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《远离尘嚣》是哈代第一部得到一致赞扬的长篇小说。在这部小说里,田园诗的气氛已经消失,远离尘嚣的穷乡僻壤也和人烟稠密的喧闹城市一样,在演出人生的悲剧。女主人公芭丝谢芭是一个农场主,美丽聪慧,但爱慕虚荣。她先后为三个男子所追求,但选择了一个金玉其外、败絮其中的青年军官特罗伊。最后虽然小说在芭丝谢芭与加布里埃尔的圆满爱情中结束,但全书中悲剧气氛多于喜剧气氛,已透露出作者创作中的悲剧性主题。
内容简介
Graced with the splendid illustrations executed by Helen Paterson for the first edition of the novel, this special Collector's Edition of Far from the Madding Crowd also features handwritten letters and drawings by Hardy, as well as rare and intimate portraits of the author and his first wife, Emma. Here, too, readers are granted a fascinating and touching glimpse of how two great imaginative writers interact with one another: This edition reproduces the handwritten pages from Virginia Woolf's diary in which she recounts her now-famous visit with the very aged Thomas Hardy at his home, Max Gate, in 1926.
《远离尘嚣》是英格兰伟大的小说家哈代的代表作。书中的主人公加布里埃尔经营着一个小农场,他对前来帮工的巴思喜巴小姐一见倾心,向她求婚却遭拒绝。一场突如其来的变故致使他倾家荡产,流落他乡。当他来到威瑟伯农场,他惊喜地发现农场主就是他朝思暮想的巴思喜巴小姐,不过这次他却成了巴思喜巴小姐的仆人。
巴思喜巴的女佣范妮和中士特罗伊相恋,并定下婚约。范妮走错了教堂,特罗伊拒绝举行第二次婚礼。邻居博尔德伍德疯狂地爱着巴思喜巴小姐,而巴思喜巴小姐却醉心于特罗伊,并在不明真相的情况下和他闪电般地结了婚。加布里埃尔和巴思喜巴小姐的关系若即若离。博尔德伍德在冲动中杀死了特罗伊,自己也被送进了法院。在巴思喜巴小姐的三个追求者中,只剩下加布里埃尔一个。历经生活磨难的巴思喜巴小姐终于嫁给了对她忠心耿耿的加布里埃尔。"
美丽、高傲的芭思希芭来到威瑟伯里继承她叔叔的农场。忠诚能干的奧克对她一见钟情,但遭到了拒绝。家境殷实的农场主波德伍德因为一次误会不断地向芭思希芭求爱。而芭思希芭却与英俊的中上特洛伊结了婚。然而,浪漫的爱情到结婚后便告终结。几番风波之后,波德伍德开枪打死了特洛伊,自己则向警方自首。失去了丈夫的芭思希芭同时又面临着失去农场的可能。这时奥克来到她的身边,给故事一个皆大欢喜的结局。 作者简介
Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist, in the tradition of George Eliot, he was also influenced both in his novels and poetry by Romanticism, especially by William Wordsworth. Charles Dickens is another important influence on Thomas Hardy. Like Dickens, he was also highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society.
While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life, and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially therefore he gained fame as the author of such novels as Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). However, since the 1950s Hardy has been recognized as a major poet, and had a significant influence on The Movement poets of the 1950s and 1960s, including Phillip Larkin.
The bulk of his fictional works, initially published as serials in magazines, were set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex and explored tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances. Hardy's Wessex is based on the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom and eventually came to include the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, Hampshire and much of Berkshire, in south west England.
托马斯·哈代(Thomas Hardy),英国诗人、小说家。他是横跨两个世纪的作家,早期和中期的创作以小说为主,继承和发扬了维多利亚时代的文学传统;晚年以其出色的诗歌开拓了英国20世纪的文学。
哈代一生共发表了近20部长篇小说,其中最著名的当推《德伯家的苔丝》、《无名的裘德》(Jude the Obscure)、《还乡》和《卡斯特桥市长》。诗8集,共918首,此外,还有许多以“威塞克斯故事”为总名的中短篇小说,以及长篇史诗剧《列王》。 精彩书摘
Chapter I Description of Farmer Oak—An Incident
When Farmer Oak smiled, the corners of his mouth spread till they were within an unimportant distance of his ears, his eyes were reduced to chinks, and diverging wrinkles appeared round them, extending upon his countenance like the rays in a rudimentary sketch of the rising sun.
His Christian name was Gabriel,and on working days he was a young man of sound judgment, easy motions, proper dress, and general good character. On Sundays he was a man of misty views, rather given to postponing, and hampered by his best clothes and umbrella: upon the whole, one who felt himself to occupy morally that vast middle space of Laodicean neutrality which lay between the Communion people of the parish and the drunken section,—that is, he went to church, but yawned privately by the time the congregation reached the Nicene creed, and thought of what there would be for dinner when he meant to be listening to the sermon. Or, to state his character as it stood in the scale of public opinion, when his friends and critics were in tantrums, he was considered rather a bad man; when they were pleased, he was rather a good man; when they were neither, he was a man whose moral colour was a kind of pepper-and-salt mixture.
Since he lived six times as many working-days as Sundays, Oak's appearance in his old clothes was most peculiarly his own—the mental picture formed by his neighbours in imagining him being always dressed in that way. He wore a low-crowned felt hat, spread out at the base by tight jamming upon the head for security in high winds, and a coat like Dr. Johnson's,4 his lower extremities being encased in ordinary leather leggings and boots emphatically large, affording to each foot a roomy apartment so constructed that any wearer might stand in a river all day long and know nothing of damp—their maker being a conscientious man who endeavoured to compensate for any weakness in his cut by unstinted dimension and solidity.
Mr. Oak carried about him, by way of watch, what may be called a small silver clock; in other words, it was a watch as to shape and intention, and a small clock as to size. This instrument being several years older than Oak's grandfather, had the peculiarity of going either too fast or not at all. The smaller of its hands, too, occasionally slipped round on the pivot, and thus, though the minutes were told with precision, nobody could be quite certain of the hour they belonged to. The stopping peculiarity of his watch Oak remedied by thumps and shakes, and he escaped any evil consequences from the other two defects by constant comparisons with and observations of the sun and stars, and by pressing his face close to the glass of his neighbours' windows, till he could discern the hour marked by the green-faced timekeepers within. It may be mentioned that Oak's fob being difficult of access, by reason of its somewhat high situation in the waistband of his trousers (which also lay at a remote height under his waistcoat), the watch was as a necessity pulled out by throwing the body to one side, compressing the mouth and face to a mere mass of ruddy flesh on account of the exertion, and drawing up the watch by its chain, like a bucket from a well.
But some thoughtful persons, who had seen him walking across one of his fields on a certain December morning—sunny and exceedingly mild—might have regarded Gabriel Oak in other aspects than these. In his face one might notice that many of the hues and curves of youth had tarried on to manhood: there even remained in his remoter crannies some relics of the boy. His height and breadth would have been sufficient to make his presence imposing, had they been exhibited with due consideration. But there is a way some men have, rural and urban alike, for which the mind is more responsible than flesh and sinew: it is a way of curtailing their dimensions by their manner of showing them. And from a quiet modesty that would have become a vestal, which seemed continually to impress upon him that he had no great claim on the world's room, Oak walked unassumingly, and with a faintly perceptible bend, yet distinct from a bowing of the shoulders. This may be said to be a defect in an individual if he depends for his valuation more upon his appearance than upon his capacity to wear well, which Oak did not.
He had just reached the time of life at which "young" is ceasing to be the prefix of "man" in speaking of one. He was at the brightest period of masculine growth, for his intellect and his emotions were clearly separated: he had passed the time during which the influence of youth indiscriminately mingles them in the character of impulse, and he had not yet arrived at the stage wherein they become united again, in the character of prejudice, by the influence of a wife and family. In short, he was twenty-eight, and a bachelor.
The field he was in this morning sloped to a ridge called Norcombe Hill. Through a spur of this hill ran the highway between Emminster and Chalk-Newton. Casually glancing over the hedge, Oak saw coming down the incline before him an ornamental spring waggon, painted yellow and gaily marked, drawn by two horses, a waggoner walking alongside bearing a whip perpendicularly. The waggon was laden with household goods and window plants, and on the apex of the whole sat a woman, young and attractive. Gabriel had not beheld the sight for more than half a minute, when the vehicle was brought to a standstill just beneath his eyes.
"The tailboard of the waggon is gone, Miss," said the waggoner.
"Then I heard it fall," said the girl, in a soft, though not particularly low voice. "I heard a noise I could not account for when we were coming up the hill."
"I'll run back."
"Do," she answered.
The sensible horses stood perfectly still, and the waggoner's steps sank fainter and fainter in the distance.
The girl on the summit of the load sat motionless, surrounded by tables and chairs with their legs upwards, backed by an oak settle, and ornamented in front by pots of geraniums, myrtles, and cactuses, together with a caged canary—all probably from the windows of the house just vacated. There was also a cat in a willow basket, from the partly-opened lid of which she gazed with half-closed eyes, and affectionately surveyed the small birds around.
The handsome girl waited for some time idly in her place, and the only sound heard in the stillness was the hopping of the canary up and down the perches of its prison. Then she looked attentively downwards. It was not at the bird, nor at the cat; it was at an oblong package tied in paper, and lying between them. She turned her head to learn if the waggoner were coming. He was not yet in sight; and her eyes crept back to the package, her thoughts seeming to run upon what was inside it. At length she drew the article into her lap, and untied the paper covering; a small swing looking-glass was disclosed, in which she proceeded to survey herself attentively. She parted her lips and smiled.
It was a fine morning, and the sun lighted up to a scarlet glow the crimson jacket she wore, and painted a soft lustre upon her bright face and dark hair. The myrtles, geraniums, and cactuses packed around her were fresh and green, and at such a leafless season they invested the whole concern of horses, waggon, furniture, and girl with a peculiar vernal charm. What possessed her to indulge in such a performance in the sight of the sparrows, blackbirds, and unperceived farmer who were alone its spectators,—whether the smile began as a factitious one, to test her capacity in that art,—nobody knows; it ended certainly in a real smile. She blushed at herself, and seeing her reflection blush, blushed the more.
The change from the customary spot and necessary occasion of such an act—from the dressing hour in a bedroom to a time of travelling out of doors—lent to the idle deed a novelty it did not intrinsically possess. The picture was a delicate one. Woman's prescriptive infirmity had stalked into the sunlight, which had clothed it in the freshness of an originality. A cynical inference was irresistible by Gabriel Oak as he regarded the scene, generous though he fain would have been. There was no necessity whatever for her looking in the glass. She did not adjust her hat, or pat her hair, or press a dimple into shape, or do one thing to signify that any such intention had been her motive in taking up the glass. She simply observed herself as a fair product of Nature in the feminine kind, her thoughts seeming to glide into far-off though likely dramas in which men would play a part—vistas of probable triumphs—the smiles being of a phase suggesting that hearts were imagined as lost and won. Still, this was but conjecture, and the whole series of actions was so idly put forth as to make it rash to assert that intention had any part in them at all.
The waggoner's steps were heard returning. She put the glass in the paper, and the whole again into its place.
When the waggon had passed on, Gabriel withdrew from his point of espial, and descending into the road, followed the vehicle to the turnpike-gate some way beyond the bottom of the hill, where the object of his contemplation now halted for the payment of toll. About twenty steps still remained between him and the gate, when he heard a dispute. It was a difference concerning twopence between the persons with the waggon and the man at the toll-bar.
"Mis'ess's niece is upon the top of the things, and she says that's enough that I've offered ye, you great miser, and she won't pay any more." These were the waggoner's words.
"Very well; then mis'ess's niece can't pass," said the turnpike-keeper, closing the gate.
Oak looked from one to the other of the disputants, and f...
《大地之歌:乡村生活与人性抉择》 一部关于土地、命运与爱欲的史诗 作者:[此处可插入一位虚构的、符合该风格的作家的名字,例如:伊莱亚斯·霍尔姆斯 (Elias Holmes)] 出版信息:[此处可插入虚构的出版社信息,例如:晨星文学出版社] --- 内容提要: 《大地之歌》并非简单的田园牧歌,它是一部深入剖析了十九世纪末英格兰乡村社会结构、人类原始欲望与道德困境的宏大叙事。故事围绕着两个世代紧密交织的家族——坚韧的农场主贝内特家族与新兴的工业巨子索普家族——展开,地点设置在虚构的、被浓雾与古老橡树环绕的“黑水谷”(Blackwater Dale)。 小说以1888年一个潮湿的秋日清晨开场,年轻的伊芙琳·贝内特,一个骨子里流淌着对土地深刻依恋的女性,正面临着家族百年农场的财政危机。她的父亲,老迈而固执的乔纳森·贝内特,拒绝接受任何现代化的农业技术,固守着祖辈的耕作方式,这种传统与现实的冲突,预示着一个时代的终结。 第一部分:泥土的召唤与金钱的诱惑 故事的核心冲突源于土地的归属权与生活方式的选择。伊芙琳的青梅竹马,正直而沉默的牧羊人托马斯·格雷厄姆,代表着对土地最纯粹的忠诚。他继承了父亲的羊群和对这片贫瘠土地的敬畏,他的爱深沉、内敛,却被伊芙琳视为一种束缚。 与此同时,索普家族的代表,富有魅力的工业家亨利·索普,带着他带来的蒸汽机、铁路规划图和对“进步”的狂热信念,踏入了黑水谷。亨利并非传统意义上的恶人,他精明、有远见,他将伊芙琳视为能将他的商业帝国与古老土地相结合的完美“媒介”。他提供的不仅仅是金钱,更是一种能带领贝内特家族摆脱贫困泥潭的“未来”。 伊芙琳在两种截然不同的世界观中挣扎:是对托马斯那份基于共同劳作与记忆的、如同古老石墙般坚固的情感,还是接受亨利所代表的、光鲜亮丽却可能侵蚀她灵魂的现代化进程? 第二部分:阶级的藩篱与情感的悖论 随着故事的深入,小说开始细致描绘当时乡村社会的阶级壁垒。索普家族试图通过联姻来巩固他们在当地的地位,而他们的到来也搅动了原本沉寂的乡绅阶层。小说引入了玛莎·普雷斯科特夫人,一位沉溺于维护旧日体面的乡绅遗孀,她对索普家族的鄙夷和对贝内特家族的暗中扶持,构成了复杂的社会网络。 伊芙琳对亨利的吸引力,源于他身上那种打破常规、敢于挑战既有秩序的激情。她开始学习阅读他带来的报纸,讨论新的市场策略,她发现自己既享受这种智力上的交锋,又为这种转变而感到不安。她逐渐疏远了托马斯,认为他的生活太过单调、目光太过狭隘。 然而,亨利的“进步”并非没有代价。他的采矿项目污染了溪流,破坏了传统的放牧路径,引发了当地农民的强烈不满。伊芙琳开始目睹她所钟爱的乡村环境正在被她所吸引的“未来”所吞噬。她的内心开始分裂:是支持爱人的事业,还是捍卫她血液中流淌的土地? 第三部分:背叛、审判与自我救赎 小说的高潮部分,集中在一次关于水权和土地划分的激烈冲突上。亨利为了加速铁路的建设,采取了法律上的灰色手段,意图强行收购关键的公共水源地。托马斯·格雷厄姆,联合了一批深受其害的农民,决定以最传统的方式——绝食与抗议——来对抗这种“文明”的掠夺。 伊芙琳被卷入了这场对立的中心。她发现亨利为了商业利益,曾对她有所隐瞒,甚至利用了她对家族责任的孝心。这份发现,如同一记重击,让她猛然清醒:她所迷恋的光环之下,是冷酷的计算和对人性的漠视。 在最黑暗的时刻,当托马斯因抗议活动被诬陷,面临牢狱之灾时,伊芙琳必须做出最终的抉择。她没有选择借助亨利的财富和权力去摆平一切,而是毅然决然地选择了她曾经视为“束缚”的道路。她动用了自己所学的一切商业知识,联合了玛莎夫人所代表的保守力量,揭露了亨利计划中的欺诈行为。 结局的留白:收获与重塑 最终,亨利·索普的商业帝国在内部的道德腐蚀和外部的法律制裁下摇摇欲坠,他带着他的雄心壮志离开了黑水谷,留下的只有被挖掘的创伤和未完成的契约。 托马斯虽然暂时摆脱了困境,但他对伊芙琳的信任也受到了深刻的考验。小说并没有给予一个简单的大团圆结局。伊芙琳没有立刻回到托马斯身边,而是选择留在了摇摇欲坠的贝内特农场。 她学会了如何将她从亨利那里获得的现代管理知识,谨慎地融入到对土地的敬畏之中。她开始试验新的、环保的耕作方法,努力修复被破坏的生态环境。 最后的场景描绘了伊芙琳独自一人,站在清晨的雾气中,手里拿着一张新的契约——她用自己的方式,赎回了家族的土地,也重新定义了自己的生活。她与托马斯的关系,将是缓慢而艰辛的重建过程,建立在共同的劳作、深刻的理解,而非盲目的依恋之上。 《大地之歌》探讨了现代性对传统生活的冲击,揭示了在追求“进步”的过程中,人性如何被欲望扭曲,以及真正的勇气并非是选择更容易的道路,而是选择与自我、与脚下土地和解的艰难旅程。这是一部关于成长、损失、以及在荒芜中寻找新生的赞歌。 --- 核心主题探讨: 土地与资本的永恒对决: 对比了基于自然循环的传统农业(贝内特与格雷厄姆)与基于快速榨取的工业资本主义(索普)的冲突。 女性在变革时代的身份重塑: 伊芙琳的角色代表了受过教育的女性,如何在父权和商业社会中,为自己争取决策权和价值认同。 爱与义务的界限: 深入剖析了托马斯那份基于忠诚与责任的爱,与亨利那种基于激情与征服欲的“爱”之间的本质区别。 环境伦理的萌芽: 在工业革命的背景下,首次提出了对环境破坏后果的早期反思。 本书特色: 细腻的自然描写: 作者以极其优美的笔触描绘了英格兰乡村的四季更迭、气候变化及其对人类情感的影响。 复杂的人物群像: 每一个配角都拥有深刻的背景故事,他们共同编织出一幅十九世纪末乡村社会的生动图景。 叙事张力十足: 结合了家庭伦理剧的细腻和关于土地所有权的法律/经济斗争的紧张感。 致读者: 阅读《大地之歌》,如同亲身踏入那片被风吹拂、被汗水浸润的土地。它将带领您去思考,在每一个重大的抉择面前,我们究竟是追随潮流,还是选择坚守那些定义了我们是谁的、最深沉的根基。