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With amazing vividness, Nina Foch essays Henry James's earliest (1881) and perhaps most accessible masterpiece. A penniless American girl is brought to Europe where her beauty, ingenuousness, and na?veté attract a variety of suitors. In spite of wanting to do everything right, everything comes out wrong in this perceptive, subtle, and multilayered psychological novel, which Foch plays like a musical instrument. A rather loud one -- she hits all the notes correctly but coarsely. The effect is like a bordello pianist--albeit one with nimble fingers--playing Chopin on an old upright. A maladroit abridgment causes occasional confusion. 內容簡介
Capturing the grandeur of a gracious, splendid Europe of wealth and Old World sensibilities, this glorious, complex novel has become a touchstone for a great writer's entire literary achievement. From the opening pages, when the high-spirited American girl Isabel Archer arrives at the English manor Gardencourt, James's luminous, superbly crafted prose creates an atmosphere of intensity, expectation, and incomparable beauty.
Isabel, who has been taken abroad by an eccentric aunt to fulfill her potential, attracts the passions of a British aristocrat and a brash American, as well as the secret adoration of her invalid cousin, Ralph Touchett. But her vulnerability and innocence lead her not to love but to a fatal entrapment in intrigue, deception, and betrayal. This brilliant interior drama of the forming of a woman's consciousness makes The Portrait of a Lady a masterpiece of James's middle years. 作者簡介
Henry James was born on April 15, 1843, on Washington Place in New York to the most intellectually remarkable of American families. His father, Henry Jane Sr., was a brilliant and eccentric religious philosopher; his brother was the first great American psychologists and the author of the influential Pragmatism; his sister, Alice, though an invalid for most of her life, was a talented conversationalist, a lively letter writer, and a witty observer of the art and politics of her time.
In search of the proper education for his children, Henry senior sent them to schools in America, France, Germany, and Switzerland. Returning to America, Henry junior lived in Newport, briefly attended Harvard Law School, and in 1864 began contributing stories and book reviews to magazines. Two more trips to Europe led to his final decision to settle there, first in Paris in 1875, then in London next year.
James's first major novel, Roderick Hudson, appeared in 1875, but it was "Daisy Miller" (1878) that brought him international fame as the chronicler of American expatriates and their European adventures. His novels include The American (1877), Washington Square (1880), Princess Casamassia (1886), and the three late masterpieces, The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903) and The Garden Bowl (1904). He also wrote plays, criticism, autobiography, travel books (including The American Scene, 1907) and some of the finest shot stories in the English language.
His later works were little read during his lifetime but have since come to be recognized as forerunners of literary modernism. Upon the outbreak of World War I, James threw his energies into war relief work and decided to adopt British citizenship. One month before his death, in 1916, he received the Order of Merit from King George V.,,
好的,以下是一本虛構的圖書簡介,內容不涉及《貴婦的肖像》。 --- 《星塵彼岸:失落文明的航海日誌》 探索未知,追尋迴響的史詩 作者: 伊蓮娜·維斯珀(Elara Vesper) 齣版信息: 蒼穹之眼齣版社,首版精裝 頁數: 880頁(含全彩插圖與星圖) 裝幀: 硬殼精裝,附帶燙金書簽 --- 內容提要: 《星塵彼岸》並非一部單純的科幻小說,它是一部宏大敘事下的編年史,一捲跨越瞭數韆年時空的文明挽歌。本書記錄瞭“探尋者號”遠徵隊,在失聯三百年的時間裏,對銀河係邊緣——被命名為“寂靜之環”的未知扇區所進行的孤寂而艱險的航行。 故事的核心,圍繞著失落的泰拉維安(Terra-Vian)帝國遺跡展開。泰拉維安文明,一個被所有已知星際聯盟曆史所遺忘的古老種族,據說掌握瞭超越空間摺疊的“以太穿梭”技術。他們的文明在一夜之間蒸發,隻留下瞭漂浮在虛空中的巨型紀念碑和一些無法破譯的加密信息。 第一部:啓航與幽靈信號 故事伊始,時間設定在人類文明步入“星際聯邦時代”的第四個韆年。探尋者號,一艘裝備瞭實驗性“奇點驅動”引擎的科學考察船,肩負著對泰拉維安文明殘跡進行初步勘探的任務。船長,經驗豐富的宇航生物學傢卡西烏斯·雷恩,帶領著一支由語言學傢、古代物理學傢和基因修復專傢組成的精英團隊,駛入瞭聯邦官方劃定的“禁區”——寂靜之環。 前期的航行平穩而充滿理論上的興奮,直到他們在編號為“Χ-734”的星雲深處,捕獲到瞭一段微弱但結構異常復雜的信號。這段信號並非無綫電波,而是一種通過扭麯局部引力場産生的“時空迴響”。語言學傢莉婭·索爾,憑藉其對失傳象形文字的深刻理解,初步判定這段迴響指嚮一處被稱為“起源之眼”的中心點。 然而,深入信號源的旅程充滿瞭危險。探尋者號遭遇瞭無法解釋的現象:船員經曆瞭同步的、集體性的夢境,夢中充斥著陌生的色彩和令人心悸的巨大結構。這些並非簡單的幻覺,而是更深層次的、對泰拉維安信息流的無意識接入。 第二部:琥珀世界與時間悖論 在對信號源的追蹤中,船隊抵達瞭一個被高密度惰性氣體環繞的行星係統。這顆行星,被命名為“琥珀世界”,其地錶被一層厚厚的、近乎固態的橙色晶體所覆蓋。深入地錶後,團隊發現瞭泰拉維安的第一個完整遺跡——一座巨大的、未受侵蝕的城市,仿佛被時間凍結在瞭最後運行的那一刻。 這裏的建築材料對所有已知物理學定律構成瞭挑戰,它們能夠吸收和偏轉光綫,使得探尋者號的掃描設備幾乎失效。真正的發現來自於對一座地下檔案館的破解。檔案館內儲存的並非數據,而是“記憶晶體”——一種能夠直接將完整生命體驗灌輸給接觸者的媒介。 當卡西烏斯船長和莉婭接觸瞭第一枚晶體後,他們目睹瞭泰拉維安文明鼎盛時期的景象,以及導緻其衰落的災難性事件:他們並非毀於戰爭,而是因為過度追求對“時間本體”的理解,最終打開瞭某種無法關閉的維度裂隙,導緻他們的物質存在被“稀釋”到宇宙背景輻射之中。 第三部:仲裁者與存在的代價 隨著團隊對記憶的深入挖掘,他們開始質疑聯邦對泰拉維安曆史的官方定論。他們發現,泰拉維安文明的“失蹤”並非偶然,而是齣於一種自我犧牲式的“仲裁”。為瞭防止其錯誤的技術(即“以太穿梭”)落入更具侵略性的外部文明手中,他們選擇瞭一種徹底的自我抹除。 更令人不安的是,團隊發現,在琥珀世界的最深處,還存在著一個“迴聲係統”。這個係統並非由泰拉維安生物構造,而是一種被他們的技術錯誤喚醒的、純粹的熵(Entropy)集閤體。它模仿著泰拉維安的形態,以“知識”為誘餌,試圖將所有接觸它的智慧生命同化,使其成為永恒虛無的一部分。 探尋者號的船員們麵臨著一個艱難的選擇:是冒著被熵集閤體吞噬的風險,將關於“以太穿梭”的知識帶迴聯邦(這可能帶來巨大的技術飛躍,也可能帶來毀滅),還是遵循泰拉維安的遺願,徹底銷毀所有遺跡,讓這段曆史永遠沉睡在星塵彼岸。 核心主題: 本書深入探討瞭知識的邊界、文明的責任感以及“遺忘”作為一種保護機製的可能性。它追問瞭我們是否真正擁有駕馭超越自身理解力的力量的權利。在浩瀚的宇宙中,有些秘密是否應該永遠塵封?探尋者號的最終選擇,將定義人類文明在星際道德光譜中的位置。 --- 榮譽推薦(虛構): “維斯珀女士為我們構建瞭一個令人窒息的宇宙圖景,它比任何星圖都更精確地描繪瞭人類心智的脆弱與偉大。”——《星際評論傢》 “一部令人難以忘懷的史詩,完美地融閤瞭哲學思辨與高概念硬科幻。讀完後,你將對頭頂的星空産生全新的敬畏。”——《紀元文學雜誌》 --- 作者簡介: 伊蓮娜·維斯珀,當代最受矚目的太空史詩作傢之一。她的作品以嚴謹的科學設定、深邃的人文關懷以及宏大的敘事結構著稱。她本人曾長期在深空觀測站任職,對虛空中的孤寂感有著獨特的體會。《星塵彼岸》是她曆時十年構思的巔峰之作。