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Mistress Mary is quite contrary until she helps her garden grow. Along the way, she manages to cure her sickly cousin Colin, who is every bit as imperious as she. These two are sullen little peas in a pod, closed up in a gloomy old manor on the Yorkshire moors of England, until a locked-up garden captures their imaginations and puts the blush of a wild rose in their cheeks; "It was the sweetest, most mysterious-looking place any one could imagine. The high walls which shut it in were covered with the leafless stems of roses which were so thick, that they matted together... 'No wonder it is still,' Mary whispered. 'I am the first person who has spoken here for ten years.'" As new life sprouts from the earth, Mary and Colin's sour natures begin to sweeten. For anyone who has ever felt afraid to live and love, The Secret Garden's portrayal of reawakening spirits will thrill and rejuvenate. Frances Hodgson Burnett creates characters so strong and distinct, young readers continue to identify with them even 85 years after they were conceived.
Soothing and mellifluous, native Briton Bailey's voice proves an excellent instrument for polishing up a new edition of Burnett's story. Bratty and spoiled Mary Lennox is orphaned when her parents fall victim to a cholera outbreak in India. As a result, Mary becomes the ward of an uncle in England she has never met. As she hesitantly tries to carve a new life for herself at imposing and secluded Misselthwaite Manor, Mary befriends a high-spirited boy named Dickon and investigates a secret garden on the Manor grounds. She also discovers a sickly young cousin, Colin, who has been shut away in a hidden Manor room. Together Mary and Dickon help Colin blossom, and in the process Mary finds her identity and melts the heart of her emotionally distant uncle. Bailey makes fluid transitions between the voices and accents of various characters, from terse Mrs. Medlock and surly groundskeeper Ben to chipper housemaid Martha. And most enjoyably, she gives Mary a believably childlike voice. A brief biography of the author is included in an introduction. 內容簡介
Few children's classics can match the charm and originality of Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden, the unforgettable story of sullen, sulky Mary Lennox, "the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen." When a cholera epidemic leaves her as an orphan, Mary is sent to England to live with her reclusive uncle, Archibald Craven, at Misselthwaite Manor. Unloved and unloving, Mary wanders the desolate moors until one day she chances upon the door of a secret garden. What follows is one of the most beautiful tales of transformation in children's literature, as Mary her sickly and tyrannical cousin Colin and a peasant boy named Dickson secretly strive to make the garden bloom once more.
A unique blend of realism and magic, The Secret Garden remains a moving expression of every child's need to nurture and be nurtured—a story that has captured for all time the rare and enchanted world of childhood. 作者簡介
Frances Hodgson Burnett was born in Manchester, England, on November 24 1849. After her father's death in 1853, Burnett's mother ran the family's iron foundry until the American Civil War caused the business to fail. Destitute, the Hodgsons moved to Tennessee in 1865 to stay with relatives in a log cabin. Frances lived there until 1873, when she married a doctor, Swan Burnett, whom she later divorced in 1898. She married Peter Townsend, an actor, in 1900.
From her teens Frances had written stories and tales to help her support the family and later claimed never to have written a manuscript that was not published. Her first widespread success came with That Lass o' Lowrie's in 1877, a tale of the Lancashire coal mines. But it was the publication of Little Lord Fauntleroy, in 1886, that brought the author fame and wealth and established Cedric as the model for a generations of young boys. Sara Crewe was published in 1888, and the rags-to-riches story was so successful that Burnett revised, expanded, and republished it in 1905 as A Little Princess. The beloved The Secret Garden appeared four years later to enormous critical and popular acclaim.
A prolific writer, Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote over 40 novels and plays and dozens of short stories during her lifetime. She died at Plandome, New York, on October 29 1924. 精彩書摘
Chapter One
There Is No One Left
When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true, too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow because she had been born in India and had always been ill in one way or another. Her father had held a position under the English Government and had always been busy and ill himself, and her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse herself with gay people. She had not wanted a little girl at all, and when Mary was born she handed her over to the care of an Ayah, who was made to understand that if she wished to please the Mem Sahib she must keep the child out of sight as much as possible. So when she was a sickly, fretful, ugly little baby she was kept out of the way, and when she became a sickly, fretful, toddling thing she was kept out of the way also. She never remembered seeing familiarly anything but the dark faces of her Ayah and the other native servants, and as they always obeyed her and gave her her own way in everything, because the Mem Sahib would be angry if she was disturbed by her crying, by the time she was six years old she was as tyrannical and selfish a little pig as ever lived. The young English governess who came to teach her to read and write disliked her so much that she gave up her place in three months, and when other governesses came to try to fill it they always went away in a shorter time than the first one. So if Mary had not chosen to really want to know how to read books she would never have learned her letters at all.
One frightfully hot morning, when she was about nine years old, she awakened feeling very cross, and she became crosser still when she saw that the servant who stood by her bedside was not her Ayah.
"Why did you come?" she said to the strange woman. "I will not let you stay. Send my Ayah to me."
The woman looked frightened, but she only stammered that the Ayah could not come and when Mary threw herself into a passion and beat and kicked her, she looked only more frightened and repeated that it was not possible for the Ayah to come to Missie Sahib.
There was something mysterious in the air that morning. Nothing was done in its regular order and several of the native servants seemed missing, while those whom Mary saw slunk or hurried about with ashy and scared faces. But no one would tell her anything and her Ayah did not come. She was actually left alone as the morning went on, and at last she wandered out into the garden and began to play by herself under a tree near the veranda. She pretended that she was making a flower-bed, and she stuck big scarlet hibiscus blossoms into little heaps of earth, all the time growing more and more angry and muttering to herself the things she would say and the names she would call Saidie when she returned.
"Pig! Pig! Daughter of Pigs!" she said, because to call a native a pig is the worst insult of all.
She was grinding her teeth and saying this over and over again when she heard her mother come out on the veranda with some one. She was with a fair young man and they stood talking together in low strange voices. Mary knew the fair young man who looked like a boy. She had heard that he was a very young officer who had just come from England. The child stared at him, but she stared most at her mother. She always did this when she had a chance to see her, because the Mem Sahib—Mary used to call her that oftener than anything else—was such a tall, slim, pretty person and wore such lovely clothes. Her hair was like curly silk and she had a delicate little nose which seemed to be disdaining things, and she had large laughing eyes. All her clothes were thin and floating, and Mary said they were "full of lace." They looked fuller of lace than ever this morning, but her eyes were not laughing at all. They were large and scared and lifted imploringly to the fair boy officer's face.
"Is it so very bad? Oh, is it?" Mary heard her say.
"Awfully," the young man answered in a trembling voice. "Awfully, Mrs. Lennox. You ought to have gone to the hills two weeks ago."
The Mem Sahib wrung her hands.
"Oh, I know I ought!" she cried. "I only stayed to go to that silly dinner party. What a fool I was!"
At that very moment such a loud sound of wailing broke out from the servants' quarters that she clutched the young man's arm, and Mary stood shivering from head to foot. The wailing grew wilder and wilder.
"What is it? What is it?" Mrs. Lennox gasped.
"Some one has died," answered the boy officer. "You did not say it had broken out among your servants."
"I did not know!" the Mem Sahib cried. "Come with me! Come with me!" and she turned and ran into the house.
After that appalling things happened, and the mysteriousness of the morning was explained to Mary. The cholera had broken out in its most fatal form and people were dying like flies. The Ayah had been taken ill in the night, and it was because she had just died that the servants had wailed in the huts. Before the next day three other servants were dead and others had run away in terror. There was panic on every side, and dying people in all the bungalows.
During the confusion and bewilderment of the second day Mary hid herself in the nursery and was forgotten by every one. Nobody thought of her, nobody wanted her, and strange things happened of which she knew nothing. Mary alternately cried and slept through the hours. She only knew that people were ill and that she heard mysterious and frightening sounds. Once she crept into the dining-room and found it empty, though a partly finished meal was on the table and chairs and plates looked as if they had been hastily pushed back when the diners rose suddenly for some reason. The child ate some fruit and biscuits, and being thirsty she drank a glass of wine which stood nearly filled. It was sweet, and she did not know how strong it was. Very soon it made her intensely drowsy, and she went back to her nursery and shut herself in again, frightened by cries she heard in the huts and by the hurrying sound of feet. The wine made her so sleepy that she could scarcely keep her eyes open and she lay down on her bed and knew nothing more for a long time.
Many things happened during the hours in which she slept so heavily, but she was not disturbed by the wails and the sound of things being carried in and out of the bungalow.
When she awakened she lay and stared at the wall. The house was perfectly still. She had never known it to be so silent before. She heard neither voices nor footsteps, and wondered if everybody had got well of the cholera and all the trouble was over. She wondered also who would take care of her now her Ayah was dead. There would be a new Ayah, and perhaps she would know some new stories. Mary had been rather tired of the old ones. She did not cry because her nurse had died. She was not an affectionate child and had never cared much for any one. The noise and hurrying about and wailing over the cholera had frightened her, and she had been angry because no one seemed to remember that she was alive. Every one was too panic-stricken to think of a little girl no one was fond of. When people had the cholera it seemed that they remembered nothing but themselves. But if every one had got well again, surely some one would remember and come to look for her.
But no one came, and as she lay waiting the house seemed to grow more and more silent. She heard something rustling on the matting and when she looked down she saw a little snake gliding along and watching her with eyes like jewels. She was not frightened, because he was a harmless little thing who would not hurt her and he seemed in a hurry to get out of the room. He slipped under the door as she watched him.
"How queer and quiet it is," she said. "It sounds as if there was no one in the bungalow but me and the snake."
Almost the next minute she heard footsteps in the compound, and then on the veranda. They were men's footsteps, and the men entered the bungalow and talked in low voices. No one went to meet or speak to them and they seemed to open doors and look into rooms.
"What desolation!" she heard one voice say. "That pretty, pretty woman! I suppose the child, too. I heard there was a child, though no one ever saw her."
Mary was standing in the middle of the nursery when they opened the door a few minutes later. She looked an ugly, cross little thing and was frowning because she was beginning to be hungry and feel disgracefully neglected. The first man who came in was a large officer she had once seen talking to her father. He looked tired and troubled, but when he saw her he was so startled that he almost jumped back.
"Barney!" he cried out. "There is a child here! A child alone! In a place like this! Mercy on us, who is she!"
"I am Mary Lennox," the little girl said, drawing herself up stiffly. She thought the man was very rude to call her father's bungalow "A place like this!" "I fell asleep when every one had the cholera and I have only just wakened up. Why does nobody come?"
"It is the child no one ever saw!" exclaimed the man, turning to his companions. "She has actually been forgotten!"
"Why was I forgotten?" Mary said, stamping her foot. "Why does nobody come?"
The young man whose name was Barney looked at her very sadly. Mary even thought she saw him wink his eyes as if to wink tears away.
"Poor little kid!" he said. "There is nobody left to come."
It w...
《失落的編年史:阿卡迪亞的低語》 一部關於記憶、失落與重生的宏大敘事 作者:艾麗斯·範恩(Alice Thorne) 譯者:李明遠 齣版社:星辰齣版社 --- 第一部分:暮色之城與破碎的誓言 故事始於阿卡迪亞,一個坐落在“永恒之霧”邊緣的古老城市。阿卡迪亞並非一座凡俗之城,它的建築由一種會吸收和反射星光的奇異礦石砌成,居民世代守護著一個核心秘密——一座被稱為“時間之輪”的巨大機械裝置,它被認為能夠穩定現實與虛妄之間的界限。 主人公,伊萊亞斯·凡(Elias Vane),是阿卡迪亞最受尊敬的“記憶編織者”傢族的最後血脈。記憶編織者擁有罕見的天賦,能夠進入他人的夢境深處,修復被遺忘的片段,甚至重新編織創傷的記憶。然而,伊萊亞斯的生活在十年前被一場突如其來的“靜默風暴”徹底顛覆。 靜默風暴並非尋常的天氣現象,它是一次針對知識和情感的無聲侵襲。在這場災難中,阿卡迪亞的中心圖書館——匯集瞭文明數韆年曆史的“萬捲殿”——被徹底摧毀,而伊萊亞斯的父母也隨之消失,隻留下一個謎團重重的羅盤和一張被燒焦的羊皮紙。 十年後,阿卡迪亞沉浸在一種病態的寜靜之中。人們的記憶變得模糊而疏離,仿佛被一層透明的薄紗所籠罩。伊萊亞斯靠著微薄的記憶碎片和對真相的執著,在城市的底層艱難維生,他拒絕成為官方承認的“記憶修復師”,而是私下裏接手那些被官方遺忘的、被社會邊緣化的“破碎記憶”。 他接待的第一個重要人物是年邁的瑟琳娜,一位曾是皇傢曆史學傢的老婦人。瑟琳娜聲稱自己記得靜默風暴發生前不久,一個身披星辰鬥篷的神秘人曾拜訪萬捲殿,並帶走瞭某種“核心代碼”。瑟琳娜的記憶支離破碎,充滿瞭矛盾的景象:她看到瞭閃爍的數字、低沉的吟唱,以及一麵布滿裂紋的鏡子。 伊萊亞斯開始瞭他的編織工作。他發現,修復瑟琳娜的記憶比以往任何時候都要睏難。他的意識進入瞭一個由破碎的邏輯構成的迷宮,記憶碎片如同漂浮的冰山,稍有不慎就會將他永久睏在彆人的創傷之中。在迷宮深處,他找到瞭一段清晰的影像:神秘訪客並非盜竊者,而更像是一個執行某種古老儀式的信徒。這個人似乎在試圖“解放”被時間之輪囚禁的某種存在。 第二部分:地下水道與被遺忘的真理 瑟琳娜的綫索將伊萊亞斯引嚮瞭阿卡迪亞被遺忘的地下部分——“沉寂之網”。這是一個由古老的輸水管道和廢棄的礦道構成的復雜網絡,據說那裏居住著那些拒絕接受“官方曆史”的異見者和被社會放逐的“迴聲者”。 在地下,伊萊亞斯遇到瞭卡西烏斯,一個精通機械和符號學的流浪者。卡西烏斯對於時間之輪的運作原理有著非同尋常的見解。他告訴伊萊亞斯,時間之輪並非是為瞭穩定現實,而是為瞭“過濾”現實。它抽取瞭所有過於強烈、過於真實,或者說過於危險的記憶和情感,將它們儲存在一個秘密的“維度容器”中,從而維持瞭阿卡迪亞錶麵的和平。 卡西烏斯展示給伊萊亞斯一個他親手修復的古老投影儀。當投影儀啓動時,它投射齣的影像並非曆史記錄,而是情感的殘餘——一種強烈的、原始的、未經修飾的悲傷和狂喜的混閤體,正是阿卡迪亞居民們努力遺忘的東西。 伊萊亞斯意識到,靜默風暴的真相遠比一場簡單的災難要復雜。它可能是一次有計劃的“記憶迴收”,而他的父母,正是那次迴收行動的目擊者或執行者。他開始質疑自己所接受的一切“事實”。 在深入地下隧道的過程中,他們發現瞭一個被封鎖的密室。密室中央,並非神聖的祭壇,而是一個巨大的、由黑曜石和未命名金屬構成的“接收器”。接收器的錶麵刻滿瞭與他父母遺物羅盤上相似的符號。當伊萊亞斯觸碰接收器時,他經曆瞭一次強烈的“反嚮迴溯”——他不僅看到瞭父母的記憶,還看到瞭阿卡迪亞建立之初的景象。 第三部分:雙重時間與悖論的種子 通過反嚮迴溯,伊萊亞斯揭示瞭阿卡迪亞曆史中最大的悖論:這座城市並非誕生於和平的渴望,而是誕生於一場失敗的“維度乾預”。早期的阿卡迪亞人曾試圖完全控製時間流動,但失敗瞭。時間之輪的真正作用是不斷地自我修正,通過定期“清空”過於飽和的真實記憶來避免整個現實結構的崩潰。 他的父母,作為最高編織者,並非簡單地失蹤瞭。他們發現瞭一個不可逆轉的錯誤:時間之輪正在加速磨損,它清除記憶的速度越來越快,如果不加以乾預,整個城市將在短時間內陷入“虛無狀態”,即所有存在都失去意義和聯係。 他們留下羅盤,實際上是一個“時間錨”,意圖在虛無降臨時,將阿卡迪亞的“核心真理”備份並投射到另一個維度——那個由卡西烏斯投影儀中看到的、充滿原始情感的“情感維度”。 那個在靜默風暴前夕齣現的神秘人,正是來自這個情感維度。他不是來盜竊,而是來警告。他帶來瞭“未被過濾的現實”的碎片,試圖喚醒伊萊亞斯。 伊萊亞斯必須做齣選擇:是維護阿卡迪亞虛假而穩定的現狀,讓居民們繼續生活在被閹割的記憶中;還是遵循父母的遺願,激活時間錨,用一場劇烈的、充滿痛苦真相的“記憶洪流”來重塑他的世界,冒著讓城市徹底瓦解的風險。 在最終的對決中,伊萊亞斯來到瞭時間之輪的控製室。他不再是那個迷茫的編織者,他是一個掌握瞭雙重時間綫真理的繼承者。他沒有選擇完全摧毀之輪,也沒有選擇袖手旁觀。他以自己的生命力為引,將父母留下的時間錨嵌入瞭輪軸的中心。 一股純淨的、未被過濾的記憶之光爆發齣來。它沒有毀滅阿卡迪亞,而是強行將那些被壓抑的、被遺忘的愛、恐懼、狂喜和痛苦,以一種溫和但不可抗拒的方式,重新注入到每個居民的心靈深處。 阿卡迪亞沒有立刻恢復昔日的輝煌,而是陷入瞭短暫的混亂。人們開始哭泣、大笑、爭吵,他們重新感受到瞭“真實”。伊萊亞斯在完成使命後,他的身體化為構成時間之輪的星光礦石,成為瞭新秩序的一部分。 尾聲:餘燼中的低語 數十年後,阿卡迪亞成為瞭一座充滿活力,但也充滿不確定性的城市。它不再是“完美”的,但它是“完整”的。藝術和哲學蓬勃發展,因為人們不再害怕體驗完整的人性。 卡西烏斯,如今已是阿卡迪亞最受尊敬的學者,他時常會在城市廣場的石闆路上看到微弱的星光閃爍,那是伊萊亞斯留下的印記。他知道,真正的花園不在於被秘密保護起來,而在於敢於讓所有生命在陽光和陰影下共同生長。那些被編織的謊言已經消散,而真正重要的故事,永遠不會被時間所遺忘,它們隻是在等待一個有勇氣去傾聽的人。 本書主題: 記憶的本質、集體遺忘的代價、真相與安逸之間的哲學抉擇,以及個體如何在宏大的係統性謊言中,為重拾人性而奮鬥。這是一部關於如何麵對曆史的創傷,以及如何用破碎的真相來構建更強大未來的史詩。