1、The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Howthorne 《红字》 霍桑著
内容简介······
Nathaniel Hawthorne was already a man of forty-six, and a tale writer of some twenty-four years' standing, when "The Scarlet Letter" appeared. He was born at Salem, Mass., on July 4th, 1804, son of a sea-captain. He led there a shy and rather sombre life; of few artistic encouragements, yet not wholly uncongenial, his moody, intensely meditative temperament being considered. Its colours and shadows are marvelously reflected in his "Twice-Told Tales" and other short stories, the product of his first literary period. Even his college days at Bowdoin did not quite break through his acquired and inherited reserve; but beneath it all, his faculty of divining men and women was exercised with almost uncanny prescience and subtlety. "The Scarlet Letter," which explains as much of this unique imaginative art, as is to be gathered from reading his highest single achievement, yet needs to be ranged with his other writings, early and late, to have its last effect. In the year that saw it published, he began "The House of the Seven Gables," a later romance or prose-tragedy of the Puritan-American community as he had himself known it - defrauded of art and the joy of life, "starving for symbols" as Emerson has it. Nathaniel Hawthorne died at Plymouth, New Hampshire, on May 18th, 1864.
The following is the table of his romances, stories, and other works:
Fanshawe, published anonymously, 1826; Twice-Told Tales, 1st Series, 1837; 2nd Series, 1842; Grandfather's Chair, a history for youth, 1845: Famous Old People (Grandfather's Chair), 1841 Liberty Tree: with the last words of Grandfather's Chair, 1842; Biographical Stories for Children, 1842; Mosses from an Old Manse, 1846; The Scarlet Letter, 1850; The House of the Seven Gables, 1851: True Stories from History and Biography (the whole History of Grandfather's Chair), 1851 A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys, 1851; The Snow Image and other Tales, 1851: The Blithedale Romance, 1852; Life of Franklin Pierce, 1852; Tanglewood Tales (2nd Series of the Wonder Book), 1853; A Rill from the Town-Pump, with remarks, by Telba, 1857; The Marble Faun; or, The Romance of Monte Beni (4 EDITOR'S NOTE) (published in England under the title of "Transformation"), 1860, Our Old Home, 1863; Dolliver Romance (1st Part in "Atlantic Monthly"), 1864; in 3 Parts, 1876; Pansie, a fragment, Hawthorne' last literary effort, 1864; American Note-Books, 1868; English Note Books, edited by Sophia Hawthorne, 1870; French and Italian Note Books, 1871; Septimius Felton; or, the Elixir of Life (from the "Atlantic Monthly"), 1872; Doctor Grimshawe's Secret, with Preface and Notes by Julian Hawthorne, 1882.
Tales of the White Hills, Legends of New England, Legends of the Province House, 1877, contain tales which had already been printed in book form in "Twice-Told Tales" and the "Mosses" "Sketched and Studies," 1883.
Hawthorne's contributions to magazines were numerous, and most of his tales appeared first in periodicals, chiefly in "The Token," 1831-1838, "New England Magazine," 1834,1835; "Knickerbocker," 1837-1839; "Democratic Review," 1838-1846; "Atlantic Monthly," 1860-1872 (scenes from the Dolliver Romance, Septimius Felton, and passages from Hawthorne's Note-Books).
Works: in 24 volumes, 1879; in 12 volumes, with introductory notes by Lathrop, Riverside Edition, 1883.
Biography, etc. ; A. H. Japp (pseud. H. A. Page), Memoir of N. Hawthorne, 1872; J. T. Field's "Yesterdays with Authors," 1873 G. P. Lathrop, "A Study of Hawthorne," 1876; Henry James English Men of Letters, 1879; Julian Hawthorne, "Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife," 1885; Moncure D. Conway, Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1891; Analytical Index of Hawthorne's Works, by E. M. O'Connor 1882.
2、The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 《哈克贝利.芬历险记》马克.吐温著
内容简介······
Description:
Mark Twain's classic novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, tells the story of a teenaged misfit who finds himself floating on a raft down the Mississippi River with an escaping slave, Jim. In the course of their perilous journey, Huck and Jim meet adventure, danger, and a cast of characters who are sometimes menacing and often hilarious.
Though some of the situations in Huckleberry Finn are funny in themselves (the cockeyed Shakespeare production in Chapter 21 leaps instantly to mind), this book's humor is found mostly in Huck's unique worldview and his way of expressing himself. Describing his brief sojourn with the Widow Douglas after she adopts him, Huck says: "After supper she got out her book and learned me about Moses and the Bulrushers, and I was in a sweat to find out all about him; but by and by she let it out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time; so then I didn't care no more about him, because I don't take no stock in dead people." Underlying Twain's good humor is a dark subcurrent of Antebellum cruelty and injustice that makes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a frequently funny book with a serious message.
3、The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James 《贵妇画像》亨利.詹姆斯著
内容简介······
The Portrait of A Lady, is a novel about the failure fate of a Lady whose dream did not come true. It is about the contrast between wish and failure, the hope and disillusion. The main character Isabel Archer, a young, clever, quick , decent and charming American girl, across the Ocean of Atlantic escorted by her aunt who wanted to present Isabel a noble, classy and old English world. Her aunt thought she was the kind of clever girls who just need hope and opportunity.
Isabel is that kind of girl full of imagination as well as longing for knowledge. Her intimate friend Miss Stackpole is a correspondence of the Interview, a modern type of woman, who had great influence on Isabel. No sooner Isabel came to England than an English noble man Lord Warburton and another rich American man Casper Goodwood who followed Isabel to England had both proposed to Isabel out of pure love, however, Isabel refused their proposes, she wanted to see more of her life. She wanted to surf in it herself. She was so charming that her cousin Ralph also fell in love with here, but he got a disease and his life was limited. He hided his secret love and wanted to make Isabel an independent girl, so that she could choose her own life free. He suggested his father to give a large mount of surplus property to Isabel, thus, he made Isable, a rich woman. But to his disappoint, his selfless pure love of his cousin had brought a disaster to the inexperience innocent girl, she became a prey of a pair of greedy inscrutable fortune-hunters. Madame Merle, Isabel’s new friend, seeming charming and decentful, made the union of Isabel and Bilbert Osmond, who appeared charming and individual. In fact, Merle and Osmond had an illegal daughter pansy, then Isabel became the stepmother of pansy. Not long after her marrying, Isabel realized Osmond had no inner beauty at all, he lived in envious and prejudice. He was nothing but a narcissist. She had not supposed her own free choice is the worst. She lived in a world of darkness, a world of dumbness, a world of suffocation. It’s not in the end of the novel did Isabel know the secret of her inheriting money and the evil deeds of Madam Merle and Osmond. Yet her life had changed greatly, though Lord Warburton and Casper Goodwood still loved her, she chose to went back to her husband out of her deep love for her stepdaughter Pansy .
The fate of Isabel is so miserable in a desperate way, her cousin’s love had ruined her, which surely made Ralph feel regret and pain. Her wanting of seeing life had punished her.
Perhaps we all want us or even the character in a novel can have a happy ending. We want to see the brightness of the world and life, so we are accustomed to see the hopeless destiny of Isabel, anyhow, at the end of the novel, we can assume another hope, Isabel’s rescuing of another pure, decent spirit.
4.Moby Dick by Herman Melville 《白鲸》麦尔维尔著
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The voyage of the whaling ship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab, who leads his crew on a hunt for the great whale Moby Dick, reveals a profound meditation on society, nature, and the human struggle for meaning, happiness, and salvation. Often considered the epitome of American Romanticism, the novel is now considered one of the greatest novels in the English language.
5.Martin Eden by Jack London 《马丁.伊登》 杰克.伦敦著
内容简介······
马丁伊登是美国小说家杰克伦敦的半自传体小说.
马丁伊登是一个水手,在遇见ruth之后,他喜欢上了ruth,并且因为她的缘故开始学习文学.从最基本的学起,忍受住生活的重压,并逐渐开始写文稿,稿子一次一次被退回,甚至ruth也不欣赏他写的东西.eden逐渐发现他原先崇拜的ruth对文学其实并不内行,尽管二人相爱,但是现实的阻力太大,并且二人对于martin前途的观点也大相径庭.martin生活很艰难,负债累累.经常要出海挣钱,以便接下来的日子可以专心写作.martin认识了一些底层人民和一些社会主义者,并被一个小报记者描述成为激烈的革命者.这些都与 ruth的观点格格不入.二人终于分手.martin的文章忽然之间开始走红,他体会到了人们对于他态度的巨大转变.ruth也跑到他面前要求与他复合. 然而martin看透了世间的人情冷暖,在一艘轮船上自杀,结束自己的生命.
martin是一个理想主义者,为了自己的理想他可以舍弃一切,他的理想体现在对ruth和成名的追求上,但是他的理想一个是最终幻灭(ruth), 另一个是迟迟不能实现.此时的martin肯定是心灰意冷,但是当成功最终来临,他一夜成名,并且ruth重新投入他的怀抱,他却自杀而死,不是成功来得太快,让他难以承受,而是因为他的梦想最终还是破灭,他虽然实现了文学和爱情上的成功,可是这与他从前的认识却是截然不同的,事实证明,他原来所期待的爱情原来是如此经不起考验,他成名后对人们的反应也变得无动于衷.如果说故事的结局是理性的,那么只能说martin对于很小的一部分理想主义者具有典型性.
