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Austen is the hot property of the entertainment world with new feature film versions of Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility on the silver screen and Pride and Prejudice hitting the TV airwaves on PBS. Such high visibility will inevitably draw renewed interest in the original source materials. These new Modern Library editions offer quality hardcovers at affordable prices.
Founded in 1906 by J.M. Dent, the Everyman Library has always tried to make the best books ever written available to the greatest number of people at the lowest possible price. Unique editorial features that help Everyman Paperback Classics stand out from the crowd include: a leading scholar or literary critic's introduction to the text, a biography of the author, a chronology of her or his life and times, a historical selection of criticism, and a concise plot summary. All books published since 1993 have also been completely restyled: all type has been reset, to offer a clarity and ease of reading unique among editions of the classics; a vibrant, full-color cover design now complements these great texts with beautiful contemporary works of art. But the best feature must be Everyman's uniquely low price. Each Everyman title offers these extensive materials at a price that competes with the most inexpensive editions on the market-but Everyman Paperbacks have durable binding, quality paper, and the highest editorial and scholarly standards. 内容简介
Jane Austen's last completed novel, Persuasion is a delightful social satire of England's landed gentry and a moving tale of lovers separated by class distinctions. After years apart, unmarried Anne Elliot, the heroine Jane Austen called "almost too good for me," encounters the dashing naval officer others persuaded her to reject, as he now courts the rash and younger Louisa Musgrove. Superbly drawn, these characters and those of Anne's prideful father, Sir Walter, the scheming Mrs. Clay, and the duplicitous William Elliot, heir to Kellynch Hall, become luminously alive—so much so that the poet Tennyson, visiting historic Lyme Regis, where a pivotal scene occurs, exclaimed: "Don't talk to me of the Duke of Monmouth. Show me the exact spot where Louisa Musgrove fell!"
Tender, almost grave, Persuasion offers a glimpse into Jane Austen's own heart while it magnificently displays the full maturity of her literary power. 作者简介
Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775 at Steventon near Basingstoke, the seventh child of the rector of the parish. She lived with her family at Steventon until they moved to Bath when her father retired in 1801. After his death in 1805, she moved around with her mother; in 1809, they settled in Chawton, near Alton, Hampshire. Here she remained, except for a few visits to London, until in May 1817 she moved to Winchester to be near her doctor. There she died on July 18, 1817.
As a girl Jane Austen wrote stories, including burlesques of popular romances. Her works were only published after much revision, four novels being published in her lifetime. These are Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816). Two other novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, were published posthumously in 1818 with a biographical notice by her brother, Henry Austen, the first formal announcement of her authorship. Persuasion was written in a race against failing health in 1815-16. She also left two earlier compositions, a short epistolary novel, Lady Susan, and an unfinished novel, The Watsons. At the time of her death, she was working on a new novel, Sanditon, a fragmentary draft of which survives.
简·奥斯汀,是英国著名女性小说家,她的作品主要关注乡绅家庭女性的婚姻和生活,以女性特有的细致入微的观察力和活泼风趣的文字真实地描绘了她周围世界的小天地。 精彩书摘
Chapter One
SIR WALTER Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs, changed naturally into pity and contempt, as he turned over the almost endless creations of the last century-and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which never failed-this was the page at which the favourite volume always opened:
Walter Elliot, born March 1, 1760, married, July 15, 1784, Elizabeth, daughter of James Stevenson, Esq. of South Park, in the county of Gloucester; by which lady (who died 1800) he has issue Elizabeth, born June 1, 1785; Anne, born August 9, 1787; a still-born son, Nov. 5, 1789; Mary, born Nov. 20, 1791.
Precisely such had the paragraph originally stood from the printer's hands; but Sir Walter had improved it by adding, for the information of himself and his family, these words, after the date of Mary's birth-"married, Dec. 16, 1810, Charles, son and heir of Charles Musgrove, Esq. of Uppercross, in the county of Somerset,"-and by inserting most accurately the day of the month on which he had lost his wife.
Then followed the history and rise of the ancient and respectable family, in the usual terms: how it had been first settled in Cheshire; how mentioned in Dugdale-serving the office of High Sheriff, representing a borough in three successive parliaments, exertions of loyalty, and dignity of baronet, in the first year of Charles II, with all the Marys and Elizabeths they had married; forming altogether two handsome duodecimo pages, and concluding with the arms and motto: "Principal seat, Kellynch Hall, in the county of Somerset," and Sir Walter's hand-writing again in this finale:
"Heir presumptive, William Walter Elliot, Esq., great grandson of the second Sir Walter."
Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot's character: vanity of person and of situation. He had been remarkably handsome in his youth; and, at fifty-four, was still a very fine man. Few women could think more of their personal appearance than he did; nor could the valet of any new made lord be more delighted with the place he held in society. He considered the blessing of beauty as inferior only to the blessing of a baronetcy; and the Sir Walter Elliot, who united these gifts, was the constant object of his warmest respect and devotion.
His good looks and his rank had one fair claim on his attachment; since to them he must have owed a wife of very superior character to any thing deserved by his own. Lady Elliot had been an excellent woman, sensible and amiable; whose judgment and conduct, if they might be pardoned the youthful infatuation which made her Lady Elliot, had never required indulgence afterwards.-She had humoured, or softened, or concealed his failings, and promoted his real respectability for seventeen years; and though not the very happiest being in the world herself, had found enough in her duties, her friends, and her children, to attach her to life, and make it no matter of indifference to her when she was called on to quit them.-Three girls, the two eldest sixteen and fourteen, was an awful legacy for a mother to bequeath; an awful charge rather, to confide to the authority and guidance of a conceited, silly father. She had, however, one very intimate friend, a sensible, deserving woman, who had been brought, by strong attachment to herself, to settle close by her, in the village of Kellynch; and on her kindness and advice, Lady Elliot mainly relied for the best help and maintenance of the good principles and instruction which she had been anxiously giving her daughters.
This friend, and Sir Walter, did not marry, whatever might have been anticipated on that head by their acquaintance.-Thirteen years had passed away since Lady Elliot's death, and they were still near neighbours and intimate friends; and one remained a widower, the other a widow.
That Lady Russell, of steady age and character, and extremely well provided for, should have no thought of a second marriage, needs no apology to the public, which is rather apt to be unreasonably discontented when a woman does marry again, than when she does not; but Sir Walter's continuing in singleness requires explanation.-Be it known then, that Sir Walter, like a good father, (having met with one or two private disappointments in very unreasonable applications) prided himself on remaining single for his dear daughter's sake. For one daughter, his eldest, he would really have given up any thing, which he had not been very much tempted to do. Elizabeth had succeeded, at sixteen, to all that was possible, of her mother's rights and consequence; and being very handsome, and very like himself, her influence had always been great, and they had gone on together most happily. His two other children were of very inferior value. Mary had acquired a little artificial importance, by becoming Mrs. Charles Musgrove; but Anne, with an elegance of mind and sweetness of character, which must have placed her high with any people of real understanding, was nobody with either father or sister: her word had no weight; her convenience was always to give way;-she was only Anne.
To Lady Russell, indeed, she was a most dear and highly valued god-daughter, favourite and friend. Lady Russell loved them all; but it was only in Anne that she could fancy the mother to revive again.
A few years before, Anne Elliot had been a very pretty girl, but her bloom had vanished early; and as even in its height, her father had found little to admire in her, (so totally different were her delicate features and mild dark eyes from his own); there could be nothing in them now that she was faded and thin, to excite his esteem. He had never indulged much hope, he had now none, of ever reading her name in any other page of his favourite work. All equality of alliance must rest with Elizabeth; for Mary had merely connected herself with an old country family of respectability and large fortune, and had therefore given all the honour, and received none: Elizabeth would, one day or other, marry suitably.
It sometimes happens, that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine than she was ten years before; and, generally speaking, if there has been neither ill health nor anxiety, it is a time of life at which scarcely any charm is lost. It was so with Elizabeth; still the same handsome Miss Elliot that she had begun to be thirteen years ago; and Sir Walter might be excused, therefore, in forgetting her age, or, at least, be deemed only half a fool, for thinking himself and Elizabeth as blooming as ever, amidst the wreck of the good looks of every body else; for he could plainly see how old all the rest of his family and acquaintance were growing. Anne haggard, Mary coarse, every face in the neighbourhood worsting; and the rapid increase of the crow's foot about Lady Russell's temples had long been a distress to him.
Elizabeth did not quite equal her father in personal contentment. Thirteen years had seen her mistress of Kellynch Hall, presiding and directing with a self-possession and decision which could never have given the idea of her being younger than she was. For thirteen years had she been doing the honours, and laying down the domestic law at home, and leading the way to the chaise and four, and walking immediately after Lady Russell out of all the drawing-rooms and dining-rooms in the country. Thirteen winters' revolving frosts had seen her opening every ball of credit which a scanty neighbourhood afforded; and thirteen springs shewn their blossoms, as she travelled up to London with her father, for a few weeks' annual enjoyment of the great world. She had the remembrance of all this; she had the consciousness of being nine-and-twenty, to give her some regrets and some apprehensions. She was fully satisfied of being still quite as handsome as ever; but she felt her approach to the years of danger, and would have rejoiced to be certain of being properly solicited by baronet-blood within the next twelvemonth or two. Then might she again take up the book of books with as much enjoyment as in her early youth; but now she liked it not. Always to be presented with the date of her own birth, and see no marriage follow but that of a youngest sister, made the book an evil; and more than once, when her father had left it open on the table near her, had she closed it, with averted eyes, and pushed it away.
She had had a disappointment, moreover, which that book, and especially the history of her own family, must ever present the remembrance of. The heir presumptive, the very William Walter Elliot, Esq. whose rights had been so generously supported by her father, had disappointed her.
She had, while a very young girl, as soon as she had known him to be, in the event of her having no brother, the future baronet, meant to marry him; and her father had always meant that she should. He had not been known to them as a boy, but soon after Lady Elliot's death Sir Walter had sought the acquaintance, and though his overtures had not been met with any warmth, he had persevered in seeking it, making allowance for the modest drawing back of youth; and in one of their spring excursions to London, when Elizabeth was in her first bloom, Mr. Elliot had been forced into the introduction.
He was at that time a very young man, just engaged in the study of the law; and Elizabeth found him extremely agreeable, and every plan in his favour was confirmed. He was invited to Kellynch Hall; he was talked of and expected all the rest of the year; but he never came. The following spring he was seen again in town, found equally agreeable, again encouraged, invited and expected, and again he did not come; and the next tidings were th...
沉醉于迷雾:一部关于失落、坚守与重逢的叙事诗 书名: 《迷航的灯塔》 作者: 伊莲娜·范德比尔特 出版社: 赫尔墨斯之翼出版(Hermes’ Wing Press) 装帧: 精装,附带烫金腰封 页数: 580页,附有作者亲笔绘制的伦敦地图插页 内容简介: 在维多利亚时代的晚期,当蒸汽时代的轰鸣逐渐被煤灰和布料的摩擦声所掩盖,人性中那些微妙、复杂的情感,如同伦敦浓雾中若隐若现的街灯,闪烁着难以捉摸的光芒。《迷航的灯塔》讲述的,正是一曲关于时间流逝、身份迷失以及对“归属”的执着追寻的宏大挽歌。 故事的主人公是伊莱亚斯·索恩,一位年轻的植物学家,他继承了家族位于肯特郡边缘一座饱经风霜的庄园——“桤木之歌”。这座庄园不仅仅是一处住所,更是他童年记忆的容器,一个被遗忘的植物园所环绕的秘密庇护所。伊莱亚斯的人生,被一场突如其来的变故彻底撕裂:他青梅竹马的未婚妻,美丽的、充满艺术气息的卡珊德拉·维恩,在一场前往埃及考古探险的船难中被官方宣告失踪。 卡珊德拉的离去,如同拔除了伊莱亚斯生命中的定海神针。他不再专注于他热爱的异域植物引种,而是将全部精力投入到对那次“意外”的调查中。他拒绝接受官方的解释,坚信卡珊德拉的失踪并非意外,而是某种精心策划的阴谋。在随后的七年里,伊莱亚斯成了一名在暗影中摸索的侦探,他的植物学知识成了他解读线索的独特工具——他能从残留的土壤微粒、古老的羊皮纸上的墨水成分中,探寻出不为人知的真相。 小说以其细腻的笔触,将读者引入一个由上流社会的精致沙龙与底层社会的阴暗弄堂交织而成的世界。伊莱亚斯追随着卡珊德拉留下的蛛丝马迹,从伦敦西区的皮货商铺,到诺福克海岸边那些充斥着走私者和异教徒传说的荒凉灯塔,每一步都伴随着他对逝去时光的缅怀与对卡珊德拉形象的重构。 身份的重塑与时代的暗流 卡珊德拉的失踪不仅影响了伊莱亚斯,也牵动了整个维恩家族的命运。卡珊德拉的叔父,一位在殖民地拥有巨大利益的实业家——阿奇博尔德·维恩,正试图巩固他在议会中的地位。他对待侄女的“死亡”表现出异乎寻常的冷漠,这让伊莱亚斯更加深信,这背后隐藏着巨大的利益冲突,可能涉及珍贵的文物、殖民地的资源分配,乃至一场险些颠覆某些既得利益集团的秘密发现。 伊莱亚斯结识了两位关键人物,他们如同一对光影般的向导,带领他深入迷局。 首先是薇拉·普雷斯科特,一位在苏荷区经营着一家古籍修复店的女子。薇拉看似柔弱,实则拥有过人的智慧和对密码学的精通。她对伊莱亚斯提供的零碎线索展现出了极大的兴趣,并最终揭示出卡珊德拉并非单纯的探险家,而是一名秘密为英国政府收集重要情报的“文化使者”。薇拉的出现,为伊莱亚斯冰冷的世界带来了一丝人性的暖意,但她身上那种对知识近乎偏执的渴求,也让伊莱亚斯时常感到不安。她似乎知道的比她所透露的要多得多。 其次是老德鲁伊,一位隐居在萨默塞特郡沼泽深处的退休海军情报官。德鲁伊曾与伊莱亚斯的父亲有过一段神秘的交集。他口齿不清,行为怪诞,却对十九世纪中叶东方的秘密社团了如指掌。通过德鲁伊,伊莱亚斯开始理解卡珊德拉留下的那些看似无意义的符号,实际上是一套复杂的航海密码,指向了一个位于地中海东部、被遗忘的岛屿。 迷雾中的抉择与情感的博弈 随着真相逐渐浮出水面,伊莱亚斯面临的不仅仅是揭露阴谋的危险,更是内心的煎熬。他开始怀疑,七年来他所追逐的卡珊德拉的影子,是否真的还存在于那个他深爱的、纯真的女子身上。或者,时间与经历已经将她塑造成了一个截然不同的、甚至对他充满敌意的个体? 小说的高潮部分,设置在一场盛大的“帝国文物归还”晚宴上。伊莱亚斯终于找到了证据,证明卡珊德拉当年带走的并非简单的文物,而是一份足以动摇英帝国在苏伊士运河地区统治地位的秘密条约。然而,当他准备揭露真相时,一个惊人的身影出现在宴会厅中央——卡珊德拉,她没有死,而是以一个化名,成功地融入了上流社会,成为了阿奇博尔德·维恩最得力的商业伙伴。 此时,伊莱亚斯必须做出最终抉择:是选择公开真相,摧毁他深爱的女人所建立起来的、看似坚固的“新生活”;还是选择沉默,将这份关于爱与背叛的沉重秘密,永远埋葬在“桤木之歌”的藤蔓之下。 《迷航的灯塔》是一部关于执念与救赎的史诗,它探讨了记忆如何塑造我们对现实的感知,以及在面对无可挽回的损失时,个体如何找到重新锚定生命的力量。它不仅仅是关于一个男人的寻找,更是关于那个时代背景下,所有知识分子在科学进步与道德困境中挣扎的群像。 读者将在这部小说中体验到: 维多利亚时代的细致入微的场景描绘: 从雾锁泰晤士河的码头到装饰华丽的维多利亚式温室,每一个环境都栩栩如生,仿佛触手可及。 复杂的心理剖析: 对伊莱亚斯在希望与绝望之间反复拉扯的内心世界的深度挖掘。 高智商的解谜过程: 结合了植物学、密码学和历史地理知识的层层推进的悬疑线索。 这部小说,献给所有相信,即便是最深的迷雾,也无法永远遮蔽住那束指引方向的,来自曾经的承诺之光的人。