一本书读懂美国文学(人文英语)(txt+pdf+epub+mobi电子书下载)


发布时间:2020-06-07 19:45:09

点击下载

作者:沈东霞

出版社:陕西师范大学出版总社有限公司

格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT

一本书读懂美国文学(人文英语)

一本书读懂美国文学(人文英语)试读:

Chapter I The Embryo of American Literature 第一章 美国文学的雏形

早期的美国文学是从欧洲文学的样式和风格中衍生出来的。小说创作的风格欧洲味十足,只是故事发生的场景变为美国。

1. Benjamin Franklin 本杰明·富兰克林

●A Brief Introduction of Benjamin Franklin 富兰克林简介

Franklin was one of the leading founding fathers of the United States of America. He was a member of the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence and was one of its signatories. He also signed the Constitution of the United States, and served as the new nation's ablest diplomat. Franklin was also unequaled in "He tore from the skies the America as an inventor until Thomas lightning and from tyrants the Edison. He invented the Franklin stove, sceptre." 碑文:“从苍天处取得闪电,从暴君处取得民权。”bifocaleyeglasses and the lightning rod.

富兰克林是美国的开国元勋。他参与起草了《独立宣言》,并且是签署人之一。他也签署了美国《宪法》,是美国最具才能的外交家。富兰克林的发明可以与爱迪生相媲美。他发明了富兰克林炉子、双焦点眼镜和避雷针。●Biography 富兰克林生平

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the youngest child, and tenth boy of 17 children. Franklin's formal schooling ended early but his education never did. He believed that "the doors to wisdom are never shut," and read every book he could get his hands on. Franklin taught himself simple algebra and geometry, navigation, logic, history, science, English grammar and a working knowledge of five other languages.

Franklin had a simple formula for success. He believed that successful people worked just a little harder than other people. Benjamin Franklin certainly did. He built a successful printing and publishing business in Philadelphia; he conducted scientific studies of electricity and made several important discoveries; he was an accomplished diplomat and statesman; he helped establish Pennsylvania's first university and America's first city hospital. He also organized the country's first subscription library.

Franklin had a strong belief that good citizenship included an obligation of public service. Franklin himself served the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the new United States of America, in one way or the other, for most of his life. To Benjamin Franklin there was no greater purpose in life than to "live usefully."

富兰克林于1706年1月17日在马萨诸州的波士顿出生。他是家中最小的孩子,上面有16个哥哥姐姐。虽然他很早就中断了正规的学校学习,但是他的“教育”并没有中断,因为他认为“智慧的大门始终会对人开放”。他博览群书,自学简单的数学、航海、逻辑、历史、科学、英语语法及其他五门语言的应用知识。

富兰克林有一个成功的秘诀——比别人更努力一点。当然,他也是这么做的。他在费城成功经营印刷和出版事业;对电进行科学研究,并有一些重要的发现;他是一位卓有成绩的外交家和政治家;他帮助建立了费城第一所大学,创办了美国第一所市立医院和第一所订阅图书馆。

富兰克林坚定地认为良好的公民权应包括公共服务的义务。他在一生中的大部分时间都以某种方式为各地服务,包括费城、宾夕法尼亚,还有新成立的美国。对他而言,没有什么比要“活的有用”这一目标更大。托马斯·杰弗逊称本杰明·富兰克林是“他所生活的时代和国家里最伟大的人物,也为其增添光彩”。●The Works 著作● Poor Richard's Almanac, 1733《穷查

理历书》● The Way to Wealth, 1758《致富之

路》● Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin,

1791《富兰克林自传》●Benjamin Franklin's Thirteen Virtues 富兰克林13个人生信条

1. TEMPERANCE. Eat not to 富兰克林在思考dullness; drink not to elevation.

2. SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

3. ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

4. RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

5. FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i. e. , waste nothing.

6. INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employeed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

7. SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

8. JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9. MODERATION. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10. CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.

11. TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

12. CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.

13. HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

一、节制。食不过饱;饮酒不醉。

二、沉默寡言。言则于人于己有益,不作无益闲聊。

三、生活有秩序。各样东西放在一定地方;各项日常事务应有一定的处理时间。

四、决断。事情当做必做;既做则坚持到底。

五、俭朴。花钱须于人于己有益,即不浪费。

六、勤劳。不浪费时间;不去关注那些无聊的言论,每时每刻做有用之事,戒除一切不必要的行动。

七、诚恳。不欺骗人;思想纯洁公正;说话也应诚实。

八、正直。不做不利他人之事,切勿忘记履行对人有益的义务而伤害他人。

九、中庸。勿走极端;受到应有的处罚,应当加以容忍。

十、清洁。身体、衣服和住所应力求清洁。

十一、宁静。勿因琐事或普通而不可避免的事件而烦恼。

十二、贞节。切戒房事过度,勿伤害身体或有损自己或他人的安宁或名誉。

十三、谦虚。谦逊,不要傲慢。●Selected Reading 名著选读

Too Dear for the Whistle

导读:作者由孩提时代发生的一件天真而愚蠢的小事谈起,然后过渡到后来汲取的教训,进而感叹世界上各种各样的人在做着得不偿失的事情,耽搁了生活,甚至贻误了一生。Too Dear for the Whistle

When I was a child of seven years old, my friends, on a holiday, filled my pocket with coppers. I went at once to a shop where they sold toys for children. Being charmed with the sound of a whistle that I had seen by the way, in the hands of another boy, I handed over all 百元美元富兰克林头像my money for one. I then came home, and went whistling all over the house, much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing all the family. My brothers and sisters and cousins, when I told of the bargain I had made, said I had given four times as much as the whistle was worth. They put me in mind of what good things I might have bought with the rest of the money, and laughed at me so much for my folly that I cried with vexation.Thinking about the matter gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure.

This, however, was afterwards of use to me, for the impression continued on my mind, so that often, when I was tempted to buy something I did not need, I said to myself, "Don't give too much for the whistle," and I saved my money. As I grew up, came into the world, and observed the actions of men, I thought I met with many, very many, who "gave too much for the whistle".

If I knew a miserwho gave up every kind of comfortable living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem of his fellow citizens and the joys of friendship, for the sake of gathering and keeping wealth—"Poor man," said I, "you pay too dear for your whistle." When I met a man of pleasure, who did not try to improve his mind or his fortune but merely devoted himself to having a good time, perhaps neglecting his health, "Mistaken man," said I, "you are providing pain for yourself, instead of pleasure; you are paying too dear for your whistle." If I saw someone fond of appearance who had fine clothes, fine houses, fine furniture, fine earrings, all above his fortune, and for which he had run into debt, "Alas," said I, "he has paid dear, very dear, for his whistle." In short the miseries of mankind are largely due to their putting a false value on things—to giving "too much for their whistles".

2. Thomas Paine 托马斯·潘恩

●A Brief Introduction of Thomas Paine 托马斯·潘恩简介

Thomas Paine(January 29, 1737–June 8, 1809) was an author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Born in Thetford, Norfolk, Paine emigrated to the British American colonies in 1774 in time to participate in the American Revolution. His principal contribution was the powerful, widely-read pamphlet Common Sense(1776).

Paine's impact on philosophy and politics helped mold the age of democratic revolutions and reverberates down to this day.

托马斯·潘恩(1737年1月29日~1809年6月8日),作家、小册子作者、激进派、发明家、知识分子、革命家、美国开国元勋之一。他出生于诺福克(英格兰东部的郡名)塞特福德,1774年移民去英属美洲殖民地参加美国革命。他的主要贡献是《常识》,其影响力巨大,获得了人们的广泛阅读。

潘恩对哲学和政治的影响塑造了民——Though he lived twists and turns, he never forgot to fight for 主革命时代,其影响直至今日。human rights.人生坎坷,却又为了人的权利不懈奋斗。●Biography 托马斯·潘恩生平“如果没有潘恩的这支笔,乔治·华盛顿所举起的剑将是徒然无功

Paine was born in Thetford, England, 的。”——美国总统约翰·亚当斯on Jan.29, 1737, to relatively humble origins. He attended the local school until, at the age of 13, he withdrew to help his father. For the next 24 years he failed or was unhappy in every job he tried. Paine's move to America resulted from a London meeting with Benjamin Franklin, who provided letters of introduction. His literary eloquence received recognition with the appearance of his 79-page pamphlet titled Common Sense(1776). Common Sense was an instantaneous success. Its American sale of 120, 000 copies in 3 months gave it a circulation equivalent to over 6 million today. Clearly, it prepared Americans for the Declaration of Independence a few months later. Paine's most controversial writing was The Age of Reason(1794, 1795), a direct attack on the irrationality of revealed religion and a defense of deism. Despite Paine's unequivocalaffirmation of a belief in the Creator, the book was denounced as atheistic, was suppressed in England, and evoked countless indignant responses. In 1802 he returned to America, only to find himself outcastand poverty-stricken in his final years. Thomas Paine died in 1809, mourned by few at the time.

1737年1月29日,潘恩出生在诺福克(英格兰东部的郡名)塞特福德一个贫困的家庭。13岁时,他退学跟着父亲干活。接下来的24年里,他的工作处处不顺心。在伦敦遇到富兰克林之后,因他的推荐,潘恩来到美国。1776年,随着79页的小册子《常识》的出版,潘恩的文学才华得到公认。《常识》反响剧烈,短短三个月,美国销量12万册,相当于今天的6百万销量。很明显,它为几个月后《美国独立宣言》的发表做了铺垫。1794年至1795年,潘恩写了《理性时代》,直接抨击天主教的不合理,捍卫自然神论。尽管潘恩在文中含糊地确认了信仰上帝,这本书仍被指责是无神论的,在英国成了禁书,并且激起了各方愤怒的回应。1802年,他回到美国成了被驱逐的人。在他人生的最后日子里,他贫困交加。1809年,潘恩去世,当时几乎没有人为他送葬。●The Works 著作● Common Sense 1776《常识》● The American Crisis《美洲危机》● The Rights of Man 1791-92《人权论》● The Age of Reason(1794-96)《理性时代》●Selected Reading 名著选读

Common Sense

导读:《常识》挑战了英国政府的权威和君主政体,语言平实简单,也是第一本公开要求脱离大不列颠寻求独立的作品。

State of American Affairs

In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense, and have no other preliminaries to settle with the reader, 潘恩的住所than that he will divest himself of prejudice and prepossession, and suffer his reason and his feeling to determine for themselves; that he will put on, or rather that he will not put off, the true character of a man, and generously enlarge his views beyond the present day.

Volumes have been written on the subject of the struggle between England and America. Men of all ranks have embarked in thee controversy, from different motives, and with various designs; but all have been ineffectual, and the period of debate is closed. Arms, as the last resource decides the contest; the appeal was the choice of the king, and the continent has accepted the challenge.《人权论》

It has been reported of the late Mr. Pelham(who thought an able minister was not without his faults) that on his being attacked in the house of commons, on the score that his measures were only of a temporary kind, replied "they will last my time." Should a thought so fatal and unmanlypossess the Colonies in the present contest, the name of Ancestors will be remembered by future generations with detestation.

The Sun never shone on a cause of greater worth. It's not the affair of a City, a Country, a Province, or a kingdom; but of a continent—of at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. It's not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected even to the end of time, by the proceedings now. Now is the seedtimeof continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture now, will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rindof a young oak; the wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it in full grown characters.

By referring the matter from argument to arms, a new ear for politics is struck—a new method of thinking has arisen. All plans, proposals, prior to the nineteenth of April, i. e.to the commencement of hostilities, are like the almanacsof the last year, which, though proper then, are superseded and useless now. Whatever was advanced by the advocates on either side of the question then, terminated in one and the same point, viz. a union with Great-Britain; the only difference between the parties was the method of effecting it; the one proposing force, the other friendship; but it has so far happened that the first has failed, and the second has withdrawn her influence.

3. Philip Freneau 菲利普·弗伦诺

●A Brief Introduction of Philip Freneau 菲利普·弗伦诺简介

Philip Freneau was a major early American poet who used his wit and literary skills to advance America's political goals at the end of the eighteenth century. His talent and dedication to the revolutionary cause earned him the title "poet of the American Revolution". Many other authors from his time wrote for the cultured, wealthy citizens of the nation, ——Poet of the Revolutionary but Freneau was different; he identified War“美国独立革命的诗人”"Father of American with the common people. Freneau Poetry"——美国诗歌之父devoted his life to public service, pouring his energy into propagandafor American independence and full democracy.

菲利普·弗伦诺是美国早期重要诗人。十八世纪末,他用他的智慧和文学技巧推动了美国政治进步。他的才华和对革命事业的贡献为他赢得了“美国独立革命诗人”的美誉。那个时期许多作家倾向于为文雅的富人写作,然而弗伦诺不同于此,他与大众打成一片。他的一生致力于公众服务,投入大量的精力宣传美国独立和全面民主。●Biography 菲利普·弗伦诺生平

Freneau was born in New York City, the oldest of the five children of Huguenotwine merchant. His father died in 1767, and he entered the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. Following his graduation from Princeton in 1771, Freneau tried his hand at teaching, but quickly gave it up. In 1776, Freneau left America for the West Indies, where he would spend time writing about the beauty of nature. In 1778, Freneau returned to America, and rejoined the patriotic cause. Soon Thomas Jefferson worked to get Freneau to move to Philadelphia in order to edit a partisan newspaper that would counter the Federalist newspaper The Gazette of the United States. Owing to The Gazette's frequent attacks on his administration, President George Washington took a particular dislike to Freneau. Freneau later retired to a more rural life and wrote a mix of political and nature works. He died at 80 years old on December 18, 1832 because of lost its way home in blizzard.

弗伦诺出生在新纽约城一个酒商家庭,家中共五个孩子,他是长子。父亲是胡格诺派教徒。1767年,父亲去世。同年费伦诺进入普林斯顿大学念书。1771,大学毕业,他开始教书,但很快便放弃了。1776年,他前往印第安西部,在那儿他创作了很多描写自然风景的诗。1778年,他重回美国,再度加入爱国事业。不久,受到国务卿杰斐逊的重用,他在费城创办《国民报》,支持自由派民主政治。由于连续发表攻击华盛顿总统的文章,华盛顿总统怒不可遏,对弗伦诺非常讨厌。此后,他回到农村生活,创作了一些政治自然诗。他晚年颇为凄凉。1832年,弗伦诺在回家的路上因暴风雪迷路,于12月18日去世,终年80岁。●The Works 著作● The Rising Glory of America《美洲新兴的荣耀》● The House of Night《夜之屋》● The British Prison Ship《英国囚船》● To the Memory of the Brave Americans《纪念英勇的美国人》● The Wild Honey Suckle《野忍冬花》● The Indian Burying Ground《印第安人墓地》● On the Emigration to America and Peopling the Western

Country《向美洲移民颂》● The Hurricane《飓风》● The Sea Voyage《海上航行》●Selected Reading 名著选读

The Wild Honey Suckle

导读:漫步田间看到树影荫蔽下的野忍冬花,诗人似乎心有所动,从造化的恩惠,联想到美的短暂,颇有感叹人生旋踵即逝的意味。花俏而无人抚摸,枝嫩而无人欣赏,诗人身心入境,推己及“人”。造化又如此惠爱,素装淡抹,以树阴庇之,既逃过贪楚的凝视,又可免风雨的肆虐,又有涓涓细流为伴,汩汩溪水平添了一层静谧,夏日在肃寂中逝去,花儿也面临秋霜而凋萎。美是那菲利普·弗伦诺画像么短暂,人生或许亦莫过于此吧。The Wild Honey SuckleFair flower, that dost so comely grow,Hid in this silent, dull retreat,Untouched thy honeyed blossoms blow,Unseen thy little branches greet:No roving foot shall crush thee here,No busy hand provoke a tear.By Nature's self in white arrayed,She bade thee shun the vulgar eye,And planted here the guardian shade,And sen soft waters murmuring by;Thus quietly thy summer goes,Thy days declining to repose.Smit with those charms, that must decay.I grieve to see your future doom;They died—nor were those flowers more gay,The flowers that did in Eden bloom;Unpitying frosts, and Autumn's powerShall leave no vestige of this flower.From morning suns and evening dewsAt first thy little being came:If nothing once, you nothing lose,For when you die you are the same;The space between, is but an hour,The frail duration of a flower.

Chapter II The Birth of American Literature 第二章 美国文学的诞生

美国发生了一场深刻的思想解放运动,终于完成了对清教的扬弃,使意识形态适应当时工业化的进程,并且在文化上真正独立于欧洲。此时期也造就了第一批美国小说家。成就欧文是美国文学史上第一位纯文学作家,当时写作是以实用为目的,而欧文写作则以怡情为目的。他是美国文学史上第一位幽默家,是现代短篇小说的先驱。

1. Washington Irving 华盛顿·欧文

——Father of literature of the ●A Brief Introduction of United States 美国文学之父Washington Irving 华盛顿·欧文简介

Washington Irving(April 3, 1783–November 28, 1859) was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works include biographies of George Washington, Oliver Goldsmith and Muhammad, and several histories of 15th-century Spain dealing with subjects such as Christopher Columbus, the Moors, and the Alhambra. Irving also served as the U. S.minister to Spain from 1842 to 1846.

华盛顿·欧文(1783年4月3日~1859年11月28日),美国作家、散文家、传记作者、十九世纪早期历史学家。其最著名的作品是收录在《见闻札记》中的短篇小说《瑞普·凡·温克尔》和《睡谷传说》。他的历史著作包括名人传记,如《华盛顿传》《奥利弗·戈德史密斯传》《默罕默德传》,和其他十五世纪西班牙以哥伦布、摩尔人、阿尔罕伯拉等历史人物为主题的小说。欧文从1842年至1846年任美国驻西班牙外交专员。●Biography 华盛顿·欧文生平

Birth: Washington Irving was born on April 3, 1783 in New York City, New York of a merchant family. His mother suggested his name, "Washington's work is ended and the child shall be named after him."

出生:1783年4月3日,华盛顿·欧文生于纽约一个商人家庭。母亲为他取名华盛顿,是因为当时独立战争结束了,儿子以华盛顿命名来纪念他。

Education: As far as formal education went, Irving attended elementary school until he was 16, without distinction. He read law, and he passed the bar in 1807. In his spare time, he did a lot of reading, including "Robinson Crusoe" "Sinbad the Sailor."

教育:就正规教育方面,欧文上初级学校,直到16岁都没有中断过。他学习法律,并且在1807年取得律师资格。空闲时间,他会大量阅读,包括《鲁宾逊漂流记》《辛巴达寻宝记》等。

Marriage: Washington Irving was engaged to marry Matilda Hoffmann, who died on April 26, 1809 at the age of 17. Irving never became engaged, or married anyone, after that tragic love.

婚姻:欧文本打算与玛蒂尔达·霍夫曼订婚。但不幸的是,1809年4月26日,年仅17岁的霍夫曼去世了。欧文一辈子没有结婚。

Career: As a nineteen-year-old, Irving began contributing satirical letters under the pseudonym Jonathan Old style to a newspaper, which were very popular. Irving enjoyed a second success in 1809 with A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty. In 1815 he moved to England for the family import-export business. Within three years the company was bankrupt, and, finding himself at age thirty-five without means of support, Irving decided that he would earn his living by writing. He lived for several years in Spain, serving as a diplomatic attachéto the American legation while writing a life of Christopher Columbus and a history of Granada. Irving served as secretary to the American embassyin London from 1829 until 1832. When he returned to the United States, Irving eventually settled near Tarrytown, New York, at a small estate on the Hudson River, which he named Sunnyside. Apart from four years in Madrid and Barcelona, which he spent as President John Tyler's minister to Spain, Irving lived there the rest of his life.

职业生涯:十九岁时欧文便以笔名向报社投稿,当时反响热烈。随着第二本书《狄德里克·尼克包克尔的纽约外史》出版,欧文再度获得成功。1815年,为了家族生意他去了英国。但不到三年时间,公司破产。欧文发现35岁的1829年欧文居住于此,创作了有趣的作品。自己身无分文,于是决定靠写作为生。在西班牙的时候,他一边担任美国驻西班牙外交专员,一边继续写克里斯托弗·哥伦布的一生和格纳达的历史故事。1829年至1832年,他是美国驻英国大使馆秘书。1832年,他回到美国,定居在纽约塔里敦哈德逊河旁的一处小房子,他命名它为“朝阳”。除了在西班牙出任外交官员的四年时间,剩下的人生,欧文都在那里度过。

Death: On the evening of November 28, 1859, only eight months after completing the final volume of his Washington biography, Irving died of a heart attack in his bedroom at Sunnyside at the age of 76. Legend has it that his last words were: "Well, I must arrange my pillows for another night. When will this end?" He was buried under a simple headstone at Sleepy Hollow cemetery on December 1, 1859.

去世:1859年11月29日晚上,距离欧文完成《华盛顿传》仅八个月,76岁的他在“朝阳”家中突发心脏病去世。传奇的是他几乎预测了自己的死亡。他临终前的话是:“哦,我必须要枕枕头再睡一晚了,一切都要结束了吗?”1859年12月1日,欧文被葬于美国斯利培山谷公墓。●The Works 著作● A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End

of the Dutch Dynasty 1809《狄德里克·尼克包克尔的纽约外史》● The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.1819《见闻札记》● Included are the immensely popular Americanized versions of

German folk tales, "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy

Hollow," and the travel stories包括最著名的《瑞普·凡·温克尔》

和《睡谷传说》● Bracebridge Hall, or, The Humorists 1822《布雷斯布里奇庄园》● A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada 1829《征服格拉达纳》● The Alhambra 1832《阿尔罕伯拉传奇》● The Life of George Washington 1855《华盛顿传》●Selected Reading 名著选读

The Legend of Sleepy HollowChapter 1

In the bosom of one of those spacious coves which indent the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad expansion of the river denominated by the ancient Dutch navigators the Tappan Zee, and where they always prudently shortened sail and implored the protection of St. Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a small market town or rural port, which by some is called Greensburgh, but which is more generally and properly known by the name of Tarry Town.

This name was given, we are told, in former days, by the good housewives of the adjacent country, from the inveteratepropensityof their husbands to linger about the village tavernon market days. Be that as it may, I do not vouchfor the fact, but merely advert to it, for the sake of being precise and authentic. Not far from this village, perhaps about two miles, there is a little valley or rather lap of land among high hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole world. A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull one to repose; and the occasional whistle of a quail or tapping of a woodpecker is almost the only sound that ever breaks in upon the uniform tranquillity.

I recollect that, when a stripling, my first exploit in squirrel-shooting was in a grove of tall walnut-trees that shades one side of the valley. I had wandered into it at noontime, when all nature is peculiarly quiet, and was startled by the roar of my own gun, as it broke the Sabbath stillness around and was prolonged and reverberatedby the angry echoes. If ever I should wish for a retreat whither I might steal from the world and its distractions, and dream quietly away the remnantof a troubled life, I know of none more promising than this little valley.

From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glenhas long been known by the name of Sleepy Hollow, and its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country.

A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the place was bewitched by a High German doctor, during the early days of the settlement; others, that an old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, held his powwowsthere before the country was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson. Certain it is, the place still continues under the sway of some witching power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a continual reverie.

They are given to all kinds of marvellous beliefs, are subject to trances and visions, and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air. The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions; stars shoot and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the country, and the nightmare, with her whole ninefold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols.

The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted region, and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback, without a head. It is said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been carried away by a cannon-ball, n some nameless battle during the Revolutionary War, and who is ever and anonseen by the country folk hurrying along in the gloom of night, as if on he wings of the wind. His haunts are not confined to the valley, but extend at imes to the adjacent roads, and especially to the vicinity of a church at no great distance. Indeed, certain of the most authentic historians of those parts, who have been careful in collecting and collating the floating facts concerning this spectre, allege that the body of the trooper having been buried in the churchyard, the ghost rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head, and that the rushing speed with which he sometimes passes along the Hollow, like a midnight blast, is owing to his being belated, and in a hurry to get back to the churchyard before daybreak.

Such is the general purport of this legendary superstition, which has furnished materials for many a wild story in that region of shadows; and the spectre is known at all the country firesides, by the name of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow.

It is remarkable that the visionary propensity I have mentioned is not confined to the native inhabitants of the 电影海报valley, but is unconsciously imbibed by 电影《断头谷》改编自《睡谷传every one who resides there for a time. 说》However wide awake they may have been before they entered that sleepy region, they are sure, in a little time, to inhale the witching influence of the air, and begin to grow imaginative, to dream dreams, and see apparitions.

2. James Fenimore Cooper 詹姆斯·费尼莫尔·库柏

●A Brief Introduction of James Fenimore Cooper 库柏简介

Cooper established his reputation after his second novel, The Spy, and in his third book, the autobiographical Pioneers(1823), Cooper introduced the character of Natty Bumppo, a uniquely American personification of ruggedindividualism and the pioneer spirit. Emerson called Pioneers "our first national novel."

库伯的第二部小说《间谍》让他声名鹊起。他的第三部自传作品《拓荒者》描写了纳蒂·班波,一个具有美国独有的坚定的个人主义和开拓者精神的人物。爱默生称《拓荒者》是“美国第一部民族小说”。●Biography 库柏生平

James Fenimore Cooper was born on September 15, 1789 in Burlington, New Jersey, the twelfth of thirteen children. In 1790, the family moved to Lake Otsego, in upstate New York. Early experiences in a frontier town gave Cooper the background for The Pioneers(1823), among other frontier novels.

After being expelled from Yale College, in 1806 he tried to run away to sea, but his father intervened and got him a commission in the United States Navy. After the deaths of his father and older brothers left him heavily in debt, Cooper cast about for a reliable source of income, and his career as a writer began. His first tale, Precaution, was published in 1820; the work and its reception were agreeable enough to encourage Cooper to continue, and his next novel, The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground(1821) established him as an exciting new presence on the American literary scene. More works quickly followed—The Pilot(1824), Lionel Lincoln(1825), The Last of the Mohicans(1826), and The Prairie(1827).成就司考特认为《间谍》是美国第一部历史浪漫小说。《拓荒者》是第一部描写有关海的小说。《莱那尔·林肯》是第一部研究充分的历史小说。《美国海军史》是第一部全面的美国海军历史小说。《归途》和《家乡面貌》是第一部关于美国社会风俗的国际小说。《萨坦斯托》《带锁链的人》和《红种人》是第一个美国小说三部曲。——the First American Writer Renowned in Europe

By the time of his death, Cooper had 第一位蜚声欧洲的美国作家developed an international reputation as America's "national novelist" and was probably more successful in the overseas market. But both at home and abroad Cooper was best known for his five Leatherstocking novels(The Pioneers, 1823, The Last of the Mohicans, 1826, The Prairie, 1827, The Pathfinder, 1840, and The Deerslayer, 1841). All his novels utilized historical themes and helped to form the romantic popular sense of American history in the nineteenth century.

1789年9月15日,库柏出生在新泽西州的伯灵顿。家中共13个孩子,他是第12个。1790年,库柏全家搬到了纽约北部的奥斯威戈湖。边疆小镇生活的早期经验为库柏的《拓荒者》奠定了背景。

1806年,库柏被耶鲁大学开除。他想逃到海上去,但父亲阻止了他,并让他去美国海军服役。父亲、长兄相继去世后,库柏想方设法寻找一个稳定的收入,就这样开启了他的作家生涯。1820年,他的第一部作品《戒备》出版。在受到全世界的认可之后他开始了第二部小说《间谍》。这是一部描写美国革命的传奇故事,它使库柏闻名于大西洋两岸。接下来的更多作品包括:1824年的《拓荒者》、1825年的《莱那尔·林肯》、1826年的《最后的莫希干人》和1827年的《草原》。

到库柏去世的时候,他已经是享誉世界的美国“国民小说家”,在国外更受欢迎。然而,相同的一点是,不管在国内还是国外,库柏最著名的作品都是《皮袜子故事集》五步曲,包括《拓荒者》《最后的莫希干人》《草原》《探路者》《杀鹿者》。库柏的所有小说都以历史题材为背景,有助于形成十九世纪美国历史的浪漫主义意识。●The Works 著作

Cooper was a prolific writer, publishing 32 novels, 12 works of nonfiction, a play and numerous pamphlets and articles. His most lasting contributions to American literature were his five books about Natty Bumppo, varying in genre from implausible romantic adventure to realistic narrative.

库柏是一位多产的作者,共出版32部小说,12部非小说作品,一部戏剧,还有无数的小册子和文章。他对美国文坛最持久的贡献是他的《皮袜子故事集》五步曲,风格从浪漫主义的冒险到现实主义的描述。● The Precaution 1820《戒备》● The Spy 1821《间谍》● The Leatherstocking Tales《皮袜子故事集》五步曲:● The Pioneer 1823《拓荒者》● The Last of the Mohicans 1826《最后的莫希干人》● The Prairie 1827《草原》● The Pathfinder 1840《探路者》● The Deer-slayer 1841《杀鹿者》● The Pilot 1824《舵手》●Selected Reading 名著选读

The Last of the MohicansThe Last of the Mohicans

书籍简介:

小说以威廉·亨利堡司令孟罗上校的两个女儿科拉和艾丽斯前往堡垒探望父亲途中被劫持的经历为主线,展开了在原始森林中追踪、伏击、战斗等一系列惊险情节的描写。主人公纳蒂·邦波,此时已做了英军的侦察员,并已获得“鹰眼”的绰号,他和他的老友莫希干族酋长“大蟒蛇”钦加哥,以及钦加哥的儿子“快腿鹿”恩卡斯挺身而出,为了救出姐妹俩,和劫持者展开了一场惊心动魄的斗争,最后以一场大厮杀告终。Chapter 1

"Mine ear is open, and my heart prepared:

The worst is wordly loss thou canst unfold:—库柏纪念币

Say, is my kingdom lost?" —Shakespeare wars of North America, that the toils and dangers of the wilderness were to be encountered before the adverse hosts could meet. A wide and apparently an imperviousboundary of forests severed the possessions of the hostile provinces of France and England. The hardy colonist, and the trained European who fought at his side, 《最后的莫希干人》frequently expended months in struggling against the rapids of the streams, or in effecting the rugged passes of the mountains, in quest of an opportunity to exhibit their courage in a more martial conflict. But, emulatingthe patience and self-denial of the practiced native warriors, they learned to overcome every difficulty; and it would seem that, in time, there was no recess of the woods so dark, nor any secret place so lovely, that it might claim exemption from the inroads of those who had pledged their blood to satiatetheir vengeance, or to uphold the cold and selfish policy of the distant monarchs of Europe.

Perhaps no district throughout the wide extent of the intermediate frontiers can furnish a livelier picture of the cruelty and fierceness of the savage warfare of those periods than the country which lies between the head waters of the Hudson and the adjacent lakes.

The facilities which nature had there offered to the march of the combatants were too obvious to be neglected. The lengthened sheet of the Champlain stretched from the frontiers of Canada, deep within the borders of the neighboring province of New York, forming a natural passage across half the distance that the French were compelled to master in order to strike their enemies. Near its southern termination, it received the contributions of another lake, whose waters were so limpid as to have been exclusively selected by the Jesuit missionaries to perform the typical purification of baptism, and to obtain for it the title of lake "du Saint Sacrement."The less zealous English thought they conferred a sufficient honor on its unsullied fountains, when they bestowed the name of their reigning prince, the second of the house of Hanover. The two united to rob the untutored possessors of its wooded scenery of their native right to perpetuate its original appellation of "Horican."

Winding its way among countless islands, and imbedded in mountains, the "holy lake" extended a dozen leagues still further to the south. With the high plain that there interposeditself to the further passage of the water, commenced a portage of as many miles, which conducted the adventurer to the banks of the Hudson, at a point where, with the usual obstructions of the rapids, or rifts, as they were then termed in the language of the country, the river became navigable to the tide.

While, in the pursuit of their daring plans of annoyance, the restless enterprise of the French even attempted the distant and difficult gorges of the Alleghany, it may easily be imagined that their proverbial acuteness would not overlook the natural advantages of the district we have just described. It became, emphatically, the bloody arena, in which most of the battles for the mastery of the colonies were contested. Fortswere erected at the different points that commanded the facilities of the route, and were taken and retaken, razed and rebuilt, as victory alighted on the hostile banners. While the husbandman shrank back from the dangerous passes, within the safer boundaries of the more ancient settlements, armies larger than those that had often disposed of the sceptersof the mother countries, were seen to bury themselves in these forests, whence they rarely returned but in skeleton bands, that were haggard with care or dejected by defeat. Though the arts of peace were unknown to this fatal region, its forests were alive with men; its shades and glens rang with the sounds of martial music, and the echoes of its mountains threw back the laugh, or repeated the wantoncry, of many a gallant and reckless youth, as he hurried by them, in the noontide of his spirits, to slumber in a long night of forgetfulness.

3. William Cullen Bryant 威廉·柯伦·布莱恩特

成就威廉·柯伦·布莱恩特是美国第一位获得国际声誉的诗人。他创立了他自己的诗歌理论和实践方式,建立在浪漫主义理论的情感表达、自然性、简洁性、同时性、不规则性和自由度上,使其正好适用于浪漫主义运动,这也正是他期盼已久的长达十多年的文学运动。●A Brief Introduction of William Cullen Bryant 威廉·柯伦·布莱恩特简介

William Cullen Bryant(November 3, ——The first important American Poet of Naturalism 1794–June 12,(1878) was an who was considered as the American romantic poet, journalist, and American Wadsworth.美国首位重要的自然派诗人,经long-time editor of the New York Evening 常被称为“美国的沃兹沃斯”。Post. William Cullen Bryant lived a long and active life. As a journalist he campaigned vigorously for free speech, free trade, the rights of workman, and the abolition of slavery. He was a radical spokesman for the common people, the laborers and mechanics in the city and the small farmers in the country. As a poet he is an important presence in American literary history as his works mark the birth of American poetry.

威廉·柯伦·布莱恩特(1794年11月3日~1878年6月12日)是美国浪漫主义诗人、记者、《纽约晚报》长期主编。布莱恩特这一生,长寿而且精力充沛。作为一名记者,他为自由话语权、自由贸易、工人权利、废除奴隶而不懈斗争。他是纽约普通大众、工人、商人和小农场主的代言人。作为一位诗人,他的作品开启了美国的诗歌时代,在美国文学史上占有重要地位。●Biography 布莱恩特生平

Birth and Education: Bryant was born on November 3, 1794 in Cummington, Massachusetts. His father was an eminent physician and traveled a lot and influenced little Bryant very much. After just two years at Williams College, he studied law in Worthington and Bridgewater in Massachusetts, and he was admitted to the barin 1815.

Poetry: Bryant developed an interest in poetry early in life. Considered as child-prodigy, Bryant published his first poem at the age of ten and his first book, The Embargo, sent by his father without his approval to literary magazines and published in 1808. "Thanatopsis", his most famous poem, was published when he was eighteen years old in his first collection Poem, which consisted of eight of his poems, such as "To a Waterfowl" and "The Yellow Violet".

Career: From 1816 to 1825, he passed ten years in successful practice in the courts. In 1825, he moved to New York, devoted his attention to literature and served as an assistant editor, finally he became the Editor-in-Chief and reminded for half a century.

Later years: Bryant shifted from writing his own poetry to translating Homer. He died in 1878 of complications from an accidental fall.

出生和教育:1794年11月3日,布莱恩特出生在曼切斯特汉普郡。父亲是位杰出的物理学家,阅历丰富,对布莱恩特的人生产生了很大影响。布莱恩特在威廉姆斯学院学习两年,随后去华盛顿布莱恩特在纽约的房子和布里奇沃特学习法律。1815年,他被获准当律师。

诗歌:小时候,布莱恩特就对诗歌感兴趣。十岁的时候,他发表了第一本书《禁运》而被认为是神童。《禁运》是1808年布莱恩特的父亲做主替他投稿并发表的书。《关于死亡的感想》是在他十八岁的时候发表的诗歌,反响热烈,是布莱恩特最著名的诗歌,收录在他的第一本诗集中,同时还收录有《致飞鸟》《黄色的堇香花》等。

职业生涯:从1816年到1825年的这十年中,布莱恩特是一位成功的律师。1825年他移居纽约,投身于文坛,成为助理编辑,最终成为总编辑并当了近五十年。

晚年:布莱恩特从写诗转移到翻译在纽约市立图书馆附近的布莱恩特公园里的布莱恩特雕塑荷马作品。1878年,布莱恩特突然跌倒后不幸去世。●The Works 著作● The Embargo 1808《禁运》● To a Waterfowl 1815《致水鸟》● Thanatopsis 1818《关于死亡的感想》● Poem 1821《诗集》● The Fountain and Other Poem 1842《泉水与其他》● The White-Footed Deer and Other Poem 1844《白足鹿及其他

诗》● Letters of a Traveller, or, Notes of Things Seen in Europe and

America 1850《游历者的信札》● Thirty Poems 1864《诗三十首》● The Flood of Years 1876《似水流年》●Selected Reading 名著选读

To a Waterfowl

导读:《致水鸟》语言简洁优美、清新简朴,是诗人在一个冬天散步时所思所想。阅读时注意诗人表达的场景——天气、时间、诗人、水鸟。To a WaterfowlWHITHER, midst falling dew,While glow the heavens with the last steps of day,Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursueThy solitary way?Vainly the fowler's eyeMight mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong,As, darkly seen against the crimson sky,Thy figure floats along.Seek'st thou the plashybrinkOf weedy lake, or margeof river wide,Or where the rocking billowsrise and sinkOn the chafedocean-side?There is a Power whose careTeaches thy way along that pathless coast—The desert and illimitable air—Lone wandering, but not lost.All day thy wings have fanned,At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere,Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land,Though the dark night is near.And soon that toil shall end;Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest,And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend,Soon, o'er thy sheltered nest.Thou'rtgone, the abyssof heavenHath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heartDeeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given,And shall not soon depart.He who, from zone to zone,Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,In the long way that I must tread alone,Will lead my steps aright.4. Edgar Allan Poe 埃德加·爱——the "Architect" of Modern Short Story伦·坡现代短篇小说的建筑大师●A Brief Introduction of Edgar Allan Poe 埃德加·爱伦·坡简介

Edgar Allan Poe(January 19, 1809–October 7, 1849) was an American writer, 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 considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

埃德加·爱伦·坡(1809年1月19日~1849年10月7日)美国作家、诗人、编辑、文学批评家。他是美国浪漫主义运动的参与者之一,作品以其神秘惊悚闻名。他也是美国短篇小说的开拓者之一,侦探小说的鼻祖,对新兴的科幻领域有着卓越贡献。他是美国首位以写作为生的作家,这也是他一生贫困坎坷的部分原因。●Biography 埃德加·爱伦·坡生平

Birth and Education: Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1809. Poe's father and mother, both professional actors, died before the poet was three and John and Frances Allan raised him as a foster child in Richmond, Virginia. John Allan, a prosperous tobacco exporter, sent Poe to the best boarding schools and later to the University of Virginia, where Poe excelled academically. After less than one year of school, however, he was forced to leave the University when Allan refused to pay his gambling debts.

Military Life: In 1827, he moved to Boston and enlisted in the United States Army. His first collection of poems, Tamerlane, and Other Poems, was published that year. In 1829, he published a second collection entitled Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems. Neither volume received significant critical or public attention. Following his Army service, Poe was admitted to the United States Military Academy, but he was again forced to leave for lack of financial support. He then moved into the home of his aunt, Mrs. Maria Clemm and her daughter Virginia, in Baltimore, Maryland.

Literature Career: Poe began to sell short stories to magazines at around this time, and, in 1835, he became the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond. He brought his aunt and twelve-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm, with him to Richmond. He married Virginia in 1836. Over the next ten years, Poe would edit a number of literary journals including the Burton's Gentleman's Magazine and Graham's Magazine in Philadelphia and the Broadway Journal in New York City. It was during these years that he established himself as a poet, a short-story writer, and an editor. He published some of his best-known stories and poems including The Fall of the House of Usher, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, and The Raven.

Later Years: After Virginia's death from tuberculosis in 1847, Poe's life-long struggle with depression and alcoholism worsened. He returned briefly to Richmond in 1849 and then set out for an editing job in Philadelphia. For unknown reasons, he stopped in Baltimore. On October 3, 1849, he was found in a state of semi-consciousness. Poe died four days later of "acute congestion of the brain."成就埃德加·爱伦·坡——侦探小说鼻祖、科幻小说先驱之一、恐怖小说大师、短篇哥特小说巅峰、象征主义先驱之一。爱伦·坡和他的作品不仅影响美国文学,同时也对世界文学产生影响;而且在专门的领域中影响颇大,如宇宙论和密码学。

出生和教育:1809年1月19日,埃德加·爱伦·坡出生在曼彻斯特波士顿的一户演员家里。爱伦·坡不足三岁时,父母相继去世。他由约翰·爱伦夫妇抚养。约翰·爱伦是一位富有的烟草商,他把爱伦·坡送到最好的寄宿学校念书,然后送到弗吉尼亚大学。爱伦·坡成绩优异,但因嗜赌欠债,和养父矛盾激化,最终被迫辍学。

海军历程:1827年,爱伦·坡搬家到波士顿,并参军。同年,他也发表了他的第一本诗集《帖木儿及其他诗》。1829年,他再度发表了他的第二本诗集《阿尔阿拉夫、帖木儿及小诗》。反响都很一般。随后,爱伦·坡进去西点军校,却同样因为经济困难而被迫离开。他搬到美国马里兰州巴尔的摩的姨妈家,和表妹她们同住。

文学生涯:这时,爱伦·坡以卖短篇故事维生。1835年,他去里奇蒙的《南方文学信使报》担任编辑,并把姨妈和表妹接到里奇蒙,然后娶了当时20岁的表妹,他们在1836年结婚。接下来的十年里,爱伦·坡成了《伯顿绅士杂志》《格拉姆杂志》等的编辑,并发表了《陷坑与钟摆》《毛格街血案》《红死魔的面具》《泄密的心》《乌鸦》等作品,广受欢迎,影响日益扩大。他成了著名的短篇小说家、诗人、编辑。

人生后期:1847年,妻子去世。这对爱伦·坡的打击很大。他的抑郁和嗜酒更严重。1849年,他再度回到里奇蒙,随后前往费城任编辑,中途在巴尔的摩停顿。10月3日,他被发现醉倒在马路旁,经过四天抢救无效,10月7日去世。●The Works 著作

Tales● The Black Cat《黑猫》● The Cask of Amontillado《一桶白葡萄酒》● A Descent into the Maelstrom《莫斯肯漩涡沉浮记》● The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar《瓦尔德马先生病例之真

相》● The Fall of the House of Usher《厄舍古屋的倒塌》● The Gold-Bug《金甲虫》● Ligeia《丽姬娅》● The Masque of the Red Death《红死魔的面具》● The Murders in the Rue Morgue《莫格路上的暗杀案》● The Oval Portrait《椭圆形的画像》● The Pit and the Pendulum《陷坑与钟摆》● The Premature Burial《过早埋葬》● The Purloined Letter《被盗的信》● The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether《塔尔博士和费

瑟尔教授的疗法》● The Tell-Tale Heart《泄密的心》

Poetry● Al Aaraaf《阿尔·阿拉夫》● Annabel Lee《安娜丽贝尔》● The Bells《钟》● The City in the Sea《海中的城市》● The Conqueror Worm《征服者爬虫》● A Dream Within a Dream《梦中梦》● Eldorado《黄金国》● Eulalie《尤拉丽——歌》● The Haunted Palace《群魔闹金殿》● To Helen《致海伦》● Lenore《丽诺尔》● Tamerlane《帖木儿》● The Raven《乌鸦》● Ulalume《尤拉路姆》●Assessment否定→肯定

Poe was known as a writer of fiction and became one of the first American authors of the 19th century to become more popular in Europe than in the United States. Poe is particularly respected in France, in part due to early translations by Charles Baudelaire. Poe's early detective fiction tales starring the fictitious 爱伦·坡C. Auguste Dupin laid the groundwork for future detectives in literature. Like many famous artists, Poe's works have spawned innumerable imitators.

Fellow critic James Russell Lowell called him "the most discriminating, philosophical, and fearless critic upon imaginative works who has written in America". Even so, Poe has received not only praise, but also criticism as well. This is partly because of the negative perception of his personal character and its influence upon his reputation. William Butler Yeats was occasionally critical of Poe and once called him "vulgar".

Until 1909, the 100th anniversary of Poe's birth did he received rewards from his country. In December 2009, one copy sold at Christie's, New York for $662, 500, a record price paid for a work of American literature.

爱伦·坡以小说家闻名。19世纪的美国作家中,他是唯一在欧洲比在美国更受欢迎的作家。爱伦·坡在法国非常受欢迎,法国学界对他的评价很高,这得益于波德莱尔将坡的作品译成法文。他在前三篇小说中塑造的侦探杜宾的形象,可以说是柯南道尔笔下的福尔摩斯的前辈。很多作家竞相效仿他。

当时文坛上,除了詹姆斯·罗塞尔·洛威尔之外,几乎无人可与之抗衡。洛威尔一向不轻易赞扬别人,却把坡誉为“最有见识、最富哲理的大无畏评论家”。然而,由于其性格的消极面和对名誉的影响,埃德加·爱伦·坡的声誉起伏不定。在去世后一段相当长的时间内,他成了最有争议的作家。威廉·巴特勒·叶芝认为他很“粗俗”。

1909年坡一百周年诞辰纪念时,他才受到人们的称赞。2009年12月,坡的作品以66.2万美元的高价出售,开创了文学史的新高。●Selected Reading 名著选读

The Raven

导读:《乌鸦》是爱伦·坡1844年创作的,叙述的是一位经受失亲之痛的男子在孤苦无奈、心灰意冷的深夜与一只乌鸦邂逅的故事。基调凄怆疑惧,源于不可逆转的绝望,随着乌鸦一声声“永不复生”而加深,直至绝望到无以复加的终行。The Ravenby Edgar Allatn Poe(1845)

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaintand curious volume of forgotten lore,

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

"‘Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door.

Only this, and nothing more."

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,

And each separate dying emberwrought its ghost upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow; vainly I 爱伦·坡墓碑had sought to borrow.

From my books surceaseof sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore.

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.

Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;

So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,

"‘Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door.

Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;

This it is, and nothing more."

Presently my soul grew stronger, hesitating then no longer,

"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;

But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,

And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,

That I scarce was sure I heard you" —here I opened wide the door;

Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;

But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,

And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore!"

This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!"

Merely this, and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,

Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.

"Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice:

Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore;

Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;‘Tis the wind and nothing more."

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,

In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore;

Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;

But, with mienof lord or lady, perched above my chamber door.

Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door—

Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebonybird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,

By the grave and stern decorumof the countenance it wore.

"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven, Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore—Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"

Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."《乌鸦》

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,

Though its answer little meaning-little relevancy bore;

For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being

Ever yet was blest with seeing bird above his chamber door—

Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,

With such name as "Nevermore."

But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only

That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.

Nothing further then he uttered; not a feather then he fluttered—

Till I scarcely more than muttered, "other friends have flown before—

On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before."

Then the bird said, "Nevermore."

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,

"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store,

Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster

Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore—

Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore

Of‘Never—nevermore'."

But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,

Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;

Then upon the velvetsinking, I betook myself to linking

Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore—

What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore

Meant in croaking "Nevermore."

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing

To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;

This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining

On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamplight gloated o'er,

But whose velvet violet lining with the lamplight gloating o'er,

She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then methought the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer.

Swung by Seraphim whose footfalls tinkled on the tufted floor.

"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee—by these angels he hath sent thee

Respite-respite and nepenthe, from thy memories of Lenore!

Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!"

Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!

Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,

Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted—

On this home by horror haunted—tell me truly, I implore—

Is there—is there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell me, I implore!"

Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil—prophet still, if bird or devil!

By that Heaven that bends above us—by that God we both adore—

Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,

It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore—

Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore."

Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

"Be that word our sign in parting, bird or fiend," I shrieked, upstarting—

"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!

Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!

Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door!

Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"

Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,

And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted—nevermore!5. Raiph Waldo Emerson 拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生●A Brief Introduction of Raiph Waldo Emerson 拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生简介

An American essayist, poet, and popular philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803–82) began his career as a Unitarian minister in Boston, but achieved worldwide fame as a lecturer and the author of such essays as Self—Reliance, History, The Over—Soul, and Fate. He influenced generations of Americans, from his friend Henry David Thoreau to John Dewey, and in Europe, Friedrich Nietzsche, who takes up such Emersonian themes as power, fate, the uses of poetry and history, and the critique of Christianity.

爱默生,美国评论家、诗人、颇受欢迎的哲学家,曾在波士顿当牧师。他的散文《论自助》《论历史》《论超灵》《论命运》广受欢迎,使他闻名于世。他影响了美国一代人,从卢梭到约翰·杜威,及欧洲的弗里德里希·尼采,他们都采用爱默生的观点——能力、命运、诗歌和历史的有用性和对基督教的批判。●Biography 爱默生生平

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston on 25th May, 1803. After graduating from Harvard University he became a minister of the Unitarian Church in 1829. The death of his first wife in 1831 resulted in his questioning his religious beliefs. The following year he resigned his ministry and toured Europe. While in England he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth and —Lincoln regarded him as Thomas Carlyle.Confucius of the United States and Father of Ameican

On his return to the United States, Civilization林肯称他为“美国的孔子”“美Emerson remarried and settled in 国文明之父”Concorde. His first book, Nature, was published in 1836. This was followed by The American Scholar. Emerson also wrote for The Dial and in 1842 became its editor. Emerson met a befriendedHenry David Thoreau who, for a while, worked as his handyman.Under the influence of Emerson, Thoreau wrote Civil Disobedience(1849).The two men shared the belief that it was morally justified to peacefully resist unjust laws. This philosophy was reflected in his collection of lectures, Representative Men(1850) and his campaign against slavery.

Later books by Emerson include English Traits(1856), The Conduct of Life(1860), Society and Solitude(1870) and Letters and Social Aims(1876).Ralph Waldo Emerson died on 27th April, 1882.

1803年5月25日,爱默生在波士顿出生。1829年他从哈佛大学毕业成为一位爱默生纪念邮票牧师。1831年,第一任妻子的去世使他开始质疑自己的宗教信仰。1832年,他辞去了牧师之职,开始游历欧洲,并结交了塞缪尔·泰勒·柯勒律治、威廉·华兹华斯和托马斯·卡莱尔。

回到美国后,爱默生再婚,并定居在康考德。1836年,他的第一本书《论自然》出版,紧接着第二本书《论美国学者》出版。1840年爱默生任超验主义刊物《日晷》的主编。爱默生和亨利·梭罗一见如故,梭罗后来成了爱默生的杂工。在爱默生的影响下,梭罗写了著名的《非暴力反抗》。这两人都认为和平地反抗不公平的法律是合理的。这个哲学思想也反映在他的演讲集和他反抗奴隶制的斗争中。

爱默生后期的作品包括《英国人的特性》《论处世为人》《群居与独处》《信件与社会目标》等。1882年4月27日,爱默生逝世。●The Works 著作

Collections● Poems(1847)《英国人的特性》● English Traits(1856)《英国人的特性》● The Conduct of Life(1860)《论处世为人》● May Day and Other Poems(1867)《五一劳动节和其他诗歌》

Essays● Self—Reliance《论自助》● Compensation《论补偿》● The Over—Soul《论超灵》● The Poet《论诗人》● Experience《论经验》● Nature《论自然》● The American Scholar《论美国学者》● Politics《政治》● Circles《圆》● New England Reformers《新英格兰改革者》

Poems

·Concord Hymn《康科德之歌》●Selected Reading 名著选读

Self—Reliance

导读:

爱默生强调个人就是一切,一切自然规律都在你心里,所以人只要努力,潜心修养,发挥自己的个性,便可自我完善。“爱默生是一位评论家、诗人、哲学家。他的才能并不突出,才智并不充分,但是他从事的领域并不容易,他的任务并非轻而易举。他的生活紧张充实,努力实现神性人生。他的情感和才智都平等地发展着。他已经取得了很多进步,一个新的天堂向他展开。对他而言,爱情、友情、宗教、诗歌、上帝都是熟悉的事物。过着艺术家的生活,丰富多彩,观察力敏锐,洞察力出色;不是那么强壮,也不是那么灵活;不断地在他的领域中实践着,是一个有着信仰,有着判断力的人。他比其他人更多的实现神性。”——梭罗日记摘选

I read the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conventional. The soul always hears an admonition in such lines, let the subject be what it may. The sentiment they instill is of more value than any thought they may contain. To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men—that is genius. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost, and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment. Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmamentof bardsand sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good—humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.

There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernelof nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowedon that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without pre—established harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny, and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark.6. Henry David Thoreau 亨利·大卫·梭罗●A Brief Introduction of Henry David Thoreau 亨利·大卫·梭罗简介

Henry David Thoreau(born David Henry Thoreau; July 12, 1817–May 6, 1862) was an American author, poet, naturalist, tax resister, surveyor, historian, philosopher, and leading transcendentalist. He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state.

梭罗(1817年7月12日~1862年5月6日),美国作家、诗人、自然主义者、交税抵抗者、测量员、历史学家、哲学家、超验主义领袖。他的主要著作是《沃尔登》,描写自然环境下的简朴生活,以及《非暴力反抗》,号召人们不服从政府的非正义法令。●Biography 梭罗生平

Henry David Thoreau was born on 12th July, 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts, From 1833 to 1837, he attended Harvard University. After graduation, he joined with his brother to establish his own school in Concord.

Thoreau loved nature and spent most of his spare time exploring the local countryside. In 1841, his brother died. Later Thoreau was invited to stay with his friend, the philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson. At that time, Thoreau also began writing and some of his poems appeared in The Dial.

In 1845 Thoreau built himself a house in the woods on land owned by Emerson. The following year he refused to pay his poll tax and was imprisoned. His opposition to the Mexican War resulted in the influential essay, Civil Disobedience(1849).Thoreau's argument that it was morally justified to peacefully resist unjust laws inspired Americans involved in the struggle against slavery and the fight for trade union rights and women's suffrage.

Walden(1854), Thoreau's most popular book, was a long autobiographical essay in which he set out his ideas on how the individual should live his life. In this book he describes his two—year experiment in self—sufficiency(1845—47).Thoreau wrote and lectured against slavery and for many years was a member of the Underground Railway.

Most of Thoreau's work was published after his death from tuberculosis on 6th May, 1862. This included Excursions(1863), The Maine Woods(1864), Cape Cod(1865) and A Yankee in Canada(1866). Thoreau's immense collection of journals was published in 1906 in 14 volumes.

1817年7月12日,梭罗出生在马萨诸州康科德镇。哈佛大学毕业后,他与哥哥在康科德镇建了自己的学校。

梭罗从童年起就与自然结了不解之缘,经常去享受郊外时光。1841年,哥哥去世,他受爱默生之邀,与他同住,帮助爱默生编辑超验主义杂志《日晷》,同时也写一些诗歌。

1845年,梭罗在沃尔登湖畔的森林中盖了一座小木屋。第二年,他因为拒绝交税而被捕。1849年,他发表了著名的《非暴力不合作》,反抗墨西哥战争。梭罗认为应该用非暴力方式反抗不合理的法律法规。这些也体现在他反抗奴隶制、贸易联盟和妇女的选举权等事件中。

1845年,梭罗发表了他最著名的作品《沃尔登》。在文中,梭罗讲述了个人该如何生活,也描述了他两年自给自足的日子。他反对奴隶制,是秘密组织“地下铁路”的成员。

1862年5月6日,梭罗去世。他的许多作品都在死后发表,包括《远足》《缅因森林》《科德角》《加拿大的美国北佬》。1906年,梭罗的日记出版。●The Works 著作● A Week on the Concord and

Merrimac Rivers 1839《康科德河和

梅里麦克河上的一个星期》● Civil Disobedience 1849《论公民的

不服从权利》● Slavery in Massachusetts 1854《马

萨诸赛州的奴隶制度》● Walden 1854《瓦尔登湖》● A Plea for Captain John Brown 梭罗墓碑

1860《为约翰·布朗上校请愿》● Excursions 1863《远足》● The Maine Woods 1864《缅因森林》● Cape Cod 1865《科德角》● Early Spring in Massachusetts 1881《马萨诸赛州的早春》● Summer 1884《夏》● Winter 1888《冬》● Autumn 1892《秋》● Miscellanies 1894《杂录》●Selected Reading 名著选读

Walden

导读:《沃尔登》是梭罗的代表作,美国文学史上的经典著作。它是集梭罗思想之大成者,是美国文化发展史的一个里程碑。本节选自第二章《我居住过的地方,我生活的目的》。Where I Lived, and What I Lived for

AT A CERTAIN season of our life we are accustomed to consider every spot as the possible site of a house. I have thus surveyed the country on every side within a dozen miles of where I live. In imagination I have bought all the farms in succession, for all were to be bought, and I knew their price. I walked over each farmer's premises, tasted his wild apples, discoursed on husbandry with him, took his farm at his price, at any price, mortgaging it to him in my mind; even put a higher price on it—took everything but a deed of it—took his word for his deed, for I dearly love to talk—cultivated it, and him too to some extent, I trust, and withdrew when I had enjoyed it long enough, leaving him to carry it on. This experience entitled me to be regarded as a sort of real—estate broker by my friends. Wherever I sat, there I might live, and the landscape radiated from me accordingly. What is a house but a sedes, a seat?—better if a country seat. I discovered many a site for a house not likely to be soon improved, which some might have thought too far from the village, but to my eyes the village was too far from it. Well, there I might live, I said; and there I did live, for an hour, a summer and a winter life, saw how I could let the years run off, buffetthe winter through, and see the spring come in. The future inhabitants of this region, wherever they may place their houses, may be sure that they have been anticipated. An afternoon sufficed to lay out the land into orchard, wood—lot, and pasture, and to decide what fine oaks or pines should be left to stand before the door, and whence each blasted tree could be seen to the best advantage; and then I let it lie, fallow, perchance, for a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.

My imagination carried me so far that I even had the refusal of several farms—the refusal was all I wanted—but I never got my fingers burned by actual possession. The nearest that I came to actual possession was when I bought the Hollowell place, and had begun to sort my seeds, and collected materials with which to make a wheelbarrowto carry it on or off with; but before the owner gave me a deed of it, his wife—every man has such a wife—changed her mind and wished to 《瓦尔登湖》keep it, and he offered me ten dollars to release him. Now, to speak the truth, I had but ten cents in the world, and it surpassed my arithmeticto tell, if I was that man who had ten cents, or who had a farm, or ten dollars, or all together. However, I let him keep the ten dollars and the farm too, for I had carried it far enough; or rather, to be generous, I sold him the farm for just what I gave for it, and, as he was not a rich man, made him a present of ten dollars, and still had my ten cents, and seeds, and materials for a wheelbarrow left. I found thus that I had been a rich man without any damage to my poverty. But I retained the landscape, and I have since annually carried off what it yielded without a wheelbarrow. With respect to landscapes,

"I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute."

I have frequently seen a poet withdraw, having enjoyed the most valuable part of a farm, while the crusty farmer supposed that he had got a few wild apples only. Why, the owner does not know it for many years when a poet has put his farm in rhyme, the most admirable kind of invisible fence, has fairly impounded it, milked it, skimmed it, and got all the cream, and left the farmer only the skimmed milk.

The real attractions of the Hollowell farm, to me, were: its complete retirement, being, about two miles from the village, half a mile from the nearest neighbor, and separated from the highway by abroad field; its bounding on the river, which the owner said protected it by its fogs from frosts in the spring, though that was nothing tome; the gray color and ruinous state of the house and barn, and the dilapidated fences, which put such an interval between me and the last occupant; the hollow and lichen—covered apple trees, nawed by rabbits, showing what kind of neighbors I should have; but above all, the recollection I had of it from my earliest voyages up the river, when the house was concealed behind a dense grove of red maples, through which I heard the house—dogbark. I was in haste to buy it, before the proprietor finished getting out some rocks, cutting down the hollow apple trees, and grubbing up some young birches which had sprung up in the pasture, or, in short, had made any more of his improvements. To enjoy these advantages I was ready to carry it on; like Atlas, to take the world on my shoulders—I never heard what compensation he received for that—and do all those things which had no other motive or excuse but that I might pay for it and be unmolestedin my possession of it; for I knew all the while that it would yield the most abundant crop of the kind I wanted, if I could only afford to let it alone. But it turned out as I have said.

All that I could say, then, with respect to farming on a large scale—I have always cultivated a garden—was, that I had had my seeds ready. Many think that seeds improve with age. I have no doubt that time discriminates between the good and the bad; and when at last I shall plant, I shall be less likely to be disappointed. But I would say to my fellows, once for all, As long as possible live free and uncommitted. It makes but little difference whether you are committed to a farm or the county jail.Chapter III The Boom of American Literature 第三章 美国文学的繁荣随着历史的进程,美国共经历了三次大的战争——南北战争、第一次世界大战和第二次世界大战。这给人们的思想带来了巨大的改变。时势造英雄,这也为美国文坛带来了繁荣。3.1 The Prosperity of Novels 小说的繁荣1. Nathaniel Hawthorne 纳撒尼尔·霍桑●A Brief Introduction of Nathaniel Hawthorne 纳撒尼尔·霍桑简介

Nathaniel Hawthorne,novelist and short story writer, a central figure in the American Renaissance. Nathaniel Hawthorne's best-known works include The Scarlet Letter(1850) and The House Of The Seven Gables(1851). Like Edgar Allan Poe, Hawthorne took a —The First Short-story writer, starting the Psychoanalytical dark view of human nature. A number of tradition.his unfinished works were published 美国文学史上第一个写作短篇小说的作家,也是美国浪漫主义文posthumously. His works remain notable 学中的心理分析小说的开创者。for their treatment of guilt and the complexities of moral choices.

霍桑,作家、短篇小说家、美国文艺复兴的中心人物。他的代表作是《红字》《七个尖角阁的房子》。霍桑和爱伦坡一样,对人性持一种灰暗的态度。他的很多作品都是身后才发表。因其作品里面对待原罪和复杂的道德选择而闻名于世。●Biography 霍桑生平

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts, a descendant of a long line of Puritan ancestors. After his father was lost at sea when Nathaniel was only four, his mother became overly protective and pushed him toward relatively isolated pursuits. Hawthorne's childhood left him overly shy and bookish, which molded his life as a writer.

Hawthorne turned to writing after his graduation from Bowdoin College. His first novel, Fanshawe, was unsuccessful and Hawthorne himself disavowedit as amateurish. He wrote several successful short stories, however, including My Kinsman, Major Molyneaux, Roger Malvin's Burial, and Young Goodman Brown.

Still, his insufficient earnings as a writer forced Hawthorne to enter a career as a Boston Custom House measurer in 1839. After three years Hawthorne was dismissed from his job with the Salem Custom House. By 1842, his writing finally gave Hawthorne a sufficient income to marry Sophia Peabody and move to The Manse in Concord, which was the center of the Transcendental movement. Hawthorne returned to Salem in 1845, where he was appointed surveyor of the Boston Custom House by President James Polk, but he was dismissed from this post when Zachary Taylor became president. Hawthorne then devoted himself to his most famous novel, The Scarlet Letter. He zealously worked on the novel with a determination he had not known before. The Scarlet Letter was an immediate success that allowed Hawthorne to devote himself to his writing. He completed the romance The House of the Seven Gables in 1851. Hawthorne's subsequent novels, The Blithedale Romance—based on his years of communal living at Brook Farm—and the romance The Marble Faun were both considered disappointments.

In 1852, Hawthorne returned to Concord and bought a house called Hillside. Hawthorne passed away on May 19, 1864, in Plymouth, New Hampshire, after a long period of illness during which he suffered severe boutsof dementia. Hawthorne was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts. Emerson described his life with the words "painful solitude."成就霍桑对美国文学的发展贡献很大。其作品里面充满了寓言和象征。他用光明与黑暗、温暖与冷漠、心灵与头脑、外部世界与内在心理的冲突来表现紧张。他是19世纪美国文学的代表人物。同时因为他描写自然,赞美其古朴是灵感的来源,和文中充满异域风情、鬼怪、古文等,使他成了主流作家。

1804年7月4日,霍桑出生在马萨诸塞州塞勒姆的一个清教徒传统家中。4岁的时候,父亲航海失事。母亲对他非常保护,以致于霍桑孤僻、敏感又带书生气,这也为他的作家生涯作了铺垫。

鲍登学院毕业后,霍桑开始写作。他的第一部小说《范肖》并未取得成功。他曾公开否认这部作品,称之为业余水平而已。随后他又发表了《三座山的空谷》《罗杰·马文的葬礼》《好小伙布朗》等,受到好评和赞扬。

然而,仅以写作还不够维生,1839年,霍桑成为波士顿海关测量员。三年后,他辞职。1842年,结婚成家,在康科德居住,与爱默生、梭罗等为邻。1845年,他再度回到塞勒姆,受詹姆斯·波尔克总统任命为波士顿海关测量员。但当扎卡里·泰勒总统上台后,他又被免职。随后,霍桑开始潜心创作《红字》。他对这部作品投入前所未有的精力,决心把它写好。《红字》一出版,便引起巨大轰动,这更加激发了霍桑的写作激情。1851年,《七个尖角阁的房子》问世。接下来的几部小说,比如《福谷传奇》,是他在布鲁克农场的生活经历,而《玉石雕像》则被认为是令人失望的作品。

1852年,霍桑再度回到康科德居住。1864年5月19日,霍桑因痴呆发作而去世。他被安葬在美国斯利培山谷公墓。爱默生称霍桑的一生痛苦孤独。●The Works 著作● The Scarlet Letter(1850)《红字》● The House of the Seven Gables(1851)《七个尖角阁的房子》● The Blithedale Romance(1852)《福谷传奇》● The Marble Faun(1860)《玉石雕像》● Twice-Told Tales(1837, 1851)《故事重述》● Mosses from an Old Manse(1846, 1854)《古屋青苔》● The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales(1852)《雪人》● Our Old Home: A Series of English Sketches(1863)《我们的老

家》● The Whole History of Grandfather's Chair(1840)《祖父椅子的整

个历史》● Young Goodman Brown(1835)《好小伙子布朗》● The Minister's Black Veil《教长的黑面纱》● Rappacini's Daughter《拉普齐尼的女儿》●Selected Reading 名著选读

The Scarlet LetterXXIII. The Revelation of the Scarlet Letter

Bellingham, for the last few moments, had kept an anxious eye upon him. He now left his own place in the procession, and advanced to give assistance; judging from Mr. Dimmesdale's aspect that he must otherwise inevitably fall. But there was something in the latter's expression that warned back the magistrate, although a man not readily obeying the vague intimations that pass from one spirit to another. The crowd, meanwhile, looked on with awe and wonder. This earthly faintness was, in their view, only another phase of the minister's celestialstrength; nor would it have seemed a miracle too high to be wrought for one so holy, had he ascended before their eyes, waxing dimmer and brighter, and fading at last into the light of heaven!

He turned towards the scaffold, and stretched forth his arms.

"Hester," said he, "come hither! Come, my little Pearl!"

It was a ghastly look with which he regarded them; but there was something at once tender and strangely triumphant in it. The child, with the bird-like motion which was one of her characteristics, flew to him, and clasped her arms about his knees. Hester Prynne—slowly, as if impelled by inevitable fate, and against her strongest will—likewise drew near, but paused before she reached him. At this instant old Roger Chillingworth thrust himself through the crowd, —or, perhaps, so dark, disturbed, and evil was his look, he rose up out of some nether region, —to snatch back his victim from what he sought to do! Be that as it might, the old man rushed forward and caught the minister by the arm.

"Madman, hold! What is your purpose?" whispered he. "Wave back that woman! Cast off this child! All shall be well! Do not blacken your fame, and perish in dishonor! I can yet save you! Would you bring infamy on your sacred profession?"

"Ha, tempter! Me thinks thou art too late!" answered the minister, encountering his eye, fearfully, but firmly. "Thy power is not what it was! With God's help, I shall escape thee now!"

He again extended his hand to the woman of the scarlet letter.

"Hester Prynne," cried he, with a piercing earnestness, "in the name of Him, so terrible and so merciful, who gives me grace, at this last moment, to do what—for my own heavy sin and miserable agony—I withheld myself from doing seven years ago, come hither now, and twine thy strength about me! Thy strength, Hester; but let it be guided by the will which God hath granted me! This wretched and wronged old man is opposing it with all his might!—with all his own might and the fiend's! Come, Hester, come! Support me up yonder scaffold!"

The crowd was in a tumult. The men of rank and dignity, who stood more immediately around the clergyman, were so taken by surprise, and so perplexed as to the purport of what they saw, —unable to receive the explanation which most readily presented itself, or to imagine any other, —that they remained silent and inactive spectators of the judgment which Providence seemed about to work. They beheld the minister, leaning on Hester's shoulder and supported by her arm around him, approach the scaffold, and ascend its steps; while still the little hand of the sin-born child was clasped in his. Old Roger Chillingworth followed, as one intimately connected with the drama of guilt and sorrow in which they had all been actors, and well entitled, therefore, to be present at its closing scene.

"Hadst thou sought the whole earth over," said he, looking darkly at the clergyman, "there was no one place so secret, —no high place nor lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped me, —save on this very scaffold!"

"Thanks be to Him who hath led me hither!" answered the minister. Yet he trembled, and turned to Hester with an expression of doubt and anxiety in his eyes, not the less evidently betrayed, that there was a feeble smile upon his lips.

"Is not this better," murmured he, "than what we dreamed of in the forest?"

"I know not! I know not!" she hurriedly replied. "Better? Yea; so we may both die, and little Pearl die with us!"

"For thee and Pearl, be it as God shall order," said the minister; "and God is merciful! Let me now do the will which he hath made plain before my sight. For, Hester, I am a dying man. So let me make haste to take my shame upon me."

Partly supported by Hester Prynne, and holding one hand of little Pearl's, the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale turned to the dignified and venerable rulers; to the holy ministers, who were his brethren; to the people, whose great heart was thoroughly 《红字》appalled, yet overflowing with tearful sympathy, as knowing that some deep life-matter—which, if full of sin, was full of anguish and repentance likewise—was now to be laid open to them. The sun, but little past its meridian, shone down upon the clergyman, and gave a distinctness to his figure, as he stood out from all the earth to put in his plea of guilty at the bar of Eternal Justice.

"People of New England!" cried he, with a voice that rose over them, high, solemn, and majestic, —yet had always a tremorthrough it, and sometimes a shriek, struggling up out of a fathomless depth of remorse and woe, — "ye, that have loved me!—ye, that have deemed me holy!—behold me here, the one sinner of the world! At last!—at last!—I stand upon the spot where, seven years since, I should have stood; here, with this woman, whose arm, more than the little strength wherewith I have crept hitherward, sustains me, at this dreadful moment, from grovelling down upon my face! Lo, the scarlet letter which Hester wears! Ye have all shuddered at it! Wherever her walk hath been, —wherever, so miserably burdened, she may have hoped to find repose, —it hath cast a lurid gleam of awe and horrible repugnance roundabout her. But there stood one in the midst of you, at whose brand of sin and infamy ye have not shuddered!"

It seemed, at this point, as if the minister must leave the remainder of his secret undisclosed. But he fought back the bodily weakness, —and, still more, the faintness of heart, —that was striving for the mastery with him. He threw off all assistance, and stepped passionately forward a pace before the woman and the childn.

"It was on him!" he continued, with a kind of fierceness; so determined was he to speak out the whole. "God's eye beheld it! The angels were for ever pointing at it! The Devil knew it well, and fretted it continually with the touch of his burning finger! But he hid it cunningly from men, and walked among you with the mienof a spirit, mournful, because so pure in a sinful world!—and sad, because he missed his heavenly kindred! Now, at the death-hour, he stands up before you! He bids you look again at Hester's scarlet letter! He tells you, that, with all its mysterious horror, it is but the shadow of what he bears on his own breast, and that even this, his own red stigma, is no more than the type of what has seared his inmost heart! Stand any here that question God's judgment on a sinner? Behold! Behold a dreadful witness of it!"

With a convulsive motion he tore away the ministerial band from before his breast. It was revealed! But it were irreverent to describe that revelation. For an instant the gaze of the horror-stricken multitude was concentred on the ghastly miracle; while the minister stood with a flush of triumph in his face, as one who, in the crisis of acutest pain, had won a victory. Then, down he sank upon the scaffold! Hester partly raised him, and supported his head against her bosom. Old Roger Chillingworth knelt down beside him, with a blank, dull countenance, out of which the life seemed to have departed.

"Thou hast escaped me!" he repeated more than once. "Thou hast escaped me!"

"May God forgive thee!" said the minister. "Thou, too, hast deeply sinned!"

He withdrew his dying eyes from the old man, and fixed them on the woman and the child.

"My little Pearl," said he feebly, —and there was a sweet and gentle smile over his face, as of a spirit sinking into deep repose; nay, now that the burden was removed, it seemed almost as if he would be sportive with the child, — "dear little Pearl, wilt thou kiss me now? Thou wouldst not yonder, in the forest! But now thou wilt?"

Pearl kissed his lips. A spell was broken. The great scene of grief, in which the wild infant bore a part, had developed all her sympathies; and as her tears fell upon her father's cheek, they were the pledge that she would grow up amid human joy and sorrow, nor for ever do battle with the world, but be a woman in it. Towards her mother, too, Pearl's errand as a messenger of anguish was fulfilled.

"Hester," said the clergyman, "farewell!"

"Shall we not meet again?" whispered she, bending her face down close to his. "Shall we not spend our immortal life together? Surely, surely, we have ransomed one another, with all this woe! Thou lookest far into eternity, with those bright dying eyes! Then tell me what thou seest?"

"Hush, Hester, hush!" said he, with tremulous solemnity. "The law we broke!—the sin here so awfully revealed!—let these alone be in thy thoughts! I fear! I fear! It may be, that, when we forgot our God,—when we violated our reverence each for the other's soul,—it was thenceforth vain to hope that we could meet hereafter, in an everlasting and pure reunion. God knows; and He is merciful! He hath proved his mercy, most of all, in my afflictions. By giving me this burning torture to bear upon my breast! By sending yonder dark and terrible old man, to keep the torture always at redheat! By bringing me hither, to die this death of triumphant ignominy before the people! Had either of these agonies been wanting, I had been lost for ever! Praised be his name! His will be done! Farewell!"

That final word came forth with the minister's expiring breath. The multitude, silent till then, broke out in a strange, deep voice of awe and wonder, which could not as yet find utterance, save in this murmur that rolled so heavily after the departed spirit.2. Herman Melville 赫尔曼·梅尔维尔●A Brief Introduction of Herman Melville 赫尔曼·梅尔维尔简介

Herman Melville(August 1, 1819–September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist and poet, whose work is often classified as part of the genre of dark romanticism. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and Billy Budd, the latter of which was published posthumously.

梅尔维尔(1819年8月1日~1891年9月28日)美国小说家、短篇故事作家、散文家、诗人。其作品通常被认为是黑色浪漫主义的一部分。其代表作是《白鲸》和《比利·巴德》,后者是作者身后发表的。●Biography 梅尔维尔生平Early Life of Herman Melville

Herman Melville, the son of a wealthy import merchant, was born in New York City on August 1, 1819. His father died when Melville was 13 years old, leaving the family in poverty. He left school to support his family, working at various jobs as a clerk, farmhand, and teacher. At 20, he worked as a cabin boy on a ship that went to Liverpool back and forth, his first voyage experience.

Two years later, he joined the crew of the whaler Acushnet which sailed around Cape Horn and became a seaman bound for the Pacific. Melville then deserted the ship on the Marquesas Islands and lived with the islanders called the Typee people, a tribe of cannibals who treated him well until another ship rescued him and took him to Tahiti. He eventually landed in Honolulu, Hawaii and enlisted in the US Navy.Melville's Works Inspired by Sea Experiences

After he left the navy at age 25 and inspired by his adventures at sea, Melville wrote novels based on his experiences. He returned to live in his mother's house in New York to write about his travels. He wrote his first book Typee but it was rejected by a Boston publisher so he published it in London, where it took off as a bestseller. He wrote Omoo, a sequel; this too was a success. His third book, Mardi and a Voyage Thither, a psychological and less romantic novel, did not make waves with the readers. He continued writing.

At 31, Melville moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts. There he became a close friend of novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, famous for Scarlet Letter. Melville had almost completed Moby Dick when Hawthorne encouraged him to change it from a simple book about whaling to an allegorical and philosophical novel. On one hand, Moby Dick is the story of Captain Ahab's search for the fierce white whale known as Moby Dick. On the other hand, it is a story of a man's search for meaning in his life and a story of good against evil. He published Moby Dick in 1851 when he was 32.Last Years of Herman Melville

Moby Dick was not an instant success but was only recognized as a masterpiece 30 years after his death. The manuscript of his final work, Billy Budd, was found in his desk after he died. Melville died on September 28, 1891, at the age of 72.

早期生活:1819年8月1日,梅尔维尔出生在纽约市,父亲是个进口商,家境富裕。13岁的时候,父亲去世,家道中落。梅尔维尔辍学打工。他当过银行职员、商场售货员、农场工人和乡村教师,但从未固定过工作。20岁的时候,他随商船开往英国利物浦。两年后,他登上捕鲸船开往南太平洋。捕鲸船在马克萨斯群岛停靠,他与当地土人一起生活,直到另一艘船载他去塔西提岛。他因起义而被囚禁。后来他搭船去夏威夷的火奴鲁鲁,应募到“美国号”军舰充当水手。

航海经验下的作品:25岁,梅尔维尔离开海军,因其丰富的航海经验开始创作。他把他的航海经历写进第一部小说《泰比》,其在美国遭拒,后在英国出版,成为畅销书。小说《奥穆》也大获成功。但是第三部小说《玛地》反响平平。

31岁时,梅尔维尔全家迁往皮兹菲尔德镇,在那里他与霍桑成了至交。在霍桑的鼓励下,《白鲸》不仅只是描写船长捕鲸的经历,而且通过寓意,也体现了主人公追求人生意义,揭露人灵魂深处的“恶”的作品。1851年, 32岁的梅尔维尔出版了《白鲸》。

晚年生活:然而《白鲸》在当时并没有取得成功。在默默无闻了30年后,这部作品被认为是世界文学宝库中的经典之作。1891年9月28日,梅尔维尔去世。《比利·巴德》的手稿是梅尔维尔死后发现的。●The Works 著作

Novels● Typee: A Peep at Polynesian

Life(1846)《泰比》● Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in

the South Seas(1847)《奥穆》● Mardi and a Voyage Thither(1849)《玛地》梅尔维尔和妻子的墓● Redburn, His First Voyage(1849)《莱德伯恩》● White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War(1850)《白外套》● Moby Dick; or, The Whale(1851)《白鲸》● Pierre; or The Ambiguities(1852)《皮埃尔》● Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile(1855)《伊斯莱尔·波特》● The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade(1857)《骗子》● Billy Budd(written between 1888 and 1891; published

posthumously 1924).《比利·巴德》● Bartleby the Scrivener《巴特尔比》● Benito Cereno《贝尼托·切莱诺》

Verse● Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War(1866)《战争诗篇》● Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land(1876)《克莱

尔:圣地行》● John Marr, and Other Sailors; With Some Sea-Pieces(1888)《约翰马尔和其他水手》● Timoleon(1891)《泰莫林》●Selected Reading 名著选读

Moby DickFrom Chapter 135 the Third Day

Almost simultaneously, with a mighty volitionof ungraduated, instantaneous swiftness, the White Whale darted through the weltering sea. But when Ahab cried out to the steersman to take new turns with the line, and hold it so; and commanded the crew to turn round on their seats, and tow the boat up to the mark; the moment the treacherous line felt that double strain and tug, it snapped in the empty air!

"What breaks in me? Some sinew cracks!—'tis whole again; oars! oars! Burst in upon him!"

Hearing the tremendous rush of the sea-crashing boat, the whale wheeled round to present his blank forehead at bay; but in that evolution, catching sight of the nearing black hull of the ship; seemingly seeing in it the source of all his persecutions; bethinking it—it may be—a larger and nobler foe; of a sudden, he bore down upon its advancing prow, smiting his jaws amid fiery showers of foam.

Ahab staggered; his hand smotehis forehead. "I grow blind; hands! stretch out before me that I may yet grope my way. Is't night?"

"The whale! The ship!" cried the cringing oarsmen.

"Oars! oars! Slope downwards to thy depths, O sea that ere it be for ever too late, Ahab may slide this last, last time upon his mark! I see: the ship! the ship! Dash on, my men! will ye not save my ship?"

But as the oarsmen violently forced their boat through the sledge-hammering seas, the before whale-smitten bow-ends of two planks burst through, and in an instant almost, the temporarily disabled boat lay nearly level with the waves; its half-wading, splashing crew, trying hard to stop the gap and bale out the pouring water.

Meantime, for that one beholding instant, Tashtego's mast-head hammer remained suspended in his hand; and the red flag, half-wrapping him as with a plaid, then streamed itself straight out from him, as his own forward-flowing heart; while Starbuck and Stubb, standing upon the bowsprit beneath, caught sight of the down-coming monster just as soon as he.同名改编电影《白鲸》

"The whale, the whale! Up helm, up 根据梅尔·维尔的经典文学名著改编,由老牌导演约翰·休斯顿helm! Oh, all ye sweet powers of air, now 掌舵,加上格利高里·派克将高傲倔强的艾海伯船长塑造得入木hug me close! Let not Starbuck die, if die 三分,使本片成为海上冒险片的he must, in a woman's fainting fit. Up 经典佳作。helm, I say-ye fools, the jaw! the jaw! Is this the end of all my bursting prayers? all my life-long fidelities? Oh, Ahab, Ahab, lo, thy work. Steady! helmsman, steady. Nay, nay! Up helm again! He turns to meet us! Oh, his unappeasable brow drives on towards one, whose duty tells him he cannot depart. My God, stand by me now!"

"Stand not by me, but stand under me, whoever you are that will now help Stubb; for Stubb, too, sticks here. I grin at thee, thou grinning whale! Who ever helped Stubb, or kept Stubb awake, but Stubb's own unwinking eye? And now poor Stubb goes to bed upon a mattrass that is all too soft; would it were stuffed with brushwood! I grin at thee, thou grinning whale! Look ye, sun, moon, and stars! I call ye assassins of as good a fellow as ever spouted up his ghost. For all that, I would yet ring glasses with thee, would ye but hand the cup! Oh, oh! oh, oh! thou grinning whale, but there'll be plenty of gulping soon! Why fly ye not, O Ahab! For me, off shoes and jacket to it; let Stubb die in his drawers! A most mouldy and over salted death, though; —cherries! cherries! cherries! Oh, Flask, for one red cherry ere we die!"

"Cherries? I only wish that we were where they grow. Oh, Stubb, I hope my poor mother's drawn my part-pay ere this; if not, few coppers will now come to her, for the voyage is up."

From the ship's bows, nearly all the seamen now hung inactive; hammers, bits of plank, lances, and harpoons, mechanically retained in their hands, just as they had darted from their various employments; all their enchanted eyes intent upon the whale, which from side to side strangely vibrating his predestinating head, sent a broad band of overspreading semicircular foam before him as he rushed. Retribution, swift vengeance, eternal malice were in his whole aspect, and spite of all that mortal man could do, the solid white buttress of his forehead smote the ship's starboard bow, till men and timbers reeled. Some fell flat upon their faces. Like dislodged trucks, the heads of the harpooneers aloft shook on their bull-like necks. Through the breach, they heard the waters pour, as mountain torrents down a flume.

"The ship! The hearse! —the second hearse!" cried Ahab from the boat; "ITs wood could only be American!"

Diving beneath the settling ship, the whale ran quivering along its keel, but turning under water, swiftly shot to the surface again, far off the other bow, but within a few yards of Ahab's boat, where, for a time, he lay quiescent.3. Mark Twain 马克·吐温●A Brief Introduction of Mark Twain 马克·吐温简介

Samuel Langhorne Clemens(November 30, 1835–April 21, 1910), well known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn(1884), which has been called "the Great American Novel", and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer(1876) and The One Million Pound Note. He is extensively ——The Lincoln of American quoted. Twain was a friend to presidents, literature and Master of artists, industrialists, and European American humorous美国文学史上的林肯,美国的幽royalty. Twain was very popular, and his 默大师keen wit and incisive satire earned praise from critics and peers. Upon his death he was lauded as the "greatest American humorist of his age", and William Faulkner called Mark Twain "the father of American literature".威廉·福克纳称马克·吐温为“第一位真正的美国作家。”全部现代美国文学来自马克·吐温写的《哈克贝利费恩历险记》这本书。——海明威

马克·吐温(1835年11月30日~1910年4月21日),原名萨缪尔·兰亨·克莱门,是美国的幽默大师、小说家、作家。其代表作有《哈克贝利费恩历险记》——被认为是“美国最伟大的小说”、《汤姆·索亚历险记》和《百万英镑》。虽然他的财富不多,却无损他的高超幽默、机智与名气,堪称美国最知名人士之一。其交友广阔,威廉·迪安·豪威尔士、布克·华盛顿、尼古拉·特斯拉、海伦·凯勒、亨利·罗杰诸君,皆为其友。马克吐温有着极大的公众影响力,他的风趣幽默和尖锐讽刺使他得到了评论家和同行的赞扬。在他离世后,他被誉为“他那个年代美国幽默大师”,威廉·福克纳称马克·吐温为“美国文学之父”。●Pen Name 笔名

Clemens' pseudonym, Mark Twain, comes from his days as a river pilot. It is a river term which means two fathomsor 12-feet when the depth of water for a boat is being sounded. "Mark twain" means that is safe to navigate.“马克·吐温”是其最常使用的笔名,一般认为这个笔名是源自其早年水手术语,马克·吐温的意思是:水深12英尺,萨缪尔(即“马克·吐温”)曾当过领航员,与其伙伴测量水深时,他的伙伴叫道 "Mark Twain!" ,意思是“两个标记”,亦即水深两浔(1浔约1.1米),这是轮船安全航行的必要条件。●Biography 马克吐温生平

On Nov.30, 1835, the small town of Florida, Mo. witnessed the birth of its most famous son. Samuel Langhorne Clemens was welcomed into the world as the sixth child of John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens. Little did John and Jane know, their son Samuel would one day be known as Mark Twain—America's most famous literary icon.

萨缪尔·兰亨·克莱门于1835年11月30日出生在美国密苏里州佛罗里达的一个小镇, 是约翰·马歇尔和简·兰普顿·克莱门斯的第六个孩子。那时,这对年轻的父母不曾想到他们的儿子将来会以笔名马克·吐温成为美国最著名文学家。

When Samuel was 12, his father died of pneumonia, and at 13, Samuel left school to become a printer's apprentice. After two short years, he joined his brother Orion's newspaper as a printer and editorial assistant. It was here that young Samuel found he enjoyed writing.

萨缪尔12岁时,父亲因肺炎去世。第二年,萨缪尔辍学当了一名印刷工的学徒。短短两年后,他以印刷工和编辑助理的身份加入了哥哥办的报纸。也正是在那里,他发现了他对文学很感兴趣。

In 1870, Clemens married Olivia Langdon, and they had four children, one of whom died in infancy and two who died in their twenties. Their surviving child, Clara, lived to be 88, and had one daughter. Clara's daughter died without having any children, so there are no direct descendants of Samuel Clemens living.

1870年,他与奥莉薇娅·兰登结婚,他们共有四个孩子,一个在婴儿的时候就死了,其他两个在二十多岁的时候死了。唯一存活的女儿克拉拉活到了88岁,但没有子嗣,因此克莱门家没有直系的后代。

Twain began to gain fame when his story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavaras County appeared in the New York Saturday Press on November 18, 1865. Twain's first book, The Innocents Abroad, was published in 1869, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1885. He wrote 28 books and numerous short stories, letters and sketches.一九一零年,马克·吐温去世那一年,豪威尔斯在《我的马克·吐温》一书中作出当时对马克·吐温的最高评价:“爱默生、朗费罗、洛威尔、霍尔姆斯——这些人我都认识,我还认识我们其他的智者、诗人、先知、批评家、幽默作家;他们互相类似,像其他文人一样;但是克列门斯是独一无二的,是别人无法企及的,他是我们文学中的林肯。”

1865年11月18日,纽约的《星期六邮报》发表了马克·吐温的《卡拉维拉斯郡著名的跳蛙》。各处纷纷转载,马克·吐温开始在国内取得名声。1869年,马克·吐温的第一本书《傻子国外旅行记》出版,1876年出版了《汤姆索亚历险记》,1885年出版了《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》。马克吐温的著作有28本,短篇小说、信件和随笔更是不计其数。

Mark Twain passed away on April 21, 1910, but has a following still today.

1910年4月21日马克·吐温去世,享年75岁。但是距今,仍有不少他的追随者。●The Works 著作● The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavaras County《卡拉维拉斯

郡著名的跳蛙》(1865)● The Innocents Abroad《傻子国外旅行记》(1869)● The Guilded Age《镀金时代》(1873)● The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 《汤姆·索亚历险记》(1876)● A Tramp Abroad《浪迹海外》(1880)● The Prince and the Pauper 《乞丐王子》(1882)● Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》(1884)● A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court《康州美国佬奇遇

记》(1889)● The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson《傻瓜威尔逊》(1894)● Life on the Mississippi《密西西比河上的生活》(1883)● Mark Twain's Autobiography《马克吐温自传》● The L1,000,000 Bank Note 《百万英镑》●Selected Reading 名著选读

The L,000,000 Bank Note

I waited till he was done with what he was at, then he took me into a back room, and overhauleda pile of rejected suits, and selected the rattiestone for me. I put it on. It didn't fit, and wasn't in any way attractive, but it was new, and I was anxious to have it; so I didn't find any fault, but said, with some diffidence:

"It would be an accommodationto me if you could wait some days for the money. I haven't any small change about me."

The fellow worked up a most sarcasticexpression of countenance, and said:

"Oh, you haven't? Well, of course, I didn't expect it. I'd only expect gentlemen like you to carry large change."

I was nettled, and said:

"My friend, you shouldn't judge a stranger always by the clothes he wears. I am quite able to pay for this suit; I simply didn't wish to put you to the trouble of changing a large note."

He modified his style a little at that, and said, though still with something of an air:

"I didn't mean any particular harm, but as long as rebukesare going, I might say it wasn't quite your affair to jump to the conclusion that we couldn't change any note that you might happen to be carrying around. On the contrary, we can."

I handed the note to him, and said:

"Oh, very well; I apologize."

He received it with a smile, one of those large smiles which goes all around over, and has folds in it, and wrinkles, and spirals, and looks like the place where you have thrown a brick in a pond; and then in the act of his taking a glimpse of the bill this smile froze solid, and turned yellow, and looked like those wavy, wormy spreads of lavawhich you find hardened on little levels on the side of Vesuvius. I never before saw a smile caught like that, and perpetuated. The man stood there holding the bill, and looking like that, and the proprietor hustled up to see what was the matter, and said, briskly:

"Well, what's up? What's the trouble? What's wanting?"

I said: "There isn't any trouble. I'm waiting for my change."

"Come, come; get him his change, Tod; get him his change."

Tod retorted: "Get him his change! It's easy to say, sir; but look at the bill yourself."

The proprietor took a look, gave a low, eloquent whistle, then made a divefor the pile of rejected clothing, and began to snatch it this way and that, talking all the time excitedly, and as if to himself:

"Sell an eccentricmillionaire such an unspeakable suit as that! Tod's a fool—a born fool. Always doing something like this. Drives every millionaire away from this place, because he can't tell a millionaire from a tramp, and never could. Ah, here's the thing I am after. Please get those things off, sir, and throw them in the fire. Do me the favor to put on this shirt and this suit; it's just the thing, the very thing—plain, rich, modest, and just ducally nobby; made to order for a foreign prince—you may know him, sir, his Serene Highness the Hospodar of Halifax, had to leave it with us and take a mourning-suit because his mother was going to die—which she didn't. But that's all right; we can't always have things the way we—that is, the way they—

试读结束[说明:试读内容隐藏了图片]

下载完整电子书


相关推荐

最新文章


© 2020 txtepub下载