《我们共同的朋友》是一部描绘19世纪英国社会生活的小说。通过主人公们的复杂关系和交际圈,展现了贵族阶层和中产阶级的生活方式和价值观念。小说揭示了人性的复杂性和道德观念的多样性,是一部深刻的社会分析之作。
我们共同的朋友读后感第一篇
整体而言,体量足够宏大,小说剧情递进有序,在平缓到乃至无聊时总能添上一剂猛药留住读者,主题达意方面亦清晰明了,是维多利亚时代的风格吗,适应大众读报层次的阅读能力——直白。通过本书体会到扁形人物的妙用——短短时间迅速记忆住某人物特征。
些许遗憾,或许是译者采用口译的方式,文字多少显得过于平庸而欠雕饰。即便从反应穷苦人民的角度的叙述口味来辩解,也不能反驳用词枯燥的事实。当然,我更愿意相信是译者的水平局限,毕竟在文本中看到不少狄更斯自娱自乐的文字游戏,想必阅读英语原版会多很多乐子一般——就像那些巧妙的人名,从中文的音译着实不能猜测到作者的赞颂或者讽刺。
提个小小的见解吧。读时一直在思考维尼林家的宴会和故事主线发展的关联。不是举办的宴会除了无病呻吟的闲言碎语体现上层社会的腐化堕落外似乎对宝屋方面的故事线推进不甚明显,与穷苦人民的交互也几乎为零。转念一想,这不过是阶级流动性固化的自然反映——上下层社会人民在正常情况下不会发生任何关联。叙述他们不时装模作样的家宴,不过是为小说中社会体系的完整性,至于对比反讽,感受并不深刻。
最后,阅读本书是由于看了卡尔维诺《我们为什么读经典》中的评述。卡尔维诺的评述,才是真正的风趣呵。
1/3页我们共同的朋友读后感第二篇
这是狄更斯的最后一部长篇小说。紧接着《远大前程》和《双城记》,还有卡尔维诺在《为什么读经典》中对此书推崇备至,我本来期待狄更斯能再掀高潮,给出一个完美的终结。但实际上我很有点失望。
本书的情节倒是很曲折,有凶杀有悬疑,可以说是所有作品中最复杂的一部。
苛刻吝啬的垃圾王留下遗嘱,儿子哈蒙和一个不认识的女人贝拉结婚,方能获得所有财产。不然就都给管家鲍芬夫妇。老财主死后,哈蒙少爷回国继承遗产。他想先了解一下贝拉是个什么样的女人,便和同行的人互换了身份。可是那个人却被杀了。公众以为哈蒙少爷已死,鲍芬夫妇便得到了所有的遗产。
哈蒙少爷并没有马上去揭示真相。他化名洛克斯史密斯,给鲍芬夫妇做秘书,并暗中观察被老夫妇接到家中的贝拉。贝拉一开始被金钱迷住了双眼,一心想要嫁个有钱人,看不起哈蒙。但其实她内心是个纯真的女孩,最终认清了自己,和哈蒙少爷相爱并结婚。婚后,哈蒙才公开了真相,继承了财产。于是两个人过着幸福的生活。
除了这条主线,还有很多不同的角色和他们的故事穿插其中。作者在结构的把握上是无可挑剔的。但是最后关于鲍芬先生的那一段,我有点不满意。我觉得如果让他真的被金钱冲昏头脑,反倒更真实一些。而且这并不会妨碍故事的结局,因为他本质善良,还有那么温柔的老婆,一定有办法让他再回归正道。书里写成他们所有人都在演戏,借此考验贝拉。这让我觉得有点太刻意了。
这是狄更斯的少数几本作品,其女一号让我感到丰满的。贝拉不像其他作品中的女一号毫无瑕疵。她开始时的迷失,迷失过程中又零星表现出来的善良,尤其她和她父亲的感情交流,让我觉得很真实生动。但有些地方我觉得有点用力过猛。他们的有些对话、还有动作描写,会让我觉得有些腻。我能明白作者想表现他们之间的感情,但有点料放多了的感觉。不光他们父女,瘸腿女孩珍妮和她爸爸之间也是如此。
狄更斯小说里真正的坏人不多,就算有,也是小丑类的存在。本书里的无赖和韦格,是正常的坏人。他们“坏”,不过仅此而已。但丽齐的弟弟和他的老师,那真的是太坏了!读“老师向丽齐求婚、丽齐拒绝并被弟弟责骂”的那一章,我是真的很愤怒。作者把这两个人的自私丑态刻画的淋漓尽致。虽然丽齐表现的很圣女,我看的那是火冒三丈。但我以为最终会让这两只迷途的羔羊回到正途上的,在我看来这样才“狄更斯”。可没想到老师居然真的因为嫉妒,对尤金下了毒手。这个处理太出乎我的意料了。可惜这是最后一本小说,无法再看出作者是不是真的在想法上有所变化。
卡尔维诺说“这部小说之所以被视为大师之作的另一个原因是,它对于社会及社会中的阶级冲突有相当复杂的描绘。"狄更斯从来不是脱离社会的小清新,他也从来不吝于揭露上层社会的丑恶。那些是故事不可或缺的背景。可是在这个故事里,我会觉得有点为了现丑而现丑。开头和结尾各用了一个章节写“社交界”,在文中也是提到过很多次,都用了相当大的篇幅描写。我觉得有点多余。那些内容不可剔除,但我真不觉得有必要花这么多的笔墨。
这部分内容是最能体现狄更斯讽刺大师地位的。说到狄更斯就一定会提到“讽刺”这个词。但以前作品中的讽刺,像一个年轻人在用耍小聪明的方式,表达自己的情绪和态度,玩些双关隐射而已。这本小说让人感觉很油腻。类似"我的老爷们,绅士们和荣誉委员会的委员们"这种戏谑的旁白三番五次的出现,让人不胜其烦。每个角色不管什么情境下的对话都相当冗长。故意玩弄文法上的游戏,似乎就是为了把句子的意思弄的不知所以。——当然,翻译真的“功不可没”,直接拉低了这本书的阅读愉悦感。——还有大量在我看来毫无必要的俏皮话和描写。总体来说,就像是一个油腻大叔在餐桌上卖弄自己的巧舌如簧。欠缺了他在其他作品中的真诚感。
Anyway,虽然这本小说作为终结,让我有点失望,但绝非说它不好。这仍然是一本大师之作。我不知道此生会不会再重读狄更斯,不过在不短的时间里,应该不会再读了。
这是一段精彩的、让我感动的阅读之旅。卡尔维诺引用奥维尔的观点,说狄更斯“的目标与其说是描绘社会的邪恶,不如说是人性的邪恶”。然而我对这个观点却并不以为然。起码我直观的阅读感受,更多的是感受到了人性之善。善良也好正义也好,这些东西或许会暂时被压制,从人们的眼中消失。但它们终将回到每一片土地上。这不是一个客观的公理,这是一种信念。如果每个人心里都保有这些东西,我相信,这个信念终将变成现实。而狄更斯,以及很多像他一样的人,就是在努力让人们记起内心中那些美好的东西。
2/3页我们共同的朋友读后感第三篇
He said what I can't tell
学校校长Mr.Headstone墓地求婚的那场,32章,贴过来大家试读一下吧。
She remained standing alone with Bradley Headstone, and it was not until she raised her eyes, that he spoke.
I said,’ he began, ’when I saw you last, that there was something unexplained, which might perhaps influence you. I have come this evening to explain it. I hope you will not judge of me by my hesitating manner when I speak to you. You see me at my greatest disadvantage. It is most unfortunate for me that I wish you to see me at my best, and that I know you see me at my worst.’
She moved slowly on when he paused, and he moved slowly on beside her.
It seems egotistical to begin by saying so much about myself,’ he resumed, ’but whatever I say to you seems, even in my own ears,below what I want to say, and different from what I want to say. I can’t help it. So it is. You are the ruin of me.’
She started at the passionate sound of the last words, and at the passionate action of his hands, with which they were accompanied.
Yes! you are the ruin--the ruin--the ruin--of me. I have no resources in myself, I have no confidence in myself, I have no government of myself when you are near me or in my thoughts.And you are always in my thoughts now. I have never been quit of you since I first saw you. Oh, that was a wretched day for me!That was a wretched, miserable day!’
A touch of pity for him mingled with her dislike of him, and she said: ’Mr Headstone, I am grieved to have done you any harm, but I have never meant it.’
There!’ he cried, despairingly. ’Now, I seem to have reproached you, instead of revealing to you the state of my own mind! Bear with me. I am always wrong when you are in question. It is my doom.’
Struggling with himself, and by times looking up at the deserted windows of the houses as if there could be anything written in their grimy panes that would help him, he paced the whole pavement at her side, before he spoke again.
I must try to give expression to what is in my mind; it shall and must be spoken. Though you see me so confounded--though you strike me so helpless--I ask you to believe that there are many people who think well of me; that there are some people who highly esteem me; that I have in my way won a Station which is considered worth winning.’
Surely, Mr Headstone, I do believe it. Surely I have alwaysknown it from Charley.’
I ask you to believe that if I were to offer my home such as it is,my station such as it is, my affections such as they are, to any one of the best considered, and best qualified, and most distinguished,among the young women engaged in my calling, they would probably be accepted. Even readily accepted.
I do not doubt it,’ said Lizzie, with her eyes upon the ground.
I have sometimes had it in my thoughts to make that offer and to settle down as many men of my class do: I on the one side of a school, my wife on the other, both of us interested in the same work.’
Why have you not done so?’ asked Lizzie Hexam. ’Why do you not do so?’
Far better that I never did! The only one grain of comfort I have had these many weeks,’ he said, always speaking passionately,and, when most emphatic, repeating that former action of his hands, which was like flinging his heart’s blood down before her in drops upon the pavement-stones; ’the only one grain of comfort I have had these many weeks is, that I never did. For if I had, and if the same spell had come upon me for my ruin, I know I should have broken that tie asunder as if it had been thread.’
She glanced at him with a glance of fear, and a shrinkinggesture.He answered, as if she had spoken.
No! It would not have been voluntary on my part, any more than it is voluntary in me to be here now. You draw me to you. If I were shut up in a strong prison, you would draw me out. I should break through the wall to come to you. If I were lying on a sick bed, you would draw me up--to stagger to your feet and fall there.’
The wild energy of the man, now quite let loose, was absolutely terrible. He stopped and laid his hand upon a piece of the coping of the burial-ground enclosure, as if he would have dislodged the stone.
No man knows till the time comes, what depths are within him.To some men it never comes; let them rest and be thankful! To me, you brought it; on me, you forced it; and the bottom of this raging sea,’ striking himself upon the breast, ’has been heaved up ever since.’
Mr Headstone, I have heard enough. Let me stop you here. It will be better for you and better for me. Let us find my brother.’
Not yet. It shall and must be spoken. I have been in torments ever since I stopped short of it before. You are alarmed. It is another of my miseries that I cannot speak to you or speak of you without stumbling at every syllable, unless I let the check go altogether and run mad. Here is a man lighting the lamps. He willbe gone directly. I entreat of you let us walk round this place again. You have no reason to look alarmed; I can restrain myself,and I will.’
She yielded to the entreaty--how could she do otherwise!--and they paced the stones in silence. One by one the lights leaped up making the cold grey church tower more remote, and they were alone again. He said no more until they had regained the spot where he had broken off; there, he again stood still, and again grasped the stone. In saying what he said then, he never looked at her; but looked at it and wrenched at it.
You know what I am going to say. I love you. What other men may mean when they use that expression, I cannot tell; what I mean is, that I am under the influence of some tremendous attraction which I have resisted in vain, and which overmasters me. You could draw me to fire, you could draw me to water, you could draw me to the gallows, you could draw me to any death,you could draw me to anything I have most avoided, you could draw me to any exposure and disgrace. This and the confusion of my thoughts, so that I am fit for nothing, is what I mean by your being the ruin of me. But if you would return a favourable answer to my offer of myself in marringe, you could draw me to any good--every good--with equal force. My circumstances are quite easy, and you would want for nothing. My reputation stands quite high, and would be a shield for yours. If you saw me at my work,able to do it well and respected in it, you might even come to take a sort of pride in me;--I would try hard that you should. Whatever considerations I may have thought of against this offer, I have conquered, and I make it with all my heart. Your brother favours me to the utmost, and it is likely that we might live and work together; anyhow, it is certain that he would have my best
influence and support. I don’t know what I could say more if I tried. I might only weaken what is ill enough said as it is. I only add that if it is any claim on you to be in earnest, I am in thorough earnest, dreadful earnest.’
The powdered mortar from under the stone at which he wrenched,rattled on the pavement to confirm his words.
’Mr Headstone--’
Stop! I implore you, before you answer me, to walk round this place once more. It will give you a minute’s time to think, and me a minute’s time to get some fortitude together.’
Again she yielded to the entreaty, and again they came back to the same place, and again he worked at the stone.
Is it,’ he said, with his attention apparently engrossed by it, ’yes, or no?’
Mr Headstone, I thank you sincerely, I thank you gratefully, and hope you may find a worthy wife before long and be very happy.But it is no.’
Is no short time necessary for reflection; no weeks or days?’ he asked, in the same half-suffocated way.
None whatever.’
Are you quite decided, and is there no chance of any change in my favour?’
I am quite decided, Mr Headstone, and I am bound to answer I am certain there is none.’
Then,’ said he, suddenly changing his tone and turning to her, and bringing his clenched hand down upon the stone with a force that laid the knuckles raw and bleeding; ’then I hope that I may never kill him!’
The dark look of hatred and revenge with which the words broke from his livid lips, and with which he stood holding out his smeared hand as if it held some weapon and had just struck a mortal blow, made her so afraid of him that she turned to run away. But he caught her by the arm.
Mr Headstone, let me go. Mr Headstone, I must call for help!’
It is I who should call for help,’ he said; ’you don’t know yet how much I need it.’
The working of his face as she shrank from it, glancing round for her brother and uncertain what to do, might have extorted a cry from her in another instant; but all at once he sternly stopped it and fixed it, as if Death itself had done so.
There! You see I have recovered myself. Hear me out.’
With much of the dignity of courage, as she recalled her self-reliant life and her right to be free from accountability to this man,she released her arm from his grasp and stood looking full at him.She had never been so handsome, in his eyes. A shade came over them while he looked back at her, as if she drew the very light out
of them to herself.
This time, at least, I will leave nothing unsaid,’ he went on, folding his hands before him, clearly to prevent his being betrayed into any impetuous gesture; ’this last time at least I will not be tortured with after-thoughts of a lost opportunity. Mr Eugene Wrayburn.’
Was it of him you spoke in your ungovernable rage and violence?’Lizzie Hexam demanded with spirit.
He bit his lip, and looked at her, and said never a word.
Was it Mr Wrayburn that you threatened?’
He bit his lip again, and looked at her, and said never a word.
You asked me to hear you out, and you will not speak. Let me find my brother.’
Stay! I threatened no one.’
Her look dropped for an instant to his bleeding hand. He lifted it to his mouth, wiped it on his sleeve, and again folded it over the other. ’Mr Eugene Wrayburn,’ he repeated.
Why do you mention that name again and again, Mr Headstone?’
Because it is the text of the little I have left to say. Observe!There are no threats in it. If I utter a threat, stop me, and fasten it upon me. Mr Eugene Wrayburn.’
A worse threat than was conveyed in his manner of uttering the name, could hardly have escaped him.
He haunts you. You accept favours from him. You are willing enough to listen to HIM. I know it, as well as he does.’
Mr Wrayburn has been considerate and good to me, sir,’ said
Lizzie, proudly, ’in connexion with the death and with the memory of my poor father.’
No doubt. He is of course a very considerate and a very good man, Mr Eugene Wrayburn.’
He is nothing to you, I think,’ said Lizzie, with an indignation she could not repress.
Oh yes, he is. There you mistake. He is much to me.’
What can he be to you?’
He can be a rival to me among other things,’ said Bradley.
Mr Headstone,’ returned Lizzie, with a burning face, ’it is cowardly in you to speak to me in this way. But it makes me able to tell you that I do not like you, and that I never have liked you from the first, and that no other living creature has anything to do with the effect you have produced upon me for yourself.’
His head bent for a moment, as if under a weight, and he then looked up again, moistening his lips. ’I was going on with the little I had left to say. I knew all this about Mr Eugene Wrayhurn, all the while you were drawing me to you. I strove against the knowledge, but quite in vain. It made no difference in me. With Mr Eugene Wrayburn in my mind, I went on. With Mr Eugene Wrayburn in my mind, I spoke to you just now. With Mr Eugene Wrayburn in my mind, I have been set aside and I have been cast out.’
’If you give those names to my thanking you for your proposal and declining it, is it my fault, Mr Headstone?’ said Lizzie, compassionating the bitter struggle he could not conceal, almost as much as she was repelled and alarmed by it.
I am not complaining,’ he returned, ’I am only stating the case. I had to wrestle with my self-respect when I submitted to be drawn to you in spite of Mr Wrayburn. You may imagine how low my self-respect lies now.’
She was hurt and angry; but repressed herself in consideration of his suffering, and of his being her brother’s friend.
And it lies under his feet,’ said Bradley, unfolding his hands in spite of himself, and fiercely motioning with them both towards the stones of the pavement. ’Remember that! It lies under that fellow’s feet, and he treads upon it and exults above it.’
He does not!’ said Lizzie.
He does!’ said Bradley. ’I have stood before him face to face, and he crushed me down in the dirt of his contempt, and walked over me. Why? Because he knew with triumph what was in store for me to-night.’
O, Mr Headstone, you talk quite wildly.’
Quite collectedly. I know what I say too well. Now I have said all. I have used no threat, remember; I have done no more than show you how the case stands;--how the case stands, so far.’
At this moment her brother sauntered into view close by. She darted to him, and caught him by the hand. Bradley followed, and laid his heavy hand on the boy’s opposite shoulder.
Charley Hexam, I am going home. I must walk home by myself to-night, and get shut up in my room without being spoken to.Give me half an hour’s start, and let me be, till you find me at my work in the morning. I shall be at my work in the morning just as usual.
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