文:蔡雷英语
作为既正宗又地道的英语文学,英国小说可谓是英语学霸的最爱。我们挑选的这10部最受欢迎的经典名著,有你的最爱吗?01
《简•爱》
Jane Eyre
夏洛蒂•勃朗特 Charlotte Brontë
勃朗特这部哥特式爱情传奇出版于1847年,内容革新,讲述了一个年轻女性追寻更为充实激情的生活,至今仍能引起现代读者的共鸣。
经典名句
Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! — I have as much soul as you — and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit...
你以为我贫穷、低微、不美、缈小,我就没有灵魂,没有心吗?你想错了,我和你有一样多的灵魂,一样充实的心。如果上帝赐予我一点美,许多钱,我就要你难以离开我,就像我现在难以离开你一样。我现在不是以社会生活和习俗的准则和你说话,而是我的心灵同你的心灵讲话。
02
《荒凉山庄》
Bleak House
查尔斯•狄更斯 Charles Dickens
《荒凉山庄》是狄更斯的小说之一,以第一人称过去时所写的章节与第三人称现在时的叙述并行,两者间的切换新颖独到。
经典名句
Constancy in love is a good thing; but it means nothing, and is nothing, without constancy in every kind of effort.
爱情能持之以恒才是一件好事;可是,如果在别的方面没有恒心,那么爱情方面的恒心也就一文不值,毫无意义了。
03
《呼啸山庄》
Wuthering Heights
艾米莉•勃朗特 Emily Brontë
读者推崇《呼啸山庄》是因为其“层层叠叠的叙述结构”和丰富惊人的想象力,更因为《呼啸山庄》超越了爱情故事本身,展现了我们转瞬即逝的欲望之下“永恒的震撼”。
经典名句
He shall never know how I love him; and that not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.
他永远也不知道我是这么爱他,并不是因为他长的英俊,而是因为他比我更像我自己。不管我们的灵魂是什么做的,他的和我的是完全一样的。
04
《大卫•科波菲尔》
David Copperfield
查尔斯•狄更斯 Charles Dickens
这部小说云集了众多鲜活的人物,他们有的仿佛就生活在读者身边,他们看待世界的方式也和读者在现实中遇到的人相似。
经典名句
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
年收入二十英镑,如果每年花销十九镑十九先令六便士,结果是幸福。年收入二十英镑,如果每年花销二十英镑六便士,结果是痛苦。
05
《米德尔马契》
Middlemarch
乔治•艾略特 George Eliot
这部小说人物角色卓越,更精妙之处在于其想法与理念。《米德尔马契》是迄今最伟大的用英文写就的社会和心理学小说。
经典名句
…for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.
世上善的增长,一部分也有赖于那些微不足道的行为,而你我的遭遇之所以不致如此悲惨,一半也得力于那些不求闻达,忠诚地度过一生,然后安息在无人凭吊的坟墓中的人们。
06
《到灯塔去》
To the Lighthouse
弗吉尼亚•伍尔芙 Virginia Woolf
细腻美妙、智慧惊人,极其新颖独到。现代派的大师之作,运用意识流写法,其语言丰富、观察敏锐,不言自明。
经典名句
What is the meaning of life? That was all — a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years. The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.
生命的意义是什么?如此而已——一个十分简单的问题;一个随着年华的消逝会向你越逼越近的问题。那伟大的启示从来没有出现。也许那伟大的启示永远也不会出现。 出现的是日常生活中小小的奇迹、启发、仿佛在黑暗中意外地擦亮了的火柴。
07
《达洛卫夫人》
Mrs. Dalloway
弗吉尼亚•伍尔芙 Virginia Woolf
如果说小说作为媒介最天才之处在于其破除人类意识的囹圄、暴露人们那些构成内在世界的细若蛛丝的思绪、情感和记忆,那么伍尔芙的这第四部小说就是孤立巅峰之作。
经典名句
…but that somehow in the streets of London, on the ebb and flow of things, here there, she survived. Peter survived, lived in each other, she being part, she was positive, of the trees at home; of the house there, ugly, rambling all to bits and pieces as it was; part of people she had never met; being laid out like a mist between the people she knew best, who lifted her on their branches as she had seen the trees lift the mist, but it spread ever so far, her life, herself.
但是不知何故在伦敦的大街上,在这里、在那里,经历了人世盛衰,她幸存下来了,彼得幸存下来了,活在彼此的心中。她坚信自己是故乡树林的一部分,是那栋丑陋的、破败不堪的房屋的一部分,是那些素未谋面的人们的一部分。她如薄雾一般在最熟悉的人们中间铺散开来,这些人把她擎在他们的枝蔓上,正如她曾见过的树木托着薄雾,而她却蔓延得如此遥远,她的生活、她自身。
08
《远大前程》
Great Expectations
查尔斯•狄更斯 Charles Dickens
《远大前程》或许是最地道的英国小说。成年读者重温狄更斯经典,就会发现其智慧与精彩、影响与真理。《远大前程》有狄更斯经典的所有元素,讨人欢喜却不完美的角色、主要故事情节能牵住时局、副线情节串起道德与文化,是部情节精彩的爱情故事作品。
经典名句
I love her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be. Once for all.
我爱她是违背常理,是妨碍前程,是失去自制,是破灭希望,是断送幸福,是注定要尝尽一切的沮丧和失望的。可是,一旦爱上了她,我再也不能不爱她。
09
《弗兰肯斯坦》
Frankenstein
玛莉•雪莱 Mary Shelley
这部先锋作品集科幻和哥特式恐怖于一身,营造了一个难以磨灭的“恶魔”主题,即科学家中的“现代普罗米修斯”,几世纪以来经久不衰。
经典名句
Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good — misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.
别忘了,我是你创造出来的啊,我应该是你的“亚当”啊。但是现在我却像一个被贬谪下界的天使,无缘无故被你剥夺了快乐。我看到处都充满了幸福,可是单单我一个被排除在外。我本性也是仁慈、善良的,都是痛苦让我变成了恶魔。请你让我获得幸福吧,这样我就会重新变成品德高尚的人。
10
《名利场》
Vanity Fair
威廉•梅克皮斯•萨克雷
William Makepeace Thackeray
这部小说的主角或许是英国文学史上最知名的非正统派女主角——贝奇•夏普,小说的情节围绕阶级、跻身上流社会以及引发现代读者奇异的熟悉感的金融危机。
经典名句
The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly kind companion; and so let all young persons take their choice.
这世界是一面镜子,每个人都可以在里面看见自己的影子。你对它皱眉,它还给你一副尖酸的嘴脸。你对着它笑,跟着它乐,它就是个高兴和善的伴侣;所以年轻人必须在这两条道路里面自己选择。