呼啸山庄:英文(txt+pdf+epub+mobi电子书下载)


发布时间:2020-12-02 10:34:35

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作者:艾米莉·简·勃朗特

出版社:中国纺织出版社

格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT

呼啸山庄:英文

呼啸山庄:英文试读:

序言

《呼啸山庄》是外国经典文学必读书目,是一部震撼人心的“奇特的小说”和“神秘莫测的怪书”。英国作家毛姆曾说:“《呼啸山庄》的丑恶与美并存,而且它所表达的力量也是一般小说家难以企及的……我不知道还有哪一部小说,其中爱情的痛苦、迷恋、残酷、执著,曾经如此令人吃惊地描述出来。”《呼啸山庄》奠定了艾米莉·勃朗特在英国文学史以及世界文学史上的地位。本书故事是以荒凉萧条的约克郡为背景,讲述了希斯克利夫与凯瑟琳·厄恩肖之间无法实现的爱情,并由此在两代人之间产生的爱恨情仇的故事。呼啸山庄主人厄恩肖收养了孤儿希斯克利夫,比起他的儿子欣德利,主人厄恩肖更偏爱希斯克利夫。因此,渴望得到父爱的欣德利对希斯克利夫产生了极大的憎恶,这也造就了日后希斯克利夫对欣德利的报复心理。

与之相反,厄恩肖的女儿凯瑟琳却爱上了希斯克利夫,但是凯瑟琳想要获得能够使希斯克利夫脱离狠毒无情的欣德利的力量与钱财,因此,她选择嫁给了画眉山庄主人的儿子埃德加。对此,希斯克利夫绝望至极。

带着复仇心理的希斯克利夫故意诱惑埃德加的妹妹,并与之结婚。同时,他欺骗欣德利并得到了呼啸山庄,此后又虐待欣德利的儿子哈里顿。凯瑟琳生下女儿凯瑟琳·林顿后就去世了。于是,希斯克利夫将无限的仇恨转移到哈里顿和凯瑟琳·林顿的身上。

整部书充满了强烈的反压迫、求自由的斗争精神,又始终笼罩着离奇、紧张、浪漫的艺术气氛。作品开始曾被人称作是年轻女作家脱离现实的天真幻想,但结合其所描写地区激烈的阶级斗争和英国当时的社会现象,不久又被评论界给予高度肯定,并受到广大读者的热烈欢迎。

本书的特点:

1.本书以希斯克利夫被收养为开始,中间以悲剧发展,最终以圆满结局收场,笔触细腻,讲述希斯克利夫的爱情和复仇。

2.纯英文版,权威版本,原汁原味,本色地呈现原作真实的经典。《呼啸山庄》是世界上震撼人心的“黑色英雄”小说之一,在英国文学史上有“文学中的斯芬克斯”“人间情爱的宏伟史诗”的美誉。它是“一部没有被时间的尘土遮没了光辉的杰出作品”。

Chapter 1

1801—I have just returned from a visit to my landlord—the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with. This is certainly a beautiful country!In all England, I do not believe that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed from the stir of society.A perfect misanthropist's heaven:and Mr.Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair to divide the desolation between us.A capital fellow!He little imagined how my heart warmed towards him when I beheld his black eyes withdraw so suspiciously under their brows, as I rode up, and when his fingers sheltered themselves, with a jealous resolution, still farther in his waistcoat, as I announced my name.

“Mr. Heathcliff!”I said.

A nod was the answer.

“Mr. Lockwood, your new tenant, sir.I do myself the honour of calling as soon as possible after my arrival, to express the hope that I have not inconvenienced you by my perseverance in soliciting the occupation of Thrushcross Grange:I heard yesterday you had had some thoughts—”

“Thrushcross Grange is my own, sir,”he interrupted, wincing.“I should not allow anyone to inconvenience me, if I could hinder it—walk in!”

The“walk in”was uttered with closed teeth, and expressed the sentiment,“Go to the Deuce!”,Even the gate over which he leant manifested no sympathizing movement to the words, and I think that circumstance determined me to accept the invitation:I felt interested in a man who seemed more exaggeratedly reserved than myself.

When he saw my horse's breast fairly pushing the barrier, he did put out his hand to unchain it, and then sullenly preceded me up the causeway, calling, as we entered the court:“Joseph, take Mr. Lockwood's horse;and bring up some wine.”

“Here we have the whole establishment of domestics, I suppose,”was the reflection suggested by this compound order.“No wonder the grass grows up between the flags, and cattle are the only hedge-cutters.”

Joseph was an elderly, nay, an old man, very old, perhaps, though hale and sinewy.“The Lord help us!”he soliloquized in an undertone of peevish displeasure, while relieving me of my horse:looking, meantime, in my face so sourly that I charitably conjectured he must have need of divine aid to digest his dinner, and his pious ejaculation had no reference to my unexpected advent.

Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr. Heathcliff's dwelling.“Wuthering”being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather.Pure, bracing ventilation they must have up there at all times, indeed;one may guess the power of the north wind blowing over the edge, by the excessive slant of a few stunted firs at the end of the house;and by a range of gaunt thorns all stretching their limbs one way, as if craving alms of the sun.Happily, the architect had foresight to build it strong:the narrow windows are deeply set in the wall, and the corners defended with large jutting stones.

Before passing the threshold, I paused to admire a quantity of grotesque carving lavished over the front, and especially about the principal door;above which, among a wilderness of crumbling griffins and shameless little boys, I detected the date“1500”,and the name“Hareton Earnshaw”. I would have made a few comments, and requested a short history of the place from the surly owner;but his attitude at the door appeared to demand my speedy entrance, or complete departure, and I had no desire to aggravate his impatience previous to inspecting the penetralium.

One step brought us into the family sitting-room, without any introductory lobby or passage:they call it here“the house”preeminently. It includes kitchen and parlour, generally;but I believe at Wuthering Heights the kitchen is forced to retreat altogether into another quarter:at least I distinguished a chatter of tongues, and a clatter of culinary utensils, deep within;and I observed no signs of roasting, boiling, or baking, about the huge fireplace;nor any glitter of copper saucepans and tin cullenders on the walls.One end, indeed, reflected splendidly both light and heat from ranks of immense pewter dishes, interspersed with silver jugs and tankards, towering row after row, on a vast oak dresser, to the very roof.The latter had never been underdrawn:its entire anatomy lay bare to an inquiring eye, except where a frame of wood laden with oatcakes and clusters of legs of beef, mutton, and ham, concealed it.Above the chimney were sundry villainous old guns, and a couple of horse-pistols:and, by way of ornament, three gaudily painted canisters disposed along its ledge.The floor was of smooth, white stone;the chairs, high-backed, primitive structures, painted green:one or two heavy black ones lurking in the shade.In an arch under the dresser, reposed a huge, liver-coloured bitch pointer, surrounded by a swarm of squealing puppies, and other dogs haunted other recesses.

The apartment and furniture would have been nothing extraordinary as belonging to a homely, northern farmer, with a stubborn countenance, and stalwart limbs set out to advantage in knee breeches and gaiters. Such an individual seated in his armchair, his mug of ale frothing on the round table before him, is to be seen in any circuit of five or six miles among these hills, if you go at the right time after dinner.But Mr.Heathcliff forms a singular contrast to his abode and style of living.He is a dark-skinned gipsy in aspect, in dress and manners a gentleman:that is, as much a gentleman as many a country squire:rather slovenly, perhaps, yet not looking amiss with his negligence, because he has an erect and handsome figure;and rather morose.Possibly, some people might suspect him of a degree of under-bred pride;I have a sympathetic chord within that tells me it is nothing of the sort:I know, by instinct, his reserve springs from an aversion to showy displays of feeling—to manifestations of mutual kindliness.He'll love and hate equally under cover, and esteem it a species of impertinence to be loved or hated again.No, I'm running on too fast:I bestow my own attributes over liberally on him.Mr.Heathcliff may have entirely dissimilar reasons for keeping his hand out of the way when he meets a would-be acquaintance, to those which actuate me.Let me hope my constitution is almost peculiar:my dear mother used to say I should never have a comfortable home;and only last summer I proved myself perfectly unworthy of one.

While enjoying a month of fine weather at the sea coast, I was thrown into the company of a most fascinating creature:a real goddess in my eyes, as long as she took no notice of me. I“never told my love”vocally;still, if looks have language, the merest idiot might have guessed I was over head and ears:she understood me at last, and looked a return—the sweetest of all imaginable looks.And what did I do?I confess it with shame—shrunk icily into myself, like a snail;at every glance retired colder and further;till finally the poor innocent was led to doubt her own senses, and, overwhelmed with confusion at her supposed mistake, persuaded her mamma to decamp.

By this curious turn of disposition I have gained the reputation of deliberate heartlessness;how undeserved, I alone can appreciate.

I took a seat at the end of the hearthstone opposite that towards which my landlord advanced, and filled up an interval of silence by attempting to caress the canine mother, who had left her nursery, and was sneaking wolfishly to the back of my legs, her lip curled up, and her white teeth watering for a snatch. My caress provoked a long, guttural gnarl.

“You'd better let the dog alone,”growled Mr. Heathcliff in unison, checking fiercer demonstrations with a punch of his foot.“She's not accustomed to be spoiled—not kept for a pet.”Then, striding to a side door, he shouted again—

“Joseph!”

Joseph mumbled indistinctly in the depths of the cellar, but gave no intimation of ascending;so his master dived down to him, leaving me vis-à-vis the ruffianly bitch and a pair of grim shaggy sheep dogs, who shared with her a jealous guardianship over all my movements.

Not anxious to come in contact with their fangs, I sat still;but, imagining they would scarcely understand tacit insults, I unfortunately indulged in winking and making faces at the trio, and some turn of my physiognomy so irritated madam, that she suddenly broke into a fury and leapt on my knees. I flung her back, and hastened to interpose the table between us.This proceeding roused the whole hive:half a dozen four-footed fiends, of various sizes and ages, issued from hidden dens to the common centre.I felt my heels and coat-laps peculiar subjects of assault;and parrying off the larger combatants as effectually as I could with the poker, I was constrained to demand, aloud, assistance from some of the household in re-establishing peace.

Mr. Heathcliff and his man climbed the cellar steps with vexatious phlegm:I don't think they moved one second faster than usual, though the hearth was an absolute tempest of worrying and yelping.

Happily, an inhabitant of the kitchen made more dispatch;a lusty dame, with tucked-up gown, bare arms, and fire-flushed cheeks, rushed into the midst of us flourishing a frying-pan:and used that weapon, and her tongue, to such purpose, that the storm subsided magically, and she only remained, heaving like a sea after a high wind, when her master entered on the scene.

“What the devil is the matter?”he asked, eyeing me in a manner that I could ill endure after this inhospitable treatment.

“What the devil, indeed!”I muttered.“The herd of possessed swine could have had no worse spirits in them than those animals of yours, sir. You might as well leave a stranger with a brood of tigers!”

“They won't meddle with persons who touch nothing,”he remarked, putting the bottle before me, and restoring the displaced table.“The dogs do right to be vigilant. Take a glass of wine?”

“No, thank you.”

“Not bitten, are you?”

“If I had been, I would have set my signet on the biter.”

Heathcliff's countenance relaxed into a grin.

“Come, come,”he said,“you are flurried, Mr. Lockwood.Here, take a little wine.Guests are so exceedingly rare in this house that I and my dogs, I am willing to own, hardly know how to receive them.Your health, sir!”

I bowed and returned the pledge;beginning to perceive that it would be foolish to sit sulking for the misbehaviour of a pack of curs:besides, I felt loath to yield the fellow further amusement at my expense;since the humour took that turn. He—probably swayed by prudential consideration of the folly of offending a good tenant—relaxed a little in the laconic style of chipping off his pronouns and auxiliary verbs, and introduced what he supposed would be a subject of interest to me—a discourse on the advantages and disadvantages of my present place of retirement.I found him very intelligent on the topics we touched;and before I went home, I was encouraged so far as to volunteer another visit tomorrow.He evidently wished no repetition of my intrusion.I shall go, notwithstanding.It is astonishing how sociable I feel myself compared with him.

Chapter 2

Yesterday afternoon set in misty and cold. I had half a mind to spend it by my study fire, instead of wading through heath and mud to Wuthering Heights.On coming up from dinner, however(N.B.I dine between twelve and one o'clock;the housekeeper, a matronly lady, taken as a fixture along with the house, could not, or would not, comprehend my request that I might be served at five),on mounting the stairs with this lazy intention, and stepping into the room, I saw a servant girl on her knees surrounded by brushes and coal-scuttles, and raising an infernal dust as she extinguished the flames with heaps of cinders.This spectacle drove me back immediately;I took my hat, and, after a four-miles'walk, arrived at Heathcliff's garden gate just in time to escape the first feathery flakes of a snow shower.

On that bleak hilltop the earth was hard with a black frost, and the air made me shiver through every limb. Being unable to remove the chain, I jumped over, and, running up the flagged causeway bordered with straggling gooseberry bushes, knocked vainly for admittance, till my knuckles tingled and the dogs howled.

“Wretched inmates!”I ejaculated mentally,“you deserve perpetual isolation from your species for your churlish inhospitality. At least, I would not keep my doors barred in the day time.I don't care—I will get in!”So resolved, I grasped the latch and shook it vehemently.Vinegar-faced Joseph projected his head from a round window of the barn.

“Whet are ye for?”he shouted.“T'maister's dahn i't'fowld. Go rahnd by th'end ut’laith, if yah went tuh spake tull him.”

“Is there nobody inside to open the door?”I hallooed, responsively.

“They's nobbut t'missis;and shoo'll nut oppen't an ye mak yer flaysome dins till neeght.”

“Why?Cannot you tell her who I am, eh, Joseph?”

“Nor-ne me!Aw'll hae noa hend wi't,”muttered the head, vanishing.

The snow began to drive thickly. I seized the handle to essay another trial;when a young man without coat, and shouldering a pitchfork, appeared in the yard behind.He hailed me to follow him, and, after marching through a wash-house, and a paved area containing a coal shed, pump, and pigeon cot, we at length arrived in the huge, warm, cheerful apartment, where I was formerly received.It glowed delightfully in the radiance of an immense fire, compounded of coal, peat, and wood;and near the table, laid for a plentiful evening meal, I was pleased to observe the“missis”,an individual whose existence I had never previously suspected.I bowed and waited, thinking she would bid me take a seat.She looked at me, leaning back in her chair, and remained motionless and mute.

“Rough weather!”I remarked.“I'm afraid, Mrs. Heathcliff, the door must bear the consequence of your servants'leisure attendance:I had hard work to make them hear me.”

She never opened her mouth. I stared—she stared also:at any rate, she kept her eyes on me in a cool, regardless manner, exceedingly embarrassing and disagreeable.

“Sit down,”said the young man gruffly.“He'll be in soon.”

I obeyed;and hemmed, and called the villain Juno, who deigned, at this second interview, to move the extreme tip of her tail, in token of owning my acquaintance.

“A beautiful animal!”I commenced again.“Do you intend parting with the little ones, madam?”

“They are not mine,”said the amiable hostess, more repellingly than Heathcliff himself could have replied.

“Ah, your favourites are among these?”I continued, turning to an obscure cushion full of something like cats.

“A strange choice of favourites!”she observed scornfully.

Unluckily, it was a heap of dead rabbits. I hemmed once more, and drew closer to the hearth, repeating my comment on the wildness of the evening.

“You should not have come out,”she said, rising and reaching from the chimney-piece two of the painted canisters.

Her position before was sheltered from the light;now, I had a distinct view of her whole figure and countenance. She was slender, and apparently scarcely past girlhood:an admirable form, and the most exquisite little face that I have ever had the pleasure of beholding;small features, very fair;flaxen ringlets, or rather golden, hanging loose on her delicate neck;and eyes, had they been agreeable in expression, they would have been irresistible:fortunately for my susceptible heart, the only sentiment they evinced hovered between scorn, and a kind of desperation, singularly unnatural to be detected there.

The canisters were almost out of her reach;I made a motion to aid her;she turned upon me as a miser might turn if anyone attempted to assist him in counting his gold.

“I don't want your help,”she snapped;“I can get them for myself.”

“I beg your pardon!”I hastened to reply.

“Were you asked to tea?”she demanded, tying an apron over her neat black frock, and standing with a spoonful of the leaf poised over the pot.

“I shall be glad to have a cup,”I answered.

“Were you asked?”she repeated.

“No,”I said, half smiling.“You are the proper person to ask me.”

She flung the tea back, spoon and all, and resumed her chair in a pet;her forehead corrugated, and her red under lip pushed out, like a child's ready to cry.

Meanwhile, the young man had slung on to his person a decidedly shabby upper garment, and, erecting himself before the blaze, looked down on me from the corner of his eyes, for all the world as if there were some mortal feud unavenged between us. I began to doubt whether he were a servant or not:his dress and speech were both rude, entirely devoid of the superiority observable in Mr.and Mrs.Heathcliff;his thick brown curls were rough and uncultivated, his whiskers encroached bearishly over his cheeks, and his hands were embrowned like those of a common labourer:still his bearing was free, almost haughty, and he showed none of a domestic's assiduity in attending on the lady of the house.In the absence of clear proofs of his condition, I deemed it best to abstain from noticing his curious conduct;and, five minutes afterwards, the entrance of Heathcliff relieved me, in some measure, from my uncomfortable state.

“You see, sir, I am come, according to promise!”I exclaimed, assuming the cheerful;“and I fear I shall be weather-bound for half an hour, if you can afford me shelter during that space.”

“Half an hour?”he said, shaking the white flakes from his clothes;“I wonder you should select the thick of a snowstorm to ramble about in. Do you know that you run a risk of being lost in the marshes?People familiar with these moors often miss their road on such evenings;and I can tell you there is no chance of a change at present.”

“Perhaps I can get a guide among your lads, and he might stay at the Grange till morning—could you spare me one?”

“No, I could not.”

“Oh, indeed!Well, then, I must trust to my own sagacity.”

“Umph!”

“Are you going to mak th'tea?”demanded he of the shabby coat, shifting his ferocious gaze from me to the young lady.

“Is he to have any?”she asked, appealing to Heathcliff.

“Get it ready, will you?”was the answer, uttered so savagely that I started. The tone in which the words were said revealed a genuine bad nature.I no longer felt inclined to call Heathcliff a capital fellow.When the preparations were finished, he invited me with—“Now, sir, bring forward your chair.”And we all, including the rustic youth, drew round the table:an austere silence prevailing while we discussed our meal.

I thought, if I had caused the cloud, it was my duty to make an effort to dispel it. They could not every day sit so grim and taciturn;and it was impossible, however ill-tempered they might be, that the universal scowl they wore was their everyday countenance.

“It is strange,”I began, in the interval of swallowing one cup of tea and receiving another—“it is strange how custom can mould our tastes and ideas:many could not imagine the existence of happiness in a life of such complete exile from the world as you spend, Mr. Heathcliff;yet I'll venture to say, that, surrounded by your family, and with your amiable lady as the presiding genius over your home and heart—”

“My amiable lady!”he interrupted, with an almost diabolical sneer on his face.“Where is she—my amiable lady?”

“Mrs. Heathcliff, your wife, I mean.”

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