《 高老头》发表于1834年，是巴尔扎克最优秀的作品之一。这部作品在展示社会生活的广度和深度方面，在反映作家世界观的进步性和局限性方面，在表现《人间喜剧》的艺术成就和不足之处方面，都具有代表意义。其艺术风格最能代表巴尔扎克的特点。在这篇小说中，作者第一次使用他创造的“人物再现法”—让一个人物不仅在一部作品中出现，而且在以后的作品中连续不断地出现，它不仅使我们看到人物性格形成的不同阶段，而且使一系列作品构成一个整体，成为《人间喜剧》的有机部分。在此，一些主要人物如拉斯蒂涅、鲍赛昂子爵夫人、伏特冷纷纷登场亮相，《人间喜剧》拉开了序幕。
■著名译本
傅雷先生在1963年首译的《高老头》版本，人民文学出版社在1978年又重新出版，至今无人企及。
■有关于《人间喜剧》
巴尔扎克用总标题为《人间喜剧》的一系列小说，反映了急剧变革时期的法国生活。《人间喜剧》分为三大部分：风俗研究、哲理研究和分析研究；其中风俗研究内容最为丰富，又分为六个“场景”。其基本内容表现为：首先，反映了上升的资产阶级取代贵族阶级的罪恶发家史；同时也写出了贵族阶级的没落衰亡史，至为重要的内容是对金钱势力的批判，巴尔扎克描写了一幕幕围绕着金钱而展开的人间惨剧，从而使我们对资本主义社会的罪恶与肮脏有一个形象的认识。
高老头-【作者简介】
巴尔扎克是19世纪法国伟大的批判现实主义作家，欧洲批判现实主义文学的奠基人和杰出代表，是一位具有浓厚浪漫情调的伟大作家，一边因奢华的生活而负债累累，一边以崇高深刻的思想创作出博大精深的文学巨著。他
的生活趣事层出不穷，而作品更被誉为“法国社会的一面镜子”。在他逝世时，文学大师雨果曾站在法国巴黎的蒙蒙细雨中，面对成千上万哀悼者慷慨激昂地评价道：“在最伟大的人物中间，巴尔扎克是名列前茅者；在最优秀的人物中间，巴尔扎克是佼佼者。”
一生创作96部长、中、短篇小说和随笔，总名为《人间喜剧》。其中代表作为《欧也妮•葛朗台》、《高老头》。100多年来，他的作品传遍了全世界，对世界文学的发展和人类进步产生了巨大的影响。马克思、恩格斯称赞他“是超群的小说家”、“现实主义大师”。 巴尔扎克出生于一个法国大革命后致富的资产阶级家庭，法科学校毕业后，拒绝家庭为他选择的受人尊敬的法律职业，而立志当文学家。为了获得独立生活和从事创作的物质保障，他曾试笔并插足商业，从事出版印刷业，但都以破产告终。这一切都为他认识社会、描写社会提供了极为珍贵的第一手材料。他不断追求和探索，对哲学、经济学、历史、自然科学、神学等领域进行了深入研究，积累了极为广博的知识。 1829年，巴尔扎克完成长篇小说《朱安党人》，这部取材于现实生活的作品为他带来巨大声誉，也为法国批判现实主义文学放下第一块基石，巴尔扎克将《朱安党人》和计划要写的136部小说总命名为《人间喜剧》，并为之写了《前言》，阐述了他的现实主义创作方法和基本原则，从理论上为法国批判现实主义文学奠定了坚固的基础。 巴尔扎克在艺术上取得巨大成就，他在小说结构方面匠心独运，小说结构多种多样，不拘一格、并善于将集中概括与精确描摹相结合，以外形反映内心本质等手法来塑造人物，他还善于以精细人微、生动逼真的环境描写再现时代风貌。恩格斯称赞巴尔扎克的《人间喜剧》写出了贵族阶级的没落衰败和资产阶级的上升发展，提供了社会各个领域无比丰富的生动细节和形象化的历史材料，“甚至在经济的细节方面（如革命以后动产和不动产的重新分配），我学到的东西也要比从当时所有职业历史学家、经济学院和统计学家那里学到的全部东西还要多”。（恩格斯：《恩格斯致玛•哈克奈斯》） 巴尔扎克以自己的创作在世界文学史上树立起不朽的丰碑。
高老头-【作品目录】
共有六章，分别是：
第一章 伏盖公寓
第二章 两处访问
第三章 初见世面
第四章 鬼上当
第五章 两个女儿
第六章 父亲的死
高老头-【内容梗概】
1891年冬，在巴黎拉丁区有一个叫伏盖公寓包饭客房，是一个叫伏盖的美国老妇人开的。这里住着各种各样的人：有穷大学生拉斯蒂涅；歇业的面粉商人高里奥；外号叫“鬼上当”的伏脱冷；被大银行家赶出家门的泰伊番小姐；骨瘦如材的老处女米旭诺等。每逢开饭的时候，客店的饭厅就特别热闹，因为大家可以在一起取笑高老头。
69岁的高老头，6 年前结束了他的买卖后，住到了伏盖公寓。当时，分住在二楼一间最好的房间，每年交一千二百法朗的膳宿费，他衣着讲究，每天还请理发师来给他梳头发，连鼻烟匣都是金的，他算得上这所公寓里最体面的房客，人们都叫他高里奥先生。寡妇老板娘还向他搔首弄姿，想改嫁于他当一名本地区的阔太太。
高老头把他全部的爱都放在两个出嫁的女儿身上，不受伏盖太太的诱惑。第二年年末，高老头就要求换次等房间，并且整个冬天屋子里没有生火取暖，膳宿费也减为九百法郎。大家把他当作“恶癖、无耻、低能所产生的最神秘的人物”。常有两个贵夫妻来找他，以为他有艳遇，高老头告诉大家，那是他的女儿：雷斯多伯爵夫人和银行家纽沁根太太。第三年，高老头又要求换到最低等的房间每月房钱降为四十五法郎，他戒了鼻烟，批发了理发匠，金刚钻、金烟匣、金链条等饰物也不见了，人也越来越瘦，看上去活像一个可怜虫。伏盖太太也认为：要是高老头真有那么有钱的女儿，他决不会住在四楼最低等的房间。
可是，高老头这个谜终于被拉斯蒂涅揭开了。拉斯蒂涅是从外地来巴黎读大学的青年，出身破落贵族家庭，白皮肤、黑头发、蓝眼睛，热情而有才气，想做一个清廉正直的法官。但巴黎的豪华生活的刺激加强了他“对权位的欲望与出人头地的志愿”。他认为靠自己的勤奋学习求上进的路太艰苦，也太遥远，还不一定行得通，而现实社会依靠几个有钱的女人作进身的阶梯则容易得多，于是他想“去征服几个可以做他的后台的妇女”。由于姑母的引荐，他结识了远房表姐，巴黎社交界地位显赫的鲍赛昂子爵夫人。拉斯蒂涅很得意地向伏盖公寓的房客们讲了在舞会认识了伯爵夫人的事。高老头兴奋地问：“昨晚雷斯多太太很漂亮吗？” 公寓老板娘便认定高老头定是给那些婆娘弄穷的。拉斯蒂涅想弄清高老头和伯爵夫人的关系，决定去雷斯多伯爵夫人家。在伯爵夫人家他的寒酸相引起仆人轻蔑；接着他莽撞地冲进了一间浴室，大出洋相；后又到提到和高老头住在一起，却引起伯爵夫妇的不快，把他赶了出来。拉斯蒂涅十分懊恼，只好赶去向表姐求教。鲍赛昂夫人告诉他，雷斯多太太便是高里奥的女儿。
高老头是法国大革命时期起家的面粉商人，中年丧妻，他把自己所有的爱都倾注在两个女儿身上。为了让她们挤进上流社会，从小给她们良好的教育，出嫁时，给了她们每人80万法郎的陪嫁，让大女儿嫁给了雷斯多伯爵，做了贵妇人；小女儿嫁给银行家纽沁根，当了金融资产阶级阔太太。他以为女儿嫁了体面人家，自己便可以受到尊重、奉承。那知不到两年，女婿竟把他当作要不得的下流东西，把他赶出家门。高老头为了获得他们的好感，忍痛出卖了店铺，将钱一分为二给了两个女儿，自己便搬进了伏盖公寓。两个女儿只要爸爸的钱，可现在高老头已没钱了。
鲍赛昂夫人教导拉斯蒂涅社会又卑鄙又残忍，要他以牙还牙去对付这个社会。她说：“你越没有心肝，就越高升得快。你毫不留情的打击人家，人家就怕你。”“没有一个女人关切，他在这儿便一文不值，这女人还得年轻、有钱、漂亮。”按照表姐的指点，拉斯蒂涅决心去勾引高老头的二女儿妞沁根太太。
伏脱冷是个目光敏锐的人，看出拉斯蒂涅想往上爬的心思。他对拉斯蒂涅说：“在这个互相吞筮的社会里，清白老实一无用处，如果不像炮弹一样轰进去，就得像瘟疫一般钻进去，清白诚实是一无用处的。”他指点拉斯蒂涅去追求维多利小姐，他可以叫人杀死泰伊番小姐的哥哥，让她当上继承人，这样银行家的遗产就会落到拉斯蒂涅手中，只要给他二十万法郎作报酬。拉斯蒂涅虽然被伏脱冷的赤裸裸的言辞所打动，但又没敢答应下来。
拉斯蒂涅通过鲍赛昂夫人结识了纽沁根太太，而纽沁根太太并不是他想要追求的对象。她的丈夫在经济上对她控制很严，甚至要求拉斯蒂涅拿自己仅有的100 法郎去赌场替她赢6000法郎回来。于是拉斯蒂涅便转向
对泰伊番小姐的进攻。
这时伏脱冷已让同党寻衅跟泰伊番小姐的哥哥决头，并杀死了他。拉斯蒂涅矛盾重重，是爱维多利小姐呢，还是爱纽沁根太太呢？最后，他选择了后者，他想 “这样的结合既没有罪过，也没有什么能教最严格的道学家皱一皱眉头的地方。”
房客米旭诺老小姐，她接受了警察局暗探险的差使，刺探伏脱冷的身份。她在伏脱冷的饮料中下麻药，伏脱冷被醉倒不省人事。米旭诺脱下伏脱冷的外衣，在肩上打了一巴掌，鲜红的皮肤上立刻现出“苦役犯”的字样。当伏脱冷醒来时，警察已经包围了伏盖公寓。特务长打落了他的假发，伏脱冷全身的血立刻涌上了脸，眼睛像野猫一样发亮，他使出一股蛮劲，大吼一声，把所有的房客吓得大叫起来。暗探们一齐掏出手枪，伏脱冷一见亮晶晶的火门，突然变了面孔，镇静下来，主动把两只手伸上去。他承认自己叫雅克·柯冷，诨名“鬼上当”，被判过20年苦役，他被逮捕了。
高老头得知拉斯蒂涅爱自己的二女儿，想为拉斯蒂涅与女儿牵线搭桥，购买了一幢小楼，供他们幽会。一天，纽沁根太太急忙来找高老头，说明她丈夫同意让她和拉斯蒂涅来往，但她不能向他要回陪嫁钱，高老头要女儿不要接受这条件，“钱是性命，有了钱就有了一切。”这时，雷斯多夫人也来了。她哭着告诉父亲：她的丈夫用她卖掉了项链的钱去为情人还债，现在她的财产已差不多全部被夺走，她要父亲给她一万二千法郎去救她的情夫。两个女儿吵起嘴来，高老头爱莫能助，他急得晕过去，患了初期脑溢血症。
在他患病期间，两姐妹都没来看他一次，大女儿关心的是即将参加盼望已久的鲍赛昂夫人的舞会；二女儿来过一次，但不是来看父亲的病的，而是要父亲给她支付欠裁缝一千法郎的定钱。高老头被逼得付出了最后1 文钱，致使中风症猛发作。
鲍赛昂夫人举行盛大的舞会，场面非常壮观，公主、爵爷、名门闺秀都前来参加。500 多辆车上的灯烛照得屋内处处通明透亮。子爵夫人装束素雅，脸上没有表情，仿佛还保持着贵妇人的面目，而在她心目中，这座灿烂的宫殿已经变成一片沙漠，一回到内室，便禁不住泪水长流，周身发抖。舞会结束后，拉斯蒂涅目送表姐鲍赛昂夫人坐上轿车，同她作了最后一次告别。他感到“他的教育已经受完了”他认为自己 “入了地狱，而且还得呆下去”。
可怜的高老头快断气了，他还盼望着两个女儿能来见他一面。拉斯蒂涅差人去请他的两个女儿，两个女儿都推三阻四不来。老人每只眼中冒出一颗眼泪，滚在鲜红的眼皮边上，他长叹一声，说：“唉，爱了一辈子的女儿，到头来反给女儿遗弃！”
只有拉斯蒂涅张罗着高老头的丧事，两个女儿女婿只派了两驾空车跟在灵柩后面。棺木是由一个大学生向医院廉价买来的，送葬费由拉斯蒂涅卖掉金表支付的。他目睹这一幕幕悲剧，随着高老头的埋葬也埋葬了自己最后一滴同情的眼泪，他决心向社会挑战，“现在咱们俩来拼一拼吧！”
高老头-【思想感情】
《高老头》着重揭露批判的是资本主义世界中人与人之间赤裸裸的金钱关系。小说以1819年底到1820年初的巴黎为背景，主要写两个平行而又交叉的故事：退休面条商高里奥老头被两个女儿冷落，悲惨地死在伏盖公寓的阁楼上；青年拉斯蒂涅在巴黎社会的腐蚀下走上堕落之路。同时还穿插了鲍赛昂夫人和伏脱冷的故事。通过寒酸的
公寓和豪华的贵族沙龙这两个不断交替的主要舞台，作家描绘了一幅幅巴黎社会人欲横流、极端丑恶的图画，暴露了在金钱势力支配下资产阶级的道德沦丧和人与人之间的冷酷无情，揭示了在资产阶级的进攻下贵族阶级的必然灭亡，真实地反映了波旁王朝复辟时期的特征。
高老头-【写作背景】
19世纪上半叶是法国资本主义建立的初期，拿破仑在1815年的滑铁卢战役中彻底败北，由此波旁王朝复辟，统治一直延续到1830年。由于查理十世的反动政策激怒了人民，七月革命仅仅三天便推倒了复辟王朝，开始了长达18年的七月王朝的统治，由金融资产阶级掌握了政权。《欧也妮·葛朗台》发表于1833年，也即七月王朝初期。刚过去的复辟王朝在人们的头脑中还记忆犹新。复辟时期，贵族虽然从国外返回了法国，耀武扬威，不可一世，可是他们的实际地位与法国大革命以前不可同日而语，因为资产阶级已经强大起来。刚上台的路易十八不得不颁布新宪法，实行君主立宪，向资产阶级做出让步，以维护摇摇欲坠的政权。资产阶级虽然失去了政治权力，却凭借经济上的实力与贵族相抗衡。到了复辟王朝后期，资产阶级不仅在城市，而且在贵族保持广泛影响的农村，都把贵族打得落花流水。复辟王朝实际上大势已去。巴尔扎克比同时代作家更敏锐，独具慧眼地观察到这个重大社会现象。
高老头-【相关评论】
“《高老头》还成功地塑造了青年野心家拉斯蒂涅和没落贵夫人鲍赛昂的形象。前者原为一个外省贵族青年，想来巴黎进大学重振家业，但目睹上流社会的挥金如土、灯红酒绿，他往上爬的欲望倍增，
他在鲍赛昂子爵夫人和逃犯伏特冷的唆使下，日益丧失正直的良心，开始为金钱而出卖正直，特别见证了高老头的两个女儿对待父亲象榨干的柠檬一般以后，更坚定了向资产阶级的道路走去的决心。《高老头》中主要描写了他野心家性格形成的过程，在以后的一系列作品中他更一发不可收拾，靠出卖道德和良心竟当上了副国务秘书和贵族院议员，而一切的取得都依赖于极端利己主义原则。鲍赛昂子爵夫人是巴尔扎克为贵族阶级唱的一曲无尽的挽歌，她出身名门贵族，是巴黎社交界的皇后，只因缺乏金钱而被情人抛弃，被迫退出巴黎上流社会，高贵的门第再也敌不过金钱的势力，她在后来的小说中因为同样的原因又一次被金钱出卖。她的遭遇告诉人们，贵族阶级除了失败之外不可能有更好的命运，金钱才是这个世界的主宰。
《高老头》在艺术上很严谨，作者设置了典型环境，让典型人物活动于其中，使人与人的金钱关系与环境相契合，书中安排了四条情节线索，以拉斯蒂涅的堕落为主线，其它几条起辅助作用，纵横交错又脉络分明；典型人物的刻划是巴尔扎克的最大特色，不论是外貌描写还是心理刻划，甚至一个细节，如高老头每吃一块面包都要放在鼻下嗅一嗅，都使人物更鲜明生动；人物语言的个性化也是作者一大功力，贵族沙龙中的语言与逃犯的语言绝不一样。”
高老头-【精彩片段】
高老头临死前想见女儿一面,让人去叫他的女儿,可两个女儿谁也没来。
高里奥不出声了，仿佛集中全身的精力熬着痛苦。“她们在这儿，我不会叫苦了，干么还要叫苦呢？”他迷迷糊糊昏沉了好久。克利斯朵夫回来，拉斯蒂涅以为高老头睡熟了，让佣人高声回报他出差的情形。
“先生，我先上伯爵夫人家，可没法跟她说话，她和丈夫有要紧事儿。我再三央求，雷斯多先生亲自出来对我说：高里奥先生快死了是不是？哎，再好没有。我有事，要太太待在家里。事情完了，她会去的。——
他似乎很生气，这位先生。我正要出来，太太从一扇我看不见的门里走到穿堂，告诉我，你对我父亲说，我同丈夫正在商量事情，不能来。那是有关我孩子们生死的问题。但等事情一完，我就去看他。——说到男爵夫人吧，又是另外一桩事儿！我没有见到她，不能跟她说话。老妈子说她今儿早上五点一刻才从舞会回来，中午以前叫醒她，一定要挨骂的。等会她打铃明我，我会告诉她，说她父亲的病更重了。报告一件坏消息，不会嫌太晚的。我再三央求也没用。哎，是呀，我也要求见男爵，他不在家。”
“一个也不来”拉斯蒂捏嚷道，“让我写信给她们。”“一个也不来，”老人坐起来接着说，“她们有事，她们在睡觉，她们不会来的。我早知道了。直要临死才知道女儿是什么东西！朋友，你别结婚，别生孩子！你给他们生命，他们给你死。你带他们到世界上来，他们把你从世界上赶出去。她们不会来的！我已经知道了十年。有时我心里这么想，只是不敢相信。”
高老头死了，两个女儿谁也没有来，他的钱都给女儿花光了，到死连入殓的衣服都没有，是拉斯蒂涅卖了自己的表才给他入殓的。
拉斯蒂涅奔下楼梯，到雷斯多太太家去了。刚才那幕可怕的景象使他动了感情，一路义愤填胸。他走进穿堂求见雷斯多太太，人家回报说她不能见容。
他对当差说：“我是为了她马上要死的父亲来的。”“先生，伯爵再三吩咐我们……”“既然伯爵在家，那么告诉他，说他岳父快死了，我要立刻和他说话。”欧也纳等了好久。“说不定他就在这个时候死了，”他心里想。
当差带他走进第一窖室，雷斯多先生站在壁炉前面，见了客人也不请坐。“伯爵，”拉斯蒂涅说，“令岳在破烂的阁楼上就要断气了，连买木柴的钱也没有；他马上要死了，但等见一面女儿……”“先生，”伯爵冷冷的回答，“你大概可以看出，我对高里奥先生没有什么好感。他教坏了我太太，造成我家庭的不幸。我把他当做扰乱我安宁的敌人。他死也好，活也好，我全不在意。你瞧，这是我对他的情分。社会尽可以责备我，我才不在乎呢。我现在要处理的事，比顾虑那些傻瓜的阔言闲语紧要得多。至于我太太，她现在那个模样没法出门，我也不让她出门。请你告诉她父亲，只消她对我，对我的孩子，尽完了她的责任，她会去看他的。要是她爱她的父亲，几分钟内她就可以自由……”
“伯爵，我没有权利批评你的行为，你是你太太的主人。至少我能相信你是讲信义的吧？请
你答应我一件事，就是告诉她，说她父亲没有一天好活了，因为她不去送终，已经在咒她了！”雷斯多注意到欧也纳愤愤不平的语气，回答道：“你自己去说吧。”
拉斯蒂涅跟着伯爵走进伯爵夫人平时起坐的客厅。她泪人儿似的埋在沙发里，那副痛不欲生的模样叫他看了可怜。她不敢望拉斯蒂涅，先怯生生的瞧了瞧丈夫，眼睛的神气表示她精神肉体都被专横的丈夫压倒了。伯爵侧了侧脑袋，她才敢开口：“先生，我都听到了。告诉我父亲，他要知道我现在的处境，一定会原谅我。想不到要受这种刑罚简直受不了。可是我要反抗到底，”她对地的丈夫说。“我也有儿女。请你对父亲说，不管表面上怎么样，在父亲面前我并没有错，”她无可奈何的对欧也纳说。
那女的经历的苦难，欧也纳不难想象，便呆呆的走了出来。听到特·雷斯多先生的口吻，他知道自己白跑了一趟，阿娜斯大齐已经失去自由。
接着他赶到特·纽沁根太太家，发觉她还在床上。“我不舒服呀，朋友，”她说。“从跳舞会出来受了凉，我怕要害肺炎呢，我等医生来……”欧也纳打断了她的话，说道：“哪怕死神已经到了你身边，爬也得爬到你父亲跟前去。他在叫你！你要听到他一声，马上不觉得你自己害病了。”
“欧也纳，父亲的病也许不象你说的那么严重；可是我要在你眼里有什么不是，我才难过死呢；所以我一定听你的吩咐。我知道，倘若我这一回出去闹出一场大病来，父亲要伤心死的。我等医生来过了就走。”她一眼看不见欧也纳身上的表链，便叫道：“哟！怎么你的表没有啦？”欧也纳脸上红了一块。“欧也纳！欧也纳！倘使你已经把它卖了，丢了，……哦！那太岂有此理了。”
大学生伏在但斐纳床上，凑着她耳朵说：“你要知道么？哼！好，告诉你吧！你父亲一个钱没有了，今晚上要把他入硷的尸衣都没法买。你送我的表在当铺里，我钱都光了。”
但斐纳猛的从床上跳下，奔向书柜，抓起钱袋递给拉斯蒂捏，打着铃嚷道：“我去我去，欧也纳。让我穿衣服，我简直是禽兽了！去吧，我会赶在你前面！” 她回头叫老妈子：“丹兰士，请老爷立刻上来跟我说话。”
高老头-【艺术成就】
《高老头》集中表现了巴尔扎克现实主义创作艺术的主要特色。
■精细而富有特征的典型环境
巴尔扎克非常重视详细而逼真的环境描绘，一方面是为了再现生活，更重要的是为了刻画人物性格。作品围绕拉斯蒂涅的活动，描写了巴黎不同等级、不同阶层的人们的生活环境；拉丁区的伏盖公寓，形似牢狱的黄色屋
子，到处散发着“闭塞的、霉烂的、酸腐的气味”，塞满了肮脏油腻、残破丑陋的器皿和家具，这是下层人物的寄居之地。唐打区内高老头的两个女儿家里，虽有金碧辉煌的房子、贵重的器物，但“毫无气派的回廊”，挂满意大利油画的客厅却“装饰得像咖啡馆”，这显示了作为新贵的资产阶级暴发户们俗不可耐的排场。圣日尔曼区古老的鲍赛昂府则显示出完全不同的气派，院中套着精壮马匹的华丽马车，穿着金镶边大红制服的门丁，两边供满鲜花的大楼梯以及只有灰和粉红色的小巧玲珑的客室，这些精雅绝伦的陈设、别出心裁的布置都衬托出上流社会贵族“领袖”的风雅超群。这些精细而富有特征的环境描写，有利于展示其对人间性格形成的影响。当拉斯蒂涅从雷斯多夫人和鲍赛昂夫人两处访问后回到栖身的伏盖公寓时，作品写道：“走入气味难闻的饭厅，十八个食客好似马槽前的牲口一般正在吃饭。他觉得这副穷酸相跟饭厅的景象丑恶已极。环境转变太突兀了，对比太强烈了，格外刺激他的野心……”已经享受过上流社会生活的拉斯蒂涅再也不肯自甘贫贱，最后，他决心弄脏双手，抹黑良心，不顾一切地向上扑。拉斯蒂涅的堕落是这种特定的典型环境所决定的。
■人物性格的典型化
巴尔扎克不仅塑造了高里奥、拉斯蒂涅、鲍赛昂夫人、伏脱冷等典型形象，而且在其他人物形象的塑造中也做到了共性与个性的统一。雷斯多伯爵夫妇和纽沁根男爵夫妇虽然有贵族的头衔，实际上都是资产者。他们既有追求个人私利的共同特性，又都是独具个性的典型。银行家纽沁根心目中只有金钱，他对待妻子寻求外遇的态度很明朗：“我允许你胡搅，你也得让我犯罪，教那些可怜虫倾家荡产。”雷斯多伯爵对妻子的美着了迷，虽听凭她和玛克勾搭，却有一定限度，这和他的贵族门第观念有关。他知道妻子偷卖祖传钻石后，想方设法赎回，让她戴着参加舞会，以维护门第的尊严。
阿娜斯塔齐和但斐那都是高老头的女儿，但两姊妹各有自己的个性。前者身材高大、结实、黑发，眼睛炯炯有神，进宫谒见过皇上，不把妹妹放在眼里。后者娇小、金发，极有风韵，自知社会地位不高，陪嫁被丈夫侵占，又遭情夫遗弃，性格忧郁善感，经常怀念童年时代的幸福生活。但她们俩都是虚荣心极强的利己主义者，为了满足欲望，不惜榨干父亲的积蓄。阿娜斯塔齐向父亲要钱，往往用勒索的方法，但斐那则用撒娇哄骗的办法。
■精致的结构
小说以高老头和拉斯蒂涅的故事为两条主要线索，又穿插了伏脱冷、鲍赛昂夫人的故事。几条线索错综交织，头绪看似纷繁而实际主次分明、脉络清楚、有条不紊。作品以叙述高老头被女儿榨干
钱财遭抛弃为中心情节，以拉斯蒂涅为中心人物，通过他的活动穿针引线，将上层社会与下层社会联系起来，将贵族沙龙与资产者客厅连结起来。随着高老头之谜在拉斯蒂涅眼前展现、解开，情节步步推向高潮。伏脱冷被捕、鲍赛昂夫人被弃、高老头惨死，拉斯蒂涅都是目睹者、见证人。社会的丑恶证实了他接受的反面教育，高老头埋葬之日，也是拉斯蒂涅的青年时代结束之时。几条线索紧密交织、环环相扣、步步深入，起着互相深化、互为补充的作用，从而深刻地表现了作品的主题。
■对比手法的广泛运用
艺术上的对比手法在《高老头》中运用得十分广泛。伏盖公寓与鲍赛昂府的强烈对比，不仅促使拉斯蒂涅个人野心的猛烈膨胀，而且表明不管是赫赫声威的豪门大户还是穷酸暗淡的陋室客栈，一样充斥着拜金主义，一样存在着卑劣无耻。高贵庄重的鲍赛昂夫人与粗俗强悍的伏脱冷形成鲜明对比，一个文质彬彬，一个直言不讳，但不同的语言却又揭示了同样的道理，而他们两人看透社会的理论又与自己生活中的惨败成为反衬，更加深了悲剧的意味。此外，还有高老头女儿的穷奢极欲与高老头的贫苦窘困的对比，鲍赛昂夫人退隐时热闹的场面与凄凉心情的对比等等。这种鲜明对比的手法，使作品的主题更加鲜明突出。
高老头-巴尔扎克—文学上的拿破仑
巴尔扎克（ Honore de Balzac 1799 ～ 1850 ） 19 世纪法国伟大的批判现实主义作家，欧洲批判现实主义文学的奠基人和杰出代表。一生创作 96 部长、中、短篇小说和随笔，总名为《人间喜剧》。其中代表作为《欧也妮·葛朗台》、《高老头》。100 多年来，他的作品传遍了全世界，对世界文学的发展和人类进步产生了巨大的影响。马克思、恩格斯称赞他“是超群的小说家”、“现实主义大师”。
巴尔扎克 1799 年 5 月 20 日出生于一个法国大革命后致富的资产阶级家庭，法科学校毕业后，拒绝家庭为他选择的受人尊敬的法律职业，而立志当文学家。为了获得独立生活和从事创作的物质保障，他曾试笔并插足商业，从事出版印刷业，但都以破产告终。这一切都为他认识社会、描写社会提供了极为珍贵的第一手材料。他不断追求和探索，对哲学、经济学、历史、自然科学、神学等领域进行了深入研究，积累了极为广博的知识。
1829 年，巴尔扎克完成长篇小说《舒昂党人》，这部取材于现实生活的作品为他带来巨大声誉，也为法国批判现实主义文学放下第一块基石，巴尔扎克将《舒昂党人》和计划要写的一百四五十部小说总命名为《人间喜剧》，并为之写了《前言》，阐述了他的现实主义创作方法和基本原则，从理论上为法国批判现实主义文学奠定了基础。
长期的辛劳严重损害了巴尔扎克的健康，刚过50岁，他就重病缠身了。在巴尔扎克生命垂危时刻，他仍然沉浸在自己制造的世界里，他恳求医生延长他的生命，他就能再写出一部作品。 1850 年 8 月 18 日 晚上 11 点半 ，巴尔扎克永远闭上了他的那双洞察一切的眼睛，结束了他辛勤劳累的一生。
巴尔扎克在艺术上取得巨大成就，他在小说结构方面匠心独运，小说结构多种多样，不拘一格、并善于将集中概括与精确描摹相结合，以外形反映内心本质等手法来塑造人物，他还善于以精细人微、生动逼真的环境描写再现时代风貌。恩格斯称赞巴尔扎克的《人间喜剧》写出了贵族阶级的没落衰败和资产阶级的上升发展，提供了社会各个领域无比丰富的生动细节和形象化的历史材料，“甚至在经济的细节方面（如革命以后动产和不动产的重新分配），我学到的东西也要比从当时所有职业历史学家、经济学院和统计学家那里学到的全部东西还要多”。（恩格斯：《恩格斯致玛·哈克奈斯》）
巴尔扎克以自己的创作在世界文学史上树立起不朽的丰碑。他以对文学的热爱成就了一道美丽的文学风景！
Originally published in serial form during the winter of 1834–35, Le Père Goriot is widely considered Balzac's most important novel.[1] It marks the first serious use by the author of characters who had appeared in other books, a technique that distinguishes Balzac's fiction. The novel is also noted as an example of his realist style, using minute details to create character and subtext.
The novel takes place during the Bourbon Restoration, which brought about profound changes in French society; the struggle of individuals to secure upper-class status is ubiquitous in the book. The city of Paris also impresses itself on the characters – especially young Rastignac, who grew up in the provinces of southern France. Balzac analyzes, through Goriot and others, the nature of family and marriage, providing a pessimistic view of these institutions.
The novel was released to mixed reviews. Some critics praised the author for his complex characters and attention to detail; others condemned him for his many depictions of corruption and greed. A favorite of Balzac's, the book quickly won widespread popularity and has often been adapted for film and the stage. It gave rise to the French expression "Rastignac", a social climber willing to use any means to better his situation.
■著名译本
傅雷先生在1963年首译的《高老头》版本，人民文学出版社在1978年又重新出版，至今无人企及。
■有关于《人间喜剧》
巴尔扎克用总标题为《人间喜剧》的一系列小说，反映了急剧变革时期的法国生活。《人间喜剧》分为三大部分：风俗研究、哲理研究和分析研究；其中风俗研究内容最为丰富，又分为六个“场景”。其基本内容表现为：首先，反映了上升的资产阶级取代贵族阶级的罪恶发家史；同时也写出了贵族阶级的没落衰亡史，至为重要的内容是对金钱势力的批判，巴尔扎克描写了一幕幕围绕着金钱而展开的人间惨剧，从而使我们对资本主义社会的罪恶与肮脏有一个形象的认识。
高老头-【作者简介】
巴尔扎克是19世纪法国伟大的批判现实主义作家，欧洲批判现实主义文学的奠基人和杰出代表，是一位具有浓厚浪漫情调的伟大作家，一边因奢华的生活而负债累累，一边以崇高深刻的思想创作出博大精深的文学巨著。他
的生活趣事层出不穷，而作品更被誉为“法国社会的一面镜子”。在他逝世时，文学大师雨果曾站在法国巴黎的蒙蒙细雨中，面对成千上万哀悼者慷慨激昂地评价道：“在最伟大的人物中间，巴尔扎克是名列前茅者；在最优秀的人物中间，巴尔扎克是佼佼者。”
一生创作96部长、中、短篇小说和随笔，总名为《人间喜剧》。其中代表作为《欧也妮•葛朗台》、《高老头》。100多年来，他的作品传遍了全世界，对世界文学的发展和人类进步产生了巨大的影响。马克思、恩格斯称赞他“是超群的小说家”、“现实主义大师”。 巴尔扎克出生于一个法国大革命后致富的资产阶级家庭，法科学校毕业后，拒绝家庭为他选择的受人尊敬的法律职业，而立志当文学家。为了获得独立生活和从事创作的物质保障，他曾试笔并插足商业，从事出版印刷业，但都以破产告终。这一切都为他认识社会、描写社会提供了极为珍贵的第一手材料。他不断追求和探索，对哲学、经济学、历史、自然科学、神学等领域进行了深入研究，积累了极为广博的知识。 1829年，巴尔扎克完成长篇小说《朱安党人》，这部取材于现实生活的作品为他带来巨大声誉，也为法国批判现实主义文学放下第一块基石，巴尔扎克将《朱安党人》和计划要写的136部小说总命名为《人间喜剧》，并为之写了《前言》，阐述了他的现实主义创作方法和基本原则，从理论上为法国批判现实主义文学奠定了坚固的基础。 巴尔扎克在艺术上取得巨大成就，他在小说结构方面匠心独运，小说结构多种多样，不拘一格、并善于将集中概括与精确描摹相结合，以外形反映内心本质等手法来塑造人物，他还善于以精细人微、生动逼真的环境描写再现时代风貌。恩格斯称赞巴尔扎克的《人间喜剧》写出了贵族阶级的没落衰败和资产阶级的上升发展，提供了社会各个领域无比丰富的生动细节和形象化的历史材料，“甚至在经济的细节方面（如革命以后动产和不动产的重新分配），我学到的东西也要比从当时所有职业历史学家、经济学院和统计学家那里学到的全部东西还要多”。（恩格斯：《恩格斯致玛•哈克奈斯》） 巴尔扎克以自己的创作在世界文学史上树立起不朽的丰碑。
高老头-【作品目录】
共有六章，分别是：
第一章 伏盖公寓
第二章 两处访问
第三章 初见世面
第四章 鬼上当
第五章 两个女儿
第六章 父亲的死
高老头-【内容梗概】
1891年冬，在巴黎拉丁区有一个叫伏盖公寓包饭客房，是一个叫伏盖的美国老妇人开的。这里住着各种各样的人：有穷大学生拉斯蒂涅；歇业的面粉商人高里奥；外号叫“鬼上当”的伏脱冷；被大银行家赶出家门的泰伊番小姐；骨瘦如材的老处女米旭诺等。每逢开饭的时候，客店的饭厅就特别热闹，因为大家可以在一起取笑高老头。
69岁的高老头，6 年前结束了他的买卖后，住到了伏盖公寓。当时，分住在二楼一间最好的房间，每年交一千二百法朗的膳宿费，他衣着讲究，每天还请理发师来给他梳头发，连鼻烟匣都是金的，他算得上这所公寓里最体面的房客，人们都叫他高里奥先生。寡妇老板娘还向他搔首弄姿，想改嫁于他当一名本地区的阔太太。
高老头把他全部的爱都放在两个出嫁的女儿身上，不受伏盖太太的诱惑。第二年年末，高老头就要求换次等房间，并且整个冬天屋子里没有生火取暖，膳宿费也减为九百法郎。大家把他当作“恶癖、无耻、低能所产生的最神秘的人物”。常有两个贵夫妻来找他，以为他有艳遇，高老头告诉大家，那是他的女儿：雷斯多伯爵夫人和银行家纽沁根太太。第三年，高老头又要求换到最低等的房间每月房钱降为四十五法郎，他戒了鼻烟，批发了理发匠，金刚钻、金烟匣、金链条等饰物也不见了，人也越来越瘦，看上去活像一个可怜虫。伏盖太太也认为：要是高老头真有那么有钱的女儿，他决不会住在四楼最低等的房间。
可是，高老头这个谜终于被拉斯蒂涅揭开了。拉斯蒂涅是从外地来巴黎读大学的青年，出身破落贵族家庭，白皮肤、黑头发、蓝眼睛，热情而有才气，想做一个清廉正直的法官。但巴黎的豪华生活的刺激加强了他“对权位的欲望与出人头地的志愿”。他认为靠自己的勤奋学习求上进的路太艰苦，也太遥远，还不一定行得通，而现实社会依靠几个有钱的女人作进身的阶梯则容易得多，于是他想“去征服几个可以做他的后台的妇女”。由于姑母的引荐，他结识了远房表姐，巴黎社交界地位显赫的鲍赛昂子爵夫人。拉斯蒂涅很得意地向伏盖公寓的房客们讲了在舞会认识了伯爵夫人的事。高老头兴奋地问：“昨晚雷斯多太太很漂亮吗？” 公寓老板娘便认定高老头定是给那些婆娘弄穷的。拉斯蒂涅想弄清高老头和伯爵夫人的关系，决定去雷斯多伯爵夫人家。在伯爵夫人家他的寒酸相引起仆人轻蔑；接着他莽撞地冲进了一间浴室，大出洋相；后又到提到和高老头住在一起，却引起伯爵夫妇的不快，把他赶了出来。拉斯蒂涅十分懊恼，只好赶去向表姐求教。鲍赛昂夫人告诉他，雷斯多太太便是高里奥的女儿。
高老头是法国大革命时期起家的面粉商人，中年丧妻，他把自己所有的爱都倾注在两个女儿身上。为了让她们挤进上流社会，从小给她们良好的教育，出嫁时，给了她们每人80万法郎的陪嫁，让大女儿嫁给了雷斯多伯爵，做了贵妇人；小女儿嫁给银行家纽沁根，当了金融资产阶级阔太太。他以为女儿嫁了体面人家，自己便可以受到尊重、奉承。那知不到两年，女婿竟把他当作要不得的下流东西，把他赶出家门。高老头为了获得他们的好感，忍痛出卖了店铺，将钱一分为二给了两个女儿，自己便搬进了伏盖公寓。两个女儿只要爸爸的钱，可现在高老头已没钱了。
鲍赛昂夫人教导拉斯蒂涅社会又卑鄙又残忍，要他以牙还牙去对付这个社会。她说：“你越没有心肝，就越高升得快。你毫不留情的打击人家，人家就怕你。”“没有一个女人关切，他在这儿便一文不值，这女人还得年轻、有钱、漂亮。”按照表姐的指点，拉斯蒂涅决心去勾引高老头的二女儿妞沁根太太。
伏脱冷是个目光敏锐的人，看出拉斯蒂涅想往上爬的心思。他对拉斯蒂涅说：“在这个互相吞筮的社会里，清白老实一无用处，如果不像炮弹一样轰进去，就得像瘟疫一般钻进去，清白诚实是一无用处的。”他指点拉斯蒂涅去追求维多利小姐，他可以叫人杀死泰伊番小姐的哥哥，让她当上继承人，这样银行家的遗产就会落到拉斯蒂涅手中，只要给他二十万法郎作报酬。拉斯蒂涅虽然被伏脱冷的赤裸裸的言辞所打动，但又没敢答应下来。
拉斯蒂涅通过鲍赛昂夫人结识了纽沁根太太，而纽沁根太太并不是他想要追求的对象。她的丈夫在经济上对她控制很严，甚至要求拉斯蒂涅拿自己仅有的100 法郎去赌场替她赢6000法郎回来。于是拉斯蒂涅便转向
对泰伊番小姐的进攻。
这时伏脱冷已让同党寻衅跟泰伊番小姐的哥哥决头，并杀死了他。拉斯蒂涅矛盾重重，是爱维多利小姐呢，还是爱纽沁根太太呢？最后，他选择了后者，他想 “这样的结合既没有罪过，也没有什么能教最严格的道学家皱一皱眉头的地方。”
房客米旭诺老小姐，她接受了警察局暗探险的差使，刺探伏脱冷的身份。她在伏脱冷的饮料中下麻药，伏脱冷被醉倒不省人事。米旭诺脱下伏脱冷的外衣，在肩上打了一巴掌，鲜红的皮肤上立刻现出“苦役犯”的字样。当伏脱冷醒来时，警察已经包围了伏盖公寓。特务长打落了他的假发，伏脱冷全身的血立刻涌上了脸，眼睛像野猫一样发亮，他使出一股蛮劲，大吼一声，把所有的房客吓得大叫起来。暗探们一齐掏出手枪，伏脱冷一见亮晶晶的火门，突然变了面孔，镇静下来，主动把两只手伸上去。他承认自己叫雅克·柯冷，诨名“鬼上当”，被判过20年苦役，他被逮捕了。
高老头得知拉斯蒂涅爱自己的二女儿，想为拉斯蒂涅与女儿牵线搭桥，购买了一幢小楼，供他们幽会。一天，纽沁根太太急忙来找高老头，说明她丈夫同意让她和拉斯蒂涅来往，但她不能向他要回陪嫁钱，高老头要女儿不要接受这条件，“钱是性命，有了钱就有了一切。”这时，雷斯多夫人也来了。她哭着告诉父亲：她的丈夫用她卖掉了项链的钱去为情人还债，现在她的财产已差不多全部被夺走，她要父亲给她一万二千法郎去救她的情夫。两个女儿吵起嘴来，高老头爱莫能助，他急得晕过去，患了初期脑溢血症。
在他患病期间，两姐妹都没来看他一次，大女儿关心的是即将参加盼望已久的鲍赛昂夫人的舞会；二女儿来过一次，但不是来看父亲的病的，而是要父亲给她支付欠裁缝一千法郎的定钱。高老头被逼得付出了最后1 文钱，致使中风症猛发作。
鲍赛昂夫人举行盛大的舞会，场面非常壮观，公主、爵爷、名门闺秀都前来参加。500 多辆车上的灯烛照得屋内处处通明透亮。子爵夫人装束素雅，脸上没有表情，仿佛还保持着贵妇人的面目，而在她心目中，这座灿烂的宫殿已经变成一片沙漠，一回到内室，便禁不住泪水长流，周身发抖。舞会结束后，拉斯蒂涅目送表姐鲍赛昂夫人坐上轿车，同她作了最后一次告别。他感到“他的教育已经受完了”他认为自己 “入了地狱，而且还得呆下去”。
可怜的高老头快断气了，他还盼望着两个女儿能来见他一面。拉斯蒂涅差人去请他的两个女儿，两个女儿都推三阻四不来。老人每只眼中冒出一颗眼泪，滚在鲜红的眼皮边上，他长叹一声，说：“唉，爱了一辈子的女儿，到头来反给女儿遗弃！”
只有拉斯蒂涅张罗着高老头的丧事，两个女儿女婿只派了两驾空车跟在灵柩后面。棺木是由一个大学生向医院廉价买来的，送葬费由拉斯蒂涅卖掉金表支付的。他目睹这一幕幕悲剧，随着高老头的埋葬也埋葬了自己最后一滴同情的眼泪，他决心向社会挑战，“现在咱们俩来拼一拼吧！”
高老头-【思想感情】
《高老头》着重揭露批判的是资本主义世界中人与人之间赤裸裸的金钱关系。小说以1819年底到1820年初的巴黎为背景，主要写两个平行而又交叉的故事：退休面条商高里奥老头被两个女儿冷落，悲惨地死在伏盖公寓的阁楼上；青年拉斯蒂涅在巴黎社会的腐蚀下走上堕落之路。同时还穿插了鲍赛昂夫人和伏脱冷的故事。通过寒酸的
公寓和豪华的贵族沙龙这两个不断交替的主要舞台，作家描绘了一幅幅巴黎社会人欲横流、极端丑恶的图画，暴露了在金钱势力支配下资产阶级的道德沦丧和人与人之间的冷酷无情，揭示了在资产阶级的进攻下贵族阶级的必然灭亡，真实地反映了波旁王朝复辟时期的特征。
高老头-【写作背景】
19世纪上半叶是法国资本主义建立的初期，拿破仑在1815年的滑铁卢战役中彻底败北，由此波旁王朝复辟，统治一直延续到1830年。由于查理十世的反动政策激怒了人民，七月革命仅仅三天便推倒了复辟王朝，开始了长达18年的七月王朝的统治，由金融资产阶级掌握了政权。《欧也妮·葛朗台》发表于1833年，也即七月王朝初期。刚过去的复辟王朝在人们的头脑中还记忆犹新。复辟时期，贵族虽然从国外返回了法国，耀武扬威，不可一世，可是他们的实际地位与法国大革命以前不可同日而语，因为资产阶级已经强大起来。刚上台的路易十八不得不颁布新宪法，实行君主立宪，向资产阶级做出让步，以维护摇摇欲坠的政权。资产阶级虽然失去了政治权力，却凭借经济上的实力与贵族相抗衡。到了复辟王朝后期，资产阶级不仅在城市，而且在贵族保持广泛影响的农村，都把贵族打得落花流水。复辟王朝实际上大势已去。巴尔扎克比同时代作家更敏锐，独具慧眼地观察到这个重大社会现象。
高老头-【相关评论】
“《高老头》还成功地塑造了青年野心家拉斯蒂涅和没落贵夫人鲍赛昂的形象。前者原为一个外省贵族青年，想来巴黎进大学重振家业，但目睹上流社会的挥金如土、灯红酒绿，他往上爬的欲望倍增，
他在鲍赛昂子爵夫人和逃犯伏特冷的唆使下，日益丧失正直的良心，开始为金钱而出卖正直，特别见证了高老头的两个女儿对待父亲象榨干的柠檬一般以后，更坚定了向资产阶级的道路走去的决心。《高老头》中主要描写了他野心家性格形成的过程，在以后的一系列作品中他更一发不可收拾，靠出卖道德和良心竟当上了副国务秘书和贵族院议员，而一切的取得都依赖于极端利己主义原则。鲍赛昂子爵夫人是巴尔扎克为贵族阶级唱的一曲无尽的挽歌，她出身名门贵族，是巴黎社交界的皇后，只因缺乏金钱而被情人抛弃，被迫退出巴黎上流社会，高贵的门第再也敌不过金钱的势力，她在后来的小说中因为同样的原因又一次被金钱出卖。她的遭遇告诉人们，贵族阶级除了失败之外不可能有更好的命运，金钱才是这个世界的主宰。
《高老头》在艺术上很严谨，作者设置了典型环境，让典型人物活动于其中，使人与人的金钱关系与环境相契合，书中安排了四条情节线索，以拉斯蒂涅的堕落为主线，其它几条起辅助作用，纵横交错又脉络分明；典型人物的刻划是巴尔扎克的最大特色，不论是外貌描写还是心理刻划，甚至一个细节，如高老头每吃一块面包都要放在鼻下嗅一嗅，都使人物更鲜明生动；人物语言的个性化也是作者一大功力，贵族沙龙中的语言与逃犯的语言绝不一样。”
高老头-【精彩片段】
高老头临死前想见女儿一面,让人去叫他的女儿,可两个女儿谁也没来。
高里奥不出声了，仿佛集中全身的精力熬着痛苦。“她们在这儿，我不会叫苦了，干么还要叫苦呢？”他迷迷糊糊昏沉了好久。克利斯朵夫回来，拉斯蒂涅以为高老头睡熟了，让佣人高声回报他出差的情形。
“先生，我先上伯爵夫人家，可没法跟她说话，她和丈夫有要紧事儿。我再三央求，雷斯多先生亲自出来对我说：高里奥先生快死了是不是？哎，再好没有。我有事，要太太待在家里。事情完了，她会去的。——
他似乎很生气，这位先生。我正要出来，太太从一扇我看不见的门里走到穿堂，告诉我，你对我父亲说，我同丈夫正在商量事情，不能来。那是有关我孩子们生死的问题。但等事情一完，我就去看他。——说到男爵夫人吧，又是另外一桩事儿！我没有见到她，不能跟她说话。老妈子说她今儿早上五点一刻才从舞会回来，中午以前叫醒她，一定要挨骂的。等会她打铃明我，我会告诉她，说她父亲的病更重了。报告一件坏消息，不会嫌太晚的。我再三央求也没用。哎，是呀，我也要求见男爵，他不在家。”
“一个也不来”拉斯蒂捏嚷道，“让我写信给她们。”“一个也不来，”老人坐起来接着说，“她们有事，她们在睡觉，她们不会来的。我早知道了。直要临死才知道女儿是什么东西！朋友，你别结婚，别生孩子！你给他们生命，他们给你死。你带他们到世界上来，他们把你从世界上赶出去。她们不会来的！我已经知道了十年。有时我心里这么想，只是不敢相信。”
高老头死了，两个女儿谁也没有来，他的钱都给女儿花光了，到死连入殓的衣服都没有，是拉斯蒂涅卖了自己的表才给他入殓的。
拉斯蒂涅奔下楼梯，到雷斯多太太家去了。刚才那幕可怕的景象使他动了感情，一路义愤填胸。他走进穿堂求见雷斯多太太，人家回报说她不能见容。
他对当差说：“我是为了她马上要死的父亲来的。”“先生，伯爵再三吩咐我们……”“既然伯爵在家，那么告诉他，说他岳父快死了，我要立刻和他说话。”欧也纳等了好久。“说不定他就在这个时候死了，”他心里想。
当差带他走进第一窖室，雷斯多先生站在壁炉前面，见了客人也不请坐。“伯爵，”拉斯蒂涅说，“令岳在破烂的阁楼上就要断气了，连买木柴的钱也没有；他马上要死了，但等见一面女儿……”“先生，”伯爵冷冷的回答，“你大概可以看出，我对高里奥先生没有什么好感。他教坏了我太太，造成我家庭的不幸。我把他当做扰乱我安宁的敌人。他死也好，活也好，我全不在意。你瞧，这是我对他的情分。社会尽可以责备我，我才不在乎呢。我现在要处理的事，比顾虑那些傻瓜的阔言闲语紧要得多。至于我太太，她现在那个模样没法出门，我也不让她出门。请你告诉她父亲，只消她对我，对我的孩子，尽完了她的责任，她会去看他的。要是她爱她的父亲，几分钟内她就可以自由……”
“伯爵，我没有权利批评你的行为，你是你太太的主人。至少我能相信你是讲信义的吧？请
你答应我一件事，就是告诉她，说她父亲没有一天好活了，因为她不去送终，已经在咒她了！”雷斯多注意到欧也纳愤愤不平的语气，回答道：“你自己去说吧。”
拉斯蒂涅跟着伯爵走进伯爵夫人平时起坐的客厅。她泪人儿似的埋在沙发里，那副痛不欲生的模样叫他看了可怜。她不敢望拉斯蒂涅，先怯生生的瞧了瞧丈夫，眼睛的神气表示她精神肉体都被专横的丈夫压倒了。伯爵侧了侧脑袋，她才敢开口：“先生，我都听到了。告诉我父亲，他要知道我现在的处境，一定会原谅我。想不到要受这种刑罚简直受不了。可是我要反抗到底，”她对地的丈夫说。“我也有儿女。请你对父亲说，不管表面上怎么样，在父亲面前我并没有错，”她无可奈何的对欧也纳说。
那女的经历的苦难，欧也纳不难想象，便呆呆的走了出来。听到特·雷斯多先生的口吻，他知道自己白跑了一趟，阿娜斯大齐已经失去自由。
接着他赶到特·纽沁根太太家，发觉她还在床上。“我不舒服呀，朋友，”她说。“从跳舞会出来受了凉，我怕要害肺炎呢，我等医生来……”欧也纳打断了她的话，说道：“哪怕死神已经到了你身边，爬也得爬到你父亲跟前去。他在叫你！你要听到他一声，马上不觉得你自己害病了。”
“欧也纳，父亲的病也许不象你说的那么严重；可是我要在你眼里有什么不是，我才难过死呢；所以我一定听你的吩咐。我知道，倘若我这一回出去闹出一场大病来，父亲要伤心死的。我等医生来过了就走。”她一眼看不见欧也纳身上的表链，便叫道：“哟！怎么你的表没有啦？”欧也纳脸上红了一块。“欧也纳！欧也纳！倘使你已经把它卖了，丢了，……哦！那太岂有此理了。”
大学生伏在但斐纳床上，凑着她耳朵说：“你要知道么？哼！好，告诉你吧！你父亲一个钱没有了，今晚上要把他入硷的尸衣都没法买。你送我的表在当铺里，我钱都光了。”
但斐纳猛的从床上跳下，奔向书柜，抓起钱袋递给拉斯蒂捏，打着铃嚷道：“我去我去，欧也纳。让我穿衣服，我简直是禽兽了！去吧，我会赶在你前面！” 她回头叫老妈子：“丹兰士，请老爷立刻上来跟我说话。”
高老头-【艺术成就】
《高老头》集中表现了巴尔扎克现实主义创作艺术的主要特色。
■精细而富有特征的典型环境
巴尔扎克非常重视详细而逼真的环境描绘，一方面是为了再现生活，更重要的是为了刻画人物性格。作品围绕拉斯蒂涅的活动，描写了巴黎不同等级、不同阶层的人们的生活环境；拉丁区的伏盖公寓，形似牢狱的黄色屋
子，到处散发着“闭塞的、霉烂的、酸腐的气味”，塞满了肮脏油腻、残破丑陋的器皿和家具，这是下层人物的寄居之地。唐打区内高老头的两个女儿家里，虽有金碧辉煌的房子、贵重的器物，但“毫无气派的回廊”，挂满意大利油画的客厅却“装饰得像咖啡馆”，这显示了作为新贵的资产阶级暴发户们俗不可耐的排场。圣日尔曼区古老的鲍赛昂府则显示出完全不同的气派，院中套着精壮马匹的华丽马车，穿着金镶边大红制服的门丁，两边供满鲜花的大楼梯以及只有灰和粉红色的小巧玲珑的客室，这些精雅绝伦的陈设、别出心裁的布置都衬托出上流社会贵族“领袖”的风雅超群。这些精细而富有特征的环境描写，有利于展示其对人间性格形成的影响。当拉斯蒂涅从雷斯多夫人和鲍赛昂夫人两处访问后回到栖身的伏盖公寓时，作品写道：“走入气味难闻的饭厅，十八个食客好似马槽前的牲口一般正在吃饭。他觉得这副穷酸相跟饭厅的景象丑恶已极。环境转变太突兀了，对比太强烈了，格外刺激他的野心……”已经享受过上流社会生活的拉斯蒂涅再也不肯自甘贫贱，最后，他决心弄脏双手，抹黑良心，不顾一切地向上扑。拉斯蒂涅的堕落是这种特定的典型环境所决定的。
■人物性格的典型化
巴尔扎克不仅塑造了高里奥、拉斯蒂涅、鲍赛昂夫人、伏脱冷等典型形象，而且在其他人物形象的塑造中也做到了共性与个性的统一。雷斯多伯爵夫妇和纽沁根男爵夫妇虽然有贵族的头衔，实际上都是资产者。他们既有追求个人私利的共同特性，又都是独具个性的典型。银行家纽沁根心目中只有金钱，他对待妻子寻求外遇的态度很明朗：“我允许你胡搅，你也得让我犯罪，教那些可怜虫倾家荡产。”雷斯多伯爵对妻子的美着了迷，虽听凭她和玛克勾搭，却有一定限度，这和他的贵族门第观念有关。他知道妻子偷卖祖传钻石后，想方设法赎回，让她戴着参加舞会，以维护门第的尊严。
阿娜斯塔齐和但斐那都是高老头的女儿，但两姊妹各有自己的个性。前者身材高大、结实、黑发，眼睛炯炯有神，进宫谒见过皇上，不把妹妹放在眼里。后者娇小、金发，极有风韵，自知社会地位不高，陪嫁被丈夫侵占，又遭情夫遗弃，性格忧郁善感，经常怀念童年时代的幸福生活。但她们俩都是虚荣心极强的利己主义者，为了满足欲望，不惜榨干父亲的积蓄。阿娜斯塔齐向父亲要钱，往往用勒索的方法，但斐那则用撒娇哄骗的办法。
■精致的结构
小说以高老头和拉斯蒂涅的故事为两条主要线索，又穿插了伏脱冷、鲍赛昂夫人的故事。几条线索错综交织，头绪看似纷繁而实际主次分明、脉络清楚、有条不紊。作品以叙述高老头被女儿榨干
钱财遭抛弃为中心情节，以拉斯蒂涅为中心人物，通过他的活动穿针引线，将上层社会与下层社会联系起来，将贵族沙龙与资产者客厅连结起来。随着高老头之谜在拉斯蒂涅眼前展现、解开，情节步步推向高潮。伏脱冷被捕、鲍赛昂夫人被弃、高老头惨死，拉斯蒂涅都是目睹者、见证人。社会的丑恶证实了他接受的反面教育，高老头埋葬之日，也是拉斯蒂涅的青年时代结束之时。几条线索紧密交织、环环相扣、步步深入，起着互相深化、互为补充的作用，从而深刻地表现了作品的主题。
■对比手法的广泛运用
艺术上的对比手法在《高老头》中运用得十分广泛。伏盖公寓与鲍赛昂府的强烈对比，不仅促使拉斯蒂涅个人野心的猛烈膨胀，而且表明不管是赫赫声威的豪门大户还是穷酸暗淡的陋室客栈，一样充斥着拜金主义，一样存在着卑劣无耻。高贵庄重的鲍赛昂夫人与粗俗强悍的伏脱冷形成鲜明对比，一个文质彬彬，一个直言不讳，但不同的语言却又揭示了同样的道理，而他们两人看透社会的理论又与自己生活中的惨败成为反衬，更加深了悲剧的意味。此外，还有高老头女儿的穷奢极欲与高老头的贫苦窘困的对比，鲍赛昂夫人退隐时热闹的场面与凄凉心情的对比等等。这种鲜明对比的手法，使作品的主题更加鲜明突出。
高老头-巴尔扎克—文学上的拿破仑
巴尔扎克（ Honore de Balzac 1799 ～ 1850 ） 19 世纪法国伟大的批判现实主义作家，欧洲批判现实主义文学的奠基人和杰出代表。一生创作 96 部长、中、短篇小说和随笔，总名为《人间喜剧》。其中代表作为《欧也妮·葛朗台》、《高老头》。100 多年来，他的作品传遍了全世界，对世界文学的发展和人类进步产生了巨大的影响。马克思、恩格斯称赞他“是超群的小说家”、“现实主义大师”。
巴尔扎克 1799 年 5 月 20 日出生于一个法国大革命后致富的资产阶级家庭，法科学校毕业后，拒绝家庭为他选择的受人尊敬的法律职业，而立志当文学家。为了获得独立生活和从事创作的物质保障，他曾试笔并插足商业，从事出版印刷业，但都以破产告终。这一切都为他认识社会、描写社会提供了极为珍贵的第一手材料。他不断追求和探索，对哲学、经济学、历史、自然科学、神学等领域进行了深入研究，积累了极为广博的知识。
1829 年，巴尔扎克完成长篇小说《舒昂党人》，这部取材于现实生活的作品为他带来巨大声誉，也为法国批判现实主义文学放下第一块基石，巴尔扎克将《舒昂党人》和计划要写的一百四五十部小说总命名为《人间喜剧》，并为之写了《前言》，阐述了他的现实主义创作方法和基本原则，从理论上为法国批判现实主义文学奠定了基础。
长期的辛劳严重损害了巴尔扎克的健康，刚过50岁，他就重病缠身了。在巴尔扎克生命垂危时刻，他仍然沉浸在自己制造的世界里，他恳求医生延长他的生命，他就能再写出一部作品。 1850 年 8 月 18 日 晚上 11 点半 ，巴尔扎克永远闭上了他的那双洞察一切的眼睛，结束了他辛勤劳累的一生。
巴尔扎克在艺术上取得巨大成就，他在小说结构方面匠心独运，小说结构多种多样，不拘一格、并善于将集中概括与精确描摹相结合，以外形反映内心本质等手法来塑造人物，他还善于以精细人微、生动逼真的环境描写再现时代风貌。恩格斯称赞巴尔扎克的《人间喜剧》写出了贵族阶级的没落衰败和资产阶级的上升发展，提供了社会各个领域无比丰富的生动细节和形象化的历史材料，“甚至在经济的细节方面（如革命以后动产和不动产的重新分配），我学到的东西也要比从当时所有职业历史学家、经济学院和统计学家那里学到的全部东西还要多”。（恩格斯：《恩格斯致玛·哈克奈斯》）
巴尔扎克以自己的创作在世界文学史上树立起不朽的丰碑。他以对文学的热爱成就了一道美丽的文学风景！
Originally published in serial form during the winter of 1834–35, Le Père Goriot is widely considered Balzac's most important novel.[1] It marks the first serious use by the author of characters who had appeared in other books, a technique that distinguishes Balzac's fiction. The novel is also noted as an example of his realist style, using minute details to create character and subtext.
The novel takes place during the Bourbon Restoration, which brought about profound changes in French society; the struggle of individuals to secure upper-class status is ubiquitous in the book. The city of Paris also impresses itself on the characters – especially young Rastignac, who grew up in the provinces of southern France. Balzac analyzes, through Goriot and others, the nature of family and marriage, providing a pessimistic view of these institutions.
The novel was released to mixed reviews. Some critics praised the author for his complex characters and attention to detail; others condemned him for his many depictions of corruption and greed. A favorite of Balzac's, the book quickly won widespread popularity and has often been adapted for film and the stage. It gave rise to the French expression "Rastignac", a social climber willing to use any means to better his situation.
《唐·吉诃德》是16世纪西班牙伟大作家塞万提斯的代表作，是文艺复兴时期欧洲第一部现实主义小说。 小说写的是唐·吉诃德因看骑士小说入迷，自诩为游侠骑士，要遍游世界去除强扶弱，维护正义。带着幻想中的骑士狂热，把风车当成巨人，把穷客店当成豪华的城堡，把理发时的铜盆当做魔法师的头盔，把羊群当做军队……他出于善良的动机，往往得到相反的结果。最终受尽挫折，一事无成，回乡郁郁而死。
作者以讽刺夸张的艺术手法，通过唐·吉诃德荒诞离奇的游侠行径，巧妙地把苦难中的16世纪末、17世纪初的西班牙社会展现在读者面前，以史诗般的规模描绘了这个时代的广阔画面，有力地抨击了西班牙社会的黑暗。
唐·吉诃德[小说]-可笑的疯子，可悲的英雄
唐·吉诃德是个疯子，但是个高贵的疯子，他的悲剧正是所有人文主义者的悲剧，想要凭一己之力量去改造社会。他对生活中的一切邪恶只有一个决断——战斗。他的憨直正像他那用来树立人间正义的长矛一样，无私无畏，人们笑他傻笑他痴，虽屡战屡败，却仍勇往直前。当谈到骑士小说时，他的行为固然滑稽可笑，但只要不涉及骑士道，我们不得不敬重他的光明磊落、正直勇敢，不得不钦佩他的学识，对他的所受挫折也不由得洒一掬同情之泪。
《唐·吉诃德》的创作过程及意义
16、17世纪之交，西班牙骑士小说泛滥，它用虚构的情节、幻想的故事，招揽读者，毒害西班牙人民的精神。塞万提斯就是要“把骑士小说的那一套扫除干净”。1602年他开始动笔创作《唐·吉诃德》，小说出版后风靡一时。《唐·吉诃德》以史诗般的规模，真实地反映了16、17世纪之交的西班牙社会现实，揭露了正走向衰落的西班牙王国的种种矛盾。但小说的反封建、反教会的倾向性和对骑士文学的嘲讽，引起了保守分子的仇恨。1614年有人化名阿隆索·费尔南德斯·阿维利亚纳达出版《唐·吉诃德续集》，对原作的主题和形象大加歪曲。塞万提斯非常气愤，加紧赶写，于1615年出版了真正的《唐·吉诃德》第二卷。
唐·吉诃德是一个夸张式的理想化人物，塞万提斯在塑造唐·吉诃德典型形象时，倾注了自己的理想和感情。他说：“唐·吉诃德专为我而生，我此生也只是为了他。”
Published in two volumes a decade apart (in 1605 and 1615), Don Quixote is the most influential work of literature to emerge from the Spanish Golden Age and the entire Spanish literary canon. As a founding work of modern Western literature, it regularly appears high on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published.
The novel's structure is in episodic form. It is written in the picaresco style of the late sixteenth century. The full title is indicative of the tale's object, as ingenioso (Spanish) means "to be quick with inventiveness".[2] Although the novel is farcical on the surface, the second half is more serious and philosophical about the theme of deception. Quixote has served as an important thematic source not only in literature but in much of art and music, inspiring works by Pablo Picasso and Richard Strauss. The contrasts between the tall, thin, fancy-struck, and idealistic Quixote and the fat, squat, world-weary Panza is a motif echoed ever since the book’s publication, and Don Quixote's imaginings are the butt of outrageous and cruel practical jokes in the novel. Even faithful and simple Sancho is unintentionally forced to deceive him at certain points. The novel is considered a satire of orthodoxy, veracity, and even nationalism. In going beyond mere storytelling to exploring the individualism of his characters, Cervantes helped move beyond the narrow literary conventions of the chivalric romance literature that he spoofed, which consists of straightforward retelling of a series of acts that redound to the knightly virtues of the hero.
Farce makes use of punning and similar verbal playfulness. Character-naming in Don Quixote makes ample figural use of contradiction, inversion, and irony, such as the names Rocinante[3] (a reversal) and Dulcinea (an allusion to illusion), and the word quixote itself, possibly a pun on quijada (jaw) but certainly cuixot (Catalan: thighs), a reference to a horse's rump.[4] As a military term, the word quijote refers to cuisses, part of a full suit of plate armour protecting the thighs. The Spanish suffix -ote denotes the superlative—for example, grande means large, but grandote means extra large. Following this example, Quixote would suggest 'The Great Quijano', a play on words that makes much sense in light of the character's delusions of grandeur.
The world of ordinary people, from shepherds to tavern-owners and inn-keepers, which figures in Don Quixote, was groundbreaking. The character of Don Quixote became so well-known in its time that the word quixotic was quickly adopted by many languages. Characters such as Sancho Panza and Don Quixote’s steed, Rocinante, are emblems of Western literary culture. The phrase "tilting at windmills" to describe an act of attacking imaginary enemies derives from an iconic scene in the book.
Because of its widespread influence, Don Quixote also helped cement the modern Spanish language. The opening sentence of the book created a classic Spanish cliché with the phrase de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, "whose name I do not care to recall."
En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no hace mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor.
[Translation] In a place of La Mancha, whose name I would not like to remember, there lived, not very long ago, one of those gentlemen who keep a lance in the lance-rack, an ancient shield, a skinny old horse, and a fast greyhound.
Plot summary
Alonso Quixano, a retired country gentleman in his fifties, lives in an unnamed section of La Mancha with his niece and a housekeeper. He has become obsessed with books of chivalry, and believes their every word to be true, despite the fact that many of the events in them are clearly impossible. Quixano eventually appears to other people to have lost his mind from little sleep and food and because of so much reading.
First quest
Gustave Doré: Don Quixote de La Mancha and Sancho Panza, 1863
He decides to go out as a knight-errant in search of adventure. He dons an old suit of armor, renames himself "Don Quixote de la Mancha," and names his skinny horse "Rocinante." He designates a neighboring farm girl, Aldonza Lorenzo, as his lady love, renaming her Dulcinea del Toboso, while she knows nothing about this.
He sets out in the early morning and ends up at an inn, which he believes to be a castle. He asks the innkeeper, who he thinks to be the lord of the castle, to dub him a knight. He spends the night holding vigil over his armor, where he becomes involved in a fight with muleteers who try to remove his armor from the horse trough so that they can water their mules. The innkeeper then "dubs" him a knight, and sends him on his way. He frees a young boy who is tied to a tree by his master, because the boy had the audacity to ask his master for the wages the boy had earned but had not yet been paid (who is promptly beaten as soon as Quixote leaves). Don Quixote has a run-in with traders from Toledo, who "insult" the imaginary Dulcinea, one of which severely beats Don Quixote and leaves him on the side of the road. Don Quixote is found and returned to his home by a neighboring peasant, Pedro Crespo.[5]
Second quest
Don Quixote plots an escape. Meanwhile, his niece, the housekeeper, the parish curate, and the local barber secretly burn most of the books of chivalry, and seal up his library pretending that a magician has carried it off. Don Quixote approaches another neighbor, Sancho Panza, and asks him to be his squire, promising him governorship of an island. The dull-witted Sancho agrees, and the pair sneak off in the early dawn. It is here that their series of famous adventures begin, starting with Don Quixote's attack on windmills that he believes to be ferocious giants.
In the course of their travels, the protagonists meet innkeepers, prostitutes, goatherds, soldiers, priests, escaped convicts, and scorned lovers. These encounters are magnified by Don Quixote’s imagination into chivalrous quests. The Don’s tendency to intervene violently in matters which don’t concern him, and his habit of not paying his debts, result in many privations, injuries, and humiliations (with Sancho often getting the worst of it). Finally, Don Quixote is persuaded to return to his home village. The author hints that there was a third quest, but says that records of it have been lost.
Part Two
Although the two parts are now normally published as a single work, Don Quixote, Part Two was actually a sequel published ten years after the original novel. Don Quixote and Sancho are now assumed to be famous throughout the land because of the adventures recounted in Part One. While Part One was mostly farcical, the second half is more serious and philosophical about the theme of deception. Don Quixote's imaginings are made the butt of outrageously cruel practical jokes carried out by wealthy patrons. Even Sancho is unintentionally forced to deceive him at one point. Trapped into finding Dulcinea, Sancho brings back three dirty and ragged peasant girls, and tells Quixote that they are Dulcinea and her ladies-in-waiting. When Don Quixote only sees the peasant girls, Sancho pretends that Quixote suffers from a cruel spell which does not permit him to see the truth. Sancho eventually gets his imaginary island governorship and unexpectedly proves to be wise and practical; though this, too, ends in disaster.
Conclusion
Don Quixote, his horse Rocinante and his squire Sancho Panza after an unsuccessful attack on a windmill. By Gustave Doré
The cruel practical jokes eventually lead Don Quixote to a great melancholy. The novel ends with Don Quixote regaining his full sanity, and renouncing all chivalry. But, the melancholy remains, and grows worse. Sancho tries to restore his faith, but his attempt to resurrect Alonso's quixotic alter-ego fails, and Alonso Quixano dies, sane and broken.
Other stories
Both parts of Don Quixote contain a number of stories which do not directly involve the two main characters, but which are narrated by some of the picaresque figures encountered by the Don and Sancho during their travels. One of the most famous, known as "The Curious Impertinent," is found in Part One, Book Three. This story, read to a group of travelers at an inn, tells of a Florentine nobleman, Anselmo, who becomes obsessed with testing his wife's fidelity, and talks his close friend Lothario into attempting to seduce her, with disastrous results for all.
Several abridged editions have been published which delete some or all of the extra tales in order to concentrate on the central narrative.
作者以讽刺夸张的艺术手法，通过唐·吉诃德荒诞离奇的游侠行径，巧妙地把苦难中的16世纪末、17世纪初的西班牙社会展现在读者面前，以史诗般的规模描绘了这个时代的广阔画面，有力地抨击了西班牙社会的黑暗。
唐·吉诃德[小说]-可笑的疯子，可悲的英雄
唐·吉诃德是个疯子，但是个高贵的疯子，他的悲剧正是所有人文主义者的悲剧，想要凭一己之力量去改造社会。他对生活中的一切邪恶只有一个决断——战斗。他的憨直正像他那用来树立人间正义的长矛一样，无私无畏，人们笑他傻笑他痴，虽屡战屡败，却仍勇往直前。当谈到骑士小说时，他的行为固然滑稽可笑，但只要不涉及骑士道，我们不得不敬重他的光明磊落、正直勇敢，不得不钦佩他的学识，对他的所受挫折也不由得洒一掬同情之泪。
《唐·吉诃德》的创作过程及意义
16、17世纪之交，西班牙骑士小说泛滥，它用虚构的情节、幻想的故事，招揽读者，毒害西班牙人民的精神。塞万提斯就是要“把骑士小说的那一套扫除干净”。1602年他开始动笔创作《唐·吉诃德》，小说出版后风靡一时。《唐·吉诃德》以史诗般的规模，真实地反映了16、17世纪之交的西班牙社会现实，揭露了正走向衰落的西班牙王国的种种矛盾。但小说的反封建、反教会的倾向性和对骑士文学的嘲讽，引起了保守分子的仇恨。1614年有人化名阿隆索·费尔南德斯·阿维利亚纳达出版《唐·吉诃德续集》，对原作的主题和形象大加歪曲。塞万提斯非常气愤，加紧赶写，于1615年出版了真正的《唐·吉诃德》第二卷。
唐·吉诃德是一个夸张式的理想化人物，塞万提斯在塑造唐·吉诃德典型形象时，倾注了自己的理想和感情。他说：“唐·吉诃德专为我而生，我此生也只是为了他。”
Published in two volumes a decade apart (in 1605 and 1615), Don Quixote is the most influential work of literature to emerge from the Spanish Golden Age and the entire Spanish literary canon. As a founding work of modern Western literature, it regularly appears high on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published.
The novel's structure is in episodic form. It is written in the picaresco style of the late sixteenth century. The full title is indicative of the tale's object, as ingenioso (Spanish) means "to be quick with inventiveness".[2] Although the novel is farcical on the surface, the second half is more serious and philosophical about the theme of deception. Quixote has served as an important thematic source not only in literature but in much of art and music, inspiring works by Pablo Picasso and Richard Strauss. The contrasts between the tall, thin, fancy-struck, and idealistic Quixote and the fat, squat, world-weary Panza is a motif echoed ever since the book’s publication, and Don Quixote's imaginings are the butt of outrageous and cruel practical jokes in the novel. Even faithful and simple Sancho is unintentionally forced to deceive him at certain points. The novel is considered a satire of orthodoxy, veracity, and even nationalism. In going beyond mere storytelling to exploring the individualism of his characters, Cervantes helped move beyond the narrow literary conventions of the chivalric romance literature that he spoofed, which consists of straightforward retelling of a series of acts that redound to the knightly virtues of the hero.
Farce makes use of punning and similar verbal playfulness. Character-naming in Don Quixote makes ample figural use of contradiction, inversion, and irony, such as the names Rocinante[3] (a reversal) and Dulcinea (an allusion to illusion), and the word quixote itself, possibly a pun on quijada (jaw) but certainly cuixot (Catalan: thighs), a reference to a horse's rump.[4] As a military term, the word quijote refers to cuisses, part of a full suit of plate armour protecting the thighs. The Spanish suffix -ote denotes the superlative—for example, grande means large, but grandote means extra large. Following this example, Quixote would suggest 'The Great Quijano', a play on words that makes much sense in light of the character's delusions of grandeur.
The world of ordinary people, from shepherds to tavern-owners and inn-keepers, which figures in Don Quixote, was groundbreaking. The character of Don Quixote became so well-known in its time that the word quixotic was quickly adopted by many languages. Characters such as Sancho Panza and Don Quixote’s steed, Rocinante, are emblems of Western literary culture. The phrase "tilting at windmills" to describe an act of attacking imaginary enemies derives from an iconic scene in the book.
Because of its widespread influence, Don Quixote also helped cement the modern Spanish language. The opening sentence of the book created a classic Spanish cliché with the phrase de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, "whose name I do not care to recall."
En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no hace mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor.
[Translation] In a place of La Mancha, whose name I would not like to remember, there lived, not very long ago, one of those gentlemen who keep a lance in the lance-rack, an ancient shield, a skinny old horse, and a fast greyhound.
Plot summary
Alonso Quixano, a retired country gentleman in his fifties, lives in an unnamed section of La Mancha with his niece and a housekeeper. He has become obsessed with books of chivalry, and believes their every word to be true, despite the fact that many of the events in them are clearly impossible. Quixano eventually appears to other people to have lost his mind from little sleep and food and because of so much reading.
First quest
Gustave Doré: Don Quixote de La Mancha and Sancho Panza, 1863
He decides to go out as a knight-errant in search of adventure. He dons an old suit of armor, renames himself "Don Quixote de la Mancha," and names his skinny horse "Rocinante." He designates a neighboring farm girl, Aldonza Lorenzo, as his lady love, renaming her Dulcinea del Toboso, while she knows nothing about this.
He sets out in the early morning and ends up at an inn, which he believes to be a castle. He asks the innkeeper, who he thinks to be the lord of the castle, to dub him a knight. He spends the night holding vigil over his armor, where he becomes involved in a fight with muleteers who try to remove his armor from the horse trough so that they can water their mules. The innkeeper then "dubs" him a knight, and sends him on his way. He frees a young boy who is tied to a tree by his master, because the boy had the audacity to ask his master for the wages the boy had earned but had not yet been paid (who is promptly beaten as soon as Quixote leaves). Don Quixote has a run-in with traders from Toledo, who "insult" the imaginary Dulcinea, one of which severely beats Don Quixote and leaves him on the side of the road. Don Quixote is found and returned to his home by a neighboring peasant, Pedro Crespo.[5]
Second quest
Don Quixote plots an escape. Meanwhile, his niece, the housekeeper, the parish curate, and the local barber secretly burn most of the books of chivalry, and seal up his library pretending that a magician has carried it off. Don Quixote approaches another neighbor, Sancho Panza, and asks him to be his squire, promising him governorship of an island. The dull-witted Sancho agrees, and the pair sneak off in the early dawn. It is here that their series of famous adventures begin, starting with Don Quixote's attack on windmills that he believes to be ferocious giants.
In the course of their travels, the protagonists meet innkeepers, prostitutes, goatherds, soldiers, priests, escaped convicts, and scorned lovers. These encounters are magnified by Don Quixote’s imagination into chivalrous quests. The Don’s tendency to intervene violently in matters which don’t concern him, and his habit of not paying his debts, result in many privations, injuries, and humiliations (with Sancho often getting the worst of it). Finally, Don Quixote is persuaded to return to his home village. The author hints that there was a third quest, but says that records of it have been lost.
Part Two
Although the two parts are now normally published as a single work, Don Quixote, Part Two was actually a sequel published ten years after the original novel. Don Quixote and Sancho are now assumed to be famous throughout the land because of the adventures recounted in Part One. While Part One was mostly farcical, the second half is more serious and philosophical about the theme of deception. Don Quixote's imaginings are made the butt of outrageously cruel practical jokes carried out by wealthy patrons. Even Sancho is unintentionally forced to deceive him at one point. Trapped into finding Dulcinea, Sancho brings back three dirty and ragged peasant girls, and tells Quixote that they are Dulcinea and her ladies-in-waiting. When Don Quixote only sees the peasant girls, Sancho pretends that Quixote suffers from a cruel spell which does not permit him to see the truth. Sancho eventually gets his imaginary island governorship and unexpectedly proves to be wise and practical; though this, too, ends in disaster.
Conclusion
Don Quixote, his horse Rocinante and his squire Sancho Panza after an unsuccessful attack on a windmill. By Gustave Doré
The cruel practical jokes eventually lead Don Quixote to a great melancholy. The novel ends with Don Quixote regaining his full sanity, and renouncing all chivalry. But, the melancholy remains, and grows worse. Sancho tries to restore his faith, but his attempt to resurrect Alonso's quixotic alter-ego fails, and Alonso Quixano dies, sane and broken.
Other stories
Both parts of Don Quixote contain a number of stories which do not directly involve the two main characters, but which are narrated by some of the picaresque figures encountered by the Don and Sancho during their travels. One of the most famous, known as "The Curious Impertinent," is found in Part One, Book Three. This story, read to a group of travelers at an inn, tells of a Florentine nobleman, Anselmo, who becomes obsessed with testing his wife's fidelity, and talks his close friend Lothario into attempting to seduce her, with disastrous results for all.
Several abridged editions have been published which delete some or all of the extra tales in order to concentrate on the central narrative.
《简·爱》是英国十九世纪著名的女作家夏洛蒂·勃朗特的代表作，人们普遍认为《简·爱》是夏洛蒂·勃朗特“诗意的生平”的写照，是一部具有自传色彩的作品。夏洛蒂·勃朗特、艾米莉·勃朗特、安妮·勃朗特和勃朗宁夫人构成那个时代英国妇女最高荣誉的完美的三位一体。
《简·爱》是一部带有自传色彩的长篇小说，它阐释了这样一个主题：人的价值＝尊严＋爱。《简·爱》刚出版时,作者夏洛蒂勃朗特用的笔名是柯勒贝尔。以至于之后她的姐妹们出的书都被误认为是她写的。好在她之后亲自在《简·爱》再版时澄清事实。
《简·爱》的作者夏洛蒂·勃朗特和《呼啸山庄》的作者艾米莉是姐妹。虽然两人生活在同一社会，家庭环境中，性格却大不相同，夏洛蒂.勃朗特显得更加的温柔，更加的清纯，更加的喜欢追求一些美好的东西，尽管她家境贫穷，从小失去了母爱，父爱也很少，再加上她身材矮小，容貌不美，但也许就是这样一种灵魂深处的很深的自卑，反映在她的性格上就是一种非常敏感的自尊，以自尊作为她内心深处的自卑的补偿。她描写的简。爱也是一个不美的，矮小的女人，但是她有着极其强烈的自尊心。她坚定不移地去追求一种光明的，圣洁的，美好的生活。
《简·爱》-故事梗概
简·爱的父亲是个穷牧师，当她还在幼年时，父母就染病双双去世。简·爱被送到盖茨海德庄园的舅母里德太太家抚养，里德先生临死前曾嘱咐妻子好好照顾简·爱。简·爱在里德太太家的地位，连使女都不如，受尽了表兄表姊妹的欺侮。一天表兄又打她了，她回手反抗，却被舅母关进红房子里，她的舅舅里德先生就死在这间屋子里。她被幻想中的鬼魂吓昏了过去。重病一场，过了很久才慢慢恢复健康。
她再也不想呆在里德太太家了，里德太太就把她送进达罗沃德孤儿院。孤儿院院长是个冷酷的伪君子，他用种种办法从精神和肉体上摧残孤儿。简与孤儿海伦结成好友，教师潭泊尔小姐很关心她。在孤儿院里一场传染性的伤寒，夺走了许多降儿的生命，海伦就在这场伤寒中死去，这对简·爱 打击很大。
简毕业后留校当了两年教师，她受不了那里的孤寂、冷漠，登广告找到了一个家庭教师的工作，于是她来到了桑费尔德庄园。在桑费尔德庄园只有庄园主罗彻斯特和他的私生女阿戴尔·瓦伦斯，而罗彻斯特经常到国外旅行，所以简到桑费尔德好几天，也没见到罗彻斯特。
一天黄昏，简外出散步，惊了刚刚从外面回来的罗彻斯特的马，罗彻斯特从马上摔了下来，简急忙上前去扶他，回到家后简才知道他便是庄园主罗彻斯特。罗彻斯特是个性格阴郁而又喜怒无常的人，他和简经常为某种思想新辩论不休。
在桑费尔德庄园不断发生奇怪的事情。有一天夜里，简被一阵奇怪的笑声惊醒，发现罗彻斯特的房门开着，床上着了火，她叫醒罗彻斯特并扑灭火。罗彻斯特告诉简三楼住着一个女栽缝格雷斯·普尔，她神精错乱，时常发出令人毛骨悚然的狂笑声，并要她对此事严守秘密。
罗彻斯特经常参加舞会，一天他把客人请到家里来玩，人们都以为在这场舞会上罗彻斯特会向布兰奇小姐求婚。在宴会上罗彻斯特坚持要简也到客厅里去，客人们对简的太度十分轻慢，罗彻却邀请简跳舞，简感觉到自己对罗彻斯特发生感情。
一天，罗彻斯特外出，家里来了一个蒙着盖头的吉卜赛人。当轮到给简算命时，简发现这个神秘的吉卜赛人就是罗彻斯特，他想借此试探简对他的感情。这时庄园里又来了个名梅森的陌生人，当晚他被三楼的神秘女人咬伤了，简帮罗彻斯特把他秘密送走。
不久，里德太太派人来找简，说她病危要见简一面。回到舅母家中，里德太太给她一封信，这封信是三年前简的叔父寄来的，向她打听侄女的消息，并把自己的遗产交给简。里德太太谎称简在孤儿院病死了，直到临终前才良心发现把真相告诉简。
简又回到桑费尔德庄园感觉像回到家一样。回来后，罗彻斯特向她未婚，简答应了，并高兴地准备婚礼。婚礼前夜，简从梦中惊醒，看到一个身材高大、面目可憎的女人正在戴她的婚纱，然后把婚纱撕成碎片。罗彻斯特告诉她那不过是一个梦，第二天当简醒来时发现婚纱真的成了碎片。
婚礼如期举行，一位不速之客闯进了教堂，声称婚礼不能进行，他说罗彻斯特15 年前娶梅森先生的妹妹伯莎·梅森为妻。罗彻斯特承认了这一事实，并领人们看被关在三楼的疯女人，那就是他的合法妻子。她有遗传性精神病史，就是她在罗彻斯特的房间放火，也是她撕碎简的婚纱。
简悲痛欲绝地离开了桑费尔德庄园。她的仅有的积蓄花光了，沿途乞讨，最后晕倒在牧师圣约翰家门前，被圣约翰和他的两个妹妹救了。简住了下来，圣约翰为她谋了一个乡村教师的职位。
不久，圣约翰接到家庭律师的通知，说他的舅舅约翰简去世了，留给简二万英镑，要圣约翰帮助寻找简。圣约翰发现简是他的表妹，简执意要与他们分享遗产。圣约翰准备去印度传教，临行前向简求婚，但他坦率地告诉她，他要娶她并不是因为爱她，而是他需要一个很有教养的助手。简觉得应该报答他的恩情，但迟迟不肯答应他。当夜，圣约翰在荒原上等待简的答复，就在简要作出决定的时候，她仿佛听到罗彻斯特在遥远的地方呼喊她的名字“简，回来吧！简，回来吧！”她决定回到罗彻斯特身边。
当简回到桑费尔德庄园时，整个庄园变成一片废墟。原来几个月前，在一个风雨交加的夜晚，疯女人伯莎放火烧毁了整个庄园，罗彻斯特为了救她，被烧瞎了双眼，孤独地生活在几英里外的一个农场里。简赶到家场，向他吐露自己的爱情，他们终于结婚了。 两年之后，治好了罗彻斯特的一只眼睛，他看到了简为他生的第一个孩子。
《简·爱》-小说评价
《简·爱》是一本具有多年历史的文学著作。至今已152年的历史了，它成功地塑造了英国文学史中第一个对爱情、生活、社会以及宗教都采取了独立自主的积极进取态度和敢于斗争、敢于争取自由平等地位的女性形象。
《简·爱》是一部带有自转色彩的长篇小说，是英国十九世纪著名三姐妹作家之一的夏洛蒂·勃朗特所著。这是一本用自己的心与强烈的精神追求铸炼成的一本书，含着作者无限的情感和个性魅力，为女性赢得了一片灿烂的天空。
简. 爱生存在一个父母双亡，寄人篱下的环境，从小就承受着与同龄人不一样的待遇，姨妈的嫌弃，表姐的蔑视，表哥的侮辱和毒打。这是对一个孩子的尊严的无情践踏，然而幸运的是在极其刻薄的寄宿学校的生活中，简·爱遇到了一个可爱的朋友：海伦·彭斯,海伦温顺、聪颖和无比宽容的性格一直影响着简.爱，使之以后面对种种困难都不再屈服抱怨，懂得了爱和忠诚。
在罗切斯特的面前,她从不因为自己是一个地位低贱的家庭教师而感到自卑，反而认为他们是平等的。不应该因为她是仆人，而不能受到别人的尊重。也正因为她的正直，高尚，纯洁，心灵没有受到世俗社会的污染，使得罗切斯特为之震撼，并把她看做了一个可以和自己在精神上平等交谈的人，并且慢慢地深深爱上了她。这是简·爱 告诉罗切斯特她必须离开的理由，但是从内心讲，更深一层的东西是简·爱意识到自己受到了欺骗，她的自尊心受到了戏弄，因为她深爱着罗切斯特,试问哪个女人能够承受得住被自己最信任，最亲密的人所欺骗呢?这样一种非常强大的爱情力量包围之下，在美好，富裕的生活诱惑之下，她依然要坚持自己作为个人的尊严，这是简·爱最具有精神魅力的地方。
小说设计了一个很光明的结尾－－虽然罗切斯特的庄园毁了，他自己也成了一个残废，但我们看到，正是这样一个条件，使简·爱 不再在尊严与爱之间矛盾，而同时获得满足－－她在和罗切斯特结婚的时候是有尊严的，同时也是有爱的。任何文学作品都是作者体验生活的结晶，从书中多少可看出作者的影子。《简·爱》也是如此，大量的细节可以在作者的生活中得到印证。当然 《简·爱》并不是一本自传，作者只是把自己丰富的生活经历融进了一部充满想象力的文章里。人们知道《简·爱》是作者生活中的写照，但又有多少人知道作者是在怎样的情况下写下《简·爱》的呢。
小说告诉我们，人的最美好的生活是人的尊严加爱，小说的结局给女主人公安排的就是这样一种生活。虽然我觉得这样的结局过于完美，甚至这种圆满本身标志着浮浅，但是我依然尊重作者对这种美好生活的理想－－就是尊严加爱，毕竟在当今社会，要将人的价值＝尊严＋爱这道公式付之实现常常离不开金钱的帮助。人们都疯狂地似乎为了金钱和地位而淹没爱情。在穷与富之间选择富，在爱与不爱之间选择不爱。很少有人会像简这样为爱情为人格抛弃所有，而且义无反顾。《简·爱》所展现给我们的正是一种化繁为简，是一种返朴归真，是一种追求全心付出的感觉，是一种不计得失的简化的感情，它犹如一杯冰水，净化每一个读者的心灵，同时引起读者，特别是女性读者的共鸣。
Plot introduction
Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative of the title character. The novel goes through five distinct stages: Jane's childhood at Gateshead, where she is emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins; her education at Lowood School, where she acquires friends and role models but also suffers privations; her time as the governess of Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with her Byronic employer, Edward Rochester; her time with the Rivers family at Marsh's End (or Moor House) and Morton, where her cold clergyman-cousin St John Rivers proposes to her; and her reunion with and marriage to her beloved Rochester. Partly autobiographical, the novel abounds with social criticism. It is a novel considered ahead of its time. In spite of the dark, brooding elements, it has a strong sense of right and wrong, of morality at its core.
Jane Eyre is divided into 38 chapters and most editions are at least 400 pages long (although the preface and introduction on certain copies are liable to take up another 100). The original was published in three volumes, comprising chapters 1 to 15, 16 to 26, and 27 to 38.
Brontë dedicated the novel's second edition to William Makepeace Thackeray.
Plot summary
Chapters 1-4: Jane's childhood at Gateshead
Young Jane argues with her guardian Mrs. Reed of Gateshead. Illustration by F. H. Townsend.
A ten-year-old orphan named Jane Eyre lives with her uncle's family, the Reeds. Jane's aunt, Sarah Reed, dislikes her intensely. When her uncle dies, her aunt and the three Reed children become abusive. When bullied by her cousin John, Jane retaliates but is punished for the ensuing fight and is locked in the room where Mr. Reed died. As night falls, Jane's panicked screams rouse the house, but Mrs. Reed won't let her out. Jane faints and Mr. Lloyd, an apothecary, is summoned. He talks with Jane and sympathetically suggests that she should go away to school.
Chapters 5-10: Jane's education at Lowood School
Mrs. Reed sends Jane to Lowood Institution, a charity school, and warns them that Jane is deceitful. During an inspection, Jane accidentally breaks her slate, and Mr. Brocklehurst, the self-righteous clergyman who runs the school, brands her as a liar and shames her before the entire assembly.
Jane is comforted by her friend, Helen Burns. Miss Temple, a caring teacher, facilitates Jane's self-defense and writes to Mr. Lloyd whose reply agrees with Jane's. Ultimately, Jane is publicly cleared of Mr. Brocklehurst's accusations.
Jane tries to catch Mr. Rochester's horse.
While the Brocklehurst family lives in luxury, the eighty pupils are subjected to cold rooms, poor meals, and thin clothing. Many students fall ill when a typhus epidemic strikes. Jane's friend Helen dies of consumption in Jane's arms.
When Mr. Brocklehurst's neglect and dishonesty are laid bare, several benefactors erect a new building and conditions at the school improve dramatically.
Chapters 11-26: Jane's time as governess at Thornfield Hall
Eight years later, Jane is a teacher employed by Alice Fairfax (the housekeeper of Thornfield Hall) as governess for Adèle Varens, a young French girl. Out walking one day, Jane encounters and helps a horseman who has sprained his ankle. On her return to Thornfield, she discovers that the horseman is Edward Rochester, Master of Thornfield Hall. Rochester is a moody, self-willed man nearly twenty years older than Jane. Adèle is his ward, belonging to a French "opera dancer" with whom he had a romantic relationship in the past. Adèle, however, is not his daughter, but is brought up by him after her mother abandons her.
Jane saves Mr. Rochester from a fire.
Miss Blanche Ingram looking in a book.
Mr. Rochester disguised as a Gypsy woman.
Bertha Mason rips Jane's wedding veil.
Mr. Rochester seems quite taken with Jane, and she enjoys his company. However, odd things begin to happen: a strange laugh is heard in the halls, a near-fatal fire mysteriously breaks out, and a guest named Mason is attacked.
Jane receives word that Mrs. Reed has suffered a stroke and is asking for her. Returning to Gateshead, she remains for over a month while her aunt lies dying. Mrs. Reed rejects Jane's efforts at reconciliation, but does give her a letter previously withheld out of spite. The letter is from John Eyre, Jane's uncle, notifying her that he wanted her to live with him in Madeira.
After returning to Thornfield, Jane broods over Rochester's impending marriage to Blanche Ingram. But on a midsummer evening, he proclaims his love for Jane and proposes. As she prepares for her wedding, Jane's forebodings arise when a strange, savage-looking woman sneaks into her room one night and rips her wedding veil in two. As with previous mysterious events, Mr Rochester attributes the incident to drunkenness on the part of Grace Poole, one of his servants.
During the wedding ceremony, Mr. Mason and a lawyer declare that Mr. Rochester cannot marry because he is already married to Mr. Mason's sister. Mr. Rochester bitterly admits the truth, explaining that his wife is a violent madwoman whom he keeps locked in the attic, in the care of Grace Poole. When Grace occasionally drinks too much, it gives his wife a chance to escape, and she is the true cause of Thornfield's strange events.
Mr. Rochester asks Jane to go with him to the south of France, and live as husband and wife, even though they cannot be married. Refusing to go against her principles, and despite her love for him, Jane leaves Thornfield in the middle of the night.
Chapters 27-35: Jane's time with the Rivers family
Jane leaves Thornfield and sleeps outside.
Jane begs for food.
St. John Rivers admits Jane to Moor House.
Jane travels to the north of England. After mislaying her funds, she sleeps on the moor and begs for food, but is turned away as a beggar, a thief, or worse. Exhausted, she is saved by St. John Rivers, a young clergyman, who brings her to the home of his sisters, Diana and Mary. As she regains her health, St. John finds her a teaching position at a nearby charity school. Jane becomes warm friends with Mary and Diana, but St. John is too reserved for her to relate to, despite his efforts on her behalf. Jane sees that the brother and sisters have money-related worries, but does not enquire further.
Rosamond Oliver shows an interest in St. John.
St. John tells Jane she has inherited £20,000.
Jane considering St. John's proposal.
When the sisters leave for governess jobs in London, St. John becomes more comfortable around Jane, evidencing his own conflicts of the heart, which involve the beautiful and wealthy Rosamond Oliver. When Jane confronts him about his feelings for Miss Oliver, he confesses that he has turned away from them, because he feels called to be a missionary, and he knows that Miss Oliver would not accept such a life.
St. John discovers Jane's true identity, and astounds her by showing her a letter stating that her uncle John has died and left her his entire fortune of £20,000, equivalent to £1,560,000 in today's pounds. When Jane questions him further, St. John reveals that John is also his and his sisters' uncle. They had once hoped for a share of the inheritance, but have since resigned themselves to nothing. Jane, overjoyed by finding her family, insists on sharing the money equally with her cousins.
St. John asks Jane to accompany him to India as his wife. He asks solely because he wishes a good missionary's wife, a role in which he believes Jane will excel. She agrees to go, but refuses marriage, believing his reserve and reason incompatible with her warmth and passion. But, his powers of persuasion eventually begin to convince her to change her mind.
However, at that very moment, she suddenly seems to hear Mr. Rochester calling her name. The next morning, she leaves for Thornfield to ascertain Mr. Rochester's well-being before departing forever for India.
Chapters 36-38: Jane's reunion with Mr. Rochester
Thornfield burned to the ground by Bertha.
Jane and Mr. Rochester reunited.
Mr. Rochester's sight improving.
Jane arrives at Thornfield to find only blackened ruins. She learns that Rochester's wife set the house on fire and committed suicide by jumping from the roof. In his rescue attempts, Mr. Rochester lost a hand and his eyesight. Jane reunites with him, but he fears that she will be repulsed by his condition. When Jane assures him of her love and tells him that she will never leave him, Mr. Rochester again proposes. He eventually recovers enough sight to see their first-born son.
Characters
* Jane Eyre: The protagonist of the novel and the title character. Orphaned as a baby, she struggles through her nearly loveless childhood and becomes governess at Thornfield Hall. Although she falls in love with her wealthy employer, Edward Rochester, her strong sense of conscience does not permit her to become his mistress, and she does not return to him until his insane wife is dead and she herself has come into an inheritance.
* Mr. Reed: Jane's maternal uncle, who adopts Jane when her parents die. Before his own death, he makes his wife promise to care for Jane.
* Mrs. Sarah Reed: Jane's aunt by marriage, who adopts Jane but neglects and abuses her. Her dislike of Jane continues to her death.
* John Reed: Jane's cousin, who bullies Jane constantly, sometimes in his mother's presence. He ruins himself as an adult and is believed to die by suicide.
* Eliza Reed: Jane's cousin. Bitter because she is not as attractive as her sister, she devotes herself self-righteously to religion.
* Georgiana Reed: Jane's cousin. Though spiteful and insolent, she is also beautiful and indulged. Her sister Eliza foils her marriage to a wealthy Lord.
* Bessie Lee: The plain-spoken nursemaid at Gateshead. She sometimes treats Jane kindly, telling her stories and singing her songs. Later she marries Robert Leaven.
* Robert Leaven: The coachman at Gateshead, who brings Jane the news of John Reed's death, which brought on Mrs. Reed's stroke.
* Mr. Lloyd: A compassionate apothecary who recommends that Jane be sent to school. Later, he writes a letter to Miss Temple confirming Jane's account of her childhood and thereby clearing Jane of Mrs. Reed's charge of lying.
* Mr. Brocklehurst: The clergyman headmaster and treasurer of Lowood School, whose mistreatment of the students is eventually exposed.
* Miss Maria Temple: The kind superintendent of Lowood School, who treats Jane and Helen (and others) with respect and compassion. She helps clear Jane of Mr. Brocklehurst's false accusation of deceit.
* Miss Scatcherd: A sour and vicious teacher at Lowood.
* Helen Burns: A fellow-student and best friend of Jane's at Lowood School. She refuses to hate those who abuse her, trusting in God and turning the other cheek. She dies of consumption in Jane's arms. Some speculate that the book's author based Helen Burns on her elder sister Maria Brontë , who showed signs of dyspraxia.
* Edward Fairfax Rochester: The master of Thornfield Manor. A Byronic hero, he makes an unfortunate first marriage before he meets Jane.
* Bertha Antoinetta Mason: The violently insane first wife of Edward Rochester.
* Adèle Varens: An excitable French child to whom Jane is governess at Thornfield. She is Mr Rochester's ward and possibly his daughter. However Mr. Rochester denies this because her mother had been seeing another man behind his back.
* Mrs. Alice Fairfax: An elderly widow and housekeeper of Thornfield Manor. She treats Jane kindly and respectfully, but disapproves of her engagement to Mr Rochester.
* Blanche Ingram: A socialite whom Mr. Rochester appears to court in order to make Jane jealous. She is described as having great beauty, but displays callous behaviour and avaricious intent.
* Richard Mason: An Englishman from the West Indies, whose sister is Mr. Rochester's first wife. His appearance at Thornfield heralds the eventual revelation of Bertha Mason.
* Grace Poole: Bertha Mason's keeper. Jane is told that it is Grace Poole who causes the mysterious things to happen at Thornfield Hall.
* St. John Eyre Rivers: A clergyman who befriends Jane and turns out to be her cousin. He is Jane Eyre's cousin on her father's side. He is a devout Christian of Calvinistic leanings. By nature he is very reserved and single-minded.
* Diana and Mary Rivers: St. John's sisters and (as it turns out) Jane's cousins.
* Rosamond Oliver: A wealthy young woman who patronizes the village school where Jane teaches, and who is attracted to the Rev. St. John.
* John Eyre: Jane's paternal uncle, who leaves her his vast fortune. He never appears as a character.
Themes
Morality
Jane refuses to become Mr Rochester's paramour because of her "impassioned self-respect and moral conviction." She rejects St. John Rivers' Puritanism as much as the libertine aspects of Mr Rochester's character. Instead, she works out a morality expressed in love, independence, and forgiveness.
Religion
Throughout the novel, Jane endeavours to attain an equilibrium between moral duty and earthly happiness. She despises the hypocritical puritanism of Mr. Brocklehurst, and rejects St. John Rivers' cold devotion to his Christian duty, but neither can she bring herself to emulate Helen Burns' turning the other cheek, although she admires Helen for it. Ultimately, she rejects these three extremes and finds a middle ground in which religion serves to curb her immoderate passions but does not repress her true self.
Social class
Jane's ambiguous social position—a penniless yet moderately educated orphan from a good family—leads her to criticise discrimination based on class. Although she is educated, well-mannered, and relatively sophisticated, she is still a governess, a paid servant of low social standing, and therefore powerless. Nevertheless, Brontë possesses certain class prejudices herself, as is made clear when Jane has to remind herself that her unsophisticated village pupils at Morton "are of flesh and blood as good as the scions of gentlest genealogy."
Gender relations
A particularly important theme in the novel is the depiction of a patriarchal society. Jane attempts to assert her own identity within male-dominated society. Three of the main male characters, Brocklehurst, Mr Rochester and St. John, try to keep Jane in a subordinate position and prevent her from expressing her own thoughts and feelings. Jane escapes Brocklehurst and rejects St. John, and she only marries Mr Rochester once she is sure that their marriage is one between equals. Through Jane, Brontë opposes Victorian stereotypes about women, articulating her own feminist philosophy:
Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex. (Chapter XII)
Love and Passion
One of the secrets to the success of Jane Eyre lies in the way that it touches on a number of important themes while telling a compelling story. Indeed, so lively and dramatic is the story that the reader might not be fully conscious of all the thematic strands that weave through this work. Critics have argued about what comprises the main theme of Jane Eyre. There can be little doubt, however, that love and passion together form a major thematic element of the novel.
On its most simple and obvious level, Jane Eyre is a love story. The love between the orphaned and initially impoverished Jane and the wealthy but tormented Rochester is at its heart. The obstacles to the fulfillment of this love provide the main dramatic conflict in the work. However, the novel explores other types of love as well. Helen Burns, for example, exemplifies the selfless love of a friend. We also see some of the consequences of the absence of love, as in the relationship between Jane and Mrs. Reed, in the selfish relations among the Reed children, and in the mocking marriage of Rochester and Bertha. Jane realizes that the absence of love between herself and St. John Rivers would make their marriage a living death, too.
Throughout the work, Brontë suggests that a life that is not lived passionately is not lived fully. Jane undoubtedly is the central passionate character; her nature is shot through with passion. Early on, she refuses to live by Mrs. Reed's rules, which would restrict all passion. Her defiance of Mrs. Reed is her first, but by no means her last, passionate act. Her passion for Rochester is all consuming. Significantly, however, it is not the only force that governs her life. She leaves Rochester because her moral reason tells her that it would be wrong to live with him as his mistress: "Laws and principles are not for the time when there is no temptation," she tells Rochester; "they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise against their rigor."
Blanche Ingram feels no passion for Rochester; she is only attracted to the landowner because of his wealth and social position. St. John Rivers is a more intelligent character than Blanche, but like her he also lacks the necessary passion that would allow him to live fully. His marriage proposal to Jane has no passion behind it; rather, he regards marriage as a business arrangement, with Jane as his potential junior partner in his missionary work. His lack of passion contrasts sharply with Rochester, who positively seethes with passion. His injury in the fire at Thornfield may be seen as a chastisement for his past passionate indiscretions and as a symbolic taming of his passionate excesses.
Independence
Jane Eyre is not only a love story; it is also a plea for the recognition of the individual's worth. Throughout the book, Jane demands to be treated as an independent human being, a person with her own needs and talents. Early on, she is unjustly punished, precisely for being herself — first by Mrs. Reed and John Reed, and subsequently by Mr. Brocklehurst. Her defiance of Mrs. Reed is her first active declaration of independence in the novel, but not her last. Helen Burns and Miss Temple are the first characters to acknowledge her as an individual; they love her for herself, in spite of her obscurity. Rochester too loves her for herself; the fact that she is a governess and therefore his servant does not negatively affect his perception of her. Rochester confesses that his ideal woman is intellectual, faithful, and loving — qualities that Jane embodies. Rochester's acceptance of Jane as an independent person is contrasted by Blanche and Lady Ingram's attitude toward her: they see her merely as a servant. Lady Ingram speaks disparagingly of Jane in front of her face as though Jane isn't there. To her, Jane is an inferior barely worthy of notice, and certainly not worthy of respect. And even though she is his cousin, St. John Rivers does not regard Jane as a full, independent person. Rather, he sees her as an instrument, an accessory that would help him to further his own plans. Jane acknowledges that his cause (missionary work) may be worthy, but she knows that to marry simply for the sake of expedience would be a fatal mistake. Her marriage to Mr. Rochester, by contrast, is the marriage of two independent beings. It is because of their independence, Brontë suggests, that they acknowledge their dependence on each other and are able to live happily ever after.
God and Religion
In her preface to the second edition of Jane Eyre, Brontë made clear her belief that "conventionality is not morality" and "self-righteousness is not religion." She declared that "narrow human doctrines, that only tend to elate and magnify a few, should not be substituted for the world-redeeming creed of Christ." Throughout the novel, Brontë presents contrasts between characters who believe in and practice what she considers a true Christianity and those who pervert religion to further their own ends. Mr. Brocklehurst, who oversees Lowood Institution, is a hypocritical Christian. He professes charity but uses religion as a justification for punishment. For example, he cites the biblical passage "man shall not live by bread alone" to rebuke Miss Temple for having fed the girls an extra meal to compensate for their inedible breakfast of burnt porridge. He tells Miss Temple that she "may indeed feed their vile bodies, but you little think how you starve their immortal souls!" Helen Burns is a complete contrast to Brocklehurst; she follows the Christian creed of turning the other cheek and loving those who hate her. On her deathbed, Helen tells Jane that she is "going home to God, who loves her."
Jane herself cannot quite profess Helen's absolute, selfless faith. Jane does not seem to follow a particular doctrine, but she is sincerely religious in a nondoctrinaire way. (It is Jane, after all, who places the stone with the word "Resurgam" on Helen's grave, some fifteen years after her friend's death.) Jane frequently prays and calls on God to assist her, particularly in her trouble with Rochester. She prays too that Rochester is safe. When the Rivers's housekeeper, Hannah, tries to turn the begging Jane away, Jane tells her that "if you are a Christian, you ought not consider poverty a crime." The young evangelical clergyman St. John Rivers is a more conventionally religious figure. However, Brontë portrays his religious aspect ambiguously. Jane calls him "a very good man," yet she finds him cold and forbidding. In his determination to do good deeds (in the form of missionary work in India), Rivers courts martyrdom. Moreover, he is unable to see Jane as a whole person, but views her as a helpmate in his proposed missionary work. Rochester is far less a perfect Christian. He is, indeed, a sinner: He attempts to enter into a bigamous marriage with Jane and, when that fails, tries to persuade her to become his mistress. He also confesses that he has had three previous mistresses. In the end, however, he repents his sinfulness, thanks God for returning Jane to him, and begs God to give him the strength to lead a purer life.
Atonement and Forgiveness
Much of the religious concern in Jane Eyre has to do with atonement and forgiveness. Rochester is tormented by his awareness of his past sins and misdeeds. He frequently confesses that he has led a life of vice, and many of his actions in the course of the novel are less than commendable. Readers may accuse him of behaving sadistically in deceiving Jane about the nature of his relationship (or rather, non-relationship) with Blanche Ingram in order to provoke Jane's jealousy. His confinement of Bertha may bespeak mixed motives. He is certainly aware that in the eyes of both religious and civil authorities, his marriage to Jane before Bertha's death would be bigamous. Yet, at the same time, he makes genuine efforts to atone for his behavior. For example, although he does not believe that he is Adèle's natural father, he adopts her as his ward and sees that she is well cared for. This adoption may well be an act of atonement for the sins he has committed. He expresses his self-disgust at having tried to console himself by having three different mistresses during his travels in Europe and begs Jane to forgive him for these past transgressions. However, Rochester can only atone completely — and be forgiven completely — after Jane has refused to be his mistress and left him. The destruction of Thornfield by fire finally removes the stain of his past sins; the loss of his right hand and of his eyesight is the price he must pay to atone completely for his sins. Only after this purgation can he be redeemed by Jane's love.
Search for Home and Family
Without any living family that she is aware of (until well into the story), throughout the course of the novel Jane searches for a place that she can call home. Significantly, houses play a prominent part in the story. (In keeping with a long English tradition, all the houses in the book have names.) The novel's opening finds Jane living at Gateshead Hall, but this is hardly a home. Mrs. Reed and her children refuse to acknowledge her as a relation, treating her instead as an unwanted intruder and an inferior.
Shunted off to Lowood Institution, a boarding school for orphans and destitute children, Jane finds a home of sorts, although her place here is ambiguous and temporary. The school's manager, Mr. Brocklehurst, treats it more as a business than as school in loco parentis (in place of the parent). His emphasis on discipline and on spartan conditions at the expense of the girls' health make it the antithesis of the ideal home.
Jane subsequently believes she has found a home at Thornfield Hall. Anticipating the worst when she arrives, she is relieved when she is made to feel welcome by Mrs. Fairfax. She feels genuine affection for Adèle (who in a way is also an orphan) and is happy to serve as her governess. As her love for Rochester grows, she believes that she has found her ideal husband in spite of his eccentric manner and that they will make a home together at Thornfield. The revelation — as they are literally on the verge of marriage — that he is already legally married — brings her dream of home crashing down. Fleeing Thornfield, she literally becomes homeless and is reduced to begging for food and shelter. The opportunity of having a home presents itself when she enters Moor House, where the Rivers sisters and their brother, the Reverend St. John Rivers, are mourning the death of their father. (When the housekeeper at first shuts the door in her face, Jane has a dreadful feeling that "that anchor of home was gone.") She soon speaks of Diana and Mary Rivers as her own sisters, and is overjoyed when she learns that they are indeed her cousins. She tells St. John Rivers that learning that she has living relations is far more important than inheriting twenty thousand pounds. (She mourns the uncle she never knew. Earlier she was disheartened on learning that Mrs. Reed told her uncle that Jane had died and sent him away.) However, St. John Rivers' offer of marriage cannot sever her emotional attachment to Rochester. In an almost visionary episode, she hears Rochester's voice calling her to return to him. The last chapter begins with the famous simple declarative sentence, "Reader, I married him," and after a long series of travails Jane's search for home and family ends in a union with her ideal mate.
Context
The early sequences, in which Jane is sent to Lowood, a harsh boarding school, are derived from the author's own experiences. Helen Burns's death from tuberculosis (referred to as consumption) recalls the deaths of Charlotte Brontë's sisters Elizabeth and Maria, who died of the disease in childhood as a result of the conditions at their school, the Clergy Daughters School at Cowan Bridge, near Tunstall, Lancashire. Mr. Brocklehurst is based on Rev. William Carus Wilson (1791–1859), the Evangelical minister who ran the school, and Helen Burns is likely modelled on Charlotte's sister Maria. Additionally, John Reed's decline into alcoholism and dissolution recalls the life of Charlotte's brother Branwell, who became an opium and alcohol addict in the years preceding his death. Finally, like Jane, Charlotte becomes a governess. These facts were revealed to the public in The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) by Charlotte's friend and fellow novelist Elizabeth Gaskell.
The Gothic manor of Thornfield was probably inspired by North Lees Hall, near Hathersage in the Peak District. This was visited by Charlotte Brontë and her friend Ellen Nussey in the summer of 1845 and is described by the latter in a letter dated 22 July 1845. It was the residence of the Eyre family, and its first owner, Agnes Ashurst, was reputedly confined as a lunatic in a padded second floor room.
Literary motifs and allusions
Jane Eyre uses many motifs from Gothic fiction, such as the Gothic manor (Thornfield), the Byronic hero (Mr Rochester and Jane herself) and The Madwoman in the Attic (Bertha), whom Jane perceives as resembling "the foul German spectre—the Vampyre" (Chapter XXV) and who attacks her own brother in a distinctly vampiric way: "She sucked the blood: she said she'd drain my heart" (Chapter XX). Also, besides gothicism, Jane Eyre displays romanticism to create a unique Victorian novel.
Literary allusions from the Bible, fairy tales, The Pilgrim's Progress, Paradise Lost, and the novels and poetry of Sir Walter Scott are also much in evidence. The novel deliberately avoids some conventions of Victorian fiction, not contriving a deathbed reconciliation between Aunt Reed and Jane Eyre and avoiding the portrayal of a "fallen woman".
Adaptations
Mr. Reed torments young Jane Eyre in Suffolk Youth Theatre's 2008 production of Jane Eyre.
Jane Eyre has engendered numerous adaptations and related works inspired by the novel. The best known are the 1944 version starring Orson Welles as Rochester and Joan Fontaine as Jane, the BBC television adaptation with Timothy Dalton as Rochester and Zelah Clarke as Jane, and the 1996 version directed by Franco Zeffirelli with William Hurt as Rochester and Charlotte Gainsbourg as Jane.
Radio show versions
* 1943: Extremely loose adaptation (primarily chapters 11–26) on The Weird Circle, premiering on 11 November.
Silent film versions
* Several silent film adaptations entitled Jane Eyre were released; one in 1910, two in 1914, plus:
* 1915: Jane Eyre starring Louise Vale.
* 1915: A version was released called The Castle of Thornfield.
* 1918: A version was released called Woman and Wife, directed by Edward José, adapted by Paul West, starring Alice Brady as Jane.
* 1921: Jane Eyre starring Mabel Ballin and directed by Hugo Ballin.
* 1926: A version was made in Germany called Orphan of Lowood.
Motion picture versions
* 1934: Jane Eyre, starring Colin Clive and Virginia Bruce.
* 1940: Rebecca, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and based upon the novel of the same name which was influenced by Jane Eyre. Joan Fontaine, who starred in this film, would also be cast in the 1944 version of Jane Eyre to reinforce the connection.
* 1943: I Walked with a Zombie is a horror movie loosely based upon Jane Eyre.
* 1944: Jane Eyre, with a screenplay by John Houseman and Aldous Huxley. It features Orson Welles as Mr Rochester, Joan Fontaine as Jane, Agnes Moorehead as Mrs. Reed, Margaret O'Brien as Adele and Elizabeth Taylor as Helen Burns.
* 1956: A version was made in Hong Kong called The Orphan Girl.
* 1963: A version was released in Mexico called El Secreto (English: "The Secret").
* 1970: Jane Eyre, starring George C. Scott as Mr Rochester and Susannah York as Jane.
* 1972: An Indian adaptation in Telugu, Shanti Nilayam, directed by C. Vaikuntarama Sastry, starring Anjali Devi.
* 1978: A version was released in Mexico called Ardiente Secreto (English: "Ardent Secret").
* 1996: Jane Eyre, directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starring William Hurt as Mr Rochester, Charlotte Gainsbourg as Jane, Elle Macpherson as Blanche Ingram, Joan Plowright as Mrs. Fairfax, Anna Paquin as the young Jane, Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Reed and Geraldine Chaplin as Miss Scatcherd.
* 2006: Jane Eyre, Directed by Susanna White, starring Toby Stephens as Mr Rochester and Ruth Wilson as Jane Eyre.
* 2011: Jane Eyre, directed by Cary Fukunaga, starring Mia Wasikowska as Jane Eyre and Michael Fassbender as Rochester.
Musical versions
* A two-act ballet of Jane Eyre was created for the first time by the London Children's Ballet in 1994, with an original score by composer Julia Gomelskaya and choreography by Polyanna Buckingham. The run was a sell-out success.
* A musical version with a book by John Caird and music and lyrics by Paul Gordon, with Marla Schaffel as Jane and James Stacy Barbour as Mr Rochester, opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on 10 December 2000. It closed on 10 June 2001.
* Jane Eyre, opera in three acts, Op. 134 was composed by John Joubert in 1987–1997 to a libretto by Kenneth Birkin after the novel.
* An opera based on the novel was written in 2000 by English composer Michael Berkeley, with a libretto by David Malouf. It was given its premiere by Music Theatre Wales at the Cheltenham Festival.
* Jane Eyre was played for the first time in Europe in Beveren, Belgium. It was given its premiere at the cultural centre.
* The ballet "Jane," based on the book was created in 2007, a Bullard/Tye production with music by Max Reger. Its world premiere was scheduled at the Civic Auditorium, Kalamazoo, Michigan, June 29 and 30, performed by the Kalamazoo Ballet Company, Therese Bullard, Director.
* A musical production directed by Debby Race, book by Jana Smith and Wayne R. Scott, with a musical score by Jana Smith and Brad Roseborough, premiered in 2008 at the Lifehouse Theatre in Redlands, California
* A symphony (7th) by Michel Bosc premiered in Bandol (France), 11 October 2009.
Television versions
* 1952: This was a live television production presented by "Westinghouse Studio One (Summer Theatre)".
* Adaptations appeared on British and American television in 1956 and 1961.
* 1963:Jane Eyre. It was produced by the BBC and starred Richard Leech as Mr Rochester and Ann Bell as Jane.
* 1973: Jane Eyre. It was produced by the BBC and starred Sorcha Cusack as Jane, Michael Jayston as Mr Rochester, Juliet Waley as the child Jane, and Tina Heath as Helen Burns.
* 1978: Telenovela El Ardiente Secreto (English The impassioned secret) was an adaptation of this novel.
* 1982: BBC Classics Presents: Jane Eyrehead. A parody movie by SCTV starred Andrea Martin as Jane Eyrehead, Joe Flaherty as Mr Rochester, also starting John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Martin Short in supporting roles.
* 1983: Jane Eyre. It was produced by the BBC and starred Zelah Clarke as Jane, Timothy Dalton as Mr Rochester, Sian Pattenden as the child Jane, and Colette Barker as Helen Burns.
* 1997: Jane Eyre. It was produced by the A&E Network and starred Ciaran Hinds as Mr Rochester and Samantha Morton as Jane.
* 2006: Jane Eyre. It was produced by the BBC and starred Toby Stephens as Mr Rochester, Ruth Wilson as Jane, and Georgie Henley as Young Jane.
Literature
* 1938: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier was partially inspired by Jane Eyre.
* 1961: The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart adapts many of the motifs of Jane Eyre to 1950s northern England. The main character, Annabel, falls in love with her older neighbor who is married to a mentally ill woman. Like Jane, Annabel runs away to try to get over her love. The novel begins when she returns from her eight-year exile.
* 1966: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. The character Bertha Mason serves as the main protagonist for this novel which acts as a "prequel" to Jane Eyre. It describes the meeting and marriage of Antoinette (later renamed Bertha by Mr Rochester) and Mr Rochester. In its reshaping of events related to Jane Eyre, the novel suggests that Bertha's madness is the result of Mr Rochester's rejection of her and her Creole heritage. It was also adapted into film twice.
* 1997: Mrs Rochester: A Sequel to Jane Eyre by Hilary Bailey
* 2000: Adele: Jane Eyre's Hidden Story by Emma Tennant
* 2000: Jane Rochester by Kimberly A. Bennett, content explores the first years of the Rochesters' marriage with gothic and explicit content. A fan favorite.
* 2001 novel The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde revolves around the plot of Jane Eyre. It portrays the book as originally largely free of literary contrivance: Jane and Mr Rochester's first meeting is a simple conversation without the dramatic horse accident, and Jane does not hear his voice calling for her and ends up starting a new life in India. The protagonist's efforts mostly accidentally change it to the real version.
* 2002: Jenna Starborn by Sharon Shinn, a science fiction novel based upon Jane Eyre
* 2006: The French Dancer's Bastard: The Story of Adele From Jane Eyre by Emma Tennant. This is a slightly modified version of Tennant's 2000 novel.
* 2007: Thornfield Hall: Jane Eyre's Hidden Story by Emma Tennant. This is another version of Jane Eyre.
* 2010: Rochester: A Novel Inspired by Jane Eyre by J.L. Niemann. Jane Eyre told from the first person-perspective of Edward Rochester.
* The novelist Angela Carter was working on a sequel to Jane Eyre at the time of her death in 1992. This was to have been the story of Jane's stepdaughter Adèle Varens and her mother Céline. Only a synopsis survives.
《简·爱》是一部带有自传色彩的长篇小说，它阐释了这样一个主题：人的价值＝尊严＋爱。《简·爱》刚出版时,作者夏洛蒂勃朗特用的笔名是柯勒贝尔。以至于之后她的姐妹们出的书都被误认为是她写的。好在她之后亲自在《简·爱》再版时澄清事实。
《简·爱》的作者夏洛蒂·勃朗特和《呼啸山庄》的作者艾米莉是姐妹。虽然两人生活在同一社会，家庭环境中，性格却大不相同，夏洛蒂.勃朗特显得更加的温柔，更加的清纯，更加的喜欢追求一些美好的东西，尽管她家境贫穷，从小失去了母爱，父爱也很少，再加上她身材矮小，容貌不美，但也许就是这样一种灵魂深处的很深的自卑，反映在她的性格上就是一种非常敏感的自尊，以自尊作为她内心深处的自卑的补偿。她描写的简。爱也是一个不美的，矮小的女人，但是她有着极其强烈的自尊心。她坚定不移地去追求一种光明的，圣洁的，美好的生活。
《简·爱》-故事梗概
简·爱的父亲是个穷牧师，当她还在幼年时，父母就染病双双去世。简·爱被送到盖茨海德庄园的舅母里德太太家抚养，里德先生临死前曾嘱咐妻子好好照顾简·爱。简·爱在里德太太家的地位，连使女都不如，受尽了表兄表姊妹的欺侮。一天表兄又打她了，她回手反抗，却被舅母关进红房子里，她的舅舅里德先生就死在这间屋子里。她被幻想中的鬼魂吓昏了过去。重病一场，过了很久才慢慢恢复健康。
她再也不想呆在里德太太家了，里德太太就把她送进达罗沃德孤儿院。孤儿院院长是个冷酷的伪君子，他用种种办法从精神和肉体上摧残孤儿。简与孤儿海伦结成好友，教师潭泊尔小姐很关心她。在孤儿院里一场传染性的伤寒，夺走了许多降儿的生命，海伦就在这场伤寒中死去，这对简·爱 打击很大。
简毕业后留校当了两年教师，她受不了那里的孤寂、冷漠，登广告找到了一个家庭教师的工作，于是她来到了桑费尔德庄园。在桑费尔德庄园只有庄园主罗彻斯特和他的私生女阿戴尔·瓦伦斯，而罗彻斯特经常到国外旅行，所以简到桑费尔德好几天，也没见到罗彻斯特。
一天黄昏，简外出散步，惊了刚刚从外面回来的罗彻斯特的马，罗彻斯特从马上摔了下来，简急忙上前去扶他，回到家后简才知道他便是庄园主罗彻斯特。罗彻斯特是个性格阴郁而又喜怒无常的人，他和简经常为某种思想新辩论不休。
在桑费尔德庄园不断发生奇怪的事情。有一天夜里，简被一阵奇怪的笑声惊醒，发现罗彻斯特的房门开着，床上着了火，她叫醒罗彻斯特并扑灭火。罗彻斯特告诉简三楼住着一个女栽缝格雷斯·普尔，她神精错乱，时常发出令人毛骨悚然的狂笑声，并要她对此事严守秘密。
罗彻斯特经常参加舞会，一天他把客人请到家里来玩，人们都以为在这场舞会上罗彻斯特会向布兰奇小姐求婚。在宴会上罗彻斯特坚持要简也到客厅里去，客人们对简的太度十分轻慢，罗彻却邀请简跳舞，简感觉到自己对罗彻斯特发生感情。
一天，罗彻斯特外出，家里来了一个蒙着盖头的吉卜赛人。当轮到给简算命时，简发现这个神秘的吉卜赛人就是罗彻斯特，他想借此试探简对他的感情。这时庄园里又来了个名梅森的陌生人，当晚他被三楼的神秘女人咬伤了，简帮罗彻斯特把他秘密送走。
不久，里德太太派人来找简，说她病危要见简一面。回到舅母家中，里德太太给她一封信，这封信是三年前简的叔父寄来的，向她打听侄女的消息，并把自己的遗产交给简。里德太太谎称简在孤儿院病死了，直到临终前才良心发现把真相告诉简。
简又回到桑费尔德庄园感觉像回到家一样。回来后，罗彻斯特向她未婚，简答应了，并高兴地准备婚礼。婚礼前夜，简从梦中惊醒，看到一个身材高大、面目可憎的女人正在戴她的婚纱，然后把婚纱撕成碎片。罗彻斯特告诉她那不过是一个梦，第二天当简醒来时发现婚纱真的成了碎片。
婚礼如期举行，一位不速之客闯进了教堂，声称婚礼不能进行，他说罗彻斯特15 年前娶梅森先生的妹妹伯莎·梅森为妻。罗彻斯特承认了这一事实，并领人们看被关在三楼的疯女人，那就是他的合法妻子。她有遗传性精神病史，就是她在罗彻斯特的房间放火，也是她撕碎简的婚纱。
简悲痛欲绝地离开了桑费尔德庄园。她的仅有的积蓄花光了，沿途乞讨，最后晕倒在牧师圣约翰家门前，被圣约翰和他的两个妹妹救了。简住了下来，圣约翰为她谋了一个乡村教师的职位。
不久，圣约翰接到家庭律师的通知，说他的舅舅约翰简去世了，留给简二万英镑，要圣约翰帮助寻找简。圣约翰发现简是他的表妹，简执意要与他们分享遗产。圣约翰准备去印度传教，临行前向简求婚，但他坦率地告诉她，他要娶她并不是因为爱她，而是他需要一个很有教养的助手。简觉得应该报答他的恩情，但迟迟不肯答应他。当夜，圣约翰在荒原上等待简的答复，就在简要作出决定的时候，她仿佛听到罗彻斯特在遥远的地方呼喊她的名字“简，回来吧！简，回来吧！”她决定回到罗彻斯特身边。
当简回到桑费尔德庄园时，整个庄园变成一片废墟。原来几个月前，在一个风雨交加的夜晚，疯女人伯莎放火烧毁了整个庄园，罗彻斯特为了救她，被烧瞎了双眼，孤独地生活在几英里外的一个农场里。简赶到家场，向他吐露自己的爱情，他们终于结婚了。 两年之后，治好了罗彻斯特的一只眼睛，他看到了简为他生的第一个孩子。
《简·爱》-小说评价
《简·爱》是一本具有多年历史的文学著作。至今已152年的历史了，它成功地塑造了英国文学史中第一个对爱情、生活、社会以及宗教都采取了独立自主的积极进取态度和敢于斗争、敢于争取自由平等地位的女性形象。
《简·爱》是一部带有自转色彩的长篇小说，是英国十九世纪著名三姐妹作家之一的夏洛蒂·勃朗特所著。这是一本用自己的心与强烈的精神追求铸炼成的一本书，含着作者无限的情感和个性魅力，为女性赢得了一片灿烂的天空。
简. 爱生存在一个父母双亡，寄人篱下的环境，从小就承受着与同龄人不一样的待遇，姨妈的嫌弃，表姐的蔑视，表哥的侮辱和毒打。这是对一个孩子的尊严的无情践踏，然而幸运的是在极其刻薄的寄宿学校的生活中，简·爱遇到了一个可爱的朋友：海伦·彭斯,海伦温顺、聪颖和无比宽容的性格一直影响着简.爱，使之以后面对种种困难都不再屈服抱怨，懂得了爱和忠诚。
在罗切斯特的面前,她从不因为自己是一个地位低贱的家庭教师而感到自卑，反而认为他们是平等的。不应该因为她是仆人，而不能受到别人的尊重。也正因为她的正直，高尚，纯洁，心灵没有受到世俗社会的污染，使得罗切斯特为之震撼，并把她看做了一个可以和自己在精神上平等交谈的人，并且慢慢地深深爱上了她。这是简·爱 告诉罗切斯特她必须离开的理由，但是从内心讲，更深一层的东西是简·爱意识到自己受到了欺骗，她的自尊心受到了戏弄，因为她深爱着罗切斯特,试问哪个女人能够承受得住被自己最信任，最亲密的人所欺骗呢?这样一种非常强大的爱情力量包围之下，在美好，富裕的生活诱惑之下，她依然要坚持自己作为个人的尊严，这是简·爱最具有精神魅力的地方。
小说设计了一个很光明的结尾－－虽然罗切斯特的庄园毁了，他自己也成了一个残废，但我们看到，正是这样一个条件，使简·爱 不再在尊严与爱之间矛盾，而同时获得满足－－她在和罗切斯特结婚的时候是有尊严的，同时也是有爱的。任何文学作品都是作者体验生活的结晶，从书中多少可看出作者的影子。《简·爱》也是如此，大量的细节可以在作者的生活中得到印证。当然 《简·爱》并不是一本自传，作者只是把自己丰富的生活经历融进了一部充满想象力的文章里。人们知道《简·爱》是作者生活中的写照，但又有多少人知道作者是在怎样的情况下写下《简·爱》的呢。
小说告诉我们，人的最美好的生活是人的尊严加爱，小说的结局给女主人公安排的就是这样一种生活。虽然我觉得这样的结局过于完美，甚至这种圆满本身标志着浮浅，但是我依然尊重作者对这种美好生活的理想－－就是尊严加爱，毕竟在当今社会，要将人的价值＝尊严＋爱这道公式付之实现常常离不开金钱的帮助。人们都疯狂地似乎为了金钱和地位而淹没爱情。在穷与富之间选择富，在爱与不爱之间选择不爱。很少有人会像简这样为爱情为人格抛弃所有，而且义无反顾。《简·爱》所展现给我们的正是一种化繁为简，是一种返朴归真，是一种追求全心付出的感觉，是一种不计得失的简化的感情，它犹如一杯冰水，净化每一个读者的心灵，同时引起读者，特别是女性读者的共鸣。
Plot introduction
Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative of the title character. The novel goes through five distinct stages: Jane's childhood at Gateshead, where she is emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins; her education at Lowood School, where she acquires friends and role models but also suffers privations; her time as the governess of Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with her Byronic employer, Edward Rochester; her time with the Rivers family at Marsh's End (or Moor House) and Morton, where her cold clergyman-cousin St John Rivers proposes to her; and her reunion with and marriage to her beloved Rochester. Partly autobiographical, the novel abounds with social criticism. It is a novel considered ahead of its time. In spite of the dark, brooding elements, it has a strong sense of right and wrong, of morality at its core.
Jane Eyre is divided into 38 chapters and most editions are at least 400 pages long (although the preface and introduction on certain copies are liable to take up another 100). The original was published in three volumes, comprising chapters 1 to 15, 16 to 26, and 27 to 38.
Brontë dedicated the novel's second edition to William Makepeace Thackeray.
Plot summary
Chapters 1-4: Jane's childhood at Gateshead
Young Jane argues with her guardian Mrs. Reed of Gateshead. Illustration by F. H. Townsend.
A ten-year-old orphan named Jane Eyre lives with her uncle's family, the Reeds. Jane's aunt, Sarah Reed, dislikes her intensely. When her uncle dies, her aunt and the three Reed children become abusive. When bullied by her cousin John, Jane retaliates but is punished for the ensuing fight and is locked in the room where Mr. Reed died. As night falls, Jane's panicked screams rouse the house, but Mrs. Reed won't let her out. Jane faints and Mr. Lloyd, an apothecary, is summoned. He talks with Jane and sympathetically suggests that she should go away to school.
Chapters 5-10: Jane's education at Lowood School
Mrs. Reed sends Jane to Lowood Institution, a charity school, and warns them that Jane is deceitful. During an inspection, Jane accidentally breaks her slate, and Mr. Brocklehurst, the self-righteous clergyman who runs the school, brands her as a liar and shames her before the entire assembly.
Jane is comforted by her friend, Helen Burns. Miss Temple, a caring teacher, facilitates Jane's self-defense and writes to Mr. Lloyd whose reply agrees with Jane's. Ultimately, Jane is publicly cleared of Mr. Brocklehurst's accusations.
Jane tries to catch Mr. Rochester's horse.
While the Brocklehurst family lives in luxury, the eighty pupils are subjected to cold rooms, poor meals, and thin clothing. Many students fall ill when a typhus epidemic strikes. Jane's friend Helen dies of consumption in Jane's arms.
When Mr. Brocklehurst's neglect and dishonesty are laid bare, several benefactors erect a new building and conditions at the school improve dramatically.
Chapters 11-26: Jane's time as governess at Thornfield Hall
Eight years later, Jane is a teacher employed by Alice Fairfax (the housekeeper of Thornfield Hall) as governess for Adèle Varens, a young French girl. Out walking one day, Jane encounters and helps a horseman who has sprained his ankle. On her return to Thornfield, she discovers that the horseman is Edward Rochester, Master of Thornfield Hall. Rochester is a moody, self-willed man nearly twenty years older than Jane. Adèle is his ward, belonging to a French "opera dancer" with whom he had a romantic relationship in the past. Adèle, however, is not his daughter, but is brought up by him after her mother abandons her.
Jane saves Mr. Rochester from a fire.
Miss Blanche Ingram looking in a book.
Mr. Rochester disguised as a Gypsy woman.
Bertha Mason rips Jane's wedding veil.
Mr. Rochester seems quite taken with Jane, and she enjoys his company. However, odd things begin to happen: a strange laugh is heard in the halls, a near-fatal fire mysteriously breaks out, and a guest named Mason is attacked.
Jane receives word that Mrs. Reed has suffered a stroke and is asking for her. Returning to Gateshead, she remains for over a month while her aunt lies dying. Mrs. Reed rejects Jane's efforts at reconciliation, but does give her a letter previously withheld out of spite. The letter is from John Eyre, Jane's uncle, notifying her that he wanted her to live with him in Madeira.
After returning to Thornfield, Jane broods over Rochester's impending marriage to Blanche Ingram. But on a midsummer evening, he proclaims his love for Jane and proposes. As she prepares for her wedding, Jane's forebodings arise when a strange, savage-looking woman sneaks into her room one night and rips her wedding veil in two. As with previous mysterious events, Mr Rochester attributes the incident to drunkenness on the part of Grace Poole, one of his servants.
During the wedding ceremony, Mr. Mason and a lawyer declare that Mr. Rochester cannot marry because he is already married to Mr. Mason's sister. Mr. Rochester bitterly admits the truth, explaining that his wife is a violent madwoman whom he keeps locked in the attic, in the care of Grace Poole. When Grace occasionally drinks too much, it gives his wife a chance to escape, and she is the true cause of Thornfield's strange events.
Mr. Rochester asks Jane to go with him to the south of France, and live as husband and wife, even though they cannot be married. Refusing to go against her principles, and despite her love for him, Jane leaves Thornfield in the middle of the night.
Chapters 27-35: Jane's time with the Rivers family
Jane leaves Thornfield and sleeps outside.
Jane begs for food.
St. John Rivers admits Jane to Moor House.
Jane travels to the north of England. After mislaying her funds, she sleeps on the moor and begs for food, but is turned away as a beggar, a thief, or worse. Exhausted, she is saved by St. John Rivers, a young clergyman, who brings her to the home of his sisters, Diana and Mary. As she regains her health, St. John finds her a teaching position at a nearby charity school. Jane becomes warm friends with Mary and Diana, but St. John is too reserved for her to relate to, despite his efforts on her behalf. Jane sees that the brother and sisters have money-related worries, but does not enquire further.
Rosamond Oliver shows an interest in St. John.
St. John tells Jane she has inherited £20,000.
Jane considering St. John's proposal.
When the sisters leave for governess jobs in London, St. John becomes more comfortable around Jane, evidencing his own conflicts of the heart, which involve the beautiful and wealthy Rosamond Oliver. When Jane confronts him about his feelings for Miss Oliver, he confesses that he has turned away from them, because he feels called to be a missionary, and he knows that Miss Oliver would not accept such a life.
St. John discovers Jane's true identity, and astounds her by showing her a letter stating that her uncle John has died and left her his entire fortune of £20,000, equivalent to £1,560,000 in today's pounds. When Jane questions him further, St. John reveals that John is also his and his sisters' uncle. They had once hoped for a share of the inheritance, but have since resigned themselves to nothing. Jane, overjoyed by finding her family, insists on sharing the money equally with her cousins.
St. John asks Jane to accompany him to India as his wife. He asks solely because he wishes a good missionary's wife, a role in which he believes Jane will excel. She agrees to go, but refuses marriage, believing his reserve and reason incompatible with her warmth and passion. But, his powers of persuasion eventually begin to convince her to change her mind.
However, at that very moment, she suddenly seems to hear Mr. Rochester calling her name. The next morning, she leaves for Thornfield to ascertain Mr. Rochester's well-being before departing forever for India.
Chapters 36-38: Jane's reunion with Mr. Rochester
Thornfield burned to the ground by Bertha.
Jane and Mr. Rochester reunited.
Mr. Rochester's sight improving.
Jane arrives at Thornfield to find only blackened ruins. She learns that Rochester's wife set the house on fire and committed suicide by jumping from the roof. In his rescue attempts, Mr. Rochester lost a hand and his eyesight. Jane reunites with him, but he fears that she will be repulsed by his condition. When Jane assures him of her love and tells him that she will never leave him, Mr. Rochester again proposes. He eventually recovers enough sight to see their first-born son.
Characters
* Jane Eyre: The protagonist of the novel and the title character. Orphaned as a baby, she struggles through her nearly loveless childhood and becomes governess at Thornfield Hall. Although she falls in love with her wealthy employer, Edward Rochester, her strong sense of conscience does not permit her to become his mistress, and she does not return to him until his insane wife is dead and she herself has come into an inheritance.
* Mr. Reed: Jane's maternal uncle, who adopts Jane when her parents die. Before his own death, he makes his wife promise to care for Jane.
* Mrs. Sarah Reed: Jane's aunt by marriage, who adopts Jane but neglects and abuses her. Her dislike of Jane continues to her death.
* John Reed: Jane's cousin, who bullies Jane constantly, sometimes in his mother's presence. He ruins himself as an adult and is believed to die by suicide.
* Eliza Reed: Jane's cousin. Bitter because she is not as attractive as her sister, she devotes herself self-righteously to religion.
* Georgiana Reed: Jane's cousin. Though spiteful and insolent, she is also beautiful and indulged. Her sister Eliza foils her marriage to a wealthy Lord.
* Bessie Lee: The plain-spoken nursemaid at Gateshead. She sometimes treats Jane kindly, telling her stories and singing her songs. Later she marries Robert Leaven.
* Robert Leaven: The coachman at Gateshead, who brings Jane the news of John Reed's death, which brought on Mrs. Reed's stroke.
* Mr. Lloyd: A compassionate apothecary who recommends that Jane be sent to school. Later, he writes a letter to Miss Temple confirming Jane's account of her childhood and thereby clearing Jane of Mrs. Reed's charge of lying.
* Mr. Brocklehurst: The clergyman headmaster and treasurer of Lowood School, whose mistreatment of the students is eventually exposed.
* Miss Maria Temple: The kind superintendent of Lowood School, who treats Jane and Helen (and others) with respect and compassion. She helps clear Jane of Mr. Brocklehurst's false accusation of deceit.
* Miss Scatcherd: A sour and vicious teacher at Lowood.
* Helen Burns: A fellow-student and best friend of Jane's at Lowood School. She refuses to hate those who abuse her, trusting in God and turning the other cheek. She dies of consumption in Jane's arms. Some speculate that the book's author based Helen Burns on her elder sister Maria Brontë , who showed signs of dyspraxia.
* Edward Fairfax Rochester: The master of Thornfield Manor. A Byronic hero, he makes an unfortunate first marriage before he meets Jane.
* Bertha Antoinetta Mason: The violently insane first wife of Edward Rochester.
* Adèle Varens: An excitable French child to whom Jane is governess at Thornfield. She is Mr Rochester's ward and possibly his daughter. However Mr. Rochester denies this because her mother had been seeing another man behind his back.
* Mrs. Alice Fairfax: An elderly widow and housekeeper of Thornfield Manor. She treats Jane kindly and respectfully, but disapproves of her engagement to Mr Rochester.
* Blanche Ingram: A socialite whom Mr. Rochester appears to court in order to make Jane jealous. She is described as having great beauty, but displays callous behaviour and avaricious intent.
* Richard Mason: An Englishman from the West Indies, whose sister is Mr. Rochester's first wife. His appearance at Thornfield heralds the eventual revelation of Bertha Mason.
* Grace Poole: Bertha Mason's keeper. Jane is told that it is Grace Poole who causes the mysterious things to happen at Thornfield Hall.
* St. John Eyre Rivers: A clergyman who befriends Jane and turns out to be her cousin. He is Jane Eyre's cousin on her father's side. He is a devout Christian of Calvinistic leanings. By nature he is very reserved and single-minded.
* Diana and Mary Rivers: St. John's sisters and (as it turns out) Jane's cousins.
* Rosamond Oliver: A wealthy young woman who patronizes the village school where Jane teaches, and who is attracted to the Rev. St. John.
* John Eyre: Jane's paternal uncle, who leaves her his vast fortune. He never appears as a character.
Themes
Morality
Jane refuses to become Mr Rochester's paramour because of her "impassioned self-respect and moral conviction." She rejects St. John Rivers' Puritanism as much as the libertine aspects of Mr Rochester's character. Instead, she works out a morality expressed in love, independence, and forgiveness.
Religion
Throughout the novel, Jane endeavours to attain an equilibrium between moral duty and earthly happiness. She despises the hypocritical puritanism of Mr. Brocklehurst, and rejects St. John Rivers' cold devotion to his Christian duty, but neither can she bring herself to emulate Helen Burns' turning the other cheek, although she admires Helen for it. Ultimately, she rejects these three extremes and finds a middle ground in which religion serves to curb her immoderate passions but does not repress her true self.
Social class
Jane's ambiguous social position—a penniless yet moderately educated orphan from a good family—leads her to criticise discrimination based on class. Although she is educated, well-mannered, and relatively sophisticated, she is still a governess, a paid servant of low social standing, and therefore powerless. Nevertheless, Brontë possesses certain class prejudices herself, as is made clear when Jane has to remind herself that her unsophisticated village pupils at Morton "are of flesh and blood as good as the scions of gentlest genealogy."
Gender relations
A particularly important theme in the novel is the depiction of a patriarchal society. Jane attempts to assert her own identity within male-dominated society. Three of the main male characters, Brocklehurst, Mr Rochester and St. John, try to keep Jane in a subordinate position and prevent her from expressing her own thoughts and feelings. Jane escapes Brocklehurst and rejects St. John, and she only marries Mr Rochester once she is sure that their marriage is one between equals. Through Jane, Brontë opposes Victorian stereotypes about women, articulating her own feminist philosophy:
Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex. (Chapter XII)
Love and Passion
One of the secrets to the success of Jane Eyre lies in the way that it touches on a number of important themes while telling a compelling story. Indeed, so lively and dramatic is the story that the reader might not be fully conscious of all the thematic strands that weave through this work. Critics have argued about what comprises the main theme of Jane Eyre. There can be little doubt, however, that love and passion together form a major thematic element of the novel.
On its most simple and obvious level, Jane Eyre is a love story. The love between the orphaned and initially impoverished Jane and the wealthy but tormented Rochester is at its heart. The obstacles to the fulfillment of this love provide the main dramatic conflict in the work. However, the novel explores other types of love as well. Helen Burns, for example, exemplifies the selfless love of a friend. We also see some of the consequences of the absence of love, as in the relationship between Jane and Mrs. Reed, in the selfish relations among the Reed children, and in the mocking marriage of Rochester and Bertha. Jane realizes that the absence of love between herself and St. John Rivers would make their marriage a living death, too.
Throughout the work, Brontë suggests that a life that is not lived passionately is not lived fully. Jane undoubtedly is the central passionate character; her nature is shot through with passion. Early on, she refuses to live by Mrs. Reed's rules, which would restrict all passion. Her defiance of Mrs. Reed is her first, but by no means her last, passionate act. Her passion for Rochester is all consuming. Significantly, however, it is not the only force that governs her life. She leaves Rochester because her moral reason tells her that it would be wrong to live with him as his mistress: "Laws and principles are not for the time when there is no temptation," she tells Rochester; "they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise against their rigor."
Blanche Ingram feels no passion for Rochester; she is only attracted to the landowner because of his wealth and social position. St. John Rivers is a more intelligent character than Blanche, but like her he also lacks the necessary passion that would allow him to live fully. His marriage proposal to Jane has no passion behind it; rather, he regards marriage as a business arrangement, with Jane as his potential junior partner in his missionary work. His lack of passion contrasts sharply with Rochester, who positively seethes with passion. His injury in the fire at Thornfield may be seen as a chastisement for his past passionate indiscretions and as a symbolic taming of his passionate excesses.
Independence
Jane Eyre is not only a love story; it is also a plea for the recognition of the individual's worth. Throughout the book, Jane demands to be treated as an independent human being, a person with her own needs and talents. Early on, she is unjustly punished, precisely for being herself — first by Mrs. Reed and John Reed, and subsequently by Mr. Brocklehurst. Her defiance of Mrs. Reed is her first active declaration of independence in the novel, but not her last. Helen Burns and Miss Temple are the first characters to acknowledge her as an individual; they love her for herself, in spite of her obscurity. Rochester too loves her for herself; the fact that she is a governess and therefore his servant does not negatively affect his perception of her. Rochester confesses that his ideal woman is intellectual, faithful, and loving — qualities that Jane embodies. Rochester's acceptance of Jane as an independent person is contrasted by Blanche and Lady Ingram's attitude toward her: they see her merely as a servant. Lady Ingram speaks disparagingly of Jane in front of her face as though Jane isn't there. To her, Jane is an inferior barely worthy of notice, and certainly not worthy of respect. And even though she is his cousin, St. John Rivers does not regard Jane as a full, independent person. Rather, he sees her as an instrument, an accessory that would help him to further his own plans. Jane acknowledges that his cause (missionary work) may be worthy, but she knows that to marry simply for the sake of expedience would be a fatal mistake. Her marriage to Mr. Rochester, by contrast, is the marriage of two independent beings. It is because of their independence, Brontë suggests, that they acknowledge their dependence on each other and are able to live happily ever after.
God and Religion
In her preface to the second edition of Jane Eyre, Brontë made clear her belief that "conventionality is not morality" and "self-righteousness is not religion." She declared that "narrow human doctrines, that only tend to elate and magnify a few, should not be substituted for the world-redeeming creed of Christ." Throughout the novel, Brontë presents contrasts between characters who believe in and practice what she considers a true Christianity and those who pervert religion to further their own ends. Mr. Brocklehurst, who oversees Lowood Institution, is a hypocritical Christian. He professes charity but uses religion as a justification for punishment. For example, he cites the biblical passage "man shall not live by bread alone" to rebuke Miss Temple for having fed the girls an extra meal to compensate for their inedible breakfast of burnt porridge. He tells Miss Temple that she "may indeed feed their vile bodies, but you little think how you starve their immortal souls!" Helen Burns is a complete contrast to Brocklehurst; she follows the Christian creed of turning the other cheek and loving those who hate her. On her deathbed, Helen tells Jane that she is "going home to God, who loves her."
Jane herself cannot quite profess Helen's absolute, selfless faith. Jane does not seem to follow a particular doctrine, but she is sincerely religious in a nondoctrinaire way. (It is Jane, after all, who places the stone with the word "Resurgam" on Helen's grave, some fifteen years after her friend's death.) Jane frequently prays and calls on God to assist her, particularly in her trouble with Rochester. She prays too that Rochester is safe. When the Rivers's housekeeper, Hannah, tries to turn the begging Jane away, Jane tells her that "if you are a Christian, you ought not consider poverty a crime." The young evangelical clergyman St. John Rivers is a more conventionally religious figure. However, Brontë portrays his religious aspect ambiguously. Jane calls him "a very good man," yet she finds him cold and forbidding. In his determination to do good deeds (in the form of missionary work in India), Rivers courts martyrdom. Moreover, he is unable to see Jane as a whole person, but views her as a helpmate in his proposed missionary work. Rochester is far less a perfect Christian. He is, indeed, a sinner: He attempts to enter into a bigamous marriage with Jane and, when that fails, tries to persuade her to become his mistress. He also confesses that he has had three previous mistresses. In the end, however, he repents his sinfulness, thanks God for returning Jane to him, and begs God to give him the strength to lead a purer life.
Atonement and Forgiveness
Much of the religious concern in Jane Eyre has to do with atonement and forgiveness. Rochester is tormented by his awareness of his past sins and misdeeds. He frequently confesses that he has led a life of vice, and many of his actions in the course of the novel are less than commendable. Readers may accuse him of behaving sadistically in deceiving Jane about the nature of his relationship (or rather, non-relationship) with Blanche Ingram in order to provoke Jane's jealousy. His confinement of Bertha may bespeak mixed motives. He is certainly aware that in the eyes of both religious and civil authorities, his marriage to Jane before Bertha's death would be bigamous. Yet, at the same time, he makes genuine efforts to atone for his behavior. For example, although he does not believe that he is Adèle's natural father, he adopts her as his ward and sees that she is well cared for. This adoption may well be an act of atonement for the sins he has committed. He expresses his self-disgust at having tried to console himself by having three different mistresses during his travels in Europe and begs Jane to forgive him for these past transgressions. However, Rochester can only atone completely — and be forgiven completely — after Jane has refused to be his mistress and left him. The destruction of Thornfield by fire finally removes the stain of his past sins; the loss of his right hand and of his eyesight is the price he must pay to atone completely for his sins. Only after this purgation can he be redeemed by Jane's love.
Search for Home and Family
Without any living family that she is aware of (until well into the story), throughout the course of the novel Jane searches for a place that she can call home. Significantly, houses play a prominent part in the story. (In keeping with a long English tradition, all the houses in the book have names.) The novel's opening finds Jane living at Gateshead Hall, but this is hardly a home. Mrs. Reed and her children refuse to acknowledge her as a relation, treating her instead as an unwanted intruder and an inferior.
Shunted off to Lowood Institution, a boarding school for orphans and destitute children, Jane finds a home of sorts, although her place here is ambiguous and temporary. The school's manager, Mr. Brocklehurst, treats it more as a business than as school in loco parentis (in place of the parent). His emphasis on discipline and on spartan conditions at the expense of the girls' health make it the antithesis of the ideal home.
Jane subsequently believes she has found a home at Thornfield Hall. Anticipating the worst when she arrives, she is relieved when she is made to feel welcome by Mrs. Fairfax. She feels genuine affection for Adèle (who in a way is also an orphan) and is happy to serve as her governess. As her love for Rochester grows, she believes that she has found her ideal husband in spite of his eccentric manner and that they will make a home together at Thornfield. The revelation — as they are literally on the verge of marriage — that he is already legally married — brings her dream of home crashing down. Fleeing Thornfield, she literally becomes homeless and is reduced to begging for food and shelter. The opportunity of having a home presents itself when she enters Moor House, where the Rivers sisters and their brother, the Reverend St. John Rivers, are mourning the death of their father. (When the housekeeper at first shuts the door in her face, Jane has a dreadful feeling that "that anchor of home was gone.") She soon speaks of Diana and Mary Rivers as her own sisters, and is overjoyed when she learns that they are indeed her cousins. She tells St. John Rivers that learning that she has living relations is far more important than inheriting twenty thousand pounds. (She mourns the uncle she never knew. Earlier she was disheartened on learning that Mrs. Reed told her uncle that Jane had died and sent him away.) However, St. John Rivers' offer of marriage cannot sever her emotional attachment to Rochester. In an almost visionary episode, she hears Rochester's voice calling her to return to him. The last chapter begins with the famous simple declarative sentence, "Reader, I married him," and after a long series of travails Jane's search for home and family ends in a union with her ideal mate.
Context
The early sequences, in which Jane is sent to Lowood, a harsh boarding school, are derived from the author's own experiences. Helen Burns's death from tuberculosis (referred to as consumption) recalls the deaths of Charlotte Brontë's sisters Elizabeth and Maria, who died of the disease in childhood as a result of the conditions at their school, the Clergy Daughters School at Cowan Bridge, near Tunstall, Lancashire. Mr. Brocklehurst is based on Rev. William Carus Wilson (1791–1859), the Evangelical minister who ran the school, and Helen Burns is likely modelled on Charlotte's sister Maria. Additionally, John Reed's decline into alcoholism and dissolution recalls the life of Charlotte's brother Branwell, who became an opium and alcohol addict in the years preceding his death. Finally, like Jane, Charlotte becomes a governess. These facts were revealed to the public in The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) by Charlotte's friend and fellow novelist Elizabeth Gaskell.
The Gothic manor of Thornfield was probably inspired by North Lees Hall, near Hathersage in the Peak District. This was visited by Charlotte Brontë and her friend Ellen Nussey in the summer of 1845 and is described by the latter in a letter dated 22 July 1845. It was the residence of the Eyre family, and its first owner, Agnes Ashurst, was reputedly confined as a lunatic in a padded second floor room.
Literary motifs and allusions
Jane Eyre uses many motifs from Gothic fiction, such as the Gothic manor (Thornfield), the Byronic hero (Mr Rochester and Jane herself) and The Madwoman in the Attic (Bertha), whom Jane perceives as resembling "the foul German spectre—the Vampyre" (Chapter XXV) and who attacks her own brother in a distinctly vampiric way: "She sucked the blood: she said she'd drain my heart" (Chapter XX). Also, besides gothicism, Jane Eyre displays romanticism to create a unique Victorian novel.
Literary allusions from the Bible, fairy tales, The Pilgrim's Progress, Paradise Lost, and the novels and poetry of Sir Walter Scott are also much in evidence. The novel deliberately avoids some conventions of Victorian fiction, not contriving a deathbed reconciliation between Aunt Reed and Jane Eyre and avoiding the portrayal of a "fallen woman".
Adaptations
Mr. Reed torments young Jane Eyre in Suffolk Youth Theatre's 2008 production of Jane Eyre.
Jane Eyre has engendered numerous adaptations and related works inspired by the novel. The best known are the 1944 version starring Orson Welles as Rochester and Joan Fontaine as Jane, the BBC television adaptation with Timothy Dalton as Rochester and Zelah Clarke as Jane, and the 1996 version directed by Franco Zeffirelli with William Hurt as Rochester and Charlotte Gainsbourg as Jane.
Radio show versions
* 1943: Extremely loose adaptation (primarily chapters 11–26) on The Weird Circle, premiering on 11 November.
Silent film versions
* Several silent film adaptations entitled Jane Eyre were released; one in 1910, two in 1914, plus:
* 1915: Jane Eyre starring Louise Vale.
* 1915: A version was released called The Castle of Thornfield.
* 1918: A version was released called Woman and Wife, directed by Edward José, adapted by Paul West, starring Alice Brady as Jane.
* 1921: Jane Eyre starring Mabel Ballin and directed by Hugo Ballin.
* 1926: A version was made in Germany called Orphan of Lowood.
Motion picture versions
* 1934: Jane Eyre, starring Colin Clive and Virginia Bruce.
* 1940: Rebecca, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and based upon the novel of the same name which was influenced by Jane Eyre. Joan Fontaine, who starred in this film, would also be cast in the 1944 version of Jane Eyre to reinforce the connection.
* 1943: I Walked with a Zombie is a horror movie loosely based upon Jane Eyre.
* 1944: Jane Eyre, with a screenplay by John Houseman and Aldous Huxley. It features Orson Welles as Mr Rochester, Joan Fontaine as Jane, Agnes Moorehead as Mrs. Reed, Margaret O'Brien as Adele and Elizabeth Taylor as Helen Burns.
* 1956: A version was made in Hong Kong called The Orphan Girl.
* 1963: A version was released in Mexico called El Secreto (English: "The Secret").
* 1970: Jane Eyre, starring George C. Scott as Mr Rochester and Susannah York as Jane.
* 1972: An Indian adaptation in Telugu, Shanti Nilayam, directed by C. Vaikuntarama Sastry, starring Anjali Devi.
* 1978: A version was released in Mexico called Ardiente Secreto (English: "Ardent Secret").
* 1996: Jane Eyre, directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starring William Hurt as Mr Rochester, Charlotte Gainsbourg as Jane, Elle Macpherson as Blanche Ingram, Joan Plowright as Mrs. Fairfax, Anna Paquin as the young Jane, Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Reed and Geraldine Chaplin as Miss Scatcherd.
* 2006: Jane Eyre, Directed by Susanna White, starring Toby Stephens as Mr Rochester and Ruth Wilson as Jane Eyre.
* 2011: Jane Eyre, directed by Cary Fukunaga, starring Mia Wasikowska as Jane Eyre and Michael Fassbender as Rochester.
Musical versions
* A two-act ballet of Jane Eyre was created for the first time by the London Children's Ballet in 1994, with an original score by composer Julia Gomelskaya and choreography by Polyanna Buckingham. The run was a sell-out success.
* A musical version with a book by John Caird and music and lyrics by Paul Gordon, with Marla Schaffel as Jane and James Stacy Barbour as Mr Rochester, opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on 10 December 2000. It closed on 10 June 2001.
* Jane Eyre, opera in three acts, Op. 134 was composed by John Joubert in 1987–1997 to a libretto by Kenneth Birkin after the novel.
* An opera based on the novel was written in 2000 by English composer Michael Berkeley, with a libretto by David Malouf. It was given its premiere by Music Theatre Wales at the Cheltenham Festival.
* Jane Eyre was played for the first time in Europe in Beveren, Belgium. It was given its premiere at the cultural centre.
* The ballet "Jane," based on the book was created in 2007, a Bullard/Tye production with music by Max Reger. Its world premiere was scheduled at the Civic Auditorium, Kalamazoo, Michigan, June 29 and 30, performed by the Kalamazoo Ballet Company, Therese Bullard, Director.
* A musical production directed by Debby Race, book by Jana Smith and Wayne R. Scott, with a musical score by Jana Smith and Brad Roseborough, premiered in 2008 at the Lifehouse Theatre in Redlands, California
* A symphony (7th) by Michel Bosc premiered in Bandol (France), 11 October 2009.
Television versions
* 1952: This was a live television production presented by "Westinghouse Studio One (Summer Theatre)".
* Adaptations appeared on British and American television in 1956 and 1961.
* 1963:Jane Eyre. It was produced by the BBC and starred Richard Leech as Mr Rochester and Ann Bell as Jane.
* 1973: Jane Eyre. It was produced by the BBC and starred Sorcha Cusack as Jane, Michael Jayston as Mr Rochester, Juliet Waley as the child Jane, and Tina Heath as Helen Burns.
* 1978: Telenovela El Ardiente Secreto (English The impassioned secret) was an adaptation of this novel.
* 1982: BBC Classics Presents: Jane Eyrehead. A parody movie by SCTV starred Andrea Martin as Jane Eyrehead, Joe Flaherty as Mr Rochester, also starting John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Martin Short in supporting roles.
* 1983: Jane Eyre. It was produced by the BBC and starred Zelah Clarke as Jane, Timothy Dalton as Mr Rochester, Sian Pattenden as the child Jane, and Colette Barker as Helen Burns.
* 1997: Jane Eyre. It was produced by the A&E Network and starred Ciaran Hinds as Mr Rochester and Samantha Morton as Jane.
* 2006: Jane Eyre. It was produced by the BBC and starred Toby Stephens as Mr Rochester, Ruth Wilson as Jane, and Georgie Henley as Young Jane.
Literature
* 1938: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier was partially inspired by Jane Eyre.
* 1961: The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart adapts many of the motifs of Jane Eyre to 1950s northern England. The main character, Annabel, falls in love with her older neighbor who is married to a mentally ill woman. Like Jane, Annabel runs away to try to get over her love. The novel begins when she returns from her eight-year exile.
* 1966: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. The character Bertha Mason serves as the main protagonist for this novel which acts as a "prequel" to Jane Eyre. It describes the meeting and marriage of Antoinette (later renamed Bertha by Mr Rochester) and Mr Rochester. In its reshaping of events related to Jane Eyre, the novel suggests that Bertha's madness is the result of Mr Rochester's rejection of her and her Creole heritage. It was also adapted into film twice.
* 1997: Mrs Rochester: A Sequel to Jane Eyre by Hilary Bailey
* 2000: Adele: Jane Eyre's Hidden Story by Emma Tennant
* 2000: Jane Rochester by Kimberly A. Bennett, content explores the first years of the Rochesters' marriage with gothic and explicit content. A fan favorite.
* 2001 novel The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde revolves around the plot of Jane Eyre. It portrays the book as originally largely free of literary contrivance: Jane and Mr Rochester's first meeting is a simple conversation without the dramatic horse accident, and Jane does not hear his voice calling for her and ends up starting a new life in India. The protagonist's efforts mostly accidentally change it to the real version.
* 2002: Jenna Starborn by Sharon Shinn, a science fiction novel based upon Jane Eyre
* 2006: The French Dancer's Bastard: The Story of Adele From Jane Eyre by Emma Tennant. This is a slightly modified version of Tennant's 2000 novel.
* 2007: Thornfield Hall: Jane Eyre's Hidden Story by Emma Tennant. This is another version of Jane Eyre.
* 2010: Rochester: A Novel Inspired by Jane Eyre by J.L. Niemann. Jane Eyre told from the first person-perspective of Edward Rochester.
* The novelist Angela Carter was working on a sequel to Jane Eyre at the time of her death in 1992. This was to have been the story of Jane's stepdaughter Adèle Varens and her mother Céline. Only a synopsis survives.
玛格丽特原来是个贫苦的乡下姑娘，来到巴黎后，开始了卖笑生涯。由于生得花容月貌，巴黎的贵族公子争相追逐，成了红极一时的“社交明星”。她随身的装扮总是少不了一束茶花，人称“茶花女”。
茶花女得了肺病，在接受矿泉治疗时，疗养院里有位贵族小姐，身材、长相和玛格丽特差不多，只是肺病已到了第三期，不久便死了。小姐的父亲摩里阿龙公爵在偶然发现玛格丽特很像他女儿，便收她做了干女儿。玛格丽特说出了自己的身世，公爵答应只要她能改变自己过去的生活，便负担她的全部日常费用。但玛格丽特不能完全做到，公爵便将钱减少了一半，玛格丽特入不敷出，到现在已欠下几万法郎的债务。
In the English-speaking world, The Lady of the Camellias became known as Camille and 16 versions have been performed at Broadway theatres alone. The titular lady is Marguerite Gautier, who is based on Marie Duplessis, the real-life lover of author Dumas, fils.
Stage performances
Since its debut as a play, numerous editions have been performed at theatres around the world. The role of the tragic "Marguerite Gautier" became one of the most coveted amongst actresses and included performances by Lillian Gish, Eleonora Duse, Margaret Anglin, Gabrielle Réjane, Tallulah Bankhead, Eva Le Gallienne, Isabelle Adjani, Cacilda Becker, and especially Sarah Bernhardt, who starred in Paris, London, and several Broadway revivals, plus a 1912 film. Dancer/Impressario Ida Rubinstein successfully recreated Bernhardt's interpretation of the role onstage in the mid-1920s, coached by the great actress herself before she died.
It is also the inspiration for the 2008 musical Marguerite, which places the story in 1944 German-occupied France.
Adaptations
Film
In addition to inspiring La Traviata, The Lady of the Camellias has been adapted for approximately twenty different motion pictures in numerous countries and in a wide variety of languages. The role of "Marguerite Gautier" has been played on screen by Sarah Bernhardt, Clara Kimball Young, Theda Bara, Yvonne Printemps, Alla Nazimova, Greta Garbo, Micheline Presle, Francesca Bertini, Isabelle Huppert, and others.
films entitled Camille
There have been at least eight adaptations of The Lady of the Camellias entitled Camille.
other films based on La Dame aux Camélias
In addition to the Camille films, the story has been the adapted into numerous other screen versions: Elena Lunda
* Kameliadamen, the first movie based on the work. Kameliadamen was a 1907 Danish silent film directed by Viggo Larsen and starring Oda Alstrup, Larsen, Gustave Lund and Robert Storm Petersen.
* La Dame aux Camélias, a 1911 French language silent film, directed by André Calmettes and Henri Pouctal. It stars Sarah Bernhardt.
* La Signora delle Camelie, a 1915 Italian language film. It was directed by Baldassarre Negroni and Gustavo Serena. It stars Hesperia, Alberto Collo and Ida Carloni Talli.
* A 1921 English language silent film that stars Nazimova and Rudolph Valentino. It was directed by Ray C. Smallwood.
* Damen med kameliorna, a 1925 Swedish film adapted and directed by Olof Molander. It stars Uno Henning and Tora Teje.
* La Dame aux Camélias, the first sound adaptation. La Dame aux Camélias was a 1934 French film adapted by Abel Gance and directed by Gance and Fernand Rivers. It stars Yvonne Printemps and Pierre Fresnay.
* Greta Garbo had the starring role in Camille (1936), directed by George Cukor
* A 1944 Spanish language version was produced in Mexico. It was adapted by Roberto Tasker and directed by Gabriel Soria, and stars Lina Montes and Emilio Tuero.
* La Dame aux Camélias, a 1953 French film adapted by Bernard Natanson and directed by Raymond Bernard. It stars Gino Cervi, Micheline Presle and Roland Alexandre.
* Camelia, a 1954 Mexican film adapted by José Arenas, Edmundo Báez, Roberto Gavaldón and Gregorio Walerstein. It was directed by Gavaldón, and stars María Félix.
* La Mujer de las camelias, a 1954 Argentine film adapted by Alexis de Arancibia (as Wassen Eisen) and Ernesto Arancibia, and directed by Ernesto Arancibia. It stars Zully Moreno.
* La Dame aux Camélias, a 1981 French language film adapted by Jean Aurenche, Enrico Medioli and Vladimir Pozner, and directed by Mauro Bolognini. It stars Isabelle Huppert.
Ballet
* John Neumeier made a The Lady of the Camellias ballet on his Hamburg Ballet company.
* Marguerite and Armand is an adaptation created in 1963 by renowned choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton specifically for Rudolf Nureyev and prima ballerina assoluta Dame Margot Fonteyn.
茶花女得了肺病，在接受矿泉治疗时，疗养院里有位贵族小姐，身材、长相和玛格丽特差不多，只是肺病已到了第三期，不久便死了。小姐的父亲摩里阿龙公爵在偶然发现玛格丽特很像他女儿，便收她做了干女儿。玛格丽特说出了自己的身世，公爵答应只要她能改变自己过去的生活，便负担她的全部日常费用。但玛格丽特不能完全做到，公爵便将钱减少了一半，玛格丽特入不敷出，到现在已欠下几万法郎的债务。
In the English-speaking world, The Lady of the Camellias became known as Camille and 16 versions have been performed at Broadway theatres alone. The titular lady is Marguerite Gautier, who is based on Marie Duplessis, the real-life lover of author Dumas, fils.
Stage performances
Since its debut as a play, numerous editions have been performed at theatres around the world. The role of the tragic "Marguerite Gautier" became one of the most coveted amongst actresses and included performances by Lillian Gish, Eleonora Duse, Margaret Anglin, Gabrielle Réjane, Tallulah Bankhead, Eva Le Gallienne, Isabelle Adjani, Cacilda Becker, and especially Sarah Bernhardt, who starred in Paris, London, and several Broadway revivals, plus a 1912 film. Dancer/Impressario Ida Rubinstein successfully recreated Bernhardt's interpretation of the role onstage in the mid-1920s, coached by the great actress herself before she died.
It is also the inspiration for the 2008 musical Marguerite, which places the story in 1944 German-occupied France.
Adaptations
Film
In addition to inspiring La Traviata, The Lady of the Camellias has been adapted for approximately twenty different motion pictures in numerous countries and in a wide variety of languages. The role of "Marguerite Gautier" has been played on screen by Sarah Bernhardt, Clara Kimball Young, Theda Bara, Yvonne Printemps, Alla Nazimova, Greta Garbo, Micheline Presle, Francesca Bertini, Isabelle Huppert, and others.
films entitled Camille
There have been at least eight adaptations of The Lady of the Camellias entitled Camille.
other films based on La Dame aux Camélias
In addition to the Camille films, the story has been the adapted into numerous other screen versions: Elena Lunda
* Kameliadamen, the first movie based on the work. Kameliadamen was a 1907 Danish silent film directed by Viggo Larsen and starring Oda Alstrup, Larsen, Gustave Lund and Robert Storm Petersen.
* La Dame aux Camélias, a 1911 French language silent film, directed by André Calmettes and Henri Pouctal. It stars Sarah Bernhardt.
* La Signora delle Camelie, a 1915 Italian language film. It was directed by Baldassarre Negroni and Gustavo Serena. It stars Hesperia, Alberto Collo and Ida Carloni Talli.
* A 1921 English language silent film that stars Nazimova and Rudolph Valentino. It was directed by Ray C. Smallwood.
* Damen med kameliorna, a 1925 Swedish film adapted and directed by Olof Molander. It stars Uno Henning and Tora Teje.
* La Dame aux Camélias, the first sound adaptation. La Dame aux Camélias was a 1934 French film adapted by Abel Gance and directed by Gance and Fernand Rivers. It stars Yvonne Printemps and Pierre Fresnay.
* Greta Garbo had the starring role in Camille (1936), directed by George Cukor
* A 1944 Spanish language version was produced in Mexico. It was adapted by Roberto Tasker and directed by Gabriel Soria, and stars Lina Montes and Emilio Tuero.
* La Dame aux Camélias, a 1953 French film adapted by Bernard Natanson and directed by Raymond Bernard. It stars Gino Cervi, Micheline Presle and Roland Alexandre.
* Camelia, a 1954 Mexican film adapted by José Arenas, Edmundo Báez, Roberto Gavaldón and Gregorio Walerstein. It was directed by Gavaldón, and stars María Félix.
* La Mujer de las camelias, a 1954 Argentine film adapted by Alexis de Arancibia (as Wassen Eisen) and Ernesto Arancibia, and directed by Ernesto Arancibia. It stars Zully Moreno.
* La Dame aux Camélias, a 1981 French language film adapted by Jean Aurenche, Enrico Medioli and Vladimir Pozner, and directed by Mauro Bolognini. It stars Isabelle Huppert.
Ballet
* John Neumeier made a The Lady of the Camellias ballet on his Hamburg Ballet company.
* Marguerite and Armand is an adaptation created in 1963 by renowned choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton specifically for Rudolf Nureyev and prima ballerina assoluta Dame Margot Fonteyn.
《三剑客》是以17世纪初期法国国王路易十三和手握重兵、权倾朝野的首相黎塞留红衣主教的矛盾为背景，穿插群臣派系的明争暗斗，围绕宫廷里的秘史轶闻，展开了极饶趣味的故事。书中的主人公少年勇士达达尼昂，怀揣其父留给他的十五个埃居，骑一匹长毛瘦马，告别及亲，远赴巴黎，希望在同乡父执的特雷维尔为队长的国王火枪队里当一名火枪手。在队长府上，他遇上阿托斯，波托斯和阿拉米斯三个火枪手，通过欧洲骑士风行的决斗，四人结成生死与共的知己。
其时，国王路易十三，王后安娜·奥地利，以及首相黎塞留三分国权，彼此有隙。国王对达达尼昂几次打败首相部下暗自褒奖，而首相却怀恨在心。恰逢安娜·奥地利王后的旧时情人英国白金汉公爵对她情丝未断，王后便以金刚钻坠相赠以表怀念。主教遂利用契机构陷，向国王屡进谗言，要国王派人组织宫廷舞会，让王后配带国王送给她的那条金刚钻坠以正虚实。王后眼见舞会日期逼近，惶然无计，幸得心腹侍女波那瑟献计设法，请达达尼昂帮忙相助。达达尼昂对波那瑟一见钟情，颇相见恨晚，便不顾个人安危，满口答应，在三个朋友的全力支持下，四人分头赴英。经过一路曲折离奇的磨难，唯有达达尼昂如期抵达，向白金汉说明原委，及时索回金刚钻坠，解救了王后的燃眉之急，粉碎了红衣主教的阴谋诡计。
红衣主教黎塞留对安娜·奥地利也早已有意，但一直未获王后垂青。于是他妒火中烧，移恨于情敌白金汉公爵，利用新旧教徒的矛盾引发的法英战争，妄图除掉白金汉以解心头之恨。为达此目的，他网罗一批心腹党羽，其中最得力的亲信便是佳丽米拉迪。此女天生丽质，艳若桃李，但却两面三刀，口蜜腹剑，心狠手辣，毒如蛇蝎。达达尼昂为其美貌所动，巧构计谋，潜入内室，诱她失身。就在云雨交欢之中，达达尼昂偶然发现米拉迪肩烙一朵百合花，那是当时欧洲女子犯罪的耻辱刑迹。隐藏数年的这个机密的暴露，使她对达达尼昂恨之入骨，不共戴天，几次设陷阱暗害，但均未成功。
在以围困拉罗舍尔城为战事焦点的法英对垒中，黎塞留和白金汉各为两国披挂上阵的主帅。黎塞留暗派米拉迪赴英卧底，乘机行刺白金汉；米拉迪提出以杀死达达尼昂为交换条件。她一踏上英国的土地，即被预先得到达达尼昂通知的温特勋爵抓获，遂遭其软禁。囚禁中，她极尽卖弄风骚和花言巧语之能事，诱惑了温特勋爵的心腹看守费尔顿，后者自告奋勇救米拉迪出获，并侥幸刺死了白金汉。米拉迪在归法途中，巧进修道院，找到了受王后派人庇护的达达尼昂的情妇波那瑟，将她毒死。达达尼昂、阿托斯、波托斯、阿拉米斯四位朋友昼夜兼程，苦苦追踪，会同温特勋爵和一名刽子手，终于在利斯河畔抓到企图潜逃比利时的米拉迪。六位仇人齐讨共诛，揭开了米拉迪的老底：原来她早已遁入空门，但她不甘青春寂寞，诱惑了一个小教士与其同居。因败坏教门清规，教士身陷囹圄，她也被刽子手——小教士的胞兄烙下了一朵百合花。教士越狱逃跑，携带米拉迪私奔他乡，刽子手因受株连入狱，替弟顶罪。在异乡，米拉迪嫌贫爱富，又抛弃了小教士，和当地一位少年拉费尔伯爵结婚，弄得后者倾家荡产又弃他而去。拉费尔伯爵恨之切切，便化名阿托斯投军，进了国王火枪队，以慰失恋受骗之苦。米拉迪逃到英国，骗取温特勋爵伯兄之爱成婚，并生有一子。但为了独占丈夫及兄弟之遗产，她又谋害了第二个丈夫。她罪恶累累，天怒人怨，当即在利斯河畔被杀正法。至此，达达尼昂、阿托斯、波托斯、阿拉米斯、温特勋爵和刽子手各自都报仇雪恨，了却夙愿。
黎塞留得知心腹米拉迪遇害一事中，达达尼昂是主谋，便命亲信罗什福尔将他捉拿。达达尼昂不卑不亢，坦言相陈，明示原委。黎塞留见他视死如归，义勇无双，少年有为，深为感动，非但不加罪行诛，反而擢升其火枪队副官。阿托斯、波托斯、阿拉米斯三人或归乡里，或娶孀妇，或皈教门，萍飘絮飞，全书就此结局。
《三剑客》是一部历史小说，但作者大仲马不拘泥于历史，在此基础上添加自己丰富的想像力，使它成为一部引人入胜的侠士小说，至今仍为人们所喜爱。
The story of d'Artagnan is continued in Twenty Years After and The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later. Those three novels by Dumas are together known as the d'Artagnan Romances.
The Three Musketeers was first published in serial form in the magazine Le Siècle between March and July 1844.
Origin
In the very first sentences of his preface Alexandre Dumas indicated as his source Mémoires de Monsieur d'Artagnan, printed by Pierre Rouge in Amsterdam. It was in this book, he said, that d'Artagnan relates his first visit to M. de Tréville, captain of the Musketeers, where in the antechamber he met three young men with the names Athos, Porthos and Aramis. This information struck the imagination of Dumas so much—he tells us—that he continued his investigation and finally encountered once more the names of the three musketeers in a manuscript with the title Mémoire de M. le comte de la Fère, etc.. Elated—so continues his yarn—he asked permission to reprint the manuscript. Permission granted:
"Well, it is the first part of this precious manuscript that we offer today to our readers, while giving it back its more convenient title and under the engagement to publish immediately the second part should this first part be successful. In the meantime, as the godfather is as good as a second father, we invite the reader to address himself to us, and not to the Comte de La Fère, about his pleasure or boredom. This being said, let's get on with our story."
The book he referred to was Mémoires de M .d'Artagnan, capitaine lieutenant de la première compagnie des Mousquetaires du Roi (Memoirs of Mister d'Artagnan, Lieutenant Captain of the first company of the King's Musketeers) by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras (Cologne, 1700). The book was borrowed from the Marseille public library, and the card-index remains to this day; Dumas kept the book when he went back to Paris.
Attention to the extent of Dumas' preface is called for when compared with the recent analysis (2008) of the book's origin by Roger MacDonald in his The Man in the Iron Mask:The True Story of the Most Famous Prisoner in History and the Four Musketeers where the identity of the man in the iron mask is presented as real history.
Following Dumas's lead in his preface, Eugène d'Auriac (de la Bibliothèque Royale) in 1847 was able to write the biography of d'Artagnan: d'Artagnan, Capitaine-Lieutenant des Mousquetaires – Sa vie aventureuse – Ses duels – etc. based on Courtilz de Sandras. This work and especially its introduction with reference to the preface is uncited by MacDonald.
Plot summary
Plot brief
The poor d'Artagnan travels to Paris to join the Musketeers. He suffers misadventure and is challenged to a duel by each of three musketeers (Athos, Aramis and Porthos). Attacked by the Cardinal's guards, the four unite and escape.
D'Artagnan and his new love interest, Constance, help the French queen give a particular piece of jewellery to her paramour, the Duke of Buckingham. The Cardinal learns of this and coaxes the French king to hold a ball where the queen must wear the jewellery; its absence will reveal her infidelity. The four companions retrieve the jewellery from England.
The Cardinal kidnaps Constance who is later rescued by the queen. D'Artagnan meets Milady de Winter and discovers she is a felon, the ex-wife of Athos and the widow of Count de Winter. The Cardinal recruits Milady to kill Buckingham, also granting her a hand-written pardon for the future killing of d'Artagnan. Athos learns of this, takes the pardon but is unable to warn Buckingham. He sends word to Lord de Winter that Milady is arriving; Lord de Winter arrests her on suspicion of killing Count de Winter, his brother.
She seduces her guard and escapes to the monastery in France where the queen secreted Constance. Milady kills Constance. The four companions arrive and Athos identifies her as a multiple murderess. She is tried and beheaded.
On the road, d'Artagnan is arrested. Taken before the Cardinal, d'Artagnan relates recent events and reveals the Cardinal’s pardon. Impressed, the Cardinal offers him a blank musketeer officer's commission. D’Artagnan’s friends refuse the commission, each retiring to a new life, telling him to take it himself.
Detailed plot summary
The main character, d'Artagnan, born into an impoverished noble family of Gascony, leaves home for Paris to fulfill his greatest dream: becoming a Musketeer of the Guard. Fortunately his father knows Monsieur De Treville, Captain of the Company of Musketeers (and fellow Gascon) and has written a letter of introduction. On the road to Paris, the young Gascon soon gets in a quarrel with a mysterious gentleman and is set upon by the servants of the nearby inn. When d'Artagnan regains consciousness he realizes that the gentleman has stolen his letter of introduction. The innkeeper manages to get his hands on much of d'Artagnan's limited money as he recuperates.
In Paris d'Artagnan goes straight to M. De Treville's hôtel, but lacking his father's letter is received somewhat coolly. In a series of incidents at the hôtel, d'Artagnan is challenged to duels by three musketeers: Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. The four men meet and d'Artagnan begins to fight Athos (the first challenger). They are interrupted by Cardinal Richelieu's guards who threaten to arrest them because duels are forbidden by royal decree. The three musketeers and d'Artagnan unite to defeat the cardinal's guards. In this manner the young Gascon earns the respect and friendship of Athos, Porthos and Aramis and soon becomes a soldier in a regiment of the Royal Guard.
After obtaining lodging and hiring a servant (Planchet), he meets his aging landlord's pretty young wife, Constance Bonacieux, with whom he falls instantly in love. Constance and d'Artagnan help the Queen Consort of France, Anne of Austria, and the Duke of Buckingham have a rendezvous and the Queen presents her lover with a wooden box containing a set of diamond jewels originally given to her by her husband Louis XIII. Cardinal Richelieu, informed by his spies of the gift, persuades the King to invite the Queen to a ball where she would be expected to wear the diamonds; in hopes of uncovering her love affair.
Constance attempts to get her husband to go to London and retrieve the diamonds, but he has been recruited as an agent by the cardinal and refuses. D'Artagnan and his friends are convinced to take on the mission instead. After a series of adventures, they retrieve the jewels and return them to Queen Anne, just in time to save her façade of honour. Athos, Porthos and Aramis are all badly wounded by the cardinal's agents in this endeavor.
The cardinal's revenge comes swiftly: the next evening, Constance is kidnapped. D'Artagnan brings his friends back to Paris and tries to find her, but fails. Meanwhile, he befriends the Lord de Winter, an English nobleman who introduces him to his sister-in-law, Milady de Winter. D'Artagnan quickly develops a crush on the pretty noblewoman, but soon learns that she has no love for him, being an agent for the cardinal. He manages to sleep with her and learns that Milady has a fleur-de-lis burned into her shoulder, marking her as a felon. She had apparently been married to both Athos and the Count de Winter at different times in her wicked life and was livid that the young musketeer knew her secret. D'Artagnan is able to escape her home but is relieved when all the King's guards are ordered to La Rochelle where a siege of the Protestant-held town is taking place.
Milady makes several attempts to kill d'Artagnan in and around La Rochelle, but fails. At the same time, d'Artagnan finds out that the Queen has managed to save Constance from the prison where the cardinal and Milady had thrown her and that his beloved is now hidden somewhere safe.
The Musketeers stake out the inn and overhear a conversation between the cardinal and Milady, during which the cardinal asks her to assassinate the Duke of Buckingham (a supporter of the Protestant Rochellais rebels). The churchman then writes out a blanket pardon to Milady, effectively giving her permission to kill d'Artagnan. Athos quickly confronts his former wife and forces her to relinquish the cardinal's pardon. Because of the war between France and England, any attempt by the musketeers to warn the Duke of Buckingham about Milady would be considered treason, but they are able to send Planchet with a letter to Milady's brother-in-law (Lord de Winter) who suspects Milady killed his brother.
Milady is imprisoned on arrival in England, but soon seduces her hard-hearted Puritan jailer Felton and convinces him not only to help her escape, but also to assassinate the Duke of Buckingham. While the naive Felton shanks the prime minister, Milady sails to France. Milady sends a message to the cardinal and hides in the same North French monastery where Constance had been sent by the Queen. The trusting Constance bares her soul to Milady and the evil woman realizes that her enemy d'Artagnan is expected to arrive at the monastery at any moment. She escapes just before his arrival, but not before taking her revenge: she poisons Constance who dies minutes later in the arms of her beloved d'Artagnan.
They arrange to track down the whereabouts of Milady to exact punishment, joined by the Lord de Winter. The noblemen find her and try the countess on numerous charges: the poisoning of Madame Bonacieux; the assassination attempts on d'Artagnan; accomplice to the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham; the corruption of the Lord de Winter's servant, Felton; and the assassination of her late husband, Count de Winter. The most damning charge comes when Athos states that Milady, his wife, is a marked criminal with a brand on her shoulder. When the countess demands that Athos present the one who branded her, a man in a red cloak steps forward. She immediately recognizes him as the executioner of Lille and he recounts Milady's early misdeeds that led to the brand.
After Milady is beheaded the musketeers return to La Rochelle. On their way they encounter the Count of Rochefort, who was traveling to Milady to pay her. Rochefort also has an order to arrest d'Artagnan. He decides to postpone his trip to Milady in order to take d'Artagnan directly to the cardinal. When the young Gascon is presented before him the entire story about Milady's assassination attempts, her poisoning of Madame Bonacieux, etc. is told. The cardinal states that if Milady is indeed guilty, the courts will deal harshly with her. D'Artagnan frankly admits that he and his friends have already dealt with this evil woman. He then presents Richelieu with the blanket pardon written in the cardinal's own hand. The cardinal, impressed by d'Artagnan's resourcefulness and having already gotten what he wanted from Milady, offers the young man a lieutenant's commission with the musketeers — with the name left blank. The cardinal then presents Rochefort and asks both men to be on good terms.
The book ends with d'Artagnan offering the officer's commission to each of his friends, but he is told that he should insert his own name. Athos intends to retire to his estates, Porthos has decided to marry the widow of a rich lawyer and Aramis will soon fulfill his dream of entering the priesthood. Their lives will cross again, in Twenty Years After.
Important characters
Musketeers
* Athos
* Porthos
* Aramis
D'Artagnan was not one of the titular "three musketeers." The novel recounts his becoming a musketeer.
Musketeers' servants
* Planchet (d'Artagnan) – A clever fellow whom Porthos found to serve d'Artagnan.
* Grimaud (Athos) – A Breton, trained to speak only in emergencies and mostly communicates through sign language.
* Mousqueton (Porthos) – A would-be dandy, just as vain as his master, whose only pay is his master's old clothes
* Bazin (Aramis) – Waits for the day his master will join the church, as Bazin has always dreamed to serve a priest.
Others
* Milady de Winter
* Cardinal Richelieu
* Comte de Rochefort
* Louis XIII of France
* M. de Tréville
* Constance Bonacieux
* Monsieur Bonacieux
* Queen Anne of Austria
* George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
Editions
Les Trois Mousquetaires was translated into three English versions by 1846. One of these, by William Barrow, is still in print and fairly faithful to the original, available in the Oxford World's Classics 1999 edition. However, all of the explicit and many of the implicit references to sexuality had been removed to conform to 19th-century English standards, thereby making the scenes between d'Artagnan and Milady, for example, confusing and strange. The most recent and now standard English translation is by Richard Pevear (2006), who in his introduction notes that most of the modern translations available today are "textbook examples of bad translation practices" which "give their readers an extremely distorted notion of Dumas' writing."
Adaptations
Musical theatre
The Three Musketeers is a musical with a book by William Anthony McGuire, lyrics by Clifford Grey and P. G. Wodehouse, and music by Rudolf Friml. The original 1928 production ran on Broadway for 318 performances. A 1984 revival ran for 15 previews and 9 performances. In 2003 a Dutch musical 3 Musketiers premiered, which went on to open in Germany (both the Dutch and German production starring Pia Douwes as Milady De Winter) and Hungary. Composer George Stiles, lyricist Paul Leigh and playwright Peter Raby have produced another version (under the title The 3 Musketeers, One Musical For All), which opened at the American Musical Theatre of San José on 10 March 2001.
Films
See The Three Musketeers (film) for a list of film adaptations.
Games
1995 saw the release by publisher U.S. Gold of Touché: The Adventures of the Fifth Musketeer by video game developers Clipper Software, a classic point-and-click adventure game using the SCUMM engine.
In 2005, Swedish developer Legendo Entertainment published the side-scrolling platform game The Three Musketeers for Windows XP and Windows Vista. In July 2009, a version of the game was released for WiiWare in North America and Europe under the title The Three Musketeers: One for All!.
In 2009, Canadian developer Dingo Games self-published The Three Musketeers: The Game for Windows and Mac OS X. It is the first game to be truly based on the novel (in that it closely follows the novel's story).
2009 also saw the publication of the asymmetric team board game The Three Musketeers "The Queen's Pendants" (Настольная игра «Три мушкетера») from French designer Pascal Bernard by the Russian publisher Zvezda.
Television
* Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds is an anthropomorphic animated series adaptation
* Albert the Fifth Musketeer, animated series which is a sequel to the novel
* Young Blades, television series which is a sequel to the novels, centered on the son of d'Artagnan
* Three Musketeers is an anime series adaption
* The Three Musketeers, an animated adaption that aired as part of Hanna-Barbera's "The Banana Splits Comedy-Adventure Hour" & "The Banana Splits & Friends" show.
Influence on later works
In 1939, American author Tiffany Thayer published a book entitled Three Musketeers (Thayer, 1939). This is a re-telling of the story in Thayer's words, true to the original plot but told in a different order and with different points of view and emphasis from the original. For example, the book opens with the scene of Milady's youth and how she came to be branded, and more development of her early character, making her later scheming more believable and understandable. Thayer's treatment of sex and sexual politics is more explicit than typical English translations of the original, occasionally leading to consternation when this book found its way to library children's sections and school libraries.
其时，国王路易十三，王后安娜·奥地利，以及首相黎塞留三分国权，彼此有隙。国王对达达尼昂几次打败首相部下暗自褒奖，而首相却怀恨在心。恰逢安娜·奥地利王后的旧时情人英国白金汉公爵对她情丝未断，王后便以金刚钻坠相赠以表怀念。主教遂利用契机构陷，向国王屡进谗言，要国王派人组织宫廷舞会，让王后配带国王送给她的那条金刚钻坠以正虚实。王后眼见舞会日期逼近，惶然无计，幸得心腹侍女波那瑟献计设法，请达达尼昂帮忙相助。达达尼昂对波那瑟一见钟情，颇相见恨晚，便不顾个人安危，满口答应，在三个朋友的全力支持下，四人分头赴英。经过一路曲折离奇的磨难，唯有达达尼昂如期抵达，向白金汉说明原委，及时索回金刚钻坠，解救了王后的燃眉之急，粉碎了红衣主教的阴谋诡计。
红衣主教黎塞留对安娜·奥地利也早已有意，但一直未获王后垂青。于是他妒火中烧，移恨于情敌白金汉公爵，利用新旧教徒的矛盾引发的法英战争，妄图除掉白金汉以解心头之恨。为达此目的，他网罗一批心腹党羽，其中最得力的亲信便是佳丽米拉迪。此女天生丽质，艳若桃李，但却两面三刀，口蜜腹剑，心狠手辣，毒如蛇蝎。达达尼昂为其美貌所动，巧构计谋，潜入内室，诱她失身。就在云雨交欢之中，达达尼昂偶然发现米拉迪肩烙一朵百合花，那是当时欧洲女子犯罪的耻辱刑迹。隐藏数年的这个机密的暴露，使她对达达尼昂恨之入骨，不共戴天，几次设陷阱暗害，但均未成功。
在以围困拉罗舍尔城为战事焦点的法英对垒中，黎塞留和白金汉各为两国披挂上阵的主帅。黎塞留暗派米拉迪赴英卧底，乘机行刺白金汉；米拉迪提出以杀死达达尼昂为交换条件。她一踏上英国的土地，即被预先得到达达尼昂通知的温特勋爵抓获，遂遭其软禁。囚禁中，她极尽卖弄风骚和花言巧语之能事，诱惑了温特勋爵的心腹看守费尔顿，后者自告奋勇救米拉迪出获，并侥幸刺死了白金汉。米拉迪在归法途中，巧进修道院，找到了受王后派人庇护的达达尼昂的情妇波那瑟，将她毒死。达达尼昂、阿托斯、波托斯、阿拉米斯四位朋友昼夜兼程，苦苦追踪，会同温特勋爵和一名刽子手，终于在利斯河畔抓到企图潜逃比利时的米拉迪。六位仇人齐讨共诛，揭开了米拉迪的老底：原来她早已遁入空门，但她不甘青春寂寞，诱惑了一个小教士与其同居。因败坏教门清规，教士身陷囹圄，她也被刽子手——小教士的胞兄烙下了一朵百合花。教士越狱逃跑，携带米拉迪私奔他乡，刽子手因受株连入狱，替弟顶罪。在异乡，米拉迪嫌贫爱富，又抛弃了小教士，和当地一位少年拉费尔伯爵结婚，弄得后者倾家荡产又弃他而去。拉费尔伯爵恨之切切，便化名阿托斯投军，进了国王火枪队，以慰失恋受骗之苦。米拉迪逃到英国，骗取温特勋爵伯兄之爱成婚，并生有一子。但为了独占丈夫及兄弟之遗产，她又谋害了第二个丈夫。她罪恶累累，天怒人怨，当即在利斯河畔被杀正法。至此，达达尼昂、阿托斯、波托斯、阿拉米斯、温特勋爵和刽子手各自都报仇雪恨，了却夙愿。
黎塞留得知心腹米拉迪遇害一事中，达达尼昂是主谋，便命亲信罗什福尔将他捉拿。达达尼昂不卑不亢，坦言相陈，明示原委。黎塞留见他视死如归，义勇无双，少年有为，深为感动，非但不加罪行诛，反而擢升其火枪队副官。阿托斯、波托斯、阿拉米斯三人或归乡里，或娶孀妇，或皈教门，萍飘絮飞，全书就此结局。
《三剑客》是一部历史小说，但作者大仲马不拘泥于历史，在此基础上添加自己丰富的想像力，使它成为一部引人入胜的侠士小说，至今仍为人们所喜爱。
The story of d'Artagnan is continued in Twenty Years After and The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later. Those three novels by Dumas are together known as the d'Artagnan Romances.
The Three Musketeers was first published in serial form in the magazine Le Siècle between March and July 1844.
Origin
In the very first sentences of his preface Alexandre Dumas indicated as his source Mémoires de Monsieur d'Artagnan, printed by Pierre Rouge in Amsterdam. It was in this book, he said, that d'Artagnan relates his first visit to M. de Tréville, captain of the Musketeers, where in the antechamber he met three young men with the names Athos, Porthos and Aramis. This information struck the imagination of Dumas so much—he tells us—that he continued his investigation and finally encountered once more the names of the three musketeers in a manuscript with the title Mémoire de M. le comte de la Fère, etc.. Elated—so continues his yarn—he asked permission to reprint the manuscript. Permission granted:
"Well, it is the first part of this precious manuscript that we offer today to our readers, while giving it back its more convenient title and under the engagement to publish immediately the second part should this first part be successful. In the meantime, as the godfather is as good as a second father, we invite the reader to address himself to us, and not to the Comte de La Fère, about his pleasure or boredom. This being said, let's get on with our story."
The book he referred to was Mémoires de M .d'Artagnan, capitaine lieutenant de la première compagnie des Mousquetaires du Roi (Memoirs of Mister d'Artagnan, Lieutenant Captain of the first company of the King's Musketeers) by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras (Cologne, 1700). The book was borrowed from the Marseille public library, and the card-index remains to this day; Dumas kept the book when he went back to Paris.
Attention to the extent of Dumas' preface is called for when compared with the recent analysis (2008) of the book's origin by Roger MacDonald in his The Man in the Iron Mask:The True Story of the Most Famous Prisoner in History and the Four Musketeers where the identity of the man in the iron mask is presented as real history.
Following Dumas's lead in his preface, Eugène d'Auriac (de la Bibliothèque Royale) in 1847 was able to write the biography of d'Artagnan: d'Artagnan, Capitaine-Lieutenant des Mousquetaires – Sa vie aventureuse – Ses duels – etc. based on Courtilz de Sandras. This work and especially its introduction with reference to the preface is uncited by MacDonald.
Plot summary
Plot brief
The poor d'Artagnan travels to Paris to join the Musketeers. He suffers misadventure and is challenged to a duel by each of three musketeers (Athos, Aramis and Porthos). Attacked by the Cardinal's guards, the four unite and escape.
D'Artagnan and his new love interest, Constance, help the French queen give a particular piece of jewellery to her paramour, the Duke of Buckingham. The Cardinal learns of this and coaxes the French king to hold a ball where the queen must wear the jewellery; its absence will reveal her infidelity. The four companions retrieve the jewellery from England.
The Cardinal kidnaps Constance who is later rescued by the queen. D'Artagnan meets Milady de Winter and discovers she is a felon, the ex-wife of Athos and the widow of Count de Winter. The Cardinal recruits Milady to kill Buckingham, also granting her a hand-written pardon for the future killing of d'Artagnan. Athos learns of this, takes the pardon but is unable to warn Buckingham. He sends word to Lord de Winter that Milady is arriving; Lord de Winter arrests her on suspicion of killing Count de Winter, his brother.
She seduces her guard and escapes to the monastery in France where the queen secreted Constance. Milady kills Constance. The four companions arrive and Athos identifies her as a multiple murderess. She is tried and beheaded.
On the road, d'Artagnan is arrested. Taken before the Cardinal, d'Artagnan relates recent events and reveals the Cardinal’s pardon. Impressed, the Cardinal offers him a blank musketeer officer's commission. D’Artagnan’s friends refuse the commission, each retiring to a new life, telling him to take it himself.
Detailed plot summary
The main character, d'Artagnan, born into an impoverished noble family of Gascony, leaves home for Paris to fulfill his greatest dream: becoming a Musketeer of the Guard. Fortunately his father knows Monsieur De Treville, Captain of the Company of Musketeers (and fellow Gascon) and has written a letter of introduction. On the road to Paris, the young Gascon soon gets in a quarrel with a mysterious gentleman and is set upon by the servants of the nearby inn. When d'Artagnan regains consciousness he realizes that the gentleman has stolen his letter of introduction. The innkeeper manages to get his hands on much of d'Artagnan's limited money as he recuperates.
In Paris d'Artagnan goes straight to M. De Treville's hôtel, but lacking his father's letter is received somewhat coolly. In a series of incidents at the hôtel, d'Artagnan is challenged to duels by three musketeers: Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. The four men meet and d'Artagnan begins to fight Athos (the first challenger). They are interrupted by Cardinal Richelieu's guards who threaten to arrest them because duels are forbidden by royal decree. The three musketeers and d'Artagnan unite to defeat the cardinal's guards. In this manner the young Gascon earns the respect and friendship of Athos, Porthos and Aramis and soon becomes a soldier in a regiment of the Royal Guard.
After obtaining lodging and hiring a servant (Planchet), he meets his aging landlord's pretty young wife, Constance Bonacieux, with whom he falls instantly in love. Constance and d'Artagnan help the Queen Consort of France, Anne of Austria, and the Duke of Buckingham have a rendezvous and the Queen presents her lover with a wooden box containing a set of diamond jewels originally given to her by her husband Louis XIII. Cardinal Richelieu, informed by his spies of the gift, persuades the King to invite the Queen to a ball where she would be expected to wear the diamonds; in hopes of uncovering her love affair.
Constance attempts to get her husband to go to London and retrieve the diamonds, but he has been recruited as an agent by the cardinal and refuses. D'Artagnan and his friends are convinced to take on the mission instead. After a series of adventures, they retrieve the jewels and return them to Queen Anne, just in time to save her façade of honour. Athos, Porthos and Aramis are all badly wounded by the cardinal's agents in this endeavor.
The cardinal's revenge comes swiftly: the next evening, Constance is kidnapped. D'Artagnan brings his friends back to Paris and tries to find her, but fails. Meanwhile, he befriends the Lord de Winter, an English nobleman who introduces him to his sister-in-law, Milady de Winter. D'Artagnan quickly develops a crush on the pretty noblewoman, but soon learns that she has no love for him, being an agent for the cardinal. He manages to sleep with her and learns that Milady has a fleur-de-lis burned into her shoulder, marking her as a felon. She had apparently been married to both Athos and the Count de Winter at different times in her wicked life and was livid that the young musketeer knew her secret. D'Artagnan is able to escape her home but is relieved when all the King's guards are ordered to La Rochelle where a siege of the Protestant-held town is taking place.
Milady makes several attempts to kill d'Artagnan in and around La Rochelle, but fails. At the same time, d'Artagnan finds out that the Queen has managed to save Constance from the prison where the cardinal and Milady had thrown her and that his beloved is now hidden somewhere safe.
The Musketeers stake out the inn and overhear a conversation between the cardinal and Milady, during which the cardinal asks her to assassinate the Duke of Buckingham (a supporter of the Protestant Rochellais rebels). The churchman then writes out a blanket pardon to Milady, effectively giving her permission to kill d'Artagnan. Athos quickly confronts his former wife and forces her to relinquish the cardinal's pardon. Because of the war between France and England, any attempt by the musketeers to warn the Duke of Buckingham about Milady would be considered treason, but they are able to send Planchet with a letter to Milady's brother-in-law (Lord de Winter) who suspects Milady killed his brother.
Milady is imprisoned on arrival in England, but soon seduces her hard-hearted Puritan jailer Felton and convinces him not only to help her escape, but also to assassinate the Duke of Buckingham. While the naive Felton shanks the prime minister, Milady sails to France. Milady sends a message to the cardinal and hides in the same North French monastery where Constance had been sent by the Queen. The trusting Constance bares her soul to Milady and the evil woman realizes that her enemy d'Artagnan is expected to arrive at the monastery at any moment. She escapes just before his arrival, but not before taking her revenge: she poisons Constance who dies minutes later in the arms of her beloved d'Artagnan.
They arrange to track down the whereabouts of Milady to exact punishment, joined by the Lord de Winter. The noblemen find her and try the countess on numerous charges: the poisoning of Madame Bonacieux; the assassination attempts on d'Artagnan; accomplice to the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham; the corruption of the Lord de Winter's servant, Felton; and the assassination of her late husband, Count de Winter. The most damning charge comes when Athos states that Milady, his wife, is a marked criminal with a brand on her shoulder. When the countess demands that Athos present the one who branded her, a man in a red cloak steps forward. She immediately recognizes him as the executioner of Lille and he recounts Milady's early misdeeds that led to the brand.
After Milady is beheaded the musketeers return to La Rochelle. On their way they encounter the Count of Rochefort, who was traveling to Milady to pay her. Rochefort also has an order to arrest d'Artagnan. He decides to postpone his trip to Milady in order to take d'Artagnan directly to the cardinal. When the young Gascon is presented before him the entire story about Milady's assassination attempts, her poisoning of Madame Bonacieux, etc. is told. The cardinal states that if Milady is indeed guilty, the courts will deal harshly with her. D'Artagnan frankly admits that he and his friends have already dealt with this evil woman. He then presents Richelieu with the blanket pardon written in the cardinal's own hand. The cardinal, impressed by d'Artagnan's resourcefulness and having already gotten what he wanted from Milady, offers the young man a lieutenant's commission with the musketeers — with the name left blank. The cardinal then presents Rochefort and asks both men to be on good terms.
The book ends with d'Artagnan offering the officer's commission to each of his friends, but he is told that he should insert his own name. Athos intends to retire to his estates, Porthos has decided to marry the widow of a rich lawyer and Aramis will soon fulfill his dream of entering the priesthood. Their lives will cross again, in Twenty Years After.
Important characters
Musketeers
* Athos
* Porthos
* Aramis
D'Artagnan was not one of the titular "three musketeers." The novel recounts his becoming a musketeer.
Musketeers' servants
* Planchet (d'Artagnan) – A clever fellow whom Porthos found to serve d'Artagnan.
* Grimaud (Athos) – A Breton, trained to speak only in emergencies and mostly communicates through sign language.
* Mousqueton (Porthos) – A would-be dandy, just as vain as his master, whose only pay is his master's old clothes
* Bazin (Aramis) – Waits for the day his master will join the church, as Bazin has always dreamed to serve a priest.
Others
* Milady de Winter
* Cardinal Richelieu
* Comte de Rochefort
* Louis XIII of France
* M. de Tréville
* Constance Bonacieux
* Monsieur Bonacieux
* Queen Anne of Austria
* George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
Editions
Les Trois Mousquetaires was translated into three English versions by 1846. One of these, by William Barrow, is still in print and fairly faithful to the original, available in the Oxford World's Classics 1999 edition. However, all of the explicit and many of the implicit references to sexuality had been removed to conform to 19th-century English standards, thereby making the scenes between d'Artagnan and Milady, for example, confusing and strange. The most recent and now standard English translation is by Richard Pevear (2006), who in his introduction notes that most of the modern translations available today are "textbook examples of bad translation practices" which "give their readers an extremely distorted notion of Dumas' writing."
Adaptations
Musical theatre
The Three Musketeers is a musical with a book by William Anthony McGuire, lyrics by Clifford Grey and P. G. Wodehouse, and music by Rudolf Friml. The original 1928 production ran on Broadway for 318 performances. A 1984 revival ran for 15 previews and 9 performances. In 2003 a Dutch musical 3 Musketiers premiered, which went on to open in Germany (both the Dutch and German production starring Pia Douwes as Milady De Winter) and Hungary. Composer George Stiles, lyricist Paul Leigh and playwright Peter Raby have produced another version (under the title The 3 Musketeers, One Musical For All), which opened at the American Musical Theatre of San José on 10 March 2001.
Films
See The Three Musketeers (film) for a list of film adaptations.
Games
1995 saw the release by publisher U.S. Gold of Touché: The Adventures of the Fifth Musketeer by video game developers Clipper Software, a classic point-and-click adventure game using the SCUMM engine.
In 2005, Swedish developer Legendo Entertainment published the side-scrolling platform game The Three Musketeers for Windows XP and Windows Vista. In July 2009, a version of the game was released for WiiWare in North America and Europe under the title The Three Musketeers: One for All!.
In 2009, Canadian developer Dingo Games self-published The Three Musketeers: The Game for Windows and Mac OS X. It is the first game to be truly based on the novel (in that it closely follows the novel's story).
2009 also saw the publication of the asymmetric team board game The Three Musketeers "The Queen's Pendants" (Настольная игра «Три мушкетера») from French designer Pascal Bernard by the Russian publisher Zvezda.
Television
* Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds is an anthropomorphic animated series adaptation
* Albert the Fifth Musketeer, animated series which is a sequel to the novel
* Young Blades, television series which is a sequel to the novels, centered on the son of d'Artagnan
* Three Musketeers is an anime series adaption
* The Three Musketeers, an animated adaption that aired as part of Hanna-Barbera's "The Banana Splits Comedy-Adventure Hour" & "The Banana Splits & Friends" show.
Influence on later works
In 1939, American author Tiffany Thayer published a book entitled Three Musketeers (Thayer, 1939). This is a re-telling of the story in Thayer's words, true to the original plot but told in a different order and with different points of view and emphasis from the original. For example, the book opens with the scene of Milady's youth and how she came to be branded, and more development of her early character, making her later scheming more believable and understandable. Thayer's treatment of sex and sexual politics is more explicit than typical English translations of the original, occasionally leading to consternation when this book found its way to library children's sections and school libraries.
1801年，洛克乌先生来到山庄拜访希刺克厉夫先生，要租下他的画眉山庄，希刺克厉夫先生对他很粗暴，还有一群恶狗向他发起进攻。但他还是又一次造访希刺克厉夫先生，他遇到了行为粗俗，不修边 幅的英俊少年哈里顿恩萧，和貌美的希刺克厉夫先生之子的遗孀。由于天黑又下雪希刺克厉夫先生不得不留他住了下来，夜里他做了一个奇怪的梦，梦见树枝打在窗齿打碎玻璃，想折断外头的树枝，可手指却触到一双冰凉的小手，一个幽灵似的啜泣声乞求他放她进来。她说她叫凯瑟琳·林惇，已经在这游荡了20年了，她想闯进来，吓得洛克乌失声大叫。希刺克厉夫先生闻声赶来，让希克厉出去，他自己扑倒在床上，哭着叫起来：“凯蒂，来吧！啊，来呀，再来一次！啊，我心中最亲爱的！凯瑟琳，最后一次！”可窗外毫无声息，一阵冷风吹灭了蜡烛。
第二天，洛克乌先生来到画眉山庄，向女管家艾伦迪恩问起此事，女管家便讲了发生在呼啸山庄的事情。
呼啸山庄已有300年的历史，以前的主人恩萧夫妇从街头捡来一个吉普赛人的弃儿，收他做养子，这就是希刺克厉夫。希刺克厉夫一到这家就受到才先生的儿子辛得雷的欺负和虐待，可享德莱的妹妹凯瑟琳却疯狂地爱上了希刺克厉夫。
《呼啸山庄》老主人死了之后，已婚的辛得雷成了呼啸山庄的主人。他开始阻止希刺克厉夫和凯瑟琳的交往，并把希刺克厉夫赶到田里去干活，不断地差辱他，折磨他，他变得不近人情，近乎痴呆，凯瑟琳也变得野性十足。
一次，他们到画眉山庄去玩，凯瑟琳被狗咬伤，主人林惇夫妇知道她是恩萧家的孩子，就热情地留她养伤，而把希刺克厉夫当成坏小子赶跑了。卡凯瑟琳和林敦的儿子埃德加、女儿伊莎贝拉成了好朋友。凯瑟琳住了五个长星期回来后，变成温文尔雅，仪态万方的富家小姐。当他再次见到希刺克厉夫时，生怕他弄脏了自己的衣服。希刺克厉夫的自尊心受到了伤害，他说：“我愿意怎么脏，就怎么脏。”他发誓要对辛得雷进行报复，他心中的野性和愤恨全部对准辛得雷。
1778年6月，辛得雷的妻子生下哈里顿恩萧后因肺病死去，辛得雷受了很大的打击，
从此变得更加残忍，更加冷酷无情。凯瑟琳徘徊于希刺克厉夫和埃德加的爱情之间，她真心爱希克厉，但又觉得与一个仆人结婚，有失身份。当埃德加向她求婚时，想到他的漂亮和富有，便答应了。但在她灵魂深处，非常明白自己错了，便向女仆艾伦迪恩吐露真情：“我对埃德加的爱像树林中的叶子，当冬季改变树木的时候，随之就会改变叶子。我对希克厉的爱却像地下水久不变的岩石……我就是希克厉！他无时无刻不在我心中，并不是作为一种乐趣，击是作为我的一部分。”
希克厉听到她们的对话，痛苦万分，当夜离开了呼啸山庄，卡瑟林因希克厉的离去而大病一场。后来林敦夫妇相继得热病而死，在他们死后三年，卡瑟林同埃德加结婚了。
数年后，希刺克厉夫突然出现在画眉山庄，这时他已经长成了一个萧洒英俊而又很有钱的青年。凯瑟琳见到他时欣喜若狂，他意味深长地说：“我只是为了你才奋斗的”。他经常出入于画眉山庄，这使伊莎贝拉发病似的爱上了他。他为的报复整夜整夜地和辛得雷打牌、喝酒，慢慢地使他破了产，最后把整个庄园抵押给希克厉。尽管卡瑟林想尽办法想挽回希克厉的感情，但他还是和伊莎贝拉结婚了，婚后以虐待伊莎贝拉来发泄自己的仇恨。
此时卡瑟林正值临产，希刺克厉夫趁埃德加不在，进入了画眉山庄，他死命地抱住凯瑟琳，悲切地叫道：“啊，凯蒂，啊，我的命！我怎能受得了哇！……” 凯瑟琳着说：“如果我做错了，我会因此而死，你也离开过我，但我宽恕了你，你也宽恕我吧！”希刺克夫厉答道：“这是难以办到的，但我饶恕你对我做的事。我可以爱害了我的人，可是害了你的人，我又怎么能够饶恕他呢？”他们就这样疯狂地拥抱着，互相怨恨。
直到埃德加回来后，他们才分开，凯瑟琳再也没有醒来。当天夜里，她昏迷中生下一个女孩便死去了。希刺克厉夫整夜守在庄园里，当得知凯瑟琳死了，他用力地把头撞在树干上，“天啊！没有我的命根子，我不能活下去呀！”几个月后享德莱死了，希克厉成了呼啸山庄的主人。把辛得雷的儿子哈里顿培养成一个粗野无礼，没有教养的野小子。伊莎贝拉忍受不了丈夫的虐待，逃到伦敦附近，在那儿生了一个儿子取名林敦。
12年后林敦已长成一个少年，凯瑟琳的小女儿也已长成一个美丽的少女，他虽不喜欢林敦，他还是趁小卡凯瑟琳的父亲病危之际，把小凯瑟琳接到呼啸山庄，逼迫她和林敦结婚，因为他要“胜利地看见我的后代堂皇地作为他们产业的主人，我的孩子用工钱雇他们的孩子种他们的土地”。
几个月后，埃德加也死了，希刺克厉夫作为小凯瑟琳的父亲搬进了画眉山庄。不久林敦也死了，小凯瑟琳成了年轻的寡妇。
小凯瑟琳和哈里顿就像当年的希克厉和卡瑟林一样，希克厉疯狂地阻止他们的来往，当她抓住小凯瑟琳想打她时，他从她的眼睛里看到了凯瑟琳的影子，而此时的哈里顿不正是当年的自己吗！他变得更孤独了，他渴望着和凯瑟琳的孤魂在一起。连续几天他不吃不喝，在沼地里游荡，回来后把自己关在凯瑟琳住过的房间里，第二天，人们发现他死了。
他死后被埋在凯瑟琳的墓旁，小凯瑟琳终于和哈里顿结婚了。
《呼啸山庄》-写作背景
艾米莉•勃朗特所生活的三十年间正是英国社会动荡的时代。资本主义正在发展并越来越暴露它内在的缺陷；劳资之
间矛盾尖锐化；失业工人的贫困；大量的童工被残酷地折磨至死（这从同时期的英国著名女诗人伊莉莎白•巴雷特•勃朗宁①的长诗《孩子们的哭声》，可以看到一些概貌）。再加上英国政府对民主改革斗争和工人运动采取高压手段：如一八一九年的彼得路大屠杀就是一个例子。因此这一时期的文学作品也有所反映。我们的女作家艾米莉•勃朗特就是诞生在这样斗争的年代！她生在一个牧师家庭里，父亲名叫佩特里克•勃朗特（1777—1861），原是个爱尔兰教士，一八一二年娶英国西南部康瓦耳郡（Cornwall）人玛丽亚•勃兰威尔为妻，膝下六个儿女。大女儿玛丽亚（1814），二女儿伊莉莎白（1815），三女儿夏洛蒂（1816），独子勃兰威尔（1817），下边就是艾米莉（1818）和安恩（1820）。后面四个都生在位于约克郡旷野的桑顿村②，勃朗特先生便在这一教区任牧师职。一八二○年全家搬到豪渥斯地区，在旷野的一处偏僻的角落安了家。她们三姊妹就在这个地方度过了一生。
一八二七年她们的母亲逝世，姨母从康瓦耳群来照顾家庭。三年后，以玛丽亚为首的四姊妹进寄宿学校读书。由于生活条件太差，玛丽亚与伊莉莎白患肺结核夭折，夏洛蒂与艾米莉幸存，自此在家与兄弟勃兰威尔一起自学。这个家庭一向离群索居，四个兄弟姊妹便常以读书、写作诗歌，及杜撰传奇故事来打发寂寞的时光。夏洛蒂和勃兰威尔以想象的安格里阿王朝为中心来写小说，而艾米莉和小妹安则创造了一个她们称为冈多尔的太平洋岛屿来杜撰故事。
她们的家虽然临近豪渥斯工业区，然而这所住宅恰好位于城镇与荒野之间。艾米莉经常和她的姊妹们到西边的旷野地里散步。因此一方面勃朗特姊妹看到了城镇中正在发展的资本主义社会，另一方面也受到了旷野气氛的感染。特别是艾米莉，她表面沉默寡言，内心却热情奔放，虽不懂政治，却十分关心政治。三姊妹常常看自由党或保守党的期刊，喜欢议论政治，这当然是受了她们父亲的影响。佩特里克•勃朗特是个比较激进的保守党人，早年反对过路德运动③，后来也帮助豪渥斯工人，支持他们的罢工。艾米莉和她的姊妹继承了他的正义感，同情手工业工人的反抗和斗争。这就为《呼啸山庄》的诞生创造了条件。
这个家庭收入很少，经济相当拮据。三姊妹不得不经常出外谋生，以教书或做家庭教师来贴补家用，几年来历受艰辛挫折。夏洛蒂曾打算她们自己开设一所学校，她和艾米莉因此到布鲁塞尔学习了一年，随后因夏洛蒂失恋而离开。一八四六年她们自己筹款以假名出版了一本诗集④，却只卖掉两本。一八四七年，她们三姊妹的三本小说⑤终于出版，然而只有《简爱》获得成功，得到了重视。《呼啸山庄》的出版并不为当时读者所理解，甚至她自己的姐姐夏洛蒂也无法理解艾米莉的思想。
一八四八年，她们唯一的兄弟勃兰威尔由于长期酗酒、吸毒，也传染了肺病，于九月死去，虽然这位家庭中的暴君之死对于这三姊妹也是一种解脱，然而，正如在夏洛蒂姊妹的书简集中所说的：“过失与罪恶都已遗忘，剩下来的是怜悯和悲伤盘踞了心头与记忆……”对勃兰威尔的悼念缩短了艾米莉走向坟墓的路途，同年十二月艾米莉终于弃世。她们的小妹妹安也于第二年五月相继死去，这时这个家庭最后的成员只有夏洛蒂和她的老父了。
这一位后来才驰名世界文坛的极有才华的年轻女作家，当时就这样抱憾地离开了只能使她尝到冷漠无情的人世间，默默地和她家中仅余的三位亲人告别了！她曾在少女时期的一首诗中这样写道：
“我是唯一的人，命中注定 无人过问，也无人流泪哀悼； 自从我生下来，从未引起过 一线忧虑，一个快乐的微笑。 在秘密的欢乐，秘密的眼泪中， 这个变化多端的生活就这样滑过， 十八年后仍然无依无靠， 一如在我诞生那天同样的寂寞。……”
她在同一首诗中最后慨叹道：
“起初青春的希望被融化， 然后幻想的虹彩迅速退开； 于是经验告诉我，说真理 决不会在人类的心胸中成长起来。……”
但是她很想振作起来，有所作为，却已挣扎不起，这种痛苦的思想斗争和濒于绝望的情绪，在她同一时期的诗句中也可以找到：“然而如今当我希望过歌唱， 我的手指却拨动了一根无音的弦； 而歌词的叠句仍旧是 ‘不要再奋斗了，’一切全是枉然。”
《呼啸山庄》-作品赏析
《呼啸山庄》通过一个爱情悲剧，向人们展示了一副畸形社会的生活画面，勾勒了被这个畸形社会扭曲的人性及其造成的种种可怖的事件，整个故事情节是通过四个阶段逐步铺开的：
第一阶段叙述了希斯克利夫与凯瑟琳朝夕相处的童年生活；一个弃儿和一个小姐在这种特殊环境中所形成的特殊感情，以及他们对辛德雷专横暴虐的反抗。
第二阶段着重描写凯瑟琳因为虚荣、无知和愚昧，背弃了希斯克利夫，成了画眉田庄的女主人。
第三阶段以大量笔墨描绘希斯克利夫如何在绝望中把满腔仇恨化为报仇雪耻的计谋和行动。
最后阶段尽管只交代了希斯克利夫的死亡，却突出地揭示了当他了解哈里顿和凯蒂相爱后，思想上经历的一种崭新的变化——人性的复苏，从而使这出具有恐怖色彩的爱情悲剧透露出一束令人快慰的希望之光。
因此，希斯克利夫的爱一恨一复仇一人性的复苏，既是小说的精髓，又是贯穿始终的一条红线。作者依此脉络，谋篇布局，把场景安排得变幻莫测，有时在阴云密布、鬼哭狼嚎的旷野，有时又是风狂雨骤、阴森惨暗的庭院，故事始终笼罩在一种神秘和恐怖的气氛之中。
在小说中，作者的全部心血凝聚在希斯克利夫形象的刻画上，她在这里寄托了自己的全部愤慨、同情和理想。这个被剥夺了人间温暖的弃儿在实际生活中培养了强烈的爱与憎，辛德雷的皮鞭使他尝到了人生的残酷，也教会他懂得忍气吞声的屈服无法改变自己受辱的命运。他选择了反抗。凯瑟琳曾经是他忠实的伙伴，他俩在共同的反抗中萌发了真挚的爱情。然而，凯瑟琳最后却背叛了希斯克利夫，嫁给了她不了解、也根本不爱的埃德加·林顿。造成这个爱情悲剧的直接原因是她的虚荣、无知和愚蠢，结果却葬送了自己的青春、爱情和生命，也毁了对她始终一往情深的希斯克利夫，还差一点坑害了下一代。艾米莉·勃朗特刻画这个人物时，有同情，也有愤慨；有惋惜，也有鞭笞；既哀其不幸，又怒其不争，心情是极其复杂的。
凯瑟琳的背叛及其婚后悲苦的命运，是全书最重大的转折点。它使希斯克利夫满腔的爱化为无比的恨；凯瑟琳一死，这腔仇恨火山般迸发出来，成了疯狂的复仇动力。希斯克利夫的目的达到了，他不仅让辛德雷和埃德加凄苦死去，独霸了两家庄园的产业，还让他们平白无辜的下一代也饱尝了苦果。这种疯狂的报仇泄恨，貌似悖于常理，但却淋漓尽致地表达了他非同一般的叛逆精神，这是一种特殊环境、特殊性格所决定的特殊反抗。希斯克利夫的爱情悲剧是社会的悲剧，也是时代的悲剧。
《呼啸山庄》的故事是以希斯克利夫达到复仇目的而自杀告终的。他的死是一种殉情，表达了他对凯瑟琳生死不渝的爱，一种生不能同衾、死也求同穴的爱的追求。而他临死前放弃了在下一代身上报复的念头，表明他的天性本来是善良的，只是由于残酷的现实扭曲了他的天性，迫使他变得暴虐无情。这种人性的复苏是一种精神上的升华，闪耀着作者人道主义的理想。
《呼啸山庄》出版后一直被人认为是英国文学史上一部“最奇特的小说”，是一部“奥秘莫测”的“怪书”。原因在于它一反同时代作品普遍存在的伤感主义情调，而以强烈的爱、狂暴的恨及由之而起的无情的报复，取代了低沉的伤感和忧郁。它宛如一首奇特的抒情诗，字里行间充满着丰富的想象和狂飙般猛烈的情感，具有震撼人心的艺术力量。
人物表
恩萧先生 ———— 呼啸山庄主人
辛德雷·恩萧—— 其 子
凯瑟琳·恩萧 —— 其女，小名凯蒂
希斯克利夫 ——— 恩萧抚养的孤儿
弗兰西斯 ———— 辛德雷之妻
哈里顿·恩萧 —— 辛德雷之子
丁耐莉 ————— 女管家，又名艾伦
约瑟夫 ————— 呼啸山庄的老仆人
林敦先生 ———— 画眉田庄主人
埃德加·林敦 —— 其子，后娶凯瑟琳·恩萧
伊莎贝拉·林敦 — 其女，后嫁希刺克厉夫
凯瑟琳·林敦 —— 埃德加与凯瑟琳之女，亦名凯蒂林敦·希刺克厉夫
伊莎贝拉与希刺克厉夫之子
洛克乌德先生 —— 房 客
肯尼兹医生 ——— 当地医生
齐 拉 ————— 呼啸山庄的女仆
《呼啸山庄》-故事情节年表
１７５７ 辛德雷·恩萧诞生。丁耐莉之母携其婴儿耐莉往呼啸山庄当保姆。
１７６２ 埃德加·林敦诞生。
１７６５ 凯瑟琳·恩萧诞生。
１７６６ 伊莎贝拉·林敦诞生。
１７７１ 夏天，恩萧先生从利物浦带回希刺克厉夫。
１７７３ 春天，恩萧夫人逝世。
１７７４ 辛德雷上大学。
１７７７ 十月，恩萧先生逝世。辛德雷携其妻弗兰西斯返家。
十一月底，凯瑟琳在画眉田庄闯祸。
圣诞节，凯瑟琳返家。
１７７８ 六月，哈里顿·恩萧诞生。弗兰西斯逝世。丁耐莉照顾哈里顿。
１７８０ 夏天，凯瑟琳接受了埃德加·林敦的求婚。希刺克厉夫失踪。凯瑟琳患重病。老林敦先生与夫人逝世。
１７８３ 三月，埃德加娶凯瑟琳。丁耐莉陪同往画眉田庄。
九月，希刺克厉夫归。
１７８４ 一月，埃德加·凯瑟琳和希刺克厉夫之间发生争吵。希刺克厉夫带伊莎贝拉私奔。凯瑟琳第二次重病。
三月，希刺克厉夫与伊莎贝拉回呼啸山庄。希刺克厉夫去看凯瑟琳。
三月廿日，凯瑟琳逝世，留下才诞生的女儿凯瑟琳。
三月廿五日，凯瑟琳下葬。希刺克厉夫当晚到墓园去。
三月廿六日，伊莎贝拉逃跑。
九月，辛德雷逝世。希刺克厉夫占有呼啸山庄。
十月，林敦·希刺克厉夫诞生于外地。
１７９７ 伊莎贝拉逝世。
小凯蒂首次到呼啸山庄。
埃德加接外甥林敦回画眉田庄。希刺克厉夫要走他的儿子。
１８００ 三月廿日，小凯蒂第二次到呼啸山庄。
秋天，埃德加感冒病倒。
十月，凯蒂第三次到呼啸山庄。
这以后三个星期，凯蒂秘密往呼啸山庄。
１８０１ 八月，凯蒂与表弟林敦在野外见面，被希刺克厉夫所迫又进呼啸山庄与林敦结婚。
九月，埃德加·林敦逝世。后希刺克厉夫往凯瑟琳墓地掘墓。
林敦·希刺克厉夫继承了画眉田庄。
十月，林敦死去。希刺克厉夫占有了其子产业。
十一月，希刺克厉夫将画眉田庄出租给洛克乌德先生。
洛克乌德先生拜访呼啸山庄。
１８０２ 一月，洛克乌德先生离开画眉田庄往伦敦。
二月，丁耐莉回呼啸山庄。
四月，希刺克厉夫逝世。
九月，洛克乌德先生路经画眉田庄与呼啸山庄，再次拜访。
１８０３ 元旦，哈里顿·恩萧与凯蒂结婚。
The name of the novel comes from the Yorkshire manor on the moors on which the story centres (as an adjective; wuthering is a Yorkshire word referring to turbulent weather). The narrative tells the tale of the all-encompassing and passionate, yet thwarted, love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and many around them.
Now considered a classic of English literature, Wuthering Heights met with mixed reviews by critics when it first appeared, mainly because of the narrative's stark depiction of mental and physical cruelty. Though Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre was initially considered the best of the Brontë sisters' works, many subsequent critics of Wuthering Heights argued that its originality and achievement made it superior. Wuthering Heights has also given rise to many adaptations and inspired works, including films, radio, television dramatisations, a musical by Bernard J. Taylor, ballet, opera, and song.
Plot
Writing in his diary, Mr. Lockwood describes arriving in the winter of 1801, at the manor house of Thrushcross Grange, on the Yorkshire moors in northern England. He soon meets his landlord, Heathcliff, a wealthy man and the master of nearby Wuthering Heights. Despite not being welcome at Wuthering Heights, Lockwood returns for a second visit and is forced to stay overnight, due to a snow storm. Unable to sleep, he finds the diary of a girl named Catherine Earnshaw and reads an entry. Lockwood learns that she was a close childhood friend of Heathcliff. Later, he has a nightmare in which the ghost of a young girl appears at his window and begs to be let in. While Lockwood struggles to keep the ghost out of his room, Heathcliff is awakened by his cries of terror and rushes into the room. Upon hearing of Catherine's ghost, he asks Lockwood to leave the room. Standing outside the door, Lockwood hears Heathcliff sobbing, opening the window, and calling for Catherine to enter.
Upon returning to Thrushcross Grange, Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of Heathcliff and the others at Wuthering Heights. Nelly begins her story thirty years earlier, when Mr. Earnshaw brings Heathcliff, an orphan boy, home to raise with his own children, Hindley and Catherine. Eventually, Mr. Earnshaw comes to favour Heathcliff over his own children. Both Earnshaw children initially resent Heathcliff, but soon he and Catherine become inseparable. Hindley continues to hate and physically abuse him
Mr. Earnshaw dies three years later and Hindley, now married to Frances after returning from boarding school, inherits Wuthering Heights. He brutalises Heathcliff, forcing him to work as a hired hand. Catherine becomes friends with the neighboring Linton family who live at Thrushcross Grange, and Mrs. Linton starts teaching her to be a proper lady. She is attracted to young Edgar Linton, whom Heathcliff immediately dislikes.
A year later, Frances dies from consumption shortly after giving birth to a son, Hareton. Hindley takes to drinking and becomes even more abusive to Heathcliff. Some two years later, Catherine informs Nelly that she wishes to marry Edgar Linton, as it will give her status and riches; despite her love for Heathcliff. Heathcliff, upon hearing this, leaves Wuthering Heights, only to return three years later, soon after Catherine and Edgar are wed.
Heathcliff has apparently become a wealthy, respectable gentleman and now seeks revenge against all those he believes have wronged him. Heathcliff makes loans to Hindley that he knows cannot be repaid. Intent on ruining Edgar, Heathcliff elopes with Edgar's sister, Isabella Linton, setting himself up to inherit Thrushcross Grange. After their marriage, Heathcliff becomes very cruel and abusive towards Isabella.
Catherine becomes very ill and dies shortly after giving birth to a daughter, Cathy. A few hours before her death, however, she and Heathcliff reaffirm their feelings for one another. After Catherine’s death, Heathcliff becomes more bitter and vengeful towards those around him. Isabella flees to London a month later and gives birth to a boy, Linton Heathcliff.
About this time, Hindley dies. Heathcliff takes ownership of Wuthering Heights and raises Hindley's son, Hareton, with as much neglect as he had suffered at Hindley's hands.
Thirteen years later, Isabella dies and Linton comes to live at Wuthering Heights with his father, Heathcliff. He treats his son even more cruelly than he treated his wife. Three years pass and Heathcliff invites Cathy to Wuthering Heights. He then introduces her to his son, Linton, wishing them to marry which would strengthen his claim on Thrushcross Grange.
Cathy receives news that Linton has fallen ill. She hurries to Wuthering Heights to see if she can be of help. Linton's health declines swiftly and Heathcliff puts Cathy under house arrest, forcing her to marry his son. Soon after the marriage, Edgar dies, followed shortly by Linton. Heathcliff has now gained complete control of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. He forces Cathy to stay at Wuthering Heights and treats her as a common servant. It is at this point in the narrative that Lockwood rents Thrushcross Grange from Heathcliff, and Nelly’s story reaches the present day. Lockwood is appalled and leaves for London.
Lockwood returns six months later to visit Nelly. She tells him that in his absence, Cathy gradually softened toward her rough, uneducated cousin Hareton, just as Catherine was tender towards Heathcliff. Having originally mocked Hareton for his illiteracy, she now teaches him to read. He allows her to open up again after becoming so bitter from Heathcliff's brutal treatment.
When Heathcliff is confronted by Cathy and Hareton's love, he seems to suffer a mental breakdown and begins to see Catherine's ghost. He seemingly abandons his life-long vendetta and dies, having "swallowed nothing for four days". Nelly describes finding Heathcliff lying on the bed, stiff with rigor mortis. Only Hareton mourns Heathcliff's death. He is buried next to Catherine in the graveyard. Cathy and Hareton inherit Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange and plan their wedding for New Year’s Day. Upon hearing the end of the story, Lockwood leaves Nelly and on his walk home he visits the graves of Catherine and Heathcliff.
Characters
* Heathcliff: Found, and presumably orphaned, on the streets of Liverpool, he is taken to Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw and reluctantly cared for by the rest of the family. He and Catherine later grow close, and their love becomes the central theme of the first volume; his revenge and its consequences are the main theme of the second volume. Heathcliff is typically considered a Byronic hero, but critics have found his character, with a capacity for self-invention, to be profoundly difficult to assess. His position in society, without status (Heathcliff serves as both his given name and surname), is often the subject of Marxist criticism.
* Catherine Earnshaw: First introduced in Lockwood's discovery of her diary and etchings, Catherine's life is almost entirely detailed in the first volume. She seemingly suffers from a crisis of identity, unable to choose between nature and culture (and, by extension, Heathcliff and Edgar). Her decision to marry Edgar Linton over Heathcliff has been seen as a surrender to culture, and has implications for all the characters of Wuthering Heights. The character of Catherine has been analysed by many forms of literary criticism, including: psychoanalytic and feminist.
* Edgar Linton: Introduced as a child of the Linton family, who reside at Thrushcross Grange, Edgar's life and mannerisms are immediately contrasted with those of Heathcliff and Catherine, and indeed the former dislikes him. Yet, owing much to his status, Catherine marries him and not Heathcliff. This decision, and the differences between Edgar and Heathcliff, have been read into by feminist criticisms.
* Nelly Dean: The second and primary narrator of the novel, Nelly has been a servant of each generation of both the Earnshaw and Linton families. She is presented as a character who straddles the idea of a 'culture versus nature' divide in the novel: she is a local of the area and a servant, and has experienced life at Wuthering Heights. However, she is also an educated woman and has lived at Thrushcross Grange. This idea is represented in her having two names, Ellen—her given name and used to show respect, and Nelly—used by her familiars. Whether Nelly is an unbiased narrator and how far her actions, as an apparent bystander, affect the other characters are two points of her character discussed by critics.
* Isabella Linton: Introduced as part of the Linton family, Isabella is only ever shown in relation to other characters. She views Heathcliff as a romantic hero, despite Catherine warning her against such an opinion, and becomes an unwitting participant in his plot for revenge. After being married to Heathcliff and abused at Wuthering Heights, she escapes to London and gives birth to Linton. Such abusive treatment has led many, especially feminist critics, to consider Isabella the true/conventional 'tragic romantic' figure of Wuthering Heights.
* Hindley Earnshaw
* Hareton Earnshaw
* Catherine Linton
* Linton Heathcliff
* Joseph
* Lockwood
Timeline
1500: The stone above the front door of Wuthering Heights, bearing the name of Mr Earnshaw, is inscribed, possibly to mark the completion of the house.
1757: Hindley Earnshaw born (summer); Nelly Dean born
1762: Edgar Linton born
1765: Catherine Earnshaw born (summer); Isabella Linton born (late 1765)
1771: Heathcliff brought to Wuthering Heights by Mr Earnshaw (late summer)
1773: Mrs Earnshaw dies (spring)
1774: Hindley sent off to college
1777: Hindley marries Frances; Mr Earnshaw dies and Hindley comes back (October); Heathcliff and Cathy visit Thrushcross Grange for the first time; Cathy remains behind (November), and then returns to Wuthering Heights (Christmas Eve)
1778: Hareton born (June); Frances dies
1780: Heathcliff runs away from Wuthering Heights; Mr and Mrs Linton both die
1783: Catherine has married Edgar (March); Heathcliff comes back (September)
1784: Heathcliff marries Isabella (February); Catherine dies and Cathy born (20 March); Hindley dies; Linton born (September)
1797: Isabella dies; Cathy visits Wuthering Heights and meets Hareton; Linton brought to Thrushcross Grange and then taken to Wuthering Heights
1800: Cathy meets Heathcliff and sees Linton again (20 March)
1801: Cathy and Linton are married (August); Edgar dies (August); Linton dies (September); Mr Lockwood goes to Thrushcross Grange and visits Wuthering Heights, beginning his narrative
1802: Mr Lockwood goes back to London (January); Heathcliff dies (April); Mr Lockwood comes back to Thrushcross Grange (September)
1803: Cathy plans to marry Hareton (1 January)
Development history
There are several theories as to which building was the inspiration for Wuthering Heights. One is Top Withens, a ruined farmhouse, that is located in a isolated area near the Haworth Parsonage. Yet, its structure does not match that of the farmhouse described in the novel, and is therefore considered less likely to be the model. Top Withens was first suggested as the model for the fictitious farmhouse by Ellen Nussey, a friend of Charlotte Brontë's, to Edward Morison Wimperis, a commissioned artist for the Brontë sisters' novels in 1872.
The second option is the now demolished High Sunderland Hall, near Halifax, West Yorkshire. This Gothic edifice is located near Law Hill, and was where Emily worked briefly as a governess in 1838. While very grand for the farmhouse of Wuthering Heights, the hall had grotesque embellishments of griffins and misshapen nude men similar to those described by Lockwood of Wuthering Heights in chapter one of the novel:
"Before passing the threshold, I paused to admire a quantity of grotesque carving lavished over the front, and especially about the principal door, above which, among a wilderness of crumbling griffins and shameless little boys, I detected the date '1500'".
The inspiration for Thrushcross Grange has been traditionally connected to Ponden Hall, near Haworth, although very small. More likely is Shibden Hall, near Halifax.
Critical response
Early reviews
Early reviews of Wuthering Heights were mixed in their assessment. Whilst most critics recognised the power and imagination of the novel, many found the story unlikeable and ambiguous.[note 1] Released in 1847, at a time when the background of the author was deemed to have an important impact on the story itself, many critics were also intrigued by the authorship of the novels.[note 2] H. F. Chorley of the Athenaeum said that it was a "disagreeable story" and that the 'Bells' (Brontës) "seem to affect painful and exceptional subjects". The Atlas review called it a "strange, inartistic story", but commented that every chapter seems to contain a "sort of rugged power". It supported the second point made in the Athenaeum, suggesting that the general effect of the novel was "inexpressibly painful", but adding that all of its subjects were either "utterly hateful or thoroughly contemptible".
The Douglas Jerrold's Weekly Newspaper critique was more positive, emphasizing the "great power" of the novel and its provocative qualities; it said that it was a "strange sort of book—baffling all regular criticism" and that "[it is] impossible to lay it aside afterwards and say nothing about it". Although the Examiner agreed on the strangeness, it saw the book as "wild, confused; disjointed and improbable". The Britannia review mirrored those comments made on the unpleasant characters, arguing that it would have been a "far better romance" if the characters were not "nearly as violent and destructive as [Heathcliff]". The unidentified review was less critical, considering it a "work of great ability" and that "it is not every day that so good a novel makes its appearance".
Adaptations
The earliest known film adaptation of Wuthering Heights was filmed in England and directed by A. V. Bramble. It is unknown if any prints still exist. The most famous was 1939's Wuthering Heights, starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon and directed by William Wyler. This adaptation, like many others, eliminated the second generation's story (young Cathy, Linton and Hareton). It won the 1939 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film and was nominated for the 1939 Academy Award for Best Picture.
The 1970 film with Timothy Dalton as Heathcliff is notable for emphasizing that Heathcliff may be Cathy's illegitimate half-brother. This is the first colour version of the novel, and gained acceptance over the years though it was initially poorly received. The character of Hindley is portrayed much more sympathetically, and his story-arc is altered.
The 1992 film Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche is notable for including the oft-omitted second generation story of the children of Cathy, Hindley , and Heathcliff.
Adaptations which reset the story in a new setting include the 1954 adaptation by Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel set in Catholic Mexico, with Heathcliff and Cathy renamed Alejandro and Catalina, and Yoshishige Yoshida's 1988 adaptation which set the story in Tokugawa period Japan. In 2003, MTV produced a poorly reviewed version set in a modern California with the characters as high school students.
The novel has been popular in opera and theatre, including operas written by Bernard Herrmann and Carlisle Floyd (both of which like many films cover only the first half of the book) and a musical by Bernard J. Taylor, as well as a song by Kate Bush.
In autumn of 2008, Mark Ryan launched a dramatic musical adaptation of the novel, narrated by Beowulf and Sexy Beast star Ray Winstone. He composed, sang and produced the tracks with Robb Vallier who also worked on Spamalot. He also directed the video for the song "Women" filmed especially for the website and featuring Jennifer Korbee, Jessica Keenan Wynn and Katie Boeck.
In August 2009 ITV aired a two part drama series starring Tom Hardy, Charlotte Riley, Sarah Lancashire, and Andrew Lincoln.
Announced in April 2008, Natalie Portman was originally set to star as Cathy in a new film adaptation of the novel, but she left the project in May. In May 2008, director John Maybury cast Michael Fassbender as Heathcliff and Abbie Cornish as Cathy. They later left the project and in May 2009, Peter Webber was announced as the director, with Ed Westwick and Gemma Arterton attached to play Heathcliff and Cathy respectively. However, the project did not get off the ground and Andrea Arnold signed on to direct in January 2010. Kaya Scodelario was then cast as Cathy, with the filmmakers searching for an unknown young Yorkshire actor to play Heathcliff.
第二天，洛克乌先生来到画眉山庄，向女管家艾伦迪恩问起此事，女管家便讲了发生在呼啸山庄的事情。
呼啸山庄已有300年的历史，以前的主人恩萧夫妇从街头捡来一个吉普赛人的弃儿，收他做养子，这就是希刺克厉夫。希刺克厉夫一到这家就受到才先生的儿子辛得雷的欺负和虐待，可享德莱的妹妹凯瑟琳却疯狂地爱上了希刺克厉夫。
《呼啸山庄》老主人死了之后，已婚的辛得雷成了呼啸山庄的主人。他开始阻止希刺克厉夫和凯瑟琳的交往，并把希刺克厉夫赶到田里去干活，不断地差辱他，折磨他，他变得不近人情，近乎痴呆，凯瑟琳也变得野性十足。
一次，他们到画眉山庄去玩，凯瑟琳被狗咬伤，主人林惇夫妇知道她是恩萧家的孩子，就热情地留她养伤，而把希刺克厉夫当成坏小子赶跑了。卡凯瑟琳和林敦的儿子埃德加、女儿伊莎贝拉成了好朋友。凯瑟琳住了五个长星期回来后，变成温文尔雅，仪态万方的富家小姐。当他再次见到希刺克厉夫时，生怕他弄脏了自己的衣服。希刺克厉夫的自尊心受到了伤害，他说：“我愿意怎么脏，就怎么脏。”他发誓要对辛得雷进行报复，他心中的野性和愤恨全部对准辛得雷。
1778年6月，辛得雷的妻子生下哈里顿恩萧后因肺病死去，辛得雷受了很大的打击，
从此变得更加残忍，更加冷酷无情。凯瑟琳徘徊于希刺克厉夫和埃德加的爱情之间，她真心爱希克厉，但又觉得与一个仆人结婚，有失身份。当埃德加向她求婚时，想到他的漂亮和富有，便答应了。但在她灵魂深处，非常明白自己错了，便向女仆艾伦迪恩吐露真情：“我对埃德加的爱像树林中的叶子，当冬季改变树木的时候，随之就会改变叶子。我对希克厉的爱却像地下水久不变的岩石……我就是希克厉！他无时无刻不在我心中，并不是作为一种乐趣，击是作为我的一部分。”
希克厉听到她们的对话，痛苦万分，当夜离开了呼啸山庄，卡瑟林因希克厉的离去而大病一场。后来林敦夫妇相继得热病而死，在他们死后三年，卡瑟林同埃德加结婚了。
数年后，希刺克厉夫突然出现在画眉山庄，这时他已经长成了一个萧洒英俊而又很有钱的青年。凯瑟琳见到他时欣喜若狂，他意味深长地说：“我只是为了你才奋斗的”。他经常出入于画眉山庄，这使伊莎贝拉发病似的爱上了他。他为的报复整夜整夜地和辛得雷打牌、喝酒，慢慢地使他破了产，最后把整个庄园抵押给希克厉。尽管卡瑟林想尽办法想挽回希克厉的感情，但他还是和伊莎贝拉结婚了，婚后以虐待伊莎贝拉来发泄自己的仇恨。
此时卡瑟林正值临产，希刺克厉夫趁埃德加不在，进入了画眉山庄，他死命地抱住凯瑟琳，悲切地叫道：“啊，凯蒂，啊，我的命！我怎能受得了哇！……” 凯瑟琳着说：“如果我做错了，我会因此而死，你也离开过我，但我宽恕了你，你也宽恕我吧！”希刺克夫厉答道：“这是难以办到的，但我饶恕你对我做的事。我可以爱害了我的人，可是害了你的人，我又怎么能够饶恕他呢？”他们就这样疯狂地拥抱着，互相怨恨。
直到埃德加回来后，他们才分开，凯瑟琳再也没有醒来。当天夜里，她昏迷中生下一个女孩便死去了。希刺克厉夫整夜守在庄园里，当得知凯瑟琳死了，他用力地把头撞在树干上，“天啊！没有我的命根子，我不能活下去呀！”几个月后享德莱死了，希克厉成了呼啸山庄的主人。把辛得雷的儿子哈里顿培养成一个粗野无礼，没有教养的野小子。伊莎贝拉忍受不了丈夫的虐待，逃到伦敦附近，在那儿生了一个儿子取名林敦。
12年后林敦已长成一个少年，凯瑟琳的小女儿也已长成一个美丽的少女，他虽不喜欢林敦，他还是趁小卡凯瑟琳的父亲病危之际，把小凯瑟琳接到呼啸山庄，逼迫她和林敦结婚，因为他要“胜利地看见我的后代堂皇地作为他们产业的主人，我的孩子用工钱雇他们的孩子种他们的土地”。
几个月后，埃德加也死了，希刺克厉夫作为小凯瑟琳的父亲搬进了画眉山庄。不久林敦也死了，小凯瑟琳成了年轻的寡妇。
小凯瑟琳和哈里顿就像当年的希克厉和卡瑟林一样，希克厉疯狂地阻止他们的来往，当她抓住小凯瑟琳想打她时，他从她的眼睛里看到了凯瑟琳的影子，而此时的哈里顿不正是当年的自己吗！他变得更孤独了，他渴望着和凯瑟琳的孤魂在一起。连续几天他不吃不喝，在沼地里游荡，回来后把自己关在凯瑟琳住过的房间里，第二天，人们发现他死了。
他死后被埋在凯瑟琳的墓旁，小凯瑟琳终于和哈里顿结婚了。
《呼啸山庄》-写作背景
艾米莉•勃朗特所生活的三十年间正是英国社会动荡的时代。资本主义正在发展并越来越暴露它内在的缺陷；劳资之
间矛盾尖锐化；失业工人的贫困；大量的童工被残酷地折磨至死（这从同时期的英国著名女诗人伊莉莎白•巴雷特•勃朗宁①的长诗《孩子们的哭声》，可以看到一些概貌）。再加上英国政府对民主改革斗争和工人运动采取高压手段：如一八一九年的彼得路大屠杀就是一个例子。因此这一时期的文学作品也有所反映。我们的女作家艾米莉•勃朗特就是诞生在这样斗争的年代！她生在一个牧师家庭里，父亲名叫佩特里克•勃朗特（1777—1861），原是个爱尔兰教士，一八一二年娶英国西南部康瓦耳郡（Cornwall）人玛丽亚•勃兰威尔为妻，膝下六个儿女。大女儿玛丽亚（1814），二女儿伊莉莎白（1815），三女儿夏洛蒂（1816），独子勃兰威尔（1817），下边就是艾米莉（1818）和安恩（1820）。后面四个都生在位于约克郡旷野的桑顿村②，勃朗特先生便在这一教区任牧师职。一八二○年全家搬到豪渥斯地区，在旷野的一处偏僻的角落安了家。她们三姊妹就在这个地方度过了一生。
一八二七年她们的母亲逝世，姨母从康瓦耳群来照顾家庭。三年后，以玛丽亚为首的四姊妹进寄宿学校读书。由于生活条件太差，玛丽亚与伊莉莎白患肺结核夭折，夏洛蒂与艾米莉幸存，自此在家与兄弟勃兰威尔一起自学。这个家庭一向离群索居，四个兄弟姊妹便常以读书、写作诗歌，及杜撰传奇故事来打发寂寞的时光。夏洛蒂和勃兰威尔以想象的安格里阿王朝为中心来写小说，而艾米莉和小妹安则创造了一个她们称为冈多尔的太平洋岛屿来杜撰故事。
她们的家虽然临近豪渥斯工业区，然而这所住宅恰好位于城镇与荒野之间。艾米莉经常和她的姊妹们到西边的旷野地里散步。因此一方面勃朗特姊妹看到了城镇中正在发展的资本主义社会，另一方面也受到了旷野气氛的感染。特别是艾米莉，她表面沉默寡言，内心却热情奔放，虽不懂政治，却十分关心政治。三姊妹常常看自由党或保守党的期刊，喜欢议论政治，这当然是受了她们父亲的影响。佩特里克•勃朗特是个比较激进的保守党人，早年反对过路德运动③，后来也帮助豪渥斯工人，支持他们的罢工。艾米莉和她的姊妹继承了他的正义感，同情手工业工人的反抗和斗争。这就为《呼啸山庄》的诞生创造了条件。
这个家庭收入很少，经济相当拮据。三姊妹不得不经常出外谋生，以教书或做家庭教师来贴补家用，几年来历受艰辛挫折。夏洛蒂曾打算她们自己开设一所学校，她和艾米莉因此到布鲁塞尔学习了一年，随后因夏洛蒂失恋而离开。一八四六年她们自己筹款以假名出版了一本诗集④，却只卖掉两本。一八四七年，她们三姊妹的三本小说⑤终于出版，然而只有《简爱》获得成功，得到了重视。《呼啸山庄》的出版并不为当时读者所理解，甚至她自己的姐姐夏洛蒂也无法理解艾米莉的思想。
一八四八年，她们唯一的兄弟勃兰威尔由于长期酗酒、吸毒，也传染了肺病，于九月死去，虽然这位家庭中的暴君之死对于这三姊妹也是一种解脱，然而，正如在夏洛蒂姊妹的书简集中所说的：“过失与罪恶都已遗忘，剩下来的是怜悯和悲伤盘踞了心头与记忆……”对勃兰威尔的悼念缩短了艾米莉走向坟墓的路途，同年十二月艾米莉终于弃世。她们的小妹妹安也于第二年五月相继死去，这时这个家庭最后的成员只有夏洛蒂和她的老父了。
这一位后来才驰名世界文坛的极有才华的年轻女作家，当时就这样抱憾地离开了只能使她尝到冷漠无情的人世间，默默地和她家中仅余的三位亲人告别了！她曾在少女时期的一首诗中这样写道：
“我是唯一的人，命中注定 无人过问，也无人流泪哀悼； 自从我生下来，从未引起过 一线忧虑，一个快乐的微笑。 在秘密的欢乐，秘密的眼泪中， 这个变化多端的生活就这样滑过， 十八年后仍然无依无靠， 一如在我诞生那天同样的寂寞。……”
她在同一首诗中最后慨叹道：
“起初青春的希望被融化， 然后幻想的虹彩迅速退开； 于是经验告诉我，说真理 决不会在人类的心胸中成长起来。……”
但是她很想振作起来，有所作为，却已挣扎不起，这种痛苦的思想斗争和濒于绝望的情绪，在她同一时期的诗句中也可以找到：“然而如今当我希望过歌唱， 我的手指却拨动了一根无音的弦； 而歌词的叠句仍旧是 ‘不要再奋斗了，’一切全是枉然。”
《呼啸山庄》-作品赏析
《呼啸山庄》通过一个爱情悲剧，向人们展示了一副畸形社会的生活画面，勾勒了被这个畸形社会扭曲的人性及其造成的种种可怖的事件，整个故事情节是通过四个阶段逐步铺开的：
第一阶段叙述了希斯克利夫与凯瑟琳朝夕相处的童年生活；一个弃儿和一个小姐在这种特殊环境中所形成的特殊感情，以及他们对辛德雷专横暴虐的反抗。
第二阶段着重描写凯瑟琳因为虚荣、无知和愚昧，背弃了希斯克利夫，成了画眉田庄的女主人。
第三阶段以大量笔墨描绘希斯克利夫如何在绝望中把满腔仇恨化为报仇雪耻的计谋和行动。
最后阶段尽管只交代了希斯克利夫的死亡，却突出地揭示了当他了解哈里顿和凯蒂相爱后，思想上经历的一种崭新的变化——人性的复苏，从而使这出具有恐怖色彩的爱情悲剧透露出一束令人快慰的希望之光。
因此，希斯克利夫的爱一恨一复仇一人性的复苏，既是小说的精髓，又是贯穿始终的一条红线。作者依此脉络，谋篇布局，把场景安排得变幻莫测，有时在阴云密布、鬼哭狼嚎的旷野，有时又是风狂雨骤、阴森惨暗的庭院，故事始终笼罩在一种神秘和恐怖的气氛之中。
在小说中，作者的全部心血凝聚在希斯克利夫形象的刻画上，她在这里寄托了自己的全部愤慨、同情和理想。这个被剥夺了人间温暖的弃儿在实际生活中培养了强烈的爱与憎，辛德雷的皮鞭使他尝到了人生的残酷，也教会他懂得忍气吞声的屈服无法改变自己受辱的命运。他选择了反抗。凯瑟琳曾经是他忠实的伙伴，他俩在共同的反抗中萌发了真挚的爱情。然而，凯瑟琳最后却背叛了希斯克利夫，嫁给了她不了解、也根本不爱的埃德加·林顿。造成这个爱情悲剧的直接原因是她的虚荣、无知和愚蠢，结果却葬送了自己的青春、爱情和生命，也毁了对她始终一往情深的希斯克利夫，还差一点坑害了下一代。艾米莉·勃朗特刻画这个人物时，有同情，也有愤慨；有惋惜，也有鞭笞；既哀其不幸，又怒其不争，心情是极其复杂的。
凯瑟琳的背叛及其婚后悲苦的命运，是全书最重大的转折点。它使希斯克利夫满腔的爱化为无比的恨；凯瑟琳一死，这腔仇恨火山般迸发出来，成了疯狂的复仇动力。希斯克利夫的目的达到了，他不仅让辛德雷和埃德加凄苦死去，独霸了两家庄园的产业，还让他们平白无辜的下一代也饱尝了苦果。这种疯狂的报仇泄恨，貌似悖于常理，但却淋漓尽致地表达了他非同一般的叛逆精神，这是一种特殊环境、特殊性格所决定的特殊反抗。希斯克利夫的爱情悲剧是社会的悲剧，也是时代的悲剧。
《呼啸山庄》的故事是以希斯克利夫达到复仇目的而自杀告终的。他的死是一种殉情，表达了他对凯瑟琳生死不渝的爱，一种生不能同衾、死也求同穴的爱的追求。而他临死前放弃了在下一代身上报复的念头，表明他的天性本来是善良的，只是由于残酷的现实扭曲了他的天性，迫使他变得暴虐无情。这种人性的复苏是一种精神上的升华，闪耀着作者人道主义的理想。
《呼啸山庄》出版后一直被人认为是英国文学史上一部“最奇特的小说”，是一部“奥秘莫测”的“怪书”。原因在于它一反同时代作品普遍存在的伤感主义情调，而以强烈的爱、狂暴的恨及由之而起的无情的报复，取代了低沉的伤感和忧郁。它宛如一首奇特的抒情诗，字里行间充满着丰富的想象和狂飙般猛烈的情感，具有震撼人心的艺术力量。
人物表
恩萧先生 ———— 呼啸山庄主人
辛德雷·恩萧—— 其 子
凯瑟琳·恩萧 —— 其女，小名凯蒂
希斯克利夫 ——— 恩萧抚养的孤儿
弗兰西斯 ———— 辛德雷之妻
哈里顿·恩萧 —— 辛德雷之子
丁耐莉 ————— 女管家，又名艾伦
约瑟夫 ————— 呼啸山庄的老仆人
林敦先生 ———— 画眉田庄主人
埃德加·林敦 —— 其子，后娶凯瑟琳·恩萧
伊莎贝拉·林敦 — 其女，后嫁希刺克厉夫
凯瑟琳·林敦 —— 埃德加与凯瑟琳之女，亦名凯蒂林敦·希刺克厉夫
伊莎贝拉与希刺克厉夫之子
洛克乌德先生 —— 房 客
肯尼兹医生 ——— 当地医生
齐 拉 ————— 呼啸山庄的女仆
《呼啸山庄》-故事情节年表
１７５７ 辛德雷·恩萧诞生。丁耐莉之母携其婴儿耐莉往呼啸山庄当保姆。
１７６２ 埃德加·林敦诞生。
１７６５ 凯瑟琳·恩萧诞生。
１７６６ 伊莎贝拉·林敦诞生。
１７７１ 夏天，恩萧先生从利物浦带回希刺克厉夫。
１７７３ 春天，恩萧夫人逝世。
１７７４ 辛德雷上大学。
１７７７ 十月，恩萧先生逝世。辛德雷携其妻弗兰西斯返家。
十一月底，凯瑟琳在画眉田庄闯祸。
圣诞节，凯瑟琳返家。
１７７８ 六月，哈里顿·恩萧诞生。弗兰西斯逝世。丁耐莉照顾哈里顿。
１７８０ 夏天，凯瑟琳接受了埃德加·林敦的求婚。希刺克厉夫失踪。凯瑟琳患重病。老林敦先生与夫人逝世。
１７８３ 三月，埃德加娶凯瑟琳。丁耐莉陪同往画眉田庄。
九月，希刺克厉夫归。
１７８４ 一月，埃德加·凯瑟琳和希刺克厉夫之间发生争吵。希刺克厉夫带伊莎贝拉私奔。凯瑟琳第二次重病。
三月，希刺克厉夫与伊莎贝拉回呼啸山庄。希刺克厉夫去看凯瑟琳。
三月廿日，凯瑟琳逝世，留下才诞生的女儿凯瑟琳。
三月廿五日，凯瑟琳下葬。希刺克厉夫当晚到墓园去。
三月廿六日，伊莎贝拉逃跑。
九月，辛德雷逝世。希刺克厉夫占有呼啸山庄。
十月，林敦·希刺克厉夫诞生于外地。
１７９７ 伊莎贝拉逝世。
小凯蒂首次到呼啸山庄。
埃德加接外甥林敦回画眉田庄。希刺克厉夫要走他的儿子。
１８００ 三月廿日，小凯蒂第二次到呼啸山庄。
秋天，埃德加感冒病倒。
十月，凯蒂第三次到呼啸山庄。
这以后三个星期，凯蒂秘密往呼啸山庄。
１８０１ 八月，凯蒂与表弟林敦在野外见面，被希刺克厉夫所迫又进呼啸山庄与林敦结婚。
九月，埃德加·林敦逝世。后希刺克厉夫往凯瑟琳墓地掘墓。
林敦·希刺克厉夫继承了画眉田庄。
十月，林敦死去。希刺克厉夫占有了其子产业。
十一月，希刺克厉夫将画眉田庄出租给洛克乌德先生。
洛克乌德先生拜访呼啸山庄。
１８０２ 一月，洛克乌德先生离开画眉田庄往伦敦。
二月，丁耐莉回呼啸山庄。
四月，希刺克厉夫逝世。
九月，洛克乌德先生路经画眉田庄与呼啸山庄，再次拜访。
１８０３ 元旦，哈里顿·恩萧与凯蒂结婚。
The name of the novel comes from the Yorkshire manor on the moors on which the story centres (as an adjective; wuthering is a Yorkshire word referring to turbulent weather). The narrative tells the tale of the all-encompassing and passionate, yet thwarted, love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and many around them.
Now considered a classic of English literature, Wuthering Heights met with mixed reviews by critics when it first appeared, mainly because of the narrative's stark depiction of mental and physical cruelty. Though Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre was initially considered the best of the Brontë sisters' works, many subsequent critics of Wuthering Heights argued that its originality and achievement made it superior. Wuthering Heights has also given rise to many adaptations and inspired works, including films, radio, television dramatisations, a musical by Bernard J. Taylor, ballet, opera, and song.
Plot
Writing in his diary, Mr. Lockwood describes arriving in the winter of 1801, at the manor house of Thrushcross Grange, on the Yorkshire moors in northern England. He soon meets his landlord, Heathcliff, a wealthy man and the master of nearby Wuthering Heights. Despite not being welcome at Wuthering Heights, Lockwood returns for a second visit and is forced to stay overnight, due to a snow storm. Unable to sleep, he finds the diary of a girl named Catherine Earnshaw and reads an entry. Lockwood learns that she was a close childhood friend of Heathcliff. Later, he has a nightmare in which the ghost of a young girl appears at his window and begs to be let in. While Lockwood struggles to keep the ghost out of his room, Heathcliff is awakened by his cries of terror and rushes into the room. Upon hearing of Catherine's ghost, he asks Lockwood to leave the room. Standing outside the door, Lockwood hears Heathcliff sobbing, opening the window, and calling for Catherine to enter.
Upon returning to Thrushcross Grange, Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of Heathcliff and the others at Wuthering Heights. Nelly begins her story thirty years earlier, when Mr. Earnshaw brings Heathcliff, an orphan boy, home to raise with his own children, Hindley and Catherine. Eventually, Mr. Earnshaw comes to favour Heathcliff over his own children. Both Earnshaw children initially resent Heathcliff, but soon he and Catherine become inseparable. Hindley continues to hate and physically abuse him
Mr. Earnshaw dies three years later and Hindley, now married to Frances after returning from boarding school, inherits Wuthering Heights. He brutalises Heathcliff, forcing him to work as a hired hand. Catherine becomes friends with the neighboring Linton family who live at Thrushcross Grange, and Mrs. Linton starts teaching her to be a proper lady. She is attracted to young Edgar Linton, whom Heathcliff immediately dislikes.
A year later, Frances dies from consumption shortly after giving birth to a son, Hareton. Hindley takes to drinking and becomes even more abusive to Heathcliff. Some two years later, Catherine informs Nelly that she wishes to marry Edgar Linton, as it will give her status and riches; despite her love for Heathcliff. Heathcliff, upon hearing this, leaves Wuthering Heights, only to return three years later, soon after Catherine and Edgar are wed.
Heathcliff has apparently become a wealthy, respectable gentleman and now seeks revenge against all those he believes have wronged him. Heathcliff makes loans to Hindley that he knows cannot be repaid. Intent on ruining Edgar, Heathcliff elopes with Edgar's sister, Isabella Linton, setting himself up to inherit Thrushcross Grange. After their marriage, Heathcliff becomes very cruel and abusive towards Isabella.
Catherine becomes very ill and dies shortly after giving birth to a daughter, Cathy. A few hours before her death, however, she and Heathcliff reaffirm their feelings for one another. After Catherine’s death, Heathcliff becomes more bitter and vengeful towards those around him. Isabella flees to London a month later and gives birth to a boy, Linton Heathcliff.
About this time, Hindley dies. Heathcliff takes ownership of Wuthering Heights and raises Hindley's son, Hareton, with as much neglect as he had suffered at Hindley's hands.
Thirteen years later, Isabella dies and Linton comes to live at Wuthering Heights with his father, Heathcliff. He treats his son even more cruelly than he treated his wife. Three years pass and Heathcliff invites Cathy to Wuthering Heights. He then introduces her to his son, Linton, wishing them to marry which would strengthen his claim on Thrushcross Grange.
Cathy receives news that Linton has fallen ill. She hurries to Wuthering Heights to see if she can be of help. Linton's health declines swiftly and Heathcliff puts Cathy under house arrest, forcing her to marry his son. Soon after the marriage, Edgar dies, followed shortly by Linton. Heathcliff has now gained complete control of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. He forces Cathy to stay at Wuthering Heights and treats her as a common servant. It is at this point in the narrative that Lockwood rents Thrushcross Grange from Heathcliff, and Nelly’s story reaches the present day. Lockwood is appalled and leaves for London.
Lockwood returns six months later to visit Nelly. She tells him that in his absence, Cathy gradually softened toward her rough, uneducated cousin Hareton, just as Catherine was tender towards Heathcliff. Having originally mocked Hareton for his illiteracy, she now teaches him to read. He allows her to open up again after becoming so bitter from Heathcliff's brutal treatment.
When Heathcliff is confronted by Cathy and Hareton's love, he seems to suffer a mental breakdown and begins to see Catherine's ghost. He seemingly abandons his life-long vendetta and dies, having "swallowed nothing for four days". Nelly describes finding Heathcliff lying on the bed, stiff with rigor mortis. Only Hareton mourns Heathcliff's death. He is buried next to Catherine in the graveyard. Cathy and Hareton inherit Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange and plan their wedding for New Year’s Day. Upon hearing the end of the story, Lockwood leaves Nelly and on his walk home he visits the graves of Catherine and Heathcliff.
Characters
* Heathcliff: Found, and presumably orphaned, on the streets of Liverpool, he is taken to Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw and reluctantly cared for by the rest of the family. He and Catherine later grow close, and their love becomes the central theme of the first volume; his revenge and its consequences are the main theme of the second volume. Heathcliff is typically considered a Byronic hero, but critics have found his character, with a capacity for self-invention, to be profoundly difficult to assess. His position in society, without status (Heathcliff serves as both his given name and surname), is often the subject of Marxist criticism.
* Catherine Earnshaw: First introduced in Lockwood's discovery of her diary and etchings, Catherine's life is almost entirely detailed in the first volume. She seemingly suffers from a crisis of identity, unable to choose between nature and culture (and, by extension, Heathcliff and Edgar). Her decision to marry Edgar Linton over Heathcliff has been seen as a surrender to culture, and has implications for all the characters of Wuthering Heights. The character of Catherine has been analysed by many forms of literary criticism, including: psychoanalytic and feminist.
* Edgar Linton: Introduced as a child of the Linton family, who reside at Thrushcross Grange, Edgar's life and mannerisms are immediately contrasted with those of Heathcliff and Catherine, and indeed the former dislikes him. Yet, owing much to his status, Catherine marries him and not Heathcliff. This decision, and the differences between Edgar and Heathcliff, have been read into by feminist criticisms.
* Nelly Dean: The second and primary narrator of the novel, Nelly has been a servant of each generation of both the Earnshaw and Linton families. She is presented as a character who straddles the idea of a 'culture versus nature' divide in the novel: she is a local of the area and a servant, and has experienced life at Wuthering Heights. However, she is also an educated woman and has lived at Thrushcross Grange. This idea is represented in her having two names, Ellen—her given name and used to show respect, and Nelly—used by her familiars. Whether Nelly is an unbiased narrator and how far her actions, as an apparent bystander, affect the other characters are two points of her character discussed by critics.
* Isabella Linton: Introduced as part of the Linton family, Isabella is only ever shown in relation to other characters. She views Heathcliff as a romantic hero, despite Catherine warning her against such an opinion, and becomes an unwitting participant in his plot for revenge. After being married to Heathcliff and abused at Wuthering Heights, she escapes to London and gives birth to Linton. Such abusive treatment has led many, especially feminist critics, to consider Isabella the true/conventional 'tragic romantic' figure of Wuthering Heights.
* Hindley Earnshaw
* Hareton Earnshaw
* Catherine Linton
* Linton Heathcliff
* Joseph
* Lockwood
Timeline
1500: The stone above the front door of Wuthering Heights, bearing the name of Mr Earnshaw, is inscribed, possibly to mark the completion of the house.
1757: Hindley Earnshaw born (summer); Nelly Dean born
1762: Edgar Linton born
1765: Catherine Earnshaw born (summer); Isabella Linton born (late 1765)
1771: Heathcliff brought to Wuthering Heights by Mr Earnshaw (late summer)
1773: Mrs Earnshaw dies (spring)
1774: Hindley sent off to college
1777: Hindley marries Frances; Mr Earnshaw dies and Hindley comes back (October); Heathcliff and Cathy visit Thrushcross Grange for the first time; Cathy remains behind (November), and then returns to Wuthering Heights (Christmas Eve)
1778: Hareton born (June); Frances dies
1780: Heathcliff runs away from Wuthering Heights; Mr and Mrs Linton both die
1783: Catherine has married Edgar (March); Heathcliff comes back (September)
1784: Heathcliff marries Isabella (February); Catherine dies and Cathy born (20 March); Hindley dies; Linton born (September)
1797: Isabella dies; Cathy visits Wuthering Heights and meets Hareton; Linton brought to Thrushcross Grange and then taken to Wuthering Heights
1800: Cathy meets Heathcliff and sees Linton again (20 March)
1801: Cathy and Linton are married (August); Edgar dies (August); Linton dies (September); Mr Lockwood goes to Thrushcross Grange and visits Wuthering Heights, beginning his narrative
1802: Mr Lockwood goes back to London (January); Heathcliff dies (April); Mr Lockwood comes back to Thrushcross Grange (September)
1803: Cathy plans to marry Hareton (1 January)
Development history
There are several theories as to which building was the inspiration for Wuthering Heights. One is Top Withens, a ruined farmhouse, that is located in a isolated area near the Haworth Parsonage. Yet, its structure does not match that of the farmhouse described in the novel, and is therefore considered less likely to be the model. Top Withens was first suggested as the model for the fictitious farmhouse by Ellen Nussey, a friend of Charlotte Brontë's, to Edward Morison Wimperis, a commissioned artist for the Brontë sisters' novels in 1872.
The second option is the now demolished High Sunderland Hall, near Halifax, West Yorkshire. This Gothic edifice is located near Law Hill, and was where Emily worked briefly as a governess in 1838. While very grand for the farmhouse of Wuthering Heights, the hall had grotesque embellishments of griffins and misshapen nude men similar to those described by Lockwood of Wuthering Heights in chapter one of the novel:
"Before passing the threshold, I paused to admire a quantity of grotesque carving lavished over the front, and especially about the principal door, above which, among a wilderness of crumbling griffins and shameless little boys, I detected the date '1500'".
The inspiration for Thrushcross Grange has been traditionally connected to Ponden Hall, near Haworth, although very small. More likely is Shibden Hall, near Halifax.
Critical response
Early reviews
Early reviews of Wuthering Heights were mixed in their assessment. Whilst most critics recognised the power and imagination of the novel, many found the story unlikeable and ambiguous.[note 1] Released in 1847, at a time when the background of the author was deemed to have an important impact on the story itself, many critics were also intrigued by the authorship of the novels.[note 2] H. F. Chorley of the Athenaeum said that it was a "disagreeable story" and that the 'Bells' (Brontës) "seem to affect painful and exceptional subjects". The Atlas review called it a "strange, inartistic story", but commented that every chapter seems to contain a "sort of rugged power". It supported the second point made in the Athenaeum, suggesting that the general effect of the novel was "inexpressibly painful", but adding that all of its subjects were either "utterly hateful or thoroughly contemptible".
The Douglas Jerrold's Weekly Newspaper critique was more positive, emphasizing the "great power" of the novel and its provocative qualities; it said that it was a "strange sort of book—baffling all regular criticism" and that "[it is] impossible to lay it aside afterwards and say nothing about it". Although the Examiner agreed on the strangeness, it saw the book as "wild, confused; disjointed and improbable". The Britannia review mirrored those comments made on the unpleasant characters, arguing that it would have been a "far better romance" if the characters were not "nearly as violent and destructive as [Heathcliff]". The unidentified review was less critical, considering it a "work of great ability" and that "it is not every day that so good a novel makes its appearance".
Adaptations
The earliest known film adaptation of Wuthering Heights was filmed in England and directed by A. V. Bramble. It is unknown if any prints still exist. The most famous was 1939's Wuthering Heights, starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon and directed by William Wyler. This adaptation, like many others, eliminated the second generation's story (young Cathy, Linton and Hareton). It won the 1939 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film and was nominated for the 1939 Academy Award for Best Picture.
The 1970 film with Timothy Dalton as Heathcliff is notable for emphasizing that Heathcliff may be Cathy's illegitimate half-brother. This is the first colour version of the novel, and gained acceptance over the years though it was initially poorly received. The character of Hindley is portrayed much more sympathetically, and his story-arc is altered.
The 1992 film Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche is notable for including the oft-omitted second generation story of the children of Cathy, Hindley , and Heathcliff.
Adaptations which reset the story in a new setting include the 1954 adaptation by Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel set in Catholic Mexico, with Heathcliff and Cathy renamed Alejandro and Catalina, and Yoshishige Yoshida's 1988 adaptation which set the story in Tokugawa period Japan. In 2003, MTV produced a poorly reviewed version set in a modern California with the characters as high school students.
The novel has been popular in opera and theatre, including operas written by Bernard Herrmann and Carlisle Floyd (both of which like many films cover only the first half of the book) and a musical by Bernard J. Taylor, as well as a song by Kate Bush.
In autumn of 2008, Mark Ryan launched a dramatic musical adaptation of the novel, narrated by Beowulf and Sexy Beast star Ray Winstone. He composed, sang and produced the tracks with Robb Vallier who also worked on Spamalot. He also directed the video for the song "Women" filmed especially for the website and featuring Jennifer Korbee, Jessica Keenan Wynn and Katie Boeck.
In August 2009 ITV aired a two part drama series starring Tom Hardy, Charlotte Riley, Sarah Lancashire, and Andrew Lincoln.
Announced in April 2008, Natalie Portman was originally set to star as Cathy in a new film adaptation of the novel, but she left the project in May. In May 2008, director John Maybury cast Michael Fassbender as Heathcliff and Abbie Cornish as Cathy. They later left the project and in May 2009, Peter Webber was announced as the director, with Ed Westwick and Gemma Arterton attached to play Heathcliff and Cathy respectively. However, the project did not get off the ground and Andrea Arnold signed on to direct in January 2010. Kaya Scodelario was then cast as Cathy, with the filmmakers searching for an unknown young Yorkshire actor to play Heathcliff.
查理·包法利是个军医的儿子。他天资不高，但很勤勉、老实，为人懦弱无能。父亲对教育不重视。他在十二岁是由母亲为他争得了上学的权利，后来当了医生。这时他的父母又为他找了个每年有一千二百法郎收入的寡妇——杜比克夫人做妻子，她已四十五岁了，又老又丑，“柴一样干，象春季发芽一样一脸疙瘩”。但她因为有钱，并不缺少应选的夫婿。她和查理结婚后，便成了管束他的主人：查理必须顺从她的心思穿衣服，照她的吩咐逼迫欠款的病人；她拆阅他的信件，隔着板壁偷听他给妇女看病。
一天，查理医生接到一封紧急的信件，要他到拜尔斗给一个富裕农民卢欧先生治病，他的一条腿摔断了。卢欧是个五十岁左右的矮胖子，他的太太二年前已去世了。家里由她的独生女爱玛料理。这是个具有浪漫气质的女孩子，面颊是玫瑰色的，头发黑油油的，在脑后挽成一个大髻，眼睛很美丽，由于睫毛的缘故，棕颜色仿佛是黑颜色，她“朝你望来，毫无顾虑，有一种天真无邪胆大的神情”。她给查理留下了深刻的印象。查理给卢欧诊治过后，答应他三天后再去拜访，但到第二天他就去了。此后，他一星期去两次。先后花了四十六天的时间，治好了卢欧的腿。
查理妻子同丈夫常上拜尔斗去。免不了要打听病人的底细。当她知道卢欧小姐曾受过教育，懂得跳舞、地理、素描、刺绣和弹琴时，醋劲大发。她要丈夫把手放在弥撒书上，向她发誓，今后再也不去拜尔斗了。查理唯命是听，照样做了。但不久发生了一件意外的事，他妻子的财产保管人带着她的现金逃跑了。查理的父母发现媳妇一年并没有一千二百法郎的收入（她在订婚的时候撒了谎），于是跑来和她吵闹。她在一气之下，吐血死了。
卢欧老爹给查理送诊费来，当他知道查理的不幸后，便尽力安慰他，说自己也曾经历过丧偶的痛苦。他邀请查理到拜尔斗去散散心。查理去了，并且爱上了爱玛。他向卢欧老爹提亲。卢欧感到查理不是理想的女婿，不过人家说他品行端正，省吃俭用，自然也不会太计较陪嫁，便答应了。开春后，查理和爱玛按当地的风俗举行了婚礼。
爱玛十三岁进了修道院附设的寄宿女校念书。她在那里受着贵族式的教育。她爱教堂的花卉、宗教的音乐，并在浪漫主义小说的熏陶下成长。彼耶的小说《保耳与维尔吉妮》是她最喜爱的图书之一。她梦想过小竹房子的生活，尤其是有位好心的小哥哥，情意缠绵，爬上比钟楼还要高的大树去摘红果子，或者赤着脚在沙滩上跑，给你抱来一个鸟巢；她又“衷心尊敬那些出名或者不幸的妇女”，沉浸在罗漫蒂克的缅想中。一位在大革命前出身于贵族世家的老姑娘，每月到修道院做一星期女工，她向女生们讲浪漫故事，而且衣袋里总有一本传奇小说。后来，爱玛的母亲死了，父亲把她接回家去。
爱玛结婚了，她终于得到了那种不可思议的爱情。在这以前，爱情仿佛是一只玫瑰色羽毛的巨鸟，可望而不可即，在诗的灿烂的天堂里翱翔。婚后，她却发觉查理是个平凡而又庸俗的人。他“谈吐象人行道一样平板，见解庸俗，如同来往行人一般衣著寻常，激不起情绪，也激不起笑或者梦想”。查理不会游泳、不会比剑，不会放枪。有一次爱玛用传奇小说中一个骑马的术语问他，他竟瞠目不知所对。她悔恨自己为什么要结婚！有时，她为了弥补感情上的空虚，她向查理吟诵她记得起来的情诗，一面吟，一面叹息。可是吟过之后，她发现自己如同吟唱前一样平静，而查理也没有因此而感动，正如火刀敲石子，她这样敲过之后，不见冒出一颗火星来。
不久，查理医好了一位声名显赫的侯爵的口疮。侯爵为答谢查理，他邀请查理夫妇到他的田庄渥毕萨尔去作客。查理夫妇坐着马车去了。那是个有着意大利风格的庄园，房子很大，还有美丽的花园。爱玛对侯爵家豪华的气派，高雅的客人，珠光宝气的舞会场面，一一感到入迷。一位风流潇洒的子爵来邀她跳舞，给她留下了极深的印象。在回家的路上，她拾得了子爵的一个雪茄匣，又勾起了她对舞伴的怀念。回到家，她向女仆人发脾气。她把雪茄匣藏起来，每当查理不在家时，她把它取出来，开了又开，看了又看，甚至还闻了衬里的味道：一种杂有美女樱和烟草的味道。她“希望死，又希望住到巴黎”。
渥毕萨尔之行，在爱玛的生活上，凿了一个洞眼，如同山上那些大裂缝，一阵狂风暴雨，一夜工夫，就成了这般模样。她无可奈何，只得想开些。不过她参加舞会的漂亮衣著、缎鞋，她都虔诚地放入五斗柜。“她的心也象它们一样，和财富有过接触之后，添了一些磨蹭不掉的东西”。爱玛辞退了女佣人，不愿意在道特住下去了。她对丈夫老是看不顺眼。她变得懒散，“乖戾和任性”。
查理怕引起爱玛生病。他们从道特搬到永镇居住。这是个通大路的村镇，有一个古老的教堂和一条子弹射程那样长的街。街上有金狮客店和引人注目的郝麦先生的药房。郝麦是个药剂师，戴一顶金坠小绒帽，穿一双绿皮拖鞋，他那洋洋自得的脸上有几颗细麻子，神气就象挂在他头上的柳条笼里的金翅雀那样。他经常爱自我吹嘘，标榜自己是个无神论者，他没有医生执照，但私自给农民看病。爱玛到永镇那天，由郝麦和一个在律师那里做练习生的赖昂陪着吃晚饭。
赖昂·都普意是个有着金黄头发的青年，金狮饭店包饭吃的房客。爱玛和他初次见面便很谈得来。他们有相同的志趣，而且都爱好旅行和音乐。此后，他们便经常在一道谈天，议论浪漫主义的小说和时行的戏剧，并且“不断地交换书籍和歌曲”。包法利先生难得妒忌，并不引以为怪。
爱玛生了一个女孩，起名为白尔特。交给木匠的女人喂养。赖昂有时陪她一道去看女儿。他们日益接近起来，爱玛生日时，赖昂送了一份厚礼，爱玛也送给他一张毯子。
时装商人勒乐，是个狡黠的做生意的能手，虚胖的脸上不留胡须，仿佛抹了一道稀薄的甘草汁；一双贼亮的小黑眼睛，衬上白头发，越发显得灵活。他逢人胁肩谄笑，腰一直哈着，姿势又象鞠躬，又象邀请。他看出爱玛是个爱装饰的“风雅的妇女”，便自动上门兜揽生意，并赊帐给她，满足她各种虚荣的爱好。
爱玛爱上了赖昂。她为了摆脱这一心思，转而关心家务，把小白尔特也接回家来，并按时上教堂。她瘦了，面色苍白，象大理石一样冰凉。有一次，她甚至想把心中的秘密在忏悔时向教士吐露，但她看到教士布尔尼贤俗不可耐，才没有这样做。她由于心情烦躁，把女儿推跌了，碰破了她的脸。赖昂也陷入爱情的罗网。他为了摆脱这一苦闷，便上巴黎念完法科的课程。临别时，他和爱玛依依惜别。他们都感到无限的惆怅。
爱玛因烦恼生起病来。对赖昂的回忆成了她愁闷的中心。即使旅客在俄国大草原雪地上燃起的火堆，也比不上赖昂在她回忆中那么明亮。一次，徐赦特的地主罗道耳弗·布朗皆来找包法利医生替其马夫放血。这是个风月场中的老手。约莫三十四岁光景，性情粗野，思悟明敏。他有两处庄田，新近又买下一个庄园，每年有一万五千法郎以上的收入。他见爱玛生得标致，初见面便打下勾引她的坏主意。
罗道耳弗利用在永镇举办州农业展览会的机会接近爱玛，为她当向导，向她倾吐衷曲，他把自己装扮成一个没有朋友、没人关心，郁闷到极点的可怜虫。他说只要能得到一个真心相待他的人，他将克服一切困难，去达到目的。他们一同谈到内地的庸俗，生活的窒闷，理想的毁灭……
展览会揭幕典礼开始了，州行政委员廖万坐着四轮大马车姗姗来迟。这是个秃额头，厚眼皮，脸色灰白的人。他向群众发布演说，对“美丽祖国的现状”进行了一番歌功颂德。他说目前法国“处处商业繁盛，艺术发达，处处兴修新的道路，集体国家添了许多新的动脉，构成新的联系；我们伟大的工业中心又活跃起来；宗教加强巩固，法光普照，我们的码头堆满货物……”??，群众还向他吐舌头。会后，举行了发奖仪式。政府把一枚值二十五法郎的银质奖章颁发给一个“在一家田庄服务了五十四年”的老妇。那老妇一脸皱纹，干瘦疲惫不堪。当她领到奖章后说：“我拿这送给我们的教堂堂长，给我作弥撒。”最后，又举行了放焰火。爱玛和罗道耳弗都不关心展览会一幕幕滑稽剧的进行。他们只是借此机会说话儿，谈天，直到出诊的查理回来为止。
展览会后，爱玛已忘不了罗道耳弗了。而罗道耳弗却有意过了六星期才去看她。他以关心爱玛的健康为由，把自己的马借给她骑。他们一同到野外散心。爱玛经不起罗道耳弗的诱惑，做了他的情妇。他们瞒着包法利医生常在一起幽会。这时，爱玛感情发展到狂热的程度，她要求罗道耳弗把她带走，和他一同出奔。她和查理的母亲也吵翻了。
然而，罗道耳弗完全是个口是心非的伪君子。他抱着玩弄女性、逢场作戏的丑恶思想，欺骗了爱玛的感情。他答应和她一同出逃，可是出逃那天，他托人送给爱玛一封信。信中说，逃走对他们两人都不合适，爱玛终有一天会后悔的。他不愿成为她后悔的原因；再说人世冷酷，逃到那儿都不免受到侮辱。因此，他要和她的爱情永别了。爱玛气得发昏，她的心跳得象大杠子撞城门一样。傍晚，她看到罗道耳弗坐着马车急驶过永镇，去卢昂找他的情妇--一个女戏子去了。爱玛当即晕倒。此后，她生了一场大病。病好后，她想痛改前非，重新生活。可是，这时又发生了另一场事。
药剂师郝麦邀请包法利夫妇到卢昂去看戏。在剧场里，爱玛遇见了过去曾为之动情的练习生赖昂。现在，他在卢昂的一家事务所实习。于是，他们埋藏在心底多年的爱情种子又萌芽了。他们未看完戏，便跑到码头谈天。这时，赖昂已不是初出茅庐的后生，而是一个有着充分社会经验的人了。他一见面便想占有爱玛，并向她诉说离别后的痛苦。当爱玛谈到自己害了一场大病，差点死掉时，赖昂装出十分悲伤的样子。他说，他也“羡慕坟墓的宁静”，时常想到死，甚至有一天，他还立了个遗嘱，吩咐别人在他死后，要用爱玛送给他的那条漂亮的毯子裹着埋他。他极力怂恿爱玛再留一天，去看完这场戏。包法利医生因医疗事务先赶回永镇去了。爱玛留下来。于是她和赖昂便一同去参观卢昂大教堂，坐着马车在市内兜风。这样，爱玛和赖昂姘搭上了。
爱玛回到永镇后，借口到卢昂去学钢琴，实际上，她是去和赖昂幽会。爱玛再一次把自己的全部热情倾注在赖昂身上，沉溺在恣情的享乐之中。为了不花销，她背着丈夫向商人勒乐借债。
然而，赖昂和罗道耳弗一样欺骗了爱玛的感情。他渐渐地对爱玛感到厌腻了。尤其是当他收到母亲的来信和都包卡吉律师的解劝时，决定和爱玛断绝来往。因为这种暧昧的关系，将要影响他的前程。不久，他就要升为第一练习生了。于是，他开始回避她。
正在这时，爱玛接到法院的一张传票。商人勒乐要逼她还债，法院限定爱玛在二十四小时内，把全部八千法郎的借款还清，否则以家产抵押。爱玛无奈去向勒乐求情，要他再宽限几天，但他翻脸不认人，不肯变通。爱玛去向赖昂求援，赖昂骗她借不到钱，躲开了。她去向律师居由曼借钱，可是这老鬼却乘她眉急之际想占有她。她气愤地走了。最后，她想到徐赦特去找罗道耳弗帮助。罗道耳弗竟公然说他没有钱。爱玛受尽凌辱，心情万分沉重。当她从罗道耳弗家出来时，感到墙在摇晃，天花板往下压她。她走进一条悠长的林荫道上，绊在随风散开的枯叶堆上……回到家，爱玛吞吃了砒霜。她想这样一来“一切欺诈，卑鄙和折磨她的无数欲望，都和她不相干了”。包法利医生跪在她的床边，她把手放在他的头发里面，这种甜蜜的感觉，越发使医生感到难过。爱玛也感到对不起自己的丈夫。她对他说：“你是好人。”最后，她看了孩子一眼，痛苦地离开了这个世界。
为了偿清债务，包法利医生把全部家产都当光卖尽了。他在翻抽屉时，发现了妻子和赖昂的来往情书以及罗道耳弗的画像。他伤心极了，好长时间都闭门不出。一次，他在市场上遇见了罗道耳弗，但他原谅了自己的情敌，认为“错的是命”。他在承受了种种打击之后，也死了。爱玛遗下的女儿寄养在姨母家里，后来进了纱厂。
包法利医生死后，先后有三个医生到永镇开业，但都经不起郝麦拼命的排挤，没有一个站得住脚。于是这位非法开业的药剂师大走红运，并获得了政府颁发给他的十字勋章。
The novel was attacked for obscenity by public prosecutors when it was first serialized in La Revue de Paris between October 1, 1856 and December 15, 1856, resulting in a trial in January 1857 that made the story notorious. After the acquittal on February 7, 1857, it became a bestseller when it was published as a book in April 1857, and now stands virtually unchallenged not only as a seminal work of Realism, but as one of the most influential novels ever written.
A 2007 poll of contemporary authors, published in a book entitled The Top Ten, cited Madame Bovary as one of the two greatest novels ever written, second only to Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.
Plot summary
Madame Bovary takes place in provincial northern France, near the town of Rouen in Normandy. The story begins and ends with Charles Bovary, a stolid, kindhearted man without much ability or ambition. As the novel opens, Charles is a shy, oddly-dressed teenager arriving at a new school amidst the ridicule of his new classmates. Later, Charles struggles his way to a second-rate medical degree and becomes an officier de santé in the Public Health Service. His mother chooses a wife for him, an unpleasant but supposedly rich widow, and Charles sets out to build a practice in the village of Tostes (now Tôtes).
One day, Charles visits a local farm to set the owner's broken leg, and meets his client's daughter, Emma Rouault. Emma is a beautiful, daintily-dressed young woman who has received a "good education" in a convent and who has a latent but powerful yearning for luxury and romance imbibed from the popular novels she has read. Charles is immediately attracted to her, and begins checking on his patient far more often than necessary until his wife's jealousy puts a stop to the visits. When his wife dies, Charles waits a decent interval, then begins courting Emma in earnest. Her father gives his consent, and Emma and Charles are married.
At this point, the novel begins to focus on Emma. Charles means well, but is boring and clumsy, and after he and Emma attend a ball given by the Marquis d'Andervilliers, Emma grows disillusioned with married life and becomes dull and listless. Charles consequently decides that his wife needs a change of scenery, and moves from the village of Tostes into a larger, but equally stultifying market town, Yonville (traditionally based on the town of Ry). Here, Emma gives birth to a daughter, Berthe; however, motherhood, too, proves to be a disappointment to Emma. She then becomes infatuated with one of the first intelligent young men she meets in Yonville, a young law student, Léon Dupuis, who seems to share her appreciation for "the finer things in life", and who returns her admiration. Out of fear and shame, however, Emma hides her love for Léon and her contempt for Charles, and plays the role of the devoted wife and mother, all the while consoling herself with thoughts and self-congratulations of her own virtue. Finally, in despair of ever gaining Emma's affection, Léon departs to study in Paris.
One day, a rich and rakish landowner, Rodolphe Boulanger, brings a servant to the doctor's office to be bled. He casts his eye over Emma and decides she is ripe for seduction. To this end, he invites Emma to go riding with him for the sake of her health; solicitous only for Emma's health, Charles embraces the plan, suspecting nothing. A three-year affair follows. Swept away by romantic fantasy, Emma risks compromising herself with indiscreet letters and visits to her lover, and finally insists on making a plan to run away with him. Rodolphe, however, has no intention of carrying Emma off, and ends the relationship on the eve of the great elopement with an apologetic, self-excusing letter delivered at the bottom of a basket of apricots. The shock is so great that Emma falls deathly ill, and briefly turns to religion.
When Emma is nearly fully recovered, she and Charles attend the opera, on Charles' insistence, in nearby Rouen. The opera reawakens Emma's passions, and she re-encounters Léon who, now educated and working in Rouen, is also attending the opera. They begin an affair. While Charles believes that she is taking piano lessons, Emma travels to the city each week to meet Léon, always in the same room of the same hotel, which the two come to view as their "home." The love affair is, at first, ecstatic; then, by degrees, Léon grows bored with Emma's emotional excesses, and Emma grows ambivalent about Léon, who becoming himself more like the mistress in the relationship, compares poorly, at least implicitly, to the rakish and domineering Rodolphe. Meanwhile, Emma, given over to vanity, purchases increasing amounts of luxury items on credit from the crafty merchant, Lheureux, who arranges for her to obtain power of attorney over Charles’ estate, and crushing levels of debts mount quickly.
When Lheureux calls in Bovary's debt, Emma pleads for money from several people, including Léon and Rodolphe, only to be turned down. In despair, she swallows arsenic and dies an agonizing death; even the romance of suicide fails her. Charles, heartbroken, abandons himself to grief, preserves Emma's room as if it is a shrine, and in an attempt to keep her memory alive, adopts several of her attitudes and tastes. In his last months, he stops working and lives off the sale of his possessions. When he accidentally comes across Rodolphe's love letters one day, he still tries to understand and forgive. Soon after, he becomes reclusive; what has not already been sold of his possessions is seized to pay off Lheureux, and he dies, leaving his young daughter Berthe to live with distant relatives and eventually sent to work at a cotton mill.
Chapter-by-chapter
Part One
1. Charles Bovary's childhood, student days
2. First marriage, Charles meets Rouault and his daughter Emma; Charles's first wife dies
3. Charles proposes to Emma
4. The wedding
5. The new household at Tostes
6. An account of Emma's childhood and secret fantasy world
7. Emma becomes bored; invitation to a ball by the Marquis d'Andervilliers
8. The ball at the château La Vaubyessard
9. Emma follows fashions; her boredom concerns Charles, and they decide to move; they find out she is pregnant
Part Two
1. Description of Yonville-l'Abbaye: Homais, Lestiboudois, Binet, Bournisien, Lheureux
2. Emma meets Léon Dupuis, the lawyer's clerk
3. Emma gives birth to Berthe, visits her at the nurse's house with Léon
4. A card game; Emma's friendship with Léon grows
5. Trip to see flax mill; Lheureux's pitch; Emma is resigned to her life
6. Emma visits the priest Bournisien; Berthe is injured; Léon leaves for Paris
7. Charles's mother bans novels; the blood-letting of Rodolphe's farmhand; Rodolphe meets Emma
8. The comice agricole (agricultural show); Rodolphe woos Emma
9. Six weeks later Rodolphe returns and they go out riding; he seduces her and the affair begins
10. Emma crosses paths with Binet; Rodolphe gets nervous; a letter from her father makes Emma repent
11. Operation on Hippolyte's clubfoot; M. Canivet has to amputate; Emma returns to Rodolphe
12. Emma's extravagant presents; quarrel with mother-in-law; plans to elope
13. Rodolphe runs away; Emma falls gravely ill
14. Charles is beset by bills; Emma turns to religion; Homais and Bournisien argue
15. Emma meets Léon at performance of Lucie de Lammermoor
Part Three
1. Emma and Léon converse; tour of Rouen Cathedral; cab-ride synecdoche
2. Emma goes to Homais; the arsenic; Bovary senior's death; Lheureux's bill
3. She visits Léon in Rouen
4. She resumes "piano lessons" on Thursdays
5. Visits to Léon; the singing tramp; Emma starts to fiddle the accounts
6. Emma becomes noticeably anxious; debts spiral out of control
7. Emma begs for money from several people
8. Rodolphe cannot help; she swallows arsenic; her death
9. Emma lies in state
10. The funeral
11. Charles finds letter; his death
Characters
Emma Bovary
Emma is the novel's protagonist and is the main source of the novel's title (although Charles's mother and his former wife are also referred to as Madame Bovary). She has a highly romanticized view of the world and craves beauty, wealth, passion and high society. It is the disparity between these romantic ideals and the realities of her country life that drive most of the novel, most notably leading her into two extramarital love affairs as well as causing her to accrue an insurmountable amount of debt that eventually leads to her suicide.
Emma is quite intelligent, but she never has a chance to develop her mind. As an adult, Emma's capacity for imagination is far greater than her capacity for analysis. She is observant about surface details, such as how people are dressed, but she never looks below the surface. As a result, she is easily taken in by people who are pretending to be something more than they really are (which most people in the book do for one reason or another). Emma not only believes in the false fronts other people present to her, but she despises the very few people (Charles's mother, Madame Homais, and Monsieur Binet) who are exactly as they appear to be.
Convinced that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, Emma does not realize that extreme joy, even for the wealthy and powerful, comes rarely. Not only country or bourgeois life is dull. For instance, Emma is surprised to see that aristocrats do not serve fancy food and drink at their everyday breakfasts: she'd prefer to believe that for the nobility, life is really an excitement-filled drama. Later, she fails to see that Rodolphe's wealth hasn't made him happy, despite obvious evidence of this fact.
Since Emma lives chiefly in her own fantasy world, other people's opinions or perceptions of her aren't important except to the extent that they serve some aspect of whatever drama she's trying to act out. At the ball, she's convinced that her aristocratic hosts have fully accepted her as one of their own, so much so that she expects an invitation the following year. In reality, the hosts condescended to invite Charles and Emma to the ball as reward for a favor, intending for it to be a once-in-a-lifetime treat. Indeed, Emma makes several missteps that would be embarrassing to anyone steeped in upper-class culture of the period. She waltzes so badly that she tangles her dress up with her dance partner, and she uses the gaffe as an excuse to rest her head on his chest. She is one of the few people left at the party when the hosts finally go to bed. She does not attempt to establish new social contacts at the party, nor does she write a thank-you note afterwards. She does not attempt to return the cigar-case she and Charles find later, which might have been a reasonable pretext to resume correspondence with their host. So she is far from a gracious guest, and she fails to do the things that could, under the right circumstances, lead to real social connections in high places.
Emma seldom makes an effort to cultivate friendships with other people, unless doing so serves the image she has of herself. She wants desperately to be an aristocrat, particularly after the d'Andervilliers ball, but although she's very good at aping the superficial behaviors (such as clothing and figures of speech), she lacks the manners and savoir-faire to actually operate in their culture. No matter what social group she decides she belongs to (aristocrats, the people of Yonville, people with "noble souls", adulteresses, religious martyrs, dramatic heroines, etc.), every time her role requires interaction with someone who actually is in that group Emma messes up. She doesn't go out of her way to ingratiate herself with new people, because she genuinely doesn't care what they think of her. The same indifference causes her to be rejected by most people in Tostes and Yonville, and to be very careless of her reputation once she starts having extramarital affairs. Binet, Homais, Charles's mother, and Lheureux all catch her in compromising situations, and she truly doesn't care. At some level, she wants not only the excitement of taking the risk, but possibly the drama that would result from being caught.
Emma seeks out the extremes in life, both positive and negative. That she seeks out positive experiences is obvious, because unless she's experiencing the peak of ecstasy, she's convinced she's miserable. She also re-writes her own history and memory, telling herself that she has "never" been happy every time it appears to her that, by indulging some whim, she can achieve the emotional experiences to which she feels entitled. Her appetite for stimulation grows to the point where she becomes jaded enough not to appreciate the small pleasures in life, simply because they are small pleasures. The more she experiences, the less she is satisfied with more normal activities. Consider, for example, her taste in literature. She starts out with romances and bourgeois women's magazines targeted to her real social and economic position. From there she graduates to high-fashion women's magazines that advocate conspicuous consumption. The next step is overwrought romantic poetry, followed by tragic opera, and culminating in the violent pornography which she reads between assignations with Léon. As Vladimir Nabokov observes, Emma "reads books emotionally, in a shallow juvenile manner, putting herself in this or that female character's place."
Emma feels entitled to seek out increasing pleasure and stimulation for herself. Her sense of entitlement grows over time, as does her belief that she has been somehow wronged by destiny or by the people around her. As a young girl, Emma was influenced by her improvident but pretentious father. She was also indulged as a teen and as a young adult, and nobody ever realized her expectations and attitudes about life were unreasonable or attempted to correct them. Emma's mother died too early, and her father let her be raised at a convent and educated like a young woman of independent means. Emma eventually comes to believe that all her wishes will come true, if she believes in them strongly enough and throws a big enough tantrum when she doesn't get her way. Although her father is aware of the problem, he never tries to address it and chooses to leave it to Charles instead.
Over the course of the book, Emma finds different ways to rationalize her feeling of entitlement at different times of her life. Before her marriage, she craves excitement because she is bored. In Tostes, particularly after the ball, she believes she was unjustly born into the wrong socioeconomic class and that everything would be better if only she were rich. Later, after being introduced to poetry, she believes she suffers because she has a noble soul. Ultimately she casts herself as a tragic heroine.
Emma's attraction to the negative extremes of the human experience is less obvious, but the signs are there. As a teenager, she's rewarded for an overblown, somewhat fake display of grief after her mother's death. Her father caters to her whims, as does Charles, who responds to Emma's ennui and psychosomatic illnesses by ignoring his patients and concentrating solely on his wife. Emma's fleeting but intense fascination with religion is much the same: people reward her pious conduct with extra attention and treat her as though she's superior, which reinforces her feelings of entitlement.
It is Emma's sense of superiority and entitlement that make her vulnerable to people who seek to use and manipulate her. Anyone who plays along with Emma's pretentiousness is assured of her good graces. Lheureux, the predatory money-lender who fleeces Emma and Charles, is obsequious to Emma in order to get her to spend more money on unnecessary purchases. He takes advantage of her sense of entitlement by treating her like a grand lady and by indicating that she deserves all the impractical luxuries he persuades her to buy. By giving Emma credit for business sense and experience she doesn't actually possess, Lheureux takes advantage of Emma's financial inexperience. He skims ridiculous sums off the top of every promissory note he has Emma sign, and bluffs her into believing that large commissions are somehow customary in business. Unwilling to admit her ignorance, Emma lets herself be conned instead.
Throughout her life, Emma selects dramatic, exaggerated depictions of human existence and adopts them as a romantic or personal ideal; moreover, she convinces herself that her ideal is somehow the norm, and that the reality she experiences is the exception to the rule. As a teenager, she seeks to emulate the romantic novels she read while at the convent. After the ball, she seeks to emulate the nobility and the wealthy and creates a new romantic ideal based on a man she met at the ball. After being introduced to poetry, she adopts a romantic martyr-like facade. After being exposed to the melodramatic opera "Lucia de Lammermoor", Emma adopts the insane fictional character Lucy Ashton as her role model and becomes convinced that the correct way to respond to adversity is to lose her mind and commit suicide, which she eventually does.
Each individual decision of Emma's seems plausible and reasonable in isolation, but her actions and decisions on the whole make her a very difficult character to like. She is too self-absorbed to consider the consequences of her actions as they affect other people. Her recklessness with money leads to financial ruin not just for herself but for her husband and child.
Charles Bovary
Emma's husband, Charles Bovary, is a very simple and common man. He is a country doctor by profession, but is, as in everything else, not very good at it. He is in fact not qualified enough to be termed a doctor, but is instead an officier de santé, or "health officer". When he is persuaded by Homais, the local pharmacist, to attempt a difficult operation on a patient's clubfoot, the effort is an enormous failure, and his patient's leg must be amputated by a better doctor.
Charles adores his wife and finds her faultless, despite obvious evidence to the contrary. He never suspects her affairs and gives her complete control over his finances, thereby securing his own ruin. Despite Charles's complete devotion to Emma, she despises him as he is the epitome of all that is dull and common. When Charles discovers Emma's deceptions after her death he is devastated and dies soon after, but not before frittering away the very last of the assets remaining after his bankruptcy by living the way he believed Emma would have wanted him to live.
Charles is presented from the start as a likeable and well-meaning fool who happens to have a good memory and a way with people. Although it annoys Emma that Charles doesn't deduce her attitude toward him based on her very subtle hints and cues, she would need a far more blunt approach to get her message across. Charles's lack of insight regarding Emma is not unique. He fails to realize that Homais is not his friend but his enemy and lets the pharmacist isolate him from the other people in town. He fails to realize that Rodolphe has designs on Emma. He trusts Léon implicitly even though he's aware Emma is emotionally attached to the young clerk. He fails to realize that Emma's expenditures have put the household in debt, and he doesn't realize that Lheureux is a financial predator. He also ignores potential allies in the town who might have pointed out what everybody else thought was obvious.
Charles is no genius, but at the time he meets Emma he's doing well financially. He's married, he's got a thriving practice that has grown in response to his popularity with his patients, and he's got a good reputation in the community. After he moves to a new town, he never regains his former position, and Emma is part of the reason why. He knows he is in financial trouble, but continues to enable Emma's spendthrift ways. He takes on more than his share of his responsibility for the success of the marriage, and he tries to cover for Emma's lapses. Meanwhile, he gives up control over the financial aspects of his practice, which allows Emma to start embezzling. In fact, he borrows from a moneylender and does not tell Emma.
During Emma's first mysterious collapse, which is in response to her realization that she's not getting a second ball invitation, Charles abandons his patients and acts as her full-time nurse even though her life is not obviously in danger. The more he hovers, the worse Emma's "health problem" becomes. He gives up a thriving practice and moves to an area where he knows nobody. He nurses her through two more collapses, and allows her to talk him into attempting an operation he is not qualified to perform.
Monsieur Homais
Monsieur Homais is the town pharmacist. In one incident, he convinces Charles to perform corrective surgery on a young stable boy, afflicted with a club foot. During this era, correcting or eliminating a disability was a daring option and he may have considered this an opportunity to garner personal attention and praise. The operation is a disaster, and the stable boy is left with his leg amputated at the thigh.
Despite having been convicted of practicing medicine without a license, he continues to give "consultations" in his pharmacy. This means that the presence of a licensed health officer in town is a threat to him. Not only are he and Charles in competition for patients, but if Charles were to report Homais for practicing medicine without a license, the courts would deal strictly with Homais given that it would be a second conviction. So, to keep the clueless Charles from turning him in to the authorities should Charles ever find out about the "consultations", Homais becomes Charles's best friend, at least on the surface. Meanwhile he undermines Charles at every opportunity. Convincing him to attempt the risky club foot operation may have been part of an ongoing strategy to discredit Charles so as to run him out of town. At the end of the book, after Charles's death, Homais uses similar strategies to get rid of subsequent doctors and is left in sole control of the medical profession in Yonville.
He is also vehemently anti-clerical and an atheist. He is the one who insists that Emma should go riding with Rodolphe, that Charles take her to see the opera in Rouen, and that she be allowed to take expensive music lessons in Rouen. No idiot, and with his ear to the ground for gossip, Homais appears to be completely unaware of Emma's adultery but subtly goes out of his way to make it easier for her. He also directly enables her ultimate act of self-destruction by detailing in her presence the means by which his supply of arsenic might be accessed.
Madame Homais
The wife of Monsieur Homais, Madame Homais is a simple woman whose life revolves around her husband and children, of which she has four. Caring for four children is no trivial task, especially without electricity, hot running water, or any form of public schooling beyond occasional classes offered by the parish priest. Furthermore, in addition to her own four children Madame Homais cares for Justin, a teenage relative who lives with the Homais family and who helps Monsieur Homais out in the pharmacy. She also takes care of a boarder: a young male student by the name of Léon Dupuis. With that many people in the household, Madame Homais can be excused for having a live-in maid to help with at least some of the cooking, cleaning, and mending. Even with the maid's help, Madame Homais works very hard. Since the pharmacy is quite successful, she could perhaps get away with having her own horse or dressing in the latest fashions, but she does not. Instead, she takes in a boarder to earn extra money.
Madame Homais serves chiefly as a foil for Emma. Whereas Madame Homais, or even Charles's infirm first wife, has a legitimate reason for wanting a maid, Emma is able-bodied aside from her drama-induced fainting fits and collapses. She simply chooses to do no housework, and to refrain from any of the activities bourgeois women generally did in order to earn money on the side. She does not sub-let an upstairs bedroom to a tenant the way Madame Homais rents to Léon, she leaves all the housekeeping to the maid, and does no work herself unless it suits whatever religious or social fantasy she has about herself at the time. Madame Homais does not dress fashionably or even well, whereas Emma is always dressed in the latest expensive fashions that are more lavish than what anyone else in Yonville seems able to afford. Madame Homais dotes on her children, while Emma ignores and despises her daughter unless she's acting out a maternal fantasy.
Emma despises Madame Homais for her simplicity, unless she's in the mood to pretend to idealize good mothers. Madame Homais, however, seems unaware that Emma dislikes her. Even when other people gossip about Emma, Madame Homais defends her. That naive loyalty is rewarded with nothing but contempt most of the time.
Léon Dupuis
First befriending Emma when she moves to Yonville, Léon seems a perfect match for her. He shares her romantic ideals as well as her disdain for common life. He worships Emma from afar before leaving to study law in Paris. A chance encounter brings the two together several years later and this time they begin an affair. Though the relationship is passionate at first, after a time the mystique wears off.
Financially, Léon cannot afford to carry on the affair, so Emma pays more and more of the bills. Eventually she assumes the whole financial burden. She also takes the lead in planning meetings and setting up communication, which is a reversal of the role she had with Rodolphe. Léon does not seem to find Emma's financial aggression disturbing or inappropriate, although when Emma asks him to pawn some spoons she'd received as a wedding gift from her father, Léon does become uncomfortable. He objects to the heavy spending, but does not press too hard when Emma overrules him. He's content to be the recipient of Emma's largesse, and to not think too much about where the money is coming from. He also does not feel particularly obligated to reciprocate later, when Emma asks him for help in her hour of financial need.
Over time, Léon becomes disenchanted with Emma, particularly after her attentions start to affect his work. The first time she arrives at his office, he's charmed and leaves work quickly. After a while, the interruptions have an effect on his work and his attitude to the other clerks. Eventually someone sends word to Léon's mother that her son is "ruining himself with a married woman", and Léon's mother and employer insist that he break off the affair. Léon does, briefly, but cannot stay away from Emma. His reluctance is tempered with relief because Emma's pursuit of him has become increasingly disturbing. When Emma's debts finally come due, she attempts to seduce Léon into stealing the money to cover her debts from his employer. At this point, he becomes genuinely afraid. He fobs her off with an excuse and disappears from her life.
Rodolphe Boulanger
Rodolphe is a wealthy local man who seduces Emma as one more addition to a long string of mistresses. Though occasionally charmed by Emma, Rodolphe feels little true emotion towards her. As Emma becomes more and more desperate, Rodolphe loses interest and worries about her lack of caution. He eventually ends their relationship, but not before going through a collection of letters and tokens from previous mistresses, all of whom ended up wanting either love or money.
Rodolphe's deteriorating feelings for Emma do not keep him from accepting the valuable gifts she showers on him throughout their relationship, even though he realizes at some level that she can't afford to be so generous. The gifts she gives him are of the same value and quality as she imagines an aristocrat such as the Vicount might receive from a similarly aristocratic mistress. Rodolphe's gifts to Emma are nowhere near as valuable even though he is by far the wealthier of the two. He does not feel particularly obligated by having accepted the gifts, even though they create a large part of Emma's debt to Lheureux.
When Emma asks Rodolphe for help at the peak of her financial crisis, after refusing the sex-for-money exchange offered by the wealthy Monsieur Guillaumin, she essentially attempts to initiate a sex-for-money exchange with Rodolphe. She pretends at first to have returned out of love, then when the timing feels right she asks him for money, using an obvious lie about why she needs a loan. She therefore comes across as among the most mercenary of Rodolphe's past mistresses. Rodolphe therefore sees no need to help her, though he could perhaps not afford to lend her enough money to keep her creditors at bay even if he desired to.
Monsieur L'heureux
A manipulative and sly merchant who continually convinces Emma to buy goods on credit and borrow money from him. L'heureux plays Emma masterfully and eventually leads her so far into debt as to cause her financial ruin and subsequent suicide.
L'heureux's reputation as an aggressive money lender is well known in Yonville. Had Emma or Charles had the wit to make inquiries about him or even to listen to the gossip, they would have realized that L'heureux had ruined at least one other person in town through his stratagems. Yet the only "friend" they trust, Homais, is fully aware of L'heureux's treachery but disinclined to warn Emma or Charles. So both Emma and Charles end up borrowing money from L'heureux without each other's knowledge.
Setting
The setting of Madame Bovary is crucial to the novel for several reasons. First, it is important as it applies to Flaubert's realist style and social commentary. Secondly, the setting is important in how it relates to the protagonist Emma.
It has been calculated that the novel begins in October 1827 and ends in August 1846 (Francis Steegmuller). This is around the era known as the “July Monarchy”, or the rule of King Louis-Philippe. This was a period in which there was a great up-surge in the power of the bourgeois middle class. Flaubert detested the bourgeoisie. Much of the time and effort, therefore, that he spends detailing the customs of the rural French people can be interpreted as social criticism.
Flaubert put much effort into making sure his depictions of common life were accurate. This was aided by the fact that he chose a subject that was very familiar to him. He chose to set the story in and around the city of Rouen in Normandy, the setting of his own birth and childhood. This care and detail that Flaubert gives to his setting is important in looking at the style of the novel. It is this faithfulness to the mundane elements of country life that has garnered the book its reputation as the beginning of the literary movement known as “literary realism”.
Flaubert also deliberately used his setting to contrast with his protagonist. Emma's romantic fantasies are strikingly foiled by the practicalities of the common life around her. Flaubert uses this juxtaposition to reflect on both subjects. Emma becomes more capricious and ludicrous in the harsh light of everyday reality. By the same token, however, the self-important banality of the local people is magnified in comparison to Emma, who, though impractical, still reflects an appreciation of beauty and greatness that seems entirely absent in the bourgeois class.
Style
The book, loosely based on the life story of a schoolfriend who had become a doctor, was written at the urging of friends, who were trying (unsuccessfully) to "cure" Flaubert of his deep-dyed Romanticism by assigning him the dreariest subject they could think of, and challenging him to make it interesting without allowing anything out-of-the-way to occur. Although Flaubert had little liking for the styles of Balzac or Zola, the novel is now seen as a prime example of Realism, a fact which contributed to the trial for obscenity (which was a politically-motivated attack by the government on the liberal newspaper in which it was being serialized, La Revue de Paris). Flaubert, as the author of the story, does not comment directly on the moral character of Emma Bovary and abstains from explicitly condemning her adultery. This decision caused some to accuse Flaubert of glorifying adultery and creating a scandal.
The Realist movement used verisimilitude through a focus on character development. Realism was a reaction against Romanticism. Emma may be said to be the embodiment of a romantic; in her mental and emotional process, she has no relation to the realities of her world. She inevitably becomes dissatisfied since her larger-than-life fantasies are impossible to realize. Flaubert declared that much of what is in the novel is in his own life by saying, "Madame Bovary, c'est moi" ("Madame Bovary is me").
Madame Bovary, on the whole, is a commentary on the entire self-satisfied, deluded, bourgeois culture of Flaubert's time period. His contempt for the bourgeoisie is expressed through his characters: Emma and Charles Bovary lost in romantic delusions; absurd and harmful scientific characters, a self-serving money lender, lovers seeking excitement finding only the banality of marriage in their adulterous affairs. All are seeking escape in empty church rituals, unrealistic romantic novels, or delusions of one sort or another.
Literary significance and reception
Long established as one of the greatest novels ever written, the book has often been described as a "perfect" work of fiction. Henry James writes: "Madame Bovary has a perfection that not only stamps it, but that makes it stand almost alone; it holds itself with such a supreme unapproachable assurance as both excites and defies judgment."
Adaptations
Madame Bovary has been made into several films, beginning with Jean Renoir's 1932 version. It has also been the subject of multiple television miniseries and made-for-TV movies. The most notable of these adaptations was the 1949 film produced by MGM. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, it starred Jennifer Jones in the title role, co-starring James Mason, Van Heflin, Louis Jourdan, and Gene Lockhart. It was adapted by Giles Cooper for the BBC in 1964, with the same script being used for a new production in 1975. A new BBC version adapted by Heidi Thomas was made in 2000, starring Frances O'Connor and Hugh Bonneville.
Claude Chabrol made his version starring Isabelle Huppert.
Madame Bovary has been adapted into a piece of musical theatre, entitled The Bovary Tale. Composer: Anne Freier. Librettist: Laura Steel. The first performance was at the Gatehouse Theatre in Highgate Village in September 2009.
David Lean's film Ryan's Daughter (1970) was a loose adaptation of the story, relocating it to Ireland during the time of the Easter Rebellion. The script had begun life as a straight adaptation of Bovary, but Lean convinced writer Robert Bolt to re-work it into another setting.
Indian director Ketan Mehta adapted the novel into a 1992 Hindi film Maya Memsaab.
Madame Blueberry is an 1998 film in the Veggietales animated series. It is a loose parody of Madame Bovary, in which Madame Blueberry, an anthropomorphic blueberry, gathers material possessions in a vain attempt to find happiness.
Academy Award nominated film Little Children features the novel as part of a book club discussion, and shares a few elements of the main idea.
Naomi Ragen loosely based her 2007 novel The Saturday Wife on Madame Bovary.
Posy Simmonds graphic novel Gemma Bovery reworked the story into a satirical tale of English expatriates in France.
Vale Abraão (1993) (Abraham's Vale) by Manoel de Oliveira is a close interpretation set in Portugal, even referencing and discussing Flaubert's novel several times.
"Madame Ovary" is the name of a character in DC Comics' The Adventures of the Outsiders #33-35. Madame Ovary's name was really Dr. Ovarin, and she was created by Mike W. Barr and Alan Davis.
一天，查理医生接到一封紧急的信件，要他到拜尔斗给一个富裕农民卢欧先生治病，他的一条腿摔断了。卢欧是个五十岁左右的矮胖子，他的太太二年前已去世了。家里由她的独生女爱玛料理。这是个具有浪漫气质的女孩子，面颊是玫瑰色的，头发黑油油的，在脑后挽成一个大髻，眼睛很美丽，由于睫毛的缘故，棕颜色仿佛是黑颜色，她“朝你望来，毫无顾虑，有一种天真无邪胆大的神情”。她给查理留下了深刻的印象。查理给卢欧诊治过后，答应他三天后再去拜访，但到第二天他就去了。此后，他一星期去两次。先后花了四十六天的时间，治好了卢欧的腿。
查理妻子同丈夫常上拜尔斗去。免不了要打听病人的底细。当她知道卢欧小姐曾受过教育，懂得跳舞、地理、素描、刺绣和弹琴时，醋劲大发。她要丈夫把手放在弥撒书上，向她发誓，今后再也不去拜尔斗了。查理唯命是听，照样做了。但不久发生了一件意外的事，他妻子的财产保管人带着她的现金逃跑了。查理的父母发现媳妇一年并没有一千二百法郎的收入（她在订婚的时候撒了谎），于是跑来和她吵闹。她在一气之下，吐血死了。
卢欧老爹给查理送诊费来，当他知道查理的不幸后，便尽力安慰他，说自己也曾经历过丧偶的痛苦。他邀请查理到拜尔斗去散散心。查理去了，并且爱上了爱玛。他向卢欧老爹提亲。卢欧感到查理不是理想的女婿，不过人家说他品行端正，省吃俭用，自然也不会太计较陪嫁，便答应了。开春后，查理和爱玛按当地的风俗举行了婚礼。
爱玛十三岁进了修道院附设的寄宿女校念书。她在那里受着贵族式的教育。她爱教堂的花卉、宗教的音乐，并在浪漫主义小说的熏陶下成长。彼耶的小说《保耳与维尔吉妮》是她最喜爱的图书之一。她梦想过小竹房子的生活，尤其是有位好心的小哥哥，情意缠绵，爬上比钟楼还要高的大树去摘红果子，或者赤着脚在沙滩上跑，给你抱来一个鸟巢；她又“衷心尊敬那些出名或者不幸的妇女”，沉浸在罗漫蒂克的缅想中。一位在大革命前出身于贵族世家的老姑娘，每月到修道院做一星期女工，她向女生们讲浪漫故事，而且衣袋里总有一本传奇小说。后来，爱玛的母亲死了，父亲把她接回家去。
爱玛结婚了，她终于得到了那种不可思议的爱情。在这以前，爱情仿佛是一只玫瑰色羽毛的巨鸟，可望而不可即，在诗的灿烂的天堂里翱翔。婚后，她却发觉查理是个平凡而又庸俗的人。他“谈吐象人行道一样平板，见解庸俗，如同来往行人一般衣著寻常，激不起情绪，也激不起笑或者梦想”。查理不会游泳、不会比剑，不会放枪。有一次爱玛用传奇小说中一个骑马的术语问他，他竟瞠目不知所对。她悔恨自己为什么要结婚！有时，她为了弥补感情上的空虚，她向查理吟诵她记得起来的情诗，一面吟，一面叹息。可是吟过之后，她发现自己如同吟唱前一样平静，而查理也没有因此而感动，正如火刀敲石子，她这样敲过之后，不见冒出一颗火星来。
不久，查理医好了一位声名显赫的侯爵的口疮。侯爵为答谢查理，他邀请查理夫妇到他的田庄渥毕萨尔去作客。查理夫妇坐着马车去了。那是个有着意大利风格的庄园，房子很大，还有美丽的花园。爱玛对侯爵家豪华的气派，高雅的客人，珠光宝气的舞会场面，一一感到入迷。一位风流潇洒的子爵来邀她跳舞，给她留下了极深的印象。在回家的路上，她拾得了子爵的一个雪茄匣，又勾起了她对舞伴的怀念。回到家，她向女仆人发脾气。她把雪茄匣藏起来，每当查理不在家时，她把它取出来，开了又开，看了又看，甚至还闻了衬里的味道：一种杂有美女樱和烟草的味道。她“希望死，又希望住到巴黎”。
渥毕萨尔之行，在爱玛的生活上，凿了一个洞眼，如同山上那些大裂缝，一阵狂风暴雨，一夜工夫，就成了这般模样。她无可奈何，只得想开些。不过她参加舞会的漂亮衣著、缎鞋，她都虔诚地放入五斗柜。“她的心也象它们一样，和财富有过接触之后，添了一些磨蹭不掉的东西”。爱玛辞退了女佣人，不愿意在道特住下去了。她对丈夫老是看不顺眼。她变得懒散，“乖戾和任性”。
查理怕引起爱玛生病。他们从道特搬到永镇居住。这是个通大路的村镇，有一个古老的教堂和一条子弹射程那样长的街。街上有金狮客店和引人注目的郝麦先生的药房。郝麦是个药剂师，戴一顶金坠小绒帽，穿一双绿皮拖鞋，他那洋洋自得的脸上有几颗细麻子，神气就象挂在他头上的柳条笼里的金翅雀那样。他经常爱自我吹嘘，标榜自己是个无神论者，他没有医生执照，但私自给农民看病。爱玛到永镇那天，由郝麦和一个在律师那里做练习生的赖昂陪着吃晚饭。
赖昂·都普意是个有着金黄头发的青年，金狮饭店包饭吃的房客。爱玛和他初次见面便很谈得来。他们有相同的志趣，而且都爱好旅行和音乐。此后，他们便经常在一道谈天，议论浪漫主义的小说和时行的戏剧，并且“不断地交换书籍和歌曲”。包法利先生难得妒忌，并不引以为怪。
爱玛生了一个女孩，起名为白尔特。交给木匠的女人喂养。赖昂有时陪她一道去看女儿。他们日益接近起来，爱玛生日时，赖昂送了一份厚礼，爱玛也送给他一张毯子。
时装商人勒乐，是个狡黠的做生意的能手，虚胖的脸上不留胡须，仿佛抹了一道稀薄的甘草汁；一双贼亮的小黑眼睛，衬上白头发，越发显得灵活。他逢人胁肩谄笑，腰一直哈着，姿势又象鞠躬，又象邀请。他看出爱玛是个爱装饰的“风雅的妇女”，便自动上门兜揽生意，并赊帐给她，满足她各种虚荣的爱好。
爱玛爱上了赖昂。她为了摆脱这一心思，转而关心家务，把小白尔特也接回家来，并按时上教堂。她瘦了，面色苍白，象大理石一样冰凉。有一次，她甚至想把心中的秘密在忏悔时向教士吐露，但她看到教士布尔尼贤俗不可耐，才没有这样做。她由于心情烦躁，把女儿推跌了，碰破了她的脸。赖昂也陷入爱情的罗网。他为了摆脱这一苦闷，便上巴黎念完法科的课程。临别时，他和爱玛依依惜别。他们都感到无限的惆怅。
爱玛因烦恼生起病来。对赖昂的回忆成了她愁闷的中心。即使旅客在俄国大草原雪地上燃起的火堆，也比不上赖昂在她回忆中那么明亮。一次，徐赦特的地主罗道耳弗·布朗皆来找包法利医生替其马夫放血。这是个风月场中的老手。约莫三十四岁光景，性情粗野，思悟明敏。他有两处庄田，新近又买下一个庄园，每年有一万五千法郎以上的收入。他见爱玛生得标致，初见面便打下勾引她的坏主意。
罗道耳弗利用在永镇举办州农业展览会的机会接近爱玛，为她当向导，向她倾吐衷曲，他把自己装扮成一个没有朋友、没人关心，郁闷到极点的可怜虫。他说只要能得到一个真心相待他的人，他将克服一切困难，去达到目的。他们一同谈到内地的庸俗，生活的窒闷，理想的毁灭……
展览会揭幕典礼开始了，州行政委员廖万坐着四轮大马车姗姗来迟。这是个秃额头，厚眼皮，脸色灰白的人。他向群众发布演说，对“美丽祖国的现状”进行了一番歌功颂德。他说目前法国“处处商业繁盛，艺术发达，处处兴修新的道路，集体国家添了许多新的动脉，构成新的联系；我们伟大的工业中心又活跃起来；宗教加强巩固，法光普照，我们的码头堆满货物……”??，群众还向他吐舌头。会后，举行了发奖仪式。政府把一枚值二十五法郎的银质奖章颁发给一个“在一家田庄服务了五十四年”的老妇。那老妇一脸皱纹，干瘦疲惫不堪。当她领到奖章后说：“我拿这送给我们的教堂堂长，给我作弥撒。”最后，又举行了放焰火。爱玛和罗道耳弗都不关心展览会一幕幕滑稽剧的进行。他们只是借此机会说话儿，谈天，直到出诊的查理回来为止。
展览会后，爱玛已忘不了罗道耳弗了。而罗道耳弗却有意过了六星期才去看她。他以关心爱玛的健康为由，把自己的马借给她骑。他们一同到野外散心。爱玛经不起罗道耳弗的诱惑，做了他的情妇。他们瞒着包法利医生常在一起幽会。这时，爱玛感情发展到狂热的程度，她要求罗道耳弗把她带走，和他一同出奔。她和查理的母亲也吵翻了。
然而，罗道耳弗完全是个口是心非的伪君子。他抱着玩弄女性、逢场作戏的丑恶思想，欺骗了爱玛的感情。他答应和她一同出逃，可是出逃那天，他托人送给爱玛一封信。信中说，逃走对他们两人都不合适，爱玛终有一天会后悔的。他不愿成为她后悔的原因；再说人世冷酷，逃到那儿都不免受到侮辱。因此，他要和她的爱情永别了。爱玛气得发昏，她的心跳得象大杠子撞城门一样。傍晚，她看到罗道耳弗坐着马车急驶过永镇，去卢昂找他的情妇--一个女戏子去了。爱玛当即晕倒。此后，她生了一场大病。病好后，她想痛改前非，重新生活。可是，这时又发生了另一场事。
药剂师郝麦邀请包法利夫妇到卢昂去看戏。在剧场里，爱玛遇见了过去曾为之动情的练习生赖昂。现在，他在卢昂的一家事务所实习。于是，他们埋藏在心底多年的爱情种子又萌芽了。他们未看完戏，便跑到码头谈天。这时，赖昂已不是初出茅庐的后生，而是一个有着充分社会经验的人了。他一见面便想占有爱玛，并向她诉说离别后的痛苦。当爱玛谈到自己害了一场大病，差点死掉时，赖昂装出十分悲伤的样子。他说，他也“羡慕坟墓的宁静”，时常想到死，甚至有一天，他还立了个遗嘱，吩咐别人在他死后，要用爱玛送给他的那条漂亮的毯子裹着埋他。他极力怂恿爱玛再留一天，去看完这场戏。包法利医生因医疗事务先赶回永镇去了。爱玛留下来。于是她和赖昂便一同去参观卢昂大教堂，坐着马车在市内兜风。这样，爱玛和赖昂姘搭上了。
爱玛回到永镇后，借口到卢昂去学钢琴，实际上，她是去和赖昂幽会。爱玛再一次把自己的全部热情倾注在赖昂身上，沉溺在恣情的享乐之中。为了不花销，她背着丈夫向商人勒乐借债。
然而，赖昂和罗道耳弗一样欺骗了爱玛的感情。他渐渐地对爱玛感到厌腻了。尤其是当他收到母亲的来信和都包卡吉律师的解劝时，决定和爱玛断绝来往。因为这种暧昧的关系，将要影响他的前程。不久，他就要升为第一练习生了。于是，他开始回避她。
正在这时，爱玛接到法院的一张传票。商人勒乐要逼她还债，法院限定爱玛在二十四小时内，把全部八千法郎的借款还清，否则以家产抵押。爱玛无奈去向勒乐求情，要他再宽限几天，但他翻脸不认人，不肯变通。爱玛去向赖昂求援，赖昂骗她借不到钱，躲开了。她去向律师居由曼借钱，可是这老鬼却乘她眉急之际想占有她。她气愤地走了。最后，她想到徐赦特去找罗道耳弗帮助。罗道耳弗竟公然说他没有钱。爱玛受尽凌辱，心情万分沉重。当她从罗道耳弗家出来时，感到墙在摇晃，天花板往下压她。她走进一条悠长的林荫道上，绊在随风散开的枯叶堆上……回到家，爱玛吞吃了砒霜。她想这样一来“一切欺诈，卑鄙和折磨她的无数欲望，都和她不相干了”。包法利医生跪在她的床边，她把手放在他的头发里面，这种甜蜜的感觉，越发使医生感到难过。爱玛也感到对不起自己的丈夫。她对他说：“你是好人。”最后，她看了孩子一眼，痛苦地离开了这个世界。
为了偿清债务，包法利医生把全部家产都当光卖尽了。他在翻抽屉时，发现了妻子和赖昂的来往情书以及罗道耳弗的画像。他伤心极了，好长时间都闭门不出。一次，他在市场上遇见了罗道耳弗，但他原谅了自己的情敌，认为“错的是命”。他在承受了种种打击之后，也死了。爱玛遗下的女儿寄养在姨母家里，后来进了纱厂。
包法利医生死后，先后有三个医生到永镇开业，但都经不起郝麦拼命的排挤，没有一个站得住脚。于是这位非法开业的药剂师大走红运，并获得了政府颁发给他的十字勋章。
The novel was attacked for obscenity by public prosecutors when it was first serialized in La Revue de Paris between October 1, 1856 and December 15, 1856, resulting in a trial in January 1857 that made the story notorious. After the acquittal on February 7, 1857, it became a bestseller when it was published as a book in April 1857, and now stands virtually unchallenged not only as a seminal work of Realism, but as one of the most influential novels ever written.
A 2007 poll of contemporary authors, published in a book entitled The Top Ten, cited Madame Bovary as one of the two greatest novels ever written, second only to Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.
Plot summary
Madame Bovary takes place in provincial northern France, near the town of Rouen in Normandy. The story begins and ends with Charles Bovary, a stolid, kindhearted man without much ability or ambition. As the novel opens, Charles is a shy, oddly-dressed teenager arriving at a new school amidst the ridicule of his new classmates. Later, Charles struggles his way to a second-rate medical degree and becomes an officier de santé in the Public Health Service. His mother chooses a wife for him, an unpleasant but supposedly rich widow, and Charles sets out to build a practice in the village of Tostes (now Tôtes).
One day, Charles visits a local farm to set the owner's broken leg, and meets his client's daughter, Emma Rouault. Emma is a beautiful, daintily-dressed young woman who has received a "good education" in a convent and who has a latent but powerful yearning for luxury and romance imbibed from the popular novels she has read. Charles is immediately attracted to her, and begins checking on his patient far more often than necessary until his wife's jealousy puts a stop to the visits. When his wife dies, Charles waits a decent interval, then begins courting Emma in earnest. Her father gives his consent, and Emma and Charles are married.
At this point, the novel begins to focus on Emma. Charles means well, but is boring and clumsy, and after he and Emma attend a ball given by the Marquis d'Andervilliers, Emma grows disillusioned with married life and becomes dull and listless. Charles consequently decides that his wife needs a change of scenery, and moves from the village of Tostes into a larger, but equally stultifying market town, Yonville (traditionally based on the town of Ry). Here, Emma gives birth to a daughter, Berthe; however, motherhood, too, proves to be a disappointment to Emma. She then becomes infatuated with one of the first intelligent young men she meets in Yonville, a young law student, Léon Dupuis, who seems to share her appreciation for "the finer things in life", and who returns her admiration. Out of fear and shame, however, Emma hides her love for Léon and her contempt for Charles, and plays the role of the devoted wife and mother, all the while consoling herself with thoughts and self-congratulations of her own virtue. Finally, in despair of ever gaining Emma's affection, Léon departs to study in Paris.
One day, a rich and rakish landowner, Rodolphe Boulanger, brings a servant to the doctor's office to be bled. He casts his eye over Emma and decides she is ripe for seduction. To this end, he invites Emma to go riding with him for the sake of her health; solicitous only for Emma's health, Charles embraces the plan, suspecting nothing. A three-year affair follows. Swept away by romantic fantasy, Emma risks compromising herself with indiscreet letters and visits to her lover, and finally insists on making a plan to run away with him. Rodolphe, however, has no intention of carrying Emma off, and ends the relationship on the eve of the great elopement with an apologetic, self-excusing letter delivered at the bottom of a basket of apricots. The shock is so great that Emma falls deathly ill, and briefly turns to religion.
When Emma is nearly fully recovered, she and Charles attend the opera, on Charles' insistence, in nearby Rouen. The opera reawakens Emma's passions, and she re-encounters Léon who, now educated and working in Rouen, is also attending the opera. They begin an affair. While Charles believes that she is taking piano lessons, Emma travels to the city each week to meet Léon, always in the same room of the same hotel, which the two come to view as their "home." The love affair is, at first, ecstatic; then, by degrees, Léon grows bored with Emma's emotional excesses, and Emma grows ambivalent about Léon, who becoming himself more like the mistress in the relationship, compares poorly, at least implicitly, to the rakish and domineering Rodolphe. Meanwhile, Emma, given over to vanity, purchases increasing amounts of luxury items on credit from the crafty merchant, Lheureux, who arranges for her to obtain power of attorney over Charles’ estate, and crushing levels of debts mount quickly.
When Lheureux calls in Bovary's debt, Emma pleads for money from several people, including Léon and Rodolphe, only to be turned down. In despair, she swallows arsenic and dies an agonizing death; even the romance of suicide fails her. Charles, heartbroken, abandons himself to grief, preserves Emma's room as if it is a shrine, and in an attempt to keep her memory alive, adopts several of her attitudes and tastes. In his last months, he stops working and lives off the sale of his possessions. When he accidentally comes across Rodolphe's love letters one day, he still tries to understand and forgive. Soon after, he becomes reclusive; what has not already been sold of his possessions is seized to pay off Lheureux, and he dies, leaving his young daughter Berthe to live with distant relatives and eventually sent to work at a cotton mill.
Chapter-by-chapter
Part One
1. Charles Bovary's childhood, student days
2. First marriage, Charles meets Rouault and his daughter Emma; Charles's first wife dies
3. Charles proposes to Emma
4. The wedding
5. The new household at Tostes
6. An account of Emma's childhood and secret fantasy world
7. Emma becomes bored; invitation to a ball by the Marquis d'Andervilliers
8. The ball at the château La Vaubyessard
9. Emma follows fashions; her boredom concerns Charles, and they decide to move; they find out she is pregnant
Part Two
1. Description of Yonville-l'Abbaye: Homais, Lestiboudois, Binet, Bournisien, Lheureux
2. Emma meets Léon Dupuis, the lawyer's clerk
3. Emma gives birth to Berthe, visits her at the nurse's house with Léon
4. A card game; Emma's friendship with Léon grows
5. Trip to see flax mill; Lheureux's pitch; Emma is resigned to her life
6. Emma visits the priest Bournisien; Berthe is injured; Léon leaves for Paris
7. Charles's mother bans novels; the blood-letting of Rodolphe's farmhand; Rodolphe meets Emma
8. The comice agricole (agricultural show); Rodolphe woos Emma
9. Six weeks later Rodolphe returns and they go out riding; he seduces her and the affair begins
10. Emma crosses paths with Binet; Rodolphe gets nervous; a letter from her father makes Emma repent
11. Operation on Hippolyte's clubfoot; M. Canivet has to amputate; Emma returns to Rodolphe
12. Emma's extravagant presents; quarrel with mother-in-law; plans to elope
13. Rodolphe runs away; Emma falls gravely ill
14. Charles is beset by bills; Emma turns to religion; Homais and Bournisien argue
15. Emma meets Léon at performance of Lucie de Lammermoor
Part Three
1. Emma and Léon converse; tour of Rouen Cathedral; cab-ride synecdoche
2. Emma goes to Homais; the arsenic; Bovary senior's death; Lheureux's bill
3. She visits Léon in Rouen
4. She resumes "piano lessons" on Thursdays
5. Visits to Léon; the singing tramp; Emma starts to fiddle the accounts
6. Emma becomes noticeably anxious; debts spiral out of control
7. Emma begs for money from several people
8. Rodolphe cannot help; she swallows arsenic; her death
9. Emma lies in state
10. The funeral
11. Charles finds letter; his death
Characters
Emma Bovary
Emma is the novel's protagonist and is the main source of the novel's title (although Charles's mother and his former wife are also referred to as Madame Bovary). She has a highly romanticized view of the world and craves beauty, wealth, passion and high society. It is the disparity between these romantic ideals and the realities of her country life that drive most of the novel, most notably leading her into two extramarital love affairs as well as causing her to accrue an insurmountable amount of debt that eventually leads to her suicide.
Emma is quite intelligent, but she never has a chance to develop her mind. As an adult, Emma's capacity for imagination is far greater than her capacity for analysis. She is observant about surface details, such as how people are dressed, but she never looks below the surface. As a result, she is easily taken in by people who are pretending to be something more than they really are (which most people in the book do for one reason or another). Emma not only believes in the false fronts other people present to her, but she despises the very few people (Charles's mother, Madame Homais, and Monsieur Binet) who are exactly as they appear to be.
Convinced that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, Emma does not realize that extreme joy, even for the wealthy and powerful, comes rarely. Not only country or bourgeois life is dull. For instance, Emma is surprised to see that aristocrats do not serve fancy food and drink at their everyday breakfasts: she'd prefer to believe that for the nobility, life is really an excitement-filled drama. Later, she fails to see that Rodolphe's wealth hasn't made him happy, despite obvious evidence of this fact.
Since Emma lives chiefly in her own fantasy world, other people's opinions or perceptions of her aren't important except to the extent that they serve some aspect of whatever drama she's trying to act out. At the ball, she's convinced that her aristocratic hosts have fully accepted her as one of their own, so much so that she expects an invitation the following year. In reality, the hosts condescended to invite Charles and Emma to the ball as reward for a favor, intending for it to be a once-in-a-lifetime treat. Indeed, Emma makes several missteps that would be embarrassing to anyone steeped in upper-class culture of the period. She waltzes so badly that she tangles her dress up with her dance partner, and she uses the gaffe as an excuse to rest her head on his chest. She is one of the few people left at the party when the hosts finally go to bed. She does not attempt to establish new social contacts at the party, nor does she write a thank-you note afterwards. She does not attempt to return the cigar-case she and Charles find later, which might have been a reasonable pretext to resume correspondence with their host. So she is far from a gracious guest, and she fails to do the things that could, under the right circumstances, lead to real social connections in high places.
Emma seldom makes an effort to cultivate friendships with other people, unless doing so serves the image she has of herself. She wants desperately to be an aristocrat, particularly after the d'Andervilliers ball, but although she's very good at aping the superficial behaviors (such as clothing and figures of speech), she lacks the manners and savoir-faire to actually operate in their culture. No matter what social group she decides she belongs to (aristocrats, the people of Yonville, people with "noble souls", adulteresses, religious martyrs, dramatic heroines, etc.), every time her role requires interaction with someone who actually is in that group Emma messes up. She doesn't go out of her way to ingratiate herself with new people, because she genuinely doesn't care what they think of her. The same indifference causes her to be rejected by most people in Tostes and Yonville, and to be very careless of her reputation once she starts having extramarital affairs. Binet, Homais, Charles's mother, and Lheureux all catch her in compromising situations, and she truly doesn't care. At some level, she wants not only the excitement of taking the risk, but possibly the drama that would result from being caught.
Emma seeks out the extremes in life, both positive and negative. That she seeks out positive experiences is obvious, because unless she's experiencing the peak of ecstasy, she's convinced she's miserable. She also re-writes her own history and memory, telling herself that she has "never" been happy every time it appears to her that, by indulging some whim, she can achieve the emotional experiences to which she feels entitled. Her appetite for stimulation grows to the point where she becomes jaded enough not to appreciate the small pleasures in life, simply because they are small pleasures. The more she experiences, the less she is satisfied with more normal activities. Consider, for example, her taste in literature. She starts out with romances and bourgeois women's magazines targeted to her real social and economic position. From there she graduates to high-fashion women's magazines that advocate conspicuous consumption. The next step is overwrought romantic poetry, followed by tragic opera, and culminating in the violent pornography which she reads between assignations with Léon. As Vladimir Nabokov observes, Emma "reads books emotionally, in a shallow juvenile manner, putting herself in this or that female character's place."
Emma feels entitled to seek out increasing pleasure and stimulation for herself. Her sense of entitlement grows over time, as does her belief that she has been somehow wronged by destiny or by the people around her. As a young girl, Emma was influenced by her improvident but pretentious father. She was also indulged as a teen and as a young adult, and nobody ever realized her expectations and attitudes about life were unreasonable or attempted to correct them. Emma's mother died too early, and her father let her be raised at a convent and educated like a young woman of independent means. Emma eventually comes to believe that all her wishes will come true, if she believes in them strongly enough and throws a big enough tantrum when she doesn't get her way. Although her father is aware of the problem, he never tries to address it and chooses to leave it to Charles instead.
Over the course of the book, Emma finds different ways to rationalize her feeling of entitlement at different times of her life. Before her marriage, she craves excitement because she is bored. In Tostes, particularly after the ball, she believes she was unjustly born into the wrong socioeconomic class and that everything would be better if only she were rich. Later, after being introduced to poetry, she believes she suffers because she has a noble soul. Ultimately she casts herself as a tragic heroine.
Emma's attraction to the negative extremes of the human experience is less obvious, but the signs are there. As a teenager, she's rewarded for an overblown, somewhat fake display of grief after her mother's death. Her father caters to her whims, as does Charles, who responds to Emma's ennui and psychosomatic illnesses by ignoring his patients and concentrating solely on his wife. Emma's fleeting but intense fascination with religion is much the same: people reward her pious conduct with extra attention and treat her as though she's superior, which reinforces her feelings of entitlement.
It is Emma's sense of superiority and entitlement that make her vulnerable to people who seek to use and manipulate her. Anyone who plays along with Emma's pretentiousness is assured of her good graces. Lheureux, the predatory money-lender who fleeces Emma and Charles, is obsequious to Emma in order to get her to spend more money on unnecessary purchases. He takes advantage of her sense of entitlement by treating her like a grand lady and by indicating that she deserves all the impractical luxuries he persuades her to buy. By giving Emma credit for business sense and experience she doesn't actually possess, Lheureux takes advantage of Emma's financial inexperience. He skims ridiculous sums off the top of every promissory note he has Emma sign, and bluffs her into believing that large commissions are somehow customary in business. Unwilling to admit her ignorance, Emma lets herself be conned instead.
Throughout her life, Emma selects dramatic, exaggerated depictions of human existence and adopts them as a romantic or personal ideal; moreover, she convinces herself that her ideal is somehow the norm, and that the reality she experiences is the exception to the rule. As a teenager, she seeks to emulate the romantic novels she read while at the convent. After the ball, she seeks to emulate the nobility and the wealthy and creates a new romantic ideal based on a man she met at the ball. After being introduced to poetry, she adopts a romantic martyr-like facade. After being exposed to the melodramatic opera "Lucia de Lammermoor", Emma adopts the insane fictional character Lucy Ashton as her role model and becomes convinced that the correct way to respond to adversity is to lose her mind and commit suicide, which she eventually does.
Each individual decision of Emma's seems plausible and reasonable in isolation, but her actions and decisions on the whole make her a very difficult character to like. She is too self-absorbed to consider the consequences of her actions as they affect other people. Her recklessness with money leads to financial ruin not just for herself but for her husband and child.
Charles Bovary
Emma's husband, Charles Bovary, is a very simple and common man. He is a country doctor by profession, but is, as in everything else, not very good at it. He is in fact not qualified enough to be termed a doctor, but is instead an officier de santé, or "health officer". When he is persuaded by Homais, the local pharmacist, to attempt a difficult operation on a patient's clubfoot, the effort is an enormous failure, and his patient's leg must be amputated by a better doctor.
Charles adores his wife and finds her faultless, despite obvious evidence to the contrary. He never suspects her affairs and gives her complete control over his finances, thereby securing his own ruin. Despite Charles's complete devotion to Emma, she despises him as he is the epitome of all that is dull and common. When Charles discovers Emma's deceptions after her death he is devastated and dies soon after, but not before frittering away the very last of the assets remaining after his bankruptcy by living the way he believed Emma would have wanted him to live.
Charles is presented from the start as a likeable and well-meaning fool who happens to have a good memory and a way with people. Although it annoys Emma that Charles doesn't deduce her attitude toward him based on her very subtle hints and cues, she would need a far more blunt approach to get her message across. Charles's lack of insight regarding Emma is not unique. He fails to realize that Homais is not his friend but his enemy and lets the pharmacist isolate him from the other people in town. He fails to realize that Rodolphe has designs on Emma. He trusts Léon implicitly even though he's aware Emma is emotionally attached to the young clerk. He fails to realize that Emma's expenditures have put the household in debt, and he doesn't realize that Lheureux is a financial predator. He also ignores potential allies in the town who might have pointed out what everybody else thought was obvious.
Charles is no genius, but at the time he meets Emma he's doing well financially. He's married, he's got a thriving practice that has grown in response to his popularity with his patients, and he's got a good reputation in the community. After he moves to a new town, he never regains his former position, and Emma is part of the reason why. He knows he is in financial trouble, but continues to enable Emma's spendthrift ways. He takes on more than his share of his responsibility for the success of the marriage, and he tries to cover for Emma's lapses. Meanwhile, he gives up control over the financial aspects of his practice, which allows Emma to start embezzling. In fact, he borrows from a moneylender and does not tell Emma.
During Emma's first mysterious collapse, which is in response to her realization that she's not getting a second ball invitation, Charles abandons his patients and acts as her full-time nurse even though her life is not obviously in danger. The more he hovers, the worse Emma's "health problem" becomes. He gives up a thriving practice and moves to an area where he knows nobody. He nurses her through two more collapses, and allows her to talk him into attempting an operation he is not qualified to perform.
Monsieur Homais
Monsieur Homais is the town pharmacist. In one incident, he convinces Charles to perform corrective surgery on a young stable boy, afflicted with a club foot. During this era, correcting or eliminating a disability was a daring option and he may have considered this an opportunity to garner personal attention and praise. The operation is a disaster, and the stable boy is left with his leg amputated at the thigh.
Despite having been convicted of practicing medicine without a license, he continues to give "consultations" in his pharmacy. This means that the presence of a licensed health officer in town is a threat to him. Not only are he and Charles in competition for patients, but if Charles were to report Homais for practicing medicine without a license, the courts would deal strictly with Homais given that it would be a second conviction. So, to keep the clueless Charles from turning him in to the authorities should Charles ever find out about the "consultations", Homais becomes Charles's best friend, at least on the surface. Meanwhile he undermines Charles at every opportunity. Convincing him to attempt the risky club foot operation may have been part of an ongoing strategy to discredit Charles so as to run him out of town. At the end of the book, after Charles's death, Homais uses similar strategies to get rid of subsequent doctors and is left in sole control of the medical profession in Yonville.
He is also vehemently anti-clerical and an atheist. He is the one who insists that Emma should go riding with Rodolphe, that Charles take her to see the opera in Rouen, and that she be allowed to take expensive music lessons in Rouen. No idiot, and with his ear to the ground for gossip, Homais appears to be completely unaware of Emma's adultery but subtly goes out of his way to make it easier for her. He also directly enables her ultimate act of self-destruction by detailing in her presence the means by which his supply of arsenic might be accessed.
Madame Homais
The wife of Monsieur Homais, Madame Homais is a simple woman whose life revolves around her husband and children, of which she has four. Caring for four children is no trivial task, especially without electricity, hot running water, or any form of public schooling beyond occasional classes offered by the parish priest. Furthermore, in addition to her own four children Madame Homais cares for Justin, a teenage relative who lives with the Homais family and who helps Monsieur Homais out in the pharmacy. She also takes care of a boarder: a young male student by the name of Léon Dupuis. With that many people in the household, Madame Homais can be excused for having a live-in maid to help with at least some of the cooking, cleaning, and mending. Even with the maid's help, Madame Homais works very hard. Since the pharmacy is quite successful, she could perhaps get away with having her own horse or dressing in the latest fashions, but she does not. Instead, she takes in a boarder to earn extra money.
Madame Homais serves chiefly as a foil for Emma. Whereas Madame Homais, or even Charles's infirm first wife, has a legitimate reason for wanting a maid, Emma is able-bodied aside from her drama-induced fainting fits and collapses. She simply chooses to do no housework, and to refrain from any of the activities bourgeois women generally did in order to earn money on the side. She does not sub-let an upstairs bedroom to a tenant the way Madame Homais rents to Léon, she leaves all the housekeeping to the maid, and does no work herself unless it suits whatever religious or social fantasy she has about herself at the time. Madame Homais does not dress fashionably or even well, whereas Emma is always dressed in the latest expensive fashions that are more lavish than what anyone else in Yonville seems able to afford. Madame Homais dotes on her children, while Emma ignores and despises her daughter unless she's acting out a maternal fantasy.
Emma despises Madame Homais for her simplicity, unless she's in the mood to pretend to idealize good mothers. Madame Homais, however, seems unaware that Emma dislikes her. Even when other people gossip about Emma, Madame Homais defends her. That naive loyalty is rewarded with nothing but contempt most of the time.
Léon Dupuis
First befriending Emma when she moves to Yonville, Léon seems a perfect match for her. He shares her romantic ideals as well as her disdain for common life. He worships Emma from afar before leaving to study law in Paris. A chance encounter brings the two together several years later and this time they begin an affair. Though the relationship is passionate at first, after a time the mystique wears off.
Financially, Léon cannot afford to carry on the affair, so Emma pays more and more of the bills. Eventually she assumes the whole financial burden. She also takes the lead in planning meetings and setting up communication, which is a reversal of the role she had with Rodolphe. Léon does not seem to find Emma's financial aggression disturbing or inappropriate, although when Emma asks him to pawn some spoons she'd received as a wedding gift from her father, Léon does become uncomfortable. He objects to the heavy spending, but does not press too hard when Emma overrules him. He's content to be the recipient of Emma's largesse, and to not think too much about where the money is coming from. He also does not feel particularly obligated to reciprocate later, when Emma asks him for help in her hour of financial need.
Over time, Léon becomes disenchanted with Emma, particularly after her attentions start to affect his work. The first time she arrives at his office, he's charmed and leaves work quickly. After a while, the interruptions have an effect on his work and his attitude to the other clerks. Eventually someone sends word to Léon's mother that her son is "ruining himself with a married woman", and Léon's mother and employer insist that he break off the affair. Léon does, briefly, but cannot stay away from Emma. His reluctance is tempered with relief because Emma's pursuit of him has become increasingly disturbing. When Emma's debts finally come due, she attempts to seduce Léon into stealing the money to cover her debts from his employer. At this point, he becomes genuinely afraid. He fobs her off with an excuse and disappears from her life.
Rodolphe Boulanger
Rodolphe is a wealthy local man who seduces Emma as one more addition to a long string of mistresses. Though occasionally charmed by Emma, Rodolphe feels little true emotion towards her. As Emma becomes more and more desperate, Rodolphe loses interest and worries about her lack of caution. He eventually ends their relationship, but not before going through a collection of letters and tokens from previous mistresses, all of whom ended up wanting either love or money.
Rodolphe's deteriorating feelings for Emma do not keep him from accepting the valuable gifts she showers on him throughout their relationship, even though he realizes at some level that she can't afford to be so generous. The gifts she gives him are of the same value and quality as she imagines an aristocrat such as the Vicount might receive from a similarly aristocratic mistress. Rodolphe's gifts to Emma are nowhere near as valuable even though he is by far the wealthier of the two. He does not feel particularly obligated by having accepted the gifts, even though they create a large part of Emma's debt to Lheureux.
When Emma asks Rodolphe for help at the peak of her financial crisis, after refusing the sex-for-money exchange offered by the wealthy Monsieur Guillaumin, she essentially attempts to initiate a sex-for-money exchange with Rodolphe. She pretends at first to have returned out of love, then when the timing feels right she asks him for money, using an obvious lie about why she needs a loan. She therefore comes across as among the most mercenary of Rodolphe's past mistresses. Rodolphe therefore sees no need to help her, though he could perhaps not afford to lend her enough money to keep her creditors at bay even if he desired to.
Monsieur L'heureux
A manipulative and sly merchant who continually convinces Emma to buy goods on credit and borrow money from him. L'heureux plays Emma masterfully and eventually leads her so far into debt as to cause her financial ruin and subsequent suicide.
L'heureux's reputation as an aggressive money lender is well known in Yonville. Had Emma or Charles had the wit to make inquiries about him or even to listen to the gossip, they would have realized that L'heureux had ruined at least one other person in town through his stratagems. Yet the only "friend" they trust, Homais, is fully aware of L'heureux's treachery but disinclined to warn Emma or Charles. So both Emma and Charles end up borrowing money from L'heureux without each other's knowledge.
Setting
The setting of Madame Bovary is crucial to the novel for several reasons. First, it is important as it applies to Flaubert's realist style and social commentary. Secondly, the setting is important in how it relates to the protagonist Emma.
It has been calculated that the novel begins in October 1827 and ends in August 1846 (Francis Steegmuller). This is around the era known as the “July Monarchy”, or the rule of King Louis-Philippe. This was a period in which there was a great up-surge in the power of the bourgeois middle class. Flaubert detested the bourgeoisie. Much of the time and effort, therefore, that he spends detailing the customs of the rural French people can be interpreted as social criticism.
Flaubert put much effort into making sure his depictions of common life were accurate. This was aided by the fact that he chose a subject that was very familiar to him. He chose to set the story in and around the city of Rouen in Normandy, the setting of his own birth and childhood. This care and detail that Flaubert gives to his setting is important in looking at the style of the novel. It is this faithfulness to the mundane elements of country life that has garnered the book its reputation as the beginning of the literary movement known as “literary realism”.
Flaubert also deliberately used his setting to contrast with his protagonist. Emma's romantic fantasies are strikingly foiled by the practicalities of the common life around her. Flaubert uses this juxtaposition to reflect on both subjects. Emma becomes more capricious and ludicrous in the harsh light of everyday reality. By the same token, however, the self-important banality of the local people is magnified in comparison to Emma, who, though impractical, still reflects an appreciation of beauty and greatness that seems entirely absent in the bourgeois class.
Style
The book, loosely based on the life story of a schoolfriend who had become a doctor, was written at the urging of friends, who were trying (unsuccessfully) to "cure" Flaubert of his deep-dyed Romanticism by assigning him the dreariest subject they could think of, and challenging him to make it interesting without allowing anything out-of-the-way to occur. Although Flaubert had little liking for the styles of Balzac or Zola, the novel is now seen as a prime example of Realism, a fact which contributed to the trial for obscenity (which was a politically-motivated attack by the government on the liberal newspaper in which it was being serialized, La Revue de Paris). Flaubert, as the author of the story, does not comment directly on the moral character of Emma Bovary and abstains from explicitly condemning her adultery. This decision caused some to accuse Flaubert of glorifying adultery and creating a scandal.
The Realist movement used verisimilitude through a focus on character development. Realism was a reaction against Romanticism. Emma may be said to be the embodiment of a romantic; in her mental and emotional process, she has no relation to the realities of her world. She inevitably becomes dissatisfied since her larger-than-life fantasies are impossible to realize. Flaubert declared that much of what is in the novel is in his own life by saying, "Madame Bovary, c'est moi" ("Madame Bovary is me").
Madame Bovary, on the whole, is a commentary on the entire self-satisfied, deluded, bourgeois culture of Flaubert's time period. His contempt for the bourgeoisie is expressed through his characters: Emma and Charles Bovary lost in romantic delusions; absurd and harmful scientific characters, a self-serving money lender, lovers seeking excitement finding only the banality of marriage in their adulterous affairs. All are seeking escape in empty church rituals, unrealistic romantic novels, or delusions of one sort or another.
Literary significance and reception
Long established as one of the greatest novels ever written, the book has often been described as a "perfect" work of fiction. Henry James writes: "Madame Bovary has a perfection that not only stamps it, but that makes it stand almost alone; it holds itself with such a supreme unapproachable assurance as both excites and defies judgment."
Adaptations
Madame Bovary has been made into several films, beginning with Jean Renoir's 1932 version. It has also been the subject of multiple television miniseries and made-for-TV movies. The most notable of these adaptations was the 1949 film produced by MGM. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, it starred Jennifer Jones in the title role, co-starring James Mason, Van Heflin, Louis Jourdan, and Gene Lockhart. It was adapted by Giles Cooper for the BBC in 1964, with the same script being used for a new production in 1975. A new BBC version adapted by Heidi Thomas was made in 2000, starring Frances O'Connor and Hugh Bonneville.
Claude Chabrol made his version starring Isabelle Huppert.
Madame Bovary has been adapted into a piece of musical theatre, entitled The Bovary Tale. Composer: Anne Freier. Librettist: Laura Steel. The first performance was at the Gatehouse Theatre in Highgate Village in September 2009.
David Lean's film Ryan's Daughter (1970) was a loose adaptation of the story, relocating it to Ireland during the time of the Easter Rebellion. The script had begun life as a straight adaptation of Bovary, but Lean convinced writer Robert Bolt to re-work it into another setting.
Indian director Ketan Mehta adapted the novel into a 1992 Hindi film Maya Memsaab.
Madame Blueberry is an 1998 film in the Veggietales animated series. It is a loose parody of Madame Bovary, in which Madame Blueberry, an anthropomorphic blueberry, gathers material possessions in a vain attempt to find happiness.
Academy Award nominated film Little Children features the novel as part of a book club discussion, and shares a few elements of the main idea.
Naomi Ragen loosely based her 2007 novel The Saturday Wife on Madame Bovary.
Posy Simmonds graphic novel Gemma Bovery reworked the story into a satirical tale of English expatriates in France.
Vale Abraão (1993) (Abraham's Vale) by Manoel de Oliveira is a close interpretation set in Portugal, even referencing and discussing Flaubert's novel several times.
"Madame Ovary" is the name of a character in DC Comics' The Adventures of the Outsiders #33-35. Madame Ovary's name was really Dr. Ovarin, and she was created by Mike W. Barr and Alan Davis.
百年孤独被誉为“再现拉丁美洲历史社会图景的鸿篇巨著”的《百年孤独》，是加西亚·马尔克斯的代表作，也是拉丁美洲魔幻现实主义文学作品中的代表作。这部小说是作者根据拉丁美洲血淋淋的历史事实,凭借自己丰富的想像,描绘而成的。《百年孤独》是哥伦比亚著名作家、诺贝尔文学奖获得者马尔克斯历时18个月创作的一部小说，成书于1966年。被富恩特斯誉为“美洲《圣经》”，多年来年来好评如潮，影响波及了整个世界。
最初令世界震惊的是它独特的叙述方式：“多年以后，奥雷良诺·布恩蒂亚上校面对行刑队，准会想起父亲带他去见识冰块的那个遥远的下午……”这句为全书奠定“圆周模式”或圆形叙事结构的开篇语，仿佛一个永恒而孤寂的圆心，却能把过去和将来牢牢地吸附在某个人们可以想见，甚至感同身受的现在。紧随其后的是作者令人目瞪口呆的魔幻色彩，后现代主义者们对之进行了玄之又玄的解读。
然而，在马尔克斯看来，《百年孤独》只不过是借用了“外祖母的口吻”，“她老人家讲故事就是这种方式，好像人物就在眼前，事情正在发生……而且常常人鬼不分、古今轮回。”如今看来，《百年孤独》的最大特点也许在于：用外祖母的表述方式，展现了美洲人的历史及其扑朔迷离的集体无意识；通过对《圣经》的戏仿和拓展，并借布恩蒂亚一家几代，描绘了人类的发展轨迹——从创始到原始社会、奴隶社会、封建社会，再到资本主义社会，乃至跨国资本主义时代。
《百年孤独》-作者简介
马尔克斯马尔克斯
马尔克斯（Gabriel Garcla Marquez，1928-）哥伦比亚作家，全名：加夫列尔·加西亚·马尔克斯。生于马格达莱纳的阿拉卡塔卡镇的一个医生家庭。8岁前，一直生活在外祖父家。外祖父是位受人尊敬的上校，参加过两次内战。外祖母是位勤劳的主妇，很会讲神话故事。这段充满幻想和神奇色彩的童年生活，为他后来的文学创作提供了丰富的素材。
在中小学学习期间，他阅读了大量的经典作品。18岁入大学攻读法律，因政局动荡而中途辍学，进入报界，并开始文学创作。1955年，第一部长篇小说《枯枝败叶》问世，引起拉美文学界重视，颇受好评。1962年他发表了《恶时辰》，小说获得美国埃索石油公司在波哥大举办的埃索奖。1967年，他的《百年孤独》轰动了西班牙语文学界并奠定了他在世界文坛上的地位。由于这部小说的成功，他先后荣获哥伦比亚文学奖、法国最佳外国作品奖和拉美最高文学奖—一委内瑞拉“罗慕洛·加列戈斯”国际文学奖。并于1982年获诺贝尔文学奖和哥伦比亚语言科学院名誉院士称号。
主要作品有：《枯枝败叶》、《恶时辰》、《百年孤独》、《霍乱时期的爱情》、《迷宫里的将军》、《我的上校外祖父的故事》、《异国故事十二篇》、《米格尔·利了回国历险记》等。
《百年孤独》-著书背景
从1830年至上世纪末的70年间，哥伦比亚爆发过几十次内战，使数十万人丧生。本书以很大的篇幅描述了这方面的史实，并且通过书中主人公带有传奇色彩的生涯集中表现出来。政客们的虚伪，统治者们的残忍，民众的盲从和愚昧等等都写得淋漓尽致。
作家以生动的笔触，刻画了性格鲜明的众多人物，描绘了这个家族的孤独精神。在这个家族中，夫妻之间、父子之间、母女之间、兄弟姐妹之间，没有感情沟通，缺乏信任和了解。尽管很多人为打破孤独进行过种种艰苦的探索，但由于无法找到一种有效的办法把分散的力量统一起来，最后均以失败告终。这种孤独不仅弥漫在布恩地亚家族和马贡多镇，而且渗入了狭隘思想，成为阻碍民族向上、国家进步的一大包袱。作家写出这一点，是希望拉美民众团结起来，共同努力摆脱孤独。所以，《百年孤独》中浸淫着的孤独感，其主要内涵应该是对整个苦难的拉丁美洲被排斥现代文明世界的进程之外的愤懑和抗议，是作家在对拉丁美洲近百年的历史、以及这块大陆上人民独特的生命力、生存状态、想象力进行独特的研究之后形成的倔强的自信。
《百年孤独》-内容梗概
《百年孤独》描写布恩地亚家族7代人的命运，描绘了哥伦比亚农村小镇马孔多从荒芜的沼泽中兴起到最后被一阵旋风卷走而完全毁灭的100多年的图景。马孔多是哥伦比亚农村的缩影，也是整个拉丁美洲的缩影。
何塞·阿卡迪奥·布恩迪亚是西班牙人的后裔，他与乌苏拉新婚时，由于害怕像姨母与叔父结婚那样生出长尾巴的孩子来，于是乌苏拉每夜都会穿上特制的紧身衣，拒绝与丈夫同房。后来丈夫因此而遭邻居阿吉拉尔的耻笑，杀死了阿吉拉尔。从此，死者的鬼魂经常出现在他眼前，鬼魂那痛苦而凄凉的眼神，使他日夜不得安宁。于是他们只好离开村子，外出谋安身之所。他们跋涉了两年多，由此受到梦的启示，他们来到一片滩地上，定居下来。后来又有许多人迁移至此，这地方被命名为马孔多。布恩迪亚家族在马孔多的百年兴废史由此开始。
何塞·阿卡迪奥·布恩迪亚是个富于创造精神的人，他从吉卜赛人那里看到磁铁，便想用它来开采金子。看到放大镜可以聚焦太阳光便试图因此研制一种威力无比的武器。他通过卜吉赛人送给他的航海用的观像仪和六分仪，便通过实验认识到”地球是圆的，像橙子”。他不满于自己所在的贫穷而落后的村落生活，因为马孔多隐没在宽广的沼泽地中，与世隔绝。他决心要开辟一条道路，把马孔多与外界的伟大发明连接起来。可他带一帮人披荆斩棘干了两个多星期，却以失败告终。后来他又研究炼金术，整日沉迷不休。由于他的精神世界与马孔多狭隘的现实格格不入，他陷入孤独的天井中，以致于精神失常，被家人绑在一棵大树上，几十年后才在那棵树上死去。乌苏拉成为家里的顶梁柱，她活了115至120岁。
布恩迪亚家族的第二代有两男一女。老大何塞·阿卡迪奥是在来马孔多的路上出生的。他在那里长大，和一个叫皮拉·苔列娜的女人私通，有了孩子。他十分害怕，后来与家里的养女蕾蓓卡结婚。但他一直对人们怀着戒心，渴望浪迹天涯。后来，他果然随吉卜赛人出走，回来后变得放荡不羁，最后奇怪地被人暗杀了。老二奥雷良诺生于马孔多，在娘肚里就会哭，睁着眼睛出世，从小就赋有预见事物的本领，长大后爱上镇长千金雷梅苔丝。在此之前；他与哥哥的情人生有一子名叫奥雷良诺·何塞。妻子暴病而亡后，他参加了内战，当上上校。他一生遭遇过十四次暗杀，七十三次埋伏和一次枪决，均幸免于难。与17个外地女子姘居，生下17 个男孩。这些男孩以后不约而同回马孔多寻根，却在一星期内全被打死。奥雷良诺年老归家，和父亲一样对炼金术痴迷不已，每日炼金子作小金鱼，一直到死。他们的妹妹阿马兰塔爱上了意大利技师，后又与侄子乱伦，爱情的不如意使她终日把自己关在房中缝制殓衣，孤独万状。
第三代人只有两个堂兄弟，阿卡迪奥和奥雷良诺·何塞。前者不知生母为谁，竟狂热地爱上生母，几乎酿成大错。后者成为马孔多的军队长官，贪赃枉法，最后被保守派军队枪毙。生前他与一女人未婚便生一女两男。其堂弟热恋姑妈阿马兰塔，但无法与她成婚，故而参加军队，去找妓女寻求安慰，最终也死于乱军之中。
第四代即是阿卡迪奥与人私通生下的一女两男。女儿俏姑娘雷梅苦丝楚楚动人，她身上散发着引人不安的气味，曾因此置几个男人于死地。她总愿意裸体，把时间耗费在反复洗澡上面，而她一样在孤独的沙漠上徘徊，后来在晾床单时，被一阵风刮上天不见了，永远消失在空中。她的孪生子弟弟——阿卡迪奥第二，在美国人办的香蕉公司里当监工，鼓动工人罢工。后来，3 000多工人全被镇压遭难，只他一人幸免。他目击政府用火车把工人们的尸体运往海边丢弃，四处诉说这场大屠杀，反被认为神智不清。他无比恐惧失望，最后把自己关在房子里潜心研究吉卜赛人留下的羊皮手稿。另一个奥雷良诺第二终日纵情酒色，弃妻子于不顾，在情妇家中厮混。奇怪的是，这使他家中的牲畜迅速地繁殖，给他带来了财富。他与妻子生有二女一男，后在病痛中死去。因此，人们一直没认清他们兄弟俩儿谁是谁。
布恩迪亚家族的第五代是奥雷良诺第二的一男二女，长子何塞·阿卡迪奥小时便被送往罗马神学院去学习。母亲希望他日后能当主教，但他对此毫无兴趣，只是为了那假想中的遗产，才欺骗母亲。母亲死后，他回家靠变卖家业为生。后为保住乌苏拉藏在地窖里的 7 000多个金币，被歹徒杀死。女儿梅·香梅苔丝与香蕉公司学徒相好，母亲禁止他们见面，他们只好暗中在浴室相会，母亲发现后以偷鸡贼为名打死了他。梅万念俱灰，怀着身孕被送往修道院。小女儿阿马兰塔·乌苏娜早年在布鲁塞尔上学，在那里成婚后归来，见到马孔多一片凋敝，决心重整家园。她朝气蓬勃，充满活力，她的到来，使马孔多出现了一个最特别的人。她的情绪比这家族的人都好，也就是说，她想把一切陈规陋习打入十八层地狱。因此，她订出长远计划，准备定居下来，拯救这个灾难深重的村镇。
布恩迪亚家族的第六代是梅送回的私生子奥雷良诺·布恩迪亚。他出生后一直在孤独中长大。他唯一的嗜好是躲在吉卜赛人梅尔加德斯的房间里研究各种神秘的书籍和手稿。他甚至能与死去多年的老吉卜赛人对话，并受到指示学习梵文。他一直对周围的世界既不关心也不过问，但对中世纪的学问却了如指掌。自从姨母阿玛兰塔·乌苏娜回乡之后，他不知不觉地对她产生了难以克制的恋情，两人发生了乱伦关系，但他们认为，尽管他们受到孤独与爱情的折磨，但他们毕竟是人世间唯一最幸福的人。后来阿玛兰塔·乌苏娜生下了一个健壮的男孩，“他是百年里诞生的布恩迪亚当中惟一由于爱情而受胎的婴儿。”然而，他身上竟长着一条猪尾巴。 阿玛兰塔·乌苏娜产后大出血而亡。
那个长猪尾巴的男孩就是这延续百年的家族的第七代继承人。他被一群蚂蚁围攻并被吃掉。就在这时，奥雷良诺·布恩迪亚终于破译出了梅尔加德斯的手稿。手稿卷首的题辞是：“家族中的第一个人将被绑在树上，家族中的最后一个人将被蚂蚁吃掉。”原来，这手稿记载的正是布恩迪亚家族的历史。在他译完最后一章的瞬间，一场突如其来的飓风把整个儿马孔多镇从地球上刮走，从此这个镇不复存在了。
《百年孤独》-评论
加西亚马尔克斯遵循“变现实为幻想而又不失其真”的魔幻现实主义创作原则，经过巧妙的构思和想象，把触目惊心的现实和源于神话、传说的幻想结合起来，形成色彩斑斓、风格独特的图画，使读者在“似是而非，似非而是”的形象中，获得一种似曾相识又觉陌生的感受，从而激起寻根溯源去追索作家创作真谛的愿望。魔幻现实主义必须以现实力基础，但这并不妨碍它采取极端夸张的手法。如本书写外部文明对马贡多的侵入，是现实的，但又魔幻化了：吉卜赛人拖着两块磁铁 “……挨家串户地走着……铁锅、铁盆、铁钳、小铁炉纷纷从原地落下，木板因铁钉和螺钉没命地挣脱出来而嘎嘎作响……跟在那两块魔铁的后面乱滚”；又如写夜的寂静，人们居然能听到“蚂蚁在月光下的哄闹声、蛀虫啃食时的巨响以及野草生长时持续而清晰的尖叫声”；再如写政府把大批罢工者杀害后，将尸体装上火车运到海里扔掉，那辆火车竟有200节车厢，前、中、后共有 3个车头牵引！作家似乎在不断地变换着哈哈镜、望远镜、放大镜甚至显微镜，读读者看到一幅幅真真假假、虚实交错的画面，从而丰富了想象力，收到强烈的艺术效果。
印第安传说、东方神话以及《圣经》典故的运用，进一步加强了本书的神秘气氛。如写普罗登肖的鬼魂日夜纠缠布恩地亚一家，便取材于印第安传说中冤鬼自己不得安宁也不让仇人安宁的说法；有关飞毯以及俏姑娘雷梅苔丝抓住床单升天的描写是阿拉伯神话《天方夜谭》的引伸；而马贡多一连下了四年十一个月零两天的大雨则是《圣经创世纪》中有关洪水浩劫及挪亚方舟等故事的移植。拉丁美洲的民间传说往往带有迷信色彩，作家在采用这些民间传说时，有时把它们作为现实来描写；如好汉弗朗西斯科“曾和魔鬼对歌，击败了对手”；阿玛兰塔在长廊里绣花时与死神交谈等等。有时则反其意而用之，如写尼卡诺尔神父喝了一杯巧克力后居然能离地12厘米，以证明“上帝有无限神力”等等，显然是对宗教迷信的讽刺和嘲笑。
本书中象征主义手法运用得比较成功且有意义的，应首推关于不眠症的描写。马贡多全体居民在建村后不久都传染上一种不眠症。严重的是，得了这种病，人会失去记忆。为了生活，他们不得不在物品上贴上标签。例如他们在牛身上贴标签道：“这是牛，每天要挤它的奶；要把奶煮开加上咖啡才能做成牛奶咖啡。”这类例子书中比比皆是，作家意在提醒公众牢记容易被人遗忘的历史。
另外，作家还独创了从未来的角度回忆过去的新颖倒叙手法。例如小说一开头，作家就这样写道：“许多年之后，面对行刑队，奥雷良诺布恩地亚上校将会回想起，他父亲带他去见识冰块的那个遥远的下午。”短短的一句话，实际上容纳了未来、过去和现在三个时间层面，而作家显然隐匿在“现在”的叙事角度。紧接着，作家笔锋一转，把读者引回到马贡多的初创时期。这样的时间结构，在小说中一再重复出现，一环接一环，环环相扣，不断地给读者造成新的悬念。
最后，值得注意的是，本书凝重的历史内涵、犀利的批判眼光、深刻的民族文化反省、庞大的神话隐喻体系是由一种让人耳目一新的神秘语言贯串始终的。有的评家认为这部小说出自8岁儿童之口，加西亚马尔克斯对此说颇感欣慰。这是很深刻的评判目光。因为这种直观的、简约的语言确实有效地反映了一种新的视角，一种落后民族（人类儿童）的自我意识。当事人的苦笑取代了旁观者的眼泪，“愚者”自我表达的切肤之痛取代了“智者”貌似公允的批判和分析，更能收到唤起被愚弄者群体深刻反省的客观效果。
《百年孤独》是一部极其丰富的、多层次的小说，它可以有多重解释。它是一部关于霍塞·阿卡狄奥·布恩狄亚几代子孙的家庭编年史；它描写了一个象征着马尔克斯故乡阿拉卡塔卡的小镇马孔多的时代变迁；同时也是哥伦比亚、拉丁美洲和现代世界一个世纪以来风云变幻的神话般的历史。从更深远的意义上说，它是西方文明的一个总结，从它的源头古希腊神话、荷马史诗、《创世纪》中的创世神话开始，带着对蒙昧状态的伊甸园和净土世界那种质朴和纯洁的深深的怀念。读者从作品中读到，这部编年史是一个吉卜赛智者用梵文写的手稿只有布恩狄亚家族的最后的一个男人才能译解，并且只有在每一个读者单独读它时，才能理解它的含义。这是一个充满神奇与狂欢的故事，是这个世界和它的困境、迷信的一面镜子。但它也是一个充满虚构的世界，吸引每一个读者步入令人浮想联翩的幻境。
《百年孤独》-艺术成就
《百年孤独》在艺术上也取得了举世公认的巨大成就。
首先是艺术构思上的魔幻性。《百年孤独》在小说结构上始终贯穿着一条明显的线索，这就是布恩迪亚家族害怕近亲结婚会生出长“猪尾巴”的孩子。这种深深的恐惧作为小说的内在精神弥漫全书，并且代代相传，影响着他们的行为。
其次，故事情节的魔幻性。小说最引人入胜的就是故事情节的魔幻性。许多故事情节神奇怪诞、奇妙无比，看得人眼花缭乱，比如小说的重要情节，关于吉卜赛人梅尔加德斯的神奇故事。梅尔加德斯与布恩迪亚家庭有着密切的关系，梅尔加德斯给布恩迪亚家带来了启蒙知识，后来他死于热病，尸体被抛入大海。但他不堪寂寞，又重回人间，来到马孔多，治好了全镇人的健忘症。不久他又一次死了，这回是淹死在河里。布恩迪亚家埋葬了他，但他的幽灵仍然一直在布恩迪亚家各间房子里游荡，给这个家庭留下了那本神秘的羊皮书手稿。这些充满“魔幻”的故事情节，鲜明地带有拉丁美洲本土传统文化和观念意识的特点。
再次，“魔幻”式的象征和夸张手法。《百年孤独》中广泛地运用了象征和夸张的艺术手法。但和其他文学流派不同的是，这种象征和夸张的手法更多地带有 “魔幻”的色彩。比如，作品中黄色是不幸和死亡的象征，当阿·布恩迪亚死亡时，“窗外下起了细微的黄花雨。整整一夜，黄色的花朵像无声的暴雨，在市镇上空纷纷飘落……翌日早晨，整个马孔多仿佛铺上了一层密实的地毯，所以不得不用铲子和耙子为送葬队伍清理道路。”
最后，作者为了表现拉丁美洲的百年孤独的现实，还特意创造了新的时间观念和表现方法。他认为时间在拉丁美洲是停滞的，是在一个封闭的时间圈里循环的。
《百年孤独》中的第一句话是“多年以后，面对着行刑队，奥雷连诺上校将会想起那久远的一天下午，他父亲带他去认识了冰块。”这就给全书定下了一个基调，即叙述的口吻是站在某一个时间不明确的“现在”去讲述“多年以后”的一个“将来”，然后又从这个“将来”回顾到“那久远的一天”的“过去”。一句话里包含了现在、过去、将来，形成了一个时间性的圆圈。还有，作品中相似的活动、相似的命运，都诉说着时间的封闭性和停滞性。这正是拉丁美洲百年孤独、停滞的社会历史的艺术反映。
总而言之，《百年孤独》的巨大成功，说明马尔克斯站在新的世界普遍性的高度上去认识拉美这块土地、这个民族，从不同角度不同层面反映了民族性与世界性、传统与创新的关系。正因为如此，马尔克斯才能够把他的远见卓识和非凡的艺术才华与拉丁美洲的社会现实完美地结合起来，把魔幻现实主义推上了世界文学的高峰。
《百年孤独》-价值
《百年孤独》的内容异常丰富、复杂而深广，具有很高的思想认识价值。主要表现在两方面：首先，《百年孤独》中的小镇马孔多所经历的兴建、发展、鼎盛到消亡的百年沧桑，影射和浓缩了哥伦比亚自19世纪初到20世纪上半叶的历史。小说开始时是19世纪初，但马孔多却像是史前社会，质朴而宁静，这是个只有20来户人家的小村庄，人们往在河边用泥和芦苇盖的房子里，取水非常方便。河水清澈、明亮、急速地流过，可以看见河床上光洁的鹅卵石，“世界，一切都是刚开始，很多东西还没有名字，必须用手指指着说”。这里，马尔克斯特意引用《圣经》中的话“必须用手指指着说。”，表示马孔多最初就是这样一个与世隔绝的世外桃源。这是16世纪以前哥伦比亚土著生活的写照。随后西班牙殖民者闯入，用箭与火和十字架征服了拉丁美洲，继而大批移民涌入这块大陆，哥伦比亚从社会结构、思想信仰到习俗风尚都发生了深刻变化，形成了哥伦比亚历史上第一次重大转折。小说中有关吉卜赛人带来吸铁石、望远镜等东西像魔术和杂技一样吸引全村人去围观、乌苏拉发现与外界的通道以及引来第一批移民的描写，就是这段史实的再现。
19世纪初哥伦比亚独立后，国家政权被土生白人的大地主、大商人所把持。他们中的自由党、保守党斗争不断，进行长期内战。政客们滥用职权，营私舞弊，操纵选举，践踏宪法，导致国家政变不断、内战频仍。从1830年到1899年，全国爆发了27次内战，给人民带来了无穷无尽的痛苦。小说以很大的篇幅描写马孔多也被卷进了这场斗争。通过奥雷连诺·布恩迪亚上校的传奇生涯表现了这方面的史实。上校为反对腐败的保守党政府，一生发动过32次武装起义，打了20年内战。这些描写生动地概括了哥伦比亚历史上第二次重大转折时期的社会生活。
20世纪初期，哥伦比亚内战停止，经济恢复，但近在咫尺的美国新殖民主义势力又涌进了哥伦比亚。火车、电灯、电话、电影、留声机等出现在马孔多。小说描写马孔多人这样迎接新事物：“马孔多人对电影上活动的人物非常生气，因为他们为电影上一个死了被埋了的人流下痛苦的眼泪，而他却在下一个电影中变成了阿拉伯人出现了，马孔多人受不了这样对他们感情的嘲弄，把电影院的座椅都给砸了。最后镇长解释电影是幻觉的机器，不需要观众这样动感情，马孔多人终于明白了他们上了吉卜赛人新玩意儿的当了，决定再也不看电影。”他们就这样被这些新玩意惊得目瞪口呆，看得眼花缭乱。紧着，美国人又建立了很多香蕉园，各种人像潮水一样涌进马孔多，他们喧宾夺主，控制了马孔多历史上最重大的变革。这种变革从表面上看，好像给马孔多带来了繁荣，但实质上却是外国资本家更加残酷剥削和掠夺的开始，而且为了维护既得利益，帝国主义者用野蛮暴力镇压人民的反抗。在香蕉工人罢工运动中，政府和帝国主义“授命军队不惜用子弹打死他们”，“机枪从两个方面扫射人群。何塞·阿卡迪奥第二倒在地上，满脸是血。他苏醒时才发现自己躺在塞满尸体的火车车厢上。他从一个车厢爬到另一个车厢，透过些微弱的亮光，便看出了死了的男人、女人和孩子：他们像报废的香蕉给扔到大海里……这是他见过的最长的列车—几乎有200节运货车厢。”小说就这样愤怒地揭露了帝国主义、新殖民主义的入侵给哥伦比亚造成的巨大灾难。这也正是造成拉丁美洲贫穷落后的重要原因之一。
其次，小说在对布恩迪亚家族众多人物的刻画中，着力表现了这个家庭成员共同的性格特征，这就是马孔多人的孤独感，从第一代何塞·阿卡迪奥·布恩迪亚到第六代奥雷连诺·布恩迪亚，每个人都生活在自己营造的孤独之中，而且极力保持着这种孤独。第一代布恩迪亚和表妹结婚以后就遭受到孤独的折磨，他由于害怕生下长猪尾巴的孩子而不敢和妻子同房，杀死嘲笑者后又受到鬼魂困扰，不得不远走他乡。晚年，他精神恍惚、疯疯癫癫，最后被绑在栗子树上孤独地死去。第二代奥雷连诺上校年轻时身经百战，却不知为谁卖命。退休后他把自己反锁在屋子里制作小金鱼，做好化掉，化掉再做，“连内心也上了门闩”。第二代中的阿玛兰塔阴险地破坏别人的幸福，又冷酷地拒绝自己的求婚者。她整天为自己织着尸衣，孤独地等待着死神召唤。第四代中俏姑娘雷梅苔丝根本就“不是这个世界的人”，她每天都在浴室是冲洗身子，几小时几小时地打发时间，最后她抓住一条床单飞上了天……这种孤独的恶习在这个家庭代代相传，周而复始，恶性循环，在新人之间筑起一道无形的墙，使人与世隔绝、不思进取、自我封闭、离群索居。它制造了愚味落后、保守僵化的社会现状。作者认为“孤独”已经渗入了拉丁美洲的民族精神，成为阻碍民族上进、国家发展的心理负担。这种孤独的本质是人民因为不能掌握自己的命运而产生的绝望、冷漠和疏离感。它是家族衰败、民族落后、国家灭亡的根源。小说最后描写布恩迪亚家庭连同马孔多小镇被飓风刮走，深刻揭示了由孤独所产生的社会悲剧的必然性。
《百年孤独》全面深刻地提示了拉丁美洲近百年来“孤独”的社会现实和造成这种现状的深刻的历史、政治、经济、文化等诸多方面的原因，是一部当代拉丁美洲的百科全书。
《百年孤独》-书评
被誉为“再现拉丁美洲历史社会图景的鸿篇巨著”的《百年孤独》，是加西亚马尔克斯的代表作，也是拉丁美洲魔幻现实主义文学作品的代表作。全书近30万字，内容庞杂，人物众多，情节曲折离奇，再加上神话故事、宗教典故、民间传说以及作家独创的从未来的角度来回忆过去的新颖倒叙手法等等，令人眼花缭乱。但阅毕全书，读者可以领悟，作家是要通过布恩地亚家族 7代人充满神秘色彩的坎坷经历来反映哥伦比亚乃至拉丁美洲的历史演变和社会现实，要求读者思考造成马贡多百年孤独的原因，从而去寻找摆脱命运括弄的正确途径。
从1830年至上世纪末的70年间，哥伦比亚爆发过几十次内战，使数十万人丧生。本书以很大的篇幅描述了这方面的史实，并且通过书中主人公带有传奇色彩的生涯集中表现出来。政客们的虚伪，统治者们的残忍，民众的盲从和愚昧等等都写得淋漓尽致。作家以生动的笔触，刻画了性格鲜明的众多人物，描绘了这个家族的孤独精神。在这个家族中，夫妻之间、父子之间、母女之间、兄弟姐妹之间，没有感情沟通，缺乏信任和了解。尽管很多人为打破孤独进行过种种艰苦的探索，但由于无法找到一种有效的办法把分散的力量统一起来，最后均以失败告终。这种孤独不仅弥漫在布恩地亚家族和马贡多镇，而且渗入了狭隘思想，成为阻碍民族向上、国家进步的一大包袱。作家写出这一点，是希望拉美民众团结起来，共同努力摆脱孤独。所以，《百年孤独》中浸淫着的孤独感，其主要内涵应该是对整个苦难的拉丁美洲被排斥现代文明世界的进程之外的愤懑和抗议，是作家在对拉丁美洲近百年的历史、以及这块大陆上人民独特的生命力、生存状态、想象力进行独特的研究之后形成的倔强的自信。
加西亚马尔克斯遵循“变现实为幻想而又不失其真”的魔幻现实主义创作原则，经过巧妙的构思和想象，把触目惊心的现实和源于神话、传说的幻想结合起来，形成色彩斑斓、风格独特的图画，使读者在“似是而非，似非而是”的形象中，获得一种似曾相识又觉陌生的感受，从而激起寻根溯源去追索作家创作真谛的愿望。魔幻现实主义必须以现实力基础，但这并不妨碍它采取极端夸张的手法。如本书写外部文明对马贡多的侵入，是现实的，但又魔幻化了：吉卜赛人拖着两块磁铁“……挨家串户地走着……铁锅、铁盆、铁钳、小铁炉纷纷从原地落下，木板因铁钉和螺钉没命地挣脱出来而嘎嘎作响……跟在那两块魔铁的后面乱滚”；又如写夜的寂静，人们居然能听到“蚂蚁在月光下的哄闹声、蛀虫啃食时的巨响以及野草生长时持续而清晰的尖叫声”；再如写政府把大批罢工者杀害后，将尸体装上火车运到海里扔掉，那辆火车竟有200节车厢，前、中、后共有 3个车头牵引！作家似乎在不断地变换着哈哈镜、望远镜、放大镜甚至显微镜，读读者看到一幅幅真真假假、虚实交错的画面，从而丰富了想象力，收到强烈的艺术效果。
印第安传说、东方神话以及《圣经》典故的运用，进一步加强了本书的神秘气氛。如写普罗登肖的鬼魂日夜纠缠布恩地亚一家，便取材于印第安传说中冤鬼自己不得安宁也不让仇人安宁的说法；有关飞毯以及俏姑娘雷梅苔丝抓住床单升天的描写是阿拉伯神话《天方夜谭》的引伸；而马贡多一连下了四年十一个月零两天的大雨则是《圣经创世纪》中有关洪水浩劫及挪亚方舟等故事的移植。拉丁美洲的民间传说往往带有迷信色彩，作家在采用这些民间传说时，有时把它们作为现实来描写；如好汉弗朗西斯科“曾和魔鬼对歌，击败了对手”；阿玛兰塔在长廊里绣花时与死神交谈等等。有时则反其意而用之，如写尼卡诺尔神父喝了一杯巧克力后居然能离地12厘米，以证明“上帝有无限神力”等等，显然是对宗教迷信的讽刺和嘲笑。
本书中象征主义手法运用得比较成功且有意义的，应首推关于不眠症的描写。马贡多全体居民在建村后不久都传染上一种不眠症。严重的是，得了这种病，人会失去记忆。为了生活，他们不得不在物品上贴上标签。例如他们在牛身上贴标签道：“这是牛，每天要挤它的奶；要把奶煮开加上咖啡才能做成牛奶咖啡。”这类例子书中比比皆是，作家意在提醒公众牢记容易被人遗忘的历史。
另外，作家还独创了从未来的角度回忆过去的新颖倒叙手法。例如小说一开头，作家就这样写道：“许多年之后，面对行刑队，奥雷良诺布恩地亚上校将会回想起，他父亲带他去见识冰块的那个遥远的下午。”短短的一句话，实际上容纳了未来、过去和现在三个时间层面，而作家显然隐匿在 “现在”的叙事角度。紧接着，作家笔锋一转，把读者引回到马贡多的初创时期。这样的时间结构，在小说中一再重复出现，一环接一环，环环相扣，不断地给读者造成新的悬念。
最后，值得注意的是，本书凝重的历史内涵、犀利的批判眼光、深刻的民族文化反省、庞大的神话隐喻体系是由一种让人耳目一新的神秘语言贯串始终的。有的评家认为这部小说出自 8岁儿童之口，加西亚马尔克斯对此说颇感欣慰。这是很深刻的评判目光。因为这种直观的、简约的语言确实有效地反映了一种新的视角，一种落后民族（人类儿童）的自我意识。当事人的苦笑取代了旁观者的眼泪，“愚者”自我表达的切肤之痛取代了“智者”貌似公允的批判和分析，更能收到唤起被愚弄者群体深刻反省的客观效果。
《百年孤独》-家族人物表
霍·阿·布恩蒂亚 第一代
乌苏娜 霍·阿·布恩蒂亚之妻 第一代
霍·阿卡蒂奥 霍·阿·布恩蒂亚之长子 第二代
雷贝卡 霍·阿卡蒂奥之妻 第二代
奥雷连诺上校 霍·阿·布恩蒂亚之次子 第二代
雷麦黛丝·摩斯柯特 奥雷连诺上校之妻 第二代
阿玛兰塔 霍·阿·布恩蒂亚之小女儿 第二代
皮拉·苔列娜 霍·阿卡蒂奥之情妇 第二代
阿卡蒂奥 霍·阿卡蒂奥之子 第三代
圣索菲娅·德拉佩德 阿卡蒂奥之妻 第三代
奥雷连诺·霍塞 奥雷连诺上校之子 第三代
十七个奥雷连诺 奥雷连诺上校之子 第三代
俏姑娘雷麦黛丝 阿卡蒂奥之长女 第四代
霍·阿卡蒂奥第二 阿卡蒂奥之次子 第四代
奥雷连诺第二 阿卡蒂奥之小儿子 第四代
菲兰达·德卡皮奥 奥雷连诺第二之妻 第四代
佩特娜·柯特 奥雷连诺第二之情妇 第四代
霍·阿卡蒂奥（神学院学生） 奥雷连诺第二之长子 第五代
梅梅（雷纳塔） 奥雷连诺第二之次女 第五代
巴比洛尼亚 梅梅之夫 第五代
阿玛兰塔·乌苏娜 奥雷连诺第二之小女儿 第五代
加斯东 阿玛兰塔·乌苏娜之夫 第五代
奥雷连诺·布恩蒂亚（破译手稿者）梅梅之子 第六代
有尾巴的婴儿 奥雷连诺·布恩蒂亚之后代 第七代
《百年孤独》-写作特点
我加西亚·马尔克斯遵循“变现实为幻想而又不失其真”的魔幻现实主义创作原则，经过巧妙的构思和想象，把触目惊心的现实和源于神话、传说的幻想结合起来，形成色彩斑斓、风格独特的图画，使读者在“似是而非，似非而是”的形象中，获得一种似曾相识又觉陌生的感受，从而激起寻根溯源去追索作家创作真谛的愿望。魔幻现实主义必须以现实力基础，但这并不妨碍它采取极端夸张的手法。如本书写外部文明对马贡多的侵入，是现实的，但又魔幻化了：吉卜赛人拖着两块磁铁“……挨家串户地走着……铁锅、铁盆、铁钳、小铁炉纷纷从原地落下，木板因铁钉和螺钉没命地挣脱出来而嘎嘎作响……跟在那两块魔铁的后面乱滚”；又如写夜的寂静，人们居然能听到“蚂蚁在月光下的哄闹声、蛀虫啃食时的巨响以及野草生长时持续而清晰的尖叫声”；再如写政府把大批罢工者杀害后，将尸体装上火车运到海里扔掉，那辆火车竟有200节车厢，前、中、后共有3个车头牵引！作家似乎在不断地变换着哈哈镜、望远镜、放大镜甚至显微镜，让读者看到一幅幅真真假假、虚实交错的画面，从而丰富了想象力，收到强烈的艺术效果。
印第安传说、东方神话以及《圣经》典故的运用，进一步加强了本书的神秘气氛。如写普罗登肖的鬼魂日夜纠缠布恩地亚一家，便取材于印第安传说中冤鬼自己不得安宁也不让仇人安宁的说法；有关飞毯以及俏姑娘雷梅苔丝抓住床单升天的描写是阿拉伯神话《天方夜谭》的引伸；而马贡多一连下了四年十一个月零两天的大雨则是《圣经·创世纪》中有关洪水浩劫及挪亚方舟等故事的移植。拉丁美洲的民间传说往往带有迷信色彩，作家在采用这些民间传说时，有时把它们作为现实来描写；如好汉弗朗西斯科“曾和魔鬼对歌，击败了对手”；阿玛兰塔在长廊里绣花时与死神交谈等等。有时则反其意而用之，如写尼卡诺尔神父喝了一杯巧克力后居然能离地12厘米，以证明“上帝有无限神力”等等，显然是对宗教迷信的讽刺和嘲笑。
本书中象征主义手法运用得比较成功且有意义的，应首推关于不眠症的描写。马贡多全体居民在建村后不久都传染上一种不眠症。严重的是，得了这种病，人会失去记忆。为了生活，他们不得不在物品上贴上标签。例如他们在牛身上贴标签道：“这是牛，每天要挤它的奶；要把奶煮开加上咖啡才能做成牛奶咖啡。”这类例子书中比比皆是，作家意在提醒公众牢记容易被人遗忘的历史。
另外，作家还独创了从未来的角度回忆过去的新颖倒叙手法。例如小说一开头，作家就这样写道：“许多年之后，面对行刑队，奥雷良诺·布恩地亚上校将会回想起，他父亲带他去见识冰块的那个遥远的下午。”短短的一句话，实际上容纳了未来、过去和现在三个时间层面，而作家显然隐匿在“现在”的叙事角度。紧接着，作家笔锋一转，把读者引回到马贡多的初创时期。这样的时间结构，在小说中一再重复出现，一环接一环，环环相扣，不断地给读者造成新的悬念。
最后，值得注意的是，本书凝重的历史内涵、犀利的批判眼光、深刻的民族文化反省、庞大的神话隐喻体系是由一种让人耳目一新的神秘语言贯串始终的。有的评家认为这部小说出自8岁儿童之口，加西亚·马尔克斯对此说颇感欣慰。这是很深刻的评判目光。因为这种直观的、简约的语言确实有效地反映了一种新的视角，一种落后民族（人类儿童）的自我意识。当事人的苦笑取代了旁观者的眼泪， “愚者”自我表达的切肤之痛取代了“智者”貌似公允的批判和分析，更能收到唤起被愚弄者群体深刻反省的客观效果。
《百年孤独》被认为是拉丁美洲“文学爆炸”时代的代表作品。在世界文学史上占有重要的地位。在拉美世界只有博尔赫斯等少数作家可以媲美。而且在世界各地掀起了拉美文学风。魔幻现实主义也被认为是只具有创意的写作手法之一。
The novel chronicles the history of the Buendía family in the town founded by their patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía. It is built on multiple time frames, playing on ideas presented earlier by Jorge Luis Borges in stories such as The Garden of Forking Paths.
Biographical background and publication
Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born on March 6, 1927. García Márquez is a Colombian-born author and journalist, winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature and a pioneer of the Latin American “Boom.” Affectionately known as “Gabo” to millions of readers, he first won international fame with his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude, a defining classic of twentieth century literature . His Colombian roots influenced large parts of the novel, as evidenced by the different myths throughout the novel . These myths, along with events in the novel, recount a large portion of Colombian history. For instance, “the arguments over reform in the nineteenth century, the arrival of the railway, the War of the Thousand Days, the American fruit company, the cinema, the automobile, and the massacre of striking plantation workers” are all incorporated in the novel at one point or another".
Plot summary
The novel chronicles the seven generations of the Buendía family in the town of Macondo. The family patriarch and founder of Macondo, José Arcadio Buendía, and his wife (and first cousin), Úrsula, leave their home in Riohacha, Colombia in hopes of finding a new home. One night on their journey while camping on the banks of a river, José Arcadio Buendía dreams of a city of mirrors named Macondo. Upon awakening, José Arcadio Buendía decides to found this city on the site of their campground. After wandering aimlessly in the jungle for many days, the founding of Macondo can be seen as the founding of UtopiaJosé Arcadio Buendía believes it to be surrounded by water, and from this 'island' he invents the world according to him, naming things at will. After its establishment, Macondo soon becomes a town frequented by unusual and extraordinary events. All the events revolve around the many generations of the Buendía family, who are either unable or unwilling to escape periodic, mostly self-inflicted misfortunes. Ultimately, Macondo is destroyed by a terrible hurricane, which symbolizes the cyclical turmoil inherent in Macondo. At the end of the book one of the Buendía male decendants finally cracks a cipher that the males in his family had been trying to solve for generation. The cipher stated all the events that the Buendía family had gone through. Note that this information was available at the beginning of time, and in possession of the Buendia family, before Macondo was even thought of, just indecipherable.
Historical Context
Although One Hundred Years of Solitude is considered a work of fiction, Gabriel García Márquez, a Colombian native, drew upon his country’s history to create a world which parallels many of the major events in Colombia’s history, thus establishing the novel as a piece of critical interpretation.
Prior to European conquest, the region now called Colombia had no cultural developments akin to those of the Incas, the Mayas or the Aztecs The region consisted mainly of large families grouped into larger units that served to define local monarchies . The most well defined tribal groups of the area were the Tairona, the Cenu, the Chibcha . The first Spanish settlement was established in 1509 under the direction of Vasco Nunez de Balboa, as a precursor to the conquest of the territory . Marquez uses the founding of the town of Macondo by the Buendia family as a metaphor for the colonization of the region of Colombia.
After Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada’s conquest of the Chibchas in 1538, Bogotá became the center of Spanish rule . After the collapse of Spanish control in 1810, provincial juntas sprang up almost everywhere to challenge Bogotá’s authority. Eventually though, royalist armies led by Pablo Morillo restored Spanish rule in 1816. Three years later when Simon Bolivar began a second war for independence, he declared the creation of a supranational state-Gran Colombia. With its capital at Bogotá, Gran Colombia survived long enough to witness Spain's final defeat in 1825.
The achievement of Independence in 1819 revealed the further obstacles. Colombia’s geography was a formidable obstacle to modernization. High transportation costs made self-sufficient and disconnected enclaves viable much like the description of the town of Macondo). Colombia had been wrestling with modernity since the eighteenth century. The dynamism of the capitalist revolution gave Colombia’s ruling classes a stark choice: integration with the modern industrial world or perishing in a backwater of barbarism. To incorporate the country with the world, Colombia would have to look to the institutional, political, and economic models of Europe and the United States.
“As nineteenth century Colombians explored, described, and colonized their interior, they mapped racial hierarchy onto an emerging national geography composed of distinct localities and regions. This created a racialized discourse of regional differentiation that assigned greater morality and progress to certain regions that they marked as “white”. Meanwhile, those places defined as “black” and “Indian” were associated with disorder, backwardness, and danger” technology and modernization became associated with race.
In Macondo, with the introduction of technology, a rising population, and modernization came the insomnia plague, which was characterized by forgetfulness. The people of Macondo forgot the words for objects (such as tables and chairs) and eventually forgot the significance or usages of these objects. Not only does this serve as a criticism by Marquez of the modernization of Colombia, but also of the plagues characteristic of the Spanish conquest, which killed many indigenous people throughout the South American continent and the Caribbean. It is estimated that smallpox killed up to 95% of the indigenous population of the Americas during the conquest. The insomnia of the story represents the nostalgia for the better days of the past, which are now lost upon the residents of Macondo (as a metaphor for Colombia): days before the modernization of the town and before the spread of deadly disease.
The history of Colombia is one that has been marked by years of violence, from wars for independence to the modern-day rebel group commonly known as the FARC. The first major violence in Colombia was a product of the Bolivar Liberation from 1810 to 1821. The leader of the revolution, Simon Bolivar, led many battles against the Spanish in an attempt to free the country from Spanish rule. After independence, well-defined socioeconomic regions, divided in a roughly north-south direction by parallel spurs of the Andes mountains, came into being. During the nineteenth century, the existence of several powerful regional centers undoubtedly contributed to civil disorder . Politically, the relative dispersion of the population and its economic resources caused difficulties for the government’s modernizing programs.
In 1934 a reformist wave brought Dr. Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo to the presidency by unanimous Liberal choice. Lopez imposed La Revolución en Marcha, a revolution characterized by labor reform and social legislation, which angered many Conservatives. In August 1946, Mariano Ospina Pérez took office as the first Conservative president of Colombia. This marked the start of a political breakdown that drew the people under increasingly undemocratic rule . On April 9, 1948, influential and celebrated Liberal candidate, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, was assassinated, sparking the period of Colombia’s history known as “la Violencia”.
By the mid-1960’s, Colombia had witnessed in excess of two hundred thousand politically motivated deaths. La Violencia, from 1946–66, can be broken into five stages: the revival of political violence before and after the presidential election of 1946, the popular urban upheavals generated by Gaitan’s assassination, open guerrilla warfare, first against Conservative government of Ospina Perez, incomplete attempts at pacification and negotiation resulting from the Rojas Pinilla (who had ousted Laureano Gómez), and, finally, disjointed fighting under the Liberal/Conservative coalition of the “National Front,” from 1958 to 1975.
The politically charged violence characteristic of Colombia’s history is paralleled in One Hundred Years of Solitude by the character of Colonel Aureliano Buendia, who wages war against the Conservatives who are facilitating the rise to power of foreign imperialists. The wealthy banana plantation owners (perhaps based on the United Fruit Co.) set up their own dictatorial police force, which brutally attacks citizens for even the slightest offenses.
The use of real events and Colombian history by Garcia Marquez makes One Hundred Years of Solitude an excellent example of magical realism. Not only are the events of the story an interweaving of reality and fiction, but the novel as a whole tells the history of Colombia from a critical perspective using magical realism. In this way, the novel compresses several centuries of Latin American history into a manageable text.
Furthermore, the novel points out that the current state of Latin America is the result of the inability to obtain the confidence required to construct a meaningful sense of direction and progress. The tragedy of Latin America is that it lacks a meaningful and solid identity, causing a lack of self-preservation. This can be attributed to a past highlighted by five hundred years of colonization. Subsequently, there is a seemingly perpetual repetition of violence, repression, and exploitation resulting in a loss of authenticity. The reality of Latin America is presented as a reoccurring fantastical world in One Hundred Years of Solitude. It is a vacuum in which the characters have no chance of survival. The desire for change and forward movement exists in Macondo, just as it does in the countries of Latin America. However, the cyclical nature of time in the novel symbolizes the tendency toward repeating history in reality. Subsequently, meaningful progress is never achieved in Macondo or in Latin America. In this manner, Marquez provides insight into the feeling of solitude in present-day Latin America.
Symbolism and metaphors
A dominant theme in One Hundred Years of Solitude is the inevitable and inescapable repetition of history in Macondo. The protagonists are controlled by their pasts and the complexity of time. Throughout the novel the characters are visited by ghosts. "The ghosts are symbols of the past and the haunting nature it has over Macondo. The ghosts and the displaced repetition that they evoke are, in fact, firmly grounded in the particular development of Latin American history". "Ideological transfiguration ensured that Macondo and the Buendías always were ghosts to some extent, alienated and estranged from their own history, not only victims of the harsh reality of dependence and underdevelopment but also of the ideological illusions that haunt and reinforce such social conditions.
The fate of Macondo is both doomed and predetermined from its very existence. "Fatalism is a metaphor for the particular part that ideology has played in maintaining historical dependence, by locking the interpretation of Latin American history into certain patterns that deny alternative possibilities.The narrative seemingly confirms fatalism in order to illustrate the feeling of entrapment that ideology can performatively create.
The Ghosts that haunt the people of Macondo are symbols of an inescapable past."Ideological transfiguration ensured that Macondo and the Buendías always were ghosts to some extent, alienated and estranged from their own history, not only victims of the harsh reality of dependence and underdevelopment but also of the ideological illusions that haunt and reinforce such social conditions".
Márquez uses colours as symbols. Yellow and gold are the most frequently used colours and they are symbols of imperialism and the Spanish Siglo de Oro. Gold signifies a search for economic wealth, whereas yellow represents death, change, and destruction.
The glass city is an image that comes to José Arcadio Buendía in a dream. It is the reason for the location of the founding of Macondo, but it is also a symbol of the ill fate of Macondo. Higgins writes that, "By the final page, however, the city of mirrors has become a city of mirages. Macondo thus represents the dream of a brave new world that America seemed to promise and that was cruelly proved illusory by the subsequent course of history". Images such as the glass city and the ice factory represent how Latin America already has its history outlined and is, therefore, fated for destruction.
Overall, there is an underlying pattern of Latin American history in One Hundred Years of Solitude. It could be said that the novel is one of a number of texts that "Latin American culture has created to understand itself" . In this sense, the novel can be conceived as a linear archive. This archive narrates the story of a Latin America discovered by European explorers, which had its historical entity developed by the printing press. The Archive is a symbol of the literature that is the foundation of Latin American history and also a decoding instrument. Melquiades, the keeper of the historical archive in the novel, represents both the whimsical and the literary. Finally, “the world of One Hundred Years of Solitude is a place where beliefs and metaphors become forms of fact, and where more ordinary facts become uncertain”
Characters
Buendía Family Tree
First generation
José Arcadio Buendía
Jose Arcadio Buendía is the patriarch of the Buendía family and the founder of Macondo. Buendía leaves Riohacha, Colombia with his wife, Úrsula Iguarán, after murdering Prudencio Aguilar in a duel. One night camping at the side of a river, Buendía dreams of a city of mirrors named Macondo and decides to establish the town in this location. Jose Arcadio is an introspective, inquisitive man of massive strength and energy who spends more time on his scientific pursuits than with his family. He flirts with alchemy and astronomy and becomes increasingly withdrawn from his family and community. Marquez uses carefully chosen diction, imagery and biblical references to portray this wonderfully unique character to the reader .
Úrsula Iguarán
Úrsula Iguarán is one of the two matriarchs of the Buendía family and is wife to José Arcadio Buendía.
Second generation
José Arcadio
José Arcadio Buendía's firstborn son, José Arcadio seems to have inherited his father's headstrong, impulsive mannerisms. He eventually leaves the family to chase a Gypsy girl and unexpectedly returns many years later as an enormous man covered in tattoos, claiming that he's sailed the seas of the world. He marries his adopted sister Rebeca, causing his banishment from the mansion, and he dies from a mysterious gunshot wound, days after saving his brother from execution.
Colonel Aureliano Buendía
José Arcadio Buendía's second son and the first person to be born in Macondo. He was thought to have premonitions because everything he said came true.He represents not only a warrior figure but also an artist due to his ability to write poetry and create finely crafted golden fish. During the wars he fathered 17 children by unknown women.
Remedios Moscote
Remedios was the youngest daughter of the town's Conservative administrator, Don Apolinar Moscote. Her most striking physical features are her beautiful skin and her emerald-green eyes. The future Colonel Aureliano falls in love with her, despite her extreme youth. She dies shortly after the marriage from a blood poisoning illness during her pregnancy.
Amaranta
The third child of José Arcadio Buendía, Amaranta grows up as a companion of her adopted sister Rebeca. However, her feelings toward Rebeca turn sour over Pietro Crespi, whom both sisters intensely desire in their teenage years. Amaranta dies a lonely and virginal spinster, but comfortable in her existence after having finally accepted what she had become.
Rebeca
Rebeca is the orphaned daughter of Ursula Iguaran's second cousins. At first she is extremely timid, refuses to speak, and has the habits of eating earth and whitewash from the walls of the house, a condition known as pica. She arrives carrying a canvas bag containing her parents' bones and seems not to understand or speak Spanish. However, she responds to questions asked by Visitacion and Cataure in the Guajiro or Wayuu language. She falls in love with and marries her adoptive brother José Arcadio after his return from traveling the world. After his mysterious and untimely death, she lives in seclusion for the rest of her life.
Third generation
Arcadio
Arcadio is José Arcadio's illegitimate son by Pilar Ternera. He is a schoolteacher who assumes leadership of Macondo after Colonel Aureliano Buendía leaves. He becomes a tyrannical dictator and uses his schoolchildren as his personal army. Macondo soon becomes subject to his whims. When the Liberal forces in Macondo fall, Arcadio is shot by a Conservative firing squad.
Aureliano José
Aureliano José is the illegitimate son of Colonel Aureliano Buendía and Pilar Ternera. He joins his father in several wars before deserting to return to Macondo. He deserted because he is obsessed with his aunt, Amaranta, who raised him since his birth. He is eventually shot to death by a Conservative captain midway through the wars.
Santa Sofía de la Piedad
Santa Sofía is a beautiful virgin girl and the daughter of a shopkeeper. She is hired by Pilar Ternera to have sex with her son Arcadio, her eventual husband. She is taken in along with her children by the Buendías after Arcadio's execution. After Úrsula's death she leaves unexpectedly, not knowing her destination.
17 Aurelianos
During his 32 civil war campaigns, Colonel Aureliano Buendía has 17 sons by 17 different women, each named after their father.. Four of these Aurelianos (A. Triste, A. Serrador, A. Arcaya and A. Centeno) stay in Macondo and become a permanent part of the family. Eventually, as revenge against the Colonel, all are assassinated by the government, which identified them by the mysteriously permanent Ash Wednesday cross on their foreheads. The only survivor of the massacre is A. Amador, who escapes into the jungle only to be assassinated at the doorstep of his father's house many years later.
Fourth generation
Remedios the Beauty
Remedios the Beauty is Arcadio and Santa Sofía's first child. It is said she is the most beautiful woman ever seen in Macondo, and unintentionally causes the deaths of several men who love or lust over her. She appears to most of the town as naively innocent, and some come to think that she is mentally retarded. However, Colonel Aureliano Buendía believes she has inherited great lucidity: "It is as if she's come back from twenty years of war," he said. She rejects clothing and beauty. Too beautiful and, arguably, too wise for the world, Remedios ascends into the sky one morning, while folding laundry.
José Arcadio Segundo
José Arcadio Segundo is the twin brother of Aureliano Segundo, the children of Arcadio and Santa Sofía. Úrsula believes that the two were switched in their childhood, as José Arcadio begins to show the characteristics of the family's Aurelianos, growing up to be pensive and quiet. He plays a major role in the banana worker strike, and is the only survivor when the company massacres the striking workers. Afterward, he spends the rest of his days studying the parchments of Melquiades, and tutoring the young Aureliano. He dies at the exact instant that his twin does.
Aureliano Segundo
Of the two brothers, Aureliano Segundo is the more boisterous and impulsive, much like the José Arcadios of the family. He takes his first girlfriend Petra Cotes as his mistress during his marriage to the beautiful and bitter Fernanda del Carpio. When living with Petra, his livestock propagate wildly, and he indulges in unrestrained revelry. After the long rains, his fortune dries up, and the Buendías are left almost penniless. He turns to search for a buried treasure, which nearly drives him to insanity. He dies of throat cancer at the same moment as his twin. During the confusion at the funeral, the bodies are switched, and each is buried in the other's grave (highlighting Ursula's earlier comment that they had been switched at birth). Aureliano Segundo represents Colombia's economy: gaining and losing weight according to the situation at the time.
Fernanda del Carpio
Fernanda del Carpio is the only major character (except for Rebeca and the First generation) not from Macondo. She comes from a ruined, aristocratic family that kept her isolated from the world. She was chosen as the most beautiful of 5000 girls. Fernanda is brought to Macondo to compete with Remedios for the title of Queen of the carnival after her father promises her she will be the Queen of Madagascar. After the fiasco, she marries Aureliano Segundo and soon takes the leadership of the family away from the now-frail Úrsula. She manages the Buendía affairs with an iron fist. She has three children by Aureliano Segundo, José Arcadio, Renata Remedios, a.k.a. Meme, and Amaranta Úrsula. She remains in the house after he dies, taking care of the household until her death.
Fernanda is never accepted by anyone in the Buendía household who regard her as an outsider. Although, none of the Buendías rebel against her inflexible conservatism. Her mental and emotional instability is revealed through her paranoia, her correspondence with the 'invisible doctors', and her irrational behavior towards Aureliano, whom she tries to isolate from the whole world.
Fifth generation
Renata Remedios (a.k.a. Meme)
Renata Remedios, or Meme is the second child and first daughter of Fernanda and Aureliano Segundo. While she doesn't inherit Fernanda's beauty, she does have Aureliano Segundo's love of life and natural charisma. After her mother declares that she is to do nothing but play the clavichord, she is sent to school where she receives her performance degree as well as academic recognition. While she pursues the clavichord with 'an inflexible discipline', to placate Fernanda, she also enjoys partying and exhibits the same tendency towards excess as her father.
Meme meets and falls in love with Mauricio Babilonia, but when Fernanda discovers their affair, she arranges for Mauricio to be shot, claiming that he was a chicken thief. She then takes Meme to a convent. Meme remains mute for the rest of her life, partially because of the trauma, but also as a sign of rebellion. Several months later she gives birth to a son, Aureliano, at the convent. He is sent to live with the Buendías. She dies of old age in a hospital in Krakow.
José Arcadio (II)
José Arcadio II, named after his ancestors in the Buendía tradition, follows the trend of previous Arcadios. He is raised by Úrsula, who intends for him to become Pope. He returns from Rome without having become a priest. Eventually, he discovers buried treasure, which he wastes on lavish parties and escapades with adolescent boys. Later, he begins a tentative friendship with Aureliano Babilonia, his nephew. José Arcadio plans to set Aureliano up in a business and return to Rome, but is murdered in his bath by four of the adolescent boys who ransack his house and steal his gold.
Amaranta Úrsula
Amaranta Úrsula is the third child of Fernanda and Aureliano. She displays the same characteristics as her namesake who dies when she is only a child. She never knows that the child sent to the Buendía home is her nephew, the illegitimate son of Meme. He becomes her best friend in childhood. She returns home from Europe with an elder husband, Gastón, who leaves her when she informs him of her passionate affair with her nephew, Aureliano. She dies of hemorragia, after she has given birth to the last of the Buendía line.
Sixth generation
Aureliano Babilonia (Aureliano II)
Aureliano Babilonia, or Aureliano II, is the illegitimate child of Meme. He is hidden from everyone by his grandmother, Fernanda. He is strikingly similar to his namesake, the Colonel, and has the same character patterns as well. He is taciturn, silent, and emotionally charged. He barely knows Úrsula, who dies during his childhood. He is a friend of José Arcadio Segundo, who explains to him the true story of the banana worker massacre.
While other members of the family leave and return, Aureliano stays in the Buendía home. He only ventures into the empty town after the death of Fernanda. He works to decipher the parchments of Melquíades but stops to have an affair with his childhood partner and the love of his life, Amaranta Úrsula, not knowing that she is his aunt. When both her and her child die, he is able to decipher the parchments. "...Melquíades' final keys were revealed to him and he saw the epigraph of the parchments perfectly placed in the order of man's time and space: 'The first in line is tied to a tree and the last is being eaten by ants'." It is assumed he dies in the great wind that destroys Macondo the moment he finishes reading Mequiades' parchments.
Seventh generation
Aureliano (III)
Aureliano III is the child of Aureliano and his aunt, Amaranta Úrsula. He is born with a pig's tail, as the eldest and long dead Úrsula had always feared would happen (the parents of the child had never heard of the omen). His mother dies after giving birth to him, and, due to his grief-stricken father's negligence, he is devoured by ants.
Others
Melquíades
Melquíades is one of a band of gypsies who visit Macondo every year in March, displaying amazing items from around the world. Melquíades sells José Arcadio Buendía several new inventions including a pair of magnets and an alchemist's lab. Later, the gypsies report that Melquíades died in Singapore, but he, nonetheless, returns to live with the Buendía family, stating he could not bear the solitude of death. He stays with the Buendías and begins to write the mysterious parchments that Aureliano Babilonia eventually translates, before dying a second time. This time he drowns in the river near Macondo. He is buried in a grand ceremony organized by the Buendías.
Pilar Ternera
Pilar is a local woman who sleeps with the brothers Aureliano and José Arcadio. She becomes mother of their sons, Aureliano and José Arcadio. Pilar reads the future with cards, and every so often makes an accurate, though vague, prediction. She has close ties with the Buendias throughout the whole novel, helping them with her card predictions. She dies some time after she turns 145 years old (she had eventually stopped counting), surviving until the very last days of Macondo.
The word "Ternera" in Spanish signifies veal or calf, which is fitting considering the way she is treated by Aureliano, Jose Arcadio, and Arcadio. Also, it could be a play on the word "Ternura", which in Spanish means "Tenderness". Pilar is always presented as a very loving figure, and the author often uses names in a similar fashion.
Pietro Crespi
Pietro is a very handsome and polite Italian musician who runs a music school. He installs the pianola in the Buendía house. He becomes engaged to Rebeca, but Amaranta, who also loves him, manages to delay the wedding for years. When José Arcadio and Rebeca agree to be married, Pietro begins to woo Amaranta, who is so embittered that she cruelly rejects him. Despondent over the loss of both sisters, he kills himself.
Petra Cotes
Petra is a dark-skinned woman with gold-brown eyes similar to those of a panther. She is Aureliano Segundo's mistress and the love of his life. She arrives in Macondo as a teenager with her first husband. She briefly dates both of them before her husband dies. After José Arcadio decides to leave her, Aureliano Segundo gets her forgiveness and remains by her side. He continues to see her, even after his marriage. He eventually lives with her, which greatly embitters his wife, Fernanda del Carpio. When Aureliano and Petra make love, their animals reproduce at an amazing rate, but their livestock is wiped out during the four years of rain. Petra makes money by keeping the lottery alive and provides food baskets for Fernanda and her family after the death of Aureliano Segundo.
Mr. Herbert and Mr. Brown
Mr. Herbert is a gringo who showed up at the Buendía house for lunch one day. After tasting the local bananas for the first time, he arranges for a banana company to set up a plantation in Macondo. The plantation is run by the dictatorial Mr. Brown. When José Arcadio Segundo helps arrange a workers' strike on the plantation, the company traps the more than three thousand strikers and machine guns them down in the town square. The banana company and the government completely cover up the event. José Arcadio is the only one who remembers the slaughter. The company arranges for the army to kill off any resistance, then leaves Macondo for good. That event is likely based on the Banana massacre, that took place in Santa Marta, Colombia in 1928.
Mauricio Babilonia
Mauricio is a brutally honest, generous and handsome mechanic for the banana company. He is said to be a descendant of the gypsies who visit Macondo in the early days. He has the unusual characteristic of being constantly swarmed by yellow butterflies, which follow even his lover for a time. Mauricio begins a romantic affair with Meme until Fernanda discovers them and tries to end it. When Mauricio continues to sneak into the house to see her, Fernanda has him shot, claiming he is a chicken thief. Paralyzed and bedridden, he spends the rest of his long life in solitude.
Gastón
Gastón is Amaranta Úrsula's wealthy, Belgian husband. She marries him in Europe and returns to Macondo leading him on a silk leash. Gastón is about fifteen years older than his wife. He is an aviator and an adventurer. When he moves with Amaranta Ursula to Macondo he thinks it is only a matter of time before she realizes that her European ways out of place, causing her to want to move back to Europe. However, when he realizes his wife intends to stay in Macondo, he arranges for his airplane to be shipped over so he can start an airmail service. The plane is shipped to Africa by mistake. When he travels there to claim it, Amaranta writes him of her love for Aureliano Babilonia Buendía. Gastón takes the news in stride, only asking that they ship him his velocipede.
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez is only a minor character in the novel but he has the distinction of bearing the same name as the author. He is the great-great-grandson of Colonel Gerineldo Márquez. He and Aureliano Babilonia are close friends because they know the history of the town, which no one else believes. He leaves for Paris after winning a contest and decides to stay there, selling old newspapers and empty bottles. He is one of the few who is able to leave Macondo before the town is wiped out entirely.
Major themes
The subjectivity of reality and Magical Realism
Critics often cite certain works by García Márquez, such as A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings and One Hundred Years of Solitude, as exemplary of magical realism, a style of writing in which the supernatural is presented as mundane, and the mundane as supernatural or extraordinary. The term was coined by German art critic Franz Roh in 1925.
The novel presents a fictional story in a fictional setting. The extraordinary events and characteres are fabricated. However the message that Marquez intends to deliver explains a true history. Marquez utilizes his fantastic story as an expression of reality. "In One Hundred Years of Solitude myth and history overlap. The myth acts as a vehicle to transmit history to the reader. Marquez’s novel can furthermore be referred to as anthropology, where truth is found in language and myth. What is real and what is fiction are indistinguishable. There are three main mythical elements of the novel: classical stories alluding to foundations and origins, characters resembling mythical heroes, and supernatural elements" Magical realism is inherent in the novel-achieved by the constant intertwining of the ordinary with the extraordinary. This magical realism strikes at one's traditional sense of naturalistic fiction. There is something clearly magical about the world of Macondo. It is a state of mind as much as, or more than, a geographical place. For example, one learns very little about its actual physical layout. Furthermore, once in it, the reader must be prepared to meet whatever the imagination of the author presents to him or her.
García Márquez achieves a perfect blend of the real with the magical through the masterful use of tone and narration. By maintaining the same tone throughout the novel, Márquez makes the extraordinary blend with the ordinary. His condensation of and lackadaisical manner in describing events causes the extraordinary to seem less remarkable than it actually is, thereby perfectly blending the real with the magical. Reinforcing this effect is the unastonished tone in which the book is written. This tone restricts the ability of the reader to question the events of the novel, however, it also causes the reader to call into question the limits of reality. Furthermore, maintaining the same narrator throughout the novel familiarizes the reader with his voice and causes he or she to become accustomed to the extraordinary events in the novel .
The fluidity of time
One Hundred Years of Solitude contains several ideas concerning time. Although the story can be read as a linear progression of events, both when considering individual lives and Macondo's history, García Márquez allows room for several other interpretations of time:
* He reiterates the metaphor of history as a circular phenomenon through the repetition of names and characteristics belonging to the Buendía family. Over six generations, all the José Arcadios possess inquisitive and rational dispositions as well as enormous physical strength. The Aurelianos, meanwhile, lean towards insularity and quietude. This repetition of traits reproduces the history of the individual characters and, ultimately, a history of the town as a succession of the same mistakes ad infinitum due to some endogenous hubris in our nature.
* The novel explores the issue of timelessness or eternity even within the framework of mortal existence. A major trope with which it accomplishes this task is the alchemist's laboratory in the Buendía family home. The laboratory was first designed by Melquíades near the start of the story and remains essentially unchanged throughout its course. It is a place where the male Buendía characters can indulge their will to solitude, whether through attempts to deconstruct the world with reason as in the case of José Arcadio Buendía, or by the endless creation and destruction of golden fish as in the case of his son Colonel Aureliano Buendía. Furthermore, a sense of inevitability prevails throughout the text. This is a feeling that regardless of what way one looks at time, its encompassing nature is the one truthful admission.
* On the other hand, it is important to keep in mind that One Hundred Years of Solitude, while basically chronological and "linear" enough in its broad outlines, also shows abundant zigzags in time, both flashbacks of matters past and long leaps towards future events. One example of this is the youthful amour between Meme and Mauricio Babilonia, which is already in full swing before we are informed about the origins of the affair .
Incest
A recurring theme in One Hundred Years of Solitude is the Buendía family's propensity toward incest. The patriarch of the family, Jose Arcadio Buendía, is the first of numerous Buendías to intermarry when he marries his first cousin, Úrsula. It is worth noting that this initial, incestuous act can be viewed as an "original sin", however it will not be the last one. Furthermore, the fact that "throughout the novel the family is haunted by the fear of punishment in the form of the birth of a monstrous child with a pig's tail" can be attributed to this initial, and the recurring acts of incest among the Buendías.
Solitude
Perhaps the most dominant theme in the book is that of solitude. Macondo was founded in the remote jungles of the Colombian rainforest. The solitude of the town is representative of the colonial period in Latin American history, where outposts and colonies were, for all intents and purposes, not interconnected. Isolated from the rest of the world, the Buendías grow to be increasingly solitary and selfish. With every member of the family living only for him or her self, the Buendías become representative of the aristocratic, land-owning elite who came to dominate Latin America in keeping with the sense of Latin American history symbolized in the novel. This egocentricity is embodied, especially, in the characters of Aureliano, who lives in a private world of his own, and Remedios, who destroys the lives of four men enamored by her beauty. Throughout the novel it seems as if no character can find true love or escape the destructiveness of their own egocentricity.
The selfishness of the Buendía family is eventually broken by the once superficial Aureliano Segundo and Petra Cotes, who discover a sense of mutual solidarity and the joy of helping others in need during Macondo's economic crisis. This pair even finds love, and their pattern is repeated by Aureliano Babilonia and Amaranta Úrsula. Eventually, Aureliano and Amaranta decide to have a child, and the latter is convinced that it will represent a fresh start for the once-conceited Buendía family. However, the child turns out to be the perpetually-feared monster with the pig's tail.
Nonetheless, the appearance of love represents a shift in Macondo, albeit one that leads to its destruction. "The emergence of love in the novel to displace the traditional egoism of the Buendías reflects the emergence of socialist values as a political force in Latin America, a force that will sweep away the Buendías and the order they represent". A well-known socialist, the ending to One Hundred Years of Solitude could be a wishful prediction by García Márquez regarding the future of Latin America.
Literary significance, reception and recognition
One Hundred Years of Solitude has received universal recognition. The novel has been awarded Italy’s Chianciano Award, France’s Prix de Meilleur Livre Etranger, Venezuela’s Romulo Gallegos Prize, and the Books Abroad/ Neustadt International Prize for Literature. García Márquez also received an honorary LL.D. from Columbia University in New York City. These awards set the stage for García Márquez’s 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature.
García Márquez is said to have a gift for blending the everyday with the miraculous, the historical with the fabulous, and psychological realism with surreal flights of fancy. It is a revolutionary novel that provides a looking glass into the thoughts and beliefs of its author, who chose to give a literary voice to Latin America: "A Latin America which neither wants, nor has any reason, to be a pawn without a will of its own; nor is it merely wishful thinking that its quest for independence and originality should become a Western aspiration." Gabriel García Márquez
In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech Márquez addressed the significance of his writing and proposed its role to be more than just literary expression: "I dare to think that it is this outsized reality, and not just its literary expression, that has deserved the attention of the Swedish Academy of Letters. A reality not of paper, but one that lives within us and determines each instant of our countless daily deaths, and that nourishes a source of insatiable creativity, full of sorrow and beauty, of which this roving and nostalgic Colombian is but one cipher more, singled out by fortune. Poets and beggars, musicians and prophets, warriors and scoundrels, all creatures of that unbridled reality, we have had to ask but little of imagination, for our crucial problem has been a lack of conventional means to render our lives believable. This, my friends, is the crux of our solitude"
* In 1970, reviewing the book in the National Observer, William Kennedy hailed One Hundred Years of Solitude as "the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race."
* The novel topped the list of books that have most shaped world literature over the last 25 years, according to a survey of international writers commissioned by the global literary journal Wasafiri as a part of its 25th anniversary.
According to Antonio Sacoto, professor at The City College of the City University of New York, One Hundred Years of Solitude is considered as one of the five key novels in Hispanic American literature. (Together with El señor Presidente, Pedro Páramo, La muerte de Artemio Cruz, y La ciudad los perros). These novels, representative of the boom allowed Hispanic American literature to reach the quality of North American and European literature in terms of technical quality, rich themes, and linguistic innovations, among other attributes.
Although we are faced with a very convoluted narrative, Garcia Marquez is able to define clear themes while maintaining individual character identities, and using different narrative techniques such as third person narrators, specific point of view narrators, and streams of consciousness. Cinematographic techniques are also employed in the novel, with the idea of the montage and the close-up, which effectively combine the comic and grotesque with the dramatic and tragic. Furthermore, political and historical realities are combined with the mythical and magical Latin American world. Lastly, through human comedy the problems of a family, a town, and a country are unveiled. This is all presented through Garcia Marquez’s unique form of narration, which causes the novel to never cease being at its most interesting point.
The characters in the novel are never defined; they are not created from a mold. Instead, they are developed and formed throughout the novel. All characters are individualized, with many characteristics that differentiate them from others.. Ultimately, the novel has a rich imagination achieved by its rhythmic tone, narrative technique, and fascinating character creation, making it a thematic quarry, where the trivial and anecdotal and the historic and political are combined. (260)
Criticisms
Style
Although One Hundred Years of Solitude has come to be considered one of, if not the, most influential Latin American texts of all time, the novel and Gabriel Garcia Marquez have both received many critical criticisms and reviews. Harold Bloom says “My primary impression, in the act of rereading One Hundred Years of Solitude, is a kind of aesthetic battle fatigue, since every page is rammed full of life beyond the capacity of any single reader to absorb . . . There are no wasted sentences, no mere transitions, in this novel, and you must notice everything at the moment you read it.”
Inspirations
Garcia Marquez has been accused of using many texts as his inspirations for One Hundred Years of Solitude. Of these, the most well-known is Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha David T. Haberly alleges that “strong cases have been made for Faulkner, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: A Biography, and Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year, and one which has not been mentioned is Chateaubriand’s Atala.” Hopkins backs his statement with evidence that Atala was available for Spanish-speaking audiences before the publication of One Hundred Years of Solitude and makes comparisons between the plot of the two stories and some of the characters.
Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes
Critics have also speculated the potential of Marquez harboring ideals of marianismo, adhering to sexist stereotypes, and reinforcing these stereotypes and sexist attitudes in Cien Anos de Soledad through his portrayal of female characters as domestic housewives. This potentially sexist view also can be viewed as Marquez’s profound reflection on the social and cultural realities that exist in Latin America in terms of how women were viewed, and in particular, in Colombia. “What sort of values does Ursula symbolize? They are these: middle class stinginess, stupidity, superstition, insanity, reactionary activism, etc.” “There are numerous episodes and statements in the book which reinforce the patriarchical values of the story” . “One Hundred Years of Solitude reflects the traditional Latin American role of women as adjuncts to men and implies neither qualitative awareness nor literary criticism of the restrictive political and economic systems and notions (ie marianismo) that perpetuate such notions. As a whole, the women of Macondo are pictured as male-defined, biological reproducers or sexually pleasing objects who are treated thematically as accessories to the men who actually shape and control the world.”
McOndo Movement
The portrayal of Latin American culture and society in One Hundred Years of Solitude has been a point of criticism as well. It has been said that Gabriel Garcia Marquez has created a work in which Western audiences portray popular Latin American culture as a primitive society, lacking in technology, and as a region on the world which has been excluded from the effects of globalization. One group movement that speaks out against this portrayal of Latin America as a primitive society is the McOndo movement. McOndo is a Latin American literary movement that breaks away from the long-dominant magical realist literary tradition by strongly associating itself with mass media culture . McOndo attempts to contextualize being Latin American in a world dominated by American pop culture . The movement challenges the natural or rural, magical world typically depicted by the Magical Realism genre .
The work McOndo, by editors Alberto Fuguet and Sergio Gomez, critiques the re-emphasis of the primitive stereotypes of Latin America in One Hundred Years of Solitude. They say “Nuestro McOndo es tan latinoamericano y magico (exotico) como el Macondo real (que, a todo esto no es real sin virtual). Nuestro pais McOndo es mas grande, sobrepoblado y lleno de contaminacion, con autopistas, metro, TV-cable y barriadas. En McOndo hay McDonald’s, computadores Mac y condominios, amen de hotels cinco estrellas construidos con dinero lavando y malls gigantescos” , roughly translated to say “Our McOndo is just as Latin American as the magic (exotic) as the real Macondo (which isn’t real so much as virtual). Our country McOndo is bigger, densely populated and full on contamination, with highways, public transit, cable TV and neighborhoods. In McOndo there are McDonald’s, Mac computers and condominiums, as well as five-star hotels built with clean money and gigantic malls” . He aims to denounce the primitive nature of Garcia Marquez’s Macondo and contrast it with the new McOndo, the metaphorical Latin America we now know after the effects of globalization and corporatization. “Now, thanks to Fuguet and his peers, there is a new voice south of the Rio Grande. It is savvy, street-smart, sometimes wiseass and un-ashamedly over the top. Fuguet calls this the voice of McOndo--a blend of McDonald's, Macintosh computers and condos. The label is a spoof, of course, not only on Garcia Marquez's fictitious village but also on all the poseurs who have turned these latitudes into a pastel tequila ad. ¡Hola! Fuguet is saying. Latin America is no paradise” .
Internal references
In the novel's final chapter, Márquez references the novel Hopscotch (Spanish: Rayuela) by Julio Cortázar in the following line: "...in the room that smelled of boiled cauliflower where Rocamadour was to die" (p. 412). Rocamadour is a fictional character in Hopscotch who indeed dies in the room described. He also references two other major works by Latin American writers in the novel: The Death of Artemio Cruz (Spanish: La Muerte de Artemio Cruz) by Carlos Fuentes and Explosion in a Cathedral (Spanish: El siglo de las luces) by Alejo Carpentier.
Adaptations
* Shuji Terayama's play One Hundred Years of Solitude (百年の孤独, originally performed by the Tenjo Sajiki theater troupe), as well as his film Farewell to the Ark (さらば箱舟) are loose (and not officially authorized) adaptations of the novel by García Marquez transplanted into the realm of Japanese culture and history.
Although One Hundred Years of Solitude has had such a big impact on the literature world, and although this novel is the author's best selling and most translated around the world, there have been no movies produced about it. Gabriel Garcia Marquez has never agreed to sell the rights for producing such film, even though his novel has inspired many to write and has more than enough themes to work on in the film industry.
《傲慢与偏见》是简· 奥斯丁的代表作，是一部经典的小说。这部作品以日常生活为素材，一反当时社会上流行的感伤小说的内容和矫揉造作的写作方法，生动地反映了18世纪末到19世纪初处于保守和闭塞状态下的英国乡镇生活和世态人情。这部社会风情画式的小说不仅在当时吸引着广大的读者，时至今日，仍给读者以独特的艺术享受。 《傲慢与偏见》以婚姻嫁娶和家庭风波为题材，描写自己熟稔的乡间所谓体面人家的生活与交往，像在“二寸象牙”上“细细地描画”，看似平凡而琐碎，小天地却可映出大世界，因此始终能引起长盛不衰、雅俗共赏的兴趣，英国诗人和历史小说家司各特曾说，“在描写人们日常生活中各种错综复杂的琐事，内心情感和人物性格方面，这位姑娘很有才能。这种才能是我所遇到的最令人赏心悦目的。”正是简.奥斯丁炉火纯青的语言描写功力，使笔下的人物栩栩如生，耐人寻味。
傲慢与偏见[小说]-作者简介
简·奥斯汀简· 奥斯汀
简· 奥斯汀出生于1775年12月16日，是乔治·奥斯汀家的第七个孩子。简·奥斯汀一直过着安静平和的隐居生活，她一生未婚。英国文学史上出现过几次趣味革命，文学口味的翻新几乎影响了所有作家的声誉，唯独莎士比亚和奥斯汀经久不衰。而这位伟大的女性一生只走过了42个春夏秋冬。1817年7月8日，她死于温彻斯特，葬于当地大教堂。
她的父亲是斯蒂文顿的教区长，也是一位藏书颇丰的博学之土。她的母亲名叫卡桑德拉·李·奥斯汀，出身于贵族家庭。简只有一个姐姐，叫卡桑德拉，并一生都与她保持着密切的联系。简的同胞兄弟从事着不同的职业：有几个担任圣职，一个是银行家，其他的则在军队服役。尽管她的家庭不是名门望族，也没有富甲一方，但乔治·奥斯汀很重视教育，甚至对女儿也不例外。简和卡桑德拉上了几年学，之后就在家里学习，主要是广泛阅读各种书籍和资料，并从父兄们与辅导的学生之间有趣的讨论中获益。通过自己的努力，简熟知18世纪的英国文学。
简· 奥斯汀生前匿名出版了四部小说：《理智与情感》(1811)、《傲慢与偏见}》(1813)、《曼斯菲尔德庄园》(1814) 和《艾玛》(1815)。另外两部，《诺桑格修道院》和《劝导》是她去世后于 1817年出版的。她的这些小说以其对英国社会和风俗的讽刺性描述而闻名于世。
奥斯汀所处的英国社会是一个阶级等级分明的社会。而阶级的区分主要源于家族与财富。奥斯汀在她的作品中经常批评英国上层阶级的自负和偏见。简注意区分人的内在价值 (个人品德)和外在价值(地位和财产)。简虽然经常讽刺势利小人，但也嘲笑出身低微的人缺乏教养和举止不当。总的来说，奥斯汀是一个现实主义作家，她所描绘的英国是一个缺少变化但阶级意识强烈的社会。
从18世纪末到19世纪初，“感伤小说”和“哥特小说”充斥英国文坛，而奥斯汀的小说破旧立新，一反常规地展现了当时尚未受到资本主义工业革命冲击的英国乡村中产阶级的日常生活和田园风光。她的作品往往通过喜剧性的场面嘲讽人们的愚蠢、自私、势利和盲目自信等可鄙可笑的弱点。奥斯丁的小说出现在19世纪初叶，一扫风行一时的假浪漫主义潮流，继承和发展了英国18世纪优秀的现实主义传统，为19世纪现实主义小说的高潮做了准备。虽然其作品反映的广度和深度有限，但她的作品如“两寸牙雕”，从一个小窗口中窥视到整个社会形态和人情世故，对改变当时小说创作中的风气起了好的作用，在英国小说的发展史上有承上启下的意义，被誉为地位“可与莎士比亚平起平坐”的作家。 她最喜爱的作家是18世纪古典主义和理智的典范塞缪尔·约翰逊。奥斯汀的小说表现出一种情感上的模棱两可，以及对聪明才智与自然美的赞赏，这些特点使其作品和浪漫主义走到一起。遗憾的是，简·奥斯汀的小说在她生前并未受到好评。但是后来，尤其是在20世纪，她的小说越来越受欢迎。如今，简·奥斯汀已经跻身于英国真正伟大的作家之列。简·奥斯汀是世界上为数极少的著名女性作家之一，介于新古典主义和浪漫运动的抒情主义之间的“小幅画家”和“家庭小说”家，文学评论家眼里堪与莎士比亚在不朽性方面相提并论的英国作家。
傲慢与偏见[小说]-创作背景
《傲慢与偏见》是简·奥斯汀最早完成的作品，她在1796年开始动笔，取名为《最初的印象》，1797年8月完成。她父亲看后很感动，特意拿给汤玛·卡士德尔，请他出版，但对方一口回绝，使得他们十分失望。后来，她重写了《最初的印象》，并改名为“傲慢与偏见”于1813年1月出版。
傲慢与偏见[小说]-内容简介
女主角：：伊丽莎白
男主角：达西
重要配角：简（伊丽莎白的姐姐）、宾利（达西的好朋友）
内容提要
《傲慢与偏见》是描写伊丽莎白•贝内特和威廉•达西这对青年男女之间的爱情故事，起初他们俩人总是话不投机。故事发生在18世纪后期，距离英国伦敦，效外约50英里的赫特福德郡（位于英国英格兰东南部），书中生动地描绘了当时妇女生活的艰难，她们几乎都不能把握自己的命运。由于18世纪的英国社会十分看重社会地位和个人举止风度与才艺，女人们都竭尽所能去寻觅富有的丈夫。
详细内容
小乡绅班纳特有五个待字闺中的千金，班纳特太太整天操心着为女儿物色称心如意的丈夫。 新来的邻居彬格莱(Charles)是个有钱的单身汉，他立即成了班纳特太太追猎的目标。在一次舞会上，彬格莱对班纳特家的大女儿简(Jane)一见钟情，班纳特太太为此欣喜若狂。参加舞会的还有彬格莱的好友达西(Darcy)。他仪表堂堂，非常富有，许多姑娘纷纷向他投去羡慕的目光；但他非常骄傲，认为她们都不配做他的舞伴，其中包括简的妹妹伊丽莎白(Elizabeth)。伊丽莎白自尊心很强，决定不去理睬这个傲慢的家伙。可是不久，达西对她活泼可爱的举止产生了好感，在另一次舞会上主动请她同舞，却遭到伊丽莎白的拒绝，达西狼狈不堪。
彬格莱的妹妹卡罗琳(Caroline)一心追求达西，她发现达西有意于伊丽莎白，妒火中烧，决意从中阻挠。而遭到伊丽莎白冷遇的达西也鄙视班纳特太太及其小女儿丽迪亚(Lydia)的粗俗。在妹妹和好友达西的劝说下，彬格莱不辞而别，去了伦敦，但简对他还是一片深情。
班纳特没有儿子，他的家产将由远亲柯林斯(Collins)继承。柯林斯粗鄙无知，却善于趋炎附势，居然当上牧师。他向伊丽莎白求婚，遭拒绝后，马上与她的女友夏洛特(Charlotte)结婚。
附近小镇的民团联队里有个英俊潇洒的青年军官威肯(Wickham)，人人都夸他，伊丽莎白也对他产生了好感。一天，他对伊丽莎白说，他父亲是达西家的总管，达西的父亲曾给他一大笔遗赠，却被达西吞没了。伊丽莎白听后，对达西更加反感。
柯林斯夫妇请伊丽莎白去他们家作客，伊丽莎白在那里遇到达西的姨妈凯瑟琳(Catherine)，不久，又见到了达西。同时也认识了威廉少校，从他口中得知达西藏起她姐姐的信，使伊丽莎白对达西的讨厌达到顶峰。所以在达西无法抑制自己对伊丽莎白的爱慕之情，向她求婚的时候，但态度还是那么傲慢。伊丽莎白坚决地谢绝了。这一打击使达西第一次认识到骄傲自负所带来的恶果，他痛苦地离开了她，临走前留下一封长信作了几点解释：他承认彬格莱不辞而别是他促使的，原因是他不满班纳特太太的轻浮和鄙俗，并且认为简并没有钟情于彬格莱；威肯说的却全是谎言，事实是威肯自己把那笔遗产挥霍殆尽，还企图勾引达西的妹妹私奔。伊丽莎白读信后十分后悔，既对错怪达西感到内疚，又为母亲的行为羞愧，还对自己的偏见深深懊悔。她逐渐改变了对达西的看法。
第二年夏天，伊丽莎白随舅父母来到达西的庄园，与他再次相遇。她发现达西变了，不仅对人彬彬有礼，在当地很受人们尊敬，而且对他妹妹非常爱护。她对他的偏见消除了。正当其时，伊丽莎白接到家信，说小妹丽迪亚随身负累累赌债的威肯私奔了。这种家丑使伊丽莎白非常难堪，以为达西会更瞧不起自己。但事实出乎她的意料，达西得知上述消息以后，在舅父母的帮主下，不仅替威肯还清赌债，还给了他一笔巨款，让他与丽迪亚完婚。自此以后，伊丽莎白往日对达西的种种偏见统统化为真诚之爱。
彬格莱和简经过一番周折，言归于好，一对情人沉浸在欢乐之中。而一心想让自己的女儿安妮(Anne)嫁给达西的凯瑟琳夫人匆匆赶来，蛮横地要伊丽莎白保证不与达西结婚。伊丽莎白对这一无理要求断然拒绝。此事传到达西耳中。他知道伊丽莎白已经改变了对自己的看法，诚恳地再次向她求婚。到此，一对曾因傲慢和偏见而延搁婚事的有情人终成眷属。
傲慢与偏见[小说]-语言特色
《傲慢与偏见》是简·奥斯丁(Jane Austen)的代表作品，写于十八世纪九十年代，其影响经历两世纪而不衰，并对后代作家产生影响，其重要的原因之一就是小说的语言魅力。在语言中对话是文学作品塑造人物形象最基本的手段之一，简.奥斯丁笔下的人物对话鲜明生动，颇具个性，含义丰富，耐人寻味。本文用会话合作原则分析《傲慢与偏见》书中的人物对话风格，解开简·奥斯丁作品中人物对话语言风格机智幽默妙趣横生之谜。奥斯丁的语言是经过锤炼的，她在对话艺术上讲究幽默、诙谐风趣、讽刺，这种艺术创新使她的作品具有自己的特色，而这种富有特色的语言在《傲慢与偏见》中发挥得尤为淋漓尽致。
比如在写班纳特太太时，作者就这样写到：“只要碰到不称心的事，她就自以为神经衰弱。”又在班纳特太太与其丈夫的对话中写到：“我的好老爷，你怎么舍得这样糟蹋自己的亲生女儿？你是在故意叫我气恼，好让你自己得意吧。你半点也不体谅我的神经衰弱。”“你真错怪了我，我的好太太。我非常尊重你的神经。它们是我的老朋友。至少在最近二十年以来，我一直听到你郑重其事地提到它们。”活灵活现的语言，绝妙的嘲讽与诙谐，立刻使两个不同的人物形象在读者脑海中变得立体而清晰。
再如另一个片段的描写：咖苔琳夫人的马车路过门口，柯林斯牧师全家手忙脚乱出去迎接，伊丽莎白却说：“就是这么回事吗？我还以为是猪猡闯进了花园呢。”直率的挖苦，戳穿了咖苔琳夫人自己吹起来的唬人架势，也使伊丽莎白这个蔑视权贵的形象在人们脑海中留下了更深的印象，越发觉得她的可爱。奥斯汀还善于通过最普通的语言让人物自己暴露自己。例如小说开头时，班纳特太太曾说郎格太太“是个自私自利、假仁假义的女人，我瞧不起她。”而到故事的结尾，当其大女儿与彬格莱的婚事已成定局时，她又说“我觉得郎格太太这个人真是太好了。” 这两段截然相反的话，让读者不禁哑然失笑的同时，又多么生动地表现出班纳特太太的反复无常、自我中心。这样的例子在书中还有很多。一个曾充满偏见的伊丽莎白、一个曾浑身傲慢的达西、一对有趣的班纳特夫妇、一个可笑的柯林斯、众多出场人物、再加上喜剧效果和特殊写作技巧，这就是《傲慢与偏见》，却不是它的全部。奥斯汀的幽默是需要反复咀嚼的。
傲慢与偏见[小说]-评价
1、奥斯丁在这部小说中通过班纳特五个女儿对待终身大事的不同处理，表现出乡镇中产阶级家庭出身的少女对婚姻爱情问题的不同态度，从而反映了作者本人的婚姻观：为了财产、金钱和地位而结婚是错误的；而结婚不考虑上述因素也是愚蠢的。因此，她既反对为金钱而结婚，也反对把婚姻当儿戏。她强调理想婚姻的重要性，并把男女双方感情作为缔结理想婚姻的基石。书中的女主人公伊丽莎白出身于小地主家庭，为富豪子弟达西所热爱。达西不顾门第和财富的差距，向她求婚，却遭到拒绝。伊丽莎白对他的误会和偏见是一个原因，但主要的是她讨厌他的傲慢。因为达西的这种傲慢实际上是地位差异的反映，只要存在这种傲慢，他与伊丽莎白之间就不可能有共同的思想感情，也不可能有理想的婚姻。以后伊丽莎白亲眼观察了达西的为人处世和一系列所作所为，特别是看到他改变了过去那种骄傲自负的神态，消除了对他的误会和偏见，从而与他缔结了美满姻缘。伊丽莎白对达西先后几次求婚的不同态度，实际上反映了女性对人格独立和平等权利的追求。这是伊丽莎白这一人物形象的进步意义。在《傲慢与偏见》中，奥斯丁还写了伊丽莎白的几个姐妹和女友的婚事，这些都是陪衬，用来与女主人公理想的婚姻相对照。如夏洛特和柯林斯尽管婚后过着舒适的物质生活，但他们之间没有爱情，这种婚姻实际上是掩盖在华丽外衣下的社会悲剧。还有她的姐姐也是完美结局的。不过他们所经历的远远没有伊丽莎白和达西这样从讨厌误会到相爱的，一开始就相爱，有点像一见钟情的味道。从而看出，经历波折的爱情才是完美深刻的。
奥斯丁的小说尽管题材比较狭窄，故事相当平淡，但是她善于在日常平凡事物中塑造鲜明的人物形象，不论是伊丽莎白、达西那种作者认为值得肯定的人物，还是威肯、柯林斯这类遭到讽刺挖苦的对象，都写得真实动人。同时，奥斯丁的语言是经过锤炼的，她在对话艺术上讲究幽默、讽刺，常以风趣诙谐的语言来烘托人物的性格特征。这种艺术创新使她的作品具有自己的特色。
2、爱情是小说永恒的主题，《傲慢与偏见》以爱情和婚姻为主要内容，自然是吸引读者的。但描写爱情的小说不计其数（言情小说似乎就很多产），要像《傲慢与偏见》这样在世界文学中占有一席之地，也并不是一件容易的事。《傲慢与偏见》之所以称得上世界文学名著而不流俗于一般爱情小说，自有它的魅力所在。那么到底是什么使它脱颖而出呢？一部好的小说，内容、情节是非常重要的。《傲慢与偏见》的内容并不复杂，情节却引人入胜。读过本书的读者应该对小说开篇的一句话记忆犹新：“凡是有财产的单身汉，必定需要娶位太太，这已经成了一条举世公认的真理。(It is a true universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.) ” 在英文中in want of 是指客观需要，而不是主观想要；这简简单单的一句话却深深反映出资产阶级婚姻的实质无非是金钱交易与利益的结合，可见作者的目光之透彻犀利，也正应证了前面所说的细微之处却能反映大问题。小说开篇就这样牢牢抓住了读者，接着通过班纳特夫妇风趣的对话，把读者带进一个女儿多得发愁的中产阶级家庭中。这个家庭家道已经中落，却还有5个待嫁的女儿，而且不幸班纳特先生又没有儿子，其财产将由表亲柯林斯继承。在资产阶级社会，如果女孩没有丰厚的嫁妆，就是再有才貌，也难找到体面的丈夫，就像书中达西所说：“她们倘使想嫁给有地位的男人，机会可就大大减少了。”所以处在婚姻要权衡双方阶级地位和金钱利害的情况下，这五位姑娘的出嫁前景确实不太美妙。小说采用古典的现实主义笔法，描写了四对青年男女的结合，通过班纳特五个女儿对待终身大事的不同处理，表现出乡镇中产阶级家庭出身的少女对婚姻爱情问题的不同态度，也借此表达了作者本人的婚姻观，即为财产打算的婚姻是没有幸福的，结婚不考虑财产是愚蠢的，讲究门第的包办婚姻不堪忍受，把婚姻当儿戏毫不足取，理想的婚姻要以感情为基础。书中的女主人公伊丽莎白与达西不顾门第和财富的差距，真心相爱，美满结合，是作者所颂扬的幸福婚姻。从伊丽莎白的身上，我们可以看到女性对人格独立和平等权利的追求；作者虽然没有反映出她那个时代的阶级矛盾和阶级斗争，然而她的强烈的阶级意识却表现了出来，对经济、财产决定婚姻关系乃至生活命运的揭露也可谓入木三分。西方有位马克思主义批评家大卫•戴克斯曾半开玩笑的说，在“揭露人类行为的经济原因”方面，奥斯汀“从某种意义上可以说在马克思以前就是马克思主义者了。”
The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, moral rightness, education and marriage in her aristocratic society of early 19th century England. Elizabeth is the second eldest of five daughters of a country gentleman landed in the fictional town of Meryton in Hertfordshire, not far from London.
Though the story's setting is uniquely turn of the 19th century, it retains a fascination for modern readers, continuing near the top of lists of 'most loved books' such as the Big Read. It still receives considerable attention from literary critics. This modern interest has resulted in a number of dramatic adaptations and an abundance of novels and stories imitating Austen's memorable characters or themes.
To date, the book has sold some 20 million copies worldwide.
Plot summary
The novel revolves around the Bennet family. The five marriageable daughters and mother will be without a home and income once Mr. Bennet dies: The terms on which Mr. Bennet inherited Longbourn ("fee tail male," now abolished by statute in England) prohibit women from inheriting it, with the effect that instead one of Mr. Bennet's collateral relatives will inherit the estate. The mother worries about this predicament, and wishes to find husbands for them quickly. The father doesn't seem to be worried at all, and Elizabeth, the heroine, has decided to only marry for love, even though she has no real ideas about how she will survive financially. She is of the opinion that her sister Jane, being kind and beautiful, will find a wealthy husband, and that she can then live with her. As the novel opens, Mr Bingley, a wealthy young gentleman, rents a country estate near the Bennets called Netherfield. He arrives in town accompanied by his fashionable sisters and his good friend, Mr Darcy. While Bingley is well-received in the community, Darcy begins his acquaintance with smug condescension and proud distaste for all the 'country' people. Bingley and Elizabeth Bennet's older sister Jane begin to grow close. Elizabeth's best friend Charlotte advises that Jane should be more affectionate to Bingley, as they are both shy, and he may not know that she is indeed interested in him. Elizabeth disregards her friend's opinion, saying that Jane is shy and modest, and that if Bingley can't see how she feels, he is a fool. With that, she never even tells Jane what Charlotte advised. Elizabeth is stung by Darcy's haughty rejection of her at a local dance and decides to match his coldness with her own wit.
At the same time Elizabeth begins a friendship with Mr Wickham, a militia officer who relates a prior acquaintance with Darcy. Wickham tells her that he has been seriously mistreated by Darcy. Elizabeth immediately seizes upon this information as another reason to hate Darcy. Ironically, but unbeknownst to her, Darcy finds himself gradually drawn to Elizabeth.
Just as Bingley appears to be on the point of proposing marriage to Jane Bennet, he quits Netherfield, leaving Jane confused and upset. Elizabeth is convinced that Bingley's sister has conspired with Darcy to separate Jane and Bingley.
Before Bingley leaves, Mr Collins, the male relative who is to inherit Longbourn, makes a sudden appearance and stays with the Bennets. He is a recently ordained clergyman employed by the wealthy and patronizing Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Though he was partially entreated to visit by his patroness, Collins has another reason for visiting: he wishes to find a wife from among the Bennet sisters. Mr Bennet and Elizabeth are amused by his self-important and pedantic behaviour. He immediately enters pursuit of Jane; however, when Mrs Bennet mentions her preoccupation with Mr Bingley, he turns to Elizabeth. He soon proposes marriage to Elizabeth, who refuses him, much to her mother's distress. Collins quickly recovers and proposes to Elizabeth's close friend, Charlotte Lucas, who immediately accepts him. Once the marriage is arranged, Charlotte asks Elizabeth to come for an extended visit.
In the spring, Elizabeth joins Charlotte and her cousin at his parish in Kent. The parish is adjacent to Rosings Park, the grand manor of Mr Darcy's aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, where Elizabeth is frequently invited. While calling on Lady Catherine, Mr Darcy encounters Elizabeth. She discovers from a cousin of Darcy that it was he who separated Bingley and Jane. Soon after, Darcy admits his love of Elizabeth and proposes to her. Insulted by his high-handed and insulting manner of proposing, Elizabeth refuses him. When he asks why she should refuse him, she confronts him with his sabotage of Bingley's relationship with Jane and Wickham's account of their dealings.
Deeply shaken by Elizabeth's vehemence and accusations, Darcy writes her a letter justifying his actions. The letter reveals that Wickham soon dissipated his legacy-settlement (from Darcy's father's estate), then came back to Darcy requesting permanent patronage; and that he became angry when rejected, accusing Darcy of cheating him. To exact revenge and to make off with part of the Darcy family fortune, he attempted to seduce Darcy's young sister Georgiana—to gain her hand and fortune, almost persuading her to elope with him—before he was found out and stopped. Towards Bingley and Jane, Darcy justifies his actions from having observed that Jane did not show any reciprocal interest in his friend; thus his aim in separating them was mainly to protect Bingley from heartache.
Darcy admits he was concerned about the disadvantageous connection with Elizabeth's family, especially her embarrassing mother and wild younger sisters. After reading the letter, Elizabeth begins to question both her family's behaviour and Wickham's credibility. She concludes that Wickham is not as trustworthy as his easy manners would indicate, that he had lied to her previously, and that her early impressions of Darcy might have been inaccurate. Soon after receiving the letter, Elizabeth returns home.
Elizabeth tells her father that Darcy was responsible for uniting Lydia and Wickham. This is one of the two earliest illustrations of Pride and Prejudice. The clothing styles reflect the time the illustration was engraved (the 1830s), not the time the novel was written or set.
Some months later, during a tour of Derbyshire with her aunt and uncle, Elizabeth visits Pemberley, Darcy's estate. Darcy's housekeeper, an older woman who has known Darcy since childhood, presents Elizabeth and her relatives with a flattering and benevolent impression of his character. Unexpectedly, Darcy arrives at Pemberley as they tour its grounds. He makes an effort to be gracious and welcoming to them, thus strengthening Elizabeth's newly favourable impression of him. Darcy then introduces Elizabeth to his sister Georgiana. He treats her uncle and aunt very well, and finds them of a more sound character than her other relatives, whom he previously dismissed as socially inferior.
Elizabeth and Darcy's renewed acquaintance is cut short when news arrives that Elizabeth's younger sister Lydia has run away with Wickham. Initially, the Bennets believe that Wickham and Lydia have eloped, but soon it is surmised that Wickham has no plans to marry Lydia. Lydia's antics threaten the family's reputation and the Bennet sisters with social ruin. Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle hurriedly leave Derbyshire, and Elizabeth is convinced that Darcy will avoid her from now on.
Soon, thanks to the intervention of Elizabeth's uncle, Lydia and Wickham are found and married. After the marriage, Wickham and Lydia make a visit to Longbourn. While bragging to Elizabeth, Lydia comments that Darcy was present at the wedding. Surprised, Elizabeth sends an inquiry to her aunt, from whom she discovers that Darcy was responsible for both finding the couple and arranging their marriage at great expense to himself.
Soon after, Bingley and Darcy return to the area. Bingley proposes marriage to Jane, and this news starts rumors that Darcy will propose to Elizabeth. Lady Catherine travels to Longbourn with the sole aim of confronting Elizabeth and demanding that she never accept such a proposal. Elizabeth refuses to bow to Lady Catherine's demands. When news of this obstinance reaches Darcy, it convinces him that her opinion of him has changed. When he visits, he once again proposes marriage. Elizabeth accepts, and the two become engaged.
The final chapters of the book establish the future of the characters. Elizabeth and Darcy settle at Pemberley where Mr Bennet visits often. Mrs Bennet remains frivolous and silly; she often visits the new Mrs Bingley and talks of the new Mrs Darcy. Later, Jane and Bingley move from Netherfield to avoid Jane's mother and Meryton relations and to locate near the Darcys in Derbyshire. Elizabeth and Jane manage to teach Kitty greater social grace, and Mary learns to accept the difference between herself and her sisters' beauty and mixes more with the outside world. Lydia and Wickham continue to move often, leaving their debts for Jane and Elizabeth to pay off. At Pemberley, Elizabeth and Georgiana grow close, though Georgiana is surprised by Elizabeth's playful treatment of Darcy. Lady Catherine stays very angry with her nephew's marriage but over time the relationship between the two is repaired and she eventually decides to visit them. Elizabeth and Darcy also remain close with her uncle and aunt.
Main characters
[show]Character genealogy
Mr Hurst
Mrs Hurst
Mr Philips
Caroline Bingley
Mrs Philips
Mr Charles Bingley
Mrs Gardiner
Jane Bennet
Mr Gardiner
Elizabeth Bennet
Mrs Bennet
Mary Bennet
Mr Bennet
Catherine "Kitty" Bennet
Mr William Collins
Lydia Bennet
Charlotte Lucas
Mr George Wickham
(Old) Mr Darcy
Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy
Lady Anne Darcy
Georgiana Darcy
Lady Catherine De Bourgh
Anne De Bourgh
Lord ——
Colonel Fitzwilliam
* Elizabeth Bennet is the main character and protagonist. The reader sees the unfolding plot and the other characters mostly from her viewpoint. The second of the Bennet daughters at twenty years old, she is intelligent, lively, attractive, and witty, but with a tendency to judge on first impressions and perhaps to be a little selective of the evidence upon which she bases her judgments. As the plot begins, her closest relationships are with her father, her sister Jane, her aunt Mrs Gardiner, and her best friend Charlotte Lucas.
* Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy is the main male character. Twenty-eight years old and unmarried, Darcy is the wealthy owner of the famous family estate of Pemberley in Derbyshire. Handsome, tall, and intelligent, but not convivial, his aloof decorum and moral rectitude are seen by many as an excessive pride and concern for social status. He makes a poor impression on strangers, such as the gentry of Meryton, but is valued by those who know him well.
* Mr Bennet has a wife and five daughters, and seems to have inurred himself to his fate. A bookish and intelligent gentleman somewhat withdrawn from society, he dislikes the indecorous behaviours of his wife and three younger daughters; but he offers little beyond mockery by way of correcting them. Rather than guiding these daughters to more sensible understanding, he is instead content to laugh at them. He relates very well with his two elder daughters, Jane and Elizabeth, showing them much more love and respect than his wife and younger daughters.
* Mrs Bennet is the wife of her social superior Mr Bennet, and mother of Elizabeth and her sisters. She is frivolous, excitable, and narrow-minded. She is susceptible to attacks of tremors and palpitations; her public manners and social climbing are embarrassing to Jane and Elizabeth. Her favourite daughter is the youngest, Lydia.
Lady Catherine confronts Elizabeth about Darcy, on the title page of the first illustrated edition. This is the other of the first two illustrations of the novel.
* Jane Bennet is the eldest Bennet sister. Twenty-two years old when the novel begins, she is considered the most beautiful young lady in the neighbourhood. Her character is contrasted with Elizabeth's as sweeter, shyer, and equally sensible, but not as clever; her most notable trait is a desire to see only the good in others. Jane is closest to Elizabeth, and her character is often contrasted with that of Elizabeth.
* Mary Bennet is the only plain Bennet sister, and rather than join in some of the family activities, she reads, although is often impatient for display. She works hard for knowledge and accomplishment, but has neither genius nor taste. At the ball at Netherfield, she embarrasses her family by singing badly.
* Catherine "Kitty" Bennet is the fourth Bennet sister, aged seventeen. She is portrayed as a less headstrong but equally silly shadow of Lydia.
* Lydia Bennet is the youngest Bennet sister, aged fifteen. She is repeatedly described as frivolous and headstrong. Her main activity in life is socialising, especially flirting with the military officers stationed in the nearby town of Meryton. She dominates her older sister Kitty and is supported in the family by her mother. After she elopes with Wickham and he is paid to marry her, she shows no remorse for the embarrassment that her actions caused for her family, but acts as if she has made a wonderful match of which her sisters should be jealous.
* Charles Bingley is a young gentleman without an estate. His wealth was recent, and he is seeking a permanent home. He rents the Netherfield estate near Longbourn when the novel opens. Twenty-two years old at the start of the novel, handsome, good-natured, and wealthy, he is contrasted with his friend Darcy as being less intelligent but kinder and more charming, and hence more popular in Meryton. He lacks resolve and is easily influenced by others.
* Caroline Bingley is the snobbish sister of Charles Bingley. Clearly harbouring romantic intentions on Darcy herself, she views his growing attachment to Elizabeth Bennet with some jealousy, resulting in disdain and frequent verbal attempts to undermine Elizabeth and her society.
* George Wickham is an old acquaintance of Darcy from childhood, and an officer in the militia unit stationed near Meryton. Superficially charming, he rapidly forms a friendship with Elizabeth Bennet, prompting remarks upon his suitability as a potential husband. He spreads numerous tales about the wrongs Darcy has done to him, colouring the popular perception of the other man in local society. It is eventually revealed that these tales are distortions, and that Darcy was the wronged man in their acquaintance.
* William Collins, aged twenty-five, is Mr Bennet's clergyman cousin and, as Mr Bennet has no son, heir to his estate. Austen described him as "not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society." Collins boasts of his acquaintance with — and advantageous patronage from — Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Mr Bennet, Jane, and Elizabeth consider him pompous and lacking in common sense. Elizabeth's rejection of Collins' marriage proposal is welcomed by her father, regardless of the financial benefit to the family of such a match. Elizabeth is later somewhat distressed — although understanding — when her closest friend, Charlotte Lucas, consents to marry Collins out of her need for a settled position and to avoid the low status and lack of autonomy of an old maid.
* Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who has wealth and social standing, is haughty, domineering and condescending. Mr Collins, among others, enables these characteristics by deferring to her opinions and desires. Elizabeth, however, is duly respectful but not intimidated. Darcy, whilst respectful of their shared family connection, is offended by her lack of manners, especially towards Elizabeth, and later — when pressed by her demand that he not marry Elizabeth — is quick to assert his intentions to marry whom he wishes.
* Mr Gardiner is Mrs Bennet's brother, and a businessman. He is quite sensible and gentleman-like. He tries to help Lydia when she elopes with Wickham. His wife has close relationships with Elizabeth and Jane. Jane stays with the Gardiners in London for a while, and Elizabeth travels with them to Derbyshire, where she again meets Darcy.
* Georgiana Darcy is Mr Darcy's quiet and amiable younger sister, aged sixteen when the story begins. In a letter from Mr Darcy to Elizabeth, he describes that Wickham tried to persuade her to elope with him and inherit her 30,000 pounds. Later on, Elizabeth meets her at their home at Pemberly, where she is amiable and sweet. She is very happy with her brother's choosing of Elizabeth and maintains an extremely close relationship to both of them.
Interrelationships
A comprehensive web showing the relationships between the main characters in Pride and Prejudice
Major themes
Many critics take the novel's title as a starting point when analysing the major themes of Pride and Prejudice; however, Robert Fox cautions against reading too much into the title since commercial factors may have played a role in its selection. "After the success of Sense and Sensibility, nothing would have seemed more natural than to bring out another novel of the same author using again the formula of antithesis and alliteration for the title. It should be pointed out that the qualities of the title are not exclusively assigned to one or the other of the protagonists; both Elizabeth and Darcy display pride and prejudice."
A major theme in much of Austen's work is the importance of environment and upbringing on the development of young people's character and morality. Social standing and wealth are not necessarily advantages in her world, and a further theme common to Jane Austen's work is ineffectual parents. In Pride and Prejudice, the failure of Mr and Mrs Bennet (particularly the latter) as parents is blamed for Lydia's lack of moral judgment; Darcy, on the other hand, has been taught to be principled and scrupulously honourable, but is also proud and overbearing. Kitty, rescued from Lydia's bad influence and spending more time with her older sisters after they marry, is said to improve greatly in their superior society.
Style
Pride and Prejudice, like most of Jane Austen's works, employs the narrative technique of free indirect speech. This has been defined as "the free representation of a character's speech, by which one means, not words actually spoken by a character, but the words that typify the character's thoughts, or the way the character would think or speak, if she thought or spoke". By using narrative which adopts the tone and vocabulary of a particular character (in this case, that of Elizabeth), Austen invites the reader to follow events from Elizabeth's viewpoint, sharing her prejudices and misapprehensions. "The learning curve, while undergone by both protagonists, is disclosed to us solely through Elizabeth's point of view and her free indirect speech is essential ... for it is through it that we remain caught, if not stuck, within Elizabeth's misprisions."
Publication history
Modern paperback editions of Pride and Prejudice
The novel was originally titled First Impressions by Jane Austen, and was written between October 1796 and August 1797. On 1 November 1797 Austen's father gave the draft to London bookseller Thomas Cadell in hopes of it being published, but it was rejected. The unpublished manuscript was returned to Austen and it stayed with her.
Austen made significant revisions to the manuscript for First Impressions between 1811 and 1812. She later renamed the story Pride and Prejudice. In renaming the novel, Austen probably had in mind the "sufferings and oppositions" summarized in the final chapter of Fanny Burney's Cecilia, called "Pride and Prejudice", where the phrase appears three times in block capitals. It is possible that the novel's original title was altered to avoid confusion with other works. In the years between the completion of First Impressions and its revision into Pride and Prejudice, two other works had been published under that name: a novel by Margaret Holford and a comedy by Horace Smith.
Austen sold the copyright for the novel to Thomas Egerton of Whitehall in exchange for £110 (Austen had asked for £150). This proved a costly decision. Austen had published Sense and Sensibility on a commission basis, whereby she indemnified the publisher against any losses and received any profits, less costs and the publisher's commission. Unaware that Sense and Sensibility would sell out its edition, making her £140, she passed the copyright to Egerton for a one-off payment, meaning that all the risk (and all the profits) would be his. Jan Fergus has calculated that Egerton subsequently made around £450 from just the first two editions of the book.
Egerton published the first edition of Pride and Prejudice in three hardcover volumes in January 1813, priced at 18s. Favourable reviews saw this edition sold out, with a second edition published in November that year. A third edition was published in 1817.
Foreign language translations first appeared in 1813 in French; subsequent translations were published in German, Danish and Swedish. Pride and Prejudice was first published in the United States in August 1832 as Elizabeth Bennet or, Pride and Prejudice. The novel was also included in Richard Bentley's Standard Novel series in 1833. R. W. Chapman's scholarly edition of Pride and Prejudice, first published in 1923, has become the standard edition from which many modern publications of the novel are based.
Reception
The novel was well received, with three favourable reviews in the first months following publication. Jan Fergus calls it "her most popular novel, both with the public and with her family and friends", and quotes David Gilson's A Bibliography of Jane Austen (Clarendon, 1982), where it is stated that Pride and Prejudice was referred to as "the fashionable novel" by Anne Isabella Milbanke, later to be the wife of Lord Byron. However, others did not agree. Charlotte Brontë wrote to noted critic and reviewer George Henry Lewes after reading a review of his published in Fraser's Magazine in 1847. He had praised Jane Austen's work and declared that he, "... would rather have written Pride and Prejudice, or Tom Jones, than any of the Waverley Novels". Miss Brontë, though, found Pride and Prejudice a disappointment, "... a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers; but ... no open country, no fresh air, no blue hill, no bonny beck."
Modern popularity
* In 2003 the BBC conducted the largest ever poll for the "UK's Best-Loved Book" in which Pride and Prejudice came second, behind The Lord of the Rings.
* In a 2008 survey of more than 15,000 Australian readers, Pride and Prejudice came first in a list of the 101 best books ever written.
Adaptations
Film, television, and theatre
Pride and Prejudice has engendered numerous adaptations. Some of the notable film versions include that of 1940 starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier, that of 2003 starring Kam Heskin and Orlando Seale (which placed the characters of Pride and Prejudice in a Mormon university, and was directed by Andrew Black and that of 2005 starring Keira Knightley (in an Oscar-nominated performance) and Matthew Macfadyen. Notable television versions include two by the BBC: the 1995 version starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, and a 1980 version starring Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul. A 1936 stage version was created by Helen Jerome played at the St. James's Theatre in London, starring Celia Johnson and Hugh Williams. First Impressions was a 1959 Broadway musical version starring Polly Bergen, Farley Granger, and Hermione Gingold. In 1995, a musical concept album was written by Bernard J. Taylor, with Peter Karrie in the role of Mr Darcy and Claire Moore in the role of Elizabeth Bennet. A new stage production, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, The New Musical, was presented in concert on 21 October 2008 in Rochester, New York with Colin Donnell as Darcy. The popular film Bridget Jones's Diary is a contemporary retelling, starring Renee Zellweger as a modern day Elizabeth, and Colin Firth, once again, as Mr Darcy.
Bride and Prejudice, starring Aishwarya Rai, is a Bollywood adaptation of the novel, while Pride & Prejudice: A Latter-Day Comedy (2003) places the novel in contemporary times. The off-Broadway musical I Love You Because reverses the gender of the main roles, set in modern day New York City. The Japanese comic Hana Yori Dango by Yoko Kamio, in which the wealthy, arrogant and proud protagonist, Doumyouji Tsukasa, falls in love with a poor, lower-class girl named Makino Tsukushi, is loosely based on Pride and Prejudice. A 2008 Israeli television six-part miniseries set the story in the Galilee with Mr Darcy a well-paid worker in the high-tech industry.
Pride and Prejudice has also crossed into the science fiction and horror genres. In the 1997 episode of science fiction comedy Red Dwarf entitled "Beyond a Joke", the crew of the space ship relax in a virtual reality rendition of "Pride and Prejudice Land" in "Jane Austen World". The central premise of the television miniseries Lost in Austen is a modern woman suddenly swapping lives with that of Elizabeth Bennet. In February 2009, it was announced that Elton John's Rocket Pictures production company was making a film, Pride and Predator, based on the story, but with the added twist of an alien landing in Longbourne.
Literature
The novel has inspired a number of other works that are not direct adaptations. Books inspired by Pride and Prejudice include: Mr. Darcy's Daughters and The Exploits and Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy by Elizabeth Aston; Pemberley: Or Pride and Prejudice Continued and An Unequal Marriage: Or Pride and Prejudice Twenty Years Later by Emma Tennant; The Book of Ruth (ASIN B00262ZRBM) by Helen Baker; Jane Austen Ruined My Life and Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart by Beth Pattillo; Precipitation - A Continuation of Miss Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice by Helen Baker; Searching for Pemberley by Mary Simonsen and Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife and its sequel Darcy & Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberly by Linda Berdoll. In Gwyn Cready's comedic romance novel, Seducing Mr. Darcy, the heroine lands in Pride and Prejudice by way of magic massage, has a fling with Darcy and unknowingly changes the rest of the story. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding, which started as a newspaper column before becoming a novel and a film, was inspired by the then-current BBC adaptation; both works share a Mr. Darcy of serious disposition (both played by Colin Firth), a foolish match-making mother, and a detached affectionate father, as well as the protagonist overhearing Mr. Darcy speaking about her disparagingly, followed by the caddish character gaining the protagonist's affections by telling lies about Mr. Darcy. The self-referential in-jokes continue with the sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.
In March 2009, Quirk Books released Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which takes Austen's actual, original work, and laces it with zombie hordes, cannibalism, ninjas, and ultra-violent mayhem. Scheduled for publication in March 2010, Quirk Books has announced that it will produce a prequel which deals with Elizabeth Bennett's early days as a zombie hunter, entitled Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls.
Yet another angle was introduced by Monica Fairview, who wrote about Miss Caroline Bingley in The Other Mr Darcy, published in October 2009. Pride and Prejudice has also inspired many scholarly articles and books including: So Odd a Mixture: Along the Autism Spectrum in 'Pride and Prejudice' by Phyllis Ferguson Bottomer, Forewords by Eileen Sutherland and Tony Attwood.
Marvel has also published their take on this classic, releasing a short comic series of five issues that stays true to the original storyline. The first issue was published on 1 April 2009 and was written by Nancy Hajeski.
Author Amanda Grange wrote Mr. Darcy's Diary in 2007 that tells the original story of Pride and Prejudice from the view of Mr Darcy. In 2009, she wrote Mr. Darcy, Vampyre which reimagines Darcy as a vampire after he has married Elizabeth. Following the same premise is Regina Jeffers' "Vampire Darcy's Desire", which retells Pride and Prejudice on the basis that Darcy is a dhampir (part-human, part-vampire) joined by his lover Elizabeth to fight the evil vampire George Wickham.
傲慢与偏见[小说]-作者简介
简·奥斯汀简· 奥斯汀
简· 奥斯汀出生于1775年12月16日，是乔治·奥斯汀家的第七个孩子。简·奥斯汀一直过着安静平和的隐居生活，她一生未婚。英国文学史上出现过几次趣味革命，文学口味的翻新几乎影响了所有作家的声誉，唯独莎士比亚和奥斯汀经久不衰。而这位伟大的女性一生只走过了42个春夏秋冬。1817年7月8日，她死于温彻斯特，葬于当地大教堂。
她的父亲是斯蒂文顿的教区长，也是一位藏书颇丰的博学之土。她的母亲名叫卡桑德拉·李·奥斯汀，出身于贵族家庭。简只有一个姐姐，叫卡桑德拉，并一生都与她保持着密切的联系。简的同胞兄弟从事着不同的职业：有几个担任圣职，一个是银行家，其他的则在军队服役。尽管她的家庭不是名门望族，也没有富甲一方，但乔治·奥斯汀很重视教育，甚至对女儿也不例外。简和卡桑德拉上了几年学，之后就在家里学习，主要是广泛阅读各种书籍和资料，并从父兄们与辅导的学生之间有趣的讨论中获益。通过自己的努力，简熟知18世纪的英国文学。
简· 奥斯汀生前匿名出版了四部小说：《理智与情感》(1811)、《傲慢与偏见}》(1813)、《曼斯菲尔德庄园》(1814) 和《艾玛》(1815)。另外两部，《诺桑格修道院》和《劝导》是她去世后于 1817年出版的。她的这些小说以其对英国社会和风俗的讽刺性描述而闻名于世。
奥斯汀所处的英国社会是一个阶级等级分明的社会。而阶级的区分主要源于家族与财富。奥斯汀在她的作品中经常批评英国上层阶级的自负和偏见。简注意区分人的内在价值 (个人品德)和外在价值(地位和财产)。简虽然经常讽刺势利小人，但也嘲笑出身低微的人缺乏教养和举止不当。总的来说，奥斯汀是一个现实主义作家，她所描绘的英国是一个缺少变化但阶级意识强烈的社会。
从18世纪末到19世纪初，“感伤小说”和“哥特小说”充斥英国文坛，而奥斯汀的小说破旧立新，一反常规地展现了当时尚未受到资本主义工业革命冲击的英国乡村中产阶级的日常生活和田园风光。她的作品往往通过喜剧性的场面嘲讽人们的愚蠢、自私、势利和盲目自信等可鄙可笑的弱点。奥斯丁的小说出现在19世纪初叶，一扫风行一时的假浪漫主义潮流，继承和发展了英国18世纪优秀的现实主义传统，为19世纪现实主义小说的高潮做了准备。虽然其作品反映的广度和深度有限，但她的作品如“两寸牙雕”，从一个小窗口中窥视到整个社会形态和人情世故，对改变当时小说创作中的风气起了好的作用，在英国小说的发展史上有承上启下的意义，被誉为地位“可与莎士比亚平起平坐”的作家。 她最喜爱的作家是18世纪古典主义和理智的典范塞缪尔·约翰逊。奥斯汀的小说表现出一种情感上的模棱两可，以及对聪明才智与自然美的赞赏，这些特点使其作品和浪漫主义走到一起。遗憾的是，简·奥斯汀的小说在她生前并未受到好评。但是后来，尤其是在20世纪，她的小说越来越受欢迎。如今，简·奥斯汀已经跻身于英国真正伟大的作家之列。简·奥斯汀是世界上为数极少的著名女性作家之一，介于新古典主义和浪漫运动的抒情主义之间的“小幅画家”和“家庭小说”家，文学评论家眼里堪与莎士比亚在不朽性方面相提并论的英国作家。
傲慢与偏见[小说]-创作背景
《傲慢与偏见》是简·奥斯汀最早完成的作品，她在1796年开始动笔，取名为《最初的印象》，1797年8月完成。她父亲看后很感动，特意拿给汤玛·卡士德尔，请他出版，但对方一口回绝，使得他们十分失望。后来，她重写了《最初的印象》，并改名为“傲慢与偏见”于1813年1月出版。
傲慢与偏见[小说]-内容简介
女主角：：伊丽莎白
男主角：达西
重要配角：简（伊丽莎白的姐姐）、宾利（达西的好朋友）
内容提要
《傲慢与偏见》是描写伊丽莎白•贝内特和威廉•达西这对青年男女之间的爱情故事，起初他们俩人总是话不投机。故事发生在18世纪后期，距离英国伦敦，效外约50英里的赫特福德郡（位于英国英格兰东南部），书中生动地描绘了当时妇女生活的艰难，她们几乎都不能把握自己的命运。由于18世纪的英国社会十分看重社会地位和个人举止风度与才艺，女人们都竭尽所能去寻觅富有的丈夫。
详细内容
小乡绅班纳特有五个待字闺中的千金，班纳特太太整天操心着为女儿物色称心如意的丈夫。 新来的邻居彬格莱(Charles)是个有钱的单身汉，他立即成了班纳特太太追猎的目标。在一次舞会上，彬格莱对班纳特家的大女儿简(Jane)一见钟情，班纳特太太为此欣喜若狂。参加舞会的还有彬格莱的好友达西(Darcy)。他仪表堂堂，非常富有，许多姑娘纷纷向他投去羡慕的目光；但他非常骄傲，认为她们都不配做他的舞伴，其中包括简的妹妹伊丽莎白(Elizabeth)。伊丽莎白自尊心很强，决定不去理睬这个傲慢的家伙。可是不久，达西对她活泼可爱的举止产生了好感，在另一次舞会上主动请她同舞，却遭到伊丽莎白的拒绝，达西狼狈不堪。
彬格莱的妹妹卡罗琳(Caroline)一心追求达西，她发现达西有意于伊丽莎白，妒火中烧，决意从中阻挠。而遭到伊丽莎白冷遇的达西也鄙视班纳特太太及其小女儿丽迪亚(Lydia)的粗俗。在妹妹和好友达西的劝说下，彬格莱不辞而别，去了伦敦，但简对他还是一片深情。
班纳特没有儿子，他的家产将由远亲柯林斯(Collins)继承。柯林斯粗鄙无知，却善于趋炎附势，居然当上牧师。他向伊丽莎白求婚，遭拒绝后，马上与她的女友夏洛特(Charlotte)结婚。
附近小镇的民团联队里有个英俊潇洒的青年军官威肯(Wickham)，人人都夸他，伊丽莎白也对他产生了好感。一天，他对伊丽莎白说，他父亲是达西家的总管，达西的父亲曾给他一大笔遗赠，却被达西吞没了。伊丽莎白听后，对达西更加反感。
柯林斯夫妇请伊丽莎白去他们家作客，伊丽莎白在那里遇到达西的姨妈凯瑟琳(Catherine)，不久，又见到了达西。同时也认识了威廉少校，从他口中得知达西藏起她姐姐的信，使伊丽莎白对达西的讨厌达到顶峰。所以在达西无法抑制自己对伊丽莎白的爱慕之情，向她求婚的时候，但态度还是那么傲慢。伊丽莎白坚决地谢绝了。这一打击使达西第一次认识到骄傲自负所带来的恶果，他痛苦地离开了她，临走前留下一封长信作了几点解释：他承认彬格莱不辞而别是他促使的，原因是他不满班纳特太太的轻浮和鄙俗，并且认为简并没有钟情于彬格莱；威肯说的却全是谎言，事实是威肯自己把那笔遗产挥霍殆尽，还企图勾引达西的妹妹私奔。伊丽莎白读信后十分后悔，既对错怪达西感到内疚，又为母亲的行为羞愧，还对自己的偏见深深懊悔。她逐渐改变了对达西的看法。
第二年夏天，伊丽莎白随舅父母来到达西的庄园，与他再次相遇。她发现达西变了，不仅对人彬彬有礼，在当地很受人们尊敬，而且对他妹妹非常爱护。她对他的偏见消除了。正当其时，伊丽莎白接到家信，说小妹丽迪亚随身负累累赌债的威肯私奔了。这种家丑使伊丽莎白非常难堪，以为达西会更瞧不起自己。但事实出乎她的意料，达西得知上述消息以后，在舅父母的帮主下，不仅替威肯还清赌债，还给了他一笔巨款，让他与丽迪亚完婚。自此以后，伊丽莎白往日对达西的种种偏见统统化为真诚之爱。
彬格莱和简经过一番周折，言归于好，一对情人沉浸在欢乐之中。而一心想让自己的女儿安妮(Anne)嫁给达西的凯瑟琳夫人匆匆赶来，蛮横地要伊丽莎白保证不与达西结婚。伊丽莎白对这一无理要求断然拒绝。此事传到达西耳中。他知道伊丽莎白已经改变了对自己的看法，诚恳地再次向她求婚。到此，一对曾因傲慢和偏见而延搁婚事的有情人终成眷属。
傲慢与偏见[小说]-语言特色
《傲慢与偏见》是简·奥斯丁(Jane Austen)的代表作品，写于十八世纪九十年代，其影响经历两世纪而不衰，并对后代作家产生影响，其重要的原因之一就是小说的语言魅力。在语言中对话是文学作品塑造人物形象最基本的手段之一，简.奥斯丁笔下的人物对话鲜明生动，颇具个性，含义丰富，耐人寻味。本文用会话合作原则分析《傲慢与偏见》书中的人物对话风格，解开简·奥斯丁作品中人物对话语言风格机智幽默妙趣横生之谜。奥斯丁的语言是经过锤炼的，她在对话艺术上讲究幽默、诙谐风趣、讽刺，这种艺术创新使她的作品具有自己的特色，而这种富有特色的语言在《傲慢与偏见》中发挥得尤为淋漓尽致。
比如在写班纳特太太时，作者就这样写到：“只要碰到不称心的事，她就自以为神经衰弱。”又在班纳特太太与其丈夫的对话中写到：“我的好老爷，你怎么舍得这样糟蹋自己的亲生女儿？你是在故意叫我气恼，好让你自己得意吧。你半点也不体谅我的神经衰弱。”“你真错怪了我，我的好太太。我非常尊重你的神经。它们是我的老朋友。至少在最近二十年以来，我一直听到你郑重其事地提到它们。”活灵活现的语言，绝妙的嘲讽与诙谐，立刻使两个不同的人物形象在读者脑海中变得立体而清晰。
再如另一个片段的描写：咖苔琳夫人的马车路过门口，柯林斯牧师全家手忙脚乱出去迎接，伊丽莎白却说：“就是这么回事吗？我还以为是猪猡闯进了花园呢。”直率的挖苦，戳穿了咖苔琳夫人自己吹起来的唬人架势，也使伊丽莎白这个蔑视权贵的形象在人们脑海中留下了更深的印象，越发觉得她的可爱。奥斯汀还善于通过最普通的语言让人物自己暴露自己。例如小说开头时，班纳特太太曾说郎格太太“是个自私自利、假仁假义的女人，我瞧不起她。”而到故事的结尾，当其大女儿与彬格莱的婚事已成定局时，她又说“我觉得郎格太太这个人真是太好了。” 这两段截然相反的话，让读者不禁哑然失笑的同时，又多么生动地表现出班纳特太太的反复无常、自我中心。这样的例子在书中还有很多。一个曾充满偏见的伊丽莎白、一个曾浑身傲慢的达西、一对有趣的班纳特夫妇、一个可笑的柯林斯、众多出场人物、再加上喜剧效果和特殊写作技巧，这就是《傲慢与偏见》，却不是它的全部。奥斯汀的幽默是需要反复咀嚼的。
傲慢与偏见[小说]-评价
1、奥斯丁在这部小说中通过班纳特五个女儿对待终身大事的不同处理，表现出乡镇中产阶级家庭出身的少女对婚姻爱情问题的不同态度，从而反映了作者本人的婚姻观：为了财产、金钱和地位而结婚是错误的；而结婚不考虑上述因素也是愚蠢的。因此，她既反对为金钱而结婚，也反对把婚姻当儿戏。她强调理想婚姻的重要性，并把男女双方感情作为缔结理想婚姻的基石。书中的女主人公伊丽莎白出身于小地主家庭，为富豪子弟达西所热爱。达西不顾门第和财富的差距，向她求婚，却遭到拒绝。伊丽莎白对他的误会和偏见是一个原因，但主要的是她讨厌他的傲慢。因为达西的这种傲慢实际上是地位差异的反映，只要存在这种傲慢，他与伊丽莎白之间就不可能有共同的思想感情，也不可能有理想的婚姻。以后伊丽莎白亲眼观察了达西的为人处世和一系列所作所为，特别是看到他改变了过去那种骄傲自负的神态，消除了对他的误会和偏见，从而与他缔结了美满姻缘。伊丽莎白对达西先后几次求婚的不同态度，实际上反映了女性对人格独立和平等权利的追求。这是伊丽莎白这一人物形象的进步意义。在《傲慢与偏见》中，奥斯丁还写了伊丽莎白的几个姐妹和女友的婚事，这些都是陪衬，用来与女主人公理想的婚姻相对照。如夏洛特和柯林斯尽管婚后过着舒适的物质生活，但他们之间没有爱情，这种婚姻实际上是掩盖在华丽外衣下的社会悲剧。还有她的姐姐也是完美结局的。不过他们所经历的远远没有伊丽莎白和达西这样从讨厌误会到相爱的，一开始就相爱，有点像一见钟情的味道。从而看出，经历波折的爱情才是完美深刻的。
奥斯丁的小说尽管题材比较狭窄，故事相当平淡，但是她善于在日常平凡事物中塑造鲜明的人物形象，不论是伊丽莎白、达西那种作者认为值得肯定的人物，还是威肯、柯林斯这类遭到讽刺挖苦的对象，都写得真实动人。同时，奥斯丁的语言是经过锤炼的，她在对话艺术上讲究幽默、讽刺，常以风趣诙谐的语言来烘托人物的性格特征。这种艺术创新使她的作品具有自己的特色。
2、爱情是小说永恒的主题，《傲慢与偏见》以爱情和婚姻为主要内容，自然是吸引读者的。但描写爱情的小说不计其数（言情小说似乎就很多产），要像《傲慢与偏见》这样在世界文学中占有一席之地，也并不是一件容易的事。《傲慢与偏见》之所以称得上世界文学名著而不流俗于一般爱情小说，自有它的魅力所在。那么到底是什么使它脱颖而出呢？一部好的小说，内容、情节是非常重要的。《傲慢与偏见》的内容并不复杂，情节却引人入胜。读过本书的读者应该对小说开篇的一句话记忆犹新：“凡是有财产的单身汉，必定需要娶位太太，这已经成了一条举世公认的真理。(It is a true universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.) ” 在英文中in want of 是指客观需要，而不是主观想要；这简简单单的一句话却深深反映出资产阶级婚姻的实质无非是金钱交易与利益的结合，可见作者的目光之透彻犀利，也正应证了前面所说的细微之处却能反映大问题。小说开篇就这样牢牢抓住了读者，接着通过班纳特夫妇风趣的对话，把读者带进一个女儿多得发愁的中产阶级家庭中。这个家庭家道已经中落，却还有5个待嫁的女儿，而且不幸班纳特先生又没有儿子，其财产将由表亲柯林斯继承。在资产阶级社会，如果女孩没有丰厚的嫁妆，就是再有才貌，也难找到体面的丈夫，就像书中达西所说：“她们倘使想嫁给有地位的男人，机会可就大大减少了。”所以处在婚姻要权衡双方阶级地位和金钱利害的情况下，这五位姑娘的出嫁前景确实不太美妙。小说采用古典的现实主义笔法，描写了四对青年男女的结合，通过班纳特五个女儿对待终身大事的不同处理，表现出乡镇中产阶级家庭出身的少女对婚姻爱情问题的不同态度，也借此表达了作者本人的婚姻观，即为财产打算的婚姻是没有幸福的，结婚不考虑财产是愚蠢的，讲究门第的包办婚姻不堪忍受，把婚姻当儿戏毫不足取，理想的婚姻要以感情为基础。书中的女主人公伊丽莎白与达西不顾门第和财富的差距，真心相爱，美满结合，是作者所颂扬的幸福婚姻。从伊丽莎白的身上，我们可以看到女性对人格独立和平等权利的追求；作者虽然没有反映出她那个时代的阶级矛盾和阶级斗争，然而她的强烈的阶级意识却表现了出来，对经济、财产决定婚姻关系乃至生活命运的揭露也可谓入木三分。西方有位马克思主义批评家大卫•戴克斯曾半开玩笑的说，在“揭露人类行为的经济原因”方面，奥斯汀“从某种意义上可以说在马克思以前就是马克思主义者了。”
The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, moral rightness, education and marriage in her aristocratic society of early 19th century England. Elizabeth is the second eldest of five daughters of a country gentleman landed in the fictional town of Meryton in Hertfordshire, not far from London.
Though the story's setting is uniquely turn of the 19th century, it retains a fascination for modern readers, continuing near the top of lists of 'most loved books' such as the Big Read. It still receives considerable attention from literary critics. This modern interest has resulted in a number of dramatic adaptations and an abundance of novels and stories imitating Austen's memorable characters or themes.
To date, the book has sold some 20 million copies worldwide.
Plot summary
The novel revolves around the Bennet family. The five marriageable daughters and mother will be without a home and income once Mr. Bennet dies: The terms on which Mr. Bennet inherited Longbourn ("fee tail male," now abolished by statute in England) prohibit women from inheriting it, with the effect that instead one of Mr. Bennet's collateral relatives will inherit the estate. The mother worries about this predicament, and wishes to find husbands for them quickly. The father doesn't seem to be worried at all, and Elizabeth, the heroine, has decided to only marry for love, even though she has no real ideas about how she will survive financially. She is of the opinion that her sister Jane, being kind and beautiful, will find a wealthy husband, and that she can then live with her. As the novel opens, Mr Bingley, a wealthy young gentleman, rents a country estate near the Bennets called Netherfield. He arrives in town accompanied by his fashionable sisters and his good friend, Mr Darcy. While Bingley is well-received in the community, Darcy begins his acquaintance with smug condescension and proud distaste for all the 'country' people. Bingley and Elizabeth Bennet's older sister Jane begin to grow close. Elizabeth's best friend Charlotte advises that Jane should be more affectionate to Bingley, as they are both shy, and he may not know that she is indeed interested in him. Elizabeth disregards her friend's opinion, saying that Jane is shy and modest, and that if Bingley can't see how she feels, he is a fool. With that, she never even tells Jane what Charlotte advised. Elizabeth is stung by Darcy's haughty rejection of her at a local dance and decides to match his coldness with her own wit.
At the same time Elizabeth begins a friendship with Mr Wickham, a militia officer who relates a prior acquaintance with Darcy. Wickham tells her that he has been seriously mistreated by Darcy. Elizabeth immediately seizes upon this information as another reason to hate Darcy. Ironically, but unbeknownst to her, Darcy finds himself gradually drawn to Elizabeth.
Just as Bingley appears to be on the point of proposing marriage to Jane Bennet, he quits Netherfield, leaving Jane confused and upset. Elizabeth is convinced that Bingley's sister has conspired with Darcy to separate Jane and Bingley.
Before Bingley leaves, Mr Collins, the male relative who is to inherit Longbourn, makes a sudden appearance and stays with the Bennets. He is a recently ordained clergyman employed by the wealthy and patronizing Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Though he was partially entreated to visit by his patroness, Collins has another reason for visiting: he wishes to find a wife from among the Bennet sisters. Mr Bennet and Elizabeth are amused by his self-important and pedantic behaviour. He immediately enters pursuit of Jane; however, when Mrs Bennet mentions her preoccupation with Mr Bingley, he turns to Elizabeth. He soon proposes marriage to Elizabeth, who refuses him, much to her mother's distress. Collins quickly recovers and proposes to Elizabeth's close friend, Charlotte Lucas, who immediately accepts him. Once the marriage is arranged, Charlotte asks Elizabeth to come for an extended visit.
In the spring, Elizabeth joins Charlotte and her cousin at his parish in Kent. The parish is adjacent to Rosings Park, the grand manor of Mr Darcy's aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, where Elizabeth is frequently invited. While calling on Lady Catherine, Mr Darcy encounters Elizabeth. She discovers from a cousin of Darcy that it was he who separated Bingley and Jane. Soon after, Darcy admits his love of Elizabeth and proposes to her. Insulted by his high-handed and insulting manner of proposing, Elizabeth refuses him. When he asks why she should refuse him, she confronts him with his sabotage of Bingley's relationship with Jane and Wickham's account of their dealings.
Deeply shaken by Elizabeth's vehemence and accusations, Darcy writes her a letter justifying his actions. The letter reveals that Wickham soon dissipated his legacy-settlement (from Darcy's father's estate), then came back to Darcy requesting permanent patronage; and that he became angry when rejected, accusing Darcy of cheating him. To exact revenge and to make off with part of the Darcy family fortune, he attempted to seduce Darcy's young sister Georgiana—to gain her hand and fortune, almost persuading her to elope with him—before he was found out and stopped. Towards Bingley and Jane, Darcy justifies his actions from having observed that Jane did not show any reciprocal interest in his friend; thus his aim in separating them was mainly to protect Bingley from heartache.
Darcy admits he was concerned about the disadvantageous connection with Elizabeth's family, especially her embarrassing mother and wild younger sisters. After reading the letter, Elizabeth begins to question both her family's behaviour and Wickham's credibility. She concludes that Wickham is not as trustworthy as his easy manners would indicate, that he had lied to her previously, and that her early impressions of Darcy might have been inaccurate. Soon after receiving the letter, Elizabeth returns home.
Elizabeth tells her father that Darcy was responsible for uniting Lydia and Wickham. This is one of the two earliest illustrations of Pride and Prejudice. The clothing styles reflect the time the illustration was engraved (the 1830s), not the time the novel was written or set.
Some months later, during a tour of Derbyshire with her aunt and uncle, Elizabeth visits Pemberley, Darcy's estate. Darcy's housekeeper, an older woman who has known Darcy since childhood, presents Elizabeth and her relatives with a flattering and benevolent impression of his character. Unexpectedly, Darcy arrives at Pemberley as they tour its grounds. He makes an effort to be gracious and welcoming to them, thus strengthening Elizabeth's newly favourable impression of him. Darcy then introduces Elizabeth to his sister Georgiana. He treats her uncle and aunt very well, and finds them of a more sound character than her other relatives, whom he previously dismissed as socially inferior.
Elizabeth and Darcy's renewed acquaintance is cut short when news arrives that Elizabeth's younger sister Lydia has run away with Wickham. Initially, the Bennets believe that Wickham and Lydia have eloped, but soon it is surmised that Wickham has no plans to marry Lydia. Lydia's antics threaten the family's reputation and the Bennet sisters with social ruin. Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle hurriedly leave Derbyshire, and Elizabeth is convinced that Darcy will avoid her from now on.
Soon, thanks to the intervention of Elizabeth's uncle, Lydia and Wickham are found and married. After the marriage, Wickham and Lydia make a visit to Longbourn. While bragging to Elizabeth, Lydia comments that Darcy was present at the wedding. Surprised, Elizabeth sends an inquiry to her aunt, from whom she discovers that Darcy was responsible for both finding the couple and arranging their marriage at great expense to himself.
Soon after, Bingley and Darcy return to the area. Bingley proposes marriage to Jane, and this news starts rumors that Darcy will propose to Elizabeth. Lady Catherine travels to Longbourn with the sole aim of confronting Elizabeth and demanding that she never accept such a proposal. Elizabeth refuses to bow to Lady Catherine's demands. When news of this obstinance reaches Darcy, it convinces him that her opinion of him has changed. When he visits, he once again proposes marriage. Elizabeth accepts, and the two become engaged.
The final chapters of the book establish the future of the characters. Elizabeth and Darcy settle at Pemberley where Mr Bennet visits often. Mrs Bennet remains frivolous and silly; she often visits the new Mrs Bingley and talks of the new Mrs Darcy. Later, Jane and Bingley move from Netherfield to avoid Jane's mother and Meryton relations and to locate near the Darcys in Derbyshire. Elizabeth and Jane manage to teach Kitty greater social grace, and Mary learns to accept the difference between herself and her sisters' beauty and mixes more with the outside world. Lydia and Wickham continue to move often, leaving their debts for Jane and Elizabeth to pay off. At Pemberley, Elizabeth and Georgiana grow close, though Georgiana is surprised by Elizabeth's playful treatment of Darcy. Lady Catherine stays very angry with her nephew's marriage but over time the relationship between the two is repaired and she eventually decides to visit them. Elizabeth and Darcy also remain close with her uncle and aunt.
Main characters
[show]Character genealogy
Mr Hurst
Mrs Hurst
Mr Philips
Caroline Bingley
Mrs Philips
Mr Charles Bingley
Mrs Gardiner
Jane Bennet
Mr Gardiner
Elizabeth Bennet
Mrs Bennet
Mary Bennet
Mr Bennet
Catherine "Kitty" Bennet
Mr William Collins
Lydia Bennet
Charlotte Lucas
Mr George Wickham
(Old) Mr Darcy
Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy
Lady Anne Darcy
Georgiana Darcy
Lady Catherine De Bourgh
Anne De Bourgh
Lord ——
Colonel Fitzwilliam
* Elizabeth Bennet is the main character and protagonist. The reader sees the unfolding plot and the other characters mostly from her viewpoint. The second of the Bennet daughters at twenty years old, she is intelligent, lively, attractive, and witty, but with a tendency to judge on first impressions and perhaps to be a little selective of the evidence upon which she bases her judgments. As the plot begins, her closest relationships are with her father, her sister Jane, her aunt Mrs Gardiner, and her best friend Charlotte Lucas.
* Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy is the main male character. Twenty-eight years old and unmarried, Darcy is the wealthy owner of the famous family estate of Pemberley in Derbyshire. Handsome, tall, and intelligent, but not convivial, his aloof decorum and moral rectitude are seen by many as an excessive pride and concern for social status. He makes a poor impression on strangers, such as the gentry of Meryton, but is valued by those who know him well.
* Mr Bennet has a wife and five daughters, and seems to have inurred himself to his fate. A bookish and intelligent gentleman somewhat withdrawn from society, he dislikes the indecorous behaviours of his wife and three younger daughters; but he offers little beyond mockery by way of correcting them. Rather than guiding these daughters to more sensible understanding, he is instead content to laugh at them. He relates very well with his two elder daughters, Jane and Elizabeth, showing them much more love and respect than his wife and younger daughters.
* Mrs Bennet is the wife of her social superior Mr Bennet, and mother of Elizabeth and her sisters. She is frivolous, excitable, and narrow-minded. She is susceptible to attacks of tremors and palpitations; her public manners and social climbing are embarrassing to Jane and Elizabeth. Her favourite daughter is the youngest, Lydia.
Lady Catherine confronts Elizabeth about Darcy, on the title page of the first illustrated edition. This is the other of the first two illustrations of the novel.
* Jane Bennet is the eldest Bennet sister. Twenty-two years old when the novel begins, she is considered the most beautiful young lady in the neighbourhood. Her character is contrasted with Elizabeth's as sweeter, shyer, and equally sensible, but not as clever; her most notable trait is a desire to see only the good in others. Jane is closest to Elizabeth, and her character is often contrasted with that of Elizabeth.
* Mary Bennet is the only plain Bennet sister, and rather than join in some of the family activities, she reads, although is often impatient for display. She works hard for knowledge and accomplishment, but has neither genius nor taste. At the ball at Netherfield, she embarrasses her family by singing badly.
* Catherine "Kitty" Bennet is the fourth Bennet sister, aged seventeen. She is portrayed as a less headstrong but equally silly shadow of Lydia.
* Lydia Bennet is the youngest Bennet sister, aged fifteen. She is repeatedly described as frivolous and headstrong. Her main activity in life is socialising, especially flirting with the military officers stationed in the nearby town of Meryton. She dominates her older sister Kitty and is supported in the family by her mother. After she elopes with Wickham and he is paid to marry her, she shows no remorse for the embarrassment that her actions caused for her family, but acts as if she has made a wonderful match of which her sisters should be jealous.
* Charles Bingley is a young gentleman without an estate. His wealth was recent, and he is seeking a permanent home. He rents the Netherfield estate near Longbourn when the novel opens. Twenty-two years old at the start of the novel, handsome, good-natured, and wealthy, he is contrasted with his friend Darcy as being less intelligent but kinder and more charming, and hence more popular in Meryton. He lacks resolve and is easily influenced by others.
* Caroline Bingley is the snobbish sister of Charles Bingley. Clearly harbouring romantic intentions on Darcy herself, she views his growing attachment to Elizabeth Bennet with some jealousy, resulting in disdain and frequent verbal attempts to undermine Elizabeth and her society.
* George Wickham is an old acquaintance of Darcy from childhood, and an officer in the militia unit stationed near Meryton. Superficially charming, he rapidly forms a friendship with Elizabeth Bennet, prompting remarks upon his suitability as a potential husband. He spreads numerous tales about the wrongs Darcy has done to him, colouring the popular perception of the other man in local society. It is eventually revealed that these tales are distortions, and that Darcy was the wronged man in their acquaintance.
* William Collins, aged twenty-five, is Mr Bennet's clergyman cousin and, as Mr Bennet has no son, heir to his estate. Austen described him as "not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society." Collins boasts of his acquaintance with — and advantageous patronage from — Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Mr Bennet, Jane, and Elizabeth consider him pompous and lacking in common sense. Elizabeth's rejection of Collins' marriage proposal is welcomed by her father, regardless of the financial benefit to the family of such a match. Elizabeth is later somewhat distressed — although understanding — when her closest friend, Charlotte Lucas, consents to marry Collins out of her need for a settled position and to avoid the low status and lack of autonomy of an old maid.
* Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who has wealth and social standing, is haughty, domineering and condescending. Mr Collins, among others, enables these characteristics by deferring to her opinions and desires. Elizabeth, however, is duly respectful but not intimidated. Darcy, whilst respectful of their shared family connection, is offended by her lack of manners, especially towards Elizabeth, and later — when pressed by her demand that he not marry Elizabeth — is quick to assert his intentions to marry whom he wishes.
* Mr Gardiner is Mrs Bennet's brother, and a businessman. He is quite sensible and gentleman-like. He tries to help Lydia when she elopes with Wickham. His wife has close relationships with Elizabeth and Jane. Jane stays with the Gardiners in London for a while, and Elizabeth travels with them to Derbyshire, where she again meets Darcy.
* Georgiana Darcy is Mr Darcy's quiet and amiable younger sister, aged sixteen when the story begins. In a letter from Mr Darcy to Elizabeth, he describes that Wickham tried to persuade her to elope with him and inherit her 30,000 pounds. Later on, Elizabeth meets her at their home at Pemberly, where she is amiable and sweet. She is very happy with her brother's choosing of Elizabeth and maintains an extremely close relationship to both of them.
Interrelationships
A comprehensive web showing the relationships between the main characters in Pride and Prejudice
Major themes
Many critics take the novel's title as a starting point when analysing the major themes of Pride and Prejudice; however, Robert Fox cautions against reading too much into the title since commercial factors may have played a role in its selection. "After the success of Sense and Sensibility, nothing would have seemed more natural than to bring out another novel of the same author using again the formula of antithesis and alliteration for the title. It should be pointed out that the qualities of the title are not exclusively assigned to one or the other of the protagonists; both Elizabeth and Darcy display pride and prejudice."
A major theme in much of Austen's work is the importance of environment and upbringing on the development of young people's character and morality. Social standing and wealth are not necessarily advantages in her world, and a further theme common to Jane Austen's work is ineffectual parents. In Pride and Prejudice, the failure of Mr and Mrs Bennet (particularly the latter) as parents is blamed for Lydia's lack of moral judgment; Darcy, on the other hand, has been taught to be principled and scrupulously honourable, but is also proud and overbearing. Kitty, rescued from Lydia's bad influence and spending more time with her older sisters after they marry, is said to improve greatly in their superior society.
Style
Pride and Prejudice, like most of Jane Austen's works, employs the narrative technique of free indirect speech. This has been defined as "the free representation of a character's speech, by which one means, not words actually spoken by a character, but the words that typify the character's thoughts, or the way the character would think or speak, if she thought or spoke". By using narrative which adopts the tone and vocabulary of a particular character (in this case, that of Elizabeth), Austen invites the reader to follow events from Elizabeth's viewpoint, sharing her prejudices and misapprehensions. "The learning curve, while undergone by both protagonists, is disclosed to us solely through Elizabeth's point of view and her free indirect speech is essential ... for it is through it that we remain caught, if not stuck, within Elizabeth's misprisions."
Publication history
Modern paperback editions of Pride and Prejudice
The novel was originally titled First Impressions by Jane Austen, and was written between October 1796 and August 1797. On 1 November 1797 Austen's father gave the draft to London bookseller Thomas Cadell in hopes of it being published, but it was rejected. The unpublished manuscript was returned to Austen and it stayed with her.
Austen made significant revisions to the manuscript for First Impressions between 1811 and 1812. She later renamed the story Pride and Prejudice. In renaming the novel, Austen probably had in mind the "sufferings and oppositions" summarized in the final chapter of Fanny Burney's Cecilia, called "Pride and Prejudice", where the phrase appears three times in block capitals. It is possible that the novel's original title was altered to avoid confusion with other works. In the years between the completion of First Impressions and its revision into Pride and Prejudice, two other works had been published under that name: a novel by Margaret Holford and a comedy by Horace Smith.
Austen sold the copyright for the novel to Thomas Egerton of Whitehall in exchange for £110 (Austen had asked for £150). This proved a costly decision. Austen had published Sense and Sensibility on a commission basis, whereby she indemnified the publisher against any losses and received any profits, less costs and the publisher's commission. Unaware that Sense and Sensibility would sell out its edition, making her £140, she passed the copyright to Egerton for a one-off payment, meaning that all the risk (and all the profits) would be his. Jan Fergus has calculated that Egerton subsequently made around £450 from just the first two editions of the book.
Egerton published the first edition of Pride and Prejudice in three hardcover volumes in January 1813, priced at 18s. Favourable reviews saw this edition sold out, with a second edition published in November that year. A third edition was published in 1817.
Foreign language translations first appeared in 1813 in French; subsequent translations were published in German, Danish and Swedish. Pride and Prejudice was first published in the United States in August 1832 as Elizabeth Bennet or, Pride and Prejudice. The novel was also included in Richard Bentley's Standard Novel series in 1833. R. W. Chapman's scholarly edition of Pride and Prejudice, first published in 1923, has become the standard edition from which many modern publications of the novel are based.
Reception
The novel was well received, with three favourable reviews in the first months following publication. Jan Fergus calls it "her most popular novel, both with the public and with her family and friends", and quotes David Gilson's A Bibliography of Jane Austen (Clarendon, 1982), where it is stated that Pride and Prejudice was referred to as "the fashionable novel" by Anne Isabella Milbanke, later to be the wife of Lord Byron. However, others did not agree. Charlotte Brontë wrote to noted critic and reviewer George Henry Lewes after reading a review of his published in Fraser's Magazine in 1847. He had praised Jane Austen's work and declared that he, "... would rather have written Pride and Prejudice, or Tom Jones, than any of the Waverley Novels". Miss Brontë, though, found Pride and Prejudice a disappointment, "... a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers; but ... no open country, no fresh air, no blue hill, no bonny beck."
Modern popularity
* In 2003 the BBC conducted the largest ever poll for the "UK's Best-Loved Book" in which Pride and Prejudice came second, behind The Lord of the Rings.
* In a 2008 survey of more than 15,000 Australian readers, Pride and Prejudice came first in a list of the 101 best books ever written.
Adaptations
Film, television, and theatre
Pride and Prejudice has engendered numerous adaptations. Some of the notable film versions include that of 1940 starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier, that of 2003 starring Kam Heskin and Orlando Seale (which placed the characters of Pride and Prejudice in a Mormon university, and was directed by Andrew Black and that of 2005 starring Keira Knightley (in an Oscar-nominated performance) and Matthew Macfadyen. Notable television versions include two by the BBC: the 1995 version starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, and a 1980 version starring Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul. A 1936 stage version was created by Helen Jerome played at the St. James's Theatre in London, starring Celia Johnson and Hugh Williams. First Impressions was a 1959 Broadway musical version starring Polly Bergen, Farley Granger, and Hermione Gingold. In 1995, a musical concept album was written by Bernard J. Taylor, with Peter Karrie in the role of Mr Darcy and Claire Moore in the role of Elizabeth Bennet. A new stage production, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, The New Musical, was presented in concert on 21 October 2008 in Rochester, New York with Colin Donnell as Darcy. The popular film Bridget Jones's Diary is a contemporary retelling, starring Renee Zellweger as a modern day Elizabeth, and Colin Firth, once again, as Mr Darcy.
Bride and Prejudice, starring Aishwarya Rai, is a Bollywood adaptation of the novel, while Pride & Prejudice: A Latter-Day Comedy (2003) places the novel in contemporary times. The off-Broadway musical I Love You Because reverses the gender of the main roles, set in modern day New York City. The Japanese comic Hana Yori Dango by Yoko Kamio, in which the wealthy, arrogant and proud protagonist, Doumyouji Tsukasa, falls in love with a poor, lower-class girl named Makino Tsukushi, is loosely based on Pride and Prejudice. A 2008 Israeli television six-part miniseries set the story in the Galilee with Mr Darcy a well-paid worker in the high-tech industry.
Pride and Prejudice has also crossed into the science fiction and horror genres. In the 1997 episode of science fiction comedy Red Dwarf entitled "Beyond a Joke", the crew of the space ship relax in a virtual reality rendition of "Pride and Prejudice Land" in "Jane Austen World". The central premise of the television miniseries Lost in Austen is a modern woman suddenly swapping lives with that of Elizabeth Bennet. In February 2009, it was announced that Elton John's Rocket Pictures production company was making a film, Pride and Predator, based on the story, but with the added twist of an alien landing in Longbourne.
Literature
The novel has inspired a number of other works that are not direct adaptations. Books inspired by Pride and Prejudice include: Mr. Darcy's Daughters and The Exploits and Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy by Elizabeth Aston; Pemberley: Or Pride and Prejudice Continued and An Unequal Marriage: Or Pride and Prejudice Twenty Years Later by Emma Tennant; The Book of Ruth (ASIN B00262ZRBM) by Helen Baker; Jane Austen Ruined My Life and Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart by Beth Pattillo; Precipitation - A Continuation of Miss Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice by Helen Baker; Searching for Pemberley by Mary Simonsen and Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife and its sequel Darcy & Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberly by Linda Berdoll. In Gwyn Cready's comedic romance novel, Seducing Mr. Darcy, the heroine lands in Pride and Prejudice by way of magic massage, has a fling with Darcy and unknowingly changes the rest of the story. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding, which started as a newspaper column before becoming a novel and a film, was inspired by the then-current BBC adaptation; both works share a Mr. Darcy of serious disposition (both played by Colin Firth), a foolish match-making mother, and a detached affectionate father, as well as the protagonist overhearing Mr. Darcy speaking about her disparagingly, followed by the caddish character gaining the protagonist's affections by telling lies about Mr. Darcy. The self-referential in-jokes continue with the sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.
In March 2009, Quirk Books released Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which takes Austen's actual, original work, and laces it with zombie hordes, cannibalism, ninjas, and ultra-violent mayhem. Scheduled for publication in March 2010, Quirk Books has announced that it will produce a prequel which deals with Elizabeth Bennett's early days as a zombie hunter, entitled Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls.
Yet another angle was introduced by Monica Fairview, who wrote about Miss Caroline Bingley in The Other Mr Darcy, published in October 2009. Pride and Prejudice has also inspired many scholarly articles and books including: So Odd a Mixture: Along the Autism Spectrum in 'Pride and Prejudice' by Phyllis Ferguson Bottomer, Forewords by Eileen Sutherland and Tony Attwood.
Marvel has also published their take on this classic, releasing a short comic series of five issues that stays true to the original storyline. The first issue was published on 1 April 2009 and was written by Nancy Hajeski.
Author Amanda Grange wrote Mr. Darcy's Diary in 2007 that tells the original story of Pride and Prejudice from the view of Mr Darcy. In 2009, she wrote Mr. Darcy, Vampyre which reimagines Darcy as a vampire after he has married Elizabeth. Following the same premise is Regina Jeffers' "Vampire Darcy's Desire", which retells Pride and Prejudice on the basis that Darcy is a dhampir (part-human, part-vampire) joined by his lover Elizabeth to fight the evil vampire George Wickham.
《八十天环游地球》是凡尔纳一部引入入胜的小说，笔调生动活泼，富有幽默感。小说叙述了英国人福格先生因和朋友打赌，而在八十天克服重重困难完成环游地球一周的壮举。书中不仅详细描写了福格先生一行在途中的种种离奇经历和他们所遇到的千难万险，而且还在情节的展开中使人物的性格逐渐立体化。沉默寡言、机智、勇敢、充满人道精神的福格，活泼好动易冲动的仆人等等。作品发表后，引起了轰动，多次再版。
《八十天环游地球》-作品内容
在还没有飞机的19世纪70年代，当人们还以马车、雪橇、轮船、火车……作为代步工具的时候，要想在短短的八十天之内环球一周，怎能不让人惊叹和佩服。完成此举的这个人，就是费雷亚斯•福格。
这件事就发生在1872年的伦敦。由于英国国家银行的一次失窃，福格和改良俱乐部的会友以两万英镑作为赌注，打赌可以在八十天里环游地球一周。为了证实这一推算的准确性，福格带着刚刚雇用的，绰号叫万事通的仆人立刻启程从伦敦出发，开始了这次不可思议的环球旅行。福格设想的旅行路线是这样的：乘火车先到苏伊士运河，在这里乘船到印度，然后坐火车横穿印度，来到中国的香港，再乘船到日本，接着到美国，坐火车穿过美国后，最后再回到伦敦。在此期间，他必须分秒不差地从一个地方赶到另一个地方，只有始终准确无误才能保证按时回来。
这位性格冷僻、精确准时的绅士在旅途中遇到的事情：遭人跟踪、置身荒村无路可走、舍身救人、与恶僧对簿公堂、遭暗算误了轮船、遇风浪海上搏击、与仆人失散、勇斗劫匪、救仆人身赴险境、燃料告急海上经受考验、疑为窃贼海关被囚……几乎所有的意外和困难都被福格不幸遇到了，就算他临危不惧，冷静守时，他也无法预料旅途上所发生的所有的事情。更何况，还有一位名叫菲克斯的侦探始终跟在他身边不停地设置障碍，虎视眈眈一心想把他捉拿归案，其原因是他与警方描述的疑犯的外貌特征惊人地相似。然而，所有的困难都没有难倒福格，他总能在危难关头找到问题的解决办法，一次次神奇地化险为夷、摆脱困境：买大象穿越密林赶火车、英雄救美赢得美人心、花重金取保候审摆脱官司、高价雇航船渡海赴日本。机缘巧合与仆人重聚、英勇御敌战劫匪、坐雪橇穿越冰原、烧轮船解燃眉之急、消除误会重获自由……这是一位怎样的绅士呀！他的镇定自若、慷慨大方、勇敢机智和善良细心给每一个人都留下了深刻的印象；正是他身上的这些异乎寻常的优秀品质使他每次均能逢凶化吉、转危为安，最后胜利完成旅行；那个侦探则是一个意外卷入这次旅行中的特殊人物，他固执多疑、急功近利、精于算计，但却忠于职守，出于职责和贪心，他一路跟踪福格，被迫也进行了一次环球旅行。他想方设法处处给福格制造麻烦，阻止他顺利完成计划，但他的计谋却一次次落空；而那个叫万事通的法国小伙子则为这次旅行增添了不少笑料；他诚实勇敢、身怀绝技、正直善良，但却容易上当受骗，他既为主人化解了不少危机也为主人制造了不少麻烦，他的加入使这次旅行变得趣味横生；还有一位人物虽然话语不多，但却有着举足轻重的地位，她就是福格舍身搭救的阿妩达夫人，也是后来的福格夫人。她光彩照人、温柔高雅、善解人意，一直在福格身边从精神上支持他、鼓励他坚持到胜利。有了她的陪伴，这次环球之旅也变得浪漫多情和温情脉脉了。故事的结局当然是如人所愿：福格赢得了这次打赌，并且找到了他一生的伴侣。
《八十天环游地球》-作者简介
《八十天环游地球》儒勒•凡尔纳
儒勒•凡尔纳（Verne•Jules1828-1905），法国最著名的科幻小说作家。出生于海港城市，自幼迷上航海，曾离家出走当水手，又被父亲找回，送到巴黎学习法律。他毕业后不愿做法官，却去剧院做了秘书，开始撰写剧本。凡尔纳热衷于各种科学新发现，也创作科幻小说打下扎实基础。1863年，出版《气球上的五个星期》，获得成功。此后40余年间笔耕不缀，几乎每年都有一两部新作问世，题材广泛。他的科学幻想小说的总名是《在已知和未知的世界中奇异的漫游》，简称《奇异的漫游》。
主要作品：《八十天环游地球》、《底两万里》、《格兰特船长的儿女》、《环绕月球》、《神秘岛》、《世界主宰者》、《米歇尔•斯特罗哥夫》、《气球上的五星期》、《空中历险记》、《墨西哥的“幽灵”》、《佐奇瑞大师》、《牛博士》、《一个在冰雪中度过的冬天》、《征服者罗比尔》、《两年假期》、《从地球到月球》、《八十天环绕地球》、《奥兰情游》、《升D先生和降E小姐》、《隐身新娘》、《昂梯菲尔奇遇记》、《大海入侵》、《烽火岛》、《太阳系历险记》、《巴尔萨克考察队的惊险遭遇》、《哈特拉斯船长历险记》、《大木筏》、《喀尔巴阡古堡》、《金火山》、《鲁滨逊叔叔》、《多瑙河领航员》、《鲁滨逊学校》、《马丁•帕兹》《旅行基金》、《漂逝的半岛》、《桑道夫伯爵》、《黑印度》、《南非洲历险记》、《突破封锁》、《沙皇的邮件》、《印度贵妇的五亿法郎》、《小把戏》。
《八十天环游地球》-作品主题
《八十天环游地球》的叙事技巧并不复杂，福格的这次旅行其实是和侦探菲克斯的被动旅行同时平行展开的两条叙事线，这两条线既平行发展又交错交汇，交叉点就是故事的冲突点，也是故事的出彩之处。而万事通和阿妩达都是福格旅行这条线上的两个小分支，他们的故事为全文增色不少。每一次冲突都为故事掀起了一个小高潮，福格的每次遇险也都让人紧张万分，尤其是小说的最后一部分：就在福格眼看胜利在望的时候，他偏偏被关在海关，当他被放出来之后，耽误的时间已经太多，没有可能准时赶回伦敦了。读者都以为福格已经输掉这次打赌了，可谁都没有料到，万事通发现他的主人居然算错了日期，于是福格又出人意料地赢得了打赌。全文就是这样在一次又一次的意外中让读者体会到了惊险和刺激的。
《八十天环游地球》-内容分析
《八十天环游地球》是儒勒.凡尔纳一步引人入胜的小说。里边讲了一个英国人福克先生因和朋友打赌，在八十天内克服重重困难完成环游地球一周的壮举。书中不仅讲了他们所遇到的千难万险，而且在情节中体现出每个人的个性。沉着、机智、勇敢、冷静的福克和他活泼、好动、易冲动的仆人等等都给人留下了深刻的印象。
福克先生到哪都是沉默不语的冷静态度，即使是错过了搭往美国的邮船浪费了他一天多的时间，还是在火车的铁轨上遇见了千百万匹牛群从轨道上穿过而耽误了3个多小时，他总是面无表情，就像他已经知道他自己一定会赢的一样。不过如果输了这个打赌就得赔掉两千万英镑——他所有的财产。一开始就讲福克先生是非常有生活规律的人，就像是个机器人，定了时间似的，总是一分不多一秒不差的做完他计划之内的事。当然这八十天环游地球也是他规定好的，前几天，他的行程的确跟本子上的计划一模一样，到达一个地点，他就拿出小本子，在上面写着，某月某日，到底哪里。
可是世上没有不起浪的海，在一路上的天气变化，倒霉冲动但又绝对忠实的仆人路路通所造的麻烦和某些人为的成心破坏，使他们的路程总是没有他们所预计的完美。可不管多么糟糕的情况下，福克先生总是能冲出重围，总能有解决的办法。当然他都是靠他挥洒留下的大把大把的英镑。有他那么用巨大资金连眼皮都不眨一下的人，现实生活中应该是不会有的。
最叫我惊心动魄的还是马上要回到纽约完成他八十天的环球任务去领大把大把钞票的时候，眼看就要到达纽约了，居然被一直跟在他们身边的探警费克斯当作银行抢劫犯抓了起来。时间一分一秒的流逝，眼看胜利就在眼前，却一下子成了泡影，福克先生脸上仍是没有一点表情。他心里真的一点不急吗？谁也不知道。
当费克斯弄清了真相，连蹦带跳的跑进监狱放了福克时，福克只是两手一挥当作伸懒腰打了费克斯两拳，就急忙赶去纽约。可是，当他们到达楼钟下的时候，时针却指着8点50分，他们只晚了5分钟!
福克知道自己已经一无所有了，但还有一件值得庆幸的事就是在他们旅途上救了一位艾娥达夫人，现在她就要成为他的妻子了。当路路通到教堂通知神甫的时候，却发现了一个惊人的消息，今天不是2月21号，是2月20号！他们整整早到了一天！可是福克到达伦敦的时候是2月20号，怎么会记错呢？
原来是他们在这次旅途中不知不觉占了二十四小时的便宜。由于他这次旅行往东走，每当他们走过一条经线他们就会提前4分钟看到日出，整个地球一共分作三百六十度，用四分钟乘三百六十，结果正好是二十四小时。此时此刻，还不到5分钟，跟他打赌的会友正在俱乐部等他。
俱乐部里的成员，包括所有到来的人们和记者摄影师都来到了现场。倒数一分钟里，第四十秒平安的过去了，到了第五十秒是平安无事！到了第五十五秒的时候，听到外面人声雷动，掌声，欢呼声，还夹杂着咒骂声，五位绅士都站了起来！到了第五十七秒，这千钧一发的时候，大厅的门被打开了，钟摆还没有来得及响第六十下，一群狂热的群众簇拥着福克冲进了大门。只见他沉静地说：“先生们，我回来了。
《八十天环游地球》-作品评价
凡尔纳的《八十天环游地球》故事生动幽默，妙语横生，又能激发人们尤其是青少年热爱科学、向往探险的热情，所以一百多年来，一直受到世界各地读者的欢迎。据联合国教科文组织的资料表明，凡尔纳是世界上被翻译的作品最多的十大名家之一。
凡尔纳是一个非常优秀的通俗小说作家，有一种能够把自己的幻觉变得能够触摸的本领，其感觉是全方位的，从平淡的文学中传达出某种人类的热情。但凡尔纳的《八十天环游地球》中人物除了少数几个外都是一模一样的，他似乎塑造不出更重要的人物，人物都是脸谱化的简单的好人坏人，没有什么心理活动；从其作品人物性别单一化上还可看出他对女人的偏见，隐隐流露出深受其苦的心态。此外凡尔纳的作品中充满了明显的社会倾向，是一个爱国者（法国人最好）、民族解放主义者（支持被压迫民族斗争），在某种程度上是一个无政府主义者（从某些作品中表现出无秩序者），最后还是一个银河帝国主义者（有缔造宇宙帝国的欲望）。
《八十天环游地球》里充满了知识，但他本人却是一名宇宙神秘主义者，对世界有一种神秘的崇拜。在他的小说中，有时候思考问题不够深刻，主题也常常重复。
但总的来说，凡尔纳的尝试仍然是伟大的。正如1884年教皇在接见凡尔纳时曾说：“我并不是不知道您的作品的科学价值，但我最珍重的却是它们的纯洁、道德价值和精神力量。”
结尾有点走到尽头苦尽甘来的感觉，福格先生花了毕生的钱打了一个赌，这个赌令他找到了他生命的另一半，而由于一个糊涂探长的糊涂行动使他失去了那些钱，在这样的情况下他还能乐观地面对生活，结局出乎意料他以时差赢得了那些奖金。这个结尾就足见凡尔纳的写作功力。
《八十天环游地球》-BBC版本
《BBC八十天环游地球 》
海报海报
【译名】BBC Around The World In 80 Days
【集数】7CD
【年代】2005年
【国家】英国
【片长】7小时
【类别】纪录片
【语言】英语
【格式】XVID5 AC3
【字幕】 （请点）英文字幕（请点）中文字幕
【简介】： BBC王牌主持人，英国名喜剧演员Micheal Palin带您展开了另一次绚丽的80天旅途，一起周游世界。 与世界名著“环游世界八十天”相同旅程！环游世界旅行者必备的经典参考指南！你曾梦想环游世界吗？八十天内绕完地球一周，会是怎么样的奇幻刺激冒险？麦克尔·帕林自告奋勇要完成这一部纪录片（这辈子在这之前只有一次经验），跟时间赛跑，在全无剧本的情况下，踏上这段路程，所有的变化，毫无预警。这是前所未有的尝试』 ---麦可帕林威尼斯的垃圾船、在埃及被撞坏的计程车、横渡波斯湾的简陋小船、中国的蒸汽船、越过换日线的货柜船…… 麦克尔·帕林环绕世界一週的壮举，除了坐不完的船、上吐下泄，饥不择食的鸚鵡之外，更有著目不暇给的惊喜!!
分集目录
第1集 艰鉅挑战
按照作著朱勒凡尔纳的路径，从伦敦由海路及陆路展开…
第 2集 阿拉伯恐慌
从苏伊士港到沙乌地港，这一切都得看阿拉的旨意了…
第3集 古代水手
古加拉特水手带领航行到印度孟买，但引擎却突然故障..
第4集 惊险刮鬍
在印度第一大城孟买当街刮鬍后，转辗前往马德拉斯…
第5集 东方快车
从新加坡港出发到香港之前在南中国海遇到三个颱风…
第6集 深入远东
航行到上海、横滨，在东京稍为休息后面对广大的太平洋..
第 7集 从换日线到最后期限
时间渐逼但他们得通过美国和太西洋回到起点…
Plot summary
The story starts in London on October 2, 1872. Phileas Fogg is a wealthy English gentleman who lives unmarried in solitude at Number 7 Savile Row, Burlington Gardens. Despite his wealth, which is £40,000, Mr. Fogg, whose countenance is described as "repose in action", lives a modest life with habits carried out with mathematical precision. As is noted in the first chapter, very little can be said about Mr. Fogg's social life other than that he is a member of the Reform Club. Having dismissed his former valet, James Foster, for bringing him shaving water at 84° Fahrenheit instead of 86°, Mr. Fogg hires the Frenchman Passepartout, who is about 30 years old, as a replacement.
Later, on that day, in the Reform Club, Fogg gets involved in an argument over an article in The Daily Telegraph, stating that with the opening of a new railway section in India, it is now possible to travel around the world in 80 days. He accepts a wager for £20,000 from his fellow club members, which he will receive if he makes it around the world in 80 days. Accompanied by Passepartout, he leaves London by train at 8:45 P.M. on October 2, 1872, and thus is due back at the Reform Club at the same time 80 days later, on December 21.
Map of the trip
The proposed schedule London to Suez rail and steamer 7 days
Suez to Bombay steamer 13 days
Bombay to Calcutta rail 3 days
Calcutta to Hong Kong steamer 13 days
Hong Kong to Yokohama steamer 6 days
Yokohama to San Francisco steamer 22 days
San Francisco to New York City rail 7 days
New York to London steamer and rail 9 days
Total 80 days
Fogg and Passepartout reach Suez in time. While disembarking in Egypt, they are watched by a Scotland Yard detective named Fix, who has been dispatched from London in search of a bank robber. Because Fogg matches the description of the bank robber, Fix mistakes Fogg for the criminal. Since he cannot secure a warrant in time, Fix goes on board the steamer conveying the travellers to Bombay. During the voyage, Fix becomes acquainted with Passepartout, without revealing his purpose. On the voyage, Fogg promises the engineer a large reward if he gets them to Bombay early. They dock two days ahead of schedule.
After reaching India they take a train from Bombay to Calcutta. About halfway there Fogg learns that the Daily Telegraph newspaper article was wrong – the railroad ends at Kholby and starts 50 miles further on at Allahabad. Fogg promptly buys an elephant, hires a guide and starts toward Allahabad.
During the ride, they come across a suttee procession, in which a young Parsi woman, Aouda, is led to a sanctuary to be sacrificed by the process of sati the next day by Brahmins. Since the young woman is drugged with the smoke of opium and hemp and obviously not going voluntarily, the travellers decide to rescue her. They follow the procession to the site, where Passepartout secretly takes the place of Aouda's deceased husband on the funeral pyre, on which she is to be burned the next morning. During the ceremony, he then rises from the pyre, scaring off the priests, and carries the young woman away. Due to this incident, the two days gained earlier are lost but Fogg shows no sign of regret.
The travellers then hasten on to catch the train at the next railway station, taking Aouda with them. At Calcutta, they can finally board a steamer going to Hong Kong. Fix, who has secretly been following them, has Fogg and Passepartout arrested in Calcutta. However, they jump bail and Fix is forced to follow them to Hong Kong. On board, he shows himself to Passepartout, who is delighted to meet again his travelling companion from the earlier voyage.
In Hong Kong, it turns out that Aouda's distant relative, in whose care they had been planning to leave her, has moved, probably to Holland, so they decide to take her with them to Europe. Meanwhile, still without a warrant, Fix sees Hong Kong as his last chance to arrest Fogg on British soil. He therefore confides in Passepartout, who does not believe a word and remains convinced that his master is not a bank robber. To prevent Passepartout from informing his master about the premature departure of their next vessel, Fix gets Passepartout drunk and drugs him in an opium den. In his dizziness, Passepartout still manages to catch the steamer to Yokohama, but neglects to inform Fogg.
Fogg, on the next day, discovers that he has missed his connection. He goes in search of a vessel that will take him to Yokohama. He finds a pilot boat that takes him and Aouda to Shanghai, where they catch a steamer to Yokohama. In Yokohama, they go on a search for Passepartout, believing that he may have arrived there on the original boat. They find him in a circus, trying to earn the fare for his homeward journey. Reunited, the four board a steamer taking them across the Pacific to San Francisco. Fix promises Passepartout that now, having left British soil, he will no longer try to delay Fogg's journey, but rather support him in getting back to Britain as fast as possible (to have him arrested there).
In San Francisco they get on a trans-American train to New York, encountering a number of obstacles along the way: a massive herd of bison crossing the tracks, a failing suspension bridge, and most disastrously, the train is attacked and overcome by Sioux Indians. After heroically uncoupling the locomotive from the carriages, Passepartout is kidnapped by the Indians, but Fogg rescues him after some soldiers volunteer to help. They continue by a wind-powered sledge over the snowy prairie to Omaha, where they get a train to New York.
Once in New York, and having missed departure of their ship (the China) by 35 minutes, Fogg starts looking for an alternative for the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. He finds a small steamboat, destined for Bordeaux. However, the captain of the boat refuses to take the company to Liverpool, whereupon Fogg consents to be taken to Bordeaux for the price of $2000 per passenger. On the voyage, he bribes the crew to mutiny and take course for Liverpool. Against hurricane winds and going on full steam all the time, the boat runs out of fuel after a few days. Fogg buys the boat at a very high price from the captain, soothing him thereby, and has the crew burn all the wooden parts to keep up the steam.
The companions arrive at Queenstown, Ireland, in time to reach London via Dublin and Liverpool before the deadline. However, once on British soil again, Fix produces a warrant and arrests Fogg. A short time later, the misunderstanding is cleared up—the actual bank robber had been caught three days earlier in Edinburgh. In response to this, Fogg, in a rare moment of impulse, punches Fix, who immediately falls to the ground. However, Fogg has missed the train and returns to London five minutes late, assured that he has lost the wager.
In his London house the next day, he apologises to Aouda for bringing her with him, since he now has to live in poverty and cannot financially support her. Aouda suddenly confesses that she loves him and asks him to marry her, which he gladly accepts. He calls for Passepartout to notify the reverend. At the reverend's, Passepartout learns that he is mistaken in the date, which he takes to be Sunday but which actually is Saturday due to the fact that the party travelled east, thereby gaining a full day on their journey around the globe, by crossing the International Date Line. He did not notice this after landing in North America because the only phase of the trip that depended on vehicles departing less often than daily was the Atlantic crossing, and he had hired his own ship for that.
Passepartout hurries back to Fogg, who immediately sets off for the Reform Club, where he arrives just in time to win the wager. Fogg marries Aouda and the journey around the world is complete.
Passepartout and Fogg's Baggage
Passepartout and Fogg carry only a carpet bag with only two shirts and three pairs of stockings each, a mackintosh, a travelling cloak, and a spare pair of shoes. The only book carried is Bradshaw's Continental Railway Steam Transit and General Guide. This contains timetables of trains and steamers. He also carried a huge roll of English banknotes-about twenty thousand pounds. He also left with twenty guineas won at whist, which he soon disposed of.
Background and analysis
Around the World in Eighty Days was written during difficult times, both for France and for Verne. It was during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) in which Verne was conscripted as a coastguard, he was having money difficulties (his previous works were not paid royalties), his father had died recently, and he had witnessed a public execution which had disturbed him. However despite all this, Verne was excited about his work on the new book, the idea of which came to him one afternoon in a Paris café while reading a newspaper (see "Origins" below).
The technological innovations of the 19th century had opened the possibility of rapid circumnavigation and the prospect fascinated Verne and his readership. In particular three technological breakthroughs occurred in 1869-70 that made a tourist-like around-the-world journey possible for the first time: the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in America (1869), the linking of the Indian railways across the sub-continent (1870), and the opening of the Suez Canal (1869). It was another notable mark in the end of an age of exploration and the start of an age of fully global tourism that could be enjoyed in relative comfort and safety. It sparked the imagination that anyone could sit down, draw up a schedule, buy tickets and travel around the world, a feat previously reserved for only the most heroic and hardy of adventurers.
Verne is often characterised as a futurist or science fiction author but there is not a glimmer of science-fiction in this, his most popular work (at least in English speaking countries). Rather than any futurism, it remains a memorable portrait of the British Empire "on which the sun never sets" shortly before its very peak, drawn by an outsider. It is also interesting to note that, as of 2006, there has never been a critical edition of Around the World in Eighty Days. This is in part due to the poor translations available of his works, the stereotype of "science fiction" or "boys' literature". However, Verne's works were being looked at more seriously in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, with new translations and scholarship appearing. It is also rather interesting to note that the book is a source of common notable English and extended British attitudes in quotes such as, "Phileas Fogg and Sir Francis Cromarty ... endured the discomfort with true British phlegm, talking little, and scarcely able to catch a glimpse of each other" as seen in Chapter Twelve when the group is being jostled around on the elephant ride across the jungle. Also seen in chapter Twenty-Five, when Phileas Fogg is insulted in San Francisco, and Detective Fix acknowledges that "It was clear that Mr. Fogg was one of those Englishmen who, while they do not tolerate dueling at home, fight abroad when their honor is attacked."
It is interesting to note that The China's departure from New York on the day of Fogg's arrival there constitutes a minor flaw in Verne's logic, because Fogg had already crossed the Pacific without accounting for the International Date Line so his entire journey across North America was apparently conducted with an erroneous belief about the date and day of the week. Had The China sailed in agreement with the published steamer schedule used by Fogg, it would have departed a day later than Fogg expected, and he would have been able to catch it in spite of arriving what he thought was a few minutes late.
The closing date of the novel, 22 December 1872, was also the same date as the serial publication. As it was being published serially for the first time, some readers believed that the journey was actually taking place — bets were placed, and some railway companies and ship liner companies actually lobbied Verne to appear in the book. It is unknown if Verne actually submitted to their requests, but the descriptions of some rail and shipping lines leave some suspicion he was influenced.
Although a journey by hot air balloon has become one of the images most strongly associated with the story, this iconic symbol was never deployed in the book by Verne himself – the idea is briefly brought up in chapter 32, but dismissed, it "would have been highly risky and, in any case, impossible." However the popular 1956 movie adaptation Around the World in Eighty Days floated the balloon idea, and it has now become a part of the mythology of the story, even appearing on book covers. This plot element is reminiscent of Verne's earlier Five Weeks in a Balloon which first made him a well-known author.
Following Towle and d'Anver's 1873 English translation, many people have tried to follow in the footsteps of Fogg's fictional circumnavigation, often within self-imposed constraints:
* 1889 – Nellie Bly undertook to travel around the world in 80 days for her newspaper, the New York World. She managed to do the journey within 72 days. Her book about the trip, Around the World in Seventy-Two Days, became a best seller.
* 1903 – James Willis Sayre, a Seattle theatre critic and arts promoter, set the world record for circling the earth using public transportation exclusively, completing his trip in 54 days, 9 hours, and 42 minutes.
* 1908 – Harry Bensley, on a wager, set out to circumnavigate the world on foot wearing an iron mask.
* 1984 - Nicholas Coleridge emulated Fogg's trip and wrote a book entitled Around the World in 78 Days about his experience.
* 1988 – Monty Python alumnus Michael Palin took a similar challenge without using aircraft as a part of a television travelogue, called Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days. He completed the journey in 79 days and 7 hours.
* 1993–present – The Jules Verne Trophy is held by the boat that sails around the world without stopping, and with no outside assistance in the shortest time.
* 2009 - in Around the World in 80 Days twelve celebrities performed a relay version of the journey for the BBC Children In Need charity appeal. This featured a carpet bag.
Origins
The idea of a trip around the world within a set period had clear external origins and was popular before Verne published his book in 1872. Even the title Around the World in Eighty Days is not original to Verne. About six sources have been suggested as the origins of the story:
Greek traveller Pausanias (c. 100 AD) wrote a work that was translated into French in 1797 as Voyage autour du monde ("Around the World"). Verne's friend, Jacques Arago, had written a very popular Voyage autour du monde in 1853. However in 1869/70 the idea of travelling around the world reached critical popular attention when three geographical breakthroughs occurred: the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in America (1869), the linking of the Indian railways across the sub-continent (1870), and the opening of the Suez Canal (1869). In 1871 appeared Around the World by Steam, via Pacific Railway, published by the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and an Around the World in A Hundred and Twenty Days by Edmond Planchut. Between 1869 and 1871, an American William Perry Fogg went around the world describing his tour in a series of letters to the Cleveland Leader, titled Round the World: Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt (1872). Additionally, in early 1870, the Erie Railway Company published a statement of routes, times, and distances detailing a trip around the globe of 23,739 miles in seventy-seven days and twenty-one hours.
In 1872 Thomas Cook organised the first around the world tourist trip, leaving on 20 September 1872 and returning seven months later. The journey was described in a series of letters that were later published in 1873 as Letter from the Sea and from Foreign Lands, Descriptive of a tour Round the World. Scholars have pointed out similarities between Verne's account and Cook's letters, although some argue that Cook's trip happened too late to influence Verne. Verne, according to a second-hand 1898 account, refers to a Thomas Cook advertisement as a source for the idea of his book. In interviews in 1894 and 1904, Verne says the source was "through reading one day in a Paris cafe" and "due merely to a tourist advertisement seen by chance in the columns of a newspaper.” Around the World itself says the origins were a newspaper article. All of these point to Cook's advert as being a probable spark for the idea of the book.
Further, the periodical Le Tour du monde (3 October 1869) contained a short piece entitled "Around the World in Eighty Days", which refers to "140 miles" of railway not yet completed between Allahabad and Bombay, a central point in Verne's work. But even the Le Tour de monde article was not entirely original; it cites in its bibliography the Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, de la Géographie, de l'Histoire et de l'Archéologie (August, 1869), which also contains the title Around the World in Eighty Days in its contents page. The Nouvelles Annales were written by Conrad Malte-Brun (1775—1826) and his son Victor Adolphe Malte-Brun (1816—1889). Scholars believe Verne was aware of either the Le Tour de monde article, or the Nouvelles Annales (or both), and consulted it — the 'Le Tour du monde even included a trip schedule very similar to Verne's final version.
A possible inspiration was the traveller George Francis Train, who made four trips around the world, including one in 80 days in 1870. Similarities include the hiring of a private train and his being imprisoned. Train later claimed "Verne stole my thunder. I'm Phileas Fogg."
Regarding the idea of gaining a day, Verne said of its origin: "I have a great number of scientific odds and ends in my head. It was thus that, when, one day in a Paris café, I read in the Siècle that a man could travel around the world in eighty days, it immediately struck me that I could profit by a difference of meridian and make my traveller gain or lose a day in his journey. There was a dénouement ready found. The story was not written until long after. I carry ideas about in my head for years – ten, or fifteen years, sometimes – before giving them form." In his lecture of April 1873 "The Meridians and the Calendar", Verne responded to a question about where the change of day actually occurred, since the international date line had only become current in 1880 and the Greenwich prime meridian was not adopted internationally until 1884. Verne cited an 1872 article in Nature, and Edgar Allan Poe's short story "Three Sundays in a Week" (1841), which was also based on going around the world and the difference in a day linked to a marriage at the end. Verne even analysed Poe's story in his Edgar Poe and His Works (1864).
In summary either the periodical 'Le Tour du monde or the Nouvelles Annales, W. P. Fogg, probably Thomas Cook's advert (and maybe his letters) would be the main likely source for the book. In addition, Poe's short story "Three Sundays in a Week" was clearly the inspiration for the lost day plot device.
Literary significance and criticism
Select quotes:
1. "We will only remind readers en passant of Around the World in Eighty Days, that tour de force of Mr Verne's—and not the first he has produced. Here, however, he has summarised and concentrated himself, so to speak ... No praise of his collected works is strong enough .. they are truly useful, entertaining, poignant, and moral; and Europe and America have merely produced rivals that are remarkably similar to them, but in any case inferior." (Henry Trianon, Le Constitutionnel, December 20, 1873).
2. "His first books, the shortest, Around the World or From the Earth to the Moon, are still the best in my view. However, the works should be judged as a whole rather than in detail, and on their results rather than their intrinsic quality. Over the last forty years, they have had an influence unequalled by any other books on the children of this and every country in Europe. And the influence has been good, in so far as can be judged today." (Léon Blum, L'Humanité, April 3, 1905).
3. "Jules Verne's masterpiece .. stimulated our childhood and taught us more than all the atlases: the taste of adventure and the love of travel. 'Thirty thousand banknotes for you, Captain, if we reach Liverpool within the hour.' This cry of Phileas Fogg's remains for me the call of the sea." (Jean Cocteau, Mon premier voyage (Tour du monde en 80 jours), Gallimard, 1936).
4. "Leo Tolstoy loved his works. 'Jules Verne's novels are matchless', he would say. 'I read them as an adult, and yet I remember they excited me. Jules Verne is an astonishing past master at the art of constructing a story that fascinates and impassions the reader. (Cyril Andreyev, "Preface to the Complete Works", trans. François Hirsch, Europe, 33: 112-113, 22-48).
5. "Jules Verne's work is nothing but a long meditation, a reverie on the straight line—which represents the predication of nature on industry and industry on nature, and which is recounted as a tale of exploration. Title: the adventures of a straight line ... The train.. cleaves through nature, jumps obstacles .. and continues both the actual journey—whose form is a furrow—and the perfect embodiment of human industry. The machine has the additional advantage here of not being isolated in a purpose-built, artificial place, like the factory or all similar structures, but of remaining in permanent and direct contact with the variety of nature." Pierre Macherey (1966).
Adaptations and influences
The book has been adapted many times in different forms.
Theatre
* A 1874 play written by Jules Verne and Adolphe d'Ennery at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris, where it was shown 415 times.
* In 1946 Orson Welles produced and starred in Around the World, a musical stage version, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter, that was only loosely faithful to Verne's original.
* A musical version, 80 Days, with songs by Ray Davies of The Kinks and a book by playwright Snoo Wilson, directed by Des McAnuff, ran at the Mandell Weiss Theatre in San Diego from August 23 to October 9, 1988. The musical received mixed responses from the critics. Ray Davies's multi-faceted music, McAnuff's directing, and the acting, however, were well received, with the show winning the "Best Musical" award from the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle.
* In 2001, the story was adapted for the stage by American playwright Mark Brown. In what has been described as "a wildly wacky, unbelievably creative, 90-miles-an-hour, hilarious journey" this award winning stage adaptation is written for five actors who portray thirty-nine characters.
* A stage musical adaptation premiered at the Fulton Opera House, Lancaster, PA in March 2007 with music by Ron Barnett, book and lyrics by Julianne Homokay, and direction by Robin McKercher.
Films
* A 1919 silent black and white parody by director Richard Oswald didn't disguise its use of locations in Germany as placeholders for the international voyage; part of the movie's joke is that Fogg's trip is obviously going to places in and around Berlin. There are no remaining copies of the film available today.
* The best known version was released in 1956, with David Niven and Cantinflas heading a huge cast. Many famous performers play bit parts, and part of the pleasure in this movie is playing "spot the star". The movie earned five Oscars, out of eight nominations. This film was also responsible for the popular misconception that Fogg and company travel by balloon for part of the trip in the novel, which has prompted later adaptations to include similar sequences. See Around the World in Eighty Days (1956 film) for details.
* 1963 saw the release of The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze. In this parody, the Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Joe DeRita) are cast as the menservants of Phileas Fogg III (Jay Sheffield), great-grandson of the original around-the-world voyager. When Phileas Fogg III is tricked into replicating his ancestor's feat of circumnavigation, Larry, Moe, and Curly-Joe dutifully accompany their master. Along the way, the boys get into and out of trouble in typical Stooge fashion.
* In 1983 the basic idea was expanded to a galactic scope in Japan's Ginga Shippu Sasuraiger, where a team of adventurers travel through the galaxy in a train-like ship that can transform into a giant robot. The characters are travelling to different planets in order to return within a certain period and win a bet.
* The story was again adapted for the screen in the 2004 film Around the World in 80 Days, starring Jackie Chan as Passepartout and Steve Coogan as Fogg. This version makes Passepartout the hero and the thief of the treasure of the Bank; Fogg's character is an eccentric inventor who bets a rival scientist that he can travel the world with (then) modern means of transportation.
TV
* An episode of the American television series, Have Gun – Will Travel, entitled "Fogg Bound", had the series' hero, Palladin (Richard Boone), escorting Phileas Fogg (Patric Knowles) through part of his journey. This episode was broadcasted by CBS on December 3, 1960.
* A 1989 three-part TV mini-series starred Pierce Brosnan as Fogg, Eric Idle as Passepartout, Peter Ustinov as Fix and several TV stars in cameo roles. The heroes travel a slightly different route than in the book and the script makes several contemporary celebrities part of the story who were not mentioned in the book. See Around the World in 80 Days (TV miniseries) for details.
* The BBC along with Michael Palin (of Monty Python fame) created a 1989 television travel series following the book's path. It was one of many travelogues Michael Palin has done with the BBC and was a commercially successful transition from his comedic career. The latest series in a similar format was Michael Palin's New Europe in 2007.
* Around the World in 80 Days, a six part 2009 BBC One show in which twelve celebrities attempt to travel the world in aid of the Children in Need appeal. This featured a carpet bag similar to one carried by Fogg and Passeportout.
Animation
* An Indian Fantasy Story is an unfinished French/English co-production from 1938, featuring the wager at the Reform Club and the rescue of the Indian Princess. It was never completed as a full feature film.
* Around the World in 79 Days, a serial segment on the Hanna-Barbera show The Cattanooga Cats from 1969 to 1971.
* Around the World in 80 Days from 1972 by American studio Rankin/Bass with Japanese Mushi productions as part of the Festival of Family Classics series.
* A one-season cartoon series Around the World in 80 Days from 1972 by Australian Air Programs International. NBC aired the series in the US during the 1972-73 season on Saturday mornings.
* Puss 'N Boots Travels Around the World, a 1976 anime from Toei Animation
* A Walt Disney adaptation was produced in 1986. It featured Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy as the main characters.
* Around the World with Willy Fog by Spanish studio BRB Internacional from 1981 with a second season produced in 1993. This series depicts the characters as talking animals, and, despite adding some new characters and making some superficial modifications to the original story, it remains one of the most accurate adaptations of the book made for film or television. The show has gained a cult following in Finland, Britain, Germany and Spain. The first season is "Around the World in 80 Days", and the second season is "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" and "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea"; all three books are by Jules Verne.
* Tweety's High-Flying Adventure is a direct-to-video cartoon by Warner Brothers from 2000 starring the Looney Tunes characters. It takes a great many liberties with the original story, but the central idea is still there - indeed, one of the songs in this film is entitled Around the World in Eighty Days. Tweety not only had to travel the world, he had to also collect 80 cat pawprints, all while evading the constant pursuits of Slyvester. This movie frequently appears on various US-based cable TV networks.
* "Around the World in 80 Narfs" is a Pinky and the Brain episode where the Brain claims to be able to make the travel in less than 80 days and the Pompous Explorers club agrees to make him their new president. With this, the Brain expects to be UK's new Prime Minister, what he considers back at that time, the fastest way to take over the world.
* A Mickey Mouse episode shows the effort of Mickey to get around the world in 80 days with the help of Goofy. The cartoon made reference to the ending of the novel. They realise they have a day extra by hearing church bells on what they believe to be a Monday. This referenced the ending with the vicar in the church.
Exhibitions
* "Around the World in 80 Days", group show curated by Jens Hoffman at the ICA London 2006
Cultural references
* "Around the Universe in 80 Days" is a song by the Canadian band Klaatu, and makes reference to a spaceship travelling around the galaxy, coming home to find the Earth second from the Sun. It was originally included on the 1977 album "Hope", but also appears on at least two compilations.
* There are at least four board games by this name.
* Worlds of Fun, an amusement park in Kansas City, Missouri, was conceived using the novel as its theme. It uses the hot air balloon in its logo, and the park's layout is based on world geography.
Argentinian avant-garde writer Julio Cortazar wrote in 1967 his book titled Around the Day in Eighty Worlds.
《八十天环游地球》-作品内容
在还没有飞机的19世纪70年代，当人们还以马车、雪橇、轮船、火车……作为代步工具的时候，要想在短短的八十天之内环球一周，怎能不让人惊叹和佩服。完成此举的这个人，就是费雷亚斯•福格。
这件事就发生在1872年的伦敦。由于英国国家银行的一次失窃，福格和改良俱乐部的会友以两万英镑作为赌注，打赌可以在八十天里环游地球一周。为了证实这一推算的准确性，福格带着刚刚雇用的，绰号叫万事通的仆人立刻启程从伦敦出发，开始了这次不可思议的环球旅行。福格设想的旅行路线是这样的：乘火车先到苏伊士运河，在这里乘船到印度，然后坐火车横穿印度，来到中国的香港，再乘船到日本，接着到美国，坐火车穿过美国后，最后再回到伦敦。在此期间，他必须分秒不差地从一个地方赶到另一个地方，只有始终准确无误才能保证按时回来。
这位性格冷僻、精确准时的绅士在旅途中遇到的事情：遭人跟踪、置身荒村无路可走、舍身救人、与恶僧对簿公堂、遭暗算误了轮船、遇风浪海上搏击、与仆人失散、勇斗劫匪、救仆人身赴险境、燃料告急海上经受考验、疑为窃贼海关被囚……几乎所有的意外和困难都被福格不幸遇到了，就算他临危不惧，冷静守时，他也无法预料旅途上所发生的所有的事情。更何况，还有一位名叫菲克斯的侦探始终跟在他身边不停地设置障碍，虎视眈眈一心想把他捉拿归案，其原因是他与警方描述的疑犯的外貌特征惊人地相似。然而，所有的困难都没有难倒福格，他总能在危难关头找到问题的解决办法，一次次神奇地化险为夷、摆脱困境：买大象穿越密林赶火车、英雄救美赢得美人心、花重金取保候审摆脱官司、高价雇航船渡海赴日本。机缘巧合与仆人重聚、英勇御敌战劫匪、坐雪橇穿越冰原、烧轮船解燃眉之急、消除误会重获自由……这是一位怎样的绅士呀！他的镇定自若、慷慨大方、勇敢机智和善良细心给每一个人都留下了深刻的印象；正是他身上的这些异乎寻常的优秀品质使他每次均能逢凶化吉、转危为安，最后胜利完成旅行；那个侦探则是一个意外卷入这次旅行中的特殊人物，他固执多疑、急功近利、精于算计，但却忠于职守，出于职责和贪心，他一路跟踪福格，被迫也进行了一次环球旅行。他想方设法处处给福格制造麻烦，阻止他顺利完成计划，但他的计谋却一次次落空；而那个叫万事通的法国小伙子则为这次旅行增添了不少笑料；他诚实勇敢、身怀绝技、正直善良，但却容易上当受骗，他既为主人化解了不少危机也为主人制造了不少麻烦，他的加入使这次旅行变得趣味横生；还有一位人物虽然话语不多，但却有着举足轻重的地位，她就是福格舍身搭救的阿妩达夫人，也是后来的福格夫人。她光彩照人、温柔高雅、善解人意，一直在福格身边从精神上支持他、鼓励他坚持到胜利。有了她的陪伴，这次环球之旅也变得浪漫多情和温情脉脉了。故事的结局当然是如人所愿：福格赢得了这次打赌，并且找到了他一生的伴侣。
《八十天环游地球》-作者简介
《八十天环游地球》儒勒•凡尔纳
儒勒•凡尔纳（Verne•Jules1828-1905），法国最著名的科幻小说作家。出生于海港城市，自幼迷上航海，曾离家出走当水手，又被父亲找回，送到巴黎学习法律。他毕业后不愿做法官，却去剧院做了秘书，开始撰写剧本。凡尔纳热衷于各种科学新发现，也创作科幻小说打下扎实基础。1863年，出版《气球上的五个星期》，获得成功。此后40余年间笔耕不缀，几乎每年都有一两部新作问世，题材广泛。他的科学幻想小说的总名是《在已知和未知的世界中奇异的漫游》，简称《奇异的漫游》。
主要作品：《八十天环游地球》、《底两万里》、《格兰特船长的儿女》、《环绕月球》、《神秘岛》、《世界主宰者》、《米歇尔•斯特罗哥夫》、《气球上的五星期》、《空中历险记》、《墨西哥的“幽灵”》、《佐奇瑞大师》、《牛博士》、《一个在冰雪中度过的冬天》、《征服者罗比尔》、《两年假期》、《从地球到月球》、《八十天环绕地球》、《奥兰情游》、《升D先生和降E小姐》、《隐身新娘》、《昂梯菲尔奇遇记》、《大海入侵》、《烽火岛》、《太阳系历险记》、《巴尔萨克考察队的惊险遭遇》、《哈特拉斯船长历险记》、《大木筏》、《喀尔巴阡古堡》、《金火山》、《鲁滨逊叔叔》、《多瑙河领航员》、《鲁滨逊学校》、《马丁•帕兹》《旅行基金》、《漂逝的半岛》、《桑道夫伯爵》、《黑印度》、《南非洲历险记》、《突破封锁》、《沙皇的邮件》、《印度贵妇的五亿法郎》、《小把戏》。
《八十天环游地球》-作品主题
《八十天环游地球》的叙事技巧并不复杂，福格的这次旅行其实是和侦探菲克斯的被动旅行同时平行展开的两条叙事线，这两条线既平行发展又交错交汇，交叉点就是故事的冲突点，也是故事的出彩之处。而万事通和阿妩达都是福格旅行这条线上的两个小分支，他们的故事为全文增色不少。每一次冲突都为故事掀起了一个小高潮，福格的每次遇险也都让人紧张万分，尤其是小说的最后一部分：就在福格眼看胜利在望的时候，他偏偏被关在海关，当他被放出来之后，耽误的时间已经太多，没有可能准时赶回伦敦了。读者都以为福格已经输掉这次打赌了，可谁都没有料到，万事通发现他的主人居然算错了日期，于是福格又出人意料地赢得了打赌。全文就是这样在一次又一次的意外中让读者体会到了惊险和刺激的。
《八十天环游地球》-内容分析
《八十天环游地球》是儒勒.凡尔纳一步引人入胜的小说。里边讲了一个英国人福克先生因和朋友打赌，在八十天内克服重重困难完成环游地球一周的壮举。书中不仅讲了他们所遇到的千难万险，而且在情节中体现出每个人的个性。沉着、机智、勇敢、冷静的福克和他活泼、好动、易冲动的仆人等等都给人留下了深刻的印象。
福克先生到哪都是沉默不语的冷静态度，即使是错过了搭往美国的邮船浪费了他一天多的时间，还是在火车的铁轨上遇见了千百万匹牛群从轨道上穿过而耽误了3个多小时，他总是面无表情，就像他已经知道他自己一定会赢的一样。不过如果输了这个打赌就得赔掉两千万英镑——他所有的财产。一开始就讲福克先生是非常有生活规律的人，就像是个机器人，定了时间似的，总是一分不多一秒不差的做完他计划之内的事。当然这八十天环游地球也是他规定好的，前几天，他的行程的确跟本子上的计划一模一样，到达一个地点，他就拿出小本子，在上面写着，某月某日，到底哪里。
可是世上没有不起浪的海，在一路上的天气变化，倒霉冲动但又绝对忠实的仆人路路通所造的麻烦和某些人为的成心破坏，使他们的路程总是没有他们所预计的完美。可不管多么糟糕的情况下，福克先生总是能冲出重围，总能有解决的办法。当然他都是靠他挥洒留下的大把大把的英镑。有他那么用巨大资金连眼皮都不眨一下的人，现实生活中应该是不会有的。
最叫我惊心动魄的还是马上要回到纽约完成他八十天的环球任务去领大把大把钞票的时候，眼看就要到达纽约了，居然被一直跟在他们身边的探警费克斯当作银行抢劫犯抓了起来。时间一分一秒的流逝，眼看胜利就在眼前，却一下子成了泡影，福克先生脸上仍是没有一点表情。他心里真的一点不急吗？谁也不知道。
当费克斯弄清了真相，连蹦带跳的跑进监狱放了福克时，福克只是两手一挥当作伸懒腰打了费克斯两拳，就急忙赶去纽约。可是，当他们到达楼钟下的时候，时针却指着8点50分，他们只晚了5分钟!
福克知道自己已经一无所有了，但还有一件值得庆幸的事就是在他们旅途上救了一位艾娥达夫人，现在她就要成为他的妻子了。当路路通到教堂通知神甫的时候，却发现了一个惊人的消息，今天不是2月21号，是2月20号！他们整整早到了一天！可是福克到达伦敦的时候是2月20号，怎么会记错呢？
原来是他们在这次旅途中不知不觉占了二十四小时的便宜。由于他这次旅行往东走，每当他们走过一条经线他们就会提前4分钟看到日出，整个地球一共分作三百六十度，用四分钟乘三百六十，结果正好是二十四小时。此时此刻，还不到5分钟，跟他打赌的会友正在俱乐部等他。
俱乐部里的成员，包括所有到来的人们和记者摄影师都来到了现场。倒数一分钟里，第四十秒平安的过去了，到了第五十秒是平安无事！到了第五十五秒的时候，听到外面人声雷动，掌声，欢呼声，还夹杂着咒骂声，五位绅士都站了起来！到了第五十七秒，这千钧一发的时候，大厅的门被打开了，钟摆还没有来得及响第六十下，一群狂热的群众簇拥着福克冲进了大门。只见他沉静地说：“先生们，我回来了。
《八十天环游地球》-作品评价
凡尔纳的《八十天环游地球》故事生动幽默，妙语横生，又能激发人们尤其是青少年热爱科学、向往探险的热情，所以一百多年来，一直受到世界各地读者的欢迎。据联合国教科文组织的资料表明，凡尔纳是世界上被翻译的作品最多的十大名家之一。
凡尔纳是一个非常优秀的通俗小说作家，有一种能够把自己的幻觉变得能够触摸的本领，其感觉是全方位的，从平淡的文学中传达出某种人类的热情。但凡尔纳的《八十天环游地球》中人物除了少数几个外都是一模一样的，他似乎塑造不出更重要的人物，人物都是脸谱化的简单的好人坏人，没有什么心理活动；从其作品人物性别单一化上还可看出他对女人的偏见，隐隐流露出深受其苦的心态。此外凡尔纳的作品中充满了明显的社会倾向，是一个爱国者（法国人最好）、民族解放主义者（支持被压迫民族斗争），在某种程度上是一个无政府主义者（从某些作品中表现出无秩序者），最后还是一个银河帝国主义者（有缔造宇宙帝国的欲望）。
《八十天环游地球》里充满了知识，但他本人却是一名宇宙神秘主义者，对世界有一种神秘的崇拜。在他的小说中，有时候思考问题不够深刻，主题也常常重复。
但总的来说，凡尔纳的尝试仍然是伟大的。正如1884年教皇在接见凡尔纳时曾说：“我并不是不知道您的作品的科学价值，但我最珍重的却是它们的纯洁、道德价值和精神力量。”
结尾有点走到尽头苦尽甘来的感觉，福格先生花了毕生的钱打了一个赌，这个赌令他找到了他生命的另一半，而由于一个糊涂探长的糊涂行动使他失去了那些钱，在这样的情况下他还能乐观地面对生活，结局出乎意料他以时差赢得了那些奖金。这个结尾就足见凡尔纳的写作功力。
《八十天环游地球》-BBC版本
《BBC八十天环游地球 》
海报海报
【译名】BBC Around The World In 80 Days
【集数】7CD
【年代】2005年
【国家】英国
【片长】7小时
【类别】纪录片
【语言】英语
【格式】XVID5 AC3
【字幕】 （请点）英文字幕（请点）中文字幕
【简介】： BBC王牌主持人，英国名喜剧演员Micheal Palin带您展开了另一次绚丽的80天旅途，一起周游世界。 与世界名著“环游世界八十天”相同旅程！环游世界旅行者必备的经典参考指南！你曾梦想环游世界吗？八十天内绕完地球一周，会是怎么样的奇幻刺激冒险？麦克尔·帕林自告奋勇要完成这一部纪录片（这辈子在这之前只有一次经验），跟时间赛跑，在全无剧本的情况下，踏上这段路程，所有的变化，毫无预警。这是前所未有的尝试』 ---麦可帕林威尼斯的垃圾船、在埃及被撞坏的计程车、横渡波斯湾的简陋小船、中国的蒸汽船、越过换日线的货柜船…… 麦克尔·帕林环绕世界一週的壮举，除了坐不完的船、上吐下泄，饥不择食的鸚鵡之外，更有著目不暇给的惊喜!!
分集目录
第1集 艰鉅挑战
按照作著朱勒凡尔纳的路径，从伦敦由海路及陆路展开…
第 2集 阿拉伯恐慌
从苏伊士港到沙乌地港，这一切都得看阿拉的旨意了…
第3集 古代水手
古加拉特水手带领航行到印度孟买，但引擎却突然故障..
第4集 惊险刮鬍
在印度第一大城孟买当街刮鬍后，转辗前往马德拉斯…
第5集 东方快车
从新加坡港出发到香港之前在南中国海遇到三个颱风…
第6集 深入远东
航行到上海、横滨，在东京稍为休息后面对广大的太平洋..
第 7集 从换日线到最后期限
时间渐逼但他们得通过美国和太西洋回到起点…
Plot summary
The story starts in London on October 2, 1872. Phileas Fogg is a wealthy English gentleman who lives unmarried in solitude at Number 7 Savile Row, Burlington Gardens. Despite his wealth, which is £40,000, Mr. Fogg, whose countenance is described as "repose in action", lives a modest life with habits carried out with mathematical precision. As is noted in the first chapter, very little can be said about Mr. Fogg's social life other than that he is a member of the Reform Club. Having dismissed his former valet, James Foster, for bringing him shaving water at 84° Fahrenheit instead of 86°, Mr. Fogg hires the Frenchman Passepartout, who is about 30 years old, as a replacement.
Later, on that day, in the Reform Club, Fogg gets involved in an argument over an article in The Daily Telegraph, stating that with the opening of a new railway section in India, it is now possible to travel around the world in 80 days. He accepts a wager for £20,000 from his fellow club members, which he will receive if he makes it around the world in 80 days. Accompanied by Passepartout, he leaves London by train at 8:45 P.M. on October 2, 1872, and thus is due back at the Reform Club at the same time 80 days later, on December 21.
Map of the trip
The proposed schedule London to Suez rail and steamer 7 days
Suez to Bombay steamer 13 days
Bombay to Calcutta rail 3 days
Calcutta to Hong Kong steamer 13 days
Hong Kong to Yokohama steamer 6 days
Yokohama to San Francisco steamer 22 days
San Francisco to New York City rail 7 days
New York to London steamer and rail 9 days
Total 80 days
Fogg and Passepartout reach Suez in time. While disembarking in Egypt, they are watched by a Scotland Yard detective named Fix, who has been dispatched from London in search of a bank robber. Because Fogg matches the description of the bank robber, Fix mistakes Fogg for the criminal. Since he cannot secure a warrant in time, Fix goes on board the steamer conveying the travellers to Bombay. During the voyage, Fix becomes acquainted with Passepartout, without revealing his purpose. On the voyage, Fogg promises the engineer a large reward if he gets them to Bombay early. They dock two days ahead of schedule.
After reaching India they take a train from Bombay to Calcutta. About halfway there Fogg learns that the Daily Telegraph newspaper article was wrong – the railroad ends at Kholby and starts 50 miles further on at Allahabad. Fogg promptly buys an elephant, hires a guide and starts toward Allahabad.
During the ride, they come across a suttee procession, in which a young Parsi woman, Aouda, is led to a sanctuary to be sacrificed by the process of sati the next day by Brahmins. Since the young woman is drugged with the smoke of opium and hemp and obviously not going voluntarily, the travellers decide to rescue her. They follow the procession to the site, where Passepartout secretly takes the place of Aouda's deceased husband on the funeral pyre, on which she is to be burned the next morning. During the ceremony, he then rises from the pyre, scaring off the priests, and carries the young woman away. Due to this incident, the two days gained earlier are lost but Fogg shows no sign of regret.
The travellers then hasten on to catch the train at the next railway station, taking Aouda with them. At Calcutta, they can finally board a steamer going to Hong Kong. Fix, who has secretly been following them, has Fogg and Passepartout arrested in Calcutta. However, they jump bail and Fix is forced to follow them to Hong Kong. On board, he shows himself to Passepartout, who is delighted to meet again his travelling companion from the earlier voyage.
In Hong Kong, it turns out that Aouda's distant relative, in whose care they had been planning to leave her, has moved, probably to Holland, so they decide to take her with them to Europe. Meanwhile, still without a warrant, Fix sees Hong Kong as his last chance to arrest Fogg on British soil. He therefore confides in Passepartout, who does not believe a word and remains convinced that his master is not a bank robber. To prevent Passepartout from informing his master about the premature departure of their next vessel, Fix gets Passepartout drunk and drugs him in an opium den. In his dizziness, Passepartout still manages to catch the steamer to Yokohama, but neglects to inform Fogg.
Fogg, on the next day, discovers that he has missed his connection. He goes in search of a vessel that will take him to Yokohama. He finds a pilot boat that takes him and Aouda to Shanghai, where they catch a steamer to Yokohama. In Yokohama, they go on a search for Passepartout, believing that he may have arrived there on the original boat. They find him in a circus, trying to earn the fare for his homeward journey. Reunited, the four board a steamer taking them across the Pacific to San Francisco. Fix promises Passepartout that now, having left British soil, he will no longer try to delay Fogg's journey, but rather support him in getting back to Britain as fast as possible (to have him arrested there).
In San Francisco they get on a trans-American train to New York, encountering a number of obstacles along the way: a massive herd of bison crossing the tracks, a failing suspension bridge, and most disastrously, the train is attacked and overcome by Sioux Indians. After heroically uncoupling the locomotive from the carriages, Passepartout is kidnapped by the Indians, but Fogg rescues him after some soldiers volunteer to help. They continue by a wind-powered sledge over the snowy prairie to Omaha, where they get a train to New York.
Once in New York, and having missed departure of their ship (the China) by 35 minutes, Fogg starts looking for an alternative for the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. He finds a small steamboat, destined for Bordeaux. However, the captain of the boat refuses to take the company to Liverpool, whereupon Fogg consents to be taken to Bordeaux for the price of $2000 per passenger. On the voyage, he bribes the crew to mutiny and take course for Liverpool. Against hurricane winds and going on full steam all the time, the boat runs out of fuel after a few days. Fogg buys the boat at a very high price from the captain, soothing him thereby, and has the crew burn all the wooden parts to keep up the steam.
The companions arrive at Queenstown, Ireland, in time to reach London via Dublin and Liverpool before the deadline. However, once on British soil again, Fix produces a warrant and arrests Fogg. A short time later, the misunderstanding is cleared up—the actual bank robber had been caught three days earlier in Edinburgh. In response to this, Fogg, in a rare moment of impulse, punches Fix, who immediately falls to the ground. However, Fogg has missed the train and returns to London five minutes late, assured that he has lost the wager.
In his London house the next day, he apologises to Aouda for bringing her with him, since he now has to live in poverty and cannot financially support her. Aouda suddenly confesses that she loves him and asks him to marry her, which he gladly accepts. He calls for Passepartout to notify the reverend. At the reverend's, Passepartout learns that he is mistaken in the date, which he takes to be Sunday but which actually is Saturday due to the fact that the party travelled east, thereby gaining a full day on their journey around the globe, by crossing the International Date Line. He did not notice this after landing in North America because the only phase of the trip that depended on vehicles departing less often than daily was the Atlantic crossing, and he had hired his own ship for that.
Passepartout hurries back to Fogg, who immediately sets off for the Reform Club, where he arrives just in time to win the wager. Fogg marries Aouda and the journey around the world is complete.
Passepartout and Fogg's Baggage
Passepartout and Fogg carry only a carpet bag with only two shirts and three pairs of stockings each, a mackintosh, a travelling cloak, and a spare pair of shoes. The only book carried is Bradshaw's Continental Railway Steam Transit and General Guide. This contains timetables of trains and steamers. He also carried a huge roll of English banknotes-about twenty thousand pounds. He also left with twenty guineas won at whist, which he soon disposed of.
Background and analysis
Around the World in Eighty Days was written during difficult times, both for France and for Verne. It was during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) in which Verne was conscripted as a coastguard, he was having money difficulties (his previous works were not paid royalties), his father had died recently, and he had witnessed a public execution which had disturbed him. However despite all this, Verne was excited about his work on the new book, the idea of which came to him one afternoon in a Paris café while reading a newspaper (see "Origins" below).
The technological innovations of the 19th century had opened the possibility of rapid circumnavigation and the prospect fascinated Verne and his readership. In particular three technological breakthroughs occurred in 1869-70 that made a tourist-like around-the-world journey possible for the first time: the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in America (1869), the linking of the Indian railways across the sub-continent (1870), and the opening of the Suez Canal (1869). It was another notable mark in the end of an age of exploration and the start of an age of fully global tourism that could be enjoyed in relative comfort and safety. It sparked the imagination that anyone could sit down, draw up a schedule, buy tickets and travel around the world, a feat previously reserved for only the most heroic and hardy of adventurers.
Verne is often characterised as a futurist or science fiction author but there is not a glimmer of science-fiction in this, his most popular work (at least in English speaking countries). Rather than any futurism, it remains a memorable portrait of the British Empire "on which the sun never sets" shortly before its very peak, drawn by an outsider. It is also interesting to note that, as of 2006, there has never been a critical edition of Around the World in Eighty Days. This is in part due to the poor translations available of his works, the stereotype of "science fiction" or "boys' literature". However, Verne's works were being looked at more seriously in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, with new translations and scholarship appearing. It is also rather interesting to note that the book is a source of common notable English and extended British attitudes in quotes such as, "Phileas Fogg and Sir Francis Cromarty ... endured the discomfort with true British phlegm, talking little, and scarcely able to catch a glimpse of each other" as seen in Chapter Twelve when the group is being jostled around on the elephant ride across the jungle. Also seen in chapter Twenty-Five, when Phileas Fogg is insulted in San Francisco, and Detective Fix acknowledges that "It was clear that Mr. Fogg was one of those Englishmen who, while they do not tolerate dueling at home, fight abroad when their honor is attacked."
It is interesting to note that The China's departure from New York on the day of Fogg's arrival there constitutes a minor flaw in Verne's logic, because Fogg had already crossed the Pacific without accounting for the International Date Line so his entire journey across North America was apparently conducted with an erroneous belief about the date and day of the week. Had The China sailed in agreement with the published steamer schedule used by Fogg, it would have departed a day later than Fogg expected, and he would have been able to catch it in spite of arriving what he thought was a few minutes late.
The closing date of the novel, 22 December 1872, was also the same date as the serial publication. As it was being published serially for the first time, some readers believed that the journey was actually taking place — bets were placed, and some railway companies and ship liner companies actually lobbied Verne to appear in the book. It is unknown if Verne actually submitted to their requests, but the descriptions of some rail and shipping lines leave some suspicion he was influenced.
Although a journey by hot air balloon has become one of the images most strongly associated with the story, this iconic symbol was never deployed in the book by Verne himself – the idea is briefly brought up in chapter 32, but dismissed, it "would have been highly risky and, in any case, impossible." However the popular 1956 movie adaptation Around the World in Eighty Days floated the balloon idea, and it has now become a part of the mythology of the story, even appearing on book covers. This plot element is reminiscent of Verne's earlier Five Weeks in a Balloon which first made him a well-known author.
Following Towle and d'Anver's 1873 English translation, many people have tried to follow in the footsteps of Fogg's fictional circumnavigation, often within self-imposed constraints:
* 1889 – Nellie Bly undertook to travel around the world in 80 days for her newspaper, the New York World. She managed to do the journey within 72 days. Her book about the trip, Around the World in Seventy-Two Days, became a best seller.
* 1903 – James Willis Sayre, a Seattle theatre critic and arts promoter, set the world record for circling the earth using public transportation exclusively, completing his trip in 54 days, 9 hours, and 42 minutes.
* 1908 – Harry Bensley, on a wager, set out to circumnavigate the world on foot wearing an iron mask.
* 1984 - Nicholas Coleridge emulated Fogg's trip and wrote a book entitled Around the World in 78 Days about his experience.
* 1988 – Monty Python alumnus Michael Palin took a similar challenge without using aircraft as a part of a television travelogue, called Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days. He completed the journey in 79 days and 7 hours.
* 1993–present – The Jules Verne Trophy is held by the boat that sails around the world without stopping, and with no outside assistance in the shortest time.
* 2009 - in Around the World in 80 Days twelve celebrities performed a relay version of the journey for the BBC Children In Need charity appeal. This featured a carpet bag.
Origins
The idea of a trip around the world within a set period had clear external origins and was popular before Verne published his book in 1872. Even the title Around the World in Eighty Days is not original to Verne. About six sources have been suggested as the origins of the story:
Greek traveller Pausanias (c. 100 AD) wrote a work that was translated into French in 1797 as Voyage autour du monde ("Around the World"). Verne's friend, Jacques Arago, had written a very popular Voyage autour du monde in 1853. However in 1869/70 the idea of travelling around the world reached critical popular attention when three geographical breakthroughs occurred: the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in America (1869), the linking of the Indian railways across the sub-continent (1870), and the opening of the Suez Canal (1869). In 1871 appeared Around the World by Steam, via Pacific Railway, published by the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and an Around the World in A Hundred and Twenty Days by Edmond Planchut. Between 1869 and 1871, an American William Perry Fogg went around the world describing his tour in a series of letters to the Cleveland Leader, titled Round the World: Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt (1872). Additionally, in early 1870, the Erie Railway Company published a statement of routes, times, and distances detailing a trip around the globe of 23,739 miles in seventy-seven days and twenty-one hours.
In 1872 Thomas Cook organised the first around the world tourist trip, leaving on 20 September 1872 and returning seven months later. The journey was described in a series of letters that were later published in 1873 as Letter from the Sea and from Foreign Lands, Descriptive of a tour Round the World. Scholars have pointed out similarities between Verne's account and Cook's letters, although some argue that Cook's trip happened too late to influence Verne. Verne, according to a second-hand 1898 account, refers to a Thomas Cook advertisement as a source for the idea of his book. In interviews in 1894 and 1904, Verne says the source was "through reading one day in a Paris cafe" and "due merely to a tourist advertisement seen by chance in the columns of a newspaper.” Around the World itself says the origins were a newspaper article. All of these point to Cook's advert as being a probable spark for the idea of the book.
Further, the periodical Le Tour du monde (3 October 1869) contained a short piece entitled "Around the World in Eighty Days", which refers to "140 miles" of railway not yet completed between Allahabad and Bombay, a central point in Verne's work. But even the Le Tour de monde article was not entirely original; it cites in its bibliography the Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, de la Géographie, de l'Histoire et de l'Archéologie (August, 1869), which also contains the title Around the World in Eighty Days in its contents page. The Nouvelles Annales were written by Conrad Malte-Brun (1775—1826) and his son Victor Adolphe Malte-Brun (1816—1889). Scholars believe Verne was aware of either the Le Tour de monde article, or the Nouvelles Annales (or both), and consulted it — the 'Le Tour du monde even included a trip schedule very similar to Verne's final version.
A possible inspiration was the traveller George Francis Train, who made four trips around the world, including one in 80 days in 1870. Similarities include the hiring of a private train and his being imprisoned. Train later claimed "Verne stole my thunder. I'm Phileas Fogg."
Regarding the idea of gaining a day, Verne said of its origin: "I have a great number of scientific odds and ends in my head. It was thus that, when, one day in a Paris café, I read in the Siècle that a man could travel around the world in eighty days, it immediately struck me that I could profit by a difference of meridian and make my traveller gain or lose a day in his journey. There was a dénouement ready found. The story was not written until long after. I carry ideas about in my head for years – ten, or fifteen years, sometimes – before giving them form." In his lecture of April 1873 "The Meridians and the Calendar", Verne responded to a question about where the change of day actually occurred, since the international date line had only become current in 1880 and the Greenwich prime meridian was not adopted internationally until 1884. Verne cited an 1872 article in Nature, and Edgar Allan Poe's short story "Three Sundays in a Week" (1841), which was also based on going around the world and the difference in a day linked to a marriage at the end. Verne even analysed Poe's story in his Edgar Poe and His Works (1864).
In summary either the periodical 'Le Tour du monde or the Nouvelles Annales, W. P. Fogg, probably Thomas Cook's advert (and maybe his letters) would be the main likely source for the book. In addition, Poe's short story "Three Sundays in a Week" was clearly the inspiration for the lost day plot device.
Literary significance and criticism
Select quotes:
1. "We will only remind readers en passant of Around the World in Eighty Days, that tour de force of Mr Verne's—and not the first he has produced. Here, however, he has summarised and concentrated himself, so to speak ... No praise of his collected works is strong enough .. they are truly useful, entertaining, poignant, and moral; and Europe and America have merely produced rivals that are remarkably similar to them, but in any case inferior." (Henry Trianon, Le Constitutionnel, December 20, 1873).
2. "His first books, the shortest, Around the World or From the Earth to the Moon, are still the best in my view. However, the works should be judged as a whole rather than in detail, and on their results rather than their intrinsic quality. Over the last forty years, they have had an influence unequalled by any other books on the children of this and every country in Europe. And the influence has been good, in so far as can be judged today." (Léon Blum, L'Humanité, April 3, 1905).
3. "Jules Verne's masterpiece .. stimulated our childhood and taught us more than all the atlases: the taste of adventure and the love of travel. 'Thirty thousand banknotes for you, Captain, if we reach Liverpool within the hour.' This cry of Phileas Fogg's remains for me the call of the sea." (Jean Cocteau, Mon premier voyage (Tour du monde en 80 jours), Gallimard, 1936).
4. "Leo Tolstoy loved his works. 'Jules Verne's novels are matchless', he would say. 'I read them as an adult, and yet I remember they excited me. Jules Verne is an astonishing past master at the art of constructing a story that fascinates and impassions the reader. (Cyril Andreyev, "Preface to the Complete Works", trans. François Hirsch, Europe, 33: 112-113, 22-48).
5. "Jules Verne's work is nothing but a long meditation, a reverie on the straight line—which represents the predication of nature on industry and industry on nature, and which is recounted as a tale of exploration. Title: the adventures of a straight line ... The train.. cleaves through nature, jumps obstacles .. and continues both the actual journey—whose form is a furrow—and the perfect embodiment of human industry. The machine has the additional advantage here of not being isolated in a purpose-built, artificial place, like the factory or all similar structures, but of remaining in permanent and direct contact with the variety of nature." Pierre Macherey (1966).
Adaptations and influences
The book has been adapted many times in different forms.
Theatre
* A 1874 play written by Jules Verne and Adolphe d'Ennery at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris, where it was shown 415 times.
* In 1946 Orson Welles produced and starred in Around the World, a musical stage version, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter, that was only loosely faithful to Verne's original.
* A musical version, 80 Days, with songs by Ray Davies of The Kinks and a book by playwright Snoo Wilson, directed by Des McAnuff, ran at the Mandell Weiss Theatre in San Diego from August 23 to October 9, 1988. The musical received mixed responses from the critics. Ray Davies's multi-faceted music, McAnuff's directing, and the acting, however, were well received, with the show winning the "Best Musical" award from the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle.
* In 2001, the story was adapted for the stage by American playwright Mark Brown. In what has been described as "a wildly wacky, unbelievably creative, 90-miles-an-hour, hilarious journey" this award winning stage adaptation is written for five actors who portray thirty-nine characters.
* A stage musical adaptation premiered at the Fulton Opera House, Lancaster, PA in March 2007 with music by Ron Barnett, book and lyrics by Julianne Homokay, and direction by Robin McKercher.
Films
* A 1919 silent black and white parody by director Richard Oswald didn't disguise its use of locations in Germany as placeholders for the international voyage; part of the movie's joke is that Fogg's trip is obviously going to places in and around Berlin. There are no remaining copies of the film available today.
* The best known version was released in 1956, with David Niven and Cantinflas heading a huge cast. Many famous performers play bit parts, and part of the pleasure in this movie is playing "spot the star". The movie earned five Oscars, out of eight nominations. This film was also responsible for the popular misconception that Fogg and company travel by balloon for part of the trip in the novel, which has prompted later adaptations to include similar sequences. See Around the World in Eighty Days (1956 film) for details.
* 1963 saw the release of The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze. In this parody, the Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Joe DeRita) are cast as the menservants of Phileas Fogg III (Jay Sheffield), great-grandson of the original around-the-world voyager. When Phileas Fogg III is tricked into replicating his ancestor's feat of circumnavigation, Larry, Moe, and Curly-Joe dutifully accompany their master. Along the way, the boys get into and out of trouble in typical Stooge fashion.
* In 1983 the basic idea was expanded to a galactic scope in Japan's Ginga Shippu Sasuraiger, where a team of adventurers travel through the galaxy in a train-like ship that can transform into a giant robot. The characters are travelling to different planets in order to return within a certain period and win a bet.
* The story was again adapted for the screen in the 2004 film Around the World in 80 Days, starring Jackie Chan as Passepartout and Steve Coogan as Fogg. This version makes Passepartout the hero and the thief of the treasure of the Bank; Fogg's character is an eccentric inventor who bets a rival scientist that he can travel the world with (then) modern means of transportation.
TV
* An episode of the American television series, Have Gun – Will Travel, entitled "Fogg Bound", had the series' hero, Palladin (Richard Boone), escorting Phileas Fogg (Patric Knowles) through part of his journey. This episode was broadcasted by CBS on December 3, 1960.
* A 1989 three-part TV mini-series starred Pierce Brosnan as Fogg, Eric Idle as Passepartout, Peter Ustinov as Fix and several TV stars in cameo roles. The heroes travel a slightly different route than in the book and the script makes several contemporary celebrities part of the story who were not mentioned in the book. See Around the World in 80 Days (TV miniseries) for details.
* The BBC along with Michael Palin (of Monty Python fame) created a 1989 television travel series following the book's path. It was one of many travelogues Michael Palin has done with the BBC and was a commercially successful transition from his comedic career. The latest series in a similar format was Michael Palin's New Europe in 2007.
* Around the World in 80 Days, a six part 2009 BBC One show in which twelve celebrities attempt to travel the world in aid of the Children in Need appeal. This featured a carpet bag similar to one carried by Fogg and Passeportout.
Animation
* An Indian Fantasy Story is an unfinished French/English co-production from 1938, featuring the wager at the Reform Club and the rescue of the Indian Princess. It was never completed as a full feature film.
* Around the World in 79 Days, a serial segment on the Hanna-Barbera show The Cattanooga Cats from 1969 to 1971.
* Around the World in 80 Days from 1972 by American studio Rankin/Bass with Japanese Mushi productions as part of the Festival of Family Classics series.
* A one-season cartoon series Around the World in 80 Days from 1972 by Australian Air Programs International. NBC aired the series in the US during the 1972-73 season on Saturday mornings.
* Puss 'N Boots Travels Around the World, a 1976 anime from Toei Animation
* A Walt Disney adaptation was produced in 1986. It featured Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy as the main characters.
* Around the World with Willy Fog by Spanish studio BRB Internacional from 1981 with a second season produced in 1993. This series depicts the characters as talking animals, and, despite adding some new characters and making some superficial modifications to the original story, it remains one of the most accurate adaptations of the book made for film or television. The show has gained a cult following in Finland, Britain, Germany and Spain. The first season is "Around the World in 80 Days", and the second season is "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" and "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea"; all three books are by Jules Verne.
* Tweety's High-Flying Adventure is a direct-to-video cartoon by Warner Brothers from 2000 starring the Looney Tunes characters. It takes a great many liberties with the original story, but the central idea is still there - indeed, one of the songs in this film is entitled Around the World in Eighty Days. Tweety not only had to travel the world, he had to also collect 80 cat pawprints, all while evading the constant pursuits of Slyvester. This movie frequently appears on various US-based cable TV networks.
* "Around the World in 80 Narfs" is a Pinky and the Brain episode where the Brain claims to be able to make the travel in less than 80 days and the Pompous Explorers club agrees to make him their new president. With this, the Brain expects to be UK's new Prime Minister, what he considers back at that time, the fastest way to take over the world.
* A Mickey Mouse episode shows the effort of Mickey to get around the world in 80 days with the help of Goofy. The cartoon made reference to the ending of the novel. They realise they have a day extra by hearing church bells on what they believe to be a Monday. This referenced the ending with the vicar in the church.
Exhibitions
* "Around the World in 80 Days", group show curated by Jens Hoffman at the ICA London 2006
Cultural references
* "Around the Universe in 80 Days" is a song by the Canadian band Klaatu, and makes reference to a spaceship travelling around the galaxy, coming home to find the Earth second from the Sun. It was originally included on the 1977 album "Hope", but also appears on at least two compilations.
* There are at least four board games by this name.
* Worlds of Fun, an amusement park in Kansas City, Missouri, was conceived using the novel as its theme. It uses the hot air balloon in its logo, and the park's layout is based on world geography.
Argentinian avant-garde writer Julio Cortazar wrote in 1967 his book titled Around the Day in Eighty Worlds.
《安娜·卡列尼娜》（俄语：Анна Каренина）是俄国作家列夫·托尔斯泰于1875年-1877年间创作的小说，被广泛认为是写实主义小说的经典代表。《安娜·卡列尼娜》完稿于1877年，1875年1月开始连载于〈俄罗斯公报〉上。小说甫发表就引发了热烈的讨论。托尔斯泰的堂姑母亚历山德拉·安得烈叶夫娜·托尔斯泰娅曾写道：“《安娜·卡列尼娜》的每个篇章都轰动了整个社会，引起了热烈的争论，毁誉参半，褒贬不一。似乎议论的是他们的切身问题一样。”作品共分八章，开场白“幸福的家庭都是相似的，不幸的家庭各有各的不幸”（Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way），是托氏对婚姻和家庭的悟言。
《安娜·卡列尼娜》-简介
在托尔斯泰全部作品中，《战争与和平》、《安娜·卡列尼娜》、《复活》是三个里程碑，也是他的三部代表作品。《安娜·卡列尼娜》在这三部代表作中有其特殊的重要性，它是三部巨著之中艺术上最为完整的一部，并且体现了托氏思想和艺术发展道路的过渡与转变，可以称之为代表作中的代表作。它通过女主人公安娜追求爱情而失败的悲剧，和列文在农村面临危机而进行的改革与探索这两条线索，描绘了俄国从莫斯科到外省乡村广阔而丰富多彩的图景，先后描写了150多个人物，是一部社会百科全书式的作品。
《安娜·卡列尼娜》-作家简介
列夫·尼古拉耶维奇·托尔斯泰（1828-1910）是俄国批判现实主义文学最伟大的代表，世界文学史上最伟大的作家之一。在世界文坛中堪与莎士比亚、歌德、巴尔扎克并肩而立的作家当首推列夫托尔斯泰。他那三部鸿篇巨著无疑代表了19世纪世界现实主义文学的最高水平。列夫·托尔斯泰是俄国文学史上最伟大的文豪之一，他在文学方面的成就受到举世瞩目的认同。
《安娜·卡列尼娜》-内容梗概
《安娜·卡列尼娜》通过女主人公安娜追求爱情而失败的悲剧，和列文在农村面临危机而进行的改革与探索这两条线索，描绘了俄国从莫斯科到外省乡村广阔而丰富多彩的图景，先后描写了150多个人物，是一部社会百科全书式的作品。
故事以双线进行，一为安娜，一为列文。托氏以二人为轴，描写出不同的婚姻和家庭生活，更进一步则写出当时俄国政治，宗教，农事景像。
在文中，列文为托氏之化身，代表着1860,70年代的社会转型催生者。列文重视农事，对贵族生活不甚投入，住在乡村和指导农民工作。列文热爱吉蒂，起初求婚被拒，但几经波折，终抱得美人归，并一同住在乡下。
女主人翁安娜，年青时和丈夫亚历山大．卡列宁（Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin）结合，本婚姻美满，育有一子。卡列宁在仕途上成功，安娜亦于交际场上光茫四射。故事始于奥布朗斯基公爵和英国家庭女教师恋爱，与妻子道丽闹翻，求助于其妺安娜。安娜从圣．彼得堡到莫斯科替二人调解，在车站认识了年轻军官佛伦斯基（Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky）。并在莫斯科一次舞会中和佛伦斯基发生致命的恋情，自此不能自拔，最后身败名列并自杀身亡。佛伦斯基为求得美人，追随安娜至圣彼得堡，最后两人陷入热恋。他俩频频幽会，最后安娜怀孕，并向丈夫承认了私情。卡列宁一度想与妻子分居，但为存面子，拒绝离婚并要求妻子终止恋情。然而安娜分娩时几乎难产而濒临死亡，在死亡面前，卡列宁原谅了她。安娜病后无法压抑自己对佛伦斯基的爱，终于离家出走。佛伦斯基带着安娜前往意大利旅行，这时安娜感到无比的幸福。其后回到俄罗斯，于儿子生日时，按捺不住偷偷会见自己的儿子。却无法见容于俄国社会，上流社会把安娜看作堕落的女人，断绝和她的往来。安娜只得移居乡下，靠写作打发时间。二人共处日久，佛伦斯基和安娜在生活上的不信任日增。安娜感到很难过，认为情人为前途名誉离她而去，沮丧失望之下，安娜为处罚佛伦斯基，在火车驶近时跳下火车月台自杀。葬礼之后，亚历山大·卡列宁带走她的女儿，佛伦斯基受到良心的谴责，大病一场，后来志愿从军，前往巴尔干参战，但求一死。
《安娜·卡列尼娜》-创作背景资料
在世界文学的巍巍群山中，堪与莎士比亚、歌德、巴尔扎克这几座高峰比肩而立的俄国作家当首推列夫·托尔斯泰。托尔斯泰是一位有思想的艺术家，也是一位博学的艺术大师。他的作品展现的社会画面之广阔，蕴含的思想之丰饶，融会的艺术、语言、哲学、历史、民俗乃至自然科学等各种知识之广博，常常令人望洋兴叹。《安娜·卡列尼娜》是他的一部既美不胜收而又博大精深的巨制。
巨大的思想和艺术价值，使得这部巨著一发表便引起巨大社会反响。托尔斯泰并没有简单地写一个男女私通的故事，而是通过这个故事揭示了俄国社会中妇女的地位，并由此来鞭挞它的不合理性。作品描写了个人感情需要与社会道德之间的冲突。1877年，小说首版发行。据同代人称，它不啻是引起了“一场真正的社会大爆炸”，它的各个章节都引起了整个社会的“跷足”注视，及无休无止的“议论、推崇、非难和争吵，仿佛事情关涉到每个人最切身的问题”。
但不久，社会就公认它是一部了不起的巨著，它所达到的高度是俄国文学从未达到过的。伟大作家陀思妥耶夫斯基兴奋地评论道：“这是一部尽善尽美的艺术杰作，现代欧洲文学中没有一部同类的东西可以和它相比！”他甚至称托尔斯泰为“艺术之神”。而书中的女主人公安娜·卡列尼娜则成为世界文学史上最优美丰满的女性形象之一。这个资产阶级妇女解放的先锋，以自己的方式追求个性的解放和真诚的爱情，虽然由于制度的桎梏，她的悲剧只能以失败而告终。但她以内心体验的深刻与感情的强烈真挚，以蓬勃的生命力和悲剧性命运而扣人心弦。
《安娜·卡列尼娜》的构思始于1870年，而到1873年托尔斯泰才开始动笔。这是他一生中精神困顿的时期。最初，托尔斯泰是想写一个上流社会已婚妇女失足的故事，但随着写作的深入，原来的构思不断被修改。小说的初步创作不过仅用了短短的50天时间便得以完成，然而托尔斯泰很不满意，他又花费了数十倍的时间来不断修正，前后经过12次大的改动，迟至4年之后才正式出版。这时，小说废弃的手稿高达1米多！“全部都应当改写，再改写”，这是托尔斯泰经常挂在嘴边的一句话。显然，一部《安娜·卡列尼娜》与其说是写出来的，不如说是改出来的。
正是在作者近乎苛刻的追求中，小说的重心有了巨大的转移，安娜由最初构思中的“失了足的女人”（她趣味恶劣、卖弄风情，品行不端），变成了一个品格高雅、敢于追求真正的爱情与幸福的“叛女”形象，从而成为世界文学中最具反抗精神的女性之一。
《安娜·卡列尼娜》通过安娜追求爱情而失败的悲剧，列文在农村面临危机而进行的改革与探索这两条线索，描绘了俄国从莫斯科到外省乡村广阔而丰富多彩的图景，先后描写了150多个人物，是一部社会百科全书式的作品。小说艺术上最突出的特点是首次成功地采用了两条平行线索互相对照、相辅相成的“拱门式” 结构，并在心理描写上细致入微、精妙绝伦。小说中那大段的人物内心独白，无疑都是现实主义描写的典范。
《安娜·卡列尼娜》-人物形象
安娜
《安娜·卡列尼娜》是由两条主要的平行线索和一条联结性次要线索结构而成的，整体上反映了农奴制改革后“一切都翻了一个身，一切都刚刚安排下来”的那个时代在政治、经济、道德、心理等方面的矛盾。小说通过安娜—— 卡列宁——渥伦斯基线索展示了封建主义家庭关系的瓦解和道德的沦丧；通过列文——吉提线索描绘出资本主义势力侵入农村后，地主经济面临危机的情景，揭示出作者执着地探求出路的痛苦心情。而道丽——奥勃朗斯基这一次要线索巧妙地联结两条主线，在家庭思想上三条线索相互对应、参照，勾勒出三种不同类型的家庭模式和生活方式。作者以这种建筑学而自豪，圆拱将两座大厦联结得天衣无缝，“使人觉察不出什么地方是拱顶”。
主人公安娜·卡列尼娜是世界文学史上最优美丰满的女性形象之一。她以内心体验的深刻与感情的强烈真挚，以蓬勃的生命力和悲剧性命运而扣人心弦。
安娜第一次出现时的音容笑貌令人难以忘怀：她姿态端丽、温雅，一双浓密的睫毛掩映下的眼睛中“有一股被压抑的生气在她的脸上流露……仿佛有一种过剩的生命力洋溢在她的全身心，违反她的意志”，在眼神和微笑中显现出来。在这幅出色的肖像中展现了安娜的精神美，也提示我们去探究她的生活之谜。安娜父母早逝，在姑母包办下嫁给了比她大二十岁的大官僚卡列宁。婚后在宗法思想支配下她曾安于天命，只是把全部感情寄托在儿子身上。渥伦斯基唤醒了她晚熟的爱情。她渴望自由而大胆地爱，不愿像别特西公爵夫人那样在家宴上公开接待情人；也不愿接受丈夫的建议仍然保持表面的夫妻关系，偷偷与情人往来；终于冲出家庭与渥伦斯基结合，公然与整个上流社会对抗。从此安娜失去了一个贵族妇女在社交界的一切地位和权利，除了渥伦斯基的爱，她一无所有，因此，她热烈而执着地献身于这种爱。确实，在国外，在渥伦斯基的庄园里，安娜曾体验过短暂的“不可原谅的幸福”。她丢弃母亲的天职，但内心无法平息因失去爱子而产生的悲伤；她想昂起骄傲的头，宣称她是幸福的女人，但却摆脱不掉有罪的妻子的意识。她的灵魂一直受到折磨。而孤注一掷的、囿于自我的对渥伦斯基的爱又不可能得到相应的感情反响，安娜绝望了，她在临终前满含怨愤地喊出：“一切全是虚伪、全是谎言、全是欺骗、全是罪恶。”
安娜的形象在作家创作过程中有过极大变化：从一个低级趣味的失足女人改写成真诚、严肃、宁为玉碎、不为瓦全的女性。托尔斯泰通过安娜的爱情、家庭悲剧寄寓了他对当时动荡的俄国社会中人的命运和伦理道德准则的思考。作家歌颂人的生命力，赞扬人性的合理要求；同时，他又坚决否定一切政治、社会活动（包括妇女解放运动）对改善人们命运的作用，强调母亲——妇女天职的重要性。作家世界观的矛盾构成安娜形象的复杂性。一百多年来各国作家按自己的理解把安娜搬上舞台、银幕、荧光屏。安娜形象一直激动着不同时代、不同民族的读者，这正说明安娜形象的艺术生命力是不朽的。
列文
列文则是托尔斯泰式主人公中自传性特别强的一个人物，他在托尔斯泰的创作中起着承前启后的作用，在他身上艺术地再现了作家世界观激变前夕的思想感情和生活感受，从结构安排来看，列文的幸福家庭与安娜的不幸家庭互为对照，但从思想探索来看，列文婚后却产生了精神危机，他为贵族阶级自甘败落而忧心忡忡。他研究劳动力在农业生产中的作用，制定“不流血的革命”方案，探讨人生的目的，但却毫无出路。罗曼·罗兰指出，列文不仅体现了托尔斯泰看待事物的既保守又民主的观点，而且“列文和吉提的恋爱，他俩婚后的头几年生活，就是作家自己家庭生活回忆的搬演。同样，列文哥哥之死也是托尔斯泰的哥哥德米特里之死的痛苦追忆”。而作品的尾声“则是作者本人趋向精神革命的过渡”。
《安娜·卡列尼娜》-主题思想
关于列夫·托尔斯泰，马原有一个说法，他认为托尔斯泰是小说史上争议最少的作家。这里所说的争议最少，指的是他在文学史上的地位。也就是说，你可以喜欢或不喜欢托尔斯泰的作品，但似乎无人能够否认他作为一位杰出思想家和第一流小说家的地位。
《安娜·卡列尼娜》在列夫·托尔斯泰的所有作品中，是写得最好的。《战争与和平》也许更波澜壮阔、更雄伟、更有气势，但它不如《安娜·卡列尼娜》那么纯粹、那么完美。顺便说一句，列夫·托尔斯泰并不是一个出色的文体家，但他的文体的精美与和谐无与伦比，这并非来自作者对小说修辞、技巧、叙述方式的刻意追求，而仅仅源于艺术上的直觉。
在《安娜·卡列尼娜》这部小说中，列夫·托尔斯泰塑造了许多在文学史上光芒四射的人物：安娜、渥伦斯基、吉提、列文、卡列宁、奥布浪斯基公爵……在这些人物中，惟一一个在生活中左右逢源，带有点喜剧色彩的就是奥布浪斯基公爵，其他的人物无不与死亡主题有关。如果我们简单地归纳一下，这部作品主要写了两个故事：其一，是安娜与渥伦斯基从相识、热恋到毁灭的过程，以及围绕这一进程的所有社会关系的纠葛，其二是列文的故事以及他在宗教意义上的展开个人思考。
正如那句著名的开场白所显示的一样，作者对现实的思考是以家庭婚姻为基本单位而展开的，至少涉及到了四种婚姻或爱情答案：卡列宁夫妇，安娜和渥伦斯基，奥布浪斯基夫妇，列文与吉提。每一个答案都意味着罪恶和灾难。安娜是惟一经历了两种不同婚姻(爱情)形式的人物。在作者所赋予的安娜的性格中，我以为激情和活力是其基本的内涵，正是这种压抑不住的活力使美貌纯洁的吉提相形见绌；正是这种被唤醒的激情使她与卡列宁的婚姻、甚至彼得堡习以为常的社交生活、甚至包括孩子谢辽沙都黯然失色。
与这种激情与活力相伴而来的是不顾一切的勇气。当小说中写到渥伦斯基在赛马会上摔下马来，安娜因失声大叫而暴露了"奸情"之时，对丈夫说出下面这段话是需要一点勇气的，“我爱他，我是他的情妇……随你高兴怎么样把我处置吧。”托尔斯泰对这种激情真是太熟悉了，我们不妨想一想《战争与和平》中的娜塔莎，《复活》中的卡秋莎，还有蛰伏于作者心中的那头强壮的熊--它的咆哮声一直困扰着列夫·托尔斯泰。
马丁·杜伽尔曾认为，托尔斯泰是最具洞察力的作家，他的目光十分锐利，能够穿透生活的壁垒而发现隐含其中的"真实"。但我却倾向于认为，从根本上来说，托尔斯泰是一个图解自我观念的作家，不管是早期还是晚期作品，主题上的联系十分清晰，尤其是《战争与和平》、《安娜·卡列尼娜》两部巨著，其中的人物、情节、主题多有雷同之处，他的观念的疆域并不宽广，他的素材也不丰富，但这并不妨碍托尔斯泰的伟大，正如塞万提斯的狭隘主题并不妨碍《堂吉诃德》的伟大一样。小说的真实来自他的智慧，敏感而浩瀚的心灵，而更为重要的是他的诚实。维特根斯坦在读完《哈泽·穆拉特》以后曾感慨地说： “他(托尔斯泰)是一个真正的人，他有权写作。”
托尔斯泰与《安娜·卡列尼娜》
关于列夫·托尔斯泰，马原有一个说法，他认为托尔斯泰是小说史上争议最少的作家。我理解他的意思，这里所说的争议最少，指的是他在文学史上的地位。也就是说，你可以喜欢或不喜欢托尔斯泰的作品，但似乎无人能够否认他作为一位杰出思想家和第一流小说家的地位。
在我的学生中间，对托尔斯泰不屑一顾的大有人在。有一次碰到一位学生，依我看他的导师是一名颇有学问的俄国文学专家，不知何故，该生却对恩师颇为不满，提出是否可以转到我的名下，让我给他指导。我问他为何要更换导师，他便列举了原导师的几个罪状，其中一条是：他竟然让我去读什么《安娜·卡列尼娜》。可见，在这些言必称美国的学生们的头脑中，老托尔斯泰显然已经是一个不中用的古董了。我对他说，导师就不必换了。因为如果我当你的导师，第一本推荐的书恐怕还是《安娜·卡列尼娜》。
《安娜·卡列尼娜》不仅是我最喜欢的长篇小说，而且我也认为，在列夫·托尔斯泰的所有作品中，它也是写得最好的。《战争与和平》也许更波澜壮阔、更雄伟、更有气势，但它不如《安娜·卡列尼娜》那么纯粹、那么完美。顺便说一句，列夫·托尔斯泰并不是一个出色的文体家，但他的文体的精美与和谐无与伦比，这并非来自作者对小说修辞、技巧、叙述方式的刻意追求，而仅仅源于艺术上的直觉。
在《安娜·卡列尼娜》这部小说中，列夫·托尔斯泰塑造了许多在文学史上光芒四射的人物：安娜、渥伦斯基、吉提、列文、卡列宁、奥布浪斯基公爵……在这些人物中，惟一一个在生活中左右逢源，带有点喜剧色彩的就是奥布浪斯基公爵，其他的人物无不与死亡主题有关。如果我们简单地归纳一下，这部作品主要写了两个故事：其一，是安娜与渥伦斯基从相识、热恋到毁灭的过程，以及围绕这一进程的所有社会关系的纠葛，其二是列文的故事以及他在宗教意义上的展开个人思考。
正如那句著名的开场白所显示的一样，作者对现实的思考是以家庭婚姻为基本单位而展开的，至少涉及到了四种婚姻或爱情答案：卡列宁夫妇，安娜和渥伦斯基，奥布浪斯基夫妇，列文与吉提。每一个答案都意味着罪恶和灾难。安娜是惟一经历了两种不同婚姻(爱情)形式的人物。在作者所赋予的安娜的性格中，我以为激情和活力是其基本的内涵，正是这种压抑不住的活力使美貌纯洁的吉提相形见绌；正是这种被唤醒的激情使她与卡列宁的婚姻、甚至彼得堡习以为常的社交生活、甚至包括孩子谢辽沙都黯然失色。
与这种激情与活力相伴而来的是不顾一切的勇气。当小说中写到渥伦斯基在赛马会上摔下马来，安娜因失声大叫而暴露了“奸情”之时，对丈夫说出下面这段话是需要一点勇气的，“我爱他，我是他的情妇……随你高兴怎么样把我处置吧。”托尔斯泰对这种激情真是太熟悉了，我们不妨想一想《战争与和平》中的娜塔莎，《复活》中的卡秋莎，还有蛰伏于作者心中的那头强壮的熊——它的咆哮声一直困扰着列夫·托尔斯泰。
马丁·杜伽尔曾认为，托尔斯泰是最具洞察力的作家，他的目光十分锐利，能够穿透生活的壁垒而发现隐含其中的"真实"。但我却倾向于认为，从根本上来说，托尔斯泰是一个图解自我观念的作家，不管是早期还是晚期作品，主题上的联系十分清晰，尤其是《战争与和平》、《安娜·卡列尼娜》两部巨著，其中的人物、情节、主题多有雷同之处，他的观念的疆域并不宽广，他的素材也不丰富，但这并不妨碍托尔斯泰的伟大，正如塞万提斯的狭隘主题并不妨碍《堂吉诃德》的伟大一样。小说的真实来自他的智慧，敏感而浩瀚的心灵，而更为重要的是他的诚实。维特根斯坦在读完《哈泽·穆拉特》以后曾感慨地说：“他(托尔斯泰)是一个真正的人，他有权写作。”
Widely regarded as a pinnacle in realist fiction, Tolstoy considered Anna Karenina his first true novel, when he came to consider War and Peace to be more than a novel. The character of Anna was likely inspired, in part, by Maria Hartung (Russian spelling Maria Gartung, 1832–1919), the elder daughter of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.[citation needed] Soon after meeting her at dinner, Tolstoy began reading Pushkin's prose and once had a fleeting daydream of "a bare exquisite aristocratic elbow", which proved to be the first intimation of Anna's character.
Although Russian critics dismissed the novel on its publication as a "trifling romance of high life", Fyodor Dostoevsky declared it to be "flawless as a work of art". His opinion was shared by Vladimir Nabokov, who especially admired "the flawless magic of Tolstoy's style", and by William Faulkner, who described the novel as "the best ever written".[citation needed] The novel is currently enjoying popularity as demonstrated by a recent poll of 125 contemporary authors by J. Peder Zane, published in 2007 in The Top Ten, which declared that Anna Karenina is the "greatest novel ever written".
The title: Anna Karenin vs Anna Karenina
The title has been translated as both Anna Karenin and Anna Karenina. The first instance naturalizes the Russian name into English, whereas the second is a direct transliteration of the actual Russian name. As Vladimir Nabokov explains: "In Russian, a surname ending in a consonant acquires a final 'a' (except for the cases of such names that cannot be declined) when designating a woman".
Nabokov favours the first convention - removing the Russian 'a' to naturalize the name into English - but subsequent translators mostly allow Anna's actual Russian name to stand. Larissa Volokhonsky, herself a Russian, prefers the second option, while other translators like Constance Garnett and Rosemary Edmonds prefer the first solution.
Main characters
* Anna Arkadyevna Karenina – Stepan Oblonsky's sister, Karenin's wife and Vronsky's lover. She is also a minor character in War and Peace. [citation needed]
* Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky – Lover of Anna
* Prince Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky ("Stiva") – a civil servant and Anna's brother.
* Princess Darya Alexandrovna Oblonskaya ("Dolly") – Stepan's wife
* Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin – a senior statesman and Anna's husband, twenty years her senior.
* Konstantin Dmitrievitch Levin ("Kostya") – Kitty's suitor and then husband.
* Nikolai Levin – Konstantin's brother
* Sergius Ivanich Koznyshev – Konstantin's half-brother
* Princess Ekaterina Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya ("Kitty") – Dolly's younger sister and later Levin's wife
* Princess Elizaveta ("Betsy") – Anna's wealthy, morally loose society friend and Vronsky's cousin
* Countess Lidia Ivanovna – Leader of a high society circle that includes Karenin, and shuns Princess Betsy and her circle. She maintains an interest in the mystical and spiritual
* Countess Vronskaya – Vronsky's mother
* Sergei Alexeyitch Karenin ("Seryozha") – Anna and Karenin's son
* Anna ("Annie") – Anna and Vronsky's daughter
* Varenka – a young orphaned girl, semi-adopted by an ailing Russian noblewoman, whom Kitty befriends while abroad
Plot summary
The novel is divided into eight parts. The novel begins with one of its most quoted lines:
“ Happy families are all alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. ”
Part 1
The novel opens with a scene introducing Prince Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky, "Stiva", a Moscow aristocrat and civil servant who has been unfaithful to his wife Darya Alexandrovna, nicknamed "Dolly". Dolly has discovered his affair - with the family's governess - and the house and family are in turmoil. Stiva's affair and his reaction to his wife's distress shows an amorous personality that he cannot seem to suppress.
In the midst of the turmoil, Stiva reminds the household that his married sister, Anna Arkadyevna Karenina is coming to visit from Saint Petersburg.
Meanwhile, Stiva's childhood friend Konstantin Dmitrievich Levin ("Kostya") arrives in Moscow with the aim of proposing to Dolly's youngest sister Princess Katerina Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya, "Kitty". Levin is a passionate, restless but shy aristocratic landowner who, unlike his Moscow friends, chooses to live in the country on his large estate. He discovers that Kitty is also being pursued by Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky, an army officer.
At the railway station to meet Anna, Stiva bumps into Vronsky. Vronsky is there to meet his mother. Anna and the Countess Vronskaya have travelled together in the same carriage and talked together. As the family members are reunited, and Vronsky sees Anna for the first time, a railway worker accidentally falls in front of a train and is killed. Anna interprets this as an "evil omen." Vronsky is infatuated with Anna. Anna, who is uneasy about leaving her young son, Seryozha, alone for the first time, talks openly and emotionally to Dolly about Stiva's affair and convinces Dolly that her husband still loves her, despite his infidelity. Dolly is moved by Anna's speeches and decides to forgive Stiva.
Dolly's youngest sister, Kitty, comes to visit her sister and Anna. Kitty, just 18, is in her first season as a debutante and is expected to make an excellent match with a man of her social standing. Vronsky has been paying her considerable attention, and she expects to dance with him at a ball that evening. Kitty is very struck by Anna's beauty and personality and is infatuated with her. When Levin proposes to Kitty at her home, she clumsily turns him down, because she believes she is in love with Vronsky and that he will propose to her.
At the ball, Vronsky pays Anna considerable attention, and dances with her, choosing her as a partner instead of Kitty, who is shocked and heartbroken. Kitty realises that Vronsky has fallen in love with Anna, and that despite his overt flirtations with her he has no intention of marrying her and in fact views his attentions to her as mere amusement, believing that she does the same.
Anna, shaken by her emotional and physical response to Vronsky, returns at once to Saint Petersburg. Vronsky travels on the same train. During the overnight journey, the two meet and Vronsky confesses his love. Anna refuses him, although she is deeply affected by his attentions to her.
Levin, crushed by Kitty's refusal, returns to his estate farm, abandoning any hope of marriage, and Anna returns to her husband Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, a senior government official, and their son Sergei ("Seryozha") in Petersburg.
Tatiana Samoilova as Anna in the 1967 Soviet screen version of Tolstoy's novel.
On seeing her husband for the first time since her encounter with Vronsky, Anna realises that she finds him repulsive, noting the odd way that his ears press against his hat.
Part 2
The Shcherbatskys consult doctors over Kitty's health which has been failing since she realizes that Vronsky did not love her and that he did not intend to propose marriage to her, and that she refused and hurt Levin, whom she cares for, in vain. A specialist doctor advises that Kitty should go abroad to a health spa to recover. Dolly speaks to Kitty and understands that she is suffering because of Vronsky and Levin. Kitty, humiliated by Vronsky and tormented by her rejection of Levin, upsets her sister by referring to Stiva's infidelity and says she could never love a man who betrayed her.
Stiva stays with Levin on his country estate when he makes a sale of a plot of land, to provide funds for his expensive city lifestyle. Levin is upset at the poor deal he makes with the buyer and his lack of understanding of the rural lifestyle.
In St. Petersburg, Anna begins to spend more time with the fashionable socialite and gossip Princess Betsy and her circle, in order to meet Vronsky, Betsy's cousin. Vronsky continues to pursue Anna. Although Anna initially tries to reject him, she eventually succumbs to his attentions.
Karenin warns Anna of the impropriety of paying too much attention to Vronsky in public, which is becoming a subject of society gossip. He is concerned about his and his wife's public image, although he believes that Anna is above suspicion.
Vronsky, a keen horseman, takes part in a steeplechase event, during which he rides his mare Frou-Frou too hard and she falls and breaks her back. Vronsky escapes with minimal injuries but is devastated that his mare must be shot. Anna tells him that she is pregnant with his child, and is unable to hide her distress when Vronsky falls from the racehorse. Karenin is also present at the races and remarks to her that her behaviour is improper. Anna, in a state of extreme distress and emotion, confesses her affair to her husband. Karenin asks her to break off the affair to avoid society gossip and believes that their relationship can then continue as previously.
Kitty goes with her mother to a resort at a German spa to recover from her ill health. There they meet the Pietist Madame Stahl and the saintly Varenka, her adopted daughter. Influenced by Varenka, Kitty becomes extremely pious, but is disillusioned by her father`s criticism. She then returns to Moscow.
Part 3
Levin continues his work on his large country estate, a setting closely tied to his spiritual thoughts and struggles. Levin wrestles with the idea of falseness, wondering how he should go about ridding himself of it, and criticising what he feels is falseness in others. He develops ideas relating to agriculture and the unique relationship between the agricultural labourer and his native land and culture. He believes that the agricultural reforms of Europe will not work in Russia because of the unique culture and personality of the Russian peasant.
Levin pays Dolly a visit, and she attempts to understand what happened between him and Kitty and to explain Kitty's behaviour to him. Levin is very agitated by Dolly's talk about Kitty, and he begins to feel distant from her as he perceives her behaviour towards her children as false. Levin resolves to forget Kitty and contemplates the possibility of marriage to a peasant woman. However, a chance sighting of Kitty in her carriage as she travels to Dolly's house makes Levin realise he still loves her.
In St. Petersburg, Karenin crushes Anna by refusing to separate from her. He insists that their relationship remain as it was and threatens to take away their son Seryozha if she continues to pursue her affair with Vronsky.
Part 4
Anna continues to pursue her affair with Vronsky. Karenin begins to find the situation intolerable. He talks with a lawyer about obtaining a divorce. In Russia at that time, divorce could only be requested by the innocent party in an affair, and required either that the guilty party confessed (which would ruin Anna's position in society) or that the guilty party was discovered in the act. Karenin forces Anna to give him some letters written to her by Vronsky as proof of the affair. However, Anna's brother Stiva argues against it and persuades Karenin to speak with Dolly first.
Dolly broaches the subject with Karenin and asks him to reconsider his plans to divorce Anna. She seems to be unsuccessful, but Karenin changes his plans after hearing that Anna is dying after a difficult childbirth. At her bedside, Karenin forgives Vronsky. Vronsky, embarrassed by Karenin's magnanimity, attempts suicide by shooting himself. He fails in his attempt but wounds himself badly.
Anna recovers, having given birth to a daughter, Anna ("Annie"). Although her husband has forgiven her, and has become attached to the new baby, Anna cannot bear living with him. She hears that Vronsky is about to leave for a military posting in Tashkent and becomes desperate. Stiva finds himself pleading to Karenin on her behalf to free her by giving her a divorce. Vronsky is intent on leaving for Tashkent, but changes his mind after seeing Anna.
The couple leave for Europe - leaving behind Anna's son Seryozha - without obtaining a divorce.
Much more straightforward is Stiva's matchmaking with Levin: he arranges a meeting between Levin and Kitty which results in their reconciliation and betrothal.
Part 5
Levin and Kitty marry and immediately go to start their new life together on Levin's country estate. The couple are happy but do not have a very smooth start to their married life and take some time to get used to each other. Levin feels some dissatisfaction at the amount of time Kitty wants to spend with him and is slightly scornful of her preoccupation with domestic matters, which he feels are too prosaic and not compatible with his romantic ideas of love.
A few months later, Levin learns that his brother Nikolai is dying of consumption. Levin wants to go to him, and is initially angry and put out that Kitty wishes to accompany him. Levin feels that Kitty, whom he has placed on a pedestal, should not come down to earth and should not mix with people from a lower class. Levin assumes her insistence on coming must relate to a fear of boredom from being left alone, despite her true desire to support her husband in a difficult time. Kitty persuades him to take her with him after much discussion, where she proves a great help nursing Nikolai for weeks over his slow death. She also discovers she is pregnant.
In Europe, Vronsky and Anna struggle to find friends who will accept their situation. Whilst Anna is happy to be finally alone with Vronsky, he feels suffocated. They cannot socialize with Russians of their own social set and find it difficult to amuse themselves. Vronsky, who believed that being with Anna in freedom was the key to his happiness, finds himself increasingly bored and unsatisfied. He takes up painting, and makes an attempt to patronize an émigré Russian artist of genius. Vronsky cannot see that his own art lacks talent and passion, and that his clever conversation about art is an empty shell. Bored and restless, Anna and Vronsky decide to return to Russia.
In Petersburg, Anna and Vronsky stay in one of the best hotels but take separate suites. It becomes clear that whilst Vronsky is able to move in Society, Anna is barred from it. Even her old friend, Princess Betsy - who has had affairs herself - evades her company. Anna starts to become very jealous and anxious that Vronsky no longer loves her.
Karenin is comforted – and influenced – by the strong-willed Countess Lidia Ivanovna, an enthusiast of religious and mystic ideas fashionable with the upper classes. She counsels him to keep Seryozha away from Anna and to make him believe that his mother is dead. However, Seryozha refuses to believe that this is true. Anna manages to visit Seryozha unannounced and uninvited on his ninth birthday, but is discovered by Karenin.
Anna, desperate to resume at least in part her former position in Society, attends a show at the theatre at which all of Petersburg's high society are present. Vronsky begs her not to go, but is unable to bring himself to explain to her why she cannot go. At the theatre, Anna is openly snubbed by her former friends, one of whom makes a deliberate scene and leaves the theatre. Anna is devastated.
Unable to find a place for themselves in Petersburg, Anna and Vronsky leave for Vronsky's country estate.
Part 6
Dolly, her mother the Princess Scherbatskaya, and Dolly's children spend the summer with Levin and Kitty on the Levins' country estate. The Levins' life is simple and unaffected, although Levin is uneasy at the "invasion" of so many Scherbatskys. He is able to cope until he is consumed with an intense jealousy when one of the visitors, Veslovsky, flirts openly with the pregnant Kitty. Levin tries to overcome his jealousy but eventually succumbs to it and in an embarrassing scene evicts Veslovsky from his house. Veslovsky immediately goes to stay with Anna and Vronsky, whose estate is close by.
Dolly also pays a short visit to Anna at Vronsky's estate. The difference between the Levins' aristocratic but simple home life and Vronsky's overtly luxurious and lavish country home strikes Dolly, who is unable to keep pace with Anna's fashionable dresses or Vronsky's extravagant spending on the hospital he is building. However, all is not quite well with Anna and Vronsky. Dolly is also struck by Anna's anxious behaviour and new habit of half closing her eyes when she alludes to her difficult position. When Veslovsky flirts openly with Anna, she plays along with him even though she clearly feels uncomfortable. Vronsky makes an emotional request to Dolly, asking her to convince Anna to divorce her husband so that the two might marry and live normally. Dolly broaches the subject with Anna, who appears not to be convinced. However, Anna is becoming intensely jealous of Vronsky, and cannot bear it when he leaves her for short excursions. The two have started to quarrel about this and when Vronsky leaves for several days of provincial elections, a combination of boredom and suspicion convinces Anna she must marry him in order to prevent him from leaving her. She writes to Karenin, and she and Vronsky leave the countryside for Moscow.
Part 7
The Levins are in Moscow for Kitty's confinement. Despite initial reservations, Levin quickly gets used to the fast-paced, expensive and frivolous Moscow society life. He starts to accompany Stiva to his Moscow gentleman's club, where drinking and gambling are popular pastimes. At the club, Levin meets Vronsky and Stiva introduces them. Levin and Stiva pay a visit to Anna, who is occupying her empty days by being a patroness to an orphaned English girl. Levin is uneasy about the visit and not sure it is the proper thing to do, and Anna easily puts Levin under her spell. When he confesses to Kitty where he has been, she accuses him falsely of falling in love with Anna. The couple are reconciled, realising that Moscow life has had a negative, corrupting effect on Levin.
Anna, who has made a habit of inducing the young men who visit her to fall in love with her, cannot understand why she can attract a man like Levin, who has a young and beautiful new wife, but cannot attract Vronsky in the way she wants to. Anna's relationship with Vronsky is under increasing strain, as whilst he can move freely in Society - and continues to spend considerable time doing so to stress to Anna his independence as a man - she is excluded from all her previous social connections. She is estranged from baby Annie, her child with Vronsky and her increasing bitterness, boredom, jealousy and emotional strain cause the couple to argue. Anna uses morphine to help her sleep, a habit we learned she had begun during her time living with Vronsky at his country estate. Now she has become dependent on it.
After a long and difficult labour, Kitty gives birth to a son, Dmitri, nicknamed Mitya. Levin is both extremely moved and horrified by the sight of the tiny, helpless baby.
Stiva visits Karenin to encourage his commendation for a new post he is seeking. During the visit he asks him to grant Anna a divorce, but Karenin's decisions are now governed by a French "clairvoyant" – recommended by Lidia Ivanovna – who apparently has a vision in his sleep during Stiva's visit, and gives Karenin a cryptic message that is interpreted as meaning that he must decline the request for divorce.
Anna becomes increasingly jealous and irrational towards Vronsky, whom she suspects of having love affairs with other women, and of giving in to his mother's plans to marry him off to a rich Society woman. There is a bitter row, and Anna believes that the relationship is over. She starts to think of suicide as an escape from her torments. In her mental and emotional confusion, she sends a telegram to Vronsky asking him to come home to her, and pays a visit to Dolly and Kitty. Anna's confusion overcomes her, and in a parallel to the railway worker's accidental death in part 1, she commits suicide by throwing herself in the path of a train.
Part 8
Stiva gets the job he desired so much, and Karenin takes custody of baby Annie. A group of Russian volunteers, including Vronsky, who does not plan to return alive, depart from Russia to fight in the Orthodox Serbian revolt that has broken out against the Turks. Meanwhile, a lightning storm occurs at Levin's estate while his wife and newborn son are outside, causing him to fear for the safety of both of them, and to realize that he does indeed love his son similarly to how he loves Kitty. Also, Kitty's family concerns, namely, that a man as altruistic as her husband does not consider himself to be a Christian, are also addressed when Levin decides after talking to a peasant that devotion to living righteously as decreed by the Christian God is the only justifiable reason for living. After coming to this decision, but without telling anyone about it, he is initially displeased that this change of thought does not bring with it a complete transformation of his behavior to be more righteous. However, at the end of the book he comes to the conclusion that this fact, and the fact that there are other religions with similar views on goodness that are not Christian, are acceptable and that neither of these things diminish the fact that now his life can be meaningfully oriented toward goodness.
Style
Tolstoy's style in Anna Karenina is considered by many critics to be transitional, forming a bridge between the realist and modernist novel. The novel is narrated from a third-person-omniscient perspective, shifting between the perspectives of several major characters, though most frequently focusing on the opposing lifestyles and attitudes of its central protagonists of Anna and Levin. As such, each of the novel's eight sections contains internal variations in tone: it assumes a relaxed voice when following Stepan Oblonsky's thoughts and actions and a much more tense voice when describing Levin's social encounters. Much of the novel's seventh section depicts Anna's thoughts fluidly, following each one of her ruminations and free associations with its immediate successor. This groundbreaking use of stream-of-consciousness would be utilised by such later authors as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and William Faulkner.
Also of significance is Tolstoy's use of real events in his narrative, to lend greater verisimilitude to the fictional events of his narrative. Characters debate significant sociopolitical issues affecting Russia in the latter half of the nineteenth century, such as the place and role of the Russian peasant in society, education reform, and women's rights. Tolstoy's depiction of the characters in these debates, and of their arguments, allows him to communicate his own political beliefs. Characters often attend similar social functions to those which Tolstoy attended, and he includes in these passages his own observations of the ideologies, behaviors, and ideas running through contemporary Russia through the thoughts of Levin. The broad array of situations and ideas depicted in Anna Karenina allows Tolstoy to present a treatise on his era's Russia, and, by virtue of its very breadth and depth, all of human society. This stylistic technique, as well as the novel's use of perspective, greatly contributes to the thematic structure of Anna Karenina.[citation needed]
Major themes
Anna Karenina is commonly thought to explore the themes of hypocrisy, jealousy, faith, fidelity, family, marriage, society, progress, carnal desire and passion, and the agrarian connection to land in contrast to the lifestyles of the city. Translator Rosemary Edmonds wrote that Tolstoy doesn't explicitly moralise in the book, he allows his themes to emerge naturally from the "vast panorama of Russian life." She also writes that a key message is that "no one may build their happiness on another's pain," which is why things don't work out for Anna.
Levin is often considered as a semi-autobiographical portrayal of Tolstoy's own beliefs, struggles and life events. Tolstoy's first name is "Lev", and the Russian surname "Levin" means "of Lev". According to footnotes in the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation, the viewpoints Levin supports throughout the novel in his arguments match Tolstoy's outspoken views on the same issues. Moreover, according to W. Gareth Jones, Levin proposed to Kitty in the same way as Tolstoy to Sophie Behrs. Additionally, Levin's request that his fiancée read his diary as a way of disclosing his faults and previous sexual encounters, parallels Tolstoy's own requests to his fiancée Sophie Behrs.
Anna Karenina and Tolstoy's A Confession
Alla Tarasova as Anna Karenina in 1937
Many of the novel's themes can also be found in Tolstoy's A Confession, his first-person rumination about the nature of life and faith, written just two years after the publication of Anna Karenina.
In this book, Tolstoy describes his dissatisfaction with the hypocrisy of his social class:
“ Every time I tried to display my innermost desires – a wish to be morally good – I met with contempt and scorn, and as soon as I gave in to base desires I was praised and encouraged. ”
Tolstoy also details the acceptability of adulterous "liaisons" in aristocratic Russian society:
“ A dear old aunt of mine, the purest of creatures, with whom I lived, was always saying that she wished for nothing as much as that I would have a relationship with a married woman. "Rien ne forme un jeune homme comme une liaison avec une femme comme il faut." ("Nothing educates a young man better than an affair with a woman established in society.") ”
Another theme in Anna Karenina is that of the aristocratic habit of speaking French instead of Russian, which Tolstoy suggests is another form of society's falseness. When Dolly insists on speaking French to her young daughter, Tanya, she begins to seem false and tedious to Levin, who finds himself unable to feel at ease in her house.
In a passage that could be interpreted as a sign of Anna's eventual redemption in Tolstoy's eyes, the narrator explains:
“ For in the end what are we, who are convinced that suicide is obligatory and yet cannot resolve to commit it, other than the weakest, the most inconsistent and, speaking frankly, the most stupid of people, making such a song and dance with our banalities? ”
A Confession contains many other autobiographical insights into the themes of Anna Karenina. A public domain version of it is here.
Film, television, and theatrical adaptations
For more details on this topic, see Adaptations of Anna Karenina.
* Operas based on Anna Karenina have been written by Sassano (Naples, 1905), Leoš Janáček (unfinished, 1907), Granelli (1912), E. Malherbe (unperformed, 1914), Jeno Hubay (Budapest, 1915), Robbiani (Rome, 1924), Goldbach (1930), Iain Hamilton (London, 1981) and David Carlson (Miami, 2007).
* Love, a 1927 silent film based loosely on the novel. The film starred Greta Garbo and John Gilbert.
* Anna Karenina, a critically acclaimed 1935 film, directed by Clarence Brown. The film stars Greta Garbo, Fredric March, and Maureen O'Sullivan.
* Anna Karenina, a 1948 film directed by Julien Duvivier with Vivien Leigh, Ralph Richardson and Kieron Moore.
* "MGM Theater Of The Air - Anna Karenina (Radio Broadcast)" (Broadcast 12/09/1949; on American radio, starring Marlene Dietrich
* "Nahr al-Hob" (or River of Love; 1960; an Egyptian movie starring Omar Sharif and Faten Hamama
* Anna Karenina, a 1967 Russian film directed by Aleksandr Zarkhi and starring Tatyana Samojlova, Nikolai Gritsenko and Vasili Lanovoy.
* Anna Karenina (1968) a ballet composed by Rodion Shchedrin
* Anna Karenina, a 1977 TV version in ten episodes. Made by the BBC it was directed by Basil Coleman and starred Nicola Pagett, Eric Porter and Stuart Wilson.
* Anna Karenina, a 1985 TV film directed by Simon Langton and starring Jacqueline Bisset, Paul Scofield and Christopher Reeve.
* Anna Karenina, a 1992 Broadway musical starring Ann Crumb and John Cunningham
* Anna Karenina, a 1997 British-American production filmed in St. Peterburg, Russia, by director Bernard Rose with Sophie Marceau as Anna Karenina.
* Anna Karenina, a 2000 TV version in four episodes. It was directed by David Blair and starred Helen McCrory, Stephen Dillane and Kevin McKidd.
* Anna Karenina a 2005 ballet with choreography by Boris Eifman and music drawn from the works of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Anna Karenina in literature
* Quirk Classics transformed Anna Karenina into the book 'Android Karenina' (other past transformations have included 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' and 'Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters')
* The novel is referenced in Vladimir Nabokov's Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle.
* Repeated reference is made explicitly to Leo Tolstoy and Anna Karenin in Muriel Barbery's Elegance of the Hedgehog
* Anna Karenina is also mentioned in R. L. Stine's Goosebumps series Don't Go To Sleep.
* Mikhail Bulgakov makes reference to the Oblonsky household and Tolstoy in The Master and Margarita.
* In Jasper Fforde's novel Lost in a Good Book, a recurring joke is two unnamed "crowd-scene" characters from Anna Karenina discussing its plot.
* In the short-story "Sleep" by Haruki Murakami, the main character, an insomniac housewife, spends much time reading through and considering "Anna Karenina". Furthermore, in the short story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo", by the same author, the character of Frog references "Anna Karenina" when discussing how to beat Worm.
* Martin Amis's character Lev, in the novel House of Meetings, compares the protagonist with Anna Karenina's Vronsky.
* In the novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being Anna Karenina is compared with the novel like beauty of life, and Tereza arrives at Tomas's apartment with a copy of the book under her arm. In addition, Tereza and Tomas have a pet dog named Karenin, after Anna's husband.
* In the novel What Happened to Anna K. Irina Reyn loosely transfers the Anna Karenina story to a setting in modern-day New York City.
* Anna Karenina plays a central role in Nilo Cruz's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Anna in the Tropics (2002), set in 1929, as a new lector, Juan Julian, reads the text as background for cigar rollers in the Ybor City section of Tampa, FL. As he reads the story of adultery, the workers' passions are inflamed, and end in tragedy like Anna's.
* In "The Slippery Slope", the 10th book in A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, the Baudelaire orphans Violet, Klaus and the third Quagmire triplet Quigley need to use the central theme of "Anna Karenina" as the final password to open the Vernacularly Fastened Door leading to the V.F.D. Headquarters. Klaus remembered how his mother had read it to him one summer when he was young as a summer reading book. Klaus summarized the theme with these words: "The central theme of Anna Karenina is that a rural life of moral simplicity, despite its monotony, is the preferable personal narrative to a daring life of impulsive passion, which only leads to tragedy." Esme Squalor later said she once was supposed to read the book over the summer, but she decided it would never help her in her life and threw it in the fireplace.
* Guns, Germs, and Steel (by Jared Diamond) has a chapter (#9) on the domestication of large mammals, titled "Zebras, Unhappy Marriages, and the Anna Karenina Principle." This chapter begins with a variation on the quote, above.
* in Nicholas Sparks's book The Last Song, the main character, Ronnie, reads Anna Karenina and other Tolstoy books throughout the story.
Further reading
Translations
* Anna Karenina, Translated by Constance Garnett. Still widely reprinted.
* Anna Karenina, Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (Allen Lane/Penguin, London, 2000)
* Anna Karénina, Translated by Margaret Wettlin (Progress Publishers, 1978)
* Anna Karenina, Translated by Joel Carmichael (Bantam Books, New York, 1960)
* Anna Karenina, Translated by David Magarshack (A Signet Classic, New American Library, New York and Scarborough, Ontario, 1961)
* Anna Karenina, Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1918)
* Anna Karenin, Translated by Rosemary Edmonds (Penguin Classics, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1954)
* Anna Karénina, Translated by Nathan Haskell Dole (Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York, 1886)
* Anna Karenina, Translated by Kyril Zinovieff (Oneworld Classics 2008) ISBN 978-1-84749-059-9
Biographical and literary criticism
* Bakhtin, Mikhail, The Dialogic Imagination, ed. Michael Holquist, trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist (University of Texas Press, Austin, 1981)
* Bayley, John, Tolstoy and the Novel (Chatto and Windus, London, 1966)
* Berlin, Isaiah, The Hedgehog and the Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy's View of History (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1966; Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1967)
* Eikhenbaum, Boris, Tolstoi in the Seventies, trans. Albert Kaspin (Ardis, Ann Arbor, 1982)
* Evans, Mary, Anna Karenina (Routledge, London and New York, 1989)
* Gifford, Henry, Tolstoy (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1982)
* Gifford, Henry (ed) Leo Tolstoy (Penguin Critical Anthologies, Harmondsworth, 1971)
* Leavis, F. R., Anna Karenina and Other Essays (Chatto and Windus, London, 1967)
* Mandelker, Amy, Framing 'Anna Karenina': Tolstoy, the Woman Question, and the Victorian Novel (Ohio State University Press, Columbus, 1993)
* Morson,Gary Saul, Anna Karenina in our time: seeing more wisely (Yale University Press 2007) read parts at Google-Books
* Nabokov, Vladimir, Lectures on Russian Literature (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1981)
* Orwin, Donna Tussing, Tolstoy's Art and Thought, 1847-1880 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1993)
* Speirs, Logan, Tolstoy and Chekhov (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1971)
* Strakhov, Nikolai, N., "Levin and Social Chaos", in Gibian, ed., (W.W. Norton & Company New York, 2005).
* Steiner, George, Tolstoy or Dostoevsky: An Essay in Contrast (Faber and Faber, London, 1959)
* Thorlby, Anthony, Anna Karenina (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, 1987)
* Tolstoy, Leo, Correspondence, 2. vols., selected, ed. and trans. by R. F. Christian (Athlone Press, London and Scribner, New York, 1978)
* Tolstoy, Leo, Diaries, ed. and trans. by R. F. Christian (Athlone Press, London and Scribner, New York, 1985)
* Tolstoy, Sophia A., The Diaries of Sophia Tolstoy, ed. O. A. Golinenko, trans. Cathy Porter (Random House, New York, 1985)
* Turner, C. J. G., A Karenina Companion (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Waterloo, 1993)
* Wasiolek, Edward, Critical Essays on Tolstoy (G. K. Hall, Boston, 1986)
* Wasiolek, Edward, Tolstoy's Major Fiction (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1978)
《安娜·卡列尼娜》-简介
在托尔斯泰全部作品中，《战争与和平》、《安娜·卡列尼娜》、《复活》是三个里程碑，也是他的三部代表作品。《安娜·卡列尼娜》在这三部代表作中有其特殊的重要性，它是三部巨著之中艺术上最为完整的一部，并且体现了托氏思想和艺术发展道路的过渡与转变，可以称之为代表作中的代表作。它通过女主人公安娜追求爱情而失败的悲剧，和列文在农村面临危机而进行的改革与探索这两条线索，描绘了俄国从莫斯科到外省乡村广阔而丰富多彩的图景，先后描写了150多个人物，是一部社会百科全书式的作品。
《安娜·卡列尼娜》-作家简介
列夫·尼古拉耶维奇·托尔斯泰（1828-1910）是俄国批判现实主义文学最伟大的代表，世界文学史上最伟大的作家之一。在世界文坛中堪与莎士比亚、歌德、巴尔扎克并肩而立的作家当首推列夫托尔斯泰。他那三部鸿篇巨著无疑代表了19世纪世界现实主义文学的最高水平。列夫·托尔斯泰是俄国文学史上最伟大的文豪之一，他在文学方面的成就受到举世瞩目的认同。
《安娜·卡列尼娜》-内容梗概
《安娜·卡列尼娜》通过女主人公安娜追求爱情而失败的悲剧，和列文在农村面临危机而进行的改革与探索这两条线索，描绘了俄国从莫斯科到外省乡村广阔而丰富多彩的图景，先后描写了150多个人物，是一部社会百科全书式的作品。
故事以双线进行，一为安娜，一为列文。托氏以二人为轴，描写出不同的婚姻和家庭生活，更进一步则写出当时俄国政治，宗教，农事景像。
在文中，列文为托氏之化身，代表着1860,70年代的社会转型催生者。列文重视农事，对贵族生活不甚投入，住在乡村和指导农民工作。列文热爱吉蒂，起初求婚被拒，但几经波折，终抱得美人归，并一同住在乡下。
女主人翁安娜，年青时和丈夫亚历山大．卡列宁（Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin）结合，本婚姻美满，育有一子。卡列宁在仕途上成功，安娜亦于交际场上光茫四射。故事始于奥布朗斯基公爵和英国家庭女教师恋爱，与妻子道丽闹翻，求助于其妺安娜。安娜从圣．彼得堡到莫斯科替二人调解，在车站认识了年轻军官佛伦斯基（Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky）。并在莫斯科一次舞会中和佛伦斯基发生致命的恋情，自此不能自拔，最后身败名列并自杀身亡。佛伦斯基为求得美人，追随安娜至圣彼得堡，最后两人陷入热恋。他俩频频幽会，最后安娜怀孕，并向丈夫承认了私情。卡列宁一度想与妻子分居，但为存面子，拒绝离婚并要求妻子终止恋情。然而安娜分娩时几乎难产而濒临死亡，在死亡面前，卡列宁原谅了她。安娜病后无法压抑自己对佛伦斯基的爱，终于离家出走。佛伦斯基带着安娜前往意大利旅行，这时安娜感到无比的幸福。其后回到俄罗斯，于儿子生日时，按捺不住偷偷会见自己的儿子。却无法见容于俄国社会，上流社会把安娜看作堕落的女人，断绝和她的往来。安娜只得移居乡下，靠写作打发时间。二人共处日久，佛伦斯基和安娜在生活上的不信任日增。安娜感到很难过，认为情人为前途名誉离她而去，沮丧失望之下，安娜为处罚佛伦斯基，在火车驶近时跳下火车月台自杀。葬礼之后，亚历山大·卡列宁带走她的女儿，佛伦斯基受到良心的谴责，大病一场，后来志愿从军，前往巴尔干参战，但求一死。
《安娜·卡列尼娜》-创作背景资料
在世界文学的巍巍群山中，堪与莎士比亚、歌德、巴尔扎克这几座高峰比肩而立的俄国作家当首推列夫·托尔斯泰。托尔斯泰是一位有思想的艺术家，也是一位博学的艺术大师。他的作品展现的社会画面之广阔，蕴含的思想之丰饶，融会的艺术、语言、哲学、历史、民俗乃至自然科学等各种知识之广博，常常令人望洋兴叹。《安娜·卡列尼娜》是他的一部既美不胜收而又博大精深的巨制。
巨大的思想和艺术价值，使得这部巨著一发表便引起巨大社会反响。托尔斯泰并没有简单地写一个男女私通的故事，而是通过这个故事揭示了俄国社会中妇女的地位，并由此来鞭挞它的不合理性。作品描写了个人感情需要与社会道德之间的冲突。1877年，小说首版发行。据同代人称，它不啻是引起了“一场真正的社会大爆炸”，它的各个章节都引起了整个社会的“跷足”注视，及无休无止的“议论、推崇、非难和争吵，仿佛事情关涉到每个人最切身的问题”。
但不久，社会就公认它是一部了不起的巨著，它所达到的高度是俄国文学从未达到过的。伟大作家陀思妥耶夫斯基兴奋地评论道：“这是一部尽善尽美的艺术杰作，现代欧洲文学中没有一部同类的东西可以和它相比！”他甚至称托尔斯泰为“艺术之神”。而书中的女主人公安娜·卡列尼娜则成为世界文学史上最优美丰满的女性形象之一。这个资产阶级妇女解放的先锋，以自己的方式追求个性的解放和真诚的爱情，虽然由于制度的桎梏，她的悲剧只能以失败而告终。但她以内心体验的深刻与感情的强烈真挚，以蓬勃的生命力和悲剧性命运而扣人心弦。
《安娜·卡列尼娜》的构思始于1870年，而到1873年托尔斯泰才开始动笔。这是他一生中精神困顿的时期。最初，托尔斯泰是想写一个上流社会已婚妇女失足的故事，但随着写作的深入，原来的构思不断被修改。小说的初步创作不过仅用了短短的50天时间便得以完成，然而托尔斯泰很不满意，他又花费了数十倍的时间来不断修正，前后经过12次大的改动，迟至4年之后才正式出版。这时，小说废弃的手稿高达1米多！“全部都应当改写，再改写”，这是托尔斯泰经常挂在嘴边的一句话。显然，一部《安娜·卡列尼娜》与其说是写出来的，不如说是改出来的。
正是在作者近乎苛刻的追求中，小说的重心有了巨大的转移，安娜由最初构思中的“失了足的女人”（她趣味恶劣、卖弄风情，品行不端），变成了一个品格高雅、敢于追求真正的爱情与幸福的“叛女”形象，从而成为世界文学中最具反抗精神的女性之一。
《安娜·卡列尼娜》通过安娜追求爱情而失败的悲剧，列文在农村面临危机而进行的改革与探索这两条线索，描绘了俄国从莫斯科到外省乡村广阔而丰富多彩的图景，先后描写了150多个人物，是一部社会百科全书式的作品。小说艺术上最突出的特点是首次成功地采用了两条平行线索互相对照、相辅相成的“拱门式” 结构，并在心理描写上细致入微、精妙绝伦。小说中那大段的人物内心独白，无疑都是现实主义描写的典范。
《安娜·卡列尼娜》-人物形象
安娜
《安娜·卡列尼娜》是由两条主要的平行线索和一条联结性次要线索结构而成的，整体上反映了农奴制改革后“一切都翻了一个身，一切都刚刚安排下来”的那个时代在政治、经济、道德、心理等方面的矛盾。小说通过安娜—— 卡列宁——渥伦斯基线索展示了封建主义家庭关系的瓦解和道德的沦丧；通过列文——吉提线索描绘出资本主义势力侵入农村后，地主经济面临危机的情景，揭示出作者执着地探求出路的痛苦心情。而道丽——奥勃朗斯基这一次要线索巧妙地联结两条主线，在家庭思想上三条线索相互对应、参照，勾勒出三种不同类型的家庭模式和生活方式。作者以这种建筑学而自豪，圆拱将两座大厦联结得天衣无缝，“使人觉察不出什么地方是拱顶”。
主人公安娜·卡列尼娜是世界文学史上最优美丰满的女性形象之一。她以内心体验的深刻与感情的强烈真挚，以蓬勃的生命力和悲剧性命运而扣人心弦。
安娜第一次出现时的音容笑貌令人难以忘怀：她姿态端丽、温雅，一双浓密的睫毛掩映下的眼睛中“有一股被压抑的生气在她的脸上流露……仿佛有一种过剩的生命力洋溢在她的全身心，违反她的意志”，在眼神和微笑中显现出来。在这幅出色的肖像中展现了安娜的精神美，也提示我们去探究她的生活之谜。安娜父母早逝，在姑母包办下嫁给了比她大二十岁的大官僚卡列宁。婚后在宗法思想支配下她曾安于天命，只是把全部感情寄托在儿子身上。渥伦斯基唤醒了她晚熟的爱情。她渴望自由而大胆地爱，不愿像别特西公爵夫人那样在家宴上公开接待情人；也不愿接受丈夫的建议仍然保持表面的夫妻关系，偷偷与情人往来；终于冲出家庭与渥伦斯基结合，公然与整个上流社会对抗。从此安娜失去了一个贵族妇女在社交界的一切地位和权利，除了渥伦斯基的爱，她一无所有，因此，她热烈而执着地献身于这种爱。确实，在国外，在渥伦斯基的庄园里，安娜曾体验过短暂的“不可原谅的幸福”。她丢弃母亲的天职，但内心无法平息因失去爱子而产生的悲伤；她想昂起骄傲的头，宣称她是幸福的女人，但却摆脱不掉有罪的妻子的意识。她的灵魂一直受到折磨。而孤注一掷的、囿于自我的对渥伦斯基的爱又不可能得到相应的感情反响，安娜绝望了，她在临终前满含怨愤地喊出：“一切全是虚伪、全是谎言、全是欺骗、全是罪恶。”
安娜的形象在作家创作过程中有过极大变化：从一个低级趣味的失足女人改写成真诚、严肃、宁为玉碎、不为瓦全的女性。托尔斯泰通过安娜的爱情、家庭悲剧寄寓了他对当时动荡的俄国社会中人的命运和伦理道德准则的思考。作家歌颂人的生命力，赞扬人性的合理要求；同时，他又坚决否定一切政治、社会活动（包括妇女解放运动）对改善人们命运的作用，强调母亲——妇女天职的重要性。作家世界观的矛盾构成安娜形象的复杂性。一百多年来各国作家按自己的理解把安娜搬上舞台、银幕、荧光屏。安娜形象一直激动着不同时代、不同民族的读者，这正说明安娜形象的艺术生命力是不朽的。
列文
列文则是托尔斯泰式主人公中自传性特别强的一个人物，他在托尔斯泰的创作中起着承前启后的作用，在他身上艺术地再现了作家世界观激变前夕的思想感情和生活感受，从结构安排来看，列文的幸福家庭与安娜的不幸家庭互为对照，但从思想探索来看，列文婚后却产生了精神危机，他为贵族阶级自甘败落而忧心忡忡。他研究劳动力在农业生产中的作用，制定“不流血的革命”方案，探讨人生的目的，但却毫无出路。罗曼·罗兰指出，列文不仅体现了托尔斯泰看待事物的既保守又民主的观点，而且“列文和吉提的恋爱，他俩婚后的头几年生活，就是作家自己家庭生活回忆的搬演。同样，列文哥哥之死也是托尔斯泰的哥哥德米特里之死的痛苦追忆”。而作品的尾声“则是作者本人趋向精神革命的过渡”。
《安娜·卡列尼娜》-主题思想
关于列夫·托尔斯泰，马原有一个说法，他认为托尔斯泰是小说史上争议最少的作家。这里所说的争议最少，指的是他在文学史上的地位。也就是说，你可以喜欢或不喜欢托尔斯泰的作品，但似乎无人能够否认他作为一位杰出思想家和第一流小说家的地位。
《安娜·卡列尼娜》在列夫·托尔斯泰的所有作品中，是写得最好的。《战争与和平》也许更波澜壮阔、更雄伟、更有气势，但它不如《安娜·卡列尼娜》那么纯粹、那么完美。顺便说一句，列夫·托尔斯泰并不是一个出色的文体家，但他的文体的精美与和谐无与伦比，这并非来自作者对小说修辞、技巧、叙述方式的刻意追求，而仅仅源于艺术上的直觉。
在《安娜·卡列尼娜》这部小说中，列夫·托尔斯泰塑造了许多在文学史上光芒四射的人物：安娜、渥伦斯基、吉提、列文、卡列宁、奥布浪斯基公爵……在这些人物中，惟一一个在生活中左右逢源，带有点喜剧色彩的就是奥布浪斯基公爵，其他的人物无不与死亡主题有关。如果我们简单地归纳一下，这部作品主要写了两个故事：其一，是安娜与渥伦斯基从相识、热恋到毁灭的过程，以及围绕这一进程的所有社会关系的纠葛，其二是列文的故事以及他在宗教意义上的展开个人思考。
正如那句著名的开场白所显示的一样，作者对现实的思考是以家庭婚姻为基本单位而展开的，至少涉及到了四种婚姻或爱情答案：卡列宁夫妇，安娜和渥伦斯基，奥布浪斯基夫妇，列文与吉提。每一个答案都意味着罪恶和灾难。安娜是惟一经历了两种不同婚姻(爱情)形式的人物。在作者所赋予的安娜的性格中，我以为激情和活力是其基本的内涵，正是这种压抑不住的活力使美貌纯洁的吉提相形见绌；正是这种被唤醒的激情使她与卡列宁的婚姻、甚至彼得堡习以为常的社交生活、甚至包括孩子谢辽沙都黯然失色。
与这种激情与活力相伴而来的是不顾一切的勇气。当小说中写到渥伦斯基在赛马会上摔下马来，安娜因失声大叫而暴露了"奸情"之时，对丈夫说出下面这段话是需要一点勇气的，“我爱他，我是他的情妇……随你高兴怎么样把我处置吧。”托尔斯泰对这种激情真是太熟悉了，我们不妨想一想《战争与和平》中的娜塔莎，《复活》中的卡秋莎，还有蛰伏于作者心中的那头强壮的熊--它的咆哮声一直困扰着列夫·托尔斯泰。
马丁·杜伽尔曾认为，托尔斯泰是最具洞察力的作家，他的目光十分锐利，能够穿透生活的壁垒而发现隐含其中的"真实"。但我却倾向于认为，从根本上来说，托尔斯泰是一个图解自我观念的作家，不管是早期还是晚期作品，主题上的联系十分清晰，尤其是《战争与和平》、《安娜·卡列尼娜》两部巨著，其中的人物、情节、主题多有雷同之处，他的观念的疆域并不宽广，他的素材也不丰富，但这并不妨碍托尔斯泰的伟大，正如塞万提斯的狭隘主题并不妨碍《堂吉诃德》的伟大一样。小说的真实来自他的智慧，敏感而浩瀚的心灵，而更为重要的是他的诚实。维特根斯坦在读完《哈泽·穆拉特》以后曾感慨地说： “他(托尔斯泰)是一个真正的人，他有权写作。”
托尔斯泰与《安娜·卡列尼娜》
关于列夫·托尔斯泰，马原有一个说法，他认为托尔斯泰是小说史上争议最少的作家。我理解他的意思，这里所说的争议最少，指的是他在文学史上的地位。也就是说，你可以喜欢或不喜欢托尔斯泰的作品，但似乎无人能够否认他作为一位杰出思想家和第一流小说家的地位。
在我的学生中间，对托尔斯泰不屑一顾的大有人在。有一次碰到一位学生，依我看他的导师是一名颇有学问的俄国文学专家，不知何故，该生却对恩师颇为不满，提出是否可以转到我的名下，让我给他指导。我问他为何要更换导师，他便列举了原导师的几个罪状，其中一条是：他竟然让我去读什么《安娜·卡列尼娜》。可见，在这些言必称美国的学生们的头脑中，老托尔斯泰显然已经是一个不中用的古董了。我对他说，导师就不必换了。因为如果我当你的导师，第一本推荐的书恐怕还是《安娜·卡列尼娜》。
《安娜·卡列尼娜》不仅是我最喜欢的长篇小说，而且我也认为，在列夫·托尔斯泰的所有作品中，它也是写得最好的。《战争与和平》也许更波澜壮阔、更雄伟、更有气势，但它不如《安娜·卡列尼娜》那么纯粹、那么完美。顺便说一句，列夫·托尔斯泰并不是一个出色的文体家，但他的文体的精美与和谐无与伦比，这并非来自作者对小说修辞、技巧、叙述方式的刻意追求，而仅仅源于艺术上的直觉。
在《安娜·卡列尼娜》这部小说中，列夫·托尔斯泰塑造了许多在文学史上光芒四射的人物：安娜、渥伦斯基、吉提、列文、卡列宁、奥布浪斯基公爵……在这些人物中，惟一一个在生活中左右逢源，带有点喜剧色彩的就是奥布浪斯基公爵，其他的人物无不与死亡主题有关。如果我们简单地归纳一下，这部作品主要写了两个故事：其一，是安娜与渥伦斯基从相识、热恋到毁灭的过程，以及围绕这一进程的所有社会关系的纠葛，其二是列文的故事以及他在宗教意义上的展开个人思考。
正如那句著名的开场白所显示的一样，作者对现实的思考是以家庭婚姻为基本单位而展开的，至少涉及到了四种婚姻或爱情答案：卡列宁夫妇，安娜和渥伦斯基，奥布浪斯基夫妇，列文与吉提。每一个答案都意味着罪恶和灾难。安娜是惟一经历了两种不同婚姻(爱情)形式的人物。在作者所赋予的安娜的性格中，我以为激情和活力是其基本的内涵，正是这种压抑不住的活力使美貌纯洁的吉提相形见绌；正是这种被唤醒的激情使她与卡列宁的婚姻、甚至彼得堡习以为常的社交生活、甚至包括孩子谢辽沙都黯然失色。
与这种激情与活力相伴而来的是不顾一切的勇气。当小说中写到渥伦斯基在赛马会上摔下马来，安娜因失声大叫而暴露了“奸情”之时，对丈夫说出下面这段话是需要一点勇气的，“我爱他，我是他的情妇……随你高兴怎么样把我处置吧。”托尔斯泰对这种激情真是太熟悉了，我们不妨想一想《战争与和平》中的娜塔莎，《复活》中的卡秋莎，还有蛰伏于作者心中的那头强壮的熊——它的咆哮声一直困扰着列夫·托尔斯泰。
马丁·杜伽尔曾认为，托尔斯泰是最具洞察力的作家，他的目光十分锐利，能够穿透生活的壁垒而发现隐含其中的"真实"。但我却倾向于认为，从根本上来说，托尔斯泰是一个图解自我观念的作家，不管是早期还是晚期作品，主题上的联系十分清晰，尤其是《战争与和平》、《安娜·卡列尼娜》两部巨著，其中的人物、情节、主题多有雷同之处，他的观念的疆域并不宽广，他的素材也不丰富，但这并不妨碍托尔斯泰的伟大，正如塞万提斯的狭隘主题并不妨碍《堂吉诃德》的伟大一样。小说的真实来自他的智慧，敏感而浩瀚的心灵，而更为重要的是他的诚实。维特根斯坦在读完《哈泽·穆拉特》以后曾感慨地说：“他(托尔斯泰)是一个真正的人，他有权写作。”
Widely regarded as a pinnacle in realist fiction, Tolstoy considered Anna Karenina his first true novel, when he came to consider War and Peace to be more than a novel. The character of Anna was likely inspired, in part, by Maria Hartung (Russian spelling Maria Gartung, 1832–1919), the elder daughter of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.[citation needed] Soon after meeting her at dinner, Tolstoy began reading Pushkin's prose and once had a fleeting daydream of "a bare exquisite aristocratic elbow", which proved to be the first intimation of Anna's character.
Although Russian critics dismissed the novel on its publication as a "trifling romance of high life", Fyodor Dostoevsky declared it to be "flawless as a work of art". His opinion was shared by Vladimir Nabokov, who especially admired "the flawless magic of Tolstoy's style", and by William Faulkner, who described the novel as "the best ever written".[citation needed] The novel is currently enjoying popularity as demonstrated by a recent poll of 125 contemporary authors by J. Peder Zane, published in 2007 in The Top Ten, which declared that Anna Karenina is the "greatest novel ever written".
The title: Anna Karenin vs Anna Karenina
The title has been translated as both Anna Karenin and Anna Karenina. The first instance naturalizes the Russian name into English, whereas the second is a direct transliteration of the actual Russian name. As Vladimir Nabokov explains: "In Russian, a surname ending in a consonant acquires a final 'a' (except for the cases of such names that cannot be declined) when designating a woman".
Nabokov favours the first convention - removing the Russian 'a' to naturalize the name into English - but subsequent translators mostly allow Anna's actual Russian name to stand. Larissa Volokhonsky, herself a Russian, prefers the second option, while other translators like Constance Garnett and Rosemary Edmonds prefer the first solution.
Main characters
* Anna Arkadyevna Karenina – Stepan Oblonsky's sister, Karenin's wife and Vronsky's lover. She is also a minor character in War and Peace. [citation needed]
* Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky – Lover of Anna
* Prince Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky ("Stiva") – a civil servant and Anna's brother.
* Princess Darya Alexandrovna Oblonskaya ("Dolly") – Stepan's wife
* Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin – a senior statesman and Anna's husband, twenty years her senior.
* Konstantin Dmitrievitch Levin ("Kostya") – Kitty's suitor and then husband.
* Nikolai Levin – Konstantin's brother
* Sergius Ivanich Koznyshev – Konstantin's half-brother
* Princess Ekaterina Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya ("Kitty") – Dolly's younger sister and later Levin's wife
* Princess Elizaveta ("Betsy") – Anna's wealthy, morally loose society friend and Vronsky's cousin
* Countess Lidia Ivanovna – Leader of a high society circle that includes Karenin, and shuns Princess Betsy and her circle. She maintains an interest in the mystical and spiritual
* Countess Vronskaya – Vronsky's mother
* Sergei Alexeyitch Karenin ("Seryozha") – Anna and Karenin's son
* Anna ("Annie") – Anna and Vronsky's daughter
* Varenka – a young orphaned girl, semi-adopted by an ailing Russian noblewoman, whom Kitty befriends while abroad
Plot summary
The novel is divided into eight parts. The novel begins with one of its most quoted lines:
“ Happy families are all alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. ”
Part 1
The novel opens with a scene introducing Prince Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky, "Stiva", a Moscow aristocrat and civil servant who has been unfaithful to his wife Darya Alexandrovna, nicknamed "Dolly". Dolly has discovered his affair - with the family's governess - and the house and family are in turmoil. Stiva's affair and his reaction to his wife's distress shows an amorous personality that he cannot seem to suppress.
In the midst of the turmoil, Stiva reminds the household that his married sister, Anna Arkadyevna Karenina is coming to visit from Saint Petersburg.
Meanwhile, Stiva's childhood friend Konstantin Dmitrievich Levin ("Kostya") arrives in Moscow with the aim of proposing to Dolly's youngest sister Princess Katerina Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya, "Kitty". Levin is a passionate, restless but shy aristocratic landowner who, unlike his Moscow friends, chooses to live in the country on his large estate. He discovers that Kitty is also being pursued by Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky, an army officer.
At the railway station to meet Anna, Stiva bumps into Vronsky. Vronsky is there to meet his mother. Anna and the Countess Vronskaya have travelled together in the same carriage and talked together. As the family members are reunited, and Vronsky sees Anna for the first time, a railway worker accidentally falls in front of a train and is killed. Anna interprets this as an "evil omen." Vronsky is infatuated with Anna. Anna, who is uneasy about leaving her young son, Seryozha, alone for the first time, talks openly and emotionally to Dolly about Stiva's affair and convinces Dolly that her husband still loves her, despite his infidelity. Dolly is moved by Anna's speeches and decides to forgive Stiva.
Dolly's youngest sister, Kitty, comes to visit her sister and Anna. Kitty, just 18, is in her first season as a debutante and is expected to make an excellent match with a man of her social standing. Vronsky has been paying her considerable attention, and she expects to dance with him at a ball that evening. Kitty is very struck by Anna's beauty and personality and is infatuated with her. When Levin proposes to Kitty at her home, she clumsily turns him down, because she believes she is in love with Vronsky and that he will propose to her.
At the ball, Vronsky pays Anna considerable attention, and dances with her, choosing her as a partner instead of Kitty, who is shocked and heartbroken. Kitty realises that Vronsky has fallen in love with Anna, and that despite his overt flirtations with her he has no intention of marrying her and in fact views his attentions to her as mere amusement, believing that she does the same.
Anna, shaken by her emotional and physical response to Vronsky, returns at once to Saint Petersburg. Vronsky travels on the same train. During the overnight journey, the two meet and Vronsky confesses his love. Anna refuses him, although she is deeply affected by his attentions to her.
Levin, crushed by Kitty's refusal, returns to his estate farm, abandoning any hope of marriage, and Anna returns to her husband Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, a senior government official, and their son Sergei ("Seryozha") in Petersburg.
Tatiana Samoilova as Anna in the 1967 Soviet screen version of Tolstoy's novel.
On seeing her husband for the first time since her encounter with Vronsky, Anna realises that she finds him repulsive, noting the odd way that his ears press against his hat.
Part 2
The Shcherbatskys consult doctors over Kitty's health which has been failing since she realizes that Vronsky did not love her and that he did not intend to propose marriage to her, and that she refused and hurt Levin, whom she cares for, in vain. A specialist doctor advises that Kitty should go abroad to a health spa to recover. Dolly speaks to Kitty and understands that she is suffering because of Vronsky and Levin. Kitty, humiliated by Vronsky and tormented by her rejection of Levin, upsets her sister by referring to Stiva's infidelity and says she could never love a man who betrayed her.
Stiva stays with Levin on his country estate when he makes a sale of a plot of land, to provide funds for his expensive city lifestyle. Levin is upset at the poor deal he makes with the buyer and his lack of understanding of the rural lifestyle.
In St. Petersburg, Anna begins to spend more time with the fashionable socialite and gossip Princess Betsy and her circle, in order to meet Vronsky, Betsy's cousin. Vronsky continues to pursue Anna. Although Anna initially tries to reject him, she eventually succumbs to his attentions.
Karenin warns Anna of the impropriety of paying too much attention to Vronsky in public, which is becoming a subject of society gossip. He is concerned about his and his wife's public image, although he believes that Anna is above suspicion.
Vronsky, a keen horseman, takes part in a steeplechase event, during which he rides his mare Frou-Frou too hard and she falls and breaks her back. Vronsky escapes with minimal injuries but is devastated that his mare must be shot. Anna tells him that she is pregnant with his child, and is unable to hide her distress when Vronsky falls from the racehorse. Karenin is also present at the races and remarks to her that her behaviour is improper. Anna, in a state of extreme distress and emotion, confesses her affair to her husband. Karenin asks her to break off the affair to avoid society gossip and believes that their relationship can then continue as previously.
Kitty goes with her mother to a resort at a German spa to recover from her ill health. There they meet the Pietist Madame Stahl and the saintly Varenka, her adopted daughter. Influenced by Varenka, Kitty becomes extremely pious, but is disillusioned by her father`s criticism. She then returns to Moscow.
Part 3
Levin continues his work on his large country estate, a setting closely tied to his spiritual thoughts and struggles. Levin wrestles with the idea of falseness, wondering how he should go about ridding himself of it, and criticising what he feels is falseness in others. He develops ideas relating to agriculture and the unique relationship between the agricultural labourer and his native land and culture. He believes that the agricultural reforms of Europe will not work in Russia because of the unique culture and personality of the Russian peasant.
Levin pays Dolly a visit, and she attempts to understand what happened between him and Kitty and to explain Kitty's behaviour to him. Levin is very agitated by Dolly's talk about Kitty, and he begins to feel distant from her as he perceives her behaviour towards her children as false. Levin resolves to forget Kitty and contemplates the possibility of marriage to a peasant woman. However, a chance sighting of Kitty in her carriage as she travels to Dolly's house makes Levin realise he still loves her.
In St. Petersburg, Karenin crushes Anna by refusing to separate from her. He insists that their relationship remain as it was and threatens to take away their son Seryozha if she continues to pursue her affair with Vronsky.
Part 4
Anna continues to pursue her affair with Vronsky. Karenin begins to find the situation intolerable. He talks with a lawyer about obtaining a divorce. In Russia at that time, divorce could only be requested by the innocent party in an affair, and required either that the guilty party confessed (which would ruin Anna's position in society) or that the guilty party was discovered in the act. Karenin forces Anna to give him some letters written to her by Vronsky as proof of the affair. However, Anna's brother Stiva argues against it and persuades Karenin to speak with Dolly first.
Dolly broaches the subject with Karenin and asks him to reconsider his plans to divorce Anna. She seems to be unsuccessful, but Karenin changes his plans after hearing that Anna is dying after a difficult childbirth. At her bedside, Karenin forgives Vronsky. Vronsky, embarrassed by Karenin's magnanimity, attempts suicide by shooting himself. He fails in his attempt but wounds himself badly.
Anna recovers, having given birth to a daughter, Anna ("Annie"). Although her husband has forgiven her, and has become attached to the new baby, Anna cannot bear living with him. She hears that Vronsky is about to leave for a military posting in Tashkent and becomes desperate. Stiva finds himself pleading to Karenin on her behalf to free her by giving her a divorce. Vronsky is intent on leaving for Tashkent, but changes his mind after seeing Anna.
The couple leave for Europe - leaving behind Anna's son Seryozha - without obtaining a divorce.
Much more straightforward is Stiva's matchmaking with Levin: he arranges a meeting between Levin and Kitty which results in their reconciliation and betrothal.
Part 5
Levin and Kitty marry and immediately go to start their new life together on Levin's country estate. The couple are happy but do not have a very smooth start to their married life and take some time to get used to each other. Levin feels some dissatisfaction at the amount of time Kitty wants to spend with him and is slightly scornful of her preoccupation with domestic matters, which he feels are too prosaic and not compatible with his romantic ideas of love.
A few months later, Levin learns that his brother Nikolai is dying of consumption. Levin wants to go to him, and is initially angry and put out that Kitty wishes to accompany him. Levin feels that Kitty, whom he has placed on a pedestal, should not come down to earth and should not mix with people from a lower class. Levin assumes her insistence on coming must relate to a fear of boredom from being left alone, despite her true desire to support her husband in a difficult time. Kitty persuades him to take her with him after much discussion, where she proves a great help nursing Nikolai for weeks over his slow death. She also discovers she is pregnant.
In Europe, Vronsky and Anna struggle to find friends who will accept their situation. Whilst Anna is happy to be finally alone with Vronsky, he feels suffocated. They cannot socialize with Russians of their own social set and find it difficult to amuse themselves. Vronsky, who believed that being with Anna in freedom was the key to his happiness, finds himself increasingly bored and unsatisfied. He takes up painting, and makes an attempt to patronize an émigré Russian artist of genius. Vronsky cannot see that his own art lacks talent and passion, and that his clever conversation about art is an empty shell. Bored and restless, Anna and Vronsky decide to return to Russia.
In Petersburg, Anna and Vronsky stay in one of the best hotels but take separate suites. It becomes clear that whilst Vronsky is able to move in Society, Anna is barred from it. Even her old friend, Princess Betsy - who has had affairs herself - evades her company. Anna starts to become very jealous and anxious that Vronsky no longer loves her.
Karenin is comforted – and influenced – by the strong-willed Countess Lidia Ivanovna, an enthusiast of religious and mystic ideas fashionable with the upper classes. She counsels him to keep Seryozha away from Anna and to make him believe that his mother is dead. However, Seryozha refuses to believe that this is true. Anna manages to visit Seryozha unannounced and uninvited on his ninth birthday, but is discovered by Karenin.
Anna, desperate to resume at least in part her former position in Society, attends a show at the theatre at which all of Petersburg's high society are present. Vronsky begs her not to go, but is unable to bring himself to explain to her why she cannot go. At the theatre, Anna is openly snubbed by her former friends, one of whom makes a deliberate scene and leaves the theatre. Anna is devastated.
Unable to find a place for themselves in Petersburg, Anna and Vronsky leave for Vronsky's country estate.
Part 6
Dolly, her mother the Princess Scherbatskaya, and Dolly's children spend the summer with Levin and Kitty on the Levins' country estate. The Levins' life is simple and unaffected, although Levin is uneasy at the "invasion" of so many Scherbatskys. He is able to cope until he is consumed with an intense jealousy when one of the visitors, Veslovsky, flirts openly with the pregnant Kitty. Levin tries to overcome his jealousy but eventually succumbs to it and in an embarrassing scene evicts Veslovsky from his house. Veslovsky immediately goes to stay with Anna and Vronsky, whose estate is close by.
Dolly also pays a short visit to Anna at Vronsky's estate. The difference between the Levins' aristocratic but simple home life and Vronsky's overtly luxurious and lavish country home strikes Dolly, who is unable to keep pace with Anna's fashionable dresses or Vronsky's extravagant spending on the hospital he is building. However, all is not quite well with Anna and Vronsky. Dolly is also struck by Anna's anxious behaviour and new habit of half closing her eyes when she alludes to her difficult position. When Veslovsky flirts openly with Anna, she plays along with him even though she clearly feels uncomfortable. Vronsky makes an emotional request to Dolly, asking her to convince Anna to divorce her husband so that the two might marry and live normally. Dolly broaches the subject with Anna, who appears not to be convinced. However, Anna is becoming intensely jealous of Vronsky, and cannot bear it when he leaves her for short excursions. The two have started to quarrel about this and when Vronsky leaves for several days of provincial elections, a combination of boredom and suspicion convinces Anna she must marry him in order to prevent him from leaving her. She writes to Karenin, and she and Vronsky leave the countryside for Moscow.
Part 7
The Levins are in Moscow for Kitty's confinement. Despite initial reservations, Levin quickly gets used to the fast-paced, expensive and frivolous Moscow society life. He starts to accompany Stiva to his Moscow gentleman's club, where drinking and gambling are popular pastimes. At the club, Levin meets Vronsky and Stiva introduces them. Levin and Stiva pay a visit to Anna, who is occupying her empty days by being a patroness to an orphaned English girl. Levin is uneasy about the visit and not sure it is the proper thing to do, and Anna easily puts Levin under her spell. When he confesses to Kitty where he has been, she accuses him falsely of falling in love with Anna. The couple are reconciled, realising that Moscow life has had a negative, corrupting effect on Levin.
Anna, who has made a habit of inducing the young men who visit her to fall in love with her, cannot understand why she can attract a man like Levin, who has a young and beautiful new wife, but cannot attract Vronsky in the way she wants to. Anna's relationship with Vronsky is under increasing strain, as whilst he can move freely in Society - and continues to spend considerable time doing so to stress to Anna his independence as a man - she is excluded from all her previous social connections. She is estranged from baby Annie, her child with Vronsky and her increasing bitterness, boredom, jealousy and emotional strain cause the couple to argue. Anna uses morphine to help her sleep, a habit we learned she had begun during her time living with Vronsky at his country estate. Now she has become dependent on it.
After a long and difficult labour, Kitty gives birth to a son, Dmitri, nicknamed Mitya. Levin is both extremely moved and horrified by the sight of the tiny, helpless baby.
Stiva visits Karenin to encourage his commendation for a new post he is seeking. During the visit he asks him to grant Anna a divorce, but Karenin's decisions are now governed by a French "clairvoyant" – recommended by Lidia Ivanovna – who apparently has a vision in his sleep during Stiva's visit, and gives Karenin a cryptic message that is interpreted as meaning that he must decline the request for divorce.
Anna becomes increasingly jealous and irrational towards Vronsky, whom she suspects of having love affairs with other women, and of giving in to his mother's plans to marry him off to a rich Society woman. There is a bitter row, and Anna believes that the relationship is over. She starts to think of suicide as an escape from her torments. In her mental and emotional confusion, she sends a telegram to Vronsky asking him to come home to her, and pays a visit to Dolly and Kitty. Anna's confusion overcomes her, and in a parallel to the railway worker's accidental death in part 1, she commits suicide by throwing herself in the path of a train.
Part 8
Stiva gets the job he desired so much, and Karenin takes custody of baby Annie. A group of Russian volunteers, including Vronsky, who does not plan to return alive, depart from Russia to fight in the Orthodox Serbian revolt that has broken out against the Turks. Meanwhile, a lightning storm occurs at Levin's estate while his wife and newborn son are outside, causing him to fear for the safety of both of them, and to realize that he does indeed love his son similarly to how he loves Kitty. Also, Kitty's family concerns, namely, that a man as altruistic as her husband does not consider himself to be a Christian, are also addressed when Levin decides after talking to a peasant that devotion to living righteously as decreed by the Christian God is the only justifiable reason for living. After coming to this decision, but without telling anyone about it, he is initially displeased that this change of thought does not bring with it a complete transformation of his behavior to be more righteous. However, at the end of the book he comes to the conclusion that this fact, and the fact that there are other religions with similar views on goodness that are not Christian, are acceptable and that neither of these things diminish the fact that now his life can be meaningfully oriented toward goodness.
Style
Tolstoy's style in Anna Karenina is considered by many critics to be transitional, forming a bridge between the realist and modernist novel. The novel is narrated from a third-person-omniscient perspective, shifting between the perspectives of several major characters, though most frequently focusing on the opposing lifestyles and attitudes of its central protagonists of Anna and Levin. As such, each of the novel's eight sections contains internal variations in tone: it assumes a relaxed voice when following Stepan Oblonsky's thoughts and actions and a much more tense voice when describing Levin's social encounters. Much of the novel's seventh section depicts Anna's thoughts fluidly, following each one of her ruminations and free associations with its immediate successor. This groundbreaking use of stream-of-consciousness would be utilised by such later authors as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and William Faulkner.
Also of significance is Tolstoy's use of real events in his narrative, to lend greater verisimilitude to the fictional events of his narrative. Characters debate significant sociopolitical issues affecting Russia in the latter half of the nineteenth century, such as the place and role of the Russian peasant in society, education reform, and women's rights. Tolstoy's depiction of the characters in these debates, and of their arguments, allows him to communicate his own political beliefs. Characters often attend similar social functions to those which Tolstoy attended, and he includes in these passages his own observations of the ideologies, behaviors, and ideas running through contemporary Russia through the thoughts of Levin. The broad array of situations and ideas depicted in Anna Karenina allows Tolstoy to present a treatise on his era's Russia, and, by virtue of its very breadth and depth, all of human society. This stylistic technique, as well as the novel's use of perspective, greatly contributes to the thematic structure of Anna Karenina.[citation needed]
Major themes
Anna Karenina is commonly thought to explore the themes of hypocrisy, jealousy, faith, fidelity, family, marriage, society, progress, carnal desire and passion, and the agrarian connection to land in contrast to the lifestyles of the city. Translator Rosemary Edmonds wrote that Tolstoy doesn't explicitly moralise in the book, he allows his themes to emerge naturally from the "vast panorama of Russian life." She also writes that a key message is that "no one may build their happiness on another's pain," which is why things don't work out for Anna.
Levin is often considered as a semi-autobiographical portrayal of Tolstoy's own beliefs, struggles and life events. Tolstoy's first name is "Lev", and the Russian surname "Levin" means "of Lev". According to footnotes in the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation, the viewpoints Levin supports throughout the novel in his arguments match Tolstoy's outspoken views on the same issues. Moreover, according to W. Gareth Jones, Levin proposed to Kitty in the same way as Tolstoy to Sophie Behrs. Additionally, Levin's request that his fiancée read his diary as a way of disclosing his faults and previous sexual encounters, parallels Tolstoy's own requests to his fiancée Sophie Behrs.
Anna Karenina and Tolstoy's A Confession
Alla Tarasova as Anna Karenina in 1937
Many of the novel's themes can also be found in Tolstoy's A Confession, his first-person rumination about the nature of life and faith, written just two years after the publication of Anna Karenina.
In this book, Tolstoy describes his dissatisfaction with the hypocrisy of his social class:
“ Every time I tried to display my innermost desires – a wish to be morally good – I met with contempt and scorn, and as soon as I gave in to base desires I was praised and encouraged. ”
Tolstoy also details the acceptability of adulterous "liaisons" in aristocratic Russian society:
“ A dear old aunt of mine, the purest of creatures, with whom I lived, was always saying that she wished for nothing as much as that I would have a relationship with a married woman. "Rien ne forme un jeune homme comme une liaison avec une femme comme il faut." ("Nothing educates a young man better than an affair with a woman established in society.") ”
Another theme in Anna Karenina is that of the aristocratic habit of speaking French instead of Russian, which Tolstoy suggests is another form of society's falseness. When Dolly insists on speaking French to her young daughter, Tanya, she begins to seem false and tedious to Levin, who finds himself unable to feel at ease in her house.
In a passage that could be interpreted as a sign of Anna's eventual redemption in Tolstoy's eyes, the narrator explains:
“ For in the end what are we, who are convinced that suicide is obligatory and yet cannot resolve to commit it, other than the weakest, the most inconsistent and, speaking frankly, the most stupid of people, making such a song and dance with our banalities? ”
A Confession contains many other autobiographical insights into the themes of Anna Karenina. A public domain version of it is here.
Film, television, and theatrical adaptations
For more details on this topic, see Adaptations of Anna Karenina.
* Operas based on Anna Karenina have been written by Sassano (Naples, 1905), Leoš Janáček (unfinished, 1907), Granelli (1912), E. Malherbe (unperformed, 1914), Jeno Hubay (Budapest, 1915), Robbiani (Rome, 1924), Goldbach (1930), Iain Hamilton (London, 1981) and David Carlson (Miami, 2007).
* Love, a 1927 silent film based loosely on the novel. The film starred Greta Garbo and John Gilbert.
* Anna Karenina, a critically acclaimed 1935 film, directed by Clarence Brown. The film stars Greta Garbo, Fredric March, and Maureen O'Sullivan.
* Anna Karenina, a 1948 film directed by Julien Duvivier with Vivien Leigh, Ralph Richardson and Kieron Moore.
* "MGM Theater Of The Air - Anna Karenina (Radio Broadcast)" (Broadcast 12/09/1949; on American radio, starring Marlene Dietrich
* "Nahr al-Hob" (or River of Love; 1960; an Egyptian movie starring Omar Sharif and Faten Hamama
* Anna Karenina, a 1967 Russian film directed by Aleksandr Zarkhi and starring Tatyana Samojlova, Nikolai Gritsenko and Vasili Lanovoy.
* Anna Karenina (1968) a ballet composed by Rodion Shchedrin
* Anna Karenina, a 1977 TV version in ten episodes. Made by the BBC it was directed by Basil Coleman and starred Nicola Pagett, Eric Porter and Stuart Wilson.
* Anna Karenina, a 1985 TV film directed by Simon Langton and starring Jacqueline Bisset, Paul Scofield and Christopher Reeve.
* Anna Karenina, a 1992 Broadway musical starring Ann Crumb and John Cunningham
* Anna Karenina, a 1997 British-American production filmed in St. Peterburg, Russia, by director Bernard Rose with Sophie Marceau as Anna Karenina.
* Anna Karenina, a 2000 TV version in four episodes. It was directed by David Blair and starred Helen McCrory, Stephen Dillane and Kevin McKidd.
* Anna Karenina a 2005 ballet with choreography by Boris Eifman and music drawn from the works of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Anna Karenina in literature
* Quirk Classics transformed Anna Karenina into the book 'Android Karenina' (other past transformations have included 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' and 'Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters')
* The novel is referenced in Vladimir Nabokov's Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle.
* Repeated reference is made explicitly to Leo Tolstoy and Anna Karenin in Muriel Barbery's Elegance of the Hedgehog
* Anna Karenina is also mentioned in R. L. Stine's Goosebumps series Don't Go To Sleep.
* Mikhail Bulgakov makes reference to the Oblonsky household and Tolstoy in The Master and Margarita.
* In Jasper Fforde's novel Lost in a Good Book, a recurring joke is two unnamed "crowd-scene" characters from Anna Karenina discussing its plot.
* In the short-story "Sleep" by Haruki Murakami, the main character, an insomniac housewife, spends much time reading through and considering "Anna Karenina". Furthermore, in the short story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo", by the same author, the character of Frog references "Anna Karenina" when discussing how to beat Worm.
* Martin Amis's character Lev, in the novel House of Meetings, compares the protagonist with Anna Karenina's Vronsky.
* In the novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being Anna Karenina is compared with the novel like beauty of life, and Tereza arrives at Tomas's apartment with a copy of the book under her arm. In addition, Tereza and Tomas have a pet dog named Karenin, after Anna's husband.
* In the novel What Happened to Anna K. Irina Reyn loosely transfers the Anna Karenina story to a setting in modern-day New York City.
* Anna Karenina plays a central role in Nilo Cruz's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Anna in the Tropics (2002), set in 1929, as a new lector, Juan Julian, reads the text as background for cigar rollers in the Ybor City section of Tampa, FL. As he reads the story of adultery, the workers' passions are inflamed, and end in tragedy like Anna's.
* In "The Slippery Slope", the 10th book in A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, the Baudelaire orphans Violet, Klaus and the third Quagmire triplet Quigley need to use the central theme of "Anna Karenina" as the final password to open the Vernacularly Fastened Door leading to the V.F.D. Headquarters. Klaus remembered how his mother had read it to him one summer when he was young as a summer reading book. Klaus summarized the theme with these words: "The central theme of Anna Karenina is that a rural life of moral simplicity, despite its monotony, is the preferable personal narrative to a daring life of impulsive passion, which only leads to tragedy." Esme Squalor later said she once was supposed to read the book over the summer, but she decided it would never help her in her life and threw it in the fireplace.
* Guns, Germs, and Steel (by Jared Diamond) has a chapter (#9) on the domestication of large mammals, titled "Zebras, Unhappy Marriages, and the Anna Karenina Principle." This chapter begins with a variation on the quote, above.
* in Nicholas Sparks's book The Last Song, the main character, Ronnie, reads Anna Karenina and other Tolstoy books throughout the story.
Further reading
Translations
* Anna Karenina, Translated by Constance Garnett. Still widely reprinted.
* Anna Karenina, Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (Allen Lane/Penguin, London, 2000)
* Anna Karénina, Translated by Margaret Wettlin (Progress Publishers, 1978)
* Anna Karenina, Translated by Joel Carmichael (Bantam Books, New York, 1960)
* Anna Karenina, Translated by David Magarshack (A Signet Classic, New American Library, New York and Scarborough, Ontario, 1961)
* Anna Karenina, Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1918)
* Anna Karenin, Translated by Rosemary Edmonds (Penguin Classics, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1954)
* Anna Karénina, Translated by Nathan Haskell Dole (Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York, 1886)
* Anna Karenina, Translated by Kyril Zinovieff (Oneworld Classics 2008) ISBN 978-1-84749-059-9
Biographical and literary criticism
* Bakhtin, Mikhail, The Dialogic Imagination, ed. Michael Holquist, trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist (University of Texas Press, Austin, 1981)
* Bayley, John, Tolstoy and the Novel (Chatto and Windus, London, 1966)
* Berlin, Isaiah, The Hedgehog and the Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy's View of History (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1966; Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1967)
* Eikhenbaum, Boris, Tolstoi in the Seventies, trans. Albert Kaspin (Ardis, Ann Arbor, 1982)
* Evans, Mary, Anna Karenina (Routledge, London and New York, 1989)
* Gifford, Henry, Tolstoy (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1982)
* Gifford, Henry (ed) Leo Tolstoy (Penguin Critical Anthologies, Harmondsworth, 1971)
* Leavis, F. R., Anna Karenina and Other Essays (Chatto and Windus, London, 1967)
* Mandelker, Amy, Framing 'Anna Karenina': Tolstoy, the Woman Question, and the Victorian Novel (Ohio State University Press, Columbus, 1993)
* Morson,Gary Saul, Anna Karenina in our time: seeing more wisely (Yale University Press 2007) read parts at Google-Books
* Nabokov, Vladimir, Lectures on Russian Literature (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1981)
* Orwin, Donna Tussing, Tolstoy's Art and Thought, 1847-1880 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1993)
* Speirs, Logan, Tolstoy and Chekhov (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1971)
* Strakhov, Nikolai, N., "Levin and Social Chaos", in Gibian, ed., (W.W. Norton & Company New York, 2005).
* Steiner, George, Tolstoy or Dostoevsky: An Essay in Contrast (Faber and Faber, London, 1959)
* Thorlby, Anthony, Anna Karenina (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, 1987)
* Tolstoy, Leo, Correspondence, 2. vols., selected, ed. and trans. by R. F. Christian (Athlone Press, London and Scribner, New York, 1978)
* Tolstoy, Leo, Diaries, ed. and trans. by R. F. Christian (Athlone Press, London and Scribner, New York, 1985)
* Tolstoy, Sophia A., The Diaries of Sophia Tolstoy, ed. O. A. Golinenko, trans. Cathy Porter (Random House, New York, 1985)
* Turner, C. J. G., A Karenina Companion (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Waterloo, 1993)
* Wasiolek, Edward, Critical Essays on Tolstoy (G. K. Hall, Boston, 1986)
* Wasiolek, Edward, Tolstoy's Major Fiction (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1978)
本片描述了在拿破仑指挥军队进攻俄国时大动荡年代中的一段经典爱情故事，是一部史诗般的前苏联战争巨片。
安德烈不顾怀孕的妻子和年迈的父亲，坚持到军队服役。战役失败，他颓丧回家，恰逢妻子难产而死，彼埃尔则在父亲临终前被立为财产继承人，并承袭了其父的伯爵称号，和贵族库拉金的女儿艾伦结婚。婚后不久，因两人性格不合而分居。彼埃尔与罗斯托夫伯爵一家在去打猎的路上，把沉浸在丧妻之痛的安德烈也拉去打猎，伯爵的女儿娜塔莎·罗斯托娃对安德烈产生了好感。不久，娜塔莎接受了安德烈的求婚，订立了婚约。
过了一段时间，安德烈重返军队。艾伦的弟弟阿纳托里骗得娜塔莎的爱，唆使其与他私奔。俄法战争开始，担任总司令的库图佐夫将军决定暂时放弃莫斯科。在撤退途中，娜塔莎遇到受重伤的安德烈，安德烈谅解了娜塔莎，但他却因伤势过重而离开了人世。
战争胜利结束后，彼埃尔回到了莫斯科，娜塔莎把自己的命运永远的与彼埃尔结合在了一起……
《战争与和平》-影片评价
这是一部制作精致、构思严谨的巨片。场面壮阔，气势磅礴，继承了前苏联在拍摄历史题材影片方面的传统，完美地融托尔斯泰原著精神于其中，再现了俄法战争时期俄罗斯大地广阔的历史画卷。影片以1812年俄国卫国战争为中心，反映了1805年至1820年重大事件，包括奥斯特利茨大战、波罗底诺会战、莫斯科大火、拿破仑溃退等。通过对四大家庭以及安德烈、彼埃尔、娜塔莎在战争与和平环境中的思想和行动的描写，展示了当时俄国社会的风貌。耗时五年，据称耗资一亿美元(当时的价钱)的宏伟巨制，试图极其忠实地复制托尔斯泰的长篇巨著。战争戏和舞会戏非常出色，但整体水准参差不齐。影片长达六个半小时，在苏联电影史上有着举足轻重的地位，同时获奥斯卡最佳外语片奖。1956年的美国版虽然比这部短，但也有 208分钟，有奥黛丽·赫本、亨利·方达等主演，也是以战争场面取胜。1973年英国BBC推出750分钟的电视版。
《战争与和平》-花絮
影片拍摄耗资高达5亿6000万美元，堪称影史上最昂贵的影片。
影片拍摄得到了苏联军方的大力协助，甚至军方试图让片中兵力尽量与实际战役的参战人数基本相同。在世界影史上，本片成为动用临时演员最多的影片之一，超过本片的只有1982年的《甘地传》，参加该片拍摄的临时演员多达30万人。
1981年3月，本片在墨西哥电视一台和二台首次播出，创下了电视台播放最长影片的吉尼斯世界纪录。
1958年，好莱坞著名制片人迈克尔·托德(Michael Todd)访问莫斯科，他曾提议联合拍摄本片，但遭到苏联政府的拒绝。
《战争与和平》-精彩对白
Prince Andrei Bolkonsky: Natasha... I love you too much. More than anything in the world.
安德烈王子：娜塔莎……我太爱你了。超过这世上的一切。
Natasha Rostova: And I! But why too much?
娜塔莎：我也是！但为什么这么强烈？
Prince Andrei Bolkonsky: Why too much? Well, what do you think? What do you feel in your soul, deep in your soul? Shall I live? What do you think?
安德烈王子：为什么？你是怎么想的？在你心灵深处感知到什么？我会活下去吗？你是怎么想的？
《战争与和平》《战争与和平》
Natasha Rostova: I'm sure of it.
娜塔莎：当然。
Prince Andrei Bolkonsky: How good that would be.
安德烈王子：那会多好。
Narrator: Enough, enough, men. Stop, consider, what are you doing? Into the minds of tired and hungry men on both sides, a flicker of doubt began to creep. Were they to go on slaughtering one another? Kill whom you like, do what you like, but I've had enough. Yet some inexplicable, mysterious power continued to control them, and the terrible business went on, carried out not by the will of individual men.
旁白：够了，够了，停下吧，你们想想，你们在做什么？交战双方饥寒交迫筋疲力尽的人们开始思考，一丝疑虑开始蔓延。他们还将互相杀戮吗？随便你们为所欲为吧，我已经厌倦了。然而一些无法解释的、神秘的力量在继续控制着他们，灾难扔在继续，个人的意愿无法改变这一切。
《战争与和平》-剧情
日本侵华战争期间，小柴健一所在运输船被炸沉后，他被中国渔民救活，从此留在中国军队服务。健一的死亡通知单被送到东京的妻子町子手中，町子和健一幼年时的朋友伍东康吉结合了，带着健一的儿子茂男幸福地生活在一起。但在空袭中，康吉精神上受到了刺激变得失常。日本投降后，健一回到家乡，他没有想到，妻子町子已经与康吉结了婚，他在绝望中要求把茂男交给自己抚养，但是茂男已经和康吉有了感情，健一不得不放弃带走茂男的念头。...
《战争与和平》- 幕后花絮
此片是按照当时占日美军的意图拍摄的，是为日本新宪法放弃战争作宣传的影片。但对于两位导演来说，这正是他们想要拍摄的主题，因为在战争期间，他们目睹了战争带给人民的残酷和不幸生活。此片的重要意义还在于，导演龟井文夫把大量表现中国难民的镜头组接在影片中，使日本人民看到了真实的战争残酷的一面，对日本人民的触动很大，因此广大日本人民对此片的评价很高，影片在日本电影史上有不可忽视的地位。
《战争与和平》-小说引言
《战争与和平》《战争与和平》
托尔斯泰卷秩浩繁的长篇小说。场面浩大，人物繁多，被称为“世界上最伟大的小说”，成就非凡。《战争与和平》问世至今，一直被人称为“世界上最伟大的小说”。 这部卷帙浩繁的巨著以史诗般广阔与雄浑的气势，生动 地描写了1805至1820年俄国社会的重大历史事件和各个生活领域：“近千个人物，无数的场景，国家和私人生活的一切可能的领域，历史，战争，人间一切惨剧，各种情欲，人生各个阶段，从婴儿降临人间的啼声到气息奄奄的老人的感情最后迸发，人所能感受到的一切欢乐和痛苦，各种可能的内心思绪，从窃取自己同伴的钱币的小偷的感觉，到英雄主义的最崇高的冲动和领悟透彻的沉思— —在这幅画里都应有尽有。”作者对生活的大面积涵盖和整体把握，对个别现象与事物整体、个人命运与周围世界的内在联系的充分揭示，使这部小说具有极大的思想和艺术容量。 这是托尔斯泰创作的第一部卷秩浩繁的长篇小说。 作者把战争与和平，前线与后方、国内与国外、军队与社会、上层与下层连结起来，既全面反映了时代风貌，又为各式各样的典型人物创造了极广阔的典型环境。作者对人物的描写形象既复杂又丰满，常用对比的艺术方法来表述，体裁在俄国文学史上是一种创新，也超越了欧洲长篇小说的传统规范。
《战争与和平》-作者简介
列夫·托尔斯泰（Л.Н.Толстой,Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Leo Tolstoy,1828—1910)，19世纪俄罗斯文学写实主义的代表作家，公认的最伟大的俄罗斯文学家， 《西方正典》作者、美国著名文学教授兼批评家哈洛·卜伦甚至称之为“从文艺复兴以来，惟一能挑战荷马、但丁与莎士比亚的伟大作家”。对文学拥有“狂恋式爱情”的托尔
《战争与和平》《战争与和平》
斯泰，是俄罗斯文学史上创作时间最长、作品数量最多、影响最深远、地位最崇高的作家，重情节、重典型、重写实、重批判的文学时代，在他笔下达到巅峰。长篇巨著《战争与和平》、 《安娜·卡列尼娜》 和《复活》是托尔斯泰文学艺术上的三个里程碑。百年来，他的作品被译为各国文字，销售量累积超过5亿册，是大师中的大师。
《战争与和平》恢弘的构思和卓越的艺术描写震惊世界文坛，成为举世公认的世界文学名著和人类宝贵的精神财富。英国作家毛姆及诺贝尔文学奖得主罗曼·罗兰称赞它是“有史以来最伟大的小说”，“是我们时代最伟大的史诗，是近代的伊利亚特”。
《战争与和平》是一部宏伟巨著，它以战争问题为中心，以库拉金、包尔康斯基、劳斯托夫、别竺豪夫四家贵族的生活为线索，展示了19世纪最初15年的俄国历史，描绘了各个阶级的生活，是一部再现当时社会风貌的恢弘史诗。作品中的各色人物刻画精准细腻，景物如临眼前，虽是19世纪的小说作品，但流传至今，却没有任何隔阂感，其中流露出来对人性的悲悯情怀，穿越时空背景，仍旧撼动人心。
《战争与和平》-内容简要
1805年7月，拿破仑率兵征服了欧洲，法俄之间正酝酿着激烈的战争。然而在彼得堡上层的人们依旧过着恬静悠闲的生活，达官贵人们都汇聚在皇后的女官兼宠臣安娜·巴甫洛夫娜举办家宴招待会上。
《战争与和平》《战争与和平》
赴宴的有宫廷官高位重的伐西里王爵和他漂亮却行为不端的女儿美伦，还有个头高大健壮的年轻人彼尔，他戴着眼镜，剪短发，穿浅色的流行短裤和褐色燕尾服。彼尔是莫斯科著名贵族别竺豪夫的私生子，从小出国留学，今年20岁，学成回国到首都谋职。他一进宴会厅，对人们议论拿破仑征战欧洲颇感兴趣。在这里，他高兴地结识了英俊而刚毅的青年安德烈－－先朝保罗皇帝的退职老总司令包尔康斯基的长子，两人很快成了好朋友。
此时，安德烈正应库图佐夫将军的召唤，去任他的传令官，将出国跟征战欧洲的拿破仑军队作战，任即将分娩的妻子和妹妹玛丽再三劝留，也改变不了他的决心，他期望通过这次战争为自己带来辉煌与荣耀。在出征之前，安德烈把妻子从首都送到了在莫斯科郊外居住的父亲那里，委托父亲加以关照。于是他急奔前线，在波兰追上了俄军总司令库图佐夫，总司令派他到联合纵队去任职，并受到了嘉奖。
彼尔回到莫斯科，他继承了别竺豪夫伯爵身后所有的遗产，摇身一变成为莫斯科数一数二的资本家，成为社交界的宠儿。他的亲戚伐西里早就窥视别竺豪夫家的财产，本想通过篡改遗嘱来谋得，失败后，又处心积虑地要拉拢彼尔，一方面为他在彼得堡谋得一个不小的官职，又挖空心思巧安排，让已是宫廷女官的女儿美伦嫁给彼尔，以图钱财。结果他的计谋顺利达成，可这桩婚事实在不幸之至。彼尔发现了妻子与好友多勃赫夫之间的暧昧关系，他与多勃赫夫进行搏斗，并幸运的击倒对方，随之与妻子分居，自己也陷入了善恶和生死的困扰之中，在加入共济会后，受到宽宏大量的哲学的熏陶，接回了妻子。
当安德烈再次回到总司令身边，俄奥联军对法的奥斯特里齐战斗就要打响了。由于在战前的军事会议上，否决了几位老将军的意见，采取了马上出击的战略，结果惨败。安德烈受伤被俘，途中昏迷，被敌人误以为活不成而丢下，库图佐夫也以为安德烈阵亡，给他的父亲去信报丧。可是安德烈在老百姓的救治下又康复了。愈后的他直奔老家，是日夜晚，妻子莉沙正好产下一名男婴，但她却在分娩中死去了。安德烈在孤独与绝望之中给妻子最后一个吻，他觉得人生已再无意义，决定终老于领地。
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一八零七年六月，俄与法言和，和平生活开始了。
一八零九年春天，安德烈·保尔康斯基因贵族会之事而去拜托罗斯托夫伯爵。在伯爵家他被充满生命力的年轻小姐娜达莎深深地吸引了。但由于秃山老公爵强烈反对，只好互相约以一年的缓冲期，而 后，安德烈·保尔康斯基即出国去了。但是，年轻的娜达莎无法忍受寂寞，且经不起彼尔之妻爱伦的哥哥阿纳托尔的诱惑，而擅自约定私奔，因此，与安德烈·保尔康斯基的婚约即告无效。
一八一二年，俄、法两国再度交战，安德烈·保尔康斯基于多勃琪诺战役中身受重伤，而俄军节节败退，眼见莫斯科即将陷于敌人之手了。罗斯托夫家将原本用来搬运家产的马车，改派去运送伤兵，娜达莎方能能于伤兵中发现将死的安德烈·保尔康斯基。她向他谢罪并热诚看护他，但一切都是徒劳了，安德烈·保尔康斯基仍然逃不过死亡之神而去世了。
彼尔化装成农夫，想伺机刺杀拿破 仑，但却被法军逮捕而成为俘虏。其妻爱伦于战火中，仍继续其放荡行为，最后，因误服堕胎药而且死亡。
几番奋战后，俄国终于赢得胜利，彼尔于莫斯科巧遇娜达莎，两人便结为夫 妇，而安德烈·保尔康斯基的妹妹玛莉亚也与娜达莎之兄尼克拉结婚，而组成一个幸福的家庭。
《战争与和平》-相关评价
《战争与和平》问世至今，一直被人称为“世界上最伟大的小说”。这部卷帙浩繁的巨著以史诗般广阔与雄浑的气势，生动地描写了1805至1820年俄国社会的重大历史事件和各个生活领域：“近千个人物，无数的场景，国家和私人生活的一切可能的领域，历史，战争，人间一切惨剧，各种情欲，人生各个阶段，从婴儿降临人间的啼声到气息奄奄的老人的感情最后迸发，人所能感受到的一切欢乐和痛苦，各种可能的内心思绪，从窃取自己同伴的钱币的小偷的感觉，到英雄主义的最崇高的冲动和领悟透彻的沉思——在这幅画里都应有尽有。”（斯特拉霍夫语）作家对生活的大面积涵盖和整体把握，对个别现象与事物整体、个人命运与周围世界的内在联系的充分揭示，使这部小说具有极大的思想和艺术容量。
这是一部人民战争的英雄史诗。托尔斯泰曾经表示：“在《战争与和平》里我喜欢人民的思想。”也就是说，作者力图在这部作品里表现俄国人民在反侵略战争中的爱国主义精神及其历史作用。在国家危急的严重关头，许多来自下层的俄军普通官兵同仇敌忾，浴血奋战，虽然战事一度失利，但精神上却始终占有压倒的优势。老百姓也主动起来保家卫国。在人民群众中涌现出一大批像网升、杰尼索夫、谢尔巴狄那样的英雄人物。俄军统帅库图佐夫也因为体现了人民的意志，才具有过人的胆略和决胜的信心。整部小说以无可辩驳的事实证明了托尔斯泰的“人民战争的巨棒以全部威严雄伟的力量”赶走了侵略者的思想。
作者在小说中也认真探索了贵族阶级的历史命运问题。小说的主要情节就是围绕着包尔康斯基、别素霍夫、罗斯托夫、库拉金四大贵族家庭的生活展开的。60年代，托尔斯泰仍站在贵族阶级的立场上，但是他对接近宫廷的上
《战争与和平》《战争与和平》
层贵族却给予深刻的揭露和批判。在民族危亡的关头，库拉金之流漠视国家命运，畏敌如虎，他们关心的是寻欢作乐，积聚私产。小说中，库拉金是官痞，儿子阿纳托尔是恶少，女儿爱仑则是荡妇。这些贵族的卑劣行径与人民为国献身的崇高精神形成了强烈的反差。托尔斯泰认为，俄国的前途在于“优秀”贵族与人民的合作。他用诗意的笔触描写了京城以外的庄园贵族罗斯托夫一家和包尔康斯基一家，指出在这些贵族身上仍保留着淳厚的古风，他们有爱国心，与人民的精神相通。这里，作者在一定程度上美化了宗法制贵族。
这部小说的主人公是安德烈·包尔康斯基、彼埃尔·别素霍夫和娜塔莎·罗斯托娃。这三个人物都是作者喜爱的正面形象。安德烈和彼埃尔是探索型的青年贵族知识分子。小说中，这两个人物在性格和生活道路上形成了鲜明的对比。安德烈性格内向，意志坚强，有较强的社会活动能力，他后来投身军队和参与社会活动库塞、阿多诺、弗洛姆、哈贝马斯（JürgenHabermas，1929—），在严酷的事实面前逐步认识到上层统治阶级的腐败和人民的力量，彼埃尔心直口快，易动感情，缺少实际活动能力，更侧重于对道德理想的追求，后来主要在与人民的直接接触中精神上得到成长。女主人公娜塔莎与两位主人公的关系使她成为小说中重要的连缀人物，而这一形象本身又是个性鲜明，生气勃勃的。小说充分展开了娜塔莎热烈而丰富的情感，她与人民和大自然的接近，她的民族气质，以及她在精神上的成长。这几个主要人物形象都具有较高的认识价值和审美价值。
《战争与和平》艺术成就卓著。在这部作品中，托尔斯泰有力地拓宽了长篇小说表现生活的幅度，并在传统的史诗体小说和戏剧式小说的基础上创造了一种比较成熟的形态。小说场面壮阔，结构清晰，人物形象鲜明，有一种大海般恢宏开阔的美。同时，小说时代感强烈，它虽是一部历史题材小说，但却反映了农奴制改革后俄国前途和人民作用的问题。因此，《战争与和平》当之无愧地是一部“了不起的巨著”。（列宁语）
《战争与和平》-阅读价值
《战争与和平》《战争与和平》
战争是一场历史争论不休的话题。有人说它是为了和平，也有人说是为了进步，因为战争确实有的时候加快了文明的步伐。不管战争为何，但似乎都起源于矛盾与行为。不可否认，人的心理是存在好斗的一面，在平凡的生活中家庭、事业、感情等一系列琐事，都让我们活得无比担忧，在单调乏味的生活里，人是很难适应这种不变动的生活。
在托尔斯泰的小说里《战争与和平》，如果拿战争单独的来讲的话，那么战争是自由的。这种自由为人性与释放的自由。在一场战争中瞬间的生死是可以选择的，活着的目的就是为了杀人，杀人的目的就是为了活着。在这个简单而残酷的圈子里只存有两种人，即朋友和敌人，除此之外一切都变得不重要了，这让许多复杂事情也显现得无比鲜明化了。小说中罗斯托夫是喜欢这种简单的人。在疯狂的争夺与罪恶的战争中，罗斯托夫找到了自己的价值，这种价值并非是在上层交际圈里固有的。更多的是罗斯托夫作为一个传统人物，在虚荣和荣耀的引导下更多的懂得牺牲自己。然而战争是需要这类人的，生活也不排斥，但在托尔斯泰的小说里却并未得到赞扬，这让人不难想象其中包含里面的趣味与真诚，值得让人感动！
索尼亚是那么的爱着他，与其说她是爱着他的灵魂与全部，还不如说她是为自己编织的信念而爱着。在托尔斯泰的小说中很容易看到，一目目的爱情都存在着一定的目的性和世俗的挺向性。索尼亚为姨妈家的名利放弃了罗斯托夫，安德安为世俗的贞操放弃了娜塔沙，一切都那么的变换莫测，但又存在单调的一致性——即为名、利、虚荣而放弃自己原本的生活。
在安德列经历了几次的生死离别之后，战争就像是一盏明灯似的忽暗忽明的出现在他眼前，有时像是指清道路有时却显得那么的扑朔迷离。只有在生与死即将分开的时候，现实和理想在他眼中才看得那么清楚。作者一个年龄段一个年龄段的叙述了安德列所经历的感受，这让我门毫不费解的走进了他的内心世界，心有灵犀的思考着摆在自己面前的问题。现实—理想，当思考的时候必然会产生矛盾，也必然会有所结果。书中一步步在矛盾中不完善的结果来阐述了安德列的思想升华，通过对他的人物塑造让我们比较完整的了解了人性的一面。
在战场上，安德列开始也和罗斯托夫一样，想通过战争来建立一份殊荣，做为一个男人来讲这是应具备的。但他不明白应该具备这种殊荣的目的是为什么，也许是一种无形的力量在引诱他这样做。在亚历山大的皇权下，大多数人都可以为勇气和殊荣献身，与其说是为进步和文明而战，还不如说是为别人和其他的东西而战。
不难看到，在这场关键性的战域中，拿破仑的真正对手并不是亚历山大，而是亚历山大的属下库图佐夫，一个深
《战争与和平》《战争与和平》
受皇帝排斥但又离不开他的人。确定他为一名将军倒还不如说他是一位仁智的老头，一位懂得平平凡凡生活真谛的人。在拿破仑的天才战略中，被人类认为是疯狂加艺术的行为在这里得到了休息，就像是一只十分威猛的蜂子撞进了棉花堆里，一切锋芒都包容在不痛不痒的棉丝里。而只能像是苍蝇一样等待着蜘蛛的进食。在这里我们只能用托尔斯泰的话语：库图佐夫是一位懂得自然规律的人！——生活又何尝不一样需要这样的人呢。
在安德列临死的那一刻（有几次这样的时刻），文中总会出现蓝天、白云、童年时的想象和一切当时认为不愉快而现在想起来令他愉快的事，这些东西在安德列的眼中就像过雨云烟，一切都显得那么的真实与美好，这让我们不难想象生活其实是美好的，只是我们过与苛求。
在安德列死后仅接着是皮埃尔和娜塔沙（安德列的未婚妻）、安德列的姐姐马丽亚（虔诚的教徒）和罗斯托夫的幸福婚姻生活，这也正预示了无论是在战争的背后，还是在经过一切腥风血雨的挣扎之后，生活的要求其实很简单，一切都是人类在作怪罢了！
《战争与和平》-现代注释[精文]
[英国] 埃里克·霍布斯鲍姆 尹宏毅 翻译
20世纪是人类有记载的历史上最杀人不眨眼的世纪。战争所造成的或者与战争有关的死亡总人数估计为1.87亿，相当于1913年世界人口的10%以上。如果算作是从1914年开始，这是一个战争几乎不间断的世纪，其中某地没有发生有组织的武装冲突的时期很少也很短暂。占据世纪主导地位的是世界大战：即国家或国家联盟之间的战争。
从1914年到1945年的时期可以被看作一场单一的“30年战争”，仅仅被20年代的一段间歇所打断——在日本人于1922年最终从苏联北亚撤退和1931年对东北亚的进攻之间的时期。几乎紧随其后的是大约40年的冷战，这一时期符合霍布斯的战争定义，即其“不是仅仅包括战斗或者战争行为，而且包括一段时间，其中通过战斗来进行斗争的意志得到了充分的表达。”一个可以辩论的问题是，从冷战结束以来，美军在世界各地所参与的行动在多大程度上构成了这个世界大战时代的延续。然而毫无疑义的是，20世纪90年代充满了欧洲、非洲和西亚及东亚的正式与非正式的军事冲突。世界整体来说从1914年以来一直没有和平，现在也是一样。
尽管如此，这个世纪不能被笼统地来对待，不论是从年代上还是从地理上来说。按照年代顺序，它分为三个阶段：以德国为中心的世界大战时代（1914年到 1945年）、两个超级大国对峙的时代（1945年到1989年）和传统的国际实力体系终结以来的时代。我将把这些时期称为第一、第二和第三时期。从地理上讲，军事行动的影响一直是十分不匀称的。除了一个例外（1932年到1935年的查科战争），西半球（美洲）在20世纪里没有重大的国家间战争（与内战相区分）。敌人的军事行动很少触及这些领土：因此，9月11日世界贸易中心和五角大楼被炸才令人震惊。
从1945年以来，国家间的战争也从欧洲消失了，而在此之前，欧洲曾经是主要的战场地区。虽然在第三时期里，战争回到了东南欧，但是在该大陆的其余地方，它却看来不大可能重演。另一方面，在第二时期，与全球对峙并不一定毫无联系的国家间战争仍然在中东和南亚肆虐，直接产生于这场全球对峙的主要战争在东亚和东南亚（韩国和印度支那）发生。与此同时，撒哈拉沙漠以南的非洲等地区在第一时期里受战争影响比较少（埃塞俄比亚除外，它迟迟地于1935到1936年遭受意大利的殖民征服），在第二时期成为武装冲突的战场，并在第三时期目睹了尸横遍野和水深火热。
20世纪的另外两个战争特点很突出，第一个不如第二个明显。21世纪开始之际，我们不知不觉地进入这样一个世界：武装的行动基本上不再为政府或者其所授权的代理人所掌握，争端的各方除了动用武力的愿望外，毫无共同特征、身份或目标。
国家间的战争在第一和第二时期主导了战争的形象，以致现有国家或帝国领土范围内的内战或其它武装冲突在一定程度上被掩盖了。就连十月革命后俄罗斯帝国领土上的内战以及中华帝国崩溃后发生的内战，也能够与国际冲突的框架相吻合，因为它们彼此不可分离。另一方面，拉丁美洲在20世纪里可能并没有军队跨越国界，但它却是重大国内冲突的场所：例如1911年以后在墨西哥、1948年以来在哥伦比亚，以及第二时期在许多中美洲国家，都是如此。人们一般没有认识到，从60年代过半以来，国际战争的数量相当持续地减少了。60年代中期，内部冲突变得比国家之间的冲突更加常见。国内冲突的数量继续激增，一直到90年代才趋于平缓。
人们更加熟悉的是战斗员与非战斗员之间区别的被侵蚀。上半个世纪的两次世界大战涉及交战各国的全部人口；战斗员和非战斗员都遭受了损失。然而，在这个世纪进程中，战争的负担越来越多地从武装力量转移到平民身上。平民不仅是其受害者，而且越来越多地成为军事或军事-政治行动的目标。第一次世界大战和第二次之间的对比是显著的：在一战中阵亡者当中，只有5%是平民；二战中这一数字增加到66%。普遍的估计是，今天受战争影响的人们当中有80%到90%是平民。这一比例从冷战结束以来增加了，因为从那时以来的大多数军事行动都不是由义务兵军队，而是由小股正规或非正规部队进行的，在许多情况下所使用的是高技术武器，他们还受到保护，以免承担伤亡的风险。没有理由怀疑，战争的主要受害者仍将是平民。
假如战争与和平像这个世纪初那样保持泾渭分明，则20世纪对这两者的著述会容易一些。世纪初，1899年和 1907年的海牙公约把战争的规则编入法典。冲突被认为主要发生在主权国家之间，或者如果发生在一个特定国家领土范围内，是在组织充分、因而被其它主权国家公认具有交战地位的各方之间展开。战争当时被认为与和平有显著区别，通过开战时的一项战争宣言和战争结束时的一项和约。军事行动被认为在战斗员之间有明显区别——其特征譬如他们所穿的军装或者显示其属于一支有组织的军队的其它迹象——以及非作战平民。战争被认为是战斗员之间的事情。非战斗员只要可能，就应当在战时受到保护。
过去一贯的谅解是，这些公约并不涵盖所有的国内和国际武装冲突，特别是不包括西方国家在国际公认的主权国家管辖范围以外地区进行的帝国扩张所造成的冲突，尽管这些冲突当中的一些（但绝非全部）被称为“战争”。它们也不包括反对地位稳固的国家的大规模叛乱，譬如所谓的“印度兵变”，或者在国家或名义上统治着这些国家的帝国当局有效控制范围之外地区反复发生的武装活动，譬如阿富汗或摩洛哥山区的劫掠和血仇。尽管如此，海牙公约仍然是第一次世界大战中的指导方针。20世纪，这一相对的明确性被混乱所取代。
首先，国际冲突与国内冲突之间的界线变得模糊不清，因为20世纪的特点不仅是战争，而且还有革命和帝国的解体。一国内部的革命或解放斗争对国际局势产生影响，在冷战期间尤其如此。相反地，俄罗斯革命后，国家对自己所不支持的别国内部事务的干预变得司空见惯，起码在这样做风险比较小的地方是如此。现在情况仍然是这样。
第二，战争与和平之间的明确差别变得含糊不清。除了个别地方外，第二次世界大战既不是以宣战开始，也不是以和约结束。随后的一个时期不论是从旧的意义上讲归类为战争还是和平都很困难，因此“冷战”这个新字眼不得不被发明来描述它。冷战以来状况的模糊性的一个明证就是中东的当前局势。不论“战争”还是“和平” 都没有确切描述海湾战争正式结束以来伊拉克的形势——该国仍然几乎每天都遭到外国的轰炸——巴勒斯坦人和以色列人之间的关系也是如此，还有以色列与其邻国、黎巴嫩和叙利亚之间的关系。所有这些都是一种不幸的后遗症，其原因是20世纪的世界大战，还有战争的越来越强大的大众宣传机器，以及彼此不相称的和充满激情的意识形态之间对峙的一个时期。这种对峙给战争带来了相当于在以往的宗教冲突中所见到的正义讨伐的成分。
这些冲突与国际实力体系的传统战争不同，越来越多地是为了不可谈判的目的，譬如“无条件投降”而进行。由于战争和胜利都被看作一边倒的，所以对18和19世纪的战争公约所可能强加给交战国能力的任何限制——甚至正式的宣战——都被抛弃。对胜利者坚持自己意志的威力的任何限制也是如此。经验表明，在和平情况下达成的协议可能很容易被撕毁。
近年来，使情况进一步复杂化的是，在人们的公开言论中，“战争”一词往往被用来指部署有组织的力量打击被看作反社会的各种国家或国际活动——例如“反黑手党的战争”或“反贩毒组织的战争”。在这些冲突中，武装力量的两个类型的行动被混淆。一个类型——我们称之为“士兵”——用来对付其他武装力量，目的是击败他们。另外一个——我们把它叫做“警察”——努力保持或恢复一个现有的政治实体，一般是一个国家内部必要程度的法律和公共秩序。并不带有任何必要的道德隐含意义的胜利是一种力量的目的；将违法者绳之以法则带有道德的涵义，乃是另外一种力量的目标。然而，这种区分在理论上比在实践中容易做出，战斗中的一名士兵杀人本身并不犯法。但如果爱尔兰共和军的一名成员把自己看作交战一方，尽管正式的英国法律把他视为杀人犯，则情况如何？
北爱尔兰的活动是像爱尔兰共和军所认为的那样是一场战争呢，还是在违法者面前为了维持英国的一个省有秩序的治理而做出的努力？由于不仅一支可观的当地警察部队，而且还有一支全国性的军队被动员起来对付爱尔兰共和军达30年左右，所以我们可以断定，这是一场战争，但却是一场像警察行动一样有条不紊地实施的战争，其方式把伤亡和该省中的生活中断减少到最低限度。新世纪开始时和平与战争之间关系的复杂性和混乱情况就是如此。它们得到了美国及其盟国目前正在进行的军事与其它行动的充分诠释。
现在像整个20世纪一样，全然没有任何能够控制或解决武装争端的有效的全球权威机构。全球化已经在几乎每个方面取得进展——经济上、技术上、文化上甚至语言上——唯一例外的是，在政治与军事上，各国仍然是唯一的有效权威。虽然正式的国家有200个左右，但是在实践上只有少数举足轻重，其中美国享有占压倒优势的威力。然而从来没有任何国家或帝国足够地庞大、富裕或强大，以维持在世界政治领域中的霸权，就更不用说建立全球范围的政治与军事上的至高无上地位了。一个单一的超级大国无法弥补全球权威的空白，尤其鉴于其效力足以使之获得主要国家的自愿接受、被当作具有约束力的公约的缺乏——例如涉及国际裁军或者武器控制的等等。一些这种权威机构是存在的，特别是联合国、各种法律与金融机构，譬如国际货币基金组织、世界银行和世界贸易组织，以及一些国际法庭。但没有任何一个拥有除了国家之间的协议所赋予它们的之外的、由于强大国家的支持而获得的或者各国自愿接受的有效权力。虽然这一点令人遗憾，但是在可以预见的将来却不大可能改变。
由于只有国家才行使实际的权力，所以风险在于，国际机构在试图应付“战争罪行”等违法行为的时候会无效或者缺乏普遍的合法地位。甚至当通过普遍共识而建立世界法庭（例如根据联合国1998年7月17日的罗马协议建立的国际刑事法庭），它们的判断也不一定会被当作合法和有约束力的而接受，只要强国有条件对其加以无视。一个由强国组成的集团可能足够强大，以确保来自比较弱小国家的一些违犯者被送上这些法庭，从而或许在某些地区限制武装冲突的残酷程度。然而这是表明在一个国际体系内权力与影响力的传统行使、而不是国际法行使的实例。
然而在21世纪与20世纪之间有重大差别：认为战争是发生在一个划分为处于有效的政府权威之下的领土地区的世界上，这些政府享有对公共权力和强迫手段的垄断，这种想法已经不再适用。它从来都不适用于经历着革命的国家或者四分五裂的帝国的各个分裂部分，但直到最近为止，大多数新的革命或后殖民地政权——中国在1911年和1949年之间是主要的例外——相当迅速地再生，成为基本上有组织的和正常运转的继承政权和国家。然而最近30年左右，由于各种原因，国家丧失了其对武装力量的一贯的垄断、很大一部分从前的稳定性与权力，而且越来越多地还丧失了合法地位或者公认的永久性的根本感觉，这种地位过去使政府得以把税赋与征兵等负担强加给心甘情愿的公民。战争的物质装备现在对民间组织来说普遍地唾手可得，资助非国家战争的手段也是如此，这样一来，国家与非国家组织之间的力量对比已经改变。
国家内部的武装冲突已经变得更加严重，并且可能继续几十年，而没有任何胜利或得到解决的真实前景：克什米尔、安哥拉、斯里兰卡、车臣、哥伦比亚。在极端的情况下，譬如在非洲的部分地区，国家可能已经基本不复存在，或者譬如在哥伦比亚，可能不再在本国部分领土上行使政权。甚至在强大和稳定的国家里，也一直难以消除非官方的小型武装集团，譬如英国的爱尔兰共和军及西班牙的巴斯克民族和自由组织。这一局面的新奇性通过一件事实显示出来：地球上最强大的国家在遭受了一场恐怖主义袭击后感到有义务发动一场正式的行动，打击一个很小的国际与非政府组织或网络，而后者既没有领土，也没有一支能够辨认的军队。
这些变化如何影响今后一个世纪战争与和平之间的平衡呢？我宁愿不就很有可能爆发的战争或者它们可能的结局做出预测。然而不论武装冲突的结构还是解决的方法都由于主权国家世界体系的转变而发生了深刻变化。
苏联的解体意味着，曾经指导了国际关系将近两个世纪、除了明显的例外还对国家之间的冲突行使了一定的控制权的大国体系不复存在。它的消失消除了现在国家间战争和国家对别国事务进行武装干预的一大因素——冷战期间外国领土的边界基本上未曾被军队所跨越。然而即使那时，由于弱小国家的大量存在（尽管这些国家从官方意义上讲是联合国的“主权”成员国），国际体系就已经存在潜在的不稳定性。
苏联和欧洲共产党政权的垮台明显地使这种不稳定性增加。在迄今为止稳定的民族国家，譬如英国、西班牙、比利时和意大利，具有不同程度实力的分离主义趋势完全可能进一步加重这种不稳定。与此同时，国际舞台上民间表演者的数量也成倍增加。有什么机制可以用来控制和解决这种冲突吗？从记录看并不令人乐观。90年代的武装冲突没有一次以稳定的解决而告终。由于冷战的机构、假设与言论的持续存在，所以旧的怀疑未曾消亡，从而恶化了东南欧共产主义以后的分崩离析，使得解决一度被称为南斯拉夫的地区问题更加困难。
我们要想制订一些控制武装冲突的手段，就必须从意识形态和权力-政治两方面消除这些冷战遗留下来的假设。此外明显的是，美国通过单方的武力来强加一种（任何一种）新的世界秩序的努力都已经失败并且必然继续失败，不管力量关系目前如何朝着有利于美国的方向偏斜，尽管美国得到了一个（必然短命的）联盟的支持。国际体系仍将是多边的，其管制将取决于几个大国达成一致的能力，尽管其中一个国家享有军事上的压倒优势。
美国所采取的国际军事行动在多大程度上取决于别国通过谈判的协议已经很清楚。此外也清楚的是，战争的政治解决，甚至美国所参与的战争的解决，都将是通过谈判而不是通过单方的强加于人。以无条件投降而结束的战争的时代在可以预见的将来不会重演。
对于现有的国际机构，特别是联合国的角色，也必须重新考虑。虽然它无时不在而且通常是求助的对象，但是在解决争端方面，却没有明确的角色。它的战略与行动始终任凭不断变幻的权力政治所宰割。缺乏一个被真正看作中立的和能够在未经安全理事会事先授权情况下采取行动的国际中介，这一直是争端处理体系中最明显的空白。
冷战结束以来，对和平与战争的处理一直是即兴的。在最好情况下，譬如在巴尔干地区，武装冲突被外部武装干预制止，敌对行动结束时的现状由第三方的军队来维持。武装冲突未来控制的一个通用模型能否从这种干预中产生还不清楚。
21世纪中战争与和平之间的平衡将不会取决于制订比较有效的谈判和解决机制，而是要看内部稳定和军事冲突的避免情况如何。除了少数例外，现有的国家之间的、过去导致了武装冲突的对抗与摩擦今天造成这种局面的可能性减小了。例如现在的国际边界问题上的政府间燃眉之急的冲突相对来说很少。另一方面，内部冲突很容易演变成暴力性的：战争的主要危险存在于外国或者外部军事势力对冲突的卷入。
与贫困、严重不平等和经济不稳定的国家相比，经济蒸蒸日上、稳定而且商品在居民当中比较公平地分配的国家，其社会和政治局势动荡的可能性较小。然而，避免或控制国内武装暴力活动的情况更加直接地取决于国家政府的实力和政绩，及其在多数居民眼中的合法地位。今天没有任何政府能够对非武装民众的存在或者欧洲很多地方人们所长期熟悉的公共秩序的程度，认为理所当然。今天没有任何政府有条件无视或者清除掉国内的武装少数民族。
尽管如此，世界越来越分裂为能够对自己领土和公民加以有效管理的国家以及为数越来越多的领土，其边界是得到官方承认的国际界线，国家的政府则从虚弱和腐败的到荡然无存的都有。这些地区所酝酿的是流血的内部斗争和国际冲突，譬如我们在非洲中部所见到。然而这种地区没有持续改善的即刻前景，如果动荡不定的国家的中央政府进一步被削弱或者世界版图进一步巴尔干化，则无疑会加重武装冲突的危险。
一项尝试性的预测：21世纪的战争不大可能像20世纪的那样血腥。但造成不成比例的苦难与损失的武装暴力仍将在世界很多地方无处不在和泛滥成灾。一个和平的世纪的前景是遥远的。
Epic in scale, War and Peace delineates in graphic detail events leading up to Napoleon's invasion of Russia, and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society, as seen through the eyes of five Russian aristocratic families.
Portions of an earlier version having been serialized in the magazine The Russian Messenger between 1865 and 1867, the novel was first published in its entirety in 1869. Newsweek in 2009 ranked it top of its list of Top 100 Books.
Tolstoy himself, somewhat enigmatically, said of War and Peace that it was "not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less an historical chronicle."
War and Peace is famously long for a novel (though not the longest by any means). It is subdivided into four books or volumes, each with subparts containing many chapters.
Tolstoy got the title, and some of his themes, from an 1861 work of Proudhon: La Guerre et la Paix. Tolstoy had served in the Crimean War and written a series of short stories and novellas featuring scenes of war. He began writing War and Peace in the year that he finally married and settled down at his country estate. During the writing of the second half of the book, after the first half had already been written under the name "1805", he read widely, acknowledging Schopenhauer as one of his main inspirations, although he developed his own views of history and the role of the individual within it.
The novel can be generally classified as historical fiction. It contains elements present in many types of popular 18th and 19th century literature, especially the romance novel. War and Peace attains its literary status by transcending genres. Tolstoy was instrumental in bringing a new kind of consciousness to the novel. His narrative structure is noted for its "god-like" ability to hover over and within events, but also swiftly and seamlessly to take a particular character's point of view. His use of visual detail is often cinematic in its scope, using the literary equivalents of panning, wide shots and close-ups, to give dramatic interest to battles and ballrooms alike. These devices, while not exclusive to Tolstoy, are part of the new novel that is arising in the mid-19th century and of which Tolstoy proves himself a master.
Realism
Tolstoy incorporated extensive historical research, and he was influenced by many other novels as well. Himself a veteran of the Crimean War, Tolstoy was quite critical of standard history, especially the standards of military history, in War and Peace. Tolstoy read all the standard histories available in Russian and French about the Napoleonic Wars and combined more traditional historical writing with the novel form - he explains at the start of the novel's third volume his views on how history ought to be written. His aim was to blur the line between fiction and history, in order to get closer to the truth, as he states in Volume II.
The novel is set 60 years earlier than the time at which Tolstoy wrote it, "in the days of our grandfathers", as he puts it. He had spoken with people who had lived through the war of 1812 (In Russia), so the book is also, in part, accurate ethnography fictionalized. He read letters, journals, autobiographical and biographical materials pertaining to Napoleon and the dozens of other historical characters in the novel. There are approximately 160 real persons named or referred to in War and Peace.
Reception
The first draft of War and Peace was completed in 1863. In 1865, the periodical Russkiy Vestnik published the first part of this early version under the title 1805 and the following year published more of the same early version. Tolstoy was increasingly dissatisfied with this version, although he allowed several parts of it to be published (with a different ending) in 1867 still under the title "1805" He heavily rewrote the entire novel between 1866 and 1869. Tolstoy's wife Sophia Tolstoy handwrote as many as 8 or 9 separate complete manuscripts before Tolstoy considered it again ready for publication. The version that was published in Russkiy Vestnik had a very different ending than the version eventually published under the title War and Peace in 1869.
The completed novel was then called Voyna i mir (new style orthography; in English War and Peace).
Tolstoy did not destroy the 1805 manuscript (sometimes referred to as "the original War and Peace"), which was re-edited and annotated in Russia in 1983 and since has been translated separately from the "known" version, to English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish and Korean. The fact that so many extant versions of War and Peace survive make it one of the best revelations into the mental processes of a great novelist.
Russians who had read the serialized version, were anxious to acquire the complete first edition, which included epilogues, and it sold out almost immediately. The novel was translated almost immediately after publication into many other languages.
Isaac Babel said, after reading War and Peace, "If the world could write by itself, it would write like Tolstoy." Tolstoy "gives us a unique combination of the 'naive objectivity' of the oral narrator with the interest in detail characteristic of realism. This is the reason for our trust in his presentation."
Language
Although Tolstoy wrote most of the book, including all the narration, in Russian, significant portions of dialogue (including its opening paragraph) are written in French and characters often switch between the languages. This reflected 19th century reality since Russian aristocracy in the early nineteenth century were conversant in French, which was often considered more refined than Russian—many were much less competent in Russian. An example in the novel is Julie Karagina, Princess Marya's friend, who has to take Russian lessons in order to master her native language.
It has been suggested that it is a deliberate strategy of Tolstoy to use French to portray artifice and insincerity, as the language of the theater and deceit while Russian emerges as a language of sincerity, honesty and seriousness. When Pierre proposes to Helene he speaks to her in French—Je vous aime—and as the marriage emerges as a sham he blames those words.
As the book progresses, and the wars with the French intensify, culminating in the capture and eventual burning of Moscow, the use of French diminishes. The progressive elimination of French from the text is a means of demonstrating that Russia has freed itself from foreign cultural domination. It is also, at the level of plot development, a way of showing that a once-admired and friendly nation, France, has turned into an enemy. By midway through the book, several of the Russian aristocracy, whose command of French is far better than their command of Russian, are anxious to find Russian tutors for themselves.
English translations
War and Peace has been translated into English on several occasions, starting by Clara Bell working from a French translation. The translators Constance Garnett and Louise and Aylmer Maude knew Tolstoy personally. Translations have to deal with Tolstoy’s often peculiar syntax and his fondness of repetitions. About 2% of War and Peace is in French; Tolstoy removed the French in a revised 1873 edition, only to restore it later again. Most translators follow Garnett retaining some French, Briggs uses no French, while Pevear-Volokhonsky retain the French fully. (For a list of translations see below)
Background and historical context
In 1812 by the Russian artist Illarion Pryanishnikov
The novel begins in the year 1805 and leads up to the war of 1812[citation needed]. The era of Catherine the Great is still fresh in the minds of older people. It was Catherine who ordered the Russian court to change to speaking French, a custom that was stronger in Petersburg than in Moscow.[citation needed] Catherine's son and successor, Paul I, is the father of the current Czar, Alexander I. Alexander I came to the throne in 1801 at the age of 24. His mother, Marya Feodorovna, is the most powerful woman in the court.
The novel tells the story of five aristocratic families — the Bezukhovs, the Bolkonskys, the Rostovs, the Kuragins and the Drubetskoys—and the entanglements of their personal lives with the history of 1805–1813, principally Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812. The Bezukhovs, while very rich, are a fragmented family as the old Count, Kirill Vladimirovich, has fathered dozens of illegitimate sons. The Bolkonskys are an old established and wealthy family based at Bald Hills. Old Prince Bolkonsky, Nikolai Andreevich, served as a general under Catherine the Great, in earlier wars. The Moscow Rostovs have many estates, but never enough cash. They are a closely knit, loving family who live for the moment regardless of their financial situation. The Kuragin family has three children, who are all of questionable character. The Drubetskoy family is of impoverished nobility, and consists of an elderly mother and her only son, Boris, whom she wishes to push up the career ladder.
Tolstoy spent years researching and rewriting the book. He worked from primary source materials (interviews and other documents), as well as from history books, philosophy texts and other historical novels. Tolstoy also used a great deal of his own experience in the Crimean War to bring vivid detail and first-hand accounts of how the Russian army was structured.
The standard Russian text of 'War and Peace' is divided into four books (fifteen parts) and two epilogues – one mainly narrative, the other thematic. While roughly the first half of the novel is concerned strictly with the fictional characters, the later parts, as well as one of the work's two epilogues, increasingly consist of essays about the nature of war, power, history, and historiography. Tolstoy interspersed these essays into the story in a way that defies previous fictional convention. Certain abridged versions remove these essays entirely, while others, published even during Tolstoy's life, simply moved these essays into an appendix.
Plot summary
War and Peace has a large cast of characters, some historically real (like Napoleon and Alexander I), the majority of whom are introduced in the first book. The scope of the novel is vast, but the focus is primarily on five aristocratic families and their experiences in life. The interactions of these characters are set in the era leading up to, around and following the French invasion of Russia during the Napoleonic wars.
Book/Volume One
The novel begins in Saint Petersburg, at a soirée given in July 1805 by Anna Pavlovna Scherer — the maid of honour and confidante to the queen mother Maria Feodorovna. Many of the main players and aristocratic families of the novel are introduced as they enter Anna Pavlovna's salon. Pierre (Pyotr Kirilovich) Bezukhov is the illegitimate son of a wealthy count, an elderly man who is dying after a series of strokes. He is about to become embroiled in a struggle for his inheritance. Educated abroad after his mother's death and at his father's expense, Pierre is essentially kindhearted, but socially awkward owing in part to his open, benevolent nature, and finds it difficult to integrate into Petersburg society. He is his father's favorite of all the old count’s illegitimate children, and this is known to everyone at Anna Pavlovna's.
Pierre's friend, the intelligent and sardonic Prince Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky, husband of the charming society favourite Lise, also attends the soireé. Finding Petersburg society unctuous and disillusioned with married life after discovering his wife is empty and superficial, Prince Andrei makes the fateful choice to be an aide-de-camp to Prince Mikhail Ilarionovich Kutuzov in the coming war against Napoleon.
The plot moves to Moscow, Russia's ancient city and former capital, contrasting its provincial, more Russian ways to the highly mannered society of Petersburg. The Rostov family are introduced. Count Ilya Andreyevich Rostov has four adolescent children. Thirteen-year-old Natasha (Natalia Ilyinichna) believes herself in love with Boris Drubetskoy, a disciplined young man who is about to join the army as an officer. Twenty-year-old Nikolai Ilyich pledges his teenage love to Sonya (Sofia Alexandrovna), his fifteen-year-old cousin, an orphan who has been brought up by the Rostovs. The eldest child of the Rostov family, Vera Ilyinichna, is cold and somewhat haughty but has a good prospective marriage in a Russian-German officer, Adolf Karlovich Berg. Petya (Pyotr Ilyich) is nine and the youngest of the Rostov family; like his brother, he is impetuous and eager to join the army when of age. The heads of the family, Count Ilya Rostov and Countess Natalya Rostova, are an affectionate couple but forever worried about their disordered finances.
At Bald Hills, the Bolkonskys' country estate, Prince Andrei leaves his terrified, pregnant wife Lise with his eccentric father Prince Nikolai Andreyevich Bolkonsky and his devoutly religious sister Maria Nikolayevna Bolkonskaya, and departs for the war.
The second part opens with descriptions of the impending Russian-French war preparations. At the Schöngrabern engagement, Nikolai Rostov, who is now conscripted as ensign in a squadron of hussars, has his first taste of battle. He meets Prince Andrei, whom he insults in a fit of impetuousness. Even more than most young soldiers, he is deeply attracted by Tsar Alexander's charisma. Nikolai gambles and socializes with his officer, Vasily Dmitrich Denisov, and befriends the ruthless and perhaps psychopathic Fyodor Ivanovich Dolokhov.
Book/Volume Two
Book Two begins with Nikolai Rostov briefly returning home to Moscow on home leave in early 1806. Nikolai finds the Rostov family facing financial ruin due to poor estate management. He spends an eventful winter at home, accompanied by his friend Denisov, his officer from the Pavlograd Regiment in which he serves. Natasha has blossomed into a beautiful young girl. Denisov falls in love with her, proposes marriage but is rejected. Although his mother pleads with Nikolai to find himself a good financial prospect in marriage, Nikolai refuses to accede to his mother's request. He promises to marry his childhood sweetheart, the dowry-less Sonya.
Pierre Bezukhov, upon finally receiving his massive inheritance, is suddenly transformed from a bumbling young man into the richest and most eligible bachelor in the Russian Empire. Despite rationally knowing that it is wrong, he proposes marriage with Prince Kuragin's beautiful and immoral daughter Hélène (Elena Vasilyevna Kuragina), to whom he is sexually attracted. Hélène, who is rumoured to be involved in an incestuous affair with her brother, the equally charming and immoral Anatol, tells Pierre that she will never have children with him. Hélène has an affair with Dolokhov, who mocks Pierre in public. Pierre loses his temper and challenges Dolokhov, a seasoned dueller and a ruthless killer, to a duel. Unexpectedly, Pierre wounds Dolokhov. Hélène denies her affair, but Pierre is convinced of her guilt and, after almost being violent to her, leaves her. In his moral and spiritual confusion, he joins the Freemasons, and becomes embroiled in Masonic internal politics. Much of Book Two concerns his struggles with his passions and his spiritual conflicts to be a better man. Now a rich aristocrat, he abandons his former carefree behavior and enters upon a philosophical quest particular to Tolstoy: how should one live a moral life in an ethically imperfect world? The question continually baffles and confuses Pierre. He attempts to liberate his serfs, but ultimately achieves nothing of note.
Pierre is vividly contrasted with the intelligent and ambitious Prince Andrei Bolkonsky. At the Battle of Austerlitz, Andrei is inspired by a vision of glory to lead a charge of a straggling army. He suffers a near fatal artillery wound. In the face of death, Andrei realizes all his former ambitions are pointless and his former hero Napoleon (who rescues him in a horseback excursion to the battlefield) is apparently as vain as himself.
Prince Andrei recovers from his injuries in a military hospital and returns home, only to find his wife Lise dying in childbirth. He is stricken by his guilty conscience for not treating Lise better when she was alive and is haunted by the pitiful expression on his dead wife's face. His child, Nikolenka, survives.
Burdened with nihilistic disillusionment, Prince Andrei does not return to the army but chooses to remain on his estate, working on a project that would codify military behavior and help solve some of the problems of Russian disorganization that he believes were responsible for the loss of life in battle on the Russian side. Pierre comes to visit him and brings new questions: where is God in this amoral world? Pierre is interested in panentheism and the possibility of an afterlife.
Pierre's estranged wife, Hélène, begs him to take her back, and against his better judgment he does. Despite her vapid shallowness, Hélène establishes herself as an influential hostess in Petersburg society.
Prince Andrei feels impelled to take his newly written military notions to Petersburg, naively expecting to influence either the Emperor himself or those close to him. Young Natasha, also in Petersburg, is caught up in the excitement of dressing for her first grand ball, where she meets Prince Andrei and briefly reinvigorates him with her vivacious charm. Andrei believes he has found purpose in life again and, after paying the Rostovs several visits, proposes marriage to Natasha. However, old Prince Bolkonsky, Andrei's father, dislikes the Rostovs, opposes the marriage, and insists on a year's delay. Prince Andrei leaves to recuperate from his wounds abroad, leaving Natasha initially distraught. She soon recovers her spirits, however, and Count Rostov takes her and Sonya to spend some time with a friend in Moscow.
Natasha visits the Moscow opera, where she meets Hélène and her brother Anatol. Anatol has since married a Polish woman whom he has abandoned in Poland. He is very attracted to Natasha and is determined to seduce her. Hélène and Anatol conspire together to accomplish this plan. Anatol kisses Natasha and writes her passionate letters, eventually establishing plans to elope. Natasha is convinced that she loves Anatol and writes to Princess Maria, Andrei's sister, breaking off her engagement. At the last moment, Sonya discovers her plans to elope and foils them. Pierre is initially shocked and horrified at Natasha's behavior, but comes to realize he has fallen in love with her himself. During the time when the Great Comet of 1811–2 streaks the sky, life appears to begin anew for Pierre.
Prince Andrei accepts coldly Natasha's breaking of the engagement. He tells Pierre that his pride will not allow him to renew his proposal of marriage. Shamed by her near-seduction and at the realisation that Andrei will not forgive her, Natasha makes a suicide attempt and is left seriously ill.
Book/Volume Three
With the help of her family, especially Sonya, and the stirrings of religious faith, Natasha manages to persevere in Moscow through this dark period. Meanwhile, the whole of Russia is affected by the coming showdown between Napoleon's troops and the Russian army. Pierre convinces himself through gematria that Napoleon is the Antichrist of the Book of Revelation. Old prince Bolkonsky dies of a stroke while trying to protect his estate from French marauders. No organized help from any Russian army seems available to the Bolkonskys, but Nikolai Rostov turns up at their estate in time to help put down an incipient peasant revolt. He finds himself attracted to Princess Maria, but remembers his promise to Sonya.
Back in Moscow, the war-obsessed Petya manages to snatch a loose piece of the Tsar's biscuit outside the Cathedral of the Assumption; he finally convinces his parents to allow him to enlist.
Napoleon himself is a main character in this section of the novel and is presented in vivid detail, as both thinker and would-be strategist. His toilette and his customary attitudes and traits of mind are depicted in detail. Also described are the well-organized force of over 400,000 French Army (only 140,000 of them actually French-speaking) which marches quickly through the Russian countryside in the late summer and reaches the outskirts of the city of Smolensk. Pierre decides to leave Moscow and go to watch the Battle of Borodino from a vantage point next to a Russian artillery crew. After watching for a time, he begins to join in carrying ammunition. In the midst of the turmoil he experiences firsthand the death and destruction of war. The battle becomes a hideous slaughter for both armies and ends in a standoff. The Russians, however, have won a moral victory by standing up to Napoleon's reputedly invincible army. For strategic reasons and having suffered grievous losses, the Russian army withdraws the next day, allowing Napoleon to march on to Moscow. Among the casualties are Anatol Kuragin and Prince Andrei. Anatol loses a leg, and Andrei suffers a cannon wound in the abdomen. Both are reported dead, but their families are in such disarray that no one can be notified.
Book/Volume Four
The Rostovs have waited until the last minute to abandon Moscow, even after it is clear that Kutuzov has retreated past Moscow and Muscovites are being given contradictory, often propagandistic, instructions on how to either flee or fight. Count Rostopchin is publishing posters, rousing the citizens to put their faith in religious icons, while at the same time urging them to fight with pitchforks if necessary. Before fleeing himself, he gives orders to burn the city. The Rostovs have a difficult time deciding what to take with them, and in the end load their carts with the wounded and dying from the Battle of Borodino. Unknown to Natasha, Prince Andrei is amongst the wounded.
When Napoleon's Grand Army finally occupies an abandoned and burning Moscow, Pierre takes off on a quixotic mission to assassinate Napoleon. He becomes an anonymous man in all the chaos, shedding his responsibilities by wearing peasant clothes and shunning his duties and lifestyle. The only people he sees while in this garb are Natasha and some of her family, as they depart Moscow. Natasha recognizes and smiles at him, and he in turn realizes the full scope of his love for her.
Pierre saves the life of a French officer who fought at Borodino, yet is taken prisoner by the retreating French during his attempted assassination of Napoleon, after saving a woman from being raped by soldiers in the French Army. He becomes friends with a fellow prisoner, Platon Karataev, a peasant with a saintly demeanor, who is incapable of malice. In Karataev, Pierre finally finds what he has been seeking: an honest person of integrity (unlike the aristocrats of Petersburg society) who is utterly without pretense. Pierre discovers meaning in life simply by living and interacting with him. After witnessing French soldiers sacking Moscow and shooting Russian civilians arbitrarily, Pierre is forced to march with the Grand Army during its disastrous retreat from Moscow in the harsh Russian winter. After months of trial and tribulation—during which the fever-plagued Karataev is shot by the French—Pierre is finally freed by a Russian raiding party, after a small skirmish with the French that sees the young Petya Rostov killed in action.
Meanwhile, Andrei, wounded during Napoleon's invasion, has been taken in as a casualty and cared for by the fleeing Rostovs. He is reunited with Natasha and his sister Maria before the end of the war. Having lost all will to live, he forgives Natasha in a last act before dying.
As the novel draws to a close, Pierre's wife Hélène dies in a botched operation (implied to be an abortion). Pierre is reunited with Natasha, while the victorious Russians rebuild Moscow. Natasha speaks of Prince Andrei's death and Pierre of Karataev's. Both are aware of a growing bond between them in their bereavement. With the help of Princess Maria, Pierre finds love at last and, revealing his love after being released by his former wife's death, marries Natasha.
Epilogues
The first epilogue begins with the wedding of Pierre and Natasha in 1813. It is the last happy event for the Rostov family, which is undergoing a transition. Count Rostov dies soon after, leaving his eldest son Nikolai to take charge of the debt-ridden estate.
Nikolai finds himself with the task of maintaining the family on the verge of bankruptcy. His abhorrence at the idea of marrying for wealth almost gets in his way, but finally in spite of rather than according to his mother's wishes, he marries the now-rich Maria Bolkonskaya and in so doing also saves his family from financial ruin.
Nikolai and Maria then move to Bald Hills with his mother and Sonya, whom he supports for the rest of their life. Buoyed by his wife's fortune, Nikolai pays off all his family's debts. They also raise Prince Andrei's orphaned son, Nikolai Andreyevich (Nikolenka) Bolkonsky.
As in all good marriages, there are misunderstandings, but the couples–Pierre and Natasha, Nikolai and Maria–remain devoted to their spouses. Pierre and Natasha visit Bald Hills in 1820, much to the jubilation of everyone concerned. There is a hint in the closing chapters that the idealistic, boyish Nikolenka and Pierre would both become part of the Decembrist Uprising. The first epilogue concludes with Nikolenka promising he would do something with which even his late father "would be satisfied..." (presumably as a revolutionary in the Decembrist revolt).
The second epilogue contains Tolstoy's critique of all existing forms of mainstream history. He attempts to show that there is a great force behind history, which he first terms divine. He offers the entire book as evidence of this force, and critiques his own work. God, therefore, becomes the word Tolstoy uses to refer to all the forces that produce history, taken together and operating behind the scenes.
Principal characters in War and Peace
Main article: List of characters in War and Peace
War and Peace character tree
* Count Pyotr Kirillovich (Pierre) Bezukhov — The central character and often a voice for Tolstoy's own beliefs or struggles. He is one of several illegitimate children of Count Bezukhov; he is his father's favorite offspring.
* Prince Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky — A strong but cynical, thoughtful and philosophical aide-de-camp in the Napoleonic Wars.
* Princess Maria Nikolayevna Bolkonskaya — A pious woman whose eccentric father attempted to give her a good education. The caring, nurturing nature of her large eyes in her otherwise thin and plain face are frequently mentioned.
* Count Ilya Andreyevich Rostov — The pater-familias of the Rostov family; terrible with finances, generous to a fault.
* Countess Natalya Rostova — Wife of Count Ilya Rostov, mother of the four Rostov children.
* Countess Natalia Ilyinichna (Natasha) Rostova — Introduced as a beautiful and romantic young girl, she evolves through trials and suffering and eventually finds happiness. She is an accomplished singer and dancer.[citation needed]
* Count Nikolai Ilyich Rostov — A hussar, the beloved eldest son of the Rostov family.
* Sofia Alexandrovna (Sonya) Rostova — Orphaned cousin of Vera, Nikolai, Natasha and Petya Rostov.
* Countess Vera Ilyinichna Rostova — Eldest of the Rostov children, she marries the German career soldier, Berg.
* Pyotr Ilyich (Petya) Rostov — Youngest of the Rostov children.
* Prince Vasily Sergeyevich Kuragin — A ruthless man who is determined to marry his children well, despite having doubts about the character of some of them.
* Princess Elena Vasilyevna (Hélène) Kuragina — A beautiful and sexually alluring woman who has many affairs, including (it is rumoured) with her brother Anatole
* Prince Anatol Vasilyevich Kuragin — Hélène's brother and a very handsome, ruthless and amoral pleasure seeker who is secretly married yet tries to elope with Natasha Rostova.
* Prince Ipolit Vasilyevich — The eldest and perhaps most dim-witted of the Kuragin children.
* Prince Boris Drubetskoy — A poor but aristocratic young man who is determined to make his career, even at the expense of his friends and benefactors, marries a rich and ugly woman to help him climb the social ladder.
* Princess Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskoya — The mother of Boris.
* Fyodor Ivanovich Dolokhov — A cold, almost psychopathic officer, he ruins Nikolai Rostov after his proposal to Sonya is refused, he only shows love to his doting mother.
* Adolf Karlovich Berg — A young Russian officer, who desires to be just like everyone else.
* Anna Pavlovna Sherer — Also known as Annette, she is the hostess of the salon that is the site of much of the novel's action in Petersburg.
* Maria Dmitryevna Akhrosimova — An older Moscow society lady, she is an elegant dancer and trend-setter, despite her age and size.
* Amalia Evgenyevna Bourienne — A French woman who lives with the Bolkonskys, primarily as Princess Marya's companion.
* Vasily Dmitrich Denisov — Nikolai Rostov's friend and brother officer, who proposes to Natasha.
* Platon Krataev - The archetypal good Russian peasant, whom Pierre meets in the prisoner of war camp.
* Napoleon I of France — the Great Man, whose fate is detailed in the book.
* General Mikhail Ilarionovich Kutuzov — Russian commander-in-chief throughout the book. His diligence and modesty eventually save Russia from Napoleon.[citation needed]
* Osip Bazdeyev — the Freemason who interests Pierre in his mysterious group, starting a lengthy subplot.[citation needed]
* Tsar Alexander I of Russia — He signed a peace treaty with Napoleon in 1807 and then went to war with him.
Many of Tolstoy's characters in War and Peace were based on real-life people known to Tolstoy himself. His grandparents and their friends were the models for many of the main characters, his great-grandparents would have been of the generation of Prince Vasilly or Count Ilya Rostov. Some of the characters, obviously, are actual historic figures.
Adaptations
Film
The first Russian film adaptation of War and Peace was the 1915 film Война и мир (Voyna i mir), directed by Vladimir Gardin and starring Gardin and the Russian ballerina Vera Karalli. It was followed in 1968 by the critically acclaimed four-part film version War and Peace, by the Soviet director Sergei Bondarchuk, released individually in 1965-1967, and as a re-edited whole in 1968. This starred Lyudmila Savelyeva (as Natasha Rostova) and Vyacheslav Tikhonov (as Andrei Bolkonsky). Bondarchuk himself played the character of Pierre Bezukhov. The film was almost seven hours long; it involved thousands of actors, 120 000 extras, and it took seven years to finish the shooting, as a result of which the actors age changed dramatically from scene to scene. It won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for its authenticity and massive scale.
The novel has been adapted twice for cinema outside of Russia. The first of these was produced by F. Kamei in Japan (1947). The second was the 208-minute long 1956 War and Peace, directed by the American King Vidor. This starred Audrey Hepburn (Natasha), Henry Fonda (Pierre) and Mel Ferrer (Andrei). Audrey Hepburn was nominated for a BAFTA Award for best British actress and for a Golden Globe Award for best actress in a drama production.
Opera
* Initiated by a proposal of the German director Erwin Piscator in 1938, the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev composed his opera War and Peace (Op. 91, libretto by Mira Mendelson) based on this epic novel during the 1940s. The complete musical work premiered in Leningrad in 1955. It was the first opera to be given a public performance at the Sydney Opera House (1973).
Music
* Composition by Nino Rota
* Referring to album notes, the first track "The Gates of Delirium", from the album Relayer, by the progressive rock group Yes, is said to be based loosely on the novel.
Theatre
The first successful stage adaptations of War and Peace were produced by Alfred Neumann and Erwin Piscator (1942, revised 1955, published by Macgibbon & Kee in London 1963, and staged in 16 countries since) and R. Lucas (1943).
A stage adaptation by Helen Edmundson, first produced in 1996 at the Royal National Theatre, was published that year by Nick Hern Books, London. Edmundson added to and amended the play for a 2008 production as two 3-hour parts by Shared Experience, directed by Nancy Meckler and Polly Teale. This was first put on at the Nottingham Playhouse, then toured in the UK to Liverpool, Darlington, Bath, Warwick, Oxford, Truro, London (the Hampstead Theatre) and Cheltenham.
On the 15th-18th July, The Birmingham Theatre School performed this seven-hour epic play at The Crescent Theatre in Brindleyplace with great success. Birmingham Theatre School is the only drama school in the world to perform the new adaptation of War and Peace. Directed by Chris Rozanski and Assistant to Director was Royal National Theatre performer Anthony Mark Barrow with Vocals arranged by Dr Ria Keen and choreography by Colin Lang.
Radio and television
* In December 1970, Pacifica Radio station WBAI broadcast a reading of the entire novel (the 1968 Dunnigan translation) read by over 140 celebrities and ordinary people.
* War and Peace (1972): The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) made a television serial based on the novel, broadcast in 1972-73. Anthony Hopkins played the lead role of Pierre. Other lead characters were played by Rupert Davies, Faith Brook, Morag Hood, Alan Dobie, Angela Down and Sylvester Morand. This version faithfully included many of Tolstoy's minor characters, including Platon Karataev (Harry Locke). ,
* A dramatized full-cast adaptation in ten parts was written by Marcy Kahan and Mike Walker in 1997. The production won the 1998 Talkie award for Best Drama and was around 9.5 hours in length. It was directed by Janet Whitaker and featured Simon Russell Beale, Gerard Murphy, Richard Johnson, and others.
* La Guerre et la paix (TV) (2000) by François Roussillon. Robert Brubaker played the lead role of Pierre.
* War and Peace (2007): produced by the Italian Lux Vide, a TV mini-series in Russian & English co-produced in Russia, France, Germany, Poland and Italy. Directed by Robert Dornhelm, with screenplay written by Lorenzo Favella, Enrico Medioli and Gavin Scott. It features an international cast with Alexander Beyer playing the lead role of Pierre assisted by Malcolm McDowell, Clémence Poésy, Alessio Boni, Pilar Abella, J. Kimo Arbas, Ken Duken, Juozapas Bagdonas and Toni Bertorelli.
Full translations into English
* Clara Bell (from a French version) 1885-86
* Nathan Haskell Dole 1898
* Leo Wiener 1904
* Constance Garnett (1904)
* Louise and Aylmer Maude (1922-3)
* Rosemary Edmonds (1957, revised 1978)
* Ann Dunnigan (1968)
* Anthony Briggs (2005)
* Andrew Bromfield (2007), translation of the first completed draft, approx. 400 pages shorter than other English translations.
* Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (2007)
安德烈不顾怀孕的妻子和年迈的父亲，坚持到军队服役。战役失败，他颓丧回家，恰逢妻子难产而死，彼埃尔则在父亲临终前被立为财产继承人，并承袭了其父的伯爵称号，和贵族库拉金的女儿艾伦结婚。婚后不久，因两人性格不合而分居。彼埃尔与罗斯托夫伯爵一家在去打猎的路上，把沉浸在丧妻之痛的安德烈也拉去打猎，伯爵的女儿娜塔莎·罗斯托娃对安德烈产生了好感。不久，娜塔莎接受了安德烈的求婚，订立了婚约。
过了一段时间，安德烈重返军队。艾伦的弟弟阿纳托里骗得娜塔莎的爱，唆使其与他私奔。俄法战争开始，担任总司令的库图佐夫将军决定暂时放弃莫斯科。在撤退途中，娜塔莎遇到受重伤的安德烈，安德烈谅解了娜塔莎，但他却因伤势过重而离开了人世。
战争胜利结束后，彼埃尔回到了莫斯科，娜塔莎把自己的命运永远的与彼埃尔结合在了一起……
《战争与和平》-影片评价
这是一部制作精致、构思严谨的巨片。场面壮阔，气势磅礴，继承了前苏联在拍摄历史题材影片方面的传统，完美地融托尔斯泰原著精神于其中，再现了俄法战争时期俄罗斯大地广阔的历史画卷。影片以1812年俄国卫国战争为中心，反映了1805年至1820年重大事件，包括奥斯特利茨大战、波罗底诺会战、莫斯科大火、拿破仑溃退等。通过对四大家庭以及安德烈、彼埃尔、娜塔莎在战争与和平环境中的思想和行动的描写，展示了当时俄国社会的风貌。耗时五年，据称耗资一亿美元(当时的价钱)的宏伟巨制，试图极其忠实地复制托尔斯泰的长篇巨著。战争戏和舞会戏非常出色，但整体水准参差不齐。影片长达六个半小时，在苏联电影史上有着举足轻重的地位，同时获奥斯卡最佳外语片奖。1956年的美国版虽然比这部短，但也有 208分钟，有奥黛丽·赫本、亨利·方达等主演，也是以战争场面取胜。1973年英国BBC推出750分钟的电视版。
《战争与和平》-花絮
影片拍摄耗资高达5亿6000万美元，堪称影史上最昂贵的影片。
影片拍摄得到了苏联军方的大力协助，甚至军方试图让片中兵力尽量与实际战役的参战人数基本相同。在世界影史上，本片成为动用临时演员最多的影片之一，超过本片的只有1982年的《甘地传》，参加该片拍摄的临时演员多达30万人。
1981年3月，本片在墨西哥电视一台和二台首次播出，创下了电视台播放最长影片的吉尼斯世界纪录。
1958年，好莱坞著名制片人迈克尔·托德(Michael Todd)访问莫斯科，他曾提议联合拍摄本片，但遭到苏联政府的拒绝。
《战争与和平》-精彩对白
Prince Andrei Bolkonsky: Natasha... I love you too much. More than anything in the world.
安德烈王子：娜塔莎……我太爱你了。超过这世上的一切。
Natasha Rostova: And I! But why too much?
娜塔莎：我也是！但为什么这么强烈？
Prince Andrei Bolkonsky: Why too much? Well, what do you think? What do you feel in your soul, deep in your soul? Shall I live? What do you think?
安德烈王子：为什么？你是怎么想的？在你心灵深处感知到什么？我会活下去吗？你是怎么想的？
《战争与和平》《战争与和平》
Natasha Rostova: I'm sure of it.
娜塔莎：当然。
Prince Andrei Bolkonsky: How good that would be.
安德烈王子：那会多好。
Narrator: Enough, enough, men. Stop, consider, what are you doing? Into the minds of tired and hungry men on both sides, a flicker of doubt began to creep. Were they to go on slaughtering one another? Kill whom you like, do what you like, but I've had enough. Yet some inexplicable, mysterious power continued to control them, and the terrible business went on, carried out not by the will of individual men.
旁白：够了，够了，停下吧，你们想想，你们在做什么？交战双方饥寒交迫筋疲力尽的人们开始思考，一丝疑虑开始蔓延。他们还将互相杀戮吗？随便你们为所欲为吧，我已经厌倦了。然而一些无法解释的、神秘的力量在继续控制着他们，灾难扔在继续，个人的意愿无法改变这一切。
《战争与和平》-剧情
日本侵华战争期间，小柴健一所在运输船被炸沉后，他被中国渔民救活，从此留在中国军队服务。健一的死亡通知单被送到东京的妻子町子手中，町子和健一幼年时的朋友伍东康吉结合了，带着健一的儿子茂男幸福地生活在一起。但在空袭中，康吉精神上受到了刺激变得失常。日本投降后，健一回到家乡，他没有想到，妻子町子已经与康吉结了婚，他在绝望中要求把茂男交给自己抚养，但是茂男已经和康吉有了感情，健一不得不放弃带走茂男的念头。...
《战争与和平》- 幕后花絮
此片是按照当时占日美军的意图拍摄的，是为日本新宪法放弃战争作宣传的影片。但对于两位导演来说，这正是他们想要拍摄的主题，因为在战争期间，他们目睹了战争带给人民的残酷和不幸生活。此片的重要意义还在于，导演龟井文夫把大量表现中国难民的镜头组接在影片中，使日本人民看到了真实的战争残酷的一面，对日本人民的触动很大，因此广大日本人民对此片的评价很高，影片在日本电影史上有不可忽视的地位。
《战争与和平》-小说引言
《战争与和平》《战争与和平》
托尔斯泰卷秩浩繁的长篇小说。场面浩大，人物繁多，被称为“世界上最伟大的小说”，成就非凡。《战争与和平》问世至今，一直被人称为“世界上最伟大的小说”。 这部卷帙浩繁的巨著以史诗般广阔与雄浑的气势，生动 地描写了1805至1820年俄国社会的重大历史事件和各个生活领域：“近千个人物，无数的场景，国家和私人生活的一切可能的领域，历史，战争，人间一切惨剧，各种情欲，人生各个阶段，从婴儿降临人间的啼声到气息奄奄的老人的感情最后迸发，人所能感受到的一切欢乐和痛苦，各种可能的内心思绪，从窃取自己同伴的钱币的小偷的感觉，到英雄主义的最崇高的冲动和领悟透彻的沉思— —在这幅画里都应有尽有。”作者对生活的大面积涵盖和整体把握，对个别现象与事物整体、个人命运与周围世界的内在联系的充分揭示，使这部小说具有极大的思想和艺术容量。 这是托尔斯泰创作的第一部卷秩浩繁的长篇小说。 作者把战争与和平，前线与后方、国内与国外、军队与社会、上层与下层连结起来，既全面反映了时代风貌，又为各式各样的典型人物创造了极广阔的典型环境。作者对人物的描写形象既复杂又丰满，常用对比的艺术方法来表述，体裁在俄国文学史上是一种创新，也超越了欧洲长篇小说的传统规范。
《战争与和平》-作者简介
列夫·托尔斯泰（Л.Н.Толстой,Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Leo Tolstoy,1828—1910)，19世纪俄罗斯文学写实主义的代表作家，公认的最伟大的俄罗斯文学家， 《西方正典》作者、美国著名文学教授兼批评家哈洛·卜伦甚至称之为“从文艺复兴以来，惟一能挑战荷马、但丁与莎士比亚的伟大作家”。对文学拥有“狂恋式爱情”的托尔
《战争与和平》《战争与和平》
斯泰，是俄罗斯文学史上创作时间最长、作品数量最多、影响最深远、地位最崇高的作家，重情节、重典型、重写实、重批判的文学时代，在他笔下达到巅峰。长篇巨著《战争与和平》、 《安娜·卡列尼娜》 和《复活》是托尔斯泰文学艺术上的三个里程碑。百年来，他的作品被译为各国文字，销售量累积超过5亿册，是大师中的大师。
《战争与和平》恢弘的构思和卓越的艺术描写震惊世界文坛，成为举世公认的世界文学名著和人类宝贵的精神财富。英国作家毛姆及诺贝尔文学奖得主罗曼·罗兰称赞它是“有史以来最伟大的小说”，“是我们时代最伟大的史诗，是近代的伊利亚特”。
《战争与和平》是一部宏伟巨著，它以战争问题为中心，以库拉金、包尔康斯基、劳斯托夫、别竺豪夫四家贵族的生活为线索，展示了19世纪最初15年的俄国历史，描绘了各个阶级的生活，是一部再现当时社会风貌的恢弘史诗。作品中的各色人物刻画精准细腻，景物如临眼前，虽是19世纪的小说作品，但流传至今，却没有任何隔阂感，其中流露出来对人性的悲悯情怀，穿越时空背景，仍旧撼动人心。
《战争与和平》-内容简要
1805年7月，拿破仑率兵征服了欧洲，法俄之间正酝酿着激烈的战争。然而在彼得堡上层的人们依旧过着恬静悠闲的生活，达官贵人们都汇聚在皇后的女官兼宠臣安娜·巴甫洛夫娜举办家宴招待会上。
《战争与和平》《战争与和平》
赴宴的有宫廷官高位重的伐西里王爵和他漂亮却行为不端的女儿美伦，还有个头高大健壮的年轻人彼尔，他戴着眼镜，剪短发，穿浅色的流行短裤和褐色燕尾服。彼尔是莫斯科著名贵族别竺豪夫的私生子，从小出国留学，今年20岁，学成回国到首都谋职。他一进宴会厅，对人们议论拿破仑征战欧洲颇感兴趣。在这里，他高兴地结识了英俊而刚毅的青年安德烈－－先朝保罗皇帝的退职老总司令包尔康斯基的长子，两人很快成了好朋友。
此时，安德烈正应库图佐夫将军的召唤，去任他的传令官，将出国跟征战欧洲的拿破仑军队作战，任即将分娩的妻子和妹妹玛丽再三劝留，也改变不了他的决心，他期望通过这次战争为自己带来辉煌与荣耀。在出征之前，安德烈把妻子从首都送到了在莫斯科郊外居住的父亲那里，委托父亲加以关照。于是他急奔前线，在波兰追上了俄军总司令库图佐夫，总司令派他到联合纵队去任职，并受到了嘉奖。
彼尔回到莫斯科，他继承了别竺豪夫伯爵身后所有的遗产，摇身一变成为莫斯科数一数二的资本家，成为社交界的宠儿。他的亲戚伐西里早就窥视别竺豪夫家的财产，本想通过篡改遗嘱来谋得，失败后，又处心积虑地要拉拢彼尔，一方面为他在彼得堡谋得一个不小的官职，又挖空心思巧安排，让已是宫廷女官的女儿美伦嫁给彼尔，以图钱财。结果他的计谋顺利达成，可这桩婚事实在不幸之至。彼尔发现了妻子与好友多勃赫夫之间的暧昧关系，他与多勃赫夫进行搏斗，并幸运的击倒对方，随之与妻子分居，自己也陷入了善恶和生死的困扰之中，在加入共济会后，受到宽宏大量的哲学的熏陶，接回了妻子。
当安德烈再次回到总司令身边，俄奥联军对法的奥斯特里齐战斗就要打响了。由于在战前的军事会议上，否决了几位老将军的意见，采取了马上出击的战略，结果惨败。安德烈受伤被俘，途中昏迷，被敌人误以为活不成而丢下，库图佐夫也以为安德烈阵亡，给他的父亲去信报丧。可是安德烈在老百姓的救治下又康复了。愈后的他直奔老家，是日夜晚，妻子莉沙正好产下一名男婴，但她却在分娩中死去了。安德烈在孤独与绝望之中给妻子最后一个吻，他觉得人生已再无意义，决定终老于领地。
《战争与和平》《战争与和平》
一八零七年六月，俄与法言和，和平生活开始了。
一八零九年春天，安德烈·保尔康斯基因贵族会之事而去拜托罗斯托夫伯爵。在伯爵家他被充满生命力的年轻小姐娜达莎深深地吸引了。但由于秃山老公爵强烈反对，只好互相约以一年的缓冲期，而 后，安德烈·保尔康斯基即出国去了。但是，年轻的娜达莎无法忍受寂寞，且经不起彼尔之妻爱伦的哥哥阿纳托尔的诱惑，而擅自约定私奔，因此，与安德烈·保尔康斯基的婚约即告无效。
一八一二年，俄、法两国再度交战，安德烈·保尔康斯基于多勃琪诺战役中身受重伤，而俄军节节败退，眼见莫斯科即将陷于敌人之手了。罗斯托夫家将原本用来搬运家产的马车，改派去运送伤兵，娜达莎方能能于伤兵中发现将死的安德烈·保尔康斯基。她向他谢罪并热诚看护他，但一切都是徒劳了，安德烈·保尔康斯基仍然逃不过死亡之神而去世了。
彼尔化装成农夫，想伺机刺杀拿破 仑，但却被法军逮捕而成为俘虏。其妻爱伦于战火中，仍继续其放荡行为，最后，因误服堕胎药而且死亡。
几番奋战后，俄国终于赢得胜利，彼尔于莫斯科巧遇娜达莎，两人便结为夫 妇，而安德烈·保尔康斯基的妹妹玛莉亚也与娜达莎之兄尼克拉结婚，而组成一个幸福的家庭。
《战争与和平》-相关评价
《战争与和平》问世至今，一直被人称为“世界上最伟大的小说”。这部卷帙浩繁的巨著以史诗般广阔与雄浑的气势，生动地描写了1805至1820年俄国社会的重大历史事件和各个生活领域：“近千个人物，无数的场景，国家和私人生活的一切可能的领域，历史，战争，人间一切惨剧，各种情欲，人生各个阶段，从婴儿降临人间的啼声到气息奄奄的老人的感情最后迸发，人所能感受到的一切欢乐和痛苦，各种可能的内心思绪，从窃取自己同伴的钱币的小偷的感觉，到英雄主义的最崇高的冲动和领悟透彻的沉思——在这幅画里都应有尽有。”（斯特拉霍夫语）作家对生活的大面积涵盖和整体把握，对个别现象与事物整体、个人命运与周围世界的内在联系的充分揭示，使这部小说具有极大的思想和艺术容量。
这是一部人民战争的英雄史诗。托尔斯泰曾经表示：“在《战争与和平》里我喜欢人民的思想。”也就是说，作者力图在这部作品里表现俄国人民在反侵略战争中的爱国主义精神及其历史作用。在国家危急的严重关头，许多来自下层的俄军普通官兵同仇敌忾，浴血奋战，虽然战事一度失利，但精神上却始终占有压倒的优势。老百姓也主动起来保家卫国。在人民群众中涌现出一大批像网升、杰尼索夫、谢尔巴狄那样的英雄人物。俄军统帅库图佐夫也因为体现了人民的意志，才具有过人的胆略和决胜的信心。整部小说以无可辩驳的事实证明了托尔斯泰的“人民战争的巨棒以全部威严雄伟的力量”赶走了侵略者的思想。
作者在小说中也认真探索了贵族阶级的历史命运问题。小说的主要情节就是围绕着包尔康斯基、别素霍夫、罗斯托夫、库拉金四大贵族家庭的生活展开的。60年代，托尔斯泰仍站在贵族阶级的立场上，但是他对接近宫廷的上
《战争与和平》《战争与和平》
层贵族却给予深刻的揭露和批判。在民族危亡的关头，库拉金之流漠视国家命运，畏敌如虎，他们关心的是寻欢作乐，积聚私产。小说中，库拉金是官痞，儿子阿纳托尔是恶少，女儿爱仑则是荡妇。这些贵族的卑劣行径与人民为国献身的崇高精神形成了强烈的反差。托尔斯泰认为，俄国的前途在于“优秀”贵族与人民的合作。他用诗意的笔触描写了京城以外的庄园贵族罗斯托夫一家和包尔康斯基一家，指出在这些贵族身上仍保留着淳厚的古风，他们有爱国心，与人民的精神相通。这里，作者在一定程度上美化了宗法制贵族。
这部小说的主人公是安德烈·包尔康斯基、彼埃尔·别素霍夫和娜塔莎·罗斯托娃。这三个人物都是作者喜爱的正面形象。安德烈和彼埃尔是探索型的青年贵族知识分子。小说中，这两个人物在性格和生活道路上形成了鲜明的对比。安德烈性格内向，意志坚强，有较强的社会活动能力，他后来投身军队和参与社会活动库塞、阿多诺、弗洛姆、哈贝马斯（JürgenHabermas，1929—），在严酷的事实面前逐步认识到上层统治阶级的腐败和人民的力量，彼埃尔心直口快，易动感情，缺少实际活动能力，更侧重于对道德理想的追求，后来主要在与人民的直接接触中精神上得到成长。女主人公娜塔莎与两位主人公的关系使她成为小说中重要的连缀人物，而这一形象本身又是个性鲜明，生气勃勃的。小说充分展开了娜塔莎热烈而丰富的情感，她与人民和大自然的接近，她的民族气质，以及她在精神上的成长。这几个主要人物形象都具有较高的认识价值和审美价值。
《战争与和平》艺术成就卓著。在这部作品中，托尔斯泰有力地拓宽了长篇小说表现生活的幅度，并在传统的史诗体小说和戏剧式小说的基础上创造了一种比较成熟的形态。小说场面壮阔，结构清晰，人物形象鲜明，有一种大海般恢宏开阔的美。同时，小说时代感强烈，它虽是一部历史题材小说，但却反映了农奴制改革后俄国前途和人民作用的问题。因此，《战争与和平》当之无愧地是一部“了不起的巨著”。（列宁语）
《战争与和平》-阅读价值
《战争与和平》《战争与和平》
战争是一场历史争论不休的话题。有人说它是为了和平，也有人说是为了进步，因为战争确实有的时候加快了文明的步伐。不管战争为何，但似乎都起源于矛盾与行为。不可否认，人的心理是存在好斗的一面，在平凡的生活中家庭、事业、感情等一系列琐事，都让我们活得无比担忧，在单调乏味的生活里，人是很难适应这种不变动的生活。
在托尔斯泰的小说里《战争与和平》，如果拿战争单独的来讲的话，那么战争是自由的。这种自由为人性与释放的自由。在一场战争中瞬间的生死是可以选择的，活着的目的就是为了杀人，杀人的目的就是为了活着。在这个简单而残酷的圈子里只存有两种人，即朋友和敌人，除此之外一切都变得不重要了，这让许多复杂事情也显现得无比鲜明化了。小说中罗斯托夫是喜欢这种简单的人。在疯狂的争夺与罪恶的战争中，罗斯托夫找到了自己的价值，这种价值并非是在上层交际圈里固有的。更多的是罗斯托夫作为一个传统人物，在虚荣和荣耀的引导下更多的懂得牺牲自己。然而战争是需要这类人的，生活也不排斥，但在托尔斯泰的小说里却并未得到赞扬，这让人不难想象其中包含里面的趣味与真诚，值得让人感动！
索尼亚是那么的爱着他，与其说她是爱着他的灵魂与全部，还不如说她是为自己编织的信念而爱着。在托尔斯泰的小说中很容易看到，一目目的爱情都存在着一定的目的性和世俗的挺向性。索尼亚为姨妈家的名利放弃了罗斯托夫，安德安为世俗的贞操放弃了娜塔沙，一切都那么的变换莫测，但又存在单调的一致性——即为名、利、虚荣而放弃自己原本的生活。
在安德列经历了几次的生死离别之后，战争就像是一盏明灯似的忽暗忽明的出现在他眼前，有时像是指清道路有时却显得那么的扑朔迷离。只有在生与死即将分开的时候，现实和理想在他眼中才看得那么清楚。作者一个年龄段一个年龄段的叙述了安德列所经历的感受，这让我门毫不费解的走进了他的内心世界，心有灵犀的思考着摆在自己面前的问题。现实—理想，当思考的时候必然会产生矛盾，也必然会有所结果。书中一步步在矛盾中不完善的结果来阐述了安德列的思想升华，通过对他的人物塑造让我们比较完整的了解了人性的一面。
在战场上，安德列开始也和罗斯托夫一样，想通过战争来建立一份殊荣，做为一个男人来讲这是应具备的。但他不明白应该具备这种殊荣的目的是为什么，也许是一种无形的力量在引诱他这样做。在亚历山大的皇权下，大多数人都可以为勇气和殊荣献身，与其说是为进步和文明而战，还不如说是为别人和其他的东西而战。
不难看到，在这场关键性的战域中，拿破仑的真正对手并不是亚历山大，而是亚历山大的属下库图佐夫，一个深
《战争与和平》《战争与和平》
受皇帝排斥但又离不开他的人。确定他为一名将军倒还不如说他是一位仁智的老头，一位懂得平平凡凡生活真谛的人。在拿破仑的天才战略中，被人类认为是疯狂加艺术的行为在这里得到了休息，就像是一只十分威猛的蜂子撞进了棉花堆里，一切锋芒都包容在不痛不痒的棉丝里。而只能像是苍蝇一样等待着蜘蛛的进食。在这里我们只能用托尔斯泰的话语：库图佐夫是一位懂得自然规律的人！——生活又何尝不一样需要这样的人呢。
在安德列临死的那一刻（有几次这样的时刻），文中总会出现蓝天、白云、童年时的想象和一切当时认为不愉快而现在想起来令他愉快的事，这些东西在安德列的眼中就像过雨云烟，一切都显得那么的真实与美好，这让我们不难想象生活其实是美好的，只是我们过与苛求。
在安德列死后仅接着是皮埃尔和娜塔沙（安德列的未婚妻）、安德列的姐姐马丽亚（虔诚的教徒）和罗斯托夫的幸福婚姻生活，这也正预示了无论是在战争的背后，还是在经过一切腥风血雨的挣扎之后，生活的要求其实很简单，一切都是人类在作怪罢了！
《战争与和平》-现代注释[精文]
[英国] 埃里克·霍布斯鲍姆 尹宏毅 翻译
20世纪是人类有记载的历史上最杀人不眨眼的世纪。战争所造成的或者与战争有关的死亡总人数估计为1.87亿，相当于1913年世界人口的10%以上。如果算作是从1914年开始，这是一个战争几乎不间断的世纪，其中某地没有发生有组织的武装冲突的时期很少也很短暂。占据世纪主导地位的是世界大战：即国家或国家联盟之间的战争。
从1914年到1945年的时期可以被看作一场单一的“30年战争”，仅仅被20年代的一段间歇所打断——在日本人于1922年最终从苏联北亚撤退和1931年对东北亚的进攻之间的时期。几乎紧随其后的是大约40年的冷战，这一时期符合霍布斯的战争定义，即其“不是仅仅包括战斗或者战争行为，而且包括一段时间，其中通过战斗来进行斗争的意志得到了充分的表达。”一个可以辩论的问题是，从冷战结束以来，美军在世界各地所参与的行动在多大程度上构成了这个世界大战时代的延续。然而毫无疑义的是，20世纪90年代充满了欧洲、非洲和西亚及东亚的正式与非正式的军事冲突。世界整体来说从1914年以来一直没有和平，现在也是一样。
尽管如此，这个世纪不能被笼统地来对待，不论是从年代上还是从地理上来说。按照年代顺序，它分为三个阶段：以德国为中心的世界大战时代（1914年到 1945年）、两个超级大国对峙的时代（1945年到1989年）和传统的国际实力体系终结以来的时代。我将把这些时期称为第一、第二和第三时期。从地理上讲，军事行动的影响一直是十分不匀称的。除了一个例外（1932年到1935年的查科战争），西半球（美洲）在20世纪里没有重大的国家间战争（与内战相区分）。敌人的军事行动很少触及这些领土：因此，9月11日世界贸易中心和五角大楼被炸才令人震惊。
从1945年以来，国家间的战争也从欧洲消失了，而在此之前，欧洲曾经是主要的战场地区。虽然在第三时期里，战争回到了东南欧，但是在该大陆的其余地方，它却看来不大可能重演。另一方面，在第二时期，与全球对峙并不一定毫无联系的国家间战争仍然在中东和南亚肆虐，直接产生于这场全球对峙的主要战争在东亚和东南亚（韩国和印度支那）发生。与此同时，撒哈拉沙漠以南的非洲等地区在第一时期里受战争影响比较少（埃塞俄比亚除外，它迟迟地于1935到1936年遭受意大利的殖民征服），在第二时期成为武装冲突的战场，并在第三时期目睹了尸横遍野和水深火热。
20世纪的另外两个战争特点很突出，第一个不如第二个明显。21世纪开始之际，我们不知不觉地进入这样一个世界：武装的行动基本上不再为政府或者其所授权的代理人所掌握，争端的各方除了动用武力的愿望外，毫无共同特征、身份或目标。
国家间的战争在第一和第二时期主导了战争的形象，以致现有国家或帝国领土范围内的内战或其它武装冲突在一定程度上被掩盖了。就连十月革命后俄罗斯帝国领土上的内战以及中华帝国崩溃后发生的内战，也能够与国际冲突的框架相吻合，因为它们彼此不可分离。另一方面，拉丁美洲在20世纪里可能并没有军队跨越国界，但它却是重大国内冲突的场所：例如1911年以后在墨西哥、1948年以来在哥伦比亚，以及第二时期在许多中美洲国家，都是如此。人们一般没有认识到，从60年代过半以来，国际战争的数量相当持续地减少了。60年代中期，内部冲突变得比国家之间的冲突更加常见。国内冲突的数量继续激增，一直到90年代才趋于平缓。
人们更加熟悉的是战斗员与非战斗员之间区别的被侵蚀。上半个世纪的两次世界大战涉及交战各国的全部人口；战斗员和非战斗员都遭受了损失。然而，在这个世纪进程中，战争的负担越来越多地从武装力量转移到平民身上。平民不仅是其受害者，而且越来越多地成为军事或军事-政治行动的目标。第一次世界大战和第二次之间的对比是显著的：在一战中阵亡者当中，只有5%是平民；二战中这一数字增加到66%。普遍的估计是，今天受战争影响的人们当中有80%到90%是平民。这一比例从冷战结束以来增加了，因为从那时以来的大多数军事行动都不是由义务兵军队，而是由小股正规或非正规部队进行的，在许多情况下所使用的是高技术武器，他们还受到保护，以免承担伤亡的风险。没有理由怀疑，战争的主要受害者仍将是平民。
假如战争与和平像这个世纪初那样保持泾渭分明，则20世纪对这两者的著述会容易一些。世纪初，1899年和 1907年的海牙公约把战争的规则编入法典。冲突被认为主要发生在主权国家之间，或者如果发生在一个特定国家领土范围内，是在组织充分、因而被其它主权国家公认具有交战地位的各方之间展开。战争当时被认为与和平有显著区别，通过开战时的一项战争宣言和战争结束时的一项和约。军事行动被认为在战斗员之间有明显区别——其特征譬如他们所穿的军装或者显示其属于一支有组织的军队的其它迹象——以及非作战平民。战争被认为是战斗员之间的事情。非战斗员只要可能，就应当在战时受到保护。
过去一贯的谅解是，这些公约并不涵盖所有的国内和国际武装冲突，特别是不包括西方国家在国际公认的主权国家管辖范围以外地区进行的帝国扩张所造成的冲突，尽管这些冲突当中的一些（但绝非全部）被称为“战争”。它们也不包括反对地位稳固的国家的大规模叛乱，譬如所谓的“印度兵变”，或者在国家或名义上统治着这些国家的帝国当局有效控制范围之外地区反复发生的武装活动，譬如阿富汗或摩洛哥山区的劫掠和血仇。尽管如此，海牙公约仍然是第一次世界大战中的指导方针。20世纪，这一相对的明确性被混乱所取代。
首先，国际冲突与国内冲突之间的界线变得模糊不清，因为20世纪的特点不仅是战争，而且还有革命和帝国的解体。一国内部的革命或解放斗争对国际局势产生影响，在冷战期间尤其如此。相反地，俄罗斯革命后，国家对自己所不支持的别国内部事务的干预变得司空见惯，起码在这样做风险比较小的地方是如此。现在情况仍然是这样。
第二，战争与和平之间的明确差别变得含糊不清。除了个别地方外，第二次世界大战既不是以宣战开始，也不是以和约结束。随后的一个时期不论是从旧的意义上讲归类为战争还是和平都很困难，因此“冷战”这个新字眼不得不被发明来描述它。冷战以来状况的模糊性的一个明证就是中东的当前局势。不论“战争”还是“和平” 都没有确切描述海湾战争正式结束以来伊拉克的形势——该国仍然几乎每天都遭到外国的轰炸——巴勒斯坦人和以色列人之间的关系也是如此，还有以色列与其邻国、黎巴嫩和叙利亚之间的关系。所有这些都是一种不幸的后遗症，其原因是20世纪的世界大战，还有战争的越来越强大的大众宣传机器，以及彼此不相称的和充满激情的意识形态之间对峙的一个时期。这种对峙给战争带来了相当于在以往的宗教冲突中所见到的正义讨伐的成分。
这些冲突与国际实力体系的传统战争不同，越来越多地是为了不可谈判的目的，譬如“无条件投降”而进行。由于战争和胜利都被看作一边倒的，所以对18和19世纪的战争公约所可能强加给交战国能力的任何限制——甚至正式的宣战——都被抛弃。对胜利者坚持自己意志的威力的任何限制也是如此。经验表明，在和平情况下达成的协议可能很容易被撕毁。
近年来，使情况进一步复杂化的是，在人们的公开言论中，“战争”一词往往被用来指部署有组织的力量打击被看作反社会的各种国家或国际活动——例如“反黑手党的战争”或“反贩毒组织的战争”。在这些冲突中，武装力量的两个类型的行动被混淆。一个类型——我们称之为“士兵”——用来对付其他武装力量，目的是击败他们。另外一个——我们把它叫做“警察”——努力保持或恢复一个现有的政治实体，一般是一个国家内部必要程度的法律和公共秩序。并不带有任何必要的道德隐含意义的胜利是一种力量的目的；将违法者绳之以法则带有道德的涵义，乃是另外一种力量的目标。然而，这种区分在理论上比在实践中容易做出，战斗中的一名士兵杀人本身并不犯法。但如果爱尔兰共和军的一名成员把自己看作交战一方，尽管正式的英国法律把他视为杀人犯，则情况如何？
北爱尔兰的活动是像爱尔兰共和军所认为的那样是一场战争呢，还是在违法者面前为了维持英国的一个省有秩序的治理而做出的努力？由于不仅一支可观的当地警察部队，而且还有一支全国性的军队被动员起来对付爱尔兰共和军达30年左右，所以我们可以断定，这是一场战争，但却是一场像警察行动一样有条不紊地实施的战争，其方式把伤亡和该省中的生活中断减少到最低限度。新世纪开始时和平与战争之间关系的复杂性和混乱情况就是如此。它们得到了美国及其盟国目前正在进行的军事与其它行动的充分诠释。
现在像整个20世纪一样，全然没有任何能够控制或解决武装争端的有效的全球权威机构。全球化已经在几乎每个方面取得进展——经济上、技术上、文化上甚至语言上——唯一例外的是，在政治与军事上，各国仍然是唯一的有效权威。虽然正式的国家有200个左右，但是在实践上只有少数举足轻重，其中美国享有占压倒优势的威力。然而从来没有任何国家或帝国足够地庞大、富裕或强大，以维持在世界政治领域中的霸权，就更不用说建立全球范围的政治与军事上的至高无上地位了。一个单一的超级大国无法弥补全球权威的空白，尤其鉴于其效力足以使之获得主要国家的自愿接受、被当作具有约束力的公约的缺乏——例如涉及国际裁军或者武器控制的等等。一些这种权威机构是存在的，特别是联合国、各种法律与金融机构，譬如国际货币基金组织、世界银行和世界贸易组织，以及一些国际法庭。但没有任何一个拥有除了国家之间的协议所赋予它们的之外的、由于强大国家的支持而获得的或者各国自愿接受的有效权力。虽然这一点令人遗憾，但是在可以预见的将来却不大可能改变。
由于只有国家才行使实际的权力，所以风险在于，国际机构在试图应付“战争罪行”等违法行为的时候会无效或者缺乏普遍的合法地位。甚至当通过普遍共识而建立世界法庭（例如根据联合国1998年7月17日的罗马协议建立的国际刑事法庭），它们的判断也不一定会被当作合法和有约束力的而接受，只要强国有条件对其加以无视。一个由强国组成的集团可能足够强大，以确保来自比较弱小国家的一些违犯者被送上这些法庭，从而或许在某些地区限制武装冲突的残酷程度。然而这是表明在一个国际体系内权力与影响力的传统行使、而不是国际法行使的实例。
然而在21世纪与20世纪之间有重大差别：认为战争是发生在一个划分为处于有效的政府权威之下的领土地区的世界上，这些政府享有对公共权力和强迫手段的垄断，这种想法已经不再适用。它从来都不适用于经历着革命的国家或者四分五裂的帝国的各个分裂部分，但直到最近为止，大多数新的革命或后殖民地政权——中国在1911年和1949年之间是主要的例外——相当迅速地再生，成为基本上有组织的和正常运转的继承政权和国家。然而最近30年左右，由于各种原因，国家丧失了其对武装力量的一贯的垄断、很大一部分从前的稳定性与权力，而且越来越多地还丧失了合法地位或者公认的永久性的根本感觉，这种地位过去使政府得以把税赋与征兵等负担强加给心甘情愿的公民。战争的物质装备现在对民间组织来说普遍地唾手可得，资助非国家战争的手段也是如此，这样一来，国家与非国家组织之间的力量对比已经改变。
国家内部的武装冲突已经变得更加严重，并且可能继续几十年，而没有任何胜利或得到解决的真实前景：克什米尔、安哥拉、斯里兰卡、车臣、哥伦比亚。在极端的情况下，譬如在非洲的部分地区，国家可能已经基本不复存在，或者譬如在哥伦比亚，可能不再在本国部分领土上行使政权。甚至在强大和稳定的国家里，也一直难以消除非官方的小型武装集团，譬如英国的爱尔兰共和军及西班牙的巴斯克民族和自由组织。这一局面的新奇性通过一件事实显示出来：地球上最强大的国家在遭受了一场恐怖主义袭击后感到有义务发动一场正式的行动，打击一个很小的国际与非政府组织或网络，而后者既没有领土，也没有一支能够辨认的军队。
这些变化如何影响今后一个世纪战争与和平之间的平衡呢？我宁愿不就很有可能爆发的战争或者它们可能的结局做出预测。然而不论武装冲突的结构还是解决的方法都由于主权国家世界体系的转变而发生了深刻变化。
苏联的解体意味着，曾经指导了国际关系将近两个世纪、除了明显的例外还对国家之间的冲突行使了一定的控制权的大国体系不复存在。它的消失消除了现在国家间战争和国家对别国事务进行武装干预的一大因素——冷战期间外国领土的边界基本上未曾被军队所跨越。然而即使那时，由于弱小国家的大量存在（尽管这些国家从官方意义上讲是联合国的“主权”成员国），国际体系就已经存在潜在的不稳定性。
苏联和欧洲共产党政权的垮台明显地使这种不稳定性增加。在迄今为止稳定的民族国家，譬如英国、西班牙、比利时和意大利，具有不同程度实力的分离主义趋势完全可能进一步加重这种不稳定。与此同时，国际舞台上民间表演者的数量也成倍增加。有什么机制可以用来控制和解决这种冲突吗？从记录看并不令人乐观。90年代的武装冲突没有一次以稳定的解决而告终。由于冷战的机构、假设与言论的持续存在，所以旧的怀疑未曾消亡，从而恶化了东南欧共产主义以后的分崩离析，使得解决一度被称为南斯拉夫的地区问题更加困难。
我们要想制订一些控制武装冲突的手段，就必须从意识形态和权力-政治两方面消除这些冷战遗留下来的假设。此外明显的是，美国通过单方的武力来强加一种（任何一种）新的世界秩序的努力都已经失败并且必然继续失败，不管力量关系目前如何朝着有利于美国的方向偏斜，尽管美国得到了一个（必然短命的）联盟的支持。国际体系仍将是多边的，其管制将取决于几个大国达成一致的能力，尽管其中一个国家享有军事上的压倒优势。
美国所采取的国际军事行动在多大程度上取决于别国通过谈判的协议已经很清楚。此外也清楚的是，战争的政治解决，甚至美国所参与的战争的解决，都将是通过谈判而不是通过单方的强加于人。以无条件投降而结束的战争的时代在可以预见的将来不会重演。
对于现有的国际机构，特别是联合国的角色，也必须重新考虑。虽然它无时不在而且通常是求助的对象，但是在解决争端方面，却没有明确的角色。它的战略与行动始终任凭不断变幻的权力政治所宰割。缺乏一个被真正看作中立的和能够在未经安全理事会事先授权情况下采取行动的国际中介，这一直是争端处理体系中最明显的空白。
冷战结束以来，对和平与战争的处理一直是即兴的。在最好情况下，譬如在巴尔干地区，武装冲突被外部武装干预制止，敌对行动结束时的现状由第三方的军队来维持。武装冲突未来控制的一个通用模型能否从这种干预中产生还不清楚。
21世纪中战争与和平之间的平衡将不会取决于制订比较有效的谈判和解决机制，而是要看内部稳定和军事冲突的避免情况如何。除了少数例外，现有的国家之间的、过去导致了武装冲突的对抗与摩擦今天造成这种局面的可能性减小了。例如现在的国际边界问题上的政府间燃眉之急的冲突相对来说很少。另一方面，内部冲突很容易演变成暴力性的：战争的主要危险存在于外国或者外部军事势力对冲突的卷入。
与贫困、严重不平等和经济不稳定的国家相比，经济蒸蒸日上、稳定而且商品在居民当中比较公平地分配的国家，其社会和政治局势动荡的可能性较小。然而，避免或控制国内武装暴力活动的情况更加直接地取决于国家政府的实力和政绩，及其在多数居民眼中的合法地位。今天没有任何政府能够对非武装民众的存在或者欧洲很多地方人们所长期熟悉的公共秩序的程度，认为理所当然。今天没有任何政府有条件无视或者清除掉国内的武装少数民族。
尽管如此，世界越来越分裂为能够对自己领土和公民加以有效管理的国家以及为数越来越多的领土，其边界是得到官方承认的国际界线，国家的政府则从虚弱和腐败的到荡然无存的都有。这些地区所酝酿的是流血的内部斗争和国际冲突，譬如我们在非洲中部所见到。然而这种地区没有持续改善的即刻前景，如果动荡不定的国家的中央政府进一步被削弱或者世界版图进一步巴尔干化，则无疑会加重武装冲突的危险。
一项尝试性的预测：21世纪的战争不大可能像20世纪的那样血腥。但造成不成比例的苦难与损失的武装暴力仍将在世界很多地方无处不在和泛滥成灾。一个和平的世纪的前景是遥远的。
Epic in scale, War and Peace delineates in graphic detail events leading up to Napoleon's invasion of Russia, and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society, as seen through the eyes of five Russian aristocratic families.
Portions of an earlier version having been serialized in the magazine The Russian Messenger between 1865 and 1867, the novel was first published in its entirety in 1869. Newsweek in 2009 ranked it top of its list of Top 100 Books.
Tolstoy himself, somewhat enigmatically, said of War and Peace that it was "not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less an historical chronicle."
War and Peace is famously long for a novel (though not the longest by any means). It is subdivided into four books or volumes, each with subparts containing many chapters.
Tolstoy got the title, and some of his themes, from an 1861 work of Proudhon: La Guerre et la Paix. Tolstoy had served in the Crimean War and written a series of short stories and novellas featuring scenes of war. He began writing War and Peace in the year that he finally married and settled down at his country estate. During the writing of the second half of the book, after the first half had already been written under the name "1805", he read widely, acknowledging Schopenhauer as one of his main inspirations, although he developed his own views of history and the role of the individual within it.
The novel can be generally classified as historical fiction. It contains elements present in many types of popular 18th and 19th century literature, especially the romance novel. War and Peace attains its literary status by transcending genres. Tolstoy was instrumental in bringing a new kind of consciousness to the novel. His narrative structure is noted for its "god-like" ability to hover over and within events, but also swiftly and seamlessly to take a particular character's point of view. His use of visual detail is often cinematic in its scope, using the literary equivalents of panning, wide shots and close-ups, to give dramatic interest to battles and ballrooms alike. These devices, while not exclusive to Tolstoy, are part of the new novel that is arising in the mid-19th century and of which Tolstoy proves himself a master.
Realism
Tolstoy incorporated extensive historical research, and he was influenced by many other novels as well. Himself a veteran of the Crimean War, Tolstoy was quite critical of standard history, especially the standards of military history, in War and Peace. Tolstoy read all the standard histories available in Russian and French about the Napoleonic Wars and combined more traditional historical writing with the novel form - he explains at the start of the novel's third volume his views on how history ought to be written. His aim was to blur the line between fiction and history, in order to get closer to the truth, as he states in Volume II.
The novel is set 60 years earlier than the time at which Tolstoy wrote it, "in the days of our grandfathers", as he puts it. He had spoken with people who had lived through the war of 1812 (In Russia), so the book is also, in part, accurate ethnography fictionalized. He read letters, journals, autobiographical and biographical materials pertaining to Napoleon and the dozens of other historical characters in the novel. There are approximately 160 real persons named or referred to in War and Peace.
Reception
The first draft of War and Peace was completed in 1863. In 1865, the periodical Russkiy Vestnik published the first part of this early version under the title 1805 and the following year published more of the same early version. Tolstoy was increasingly dissatisfied with this version, although he allowed several parts of it to be published (with a different ending) in 1867 still under the title "1805" He heavily rewrote the entire novel between 1866 and 1869. Tolstoy's wife Sophia Tolstoy handwrote as many as 8 or 9 separate complete manuscripts before Tolstoy considered it again ready for publication. The version that was published in Russkiy Vestnik had a very different ending than the version eventually published under the title War and Peace in 1869.
The completed novel was then called Voyna i mir (new style orthography; in English War and Peace).
Tolstoy did not destroy the 1805 manuscript (sometimes referred to as "the original War and Peace"), which was re-edited and annotated in Russia in 1983 and since has been translated separately from the "known" version, to English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish and Korean. The fact that so many extant versions of War and Peace survive make it one of the best revelations into the mental processes of a great novelist.
Russians who had read the serialized version, were anxious to acquire the complete first edition, which included epilogues, and it sold out almost immediately. The novel was translated almost immediately after publication into many other languages.
Isaac Babel said, after reading War and Peace, "If the world could write by itself, it would write like Tolstoy." Tolstoy "gives us a unique combination of the 'naive objectivity' of the oral narrator with the interest in detail characteristic of realism. This is the reason for our trust in his presentation."
Language
Although Tolstoy wrote most of the book, including all the narration, in Russian, significant portions of dialogue (including its opening paragraph) are written in French and characters often switch between the languages. This reflected 19th century reality since Russian aristocracy in the early nineteenth century were conversant in French, which was often considered more refined than Russian—many were much less competent in Russian. An example in the novel is Julie Karagina, Princess Marya's friend, who has to take Russian lessons in order to master her native language.
It has been suggested that it is a deliberate strategy of Tolstoy to use French to portray artifice and insincerity, as the language of the theater and deceit while Russian emerges as a language of sincerity, honesty and seriousness. When Pierre proposes to Helene he speaks to her in French—Je vous aime—and as the marriage emerges as a sham he blames those words.
As the book progresses, and the wars with the French intensify, culminating in the capture and eventual burning of Moscow, the use of French diminishes. The progressive elimination of French from the text is a means of demonstrating that Russia has freed itself from foreign cultural domination. It is also, at the level of plot development, a way of showing that a once-admired and friendly nation, France, has turned into an enemy. By midway through the book, several of the Russian aristocracy, whose command of French is far better than their command of Russian, are anxious to find Russian tutors for themselves.
English translations
War and Peace has been translated into English on several occasions, starting by Clara Bell working from a French translation. The translators Constance Garnett and Louise and Aylmer Maude knew Tolstoy personally. Translations have to deal with Tolstoy’s often peculiar syntax and his fondness of repetitions. About 2% of War and Peace is in French; Tolstoy removed the French in a revised 1873 edition, only to restore it later again. Most translators follow Garnett retaining some French, Briggs uses no French, while Pevear-Volokhonsky retain the French fully. (For a list of translations see below)
Background and historical context
In 1812 by the Russian artist Illarion Pryanishnikov
The novel begins in the year 1805 and leads up to the war of 1812[citation needed]. The era of Catherine the Great is still fresh in the minds of older people. It was Catherine who ordered the Russian court to change to speaking French, a custom that was stronger in Petersburg than in Moscow.[citation needed] Catherine's son and successor, Paul I, is the father of the current Czar, Alexander I. Alexander I came to the throne in 1801 at the age of 24. His mother, Marya Feodorovna, is the most powerful woman in the court.
The novel tells the story of five aristocratic families — the Bezukhovs, the Bolkonskys, the Rostovs, the Kuragins and the Drubetskoys—and the entanglements of their personal lives with the history of 1805–1813, principally Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812. The Bezukhovs, while very rich, are a fragmented family as the old Count, Kirill Vladimirovich, has fathered dozens of illegitimate sons. The Bolkonskys are an old established and wealthy family based at Bald Hills. Old Prince Bolkonsky, Nikolai Andreevich, served as a general under Catherine the Great, in earlier wars. The Moscow Rostovs have many estates, but never enough cash. They are a closely knit, loving family who live for the moment regardless of their financial situation. The Kuragin family has three children, who are all of questionable character. The Drubetskoy family is of impoverished nobility, and consists of an elderly mother and her only son, Boris, whom she wishes to push up the career ladder.
Tolstoy spent years researching and rewriting the book. He worked from primary source materials (interviews and other documents), as well as from history books, philosophy texts and other historical novels. Tolstoy also used a great deal of his own experience in the Crimean War to bring vivid detail and first-hand accounts of how the Russian army was structured.
The standard Russian text of 'War and Peace' is divided into four books (fifteen parts) and two epilogues – one mainly narrative, the other thematic. While roughly the first half of the novel is concerned strictly with the fictional characters, the later parts, as well as one of the work's two epilogues, increasingly consist of essays about the nature of war, power, history, and historiography. Tolstoy interspersed these essays into the story in a way that defies previous fictional convention. Certain abridged versions remove these essays entirely, while others, published even during Tolstoy's life, simply moved these essays into an appendix.
Plot summary
War and Peace has a large cast of characters, some historically real (like Napoleon and Alexander I), the majority of whom are introduced in the first book. The scope of the novel is vast, but the focus is primarily on five aristocratic families and their experiences in life. The interactions of these characters are set in the era leading up to, around and following the French invasion of Russia during the Napoleonic wars.
Book/Volume One
The novel begins in Saint Petersburg, at a soirée given in July 1805 by Anna Pavlovna Scherer — the maid of honour and confidante to the queen mother Maria Feodorovna. Many of the main players and aristocratic families of the novel are introduced as they enter Anna Pavlovna's salon. Pierre (Pyotr Kirilovich) Bezukhov is the illegitimate son of a wealthy count, an elderly man who is dying after a series of strokes. He is about to become embroiled in a struggle for his inheritance. Educated abroad after his mother's death and at his father's expense, Pierre is essentially kindhearted, but socially awkward owing in part to his open, benevolent nature, and finds it difficult to integrate into Petersburg society. He is his father's favorite of all the old count’s illegitimate children, and this is known to everyone at Anna Pavlovna's.
Pierre's friend, the intelligent and sardonic Prince Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky, husband of the charming society favourite Lise, also attends the soireé. Finding Petersburg society unctuous and disillusioned with married life after discovering his wife is empty and superficial, Prince Andrei makes the fateful choice to be an aide-de-camp to Prince Mikhail Ilarionovich Kutuzov in the coming war against Napoleon.
The plot moves to Moscow, Russia's ancient city and former capital, contrasting its provincial, more Russian ways to the highly mannered society of Petersburg. The Rostov family are introduced. Count Ilya Andreyevich Rostov has four adolescent children. Thirteen-year-old Natasha (Natalia Ilyinichna) believes herself in love with Boris Drubetskoy, a disciplined young man who is about to join the army as an officer. Twenty-year-old Nikolai Ilyich pledges his teenage love to Sonya (Sofia Alexandrovna), his fifteen-year-old cousin, an orphan who has been brought up by the Rostovs. The eldest child of the Rostov family, Vera Ilyinichna, is cold and somewhat haughty but has a good prospective marriage in a Russian-German officer, Adolf Karlovich Berg. Petya (Pyotr Ilyich) is nine and the youngest of the Rostov family; like his brother, he is impetuous and eager to join the army when of age. The heads of the family, Count Ilya Rostov and Countess Natalya Rostova, are an affectionate couple but forever worried about their disordered finances.
At Bald Hills, the Bolkonskys' country estate, Prince Andrei leaves his terrified, pregnant wife Lise with his eccentric father Prince Nikolai Andreyevich Bolkonsky and his devoutly religious sister Maria Nikolayevna Bolkonskaya, and departs for the war.
The second part opens with descriptions of the impending Russian-French war preparations. At the Schöngrabern engagement, Nikolai Rostov, who is now conscripted as ensign in a squadron of hussars, has his first taste of battle. He meets Prince Andrei, whom he insults in a fit of impetuousness. Even more than most young soldiers, he is deeply attracted by Tsar Alexander's charisma. Nikolai gambles and socializes with his officer, Vasily Dmitrich Denisov, and befriends the ruthless and perhaps psychopathic Fyodor Ivanovich Dolokhov.
Book/Volume Two
Book Two begins with Nikolai Rostov briefly returning home to Moscow on home leave in early 1806. Nikolai finds the Rostov family facing financial ruin due to poor estate management. He spends an eventful winter at home, accompanied by his friend Denisov, his officer from the Pavlograd Regiment in which he serves. Natasha has blossomed into a beautiful young girl. Denisov falls in love with her, proposes marriage but is rejected. Although his mother pleads with Nikolai to find himself a good financial prospect in marriage, Nikolai refuses to accede to his mother's request. He promises to marry his childhood sweetheart, the dowry-less Sonya.
Pierre Bezukhov, upon finally receiving his massive inheritance, is suddenly transformed from a bumbling young man into the richest and most eligible bachelor in the Russian Empire. Despite rationally knowing that it is wrong, he proposes marriage with Prince Kuragin's beautiful and immoral daughter Hélène (Elena Vasilyevna Kuragina), to whom he is sexually attracted. Hélène, who is rumoured to be involved in an incestuous affair with her brother, the equally charming and immoral Anatol, tells Pierre that she will never have children with him. Hélène has an affair with Dolokhov, who mocks Pierre in public. Pierre loses his temper and challenges Dolokhov, a seasoned dueller and a ruthless killer, to a duel. Unexpectedly, Pierre wounds Dolokhov. Hélène denies her affair, but Pierre is convinced of her guilt and, after almost being violent to her, leaves her. In his moral and spiritual confusion, he joins the Freemasons, and becomes embroiled in Masonic internal politics. Much of Book Two concerns his struggles with his passions and his spiritual conflicts to be a better man. Now a rich aristocrat, he abandons his former carefree behavior and enters upon a philosophical quest particular to Tolstoy: how should one live a moral life in an ethically imperfect world? The question continually baffles and confuses Pierre. He attempts to liberate his serfs, but ultimately achieves nothing of note.
Pierre is vividly contrasted with the intelligent and ambitious Prince Andrei Bolkonsky. At the Battle of Austerlitz, Andrei is inspired by a vision of glory to lead a charge of a straggling army. He suffers a near fatal artillery wound. In the face of death, Andrei realizes all his former ambitions are pointless and his former hero Napoleon (who rescues him in a horseback excursion to the battlefield) is apparently as vain as himself.
Prince Andrei recovers from his injuries in a military hospital and returns home, only to find his wife Lise dying in childbirth. He is stricken by his guilty conscience for not treating Lise better when she was alive and is haunted by the pitiful expression on his dead wife's face. His child, Nikolenka, survives.
Burdened with nihilistic disillusionment, Prince Andrei does not return to the army but chooses to remain on his estate, working on a project that would codify military behavior and help solve some of the problems of Russian disorganization that he believes were responsible for the loss of life in battle on the Russian side. Pierre comes to visit him and brings new questions: where is God in this amoral world? Pierre is interested in panentheism and the possibility of an afterlife.
Pierre's estranged wife, Hélène, begs him to take her back, and against his better judgment he does. Despite her vapid shallowness, Hélène establishes herself as an influential hostess in Petersburg society.
Prince Andrei feels impelled to take his newly written military notions to Petersburg, naively expecting to influence either the Emperor himself or those close to him. Young Natasha, also in Petersburg, is caught up in the excitement of dressing for her first grand ball, where she meets Prince Andrei and briefly reinvigorates him with her vivacious charm. Andrei believes he has found purpose in life again and, after paying the Rostovs several visits, proposes marriage to Natasha. However, old Prince Bolkonsky, Andrei's father, dislikes the Rostovs, opposes the marriage, and insists on a year's delay. Prince Andrei leaves to recuperate from his wounds abroad, leaving Natasha initially distraught. She soon recovers her spirits, however, and Count Rostov takes her and Sonya to spend some time with a friend in Moscow.
Natasha visits the Moscow opera, where she meets Hélène and her brother Anatol. Anatol has since married a Polish woman whom he has abandoned in Poland. He is very attracted to Natasha and is determined to seduce her. Hélène and Anatol conspire together to accomplish this plan. Anatol kisses Natasha and writes her passionate letters, eventually establishing plans to elope. Natasha is convinced that she loves Anatol and writes to Princess Maria, Andrei's sister, breaking off her engagement. At the last moment, Sonya discovers her plans to elope and foils them. Pierre is initially shocked and horrified at Natasha's behavior, but comes to realize he has fallen in love with her himself. During the time when the Great Comet of 1811–2 streaks the sky, life appears to begin anew for Pierre.
Prince Andrei accepts coldly Natasha's breaking of the engagement. He tells Pierre that his pride will not allow him to renew his proposal of marriage. Shamed by her near-seduction and at the realisation that Andrei will not forgive her, Natasha makes a suicide attempt and is left seriously ill.
Book/Volume Three
With the help of her family, especially Sonya, and the stirrings of religious faith, Natasha manages to persevere in Moscow through this dark period. Meanwhile, the whole of Russia is affected by the coming showdown between Napoleon's troops and the Russian army. Pierre convinces himself through gematria that Napoleon is the Antichrist of the Book of Revelation. Old prince Bolkonsky dies of a stroke while trying to protect his estate from French marauders. No organized help from any Russian army seems available to the Bolkonskys, but Nikolai Rostov turns up at their estate in time to help put down an incipient peasant revolt. He finds himself attracted to Princess Maria, but remembers his promise to Sonya.
Back in Moscow, the war-obsessed Petya manages to snatch a loose piece of the Tsar's biscuit outside the Cathedral of the Assumption; he finally convinces his parents to allow him to enlist.
Napoleon himself is a main character in this section of the novel and is presented in vivid detail, as both thinker and would-be strategist. His toilette and his customary attitudes and traits of mind are depicted in detail. Also described are the well-organized force of over 400,000 French Army (only 140,000 of them actually French-speaking) which marches quickly through the Russian countryside in the late summer and reaches the outskirts of the city of Smolensk. Pierre decides to leave Moscow and go to watch the Battle of Borodino from a vantage point next to a Russian artillery crew. After watching for a time, he begins to join in carrying ammunition. In the midst of the turmoil he experiences firsthand the death and destruction of war. The battle becomes a hideous slaughter for both armies and ends in a standoff. The Russians, however, have won a moral victory by standing up to Napoleon's reputedly invincible army. For strategic reasons and having suffered grievous losses, the Russian army withdraws the next day, allowing Napoleon to march on to Moscow. Among the casualties are Anatol Kuragin and Prince Andrei. Anatol loses a leg, and Andrei suffers a cannon wound in the abdomen. Both are reported dead, but their families are in such disarray that no one can be notified.
Book/Volume Four
The Rostovs have waited until the last minute to abandon Moscow, even after it is clear that Kutuzov has retreated past Moscow and Muscovites are being given contradictory, often propagandistic, instructions on how to either flee or fight. Count Rostopchin is publishing posters, rousing the citizens to put their faith in religious icons, while at the same time urging them to fight with pitchforks if necessary. Before fleeing himself, he gives orders to burn the city. The Rostovs have a difficult time deciding what to take with them, and in the end load their carts with the wounded and dying from the Battle of Borodino. Unknown to Natasha, Prince Andrei is amongst the wounded.
When Napoleon's Grand Army finally occupies an abandoned and burning Moscow, Pierre takes off on a quixotic mission to assassinate Napoleon. He becomes an anonymous man in all the chaos, shedding his responsibilities by wearing peasant clothes and shunning his duties and lifestyle. The only people he sees while in this garb are Natasha and some of her family, as they depart Moscow. Natasha recognizes and smiles at him, and he in turn realizes the full scope of his love for her.
Pierre saves the life of a French officer who fought at Borodino, yet is taken prisoner by the retreating French during his attempted assassination of Napoleon, after saving a woman from being raped by soldiers in the French Army. He becomes friends with a fellow prisoner, Platon Karataev, a peasant with a saintly demeanor, who is incapable of malice. In Karataev, Pierre finally finds what he has been seeking: an honest person of integrity (unlike the aristocrats of Petersburg society) who is utterly without pretense. Pierre discovers meaning in life simply by living and interacting with him. After witnessing French soldiers sacking Moscow and shooting Russian civilians arbitrarily, Pierre is forced to march with the Grand Army during its disastrous retreat from Moscow in the harsh Russian winter. After months of trial and tribulation—during which the fever-plagued Karataev is shot by the French—Pierre is finally freed by a Russian raiding party, after a small skirmish with the French that sees the young Petya Rostov killed in action.
Meanwhile, Andrei, wounded during Napoleon's invasion, has been taken in as a casualty and cared for by the fleeing Rostovs. He is reunited with Natasha and his sister Maria before the end of the war. Having lost all will to live, he forgives Natasha in a last act before dying.
As the novel draws to a close, Pierre's wife Hélène dies in a botched operation (implied to be an abortion). Pierre is reunited with Natasha, while the victorious Russians rebuild Moscow. Natasha speaks of Prince Andrei's death and Pierre of Karataev's. Both are aware of a growing bond between them in their bereavement. With the help of Princess Maria, Pierre finds love at last and, revealing his love after being released by his former wife's death, marries Natasha.
Epilogues
The first epilogue begins with the wedding of Pierre and Natasha in 1813. It is the last happy event for the Rostov family, which is undergoing a transition. Count Rostov dies soon after, leaving his eldest son Nikolai to take charge of the debt-ridden estate.
Nikolai finds himself with the task of maintaining the family on the verge of bankruptcy. His abhorrence at the idea of marrying for wealth almost gets in his way, but finally in spite of rather than according to his mother's wishes, he marries the now-rich Maria Bolkonskaya and in so doing also saves his family from financial ruin.
Nikolai and Maria then move to Bald Hills with his mother and Sonya, whom he supports for the rest of their life. Buoyed by his wife's fortune, Nikolai pays off all his family's debts. They also raise Prince Andrei's orphaned son, Nikolai Andreyevich (Nikolenka) Bolkonsky.
As in all good marriages, there are misunderstandings, but the couples–Pierre and Natasha, Nikolai and Maria–remain devoted to their spouses. Pierre and Natasha visit Bald Hills in 1820, much to the jubilation of everyone concerned. There is a hint in the closing chapters that the idealistic, boyish Nikolenka and Pierre would both become part of the Decembrist Uprising. The first epilogue concludes with Nikolenka promising he would do something with which even his late father "would be satisfied..." (presumably as a revolutionary in the Decembrist revolt).
The second epilogue contains Tolstoy's critique of all existing forms of mainstream history. He attempts to show that there is a great force behind history, which he first terms divine. He offers the entire book as evidence of this force, and critiques his own work. God, therefore, becomes the word Tolstoy uses to refer to all the forces that produce history, taken together and operating behind the scenes.
Principal characters in War and Peace
Main article: List of characters in War and Peace
War and Peace character tree
* Count Pyotr Kirillovich (Pierre) Bezukhov — The central character and often a voice for Tolstoy's own beliefs or struggles. He is one of several illegitimate children of Count Bezukhov; he is his father's favorite offspring.
* Prince Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky — A strong but cynical, thoughtful and philosophical aide-de-camp in the Napoleonic Wars.
* Princess Maria Nikolayevna Bolkonskaya — A pious woman whose eccentric father attempted to give her a good education. The caring, nurturing nature of her large eyes in her otherwise thin and plain face are frequently mentioned.
* Count Ilya Andreyevich Rostov — The pater-familias of the Rostov family; terrible with finances, generous to a fault.
* Countess Natalya Rostova — Wife of Count Ilya Rostov, mother of the four Rostov children.
* Countess Natalia Ilyinichna (Natasha) Rostova — Introduced as a beautiful and romantic young girl, she evolves through trials and suffering and eventually finds happiness. She is an accomplished singer and dancer.[citation needed]
* Count Nikolai Ilyich Rostov — A hussar, the beloved eldest son of the Rostov family.
* Sofia Alexandrovna (Sonya) Rostova — Orphaned cousin of Vera, Nikolai, Natasha and Petya Rostov.
* Countess Vera Ilyinichna Rostova — Eldest of the Rostov children, she marries the German career soldier, Berg.
* Pyotr Ilyich (Petya) Rostov — Youngest of the Rostov children.
* Prince Vasily Sergeyevich Kuragin — A ruthless man who is determined to marry his children well, despite having doubts about the character of some of them.
* Princess Elena Vasilyevna (Hélène) Kuragina — A beautiful and sexually alluring woman who has many affairs, including (it is rumoured) with her brother Anatole
* Prince Anatol Vasilyevich Kuragin — Hélène's brother and a very handsome, ruthless and amoral pleasure seeker who is secretly married yet tries to elope with Natasha Rostova.
* Prince Ipolit Vasilyevich — The eldest and perhaps most dim-witted of the Kuragin children.
* Prince Boris Drubetskoy — A poor but aristocratic young man who is determined to make his career, even at the expense of his friends and benefactors, marries a rich and ugly woman to help him climb the social ladder.
* Princess Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskoya — The mother of Boris.
* Fyodor Ivanovich Dolokhov — A cold, almost psychopathic officer, he ruins Nikolai Rostov after his proposal to Sonya is refused, he only shows love to his doting mother.
* Adolf Karlovich Berg — A young Russian officer, who desires to be just like everyone else.
* Anna Pavlovna Sherer — Also known as Annette, she is the hostess of the salon that is the site of much of the novel's action in Petersburg.
* Maria Dmitryevna Akhrosimova — An older Moscow society lady, she is an elegant dancer and trend-setter, despite her age and size.
* Amalia Evgenyevna Bourienne — A French woman who lives with the Bolkonskys, primarily as Princess Marya's companion.
* Vasily Dmitrich Denisov — Nikolai Rostov's friend and brother officer, who proposes to Natasha.
* Platon Krataev - The archetypal good Russian peasant, whom Pierre meets in the prisoner of war camp.
* Napoleon I of France — the Great Man, whose fate is detailed in the book.
* General Mikhail Ilarionovich Kutuzov — Russian commander-in-chief throughout the book. His diligence and modesty eventually save Russia from Napoleon.[citation needed]
* Osip Bazdeyev — the Freemason who interests Pierre in his mysterious group, starting a lengthy subplot.[citation needed]
* Tsar Alexander I of Russia — He signed a peace treaty with Napoleon in 1807 and then went to war with him.
Many of Tolstoy's characters in War and Peace were based on real-life people known to Tolstoy himself. His grandparents and their friends were the models for many of the main characters, his great-grandparents would have been of the generation of Prince Vasilly or Count Ilya Rostov. Some of the characters, obviously, are actual historic figures.
Adaptations
Film
The first Russian film adaptation of War and Peace was the 1915 film Война и мир (Voyna i mir), directed by Vladimir Gardin and starring Gardin and the Russian ballerina Vera Karalli. It was followed in 1968 by the critically acclaimed four-part film version War and Peace, by the Soviet director Sergei Bondarchuk, released individually in 1965-1967, and as a re-edited whole in 1968. This starred Lyudmila Savelyeva (as Natasha Rostova) and Vyacheslav Tikhonov (as Andrei Bolkonsky). Bondarchuk himself played the character of Pierre Bezukhov. The film was almost seven hours long; it involved thousands of actors, 120 000 extras, and it took seven years to finish the shooting, as a result of which the actors age changed dramatically from scene to scene. It won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for its authenticity and massive scale.
The novel has been adapted twice for cinema outside of Russia. The first of these was produced by F. Kamei in Japan (1947). The second was the 208-minute long 1956 War and Peace, directed by the American King Vidor. This starred Audrey Hepburn (Natasha), Henry Fonda (Pierre) and Mel Ferrer (Andrei). Audrey Hepburn was nominated for a BAFTA Award for best British actress and for a Golden Globe Award for best actress in a drama production.
Opera
* Initiated by a proposal of the German director Erwin Piscator in 1938, the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev composed his opera War and Peace (Op. 91, libretto by Mira Mendelson) based on this epic novel during the 1940s. The complete musical work premiered in Leningrad in 1955. It was the first opera to be given a public performance at the Sydney Opera House (1973).
Music
* Composition by Nino Rota
* Referring to album notes, the first track "The Gates of Delirium", from the album Relayer, by the progressive rock group Yes, is said to be based loosely on the novel.
Theatre
The first successful stage adaptations of War and Peace were produced by Alfred Neumann and Erwin Piscator (1942, revised 1955, published by Macgibbon & Kee in London 1963, and staged in 16 countries since) and R. Lucas (1943).
A stage adaptation by Helen Edmundson, first produced in 1996 at the Royal National Theatre, was published that year by Nick Hern Books, London. Edmundson added to and amended the play for a 2008 production as two 3-hour parts by Shared Experience, directed by Nancy Meckler and Polly Teale. This was first put on at the Nottingham Playhouse, then toured in the UK to Liverpool, Darlington, Bath, Warwick, Oxford, Truro, London (the Hampstead Theatre) and Cheltenham.
On the 15th-18th July, The Birmingham Theatre School performed this seven-hour epic play at The Crescent Theatre in Brindleyplace with great success. Birmingham Theatre School is the only drama school in the world to perform the new adaptation of War and Peace. Directed by Chris Rozanski and Assistant to Director was Royal National Theatre performer Anthony Mark Barrow with Vocals arranged by Dr Ria Keen and choreography by Colin Lang.
Radio and television
* In December 1970, Pacifica Radio station WBAI broadcast a reading of the entire novel (the 1968 Dunnigan translation) read by over 140 celebrities and ordinary people.
* War and Peace (1972): The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) made a television serial based on the novel, broadcast in 1972-73. Anthony Hopkins played the lead role of Pierre. Other lead characters were played by Rupert Davies, Faith Brook, Morag Hood, Alan Dobie, Angela Down and Sylvester Morand. This version faithfully included many of Tolstoy's minor characters, including Platon Karataev (Harry Locke). ,
* A dramatized full-cast adaptation in ten parts was written by Marcy Kahan and Mike Walker in 1997. The production won the 1998 Talkie award for Best Drama and was around 9.5 hours in length. It was directed by Janet Whitaker and featured Simon Russell Beale, Gerard Murphy, Richard Johnson, and others.
* La Guerre et la paix (TV) (2000) by François Roussillon. Robert Brubaker played the lead role of Pierre.
* War and Peace (2007): produced by the Italian Lux Vide, a TV mini-series in Russian & English co-produced in Russia, France, Germany, Poland and Italy. Directed by Robert Dornhelm, with screenplay written by Lorenzo Favella, Enrico Medioli and Gavin Scott. It features an international cast with Alexander Beyer playing the lead role of Pierre assisted by Malcolm McDowell, Clémence Poésy, Alessio Boni, Pilar Abella, J. Kimo Arbas, Ken Duken, Juozapas Bagdonas and Toni Bertorelli.
Full translations into English
* Clara Bell (from a French version) 1885-86
* Nathan Haskell Dole 1898
* Leo Wiener 1904
* Constance Garnett (1904)
* Louise and Aylmer Maude (1922-3)
* Rosemary Edmonds (1957, revised 1978)
* Ann Dunnigan (1968)
* Anthony Briggs (2005)
* Andrew Bromfield (2007), translation of the first completed draft, approx. 400 pages shorter than other English translations.
* Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (2007)
《乱世佳人》（GONE WITH THE WIND）是好莱坞影史上最值得骄傲的一部旷世经典文学电影，影片放映时间长达4小时，观者如潮。其魅力贯穿整个20世纪，有好莱坞“第一巨片” 之称。影片当年耗资400多万美元，历时三年半完成，其间数次更换导演，银幕上出现了60多位主要演员和9000多名配角演员。在1939年的第12届奥斯卡奖中一举夺得八项金像奖，轰动美国影坛。这部耗资巨大，场景豪华，战争场面宏大逼真的历史文学题材影片，以它令人称道的艺术成就成为美国电影史上一部经典作品，令人百看不厌。
1861年南北战争爆发的前夕，塔拉庄园的千金小姐郝思嘉爱上了另一庄园主的儿子艾希利，但艾希利却选择了郝思嘉的表妹——温柔善良的韩媚兰为终身伴侣。郝思嘉出于妒恨，抢先嫁给了韩媚兰的弟弟查尔斯。不久，美国南北战争爆发了。艾希利和查尔斯作为征兵上了前线。查尔斯很快就在战争中死去了。郝思嘉成了寡妇， 她内心却一直对艾希利念念不忘。
一天，在一次举行义卖的舞会上，郝思嘉和风度翩翩的商人白瑞德相识。白瑞德开始追求郝思嘉，但遭到她的拒绝。郝思嘉一心只想着去追求艾希利，结果也遭到拒绝。
在战争中，美国南方军遭到失败，亚特兰大城里挤满了伤兵。郝思嘉和表妹韩媚兰自愿加入护士行列照顾伤兵。目睹了战乱带来的惨状之后，任性的郝思嘉成熟了不少。这时，从前线传来消息，北方军快打过来了，不少人家惊惶地逃离家园，开始了不安定的流浪生活。正在此时，韩媚兰不巧要生孩子了，郝思嘉只好留下来照顾她。
在北方军大军压境之日，郝思嘉哀求白瑞德帮忙护送她和刚生下孩子的韩媚兰回塔拉庄园。白瑞德告诉郝思嘉他不能目睹南方军溃败而不去助一臂之力，他要参加南方军作战，他留下一把手枪并和郝思嘉拥吻告别。郝思嘉只好独自驾驶马车回到塔拉庄园，而这时家里已被北方军士兵抢先洗动一空，母亲在惊吓中死去。昔日美好的家园变成了荒凉的栖息地，郝思嘉面对这一切悲惨时，表现出了女人少有的坚毅，她决定重建家园。
不久，战争结束了。但是生活依然困苦。北方来的统治者要庄园主缴纳重税，郝思嘉在绝望中去亚特兰大城找白瑞德借钱，却得知他已被关进监狱。归来的途中，郝思嘉遇上了本来要迎娶她妹妹的暴发户弗兰克，为了要重振破产的家业，她骗取弗兰克和自己结了婚。
郝思嘉在弗兰克经营的木材厂非法雇用囚犯，并和北方来的商人大做生意。此时，白瑞德用钱贿赂从而恢复了自由。两人偶然碰面，再次展开爱恨交织的关系。
弗兰克和艾希利因加入了反政府的秘密组织，在一次集会时遭北方军包围，弗兰克中弹死亡，艾希利负伤逃亡，在白瑞德帮助下回到韩媚兰身边。郝思嘉再次成为寡妇。此时，白瑞德前来向她求婚，她终于与一直爱她的搞私运军火和粮食致富的白瑞德结了婚。婚后，夫妻二人住在亚特兰大的豪华宅邸中。一年后，他们的女儿邦妮出生，白瑞德把全部感情投注到邦妮身上。郝思嘉偶然翻阅艾希利的照片被白瑞德发现，终于导致了二人感情的破裂。其后，在艾希利的生日会前夕，郝思嘉与艾希利相见时热情的拥抱引起旁人非议，韩媚兰虽然不相信他们之间有暧昧关系，但白瑞德却心生怀疑。
当郝思嘉告诉白瑞德她已经再次怀孕时，白瑞德怀疑地问那是谁的孩子，郝思嘉在羞怒之下欲打白瑞德，却不慎滚下楼梯引起流产。白瑞德感到内疚，决心同郝思嘉言归于好，不料就在他俩谈话时，小女儿邦妮在骑马时意外坠地而死。与此同时不幸的事也在另一个家庭里发生，韩媚兰终因操劳过度卧病不起。临终前，她把自己的丈夫艾希利和儿子托付给郝思嘉，但要求她保守这个秘密，郝思嘉不顾一切扑向艾希利的怀中，紧紧拥抱住他，站在一旁的白瑞德无法再忍受下去，只好转身离去。面对伤心欲绝毫无反应的艾希利，郝思嘉终于明白，她爱的艾希利其实是不存在的，她真正需要的是白瑞德。
当郝思嘉赶回家里告诉白瑞德，她是真正爱他的时候，白瑞德已不再相信她。他决心离开郝思嘉，返回老家去寻找美好的事物，被遗弃的郝思嘉站在浓雾迷漫的院中，想起了父亲曾经对她说过的一句话：“世界上唯有土地与明天同在。”她决定守在她的土地上重新创造新的生活，她期盼着美好的明天的到来。
《飘》-主要演员介绍
克拉克·盖布尔
克拉克·盖布尔克拉克·盖布尔
克拉克·盖布尔，1901年出生于美国俄亥俄州的农村小镇，母亲在他十个月大时便去世了，父亲在他三岁时另娶图书馆职员珍妮为继母。珍妮无所出，视克拉克．盖博如亲生子。十四岁时，父亲卖掉田产，到奥克拉荷马州去当油井工人，克拉克不愿意随父亲搬家，乃离家出走，到当地的一家剧院打工，从此展开了他日后的演艺生涯。就外形而论，克拉克．盖博并不算是英俊小生，主要是有一对特大号的招风耳。在他投身电影界参加试镜时，曾先后被米高梅公司副总裁艾文泰尔伯格取笑他有一双蝙蝠翅膀一样的大耳朵，雷毫萍公司老板霍华休斯更刻薄地说他的耳朵像一辆打开了两扇门的计程车。虽然这些影坛大亨并不欣赏克拉克．盖博，但女同胞却爱他爱得要死。首先是年龄比盖博大两岁的女演员法兰西丝杜芙娜。他俩在波特兰城订婚后，杜芙娜就积极地运用自己的关系为盖博打天下，安排他在新戏中演出角色，又介绍他认识戏剧圈中有头有脸的人物。盖博因此结识了年龄比他大十四岁的资深女演员约瑟芬狄伦，她同时也是剧坛著名的演技指导，门生甚多。盖博在狄伦女士的大力引荐下，演出机会增加了不少。他在投桃报李之下，抛弃了未婚妻，于1924年与约瑟芬狄伦结婚。
参与作品：
《娱乐世界续集》 (1976) 、《米高梅公司的喜剧电影回顾 》(1964) 、《碧港艳遇》 (1960) 、《太平洋潜艇战 》(1958) 、《教师之恋 》(1958) 、《金汉艳奴》 (1957) 等
费雯·丽
费雯·丽（Vivien Leigh) (1913年11月5日－1967年7月7日)。原名费雯·玛丽·哈特利（Vivien Mary Hartley），英国电影演员。她成功地饰演《乱世佳人》的斯佳丽·奥哈拉和《欲望号街车》的布兰奇·杜波依斯，两度获得奥斯卡最佳女主角。1999年，她被美国电影学会选为百年来最伟大的女演员第16 名。
费雯·丽费雯·丽
主要作品：
1965《愚人船》1951《欲望号街车》（获奥斯卡最佳女主角奖）1946《Caesar and Cleopatra》 1941《汉米登夫人》1940《21 Days》 1940 《魂断蓝桥》1939《乱世佳人》 《飘》（获奥斯卡最佳女主角奖） 1938《Sidewalks of London》 1937 《Storm in a Teacup》 1937《Dark Journey》 1937《Fire Over England》
《飘》-经典片段
瑞德离开郝思嘉后，Scarlett O’Hara最后坐在楼梯的台阶上说——“After all， tomorrow is another day。”
思嘉在回到被毁的家园后,在山头上说----“上帝为我作证,上帝为我作证,北佬休想将我整垮.等熬过了这一关,我决不再忍饥挨饿,也决不再让我的亲人忍饥挨饿了,哪怕让我去偷,去抢,去杀人.请上帝为我作证,我无论如何都不再忍饥挨饿了!”
点评
有人说这部电影最经典的场面是Scarlett O’Hara在战争后回到被毁的家园，在园中手握红土发誓，无论去偷去抢都不会让家人挨饿那段，因为那时她的眼神和表情真的特别震撼人。这样说我也不反对，因为这实在是一部太经典的片子，经典的场面太多，各人有各人的偏爱。我倒是情愿选择这个：以后，明天就是新的一天了。什么是爱？什么是恨？爱和恨可以象两条永不相交的平行线，爱和恨也可能只需要一缕阳光就可以消融。珍惜拥有的人是幸福的，因为我们总是并不确切知道我们需要的到底是什么。太多的人只有在失去的时候，才知道去珍惜。泰戈尔有一句诗我特别喜欢：如果错过太阳时你流泪了，那么你也将错过星星了。历尽沧桑，你要学会忽略过去。因为——tomorrow is another day。
“不要不辞而别，我的爱人。
我看望了一夜，现在我脸上睡意重重。
只恐我在睡中把你丢失了。
不要不辞而别，我的爱人。
我惊起伸出双手去摸触你，我问自己说：
“这是一个梦么？"
但愿我能用我的心系住你的双足，紧抱在胸前！
不要不辞而别，我的爱人。”
——泰戈尔《园丁集》
《飘》-人物性格
斯佳丽
一个猫一样的女人。有着猫一样的目光，猫一样的微笑，猫一样的步伐和猫一样的敏捷。那么，这个猫一样的女人提供给我们是怎样的一些对待生活、对待爱情、对待困难和挫折的态度和经验呢？
乱世佳人乱世佳人
第一她在困难的时候敢于承担责任，虽然也有动摇，但最后仍然承担责任,比如她救了玫兰妮，她重振塔拉庄园, 后来长期扶助阿希礼一家等等。
第二她敢于去爱、无怨无悔，她的整个青春都在爱着阿希礼，没有回报但她仍没有放弃努力，直到能力的极限为止。
第三知错能改，当她最后明白她之前所为是错误时，她马上向瑞特道歉，请求原谅。
总的来说，斯佳丽堪称巾帼不让须眉的奇女子，人中龙凤，难怪瑞特这样的牛人也拜倒在她的石榴裙下。每次看《乱世佳人》，每次都有不同的收获。年轻时看，讨厌虚荣爱出风头的斯佳丽，喜欢纯洁善良的玫兰妮，不喜欢油腔滑调的瑞特巴特勒，喜欢温文尔雅的阿希礼，喜欢南方如画的景致和田园牧歌式的生活，不喜欢北方的浮华和放荡。后来看了多次之后，不由得对斯佳丽敬佩起来，原本是一个弱女子，任性而年青，第一次结婚是一时的冲动报复，嫁给了不爱的男孩，让自己成为了年轻的寡妇。第二次结婚是为了一家人的生存，抢走了妹妹的心上人，肯尼迪。肯尼迪虽然是一个半老头子，却不是斯佳丽的对手，面对她的冷酷和无情，他束手无策。最终为了斯佳丽差点遭受的侮辱去报复穷白人而被人击毙，不幸枉死，却从未享受过斯佳丽的一点爱。于是斯佳丽再次成为寡妇，而且还是个有钱的寡妇。在那个战火纷飞的年代，为了答应过阿希礼照顾玫兰妮的一句承诺，在北军就要攻占亚特兰大的时候，斯佳丽又果断地替玫兰妮接生，并找到瑞特冲破重重阻碍和关卡，回到了乡下老家－－塔拉庄园。在又饥又饿之时，她又遭受了母亲病亡、父亲痴呆、家里被劫，一穷二白的多重打击，她不屈不挠，带头种田干活，喝令妹妹下床摘棉花，并照顾玫兰妮和小波，支撑一家人的生计，那时她顶多也不过是个二十来岁的小姑娘，本应是个在母亲怀里撒娇的小姑娘。可是面对如此巨大的困难，她没有选择逃避，而是勇敢挑起家里的重担，以常人难以企及的毅力抗争命运，每每看到斯佳丽举着萝卜向天盟誓，决不愿让家人再受苦挨饿时，我总是觉得拍片导演对光线和背景的运用是那么巧妙和艺术， 它那么生动地刻划了思嘉渴望安定、渴望生存、渴望富裕的强烈而真实的内心情感。我觉得那时的她，已完成了最艰难的嬗变，由一只丑陋的毛毛虫破茧而出变成了美丽的蝶，自由而高贵，那时的思嘉就像一个女神－－－渴望富有、并为此能不择手段的欲望女神。
刚强、坚韧
无论是面对战争的废墟和硝烟、母亲和父亲的去世、生活的贫穷艰难还是女儿的夭折，在和她承受同样的痛苦和艰难的人们当中，她都是最刚强、最坚韧的一个和最先从痛苦和艰难中走出来的一个。当斯佳丽面对着已是满目伤痕泰勒庄园时，她的坚韧和刚强令她这个家中的长女担起家长的重担。在影片的末尾，她还坚定地告诉我们：Tomorrow is another day。
虚荣
这应该是一个贬义词了，可是，斯佳丽的虚荣心似乎格外的可爱，在她的身上，虚荣似乎也变成了褒义词。有位名模曾说：“女孩子总是要有一点虚荣心的，无论这虚荣心表现在什么方面。”当斯佳丽扯下母亲唯一的遗物——窗帘，无论如何也要用它做一件漂亮的衣服，还将它披在身上憧憬着新衣服的样子时，她的虚荣心使她成了一个看起来不孝的女儿，但她的这种做法（也就是她的虚荣心）是当时拯救全家的唯一出路。由虚荣心而使全家人都有了生存下去的希望，这样的虚荣心也不应该算是值得摒弃的。
贪婪
这总应该是个贬义词了。但是，斯佳丽的贪婪不仅是有情可原的，在某种程度上来讲还是难能可贵的。战后的泰勒庄园在北方军的控制之下，母亲的去世和父亲的崩溃使斯佳丽——家中的长女担起了“家长”的重担。斯佳丽一家人过着艰辛的生活。战争使她贫穷，贫穷继之以饥饿。然而最可怕的是无钱交税险些失去生活来源的土地，为了借钱交税，斯佳丽勾引了妹妹的情人，继而当起了一家小店的老板娘。在经历这一切后，她明白了她所处的是一个什么样的社会以及在这个社会中钱的重要性。所以，当她拥有了当前她所需要的钱之后，她自然会想拥有更多的钱。在她追求“更多的钱”的过程中，她表现出了一个早期资本主义的资本家所必须具有的优秀品质——贪婪。
残忍与自私
这两个词无论用在什么人身上似乎都应该是表贬义的词语，特别是以温和、善良为美德的女性。但是，斯佳丽的残忍与自私在某种适度上却是值得褒扬的。首先，在社会转型的时期，人的观念需要从传统的观念转变成为新型的、与社会发展相适应的观念。不能在第一时间内转变观念的人就失去了领导时代的主动权。斯佳丽就是一个在第一时间内转变观念，接受了新的社会和社会制度、新的价值观念、新的生活方式，并且成为了一个小资本家的女人，在这一点，她是非常了不起的。而且，在刚刚建立了资本主义制度时，自私和残忍对于一个资本家来说是生存和发展的关键。在资本主义社会，对世界的博爱已经是阻碍资本的自身生存和发展的一个因素，此时，自私与残忍就成了强者的优点。
美丽
斯佳丽为我们提供了一种对待爱情的态度。她美丽，但她只是适当地运用她的美丽来得到她所喜爱的东西，从来不用自己的美貌来玩弄爱情，无论是自己的还是他人的爱情。斯佳丽是美丽的，但美丽不是拥有爱情的必备条件——你可以没有斯佳丽那样美丽动人，但你也有权利去追求属于自己的爱情。
综上所述，我们得出了这样的一个结论：
斯佳丽，猫一样的女人，刚强的、坚韧的、虚荣的、贪婪的、残忍的、自私的女人，女人的典范。
思嘉这个人，很可悲，可悲到了一种可笑的程度。
就像她自己意识到的的，“她对她所爱过的两个男人哪一个都不理解，因此到头来两个都失掉了。现在她才恍惚认识到，如果她当初了解艾希礼，她是决不会爱他的；而如果她了解了瑞德，它就无论如何都不会失掉他了。”
她一直不明白战后的人们为什么会去追忆战前，直到邦妮死后，她才明白了原因，但是，哪些可以与她追忆过往的人，已经由于她自己的疏远，排斥已经越来越远，而她的那些“新朋友”却也无法使思嘉高兴起来。
一直很喜欢瑞德离开前的那一段话，“思嘉，我从来不是那样的人，不能耐心的拾起一些碎片，把它们粘合在一起，然后对自己说这个修补好了的东西跟新的完全一样。一样东西破碎了就是破碎了——我宁愿记住它最好时的模样，而不想把它修补好，然后终生看着那些破碎了的地方。也许，假使我还年轻一点——可是我已经这么大年纪了，不能相信那种纯属感情的说法，说是一切都可以从头开始。我这么大年纪了，不能终生背着谎言的负担，在貌似体面地幻灭中过日子。我不能跟你生活在一起同时又对你说谎，而且我决不能欺骗自己。就是现在，我也不能对你说谎话啊！我是很想关心你今后的情况的，可是我不能那样做。”
如果没有瑞德，思嘉是不完整的，哪么《飘》也就不能被称为“名著”了。思嘉，自私，虚荣，贪婪，刚强，坚韧。如果说这些形容词用在别人身上，只怕全部都是贬义的，但是对思嘉而言，我倒觉得有点像是褒义词。其实，就像瑞德说的，“我们都是流氓，我们都是无赖。”他对于自己与思嘉的分析是很透彻的，也正因为他的这些分析，《飘》才会被无数人所拜读，思嘉也才完整。
关于电影版《飘》 ——《乱世佳人》，我只能说，我看完电影就喜欢上了费雯丽。因为她所演绎的思嘉真的就像活着的一样，让我再一次感受到了思嘉的美，思嘉的一切。
瑞德
我必须承认，对我来说，《乱世佳人》的吸引力之所以这么大，和克拉克盖博主演的瑞特巴特勒绝对有关系。
当然，斯佳丽眯着那双像猫那样的绿眼，迷人而妖媚，同样也让人倾倒。她是个让女人都能为之神魂颠倒的女人，她自私、冷酷、无情、聪明、不择手段、坚强，却不乏善良、美丽、脆弱；她是一个高不可攀的女神，让许多女人都梦想着能像她那样，集财富、美貌、能干、坚强于一身，让瑞特那样的男人能够为她而倾倒。至少我曾经就那样想过。但我认为，瑞特给我们这些女性观众带来的却更多是对爱情和婚姻的甜美幻想，他是那么潇洒倜傥，那么玩世不恭，那么自信过人，富有并充满了成熟男人的魅力，该是多少女性心目中的偶像啊。
在这里，简单回闪思嘉和瑞特相遇、相识、相爱的几个片段，就能让人对瑞特爱我所爱，坚持自儿，富有个性的男性魅力印象深刻：
片段一：瑞特第一次见到斯佳丽是在十二像树园的烧烤会上。斯佳丽向所有的男士卖弄风情，却发现瑞特正注意她，斯佳丽向身边的女伴抱怨说：“他看我的样子，就像我没穿衣服”可见瑞特给人的感觉不是温文尔雅，富有绅士风度，对世事的有种别人所不具备的强大洞察力和影响力，表明了他与一般的南方男人不同点：现实、大胆而富有进攻性，当他躲在书房里偷听斯佳丽大胆地向阿希礼表露爱慕，但因遭到婉拒，她气急败坏地搧了阿希礼一个耳光，并砸碎了一个小花瓶时，他吹了一个口哨，于是他被斯佳丽指责为不是一个绅士，而他同时也反唇相讥斯佳丽不是一个真正的淑女，让斯佳丽气极。俩人第一次相见就是一次爱情的交锋。
片段二：斯佳丽因查尔斯病亡到亚特兰大散心，正在服丧的她，十分渴望能再度飞旋于舞池中，表现了她在内心里对无拘无束、自由生活的向往和憧憬。是瑞特看出了她的心思，并出重金替她撬开了那个压抑而沉闷的社会道德囚笼，使她走上了和别的南方女人最不相同的命运之路。这正是斯佳丽反叛旧的社会道德标准迈出的关键性一步，而这一步，如果没有瑞特暗中片段三：瑞特为了帮助斯佳丽重返故里，拼死弄了一匹身负重伤的老马，并帮助她把玫兰妮抱到马车上，同时一路历经辛苦，并在即将要到达的时候，瑞特看到许多南方兵前仆后继，视死如归，深感震撼，并决定上战场，为保卫家园尽一份力。这时可以看出，为了心爱的女人，他能出生入死； 同样，面临家园被毁之境，他也是一个热血之人，导演在这里才向我们描绘了一个深藏在平日玩世不恭外表下，也具有一颗为荣誉甘洒热血之心的典型南方男性的形象。在这里我们看到，虽然瑞特平日里非常精明、现实，但他骨子里其实还是一个南方人。
片段四：瑞特在经历了丧女之痛和斯佳丽在精神上的背叛后，面对玫兰妮的之死，对一切都灰心失望至极，回家收拾行李，返回自己的故乡，查尔斯顿。当愚蠢的斯佳丽最后发现自己已深爱瑞特时，才发现已最终失去了自己最心爱的人。瑞特最后走得十分干脆，让斯佳丽深感懊悔。直到这里，我们才听到那颗曾经为爱而柔软的心破碎的声音，同时也因为破碎而对斯佳丽变得“冷酷无情”，这里的瑞特才让我们感觉到，这个男人敢爱敢恨，处理事情十分干脆利落，极富男性魅力。
瑞德这个人敢爱敢恨，就如上文所说，他不愿拾起破碎的感情，所以才会在最后变得那么冷酷无情。这个人物很富有男性魅力，就像思嘉所拥有的女性魅力，同样使人沉醉。
他们两个的结合，确实就像瑞德所说，“珠联璧合”。但是，在瑞德的现实与思嘉的幻想中，瑞德失败了，他的感情也因此真正的破碎了。
而克拉克·盖博的演绎更是无可挑剔，在那种翩翩风度背后的嘲弄，在那种沉稳冷静背后的狂放不羁，都是让人颇为迷醉的。
艾希礼与媚兰
再说说阿希礼和玫兰妮，他们是相似的，具备南方的一切美德，有知识，有文化，有思想，有修养。
玫兰妮基本上是完美的，她善良，仁慈又不乏勇气，斯佳丽摘棉花时，她想帮忙，斯佳丽杀人时她也帮忙，除了瑞特，她是斯佳丽的另一个支持者。我做过小范围的调查，先看书的基本都喜欢斯佳丽，而先看电影的则喜欢玫兰妮。我觉得美兰妮太好了，好得不真实，而斯佳丽是有血有肉的，是真实的，有缺点也有优点。
阿希礼是真实的，他是个活在过去的人，时世变迁，他不想面对，他是缺乏勇气的。他不爱斯佳丽，又不说不爱她。斯佳丽走投无路找他时他只给了她庄园的红土，后来知道斯佳丽卖了自己，他说他该去抢劫，他也只是说说吧，估计不会去的，这一点，他确实不如拖着军刀想帮斯佳丽对付逃兵的美兰妮。
乱世佳人里的人物都是完美的，如果没有美兰妮的淑女风范，怎能体现出斯佳丽的桀骜不逊。没有阿希礼的懦弱，怎能体现出瑞德的风范呢？
斯佳丽的奶妈.玛格丽特
温暖，可靠，安全。象母亲一样时刻保护她的孩子斯佳丽。
理智，聪明，现实而且冷静，带一些黑人的狡猾。她懂斯斯佳丽，支持她，爱她，虽然没有多说什么，但是她一直是斯佳丽的靠山，坚强有力。
忠诚，固执，可爱。对自己的宝贝，那是不顾一切的去保护；虽然只是一个家奴，但她有自己所要维护的处事原则。
黑人奶妈的形象刻画的非常成功。 由此扮演黑妈的演员哈蒂·麦克丹尼尔(Hattie McDaniel）战胜了奥丽维亚(玫兰妮)获得了第十二届奥斯卡最佳女配角奖，据说是历史上第一个获得奥斯卡奖的黑人。哈蒂将其特有的幽默感注入奶妈玛格丽特一形象中，台词念得完美无缺，与斯佳丽的扮演者费雯丽配合默契，犹如绿叶扶红花，结果两人双双获奖。由于奶妈一角的成功，哈蒂后来几乎垄断了银幕上所有的黑人保姆角色，在许多影片里可以看到她那肥胖、温顺、饶舌的形象。
《飘》-幕后花絮
时代背景：美国内战；
地点：美国南方；
戏剧高潮：火烧亚特兰大。
在如此壮丽的时代画卷上演绎出一个极不寻常的爱情故事，开创了以真实而辽阔的历史背景加虚构人物故事的爱情史诗片先河(该传统发展出《日瓦戈医生》和《泰坦尼克号》等佳作)。这部早期的彩色片保持了玛格丽特·米切尔原著的韵味和深度，既有色彩浑厚的大场面(如女主角跨过遍地伤员的镜头)，又有对人物命运的细致刻画(请注意黑人女仆的性格)。无论你认为素材像莎翁名剧还是像庸俗肥皂剧，影片取得惊人的艺术和商业成就。英文片名《飘》(即《随风而去》)出自美国诗人欧内斯特·道森的一句诗。女主角的经典压轴台词“明天是新的一天”乃原作出版前的暂定名。本片荣获奥斯卡最佳影片、最佳导演、最佳女主角、最佳女配角等七项大奖。1994年的续集《郝斯佳》(Scarlett)是一部长达360分钟的电视剧，豪华制作，服装布景等下了血本。故事讲郝斯佳跟白瑞德离婚后依然藕断丝连，她甚至回到爱尔兰，被控谋杀等等。影片根据雷普利小说改编。
影片拍摄耗资390万美元，在当时仅屈居于《宾虚》和《地狱天使》之后。在小说出版的一个月后，制片人大卫·塞尔兹尼克就用5万美元买下了小说的电影拍摄权，对于新人的处女作来讲，这个价码在当时可谓是天文数字。在1942年塞尔兹尼克的制片公司解散时，他又向小说作者玛格丽特·米歇尔支付了5万美元的分红。玛格丽特笔下艾什利和梅兰尼的人物原型都是她的表兄妹，多克和马蒂相爱，但他们是虔诚的天主教徒，有血缘关系的亲属是严禁结婚的。后来，多克离开了马蒂，到西部成了不法之徒，而马蒂则作了修女。
片中失火的场景是最先拍摄的，包括1933年《金刚》中使用的布景均被付之一炬，这段胶片长113分钟，共耗资25000美元，当时的火情十分猛烈，以至不知情的公众以为米高梅都化为灰烬了，报警电话响作一团。
在拍摄斯嘉丽从火中逃生的画面时，剧组需要一匹瘦骨嶙峋的老马，几经寻找，终于物色到一匹，然而当几周后马被带到片场，原先清晰可见的肋骨痕迹因为增重已经荡然无存，由于时间紧迫，化妆师只好在马的肋骨部位画出阴影。
《飘》-经典台词
美国电影学院每年都会为一些特别的电影项目评出前100名。05年取得经典台词榜第一的电影《乱世佳人》是克拉克·盖博在1939年出演的的一句台词。那是白瑞德对郝思嘉说的一句话：“坦白说，亲爱的，我一点也不在乎。”“盖博的这句台词被人们在不同的场合引用，”鲍博说。“无论男女，当他们陷入一种并没有完全投入的恋爱关系时，想要控制局面，就会用到这句话。”
《飘》-所获奖项
本片在第十二届奥斯卡金像奖（1939）中荣获八项大奖：
最佳女主角奖（Best Actress）.........................费·雯丽（Vivien Leigh）
最佳女配角奖（Best Supporting Actress）......哈蒂·麦克丹尼尔（Hattie McDaniel）
最佳影片奖（Best Picture）...........................《乱世佳人》（Gone With the Wind）
最佳导演奖（Best Director）..........................维克多·弗莱明（Victor Fleming）
最佳编剧奖（Best Screenplay）....................悉尼·霍华德 （Sidney Howard）
最佳艺术指导（Best Art Direction）...............Lyle R. Wheeler
最佳摄影奖（Best Cinematography）............Ernest Haller & Ray Rennahan
最佳剪辑奖（Best Film Editing）....................Hal C. Kern & James E. Newcom
《飘》-点评
有人说这部电影最经典的场面是Scarlett O’Hara在战争后回到被毁的家园，在园中手握红土发誓，无论去偷去抢都不会让家人挨饿那段，因为那时她的眼神和表情真的特别震撼人。这样说我也不反对，因为这实在是一部太经典的片子，经典的场面太多，各人有各人的偏爱。我倒是情愿选择这个：以后，明天就是新的一天了。什么是爱？什么是恨？爱和恨可以象两条永不相交的平行线，爱和恨也可能只需要一缕阳光就可以消融。珍惜拥有的人是幸福的，因为我们总是并不确切知道我们需要的到底是什么。太多的人只有在失去的时候，才知道去珍惜。
泰戈尔有一句诗我特别喜欢：如果错过太阳时你流泪了，那么你也将错过星星了。历尽沧桑，你要学会忽略过去。因为——tomorrow is another day。
《飘》-《飘》获选英国史上最受欢迎电影
根据英国电影学院近日进行的一项评选，由老牌影星克拉克·盖博和费文丽主演的描写美国内战的影片《飘》荣获英国历史上最受欢迎影片奖。根据电影票的销售数量统计，自从1940年在英国上映以来，已有3500万观众观看了《飘》。《音乐之声》名列第2，自从1938年上映以来，有3000万人观看。名列第3和第4的分别是《白雪公主和七个小矮人》(2800万人)和《星球大战》(2070万人)。这次入选最受欢迎的十部电影排行榜的电影三分之一来自英国，其中名列第5的是《枯木逢春》。这次评选活动的主办方表示：“这是英国历史上第一次评选最受观众喜爱的影片。”位列6到10名的影片分别是《黄金时代》、《森林王子》、《泰坦尼克》、《地狱圣女》以及《七宗罪》。
Title
The title is taken from the first line of the third stanza of the poem Non Sum Qualis eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae by Ernest Dowson: "I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind". The novel's protagonist, Scarlett O'Hara, also uses the title phrase in a line in the book: when her home area is overtaken by the Yankees, she wonders to herself if her home, a plantation called Tara, is still standing, or if it was "also gone with the wind which had swept through Georgia". More generally, the title has been interpreted as referring to the entire way of life of the antebellum South as having "Gone with the Wind". The prologue of the movie refers to the old way of life in the South as "gone with the wind…."
The title for the novel was a problem for Mitchell. She initially titled the book "Pansy", the original name for the character of Scarlett O'Hara. Although never seriously considered, the title "Pansy" was dropped once MacMillan persuaded Mitchell to rename the main character. Other proposed titles included "Tote the Weary Load" and "Tomorrow is Another Day", the latter taken from the last line in the book; however, the publisher noted that there were several books close to the same title at the time, so Mitchell was asked to find another title, and "Gone with the Wind" was chosen.
Plot
This section's plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (April 2009)
Overview
Scarlett O'Hara is the daughter of an Irish immigrant who has risen from humble origins to become materially and socially successful in the deep south of 1861. He owns a plantation named Tara in Georgia. Scarlett is infatuated with Ashley Wilkes, who, although attracted to her, marries his cousin, Melanie Hamilton. Wilkes is genuinely ambiguous about his feelings toward Scarlett. He knows his feelings run deep, and are both emotional and sexual in nature; but he never resolves whether to act upon his feelings, or to renounce them and definitively reject Scarlett’s flirtations, in favor of his wife and his social position. And though he never sins in the flesh, the novel clearly implies that he does so in his heart, leading Scarlett along; limited only by his weakness in making a decision as to what ultimately, he should do.
At the party announcing Ashley's engagement to Melanie, Scarlett meets Rhett Butler, who has a reputation as a rogue. As the Civil War begins, Scarlett accepts a proposal of marriage from Melanie's brother, Charles Hamilton, who soon dies of disease in training. Scarlett's main concern regarding his death is that she must wear black and cannot attend parties. After the war, Scarlett inherits Tara and manages to keep the place going. When Scarlett cannot get money from Rhett to pay the taxes on Tara, she marries her sister's fiancé, Frank Kennedy, takes control of his business, and increases its profitability with business practices that make many Atlantans resent her. Frank is killed when he and other Ku Klux Klan members raid a shanty town where Scarlet was assaulted while driving alone. Remorseful after Frank's death, Scarlett marries Rhett, who is aware of her passion for Ashley but hopes that one day she will come to love him instead. Scarlett eventually comes to realize that she does love Rhett, but only once the couple has been through so much that Rhett has fallen out of love with her.
Part one
Scarlett O'Hara is the belle of the County. Her flirtatiousness and charm won the hearts of many men in Clayton County, Georgia. At sixteen years old, however, she begins the trials that will completely overtake her life for the next twelve years. She does this by having an impromptu marriage with the bashful Charles Hamilton to save face and make her real love—Ashley Wilkes—jealous. However, soon after their wedding, Charles and all the other men in Georgia who are able to bear arms, go to war against the Yankees at the start of the Civil War. After six weeks of being in camp, Charles dies of measles. With Charles's death, Scarlett's main concern is that, in order to conform to society, she must dress in black mourning clothes and attend no parties.
Parts two and three
Scarlett moves to Atlanta to stay with her sister-in-law and Ashley’s wife, Melanie Wilkes and Melanie's Aunt Pittypat. Melanie grows to love Scarlett like a sister; however, Scarlett is very self-centered and resents Melanie. Scarlett meets Rhett Butler again while in Atlanta; he is attentive to her and she uses him (and his money) when it is convenient. Rhett has a bad reputation and is "not received" in polite society. Ashley is able to come home for Christmas from the war and stay with the ladies. At the end of his stay, Scarlett promises him that she will keep Melanie safe. With the help of Rhett and her personal slave, Prissy, Scarlett delivers Melanie's child Beau in the middle of a battle and leads Melanie, the baby and Prissy to safety back at Tara. The Civil War is ending and the northern army is marching through Georgia laying waste to the country. Upon her arrival, Scarlett hears the news of the death of her beloved mother, Ellen, of typhoid. Scarlett stays at Tara Plantation and tries to keep it solvent and care for its inhabitants.
Part four
Scarlett hears that Tara is about to be charged an enormous amount of tax by the new corrupt local government which she cannot pay. She decides to go to Atlanta and charm Rhett into paying the bill. After offering herself to Rhett as his mistress and being refused, however, Scarlett marries Frank Kennedy, who has enough money to pay the tax on Tara. Frank is the fiancé of Scarlett's sister Suellen so she deceives him into thinking that Suellen is engaged to someone else in Clayton County.
With money borrowed from and then repaid to Rhett, Scarlett buys two timber mills and proceeds to make them very profitable. Her actions are considered very inappropriate for a woman by Atlanta society. As she travels home from it one night, she is attacked. Frank, Ashley, and many other men in the newly formed Ku Klux Klan avenge her attack. In the fight, Frank is killed.
A few months later Scarlett marries Rhett, who has become very rich by dubious means during the War.
Part five
Scarlett and Rhett start to enjoy their new life together. They have a child named Eugenia Victoria "Bonnie Blue" Butler, who becomes Rhett’s pride and joy. They live happily until Scarlett’s old infatuation with Ashley takes over. When Bonnie is killed in a riding accident Scarlett in the first flush of grief tells Rhett that she blames him. Rhett is heartbroken over the death of his beloved daughter. He drinks heavily and finally decides, after the death of Melanie Wilkes, to leave Scarlett forever. However, Scarlett realizes that she loves Rhett and never truly loved Ashley, but merely an idea of him. She confesses this to Rhett, but he is adamant. The book ends on an ambiguous note, as she decided to return to the familiarity of her beloved Tara, where she will find a way to win Rhett back: "Tomorrow is another day!".
Characters
Butler family
* Rhett Butler – Scarlett's love interest and third husband, often publicly shunned for scandalous behavior, sometimes accepted for his charm. He is financially a very shrewd man and initially appears to love Scarlett dearly.
* Eugenia Victoria "Bonnie Blue" Butler – Scarlett and Rhett's pretty, beloved daughter.
Wilkes family
* Ashley Wilkes – The gallant Ashley married his unglamourous cousin, Melanie, because she represented all that he loved and wanted in life, that is, the quiet and happy life of a Southern gentleman of the "Twelve Oaks" plantation. Ashley Wilkes marries Melanie Hamilton as an arranged marriage between the Wilkes-Hamilton families; in which the marriage of cousins (which Ashley and Melanie are) is the practice; when necessary to preserve the blood line and social position of the family. As such, Wilkes is not, in the strictest sense, brought to marriage by love, money, or sexual infatuation; but by a sense of duty to preserve the socio-economic status quo of a world which he personally enjoys and agrees with; and believes this marriage will support and sustain.
Wilkes becomes a soldier for the Confederate cause though he personally would have freed the slaves his father owned had the war not erupted, or at least that is what he claimed. Although many of his friends and relations were killed in the Civil War, Ashley survived to see its brutal aftermath. He remains the object of Scarlett's daydream of infatuated devotion, even throughout her three marriages. She is simply obsessed with unobtainable Ashley. Believing that she was in love with him, Scarlett imagined Ashley to be the "perfect man", leaving her unable to love another.
* Melanie Hamilton Wilkes – Ashley's wife and cousin, her character is that of the genuinely humble, serene and gracious Southern woman. As the story unfolds, Melanie becomes progressively physically weaker, first by childbirth, then the effects of war, and ultimately illness. She had her own unique inner spirit of perseverance, as did Scarlett. Melanie loved Ashley, Beau, and Scarlett unwaveringly, and dutifully supported the Confederate cause, revealing the naivete of her character.
* Beau Wilkes – Melanie's and Ashley's lovable son.
* India Wilkes – Ashley's sister. Almost engaged to Stuart Tarleton, she bitterly hates Scarlett for stealing his attention before he is killed at Gettysburg. Lives with Aunt Pittypat after Melanie kicks her out for accusing Scarlett and Ashley of infidelity.
* Honey Wilkes – another sister of India and Ashley. Originally hoped to marry Charles Hamilton until Scarlett marries him; following the war, she marries a man from Mississippi, and moves to his home state with him.
* John Wilkes – Owner of Twelve Oaks Plantation and patriarch of the Wilkes family. Killed during the Civil War.
O'Hara family
* Scarlett O'Hara – The wilful protagonist of the novel, whose travails the novel follows throughout war and reconstruction. She marries Charles Hamilton, Frank Kennedy and Rhett Butler, all the time wishing she was married to Ashley Wilkes instead. She has three children, one from each husband: Wade Hampton Hamilton (son to Charles Hamilton), Ella Lorena Kennedy (daughter to Frank Kennedy) and Eugenia Victoria "Bonnie Blue" Butler (deceased daughter to Rhett Butler).
* Gerald O'Hara – Scarlett's impetuous Irish father.
* Suellen O'Hara – Scarlett's selfish sister.
* Carreen O'Hara – Scarlett's timid, religious sister who, in the end of the story, joins a convent.
* Ellen O'Hara – Scarlett's gracious mother, of French ancestry.
Other characters
* Mammy – Scarlett's nurse from birth; a slave. Cited by Rhett as "the real head of the household." She has a no-nonsense attitude and is outspoken and opinionated. She chastises Scarlett often. She is extremely loyal to the O'Haras, especially Scarlett, whom she cares for like a daughter.
* Prissy – A young slave girl who features in Scarlett's life. She is portrayed as flighty and silly.
* Pork – The O'Hara family's butler, favored by Gerald.
* Dilcey – Pork's wife, a strong, outspoken slave woman of mixed Indian and Black decent, Prissy's mother.
* Charles Hamilton – Melanie's brother, Scarlett's first husband, shy and loving.
* Frank Kennedy – Suellen's former beau, Scarlett's second husband, an older man who only wants peace and quiet. He originally asks for Suellen's hand in marriage, but Scarlett steals him to save Tara. He is portrayed as a pushover who will do anything to appease Scarlett.
* Belle Watling – a brothel madam and prostitute; Rhett is her friend. She is portrayed as a kind-hearted country woman and a loyal confederate. At one point she states she has nursing experience.
* Archie – an ex-convict and former Confederate soldier who is taken in by Melanie. Has a strong disliking for all women, especially Scarlett. The only woman he respects is Melanie.
* Jonas Wilkerson – former overseer of Tara, father of Emmie Slattery's illegitimate baby. After being dismissed because of the aforementioned he eventually becomes employed by the Freedmen's Bureau, where he abuses his position to get back at the O'Haras and becomes rich.
* Emmie Slattery – later wife of Jonas Wilkerson, whom Scarlett blames for her mother's death.
* Will Benteen – Confederate soldier who seeks refuge at Tara and stays on to help with the plantation, in love with Carreen but marries Suellen to stay on Tara, and repair her reputation. He is portrayed as very perceptive and lost half of his leg in the war.
* Aunt Pittypat Hamilton – Charles and Melanie's vaporish aunt who lives in Atlanta.
* Uncle Peter – Aunt Pittypat's houseman and driver, he is extremely loyal to Pittypat.
Setting
* Tara Plantation – The O'Hara home and plantation
* Twelve Oaks – The Wilkes' plantation.
* Peachtree Street – location of Aunt Pittypat's home in Atlanta
The novel opens in April 1861 and ends in the early autumn of 1873.
Politics
The book includes a vivid description of the fall of Atlanta in 1864 and the devastation of war (some of that aspect was missing from the 1939 film). The novel showed considerable historical research. According to her biography, Mitchell herself was ten years old before she learned that the South had lost the war. Mitchell's sweeping narrative of war and loss helped the book win the Pulitzer Prize on May 3, 1937.
An episode in the book dealt with the early Ku Klux Klan. In the immediate aftermath of the War, Scarlett is assaulted by poor Southerners living in shanties, whereupon her former black slave Big Sam saves her life. In response, Scarlett's male friends attempt to make a retaliatory nighttime raid on the encampment. Northern soldiers try to stop the attacks, and Rhett helps Ashley, who is shot, to get help through his prostitute friend Belle. Scarlett's husband Frank is killed. This raid is presented sympathetically as being necessary and justified, while the law-enforcement officers trying to catch the perpetrators are depicted as oppressive Northern occupiers.
Although the Klan is not mentioned in that scene (though Rhett tells Archie to burn the "robes"), the book notes that Scarlett finds the Klan abominable. She believed the men should all just stay at home (she wanted both to be petted for her ordeal and to give the hated Yankees no more reason to tighten martial law, which is bad for her businesses). Rhett is also mentioned to be no great lover of the Klan. At one point, he said that if it were necessary, he would join in an effort to join "society". The novel never explicitly states whether this drastic step was necessary in his view. The local chapter later breaks up under the pressure from Rhett and Ashley.
Scarlett expresses views that were common of the era. Some examples:
* "How stupid negroes were! They never thought of anything unless they were told." — Scarlett thinks to herself, after returning to Tara after the fall of Atlanta.
* "How dared they laugh, the black apes!...She'd like to have them all whipped until the blood ran down...What devils the Yankees were to set them free!" — Scarlett again thinking to herself, seeing free blacks after the war.
* However, she is kind to Pork, her father's trusted manservant. He tells Scarlett that if she were as nice to white people as she is to black, a lot more people would like her.
* She almost loses her temper when the Yankee women say they would never have a black nurse in their house and talk about Uncle Peter, Aunt Pittypat's beloved and loyal servant, as if he were a mule. Scarlett informs them that Uncle Peter is a member of the family, which bewilders the Yankee women and leads them to misinterpret the situation.
* It was mentioned that only one slave was ever whipped at Tara, and that was a stablehand who didn't brush Gerald's horse. The only time Scarlett hit a slave was when Prissy was hysterical.
* Scarlett at one point criticized Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, saying no one treated their slaves that badly.
Inspirations
As several elements of Gone with the Wind have parallels with Margaret Mitchell's own life, her experiences may have provided some inspiration for the story in context. Mitchell's understanding of life and hardship during the American Civil War, for example, came from elderly relatives and neighbors passing war stories to her generation.
While Margaret Mitchell used to say that her Gone with the Wind characters were not based on real people, modern researchers have found similarities to some of the people in Mitchell's own life as well as to individuals she knew or she heard of. Mitchell's maternal grandmother, Annie Fitzgerald Stephens, was born in 1845; she was the daughter of an Irish immigrant, who owned a large plantation on Tara Road in Clayton County, south of Atlanta, and who married an American woman named Ellen, and had several children, all daughters.
Many researchers believe that the physical brutality and low regard for women exhibited by Rhett Butler was based on Mitchell's first husband, Red Upshaw. She divorced him after she learned he was a bootlegger amid rumors of abuse and infidelity. Some believe he was patterned on the life of George Trenholm.
After a stay at the plantation called The Woodlands, and later Barnsley Gardens, Mitchell may have gotten the inspiration for the dashing scoundrel from Sir Godfrey Barnsley of Adairsville, Georgia.
Belle Watling was based on Lexington, Kentucky, madam Belle Brezing.
Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, the mother of US president Theodore Roosevelt may have been an inspiration for Scarlett O'Hara. Roosevelt biographer David McCullough discovered that Mitchell, as a reporter for The Atlanta Journal, conducted an interview with one of Martha's closest friends and bridesmaid, Evelyn King Baker, then 87. In that interview, she described Martha's physical appearance, beauty, grace, and intelligence in detail. The similarities between Martha and the Scarlett character are striking.
Reception
The sales of Margaret Mitchell's novel in the summer of 1936, at the virtually unprecedented price of three dollars, reached about one million by the end of December. Favorable critics found in the novel and its success an implicit rejection of what one reviewer dismissed as "all the thousands of technical tricks our novelists have been playing with for the past twenty years," while from the ramparts of the critical establishment almost universally male reviewers lamented the book's literary mediocrity and labeled it mere "entertainment." [citation needed]
Symbolism
Over the past years, the novel Gone with the Wind has also been analyzed for its symbolism and treatment of archetypes. For example, Scarlett has been characterized as a heroic figure struggling and attempting to twist life to suit her own personal wishes in society. The land is considered a source of strength, as in the plantation Tara, whose name is almost certainly drawn from the Hill of Tara in Ireland, a mysterious and poorly-understood archeological site that has traditionally been connected to the temporal and/or spiritual authority of the ancient Irish kings. It also represents the permanence of the land in a rapid changing world. Scarlett’s beautiful, perky hats take part of the symbolism as well. They show her feminine side and how she wants nothing more than to be the most attractive woman and the center of attention.
Sequels
Although Mitchell refused to write a sequel to Gone With The Wind, Mitchell's estate authorised Alexandra Ripley to write the novel Scarlett in 1991.
Author Pat Conroy was approached to write a follow-up, but the project was ultimately abandoned.
In 2000, the copyright holders attempted to suppress publication of Alice Randall’s The Wind Done Gone, a book that retold the story from the point of view of the slaves. A federal appeals court denied the plaintiffs an injunction against publication in Suntrust v. Houghton Mifflin (2001), on the basis that the book was parody protected by the First Amendment. The parties subsequently settled out of court to allow the book to be published. After its release, the book became a New York Times bestseller.
In 2002, the copyright holders blocked distribution of an unauthorised sequel published in the U.S, The Winds of Tara by Katherine Pinotti, alleging copyright infringement. The story follows Scarlett as she returns to Tara where a family issue threatens Tara and the family's reputation. In it Scarlett shows just how far she will go to protect her family and her home. The book was immediately removed from bookstores by publisher Xlibris. The book sold in excess of 2,000 copies within 2 weeks before being removed. More recently, in 2008, Australian publisher Fontaine Press re-published "The Winds of Tara" exclusively for their domestic market, avoiding U.S. copyright restrictions.
A second sequel was released in November 2007. The story covers the same time period as Gone with the Wind and is told from Rhett Butler’s perspective – although it begins years before and ends after. Written by Donald McCaig, this novel is titled Rhett Butler's People (2007).
Adaptations
Gone With The Wind has been adapted several times for stage and screen, most famously in the 1939 film starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.
On stage it has been adapted as a musical Scarlett (premiering in 1972). The musical opened in the West End followed by a pre-Broadway tryout in 1973 (with Lesley Ann Warren as Scarlett). The book was again adapted as a musical called Gone With The Wind which premiered at the New London Theatre in 2008 in a production directed by Trevor Nunn.
The Japanese Takarazuka Revue has also adapted the novel into a musical with the same name. The first performance was in 1977, performed by the Moon Troupe. It has been performed several times since by the group, the most recent being in 2004 (performed by the Cosmos Troupe).
There has also been a French musical Autant en Emporte le Vent, based on the book.
Awards
The novel won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning 1939 film of the same name. The book was also adapted during the 1970s into a stage musical Scarlett; there is also a 2008 new musical stage adaptation in London's West End titled Gone With The Wind. It is the only novel by Mitchell published during her lifetime. It took her seven years to write the book and a further eight months to check the thousands of historical and social references. The novel is one of the most popular books of all time, selling more than 30 million copies. Over the years, the novel has also been analyzed for its symbolism and treatment of archetypes.
Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
1861年南北战争爆发的前夕，塔拉庄园的千金小姐郝思嘉爱上了另一庄园主的儿子艾希利，但艾希利却选择了郝思嘉的表妹——温柔善良的韩媚兰为终身伴侣。郝思嘉出于妒恨，抢先嫁给了韩媚兰的弟弟查尔斯。不久，美国南北战争爆发了。艾希利和查尔斯作为征兵上了前线。查尔斯很快就在战争中死去了。郝思嘉成了寡妇， 她内心却一直对艾希利念念不忘。
一天，在一次举行义卖的舞会上，郝思嘉和风度翩翩的商人白瑞德相识。白瑞德开始追求郝思嘉，但遭到她的拒绝。郝思嘉一心只想着去追求艾希利，结果也遭到拒绝。
在战争中，美国南方军遭到失败，亚特兰大城里挤满了伤兵。郝思嘉和表妹韩媚兰自愿加入护士行列照顾伤兵。目睹了战乱带来的惨状之后，任性的郝思嘉成熟了不少。这时，从前线传来消息，北方军快打过来了，不少人家惊惶地逃离家园，开始了不安定的流浪生活。正在此时，韩媚兰不巧要生孩子了，郝思嘉只好留下来照顾她。
在北方军大军压境之日，郝思嘉哀求白瑞德帮忙护送她和刚生下孩子的韩媚兰回塔拉庄园。白瑞德告诉郝思嘉他不能目睹南方军溃败而不去助一臂之力，他要参加南方军作战，他留下一把手枪并和郝思嘉拥吻告别。郝思嘉只好独自驾驶马车回到塔拉庄园，而这时家里已被北方军士兵抢先洗动一空，母亲在惊吓中死去。昔日美好的家园变成了荒凉的栖息地，郝思嘉面对这一切悲惨时，表现出了女人少有的坚毅，她决定重建家园。
不久，战争结束了。但是生活依然困苦。北方来的统治者要庄园主缴纳重税，郝思嘉在绝望中去亚特兰大城找白瑞德借钱，却得知他已被关进监狱。归来的途中，郝思嘉遇上了本来要迎娶她妹妹的暴发户弗兰克，为了要重振破产的家业，她骗取弗兰克和自己结了婚。
郝思嘉在弗兰克经营的木材厂非法雇用囚犯，并和北方来的商人大做生意。此时，白瑞德用钱贿赂从而恢复了自由。两人偶然碰面，再次展开爱恨交织的关系。
弗兰克和艾希利因加入了反政府的秘密组织，在一次集会时遭北方军包围，弗兰克中弹死亡，艾希利负伤逃亡，在白瑞德帮助下回到韩媚兰身边。郝思嘉再次成为寡妇。此时，白瑞德前来向她求婚，她终于与一直爱她的搞私运军火和粮食致富的白瑞德结了婚。婚后，夫妻二人住在亚特兰大的豪华宅邸中。一年后，他们的女儿邦妮出生，白瑞德把全部感情投注到邦妮身上。郝思嘉偶然翻阅艾希利的照片被白瑞德发现，终于导致了二人感情的破裂。其后，在艾希利的生日会前夕，郝思嘉与艾希利相见时热情的拥抱引起旁人非议，韩媚兰虽然不相信他们之间有暧昧关系，但白瑞德却心生怀疑。
当郝思嘉告诉白瑞德她已经再次怀孕时，白瑞德怀疑地问那是谁的孩子，郝思嘉在羞怒之下欲打白瑞德，却不慎滚下楼梯引起流产。白瑞德感到内疚，决心同郝思嘉言归于好，不料就在他俩谈话时，小女儿邦妮在骑马时意外坠地而死。与此同时不幸的事也在另一个家庭里发生，韩媚兰终因操劳过度卧病不起。临终前，她把自己的丈夫艾希利和儿子托付给郝思嘉，但要求她保守这个秘密，郝思嘉不顾一切扑向艾希利的怀中，紧紧拥抱住他，站在一旁的白瑞德无法再忍受下去，只好转身离去。面对伤心欲绝毫无反应的艾希利，郝思嘉终于明白，她爱的艾希利其实是不存在的，她真正需要的是白瑞德。
当郝思嘉赶回家里告诉白瑞德，她是真正爱他的时候，白瑞德已不再相信她。他决心离开郝思嘉，返回老家去寻找美好的事物，被遗弃的郝思嘉站在浓雾迷漫的院中，想起了父亲曾经对她说过的一句话：“世界上唯有土地与明天同在。”她决定守在她的土地上重新创造新的生活，她期盼着美好的明天的到来。
《飘》-主要演员介绍
克拉克·盖布尔
克拉克·盖布尔克拉克·盖布尔
克拉克·盖布尔，1901年出生于美国俄亥俄州的农村小镇，母亲在他十个月大时便去世了，父亲在他三岁时另娶图书馆职员珍妮为继母。珍妮无所出，视克拉克．盖博如亲生子。十四岁时，父亲卖掉田产，到奥克拉荷马州去当油井工人，克拉克不愿意随父亲搬家，乃离家出走，到当地的一家剧院打工，从此展开了他日后的演艺生涯。就外形而论，克拉克．盖博并不算是英俊小生，主要是有一对特大号的招风耳。在他投身电影界参加试镜时，曾先后被米高梅公司副总裁艾文泰尔伯格取笑他有一双蝙蝠翅膀一样的大耳朵，雷毫萍公司老板霍华休斯更刻薄地说他的耳朵像一辆打开了两扇门的计程车。虽然这些影坛大亨并不欣赏克拉克．盖博，但女同胞却爱他爱得要死。首先是年龄比盖博大两岁的女演员法兰西丝杜芙娜。他俩在波特兰城订婚后，杜芙娜就积极地运用自己的关系为盖博打天下，安排他在新戏中演出角色，又介绍他认识戏剧圈中有头有脸的人物。盖博因此结识了年龄比他大十四岁的资深女演员约瑟芬狄伦，她同时也是剧坛著名的演技指导，门生甚多。盖博在狄伦女士的大力引荐下，演出机会增加了不少。他在投桃报李之下，抛弃了未婚妻，于1924年与约瑟芬狄伦结婚。
参与作品：
《娱乐世界续集》 (1976) 、《米高梅公司的喜剧电影回顾 》(1964) 、《碧港艳遇》 (1960) 、《太平洋潜艇战 》(1958) 、《教师之恋 》(1958) 、《金汉艳奴》 (1957) 等
费雯·丽
费雯·丽（Vivien Leigh) (1913年11月5日－1967年7月7日)。原名费雯·玛丽·哈特利（Vivien Mary Hartley），英国电影演员。她成功地饰演《乱世佳人》的斯佳丽·奥哈拉和《欲望号街车》的布兰奇·杜波依斯，两度获得奥斯卡最佳女主角。1999年，她被美国电影学会选为百年来最伟大的女演员第16 名。
费雯·丽费雯·丽
主要作品：
1965《愚人船》1951《欲望号街车》（获奥斯卡最佳女主角奖）1946《Caesar and Cleopatra》 1941《汉米登夫人》1940《21 Days》 1940 《魂断蓝桥》1939《乱世佳人》 《飘》（获奥斯卡最佳女主角奖） 1938《Sidewalks of London》 1937 《Storm in a Teacup》 1937《Dark Journey》 1937《Fire Over England》
《飘》-经典片段
瑞德离开郝思嘉后，Scarlett O’Hara最后坐在楼梯的台阶上说——“After all， tomorrow is another day。”
思嘉在回到被毁的家园后,在山头上说----“上帝为我作证,上帝为我作证,北佬休想将我整垮.等熬过了这一关,我决不再忍饥挨饿,也决不再让我的亲人忍饥挨饿了,哪怕让我去偷,去抢,去杀人.请上帝为我作证,我无论如何都不再忍饥挨饿了!”
点评
有人说这部电影最经典的场面是Scarlett O’Hara在战争后回到被毁的家园，在园中手握红土发誓，无论去偷去抢都不会让家人挨饿那段，因为那时她的眼神和表情真的特别震撼人。这样说我也不反对，因为这实在是一部太经典的片子，经典的场面太多，各人有各人的偏爱。我倒是情愿选择这个：以后，明天就是新的一天了。什么是爱？什么是恨？爱和恨可以象两条永不相交的平行线，爱和恨也可能只需要一缕阳光就可以消融。珍惜拥有的人是幸福的，因为我们总是并不确切知道我们需要的到底是什么。太多的人只有在失去的时候，才知道去珍惜。泰戈尔有一句诗我特别喜欢：如果错过太阳时你流泪了，那么你也将错过星星了。历尽沧桑，你要学会忽略过去。因为——tomorrow is another day。
“不要不辞而别，我的爱人。
我看望了一夜，现在我脸上睡意重重。
只恐我在睡中把你丢失了。
不要不辞而别，我的爱人。
我惊起伸出双手去摸触你，我问自己说：
“这是一个梦么？"
但愿我能用我的心系住你的双足，紧抱在胸前！
不要不辞而别，我的爱人。”
——泰戈尔《园丁集》
《飘》-人物性格
斯佳丽
一个猫一样的女人。有着猫一样的目光，猫一样的微笑，猫一样的步伐和猫一样的敏捷。那么，这个猫一样的女人提供给我们是怎样的一些对待生活、对待爱情、对待困难和挫折的态度和经验呢？
乱世佳人乱世佳人
第一她在困难的时候敢于承担责任，虽然也有动摇，但最后仍然承担责任,比如她救了玫兰妮，她重振塔拉庄园, 后来长期扶助阿希礼一家等等。
第二她敢于去爱、无怨无悔，她的整个青春都在爱着阿希礼，没有回报但她仍没有放弃努力，直到能力的极限为止。
第三知错能改，当她最后明白她之前所为是错误时，她马上向瑞特道歉，请求原谅。
总的来说，斯佳丽堪称巾帼不让须眉的奇女子，人中龙凤，难怪瑞特这样的牛人也拜倒在她的石榴裙下。每次看《乱世佳人》，每次都有不同的收获。年轻时看，讨厌虚荣爱出风头的斯佳丽，喜欢纯洁善良的玫兰妮，不喜欢油腔滑调的瑞特巴特勒，喜欢温文尔雅的阿希礼，喜欢南方如画的景致和田园牧歌式的生活，不喜欢北方的浮华和放荡。后来看了多次之后，不由得对斯佳丽敬佩起来，原本是一个弱女子，任性而年青，第一次结婚是一时的冲动报复，嫁给了不爱的男孩，让自己成为了年轻的寡妇。第二次结婚是为了一家人的生存，抢走了妹妹的心上人，肯尼迪。肯尼迪虽然是一个半老头子，却不是斯佳丽的对手，面对她的冷酷和无情，他束手无策。最终为了斯佳丽差点遭受的侮辱去报复穷白人而被人击毙，不幸枉死，却从未享受过斯佳丽的一点爱。于是斯佳丽再次成为寡妇，而且还是个有钱的寡妇。在那个战火纷飞的年代，为了答应过阿希礼照顾玫兰妮的一句承诺，在北军就要攻占亚特兰大的时候，斯佳丽又果断地替玫兰妮接生，并找到瑞特冲破重重阻碍和关卡，回到了乡下老家－－塔拉庄园。在又饥又饿之时，她又遭受了母亲病亡、父亲痴呆、家里被劫，一穷二白的多重打击，她不屈不挠，带头种田干活，喝令妹妹下床摘棉花，并照顾玫兰妮和小波，支撑一家人的生计，那时她顶多也不过是个二十来岁的小姑娘，本应是个在母亲怀里撒娇的小姑娘。可是面对如此巨大的困难，她没有选择逃避，而是勇敢挑起家里的重担，以常人难以企及的毅力抗争命运，每每看到斯佳丽举着萝卜向天盟誓，决不愿让家人再受苦挨饿时，我总是觉得拍片导演对光线和背景的运用是那么巧妙和艺术， 它那么生动地刻划了思嘉渴望安定、渴望生存、渴望富裕的强烈而真实的内心情感。我觉得那时的她，已完成了最艰难的嬗变，由一只丑陋的毛毛虫破茧而出变成了美丽的蝶，自由而高贵，那时的思嘉就像一个女神－－－渴望富有、并为此能不择手段的欲望女神。
刚强、坚韧
无论是面对战争的废墟和硝烟、母亲和父亲的去世、生活的贫穷艰难还是女儿的夭折，在和她承受同样的痛苦和艰难的人们当中，她都是最刚强、最坚韧的一个和最先从痛苦和艰难中走出来的一个。当斯佳丽面对着已是满目伤痕泰勒庄园时，她的坚韧和刚强令她这个家中的长女担起家长的重担。在影片的末尾，她还坚定地告诉我们：Tomorrow is another day。
虚荣
这应该是一个贬义词了，可是，斯佳丽的虚荣心似乎格外的可爱，在她的身上，虚荣似乎也变成了褒义词。有位名模曾说：“女孩子总是要有一点虚荣心的，无论这虚荣心表现在什么方面。”当斯佳丽扯下母亲唯一的遗物——窗帘，无论如何也要用它做一件漂亮的衣服，还将它披在身上憧憬着新衣服的样子时，她的虚荣心使她成了一个看起来不孝的女儿，但她的这种做法（也就是她的虚荣心）是当时拯救全家的唯一出路。由虚荣心而使全家人都有了生存下去的希望，这样的虚荣心也不应该算是值得摒弃的。
贪婪
这总应该是个贬义词了。但是，斯佳丽的贪婪不仅是有情可原的，在某种程度上来讲还是难能可贵的。战后的泰勒庄园在北方军的控制之下，母亲的去世和父亲的崩溃使斯佳丽——家中的长女担起了“家长”的重担。斯佳丽一家人过着艰辛的生活。战争使她贫穷，贫穷继之以饥饿。然而最可怕的是无钱交税险些失去生活来源的土地，为了借钱交税，斯佳丽勾引了妹妹的情人，继而当起了一家小店的老板娘。在经历这一切后，她明白了她所处的是一个什么样的社会以及在这个社会中钱的重要性。所以，当她拥有了当前她所需要的钱之后，她自然会想拥有更多的钱。在她追求“更多的钱”的过程中，她表现出了一个早期资本主义的资本家所必须具有的优秀品质——贪婪。
残忍与自私
这两个词无论用在什么人身上似乎都应该是表贬义的词语，特别是以温和、善良为美德的女性。但是，斯佳丽的残忍与自私在某种适度上却是值得褒扬的。首先，在社会转型的时期，人的观念需要从传统的观念转变成为新型的、与社会发展相适应的观念。不能在第一时间内转变观念的人就失去了领导时代的主动权。斯佳丽就是一个在第一时间内转变观念，接受了新的社会和社会制度、新的价值观念、新的生活方式，并且成为了一个小资本家的女人，在这一点，她是非常了不起的。而且，在刚刚建立了资本主义制度时，自私和残忍对于一个资本家来说是生存和发展的关键。在资本主义社会，对世界的博爱已经是阻碍资本的自身生存和发展的一个因素，此时，自私与残忍就成了强者的优点。
美丽
斯佳丽为我们提供了一种对待爱情的态度。她美丽，但她只是适当地运用她的美丽来得到她所喜爱的东西，从来不用自己的美貌来玩弄爱情，无论是自己的还是他人的爱情。斯佳丽是美丽的，但美丽不是拥有爱情的必备条件——你可以没有斯佳丽那样美丽动人，但你也有权利去追求属于自己的爱情。
综上所述，我们得出了这样的一个结论：
斯佳丽，猫一样的女人，刚强的、坚韧的、虚荣的、贪婪的、残忍的、自私的女人，女人的典范。
思嘉这个人，很可悲，可悲到了一种可笑的程度。
就像她自己意识到的的，“她对她所爱过的两个男人哪一个都不理解，因此到头来两个都失掉了。现在她才恍惚认识到，如果她当初了解艾希礼，她是决不会爱他的；而如果她了解了瑞德，它就无论如何都不会失掉他了。”
她一直不明白战后的人们为什么会去追忆战前，直到邦妮死后，她才明白了原因，但是，哪些可以与她追忆过往的人，已经由于她自己的疏远，排斥已经越来越远，而她的那些“新朋友”却也无法使思嘉高兴起来。
一直很喜欢瑞德离开前的那一段话，“思嘉，我从来不是那样的人，不能耐心的拾起一些碎片，把它们粘合在一起，然后对自己说这个修补好了的东西跟新的完全一样。一样东西破碎了就是破碎了——我宁愿记住它最好时的模样，而不想把它修补好，然后终生看着那些破碎了的地方。也许，假使我还年轻一点——可是我已经这么大年纪了，不能相信那种纯属感情的说法，说是一切都可以从头开始。我这么大年纪了，不能终生背着谎言的负担，在貌似体面地幻灭中过日子。我不能跟你生活在一起同时又对你说谎，而且我决不能欺骗自己。就是现在，我也不能对你说谎话啊！我是很想关心你今后的情况的，可是我不能那样做。”
如果没有瑞德，思嘉是不完整的，哪么《飘》也就不能被称为“名著”了。思嘉，自私，虚荣，贪婪，刚强，坚韧。如果说这些形容词用在别人身上，只怕全部都是贬义的，但是对思嘉而言，我倒觉得有点像是褒义词。其实，就像瑞德说的，“我们都是流氓，我们都是无赖。”他对于自己与思嘉的分析是很透彻的，也正因为他的这些分析，《飘》才会被无数人所拜读，思嘉也才完整。
关于电影版《飘》 ——《乱世佳人》，我只能说，我看完电影就喜欢上了费雯丽。因为她所演绎的思嘉真的就像活着的一样，让我再一次感受到了思嘉的美，思嘉的一切。
瑞德
我必须承认，对我来说，《乱世佳人》的吸引力之所以这么大，和克拉克盖博主演的瑞特巴特勒绝对有关系。
当然，斯佳丽眯着那双像猫那样的绿眼，迷人而妖媚，同样也让人倾倒。她是个让女人都能为之神魂颠倒的女人，她自私、冷酷、无情、聪明、不择手段、坚强，却不乏善良、美丽、脆弱；她是一个高不可攀的女神，让许多女人都梦想着能像她那样，集财富、美貌、能干、坚强于一身，让瑞特那样的男人能够为她而倾倒。至少我曾经就那样想过。但我认为，瑞特给我们这些女性观众带来的却更多是对爱情和婚姻的甜美幻想，他是那么潇洒倜傥，那么玩世不恭，那么自信过人，富有并充满了成熟男人的魅力，该是多少女性心目中的偶像啊。
在这里，简单回闪思嘉和瑞特相遇、相识、相爱的几个片段，就能让人对瑞特爱我所爱，坚持自儿，富有个性的男性魅力印象深刻：
片段一：瑞特第一次见到斯佳丽是在十二像树园的烧烤会上。斯佳丽向所有的男士卖弄风情，却发现瑞特正注意她，斯佳丽向身边的女伴抱怨说：“他看我的样子，就像我没穿衣服”可见瑞特给人的感觉不是温文尔雅，富有绅士风度，对世事的有种别人所不具备的强大洞察力和影响力，表明了他与一般的南方男人不同点：现实、大胆而富有进攻性，当他躲在书房里偷听斯佳丽大胆地向阿希礼表露爱慕，但因遭到婉拒，她气急败坏地搧了阿希礼一个耳光，并砸碎了一个小花瓶时，他吹了一个口哨，于是他被斯佳丽指责为不是一个绅士，而他同时也反唇相讥斯佳丽不是一个真正的淑女，让斯佳丽气极。俩人第一次相见就是一次爱情的交锋。
片段二：斯佳丽因查尔斯病亡到亚特兰大散心，正在服丧的她，十分渴望能再度飞旋于舞池中，表现了她在内心里对无拘无束、自由生活的向往和憧憬。是瑞特看出了她的心思，并出重金替她撬开了那个压抑而沉闷的社会道德囚笼，使她走上了和别的南方女人最不相同的命运之路。这正是斯佳丽反叛旧的社会道德标准迈出的关键性一步，而这一步，如果没有瑞特暗中片段三：瑞特为了帮助斯佳丽重返故里，拼死弄了一匹身负重伤的老马，并帮助她把玫兰妮抱到马车上，同时一路历经辛苦，并在即将要到达的时候，瑞特看到许多南方兵前仆后继，视死如归，深感震撼，并决定上战场，为保卫家园尽一份力。这时可以看出，为了心爱的女人，他能出生入死； 同样，面临家园被毁之境，他也是一个热血之人，导演在这里才向我们描绘了一个深藏在平日玩世不恭外表下，也具有一颗为荣誉甘洒热血之心的典型南方男性的形象。在这里我们看到，虽然瑞特平日里非常精明、现实，但他骨子里其实还是一个南方人。
片段四：瑞特在经历了丧女之痛和斯佳丽在精神上的背叛后，面对玫兰妮的之死，对一切都灰心失望至极，回家收拾行李，返回自己的故乡，查尔斯顿。当愚蠢的斯佳丽最后发现自己已深爱瑞特时，才发现已最终失去了自己最心爱的人。瑞特最后走得十分干脆，让斯佳丽深感懊悔。直到这里，我们才听到那颗曾经为爱而柔软的心破碎的声音，同时也因为破碎而对斯佳丽变得“冷酷无情”，这里的瑞特才让我们感觉到，这个男人敢爱敢恨，处理事情十分干脆利落，极富男性魅力。
瑞德这个人敢爱敢恨，就如上文所说，他不愿拾起破碎的感情，所以才会在最后变得那么冷酷无情。这个人物很富有男性魅力，就像思嘉所拥有的女性魅力，同样使人沉醉。
他们两个的结合，确实就像瑞德所说，“珠联璧合”。但是，在瑞德的现实与思嘉的幻想中，瑞德失败了，他的感情也因此真正的破碎了。
而克拉克·盖博的演绎更是无可挑剔，在那种翩翩风度背后的嘲弄，在那种沉稳冷静背后的狂放不羁，都是让人颇为迷醉的。
艾希礼与媚兰
再说说阿希礼和玫兰妮，他们是相似的，具备南方的一切美德，有知识，有文化，有思想，有修养。
玫兰妮基本上是完美的，她善良，仁慈又不乏勇气，斯佳丽摘棉花时，她想帮忙，斯佳丽杀人时她也帮忙，除了瑞特，她是斯佳丽的另一个支持者。我做过小范围的调查，先看书的基本都喜欢斯佳丽，而先看电影的则喜欢玫兰妮。我觉得美兰妮太好了，好得不真实，而斯佳丽是有血有肉的，是真实的，有缺点也有优点。
阿希礼是真实的，他是个活在过去的人，时世变迁，他不想面对，他是缺乏勇气的。他不爱斯佳丽，又不说不爱她。斯佳丽走投无路找他时他只给了她庄园的红土，后来知道斯佳丽卖了自己，他说他该去抢劫，他也只是说说吧，估计不会去的，这一点，他确实不如拖着军刀想帮斯佳丽对付逃兵的美兰妮。
乱世佳人里的人物都是完美的，如果没有美兰妮的淑女风范，怎能体现出斯佳丽的桀骜不逊。没有阿希礼的懦弱，怎能体现出瑞德的风范呢？
斯佳丽的奶妈.玛格丽特
温暖，可靠，安全。象母亲一样时刻保护她的孩子斯佳丽。
理智，聪明，现实而且冷静，带一些黑人的狡猾。她懂斯斯佳丽，支持她，爱她，虽然没有多说什么，但是她一直是斯佳丽的靠山，坚强有力。
忠诚，固执，可爱。对自己的宝贝，那是不顾一切的去保护；虽然只是一个家奴，但她有自己所要维护的处事原则。
黑人奶妈的形象刻画的非常成功。 由此扮演黑妈的演员哈蒂·麦克丹尼尔(Hattie McDaniel）战胜了奥丽维亚(玫兰妮)获得了第十二届奥斯卡最佳女配角奖，据说是历史上第一个获得奥斯卡奖的黑人。哈蒂将其特有的幽默感注入奶妈玛格丽特一形象中，台词念得完美无缺，与斯佳丽的扮演者费雯丽配合默契，犹如绿叶扶红花，结果两人双双获奖。由于奶妈一角的成功，哈蒂后来几乎垄断了银幕上所有的黑人保姆角色，在许多影片里可以看到她那肥胖、温顺、饶舌的形象。
《飘》-幕后花絮
时代背景：美国内战；
地点：美国南方；
戏剧高潮：火烧亚特兰大。
在如此壮丽的时代画卷上演绎出一个极不寻常的爱情故事，开创了以真实而辽阔的历史背景加虚构人物故事的爱情史诗片先河(该传统发展出《日瓦戈医生》和《泰坦尼克号》等佳作)。这部早期的彩色片保持了玛格丽特·米切尔原著的韵味和深度，既有色彩浑厚的大场面(如女主角跨过遍地伤员的镜头)，又有对人物命运的细致刻画(请注意黑人女仆的性格)。无论你认为素材像莎翁名剧还是像庸俗肥皂剧，影片取得惊人的艺术和商业成就。英文片名《飘》(即《随风而去》)出自美国诗人欧内斯特·道森的一句诗。女主角的经典压轴台词“明天是新的一天”乃原作出版前的暂定名。本片荣获奥斯卡最佳影片、最佳导演、最佳女主角、最佳女配角等七项大奖。1994年的续集《郝斯佳》(Scarlett)是一部长达360分钟的电视剧，豪华制作，服装布景等下了血本。故事讲郝斯佳跟白瑞德离婚后依然藕断丝连，她甚至回到爱尔兰，被控谋杀等等。影片根据雷普利小说改编。
影片拍摄耗资390万美元，在当时仅屈居于《宾虚》和《地狱天使》之后。在小说出版的一个月后，制片人大卫·塞尔兹尼克就用5万美元买下了小说的电影拍摄权，对于新人的处女作来讲，这个价码在当时可谓是天文数字。在1942年塞尔兹尼克的制片公司解散时，他又向小说作者玛格丽特·米歇尔支付了5万美元的分红。玛格丽特笔下艾什利和梅兰尼的人物原型都是她的表兄妹，多克和马蒂相爱，但他们是虔诚的天主教徒，有血缘关系的亲属是严禁结婚的。后来，多克离开了马蒂，到西部成了不法之徒，而马蒂则作了修女。
片中失火的场景是最先拍摄的，包括1933年《金刚》中使用的布景均被付之一炬，这段胶片长113分钟，共耗资25000美元，当时的火情十分猛烈，以至不知情的公众以为米高梅都化为灰烬了，报警电话响作一团。
在拍摄斯嘉丽从火中逃生的画面时，剧组需要一匹瘦骨嶙峋的老马，几经寻找，终于物色到一匹，然而当几周后马被带到片场，原先清晰可见的肋骨痕迹因为增重已经荡然无存，由于时间紧迫，化妆师只好在马的肋骨部位画出阴影。
《飘》-经典台词
美国电影学院每年都会为一些特别的电影项目评出前100名。05年取得经典台词榜第一的电影《乱世佳人》是克拉克·盖博在1939年出演的的一句台词。那是白瑞德对郝思嘉说的一句话：“坦白说，亲爱的，我一点也不在乎。”“盖博的这句台词被人们在不同的场合引用，”鲍博说。“无论男女，当他们陷入一种并没有完全投入的恋爱关系时，想要控制局面，就会用到这句话。”
《飘》-所获奖项
本片在第十二届奥斯卡金像奖（1939）中荣获八项大奖：
最佳女主角奖（Best Actress）.........................费·雯丽（Vivien Leigh）
最佳女配角奖（Best Supporting Actress）......哈蒂·麦克丹尼尔（Hattie McDaniel）
最佳影片奖（Best Picture）...........................《乱世佳人》（Gone With the Wind）
最佳导演奖（Best Director）..........................维克多·弗莱明（Victor Fleming）
最佳编剧奖（Best Screenplay）....................悉尼·霍华德 （Sidney Howard）
最佳艺术指导（Best Art Direction）...............Lyle R. Wheeler
最佳摄影奖（Best Cinematography）............Ernest Haller & Ray Rennahan
最佳剪辑奖（Best Film Editing）....................Hal C. Kern & James E. Newcom
《飘》-点评
有人说这部电影最经典的场面是Scarlett O’Hara在战争后回到被毁的家园，在园中手握红土发誓，无论去偷去抢都不会让家人挨饿那段，因为那时她的眼神和表情真的特别震撼人。这样说我也不反对，因为这实在是一部太经典的片子，经典的场面太多，各人有各人的偏爱。我倒是情愿选择这个：以后，明天就是新的一天了。什么是爱？什么是恨？爱和恨可以象两条永不相交的平行线，爱和恨也可能只需要一缕阳光就可以消融。珍惜拥有的人是幸福的，因为我们总是并不确切知道我们需要的到底是什么。太多的人只有在失去的时候，才知道去珍惜。
泰戈尔有一句诗我特别喜欢：如果错过太阳时你流泪了，那么你也将错过星星了。历尽沧桑，你要学会忽略过去。因为——tomorrow is another day。
《飘》-《飘》获选英国史上最受欢迎电影
根据英国电影学院近日进行的一项评选，由老牌影星克拉克·盖博和费文丽主演的描写美国内战的影片《飘》荣获英国历史上最受欢迎影片奖。根据电影票的销售数量统计，自从1940年在英国上映以来，已有3500万观众观看了《飘》。《音乐之声》名列第2，自从1938年上映以来，有3000万人观看。名列第3和第4的分别是《白雪公主和七个小矮人》(2800万人)和《星球大战》(2070万人)。这次入选最受欢迎的十部电影排行榜的电影三分之一来自英国，其中名列第5的是《枯木逢春》。这次评选活动的主办方表示：“这是英国历史上第一次评选最受观众喜爱的影片。”位列6到10名的影片分别是《黄金时代》、《森林王子》、《泰坦尼克》、《地狱圣女》以及《七宗罪》。
Title
The title is taken from the first line of the third stanza of the poem Non Sum Qualis eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae by Ernest Dowson: "I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind". The novel's protagonist, Scarlett O'Hara, also uses the title phrase in a line in the book: when her home area is overtaken by the Yankees, she wonders to herself if her home, a plantation called Tara, is still standing, or if it was "also gone with the wind which had swept through Georgia". More generally, the title has been interpreted as referring to the entire way of life of the antebellum South as having "Gone with the Wind". The prologue of the movie refers to the old way of life in the South as "gone with the wind…."
The title for the novel was a problem for Mitchell. She initially titled the book "Pansy", the original name for the character of Scarlett O'Hara. Although never seriously considered, the title "Pansy" was dropped once MacMillan persuaded Mitchell to rename the main character. Other proposed titles included "Tote the Weary Load" and "Tomorrow is Another Day", the latter taken from the last line in the book; however, the publisher noted that there were several books close to the same title at the time, so Mitchell was asked to find another title, and "Gone with the Wind" was chosen.
Plot
This section's plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (April 2009)
Overview
Scarlett O'Hara is the daughter of an Irish immigrant who has risen from humble origins to become materially and socially successful in the deep south of 1861. He owns a plantation named Tara in Georgia. Scarlett is infatuated with Ashley Wilkes, who, although attracted to her, marries his cousin, Melanie Hamilton. Wilkes is genuinely ambiguous about his feelings toward Scarlett. He knows his feelings run deep, and are both emotional and sexual in nature; but he never resolves whether to act upon his feelings, or to renounce them and definitively reject Scarlett’s flirtations, in favor of his wife and his social position. And though he never sins in the flesh, the novel clearly implies that he does so in his heart, leading Scarlett along; limited only by his weakness in making a decision as to what ultimately, he should do.
At the party announcing Ashley's engagement to Melanie, Scarlett meets Rhett Butler, who has a reputation as a rogue. As the Civil War begins, Scarlett accepts a proposal of marriage from Melanie's brother, Charles Hamilton, who soon dies of disease in training. Scarlett's main concern regarding his death is that she must wear black and cannot attend parties. After the war, Scarlett inherits Tara and manages to keep the place going. When Scarlett cannot get money from Rhett to pay the taxes on Tara, she marries her sister's fiancé, Frank Kennedy, takes control of his business, and increases its profitability with business practices that make many Atlantans resent her. Frank is killed when he and other Ku Klux Klan members raid a shanty town where Scarlet was assaulted while driving alone. Remorseful after Frank's death, Scarlett marries Rhett, who is aware of her passion for Ashley but hopes that one day she will come to love him instead. Scarlett eventually comes to realize that she does love Rhett, but only once the couple has been through so much that Rhett has fallen out of love with her.
Part one
Scarlett O'Hara is the belle of the County. Her flirtatiousness and charm won the hearts of many men in Clayton County, Georgia. At sixteen years old, however, she begins the trials that will completely overtake her life for the next twelve years. She does this by having an impromptu marriage with the bashful Charles Hamilton to save face and make her real love—Ashley Wilkes—jealous. However, soon after their wedding, Charles and all the other men in Georgia who are able to bear arms, go to war against the Yankees at the start of the Civil War. After six weeks of being in camp, Charles dies of measles. With Charles's death, Scarlett's main concern is that, in order to conform to society, she must dress in black mourning clothes and attend no parties.
Parts two and three
Scarlett moves to Atlanta to stay with her sister-in-law and Ashley’s wife, Melanie Wilkes and Melanie's Aunt Pittypat. Melanie grows to love Scarlett like a sister; however, Scarlett is very self-centered and resents Melanie. Scarlett meets Rhett Butler again while in Atlanta; he is attentive to her and she uses him (and his money) when it is convenient. Rhett has a bad reputation and is "not received" in polite society. Ashley is able to come home for Christmas from the war and stay with the ladies. At the end of his stay, Scarlett promises him that she will keep Melanie safe. With the help of Rhett and her personal slave, Prissy, Scarlett delivers Melanie's child Beau in the middle of a battle and leads Melanie, the baby and Prissy to safety back at Tara. The Civil War is ending and the northern army is marching through Georgia laying waste to the country. Upon her arrival, Scarlett hears the news of the death of her beloved mother, Ellen, of typhoid. Scarlett stays at Tara Plantation and tries to keep it solvent and care for its inhabitants.
Part four
Scarlett hears that Tara is about to be charged an enormous amount of tax by the new corrupt local government which she cannot pay. She decides to go to Atlanta and charm Rhett into paying the bill. After offering herself to Rhett as his mistress and being refused, however, Scarlett marries Frank Kennedy, who has enough money to pay the tax on Tara. Frank is the fiancé of Scarlett's sister Suellen so she deceives him into thinking that Suellen is engaged to someone else in Clayton County.
With money borrowed from and then repaid to Rhett, Scarlett buys two timber mills and proceeds to make them very profitable. Her actions are considered very inappropriate for a woman by Atlanta society. As she travels home from it one night, she is attacked. Frank, Ashley, and many other men in the newly formed Ku Klux Klan avenge her attack. In the fight, Frank is killed.
A few months later Scarlett marries Rhett, who has become very rich by dubious means during the War.
Part five
Scarlett and Rhett start to enjoy their new life together. They have a child named Eugenia Victoria "Bonnie Blue" Butler, who becomes Rhett’s pride and joy. They live happily until Scarlett’s old infatuation with Ashley takes over. When Bonnie is killed in a riding accident Scarlett in the first flush of grief tells Rhett that she blames him. Rhett is heartbroken over the death of his beloved daughter. He drinks heavily and finally decides, after the death of Melanie Wilkes, to leave Scarlett forever. However, Scarlett realizes that she loves Rhett and never truly loved Ashley, but merely an idea of him. She confesses this to Rhett, but he is adamant. The book ends on an ambiguous note, as she decided to return to the familiarity of her beloved Tara, where she will find a way to win Rhett back: "Tomorrow is another day!".
Characters
Butler family
* Rhett Butler – Scarlett's love interest and third husband, often publicly shunned for scandalous behavior, sometimes accepted for his charm. He is financially a very shrewd man and initially appears to love Scarlett dearly.
* Eugenia Victoria "Bonnie Blue" Butler – Scarlett and Rhett's pretty, beloved daughter.
Wilkes family
* Ashley Wilkes – The gallant Ashley married his unglamourous cousin, Melanie, because she represented all that he loved and wanted in life, that is, the quiet and happy life of a Southern gentleman of the "Twelve Oaks" plantation. Ashley Wilkes marries Melanie Hamilton as an arranged marriage between the Wilkes-Hamilton families; in which the marriage of cousins (which Ashley and Melanie are) is the practice; when necessary to preserve the blood line and social position of the family. As such, Wilkes is not, in the strictest sense, brought to marriage by love, money, or sexual infatuation; but by a sense of duty to preserve the socio-economic status quo of a world which he personally enjoys and agrees with; and believes this marriage will support and sustain.
Wilkes becomes a soldier for the Confederate cause though he personally would have freed the slaves his father owned had the war not erupted, or at least that is what he claimed. Although many of his friends and relations were killed in the Civil War, Ashley survived to see its brutal aftermath. He remains the object of Scarlett's daydream of infatuated devotion, even throughout her three marriages. She is simply obsessed with unobtainable Ashley. Believing that she was in love with him, Scarlett imagined Ashley to be the "perfect man", leaving her unable to love another.
* Melanie Hamilton Wilkes – Ashley's wife and cousin, her character is that of the genuinely humble, serene and gracious Southern woman. As the story unfolds, Melanie becomes progressively physically weaker, first by childbirth, then the effects of war, and ultimately illness. She had her own unique inner spirit of perseverance, as did Scarlett. Melanie loved Ashley, Beau, and Scarlett unwaveringly, and dutifully supported the Confederate cause, revealing the naivete of her character.
* Beau Wilkes – Melanie's and Ashley's lovable son.
* India Wilkes – Ashley's sister. Almost engaged to Stuart Tarleton, she bitterly hates Scarlett for stealing his attention before he is killed at Gettysburg. Lives with Aunt Pittypat after Melanie kicks her out for accusing Scarlett and Ashley of infidelity.
* Honey Wilkes – another sister of India and Ashley. Originally hoped to marry Charles Hamilton until Scarlett marries him; following the war, she marries a man from Mississippi, and moves to his home state with him.
* John Wilkes – Owner of Twelve Oaks Plantation and patriarch of the Wilkes family. Killed during the Civil War.
O'Hara family
* Scarlett O'Hara – The wilful protagonist of the novel, whose travails the novel follows throughout war and reconstruction. She marries Charles Hamilton, Frank Kennedy and Rhett Butler, all the time wishing she was married to Ashley Wilkes instead. She has three children, one from each husband: Wade Hampton Hamilton (son to Charles Hamilton), Ella Lorena Kennedy (daughter to Frank Kennedy) and Eugenia Victoria "Bonnie Blue" Butler (deceased daughter to Rhett Butler).
* Gerald O'Hara – Scarlett's impetuous Irish father.
* Suellen O'Hara – Scarlett's selfish sister.
* Carreen O'Hara – Scarlett's timid, religious sister who, in the end of the story, joins a convent.
* Ellen O'Hara – Scarlett's gracious mother, of French ancestry.
Other characters
* Mammy – Scarlett's nurse from birth; a slave. Cited by Rhett as "the real head of the household." She has a no-nonsense attitude and is outspoken and opinionated. She chastises Scarlett often. She is extremely loyal to the O'Haras, especially Scarlett, whom she cares for like a daughter.
* Prissy – A young slave girl who features in Scarlett's life. She is portrayed as flighty and silly.
* Pork – The O'Hara family's butler, favored by Gerald.
* Dilcey – Pork's wife, a strong, outspoken slave woman of mixed Indian and Black decent, Prissy's mother.
* Charles Hamilton – Melanie's brother, Scarlett's first husband, shy and loving.
* Frank Kennedy – Suellen's former beau, Scarlett's second husband, an older man who only wants peace and quiet. He originally asks for Suellen's hand in marriage, but Scarlett steals him to save Tara. He is portrayed as a pushover who will do anything to appease Scarlett.
* Belle Watling – a brothel madam and prostitute; Rhett is her friend. She is portrayed as a kind-hearted country woman and a loyal confederate. At one point she states she has nursing experience.
* Archie – an ex-convict and former Confederate soldier who is taken in by Melanie. Has a strong disliking for all women, especially Scarlett. The only woman he respects is Melanie.
* Jonas Wilkerson – former overseer of Tara, father of Emmie Slattery's illegitimate baby. After being dismissed because of the aforementioned he eventually becomes employed by the Freedmen's Bureau, where he abuses his position to get back at the O'Haras and becomes rich.
* Emmie Slattery – later wife of Jonas Wilkerson, whom Scarlett blames for her mother's death.
* Will Benteen – Confederate soldier who seeks refuge at Tara and stays on to help with the plantation, in love with Carreen but marries Suellen to stay on Tara, and repair her reputation. He is portrayed as very perceptive and lost half of his leg in the war.
* Aunt Pittypat Hamilton – Charles and Melanie's vaporish aunt who lives in Atlanta.
* Uncle Peter – Aunt Pittypat's houseman and driver, he is extremely loyal to Pittypat.
Setting
* Tara Plantation – The O'Hara home and plantation
* Twelve Oaks – The Wilkes' plantation.
* Peachtree Street – location of Aunt Pittypat's home in Atlanta
The novel opens in April 1861 and ends in the early autumn of 1873.
Politics
The book includes a vivid description of the fall of Atlanta in 1864 and the devastation of war (some of that aspect was missing from the 1939 film). The novel showed considerable historical research. According to her biography, Mitchell herself was ten years old before she learned that the South had lost the war. Mitchell's sweeping narrative of war and loss helped the book win the Pulitzer Prize on May 3, 1937.
An episode in the book dealt with the early Ku Klux Klan. In the immediate aftermath of the War, Scarlett is assaulted by poor Southerners living in shanties, whereupon her former black slave Big Sam saves her life. In response, Scarlett's male friends attempt to make a retaliatory nighttime raid on the encampment. Northern soldiers try to stop the attacks, and Rhett helps Ashley, who is shot, to get help through his prostitute friend Belle. Scarlett's husband Frank is killed. This raid is presented sympathetically as being necessary and justified, while the law-enforcement officers trying to catch the perpetrators are depicted as oppressive Northern occupiers.
Although the Klan is not mentioned in that scene (though Rhett tells Archie to burn the "robes"), the book notes that Scarlett finds the Klan abominable. She believed the men should all just stay at home (she wanted both to be petted for her ordeal and to give the hated Yankees no more reason to tighten martial law, which is bad for her businesses). Rhett is also mentioned to be no great lover of the Klan. At one point, he said that if it were necessary, he would join in an effort to join "society". The novel never explicitly states whether this drastic step was necessary in his view. The local chapter later breaks up under the pressure from Rhett and Ashley.
Scarlett expresses views that were common of the era. Some examples:
* "How stupid negroes were! They never thought of anything unless they were told." — Scarlett thinks to herself, after returning to Tara after the fall of Atlanta.
* "How dared they laugh, the black apes!...She'd like to have them all whipped until the blood ran down...What devils the Yankees were to set them free!" — Scarlett again thinking to herself, seeing free blacks after the war.
* However, she is kind to Pork, her father's trusted manservant. He tells Scarlett that if she were as nice to white people as she is to black, a lot more people would like her.
* She almost loses her temper when the Yankee women say they would never have a black nurse in their house and talk about Uncle Peter, Aunt Pittypat's beloved and loyal servant, as if he were a mule. Scarlett informs them that Uncle Peter is a member of the family, which bewilders the Yankee women and leads them to misinterpret the situation.
* It was mentioned that only one slave was ever whipped at Tara, and that was a stablehand who didn't brush Gerald's horse. The only time Scarlett hit a slave was when Prissy was hysterical.
* Scarlett at one point criticized Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, saying no one treated their slaves that badly.
Inspirations
As several elements of Gone with the Wind have parallels with Margaret Mitchell's own life, her experiences may have provided some inspiration for the story in context. Mitchell's understanding of life and hardship during the American Civil War, for example, came from elderly relatives and neighbors passing war stories to her generation.
While Margaret Mitchell used to say that her Gone with the Wind characters were not based on real people, modern researchers have found similarities to some of the people in Mitchell's own life as well as to individuals she knew or she heard of. Mitchell's maternal grandmother, Annie Fitzgerald Stephens, was born in 1845; she was the daughter of an Irish immigrant, who owned a large plantation on Tara Road in Clayton County, south of Atlanta, and who married an American woman named Ellen, and had several children, all daughters.
Many researchers believe that the physical brutality and low regard for women exhibited by Rhett Butler was based on Mitchell's first husband, Red Upshaw. She divorced him after she learned he was a bootlegger amid rumors of abuse and infidelity. Some believe he was patterned on the life of George Trenholm.
After a stay at the plantation called The Woodlands, and later Barnsley Gardens, Mitchell may have gotten the inspiration for the dashing scoundrel from Sir Godfrey Barnsley of Adairsville, Georgia.
Belle Watling was based on Lexington, Kentucky, madam Belle Brezing.
Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, the mother of US president Theodore Roosevelt may have been an inspiration for Scarlett O'Hara. Roosevelt biographer David McCullough discovered that Mitchell, as a reporter for The Atlanta Journal, conducted an interview with one of Martha's closest friends and bridesmaid, Evelyn King Baker, then 87. In that interview, she described Martha's physical appearance, beauty, grace, and intelligence in detail. The similarities between Martha and the Scarlett character are striking.
Reception
The sales of Margaret Mitchell's novel in the summer of 1936, at the virtually unprecedented price of three dollars, reached about one million by the end of December. Favorable critics found in the novel and its success an implicit rejection of what one reviewer dismissed as "all the thousands of technical tricks our novelists have been playing with for the past twenty years," while from the ramparts of the critical establishment almost universally male reviewers lamented the book's literary mediocrity and labeled it mere "entertainment." [citation needed]
Symbolism
Over the past years, the novel Gone with the Wind has also been analyzed for its symbolism and treatment of archetypes. For example, Scarlett has been characterized as a heroic figure struggling and attempting to twist life to suit her own personal wishes in society. The land is considered a source of strength, as in the plantation Tara, whose name is almost certainly drawn from the Hill of Tara in Ireland, a mysterious and poorly-understood archeological site that has traditionally been connected to the temporal and/or spiritual authority of the ancient Irish kings. It also represents the permanence of the land in a rapid changing world. Scarlett’s beautiful, perky hats take part of the symbolism as well. They show her feminine side and how she wants nothing more than to be the most attractive woman and the center of attention.
Sequels
Although Mitchell refused to write a sequel to Gone With The Wind, Mitchell's estate authorised Alexandra Ripley to write the novel Scarlett in 1991.
Author Pat Conroy was approached to write a follow-up, but the project was ultimately abandoned.
In 2000, the copyright holders attempted to suppress publication of Alice Randall’s The Wind Done Gone, a book that retold the story from the point of view of the slaves. A federal appeals court denied the plaintiffs an injunction against publication in Suntrust v. Houghton Mifflin (2001), on the basis that the book was parody protected by the First Amendment. The parties subsequently settled out of court to allow the book to be published. After its release, the book became a New York Times bestseller.
In 2002, the copyright holders blocked distribution of an unauthorised sequel published in the U.S, The Winds of Tara by Katherine Pinotti, alleging copyright infringement. The story follows Scarlett as she returns to Tara where a family issue threatens Tara and the family's reputation. In it Scarlett shows just how far she will go to protect her family and her home. The book was immediately removed from bookstores by publisher Xlibris. The book sold in excess of 2,000 copies within 2 weeks before being removed. More recently, in 2008, Australian publisher Fontaine Press re-published "The Winds of Tara" exclusively for their domestic market, avoiding U.S. copyright restrictions.
A second sequel was released in November 2007. The story covers the same time period as Gone with the Wind and is told from Rhett Butler’s perspective – although it begins years before and ends after. Written by Donald McCaig, this novel is titled Rhett Butler's People (2007).
Adaptations
Gone With The Wind has been adapted several times for stage and screen, most famously in the 1939 film starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.
On stage it has been adapted as a musical Scarlett (premiering in 1972). The musical opened in the West End followed by a pre-Broadway tryout in 1973 (with Lesley Ann Warren as Scarlett). The book was again adapted as a musical called Gone With The Wind which premiered at the New London Theatre in 2008 in a production directed by Trevor Nunn.
The Japanese Takarazuka Revue has also adapted the novel into a musical with the same name. The first performance was in 1977, performed by the Moon Troupe. It has been performed several times since by the group, the most recent being in 2004 (performed by the Cosmos Troupe).
There has also been a French musical Autant en Emporte le Vent, based on the book.
Awards
The novel won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning 1939 film of the same name. The book was also adapted during the 1970s into a stage musical Scarlett; there is also a 2008 new musical stage adaptation in London's West End titled Gone With The Wind. It is the only novel by Mitchell published during her lifetime. It took her seven years to write the book and a further eight months to check the thousands of historical and social references. The novel is one of the most popular books of all time, selling more than 30 million copies. Over the years, the novel has also been analyzed for its symbolism and treatment of archetypes.
Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
《汤姆·索亚历险记》是美国著名小说家马克·吐温的代表作，发表于1876年。小说主人公汤姆·索亚天真活泼，富于幻想和冒险，不堪忍受束缚个性，枯燥乏味的生活，幻想干一番英雄事业。小说通过主人公的冒险经历，对美国虚伪庸俗的社会习俗、伪善的宗教仪式和刻板陈腐的学校教育进行了讽刺和批判，以欢快的笔调描写了少年儿童自由活泼的心灵。《汤姆·索亚历险记》以其浓厚的深具地方特色的幽默和对人物敏锐观察，一跃成为最伟大的儿童文学作品，也是一首美国“黄金时代”的田园牧歌。与《汤姆·索亚历险记》的姊妹篇是《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》。
《汤姆·索亚历险记》-作品概述
《汤姆·索耶历险记》是《哈克贝里·费恩历险记》的姊姐篇。《汤姆·索亚历险记》是19世纪美国文学中一部伟大的批判现实主义作品，深刻地批判了资产阶级庸俗、保守、贪婪、虚伪的阶级本性和美国教育制度的腐败；它出色的塑造了两个敢于反抗时弊、追求自由的儿童的艺术形象，为现实主义文学的人物塑造增添了新的方面。
《汤姆·索亚历险记》构思精细，故事情节曲折有趣，语言简练生动，人物刻画生动逼真，尤其是心理描写有独到之处。它把人物的心理活动渗入到故事情节中去，伴随故事的发展，并通过人物自己的语言、行动和动作，细腻深入地描绘出人物的复杂心理及其变化过程，从而揭示出人物内心世界的秘密，突出人物的性格特征。
《汤姆·索亚历险记》是一部真切地反映了儿童充满童趣的生活的小说。马克·吐温写作时取材于自己儿时在故乡汉尼拔小镇上的所见所闻、亲身经历的人和事。所以令人感觉十分真实有趣，孩子们或许能在书中的人物身上找到与自己相似的地方，而大人们也能在书中拾到些自己童年时的味道。所以，这是一本老少皆宜的书。
《汤姆·索亚历险记》-内容介绍
《汤姆·索亚历险记》故事发生在19世纪上半叶密西西比河畔的一个普通小镇上。汤姆·索亚是个调皮的孩子，他和同父异母的弟弟希得一起接受姨妈波莉的监护。他总是能想出各种各样的恶作剧，让波莉姨妈无可奈何，而他也总能想尽办法来躲避惩罚。一天，汤姆见到了可爱的姑娘蓓姬·撒切尔，她是撒切尔法官的女儿。
汤姆一见到她就对她展开了攻势。而他的爱似乎也得到了回应。镇上有一个孩子叫哈克贝利·费恩。他的父亲总是酗酒，父母一直打架，因此他跑出来自己生活。他看起来和文明社会格格不入，大人们都不喜欢他，可汤姆和他却是好朋友。有一天他们约好晚上一起去墓地，却看到了意想不到的一幕。他们看到鲁滨逊医生、恶棍英乔·琼和喝得醉醺醺的莫夫·波特。
在他们混乱的厮打中，印第安·乔把医生杀死了，然后又嫁祸于被打昏的波特身上。汤姆和哈克被吓坏了，立了血誓决不泄密。波特被捕以后，汤姆十分内疚，经常去看望他。此时的汤姆事事不顺，贝基生了他的气，不再理睬他，波莉姨妈也总是呵斥他，他觉得没有人关心他。于是，汤姆、哈克和村上的另一个孩子一起乘小船去了一个海岛。可没过多久，他们便发现村里的人们以为他们淹死了，正在搜寻他们的尸体。汤姆晚上悄悄回到了姨妈家，发现波莉姨妈正在为他的“死”悲痛欲绝。汤姆觉得十分惭愧。最终，他们三个人在村民们为他们举行葬礼的时候回来了。
夏天来临时，汤姆便感到更加不安，因为法官将对波特的罪行作出判决。汤姆终于战胜了恐惧与自私，指出了印第安·乔就是杀人凶手。可凶手还是逃走了。后来，汤姆又想出了一个主意：寻找宝藏。汤姆和哈克偶然发现了印第安·乔和他的一大笔不义之财。但他们却不知道他把钱藏在哪里了。在贝基和同学们外出野餐时，哈克得知印第安·乔要去加害道格拉斯寡妇，因为她的丈夫曾经送他进过监狱。
幸亏哈克及时报信才避免了一场悲剧的发生，可印第安·乔再一次逃之夭夭。此时，汤姆和贝基在野餐时走进了一个山洞，因为洞太深而找不到回来的路，被困在里面。他们在山洞里再一次遇见了印第安·乔。村民费尽周折救出汤姆和贝基之后封死了山洞。后来汤姆告知村民印第安·乔还在里面。当他们找到他时，他已经死在山洞里了。恶人得到了应有的报应。
后来，汤姆经过分析，判定宝藏已经被印第安人乔藏到岩洞中了。于是他和哈克偷偷地潜入到岩洞中，并根据他们偷听到的关于“二号十字架”的描述一个刻有小小十字架的大石头，并找到了一个宝箱，里面有一万两千余元！发现宝藏的他们成了大富翁。 从此以后，汤姆和哈克变成了小镇上的“风云人物”，不仅走到哪儿都会受到欢迎，而且他们俩的小传还登在了镇报。
《汤姆·索亚历险记》-小说人物
《汤姆·索亚历险记》主人公汤姆有着敢于探险、追求自由、做错事后敢于承认错误、承认缺点的优秀性格特点。汤姆是个聪明爱动又调皮捣蛋的孩子，在他身上集中体现了智慧、计谋、正义、勇敢乃至领导等诸多才能。他是一个多重角色的集合，足智多谋，富于同情心，对现实环境持反感态度，一心要冲出桎梏，去当绿林好汉，过行侠仗义的生活。
小说塑造的汤姆·索亚是个有理想有抱负同时也有烦恼的形象，他有血有肉，栩栩如生，给读者留下了深刻的印象。在姨妈眼里，他是个顽童，调皮捣蛋，可是她却一次又一次地被他的“足智多谋”给软化了。
汤姆是主人公，关于他，梗概中有简单的概括──“淘气的机灵鬼”“镇上孩子的头儿”“在小伙伴眼中无所不能”。我们看看汤姆在山洞里回来后的表现：因为他身体虚弱，浑身没有一点力气，所以“躺在沙发上”。尽管如此，他讲得还是那样眉飞色舞，“同时还夸张地吹嘘一番”，可见他的淘气和历险后心里获得的极大满足──人们把他们回来看作奇迹，他也觉得自己成了真正的英雄！这是可爱极了。
《汤姆·索亚历险记》-小说评价
《汤姆·索亚历险记》是美国著名小说家马克·吐温的代表作，发表于1876年。小说通过主人公的冒险经历，对美国虚伪庸俗的社会习俗，伪善的宗教仪式和刻板陈腐的学校教育进行了讽刺和批判，以欢快的笔调描写了少年儿童自由活泼的心灵。《汤姆·索亚历险记》以其浓厚的深具地方特色的幽默和对人物敏锐观察，一跃成为最伟大的儿童文学作品，也是一首美国“黄金时代”的田园牧歌。
《汤姆索亚历险记》一书对自然景色的描绘与对人物的刻画十分细致逼真、充满幽默诙谐的描述。对作者自己家乡风景的描写尤其包饱深情，人物更是清晰生动、呼之欲出。但是，作者又以天真淳朴的故事主人公，揭示幻想和现在之间的矛盾。
《汤姆·索亚历险记》体现了马克·吐温擅长讲故事的杰出技巧和机智幽默的艺术风格。书中对自然景色的描绘和对人物的刻画十分细致逼真，充满幽默诙谐的描述，而在幽默背后贯穿着他对美国当时社会生活的严肃看法和鲜明立场。对家乡风光的描写尤其饱含深情，人物更是写得清晰生动，呼之欲出。整个故事的叙述十分自然流畅，想您一定会喜欢这个已经讲述了一百多年的动人故事。
在这部作品中，儿童的灵动活泼和周围现实生活的陈腐刻板形成了鲜明的对照。故事向人们展示了一些社会弊病和黑暗现实，揭示了宗教的虚伪性，无情地嘲讽了庸俗的小市民习气。作品问世以来，一直受到读者的喜爱，成为一部世界名著。
《汤姆·索亚历险记》是一部真切地反映了儿童充满童趣的生活的小说。马克·吐温写作时取材于自己儿时在故乡——汉尼拔小镇上的所见所闻、亲身经历的人和事。所以令人感觉十分真实有趣，孩子们或许能在书中的人物身上找到与自己相似的地方，而大人们也能在书中拾到些自己童年时的味道。
《汤姆·索亚历险记》-作者简介
《汤姆·索亚历险记》马克·吐温
马克·吐温(Mark Twain．1835～1910)，美国批判现实主义文学的奠基人，美国著名小说家，马克·吐温是笔名。他原名是塞缪·朗荷恩·克列门斯，1835年11月30日出生于密西西比河畔小城汉尼拔一个贫穷的律师家庭。他名字的含义是：水深十二英尺，轮船可以安全通过。
马克·吐温是美国批判现实主义文学的奠基人，世界公认的短篇小说大师，被誉为“美国文学中的林肯”。父亲是一名乡村律师，家中生活拮据。12岁时父亲去世，他开始自谋生计，年轻时当过报童、印刷所学徒、 排字工、密西西比河水手、淘金工人和舵手，所以他的创作具有坚实的生活基础。26岁时，他当上了记者，并采用马克·吐温这个笔名发表作品。
他的创作大致可分为三个时期：早期作品表现了对美国民主所存的幻想，以短篇为主，幽默与讽刺结合，批判不足，作品有《竞选州长》、《高尔斯的朋友再度出洋》、《百万英镑》等；中期以长篇小说为主，讽刺性加强，重要作品有《汤姆·索亚历险记》、《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》等；后期作品则由幽默讽刺转到愤怒的揭发、谴责、甚至有悲观的情绪，主要作品有《游记》等。他擅长使用幽默和讽刺，针砭时弊，毫不留情。他的作品对后来的美国文学产生了巨大深远的影响。人们普遍认为马克·吐温是美国文学史上的一大里程碑。
Most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred; one or two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individual—he is a combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of architecture.
Plot summary
The imaginative and mischievous twelve-year-old boy named Thomas Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly, his half-brother, Sid, also known as Sidney, and cousin Mary, in the Mississippi River town of St Petersburg, Missouri. After playing hooky from school on Friday and dirtying his clothes in a fight, Tom is made to whitewash the fence as punishment on Saturday. At first, Tom is disappointed by having to forfeit his day off. However, he soon cleverly persuades his friends to trade him a large marble for the privilege of doing his work. He trades these treasures for tickets given out in Sunday school for memorizing Bible verses and uses the tickets to claim a Bible as a prize. He loses much of his glory, however, when, in response to a question to show off his knowledge, he incorrectly answers that the first two Disciples were David and Goliath
Tom falls in love with Rebecca "Becky" Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades her to get “engaged” to him. Their love is ruined when she learns that Tom has been engaged to another girl before: Amy Lawrence. Shortly after Becky shuns him, Tom accompanies Huckleberry Finn, the son of the town drunk, to the graveyard at night to try out a “cure” for warts. At the graveyard, they witness the murder of young Dr Robinson by a part-Native American “half-breed”, Injun Joe. Scared, Tom and Huck run away in the process dropping the previously obtained marble, and swear a blood oath not to tell anyone what they have seen. Injun Joe blames his companion, Muff Potter, a hapless drunk, for the crime. Potter is wrongfully arrested, and Tom's anxiety and guilt begin to grow. Tom, Huck and their friend Joe Harper run away to an island on the Mississippi, in order to "become pirates". While frolicking around and enjoying their new-found freedom, the boys become aware that the community is sounding the river for their bodies. Tom sneaks back home one night to observe the commotion. After a brief moment of remorse at the suffering of his loved ones, Tom is struck by the idea of appearing at his funeral and surprising everyone. He persuades Joe and Huck to do the same. Their return is met with great rejoicing, and they become the envy and admiration of all their friends.
Back in school, Tom gets himself back in Becky's favour after he nobly accepts the blame for a book that she has torn. Soon Muff Potter's trial begins, and Tom, overcome by guilt, testifies against Injun Joe. Potter is acquitted, but Injun Joe flees the courtroom through a window. Tom and Huck witness him finding a box of gold with his partner, a Spaniard, and Huck begins to shadow Injun Joe every night, watching for an opportunity to nab the gold. Meanwhile, Tom goes on a picnic to McDougal's Cave with Becky and their classmates. That same night, Huck sees Injun Joe and his partner making off with a box. He follows and overhears their plans to attack the Widow Douglas, a kind resident of St. Petersburg. By running to fetch help, Huck forestalls the violence and becomes an anonymous hero.
Tom and Becky get lost in the cave, and their absence is not discovered until the following morning. The men of the town begin to search for them, but to no avail. Tom and Becky run out of food and candles and begin to weaken. The horror of the situation increases when Tom, looking for a way out of the cave, happens upon Injun Joe, who is using the cave as a hideout. At the sight of Tom, Injun Joe flees. Eventually, just as the searchers are giving up, Tom finds a way out. The town celebrates, and Becky's father, Judge Thatcher seals up the main entrance with an iron door. After a week Injun Joe, trapped inside, starves causing him to die. Injun Joe's partner accidentally drowns trying to escape.
A week later, Tom takes Huck to the cave via the new entrance Tom has found and they find the box of gold, the proceeds of which are invested for them. The Widow Douglas adopts Huck, and, when Huck attempts to escape civilized life, Tom promises him that if he returns to the widow, he can join Tom's robber band. Reluctantly, Huck agrees.
Publication history
The first publication of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was by Chatto and Windus, in England in June 1876 (it was listed as "ready" on June 10 and was reviewed on June 24 in the literary publication The Atheneum), and in the U.S. by subscription only in December 1876. Twain and other U.S. authors used initial publication in England fairly often, since otherwise it was impossible to obtain a copyright in the British Commonwealth. In the case of Tom Sawyer, the delay between the London and U.S. editions extended much beyond what Twain envisioned, or desired. This led to widespread piracy of the work - notably a July 1876 pirated edition in Canada obtained by many American readers - and, Twain believed, to a significant loss of his royalties.
When the work did appear in the U.S., it was sold by subscription only. In this distribution method, book agents across the country took orders for the book prior to publication and then delivered the book when available. It was only with subsequent editions that the book became available retail shops.
In dictations for his autobiography, Twain claimed Tom Sawyer "must have been" the first book whose manuscript was typed on a typewriter. However, typewriter historian Darryl Rehr has concluded that Twain's first typed manuscript was Life on the Mississippi.
Adaptations
The story of Tom Sawyer has been filmed or animated multiple times since its initial publication. Some of the film adaptations of Twain's novel include:
* A 1907 silent version released by the Paramount studio
* A 1917 silent version directed by William Desmond Taylor, starring Jack Pickford as Tom
* A 1930 version directed by John Cromwell, starring Jackie Coogan as Tom
* In 1938 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was filmed in Technicolor by the Selznick Studio. It starred Tommy Kelly as Tom and was directed by Norman Taurog. Most notable was the cave sequence designed by William Cameron Menzies.
* A 1947 Soviet Union version, directed by Lazar Frenkel and Gleb Zatvornitsky
* A 1960 US television serial, also shown on British television
* A 1968 French/German made-for-television miniseries, directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner, starring Roland Demongeot as Tom and Marc Di Napoli as Huck
* The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1968) was a half-hour live-action/animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions
* A 1973 musical version with songs by Richard and Robert Sherman, starring Johnny Whitaker as Tom and a young Jodie Foster as Becky Thatcher. A TV movie version sponsored by Dr. Pepper was released that same year. It starred Buddy Ebsen as Muff Potter and was filmed in Upper Canada Village.
* Huckleberry Finn and His Friends (1979 TV series)
* The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (anime) (1980), a Japanese anime TV series by Nippon Animation, part of the World Masterpiece Theater; aired in the United States on HBO
* [[Приключения Тома Сойера и Гекльберри Финна (фильм)The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (1981), another Soviet Union version directed by Stanislav Govorukhin.
* A 1984 Canadian claymation version produced by Hal Roach studios
* Tom and Huck (1995), starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas as Tom and Brad Renfro as Huck Finn
* A 1995 episode for the PBS Wishbone TV series "A Tail in Twain".
* The Modern Adventures of Tom Sawyer
* A 2000 animated adaptation, featuring the characters as anthropomorphic animals with an all-star voice cast, including country singers Rhett Akins (as Tom), Mark Wills (as Huck Finn), Lee Ann Womack, Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams Jr. as well as Betty White as Aunt Polly
* Tom Sawyer appears as a United States Secret Service agent in the 2003 movie based on comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
* This book was featured in an episode of The Fairly Odd Parents
Stage musicals: In 1956 'We're From Missouri', a musical adaptation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, with book, music and lyrics by Tom Boyd, was presented by the students at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 1960, Boyd's musical version (re-titled Tom Sawyer) was presented professionally at Theatre Royal Stratford East in London, England, and in 1961 toured provincial theatres in England.Tom Boyd's musical of TOM SAWYER was produced again in April and June 2010 in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England. Another musical adaptation is Mississippi Melody, a musical by Jack Hylton.
Theatrical Adaptation: In April 2010, The Hartford Stage presented a theatrical adaptation entitled Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as part of a centennial observation of Mark Twain's passing.
《汤姆·索亚历险记》-作品概述
《汤姆·索耶历险记》是《哈克贝里·费恩历险记》的姊姐篇。《汤姆·索亚历险记》是19世纪美国文学中一部伟大的批判现实主义作品，深刻地批判了资产阶级庸俗、保守、贪婪、虚伪的阶级本性和美国教育制度的腐败；它出色的塑造了两个敢于反抗时弊、追求自由的儿童的艺术形象，为现实主义文学的人物塑造增添了新的方面。
《汤姆·索亚历险记》构思精细，故事情节曲折有趣，语言简练生动，人物刻画生动逼真，尤其是心理描写有独到之处。它把人物的心理活动渗入到故事情节中去，伴随故事的发展，并通过人物自己的语言、行动和动作，细腻深入地描绘出人物的复杂心理及其变化过程，从而揭示出人物内心世界的秘密，突出人物的性格特征。
《汤姆·索亚历险记》是一部真切地反映了儿童充满童趣的生活的小说。马克·吐温写作时取材于自己儿时在故乡汉尼拔小镇上的所见所闻、亲身经历的人和事。所以令人感觉十分真实有趣，孩子们或许能在书中的人物身上找到与自己相似的地方，而大人们也能在书中拾到些自己童年时的味道。所以，这是一本老少皆宜的书。
《汤姆·索亚历险记》-内容介绍
《汤姆·索亚历险记》故事发生在19世纪上半叶密西西比河畔的一个普通小镇上。汤姆·索亚是个调皮的孩子，他和同父异母的弟弟希得一起接受姨妈波莉的监护。他总是能想出各种各样的恶作剧，让波莉姨妈无可奈何，而他也总能想尽办法来躲避惩罚。一天，汤姆见到了可爱的姑娘蓓姬·撒切尔，她是撒切尔法官的女儿。
汤姆一见到她就对她展开了攻势。而他的爱似乎也得到了回应。镇上有一个孩子叫哈克贝利·费恩。他的父亲总是酗酒，父母一直打架，因此他跑出来自己生活。他看起来和文明社会格格不入，大人们都不喜欢他，可汤姆和他却是好朋友。有一天他们约好晚上一起去墓地，却看到了意想不到的一幕。他们看到鲁滨逊医生、恶棍英乔·琼和喝得醉醺醺的莫夫·波特。
在他们混乱的厮打中，印第安·乔把医生杀死了，然后又嫁祸于被打昏的波特身上。汤姆和哈克被吓坏了，立了血誓决不泄密。波特被捕以后，汤姆十分内疚，经常去看望他。此时的汤姆事事不顺，贝基生了他的气，不再理睬他，波莉姨妈也总是呵斥他，他觉得没有人关心他。于是，汤姆、哈克和村上的另一个孩子一起乘小船去了一个海岛。可没过多久，他们便发现村里的人们以为他们淹死了，正在搜寻他们的尸体。汤姆晚上悄悄回到了姨妈家，发现波莉姨妈正在为他的“死”悲痛欲绝。汤姆觉得十分惭愧。最终，他们三个人在村民们为他们举行葬礼的时候回来了。
夏天来临时，汤姆便感到更加不安，因为法官将对波特的罪行作出判决。汤姆终于战胜了恐惧与自私，指出了印第安·乔就是杀人凶手。可凶手还是逃走了。后来，汤姆又想出了一个主意：寻找宝藏。汤姆和哈克偶然发现了印第安·乔和他的一大笔不义之财。但他们却不知道他把钱藏在哪里了。在贝基和同学们外出野餐时，哈克得知印第安·乔要去加害道格拉斯寡妇，因为她的丈夫曾经送他进过监狱。
幸亏哈克及时报信才避免了一场悲剧的发生，可印第安·乔再一次逃之夭夭。此时，汤姆和贝基在野餐时走进了一个山洞，因为洞太深而找不到回来的路，被困在里面。他们在山洞里再一次遇见了印第安·乔。村民费尽周折救出汤姆和贝基之后封死了山洞。后来汤姆告知村民印第安·乔还在里面。当他们找到他时，他已经死在山洞里了。恶人得到了应有的报应。
后来，汤姆经过分析，判定宝藏已经被印第安人乔藏到岩洞中了。于是他和哈克偷偷地潜入到岩洞中，并根据他们偷听到的关于“二号十字架”的描述一个刻有小小十字架的大石头，并找到了一个宝箱，里面有一万两千余元！发现宝藏的他们成了大富翁。 从此以后，汤姆和哈克变成了小镇上的“风云人物”，不仅走到哪儿都会受到欢迎，而且他们俩的小传还登在了镇报。
《汤姆·索亚历险记》-小说人物
《汤姆·索亚历险记》主人公汤姆有着敢于探险、追求自由、做错事后敢于承认错误、承认缺点的优秀性格特点。汤姆是个聪明爱动又调皮捣蛋的孩子，在他身上集中体现了智慧、计谋、正义、勇敢乃至领导等诸多才能。他是一个多重角色的集合，足智多谋，富于同情心，对现实环境持反感态度，一心要冲出桎梏，去当绿林好汉，过行侠仗义的生活。
小说塑造的汤姆·索亚是个有理想有抱负同时也有烦恼的形象，他有血有肉，栩栩如生，给读者留下了深刻的印象。在姨妈眼里，他是个顽童，调皮捣蛋，可是她却一次又一次地被他的“足智多谋”给软化了。
汤姆是主人公，关于他，梗概中有简单的概括──“淘气的机灵鬼”“镇上孩子的头儿”“在小伙伴眼中无所不能”。我们看看汤姆在山洞里回来后的表现：因为他身体虚弱，浑身没有一点力气，所以“躺在沙发上”。尽管如此，他讲得还是那样眉飞色舞，“同时还夸张地吹嘘一番”，可见他的淘气和历险后心里获得的极大满足──人们把他们回来看作奇迹，他也觉得自己成了真正的英雄！这是可爱极了。
《汤姆·索亚历险记》-小说评价
《汤姆·索亚历险记》是美国著名小说家马克·吐温的代表作，发表于1876年。小说通过主人公的冒险经历，对美国虚伪庸俗的社会习俗，伪善的宗教仪式和刻板陈腐的学校教育进行了讽刺和批判，以欢快的笔调描写了少年儿童自由活泼的心灵。《汤姆·索亚历险记》以其浓厚的深具地方特色的幽默和对人物敏锐观察，一跃成为最伟大的儿童文学作品，也是一首美国“黄金时代”的田园牧歌。
《汤姆索亚历险记》一书对自然景色的描绘与对人物的刻画十分细致逼真、充满幽默诙谐的描述。对作者自己家乡风景的描写尤其包饱深情，人物更是清晰生动、呼之欲出。但是，作者又以天真淳朴的故事主人公，揭示幻想和现在之间的矛盾。
《汤姆·索亚历险记》体现了马克·吐温擅长讲故事的杰出技巧和机智幽默的艺术风格。书中对自然景色的描绘和对人物的刻画十分细致逼真，充满幽默诙谐的描述，而在幽默背后贯穿着他对美国当时社会生活的严肃看法和鲜明立场。对家乡风光的描写尤其饱含深情，人物更是写得清晰生动，呼之欲出。整个故事的叙述十分自然流畅，想您一定会喜欢这个已经讲述了一百多年的动人故事。
在这部作品中，儿童的灵动活泼和周围现实生活的陈腐刻板形成了鲜明的对照。故事向人们展示了一些社会弊病和黑暗现实，揭示了宗教的虚伪性，无情地嘲讽了庸俗的小市民习气。作品问世以来，一直受到读者的喜爱，成为一部世界名著。
《汤姆·索亚历险记》是一部真切地反映了儿童充满童趣的生活的小说。马克·吐温写作时取材于自己儿时在故乡——汉尼拔小镇上的所见所闻、亲身经历的人和事。所以令人感觉十分真实有趣，孩子们或许能在书中的人物身上找到与自己相似的地方，而大人们也能在书中拾到些自己童年时的味道。
《汤姆·索亚历险记》-作者简介
《汤姆·索亚历险记》马克·吐温
马克·吐温(Mark Twain．1835～1910)，美国批判现实主义文学的奠基人，美国著名小说家，马克·吐温是笔名。他原名是塞缪·朗荷恩·克列门斯，1835年11月30日出生于密西西比河畔小城汉尼拔一个贫穷的律师家庭。他名字的含义是：水深十二英尺，轮船可以安全通过。
马克·吐温是美国批判现实主义文学的奠基人，世界公认的短篇小说大师，被誉为“美国文学中的林肯”。父亲是一名乡村律师，家中生活拮据。12岁时父亲去世，他开始自谋生计，年轻时当过报童、印刷所学徒、 排字工、密西西比河水手、淘金工人和舵手，所以他的创作具有坚实的生活基础。26岁时，他当上了记者，并采用马克·吐温这个笔名发表作品。
他的创作大致可分为三个时期：早期作品表现了对美国民主所存的幻想，以短篇为主，幽默与讽刺结合，批判不足，作品有《竞选州长》、《高尔斯的朋友再度出洋》、《百万英镑》等；中期以长篇小说为主，讽刺性加强，重要作品有《汤姆·索亚历险记》、《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》等；后期作品则由幽默讽刺转到愤怒的揭发、谴责、甚至有悲观的情绪，主要作品有《游记》等。他擅长使用幽默和讽刺，针砭时弊，毫不留情。他的作品对后来的美国文学产生了巨大深远的影响。人们普遍认为马克·吐温是美国文学史上的一大里程碑。
Most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred; one or two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individual—he is a combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of architecture.
Plot summary
The imaginative and mischievous twelve-year-old boy named Thomas Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly, his half-brother, Sid, also known as Sidney, and cousin Mary, in the Mississippi River town of St Petersburg, Missouri. After playing hooky from school on Friday and dirtying his clothes in a fight, Tom is made to whitewash the fence as punishment on Saturday. At first, Tom is disappointed by having to forfeit his day off. However, he soon cleverly persuades his friends to trade him a large marble for the privilege of doing his work. He trades these treasures for tickets given out in Sunday school for memorizing Bible verses and uses the tickets to claim a Bible as a prize. He loses much of his glory, however, when, in response to a question to show off his knowledge, he incorrectly answers that the first two Disciples were David and Goliath
Tom falls in love with Rebecca "Becky" Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades her to get “engaged” to him. Their love is ruined when she learns that Tom has been engaged to another girl before: Amy Lawrence. Shortly after Becky shuns him, Tom accompanies Huckleberry Finn, the son of the town drunk, to the graveyard at night to try out a “cure” for warts. At the graveyard, they witness the murder of young Dr Robinson by a part-Native American “half-breed”, Injun Joe. Scared, Tom and Huck run away in the process dropping the previously obtained marble, and swear a blood oath not to tell anyone what they have seen. Injun Joe blames his companion, Muff Potter, a hapless drunk, for the crime. Potter is wrongfully arrested, and Tom's anxiety and guilt begin to grow. Tom, Huck and their friend Joe Harper run away to an island on the Mississippi, in order to "become pirates". While frolicking around and enjoying their new-found freedom, the boys become aware that the community is sounding the river for their bodies. Tom sneaks back home one night to observe the commotion. After a brief moment of remorse at the suffering of his loved ones, Tom is struck by the idea of appearing at his funeral and surprising everyone. He persuades Joe and Huck to do the same. Their return is met with great rejoicing, and they become the envy and admiration of all their friends.
Back in school, Tom gets himself back in Becky's favour after he nobly accepts the blame for a book that she has torn. Soon Muff Potter's trial begins, and Tom, overcome by guilt, testifies against Injun Joe. Potter is acquitted, but Injun Joe flees the courtroom through a window. Tom and Huck witness him finding a box of gold with his partner, a Spaniard, and Huck begins to shadow Injun Joe every night, watching for an opportunity to nab the gold. Meanwhile, Tom goes on a picnic to McDougal's Cave with Becky and their classmates. That same night, Huck sees Injun Joe and his partner making off with a box. He follows and overhears their plans to attack the Widow Douglas, a kind resident of St. Petersburg. By running to fetch help, Huck forestalls the violence and becomes an anonymous hero.
Tom and Becky get lost in the cave, and their absence is not discovered until the following morning. The men of the town begin to search for them, but to no avail. Tom and Becky run out of food and candles and begin to weaken. The horror of the situation increases when Tom, looking for a way out of the cave, happens upon Injun Joe, who is using the cave as a hideout. At the sight of Tom, Injun Joe flees. Eventually, just as the searchers are giving up, Tom finds a way out. The town celebrates, and Becky's father, Judge Thatcher seals up the main entrance with an iron door. After a week Injun Joe, trapped inside, starves causing him to die. Injun Joe's partner accidentally drowns trying to escape.
A week later, Tom takes Huck to the cave via the new entrance Tom has found and they find the box of gold, the proceeds of which are invested for them. The Widow Douglas adopts Huck, and, when Huck attempts to escape civilized life, Tom promises him that if he returns to the widow, he can join Tom's robber band. Reluctantly, Huck agrees.
Publication history
The first publication of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was by Chatto and Windus, in England in June 1876 (it was listed as "ready" on June 10 and was reviewed on June 24 in the literary publication The Atheneum), and in the U.S. by subscription only in December 1876. Twain and other U.S. authors used initial publication in England fairly often, since otherwise it was impossible to obtain a copyright in the British Commonwealth. In the case of Tom Sawyer, the delay between the London and U.S. editions extended much beyond what Twain envisioned, or desired. This led to widespread piracy of the work - notably a July 1876 pirated edition in Canada obtained by many American readers - and, Twain believed, to a significant loss of his royalties.
When the work did appear in the U.S., it was sold by subscription only. In this distribution method, book agents across the country took orders for the book prior to publication and then delivered the book when available. It was only with subsequent editions that the book became available retail shops.
In dictations for his autobiography, Twain claimed Tom Sawyer "must have been" the first book whose manuscript was typed on a typewriter. However, typewriter historian Darryl Rehr has concluded that Twain's first typed manuscript was Life on the Mississippi.
Adaptations
The story of Tom Sawyer has been filmed or animated multiple times since its initial publication. Some of the film adaptations of Twain's novel include:
* A 1907 silent version released by the Paramount studio
* A 1917 silent version directed by William Desmond Taylor, starring Jack Pickford as Tom
* A 1930 version directed by John Cromwell, starring Jackie Coogan as Tom
* In 1938 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was filmed in Technicolor by the Selznick Studio. It starred Tommy Kelly as Tom and was directed by Norman Taurog. Most notable was the cave sequence designed by William Cameron Menzies.
* A 1947 Soviet Union version, directed by Lazar Frenkel and Gleb Zatvornitsky
* A 1960 US television serial, also shown on British television
* A 1968 French/German made-for-television miniseries, directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner, starring Roland Demongeot as Tom and Marc Di Napoli as Huck
* The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1968) was a half-hour live-action/animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions
* A 1973 musical version with songs by Richard and Robert Sherman, starring Johnny Whitaker as Tom and a young Jodie Foster as Becky Thatcher. A TV movie version sponsored by Dr. Pepper was released that same year. It starred Buddy Ebsen as Muff Potter and was filmed in Upper Canada Village.
* Huckleberry Finn and His Friends (1979 TV series)
* The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (anime) (1980), a Japanese anime TV series by Nippon Animation, part of the World Masterpiece Theater; aired in the United States on HBO
* [[Приключения Тома Сойера и Гекльберри Финна (фильм)The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (1981), another Soviet Union version directed by Stanislav Govorukhin.
* A 1984 Canadian claymation version produced by Hal Roach studios
* Tom and Huck (1995), starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas as Tom and Brad Renfro as Huck Finn
* A 1995 episode for the PBS Wishbone TV series "A Tail in Twain".
* The Modern Adventures of Tom Sawyer
* A 2000 animated adaptation, featuring the characters as anthropomorphic animals with an all-star voice cast, including country singers Rhett Akins (as Tom), Mark Wills (as Huck Finn), Lee Ann Womack, Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams Jr. as well as Betty White as Aunt Polly
* Tom Sawyer appears as a United States Secret Service agent in the 2003 movie based on comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
* This book was featured in an episode of The Fairly Odd Parents
Stage musicals: In 1956 'We're From Missouri', a musical adaptation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, with book, music and lyrics by Tom Boyd, was presented by the students at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 1960, Boyd's musical version (re-titled Tom Sawyer) was presented professionally at Theatre Royal Stratford East in London, England, and in 1961 toured provincial theatres in England.Tom Boyd's musical of TOM SAWYER was produced again in April and June 2010 in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England. Another musical adaptation is Mississippi Melody, a musical by Jack Hylton.
Theatrical Adaptation: In April 2010, The Hartford Stage presented a theatrical adaptation entitled Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as part of a centennial observation of Mark Twain's passing.
《追忆似水年华》（一译为《追忆逝水年华》）这部被誉为二十世纪最重要的文学作品之一的长篇巨着，以其出色的对心灵追索的描写和卓越的意识流技巧而风靡世界，并奠定了它在当代世界文学中的地位。
多卷集长篇巨着《追忆逝水年华》是法国作家马塞尔.普鲁斯特(1871-1922)的代表作，全书共七部，十五卷，从1905年开始创作，至作者逝世前全部完成。小说的第一部《通往斯万家的路》于1913年问世，但反应冷淡，一些有名的出版社都不愿出版，作者便自费印行。后来《通往斯万家的路》逐渐获得文艺界的赞赏。于是，各大出版社竟相与普鲁斯特签订合同，以求取得出版这部多卷集的其余几部作品的权利。不久，第一次世界大战爆发，出版工作被搁置下来。战争结束后，小说的第二部《在花枝招展的少女们身旁》于1919年出版，获龚古尔文学奖，普鲁斯特名声大振。此后，小说的第三部《盖尔芒家》和第四部《索多姆和郭穆尔》相继于1921和1922年出版，最后三部《女囚犯》(1923)，《逃亡者》(1925)，和《昔日再现》(1927) 则是普鲁斯特逝世后才出版的。
目录
第一部 在斯万家那边
追忆似水年华追忆似水年华
>第一卷 贡布雷
>>第一章
>>第二章
>第二卷 斯万之恋
>第三卷 地名：那个姓氏
第二部 在少女们身旁
>第一卷 斯万夫人周围
>第二卷 地名：地方
第三部 盖尔芒特家那边
>第一卷
>第二卷
>>第一章
>>第二章
第四部
>第一卷
>第二卷
>>第一章
>>第二章
>>第三章
>>第四章
第五部 女囚
第六部 女逃亡者
第七部 重现的时光
《追忆逝水年华》是一部与传统小说不同的长篇小说。全书以叙述者“我”为主体，将其所见所闻所思所感融合一体，既有对社会生活，人情世态的真实描写，又是一份作者自我追求，自我认识的内心经历的记录。除叙事以外，还包含有大量的感想和议论。整部作品没有中心人物，没有完整的故事，没有波澜起伏，贯穿始终的情节线索。它大体以叙述者的生活经历和内心活动为轴心，穿插描写了大量的人物事件，犹如一棵枝丫交错的大树，可以说是在一部主要小说上派生着许多独立成篇的其他小说，也可以说是一部交织着好几个主题曲的巨大交响乐。
小说中的叙述者“我”是一个家境富裕而又体弱多病的青年，从小对书画有特殊的爱好，曾经尝试过文学创作，没有成功。他经常出入巴黎的上层社会，频繁往来于各茶会，舞会，招待会及其它时髦的社交场合，并钟情于犹太富商的女儿吉尔伯特，但不久就失恋了。此外，他还到过家乡贡柏莱小住，到过海滨胜地巴培克疗养。他结识了另一位少女阿尔伯蒂，发现阿尔伯蒂患同性恋，便决心娶她为妻，以纠正她的变态心理。他把阿尔伯蒂禁闭在自己家中，阿尔伯蒂却设法逃跑，于是，他多方打听她，寻找她，后来得知阿尔伯蒂骑马摔死。在悲痛中他认识到自己的禀赋是写作，他所经历的悲欢苦乐正是文学创作的材料，只有文学创作才能把昔日失去的东西找回来。
在小说中，叙述者“我”的生活经历并不占全书的主要篇幅。作者通过故事套故事，故事与故事交叉重迭的方法，描写了众多的人物事件，展示了一幅19世纪与20世纪之交法国上流社会的生活图景。这里有姿色迷人，谈吐高雅而又无聊庸俗的盖尔芒夫人，有道德堕落，行为仇恶的变性人查琉斯男爵，有纵情声色的浪荡公子斯万等等。此外，小说还描写了一些于上流社会有关联的作家，艺术家，他们大都生前落魄失意，而作品却永世长存。小说还描写了一些下层的劳动者。《追忆逝水年华》这部长篇巨着通过上千个人物的活动，冷静，真实，细致地再现了法国上流社会的生活习俗，人情世态。因此有些西方评论家把它与巴尔扎克的《人间喜剧》相提并论，称之为“风流喜剧”。
《追忆逝水年华》是一部有独特风格的长篇小说，他不仅再现了客观世界，同时也展现了叙述者的主观世界，记录了叙述者对客观世界的内心感受。作者感兴趣的不是叙述故事，交代情节和刻画人物形象，而是抒发自己对某一问题的感想和分析。例如，叙述者参加了盖尔芒公爵家的一次晚宴，这使他长期以来对贵族的种种幻想顿时破灭，他意识到过去对他有魅力的只是名称，而不是真实的世界。整部作品对外部世界的描述同叙述者对它的感受，思考，分析浑然一体，又互相引发，互相充实，从而形成了物从我出，物中有我，物我合一的艺术境界。
《追忆逝水年华》这部长篇，除了第一部中关于斯万的恋爱故事采用第三人称描写手法外，其余都是通过第一人称叙述出来的，叙述者“我”的回忆是贯穿全书的重要艺术表现方式。小说开卷，“我”从床上醒来，在梦幻般的状态中千思百想集于心头。这时，由于一杯茶和一块点心的触发，使他回忆起小时候在姑妈莱奥妮家生活的情景。这不仅引出了叙述者的家庭身世和个人经历，还引出了盖尔芒和斯万两大家族，引出了形形色色的人物事件，整部小说的内容就是通过叙述者的回忆向纵深发掘，逐步推进，最后完整地呈现出来。
《追忆逝水年华》共7部，15卷，其中包括《在斯旺家那边》（1913）、《在少女们身旁》（1919）、《盖尔芒特家那边》（1921）、《索多姆与戈摩尔》（1922）和作者死后出版的《女囚》、《女逃亡者》和《重现的时光》。第一部《在斯旺家那边》，没有得到文艺界的认可，第二部《在少女们身旁》（1919），获龚古尔文学奖，从此名声大振。
《追忆逝水年华》是一部巴尔扎克《人间喜剧》那样“规模宏大”的作品。小说的叙述者“我”是一个富于才华，喜爱文学艺术而又体弱多病的富家子弟。作品透过主人公的追忆，表现了作者对家庭、童年和初恋时感情的怀念，对庸俗事物的厌恶，同时也反映了19世纪末20世纪初所谓“黄金时代”的法国巴黎上流社会的种种人情世态。
小说故事套故事，人物事件众多。一方面是遵循法国旧传统习惯的圣·日耳曼贵族、盖尔芒特家族的公爵和公爵夫人、盖尔芒特亲王和王妃、公爵的兄弟等。另一方面是新的资产阶级暴发户和活跃在沙龙里的帮闲人物：斯旺及其情妇、交际花奥黛特、富裕而有文化教养的凡尔杜兰夫妇、外交官、医生、艺术家等。两个对立的社会，原来并不融洽，资产阶级很难跨进古老贵族的门厅。但是随着时间的推移和复杂的联姻关系，鸿沟逐渐被打破。斯旺死后，奥黛特成了盖尔芒特公爵的情妇。凡尔杜兰太太过去不被贵族家所接纳，现在成了亲王夫人。作者在贵族闭塞和悠闲的世外桃源中窥视到了衰败景象，从大资产阶级庸俗狂妄中看到了一种畸形社会的画面。虽然作者在描绘这种种画面时，并没有用尖锐的谴责之词，但从他笔锋转向下层人民时所表现出的好感中，又能体味到他的褒贬之意。那个在上层人家服务多年的老女仆弗朗索瓦兹，虽然满口乡下土话，脑子里有不少迷信和禁忌，但她勤劳、纯朴，有着乡下人的聪明机智，是作者最喜爱的人物之一。小说除了描写上流社会的生活外，还涉及到文学、绘画、音乐、建筑，以及第一次世界大战等诸多方面的内容。
《追忆逝水年华》是一部回忆录式的自传体小说，但没有传统回忆录那样对往事有条理的整理和分析，而是通过一个“非常神经质和过分受溺爱的孩子”对自己“缓慢成长过程”的追忆，渐渐地“意识”到自己周围人们的“存在”。作者只是捕捉自己心头留下并时时浮现在脑际的印象，然后加以展现。对他来说，事情发生的先后没有意义，现实从回忆中形成，通过回忆，既认识到现实世界，也认识到“自我”的存在。儿时早晨起来喝热茶时一块俗名叫“玛德莱娜”的甜糕点泡在茶里，边喝边吃点心所感到的乐处，在最后一卷《重现的时光》重提时，“今”与“昔”的回忆已同时出现在作者脑海里。通过回忆，他解除了“时间”的束缚，获得了过去、现在的重叠和交叉，形成了特殊的回忆结构。
作品的叙述角度明显区别于传统小说。作者说：“在我们幼小时，我觉得圣书上任何人物和命运都没有像诺亚那样悲惨，他因洪水泛滥，不得不在方舟里度过四十天，后来，我时常卧病，迫不得已成年累月地呆在方舟里过活。这时我才明白，尽管诺亚方舟紧闭着，茫茫黑夜镇住大地，但是诺亚从方舟里看世界是再透彻不过了。”作者也不是站在事物的外部观察世界，而是将客观世界溶入内心，然后再表现出来。他通过对内心世界的探索来发现外部世界，从意识洪流中认识外部世界的价值。作品的人称也有异于传统小说。作品中的“我”并不是传统小说中的第一人称，他只是一个穿针引线的人物，通过“我”的观察、感受引出其他人物和绘成绚丽多姿的画面。普鲁斯特虽然是现代派作家，但他的语言风格深受蒙田、塞维尼夫人和圣·西蒙等法国古典作家的影响，有着旷达、高雅、细腻、婉转的特点。
法国著名传记文学家兼评论家A·莫罗亚（1885—1967）在1954年巴黎伽里玛出版社出版的《七星丛书》本的《追忆逝水年华》序言中写道：“一九○○年至一九五○年这五十年中，除了《追忆逝水年华》之外，没有别的值得永志不忘的小说巨著。不仅由于普鲁斯特的作品和巴尔扎克的作品一样篇帙浩繁，因为也有人写过十五卷甚至二十卷的巨型小说，而且有时也写得文采动人，然而他们并不给我们发现 ‘新大陆’或包罗万象的感觉。这些作家满足于挖掘早已为人所知的‘矿脉’，而马塞尔·普鲁斯特则发现了新的‘矿藏’。”这也是强调《追忆逝水年华》的艺术优点就在于一个“新”字。然而艺术发展的客观规律并不在于单纯的创新，也不在于为创新而创新，更不在于对于传统的优秀艺术传统采取虚无主义的态度，从零开始的创新。创新是艺术的灵魂，然而创新绝不是轻而易举的，绝不是盲目的幻想。《追忆逝水年华》的创新是在传统的优秀艺术基础上的发展。
法国诗人P·瓦莱里（1871—1945）和著名评论家、教授A·蒂博岱（1874—1936）都在他们的评论中夸奖《追忆逝水年华》的艺术风格继承了法国文学的优秀传统。纪德和蒂博岱都提到普鲁斯特和十六世纪的伟大散文作家蒙田（1533—1592）在文风的旷达和高雅方面，似乎有一脉相承之妙。还有别的评论家甚至特意提到普鲁斯特受法国著名的回忆录作家圣·西蒙（1675—1755）的影响。
《追忆逝水年华》的作者逐渐构思这部小说大致在上世纪末年和本世纪初年。一九○七年他下定决心要创作这部小说，一九○八年他开始动笔，到一九二二年他去世前夕，匆匆写完最后一卷《重现的时光》。普鲁斯特创作《追忆逝水年华》的十余年间，完全禁闭在斗室中，与世隔绝。他全部精力与时间集中在回忆与写作上，毫不关心世事，所以第一次世界大战以及它对法国人民生活的强烈影响，在《追忆逝水年华》中几乎毫无反映。这部小说中反映的巴黎是十九世纪八、九十年代的巴黎。十九世纪末叶是法兰西资本主义逐渐由垄断资本进入帝国主义的过程。二十世纪初年，法国资本主义已经达到最高阶段，即帝国主义阶段。在这时期，法国社会出现了物质生活方面的极大繁荣。1900年巴黎举办震动全球的“世界博览会”，就表现出烜赫一时的繁荣景象。凡此种种，都没有引起在斗室中埋头写作的普鲁斯特注意。由此可见，就其所反映的社会生活而言，《追忆逝水年华》是十九世纪末年的小说，是反映临近巨大的变革与转折点时刻的法国社会的小说，因此可以说也是一部反映旧时代的小说。《似水年华》是法国传统小说艺术的最后一颗硕果，最后一朵奇葩，最后一座伟大的里程碑。
The novel as we know it began seriously to take shape in 1909, and work continued for the remainder of Proust's life, broken off only by his final illness and death in the autumn of 1922. The main overarching structure was in place at an early stage, and the novel is effectively complete as a work of art and a literary cosmos, but Proust kept adding new material through his final years while editing one time after another for print; the final three volumes actually contain oversights and fragmentary or unpolished passages which only existed in draft form at the death of the author; the publication of these parts was overseen by his brother Robert.
The work was published in France between 1913 and 1927; Proust paid for the publication of the first volume (by the Grasset publishing house) himself after it had been turned down by leading editors who had been offered the manuscript in longhand. Many of its ideas, motifs, and scenes appear in adumbrated form in Proust's unfinished novel, Jean Santeuil (1896–99), though the perspective and treatment there are different, and in his unfinished hybrid of philosophical essay and story, Contre Sainte-Beuve (1908–09). The novel has had a pervasive influence on twentieth-century literature, whether because writers have sought to emulate it, or attempted to parody and discredit some of its traits. In his work, Proust explores the themes of time, space, and memory, but the novel is above all a condensation of innumerable literary, structural, stylistic, and thematic possibilities.
Initial publication
Although different editions divide the work into a varying number of tomes, A la recherche du temps perdu or In Search of Lost Time is a novel consisting of seven volumes.
Vol. French titles Published English titles
1 Du côté de chez Swann 1913 Swann's Way
The Way by Swann's
2 À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs 1919 Within a Budding Grove
In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower
3 Le Côté de Guermantes
(published in two volumes) 1920/21 The Guermantes Way
4 Sodome et Gomorrhe
(published in two volumes) 1921/22 Cities of the Plain
Sodom and Gomorrah
5 La Prisonnière 1923 The Captive
The Prisoner
6 La Fugitive
Albertine disparue 1925 The Fugitive
The Sweet Cheat Gone
Albertine Gone
7 Le Temps retrouvé 1927 The Past Recaptured
Time Regained
Finding Time Again
Volume 1: Du côté de chez Swann (1913) was rejected by a number of publishers, including Fasquelle, Ollendorf, and the Nouvelle Revue Française (NRF). André Gide famously was given the manuscript to read to advise NRF on publication, and leafing through the seemingly endless collection of memories and philosophizing or melancholic episodes, came across a few minor syntactic bloopers, which made him decide to turn the work down in his audit. Proust eventually arranged with the publisher Grasset to pay for the costs of publication himself. When published it was advertised as the first of a three-volume novel (Bouillaguet and Rogers, 316-7).
Du côté de chez Swann is divided into four parts: "Combray I" (sometimes referred to in English as the "Overture"), "Combray II," "Un Amour de Swann," and "Noms de pays: le nom." ('Names of places: the name'). A third-person novella within Du côté de chez Swann, "Un Amour de Swann" is sometimes published as a volume by itself. As it forms the self-contained story of Charles Swann's love affair with Odette de Crécy and is relatively short, it is generally considered a good introduction to the work and is often a set text in French schools. "Combray I" is also similarly excerpted; it ends with the famous "Madeleine cookie" episode, introducing the theme of involuntary memory.
In early 1914, André Gide, who had been involved in NRF's rejection of the book, wrote to Proust to apologize and to offer congratulations on the novel. "For several days I have been unable to put your book down.... The rejection of this book will remain the most serious mistake ever made by the NRF and, since I bear the shame of being very much responsible for it, one of the most stinging and remorseful regrets of my life" (Tadié, 611). Gallimard (the publishing arm of NRF) offered to publish the remaining volumes, but Proust chose to stay with Grasset.
Volume 2: À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (1919), scheduled to be published in 1914, was delayed by the onset of World War I. At the same time, Grasset's firm was closed down when the publisher went into military service. This freed Proust to move to Gallimard, where all the subsequent volumes were published. Meanwhile, the novel kept growing in length and in conception.
À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs was awarded the Prix Goncourt in 1919.
Volume 3: Le Côté de Guermantes originally appeared as Le Côté de Guermantes I (1920) and Le Côté de Guermantes II (1921).
Volume 4: The first forty pages of Sodome et Gomorrhe initially appeared at the end of Le Côté de Guermantes II (Bouillaguet and Rogers, 942), the remainder appearing as Sodome et Gomorrhe I (1921) and Sodome et Gomorrhe II (1922). It was the last volume over which Proust supervised publication before his death in November 1922. The publication of the remaining volumes was carried out by his brother, Robert Proust, and Jacques Rivière.
Volume 5: La Prisonnière (1923), first volume of the section of the novel known as "le Roman d'Albertine" ("the Albertine novel"). The name "Albertine" first appears in Proust's notebooks in 1913. The material in these volumes was developed during the hiatus between the publication of Volumes 1 and 2, and they are a departure from the three-volume series announced by Proust in Du côté de chez Swann.
Volume 6: La Fugitive or Albertine disparue (1925) is the most editorially vexed volume. As noted, the final three volumes of the novel were published posthumously, and without Proust's final corrections and revisions. The first edition, based on Proust's manuscript, was published as Albertine disparue to prevent it from being confused with Rabindranath Tagore's La Fugitive (1921). The first authoritative edition of the novel in French (1954), also based on Proust's manuscript, used the title La Fugitive. The second, even more authoritative French edition (1987–89) uses the title Albertine disparue and is based on an unmarked typescript acquired in 1962 by the Bibliothèque Nationale. To complicate matters, after the death in 1986 of Proust's niece, Suzy Mante-Proust, her son-in-law discovered among her papers a typescript that had been corrected and annotated by Proust. The late changes Proust made include a small, crucial detail and the deletion of approximately 150 pages. This version was published as Albertine disparue in France in 1987.
Volume 7: Much of Le Temps retrouvé (1927) was written at the same time as Du côté de chez Swann, but was revised and expanded during the course of the novel's publication to account for, to a greater or lesser success, the then unforeseen material now contained in the middle volumes (Terdiman, 153n3). This volume includes a noteworthy episode describing Paris during the First World War.
Themes
A la Recherche made a decisive break with the 19th century realist and plot-driven novel, populated by people of action and people representing different social and cultural groups or moral issues. Although parts of the novel could be read as an exploration of snobbism, deceit, jealousy, and suffering and although it contains a multitude of realistic details, the focus is not on the development of a tight plot or of a coherent evolution, but on a multiplicity of perspectives and on the formation of the experience that will serve as the foundation for the novel itself. The leading characters of the first volume (the narrator as a boy and Swann) are, by the standards of 19th century novels of any kind, remarkably introspective and non-prone to decisive actions, or to trigger such actions from other leading characters; to many readers at the time, reared on Balzac, Hugo, and Tolstoy, they would not function as centers of a well-defined plot. And while there is a rich array of symbolism in the work, it is rarely defined through any explicit "keys" leading to moral, romantic or philosophical ideas. The significance of what is happening is often placed within the memory or in the inner contemplation of what is described. This focus on the relationship between experience, memory and writing, and the radical de-emphasizing of the outward plot, have become staples of the modern novel but were almost unheard of in 1913.
The role of memory is central to the novel, introduced with the famous madeleine episode in the first section of the novel, and in the last volume, Time Regained, a flashback similar to that caused by the madeleine is the beginning of the resolution of the story. Throughout the work many similar instances of involuntary memory, triggered by sensory experiences such as sights, sounds, smells, and so on, conjure important memories for the narrator, and sometimes return attention to an earlier episode of the novel. Although Proust wrote contemporaneously with Sigmund Freud, with there being many points of similarity between their thought on the structures and mechanisms of the human mind, neither author read a word of the other's work (Bragg). Gilles Deleuze, by contrast, believed that the main focus of Proust was not memory and the past but the narrator's learning the use of "signs" to understand—and communicate—ultimate reality, and thereby becoming an artist. While Proust was bitterly aware of the experience of loss and exclusion - loss of loved ones, loss of affection, friendship, and innocent joy, which are dramatized in the novel through recurrent jealousy, betrayal and the death of loved persons - his response to this, formulated after he had discovered Ruskin, was that the work of art can recapture the lost and thus save it from destruction, at least in our minds: thus art triumphs over the destructive power of time. This element of his artistic philosophy is clearly inherited from romantic platonism, but Proust crosses it with a new intensity in describing jealousy, desire and self-doubt. (on that matter see the last quatrain of Baudelaire's poem "Une Charogne": "Then, O my beauty! say to the worms who will Devour you with kisses, That I have kept the form and the divine essence Of my decomposed love!")
The nature of art is another recurring topic in the novel, and is often explored at great length. Proust sets forth a theory of art in which we are all capable of producing art, if by this we mean taking the experiences of life and transforming them in a way that shows understanding and maturity. Writing, painting and music are also discussed at great length. Morel the violinist, for example, is examined to give an example of a certain type of "artistic" character, along with other fictional artists, namely the novelist Bergotte and painter Elstir.
Homosexuality is another major theme, particularly in later volumes, most notably in Sodom and Gomorrah, the first part of which consists of a detailed account of a sexual encounter between two of the novel's male characters. Though the narrator himself is heterosexual, he invariably suspects his lovers of liaisons with other women, in a repetition of the suspicions held by Charles Swann in the first volume, with regards to his mistress and eventual wife, Odette. Several characters are forthrightly homosexual, like the Baron de Charlus, while others, such as the narrator's good friend Robert de Saint-Loup, are only later revealed to be far more closeted.
There is much debate as to how great a bearing Proust's own sexual inclination has on understanding these aspects of the novel. Although many of Proust's close family and friends suspected that he was homosexual, Proust never openly admitted this. It was only after Proust's death that André Gide, in his publication of correspondence between himself and Proust, made public Proust's homosexuality. The true nature of Proust's intimate relations with such individuals as Alfred Agostinelli and Reynaldo Hahn are well documented, though Proust was not "out and proud," except perhaps in close knit social circles. In 1949, the critic Justin O'Brien published an article in the PMLA called "Albertine the Ambiguous: Notes on Proust's Transposition of Sexes" which proposed that some female characters are best understood as actually referring to young men. Strip off the feminine ending of the names of the Narrator's lovers—Albertine, Gilberte, Andrée—and one has their masculine counterpart. This theory has become known as the "transposition of sexes theory" in Proust criticism, which in turn has been challenged in Epistemology of the Closet (1992) by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick.
Critical reception
In Search of Lost Time is considered the definitive Modern novel by many scholars, and it had a profound effect on subsequent writers such as the Bloomsbury Group. "Oh if I could write like that!" marveled Virginia Woolf in 1922 (2:525). Proust's influence on Evelyn Waugh is manifest in A Handful of Dust (1934) in which Waugh entitles Chapter 1 "Du Cote de Chez Beaver" and Chapter 6 "Du Cote de Chez Tod." More recently, literary critic Harold Bloom wrote that In Search of Lost Time is now "widely recognized as the major novel of the twentieth century." Vladimir Nabokov, in a 1965 interview, named the greatest prose works of the 20th century as, in order, "Joyce's Ulysses, Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Biely's Petersburg, and the first half of Proust's fairy tale In Search of Lost Time." J. Peder Zane's book The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books, collates 125 "top 10 greatest books of all time" lists by prominent living writers; In Search of Lost Time places eighth. In the 1960s, Swedish literary critic Bengt Holmqvist dubbed the novel "at once the last great classic of French epic prose tradition and the towering precursor of the 'nouveau roman'", indicating the sixties vogue of new, experimental French prose but also, by extension, other post-war attempts to fuse different planes of location, temporality and fragmented consciousness within the same novel.
Since the publication in 1992 of a revised English translation by The Modern Library, based on a new definitive French edition (1987–89), interest in Proust's novel in the English-speaking world has increased. Two substantial new biographies have appeared in English, by Edmund White and William C. Carter, and at least two books about the experience of reading Proust have appeared, by Alain de Botton and Phyllis Rose. The Proust Society of America, founded in 1997, now has three chapters: at The Mercantile Library of New York City, the Mechanic's Institute Library in San Francisco, and the Boston Athenæum Library. The French phenomenologist, Merleau-Ponty, frequently refers to Swann's Way to help elucidate his own ideas.
Main characters
Proust - Personnages
Main characters - Family tree
The Narrator's household
* The narrator: A sensitive young man who wishes to become a writer, whose identity is explicitly kept vague. In volume 5, The Prisoner, he addresses the reader thus: "Now she began to speak; her first words were 'darling' or 'my darling,' followed by my Christian name, which, if we give the narrator the same name as the author of this book, would produce 'darling Marcel' or 'my darling Marcel.'" (Proust, 64)
* Bathilde Amédée: The narrator's grandmother. Her life and death greatly influence her daughter and grandson.
* Françoise: The narrator's faithful, stubborn maid.
The Guermantes
* Palamède de Guermantes (Baron de Charlus): An aristocratic, decadent aesthete with many antisocial habits.
* Oriane de Guermantes (Duchesse de Guermantes): The toast of Paris' high society. She lives in the fashionable Faubourg St. Germain.
* Robert de Saint-Loup: An army officer and the narrator's best friend. Despite his patrician birth (he is the nephew of M. de Guermantes) and affluent lifestyle, Saint-Loup has no great fortune of his own until he marries Gilberte.
The Swanns
* Charles Swann: A friend of the narrator's family. His political views on the Dreyfus Affair and marriage to Odette ostracize him from much of high society.
* Odette de Crécy: A beautiful Parisian courtesan. Odette is also referred to as Mme Swann, the woman in pink/white, and in the final volume, Mme de Forcheville.
* Gilberte Swann: The daughter of Swann and Odette. She takes the name of her adopted father, M. de Forcheville, after Swann's death, and then becomes Mme de Saint-Loup following her marriage to Robert de Saint-Loup, which joins Swann's Way and the Guermantes Way.
Artists
* Elstir: A famous painter whose renditions of sea and sky echo the novel's theme of the mutability of human life.
* Bergotte: A well-known writer whose works the narrator has admired since childhood.
* Vinteuil: An obscure musician who gains posthumous recognition for composing a beautiful, evocative sonata.
* Berma
Others
* Charles Morel: The son of a former servant of the narrator's uncle and a gifted violinist. He profits greatly from the patronage of the Baron de Charlus and later Robert de Saint-Loup.
* Albertine Simonet: A privileged orphan of average beauty and intelligence. The narrator's romance with her is the subject of much of the novel.
* Sidonie Verdurin: A poseur who rises to the top of society through inheritance, marriage, and sheer single-mindedness. Often referred to simply as Mme. Verdurin.
Publication in English
The first six volumes were first translated into English by the Scotsman C. K. Scott Moncrieff between 1922 and his death in 1930 under the title Remembrance of Things Past, a phrase taken from Shakespeare's Sonnet 30; this was the first translation of the Recherche into another language. The final volume, Le Temps retrouvé, was initially published in English in the UK as Time Regained (1931), translated by Stephen Hudson (a pseudonym of Sydney Schiff), and in the US as The Past Recaptured (1932) in a translation by Frederick Blossom. Although cordial with Scott Moncrieff, Proust grudgingly remarked in a letter that Remembrance eliminated the correspondence between Temps perdu and Temps retrouvé (Painter, 352). Terence Kilmartin revised the Scott Moncrieff translation in 1981, using the new French edition of 1954. An additional revision by D.J. Enright - that is, a revision of a revision - was published by the Modern Library in 1992. It is based on the latest and most authoritative French text (1987–89), and rendered the title of the novel more literally as In Search of Lost Time. In 1995, Penguin undertook a fresh translation of In Search of Lost Time by editor Christopher Prendergast and seven different translators, one Australian, one American, and the others English. Based on the authoritative French text (of 1987-98), it was published in six volumes in Britain under the Allen Lane imprint in 2002. The first four (those which under American copyright law are in the public domain) have since been published in the US under the Viking imprint and in paperback under the Penguin Classics imprint. The remaining volumes are scheduled to come out in 2018.
Both the Modern Library and Penguin translations provide a detailed plot synopsis at the end of each volume. The last volume of the Modern Library edition, Time Regained, also includes Kilmartin's "A Guide to Proust," an index of the novel's characters, persons, places, and themes. The Modern Library volumes include a handful of endnotes, and alternative versions of some of the novel's famous episodes. The Penguin volumes each provide an extensive set of brief, non-scholarly endnotes that help identify cultural references perhaps unfamiliar to contemporary English readers. Reviews which discuss the merits of both translations can be found online at the Observer, the Telegraph, The New York Review of Books (subscription only), The New York Times, TempsPerdu.com, and Reading Proust.
English-language translations in print
* In Search of Lost Time (General Editor: Christopher Prendergast), translated by Lydia Davis, Mark Treharne, James Grieve, John Sturrock, Carol Clark, Peter Collier, & Ian Patterson. London: Allen Lane, 2002 (6 vols). Based on the most recent definitive French edition (1987–89), except The Fugitive, which is based on the 1954 definitive French edition. The first four volumes have been published in New York by Viking, 2003–2004, but the Copyright Term Extension Act will delay the rest of the project until 2018.
o (Volume titles: The Way by Swann's (in the U.S., Swann's Way) ISBN 0-14-243796-4; In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower ISBN 0-14-303907-5; The Guermantes Way ISBN 0-14-303922-9; Sodom and Gomorrah ISBN 0-14-303931-8; The Prisoner; and The Fugitive — Finding Time Again.)
* In Search of Lost Time, translated by C. K. Scott-Moncrieff, Terence Kilmartin and Andreas Mayor (Vol. 7). Revised by D.J. Enright. London: Chatto and Windus, New York: The Modern Library, 1992. Based on the most recent definitive French edition (1987–89). ISBN 0-8129-6964-2
o (Volume titles: Swann's Way — Within a Budding Grove — The Guermantes Way — Sodom and Gomorrah — The Captive — The Fugitive — Time Regained.)
* A Search for Lost Time: Swann's Way, translated by James Grieve. Canberra: Australian National University, 1982 ISBN 0-7081-1317-6
* Remembrance of Things Past, translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff, Terence Kilmartin, and Andreas Mayor (Vol. 7). New York: Random House, 1981 (3 vols). ISBN 0-394-71243-9
o (Published in three volumes: Swann's Way — Within a Budding Grove; The Guermantes Way — Cities of the Plain; The Captive — The Fugitive — Time Regained.)
Adaptations
Print
* The Proust Screenplay, a film adaptation by Harold Pinter published in 1978 (never filmed).
* Remembrance of Things Past, Part One: Combray; Part Two: Within a Budding Grove, vol.1; Part Three: Within a Budding Grove, vol.2; and Part Four: Un amour de Swann, vol.1 are graphic novel adaptations by Stéphane Heuet.
* Albertine, a novel based on a rewriting of Albertine by Jacqueline Rose. Vintage UK, 2002.
Screen
* Swann in Love (Un Amour de Swann), a 1984 film by Volker Schlöndorff starring Jeremy Irons and Ornella Muti.
* Time Regained (Le Temps retrouvé), a 1999 film by Raul Ruiz starring Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Béart, and John Malkovich.
* La Captive, a 2000 film by Chantal Akerman.
* Quartetto Basileus (1982) uses segments from Sodom and Gomorrah and Time Regained. Le Intermittenze del cuore (2003) concerns a director working on a movie about Proust's life. Both from Italian director Fabio Capri.
Stage
* A Waste of Time, by Philip Prowse and Robert David MacDonald. A 4 hour long adaptation with a huge cast. Dir. by Philip Prowse at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre in 1980, revived 1981 plus European tour.
* Remembrance of Things Past, by Harold Pinter and Di Trevis, based on Pinter's The Proust Screenplay. Dir. by Trevis (who had acted in A Waste of Time - see above) at the Royal National Theatre in 2000.
* Eleven Rooms of Proust, adapted and directed by Mary Zimmerman. A series of 11 vignettes from In Search of Lost Time, staged throughout an abandoned factory in Chicago.
* My Life With Albertine, a 2003 Off-Broadway musical with book by Richard Nelson, music by Ricky Ian Gordon, and lyrics by both.
Radio
* In Search of Lost Time dramatised by Michael Butt for the The Classic Serial, broadcast between February 6, 2005 and March 13, 2005. Starring James Wilby, it condensed the entire series into six episodes. Although considerably shortened, it received excellent reviews .
多卷集长篇巨着《追忆逝水年华》是法国作家马塞尔.普鲁斯特(1871-1922)的代表作，全书共七部，十五卷，从1905年开始创作，至作者逝世前全部完成。小说的第一部《通往斯万家的路》于1913年问世，但反应冷淡，一些有名的出版社都不愿出版，作者便自费印行。后来《通往斯万家的路》逐渐获得文艺界的赞赏。于是，各大出版社竟相与普鲁斯特签订合同，以求取得出版这部多卷集的其余几部作品的权利。不久，第一次世界大战爆发，出版工作被搁置下来。战争结束后，小说的第二部《在花枝招展的少女们身旁》于1919年出版，获龚古尔文学奖，普鲁斯特名声大振。此后，小说的第三部《盖尔芒家》和第四部《索多姆和郭穆尔》相继于1921和1922年出版，最后三部《女囚犯》(1923)，《逃亡者》(1925)，和《昔日再现》(1927) 则是普鲁斯特逝世后才出版的。
目录
第一部 在斯万家那边
追忆似水年华追忆似水年华
>第一卷 贡布雷
>>第一章
>>第二章
>第二卷 斯万之恋
>第三卷 地名：那个姓氏
第二部 在少女们身旁
>第一卷 斯万夫人周围
>第二卷 地名：地方
第三部 盖尔芒特家那边
>第一卷
>第二卷
>>第一章
>>第二章
第四部
>第一卷
>第二卷
>>第一章
>>第二章
>>第三章
>>第四章
第五部 女囚
第六部 女逃亡者
第七部 重现的时光
《追忆逝水年华》是一部与传统小说不同的长篇小说。全书以叙述者“我”为主体，将其所见所闻所思所感融合一体，既有对社会生活，人情世态的真实描写，又是一份作者自我追求，自我认识的内心经历的记录。除叙事以外，还包含有大量的感想和议论。整部作品没有中心人物，没有完整的故事，没有波澜起伏，贯穿始终的情节线索。它大体以叙述者的生活经历和内心活动为轴心，穿插描写了大量的人物事件，犹如一棵枝丫交错的大树，可以说是在一部主要小说上派生着许多独立成篇的其他小说，也可以说是一部交织着好几个主题曲的巨大交响乐。
小说中的叙述者“我”是一个家境富裕而又体弱多病的青年，从小对书画有特殊的爱好，曾经尝试过文学创作，没有成功。他经常出入巴黎的上层社会，频繁往来于各茶会，舞会，招待会及其它时髦的社交场合，并钟情于犹太富商的女儿吉尔伯特，但不久就失恋了。此外，他还到过家乡贡柏莱小住，到过海滨胜地巴培克疗养。他结识了另一位少女阿尔伯蒂，发现阿尔伯蒂患同性恋，便决心娶她为妻，以纠正她的变态心理。他把阿尔伯蒂禁闭在自己家中，阿尔伯蒂却设法逃跑，于是，他多方打听她，寻找她，后来得知阿尔伯蒂骑马摔死。在悲痛中他认识到自己的禀赋是写作，他所经历的悲欢苦乐正是文学创作的材料，只有文学创作才能把昔日失去的东西找回来。
在小说中，叙述者“我”的生活经历并不占全书的主要篇幅。作者通过故事套故事，故事与故事交叉重迭的方法，描写了众多的人物事件，展示了一幅19世纪与20世纪之交法国上流社会的生活图景。这里有姿色迷人，谈吐高雅而又无聊庸俗的盖尔芒夫人，有道德堕落，行为仇恶的变性人查琉斯男爵，有纵情声色的浪荡公子斯万等等。此外，小说还描写了一些于上流社会有关联的作家，艺术家，他们大都生前落魄失意，而作品却永世长存。小说还描写了一些下层的劳动者。《追忆逝水年华》这部长篇巨着通过上千个人物的活动，冷静，真实，细致地再现了法国上流社会的生活习俗，人情世态。因此有些西方评论家把它与巴尔扎克的《人间喜剧》相提并论，称之为“风流喜剧”。
《追忆逝水年华》是一部有独特风格的长篇小说，他不仅再现了客观世界，同时也展现了叙述者的主观世界，记录了叙述者对客观世界的内心感受。作者感兴趣的不是叙述故事，交代情节和刻画人物形象，而是抒发自己对某一问题的感想和分析。例如，叙述者参加了盖尔芒公爵家的一次晚宴，这使他长期以来对贵族的种种幻想顿时破灭，他意识到过去对他有魅力的只是名称，而不是真实的世界。整部作品对外部世界的描述同叙述者对它的感受，思考，分析浑然一体，又互相引发，互相充实，从而形成了物从我出，物中有我，物我合一的艺术境界。
《追忆逝水年华》这部长篇，除了第一部中关于斯万的恋爱故事采用第三人称描写手法外，其余都是通过第一人称叙述出来的，叙述者“我”的回忆是贯穿全书的重要艺术表现方式。小说开卷，“我”从床上醒来，在梦幻般的状态中千思百想集于心头。这时，由于一杯茶和一块点心的触发，使他回忆起小时候在姑妈莱奥妮家生活的情景。这不仅引出了叙述者的家庭身世和个人经历，还引出了盖尔芒和斯万两大家族，引出了形形色色的人物事件，整部小说的内容就是通过叙述者的回忆向纵深发掘，逐步推进，最后完整地呈现出来。
《追忆逝水年华》共7部，15卷，其中包括《在斯旺家那边》（1913）、《在少女们身旁》（1919）、《盖尔芒特家那边》（1921）、《索多姆与戈摩尔》（1922）和作者死后出版的《女囚》、《女逃亡者》和《重现的时光》。第一部《在斯旺家那边》，没有得到文艺界的认可，第二部《在少女们身旁》（1919），获龚古尔文学奖，从此名声大振。
《追忆逝水年华》是一部巴尔扎克《人间喜剧》那样“规模宏大”的作品。小说的叙述者“我”是一个富于才华，喜爱文学艺术而又体弱多病的富家子弟。作品透过主人公的追忆，表现了作者对家庭、童年和初恋时感情的怀念，对庸俗事物的厌恶，同时也反映了19世纪末20世纪初所谓“黄金时代”的法国巴黎上流社会的种种人情世态。
小说故事套故事，人物事件众多。一方面是遵循法国旧传统习惯的圣·日耳曼贵族、盖尔芒特家族的公爵和公爵夫人、盖尔芒特亲王和王妃、公爵的兄弟等。另一方面是新的资产阶级暴发户和活跃在沙龙里的帮闲人物：斯旺及其情妇、交际花奥黛特、富裕而有文化教养的凡尔杜兰夫妇、外交官、医生、艺术家等。两个对立的社会，原来并不融洽，资产阶级很难跨进古老贵族的门厅。但是随着时间的推移和复杂的联姻关系，鸿沟逐渐被打破。斯旺死后，奥黛特成了盖尔芒特公爵的情妇。凡尔杜兰太太过去不被贵族家所接纳，现在成了亲王夫人。作者在贵族闭塞和悠闲的世外桃源中窥视到了衰败景象，从大资产阶级庸俗狂妄中看到了一种畸形社会的画面。虽然作者在描绘这种种画面时，并没有用尖锐的谴责之词，但从他笔锋转向下层人民时所表现出的好感中，又能体味到他的褒贬之意。那个在上层人家服务多年的老女仆弗朗索瓦兹，虽然满口乡下土话，脑子里有不少迷信和禁忌，但她勤劳、纯朴，有着乡下人的聪明机智，是作者最喜爱的人物之一。小说除了描写上流社会的生活外，还涉及到文学、绘画、音乐、建筑，以及第一次世界大战等诸多方面的内容。
《追忆逝水年华》是一部回忆录式的自传体小说，但没有传统回忆录那样对往事有条理的整理和分析，而是通过一个“非常神经质和过分受溺爱的孩子”对自己“缓慢成长过程”的追忆，渐渐地“意识”到自己周围人们的“存在”。作者只是捕捉自己心头留下并时时浮现在脑际的印象，然后加以展现。对他来说，事情发生的先后没有意义，现实从回忆中形成，通过回忆，既认识到现实世界，也认识到“自我”的存在。儿时早晨起来喝热茶时一块俗名叫“玛德莱娜”的甜糕点泡在茶里，边喝边吃点心所感到的乐处，在最后一卷《重现的时光》重提时，“今”与“昔”的回忆已同时出现在作者脑海里。通过回忆，他解除了“时间”的束缚，获得了过去、现在的重叠和交叉，形成了特殊的回忆结构。
作品的叙述角度明显区别于传统小说。作者说：“在我们幼小时，我觉得圣书上任何人物和命运都没有像诺亚那样悲惨，他因洪水泛滥，不得不在方舟里度过四十天，后来，我时常卧病，迫不得已成年累月地呆在方舟里过活。这时我才明白，尽管诺亚方舟紧闭着，茫茫黑夜镇住大地，但是诺亚从方舟里看世界是再透彻不过了。”作者也不是站在事物的外部观察世界，而是将客观世界溶入内心，然后再表现出来。他通过对内心世界的探索来发现外部世界，从意识洪流中认识外部世界的价值。作品的人称也有异于传统小说。作品中的“我”并不是传统小说中的第一人称，他只是一个穿针引线的人物，通过“我”的观察、感受引出其他人物和绘成绚丽多姿的画面。普鲁斯特虽然是现代派作家，但他的语言风格深受蒙田、塞维尼夫人和圣·西蒙等法国古典作家的影响，有着旷达、高雅、细腻、婉转的特点。
法国著名传记文学家兼评论家A·莫罗亚（1885—1967）在1954年巴黎伽里玛出版社出版的《七星丛书》本的《追忆逝水年华》序言中写道：“一九○○年至一九五○年这五十年中，除了《追忆逝水年华》之外，没有别的值得永志不忘的小说巨著。不仅由于普鲁斯特的作品和巴尔扎克的作品一样篇帙浩繁，因为也有人写过十五卷甚至二十卷的巨型小说，而且有时也写得文采动人，然而他们并不给我们发现 ‘新大陆’或包罗万象的感觉。这些作家满足于挖掘早已为人所知的‘矿脉’，而马塞尔·普鲁斯特则发现了新的‘矿藏’。”这也是强调《追忆逝水年华》的艺术优点就在于一个“新”字。然而艺术发展的客观规律并不在于单纯的创新，也不在于为创新而创新，更不在于对于传统的优秀艺术传统采取虚无主义的态度，从零开始的创新。创新是艺术的灵魂，然而创新绝不是轻而易举的，绝不是盲目的幻想。《追忆逝水年华》的创新是在传统的优秀艺术基础上的发展。
法国诗人P·瓦莱里（1871—1945）和著名评论家、教授A·蒂博岱（1874—1936）都在他们的评论中夸奖《追忆逝水年华》的艺术风格继承了法国文学的优秀传统。纪德和蒂博岱都提到普鲁斯特和十六世纪的伟大散文作家蒙田（1533—1592）在文风的旷达和高雅方面，似乎有一脉相承之妙。还有别的评论家甚至特意提到普鲁斯特受法国著名的回忆录作家圣·西蒙（1675—1755）的影响。
《追忆逝水年华》的作者逐渐构思这部小说大致在上世纪末年和本世纪初年。一九○七年他下定决心要创作这部小说，一九○八年他开始动笔，到一九二二年他去世前夕，匆匆写完最后一卷《重现的时光》。普鲁斯特创作《追忆逝水年华》的十余年间，完全禁闭在斗室中，与世隔绝。他全部精力与时间集中在回忆与写作上，毫不关心世事，所以第一次世界大战以及它对法国人民生活的强烈影响，在《追忆逝水年华》中几乎毫无反映。这部小说中反映的巴黎是十九世纪八、九十年代的巴黎。十九世纪末叶是法兰西资本主义逐渐由垄断资本进入帝国主义的过程。二十世纪初年，法国资本主义已经达到最高阶段，即帝国主义阶段。在这时期，法国社会出现了物质生活方面的极大繁荣。1900年巴黎举办震动全球的“世界博览会”，就表现出烜赫一时的繁荣景象。凡此种种，都没有引起在斗室中埋头写作的普鲁斯特注意。由此可见，就其所反映的社会生活而言，《追忆逝水年华》是十九世纪末年的小说，是反映临近巨大的变革与转折点时刻的法国社会的小说，因此可以说也是一部反映旧时代的小说。《似水年华》是法国传统小说艺术的最后一颗硕果，最后一朵奇葩，最后一座伟大的里程碑。
The novel as we know it began seriously to take shape in 1909, and work continued for the remainder of Proust's life, broken off only by his final illness and death in the autumn of 1922. The main overarching structure was in place at an early stage, and the novel is effectively complete as a work of art and a literary cosmos, but Proust kept adding new material through his final years while editing one time after another for print; the final three volumes actually contain oversights and fragmentary or unpolished passages which only existed in draft form at the death of the author; the publication of these parts was overseen by his brother Robert.
The work was published in France between 1913 and 1927; Proust paid for the publication of the first volume (by the Grasset publishing house) himself after it had been turned down by leading editors who had been offered the manuscript in longhand. Many of its ideas, motifs, and scenes appear in adumbrated form in Proust's unfinished novel, Jean Santeuil (1896–99), though the perspective and treatment there are different, and in his unfinished hybrid of philosophical essay and story, Contre Sainte-Beuve (1908–09). The novel has had a pervasive influence on twentieth-century literature, whether because writers have sought to emulate it, or attempted to parody and discredit some of its traits. In his work, Proust explores the themes of time, space, and memory, but the novel is above all a condensation of innumerable literary, structural, stylistic, and thematic possibilities.
Initial publication
Although different editions divide the work into a varying number of tomes, A la recherche du temps perdu or In Search of Lost Time is a novel consisting of seven volumes.
Vol. French titles Published English titles
1 Du côté de chez Swann 1913 Swann's Way
The Way by Swann's
2 À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs 1919 Within a Budding Grove
In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower
3 Le Côté de Guermantes
(published in two volumes) 1920/21 The Guermantes Way
4 Sodome et Gomorrhe
(published in two volumes) 1921/22 Cities of the Plain
Sodom and Gomorrah
5 La Prisonnière 1923 The Captive
The Prisoner
6 La Fugitive
Albertine disparue 1925 The Fugitive
The Sweet Cheat Gone
Albertine Gone
7 Le Temps retrouvé 1927 The Past Recaptured
Time Regained
Finding Time Again
Volume 1: Du côté de chez Swann (1913) was rejected by a number of publishers, including Fasquelle, Ollendorf, and the Nouvelle Revue Française (NRF). André Gide famously was given the manuscript to read to advise NRF on publication, and leafing through the seemingly endless collection of memories and philosophizing or melancholic episodes, came across a few minor syntactic bloopers, which made him decide to turn the work down in his audit. Proust eventually arranged with the publisher Grasset to pay for the costs of publication himself. When published it was advertised as the first of a three-volume novel (Bouillaguet and Rogers, 316-7).
Du côté de chez Swann is divided into four parts: "Combray I" (sometimes referred to in English as the "Overture"), "Combray II," "Un Amour de Swann," and "Noms de pays: le nom." ('Names of places: the name'). A third-person novella within Du côté de chez Swann, "Un Amour de Swann" is sometimes published as a volume by itself. As it forms the self-contained story of Charles Swann's love affair with Odette de Crécy and is relatively short, it is generally considered a good introduction to the work and is often a set text in French schools. "Combray I" is also similarly excerpted; it ends with the famous "Madeleine cookie" episode, introducing the theme of involuntary memory.
In early 1914, André Gide, who had been involved in NRF's rejection of the book, wrote to Proust to apologize and to offer congratulations on the novel. "For several days I have been unable to put your book down.... The rejection of this book will remain the most serious mistake ever made by the NRF and, since I bear the shame of being very much responsible for it, one of the most stinging and remorseful regrets of my life" (Tadié, 611). Gallimard (the publishing arm of NRF) offered to publish the remaining volumes, but Proust chose to stay with Grasset.
Volume 2: À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (1919), scheduled to be published in 1914, was delayed by the onset of World War I. At the same time, Grasset's firm was closed down when the publisher went into military service. This freed Proust to move to Gallimard, where all the subsequent volumes were published. Meanwhile, the novel kept growing in length and in conception.
À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs was awarded the Prix Goncourt in 1919.
Volume 3: Le Côté de Guermantes originally appeared as Le Côté de Guermantes I (1920) and Le Côté de Guermantes II (1921).
Volume 4: The first forty pages of Sodome et Gomorrhe initially appeared at the end of Le Côté de Guermantes II (Bouillaguet and Rogers, 942), the remainder appearing as Sodome et Gomorrhe I (1921) and Sodome et Gomorrhe II (1922). It was the last volume over which Proust supervised publication before his death in November 1922. The publication of the remaining volumes was carried out by his brother, Robert Proust, and Jacques Rivière.
Volume 5: La Prisonnière (1923), first volume of the section of the novel known as "le Roman d'Albertine" ("the Albertine novel"). The name "Albertine" first appears in Proust's notebooks in 1913. The material in these volumes was developed during the hiatus between the publication of Volumes 1 and 2, and they are a departure from the three-volume series announced by Proust in Du côté de chez Swann.
Volume 6: La Fugitive or Albertine disparue (1925) is the most editorially vexed volume. As noted, the final three volumes of the novel were published posthumously, and without Proust's final corrections and revisions. The first edition, based on Proust's manuscript, was published as Albertine disparue to prevent it from being confused with Rabindranath Tagore's La Fugitive (1921). The first authoritative edition of the novel in French (1954), also based on Proust's manuscript, used the title La Fugitive. The second, even more authoritative French edition (1987–89) uses the title Albertine disparue and is based on an unmarked typescript acquired in 1962 by the Bibliothèque Nationale. To complicate matters, after the death in 1986 of Proust's niece, Suzy Mante-Proust, her son-in-law discovered among her papers a typescript that had been corrected and annotated by Proust. The late changes Proust made include a small, crucial detail and the deletion of approximately 150 pages. This version was published as Albertine disparue in France in 1987.
Volume 7: Much of Le Temps retrouvé (1927) was written at the same time as Du côté de chez Swann, but was revised and expanded during the course of the novel's publication to account for, to a greater or lesser success, the then unforeseen material now contained in the middle volumes (Terdiman, 153n3). This volume includes a noteworthy episode describing Paris during the First World War.
Themes
A la Recherche made a decisive break with the 19th century realist and plot-driven novel, populated by people of action and people representing different social and cultural groups or moral issues. Although parts of the novel could be read as an exploration of snobbism, deceit, jealousy, and suffering and although it contains a multitude of realistic details, the focus is not on the development of a tight plot or of a coherent evolution, but on a multiplicity of perspectives and on the formation of the experience that will serve as the foundation for the novel itself. The leading characters of the first volume (the narrator as a boy and Swann) are, by the standards of 19th century novels of any kind, remarkably introspective and non-prone to decisive actions, or to trigger such actions from other leading characters; to many readers at the time, reared on Balzac, Hugo, and Tolstoy, they would not function as centers of a well-defined plot. And while there is a rich array of symbolism in the work, it is rarely defined through any explicit "keys" leading to moral, romantic or philosophical ideas. The significance of what is happening is often placed within the memory or in the inner contemplation of what is described. This focus on the relationship between experience, memory and writing, and the radical de-emphasizing of the outward plot, have become staples of the modern novel but were almost unheard of in 1913.
The role of memory is central to the novel, introduced with the famous madeleine episode in the first section of the novel, and in the last volume, Time Regained, a flashback similar to that caused by the madeleine is the beginning of the resolution of the story. Throughout the work many similar instances of involuntary memory, triggered by sensory experiences such as sights, sounds, smells, and so on, conjure important memories for the narrator, and sometimes return attention to an earlier episode of the novel. Although Proust wrote contemporaneously with Sigmund Freud, with there being many points of similarity between their thought on the structures and mechanisms of the human mind, neither author read a word of the other's work (Bragg). Gilles Deleuze, by contrast, believed that the main focus of Proust was not memory and the past but the narrator's learning the use of "signs" to understand—and communicate—ultimate reality, and thereby becoming an artist. While Proust was bitterly aware of the experience of loss and exclusion - loss of loved ones, loss of affection, friendship, and innocent joy, which are dramatized in the novel through recurrent jealousy, betrayal and the death of loved persons - his response to this, formulated after he had discovered Ruskin, was that the work of art can recapture the lost and thus save it from destruction, at least in our minds: thus art triumphs over the destructive power of time. This element of his artistic philosophy is clearly inherited from romantic platonism, but Proust crosses it with a new intensity in describing jealousy, desire and self-doubt. (on that matter see the last quatrain of Baudelaire's poem "Une Charogne": "Then, O my beauty! say to the worms who will Devour you with kisses, That I have kept the form and the divine essence Of my decomposed love!")
The nature of art is another recurring topic in the novel, and is often explored at great length. Proust sets forth a theory of art in which we are all capable of producing art, if by this we mean taking the experiences of life and transforming them in a way that shows understanding and maturity. Writing, painting and music are also discussed at great length. Morel the violinist, for example, is examined to give an example of a certain type of "artistic" character, along with other fictional artists, namely the novelist Bergotte and painter Elstir.
Homosexuality is another major theme, particularly in later volumes, most notably in Sodom and Gomorrah, the first part of which consists of a detailed account of a sexual encounter between two of the novel's male characters. Though the narrator himself is heterosexual, he invariably suspects his lovers of liaisons with other women, in a repetition of the suspicions held by Charles Swann in the first volume, with regards to his mistress and eventual wife, Odette. Several characters are forthrightly homosexual, like the Baron de Charlus, while others, such as the narrator's good friend Robert de Saint-Loup, are only later revealed to be far more closeted.
There is much debate as to how great a bearing Proust's own sexual inclination has on understanding these aspects of the novel. Although many of Proust's close family and friends suspected that he was homosexual, Proust never openly admitted this. It was only after Proust's death that André Gide, in his publication of correspondence between himself and Proust, made public Proust's homosexuality. The true nature of Proust's intimate relations with such individuals as Alfred Agostinelli and Reynaldo Hahn are well documented, though Proust was not "out and proud," except perhaps in close knit social circles. In 1949, the critic Justin O'Brien published an article in the PMLA called "Albertine the Ambiguous: Notes on Proust's Transposition of Sexes" which proposed that some female characters are best understood as actually referring to young men. Strip off the feminine ending of the names of the Narrator's lovers—Albertine, Gilberte, Andrée—and one has their masculine counterpart. This theory has become known as the "transposition of sexes theory" in Proust criticism, which in turn has been challenged in Epistemology of the Closet (1992) by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick.
Critical reception
In Search of Lost Time is considered the definitive Modern novel by many scholars, and it had a profound effect on subsequent writers such as the Bloomsbury Group. "Oh if I could write like that!" marveled Virginia Woolf in 1922 (2:525). Proust's influence on Evelyn Waugh is manifest in A Handful of Dust (1934) in which Waugh entitles Chapter 1 "Du Cote de Chez Beaver" and Chapter 6 "Du Cote de Chez Tod." More recently, literary critic Harold Bloom wrote that In Search of Lost Time is now "widely recognized as the major novel of the twentieth century." Vladimir Nabokov, in a 1965 interview, named the greatest prose works of the 20th century as, in order, "Joyce's Ulysses, Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Biely's Petersburg, and the first half of Proust's fairy tale In Search of Lost Time." J. Peder Zane's book The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books, collates 125 "top 10 greatest books of all time" lists by prominent living writers; In Search of Lost Time places eighth. In the 1960s, Swedish literary critic Bengt Holmqvist dubbed the novel "at once the last great classic of French epic prose tradition and the towering precursor of the 'nouveau roman'", indicating the sixties vogue of new, experimental French prose but also, by extension, other post-war attempts to fuse different planes of location, temporality and fragmented consciousness within the same novel.
Since the publication in 1992 of a revised English translation by The Modern Library, based on a new definitive French edition (1987–89), interest in Proust's novel in the English-speaking world has increased. Two substantial new biographies have appeared in English, by Edmund White and William C. Carter, and at least two books about the experience of reading Proust have appeared, by Alain de Botton and Phyllis Rose. The Proust Society of America, founded in 1997, now has three chapters: at The Mercantile Library of New York City, the Mechanic's Institute Library in San Francisco, and the Boston Athenæum Library. The French phenomenologist, Merleau-Ponty, frequently refers to Swann's Way to help elucidate his own ideas.
Main characters
Proust - Personnages
Main characters - Family tree
The Narrator's household
* The narrator: A sensitive young man who wishes to become a writer, whose identity is explicitly kept vague. In volume 5, The Prisoner, he addresses the reader thus: "Now she began to speak; her first words were 'darling' or 'my darling,' followed by my Christian name, which, if we give the narrator the same name as the author of this book, would produce 'darling Marcel' or 'my darling Marcel.'" (Proust, 64)
* Bathilde Amédée: The narrator's grandmother. Her life and death greatly influence her daughter and grandson.
* Françoise: The narrator's faithful, stubborn maid.
The Guermantes
* Palamède de Guermantes (Baron de Charlus): An aristocratic, decadent aesthete with many antisocial habits.
* Oriane de Guermantes (Duchesse de Guermantes): The toast of Paris' high society. She lives in the fashionable Faubourg St. Germain.
* Robert de Saint-Loup: An army officer and the narrator's best friend. Despite his patrician birth (he is the nephew of M. de Guermantes) and affluent lifestyle, Saint-Loup has no great fortune of his own until he marries Gilberte.
The Swanns
* Charles Swann: A friend of the narrator's family. His political views on the Dreyfus Affair and marriage to Odette ostracize him from much of high society.
* Odette de Crécy: A beautiful Parisian courtesan. Odette is also referred to as Mme Swann, the woman in pink/white, and in the final volume, Mme de Forcheville.
* Gilberte Swann: The daughter of Swann and Odette. She takes the name of her adopted father, M. de Forcheville, after Swann's death, and then becomes Mme de Saint-Loup following her marriage to Robert de Saint-Loup, which joins Swann's Way and the Guermantes Way.
Artists
* Elstir: A famous painter whose renditions of sea and sky echo the novel's theme of the mutability of human life.
* Bergotte: A well-known writer whose works the narrator has admired since childhood.
* Vinteuil: An obscure musician who gains posthumous recognition for composing a beautiful, evocative sonata.
* Berma
Others
* Charles Morel: The son of a former servant of the narrator's uncle and a gifted violinist. He profits greatly from the patronage of the Baron de Charlus and later Robert de Saint-Loup.
* Albertine Simonet: A privileged orphan of average beauty and intelligence. The narrator's romance with her is the subject of much of the novel.
* Sidonie Verdurin: A poseur who rises to the top of society through inheritance, marriage, and sheer single-mindedness. Often referred to simply as Mme. Verdurin.
Publication in English
The first six volumes were first translated into English by the Scotsman C. K. Scott Moncrieff between 1922 and his death in 1930 under the title Remembrance of Things Past, a phrase taken from Shakespeare's Sonnet 30; this was the first translation of the Recherche into another language. The final volume, Le Temps retrouvé, was initially published in English in the UK as Time Regained (1931), translated by Stephen Hudson (a pseudonym of Sydney Schiff), and in the US as The Past Recaptured (1932) in a translation by Frederick Blossom. Although cordial with Scott Moncrieff, Proust grudgingly remarked in a letter that Remembrance eliminated the correspondence between Temps perdu and Temps retrouvé (Painter, 352). Terence Kilmartin revised the Scott Moncrieff translation in 1981, using the new French edition of 1954. An additional revision by D.J. Enright - that is, a revision of a revision - was published by the Modern Library in 1992. It is based on the latest and most authoritative French text (1987–89), and rendered the title of the novel more literally as In Search of Lost Time. In 1995, Penguin undertook a fresh translation of In Search of Lost Time by editor Christopher Prendergast and seven different translators, one Australian, one American, and the others English. Based on the authoritative French text (of 1987-98), it was published in six volumes in Britain under the Allen Lane imprint in 2002. The first four (those which under American copyright law are in the public domain) have since been published in the US under the Viking imprint and in paperback under the Penguin Classics imprint. The remaining volumes are scheduled to come out in 2018.
Both the Modern Library and Penguin translations provide a detailed plot synopsis at the end of each volume. The last volume of the Modern Library edition, Time Regained, also includes Kilmartin's "A Guide to Proust," an index of the novel's characters, persons, places, and themes. The Modern Library volumes include a handful of endnotes, and alternative versions of some of the novel's famous episodes. The Penguin volumes each provide an extensive set of brief, non-scholarly endnotes that help identify cultural references perhaps unfamiliar to contemporary English readers. Reviews which discuss the merits of both translations can be found online at the Observer, the Telegraph, The New York Review of Books (subscription only), The New York Times, TempsPerdu.com, and Reading Proust.
English-language translations in print
* In Search of Lost Time (General Editor: Christopher Prendergast), translated by Lydia Davis, Mark Treharne, James Grieve, John Sturrock, Carol Clark, Peter Collier, & Ian Patterson. London: Allen Lane, 2002 (6 vols). Based on the most recent definitive French edition (1987–89), except The Fugitive, which is based on the 1954 definitive French edition. The first four volumes have been published in New York by Viking, 2003–2004, but the Copyright Term Extension Act will delay the rest of the project until 2018.
o (Volume titles: The Way by Swann's (in the U.S., Swann's Way) ISBN 0-14-243796-4; In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower ISBN 0-14-303907-5; The Guermantes Way ISBN 0-14-303922-9; Sodom and Gomorrah ISBN 0-14-303931-8; The Prisoner; and The Fugitive — Finding Time Again.)
* In Search of Lost Time, translated by C. K. Scott-Moncrieff, Terence Kilmartin and Andreas Mayor (Vol. 7). Revised by D.J. Enright. London: Chatto and Windus, New York: The Modern Library, 1992. Based on the most recent definitive French edition (1987–89). ISBN 0-8129-6964-2
o (Volume titles: Swann's Way — Within a Budding Grove — The Guermantes Way — Sodom and Gomorrah — The Captive — The Fugitive — Time Regained.)
* A Search for Lost Time: Swann's Way, translated by James Grieve. Canberra: Australian National University, 1982 ISBN 0-7081-1317-6
* Remembrance of Things Past, translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff, Terence Kilmartin, and Andreas Mayor (Vol. 7). New York: Random House, 1981 (3 vols). ISBN 0-394-71243-9
o (Published in three volumes: Swann's Way — Within a Budding Grove; The Guermantes Way — Cities of the Plain; The Captive — The Fugitive — Time Regained.)
Adaptations
* The Proust Screenplay, a film adaptation by Harold Pinter published in 1978 (never filmed).
* Remembrance of Things Past, Part One: Combray; Part Two: Within a Budding Grove, vol.1; Part Three: Within a Budding Grove, vol.2; and Part Four: Un amour de Swann, vol.1 are graphic novel adaptations by Stéphane Heuet.
* Albertine, a novel based on a rewriting of Albertine by Jacqueline Rose. Vintage UK, 2002.
Screen
* Swann in Love (Un Amour de Swann), a 1984 film by Volker Schlöndorff starring Jeremy Irons and Ornella Muti.
* Time Regained (Le Temps retrouvé), a 1999 film by Raul Ruiz starring Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Béart, and John Malkovich.
* La Captive, a 2000 film by Chantal Akerman.
* Quartetto Basileus (1982) uses segments from Sodom and Gomorrah and Time Regained. Le Intermittenze del cuore (2003) concerns a director working on a movie about Proust's life. Both from Italian director Fabio Capri.
Stage
* A Waste of Time, by Philip Prowse and Robert David MacDonald. A 4 hour long adaptation with a huge cast. Dir. by Philip Prowse at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre in 1980, revived 1981 plus European tour.
* Remembrance of Things Past, by Harold Pinter and Di Trevis, based on Pinter's The Proust Screenplay. Dir. by Trevis (who had acted in A Waste of Time - see above) at the Royal National Theatre in 2000.
* Eleven Rooms of Proust, adapted and directed by Mary Zimmerman. A series of 11 vignettes from In Search of Lost Time, staged throughout an abandoned factory in Chicago.
* My Life With Albertine, a 2003 Off-Broadway musical with book by Richard Nelson, music by Ricky Ian Gordon, and lyrics by both.
Radio
* In Search of Lost Time dramatised by Michael Butt for the The Classic Serial, broadcast between February 6, 2005 and March 13, 2005. Starring James Wilby, it condensed the entire series into six episodes. Although considerably shortened, it received excellent reviews .
《红与黑》 Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black) 1830 by Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle, 1783 – 1842)
《红与黑》是法国作家司汤达创作的一部长篇小说，现在，已经被世界公认为文学史上的经典。《红与黑》是法国批判现实主义的第一部杰出作品。作者被誉为法国以至整个欧洲批判现实主义文学的奠基人之一。
《红与黑》是19世纪欧洲批判现实主义的奠基作品
《红与黑》-作品简介
《红与黑》是法国作家司汤达创作的一部长篇小说，现在，已经被世界公认为文学史上的经典。《红与黑》是法国批判现实主义的第一部杰出作品。作者被誉为法国以至整个欧洲批判现实主义文学的奠基人之一。
《红与黑》是19世纪欧洲批判现实主义的奠基作品。小说围绕主人公于连个人奋斗的经历与最终失败，尤其是他的两次爱情的描写，广泛地展现了“19世纪初30年间压在法国人民头上的历届政府所带来的社会风气”，强烈地抨击了复辟王朝时期贵族的反动，教会的黑暗和资产阶级新贵的卑鄙庸俗，利欲熏心。因此小说虽以于连的爱情生活作为主线，但毕竟不是爱情小说，而是一部“政治小说”。
《红与黑》-内容简介
小说主人公于连,是一个木匠的儿子,年轻英俊,意志坚强,精明能干,从小就希望借助个人的努力与奋斗跻身上流社会。
《红与黑》《红与黑》
在法国与瑞士接壤的维立叶尔城，座落在山坡上，美丽的杜伯河绕城而过，河岸上矗立着许多锯木厂。 市长德瑞那是个出身贵族，在扣上挂满勋章的人。
他五十岁左右，他的房子有全城最漂亮的花园，他的妻子是最有钱而又最漂亮的妻子，但他才智不足， “他只能办到严格地收讨他人的欠债，当他自己欠人家的债时，他愈迟还愈好”。在这座城市还有一个重要人物，是贫民寄养所所长——哇列诺先生。他花了一万到一万两千法郎才弄到这个职位，他体格强壮棕红色的脸，黑而精粗的小胡子，在别人眼中他是个美男子，连市长都惧他三分。但市长为了显示自己高人一等，决心请一个家庭教师。
木匠索黑尔的儿子于连，由于精通拉丁文，被选作市长家的家庭教师。他约十八九岁，长得文弱清秀，两只又大又黑的眼睛。在宁静时，眼中射出火一般的光辉，又象是熟思和探寻的样子，但一瞬间，又流露出可怕的仇恨，由于他整天抱着书本不放，不愿做力气活，因而遭到全家的嫌弃与怨恨，经常被父亲和两个哥哥毒打。他小时疯狂地崇拜拿破伦，渴望像拿破仑那样身佩长剑，做世界的主人。认为拿破仑“由一个既卑微又穷困的下级军官，只靠他身佩的长剑，便做了世界上的主人”。但后来他又想当神甫，因为“如今我们眼见四十岁左右的神父能拿到十万法郎的薪俸。这就是说他们能拿到十万法郎，三倍于拿破仑当时手下的著名的大将的收入。”于是，他投拜在神甫西朗的门下，钻研起神学来。他仗着惊人的好记性把一本拉丁文《圣经》全背下来，这事轰动了全城。
市长的年轻漂亮的妻子是在修道院长大的，对像她丈夫那样庸俗粗鲁的男人，打心底里感到厌恶。由于没有爱情，她把心思全放在教养3 个孩子身上。她认为男人“除了金钱、权势、勋章的贪欲以外，对于一切都是麻木不仁”。最初，她把于连想象为一个满面污垢的乡下佬，谁知见面时却大出她的意料：面前这个年轻人竟是这样白皙，眼睛又这样温柔动人。以为他“实际上是一个少女”故意假扮男装。她对于连产生好感，甚至觉得“只有在这个少年教士的心里，才有慷慨、高尚、仁爱”。瑞那夫人的女仆爱丽沙也爱上了于连，爱丽沙得到了一笔遗产，要西郎神父转达她对于连的爱慕，于连拒绝了女仆爱丽沙的爱情。瑞那夫人得知此事心里异常高兴，一股幸福的流泉泻落在她的心海里，她发觉自己对他产生了一种从未有过的一种感情。
夏天市长一家搬到凡尼镇乡下花园别墅居住，晚上乘凉的时候，全家聚在一株菩提树下，于连无意间触到了瑞那夫人的手，她一下子缩回去了，于连以为瑞那夫人看不起他，便决心必须握住这只手。第二天晚上他果然做了，瑞那夫人的手被于连偷偷地紧握着，满足了他的自尊心。瑞那夫人被爱情与道德责任折腾得一夜未合眼。她决定用冷淡的态度去对待于连。可是当于连不在家时，她又忍不住对他的思念。而于连也变得更大胆，他在心里暗想：“我应该再进一步，务必要在这个女人身上达到目的才好。如果我以后发了财，有人耻笑我当家庭教师低贱，我就让大家了解，是爱情使我接受这位置的”。
《红与黑》《红与黑》
深夜2 点闯进了她的房里。开始，她对于连的无礼行为很生气，但当她看到“他两眼充满眼泪”时，便同情起他来。她暗想，如果在10年前能爱上于连该多好。不过，在于连的心里则完全没有这种想法，他的爱完全是出于一种野心，一种因占有欲而产生的狂热。他那样贫穷，能够得到这么高贵、这么美丽的妇人，已经是上天的恩赐了。
不久，皇帝驾临维立叶尔，在瑞那夫人的安排下，于连被聘当上了仪仗队队员，使他有在公众面前大出风头的机会。迎驾期间，于连作为陪祭教士参加瞻拜圣骸典礼。之后，他对木尔侯爵的侄子、年轻的安倍主教十分崇敬。心想，安倍主教如此年轻就有显赫的地位，而且倍受女人的青睐，暗下决心“宁愿受宗教的制裁，也要达到令美人羡慕的境界”。
瑞那夫人心爱的儿子病危，她认为这是上帝对自己不道德行为的一种惩罚，她陷入了可怕的忏悔里。这时，爱丽沙又把夫人的事暗中告诉了哇列诺先生，他早先曾贪恋瑞那夫人的美色碰了一鼻子灰，便趁机给市长写了一封告密信。但市长担心如果把妻子赶出家门，自己将失去一大笔遗产，而且也有损于自己的名誉，采取 “只怀疑而不证实”的办法。但在这座城市里，街谈巷议对瑞那夫人和于连却越来越不利。一次爱丽沙向西朗神父忏悔时，又谈出于连与瑞那夫人的秘密关系。关心于连的神父要他到省城贝尚松神学院进修。告别后的第三天夜里，于连又冒险赶回维立叶尔，与瑞那夫人见面，此时的瑞那夫人由于思念的痛苦，已憔悴得不像人样了。
贝尚松是法国一座古城，城墙高大。初到神学院，那门上的铁十字架，修士的黑色道袍，和他们麻木不仁的面孔都使于连感到恐怖。院长彼拉神父是西郎神父的老相识，因此对于连特别关照。他对于连说： “嘻笑就是虚伪的舞台”。
在321个学生中，绝大部分是平庸的青年，由此于连自信会迅速获得成功。他悄悄对自己说：“在拿破仑统治下，我会是个军曹，在未来的神父当中，我将是个主教。”由于学习成绩名列前茅，院长竟让他当新旧约全书课程的辅导教师。
但神学院是个伪善的地方，他很快就堕入了忧郁之中。彼拉院长受到排挤辞职不干了，并介绍于连为木尔侯爵的秘书。彼拉神父专门给他介绍侯爵一家他说 “你要十分注意，一个象我们这种行业的人，只有靠这些大人先生们才有前途……在这样一个社会里，如果你得不到人家的尊敬，你的不幸是注定的了”。
侯爵瘦削而矮小，有一对十分灵活的眼睛，头上带有金色假发。他是个极端保皇党人，法国大革命时，他逃亡国外，王朝复辟后，他在朝中取得了显赫的地位。于连每天的工作就是为他抄写稿件和公文，侯爵对于连十分满意，派他去管理自己两个省的田庄，还负责自己与贝尚松代理主教福力列之间的诉讼通讯，后又派他到伦敦去搞外交，赠给他一枚十字勋章，这使于连感到获得了极大的成功。
于连在贵族社会的熏陶下，很快学会了巴黎上流社会的艺术，成了一个花花公子，甚至在木尔小姐的眼里，他也已脱了外省青年的土气。木尔小姐名叫玛特儿，是一个有金栗色头发，体态匀称，非常秀丽的姑娘，但“这双眼睛透露出一种内心可怕的冷酷”。她读过许多浪漫主义爱情小说，并被3 世纪前一段家史所激动：她的祖先木尔是皇后玛嘉瑞特的情夫，被国王处死后，皇后向刽子手买下了他的头，在深夜里亲自把它埋葬在蒙马特山脚下。她十分崇拜皇后的这种为爱情而敢冒大不韪的精神，她的名字玛特儿就是皇后的爱称。
起初，于连并不爱玛特儿那清高傲慢的性格，但想到“她却能够把社会上的好地位带给她丈夫”时，便热烈地追求起她来。玛特儿也知道于连出身低微，但她怀着一种“我敢于恋爱一个社会地位离我那样摇远的人，已算是伟大和勇敢了”的浪漫主义感情，因此，她在花园里主动挽着于连的胳膊，还主动给他写信宣布爱情。为了考验于连的胆量，她要于连在明亮的月光下用梯子爬到她的房间去。于连照样做了，当晚她就委身于他了，过后玛特儿很快就后悔了 。
一次，他们在图书室相遇，她边哭边对于连说：“我恨我委身于第一个来到的人”于连感到痛苦，他摘下挂在墙上的一把古剑要杀死她，玛特儿一点都不害怕反而骄傲地走到于连面前，她认为于连爱她已经爱到要杀了她的程度，便又与他好起来。夜里于连再次爬进她的房间，她请求于连做她的“主人”，自己将永远做他的奴隶，表示要永远服从他。可是，只要于连稍许表露出爱慕的意思，她又转为愤怒，毫不掩饰的侮辱他，并公开宣布不再爱他。
因为于连的记忆力很好，木尔侯爵让他列席一次保王党人的秘密会议，会上有政府首相、红衣主教、将军。会后，木尔侯爵让于连把记在心里的会议记录冒着生命危险带到国外去。在驿站换马时，差点被敌方杀害，幸好他机警地逃脱了，与外国使节接上了头，然后留在那等回信。在那儿他遇到俄国柯哈莎夫王子，他是个情场老手，于连便把自己的爱情苦恼讲给他听，他建议于连假装去追求另一个女性，以达到降伏玛特儿的目的，并把自己的五十三封情书交给她，“把这些信转抄一份寄给你所选定的女性，这个女性必须是瞧你不起的对方的熟人。”
于连回到巴黎后，将这些情书一封封寄给元帅夫人，元帅夫人受了感动，给于连回信，玛特儿再也忍耐不住了，跪倒在于连的脚下，求他爱她，于连的虚荣心得到极大的满足，“看呀！这个骄傲的女人，居然躺在我的脚下了！”。不久，玛特儿发现自己怀孕了，她写信告诉父亲，要他原谅于连，并成全他们的婚事。侯爵在爱女坚持下，一再让步。先是给了他们一份田产，准备让他们结婚后搬到田庄去住。随后，又给于连寄去一张骠骑兵中尉的委任状，授予贵族称号。
于连在骠骑兵驻地穿上军官制服，陶醉在个人野心满足的快乐中，“由于恩宠，刚刚才作了二天的中尉，他已经在盘算好至迟有象过去的大将军一样，在三十岁上，就能做到司令，那么到二十三岁，就应该在中尉以上。他只想到他的荣誉和他的儿子。”这时，他突然收到了玛特儿寄来的急信。信中说：一切都完了。于连急忙回去，原来瑞那夫人给木尔侯爵写信揭露了他们原先的关系。这时恼羞成怒的于连立即跳上去维拉叶尔的马车，买了一支手枪，随即赶到教堂，向正在祷告的瑞那夫人连发两枪，夫人当场中枪倒地。 于连因开枪杀人被捕了。
入狱后，他头脑冷静下来，对自己行为感到悔恨和耻辱。他意识到野心已经破灭，但死对他并不可怕。瑞那夫人受了枪伤并没有死。稍愈后，她买通狱吏，免得于连受虐待。于连知道后痛哭流涕。玛特儿也从巴黎赶来探监，为营救于连四处奔走，于连对此并不感动，只觉得愤怒。公审的时候，于连当众宣称他不祈求任何人的恩赐，他说：“我决不是被我的同阶级的人审判，我在陪审官的席上，没有看见一个富有的农民，而只是些令人气愤的资产阶级的人。”结果法庭宣布于连犯了蓄谋杀人罪，判处死刑。 瑞那夫人不顾一切前去探监。
于连这才知道，她给侯爵的那封信，是由听她忏悔的教士起草并强迫她写的。于连和瑞那夫人彼此饶恕了，他拒绝上诉，也拒绝做临终祷告，以示对封建贵族阶级专制的抗议。
在一个晴和的日子里，于连走上了断头台。玛特儿买下了他的头颅，按照她敬仰的玛嘉瑞特皇后的方式，亲自埋葬了自己情人的头颅。至于瑞那夫人，在于连死后的第三天，抱吻着她的儿子，也离开了人间。
《红与黑》-作品赏析
《红与黑》是19世纪欧洲批判现实主义的奠基作品。小说围绕主人公于连个人奋斗的经历与最终失败，尤其是他的两次爱情的描写，广泛地展现了“19世纪初30年间压在法国人民头上的历届政府所带来的社会风气”，强烈地抨击了复辟王朝时期贵族的反动，教会的黑暗和资产阶级新贵的卑鄙庸俗，利欲熏心。因此小说虽以于连的爱情生活作为主线，但毕竟不是爱情小说，而是一部“政治小说”。
司汤达是善于从爱情中反映重大社会问题的文学大师。于连的两次爱情都与时代风云紧密相连，这是当时阶级角逐的一种表现形式，他对德·雷纳尔夫人后来的确也产生了真正的感情，但开始是出于小市民对权贵的报复心理。因此，于连第一次占有德· 雷纳尔夫人的手的时候，他感到的并不是爱情的幸福，而是拿破仑式的野心的胜利，是“狂欢”和“喜悦”，是报复心理的满足。
《红与黑》《红与黑》
如果说于连对德·雷纳尔夫人的追求还有某些真挚情感的话，那么于连对玛蒂尔德小姐的爱情则纯属政治上的角逐，玛蒂尔德既有贵族少女的傲慢、任性的气质，又受到法国大革命的深刻影响。她认为，如果再有一次大革命，主宰社会的必定是像于连这样富于朝气的平民青年。同于连结成伉俪，既富于浪漫气息，又找到了有力的靠山。而于连则认为与玛蒂尔德小姐结婚可以爬上高位，青云直上，因此不惜去骗取她的爱情。
但是，于连的两次爱情最终还是失败了。这是因为在复辟时期，封建势力向市民阶层猖狂反扑。于连不是统治阶级圈子里的人，那个阶级决不会容忍于连那样的人实现其宏愿。
《红与黑》在典型环境典型性格的塑造、匀称的艺术结构和白描手法的运用上都有突出的成就，而司汤达所以被评论家称为“现代小说之父”则是因为他在《红与黑》中表现了卓越的心理描写天才。现实主义作家都强调细节的真实，但司汤达与巴尔扎克不一样，他着重刻画的不是客观环境，而是人物内心活动的细致和逼真，作者常常三言两语就把人物行动、周围环境交代过去，而对其内心的活动则洋洋洒洒，不惜笔墨，爱情心理描写更是丝丝入扣，动人心弦。作者在于连得知德·雷纳尔夫人写揭发信到枪杀她这段情节上仅用了三页，而与玛蒂尔德的爱情却花了上百页的篇幅细致描写。德·雷纳尔夫人堕入情网时的那种喜悦、痛苦、忏悔而又不甘放弃幸福的复杂心理的展现，也令人拍案叫绝。
《红与黑》-书评
红与黑这部小说的故事据悉是采自1828年2月29日《法院新闻》所登载一个死刑案件。在拿破仑帝国时代，红与黑代表着“军队”与“教会”，是有野心的法国青年发展的两个管道（一说是轮盘上的红色与黑色）。
《红与黑》是19世纪欧洲批判现实主义的奠基作品。小说围绕主人公于连个人奋斗的经历与最终失败，尤其是他的两次爱情的描写，广泛地展现了“19世纪初30年间压在法国人民头上的历届政府所带来的社会风气”，强烈地抨击了复辟王朝时期贵族的反动，教会的黑暗和资产阶级新贵的卑鄙庸俗，利欲熏心。因此小说虽以于连的爱情生活作为主线，但毕竟不是爱情小说，而是一部“政治小说”。
司汤达是善于从爱情中反映重大社会问题的文学大师。于连的两次爱情都与时代风云紧密相连，这是当时阶级角逐的一种表现形式，他对德· 雷纳尔夫人后来的确也产生了真正的感情，但开始是出于小市民对权贵的报复心理。因此，于连第一次占有德·雷纳尔夫人的手的时候，他感到的并不是爱情的幸福，而是拿破仑式的野心的胜利，是“狂欢”和“喜悦”，是报复心理的满足。
如果说于连对德·雷纳尔夫人的追求还有某些真挚情感的话，那么于连对玛蒂尔德小姐的爱情则纯属政治上的角逐，玛蒂尔德既有贵族少女的傲慢、任性的气质，又受到法国大革命的深刻影响。她认为，如果再有一次大革命，主宰社会的必定是像于连这样富于朝气的平民青年。同于连结成伉俪，既富于浪漫气息，又找到了有力的靠山。而于连则认为与玛蒂尔德小姐结婚可以爬上高位，青云直上，因此不惜去骗取她的爱情。
但是，于连的两次爱情最终还是失败了。这是因为在复辟时期，封建势力向市民阶层猖狂反扑。于连不是统治阶级圈子里的人，那个阶级决不会容忍于连那样的人实现其宏愿。
《红与黑》在典型环境典型性格的塑造、匀称的艺术结构和白描手法的运用上都有突出的成就，而司汤达所以被评论家称为“现代小说之父”则是因为他在《红与黑》中表现了卓越的心理描写天才。
《红与黑》-历史影响
.《红与黑》
灵魂的哲学诗
于连是１９世纪欧洲文学中一系列反叛资本主义社会的英雄人物的"始祖"
《红与黑》《红与黑》
法国批判现实主义文学的奠基之作_
１９世纪卓越的政治小说
现代小说之父的经典著作
１９世纪欧洲文学史中第一部批判现实主义杰作
美国作家海明威开列的必读书
被英国小说家毛姆认为是真正的杰作的文学书
１９８６年法国《读书》杂志推荐的理想藏书?
《红与黑》是法国现实主义作家司汤达的代表作，自１８３０年问世以来，赢得了世界各国一代又一代读者的心，特别为年轻人所喜爱。作品所塑造的"少年野心家"于连是一个具有高度典型意义的人物形象，已成为个人奋斗的野心家的代名词。
小说发表后，当时的社会流传"不读《红与黑》，就无法在政界混"的谚语，而本书则被许多国家列为禁书。《红与黑》在心理深度的挖掘上远远超出了同时代作家所能及的层次。它开创了后世"意识流小说"、"心理小说"的先河。后来者竞相仿效这种"司汤达文体"，使小说创作"向内转"，发展到重心理刻画、重情绪抒发的现代形态。人们因此称司汤达为"现代小说之父"。《红与黑》在今天仍被公认为欧洲文学皇冠上一枚最为璀璨精致的艺术宝石，是文学史上描写政治黑暗最经典的著作之一，１００多年来，被译成多种文字广为流传，并被多次改编为戏剧、电影。
司汤达的《红与黑》已显示了２０世纪小说的方向，进入这本书中，我们就会感受到只有第一流的心理小说家才能给予的震撼，因为它带给我们的是更富真实感的精神内涵。
--美国教授 费迪曼
《红与黑》是我平生最受益的书籍。
--法国杰出小说家 纪德
司汤达的《红与黑》中的于连是１９世纪欧洲文学中一系列反叛资本社会主义的英雄人物的"始祖"。
--高尔基
《红与黑》在心理深度的挖掘上远远超出了同时代作家所能及的层次。小说以深刻细腻的笔调充分展示了主人公的心灵空间，广泛运用了独白和自由联想等多种艺术手法挖掘出了于连深层意识的活动，并开创了后世"意识流小说"、"心理小说"的先河，是一首"灵魂的哲学诗"。
--《外国文学史》
《红与黑》在文学史上影响深远，法国有专门研究司汤达和《红与黑》的学问--"司汤达学"和"红学"，还有专门研究该书的"司汤达俱乐部"。
-- 《法国文学史》
疑虑和矛盾中的于连
无疑，《红与黑》是一部充满着魅力的作品。西方关于研究司汤达的作品数量足以与中国研究《红楼梦》的"红学"等量齐观。的确，作为法国批判现实主义文学的奠基之作，《红与黑》中对于１９世纪上半期法国风起云涌的各方斗争和矛盾都展现得颇为深远，贵族、大小资产阶级、教会人士一个个的粉墨登场，潜伏在表象下的实力的交战刻画了当时整个社会的腐朽和虚伪。而在我看来，《红与黑》之所以如此经久不衰，都绝不仅仅在于该作品所体现出的政治和社会意义。记得蓝棣之老师曾经说过，一部现实主义作品大大不同于记录社会的高级文件，文学的意义也绝不仅在于记录，我想，是《红与黑》中主人公于连充满着无限矛盾与反差的各种思想和行为，更足以让每位读者看得目瞪口呆却又如痴如醉，足以让每一位研究者分析成千次上万次。
我们随便从中挑一段来读，便很容易看出于连的极端细腻和敏感。在市长家做家庭教师时，于连已经通过出色地背诵拉丁文《圣约》赢得了德·瑞纳一家上下刮目相看，更凭着他清秀的长相、少年的自尊打动了德·瑞纳夫人的芳心。而于连却出于一种奇怪的自尊和一定要证明点什么的心理，望着她，仿佛她是个仇敌，他正要上前和她决斗交锋……
就是这样，这个怪异的于连牢牢抓住了读者们的心。于连的敏感和细腻、倔强是天生的，他还拥有着超群的记忆力，而他的高傲和自尊、崇拜权势则是后天环境的赋予。于连确实是十分自我的，在他的心目中，尊严被提到了一个至高无上的地位，他可以放弃轻而易举就能到手的钱财，因为他需要的是别人的尊重。但他对于"自尊"的理想和追求又最终把他引向了歧途。
于连虽然有着民主的思想和英雄主义的热情，但当他得到了拉莫尔公爵的赏识时，他却逐步地向贵族势力妥协了，这时的于连仿佛只知道为拉莫尔公爵的一场政治阴谋走足报信。在他的个人奋斗历程中，他经历着一次次的反抗和妥协。他是机智聪明的，然而在很多方面，我们只能说他是天真而无知的，比起整个社会中精心钻营的人们来，他是无力的，也是无助的。
左拉在《论司汤达》中是这样写的："他（司汤达）停留在一种抽象的意愿里，他要人这种生物不包括在自然里，而是靠在一边站着，然后宣告只有心灵是高贵的"。左拉觉得于连是"完全装配好的智慧和情感的机器"，"纯粹在思辩中产生的创造物"，他"专在推理上下功夫"，主张自然主义的左拉认为司汤达在创作中带有观念学者和逻辑学者的身份，于连似乎只是永远在心理活动，外界的事务，哪管它春夏与秋冬，能对于连产生震动的永远都只是他的想像中别人对他的轻蔑与尊重。这不也正说明了作者对于连心理上入木三分的刻画吗？
《红与黑》中于连的心理在疑虑和矛盾中挣扎，对于人物的思索是一个极大的宝库，采之不竭，魅力无穷！
《红与黑》-人物分析
———《红与黑》中于连人物形象分析
《红与黑》《红与黑》
于连是世界名著《红与黑》中的主人公。对其形象分析,在文学理论界有种种评说,可谓众说纷纭,莫衷一是。有人认
为, 他虚伪、阴险,踩着女人的肩膀向上爬,是一个地地道道的阴谋家、野心家。也有人认为他是当时反对封建权贵的勇士,资产阶级个人奋斗的典型代表。更有人认为他是拿破仑时代的悲剧英雄。
《红与黑》是法国 19世纪杰出的批判现实主义作家司汤达(1783-1842)的代表作。其副题是“一八三○年纪事”。在这部小说中,作者以法国波旁王朝复辟时代为背景,以平民知识分子于连·索黑尔与贵族资产阶级上层社会顽强曲折的斗争为主线,着重描写了他从18岁到德·瑞那市长家当家庭教师开始,到23岁因枪伤市长夫人而被送上断头台为止短短5年间的生活历程。
于连出生在小城维立叶尔郊区的一个锯木厂家庭。他幼时身材瘦弱,在家中被看成是“不会挣钱”的“不中用” 的人,常遭父兄打骂和奚落。卑贱的出身又使他常常受到社会的歧视。少年时期的于连聪明好学,意志坚强,精力充沛。他接受了启蒙思想家的自由平等观念和无神论思想,并在一位拿破仑时代老军医的影响下,崇拜拿破仑,幻想着通过“入军界、穿军装、走一条‘红’的道路”来建功立业、飞黄腾达。然而,在他14岁那年,波旁王朝复辟了,平民可以平步青云的拿破仑时代过去了。于连不得不选择“黑”的道路,幻想进入修道院,穿起教士黑袍,以便将来成为一名“年俸十万法朗的大主教”。18岁时,于连到维立叶尔市长德·瑞那家中担任家庭教师,而市长只将他看成拿工钱的奴仆。自尊心受到伤害的于连,便以追求市长夫人来报复市长。他与市长夫人的关系暴露后,被迫进入了贝尚松神学院,投奔了院长彼拉,当上了神学院的讲师。后因教会内部的派系斗争,彼拉院长被排挤出神学院,于连只得随彼拉来巴黎,当上了极端保皇党领袖德·拉·木尔侯爵的的私人秘书。他因沉静、聪明和善于谄媚,得到了木尔侯爵的器重,以渊博的学识与优雅的气质,又赢得了侯爵女儿玛特儿小姐的爱慕。尽管不爱玛特儿,但他为了抓住这块实现野心的跳板,竟使用诡计占有了她。得知女儿已经怀孕后, 侯爵不得不同意这门婚姻。于连为此获得一个骑士称号、一份田产和一个骠骑兵中尉的军衔。此时的于连又开始做起了“三十岁当司令”的美梦。他变成了一个封建贵族阶
级的忠实奴仆,在保皇党策划的政治阴谋中为主子效力,冒着生命危险为侯爵传递情报。正当他踌躇满志时,贵族阶级与反动教会狼狈为奸,诱使市长夫人写了揭发于连的告密信,致使侯爵取消他与玛特儿的婚约。于连美梦破灭,盛怒之下枪伤了德·瑞那夫人,被判处死刑。在狱中,于连终于明白:像他这样出身卑贱的人,在等级森严的封建制度中是不可能通过个人奋斗而飞黄腾达的。他拒绝上诉,坦然走上了断头台。
于连的性格是复杂的,并随周围环境的变化而不断发生演变。时代的变迁,不堪受辱的内心,受人歧视的社会地位以
及向上爬而不能如愿的愤怒,形成了于连自尊、怀疑、敏感和积极反抗的性格。他时刻牢记着自己与上层社会之间的地位不同、阶级不同、观念不同,对生活持以怀疑的态度,用他那异常敏锐的目光观察周围的一切,寻找歧视他、伤害他的敌人,搜索自己受辱的蛛丝马迹。他不甘屈服,不甘忍受时代和上层社会的拨弄,用拿破仑的英雄主义武装自己,为维护自己的个性而奋起反抗,时刻处于凛然不可侵犯的战斗状态,与整个社会作战。“在这个奇异的年轻人心里,差不多时时刻刻都有暴风雨”。他憎恨做奴仆,要求与上流社会的人平起平坐,以保持自己的尊严。当父亲要他去德·瑞那市长家当家庭教师时,一贯敢怒而不敢言的于连却以“我不愿意做奴仆”表示拒绝。老索黑尔说这不是做奴仆,于连当即要加以证实:“到他家里,我同谁一块吃饭呢?”可见于连把这个问题看得很重。然而,正是这种自尊心理使他赢得了尊敬、友谊和爱情。而当他最初出现在市长大人府邸的大门时,显然还是个质朴幼稚、天良未泯的年轻乡下人。也就在这里,他目睹种种社会贫富不均现象而十分气愤,但更为自己寄人篱下的屈辱地位而痛惜不已,于是就对市长及其一家人产生了本能的轻蔑和憎恶之感。虽然他渊博的知识和惊人的记忆力赢得了市长一家的好感,但他在这里感受到的“仅仅是他对已经插身进来的上流社会的仇恨和恐惧”。
于连骄矜自持,自视甚高,这种自尊心理一旦面临恶言劣语、霸道行径的袭击,就使其隐藏着的仇恨心理爆发出来并大
胆反击。即使在爱情这样的人类最细微的感情方面,于连感到的往往不是幸福,而是自尊心满足后的喜悦和骄傲,并把这种胜利看作是拿破仑式的胜利。在我们看来,这似乎不可思议,却恰恰体现出于连是以全部精力来反抗上层社会的。
在德·瑞那市长家,于连是为了报复市长大人对自己的轻蔑,粉碎他的骄傲心理,而带着战斗的情绪走进市长夫人的
房间的。即使在与德·瑞那夫人进行热恋时,于连的这种仇恨心理和反抗也从未停止过。他始终把爱情看成是他对贵族阶级的报复和争取自由平等的愿望。这一点,也在于连和玛特儿侯爵小姐的交往中得到了充分体现。他敢于轻视傲慢的玛特儿小姐,并曾这样想:“我知道保持我的自尊心, 我没有向她说我爱她。”当他收到玛特儿小姐的爱情告白信时,首先想到的是他终于战胜了情敌柯西乐侯爵,可以平等地与木尔侯爵坐在同一条凳子上。他立刻自豪地得出结论:“侯爵和我的价值,已经过去了,结果是汝拉山的穷木匠占据了重要的一面。”这哪里是什么谈情说爱,简直就是一场斗争,而斗争的目标便是贵族阶级的荣誉和地位。正如于连自己所说的那样:“在这场尚在准备的战斗里,身世的骄傲,像一座高山,是她和我当中的军事阵地,这高山,便是我进攻的目标。”由此看来,于连并不仅仅把她们作为女人去“占有”,而是当作一个阶级去“征服”的。他占有她们不在于肉感,而在于满足他那平民的、要求尊严的灵魂。这在一定程度上反映了当时法国残酷的阶级斗争现实,也反映了于连在爱情方面的反抗精神。
于连的雄心壮志中不可避免地含有出于个人野心的成分。在维立叶尔市,这种野心往往被反抗、报复和维护个人尊
严的思想所冲淡;在贝尚松神学院,他为伪装自己而刻苦学习,博得院长和大主教的欢心,自信不久就能当上主教,野心
萌发,在伪善的道路上迈上一大步。而在巴黎,自担任木尔侯爵的私人秘书以来,他地位骤变,环境巨变,在都市风气严重腐蚀下,虚荣心恶性膨胀,个人的雄心壮志开始向个人野心逐步转化。
进入巴黎时,于连的心情是矛盾复杂的。一方面,他憎恨巴黎的一切,认为“巴黎是阴谋伪善的中心”;另一方面,他又
因“终于要在伟大的事业的舞台上显露身手”而高兴。在他的内心深处经历了一场又一场真诚与虚伪、自尊与虚荣的激烈搏斗之后,他鄙视上层社会的纨绔子弟,却又欣赏他们的“文雅有礼”,逐渐陶醉在上流社会的美女、音乐和鲜花之中。他十分仇视侯爵巧取豪夺、大发横财的行径,但当领悟到侯爵有意识把自己栽培成“一个上流社会的人”时,却又甘心为侯爵效力。在维立叶尔,于连从未曾想过“怎样去奉承人,怎样去替人家说话”,到巴黎后,他却在野心的驱使下,为了替极端无耻的“老蠢材”谋取美差,竟利用职权之便挤走了正直的葛斯先生。事后,他良心复现,对自己的恶行惊叹不已。但随机又为自己辩解道:“如果我想成功的话,我还要做许多不公道的事情。”然而,即使在堕落的过程中,于连依然在某种程度上保持了平民的自尊,个人反抗未尽泯灭。他在侯爵面前的从不卑躬屈膝,以及在侯爵的责骂伤害了他的尊严时的傲然离去,使得老奸巨猾的侯爵深感这个平民青年的“性格的根本处有可怕的地方”。他的这种自尊是“贫民骨气”的一种表现,任何情况下凛然不可侵犯。正如彼拉神甫和玛特儿小姐所说,于
连虽出身低微,但意气高傲, 心中燃烧神圣的火焰。他最不能容忍“别人的轻视”。自尊,是他个人奋斗中用以自卫的唯一武器。
从于连的整个奋斗过程来看,他为实现自己的幻想,靠的是自己出众的才能和顽强奋斗,而不是他人的施舍。对他来
讲,最重要的是个人的荣誉和尊严。他所追求的是靠自己的力量赢得的。他曾先后拒绝市长夫人、木尔侯爵的钱财,靠着他的高傲和才能,征服了市长夫人和侯爵女儿。在咪列诺的豪华的客厅里,他曾想如果把这里劫来的财产分一半给他,他也不会要。与德·瑞那夫人分别时,这位夫人要将数千法郎送给他,他愤怒地拒绝了。他对德·瑞那夫人说:“你是否愿意使我们的爱情变为可憎的回忆?”他不需怜悯,也不容玷污爱情,而希望像拿破仑那样靠个人的力量和奋斗来取得功名。他争的是骨气而非虚荣。正是为了雄心和骨气,他才给自己规定了反抗上层社会的责任。但是,我们必须承认于连的奋斗和抗争“是除了个人尊严和出路而别无他想的个人英雄主义”,所以,我们不能说他是个野心家。在作者笔下,他的“野心”,只不过是一个小人物敢于在复辟时代对现实表示不满和反抗,敢于在才智、勇气和人格上压倒包括大资产阶级在内的上层社会;“敢于在大事业舞台上显身手”。为自己赢得和拿破仑一样的命运,作者声称于连是“野心家”即表达了对复辟时代的不满,也隐晦地赞美了于连的反抗精神。
然而,于连的奋斗反抗注定是以悲剧而告终。于连是王朝复辟时代受压抑的小资产阶级青年的典型,其反抗是基于
社会对他的压制和他个人的野心。他追念大革命时代,因为像他这样有才干的青年会有数不清的机会可以大显身手。可是,在这个扼杀一切生机的王朝复辟时代,他只能扮演“一个逆叛的平民的悲惨角色”,成了与“整个社会作战的不幸的人”。他憎恶教会的虚伪卑鄙,蔑视贵族的“合法的权威”,鄙夷资产阶级的“污秽财富”。于是他对复辟社会进行了报复性的绝望的反抗。虽在一定程度上反映了人民对复辟社会的抗议情绪,但由于其是孤军奋战,缺少明确的政治理想和目标,所以必然遭到失败。另外,于连的奋斗和抗争伤害了大贵族、大资产阶级的利益。他们根本不准许出身低贱的于连跨进他们的营垒。最后贵族和教会勾结,设下圈套,逼德·瑞那夫人写告密信揭发于连,断送了他飞黄腾达的前程,致使于连枪伤市长夫人而被推上断头台,落得身首异处的悲惨下场。于连的悲剧,是一个出身低微的知识分子在一定条件下,才能无从发挥、野心不能实现的悲剧。
于连死时年仅23岁。他热爱自由和生命,但为了不在贵族面前失去平民的尊严,他拒绝上诉。当德·瑞那市长提出
上诉时,于连被激怒了。他叫道:“我不愿对死刑上诉,即使你用毒药、刀子、手枪、火炭或任何另外一种方法,终结一个危害你的生命,我也不对死刑上诉。”这种硬汉,为了保持尊严,为了不成为上流社会耻笑和侮辱的对象,宁可失去爱情、生命, 真可谓不乏英雄气概。
在那个黑暗的复辟年代,于连作为一个平民知识分子为了争得自己的社会地位,向贵族资产阶级所作的反抗与斗争
精神是应该给以肯定的。他那难以折服的骨气,无疑在当时具有进步意义。这也正是我们同情他的根本原因。
总之,无论从时代背景、主题、艺术构思,还是从于连性格形成发展的全过程着眼,于连都不是野心家,而是资产阶级个人奋斗的典型代表,是悲剧英雄。尽管他有出自野心的功利打算,但平民的自尊和对统治阶级的本能反抗始终是他的主导方面。虽然这种个人英雄主义不可取,但我们不应该用现代的尺度去苛求一个特殊时代的人。在一个半世纪前封建复辟时代的法国,个人英雄主义思潮在一定程度上反映了广大人民,特别是中小资产阶级不满现实,要求改变地位的愿望客观上对反动统治阶级起到了一定的冲击作用。
The novel’s composite full title, Le Rouge et le Noir, Chronique du XIXe siécle (The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of the 19th Century), indicates its two-fold literary purpose, a psychological portrait of the romantic protagonist, Julien Sorel, and an analytic, sociological satire of the French social order under the Bourbon Restoration (1814–30). In English, Le Rouge et le Noir is variously translated as Red and Black, Scarlet and Black, and The Red and the Black, without the sub-title.
Background
Occurring from September 1826 until July 1831, Le Rouge et le Noir is the Bildungsroman of Julien Sorel, the intelligent, ambitious, protagonist from a poor family, who fails to understand much about the ways of the world he sets to conquer. He harbours many romantic illusions, becoming mostly a pawn in the political machinations of the ruthless influential people about him. The adventures of the flawed hero satirize French nineteenth-century society, especially the hypocrisy and materialism of the aristocracy and members of the Roman Catholic Church in foretelling the coming radical changes that will depose them from French society.
The first volume’s epigraph is attributed to Danton: “La vérité, l’âpre vérité” (“The truth, the harsh truth”), which is fictional, like most of the chapter epigraphs. The first chapter of each volume repeats the title Le Rouge et le Noir and the Chronique de 1830 sub-title. The novel’s title denotes the contrasting uniforms of the Army and the Church. Early in the story, Julien Sorel realistically observes that under the Bourbon restoration it is impossible for a man of his plebian social class to distinguish himself in the army (as he might have done under Napoleon), hence only a Church career offers social advancement and glory.
In some editions, the first book ("Livre premier", ending after Chapter XXX) concludes with the quotation: “To the Happy Few”, a dedication variously interpreted to mean either the few readers who could understand Stendhal’s writing; or a Shakespearean allusion to Henry V (1599); or a sardonic reference to the well-born of society (viz. Canto 11 Don Juan, 1821, by Byron)l or to those living per “Beylisme”: personal happiness being the purpose of existence — accordingly, every action taken to achieve that is permissible — hence Julien’s expediency with people — wherein “La force d’ame” (“Force of the soul”) is the most important virtue, realised as courage, resolution, and moral energy. (It seems most French editions do not have this quote, for unclear reasons; as is well-known, it appears also at the end of "La Chartreuse de Parme").
Plot
In two volumes, The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of the 19th Century tells the story of Julien Sorel’s life in a monarchic society of fixed social class.
Book I presents the ambitious son of a carpenter in the (fictional) Verrières village, in Franche-Comté, France, who would rather read and daydream about the glory days of Napoleon's long-disbanded army, than work his father’s timber business with his brothers, who beat him for his intellectual affectations. In the event, Julien Sorel becomes an acolyte of the abbé Chénal, the local Catholic prelate, who later secures him a post as the tutor for the children of Monsieur de Rênal, the mayor of Verrières. Despite appearing to be a pious, austere cleric, Julien is uninterested in the Bible beyond its literary value, and how he can use memorised passages (learnt in Latin) to impress important people.
He enters a love affair with Monsieur de Rênal’s wife; it ends badly when exposed to the village, by her chambermaid, Elisa, who had romantic designs upon him. The abbé Chénal orders Julien to a seminary in Besançon, which he finds intellectually stifling and pervaded with social cliques. The initially cynical seminary director, the abbé Pirard (of the Jansenist faction more hated that the Jesuit faction in the diocese), likes Julien, and becomes his protector. Disgusted by the Church’s political machinations, the abbé Pirard leaves the seminary, yet first rescues Julien from the persecution he would have suffered as his protégé, by recommending him as private secretary to the diplomat Marquis de la Mole, a Roman Catholic legitimist.
Book II chronicles the time leading to the July Revolution of 1830, and Julien Sorel’s Parisian life, as an employee of the de la Mole family. Despite moving among high society, the family and their friends, condescend to Julien for being an uncouth plebeian — his intellectual talents notwithstanding. In his boundlessly ambitious rise in the world, Julien perceives the materialism and hypocrisy important to the élite of Parisian society, and that the counter-revolutionary temper of the time renders it impossible for well-born men of superior intellect and æsthetic sensibility to progressively participate in the public affairs of the nation with any success.
The Marquis de la Mole takes Julien to a secret meeting, then despatches him on a dangerous mission to communicate a political letter (that he has memorised) to the Duc d'Angouleme, who is exiled in England; however, the callow Julien is mentally distracted, by an unsatisfying love affair, thus he only learns the message by rote, but not its political significance as a legitimist plot. Unwittingly, the plebeian Julien Sorel risks his life in secret service to the right-wing monarchists he most opposes; to himself, Julien rationalises such action as merely helping the Marquis, his employer, whom he respects.
Meanwhile, in the preceding months, the Marquis’s bored daughter, Mathilde de la Mole, had become emotionally torn, between her romantic attraction to Julien, for his admirable personal and intellectual qualities, and her social repugnance at becoming sexually intimate with a lower-class man. At first, he finds her unattractive, but his interest is piqued, by her attentions and the admiration she inspires in others; twice, she seduces and rejects him, leaving him in a miasma of despair, self-doubt, and happiness (he won her over aristocrat suitors). Only during his secret mission does he gain the key to winning her affections: a cynical jeu d’amour proffered to him by Prince Korasoff, a Russian man-of-the-world. At great emotional cost, Julien feigns indifference to Mathilde, provoking her jealousy with a sheaf of love-letters meant to woo Madame de Fervaques, a widow in the social circle of the de la Mole family. Consequently, Mathilde sincerely falls in love with Julien, eventually revealing to him that she carries his child; yet, whilst he was on diplomatic mission in England, she became officially engaged to Monsieur de Croisenois, an amiable, rich young man, heir to a duchy.
Learning of Julien’s romantic liaison with Mathilde, the Marquis de la Mole is angered, but relents before her determination, and his affection for him, and bestows upon Julien an income-producing property attached to an aristocratic title, and a military commission in the army. Although ready to bless their marriage, he changes his mind upon receiving the reply to a character-reference-letter he wrote to the abbé Chénal, Julien’s previous employer in the village of Verrières; however, the reply letter, written by Madame de Rênal — at the urging of her confessor priest — warns the Marquis that Julien Sorel is a social-climbing cad who preys upon emotionally vulnerable women.
On learning the Marquis’s disapproval of the marriage, Julien Sorel travels to his home village of Verrières and shoots Madame de Rênal during Mass in the village church; she survives. Despite the efforts of Mathilde, Madame de Rênal, and the priests devoted to him since his early life, Julien Sorel is determined to die — because the materialist society of Bourbon Restoration France will not accommodate a low-born man of superior intellect and æsthetic sensibility possessing neither money nor social connections.
Meanwhile, the presumptive duke, Monsieur de Croisenois, one of the fortunate few of Bourbon France, is killed in a duel fought over a slur upon the honour of Mathilde de la Mole. Despite her undiminished love for Julien, his imperiously intellectual nature, and its component romantic exhibitionism, render Mathilde’s prison visits to him a duty.
Moreover, when Julien learns he did not kill Madame de Rênal, that resurrects his intemperate love for her — lain dormant throughout his Parisian time and his passion for Mathilde, who visits him during the final days of his life. Afterwards, Mathilde de la Mole re-enacts the cherished, sixteenth-century French tale of Queen Margot visiting her dead lover, Joseph Boniface de La Mole, to kiss the lips of his severed head. In the nineteenth century, Mathilde de la Mole so treated Julien Sorel’s severed head, making a shrine of his tomb, in the Italian fashion.
Structure and themes
Le Rouge et le Noir occurs in the latter years of the Bourbon Restoration (1814–30) and the days of the 1830 July Revolution that established the Kingdom of the French (1830–48). Julien Sorel’s worldly ambitions are motivated by the emotional tensions, between his idealistic Republicanism (especially nostalgic allegiance to Napoleon), and the realistic politics of counter-revolutionary conspiracy, by Jesuit-supported legitimists, notably the Marquis de la Mole, whom Julien serves, for personal gain. Presuming a knowledgeable reader, the novelist Stendhal only alludes to the historical background of Le Rouge et le Noir — yet did sub-title it Chronique de 1830 (“Chronicle of 1830”). Moreover, the reader wishing an exposé of the same historical background might wish to read Lucien Leuwen (1834), Stendhal’s un-finished novel, posthumously published in 1894.
Stendhal repeatedly questions the possibility, and the desirability, of “sincerity”, because most of the characters, especially Julien Sorel, are acutely aware of having to play a role to gain social approval. In that nineteenth-century context, the word “hypocrisy” denoted the affectation of high religious sentiment; in The Red and the Black it connotes the contradiction between thinking and feeling.
In Mensonge romantique et vérité romanesque, 1961, (Deceit, Desire and the Novel) philosopher and critic René Girard identifies in Le Rouge et le Noir the triangular structure he denominates as “mimetic desire”, which reveals how a person’s desire for another is always mediated by a third party, i.e. one desires a person only when he or she is desired by someone else. Girard’s proposition accounts for the perversity of the Mathilde–Julien relationship, especially when he begins courting the widow Mme de Fervaques, to pique Mathilde’s jealousy, but also Julien’s fascination with and membership to the high society he simultaneously desires and despises; to wit, in achieving said literary effect, Stendhal wrote the epigraphs — literary, poetic, historic quotations — that he attributed to others.
Literary and critical significance
The novel marks the beginning of realism.
André Gide said that The Red and the Black was a novel ahead of its time, that it was a novel for readers in the twentieth century. In Stendhal’s time, prose novels included dialogue and omniscient narrator descriptions; his great contribution to literary technique was describing the psychologies (feelings, thoughts, inner monologues) of the characters, resultantly he is considered the creator of the psychological novel.
In Jean-Paul Sartre's play Les Mains Sales (1948), the protagonist Hugo Barine suggests pseudonyms for himself, including “Julien Sorel”, whom he resembles.
Joyce Carol Oates stated in the Afterword to her novel them that she originally titled the manuscript Love and Money as a nod to classic 19th century novels, among them, The Red and The Black "whose class-conscious hero Julien Sorel is less idealistic, greedier, and crueler than Jules Wendell but is cleary his spiritual kinsman".
Translations
Le Rouge et le Noir, Chronique du XIXe siècle (1830) was first translated to English circa 1900; the best-known translation, The Red and the Black (1926), by Charles Kenneth Scott-Moncrief, has been, like his other translations, characterised as one of his “fine, spirited renderings, not entirely accurate on minor points of meaning . . . Scott Moncrieff’s versions have not really been superseded”. The version by Robert M. Adams, for the Norton Critical Editions series, also is highly regarded; it “is more colloquial; his edition includes an informative section on backgrounds and sources, and excerpts from critical studies”. About Burton Raffel’s 2006 translation for the Modern Library, an anonymous Amazon.com reviewer said it is “actually a vulgar, anachronistic retelling of Stendhal’s novel. I recall abandoning it in disgust when the main character refers to his life as a total ‘blast’ ”. MTV was obviously very popular in 1838 [sic] France”. In its stead, that reviewer recommends C. K. Scott-Moncrieff’s translation, revised by scholar Ann Jefferson, (Everyman paperback, ISBN 0460876430).
Film adaptations
* Der geheime Kurier (The Secret Courier) is a silent 1928 German film by Gennaro Righelli, featuring Ivan Mosjoukine, Lil Dagover, and Valeria Blanka.
* Il Corriere del re (The Courier of the King) is a black-and-white 1947 Italian film adaptation of the story also directed by Gennaro Righelli. It features Rossano Brazzi, Valentina Cortese, and Irasema Dilián.
* Another film adaptation of the novel was released in 1954, directed by Claude Autant-Lara. It stars Gerard Philipe, Antonella Lualdi and Danielle Darrieux. It won the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics award for the best film of the year.
* Le Rouge et le Noir is a 1961 French made-for-TV film version directed by Pierre Cardinal, with Robert Etcheverry, Micheline Presle, Marie Laforêt, and Jean-Roger Caussimon.
* A BBC TV mini-series in five episodes The Scarlet and the Black, was made in 1965, starring John Stride, June Tobin, and Karin Fernald.
* Krasnoe i chyornoe (Red and Black) is a 1976 Soviet film version, directed by Sergei Gerasimov, with Nikolai Yeryomenko Ml, Natalya Bondarchuk, and Natalya Belokhvostikova.
* Another BBC TV mini-series called The Scarlet and the Black was first broadcast in 1993, starring Ewan McGregor, Rachel Weisz and Stratford Johns as the Abbe Pirard. A notable addition to the plot was the spirit of Napoleon (Christopher Fulford) who advises Sorel (McGregor) through his rise and fall.
* A made-for-TV film version of the novel called The Red and the Black was first broadcast in 1997 by Koch Lorber Films, starring Kim Rossi Stuart, Carole Bouquet and Judith Godrèche; it was directed by Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe. This version is available on DVD.
《红与黑》是法国作家司汤达创作的一部长篇小说，现在，已经被世界公认为文学史上的经典。《红与黑》是法国批判现实主义的第一部杰出作品。作者被誉为法国以至整个欧洲批判现实主义文学的奠基人之一。
《红与黑》是19世纪欧洲批判现实主义的奠基作品
《红与黑》-作品简介
《红与黑》是法国作家司汤达创作的一部长篇小说，现在，已经被世界公认为文学史上的经典。《红与黑》是法国批判现实主义的第一部杰出作品。作者被誉为法国以至整个欧洲批判现实主义文学的奠基人之一。
《红与黑》是19世纪欧洲批判现实主义的奠基作品。小说围绕主人公于连个人奋斗的经历与最终失败，尤其是他的两次爱情的描写，广泛地展现了“19世纪初30年间压在法国人民头上的历届政府所带来的社会风气”，强烈地抨击了复辟王朝时期贵族的反动，教会的黑暗和资产阶级新贵的卑鄙庸俗，利欲熏心。因此小说虽以于连的爱情生活作为主线，但毕竟不是爱情小说，而是一部“政治小说”。
《红与黑》-内容简介
小说主人公于连,是一个木匠的儿子,年轻英俊,意志坚强,精明能干,从小就希望借助个人的努力与奋斗跻身上流社会。
《红与黑》《红与黑》
在法国与瑞士接壤的维立叶尔城，座落在山坡上，美丽的杜伯河绕城而过，河岸上矗立着许多锯木厂。 市长德瑞那是个出身贵族，在扣上挂满勋章的人。
他五十岁左右，他的房子有全城最漂亮的花园，他的妻子是最有钱而又最漂亮的妻子，但他才智不足， “他只能办到严格地收讨他人的欠债，当他自己欠人家的债时，他愈迟还愈好”。在这座城市还有一个重要人物，是贫民寄养所所长——哇列诺先生。他花了一万到一万两千法郎才弄到这个职位，他体格强壮棕红色的脸，黑而精粗的小胡子，在别人眼中他是个美男子，连市长都惧他三分。但市长为了显示自己高人一等，决心请一个家庭教师。
木匠索黑尔的儿子于连，由于精通拉丁文，被选作市长家的家庭教师。他约十八九岁，长得文弱清秀，两只又大又黑的眼睛。在宁静时，眼中射出火一般的光辉，又象是熟思和探寻的样子，但一瞬间，又流露出可怕的仇恨，由于他整天抱着书本不放，不愿做力气活，因而遭到全家的嫌弃与怨恨，经常被父亲和两个哥哥毒打。他小时疯狂地崇拜拿破伦，渴望像拿破仑那样身佩长剑，做世界的主人。认为拿破仑“由一个既卑微又穷困的下级军官，只靠他身佩的长剑，便做了世界上的主人”。但后来他又想当神甫，因为“如今我们眼见四十岁左右的神父能拿到十万法郎的薪俸。这就是说他们能拿到十万法郎，三倍于拿破仑当时手下的著名的大将的收入。”于是，他投拜在神甫西朗的门下，钻研起神学来。他仗着惊人的好记性把一本拉丁文《圣经》全背下来，这事轰动了全城。
市长的年轻漂亮的妻子是在修道院长大的，对像她丈夫那样庸俗粗鲁的男人，打心底里感到厌恶。由于没有爱情，她把心思全放在教养3 个孩子身上。她认为男人“除了金钱、权势、勋章的贪欲以外，对于一切都是麻木不仁”。最初，她把于连想象为一个满面污垢的乡下佬，谁知见面时却大出她的意料：面前这个年轻人竟是这样白皙，眼睛又这样温柔动人。以为他“实际上是一个少女”故意假扮男装。她对于连产生好感，甚至觉得“只有在这个少年教士的心里，才有慷慨、高尚、仁爱”。瑞那夫人的女仆爱丽沙也爱上了于连，爱丽沙得到了一笔遗产，要西郎神父转达她对于连的爱慕，于连拒绝了女仆爱丽沙的爱情。瑞那夫人得知此事心里异常高兴，一股幸福的流泉泻落在她的心海里，她发觉自己对他产生了一种从未有过的一种感情。
夏天市长一家搬到凡尼镇乡下花园别墅居住，晚上乘凉的时候，全家聚在一株菩提树下，于连无意间触到了瑞那夫人的手，她一下子缩回去了，于连以为瑞那夫人看不起他，便决心必须握住这只手。第二天晚上他果然做了，瑞那夫人的手被于连偷偷地紧握着，满足了他的自尊心。瑞那夫人被爱情与道德责任折腾得一夜未合眼。她决定用冷淡的态度去对待于连。可是当于连不在家时，她又忍不住对他的思念。而于连也变得更大胆，他在心里暗想：“我应该再进一步，务必要在这个女人身上达到目的才好。如果我以后发了财，有人耻笑我当家庭教师低贱，我就让大家了解，是爱情使我接受这位置的”。
《红与黑》《红与黑》
深夜2 点闯进了她的房里。开始，她对于连的无礼行为很生气，但当她看到“他两眼充满眼泪”时，便同情起他来。她暗想，如果在10年前能爱上于连该多好。不过，在于连的心里则完全没有这种想法，他的爱完全是出于一种野心，一种因占有欲而产生的狂热。他那样贫穷，能够得到这么高贵、这么美丽的妇人，已经是上天的恩赐了。
不久，皇帝驾临维立叶尔，在瑞那夫人的安排下，于连被聘当上了仪仗队队员，使他有在公众面前大出风头的机会。迎驾期间，于连作为陪祭教士参加瞻拜圣骸典礼。之后，他对木尔侯爵的侄子、年轻的安倍主教十分崇敬。心想，安倍主教如此年轻就有显赫的地位，而且倍受女人的青睐，暗下决心“宁愿受宗教的制裁，也要达到令美人羡慕的境界”。
瑞那夫人心爱的儿子病危，她认为这是上帝对自己不道德行为的一种惩罚，她陷入了可怕的忏悔里。这时，爱丽沙又把夫人的事暗中告诉了哇列诺先生，他早先曾贪恋瑞那夫人的美色碰了一鼻子灰，便趁机给市长写了一封告密信。但市长担心如果把妻子赶出家门，自己将失去一大笔遗产，而且也有损于自己的名誉，采取 “只怀疑而不证实”的办法。但在这座城市里，街谈巷议对瑞那夫人和于连却越来越不利。一次爱丽沙向西朗神父忏悔时，又谈出于连与瑞那夫人的秘密关系。关心于连的神父要他到省城贝尚松神学院进修。告别后的第三天夜里，于连又冒险赶回维立叶尔，与瑞那夫人见面，此时的瑞那夫人由于思念的痛苦，已憔悴得不像人样了。
贝尚松是法国一座古城，城墙高大。初到神学院，那门上的铁十字架，修士的黑色道袍，和他们麻木不仁的面孔都使于连感到恐怖。院长彼拉神父是西郎神父的老相识，因此对于连特别关照。他对于连说： “嘻笑就是虚伪的舞台”。
在321个学生中，绝大部分是平庸的青年，由此于连自信会迅速获得成功。他悄悄对自己说：“在拿破仑统治下，我会是个军曹，在未来的神父当中，我将是个主教。”由于学习成绩名列前茅，院长竟让他当新旧约全书课程的辅导教师。
但神学院是个伪善的地方，他很快就堕入了忧郁之中。彼拉院长受到排挤辞职不干了，并介绍于连为木尔侯爵的秘书。彼拉神父专门给他介绍侯爵一家他说 “你要十分注意，一个象我们这种行业的人，只有靠这些大人先生们才有前途……在这样一个社会里，如果你得不到人家的尊敬，你的不幸是注定的了”。
侯爵瘦削而矮小，有一对十分灵活的眼睛，头上带有金色假发。他是个极端保皇党人，法国大革命时，他逃亡国外，王朝复辟后，他在朝中取得了显赫的地位。于连每天的工作就是为他抄写稿件和公文，侯爵对于连十分满意，派他去管理自己两个省的田庄，还负责自己与贝尚松代理主教福力列之间的诉讼通讯，后又派他到伦敦去搞外交，赠给他一枚十字勋章，这使于连感到获得了极大的成功。
于连在贵族社会的熏陶下，很快学会了巴黎上流社会的艺术，成了一个花花公子，甚至在木尔小姐的眼里，他也已脱了外省青年的土气。木尔小姐名叫玛特儿，是一个有金栗色头发，体态匀称，非常秀丽的姑娘，但“这双眼睛透露出一种内心可怕的冷酷”。她读过许多浪漫主义爱情小说，并被3 世纪前一段家史所激动：她的祖先木尔是皇后玛嘉瑞特的情夫，被国王处死后，皇后向刽子手买下了他的头，在深夜里亲自把它埋葬在蒙马特山脚下。她十分崇拜皇后的这种为爱情而敢冒大不韪的精神，她的名字玛特儿就是皇后的爱称。
起初，于连并不爱玛特儿那清高傲慢的性格，但想到“她却能够把社会上的好地位带给她丈夫”时，便热烈地追求起她来。玛特儿也知道于连出身低微，但她怀着一种“我敢于恋爱一个社会地位离我那样摇远的人，已算是伟大和勇敢了”的浪漫主义感情，因此，她在花园里主动挽着于连的胳膊，还主动给他写信宣布爱情。为了考验于连的胆量，她要于连在明亮的月光下用梯子爬到她的房间去。于连照样做了，当晚她就委身于他了，过后玛特儿很快就后悔了 。
一次，他们在图书室相遇，她边哭边对于连说：“我恨我委身于第一个来到的人”于连感到痛苦，他摘下挂在墙上的一把古剑要杀死她，玛特儿一点都不害怕反而骄傲地走到于连面前，她认为于连爱她已经爱到要杀了她的程度，便又与他好起来。夜里于连再次爬进她的房间，她请求于连做她的“主人”，自己将永远做他的奴隶，表示要永远服从他。可是，只要于连稍许表露出爱慕的意思，她又转为愤怒，毫不掩饰的侮辱他，并公开宣布不再爱他。
因为于连的记忆力很好，木尔侯爵让他列席一次保王党人的秘密会议，会上有政府首相、红衣主教、将军。会后，木尔侯爵让于连把记在心里的会议记录冒着生命危险带到国外去。在驿站换马时，差点被敌方杀害，幸好他机警地逃脱了，与外国使节接上了头，然后留在那等回信。在那儿他遇到俄国柯哈莎夫王子，他是个情场老手，于连便把自己的爱情苦恼讲给他听，他建议于连假装去追求另一个女性，以达到降伏玛特儿的目的，并把自己的五十三封情书交给她，“把这些信转抄一份寄给你所选定的女性，这个女性必须是瞧你不起的对方的熟人。”
于连回到巴黎后，将这些情书一封封寄给元帅夫人，元帅夫人受了感动，给于连回信，玛特儿再也忍耐不住了，跪倒在于连的脚下，求他爱她，于连的虚荣心得到极大的满足，“看呀！这个骄傲的女人，居然躺在我的脚下了！”。不久，玛特儿发现自己怀孕了，她写信告诉父亲，要他原谅于连，并成全他们的婚事。侯爵在爱女坚持下，一再让步。先是给了他们一份田产，准备让他们结婚后搬到田庄去住。随后，又给于连寄去一张骠骑兵中尉的委任状，授予贵族称号。
于连在骠骑兵驻地穿上军官制服，陶醉在个人野心满足的快乐中，“由于恩宠，刚刚才作了二天的中尉，他已经在盘算好至迟有象过去的大将军一样，在三十岁上，就能做到司令，那么到二十三岁，就应该在中尉以上。他只想到他的荣誉和他的儿子。”这时，他突然收到了玛特儿寄来的急信。信中说：一切都完了。于连急忙回去，原来瑞那夫人给木尔侯爵写信揭露了他们原先的关系。这时恼羞成怒的于连立即跳上去维拉叶尔的马车，买了一支手枪，随即赶到教堂，向正在祷告的瑞那夫人连发两枪，夫人当场中枪倒地。 于连因开枪杀人被捕了。
入狱后，他头脑冷静下来，对自己行为感到悔恨和耻辱。他意识到野心已经破灭，但死对他并不可怕。瑞那夫人受了枪伤并没有死。稍愈后，她买通狱吏，免得于连受虐待。于连知道后痛哭流涕。玛特儿也从巴黎赶来探监，为营救于连四处奔走，于连对此并不感动，只觉得愤怒。公审的时候，于连当众宣称他不祈求任何人的恩赐，他说：“我决不是被我的同阶级的人审判，我在陪审官的席上，没有看见一个富有的农民，而只是些令人气愤的资产阶级的人。”结果法庭宣布于连犯了蓄谋杀人罪，判处死刑。 瑞那夫人不顾一切前去探监。
于连这才知道，她给侯爵的那封信，是由听她忏悔的教士起草并强迫她写的。于连和瑞那夫人彼此饶恕了，他拒绝上诉，也拒绝做临终祷告，以示对封建贵族阶级专制的抗议。
在一个晴和的日子里，于连走上了断头台。玛特儿买下了他的头颅，按照她敬仰的玛嘉瑞特皇后的方式，亲自埋葬了自己情人的头颅。至于瑞那夫人，在于连死后的第三天，抱吻着她的儿子，也离开了人间。
《红与黑》-作品赏析
《红与黑》是19世纪欧洲批判现实主义的奠基作品。小说围绕主人公于连个人奋斗的经历与最终失败，尤其是他的两次爱情的描写，广泛地展现了“19世纪初30年间压在法国人民头上的历届政府所带来的社会风气”，强烈地抨击了复辟王朝时期贵族的反动，教会的黑暗和资产阶级新贵的卑鄙庸俗，利欲熏心。因此小说虽以于连的爱情生活作为主线，但毕竟不是爱情小说，而是一部“政治小说”。
司汤达是善于从爱情中反映重大社会问题的文学大师。于连的两次爱情都与时代风云紧密相连，这是当时阶级角逐的一种表现形式，他对德·雷纳尔夫人后来的确也产生了真正的感情，但开始是出于小市民对权贵的报复心理。因此，于连第一次占有德· 雷纳尔夫人的手的时候，他感到的并不是爱情的幸福，而是拿破仑式的野心的胜利，是“狂欢”和“喜悦”，是报复心理的满足。
《红与黑》《红与黑》
如果说于连对德·雷纳尔夫人的追求还有某些真挚情感的话，那么于连对玛蒂尔德小姐的爱情则纯属政治上的角逐，玛蒂尔德既有贵族少女的傲慢、任性的气质，又受到法国大革命的深刻影响。她认为，如果再有一次大革命，主宰社会的必定是像于连这样富于朝气的平民青年。同于连结成伉俪，既富于浪漫气息，又找到了有力的靠山。而于连则认为与玛蒂尔德小姐结婚可以爬上高位，青云直上，因此不惜去骗取她的爱情。
但是，于连的两次爱情最终还是失败了。这是因为在复辟时期，封建势力向市民阶层猖狂反扑。于连不是统治阶级圈子里的人，那个阶级决不会容忍于连那样的人实现其宏愿。
《红与黑》在典型环境典型性格的塑造、匀称的艺术结构和白描手法的运用上都有突出的成就，而司汤达所以被评论家称为“现代小说之父”则是因为他在《红与黑》中表现了卓越的心理描写天才。现实主义作家都强调细节的真实，但司汤达与巴尔扎克不一样，他着重刻画的不是客观环境，而是人物内心活动的细致和逼真，作者常常三言两语就把人物行动、周围环境交代过去，而对其内心的活动则洋洋洒洒，不惜笔墨，爱情心理描写更是丝丝入扣，动人心弦。作者在于连得知德·雷纳尔夫人写揭发信到枪杀她这段情节上仅用了三页，而与玛蒂尔德的爱情却花了上百页的篇幅细致描写。德·雷纳尔夫人堕入情网时的那种喜悦、痛苦、忏悔而又不甘放弃幸福的复杂心理的展现，也令人拍案叫绝。
《红与黑》-书评
红与黑这部小说的故事据悉是采自1828年2月29日《法院新闻》所登载一个死刑案件。在拿破仑帝国时代，红与黑代表着“军队”与“教会”，是有野心的法国青年发展的两个管道（一说是轮盘上的红色与黑色）。
《红与黑》是19世纪欧洲批判现实主义的奠基作品。小说围绕主人公于连个人奋斗的经历与最终失败，尤其是他的两次爱情的描写，广泛地展现了“19世纪初30年间压在法国人民头上的历届政府所带来的社会风气”，强烈地抨击了复辟王朝时期贵族的反动，教会的黑暗和资产阶级新贵的卑鄙庸俗，利欲熏心。因此小说虽以于连的爱情生活作为主线，但毕竟不是爱情小说，而是一部“政治小说”。
司汤达是善于从爱情中反映重大社会问题的文学大师。于连的两次爱情都与时代风云紧密相连，这是当时阶级角逐的一种表现形式，他对德· 雷纳尔夫人后来的确也产生了真正的感情，但开始是出于小市民对权贵的报复心理。因此，于连第一次占有德·雷纳尔夫人的手的时候，他感到的并不是爱情的幸福，而是拿破仑式的野心的胜利，是“狂欢”和“喜悦”，是报复心理的满足。
如果说于连对德·雷纳尔夫人的追求还有某些真挚情感的话，那么于连对玛蒂尔德小姐的爱情则纯属政治上的角逐，玛蒂尔德既有贵族少女的傲慢、任性的气质，又受到法国大革命的深刻影响。她认为，如果再有一次大革命，主宰社会的必定是像于连这样富于朝气的平民青年。同于连结成伉俪，既富于浪漫气息，又找到了有力的靠山。而于连则认为与玛蒂尔德小姐结婚可以爬上高位，青云直上，因此不惜去骗取她的爱情。
但是，于连的两次爱情最终还是失败了。这是因为在复辟时期，封建势力向市民阶层猖狂反扑。于连不是统治阶级圈子里的人，那个阶级决不会容忍于连那样的人实现其宏愿。
《红与黑》在典型环境典型性格的塑造、匀称的艺术结构和白描手法的运用上都有突出的成就，而司汤达所以被评论家称为“现代小说之父”则是因为他在《红与黑》中表现了卓越的心理描写天才。
《红与黑》-历史影响
.《红与黑》
灵魂的哲学诗
于连是１９世纪欧洲文学中一系列反叛资本主义社会的英雄人物的"始祖"
《红与黑》《红与黑》
法国批判现实主义文学的奠基之作_
１９世纪卓越的政治小说
现代小说之父的经典著作
１９世纪欧洲文学史中第一部批判现实主义杰作
美国作家海明威开列的必读书
被英国小说家毛姆认为是真正的杰作的文学书
１９８６年法国《读书》杂志推荐的理想藏书?
《红与黑》是法国现实主义作家司汤达的代表作，自１８３０年问世以来，赢得了世界各国一代又一代读者的心，特别为年轻人所喜爱。作品所塑造的"少年野心家"于连是一个具有高度典型意义的人物形象，已成为个人奋斗的野心家的代名词。
小说发表后，当时的社会流传"不读《红与黑》，就无法在政界混"的谚语，而本书则被许多国家列为禁书。《红与黑》在心理深度的挖掘上远远超出了同时代作家所能及的层次。它开创了后世"意识流小说"、"心理小说"的先河。后来者竞相仿效这种"司汤达文体"，使小说创作"向内转"，发展到重心理刻画、重情绪抒发的现代形态。人们因此称司汤达为"现代小说之父"。《红与黑》在今天仍被公认为欧洲文学皇冠上一枚最为璀璨精致的艺术宝石，是文学史上描写政治黑暗最经典的著作之一，１００多年来，被译成多种文字广为流传，并被多次改编为戏剧、电影。
司汤达的《红与黑》已显示了２０世纪小说的方向，进入这本书中，我们就会感受到只有第一流的心理小说家才能给予的震撼，因为它带给我们的是更富真实感的精神内涵。
--美国教授 费迪曼
《红与黑》是我平生最受益的书籍。
--法国杰出小说家 纪德
司汤达的《红与黑》中的于连是１９世纪欧洲文学中一系列反叛资本社会主义的英雄人物的"始祖"。
--高尔基
《红与黑》在心理深度的挖掘上远远超出了同时代作家所能及的层次。小说以深刻细腻的笔调充分展示了主人公的心灵空间，广泛运用了独白和自由联想等多种艺术手法挖掘出了于连深层意识的活动，并开创了后世"意识流小说"、"心理小说"的先河，是一首"灵魂的哲学诗"。
--《外国文学史》
《红与黑》在文学史上影响深远，法国有专门研究司汤达和《红与黑》的学问--"司汤达学"和"红学"，还有专门研究该书的"司汤达俱乐部"。
-- 《法国文学史》
疑虑和矛盾中的于连
无疑，《红与黑》是一部充满着魅力的作品。西方关于研究司汤达的作品数量足以与中国研究《红楼梦》的"红学"等量齐观。的确，作为法国批判现实主义文学的奠基之作，《红与黑》中对于１９世纪上半期法国风起云涌的各方斗争和矛盾都展现得颇为深远，贵族、大小资产阶级、教会人士一个个的粉墨登场，潜伏在表象下的实力的交战刻画了当时整个社会的腐朽和虚伪。而在我看来，《红与黑》之所以如此经久不衰，都绝不仅仅在于该作品所体现出的政治和社会意义。记得蓝棣之老师曾经说过，一部现实主义作品大大不同于记录社会的高级文件，文学的意义也绝不仅在于记录，我想，是《红与黑》中主人公于连充满着无限矛盾与反差的各种思想和行为，更足以让每位读者看得目瞪口呆却又如痴如醉，足以让每一位研究者分析成千次上万次。
我们随便从中挑一段来读，便很容易看出于连的极端细腻和敏感。在市长家做家庭教师时，于连已经通过出色地背诵拉丁文《圣约》赢得了德·瑞纳一家上下刮目相看，更凭着他清秀的长相、少年的自尊打动了德·瑞纳夫人的芳心。而于连却出于一种奇怪的自尊和一定要证明点什么的心理，望着她，仿佛她是个仇敌，他正要上前和她决斗交锋……
就是这样，这个怪异的于连牢牢抓住了读者们的心。于连的敏感和细腻、倔强是天生的，他还拥有着超群的记忆力，而他的高傲和自尊、崇拜权势则是后天环境的赋予。于连确实是十分自我的，在他的心目中，尊严被提到了一个至高无上的地位，他可以放弃轻而易举就能到手的钱财，因为他需要的是别人的尊重。但他对于"自尊"的理想和追求又最终把他引向了歧途。
于连虽然有着民主的思想和英雄主义的热情，但当他得到了拉莫尔公爵的赏识时，他却逐步地向贵族势力妥协了，这时的于连仿佛只知道为拉莫尔公爵的一场政治阴谋走足报信。在他的个人奋斗历程中，他经历着一次次的反抗和妥协。他是机智聪明的，然而在很多方面，我们只能说他是天真而无知的，比起整个社会中精心钻营的人们来，他是无力的，也是无助的。
左拉在《论司汤达》中是这样写的："他（司汤达）停留在一种抽象的意愿里，他要人这种生物不包括在自然里，而是靠在一边站着，然后宣告只有心灵是高贵的"。左拉觉得于连是"完全装配好的智慧和情感的机器"，"纯粹在思辩中产生的创造物"，他"专在推理上下功夫"，主张自然主义的左拉认为司汤达在创作中带有观念学者和逻辑学者的身份，于连似乎只是永远在心理活动，外界的事务，哪管它春夏与秋冬，能对于连产生震动的永远都只是他的想像中别人对他的轻蔑与尊重。这不也正说明了作者对于连心理上入木三分的刻画吗？
《红与黑》中于连的心理在疑虑和矛盾中挣扎，对于人物的思索是一个极大的宝库，采之不竭，魅力无穷！
《红与黑》-人物分析
———《红与黑》中于连人物形象分析
《红与黑》《红与黑》
于连是世界名著《红与黑》中的主人公。对其形象分析,在文学理论界有种种评说,可谓众说纷纭,莫衷一是。有人认
为, 他虚伪、阴险,踩着女人的肩膀向上爬,是一个地地道道的阴谋家、野心家。也有人认为他是当时反对封建权贵的勇士,资产阶级个人奋斗的典型代表。更有人认为他是拿破仑时代的悲剧英雄。
《红与黑》是法国 19世纪杰出的批判现实主义作家司汤达(1783-1842)的代表作。其副题是“一八三○年纪事”。在这部小说中,作者以法国波旁王朝复辟时代为背景,以平民知识分子于连·索黑尔与贵族资产阶级上层社会顽强曲折的斗争为主线,着重描写了他从18岁到德·瑞那市长家当家庭教师开始,到23岁因枪伤市长夫人而被送上断头台为止短短5年间的生活历程。
于连出生在小城维立叶尔郊区的一个锯木厂家庭。他幼时身材瘦弱,在家中被看成是“不会挣钱”的“不中用” 的人,常遭父兄打骂和奚落。卑贱的出身又使他常常受到社会的歧视。少年时期的于连聪明好学,意志坚强,精力充沛。他接受了启蒙思想家的自由平等观念和无神论思想,并在一位拿破仑时代老军医的影响下,崇拜拿破仑,幻想着通过“入军界、穿军装、走一条‘红’的道路”来建功立业、飞黄腾达。然而,在他14岁那年,波旁王朝复辟了,平民可以平步青云的拿破仑时代过去了。于连不得不选择“黑”的道路,幻想进入修道院,穿起教士黑袍,以便将来成为一名“年俸十万法朗的大主教”。18岁时,于连到维立叶尔市长德·瑞那家中担任家庭教师,而市长只将他看成拿工钱的奴仆。自尊心受到伤害的于连,便以追求市长夫人来报复市长。他与市长夫人的关系暴露后,被迫进入了贝尚松神学院,投奔了院长彼拉,当上了神学院的讲师。后因教会内部的派系斗争,彼拉院长被排挤出神学院,于连只得随彼拉来巴黎,当上了极端保皇党领袖德·拉·木尔侯爵的的私人秘书。他因沉静、聪明和善于谄媚,得到了木尔侯爵的器重,以渊博的学识与优雅的气质,又赢得了侯爵女儿玛特儿小姐的爱慕。尽管不爱玛特儿,但他为了抓住这块实现野心的跳板,竟使用诡计占有了她。得知女儿已经怀孕后, 侯爵不得不同意这门婚姻。于连为此获得一个骑士称号、一份田产和一个骠骑兵中尉的军衔。此时的于连又开始做起了“三十岁当司令”的美梦。他变成了一个封建贵族阶
级的忠实奴仆,在保皇党策划的政治阴谋中为主子效力,冒着生命危险为侯爵传递情报。正当他踌躇满志时,贵族阶级与反动教会狼狈为奸,诱使市长夫人写了揭发于连的告密信,致使侯爵取消他与玛特儿的婚约。于连美梦破灭,盛怒之下枪伤了德·瑞那夫人,被判处死刑。在狱中,于连终于明白:像他这样出身卑贱的人,在等级森严的封建制度中是不可能通过个人奋斗而飞黄腾达的。他拒绝上诉,坦然走上了断头台。
于连的性格是复杂的,并随周围环境的变化而不断发生演变。时代的变迁,不堪受辱的内心,受人歧视的社会地位以
及向上爬而不能如愿的愤怒,形成了于连自尊、怀疑、敏感和积极反抗的性格。他时刻牢记着自己与上层社会之间的地位不同、阶级不同、观念不同,对生活持以怀疑的态度,用他那异常敏锐的目光观察周围的一切,寻找歧视他、伤害他的敌人,搜索自己受辱的蛛丝马迹。他不甘屈服,不甘忍受时代和上层社会的拨弄,用拿破仑的英雄主义武装自己,为维护自己的个性而奋起反抗,时刻处于凛然不可侵犯的战斗状态,与整个社会作战。“在这个奇异的年轻人心里,差不多时时刻刻都有暴风雨”。他憎恨做奴仆,要求与上流社会的人平起平坐,以保持自己的尊严。当父亲要他去德·瑞那市长家当家庭教师时,一贯敢怒而不敢言的于连却以“我不愿意做奴仆”表示拒绝。老索黑尔说这不是做奴仆,于连当即要加以证实:“到他家里,我同谁一块吃饭呢?”可见于连把这个问题看得很重。然而,正是这种自尊心理使他赢得了尊敬、友谊和爱情。而当他最初出现在市长大人府邸的大门时,显然还是个质朴幼稚、天良未泯的年轻乡下人。也就在这里,他目睹种种社会贫富不均现象而十分气愤,但更为自己寄人篱下的屈辱地位而痛惜不已,于是就对市长及其一家人产生了本能的轻蔑和憎恶之感。虽然他渊博的知识和惊人的记忆力赢得了市长一家的好感,但他在这里感受到的“仅仅是他对已经插身进来的上流社会的仇恨和恐惧”。
于连骄矜自持,自视甚高,这种自尊心理一旦面临恶言劣语、霸道行径的袭击,就使其隐藏着的仇恨心理爆发出来并大
胆反击。即使在爱情这样的人类最细微的感情方面,于连感到的往往不是幸福,而是自尊心满足后的喜悦和骄傲,并把这种胜利看作是拿破仑式的胜利。在我们看来,这似乎不可思议,却恰恰体现出于连是以全部精力来反抗上层社会的。
在德·瑞那市长家,于连是为了报复市长大人对自己的轻蔑,粉碎他的骄傲心理,而带着战斗的情绪走进市长夫人的
房间的。即使在与德·瑞那夫人进行热恋时,于连的这种仇恨心理和反抗也从未停止过。他始终把爱情看成是他对贵族阶级的报复和争取自由平等的愿望。这一点,也在于连和玛特儿侯爵小姐的交往中得到了充分体现。他敢于轻视傲慢的玛特儿小姐,并曾这样想:“我知道保持我的自尊心, 我没有向她说我爱她。”当他收到玛特儿小姐的爱情告白信时,首先想到的是他终于战胜了情敌柯西乐侯爵,可以平等地与木尔侯爵坐在同一条凳子上。他立刻自豪地得出结论:“侯爵和我的价值,已经过去了,结果是汝拉山的穷木匠占据了重要的一面。”这哪里是什么谈情说爱,简直就是一场斗争,而斗争的目标便是贵族阶级的荣誉和地位。正如于连自己所说的那样:“在这场尚在准备的战斗里,身世的骄傲,像一座高山,是她和我当中的军事阵地,这高山,便是我进攻的目标。”由此看来,于连并不仅仅把她们作为女人去“占有”,而是当作一个阶级去“征服”的。他占有她们不在于肉感,而在于满足他那平民的、要求尊严的灵魂。这在一定程度上反映了当时法国残酷的阶级斗争现实,也反映了于连在爱情方面的反抗精神。
于连的雄心壮志中不可避免地含有出于个人野心的成分。在维立叶尔市,这种野心往往被反抗、报复和维护个人尊
严的思想所冲淡;在贝尚松神学院,他为伪装自己而刻苦学习,博得院长和大主教的欢心,自信不久就能当上主教,野心
萌发,在伪善的道路上迈上一大步。而在巴黎,自担任木尔侯爵的私人秘书以来,他地位骤变,环境巨变,在都市风气严重腐蚀下,虚荣心恶性膨胀,个人的雄心壮志开始向个人野心逐步转化。
进入巴黎时,于连的心情是矛盾复杂的。一方面,他憎恨巴黎的一切,认为“巴黎是阴谋伪善的中心”;另一方面,他又
因“终于要在伟大的事业的舞台上显露身手”而高兴。在他的内心深处经历了一场又一场真诚与虚伪、自尊与虚荣的激烈搏斗之后,他鄙视上层社会的纨绔子弟,却又欣赏他们的“文雅有礼”,逐渐陶醉在上流社会的美女、音乐和鲜花之中。他十分仇视侯爵巧取豪夺、大发横财的行径,但当领悟到侯爵有意识把自己栽培成“一个上流社会的人”时,却又甘心为侯爵效力。在维立叶尔,于连从未曾想过“怎样去奉承人,怎样去替人家说话”,到巴黎后,他却在野心的驱使下,为了替极端无耻的“老蠢材”谋取美差,竟利用职权之便挤走了正直的葛斯先生。事后,他良心复现,对自己的恶行惊叹不已。但随机又为自己辩解道:“如果我想成功的话,我还要做许多不公道的事情。”然而,即使在堕落的过程中,于连依然在某种程度上保持了平民的自尊,个人反抗未尽泯灭。他在侯爵面前的从不卑躬屈膝,以及在侯爵的责骂伤害了他的尊严时的傲然离去,使得老奸巨猾的侯爵深感这个平民青年的“性格的根本处有可怕的地方”。他的这种自尊是“贫民骨气”的一种表现,任何情况下凛然不可侵犯。正如彼拉神甫和玛特儿小姐所说,于
连虽出身低微,但意气高傲, 心中燃烧神圣的火焰。他最不能容忍“别人的轻视”。自尊,是他个人奋斗中用以自卫的唯一武器。
从于连的整个奋斗过程来看,他为实现自己的幻想,靠的是自己出众的才能和顽强奋斗,而不是他人的施舍。对他来
讲,最重要的是个人的荣誉和尊严。他所追求的是靠自己的力量赢得的。他曾先后拒绝市长夫人、木尔侯爵的钱财,靠着他的高傲和才能,征服了市长夫人和侯爵女儿。在咪列诺的豪华的客厅里,他曾想如果把这里劫来的财产分一半给他,他也不会要。与德·瑞那夫人分别时,这位夫人要将数千法郎送给他,他愤怒地拒绝了。他对德·瑞那夫人说:“你是否愿意使我们的爱情变为可憎的回忆?”他不需怜悯,也不容玷污爱情,而希望像拿破仑那样靠个人的力量和奋斗来取得功名。他争的是骨气而非虚荣。正是为了雄心和骨气,他才给自己规定了反抗上层社会的责任。但是,我们必须承认于连的奋斗和抗争“是除了个人尊严和出路而别无他想的个人英雄主义”,所以,我们不能说他是个野心家。在作者笔下,他的“野心”,只不过是一个小人物敢于在复辟时代对现实表示不满和反抗,敢于在才智、勇气和人格上压倒包括大资产阶级在内的上层社会;“敢于在大事业舞台上显身手”。为自己赢得和拿破仑一样的命运,作者声称于连是“野心家”即表达了对复辟时代的不满,也隐晦地赞美了于连的反抗精神。
然而,于连的奋斗反抗注定是以悲剧而告终。于连是王朝复辟时代受压抑的小资产阶级青年的典型,其反抗是基于
社会对他的压制和他个人的野心。他追念大革命时代,因为像他这样有才干的青年会有数不清的机会可以大显身手。可是,在这个扼杀一切生机的王朝复辟时代,他只能扮演“一个逆叛的平民的悲惨角色”,成了与“整个社会作战的不幸的人”。他憎恶教会的虚伪卑鄙,蔑视贵族的“合法的权威”,鄙夷资产阶级的“污秽财富”。于是他对复辟社会进行了报复性的绝望的反抗。虽在一定程度上反映了人民对复辟社会的抗议情绪,但由于其是孤军奋战,缺少明确的政治理想和目标,所以必然遭到失败。另外,于连的奋斗和抗争伤害了大贵族、大资产阶级的利益。他们根本不准许出身低贱的于连跨进他们的营垒。最后贵族和教会勾结,设下圈套,逼德·瑞那夫人写告密信揭发于连,断送了他飞黄腾达的前程,致使于连枪伤市长夫人而被推上断头台,落得身首异处的悲惨下场。于连的悲剧,是一个出身低微的知识分子在一定条件下,才能无从发挥、野心不能实现的悲剧。
于连死时年仅23岁。他热爱自由和生命,但为了不在贵族面前失去平民的尊严,他拒绝上诉。当德·瑞那市长提出
上诉时,于连被激怒了。他叫道:“我不愿对死刑上诉,即使你用毒药、刀子、手枪、火炭或任何另外一种方法,终结一个危害你的生命,我也不对死刑上诉。”这种硬汉,为了保持尊严,为了不成为上流社会耻笑和侮辱的对象,宁可失去爱情、生命, 真可谓不乏英雄气概。
在那个黑暗的复辟年代,于连作为一个平民知识分子为了争得自己的社会地位,向贵族资产阶级所作的反抗与斗争
精神是应该给以肯定的。他那难以折服的骨气,无疑在当时具有进步意义。这也正是我们同情他的根本原因。
总之,无论从时代背景、主题、艺术构思,还是从于连性格形成发展的全过程着眼,于连都不是野心家,而是资产阶级个人奋斗的典型代表,是悲剧英雄。尽管他有出自野心的功利打算,但平民的自尊和对统治阶级的本能反抗始终是他的主导方面。虽然这种个人英雄主义不可取,但我们不应该用现代的尺度去苛求一个特殊时代的人。在一个半世纪前封建复辟时代的法国,个人英雄主义思潮在一定程度上反映了广大人民,特别是中小资产阶级不满现实,要求改变地位的愿望客观上对反动统治阶级起到了一定的冲击作用。
The novel’s composite full title, Le Rouge et le Noir, Chronique du XIXe siécle (The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of the 19th Century), indicates its two-fold literary purpose, a psychological portrait of the romantic protagonist, Julien Sorel, and an analytic, sociological satire of the French social order under the Bourbon Restoration (1814–30). In English, Le Rouge et le Noir is variously translated as Red and Black, Scarlet and Black, and The Red and the Black, without the sub-title.
Background
Occurring from September 1826 until July 1831, Le Rouge et le Noir is the Bildungsroman of Julien Sorel, the intelligent, ambitious, protagonist from a poor family, who fails to understand much about the ways of the world he sets to conquer. He harbours many romantic illusions, becoming mostly a pawn in the political machinations of the ruthless influential people about him. The adventures of the flawed hero satirize French nineteenth-century society, especially the hypocrisy and materialism of the aristocracy and members of the Roman Catholic Church in foretelling the coming radical changes that will depose them from French society.
The first volume’s epigraph is attributed to Danton: “La vérité, l’âpre vérité” (“The truth, the harsh truth”), which is fictional, like most of the chapter epigraphs. The first chapter of each volume repeats the title Le Rouge et le Noir and the Chronique de 1830 sub-title. The novel’s title denotes the contrasting uniforms of the Army and the Church. Early in the story, Julien Sorel realistically observes that under the Bourbon restoration it is impossible for a man of his plebian social class to distinguish himself in the army (as he might have done under Napoleon), hence only a Church career offers social advancement and glory.
In some editions, the first book ("Livre premier", ending after Chapter XXX) concludes with the quotation: “To the Happy Few”, a dedication variously interpreted to mean either the few readers who could understand Stendhal’s writing; or a Shakespearean allusion to Henry V (1599); or a sardonic reference to the well-born of society (viz. Canto 11 Don Juan, 1821, by Byron)l or to those living per “Beylisme”: personal happiness being the purpose of existence — accordingly, every action taken to achieve that is permissible — hence Julien’s expediency with people — wherein “La force d’ame” (“Force of the soul”) is the most important virtue, realised as courage, resolution, and moral energy. (It seems most French editions do not have this quote, for unclear reasons; as is well-known, it appears also at the end of "La Chartreuse de Parme").
Plot
In two volumes, The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of the 19th Century tells the story of Julien Sorel’s life in a monarchic society of fixed social class.
Book I presents the ambitious son of a carpenter in the (fictional) Verrières village, in Franche-Comté, France, who would rather read and daydream about the glory days of Napoleon's long-disbanded army, than work his father’s timber business with his brothers, who beat him for his intellectual affectations. In the event, Julien Sorel becomes an acolyte of the abbé Chénal, the local Catholic prelate, who later secures him a post as the tutor for the children of Monsieur de Rênal, the mayor of Verrières. Despite appearing to be a pious, austere cleric, Julien is uninterested in the Bible beyond its literary value, and how he can use memorised passages (learnt in Latin) to impress important people.
He enters a love affair with Monsieur de Rênal’s wife; it ends badly when exposed to the village, by her chambermaid, Elisa, who had romantic designs upon him. The abbé Chénal orders Julien to a seminary in Besançon, which he finds intellectually stifling and pervaded with social cliques. The initially cynical seminary director, the abbé Pirard (of the Jansenist faction more hated that the Jesuit faction in the diocese), likes Julien, and becomes his protector. Disgusted by the Church’s political machinations, the abbé Pirard leaves the seminary, yet first rescues Julien from the persecution he would have suffered as his protégé, by recommending him as private secretary to the diplomat Marquis de la Mole, a Roman Catholic legitimist.
Book II chronicles the time leading to the July Revolution of 1830, and Julien Sorel’s Parisian life, as an employee of the de la Mole family. Despite moving among high society, the family and their friends, condescend to Julien for being an uncouth plebeian — his intellectual talents notwithstanding. In his boundlessly ambitious rise in the world, Julien perceives the materialism and hypocrisy important to the élite of Parisian society, and that the counter-revolutionary temper of the time renders it impossible for well-born men of superior intellect and æsthetic sensibility to progressively participate in the public affairs of the nation with any success.
The Marquis de la Mole takes Julien to a secret meeting, then despatches him on a dangerous mission to communicate a political letter (that he has memorised) to the Duc d'Angouleme, who is exiled in England; however, the callow Julien is mentally distracted, by an unsatisfying love affair, thus he only learns the message by rote, but not its political significance as a legitimist plot. Unwittingly, the plebeian Julien Sorel risks his life in secret service to the right-wing monarchists he most opposes; to himself, Julien rationalises such action as merely helping the Marquis, his employer, whom he respects.
Meanwhile, in the preceding months, the Marquis’s bored daughter, Mathilde de la Mole, had become emotionally torn, between her romantic attraction to Julien, for his admirable personal and intellectual qualities, and her social repugnance at becoming sexually intimate with a lower-class man. At first, he finds her unattractive, but his interest is piqued, by her attentions and the admiration she inspires in others; twice, she seduces and rejects him, leaving him in a miasma of despair, self-doubt, and happiness (he won her over aristocrat suitors). Only during his secret mission does he gain the key to winning her affections: a cynical jeu d’amour proffered to him by Prince Korasoff, a Russian man-of-the-world. At great emotional cost, Julien feigns indifference to Mathilde, provoking her jealousy with a sheaf of love-letters meant to woo Madame de Fervaques, a widow in the social circle of the de la Mole family. Consequently, Mathilde sincerely falls in love with Julien, eventually revealing to him that she carries his child; yet, whilst he was on diplomatic mission in England, she became officially engaged to Monsieur de Croisenois, an amiable, rich young man, heir to a duchy.
Learning of Julien’s romantic liaison with Mathilde, the Marquis de la Mole is angered, but relents before her determination, and his affection for him, and bestows upon Julien an income-producing property attached to an aristocratic title, and a military commission in the army. Although ready to bless their marriage, he changes his mind upon receiving the reply to a character-reference-letter he wrote to the abbé Chénal, Julien’s previous employer in the village of Verrières; however, the reply letter, written by Madame de Rênal — at the urging of her confessor priest — warns the Marquis that Julien Sorel is a social-climbing cad who preys upon emotionally vulnerable women.
On learning the Marquis’s disapproval of the marriage, Julien Sorel travels to his home village of Verrières and shoots Madame de Rênal during Mass in the village church; she survives. Despite the efforts of Mathilde, Madame de Rênal, and the priests devoted to him since his early life, Julien Sorel is determined to die — because the materialist society of Bourbon Restoration France will not accommodate a low-born man of superior intellect and æsthetic sensibility possessing neither money nor social connections.
Meanwhile, the presumptive duke, Monsieur de Croisenois, one of the fortunate few of Bourbon France, is killed in a duel fought over a slur upon the honour of Mathilde de la Mole. Despite her undiminished love for Julien, his imperiously intellectual nature, and its component romantic exhibitionism, render Mathilde’s prison visits to him a duty.
Moreover, when Julien learns he did not kill Madame de Rênal, that resurrects his intemperate love for her — lain dormant throughout his Parisian time and his passion for Mathilde, who visits him during the final days of his life. Afterwards, Mathilde de la Mole re-enacts the cherished, sixteenth-century French tale of Queen Margot visiting her dead lover, Joseph Boniface de La Mole, to kiss the lips of his severed head. In the nineteenth century, Mathilde de la Mole so treated Julien Sorel’s severed head, making a shrine of his tomb, in the Italian fashion.
Structure and themes
Le Rouge et le Noir occurs in the latter years of the Bourbon Restoration (1814–30) and the days of the 1830 July Revolution that established the Kingdom of the French (1830–48). Julien Sorel’s worldly ambitions are motivated by the emotional tensions, between his idealistic Republicanism (especially nostalgic allegiance to Napoleon), and the realistic politics of counter-revolutionary conspiracy, by Jesuit-supported legitimists, notably the Marquis de la Mole, whom Julien serves, for personal gain. Presuming a knowledgeable reader, the novelist Stendhal only alludes to the historical background of Le Rouge et le Noir — yet did sub-title it Chronique de 1830 (“Chronicle of 1830”). Moreover, the reader wishing an exposé of the same historical background might wish to read Lucien Leuwen (1834), Stendhal’s un-finished novel, posthumously published in 1894.
Stendhal repeatedly questions the possibility, and the desirability, of “sincerity”, because most of the characters, especially Julien Sorel, are acutely aware of having to play a role to gain social approval. In that nineteenth-century context, the word “hypocrisy” denoted the affectation of high religious sentiment; in The Red and the Black it connotes the contradiction between thinking and feeling.
In Mensonge romantique et vérité romanesque, 1961, (Deceit, Desire and the Novel) philosopher and critic René Girard identifies in Le Rouge et le Noir the triangular structure he denominates as “mimetic desire”, which reveals how a person’s desire for another is always mediated by a third party, i.e. one desires a person only when he or she is desired by someone else. Girard’s proposition accounts for the perversity of the Mathilde–Julien relationship, especially when he begins courting the widow Mme de Fervaques, to pique Mathilde’s jealousy, but also Julien’s fascination with and membership to the high society he simultaneously desires and despises; to wit, in achieving said literary effect, Stendhal wrote the epigraphs — literary, poetic, historic quotations — that he attributed to others.
Literary and critical significance
The novel marks the beginning of realism.
André Gide said that The Red and the Black was a novel ahead of its time, that it was a novel for readers in the twentieth century. In Stendhal’s time, prose novels included dialogue and omniscient narrator descriptions; his great contribution to literary technique was describing the psychologies (feelings, thoughts, inner monologues) of the characters, resultantly he is considered the creator of the psychological novel.
In Jean-Paul Sartre's play Les Mains Sales (1948), the protagonist Hugo Barine suggests pseudonyms for himself, including “Julien Sorel”, whom he resembles.
Joyce Carol Oates stated in the Afterword to her novel them that she originally titled the manuscript Love and Money as a nod to classic 19th century novels, among them, The Red and The Black "whose class-conscious hero Julien Sorel is less idealistic, greedier, and crueler than Jules Wendell but is cleary his spiritual kinsman".
Translations
Le Rouge et le Noir, Chronique du XIXe siècle (1830) was first translated to English circa 1900; the best-known translation, The Red and the Black (1926), by Charles Kenneth Scott-Moncrief, has been, like his other translations, characterised as one of his “fine, spirited renderings, not entirely accurate on minor points of meaning . . . Scott Moncrieff’s versions have not really been superseded”. The version by Robert M. Adams, for the Norton Critical Editions series, also is highly regarded; it “is more colloquial; his edition includes an informative section on backgrounds and sources, and excerpts from critical studies”. About Burton Raffel’s 2006 translation for the Modern Library, an anonymous Amazon.com reviewer said it is “actually a vulgar, anachronistic retelling of Stendhal’s novel. I recall abandoning it in disgust when the main character refers to his life as a total ‘blast’ ”. MTV was obviously very popular in 1838 [sic] France”. In its stead, that reviewer recommends C. K. Scott-Moncrieff’s translation, revised by scholar Ann Jefferson, (Everyman paperback, ISBN 0460876430).
Film adaptations
* Der geheime Kurier (The Secret Courier) is a silent 1928 German film by Gennaro Righelli, featuring Ivan Mosjoukine, Lil Dagover, and Valeria Blanka.
* Il Corriere del re (The Courier of the King) is a black-and-white 1947 Italian film adaptation of the story also directed by Gennaro Righelli. It features Rossano Brazzi, Valentina Cortese, and Irasema Dilián.
* Another film adaptation of the novel was released in 1954, directed by Claude Autant-Lara. It stars Gerard Philipe, Antonella Lualdi and Danielle Darrieux. It won the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics award for the best film of the year.
* Le Rouge et le Noir is a 1961 French made-for-TV film version directed by Pierre Cardinal, with Robert Etcheverry, Micheline Presle, Marie Laforêt, and Jean-Roger Caussimon.
* A BBC TV mini-series in five episodes The Scarlet and the Black, was made in 1965, starring John Stride, June Tobin, and Karin Fernald.
* Krasnoe i chyornoe (Red and Black) is a 1976 Soviet film version, directed by Sergei Gerasimov, with Nikolai Yeryomenko Ml, Natalya Bondarchuk, and Natalya Belokhvostikova.
* Another BBC TV mini-series called The Scarlet and the Black was first broadcast in 1993, starring Ewan McGregor, Rachel Weisz and Stratford Johns as the Abbe Pirard. A notable addition to the plot was the spirit of Napoleon (Christopher Fulford) who advises Sorel (McGregor) through his rise and fall.
* A made-for-TV film version of the novel called The Red and the Black was first broadcast in 1997 by Koch Lorber Films, starring Kim Rossi Stuart, Carole Bouquet and Judith Godrèche; it was directed by Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe. This version is available on DVD.
《父与子》是俄国著名作家屠格涅夫的代表作。《父与子》完成于1860年8月至1861年 8月，经多次修改后，于1862年在《俄罗斯导报》上。
《父与子》描写的是父辈与子辈冲突的主题。这一冲突在屠格涅夫笔下着上了时代的色彩。巴扎罗夫代表了19世纪60年代的年轻一代——激进的平民知识分子。而巴威尔和尼古拉则代表了保守的自由主义贵族的老一代人。当然，在对待年轻人的态度上，父辈中的人们态度各有不同，尼古拉比较温和，希望理解子辈，想跟上时代，只是不太成功。巴威尔则固执已见，信奉贵族自由主义，对年轻人的反叛耿耿于怀。父与子的冲突在广义上表现为巴威尔和巴扎罗夫之间的对立，由此，在巴扎罗夫身上塑造了时代“新人”的形象。
《父与子》是俄国著名作家屠格涅夫的代表作。《父与子》完成于1860年8月至1861年8月，经多次修改后，于1862年在《俄罗斯导报》上。
《父与子》描写的是父辈与子辈冲突的主题。这一冲突在屠格涅夫笔下着上了时代的色彩。巴扎罗夫代表了19世纪60年代的年轻一代——激进的平民知识分子。而巴威尔和尼古拉则代表了保守的自由主义贵族的老一代人。当然，在对待年轻人的态度上，父辈中的人们态度各有不同，尼古拉比较温和，希望理解子辈，想跟上时代，只是不太成功。巴威尔则固执已见，信奉贵族自由主义，对年轻人的反叛耿耿于怀。父与子的冲突在广义上表现为巴威尔和巴扎罗夫之间的对立，由此，在巴扎罗夫身上塑造了时代“新人”的形象。
《父与子》-人物特点
《父与子》的中心人物是平民知识分子巴扎洛夫。巴扎洛夫是平民知识分子的典型，是“新人”的形象，他性格的突出特征是具有鲜明的革命色彩，这表现在：
1、他激烈地否定现存制度。巴扎洛夫的否定有其历史的合理性。这里首先是历史进步的需要，其次才是革命者的版面认识和过激情绪。作家对巴扎洛夫的这种精神特质虽不欣赏，但却作了真实的描述。
2、蔑视贵族阶级。这是平民觉醒的一个重要特征。巴扎洛夫确信真理在自己手中，确信自己是时代英雄，有权蔑视贵族阶级。他对于巴威尔的愤怒挑战始终从容对待，而且常常摆出一付不屑一顾的态度。在论辩中，在决斗里，他老师崇高的胜利者。最后巴威尔也不得不承认自己的光荣已成往事。
3、以平民身份自豪，跟人民保持着密切的关系。巴扎洛夫已经不同于巴西斯托夫，他不再是优秀贵族分子的追随者，他已经意识到，平民优于贵族。这是平民势力兴起的又一个重要标志。同时，屠格涅夫也表现了巴扎洛夫的知识分子的生活方式使他和人民隔膜起来的情形。一个农民评论巴扎洛夫说：“当然啦，他是一位少爷，他能懂得什么呢？”这样的描述也是很深刻的，它揭示了巴扎洛夫高于普通农民和脱离人民的一面，在当时的平民知识分子中，这也是一种典型的现象。这正是后来的民粹主义运动失败的重要原因之一。
巴扎罗夫是精神上的强者。他充满自信，生气勃勃，具有锐利的批判眼光。他和阿尔卡狄家的仆人们和睦相处，并不妨碍他批判老百姓的落后迷信。他的精神力量和批判锋芒集中表现在他与巴威尔的论战上。两人初次相见，就在感觉上互不相容，进而展露出思想观点上的针锋相对。巴扎罗夫以他特有的简洁、粗鲁的话语对巴威尔以强有力的反击。颇有咄咄逼人之势。他决不屈从权威，具有自主的人格和评判标准，体现了年青一代独立思考的处世态度和初生牛犊不怕虎的斗争精神，当然，也带有年轻人从不成熟走向成熟的过程中的可能产生的偏颇和极端。但他还是以毋庸置疑的精神优势压倒了对手。巴扎罗夫吻费涅奇卡，在巴威尔看来，是严重地侵犯了贵族的权利，也是他们之间对立观点的继续发展。决斗暴露了巴威尔的偏狭、虚弱和做作，显示了巴扎罗夫的豁达、镇定和自信，双方精神力量的强弱在此得到进一步的揭示。
巴扎罗夫是行动的巨人，他抨击贵族的泛泛空谈，自己首先从小事做起。他具有实践能力，注重自然科学研究。他的行动有价值取舍标准：“凡是我们认为有用的事情，我们就依据它行动。”他的行动目标很明确——为未来打扫地盘。他敢于行动的勇气在一定程度上也表现在对待爱情的态度上。他曾恼怒自己也产生那样浪漫的情感，但在爱情之火燃烧起来的时候他却决不回避躲闪。
屠格涅夫写出了在否定爱情的巴扎罗夫内心，爱情是如何萌芽、发展的，写得真实可信。但是作家让巴扎罗夫在爱情受挫后一蹶不振，重蹈了巴威尔在恋爱上的覆辙，那句对巴威尔的尖刻评价“雄性生物”犹如一记耳光反打在巴扎罗夫自己的脸上。这并不是说，不能写他的失恋痛苦，英雄也有儿女情长的一面。但屠格涅夫却让他的主人公一味消沉下去，不能自拔，直至死亡。这不能不是对巴扎罗夫的曲解。那个在贵族庄园所向披靡的勇士竟无力使自己最终摆脱消极悲观的情绪，人物性格的整体性因此受到损害。作家把巴扎罗夫临终前期待阿金左娃的一吻这幕写得极为动人，然而他的锐气，他的愤恨，他的精神威力，他的坚强意志也在这女人敷衍式的一吻中消溶殆尽。
这种违反人物性格发展逻辑的矛盾变化，与作家的思想倾向不无联系。屠格涅夫对巴扎罗夫所代表的平民知识分子有一种情不自禁的向往，他钦佩他们的个人品质和牺牲精神，但并不赞成他们的社会政治主张。这位温和的自由主义贵族作家害怕暴力革命，不希望他们的事业取得成功。他认为他们的观点必然导致他们成为悲剧人物，因此他安排了巴扎罗夫的失恋、悲观乃至最后死亡。巴扎罗夫性格上的不一致正好折射出作家对民主主义者的矛盾态度。
阿尔卡狄这个人物在小说中有特殊的意义。就年龄来说，他属于子辈，也曾追随过巴扎罗夫；但就思想意识来说，他是父辈的子弟，因此巴扎罗夫称他为“温柔的自由主义少爷”。在刚刚到来的新观念和迟迟不肯退去的旧观念相互争斗的时候，青年人凭借他们的敏感、勇气和朝气等生理、心理因素有可能更倾心于新观念，然而子辈并不是先进思想的当然代表者，进化论的观念在社会思想斗争中并不具有绝对普遍性，更何况其中也不乏有猎奇求新的表面追求。因此，屠格涅夫所表现的不全是生理、心理意义上两代人的代沟，更渗透着不同社会阵营之间政治思想的分歧，从而揭示出当时俄国民主主义对贵族自由主义的胜利。
《父与子》-中心思想
《父与子》描写的是父辈与子辈冲突的主题。这一冲突在屠格涅夫笔下着上了时代的色彩。巴扎罗夫代表了19世纪60年代的年轻一代——激进的平民知识分子。而巴威尔和尼古拉则代表了保守的自由主义贵族的老一代人。当然，在对待年轻人的态度上，父辈中的人们态度各有不同，尼古拉比较温和，希望理解子辈，想跟上时代，只是不太成功。巴威尔则固执已见，信奉贵族自由主义，对年轻人的反叛耿耿于怀。父与子的冲突在广义上表现为巴威尔和巴扎罗夫之间的对立，由此，在巴扎罗夫身上塑造了时代“新人”的形象。
《父与子》-作者简介
伊凡·谢尔盖耶维奇·屠格涅夫（俄语：Иван Сергеевич Тургенев；英语：Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev，公历1818年11月9日－1883年9月3日，合儒略历1818年10月28日－1883年8月22日）俄国现实主义小说家、诗人和剧作家。
俄国19世纪批判现实主义作家、诗人和剧作家，出生于世袭贵族之家，生于俄国奥廖尔省奥廖尔一个旧式富裕家庭，父亲是一个骑兵团团长，十六岁的时候父亲去世。屠格涅夫的妈妈脾气很不好，经常打骂自己的孩子。1833年进莫斯科大学文学系，一年后转入彼得堡大学哲学系语文专业，毕业后到德国柏林大学攻读哲学、历史和希腊与拉丁文。屠格涅夫进入莫斯科大学学习一年，随后转入圣彼得堡大学学习经典著作，俄国文学和哲学。1838年前往柏林大学学习黑格尔哲学。在欧洲屠格涅夫见到了更加现代化的社会制度，被视为“欧化”的知识分子，主张俄国学习西方，废除包括农奴制在内的封建制度。
屠格涅夫是 19 世纪俄国有世界 声誉的现实主义艺术大师。他的小说不仅迅速及时地反映了当时的俄国社会现实 ，而且善于通过生动的情节和恰当的言语、行动，通过对大自然情境交融的描述，塑造出许多栩栩如生的人物形象。他的语言简洁、朴质、精确、优美，为俄罗斯语言的规范化作出了重要贡献。中国早在1917年就开始翻译介绍屠格涅夫的小说，现在几乎他所有的主要作品都有了中译本，一些名作还有多种译本。早期写诗（《帕拉莎》《地主》等）。1847～1852年发表《猎人笔记》，揭露农奴主的残暴，农奴的悲惨生活，因此被放逐。在监禁中写成中篇小说《木木》，对农奴制表示抗议。以后又发表长篇小说《罗亭》（1856年）、《贵族之家》（1859年），中篇小说《阿霞》《多余人的日记》等，描写贵族地主出身的知识分子好发议论而缺少斗争精神的性格。在长篇小说《前夜》（1860年）中，塑造出保加利亚革命者英沙罗夫的形象。后来发表长篇小说《父与子》，刻画贵族自由主义者同平民知识分子之间的思想冲突。后期长篇小说《烟》（1867年）和《处女地》（1877年），否定贵族反动派和贵族自由主义者，批评不彻底的民粹派，但流露悲观情绪。此外，还写有剧本《村居一月》和散文诗等。
屠格涅夫是一位有独特艺术风格的作家，他既擅长细腻的心理描写，又长于抒情。小说结构严整，情节紧凑，人物形象生动，尤其善于细致雕琢女性艺术形象，而他对旖旎的大自然的描写也充满诗情画意。
《父与子》-作品赏析
《父与子》描写的是父辈与子辈冲突的主题。这一冲突在屠格涅夫笔下着上了时代的色彩。巴扎罗夫代表了19世纪60年代的年轻一代——激进的平民知识分子。而巴威尔和尼古拉则代表了保守的自由主义贵族的老一代人。当然，在对待年轻人的态度上，父辈中的人们态度各有不同，尼古拉比较温和，希望理解子辈，想跟上时代，只是不太成功。巴威尔则固执已见，信奉贵族自由主义，对年轻人的反叛耿耿于怀。父与子的冲突在广义上表现为巴威尔和巴扎罗夫之间的对立，由此，在巴扎罗夫身上塑造了时代“新人”的形象。
巴扎罗夫是精神上的强者。他充满自信，生气勃勃，具有锐利的批判眼光。他和阿尔卡狄家的仆人们和睦相处，并不妨碍他批判老百姓的落后迷信。他的精神力量和批判锋芒集中表现在他与巴威尔的论战上。两人初次相见，就在感觉上互不相容，进而展露出思想观点上的针锋相对。巴扎罗夫以他特有的简洁、粗鲁的话语对巴威尔以强有力的反击。颇有咄咄逼人之势。他决不屈从权威，具有自主的人格和评判标准，体现了年青一代独立思考的处世态度和初生牛犊不怕虎的斗争精神，当然，也带有年轻人从不成熟走向成熟的过程中的可能产生的偏颇和极端。但他还是以毋庸置疑的精神优势压倒了对手。巴扎罗夫吻费涅奇卡，在巴威尔看来，是严重地侵犯了贵族的权利，也是他们之间对立观点的继续发展。决斗暴露了巴威尔的偏狭、虚弱和做作，显示了巴扎罗夫的豁达、镇定和自信，双方精神力量的强弱在此得到进一步的揭示。
巴扎罗夫是行动的巨人，他抨击贵族的泛泛空谈，自己首先从小事做起。他具有实践能力，注重自然科学研究。他的行动有价值取舍标准：“凡是我们认为有用的事情，我们就依据它行动。”他的行动目标很明确——为未来打扫地盘。他敢于行动的勇气在一定程度上也表现在对待爱情的态度上。他曾恼怒自己也产生那样浪漫的情感，但在爱情之火燃烧起来的时候他却决不回避躲闪。
屠格涅夫写出了在否定爱情的巴扎罗夫内心，爱情是如何萌芽、发展的，写得真实可信。但是作家让巴扎罗夫在爱情受挫后一蹶不振，重蹈了巴威尔在恋爱上的覆辙，那句对巴威尔的尖刻评价“雄性生物”犹如一记耳光反打在巴扎罗夫自己的脸上。这并不是说，不能写他的失恋痛苦，英雄也有儿女情长的一面。但屠格涅夫却让他的主人公一味消沉下去，不能自拔，直至死亡。这不能不是对巴扎罗夫的曲解。那个在贵族庄园所向披靡的勇士竟无力使自己最终摆脱消极悲观的情绪，人物性格的整体性因此受到损害。作家把巴扎罗夫临终前期待阿金左娃的一吻这幕写得极为动人，然而他的锐气，他的愤恨，他的精神威力，他的坚强意志也在这女人敷衍式的一吻中消溶殆尽。
《父与子》《父与子》
这种违反人物性格发展逻辑的矛盾变化，与作家的思想倾向不无联系。屠格涅夫对巴扎罗夫所代表的平民知识分子有一种情不自禁的向往，他钦佩他们的个人品质和牺牲精神，但并不赞成他们的社会政治主张。这位温和的自由主义贵族作家害怕暴力革命，不希望他们的事业取得成功。他认为他们的观点必然导致他们成为悲剧人物，因此他安排了巴扎罗夫的失恋、悲观乃至最后死亡。巴扎罗夫性格上的不一致正好折射出作家对民主主义者的矛盾态度。
阿尔卡狄这个人物在小说中有特殊的意义。就年龄来说，他属于子辈，也曾追随过巴扎罗夫；但就思想意识来说，他是父辈的子弟，因此巴扎罗夫称他为“温柔的自由主义少爷”。在刚刚到来的新观念和迟迟不肯退去的旧观念相互争斗的时候，青年人凭借他们的敏感、勇气和朝气等生理、心理因素有可能更倾心于新观念，然而子辈并不是先进思想的当然代表者，进化论的观念在社会思想斗争中并不具有绝对普遍性，更何况其中也不乏有猎奇求新的表面追求。因此，屠格涅夫所表现的不全是生理、心理意义上两代人的代沟，更渗透着不同社会阵营之间政治思想的分歧，从而揭示出当时俄国民主主义对贵族自由主义的胜利。
《父与子》是屠格涅夫的代表作。巴扎罗夫身上尽管有瑕疵，但他仍以不同凡响的艺术个性给人以鲜明的印象，在俄国文学史上他是第一个俄国“新人”形象，率先传达出平民知识分子已成为生活主角的时代信息。
《父与子》-创作背景
屠格涅夫从《巴拉莎》（一八四三），《地主》（一八四六）等诗篇开始文学生涯。他的《猎人笔记》（一八四七——五二）的发表曾当作俄国文学生活中的一件大事。这一篇篇特写，以俄国中部地区的自然景色为衬托，广泛地描绘了庄园地主和农民的生活，深刻揭露了地主表面上文明仁慈、实际上丑恶残暴的本性，全书充满对含垢受辱、备受欺凌的劳动人民的同情。当时的进步思想界称它是对农奴制的“一阵猛烈炮火”，是一部 “点燃火种的书”。一八五二年屠格涅夫因撰文悼念果戈理逝世，实质上则因其《猎人笔记》的社会思想倾向而被捕，送往斯巴斯科耶——鲁托维诺夫村软禁。软禁期间他写了中篇《木木》，以满腔仇恨对农奴制进行控诉。五十至六十年代是他创作最旺盛的时期，适逢俄国社会运动逐步高涨，他及时地反映了社会生活的方方面面。长篇《罗亭》（一八五六），《贵族之家》（一八五九），中篇《阿霞》（一八五八），《多余人的日记》（一八五○）展示了贵族知识分子言语脱离行动，理论脱离实践的一些典型特征。长篇《前夜》（一八六○）则反映俄国农奴制垮台前夕在俄国出现的进步社会思潮。在屠格涅夫创作中占有中心地位的长篇《父与子》（一八六二）刻画了两种社会势力——民主主义者和自由派贵族间的思想冲突。
屠格涅夫文笔婉丽，结构巧妙，语言清新简洁，深得读者喜爱。其作品很早就有人译介，译介者有老一代知名作家，也有我的同时代人。屠格涅夫创作《父与子》的那些年月，农奴主已不再可能。
《父与子》《父与子》
但屠格涅夫是个深沉的现实主义作家，他必然把历史的重大客观事件置于视界之内，把再现生活作为无可推卸的责职，去塑造符合时代的典型。《父与子》中的巴扎罗夫可说是十九世纪六十年代俄国民。
巴扎罗夫不屈从任何权威，不把任何准则当作信仰，即使这准则是多么受到尊重。赫尔岑把巴扎罗夫的这种虚无主义归结为“完全、彻底摆脱了一切现成概念和陈规旧俗”。杜勃罗留波夫进一步认同：“新人——他是唯心主义哲学的反对者，因为唯心主义哲学把准则看成高于朴素的生活真理。”巴扎罗夫对借抽象法得出的科学概念确无好感：“指的是什么科学？泛泛的科学吗？科学一如手艺，有具体的门类，而泛泛的科学是不存在的。”在此他只承认具体的科学，而把“泛泛的科学”即哲学彻底否定了。他把哲学看成是 “浪漫主义”哲学，腐朽，胡说八道，与浪漫主义是等同概念。曼恩由此认为巴扎罗夫的思辩“从黑格尔的 Allgemeinneit总体中得到了解放”。巴扎罗夫认为人的行为不由抽象的、必须遵循的准则，而是由现实生活决定的：“总的说来，准则是没有的，……只有感觉。一切都取决于感觉。”巴扎罗夫对基尔萨诺夫所奉准则的抗议也就是民主主义者对唯心观的抗议。那时平民中的民主主义者按杜勃留波夫说法“不但懂得，而且亲身感受到，世上绝对的东西是没有的，一切事物只有它的相对意义”，因此他们断然“摆脱开绝对理念而去接近现实生活，用他们的现实观替代一切抽象概念”。把小说《父与子》中发生的事件限定在一八五九年自有其。
此书获全国优秀畅销书奖，不朽的杰作，永远的畅销书！
连环漫画《父与子》是德国幽默大师埃·奥·卜劳恩的不朽杰作。作品中一个个生动幽默的小故事都是来自于漫画家在生活中的真实感受，父与子实际上就是卡劳恩与儿子克里斯蒂安的真实写照。一幅幅小巧精湛的画面闪烁着智慧之光，无言地流泻出纯真的赤子之情与融融天伦之乐，永远地震撼着人们的心灵。 早在20世纪30年代《父与子》便传入我国，但在这本《父与子》全集之前国内最多只出现过150个《父与子》的小故事，1988年我国在德意志联邦人和国驻华大使及领事的帮助下成功地编成了这本《父与子》全集后，十几年中这本画册重印了数十万，深受读者喜爱，1994年还被评为全国优秀畅销书。
非常难得的是国内的许多出版社对我们这个《父与子》全集的版本十分感偿趣，经常愉快地借用这个版本。例如，山东的黄河出版社竟全盘翻印了我们的《父与子》全集，而成都的天地出版社借用的这个版本（此外还借了我编的许多其他的画册）不到两年竟销了10万册。说真的，我真为此感到高兴，因为模仿是最真诚的恭维，这些年轻的编辑毕竟是真心实意的追随者！不过我们的《父与子》全集到底是原版，细看毕竟不同，不是吗？
【编辑点评】
德国著名漫画家埃· 奥·卜劳恩的连环漫画《父与子》誉满天下、风靡世界。《父与子》所塑造的善良、正直、宽容的艺术形象，充满着智慧之光，流露出纯真的父子之情，深深地打动了千百万读者的心，从而使卜劳恩成为海恩里希·霍夫曼和威廉·布施之后的又一巨匠，《父与子》被人们誉为德国幽默的象征，受到人们一致高度的赞扬，声誉远远地越出了国界。
《父与子》-影视信息
剧情简介
俄国名导苏古诺夫（Aleksandr Sokurov）执导。这部电影是描述一对父子之间，既浓烈特殊又扑朔迷离的情感，极具争议性和震撼力。
父亲与儿子长年生活在同一屋檐下，仿佛与世隔绝般沉浸在他们自己的世界中，被回忆和日常仪式所填满。有时他们看起来就像兄弟，有时甚至像一对恋人。
《父与子》《父与子》
儿子亚力克斯走上了一条和父亲一样的道路，进入了军校。他喜欢体育运动，还有了女朋友。但是情人之间却总有点隔阂，女友似乎在暗暗嫉妒亚力克斯与父亲的亲密关系。
尽管亚力克斯心里明白所有的儿子总有一天终将离开父亲，开始自己的生活，他的内心仍然充满矛盾。
亚力克斯的父亲也清楚他或许应该去另一座城市找一份更好的工作，或者娶一位新太太。但是，谁又能减轻亚力克斯梦魇中的痛苦呢？
从来没有哪对父与子之间的爱如他们这般深厚。
苏古诺夫亲情三部曲系列电影的第二部，备受好评的《母与子》之姊妹篇。
本片的拍摄地点，是2003年正好建城三百周年的俄罗斯名城，如诗如画的圣彼得堡所拍摄，极具诗意且唯美。
Historical context and notes
The fathers and children of the novel refers to the growing divide between the two generations of Russians, and the character Yevgeny Bazarov has been referred to as the "first Bolshevik", for his nihilism and rejection of the old order.
Turgenev wrote Fathers and Sons as a response to the growing cultural schism that he saw between liberals of the 1830s/1840s and the growing nihilist movement. Both the nihilists (the "sons") and the 1830s liberals sought Western-based social change in Russia. Additionally, these two modes of thought were contrasted with the conservative Slavophiles, who believed that Russia's path lay in its traditional spirituality.
Fathers and Sons might be regarded as the first wholly modern novel in Russian Literature (Gogol's Dead Souls, another main contender, is sometimes referred to as a poem or epic in prose as in the style of Dante's Divine Comedy). The novel introduces a dual character study, as seen with the gradual breakdown of Bazarov's and Arkady's nihilistic opposition to emotional display, especially in the case of Bazarov's love for Madame Odintsova and Fenichka. This prominent theme of character duality and deep psychological insight would exert an influence on most of the great Russian novels to come, most obviously echoed in the novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
The novel is also the first Russian work to gain prominence in the Western world, eventually gaining the approval of well established novelists Gustave Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant, and Henry James.
Major characters
* Yevgeny Vasil'evich Bazarov - A nihilist, a student of science, and is training to be a doctor. As a nihilist he is a mentor to Arkady, and a challenger to the liberal ideas of the Kirsanov brothers and the traditional Russian Orthodox feelings of his own parents.
* Arkady Nikolaevich Kirsanov - A recent graduate of St. Petersburg University and friend of Bazarov. He is also a nihilist, although his belief seems to stem from his admiration of Bazarov rather than his own conviction.
* Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov - A landlord, a liberal democrat, Arkady’s father.
* Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov - Nikolai’s brother and a bourgeois with aristocratic pretensions, who prides himself on his refinement but like his brother is reform minded. Although he is reluctantly tolerant of the nihilism, he cannot help hating Bazarov.
* Vasily Ivanovich Bazarov - Bazarov’s father, a retired army surgeon, and a small countryside land/serf holder. Educated and enlightened, he nonetheless feels, like many of the characters, that rural isolation has left him out of touch with modern ideas. He thus retains a loyalty to traditionalist ways, manifested particularly in devotion to God and to his son Yevgeny.
* Arina Vlas'evna Bazarova - Bazarov’s mother. A very traditional woman of the 15th c. Moscovy style aristocracy: a pious follower of Orthodox Christianity, woven with folk tales and falsehoods. She loves her son deeply, but is also terrified of him and his rejection of all beliefs.
* Anna Sergeevna Odintsova - A wealthy widow who entertains the nihilist friends at her estate. Bazarov declares his love for her, but she is unable to reciprocate, both out of fear for the emotional chaos it could bring and an inability to recognize her own sentiments as love itself. Bazarov's love is a challenge to his nihilist ideal of rejection of all established order.
* Katerina (Katya) Sergeevna Lokteva - A character similar to Arkady and the younger sister of Anna. She lives comfortably with her sister but lacks confidence, finding it hard to escape Anna Sergeevna's shadow. This shyness makes her and Arkady’s love slow to realize itself.
* Fedosya (Fenichka) Nikolayevna - The daughter of Nikolai’s housekeeper, with whom he has fallen in love and fathered a child out of wedlock. The implied obstacles to their marriage are difference in class, and perhaps Nikolai's previous marriage - the burden of 'traditionalist' values.
* Viktor Sitnikov - A pompous and somewhat stupid friend of Bazarov who joins populist ideals and groups.
* Avdotya Nikitishna or Evdoksya Kukshina - An emancipated woman who lives in the town of X. Kukshina is independent but rather eccentric and incapable as a proto-feminist despite her potential.
Themes
Transgression and redemption
Bazarov (the prototypical nihilist) argues with Pavel Kirsanov (the prototypical liberal of the 1840s generation) about the nature of nihilism and usefulness to Russia in an episode which personifies the struggle between the fathers (i.e., the liberals of the 1840s) and their nihilist "sons". "Aristocratism, liberalism, progress, principles," Bazarov says. "Just think, how many foreign…and useless words!"
Bazarov tells Pavel that he will abandon nihilism when Pavel can show him "…a single institution of contemporary life, either in the family or in the social sphere, that doesn’t deserve absolute and merciless rejection." But despite this utter scorn for all things associated with traditional Russia, Bazarov still believes that there is a purpose and a value in applied science.
Human emotion and love as redemption
Bazarov's nihilism falls apart in the face of human emotions, specifically his love for Anna Odintsova. His nihilism does not account for the pain that his unrequited love causes him, and this introduces a despair that he is not capable of contending with.
Bazarov returns to his family after Odintsova rejects him. Bazarov complains to Arkady that "…they, that is, my parents, are occupied, and don't worry in the least about their own insignificance; they don't give a damn about it… While I…I feel only boredom and anger." His theory's inability to account for his emotions frustrates him and he sinks deep into boredom and ennui.
And then there is the enigmatic Anna Odintsova, a beautiful young woman of lowly origin. By virtue of having married well and been widowed young, she has inherited an exceedingly comfortable and insular life on a palatial country estate. In a letter written the same year the novel was published, Turgenev revealed that he conceived of Anna as “the representative of our idle, dreaming, curious and cold epicurean young ladies, our female nobility.” And yet, as with Bazarov, Turgenev’s fictional creation takes on a life of its own, superseding the author’s intellectual scheme to become a complex and perplexing figure.
Apparently content at the outset with her unattached life, Anna finds herself increasingly attracted to the blunt, unorthodox, highly intelligent Bazarov. She proceeds almost unwittingly to emotionally seduce the self-declared womanizer, luring him step by step in a pair of riveting, back-to-back passages to reveal his love. In the intimacy of her study, Anna confesses that she is very “unhappy,” that she has no desire to “go on,” that she longs for a “strong attachment” that is “all or nothing. A life for a life. You take mine, you give up yours, without regrets, without turning back.”
And yet, a moment after Bazarov capitulates and confesses his love, Odintsova rejects him brutally. Afterward, she is tortured, alternately blaming and excusing herself while fearing she may have thrown away a chance for genuine love. Finally she decides, “No. God knows where it might have led; one mustn’t fool around with this kind of thing.”
Conversely, Turgenev shows us Arkady and Nikolai's traditional happiness in marriage and estate management as the solution to Bazarov's cosmic despair and Anna's life of loveless comfort. (Arkady marries Anna Odintsova's sister Katya, though he was also originally in love with Anna). The height of the conflict between Bazarov and the older generation comes when Bazarov wounds Pavel in a duel. Finally, Turgenev also refutes Bazarov's "insignificance principle", i.e., the nihilist idea that life is utterly insignificant and that nothing remains after death: after leaving and then returning again to his parents, Bazarov dies of typhus. The final passage of the book portrays Bazarov's parents visiting his grave.
They walk with a heavy step, supporting each other; when they approach the railing, they fall on their knees and remain there for a long time, weeping bitterly, gazing attentively at the headstone under which their son lies buried: they exchange a few words, brush the dust off the stone, move a branch of the pine tree, and pray once again; they can’t forsake this place where they seem to feel closer to their son, to their memories of him… Can it really be that their prayers and tears are futile? Can it really be that love, sacred, devoted love is not all powerful? Oh, no!
Their love causes them to remember Bazarov: he has transcended death, but only through the love of other people. Fyodor Dostoevsky, who read Fathers and Sons and apparently appreciated Bazarov as a character, explores a similar theme with Raskolnikov's religious redemption (via the love of Christ) in Crime and Punishment.
《父与子》描写的是父辈与子辈冲突的主题。这一冲突在屠格涅夫笔下着上了时代的色彩。巴扎罗夫代表了19世纪60年代的年轻一代——激进的平民知识分子。而巴威尔和尼古拉则代表了保守的自由主义贵族的老一代人。当然，在对待年轻人的态度上，父辈中的人们态度各有不同，尼古拉比较温和，希望理解子辈，想跟上时代，只是不太成功。巴威尔则固执已见，信奉贵族自由主义，对年轻人的反叛耿耿于怀。父与子的冲突在广义上表现为巴威尔和巴扎罗夫之间的对立，由此，在巴扎罗夫身上塑造了时代“新人”的形象。
《父与子》是俄国著名作家屠格涅夫的代表作。《父与子》完成于1860年8月至1861年8月，经多次修改后，于1862年在《俄罗斯导报》上。
《父与子》描写的是父辈与子辈冲突的主题。这一冲突在屠格涅夫笔下着上了时代的色彩。巴扎罗夫代表了19世纪60年代的年轻一代——激进的平民知识分子。而巴威尔和尼古拉则代表了保守的自由主义贵族的老一代人。当然，在对待年轻人的态度上，父辈中的人们态度各有不同，尼古拉比较温和，希望理解子辈，想跟上时代，只是不太成功。巴威尔则固执已见，信奉贵族自由主义，对年轻人的反叛耿耿于怀。父与子的冲突在广义上表现为巴威尔和巴扎罗夫之间的对立，由此，在巴扎罗夫身上塑造了时代“新人”的形象。
《父与子》-人物特点
《父与子》的中心人物是平民知识分子巴扎洛夫。巴扎洛夫是平民知识分子的典型，是“新人”的形象，他性格的突出特征是具有鲜明的革命色彩，这表现在：
1、他激烈地否定现存制度。巴扎洛夫的否定有其历史的合理性。这里首先是历史进步的需要，其次才是革命者的版面认识和过激情绪。作家对巴扎洛夫的这种精神特质虽不欣赏，但却作了真实的描述。
2、蔑视贵族阶级。这是平民觉醒的一个重要特征。巴扎洛夫确信真理在自己手中，确信自己是时代英雄，有权蔑视贵族阶级。他对于巴威尔的愤怒挑战始终从容对待，而且常常摆出一付不屑一顾的态度。在论辩中，在决斗里，他老师崇高的胜利者。最后巴威尔也不得不承认自己的光荣已成往事。
3、以平民身份自豪，跟人民保持着密切的关系。巴扎洛夫已经不同于巴西斯托夫，他不再是优秀贵族分子的追随者，他已经意识到，平民优于贵族。这是平民势力兴起的又一个重要标志。同时，屠格涅夫也表现了巴扎洛夫的知识分子的生活方式使他和人民隔膜起来的情形。一个农民评论巴扎洛夫说：“当然啦，他是一位少爷，他能懂得什么呢？”这样的描述也是很深刻的，它揭示了巴扎洛夫高于普通农民和脱离人民的一面，在当时的平民知识分子中，这也是一种典型的现象。这正是后来的民粹主义运动失败的重要原因之一。
巴扎罗夫是精神上的强者。他充满自信，生气勃勃，具有锐利的批判眼光。他和阿尔卡狄家的仆人们和睦相处，并不妨碍他批判老百姓的落后迷信。他的精神力量和批判锋芒集中表现在他与巴威尔的论战上。两人初次相见，就在感觉上互不相容，进而展露出思想观点上的针锋相对。巴扎罗夫以他特有的简洁、粗鲁的话语对巴威尔以强有力的反击。颇有咄咄逼人之势。他决不屈从权威，具有自主的人格和评判标准，体现了年青一代独立思考的处世态度和初生牛犊不怕虎的斗争精神，当然，也带有年轻人从不成熟走向成熟的过程中的可能产生的偏颇和极端。但他还是以毋庸置疑的精神优势压倒了对手。巴扎罗夫吻费涅奇卡，在巴威尔看来，是严重地侵犯了贵族的权利，也是他们之间对立观点的继续发展。决斗暴露了巴威尔的偏狭、虚弱和做作，显示了巴扎罗夫的豁达、镇定和自信，双方精神力量的强弱在此得到进一步的揭示。
巴扎罗夫是行动的巨人，他抨击贵族的泛泛空谈，自己首先从小事做起。他具有实践能力，注重自然科学研究。他的行动有价值取舍标准：“凡是我们认为有用的事情，我们就依据它行动。”他的行动目标很明确——为未来打扫地盘。他敢于行动的勇气在一定程度上也表现在对待爱情的态度上。他曾恼怒自己也产生那样浪漫的情感，但在爱情之火燃烧起来的时候他却决不回避躲闪。
屠格涅夫写出了在否定爱情的巴扎罗夫内心，爱情是如何萌芽、发展的，写得真实可信。但是作家让巴扎罗夫在爱情受挫后一蹶不振，重蹈了巴威尔在恋爱上的覆辙，那句对巴威尔的尖刻评价“雄性生物”犹如一记耳光反打在巴扎罗夫自己的脸上。这并不是说，不能写他的失恋痛苦，英雄也有儿女情长的一面。但屠格涅夫却让他的主人公一味消沉下去，不能自拔，直至死亡。这不能不是对巴扎罗夫的曲解。那个在贵族庄园所向披靡的勇士竟无力使自己最终摆脱消极悲观的情绪，人物性格的整体性因此受到损害。作家把巴扎罗夫临终前期待阿金左娃的一吻这幕写得极为动人，然而他的锐气，他的愤恨，他的精神威力，他的坚强意志也在这女人敷衍式的一吻中消溶殆尽。
这种违反人物性格发展逻辑的矛盾变化，与作家的思想倾向不无联系。屠格涅夫对巴扎罗夫所代表的平民知识分子有一种情不自禁的向往，他钦佩他们的个人品质和牺牲精神，但并不赞成他们的社会政治主张。这位温和的自由主义贵族作家害怕暴力革命，不希望他们的事业取得成功。他认为他们的观点必然导致他们成为悲剧人物，因此他安排了巴扎罗夫的失恋、悲观乃至最后死亡。巴扎罗夫性格上的不一致正好折射出作家对民主主义者的矛盾态度。
阿尔卡狄这个人物在小说中有特殊的意义。就年龄来说，他属于子辈，也曾追随过巴扎罗夫；但就思想意识来说，他是父辈的子弟，因此巴扎罗夫称他为“温柔的自由主义少爷”。在刚刚到来的新观念和迟迟不肯退去的旧观念相互争斗的时候，青年人凭借他们的敏感、勇气和朝气等生理、心理因素有可能更倾心于新观念，然而子辈并不是先进思想的当然代表者，进化论的观念在社会思想斗争中并不具有绝对普遍性，更何况其中也不乏有猎奇求新的表面追求。因此，屠格涅夫所表现的不全是生理、心理意义上两代人的代沟，更渗透着不同社会阵营之间政治思想的分歧，从而揭示出当时俄国民主主义对贵族自由主义的胜利。
《父与子》-中心思想
《父与子》描写的是父辈与子辈冲突的主题。这一冲突在屠格涅夫笔下着上了时代的色彩。巴扎罗夫代表了19世纪60年代的年轻一代——激进的平民知识分子。而巴威尔和尼古拉则代表了保守的自由主义贵族的老一代人。当然，在对待年轻人的态度上，父辈中的人们态度各有不同，尼古拉比较温和，希望理解子辈，想跟上时代，只是不太成功。巴威尔则固执已见，信奉贵族自由主义，对年轻人的反叛耿耿于怀。父与子的冲突在广义上表现为巴威尔和巴扎罗夫之间的对立，由此，在巴扎罗夫身上塑造了时代“新人”的形象。
《父与子》-作者简介
伊凡·谢尔盖耶维奇·屠格涅夫（俄语：Иван Сергеевич Тургенев；英语：Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev，公历1818年11月9日－1883年9月3日，合儒略历1818年10月28日－1883年8月22日）俄国现实主义小说家、诗人和剧作家。
俄国19世纪批判现实主义作家、诗人和剧作家，出生于世袭贵族之家，生于俄国奥廖尔省奥廖尔一个旧式富裕家庭，父亲是一个骑兵团团长，十六岁的时候父亲去世。屠格涅夫的妈妈脾气很不好，经常打骂自己的孩子。1833年进莫斯科大学文学系，一年后转入彼得堡大学哲学系语文专业，毕业后到德国柏林大学攻读哲学、历史和希腊与拉丁文。屠格涅夫进入莫斯科大学学习一年，随后转入圣彼得堡大学学习经典著作，俄国文学和哲学。1838年前往柏林大学学习黑格尔哲学。在欧洲屠格涅夫见到了更加现代化的社会制度，被视为“欧化”的知识分子，主张俄国学习西方，废除包括农奴制在内的封建制度。
屠格涅夫是 19 世纪俄国有世界 声誉的现实主义艺术大师。他的小说不仅迅速及时地反映了当时的俄国社会现实 ，而且善于通过生动的情节和恰当的言语、行动，通过对大自然情境交融的描述，塑造出许多栩栩如生的人物形象。他的语言简洁、朴质、精确、优美，为俄罗斯语言的规范化作出了重要贡献。中国早在1917年就开始翻译介绍屠格涅夫的小说，现在几乎他所有的主要作品都有了中译本，一些名作还有多种译本。早期写诗（《帕拉莎》《地主》等）。1847～1852年发表《猎人笔记》，揭露农奴主的残暴，农奴的悲惨生活，因此被放逐。在监禁中写成中篇小说《木木》，对农奴制表示抗议。以后又发表长篇小说《罗亭》（1856年）、《贵族之家》（1859年），中篇小说《阿霞》《多余人的日记》等，描写贵族地主出身的知识分子好发议论而缺少斗争精神的性格。在长篇小说《前夜》（1860年）中，塑造出保加利亚革命者英沙罗夫的形象。后来发表长篇小说《父与子》，刻画贵族自由主义者同平民知识分子之间的思想冲突。后期长篇小说《烟》（1867年）和《处女地》（1877年），否定贵族反动派和贵族自由主义者，批评不彻底的民粹派，但流露悲观情绪。此外，还写有剧本《村居一月》和散文诗等。
屠格涅夫是一位有独特艺术风格的作家，他既擅长细腻的心理描写，又长于抒情。小说结构严整，情节紧凑，人物形象生动，尤其善于细致雕琢女性艺术形象，而他对旖旎的大自然的描写也充满诗情画意。
《父与子》-作品赏析
《父与子》描写的是父辈与子辈冲突的主题。这一冲突在屠格涅夫笔下着上了时代的色彩。巴扎罗夫代表了19世纪60年代的年轻一代——激进的平民知识分子。而巴威尔和尼古拉则代表了保守的自由主义贵族的老一代人。当然，在对待年轻人的态度上，父辈中的人们态度各有不同，尼古拉比较温和，希望理解子辈，想跟上时代，只是不太成功。巴威尔则固执已见，信奉贵族自由主义，对年轻人的反叛耿耿于怀。父与子的冲突在广义上表现为巴威尔和巴扎罗夫之间的对立，由此，在巴扎罗夫身上塑造了时代“新人”的形象。
巴扎罗夫是精神上的强者。他充满自信，生气勃勃，具有锐利的批判眼光。他和阿尔卡狄家的仆人们和睦相处，并不妨碍他批判老百姓的落后迷信。他的精神力量和批判锋芒集中表现在他与巴威尔的论战上。两人初次相见，就在感觉上互不相容，进而展露出思想观点上的针锋相对。巴扎罗夫以他特有的简洁、粗鲁的话语对巴威尔以强有力的反击。颇有咄咄逼人之势。他决不屈从权威，具有自主的人格和评判标准，体现了年青一代独立思考的处世态度和初生牛犊不怕虎的斗争精神，当然，也带有年轻人从不成熟走向成熟的过程中的可能产生的偏颇和极端。但他还是以毋庸置疑的精神优势压倒了对手。巴扎罗夫吻费涅奇卡，在巴威尔看来，是严重地侵犯了贵族的权利，也是他们之间对立观点的继续发展。决斗暴露了巴威尔的偏狭、虚弱和做作，显示了巴扎罗夫的豁达、镇定和自信，双方精神力量的强弱在此得到进一步的揭示。
巴扎罗夫是行动的巨人，他抨击贵族的泛泛空谈，自己首先从小事做起。他具有实践能力，注重自然科学研究。他的行动有价值取舍标准：“凡是我们认为有用的事情，我们就依据它行动。”他的行动目标很明确——为未来打扫地盘。他敢于行动的勇气在一定程度上也表现在对待爱情的态度上。他曾恼怒自己也产生那样浪漫的情感，但在爱情之火燃烧起来的时候他却决不回避躲闪。
屠格涅夫写出了在否定爱情的巴扎罗夫内心，爱情是如何萌芽、发展的，写得真实可信。但是作家让巴扎罗夫在爱情受挫后一蹶不振，重蹈了巴威尔在恋爱上的覆辙，那句对巴威尔的尖刻评价“雄性生物”犹如一记耳光反打在巴扎罗夫自己的脸上。这并不是说，不能写他的失恋痛苦，英雄也有儿女情长的一面。但屠格涅夫却让他的主人公一味消沉下去，不能自拔，直至死亡。这不能不是对巴扎罗夫的曲解。那个在贵族庄园所向披靡的勇士竟无力使自己最终摆脱消极悲观的情绪，人物性格的整体性因此受到损害。作家把巴扎罗夫临终前期待阿金左娃的一吻这幕写得极为动人，然而他的锐气，他的愤恨，他的精神威力，他的坚强意志也在这女人敷衍式的一吻中消溶殆尽。
《父与子》《父与子》
这种违反人物性格发展逻辑的矛盾变化，与作家的思想倾向不无联系。屠格涅夫对巴扎罗夫所代表的平民知识分子有一种情不自禁的向往，他钦佩他们的个人品质和牺牲精神，但并不赞成他们的社会政治主张。这位温和的自由主义贵族作家害怕暴力革命，不希望他们的事业取得成功。他认为他们的观点必然导致他们成为悲剧人物，因此他安排了巴扎罗夫的失恋、悲观乃至最后死亡。巴扎罗夫性格上的不一致正好折射出作家对民主主义者的矛盾态度。
阿尔卡狄这个人物在小说中有特殊的意义。就年龄来说，他属于子辈，也曾追随过巴扎罗夫；但就思想意识来说，他是父辈的子弟，因此巴扎罗夫称他为“温柔的自由主义少爷”。在刚刚到来的新观念和迟迟不肯退去的旧观念相互争斗的时候，青年人凭借他们的敏感、勇气和朝气等生理、心理因素有可能更倾心于新观念，然而子辈并不是先进思想的当然代表者，进化论的观念在社会思想斗争中并不具有绝对普遍性，更何况其中也不乏有猎奇求新的表面追求。因此，屠格涅夫所表现的不全是生理、心理意义上两代人的代沟，更渗透着不同社会阵营之间政治思想的分歧，从而揭示出当时俄国民主主义对贵族自由主义的胜利。
《父与子》是屠格涅夫的代表作。巴扎罗夫身上尽管有瑕疵，但他仍以不同凡响的艺术个性给人以鲜明的印象，在俄国文学史上他是第一个俄国“新人”形象，率先传达出平民知识分子已成为生活主角的时代信息。
《父与子》-创作背景
屠格涅夫从《巴拉莎》（一八四三），《地主》（一八四六）等诗篇开始文学生涯。他的《猎人笔记》（一八四七——五二）的发表曾当作俄国文学生活中的一件大事。这一篇篇特写，以俄国中部地区的自然景色为衬托，广泛地描绘了庄园地主和农民的生活，深刻揭露了地主表面上文明仁慈、实际上丑恶残暴的本性，全书充满对含垢受辱、备受欺凌的劳动人民的同情。当时的进步思想界称它是对农奴制的“一阵猛烈炮火”，是一部 “点燃火种的书”。一八五二年屠格涅夫因撰文悼念果戈理逝世，实质上则因其《猎人笔记》的社会思想倾向而被捕，送往斯巴斯科耶——鲁托维诺夫村软禁。软禁期间他写了中篇《木木》，以满腔仇恨对农奴制进行控诉。五十至六十年代是他创作最旺盛的时期，适逢俄国社会运动逐步高涨，他及时地反映了社会生活的方方面面。长篇《罗亭》（一八五六），《贵族之家》（一八五九），中篇《阿霞》（一八五八），《多余人的日记》（一八五○）展示了贵族知识分子言语脱离行动，理论脱离实践的一些典型特征。长篇《前夜》（一八六○）则反映俄国农奴制垮台前夕在俄国出现的进步社会思潮。在屠格涅夫创作中占有中心地位的长篇《父与子》（一八六二）刻画了两种社会势力——民主主义者和自由派贵族间的思想冲突。
屠格涅夫文笔婉丽，结构巧妙，语言清新简洁，深得读者喜爱。其作品很早就有人译介，译介者有老一代知名作家，也有我的同时代人。屠格涅夫创作《父与子》的那些年月，农奴主已不再可能。
《父与子》《父与子》
但屠格涅夫是个深沉的现实主义作家，他必然把历史的重大客观事件置于视界之内，把再现生活作为无可推卸的责职，去塑造符合时代的典型。《父与子》中的巴扎罗夫可说是十九世纪六十年代俄国民。
巴扎罗夫不屈从任何权威，不把任何准则当作信仰，即使这准则是多么受到尊重。赫尔岑把巴扎罗夫的这种虚无主义归结为“完全、彻底摆脱了一切现成概念和陈规旧俗”。杜勃罗留波夫进一步认同：“新人——他是唯心主义哲学的反对者，因为唯心主义哲学把准则看成高于朴素的生活真理。”巴扎罗夫对借抽象法得出的科学概念确无好感：“指的是什么科学？泛泛的科学吗？科学一如手艺，有具体的门类，而泛泛的科学是不存在的。”在此他只承认具体的科学，而把“泛泛的科学”即哲学彻底否定了。他把哲学看成是 “浪漫主义”哲学，腐朽，胡说八道，与浪漫主义是等同概念。曼恩由此认为巴扎罗夫的思辩“从黑格尔的 Allgemeinneit总体中得到了解放”。巴扎罗夫认为人的行为不由抽象的、必须遵循的准则，而是由现实生活决定的：“总的说来，准则是没有的，……只有感觉。一切都取决于感觉。”巴扎罗夫对基尔萨诺夫所奉准则的抗议也就是民主主义者对唯心观的抗议。那时平民中的民主主义者按杜勃留波夫说法“不但懂得，而且亲身感受到，世上绝对的东西是没有的，一切事物只有它的相对意义”，因此他们断然“摆脱开绝对理念而去接近现实生活，用他们的现实观替代一切抽象概念”。把小说《父与子》中发生的事件限定在一八五九年自有其。
此书获全国优秀畅销书奖，不朽的杰作，永远的畅销书！
连环漫画《父与子》是德国幽默大师埃·奥·卜劳恩的不朽杰作。作品中一个个生动幽默的小故事都是来自于漫画家在生活中的真实感受，父与子实际上就是卡劳恩与儿子克里斯蒂安的真实写照。一幅幅小巧精湛的画面闪烁着智慧之光，无言地流泻出纯真的赤子之情与融融天伦之乐，永远地震撼着人们的心灵。 早在20世纪30年代《父与子》便传入我国，但在这本《父与子》全集之前国内最多只出现过150个《父与子》的小故事，1988年我国在德意志联邦人和国驻华大使及领事的帮助下成功地编成了这本《父与子》全集后，十几年中这本画册重印了数十万，深受读者喜爱，1994年还被评为全国优秀畅销书。
非常难得的是国内的许多出版社对我们这个《父与子》全集的版本十分感偿趣，经常愉快地借用这个版本。例如，山东的黄河出版社竟全盘翻印了我们的《父与子》全集，而成都的天地出版社借用的这个版本（此外还借了我编的许多其他的画册）不到两年竟销了10万册。说真的，我真为此感到高兴，因为模仿是最真诚的恭维，这些年轻的编辑毕竟是真心实意的追随者！不过我们的《父与子》全集到底是原版，细看毕竟不同，不是吗？
【编辑点评】
德国著名漫画家埃· 奥·卜劳恩的连环漫画《父与子》誉满天下、风靡世界。《父与子》所塑造的善良、正直、宽容的艺术形象，充满着智慧之光，流露出纯真的父子之情，深深地打动了千百万读者的心，从而使卜劳恩成为海恩里希·霍夫曼和威廉·布施之后的又一巨匠，《父与子》被人们誉为德国幽默的象征，受到人们一致高度的赞扬，声誉远远地越出了国界。
《父与子》-影视信息
剧情简介
俄国名导苏古诺夫（Aleksandr Sokurov）执导。这部电影是描述一对父子之间，既浓烈特殊又扑朔迷离的情感，极具争议性和震撼力。
父亲与儿子长年生活在同一屋檐下，仿佛与世隔绝般沉浸在他们自己的世界中，被回忆和日常仪式所填满。有时他们看起来就像兄弟，有时甚至像一对恋人。
《父与子》《父与子》
儿子亚力克斯走上了一条和父亲一样的道路，进入了军校。他喜欢体育运动，还有了女朋友。但是情人之间却总有点隔阂，女友似乎在暗暗嫉妒亚力克斯与父亲的亲密关系。
尽管亚力克斯心里明白所有的儿子总有一天终将离开父亲，开始自己的生活，他的内心仍然充满矛盾。
亚力克斯的父亲也清楚他或许应该去另一座城市找一份更好的工作，或者娶一位新太太。但是，谁又能减轻亚力克斯梦魇中的痛苦呢？
从来没有哪对父与子之间的爱如他们这般深厚。
苏古诺夫亲情三部曲系列电影的第二部，备受好评的《母与子》之姊妹篇。
本片的拍摄地点，是2003年正好建城三百周年的俄罗斯名城，如诗如画的圣彼得堡所拍摄，极具诗意且唯美。
Historical context and notes
The fathers and children of the novel refers to the growing divide between the two generations of Russians, and the character Yevgeny Bazarov has been referred to as the "first Bolshevik", for his nihilism and rejection of the old order.
Turgenev wrote Fathers and Sons as a response to the growing cultural schism that he saw between liberals of the 1830s/1840s and the growing nihilist movement. Both the nihilists (the "sons") and the 1830s liberals sought Western-based social change in Russia. Additionally, these two modes of thought were contrasted with the conservative Slavophiles, who believed that Russia's path lay in its traditional spirituality.
Fathers and Sons might be regarded as the first wholly modern novel in Russian Literature (Gogol's Dead Souls, another main contender, is sometimes referred to as a poem or epic in prose as in the style of Dante's Divine Comedy). The novel introduces a dual character study, as seen with the gradual breakdown of Bazarov's and Arkady's nihilistic opposition to emotional display, especially in the case of Bazarov's love for Madame Odintsova and Fenichka. This prominent theme of character duality and deep psychological insight would exert an influence on most of the great Russian novels to come, most obviously echoed in the novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
The novel is also the first Russian work to gain prominence in the Western world, eventually gaining the approval of well established novelists Gustave Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant, and Henry James.
Major characters
* Yevgeny Vasil'evich Bazarov - A nihilist, a student of science, and is training to be a doctor. As a nihilist he is a mentor to Arkady, and a challenger to the liberal ideas of the Kirsanov brothers and the traditional Russian Orthodox feelings of his own parents.
* Arkady Nikolaevich Kirsanov - A recent graduate of St. Petersburg University and friend of Bazarov. He is also a nihilist, although his belief seems to stem from his admiration of Bazarov rather than his own conviction.
* Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov - A landlord, a liberal democrat, Arkady’s father.
* Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov - Nikolai’s brother and a bourgeois with aristocratic pretensions, who prides himself on his refinement but like his brother is reform minded. Although he is reluctantly tolerant of the nihilism, he cannot help hating Bazarov.
* Vasily Ivanovich Bazarov - Bazarov’s father, a retired army surgeon, and a small countryside land/serf holder. Educated and enlightened, he nonetheless feels, like many of the characters, that rural isolation has left him out of touch with modern ideas. He thus retains a loyalty to traditionalist ways, manifested particularly in devotion to God and to his son Yevgeny.
* Arina Vlas'evna Bazarova - Bazarov’s mother. A very traditional woman of the 15th c. Moscovy style aristocracy: a pious follower of Orthodox Christianity, woven with folk tales and falsehoods. She loves her son deeply, but is also terrified of him and his rejection of all beliefs.
* Anna Sergeevna Odintsova - A wealthy widow who entertains the nihilist friends at her estate. Bazarov declares his love for her, but she is unable to reciprocate, both out of fear for the emotional chaos it could bring and an inability to recognize her own sentiments as love itself. Bazarov's love is a challenge to his nihilist ideal of rejection of all established order.
* Katerina (Katya) Sergeevna Lokteva - A character similar to Arkady and the younger sister of Anna. She lives comfortably with her sister but lacks confidence, finding it hard to escape Anna Sergeevna's shadow. This shyness makes her and Arkady’s love slow to realize itself.
* Fedosya (Fenichka) Nikolayevna - The daughter of Nikolai’s housekeeper, with whom he has fallen in love and fathered a child out of wedlock. The implied obstacles to their marriage are difference in class, and perhaps Nikolai's previous marriage - the burden of 'traditionalist' values.
* Viktor Sitnikov - A pompous and somewhat stupid friend of Bazarov who joins populist ideals and groups.
* Avdotya Nikitishna or Evdoksya Kukshina - An emancipated woman who lives in the town of X. Kukshina is independent but rather eccentric and incapable as a proto-feminist despite her potential.
Themes
Transgression and redemption
Bazarov (the prototypical nihilist) argues with Pavel Kirsanov (the prototypical liberal of the 1840s generation) about the nature of nihilism and usefulness to Russia in an episode which personifies the struggle between the fathers (i.e., the liberals of the 1840s) and their nihilist "sons". "Aristocratism, liberalism, progress, principles," Bazarov says. "Just think, how many foreign…and useless words!"
Bazarov tells Pavel that he will abandon nihilism when Pavel can show him "…a single institution of contemporary life, either in the family or in the social sphere, that doesn’t deserve absolute and merciless rejection." But despite this utter scorn for all things associated with traditional Russia, Bazarov still believes that there is a purpose and a value in applied science.
Human emotion and love as redemption
Bazarov's nihilism falls apart in the face of human emotions, specifically his love for Anna Odintsova. His nihilism does not account for the pain that his unrequited love causes him, and this introduces a despair that he is not capable of contending with.
Bazarov returns to his family after Odintsova rejects him. Bazarov complains to Arkady that "…they, that is, my parents, are occupied, and don't worry in the least about their own insignificance; they don't give a damn about it… While I…I feel only boredom and anger." His theory's inability to account for his emotions frustrates him and he sinks deep into boredom and ennui.
And then there is the enigmatic Anna Odintsova, a beautiful young woman of lowly origin. By virtue of having married well and been widowed young, she has inherited an exceedingly comfortable and insular life on a palatial country estate. In a letter written the same year the novel was published, Turgenev revealed that he conceived of Anna as “the representative of our idle, dreaming, curious and cold epicurean young ladies, our female nobility.” And yet, as with Bazarov, Turgenev’s fictional creation takes on a life of its own, superseding the author’s intellectual scheme to become a complex and perplexing figure.
Apparently content at the outset with her unattached life, Anna finds herself increasingly attracted to the blunt, unorthodox, highly intelligent Bazarov. She proceeds almost unwittingly to emotionally seduce the self-declared womanizer, luring him step by step in a pair of riveting, back-to-back passages to reveal his love. In the intimacy of her study, Anna confesses that she is very “unhappy,” that she has no desire to “go on,” that she longs for a “strong attachment” that is “all or nothing. A life for a life. You take mine, you give up yours, without regrets, without turning back.”
And yet, a moment after Bazarov capitulates and confesses his love, Odintsova rejects him brutally. Afterward, she is tortured, alternately blaming and excusing herself while fearing she may have thrown away a chance for genuine love. Finally she decides, “No. God knows where it might have led; one mustn’t fool around with this kind of thing.”
Conversely, Turgenev shows us Arkady and Nikolai's traditional happiness in marriage and estate management as the solution to Bazarov's cosmic despair and Anna's life of loveless comfort. (Arkady marries Anna Odintsova's sister Katya, though he was also originally in love with Anna). The height of the conflict between Bazarov and the older generation comes when Bazarov wounds Pavel in a duel. Finally, Turgenev also refutes Bazarov's "insignificance principle", i.e., the nihilist idea that life is utterly insignificant and that nothing remains after death: after leaving and then returning again to his parents, Bazarov dies of typhus. The final passage of the book portrays Bazarov's parents visiting his grave.
They walk with a heavy step, supporting each other; when they approach the railing, they fall on their knees and remain there for a long time, weeping bitterly, gazing attentively at the headstone under which their son lies buried: they exchange a few words, brush the dust off the stone, move a branch of the pine tree, and pray once again; they can’t forsake this place where they seem to feel closer to their son, to their memories of him… Can it really be that their prayers and tears are futile? Can it really be that love, sacred, devoted love is not all powerful? Oh, no!
Their love causes them to remember Bazarov: he has transcended death, but only through the love of other people. Fyodor Dostoevsky, who read Fathers and Sons and apparently appreciated Bazarov as a character, explores a similar theme with Raskolnikov's religious redemption (via the love of Christ) in Crime and Punishment.
作家因不朽的作品而不朽，作品因永生的人物而永生。雨果和《巴黎圣母院》就是这样。
雄伟壮丽的巴黎圣母院,这座世界上最庄严、最完美、最富丽堂皇的哥特式建筑，虽然已经历了八百余年的风雨沧桑，但其非凡的气势和精美的雕饰仍旧丰韵犹存，令人叹为观止。
整个巴黎圣母院的建筑虽然错落参差，但却庄严、和谐，倔傲与灵秀巧妙搭配，浑然一体，在宏大和巍峨的主体造型中透出一种庄严的神圣感和神秘的奇幻性。整个建筑分为3层，从正面看，最下一层是一座尖形拱门，中间一层是3扇硕大的窗子，第三层是一簇排列有序的美丽的栏杆，栏杆上面是两座尖顶的钟楼，各高达69米。南钟楼悬一巨钟，重达13吨；北钟楼则匠心独运地特设了一个187级的楼梯。在两座钟楼的中间偏后位置上，半峥嵘半畏葸地露出一个高达90米的尖塔。这钟楼和尖塔与分置于底层拱门旁的诸多圣经人物雕像、中层窗子旁的亚当、夏娃的雕塑像，以及那扇由37块玻璃组成的圆形巨窗前面所雕刻的“圣处女像”配合在一起，显得高深迷离，神秘莫测。
巴黎圣母院不仅建筑时间早，而且建筑时间长，从1163年动工，到1250年完成，并在14世纪和17世纪分别进行过两次重大修复。它的建设，几乎牵动了全巴黎、全法国人的心。据说，南塔楼上那13吨重的巨钟，在铸料中所加入的大量金、银成分，就是用当时巴黎的妇女们慷慨而虔诚地捐献出来的金银首饰熔成的。另外，巴黎圣母院所在的位置为巴黎的核心，巴黎的先民高卢———罗马人，最早就是在这里建立了巴黎的城市雏形，所以至今计算巴黎到法国全国各地的里程都是以巴黎圣母院为起点的。
尽管巴黎圣母院以其建筑宏伟、历史悠久、雕塑精美、地理位置重要而赢得了永久的光辉和不衰的声誉，但真正为这座建筑物增色敷彩、投光注煌的，还当首推维克多·雨果的长篇小说《巴黎圣母院》。由于这部长篇小说所涵负的积极的思想意义、深刻的社会内容和对理想与正义的不懈追求与憧憬，而使巴黎圣母院远远超越了它作为“建筑”和“教堂”的意义，而赋有了全新的社会价值和思想内涵，成为人们心目中革新与保守、拓进与妥协、正义与邪恶、美奂与丑窳进行抗争并战而胜之的试金石与分水岭，成为向上精神的圣地和先进思想的熔炉，成为一种对生活和未来的美好的象征和积极的向往。
的确，雨果和他的《巴黎圣母院》为这座声名远播的建筑平添了无限的活力与魅力，举凡来到这里的人，无不怀着对作家人格形象与精神旗帜的景仰与尊崇。《巴黎圣母院》之所以能够为巴黎圣母院构筑筋骨、铸造灵魂，使其成为道义与良知的象征，成为纯洁与善良的所在，成为信仰与追求的寄托，成为对“恶”的鞭挞和对“美”的讴歌的形象化的见证，就因为雨果是一个非凡的作家。他的非凡，主要表现在积极、热情、顽强、坚韧，对国家、民族和人民充满了责任心，一往无前地投入社会变革，用无限的真诚和坦率，明辨是非和支持正义，不顾一切地追求真理。尽管《巴黎圣母院》是雨果青年时期的作品，创作这部长篇小说的时候，雨果还没有经过在根西岛上被流放18年的“炼狱”，他的思想的深刻性还远不如写作《悲惨世界》、《九三年》等作品时那样炉火纯青。但即使这样，《巴黎圣母院》仍旧是现实主义文学创作的一次巨大和极富创新意义的突破。外貌丑陋但内心善良的敲钟人卡西莫多和美丽的吉卜赛女郎艾丝米拉达已成为不朽的文学形象，而它所代表的社会意义和思想意义，则使巴黎圣母院成为一部永远耐人寻味和含义无穷的书。
Hugo began to write Hunchback in 1829. The agreement with his original publisher, Gosselin, was that the book would be finished that same year. However, Hugo was constantly delayed due to the demands of other projects. By the summer of 1830, Gosselin demanded the book to be completed by February 1831. And so beginning in September 1830, Hugo worked non-stop on the project; he bought a new bottle of ink, a woollen cloak, [citation needed] and cloistered himself in his room refusing to leave his house (except for nightly visits to the cathedral). The book was finished six months later.
Synopsis
The story dates back to January 6, 1482 in Paris, France, the day of the 'Festival of Fools' in Paris. Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer of Notre Dame, is introduced by his crowning as Pope of Fools.
Esmeralda, a beautiful Gypsy with a kind and generous heart, captures the hearts of many men but especially those of Quasimodo and his adopted father, Claude Frollo, the Archdeacon of Notre Dame. Frollo is torn between his lust and the rules of the church. He orders Quasimodo to kidnap her and then abandons him when he is caught and whipped and ordered to be tied down in the heat. Esmeralda, seeing his thirst, offers the hunchback water. It saves her, for she captures the heart of Quasimodo.
Esmeralda is later charged with the attempted murder of Phoebus, whom Frollo attempted to kill in jealousy, and is sentenced to death by hanging. Crazy with frustrated lust, Frollo has her condemned to death when she refuses to be his. As she is being led to the gallows, Quasimodo swings down by the bell rope of Notre Dame and carries her off to the cathedral under the law of sanctuary. Clopin rallies the Truands (criminals of Paris) to charge the cathedral and rescue Esmeralda. The King, seeing the chaos, vetoes the law of sanctuary and commands his troops to take Esmeralda out and kill her. When Quasimodo sees the Truands, he assumes they are there to hurt Esmeralda, so he drives them off. Frollo betrays Esmeralda by handing her to the troops and watches while she is hanged. Quasimodo pushes him from the heights of Notre Dame to his death. Quasimodo then goes to a mass grave, lies next to her corpse, crawls off to Esmeralda's tomb with his arms around her body and eventually dies of starvation. Two years later, excavationists find the skeletons of Esmeralda with a broken neck and Quasimodo locked in an embrace.
Characters
Major
* Quasimodo, the titular protagonist of the story. He is a barely verbal hunchback bell-ringer of Notre Dame. Ringing the church bells has made him deaf. When he was a hideous and abandoned baby, he was adopted by Claude Frollo. Quasimodo's life within the confines of the cathedral and his only two outlets—ringing the bells and his love and devotion for Frollo—are described. He ventures outside the Cathedral rarely, since people despise and shun him for his appearance. The notable occasions when he does leave are his taking part in the Festival of Fools—during which he is elected Fools'-Pope due to his perfect hideousness—and his subsequent attempt to kidnap Esmeralda, his rescue of Esmeralda from the gallows, his attempt to bring Phoebus to Esmeralda, and his final abandonment of the cathedral at the end of the novel. It is revealed in the story that the baby Quasimodo was left by the Gypsies in place of Esmeralda, whom they abducted.
* Esmeralda, the protagonist of the story. She is a beautiful young barefoot Gypsy dancer, innocent, close to nature, and naturally compassionate and kind. She is the center of the human drama within the story. A popular focus of the citizens' attentions, she experiences their changeable attitudes, being first adored as an entertainer, then hated as a witch, before being lauded again for her dramatic rescue by Quasimodo; when the King finally decides to put her to death, he does so in the belief that the Parisian mob want her dead. She is loved by both Quasimodo and Claude Frollo, but falls deeply in love with Captain Phoebus, a handsome military man who only has a passing infatuation with her and whom she believes will protect her. She is the only character to show the hunchback a moment of human kindness: as he is being whipped for punishment and jeered by a horrid rabble, she approaches the public stock and gives him a drink of water. Because of this, he falls fiercely in love with her, even though she is too disgusted by his ugliness even to let him kiss her hand.
* Claude Frollo is the Archdeacon of Notre Dame. Despite his celibacy vows as a priest, he finds himself madly in love with Esmeralda. He nearly murders Phoebus in a jealous rage from seeing Phoebus on top of Esmeralda. He is killed when Quasimodo pushes him off the cathedral. His dour attitude and his alchemical experiments scared and alienated him from the Parisians, who believed him a sorcerer, and so he lived without family, save for Quasimodo and his spoiled brother Jehan. He serves as the novel's main antagonist.
* Pierre Gringoire is a struggling poet. He mistakenly finds his way into the "Court of Miracles", the secret lair of the Gypsies. In order to preserve the secrecy, Gringoire must either be killed by hanging, or marry a Gypsy. Although Esmeralda does not love him, and in fact believes him a coward rather than a true man (he, unlike Phoebus, failed in his attempt to rescue her from Quasimodo), she takes pity on his plight and marries him—although, much to his disappointment, she refuses to let him touch her.
* Phoebus de Chateaupers is the Captain of the King's Archers. After he saves Esmeralda from abduction, she becomes infatuated with him, and he is intrigued by her. He is already betrothed, but just wants to lie with her. As he continues talking to and kissing her, Frollo comes from behind and stabs him. Esmeralda faints and upon waking up, finds that she has been framed with killing him. After the events of the novel, he suffers the 'tragedy' of marriage to the beautiful but spiteful Fleur-de-Lys de Gondelaurier.
* Clopin Trouillefou is the King of Truands. He rallies the Court of Miracles to rescue Esmeralda from Notre Dame after the idea is suggested by Gringoire. He is eventually killed during the attack by the King's soldiers.
Minor
* Djali (pronounced like "Jolly") is Esmeralda's pet goat. She performs tricks such as writing the word "Phoebus" in moveable letter-blocks, and tapping the number of beats to indicate the month and hour of the day. These tricks delight the citizens at first, but later horrify them, causing them to believe Esmeralda is a witch.
* Fleur-de-Lys de Gondelaurier is a beautiful and wealthy socialite engaged to Phoebus. Phoebus's attentions to Esmeralda make her insecure and jealous, and she and her friends respond by treating Esmeralda with contempt and spite. Fleur-de-Lys later neglects to inform Phoebus that Esmeralda has not been executed, which serves to deprive the pair of any further contact. Phoebus and Fleur-de-Lys marry at the end of the novel.
* Jehan Frollo is Claude Frollo's over-indulged, scallywag younger brother. He is a troublemaker and a student at the university. He is dependent on his brother for money, which he then proceeds to squander on alcohol. Quasimodo kills him during the attack on the cathedral.
* Sister Gudule, formerly named Paquette la Chantefleurie, is an anchorite, who lives in seclusion in an exposed cell in central Paris. She is tormented by the loss of her daughter Agnes, whom she believes to have been cannibalised by Gypsies as a baby, and devotes her life to mourning her. Her long-lost daughter turns out to be Esmeralda.
* Louis XI is the King of France. Appears briefly when he is brought the news of the rioting at Notre Dame.
* Tristan l'Hermite is a friend of King Louis XI. He leads the band that goes to capture Esmeralda.
* Henriet Cousin is the city executioner.
* Florian Barbedienne is the judge who sentences Quasimodo to be tortured. He is also deaf.
* Jacques Charmolue gets Esmeralda to falsely confess to killing Phoebus. He then has her executed.
Major themes
The original French title, Notre-Dame de Paris (the formal title of the Cathedral) indicates that the Cathedral itself is the most significant aspect of the novel, both the main setting and the focus of the story's themes. Nearly every event in the novel takes place in the cathedral, atop the cathedral or can be witnessed by a character standing within or atop the cathedral. The Cathedral had fallen into disrepair at the time of writing, which Hugo wanted to point out. The book portrays the Gothic era as one of extremes of architecture, passion, and religion. The theme of determinism (fate and destiny) is explored as well as revolution and social strife. The severe distinction of the social classes is shown by the relationships of Quasimodo and Esmeralda with higher-caste people in the book. Hugo is also very concerned with justice, and description of religious fanaticism.
The main theme as said in the Disney's adpatation is "Who is the Monster and who is the Man?????"
Architecture
Architecture is a major concern of Hugo's in Notre-Dame de Paris, not just as embodied in the cathedral itself, but as representing throughout Paris and the rest of Europe an artistic genre which, Hugo argued, was about to disappear with the arrival of the printing press. Claude Frollo's portentous phrase, ‘Ceci tuera cela’ ("This will kill that", as he looks from a printed book to the cathedral building), sums up this thesis, which is expounded on in Book V, chapter 2. Hugo writes that ‘quiconque naissait poète se faisait architecte’ ("whoever is born a poet becomes an architect"), arguing that while the written word was heavily censored and difficult to reproduce, architecture was extremely prominent and enjoyed considerable freedom.
Il existe à cette époque, pour la pensée écrite en pierre, un privilége tout-à-fait comparable à notre liberté actuelle de la presse. C'est la liberté de l'architecture.
There exists in this era, for thoughts written in stone, a privilege absolutely comparable to our current freedom of the press. It is the freedom of architecture.
—Book V, Chapter 2
With the recent introduction of the printing press, it became possible to reproduce one's ideas much more easily on paper, and Hugo considered this period to represent the last flowering of architecture as a great artistic form. As with many of his books, Hugo was interested in a time which seemed to him to be on the cusp between two types of society.
Literary significance and reception
The enormous popularity of the book in France spurred the nascent historical preservation movement in that country and strongly encouraged Gothic revival architecture. Ultimately it led to major renovations at Notre-Dame in the 19th century led by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. Much of the cathedral's present appearance is a result of this renovation.
Allusions and references
Allusions to actual history, geography and current science
In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo makes frequent reference to the architecture of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.
He also mentions the invention of the printing press, when the bookmaker near the beginning of the work speaks of "the German pest."
Victor Hugo lived a few homes away from Victor of Aveyron, the first well-documented feral child, although the inspiration for Quasimodo's character is not directly linked to him.
Allusions in other works
The name Quasimodo has become synonymous with "a courageous heart beneath a grotesque exterior."
Film, TV, or theatrical adaptations
To date, all of the film and TV adaptations have strayed somewhat from the original plot, some going as far as to give it a happy ending. The 1956 film is one of the only ones to end exactly like the novel, although it changes other parts of the story. Unlike most adaptations, the Disney version has the ending that's inspired by an opera created by Hugo himself.
Film
* Esmeralda (1905 film)
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1911 film)
* The Darling of Paris (1917 film)
* Esmeralda (1922 film)
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923 film)
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939 film)
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956 film)
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)
* The Hunchback (1997 film)
* Quasimodo d'El Paris (1999 film)
* Saeed Khan Rangeela a Pakistani comedian turned director made a movie named Kubra Aashiq in 1973 inspired from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, with himself in the lead role of Quasimodo. However it did not fulfill the expectations of the audience and literary circles also did not appreciate it.
Television
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1966 film)
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1977 film)
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1982 film)
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1986 film)
Theatre
* In 1977, an adaptation by Ken Hill was commissioned and staged by the National Theatre in London.
Music
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Alec R. Costandinos and the Syncophonic Orchestra from 1977, a lush orchestral disco 28 minute epic re-telling the tale of Quasimodo and Esmeralda.
Musical theatre
* Opera "La Esmeralda", by Louise Bertin (1836), libretto by Victor Hugo.
* Opera "Esmeralda", by Arthur Goring Thomas (1883) based on the Victor Hugo novel.
* Opera Esmeralda, by Dargomyzhsky (1847), also based on the same Victor Hugo novel.
* "Notre Dame", romantic Opera in two acts, text after Victor Hugo by Franz Schmidt and Leopold Wilk; composed: 1902-4, 1st perf.: Vienna 1914
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1993), an Off Broadway musical with music by Byron Janis, lyrics by Hal Hackady and book by Anthony Scully
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1993), a dramatic sung-through musical with book and lyrics by Gary Sullivan and music by John Trent Wallace. After a production at the Mermaid Theatre in London it was published by Samuel French Ltd in 1997 and has received several UK productions as well as productions in New Zealand and Australia. In 2010 it was re-written as a conventional musical, with the new title Notre Dame.
* In 1999, "Notre Dame de Paris (musical)" opened in Paris and became an instant success. It is considered the most successful adaptation of any novel except for "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Les Misérables." It was also adapted for the stage by Nicholas DeBaubien.
* From 1999 to 2002, the Disney film was adapted into a darker, more Gothic musical production called Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (translated in English as The Bellringer of Notre Dame), re-written and directed by James Lapine and produced by the Disney theatrical branch, in Berlin, Germany. A cast recording was also recorded in German. There has been discussion of an American revival of the musical.
* A rock musical version was released in Seattle, Washington in 1998 titled "Hunchback" with music and script by C. Rainey Lewis.
* A musical version, scored by Dennis DeYoung, will open in Chicago at the Bailiwick Reperatory in the summer of 2008
Ballet
* Notre-Dame de Paris A ballet choreographed by Roland Petit. First performed in 1965 at the Paris Opera.
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1998) – choreography and direction by Michael Pink and original music score by Philip Feeney. Currently in the repertoire of Milwaukee Ballet, Boston Ballet, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Atlanta Ballet and Colorado Ballet.
* Ringaren i Notre Dame (Swedish for The Bellringer of Notre Dame; 2009) – choreography by Pär Isberg and original music score by Stefan Nilsson. Its first performance was on 3 April 2009, by the Royal Swedish Ballet at the Royal Swedish Opera, Stockholm.
Radio
The book was twice adapted and broadcast by BBC Radio 4 as its Classic Serial:
* in 5 parts from 6 January to 3 February 1989, with Jack Klaff as Quasimodo
* in 2 parts on 30 November and 7 December 2008, with deaf actor David Bower playing Quasimodo.
Translation history
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame has been translated into English many times. Translations are often reprinted by various publisher imprints. Some translations have been revised over time.
* 1833. Translated by Frederic Shoberl as The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Later revisions.
* 1833. Translated by William Hazlitt as Notre Dame: A Tale of the Ancien Regime. Later revisions.
* 1888. Translated by Isabel F. Hapgood as Notre-Dame de Paris.
* 1895. Translated by M.W. Artois et al., part of the 28-vol The Novels of Victor Hugo, re-printed in the 20th century under other titles.
* 1964. Translated by Walter J. Cobb. In multiple editions, see for example Signet Classics ISBN 0451527887, Pub date 10 April 2001, paperback.
* 1978. Translated by John Sturrock. In multiple editions, see for example Penguin Classics ISBN 0140443533, Pub date 26 October 1978, paperback.
* 1993. Translated by Alban J. Krailsheim as Notre-Dame de Paris. See Oxford World's Classics ISBN 978-0199555802
* 2002. Revised translation by Catherine Liu of an anonymous 19th century translation. See Modern Library Classics ISBN 0679642579, Pub date 8 October 2002.
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
Quotations
* A description of Quasimodo upon his election as the fool's pope: "We shall not attempt to give the reader an idea of that tetrahedron nose- that horse-shoe mouth- that small left eye over-shadowed by a red bushy brow, while the right eye disappeared entirely under an enormous wart- of those straggling teeth with breaches here and there like the battlements of a fortress- of that horny lip, over which one of those teeth projected like the tusk of an elephant- of that forked chin- and, above all, of the expression spread over all this-that expression of mingled malice, amazement and sadness." (p. 62)
* On the connection between architecture and culture: "When a man understands the art of seeing, he can trace the spirit of an age and the features of a king even in the knocker on a door." (p. 184)
* Quasimodo's reaction to Esmeralda's gift of a drink of water while he is being heckled on the pillory: "Then from that eye, hitherto so dry and burning, was seen to roll a big tear, which fell slowly down that deformed visage so long contracted by despair. Perhaps it was the first that the unfortunate creature had ever shed." (p. 322)
* Quasimodo, explaining why he won't enter Esmeralda's cell: "The owl goes not into the nest of the lark." (p. 502)
* After Esmeralda's execution: "Quasimodo then lifted his eye to look upon the Gypsy girl, whose body, suspended from the gibbet, he beheld quivering afar, under its white robes, in the last struggles of death; then again he dropped it upon the archdeacon, stretched a shapeless mass at the foot of the tower, and he said with a sob that heaved his deep breast to the bottom, 'Oh-all that I've ever loved!'"
雄伟壮丽的巴黎圣母院,这座世界上最庄严、最完美、最富丽堂皇的哥特式建筑，虽然已经历了八百余年的风雨沧桑，但其非凡的气势和精美的雕饰仍旧丰韵犹存，令人叹为观止。
整个巴黎圣母院的建筑虽然错落参差，但却庄严、和谐，倔傲与灵秀巧妙搭配，浑然一体，在宏大和巍峨的主体造型中透出一种庄严的神圣感和神秘的奇幻性。整个建筑分为3层，从正面看，最下一层是一座尖形拱门，中间一层是3扇硕大的窗子，第三层是一簇排列有序的美丽的栏杆，栏杆上面是两座尖顶的钟楼，各高达69米。南钟楼悬一巨钟，重达13吨；北钟楼则匠心独运地特设了一个187级的楼梯。在两座钟楼的中间偏后位置上，半峥嵘半畏葸地露出一个高达90米的尖塔。这钟楼和尖塔与分置于底层拱门旁的诸多圣经人物雕像、中层窗子旁的亚当、夏娃的雕塑像，以及那扇由37块玻璃组成的圆形巨窗前面所雕刻的“圣处女像”配合在一起，显得高深迷离，神秘莫测。
巴黎圣母院不仅建筑时间早，而且建筑时间长，从1163年动工，到1250年完成，并在14世纪和17世纪分别进行过两次重大修复。它的建设，几乎牵动了全巴黎、全法国人的心。据说，南塔楼上那13吨重的巨钟，在铸料中所加入的大量金、银成分，就是用当时巴黎的妇女们慷慨而虔诚地捐献出来的金银首饰熔成的。另外，巴黎圣母院所在的位置为巴黎的核心，巴黎的先民高卢———罗马人，最早就是在这里建立了巴黎的城市雏形，所以至今计算巴黎到法国全国各地的里程都是以巴黎圣母院为起点的。
尽管巴黎圣母院以其建筑宏伟、历史悠久、雕塑精美、地理位置重要而赢得了永久的光辉和不衰的声誉，但真正为这座建筑物增色敷彩、投光注煌的，还当首推维克多·雨果的长篇小说《巴黎圣母院》。由于这部长篇小说所涵负的积极的思想意义、深刻的社会内容和对理想与正义的不懈追求与憧憬，而使巴黎圣母院远远超越了它作为“建筑”和“教堂”的意义，而赋有了全新的社会价值和思想内涵，成为人们心目中革新与保守、拓进与妥协、正义与邪恶、美奂与丑窳进行抗争并战而胜之的试金石与分水岭，成为向上精神的圣地和先进思想的熔炉，成为一种对生活和未来的美好的象征和积极的向往。
的确，雨果和他的《巴黎圣母院》为这座声名远播的建筑平添了无限的活力与魅力，举凡来到这里的人，无不怀着对作家人格形象与精神旗帜的景仰与尊崇。《巴黎圣母院》之所以能够为巴黎圣母院构筑筋骨、铸造灵魂，使其成为道义与良知的象征，成为纯洁与善良的所在，成为信仰与追求的寄托，成为对“恶”的鞭挞和对“美”的讴歌的形象化的见证，就因为雨果是一个非凡的作家。他的非凡，主要表现在积极、热情、顽强、坚韧，对国家、民族和人民充满了责任心，一往无前地投入社会变革，用无限的真诚和坦率，明辨是非和支持正义，不顾一切地追求真理。尽管《巴黎圣母院》是雨果青年时期的作品，创作这部长篇小说的时候，雨果还没有经过在根西岛上被流放18年的“炼狱”，他的思想的深刻性还远不如写作《悲惨世界》、《九三年》等作品时那样炉火纯青。但即使这样，《巴黎圣母院》仍旧是现实主义文学创作的一次巨大和极富创新意义的突破。外貌丑陋但内心善良的敲钟人卡西莫多和美丽的吉卜赛女郎艾丝米拉达已成为不朽的文学形象，而它所代表的社会意义和思想意义，则使巴黎圣母院成为一部永远耐人寻味和含义无穷的书。
Hugo began to write Hunchback in 1829. The agreement with his original publisher, Gosselin, was that the book would be finished that same year. However, Hugo was constantly delayed due to the demands of other projects. By the summer of 1830, Gosselin demanded the book to be completed by February 1831. And so beginning in September 1830, Hugo worked non-stop on the project; he bought a new bottle of ink, a woollen cloak, [citation needed] and cloistered himself in his room refusing to leave his house (except for nightly visits to the cathedral). The book was finished six months later.
Synopsis
The story dates back to January 6, 1482 in Paris, France, the day of the 'Festival of Fools' in Paris. Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer of Notre Dame, is introduced by his crowning as Pope of Fools.
Esmeralda, a beautiful Gypsy with a kind and generous heart, captures the hearts of many men but especially those of Quasimodo and his adopted father, Claude Frollo, the Archdeacon of Notre Dame. Frollo is torn between his lust and the rules of the church. He orders Quasimodo to kidnap her and then abandons him when he is caught and whipped and ordered to be tied down in the heat. Esmeralda, seeing his thirst, offers the hunchback water. It saves her, for she captures the heart of Quasimodo.
Esmeralda is later charged with the attempted murder of Phoebus, whom Frollo attempted to kill in jealousy, and is sentenced to death by hanging. Crazy with frustrated lust, Frollo has her condemned to death when she refuses to be his. As she is being led to the gallows, Quasimodo swings down by the bell rope of Notre Dame and carries her off to the cathedral under the law of sanctuary. Clopin rallies the Truands (criminals of Paris) to charge the cathedral and rescue Esmeralda. The King, seeing the chaos, vetoes the law of sanctuary and commands his troops to take Esmeralda out and kill her. When Quasimodo sees the Truands, he assumes they are there to hurt Esmeralda, so he drives them off. Frollo betrays Esmeralda by handing her to the troops and watches while she is hanged. Quasimodo pushes him from the heights of Notre Dame to his death. Quasimodo then goes to a mass grave, lies next to her corpse, crawls off to Esmeralda's tomb with his arms around her body and eventually dies of starvation. Two years later, excavationists find the skeletons of Esmeralda with a broken neck and Quasimodo locked in an embrace.
Characters
Major
* Quasimodo, the titular protagonist of the story. He is a barely verbal hunchback bell-ringer of Notre Dame. Ringing the church bells has made him deaf. When he was a hideous and abandoned baby, he was adopted by Claude Frollo. Quasimodo's life within the confines of the cathedral and his only two outlets—ringing the bells and his love and devotion for Frollo—are described. He ventures outside the Cathedral rarely, since people despise and shun him for his appearance. The notable occasions when he does leave are his taking part in the Festival of Fools—during which he is elected Fools'-Pope due to his perfect hideousness—and his subsequent attempt to kidnap Esmeralda, his rescue of Esmeralda from the gallows, his attempt to bring Phoebus to Esmeralda, and his final abandonment of the cathedral at the end of the novel. It is revealed in the story that the baby Quasimodo was left by the Gypsies in place of Esmeralda, whom they abducted.
* Esmeralda, the protagonist of the story. She is a beautiful young barefoot Gypsy dancer, innocent, close to nature, and naturally compassionate and kind. She is the center of the human drama within the story. A popular focus of the citizens' attentions, she experiences their changeable attitudes, being first adored as an entertainer, then hated as a witch, before being lauded again for her dramatic rescue by Quasimodo; when the King finally decides to put her to death, he does so in the belief that the Parisian mob want her dead. She is loved by both Quasimodo and Claude Frollo, but falls deeply in love with Captain Phoebus, a handsome military man who only has a passing infatuation with her and whom she believes will protect her. She is the only character to show the hunchback a moment of human kindness: as he is being whipped for punishment and jeered by a horrid rabble, she approaches the public stock and gives him a drink of water. Because of this, he falls fiercely in love with her, even though she is too disgusted by his ugliness even to let him kiss her hand.
* Claude Frollo is the Archdeacon of Notre Dame. Despite his celibacy vows as a priest, he finds himself madly in love with Esmeralda. He nearly murders Phoebus in a jealous rage from seeing Phoebus on top of Esmeralda. He is killed when Quasimodo pushes him off the cathedral. His dour attitude and his alchemical experiments scared and alienated him from the Parisians, who believed him a sorcerer, and so he lived without family, save for Quasimodo and his spoiled brother Jehan. He serves as the novel's main antagonist.
* Pierre Gringoire is a struggling poet. He mistakenly finds his way into the "Court of Miracles", the secret lair of the Gypsies. In order to preserve the secrecy, Gringoire must either be killed by hanging, or marry a Gypsy. Although Esmeralda does not love him, and in fact believes him a coward rather than a true man (he, unlike Phoebus, failed in his attempt to rescue her from Quasimodo), she takes pity on his plight and marries him—although, much to his disappointment, she refuses to let him touch her.
* Phoebus de Chateaupers is the Captain of the King's Archers. After he saves Esmeralda from abduction, she becomes infatuated with him, and he is intrigued by her. He is already betrothed, but just wants to lie with her. As he continues talking to and kissing her, Frollo comes from behind and stabs him. Esmeralda faints and upon waking up, finds that she has been framed with killing him. After the events of the novel, he suffers the 'tragedy' of marriage to the beautiful but spiteful Fleur-de-Lys de Gondelaurier.
* Clopin Trouillefou is the King of Truands. He rallies the Court of Miracles to rescue Esmeralda from Notre Dame after the idea is suggested by Gringoire. He is eventually killed during the attack by the King's soldiers.
Minor
* Djali (pronounced like "Jolly") is Esmeralda's pet goat. She performs tricks such as writing the word "Phoebus" in moveable letter-blocks, and tapping the number of beats to indicate the month and hour of the day. These tricks delight the citizens at first, but later horrify them, causing them to believe Esmeralda is a witch.
* Fleur-de-Lys de Gondelaurier is a beautiful and wealthy socialite engaged to Phoebus. Phoebus's attentions to Esmeralda make her insecure and jealous, and she and her friends respond by treating Esmeralda with contempt and spite. Fleur-de-Lys later neglects to inform Phoebus that Esmeralda has not been executed, which serves to deprive the pair of any further contact. Phoebus and Fleur-de-Lys marry at the end of the novel.
* Jehan Frollo is Claude Frollo's over-indulged, scallywag younger brother. He is a troublemaker and a student at the university. He is dependent on his brother for money, which he then proceeds to squander on alcohol. Quasimodo kills him during the attack on the cathedral.
* Sister Gudule, formerly named Paquette la Chantefleurie, is an anchorite, who lives in seclusion in an exposed cell in central Paris. She is tormented by the loss of her daughter Agnes, whom she believes to have been cannibalised by Gypsies as a baby, and devotes her life to mourning her. Her long-lost daughter turns out to be Esmeralda.
* Louis XI is the King of France. Appears briefly when he is brought the news of the rioting at Notre Dame.
* Tristan l'Hermite is a friend of King Louis XI. He leads the band that goes to capture Esmeralda.
* Henriet Cousin is the city executioner.
* Florian Barbedienne is the judge who sentences Quasimodo to be tortured. He is also deaf.
* Jacques Charmolue gets Esmeralda to falsely confess to killing Phoebus. He then has her executed.
Major themes
The original French title, Notre-Dame de Paris (the formal title of the Cathedral) indicates that the Cathedral itself is the most significant aspect of the novel, both the main setting and the focus of the story's themes. Nearly every event in the novel takes place in the cathedral, atop the cathedral or can be witnessed by a character standing within or atop the cathedral. The Cathedral had fallen into disrepair at the time of writing, which Hugo wanted to point out. The book portrays the Gothic era as one of extremes of architecture, passion, and religion. The theme of determinism (fate and destiny) is explored as well as revolution and social strife. The severe distinction of the social classes is shown by the relationships of Quasimodo and Esmeralda with higher-caste people in the book. Hugo is also very concerned with justice, and description of religious fanaticism.
The main theme as said in the Disney's adpatation is "Who is the Monster and who is the Man?????"
Architecture
Architecture is a major concern of Hugo's in Notre-Dame de Paris, not just as embodied in the cathedral itself, but as representing throughout Paris and the rest of Europe an artistic genre which, Hugo argued, was about to disappear with the arrival of the printing press. Claude Frollo's portentous phrase, ‘Ceci tuera cela’ ("This will kill that", as he looks from a printed book to the cathedral building), sums up this thesis, which is expounded on in Book V, chapter 2. Hugo writes that ‘quiconque naissait poète se faisait architecte’ ("whoever is born a poet becomes an architect"), arguing that while the written word was heavily censored and difficult to reproduce, architecture was extremely prominent and enjoyed considerable freedom.
Il existe à cette époque, pour la pensée écrite en pierre, un privilége tout-à-fait comparable à notre liberté actuelle de la presse. C'est la liberté de l'architecture.
There exists in this era, for thoughts written in stone, a privilege absolutely comparable to our current freedom of the press. It is the freedom of architecture.
—Book V, Chapter 2
With the recent introduction of the printing press, it became possible to reproduce one's ideas much more easily on paper, and Hugo considered this period to represent the last flowering of architecture as a great artistic form. As with many of his books, Hugo was interested in a time which seemed to him to be on the cusp between two types of society.
Literary significance and reception
The enormous popularity of the book in France spurred the nascent historical preservation movement in that country and strongly encouraged Gothic revival architecture. Ultimately it led to major renovations at Notre-Dame in the 19th century led by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. Much of the cathedral's present appearance is a result of this renovation.
Allusions and references
Allusions to actual history, geography and current science
In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo makes frequent reference to the architecture of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.
He also mentions the invention of the printing press, when the bookmaker near the beginning of the work speaks of "the German pest."
Victor Hugo lived a few homes away from Victor of Aveyron, the first well-documented feral child, although the inspiration for Quasimodo's character is not directly linked to him.
Allusions in other works
The name Quasimodo has become synonymous with "a courageous heart beneath a grotesque exterior."
Film, TV, or theatrical adaptations
To date, all of the film and TV adaptations have strayed somewhat from the original plot, some going as far as to give it a happy ending. The 1956 film is one of the only ones to end exactly like the novel, although it changes other parts of the story. Unlike most adaptations, the Disney version has the ending that's inspired by an opera created by Hugo himself.
Film
* Esmeralda (1905 film)
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1911 film)
* The Darling of Paris (1917 film)
* Esmeralda (1922 film)
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923 film)
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939 film)
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956 film)
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)
* The Hunchback (1997 film)
* Quasimodo d'El Paris (1999 film)
* Saeed Khan Rangeela a Pakistani comedian turned director made a movie named Kubra Aashiq in 1973 inspired from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, with himself in the lead role of Quasimodo. However it did not fulfill the expectations of the audience and literary circles also did not appreciate it.
Television
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1966 film)
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1977 film)
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1982 film)
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1986 film)
Theatre
* In 1977, an adaptation by Ken Hill was commissioned and staged by the National Theatre in London.
Music
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Alec R. Costandinos and the Syncophonic Orchestra from 1977, a lush orchestral disco 28 minute epic re-telling the tale of Quasimodo and Esmeralda.
Musical theatre
* Opera "La Esmeralda", by Louise Bertin (1836), libretto by Victor Hugo.
* Opera "Esmeralda", by Arthur Goring Thomas (1883) based on the Victor Hugo novel.
* Opera Esmeralda, by Dargomyzhsky (1847), also based on the same Victor Hugo novel.
* "Notre Dame", romantic Opera in two acts, text after Victor Hugo by Franz Schmidt and Leopold Wilk; composed: 1902-4, 1st perf.: Vienna 1914
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1993), an Off Broadway musical with music by Byron Janis, lyrics by Hal Hackady and book by Anthony Scully
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1993), a dramatic sung-through musical with book and lyrics by Gary Sullivan and music by John Trent Wallace. After a production at the Mermaid Theatre in London it was published by Samuel French Ltd in 1997 and has received several UK productions as well as productions in New Zealand and Australia. In 2010 it was re-written as a conventional musical, with the new title Notre Dame.
* In 1999, "Notre Dame de Paris (musical)" opened in Paris and became an instant success. It is considered the most successful adaptation of any novel except for "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Les Misérables." It was also adapted for the stage by Nicholas DeBaubien.
* From 1999 to 2002, the Disney film was adapted into a darker, more Gothic musical production called Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (translated in English as The Bellringer of Notre Dame), re-written and directed by James Lapine and produced by the Disney theatrical branch, in Berlin, Germany. A cast recording was also recorded in German. There has been discussion of an American revival of the musical.
* A rock musical version was released in Seattle, Washington in 1998 titled "Hunchback" with music and script by C. Rainey Lewis.
* A musical version, scored by Dennis DeYoung, will open in Chicago at the Bailiwick Reperatory in the summer of 2008
Ballet
* Notre-Dame de Paris A ballet choreographed by Roland Petit. First performed in 1965 at the Paris Opera.
* The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1998) – choreography and direction by Michael Pink and original music score by Philip Feeney. Currently in the repertoire of Milwaukee Ballet, Boston Ballet, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Atlanta Ballet and Colorado Ballet.
* Ringaren i Notre Dame (Swedish for The Bellringer of Notre Dame; 2009) – choreography by Pär Isberg and original music score by Stefan Nilsson. Its first performance was on 3 April 2009, by the Royal Swedish Ballet at the Royal Swedish Opera, Stockholm.
Radio
The book was twice adapted and broadcast by BBC Radio 4 as its Classic Serial:
* in 5 parts from 6 January to 3 February 1989, with Jack Klaff as Quasimodo
* in 2 parts on 30 November and 7 December 2008, with deaf actor David Bower playing Quasimodo.
Translation history
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame has been translated into English many times. Translations are often reprinted by various publisher imprints. Some translations have been revised over time.
* 1833. Translated by Frederic Shoberl as The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Later revisions.
* 1833. Translated by William Hazlitt as Notre Dame: A Tale of the Ancien Regime. Later revisions.
* 1888. Translated by Isabel F. Hapgood as Notre-Dame de Paris.
* 1895. Translated by M.W. Artois et al., part of the 28-vol The Novels of Victor Hugo, re-printed in the 20th century under other titles.
* 1964. Translated by Walter J. Cobb. In multiple editions, see for example Signet Classics ISBN 0451527887, Pub date 10 April 2001, paperback.
* 1978. Translated by John Sturrock. In multiple editions, see for example Penguin Classics ISBN 0140443533, Pub date 26 October 1978, paperback.
* 1993. Translated by Alban J. Krailsheim as Notre-Dame de Paris. See Oxford World's Classics ISBN 978-0199555802
* 2002. Revised translation by Catherine Liu of an anonymous 19th century translation. See Modern Library Classics ISBN 0679642579, Pub date 8 October 2002.
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
Quotations
* A description of Quasimodo upon his election as the fool's pope: "We shall not attempt to give the reader an idea of that tetrahedron nose- that horse-shoe mouth- that small left eye over-shadowed by a red bushy brow, while the right eye disappeared entirely under an enormous wart- of those straggling teeth with breaches here and there like the battlements of a fortress- of that horny lip, over which one of those teeth projected like the tusk of an elephant- of that forked chin- and, above all, of the expression spread over all this-that expression of mingled malice, amazement and sadness." (p. 62)
* On the connection between architecture and culture: "When a man understands the art of seeing, he can trace the spirit of an age and the features of a king even in the knocker on a door." (p. 184)
* Quasimodo's reaction to Esmeralda's gift of a drink of water while he is being heckled on the pillory: "Then from that eye, hitherto so dry and burning, was seen to roll a big tear, which fell slowly down that deformed visage so long contracted by despair. Perhaps it was the first that the unfortunate creature had ever shed." (p. 322)
* Quasimodo, explaining why he won't enter Esmeralda's cell: "The owl goes not into the nest of the lark." (p. 502)
* After Esmeralda's execution: "Quasimodo then lifted his eye to look upon the Gypsy girl, whose body, suspended from the gibbet, he beheld quivering afar, under its white robes, in the last struggles of death; then again he dropped it upon the archdeacon, stretched a shapeless mass at the foot of the tower, and he said with a sob that heaved his deep breast to the bottom, 'Oh-all that I've ever loved!'"
《源氏物语》可分为两大部分：前44回写源氏极享荣华，伴随着感情纠葛的一生。这是作品的中心内容。后10回写源氏之子薰(实为三公主和柏木大将的私生子)与宇治山庄女子之间错综的爱情故事。小说历经4代天皇、跨越70多个年头，登场人物数以百计，仅主要人物就有几十人之多。
故事开始于桐壶帝在位的时候。出身低微的更衣，独得桐壶帝的宠爱。后此更衣生下一位皇子，其他嫔妃，尤其是弘徽殿女御也愈加忌恨。更衣不堪凌辱折磨，生子不到3年，便悒郁而亡。小皇子没有强大的外戚做靠山，很难在宫中立足。桐壶帝不得已将其降为臣籍，赐姓源氏。源氏不仅貌美惊人，而且才华横溢。12岁行冠礼后，娶当权的左大臣之女葵姬为妻，但葵姬不遂源氏的意。于是源氏追求桐壶帝续娶的女御藤壶，据说女御酷肖源氏生母。不久，两人发生乱伦关系，生下一子，后来即位称冷泉帝。源氏到处偷香窃玉，强行占有了伊豫介的后妻空蝉，还向比他大7岁的婶母六条妃子求欢，并同时辗转在花散里、末摘花等众女子之间。当他劫持一位不明身分的弱女子夕颜去荒屋幽会时，这女子不幸暴亡，源氏为此大病一场，病愈进香时遇到一个酷似自己日思夜想而不得相见的藤壶的女孩，得知她是藤壶女御的侄女，名叫紫姬，就趁紫姬熟睡把她带回家中，收为养女，朝夕相伴，以寄托对藤壶的思慕。几年后紫姬出落得亭亭玉立，高贵优雅，才艺超众，十分可人。源氏便把她据为己有。葵姬因六条妃子生魂附体过世后，紫姬被扶为正夫人。
桐壶帝退位以后，右大臣弘徽殿女御的儿子登上皇位（朱雀帝），源氏及岳父左大臣一派从此失势。恰巧源氏与右大臣女儿胧月夜偷情之事败露，源氏自觉噩运临头，便远离京城，到荒凉少人的须磨、明石隐居。为排遣寂寞，与明石道人的女儿明石姬结合，后生一女，被选入宫中做了皇后。
由于天降异兆，朱雀帝又重病在身，朝政不稳。源氏奉召回京辅佐朝廷。不久，朱雀帝让位给冷泉帝。源氏升任太政大臣，源氏及左大臣一门恢复了往日的繁华气派。源氏建造了集四季景物为一体、蔚为壮观的六条院寓所，将昔日恋人统统接到院里来住。源氏近40岁时，将朱雀帝之女三公主纳为正妻，紫姬终因心力交瘁，病卧在床。早已凯觎三公主美貌的头中将之子柏木趁源氏探病的机会，与三公主幽会，被源氏发现。柏木惧悔交加，一病不起，英年夭折。三公主生下容貌与柏木毫无二致的私生子薰后，落发为尼。源氏深感自己和藤壶乱伦之罪的报应临头，心如死灰。恰巧紫姬不久又逝，源氏失去了精神支柱，了断尘缘，隐遁出家。几年后死去。
源氏之子薰生性严谨。20岁来到宇治山庄爱上了庄主八亲王的大女公子，不料遭到拒绝。大女公子病故后，他寻回外貌酷肖大女公子的八亲王的私生女浮舟，填补心灵的空白。可是有人深夜闯入浮舟卧房，假冒薰的声音，占有了浮舟。当浮舟意识到自己一身事二主后，毅然跳水自尽，被人救起后削发出家。尽管薰一往情深，多次捎信，以求一见，但终未了此心愿。
《源氏物语》-作者简介
作者紫式部，本姓藤原，原名不详。因其长兄任式部丞，故称为藤式部，这是宫里女官中的一种时尚，她们往往以父兄的官衔为名，以示身份；后来她写成《源氏物语》，书中女主人公紫姬为世人传诵，遂又称作紫式部。作者生卒年月也无法详考，大约是生于九七八年，殁于一○一五年。紫式部出身中层贵族，是书香门第的才女，曾祖父、祖父、伯父和兄长都是有名的歌人，父亲兼长汉诗、和歌，对中国古典文学颇有研究。作者自幼随父学习汉诗，熟读中国古代文献，特别是对白居易的诗有较深的造诣。
此外，她还十分熟悉音乐和佛经。不幸家道中落，她嫁给了一个比她年长二十多岁的地方官藤原宣孝，婚后不久，丈夫去世，她过着孤苦的孀居生活。后来应当时统治者藤原道长之召，入宫充当一条彰子皇后的女官，给彰子讲解《日本书纪》和白居易的诗作，有机会直接接触宫廷的生活，对妇女的不幸和宫廷的内幕有了全面的了解，对贵族阶级的没落倾向也有所感受。这些都为她的创作提供了艺术构思的广阔天地和坚实的生活基础。
《源氏物语》-作品主题
长篇写实小说《源氏物语》浸润着浓厚的佛教色彩，透过光源氏身世、用世、玩世、超世之苦，映射出“四大皆空”的佛学观念。但它并不是一部宣传宗教教义的宗教性文学作品，它思想上的真正价值在于展示了平安王朝的宫廷豪华奢侈、腐朽淫乱的生活，反映了贵族阶级人与人之间争权夺势、互相倾轧的人际关系，暴露了贵族社会门第为重、男尊女卑的不平等的社会现象。这就从客观上预示了旧贵族阶级必然崩溃、灭亡的趋势。因此，具有一定的认识价值和思想意义。
艺术成就《源氏物语》艺术上最大的成功之处是塑造了源氏及众多女性形象，并通过这些形象反映了物哀、幽情等审美意向。
《源氏物语》-写作背景
《源氏物语》产生的时代，是藤原道长执政下平安王朝贵族社会全盛时期。这个时期，平安京的上层贵族恣意享乐，表面上一派太平盛世，实际上却充满着极其复杂而尖锐的矛盾。藤原利用累代是皇室外戚，实行摄关政治①，由其一族垄断了所有的高官显职，扩大了自己的庄园，而且同族之间又展开权利之争；皇室贵族则依靠大寺院，设置上皇 “院政”，以对抗藤源氏的势力；至于中下层贵族，虽有才能也得不到晋身之阶，他们纷纷到地方去别寻出路，地方贵族势力迅速抬头；加上庄园百姓的反抗，使这些矛盾更加激化，甚至爆发了多次武装叛乱。整个贵族社会危机四起，已经到了盛极而衰的转折时期。
《源氏物语》正是以这段历史为背景，通过主人公源氏的生活经历和爱情故事，描写了当时贵族社会的腐败政治和淫逸生活，以典型的艺术形象，真实地反映了这个时代的面貌和特征。
首先，作者敏锐地觉察到王朝贵族社会的种种矛盾，特别是贵族内部争权夺利的斗争。作品中以弘徽殿女御（地位最高的妃子）及其父右大臣为代表的皇室外戚一派政治势力，同以源氏及其岳父左大臣为代表的皇室一派政治势力之间的较量，正是这种矛盾和斗争的反映，是主人公源氏生活的时代环境，而且决定着他一生的命运。源氏是桐壶天皇同更衣（次于女御的妃子）所生的小皇子，母子深得天皇的宠爱，弘徽殿出于妒忌，更怕天皇册立源氏为皇太子，于是逼死更衣，打击源氏及其一派，促使天皇将源氏降为臣籍。在天皇让位给弘徽殿所生的朱雀天皇之后，右大臣掌政，源氏便完全失势；弘徽殿一派进而抓住源氏与右大臣的女儿胧月夜偷情的把柄，逼使源氏离开宫廷，把他流放到须磨、明石。
后来朝政日非，朱雀天皇身罹重病，为收拾残局才不顾弘徽殿的坚决反对，召源氏回京，恢复他的官爵。冷泉天皇继位以后，知道源氏是他的生父，就倍加礼遇，后源氏官至太政大臣，独揽朝纲。但是，贵族统治阶级内部的斗争并没有停息，源氏与左大臣之子围绕为冷泉天皇立后一事又产生了新的矛盾。
作者在书中表白：“作者女流之辈，不敢侈谈天下大事。”所以作品对政治斗争的反映，多采用侧写的手法，少有具体深入的描写，然而，我们仍能清晰地看出上层贵族之间的互相倾轧、权力之争是贯穿全书的一条主线，主人公的荣辱沉浮都与之密不可分。总之，《源氏物语》隐蔽式地折射了这个阶级走向灭亡的必然趋势，可以堪称为一幅历史画卷。
《源氏物语》-作品评价
源氏生为皇子却不得不降为臣籍，空有济世之才却无心仕途，酷爱紫姬却不断沾花拈草，一世风流却落得剃度为僧的结局。他的一生伴随着许多的矛盾和烦恼，其中最折磨他的是与藤壶乱伦的罪孽感和背叛紫姬的深深自责。他的灵魂与肉欲始终在斗争中苦苦挣扎，结果又总是欲望压倒理智，从而陷入更深的心灵冲突之中。源氏最终弃家出走，面壁向佛，正是这种心灵冲突导致的结果。作者大写特写源氏生活中无法摆脱的矛盾造成的苦闷及精神上接连不断的碰撞造成的无奈，意在说明人生的苦痛和悲哀，显露了作者以哀动人、以悲感人的美学观。
“物哀”的审美意向除以源氏挣扎的一生反映出来外，还通过作品中所有与源氏命运连在一起的女性的不幸得到进一步的强化。在紫式部笔下，这些女子个个容貌姣好，聪明伶俐，性情可人，然而个个都是有命无运之人。
紫姬是作者着意刻画的理想淑女形象，她气质优雅，艺压群芳，性格婉约，通情达理。深得源氏钟爱，被公认为最幸福的女人。可是即便是这位十全十美的女人，也有着难以言说的苦楚—— 因源氏用情不专而引起的嫉妒，所以正值盛年，日渐衰弱，香消玉殒。
《源氏物语》中的女性命运只有3种选择，要么走入坟墓一了百了，要么落发为尼斩断尘缘，要么独守空闺虽生犹死。这些女性的多灾多难的命运和源氏一生经历一样，反映了紫式部感物而哀的审美特征。
物哀的审美意向，主要来自“人生无常”、“四大皆空”等佛学观，在她看来人生不过是欲海横流，欲海也便是苦海，摆脱欲海的最佳途径，就是皈依佛门。紫式部在这里无意识地宣传了无欲之说，表现了她在佛教思想影响下的人生观、世界观。这种佛教宿命思想从一定意义上削弱了作品主题的深刻性。
《源氏物语》是世界文学史上最早的一部长篇写实小说，作品流露出明显的现实主义倾向，被认为代表了日本古典现实主义文学的最高峰，给后世作家的创作提供了艺术典范。它所创立的物哀等美学传统，一直被后世作家继承和发展，成为日本文学民族化的一大因素。
在《源氏物语》中，作者虽然主要描写源氏的爱情生活，但又不是单纯地描写爱情，而是通过源氏的恋爱、婚姻，揭示一夫多妻制下妇女的悲惨命运。在贵族社会里，男女婚嫁往往是同政治利益联系在一起的，是政治斗争的手段，妇女成了政治交易的工具。在这方面，紫式部作了大胆的描写。左大臣把自己的女儿葵姬许配给源氏，是为了加强自己的声势，朱雀天皇在源氏四十岁得势之时，将年方十六岁的女儿三公主嫁给源氏，也是出于政治上的考虑，就连政敌右大臣发现源氏和自己的女儿胧月夜偷情，也拟将她许配给源氏，以图分化源氏一派。地方贵族明石道人和常陆介，一个为了求得富贵，强迫自己的女儿嫁给源氏；一个为了混上高官，将自己的女儿许给了左近少将，而左近少将娶他的女儿，则是为了利用常陆介的财力。作者笔下的众多妇女形象，有身份高贵的，也有身世低贱的，但她们的处境都是一样，不仅成了贵族政治斗争的工具，也成了贵族男人手中的玩物，一夫多妻制的牺牲品。
小说着墨最多的是源氏及其上下三代人对妇女的摧残。源氏的父皇玩弄了更衣，由于她出身寒微，在宫中备受冷落，最后屈死于权力斗争之中。源氏依仗自己的权势，糟蹋了不少妇女：半夜闯进地方官夫人空蝉的居室玷污了这个有夫之妇；践踏了出身低贱的夕颜的爱情，使她抑郁而死；看见继母藤壶肖似自己的母亲，由思慕进而与她通奸；闯入家道中落的摘末花的内室调戏她，发现她长相丑陋，又加以奚落。此外，他对紫姬、明石姬等许多不同身份的女子，也都大体如此。在后十回里出现的源氏继承人董君（他名义上是源氏和三公主之子，实际上是三公主同源氏的妻舅之子柏木私通所生）继承了祖、父两辈人荒淫的传统，摧残了孤苦伶仃的弱女浮舟，又怕事情败露，把她弃置在荒凉的宇治山庄。
紫式部的创作不可避免地有其历史和阶级的局限性。她既不满当时的社会现实，哀叹贵族阶级的没落，却又无法彻底否定这个社会和这个阶级；她既感到“这个恶浊可叹的末世……总是越来越坏”，可又未能自觉认识贵族阶级灭亡的历史必然性，以她在触及贵族腐败政治的时候，一方面谴责了弘徽殿一派政治野心和独断专行，另一方面又袒护源氏一派，并企图将源氏理想化，作为自己政治上的希望和寄托，对源氏政治生命的完结不胜其悲。书中第四十一回只有题目《云隐》而无正文，以这种奇特的表现手法来暗喻源氏的结局，正透露了作者的哀惋心情。另外在写到妇女命运的时候，她一方面对她们寄予深切的同情，另一方面又把源氏写成一个有始有终的妇女的庇护者，竭力美化源氏，在一定程度上对源氏表示同情与肯定。此外，作品中还充满了贵族阶级的美学情趣、佛教的因果报应思想，以及虚空感伤的情调。
《源氏物语》在艺术上也是一部有很大成就的作品，它开辟了日本物语文学的新道路，使日本古典现实主义文学达到一个新的高峰。
《源氏物语》问世以来，已经过去近千年了。尽管它在结构上显得有些庞杂、冗长，相同场面和心理描写重复过多，有损于作品的艺术完美性，但它毕竟是一部思想性和艺术性都很高的日本古典文学作品，在今天仍保持着它的艺术生命力，对日本文学继续产生着影响。
故事开始于桐壶帝在位的时候。出身低微的更衣，独得桐壶帝的宠爱。后此更衣生下一位皇子，其他嫔妃，尤其是弘徽殿女御也愈加忌恨。更衣不堪凌辱折磨，生子不到3年，便悒郁而亡。小皇子没有强大的外戚做靠山，很难在宫中立足。桐壶帝不得已将其降为臣籍，赐姓源氏。源氏不仅貌美惊人，而且才华横溢。12岁行冠礼后，娶当权的左大臣之女葵姬为妻，但葵姬不遂源氏的意。于是源氏追求桐壶帝续娶的女御藤壶，据说女御酷肖源氏生母。不久，两人发生乱伦关系，生下一子，后来即位称冷泉帝。源氏到处偷香窃玉，强行占有了伊豫介的后妻空蝉，还向比他大7岁的婶母六条妃子求欢，并同时辗转在花散里、末摘花等众女子之间。当他劫持一位不明身分的弱女子夕颜去荒屋幽会时，这女子不幸暴亡，源氏为此大病一场，病愈进香时遇到一个酷似自己日思夜想而不得相见的藤壶的女孩，得知她是藤壶女御的侄女，名叫紫姬，就趁紫姬熟睡把她带回家中，收为养女，朝夕相伴，以寄托对藤壶的思慕。几年后紫姬出落得亭亭玉立，高贵优雅，才艺超众，十分可人。源氏便把她据为己有。葵姬因六条妃子生魂附体过世后，紫姬被扶为正夫人。
桐壶帝退位以后，右大臣弘徽殿女御的儿子登上皇位（朱雀帝），源氏及岳父左大臣一派从此失势。恰巧源氏与右大臣女儿胧月夜偷情之事败露，源氏自觉噩运临头，便远离京城，到荒凉少人的须磨、明石隐居。为排遣寂寞，与明石道人的女儿明石姬结合，后生一女，被选入宫中做了皇后。
由于天降异兆，朱雀帝又重病在身，朝政不稳。源氏奉召回京辅佐朝廷。不久，朱雀帝让位给冷泉帝。源氏升任太政大臣，源氏及左大臣一门恢复了往日的繁华气派。源氏建造了集四季景物为一体、蔚为壮观的六条院寓所，将昔日恋人统统接到院里来住。源氏近40岁时，将朱雀帝之女三公主纳为正妻，紫姬终因心力交瘁，病卧在床。早已凯觎三公主美貌的头中将之子柏木趁源氏探病的机会，与三公主幽会，被源氏发现。柏木惧悔交加，一病不起，英年夭折。三公主生下容貌与柏木毫无二致的私生子薰后，落发为尼。源氏深感自己和藤壶乱伦之罪的报应临头，心如死灰。恰巧紫姬不久又逝，源氏失去了精神支柱，了断尘缘，隐遁出家。几年后死去。
源氏之子薰生性严谨。20岁来到宇治山庄爱上了庄主八亲王的大女公子，不料遭到拒绝。大女公子病故后，他寻回外貌酷肖大女公子的八亲王的私生女浮舟，填补心灵的空白。可是有人深夜闯入浮舟卧房，假冒薰的声音，占有了浮舟。当浮舟意识到自己一身事二主后，毅然跳水自尽，被人救起后削发出家。尽管薰一往情深，多次捎信，以求一见，但终未了此心愿。
《源氏物语》-作者简介
作者紫式部，本姓藤原，原名不详。因其长兄任式部丞，故称为藤式部，这是宫里女官中的一种时尚，她们往往以父兄的官衔为名，以示身份；后来她写成《源氏物语》，书中女主人公紫姬为世人传诵，遂又称作紫式部。作者生卒年月也无法详考，大约是生于九七八年，殁于一○一五年。紫式部出身中层贵族，是书香门第的才女，曾祖父、祖父、伯父和兄长都是有名的歌人，父亲兼长汉诗、和歌，对中国古典文学颇有研究。作者自幼随父学习汉诗，熟读中国古代文献，特别是对白居易的诗有较深的造诣。
此外，她还十分熟悉音乐和佛经。不幸家道中落，她嫁给了一个比她年长二十多岁的地方官藤原宣孝，婚后不久，丈夫去世，她过着孤苦的孀居生活。后来应当时统治者藤原道长之召，入宫充当一条彰子皇后的女官，给彰子讲解《日本书纪》和白居易的诗作，有机会直接接触宫廷的生活，对妇女的不幸和宫廷的内幕有了全面的了解，对贵族阶级的没落倾向也有所感受。这些都为她的创作提供了艺术构思的广阔天地和坚实的生活基础。
《源氏物语》-作品主题
长篇写实小说《源氏物语》浸润着浓厚的佛教色彩，透过光源氏身世、用世、玩世、超世之苦，映射出“四大皆空”的佛学观念。但它并不是一部宣传宗教教义的宗教性文学作品，它思想上的真正价值在于展示了平安王朝的宫廷豪华奢侈、腐朽淫乱的生活，反映了贵族阶级人与人之间争权夺势、互相倾轧的人际关系，暴露了贵族社会门第为重、男尊女卑的不平等的社会现象。这就从客观上预示了旧贵族阶级必然崩溃、灭亡的趋势。因此，具有一定的认识价值和思想意义。
艺术成就《源氏物语》艺术上最大的成功之处是塑造了源氏及众多女性形象，并通过这些形象反映了物哀、幽情等审美意向。
《源氏物语》-写作背景
《源氏物语》产生的时代，是藤原道长执政下平安王朝贵族社会全盛时期。这个时期，平安京的上层贵族恣意享乐，表面上一派太平盛世，实际上却充满着极其复杂而尖锐的矛盾。藤原利用累代是皇室外戚，实行摄关政治①，由其一族垄断了所有的高官显职，扩大了自己的庄园，而且同族之间又展开权利之争；皇室贵族则依靠大寺院，设置上皇 “院政”，以对抗藤源氏的势力；至于中下层贵族，虽有才能也得不到晋身之阶，他们纷纷到地方去别寻出路，地方贵族势力迅速抬头；加上庄园百姓的反抗，使这些矛盾更加激化，甚至爆发了多次武装叛乱。整个贵族社会危机四起，已经到了盛极而衰的转折时期。
《源氏物语》正是以这段历史为背景，通过主人公源氏的生活经历和爱情故事，描写了当时贵族社会的腐败政治和淫逸生活，以典型的艺术形象，真实地反映了这个时代的面貌和特征。
首先，作者敏锐地觉察到王朝贵族社会的种种矛盾，特别是贵族内部争权夺利的斗争。作品中以弘徽殿女御（地位最高的妃子）及其父右大臣为代表的皇室外戚一派政治势力，同以源氏及其岳父左大臣为代表的皇室一派政治势力之间的较量，正是这种矛盾和斗争的反映，是主人公源氏生活的时代环境，而且决定着他一生的命运。源氏是桐壶天皇同更衣（次于女御的妃子）所生的小皇子，母子深得天皇的宠爱，弘徽殿出于妒忌，更怕天皇册立源氏为皇太子，于是逼死更衣，打击源氏及其一派，促使天皇将源氏降为臣籍。在天皇让位给弘徽殿所生的朱雀天皇之后，右大臣掌政，源氏便完全失势；弘徽殿一派进而抓住源氏与右大臣的女儿胧月夜偷情的把柄，逼使源氏离开宫廷，把他流放到须磨、明石。
后来朝政日非，朱雀天皇身罹重病，为收拾残局才不顾弘徽殿的坚决反对，召源氏回京，恢复他的官爵。冷泉天皇继位以后，知道源氏是他的生父，就倍加礼遇，后源氏官至太政大臣，独揽朝纲。但是，贵族统治阶级内部的斗争并没有停息，源氏与左大臣之子围绕为冷泉天皇立后一事又产生了新的矛盾。
作者在书中表白：“作者女流之辈，不敢侈谈天下大事。”所以作品对政治斗争的反映，多采用侧写的手法，少有具体深入的描写，然而，我们仍能清晰地看出上层贵族之间的互相倾轧、权力之争是贯穿全书的一条主线，主人公的荣辱沉浮都与之密不可分。总之，《源氏物语》隐蔽式地折射了这个阶级走向灭亡的必然趋势，可以堪称为一幅历史画卷。
《源氏物语》-作品评价
源氏生为皇子却不得不降为臣籍，空有济世之才却无心仕途，酷爱紫姬却不断沾花拈草，一世风流却落得剃度为僧的结局。他的一生伴随着许多的矛盾和烦恼，其中最折磨他的是与藤壶乱伦的罪孽感和背叛紫姬的深深自责。他的灵魂与肉欲始终在斗争中苦苦挣扎，结果又总是欲望压倒理智，从而陷入更深的心灵冲突之中。源氏最终弃家出走，面壁向佛，正是这种心灵冲突导致的结果。作者大写特写源氏生活中无法摆脱的矛盾造成的苦闷及精神上接连不断的碰撞造成的无奈，意在说明人生的苦痛和悲哀，显露了作者以哀动人、以悲感人的美学观。
“物哀”的审美意向除以源氏挣扎的一生反映出来外，还通过作品中所有与源氏命运连在一起的女性的不幸得到进一步的强化。在紫式部笔下，这些女子个个容貌姣好，聪明伶俐，性情可人，然而个个都是有命无运之人。
紫姬是作者着意刻画的理想淑女形象，她气质优雅，艺压群芳，性格婉约，通情达理。深得源氏钟爱，被公认为最幸福的女人。可是即便是这位十全十美的女人，也有着难以言说的苦楚—— 因源氏用情不专而引起的嫉妒，所以正值盛年，日渐衰弱，香消玉殒。
《源氏物语》中的女性命运只有3种选择，要么走入坟墓一了百了，要么落发为尼斩断尘缘，要么独守空闺虽生犹死。这些女性的多灾多难的命运和源氏一生经历一样，反映了紫式部感物而哀的审美特征。
物哀的审美意向，主要来自“人生无常”、“四大皆空”等佛学观，在她看来人生不过是欲海横流，欲海也便是苦海，摆脱欲海的最佳途径，就是皈依佛门。紫式部在这里无意识地宣传了无欲之说，表现了她在佛教思想影响下的人生观、世界观。这种佛教宿命思想从一定意义上削弱了作品主题的深刻性。
《源氏物语》是世界文学史上最早的一部长篇写实小说，作品流露出明显的现实主义倾向，被认为代表了日本古典现实主义文学的最高峰，给后世作家的创作提供了艺术典范。它所创立的物哀等美学传统，一直被后世作家继承和发展，成为日本文学民族化的一大因素。
在《源氏物语》中，作者虽然主要描写源氏的爱情生活，但又不是单纯地描写爱情，而是通过源氏的恋爱、婚姻，揭示一夫多妻制下妇女的悲惨命运。在贵族社会里，男女婚嫁往往是同政治利益联系在一起的，是政治斗争的手段，妇女成了政治交易的工具。在这方面，紫式部作了大胆的描写。左大臣把自己的女儿葵姬许配给源氏，是为了加强自己的声势，朱雀天皇在源氏四十岁得势之时，将年方十六岁的女儿三公主嫁给源氏，也是出于政治上的考虑，就连政敌右大臣发现源氏和自己的女儿胧月夜偷情，也拟将她许配给源氏，以图分化源氏一派。地方贵族明石道人和常陆介，一个为了求得富贵，强迫自己的女儿嫁给源氏；一个为了混上高官，将自己的女儿许给了左近少将，而左近少将娶他的女儿，则是为了利用常陆介的财力。作者笔下的众多妇女形象，有身份高贵的，也有身世低贱的，但她们的处境都是一样，不仅成了贵族政治斗争的工具，也成了贵族男人手中的玩物，一夫多妻制的牺牲品。
小说着墨最多的是源氏及其上下三代人对妇女的摧残。源氏的父皇玩弄了更衣，由于她出身寒微，在宫中备受冷落，最后屈死于权力斗争之中。源氏依仗自己的权势，糟蹋了不少妇女：半夜闯进地方官夫人空蝉的居室玷污了这个有夫之妇；践踏了出身低贱的夕颜的爱情，使她抑郁而死；看见继母藤壶肖似自己的母亲，由思慕进而与她通奸；闯入家道中落的摘末花的内室调戏她，发现她长相丑陋，又加以奚落。此外，他对紫姬、明石姬等许多不同身份的女子，也都大体如此。在后十回里出现的源氏继承人董君（他名义上是源氏和三公主之子，实际上是三公主同源氏的妻舅之子柏木私通所生）继承了祖、父两辈人荒淫的传统，摧残了孤苦伶仃的弱女浮舟，又怕事情败露，把她弃置在荒凉的宇治山庄。
紫式部的创作不可避免地有其历史和阶级的局限性。她既不满当时的社会现实，哀叹贵族阶级的没落，却又无法彻底否定这个社会和这个阶级；她既感到“这个恶浊可叹的末世……总是越来越坏”，可又未能自觉认识贵族阶级灭亡的历史必然性，以她在触及贵族腐败政治的时候，一方面谴责了弘徽殿一派政治野心和独断专行，另一方面又袒护源氏一派，并企图将源氏理想化，作为自己政治上的希望和寄托，对源氏政治生命的完结不胜其悲。书中第四十一回只有题目《云隐》而无正文，以这种奇特的表现手法来暗喻源氏的结局，正透露了作者的哀惋心情。另外在写到妇女命运的时候，她一方面对她们寄予深切的同情，另一方面又把源氏写成一个有始有终的妇女的庇护者，竭力美化源氏，在一定程度上对源氏表示同情与肯定。此外，作品中还充满了贵族阶级的美学情趣、佛教的因果报应思想，以及虚空感伤的情调。
《源氏物语》在艺术上也是一部有很大成就的作品，它开辟了日本物语文学的新道路，使日本古典现实主义文学达到一个新的高峰。
《源氏物语》问世以来，已经过去近千年了。尽管它在结构上显得有些庞杂、冗长，相同场面和心理描写重复过多，有损于作品的艺术完美性，但它毕竟是一部思想性和艺术性都很高的日本古典文学作品，在今天仍保持着它的艺术生命力，对日本文学继续产生着影响。
静静的顿河 哥萨克，古俄罗斯族贵族的奴仆逃跑以后，在别的地方繁衍发展起来的群体
顿河悲歌
我们光荣的土地不是用犁来翻耕……
我们的土地用马蹄来翻耕，
光荣的土地上种的是哥萨克的头颅，
静静的顿河到处装点着年轻的寡妇，
我们的父亲，静静的顿河上到处是孤儿，
静静的顿河的滚滚的波涛是爹娘的眼泪。
噢噫，静静的顿河，我们的父亲！
噢噫，静静的顿河，你的流水为什么这样浑？
啊呀，我静静的顿河的流水怎么能不浑！
寒泉从我静静的顿河的河底向外奔流，
银白色的鱼儿把我静静的顿河搅浑。
——哥萨克古歌
《静静的顿河》是苏联著名作家肖洛霍夫的一部力作。此书共分为四部，从1928年开始直至1940年，共用了12年的时间才创作完成。肖洛霍夫这部处女作一经问世，立刻受到国内外的瞩目，被人称作“令人惊奇的佳作”，“苏联文学还没有遇到同它相比的小说”。此书于1941年获斯大林奖金，1965年肖洛霍夫因此书获诺贝尔文学奖，成为第一位获此殊荣的苏联作家。
肖洛霍夫（1905～1986）从小热爱读书，年轻时参加了革命，创作《静静的顿河》之时，他年仅23岁。如此年轻和并未受过良好教育的肖洛霍夫是否有能力写出这样一部卷帙浩繁的宏篇巨著呢？这曾经引起许多人的质疑，并引发了一场文坛公案，有人指出肖洛霍夫纯属抄袭，并提及一位无名作家。面对这些责问，当时年仅20多岁的肖洛霍夫有口难辩，又不知什么原因竟拿不出手稿，最后还是斯大林亲自出面为其解围。1991年，肖洛霍夫20年代末写此书的两部手稿被发现，当局召集专家进行笔迹鉴定，确系出自肖洛霍夫的手笔，这段公案才终于了结。继《静静的顿河》之后，肖洛霍夫陆续发表了《被开垦的处女地》、《一个人的遭遇》等作品，确立了他在世界文坛上的不朽地位。
《静静的顿河》描绘了1912年至1922年间两次革命（二月革命、十月革命）和两次战争（第一次世界大战，苏联国内战争）中的重大历史事件和顿河两岸哥萨克人在这10年中的动荡生活，广泛地反映了哥萨克独特的风土人情，哥萨克各个阶层的变化、广大哥萨克在复杂的历史转折关头所经历的曲折道路，以及卷入历史事件强大旋涡中的主人公葛利高里的悲剧命运。
这部小说场景宏伟，画面生动；气势雄浑的战争和革命场面与细腻的日常生活场面相互转换，风景描写与人物心理变化彼此衬托；众多人物及其命运在历史事件的错综复杂中得到了深刻表现。正如肖洛霍夫写给高尔基的信中所言，他在《静静的顿河》中所写的“都是严酷的真实”，这一点是其最大的成就之一。本书另一成就是塑造了葛利高里的复杂形象。小说整个复杂而曲折的故事以他生气勃勃的登场开始，以他的痛苦、孤寂的下场结束。小说全部重大而多方面的内容都是通过他坎坷、艰难和最后毁灭的一生经历而联结成一个有机整体。他的形象得到小说里最多方面深入细致的描写，在他身上倾注着作者的全部思想和艺术激情。
小说的艺术成就也是很突出的。结构是庞大复杂的，但它大而严谨、杂而不乱。整部长篇小说共分四部八卷，由于作者的精心安排，情节的发展腾挪跌宕，故事演变曲折自然，头绪纷繁而线条分明，形成一个有机的整体，小说时空转换阔大，具有一种特别豪迈的气魄。对于整个故事情节的描绘，最明显特点是真实事件与艺术虚构的结合。同时采用粗犷浓烈和深微细腻交替使用的手法，真实再现俄国历史大转变时期时代的脉搏。《静静的顿河》的故事叙述，引用了许多民歌民谣，以很大篇幅描绘不断变幻的自然风光，极具乡土风情，同时达到烘托人物的目的。语言清新明快，技巧多样，实为不可多得的佳作。
这部长篇小说从1928年发表以来，曾经得到斯大林的青睐，这也是肖洛霍夫在大肃反期间保全性命的主要原因，它还受到过高尔基和罗曼·罗兰、鲁迅、小林多喜二和海明威等世界知名作家的高度赞扬。当此书被译成德文在德国发行后，印数竟超过了德语作家雷马克的《西线无战事》。它先后被翻译成世界上几乎所有的主要语言，而且一版再版，畅销全球，是当代世界文学中流传最广泛、读者最多的名著之一。它的影响已是世界性的。
《静静的顿河》就其内容和主题的深刻性，它的囊括现实的广度和揭示生活过程的深度，它的刻划各种不同人物性格的生动性和发掘主人公内心世界的深刻性，以及多方面综合运用语言艺术的技巧，都不愧是一部既磅礴壮观又委婉细腻、扣人心弦的史诗性长篇小说。
内容梗概
麦列霍夫一家生活在帝俄时期顿河流域的鞑靼村里，这家的小儿子葛利高里爱上了邻居家斯捷潘的妻子阿克西尼亚。阿克西尼亚长期受到丈夫的虐待，便乘斯捷潘在军队服役期间，与葛利高里有了私情。葛利高里的父亲为了避免丑事外扬，安排了他与村中一位姑娘娜塔利亚结了婚。但葛利高里并不爱她，不久公开与阿克西尼亚同居，成了村中一件丑闻。
葛利高里的父亲羞愧难当，痛打了儿子。葛利高里一怒之下离家出走，他和阿克西尼亚跑到村外富户李斯特尼兹基家中帮工。这段时间，阿克西尼亚生了个女儿。不久，葛利高里应征入伍。
娜塔利亚见丈夫对自己毫无感情，痛苦得想要自尽。但经麦列霍夫家百般劝慰，她终于平静下来。葛利高里第一次休假回家，发现阿克西尼亚和地主家当军官的少爷尤金勾搭成奸。不巧的是他们的女儿不幸死去。葛利高里怒火中烧。他找到尤金打了一架，又痛打了阿克西尼亚一顿。然后回到自己家中，请求娜塔利亚的原谅。两人言归于好。休假结束时，娜塔利亚已怀了孕，不久便生了一男一女双胞胎。
葛利高里在军队中勇敢杀敌，因此被授予十字勋章，成了村中第一个骑士。在部队中他遇见了哥哥彼得罗和情敌斯捷潘。斯捷潘屡次想加害葛利高里，但无法下手。葛利高里反而在一次战斗中救了斯捷潘一命。两人恩怨抵销。
这时政局发生了动荡。布尔什维克在军队中鼓吹革命，这很快吸引了众多的士兵。由于艰苦、思乡，在第一次世界大战中疲于奔命的士兵们已处于瓦解状态。不久，克伦斯基临时政府取代了沙皇。接着十月革命爆发，苏维埃政权建立。很快，不甘心失败的反革命武装卷土重来。国内战争爆发了。一向以酷爱自由著称的哥萨克民族情绪异常强烈，要求建立一个顿河流域自治政府，许多人加入了反革命武装。而更多的人则组织起来与白军作战。许多葛利高里的朋友为革命先后献出了生命。葛利高里也成为红军中的一名军官。不久，波得捷尔珂夫任顿河地区领导人。他率领军民向白军发起攻击。葛利高里看到波得捷尔珂夫残害被俘的哥萨克军官并处死全部俘虏，他深为不满，于是离开队伍回到了家乡。
葛利高里回到村中后，便传来红军要打来的消息。村民们都准备逃离，葛利高里却不愿意。接着传来的是红军烧杀抢掠的消息，这引起人们极大恐慌。村民组织了军队以作反抗。葛利高里拒绝了村民要他作头目的要求，彼得罗成了头目。在白军反扑下，革命军溃败。葛利高里遇上了被俘的原红军上级，并怒斥他残杀白军战俘的往事。
1918年时，顿河哥萨克地区成了革命与反革命争夺的战场。鞑靼村中有人倒向白军，有人倒向红军。葛利高里和彼得罗都已成为白军头目。彼得罗心狠手辣，是一个彻底的反革命。葛利高里却在忧郁中度日。他不愿滥杀无辜，只想在兵荒马乱中保全自己的生命。他无意参与什么主义之争，只想早日和平。
叛乱仍在继续。这时，尤金回到了家乡。他在战争中失去了一条胳膊，回来后便与一个女人结了婚。他以前的情妇阿克西尼亚仍在等着他。可是尤金结婚之后再也不愿意和她来往了。他们亲热一阵之后他便给了她一些钱让她走。阿克西尼亚倍受打击。
葛利高里厌倦了战争，他返回了鞑靼村，红色政权已接管了村子。他现在对阿克西尼亚已没有丝毫恋情了，而对娜塔利亚渐生好感。红军巩固统治后便开始肃清异己。葛利高里被列入首批名单。他听到风声，连夜逃走了。
随着政治监禁和处决不断增加，哥萨克人不堪忍受红军滥杀无辜而揭竿而起，叛乱在较短时间内就获得了成功，彼得罗很快成为指挥官。他下手毒辣，对红军毫不留情，在后来一次战斗中，他被红军俘虏并打死。
葛利高里在叛军中升任师长。彼得罗之死使他变得残酷无情，杀人如麻。但他对老弱病残从不滥杀。由于一个团的红军开了小差，鞑靼村被叛军占领，红军领导人均被处死。达里娅亲手为彼得罗报了仇。
葛利高里回家度假，嫂子达里娅试图与他调情被他拒绝。葛利高里已对打仗和纵欲厌倦了，但他仍怀念着阿克西尼亚。娜塔利亚对他逐渐冷淡。他决定返回部队。走之前，他在顿河边遇上了阿克西尼亚。两人相视许久，又燃起了爱情的火花。
到了1919年，苏维埃政权意识到自己面临的艰巨任务。大批红军派了过来并击退了叛军。叛军带着大批难民渡过了顿河并挡住了红军的进攻。
红军又接管了鞑靼村，所有富户的房子均被纵火烧掉。娜塔利亚因患伤寒留在村中。身为师长的葛利高里虽然战事不断，仍抽出时间派人接来了阿克西尼亚。两人又恢复了往日的亲热。
白军又打回来了，红军被赶走了。这时叛乱分子被编成一支正规军。葛利高里因为没受过什么教育，降任为骑士中队长。白军还派出讨伐队屠杀那些曾帮过红军的人，这使鞑靼村又陷入恐怖之中。这时，达里娅已染上梅毒而投河自尽。娜塔利亚也在做堕胎手术时大出血而死。
由于红军不断加强攻势以及哥萨克部队士兵开小差现象日益繁多，白军节节败退。葛利高里和阿克西尼亚也试图逃走，但因阿克西尼亚患病而未成行。她后来自己返回了鞑靼村。葛利高里则加入了红军，在与波兰人战斗中表现十分勇敢。
不久，葛利高里回到了家乡。当局听到消息，立刻派人来抓他。他又逃走了，并加入了从红军中叛变出来的弗明的部队。弗明想要组织起哥萨克人反抗共产党课税征粮。但叛乱很快被镇压。反抗者都被打死了，只有葛利高里回到村中。葛利高里再次出逃时带上了阿克西尼亚，可是她却被一支追击而来的红军巡逻队打死。葛利高里扔掉了武器，回到了家中。现在他所拥有的只有自己的儿子了。他不愿再失去这世上唯一的亲人了。
顿河悲歌
我们光荣的土地不是用犁来翻耕……
我们的土地用马蹄来翻耕，
光荣的土地上种的是哥萨克的头颅，
静静的顿河到处装点着年轻的寡妇，
我们的父亲，静静的顿河上到处是孤儿，
静静的顿河的滚滚的波涛是爹娘的眼泪。
噢噫，静静的顿河，我们的父亲！
噢噫，静静的顿河，你的流水为什么这样浑？
啊呀，我静静的顿河的流水怎么能不浑！
寒泉从我静静的顿河的河底向外奔流，
银白色的鱼儿把我静静的顿河搅浑。
——哥萨克古歌
《静静的顿河》是苏联著名作家肖洛霍夫的一部力作。此书共分为四部，从1928年开始直至1940年，共用了12年的时间才创作完成。肖洛霍夫这部处女作一经问世，立刻受到国内外的瞩目，被人称作“令人惊奇的佳作”，“苏联文学还没有遇到同它相比的小说”。此书于1941年获斯大林奖金，1965年肖洛霍夫因此书获诺贝尔文学奖，成为第一位获此殊荣的苏联作家。
肖洛霍夫（1905～1986）从小热爱读书，年轻时参加了革命，创作《静静的顿河》之时，他年仅23岁。如此年轻和并未受过良好教育的肖洛霍夫是否有能力写出这样一部卷帙浩繁的宏篇巨著呢？这曾经引起许多人的质疑，并引发了一场文坛公案，有人指出肖洛霍夫纯属抄袭，并提及一位无名作家。面对这些责问，当时年仅20多岁的肖洛霍夫有口难辩，又不知什么原因竟拿不出手稿，最后还是斯大林亲自出面为其解围。1991年，肖洛霍夫20年代末写此书的两部手稿被发现，当局召集专家进行笔迹鉴定，确系出自肖洛霍夫的手笔，这段公案才终于了结。继《静静的顿河》之后，肖洛霍夫陆续发表了《被开垦的处女地》、《一个人的遭遇》等作品，确立了他在世界文坛上的不朽地位。
《静静的顿河》描绘了1912年至1922年间两次革命（二月革命、十月革命）和两次战争（第一次世界大战，苏联国内战争）中的重大历史事件和顿河两岸哥萨克人在这10年中的动荡生活，广泛地反映了哥萨克独特的风土人情，哥萨克各个阶层的变化、广大哥萨克在复杂的历史转折关头所经历的曲折道路，以及卷入历史事件强大旋涡中的主人公葛利高里的悲剧命运。
这部小说场景宏伟，画面生动；气势雄浑的战争和革命场面与细腻的日常生活场面相互转换，风景描写与人物心理变化彼此衬托；众多人物及其命运在历史事件的错综复杂中得到了深刻表现。正如肖洛霍夫写给高尔基的信中所言，他在《静静的顿河》中所写的“都是严酷的真实”，这一点是其最大的成就之一。本书另一成就是塑造了葛利高里的复杂形象。小说整个复杂而曲折的故事以他生气勃勃的登场开始，以他的痛苦、孤寂的下场结束。小说全部重大而多方面的内容都是通过他坎坷、艰难和最后毁灭的一生经历而联结成一个有机整体。他的形象得到小说里最多方面深入细致的描写，在他身上倾注着作者的全部思想和艺术激情。
小说的艺术成就也是很突出的。结构是庞大复杂的，但它大而严谨、杂而不乱。整部长篇小说共分四部八卷，由于作者的精心安排，情节的发展腾挪跌宕，故事演变曲折自然，头绪纷繁而线条分明，形成一个有机的整体，小说时空转换阔大，具有一种特别豪迈的气魄。对于整个故事情节的描绘，最明显特点是真实事件与艺术虚构的结合。同时采用粗犷浓烈和深微细腻交替使用的手法，真实再现俄国历史大转变时期时代的脉搏。《静静的顿河》的故事叙述，引用了许多民歌民谣，以很大篇幅描绘不断变幻的自然风光，极具乡土风情，同时达到烘托人物的目的。语言清新明快，技巧多样，实为不可多得的佳作。
这部长篇小说从1928年发表以来，曾经得到斯大林的青睐，这也是肖洛霍夫在大肃反期间保全性命的主要原因，它还受到过高尔基和罗曼·罗兰、鲁迅、小林多喜二和海明威等世界知名作家的高度赞扬。当此书被译成德文在德国发行后，印数竟超过了德语作家雷马克的《西线无战事》。它先后被翻译成世界上几乎所有的主要语言，而且一版再版，畅销全球，是当代世界文学中流传最广泛、读者最多的名著之一。它的影响已是世界性的。
《静静的顿河》就其内容和主题的深刻性，它的囊括现实的广度和揭示生活过程的深度，它的刻划各种不同人物性格的生动性和发掘主人公内心世界的深刻性，以及多方面综合运用语言艺术的技巧，都不愧是一部既磅礴壮观又委婉细腻、扣人心弦的史诗性长篇小说。
内容梗概
麦列霍夫一家生活在帝俄时期顿河流域的鞑靼村里，这家的小儿子葛利高里爱上了邻居家斯捷潘的妻子阿克西尼亚。阿克西尼亚长期受到丈夫的虐待，便乘斯捷潘在军队服役期间，与葛利高里有了私情。葛利高里的父亲为了避免丑事外扬，安排了他与村中一位姑娘娜塔利亚结了婚。但葛利高里并不爱她，不久公开与阿克西尼亚同居，成了村中一件丑闻。
葛利高里的父亲羞愧难当，痛打了儿子。葛利高里一怒之下离家出走，他和阿克西尼亚跑到村外富户李斯特尼兹基家中帮工。这段时间，阿克西尼亚生了个女儿。不久，葛利高里应征入伍。
娜塔利亚见丈夫对自己毫无感情，痛苦得想要自尽。但经麦列霍夫家百般劝慰，她终于平静下来。葛利高里第一次休假回家，发现阿克西尼亚和地主家当军官的少爷尤金勾搭成奸。不巧的是他们的女儿不幸死去。葛利高里怒火中烧。他找到尤金打了一架，又痛打了阿克西尼亚一顿。然后回到自己家中，请求娜塔利亚的原谅。两人言归于好。休假结束时，娜塔利亚已怀了孕，不久便生了一男一女双胞胎。
葛利高里在军队中勇敢杀敌，因此被授予十字勋章，成了村中第一个骑士。在部队中他遇见了哥哥彼得罗和情敌斯捷潘。斯捷潘屡次想加害葛利高里，但无法下手。葛利高里反而在一次战斗中救了斯捷潘一命。两人恩怨抵销。
这时政局发生了动荡。布尔什维克在军队中鼓吹革命，这很快吸引了众多的士兵。由于艰苦、思乡，在第一次世界大战中疲于奔命的士兵们已处于瓦解状态。不久，克伦斯基临时政府取代了沙皇。接着十月革命爆发，苏维埃政权建立。很快，不甘心失败的反革命武装卷土重来。国内战争爆发了。一向以酷爱自由著称的哥萨克民族情绪异常强烈，要求建立一个顿河流域自治政府，许多人加入了反革命武装。而更多的人则组织起来与白军作战。许多葛利高里的朋友为革命先后献出了生命。葛利高里也成为红军中的一名军官。不久，波得捷尔珂夫任顿河地区领导人。他率领军民向白军发起攻击。葛利高里看到波得捷尔珂夫残害被俘的哥萨克军官并处死全部俘虏，他深为不满，于是离开队伍回到了家乡。
葛利高里回到村中后，便传来红军要打来的消息。村民们都准备逃离，葛利高里却不愿意。接着传来的是红军烧杀抢掠的消息，这引起人们极大恐慌。村民组织了军队以作反抗。葛利高里拒绝了村民要他作头目的要求，彼得罗成了头目。在白军反扑下，革命军溃败。葛利高里遇上了被俘的原红军上级，并怒斥他残杀白军战俘的往事。
1918年时，顿河哥萨克地区成了革命与反革命争夺的战场。鞑靼村中有人倒向白军，有人倒向红军。葛利高里和彼得罗都已成为白军头目。彼得罗心狠手辣，是一个彻底的反革命。葛利高里却在忧郁中度日。他不愿滥杀无辜，只想在兵荒马乱中保全自己的生命。他无意参与什么主义之争，只想早日和平。
叛乱仍在继续。这时，尤金回到了家乡。他在战争中失去了一条胳膊，回来后便与一个女人结了婚。他以前的情妇阿克西尼亚仍在等着他。可是尤金结婚之后再也不愿意和她来往了。他们亲热一阵之后他便给了她一些钱让她走。阿克西尼亚倍受打击。
葛利高里厌倦了战争，他返回了鞑靼村，红色政权已接管了村子。他现在对阿克西尼亚已没有丝毫恋情了，而对娜塔利亚渐生好感。红军巩固统治后便开始肃清异己。葛利高里被列入首批名单。他听到风声，连夜逃走了。
随着政治监禁和处决不断增加，哥萨克人不堪忍受红军滥杀无辜而揭竿而起，叛乱在较短时间内就获得了成功，彼得罗很快成为指挥官。他下手毒辣，对红军毫不留情，在后来一次战斗中，他被红军俘虏并打死。
葛利高里在叛军中升任师长。彼得罗之死使他变得残酷无情，杀人如麻。但他对老弱病残从不滥杀。由于一个团的红军开了小差，鞑靼村被叛军占领，红军领导人均被处死。达里娅亲手为彼得罗报了仇。
葛利高里回家度假，嫂子达里娅试图与他调情被他拒绝。葛利高里已对打仗和纵欲厌倦了，但他仍怀念着阿克西尼亚。娜塔利亚对他逐渐冷淡。他决定返回部队。走之前，他在顿河边遇上了阿克西尼亚。两人相视许久，又燃起了爱情的火花。
到了1919年，苏维埃政权意识到自己面临的艰巨任务。大批红军派了过来并击退了叛军。叛军带着大批难民渡过了顿河并挡住了红军的进攻。
红军又接管了鞑靼村，所有富户的房子均被纵火烧掉。娜塔利亚因患伤寒留在村中。身为师长的葛利高里虽然战事不断，仍抽出时间派人接来了阿克西尼亚。两人又恢复了往日的亲热。
白军又打回来了，红军被赶走了。这时叛乱分子被编成一支正规军。葛利高里因为没受过什么教育，降任为骑士中队长。白军还派出讨伐队屠杀那些曾帮过红军的人，这使鞑靼村又陷入恐怖之中。这时，达里娅已染上梅毒而投河自尽。娜塔利亚也在做堕胎手术时大出血而死。
由于红军不断加强攻势以及哥萨克部队士兵开小差现象日益繁多，白军节节败退。葛利高里和阿克西尼亚也试图逃走，但因阿克西尼亚患病而未成行。她后来自己返回了鞑靼村。葛利高里则加入了红军，在与波兰人战斗中表现十分勇敢。
不久，葛利高里回到了家乡。当局听到消息，立刻派人来抓他。他又逃走了，并加入了从红军中叛变出来的弗明的部队。弗明想要组织起哥萨克人反抗共产党课税征粮。但叛乱很快被镇压。反抗者都被打死了，只有葛利高里回到村中。葛利高里再次出逃时带上了阿克西尼亚，可是她却被一支追击而来的红军巡逻队打死。葛利高里扔掉了武器，回到了家中。现在他所拥有的只有自己的儿子了。他不愿再失去这世上唯一的亲人了。
是爱尔兰意识流文学作家詹姆斯·乔伊斯（James Joyce）于1922年出版的长篇小说。小说以时间为顺序，描述了主人公，苦闷彷徨的都柏林小市民，广告推销员利奥波德·布卢姆（Leopold Bloom）于1904年6月16日一昼夜之内在都柏林的种种日常经历。乔伊斯选择这一天来描写，是因为这一天是他和他的妻子诺拉·巴纳克尔（Nora Barnacle）首次约会的日子。小说的题目来源于希腊神话中的英雄奥德修斯（Odysseus，拉丁名为尤利西斯），而《尤利西斯》的章节和内容也经常表现出和荷马史诗《奥德赛》内容的平行对应关系。利奥波德·布卢姆是奥德修斯现代的反英雄的翻版，他的妻子摩莉·布卢姆（Molly Bloom）则对应了奥德修斯的妻子帕涅罗佩（Penelope），青年学生斯蒂芬·迪达勒斯（Stephen Dedalus，也是乔伊斯早期作品《一个青年艺术家的画像》主人公，以乔伊斯本人为原型）对应奥德修斯的儿子忒勒玛科斯（Telemachus）。乔伊斯将布卢姆在都柏林街头的一日游荡比作奥德修斯的海外十年漂泊，同时刻画了他不忠诚的妻子摩莉以及斯蒂芬寻找精神上的父亲的心理。小说大量运用细节描写和意识流手法构建了一个交错凌乱的时空，语言上形成了一种独特的风格。《尤利西斯》是意识流小说的代表作，并被誉为20世纪一百部最佳英文小说之首，每年的6月16日已经被纪念为“布卢姆日”。
创作背景
乔伊斯使用了奥德修斯的罗马名“尤利西斯”据说是由于他从英国散文家查尔斯·兰姆的儿童作品《尤利西斯的历险》最先接触了奥德赛的故事。他曾评论认为奥德修斯是文学史上涵盖意义最广泛的人物形象，并试图以尤利西斯的历险为主题写一篇短篇小说发表在《都柏林人》中，并最终从1914年起开始创作长篇小说。
《尤利西斯》中的人物形象与乔伊斯的其他作品一样，大多有其生活原型。乔伊斯本人出生于一个经济状况良好的天主教家庭，但后来由于爱尔兰民权运动领袖帕内尔的倒台以及父亲酗酒等原因家道中落，乔伊斯也选择放弃天主教信仰。1902年乔伊斯离家前往巴黎学习医学，1903年母亲病危赶回都柏林，临终床前乔伊斯和弟弟斯坦尼洛斯·乔伊斯却出于对天主教的叛逆坚持不肯下跪。后来乔伊斯把这一经历写入《尤利西斯》第一章并加以渲染。1904年起乔伊斯再次离家，并结识了一个年轻的医科大学生、诗人奥列佛·圣约翰·戈加蒂。尽管并不是很信任他，乔伊斯依然被他的才华所吸引，后来戈加蒂成为《尤利西斯》中“壮鹿”马利根的原型。戈加蒂在都柏林湾租了一幢爱尔兰抵抗拿破仑·波拿巴进攻时建造的圆形石堡，想要用来作为根据地发起将爱尔兰文艺古希腊化的文化运动，乔伊斯在邀请下也住进石堡。但两人时常发生摩擦，其后戈加蒂的一个英国牛津朋友也搬进石堡，他爱好盖尔语，并给自己起了一个盖尔人的名字，他成为乔伊斯书中海因斯的原型。一天夜里他做恶梦梦见被黑豹追赶，半梦半醒之间竟然抓起手枪扣动扳机，险些击中乔伊斯。惊醒的乔伊斯决定立刻离开石堡不再回来，尽管当时是半夜，后来乔伊斯将这段经历也写入《尤利西斯》第一章中。后来乔伊斯在一家妓院喝醉，遇上了蛮不讲理的宪兵（第十五章中的宪兵卡尔和宪兵康普顿）发生争吵并动手，幸好被他父亲的朋友亨特先生遇见解救。乔伊斯于是产生灵感，想要为亨特先生写一篇在都柏林的历险，于是亨特先生成为布卢姆的原型。其他重要的原型包括：西蒙·迪达勒斯（斯蒂芬的父亲，以乔伊斯的父亲为原型），摩莉（以乔伊斯的妻子诺拉为原型）。
出版史
1897年 【15岁】 乔伊斯获爱尔兰最佳作文奖
1914年 【32岁】 先后被20多个出版商“非文学原因”拒绝的《都柏林人》出版在叶芝，庞得帮助下，《一个青年艺术家画像》连载
1921年 【39】 《尤利西斯》第一版1000册预订，顾客名单中有叶芝，庞得， 纪德 ，海明威
1927年 德译本出版
1929年 法译本出版
1932年 日译本出版
1933年 美国版出版
1935年 从未读过此书的周立波全面批判《尤利西斯》【主人公名字错】
1964年 读过此书的袁可嘉批判《尤利西斯》
1984年 周立波批判文章再次发表
1994年 萧乾夫妇中译本出版
1995年 美国人金堤中译本出版
《尤利西斯》写于1914年至1921年间，1918年起开始分章节在一家名为《The Little Review》的美国杂志连载，直到1920年连载到第十三章《瑙西卡》时因包含有大量描写主角行手淫的情节被美国有关部门指控为淫秽。1921年《尤利西斯》在美国和英国遭禁，但其后（1922年）在爱好现代主义文学的西尔维亚·毕奇小姐的帮助下，《尤利西斯》得以在法兰西共和国巴黎的莎士比亚书屋首次完整出版。然而直到20世纪30年代初《尤利西斯》在美国、英国、爱尔兰等国仍然被列为禁书。 在W·B·叶芝和T·S·艾略特等多位欧美知名作家的支持下，1933年12月6日纽约南区地方法庭的约翰·乌尔赛法官宣判《尤利西斯》尽管包含性描写但并非色情作品，从而并不淫秽。次年1月《尤利西斯》在美国由兰登书屋出版。
小说结构
《尤利西斯》全书共分为三部分十八章，表面上每章内容晦涩凌乱，实则内部结构与荷马的《奥德赛》有密切联系。每一章节都有其独特的写作技巧，并对应一个《奥德赛》的故事主题，角色和情节也和《奥德赛》有不同层次的对应。《尤利西斯》在The Little Review连载期间，每章都加上了下表中的标题。但据说出于避免使读者过于关注这些对应关系的考虑，乔伊斯并未将标题等提示性内容在其后正式出版的书中写明。
乔伊斯本人于1920年在书信中评论此书为：
它是一部关于两个民族（以色列-爱尔兰）的史诗，同时是一个周游人体器官的旅行，也是一个发生在一天（一生）之间的小故事……它也是一种百科全书。
作品情节、结局或其他相关
忒勒玛基亚
忒勒玛基亚（The Telemachia）是以青年学生斯蒂芬·迪达勒斯的活动为主线的部分，对应着忒勒玛科斯开始对父亲奥德修斯的寻找。时间跨度为上午八点到上午十一点。
忒勒玛科斯
时间：8:00
场景：圆形石堡
器官：无
学科：神学
颜色：白色、金色
象征物：继承人
技巧：叙事（年轻的）
对应：忒勒马科斯，哈姆雷特-斯蒂芬·迪达勒斯；安提诺奥斯-壮鹿马利根；门托尔-送奶女工
《奥德赛》：《奥德赛》以众神会议作为开篇，宙斯决定准许奥德修斯返回故乡。而此时在伊萨卡，奥德修斯的儿子忒勒玛科斯和妻子帕涅罗佩无法忍受以傲慢的安提诺奥斯为首的求婚者们的骚扰。在雅典娜的帮助下，忒勒玛科斯开始踏上寻父之旅。
《尤利西斯》：《尤利西斯》以描述位于爱尔兰岛东岸的都柏林湾的一座圆形石堡里的三个年轻人：“壮鹿”马利根（一个冷漠、言辞尖刻且狂躁的医科学生）、斯蒂芬·迪达勒斯（《一个青年艺术家的画像》中的年轻作家）和海因斯（一个喜好卖弄盖尔语的英国牛津人）的清晨活动作为开篇。斯蒂芬昨夜被海因斯的恶梦和其后歇斯底里地开枪所惊吓，精神很低落；而马利根又开始对斯蒂芬拒绝在他母亲去世前下跪说三道四。早餐时一个老妇人来送牛奶，海因斯向她卖弄似的和马利根讲起了爱尔兰语，后来又向斯蒂芬询问他关于哈姆雷特的理论，但斯蒂芬拒绝了，于是他们两人他们谈论起一些政治和文学的话题。同时本章借马利根之口点明了斯蒂芬寻找精神上的父亲这一主题。三人离开石堡前马利根向斯蒂芬索要了钥匙，斯蒂芬感到自己在这里的地位遭到了篡夺，决定从此离开石堡。
奈斯托
时间：10:00
场景：私立男校
器官：无
学科：历史
颜色：棕色
象征物：马
技巧：教理问答（个人的）
对应：奈斯托-戴汐；奈斯托的幼子-萨金特；海伦-奥谢夫人
《奥德赛》：忒勒玛科斯遇见了好心（但无聊的）长老奈斯托，除了知道奥德修斯的返家很困难之外，他一无所知。
《尤利西斯》：斯蒂芬到达学校，给一群男孩们教授历史和英文，但他们并不把他的努力当回事，而他试图给他们猜古怪的谜语，却始终无法调动起他们的情绪。他在放学后为一个孩子补习算术，之后面见了校长戴汐先生。领取工资时戴汐先生和他讨论了历史问题，并想借助他与报社编辑的“泛泛之交”把信登在报上，斯蒂芬并不情愿地接受了委托。本章在斯蒂芬对戴汐先生的排犹倾向的默默不赞同中结束。
普洛透斯
时间：11:00
场景：桑迪芒特海滩
器官：无
学科：语言学
颜色：绿色
象征物：潮水
技巧：内心独白（男性的）
对应：普洛透斯-物质的最初形态；墨涅拉奥斯-凯文·埃根
《奥德赛》：忒勒玛科斯见到了斯巴达王墨涅拉奥斯，得知可以从变化多端的老滑头海神普洛透斯那里获得信息。普洛透斯向忒勒玛科斯告知了埃阿斯和阿伽门农的死，以及奥德修斯被女仙卡吕普索束缚在她的海岛。
《尤利西斯》：斯蒂芬漫步在海边，沉思着他所见到的和联想到的，形成绵延不断的意识流。他回想起自己在巴黎的时光，以及自己芬尼亚会的好友凯文·埃根，还有一些性的主题。
奥德赛
奥德赛（The Odyssey）是以普通的都柏林小市民利奥波德·布卢姆的活动为主线的部分，结束于布卢姆与迪达勒斯的相遇，对应着奥德修斯在海外的漂泊。时间跨度为上午八点到午夜十二点。
卡吕普索
时间：8:00
场景：布卢姆家
器官：肾脏
学科：经济学
颜色：橙色
象征物：宁芙
技巧：叙事（成熟的）
对应：卡吕普索-宁芙沐浴图；回忆-德鲁加茨肉铺；伊萨卡-锡安
《奥德赛》：奥德修斯出场时，在卡吕普索的海岛（有传说在直布罗陀附近）上不情愿地做着她的情人已经七年。雅典娜请求宙斯放奥德修斯回家，于是宙斯派赫尔墨斯向卡吕普索说明情况。卡吕普索最终同意协助奥德修斯返回家园。
《尤利西斯》：布卢姆出场时正在家里，位于都柏林西北城区的埃尔克斯大街7号，为他和他妻子（以及他的猫）准备早餐。我们同时得知他喜好吃羊腰子等动物的内脏。布卢姆走到楼上，看到妻子还躺在那张床上，想起那是从直布罗陀运来的老古董。然后他出门到德鲁加茨肉铺买了一个猪腰子，并对街上看到的女人们展开联想。回到家时他发现有两封新信和一张明信片，其中写给摩莉的一封来自摩莉的经纪人（兼情人）“一把火”鲍伊兰，他正筹划着一场邀请摩莉参加的巡回演出，另一封是布卢姆在照相馆工作的十五岁的女儿米莉写给他的感谢信。他然后给摩莉送上早餐，盯起挂在墙上的宁芙沐浴图看。本章最后在布卢姆听到乔治教堂的钟声，并想到即将参加好友帕特里克·迪格南的葬礼而产生的感慨中结束，
食忘忧果的种族
时间：10:00
场景：布卢姆在都柏林的游荡
器官：生殖器
学科：植物学、化学
颜色：无
象征物：圣餐
技巧：自恋情结
对应：食忘忧果的种族-拉车的马、领圣餐者、士兵、太监、入浴者、板球观众
阴间
时间：11:00
场景：灵车
器官：心脏
学科：宗教
颜色：白色、黑色
象征物：看门人
技巧：梦魇
对应：冥界的四条河流-多德河、爱尔兰大运河、皇家运河、利菲河；西西弗斯-马丁·坎宁安；克尔伯罗斯-科菲神父；哈迪斯-看门人；海格力斯-丹尼尔·奥康奈尔；埃尔潘诺-狄格南；阿伽门农-帕内尔；埃阿斯-门顿
埃俄罗斯
时间：12:00
场景：报社
器官：肺
学科：修辞学
颜色：红色
象征物：三段论
技巧：编辑
对应：埃俄罗斯-科劳福德；乱伦-新闻；浮岛-新闻界
莱斯特吕恭人
时间：13:00
场景：酒馆
器官：食道
学科：建筑学
颜色：无
象征物：警官
技巧：肠胃的蠕动
对应：安提菲斯-饥饿；诱饵-食物；莱斯特吕恭人-牙齿
斯库拉和卡律布狄斯
时间：14:00
场景：国立图书馆
器官：脑
学科：文学
颜色：无
象征物：伦敦斯特拉特福德
技巧：辩证法
对应：岩石-亚里士多德、教条、斯特拉特福德；漩涡-柏拉图、神秘主义、伦敦；尤利西斯-苏格拉底、耶稣、莎士比亚
游动山崖
时间：15:00
场景：都柏林街道
器官：血
学科：机械学
颜色：无
象征物：市民
技巧：迷宫
对应：博斯普鲁斯海峡-利菲河；欧洲海岸-总督；亚洲海岸-康尼神父；游岩-市民
塞壬
时间：16:00
场景：音乐沙龙
器官：耳
学科：音乐
颜色：无
象征物：女招待员
技巧：赋格曲
对应：塞壬-女招待员；海岛-酒吧
独眼巨人
时间：17:00
场景：小酒馆
器官：肌肉
学科：政治学
颜色：无
象征物：芬尼亚会
技巧：巨人症
对应：无人-俺；长树枝-雪茄；挑战-神化
瑙西卡
时间：20:00
场景：桑迪芒特海滩和附近的岩石
器官：眼睛、鼻子
学科：绘画
颜色：灰色、蓝色
象征物：处女
技巧：肿胀、消肿
对应：费阿刻斯人-海洋之星玛利亚；瑙西卡-格蒂
《奥德赛》：奥德修斯离开卡吕普索的岛后，遭波塞冬袭击被冲到费阿刻斯人居住海滩的河口附近。他在躲藏中被恰巧到河边洗衣的费阿刻斯公主瑙西卡和她的侍女们吵醒。他钻出来，把一个球交还给其中一个玩球的侍女，并赞美了瑙西卡的美貌，乞求她能帮助他，而瑙西卡答应了。
《尤利西斯》：锡茜·凯弗里，她的双胞胎兄弟和她的朋友伊棣·博德曼，还有坐得稍远一点的格蒂·麦克道尔，在桑迪芒特海滩上乘凉。格蒂对那些吵闹只会添乱的男孩子以及她那些有点庸俗的朋友们很不耐烦。她做着很详细的白日梦，包括她浪漫的想望还有精神抗争。双胞胎兄弟把球踢到了也在海滩上的布卢姆脚下，于是格蒂也把他编织到自己的思绪里。（但读者很难分清楚哪些是格蒂的意识流而哪些又是布卢姆的意识流。）烟火表演开始了，她的朋友们沿着海滩跑着，只有格蒂安静地坐在布卢姆不远处，向后仰去看烟火，而她正让布卢姆窥视到她的裙子内。布卢姆在她离开时发现她是一个瘸子，并且在她“展示”时行了手淫。单独一人的布卢姆的意识逐渐沿着女人、婚姻、嗅觉流动。他想为格蒂写一个关于他自己的故事，还想起了他的孩子们，还有格蒂。
太阳神牛
时间：22:00
场景：国立妇产医院
器官：子宫
学科：内科学
颜色：白色
象征物：母亲
技巧：胚胎发育
对应：特里纳克里亚岛-医院；太阳神的女儿-护士；太阳神-霍恩；牛-多产；罪行-欺骗
喀耳刻
时间：24:00
场景：红灯区的妓院
器官：运动系统
学科：魔术
颜色：无
象征物：妓女
技巧：幻觉
对应：喀耳刻-贝拉
回归
回归（The Nostos）是布卢姆和迪达勒斯共同活动的部分，最后以各自回家结束，对应着奥德修斯的回归。时间跨度从凌晨一点开始，而结束时间不十分明确。
欧迈俄斯
时间：1:00
场景：马车夫棚
器官：神经
学科：航海
颜色：无
象征物：水手
技巧：叙事（老年的）
对应：欧迈俄斯-“剥山羊皮”；尤利西斯-水手；墨兰提奥斯-库里
伊萨卡
时间：2:00
场景：布卢姆家
器官：骨骼
学科：自然科学
颜色：无
象征物：彗星
技巧：教理问答
对应：安提诺奥斯-壮鹿马利根；欧律玛科斯-一把火鲍伊兰；弓-理性；求婚者-踌躇
帕涅罗佩
时间：不明
场景：床上
器官：肉体
学科：无
颜色：无
象征物：大地
技巧：内心独白（女性的）
对应：帕涅罗佩-大地；网-运动
主要人物表
利奥波德·布卢姆：以替都柏林《自由人报》拉广告为业。其父鲁道尔夫·维 拉格是匈牙利裔犹太人，迁移到爱尔兰后改姓布卢姆。他化名“亨利·弗罗尔”， 与玛莎·克利弗德秘密通信。
玛莉恩·布卢姆：利奥波德之妻。其父特威迪（已故）曾在西班牙南端的英国要塞直布罗陀服役。因此，她生长在该地。她在都柏林是个小有名气的歌手，艺名 叫“特威迪夫人”。
斯蒂芬·迪达勒斯：乔伊斯的自传体长篇小说《艺术家年轻时的写照》中的主 人公。他毕业于克朗戈伍斯森林公学和皇家大学，目前在迪希校长创办的一家私立 学校任教。在图书馆发表关于莎士比亚的议论。
西蒙·迪达勒斯：斯蒂芬之父。年前丧妻，家境困难。
布莱泽斯·博伊兰：玛莉恩之情夫。正在筹划一次巡回歌唱演出，玛莉恩也在被邀之列。
勃克·穆利根：医科学生，与海恩斯一道住进了斯蒂芬所租的圆塔。
海恩斯：英国人，毕业于牛津大学。为了研究凯尔特文学而来到爱尔兰。
米莉：布卢姆与玛莉恩之独女，十五岁。在韦斯特米思郡穆林加尔市的一家照相馆工作。
帕狄·迪格纳穆：已故。生前曾在律师约翰·亨利·门顿的事务所工作，因酗被开除，患病而死。
马丁·坎宁翰：布卢姆之友，在都柏林堡任职（英国殖民统治机构）。他是个心地善良的人，多方照顾迪格纳穆的遗族，包括募集捐款。
布林夫人：原名乔西·鲍威尔，其夫丹尼斯·布林患有神经病。婚前她爱过布卢姆，一直不忘旧情。
里奇·古尔丁：斯蒂芬的舅舅，布卢姆之友。在科利斯一沃德律师事务所任会计师。他与内弟西蒙·迪达勒斯已绝交。
约翰·康米神父：方济各·沙勿略教堂的教长，耶稣会会长。斯蒂芬在克朗戈伍斯森林公学就读时，他曾任该校校长。
迈尔斯·克劳福德：《电讯晚报》的主编。
杰克·麦克休：大学教授，学者，经常为《电讯晚报》写社论。
本杰明·多拉德：本地一名歌手。他在替向吕便·杰借过高利贷的考利神父奔走，以便宽限几天还债日期。
弗莱明大妈：经常到布卢姆家来做家务的女人。
鲁迪：布卢姆与玛莉恩的独子，生于一八九四年，只活了十一天便夭折。
C·P·麦科伊：布卢姆的熟人，在都柏林市的尸体收容所做验尸官助手。其妻是个无名歌手。
班塔姆·莱昂斯：布卢姆的熟人，热衷于赛马。上午在街上与布卢姆相遇，听布卢姆说起“丢掉”，就想把赌注押在同名的马身上。后又接受利内翰的劝告，变 了卦。结果，还是“丢掉”获胜了。
科尼·凯莱赫：奥尼尔殡仪馆的经理，负责为迪格纳穆料理葬事。
杰克·鲍尔：供职于都柏林堡内的皇家爱尔兰警察总署。
吕使·杰：放高利贷的。有一次他儿子跳进了利菲河，被一位船夫救了起来。他却只给了船夫两先令。
汤姆·克甫：布卢姆之友，茶叶等商品的推销员。
内德·兰伯特：谷物商，其库房原是圣玛丽亚修道院的会议厅。
休·C·洛夫神父：他是萨林斯镇圣迈克尔教堂的本堂神父，为了写一本关于菲茨杰拉德家族的书，到兰伯特的库房来参观。他在都柏林拥有一所房子，出租给 考利神父。
考利神父：本·多拉德和西蒙·迪达勒斯之友。因还不起向吕便·杰借的高利贷，狼狈不堪。
乔（约瑟夫）·麦卡西·海国斯：布卢姆的同事，也替《自由人报》拉广告。
红穆雷：约翰·穆雷的绰号，《自由人报》的职员。
约瑟夫·帕特利克·南尼蒂：在爱尔兰出生的意大利人，《自由人报》社排字房工长。他又是英国议会下院议员兼都柏林市政委员。
杰·杰·奥莫洛伊：原为律师，后来患了肺病，落魄潦倒。
利内翰：《体育》报的赛马栏记者，曾调戏摩莉。
奥马登·伯克：斯蒂芬之友，新闻记者。
弗林：绰号叫“大鼻子”，布卢姆之友。
乔治·威廉·拉塞尔：笔名A·E·，爱尔兰诗人。他是当时仍健在的爱尔兰文艺复兴运动的指导者之一，任《爱尔兰家园报》主编。
托马斯·威廉·利斯特：公谊会教徒，爱尔兰国立图书馆馆长。
约翰·埃格林顿：原名威廉·阿克柏特里克·马吉，爱尔兰文艺复兴运动中的批评家，曾在图书馆与斯蒂芬辩论。
理查德·欧文·贝斯特：爱尔兰国立图书馆副馆长。
约翰·米林顿·辛格：爱尔兰文艺复兴运动的领导人之一，诗剧家，是斯蒂芬的熟人。
乔治·穆尔：爱尔兰小说家，斯蒂芬的熟人。
格雷戈里夫人：爱尔兰剧作家。原名伊萨贝拉·奥古斯塔·佩尔斯。她于一八九二年丧夫后，开始文学生涯，一九0四年任阿贝剧院经理。她是斯蒂芬的熟人。
阿瑟·格里菲思：爱尔兰政治家，原在都柏林当排字工人。一八九九年创办以争取爱尔兰民族独立为主旨的周刊《爱尔兰人联合报》。他是布卢姆的熟人。
查理·斯图尔特·巴涅尔：十九世纪末爱尔兰自治运动和民族主义领袖，已故。布卢姆和他有一面之缘。
约翰·霍华德·巴涅尔：查理·巴涅尔之弟。都柏林市政典礼官兼典当商代理 人。
拉里·奥罗克：布卢姆家附近的一家酒店的老板。
凯蒂·迪达勒斯}
布棣·迪达勒斯}斯蒂芬的幼妹尚在上学。
玛吉·迪达勒斯：斯蒂芬之妹。她从修女处讨些豌豆，替妹妹们煮汤吃。
迪丽·迪达勒斯：斯蒂芬之妹，长得最像长兄。她在街上向父亲西蒙要了点钱，花一便士买了一本《法语初级读本》。
盲青年：布卢姆曾搀着他走过马路，神经失常的卡什尔·法雷尔却差点儿把他撞倒。他到奥蒙德酒吧去，调了钢琴的音。
汤姆·罗赤福德：他以兜售赛马赌券为业，并热衷于发明机器。他曾搭救过一 名因中毒而昏迷过去的下水道工人。
高个儿约翰·范宁：都柏林市副行政长官，绰号“高个儿”。
帕特里克·阿洛伊修斯·迪格纳穆：帕狄·迪格纳穆的遗孤中最年长的一个。
约翰·怀斯·诺兰：布卢姆之友，关心迪格纳穆的遗孤，并对马丁·坎宁翰说，布卢姆为遗孤捐了五先令。
莉迪亚·杜丝：奥蒙德饭店的金发女侍。
米娜·肯尼迪：奥蒙德饭店的褐发女侍。
阿尔夫雷德·柏根：都柏林行政司法副长官助理，绰号叫“小个儿阿尔夫”。
威廉·亨勃尔·达德利伯爵：爱尔兰总督。
“市民”：原名迈克尔·丘萨克。他是盖尔体育协会创办者，自称“市民丘萨克”，因而得名。
格蒂·麦克道维尔：瘸腿美少女。
西茜·卡弗里：格蒂的女友，性情活泼。
伊迪·博德曼：格蒂的女友，性格矫情。
汤米·卡弗里} 西茵的双胞胎弟弟，时年四岁。
杰基·卡弗里}
雷吉·怀利：格蒂的男友，高中学生。
安德鲁·霍恩博士：霍利斯街国立妇产医院院长。
卡伦小姐：国立妇产医院护士。
米娜·博福伊太太：玛莉恩的女友，夜里在医院生一男婴，系难产。
亚历克·班农：医科学生，米莉的男友。
迪克森：实习大夫，布卢姆被蜂蜇伤后，曾由他包扎。斯蒂芬之友。
文森特·林奇：医科学生。他与女友在篱笆后面幽会时，给路过的康米神父（母校的老校长）撞见了。
弗兰克·科斯特洛：医科学生，因嗜酒如命，绰号叫潘趣（酒名）
威廉·马登：医科学生。
J．克罗瑟斯：医科学生。
贝洛·科恩夫人：妓院老鸨。
玛丽·德里斯科尔：布卢姆夫妇过去的女仆。
耶尔弗顿·巴里夫人}
贝林厄姆夫人 } ：都柏林上流社会淑女。
默雯·塔尔博伊贵妇人}
佐伊、基蒂、弗洛莉：妓女
士兵卡尔、士兵康舍顿：英国兵，把斯蒂芬击倒。
科利：斯蒂芬之友，因生活没有着落，向斯蒂芬借钱。
冈穆利：西蒙的旧友，后沦为市政府雇用的守夜人。
马尔维中尉：摩莉在直布罗陀时期的初恋对象。
“剥山羊皮”：马车夫棚的老板。
故事梗概
青年诗人斯蒂芬因母亲病危，从巴黎返回都柏林。母亲弥留之际用白瓷钵盛着绿色的胆汁，眼睛紧盯着他，迫使他下跪皈依宗教，他大声嚷道：“妈妈，就让我照这样活下去吧！”。斯蒂芬因此一直沉浸在悲哀与懊恼之中。丧母后，又因父亲成天酗酒从家中跑了出来，租了一座圆形炮塔，靠教书谋生。医科学生勃克·穆利根与英国人海恩斯也搬来同住。
海恩斯和斯芬一起去海边游泳，谈起信仰问题，斯蒂芬说：“你会在我身上看到一个可怕的自由思想的典型。但我又是两个主人的奴仆：一个英国人（维多利亚女王）,一个意大利人（罗马教皇）。 ”
斯蒂芬来到位于都柏林海滨的学校去上历史课，他被校长叫到办公室领薪水，校长开导他要注意攒钱，要懂得金钱的重要，并给他一篇文章，让他找个报社发表。斯蒂芬离开始学校后，来到海滩，望着汹涌的大海他浮想联篇，他把校长那篇原稿的空白处撕下来，将自己的问题胡乱地记在上面。
布卢姆是匈牙利裔犹太人，正为报纸承揽广告，他出去买了一副腰子。回家后，给还未起床的妻子莫莉端去早餐。莫莉是个小有名气的歌手，但生活不检点，好招蜂引蝶，她正准备下午与情人博依兰约会。布卢姆整天为此事烦恼，但在挣钱比自己多的老婆面前又抬不起头来。
上午10点，布卢姆化名弗洛尔，与一名叫玛落的女打字员交换情书。他是通过在报纸广告招聘女助手而跟玛落通起信来的。他到邮局取了玛落的回信，拐进无人的墙边看信，看完信不禁飘飘然起来。走到大桥底下，他把信撕成碎片丢了，然后到教堂去做弥撒。
11点，布卢姆乘马车去墓地参加迪格纳穆的葬礼。布卢姆突然看见博伊兰潇洒的身影，他想除了魅力之外，他妻子还能从他身上看到什么呢？“魅力”是都柏林最坏的家伙，博伊兰却凭它活得很快乐。灵柩下葬后，他仍在坟丛中徜徉，“两侧是悲痛的天使，十字架、断裂的圆柱、坟茔、仰望天空做祷告的石像。”他回想起夭折的儿子和自杀的父亲，他对死亡进行反思，他认为人死后埋在地下行不通，最好火葬或海葬。他又想到自己不过是一个广告经纪人，一个漂泊流浪的犹太人。布卢姆心中无限凄凉，甚至想到死亡，但马上又自我解嘲，回到现实中来。
中午，布卢姆到《自由报》去向主编说明自己揽来的广告图案，随后又赶到《电讯晚报》报馆，碰巧斯蒂芬也在这儿，他想向该报推荐校长的文章。主编却对文稿嗤之以鼻，斯蒂芬悻悻而出。想到刚领了薪水，就请大家去喝酒。半路上布卢姆在一座纪念碑旁看见西蒙的女儿（斯蒂芬的妹妹）在拍卖行外准备卖旧家具，顿生感慨：西蒙共有15个孩子，按照教义禁止节制生育，现在这些孩子连家带产都吃个精光。
下午1 点，布卢姆走进一家廉价的小饭馆，这里既脏且乱，人们在狼吞虎咽，丑态百出，吃相十分难看。于是他换了家高级一点的饭馆，在那遇到熟人弗林，弗林问他妻子巡回演出的经纪人是谁，这使他想起下午4 点妻子要与博依兰约会，心里顿感烦燥不安，一口气喝下一杯酒。从饭店出来走到图书馆前面时，看到情敌博依兰迎面走来，便赶紧躲进图书馆里。
下午2 点，斯蒂芬在图书馆里对评论家和学者发表关于莎士比亚的议论。布卢姆为躲避博依兰来到这，但他并没有卷进这场讨论，巧妙地躲过去了。他穿行在大街小巷，看见形形色色的人们正在忙碌着，教会会长康米神父正在接受人们的致敬，一位独腿的水兵求他施舍，他只给他一个祝福就走了，而他却非常高兴地与议员的妻子告别，并恳请她代向议员致意。一群老人正在为刚去世的迪格纳穆的孩子们募捐，布卢姆马上捐了5 先令，而总督副秘书长和副行政长官却一毛不拔。爱尔兰总督正携夫人及随从浩浩荡荡而来，洛夫神父想从总督手里弄到肥缺向他恭恭敬敬地鞠了一躬，西蒙为了掩盖没有扣好裤子而将帽子放在胸前，总督以为他是敬礼。斯蒂芬碰到衣衫褴褛的妹妹，想如何帮她，可自己还命运难卜；穷困的考利神父欠了高利贷，正四处托人求债主再宽限两天；发了财的洛夫神父已扣压了他的财产逼他交房租。
下午5 点，布卢姆约一个朋友在酒吧见面。一个无赖大肆攻击犹太人，身为犹太人的布卢姆实在忍无可忍，他反驳道：“门德尔松是犹太人，还有卡尔·马克思、斯宾诺莎。救世主耶稣也是个犹太人……你的天主也跟我的一样，也是个犹太人。”无赖气得抓起一只饼干罐就往布卢姆身上扔，但未能击中。布卢姆和朋友赶忙逃之夭夭。
晚上8 点，夏日的黄昏笼罩着世界，在遥远的西边，太阳沉落了。少女格蒂到圆形炮塔附近的海滩乘凉，她凝视远方，沉湎在冥想之中。布卢姆坐在不远的地方，深深地为格蒂的美貌所吸引。格蒂意识到布卢姆在注视着她，她想：也许嫁给这么一个中年绅士倒也挺好。二人的目光不期而遇，她觉得他的眼神犹如烈火，将自己从头烧到脚，她恨不得朝他伸出双臂让他过来，并将他的嘴唇触到自己白皙的前额，面对这双年轻天真的眼睛，布卢姆早已神不守舍了。格蒂离开海滩时，布卢姆才发现她原来是个瘸子，不禁失声叹道：“可怜的姑娘”。
晚上10点，布卢姆到妇产医院去探望难产的麦娜夫人。斯蒂芬和一群医学院的学生在那里高谈阔论，个个喝得酩酊大醉，布卢姆开始为斯蒂芬担心。斯蒂芬说还要请大家到酒店喝酒，就离开了医院。布卢姆也赶了去，一路上他的眼前出现了许多幻象。
他幻想着在一家妓院里达到高潮，后来他又荣升为市长，还当了爱尔兰国王，随后遭到群众的攻击被驱逐出境。布卢姆摆脱幻想后，到妓院去找斯蒂芬，斯蒂芬醉酒抡起手杖击碎了妓院的灯，来到街上胡说一通，两个英国兵认为他对国王不敬，将他打得昏死过去。布卢姆产生错觉把斯蒂芬当成自己那夭折的儿子，就将斯蒂芬搀扶起来带回家。在道德衰微、家庭分裂、传统观念沦丧的大千世界里，布卢姆和斯蒂芬精神上遭受挫折、内心充满动荡，他们终于在彼此身上找到了各自精神上所缺乏的东西。斯蒂芬找到了父亲，布卢姆找到了儿子。
天蒙蒙亮时，斯蒂芬告辞而去。布卢姆走进卧室后，发现室内的摆设略有变动，幻想着莫莉与博依兰幽会的情景，他推测与妻子发生关系的决不止博依兰一个人，还有原市长等熟人，他琢磨了半响妻子与这些情人究竟干了些什么，转念一想，他觉得这件事也不能全怪莫莉，自己没有满足她对夫妻生活的要求，他愿意再做一次努力。
莫莉处于半睡半醒之中，在莫莉的梦中出现有丈夫布卢姆、博依兰、初恋情人和丈夫刚刚说过的斯蒂芬，她又开始幻想和这位年轻人谈情说爱了。她朦胧地感到一种母性的满足和对一个青年男子的冲动。不过，她想得最多的还是丈夫，想到10年来夫妻生活的冷漠，想到他的许多可笑的事情，她觉得他还是个有教养，有礼貌，有丰富知识，有艺术修养的人，实在是个难得的好丈夫，她决心再给他一次机会。
相关评论
初阅《尤利西斯》，始于那句流传甚广的100个人中没有10个人能读完《尤利西斯》。
《尤利西斯》是爱尔兰著名的现代派小说家乔伊斯的著作，乔伊斯曾入都柏林大学专攻现代语言学，后赴欧洲大陆。乔伊斯的第一部短篇小说集是《都柏林人》，后又写自传体中篇小说《青年艺术家的肖像》。
文学界对于《尤利西斯》的评价，我觉得就如两个磁极。一些评论将《尤利西斯》的身价抬得很高，觉得它“是一部旷世奇作”；另一些评论又将它贬得很低，觉得它“粗俗不堪入目”。
而我始终是以一种膜拜的态度看待《尤利西斯》的，它是一部太能够显示文学功底的著作。《尤利西斯》洋洋洒洒一百万字，却只是描述了十八个小时的事情，我无法想象作者需要怎样的观察和想象，才能写出这样一部独特的著作。况，书中的出场人物并不多，只有布卢姆，斯蒂芬和莫莉三位主要人物。
《尤利西斯》的成功之处，在于对人物内心的细致刻画。乔伊斯以他惊人的文学功底，用一百万字讲述了三个人物在十八个小时内的活动。《尤利西斯》虽篇幅巨大，但毫无赘言，乔伊斯以他对人生和生活的认识和细腻的洞察力，描写了主人公的行动，语言和细微心理变化。《尤利西斯》中对内心活动的描写出神入化，三位主人公的每个细微的思想变化，都清晰真切地呈现在了读者面前。诸如说《尤利西斯》的第三章，乔伊斯用整整一章的篇幅刻画了乔伊斯的心理活动。
《尤利西斯》的第一主人公布卢姆是一位匈牙利裔的犹太人，他在都柏林的报社做广告推销员。布卢姆这一形象的价值超越了固有的身份，乔伊斯用自己深刻的社会经验和扎实的文学功底，把千千万万的爱尔兰市民都集中到了布卢姆身上。布卢姆的经历和性情，也恰恰属于诸多爱尔兰市民。
布卢姆的生活抱经沧桑，他幼子夭折，妻子不贞，自己常自欺欺人地在名存实亡的爱情中挣扎彷徨。布卢姆人到中年却一无所成，面对比自己薪水高几倍的莫莉，他自卑并且不自信。但布卢姆另一方面又自恃清高，甚至不愿与吃相不雅观的顾客在一个饭馆用餐。布卢姆热心血性，狭义地帮助醉酒的斯蒂芬。但另一方面，他也有着贪婪委琐的欲望，甚至曾试图欺侮一名海滩边的残废少女。
布卢姆苦闷彷徨，充满矛盾。他对现实迷茫但又充满希望，无奈但又期待奇迹。布卢姆失去了精神的支柱和进取的目的，生活和事业都遭受了沉重的打击。布卢姆的颓废，正反映了二十世纪初爱尔兰市民的孤独，迷茫和绝望。
乔伊斯将他十六年对于生活和社会的理解，都全部浓缩到了《尤利西斯》中，同时它又是一部价值超越了社会现实的著作，并且上升到了哲学的深度。
《奥德修记》闻名全世，被公认为是人类历史上一部伟大的史诗。而乔伊斯，他以过人的悟性写下了一部当代题材的《奥德修记》。《尤利西斯》每一章的内容，都采取了与《奥德修记》平行的结构，乔伊斯独具匠心，巧妙构思，使整部《尤利西斯》的结构与寓意都和《奥德修记》相照应。乔伊斯从史诗的深度申时现代生活，赋予了《尤利西斯》哲学的内涵。
一个作家的文学功底达到一定程度时，他的著作往往会渗透进哲学，诸如说《红楼梦》。《红楼梦》中的经典名言“假作真时真亦假，无为有处有还无”以及“赤条条来去无牵挂”，还有“好一似食鸟各投林，落了片白茫茫大地真干净”。这些都是作者对人生，对世界的哲学思考。
乔伊斯和曹雪芹同样地将对社会的感性认识上升到了理性思考，《尤利西斯》和《红楼梦》之所以是两部小说而又不仅仅是小说，也正在此。
曹雪芹著《红楼梦》是“字字看来皆是血，十年辛苦不寻常”，而乔伊斯著《尤利西斯》，用了十六年构思观察，七年专著写作。但，越是民族的文化，往往就难以是世界的文化。从此角度来说，《尤利西斯》和《红楼梦》有着相似的悲哀。
《红楼梦》无疑是一部登峰造极的伟大著作，曹雪芹在《红楼梦》中对中国古典文化的融合，已经达到了海纳百川的程度。《红楼梦》虽不过是部小说，却包含了几乎所有的中国古典文化精粹：诗词，曲赋，乐府，楹联，谜语，八股，请柬，祭文，奏章，书信，菜谱，帐单，药方，占卜，星相，`````《红楼梦》被世界公认是中国古典著作的最高峰，二月河前辈评价《红楼梦》时说，“《红楼梦》的成就，不仅是空前的，在某种意义上说，它也是绝后的。”
可正应了物极必反的原理，这样的一部伟大巨著，虽被世界公认却未被世界喜爱。诚然，《红楼梦》在世界书榜中位列第八位，压过了欧美大批举世闻名的著作，然而正如多数民族文化经典一样，《红楼梦》未成为世界普遍的文化。
《红楼梦》被译为几十种语言在世界各国发行，在欧美国家也建有红学研究会，可美国一位女记者曾直言不讳地说，她身边的朋友更多的是把《红楼梦》作为一本必读书目，而并非是出于喜欢。西欧的调查报告也清楚地表明，《红楼梦》在民间远不如《三国演义》，《封神榜》，甚至《金瓶梅》受欢迎。红楼梦在国外，更多的是被知识分子当作名著来浏览。
《尤利西斯》于一九二二年二月二日出版，它是乔伊斯十六年构思七年写作的成果，可出版后它长期被禁止在英美发行，直至一九三三年才重新流通。
《尤利西斯》出版后同样不为世人接受，上市后即在文学界引起了巨大的争议。弗吉尼亚伍尔夫斥责此书“粗俗不堪入目”，当时一些作家甚至毫不客气地把乔伊斯的签名赠阅本退还。只有艾略特等少数有慧眼的作家，意识到了《尤利西斯》的价值，竭力为它辩解。清华大学决定将《尤利西斯》列为必读书目时，同样引起了教育界和文学界的诸多反对。
每思及此，我就不禁感慨。《尤利西斯》可以是一部世界名著，也可以是一部旷世奇作，但它难以在全世界的读者中都受到欢迎。
乔伊斯和曹雪芹写出了这样的两部著作——《尤利西斯》和《红楼梦》，这究竟是他们的伟大，还是他们的悲哀``````
本作品为1998年全球读者投票评选二十世纪小说类第一名。
译者：萧乾 文洁若
译者序
第一章 第二章 第三章
第四章 第五章 第六章
第七章 第八章 第九章
第十章 第十一章 第十二章
第十三章 第十四章 第十五章
第十六章 第十七章 第十八章
(尤利西斯)与(奥德修纪)(对照) (尤利西斯·乔伊斯大事记) 主要人物表
译后记
Ulysses chronicles the passage of Leopold Bloom through Dublin during an ordinary day, 16 June 1904 (the day of Joyce's first date with his future wife, Nora Barnacle). The title alludes to Odysseus (Latinised into Ulysses), the hero of Homer's Odyssey, and establishes a series of parallels between characters and events in Homer's poem and Joyce's novel (e.g., the correspondence of Leopold Bloom to Odysseus, Molly Bloom to Penelope, and Stephen Dedalus to Telemachus). Joyce fans worldwide now celebrate 16 June as Bloomsday.
Ulysses contains approximately 265,000 words from a lexicon of 30,030 words (including proper names, plurals and various verb tenses), divided into eighteen episodes. Since publication, the book attracted controversy and scrutiny, ranging from early obscenity trials to protracted textual "Joyce Wars." Ulysses' stream-of-consciousness technique, careful structuring, and experimental prose—full of puns, parodies, and allusions, as well as its rich characterisations and broad humour, made the book a highly regarded novel in the Modernist pantheon. In 1999, the Modern Library ranked Ulysses first on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
创作背景
乔伊斯使用了奥德修斯的罗马名“尤利西斯”据说是由于他从英国散文家查尔斯·兰姆的儿童作品《尤利西斯的历险》最先接触了奥德赛的故事。他曾评论认为奥德修斯是文学史上涵盖意义最广泛的人物形象，并试图以尤利西斯的历险为主题写一篇短篇小说发表在《都柏林人》中，并最终从1914年起开始创作长篇小说。
《尤利西斯》中的人物形象与乔伊斯的其他作品一样，大多有其生活原型。乔伊斯本人出生于一个经济状况良好的天主教家庭，但后来由于爱尔兰民权运动领袖帕内尔的倒台以及父亲酗酒等原因家道中落，乔伊斯也选择放弃天主教信仰。1902年乔伊斯离家前往巴黎学习医学，1903年母亲病危赶回都柏林，临终床前乔伊斯和弟弟斯坦尼洛斯·乔伊斯却出于对天主教的叛逆坚持不肯下跪。后来乔伊斯把这一经历写入《尤利西斯》第一章并加以渲染。1904年起乔伊斯再次离家，并结识了一个年轻的医科大学生、诗人奥列佛·圣约翰·戈加蒂。尽管并不是很信任他，乔伊斯依然被他的才华所吸引，后来戈加蒂成为《尤利西斯》中“壮鹿”马利根的原型。戈加蒂在都柏林湾租了一幢爱尔兰抵抗拿破仑·波拿巴进攻时建造的圆形石堡，想要用来作为根据地发起将爱尔兰文艺古希腊化的文化运动，乔伊斯在邀请下也住进石堡。但两人时常发生摩擦，其后戈加蒂的一个英国牛津朋友也搬进石堡，他爱好盖尔语，并给自己起了一个盖尔人的名字，他成为乔伊斯书中海因斯的原型。一天夜里他做恶梦梦见被黑豹追赶，半梦半醒之间竟然抓起手枪扣动扳机，险些击中乔伊斯。惊醒的乔伊斯决定立刻离开石堡不再回来，尽管当时是半夜，后来乔伊斯将这段经历也写入《尤利西斯》第一章中。后来乔伊斯在一家妓院喝醉，遇上了蛮不讲理的宪兵（第十五章中的宪兵卡尔和宪兵康普顿）发生争吵并动手，幸好被他父亲的朋友亨特先生遇见解救。乔伊斯于是产生灵感，想要为亨特先生写一篇在都柏林的历险，于是亨特先生成为布卢姆的原型。其他重要的原型包括：西蒙·迪达勒斯（斯蒂芬的父亲，以乔伊斯的父亲为原型），摩莉（以乔伊斯的妻子诺拉为原型）。
出版史
1897年 【15岁】 乔伊斯获爱尔兰最佳作文奖
1914年 【32岁】 先后被20多个出版商“非文学原因”拒绝的《都柏林人》出版在叶芝，庞得帮助下，《一个青年艺术家画像》连载
1921年 【39】 《尤利西斯》第一版1000册预订，顾客名单中有叶芝，庞得， 纪德 ，海明威
1927年 德译本出版
1929年 法译本出版
1932年 日译本出版
1933年 美国版出版
1935年 从未读过此书的周立波全面批判《尤利西斯》【主人公名字错】
1964年 读过此书的袁可嘉批判《尤利西斯》
1984年 周立波批判文章再次发表
1994年 萧乾夫妇中译本出版
1995年 美国人金堤中译本出版
《尤利西斯》写于1914年至1921年间，1918年起开始分章节在一家名为《The Little Review》的美国杂志连载，直到1920年连载到第十三章《瑙西卡》时因包含有大量描写主角行手淫的情节被美国有关部门指控为淫秽。1921年《尤利西斯》在美国和英国遭禁，但其后（1922年）在爱好现代主义文学的西尔维亚·毕奇小姐的帮助下，《尤利西斯》得以在法兰西共和国巴黎的莎士比亚书屋首次完整出版。然而直到20世纪30年代初《尤利西斯》在美国、英国、爱尔兰等国仍然被列为禁书。 在W·B·叶芝和T·S·艾略特等多位欧美知名作家的支持下，1933年12月6日纽约南区地方法庭的约翰·乌尔赛法官宣判《尤利西斯》尽管包含性描写但并非色情作品，从而并不淫秽。次年1月《尤利西斯》在美国由兰登书屋出版。
小说结构
《尤利西斯》全书共分为三部分十八章，表面上每章内容晦涩凌乱，实则内部结构与荷马的《奥德赛》有密切联系。每一章节都有其独特的写作技巧，并对应一个《奥德赛》的故事主题，角色和情节也和《奥德赛》有不同层次的对应。《尤利西斯》在The Little Review连载期间，每章都加上了下表中的标题。但据说出于避免使读者过于关注这些对应关系的考虑，乔伊斯并未将标题等提示性内容在其后正式出版的书中写明。
乔伊斯本人于1920年在书信中评论此书为：
它是一部关于两个民族（以色列-爱尔兰）的史诗，同时是一个周游人体器官的旅行，也是一个发生在一天（一生）之间的小故事……它也是一种百科全书。
作品情节、结局或其他相关
忒勒玛基亚
忒勒玛基亚（The Telemachia）是以青年学生斯蒂芬·迪达勒斯的活动为主线的部分，对应着忒勒玛科斯开始对父亲奥德修斯的寻找。时间跨度为上午八点到上午十一点。
忒勒玛科斯
时间：8:00
场景：圆形石堡
器官：无
学科：神学
颜色：白色、金色
象征物：继承人
技巧：叙事（年轻的）
对应：忒勒马科斯，哈姆雷特-斯蒂芬·迪达勒斯；安提诺奥斯-壮鹿马利根；门托尔-送奶女工
《奥德赛》：《奥德赛》以众神会议作为开篇，宙斯决定准许奥德修斯返回故乡。而此时在伊萨卡，奥德修斯的儿子忒勒玛科斯和妻子帕涅罗佩无法忍受以傲慢的安提诺奥斯为首的求婚者们的骚扰。在雅典娜的帮助下，忒勒玛科斯开始踏上寻父之旅。
《尤利西斯》：《尤利西斯》以描述位于爱尔兰岛东岸的都柏林湾的一座圆形石堡里的三个年轻人：“壮鹿”马利根（一个冷漠、言辞尖刻且狂躁的医科学生）、斯蒂芬·迪达勒斯（《一个青年艺术家的画像》中的年轻作家）和海因斯（一个喜好卖弄盖尔语的英国牛津人）的清晨活动作为开篇。斯蒂芬昨夜被海因斯的恶梦和其后歇斯底里地开枪所惊吓，精神很低落；而马利根又开始对斯蒂芬拒绝在他母亲去世前下跪说三道四。早餐时一个老妇人来送牛奶，海因斯向她卖弄似的和马利根讲起了爱尔兰语，后来又向斯蒂芬询问他关于哈姆雷特的理论，但斯蒂芬拒绝了，于是他们两人他们谈论起一些政治和文学的话题。同时本章借马利根之口点明了斯蒂芬寻找精神上的父亲这一主题。三人离开石堡前马利根向斯蒂芬索要了钥匙，斯蒂芬感到自己在这里的地位遭到了篡夺，决定从此离开石堡。
奈斯托
时间：10:00
场景：私立男校
器官：无
学科：历史
颜色：棕色
象征物：马
技巧：教理问答（个人的）
对应：奈斯托-戴汐；奈斯托的幼子-萨金特；海伦-奥谢夫人
《奥德赛》：忒勒玛科斯遇见了好心（但无聊的）长老奈斯托，除了知道奥德修斯的返家很困难之外，他一无所知。
《尤利西斯》：斯蒂芬到达学校，给一群男孩们教授历史和英文，但他们并不把他的努力当回事，而他试图给他们猜古怪的谜语，却始终无法调动起他们的情绪。他在放学后为一个孩子补习算术，之后面见了校长戴汐先生。领取工资时戴汐先生和他讨论了历史问题，并想借助他与报社编辑的“泛泛之交”把信登在报上，斯蒂芬并不情愿地接受了委托。本章在斯蒂芬对戴汐先生的排犹倾向的默默不赞同中结束。
普洛透斯
时间：11:00
场景：桑迪芒特海滩
器官：无
学科：语言学
颜色：绿色
象征物：潮水
技巧：内心独白（男性的）
对应：普洛透斯-物质的最初形态；墨涅拉奥斯-凯文·埃根
《奥德赛》：忒勒玛科斯见到了斯巴达王墨涅拉奥斯，得知可以从变化多端的老滑头海神普洛透斯那里获得信息。普洛透斯向忒勒玛科斯告知了埃阿斯和阿伽门农的死，以及奥德修斯被女仙卡吕普索束缚在她的海岛。
《尤利西斯》：斯蒂芬漫步在海边，沉思着他所见到的和联想到的，形成绵延不断的意识流。他回想起自己在巴黎的时光，以及自己芬尼亚会的好友凯文·埃根，还有一些性的主题。
奥德赛
奥德赛（The Odyssey）是以普通的都柏林小市民利奥波德·布卢姆的活动为主线的部分，结束于布卢姆与迪达勒斯的相遇，对应着奥德修斯在海外的漂泊。时间跨度为上午八点到午夜十二点。
卡吕普索
时间：8:00
场景：布卢姆家
器官：肾脏
学科：经济学
颜色：橙色
象征物：宁芙
技巧：叙事（成熟的）
对应：卡吕普索-宁芙沐浴图；回忆-德鲁加茨肉铺；伊萨卡-锡安
《奥德赛》：奥德修斯出场时，在卡吕普索的海岛（有传说在直布罗陀附近）上不情愿地做着她的情人已经七年。雅典娜请求宙斯放奥德修斯回家，于是宙斯派赫尔墨斯向卡吕普索说明情况。卡吕普索最终同意协助奥德修斯返回家园。
《尤利西斯》：布卢姆出场时正在家里，位于都柏林西北城区的埃尔克斯大街7号，为他和他妻子（以及他的猫）准备早餐。我们同时得知他喜好吃羊腰子等动物的内脏。布卢姆走到楼上，看到妻子还躺在那张床上，想起那是从直布罗陀运来的老古董。然后他出门到德鲁加茨肉铺买了一个猪腰子，并对街上看到的女人们展开联想。回到家时他发现有两封新信和一张明信片，其中写给摩莉的一封来自摩莉的经纪人（兼情人）“一把火”鲍伊兰，他正筹划着一场邀请摩莉参加的巡回演出，另一封是布卢姆在照相馆工作的十五岁的女儿米莉写给他的感谢信。他然后给摩莉送上早餐，盯起挂在墙上的宁芙沐浴图看。本章最后在布卢姆听到乔治教堂的钟声，并想到即将参加好友帕特里克·迪格南的葬礼而产生的感慨中结束，
食忘忧果的种族
时间：10:00
场景：布卢姆在都柏林的游荡
器官：生殖器
学科：植物学、化学
颜色：无
象征物：圣餐
技巧：自恋情结
对应：食忘忧果的种族-拉车的马、领圣餐者、士兵、太监、入浴者、板球观众
阴间
时间：11:00
场景：灵车
器官：心脏
学科：宗教
颜色：白色、黑色
象征物：看门人
技巧：梦魇
对应：冥界的四条河流-多德河、爱尔兰大运河、皇家运河、利菲河；西西弗斯-马丁·坎宁安；克尔伯罗斯-科菲神父；哈迪斯-看门人；海格力斯-丹尼尔·奥康奈尔；埃尔潘诺-狄格南；阿伽门农-帕内尔；埃阿斯-门顿
埃俄罗斯
时间：12:00
场景：报社
器官：肺
学科：修辞学
颜色：红色
象征物：三段论
技巧：编辑
对应：埃俄罗斯-科劳福德；乱伦-新闻；浮岛-新闻界
莱斯特吕恭人
时间：13:00
场景：酒馆
器官：食道
学科：建筑学
颜色：无
象征物：警官
技巧：肠胃的蠕动
对应：安提菲斯-饥饿；诱饵-食物；莱斯特吕恭人-牙齿
斯库拉和卡律布狄斯
时间：14:00
场景：国立图书馆
器官：脑
学科：文学
颜色：无
象征物：伦敦斯特拉特福德
技巧：辩证法
对应：岩石-亚里士多德、教条、斯特拉特福德；漩涡-柏拉图、神秘主义、伦敦；尤利西斯-苏格拉底、耶稣、莎士比亚
游动山崖
时间：15:00
场景：都柏林街道
器官：血
学科：机械学
颜色：无
象征物：市民
技巧：迷宫
对应：博斯普鲁斯海峡-利菲河；欧洲海岸-总督；亚洲海岸-康尼神父；游岩-市民
塞壬
时间：16:00
场景：音乐沙龙
器官：耳
学科：音乐
颜色：无
象征物：女招待员
技巧：赋格曲
对应：塞壬-女招待员；海岛-酒吧
独眼巨人
时间：17:00
场景：小酒馆
器官：肌肉
学科：政治学
颜色：无
象征物：芬尼亚会
技巧：巨人症
对应：无人-俺；长树枝-雪茄；挑战-神化
瑙西卡
时间：20:00
场景：桑迪芒特海滩和附近的岩石
器官：眼睛、鼻子
学科：绘画
颜色：灰色、蓝色
象征物：处女
技巧：肿胀、消肿
对应：费阿刻斯人-海洋之星玛利亚；瑙西卡-格蒂
《奥德赛》：奥德修斯离开卡吕普索的岛后，遭波塞冬袭击被冲到费阿刻斯人居住海滩的河口附近。他在躲藏中被恰巧到河边洗衣的费阿刻斯公主瑙西卡和她的侍女们吵醒。他钻出来，把一个球交还给其中一个玩球的侍女，并赞美了瑙西卡的美貌，乞求她能帮助他，而瑙西卡答应了。
《尤利西斯》：锡茜·凯弗里，她的双胞胎兄弟和她的朋友伊棣·博德曼，还有坐得稍远一点的格蒂·麦克道尔，在桑迪芒特海滩上乘凉。格蒂对那些吵闹只会添乱的男孩子以及她那些有点庸俗的朋友们很不耐烦。她做着很详细的白日梦，包括她浪漫的想望还有精神抗争。双胞胎兄弟把球踢到了也在海滩上的布卢姆脚下，于是格蒂也把他编织到自己的思绪里。（但读者很难分清楚哪些是格蒂的意识流而哪些又是布卢姆的意识流。）烟火表演开始了，她的朋友们沿着海滩跑着，只有格蒂安静地坐在布卢姆不远处，向后仰去看烟火，而她正让布卢姆窥视到她的裙子内。布卢姆在她离开时发现她是一个瘸子，并且在她“展示”时行了手淫。单独一人的布卢姆的意识逐渐沿着女人、婚姻、嗅觉流动。他想为格蒂写一个关于他自己的故事，还想起了他的孩子们，还有格蒂。
太阳神牛
时间：22:00
场景：国立妇产医院
器官：子宫
学科：内科学
颜色：白色
象征物：母亲
技巧：胚胎发育
对应：特里纳克里亚岛-医院；太阳神的女儿-护士；太阳神-霍恩；牛-多产；罪行-欺骗
喀耳刻
时间：24:00
场景：红灯区的妓院
器官：运动系统
学科：魔术
颜色：无
象征物：妓女
技巧：幻觉
对应：喀耳刻-贝拉
回归
回归（The Nostos）是布卢姆和迪达勒斯共同活动的部分，最后以各自回家结束，对应着奥德修斯的回归。时间跨度从凌晨一点开始，而结束时间不十分明确。
欧迈俄斯
时间：1:00
场景：马车夫棚
器官：神经
学科：航海
颜色：无
象征物：水手
技巧：叙事（老年的）
对应：欧迈俄斯-“剥山羊皮”；尤利西斯-水手；墨兰提奥斯-库里
伊萨卡
时间：2:00
场景：布卢姆家
器官：骨骼
学科：自然科学
颜色：无
象征物：彗星
技巧：教理问答
对应：安提诺奥斯-壮鹿马利根；欧律玛科斯-一把火鲍伊兰；弓-理性；求婚者-踌躇
帕涅罗佩
时间：不明
场景：床上
器官：肉体
学科：无
颜色：无
象征物：大地
技巧：内心独白（女性的）
对应：帕涅罗佩-大地；网-运动
主要人物表
利奥波德·布卢姆：以替都柏林《自由人报》拉广告为业。其父鲁道尔夫·维 拉格是匈牙利裔犹太人，迁移到爱尔兰后改姓布卢姆。他化名“亨利·弗罗尔”， 与玛莎·克利弗德秘密通信。
玛莉恩·布卢姆：利奥波德之妻。其父特威迪（已故）曾在西班牙南端的英国要塞直布罗陀服役。因此，她生长在该地。她在都柏林是个小有名气的歌手，艺名 叫“特威迪夫人”。
斯蒂芬·迪达勒斯：乔伊斯的自传体长篇小说《艺术家年轻时的写照》中的主 人公。他毕业于克朗戈伍斯森林公学和皇家大学，目前在迪希校长创办的一家私立 学校任教。在图书馆发表关于莎士比亚的议论。
西蒙·迪达勒斯：斯蒂芬之父。年前丧妻，家境困难。
布莱泽斯·博伊兰：玛莉恩之情夫。正在筹划一次巡回歌唱演出，玛莉恩也在被邀之列。
勃克·穆利根：医科学生，与海恩斯一道住进了斯蒂芬所租的圆塔。
海恩斯：英国人，毕业于牛津大学。为了研究凯尔特文学而来到爱尔兰。
米莉：布卢姆与玛莉恩之独女，十五岁。在韦斯特米思郡穆林加尔市的一家照相馆工作。
帕狄·迪格纳穆：已故。生前曾在律师约翰·亨利·门顿的事务所工作，因酗被开除，患病而死。
马丁·坎宁翰：布卢姆之友，在都柏林堡任职（英国殖民统治机构）。他是个心地善良的人，多方照顾迪格纳穆的遗族，包括募集捐款。
布林夫人：原名乔西·鲍威尔，其夫丹尼斯·布林患有神经病。婚前她爱过布卢姆，一直不忘旧情。
里奇·古尔丁：斯蒂芬的舅舅，布卢姆之友。在科利斯一沃德律师事务所任会计师。他与内弟西蒙·迪达勒斯已绝交。
约翰·康米神父：方济各·沙勿略教堂的教长，耶稣会会长。斯蒂芬在克朗戈伍斯森林公学就读时，他曾任该校校长。
迈尔斯·克劳福德：《电讯晚报》的主编。
杰克·麦克休：大学教授，学者，经常为《电讯晚报》写社论。
本杰明·多拉德：本地一名歌手。他在替向吕便·杰借过高利贷的考利神父奔走，以便宽限几天还债日期。
弗莱明大妈：经常到布卢姆家来做家务的女人。
鲁迪：布卢姆与玛莉恩的独子，生于一八九四年，只活了十一天便夭折。
C·P·麦科伊：布卢姆的熟人，在都柏林市的尸体收容所做验尸官助手。其妻是个无名歌手。
班塔姆·莱昂斯：布卢姆的熟人，热衷于赛马。上午在街上与布卢姆相遇，听布卢姆说起“丢掉”，就想把赌注押在同名的马身上。后又接受利内翰的劝告，变 了卦。结果，还是“丢掉”获胜了。
科尼·凯莱赫：奥尼尔殡仪馆的经理，负责为迪格纳穆料理葬事。
杰克·鲍尔：供职于都柏林堡内的皇家爱尔兰警察总署。
吕使·杰：放高利贷的。有一次他儿子跳进了利菲河，被一位船夫救了起来。他却只给了船夫两先令。
汤姆·克甫：布卢姆之友，茶叶等商品的推销员。
内德·兰伯特：谷物商，其库房原是圣玛丽亚修道院的会议厅。
休·C·洛夫神父：他是萨林斯镇圣迈克尔教堂的本堂神父，为了写一本关于菲茨杰拉德家族的书，到兰伯特的库房来参观。他在都柏林拥有一所房子，出租给 考利神父。
考利神父：本·多拉德和西蒙·迪达勒斯之友。因还不起向吕便·杰借的高利贷，狼狈不堪。
乔（约瑟夫）·麦卡西·海国斯：布卢姆的同事，也替《自由人报》拉广告。
红穆雷：约翰·穆雷的绰号，《自由人报》的职员。
约瑟夫·帕特利克·南尼蒂：在爱尔兰出生的意大利人，《自由人报》社排字房工长。他又是英国议会下院议员兼都柏林市政委员。
杰·杰·奥莫洛伊：原为律师，后来患了肺病，落魄潦倒。
利内翰：《体育》报的赛马栏记者，曾调戏摩莉。
奥马登·伯克：斯蒂芬之友，新闻记者。
弗林：绰号叫“大鼻子”，布卢姆之友。
乔治·威廉·拉塞尔：笔名A·E·，爱尔兰诗人。他是当时仍健在的爱尔兰文艺复兴运动的指导者之一，任《爱尔兰家园报》主编。
托马斯·威廉·利斯特：公谊会教徒，爱尔兰国立图书馆馆长。
约翰·埃格林顿：原名威廉·阿克柏特里克·马吉，爱尔兰文艺复兴运动中的批评家，曾在图书馆与斯蒂芬辩论。
理查德·欧文·贝斯特：爱尔兰国立图书馆副馆长。
约翰·米林顿·辛格：爱尔兰文艺复兴运动的领导人之一，诗剧家，是斯蒂芬的熟人。
乔治·穆尔：爱尔兰小说家，斯蒂芬的熟人。
格雷戈里夫人：爱尔兰剧作家。原名伊萨贝拉·奥古斯塔·佩尔斯。她于一八九二年丧夫后，开始文学生涯，一九0四年任阿贝剧院经理。她是斯蒂芬的熟人。
阿瑟·格里菲思：爱尔兰政治家，原在都柏林当排字工人。一八九九年创办以争取爱尔兰民族独立为主旨的周刊《爱尔兰人联合报》。他是布卢姆的熟人。
查理·斯图尔特·巴涅尔：十九世纪末爱尔兰自治运动和民族主义领袖，已故。布卢姆和他有一面之缘。
约翰·霍华德·巴涅尔：查理·巴涅尔之弟。都柏林市政典礼官兼典当商代理 人。
拉里·奥罗克：布卢姆家附近的一家酒店的老板。
凯蒂·迪达勒斯}
布棣·迪达勒斯}斯蒂芬的幼妹尚在上学。
玛吉·迪达勒斯：斯蒂芬之妹。她从修女处讨些豌豆，替妹妹们煮汤吃。
迪丽·迪达勒斯：斯蒂芬之妹，长得最像长兄。她在街上向父亲西蒙要了点钱，花一便士买了一本《法语初级读本》。
盲青年：布卢姆曾搀着他走过马路，神经失常的卡什尔·法雷尔却差点儿把他撞倒。他到奥蒙德酒吧去，调了钢琴的音。
汤姆·罗赤福德：他以兜售赛马赌券为业，并热衷于发明机器。他曾搭救过一 名因中毒而昏迷过去的下水道工人。
高个儿约翰·范宁：都柏林市副行政长官，绰号“高个儿”。
帕特里克·阿洛伊修斯·迪格纳穆：帕狄·迪格纳穆的遗孤中最年长的一个。
约翰·怀斯·诺兰：布卢姆之友，关心迪格纳穆的遗孤，并对马丁·坎宁翰说，布卢姆为遗孤捐了五先令。
莉迪亚·杜丝：奥蒙德饭店的金发女侍。
米娜·肯尼迪：奥蒙德饭店的褐发女侍。
阿尔夫雷德·柏根：都柏林行政司法副长官助理，绰号叫“小个儿阿尔夫”。
威廉·亨勃尔·达德利伯爵：爱尔兰总督。
“市民”：原名迈克尔·丘萨克。他是盖尔体育协会创办者，自称“市民丘萨克”，因而得名。
格蒂·麦克道维尔：瘸腿美少女。
西茜·卡弗里：格蒂的女友，性情活泼。
伊迪·博德曼：格蒂的女友，性格矫情。
汤米·卡弗里} 西茵的双胞胎弟弟，时年四岁。
杰基·卡弗里}
雷吉·怀利：格蒂的男友，高中学生。
安德鲁·霍恩博士：霍利斯街国立妇产医院院长。
卡伦小姐：国立妇产医院护士。
米娜·博福伊太太：玛莉恩的女友，夜里在医院生一男婴，系难产。
亚历克·班农：医科学生，米莉的男友。
迪克森：实习大夫，布卢姆被蜂蜇伤后，曾由他包扎。斯蒂芬之友。
文森特·林奇：医科学生。他与女友在篱笆后面幽会时，给路过的康米神父（母校的老校长）撞见了。
弗兰克·科斯特洛：医科学生，因嗜酒如命，绰号叫潘趣（酒名）
威廉·马登：医科学生。
J．克罗瑟斯：医科学生。
贝洛·科恩夫人：妓院老鸨。
玛丽·德里斯科尔：布卢姆夫妇过去的女仆。
耶尔弗顿·巴里夫人}
贝林厄姆夫人 } ：都柏林上流社会淑女。
默雯·塔尔博伊贵妇人}
佐伊、基蒂、弗洛莉：妓女
士兵卡尔、士兵康舍顿：英国兵，把斯蒂芬击倒。
科利：斯蒂芬之友，因生活没有着落，向斯蒂芬借钱。
冈穆利：西蒙的旧友，后沦为市政府雇用的守夜人。
马尔维中尉：摩莉在直布罗陀时期的初恋对象。
“剥山羊皮”：马车夫棚的老板。
故事梗概
青年诗人斯蒂芬因母亲病危，从巴黎返回都柏林。母亲弥留之际用白瓷钵盛着绿色的胆汁，眼睛紧盯着他，迫使他下跪皈依宗教，他大声嚷道：“妈妈，就让我照这样活下去吧！”。斯蒂芬因此一直沉浸在悲哀与懊恼之中。丧母后，又因父亲成天酗酒从家中跑了出来，租了一座圆形炮塔，靠教书谋生。医科学生勃克·穆利根与英国人海恩斯也搬来同住。
海恩斯和斯芬一起去海边游泳，谈起信仰问题，斯蒂芬说：“你会在我身上看到一个可怕的自由思想的典型。但我又是两个主人的奴仆：一个英国人（维多利亚女王）,一个意大利人（罗马教皇）。 ”
斯蒂芬来到位于都柏林海滨的学校去上历史课，他被校长叫到办公室领薪水，校长开导他要注意攒钱，要懂得金钱的重要，并给他一篇文章，让他找个报社发表。斯蒂芬离开始学校后，来到海滩，望着汹涌的大海他浮想联篇，他把校长那篇原稿的空白处撕下来，将自己的问题胡乱地记在上面。
布卢姆是匈牙利裔犹太人，正为报纸承揽广告，他出去买了一副腰子。回家后，给还未起床的妻子莫莉端去早餐。莫莉是个小有名气的歌手，但生活不检点，好招蜂引蝶，她正准备下午与情人博依兰约会。布卢姆整天为此事烦恼，但在挣钱比自己多的老婆面前又抬不起头来。
上午10点，布卢姆化名弗洛尔，与一名叫玛落的女打字员交换情书。他是通过在报纸广告招聘女助手而跟玛落通起信来的。他到邮局取了玛落的回信，拐进无人的墙边看信，看完信不禁飘飘然起来。走到大桥底下，他把信撕成碎片丢了，然后到教堂去做弥撒。
11点，布卢姆乘马车去墓地参加迪格纳穆的葬礼。布卢姆突然看见博伊兰潇洒的身影，他想除了魅力之外，他妻子还能从他身上看到什么呢？“魅力”是都柏林最坏的家伙，博伊兰却凭它活得很快乐。灵柩下葬后，他仍在坟丛中徜徉，“两侧是悲痛的天使，十字架、断裂的圆柱、坟茔、仰望天空做祷告的石像。”他回想起夭折的儿子和自杀的父亲，他对死亡进行反思，他认为人死后埋在地下行不通，最好火葬或海葬。他又想到自己不过是一个广告经纪人，一个漂泊流浪的犹太人。布卢姆心中无限凄凉，甚至想到死亡，但马上又自我解嘲，回到现实中来。
中午，布卢姆到《自由报》去向主编说明自己揽来的广告图案，随后又赶到《电讯晚报》报馆，碰巧斯蒂芬也在这儿，他想向该报推荐校长的文章。主编却对文稿嗤之以鼻，斯蒂芬悻悻而出。想到刚领了薪水，就请大家去喝酒。半路上布卢姆在一座纪念碑旁看见西蒙的女儿（斯蒂芬的妹妹）在拍卖行外准备卖旧家具，顿生感慨：西蒙共有15个孩子，按照教义禁止节制生育，现在这些孩子连家带产都吃个精光。
下午1 点，布卢姆走进一家廉价的小饭馆，这里既脏且乱，人们在狼吞虎咽，丑态百出，吃相十分难看。于是他换了家高级一点的饭馆，在那遇到熟人弗林，弗林问他妻子巡回演出的经纪人是谁，这使他想起下午4 点妻子要与博依兰约会，心里顿感烦燥不安，一口气喝下一杯酒。从饭店出来走到图书馆前面时，看到情敌博依兰迎面走来，便赶紧躲进图书馆里。
下午2 点，斯蒂芬在图书馆里对评论家和学者发表关于莎士比亚的议论。布卢姆为躲避博依兰来到这，但他并没有卷进这场讨论，巧妙地躲过去了。他穿行在大街小巷，看见形形色色的人们正在忙碌着，教会会长康米神父正在接受人们的致敬，一位独腿的水兵求他施舍，他只给他一个祝福就走了，而他却非常高兴地与议员的妻子告别，并恳请她代向议员致意。一群老人正在为刚去世的迪格纳穆的孩子们募捐，布卢姆马上捐了5 先令，而总督副秘书长和副行政长官却一毛不拔。爱尔兰总督正携夫人及随从浩浩荡荡而来，洛夫神父想从总督手里弄到肥缺向他恭恭敬敬地鞠了一躬，西蒙为了掩盖没有扣好裤子而将帽子放在胸前，总督以为他是敬礼。斯蒂芬碰到衣衫褴褛的妹妹，想如何帮她，可自己还命运难卜；穷困的考利神父欠了高利贷，正四处托人求债主再宽限两天；发了财的洛夫神父已扣压了他的财产逼他交房租。
下午5 点，布卢姆约一个朋友在酒吧见面。一个无赖大肆攻击犹太人，身为犹太人的布卢姆实在忍无可忍，他反驳道：“门德尔松是犹太人，还有卡尔·马克思、斯宾诺莎。救世主耶稣也是个犹太人……你的天主也跟我的一样，也是个犹太人。”无赖气得抓起一只饼干罐就往布卢姆身上扔，但未能击中。布卢姆和朋友赶忙逃之夭夭。
晚上8 点，夏日的黄昏笼罩着世界，在遥远的西边，太阳沉落了。少女格蒂到圆形炮塔附近的海滩乘凉，她凝视远方，沉湎在冥想之中。布卢姆坐在不远的地方，深深地为格蒂的美貌所吸引。格蒂意识到布卢姆在注视着她，她想：也许嫁给这么一个中年绅士倒也挺好。二人的目光不期而遇，她觉得他的眼神犹如烈火，将自己从头烧到脚，她恨不得朝他伸出双臂让他过来，并将他的嘴唇触到自己白皙的前额，面对这双年轻天真的眼睛，布卢姆早已神不守舍了。格蒂离开海滩时，布卢姆才发现她原来是个瘸子，不禁失声叹道：“可怜的姑娘”。
晚上10点，布卢姆到妇产医院去探望难产的麦娜夫人。斯蒂芬和一群医学院的学生在那里高谈阔论，个个喝得酩酊大醉，布卢姆开始为斯蒂芬担心。斯蒂芬说还要请大家到酒店喝酒，就离开了医院。布卢姆也赶了去，一路上他的眼前出现了许多幻象。
他幻想着在一家妓院里达到高潮，后来他又荣升为市长，还当了爱尔兰国王，随后遭到群众的攻击被驱逐出境。布卢姆摆脱幻想后，到妓院去找斯蒂芬，斯蒂芬醉酒抡起手杖击碎了妓院的灯，来到街上胡说一通，两个英国兵认为他对国王不敬，将他打得昏死过去。布卢姆产生错觉把斯蒂芬当成自己那夭折的儿子，就将斯蒂芬搀扶起来带回家。在道德衰微、家庭分裂、传统观念沦丧的大千世界里，布卢姆和斯蒂芬精神上遭受挫折、内心充满动荡，他们终于在彼此身上找到了各自精神上所缺乏的东西。斯蒂芬找到了父亲，布卢姆找到了儿子。
天蒙蒙亮时，斯蒂芬告辞而去。布卢姆走进卧室后，发现室内的摆设略有变动，幻想着莫莉与博依兰幽会的情景，他推测与妻子发生关系的决不止博依兰一个人，还有原市长等熟人，他琢磨了半响妻子与这些情人究竟干了些什么，转念一想，他觉得这件事也不能全怪莫莉，自己没有满足她对夫妻生活的要求，他愿意再做一次努力。
莫莉处于半睡半醒之中，在莫莉的梦中出现有丈夫布卢姆、博依兰、初恋情人和丈夫刚刚说过的斯蒂芬，她又开始幻想和这位年轻人谈情说爱了。她朦胧地感到一种母性的满足和对一个青年男子的冲动。不过，她想得最多的还是丈夫，想到10年来夫妻生活的冷漠，想到他的许多可笑的事情，她觉得他还是个有教养，有礼貌，有丰富知识，有艺术修养的人，实在是个难得的好丈夫，她决心再给他一次机会。
相关评论
初阅《尤利西斯》，始于那句流传甚广的100个人中没有10个人能读完《尤利西斯》。
《尤利西斯》是爱尔兰著名的现代派小说家乔伊斯的著作，乔伊斯曾入都柏林大学专攻现代语言学，后赴欧洲大陆。乔伊斯的第一部短篇小说集是《都柏林人》，后又写自传体中篇小说《青年艺术家的肖像》。
文学界对于《尤利西斯》的评价，我觉得就如两个磁极。一些评论将《尤利西斯》的身价抬得很高，觉得它“是一部旷世奇作”；另一些评论又将它贬得很低，觉得它“粗俗不堪入目”。
而我始终是以一种膜拜的态度看待《尤利西斯》的，它是一部太能够显示文学功底的著作。《尤利西斯》洋洋洒洒一百万字，却只是描述了十八个小时的事情，我无法想象作者需要怎样的观察和想象，才能写出这样一部独特的著作。况，书中的出场人物并不多，只有布卢姆，斯蒂芬和莫莉三位主要人物。
《尤利西斯》的成功之处，在于对人物内心的细致刻画。乔伊斯以他惊人的文学功底，用一百万字讲述了三个人物在十八个小时内的活动。《尤利西斯》虽篇幅巨大，但毫无赘言，乔伊斯以他对人生和生活的认识和细腻的洞察力，描写了主人公的行动，语言和细微心理变化。《尤利西斯》中对内心活动的描写出神入化，三位主人公的每个细微的思想变化，都清晰真切地呈现在了读者面前。诸如说《尤利西斯》的第三章，乔伊斯用整整一章的篇幅刻画了乔伊斯的心理活动。
《尤利西斯》的第一主人公布卢姆是一位匈牙利裔的犹太人，他在都柏林的报社做广告推销员。布卢姆这一形象的价值超越了固有的身份，乔伊斯用自己深刻的社会经验和扎实的文学功底，把千千万万的爱尔兰市民都集中到了布卢姆身上。布卢姆的经历和性情，也恰恰属于诸多爱尔兰市民。
布卢姆的生活抱经沧桑，他幼子夭折，妻子不贞，自己常自欺欺人地在名存实亡的爱情中挣扎彷徨。布卢姆人到中年却一无所成，面对比自己薪水高几倍的莫莉，他自卑并且不自信。但布卢姆另一方面又自恃清高，甚至不愿与吃相不雅观的顾客在一个饭馆用餐。布卢姆热心血性，狭义地帮助醉酒的斯蒂芬。但另一方面，他也有着贪婪委琐的欲望，甚至曾试图欺侮一名海滩边的残废少女。
布卢姆苦闷彷徨，充满矛盾。他对现实迷茫但又充满希望，无奈但又期待奇迹。布卢姆失去了精神的支柱和进取的目的，生活和事业都遭受了沉重的打击。布卢姆的颓废，正反映了二十世纪初爱尔兰市民的孤独，迷茫和绝望。
乔伊斯将他十六年对于生活和社会的理解，都全部浓缩到了《尤利西斯》中，同时它又是一部价值超越了社会现实的著作，并且上升到了哲学的深度。
《奥德修记》闻名全世，被公认为是人类历史上一部伟大的史诗。而乔伊斯，他以过人的悟性写下了一部当代题材的《奥德修记》。《尤利西斯》每一章的内容，都采取了与《奥德修记》平行的结构，乔伊斯独具匠心，巧妙构思，使整部《尤利西斯》的结构与寓意都和《奥德修记》相照应。乔伊斯从史诗的深度申时现代生活，赋予了《尤利西斯》哲学的内涵。
一个作家的文学功底达到一定程度时，他的著作往往会渗透进哲学，诸如说《红楼梦》。《红楼梦》中的经典名言“假作真时真亦假，无为有处有还无”以及“赤条条来去无牵挂”，还有“好一似食鸟各投林，落了片白茫茫大地真干净”。这些都是作者对人生，对世界的哲学思考。
乔伊斯和曹雪芹同样地将对社会的感性认识上升到了理性思考，《尤利西斯》和《红楼梦》之所以是两部小说而又不仅仅是小说，也正在此。
曹雪芹著《红楼梦》是“字字看来皆是血，十年辛苦不寻常”，而乔伊斯著《尤利西斯》，用了十六年构思观察，七年专著写作。但，越是民族的文化，往往就难以是世界的文化。从此角度来说，《尤利西斯》和《红楼梦》有着相似的悲哀。
《红楼梦》无疑是一部登峰造极的伟大著作，曹雪芹在《红楼梦》中对中国古典文化的融合，已经达到了海纳百川的程度。《红楼梦》虽不过是部小说，却包含了几乎所有的中国古典文化精粹：诗词，曲赋，乐府，楹联，谜语，八股，请柬，祭文，奏章，书信，菜谱，帐单，药方，占卜，星相，`````《红楼梦》被世界公认是中国古典著作的最高峰，二月河前辈评价《红楼梦》时说，“《红楼梦》的成就，不仅是空前的，在某种意义上说，它也是绝后的。”
可正应了物极必反的原理，这样的一部伟大巨著，虽被世界公认却未被世界喜爱。诚然，《红楼梦》在世界书榜中位列第八位，压过了欧美大批举世闻名的著作，然而正如多数民族文化经典一样，《红楼梦》未成为世界普遍的文化。
《红楼梦》被译为几十种语言在世界各国发行，在欧美国家也建有红学研究会，可美国一位女记者曾直言不讳地说，她身边的朋友更多的是把《红楼梦》作为一本必读书目，而并非是出于喜欢。西欧的调查报告也清楚地表明，《红楼梦》在民间远不如《三国演义》，《封神榜》，甚至《金瓶梅》受欢迎。红楼梦在国外，更多的是被知识分子当作名著来浏览。
《尤利西斯》于一九二二年二月二日出版，它是乔伊斯十六年构思七年写作的成果，可出版后它长期被禁止在英美发行，直至一九三三年才重新流通。
《尤利西斯》出版后同样不为世人接受，上市后即在文学界引起了巨大的争议。弗吉尼亚伍尔夫斥责此书“粗俗不堪入目”，当时一些作家甚至毫不客气地把乔伊斯的签名赠阅本退还。只有艾略特等少数有慧眼的作家，意识到了《尤利西斯》的价值，竭力为它辩解。清华大学决定将《尤利西斯》列为必读书目时，同样引起了教育界和文学界的诸多反对。
每思及此，我就不禁感慨。《尤利西斯》可以是一部世界名著，也可以是一部旷世奇作，但它难以在全世界的读者中都受到欢迎。
乔伊斯和曹雪芹写出了这样的两部著作——《尤利西斯》和《红楼梦》，这究竟是他们的伟大，还是他们的悲哀``````
本作品为1998年全球读者投票评选二十世纪小说类第一名。
译者：萧乾 文洁若
译者序
第一章 第二章 第三章
第四章 第五章 第六章
第七章 第八章 第九章
第十章 第十一章 第十二章
第十三章 第十四章 第十五章
第十六章 第十七章 第十八章
(尤利西斯)与(奥德修纪)(对照) (尤利西斯·乔伊斯大事记) 主要人物表
译后记
Ulysses chronicles the passage of Leopold Bloom through Dublin during an ordinary day, 16 June 1904 (the day of Joyce's first date with his future wife, Nora Barnacle). The title alludes to Odysseus (Latinised into Ulysses), the hero of Homer's Odyssey, and establishes a series of parallels between characters and events in Homer's poem and Joyce's novel (e.g., the correspondence of Leopold Bloom to Odysseus, Molly Bloom to Penelope, and Stephen Dedalus to Telemachus). Joyce fans worldwide now celebrate 16 June as Bloomsday.
Ulysses contains approximately 265,000 words from a lexicon of 30,030 words (including proper names, plurals and various verb tenses), divided into eighteen episodes. Since publication, the book attracted controversy and scrutiny, ranging from early obscenity trials to protracted textual "Joyce Wars." Ulysses' stream-of-consciousness technique, careful structuring, and experimental prose—full of puns, parodies, and allusions, as well as its rich characterisations and broad humour, made the book a highly regarded novel in the Modernist pantheon. In 1999, the Modern Library ranked Ulysses first on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.