紅字

內容概要

　　《紅字》是19世紀美國浪漫主義作家霍桑的長篇小說，發(fā)表于1850年。小說以兩百多年前的殖民地時代的美洲為題材，但揭露的卻是19世紀資本主義發(fā)展時代美利堅合眾國社會典法的殘酷、宗教的欺騙和道德的虛偽。主人公海絲特被寫成了崇高道德的化身。她不但感化了表里不一的丁梅斯代爾，同時也在感化著充滿罪惡的社會。小說慣用象征手法，人物、情節(jié)和語言都頗具主觀想象色彩，在描寫中又常把人的心理活動和直覺放在首位。因此，它不僅是美國浪漫主義小說的代表作，同時也被稱作是美國心理分析小說的開創(chuàng)篇。

作者簡介

　　納撒尼爾·霍桑（Nathaniel
Hawthorne，1804—1864），美國19世紀影響最大的浪漫主義小說家，美國心理分析小說的開創(chuàng)者。愛倫?坡稱他的小說“屬于藝術的最高層次，一種唯有最高級別的天才方能駕馭的藝術”?；羯γ绹膶W史上一批卓有成就的作家，諸如海明威、菲茨杰拉德、?？思{等，都產(chǎn)生過深遠影響。

書籍目錄

CHAPTER 1
THE PRISON-DOOR
CHAPTER 2
THE MARKET-PLACE
CHAPTER 3
THE RECOGNITION
CHAPTER 4
THE INTERVIEW
CHAPTER 5
HESTER AT HER NEEDLE
CHAPTER 6
PEARL
CHAPTER 7
THE GOVERNOR'S HALL
CHAPTER 8
THE ELF-CHILD AND THE MINISTER
CHAPTER 9
THE LEECH
CHAPTER 10
THE LEECH AND HIS PATIENT
CHAPTER 11
THE INTERIOR OF A HEART
CHAPTER 12
THE MINISTER'S VIGIL
CHAPTER 13
ANOTHER VIEW OF HESTER
CHAPTER 14
HESTER AND THE PHYSICIAN
CHAPTER 15
HESTER AND PEARL
CHAPTER 16
A FOREST WALK
CHAPTER 17
THE PASTOR AND HIS PARISHIONER
CHAPTER 18
A FLOOD OF SUNSHINE
CHAPTER 19
THE CHILD AT THE BROOK-SIDE
CHAPTER 20
THE MINISTER IN A MAZE
CHAPTER 21
THE NEW ENGLAND HOLIDAY
CHAPTER 22
THE PROCESSION
CHAPTER 23
THE REVELATION OF THE SCARLET LETTER
CHAPTER 24
CONCLUSION

章節(jié)摘錄

　　How soon-with what strange rapidity, indeed!-did Pearl arrive at anage that was capable of social intercourse, beyond the mother's ever-readysmile and nonsense-words! And then what a happiness would it have been,could Hester Prynne have heard her clear, bird-like voice mingling with theuproar of other childish voices, and have distinguished and unravelled herown darling's tones, anud all the entangled outcry of a group of sportivechildren! But this could never be. Pearl was a born outcast of the infantileworld. An imp of evil, emblem and product of sin, she had no right amongchristened infants. Nothing was more remarkable than the instinct, as itseemed, with which the cluld comprehended her loneliness; the destinythat had drawn an inviolable circle round about her; the whole peculiarity,in short, of her position in respect to other children. Never, since herrelease from prison, had Hester met the public gaze without her. In allher walks about the town, Pearl, too, was there; first as the babe in arms,and afterwards as the little girl, small companion of her mother, holding aforefinger with her whole grasp, and tripping along at the rate of three orfour footsteps to one of Hester's. She saw the children of the settlement,on the grassy margin of the street, or at the domestic thresholds, disportingthemselves in such grim fashion as the Puritanic nurture would permit;playing at going to church, perchance; or at scourging Quakers; or takingscalps in a sham-fight with the Indians; or scaring one another with freaksofimitative witchcraft. Pearl saw, and gazed intently, but never sought tomake acquaintance. If spoken to, she would not speak again. If the cluldrengathered about her, as they sometimes did, Pearl would grow positivelyterrible in her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fiing at them, with shrill,incoherent exclamations, that made her mother tremble, because they hadso much the sound of a witch's anathemas in some unknown tongue.The truth was, that the little Puritans, being of the most intolerant.　　brood that ever lived, had got a vague idea of something outlandish,unearthly, or at variance with ordinary fashions, in the mother and child;and therefore scorned them in their hearts, and not unfrequently reviledthem with their tongues. Pearl felt the sentiment, and requited it with thebitterest hatred that can be supposed to rankle in a childish bosom. Theseoutbreaks of a fierce temper had a kind of value, and even comfort, forher mother; because there was at least an intelligible earnestness in themood, instead of the fitful caprice that so often thwarted her in the child'smanifestations. It appalled her, nevertheless, to discern here, again, ashadowy refiection of the evil that had existed in herself. All this enmityand passion had Pearl inherited, by inalienable right, out of Hester's heart.Mother and daughter stood together in the same circle of seclusion fromhuman society; and in the nature of the child seemed to be perpetuatedthose unquiet elements that had distracted Hester Prynne before Pearl'sbirth, but had since begun to be soothed away by the softening infiuences　　of matemity.　　At home, within and around her mother's cottage, Pearl wanted not awide and various circle of acquaintance. The spell of life went forth fromher ever-creative spirit, and communicated itself to a thousand objects,as a torch kindles a flame wherever it may be applied. The unlikeliestmaterials-a stick, a bunch of rags, a fiower-were the puppets of Pearl'switchcraft, and, without undergoing any outward change, became spirituallyadapted to whatever drama occupied the stage of her inner world. Her onebaby-voice served a multitude of imaginary personages, old and young,to talk withal. The pine-trees, aged, black and solemn, and fiinging groansand other melancholy utterances on the breeze, needed little transformationto figure as Puritan elders; the ugliest weeds of the garden were theirchildren, whom Pearl smote down and uprooted, most unmercifully. It waswonderful, the vast variety of forms into which she threw her intellect,with no continuity, indeed, but darting up and dancing, always in a stateof pretematural activity,-soon sinking down, as if exhausted by so rapid and feverish a tide oflife,-and succeeded by other shapes of a similarwild energy. It was like nothing so much as the phantasmagoric playof the northern lights. In the mere exercise of the fancy, however, andthe sportiveness of a growing mind, there might be little more than wasobservable in other children of bright faculties; except as Pearl, in thedearth of human playmates, was thrown more upon the visionary throngwhich she created. The singularity lay in the hostile feelings with whichthe child regarded all these offspring of her own heart and mind. She nevercreated a friend, but seemed always to be sowing broadcast the dragon'steeth, whence sprung a harvest of armed enemies, against whom she rushedto battle. It was inexpressibly sad-then what depth of sorrow to a mother,who felt in her own heart the cause!-to observe, in one so young, thisconstant recognition of an adverse world, and so fierce a training of theenergies that were to make good her cause, in the contest that must ensue.　　Gazing at Pearl, Hester Prynne often dropped her work upon herknees, and cried out with an agony which she would fain have hidden, butwhich made utterance for itself, betwixt speech and a groan,-"0 Fatherin Heaven,-if Thou art still my Father,-what is this being which I havebrought into the worldl" And Pearl, overhearing the ejaculation, or aware,through some more subtle channel, of those throbs of anguish, would turnher vivid and beautiful little face upon her mother, smile with sprite-likeintelligence, and resume her play.　　One peculiarity of the child's deportment remains yet to be told. Thevery first thing which she had noticed in her life was-what?-not themother's smile, responding to it, as other babies do, by that faint, embryosmile of the little mouth, remembered so doubtfully afterwards, and withsuch fond discussion whether it were indeed a smile. By no meansi Butthat first object of which Pearl seemed to become aware was-shall we sayit?-the scarlet letter on Hester's bosom! One day, as her mother stoopedover the cradle, the infant's eyes had been caught by the glimmering ofthe gold embroidery about the letter; and, putting up her little hand, shegrasped at it.　　……

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　　It is beautiful, admirable, extraordinary;it has in the highest degree that merit which Ihave spoken of as the mark of Hawthorne's bestthings-an indefinable purity and lightness ofconception....One can of ten return to it; it supportsfamiliarity and has the inexhaustible charm andmystery of great works of art.　　———Henry James

編輯推薦

　　美國浪漫主義文學經(jīng)典，心理分析小說的鼻祖，美國中學規(guī)定學生必讀十本名著之一，最佳的文學經(jīng)典讀物最好的語言學習讀本。

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