本書是柏楊惟一一部以兒童文學形式出現的作品，共由15個短篇組成，雖各自獨立，又環環相扣，以希臘羅馬神話、民間故事、聖經故事為主幹，加上作者豐富的想像力，構成了富有神幻色彩的《天涯故事》。在天帝朱庇特攻破天宮結束原本由泰坦一族統治的宏大場面下，15個短篇相繼展開，既可以看到為人類帶來光明的使者——普羅米修斯，又能體驗到小愛神丘比特的愛情之旅，以及那古老而神秘的愛琴文明……
作者：餘培俠 托婭
這是一份送給中央電視臺少兒頻道3歲生日的禮物。這也是3歲的少兒頻道獻給全國小朋友、小觀衆和一切關愛她的人的禮物。因為有了先天孕育的飽滿、良好寬鬆的生長環境、無數人的盡心呵護與養育，少兒頻道身心健康地長大了。3年來，她走過的腳步又快又穩。雖然留在背後的小足印還不夠清晰，但一個個卻深深烙在熱愛她的電視觀衆心裏。
這是一份送給中央電視臺少兒頻道3歲生日的禮物。這也是3歲的少兒頻道獻給全國小朋友、小觀衆和一切關愛她的人的禮物。因為有了先天孕育的飽滿、良好寬鬆的生長環境、無數人的盡心呵護與養育，少兒頻道身心健康地長大了。3年來，她走過的腳步又快又穩。雖然留在背後的小足印還不夠清晰，但一個個卻深深烙在熱愛她的電視觀衆心裏。
本書將我們日常生活中一定要知道的基本經濟原理編成童話故事，用生動有趣的語言給小朋友們講述經濟概念。另外為了減輕父母和老師們給孩子進行經濟教育的負擔，我們還預備拿出一套深入淺出地講解經濟原理的方案。從小就有經濟概念的孩子會與衆不同，他們目標意識強，觀察社會的視野開闊，生活態度也積極健康，現在開始，讓咱們一起來通過童話學習經濟原理吧。
《邪童正史》是以“邪童”的眼光，來歪解一個個中國歷史小故事，雖沒有什麽微言大義，但正由於沒有什麽負擔，纔使蔣方舟的歷史故事寫得格外“淘氣”和討人歡心，你絶對能被她逗得很高興。
本書是劍橋大學博士卡洛林•奧斯汀專門為自己的三個孩子編寫的勵志故事集。這些故事活潑有趣，涉及的範圍頗廣，有做人，有做事，有夢想，有成長，有挫折，還有愛和感恩。每一個故事都具有豐富的教育意義，都藴含着深深的母愛，仿佛一種神奇的力量，在不知不覺中激勵孩子奮發嚮上，促進孩子對生活的方方面面進行更深層次的思考，從而獲得更多的智慧、勇氣和信心；還可以幫助他們挖掘潛能，開發情商，一天天完善自我，一步步走嚮成功。這本書絶不僅僅是一本普通的教子讀本，父母完全可以和孩子一起閱讀，一起思考，一起成長。
這是一個“活寶班”，大概和你們班差不多。老師們一說到這個班，頭髮根兒都發麻，直到棒棒老師的到來。於是，自然課被棒棒老師搬到了月亮上；大合唱的時候同學們的聲音逃跑了；敲鑼打鼓的大老鼠驚現教室，給大傢送來了錦旗；有人將要被機器人踢出“悟空號”飛船；一包“消失粉”惹了大禍……平淡無奇的校園生活，忽然充滿了奇妙幻想，很多事情都在悄悄改變。同學們瘋狂地愛上了學校，愛上了這個棒棒老師。棒棒老師？她到底是何許人物，能讓學生如此着迷？精彩故事一點點的帶你去揭秘
柯雲路的《童話人格》是一部邊緣性的著作。它對世界上一些最著名的童話、神話故事進行了獨特的解析，使我們突兀地看到了一些我們原本可能並不覺察的重大的决定人格的情結，諸如：“賈寶玉情結”、“托爾斯泰情結”、“辛巴情結”、還有“白雪公主情結”、“魔鏡王後情結”、“灰姑娘情結”、“海的女兒情結”、“ 醜小鴨情結”等等。你曾被哪些情結所睏擾？本書中柯雲路將和你一起探討這些問題。
美國著名歌星麥當娜最新童書係列，以史無前例的40多種語言、全球100多個國傢和地區同時出版發行，堪稱出版史上的奇跡。這是一部暢銷全世界、深受各國兒童和傢長青睞的、關註心靈成長的童書。
那裏面的主人公“小英雄”，是一個罕見的明朗與和諧的形象，也衹有這一篇作品充滿了異乎尋常的樂觀主義。
《夏洛的網》這部作品初版於1952年，至2009年已有20多種譯文，發行近千萬册。雖然作者書寫的是一個童話故事，但他給人以無限溫情、感動和憧憬，是一部給大人閱讀的童話。作者懷特用柔韌無比的蜘蛛絲編織了一張理想的、溫暖的、美麗的、愛的大網，感動着世界無數的讀者。這是一個善良的弱者之間相互扶持的故事，除了愛、友誼之外，這篇極抒情的童話裏，還有一分對生命本身的贊美與眷戀。
中文書名：《夏洛的網》
作 者: E・B・懷特（美）
譯 者: 任溶溶
I S B N: 9787532733415
頁 數: 181
裝 幀: 平裝
出 版 年: 2004-05
所屬類型：少兒/兒童文學/童話/
適合閱讀年齡：6歲以上
出版社: 上海譯文出版社
一隻名叫威爾伯的小豬和一隻叫夏洛的蜘蛛成為朋友。小豬未來的命運是成為聖誕節時的盤中大餐，這個悲涼的結果讓威爾伯心驚膽寒。它也曾嘗試過逃跑，但它畢竟是一隻豬。看似渺小的夏洛卻說：“讓我來幫你。”於是夏洛用它的網在豬棚中織出“王牌豬”、“朱剋曼的名豬”等字樣，那些被人類視為奇跡的字讓威爾伯的命運整個逆轉，終於得到了比賽的特別奬和一個安享天命的未來。但就在這時，蜘蛛夏洛的生命卻走到了盡頭……
這是一個善良的弱者之間相互扶持的故事，除了愛、友誼之外，這篇極抒情的童話裏，還有一分對生命本身的贊美與眷戀。
《夏洛的網》-主要目錄
目錄：
1）早飯前 2）小豬威爾伯 3）逃走 4)孤獨 5)夏洛 6)夏日 7)壞消息 8)傢裏的談話 9)威爾伯說大話 10)臭蛋爆炸 11)奇跡 12)會議 13）進展順利 14）多裏安醫生 15）蟋蟀
關係表：
約翰·阿拉布爾先生，阿拉布爾太太，多裏安醫生
艾弗裏——阿拉布爾夫婦的兒子，十歲 弗恩——阿拉布爾夫婦的女兒，八歲 霍默·L·朱剋曼先生——弗恩的舅舅 伊迪絲·朱剋曼太太——弗恩的舅媽 勒維——朱剋曼夫婦的雇工 威爾伯——小豬 夏洛·阿·卡瓦蒂卡——蜘蛛 坦普爾頓——老鼠
《夏洛的網》-書籍作者
E.B.懷特(1899-1985) 生於紐約蒙特弗農，畢業於康奈爾大學。多年來他為《紐約人》雜志擔任專職撰稿人。懷特是一位頗有造詣的散文傢、幽默作傢、詩人和諷刺作傢。對於幾代美國兒童來說，他之所以出名是因為寫第一流的兒童讀物《小斯圖亞特》(1945年) 和《夏洛特的網》(1952年)。一代又一代學生和作者熟悉他，因為他是 《風格的要素》這本書的合著者 (兼修訂者)。該書是關於作文和慣用法的很有價值的小册子，最初由在康奈爾大學教過懷特英語的小威廉．斯特朗剋教授撰寫。散文《自由》於1940年7月首先由《哈潑斯》雜志發表。當時美國尚未加入反對納粹的戰爭，世界正處於納粹──蘇聯條約的時期，無論左派或右派都忽略了極權主義對民主的威脅。這篇散文收入懷特的文集《一個人的肉食》(1942年)。
《夏洛的網》-出版花絮
美國作傢E.B.懷特1952年的作品《夏洛的網》1979年曾出版過，但現在已經很難見到了。“這些年來總是找不到活着的感覺，看了《夏洛的網》，纔知道生活是什麽。”網絡譯本的翻譯者肖毛就為了這樣的感受，自己翻譯並在網絡上發佈了這個經典童話，也帶動起了一大批的“夏洛迷”。現在，這本被譽為“寶書 ”的《夏洛的網》經過長達五年的版權談判，由著名兒童文學作傢任溶溶、終於上海譯文出版社出版。
《夏洛的網》-成績
《夏洛的網》，一首關於生命，友情，愛與忠誠的贊歌。一部傲居“美國最偉大的十部兒童文學名著”首位的童話。風行世界五十年，發行千萬册。
《夏洛的網》-相關評價
一）經過漫長的等待，世界經典童話《夏洛的網》終於在2004年5月由上海譯文出版社引進出版，新版的譯者是德高望重的兒童文學翻譯傢任溶溶先生。作為一本兒童文學名著，任溶溶先生的譯本顯然比舊譯更加貼近兒童，但新譯本能否完全取代舊譯在讀者心中的地位，還需要讀者來作出判斷。
不過無論如何，終於能夠讀到《夏洛的網》，對讀者來說確實是一件幸運的事情。 “這實在是一本寶書。我覺得在一個理想的世界裏，應該衹有兩種人存在，一種是讀過《夏洛的網》的人，另一種是將要讀《夏洛的網》的人。有時候，半夜裏醒過來，摸摸胸口還在跳，就會很高興，因為活着就意味着還能再把《夏洛的網》讀一遍，而讀《夏洛的網》就意味着還活着。……從我第一次讀《夏洛的網》到現在，幾乎已經有20年過去了，我一直都沒能搞明白，這部‘兒童文學’何以能夠如此長久地令我着迷。” ——復旦大學中文係副教授 嚴鋒
二）這是一部非常優秀的童話，它的主題就是動物之間的友誼。懷特一生寫過3部童話，這3部童話我都翻譯過，相比而言，《夏洛的網》是其中最容易懂的，他的另外兩部童話含義要更深一些。特別是《小老鼠斯圖爾特》，當故事最後小老鼠上路去尋找的時候，那種氣氛是非常憂傷的，懷特最終也沒有告訴讀者斯圖爾特最後的尋找是不是有什麽結果，這是一種很典型的“在路上”的感覺，而《夏洛的網》就要明亮得多，它的結尾是美好的，整個故事也非常清晰。——國內著名的兒童文翻譯傢之一任溶溶
The novel tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur (such as "Some Pig") in her web in order to persuade the farmer to let him live.
Written in White's dry, low-key manner, Charlotte's Web is considered a classic of children's literature, enjoyable to adults as well as children. The description of the experience of swinging on a rope swing at the farm is an often cited example of rhythm in writing, as the pace of the sentences reflects the motion of the swing. Publishers Weekly listed the book as the best-selling children's paperback of all time as of 2000.
Charlotte's Web was made into an animated feature by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Paramount Pictures in 1973. Paramount released a direct-to-video sequel, Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure, in the US in 2003 (Universal released the film internationally). A live-action film version of E. B. White's original story was released on December 15, 2006. A video game based on this adaption was also released on December 12.
Plot summary
The book begins when John Arable's sow gives birth to a litter of piglets, and Mr. Arable discovers one of them is a runt and decides to kill it. However, his eight year old daughter Fern begs him to let it live. Therefore her father gives it to Fern as a pet, and she names the piglet Wilbur. Wilbur is hyperactive and always exploring new things. He lives with Fern for a few weeks and then is sold to her uncle, Homer Zuckerman. Although Fern visits him at the Zuckermans' farm as often as she can, Wilbur gets lonelier day after day. Eventually, a warm and soothing voice tells him that she is going to be his friend. The next day, he wakes up and meets his new friend: Charlotte, the grey spider.
Wilbur soon becomes a member of the community of animals who live in the cellar of Zuckerman's barn. When the old sheep in the barn cellar tells Wilbur that he is going to be killed and eaten at Christmas, he turns to Charlotte for help. Charlotte has the idea of writing words in her web extolling Wilbur's excellence ("some pig", "terrific", "radiant", and eventually "humble"), reasoning that if she can make Wilbur sufficiently famous, he will not be killed. Thanks to Charlotte's efforts, and with the assistance of the gluttonous rat Templeton, Wilbur not only lives, but goes to the county fair with Charlotte and wins a prize. Having reached the end of her natural lifespan, Charlotte dies at the fair. Wilbur repays Charlotte by bringing home with him the sac of eggs (her "magnum opus") she had laid at the fair before dying. When Charlotte's eggs hatch at Zuckerman's farm, most of them leave to make their own lives elsewhere, except for three: Joy, Aranea, and Nellie, who remain there as friends to Wilbur.
Characters
* Wilbur is a rambunctious pig, the runt of his litter, who loves life, even that of Zuckerman’s barn. He sometimes feels lonely or fearful.
* Charlotte A. Cavatica , or simply Charlotte, is a spider who befriends Wilbur, who at first seems bloodthirsty due to her method of catching food.
* Fern Arable, daughter of John Arable and Mrs. Arable, is the courageous eight-year-old girl who saves Wilbur in the beginning of the novel.
* Templeton is a gluttonous rat who helps Charlotte and Wilbur only when offered food. He serves as a somewhat caustic, self-serving comic relief to the plot.
* Avery Arable is the brother of Fern. He appears briefly throughout the novel.
* Homer Zuckerman is Fern’s uncle who keeps Wilbur in his barn. He has a wife, Edith, and a hired man named Lurvy who helps out around the barn.
* Other animals living in Zuckerman’s barn with whom Wilbur converses are a disdainful lamb, a goose who is constantly sitting on her eggs, and an old sheep.
* Henry Fussy is a boy Fern’s age whom Fern becomes very fond of.
* Uncle is Wilbur’s rival at the fair, a large pig whom Charlotte doesn’t consider to be particularly refined.
History
White's editor Ursula Nordstrom said that one day, in 1952, E.B. White handed her a new manuscript out of the blue, the only version of Charlotte's Web then in existence, which she read soon after and was hugely impressed with. Charlotte's Web was published three years after White began writing it.
Since E. B. White published Death of a Pig in 1948, an account of how he failed to save a sick pig (which had been bought in order to be fattened up and butchered), Charlotte’s Web can be seen as White attempting "to save his pig in retrospect."
When White met the spider who originally inspired Charlotte, he called her Charlotte Epeira (after Epeira sclopetaria, the Grey Cross spider, now known as Aranea sericata), later discovering that the more modern name for that genus was Aranea. In the novel, Charlotte gives her full name as "Charlotte A. Cavatica", revealing her as a barn spider, an orb-weaver with the scientific name Araneus cavaticus.
The anatomical terms (such as those mentioned in the beginning of chapter nine) and other information that White used came mostly from American Spiders by Willis J. Gertsch and The Spider Book by John Henry Comstock, both of which combine a sense of poetry with scientific fact. White incorporated details from Comstock's accounts of baby spiders, most notably the "flight" of the young spiders and also the way one of them climbs to the top of a fence before launching itself into the air. White sent Gertsch’s book to Illustrator Garth Williams. Williams’ initial drawings depicted a spider with a woman’s face, and White suggested that he simply draw a realistic spider instead.
White originally opened the novel with an introduction of Wilbur and the barnyard (which later became the third chapter), but then decided to begin the novel from a human perspective by introducing Fern and her family on the very first page. White’s publishers were at one point concerned with the book’s ending and tried to get White to change it.
The author’s granddaughter, Martha White, thinks many children don’t necessarily see the book as set in Maine. Charlotte's Web has become White's most famous book. However, White treasured his privacy and the integrity of the farmyard and barn that helped inspire the novel, which have been kept off limits to the public according to his wishes.
Reception
Charlotte's Web was generally well-reviewed when it was released. In The New York Times, Eudora Welty wrote, "As a piece of work it is just about perfect, and just about magical in the way it is done." Aside from its paperback sales, Charlotte's Web is 78th on the all-time bestselling hardback book list. According to publicity for the 2006 film adaptation (see below), the book has sold more than 45 million copies and been translated into 23 languages. It was a Newbery Honors book for 1953, losing to Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark for the medal. In 1970, White won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, a major prize in the field of children's literature, for Charlotte's Web, along with his first children's book, Stuart Little, published in 1945.
Maria Nikolajeva (in her book The Rhetoric of Character in Children's Literature) calls the opening of the novel a failure because of White's begun and then abandoned human dimension involving Fern, which, she says, obscures any allegory to humanity, if one were to view the animals' story as such. Seth Lerer, in his book Children’s Literature, finds that Charlotte represents female authorship and creativity, and compares her to other female characters in children’s literature such as Jo March in Little Women and Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden. Nancy Larrick brings to attention the "startling note of realism" in the opening line, "Where's Papa going with that Ax?"
Illustrator Henry Cole expressed his deep childhood appreciation of the characters and story, and calls Garth Williams' illustrations full of “sensitivity, warmth, humor, and intelligence.” Illustrator Diana Cain Blutenthal states that Williams' illustrations inspired and influenced her.
There is an unabridged audio book read by White himself which reappeared decades after it had originally been recorded. Newsweek writes that White reads the story “without artifice and with a mellow charm,” and that “White also has a plangency that will make you weep, so don’t listen (at least, not to the sad parts) while driving.” Joe Berk, president of Pathway Sound, had recorded Charlotte’s Web with White in White’s neighbor's house in Maine (which Berk describes as an especially memorable experience) and released the book in LP. Bantam released Charlotte’s Web alongside Stuart Little on CD in 1991, digitally remastered, having acquired the two of them for rather a large amount.
In 2005, a school teacher in California conceived of a project for her class in which they would send out hundreds of drawings of spiders (each representing Charlotte’s child Aranea going out into the world so that she can return and tell Wilbur of what she has seen) with accompanying letters; they ended up visiting a large number of parks, monuments and museums, and were hosted by and/or prompted responses from celebrities and politicians such as John Travolta and then First Lady Laura Bush.
Maggie Kneen created full-color illustrations for a couple sections of the novel, which were published in picture book format as Wilbur's Adventure and Some Pig.
Awards and nominations
* Massachusetts Children's Book Award (1984)
* Newbery Honor Book (1953)
* Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal (1970)
* Horn Book Fanfare
Film adaptations
1973 version
Main article: Charlotte's Web (1973 film)
The book was adapted into an animated feature by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Sagittarius Productions in 1973 with a song score by the Sherman Brothers.
2003 sequel
This is the sequel to the 1973 film, released direct-to-video by Paramount Pictures.
2006 version
Paramount Pictures, with Walden Media, Kerner Entertainment Company, and Nickelodeon Movies, produced a live-action/animated film starring Dakota Fanning as Fern and the voice of Julia Roberts as Charlotte, released on December 15, 2006.
Video game
A video game of the 2006 film was developed by Backbone Entertainment and published by THQ and Sega, and released on December 12, 2006 for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2 and PC.
中文書名：《夏洛的網》
作 者: E・B・懷特（美）
譯 者: 任溶溶
I S B N: 9787532733415
頁 數: 181
裝 幀: 平裝
出 版 年: 2004-05
所屬類型：少兒/兒童文學/童話/
適合閱讀年齡：6歲以上
出版社: 上海譯文出版社
一隻名叫威爾伯的小豬和一隻叫夏洛的蜘蛛成為朋友。小豬未來的命運是成為聖誕節時的盤中大餐，這個悲涼的結果讓威爾伯心驚膽寒。它也曾嘗試過逃跑，但它畢竟是一隻豬。看似渺小的夏洛卻說：“讓我來幫你。”於是夏洛用它的網在豬棚中織出“王牌豬”、“朱剋曼的名豬”等字樣，那些被人類視為奇跡的字讓威爾伯的命運整個逆轉，終於得到了比賽的特別奬和一個安享天命的未來。但就在這時，蜘蛛夏洛的生命卻走到了盡頭……
這是一個善良的弱者之間相互扶持的故事，除了愛、友誼之外，這篇極抒情的童話裏，還有一分對生命本身的贊美與眷戀。
《夏洛的網》-主要目錄
目錄：
1）早飯前 2）小豬威爾伯 3）逃走 4)孤獨 5)夏洛 6)夏日 7)壞消息 8)傢裏的談話 9)威爾伯說大話 10)臭蛋爆炸 11)奇跡 12)會議 13）進展順利 14）多裏安醫生 15）蟋蟀
關係表：
約翰·阿拉布爾先生，阿拉布爾太太，多裏安醫生
艾弗裏——阿拉布爾夫婦的兒子，十歲 弗恩——阿拉布爾夫婦的女兒，八歲 霍默·L·朱剋曼先生——弗恩的舅舅 伊迪絲·朱剋曼太太——弗恩的舅媽 勒維——朱剋曼夫婦的雇工 威爾伯——小豬 夏洛·阿·卡瓦蒂卡——蜘蛛 坦普爾頓——老鼠
《夏洛的網》-書籍作者
E.B.懷特(1899-1985) 生於紐約蒙特弗農，畢業於康奈爾大學。多年來他為《紐約人》雜志擔任專職撰稿人。懷特是一位頗有造詣的散文傢、幽默作傢、詩人和諷刺作傢。對於幾代美國兒童來說，他之所以出名是因為寫第一流的兒童讀物《小斯圖亞特》(1945年) 和《夏洛特的網》(1952年)。一代又一代學生和作者熟悉他，因為他是 《風格的要素》這本書的合著者 (兼修訂者)。該書是關於作文和慣用法的很有價值的小册子，最初由在康奈爾大學教過懷特英語的小威廉．斯特朗剋教授撰寫。散文《自由》於1940年7月首先由《哈潑斯》雜志發表。當時美國尚未加入反對納粹的戰爭，世界正處於納粹──蘇聯條約的時期，無論左派或右派都忽略了極權主義對民主的威脅。這篇散文收入懷特的文集《一個人的肉食》(1942年)。
《夏洛的網》-出版花絮
美國作傢E.B.懷特1952年的作品《夏洛的網》1979年曾出版過，但現在已經很難見到了。“這些年來總是找不到活着的感覺，看了《夏洛的網》，纔知道生活是什麽。”網絡譯本的翻譯者肖毛就為了這樣的感受，自己翻譯並在網絡上發佈了這個經典童話，也帶動起了一大批的“夏洛迷”。現在，這本被譽為“寶書 ”的《夏洛的網》經過長達五年的版權談判，由著名兒童文學作傢任溶溶、終於上海譯文出版社出版。
《夏洛的網》-成績
《夏洛的網》，一首關於生命，友情，愛與忠誠的贊歌。一部傲居“美國最偉大的十部兒童文學名著”首位的童話。風行世界五十年，發行千萬册。
《夏洛的網》-相關評價
一）經過漫長的等待，世界經典童話《夏洛的網》終於在2004年5月由上海譯文出版社引進出版，新版的譯者是德高望重的兒童文學翻譯傢任溶溶先生。作為一本兒童文學名著，任溶溶先生的譯本顯然比舊譯更加貼近兒童，但新譯本能否完全取代舊譯在讀者心中的地位，還需要讀者來作出判斷。
不過無論如何，終於能夠讀到《夏洛的網》，對讀者來說確實是一件幸運的事情。 “這實在是一本寶書。我覺得在一個理想的世界裏，應該衹有兩種人存在，一種是讀過《夏洛的網》的人，另一種是將要讀《夏洛的網》的人。有時候，半夜裏醒過來，摸摸胸口還在跳，就會很高興，因為活着就意味着還能再把《夏洛的網》讀一遍，而讀《夏洛的網》就意味着還活着。……從我第一次讀《夏洛的網》到現在，幾乎已經有20年過去了，我一直都沒能搞明白，這部‘兒童文學’何以能夠如此長久地令我着迷。” ——復旦大學中文係副教授 嚴鋒
二）這是一部非常優秀的童話，它的主題就是動物之間的友誼。懷特一生寫過3部童話，這3部童話我都翻譯過，相比而言，《夏洛的網》是其中最容易懂的，他的另外兩部童話含義要更深一些。特別是《小老鼠斯圖爾特》，當故事最後小老鼠上路去尋找的時候，那種氣氛是非常憂傷的，懷特最終也沒有告訴讀者斯圖爾特最後的尋找是不是有什麽結果，這是一種很典型的“在路上”的感覺，而《夏洛的網》就要明亮得多，它的結尾是美好的，整個故事也非常清晰。——國內著名的兒童文翻譯傢之一任溶溶
The novel tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur (such as "Some Pig") in her web in order to persuade the farmer to let him live.
Written in White's dry, low-key manner, Charlotte's Web is considered a classic of children's literature, enjoyable to adults as well as children. The description of the experience of swinging on a rope swing at the farm is an often cited example of rhythm in writing, as the pace of the sentences reflects the motion of the swing. Publishers Weekly listed the book as the best-selling children's paperback of all time as of 2000.
Charlotte's Web was made into an animated feature by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Paramount Pictures in 1973. Paramount released a direct-to-video sequel, Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure, in the US in 2003 (Universal released the film internationally). A live-action film version of E. B. White's original story was released on December 15, 2006. A video game based on this adaption was also released on December 12.
Plot summary
The book begins when John Arable's sow gives birth to a litter of piglets, and Mr. Arable discovers one of them is a runt and decides to kill it. However, his eight year old daughter Fern begs him to let it live. Therefore her father gives it to Fern as a pet, and she names the piglet Wilbur. Wilbur is hyperactive and always exploring new things. He lives with Fern for a few weeks and then is sold to her uncle, Homer Zuckerman. Although Fern visits him at the Zuckermans' farm as often as she can, Wilbur gets lonelier day after day. Eventually, a warm and soothing voice tells him that she is going to be his friend. The next day, he wakes up and meets his new friend: Charlotte, the grey spider.
Wilbur soon becomes a member of the community of animals who live in the cellar of Zuckerman's barn. When the old sheep in the barn cellar tells Wilbur that he is going to be killed and eaten at Christmas, he turns to Charlotte for help. Charlotte has the idea of writing words in her web extolling Wilbur's excellence ("some pig", "terrific", "radiant", and eventually "humble"), reasoning that if she can make Wilbur sufficiently famous, he will not be killed. Thanks to Charlotte's efforts, and with the assistance of the gluttonous rat Templeton, Wilbur not only lives, but goes to the county fair with Charlotte and wins a prize. Having reached the end of her natural lifespan, Charlotte dies at the fair. Wilbur repays Charlotte by bringing home with him the sac of eggs (her "magnum opus") she had laid at the fair before dying. When Charlotte's eggs hatch at Zuckerman's farm, most of them leave to make their own lives elsewhere, except for three: Joy, Aranea, and Nellie, who remain there as friends to Wilbur.
Characters
* Wilbur is a rambunctious pig, the runt of his litter, who loves life, even that of Zuckerman’s barn. He sometimes feels lonely or fearful.
* Charlotte A. Cavatica , or simply Charlotte, is a spider who befriends Wilbur, who at first seems bloodthirsty due to her method of catching food.
* Fern Arable, daughter of John Arable and Mrs. Arable, is the courageous eight-year-old girl who saves Wilbur in the beginning of the novel.
* Templeton is a gluttonous rat who helps Charlotte and Wilbur only when offered food. He serves as a somewhat caustic, self-serving comic relief to the plot.
* Avery Arable is the brother of Fern. He appears briefly throughout the novel.
* Homer Zuckerman is Fern’s uncle who keeps Wilbur in his barn. He has a wife, Edith, and a hired man named Lurvy who helps out around the barn.
* Other animals living in Zuckerman’s barn with whom Wilbur converses are a disdainful lamb, a goose who is constantly sitting on her eggs, and an old sheep.
* Henry Fussy is a boy Fern’s age whom Fern becomes very fond of.
* Uncle is Wilbur’s rival at the fair, a large pig whom Charlotte doesn’t consider to be particularly refined.
History
White's editor Ursula Nordstrom said that one day, in 1952, E.B. White handed her a new manuscript out of the blue, the only version of Charlotte's Web then in existence, which she read soon after and was hugely impressed with. Charlotte's Web was published three years after White began writing it.
Since E. B. White published Death of a Pig in 1948, an account of how he failed to save a sick pig (which had been bought in order to be fattened up and butchered), Charlotte’s Web can be seen as White attempting "to save his pig in retrospect."
When White met the spider who originally inspired Charlotte, he called her Charlotte Epeira (after Epeira sclopetaria, the Grey Cross spider, now known as Aranea sericata), later discovering that the more modern name for that genus was Aranea. In the novel, Charlotte gives her full name as "Charlotte A. Cavatica", revealing her as a barn spider, an orb-weaver with the scientific name Araneus cavaticus.
The anatomical terms (such as those mentioned in the beginning of chapter nine) and other information that White used came mostly from American Spiders by Willis J. Gertsch and The Spider Book by John Henry Comstock, both of which combine a sense of poetry with scientific fact. White incorporated details from Comstock's accounts of baby spiders, most notably the "flight" of the young spiders and also the way one of them climbs to the top of a fence before launching itself into the air. White sent Gertsch’s book to Illustrator Garth Williams. Williams’ initial drawings depicted a spider with a woman’s face, and White suggested that he simply draw a realistic spider instead.
White originally opened the novel with an introduction of Wilbur and the barnyard (which later became the third chapter), but then decided to begin the novel from a human perspective by introducing Fern and her family on the very first page. White’s publishers were at one point concerned with the book’s ending and tried to get White to change it.
The author’s granddaughter, Martha White, thinks many children don’t necessarily see the book as set in Maine. Charlotte's Web has become White's most famous book. However, White treasured his privacy and the integrity of the farmyard and barn that helped inspire the novel, which have been kept off limits to the public according to his wishes.
Reception
Charlotte's Web was generally well-reviewed when it was released. In The New York Times, Eudora Welty wrote, "As a piece of work it is just about perfect, and just about magical in the way it is done." Aside from its paperback sales, Charlotte's Web is 78th on the all-time bestselling hardback book list. According to publicity for the 2006 film adaptation (see below), the book has sold more than 45 million copies and been translated into 23 languages. It was a Newbery Honors book for 1953, losing to Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark for the medal. In 1970, White won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, a major prize in the field of children's literature, for Charlotte's Web, along with his first children's book, Stuart Little, published in 1945.
Maria Nikolajeva (in her book The Rhetoric of Character in Children's Literature) calls the opening of the novel a failure because of White's begun and then abandoned human dimension involving Fern, which, she says, obscures any allegory to humanity, if one were to view the animals' story as such. Seth Lerer, in his book Children’s Literature, finds that Charlotte represents female authorship and creativity, and compares her to other female characters in children’s literature such as Jo March in Little Women and Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden. Nancy Larrick brings to attention the "startling note of realism" in the opening line, "Where's Papa going with that Ax?"
Illustrator Henry Cole expressed his deep childhood appreciation of the characters and story, and calls Garth Williams' illustrations full of “sensitivity, warmth, humor, and intelligence.” Illustrator Diana Cain Blutenthal states that Williams' illustrations inspired and influenced her.
There is an unabridged audio book read by White himself which reappeared decades after it had originally been recorded. Newsweek writes that White reads the story “without artifice and with a mellow charm,” and that “White also has a plangency that will make you weep, so don’t listen (at least, not to the sad parts) while driving.” Joe Berk, president of Pathway Sound, had recorded Charlotte’s Web with White in White’s neighbor's house in Maine (which Berk describes as an especially memorable experience) and released the book in LP. Bantam released Charlotte’s Web alongside Stuart Little on CD in 1991, digitally remastered, having acquired the two of them for rather a large amount.
In 2005, a school teacher in California conceived of a project for her class in which they would send out hundreds of drawings of spiders (each representing Charlotte’s child Aranea going out into the world so that she can return and tell Wilbur of what she has seen) with accompanying letters; they ended up visiting a large number of parks, monuments and museums, and were hosted by and/or prompted responses from celebrities and politicians such as John Travolta and then First Lady Laura Bush.
Maggie Kneen created full-color illustrations for a couple sections of the novel, which were published in picture book format as Wilbur's Adventure and Some Pig.
Awards and nominations
* Massachusetts Children's Book Award (1984)
* Newbery Honor Book (1953)
* Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal (1970)
* Horn Book Fanfare
Film adaptations
1973 version
Main article: Charlotte's Web (1973 film)
The book was adapted into an animated feature by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Sagittarius Productions in 1973 with a song score by the Sherman Brothers.
2003 sequel
This is the sequel to the 1973 film, released direct-to-video by Paramount Pictures.
2006 version
Paramount Pictures, with Walden Media, Kerner Entertainment Company, and Nickelodeon Movies, produced a live-action/animated film starring Dakota Fanning as Fern and the voice of Julia Roberts as Charlotte, released on December 15, 2006.
Video game
A video game of the 2006 film was developed by Backbone Entertainment and published by THQ and Sega, and released on December 12, 2006 for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2 and PC.
格林童話選 內容簡介
看着夜空中的星星，你會不會惦記着小紅帽是否安全脫險、 王子能不能撿到灰姑娘的小晶鞋、狠毒的繼母是不是把白雪公主殺死了…… 於是我們記住了格林兄弟的名字， 記住了他們給孩子們帶來的永遠的快樂。
格林童話選 本書目錄
一、小紅帽
二、貓和老鼠做朋友
三、勇敢的小裁縫
四、白雪公主
五、青蛙王子
六、狼和七衹小山羊
七、大拇指
八、老祖父和孫子
九、金鵝
十、活命的水
十一、三衹小鳥
十二、灰姑娘
十三、漁夫和他的妻子
十四、烏鴉
十五、玫瑰公主
十六、六人走遍天下，萬事如意
十七、熊皮人
十八、牧童
十九、幸福的罕斯
二十、海兔
二十一、藍色的燈
二十二、會唱歌的骨頭
二十三、十二個獵人
Composition
In 1803, the Grimms met the Romantics Clemens Brentano and Ludwig Achim von Arnim at the University of Marburg. These two men stirred in the brothers an interest in ancient fairy tales. In Kassel they started to collect and write down tales that they alleged had been handed down for generations. Among their sources were Dorothea Viehmann, and two Huguenot families, Hassenpflug and Wild, who introduced them to several tales of French origin. The most important sources were the works of the Italian fairy tale writers Giovanni Francesco Straparola and Giambattista Basile, on which most the fairy tales were based. The Brothers Grimm praised Giambattista Basile as the first writer to have collected fairy tales into a book only for fairy tales.
On December 20, 1812 they published the first volume of the first edition, containing 86 stories; the second volume of 70 stories followed in 1814. For the second edition, two volumes were issued in 1819 and a third in 1822, totalling 170 tales. The third edition appeared in 1837; fourth edition, 1840; fifth edition, 1843; sixth edition, 1850; seventh edition, 1857. Stories were added, and also subtracted, from one edition to the next, until the seventh held 211 tales.
The first volumes were much criticized because, although they were called "Children's Tales", they were not regarded as suitable for children, both for the scholarly information included and the subject matter. Many changes through the editions – such as turning the wicked mother of the first edition in Snow White and Hansel and Gretel to a stepmother, were probably made with an eye to such suitability. They removed sexual references, such as Rapunzel's innocently asking why her dress was getting tight around her belly, and thus naively revealing her pregnancy and the prince's visits to her step mother, but, in many respects, violence, particularly when punishing villains, was increased.
In 1825 the Brothers published their Kleine Ausgabe or "small edition," a selection of 50 tales designed for child readers. This children's version went through ten editions between 1825 and 1858.
Influence of the book
The influence of these books was widespread. W. H. Auden praised it, during World War II, as one of the founding works of Western culture. The tales themselves have been put to many uses. The Nazis praised them as folkish tales showing children with sound racial instincts seeking racially pure marriage partners, and so strongly that the Allied forces warned against them. Writers about the Holocaust have combined the tales with their memoirs, as Jane Yolen in her Briar Rose..
The work of the Brothers Grimm influenced other collectors, both inspiring them to collect tales and leading them to similarly believe, in a spirit of romantic nationalism, that the fairy tales of a country were particularly representative of it, to the neglect of cross-cultural influence. Among those influenced were the Russian Alexander Afanasyev, the Norwegians Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, the English Joseph Jacobs, and Jeremiah Curtin, an American who collected Irish tales. There was not always a pleased reaction to their collection. Joseph Jacobs was in part inspired by his complaint that English children did not read English fairy tales; in his own words, "What Perrault began, the Grimms completed".
Three individual works of Wilhelm Grimm include Altdänische Heldenlieder, Balladen und Märchen (Old Danish Heroic Lays, Ballads, and Folktales) in 1811 Über deutsche Runen (On German Runes) in 1821. Die deutsche Heldensage (The German Heroic Legend) in 1829.
List of fairy tales
The code "KHM" stands for Kinder- und Hausmärchen, the original title. All editions from 1812 until 1857 split the stories into two volumes.
Volume 1
Frontispiece used for the first volume of the 1840 4th edition
* KHM 1: The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich (Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne Heinrich)
* KHM 2: Cat and Mouse in Partnership (Katze und Maus in Gesellschaft)
* KHM 3: Mary's Child (Marienkind)
* KHM 4: The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was (Märchen von einem, der auszog das Fürchten zu lernen)
* KHM 5: The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids (Der Wolf und die sieben jungen Geißlein)
* KHM 6: Trusty John or Faithful John (Der treue Johannes)
* KHM 7: The Good Bargain (Der gute Handel)
* KHM 8: The Wonderful Musician or The Strange Musician (Der wunderliche Spielmann)
* KHM 9: The Twelve Brothers (Die zwölf Brüder)
* KHM 10: The Pack of Ragamuffins (Das Lumpengesindel)
* KHM 11: Brother and Sister (Brüderchen und Schwesterchen)
* KHM 12: Rapunzel
* KHM 13: The Three Little Men in the Wood (Die drei Männlein im Walde)
* KHM 14: The Three Spinners (Die drei Spinnerinnen)
* KHM 15: Hansel and Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel)
* KHM 16: The Three Snake-Leaves (Die drei Schlangenblätter)
* KHM 17: The White Snake (Die weiße Schlange)
* KHM 18: The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean (Strohhalm, Kohle und Bohne)
* KHM 19: The Fisherman and His Wife (Von dem Fischer und seiner Frau)
* KHM 20: The Valiant Little Tailor (Das tapfere Schneiderlein)
* KHM 21: Cinderella (Aschenputtel)
* KHM 22: The Riddle (Das Rätsel)
* KHM 23: The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage (Von dem Mäuschen, Vögelchen und der Bratwurst)
* KHM 24: Mother Hulda (Frau Holle)
* KHM 25: The Seven Ravens (Die sieben Raben)
* KHM 26: Little Red Riding Hood or Little Red-Cap (Rotkäppchen)
* KHM 27: Town Musicians of Bremen (Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten)
* KHM 28: The Singing Bone (Der singende Knochen)
* KHM 29: The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs (Der Teufel mit den drei goldenen Haaren)
* KHM 30: The Louse and the Flea (Läuschen und Flöhchen)
* KHM 31: The Girl Without Hands (Das Mädchen ohne Hände)
* KHM 32: Clever Hans (Der gescheite Hans)
* KHM 33: The Three Languages (Die drei Sprachen)
* KHM 34: Clever Elsie (Die kluge Else)
* KHM 35: The Tailor in Heaven (Der Schneider im Himmel)
* KHM 36: The Wishing-Table, the Gold-Ass, and the Cudgel in the Sack ("Tischchen deck dich, Goldesel und Knüppel aus dem Sack" also known as "Tischlein, deck dich!")
* KHM 37: Thumbling (Daumling) (see also Tom Thumb)
* KHM 38: The Wedding of Mrs. Fox (Die Hochzeit der Frau Füchsin)
* KHM 39: The Elves (Die Wichtelmänner)
o The Elves and the Shoemaker (Erstes Märchen)
o Second Story (Zweites Märchen)
o Third Story (Drittes Märchen)
* KHM 40: The Robber Bridegroom (Der Räuberbräutigam)
* KHM 41: Herr Korbes
* KHM 42: The Godfather (Der Herr Gevatter)
* KHM 43: Frau Trude
* KHM 44: Godfather Death (Der Gevatter Tod)
* KHM 45: Thumbling's Travels (see also Tom Thumb) (Daumerlings Wanderschaft)
* KHM 46: Fitcher's Bird (Fitchers Vogel)
* KHM 47: The Juniper Tree (Von dem Machandelboom)
* KHM 48: Old Sultan (Der alte Sultan)
* KHM 49: The Six Swans (Die sechs Schwäne)
* KHM 50: Sleeping Beauty or Little Briar-Rose (Dornröschen)
* KHM 51: Foundling-Bird (Fundevogel)
* KHM 52: King Thrushbeard (König Drosselbart)
* KHM 53: Little Snow White (Schneewittchen)
* KHM 54: The Knapsack, the Hat, and the Horn (Der Ranzen, das Hütlein und das Hörnlein)
* KHM 55: Rumpelstiltskin (Rumpelstilzchen)
* KHM 56: Sweetheart Roland (Liebster Roland)
* KHM 57: The Golden Bird (Der goldene Vogel)
* KHM 58: The Dog and the Sparrow (Der Hund und der Sperling)
* KHM 59: Frederick and Catherine (Der Frieder und das Katherlieschen)
* KHM 60: The Two Brothers (Die zwei Brüder)
* KHM 61: The Little Peasant (Das Bürle)
* KHM 62: The Queen Bee (Die Bienenkönigin)
* KHM 63: The Three Feathers (Die drei Federn)
* KHM 64: Golden Goose (Die goldene Gans)
* KHM 65: All-Kinds-of-Fur (Allerleirauh)
* KHM 66: The Hare's Bride (Häschenbraut)
* KHM 67: The Twelve Huntsmen (Die zwölf Jäger)
* KHM 68: The Thief and His Master (De Gaudeif un sien Meester)
* KHM 69: Jorinde and Joringel (Jorinde und Joringel)
* KHM 70: The Three Sons of Fortune (Die drei Glückskinder)
* KHM 71: How Six Men got on in the World (Sechse kommen durch die ganze Welt)
* KHM 72: The Wolf and the Man (Der Wolf und der Mensch)
* KHM 73: The Wolf and the Fox (Der Wolf und der Fuchs)
* KHM 74: Gossip Wolf and the Fox (Der Fuchs und die Frau Gevatterin)
* KHM 75: The Fox and the Cat (Der Fuchs und die Katze)
* KHM 76: The Pink (Die Nelke)
* KHM 77: Clever Gretel (Die kluge Gretel)
* KHM 78: The Old Man and his Grandson (Der alte Großvater und der Enkel)
* KHM 79: The Water Nixie (Die Wassernixe)
* KHM 80: The Death of the Little Hen (Von dem Tode des Hühnchens)
* KHM 81: Brother Lustig (Bruder Lustig)
* KHM 82: Gambling Hansel (De Spielhansl)
* KHM 83: Hans in Luck (Hans im Glück)
* KHM 84: Hans Married (Hans heiratet)
* KHM 85: The Gold-Children (Die Goldkinder)
* KHM 86: The Fox and the Geese (Der Fuchs und die Gänse)
Volume 2
Frontispiece used for the second volume of the 1840 4th edition
* KHM 87: The Poor Man and the Rich Man (Der Arme und der Reiche)
* KHM 88: The Singing, Springing Lark (Das singende springende Löweneckerchen)
* KHM 89: The Goose Girl (Die Gänsemagd)
* KHM 90: The Young Giant (Der junge Riese)
* KHM 91: The Gnome (Dat Erdmänneken)
* KHM 92: The King of the Gold Mountain (Der König vom goldenen Berg)
* KHM 93: The Raven (Die Rabe)
* KHM 94: The Peasant's Wise Daughter (Die kluge Bauerntochter)
* KHM 95: Old Hildrebrand (Der alte Hildebrand)
* KHM 96: The Three Little Birds (De drei Vügelkens)
* KHM 97: The Water of Life (Das Wasser des Lebens)
* KHM 98: Doctor Know-all (Doktor Allwissend)
* KHM 99: The Spirit in the Bottle (Der Geist im Glas)
* KHM 100: The Devil's Sooty Brother (Des Teufels rußiger Bruder)
* KHM 101: Bearskin (Bärenhäuter)
* KHM 102: The Willow-Wren and the Bear (Der Zaunkönig und der Bär)
* KHM 103: Sweet Porridge (Der süße Brei)
* KHM 104: Wise Folks (Die klugen Leute)
* KHM 105: Tales of the Paddock (Märchen von der Unke)
* KHM 106: The Poor Miller's Boy and the Cat (Der arme Müllersbursch und das Kätzchen)
* KHM 107: The Two Travelers (Die beiden Wanderer)
* KHM 108: Hans My Hedgehog (Hans mein Igel)
* KHM 109: The Shroud (Das Totenhemdchen)
* KHM 110: The Jew Among Thorns (Der Jude im Dorn)
* KHM 111: The Skillful Hunstman (Der gelernte Jäger)
* KHM 112: The Flail from Heaven (Der Dreschflegel vom Himmel)
* KHM 113: The Two Kings' Children (De beiden Künigeskinner)
* KHM 114: The Clever Little Tailor (vom klugen Schneiderlein)
* KHM 115: The Bright Sun Brings it to Light (Die klare Sonne bringt's an den Tag)
* KHM 116: The Blue Light (Das blaue Licht)
* KHM 117: The Willful Child (Das eigensinnige Kind)
* KHM 118: The Three Army Surgeons (Die drei Feldscherer)
* KHM 119: The Seven Swabians (Die sieben Schwaben)
* KHM 120: The Three Apprentices (Die drei Handwerksburschen)
* KHM 121: The King's Son Who Feared Nothing (Der Königssohn, der sich vor nichts fürchtete)
* KHM 122: Donkey Cabbages (Der Krautesel)
* KHM 123: The Old Woman in the Wood (Die alte im Wald)
* KHM 124: The Three Brothers (Die drei Brüder)
* KHM 125: The Devil and His Grandmother (Der Teufel und seine Großmutter)
* KHM 126: Ferdinand the Faithful and Ferdinand the Unfaithful (Ferenand getrü und Ferenand ungetrü)
* KHM 127: The Iron Stove (Der Eisenofen)
* KHM 128: The Lazy Spinner (Die faule Spinnerin)
* KHM 129: The Four Skillful Brothers (Die vier kunstreichen Brüder)
* KHM 130: One-Eye, Two-Eyes, and Three-Eyes (Einäuglein, Zweiäuglein und Dreiäuglein)
* KHM 131: Fair Katrinelje and Pif-Paf-Poltrie (Die schöne Katrinelje und Pif Paf Poltrie)
* KHM 132: The Fox and the Horse (Der Fuchs und das Pferd)
* KHM 133: The Shoes that were Danced to Pieces (Die zertanzten Schuhe)
* KHM 134: The Six Servants (Die sechs Diener)
* KHM 135: The White and the Black Bride (Die weiße und die schwarze Braut)
* KHM 136: Iron John (Eisenhans)
* KHM 137: The Three Black Princesses (De drei schwatten Prinzessinnen)
* KHM 138: Knoist and his Three Sons (Knoist un sine dre Sühne)
* KHM 139: The Maid of Brakel (Dat Mäken von Brakel)
* KHM 140: My Household (Das Hausgesinde)
* KHM 141: The Lambkin and the Little Fish (Das Lämmchen und das Fischchen)
* KHM 142: Simeli Mountain (Simeliberg)
* KHM 143: Going a Traveling (Up Reisen gohn) appeared in the 1819 edition
o KHM 143 in the 1812/1815 edition was Die Kinder in Hungersnot (the starving children)
* KHM 144: The Donkey (Das Eselein)
* KHM 145: The Ungrateful Son (Der undankbare Sohn)
* KHM 146: The Turnip (Die Rübe)
* KHM 147: The Old Man Made Young Again (Das junggeglühte Männlein)
* KHM 148: The Lord's Animals and the Devil's (Des Herrn und des Teufels Getier)
* KHM 149: The Beam (Der Hahnenbalken)
* KHM 150: The Old Beggar-Woman (Die alte Bettelfrau)
* KHM 151: The Twelve Idle Servants (Die drei Faulen)
* KHM 151: The Three Sluggards (Die zwölf faulen Knechte)
* KHM 152: The Shepherd Boy (Das Hirtenbüblein)
* KHM 153: The Star Money (Die Sterntaler)
* KHM 154: The Stolen Farthings (Der gestohlene Heller)
* KHM 155: Looking for a Bride (Die Brautschau)
* KHM 156: The Hurds (Die Schlickerlinge)
* KHM 157: The Sparrow and his Four Children (Der Sperling und seine vier Kinder)
* KHM 158: The Story of Schlauraffen Land (Das Märchen vom Schlaraffenland)
* KHM 159: The Ditmars Tale of Wonders (Das dietmarsische Lügenmärchen)
* KHM 160: A Riddling Tale (Rätselmärchen)
* KHM 161: Snow-White and Rose-Red (Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot)
* KHM 162: The Wise Servant (Der kluge Knecht)
* KHM 163: The Glass Coffin (Der gläserne Sarg)
* KHM 164: Lazy Henry (Der faule Heinz)
* KHM 165: The Griffin (Der Vogel Greif)
* KHM 166: Strong Hans (Der starke Hans)
* KHM 167: The Peasant in Heaven (Das Bürli im Himmel)
* KHM 168: Lean Lisa (Die hagere Liese)
* KHM 169: The Hut in the Forest (Das Waldhaus)
* KHM 170: Sharing Joy and Sorrow (Lieb und Leid teilen)
* KHM 171: The Willow-Worn (Der Zaunkönig)
* KHM 172: The Sole (Die Scholle)
* KHM 173: The Bittern and the Hoopoe (Rohrdommel und Wiedehopf)
* KHM 174: The Owl (Die Eule)
* KHM 175: The Moon (Der Mond)
* KHM 176: The Duration of life (Die Lebenszeit)
* KHM 177: Death's Messengers (Die Boten des Todes)
* KHM 178: Master Pfreim (Meister Pfriem)
* KHM 179: The Goose-Girl at the Well (Die Gänsehirtin am Brunnen)
* KHM 180: Eve's Various Children (Die ungleichen Kinder Evas)
* KHM 181: The Nixie of the Mill-Pond (Die Nixe im Teich)
* KHM 182: The Little Folk's Presents (Die Geschenke des kleinen Volkes)
* KHM 183: The Giant and the Tailor (Der Riese und der Schneider)
* KHM 184: The Nail (Der Nagel)
* KHM 185: The Poor Boy in the Grave (Der arme Junge im Grab)
* KHM 186: The True Bride (Die wahre Braut)
* KHM 187: The Hare and the Hedgehog (Der Hase und der Igel)
* KHM 188: Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle (Spindel, Weberschiffchen und Nadel)
* KHM 189: The Peasant and the Devil (Der Bauer und der Teufel)
* KHM 190: The Crumbs on the Table (Die Brosamen auf dem Tisch)
* KHM 191: The Sea-Hare (Das Meerhäschen)
* KHM 192: The Master Thief (Der Meisterdieb)
* KHM 193: The Drummer (Der Trommler)
* KHM 194: The Ear of Corn (Die Kornähre)
* KHM 195: The Grave-Mound (Der Grabhügel)
* KHM 196: Old Rinkrank (Oll Rinkrank)
* KHM 197: The Crystal Ball (Die Kristallkugel)
* KHM 198: Maid Maleen (Jungfrau Maleen)
* KHM 199: The Boots of Buffalo Leather (Der Stiefel von Büffelleder)
* KHM 200: The Golden Key (Der goldene Schlüssel)
The children's legends (Kinder-legende) first appeared in the G. Reimer 1819 edition at the end of volume 2).
* KHM 201: Saint Joseph in the Forest (Der heilige Joseph im Walde)
* KHM 202: The Twelve Apostles (Die zwölf Apostel)
* KHM 203: The Rose (Die Rose)
* KHM 204: Poverty and Humility Lead to Heaven (Armut und Demut führen zum Himmel)
* KHM 205: God's Food (Gottes Speise)
* KHM 206: The Three Green Twigs (Die drei grünen Zweige)
* KHM 207: The Blessed Virgin's Little Glass (Muttergottesgläschen) or Our Lady's Little Glass
* KHM 208: The Little Old Lady (Das alte Mütterchen) or The Aged Mother
* KHM 209: The Heavenly Marriage (Die himmlische Hochzeit) or The Heavenly Wedding
* KHM 210: The Hazel Branch (Die Haselrute)
Later additions
* Von der Nachtigall und der Blindschleiche
* Die Hand mit dem Messer
* Wie Kinder Schlachtens miteinander gespielt haben
* Der Tod und der Gänsehirt
* Der gestiefelte Kater
* Von der Serviette, dem Tornister, dem Kanonenhütlein und dem Horn
* Die wunderliche Gasterei
* Hans Dumm
* Blaubart
* Hurleburlebutz
* Der Okerlo
* Prinzessin Mäusehaut
* Das Birnli will nit fallen
* Das Mordschloß
* Vom Schreiner und Drechsler
* Die drei Schwestern
* Schneeblume (Fragment)
* Vom Prinz Johannes (Fragment)
* Der gute Lappen (Fragment)
* Die treuen Tiere
* Die Krähen
* Der Faule und der Fleißige
* Der Löwe und der Frosch
* Der Soldat und der Schreiner
* De wilde Mann
* Die heilige Frau Kummernis
* Das Unglück
* Die Erbsenprobe
* Der Räuber und seine Söhne
看着夜空中的星星，你會不會惦記着小紅帽是否安全脫險、 王子能不能撿到灰姑娘的小晶鞋、狠毒的繼母是不是把白雪公主殺死了…… 於是我們記住了格林兄弟的名字， 記住了他們給孩子們帶來的永遠的快樂。
格林童話選 本書目錄
一、小紅帽
二、貓和老鼠做朋友
三、勇敢的小裁縫
四、白雪公主
五、青蛙王子
六、狼和七衹小山羊
七、大拇指
八、老祖父和孫子
九、金鵝
十、活命的水
十一、三衹小鳥
十二、灰姑娘
十三、漁夫和他的妻子
十四、烏鴉
十五、玫瑰公主
十六、六人走遍天下，萬事如意
十七、熊皮人
十八、牧童
十九、幸福的罕斯
二十、海兔
二十一、藍色的燈
二十二、會唱歌的骨頭
二十三、十二個獵人
Composition
In 1803, the Grimms met the Romantics Clemens Brentano and Ludwig Achim von Arnim at the University of Marburg. These two men stirred in the brothers an interest in ancient fairy tales. In Kassel they started to collect and write down tales that they alleged had been handed down for generations. Among their sources were Dorothea Viehmann, and two Huguenot families, Hassenpflug and Wild, who introduced them to several tales of French origin. The most important sources were the works of the Italian fairy tale writers Giovanni Francesco Straparola and Giambattista Basile, on which most the fairy tales were based. The Brothers Grimm praised Giambattista Basile as the first writer to have collected fairy tales into a book only for fairy tales.
On December 20, 1812 they published the first volume of the first edition, containing 86 stories; the second volume of 70 stories followed in 1814. For the second edition, two volumes were issued in 1819 and a third in 1822, totalling 170 tales. The third edition appeared in 1837; fourth edition, 1840; fifth edition, 1843; sixth edition, 1850; seventh edition, 1857. Stories were added, and also subtracted, from one edition to the next, until the seventh held 211 tales.
The first volumes were much criticized because, although they were called "Children's Tales", they were not regarded as suitable for children, both for the scholarly information included and the subject matter. Many changes through the editions – such as turning the wicked mother of the first edition in Snow White and Hansel and Gretel to a stepmother, were probably made with an eye to such suitability. They removed sexual references, such as Rapunzel's innocently asking why her dress was getting tight around her belly, and thus naively revealing her pregnancy and the prince's visits to her step mother, but, in many respects, violence, particularly when punishing villains, was increased.
In 1825 the Brothers published their Kleine Ausgabe or "small edition," a selection of 50 tales designed for child readers. This children's version went through ten editions between 1825 and 1858.
Influence of the book
The influence of these books was widespread. W. H. Auden praised it, during World War II, as one of the founding works of Western culture. The tales themselves have been put to many uses. The Nazis praised them as folkish tales showing children with sound racial instincts seeking racially pure marriage partners, and so strongly that the Allied forces warned against them. Writers about the Holocaust have combined the tales with their memoirs, as Jane Yolen in her Briar Rose..
The work of the Brothers Grimm influenced other collectors, both inspiring them to collect tales and leading them to similarly believe, in a spirit of romantic nationalism, that the fairy tales of a country were particularly representative of it, to the neglect of cross-cultural influence. Among those influenced were the Russian Alexander Afanasyev, the Norwegians Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, the English Joseph Jacobs, and Jeremiah Curtin, an American who collected Irish tales. There was not always a pleased reaction to their collection. Joseph Jacobs was in part inspired by his complaint that English children did not read English fairy tales; in his own words, "What Perrault began, the Grimms completed".
Three individual works of Wilhelm Grimm include Altdänische Heldenlieder, Balladen und Märchen (Old Danish Heroic Lays, Ballads, and Folktales) in 1811 Über deutsche Runen (On German Runes) in 1821. Die deutsche Heldensage (The German Heroic Legend) in 1829.
List of fairy tales
The code "KHM" stands for Kinder- und Hausmärchen, the original title. All editions from 1812 until 1857 split the stories into two volumes.
Volume 1
Frontispiece used for the first volume of the 1840 4th edition
* KHM 1: The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich (Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne Heinrich)
* KHM 2: Cat and Mouse in Partnership (Katze und Maus in Gesellschaft)
* KHM 3: Mary's Child (Marienkind)
* KHM 4: The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was (Märchen von einem, der auszog das Fürchten zu lernen)
* KHM 5: The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids (Der Wolf und die sieben jungen Geißlein)
* KHM 6: Trusty John or Faithful John (Der treue Johannes)
* KHM 7: The Good Bargain (Der gute Handel)
* KHM 8: The Wonderful Musician or The Strange Musician (Der wunderliche Spielmann)
* KHM 9: The Twelve Brothers (Die zwölf Brüder)
* KHM 10: The Pack of Ragamuffins (Das Lumpengesindel)
* KHM 11: Brother and Sister (Brüderchen und Schwesterchen)
* KHM 12: Rapunzel
* KHM 13: The Three Little Men in the Wood (Die drei Männlein im Walde)
* KHM 14: The Three Spinners (Die drei Spinnerinnen)
* KHM 15: Hansel and Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel)
* KHM 16: The Three Snake-Leaves (Die drei Schlangenblätter)
* KHM 17: The White Snake (Die weiße Schlange)
* KHM 18: The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean (Strohhalm, Kohle und Bohne)
* KHM 19: The Fisherman and His Wife (Von dem Fischer und seiner Frau)
* KHM 20: The Valiant Little Tailor (Das tapfere Schneiderlein)
* KHM 21: Cinderella (Aschenputtel)
* KHM 22: The Riddle (Das Rätsel)
* KHM 23: The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage (Von dem Mäuschen, Vögelchen und der Bratwurst)
* KHM 24: Mother Hulda (Frau Holle)
* KHM 25: The Seven Ravens (Die sieben Raben)
* KHM 26: Little Red Riding Hood or Little Red-Cap (Rotkäppchen)
* KHM 27: Town Musicians of Bremen (Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten)
* KHM 28: The Singing Bone (Der singende Knochen)
* KHM 29: The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs (Der Teufel mit den drei goldenen Haaren)
* KHM 30: The Louse and the Flea (Läuschen und Flöhchen)
* KHM 31: The Girl Without Hands (Das Mädchen ohne Hände)
* KHM 32: Clever Hans (Der gescheite Hans)
* KHM 33: The Three Languages (Die drei Sprachen)
* KHM 34: Clever Elsie (Die kluge Else)
* KHM 35: The Tailor in Heaven (Der Schneider im Himmel)
* KHM 36: The Wishing-Table, the Gold-Ass, and the Cudgel in the Sack ("Tischchen deck dich, Goldesel und Knüppel aus dem Sack" also known as "Tischlein, deck dich!")
* KHM 37: Thumbling (Daumling) (see also Tom Thumb)
* KHM 38: The Wedding of Mrs. Fox (Die Hochzeit der Frau Füchsin)
* KHM 39: The Elves (Die Wichtelmänner)
o The Elves and the Shoemaker (Erstes Märchen)
o Second Story (Zweites Märchen)
o Third Story (Drittes Märchen)
* KHM 40: The Robber Bridegroom (Der Räuberbräutigam)
* KHM 41: Herr Korbes
* KHM 42: The Godfather (Der Herr Gevatter)
* KHM 43: Frau Trude
* KHM 44: Godfather Death (Der Gevatter Tod)
* KHM 45: Thumbling's Travels (see also Tom Thumb) (Daumerlings Wanderschaft)
* KHM 46: Fitcher's Bird (Fitchers Vogel)
* KHM 47: The Juniper Tree (Von dem Machandelboom)
* KHM 48: Old Sultan (Der alte Sultan)
* KHM 49: The Six Swans (Die sechs Schwäne)
* KHM 50: Sleeping Beauty or Little Briar-Rose (Dornröschen)
* KHM 51: Foundling-Bird (Fundevogel)
* KHM 52: King Thrushbeard (König Drosselbart)
* KHM 53: Little Snow White (Schneewittchen)
* KHM 54: The Knapsack, the Hat, and the Horn (Der Ranzen, das Hütlein und das Hörnlein)
* KHM 55: Rumpelstiltskin (Rumpelstilzchen)
* KHM 56: Sweetheart Roland (Liebster Roland)
* KHM 57: The Golden Bird (Der goldene Vogel)
* KHM 58: The Dog and the Sparrow (Der Hund und der Sperling)
* KHM 59: Frederick and Catherine (Der Frieder und das Katherlieschen)
* KHM 60: The Two Brothers (Die zwei Brüder)
* KHM 61: The Little Peasant (Das Bürle)
* KHM 62: The Queen Bee (Die Bienenkönigin)
* KHM 63: The Three Feathers (Die drei Federn)
* KHM 64: Golden Goose (Die goldene Gans)
* KHM 65: All-Kinds-of-Fur (Allerleirauh)
* KHM 66: The Hare's Bride (Häschenbraut)
* KHM 67: The Twelve Huntsmen (Die zwölf Jäger)
* KHM 68: The Thief and His Master (De Gaudeif un sien Meester)
* KHM 69: Jorinde and Joringel (Jorinde und Joringel)
* KHM 70: The Three Sons of Fortune (Die drei Glückskinder)
* KHM 71: How Six Men got on in the World (Sechse kommen durch die ganze Welt)
* KHM 72: The Wolf and the Man (Der Wolf und der Mensch)
* KHM 73: The Wolf and the Fox (Der Wolf und der Fuchs)
* KHM 74: Gossip Wolf and the Fox (Der Fuchs und die Frau Gevatterin)
* KHM 75: The Fox and the Cat (Der Fuchs und die Katze)
* KHM 76: The Pink (Die Nelke)
* KHM 77: Clever Gretel (Die kluge Gretel)
* KHM 78: The Old Man and his Grandson (Der alte Großvater und der Enkel)
* KHM 79: The Water Nixie (Die Wassernixe)
* KHM 80: The Death of the Little Hen (Von dem Tode des Hühnchens)
* KHM 81: Brother Lustig (Bruder Lustig)
* KHM 82: Gambling Hansel (De Spielhansl)
* KHM 83: Hans in Luck (Hans im Glück)
* KHM 84: Hans Married (Hans heiratet)
* KHM 85: The Gold-Children (Die Goldkinder)
* KHM 86: The Fox and the Geese (Der Fuchs und die Gänse)
Volume 2
Frontispiece used for the second volume of the 1840 4th edition
* KHM 87: The Poor Man and the Rich Man (Der Arme und der Reiche)
* KHM 88: The Singing, Springing Lark (Das singende springende Löweneckerchen)
* KHM 89: The Goose Girl (Die Gänsemagd)
* KHM 90: The Young Giant (Der junge Riese)
* KHM 91: The Gnome (Dat Erdmänneken)
* KHM 92: The King of the Gold Mountain (Der König vom goldenen Berg)
* KHM 93: The Raven (Die Rabe)
* KHM 94: The Peasant's Wise Daughter (Die kluge Bauerntochter)
* KHM 95: Old Hildrebrand (Der alte Hildebrand)
* KHM 96: The Three Little Birds (De drei Vügelkens)
* KHM 97: The Water of Life (Das Wasser des Lebens)
* KHM 98: Doctor Know-all (Doktor Allwissend)
* KHM 99: The Spirit in the Bottle (Der Geist im Glas)
* KHM 100: The Devil's Sooty Brother (Des Teufels rußiger Bruder)
* KHM 101: Bearskin (Bärenhäuter)
* KHM 102: The Willow-Wren and the Bear (Der Zaunkönig und der Bär)
* KHM 103: Sweet Porridge (Der süße Brei)
* KHM 104: Wise Folks (Die klugen Leute)
* KHM 105: Tales of the Paddock (Märchen von der Unke)
* KHM 106: The Poor Miller's Boy and the Cat (Der arme Müllersbursch und das Kätzchen)
* KHM 107: The Two Travelers (Die beiden Wanderer)
* KHM 108: Hans My Hedgehog (Hans mein Igel)
* KHM 109: The Shroud (Das Totenhemdchen)
* KHM 110: The Jew Among Thorns (Der Jude im Dorn)
* KHM 111: The Skillful Hunstman (Der gelernte Jäger)
* KHM 112: The Flail from Heaven (Der Dreschflegel vom Himmel)
* KHM 113: The Two Kings' Children (De beiden Künigeskinner)
* KHM 114: The Clever Little Tailor (vom klugen Schneiderlein)
* KHM 115: The Bright Sun Brings it to Light (Die klare Sonne bringt's an den Tag)
* KHM 116: The Blue Light (Das blaue Licht)
* KHM 117: The Willful Child (Das eigensinnige Kind)
* KHM 118: The Three Army Surgeons (Die drei Feldscherer)
* KHM 119: The Seven Swabians (Die sieben Schwaben)
* KHM 120: The Three Apprentices (Die drei Handwerksburschen)
* KHM 121: The King's Son Who Feared Nothing (Der Königssohn, der sich vor nichts fürchtete)
* KHM 122: Donkey Cabbages (Der Krautesel)
* KHM 123: The Old Woman in the Wood (Die alte im Wald)
* KHM 124: The Three Brothers (Die drei Brüder)
* KHM 125: The Devil and His Grandmother (Der Teufel und seine Großmutter)
* KHM 126: Ferdinand the Faithful and Ferdinand the Unfaithful (Ferenand getrü und Ferenand ungetrü)
* KHM 127: The Iron Stove (Der Eisenofen)
* KHM 128: The Lazy Spinner (Die faule Spinnerin)
* KHM 129: The Four Skillful Brothers (Die vier kunstreichen Brüder)
* KHM 130: One-Eye, Two-Eyes, and Three-Eyes (Einäuglein, Zweiäuglein und Dreiäuglein)
* KHM 131: Fair Katrinelje and Pif-Paf-Poltrie (Die schöne Katrinelje und Pif Paf Poltrie)
* KHM 132: The Fox and the Horse (Der Fuchs und das Pferd)
* KHM 133: The Shoes that were Danced to Pieces (Die zertanzten Schuhe)
* KHM 134: The Six Servants (Die sechs Diener)
* KHM 135: The White and the Black Bride (Die weiße und die schwarze Braut)
* KHM 136: Iron John (Eisenhans)
* KHM 137: The Three Black Princesses (De drei schwatten Prinzessinnen)
* KHM 138: Knoist and his Three Sons (Knoist un sine dre Sühne)
* KHM 139: The Maid of Brakel (Dat Mäken von Brakel)
* KHM 140: My Household (Das Hausgesinde)
* KHM 141: The Lambkin and the Little Fish (Das Lämmchen und das Fischchen)
* KHM 142: Simeli Mountain (Simeliberg)
* KHM 143: Going a Traveling (Up Reisen gohn) appeared in the 1819 edition
o KHM 143 in the 1812/1815 edition was Die Kinder in Hungersnot (the starving children)
* KHM 144: The Donkey (Das Eselein)
* KHM 145: The Ungrateful Son (Der undankbare Sohn)
* KHM 146: The Turnip (Die Rübe)
* KHM 147: The Old Man Made Young Again (Das junggeglühte Männlein)
* KHM 148: The Lord's Animals and the Devil's (Des Herrn und des Teufels Getier)
* KHM 149: The Beam (Der Hahnenbalken)
* KHM 150: The Old Beggar-Woman (Die alte Bettelfrau)
* KHM 151: The Twelve Idle Servants (Die drei Faulen)
* KHM 151: The Three Sluggards (Die zwölf faulen Knechte)
* KHM 152: The Shepherd Boy (Das Hirtenbüblein)
* KHM 153: The Star Money (Die Sterntaler)
* KHM 154: The Stolen Farthings (Der gestohlene Heller)
* KHM 155: Looking for a Bride (Die Brautschau)
* KHM 156: The Hurds (Die Schlickerlinge)
* KHM 157: The Sparrow and his Four Children (Der Sperling und seine vier Kinder)
* KHM 158: The Story of Schlauraffen Land (Das Märchen vom Schlaraffenland)
* KHM 159: The Ditmars Tale of Wonders (Das dietmarsische Lügenmärchen)
* KHM 160: A Riddling Tale (Rätselmärchen)
* KHM 161: Snow-White and Rose-Red (Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot)
* KHM 162: The Wise Servant (Der kluge Knecht)
* KHM 163: The Glass Coffin (Der gläserne Sarg)
* KHM 164: Lazy Henry (Der faule Heinz)
* KHM 165: The Griffin (Der Vogel Greif)
* KHM 166: Strong Hans (Der starke Hans)
* KHM 167: The Peasant in Heaven (Das Bürli im Himmel)
* KHM 168: Lean Lisa (Die hagere Liese)
* KHM 169: The Hut in the Forest (Das Waldhaus)
* KHM 170: Sharing Joy and Sorrow (Lieb und Leid teilen)
* KHM 171: The Willow-Worn (Der Zaunkönig)
* KHM 172: The Sole (Die Scholle)
* KHM 173: The Bittern and the Hoopoe (Rohrdommel und Wiedehopf)
* KHM 174: The Owl (Die Eule)
* KHM 175: The Moon (Der Mond)
* KHM 176: The Duration of life (Die Lebenszeit)
* KHM 177: Death's Messengers (Die Boten des Todes)
* KHM 178: Master Pfreim (Meister Pfriem)
* KHM 179: The Goose-Girl at the Well (Die Gänsehirtin am Brunnen)
* KHM 180: Eve's Various Children (Die ungleichen Kinder Evas)
* KHM 181: The Nixie of the Mill-Pond (Die Nixe im Teich)
* KHM 182: The Little Folk's Presents (Die Geschenke des kleinen Volkes)
* KHM 183: The Giant and the Tailor (Der Riese und der Schneider)
* KHM 184: The Nail (Der Nagel)
* KHM 185: The Poor Boy in the Grave (Der arme Junge im Grab)
* KHM 186: The True Bride (Die wahre Braut)
* KHM 187: The Hare and the Hedgehog (Der Hase und der Igel)
* KHM 188: Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle (Spindel, Weberschiffchen und Nadel)
* KHM 189: The Peasant and the Devil (Der Bauer und der Teufel)
* KHM 190: The Crumbs on the Table (Die Brosamen auf dem Tisch)
* KHM 191: The Sea-Hare (Das Meerhäschen)
* KHM 192: The Master Thief (Der Meisterdieb)
* KHM 193: The Drummer (Der Trommler)
* KHM 194: The Ear of Corn (Die Kornähre)
* KHM 195: The Grave-Mound (Der Grabhügel)
* KHM 196: Old Rinkrank (Oll Rinkrank)
* KHM 197: The Crystal Ball (Die Kristallkugel)
* KHM 198: Maid Maleen (Jungfrau Maleen)
* KHM 199: The Boots of Buffalo Leather (Der Stiefel von Büffelleder)
* KHM 200: The Golden Key (Der goldene Schlüssel)
The children's legends (Kinder-legende) first appeared in the G. Reimer 1819 edition at the end of volume 2).
* KHM 201: Saint Joseph in the Forest (Der heilige Joseph im Walde)
* KHM 202: The Twelve Apostles (Die zwölf Apostel)
* KHM 203: The Rose (Die Rose)
* KHM 204: Poverty and Humility Lead to Heaven (Armut und Demut führen zum Himmel)
* KHM 205: God's Food (Gottes Speise)
* KHM 206: The Three Green Twigs (Die drei grünen Zweige)
* KHM 207: The Blessed Virgin's Little Glass (Muttergottesgläschen) or Our Lady's Little Glass
* KHM 208: The Little Old Lady (Das alte Mütterchen) or The Aged Mother
* KHM 209: The Heavenly Marriage (Die himmlische Hochzeit) or The Heavenly Wedding
* KHM 210: The Hazel Branch (Die Haselrute)
Later additions
* Von der Nachtigall und der Blindschleiche
* Die Hand mit dem Messer
* Wie Kinder Schlachtens miteinander gespielt haben
* Der Tod und der Gänsehirt
* Der gestiefelte Kater
* Von der Serviette, dem Tornister, dem Kanonenhütlein und dem Horn
* Die wunderliche Gasterei
* Hans Dumm
* Blaubart
* Hurleburlebutz
* Der Okerlo
* Prinzessin Mäusehaut
* Das Birnli will nit fallen
* Das Mordschloß
* Vom Schreiner und Drechsler
* Die drei Schwestern
* Schneeblume (Fragment)
* Vom Prinz Johannes (Fragment)
* Der gute Lappen (Fragment)
* Die treuen Tiere
* Die Krähen
* Der Faule und der Fleißige
* Der Löwe und der Frosch
* Der Soldat und der Schreiner
* De wilde Mann
* Die heilige Frau Kummernis
* Das Unglück
* Die Erbsenprobe
* Der Räuber und seine Söhne
安徒生的童話故事體現了丹麥文學中的民主傳統和現實主義傾嚮。他的最好的童話膾炙人口，到今天還為世界上衆多的成年人和兒童所傳誦。有些童話如《賣火柴的小女孩》（The Little Match Girl）、《醜小鴨》（The Ugly Duckling）《看門人的兒子》等，既真實地描繪了窮苦人的悲慘生活，又滲透着浪漫主義的情調和幻想。由於作者出身貧寒，對於社會上貧富不均、弱肉強食的現象感受極深，因此他一方面以真摯的筆觸熱烈歌頌勞動人民，同情不幸的窮人，贊美他們的善良、純潔等高尚品質；另一方面又憤怒地鞭撻了殘暴、貪婪、虛弱、愚蠢的反動統治階級和剝削者，揭露了教會僧侶的醜行和人們的種種陋習，不遺餘力地批判了社會罪惡。《皇帝的新裝》（The Emperor's New Clothes）辛辣地諷刺了皇帝的昏庸無能和朝臣們阿諛逢迎的醜態；《夜鶯》（The Nightingale）和《豌豆上的公主》（The Princess and the Pea）嘲笑了貴族的無知和脆弱。他在最後一部作品《園丁和主人》中，還着力塑造了一個真正的愛國者的形象，反映了作者本人始終不渝的愛國主義精神。
安徒生的一些童話故事，特別是晚期的某些作品，也顯示出他思想上的局限性。他雖然把滿腔同情傾註在窮苦人身上，但因找不到擺脫不幸的道路，又以傷感的眼光看待世界，流露出消極情緒。他認為上帝是真、善、美的化身，可以引導人們走嚮“幸福”。他在作品中有時也進行道德說教，宣揚基督教的博愛思想，提倡容忍與和解的精神。
安徒生的童話同民間文學有着血緣關係，繼承並發揚了民間文學的樸素清新的格調。他早期的作品大多數取材於民間故事，後期創作中也引用了很多民間歌謠和傳說。
在體裁和寫作手法上，安徒生的作品是多樣化的，有童話故事，也有短篇小說；有寓言，也有詩歌；既適合於兒童閱讀，也適合於成年人鑒賞。他創造的藝術形象，如：沒有穿衣服的皇帝、堅定的錫兵、拇指姑娘、醜小鴨、紅鞋等，已成為歐洲語言中的典故。
在語言風格上，安徒生是一個有高度創造性的作傢，在作品中大量運用丹麥下層人民的日常口語和民間故事的結構形式。語言生動、自然、流暢、優美、充滿濃郁的鄉土氣息。
During his lifetime he was acclaimed for having delighted children worldwide, and was feted by royalty. His poetry and stories have been translated into more than 150 languages. They have inspired motion pictures, plays, ballets, and animated films.
安徒生的一些童話故事，特別是晚期的某些作品，也顯示出他思想上的局限性。他雖然把滿腔同情傾註在窮苦人身上，但因找不到擺脫不幸的道路，又以傷感的眼光看待世界，流露出消極情緒。他認為上帝是真、善、美的化身，可以引導人們走嚮“幸福”。他在作品中有時也進行道德說教，宣揚基督教的博愛思想，提倡容忍與和解的精神。
安徒生的童話同民間文學有着血緣關係，繼承並發揚了民間文學的樸素清新的格調。他早期的作品大多數取材於民間故事，後期創作中也引用了很多民間歌謠和傳說。
在體裁和寫作手法上，安徒生的作品是多樣化的，有童話故事，也有短篇小說；有寓言，也有詩歌；既適合於兒童閱讀，也適合於成年人鑒賞。他創造的藝術形象，如：沒有穿衣服的皇帝、堅定的錫兵、拇指姑娘、醜小鴨、紅鞋等，已成為歐洲語言中的典故。
在語言風格上，安徒生是一個有高度創造性的作傢，在作品中大量運用丹麥下層人民的日常口語和民間故事的結構形式。語言生動、自然、流暢、優美、充滿濃郁的鄉土氣息。
During his lifetime he was acclaimed for having delighted children worldwide, and was feted by royalty. His poetry and stories have been translated into more than 150 languages. They have inspired motion pictures, plays, ballets, and animated films.
《格列佛遊記》-作品簡介
作者：（英）喬納森·斯威夫特
成書時間：1726年
特色之處：旨在抨擊當時英國的議會政治和反動宗教勢力的幻想遊記體諷刺小說
《格列佛遊記》-作者簡介
《格列佛遊記》喬納森·斯威夫特
喬納森·斯威夫特（1667～1745），以諷刺作傢名垂青史。他是一名牧師，一位政治撰稿人，一個才子。他出生於愛爾蘭首府都柏林，六歲上學，在基爾凱尼學校讀了八年。1682年進都柏林著名的三一學院學習，他除了對歷史和詩歌有興趣外，別的一概不喜歡。還是學校“特別通融”纔拿到學位。之後，他在三一學院繼續讀碩士，一直到一六八六年。 1688年，愛爾蘭面臨英國軍隊的入侵，他前往英國尋找出路。
接下來的十年是對斯威夫特一生中具有重要影響的關鍵時期。他通過親戚的關係，在穆爾莊園當私人秘書。穆爾莊園的主人坦普爾是一位經驗豐富的政治傢，也是位哲學家，修養極好，這無疑給斯威夫特起了積極的，甚至是導師性質的作用。這從政治或者其他較實際的角度看，對斯威夫特可能是一種失望，但就一個諷刺作傢來說，近十年的時間卻使他得到了充分的學習。他早期的兩部諷刺傑作《桶的故事》和《世紀戰爭》正是在這裏寫成的。
離開穆爾莊園後，斯威夫特回到愛爾蘭繼續做他的牧師。為了教會，他投入到政治活動中去。他在後半生寫了無數的政治小册子，獲得了相當的聲譽。雖然他一時間名聞遐邇，可他的內心是孤獨的。他甚至一步步走到了絶望的邊緣。他經歷了一切，也看透了一切，於是，他寫了《格列佛遊記》。
《格列佛遊記》《格列佛遊記》
1745年10月19日，斯威夫特在黑暗和孤苦中告別了人世，終年78歲。
《格列佛遊記》是一部奇書，它不是單純的少兒讀物，而是飽寓諷刺和批判的文學傑作，英國著名作傢喬治·奧威爾一生中讀了不下六次，他說：“如果要我開一份書目，列出哪怕其他書都被毀壞時也要保留的六本書，我一定會把《格列佛遊記》列入其中。” 在這本書中，斯威夫特的敘事技巧和諷刺才能得到了淋漓盡致的反映。
作品的主人公裏梅爾·格列佛是個英國外科醫生，後升任船長；他受過良好教育，為祖國而自豪，在職業和政治兩方面似乎都頗有見識，可是他本質上卻是一個平庸的人，而斯威夫特正是利用了主人公的這種局限達到了最充分的諷刺效果。 全書由四捲組成，在每一捲中格列佛都要面臨常人難以想象的特殊情況。
《格列佛遊記》-故事梗概
小說以外科醫生格列佛的四次出海航行冒險的經歷為綫索，一共由四部分組成。
第一捲：利立浦特（小人國）遊記。敘述格列佛在小人國的遊歷見聞。這裏的人，身長不滿六英寸，他置身其中，就象巍巍的大山一般。小朝廷裏充斥陰謀詭計、傾軋紛爭。穿高跟鞋的一派與穿低跟鞋的一派互相攻擊，誓不兩立。
第二捲：布羅卜丁奈格（大人國）遊記。格列佛在利立浦特人的心目中是個寵然大物，但一到布羅卜丁奈格，他就象田間的鼬鼠一般小了。格列佛被當作小玩藝裝入手提箱裏，帶到各城鎮表演展覽。後來，國王召見他，他慷慨陳辭，誇耀自己的祖國的偉大，政治的賢明，法律的公正，然而均一一遭到國王的抨擊與駁斥。
第三捲：勒皮他、巴爾尼巴比、拉格奈格、格勒大錐、日本遊記。主要描述格列佛在勒皮他（飛島）和格勒大錐（巫人島）的遊歷。飛島上的人長得畸形怪狀，整天擔憂天體會發生突變，地球會被彗星撞擊得粉碎，因而惶惶不可終日。在科學院裏，設計傢們正在從事研究如何從黃瓜中提取陽光取暖，把糞便還原為食物，繁殖無毛的綿羊，軟化大理石等課題。在巫人島上，島主精通巫術，擅長招魂，他們博覽古今，發現歷史真相被權貴歪麯，娼妓般的作傢在哄騙人世。
第四捲：慧駰國遊記。敘述格列佛在智馬國的遊歷。在這個國度裏，居主宰地位的是有理性的公正而誠實的智馬，供智馬驅使的是一種類似人形的畜類耶鬍，後者生性淫蕩、貪婪、好鬥。
《格列佛遊記》-主題思想
小說第一捲中所描繪的小人國的情景乃是大英帝國的縮影。英國國內托利黨和輝格黨常年不息的鬥爭和對外的戰爭，實質上衹是政客們在一些與國計民生毫不相幹的小節上勾心鬥角。
小說的第二捲則通過大人國國王對格列佛引以為榮的英國選舉制度、議會制度以及種種政教措施所進行的尖銳的抨擊，對英國各種制度及政教措施表示了懷疑和否定。
小說的第三捲，作者把諷刺的鋒芒指嚮了當代英國哲學家，脫離實際、沉溺於幻想的科學家，荒誕不經的發明傢和顛倒黑白的評論傢和歷史傢等。
小說第四捲，作者利用格列佛回答一連串問題而揭露了戰爭的實質、法律的虛偽和不擇手段以獲得官爵的可恥行為等。
綜觀小說的全部情節，《格列佛遊記》政治傾嚮鮮明。它的批判鋒芒，集中在抨擊當時英國的議會政治和反動的宗教勢力。
《格列佛遊記》-主要人物形象分析
格列佛：是十八世紀英國的普通人，他熱愛勞動，剛毅勇敢，心地善良。他在遊歷之中，洞察到社會現實的日趨墮落，得出英國社會並不文明的結論。格列佛的形象，是作者思想的體現者。作者將自己的種種美德賦予筆下的人物，格列佛不計較個人的得失，而對別人關懷備至。格列佛是個正面的理想的人物。他總是坦率地敘述自己的弱點和錯誤，而對自己的優點則衹字不提。他謙遜好學，努力用新眼光去認識新的現實。他從不自暴自棄，縱使將他當作玩物到各地供人觀賞，仍泰然自若，保持自身的尊嚴，以平等的姿態與大人國的國王交談。他勇於幫助小人國抵抗外族入侵，但斷然拒絶為小人國國王的侵略擴張政策效勞。
《格列佛遊記》-文學藝術特點
《格列佛遊記》的藝術特色主要體現在諷刺手法的運用上，尖銳深邃的諷刺是這部作品的靈魂。
當時的英國是作者抨擊和挖苦的對象。格列佛歷險的第一地是小人國。在這個縮微的國度裏，黨派之爭勢不兩立，鄰邦之間不但想戰勝而且要奴役對方。小人國的國王用比賽繩技的方法選拔官員，為獲得國王賞給的幾根彩色絲綫，官員不惜小醜似地做着可笑的表演。這個小朝廷是當時英國的縮影，連利立浦特的朝政風習和典章制度也同當時的英國政局一模一樣；在第二捲裏，作者更是指名道姓地批抨英國。格列佛長篇大論地嚮大人國國王介紹英國的歷史、制度和現狀，以及種種為國傢為自己辨解的事，可是從大人國的眼光看來，英國的歷史充斥着“貪婪、競爭、殘暴、偽善、淫欲、陰險和野心”産生的惡果。作者藉國王的話，“那樣一個卑微無能的小蟲”是“自然界中爬行於地面的小毒蟲最有害的一類”，諷刺了英國社會的方方面面；在第三捲裏，通過對拉格多科學院人士所從事的無聊而荒唐的科學研究，諷刺了英國當時的偽科學；有關勒皮他島的描繪則批評了英國對愛爾蘭的剝削壓迫。
小說不但抨擊了社會現狀，還在更深的層面上，直接諷刺了人性本身。在第四捲裏，關於“錢”的那段議論就是如此。格列佛來到沒有金錢，沒有軍隊警察的慧駰（馬）國，嚮他的馬主人解釋說：“我們那裏的野猢認為，不管是用還是攢，錢都是越多越好，沒有個夠的時候。因為他們天性如此，不是奢侈浪費就是貪得無厭。富人享受着窮人的勞動成果，而窮人和富人在數量上的比例是一千比一。因此我們的人民大多數被迫過着悲慘的生活……”。作者註意到資本主義社會人與人之間的純粹的金錢關係。並由此對人性産生了疑問。
作者在對當時英國的議會政治和反動的宗教勢力進行無情、辛辣的諷刺、抨擊時，有的直言相譏，有的利用異邦人的唇舌，有的隱喻挖苦，有的以獸譏諷人，凡此種種，風趣滑稽，神情皆備。
情節的幻想性與現實的真實性有機結合，也給小說增添了獨特的藝術魅力。雖然作者展現的是一個虛構的童話般的神奇世界，但它是以當時英國社會生活的真實為基礎的。由於作者精確、細膩、貼切的描述，使人感覺不到它是虛構的幻景，似乎一切都是真情實事。例如，在描述小人與大人、人與物的比例關係時，一概按一與十二之比縮小或放大。小人國裏的小人比格列佛小十二倍；大人國的大人又比格列佛大十二倍。格列佛的一塊區區手帕，可以給小人國皇宮當地毯；大人國農婦的那塊手帕，蓋在格列佛身上，就變成一床被單了。在描述飛島的運行，宮殿的建築，城鎮的結構時，作者還有意運用了數學、物理、化學、天文、醫藥諸方面的知識與數據。這樣，就使人物局部細節的真實、和諧、勻稱，轉化為整個畫面、場景的真實、和諧、統一，極大地增強了作品的真實感和感染力。
作者的文筆樸素而簡練。例如文中寫到格列佛在小人國抄錄了一段官方文告，它贊頌國王是“舉世擁戴”的“萬王之王”，“腳踏地心、頭頂太陽”，等等。格列佛還在括號裏不動聲色地解釋道：“周界約十二英裏”。隨着這句解釋，那“直抵地球四極”的無邊領土陡然縮為周邊不過十餘裏的彈丸之地。這種反差令人捧腹。括號裏的話顯示出作者樸素又實事求是的敘述風格，他似乎無意對此評論，衹是在客觀忠實地為我們解釋利立浦特的尺度。他曾經聲明：“我寧願用最簡單樸素的文筆把平凡的事實敘述出來，因為我寫這本書主要是嚮你報道，而不是供你消遣。”儘管小人國、大人國、慧駰國的情景各異，主人公的境遇也不相同，但整部小說的佈局、風格前後一致，格列佛每次出海的前因後果都有詳盡的交待，復雜紛繁的情節均按時間、空間順序依次描述，文字簡潔生動，故事性強，因而數百年來，《格列佛遊記》在歐洲各國雅俗共賞，婦孺皆知。
作者可翻譯為約拿旦·斯威夫特、喬納森·斯威夫特、江奈生·斯威夫特，另外已有《新格列佛遊記》出版
《格列佛遊記》-名傢點評
斯威夫特以幽默豐富了作品的道德含義，以諷刺揭露荒誕，並通過人物性格和敘述框架使人難以置信的事件成為現實，即使《魯濱遜漂流記》也難以在敘述的刻薄性和多樣性方面與其媲美。——（英）司各特
《格列佛遊記》是一部獨具特色的小說傑作。它和18世紀歐洲衆多小說一樣，繼承了流浪漢小說的結構方法，襲用了當時流行的描寫旅行見聞的小說，尤其是航海冒險小說的模式，敘述主人公格列佛在海上漂流的一係列奇遇。它無疑在相當程度上受到笛福《魯濱遜漂流記》和其他一些遊記體冒險小說的影響。然而，《格列佛遊記》和他們雖然形式相似，性質卻截然不同。它是《桶的故事》和《書籍之戰》那類故事的進一步發展，具有與十八世紀開始興起的寫實主義小說不同的若幹獨特性質。——吳厚愷《簡論諷喻體小說《格列佛遊記》及其文學地位》
文學史對《格列佛遊記》的評價：作品假托主人公格列佛醫生自述他數次航海預先，漂流到小人國，大人國，飛島國和智馬國幾個童話式國傢的遭遇和見聞，全面諷刺，挪揄了英國的社會現實．其中“大人國”和“智馬國”社會所社會理想雖然保存了宗法社會的原始特點，但卻包含着啓蒙主義的社會原則和價值觀．作者把諷刺對象誇張變形到殘酷甚至荒誕的地步，與現代的“黑色幽默”有相通之處．
The book became tremendously popular as soon as it was published (John Gay said in a 1726 letter to Swift that "it is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery"); since then, it has never been out of print.
Plot summary
The book presents itself as a simple traveller's narrative with the disingenuous title Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, its authorship assigned only to "Lemuel Gulliver, first a surgeon, then a captain of several ships". Different editions contain different versions of the prefatory material which are basically the same as forewords in modern books. The book proper then is divided into four parts, which are as follows.
Part I: A Voyage to Lilliput
Mural depicting Gulliver surrounded by citizens of Lilliput.
May 4, 1699 — April 13, 1702
The book begins with a short preamble in which Gulliver, in the style of books of the time, gives a brief outline of his life and history prior to his voyages. He enjoys traveling, although it is that love of travel that is his downfall.
On his first voyage, Gulliver is washed ashore after a shipwreck and awakes to find himself a prisoner of a race of people one-twelfth the size of normal human beings, less than 6 inches high/15 cm high, who are inhabitants of the neighbouring and rival countries of Lilliput and Blefuscu. After giving assurances of his good behaviour, he is given a residence in Lilliput and becomes a favourite of the court. From there, the book follows Gulliver's observations on the Court of Lilliput, which is intended to satirise the court of George I (King of England at the time of the writing of the Travels). Gulliver assists the Lilliputians to subdue their neighbours the Blefuscudians by stealing their fleet. However, he refuses to reduce the country to a province of Lilliput, displeasing the King and the court. Gulliver is charged with treason and sentenced to be blinded. With the assistance of a kind friend, Gulliver escapes to Blefuscu, where he spots and retrieves an abandoned boat and sails out to be rescued by a passing ship which safely takes him back home. The Building of residence that Gulliver is given in Lilliput is of note, as in this section he describes it as a temple in which there had some years ago been a murder and the building had been abandoned. Swift in this section, is revealing himself as a member of the Freemasons; this being an allusion to the murder of the grand master of the Freemasons, Hiram Abiff.
Part II: A Voyage to Brobdingnag
Gulliver Exhibited to the Brobdingnag Farmer by Richard Redgrave
June 20, 1702 — June 3, 1706
When the sailing ship Adventure is steered off course by storms and forced to go in to land for want of fresh water, Gulliver is abandoned by his companions and found by a farmer who is 72 feet (22 m) tall (the scale of Lilliput is approximately 1:12; of Brobdingnag 12:1, judging from Gulliver estimating a man's step being 10 yards (9.1 m)). He brings Gulliver home and his daughter cares for Gulliver. The farmer treats him as a curiosity and exhibits him for money. The word gets out and the Queen of Brobdingnag wants to see the show. She loves Gulliver and he is then bought by her and kept as a favourite at court.
Since Gulliver is too small to use their huge chairs, beds, knives and forks, the queen commissions a small house to be built for Gulliver so that he can be carried around in it. This box is referred to as his travelling box. In between small adventures such as fighting giant wasps and being carried to the roof by a monkey, he discusses the state of Europe with the King. The King is not impressed with Gulliver's accounts of Europe, especially upon learning of the usage of guns and cannons. On a trip to the seaside, his "travelling box" is seized by a giant eagle which drops Gulliver and his box right into the sea where he is picked up by some sailors, who return him to England.
Part III: A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan
August 5, 1706 — April 16, 1710
After Gulliver's ship is attacked by pirates, he is marooned near a desolate rocky island, near India. Fortunately he is rescued by the flying island of Laputa, a kingdom devoted to the arts of music and mathematics but utterly unable to use these for practical ends.
Laputa's method of throwing rocks at rebellious surface cities also seems the first time that aerial bombardment was conceived as a method of warfare. While there, he tours the country as the guest of a low-ranking courtier and sees the ruin brought about by blind pursuit of science without practical results in a satire on the Royal Society and its experiments.
While waiting for passage Gulliver takes a short side-trip to the island of Glubbdubdrib, where he visits a magician's dwelling and discusses history with the ghosts of historical figures, the most obvious restatement of the "ancients versus moderns" theme in the book. He also encounters the struldbrugs, unfortunates who are immortal, but not forever young, but rather forever old, complete with the infirmities of old age. Gulliver is then taken to Balnibarbi to await a Dutch trader who can take him on to Japan. While there, Gulliver asks the Emperor "to excuse my performing the ceremony imposed upon my countrymen of trampling upon the crucifix", which the Emperor grants. Gulliver returns home, determined to stay there for the rest of his days.
Part IV: A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms
September 7, 1710 – July 2, 1715
Despite his earlier intention of remaining at home, Gulliver returns to sea as the captain of a 35ton merchant man as he is bored of his employment as a surgeon. On this voyage he is forced to find new additions to his crew who he believes to have turned the rest of the crew against him. His pirates then mutiny and after keeping him contained for some time resolve to leave him on the first piece of land they come across and continue on as pirates. He is abandoned in a landing boat and comes first upon a race of (apparently) hideous deformed creatures to which he conceives a violent antipathy. Shortly thereafter he meets a horse and comes to understand that the horses (in their language Houyhnhnm or "the perfection of nature") are the rulers and the deformed creatures ("Yahoos") are human beings in their base form. Gulliver becomes a member of the horse's household, and comes to both admire and emulate the Houyhnhnms and their lifestyle, rejecting humans as merely Yahoos endowed with some semblance of reason which they only use to exacerbate and add to the vices Nature gave them. However, an Assembly of the Houyhnhnms rules that Gulliver, a Yahoo with some semblance of reason, is a danger to their civilization and he is expelled. He is then rescued, against his will, by a Portuguese ship, and is surprised to see that Captain Pedro de Mendez, a Yahoo, is a wise, courteous and generous person. He returns to his home in England. However, he is unable to reconcile himself to living among Yahoos; he becomes a recluse, remaining in his house, largely avoiding his family and his wife, and spending several hours a day speaking with the horses in his stables.
Composition and history
It is uncertain exactly when Swift started writing Gulliver's Travels, but some sources suggest as early as 1713 when Swift, Gay, Pope, Arbuthnot and others formed the Scriblerus Club, with the aim of satirising then-popular literary genres. Swift, runs the theory, was charged with writing the memoirs of the club's imaginary author, Martinus Scriblerus. It is known from Swift's correspondence that the composition proper began in 1720 with the mirror-themed parts I and II written first, Part IV next in 1723 and Part III written in 1724, but amendments were made even while Swift was writing Drapier's Letters. By August 1725 the book was completed, and as Gulliver's Travels was a transparently anti-Whig satire it is likely that Swift had the manuscript copied so his handwriting could not be used as evidence if a prosecution should arise (as had happened in the case of some of his Irish pamphlets). In March 1726 Swift travelled to London to have his work published; the manuscript was secretly delivered to the publisher Benjamin Motte, who used five printing houses to speed production and avoid piracy. Motte, recognising a bestseller but fearing prosecution, simply cut or altered the worst offending passages (such as the descriptions of the court contests in Lilliput or the rebellion of Lindalino), added some material in defence of Queen Anne to book II, and published it anyway. The first edition was released in two volumes on October 26, 1726, priced 8s. 6d. The book was an instant sensation and sold out its first run in less than a week.
Motte published Gulliver's Travels anonymously and, as was often the way with fashionable works, several follow-ups (Memoirs of the Court of Lilliput), parodies (Two Lilliputian Odes, The first on the Famous Engine With Which Captain Gulliver extinguish'd the Palace Fire...) and "keys" (Gulliver Decipher'd and Lemuel Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Regions of the World Compendiously Methodiz'd, the second by Edmund Curll who had similarly written a "key" to Swift's Tale of a Tub in 1705) were produced over the next few years. These were mostly printed anonymously (or occasionally pseudonymously) and were quickly forgotten. Swift had nothing to do with any of these and specifically disavowed them in Faulkner's edition of 1735. However, Swift's friend Alexander Pope wrote a set of five Verses on Gulliver's Travels which Swift liked so much that he added them to the second edition of the book, though they are not nowadays generally included.
Faulkner's 1735 edition
In 1735 an Irish publisher, George Faulkner, printed a complete set of Swift's works to date, Volume III of which was Gulliver's Travels. As revealed in Faulkner's "Advertisement to the Reader", Faulkner had access to an annotated copy of Motte's work by "a friend of the author" (generally believed to be Swift's friend Charles Ford) which reproduced most of the manuscript free of Motte's amendments, the original manuscript having been destroyed. It is also believed that Swift at least reviewed proofs of Faulkner's edition before printing but this cannot be proven. Generally, this is regarded as the editio princeps of Gulliver's Travels with one small exception, discussed below.
This edition had an added piece by Swift, A letter from Capt. Gulliver to his Cousin Sympson which complained of Motte's alterations to the original text, saying he had so much altered it that "I do hardly know mine own work" and repudiating all of Motte's changes as well as all the keys, libels, parodies, second parts and continuations that had appeared in the intervening years. This letter now forms part of many standard texts.
Lindalino
The short (five paragraph) episode in Part III, telling of the rebellion of the surface city of Lindalino against the flying island of Laputa, was an obvious allegory to the affair of Drapier's Letters of which Swift was proud. Lindalino represented Dublin and the impositions of Laputa represented the British imposition of William Wood's poor-quality copper currency. Faulkner had omitted this passage, either because of political sensitivities raised by being an Irish publisher printing an anti-British satire or possibly because the text he worked from didn't include the passage. It wasn't until 1899 that the passage was finally included in a new edition of the Collected Works. Modern editions thus derive from the Faulkner edition with the inclusion of this 1899 addendum.
Isaac Asimov notes in The Annotated Gulliver that Lindalino is composed of double lins; hence, Dublin.
Major themes
Gulliver's Travels has been the recipient of several designations: from Menippean satire to a children's story, from proto-Science Fiction to a forerunner of the modern novel.
Published seven years after Daniel Defoe's wildly successful Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels may be read as a systematic rebuttal of Defoe's optimistic account of human capability. In The Unthinkable Swift: The Spontaneous Philosophy of a Church of England Man Warren Montag argues that Swift was concerned to refute the notion that the individual precedes society, as Defoe's novel seems to suggest. Swift regarded such thought as a dangerous endorsement of Thomas Hobbes' radical political philosophy and for this reason Gulliver repeatedly encounters established societies rather than desolate islands. The captain who invites Gulliver to serve as a surgeon aboard his ship on the disastrous third voyage is named Robinson.
Possibly one of the reasons for the book's classic status is that it can be seen as many things to many different people. Broadly, the book has three themes:
* a satirical view of the state of European government, and of petty differences between religions.
* an inquiry into whether men are inherently corrupt or whether they become corrupted.
* a restatement of the older "ancients versus moderns" controversy previously addressed by Swift in The Battle of the Books.
In terms of storytelling and construction the parts follow a pattern:
* The causes of Gulliver's misadventures become more malignant as time goes on - he is first shipwrecked, then abandoned, then attacked by strangers, then attacked by his own crew.
* Gulliver's attitude hardens as the book progresses — he is genuinely surprised by the viciousness and politicking of the Lilliputians but finds the behaviour of the Yahoos in the fourth part reflective of the behaviour of people.
* Each part is the reverse of the preceding part — Gulliver is big/small/sensible/ignorant, the countries are complex/simple/scientific/natural, forms of Government are worse/better/worse/better than England's.
* Gulliver's view between parts contrasts with its other coinciding part — Gulliver sees the tiny Lilliputians as being vicious and unscrupulous, and then the king of Brobdingnag sees Europe in exactly the same light. Gulliver sees the Laputians as unreasonable, and Gulliver's Houyhnhnm master sees humanity as equally so.
* No form of government is ideal — the simplistic Brobdingnagians enjoy public executions and have streets infested with beggars, the honest and upright Houyhnhnms who have no word for lying are happy to suppress the true nature of Gulliver as a Yahoo and are equally unconcerned about his reaction to being expelled.
* Specific individuals may be good even where the race is bad — Gulliver finds a friend in each of his travels and, despite Gulliver's rejection and horror toward all Yahoos, is treated very well by the Portuguese captain, Don Pedro, who returns him to England at the novel's end.
Of equal interest is the character of Gulliver himself — he progresses from a cheery optimist at the start of the first part to the pompous misanthrope of the book's conclusion and we may well have to filter our understanding of the work if we are to believe the final misanthrope wrote the whole work. In this sense Gulliver's Travels is a very modern and complex novel. There are subtle shifts throughout the book, such as when Gulliver begins to see all humans, not just those in Houyhnhnm-land, as Yahoos.
Despite the depth and subtlety of the book, it is often classified as a children's story because of the popularity of the Lilliput section (frequently bowdlerised) as a book for children. It is still possible to buy books entitled Gulliver's Travels which contain only parts of the Lilliput voyage.
Cultural influences
From 1738 to 1746, Edward Cave published in occasional issues of The Gentleman's Magazine semi-fictionalized accounts of contemporary debates in the two Houses of Parliament under the title of Debates in the Senate of Lilliput. The names of the speakers in the debates, other individuals mentioned, politicians and monarchs present and past, and most other countries and cities of Europe ("Degulia") and America ("Columbia") were thinly disguised under a variety of Swiftian pseudonyms. The disguised names, and the pretence that the accounts were really translations of speeches by Lilliputian politicians, were a reaction to a Parliamentary act forbidding the publication of accounts of its debates. Cave employed several writers on this series: William Guthrie (June 1738-Nov. 1740), Samuel Johnson (Nov. 1740-Feb. 1743), and John Hawkesworth (Feb. 1743-Dec. 1746).
The popularity of Gulliver is such that the term "Lilliputian" has entered many languages as an adjective meaning "small and delicate". There is even a brand of cigar called Lilliput which is (not surprisingly) small. In addition to this there are a series of collectible model-houses known as "Lilliput Lane". The smallest light bulb fitting (5mm diameter) in the Edison screw series is called the "Lilliput Edison screw". In Dutch, the word "Lilliputter" is used for adults shorter than 1.30 meters. Conversely, "Brobdingnagian" appears in the Oxford English Dictionary as a synonym for "very large" or "gigantic".
In like vein, the term "yahoo" is often encountered as a synonym for "ruffian" or "thug".
In the discipline of computer architecture, the terms big-endian and little-endian are used to describe two possible ways of laying out bytes in memory; see Endianness. One of the satirical conflicts in the book is between two religious sects of Lilliputians, some of whom who prefer cracking open their soft-boiled eggs from the little end, while others prefer the big end.
作者：（英）喬納森·斯威夫特
成書時間：1726年
特色之處：旨在抨擊當時英國的議會政治和反動宗教勢力的幻想遊記體諷刺小說
《格列佛遊記》-作者簡介
《格列佛遊記》喬納森·斯威夫特
喬納森·斯威夫特（1667～1745），以諷刺作傢名垂青史。他是一名牧師，一位政治撰稿人，一個才子。他出生於愛爾蘭首府都柏林，六歲上學，在基爾凱尼學校讀了八年。1682年進都柏林著名的三一學院學習，他除了對歷史和詩歌有興趣外，別的一概不喜歡。還是學校“特別通融”纔拿到學位。之後，他在三一學院繼續讀碩士，一直到一六八六年。 1688年，愛爾蘭面臨英國軍隊的入侵，他前往英國尋找出路。
接下來的十年是對斯威夫特一生中具有重要影響的關鍵時期。他通過親戚的關係，在穆爾莊園當私人秘書。穆爾莊園的主人坦普爾是一位經驗豐富的政治傢，也是位哲學家，修養極好，這無疑給斯威夫特起了積極的，甚至是導師性質的作用。這從政治或者其他較實際的角度看，對斯威夫特可能是一種失望，但就一個諷刺作傢來說，近十年的時間卻使他得到了充分的學習。他早期的兩部諷刺傑作《桶的故事》和《世紀戰爭》正是在這裏寫成的。
離開穆爾莊園後，斯威夫特回到愛爾蘭繼續做他的牧師。為了教會，他投入到政治活動中去。他在後半生寫了無數的政治小册子，獲得了相當的聲譽。雖然他一時間名聞遐邇，可他的內心是孤獨的。他甚至一步步走到了絶望的邊緣。他經歷了一切，也看透了一切，於是，他寫了《格列佛遊記》。
《格列佛遊記》《格列佛遊記》
1745年10月19日，斯威夫特在黑暗和孤苦中告別了人世，終年78歲。
《格列佛遊記》是一部奇書，它不是單純的少兒讀物，而是飽寓諷刺和批判的文學傑作，英國著名作傢喬治·奧威爾一生中讀了不下六次，他說：“如果要我開一份書目，列出哪怕其他書都被毀壞時也要保留的六本書，我一定會把《格列佛遊記》列入其中。” 在這本書中，斯威夫特的敘事技巧和諷刺才能得到了淋漓盡致的反映。
作品的主人公裏梅爾·格列佛是個英國外科醫生，後升任船長；他受過良好教育，為祖國而自豪，在職業和政治兩方面似乎都頗有見識，可是他本質上卻是一個平庸的人，而斯威夫特正是利用了主人公的這種局限達到了最充分的諷刺效果。 全書由四捲組成，在每一捲中格列佛都要面臨常人難以想象的特殊情況。
《格列佛遊記》-故事梗概
小說以外科醫生格列佛的四次出海航行冒險的經歷為綫索，一共由四部分組成。
第一捲：利立浦特（小人國）遊記。敘述格列佛在小人國的遊歷見聞。這裏的人，身長不滿六英寸，他置身其中，就象巍巍的大山一般。小朝廷裏充斥陰謀詭計、傾軋紛爭。穿高跟鞋的一派與穿低跟鞋的一派互相攻擊，誓不兩立。
第二捲：布羅卜丁奈格（大人國）遊記。格列佛在利立浦特人的心目中是個寵然大物，但一到布羅卜丁奈格，他就象田間的鼬鼠一般小了。格列佛被當作小玩藝裝入手提箱裏，帶到各城鎮表演展覽。後來，國王召見他，他慷慨陳辭，誇耀自己的祖國的偉大，政治的賢明，法律的公正，然而均一一遭到國王的抨擊與駁斥。
第三捲：勒皮他、巴爾尼巴比、拉格奈格、格勒大錐、日本遊記。主要描述格列佛在勒皮他（飛島）和格勒大錐（巫人島）的遊歷。飛島上的人長得畸形怪狀，整天擔憂天體會發生突變，地球會被彗星撞擊得粉碎，因而惶惶不可終日。在科學院裏，設計傢們正在從事研究如何從黃瓜中提取陽光取暖，把糞便還原為食物，繁殖無毛的綿羊，軟化大理石等課題。在巫人島上，島主精通巫術，擅長招魂，他們博覽古今，發現歷史真相被權貴歪麯，娼妓般的作傢在哄騙人世。
第四捲：慧駰國遊記。敘述格列佛在智馬國的遊歷。在這個國度裏，居主宰地位的是有理性的公正而誠實的智馬，供智馬驅使的是一種類似人形的畜類耶鬍，後者生性淫蕩、貪婪、好鬥。
《格列佛遊記》-主題思想
小說第一捲中所描繪的小人國的情景乃是大英帝國的縮影。英國國內托利黨和輝格黨常年不息的鬥爭和對外的戰爭，實質上衹是政客們在一些與國計民生毫不相幹的小節上勾心鬥角。
小說的第二捲則通過大人國國王對格列佛引以為榮的英國選舉制度、議會制度以及種種政教措施所進行的尖銳的抨擊，對英國各種制度及政教措施表示了懷疑和否定。
小說的第三捲，作者把諷刺的鋒芒指嚮了當代英國哲學家，脫離實際、沉溺於幻想的科學家，荒誕不經的發明傢和顛倒黑白的評論傢和歷史傢等。
小說第四捲，作者利用格列佛回答一連串問題而揭露了戰爭的實質、法律的虛偽和不擇手段以獲得官爵的可恥行為等。
綜觀小說的全部情節，《格列佛遊記》政治傾嚮鮮明。它的批判鋒芒，集中在抨擊當時英國的議會政治和反動的宗教勢力。
《格列佛遊記》-主要人物形象分析
格列佛：是十八世紀英國的普通人，他熱愛勞動，剛毅勇敢，心地善良。他在遊歷之中，洞察到社會現實的日趨墮落，得出英國社會並不文明的結論。格列佛的形象，是作者思想的體現者。作者將自己的種種美德賦予筆下的人物，格列佛不計較個人的得失，而對別人關懷備至。格列佛是個正面的理想的人物。他總是坦率地敘述自己的弱點和錯誤，而對自己的優點則衹字不提。他謙遜好學，努力用新眼光去認識新的現實。他從不自暴自棄，縱使將他當作玩物到各地供人觀賞，仍泰然自若，保持自身的尊嚴，以平等的姿態與大人國的國王交談。他勇於幫助小人國抵抗外族入侵，但斷然拒絶為小人國國王的侵略擴張政策效勞。
《格列佛遊記》-文學藝術特點
《格列佛遊記》的藝術特色主要體現在諷刺手法的運用上，尖銳深邃的諷刺是這部作品的靈魂。
當時的英國是作者抨擊和挖苦的對象。格列佛歷險的第一地是小人國。在這個縮微的國度裏，黨派之爭勢不兩立，鄰邦之間不但想戰勝而且要奴役對方。小人國的國王用比賽繩技的方法選拔官員，為獲得國王賞給的幾根彩色絲綫，官員不惜小醜似地做着可笑的表演。這個小朝廷是當時英國的縮影，連利立浦特的朝政風習和典章制度也同當時的英國政局一模一樣；在第二捲裏，作者更是指名道姓地批抨英國。格列佛長篇大論地嚮大人國國王介紹英國的歷史、制度和現狀，以及種種為國傢為自己辨解的事，可是從大人國的眼光看來，英國的歷史充斥着“貪婪、競爭、殘暴、偽善、淫欲、陰險和野心”産生的惡果。作者藉國王的話，“那樣一個卑微無能的小蟲”是“自然界中爬行於地面的小毒蟲最有害的一類”，諷刺了英國社會的方方面面；在第三捲裏，通過對拉格多科學院人士所從事的無聊而荒唐的科學研究，諷刺了英國當時的偽科學；有關勒皮他島的描繪則批評了英國對愛爾蘭的剝削壓迫。
小說不但抨擊了社會現狀，還在更深的層面上，直接諷刺了人性本身。在第四捲裏，關於“錢”的那段議論就是如此。格列佛來到沒有金錢，沒有軍隊警察的慧駰（馬）國，嚮他的馬主人解釋說：“我們那裏的野猢認為，不管是用還是攢，錢都是越多越好，沒有個夠的時候。因為他們天性如此，不是奢侈浪費就是貪得無厭。富人享受着窮人的勞動成果，而窮人和富人在數量上的比例是一千比一。因此我們的人民大多數被迫過着悲慘的生活……”。作者註意到資本主義社會人與人之間的純粹的金錢關係。並由此對人性産生了疑問。
作者在對當時英國的議會政治和反動的宗教勢力進行無情、辛辣的諷刺、抨擊時，有的直言相譏，有的利用異邦人的唇舌，有的隱喻挖苦，有的以獸譏諷人，凡此種種，風趣滑稽，神情皆備。
情節的幻想性與現實的真實性有機結合，也給小說增添了獨特的藝術魅力。雖然作者展現的是一個虛構的童話般的神奇世界，但它是以當時英國社會生活的真實為基礎的。由於作者精確、細膩、貼切的描述，使人感覺不到它是虛構的幻景，似乎一切都是真情實事。例如，在描述小人與大人、人與物的比例關係時，一概按一與十二之比縮小或放大。小人國裏的小人比格列佛小十二倍；大人國的大人又比格列佛大十二倍。格列佛的一塊區區手帕，可以給小人國皇宮當地毯；大人國農婦的那塊手帕，蓋在格列佛身上，就變成一床被單了。在描述飛島的運行，宮殿的建築，城鎮的結構時，作者還有意運用了數學、物理、化學、天文、醫藥諸方面的知識與數據。這樣，就使人物局部細節的真實、和諧、勻稱，轉化為整個畫面、場景的真實、和諧、統一，極大地增強了作品的真實感和感染力。
作者的文筆樸素而簡練。例如文中寫到格列佛在小人國抄錄了一段官方文告，它贊頌國王是“舉世擁戴”的“萬王之王”，“腳踏地心、頭頂太陽”，等等。格列佛還在括號裏不動聲色地解釋道：“周界約十二英裏”。隨着這句解釋，那“直抵地球四極”的無邊領土陡然縮為周邊不過十餘裏的彈丸之地。這種反差令人捧腹。括號裏的話顯示出作者樸素又實事求是的敘述風格，他似乎無意對此評論，衹是在客觀忠實地為我們解釋利立浦特的尺度。他曾經聲明：“我寧願用最簡單樸素的文筆把平凡的事實敘述出來，因為我寫這本書主要是嚮你報道，而不是供你消遣。”儘管小人國、大人國、慧駰國的情景各異，主人公的境遇也不相同，但整部小說的佈局、風格前後一致，格列佛每次出海的前因後果都有詳盡的交待，復雜紛繁的情節均按時間、空間順序依次描述，文字簡潔生動，故事性強，因而數百年來，《格列佛遊記》在歐洲各國雅俗共賞，婦孺皆知。
作者可翻譯為約拿旦·斯威夫特、喬納森·斯威夫特、江奈生·斯威夫特，另外已有《新格列佛遊記》出版
《格列佛遊記》-名傢點評
斯威夫特以幽默豐富了作品的道德含義，以諷刺揭露荒誕，並通過人物性格和敘述框架使人難以置信的事件成為現實，即使《魯濱遜漂流記》也難以在敘述的刻薄性和多樣性方面與其媲美。——（英）司各特
《格列佛遊記》是一部獨具特色的小說傑作。它和18世紀歐洲衆多小說一樣，繼承了流浪漢小說的結構方法，襲用了當時流行的描寫旅行見聞的小說，尤其是航海冒險小說的模式，敘述主人公格列佛在海上漂流的一係列奇遇。它無疑在相當程度上受到笛福《魯濱遜漂流記》和其他一些遊記體冒險小說的影響。然而，《格列佛遊記》和他們雖然形式相似，性質卻截然不同。它是《桶的故事》和《書籍之戰》那類故事的進一步發展，具有與十八世紀開始興起的寫實主義小說不同的若幹獨特性質。——吳厚愷《簡論諷喻體小說《格列佛遊記》及其文學地位》
文學史對《格列佛遊記》的評價：作品假托主人公格列佛醫生自述他數次航海預先，漂流到小人國，大人國，飛島國和智馬國幾個童話式國傢的遭遇和見聞，全面諷刺，挪揄了英國的社會現實．其中“大人國”和“智馬國”社會所社會理想雖然保存了宗法社會的原始特點，但卻包含着啓蒙主義的社會原則和價值觀．作者把諷刺對象誇張變形到殘酷甚至荒誕的地步，與現代的“黑色幽默”有相通之處．
The book became tremendously popular as soon as it was published (John Gay said in a 1726 letter to Swift that "it is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery"); since then, it has never been out of print.
Plot summary
The book presents itself as a simple traveller's narrative with the disingenuous title Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, its authorship assigned only to "Lemuel Gulliver, first a surgeon, then a captain of several ships". Different editions contain different versions of the prefatory material which are basically the same as forewords in modern books. The book proper then is divided into four parts, which are as follows.
Part I: A Voyage to Lilliput
Mural depicting Gulliver surrounded by citizens of Lilliput.
May 4, 1699 — April 13, 1702
The book begins with a short preamble in which Gulliver, in the style of books of the time, gives a brief outline of his life and history prior to his voyages. He enjoys traveling, although it is that love of travel that is his downfall.
On his first voyage, Gulliver is washed ashore after a shipwreck and awakes to find himself a prisoner of a race of people one-twelfth the size of normal human beings, less than 6 inches high/15 cm high, who are inhabitants of the neighbouring and rival countries of Lilliput and Blefuscu. After giving assurances of his good behaviour, he is given a residence in Lilliput and becomes a favourite of the court. From there, the book follows Gulliver's observations on the Court of Lilliput, which is intended to satirise the court of George I (King of England at the time of the writing of the Travels). Gulliver assists the Lilliputians to subdue their neighbours the Blefuscudians by stealing their fleet. However, he refuses to reduce the country to a province of Lilliput, displeasing the King and the court. Gulliver is charged with treason and sentenced to be blinded. With the assistance of a kind friend, Gulliver escapes to Blefuscu, where he spots and retrieves an abandoned boat and sails out to be rescued by a passing ship which safely takes him back home. The Building of residence that Gulliver is given in Lilliput is of note, as in this section he describes it as a temple in which there had some years ago been a murder and the building had been abandoned. Swift in this section, is revealing himself as a member of the Freemasons; this being an allusion to the murder of the grand master of the Freemasons, Hiram Abiff.
Part II: A Voyage to Brobdingnag
Gulliver Exhibited to the Brobdingnag Farmer by Richard Redgrave
June 20, 1702 — June 3, 1706
When the sailing ship Adventure is steered off course by storms and forced to go in to land for want of fresh water, Gulliver is abandoned by his companions and found by a farmer who is 72 feet (22 m) tall (the scale of Lilliput is approximately 1:12; of Brobdingnag 12:1, judging from Gulliver estimating a man's step being 10 yards (9.1 m)). He brings Gulliver home and his daughter cares for Gulliver. The farmer treats him as a curiosity and exhibits him for money. The word gets out and the Queen of Brobdingnag wants to see the show. She loves Gulliver and he is then bought by her and kept as a favourite at court.
Since Gulliver is too small to use their huge chairs, beds, knives and forks, the queen commissions a small house to be built for Gulliver so that he can be carried around in it. This box is referred to as his travelling box. In between small adventures such as fighting giant wasps and being carried to the roof by a monkey, he discusses the state of Europe with the King. The King is not impressed with Gulliver's accounts of Europe, especially upon learning of the usage of guns and cannons. On a trip to the seaside, his "travelling box" is seized by a giant eagle which drops Gulliver and his box right into the sea where he is picked up by some sailors, who return him to England.
Part III: A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan
August 5, 1706 — April 16, 1710
After Gulliver's ship is attacked by pirates, he is marooned near a desolate rocky island, near India. Fortunately he is rescued by the flying island of Laputa, a kingdom devoted to the arts of music and mathematics but utterly unable to use these for practical ends.
Laputa's method of throwing rocks at rebellious surface cities also seems the first time that aerial bombardment was conceived as a method of warfare. While there, he tours the country as the guest of a low-ranking courtier and sees the ruin brought about by blind pursuit of science without practical results in a satire on the Royal Society and its experiments.
While waiting for passage Gulliver takes a short side-trip to the island of Glubbdubdrib, where he visits a magician's dwelling and discusses history with the ghosts of historical figures, the most obvious restatement of the "ancients versus moderns" theme in the book. He also encounters the struldbrugs, unfortunates who are immortal, but not forever young, but rather forever old, complete with the infirmities of old age. Gulliver is then taken to Balnibarbi to await a Dutch trader who can take him on to Japan. While there, Gulliver asks the Emperor "to excuse my performing the ceremony imposed upon my countrymen of trampling upon the crucifix", which the Emperor grants. Gulliver returns home, determined to stay there for the rest of his days.
Part IV: A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms
September 7, 1710 – July 2, 1715
Despite his earlier intention of remaining at home, Gulliver returns to sea as the captain of a 35ton merchant man as he is bored of his employment as a surgeon. On this voyage he is forced to find new additions to his crew who he believes to have turned the rest of the crew against him. His pirates then mutiny and after keeping him contained for some time resolve to leave him on the first piece of land they come across and continue on as pirates. He is abandoned in a landing boat and comes first upon a race of (apparently) hideous deformed creatures to which he conceives a violent antipathy. Shortly thereafter he meets a horse and comes to understand that the horses (in their language Houyhnhnm or "the perfection of nature") are the rulers and the deformed creatures ("Yahoos") are human beings in their base form. Gulliver becomes a member of the horse's household, and comes to both admire and emulate the Houyhnhnms and their lifestyle, rejecting humans as merely Yahoos endowed with some semblance of reason which they only use to exacerbate and add to the vices Nature gave them. However, an Assembly of the Houyhnhnms rules that Gulliver, a Yahoo with some semblance of reason, is a danger to their civilization and he is expelled. He is then rescued, against his will, by a Portuguese ship, and is surprised to see that Captain Pedro de Mendez, a Yahoo, is a wise, courteous and generous person. He returns to his home in England. However, he is unable to reconcile himself to living among Yahoos; he becomes a recluse, remaining in his house, largely avoiding his family and his wife, and spending several hours a day speaking with the horses in his stables.
Composition and history
It is uncertain exactly when Swift started writing Gulliver's Travels, but some sources suggest as early as 1713 when Swift, Gay, Pope, Arbuthnot and others formed the Scriblerus Club, with the aim of satirising then-popular literary genres. Swift, runs the theory, was charged with writing the memoirs of the club's imaginary author, Martinus Scriblerus. It is known from Swift's correspondence that the composition proper began in 1720 with the mirror-themed parts I and II written first, Part IV next in 1723 and Part III written in 1724, but amendments were made even while Swift was writing Drapier's Letters. By August 1725 the book was completed, and as Gulliver's Travels was a transparently anti-Whig satire it is likely that Swift had the manuscript copied so his handwriting could not be used as evidence if a prosecution should arise (as had happened in the case of some of his Irish pamphlets). In March 1726 Swift travelled to London to have his work published; the manuscript was secretly delivered to the publisher Benjamin Motte, who used five printing houses to speed production and avoid piracy. Motte, recognising a bestseller but fearing prosecution, simply cut or altered the worst offending passages (such as the descriptions of the court contests in Lilliput or the rebellion of Lindalino), added some material in defence of Queen Anne to book II, and published it anyway. The first edition was released in two volumes on October 26, 1726, priced 8s. 6d. The book was an instant sensation and sold out its first run in less than a week.
Motte published Gulliver's Travels anonymously and, as was often the way with fashionable works, several follow-ups (Memoirs of the Court of Lilliput), parodies (Two Lilliputian Odes, The first on the Famous Engine With Which Captain Gulliver extinguish'd the Palace Fire...) and "keys" (Gulliver Decipher'd and Lemuel Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Regions of the World Compendiously Methodiz'd, the second by Edmund Curll who had similarly written a "key" to Swift's Tale of a Tub in 1705) were produced over the next few years. These were mostly printed anonymously (or occasionally pseudonymously) and were quickly forgotten. Swift had nothing to do with any of these and specifically disavowed them in Faulkner's edition of 1735. However, Swift's friend Alexander Pope wrote a set of five Verses on Gulliver's Travels which Swift liked so much that he added them to the second edition of the book, though they are not nowadays generally included.
Faulkner's 1735 edition
In 1735 an Irish publisher, George Faulkner, printed a complete set of Swift's works to date, Volume III of which was Gulliver's Travels. As revealed in Faulkner's "Advertisement to the Reader", Faulkner had access to an annotated copy of Motte's work by "a friend of the author" (generally believed to be Swift's friend Charles Ford) which reproduced most of the manuscript free of Motte's amendments, the original manuscript having been destroyed. It is also believed that Swift at least reviewed proofs of Faulkner's edition before printing but this cannot be proven. Generally, this is regarded as the editio princeps of Gulliver's Travels with one small exception, discussed below.
This edition had an added piece by Swift, A letter from Capt. Gulliver to his Cousin Sympson which complained of Motte's alterations to the original text, saying he had so much altered it that "I do hardly know mine own work" and repudiating all of Motte's changes as well as all the keys, libels, parodies, second parts and continuations that had appeared in the intervening years. This letter now forms part of many standard texts.
Lindalino
The short (five paragraph) episode in Part III, telling of the rebellion of the surface city of Lindalino against the flying island of Laputa, was an obvious allegory to the affair of Drapier's Letters of which Swift was proud. Lindalino represented Dublin and the impositions of Laputa represented the British imposition of William Wood's poor-quality copper currency. Faulkner had omitted this passage, either because of political sensitivities raised by being an Irish publisher printing an anti-British satire or possibly because the text he worked from didn't include the passage. It wasn't until 1899 that the passage was finally included in a new edition of the Collected Works. Modern editions thus derive from the Faulkner edition with the inclusion of this 1899 addendum.
Isaac Asimov notes in The Annotated Gulliver that Lindalino is composed of double lins; hence, Dublin.
Major themes
Gulliver's Travels has been the recipient of several designations: from Menippean satire to a children's story, from proto-Science Fiction to a forerunner of the modern novel.
Published seven years after Daniel Defoe's wildly successful Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels may be read as a systematic rebuttal of Defoe's optimistic account of human capability. In The Unthinkable Swift: The Spontaneous Philosophy of a Church of England Man Warren Montag argues that Swift was concerned to refute the notion that the individual precedes society, as Defoe's novel seems to suggest. Swift regarded such thought as a dangerous endorsement of Thomas Hobbes' radical political philosophy and for this reason Gulliver repeatedly encounters established societies rather than desolate islands. The captain who invites Gulliver to serve as a surgeon aboard his ship on the disastrous third voyage is named Robinson.
Possibly one of the reasons for the book's classic status is that it can be seen as many things to many different people. Broadly, the book has three themes:
* a satirical view of the state of European government, and of petty differences between religions.
* an inquiry into whether men are inherently corrupt or whether they become corrupted.
* a restatement of the older "ancients versus moderns" controversy previously addressed by Swift in The Battle of the Books.
In terms of storytelling and construction the parts follow a pattern:
* The causes of Gulliver's misadventures become more malignant as time goes on - he is first shipwrecked, then abandoned, then attacked by strangers, then attacked by his own crew.
* Gulliver's attitude hardens as the book progresses — he is genuinely surprised by the viciousness and politicking of the Lilliputians but finds the behaviour of the Yahoos in the fourth part reflective of the behaviour of people.
* Each part is the reverse of the preceding part — Gulliver is big/small/sensible/ignorant, the countries are complex/simple/scientific/natural, forms of Government are worse/better/worse/better than England's.
* Gulliver's view between parts contrasts with its other coinciding part — Gulliver sees the tiny Lilliputians as being vicious and unscrupulous, and then the king of Brobdingnag sees Europe in exactly the same light. Gulliver sees the Laputians as unreasonable, and Gulliver's Houyhnhnm master sees humanity as equally so.
* No form of government is ideal — the simplistic Brobdingnagians enjoy public executions and have streets infested with beggars, the honest and upright Houyhnhnms who have no word for lying are happy to suppress the true nature of Gulliver as a Yahoo and are equally unconcerned about his reaction to being expelled.
* Specific individuals may be good even where the race is bad — Gulliver finds a friend in each of his travels and, despite Gulliver's rejection and horror toward all Yahoos, is treated very well by the Portuguese captain, Don Pedro, who returns him to England at the novel's end.
Of equal interest is the character of Gulliver himself — he progresses from a cheery optimist at the start of the first part to the pompous misanthrope of the book's conclusion and we may well have to filter our understanding of the work if we are to believe the final misanthrope wrote the whole work. In this sense Gulliver's Travels is a very modern and complex novel. There are subtle shifts throughout the book, such as when Gulliver begins to see all humans, not just those in Houyhnhnm-land, as Yahoos.
Despite the depth and subtlety of the book, it is often classified as a children's story because of the popularity of the Lilliput section (frequently bowdlerised) as a book for children. It is still possible to buy books entitled Gulliver's Travels which contain only parts of the Lilliput voyage.
Cultural influences
From 1738 to 1746, Edward Cave published in occasional issues of The Gentleman's Magazine semi-fictionalized accounts of contemporary debates in the two Houses of Parliament under the title of Debates in the Senate of Lilliput. The names of the speakers in the debates, other individuals mentioned, politicians and monarchs present and past, and most other countries and cities of Europe ("Degulia") and America ("Columbia") were thinly disguised under a variety of Swiftian pseudonyms. The disguised names, and the pretence that the accounts were really translations of speeches by Lilliputian politicians, were a reaction to a Parliamentary act forbidding the publication of accounts of its debates. Cave employed several writers on this series: William Guthrie (June 1738-Nov. 1740), Samuel Johnson (Nov. 1740-Feb. 1743), and John Hawkesworth (Feb. 1743-Dec. 1746).
The popularity of Gulliver is such that the term "Lilliputian" has entered many languages as an adjective meaning "small and delicate". There is even a brand of cigar called Lilliput which is (not surprisingly) small. In addition to this there are a series of collectible model-houses known as "Lilliput Lane". The smallest light bulb fitting (5mm diameter) in the Edison screw series is called the "Lilliput Edison screw". In Dutch, the word "Lilliputter" is used for adults shorter than 1.30 meters. Conversely, "Brobdingnagian" appears in the Oxford English Dictionary as a synonym for "very large" or "gigantic".
In like vein, the term "yahoo" is often encountered as a synonym for "ruffian" or "thug".
In the discipline of computer architecture, the terms big-endian and little-endian are used to describe two possible ways of laying out bytes in memory; see Endianness. One of the satirical conflicts in the book is between two religious sects of Lilliputians, some of whom who prefer cracking open their soft-boiled eggs from the little end, while others prefer the big end.
如果這個世界是一場魔術表演，它背後一定有個偉大的魔術師，我希望，有一天，我能把他揪出來，但是，如果魔術師從不出現，你又怎能拆他的把戲呢？』紙牌的秘密
漢斯與父親從挪威到希臘，尋找離傢多年的母親，在途了漢斯遇上奇遇，得到一本衹有放大鏡纔可看到的小圓面包書，內容是一名水手遭遇船難，流落到一個奇異的小島，島上有５２個古怪的人物，原來是一人幻想中的一幅紙牌變成活生生的人物，故事虛幻迷離，故事中又含有另一個故事。然而漢斯卻要保守秘密，在途中偷看小圓面包書，不能告欣父親，最後發現這個二百年前的故事卻與漢斯有關．．．
作者喬斯坦．賈德保持一嚮的作風，除了一顆赤子之心，在故事中註入哲學的思想讓人墮入撲朔迷離的故事之餘，也不斷反思人生的問題，發人深省，值得提的是譯者李永平的功力深厚，把作者的筆觸充分展現於讀者的眼前。
本書已被譯為23種不同的語言，在世界各地發售，並榮獲『挪威文學評論協會奬』及『文化部奬』。如果以十粒星為滿分，這本書絶對值十一分！
紙牌的秘密-緻中文版讀者
每個人心裏都活着一個小醜——緻中文版讀者
最近這幾年來，每回去逛書店，我們這群對哲學有興趣的人總會感受到一種暖昧的樂趣。看到那——堆堆陳列在亮麗“新時代’，(Ncw Age)、“另類哲學”(A1ternatiVe Philosophy)下的新書，我們都會忍不住買上丁L本。另類哲學一本本展示在我們眼前，任由我們挑選，確實令人興奮，但我們同時也期盼這傢書店能供應更多“真正的”哲學書。我們在書架間兜來兜去，找了老半天，終於不得不面對一個事實：在偌大的一傢書店，要買一本真正的哲學書還真不容易呢。
這個現象馬上就要寫改變了。我們正面臨－－一個強勁的哲學復興運動。也許，我們對那些“另類玩意”已經感到厭足。這一類書，有些的確很有趣，但也攙雜着太多糟粕。
說穿了，另類哲學不啻是一種哲學式的春宮一—或許我們可以管它叫“速成哲學”。打開書本，一晃眼你就被引進一個哲學奇境，如同春宮電影或色情小說“瞬間” 把你吸入情欲世界。可是，大部分“另類哲學”跟真正的哲學壓根兒扯不上半點關係；同樣的，春宮電影呈現的並不是真誠的愛情。哲學和愛情都需要時間來培養、深化。追求智慧和愛情，是不能抄近路走捷徑的。
哲學興起於古希臘城邦的市集。今天，哲學同樣可以興起於小孩子就讀的幼稚園。這幾年來，我一直鼓吹將哲學帶回到最早的兩個根源——市場和學校。我願藉此機會，嚮中文版讀者說明，在《紙牌的秘密》一書中，我是如何將哲學帶回到人類的童年。我的另一本書《蘇菲的世界》，強調的則是哲學和市集之間的密切關係。這兩本書其實是姊妹篇，相輔相成。
《紙牌的秘密》這部小說的主角，是一個叫漢斯湯瑪士的小男孩。他跟隨父親，展開一趟漫長的穿越整個歐洲的旅程，進入“哲學的故鄉”。我想透過這樣一個故事，表達我對歐洲文化傳統和歷史的一些看法。我的最大企圖．是以年輕人覺得有趣的方式，嚮讀者們提出——連串有關生存的根本問題。
前往雅典的旅途中，在巧妙的機緣安排下，漢斯湯瑪寸：獲贈一本奇異的小書。那本書把他帶到公元1790年發生的——場海難。故事的主人翁是個名叫佛洛德的水手。船沉沒後，他漂流到加勒比海的—座荒島上，獨居五十二年；陪伴他度過漫長歲月、幫助他排遣寂寞的，就是隨身攜帶的—副撲剋牌。說也奇怪，後來這五十三張紙牌竟然變成了五十三個有血有肉、活蹦亂跳的侏儒。這群小矮人在島上建立一座村莊，環繞着佛洛德。除了—個侏儒外，他們都無法解釋自己究竟是誰、來自何方。唯—知道奧秘的侏儒，就是撲剋牌中的那張“醜角牌”。
在《紙牌的秘密》這本書中，小醜象徵“圈外人”——一他能夠看到別人看不到的人生真相。最重要的是，他能夠體認人生是場有趣的冒險。所以，在島-上那些日子。他不斷嚮同胞們提出有關人生的新問題。
在人生的紙牌遊戲中，我們每個人一生下來就是小醜。可是，隨着年齡增長，我們漸漸變成紅心、方塊、梅花、黑桃。但這並不意味我們心中的小醜從此消失無蹤。我們不妨攤開一副撲剋牌，看看那些紅心圖案或方塊圖案底下，是不是隱藏着一個醜角呢?
這讓我想起古老的羊皮紙文件。歐洲人使用這種羊皮紙。往往會颳掉上面原有的文字，重新寫上其他東西。於是，當我們翻閱中古世紀的一本賬簿，瀏覽當時五穀和魚貨的價目時，揉揉眼睛，仔細一瞧，會赫然發現．那些羊皮紙原先記載的，竟是古羅馬的—出喜劇。同樣的，我們對世界的好奇，也深深隱藏在每個人心中。在那兒，我們找到一群群耍把戲、變魔術、打諢插科逗觀衆發笑的傢夥，也看到許多小精靈、侏儒、仙女和妖魔鬼怪，甚至還跟隨愛麗絲漫遊奇境，陪伴王後一塊喝下午茶。
各位讀者想必會註意到，《紙牌的秘密》書中的小醜是一個侏儒。他是永恆的小孩，永遠都不會完全長大，永遠都不會對人生失去好奇。就這一點來說，他稱得．上古往今來所有偉大哲學家的親屬。在古希臘，蘇格拉底就是他那個時代的一副撲剋牌中的醜角牌(少年時期，他沒事就跑到雅典的市集，隨便抓個人問問題！)蘇格拉底曾說：“雅典就像一匹沒精打采的馬兒。我將扮演‘牛虻’的角色，狠狠咬它一口，讓它飛騰跳躍起來”。(而我們的“牛虻”卻在幹什麽呢?)
我們每個人心中都活着一個小醜。這也是蘇格拉底的看法。身為哲學家，蘇格拉底其實並不具備特殊的“資歷”；他衹是——個助産士而已。接生婆幫助産婦生下孩子，蘇格拉底幫助人們“生下”人生的智慧。這種比喻當然是老調，但這個古老的接生婆象徵卻具有另一層涵意，值得我們深思：需要被接生出來的，實際上是我們每個人心中的那個孩子。
幾千年來，人類總是遭受一連串重大問題睏擾，而四處卻找不到現成的答案。結果，我們被迫面對兩種選擇：我們可以欺騙自己，假裝我們知道一切值得知道的事情，或者，我們索性閉上眼睛，拒絶面對人生根本問題，樂得逍遙度日，擺脫煩惱。今天的人類基本上分成這兩大族群。我們若不是趾高氣揚，自以為通曉人間事理，就是幹脆承認自己無知，不去過問自認為不懂的事情。這種現象就如同把一副撲剋牌分成兩堆，紅的放在——邊，黑的擺在另一邊。可是，每隔一陣子，那張醜角牌就會從牌堆中探出臉來。它既不是紅心和方塊，也不是梅花和黑桃。
在雅典城，蘇格拉底就是這麽一個醜角——既不桀騖，也不冷漠。他衹知道一件事：人世間有很多事情他並不懂。這個；念頭時時折磨他，於是他就去當個哲學家，成為一個永不放棄探尋人生真相、對人生不斷提出新問題的人。
在我看來，哲學的最大功能，是幫助我們找出心中隱藏的那個“醜角”，讓我們跟他建立更親密的情誼。哲學家必須掃除覆蓋在世界上的那層塵埃，讓我們以兒童的清澈眼光，重新觀看和感受這個世界。人生原本是一則美妙的童話故事，而長大後變得“世故”的我們，竟然剝去它那襲神秘的外衣，把它看成——個枯燥無味的 “現實”。但我們每個人都還有復活的希望，因為我們全都是醜角的後裔。我們內心深處，都有一個活蹦亂跳、睜着一隻大眼睛、對人生充滿好奇的孩子在活着。儘管有時候我們會覺得自己渺小瑣碎，但是，切莫忘了，我們每個人的肌膚下面都隱藏着一小塊黃金：曾經，在這個世界上，我們是一個潔淨無塵、心如明鏡的赤子……
當年，我們被帶進一則童話故事中——這個童話比我們在孩提時代聽過的童話都要美妙動聽——可是，沒多久，我們就把周圍的一切視為當然，不再好奇。如今我們甚至不會註意到，我們傢中那張新買的嬰兒床上，有一件神奇的事正在發生。就在那兒——嬰兒床的欄桿後面——世界正被創造。
而世界永遠不會衰老；衰老的是我們。衹要嬰兒不斷出生，衹要新人不斷來到世上，我們的世界就會永葆清新，新得就跟上帝創 世第七天時一模一樣。孩子現在剛剛進入這則偉大的童話故事；他 睜着清澈澄淨的眼睛，責備我們把這個世界看成“現實”，離它愈來愈遠。
“媽‘天使為什麽會有翅膀呢?……星星為什麽會眨眼睛呢? ……鳥兒為什麽會飛呢?……大象的鼻子為什麽那樣長呢?”
“哎呀，我怎麽曉得呀!乖，現在該閉上眼睛睡覺噦，否則的話，媽可就要生氣囉！”
譏來詭譎，孩子喪失對世界的這種積極的、充滿活力的感受時，正巧是他開始學說話的時候。所以，孩子們需要神話和童話。大人們也需要神話和童話，因為它能幫助我們緊緊抓住兒時的經驗，不讓它流失。
我覺得，十九或二十歲纔開始接觸哲學書籍，實在已經太遲了。最近歐洲流行嬰兒遊泳，因為父母們覺得，既然遊泳是人類與生俱來的本能，但這種本能必須加以呵護。對人生好奇並不是學來的，而是我們自己遺忘掉的本能。
我們總愛誇誇其談，大談“人生的奧秘”。要親身體驗這個奧秘，我們就得擺脫世故的矯情，讓自己再當一次孩子。想當孩子，就得往後退一步－－也許，退了一步後，我們會發現眼前豁然出現一個美妙的世界。就在那一刻，我們目擊世界的創造過程。朗朗晴空下，一個嶄新的世界蹦地冒了出來……
而居然有人說他們覺得人生挺無聊！
李永平譯
Like Sophie's World, The Solitaire Mystery has a philosophical content, but unlike Sophie's World, it does not explicitly mention philosophers and theories, thus, the reader of the book may be unaware that he or she is actually engaging in philosophy.
Plot
The book follows two seemingly separate stories:
Hans Thomas
A twelve year old boy, Hans Thomas, and his father are driving through Europe on a journey to locate and bring home the boy's estranged mother. Whilst on their journey, a strange little bearded man gives Hans Thomas a magnifying glass, saying mystically: "You'll need it!"
Not long afterwards, Hans Thomas and his father stop in a roadside cafe where Hans Thomas gets a giant sticky bun from a kind baker to eat on his journey. To Hans Thomas's great surprise, hidden inside the sticky bun is a tiny book, with writing so small it cannot be read with the naked eye.
Hans Thomas begins to read the tiny book using his new magnifying glass, and the story then alternates between Hans Thomas's journey, and the story in the sticky bun book.
The Sticky Bun Book
The sticky bun book tells the story of an old baker whose grandfather gave him a drink of a wonderful liquid he called Rainbow Fizz (Rainbow Soda in the American edition). It came from an island which the grandfather had been shipwrecked on as a young man. On the island lived an old sailor called Frode, and fifty-three other people; the fifty three other people did not have names though, they referred to themselves as the numbers on playing cards (52 cards plus a Joker)
The red suits were all women, except for the Kings and Jacks, whilst the black suits were all men, except for the Queens and Aces. The Ace of Hearts was particularly enchanting, and Frode had quite a crush on her, even though she was forever 'losing herself'. The cards (as he called them) were scatterbrained and childish, and talked in card-related riddles about "when the game ends" and "turning a person face up" etc.
Frode told the young sailor the miraculous story about how the other people had come to be on the island with him:
Frode himself was shipwrecked on the island many years earlier, and had lost virtually all of his possessions, except for a pack of playing cards. As he had no way off the island, he played solitaire a lot to pass the time. After a few months, he started talking to the cards, and even creating personalities for each of them in his head.
Time passed, and through overuse, the pictures on the cards faded and disappeared, but Frode continued to talk to them in his mind. Then suddenly one day, the Three of Diamonds walked by -- a flesh and blood person -- and said hello to Frode as if they were old friends! Frode thought he must be going mad, and as the remaining fifty-two cards surfaced, he became convinced he had gone senile. But since there was no way off the island, he decided he may as well sink himself into his delusion and enjoy the company.
When the new sailor was shipwrecked on the island, it came as a huge shock to Frode that he could see and interact with the card people as well! It wasn't a delusion! But then it seemed that Frode had simply 'dreamt' them into existence - how could this be so?
The crossing over of worlds
As the plot progresses, the reader sees that the 'two' separate stories of Hans Thomas's journey, and the events in the sticky bun book are beginning to overlap:
The cards in the sticky bun book take part in a game, where each says a sentence, and Frode tries to interpret its bizarre meaning. But sentences such as "the inner box unpacks the outer at the same time as the outer box unpacks the inner" and "destiny is a snake so hungry it devours itself" seem devoid of meaning for Frode.
However, the cards' predictions as told in the tiny book begin to reveal details about Hans Thomas's own plight to find his mother. It occurs to Hans Thomas that his mother bears a striking resemblance in her personality to the Ace of Hearts in that she 'loses herself' (disappears) for long periods.
Also, throughout Hans Thomas's journey, he has seen the same odd little bearded man following him about (the man who gave him the magnifying glass which proved so useful to read the sticky bun book). But whenever Hans Thomas approaches the little man, he seems to dash away and vanish.
The baffling thing for Hans Thomas is that he stopped for the cake merely by chance, and chose to eat a sticky bun by chance - how is it possible that a tiny book from a random bun is telling him things about his own life?
In the end, it turns out that the man who gave Hans Thomas the sticky bun book was his estranged grandfather, the baker and writer of the sticky bun book, and grandson to the shipwrecked sailor who had met Frode and his cards on the magic island. The grandfather works this out at the same time Hans Thomas deduces it too (the inner box unpacks the outer at the same time as the outer box unpacks the inner), yet this understanding is never realised, as the grandfather passes away before Hans Thomas returns to the small alpine village, having reunited with his mother in Athens.
Back in the sticky bun book, we discover that just as the cards had played their prophetic game where they predicted exactly what would happen between Hans Thomas and his family, the magic island begins to close in on itself, fifty-two years to the day after it had sprung into existence. It seems as if it were meant to happen that way (destiny is a snake so hungry it devours itself).
The poor card-people get eaten up inside the island, and as the island folds in on itself and disappears into nothingness, the young sailor (Baker Hans) escapes on a rowing boat which he had brought. Only one of the 'cards' managed to escape the island: the Joker.
Hans Thomas realises that it is the Joker who gave him the magnifying glass, and who has been following him about all this time. Just as Hans Thomas reads the last sentence of the sticky bun book, closes it and looks up, he sees the Joker slip away into the crowd, and vanish...
Philosophical themes
The book encompasses several philosophical themes; the obvious ones which are covered in the overall plot, but also little snippets here and there. Hans Thomas's father is a smoker but doesn't like to smoke inside his car, and so on their long journey across Europe, they are forever stopping for cigarette breaks, and the father is talking philosophically with his son. These bite-size chunks of philosophy are far easier to swallow than the weighty lectures in Sophie's World, but are nonetheless potent.
The nature of existence
The nature of existence is a theme which runs throughout, especially the miraculous nature of life itself. The book explores the question of whether it is possible to imagine something into existence. This theme is also found in Australian aboriginal myth, where elders claim that the world was dreamt into existence.
It seems unimaginable that we can make something happen just by wanting it to happen, yet the placebo effect has been well-documented in psychology, and many psychic healers and suchlike will claim that you need to have faith in order for something to work.
Religious Themes
The Christian concept of the creator living within his creation is explored. The seemingly perfect creation is soon destroyed by the Joker, during the "Joker Game" sequence, which is arguably an intended parallel with the Garden of Eden.
Destiny
The fact that the cards in the sticky bun book predicted the goings on between Hans Thomas's family decades later gives the book a strong theme of destiny: the idea that some things are going to happen no matter what - it is fate.
Fate as a concept also has many supporters; those who believe that some things (or the more stronger claim, that all things) have been pre-planned from long ago -- perhaps from the dawn of time. This is a main theme running through theology as well as more pseudo-scientific disciplines such as tarot reading and palm reading.
It certainly seems possible (though highly improbable) that the cards could have predicted the goings-on in Hans Thomas's young life, but the unlikelihood of it all only adds to the mystery and wonder of the story.
漢斯與父親從挪威到希臘，尋找離傢多年的母親，在途了漢斯遇上奇遇，得到一本衹有放大鏡纔可看到的小圓面包書，內容是一名水手遭遇船難，流落到一個奇異的小島，島上有５２個古怪的人物，原來是一人幻想中的一幅紙牌變成活生生的人物，故事虛幻迷離，故事中又含有另一個故事。然而漢斯卻要保守秘密，在途中偷看小圓面包書，不能告欣父親，最後發現這個二百年前的故事卻與漢斯有關．．．
作者喬斯坦．賈德保持一嚮的作風，除了一顆赤子之心，在故事中註入哲學的思想讓人墮入撲朔迷離的故事之餘，也不斷反思人生的問題，發人深省，值得提的是譯者李永平的功力深厚，把作者的筆觸充分展現於讀者的眼前。
本書已被譯為23種不同的語言，在世界各地發售，並榮獲『挪威文學評論協會奬』及『文化部奬』。如果以十粒星為滿分，這本書絶對值十一分！
紙牌的秘密-緻中文版讀者
每個人心裏都活着一個小醜——緻中文版讀者
最近這幾年來，每回去逛書店，我們這群對哲學有興趣的人總會感受到一種暖昧的樂趣。看到那——堆堆陳列在亮麗“新時代’，(Ncw Age)、“另類哲學”(A1ternatiVe Philosophy)下的新書，我們都會忍不住買上丁L本。另類哲學一本本展示在我們眼前，任由我們挑選，確實令人興奮，但我們同時也期盼這傢書店能供應更多“真正的”哲學書。我們在書架間兜來兜去，找了老半天，終於不得不面對一個事實：在偌大的一傢書店，要買一本真正的哲學書還真不容易呢。
這個現象馬上就要寫改變了。我們正面臨－－一個強勁的哲學復興運動。也許，我們對那些“另類玩意”已經感到厭足。這一類書，有些的確很有趣，但也攙雜着太多糟粕。
說穿了，另類哲學不啻是一種哲學式的春宮一—或許我們可以管它叫“速成哲學”。打開書本，一晃眼你就被引進一個哲學奇境，如同春宮電影或色情小說“瞬間” 把你吸入情欲世界。可是，大部分“另類哲學”跟真正的哲學壓根兒扯不上半點關係；同樣的，春宮電影呈現的並不是真誠的愛情。哲學和愛情都需要時間來培養、深化。追求智慧和愛情，是不能抄近路走捷徑的。
哲學興起於古希臘城邦的市集。今天，哲學同樣可以興起於小孩子就讀的幼稚園。這幾年來，我一直鼓吹將哲學帶回到最早的兩個根源——市場和學校。我願藉此機會，嚮中文版讀者說明，在《紙牌的秘密》一書中，我是如何將哲學帶回到人類的童年。我的另一本書《蘇菲的世界》，強調的則是哲學和市集之間的密切關係。這兩本書其實是姊妹篇，相輔相成。
《紙牌的秘密》這部小說的主角，是一個叫漢斯湯瑪士的小男孩。他跟隨父親，展開一趟漫長的穿越整個歐洲的旅程，進入“哲學的故鄉”。我想透過這樣一個故事，表達我對歐洲文化傳統和歷史的一些看法。我的最大企圖．是以年輕人覺得有趣的方式，嚮讀者們提出——連串有關生存的根本問題。
前往雅典的旅途中，在巧妙的機緣安排下，漢斯湯瑪寸：獲贈一本奇異的小書。那本書把他帶到公元1790年發生的——場海難。故事的主人翁是個名叫佛洛德的水手。船沉沒後，他漂流到加勒比海的—座荒島上，獨居五十二年；陪伴他度過漫長歲月、幫助他排遣寂寞的，就是隨身攜帶的—副撲剋牌。說也奇怪，後來這五十三張紙牌竟然變成了五十三個有血有肉、活蹦亂跳的侏儒。這群小矮人在島上建立一座村莊，環繞着佛洛德。除了—個侏儒外，他們都無法解釋自己究竟是誰、來自何方。唯—知道奧秘的侏儒，就是撲剋牌中的那張“醜角牌”。
在《紙牌的秘密》這本書中，小醜象徵“圈外人”——一他能夠看到別人看不到的人生真相。最重要的是，他能夠體認人生是場有趣的冒險。所以，在島-上那些日子。他不斷嚮同胞們提出有關人生的新問題。
在人生的紙牌遊戲中，我們每個人一生下來就是小醜。可是，隨着年齡增長，我們漸漸變成紅心、方塊、梅花、黑桃。但這並不意味我們心中的小醜從此消失無蹤。我們不妨攤開一副撲剋牌，看看那些紅心圖案或方塊圖案底下，是不是隱藏着一個醜角呢?
這讓我想起古老的羊皮紙文件。歐洲人使用這種羊皮紙。往往會颳掉上面原有的文字，重新寫上其他東西。於是，當我們翻閱中古世紀的一本賬簿，瀏覽當時五穀和魚貨的價目時，揉揉眼睛，仔細一瞧，會赫然發現．那些羊皮紙原先記載的，竟是古羅馬的—出喜劇。同樣的，我們對世界的好奇，也深深隱藏在每個人心中。在那兒，我們找到一群群耍把戲、變魔術、打諢插科逗觀衆發笑的傢夥，也看到許多小精靈、侏儒、仙女和妖魔鬼怪，甚至還跟隨愛麗絲漫遊奇境，陪伴王後一塊喝下午茶。
各位讀者想必會註意到，《紙牌的秘密》書中的小醜是一個侏儒。他是永恆的小孩，永遠都不會完全長大，永遠都不會對人生失去好奇。就這一點來說，他稱得．上古往今來所有偉大哲學家的親屬。在古希臘，蘇格拉底就是他那個時代的一副撲剋牌中的醜角牌(少年時期，他沒事就跑到雅典的市集，隨便抓個人問問題！)蘇格拉底曾說：“雅典就像一匹沒精打采的馬兒。我將扮演‘牛虻’的角色，狠狠咬它一口，讓它飛騰跳躍起來”。(而我們的“牛虻”卻在幹什麽呢?)
我們每個人心中都活着一個小醜。這也是蘇格拉底的看法。身為哲學家，蘇格拉底其實並不具備特殊的“資歷”；他衹是——個助産士而已。接生婆幫助産婦生下孩子，蘇格拉底幫助人們“生下”人生的智慧。這種比喻當然是老調，但這個古老的接生婆象徵卻具有另一層涵意，值得我們深思：需要被接生出來的，實際上是我們每個人心中的那個孩子。
幾千年來，人類總是遭受一連串重大問題睏擾，而四處卻找不到現成的答案。結果，我們被迫面對兩種選擇：我們可以欺騙自己，假裝我們知道一切值得知道的事情，或者，我們索性閉上眼睛，拒絶面對人生根本問題，樂得逍遙度日，擺脫煩惱。今天的人類基本上分成這兩大族群。我們若不是趾高氣揚，自以為通曉人間事理，就是幹脆承認自己無知，不去過問自認為不懂的事情。這種現象就如同把一副撲剋牌分成兩堆，紅的放在——邊，黑的擺在另一邊。可是，每隔一陣子，那張醜角牌就會從牌堆中探出臉來。它既不是紅心和方塊，也不是梅花和黑桃。
在雅典城，蘇格拉底就是這麽一個醜角——既不桀騖，也不冷漠。他衹知道一件事：人世間有很多事情他並不懂。這個；念頭時時折磨他，於是他就去當個哲學家，成為一個永不放棄探尋人生真相、對人生不斷提出新問題的人。
在我看來，哲學的最大功能，是幫助我們找出心中隱藏的那個“醜角”，讓我們跟他建立更親密的情誼。哲學家必須掃除覆蓋在世界上的那層塵埃，讓我們以兒童的清澈眼光，重新觀看和感受這個世界。人生原本是一則美妙的童話故事，而長大後變得“世故”的我們，竟然剝去它那襲神秘的外衣，把它看成——個枯燥無味的 “現實”。但我們每個人都還有復活的希望，因為我們全都是醜角的後裔。我們內心深處，都有一個活蹦亂跳、睜着一隻大眼睛、對人生充滿好奇的孩子在活着。儘管有時候我們會覺得自己渺小瑣碎，但是，切莫忘了，我們每個人的肌膚下面都隱藏着一小塊黃金：曾經，在這個世界上，我們是一個潔淨無塵、心如明鏡的赤子……
當年，我們被帶進一則童話故事中——這個童話比我們在孩提時代聽過的童話都要美妙動聽——可是，沒多久，我們就把周圍的一切視為當然，不再好奇。如今我們甚至不會註意到，我們傢中那張新買的嬰兒床上，有一件神奇的事正在發生。就在那兒——嬰兒床的欄桿後面——世界正被創造。
而世界永遠不會衰老；衰老的是我們。衹要嬰兒不斷出生，衹要新人不斷來到世上，我們的世界就會永葆清新，新得就跟上帝創 世第七天時一模一樣。孩子現在剛剛進入這則偉大的童話故事；他 睜着清澈澄淨的眼睛，責備我們把這個世界看成“現實”，離它愈來愈遠。
“媽‘天使為什麽會有翅膀呢?……星星為什麽會眨眼睛呢? ……鳥兒為什麽會飛呢?……大象的鼻子為什麽那樣長呢?”
“哎呀，我怎麽曉得呀!乖，現在該閉上眼睛睡覺噦，否則的話，媽可就要生氣囉！”
譏來詭譎，孩子喪失對世界的這種積極的、充滿活力的感受時，正巧是他開始學說話的時候。所以，孩子們需要神話和童話。大人們也需要神話和童話，因為它能幫助我們緊緊抓住兒時的經驗，不讓它流失。
我覺得，十九或二十歲纔開始接觸哲學書籍，實在已經太遲了。最近歐洲流行嬰兒遊泳，因為父母們覺得，既然遊泳是人類與生俱來的本能，但這種本能必須加以呵護。對人生好奇並不是學來的，而是我們自己遺忘掉的本能。
我們總愛誇誇其談，大談“人生的奧秘”。要親身體驗這個奧秘，我們就得擺脫世故的矯情，讓自己再當一次孩子。想當孩子，就得往後退一步－－也許，退了一步後，我們會發現眼前豁然出現一個美妙的世界。就在那一刻，我們目擊世界的創造過程。朗朗晴空下，一個嶄新的世界蹦地冒了出來……
而居然有人說他們覺得人生挺無聊！
李永平譯
Like Sophie's World, The Solitaire Mystery has a philosophical content, but unlike Sophie's World, it does not explicitly mention philosophers and theories, thus, the reader of the book may be unaware that he or she is actually engaging in philosophy.
Plot
The book follows two seemingly separate stories:
Hans Thomas
A twelve year old boy, Hans Thomas, and his father are driving through Europe on a journey to locate and bring home the boy's estranged mother. Whilst on their journey, a strange little bearded man gives Hans Thomas a magnifying glass, saying mystically: "You'll need it!"
Not long afterwards, Hans Thomas and his father stop in a roadside cafe where Hans Thomas gets a giant sticky bun from a kind baker to eat on his journey. To Hans Thomas's great surprise, hidden inside the sticky bun is a tiny book, with writing so small it cannot be read with the naked eye.
Hans Thomas begins to read the tiny book using his new magnifying glass, and the story then alternates between Hans Thomas's journey, and the story in the sticky bun book.
The Sticky Bun Book
The sticky bun book tells the story of an old baker whose grandfather gave him a drink of a wonderful liquid he called Rainbow Fizz (Rainbow Soda in the American edition). It came from an island which the grandfather had been shipwrecked on as a young man. On the island lived an old sailor called Frode, and fifty-three other people; the fifty three other people did not have names though, they referred to themselves as the numbers on playing cards (52 cards plus a Joker)
The red suits were all women, except for the Kings and Jacks, whilst the black suits were all men, except for the Queens and Aces. The Ace of Hearts was particularly enchanting, and Frode had quite a crush on her, even though she was forever 'losing herself'. The cards (as he called them) were scatterbrained and childish, and talked in card-related riddles about "when the game ends" and "turning a person face up" etc.
Frode told the young sailor the miraculous story about how the other people had come to be on the island with him:
Frode himself was shipwrecked on the island many years earlier, and had lost virtually all of his possessions, except for a pack of playing cards. As he had no way off the island, he played solitaire a lot to pass the time. After a few months, he started talking to the cards, and even creating personalities for each of them in his head.
Time passed, and through overuse, the pictures on the cards faded and disappeared, but Frode continued to talk to them in his mind. Then suddenly one day, the Three of Diamonds walked by -- a flesh and blood person -- and said hello to Frode as if they were old friends! Frode thought he must be going mad, and as the remaining fifty-two cards surfaced, he became convinced he had gone senile. But since there was no way off the island, he decided he may as well sink himself into his delusion and enjoy the company.
When the new sailor was shipwrecked on the island, it came as a huge shock to Frode that he could see and interact with the card people as well! It wasn't a delusion! But then it seemed that Frode had simply 'dreamt' them into existence - how could this be so?
The crossing over of worlds
As the plot progresses, the reader sees that the 'two' separate stories of Hans Thomas's journey, and the events in the sticky bun book are beginning to overlap:
The cards in the sticky bun book take part in a game, where each says a sentence, and Frode tries to interpret its bizarre meaning. But sentences such as "the inner box unpacks the outer at the same time as the outer box unpacks the inner" and "destiny is a snake so hungry it devours itself" seem devoid of meaning for Frode.
However, the cards' predictions as told in the tiny book begin to reveal details about Hans Thomas's own plight to find his mother. It occurs to Hans Thomas that his mother bears a striking resemblance in her personality to the Ace of Hearts in that she 'loses herself' (disappears) for long periods.
Also, throughout Hans Thomas's journey, he has seen the same odd little bearded man following him about (the man who gave him the magnifying glass which proved so useful to read the sticky bun book). But whenever Hans Thomas approaches the little man, he seems to dash away and vanish.
The baffling thing for Hans Thomas is that he stopped for the cake merely by chance, and chose to eat a sticky bun by chance - how is it possible that a tiny book from a random bun is telling him things about his own life?
In the end, it turns out that the man who gave Hans Thomas the sticky bun book was his estranged grandfather, the baker and writer of the sticky bun book, and grandson to the shipwrecked sailor who had met Frode and his cards on the magic island. The grandfather works this out at the same time Hans Thomas deduces it too (the inner box unpacks the outer at the same time as the outer box unpacks the inner), yet this understanding is never realised, as the grandfather passes away before Hans Thomas returns to the small alpine village, having reunited with his mother in Athens.
Back in the sticky bun book, we discover that just as the cards had played their prophetic game where they predicted exactly what would happen between Hans Thomas and his family, the magic island begins to close in on itself, fifty-two years to the day after it had sprung into existence. It seems as if it were meant to happen that way (destiny is a snake so hungry it devours itself).
The poor card-people get eaten up inside the island, and as the island folds in on itself and disappears into nothingness, the young sailor (Baker Hans) escapes on a rowing boat which he had brought. Only one of the 'cards' managed to escape the island: the Joker.
Hans Thomas realises that it is the Joker who gave him the magnifying glass, and who has been following him about all this time. Just as Hans Thomas reads the last sentence of the sticky bun book, closes it and looks up, he sees the Joker slip away into the crowd, and vanish...
Philosophical themes
The book encompasses several philosophical themes; the obvious ones which are covered in the overall plot, but also little snippets here and there. Hans Thomas's father is a smoker but doesn't like to smoke inside his car, and so on their long journey across Europe, they are forever stopping for cigarette breaks, and the father is talking philosophically with his son. These bite-size chunks of philosophy are far easier to swallow than the weighty lectures in Sophie's World, but are nonetheless potent.
The nature of existence
The nature of existence is a theme which runs throughout, especially the miraculous nature of life itself. The book explores the question of whether it is possible to imagine something into existence. This theme is also found in Australian aboriginal myth, where elders claim that the world was dreamt into existence.
It seems unimaginable that we can make something happen just by wanting it to happen, yet the placebo effect has been well-documented in psychology, and many psychic healers and suchlike will claim that you need to have faith in order for something to work.
Religious Themes
The Christian concept of the creator living within his creation is explored. The seemingly perfect creation is soon destroyed by the Joker, during the "Joker Game" sequence, which is arguably an intended parallel with the Garden of Eden.
Destiny
The fact that the cards in the sticky bun book predicted the goings on between Hans Thomas's family decades later gives the book a strong theme of destiny: the idea that some things are going to happen no matter what - it is fate.
Fate as a concept also has many supporters; those who believe that some things (or the more stronger claim, that all things) have been pre-planned from long ago -- perhaps from the dawn of time. This is a main theme running through theology as well as more pseudo-scientific disciplines such as tarot reading and palm reading.
It certainly seems possible (though highly improbable) that the cards could have predicted the goings-on in Hans Thomas's young life, but the unlikelihood of it all only adds to the mystery and wonder of the story.
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》是英國數學家卡羅爾，興之所致，給友人的女兒愛麗絲所講的故事，寫下後加上自己的插圖送給了她。後來在朋友鼓勵下，卡羅爾將手稿加以修訂、擴充、潤色後，於1865年正式出版。故事講述了一個叫愛麗絲的小女孩，在夢中追逐一隻兔子而掉進了兔子洞，開始了漫長而驚險的旅行，直到最後與撲剋牌王後、國王發生頂撞，急得大叫一聲，纔大夢醒來。這部童話以神奇的幻想，風趣的幽默，昂然的詩情，突破了西歐傳統兒童文學道德說教的刻板公式，此後被翻譯成多種文字，走遍了全世界。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-故事簡介
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》是英國童話作傢劉易斯·卡洛爾的一部中篇童話。故事寫一個名叫愛麗絲的女孩在打瞌睡時，突然看見一隻穿衣服的白兔跑過去。愛麗絲跟着兔子跌進了一個黑洞，跌了好久纔跌到了一堆枯樹葉上。她走進一個大廳，四周有許多扇門。
大廳中央玻璃桌上放着一串金鑰匙。她用其中一把打開了一扇最小的門，裏面是一座美麗的花園。門太小，她鑽不進，後來喝了桌上一瓶飲料，就變成了一個衹有10英寸高的小人。她吃了桌下一塊糕，一下長到9英尺，門又進不了。她急得大哭起來，淚水流成河。
白兔出現了，丟下一把扇子，她用來一扇，又縮成個小人。她失足落入自己的淚水池中，好容易纔遊到岸邊。愛麗絲來到白兔傢，看見櫃子上有飲料，她纔喝了半瓶，身體就變大，頭頂天花板，胳膊伸出窗外，無法動彈。兔子撿石頭砸她，石子落地全變成糕餅。她一吃，馬上又縮小了，於是她奪門逃跑，逃到林子裏，吃了點蘑菇纔恢復了原來的形狀。
愛麗絲走進一個公爵夫人傢的花園，在這裏她認識了樸剋紅心國王K和皇后Q。皇后脾氣暴躁，動不動就砍掉人傢的頭。切捨貓惹皇后生氣，被判砍頭。但貓的身子消失了，劊子手不知怎樣去砍沒有身子的頭，最後皇后又下令砍掉不肯對荒唐事作證的愛麗絲的頭，愛麗絲在自衛中驚醒。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-角色簡介
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》愛麗絲和穿衣服的兔子
愛麗絲：故事的主角，一個純真可愛的小女孩，充滿好奇心和求知欲，在她身上體現出了屬於兒童的那種純真。在人的成長過程中，這種兒童的純真常常會遭到侵蝕。因而，純真的愛麗絲對兒童、對成年人都極具魅力，且彌足珍貴。
兔子：一隻穿着背心的白兔，在故事開場正要去給女王取東西的它喊着“天哪！天哪！要遲到了！”跑過愛麗絲面前，引起了她的註意，為了追它，愛麗絲纔從兔子洞掉進了那個神秘的世界，後來愛麗絲在它的傢裏又誤喝了一瓶魔藥而變成巨人。
蜥蜴比爾：愛麗絲在兔子傢裏誤喝魔藥變成巨人，無法離開房屋，兔子以為屋裏出現了怪物，派這衹小蜥蜴從煙囪進去看看情況，結果不等進去就被愛麗絲踢了出來。
毛毛蟲：一隻坐在蘑菇上吸煙斗的古怪毛毛蟲，態度有點目中無人，不過它教給了愛麗絲自由變大變小的方法。
公爵夫人：一個愛好說教的女人，口頭語是“一切事皆能引申出一個教訓”。愛麗絲去過她傢，正是在那裏她纔認識了柴郡貓。
柴郡貓：一隻總是咧着嘴笑的貓，來源於英諺“笑得像一隻柴郡貓”。它幫了愛麗絲幾次忙。
帽匠：瘋狂茶會的參加者之一，來源於英諺“瘋得像個帽匠”。
三月兔：瘋狂茶會的參加者之一，來源於英諺“瘋得像衹三月的野兔”。
睡鼠：瘋狂茶會的參加者之一，總是在睡覺。
紅心女王：率領着一群撲剋牌士兵的撲剋牌女王，很容易生氣，動輒要砍別人的頭，不過其實並沒有實行過。
紅心國王：撲剋牌國王，不像妻子那麽愛動怒，相反給人以受妻子指使的老好人的感覺。
格裏芬：希臘神話中的獅身鷹首怪獸，在女王的命令下帶愛麗絲去見了假海龜。
假海龜：女王命令格裏芬帶愛麗絲去見的角色，它給愛麗絲講了一個充滿文字遊戲的莫名其妙的故事。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-作品評價
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》是一部被公認為世界兒童文學經典的童話，由於其中豐富的想象力和種種隱喻，不但深受各代兒童歡迎，也被視為一部嚴肅的文學作品。《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》到卡羅爾1898年去世之前，已經成為英國最暢銷的兒童讀物。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》作品以夢幻的形式，將你帶入一個離奇的故事中，情節撲朔迷離，變幻莫測。表面看來荒誕不經，實際上卻富有嚴密的邏輯性和深刻的內涵，是智慧與幻想的完美結合。吃些東西就可以長大或變小；小老鼠可以和你一起遊泳；毛毛蟲和你一般高；小豬接見公爵夫人的孩子；還有竜跳舞……那裏是一個奇異的世界。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》中主人公愛麗絲是個十分可愛的小女孩。她天真活潑，充滿好奇心和求知欲；她有同情心，懂得是非。在愛麗絲身上，充分體現了屬於兒童的那種純真。在人的成長過程中，這種兒童的純真常常會遭到侵蝕。因而，純真的愛麗絲對兒童、對成年人都極具魅力，且彌足珍貴。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》中充滿了有趣的文字遊戲、雙關語、謎語和巧智、因此有時是難以翻譯的，比如第二章章名裏的“Tale（故事）”因為被愛麗絲聽成同音的“Tail（尾巴）”而鬧出了笑話。由於開始時是一部給朋友的孩子講的自娛之作，故事裏的很多角色名都影射了作者身邊的人，如第三章裏的渡渡鳥（dodo）是作者自己（因為他有口吃的毛病，聽起來像dodo這個詞）、鴨子（duck）是朋友Duckworth、鸚鵡（Lory）是愛麗絲的姐姐Lorina，小鷹（Eaglet）是愛麗絲的妹妹Edith。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-作者簡介
劉易斯·卡羅爾的真名叫查爾斯·勒特威奇·道奇森（1832～1898），是一位數學家，長期在享有盛名的牛津大學任基督堂學院數學講師，發表了好幾本數學著作。他因有嚴重的口吃，故而不善與人交往，但他興趣廣泛，對小說、詩歌、邏輯都頗有造詣，還是一個優秀的兒童像攝影師。
1862年7月的一個下午，作傢帶着三個孩子，劃着一隻小船在泰晤士河上蕩漾。在孩子們的再三央求下，他信口講了一個夢遊奇境的故事給他們聽。後來經過其中一個叫艾麗絲的小女孩的請求，他將故事寫成文字，送給了她。
這篇文字就是《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》。後來在朋友鼓勵下，卡羅爾將手稿加以修訂、擴充、潤色後，於1865 年正式出版。卡羅爾後來又寫了一部姐妹篇，叫《愛麗絲鏡中奇遇記》，並與《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》一起風行於世。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-改編與仿作
劉易斯·卡羅爾的《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》由於作品的廣受歡迎，《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》曾被改編成各種體裁，包括電影、舞臺劇和動畫，其中迪斯尼於1951年改編的 AliceinWonderland是比較著名的。此外還出現了各種仿作，比如瀋從文的童話《阿麗思中國遊記》便是假托愛麗絲續集的名義反映當時社會的黑暗。
另外，這個充滿奇幻色彩的題材也不時被各種日本漫畫套用，由貴香織裏的《毒伯爵該隱》有一章就藉用了愛麗絲的故事，衹是在以頽廢風格聞名的由貴筆下，故事也變得陰森恐怖了。
還有很多漫畫傢喜歡把自己筆下的角色套進愛麗絲的世界裏，《櫻蘭高校男公關部》、山田南平的《紅茶王子》都做過類似的事，看看同一個故事在不同的作者筆下各自呈現出怎樣的新色彩，其實也是件有趣的事。
History
Facsimile page from Alice's Adventures Under Ground
Alice was published in 1865, three years after the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and the Reverend Robinson Duckworth rowed in a boat, on 4 July 1862, up the River Thames with three young girls:
* Lorina Charlotte Liddell (aged 13, born 1849) ("Prima" in the book's prefatory verse)
* Alice Pleasance Liddell (aged 10, born 1852) ("Secunda" in the prefatory verse)
* Edith Mary Liddell (aged 8, born 1853) ("Tertia" in the prefatory verse).
The three girls were the daughters of Henry George Liddell, the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and Dean of Christ Church as well as headmaster of Westminster School.
The journey had started at Folly Bridge near Oxford and ended five miles away in the village of Godstow. To while away time the Reverend Dodgson told the girls a story that, not so coincidentally, featured a bored little girl named Alice who goes looking for an adventure.
The girls loved it, and Alice Liddell asked Dodgson to write it down for her. After a lengthy delay—over two years —he eventually did so and on 26 November 1864 gave Alice the handwritten manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground, with illustrations by Dodgson himself. Some, including Martin Gardner, speculate there was an earlier version that was destroyed later by Dodgson himself when he printed a more elaborate copy by hand, but there is no known prima facie evidence to support this.
But before Alice received her copy, Dodgson was already preparing it for publication and expanding the 15,500-word original to 27,500 words, most notably adding the episodes about the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Tea-Party. In 1865, Dodgson's tale was published as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by "Lewis Carroll" with illustrations by John Tenniel. The first print run of 2,000 was held back because Tenniel objected to the print quality. A new edition, released in December of the same year, but carrying an 1866 date, was quickly printed. As it turned out, the original edition was sold with Dodgson's permission to the New York publishing house of Appleton. The binding for the Appleton Alice was virtually identical to the 1866 Macmillan Alice, except for the publisher's name at the foot of the spine. The title page of the Appleton Alice was an insert cancelling the original Macmillan title page of 1865, and bearing the New York publisher's imprint and the date 1866.
The entire print run sold out quickly. Alice was a publishing sensation, beloved by children and adults alike. Among its first avid readers were Queen Victoria and the young Oscar Wilde. The book has never been out of print. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has been translated into 125 languages[citation needed]. There have now been over a hundred editions of the book, as well as countless adaptations in other media, especially theatre and film.
The book is commonly referred to by the abbreviated title Alice in Wonderland, an alternative title popularized by the numerous stage, film and television adaptations of the story produced over the years. Some printings of this title contain both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, and, What Alice Found There.
Publishing highlights
cover of the 1898 edition
* 1865: First UK edition (the suppressed edition).
* 1865: First US edition.
* 1869: Alice's Abenteuer im Wunderland is published in German translation by Antonie Zimmermann.
* 1869: Aventures d'Alice au pays des merveilles is published in French translation by Henri Bué.
* 1870: Alice's Äfventyr i Sagolandet is published in Swedish translation by Emily Nonnen.
* 1871: Dodgson meets another Alice during his time in London, Alice Raikes, and talks with her about her reflection in a mirror, leading to another book Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, which sells even better.
* 1886: Carroll publishes a facsimile of the earlier Alice's Adventures Under Ground manuscript.
* 1890: Carroll publishes The Nursery "Alice", a special edition "to be read by Children aged from Nought to Five".
* 1905: Mrs J. C. Gorham publishes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland retold in words of one syllable in a series of such books published by A. L. Burt Company, aimed at young readers.
* 1908: Alice has its first translation into Japanese.
* 1910: La Aventuroj de Alicio en Mirlando is published in Esperanto translation by Elfric Leofwine Kearney.
* 1916: Publication of the first edition of the Windermere Series, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Illustrated by Milo Winter.
* 1928: The manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground that Carroll wrote and illustrated and that he had given to Alice Liddell was sold at Sotheby's on April 3. It sold to Philip Rosenbach for ₤15,400, a world record for the sale of a manuscript at the time.
* 1960: American writer Martin Gardner publishes a special edition, The Annotated Alice, incorporating the text of both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. It has extensive annotations explaining the hidden allusions in the books, and includes full texts of the Victorian era poems parodied in them. Later editions expand on these annotations.
* 1961: The Folio Society publication with 42 illustrations by John Tenniel.
* 1964: Alicia in Terra Mirabili is published in Latin translation by Clive Harcourt Carruthers.
* 1998: Lewis Carroll's own copy of Alice, one of only six surviving copies of the 1865 first edition, is sold at an auction for US$1.54 million to an anonymous American buyer, becoming the most expensive children's book (or 19th-century work of literature) ever traded. (The former record was later eclipsed in 2007 when a limited-edition Harry Potter book by J.K. Rowling, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, was sold at auction for £1.95 million ($3.9 million).
* 2003: Eachtraí Eilíse i dTír na nIontas is published in Irish translation by Nicholas Williams.
* 2008: Folio Alice's Adventures Under Ground facsimile edition (limited to 3,750 copies, boxed with The Original Alice pamphlet).
* 2009: Alys in Pow an Anethow is published in Cornish translation by Nicholas Williams.
* 2009: Children’s book collector and former American football player Pat McInally reportedly sold Alice Liddell’s own copy at auction for $115,000.
Synopsis
The White Rabbit in a hurry
Chapter 1-Down the Rabbit Hole: Alice is bored sitting on the riverbank with her sister, when she sees a talking, clothed White Rabbit with a watch run past. She follows it down a rabbit hole when suddenly she falls a long way to a curious hall with many locked doors of all sizes. She finds a small key to a door too small for her to fit, but through which she sees an attractive garden. She then discovers a bottle labelled "DRINK ME", the contents of which cause her to shrink too small to reach the key. A cake with "EAT ME" on it causes her to grow to such a tremendous size her head hits the ceiling.
Chapter 2-The Pool of Tears: Alice is unhappy and cries and her tears flood the hallway. After shrinking down again due to a fan she had picked up, Alice swims through her own tears and meets a Mouse, who is swimming as well. She tries to make small talk with him but all she can think of talking about is her cat, which offends the mouse.
Chapter 3-The Caucus Race and a Long Tale: The sea of tears becomes crowded with other animals and birds that have been swept away. Alice and the other animals convene on the bank and the question among them is how to get dry again. The mouse gives them a very dry lecture on William the Conqueror. A Dodo decides that the best thing to dry them off would be a Caucus-Race, which consists of everyone running in a circle with no clear winner. Alice eventually frightens all the animals away, unwittingly, by talking about her cat.
Chapter 4-The Rabbit Sends a Little Bill: The White Rabbit appears again in search of the Duchess's gloves and fan. He orders Alice to go into the house and retrieve them, but once she gets inside she starts growing. The horrified Rabbit orders his gardener, Bill the Lizard, to climb on the roof and go down the chimney. Outside, Alice hears the voices of animals that have gathered to gawk at her giant arm. The crowd hurls pebbles at her, which turn into little cakes, which, when Alice eats them, reduce her again in size.
Chapter 5-Advice from a Caterpillar: Alice comes upon a mushroom and sitting on it is a blue Caterpillar smoking a hookah. The Caterpillar questions Alice and she admits to her current identity crisis, compounded by her inability to remember a poem. Before crawling away, the caterpillar tells Alice that one side of the mushroom will make her taller and the other side will make her shorter. She breaks off two pieces from the mushroom. One side makes her shrink smaller than ever, while another causes her neck to grow high into the trees, where a pigeon mistakes her for a serpent. With some effort, Alice brings herself back to her usual height. She stumbles upon a small estate and uses the mushroom to reach a more appropriate height.
Chapter 6-Pig and Pepper: A Fish-Footman has an invitation for the Duchess of the house, which he delivers to a Frog-Footman. Alice observes this transaction and, after a perplexing conversation with the frog, lets herself into the house. The Duchess's Cook is throwing dishes and making a soup that has too much pepper, which causes Alice, the Duchess and her baby (but not the cook or her grinning Cheshire Cat) to sneeze violently. Alice is given the baby by the Duchess and to her surprise, the baby turns into a pig.
Chapter 7-A Mad Tea Party: The Cheshire Cat appears in a tree, directing her to the March Hare's house. He disappears but his grin remains behind to float on its own in the air prompting Alice to remark that she has often seen a cat without a grin but never a grin without a cat. Alice becomes a guest at a "mad" tea party along with the Hatter (now more commonly known as the Mad Hatter), the March Hare, and a sleeping Dormouse who remains asleep for most of the chapter. The other characters give Alice many riddles and stories. The Mad Hatter reveals that they have tea all day because time has punished him by eternally standing still at 6 pm (tea time). Alice becomes insulted and tired of being bombarded with riddles and she leaves claiming that it was the stupidest tea party that she had ever been to.
Alice trying to play croquet with a flamingo
The grinning Cheshire Cat
Chapter 8-The Queen's Croquet Ground: Alice leaves the tea party and enters the garden where she comes upon three living playing cards painting the white roses on a rose tree red because the Queen of Hearts hates white roses. A procession of more cards, kings and queens and even the White Rabbit enters the garden. Alice then meets the King and Queen. The Queen, a figure difficult to please, introduces her trademark phrase "Off with his head!" which she utters at the slightest dissatisfaction with a subject.
Alice is invited (or some might say ordered) to play a game of croquet with the Queen and the rest of her subjects but the game quickly descends into chaos. Live flamingos are used as mallets and hedgehogs as balls and Alice once again meets the Cheshire Cat. The Queen of Hearts then orders the Cat to be beheaded, only to have her executioner complain that this is impossible since the head is all that can be seen of him. Because the cat belongs to the Duchess, the Queen is prompted to release the Duchess from prison to resolve the matter.
Chapter 9-The Mock Turtle's Story: The Duchess is brought to the croquet ground at Alice's request. She ruminates on finding morals in everything around her. The Queen of Hearts dismisses her on the threat of execution and she introduces Alice to the Gryphon, who takes her to the Mock Turtle. The Mock Turtle is very sad, even though he has no sorrow. He tries to tell his story about how he used to be a real turtle in school, which The Gryphon interrupts so they can play a game.
Chapter 10-Lobster Quadrille: The Mock Turtle and the Gryphon dance to the Lobster Quadrille, while Alice recites (rather incorrectly) "'Tis the Voice of the Lobster". The Mock Turtle sings them "Beautiful Soup" during which the Gryphon drags Alice away for an impending trial.
Chapter 11-Who Stole the Tarts?: Alice attends a trial whereby the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the Queen's tarts. The jury is composed of various animals, including Bill the Lizard, the White Rabbit is the court's trumpeter, and the judge is the King of Hearts. During the proceedings, Alice finds that she is steadily growing larger. The dormouse scolds Alice and tells her she has no right to grow at such a rapid pace and take up all the air. Alice scoffs and calls the dormouse's accusation ridiculous because everyone grows and she can't help it. Meanwhile witnesses at the trial include the Mad Hatter, who displeases and frustrates the King through his indirect answers to the questioning, and the Duchess's cook.
Chapter 12-Alice's Evidence: Alice is then called up as a witness. She accidentally knocks over the jury box with the animals inside them and the King orders the animals be placed back into their seats before the trial continues. The King and Queen order Alice to be gone, citing Rule 42 ("All persons more than a mile high to leave the court"), but Alice disputes their judgement and refuses to leave. She argues with the King and Queen of Hearts over the ridiculous proceedings, eventually refusing to hold her tongue. The Queen shouts her familiar "Off with her head!" but Alice is unafraid, calling them out as just a pack of cards. Alice's sister wakes her up for tea, brushing what turns out to be some leaves and not a shower of playing cards from Alice's face. Alice leaves her sister on the bank to imagine all the curious happenings for herself.
Characters
Peter Newell's illustration of Alice surrounded by the characters of Wonderland. (1890)
* Alice
* The White Rabbit
* The Mouse
* The Dodo
* The Lory
* The Eaglet
* The Duck
* Pat
* Bill the Lizard
* The Caterpillar
* The Duchess
* The Cheshire Cat
* The Hatter
* The March Hare
* The Dormouse
* The Queen of Hearts
* The Knave of Hearts
* The King of Hearts
* The Gryphon
* The Mock Turtle
Misconceptions about characters
Although the Jabberwock is often thought to be a character in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, it actually only appears in the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. It is, however, often included in film versions, which are usually simply called "Alice in Wonderland", causing the confusion. The Queen of Hearts is commonly mistaken for the Red Queen who appears in the story's sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, but shares none of her characteristics other than being a queen. The Queen of Hearts is part of the deck of card imagery present in the first book, while the Red Queen is representative of a red chess piece, as chess is the theme present in the sequel. Many adaptations have mixed the characters, causing much confusion.
Character allusions
The members of the boating party that first heard Carroll's tale all show up in Chapter 3 ("A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale") in one form or another. There is, of course, Alice Liddell herself, while Carroll, or Charles Dodgson, is caricatured as the Dodo. Carroll is known as the Dodo because Dodgson stuttered when he spoke, thus if he spoke his last name it would be Do-Do-Dodgson.[citation needed] The Duck refers to Canon Duckworth, the Lory to Lorina Liddell, and the Eaglet to Edith Liddell (Alice Liddell's sisters).
Bill the Lizard may be a play on the name of Benjamin Disraeli. One of Tenniel's illustrations in Through the Looking-Glass depicts the character referred to as the "Man in White Paper" (whom Alice meets as a fellow passenger riding on the train with her), as a caricature of Disraeli, wearing a paper hat. The illustrations of the Lion and the Unicorn also bear a striking resemblance to Tenniel's Punch illustrations of Gladstone and Disraeli.
The Hatter is most likely a reference to Theophilus Carter, a furniture dealer known in Oxford for his unorthodox inventions. Tenniel apparently drew the Hatter to resemble Carter, on a suggestion of Carroll's. The Dormouse tells a story about three little sisters named Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie. These are the Liddell sisters: Elsie is L.C. (Lorina Charlotte), Tillie is Edith (her family nickname is Matilda), and Lacie is an anagram of Alice.
The Mock Turtle speaks of a Drawling-master, "an old conger eel", that used to come once a week to teach "Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils". This is a reference to the art critic John Ruskin, who came once a week to the Liddell house to teach the children drawing, sketching, and painting in oils. (The children did, in fact, learn well; Alice Liddell, for one, produced a number of skilled watercolours.)
The Mock Turtle also sings "Beautiful Soup". This is a parody of a song called "Star of the Evening, Beautiful Star", which was performed as a trio by Lorina, Alice and Edith Liddell for Lewis Carroll in the Liddell home during the same summer in which he first told the story of Alice's Adventures Under Ground.
Contents
Poems and songs
* "All in the golden afternoon..." — the prefatory verse, an original poem by Carroll that recalls the rowing expedition on which he first told the story of Alice's adventures underground
* "How Doth the Little Crocodile" — a parody of Isaac Watts' nursery rhyme, "Against Idleness And Mischief"
* "The Mouse's Tale" — an example of concrete poetry
* "You Are Old, Father William" — a parody of Robert Southey's "The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them"
* The Duchess's lullaby, "Speak roughly to your little boy..." — a parody of David Bates' "Speak Gently"
* "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat" — a parody of "Twinkle twinkle little star"
* The Lobster Quadrille — a parody of Mary Botham Howitt's "The Spider and the Fly"
* "'Tis the Voice of the Lobster" — a parody of "The Sluggard"
* "Beautiful Soup" — a parody of James M. Sayles's "Star of the Evening, Beautiful Star"
* "The Queen of Hearts" — an actual nursery rhyme
* "They told me you had been to her..." — the White Rabbit's evidence
Tenniel's illustrations
John Tenniel's illustrations of Alice do not portray the real Alice Liddell, who had dark hair and a short fringe. There is a persistent legend that Carroll sent Tenniel a photograph of Mary Hilton Babcock, another child-friend, but no evidence for this has yet come to light, and whether Tenniel actually used Babcock as his model is open to dispute.
Famous lines and expressions
The term "Wonderland", from the title, has entered the language and refers to a marvelous imaginary place, or else a real-world place that one perceives to have dream-like qualities. It, like much of the Alice work, is widely referred to in popular culture.
Illustration of Alice with the White Rabbit by Arthur Rackham
"Down the Rabbit-Hole", the Chapter 1 title, has become a popular term for going on an adventure into the unknown. In drug culture, "going down the rabbit hole" is a metaphor for taking hallucinogenic drugs, as Carroll's novel appears similar in form to a drug trip.
In Chapter 6, the Cheshire Cat's disappearance prompts Alice to say one of her most memorable lines: "...a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life!"
In Chapter 7, the Hatter gives his famous riddle without an answer: "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" When asked by Alice what the answer was, he responds with, "I haven't the slightest idea." Although Carroll intended the riddle to have no solution, in a new preface to the 1896 edition of Alice, he proposes several answers: "Because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!" (Note the spelling of "never" as "nevar"—turning it into "raven" when inverted. This reverse spelling, however, was "corrected" in later editions to "never" and Carroll's pun was lost.) Puzzle expert Sam Loyd offered the following solutions:
* Because the notes for which they are noted are not noted for being musical notes
* Poe wrote on both
* They both have inky quills
* Bills and tales ("tails") are among their characteristics
* Because they both stand on their legs, conceal their steels ("steals"), and ought to be made to shut up.
* Occult: Marquis Andras, the raven from The Lesser Key of Solomon, riding a wolf with a sword.
Cyril Pearson proposed:
* Because they both slope with a flap.
Many other answers are listed in The Annotated Alice. In Frank Beddor's novel Seeing Redd, the main antagonist, Queen Redd (a megalomaniac parody of the Queen of Hearts) meets Lewis Carroll and declares that the answer to the riddle is "Because I say so". Carroll is too terrified to contradict her.
Other answers include “because there is a B in both and an N in neither,” (an answer which was meant to highlight the absurdity of the original question), "Neither one is made of cheese", and "it isn't."
Arguably the most famous quote is used when the Queen of Hearts screams "Off with her head!" at Alice (and everyone else she feels slightly annoyed with). Possibly Carroll here was echoing a scene in Shakespeare's Richard III (III, iv, 76) where Richard demands the execution of Lord Hastings, crying "Off with his head!"
When Alice is growing taller after eating the cake labeled "Eat me" she says, "curiouser and curiouser", a famous line that is still used today to describe an event with extraordinary wonder. The Cheshire Cat confirms to Alice "We're all mad here", a line that has been repeated for years as a result.
Symbolism in the text
Oxford Locations
Most of the book's adventures may have been based on and influenced by people, situations and buildings in Oxford and at Christ Church, e.g., the "Rabbit Hole," which symbolized the actual stairs in the back of the main hall in Christ Church. A carving of a griffon and rabbit, as seen in Ripon Cathedral, where Carroll's father was a canon, may have provided inspiration for the tale.
Mathematics
Since Carroll was a mathematician at Christ Church, it has been suggested that there are many references and mathematical concepts in both this story and also in Through the Looking-Glass; examples include:
* In chapter 1, "Down the Rabbit-Hole", in the midst of shrinking, Alice waxes philosophic concerning what final size she will end up as, perhaps "going out altogether, like a candle."; this pondering reflects the concept of a limit.
* In chapter 2, "The Pool of Tears", Alice tries to perform multiplication but produces some odd results: "Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is—oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate!" This explores the representation of numbers using different bases and positional numeral systems: 4 x 5 = 12 in base 18 notation, 4 x 6 = 13 in base 21 notation, and 4 x 7 could be 14 in base 24 notation. Continuing this sequence, going up three bases each time, the result will continue to be less than 20 in the corresponding base notation. (After 19 the product would be 1A, then 1B, 1C, 1D, and so on.)
* In chapter 5, "Advice from a Caterpillar", the Pigeon asserts that little girls are some kind of serpent, for both little girls and serpents eat eggs. This general concept of abstraction occurs widely in many fields of science; an example in mathematics of employing this reasoning would be in the substitution of variables.
* In chapter 7, "A Mad Tea-Party", the March Hare, the Mad Hatter, and the Dormouse give several examples in which the semantic value of a sentence A is not the same value of the converse of A (for example, "Why, you might just as well say that 'I see what I eat' is the same thing as 'I eat what I see'!"); in logic and mathematics, this is discussing an inverse relationship.
* Also in chapter 7, Alice ponders what it means when the changing of seats around the circular table places them back at the beginning. This is an observation of addition on a ring of the integers modulo N.
* The Cheshire cat fades until it disappears entirely, leaving only its wide grin, suspended in the air, leading Alice to marvel and note that she has seen a cat without a grin, but never a grin without a cat. Deep abstraction of concepts (non-Euclidean geometry, abstract algebra, the beginnings of mathematical logic...) was taking over mathematics at the time Dodgson was writing. Dodgson's delineation of the relationship between cat and grin can be taken to represent the very concept of mathematics and number itself. For example, instead of considering two or three apples, one may easily consider the concept of 'apple', upon which the concepts of 'two' and 'three' may seem to depend. However, a far more sophisticated jump is to consider the concepts of 'two' and 'three' by themselves, just like a grin, originally seemingly dependent on the cat, separated conceptually from its physical object.
Mathematician Keith Devlin asserted in the journal of The Mathematical Association of America that Dodgson wrote Alice in Wonderland in its final form as a scathing satire on new modern mathematics that were emerging in the mid-1800s.
The French language
It has been suggested by several people, including Martin Gardner and Selwyn Goodacre, that Dodgson had an interest in the French language, choosing to make references and puns about it in the story. It is most likely that these are references to French lessons—a common feature of a Victorian middle-class girl's upbringing. For example, in the second chapter, Alice posits that the mouse may be French and chooses to speak the first sentence of her French lesson-book to it: "Où est ma chatte?" ("Where is my cat?"). In Henri Bué's French translation, Alice posits that the mouse may be Italian and speaks Italian to it.
Pat's "Digging for apples" could be a cross-language pun, as pomme de terre means potato and pomme means apple, which little English girls studying French would easily guess.
Classical languages
In the second chapter, Alice initially addresses the mouse as "O Mouse", based on her vague memory of the noun declensions in her brother's textbook: "A mouse (nominative)— of a mouse (genitive)— to a mouse (dative)— a mouse (accusative)— O mouse! (vocative)." This corresponds to the traditional order that was established by Byzantine grammarians (and is still in standard use, except in the United Kingdom and some countries in Western Europe) for the five cases of Classical Greek; because of the absence of the ablative case, which Greek does not have but is found in Latin, the reference is apparently not to the latter as some have supposed.
At the Mad Tea Party, Alice is astonished not to have jam served because the rule is: "Jam yesterday, jam tomorrow but never jam today." This is a reference to the rule in Latin that the word iam or jam meaning now in the sense of already or at that time cannot be used to describe now in the present, which is nunc in Latin. Jam is therefore never available today.
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-故事簡介
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》是英國童話作傢劉易斯·卡洛爾的一部中篇童話。故事寫一個名叫愛麗絲的女孩在打瞌睡時，突然看見一隻穿衣服的白兔跑過去。愛麗絲跟着兔子跌進了一個黑洞，跌了好久纔跌到了一堆枯樹葉上。她走進一個大廳，四周有許多扇門。
大廳中央玻璃桌上放着一串金鑰匙。她用其中一把打開了一扇最小的門，裏面是一座美麗的花園。門太小，她鑽不進，後來喝了桌上一瓶飲料，就變成了一個衹有10英寸高的小人。她吃了桌下一塊糕，一下長到9英尺，門又進不了。她急得大哭起來，淚水流成河。
白兔出現了，丟下一把扇子，她用來一扇，又縮成個小人。她失足落入自己的淚水池中，好容易纔遊到岸邊。愛麗絲來到白兔傢，看見櫃子上有飲料，她纔喝了半瓶，身體就變大，頭頂天花板，胳膊伸出窗外，無法動彈。兔子撿石頭砸她，石子落地全變成糕餅。她一吃，馬上又縮小了，於是她奪門逃跑，逃到林子裏，吃了點蘑菇纔恢復了原來的形狀。
愛麗絲走進一個公爵夫人傢的花園，在這裏她認識了樸剋紅心國王K和皇后Q。皇后脾氣暴躁，動不動就砍掉人傢的頭。切捨貓惹皇后生氣，被判砍頭。但貓的身子消失了，劊子手不知怎樣去砍沒有身子的頭，最後皇后又下令砍掉不肯對荒唐事作證的愛麗絲的頭，愛麗絲在自衛中驚醒。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-角色簡介
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》愛麗絲和穿衣服的兔子
愛麗絲：故事的主角，一個純真可愛的小女孩，充滿好奇心和求知欲，在她身上體現出了屬於兒童的那種純真。在人的成長過程中，這種兒童的純真常常會遭到侵蝕。因而，純真的愛麗絲對兒童、對成年人都極具魅力，且彌足珍貴。
兔子：一隻穿着背心的白兔，在故事開場正要去給女王取東西的它喊着“天哪！天哪！要遲到了！”跑過愛麗絲面前，引起了她的註意，為了追它，愛麗絲纔從兔子洞掉進了那個神秘的世界，後來愛麗絲在它的傢裏又誤喝了一瓶魔藥而變成巨人。
蜥蜴比爾：愛麗絲在兔子傢裏誤喝魔藥變成巨人，無法離開房屋，兔子以為屋裏出現了怪物，派這衹小蜥蜴從煙囪進去看看情況，結果不等進去就被愛麗絲踢了出來。
毛毛蟲：一隻坐在蘑菇上吸煙斗的古怪毛毛蟲，態度有點目中無人，不過它教給了愛麗絲自由變大變小的方法。
公爵夫人：一個愛好說教的女人，口頭語是“一切事皆能引申出一個教訓”。愛麗絲去過她傢，正是在那裏她纔認識了柴郡貓。
柴郡貓：一隻總是咧着嘴笑的貓，來源於英諺“笑得像一隻柴郡貓”。它幫了愛麗絲幾次忙。
帽匠：瘋狂茶會的參加者之一，來源於英諺“瘋得像個帽匠”。
三月兔：瘋狂茶會的參加者之一，來源於英諺“瘋得像衹三月的野兔”。
睡鼠：瘋狂茶會的參加者之一，總是在睡覺。
紅心女王：率領着一群撲剋牌士兵的撲剋牌女王，很容易生氣，動輒要砍別人的頭，不過其實並沒有實行過。
紅心國王：撲剋牌國王，不像妻子那麽愛動怒，相反給人以受妻子指使的老好人的感覺。
格裏芬：希臘神話中的獅身鷹首怪獸，在女王的命令下帶愛麗絲去見了假海龜。
假海龜：女王命令格裏芬帶愛麗絲去見的角色，它給愛麗絲講了一個充滿文字遊戲的莫名其妙的故事。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-作品評價
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》是一部被公認為世界兒童文學經典的童話，由於其中豐富的想象力和種種隱喻，不但深受各代兒童歡迎，也被視為一部嚴肅的文學作品。《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》到卡羅爾1898年去世之前，已經成為英國最暢銷的兒童讀物。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》作品以夢幻的形式，將你帶入一個離奇的故事中，情節撲朔迷離，變幻莫測。表面看來荒誕不經，實際上卻富有嚴密的邏輯性和深刻的內涵，是智慧與幻想的完美結合。吃些東西就可以長大或變小；小老鼠可以和你一起遊泳；毛毛蟲和你一般高；小豬接見公爵夫人的孩子；還有竜跳舞……那裏是一個奇異的世界。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》中主人公愛麗絲是個十分可愛的小女孩。她天真活潑，充滿好奇心和求知欲；她有同情心，懂得是非。在愛麗絲身上，充分體現了屬於兒童的那種純真。在人的成長過程中，這種兒童的純真常常會遭到侵蝕。因而，純真的愛麗絲對兒童、對成年人都極具魅力，且彌足珍貴。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》中充滿了有趣的文字遊戲、雙關語、謎語和巧智、因此有時是難以翻譯的，比如第二章章名裏的“Tale（故事）”因為被愛麗絲聽成同音的“Tail（尾巴）”而鬧出了笑話。由於開始時是一部給朋友的孩子講的自娛之作，故事裏的很多角色名都影射了作者身邊的人，如第三章裏的渡渡鳥（dodo）是作者自己（因為他有口吃的毛病，聽起來像dodo這個詞）、鴨子（duck）是朋友Duckworth、鸚鵡（Lory）是愛麗絲的姐姐Lorina，小鷹（Eaglet）是愛麗絲的妹妹Edith。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-作者簡介
劉易斯·卡羅爾的真名叫查爾斯·勒特威奇·道奇森（1832～1898），是一位數學家，長期在享有盛名的牛津大學任基督堂學院數學講師，發表了好幾本數學著作。他因有嚴重的口吃，故而不善與人交往，但他興趣廣泛，對小說、詩歌、邏輯都頗有造詣，還是一個優秀的兒童像攝影師。
1862年7月的一個下午，作傢帶着三個孩子，劃着一隻小船在泰晤士河上蕩漾。在孩子們的再三央求下，他信口講了一個夢遊奇境的故事給他們聽。後來經過其中一個叫艾麗絲的小女孩的請求，他將故事寫成文字，送給了她。
這篇文字就是《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》。後來在朋友鼓勵下，卡羅爾將手稿加以修訂、擴充、潤色後，於1865 年正式出版。卡羅爾後來又寫了一部姐妹篇，叫《愛麗絲鏡中奇遇記》，並與《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》一起風行於世。
《愛麗絲漫遊奇境記》-改編與仿作
劉易斯·卡羅爾的《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》由於作品的廣受歡迎，《愛麗絲漫遊奇境》曾被改編成各種體裁，包括電影、舞臺劇和動畫，其中迪斯尼於1951年改編的 AliceinWonderland是比較著名的。此外還出現了各種仿作，比如瀋從文的童話《阿麗思中國遊記》便是假托愛麗絲續集的名義反映當時社會的黑暗。
另外，這個充滿奇幻色彩的題材也不時被各種日本漫畫套用，由貴香織裏的《毒伯爵該隱》有一章就藉用了愛麗絲的故事，衹是在以頽廢風格聞名的由貴筆下，故事也變得陰森恐怖了。
還有很多漫畫傢喜歡把自己筆下的角色套進愛麗絲的世界裏，《櫻蘭高校男公關部》、山田南平的《紅茶王子》都做過類似的事，看看同一個故事在不同的作者筆下各自呈現出怎樣的新色彩，其實也是件有趣的事。
History
Facsimile page from Alice's Adventures Under Ground
Alice was published in 1865, three years after the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and the Reverend Robinson Duckworth rowed in a boat, on 4 July 1862, up the River Thames with three young girls:
* Lorina Charlotte Liddell (aged 13, born 1849) ("Prima" in the book's prefatory verse)
* Alice Pleasance Liddell (aged 10, born 1852) ("Secunda" in the prefatory verse)
* Edith Mary Liddell (aged 8, born 1853) ("Tertia" in the prefatory verse).
The three girls were the daughters of Henry George Liddell, the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and Dean of Christ Church as well as headmaster of Westminster School.
The journey had started at Folly Bridge near Oxford and ended five miles away in the village of Godstow. To while away time the Reverend Dodgson told the girls a story that, not so coincidentally, featured a bored little girl named Alice who goes looking for an adventure.
The girls loved it, and Alice Liddell asked Dodgson to write it down for her. After a lengthy delay—over two years —he eventually did so and on 26 November 1864 gave Alice the handwritten manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground, with illustrations by Dodgson himself. Some, including Martin Gardner, speculate there was an earlier version that was destroyed later by Dodgson himself when he printed a more elaborate copy by hand, but there is no known prima facie evidence to support this.
But before Alice received her copy, Dodgson was already preparing it for publication and expanding the 15,500-word original to 27,500 words, most notably adding the episodes about the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Tea-Party. In 1865, Dodgson's tale was published as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by "Lewis Carroll" with illustrations by John Tenniel. The first print run of 2,000 was held back because Tenniel objected to the print quality. A new edition, released in December of the same year, but carrying an 1866 date, was quickly printed. As it turned out, the original edition was sold with Dodgson's permission to the New York publishing house of Appleton. The binding for the Appleton Alice was virtually identical to the 1866 Macmillan Alice, except for the publisher's name at the foot of the spine. The title page of the Appleton Alice was an insert cancelling the original Macmillan title page of 1865, and bearing the New York publisher's imprint and the date 1866.
The entire print run sold out quickly. Alice was a publishing sensation, beloved by children and adults alike. Among its first avid readers were Queen Victoria and the young Oscar Wilde. The book has never been out of print. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has been translated into 125 languages[citation needed]. There have now been over a hundred editions of the book, as well as countless adaptations in other media, especially theatre and film.
The book is commonly referred to by the abbreviated title Alice in Wonderland, an alternative title popularized by the numerous stage, film and television adaptations of the story produced over the years. Some printings of this title contain both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, and, What Alice Found There.
Publishing highlights
cover of the 1898 edition
* 1865: First UK edition (the suppressed edition).
* 1865: First US edition.
* 1869: Alice's Abenteuer im Wunderland is published in German translation by Antonie Zimmermann.
* 1869: Aventures d'Alice au pays des merveilles is published in French translation by Henri Bué.
* 1870: Alice's Äfventyr i Sagolandet is published in Swedish translation by Emily Nonnen.
* 1871: Dodgson meets another Alice during his time in London, Alice Raikes, and talks with her about her reflection in a mirror, leading to another book Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, which sells even better.
* 1886: Carroll publishes a facsimile of the earlier Alice's Adventures Under Ground manuscript.
* 1890: Carroll publishes The Nursery "Alice", a special edition "to be read by Children aged from Nought to Five".
* 1905: Mrs J. C. Gorham publishes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland retold in words of one syllable in a series of such books published by A. L. Burt Company, aimed at young readers.
* 1908: Alice has its first translation into Japanese.
* 1910: La Aventuroj de Alicio en Mirlando is published in Esperanto translation by Elfric Leofwine Kearney.
* 1916: Publication of the first edition of the Windermere Series, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Illustrated by Milo Winter.
* 1928: The manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground that Carroll wrote and illustrated and that he had given to Alice Liddell was sold at Sotheby's on April 3. It sold to Philip Rosenbach for ₤15,400, a world record for the sale of a manuscript at the time.
* 1960: American writer Martin Gardner publishes a special edition, The Annotated Alice, incorporating the text of both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. It has extensive annotations explaining the hidden allusions in the books, and includes full texts of the Victorian era poems parodied in them. Later editions expand on these annotations.
* 1961: The Folio Society publication with 42 illustrations by John Tenniel.
* 1964: Alicia in Terra Mirabili is published in Latin translation by Clive Harcourt Carruthers.
* 1998: Lewis Carroll's own copy of Alice, one of only six surviving copies of the 1865 first edition, is sold at an auction for US$1.54 million to an anonymous American buyer, becoming the most expensive children's book (or 19th-century work of literature) ever traded. (The former record was later eclipsed in 2007 when a limited-edition Harry Potter book by J.K. Rowling, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, was sold at auction for £1.95 million ($3.9 million).
* 2003: Eachtraí Eilíse i dTír na nIontas is published in Irish translation by Nicholas Williams.
* 2008: Folio Alice's Adventures Under Ground facsimile edition (limited to 3,750 copies, boxed with The Original Alice pamphlet).
* 2009: Alys in Pow an Anethow is published in Cornish translation by Nicholas Williams.
* 2009: Children’s book collector and former American football player Pat McInally reportedly sold Alice Liddell’s own copy at auction for $115,000.
Synopsis
The White Rabbit in a hurry
Chapter 1-Down the Rabbit Hole: Alice is bored sitting on the riverbank with her sister, when she sees a talking, clothed White Rabbit with a watch run past. She follows it down a rabbit hole when suddenly she falls a long way to a curious hall with many locked doors of all sizes. She finds a small key to a door too small for her to fit, but through which she sees an attractive garden. She then discovers a bottle labelled "DRINK ME", the contents of which cause her to shrink too small to reach the key. A cake with "EAT ME" on it causes her to grow to such a tremendous size her head hits the ceiling.
Chapter 2-The Pool of Tears: Alice is unhappy and cries and her tears flood the hallway. After shrinking down again due to a fan she had picked up, Alice swims through her own tears and meets a Mouse, who is swimming as well. She tries to make small talk with him but all she can think of talking about is her cat, which offends the mouse.
Chapter 3-The Caucus Race and a Long Tale: The sea of tears becomes crowded with other animals and birds that have been swept away. Alice and the other animals convene on the bank and the question among them is how to get dry again. The mouse gives them a very dry lecture on William the Conqueror. A Dodo decides that the best thing to dry them off would be a Caucus-Race, which consists of everyone running in a circle with no clear winner. Alice eventually frightens all the animals away, unwittingly, by talking about her cat.
Chapter 4-The Rabbit Sends a Little Bill: The White Rabbit appears again in search of the Duchess's gloves and fan. He orders Alice to go into the house and retrieve them, but once she gets inside she starts growing. The horrified Rabbit orders his gardener, Bill the Lizard, to climb on the roof and go down the chimney. Outside, Alice hears the voices of animals that have gathered to gawk at her giant arm. The crowd hurls pebbles at her, which turn into little cakes, which, when Alice eats them, reduce her again in size.
Chapter 5-Advice from a Caterpillar: Alice comes upon a mushroom and sitting on it is a blue Caterpillar smoking a hookah. The Caterpillar questions Alice and she admits to her current identity crisis, compounded by her inability to remember a poem. Before crawling away, the caterpillar tells Alice that one side of the mushroom will make her taller and the other side will make her shorter. She breaks off two pieces from the mushroom. One side makes her shrink smaller than ever, while another causes her neck to grow high into the trees, where a pigeon mistakes her for a serpent. With some effort, Alice brings herself back to her usual height. She stumbles upon a small estate and uses the mushroom to reach a more appropriate height.
Chapter 6-Pig and Pepper: A Fish-Footman has an invitation for the Duchess of the house, which he delivers to a Frog-Footman. Alice observes this transaction and, after a perplexing conversation with the frog, lets herself into the house. The Duchess's Cook is throwing dishes and making a soup that has too much pepper, which causes Alice, the Duchess and her baby (but not the cook or her grinning Cheshire Cat) to sneeze violently. Alice is given the baby by the Duchess and to her surprise, the baby turns into a pig.
Chapter 7-A Mad Tea Party: The Cheshire Cat appears in a tree, directing her to the March Hare's house. He disappears but his grin remains behind to float on its own in the air prompting Alice to remark that she has often seen a cat without a grin but never a grin without a cat. Alice becomes a guest at a "mad" tea party along with the Hatter (now more commonly known as the Mad Hatter), the March Hare, and a sleeping Dormouse who remains asleep for most of the chapter. The other characters give Alice many riddles and stories. The Mad Hatter reveals that they have tea all day because time has punished him by eternally standing still at 6 pm (tea time). Alice becomes insulted and tired of being bombarded with riddles and she leaves claiming that it was the stupidest tea party that she had ever been to.
Alice trying to play croquet with a flamingo
The grinning Cheshire Cat
Chapter 8-The Queen's Croquet Ground: Alice leaves the tea party and enters the garden where she comes upon three living playing cards painting the white roses on a rose tree red because the Queen of Hearts hates white roses. A procession of more cards, kings and queens and even the White Rabbit enters the garden. Alice then meets the King and Queen. The Queen, a figure difficult to please, introduces her trademark phrase "Off with his head!" which she utters at the slightest dissatisfaction with a subject.
Alice is invited (or some might say ordered) to play a game of croquet with the Queen and the rest of her subjects but the game quickly descends into chaos. Live flamingos are used as mallets and hedgehogs as balls and Alice once again meets the Cheshire Cat. The Queen of Hearts then orders the Cat to be beheaded, only to have her executioner complain that this is impossible since the head is all that can be seen of him. Because the cat belongs to the Duchess, the Queen is prompted to release the Duchess from prison to resolve the matter.
Chapter 9-The Mock Turtle's Story: The Duchess is brought to the croquet ground at Alice's request. She ruminates on finding morals in everything around her. The Queen of Hearts dismisses her on the threat of execution and she introduces Alice to the Gryphon, who takes her to the Mock Turtle. The Mock Turtle is very sad, even though he has no sorrow. He tries to tell his story about how he used to be a real turtle in school, which The Gryphon interrupts so they can play a game.
Chapter 10-Lobster Quadrille: The Mock Turtle and the Gryphon dance to the Lobster Quadrille, while Alice recites (rather incorrectly) "'Tis the Voice of the Lobster". The Mock Turtle sings them "Beautiful Soup" during which the Gryphon drags Alice away for an impending trial.
Chapter 11-Who Stole the Tarts?: Alice attends a trial whereby the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the Queen's tarts. The jury is composed of various animals, including Bill the Lizard, the White Rabbit is the court's trumpeter, and the judge is the King of Hearts. During the proceedings, Alice finds that she is steadily growing larger. The dormouse scolds Alice and tells her she has no right to grow at such a rapid pace and take up all the air. Alice scoffs and calls the dormouse's accusation ridiculous because everyone grows and she can't help it. Meanwhile witnesses at the trial include the Mad Hatter, who displeases and frustrates the King through his indirect answers to the questioning, and the Duchess's cook.
Chapter 12-Alice's Evidence: Alice is then called up as a witness. She accidentally knocks over the jury box with the animals inside them and the King orders the animals be placed back into their seats before the trial continues. The King and Queen order Alice to be gone, citing Rule 42 ("All persons more than a mile high to leave the court"), but Alice disputes their judgement and refuses to leave. She argues with the King and Queen of Hearts over the ridiculous proceedings, eventually refusing to hold her tongue. The Queen shouts her familiar "Off with her head!" but Alice is unafraid, calling them out as just a pack of cards. Alice's sister wakes her up for tea, brushing what turns out to be some leaves and not a shower of playing cards from Alice's face. Alice leaves her sister on the bank to imagine all the curious happenings for herself.
Characters
Peter Newell's illustration of Alice surrounded by the characters of Wonderland. (1890)
* Alice
* The White Rabbit
* The Mouse
* The Dodo
* The Lory
* The Eaglet
* The Duck
* Pat
* Bill the Lizard
* The Caterpillar
* The Duchess
* The Cheshire Cat
* The Hatter
* The March Hare
* The Dormouse
* The Queen of Hearts
* The Knave of Hearts
* The King of Hearts
* The Gryphon
* The Mock Turtle
Misconceptions about characters
Although the Jabberwock is often thought to be a character in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, it actually only appears in the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. It is, however, often included in film versions, which are usually simply called "Alice in Wonderland", causing the confusion. The Queen of Hearts is commonly mistaken for the Red Queen who appears in the story's sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, but shares none of her characteristics other than being a queen. The Queen of Hearts is part of the deck of card imagery present in the first book, while the Red Queen is representative of a red chess piece, as chess is the theme present in the sequel. Many adaptations have mixed the characters, causing much confusion.
Character allusions
The members of the boating party that first heard Carroll's tale all show up in Chapter 3 ("A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale") in one form or another. There is, of course, Alice Liddell herself, while Carroll, or Charles Dodgson, is caricatured as the Dodo. Carroll is known as the Dodo because Dodgson stuttered when he spoke, thus if he spoke his last name it would be Do-Do-Dodgson.[citation needed] The Duck refers to Canon Duckworth, the Lory to Lorina Liddell, and the Eaglet to Edith Liddell (Alice Liddell's sisters).
Bill the Lizard may be a play on the name of Benjamin Disraeli. One of Tenniel's illustrations in Through the Looking-Glass depicts the character referred to as the "Man in White Paper" (whom Alice meets as a fellow passenger riding on the train with her), as a caricature of Disraeli, wearing a paper hat. The illustrations of the Lion and the Unicorn also bear a striking resemblance to Tenniel's Punch illustrations of Gladstone and Disraeli.
The Hatter is most likely a reference to Theophilus Carter, a furniture dealer known in Oxford for his unorthodox inventions. Tenniel apparently drew the Hatter to resemble Carter, on a suggestion of Carroll's. The Dormouse tells a story about three little sisters named Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie. These are the Liddell sisters: Elsie is L.C. (Lorina Charlotte), Tillie is Edith (her family nickname is Matilda), and Lacie is an anagram of Alice.
The Mock Turtle speaks of a Drawling-master, "an old conger eel", that used to come once a week to teach "Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils". This is a reference to the art critic John Ruskin, who came once a week to the Liddell house to teach the children drawing, sketching, and painting in oils. (The children did, in fact, learn well; Alice Liddell, for one, produced a number of skilled watercolours.)
The Mock Turtle also sings "Beautiful Soup". This is a parody of a song called "Star of the Evening, Beautiful Star", which was performed as a trio by Lorina, Alice and Edith Liddell for Lewis Carroll in the Liddell home during the same summer in which he first told the story of Alice's Adventures Under Ground.
Contents
Poems and songs
* "All in the golden afternoon..." — the prefatory verse, an original poem by Carroll that recalls the rowing expedition on which he first told the story of Alice's adventures underground
* "How Doth the Little Crocodile" — a parody of Isaac Watts' nursery rhyme, "Against Idleness And Mischief"
* "The Mouse's Tale" — an example of concrete poetry
* "You Are Old, Father William" — a parody of Robert Southey's "The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them"
* The Duchess's lullaby, "Speak roughly to your little boy..." — a parody of David Bates' "Speak Gently"
* "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat" — a parody of "Twinkle twinkle little star"
* The Lobster Quadrille — a parody of Mary Botham Howitt's "The Spider and the Fly"
* "'Tis the Voice of the Lobster" — a parody of "The Sluggard"
* "Beautiful Soup" — a parody of James M. Sayles's "Star of the Evening, Beautiful Star"
* "The Queen of Hearts" — an actual nursery rhyme
* "They told me you had been to her..." — the White Rabbit's evidence
Tenniel's illustrations
John Tenniel's illustrations of Alice do not portray the real Alice Liddell, who had dark hair and a short fringe. There is a persistent legend that Carroll sent Tenniel a photograph of Mary Hilton Babcock, another child-friend, but no evidence for this has yet come to light, and whether Tenniel actually used Babcock as his model is open to dispute.
Famous lines and expressions
The term "Wonderland", from the title, has entered the language and refers to a marvelous imaginary place, or else a real-world place that one perceives to have dream-like qualities. It, like much of the Alice work, is widely referred to in popular culture.
Illustration of Alice with the White Rabbit by Arthur Rackham
"Down the Rabbit-Hole", the Chapter 1 title, has become a popular term for going on an adventure into the unknown. In drug culture, "going down the rabbit hole" is a metaphor for taking hallucinogenic drugs, as Carroll's novel appears similar in form to a drug trip.
In Chapter 6, the Cheshire Cat's disappearance prompts Alice to say one of her most memorable lines: "...a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life!"
In Chapter 7, the Hatter gives his famous riddle without an answer: "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" When asked by Alice what the answer was, he responds with, "I haven't the slightest idea." Although Carroll intended the riddle to have no solution, in a new preface to the 1896 edition of Alice, he proposes several answers: "Because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!" (Note the spelling of "never" as "nevar"—turning it into "raven" when inverted. This reverse spelling, however, was "corrected" in later editions to "never" and Carroll's pun was lost.) Puzzle expert Sam Loyd offered the following solutions:
* Because the notes for which they are noted are not noted for being musical notes
* Poe wrote on both
* They both have inky quills
* Bills and tales ("tails") are among their characteristics
* Because they both stand on their legs, conceal their steels ("steals"), and ought to be made to shut up.
* Occult: Marquis Andras, the raven from The Lesser Key of Solomon, riding a wolf with a sword.
Cyril Pearson proposed:
* Because they both slope with a flap.
Many other answers are listed in The Annotated Alice. In Frank Beddor's novel Seeing Redd, the main antagonist, Queen Redd (a megalomaniac parody of the Queen of Hearts) meets Lewis Carroll and declares that the answer to the riddle is "Because I say so". Carroll is too terrified to contradict her.
Other answers include “because there is a B in both and an N in neither,” (an answer which was meant to highlight the absurdity of the original question), "Neither one is made of cheese", and "it isn't."
Arguably the most famous quote is used when the Queen of Hearts screams "Off with her head!" at Alice (and everyone else she feels slightly annoyed with). Possibly Carroll here was echoing a scene in Shakespeare's Richard III (III, iv, 76) where Richard demands the execution of Lord Hastings, crying "Off with his head!"
When Alice is growing taller after eating the cake labeled "Eat me" she says, "curiouser and curiouser", a famous line that is still used today to describe an event with extraordinary wonder. The Cheshire Cat confirms to Alice "We're all mad here", a line that has been repeated for years as a result.
Symbolism in the text
Oxford Locations
Most of the book's adventures may have been based on and influenced by people, situations and buildings in Oxford and at Christ Church, e.g., the "Rabbit Hole," which symbolized the actual stairs in the back of the main hall in Christ Church. A carving of a griffon and rabbit, as seen in Ripon Cathedral, where Carroll's father was a canon, may have provided inspiration for the tale.
Mathematics
Since Carroll was a mathematician at Christ Church, it has been suggested that there are many references and mathematical concepts in both this story and also in Through the Looking-Glass; examples include:
* In chapter 1, "Down the Rabbit-Hole", in the midst of shrinking, Alice waxes philosophic concerning what final size she will end up as, perhaps "going out altogether, like a candle."; this pondering reflects the concept of a limit.
* In chapter 2, "The Pool of Tears", Alice tries to perform multiplication but produces some odd results: "Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is—oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate!" This explores the representation of numbers using different bases and positional numeral systems: 4 x 5 = 12 in base 18 notation, 4 x 6 = 13 in base 21 notation, and 4 x 7 could be 14 in base 24 notation. Continuing this sequence, going up three bases each time, the result will continue to be less than 20 in the corresponding base notation. (After 19 the product would be 1A, then 1B, 1C, 1D, and so on.)
* In chapter 5, "Advice from a Caterpillar", the Pigeon asserts that little girls are some kind of serpent, for both little girls and serpents eat eggs. This general concept of abstraction occurs widely in many fields of science; an example in mathematics of employing this reasoning would be in the substitution of variables.
* In chapter 7, "A Mad Tea-Party", the March Hare, the Mad Hatter, and the Dormouse give several examples in which the semantic value of a sentence A is not the same value of the converse of A (for example, "Why, you might just as well say that 'I see what I eat' is the same thing as 'I eat what I see'!"); in logic and mathematics, this is discussing an inverse relationship.
* Also in chapter 7, Alice ponders what it means when the changing of seats around the circular table places them back at the beginning. This is an observation of addition on a ring of the integers modulo N.
* The Cheshire cat fades until it disappears entirely, leaving only its wide grin, suspended in the air, leading Alice to marvel and note that she has seen a cat without a grin, but never a grin without a cat. Deep abstraction of concepts (non-Euclidean geometry, abstract algebra, the beginnings of mathematical logic...) was taking over mathematics at the time Dodgson was writing. Dodgson's delineation of the relationship between cat and grin can be taken to represent the very concept of mathematics and number itself. For example, instead of considering two or three apples, one may easily consider the concept of 'apple', upon which the concepts of 'two' and 'three' may seem to depend. However, a far more sophisticated jump is to consider the concepts of 'two' and 'three' by themselves, just like a grin, originally seemingly dependent on the cat, separated conceptually from its physical object.
Mathematician Keith Devlin asserted in the journal of The Mathematical Association of America that Dodgson wrote Alice in Wonderland in its final form as a scathing satire on new modern mathematics that were emerging in the mid-1800s.
The French language
It has been suggested by several people, including Martin Gardner and Selwyn Goodacre, that Dodgson had an interest in the French language, choosing to make references and puns about it in the story. It is most likely that these are references to French lessons—a common feature of a Victorian middle-class girl's upbringing. For example, in the second chapter, Alice posits that the mouse may be French and chooses to speak the first sentence of her French lesson-book to it: "Où est ma chatte?" ("Where is my cat?"). In Henri Bué's French translation, Alice posits that the mouse may be Italian and speaks Italian to it.
Pat's "Digging for apples" could be a cross-language pun, as pomme de terre means potato and pomme means apple, which little English girls studying French would easily guess.
Classical languages
In the second chapter, Alice initially addresses the mouse as "O Mouse", based on her vague memory of the noun declensions in her brother's textbook: "A mouse (nominative)— of a mouse (genitive)— to a mouse (dative)— a mouse (accusative)— O mouse! (vocative)." This corresponds to the traditional order that was established by Byzantine grammarians (and is still in standard use, except in the United Kingdom and some countries in Western Europe) for the five cases of Classical Greek; because of the absence of the ablative case, which Greek does not have but is found in Latin, the reference is apparently not to the latter as some have supposed.
At the Mad Tea Party, Alice is astonished not to have jam served because the rule is: "Jam yesterday, jam tomorrow but never jam today." This is a reference to the rule in Latin that the word iam or jam meaning now in the sense of already or at that time cannot be used to describe now in the present, which is nunc in Latin. Jam is therefore never available today.
隨着翻譯介紹，路易莎·梅·奧爾科特這位在19世紀下半葉美國傢喻戶曉的女作傢名字開始為中國讀者所熟悉。在《小婦人》那部帶有自傳色彩作品中，我們看到奧爾科特那獨有的細膩的筆觸所煥發出來的迷人光芒，緊接着，她又寫出第二部《小男人》和第三部《喬的男孩們》，從而奠定了她在美國文學史中不可動搖的地位。她所描寫的童年時光，雖然帶着生活中本來就揮之不去的艱辛和憂傷，但是，它依然是美麗的，一如既往地喚醒着我們每一個人靈魂深處的記憶。
Plot Details
Little Men follows the life of Jo Bhaer and the students who live and learn at the Plumfield Estate School that she runs with her husband, Professor Bhaer. The mischievous children, whom she loves and cares for as her own, learn valuable lessons as they become proper gentlemen and ladies. We also get cameo appearances of almost all the characters found in the previous books, almost all of them happy and well. Meg's older two children, Demi and Daisy, also attend the school and so do Mr. Bhaer's German nephews Franz and Emil.
The story begins with the arrival of Nathaniel "Nat" Blake, a shy young orphan with a talent for playing the violin and a penchant for telling fibs. Through his eyes we are introduced to the majority of the characters, from the Bhaers' children to other classmates. We follow Nat's life from April through Thanksgiving, meeting new students and playing games and having adventures throughout. Each student has his or her own struggles: Nat lies; Demi, although adored by his mother and sister, is so naïve that he finds it hard to live in the real world, but swears that he will be like 'parpar' after John Brooke (Meg's husband) dies; Emil has a bad temper; Dan is rebellious and rude; Tommy is careless (and once sets the house afire); Annie alias Nan is too tomboyish; Daisy is too prim and even weak-willed etc. They all learn to cope with their faults as they grow into young men and women.
Plot Details
Little Men follows the life of Jo Bhaer and the students who live and learn at the Plumfield Estate School that she runs with her husband, Professor Bhaer. The mischievous children, whom she loves and cares for as her own, learn valuable lessons as they become proper gentlemen and ladies. We also get cameo appearances of almost all the characters found in the previous books, almost all of them happy and well. Meg's older two children, Demi and Daisy, also attend the school and so do Mr. Bhaer's German nephews Franz and Emil.
The story begins with the arrival of Nathaniel "Nat" Blake, a shy young orphan with a talent for playing the violin and a penchant for telling fibs. Through his eyes we are introduced to the majority of the characters, from the Bhaers' children to other classmates. We follow Nat's life from April through Thanksgiving, meeting new students and playing games and having adventures throughout. Each student has his or her own struggles: Nat lies; Demi, although adored by his mother and sister, is so naïve that he finds it hard to live in the real world, but swears that he will be like 'parpar' after John Brooke (Meg's husband) dies; Emil has a bad temper; Dan is rebellious and rude; Tommy is careless (and once sets the house afire); Annie alias Nan is too tomboyish; Daisy is too prim and even weak-willed etc. They all learn to cope with their faults as they grow into young men and women.
《小婦人》出版後，奧爾科特又寫作了《舊式女孩》（Old Fashioned Girl，1870）、《小男人》（Little Men，1871）、《工作》（Work，1873）及其他一些兒童作品，但其影響遠不如前者。
It was first serialised in the Merry's Museum magazine between July and August in 1869 and consisted of only six chapters. For the finished product, however, Alcott continued the story from the chapter "Six Years Afterwards" and so it ended up with nineteen chapters in all. The book turns around Polly Milton, the old-fashioned girl who titles the story. Polly visits her wealthy friend Fanny Shaw in the city and is overwhelmed by the fashionable and urban life they live––but also left out because of her "countrified" manners and outdated clothes.
The novel was the basis of a 1949 musical film starring Gloria Jean as Polly.
Plot summary
Polly Milton, a 14-year-old country girl, visits her friend Fanny Shaw and her wealthy family in the city for the first time. Poor Polly is overwhelmed by the splendor at the Shaws' and their urbanized, fashionable lifestyles, expensive clothes and other habits she has never been exposed to, and, for the most part, dislikes. Fanny's friends reject her because of her different behavior and simple clothing, and Fan herself can't help considering her unusual sometimes. However, Polly's warmth, support and kindness eventually win the hearts of all the family members, and her old-fashioned ways teach them a lesson.
Success (Roberts Bros., 1870)
Six years later, Polly comes back to the city to become a music teacher and struggles with profession issues and internal emotions. Later in the book, Polly finds out that the prosperous Shaws are on the brink of bankruptcy, and she guides them to the realization that a wholesome family life is the only thing they will ever need, not money or decoration.
With the comfort of the ever helpful Polly, the family gets to change for the better and to find a happier life for all of them. After being rejected by his fiancée, Trix, Tom procures a job out West, with Polly's brother Ned, and heads off to help his family and compensate for all the money he has wasted in frivolous expenditures. At that point of the book, we see that Polly and Tom seem to have developed strong feelings for one another.
At the end of the book, Tom returns from the West and finally gets engaged to his true love, Polly.
It was first serialised in the Merry's Museum magazine between July and August in 1869 and consisted of only six chapters. For the finished product, however, Alcott continued the story from the chapter "Six Years Afterwards" and so it ended up with nineteen chapters in all. The book turns around Polly Milton, the old-fashioned girl who titles the story. Polly visits her wealthy friend Fanny Shaw in the city and is overwhelmed by the fashionable and urban life they live––but also left out because of her "countrified" manners and outdated clothes.
The novel was the basis of a 1949 musical film starring Gloria Jean as Polly.
Plot summary
Polly Milton, a 14-year-old country girl, visits her friend Fanny Shaw and her wealthy family in the city for the first time. Poor Polly is overwhelmed by the splendor at the Shaws' and their urbanized, fashionable lifestyles, expensive clothes and other habits she has never been exposed to, and, for the most part, dislikes. Fanny's friends reject her because of her different behavior and simple clothing, and Fan herself can't help considering her unusual sometimes. However, Polly's warmth, support and kindness eventually win the hearts of all the family members, and her old-fashioned ways teach them a lesson.
Success (Roberts Bros., 1870)
Six years later, Polly comes back to the city to become a music teacher and struggles with profession issues and internal emotions. Later in the book, Polly finds out that the prosperous Shaws are on the brink of bankruptcy, and she guides them to the realization that a wholesome family life is the only thing they will ever need, not money or decoration.
With the comfort of the ever helpful Polly, the family gets to change for the better and to find a happier life for all of them. After being rejected by his fiancée, Trix, Tom procures a job out West, with Polly's brother Ned, and heads off to help his family and compensate for all the money he has wasted in frivolous expenditures. At that point of the book, we see that Polly and Tom seem to have developed strong feelings for one another.
At the end of the book, Tom returns from the West and finally gets engaged to his true love, Polly.
路易莎•奧爾科特（Louisa May Alcott，1832－1888），美國作傢。1832年11月29日出生在賓夕法尼亞州的傑曼鎮（Germantown）。她的父親布郎遜•奧爾科特是馬薩諸塞州康科德一位自學成纔的哲學家、學校改革傢和烏托邦主義者。他一生沉迷於對理想的追求，以至無力擔負家庭生活。維持生計的擔子先是落到他的妻子身上，而後又落到他那富有進取精神的二女兒路易莎 •奧爾科特身上，路易莎到學校教過書，當過女裁縫、護士，做過洗熨活，15歲時還出去做過傭人。
路易莎10歲時便已熱心於業餘戲劇演出，15歲時寫出第一部情節劇，21歲開始發表詩歌及小品。
1868年，一位出版商建議她寫一部關於“女孩子的書”，她便根據孩提的記憶寫成《小婦人》。書中把自己描寫成喬•馬奇，她的姐妹安娜、亞碧、伊麗莎白便分別成為梅格、艾美、貝思。書中的許多故事取材於現實生活，不過現實生活中的奧爾科特一傢經濟狀況遠不如她筆下的馬奇一傢。出於作者意料的是《小婦人》打動了無數美國讀者，尤其是女性讀者的心弦。之後，路易莎又續寫了《小男人》和《喬的男孩子們》，1873年又以小說形式出版了自傳著作《經驗的故事》。
路易莎成名後，繼續撰寫小說和故事，並投身於婦女選舉運動和禁酒運動。美國內戰期間她在華盛頓做過軍隊救護人員，後來，她還擔任過一傢兒童刊物（Robert Merry's Museum ）的編輯。她於1888年3月6日在波士頓去世。
Among green New England hills stood an ancient house, many-gabled, mossy-roofed, and quaintly built, but picturesque and pleasant to the eye; for a brook ran babbling through the orchard that encompassed it about, a garden-plat stretched upward to the whispering birches on the slope, and patriarchal elms stood sentinel upon the lawn, as they had stood almost a century ago, when the Revoiution rolled that way and found them young.
One summer morning, when the air was full of country sounds, of mowers in the meadow, black- birds by the brook, and the low of kine upon the hill-side, the old house wore its cheeriest aspect, and a certain humble history began.
路易莎10歲時便已熱心於業餘戲劇演出，15歲時寫出第一部情節劇，21歲開始發表詩歌及小品。
1868年，一位出版商建議她寫一部關於“女孩子的書”，她便根據孩提的記憶寫成《小婦人》。書中把自己描寫成喬•馬奇，她的姐妹安娜、亞碧、伊麗莎白便分別成為梅格、艾美、貝思。書中的許多故事取材於現實生活，不過現實生活中的奧爾科特一傢經濟狀況遠不如她筆下的馬奇一傢。出於作者意料的是《小婦人》打動了無數美國讀者，尤其是女性讀者的心弦。之後，路易莎又續寫了《小男人》和《喬的男孩子們》，1873年又以小說形式出版了自傳著作《經驗的故事》。
路易莎成名後，繼續撰寫小說和故事，並投身於婦女選舉運動和禁酒運動。美國內戰期間她在華盛頓做過軍隊救護人員，後來，她還擔任過一傢兒童刊物（Robert Merry's Museum ）的編輯。她於1888年3月6日在波士頓去世。
Among green New England hills stood an ancient house, many-gabled, mossy-roofed, and quaintly built, but picturesque and pleasant to the eye; for a brook ran babbling through the orchard that encompassed it about, a garden-plat stretched upward to the whispering birches on the slope, and patriarchal elms stood sentinel upon the lawn, as they had stood almost a century ago, when the Revoiution rolled that way and found them young.
One summer morning, when the air was full of country sounds, of mowers in the meadow, black- birds by the brook, and the low of kine upon the hill-side, the old house wore its cheeriest aspect, and a certain humble history began.
《快樂王子》實為《快樂王子集》，另兩篇為《自私的巨人》和《年輕的國王》。作者王爾德為世界著名一流童話作傢，深諳童話奧妙。這本童話集舉世聞名，膾炙人口，被文學界推崇為童話經典。他的作品主人公有人類，也有精靈，還有動物，他們具有極其強烈而悲壯的犧牲精神，即便於事無補，他們也在所不惜，讀來十分感人。 此外，在衆多英漢對照讀物中，本書還具備兩獨到之處，其一是英文版面各頁中的重點單詞（詞組）均用淺色底紋標出，以醒耳目而便讀者，有助於閱讀和記憶，其二是英文版面每頁均有詳細的英文詮註，如“the stars and stripes = the American flag〃，〃lowing = sound made by a cow〃等等等等，不僅有助於讀者理解單詞，進而還可加強對英語和英語文化及相關習俗的瞭解，實為一舉多得。
快樂王子-其它簡介
作品簡介:
王爾德的每一個故事都是一首詩。
快樂王子是美的化身。他的真誠、善良讓我們油然而生敬意。而他悲慘的結局更是震撼着我們的心靈，在我們的心中，這種為了他人的幸福而犧牲自己的精神是非常崇高的。
——上海七寶中學高級語文教師 陳韋蘭
我的心再也無法平靜！小燕子跌倒在地的聲音撞擊着我的心靈，而快樂王子那顆破裂成兩半的鉛心更讓我心痛不已。心底的愛心慢慢升騰起來，內心的感動也一點點彌漫開去......
——兒童文學研究生 錢燕
有一次，王爾德給兒子講故事，說着說着流下了眼淚。兒子問他為什麽要哭，他說：“真正美麗的事物總會使人流下眼淚。”王爾德講的就是這本書中的故事......
——一位普通讀者
【圖書簡介】
王爾德創作戲劇、散文和詩，被譽為“唯美主義大師”。1884年他結婚生子，飽含着愛為孩子寫童話。在他看來，孩子是美與善的化身，他的童話也應該是溫良敦厚，展現出美的精神。他一生衹寫了九個童話，每一篇都實現了美與善的統一，無愧是世界兒童故事的經典之作。本書《快樂王子》收錄了王爾德創作的全部童話，這九個故事是：《快樂王子》、《夜鶯於薔薇》、《自私的巨人》、《忠實的朋友》、《了不起的火箭》、《少年國王》、《西班牙公主的生日》、《打魚人和他的靈魂》、《星孩》。
閱讀王爾德的童話，我們應該把握三個方面：
一、 語言準確、機智不失趣味。有人說王爾德是最善言談的作傢，談吐機鋒密佈、冷雋幽默，他的童話也充分展示了他這方面的才華。
二、 美的極至，美的沉醉。王爾德在給兒子講述《自私的巨人》時，自己禁不住流下了眼淚。他對兒子說：真正美麗的事物總會使自己流下眼淚。
三、 寓意深刻感人。王爾德的每一篇童話都營造了一個極美而又憂傷的氛圍，他的人物都有着強烈的獻身精神，讓讀者切實地感到強大的道德力量。
我國的文學大師巴金先生十分喜愛王爾德的童話作品，因喜愛就將這些作品一一精心翻譯過來。現在你正閱讀的書，可以說是兩位大師的合作産物吧。
閱讀這樣一本書，是你的福氣……
The stories included in this collection are:
* The Happy Prince
* The Nightingale and the Rose
* The Selfish Giant
* The Devoted Friend
* The Remarkable Rocket
The stories convey an appreciation for the exotic, the sensual and for masculine beauty.
快樂王子-其它簡介
作品簡介:
王爾德的每一個故事都是一首詩。
快樂王子是美的化身。他的真誠、善良讓我們油然而生敬意。而他悲慘的結局更是震撼着我們的心靈，在我們的心中，這種為了他人的幸福而犧牲自己的精神是非常崇高的。
——上海七寶中學高級語文教師 陳韋蘭
我的心再也無法平靜！小燕子跌倒在地的聲音撞擊着我的心靈，而快樂王子那顆破裂成兩半的鉛心更讓我心痛不已。心底的愛心慢慢升騰起來，內心的感動也一點點彌漫開去......
——兒童文學研究生 錢燕
有一次，王爾德給兒子講故事，說着說着流下了眼淚。兒子問他為什麽要哭，他說：“真正美麗的事物總會使人流下眼淚。”王爾德講的就是這本書中的故事......
——一位普通讀者
【圖書簡介】
王爾德創作戲劇、散文和詩，被譽為“唯美主義大師”。1884年他結婚生子，飽含着愛為孩子寫童話。在他看來，孩子是美與善的化身，他的童話也應該是溫良敦厚，展現出美的精神。他一生衹寫了九個童話，每一篇都實現了美與善的統一，無愧是世界兒童故事的經典之作。本書《快樂王子》收錄了王爾德創作的全部童話，這九個故事是：《快樂王子》、《夜鶯於薔薇》、《自私的巨人》、《忠實的朋友》、《了不起的火箭》、《少年國王》、《西班牙公主的生日》、《打魚人和他的靈魂》、《星孩》。
閱讀王爾德的童話，我們應該把握三個方面：
一、 語言準確、機智不失趣味。有人說王爾德是最善言談的作傢，談吐機鋒密佈、冷雋幽默，他的童話也充分展示了他這方面的才華。
二、 美的極至，美的沉醉。王爾德在給兒子講述《自私的巨人》時，自己禁不住流下了眼淚。他對兒子說：真正美麗的事物總會使自己流下眼淚。
三、 寓意深刻感人。王爾德的每一篇童話都營造了一個極美而又憂傷的氛圍，他的人物都有着強烈的獻身精神，讓讀者切實地感到強大的道德力量。
我國的文學大師巴金先生十分喜愛王爾德的童話作品，因喜愛就將這些作品一一精心翻譯過來。現在你正閱讀的書，可以說是兩位大師的合作産物吧。
閱讀這樣一本書，是你的福氣……
The stories included in this collection are:
* The Happy Prince
* The Nightingale and the Rose
* The Selfish Giant
* The Devoted Friend
* The Remarkable Rocket
The stories convey an appreciation for the exotic, the sensual and for masculine beauty.
本版是林樺1995年譯的，但當我翻看其中字句時，卻發現至少《打火匣》及《野天鵝》與與葉氏譯本全無二緻，到底為何如此，卻非我能瞭解。不過如果全部如此，至少可以保證此版本的質量不差。另外其中有重複的地方，如51與92。我會在有暇時仔細查對，然後補上缺少的部分。因為，安徒生是我至愛的一個作傢。（宇慧編後記）
001
打火匣
002
皇帝的新裝
003
飛箱
004
醜小鴨
005
沒有畫的畫册
006
跳高者
007
紅鞋
008
襯衫領子
009
一個豆英裏的五粒豆
010
一個貴族和他的女兒們
011
守塔人奧列
012
蝴蝶
013
貝脫、比脫和比爾
014
爛布片
015
織補針
016
拇指姑娘
017
跳蚤和教授
018
區別
019
一本不說話的書
020
夏日癡
021
筆和墨水壺
022
風車
023
瓦爾都窗前的一瞥
024
甲蟲
025
幸福的家庭
026
完全是真的
027
薊的遭遇
028
新世紀的女神
029
各得其所
030
一星期的日子
031
錢豬
032
在遼遠的海極
033
荷馬墓上的一朵玫瑰
034
野天鵝
035
母親的故事
036
猶太女子
037
牙痛姑媽
038
金黃的寶貝
039
民歌的鳥兒
040
接骨木樹媽媽
041
沙丘的故 事
042
小剋勞斯和大剋勞斯
043
遷居的日子
044
鬼火進城了
045
幸運的套鞋
046
鸛鳥
047
樅樹
048
香腸栓熬的湯
049
牧羊女和掃煙囪的人
050
天上落下來的一片葉子
051
惡毒的王子
052
演木偶戲的人
053
舞吧，舞吧，我的玩偶
054
安妮·莉斯貝
055
素琪①
056
藏着並不等於遺忘
057
誰是最幸運的
058
鐘聲
059
頑皮的孩子
060
識字課本
061
老約翰妮講的故事
062
老墓碑
063
姑媽
064
墓裏的孩子
065
老路燈
066
老頭子做事總不會錯
067
老房子
068
天鵝的窠
069
創造
070
冰姑娘
071
小鬼和小商人
072
陽光的故事
073
依卜和小剋麗斯玎
074
夢神
075
老上帝還沒有滅亡
076
園丁和他的貴族主人
077
書法傢
078
茶壺
079
小小的緑東西
080
一點成績
081
天國花園
082
最難使人相信的事情
083
一枚銀毫
084
肉腸簽子湯
085
光棍漢的睡帽
086
做出點樣子來
087
老橡樹的最後一夢
088
字母讀本
089
沼澤王的女兒
090
跑得飛快的東西
091
鐘淵
092
狠毒的王子
093
多伊和他的女兒們
094
踩面包的姑娘
095
守塔人奧勒
096
安妮·莉絲貝特
097
孩子話
098
一串珍珠
099
墨水筆和墨水瓶
100
墓中的孩子
101
傢養公雞和風信公雞
102
沙岡那邊的一段故事
103
演木偶戲的人
104
兩兄弟
105
教堂古鐘
106
搭郵車來的十二位
107
屎殼郎
108
老爹做的事總是對的
109
雪人
110
在鴨場裏
111
新世紀的繆斯
112
冰姑娘
113
蝴蝶
114
普賽剋
115
蝸牛和玫瑰樹
116
害人鬼進城了
117
風磨
118
銀毫子
119
伯爾厄隆的主教和他的親眷
120
在幼兒室裏
121
金寶貝
122
狂風吹跑了招牌
123
茶壺
124
民歌的鳥
125
緑色的小東西
126
小精靈和太太
127
貝得、彼得和皮爾
128
隱存着並不就是被忘卻
129
看門人的兒子
130
搬遷日
131
謊報夏
132
姨媽
133
癩蛤蟆
134
教父的畫册
135
碎布塊
136
汶島和格棱島
137
誰最幸福
138
樹精
139
看雞人格瑞得的一傢
140
薊的經歷
141
你能琢磨出什麽
142
好運氣在一根簽子裏
143
彗星
144
一個星期的每一天
145
陽光的故 事
146
曾祖父
147
燭
148
最難令人相信的事
149
一傢人都怎樣說
150
跳吧，舞吧，我的小寶寶
151
大海蟒
152
園丁和主人
153
跳蚤和教授
154
老約翰妮講了些什麽
155
大門鑰匙
156
跛腳的孩子
157
牙痛姨媽
158
最後的一天
159
亞麻
160
“真可愛”
161
海的女兒
162
鄰居們
163
夜鶯
164
小意達的花兒
165
她是一個廢物
譯後記
001
打火匣
002
皇帝的新裝
003
飛箱
004
醜小鴨
005
沒有畫的畫册
006
跳高者
007
紅鞋
008
襯衫領子
009
一個豆英裏的五粒豆
010
一個貴族和他的女兒們
011
守塔人奧列
012
蝴蝶
013
貝脫、比脫和比爾
014
爛布片
015
織補針
016
拇指姑娘
017
跳蚤和教授
018
區別
019
一本不說話的書
020
夏日癡
021
筆和墨水壺
022
風車
023
瓦爾都窗前的一瞥
024
甲蟲
025
幸福的家庭
026
完全是真的
027
薊的遭遇
028
新世紀的女神
029
各得其所
030
一星期的日子
031
錢豬
032
在遼遠的海極
033
荷馬墓上的一朵玫瑰
034
野天鵝
035
母親的故事
036
猶太女子
037
牙痛姑媽
038
金黃的寶貝
039
民歌的鳥兒
040
接骨木樹媽媽
041
沙丘的故 事
042
小剋勞斯和大剋勞斯
043
遷居的日子
044
鬼火進城了
045
幸運的套鞋
046
鸛鳥
047
樅樹
048
香腸栓熬的湯
049
牧羊女和掃煙囪的人
050
天上落下來的一片葉子
051
惡毒的王子
052
演木偶戲的人
053
舞吧，舞吧，我的玩偶
054
安妮·莉斯貝
055
素琪①
056
藏着並不等於遺忘
057
誰是最幸運的
058
鐘聲
059
頑皮的孩子
060
識字課本
061
老約翰妮講的故事
062
老墓碑
063
姑媽
064
墓裏的孩子
065
老路燈
066
老頭子做事總不會錯
067
老房子
068
天鵝的窠
069
創造
070
冰姑娘
071
小鬼和小商人
072
陽光的故事
073
依卜和小剋麗斯玎
074
夢神
075
老上帝還沒有滅亡
076
園丁和他的貴族主人
077
書法傢
078
茶壺
079
小小的緑東西
080
一點成績
081
天國花園
082
最難使人相信的事情
083
一枚銀毫
084
肉腸簽子湯
085
光棍漢的睡帽
086
做出點樣子來
087
老橡樹的最後一夢
088
字母讀本
089
沼澤王的女兒
090
跑得飛快的東西
091
鐘淵
092
狠毒的王子
093
多伊和他的女兒們
094
踩面包的姑娘
095
守塔人奧勒
096
安妮·莉絲貝特
097
孩子話
098
一串珍珠
099
墨水筆和墨水瓶
100
墓中的孩子
101
傢養公雞和風信公雞
102
沙岡那邊的一段故事
103
演木偶戲的人
104
兩兄弟
105
教堂古鐘
106
搭郵車來的十二位
107
屎殼郎
108
老爹做的事總是對的
109
雪人
110
在鴨場裏
111
新世紀的繆斯
112
冰姑娘
113
蝴蝶
114
普賽剋
115
蝸牛和玫瑰樹
116
害人鬼進城了
117
風磨
118
銀毫子
119
伯爾厄隆的主教和他的親眷
120
在幼兒室裏
121
金寶貝
122
狂風吹跑了招牌
123
茶壺
124
民歌的鳥
125
緑色的小東西
126
小精靈和太太
127
貝得、彼得和皮爾
128
隱存着並不就是被忘卻
129
看門人的兒子
130
搬遷日
131
謊報夏
132
姨媽
133
癩蛤蟆
134
教父的畫册
135
碎布塊
136
汶島和格棱島
137
誰最幸福
138
樹精
139
看雞人格瑞得的一傢
140
薊的經歷
141
你能琢磨出什麽
142
好運氣在一根簽子裏
143
彗星
144
一個星期的每一天
145
陽光的故 事
146
曾祖父
147
燭
148
最難令人相信的事
149
一傢人都怎樣說
150
跳吧，舞吧，我的小寶寶
151
大海蟒
152
園丁和主人
153
跳蚤和教授
154
老約翰妮講了些什麽
155
大門鑰匙
156
跛腳的孩子
157
牙痛姨媽
158
最後的一天
159
亞麻
160
“真可愛”
161
海的女兒
162
鄰居們
163
夜鶯
164
小意達的花兒
165
她是一個廢物
譯後記
天氣冷得可怕。正在下雪，黑暗的夜幕開始垂下來了。這是這年最後的一夜——新年的前夕。在這樣的寒冷和黑暗中，有一個光頭赤腳的小女孩正在街上走着。是的，她離開傢的時候還穿着一雙拖鞋，但那又有什麽用呢？那是一雙非常大的拖鞋——那麽大，最近她媽媽一直在穿着。當她匆忙地越過街道的時候，兩輛馬車飛奔着闖過來，弄得小姑娘把鞋跑落了。有一隻她怎樣也尋不到，另一隻又被一個男孩子撿起來，拿着逃走了。男孩子還說，等他將來有孩子的時候，可以把它當做一個搖籃來使用。
現在小姑娘衹好赤着一雙小腳走。小腳已經凍得發紅發青了。她有許多火柴包在一個舊圍裙裏；她手中還拿着一紮。這一整天誰也沒有嚮她買過一根；誰也沒有給她一個銅板。
可憐的小姑娘！她又餓又凍得嚮前走，簡直是一幅愁苦的畫面。雪花落到她金黃的長頭髮上——它捲麯地散落在她的肩上，看上去非常美麗。不過她並沒有想到自己漂亮。所有的窗子都射出光來，街上飄着一股烤鵝肉①的香味。的確，這是除夕。她在想這件事情。
那兒有兩座房子，其中一座房子比另一座更嚮街心伸出一點，她便在這個墻角裏坐下來，縮作一團。她把一雙小腳也縮進來，不過她感到更冷。她不敢回傢裏去，因為她沒有賣掉一根火柴，沒有賺到一個銅板。她的父親一定會打她，而且傢裏也是很冷的，因為他們頭上衹有一個可以灌進風來的屋頂，雖然最大的裂口已經用草和破布堵住了。
她的一雙小手幾乎凍僵了。唉！哪怕一根小火柴對她也是有好處的。衹要她敢抽出一根來，在墻上擦着了，就可以暖暖手！最後她抽出一根來了。哧！它燃起來了，冒出火光來了！當她把手覆在上面的時候，它便變成了一朵溫暖、光明的火焰，像是一根小小的蠟燭。這是一道美麗的小光！小姑娘覺得真像坐在一個鐵火爐旁邊一樣：它有光亮的黃銅圓捏手和黃銅爐身，火燒得那麽歡，那麽暖，那麽美！唉，這是怎麽一回事兒？當小姑娘剛剛伸出一雙腳，打算暖一暖腳的時候，火焰就忽然熄滅了！火爐也不見了。她坐在那兒，手中衹有燒過了的火柴。
她又擦了一根。它燃起來了，發出光來了。墻上有亮光照着的那塊地方，現在變得透明，像一片薄紗；她可以看到房間裏的東西：桌上鋪着雪白的臺布，上面有精緻的碗盤，填滿了梅子和蘋果的、冒着香氣的烤鵝。更美妙的事情是：這衹鵝從盤子裏跳出來了，背上插着刀叉，蹣跚地在地上走着，一直嚮這個窮苦的小姑娘面前走來。這時火柴就熄滅了；她面前衹有一堵又厚又冷的墻。
她點了另一根火柴。現在她是坐在美麗的聖誕樹下面。上次聖誕節時，她透過玻璃門，看到一個富有商人傢裏的一株聖誕樹；可是現在這一株比那株還要大，還要美。它的緑枝上燃着幾千支蠟燭；彩色的圖畫，跟櫥窗裏挂着的那些一樣美麗，在嚮她眨眼。這個小姑娘把兩衹手伸過去。於是火柴就熄滅了。聖誕節的燭光越升越高。她看到它們現在變成了明亮的星星。這些星星有一顆落下來了，在天上劃出一條長長的光綫。
“現在又有一個什麽人死去了②，”小姑娘說，因為她的老祖母曾經說過：天上落下一顆星，地上就有一個靈魂升到了上帝那兒去。老祖母是唯一對她好的人，但是現在已經死了。
她在墻上又擦了一根火柴。它把四周都照亮了；在這光亮中老祖母出現了。她顯得那麽光明，那麽溫柔，那麽和藹。
“祖母！”小姑娘叫起來。“啊！請把我帶走吧！我知道，這火柴一滅掉，你就會不見了，你就會像那個溫暖的火爐、那衹美麗的烤鵝、那棵幸福的聖誕樹一樣地不見了！”
於是她急忙把整束火柴中剩下的火柴都擦亮了，因為她非常想把祖母留住。這些火柴發出強烈的光芒，照得比大白天還要明朗。祖母從來沒有像現在這樣顯得美麗和高大。她把小姑娘抱起來，摟到懷裏。她們兩人在光明和快樂中飛走了，越飛越高，飛到既沒有寒冷，也沒有饑餓，也沒有憂愁的那塊地方——她們是跟上帝在一起。
不過在一個寒冷的早晨，這個小姑娘卻坐在一個墻角裏；她的雙頰通紅，嘴唇發出微笑，她已經死了——在舊年的除夕凍死了。新年的太陽升起來了，照着她小小的屍體！她坐在那兒，手中還捏着火柴——其中有一紮差不多都燒光了。
“她想把自己暖和一下，”人們說。誰也不知道：她曾經看到過多麽美麗的東西，她曾經是多麽光榮地跟祖母一起，走到新年的幸福中去。
①烤鵝肉是丹麥聖誕節和除夕晚餐中的一個主菜。
②北歐人的迷信：世界上有一個人，天上便有一顆星。一顆星的隕落象徵一個人的死亡。
One slipper was nowhere to be found; the other had been laid hold of by an urchin, and off he ran with it; he thought it would do capitally for a cradle when he some day or other should have children himself. So the little maiden walked on with her tiny naked feet, that were quite red and blue from cold. She carried a quantity of matches in an old apron, and she held a bundle of them in her hand. Nobody had bought anything of her the whole livelong day; no one had given her a single farthing.
She crept along trembling with cold and hunger--a very picture of sorrow, the poor little thing!
The flakes of snow covered her long fair hair, which fell in beautiful curls around her neck; but of that, of course, she never once now thought. From all the windows the candles were gleaming, and it smelt so deliciously of roast goose, for you know it was New Year's Eve; yes, of that she thought.
In a corner formed by two houses, of which one advanced more than the other, she seated herself down and cowered together. Her little feet she had drawn close up to her, but she grew colder and colder, and to go home she did not venture, for she had not sold any matches and could not bring a farthing of money: from her father she would certainly get blows, and at home it was cold too, for above her she had only the roof, through which the wind whistled, even though the largest cracks were stopped up with straw and rags.
Her little hands were almost numbed with cold. Oh! a match might afford her a world of comfort, if she only dared take a single one out of the bundle, draw it against the wall, and warm her fingers by it. She drew one out. "Rischt!" how it blazed, how it burnt! It was a warm, bright flame, like a candle, as she held her hands over it: it was a wonderful light. It seemed really to the little maiden as though she were sitting before a large iron stove, with burnished brass feet and a brass ornament at top. The fire burned with such blessed influence; it warmed so delightfully. The little girl had already stretched out her feet to warm them too; but--the small flame went out, the stove vanished: she had only the remains of the burnt-out match in her hand.
She rubbed another against the wall: it burned brightly, and where the light fell on the wall, there the wall became transparent like a veil, so that she could see into the room. On the table was spread a snow-white tablecloth; upon it was a splendid porcelain service, and the roast goose was steaming famously with its stuffing of apple and dried plums. And what was still more capital to behold was, the goose hopped down from the dish, reeled about on the floor with knife and fork in its breast, till it came up to the poor little girl; when--the match went out and nothing but the thick, cold, damp wall was left behind. She lighted another match. Now there she was sitting under the most magnificent Christmas tree: it was still larger, and more decorated than the one which she had seen through the glass door in the rich merchant's house.
Thousands of lights were burning on the green branches, and gaily-colored pictures, such as she had seen in the shop-windows, looked down upon her. The little maiden stretched out her hands towards them when--the match went out. The lights of the Christmas tree rose higher and higher, she saw them now as stars in heaven; one fell down and formed a long trail of fire.
"Someone is just dead!" said the little girl; for her old grandmother, the only person who had loved her, and who was now no more, had told her, that when a star falls, a soul ascends to God.
She drew another match against the wall: it was again light, and in the lustre there stood the old grandmother, so bright and radiant, so mild, and with such an expression of love.
"Grandmother!" cried the little one. "Oh, take me with you! You go away when the match burns out; you vanish like the warm stove, like the delicious roast goose, and like the magnificent Christmas tree!" And she rubbed the whole bundle of matches quickly against the wall, for she wanted to be quite sure of keeping her grandmother near her. And the matches gave such a brilliant light that it was brighter than at noon-day: never formerly had the grandmother been so beautiful and so tall. She took the little maiden, on her arm, and both flew in brightness and in joy so high, so very high, and then above was neither cold, nor hunger, nor anxiety--they were with God.
But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with rosy cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the wall--frozen to death on the last evening of the old year. Stiff and stark sat the child there with her matches, of which one bundle had been burnt. "She wanted to warm herself," people said. No one had the slightest suspicion of what beautiful things she had seen; no one even dreamed of the splendor in which, with her grandmother she had entered on the joys of a new year.
Another version:
The Little Match Girl
by Hans Christian Anderson
Once upon a time . . . a little girl tried to make a living by selling matches in the street.
It was New Year's Eve and the snow-clad streets were deserted. From brightly lit windows came the tinkle of laughter and the sound of singing. People were getting ready to bring in the New Year. But the poor little match seller sat sadly beside the fountain. Her ragged dress and worn shawl did not keep out the cold and she tried to keep her bare feet from touching the frozen ground. She hadn't sold one box of matches all day and she was frightened to go home, for her father would certainly be angry. It wouldn't be much warmer anyway, in the draughty attic that was her home. The little girl's fingers were stiff with cold. If only she could light a match! But what would her father say at such a waste! Falteringly she took out a match and lit it. What a nice warm flame! The little match seller cupped her hand over it, and as she did so, she magically saw in its light a big brightly burning stove.
She held out her hands to the heat, but just then the match went out and the vision faded. The night seemed blacker than before and it was getting colder. A shiver ran through the little girl's thin body.
After hesitating for a long time, she struck another match on the wall, and this time, the glimmer turned the wall into a great sheet of crystal. Beyond that stood a fine table laden with food and lit by a candlestick. Holding out her arms towards the plates, the little match-seller seemed to pass through the glass, but then the match went out and the magic faded. Poor thing: in just a few seconds she had caught a glimpse of everything that life had denied her: warmth and good things to eat. Her eyes filled with tears and she lifted her gaze to the lit windows, praying that she too might know a little of such happiness.
She lit the third match and an even more wonderful thing happened. There stood a Christmas tree hung with hundreds of candles, glittering with tinsel and coloured balls. "Oh, how lovely!" exclaimed the little match seller, holding up the match. Then, the match burned her finger and flickered out. The light from the Christmas candles rose higher and higher, then one of the lights fell, leaving a trail behind it. "Someone is dying," murmured the little girl, as she remembered her beloved Granny who used to say: "When a star falls, a heart stops beating!"
Scarcely aware of what she was doing, the little match seller lit another match. This time, she saw her grandmother.
"Granny, stay with me!" she pleaded, as she lit one match after the other, so that her grandmother could not disappear like all the other visions. However, Granny did not vanish, but gazed smilingly at her. Then she opened her arms and the little girl hugged her crying: "Granny, take me away with you!"
A cold day dawned and a pale sun shone on the fountain and the icy road. Close by lay the lifeless body of a little girl surrounded by spent matches. "Poor little thing!" exclaimed the passers-by. "She was trying to keep warm!"
But by that time, the little match seller was far away where there is neither cold, hunger nor pain.
現在小姑娘衹好赤着一雙小腳走。小腳已經凍得發紅發青了。她有許多火柴包在一個舊圍裙裏；她手中還拿着一紮。這一整天誰也沒有嚮她買過一根；誰也沒有給她一個銅板。
可憐的小姑娘！她又餓又凍得嚮前走，簡直是一幅愁苦的畫面。雪花落到她金黃的長頭髮上——它捲麯地散落在她的肩上，看上去非常美麗。不過她並沒有想到自己漂亮。所有的窗子都射出光來，街上飄着一股烤鵝肉①的香味。的確，這是除夕。她在想這件事情。
那兒有兩座房子，其中一座房子比另一座更嚮街心伸出一點，她便在這個墻角裏坐下來，縮作一團。她把一雙小腳也縮進來，不過她感到更冷。她不敢回傢裏去，因為她沒有賣掉一根火柴，沒有賺到一個銅板。她的父親一定會打她，而且傢裏也是很冷的，因為他們頭上衹有一個可以灌進風來的屋頂，雖然最大的裂口已經用草和破布堵住了。
她的一雙小手幾乎凍僵了。唉！哪怕一根小火柴對她也是有好處的。衹要她敢抽出一根來，在墻上擦着了，就可以暖暖手！最後她抽出一根來了。哧！它燃起來了，冒出火光來了！當她把手覆在上面的時候，它便變成了一朵溫暖、光明的火焰，像是一根小小的蠟燭。這是一道美麗的小光！小姑娘覺得真像坐在一個鐵火爐旁邊一樣：它有光亮的黃銅圓捏手和黃銅爐身，火燒得那麽歡，那麽暖，那麽美！唉，這是怎麽一回事兒？當小姑娘剛剛伸出一雙腳，打算暖一暖腳的時候，火焰就忽然熄滅了！火爐也不見了。她坐在那兒，手中衹有燒過了的火柴。
她又擦了一根。它燃起來了，發出光來了。墻上有亮光照着的那塊地方，現在變得透明，像一片薄紗；她可以看到房間裏的東西：桌上鋪着雪白的臺布，上面有精緻的碗盤，填滿了梅子和蘋果的、冒着香氣的烤鵝。更美妙的事情是：這衹鵝從盤子裏跳出來了，背上插着刀叉，蹣跚地在地上走着，一直嚮這個窮苦的小姑娘面前走來。這時火柴就熄滅了；她面前衹有一堵又厚又冷的墻。
她點了另一根火柴。現在她是坐在美麗的聖誕樹下面。上次聖誕節時，她透過玻璃門，看到一個富有商人傢裏的一株聖誕樹；可是現在這一株比那株還要大，還要美。它的緑枝上燃着幾千支蠟燭；彩色的圖畫，跟櫥窗裏挂着的那些一樣美麗，在嚮她眨眼。這個小姑娘把兩衹手伸過去。於是火柴就熄滅了。聖誕節的燭光越升越高。她看到它們現在變成了明亮的星星。這些星星有一顆落下來了，在天上劃出一條長長的光綫。
“現在又有一個什麽人死去了②，”小姑娘說，因為她的老祖母曾經說過：天上落下一顆星，地上就有一個靈魂升到了上帝那兒去。老祖母是唯一對她好的人，但是現在已經死了。
她在墻上又擦了一根火柴。它把四周都照亮了；在這光亮中老祖母出現了。她顯得那麽光明，那麽溫柔，那麽和藹。
“祖母！”小姑娘叫起來。“啊！請把我帶走吧！我知道，這火柴一滅掉，你就會不見了，你就會像那個溫暖的火爐、那衹美麗的烤鵝、那棵幸福的聖誕樹一樣地不見了！”
於是她急忙把整束火柴中剩下的火柴都擦亮了，因為她非常想把祖母留住。這些火柴發出強烈的光芒，照得比大白天還要明朗。祖母從來沒有像現在這樣顯得美麗和高大。她把小姑娘抱起來，摟到懷裏。她們兩人在光明和快樂中飛走了，越飛越高，飛到既沒有寒冷，也沒有饑餓，也沒有憂愁的那塊地方——她們是跟上帝在一起。
不過在一個寒冷的早晨，這個小姑娘卻坐在一個墻角裏；她的雙頰通紅，嘴唇發出微笑，她已經死了——在舊年的除夕凍死了。新年的太陽升起來了，照着她小小的屍體！她坐在那兒，手中還捏着火柴——其中有一紮差不多都燒光了。
“她想把自己暖和一下，”人們說。誰也不知道：她曾經看到過多麽美麗的東西，她曾經是多麽光榮地跟祖母一起，走到新年的幸福中去。
①烤鵝肉是丹麥聖誕節和除夕晚餐中的一個主菜。
②北歐人的迷信：世界上有一個人，天上便有一顆星。一顆星的隕落象徵一個人的死亡。
One slipper was nowhere to be found; the other had been laid hold of by an urchin, and off he ran with it; he thought it would do capitally for a cradle when he some day or other should have children himself. So the little maiden walked on with her tiny naked feet, that were quite red and blue from cold. She carried a quantity of matches in an old apron, and she held a bundle of them in her hand. Nobody had bought anything of her the whole livelong day; no one had given her a single farthing.
She crept along trembling with cold and hunger--a very picture of sorrow, the poor little thing!
The flakes of snow covered her long fair hair, which fell in beautiful curls around her neck; but of that, of course, she never once now thought. From all the windows the candles were gleaming, and it smelt so deliciously of roast goose, for you know it was New Year's Eve; yes, of that she thought.
In a corner formed by two houses, of which one advanced more than the other, she seated herself down and cowered together. Her little feet she had drawn close up to her, but she grew colder and colder, and to go home she did not venture, for she had not sold any matches and could not bring a farthing of money: from her father she would certainly get blows, and at home it was cold too, for above her she had only the roof, through which the wind whistled, even though the largest cracks were stopped up with straw and rags.
Her little hands were almost numbed with cold. Oh! a match might afford her a world of comfort, if she only dared take a single one out of the bundle, draw it against the wall, and warm her fingers by it. She drew one out. "Rischt!" how it blazed, how it burnt! It was a warm, bright flame, like a candle, as she held her hands over it: it was a wonderful light. It seemed really to the little maiden as though she were sitting before a large iron stove, with burnished brass feet and a brass ornament at top. The fire burned with such blessed influence; it warmed so delightfully. The little girl had already stretched out her feet to warm them too; but--the small flame went out, the stove vanished: she had only the remains of the burnt-out match in her hand.
She rubbed another against the wall: it burned brightly, and where the light fell on the wall, there the wall became transparent like a veil, so that she could see into the room. On the table was spread a snow-white tablecloth; upon it was a splendid porcelain service, and the roast goose was steaming famously with its stuffing of apple and dried plums. And what was still more capital to behold was, the goose hopped down from the dish, reeled about on the floor with knife and fork in its breast, till it came up to the poor little girl; when--the match went out and nothing but the thick, cold, damp wall was left behind. She lighted another match. Now there she was sitting under the most magnificent Christmas tree: it was still larger, and more decorated than the one which she had seen through the glass door in the rich merchant's house.
Thousands of lights were burning on the green branches, and gaily-colored pictures, such as she had seen in the shop-windows, looked down upon her. The little maiden stretched out her hands towards them when--the match went out. The lights of the Christmas tree rose higher and higher, she saw them now as stars in heaven; one fell down and formed a long trail of fire.
"Someone is just dead!" said the little girl; for her old grandmother, the only person who had loved her, and who was now no more, had told her, that when a star falls, a soul ascends to God.
She drew another match against the wall: it was again light, and in the lustre there stood the old grandmother, so bright and radiant, so mild, and with such an expression of love.
"Grandmother!" cried the little one. "Oh, take me with you! You go away when the match burns out; you vanish like the warm stove, like the delicious roast goose, and like the magnificent Christmas tree!" And she rubbed the whole bundle of matches quickly against the wall, for she wanted to be quite sure of keeping her grandmother near her. And the matches gave such a brilliant light that it was brighter than at noon-day: never formerly had the grandmother been so beautiful and so tall. She took the little maiden, on her arm, and both flew in brightness and in joy so high, so very high, and then above was neither cold, nor hunger, nor anxiety--they were with God.
But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with rosy cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the wall--frozen to death on the last evening of the old year. Stiff and stark sat the child there with her matches, of which one bundle had been burnt. "She wanted to warm herself," people said. No one had the slightest suspicion of what beautiful things she had seen; no one even dreamed of the splendor in which, with her grandmother she had entered on the joys of a new year.
Another version:
The Little Match Girl
by Hans Christian Anderson
Once upon a time . . . a little girl tried to make a living by selling matches in the street.
It was New Year's Eve and the snow-clad streets were deserted. From brightly lit windows came the tinkle of laughter and the sound of singing. People were getting ready to bring in the New Year. But the poor little match seller sat sadly beside the fountain. Her ragged dress and worn shawl did not keep out the cold and she tried to keep her bare feet from touching the frozen ground. She hadn't sold one box of matches all day and she was frightened to go home, for her father would certainly be angry. It wouldn't be much warmer anyway, in the draughty attic that was her home. The little girl's fingers were stiff with cold. If only she could light a match! But what would her father say at such a waste! Falteringly she took out a match and lit it. What a nice warm flame! The little match seller cupped her hand over it, and as she did so, she magically saw in its light a big brightly burning stove.
She held out her hands to the heat, but just then the match went out and the vision faded. The night seemed blacker than before and it was getting colder. A shiver ran through the little girl's thin body.
After hesitating for a long time, she struck another match on the wall, and this time, the glimmer turned the wall into a great sheet of crystal. Beyond that stood a fine table laden with food and lit by a candlestick. Holding out her arms towards the plates, the little match-seller seemed to pass through the glass, but then the match went out and the magic faded. Poor thing: in just a few seconds she had caught a glimpse of everything that life had denied her: warmth and good things to eat. Her eyes filled with tears and she lifted her gaze to the lit windows, praying that she too might know a little of such happiness.
She lit the third match and an even more wonderful thing happened. There stood a Christmas tree hung with hundreds of candles, glittering with tinsel and coloured balls. "Oh, how lovely!" exclaimed the little match seller, holding up the match. Then, the match burned her finger and flickered out. The light from the Christmas candles rose higher and higher, then one of the lights fell, leaving a trail behind it. "Someone is dying," murmured the little girl, as she remembered her beloved Granny who used to say: "When a star falls, a heart stops beating!"
Scarcely aware of what she was doing, the little match seller lit another match. This time, she saw her grandmother.
"Granny, stay with me!" she pleaded, as she lit one match after the other, so that her grandmother could not disappear like all the other visions. However, Granny did not vanish, but gazed smilingly at her. Then she opened her arms and the little girl hugged her crying: "Granny, take me away with you!"
A cold day dawned and a pale sun shone on the fountain and the icy road. Close by lay the lifeless body of a little girl surrounded by spent matches. "Poor little thing!" exclaimed the passers-by. "She was trying to keep warm!"
But by that time, the little match seller was far away where there is neither cold, hunger nor pain.