具體描述
內容簡介
Charlotte Bront?'s impassioned novel is the love story of Jane Eyre, a plain yet spirited governess, and her employer, the arrogant, brooding Mr. Rochester. Published in 1847 under the pseudonym Currer Bell, the book heralded a new kind of heroine—one whose virtuous integrity, keen intellect, and tireless perseverance broke through class barriers to win equal stature with the man she loved. Hailed by William Makepeace Thackeray as "the masterwork of a great genius," Jane Eyre is still regarded, over a century later, as one of the finest novels in English literature. 作者簡介
Emily Jane Bront? was the most solitary member of a unique, tightly-knit, English provincial family. Born in 1818, she shared the parsonage of the town of Haworth, Yorkshire, with her older sister, Charlotte, her brother, Branwell, her younger sister, Anne, and her father, The Reverend Patrick Bront?. All five were poets and writers; all but Branwell would publish at least one book.
Fantasy was the Bront? children's one relief from the rigors of religion and the bleakness of life in an impoverished region. They invented a series of imaginary kingdoms and constructed a whole library of journals, stories, poems, and plays around their inhabitants. Emily's special province was a kingdom she called Gondal, whose romantic heroes and exiles owed much to the poems of Byron.
Brief stays at several boarding schools were the sum of her experiences outside Haworth until 1842, when she entered a school in Brussels with her sister Charlotte. After a year of study and teaching there, they felt qualified to announce the opening of a school in their own home, but could not attract a single pupil.
In 1845 Charlotte Bront? came across a manuscript volume of her sister's poems. She knew at once, she later wrote, that they were "not at all like poetry women generally write…they had a peculiar music–wild, melancholy, and elevating." At her sister's urging, Emily's poems, along with Anne's and Charlotte's, were published pseudonymously in 1846. An almost complete silence greeted this volume, but the three sisters, buoyed by the fact of publication, immediately began to write novels. Emily's effort was Wuthering Heights; appearing in 1847 it was treated at first as a lesser work by Charlotte, whose Jane Eyre had already been published to great acclaim. Emily Bront?'s name did not emerge from behind her pseudonym of Ellis Bell until the second edition of her novel appeared in 1850.
In the meantime, tragedy had struck the Bront? family. In September of 1848 Branwell had succumbed to a life of dissipation. By December, after a brief illness, Emily too was dead; her sister Anne would die the next year. Wuthering Heights, Emily's only novel, was just beginning to be understood as the wild and singular work of genius that it is. "Stronger than a man," wrote Charlotte, "Simpler than a child, her nature stood alone." 精彩書評
"At the end we are steeped through and through with the genius, the vehemence, the indignation of Charlotte Bront?."
——Virginia Woolf 精彩書摘
Chapter One
There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further outdoor exercise was now out of the question.
I was glad of it; I never liked long walks, especially on chilly afternoons: dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed.
The said Eliza, John, and Georgiana were now clustered round their mamma in the drawing-room: she lay reclined on a sofa by the fireside, and with her darlings about her (for the time neither quarrelling nor crying) looked perfectly happy. Me, she had dispensed from joining the group, saying, "She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance; but that until she heard from Bessie, and could discover by her own observation that I was endeavouring in good earnest to acquire a more sociable and childlike disposition, a more attractive and sprightly manner--something lighter, franker, more natural, as it were--she really must exclude me from privileges intended only for contented, happy little children."
"What does Bessie say I have done?" I asked.
"Jane, I don't like cavillers or questioners; besides, there is something truly forbidding in a child taking up her elders in that manner. Be seated somewhere; and until you can speak pleasantly, remain silent."
A small breakfast-room adjoined the drawing-room, I slipped in there. It contained a bookcase; I soon possessed myself of a volume, taking care that it should be one stored with pictures. I mounted into the window-seat: gathering up my feet, I sat crosslegged, like a Turk; and, having drawn the red moreen curtain nearly close, I was shrined in double retirement.
Folds of scarlet drapery shut in my view to the right hand; to the left were the clear panes of glass, protecting, but not separating me from the drear November day. At intervals, while turning over the leaves in my book, I studied the aspect of that winter afternoon. Afar, it offered a pale blank of mist and cloud; near, a scene of wet lawn and storm-beat shrub, with ceaseless rain sweeping away wildly before a long and lamentable blast.
I returned to my book--Bewick's History of British Birds: the letterpress thereof I cared little for, generally speaking; and yet there were certain introductory pages that, child as I was, I could not pass quite as a blank. They were those which treat of the haunts of sea-fowl; of "the solitary rocks and promontories" by them only inhabited; of the coast of Norway, studded with isles from its southern extremity, the Lindeness, or Naze, to the North Cape--
Where the Northern Ocean, in vast whirls,
Boils round the naked, melancholy isles
Of farthest Thule; and the Atlantic surge
Pours in among the stormy Hebrides.
Nor could I pass unnoticed the suggestion of the bleak shores of Lapland, Siberia, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, Iceland, Greenland, with "the vast sweep of the Arctic Zone, and those forlorn regions of dreary space--that reservoir of frost and snow, where firm fields of ice, the accumulation of centuries of winters, glazed in Alpine heights above heights, surround the pole, and concentre the multiplied rigours of extreme cold." Of these death-white realms I formed an idea of my own: shadowy, like all the half-comprehended notions that float dim through children's brains, but strangely impressive. The words in these introductory pages connected themselves with the succeeding vignettes, and gave significance to the rock standing up alone in a sea of billow and spray; to the broken boat stranded on a desolate coast; to the cold and ghastly moon glancing through bars of cloud at a wreck just sinking.
I cannot tell what sentiment haunted the quite solitary churchyard, with its inscribed headstone; its gate, its two trees, its low horizon, girdled by a broken wall, and its newly risen crescent, attesting the hour of eventide.
The two ships becalmed on a torpid sea, I believed to be marine phantoms.
The fiend pinning down the thief's pack behind him, I passed over quickly: it was an object of terror.
So was the black, horned thing seated aloof on a rock, surveying a distant crowd surrounding a gallows.
Each picture told a story; mysterious often to my undeveloped understanding and imperfect feelings, yet ever profoundly interesting: as interesting as the tales Bessie sometimes narrated on winter evenings, when she chanced to be in good humour; and when, having brought her ironing-table to the nursery-hearth, she allowed us to sit about it, and while she got up Mrs. Reed's lace frills, and crimped her nightcap borders, fed our eager attention with passages of love and adventure taken from old fairy tales and older ballads; or (as at a later period I discovered) from the pages of Pamela, and Henry, Earl of Moreland.
With Bewick on my knee, I was then happy: happy at least in my way. I feared nothing but interruption, and that came too soon. The breakfast-room door was opened.
"Boh! Madam Mope!" cried the voice of John Reed; then he paused: he found the room apparently empty.
"Where the dickens is she?" he continued. "Lizzy! Georgy! (calling to his sisters) Jane is not here: tell mamma she is run out into the rain--bad animal!"
"It is well I drew the curtain," thought I, and I wished fervently he might not discover my hiding-place: nor would John Reed have found it out himself; he was not quick either of vision or conception; but Eliza just put her head in at the door, and said at once: "She is in the window-seat, to be sure, Jack."
And I came out immediately, for I trembled at the idea of being dragged forth by the said Jack.
"What do you want?" I asked with awkward diffidence.
"Say, 'what do you want, Master Reed,' " was the answer. "I want you to come here"; and seating himself in an arm-chair, he intimated by a gesture that I was to approach and stand before him.
John Reed was a schoolboy of fourteen years old; four years older than I, for I was but ten; large and stout for his age, with a dingy and unwholesome skin; thick lineaments in a spacious visage, heavy limbs and large extremities. He gorged himself habitually at table, which made him bilious, and gave him a dim and bleared eye with flabby cheeks. He ought now to have been at school; but his mamma had taken him home for a month or two, "on account of his delicate health." Mr. Miles, the master, affirmed that he would do very well if he had fewer cakes and sweetmeats sent him from home; but the mother's heart turned from an opinion so harsh, and inclined rather to the more refined idea that John's sallowness was owing to over-application, and, perhaps, to pining after home.
John had not much affection for his mother and sisters, and an antipathy to me. He bullied and punished me; not two or three times in the week, nor once or twice in a day, but continually: every nerve I had feared him, and every morsel of flesh on my bones shrank when he came near. There were moments when I was bewildered by the terror he inspired, because I had no appeal whatever against either his menaces or his inflictions; the servants did not like to offend their young master by taking my part against him, and Mrs. Reed was blind and deaf on the subject: she never saw him strike or heard him abuse me, though he did both now and then in her very presence; more frequently, however, behind her back.
Habitually obedient to John, I came up to his chair: he spent some three minutes in thrusting out his tongue at me as far as he could without damaging the roots: I knew he would soon strike, and while dreading the blow, I mused on the disgusting and ugly appearance of him who would presently deal it. I wonder if he read that notion in my face; for, all at once, without speaking, he struck suddenly and strongly. I tottered, and on regaining my equilibrium retired back a step or two from his chair.
"That is for your impudence in answering mamma a while since," said he, "and for your sneaking way of getting behind curtains, and for the look you had in your eyes two minutes since, you rat!"
Accustomed to John Reed's abuse, I never had an idea of replying to it: my care was how to endure the blow which would certainly follow the insult.
"What were you doing behind the curtain?" he asked.
"I was reading."
"Show the book."
I returned to the window and fetched it thence.
"You have no business to take our books; you are a dependant, mamma says; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live here with gentlemen's children like us, and eat the same meals we do, and wear clothes at our mamma's expense. Now, I'll teach you to rummage my bookshelves: for they are mine; all the house belongs to me, or will do in a few years. Go and stand by the door, out of the way of the mirror and the windows."
I did so, not at first aware what was his intention; but when I saw him lift and poise the book and stand in act to hurl it, I instinctively started aside with a cry of alarm: not soon enough, however; the volume was flung, it hit me, and I fell, striking my head against the door and cutting it. The cut bled, the pain was sharp: my terror had passed its climax; other feelings succeeded.
"Wicked and cruel boy!" I said. "You are like a murderer--you are like a slave-driver--you are like the Roman emperors!"
I had read Goldsmith's History of Rome, and had formed my opinion of Nero, Caligula, &...
好的,這是一本名為《傲慢與偏見》的經典小說簡介,完全不涉及《簡·愛》的內容,力求詳盡且富有文學氣息。 --- 《傲慢與偏見》(Pride and Prejudice) 作者:簡·奧斯汀 (Jane Austen) 內容簡介 《傲慢與偏見》是英國文學史上最受人愛戴的經典小說之一,由文學巨匠簡·奧斯汀於1813年首次齣版。這部作品以其精妙的諷刺、對社會習俗入木三分的洞察,以及對人性復雜性的細膩描摹,超越瞭時代,成為永恒的愛情與社會評論的典範。 故事背景設定在19世紀初的英國鄉紳階層,聚焦於貝內特(Bennet)傢族及其五個待嫁的女兒。貝內特先生是一位受過良好教育但性格有些玩世不恭的紳士,而貝內特夫人則是一位典型的“母親”,畢生精力都投入到為女兒們物色到富裕的夫婿上,以確保她們在傢庭經濟狀況並不寬裕的情況下,能夠擁有體麵的未來。 故事的核心衝突圍繞著二女兒伊麗莎白·貝內特(Elizabeth Bennet)展開。伊麗莎白以其機智、獨立思考的能力和敏銳的觀察力在眾多年輕女性中脫穎而齣。她珍視個性和真誠的情感,對世俗的虛僞和膚淺抱持著一種近乎批判性的態度。她的世界觀在兩位重要人物的介入下,開始經曆一場劇烈的動搖:一位是溫文爾雅、富有教養的賓利先生(Mr. Bingley),以及他那位高傲、英俊但難以接近的朋友——達西先生(Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy)。 初遇與誤解的序麯 故事始於尼日斐爾莊園(Netherfield Park)的到來,新鄰居賓利先生的齣現立刻點燃瞭貝內特夫人的希望之火。賓利先生風度翩翩,性格開朗,對大女兒簡·貝內特(Jane Bennet)一見傾心。然而,他的朋友達西先生卻截然不同。他擁有巨額的財富和顯赫的社會地位,但其言行舉止中流露齣的冷漠與優越感,立刻為他贏得瞭“傲慢”的標簽。 在一次鄉村舞會上,伊麗莎白與達西先生的初次交鋒便火藥味十足。達西先生對伊麗莎白及她周圍人群的輕衊態度,被伊麗莎白洞若觀火地捕捉到,並因此在他心中種下瞭強烈的偏見。她對達西的偏見,不僅源於他的態度,還受到瞭流言蜚語的影響,尤其是來自軍官威剋漢姆(Mr. Wickham)的傾訴。威剋漢姆講述瞭自己被達西不公正對待的“往事”,進一步鞏固瞭伊麗莎白對達西的負麵印象。 愛情的悖論與成長的陣痛 隨著故事的發展,簡與賓利先生的感情因為達西先生的乾預——他認為貝內特傢族的社會地位和傢庭背景配不上他的朋友——而遭遇挫摺。這使得伊麗莎白對達西的敵意達到瞭頂峰。 戲劇性的轉摺發生在達西先生嚮伊麗莎白求婚之時。他懷著一種居高臨下的姿態,承認瞭自己對她的愛慕,卻也毫不掩飾地指齣瞭她傢庭的低微和親屬的不妥。伊麗莎白的憤怒爆發瞭。她尖銳地拒絕瞭他,並列舉瞭他拆散簡與賓利以及苛待威剋漢姆的“罪狀”。 這次求婚失敗,卻成為瞭雙方自我審視的催化劑。達西先生隨後寫給伊麗莎白的一封長信,詳細解釋瞭他行為背後的動機:他對簡和賓利關係的擔憂是基於對未來幸福的保護,而他對威剋漢姆的判斷則是基於對後者真實品性的瞭解。這封信迫使伊麗莎白開始正視,她的判斷力是否被“偏見”濛蔽,她是否因為達西的“傲慢”而錯失瞭真相。 超越階級與偏見的和解 故事的後半部分,伊麗莎白在旅行中,偶然發現瞭達西先生隱藏的正直和慷慨。當她得知,是達西先生在背後默默齣資,挽救瞭她小妹莉迪亞(Lydia)因私奔而幾乎毀掉的整個傢族的名譽時,她為自己的先入為主深感羞愧。她開始理解,達西的“傲慢”源於根深蒂固的貴族教養和對社會規範的責任感,而她的“偏見”則是基於一時的情緒和未經證實的傳聞。 與此同時,達西先生也經曆瞭深刻的轉變。伊麗莎白的正直、智慧和不屈服的個性,磨平瞭他尖銳的棱角,使他學會瞭尊重和謙遜。他學會瞭如何放下階級隔閡,以更平等的姿態去愛人。 最終,誤會消除,傲慢與偏見在真摯的相互理解麵前土崩瓦解。簡與賓利重歸於好,而伊麗莎白與達西則在彼此的智慧與品格的映照下,成就瞭一段建立在相互尊重和深刻瞭解之上的偉大愛情。 主題深度 《傲慢與偏見》不僅僅是一部愛情小說,它更是對18世紀末至19世紀初英國社會結構、婚姻製度和財産繼承權(特彆是《安妮法案》對女性繼承權的限製)的辛辣諷刺。奧斯汀通過伊麗莎白和達西的成長軌跡,探討瞭真愛是否能超越社會階級、財富差異以及個體性格上的缺陷。小說對“體麵”與“品格”的探討,以及對女性在社會中的生存睏境的描繪,使其至今仍具有強大的現實意義和閱讀價值。伊麗莎白,這位不願被社會規範束縛、敢於質疑權威的女性形象,成為文學史上最受人愛戴的女性典範之一。