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Frankenstein, loved by many decades of readers and praised by such eminent literary critics as Harold Bloom, seems hardly to need a recommendation. If you haven't read it recently, though, you may not remember the sweeping force of the prose, the grotesque, surreal imagery, and the multilayered doppelg?nger themes of Mary Shelley's masterpiece. As fantasy writer Jane Yolen writes of this (the reviewer's favorite) edition, "The strong black and whites of the main text [illustrations] are dark and brooding, with unremitting shadows and stark contrasts. But the central conversation with the monster--who owes nothing to the overused movie image … but is rather the novel's charnel-house composite--is where [Barry] Moser's illustrations show their greatest power... The viewer can all but smell the powerful stench of the monster's breath as its words spill out across the page. Strong book-making for one of the world's strongest and most remarkable books." 内容简介
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel by Mary Shelley. First published in London, England in 1818 (but more often read in the revised third edition of 1831), it is a novel infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement. It was also a warning against the "over-reaching" of modern man and the Industrial Revolution. (The novel's subtitle, The Modern Prometheus, alludes to the over-reaching and punishment of the character from Greek mythology.) The story has had an influence across literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories and films. Many distinguished authors, such as Brian Aldiss, claim that it is the very first science fiction novel.
"I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion." A summer evening's ghost stories, lonely insomnia in a moonlit Alpine's room, and a runaway imagination--fired by philosophical discussions with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley about science, galvanism, and the origins of life--conspired to produce for Marry Shelley this haunting night specter. By morning, it had become the germ of her Romantic masterpiece, "Frankenstein."
Written in 1816 when she was only nineteen, Mary Shelley's novel of "The Modern Prometheus" chillingly dramatized the dangerous potential of life begotten upon a laboratory table. A frightening creation myth for our own time, "Frankenstein" remains one of the greatest horror stories ever written and is an undisputed classic of its kind. 作者简介
The daughter of Mary Wollestonecraft, the ardent feminist and author of A Vindication on the Right of Women, and William Goodwin, the Radical-anarchist philosopher and author of Lives of the Necromancers, Mary Goodwin was born into a freethinking, revolutionary household in London on August 30,1797. Educated mainly by her intellectual surroundings, she had little formal schooling and at sixteen eloped with the young poet Percy Bysshe Shelly; they eventually married in 1816.
Mary Shelly's life had many tragic elements. Her mother died giving birth to Mary; her half-sister committed suicide; Harriet Shelly–Percy's wife dr5owned heself and her unborn child after he ran off with Mary' William Goodwin disowned Mary and Shelly after the elopement, but–heavily in debt–recanted and came to them for money; Mary's first child died soon after its birth; and in 1822 Percy Shelly drowned in the Gulf of La Spezia–when Mary was not quite twenty-five.
Mary Shelly recalled that her husband was "forever inciting" her to "obtain literary reputation." But she did not begin to write seriously until the summer of 1816, when she and Shelly we in Switzerland, neighbor to Lord Byron. One night following a contest to compose ghost stories, Mary conceived her masterpeicve. Frankenstein. After Shelly's death she continued to write Valperga (1823), The Last Man (1826), Ladore (1835), and Faulkner (1837), in addition to editing he husband's works. In 1838 she began to work on his biography, but owing to poor health she completed only a fragment.
Although she received marriage proposals from Trelawney, John Howard Payne, and perhaps Washington Irving, Mary Shelly never remarried. "I want to be Mary Shelly on my tombstone," she is reported to have said. She died on February 1, 1851, survived by he son, Percy Florence. 精彩书评
Grade 9 Up-Full-color drawings, photographs, and reproductions with extended captions have been added to the unedited text of Shelley's novel, thus placing the work in the context of the era in which it was written. The artwork faithfully represents the text and makes this edition appealing to reluctant readers. Unfortunately, many of the captions provide tangential information that, although interesting, interrupts the flow of the story. However, readers will quickly learn that it is not necessary to read every caption and appreciate this volume for its many quality illustrations.
——Michele Snyder, Chappaqua Public Library, NY
迷失的文明:伊甸园的最后守望者 (书名:迷失的文明:伊甸园的最后守望者) 作者:亚瑟·文森特 译者:李 薇 出版日期:2024年11月 页数:580页 --- 导言:被遗忘的蓝图 在人类历史的宏大叙事中,总有一些章节被时间的长河冲刷得模糊不清,成为后世考古学家和历史学家争论不休的谜团。本书并非关于那些被镌刻在石碑上的显赫帝国,而是聚焦于一个几乎从所有已知的文明记录中彻底抹除的社会——“新伊甸社群”(The Neo-Eden Collective)。 他们存在于公元前三千年左右的某段不为人知的历史断层期,据信是早期人类对“完美秩序”的一次极端尝试。不同于美索不达米亚的城邦崛起,也不同于古埃及的宗教神权,新伊甸社群在地球的某片隐秘高地上,建立了一个完全基于严密逻辑、环境和谐与个体功能至上的社会结构。他们摒弃了情感、艺术、以及一切被他们视为“非必要噪音”的元素,试图构建一个永续、高效且无冲突的“人类工程学样本”。 本书的基石,来源于一队深入中亚无人区探险的地理学家在一次偶然的地震后发现的地下结构。在那些错综复杂、以几何学完美著称的石室中,我们发现了成千上万块保存完好的象形文字石板、高度精密的机械残骸,以及——最为重要的——一位被称为“记录者-734”的个体的最后日志残篇。 第一部分:理想国的诞生与结构 第一章:原初的匮乏与选择 新伊甸社群的崛起并非源于富饶,而是源于一次严重的、不可逆转的环境灾难。早期幸存者被迫面对极度稀缺的资源和不可预测的自然威胁。在绝望中,他们摒弃了基于氏族、信仰或血缘的传统组织模式,转而采纳了一种基于“效能矩阵”的全新社会契约。 第二章:矩阵与功能分类 社会结构被完全解构并重建。每一个个体从出生起就被赋予一个清晰的“功能编号”(Function Designation)。“农业工程师”、“水文调控员”、“信息存储者”、“结构维护者”……这些编号决定了个体所有的生活轨迹、学习内容,甚至配偶选择。情感表达被视为低效的能量损耗,被严格抑制和引导。日志中详细记载了早期的“行为矫正程序”——一种基于神经科学和环境暗示的系统,用于消除个体对“自由意志”的渴望。 第三章:能源的圣殿与自然的反噬 新伊甸社群的核心是他们的能源系统,被他们尊称为“恒温核心”。这是一个复杂的、利用地热与某种尚未完全破解的生物共振原理驱动的系统。它为社群提供了恒定的温度、清洁的水源和稳定的光照,使他们得以在恶劣的外部环境中维持着近乎完美的内部气候。然而,这种对环境的绝对控制,最终却成为他们最大的隐患。 第二部分:逻辑的边界与人性的暗流 第四章:无声的异议者 尽管系统设计得近乎天衣无缝,但“非预期变量”——即人类固有的复杂性——开始显现。本书详细分析了记录者-734的早期日志,揭示了那些在功能编号下挣扎的个体。他们没有反抗,因为反抗的逻辑基础不成立;他们的痛苦是内生的、无声的、对“完美”的内在拒绝。我们探讨了“感知偏差者”(Perception Deviants)现象,即少数个体开始对环境的恒定性产生审美疲劳。 第五章:逻辑悖论:信息与创造力的消亡 新伊甸社群达到了知识的顶峰,却丧失了创新的能力。他们的知识体系是完美的循环系统,任何新的发现都会被归档并用于优化现有结构,而非探索未知领域。记录者-734的日志中,描述了一种对“未知”的集体恐惧。一旦系统外的知识碎片(例如,从外部世界偶然带入的古代神话残片)被分析,社群的决策层倾向于立刻销毁,视之为对稳定性的威胁。 第六章:爱与失控的实验 本书最令人震撼的部分,是对“情感模块重置实验”的记录。为了彻底清除残留的原始情感连接,社群的高级管理者进行了一系列极端的心理干预。记录者-734的同代人中,有一对被分配到不同功能组的个体,他们的“功能冲突”引发了系统记录中前所未有的“信息熵激增”。这段记录揭示了,在最严密的逻辑控制下,连接的本质如何能以一种非线性的方式爆发。 第三部分:熵增与坍缩 第七章:核心的颤抖 当新伊甸社群将所有资源集中用于维护内部的“恒温核心”时,他们忽略了外部环境的渐变。日志显示,外部的气候模式在几十年内发生了根本性的、超出预测模型的改变。核心的维护系统开始超负荷运转,效率开始以微小的百分比下降,而任何对系统进行“非标准升级”的建议都被逻辑回路拒绝,因为“升级引入了不可量化的风险”。 第八章:最后的辩论与功能崩溃 在系统面临崩溃的最后阶段,社群内部出现了分歧。并非基于道德,而是基于对“最优生存策略”的计算差异。控制核心的维护者坚持维持现有结构,而负责外部环境监测的少数人则主张进行一次大规模的、高风险的“系统重启”。这些辩论并非激烈的争吵,而是精确到小数点后几位的效率对比——然而,当输入参数开始随机波动时,计算本身也失灵了。 第九章:尘封的遗嘱 本书的收尾,是对记录者-734最后日志的深度解读。他没有谴责任何人,也没有对他的社会抱有怨恨。他只是记录了,当他最后一次检查核心的读数时,他产生了一个纯粹的、非功利性的“感觉”——一种对“美”的瞬间捕捉,可能源于阳光穿过地道口投射在冰冷石壁上形成的一个完美的光斑。 他没有留下任何关于如何重建或复兴的指示。他只是用他掌握的最精确的文字,描述了“消亡”这一过程,将其视为一个不可避免的、具有数学美感的自然现象。 --- 结语:回响在逻辑之外 《迷失的文明:伊甸园的最后守望者》不是一本关于“如果…会怎样”的哲学思辨,而是一部基于考古发现的,对极端理性主义社会结构的冷峻剖析。它探讨了人类文明在追求绝对秩序时,为自身付出的代价——当效率成为唯一的衡量标准,生命的美丽与韧性将如何被系统性地清除?这本书邀请读者深入探究,在最精密的蓝图中,人性那微小而强大的“错误代码”,究竟是文明的毒药,还是延续的火种。 (本书包含大量专业术语的图解,以及对出土文献的复原插图。)