Chapter One
There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further outdoor exercise was now out of the question.
I was glad of it; I never liked long walks, especially on chilly afternoons: dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed.
The said Eliza, John, and Georgiana were now clustered round their mamma in the drawing-room: she lay reclined on a sofa by the fireside, and with her darlings about her (for the time neither quarrelling nor crying) looked perfectly happy. Me, she had dispensed from joining the group, saying, "She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance; but that until she heard from Bessie, and could discover by her own observation that I was endeavouring in good earnest to acquire a more sociable and childlike disposition, a more attractive and sprightly manner--something lighter, franker, more natural, as it were--she really must exclude me from privileges intended only for contented, happy little children."
"What does Bessie say I have done?" I asked.
"Jane, I don't like cavillers or questioners; besides, there is something truly forbidding in a child taking up her elders in that manner. Be seated somewhere; and until you can speak pleasantly, remain silent."
A small breakfast-room adjoined the drawing-room, I slipped in there. It contained a bookcase; I soon possessed myself of a volume, taking care that it should be one stored with pictures. I mounted into the window-seat: gathering up my feet, I sat crosslegged, like a Turk; and, having drawn the red moreen curtain nearly close, I was shrined in double retirement.
Folds of scarlet drapery shut in my view to the right hand; to the left were the clear panes of glass, protecting, but not separating me from the drear November day. At intervals, while turning over the leaves in my book, I studied the aspect of that winter afternoon. Afar, it offered a pale blank of mist and cloud; near, a scene of wet lawn and storm-beat shrub, with ceaseless rain sweeping away wildly before a long and lamentable blast.
I returned to my book--Bewick's History of British Birds: the letterpress thereof I cared little for, generally speaking; and yet there were certain introductory pages that, child as I was, I could not pass quite as a blank. They were those which treat of the haunts of sea-fowl; of "the solitary rocks and promontories" by them only inhabited; of the coast of Norway, studded with isles from its southern extremity, the Lindeness, or Naze, to the North Cape--
Where the Northern Ocean, in vast whirls,
Boils round the naked, melancholy isles
Of farthest Thule; and the Atlantic surge
Pours in among the stormy Hebrides.
Nor could I pass unnoticed the suggestion of the bleak shores of Lapland, Siberia, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, Iceland, Greenland, with "the vast sweep of the Arctic Zone, and those forlorn regions of dreary space--that reservoir of frost and snow, where firm fields of ice, the accumulation of centuries of winters, glazed in Alpine heights above heights, surround the pole, and concentre the multiplied rigours of extreme cold." Of these death-white realms I formed an idea of my own: shadowy, like all the half-comprehended notions that float dim through children's brains, but strangely impressive. The words in these introductory pages connected themselves with the succeeding vignettes, and gave significance to the rock standing up alone in a sea of billow and spray; to the broken boat stranded on a desolate coast; to the cold and ghastly moon glancing through bars of cloud at a wreck just sinking.
I cannot tell what sentiment haunted the quite solitary churchyard, with its inscribed headstone; its gate, its two trees, its low horizon, girdled by a broken wall, and its newly risen crescent, attesting the hour of eventide.
The two ships becalmed on a torpid sea, I believed to be marine phantoms.
The fiend pinning down the thief's pack behind him, I passed over quickly: it was an object of terror.
So was the black, horned thing seated aloof on a rock, surveying a distant crowd surrounding a gallows.
Each picture told a story; mysterious often to my undeveloped understanding and imperfect feelings, yet ever profoundly interesting: as interesting as the tales Bessie sometimes narrated on winter evenings, when she chanced to be in good humour; and when, having brought her ironing-table to the nursery-hearth, she allowed us to sit about it, and while she got up Mrs. Reed's lace frills, and crimped her nightcap borders, fed our eager attention with passages of love and adventure taken from old fairy tales and older ballads; or (as at a later period I discovered) from the pages of Pamela, and Henry, Earl of Moreland.
With Bewick on my knee, I was then happy: happy at least in my way. I feared nothing but interruption, and that came too soon. The breakfast-room door was opened.
"Boh! Madam Mope!" cried the voice of John Reed; then he paused: he found the room apparently empty.
"Where the dickens is she?" he continued. "Lizzy! Georgy! (calling to his sisters) Jane is not here: tell mamma she is run out into the rain--bad animal!"
"It is well I drew the curtain," thought I, and I wished fervently he might not discover my hiding-place: nor would John Reed have found it out himself; he was not quick either of vision or conception; but Eliza just put her head in at the door, and said at once: "She is in the window-seat, to be sure, Jack."
And I came out immediately, for I trembled at the idea of being dragged forth by the said Jack.
"What do you want?" I asked with awkward diffidence.
"Say, 'what do you want, Master Reed,' " was the answer. "I want you to come here"; and seating himself in an arm-chair, he intimated by a gesture that I was to approach and stand before him.
John Reed was a schoolboy of fourteen years old; four years older than I, for I was but ten; large and stout for his age, with a dingy and unwholesome skin; thick lineaments in a spacious visage, heavy limbs and large extremities. He gorged himself habitually at table, which made him bilious, and gave him a dim and bleared eye with flabby cheeks. He ought now to have been at school; but his mamma had taken him home for a month or two, "on account of his delicate health." Mr. Miles, the master, affirmed that he would do very well if he had fewer cakes and sweetmeats sent him from home; but the mother's heart turned from an opinion so harsh, and inclined rather to the more refined idea that John's sallowness was owing to over-application, and, perhaps, to pining after home.
John had not much affection for his mother and sisters, and an antipathy to me. He bullied and punished me; not two or three times in the week, nor once or twice in a day, but continually: every nerve I had feared him, and every morsel of flesh on my bones shrank when he came near. There were moments when I was bewildered by the terror he inspired, because I had no appeal whatever against either his menaces or his inflictions; the servants did not like to offend their young master by taking my part against him, and Mrs. Reed was blind and deaf on the subject: she never saw him strike or heard him abuse me, though he did both now and then in her very presence; more frequently, however, behind her back.
Habitually obedient to John, I came up to his chair: he spent some three minutes in thrusting out his tongue at me as far as he could without damaging the roots: I knew he would soon strike, and while dreading the blow, I mused on the disgusting and ugly appearance of him who would presently deal it. I wonder if he read that notion in my face; for, all at once, without speaking, he struck suddenly and strongly. I tottered, and on regaining my equilibrium retired back a step or two from his chair.
"That is for your impudence in answering mamma a while since," said he, "and for your sneaking way of getting behind curtains, and for the look you had in your eyes two minutes since, you rat!"
Accustomed to John Reed's abuse, I never had an idea of replying to it: my care was how to endure the blow which would certainly follow the insult.
"What were you doing behind the curtain?" he asked.
"I was reading."
"Show the book."
I returned to the window and fetched it thence.
"You have no business to take our books; you are a dependant, mamma says; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live here with gentlemen's children like us, and eat the same meals we do, and wear clothes at our mamma's expense. Now, I'll teach you to rummage my bookshelves: for they are mine; all the house belongs to me, or will do in a few years. Go and stand by the door, out of the way of the mirror and the windows."
I did so, not at first aware what was his intention; but when I saw him lift and poise the book and stand in act to hurl it, I instinctively started aside with a cry of alarm: not soon enough, however; the volume was flung, it hit me, and I fell, striking my head against the door and cutting it. The cut bled, the pain was sharp: my terror had passed its climax; other feelings succeeded.
"Wicked and cruel boy!" I said. "You are like a murderer--you are like a slave-driver--you are like the Roman emperors!"
…
這本《簡·愛》英文原版,是我近期閱讀體驗中最滿意的一次。平裝的設計,讓我覺得更加親切和實用,我可以隨身攜帶,隨時隨地沉浸其中。打開書,我就被那種古樸典雅的排版風格吸引瞭,字體大小適中,印刷清晰,閱讀起來非常舒服,一點都不會感到疲憊。我一直對英語文學有著濃厚的興趣,而《簡·愛》作為一部世界名著,用英文原版來閱讀,對我來說,是一種至高無上的享受。我能夠直接感受到作者對於人物內心世界的細緻描繪,那些細膩的情感,那些深刻的哲思,都通過英文的語匯和句式,得到最淋灕盡緻的錶達。每一次翻開這本書,我都會被簡·愛那堅韌不拔的精神所打動,她對愛情的忠誠,對自由的嚮往,都通過她自己的語言,變得更加鮮活、更加震撼。這本書,不隻是一個故事,更是一次心靈的洗禮,而英文原版,則讓我得到瞭最純粹、最深刻的體驗。
評分我對這本《簡·愛》的喜愛,很大程度上源於它那份純粹的、不加修飾的英文錶達。我一直認為,想要真正理解一個故事的靈魂,最好的方式就是去讀它的源頭。中文翻譯固然精彩,但總會有一些難以跨越的文化和語言鴻溝。而這本平裝版的英文原著,就像一麵清澈的鏡子,讓我得以窺見夏洛蒂·勃朗特筆下那個獨立、堅韌的靈魂最真實的麵貌。我特彆喜歡它在細節上的描繪,那些關於人物內心世界的細膩刻畫,通過英文的語匯和句式,顯得更加深刻和震撼。我常常會沉浸在簡·愛那些充滿力量的內心獨白中,感受她所承受的痛苦、她內心的掙紮,以及她對自由和尊嚴的不懈追求。每一次閱讀,都能感受到語言的魅力,那種精準、生動,又充滿情感張力的錶達,讓人拍案叫絕。這本書不僅僅是一部小說,更像是一堂關於人性、關於勇氣、關於愛的深刻課程,而英文原版,則是我學習這堂課程最直接、最有效的方式。
評分這本《簡·愛》的平裝版本,對我來說,絕對是物超所值的一次購買。拿到手裏的時候,就覺得它有一種低調的質感,不張揚,卻透露齣一種沉甸甸的分量。頁麵的紙質、印刷的清晰度,都完全符閤我對一本好書的期待。更重要的是,閱讀英文原版,讓我有機會去感受夏洛蒂·勃朗特文字的原汁原味。我一直覺得,語言是思想的載體,而英文的錶達方式,尤其是19世紀的文學語言,有著其獨特的韻味和魅力。通過閱讀這本原著,我能夠更深入地理解簡·愛這個角色的復雜性,以及她所處的社會環境對她的影響。那些英文單詞的選用,那些句子的排列組閤,都仿佛在訴說著一個鮮活的故事,讓我身臨其境。我常常會因為某個詞語的精準錶達而驚嘆,或者因為某個句子所蘊含的情感深度而動容。這本書,不僅讓我重溫瞭經典,更是一次對英語學習的極大促進。
評分選擇這本《簡·愛》的英文原版平裝,是我一直以來的一個小小願望。終於拿到手,它的質感確實沒有讓我失望,紙張的觸感溫潤,印刷清晰,雖然是平裝,但裝訂牢固,翻閱起來非常舒適。我一直認為,文學作品最核心的魅力,在於其原創的語言。中文翻譯雖然精妙,但總歸是隔瞭一層。而閱讀英文原版,就像直接品嘗陳年的佳釀,那種原汁原味的醇厚感,是任何轉述都無法替代的。我尤其喜歡作者在描寫簡·愛內心世界時的那些精巧的詞匯和句子結構,它們能夠精準地傳達齣人物復雜的思緒和情感。每一次閱讀,都能從中體會到英語作為一種語言的細膩和力量,那種情感的層次感和語境的微妙變化,都讓我受益匪淺。這本書,對我而言,不僅僅是一部小說,更是一次沉浸式的語言和情感之旅,而英文原版,無疑是開啓這場旅程的最佳鑰匙。
評分這本《簡·愛》簡直是打開瞭我對經典文學的另一扇窗!收到的時候,就為這平裝版的質感驚喜不已。不是那種硬邦邦的精裝,也不是 flimsy 的紙質,恰到好處的厚度和柔韌度,拿在手裏,有一種溫暖而踏實的觸感。翻開書頁,那排版和字體,是我一直以來閱讀英文原版書籍所鍾愛的類型,清晰、優雅,字裏行間似乎帶著一種沉靜的力量,仿佛作者本人就坐在我對麵,娓娓道來。我一直對英語的細微之處和錶達方式很感興趣,而閱讀原版《簡·愛》,無疑是一種極緻的體驗。那些在中文翻譯中可能會被削弱或改變的語境、情感的微妙層次,在英文原著裏得到瞭最直接、最生動的展現。我常常會停下來,反復咀嚼某個詞匯,或者某一句的句式結構,體會它所傳達齣的力量感和情感張力。每一次閱讀,都能從中獲得新的理解和感悟,這種沉浸式的閱讀體驗,是任何摘要或解讀都無法比擬的。這本書不僅僅是一本書,更像是一位老友,在寂靜的夜晚,陪我一同經曆那些起伏跌宕的人生。
評分上學的時候看過,現在還想看,就買瞭
評分這紙張就是小時候試捲的紙張嘛
評分感覺紙質有點不太好。
評分這本書昨天收到的物流很快 摸著也好隻是有一股味道 當然啦新書都是這樣的好評?
評分此書盜版...看看印刷的邊都不一樣大!十分劣質....紙就不評價瞭、哪裏可以舉報
評分書挺不錯的,買來送人
評分以為是硬殼的,沒想到是軟殼的,還行吧做活動買的。
評分這本名著非常好,值得一讀!
評分還不錯吧,字體有點兒小瞭
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