现实百态 》 還鄉 The Return of the Native 》
序
托馬斯·哈代 Thomas Hardy
《還鄉》發表於一八七八年，是托馬斯·哈代（1840—1928）創作中期的重要成果。哈代這位英國十九世紀末期的大小說傢和二十世紀初期的大詩人，久已為我國讀者所熟悉和欣賞，他的小說和詩歌代表作，如《德伯傢的苔絲》、《無名的裘德》、《還鄉》、《卡斯特橋市長》、《三怪客》、《列王》等，從本世紀二三十年代開 始，就通過中譯本陸續介紹到了我國。哈代在他的創作生涯中，自覺地奉行文學“反映人生，暴露人生，批判人生”的主張；同時又自覺地探尋藝術上的不斷創新。
還鄉-作品簡介
《還鄉》正是哈代創作中這種雙重自覺性的體現。故事發生的場景愛敦荒原，以及荒原上固守傳統習慣風俗的居民，就是整個人類生存環境的縮影。故事中男女主人公與荒原的關係，不管是剋林·姚伯的回歸荒原，改造荒原，還是遊苔莎的厭倦荒原，擺脫荒原，都反映了哈代那個時代的“現代”青年與環境的劇烈衝突。剋林·姚伯年輕有為，從巴黎還鄉，滿懷由法國空想社會主義思想生發而來的善良意圖，自願拋棄繁華世界的紛擾勞煩、紙醉金迷的生活，意欲在故鄉的窮鄉僻壤開創一番小小的經邦濟世、開蒙啓智的事業，但他首先遭到的，是與自己最親近的寡母和新婚妻子的反對。由於命運的捉弄，他又突患眼疾，則進而為他的失敗推波助瀾。女主人公遊苔莎與環境的衝突，是朝着與姚伯相反的另一方向。姚伯是生於荒原——走嚮繁華世界——復歸荒原；遊苔莎是生於繁華世界——流落荒原——意欲逃離荒原。他們二人雖都不滿現狀，都具有超出荒原人傳統習俗、思想的“現代”意識，但是彼此仍格格不入。這樣的一對青年男女，多半出於外貌上的相互吸引，再加上初識階段彼此的誤解，在一時的感情衝動之下結為婚姻伴侶，他們婚後的衝突也就更加激烈。又是命運的撥弄，這種衝突不僅難於因勢利導地得以排解、消減，相反卻愈演愈烈，最後必然釀生悲劇。
序
我們要假定以下事件發生的日期，可以確定在一八四○至一八五○年之間。書 中被稱之為“布達茅斯”的那個古老海濱勝地，在喬治王朝時代 是歌舞歡樂的 有名地方，這時遺風猶在，對於孤獨的內地人那顆浪漫而富於想像的心靈，依然具 有吸引人的魅力。
小說中陰沉昏暗的背景取名為“埃格敦荒原”，在這個統稱下，聯合或代表了 好些個各有真名的荒原，算起來至少有十來個。這些荒原在特性和面目上實際說來 沒有什麽不一樣，但是，現在犁鏵開墾出豐歉不同的莊稼地，或是人們植樹造林， 一塊塊強行侵入的田地把荒原始初或部分的一致性多少有些掩蓋了起來。
書中描寫的是整個廣袤野地的西南部分，有的地點可能就是傳說中威塞剋斯
國王--李爾的荒原，作這樣的遐想，令人感到愉悅。
一五年七月
附言
為了不使尋找地點的人失望，需要補充說明一下，我們如果假定小說的行動是 在如上所述聯合成為一體的荒原上與世孤絶的中心地區進行，接近於書中描述的特 定地貌實際上位於那片野地的邊緣，距離中心地區以西幾英裏。在其它方面，原本 散布各處的特徵也被集中起來。
為解答有關故事中女主人公教名“尤苔莎”的詢問，我不妨在此提一下，這是 亨利四世在位時奧厄·穆瓦涅莊園女主人的教名。小說中的埃格敦荒原是該莊園教 區的一部分。
小說第一版於一八七八年以三捲本出版。
托馬斯·哈代
一九一二年四月
對“憂傷”
我道聲再見，
心想把她遠遠甩在後面；
可她情意綿綿
把我深深愛戀；
她忠貞不渝，親切和藹。
我想騙她，
把她遠遠甩開，
但是，啊！她忠貞不渝，親切和藹。
The Return of the Native is Thomas Hardy's sixth published novel. It first appeared in the magazine Belgravia, a publication known for its sensationalism, and was presented in twelve monthly installments from January to December 1878. Due to the novel's controversial themes, Hardy had some difficulty finding a publisher; reviews, however, though somewhat mixed, were generally positive. In the twentieth century, The Return of the Native became one of Hardy's most popular novels.
Plot summary
The novel takes place entirely in the environs of Egdon Heath, and, with the exception of the epilogue, Aftercourses, covers exactly a year and a day. The narrative begins on the evening of Guy Fawkes Night as Diggory Venn drives slowly across the heath, carrying a hidden passenger in the back of his van. When darkness falls, the country folk light bonfires on the surrounding hills, emphasizing - not for the last time - the pagan spirit of the heath and its denizens.
Venn is a reddleman; he travels the country marking flocks of sheep with a red mineral called 'reddle', a dialect term for red ochre. Although his trade has stained him red from head to foot, underneath his devilish colouring he is a handsome, shrewd, well-meaning young man. His passenger is a young woman named Thomasin Yeobright, whom Venn is taking home. Earlier that day, Thomasin had planned to marry Damon Wildeve, a local innkeeper known for his fickleness; however, a minor technical difficulty delayed the marriage and Thomasin, in distress, ran after the reddleman's van and asked him to take her home. Venn himself is in love with Thomasin, and unsuccessfully wooed her a year or two before. Now, although he knows Wildeve is unworthy of her love, he is so devoted to her that he is willing to help her secure the man of her choice.
At length, Venn reaches Bloom's End, the home of Thomasin's aunt, Mrs. Yeobright. She is a good woman, if somewhat proud and inflexible, and she wants the best for Thomasin. In former months she opposed her niece's choice of husband, and publicly forbade the banns; now, since Thomasin has compromised herself by leaving town with Wildeve and returning unmarried, the best outcome Mrs. Yeobright can envision is for the postponed marriage to be duly solemnized as soon as possible. She and Venn both begin working on Wildeve to make sure he keeps his promise to Thomasin.
Wildeve, however, is still preoccupied with Eustacia Vye, an exotically beautiful young woman living with her grandfather in a lonely house on Egdon Heath. Eustacia is a black-haired, queenly woman who grew up in Budmouth, a fashionable seaside resort. She holds herself aloof from most of the heathfolk; they, in turn, consider her an oddity, and one or two even think she's a witch. She is nothing like Thomasin, who is sweet-natured. She loathes the heath, yet roams it constantly, carrying a spyglass and an hourglass. The previous year, she and Wildeve were lovers; however, even during the height of her passion for him, she knew she only loved him because there was no better object available. When Wildeve broke off the relationship to court Thomasin, Eustacia's interest in him briefly returned. The two meet on Guy Fawkes night, and Wildeve asks her to run off to America with him. She demurs.
Eustacia drops Wildeve when Mrs. Yeobright's son Clym, a successful diamond merchant, returns from Paris to his native Egdon Heath. Although he has no plans to return to Paris or the diamond trade and is, in fact, openly planning to become a schoolmaster for the rural poor, Eustacia sees him as a way to escape the hated heath and begin a grander, richer existence in a glamorous new location. With some difficulty, she arranges to meet Clym, and the two soon fall in love. When Mrs. Yeobright objects, Clym quarrels with her; later, she quarrels with Eustacia as well.
"Unconscious of her presence, he still went on singing." Eustacia watches Clym cut furze in this illustration by Arthur Hopkins for the original Belgravia edition (Plate 8, July 1878).
When he sees that Eustacia is lost to him, Wildeve marries Thomasin, who gives birth to a daughter the next summer. Clym and Eustacia also marry and move to a small cottage five miles away, where they enjoy a brief period of happiness. The seeds of rancour soon begin to germinate, however: Clym studies night and day to prepare for his new career as a schoolmaster while Eustacia clings to the hope that he'll give up the idea and take her abroad. Instead, he nearly blinds himself with too much reading, then further mortifies his wife by deciding to eke out a living, at least temporarily, as a furze-cutter. Eustacia, her dreams blasted, finds herself living in a hut on the heath, chained by marriage to a lowly labouring man.
At this point, Wildeve reappears; he has unexpectedly inherited a large sum of money, and is now in a better position to fulfill Eustacia's hopes. He comes calling on the Yeobrights in the middle of one hot August day and, although Clym is at home, he is fast asleep on the hearth after a gruelling session of furze-cutting. While Eustacia and Wildeve are talking, Mrs. Yeobright knocks on the door; she has decided to pay a courtesy call in the hopes of healing the estrangement between herself and her son. Eustacia looks out at her and then, in some alarm, ushers her visitor out the back door. She hears Clym calling to his mother and, thinking his mother's knocking has awakened him, remains in the garden for a few moments. When Eustacia goes back inside, she finds Clym still asleep and his mother gone. Clym, she now realises, merely cried out his mother's name in his sleep.
Mrs Yeobright, it turns out, saw Eustacia looking out the window at her; she also saw Clym's gear by the door, and so knew they were both at home. Now, thinking she has been deliberately barred from her son's home, she miserably begins the long, hot walk home. Later that evening, Clym, unaware of her attempted visit, heads for Bloom's End and on the way finds her crumpled beside the path, dying from an adder's bite. When she expires that night from the combined effects of snake venom and heat exhaustion, Clym's grief and remorse make him physically ill for several weeks. Eustacia, racked with guilt, dare not tell him of her role in the tragedy; when he eventually finds out from a neighbour's child about his mother's visit - and Wildeve's - he rushes home to accuse his wife of murder and adultery. Eustacia refuses to explain her actions; instead, she tells him You are no blessing, my husband and reproaches him for his cruelty. She then moves back to her grandfather's house, where she struggles with her despair while she awaits some word from Clym.
Wildeve visits her again on Guy Fawkes night, and offers to help her get to Paris. Eustacia realises that if she lets Wildeve help her, she'll be obliged to become his mistress. She tells him she will send him a signal by night if she decides to accept. Clym's anger, meanwhile, has cooled and he sends Eustacia a letter the next day offering reconciliation. The letter arrives a few minutes too late; by the time her grandfather tries to give it to her, she has already signalled to Wildeve and set off through wind and rain to meet him. She walks along weeping, however, knowing she is about to break her marriage vows for a man who is unworthy of her.
Wildeve readies a horse and gig and waits for Eustacia in the dark. Thomasin, guessing his plans, sends Clym to intercept him; she also, by chance, encounters Diggory Venn as she dashes across the heath herself in pursuit of her husband. Eustacia does not appear; instead, she falls or throws herself into nearby Shadwater Weir. Clym and Wildeve hear the splash and hurry to investigate. Wildeve plunges recklessly after Eustacia without bothering to remove his coat, while Clym, proceeding more cautiously, nevertheless is also soon at the mercy of the raging waters. Venn arrives in time to save Clym, but is too late for the others. When Clym revives, he accuses himself of murdering his wife and mother.
In the epilogue, Venn gives up being a reddleman to become a dairy farmer. Two years later, Thomasin marries him and they settle down happily together. Clym, now a sad, solitary figure, eventually takes up preaching.
Discussion
With its deeply flawed heroine and its (for the time) open acknowledgement of illicit sexual relationships, The Return of the Native raised some eyebrows when it first appeared as a serial in Victorian Britain. Although he intended to structure the novel into five books, thus mirroring the classical tragic format, Hardy submitted to the tastes of the serial-reading public sufficiently to tack on a happy ending for Diggory Venn and Thomasin in a sixth book, Aftercourses. In Hardy's original conception, Venn retains his weird reddleman's character, while Thomasin lives out her days as a widow.
Hardy's choice of themes - sexual politics, thwarted desire, and the conflicting demands of nature and society - makes this a truly modern novel. Underlying these modern themes, however, is a classical sense of tragedy: Hardy scrupulously observes the three unities of time, place, and action and suggests that the struggles of those trying to escape their destinies will only hasten their destruction. To emphasize this point, he uses as setting an ancient heath steeped in pre-Christian history and supplies a Chorus consisting of Grandfer Cantle, Timothy Fairway, and the rest of the heathfolk. Hardy also pointedly alludes to Oedipus Rex with Clym's blindness and his obsessive grief for his mother. Eustacia, who manipulates fate in hopes of leaving Egdon Heath for a larger existence in Paris, instead becomes an eternal resident when she drowns in Shadwater Weir; Wildeve shares not only Eustacia's dream of escape, but also her fate; and Clym, the would-be educational reformer, survives the Weir but lives on as a lonely, remorseful man.
Some critics – notably D. H. Lawrence – see the novel as a study of the way communities control their misfits. In Egdon Heath, most people (particularly the women) look askance at the proud, unconventional Eustacia. Mrs. Yeobright considers her too odd and unreliable to be a suitable bride for her son, and Susan Nunsuch, who frankly believes her to be a witch, tries to protect her children from Eustacia's supposedly baleful influence by stabbing her with a stocking pin and later burning her in effigy. Clym at first laughs at such superstitions, but later embraces the majority opinion when he rejects his wife as a murderer and adultress. In this view, Eustacia dies because she has internalised the community's values to the extent that, unable to escape Egdon without confirming her status as a fallen woman, she chooses suicide. She thereby ends her sorrows while at the same time – by drowning in the weir like any woman instead of floating, witchlike – she proves her essential innocence to the community.
Character list
* Clement (Clym) Yeobright—A man of about thirty who gives up a business career in Paris to return to his native Egdon Heath to become a “schoolmaster to the poor and ignorant” (Hardy himself gave up a successful career as a London architect and returned to his native Dorchester to become a writer). "The beauty here visible would in no time be ruthlessly overrun by its parasite, thought." Clym is the "native" to which the book's title refers.
* Eustacia Vye—A raven-haired young beauty who chafes against her life on the heath and longs to escape it in order to lead the more adventure-filled life of the world. Some of the heathfolk think she is a witch. Hardy describes her as "the raw material of a divinity" whose "celestial imperiousness, love, wrath, and fervour had proved to be somewhat thrown away on netherward Egdon."
* Mrs. Yeobright—Clym’s mother, a widow of inflexible standards. Thomasin has lived with her for many years, but Clym is her only child. She strongly disapproves of Eustacia.
* Thomasin (Tamsin) Yeobright—Clym’s cousin and Mrs. Yeobright’s niece, a young girl of gentle ways and conventional expectations. In Hardy's original manuscript, Wildeve tricks her with a false marriage in order to seduce her. "Mrs Yeobright saw a little figure...undefended except by the power of her own hope."
* Damon Wildeve—Eustacia's former lover and Thomasin's first husband. He is an ex-engineer who has failed in his profession and who now keeps an inn, "The Quiet Woman" – so-called because its sign depicts a decapitated woman carrying her own head. He has a wandering eye and an appetite for women. "A lady killing career."
* Diggory Venn—A resourceful man of twenty-four and a reddleman (a travelling seller of reddle, red chalk used for marking sheep). He selflessly protects Thomasin throughout the novel despite the fact that she refused to marry him two years before. He keeps a watchful eye on Eustacia to make sure Wildeve doesn't go back to her. At the end, he renounces his trade to become a dairy farmer like his father, and in doing so loses the red skin. He is then seen as a suitable husband for Thomasin. Venn's red coloration and frequent narrative references to his 'Mephistophelean' or diabolical character are symbolic and important. In one particularly significant chapter ("The Morning and Evening of an Eventful Day"), Venn displays an increasingly unlikely string of good luck, repeatedly rolling dice and defeating a rival. This event makes Venn something of a deus ex machina, as well as a quasi-magical figure. While Hardy abandons these aspects of Venn's character by the end of the novel, during his 'reddleman' phase, Venn lends elements of magical realism and what modern readers would understand to be superheroic elements to the novel.
* Captain Vye—Eustacia’s grandfather and a former naval officer.
* Timothy Fairway—A sententious man of middle age who is greatly respected by the other heathfolk.
* Grandfer Cantle—A somewhat senile and always lively ex-soldier of about sixty-nine.
* Christian Cantle—Grandfer Cantle’s fearful and timid thirty-one-year-old son.
* Humphrey—Clym's eventual colleague, a furze cutter (furze is a low, prickly shrub more commonly called gorse).
* Susan Nunsuch—Eustacia's nearest neighbour and bitterest enemy who convinces herself that Eustacia's witchery has caused her son's sickliness. In a memorable scene, Susan tries to protect him by making a wax effigy of Eustacia, sticking it full of pins, and melting it in her fireplace while uttering the Lord's Prayer backward. Eustacia drowns later that night.
* Johnny Nunsuch—Susan’s son, a young boy. He encounters Mrs. Yeobright during her fatal walk home and, in obedience to her wishes, reports her last words to Clym: I am a broken-hearted woman cast off by my son.
* Charley—A sixteen-year-old boy who works for Captain Vye and who admires Eustacia, largely from afar.
* Egdon Heath—The setting for all the novel's events; considered by some critics to be the leading character as well. It is profoundly ancient, the scene of intense but long-forgotten pagan lives. As its tumuli attest, it is also a graveyard that has swallowed countless generations of inhabitants without changing much itself. To Thomasin, Clym, and Diggory, it is a benign, natural place; in Eustacia's eyes, it becomes a malevolent presence intent on destroying her.
Adaptations
The first and, thus far, only film version of The Return of the Native was a television movie released in 1994. The setting for the film is Exmoor rather than Egdon Heath: the film stars Catherine Zeta Jones as Eustacia Vye, Clive Owen as Damon Wildeve, Ray Stevenson as Clym Yeobright, and Joan Plowright as Mrs. Yeobright. Jack Gold directed. The novel has also been adapted for the stage several times.
In popular culture
* Monty Python's 1973 record, Matching Tie and Handkerchief includes a sketch called "Novel Writing". In the sketch, a crowd gathers to watch Thomas Hardy begin his latest novel while an enthusiastic sports announcer provides a running commentary. The novel is The Return of the Native.
* In the early 1970s, Granada Television produced a half-hour documentary in its 'Parade' art series entitled Egdon Heath in which an actor portraying Gustav Holst walks across the barren heath while the music from his tone poem Egdon Heath is playing, and sees scenes and characters from novel which inspired the music.
* This novel is mentioned by Holden Caulfield in J. D. Salinger's classic novel The Catcher in the Rye.
* In 1993, the British traditional singer Johnny Collins recorded Diggery Venn the Raddle Man (sic) on his album Pedlar of Songs.
* In 1994, the Seattle band Thrones released a single entitled "Reddleman".
* The band The Rainmakers released a song called "Reddleman Coming".
* The indie band Nightmare of You's 2009 CD Infomaniac contains a song called "Eustacia Vye".
请欣赏:
请给我换一个看看！ 拜托，快把噪音停掉！我读累了，想听点音乐或者请来支歌曲！
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