讀點好英文:A Tale of Two Cities 雙城記

A Tale of Two Cities 雙城記

[英]查爾斯·狄更斯（Charles Dickens）

年輕醫(yī)生梅尼特因故被關進巴士底獄，18年后獲釋。這位精神失常的白發(fā)老人被舊日的仆人得伐石收留。在和女兒路茜去英國的旅途上，他們邂逅了侯爵的兒子查理·代爾納。他憎恨自己家族的罪惡，毅然放棄財產(chǎn)的繼承權和貴族的姓氏，移居倫敦。1789年巴黎人民攻占了巴士底獄。遠在倫敦的代爾納為了營救管家蓋白勒，冒險回國。但他一到巴黎就被捕入獄了。梅尼特父女聞訊后出庭做證使代爾納回到妻子的身邊。很快，代爾納又被逮捕并被判處死刑。愛慕路茜的卡爾登來到巴黎，買通獄卒，頂替了昏迷中的代爾納，梅尼特父女帶著代爾納順利地離開了法國?？柕菫榱藧矍?，從容獻身。

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England;there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.

It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this.Mrs.Southcott had recently attained her five-and-twentieth blessed birthday, of whom a prophetic private in the Life Guards had heralded the sublime appearance by announcing that arrangements were made for the swallowing up of London and Westminster.Even the Cock-lane ghost had been laid only a round dozen of years, after rapping out its messages, as the spirits of this very year last past（supernaturally deficient in originality）rapped out theirs.Mere messages in the earthly order of events had lately come to the English Crown and People, from a congress of British subjects in America:which, strange to relate, have proved more important to the human race than any communications yet received through any of the chickens of the Cock-lane brood.

France, less favoured on the whole as to matters spiritual than her sister of the shield and trident, rolled with exceeding smoothness down hill, making paper money and spending it. Under the guidance of her Christian pastors, she entertained herself besides, with such humane achievements as sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with pincers, and his body burned alive, because he had not kneeled down in the rain to do honour to a dirty procession of monks which passed within his view, at a distance of some fifty or sixty yards.It is likely enough that, rooted in the woods of France and Norway, there were growing trees, when that sufferer was put to death, already marked by the Woodman, Fate, to comedown?and be sawn into boards, to make a certain movable framework with a sack and a knife in it, terrible in history.It is likely enough that in the rough outhouses old some tillers of the heavy lands adjacent to Paris, there were sheltered from the weather that very day, rude carts, be spattered with rustic mire, snuffed about by pigs, and roosted in by poultry, which the Farmer, Death, had already set apart to be his tumbrils of the Revolution.But that Woodman and that Farmer, though they work unceasingly, work silently, and no one heard them as they went about with muffled tread:the rather, for as much as to entertain any suspicion that they were awake, was to be atheistical and traitorous.

那是最美好的時代，那是最糟糕的時代；那是睿智的年月，那是蒙昧的年月；那是信心百倍的時期，那是疑慮重重的時期；那是陽光普照的季節(jié)，那是黑暗籠罩的季節(jié)；那是充滿希望的春天，那是讓人絕望的冬天；我們擁有一切，我們一無所有；我們都在直奔天堂，我們都在直下地獄——簡而言之，那個時代和當今這個時代是如此相似。以致當年有些顯赫一時的權威人士堅持認為，無論對它說好說壞，一概只能使用最高級的比較詞語來評價它。

當時，在英國的王位上，是一個大下巴的國王和一個相貌平常的王后；在法國的王位上，是一個大下巴的國王和一個容貌姣好的王后。在這兩個國家里，那些坐享利祿的王公貴族，覺得天下大勢永久安定，這是比水晶還清楚的事。

那是公元1775年。在那得天獨厚的時代，如同現(xiàn)代一樣，英國也屢屢出現(xiàn)神靈的啟示。索斯科特夫人過了25歲華誕，據(jù)禁衛(wèi)軍中一個士兵的先知宣稱，倫敦和威斯敏斯特將遭毀滅，在劫難逃，即預示她的神駕降臨。即使公雞巷的幽靈在咄咄逼人地發(fā)出它的預言之后銷聲匿跡整整12年，去年精靈們咄咄逼人發(fā)出的預言仍跟她差不多，只是少了幾分超自然的獨創(chuàng)性而已。前不久英國國王和英國百姓才得到一些人世間的消息。那是從遠在美洲的英國臣民的國會傳來的。說來奇怪，這些信息對于人類的影響竟然比公雞巷魔鬼的子孫的預言還要巨大。

總的來說，法國的靈異事物大體不如她那以盾牌和三叉戟為標志的姐妹那么受寵。法國正在一個勁兒地往坡下滑，她濫發(fā)紙幣，大肆揮霍。除此之外，法國在教士們的指導下，建立了些仁慈的功勛，尋求了點樂趣。譬如判處砍掉一個青年的雙手，用鉗子拔出他的舌頭，然后把他活活燒死，因為他看見一隊滿身污泥的修道士在離他五六十碼遠的地方經(jīng)過時，他沒有跪倒在雨地里向他們致敬。當這個受難者被處死時，生長在法國和挪威森林里的某些樹木很可能已被“命運之神”的伐木人做上標記，要被砍倒，鋸成木板，做成某種活動的框架，里面裝有一只袋子和一把刀，這就是歷史上很恐怖的一項裝置。就在這一天，在巴黎近郊貧瘠的土地上，某些農(nóng)戶的簡陋的外屋里，很可能有一些大車在那兒躲避風雨。那些車很粗糙，車身濺滿了郊野的泥漿，豬群在旁邊呼哧呼哧轉悠，家禽在它們上面歇息，這些東西也極有可能被“死神”這個農(nóng)民看中，要在革命時作為押送死刑犯的囚車。但是，那個伐木人和農(nóng)民，盡管忙個不停，卻總是默不作聲，躡手躡腳不讓人聽見。因此若是有人猜想到他們已在行動，反倒會被看成是無神論和大逆不道。

實戰(zhàn)提升

作者介紹

查爾斯·狄更斯（1812—1870），英國小說家，出生于海軍小職員家庭。他只上過幾年學，全靠刻苦自學成為知名作家。狄更斯一生共創(chuàng)作了14部長篇小說，許多中、短篇小說和雜文、游記、戲劇、小品。其中最著名的作品是描寫勞資矛盾的長篇代表作《艱難時代》和描寫1789年法國革命的另一部代表作《雙城記》。其他作品有《霧都孤兒》《老古玩店》《大衛(wèi)·科波菲爾》和《遠大前程》等。狄更斯是19世紀英國現(xiàn)實主義文學的主要代表。馬克思把他和薩克雷等稱為英國的“一批杰出的小說家”。

單詞注解

incredulity[7inkri5dju:liti]n.不輕信；不相信；懷疑

plain[plein]adj.簡樸的；樸素的

concede[kEn5si:d]v.讓給；給予；容許

prophetic[prE5fetik]adj.預言的；預言性的

guidance[5^aidEns]n.指導；引導；領導

comedown[5kQmdaun]n.衰落；喪失；落魄

名句大搜索

那是最美好的時代，那是最糟糕的時代；那是睿智的年月，那是蒙昧的年月。

以致當年有些顯赫一時的權威人士堅持認為，無論對它說好說壞，一概只能使用最高級的比較詞語來評價它。

因此若是有人猜想到他們已在行動，反倒會被看成是無神論和大逆不道。