具体描述
内容简介
Newly added to the Modern Library, this edition makes Cloud Atlas available in hardcover for the very first time. A postmodern visionary and one of the leading voices in twenty-first-century fiction, David Mitchell combines flat-out adventure, a Nabokovian love of puzzles, a keen eye for character, and a taste for mind-bending, philosophical and scientific speculation in the tradition of Umberto Eco, Haruki Murakami, and Philip K. Dick. The result is brilliantly original fiction as profound as it is playful. In this groundbreaking novel, an influential favorite among a new generation of writers, Mitchell explores with daring artistry fundamental questions of reality and identity.
Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. . . . Abruptly, the action jumps to Belgium in 1931, where Robert Frobisher, a disinherited bisexual composer, contrives his way into the household of an infirm maestro who has a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter. . . . From there we jump to the West Coast in the 1970s and a troubled reporter named Luisa Rey, who stumbles upon a web of corporate greed and murder that threatens to claim her life. . . . And onward, with dazzling virtuosity, to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history.
But the story doesn’t end even there. The narrative then boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky.
As wild as a videogame, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon.
Praise for the?New York Times?bestseller?Cloud Atlas
“[David] Mitchell is, clearly, a genius. He writes as though at the helm of some perpetual dream machine, can evidently do anything, and his ambition is written in magma across this novel’s every page.”—The New York Times Book Review
“One of those how-the-holy-hell-did-he-do-it? modern classics that no doubt is—and should be—read by any student of contemporary literature.”—Dave Eggers
“Wildly entertaining . . . a head rush, both action-packed and chillingly ruminative.”—People
“The novel as series of nested dolls or Chinese boxes, a puzzle-book, and yet—not just dazzling, amusing, or clever but heartbreaking and passionate, too. I’ve never read anything quite like it, and I’m grateful to have lived, for a while, in all its many worlds.”—Michael Chabon
“Cloud Atlas?ought to make [Mitchell] famous on both sides of the Atlantic as a writer whose fearlessness is matched by his talent.”—The Washington Post Book World
“Thrilling . . . One of the biggest joys in?Cloud Atlas?is watching Mitchell sashay from genre to genre without a hitch in his dance step.”—Boston Sunday Globe
“Grand and elaborate . . . [Mitchell] creates a world and language at once foreign and strange, yet strikingly familiar and intimate.”—Los Angeles Times, 作者简介
David Mitchell is the author of the international bestseller The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, named a best book of the year by Time, The Washington Post, Financial Times, The New Yorker, The Globe and Mail, and The New York Times; Black Swan Green, which was selected as one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by Time; Cloud Atlas, which was a Man Booker Prize finalist; Number9Dream, which was short-listed for the Man Booker as well as the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; and Ghostwritten, awarded the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for best book by a writer under thirty-five and short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award. Hailed as “the novelist who’s been showing us the future of fiction” by The Washington Post, Mitchell was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time in 2007. He lives in Ireland. 精彩书评
Praise for the New York Times bestseller Cloud Atlas
“[David] Mitchell is, clearly, a genius. He writes as though at the helm of some perpetual dream machine, can evidently do anything, and his ambition is written in magma across this novel’s every page.”—The New York Times Book Review
“One of those how-the-holy-hell-did-he-do-it? modern classics that no doubt is—and should be—read by any student of contemporary literature.”—Dave Eggers
“Wildly entertaining . . . a head rush, both action-packed and chillingly ruminative.”—People
“The novel as series of nested dolls or Chinese boxes, a puzzle-book, and yet—not just dazzling, amusing, or clever but heartbreaking and passionate, too. I’ve never read anything quite like it, and I’m grateful to have lived, for a while, in all its many worlds.”—Michael Chabon
“Cloud Atlas ought to make [Mitchell] famous on both sides of the Atlantic as a writer whose fearlessness is matched by his talent.”—The Washington Post Book World
“Thrilling . . . One of the biggest joys in Cloud Atlas is watching Mitchell sashay from genre to genre without a hitch in his dance step.”—Boston Sunday Globe
“Grand and elaborate . . . [Mitchell] creates a world and language at once foreign and strange, yet strikingly familiar and intimate.”—Los Angeles Times,
苍穹之上的回响:一部关于时间、灵魂与人类命运的宏大史诗 《群星的遗产》(The Legacy of the Constellations) 作者:伊丽莎白·凡·德·维尔德(Elisabeth van der Velde) 出版年份:2018年 --- 内容概述:交织的世代与永恒的探索 《群星的遗产》是一部结构极其复杂、叙事跨越数个世纪的史诗巨著。它并非讲述一个单一的故事,而是通过六个看似独立,却在主题、象征和某种隐秘的命运之链上紧密相连的叙事线索,勾勒出人类文明在不同历史阶段对自由、知识、异化与重生的不懈追问。 小说以一种近乎音乐复调的结构展开,每一个章节都像是对前一个章节的回应或变奏,最终汇聚成一曲关于人类精神不朽的交响乐。故事的基调是深沉的、哲学性的,探讨了道德选择的持久影响,以及个体生命在宏大历史进程中的微小而关键的作用。 第一部:巴比伦的学者(The Scribe of Babylon) 时间背景:公元前 7 世纪,新巴比伦帝国末期 故事始于古老的幼发拉底河畔,聚焦于一位名叫 阿布杜拉(Abdullah) 的年轻抄写员。阿布杜拉是神庙图书馆中负责记录星象与王室编年史的精英。然而,他私下里痴迷于研究被禁的、关于“创世之初的语言”的泥板文书。这些文书暗示着宇宙的运行并非遵循现有的神谕,而是基于一种更古老、更具数学美感的秩序。 当帝国面临外族入侵的威胁时,阿布杜拉必须在忠诚于王权与追求真理之间做出抉择。他的行动,尤其是他秘密转译的一份预言地图,将无意中影响未来数千年的地理与文化变迁。这一部分着重描绘了知识的脆弱性、宗教权威的腐蚀性,以及人类文明如何在变革的边缘摇摆。阿布杜拉最终选择销毁了那些可能引发内乱的记录,换取了短暂的和平,但这成为了一个沉重的道德包袱,代代相传。 第二部:威尼斯的水手(The Gondolier of Venice) 时间背景:16 世纪,文艺复兴晚期 场景切换到繁荣而腐败的威尼斯共和国。卡洛·德·洛伦佐(Carlo De Lorenzo) 是一名技艺高超的玻璃工匠,同时也是一名秘密的政治掮客,他利用自己制作的精美镜子和光学仪器为不同的家族传递信息。卡洛的生活围绕着权力的游戏、艺术赞助与对禁忌科学的迷恋展开。 他收到了一份来自东方神秘学者的委托,要求他为一件“能映照出时间的工具”制作关键的透镜。在追求完美光学性能的过程中,卡洛发现了镜子内部隐藏的、类似古代巴比伦星图的微小蚀刻痕迹。卡洛的旅程不仅是关于制作一件艺术品,更是关于揭示美学与科学如何被权力工具化。他与一位流亡的哲学家产生了深刻的联系,后者坚信人类的“自由意志”不过是宇宙大钟上被设定好的齿轮转动。 第三部:苏格兰的信件(The Letters from Skye) 时间背景:19 世纪中期,工业革命的阴影下 费奥娜·麦克劳德(Fiona Macleod) 是一位在苏格兰高地边缘庄园长大的年轻女性。她性格内敛,却对新兴的工业社会充满了批判性的观察。费奥娜的父亲是一名激进的蒸汽机发明家,他试图创造一种永不枯竭的能源。然而,这项发明的核心能源来源,却源于一种从家族土地深处挖掘出的、散发着微弱辐射的奇异矿物。 小说主要通过费奥娜写给一位在伦敦供职的表兄的私人信件展开。这些信件记录了高地社区在现代化进程中被剥离土地的痛苦,以及她对父亲研究的日益不安。当父亲的机器失控,造成了局部区域的短暂“时间错乱”现象后,费奥娜意识到,人类对无限制进步的追求,正在触碰某些宇宙的禁忌。她继承了父亲的笔记,开始了对能量源头的追溯,这些笔记中充满了对阿布杜拉时代语言的模糊引用。 第四部:太平洋的记者(The Journalist of the Pacific Rim) 时间背景:20 世纪 30 年代,大萧条与政治动荡时期 大卫·霍金斯(David Hawkins) 是一名充满理想主义的美国战地记者,他被派往亚洲某不稳定的群岛地区报道殖民冲突。大卫渴望揭露真相,他敏锐地捕捉到当地居民关于“天空之城”和“被遗忘的契约”的民间传说。 在一次深入丛林腹地的报道中,大卫偶然发现了一个被废弃的日本秘密研究站。研究站的核心项目是基于对声波频率的研究,试图“解码”人类潜意识深处的声音。大卫发现的证据表明,这个研究站的理论基础并非源于现代物理学,而是对前人(卡洛·德·洛伦佐时代流传下来的光学笔记的某种继承)。大卫的报道引发了国际社会的关注,但也使他本人陷入了被追杀的境地,他必须在报道的价值与生命的存续之间做出选择。 第五部:被囚禁的克隆体(The Clone in Sector Seven) 时间背景:23 世纪末,反乌托邦的未来都市 在高度发达、资源高度集中的未来世界,社会被严格划分为“原质者”与“复制体”。“单位 734”(Unit 734) 是一个专门用于历史数据分析的克隆体,他拥有被植入的、关于前述所有历史人物的记忆片段,但被严格限制了情感反应。 734 的主要任务是识别并清除历史记录中的“不合逻辑的重复模式”。在分析一堆被标记为“迷信残余”的旧数据时,他发现了费奥娜·麦克劳德关于“时间错乱”的详细记录,以及阿布杜拉关于星象的解读。当他将这些信息与自己的核心编程进行比对时,他的逻辑链条开始崩溃。他开始体验到前世的“情感回音”,并意识到自己的存在本身就是一场为了“纠正”或“延续”某种古老错误而进行的实验。734 最终选择拒绝执行清除指令,并利用他掌握的系统权限,向外界发送了一个加密信息——一个包含古老语言音节的信号。 第六部:行星轨道上的访客(The Visitor on the Orbital Station) 时间背景:25 世纪初,人类开始星际殖民 故事收束于一个遥远的、围绕新发现的宜居行星运行的国际空间站。拉尼亚·索拉里斯(Rania Solaris) 是一名语言学家和天体生物学家,她的任务是对来自深空的非人类信号进行解码。 拉尼亚接收到了 734 发出的加密信号。随着她对信号的深度解析,她意识到这并非外星语言,而是一种融合了多种古代语系、且包含复杂数学结构的信息流。这份信息流,如同一个跨越数千年的“时间胶囊”,向她展示了巴比伦的抄写员如何试图记录宇宙的本质,以及未来克隆体如何反抗被预设的命运。 拉尼亚明白了,人类文明的每一次重大突破或灾难,都与对特定“知识核心”的获取和处理有关。她最终的任务,不是与外星文明交流,而是理解并保护这份人类自身历史中蕴含的、关于自由意志与宿命论的永恒辩论。她决定,不再将这些信息视为科学数据,而是视为一种需要被“体验”的哲学遗产,将这份遗产播撒到新殖民地的土地上。 核心主题与风格 《群星的遗产》以其宏大叙事和对“蝴蝶效应”的深刻探讨而著称。它探讨了: 记忆与身份的连续性: 个体生命是否是某种更大的、循环往复的灵魂实体的片段? 知识的腐蚀与救赎: 知识力量的传递如何塑造或摧毁文明? 自由意志的幻觉: 在时间的长河中,人类的选择是否早已被刻写在星辰的轨迹中? 小说的语言风格是高度文学化和象征性的,融合了历史考据的严谨性与魔幻现实主义的想象力。读者将在不同时代的声音中,听到对人类文明永恒困境的回响。