Reading Materials for IELTS (from books that I love)

Episode 2
2024/7/15
By James Lee

说明： 奇崛、跌宕、爱恨分明，英国女作家艾米莉· 勃朗特（Emily Bronte，1818-1848）短暂一生当中出版的唯一一本小说，《呼啸山庄 Wuthering Heights》（1847年），或许是英语言文学史上争议最大，也是最为复杂的作品之一。“Wuthering Heights”，或者书中男主人公Heathcliff生活的“荒原”（The Moor），应该是取材于作者在英国北部高原上度过的早年生活。Heathcliff常年与世隔绝，人性灭绝，冷酷、残暴成性，然而唯独对于女主角，他似乎又表现出温暖、甚至是善解人意的一面，或许仅仅是来源于他本身内心的扭曲和挣扎。值得一提的是，Wuthering一词本身就极少出现在除本书以外的其他任何作品当中，评论家的理解多为，它所描述的是“寒风吹过荒凉的高原（Cold winds blowing across the barren moors）的情景。本次带来一些《呼啸山庄Wuthering Heights》书中的经典、精彩片段。敬请欣赏、品读。

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From: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (1818~1848)
Chapter 1
1801——I have just returned from a visit to my landlord——the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with. This is certainly a beautiful country! In all England, I do not believe that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed from the stir of society. A perfect misanthropist’s Heaven: and Mr. Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair to divide the desolation between us. A capital fellow! He little imagined how my heart warmed towards him when I beheld his black eyes withdraw so suspiciously under their brows, as I rode up, and when his fingers sheltered themselves, with a jealous resolution, still further in his waistcoat, as I announced my name.
简单点评： 男主角Mr. Lockwood和与世隔绝的Mr. Heathcliff的初次见面。

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From: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (1818~1848)
Chapter 1
Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr. Heathcliff’s dwelling. “Wuthering” being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather. Pure, bracing ventilation they must have up there at all times, indeed; one may guess the power of the north wind blowing over the edge, by the excessive slant of a few stunted firs at the end of the house; and by a range of gaunt thorns all stretching their limbs one way, as if craving alms of the sun. Happily, the architect had foresight to build it strong; the narrow windows are deeply set in the wall, and the corners defended with large jutting stones.
简单点评： 对山庄的周边环境描写。

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From: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (1818~1848)
Chapter 18
Good things lost amid a wilderness of weeds, to be sure, whose rankness far overtopped their neglected growth, yet, notwithstanding, evidence of a wealthy soil, that might yield luxuriant crops under other and favourable circumstances.
简单点评： 人心如同荒原一般冷漠、无情、荒凉。贯穿全书的基调。

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From: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (1818~1848)
Chapter 34 (The Ending)
My walk home was lengthened by a diversion in the direction of the kirk. When beneath its walls, I perceived decay had made progress, even in seven months; many a window showed black gaps deprived of glass, and slates jutted off, here and there, beyond the right line of the roof, to be gradually worked off in coming autumn storms.
I sought, and soon discovered, the three head-stones on the slope next the moor——the middle one grey, and half buried in heath; Edgar Linton’s only harmonized by the turf, and moss creeping up its foot; Heathcliff’s still bare.
I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.
简单点评： 全书结尾，时过境迁，阴阳相隔，山庄就此废弃，主人长眠地下。

（未完待续）