作者：海伦.凯勒
出版社：辽宁人民出版社
格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT
我的故事试读：
More classics to be soon published are:
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Dubliners by James Joyce
Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
The Vision of Hell by Dante Alighieri
The King James Version of the Bible
Essays of Michel de Montaigne Complete by Michel de Montaigne
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by Dewey
The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
Paradise Lost by John Milton
The Bedside Classics of World Literature, Philosophy and Psychology
Designed to make all English classic works available to all readers, The Bedside Classics bring you the world’s greatest literature, philosophy, psychology books that have stood the test of time – at specially low prices. These beautifully designed books will be proud addictions to your bookshelf,. You’ll want all these time-tested classics for your own reading pleasure. The titles of the fourth set of The Bedside Classics are:
Best Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson by R. W. Emerson ￥15.50
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin ￥13.50
A Discourse on Method by Rene Descartes ￥9.50
Phaedo by Plato ￥36.00
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne ￥16.50
Kim by Rudyard Kipling ￥18.00
The Story of Mankind by Hendrik van Loon ￥30.00
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells ￥13.00
The Essays on the Wisdom of Life by Arthur Schopenhauer ￥12.00
Pascal’s Pensées by Blaise Pascal ￥23.00
The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan ￥14.00
Totem and Taboo by Sigmund Freud ￥11.00
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller ￥22.00
Jean-Christophe by Romain Rolland (Volume I) ￥33.00
War and Peace (I + II) by Leo Tolstoy ￥68.00
For the online order, please use the 2-dimentional bar code on the back cover. If you have any suggestions, please go to the publisher’s weibo: http:// weibo.com/lrs 2009. Or visit the publisher’s web-side. Or call 024-23284321.
Is This Book for You?黑暗中绽放的绚烂之花——“最经典英语文库”第四辑之《我的故事》导读
刘秀玉在人类历史的长河中，流传着许多身残志坚的动人故事：贝多芬、爱迪生、霍金、司马迁、华罗庚、张海迪……这些传奇人物都有一个共性，那就是直面苦难，接受苦难，在苦难中书写生命的意志和人性的光辉。
美国著名女作家、教育家、慈善家和社会活动家海伦·凯勒便是这样一位身残志坚的传奇女性。海伦注定不是一个平凡的人，她一生取得的成就是无数正常人也不能企及的。在没有声音、没有光明的暗黑世界中，她用坚强、自信、博爱照亮内心，也照亮整个世界。
海伦·凯勒（1880-1968）的故乡在亚拉巴马州北部小镇塔斯喀姆比亚。一岁半时，海伦因患猩红热连续高烧，昏迷不醒。当她奇迹般地醒来时，家人难过地发现，海伦失去了视觉、听觉，也不会说话了。命运残忍地将海伦丢弃在一片黑暗和死寂中。在88年的漫长人生中，海伦有87年生活在无光、无声的世界里。
后来的故事几乎尽人皆知。1887年3月3日是海伦一生中非常重要的日子。这一天，安妮·沙利文老师来到海伦身边，为海伦带来了脱离黑暗世界的希望。经过刻苦学习，海伦开始识字、说话、写作，先后学会了英、法、德、拉丁和希腊五种语言。24岁时，她以优异的成绩从哈佛大学拉德克利夫女子学院毕业。此后，她从事写作，投身教育事业，建立慈善机构，毕生为残疾人谋福利。为了纪念她对残疾人事业做出的贡献，1959年，联合国发起“海伦·凯勒”运动。1964年，海伦获得美国公民最高荣誉“总统自由勋章”。1965年，她被美国《时代周刊》评选为“二十世纪美国十大英雄偶像”之一。
自传性作品《我的故事》出版时，海伦只有22岁。本书是文学史上里程碑式的作品，讲述了海伦·凯勒克服盲、聋、哑的身体残疾，最终获得精神独立的故事。海伦的经历已经成为希望的象征，鼓舞着一代又一代青少年。
当耳聪目明的我们面对知识的海洋心生厌倦时，想一想海伦·凯勒对知识的渴望和求知的艰辛吧：“水”（water）这样一个再简单不过的、充满生活质感的词，却给海伦带来巨大的认知障碍。当沙利文老师将她带到喷水池边，当海伦的小手感受到清凉的泉水时，沙利文老师在海伦手心写下“water”。这时海伦才知道水是怎样一种东西。求知的过程充满艰辛和挑战，“水”这个字唤醒了她的灵魂，知识带给她一生的光明、希望和快乐。
海伦·凯勒还是一位积极的社会主义者。她深切同情失聪、失明的儿童，认为贫困是造成此类悲剧的根源，而社会不平等又是贫困的罪魁祸首。海伦·凯勒后来参加了美国国家社会党和国际产业工人协会，致力于社会改良运动。她到欧洲、亚洲各地发表演说，为残疾人筹集资金。二战期间，她还访问过多所医院，慰问伤残的战士。
海伦的成功也是教育史上的奇迹。麦格劳·希尔出版公司发行的一部教育片的结尾曾这样总结道：“海伦·凯勒和安妮·沙利文带给整个世界的礼物就是不断地告诫我们，周围的世界是多么奇妙，有那么多人在教我们认识它；没有哪个人是不值得帮助或无法帮助的，一个人对我们的最大益处就在于帮助他人发挥其真正的潜能。”我们不禁发问，假如没有沙利文老师，海伦还会是现在的海伦吗？海伦和沙利文的故事生动诠释了师生关系的崇高与神圣，她们那种无私、忘我的彼此投入令人动容。是的，爱可以唤醒死亡谷中沉睡的花朵，并使其馥郁芬芳。
2015年，总部设在纽约的美国海伦·凯勒基金会迎来了她的100周年华诞。自1915年海伦亲自发起之日起，这个非营利性防盲组织秉承“把光明带给世界”的宗旨，帮助世界上不计其数的视力障碍人士恢复视力，重见光明。海伦·凯勒基金会中国项目早在2001年已经启动，救治了数以万计的视力残疾患者，培训了数千名基层医务工作者，推进了我国防盲事业发展。
作为21世纪的读者，我们该怎样面对海伦·凯勒这样一位20世纪的世界级名人和她的经典故事？
我想，首先不要把海伦·凯勒抽象化、标签化。实际上，海伦·凯勒从不曾远离。我们应该沉下心来，聆听生命的坚忍与豁达，感悟缺憾铸就的极致与丰盈。然后，身体力行，哪怕一点一滴，参与到海伦所从事过的美好工作中，将她的精神衣钵传承下去。
也许，这是我们向海伦·凯勒致敬的最好方式。
Helen Adams Keller
Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880-June 1, 1968) was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree. The story of how Keller’s teacher, Anne Sullivan, broke through the isolation imposed by a near complete lack of language, allowing the girl to blossom as she learned to communicate, has become widely known through the dramatic depictions of the play and film The Miracle Worker. Her birthplace in West Tuscumbia, Alabama is now a museum and sponsors an annual “Helen Keller Day”. Her birthday on June 27 is commemorated as Helen Keller Day in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and was authorized at the federal level by presidential proclamation by President Jimmy Carter in 1980, the 100th anniversary of her birth.
At age 22, Keller published her autobiography, The Story of My Life (1903), with help from Sullivan and Sullivan’s husband, John Macy. It recounts the story of her life up to age 21 and was written during her time in college.
General Preface
Millions of Chinese are learning English to acquire knowledge and skills for communication in a world where English has become the primary language for international discourse. Yet not many learners have come to realize that the command of the English language also enables them to have an easy access to the world literary classics such as Shakespeare’s plays, Shelley’s poems, mark Twain’s novels and Nietzsche’s works which are an important part of liberal-arts education. The most important goals of universities are not vocational, that is, not merely the giving of knowledge and the training of skills.
In a broad sense, education aims at broadening young people’s mental horizon, cultivating virtues and shaping their character. Lincoln, Mao Zedong and many other great leaders and personages of distinction declared how they drew immense inspiration and strength from literary works. As a matter of fact, many of them had aspired to become writers in their young age. Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) is said to take along with him two things, waking or sleeping: a book and a dagger, and the book is Iliad, a literary classic, by Homer. He would put these two much treasured things under his pillow when he went to bed.
Today, we face an unprecedented complex and changing world. To cope with this rapid changing world requires not only communication skills, but also adequate knowledge of cultures other than our own home culture. Among the most important developments in present-day global culture is the ever increasing cultural exchanges and understanding between different nations and peoples. And one of the best ways to know foreign cultures is to read their literary works, particularly their literary classics, the soul of a country’s culture. They also give you the best language and the feeling of sublimity.
Liaoning People’s Publishing House is to be congratulated for its foresight and courage in making a new series of world literary classics available to the reading public. It is hoped that people with an adequate command of the English language will read them, like them and keep them as their lifetime companions.
I am convinced that the series will make an important contribution to the literary education of the young people in china. At a time when the whole country is emphasizing “spiritual civilization”, it is certainly a very timely venture to put out the series of literary classics for literary and cultural education.Zhang ZhongzaiProfessorBeijing Foreign Studies UniversityJuly, 2013 Beijing
总序
经典名著的语言无疑是最凝练、最优美、最有审美价值的。雪莱的那句“如冬已来临，春天还会远吗？”让多少陷于绝望的人重新燃起希望之火，鼓起勇气，迎接严冬过后的春天。徐志摩一句“悄悄的我走了，正如我悄悄的来；我挥一挥衣袖，不带走一片云彩”又让多少人陶醉。尼采的那句“上帝死了”，又给多少人以振聋发聩的启迪作用。
读经典名著，尤其阅读原汁原味作品，可以怡情养性，增长知识，加添才干，丰富情感，开阔视野。所谓“经典”，其实就是作者所属的那个民族的文化积淀，是那个民族的灵魂缩影。英国戏剧泰斗莎士比亚的《哈姆雷特》和《麦克白》等、“意大利语言之父”的但丁的《神曲》之《地狱篇》《炼狱篇》及《天堂篇》、爱尔兰世界一流作家詹姆斯·乔伊斯的《尤利西斯》及《一个艺术家的肖像》等、美国风趣而笔法超一流的著名小说家马克·吐温的《哈克历险记》以及《汤姆索亚历险记》等，德国著名哲学家尼采的《查拉图斯特拉如是说》及《快乐的科学》等等，都为塑造自己民族的文化积淀，做出了永恒的贡献，也同时向世界展示了他们所属的民族的优美剪影。
很多著名领袖如林肯、毛泽东等伟大人物，也都曾从经典名著中汲取力量，甚至获得治国理念。耶鲁大学教授查尔斯·希尔曾在题为《经典与治国理念》的文章，阐述了读书与治国之间的绝妙关系。他这样写道：“在几乎所有经典名著中，都可以找到让人叹为观止、深藏其中的治国艺术原则。”
经典名著，不仅仅有治国理念，更具提升读者审美情趣的功能。世界上不同时代、不同地域的优秀经典作品，都存在一个共同属性：歌颂赞美人间的真善美，揭露抨击世间的假恶丑。
读欧美自但丁以来的经典名著，你会看到，西方无论是在漫长的黑暗时期，抑或进入现代进程时期，总有经典作品问世，对世间的负面，进行冷峻的批判。与此同时，也有更多的大家作品问世，热情讴歌人间的真诚与善良，使读者不由自主地沉浸于经典作品的审美情感之中。
英语经典名著，显然是除了汉语经典名著以外，人类整个进程中至关重要的文化遗产的一部分。从历史上看，英语是全世界经典阅读作品中，使用得最广泛的国际性语言。这一事实，没有产生根本性变化。本世纪相当长一段时间，这一事实也似乎不会发生任何变化。而要更深入地了解并切身感受英语经典名著的风采，阅读原汁原味的英语经典作品的过程，显然是必不可少的。
辽宁人民出版社及时并隆重推出“最经典英语文库”系列丛书，是具有远见与卓识的出版行为。我相信，这套既可供阅读，同时也具收藏价值的英语原版经典作品系列丛书，在帮助人们了解什么才是经典作品的同时，也一定会成为广大英语爱好者、大中学生以及学生家长们挚爱的“最经典英语文库”。北京外国语大学英语学院北外公共外交研究中心欧美文学研究中心主任全国英国文学学会名誉会长张中载 教授2013年7月于北京
I. THE STORY OF MY LIFE
CHAPTER I
It is with a kind of fear that I begin to write the history of my life. I have, as it were, a superstitious hesitation in lifting the veil that clings about my childhood like a golden mist. The task of writing an autobiography is a difficult one. When I try to classify my earliest impressions, I find that fact and fancy look alike across the years that link the past with the present. The woman paints the child's experiences in her own fantasy. A few impressions stand out vividly from the first years of my life; but "the shadows of the prison-house are on the rest." Besides, many of the joys and sorrows of childhood have lost their poignancy; and many incidents of vital importance in my early education have been forgotten in the excitement of great discoveries. In order, therefore, not to be tedious I shall try to present in a series of sketches only the episodes that seem to me to be the most interesting and important.
I was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, a little town of northern Alabama.
The family on my father's side is descended from Caspar Keller, a native of Switzerland, who settled in Maryland. One of my Swiss ancestors was the first teacher of the deaf in Zurich and wrote a book on the subject of their education—rather a singular coincidence; though it is true that there is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.
My grandfather, Caspar Keller's son, "entered" large tracts of land in Alabama and finally settled there. I have been told that once a year he went from Tuscumbia to Philadelphia on horseback to purchase supplies for the plantation, and my aunt has in her possession many of the letters to his family, which give charming and vivid accounts of these trips.
My Grandmother Keller was a daughter of one of Lafayette's aides, Alexander Moore, and granddaughter of Alexander Spotswood, an early Colonial Governor of Virginia. She was also second cousin to Robert E. Lee.
My father, Arthur H. Keller, was a captain in the Confederate Army, and my mother, Kate Adams, was his second wife and many years younger. Her grandfather, Benjamin Adams, married Susanna E. Goodhue, and lived in Newbury, Massachusetts, for many years. Their son, Charles Adams, was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and moved to Helena, Arkansas. When the Civil War broke out, he fought on the side of the South and became a brigadier-general. He married Lucy Helen Everett, who belonged to the same family of Everetts as Edward Everett and Dr. Edward Everett Hale. After the war was over the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee.
I lived, up to the time of the illness that deprived me of my sight and hearing, in a tiny house consisting of a large square room and a small one, in which the servant slept. It is a custom in the South to build a small house near the homestead as an annex to be used on occasion. Such a house my father built after the Civil War, and when he married my mother they went to live in it. It was completely covered with vines, climbing roses and honeysuckles. From the garden it looked like an arbour. The little porch was hidden from view by a screen of yellow roses and Southern smilax. It was the favourite haunt of humming-birds and bees.
The Keller homestead, where the family lived, was a few steps from our little rose-bower. It was called "Ivy Green" because the house and the surrounding trees and fences were covered with beautiful English ivy. Its old-fashioned garden was the paradise of my childhood.
Even in the days before my teacher came, I used to feel along the square stiff boxwood hedges, and, guided by the sense of smell would find the first violets and lilies. There, too, after a fit of temper, I went to find comfort and to hide my hot face in the cool leaves and grass. What joy it was to lose myself in that garden of flowers, to wander happily from spot to spot, until, coming suddenly upon a beautiful vine, I recognized it by its leaves and blossoms, and knew it was the vine which covered the tumble-down summer-house at the farther end of the garden! Here, also, were trailing clematis, drooping jessamine, and some rare sweet flowers called butterfly lilies, because their fragile petals resemble butterflies' wings. But the roses—they were loveliest of all. Never have I found in the greenhouses of the North such heart-satisfying roses as the climbing roses of my southern home. They used to hang in long festoons from our porch, filling the whole air with their fragrance, untainted by any earthy smell; and in the early morning, washed in the dew, they felt so soft, so pure, I could not help wondering if they did not resemble the asphodels of God's garden.
The beginning of my life was simple and much like every other little life. I came, I saw, I conquered, as the first baby in the family always does. There was the usual amount of discussion as to a name for me. The first baby in the family was not to be lightly named, every one was emphatic about that. My father suggested the name of Mildred Campbell, an ancestor whom he highly esteemed, and he declined to take any further part in the discussion. My mother solvedthe problem by giving it as her wish that I should be called after her mother, whose maiden name was Helen Everett. But in the excitement of carrying me to church my father lost the name on the way, very naturally, since it was one in which he had declined to have a part. When the minister asked him for it, he just remembered that it had been decided to call me after my grandmother, and he gave her name as Helen Adams.
I am told that while I was still in long dresses I showed many signs of an eager, self-asserting disposition. Everything that I saw other people do I insisted upon imitating. At six months I could pipe out "How d'ye," and one day I attracted every one's attention by saying "Tea, tea, tea" quite plainly. Even after my illness I remembered one of the words I had learned in these early months. It was the word "water," and I continued to make some sound for that word after all other speech was lost. I ceased making the sound "wah-wah" only when I learned to spell the word.
They tell me I walked the day I was a year old. My mother had just taken me out of the bath-tub and was holding me in her lap, when I was suddenly attracted by the flickering shadows of leaves that danced in the sunlight on the smooth floor. I slipped from my mother's lap and almost ran toward them. The impulse gone, I fell down and cried for her to take me up in her arms.
These happy days did not last long. One brief spring, musical with the song of robin and mocking-bird, one summer rich in fruit and roses, one autumn of gold and crimson sped by and left their gifts at the feet of an eager, delighted child. Then, in the dreary month of February, came the illness which closed my eyes and ears and plunged me into the unconsciousness of a new-born baby. They called it acute congestion of the stomach and brain. The doctor thought I could notlive. Early one morning, however, the fever left me as suddenly and mysteriously as it had come. There was great rejoicing in the family that morning, but no one, not even the doctor, knew that I should never see or hear again.
I fancy I still have confused recollections of that illness. I especially remember the tenderness with which my mother tried to soothe me in my waling hours of fret and pain, and the agony and bewilderment with which I awoke after a tossing half sleep, and turned my eyes, so dry and hot, to the wall away from the once-loved light, which came to me dim and yet more dim each day. But, except for these fleeting memories, if, indeed, they be memories, it all seems very unreal, like a nightmare. Gradually I got used to the silence and darkness that surrounded me and forgot that it had ever been different, until she came—my teacher—who was to set my spirit free. But during the first nineteen months of my life I had caught glimpses of broad, green fields, a luminous sky, trees and flowers which the darkness that followed could not wholly blot out. If we have once seen, "the day is ours, and what the day has shown."
CHAPTER II
I cannot recall what happened during the first months after my illness. I only know that I sat in my mother's lap or clung to her dress as she went about her household duties. My hands felt every object and observed every motion, and in this way I learned to know many things. Soon I felt the need of some communication with others and began to make crude signs. A shake of the head meant "No" and a nod, "Yes," a pull meant "Come" and a push, "Go." Was it bread that I wanted? Then I would imitate the acts of cutting the slices and buttering them. If I wanted my mother to make ice-cream for dinner I made the sign for working the freezer and shivered, indicating cold. My mother, moreover, succeeded in making me understand a good deal. I always knew when she wished me to bring her something, and I would run upstairs or anywhere else she indicated. Indeed, I owe to her loving wisdom all that was bright and good in my long night.
I understood a good deal of what was going on about me. At five I learned to fold and put away the clean clothes when they were brought in from the laundry, and I distinguished my own from the rest. I knew by the way my mother and aunt dressed when they were going out, and I invariably begged to go with them. I was always sent for when there was company, and when the guests took their leave, I waved my hand to them, I think with a vague remembrance of themeaning of the gesture. One day some gentlemen called on my mother, and I felt the shutting of the front door and other sounds that indicated their arrival. On a sudden thought I ran upstairs before any one could stop me, to put on my idea of a company dress. Standing before the mirror, as I had seen others do, I anointed mine head with oil and covered my face thickly with powder. Then I pinned a veil over my head so that it covered my face and fell in folds down to my shoulders, and tied an enormous bustle round my small waist, so that it dangled behind, almost meeting the hem of my skirt. Thus attired I went down to help entertain the company.
I do not remember when I first realized that I was different from other people; but I knew it before my teacher came to me. I had noticed that my mother and my friends did not use signs as I did when they wanted anything done, but talked with their mouths. Sometimes I stood between two persons who were conversing and touched their lips. I could not understand, and was vexed. I moved my lips and gesticulated frantically without result. This made me so angry at times that I kicked and screamed until I was exhausted.
I think I knew when I was naughty, for I knew that it hurt Ella, my nurse, to kick her, and when my fit of temper was over I had a feeling akin to regret. But I cannot remember any instance in which this feeling prevented me from repeating the naughtiness when I failed to get what I wanted.
In those days a little coloured girl, Martha Washington, the child of our cook, and Belle, an old setter, and a great hunter in her day, were my constant companions. Martha Washington understood my signs, and I seldom had any difficulty in making her do just as I wished. It pleased me to domineer over her, and she generally submitted to my tyranny rather than risk a hand-to-hand encounter. I was strong, active,indifferent to consequences. I knew my own mind well enough and always had my own way, even if I had to fight tooth and nail for it. We spent a great deal of time in the kitchen, kneading dough balls, helping make ice-cream, grinding coffee, quarreling over the cakebowl, and feeding the hens and turkeys that swarmed about the kitchen steps. Many of them were so tame that they would eat from my hand and let me feel them. One big gobbler snatched a tomato from me one day and ran away with it. Inspired, perhaps, by Master Gobbler's success, we carried off to the woodpile a cake which the cook had just frosted, and ate every bit of it. I was quite ill afterward, and I wonder if retribution also overtook the turkey.
The guinea-fowl likes to hide her nest in out-of-theway places,
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