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Theodore Dreiser had a hardscrabble youth and the years of newspaper work behind him when he began his first novel, Sister Carrie, the story of a beautiful Midwestern girl who makes it big in New York City. Published by Doubleday in 1900, it gained a reputation as a shocker, for Dreiser had dared to give the public a heroine whose "cosmopolitan standard of virtue" brings her from Wisconsin, with four dollars in her purse, to a suite at the Waldorf and glittering fame as an actress. With Sister Carrie, the original manuscript of which is in the New York Public Library collections, Dreiser told a tale not "sufficiently delicate" for many of its first readers and critics, but which is now universally recognized as one of the greatest and most influential American novels. 內容簡介
Story follows young Carrie, who is unable to make it in the big city, and who becomes the mistress of a married man in return for material possessions. Reissue. 作者簡介
Theodre Dreiser was born into a large and impoverished German American family in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1871. He began his writing career as a reporter, working for newspapers in Chicago. Pittsburg, and St. Louis, until an editor friend, Arthur Henry, suggested he write a novel. The result was Sister Carrie, based on the life of Dreiser's own sister Emma, who had run off to New York with a married man. Rejected by several publishers as "immoral", the book was finally accepted by Doubleday and Company, and published–over Frank Doubleday's strong objections–in 1900.
Numerous cuts and changes had been made in the lengthy original manuscript by various hands, including those of Arthur Henry, Dreiser himself. Later, when given to mythologizing his career, Dreiser was to suggest that the publishing history of Sister Carrie had been one of bowdlerization and suppression only; but the publication of his unedited manuscript by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 1981 shows that Dreiser approved and even welcomed Henry's and Jug's alterations. (Whether the book was ultimately improved or compromised by their liberal editing is a fascinating and as yet unresolved issue among Dreiser scholars.) Sister Carrie sold poorly, but writers like Frank Norris and William Dean Howells saw it as a breakthrough in American realism, and Dreiser's career as a novelist was launched.
The Financer (1912) and The Titan (1914) began his trilogy about the rise of a tycoon, but it was An American Tragedy (1925), based on newspaper accounts of a sensational murder case, which brought him fame. The novel was dramatized on Broadway and sold to Hollywood. Newly influential and affluent, Dreiser visited Russia and was unimpressed, describing his observations in the skeptical Dreiser Looks at Russia (1928). In later years, however, he became an ardent (through unorthodox) Communist, writing political Treatises such as America Is Worth Saving (1941) His artistic powers on the wane, Dreiser moved to Hollywood in 1939 and supported himself largely by the sale of film rights of his earlier works. He dies there, in 1945, at the age of seventy-four. 精彩書摘
When caroline meeber boarded the afternoon train for Chicago, her total outfit consisted of a small trunk, a cheap imitation alligator-skin satchel, a small lunch in a paper box, and a yellow leather snap purse, containing her ticket, a scrap of paper with her sister's address in Van Buren Street, and four dollars in money. It was in August, 1889. She was eighteen years of age, bright, timid, and full of the illusions of ignorance and youth. Whatever touch of regret at parting characterized her thoughts, it was certainly not for advantages now being given up. A gush of tears at her mother's farewell kiss, a touch in her throat when the cars clacked by the flour mill where her father worked by the day, a pathetic sigh as the familiar green environs of the village passed in review, and the threads which bound her so lightly to girlhood and home were irretrievably broken.
To be sure there was always the next station, where one might descend and return. There was the great city, bound more closely by these very trains which came up daily. Columbia City was not so very far away, even once she was in Chicago. What, pray, is a few hours—a few hundred miles? She looked at the little slip bearing her sister's address and wondered. She gazed at the green landscape, now passing in swift review, until her swifter thoughts replaced its impression with vague conjectures of what Chicago might be.
When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse. Of an intermediate balance, under the circumstances, there is no possibility. The city has its cunning wiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more human tempter. There are large forces which allure with all the soulfulness of expression possible in the most cultured human. The gleam of a thousand lights is often as effective as the persuasive light in a wooing and fascinating eye. Half the undoing of the unsophisticated and natural mind is accomplished by forces wholly superhuman. A blare of sound, a roar of life, a vast array of human hives, appeal to the astonished senses in equivocal terms. Without a counselor at hand to whisper cautious interpretations, what falsehoods may not these things breathe into the unguarded ear? Unrecognized for what they are, their beauty, like music, too often relaxes, then weakens, then perverts the simpler human perceptions.
Caroline, or Sister Carrie, as she had been half affectionately termed by the family, was possessed of a mind rudimentary in its power of observation and analysis. Self-interest with her was high, but not strong. It was, nevertheless, her guiding characteristic. Warm with the fancies of youth, pretty with the insipid prettiness of the formative period, possessed of a figure promising eventual shapeliness and an eye alight with certain native intelligence, she was a fair example of the middle American class—two generations removed from the emigrant. Books were beyond her interest—knowledge a sealed book. In the intuitive graces she was still crude. She could scarcely toss her head gracefully. Her hands were almost ineffectual. The feet, though small, were set flatly.
And yet she was interested in her charms, quick to understand the keener pleasures of life, ambitious to gain in material things. A half-equipped little knight she was, venturing to reconnoiter the mysterious city and dreaming wild dreams of some vague, far-off supremacy, which should make it prey and subject—the proper penitent, groveling at a woman's slipper.
"That," said a voice in her ear, "is one of the prettiest little resorts in Wisconsin."
"Is it?" she answered nervously.
The train was just pulling out of Waukesha. For some time she had been conscious of a man behind.
She felt him observing her mass of hair. He had been fidgeting, and with natural intuition she felt a certain interest growing in that quarter. Her maidenly reserve, and a certain sense of what was conventional under the circumstances, called her to forestall and deny this familiarity, but the daring and magnetism of the individual, born of past experiences and triumphs, prevailed. She answered.
He leaned forward to put his elbows upon the back of her seat and proceeded to make himself volubly agreeable.
"Yes, that is a great resort for Chicago people. The hotels are swell. You are not familiar with this part of the country, are you?"
"Oh, yes, I am," answered Carrie. "That is, I live at Columbia City. I have never been through here, though."
"And so this is your first visit to Chicago," he observed.
All the time she was conscious of certain features out of the side of her eye. Flush, colorful cheeks, a light moustache, a gray fedora hat. She now turned and looked upon him in full, the instincts of self-protection and coquetry mingling confusedly in her brain.
"I didn't say that," she said.
"Oh," he answered, in a very pleasing way and with an assumed air of mistake, "I thought you did."
Here was a type of the traveling canvasser for a manufacturing house—a class which at that time was first being dubbed by the slang of the day "drummers." He came within the meaning of a still newer term, which had sprung into general use among Americans in 1880, and which concisely expressed the thought of one whose dress or manners are calculated to elicit the admiration of susceptible young women—a "masher." His suit was of a striped and crossed pattern of brown wool, new at that time, but since become familiar as a business suit. The low crotch of the vest revealed a stiff shirt bosom of white and pink stripes. From his coat sleeves protruded a pair of linen cuffs of the same pattern, fastened with large, gold plate buttons, set with the common yellow agates known as "cat's-eyes." His fingers bore several rings—one, the ever-enduring heavy seal—and from his vest dangled a neat gold watch chain, from which was suspended the secret insignia of the Order of Elks. The whole suit was rather tight-fitting, and was finished off with heavy-soled tan shoes, highly polished, and the gray fedora hat. He was, for the order of intellect represented, attractive, and whatever he had to recommend him, you may be sure was not lost upon Carrie, in this, her first glance.
Lest this order of individual should permanently pass, let me put down some of the most striking characteristics of his most successful manner and method. Good clothes, of course, were the first essential, the things without which he was nothing. A strong physical nature, actuated by a keen desire for the feminine, was the next. A mind free of any consideration of the problems or forces of the world and actuated not by greed, but an insatiable love of variable pleasure. His method was always simple. Its principal element was daring, backed, of course, by an intense desire and admiration for the sex. Let him meet with a young woman once and he would approach her with an air of kindly familiarity, not unmixed with pleading, which would result in most cases in a tolerant acceptance. If she showed any tendency to coquetry he would be apt to straighten her tie, or if she "took up" with him at all, to call her by her first name. If he visited a department store it was to lounge familiarly over the counter and ask some leading questions. In more exclusive circles, on the train or in waiting stations, he went slower. If some seemingly vulnerable object appeared he was all attention—to pass the compliments of the day, to lead the way to the parlor car, carrying her grip, or, failing that, to take a seat next her with the hope of being able to court her to her destination. Pillows, books, a footstool, the shade lowered; all these figured in the things which he could do. If, when she reached her destination he did not alight and attend her baggage for her, it was because, in his own estimation, he had signally failed.
A woman should some day write the complete philosophy of clothes. No matter how young, it is one of the things she wholly comprehends. There is an indescribably faint line in the matter of a man's apparel which somehow divides for her those who are worth glancing at and those who are not. Once an individual has passed this faint line on the way downward he will get no glance from her. There is another line at which the dress of a man will cause her to study her own. This line the individual at her elbow now marked for Carrie. She became conscious of an inequality. Her own plain blue dress, with its black cotton tape trimmings, now seemed to her shabby. She felt the worn state of her shoes.
"Let's see," he went on, "I know quite a number of people in your town. Morgenroth the clothier and Gibson the dry goods man."
"Oh, do you?" she interrupted, aroused by memories of longings their show windows had cost her.
At last he had a clue to her interest, and followed it deftly. In a few minutes he had come about into her seat. He talked of sales of clothing, his travels, Chicago, and the amusements of that city.
"If you are going there, you will enjoy it immensely. Have you relatives?"
"I am going to visit my sister," she explained.
"You want to see Lincoln Park," he said, "and Michigan Boulevard. They are putting up great buildings there. It's a second New York—great. So much to see—theaters, crowds, fine houses—oh, you'll like that."
There was a little ache in her fancy of all he described. Her insignificance in the presence of so much magnificence faintly affected her. She realized that hers was not to be a round of pleasure, and yet there was something promising in all the material prospect he set forth. There was so...
《繁華落盡:一個時代的女性浮沉錄》 內容簡介: 這部宏大的敘事跨越瞭二十世紀初美國中西部小鎮的淳樸與芝加哥、紐約等大都市的霓虹閃爍,深入剖析瞭在社會結構劇烈變動時期,幾位背景迥異的女性在追逐“美國夢”過程中的掙紮、蛻變與最終的命運抉擇。故事並非聚焦於單一的個體冒險,而是通過多條交織的命運綫索,編織瞭一幅關於欲望、階級、道德邊界與自我救贖的時代畫捲。 故事的中心圍繞著兩股截然不同的力量展開:一種是對物質豐裕與社會地位的渴望,另一種則是對精神獨立與道德堅守的執著。 第一部分:西部的幻夢與東部的召喚 故事始於伊利諾伊州一個被農田環繞的小鎮。艾米莉亞·霍爾,一個齣身於虔誠卻略顯保守傢庭的年輕女子,擁有一雙對外界充滿好奇的眼睛。她目睹瞭小鎮生活的單調與局限,內心深處渴望著更廣闊的天地——那些在報紙上描繪的、充滿機遇的、鋼筋水泥構築的城市奇跡。艾米莉亞的錶姐,貝蒂絲,幾年前逃離瞭相似的環境,如今在芝加哥一傢小型百貨公司做著體麵的職位,寄迴的信件中充滿瞭對新生活的贊美,盡管言辭中總隱約透露齣一絲不易察覺的焦慮。 艾米莉亞的哥哥,托馬斯·霍爾,一個野心勃勃的年輕人,篤信“隻要努力,一切皆可爭取”,他選擇瞭一條看似更直接的道路——商業投機。他將全部積蓄投入到一項聲稱能帶來巨大利潤的房地産預售計劃中,堅信自己能迅速躋身上流社會。他的自信與魯莽,為傢族未來的動蕩埋下瞭伏筆。 在傢庭的壓力與對“更好生活”的憧憬下,艾米莉亞最終說服瞭猶豫不決的父母,以“探親與學習”的名義,登上瞭開往芝加哥的火車。她帶來的,是一個被理想化濾鏡包裹的夢想。 第二部分:鋼鐵叢林中的角色定位 抵達芝加哥後,艾米莉亞立刻感受到瞭這座城市的巨大反差。一方麵,是宏偉的建築、繁忙的街道和琳琅滿目的商品;另一方麵,是擁擠的貧民窟、不公的薪資和無情的競爭。 她首先找到瞭貝蒂絲。貝蒂絲的生活比想象中要復雜得多。她確實在一傢體麵的商店工作,但她所處的社會階層依舊脆弱,一個錯誤的選擇或一場突發的疾病都可能使她重新跌落。貝蒂絲結識瞭當地一傢小有名氣的酒店經理——理查德·哈珀。哈珀是一個圓滑世故、深諳人情世故的商人,他給予貝蒂絲的,是她從未體驗過的物質享受和對高層社交圈的短暫接觸,但這份“恩惠”的背後,是無形的契約與失去的自主權。 艾米莉亞最初在一傢餐館找到瞭零工,但這份工作對她精神上的摺磨遠大於體力上的消耗。她目睹瞭形形色色的顧客,看到瞭金錢如何輕易地塑造他人的行為模式。她試圖保持自己的純真,拒絕瞭餐館老闆提齣的“特殊服務”要求,這讓她失去瞭那份微薄的收入。 在極度睏窘之時,她遇到瞭塞繆爾·溫斯頓,一位從東部搬遷而來的、較為溫和的中年商人。溫斯頓對艾米莉亞的正直和尚未被城市磨損的特質産生瞭憐憫與愛慕。他嚮艾米莉亞提供瞭一個庇護所——一間位於城市相對安靜街區的公寓,並承諾會幫助她尋找一份更符閤她氣質的工作。在溫斯頓的關懷下,艾米莉亞開始接觸到閱讀、藝術和更深層次的談話,她的精神世界獲得瞭滋養,但她與溫斯頓的關係始終停留在一種依賴與保護的界限上。 第三部分:欲望的代價與托馬斯的沉淪 與此同時,托馬斯·霍爾的商業投機以災難告終。他所投資的房地産項目被證實是一場精心策劃的騙局,他不僅失去瞭所有積蓄,還背負瞭巨額債務。在羞愧和絕望中,他聽從瞭貝蒂絲的建議,為瞭快速“翻身”,他鋌而走險,捲入瞭一場涉及公司內部信息的非法人交易中。 貝蒂絲對理查德·哈珀的依賴日益加深,她發現自己無法離開哈珀提供的奢華生活,哪怕這意味著她必須犧牲尊嚴去維護哈珀的社交形象。她對艾米莉亞的“清高”感到不解和一絲嫉妒,認為艾米莉亞擁有瞭她自己從未敢於追求的純粹,卻又瞧不起她所選擇的務實道路。 艾米莉亞在溫斯頓的幫助下,進入瞭一傢小型齣版社擔任校對和助理。她展現齣瞭驚人的工作能力和對文學的熱情。然而,隨著她社會地位的提升,她對溫斯頓的感情變得復雜。她感激他,但她也意識到,自己與他之間存在著明顯的權力與財富差距,她渴望的是一種完全平等的夥伴關係,而非被庇護。 第四部分:紐約的幻影與人生的十字路口 數年後,城市格局再次變化。托馬斯因其非法交易暴露,在芝加哥聲名狼藉,他被迫逃往紐約,試圖在更龐大的金融市場中重新開始,他變得比以往任何時候都更加冷酷和務實。 艾米莉亞的事業蒸蒸日上,她拒絕瞭溫斯頓的求婚,她知道,要真正成為自己想成為的人,她必須離開這個舒適的牢籠,去更大的舞颱證明自己。她收拾行裝,帶著她在芝加哥積纍的聲譽和能力,前往紐約。 在紐約,艾米莉亞遇到瞭托馬斯。此時的托馬斯已經通過一係列冷酷的商業運作,成為瞭一名小有名氣的金融經紀人。他看到瞭艾米莉亞的成熟和潛力,試圖用金錢和地位來重建他們兄妹的關係,但艾米莉亞對他過去的逃避和當前的虛僞保持著距離。 在紐約的社交圈中,艾米莉亞遇到瞭一位受人尊敬的作傢和評論傢——愛德華·馬修斯。馬修斯代錶瞭艾米莉亞一直嚮往的精神世界。他們的交往是基於智識的平等和相互欣賞。然而,在紐約這座以財富論高下的城市裏,單純的精神契閤顯得異常單薄。艾米莉亞麵臨著人生中最為艱難的抉擇:是選擇馬修斯所代錶的、充滿道德光環卻物質清貧的精神世界,還是選擇一個能提供穩定與社會認可的、更現實的依靠? 結局的沉思: 故事並未給齣一個簡單的“好人有好報”的結局。貝蒂絲最終因無法承受哈珀的控製和外界的壓力,在一次社交醜聞中徹底被上流社會排斥,她失去瞭所有的物質支撐,不得不依靠自己曾經鄙視的手段艱難維生。托馬斯雖然在金融界站穩瞭腳跟,但他的靈魂早已被貪婪吞噬,他是一個成功的商人,卻是一個孤獨的人。 艾米莉亞站在曼哈頓的摩天大樓頂端,迴望她走過的泥濘小路。她沒有選擇安逸,也沒有完全沉溺於財富。她利用自己在芝加哥積纍的經驗和在紐約磨練齣的敏銳洞察力,創立瞭自己的文化工作室,專注於推廣那些被主流忽視的、具有深遠意義的作品。她最終找到瞭屬於自己的平衡點——一種基於自我成就而非依附他人的獨立性。 本書通過這些人物的命運流轉,探討瞭在工業化和城市化浪潮中,女性如何定義“成功”與“幸福”的悖論。它深刻地揭示瞭:當舊有的道德約束崩塌,物質誘惑無處不在時,個體究竟需要付齣多大的代價,纔能在繁華落盡之後,真正認識並安放自己的靈魂。這是一部關於美國精神的肖像,一麯關於生存與自我塑造的時代挽歌。