通·奥尼尔
Eugene Glastone ONeill 1888
: , !
Voices Gif me trink dere you
Ave a wet !
Salute !
Gesundheit !
Skoal !
,
Drunk as a lord God stiffen you !
Heres how !
Luck ! 223
, !
Ho Froggy Where the devil have you been ?
La Touraine.
,
I hit him smash in yaw py Gott !
6
爥
Yank :(for the first time seeming to take notice of the uproar about him,turns around
threateningly—in a tone of contemptuous authority )Choke off dat noise!Where dyuh get dat
beer stuff?Beer,hell!Beers for goils and—Dutchmen. Me for somepn wit a kick to it!
Gimme a drink, one of youse guys. (Several bottles are eagerly offered. He takes a
7
tremendous gulp at one of them;then,keeping the bottle in his hand,glares belligerently at the
owner,who hastens to acquiesce in this robbery by saying ‘All righto,Yank. Keep it and have
another. ’Yank contemptuously turns his back on the crowd again. For a second there is an
embarrassed silence. Then—)
Voices :
爥
Yank :(again turning around scornfully)Aw hell!Nix on dat old sailing ship stuff!All
dat bulls dead,see?And youre dead,too,yuh damned old Harp,ony yuh dont know it.
Take it easy,see. Give us a rest. Nix on de loud noise. (With a cynical grin)Cant youse see
Im tryin to tink? 8
爥
Yank :(fiercely contemptuous )Shut up,yuh lousy boob!Where dyuh get dat tripe?
Home ?Home,hell!Ill make a home for yuh!Ill knock yuh dead. Home!T hell wit home!
Where dyuh get dat tripe?Dis is home,see?What dyuh want wit home?(Proudly)I runned
away from mine when I was a kid. Ony too glad to beat it,dat was me. Home was lickings for
me,dats all. But yuh can bet your shoit no one aint never licked me since!Wanter try it,
any of youse?Huh!I guess not. (In a more placated but still contemptuous tone)Goils waitin
for yuh,huh?Aw,hell!Dats all tripe. Dey dont wait for no one. Deyd doublecross yuh for
a nickle. Deyre all tarts,get me?Treat em rough,dats me. To hell wit em. Tarts,dats
what,de whole bunch of em. 9
(There had been a gradual murmur of contemptuous resentment rising among the men until now
he is interrupted by a storm of catcalls,hisses,boos,hard laughter. )
:
Voices Turn it off !
Shut up!
Sit down!
Closa da face !
Tamn fool !
Yank :(standing up and glaring at Long )Sit down before I knock yuh down!(Long
makes haste to efface himself. Tank goes on contemptuously ) De Bible,huh?De Captlist
class,huh?Aw nix on dat Salvation ArmySocialist bull. Git a soapbox!Hire a hall!Come
and be saved,huh?Jerk us to Jesus,huh?Aw gwan!Ive listened to lots of guys like you,
see. Yuhre all wrong. Wanter know what I tink?Yuh aint no good for no one. Yuhre de
bunk. Yuh aint got no noive,get me?Yuhre yellow,dats what. Yellow,dats you. Say!
Whats dem slobs in de foist cabin got to do wit us?Were better men dan dey are,aint we?
Sure !One of us guys could clean up de whole mob wit one mit. Put one of em down here for
one watch in de stokehole,whatd happen?Deyd carry him off on a stretcher. Dem boids dont
amount to nothin. Deyre just baggage. Who makes dis old tub run?Aint it us guys?Well
den,we belong,dont we?We belong and dey dont. Dats all. (A loud chorus of approval.
Yank goes on)As for dis bein hell—aw,nuts!Yuh lost your noive,dats what. Dis is a mans
job,get me?It belongs. It runs dis tub. No stiffs need apply. But yuhre a stiff,see?Yuhre
yellow,dats you. [ ]
11
Yank:(who has been listening with a contemptuous sneer,barks out the answer )Sure
ting!Dats me. What about it?
Paddy:(as if to himself—with great sorrow)Me time is past due. That a great wave wid
sun in the heart of it may—sweep me over the side sometime Id be dreaming of the days thats
gone!
Yank: Aw, yuh crazy Mick! (He springs to his feet and advances on Paddy
threateningly —then stops,fighting some queer struggle within himself—lets his hands fall to his
sides—contemptuously)Aw,take it easy. Yuhre aw right,at dat. Yuhre bugs,dats all—
nutty as a cuckoo. All dat tripe yuh been pullin—Aw,dats all right. Ony its dead,get me?
Yuh dout belong no more,see. Yuh dont get de stuff. Yuhre too old. (Disgustedly)But aw
say,come up for air onct in a while,cant yuh?See whats happened since yuh croaked. (He
suddenly bursts forth vehemently,growing more and more excited)Say!Sure!Sure I meant it!
What de hell—Say,lemme talk!Hey!Hey,you old Harp!Hey,youse guys!Say,listen to
me— wait a moment—I gotter talk,see. I belong and he dont. Hes dead but Im livin. Listen
to me!Sure Im part of de engines!Why de hell not!Dey move,dont dey?Deyre speed,
226
Unit 22 Eugene Glastone ONeill 1888( —1953) 尤金·格拉斯通·奥尼尔
? , ? !
aint dey Dey smash trou dont dey Twentyfive knots a hour Dats goin some Dats new!
stuff!Dat belongs!But him,hes too old. He gets dizzy. Say,listen. All dat crazy tripe about
nights and days;all dat crazy tripe about stars and moons;all dat crazy tripe about suns and
winds,fresh air and de rest of it—Aw hell! ,dats all a dope dream!Hittinde pipe of de past,
dats what hes doin. Hes old and dont belong no more. But me,Im young!Im in de pink!
I move wit it. It,get me!I mean de ting dats de guts of all dis. It ploughs trou all de tripe hes
been sayin. It blows dat up!It knocks dat dead!It slams dat offende face of de oith!It,get
me!De engines and de coal and de smoke and all de rest of it!He cant breathe and swallow
coal dust,but I kin,see?Dats fresh air for me!Dats food for me!Im new,get me?Hell in
de stokehole?Sure!It takes a man to work in hell. Hell,sure,dats my favrite climate. I eat
it up!I git fat on it!Its me makes it hot!Its me makes it roar!Its me makes it move!Sure,
ony for me everyting stops. It all goes dead,get me?De noise and smoke and all de engines
movin de woild,dey stop. Dere aint nothin no more!Dats what Im sayin. Everyting else
dat makes de woild move,somepn makes it move. It cant move witout somepn else,see?
Den yuh get down to me. Im at de bottom,get me!Dere aint nothin foither. Im de end!
Im de start!I start somepn and de woild moves!It—dats me!—de new dats moiderin de
old!Im de ting in coal dat makes it boin;Im steam and oil for de engines;Im de ting in
noise dat makes yuh hear it;Im smoke and express trains and steamers and factory whistles;
Im de ting in gold dat makes it money!And Im what makes iron into steel!Steel,dat stands
for de whole ting!And Im steel—steel—steel!Im de muscles in steel,de punch behind it!
(As he says this he pounds with his fist against the steel bunks. All the men,roused to a pitch of
frenzied selfglorification by his speech, do likewise. There is a deafening metallic roar,
through which Yanks voice can be heard bellowing)Slaves,hell!We run de whole woiks. All
de rich guys dat tink deyre somepn,dey aint nothin!Dey dont belong. But us guys,were
in de move,were at de bottom,de whole ting is us! (Paddy from the start of Yanks speech
13
has been taking one gulp after another from his bottle,at first frightenedly,as if he were afraid
to listen the desperately,as if to drown his senses,but finally has achieved complete indifferent,
even amused,drunkenness. Yank sees his lips moving. He quells the uproar with a shout)Hey,
youse guys,take it easy!Wait a moment!De nutty Harp is sayin somepn.
Paddy:(is heard now—throws his head back with a mocking burst of laughter)Hohoho
hoho
Yank :(drawing back his fist,with a snarl)Aw!Look out who yuhre giving the bark!
Paddy:(begins to sing the “Miller of Dee”with enormous good nature)
“I care for nobody,no,not I,
And nobody cares for me. ”
Yank :(goodnatured himself in a flash,interrupts Paddy with a slpa on the bare back like
a report)Dats de stuff!Now yuhre gettin wise to somepn. Care for nobody,dats de dope!
227
! ,
To hell with em all And nix on nobody else carin. I kin care for myself get me !(Eight bells
,
sound muffled ,vibrating through the steel walls as if some enormous brazen gong were
imbedded in the heart of the ship. All the men jump up mechanically,file through the door
silently close upon each others heels in what is very like a prisoners lockstep. Yank slaps
) ,
Paddy on the back Our watch yuh old Harp !(Mockingly)Come on down in hell. Eat up de
coal dust. Drink in de heat. Its it,see!Act like yuh liked it,yuh better—or croak yuhself.
Paddy :(with jovial defiance)To the divil wid it!Ill not report this watch. Let thim log
me and be damned. Im no slave the like of you. Ill be sittin here at me ease,and drinking,
14
Notes
, :一排排狭窄的钢架三层床倚壁而立。
1. Tiers of narrow steel 爥 in rear.
2. inchoate:不连贯的
3. dungaree pants:粗蓝斜纹布裤子
4. This accentuates 爥have given them. :这就更加突出了他们长期铲煤而形成过于
发达的肩背肌肉和弯腰曲背的体态。
5. resemble those pictures 爥is guessed at:与人们所猜想的旧石器时代的古人外
貌相似。
6. 这一段 Voices 是水手们挤在一起喝酒时你言我语发出的喧闹,与剧中其他 Voices
一样,没什么意义,且大多上下句互不关联,它们只是构成了背景音响,为剧情制造所需的氛
围。英语不规范,夹杂许多地方音、语法错误和外来语,表明水手们不同的国籍和低下的文
化水准。如:Gif me trink dere:Give me drink there;Ave:have;Gesundheit:(德)祝
228 你健康;Froggy:法国佬;La Touraine:(法 )都兰,法国地名;yaw:jaw;Py Gott:by
Unit 22 ( —1953) 尤金·格拉斯通·奥尼尔
Eugene Glastone ONeill 1888
God ;peer:beer;the coppers:the cops 警察;It dont pig head gif yuh :It doesnt
give you pig head. (啤酒 )喝不醉;Bloody Dutchman :残暴的荷兰佬;Dutchy:荷兰佬;
Wop :意大利佬;Py Yesus:by Jesus.
7. Yank 的英语也不规范,地方音重,发音不全,如 dyuh :do you ;goils:girls;Me
for somepn wit a kick to it:me for something with a kick to it. 我要来点带劲的(酒);
Gimme:give me;youse:your。
8. Aw:all;Nix on :不准;dat:that;old Harp :爱尔兰人;ony:only;Im tryin to
tink:Im trying to think.
9. boob :a stupis person ;tripe:nonsense;too glad to beat it:very glad to
escape home,这里 too 意为 very,beat (美俚 )意为 escape;lickings:(俚 )defeats;
shoit:shirt;wanter:want to ;Dey:they;doublecross:(俚)出卖、背叛。
10. ere:here;e:he;ome:home;ell:hell;ter:to ;arsks yer:ask you ;
ekal:equal;them lazy bloated swine what travels first cabin :那些坐头等舱的得意忘
形的懒猪们,这里 what 应为 who;thems:thosere;til:until;Hits:Its.
11. Salvation Army:救世军,一国际性准军事组织,由英国人 William Booth 于 1865
年创立,在穷人中搞宗教慈善活动。 Git:get;soapbox:街头演讲者用的临时演讲台;
jurk:猛推,这里意味”交给 ”;gwan :go away;noive:nerve;boids:birds 胆小鬼,指
坐头等舱的人;old tub:指船;den:then;stiff:(俚)dead body,fool.
12. Yerra:Youre right;Ochone:(苏格兰语)alas;clipper:快速帆船;wid :with ;
Horn :the Cape Horn 合恩角。
13. Mick:(美俚 )对爱尔兰人的戏称; nutty as a cuchoo :疯疯癫癫的; trou :
through ;knots:浬;oith :earth ;woild :world ;foither:further;woiks:works.
14. Let thim log me:让他们打我旷工好了。
229
John Steinbeck 1902 ( —1968)
Unit 23 约翰 · 斯坦贝克
Biography
, , ,
John Steinbeck born in Salinas California came from a family of
moderate means. He worked his way through college at Stanford
University but never graduated. While beginning to write fiction ,he
worked to make ends meet as a lab assistant and fruit picker. During
World War Ⅱ ,he worked as a war correspondent for the New York
Herald Tribune and later took a trip to Vietnam for the New York Daily
, ,
News. In 1930 he married Carol Henning but their marriage dissolved
in 1942. He quickly remarried and had two sons with his second wife ,
,
Gwyndolyn Congor before they got divorced in 1949. His third marriage to Elaine Scott in
1950 lasted until his death in 1968.
Steinbecks novels can all be classified as social novels dealing with the economic problems
, ,
of rural labour but there is also a streak of worship of the soil in his books which does not
always agree with his matteroffact sociological approach. After the rough and earthy humour
of Tortilla Flat (1935 ),he moved on to more serious fiction,often aggressive in its social
criticism. In Dubious Battle (1936 ) deals with the strikes of the migratory fruit pickers on
California plantations. This was followed by Of Mice and Men (1937 ),the story of the
imbecile giant Lennie,and a series of admirable short stories collected in the volume The Long
Valley (1938 ). In 1939 he published what is considered his best work,The Grapes of Wrath,
the story of Oklahoma tenant farmers who,struggling to survive the Dust Bowl during the Great
Depression and yet unable to earn a living from the land,moved to California where they
became migratory workers. This novel won the 1940 Pulitzer Prize and was made into a film of
the same name later that year.
, ,
Steinbeck felt a great deal for the downtrodden working class and dregs of society. His
short story The Chrysanthemums (1938 )proves that he had an understanding of the struggles
faced by women in his day. Like his novels,Steinbecks short stories feature realistic dialogue,
nerveracking dramas,and sympathetic examinations of characters trying to find happiness in the
face of poverty and oppression.
230
Unit 23 ( —1968) 约翰·斯坦贝克
John Steinbeck 1902
Major Works
? Novels :
( )
Cup of Gold 1929
To a God Unknown 1933 ( )
( )
Tortilla Flat 1935
In Dubious Battle (1936 )
The Grapes of Wrath (1939 )
Cannery Row (1945 )
East of Eden (1952 )
Sweet Thursday (1954 )
The Winter of Our Discontent 1961 ( )
? Novellas :
( )
A Red Pony 1933
Of Mice and Men (1937 )
The Pearl (1947 )
Burning Bright (1950 )
? Collections of short stories:
The Pastures of Heaven (1932 )
The Long Valley (1938 )
“
Synopsis of The Chrysanthemums ”
, , , ,
Elisa a robust thirtyfiveyearold woman lives with her husband Henry on a ranch in
,
the Salinas Valley. Even though Elisa is associated with fertility and sexuality the couple has no
, ,
children. She is a hard worker her house sparkles and her flowers grow tremendous blooms.
Nevertheless,Elisa feels trapped,underappreciated,and frustrated with life. Henry is a kind,
traditional man,if slightly dimwitted. He loves his wife but doesnt really understand and
appreciate her. Still, he is an adequate businessman who runs his ranch successfully and
provides a comfortable life for his wife. His benevolent,sometimes dismissive attitude toward
his wife highlights societys inability to treat women as equals. One day,a tinker who makes his
231
, ,
living by repairing pots pans and other kitchen utensils visits the ranch. He begs for work but
,
Elisa initially turns him down. This tinker is a smart and charming salesman. He flatters flirts
and banters with Elisa and finally worms his way into Elisas trust. Elisa is so simpleminded that
shes easy to believe in others. Because shes so desperate to communicate with the outside
world or talk to someone who understands her ,she becomes completely unsuspecting. The
tinker takes advantage of her simplicity and cheats her. When all her efforts fail,Elisa gets
badly hurt. Her weak cry may suggest that she will give up all her longings.
◆◆◆!"# $"(+-%&'"#/*/-◆◆◆
The high greyflannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley1 from the sky and from all
the rest of the world. On every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great
,
valley a closed pot. On the broad level land floor the gang plows bit deep2 and left the black
earth shining like metal where the shares had cut. On the foothill ranches across the Salinas
, ,
River the yellow stubble fields3 seemed to be bathed in pale cold sunshine but there was no
4
sunshine in the valley now in December. The thick willow scrub along the river flamed with
sharp and positive yellow leaves.
It was a time of quiet and of waiting. The air was cold and tender. A light wind blew up
;
from the southwest so that the farmers were mildly hopeful of a good rain before long but fog
and rain do not go together.
, ,
Across the river on Henry Allens foothill ranch there was little work to be done for the
hay was cut and stored and the orchards were plowed up to receive the rain deeply when it
should come. The cattle on the higher slopes were becoming shaggy and roughcoated.
, ,
Elisa Allen working in her flower garden looked down across the yard and saw Henry ,
her husband,talking to two men in business suits. The three of them stood by the tractor shed,
each man with one foot on the side of the little Fordson. They smoked cigarettes and studied the
machine as they talked.
Elisa watched them for a moment and then went back to her work. She was thirtyfive. Her
face was lean and strong and her eyes were as clear as water. Her figure looked blocked and
, ,
heavy in her gardening costume a mans black hat pulled low down over her eyes clodhopper
shoes ,a figured print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron with four big
5
pockets to hold the snips,the trowel and scratcher ,the seeds and the knife she worked with.
6
She wore heavy leather gloves to protect her hands while she worked.
She was cutting down the old years chrysanthemum stalks with a pair of short and powerful
scissors. She looked down toward the men by the tractor shed now and then. Her face was eager
; ,
and mature and handsome even her work with the scissors was overeager overpowerful. The
chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy.
232
Unit 23 ( —1968) 约翰·斯坦贝克
John Steinbeck 1902
,
She brushed a cloud of hair out of her eyes with the back of her glove and left a smudge of
earth on her cheek in doing it. Behind her stood the neat white farm house with red geraniums
closebanked7 around it as high as the windows. It was a hardswept looking little house with
,
hardpolished windows and a clean mudmat on the front steps.
Elisa cast another glance toward the tractor shed. The strangers were getting into their Ford
coupe. She took off a glove and put her strong fingers down into the forest of new green
chrysanthemum sprouts that were growing around the old roots. She spread the leaves and
,
looked down among the closegrowing stems. No aphids were there no sowbugs or snails or
8 9
cutworms. Her terrier fingers destroyed such pests before they could get started.
,
Elisa started at the sound of her husbands voice. He had come near quietly and he leaned
over the wire fence that protected her flower garden from cattle and dogs and chickens.
“At it again,”he said. “Youve got a strong new crop 10
coming. ”
Elisa straightened her back and pulled on the gardening glove again. “Yes. Theyll be
strong this coming year.”In her tone and on her face there was a little smugness.
“Youve got a gift with things,”Henry observed. “Some of those yellow chrysanthemums
you had this year were ten inches across. I wish youd work out in the orchard and raise some
apples that big. ”
Her eyes sharpened. “Maybe I could do it,too. ,
Ive a gift with things all right. My
mother had it. She could stick anything in the ground and make it grow. She said it was having
planters hands that knew how to do it. ”
“Well,it sure works with flowers,”he said.
“Henry,who were those men you were talking to?”
“Why,sure,thats what I came to tell you. They were from the Western Meat Company.
I sold those thirty head of threeyearold steers. Got nearly my own price,too. ”
“Good,”she said. “Good for you. ”
“And I thought,”he continued,“I thought how its Saturday afternoon,and we might go
into Salinas for dinner at a restaurant,and then to a picture show—to celebrate,you see. ”
“Good,”she repeated. “Oh,yes. That will be good. ”
Henry put on his joking tone. “Theres fights tonight. Howd you like to go to the fights?
”
“Oh,no,”she said breathlessly. “No,I wouldnt like fights. ”
“Just fooling,Elisa. Well go to a movie. Lets see. Its two now. Im going to take
Scotty and bring down those steers from the hill. Itll take us maybe two hours. Well go in
town about five and have dinner at the Cominos Hotel. Like that ?”
“Of course Ill like it. Its good to eat away from home. ”
“All right,then. Ill go get up a couple of horses. ”
She said,“Ill have plenty of time to transplant some of these sets,I guess. ”
She heard her husband calling Scotty down by the barn. And a little later she saw the two
233
men ride up the pale yellow hillside in search of the steers. There was a little square sandy bed
kept for rooting the chrysanthemums. With her trowel she turned the soil over and over and ,
smoothed it and patted it firm. Then she dug ten parallel trenches to receive the sets. Back at the
,
chrysanthemum bed she pulled out the little crisp shoots trimmed off the leaves of each one
with her scissors and laid it on a small orderly pile.
A squeak of wheels and plod of hoofs came from the road. Elisa looked up. The country
,
road ran along the dense bank of willows and cottonwoods that bordered the river and up this
, ,
road came a curious vehicle curiously drawn. It was an old springwagon with a round canvas
11
top on it like the cover of a prairie schooner . It was drawn by an old bay horse and a little
greyandwhite burro. A big stubblebearded man sat between the cover flaps and drove the
, ,
crawling team. Underneath the wagon between the hind wheels a lean and rangy mongrel
12
, ,
dog walked sedately. Words were painted on the canvas in clumsy crooked letters. “Pots,
, , ,
pans knives scissors lawn mores . 13
Fixed. ”Two rows of articles,and the triumphantly
definitive “Fixed”below. 14
The black paint had run down in little sharp points beneath each
letter.
, , ,
Elisa squatting on the ground watched to see the crazy loosejointed wagon pass by. But
it didnt pass. It turned into the farm road in front of her house,crooked old wheels skirling and
squeaking. The rangy dog darted from between the wheels and ran ahead. Instantly the two
, ,
ranch shepherds flew out at him. Then all three stopped and with stiff and quivering tails with
,
taut straight legs with ambassadorial dignity ,they slowly circled,sniffing daintily. The
15
caravan pulled up to Elisas wire fence and stopped. Now the newcomer dog,feeling out
numbered,lowered his tail and retired under the wagon with raised hackles and bared
teeth. 16
,“Thats a bad dog in a fight when he gets started. ”
The man on the wagon seat called out
Elisa laughed. “I see he is. How soon does he generally get started?
”
The man caught up her laughter and echoed it heartily. “Sometimes not for weeks and
weeks,”he said. He climbed stiffly down,over the wheel. The horse and the donkey drooped
like unwatered flowers.
Elisa saw that he was a very big man. Although his hair and beard were greying he did,
not look old. His worn black suit was wrinkled and spotted with grease. The laughter had
disappeared from his face and eyes the moment his laughing voice ceased. His eyes were dark ,
17
and they were full of the brooding that gets in the eyes of teamsters and of sailors. The
,
calloused hands he rested on the wire fence were cracked and every crack was a black line. He
took off his battered hat.
“Im off my general road,maam,”he said. “Does this dirt road cut over across the river
to the Los Angeles highway? ”
Elisa stood up and shoved the thick scissors in her apron pocket. “Well,yes,it does,but
234
Unit 23 ( —1968) 约翰·斯坦贝克
John Steinbeck 1902
it winds around and then fords the river. 18 I dont think your team could pull through the
sand. ”
He replied with some asperity ,“It might surprise you what them beasts can pull through. ”
“When they get started?”she asked.
He smiled for a second. “Yes. When they get started. ”
“Well,”said Elisa,“I think youll save time if you go back to the Salinas road and pick
up the highway there. ”
He drew a big finger down the chicken wire and made it sing. “I aint in any hurry,
maam. I go from Seattle to San Diego and back every year. Takes all my time. About six
months each way. I aim to follow nice weather. ”
Elisa took off her gloves and stuffed them in the apron pocket with the scissors. She
,
touched the under edge of her mans hat searching for fugitive hairs. “That sounds like a nice
kind of a way to live ,”she said.
He leaned confidentially over the fence. “Maybe you noticed the writing on my wagon. I
mend pots and sharpen knives and scissors. You got any of them things to do? ”
“Oh,no,”she said quickly. “Nothing like that. ”Her eyes hardened with resistance.
“Scissors is the worst thing,” he explained. “Most people just ruin scissors trying to
sharpen em,but I know how. I got a special tool. Its a little bobbit kind of thing,and
patented. But it sure does the trick. ”
“No. My scissors are all sharp. ”
“All right,then. Take a pot,”he continued earnestly,“a bent pot,or a pot with a hole.
I can make it like new so you dont have to buy no new ones. Thats a saving for you. ”
“No,”she said shortly. “I tell you I have nothing like that for you to do. ”
His face fell to an exaggerated sadness. His voice took on a whining undertone. “I aint
had a thing to do today. Maybe I wont have no supper tonight. You see Im off my regular
road. I know folks on the highway clear from Seattle to San Diego. They save their things for
me to sharpen up because they know I do it so good and save them money. ”
“Im sorry,”Elisa said irritably. “I havent anything for you to do. ”
His eyes left her face and fell to searching the ground. They roamed about until they came
to the chrysanthemum bed where she had been working. “Whats them plants,maam?”
The irritation and resistance melted from Elisas face. “Oh,those are chrysanthemums,
giant whites and yellows. I raise them every year,bigger than anybody around here. ”
“Kind of a longstemmed flower?Looks like a quick puff of colored smoke?”he asked.
“Thats it. What a nice way to describe them. ”
“They smell kind of nasty till you get used to them,”he said.
“Its a good bitter smell,”she retorted,“not nasty at all. ”
He changed his tone quickly. “I like the smell myself. ”
235
“I had teninch blooms this year,”she said.
The man leaned farther over the fence. “Look. I know a lady down the road a piece,has
got the nicest garden you ever seen. Got nearly every kind of flower but no chrysanthemums.
(
Last time I was mending a copperbottom washtub for her thats a hard job but I do it good ),
she said to me,‘If you ever run across some nice chrysanthemums I wish youd try to get me a
few seeds. ’Thats what she told me. ”
Elisas eyes grew alert and eager. “She couldnt have known much about chrysanthemums.
You can raise them from seed,but its much easier to root the little sprouts you see there. ”
“Oh,”he said. “I spose I cant take none to her,then. ”
“Why yes you can,”Elisa cried. “I can put some in damp sand,and you can carry them
right along with you. Theyll take root in the pot if you keep them damp. And then she can
transplant them. ”
“Shed sure like to have some,maam. You say theyre nice ones?”
“Beautiful,”she said. “Oh,beautiful. ”Her eyes shone. She tore off the battered hat and
shook out her dark pretty hair. “Ill put them in a flower pot,and you can take them right with
you. Come into the yard. ”
While the man came through the picket gate19 Elisa ran excitedly along the geranium
bordered path to the back of the house. And she returned carrying a big red flower pot. The
gloves were forgotten now. she kneeled on the ground by the starting bed and dug up the sandy
soil with her fingers and scooped it into the bright new flower pot. Then she picked up the little
pile of shoots she had prepared. With her strong fingers she pressed them into the sand and
tamped around them with her knuckles. The man stood over her. “Ill tell you what to do,”she
said. “You remember so you can tell the lady. ”
“Yes,Ill try to remember. ”
“Well,look. These will take root in about a month. Then she must set them out,about a
foot apart in good rich earth like this,see?
”She lifted a handful of dark soil for him to look at.
“Theyll grow fast and tall. Now remember this:In July tell her to cut them down,about eight
inches from the ground. ”
“Before they bloom?”he asked.
“Yes,before they bloom. ”Her face was tight with eagerness. “Theyll grow right up
again. About the last of September the buds will start. ”
She stopped and seemed perplexed. “Its the budding that takes the most care, ”she said
hesitantly. “I dont know how to tell you. ”She looked deep into his eyes,searchingly. Her
mouth opened a little,and she seemed to be listening. “Ill try to tell you,
”she said. “Did you
ever hear of planting hands? ”
“Cant say I have,maam. ”
236
“Well,I can only tell you what it feels like. Its when youre picking off the buds you
Unit 23 ( —1968) 约翰·斯坦贝克
John Steinbeck 1902
dont want. Everything goes right down into your fingertips. You watch your fingers work.
They do it themselves. You can feel how it is. They pick and pick the buds. They never make
?
a mistake. Theyre with the plant. Do you see Your fingers and the plant. You can feel that ,
right up your arm. They know. They never make a mistake. You can feel it. When youre like
?
that you cant do anything wrong. Do you see that Can you understand that ?”
She was kneeling on the ground looking up at him. Her breast swelled passionately. The
mans eyes narrowed. He looked away selfconsciously. “Maybe I know ,” he said.
“Sometimes in the night in the wagon there—”
Elisas voice grew husky. She broke in on him ,“Ive never lived as you do,but I know
what you mean. When the night is dark—why,the stars are sharppointed,and theres quiet.
Why,you rise up and up!Every pointed star gets driven into your body. Its like that. Hot and
sharp and—lovely. ”
Kneeling there,her hand went out toward his legs in the greasy black trousers. Her hesitant
fingers almost touched the cloth. Then her hand dropped to the ground. She crouched low like a
fawning dog20 .
He said,“its nice,just like you say. Only when you dont have no dinner,it aint. ”
She stood up then,very straight,and her face was ashamed. She held the flower pot out to
him and placed it gently in his arms. “Here. Put it in your wagon,on the seat,where you can
watch it. Maybe I can find something for you to do. ”
At the back of the house she dug in the can pile and found two old and battered aluminum
saucepans. She carried them back and gave them to him. “Here,maybe you can fix these. ”
His manner changed. He became professional. “Good as new I can fix them. ”At the back
of his wagon he set a little anvil,and out of an oily tool box dug a small machine hammer.
Elisa came through the gate to watch him while he pounded out the dents in the kettles. His
mouth grew sure and knowing. At a difficult part of the work he sucked underlip.
“You sleep right in the wagon?”Elisa asked.
“Right in the wagon,maam. Rain or shine Im dry as a cow in there. ”
“It must be nice,”she said. “It must be very nice. I wish women could do such things. ”
“It aint the right kind of a life for a woman. ”
Her upper lip raised a little,showing her teeth. “How do you know?How can you tell? ”
she said.
“I dont know,maam,”he protested. “Of course I dont know. Now heres your kettles,
done. You dont have to buy no new ones. ”
“How much?”
“Oh,fifty centsll do. I keep my prices down and my work good. Thats why I have all
them satisfied customers up and down the highway. ”
Elisa brought him a fiftycent piece from the house and dropped it in his hand. “You might
237
,
be surprised to have a rival some time. I can sharpen scissors too. And I can beat the dents out
of little pots. I could show you what a woman might do. ”
He put his hammer back in the oily box and shoved the little anvil out of sight. “It would
, , , ,
be a lonely life for a woman maam and a scary life too with animals creeping under the
wagon all night. ” He climbed over the singletree ,steadying himself with a hand on the
21
burros white rump. He settled himself in the seat,picked up the lines. “Thank you kindly,
maam, ”he said. “Ill do like you told me;Ill go back and catch the Salinas road. ”
“Mind,”she called,“if youre long in getting there,keep the sand damp. ”
“Sand,maam? 爥 Sand?Oh,sure. You mean around the chrysanthemums. Sure I
will. ”He clucked his tongue. The beasts leaned luxuriously into their collars. The mongrel dog
took his place between the back wheels. The wagon turned and crawled out the entrance road
,
and back the way it had come along the river.
Elisa stood in front of her wire fence watching the slow progress of the caravan. Her
, ,
shoulders were straight her head thrown back her eyes halfclosed ,so that the scene came
vaguely into them. Her lips moved silently,forming the words “Goodbye—goodbye. ”Then
she whispered,“Thats a bright direction. Theres a glowing there. ”The sound of her whisper
startled her. She shook herself free and looked about to see whether anyone had been listening.
,
Only the dogs had heard. They lifted their heads toward her from their sleeping in the dust and
then stretched out their chins and settled asleep again. Elisa turned and ran hurriedly into the
house.
In the kitchen she reached behind the stove and felt the water tank. It was full of hot water
from the noonday cooking. In the bathroom she tore off her soiled clothes and flung them into
, ,
the corner. And then she scrubbed herself with a little block of pumice22 legs and thighs lions
,
and chest and arms until her skin was scratched and red. When she had dried herself she stood
in front of a mirror in her bedroom and looked at her body. She tightened her stomach and threw
out her chest. She turned and looked over her shoulder at her back.
,
After a while she began to dress slowly. She put on her newest underclothing and her
nicest stockings and the dress which was the symbol of her prettiness. She worked carefully on
,
her hair penciled her eyebrows and rouged her lips.
Before she was finished she heard the little thunder of hoofs and the shouts of Henry and
her helper as they drove the red steers into the corral. She heard the gate bang shut and set
herself for Henrys arrival.
His step sounded on the porch. He entered the house calling ,“Elisa,where are you?”
“In the room,dressing. Im ready. Theres hot water for your bath. Hurry up. Its getting
late. ”
When she heard him splashing in the tub,Elisa laid his dark suit on the bed,and shirt and
socks and tie beside it. She stood his polished shoes on the floor beside the bed. Then she went
238
Unit 23 ( —1968) 约翰·斯坦贝克
John Steinbeck 1902
to the porch and sat primly and stiffly down. She looked toward the river road where the willow
line was still yellow with frosted leaves so that under the high grey fog they seemed a thin band
of sunshine. This was the only color in the grey afternoon. She sat unmoving for a long time.
Her eyes blinked rarely.
,
Henry came banging out of the door shoving his tie inside his vest as he came. Elisa
stiffened and her face grew tight. Henry stopped short and looked at her. “Why—why,Elisa.
You look so nice !”
“Nice?You think I look nice?What do you mean by ‘nice!’?”
Henry blundered on. “I dont know. I mean you look different,strong and happy. ”
“I am strong?Yes,strong. What do you mean ‘strong’?”
He looked bewildered. “Youre playing some kind of a game, ”he said helplessly. “Its a
kind of a play. You look strong enough to break a calf over your knee,happy enough to eat it
like a watermelon. ”
For a second she lost her rigidity. “Henry!Dont talk like that. You didnt know what you
said. ”She grew complete again. “Im strong,
23
”she boasted. “I never knew before how
strong. ”
Henry looked down toward the tractor shed,and when he brought his eyes back to her,
they were his own again. “Ill get out the car. You can put on your coat while Im starting. ”
Elisa went into the house. She heard him drive to the gate and idle down his motor ,and
24
then she took a long time to put on her hat. She pulled it here and pressed it there. When Henry
turned the motor off she slipped into her coat and went out.
The little roadster25 bounced along on the dirt road by the river ,raising the birds and
driving the rabbits into the brush. Two cranes flapped heavily over the willowline and dropped
into the riverbed.
Far ahead on the road Elisa saw a dark speck. She knew.
,
She tried not to look as they passed it but her eyes would not obey. She whispered to
,“He might have thrown them off the road. That wouldnt have been much
herself sadly
trouble,not very much. But he kept the pot,
”she explained. “He had to keep the pot. Thats
why he couldnt get them off the road. ”
The roadster turned a bend and she saw the caravan ahead. She swung full around toward
her husband so she could not see the little covered wagon and the mismatched team as the car
passed them.
In a moment it was over. The thing was done. She did not look back.
,
She said loudly to be heard above the motor ,“It will be good,tonight,a good dinner. ”
“Now youre changed again,”Henry complained. He took one hand from the wheel and
patted her knee. “I ought to take you in to dinner oftener. It would be good for both of us. We
get so heavy out on the ranch. ”
239
“Henry,”she asked,“could we have wine at dinner?”
“Sure we could. Say!That will be fine. ”
She was silent for a while;then she said,“Henry,at those prize fights,do the men hurt
each other very much? ”
“Sometimes a little,not often. Why?”
“Well,Ive read how they break noses,and blood runs down their chests. Ive read how
the fighting gloves get heavy and soggy with blood. ”
He looked around at her. “Whats the matter,Elisa?I didnt know you read things like
that. ”He brought the car to a stop,then turned to the right over the Salinas River bridge.
“Do any women ever go to the fights?”she asked.
“Oh,sure,some. Whats the matter,Elisa?Do you want to go?I dont think youd like
it,but Ill take you if you really want to go. ”
She relaxed limply in the seat. “Oh,no. No. I dont want to go. Im sure I dont. ”Her
face was turned away from him. “It will be enough if we can have wine. It will be plenty. ”
She turned up her coat collar so he could not see that she was crying weakly—like an old
woman.
Notes
1. Salinas Valley:在美国加州海岸山岭区,位于旧金山以南。 Steinbeck 生于
Salinas,常以 Salinas Valley 作为其故事的背景。
2. the gang plows bit deep :多铧犁深翻土地
3. stubble fields:fields with the short stumps of grain ,corn ,etc left standing
after harvesting
4. The thick willow scrub:浓密低矮的柳树丛
5. Clodhopper shoes:coarse,heavy shoes,usually worn by a plowman.
6. the snips,the trowel and scratcher:(花匠用的)平头剪,泥铲和刮痕器
7. red geraniums closebanked :紧紧排成一行的红色天竺葵
8. aphids,sowbugs,cutworms:(虫)蚜虫,地鳖,夜盗蛾
240
Unit 23 ( —1968) 约翰·斯坦贝克
John Steinbeck 1902
241
20 th Century American Poets
Unit 24 20 世纪美国诗人
Biography
, ,
Ezra Pound American poet literary critic and a major figure in the
, ,
early modernist movement was born in Haley Idaho Territory. In 1908 ,
he arrived in London to be free of the petty and suffocating American
,
culture and society and threw himself into the Avantgarde movements.
, , ,
In 1912 Pound together with Aldington and Doolittle decided to begin
a “movement”in poetry,called Imagism. Working as foreign editor of
several American literary magazines,Pound helped discover and shape
the work of contemporaries such as T. S. Eliot,James Joyce,Robert
,
Frost and Ernest Hemingway. Yet he was a controversial figure because throughout the 1930s
,
and 1940s he embraced Benito Mussolinis Italian Fascism and during WW Ⅱ he was paid by
the Italian government to make hundreds of radio broadcasts criticizing the United States ,
, ,
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Jews as a result of which he was arrested by American forces in
Italy in 1945 on charges of treason. He spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital in
Washington D. C.
( ),Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (1920 )and the
His bestknown works include Ripostes 1912
unfinished 120section epic,The Cantos (1917 —1969 ).
Imagism
, ,
Imagism derived from classical Chinese and Japanese poetry stressing clarity precision
and economy of language. Clarity was the very aim of Imagism:a fight against abstraction,
romanticism,rhetoric,inversion of word order,and overuse of adjectives. There were three
principles:
1. Direct treatment of the “thing”whether subjective or objective
2. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation
242
: ,
3. As regarding rhythm to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase not in sequence
Unit 24 20 th Century American Poets 20 世纪美国诗人
of a metronome
243
Questions for Discussion
“
1. Why does the poet call the faces of pedestrians apparition ”?
“ ” “ ”
2. What do petals and bough stand for ?
Notes
1. apparition:幽灵,幻影
2. Petals on a wet,black bough :湿漉漉黑色枝条上的花瓣
Biography
, ,
Robert Frost was born in San Francisco California but in 1885 ,
the family moved to Lawrence , Massachusetts, where he spent his
,Frost and Elinor Miriam White got married at
teenage years. In 1895
Lawrence,and later they moved to a farm in Derry,New Hampshire,
bought and given to them by grandfather. Frost worked in the farm for 9
years but returned to the field of education from 1906 to 1911 as an
English teacher. In 1912 ,he sailed with his family to Great Britain,
settling first in Beaconsfield,a small town outside London,where he made lots of friends and
published some of his poems. In 1915 ,during World War Ⅰ,Frost returned to America,and
bought a farm in Franconia,New Hampshire,where he launched a career of writing,teaching,
and lecturing. Since then he wrote many famous poems and won lots of prizes,including the
Pulitzer Prize 4 times. Frost was 86 when he read his wellknown poem The Gift Outright at the
,
inauguration of President John F. Kennedy on January 20 1961. He died in Boston two years
, ( ):“I had a
later. His epitaph quotes the last line from his poem The Lesson for Today 1942
lovers quarrel with the world. ”Frosts poems explore the fundamental questions of existence,
depicting with chilling starkness the loneliness of the individual in an indifferent universe and the
human reaction to natures processes.
Major Works
? 9 collections of poetry
( )—32 poems
A Boys Will 1913
North of Boston (1914 )—17 poems Mending Wall
244
Unit 24 20 th Century American Poets 20 世纪美国诗人
( )—30 poems The Road Not Taken
Mountain Interval 1916
New Hampshire (1923 )—21 poems Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening ,
Fire and Ice
( )—43 poems
Westrunning Brook 1928
A Further Range (1937 )—55 poems
A Witness Tree—11 poems
Steeple Bush —4 poems
An Afterward —1 poem
◆◆◆H#&75&8 >%,,◆◆◆
Something there is that doesnt love a wall ,
That sends the frozengroundswell under it
And spills1 the upper boulders2 in the sun ,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
5 The work of hunters is another thing :
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
245
10 No one has seen them made or heard them made ,
But at spring mendingtime we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill ;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
15 We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance :
“Stay where you are until our backs are turned!”
20 We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
,
Oh just another kind of outdoor game ,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall :
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
25 My apple trees will never get across
,
And eat the cones under his pines I tell him.
He only says ,“Good fences make good neighbors. ”
Spring is the mischief in me,and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
30 “Why do they make good neighbors?Isnt it
Where there are cows?But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall Id ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out ,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
35 ,
Something there is that doesnt love a wall
That wants it down. ”I could say “Elves”to him,
But its not elves exactly,and Id rather
He said it for himself. I see him there,
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
40 ,
In each hand like an oldstone savage armed3 .
He moves in darkness as it seems to me ,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his fathers saying ,
And he likes having thought of it so well
45 He says again ,“Good fences make good neighbors. ”
246
Unit 24 20 th Century American Poets 20 世纪美国诗人
Questions for Discussion
1. What is ironic about the speakers statements concerning his neighbors opinion of wall
“
building in Mending Wall ”?
“
2. What is the effect of simple language in Mending Wall ”?
Notes
: , 滚落
1. spill drop roll down
2. boulders:大圆石;巨石
3. like an oldstone savage armed :像一个全副武装的旧石器时代野人
Synopsis of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
,
On the surface this poem is simplicity itself. The speaker is stopping by some woods on a
,
snowy evening. He or she takes in the lovely scene in nearsilence is tempted to stay longer ,
but acknowledges the pull of obligations and the considerable distance yet to be traveled before
he or she can rest for the night. Frost coined the phrase the sound of sense to emphasize the
, ,
poetic diction or word choice used throughout his work.
, ,
The woods are lovely dark and deep ,
But I have promises to keep,
247
And miles to go before I sleep ,
And miles to go before I sleep.
249
Ralph Waldo Ellison 1914 ( —1994)
Unit 25 拉尔夫 · 华尔多 · 艾利森
Biography
,
Ralph Waldo Ellison was an American novelist literary critic and ,
scholar. He was born in Oklahoma City ,Oklahoma. Ellison is best
,
known for his novel Invisible Man which won the National Book Award
in 1953. He also wrote Shadow and Act (1964 ), a collection of
, , ( )
political social and critical essays and Going to the Territory 1986 .
A posthumous novel,Juneteenth,was published after being assembled
from voluminous notes he left after his death.
As a young man , Ellison developed an abiding interest in jazz
;
music he befriended a group of musicians who played in a regional
,
band. Ellison himself studied the cornet and trumpet and planned a career as a jazz musician.
,
In 1933 he left Oklahoma to begin a study of music at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee ,
Alabama. In 1936 he moved to New York City ,where he settled in Harlem where Ellison
befriended many of the most important AfricanAmerican writers of the era,including Langston
Hughes and Richard Wright and the eminent jazz writer and sociologist Albert Murray,with
whom he carried on a lengthy and important literary correspondence,later collected in the book
Trading Twelves. After a year editing the Negro Quarterly,Ellison served in the Merchant
Marines during World War Ⅱ. Invisible Man was published in its entirety in 1952. Employing a
shifting ,improvisational style directly based on Ellisons experience of jazz performance ,
,
Invisible Man ranges in tone from realism to extreme surrealism from tragedy to vicious satire
to nearslapstick comedy. Rich in symbolism and metaphor ,virtuosic in its use of multiple
,
styles and tones and steeped in the black experience in America and the human struggle for
,
individuality the novel spent sixteen weeks on the bestseller list and won the National Book
Award in 1953. Achieving one of the most sensational debuts of any novel in American history ,
Invisible Man was hailed by writers such as Saul Bellow and critics such as Irving Howe as a
landmark publication.
Invisible Man was heavily influenced by the work of a number of twentiethcentury French
,
writers known as the existentialists. Existentialism whose foremost proponents included Albert
250
,
Camus and JeanPaul Sartre explored the question of individuality and the nature of meaning in
Unit 25 ( —1994) 拉尔夫·华尔多·艾利森
Ralph Waldo Ellison 1914
a seemingly meaningless universe. Ellison adapted the existentialists universal themes to the
black experience of oppression and prejudice in America. He also engaged powerfully with the
,
tradition of AfricanAmerican social debate. In the character of Dr. Bledsoe the novel offers a
,
vehement rejection of the philosophy of Booker T. Washington which advocated that blacks
should work toward economic success as a means of achieving racial equality. It also critiques ,
,
through the character of Ras the Exhorter Marcus Garveys philosophy of black nationalism.
Despite —or possibly because of—the overwhelming success of Invisible Man,Ellison never
published another novel in his lifetime. Though he published two books of essays—Shadow Act
in the 1960s and Going to the Territory in the 1980s—Ellison spent his later decades laboring on
a vast novel,which he never finished. Upon his death in 1994 ,Ellison left behind more than 2 ,
000 pages of unedited, incomplete manuscript. In heavily abridged and edited form, this
manuscript was published five years after his death under the title Juneteenth,to generally
unfavorable reviews.
Major Characters
The narrator —The nameless protagonist of the novel. The narrator is the “invisible man”
of the title. A black man in 1930s America,the narrator considers himself invisible because
people never see his true self beneath the roles that stereotype and racial prejudice compel him to
, ,
play. Though the narrator is intelligent deeply introspective and highly gifted with language ,
the experiences that he relates demonstrate that he was naive in his youth. As the novel
,
progresses the narrators illusions are gradually destroyed through his experiences as a student at
, ,
college as a worker at the Liberty Paints plant and as a member of a political organization
known as the Brotherhood. Shedding his blindness,he struggles to arrive at a conception of his
identity that honors his complexity as an individual without sacrificing social responsibility.
Brother Jack —The white and blindly loyal leader of the Brotherhood ,a political
organization that professes to defend the rights of the socially oppressed. Although he initially
, , ,
seems compassionate intelligent and kind and he claims to uphold the rights of the socially
,
oppressed Brother Jack actually possesses racist viewpoints and is unable to see people as
anything other than tools. His glass eye and his red hair symbolize his blindness and his
,
communism respectively.
Tod Clifton—A black member of the Brotherhood and a resident of Harlem. Tod Clifton is
passionate, handsome, articulate, and intelligent. He eventually parts ways with the
Brotherhood,though it remains unclear whether a fallingout has taken place,or whether he has
simply become disillusioned with the group. He begins selling Sambo dolls on the street,
seemingly both perpetrating and mocking the offensive stereotype of the lazy and servile slave
that the dolls represent.
Ras the Exhorter —A stout,flamboyant,charismatic,angry man with a flair for public
agitation. Ras represents the black nationalist movement,which advocates the violent overthrow
of white supremacy. Ellison seems to use him to comment on the black nationalist leader Marcus
,
Garvey who believed that blacks would never achieve freedom in white society. A maverick ,
, ,
Ras frequently opposes the Brotherhood and the narrator often violently and incites riots in
Harlem.
Dr. Bledsoe —The president at the narrators college. Dr. Bledsoe proves selfish ,
,
ambitious and treacherous. He is a black man who puts on a mask of servility to the white
,
community. Driven by his desire to maintain his status and power he declares that he would see
every black man in the country lynched before he would give up his position of authority.
252
Unit 25 ( —1994) 拉尔夫·华尔多·艾利森
Ralph Waldo Ellison 1914
◆◆◆=&;5-5),# H%&◆◆◆
Prologue
,
I am an invisible man. No I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe nor ;
1
,
am I one of your Hollywoodmovie ectoplasms . I am a man of substance of flesh and bone ,
fiber and liquids —and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible,understand,
simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus
, ,
sideshows it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard distorting glass. When
they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their
imagination —indeed,everything and anything except me.
Nor is my invisibility exactly a matter of a biochemical accident to my epidermis2 . That
invisibility to which I refer occurs because of a peculiar disposition of the eyes of those with
,
whom I come in contact. A matter of the construction of their inner eyes those eyes with which
they look through their physical eyes upon reality. I am not complaining,nor am I protesting
,
either. It is sometimes advantageous to be unseen although it is most often rather wearing on
3
,
the nerves . Then too youre constantly being bumped against by those of poor vision. Or
,
again you often doubt if you really exist. You wonder whether you arent simply a phantom4
,
in other peoples minds. Say a figure in a nightmare which the sleeper tries with all his strength
, ,
to destroy. Its when you feel like this that out of resentment you begin to bump people back.
, ,
And let me confess you feel that way most of the time. You ache with the need to convince
, ,
yourself that you do exist in the real world that youre a part of all the sound and anguish and
,
you strike out with your fists you curse and you swear to make them recognize you. And ,
,
alas its seldom successful.
,
One night I accidentally bumped into a man and perhaps because of the near darkness he
,
saw me and called me an insulting name. I sprang at him seized his coat lapels and demanded
that he apologize. He was a tall blond man ,and as my face came close to his he looked
insolently out of his blue eyes and cursed me,his breath hot in my face as he struggled. I pulled
his chin down sharp upon the crown of my head,butting him as I had seen the West Indians do,
and I felt his flesh tear and the blood gush out,and I yelled,“Apologize!Apologize! ”But he
continued to curse and struggle,and I butted him again and again until he went down heavily,
on his knees,profusely bleeding. I kicked him repeatedly,in a frenzy because he still uttered
insults though his lips were frothy with blood. Oh yes,I kicked him!And in my outrage I got
out my knife and prepared to slit his throat,right there beneath the lamplight in the deserted
street,holding him by the collar with one hand,and opening the knife with my teeth—when it
occurred to me that the man had not seen me,actually;that he,as far as he knew,was in the
midst of a walking nightmare!And I stopped the blade,slicing the air as I pushed him away, 253
letting him fall back to the street. I stared at him hard as the lights of a car stabbed through the
, ;
darkness. He lay there moaning on the asphalt a man almost killed by a phantom. It unnerved
,
me. I was both disgusted and ashamed. I was like a drunken man myself wavering about on
weakened legs. Then I was amused. Something in this mans thick head had sprung out and
beaten him within an inch of his life. I began to laugh at this crazy discovery. Would he have
?
awakened at the point of death Would Death himself have freed him for wakeful living But I ?
,
didnt linger. I ran away into the dark laughing so hard I feared I might rupture myself. The
next day I saw his picture in the Daily News ,beneath a caption stating that he had been
“mugged”. Poor fool,poor blind fool,I thought with sincere compassion,mugged by an
invisible man!
Most of the time (although I do not choose as I once did to deny the violence of my days
by ignoring it)I am not so overtly violent. I remember that I am invisible and walk softly so as
not to awaken the sleeping ones. Sometimes it is best not to awaken them;there are few things
in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers. I learned in time though that it is possible to carry on
,
a fight against them without their realizing it. For instance I have been carrying on a fight with
Monopolated Light & Power for some time now. I use their service and pay them nothing at all ,
, ,
and they dont know it. Oh they suspect that power is being drained off but they dont know
where. All they know is that according to the master meter back there in their power station a
hell of a lot of free current is disappearing somewhere into the jungle of Harlem. The joke of ,
,
course is that I dont live in Harlem but in a border area. Several years ago (before I
)
discovered the advantage of being invisible I went through the routine process of buying service
,
and paying their outrageous rates. But no more. I gave up all that along with my apartment ,
and my old way of life:That way based upon the fallacious assumption that I,like other men,
was visible. Now,aware of my invisibility,I live rentfree in a building rented strictly to
whites,in a section of the basement that was shut off and forgotten during the nineteenth
century ,which I discovered when I was trying to escape in the night from Ras the Destroyer . 5
But thats getting too far ahead of the story,almost to the end,although the end is in the
beginning and lies far ahead.
The point now is that I found a home —or a hole in the ground,as you will. Now dont
jump to the conclusion that because I call my home a “hole”it is damp and cold like a grave;
there are cold holes and warm holes. Mine is a warm hole. And remember,a bear retires to his
hole for the winter and lives until spring;then he comes strolling out like the Easter chick
breaking from its shell. I say all this to assure you that it is incorrect to assume that,because
Im invisible and live in a hole,I am dead. I am neither dead nor in a state of suspended
animation. Call me JacktheBear,for I am in a state of hibernation.
My hole is warm and full of light. Yes,full of light. I doubt if there is a brighter spot in
all New York than this hole of mine,and I do not exclude Broadway. Or the Empire State
254
Unit 25 Ralph Waldo Ellison 1914( —1994) 拉尔夫·华尔多·艾利森
Building on a photographers dream night. But that is taking advantage of you. Those two spots
—pardon me,our whole culture (an important
are among the darkest of our whole civilization
distinction,Ive heard )—which might sound like a hoax,or a contradiction,but that (by
contradiction,I mean ) is how the world moves:Not like an arrow,but a boomerang . 6
(Beware of those who speak of the spiral of history;they are preparing a boomerang. Keep a
steel helmet handy. )I know;I have been boomeranged across my head so much that I now can
see the darkness of lightness. And I love light. Perhaps youll think it strange that an invisible
, ,
man should need light desire light love light. But maybe it is exactly because I am invisible.
,
Light confirms my reality gives birth to my form. A beautiful girl once told me of a recurring
nightmare in which she lay in the center of a large dark room and felt her face expand until it
filled the whole room,becoming a formless mass while her eyes ran in bilious jelly up the
chimney. And so it is with me. Without light I am not only invisible,but formless as well;and
to be unaware of ones form is to live a death. I myself,after existing some twenty years,did
not become alive until I discovered my invisibility.
That is why I fight my battle with Monopolated Light & Power. The deeper reason ,I
:
mean It allows me to feel my vital aliveness. I also fight them for taking so much of my money
,
before I learned to protect myself. In my hole in the basement there are exactly 1 369 lights.
, ,
Ive wired the entire ceiling every inch of it. And not with fluorescent bulbs but with the
, , ,
older moreexpensivetooperate kind the filament type. An act of sabotage you know. Ive
, ,
already begun to wire the wall. A junk man I know a man of vision has supplied me with wire
, ,
and sockets. Nothing storm or flood must get in the way of our need for light and ever more
,
and brighter light. The truth is the light and light is the truth. When I finish all four walls then
,
Ill start on the floor. Just how that will go I dont know. Yet when you have lived invisible as
long as I have you develop a certain ingenuity. Ill solve the problem. And maybe Ill invent a
,
gadget to place my coffeepot on the fire while I lie in bed and even invent a gadget to warm my
bed —like the fellow I saw in one of the picture magazines who made himself a gadget to warm
his shoes!Though invisible,I am in the great American tradition of tinkers. That makes me kin
to Ford,Edison and Franklin. Call me,since I have a theory and a concept,a “thinker
tinker”. Yes,Ill warm my shoes;they need it,theyre usually full of holes. Ill do that and
more.
Now I have one radiophonograph ;I plan to have five. There is a certain acoustical
, ,
deadness in my hole and when I have music I want to feel its vibration not only with my ear
but with my whole body. Id like to hear five recordings of Louis Armstrong playing and singing
“What Did I Do to Be so Black and Blue ”—all at the same time. Sometimes now I listen to
Louis while I have my favorite dessert of vanilla ice cream and sloe gin. I pour the red liquid
over the white mound ,watching it glisten and the vapor rising as Louis bends that military
instrument into a beam of lyrical sound. Perhaps I like Louis Armstrong because hes made
255
poetry out of being invisible. I think it must be because hes unaware that he is invisible. And
my own grasp of invisibility aids me to understand his music. Once when I asked for a
, ,
cigarette some jokers gave me a reefer7 which I lighted when I got home and sat listening to
,
my phonograph. It was a strange evening. Invisibility let me explain ,gives one a slightly
,
different sense of time youre never quite on the beat. Sometimes youre ahead and sometimes
,
behind. Instead of the swift and imperceptible flowing of time you are aware of its nodes ,
those points where time stands still or from which it leaps ahead. And you slip into the breaks
and look around. Thats what you hear vaguely in Louis music.
Once I saw a prizefighter boxing a yokel8 . The fighter was swift and amazingly scientific.
His body was one violent flow of rapid rhythmic action. He hit the yokel a hundred times while
,
the yokel held up his arms in stunned surprise. But suddenly the yokel rolling about in the gale
, ,
of boxing gloves struck one blow and knocked science speed and footwork as cold as a well
diggers posterior. The smart money hit the canvas. The long shot got the nod. The yokel had
simply stepped inside of his opponents sense of time. So under the spell of the reefer I
discovered a new analytical way of listening to music. The unheard sounds came through and ,
, , ,
each melodic line existed of itself stood out clearly from all the rest said its piece and waited
,
patiently for the other voices to speak. That night I found myself hearing not only in time but
, ,
in space as well. I not only entered the music but descended like Dante into its depths. And
beneath the swiftness of the hot tempo there was a slower tempo and a cave and I entered it and
looked around and heard an old woman singing a spiritual as full of Weltschmerz as
,
flamenco9 and beneath that lay a still lower level on which I saw a beautiful girl the color of
ivory pleading in a voice like my mothers as she stood before a group of slave owners who bid
,
for her naked body and below that I found a lower level and a more rapid tempo and I heard
someone shout :
“Brothers and sisters,my text this morning is the ‘Blackness of Blackness’. ”
And a congregation of voices answered:“That blackness is most black,brother,most
black 爥”
“In the beginning 爥”
“At the very start,”they cried.
“爥 there was blackness 爥”
“Preach it 爥”
“爥 and the sun 爥”
“The sun,Lawd 爥”
“爥 was bloody red 爥”
“Red 爥”
“Now black is 爥”the preacher shouted.
256
“Bloody 爥”
Unit 25 ( —1994) 拉尔夫·华尔多·艾利森
Ralph Waldo Ellison 1914
“I said black is 爥”
“Preach it,brother 爥”
“爥 An black aint 爥”
“Red,Lawd,red:He said its red!”
“Amen,brother 爥”
“Black will git you 爥”
“Yes,it will 爥”
“爥 An black wont 爥”
“Naw,it wont!”
“It do 爥”
“It do,Lawd 爥”
“爥 An it dont. ”
“Halleluiah 爥”
“爥 Itll put you,glory,glory,Oh my Lawd,in the WHALES BELLY. ”
“Preach it,dear brother 爥”
“爥 An make you tempt 爥”
“Good God amighty!”
“Old Aunt Nelly!”
“Black will make you 爥”
“Black 爥”
“爥 or black will unmake you. ”
“Aint it the truth,Lawd?”
And at that point a voice of trombone timbre screamed at me,“Git out of,here,you fool!
Is you ready to commit treason? ”
And I tore myself away,hearing the old singer of spirituals moaning,“Go curse your
God,boy,and die. ”
I stopped and questioned her,asked her what was wrong.
“I dearly loved my master,son,”she said.
“You should have hated him,”I said.
“He gave me several sons,”she said,“and because I loved my sons I learned to love their
father though I hated him too. ”
“I too have become acquainted with ambivalence,”I said. “Thats why Im here. ”
“Whats that?”
“Nothing,a word that doesnt explain it. Why do you moan?”
“I moan this way cause hes dead,”she said.
“Then tell me,who is that laughing upstairs?”
“Thems my sons. They glad. ” 257
“Yes,I can understand that too,”I said.
“I laughs too,but I moans too. He promised to set us free but he never could bring hisself
to do it. Still I loved him 爥”
“Loved him?You mean 爥”
“Oh yes,but 1 loved something else even more. ”
“What more?”
“Freedom. ”
“Freedom,”I said. “Maybe freedom lies in hating. ”
“Naw,son,its in loving. I loved him and give him the poison and he withered away like
a frostbit apple. Them boys woulda tore him to pieces with they homemake knives. ”
“A mistake was made somewhere,”I said,“Im confused. ”And I wished to say other
things,but the laughter upstairs became too loud and moanlike for me and I tried to break out
of it,but I couldnt. Just as I was leaving I felt an urgent desire to ask her what freedom was
and went back. She sat with her head in her hands,moaning softly;her leatherbrown face was
filled with sadness.
“Old woman,what is this freedom you love so well?”I asked around a corner of my
mind.
, ,
She looked surprised then thoughtful then baffled. “I done forgot,son. Its all mixed
,
up. First I think its one thing then I think its another. It gits my head to spinning. I guess
,
now it aint nothing but knowing how to say what I got up in my head. But its a hard job son.
Too much is done happen to me in too short a time. Hits like I have a fever. Ever time I starts
, ;
to walk my head gits to swirling and I falls down. Or if it aint that its the boys they gits to
laughing and wants to kill up the white folks. Theys bitter,thats what they is 爥”
“But what about freedom?”
“Leave me lone,boy;my head aches!”
I left her,feeling dizzy myself. I didnt get far.
Suddenly one of the sons,a big fellow six feet tall,appeared out of nowhere and struck me
with his fist.
“Whats the matter,man?”I cried.
“You made Ma cry!”
“But how?”I said,dodging a blow.
“Askin her them questions,thats how. Git outa here and stay,and next time you got
questions like that,ask yourself! ”
He held me in a grip like cold stone,his fingers fastening upon my windpipe until I thought
I would suffocate before he finally allowed me to go. I stumbled about dazed,the music beating
hysterically in my ears. It was dark. My head cleared and I wandered down a dark narrow
258
, ,
passage thinking I heard his footsteps hurrying behind me. I was sore and into my being had
Unit 25 Ralph Waldo Ellison 1914( —1994) 拉尔夫·华尔多·艾利森
come a profound craving for tranquility ,for peace and quiet,a state I felt I could never
,
achieve. For one thing the trumpet was blaring and the rhythm was too hectic10 . A tomtom
,
beating like heartthuds began drowning out the trumpet filling my ears. 11 I longed for
12
water and I heard it rushing through the cold mains my fingers touched as I felt my way but I ,
couldnt stop to search because of the footsteps behind me.
“Hey,Ras,”I called. “Is it you,Destroyer?Rinehart?”
No answer,only the rhythmic footsteps behind me. Once I tried crossing the road,but a
speeding machine struck me,scraping the skin from my leg as it roared past.
Then somehow I came out of it,ascending hastily from this underworld of sound to hear
Louis Armstrong innocently asking,
What did I do
To be so black
And blue ?
; ,
At first I was afraid this familiar music had demanded action the kind of which I was
,
incapable and yet had I lingered there beneath the surface I might have attempted to act.
,
Nevertheless I know now that few really listen to this music. I sat on the chairs edge in a
soaking sweat,as though each of my 1 ,369 bulbs had everyone become a klieg 13
light in an
individual setting for a third degree with Ras and Rinehart in charge. It was exhausting —as
though I had held my breath continuously for an hour under the terrifying serenity that comes
,
from days of intense hunger. And yet it was a strangely satisfying experience for an invisible
man to hear the silence of sound. I had discovered unrecognized compulsions of my being —
even though I could not answer “yes ”to their promptings. I havent smoked a reefer since,
however;not because theyre illegal,but because to see around corners is enough (that is not
unusual when you are invisible). But to hear around them is too much;it inhibits action. And
despite Brother Jack and all that sad,lost period of the Brotherhood,I believe in nothing if not
in action.
, :
Please a definition A hibernation is a covert preparation for a more overt action. 14
, ,
Besides the drug destroys ones sense of time completely. If that happened I might forget to
dodge some bright morning and some cluck would run me down with an orange and yellow
, !
street car or a bilious bus Or I might forget to leave my hole when the moment for action pre
sents itself.
Meanwhile I enjoy my life with the compliments of Monopolated Light & Power. 15
Since you never recognize me even when in closest contact with me ,and since,no doubt,
,
youll hardly believe that I exist it wont matter if you know that I tapped a power line16
leading into the building and ran it into my hole in the ground. Before that I lived in the
darkness into which I was chased ,but now I see. Ive illuminated the blackness of my
invisibility —and vice versa. And so I play the invisible music of my isolation. The last
259
, ? ;
statement doesnt seem just right does it But it is you hear this music simply because music is
,
heard and seldom seen except by musicians. Could this compulsion to put invisibility down in
? ,
black and white be thus an urge to make music of invisibility But I am an orator a rabble
rouser 17
—Am?I was,and perhaps shall be again. Who knows?All sickness is not unto death,
neither is invisibility.
I can hear you say ,“What a horrible,irresponsible bastard!”And youre right. I leap to
agree with you. I am one of the most irresponsible beings that ever lived. Irresponsibility is part
; , ,
of my invisibility any way you face it it is a denial. But to whom can I be responsible and
why should I be,when you refuse to see me?And wait until I reveal how truly irresponsible I
am. Responsibility rests upon recognition,and recognition is a form of agreement. Take the
man whom I almost killed:Who was responsible for that near murder—I?I dont think so,and
I refuse it. I wont buy it. You cant give it to me. He bumped me,he insulted me. Shouldnt
he,for his own personal safety,have recognized my hysteria,my “danger potential”?He,let
us say,was lost in a dream world. But didnt he control that dream world—which,alas,is only
too real!—and didnt he rule me out of it?And if he had yelled for a policeman,wouldnt I
have been taken for the offending one?Yes,yes,yes!Let me agree with you,I was the
irresponsible one;for I should have used my knife to protect the higher interests of society.
Some day that kind of foolishness will cause us tragic trouble. All dreamers and sleepwalkers
,
must pay the price and even the invisible victim is responsible for the fate of all. But I shirked
that responsibility;I became too snarled in the incompatible notions that buzzed within my
brain. 18 I was a coward 爥
?
But what did I do to be so blue Bear with me. 19
4. phantom :幽灵,幻影
5. Ras the Destroyer:毁灭者拉斯,小说中的人物,黑人民族主义领导者。
6. boomerang :回力镖
7. reefer:大麻卷烟
8. yokel:乡巴佬,土包子
9. heard an old woman singing a spiritual as full of Weltschmerz as flamenco :
听见一位老妇在唱一首哀歌,歌中充满了吉卜赛舞曲中那种悲观厌世的调子。
10. hectic:激昂的,忙乱的
,
11. A tomtom beating like heartthuds began drowning out the trumpet filling
my ears. :像心跳一样咚咚的节拍盖过那喇叭声,充塞我的耳朵。
12. cold mains:sewage pipeline 污水总管道
13. klieg :白炽散光灯
14. A hibernation is a covert preparation for a more overt action. :冬眠是为下一
次更大的行动作隐蔽的准备。
15. I enjoy my life with the compliments of Monopolated Light &Power. :我享
受着照明公司给我提供的服务。
16. tapped a power line:tap :窃听,窃取;tap a power line 非法拉了一根电线
偷电。
17. a rabble rouser:一个煽动者
18. I became too snarled in the incompatible notions that buzzed within my
brain.:我脑子里纠结着各种各样不相干的念头。
19. bear with me. :耐心些,容我说完
261
J. D. Salinger 1919 ( —2010)
Unit 26 杰罗姆 · 戴维 · 塞林格
Biography
Jerome David Salinger was born in New York City in 1919. The
son of a wealthy cheese importer ,Salinger grew up in a fashionable
neighborhood in Manhattan and spent his youth being shuttled between
various prep schools before his parents finally settled on the Valley Forge
Military Academy in 1934. He graduated from Valley Forge in 1936 and
, ,
attended a number of colleges including Columbia University but did
not graduate from any of them. Salinger was interested in writing since
; ,
his teenage years. His first short story was published in 1940 and in 1951 Salinger published
, ,
his only fulllength novel The Catcher in the Rye which propelled him onto the national stage.
The Catcher in the Rye was published at a time when the burgeoning American industrial
economy made the nation prosperous and entrenched social rules served as a code of conformity
for the younger generation. Because Salinger used slang and profanity in his text and because he
, ,
discussed adolescent sexuality in a complex and open way many readers were offended and the
book was banned in some communities.
,
As countercultural revolt began to grow during the 1950s and 1960s The Catcher in the
Rye was then read as a tale of an individuals alienation within a heartless world. Holden seemed
,
to stand for young people everywhere who felt themselves beset on all sides by pressures to
grow up and live their lives according to the rules ,to disengage from meaningful human
,
connection and to restrict their own personalities and conform to a bland cultural norm. Many
,
readers saw Holden Caulfield as a symbol of pure unfettered individuality in the face of cultural
oppression.
, ,
Beginning in the early 1960s as his critical reputation waned Salinger began to publish
,
less and to disengage from society. In 1965 he withdrew almost completely from public life a ,
, ,
stance he has maintained up to the present. This reclusiveness ironically made Salinger even
, ,
more famous transforming him into a cult figure. To some degree Salingers cult status has
overshadowed,or at least tinged, many readers perceptions of his work. As a recluse,
Salinger ,for many,embodied much the same spirit as his precocious,wounded characters,and
many readers view author and characters as the same being. Such a reading of Salingers work
262
Unit 26 ( —2010) 杰罗姆·戴维·塞林格
J. D. Salinger 1919
clearly oversimplifies the process of fiction writing and the relationship between the author and
, ,
his creations. But given Salingers iconoclastic behavior the general view that Salinger was
himself a sort of Holden Caulfield is understandable.
264
4
, ,
bull session in somebodys room and somebody wanted to come in nobodyd let them in if
Unit 26 ( —2010) 杰罗姆·戴维·塞林格
J. D. Salinger 1919
,
they were some dopey pimply guy5 . Everybody was always locking their door when somebody
wanted to come in. And they had this goddam secret fraternity that I was too yellow not to
, , ,
join. 6 There was this one pimply boring guy Robert Ackley that wanted to get in. He kept
,
trying to join and they wouldnt let him. Just because he was boring and pimply. I dont even
feel like talking about it. It was a stinking school. Take my word. 7 ”
,
Old Phoebe didnt say anything but she was listening. I could tell by the back of her neck
that she was listening. She always listens when you tell her something. And the funny part is
, ,
she knows half the time what the hell youre talking about. She really does.
I kept talking about old Pencey. I sort of felt like it.
“Even the couple of nice teachers on the faculty,they were phonies,too,”I said. “There
was this one old guy,Mr. Spencer. His wife was always giving you hot chocolate and all that
stuff,and they were really pretty nice. But you shouldve seen him when the headmaster,old
Thurmer,came in the history class and sat down in the back of the room. He was always
coming in and sitting down in the back of the room for about a half an hour. He was supposed
,
to be incognito or something. 8 After a while hed be sitting back there and then hed start
interrupting what old Spencer was saying to crack a lot of corny jokes9 . Old Spencerd
,
practically kill himself chuckling and smiling and all like as if Thurmer was a goddam prince or
something. ”
“Dont swear so much. ”
“It wouldve made you puke,I swear it would,”I said. “Then,on Veterans Day. They
have this day,Veterans Day,that all the jerks that graduated from Pencey around 1776 come
back and walk all over the place,with their wives and children and everybody. You shouldve
seen this one old guy that was about fifty. What he did was,he came in our room and knocked
on the door and asked us if wed mind if he used the bathroom. The bathroom was at the end of
the corridor —I dont know why the hell he asked us. ?
You know what he said He said he
,
wanted to see if his initials were still in one of the can doors. What he did he carved his
,
goddam stupid sad old initials in one of the can doors about ninety years ago and he wanted to
see if they were still there. So my roommate and I walked him down to the bathroom and all ,
and we had to stand there while he looked for his initials in all the can doors. He kept talking to
,
us the whole time telling us how when he was at Pencey they were the happiest days of his life ,
, !
and giving us a lot of advice for the future and all. Boy did he depress me I dont mean he
was a bad guy —he wasnt. But you dont have to be a bad guy to depress somebody—you can
be a good guy and do it. All you have to do to depress somebody is give them a lot of phony
advice while youre looking for your initials in some can door —thats all you have to do. I dont
know. Maybe it wouldnt have been so bad if he hadnt been all out of breath. He was all out of
,
breath from just climbing up the stairs and the whole time he was looking for his initials he kept
, ,
breathing hard with his nostrils all funny and sad while he kept telling Stradlater and I to get
265
, !
all we could out of Pencey. God Phoebe I cant explain. I just didnt like anything that was
happening at Pencey. I cant explain. ”
Old Phoebe said something then,but I couldnt hear her. She had the side of her mouth
right smack on the pillow,and I couldnt hear her.
“What?”I said. “Take your mouth away. I cant hear you with your mouth that way. ”
“You dont like anything thats happening. ”
It made me even more depressed when she said that.
“Yes I do. Yes I do. Sure I do. Dont say that. Why the hell do you say that?”
“Because you dont. You dont like any schools. You dont like a million things.
You dont. ”
“I do!Thats where youre wrong—thats exactly where youre wrong!Why the hell do
you have to say that? ”I said. Boy,was she depressing me.
“Because you dont,”she said. “Name one thing. ”
“One thing?One thing I like?”I said. “Okay. ”
The trouble was,I couldnt concentrate too hot. Sometimes its hard to concentrate.
“One thing I like a lot you mean?”I asked her.
She didnt answer me,though. She was in a cockeyed position way the hell over the
other side of the bed. She was about a thousand miles away. “Cmon answer me,
10
”I said.
“One thing I like a lot,or one thing I just like?”
“You like a lot. ”
“All right,”I said. But the trouble was,I couldnt concentrate. About all I could think of
were those two nuns that went around collecting dough in those beatup old straw baskets.
Especially the one with the glasses with those iron rims. And this boy I knew at Elkton Hills.
, ,
There was this one boy at Elkton Hills named James Castle that wouldnt take back something
he said about this very conceited boy,Phil Stabile. James Castle called him a very conceited
guy,and one of Stabiles lousy friends went and squealed on him to Stabile. So Stabile,with
about six other dirty bastards,went down to James Castles room and went in and locked the
goddam door and tried to make him take back what he said,but he wouldnt do it. So they
started in on him. I wont even tell you what they did to him—its too repulsive—but he still
wouldnt take it back,old James Castle. And you shouldve seen him. He was a skinny little
weaklooking guy,with wrists about as big as pencils. Finally,what he did,instead of taking
back what he said,he jumped out the window. I was in the shower and all,and even I could
hear him land outside. But I just thought something fell out the window,a radio or a desk or
something,not a boy or anything. Then I heard everybody running through the corridor and
down the stairs,so I put on my bathrobe and I ran downstairs too,and there was old James
Castle laying right on the stone steps and all. He was dead,and his teeth,and blood,were all
over the place,and nobody would even go near him. He had on this turtleneck sweater Id lent
266
Unit 26 ( —2010) 杰罗姆·戴维·塞林格
J. D. Salinger 1919
him. All they did with the guys that were in the room with him was expel them. They didnt
even go to jail.
,
That was about all I could think of though. Those two nuns I saw at breakfast and this boy
, ,
James Castle I knew at Elkton Hills. The funny part is I hardly even know James Castle if you
want to know the truth. He was one of these very quiet guys. He was in my math class,but he
was way over on the other side of the room,and he hardly ever got up to recite or go to the
blackboard or anything. Some guys in school hardly ever get up to recite or go to the
blackboard. I think the only time I ever even had a conversation with him was that time he asked
me if he could borrow this turtleneck sweater I had. I damn near dropped dead when he asked
, , ,
me I was so surprised and all. I remember I was brushing my teeth in the can when he asked
me. He said his cousin was coming in to take him for a drive and all. I didnt even know he
knew I had a turtleneck sweater. All I knew about him was that his name was always right ahead
, ,Cabel,W. ,Castle,Caulfield—I can still remember it. If you
of me at roll call. Cabel R.
want to know the truth,I almost didnt lend him my sweater. Just because I didnt know him
too well.
“What?”I said to old Phoebe. She said something to me,but I didnt hear her.
“You cant even think of one thing. ”
“Yes,I can. Yes,I can. ”
“Well,do it,then. ”
“I like Allie,”I said. “And I like doing what Im doing right now. Sitting here with you,
and talking,and thinking about stuff,and—”
“Allies dead—You always say that!If somebodys dead and everything,and in Heaven,
then it isnt really—”
“I know hes dead!Dont you think I know that?I can still like him,though,cant I?Just
because somebodys dead,you dont just stop liking them,for Gods sake—especially if they
were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know thatre alive and all. ”
Old Phoebe didnt say anything. When she cant think of anything to say,she doesnt say a
goddam word.
“Anyway,I like it now,”I said. “I mean right now. Sitting here with you and just
chewing the fat and horsing —” 11
,
While I was walking toward the door old Phoebe said ,“Holden!”and I turned around.
She was sitting way up in bed. She looked so pretty. “Im taking belching lessons from
this girl,Phyllis Margulies, ”she said. “Listen. ”
I listened,and I heard something,but it wasnt much. “Good,”I said. Then I went out in
the living room and called up this teacher I had,Mr. Antolini.
269
Amy Tan 1952 ( —)
Unit 27 艾米 · 谭
Biography
( —),a famous Chinese American writer,was born
Amy Tan 1952
in Oakland,California. When Amy was 15 years old,her older brother
Peter and father both died of brain tumors within eight months of each
other. Her mother then moved Amy and her younger brother John Jr. to
Switzerland ,where Amy finished high school. During these years ,
mother and daughter argued about Amys college and career plans. Amy
,
eventually followed her boyfriend to San Jose City College where she
earned a bachelors and a masters degree in English and linguistics ,
despite her mothers wish that she study medicine. Her mothers and grandmothers past
, ,
experiences became the basis of her first novel The Joy Luck Club 1989 New York Times
, ,
bestseller which has been translated into 35 languages. In 1993 the book was adapted into a
,
commercially successful film. The Joy Luck Club and her other bestselling novels such as The
, , ,
Kitchen Gods Wife The Hundred Secret Senses The Bonesetters Daughter and Saving Fish
from Drowning all explore motherdaughter relationships and the ChineseAmerican experience.
Amy Tan is praised as an expert storyteller as her stories deeply touch the heart of the reader.
Major Works
? Novels
( )《喜福会》
The Joy Luck Club 1989
The Kitchen Gods Wife (1991 )《灶神之妻》
The Hundred Secret Senses (1995 )《百种神秘感觉》又译《灵感女孩》
The Bonesetters Daughter (2000 )《接骨师之女》
Saving Fish from Drowning (2005 )《沉没之鱼》原译《救救溺水鱼》
Rules for Virgins (2012 ;an excerpt from The Valley of Amazement)《处女规则》
The Valley of Amazement (2013 )《惊奇山谷》
? Childrens books
, ( )《月亮夫人》
The Moon Lady illustrated by Gretchen Schields 1992
Sagwa ,the Chinese Siamese Cat,illustrated by Gretchen Schields (1994 )《中国
270
Unit 27 Amy Tan 1952( —) 艾米·谭
暹罗猫》
? Nonfiction
:
MidLife Confidential The Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America With Three
Cords and an Attitude (with Dave Barry, Stephen King , Tabitha King , Barbara
Kingsolver)(1994 )《中年心腹话》
Mother (with Maya Angelou ,Mary Higgins Clark)(1996 )《母亲》
The Best American Short Stories 1999 (Editor,with Katrina Kenison )(1999 )
《1999 年最佳美国短篇小说》
The Opposite of Fate:A Book of Musings (G. P. Putnams Sons,2003 ,ISBN
9780399150746 )《事与愿违》又译《命运的逆反》、《命运的反面》
Hard Listening , coauthored in July 2013 , an interactive ebook about her
participation in a writer / musician band ,the Rock Bottom Remainders,published
by Coliloquy,LLC.
Major Characters
(
4 families mother and daughter ):Woo family (Suyuan and Jingmei),Hsu family (An
mei and Rose),Jong family (Lindo and Waverly),St Clare family (Yingying and Lena)
Jingmei (June)Woo
In a way,Jingmei Woo is the main character of The Joy Luck Club. Structurally,her
narratives serve as bridges between the two generations of storytellers,as Jingmei speaks both
for herself and for her recently deceased mother,Suyuan. Jingmei also bridges America and
China. When she travels to China,she discovers the Chinese essence within herself,thus
realizing a deep connection to her mother that she had always ignored. She also brings Suyuans
, , ,
story to her longlost twin daughters and once reunited with her halfsisters gains an even
,
more profound understanding of who her mother was. For the most part Jingmeis fears echo
those of her peers,the other daughters of the Joy Luck Club members. They have always
identified with Americans (Jingmei also goes by the English name “June ”)but are beginning
to regret having neglected their Chinese heritage. Her fears also speak to a reciprocal fear shared
, ,
by the mothers who wonder whether by giving their daughters American opportunities and
selfsufficiency,they have alienated them from their Chinese heritage.
Jingmei is representative in other ways as well. She believes that her mothers constant
,
criticism bespeaks a lack of affection when in fact her mothers severity and high expectations
are expressions of love and faith in her daughter. All of the other motherdaughter pairs
272
,
experience the same misunderstanding which in some ways may be seen to stem from cultural
Unit 27 ( —) 艾米·谭
Amy Tan 1952
,
differences. What Tan portrays as the traditional Chinese values of filial obedience criticism
,
enveloped expressions of love and the concealment of excessive emotions all clash with the
daughters “American ” ideas about autonomy , free and open speech , and selfesteem.
, ,
However by eventually creating a bridge between China and America between mothers and
daughters,Jingmei ultimately reconciles some of these cultural and generational differences,
providing hope for the other motherdaughter pairs.
Suyan Woo
Suyuan Woo is a strong and willful woman who refuses to focus on her hardships. Instead ,
she struggles to create happiness and success where she finds it lacking. It is with this mentality
that she founds the original Joy Luck Club while awaiting the Japanese invasion of China in
,
Kweilin. Her sense of the power of will can at times cause problems such as when Suyuan
believes that her daughter Jingmei can be a child prodigy if only the Woos can locate her talent
and nurture it well enough. This leads to a deep resentment in Jingmei. Yet it is also by virtue
of Suyuans will that she eventually locates her longlost twin daughters in China. Only her
death prevents her from returning to them.
Suyuan shares many characteristics with her fellow mothers in the Joy Luck Club fierce :
, ;
love for her daughter often expressed as criticism a distress at her daughters desire to shake
off her Chinese identity in favor of an American one;and a fear that she may be alienated from
her daughter either because of her own actions or because of their divergent ages and cultural
upbringings.
爥
, ,
When I arrive at the Hsus house where the Joy Luck Club is meeting tonight the first
person I see is my father. “There she is!Never on time!”he announces. And it is true.
,
Everybodys already here seven family friends in their sixtieth and seventieth. They look up
, ,
and laugh at me always tardy a child still at thirtysix.
Im shaking,trying to hold something inside. ,
The last time I saw them at the funeral I ,
had broken down and cried big gulping sobs. They must wonder now how someone like me can
,
take my mothers place. A friend once told me that my mother and I were alike that we had the
,
same wispy hand gestures the same girlish laugh and sideways look. When I shyly told my
, ,“You dont even know little percent of me!How can
mother this she seemed insulted and said
you be me?”And shes right. How can I be my mother at Joy Luck?
“Auntie,Uncle,”I say repeatedly,nodding to each person there. I have always called 273
these old family friends Auntie and Uncle. And then I walk over and stand next to my father.
Hes looking at the Jongs pictures from their recent China trip. “Look at that,”he says
,
politely pointing to a photo of the Jongs tour group standing on wide slab steps. There is
,
nothing in this picture that shows it was taken in China rather than San Francisco or any other
city for that matter. But my father doesnt seem to be looking at the picture anyway. Its as
though everything were the same to him ,nothing stands out. He has always been politely
indifferent. But whats the Chinese word that means indifferent because you cant see any
?
differences Thats how troubled I think he is by my mothers death.
“Will you look at that,”he says,pointing to another nondescript picture.
The Hsus house feels heavy with greasy odors. Too many Chinese meals cooked in a too
,
small kitchen too many once fragrant smells compressed onto a thin layer of invisible grease. I
remember how my mother used to go into other peoples houses and restaurants and wrinkle her
,
nose then whisper very loudly :“I can see and feel the stickiness with my nose. ”
I have not been to the Hsus house in many years,but the living room is exactly the same
as I remember it. When Auntie Anmei and Uncle George moved to the Sunset district from
, ,
Chinatown twentyfive years ago they bought new furniture. Its all there still looking mostly
new under yellowed plastic. The same turquoise couch shaped in a semicircle of nubby tweed.
The colonial end tables made out of heavy maple. A lamp of fake cracked porcelain. Only the
, ,
scrolllength calendar free from the Bank of Canton changes every year.
, ,
I remember this stuff because when we were children Auntie Anmei didnt let us touch
any of her new furniture except through the clear plastic coverings. On Joy Luck nights my,
,
parents brought me to the Hsus. Since I was the guest I had to take care of all the younger
,
children so many children it seemed as if there were always one baby who was crying from
having bumped its head on a table leg.
“Youre responsible,”said my mother,which meant I was in trouble if anything was
spilled,burned,lost,broken,or dirty. I was responsible,no matter who did it. She and
Auntie Anmei were dressed up in funny Chinese dresses with stiff standup collars and blooming
branches of embroidered silk sewn over their breasts. These clothes were too fancy for real
, , ,
Chinese people I thought and too strange for American parties. In those days before my
, ,
mother told me her Kweilin story I imagined Joy Luck was a shameful Chinese custom like the
secret gathering of the Ku Klux Klan or the tomtom dances of TV Indians preparing for war.
, ,
But tonight theres no mystery. The Joy Luck aunties are all wearing slacks bright print
,
blouses and different versions of sturdy walking shoes. We are all seated around the dining
room table under a lamp that looks like a Spanish candelabra. Uncle George puts on his bifocals
and starts the meeting by reading the minutes :
“Our capital account is , , ,
$ 24 825 or about $ 6 206 a couple , $ 3,103 per person. We
sold Subaru for a loss at six and threequarters. We bought a hundred shares of Smith
274
Unit 27 ( —) 艾米·谭
Amy Tan 1952
International at seven. Our thanks to Lindo and Tin Jong for the goodies. The red bean soup
was especially delicious. The March meeting had to be canceled until further notice. We were
sorry to have to bid a fond farewell to our dear friend Suyuan and extended our sympathy to the
, ,
Canning Woo family. Respectfully submitted George Hsu president and secretary. ”
Thats it. I keep thinking the others will start talking about my mother ,the wonderful
, ,
friendship they shared and why I am here in her spirit to be the fourth corner and carry on the
idea my mother came up with on a hot day in Kweilin.
But everybody just nods to approve the minutes. Even my fathers head bobs up and down
routinely. And it seems to me my mothers life has been shelved for new business.
Auntie Anmei heaves herself up from the table and moves slowly to the kitchen to prepare
, , ,
the food. And Auntie Lin my mothers best friend moves to the turquoise sofa crosses her
, ,
arms and watches the men still seated at the table. Auntie Ying who seems to shrink even
,
more every time I see her reaches into her knitting bag and pulls out the start of a tiny blue
sweater.
,
The Joy Luck uncles begin to talk about stocks they are interested in buying Uncle Jack ,
,
who is Auntie Yings younger brother is very keen on a company that mines gold in Canada.
“Its a great hedge on inflation,”he says with authority. He speaks the best English ,
almost accentless. I think my mothers English was the worst ,but she always thought her
Chinese was the best. She spoke Mandarin slightly blurred with a Shanghai dialect.
“Werent we going to play mah jong tonight?”I whisper loudly to Auntie Ying,whos
slightly deaf.
“Later,”she says,“after midnight. ”
“Ladies,are you at this meeting or not?”says Uncle George.
After everybody votes unanimously for the Canada gold stock,I go into the kitchen to ask
Auntie Anmei why the Joy Luck Club started investing in stocks.
“We used to play mah jong,winner take all. But the same people were always winning,
the same people always losing,
”she says. She is stuffing wonton,one chopstick jab of gingery
meat dabbed onto a thin skin and then a single fluid turn with her hand that seals the skin into a
tiny nurses cap. “You cant have luck when someone else has skill. ,
So long time ago we
decided to invest in the stock market. Theres no skill in that. Even your mother agreed. ”
Auntie Anmei takes count of the tray in front of her. Shes already made five rows of eight
wonton each. “Forty wonton,eight people,ten each,five row more,” she says aloud to
herself ,and then continues stuffing. “We got smart. Now we can all win and lose equally. We
can have stock market luck. And we can play mah jong for fun,just for a few dollars,winner
take all. Losers take home leftovers!So everyone can have some joy. Smarthanh? ”
I watch Auntie Anmei make more wonton. She has quick,expert fingers. She doesnt
have to think about what she is doing. Thats what my mother used to complain about,that
275
Auntie Anmei never thought about what she was doing.
“Shes not stupid,”said my mother on one occasion,“but she has no spine. Last week,I
had a good idea for her. ”I said to her,“Lets go to the consulate and ask for papers for your
brother. ”And she almost wanted to drop her things and go right then. But later she talked to
someone. Who knows who?And that person told her she can get her brother in bad trouble in
China. That person said FBI will put her on a list and give her trouble in the U. S. the rest of
, ,
her life. That person said You ask for a house loan and they say no loan because your brother
, !
is a communist. I said You already have a house But still she was scared.
“Auntie Anmei runs this way and that,”said my mother,“and she doesnt know why. ”
As I watch Auntie Anmei,I see a short bent woman in her seventies,with a heavy bosom
and thin,shapeless legs. She has the flattened soft fingertips of an old woman. I wonder what
Auntie Anmei did to inspire a life long stream of criticism from my mother. Then again,it
seemed my mother was always displeased with all her friends,with me,and even with my
father. Something was always missing. Something always needed improving. Something was
,
not in balance. This one or that had too much of one element not enough of another.
The elements were from my mothers own version of organic chemistry. Each person is
,
made of five elements she told me.
,
Too much fire and you had a bad temper. That was like my father whom my mother
always criticized for his cigarette habit and who always shouted back that she should keep her
thoughts to herself. I think he now feels guilty that he didnt let my mother speak her mind.
,
Too little wood and you bent too quickly to listen to other peoples ideas unable to stand
on your own. This was like my Auntie Anmei.
, ,
Too much water and you flowed in too many directions like my myself for having started
, ,
half a degree in biology then half a degree in art and then finishing neither when I went off to
,
work for a small ad agency as a secretary later becoming a copywriter.
I used to dismiss her criticisms as just more of her Chinese superstitions ,beliefs that
conveniently fit the circumstances. In my twentieth,while taking Introduction to Psychology,I
tried to tell her why she shouldnt criticize so much, why it didnt lead to a healthy
learning environment.
“Theres a school of thought,”I said,“that parents shouldnt criticize children. They
should encourage instead. You know,people rise to other peoples expectations. And when you
criticize,it just means youre expecting failure. ”
“Thats the trouble,”my mother said. “You never rise. Lazy to get up. Lazy to rise to
expectations. ”
“Time to eat,”Auntie Anmei happily announces,bringing out a steaming pot of the
wonton she was just wrapping. There are piles of food on the table,served buffet style,just like
at the Kweilin feasts. My father is digging into the chow mein,which still sits in an oversize
276
Unit 27 ( —) 艾米·谭
Amy Tan 1952
aluminum pan surrounded by little plastic packets of soy sauce. Auntie Anmei must have
bought this on Clement Street. The wonton soup smells wonderful with delicate sprigs of cilantro
,
floating on top. Im drawn first to a large platter of chaswei sweet barbecued pork cut into
,
coinsized slices and then to a whole assortment of what Ive always called finger goodies —
, , , ,
thinskinned pastries filled with chopped pork beef shrimp and unknown stuffings that my
mother used to describe as “nutritious things”.
Eating is not a gracious event here. Its as though everybody had been starving. They push
, ,
large forkfuls into their mouths jab at more pieces of pork one right after the other. They are
not like the ladies of Kweilin,whom I always imagined savored their food with a certain
detached delicacy.
, ,
And then almost as quickly as they started the men get up and leave the table. As if on
,
cue the women peck at last morsels and then carry plates and bowls to the kitchen and dump
,
then in the sink. The women take turns washing their hands scrubbing them vigorously. Who
?
started this ritual I too put my plate in the sink and wash my hands. The women are talking
,
about the Jongs China trip then they move toward a room in the back of the apartment. We
,
pass another room what used to be the bedroom shared by the four Hsu sons. The bunk beds
with their scuffed,splintery ladders are still there. The Joy Luck uncles are already seated at the
card table. Uncle George is dealing out cards,fast,as though he learned this technique in a
casino. My father is passing out Pall Mall cigarettes,with one already dangling from his lips.
And then we get to the room in the back,which was once shared by the three Hsu girls.
Nobody says to me,“Sit here,this is where your mother used to sit. ”But I can tell even before
everyone sits down. The chair closest to the door has an emptiness to it. But the feeling doesnt
really have to do with the chair. Its her place on the table. Without having anyone to tell me ,
I know her corner on the table was the East.
, ,
The East is where things begin my mother once told me the direction from which the sun
,
rises where the wind comes from.
, ,
Auntie Anmei who is sitting on my left spills the tiles onto the green felt tabletop and
then says to me,“Now we wash tiles. ”We swirl them with our hands in a circular motion.
They make a cool swishing sound as they bump into one another.
, , ,
爥 Now we begin to play looking at our hands casting tiles picking up others at an easy,
comfortable pace. The Joy Luck aunties begin to make small talk,not really listening to each
other. They speak in their special language,half in broken English,half in their own Chines
dialect. Auntie Ying mentions she bought yarn at half price,somewhere out in the avenues.
Auntie Anmei brags about a sweater she made for her daughter Ruths new baby. Auntie Lin
explains how mad she got at a store clerk who refused to let her her return a skirt with a broken
zipper.
爥 Poor Auntie Anmei rubs her tiles even harder. I remember my mother telling me about
277
,
the Hsus trip to China three years ago. Auntie had saved $ 2000 all to spend on her brothers
family. She had shown my mother the insides of her heavy suitcases. One was crammed with
, , ,
Sees Nuts and Chews M & Ms candycoated cashews instant hot chocolate wit miniature
, :
marshmallows. The other bag contained the most ridiculous clothes all new bright California
style beachwear,baseball caps,cotton pants with elastic waists,bomber jackets,Stanford
sweatshirts,crew socks.
爥 And when their China tour finally arrived in Hangzhou,the whole family from Ningbo
was there to meet them. It wasnt just Auntie Anmeis little brother,but also his wifes
stepbrothers and stepsisters,and a distant cousin,and that cousins husband and that husbands
uncle. They had all brought their mothersinlaw and children and even their village friends who
were not lucky enough to have overseas Chinese relatives to show off 爥 Nobody wanted the
, ,
sweatshirts those useless clothes. The M & Ms were thrown in the air gone. And when the
,
suitcases were emptied the relatives asked what else the Hsus had brought.
,
Auntie Anmei and Uncle George were shaken down not just for 2000 dollars worth of
TVs and refrigerators but also for a nights lodging for 26 people in the Overlooking Lake Hotel ,
,
for 3 banquet tables at a restaurant that catered to rich foreigners for three special gifts for each
, ,
relative and finally for a loan of five thousand yuan in foreign exchange to a cousins socalled
uncle who wanted to buy a motorcycle but who later disappeared for good along with the
money. When the train pulled out of Hangzhou the next day ,the Hsus found themselves
depleted of some nine thousand dollars worth of goodwill. Months later,after an inspiring
,
Christmastime service at the First Chinese Baptist Church Auntie Anmei tried to recoup her
,
loss by saying it truly was more blessed to give than to receive and my mother agreed her ,
longtime friend had blessings for at least several lifetimes.
爥 Auntie Lin and my mother were both best friends and arch enemies who spent a lifetime
comparing their children. I was one month older than Waverly Jong ,Auntie Lins prized
daughter. From the time we were babies ,our mothers compared the creases in our belly
buttons,how shapely our earlobes were,how fast we healed when we scraped our knees,how
thick and dark our hair,how many shoes we wore out in one year,and later,how smart Waverly
was at playing chess,how many trophies she had won last month,how many newspapers had
printed her name,how many cities she had visited.
爥
“You must see your sisters and tell them about your mothers death,”says Auntie Ying.
“But most important,you must tell them about her life. The mother they did not know,they
must now know. ”
“See my sisters,tell them about my mother,”I say,nodding. “What will I say?What can
I tell them about my mother?I dont know anything. She was my mother. ”
The aunties are looking at me as if I had become crazy right before their eyes.
278
Unit 27 ( —) 艾米·谭
Amy Tan 1952
“Not know your own mother?”cries Auntie Anmei with disbelief. “How can you say?
our mother is in your bones! ”
“Tell them stories of your family here. How she became success,”offers Antie Lin.
“Tell them stories she told you,lessons she taught,what you know about her mind that has
become your mind, ”says Auntie Ying. “You mother very smart lady. ”
I hear more choruses of “Tell them,tell them”as each auntie frantically tries to think what
should be passed on.
“Her kindness. ”
“Her smartness. ”
“Her dutiful nature to family. ”
“Her hopes,things that matter to her. ”
“The excellent dishes she cooked. ”
“Imagine,a daughter not knowing her own mother!”
And then it occurs to me. They are frightened. In me,they see their own daughters,just
as ignorant,just as unmindful of all the truths and hopes they have brought to America. They
see daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese,who think they are stupid
when they explain things in fractured English. They see that joy and luck do not mean the same
, “
to their daughters that to these closed Americanborn minds joy luck ”is not a word,it does
not exist. They see daughters who will bear grandchildren born without any connecting hope
passed from generation to generation.
“I will tell them everything,”I say simply,and the aunties look at me with doubtful faces.
“I will remember everything about her and tell them,”I say more firmly. And gradually,
one by one,they smile and pat my hand. They still look troubled,as if something were out of
balance. But they also look hopeful that what I say will become true. What more can they say?
What more can I promise?
They go back to eating their soft boiled peanuts,saying stories among themselves. They
are young girls again,dreaming of good times in the past and good times yet to come. A brother
from Ningbo who makes his sister cry with joy when he returns nine thousand dollars plus
interest. A youngest son whose stereo and TV repair business is so good he sends leftovers to
China. A daughter whose babies are able to swim like fish in a fancy pool in Woodside. Such
good stories. The best. They are the lucky ones.
And I am sitting at my mothers place at the mah jong table , on the East , where
things begin.
280
Louise Erdrich 1954 ( —)
Unit 28 露易丝 · 厄德里克
Biography
(
Louise Erdrich born Karen Louise Erdrich is an Ojibwa )
writer of novels ,poetry,and childrens books featuring Native
American characters and settings. She is widely acclaimed as one
of the most significant writers of the second wave of the Native
American Renaissance.
, ,
Erdrich was born in Little Falls Minnesota the first of seven
, , ,
children to Ralph Erdrich a GermanAmerican and his wife Rita Gourneau a Chippewa / Ojibwa
, ,
Indian. Both parents taught at a boarding school in Wahpeton North Dakota set up by the
Bureau of Indian Affairs,and her maternal grandfather,Patrick Gourneau,served as tribal
chairman for many years. Erdrich attended Dartmouth College from 1972 to 1976,and earned the
A. B. in English. There she met her future husband,anthropologist and writer Michael Dorris.
Erdrich earned the Master of Arts in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University in 1979.
Erdrich married Michael Dorris in 1981 and they raised three adopted children and three biological
children until their separation in 1995 and Dorris suicide in 1997. Erdrich lives in Minnesota. She
,
is also the owner of Birchbark Books a small independent bookstore in Minneapolis that focuses
on Native American literature and the Native community in the Twin Cities.
, ,
First published in 1984 expanded in 1993 and revised in 2009 Love Medicine explores 60
(
years in the lives of a small group of Chippewa also known as Ojibwe or Anishinaabe )living
on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota. The novel won the 1984 National
Book Critics Circle Award. Except for the first chapter (set in 1981 ),the narratives follow a
loose chronology. Each chapter is narrated by a different character. These narratives are
, ,
conversational as if the narrators were telling a story often from the firstperson perspective.
, ,
There are however five chapters that are told from a limited thirdperson perspective. The
conversational tone of the novel is representative of the storytelling tradition in Native American
, ,
culture. It draws from Ojibwa myths storytelling technique and culture. It also incorporates
, ,
the EuroIndian experience especially through the younger generations some of whom have
, ,
been forced by government policy to accept if not possess EuroAmerican culture. The use of
multiple themes adds to the storytelling effect of the work,which include:homecoming,a love
281
,Marie, and Nector, tricksters (in the Native American tradition ),
triangle among Lulu
abandonment,survival,connection to land,and searching for identity and selfknowledge.
Erdrichs complexly interwoven series of novels have drawn comparisons with William
,
Faulkners Yoknapatawpha novels. Like Faulkners Erdrichs successive novels created multiple
narratives in the same fictional area and combined the tapestry of local history with current
themes and modern consciousness. Erdrich has received many literary awards including O.
, , ,
Henry Award six times Pulitzer Prize for Fiction AnisfieldWolf Book Award National Book
, ,
Award for Fiction Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction PEN / Saul Bellow Award
for Achievement in American Fiction and so on.
Major Works
? Novels
( )《爱药》
Love Medicine 1984
The Beet Queen (1986 )《甜菜女王》
Tracks (1988 )《痕迹》
The Crown of Columbus(1991 )《哥伦布的皇冠》与丈夫合作
The Bingo Palace (1994 )《宾果宫》
Tales of Burning Love (1997 )《燃情故事集》
The Antelope Wife (1998 )《羚羊妻》
The Plague of Doves (2008 )《鸽灾》
Shadow Tag (2010 )《踩影游戏》
The Round House (2012 )《圆屋》
? Childrens literature
( )
Grandmothers Pigeon 1996
The Birchbark House (1999 )
The Range Eternal (2002 )
The Game of Silence (2005 )
The Porcupine Year (2008 )
Chickadee (2012 )
? Collection of short stories
:
The Red Convertible Collected and New Stories 1978 —2008 (2009)
? Poetry
( )
Jacklight 1984
Baptism of Desire 1989( )
:
Original Fire Selected and New Poems 2003 ( )
? Nonfiction
282
[
Route Two coauthored with Michael Dorris ](1990)
Unit 28 ( —) 露易丝·厄德里克
Louise Erdrich 1954
: ( )
The Blue Jays Dance A Birthyear 1995
Books and Islands in Ojibwa Country (2003 )
◆◆◆41;# H#75C5&#◆◆◆
(Chapter Six Lulus Boys)
On the last day that Lulu Larmatine spent as Henrys widow ,her boys were outside
drinking beers and shooting plastic jugs. Her deceased husbands brother,Beverly,was sitting
across from her at the kitchen table. Having a name some people thought of as feminine had
, ,
turned Beverly Lamartine to building up his muscles in his youth and they still bulged hard as
,
ingots in some place now lost in others. His plush belly strained open the bottom button of his
,
black shirt and Lulu saw his warm skin peeking through. She also saw how the tattoos he and
, ,
Henry had acquired on their arms and which Lulu had always admired were now deep black
and so fuzzy around the edges that she could hardly tell what they were.
284 Beverly saw her looking at the old tattoos and pushed his sleeves up over his biceps. “Get
Unit 28 ( —) 露易丝·厄德里克
Louise Erdrich 1954
an eyeful ,”he grinned. As of old,he stretched his arms across the table,and she gazed at the
figures commemorating the two brothers drunken travels outside her life.
, , , ,
There was a doll a skull with a knife stuck in it an eagle a swallow and Beverlys
, ,
name rank and serial number. Looking at the arm made Lulu remember her husbands tattoos.
,
Henrys arms had been imprinted with a banner bearing some other womans name a rose with
, , , , ,
a bleeding thorn two lizards and like his brothers with his name rank and serial number.
Sometimes Lulu could not help it. She thought of everything so hard that her mind felt
warped and sodden as a door that swells up in spring. It would not close properly to keep the
troublesome trouble out.
Right now she thought of those two lizards on either one of Henrys arms. She imagined
them clenching together when he put his arms around her. Then she thought of them coupling in
the same way she and Henry did. She thought of this while looking at Beverlys lone swallow ,
a bird with outstretched wings deep as ink and bleeding into his flesh. She remembered
: ,
Beverlys trick the wings were carefully tattooed on certain muscles so that when he flexed his
1
arm the bird almost seemed to hover in a dive or swoop.
,
Lulu hadnt seen her husbands brother since the funeral in 1950 with the casket closed
,
because of how badly Henry had suffered in the car wreck. Drunk he had started driving the
,
old Northern Pacific tracks and either fallen asleep or passed out his car straddling the rails. As
hed left the bar that night everyone who had been there remembered his words.
“She comes barreling through,youll never see me again. ”
At first they had thought he was talking about Lulu. But even at the time they knew she
didnt lose temper over drinking. It was the train Henry had been thinking about. They realized
that later when the news came and his casket was sealed.
Beverly Lamartine had shown up from the Twin Cities2 one hour before his brothers
—a black swastika on torn red cloth —
service was held. He had brought along the trophy flag 3
that he had captured to revenge the oldest Lamartine,a quiet boy,hardly spoken of now,who
was killed early on while still in boot camp4 .
When the men from the veterans post had lowered Henrys casket into the grave on ropes ,
there was a U. S. Flag draped across it already. Beverly had shaken out the trophy flag. Hed
, ,
let it go on in the air and the wind seemed to suck it down the black arms of the insignia
whirling like a spider.
,
Watching it Lulu had gone faint. The sudden spokes of the black wheel flashed before her
,
eyes and shed toppled dizzily then stumbled over the edge of the grave.
The men were still lowering Henry on ropes. Lulu plunged heavily down with the trophy
,
flag and the ropes burned out of the pallbearers hands. The box hit bottom. People screamed
,
and there was a great deal of commotion during which Beverly jumped down to revive Lulu.
,
All together the pallbearers tugged and hoisted her out. The black garments seemed to make her
285
,
even denser than she was. Her round face and chubby hands were a pale dough color cold and
, ,
wet with shock. For hours afterwards she trembled uttered senseless vowels jumped at sounds
,
and touches. Some people assuming that she had jumped in the grave to be buried with Henry ,
thought much better of her for a while.
But most of her life Lulu had been known as a flirt. And that was putting it mildly.
Tongues less kind had more indicting things to say.
, ,
For instance besides the fact of Lulu Lamartines first husband why did each of the boys
?
currently hooting milk jugs out front of Henrys house look so different There were eight of
them. Some of them even had her maiden name. The three oldest were Nanapushes. The next
oldest were Morrisseys who took the name Lamartine ,and then there were more assorted
younger Lamartines who didnt look like one another,either. Red hair and blood abounded;
there was some brown. The black hair on the sevenyearold at least matched his mothers. This
,
boy was named Henry Junior and he had been born approximately nine months after Henry
Seniors death.
, ,
Give or take a week5 Beverly thought looking from Henry Junior out the window back
, ,
to the woman across the table. Beverly was quite certain that he and not his brother was the
,
father of that boy. In fact Beverly had come back to the reservation with a hidden purpose.
Beverly Lamartine wanted to claim Henry Junior and take him home.
In the Twin Cities there were great relocation opportunities for Indians with a certain
amount of natural sticktoitiveness6 and pride. Thats how Beverly saw it. He was darker than
,
most but his parents had always called themselves French or Black Irish and considered those
who thought of themselves as Indians quite backward. They had put the need to get ahead in
Beverly. He worked devilishly hard.
Door to door,hed sold childrens afterschool home workbooks for the past eighteen
years. The wonder of it was that he had sold any workbook set at all,for he was not an
educated man and if the customers had,as they might naturally do,considered him an example
of his products efficiency they might not have entrusted their own children to those pages of
,
sums and reading exercises. But they did buy the workbook sets regularly for Bevs ploy was to
use his humble appearance and faulty grammar to ease into conversation with his hardworking
,
getahead customers. They looked forward to seeing the higher qualities which they could not
, 7
afford inculcated in their own children. Beverlys territory was a smalltown world of earnest
, ,
dreamers. Part of Bevs pitch and the one that usually sold the books was to show the wife or
husband a walletsized school photo of his son. That was Henry Junior. The back of the photo
“
was inscribed To Unce Bev ”,but the customer never saw that,because the precious relic was
encased in a cardboardbacked sheet of clear plastic. This covering preserved it from thousands
of milltoughened thumbs in the workingclass sections of Minneapolis and small towns within its
286
Unit 28 ( —) 露易丝·厄德里克
Louise Erdrich 1954
,
onehundredmile radius. Every year or so Beverly wrote to Lulu requesting another picture. It
was sent to him in perfect goodwill. With every picture Beverly grew more familiar with his son
, ,
and more inspired in the invention of tales he embroidered day after day on front porches that
were to him the innocent stages for his routine.
His son played baseball in a sparkingwhite uniform stained across the knees with grass. He
pitched nohitters every few weeks. Teachers loved the boy for getting so far ahead of the other
,
students on his own initiative. They sent him on to various higher grades and he was invited to
the parties of children in the wealthy suburb of Edina. Henry Junior cleared the hurdles of class
and intellect with an ease astonishing to Beverly ,who noted to his wishful customers how
swiftly the young surpass the older generation.
“Give them wings!”he would urge,flipping softly through the cheap pulpflecked pages.
The sound of the ruffled paper was like the panic of fledglings8 before they learn how to glide.
,
People usually bought and only later when they found themselves rolling up a workskills book
,
to slaughter fly or scribbling phone numbers down on the back of Math Enrichment would they
realize that their children had absolutely no interest in taking the world by storm through
selfenlightenment.
, ,
Some days after many hours of stories the son became so real in Bevs mind that when he
,
came home to the apartment he half expected the boy to pounce on him before he put his key in
, ,
the door. But when the lock turned his son vanished for Elsa would be there and she was not
,
particularly interested in children real or not. She was a typist who changed jobs incessantly.
,
Groomed with exquisite tawdriness shed fashioned for Bev the image of a modern woman
,
living the ideal of career life. Her salary only fluctuated by pennies from firm to firm but her
importance and value as a knowerofropes welled. She believed herself indispensable,but she
9
heartlessly left employers hanging in their times of worst need to go on to something better.
Beverly adored her.
, ,
She was a natural blond with birdlike legs and true no chin but great blue snapping eyes.
She smoked exotically,rolling smoke off her tongue,and often told Bev that two weeks from
now he might not be seeing her again. Then she would soften toward him. The possibilities she
, ,
gave up to be with him impressed Bev so much every time that it ceased to bother him that
,
Elsa only showed him off to her family in Saint Cloud at the height of summer when they
admired his perfect tan.
, , ,
The boy though who was everywhere in his life and yet nowhere fit less easily into
,
Bevs fantasy of how he lived. The boy made him ache in hidden surprising places sometimes
,
at night when he lay next to Elsa his knuckles resting lightly against her emphatic spine. That
was the limit of touching she would tolerate in slumber. She even took her sleeping breath with
,
a certain rigid meanness holding it stubbornly and releasing it with small explosive sighs. Bev
hardly noticed,though,for beside her his mind raced through the ceilings and walls.
287
,
One night he saw himself traveling. He was driving his sober green car westward past the
,
boundaries of his salesmans territory then over the state line and on across to the casual and
, ,
lonely fields the rich dry violet hills of the reservation. Then he was home where his son
,
really lived. Lulu came to the door. He habitually blotted away her face and body so that in his
thoughts she was a doll of flour sacking with a curly black mop on her head. She was simply
glad that he had come at last to take the son she had such trouble providing for off her hands.
She was glad Henry Junior would be wafted into a new and better metropolitan
existence. 10
This scenario became so real through the quite hours he lay beside Elsa that Bev even
,
convinced himself that his wife would take to Henry Junior in spite of the way she shuddered at
children in the streets and whispered “Monkeys!
”And then,by the time the next workday was
half over,hed arrange for vacation and made an appointment to have a onceover done on
his car.
,
Of course Lulu was not made of flour sacking and yam. Beverly had realized that in the
, ,
immediacy of her arms. She grabbed him for a hug when he got out his car and tired by the
,
long trip his head whirled for a moment in a haze of yellow spots. When she released him the,
, ,
boys sauntered up pokerfaced and mildly suspicious to stand in a group around him and await
their instructions. There seemed to be so many that at first he was speechless. Each of them was
, ,
Henry Junior in a different daydream at a different age and so alike were their flat expressions
he couldnt even pick out the one whose picture sold the record number of home workbooks in
, ,
the Upper Midwestern Regional Division. Henry Junior of course was perfectly recognizable
,
after Lulu introduced him. After all he did look exactly like the picture in Bevs wallet. He put
, ,
his hand out and shook manfully like his older brothers which pleased Bev although he had
trouble containing a moment of confusion at the utter indifference in the boys eyes. He had to
remember the boy was meeting him for the first time. In a childs world strange grownups are
indistinguishable as trees in a forest. Even the writing on the back of those photographs was
, ,
probably now that he thought of it Lulus.
, ,
They went away started shooting their guns and the Bev was left with the unexpected
,
problem of the mother of his son the woman he would just as soon forget. During a moment of
, ,
adjustment however he decided to go through whatever set of manipulations were necessary.
, ,
He wanted to handle the situation in the ideal firm but diplomatic manner. And then after ,
,
hed recovered from the strength of her hug ha had absolutely no doubt that things would go on
according to his plan.
“My my my,”he said to Lulu now. She was buttering a piece of bread soft as the plump
undersides of her arms. “Lots water under the dam. ”
She agreed,taking alert nips of her perfectly slice. She had sprinkled a teaspoon of sugar
over it,carefully distributing the grains. That was how she was. Even with eight boys her house
288
Unit 28 ( —) 露易丝·厄德里克
Louise Erdrich 1954
was neat as a pin. The candy bowl on the table sat precisely on its doily. All her furniture was
brushed and straightened. Her coffee table held a neat stack of Fate and True Adventure
magazines. On her walls hed hung matching framed portraits of poodles ,kittens and an
11
elaborate embroidered portrait of Chief Joseph . Her windowsills were decorated with
pincushions in the shapes of plump little hats and shoes.
“I make these. ”She cupped a tiny blue sequined pump in her hand. “You have a girl
friend?Ill give it to you. Here. ”
She pushed the little shoes across the table. It skittered over the edge,fell into his lap,and
Beverly retrieved it quickly,for he saw that her hand was following. He set the blue slipper
between them without addressing her implicit question on his status—girl friend,married,or
just looking around. He was intent on bringing up the subject of Henry Junior.
“Remember that time 爥 ”he started. There he didnt know what he was going to say.
What did come out surprised him. “You and me and Henry were playing cards before you got
married and the boys were sleeping?
”He could have kicked himself for having blurted that out.
Even after all these years he couldnt touch on the memory without running a hand across his
face or whistling tunelessly to drive it from his mind. It didnt seem to have bothered her all
these years though. She picked up the story smoothly and went on.
“Oh,you men,”she laughed childingly. Her face was so little like Beverlys flour sacking
doll he wondered how he had stood imagining her that way all these years. Her mouth was
,
small mobile ,like a puckering flower,and her teeth were unusually tiny and white. He
remembered having the urge to lick their smoothness once. But now she was talking.
“I suppose you thought you could take advantage of a poor young woman. I dont know
who it was,you or Henry,that suggested after several too many beers that we change our
pennyante poker game to strip. Well I still have to laugh. I had you men right down to your
,
boxer shorts in no time flat and I was still in my dress with my shoes on my feet. ”
“You had them beads on,clip earrings,bangle bracelets,silk stockings,”Beverly pouted.
“Garters and other numerous foundation garments. Of course I did. I am a woman of
detachable parts. You should know by now. You simply werent playing in your league with
strip poker. ”
,
She had the grace to put a hand to her lips as they uncurved hiding the little gaptoothed
smile hed doted over at the time of that game.
“Want to know something I never told before?”she said. “It was after I won you shorts
with my pair of deuces and Henrys with my eights,and you were naked,that I decided which
one to marry. ”
Beverly was shocked at this statement,bold even for Lulu. His wind felt knocked out of
him for a moment ,because her words called up the old times so clearly,the way he felt
12
when she decided to marry his brother. Hed buried the feelings eventually in the knowledge that
289
,
she wasnt right for him man of the world that he was becoming. He congratulated himself for
, ,
years after on getting free of her slack ambitionless but mindlessly powerful female clutches.
Right now his reasoning had ripped wide open, however, and jealously kicked him in
the stomach.
, ,
Lulu cooed. Her voice was like a wind chime rattling. Cheap sweet maddening. “Some
men react in that situation and some dont,
”she told him. “It was reaction I looked for,if you
know what I mean. ”
Beverly was silent.
,
Lulu winked at him with her bold gleaming blackberry eyes. She had smooth tight skin ,
,
wrinkled only where she laughed always fragrantly powdered. At the time her hair was still
,
dark and thickly curled. Later she would burn it off when her house caught fire and it would
, ,
never grow back. Because her face was soft and yet alert vigilant as some small cats plump
and tame but with a wildness in its breast. Beverly had always felt exposed ,preyed on,
undressed around her,even before the game in which shed stripped him naked and now,as he
found,appraised him in his shame.
You got your reaction when you needed it,he wanted to say.
Yet,even in his mounting exasperation,he did not lose control and stoop to discussing
what had happened after Henrys wake,when they both went outside to get some air. He rolled
his sleeves down and fished a soft pack of Marlboros from her side of the table. She watched his
,
hand as he struck the match and her eyes narrowed. They were so black the iris sometimes
, ,
showed within like blue flames. He thought her heartless suddenly and wondered if she even
remembered the two of them in the shed after Henrys wake. But there was no good way he
could think of to ask without getting back down to her level.
Henry Junior came to the window ,hungry,and Lulu made a sandwich for him with
baloney and hotdog relish. The boy was seven years old,sturdy,with Lulus delicate skin and
the almost Asianlooking eyes of all the Lamartines. Beverly watched the boy with electrified
,
attention. He couldnt really say if anything about the child reminded him of himself unless it
was the gaze. Beverly had tried to train his gaze like a hawk to use in barroom staredowns
, ,
during his tour of duty. It came in handy as well when he made a sale although civilian life
, , ,
had long ago taken the edge off his intensity as it had his muscles his heros stubborn sagging
flesh that he could still muster in a crisis. There was a crisis now. The boy seemed to have
acquired the staredown technique naturally. Beverly was the first to look away.
“Uncle Bev,”Henry Junior said. “I always heard about the bird on your arm. Could you
make it fly?
”
So Beverly rolled up shirt sleeve once more and forced his blood up. He flexed powerfully,
over and over,until the boy was bored,satisfied,and fled back to his brothers. Beverly let his
arm down carefully. It was numb. The sound of the .22 reports came thick and fast for a while,
290
Unit 28 ( —) 露易丝·厄德里克
Louise Erdrich 1954
then all the boys paused to reload and set the jugs in a line against the fence and argue over
whose shot went where.
“Theyre teaching him to shoot,”explained Lulu. “We had two bucks brought down last
fall. And pheasants?Those boys will always put meat on my table. ”
She rambled on about them all,and Bev listened with relief,gathering his strength to pull
the conversation back his way again.
,
One of the oldest boys was going down to Haskell Junior College while another Gerry , ,
was testing the limits of the mission school system ,at twelve. Lulu pointed Gerry out among
13
the others. Bev could see Lulu most clearly in this boy. He laughed at everything,or seemed
barely to be keeping amusement in. His eyes were black,sly,snapping with sparks. He led the
rest in play without a hint of effort,just like Lulu,whose gestures worked as subtle magnets.
He was a big boy,a born leader,light on his feet and powerful. His mind seemed quick. It
would not surprise Bev to hear,after many years passed on,that this Gerry grew up to be both
a natural criminal and a hero whose face appeared on the sixoclock news.
,
Lulu managed to make the younger boys obey perfectly. Bev noticed while the older ones
adored her to point that they did not tolerate anything less from anyone else. As her voice
,
swirled on Bev thought of some Tarzan14 book he had read. In that book there was a queen
protected by bloodthirsty warriors who smoothly dispatched all of her enemies. Lulus boys had
,
grown into a kind of pack. They always hung together. When a shot went true their gangling
,
legs encased alike in faded denim 15
,shifted as if a ripple went through them collectively.
They moved in dance steps too intricate for the noninitiated eye to imitate or understand. Clearly
, , ,
they were of one soul. Handsome rangy wildly various they were bound in total loyalty not ,
,
by oath but by the simple unquestioning belongingness of part of one organism.
Lulu had gone silent,suddenly,to fetch something from her icebox. In that quiet moment
something about the boys outside struck Beverly as almost dangerous.
He watched them close around Henry Junior in an impenetrable mass of blackandwhite
, ,
sneakers sweatshirts baseball hats and butts of Marlin rifles. Through the chinks between the
, ,
bodies Beverly saw Gerry dark and electric as his mother kneel behind Henry Junior and arm
overarm instruct him how to cradle ,aim,and squeezefire the 22. When Henry Junior
stumbled,kicked backward by the recoil,missing the jug,the boys dusted him clean and set
him back behind the rifle again. Slowly,as he watched,Beverlys uneasy sense of menance
gave way to some sweet apprehension of their kinship. He was remembering the way he and
, ,
Henry and Slick the oldest of his brothers used to put themselves on the line for each other in
high school. People used to say you couldnt drive a knife edge between the Lamartines.
Nothing ever came between them. Nothing ever did or would.
爥
291
Questions for Discussion
?
1. What do you think is Beverlys purpose of claiming Henry Junior Do you agree with
Beverly that Elsa would take to the child ?
?
2. What does the remembered poker game tell us about Lulu What do you think of her
personality as a whole ?
3. What are the possible effects of the time leaps in the story ?
Notes
1. flexed his arm:弯曲他的手臂
2. Twin Cities:指位于明尼苏达州 (Minnesota )东南部密西西比河两岸的明尼阿波
利斯市(Minneapolis)和圣保罗市(St. Paul)。
3. a black swastika on torn red cloth :一块红色破布上有个纳粹党的黑色十字记
4. boot camp :美国海军新兵训练营
5. Give or take a week:出入至多一周。指从贝弗利与露露同房到露露怀上小亨利之
间的时间。
6. sticktoitiveness:是 sticktoitive 的名词,意为坚定不移,坚持不懈。
7. inculcated :反复灌输
8. fledglings:刚学会飞的幼鸟
9. a knowerofropes:行家里手
10. Henry Junior would be wafted into a new and better metropolitan
existence:小亨利将被吹进一种全新且更好的大都市生活。
11. Chief Joseph :约瑟夫酋长 (1840 —1904 ),是美国西北部一印第安草原游牧部落
Nez Perce 的领袖,因武装抵抗白人入侵而著名。
12. His wind felt knocked out of him for a moment:wind :咽下的气。句意:他吓
了一跳。
13. mission school system:白人传教士为印第安人孩子办的学校
14. Tarzan :美国电影《人猿泰山》中的主人公
15. in faded denim:穿着褪色了的斜纹粗布裤子
292
293
!
meaningless to some writers. Satan in John Miltons Paradise Lost and Rip Van Winkle created
by Washington Irving are famous antihero images.
, ,
antinovel a term coined by French critic J. P. Sartre refers to any experimental work of
fiction that avoids certain traditional elements of novelwriting like the analysis of characters
states of mind. The antinovel usually fragments and distorts the experience of its characters ,
forcing the reader to construct the reality of the story from a disordered narrative.
,
asides words spoken to the audience by an actor which the other actors are supposed not to
hear.
294
assonance ,the repetition of the same or similar vowels in the stressed syllables of
Appendix Glossary of Literary Terms
, “ ”
neighboring words such as sweet dream . It can substitute the end rhyme sometimes.
avantgarde,an original French military and political term indicating the pioneer of an
army or political movement. Since the late 19 century,it has been used to refer to those artists
th
and writers who revolt against tradition and make experiment with art.
"
,
ballad a folk song or orally transmitted poem telling some popular story in a simple and
dramatic way. It appeared in the late Middle Ages in many parts of Europe and flourished parti
,
cularly in Scotland from the 15 th century onward. Since the 18 th century some romantic poets
have written imitations of its form and style.
, , ,
Beat Generation the a group of authors called new Bohemian libertines whose literature
,
explored and influenced American culture in the postWorld War Ⅱ era who were engaged in a
, ,
spontaneous sometimes messy creativity. The Beat writers produced a body of written work
controversial both for its advocacy of nonconformity and for its nonconforming style. Allen
Ginsbergs Howl became the manifesto of The Beat Generation. Other representatives are Jack
Kerouacs On the Road and William S. Burroughss Naked Lunch.
, ,
Black humor also known as black comedy is a kind of writing that places grotesque
,
elements side by side with humorous ones in an attempt to shock the reader forcing him or her
to laugh at the horrifying reality of a disordered world. It is humor out of despair and laughter
out of tears. Black humor conveys anguish and fury at conditions in which institutionalized
, ,
absurdity gets the upper hand. It intends to satirize hypocrisy materialism racial prejudice and
,
above all the dehumanization of the individual by a modern society. Black humor prevails in
Modern American literature.
,
blank verse unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter. It echoes the natural rhythms of speech
, ,
and is widely used in narrative and meditative poems. Shakespeare Wordsworth and Tennyson
have written blank verse. Blank verse should not be confused with free verse which has no
regular meter.
Byronic Hero is a proud , mysterious rebel figure of noble origin. With immense
superiority in his passions and powers,this Byronic Hero would carry on his shoulders the
burden of righting all the wrongs in a corrupt society. And he would rise singlehandedly against
any kind of tyrannical rules either in government ,in religion or in moral principles with
unconquerable will and inexhaustible energies.
, , ,
canon books recognized by authority especially by critics or anthologists and perceived
295
suitable for academic study.
,
character the personage in a narrative or dramatic work. E. M. Forster makes a distinction
between flat and round characters. The former are simple and unchanging ;the latter are
complex and dynamic. The representation of characters is called characterization.
,
chronological structure the use of time references to organize the episodes of a story.
This kind of structure is important in stories in which action is significantly related to the passing
of time.
,
climax the most intense or highest point of action where a crisis is reached and resolution
achieved.
,
comedy a play usually with a happy ending chiefly aiming to amuse its audience by
representing everyday life and exploring common human failings. It dates back to the Greek
,
playwright Aristophanes. Shakespeare Oscar Wilde and Bernard Shaw are masters of comedy.
, ,
conceit a farfetched simile or an extended metaphor the term generally associated with
the 17th century metaphysical poets. A literary conceit occurs when the speaker compares two
highly dissimilar things. An example occurs in John Donnes A Valediction : Forbidding
,
Mourning in which a couple faced with absence from each other is likened to a compass.
,
conflict the struggle between opposing forces in a story. Conflict may be external either,
between two characters or between a character and some nonhuman force or condition. It may
,
also be internal. Often both types of conflict occur simultaneously the outer struggle reflecting
the inner.
,
connotation the further associations that a word or phrase have besides its dictionary
( )
meaning the denotation . For example the word , “bird ”denotes a flying creature,but also
implies freedom and energy.
,
consonance the repetition of the same or similar consonants in the neighboring words ,
such as “hot foot”. It can be regarded as the counterpart to assonance.
couplet,a style of poetry defined as a complete thought written in two lines with rhyming
ends. The most popular is the heroic couplet,which consists of two rhyming lines of iambic
pentameter usually having a pause in the middle of each line. Shakespeare likes to end a sonnet
“
with a couplet as in Sonnet 18 ”:So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this,and this gives life to thee.
,
defamiliarization the device of disrupting habitual perception of the world and making
familiar objects strange. Russian formalist Shklovsky argues that art exists in order to recover the
sensation of life which is destroyed in the automatized routine of everyday experience.
296
,
Deism refers to the belief that God began life but man should use reason to understand the
Appendix Glossary of Literary Terms
,
world around them. Deists believe in the existence of God but reject providence and revelation.
They agree that God begins the universe and leaves it to run according to its own natural laws. It
,
is up to man to take heed of these laws. It they do so their lives could be happy and virtuous.
“ ”
With this there comes the view that all man are entitled to share in the pursuit of happiness in
, ,
their own time. As an individual man is a blank page and he writes his own life story subject
to his surroundings.
, ,
denouement the event or events following the major climax of a plot or the unravelling
of a plots complication at the end of a story.
,
dramatic monologue a type of poem written as a speech in which a speaker addresses a
silent listener. Robert Brownings My Last Duchess is a case in point.
,
Ecocriticism a literary approach that examines the interconnections between nature and
,
culture specifically the cultural artifacts of languages and literature. Its basic premise is that
,
human culture is connected to the physical world affecting it and affected by it. As a theoretical
,
discourse it negotiates between the human and the nonhuman. The scope of Ecocriticism has
,
broadened rapidly from nature writing Romantic poetry and canonical literature to film TV, ,
theatre,animal stories,architectures,scientific narratives and an extraordinary range of literary
texts. At the same time,it has borrowed methodologies from fields of literary,social and
scientific studies.
, ,
elegy a lyric poem lamenting a dead friend or a public figure. Shelleys Adonais is on the
,
death of Keats and Whitman commemorates Abraham Lincoln in his When Lilacs Last in the
,
Dooryard Bloomd. In a broader sense an elegy may be a poem reflecting on a solemn subject ,
such as lifes shortness or its sorrows.
,
epic a long narrative poem celebrating the great deeds of some legendary heroes. Homers
Iliad and Odyssey are traditional epics. Virgil and Milton are two masters following Homer.
Epics typically chronicle the origins of a civilization and embody its cultural values. The Anglo
Saxon poem Beowulf is known as Englands national epic.
,
epiphany the term in Christian theology referring to a manifestation of Gods presence in
,
the world. In a literary work an epiphany is a sudden revelation of an essential truth about a
character or about the human condition. James Joyce adopts it in his novels to mean a special
moment of sudden insight.
,
episode an incident or scene that forms part of a narrative. Some stories consist of only
one episode;more commonly they have several,which are linked to form the plot. When a
,
story consists of a series of incidents which are only loosely and superficially tied together its
structure is described as episodic.
297
,
Existentialism a philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual
,
experience in a hostile or indifferent universe regards human existence as unexplainable and
stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of ones acts. Its famous
“
motto is existence precedes essence . ”
, ,
exposition a certain amount of information usually given at the beginning of the story ,
about the plot,about what has already happened,and the events which are to come.
&
,
fable a tale that conveys a moral lesson often by giving human speech and manners to
animals.
,
Feminism incorporates both a doctrine of equal rights for women and an ideology of social
transformation aiming to create a world for women beyond simple social equality. In general ,
Feminism is ideology of womens liberation based on the belief that women suffer injustice
because of their sex. Under this broad umbrella various kinds of Feminism offer differing
,
analyses of the causes or agents of female oppression. Definitions of Feminism by feminists
, , ,
tend to be shaped by their training ideology or race. So for example Marxist and socialist
feminists stress the interaction within feminism of class with gender and focus on social
distinctions between men and women. Black feminists argue much more for an integrated
analysis which can unlock the multiple systems of oppression.
figures of speech ,the rhetorical devices often used to give decorative and imaginative
expression to literature. For example,simile,metaphor,pun,irony.
flashback,a term,probably derived from the cinema,to describe any scene or episode
which is inserted to show events that happened at an earlier time.
,
foot a group of syllables taken as a unit of poetic meter. The foot in English verses is
counted as being either stressed or unstressed. The most common feet are the iamb (unstressed
followed by stressed,like to be )and the trochee (stressed followed by unstressed,like beat
it). The number of feet in a line determines the description of its length. A line of five feet is a
pentameter.
,
foreshadowing the technique of arranging events and information in a narrative in such a
way that later events are prepared for or shadowed forth beforehand.
'
,
genre the French word for a type or species. The term is used simultaneously for the basic
( , , ),for the categories of writing (poetry,prose,
modes of literary art lyric narrative dramatic
fiction),and for some subcategories (sonnet,picaresque novel;novella,epigram;satire,
298
Appendix Glossary of Literary Terms
; , )
comedy pastoral science fiction .
Gothic novel,the subgenre of Gothic horror,a genre or mode of literature and film that
combines fiction and horror,death,and at times romance. It originates in England in the second
half of the 18 century [Horace Walpoles The Castle of Otranto (1764 )is regarded as the
th
“first Gothic novel ”] and has much success in the 19 ,as witnessed by Mary Shelleys
th
,
Harlem Renaissance a period of outstanding literary vigor and creativity that occurred in
the United States during the 1920s. The Harlem Renaissance changed the images of literature
created by many black and white American writers. New black images were no longer obedient
and docile. Instead they showed a new confidence and racial pride. The center of this movement
was the vast black ghetto of Harlem in New York City. The leading figures are Langston
,
Hughes James W. Johnson etc.,
HemingwayCode Hero, one who, wounded but strong, more sensitive, enjoys the
pleasures of life (sex,alcohol,sport)in face of ruin and death,and maintains,through some
notion of a code,an ideal of himself. Barnes in The Sun Also Rises,Henry in A Farewell to
Arms and Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea are typical of HemingwayCode Heroes.
,
hero / heroine the main character in a novel or drama. It is interchangeably used with the
term protagonist.
,
hyperbole an extravagant exaggeration ,often used for emphasis or vivid descriptions.
This device is even a part of our daytoday speech:‘She has grown like a bean sprout. ’‘Im
older than the hills. ’
humanism,the essence of Renaissance,emphasizes the dignity of human beings and the
importance of the present life. Humanists voice their beliefs that man is the center of the
universe and man has both the right to enjoy the beauty of the present life and the ability to
perfect himself and to perform wonders.
,
imagery a literary term referring to the uses of language that evoke senseimpressions as
opposed to the language of abstract argument or exposition. The imagery comprises the set of
images that appeal to senses other than sight.
,
Imagism the poetic practice of a group of American and British poets between 1912 and
,
1917. Under the influence of Japanese haiku and some Greek lyrics these imagists prefer to
,
short concise and direct poems centering on single images. Key imagists include Ezra Pound , 299
, ,and William Carlos Williams.
Amy Lowell H. D.
irony,in its broadest sense,is a rhetorical device,literary technique,or event in which
what appears,on the surface,to be the case,differs radically from what is actually the case.
Irony may be divided into categories such as verbal,dramatic,and situational. Verbal irony is
a statement in which the meaning that a speaker employs is sharply different from the meaning
that is ostensibly expressed. Dramatic irony means the incongruity created when the (tragic )
significance of a characters speech or actions is revealed to the audience but unknown to the
character concerned. Situational irony is most broadly defined as a situation where the outcome
is incongruous with what was expected.
, ,
Jazz Age the period of the 1920s and 1930s is often referred to in conjunction with the
Roaring Twenties particularly in North America. With the rise of the great depression ,the
values of this age saw much decline. Perhaps the most representative literary work of the age is
Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby. Highlighting what some describe as the decadence and
, ,
hedonism as well as the growth of individualism fitzgerald is largely credited with coining the
“
term Jazz Age . ”
,
juxtaposition refers to the way that episodes or elements of a plot are located next to one
another to contribute to the design of a story.
,
legend stories passed down through oral tradition. They are usually unreliable accounts of
, ,
historical persons like saints warriors or popular heroes based on some kind of historical basis.
King Arthur and His Knights and Robin Hood are known legends in English tradition.
,
literary devices the devices commonly used in literature to give added depth to a work.
For example,imagery,symbolism,allusions,point of view.
local colorism,the writings of local colorists that are concerned with the life of a small,
welldefined region or province,usually isolated. Local colorists were consciously nostalgic
historians of a vanishing way of life,recorders of a present that faded before their eyes. Yet for
all their sentimentality,they dedicated themselves to minutely accurate descriptions of the life of
their regions,worked from personal experience to record the facts of a local environment and
suggested that the native life was shaped by the curious conditions of the local.
, ,
Lost Generation the a term first used by G. Stein to describe the postWWⅠ generation
of American writers:men and women haunted by a sense of betrayal and emptiness brought
about by the destructiveness of the war. Full of youthful idealism,these individuals sought the
300
Appendix Glossary of Literary Terms
, ,
meaning of life drank excessively had love affairs and created some of the finest American
literature to date. F. Scott Fitzgerald,Ernest Hemingway and John dos Passos are the known
representatives.
, ,
lyric any short poem expressing the speakers personal mood feeling or meditation. The
most common emotions expressed in lyrics are love and grief. Lyrics are the most extensive
, , ,
category of verse the forms of which include sonnet ode elegy and haiku.
Magic Realism ,a kind of modern fiction in which fabulous and fantastical events are
included in a narrative that otherwise maintains the “reliable ”tone of objective realistic report.
The term has been extended to works from very different cultures,designating a tendency of the
modern novel to reach beyond the confines of realism and draw upon the energies of fable,
folktale and myth while retaining a strong contemporary social relevance.
metafiction ,fiction about fiction , or more especially a kind of fiction that openly
comments on its own fiction status. The term is normally used for works that involve a
,
significant degree of selfconsciousness about themselves as fictions in ways that go beyond
occasional apologetic addresses to the reader. A notable modern example is John Fowles The
,
French Lieutenants Woman in which Fowles interrupts the narrative to explain his procedures ,
and offers the reader alternative endings.
,
metaphor the most important figure of speech ,in which one thing,idea or action is
referred to by a word or expression denoting another thing,idea or action which has some
common quality with the former. A comparison is usually implicit in the remark “He is a lion in
battle. ”In poetry,metaphor is often used to create new combinations of ideas.
meter,the pattern of measured soundunits recurring more or less regularly in lines of
verse. English meters are named after the feet:a diameter as two feet,a trimeter three,a
tetrameter four,a pentameter five,a hexameter six,and a heptameter seven.
metonymy,a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is called not by its own name
but rather by the name of something associated in meaning with that thing or concept. In the
“
expression The pen is mightier than the sword ”,pen and sword are metonyms for written ideas
and military force. A countrys capital city or some location within the city is frequently used as
,
a metonymy for the countrys government such as Washington D. C. , ,in the USA;Ottawa in
Canada;New Delhi in India;Downing Street in the UK and the Kremlin in Russia. Similarly,
other important places,such as Wall Street,Madison Avenue,Silicon Valley,Hollywood,
Negril,and Detroit are commonly used to refer to the industries that are located there (finance,
advertising,high technology,entertainment,tourism,and motor vehicles,respectively).
modernism ,a general term applied to the experimental and avantgarde trends in literature
301
and other arts of the early 20 th century. In fiction ,modernist writers like James Joyce and
William Faulkner , deliberately disrupted the continuity of chronological development and
favored techniques of juxtaposition and multiple point of view and attempted new ways of tracing
the consciousness of characters thoughts. In poetry ,Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot preferred
fragmentary images and complex allusions to the logical expression of thoughts. In theatre ,
Luigi Pirandello and Bertolt Brecht initiated new forms of abstraction to replace realist and
naturalist productions. Modernist writing is mainly about city life and expresses a sense of
alienation and dislocation.
,
myth a fictional narrative usually in supernatural or imaginative terms to express collective
attitudes to fundamental matters of life ,death,divinity and existence. Many myths explain
,
something about the cosmos mans condition or human society. Compared with legends myths ,
have more historical basis.
,
narrator one who tells the story in a certain narrative. A narrator is distinguished from the
real author. Narrators vary according to the degree of their involvement in stories. In first
, ;
person narratives they act as witnesses or participate in the events in thirdperson narratives ,
;
they stand out of the events an omniscient narrator does not participate in the events but enjoys
the privileges such as access to characters thoughts. Further distinction may be made between
reliable narrators who always tell the truth and unreliable narrators who do not. And a clear
,
distinction should be also made between Author Narrator and Character even though in some
texts these may appear to be the same.
,
naturalism a kind of realism with the view that human beings are passive victims of
,
natural forces and social circumstances. Naturalist fictions aim to be objective offering detailed
and fully researched investigations into unexplored corners of modern society. Emile Zola ,
Stephen Crance ,Theodore Dreiser,Frank Norris,George Moore and George Gissing are
representatives of such genre.
,
New Criticism a movement in American literary criticism from the 1930s to the 1960s ,
concentrating on the verbal complexities and ambiguities of short poems considered as self
sufficient objects without attention to their origins or effects. The name comes from John
Chrisoms book The New Criticism.
,
Nonfiction any prose narrative that tells about things as the actually happened or that
presents factual information about something. The purpose of this kind of writing is to give a
presumably accurate accounting of a persons life. Writers of nonfiction use the major forms of
:
discourse description (an impression of the subject );narration (the telling of the story );
exposition (explanatory information);persuasion (an argument to influence peoples thinking).
302
Appendix Glossary of Literary Terms
Forms: autobiography, biography, essay, story, editorial, letters to the editor found in
newspaper,diary,journal,travel literature.
,
Oedipus Complex a term coined by Sigmund Freud to designate a sons subconscious
feeling of love toward his mother and jealousy and hatred toward his father. D. H. Lawrences
Sons and Lovers is a case in point. Its counterpart is Electra Complex —a daughters
subconscious feeling of love toward her father and jealousy and hatred toward her mother.
,
Ottava Rima a form of eightline iambic stanza rhyming abababcc. Byrons Don Juan is
an outstanding example.
, ,
parable a story that takes the form of a simple allegory using humble characters and
situations to illustrate a moral.
,
paradox a statement or situation that contains seemingly contradictory or absurd elements
turns out to make sense.
, , ,
parody a humorous piece of writing drama or music which imitates a literary work the ,
style of a wellknown person or represents a familiar situation in an exaggerated way.
,
pastoral a conventional mode that celebrates the innocent life of musical shepherds and
shepherdesses in poems ,plays and prose romances. The motif is often about the love and
sorrows of shepherds who live in their innocence and idleness. Such mode can be dated back to
, , ,
the Greek idylls. Spenser Shakespeare Marlowe Milton and Shelley are masters of the genre.
, ;
pathos a feeling of deep pity for those who suffer also used of a story or passage which
evokes feelings of tenderness ,pity or sorrow. In criticism ,the pathetic and the tragic are
regarded as different. The pathetic suffer is an innocent victim and lacks the strong will and
purpose of the tragic figure.
,
persona the author in his role of storyteller. In some cases the persona is an unseen voice ;
“”,the pronoun referring not to a character but to the writer
in others he appears as a nameless I
himself. When the narrator of a story is an actual character,the term does not apply.
picaresque ,a kind of story that blends comedy and satire. It tells the adventures of a knave
or picaroon who is the servant of several masters. Through his experience this picaroon satirizes
the society in which he lives.
,
plot the pattern of events in a narrative or dramatic work. A distinction between plot and
story should be made. While story means the raw material of events having taken place in their
natural order. Plots may be tightly knit or loosely episodic. Generally ,plots will trace the 303
progress of change in which characters are caught up in a developing conflict that finally resolved.
,
point of view the position from which the events are witnessed and presented. Basically ,
:
there are two kinds of point of view firstperson narratives and thirdperson narratives. A first
person narrators point of view will often be confined to his own knowledge and experience. A
thirdperson narrator may be omniscient or limited to one character or a group of characters. In
, “ ”
modern fictions there appears multiple point of view in which events are presented from the
positions of more than one character.
postmodernism ,a general term referring to the cultural condition prevailing in the
,
advanced capitalist societies since the 1960s characterized by a superabundance of disconnected
images and styles. This term is ambiguous,implying either that modernism has been superseded
or that it has continued into a new phase. Compared with modernists who seek a meaning in a
chaotic world , postmodernists embrace depthless works , fragmentary sensations , eclectic
nostalgia and a liberation from the hierarchy of high and low cultures. Typical postmodern
, ,
writers include Thomas Pynchon Kurt Vonnegut Vladimir Nabokov etc. ,
,
prose a form of writing that is not organized according to the formal patterns of verse. Its
unit is the sentence rather than the line.
,
Puritanism refers to the practices and beliefs of the Puritans in the New Continent which,
affirms that the universe is wholly controlled by God. God is all and man is nothing as God causes
,
every birth and death bumper harvests and crushing disasters. All events within the universe
testify Gods existence and His power. All is for the best and all is just as men and women rich,
, , ,
or poor are equal in Gods sight. All the Puritans stressed hard work thrift piety and sobriety.
,
They embraced hardships but denied any kind of physical pleasure. The pioneering spirit and the
doityourself spirit as well as individualism among American people all somewhat originate from
,
Puritanism. Doctrinally puritans were greatly influenced by Calvinism.
,
realism a term referring both to a literary method based on detailed and faithful recording
of life and to a general attitude that rejects romances by recognizing the necessity to reflect the
actual problems of life. The dominant realist trend can be mostly found in the 19 th century
, , ,
novels and dramas. Novelists including Balzac Flaubert George Eliot Dickens and Howells ,
as well as dramatists including Ibsen and Shaw all fall into this category. Though modernism
,
prevails and seems to replace realism in the 20 th century realism still manages to survive as a
major current of fiction sometimes under the label of neorealism.
, ,
rhyme the identity of sound between syllables usually at the end of the verse lines. The
rhyming element may be a monosyllable (love / above ),or two syllables (whether / together ).
Although end rhymes are most often used,internal rhymes within the same line are also found.
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Appendix Glossary of Literary Terms
,
Besides rhyme is not essential to poetry.
romance ,a story that depicts the adventures of idealized characters in some remote or
enchanted settings,which as a literary tendency opposes to realism. The term mainly refers to
the medieval chivalric romances concentrating on courtly love and adventures,such as the tales
about King Arthur and his knights. Later romances prefer allegory and psychological
,
exploration as in Nathaniel Hawthornes The Blithedale Romance. Modern science fiction and
detective story can also be regarded as variants of the romance.
,
Romanticism a modern term applied to the shift in Western attitudes to art and human
,
creativity. The Romantic Movement emerged in the 1790s in Germany and Britain and in the
1820s in France and elsewhere. It rejected the rationality of the Enlightenment and turned to
freedom of individual selfexpression ,imagination and aspiration. ,spontaneity and
Sincerity
originality became the new standards in literature. Poets such as Wordsworth,Coleridge,Keats,
Shelley and Byron,as well as novelists like Poe,and Walter Scott and Mary Shelley were
representatives of the trend. Though challenged by realism and naturalism in the second half of
,
the 19 th century Romanticism always has a constant presence in Western literature.
, ,
satire a literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices stupidities and
follies. Satire relies upon witty,and often amusing verbal devices such as irony,exaggeration
and fantasy and provokes laughter as a means to the end of ridiculing what is silly or vicious.
,
scene the subdivision of an act in a play. It often represents actions happening in one place
at one time,and is marked off by a curtain,a blackout or a brief emptying of the stage.
science fiction,usually abbreviated to SF,a branch of fiction that explores the possible
consequences of some transformation either brought by high technology or mutation of biological
,
or physical reality. It often involves time and space travel extraterrestrial invasion or ecological
disaster. SF was popular during the 1950s and has important influence on some postmodernist
fictions.
,
selfreflexive a term referring to literary works that openly reflect on their own fictional
status and the process of composition. Selfreflexivity is one of the important features of
postmodern fictions and poetry.
,
soliloquy a dramatic speech articulated by one character alone on the stage. It reveals the
,
characters inner thoughts and feelings to the audience. Soliloquy is a form of monologue but a
monologue is not a soliloquy if the speaker is not alone.
,
sonnet a lyric poem consisting of 14 rhyming lines of equal length. In English it is often
in the pattern of iambic pentameters. The sonnet originated in Italy in the 14 th century and came
to be adopted in England 2 centuries later. It was a major form of love poetry and its scope was
305
then extended to religion and politics. During the romantic period the sonnet was revived and is
, , ,
still widely used now. John Donne Milton Shakespeare Wordsworth and Keats are all masters
of such genre. An English or Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains and a couplet ,
rhyming abab cdcd efef gg,while an Italian or Petranrchan sonnet composes of an octave (8
lines)and sestet (6 lines),rhyming abba abba cdecde / cdcdcd.
Spenserian stanza,creation of Edmund Spenser,refers to a stanza of nine lines,with the
first eight lines in iambic pentameter and the last line in iambic hexameter,rhyming ababbcbcc.
Spensers The Faerie Queen was written in this kind of stanza.
, ,
stanza a group of verse lines forming a section of a poem. In printed poems stanzas are
separated by spaces. The term in English poetry is most often applied to groups of 4 lines.
, , ,
stream of consciousness the continuous flow of senses impressions thoughts feelings ,
;
and memories in the human mind or a literary device of representing such mental process. It
intervenes the summarizing and selecting narrator , mingles them with impressions and
,
perceptions or violates the norms of grammar ,syntax and logic. An important device of
,
modernist fiction and its later imitations the technique was widely adopted by James Joyce ,
Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner.
,
style the manner in which a writer says things. The analysis and assessment of style
,
involves examination of a writers choice of words his figures of speech ,the shape of his
,
sentences the shape of his paragraphs —indeed,of every conceivable aspect of his language and
the way in which he uses it.
, ,
symbol anything that represents something else usually an idea conventionally associated
with it. Objects ,words and images can all function as symbols to bring further significant
associations with them. Roses,mountains,voyages have been common literary symbols. A
symbol differs from a metaphor in that it is often a substantial image in its own right,around
which further significance may gather. For instance,in Melvilles Moby Dick,the White Whale
is a creature itself and at the same time it becomes a focus for many different suggested
, , ,
meanings. Poets like Coleridge Blake and Yeats as well as novelists like Melville and D. H.
Lawrence are famous for their reliance upon enigmatic symbols.
, , “ ”
synecdoche a part of something often used for the whole as when people refer to head
of cattle or assistants are referred to as “hands ”. “20 ,000 hungry mouths to feed ” is a
synecdoche because mouths are a part of the people referred to. “Australia votes ” is also a
synecdoche because Australia is a whole of which the people who voted are a part.
,
Terza Rima an Italian verse that consists of a series threeline stanzas in which the middle
line of each stanza rhymes with the first and third lines of the following stanza with the rhyming
306
Appendix Glossary of Literary Terms
:
scheme aba bcb cdc ded爥 Shellys Ode to the West Wind is a case in point.
text ,the actual wording of a written work,which is different from a readers interpretation
of its story,character, theme,etc. ;or a specific work as the object of analysis.
theme,an abstract idea that emerges from a literary works treatment of its subject.
tone ,the mood or atmosphere of a work,or the writers attitude toward the subjectmatter,
and the reader.
tragedy,a serious play representing the downfall of its protagonist. The famous Greek
tragedians include Aeschylus,Euripides and Sophocles. Aristotle made the most influential
definition of tragedy in his Poetics:the imitation of an action that is serious and complete,
achieving a catharsis through incidents arousing pity and terror. The protagonist is led into a fatal
calamity by his error. English tragedies of Shakespeares time was not based directly on Greek
examples but drew inspirations from Roman revenge tragedies. Modern tragedies are normally
about social and domestic problems.
, ,
tragicomedy a play that combines elements of tragedy and comedy either by providing a
happy ending to a possible tragic story or by more complex blending of serious and light moods.
Shakespeares later plays and some modern plays of Beckett and Pinter are seen as tragicomic.
, ,
Transcendentalism a branch of romanticism is a philosophical and literary movement
flourished in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War with Ralph Waldo Emerson and
,
Henry David Thoreau as the famous representatives. It exalts feeling over reason individual
expression over the restraints of law and custom. Transcendentalists spoke for cultural vitality
and against the materialism of American society. They believed in the transcendence
(superiority)of the “Oversoul”—an allpervading power for goodness from which all things
come and of which all things are a part. Emerson believed that man was a part of absolute good,
and Thoreau saw divinity in the “unspotted innocence”of nature.
,
understatement a device of emphasis which works paradoxically by playing down what is
,
important. The opposite is overstatement exaggeration.
,
verisimilitude the use of certain lifelike details to give an imaginative narrative work the
semblance of reality or actuality.
, ,
verse poetry or metrical composition as distinct from prose. Free verse is a special case ;
or a line of poetry or a stanza;a poem
villain ,an evil character who opposes the hero. He is cast in the role of antagonist,but not
all antagonists are villains.
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