内容简介

《老妇人的故事》是英国作家阿诺德本涅特最具代表性的经典英文小说。阿诺德本涅特（1867-1931）出生在斯塔福德郡的小镇汉利附近，父亲是律师。童年时穷苦的生活促使他追求事业的成功，以摆脱贫穷和屈辱。他曾在伦敦学习法律，当过律师事务所的书记员和《妇女》杂志的编辑，写过小说、剧本、评论等，共写了30余部小说，数册短篇故事及13个剧本。1902至1913年，本涅特侨居巴黎，开始发表一系列以家乡盛产陶瓷制品的五座工业城镇里中产阶级日常生活为题材的小说（以《五镇的安娜》为代表的“五镇”小说）。也正是在巴黎，本涅特目睹了一件令他吃惊的事。那是一天晚上，他在克里什路的一家餐馆吃饭时，一位老妇人走了进来，她又胖又丑，拎着很多小包，包还不停地掉。这惹得旁边的女服务员们忍不住偷笑，可本涅特觉得她很可怜，他想，她也曾经漂亮过，然而衰老的过程却是细微得连她自己都未曾发觉，于是，本涅特决定为她写一本书，于是就有了《老妇人的故事》的萌芽。

选译部分选自全书的第三章（索菲娅），主要讲述的是索菲娅在未与家人商量，未经家人允许的情况下与她的心上人杰拉德私奔到巴黎，并与他在那过日子一事。该段开始时描述了结婚前杰拉德内心的矛盾心理，同时将索菲娅对他的爱用各种肢体动作（而非仅仅用语言）表达了出来。到后来婚后，坐巴黎来到巴黎市参观，听闻死刑犯，以及餐厅斗殴等等事件，惟妙惟肖地刻画出杰拉德和索菲娅的人物形象，也从中反映了英国资产阶级的力量与缺陷。

阿诺德本涅特的《老妇人的故事》讲述了陶瓷区亚麻布商的两个女儿康斯坦丝贝恩斯和索菲亚贝恩斯身上发生的故事。故事发生在19世纪60年代。当时，十六岁的康斯坦斯温顺保守，十五岁的索菲娅奔放迷人。后来保守的姐姐康斯坦丝嫁给布店的伙计，守着父亲留下的小家业平淡地过了一生，妹妹索菲娅不愿在沉闷的小镇中生活，和一个推销员私奔到巴黎，遭到遗弃，以收取房租维持生活，最终老死在家乡。虽然姐妹俩个性不同，际遇不同，但性格上的节俭与坚定还是颇为相似。本涅特在她们各自的故事中巧妙利用类比，将两人的故事如音乐剧的主题一般互相穿插，丝毫不显得生涩和累赘。作者运用讽刺但不蔑视的幽默语言，细致而又认真的刻画手法将他对于主人公的同情和由衷的赞美表现得淋漓尽致。

从伦敦到巴黎，变的只是城市的风景，不变的还是人们内心的空洞，也正是平庸空虚的小市民社会环境造成了两姐妹生活中的悲剧。正是由于资产阶级利益腐蚀人心，每个人都甘于平庸甚至堕落，心灵的腐朽最终的结果只能是导致身体乃至全部的毁灭。为了了解更多关于作者的事迹，我阅读了相关书籍，不管是《悠游度过一天的24小时》，还是《小镇传奇》、《平凡人和他的妻子》，本涅特笔下的人物总是相似的，同样的低调无声，却也那么真诚，那么感人，无形中揭示出了人物性格中最为脆弱的一面，生活中最为真实的一面。这让我联想到了他的这部《老妇人的故事》，同样的普通人物，同样的看似默默无闻，实际上，他们的内心相比如今那些尔虞我诈、两面三刀的贵族阶层显得更为高大伟岸，他们内在的心灵美在作者笔下得到最大程度的展现，然而不幸的是，在资产阶级腐朽思想的日渐侵蚀下，平庸空虚的小市民社会环境的日渐熏陶下，悲剧的发生也在所难免。

INTRODUCTION

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Arnold Bennert’s The Old Wives’ Tales mainly talks about the story of two daughters of Constance Baynes and her sister Sophia Baynes, who were both the daughters of one linendraper in the Ceramic District. It happened in 1860s. At that time, sixteen-year-old Constance was docile and conservative while her younger sister, fifteen-year-old Sophia, was unrestrained and charming. Later conservative Constance married the assistant of the cloth store and kept the small family business for a dull life. Her sister Sophia, who was not willing to live in a boring town, eloped with a salesman to Paris but was abandoned after a few years. She maintained life by collecting room rents and finally died old in her hometown. Although the sisters had different personalities and faced different fates, they were the same frugal and firm in character. Bennert skillfully uses analogy in each of their stories to make them alternate with each other like themes of musical dramas, which didn’t appear jerky or cumbersome at all. The author builds a humous language, satire without contempt, and meticulous and serious characterization techniques, which completely shows his sympathy and heartfelt praise towards the two main characters.

From London to Paris, city scenery changes but the inner emptyness of people never changes. And it’s the social environment of mediocre and ordinary citizens that fundamentally causes the tragedies in the life of the two sisters. As bourgeois interests corrupt people’s minds, everyone in that situation chooses to become mediocre or even fall. The ultimate results of heart rot could only lead to the destruction from body to everywhere. In order to learn more about the author, I’ve read related books. No matter the book How To Live On Twenty-Four Hours A Day, or the book Town Legend and even Ordinary Man And His Wife, characters in Bennert’s works are always the same, low-key silent but sincere and touching. They intangibly reveal the most vulnerable sides of the characters and also the most real side of life. By association, they make me think about his The Old Wives’ Tales of the same common people and of course, the same seemingly unknown. But actually, compared with those nobilities who deceive and blackmail each other and always play a double game, their hearts are taller and stronger and under the author’s pen their inner beauty get the greatest degree of show. But unfortunately, under the gradual erosion of bourgeois decadent ideas and the gradually influence of the social environment of mediocre and ordinary citizens, the tragedies are hardly inevitable.