绿蚁新醅酒，红泥小火炉，岁末天寒，正是围炉读书的好时节。今天为大家推荐的是英国作家查尔斯·狄更斯《圣诞故事集》中的一篇《古教堂的钟声》，让我们一起用冬天里的温暖相依和节日将近的温馨喜悦来治愈这一年的疲惫，迎接新一年的到来。

作品简介

《圣诞故事集》是英国作家查尔斯·狄更斯创作的中篇小说集，收录了狄更斯1843年至1848年间发表的五篇圣诞主题中篇小说，通过描绘社会底层人民的苦难生活，揭露资本主义社会矛盾，倡导人性救赎和道德重生。其中的一篇《古教堂的钟声》讲述了主人公脚夫托贝在圣诞节前的一天，在教堂门前顶着风雪等待差事。在圣诞钟声敲响之前，托贝做了一个梦，看到了许多现实。作者通过这一方式揭露和批判当时社会的黑暗与不公，呼吁人们以善意与行动传递温暖、改善社会现实。

 

作者简介

查尔斯·狄更斯（Charles Dickens，1812-1870），原名查尔斯·约翰·赫法姆·狄更斯，英国皇家学会工艺院院士、英国作家。出生于朴次茅斯市郊的海军小职员家庭，少年时因家庭生活窘迫，只能断断续续入校求学，后被迫到工厂做童工，还当过律师事务所学徒、录事和法庭记录员、报馆采访员等。1837年完成了第一部长篇小说《匹克威克外传》，后来创作才能日渐成熟，先后出版了《雾都孤儿》《老古玩店》《董贝父子》《大卫·科波菲尔》《艰难时世》《双城记》《远大前程》等。狄更斯特别注意描写生活在英国社会底层的“小人物”的生活遭遇，深刻地反映了当时英国复杂的社会现实，为英国批判现实主义文学的开拓和发展作出了卓越的贡献。他的作品对英国文学发展起到了深远的影响。

 

精彩片段

加载视频...

 

For my part, I confess myself of Toby Veck’s belief, for I am sure he had opportunities enough of forming a correct one. And whatever Toby Veck said, I say. And I take my stand by Toby Veck, although he did stand all day long (and weary work it was) just outside the church-door. In fact he was a ticket-porter, Toby Veck, and waited there for jobs.

And a breezy, goose-skinned, blue-nosed, red-eyed, stony-toed, tooth-chattering place it was, to wait in, in the winter-time, as Toby Veck well knew. The wind came tearing round the corner-- especially the east wind -- as if it had sallied forth, express, from the confines of the earth, to have a blow at Toby. And oftentimes it seemed to come upon him sooner than it had expected, for bouncing round the corner, and passing Toby, it would suddenly wheel round again, as if it cried, ‘Why, here he is!’ Incontinently his little apron would be caught up over his head like a naughty boy’s garments, and his feeble little cane would be seen to wrestle and struggle unavailingly in his hand, and his legs would undergo tremendous agitation, and Toby himself all aslant, and facing now in this direction, now in that, would be so banged and buffeted, and tousled, and worried, and hustled, and lifted off his feet, as to render it a state of things but one degree removed from a positive miracle, that he wasn’t carried up bodily into the air as a colony of frogs or snails or other very portable creatures sometimes are, and rained down again, to the great astonishment of the natives, on some strange corner of the world where ticket-porters are unknown.

 

词汇学习

• confess  v. 供认，承认；坦白；忏悔
• bounce  v. 跳起，弹起

n. 跳起，弹回

• wheel  n. 轮，车轮
• feeble  adj. 虚弱的，无力的
• tremendous  adj. 巨大的，极大的

（单词注释来自有道词典）

《狄更斯传》以狄更斯的去世开篇，又以其去世结尾，带领读者走过了狄更斯生命的那一个圈，和狄更斯一起哭、一起笑、一起踌躇满志、一起心神彷徨。作者展现了其引起读者感情共鸣的超凡能力，读罢最后一章，你会和坐在伦敦环球剧场的凯瑟琳·狄更斯一样悲不自胜。用700多页的篇幅，写下了传奇作家狄更斯的生平以及写作的趣事儿，让人更加深刻地领悟狄更斯作品的伟大之处。

This book features contributions from many of the fields leading scholars offering creative ways of reading Dickens and enriching understanding of the most celebrated author of his time. A diverse range of innovative reading strategies -- archival, historical, textual, and digital -- representing new and exciting approaches to contemporary literary and cultural studies. This groundbreaking volume brings together literature, history, politics, painting, illustration, social media, video games, and other topics to reveal new opportunities to engage with the author’s life and work. Authoritative, ye accessible, this book is a must-have book for Dickens specialists, instructors and students in Victorian fiction and Dickens courses, as well as general readers looking for innovative reading strategies of the author’s work.

 

文案策划及录音：图书借阅部 李圣昭

编辑：宣传策划小组 张明明