诺桑觉寺 Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey By Jane Austen《诺桑觉寺》 简·奥斯汀Northanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication, though she had previously made a start on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. According to Cassandra Austen's Memorandum, Susan (as it was first called) was written about the years 1798–99. It was revised by Austen for the press in 1803, and sold in the same year for ￡10 to a London bookseller, Crosby & Co., who decided against publishing. In 1817, the bookseller was content to sell it back to the novelist's brother, Henry Austen, for the exact sum — ￡10 — that he had paid for it at the beginning, not knowing that the writer was by then the author of four popular novels. The novel was further revised before being brought out posthumously in late December 1817 (1818 given on the title-page), as the first two volumes of a four-volume set with Persuasion.THIS little work was finished in the year 1803, and intended for immediate publication. It was disposed of to a bookseller, it was even advertised, and why the business proceeded no farther, the author has never been able to learn. That any bookseller should think it worth-while to purchase what he did not think it worth-while to publish seems extraordinary. But with this, neither the author nor the public have any other concern than as some observation is necessary upon those parts of the work which thirteen years have made comparatively obsolete. The public are entreated to bear in mind that thirteen years have passed since it was finished, many more since it was begun, and that during that period, places, manners, books, and opinions have undergone considerable changes.《诺桑觉寺》是英国作家简·奥斯汀创作的长篇小说，它是奥斯汀打算出版的第一部小说，定稿完成于1797年左右，即奥斯汀大概22岁的时候。在这部小说中，作者初露锋芒，文风初步成形。该作讲述家境小康的牧师女儿凯瑟琳天真可爱，在跟随邻居艾伦夫妇去巴思旅游时，结识了两对兄妹：家境富有的蒂尔尼兄妹正直而善解人意；家境平平的索普兄妹利欲熏心；凯瑟琳与蒂尔尼相爱，但索普为了把凯瑟琳追到手，同时把妹妹嫁给凯瑟琳的哥哥，耍了许多诡计，使蒂尔尼趋炎附势的父亲极力阻挠儿子的婚姻，并且毫不留情地将上门作客的凯瑟琳赶出家门。蒂尔尼向来尊重父亲，但在维护自己幸福的问题上没有退让，经过重重曲折后，终于和凯瑟琳喜结良缘。《诺桑觉寺》与其他五部奥斯汀的长篇不同，采用了公开的叙述者和外露的作者型的叙述声音，展现了作者权威。《诺桑觉寺》是一部比较成熟的小说，也是奥斯丁小说艺术走向成熟的开端，在思想和艺术方面都带有从少年习作到成熟作品的过渡痕迹。简·奥斯汀（Jane Austen），1775年12月生于英国汉普郡的史蒂文顿，兄弟姐妹八人。父亲在该地担任了四十多年的教区长。他是个学问渊博的牧师，妻子出身于比较富有的家庭，也具有一定的文化修养。因此，奥斯汀虽然没有进过正规学校，但是家庭的优良条件和读书环境，给了她自学的条件，培养了她写作的兴趣。她在十三四岁就开始写东西，显示了她在语言表达方面的才能。1800年父亲退休，全家迁居巴思，住了四年左右，他在该地去世，于是奥斯汀和母亲、姐姐又搬到南安普敦，1809年再搬到乔登。1816年初她得了重病，身体日益衰弱，1817年5月被送到温彻斯特接受治疗，可是治疗，可是医治无效，不幸于同年7月18日死在她姐姐的怀抱里。她终生未婚，安葬在温彻斯特大教堂。试听音频No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine. Her situation in life, the character of her father and mother, her own person and disposition, were all equally against her. Her father was a clergyman, without being neglected, or poor, and a very respectable man, though his name was Richard—and he had never been handsome. He had a considerable independence besides two good livings—and he was not in the least addicted to locking up his daughters. Her mother was a woman of useful plain sense, with a good temper, and, what is more remarkable, with a good constitution. She had three sons before Catherine was born; and instead of dying in bringing the latter into the world, as anybody might expect, she still lived on—lived to have six children more—to see them growing up around her, and to enjoy excellent health herself. A family of ten children will be always called a fine family, where there are heads and arms and legs enough for the number; but the Morlands had little other right to the word, for they were in general very plain, and Catherine, for many years of her life, as plain as any. She had a thin awkward figure, a sallow skin without colour, dark lank hair, and strong features—so much for her person; and not less unpropitious for heroism seemed her mind. She was fond of all boy's plays, and greatly preferred cricket not merely to dolls, but to the more heroic enjoyments of infancy, nursing a dormouse, feeding a canary-bird, or watering a rose-bush. Indeed she had no taste for a garden; and if she gathered flowers at all, it was chiefly for the pleasure of mischief—at least so it was conjectured from her always preferring those which she was forbidden to take. Such were her propensities—her abilities were quite as extraordinary. She never could learn or understand anything before she was taught; and sometimes not even then, for she was often inattentive, and occasionally stupid. Her mother was three months in teaching her only to repeat the “Beggar's Petition”; and after all, her next sister, Sally, could say it better than she did. Not that Catherine was always stupid—by no means; she learnt the fable of “The Hare and Many Friends” as quickly as any girl in England. Her mother wished her to learn music; and Catherine was sure she should like it, for she was very fond of tinkling the keys of the old forlorn spinnet; so, at eight years old she began. She learnt a year, and could not bear it; and Mrs. Morland, who did not insist on her daughters being accomplished in spite of incapacity or distaste, allowed her to leave off. The day which dismissed the music-master was one of the happiest of Catherine's life. Her taste for drawing was not superior; though whenever she could obtain the outside of a letter from her mother or seize upon any other odd piece of paper, she did what she could in that way, by drawing houses and trees, hens and chickens, all very much like one another. Writing and accounts she was taught by her father; French by her mother: her proficiency in either was not remarkable, and she shirked her lessons in both whenever she could. What a strange, unaccountable character!—for with all these symptoms of profligacy at ten years old, she had neither a bad heart nor a bad temper, was seldom stubborn, scarcely ever quarrelsome, and very kind to the little ones, with few interruptions of tyranny; she was moreover noisy and wild, hated confinement and cleanliness, and loved nothing so well in the world as rolling down the green slope at the back of the house.扫码下载全本英语电子书/音频