THU生活英语慕课|小说节选 | 《月亮与六便士》

_本文原题：小说节选 | 《月亮与六便士》
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这是THU生活英语慕课推送的第855篇文章，全文共2058字，预计阅读7分钟。
01
作品简介

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● 《月亮和六便士》是英国小说家威廉·萨默塞特·毛姆创作的长篇小说，成书于1919年。
作品以法国印象派画家保罗·高更的生平为素材，描述了一个原本平凡的伦敦证券经纪人思特里克兰德，突然着了艺术的魔，抛妻弃子，绝弃了旁人看来优裕美满的生活，奔赴南太平洋的塔希提岛，用圆笔谱写出自己光辉灿烂的生命，把生命的价值全部注入绚烂的画布的故事。
贫穷的纠缠，病魔的折磨他毫不在意，只是后悔从来没有光顾过他的意识。作品表现了天才、个性与物质文明以及现代婚姻、家庭生活之间的矛盾，有着广阔的生命视角，用散发着消毒水味道的手术刀对皮囊包裹下的人性进行了犀利地解剖，混合着看客讪笑的幽默和残忍的目光。
02
中英原文

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● Chapter VII 第七章
The season was drawing to its dusty end, and everyone I knew was arranging to go away. Mrs.Strickland was taking her family to the coast of Norfolk, so that the children might have the sea and her husband golf.We said good-bye to one another, and arranged to meet in the autumn.But on my last day in town, coming out of the Stores, I met her with her son and daughter；like myself, she had been making her final purchases before leaving London, and we were both hot and tired.I proposed that we should all go and eat ices in the park.
社交季节接近它枯燥无味的尾声，我认识的每个人都在安排离开伦敦去度假。斯特里克兰太太正打算带着她的家人到诺福克海滨度假，以便孩子们在海中嬉戏，她的丈夫能打打高尔夫。我们彼此道别，安排在秋季再见。可当我在城里的最后一天，从商店里出来时，碰上了她和她的两个孩子。跟我一样，在离开伦敦之前，再最后买些东西。我们几个人又热又累，我提议我们一块儿走，到公园里吃点冷饮。
I think Mrs. Strickland was glad to show me her children, and she accepted my invitation with alacrity.They were even more attractive than their photographs had suggested, and she was right to be proud of them.I was young enough for them not to feel shy, and they chattered merrily about one thing and another.They were extraordinarily nice, healthy young children.It was very agreeable under the trees.
我觉得斯特里克兰太太很高兴让我看看她的孩子们，于是她欣然接受了邀请。这两个孩子比起照片里样子更引人注目，她有理由以他们为傲，我的年纪也很轻，不会让他们感到和我在一起不好意思，他们开心地聊了一件事又聊起另一件事。两个孩子都特别可爱，健康活泼。我们在树荫下小憩，感到十分惬意。
When in an hour they crowded into a cab to go home, I strolled idly to my club. I was perhaps a little lonely, and it was with a touch ofenvy that I thought of the pleasant family life of which I had had a glimpse.They seemed devoted to one another.They had little private jokes of their own which, unintelligibleto the outsider, amused them enormously.Perhaps Charles Strickland was dull judged by a standard that demanded above all things verbal scintillation；but his intelligence was adequate to his surroundings, and that is a passport, not only to reasonable success, but still more to happiness.Mrs.Strickland was a charming woman, and she loved him.I pictured their lives, troubled by no untowardadventure, honest, decent, and, by reason of those two upstanding, pleasant children, so obviously destined to carry on the normal traditions of their race and station, not without significance.They would grow old insensibly；they would see their son and daughter come to years of reason, marry in due course-the one a pretty girl, future mother of healthy children；the other a handsome, manly fellow, obviously a soldier；and at last, prosperous in their dignified retirement, beloved by their descendants, after a happy, not unuseful life, in the fullness of their age they would sink into the grave.分页标题
一个小时之后，他们挤上一辆马车回家去了，我悠闲地踱步走向俱乐部，我也许感到了点孤独，我想正是我无意瞥见的这种温馨的家庭生活让我有点妒忌。他们似乎彼此真心相爱，他们讲些只有自己人才能听得懂的笑话，能够让他们开怀大笑，而外人却莫名其妙。也许查尔斯·斯特里克兰按照能说会道的标准来看，确实是个沉闷的男人，但他的智力应付起周围的一切还是绰绰有余，就像是某种护照，不仅能保证在成功的道路上通行无阻，也能保证在幸福的门槛上不被拦住。斯特里克兰太太是个迷人的女人，而且还很爱他。我想象得出他们的生活不会受到外部风险的困扰，诚实、体面。而且，因为两个上进、招人喜欢的孩子，显而易见他们注定能继承和发扬这家人的地位和传统。斯特里克兰夫妇会不知不觉变老，他们会看到他们的一双儿女到了一定年龄，按照生命的进程结婚生子——这个漂亮的女儿，未来会是健康孩子们的母亲；这个儿子，会成为一个英俊的男子汉，显然还可能成为一名军人。最后，这对夫妇会过上有尊严的、富裕的退休生活，受到子孙后代的爱戴，过完这段幸福的、能发挥余热的生活之后，他们年事已高，会安然离世。
That must be the story of innumerable couples, and the pattern of life it offers has a homely grace. It reminds you of a placid rivulet, meanderingsmoothly through green pastures and shaded by pleasant trees, till at last it falls into the vasty sea；but the sea is so calm, so silent, so indifferent, that you are troubled suddenly by a vague uneasiness.Perhaps it is only by a kink in my nature, strong in me even in those days, that I felt in such an existence, the share of the great majority, something amiss.I recognized its social values, I saw its ordered happiness, but a fever in my blood asked for a wilder course.There seemed to me something alarming in such easy delights.In my heart was a desire to live more dangerously.I was not unprepared for jagged rocks and treacherous shoalsif I could only have change-change and the excitement of the unforeseen.
这无疑是无数夫妻生活故事的翻版，这种生活模式给人一种家庭的温馨。它会提醒你，生活就像一条平静的小溪，在郁郁的树荫下，舒缓而蜿蜒地流过绿油油的草原，最后奔向浩瀚的大海。但是，大海是那么的安静，那么的沉寂，那么的漠然，你会突然被某种模糊不清的不安所困扰，也许这只是我天性中的某种怪念头，甚至在那些日子里也很强烈。我觉得这种生活，绝大多数人所共有的这种生活，一定缺失了某种东西。我承认这种生活的社会价值，我也看到了它井然有序的幸福，但是在我的血液中有某种狂热，渴望一种更加狂野的生命历程。于我而言，在如此安详的快乐中，似乎有某种警示。在我内心深处渴望过一种更加冒险的生活，只要我的生活能有所变化——变迁和无法预见的刺激，我已做好充分准备去面对崎岖的岩石和布满暗礁的海滩。
【THU生活英语慕课|小说节选 | 《月亮与六便士》】03
单词卡片

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alacrity n. 敏捷；轻快；乐意
unintelligible adj. 莫名其妙的；无法了解的
scintillation n. 闪烁；发出火花；才华横溢
untoward adj. 不幸的；麻烦的；倔强的；困难的
placid adj. 平静的；温和的；沉着的
rivulet n. 小溪，小河
meander v. （河流、道路等）蜿蜒，曲折前行；漫步，闲逛，徘徊；漫谈，闲聊；（文章）行文散漫
amiss adj. 有毛病的，有缺陷的；出差错的 adv. 错误地
treacherous adj. 奸诈的，叛逆的，背叛的；危险的；不牢靠的
shoal n. 浅滩，沙洲；鱼群；潜在危险
a touch of 有一点

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