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The Call Of The Wild is the story of Buck, a dog stolen from his home and thrust into the merciless life of the Arctic north to endure hardship, bitter cold, and the savage lawlessness of man and beast. White Fang is the adventure of an animal -- part dog, part wolf --turned vicious by cruel abuse, then transformed by the patience and affection of one man.
Jack London's superb ability as a storyteller and his uncanny understanding of animal and human natures give these tales a striking vitality and power, and have earned him a reputation as a distinguished American writer.
內容簡介
The Call Of The Wild is the story of Buck, a dog stolen from his home and thrust into the merciless life of the Arctic north to endure hardship, bitter cold, and the savage lawlessness of man and beast. White Fang is the adventure of an animal -- part dog, part wolf --turned vicious by cruel abuse, then transformed by the patience and affection of one man.
Jack London's superb ability as a storyteller and his uncanny understanding of animal and human natures give these tales a striking vitality and power, and have earned him a reputation as a distinguished American writer.
《野性的呼喚》主要講述一條傢狗變成一隻野狼的故事。小說的主人公是一條名叫“巴剋”的狗,在被拐賣前,它是法官米勒傢中一條養尊處優的馴養犬,過著無憂無慮的生活;然而,在被拐賣到嚴酷的北方之後,它不得不麵對一個完全不同的世界。在極其惡劣的現實環境中,它顯示齣瞭強烈的生存欲望,並由這種欲望主宰,設法剋服一切難以想象的睏難,成為一隻適應荒野生存規律和競爭規律的雪橇狗,最終還響應荒野的召喚,迴歸瞭自然。
《白牙》的故事則截然相反,講述的是一隻名叫“白牙”的小灰狼最終變為斯科特傢中一條馴養犬的故事。它原本是荒野中的一隻狼,在與人交往的過程中,曆經種種磨難和麯摺,最後遇到瞭慈愛的主人斯科特,並在斯科特愛的感化下,最終走齣瞭荒野,過上瞭馴養的生活。這兩部小說體現瞭自然主義創作手法。本文通過從遺傳和環境兩個角度,揭示瞭作者自然主義的寫作風格,闡述瞭遺傳和環境因素對動物生存的雙重影響,及作者對人類社會生存現狀的認識。
作者簡介
Jack London was born in San Francisco in 1876, the son of an unmarried spiritualist, Flora Wellmann, who later wed John London, a Civil War veteran. Much of Jack's childhood was spent in delinquency, and after several temporary itinerant jobs, he took part in the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897. Even though the trip was not a success, he drew on his experiences to write powerful stories. One of these, The Call of the Wild, brought him fame as an author, although he remained financially insecure for the rest of his life. He died in 1916 leaving behind an array of books on an astonishing range of subjects.
傑剋·倫敦1876年生於舊金山,死於1916年。他齣身窮苦,在他短暫的一生中他有豐富的經曆——海員、工人、育空河的淘金人、旅行傢、記者和作傢。他寫瞭很多書,但是其中以《野性的呼喚》和另一本寫狗的書《白牙》,最廣為流傳。
精彩書評
"One hundred and one years after its publication, it is still enthralling. The opening chapters are haunting, their depiction of the wilderness of snow, ice and forest faced by gold prospectors exquisite and terrifying. The menace of ever-present death, for man, dog and wolf alike, in a setting of remorseless beauty, is bracing and humbling."
--Herald
"Raw narratives of visceral appeal whose cinematic energy cry out for film adaptation."
-- Robert McCrum, Observer
"A searing book about man and animals and the inherent wildness in the nature of the dog. It's a very stark book in some ways but it really conjures up the atmosphere of Gold Rush-era Yukon."
-- Daily Express
前言/序言
From Tina Gianquitto's Introduction to The Call of the Wild and White Fang
By the time London boarded the steamer for his trip from San Francisco to Alaska, he had already led a colorful and dramatic life. He was a sloop owner and oyster poacher on San Francisco Bay and a deputy for the Fish Patrol at fifteen, a sailor traveling through the North and South Pacific hunting seals at seventeen, a coal-shoveler in a power plant, a Socialist, and a tramp at eighteen. By nineteen, a weary London saw himself, with others of the working classes, near "the bottom of the [Social] Pit . . . myself above them, not far, and hanging on to the slippery wall by main strength and sweat" (London, War of the Classes, pp. 274-275; see "For Further Reading"). Although London was far from relinquishing his love of the active life, he feared being ruled by it. London fought in these early years to educate himself, and by that education to get himself out of the hard-laboring classes. As his hero informs his readers in the semi-autobiographical novel Martin Eden, writing offered a way to stoke the fires of both the body and the imagination, and so with characteristic determination, London set himself to the task of becoming a professional writer. By 1896, however, he realized that writing alone could not support a hungry family. The following year, London and his brother-in-law Captain James H. Shepard decided to try their luck panning for gold in the recently discovered strikes along the Yukon River in the Klondike.
After disembarking in Juneau, Alaska, London, Shepard and their companions made their way to Dyea, the principle departure point for the gold fields of the Yukon and the Klondike. Buck travels the same trails that London covered-leaving Dyea, making the arduous climb over Chilcoot Pass, and pushing on to Lakes Linderman and Bennett before making the waters of the Yukon River. From here, the party traveled downstream, toward Dawson City, where they navigated the dangerous White Horse and Five Finger Rapids before reaching the relative safety of Split-Up Island, 80 miles from Dawson between the Stewart River and Henderson Creek. London staked a claim near here and made a brief visit to Dawson City to record the claim. He returned to the island, where the group passed the winter in an old miner's cabin. These long five months proved difficult for London, who contracted scurvy by the spring from poor diet and lack of exercise.
Upon his return to San Francisco in 1898, London began his writing career in earnest. Clearly, the Klondike turned London into a writer of note, not only because he was able to tap into a ready market for all things Gold Rush, but more important, because the landscape offered London a barren theater for his characters to work out their paths in life. If, as London believed, environment determined the course of an individual's life, then the austere and brutal, yet ultimately simple environment of the North tested the capacities of the individual (and by extension, the species) to adapt to the environment.
London's intellectual experiences during the winter spent on Split-Up Island are as important as his physical ones; he spent his time reading, rereading, and sharing with his friends the two books he carried with him to the wilderness: Milton's Paradise Lost and Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Less than a year after his return to San Francisco, London summed up his understanding of Darwin in a letter to his friend Cloudesley Johns: "Natural selection, undeviating, pitiless, careless alike of the individual or the species, destroyed or allowed to perpetuate, as the case might be, such breeds as were unfittest or fittest to survive" (Labor, p. 101). Such struggle characterizes human and animal life in The Call of the Wild and White Fang.
探索人類文明的邊界與自然法則的頌歌:一部關於生存、忠誠與救贖的史詩 書名: 獵風者的挽歌 (The Hunter's Elegy) 作者: 伊萊亞斯·凡恩 (Elias Vance) 頁數: 約 680 頁 裝幀: 精裝 --- 內容簡介: 《獵風者的挽歌》是一部跨越兩個世紀,以北美西北部蠻荒之地為背景的宏大敘事。它並非簡單的冒險故事,而是一部深刻探討人類文明的脆弱性、個體在極限環境下的道德抉擇,以及在廣袤無垠的自然界中,生命如何重新定義其存在的意義的哲學史詩。 故事的主綫圍繞著三代人與落基山脈深處一片被稱為“寂靜之喉”的未開發區域産生的復雜糾葛展開。這裏的環境嚴酷到足以磨碎任何自詡為“文明”的虛飾,迫使角色直麵最原始的生存本能和最深層的精神渴望。 第一部:黃金的誘惑與失落的傢園 (The Lure of Gold and the Lost Hearth) 故事始於 1880 年代末,正值淘金熱的尾聲,但對於那些不甘心的人來說,希望的餘燼仍未熄滅。年輕的探險傢兼地質學傢,亞瑟·布萊剋伍德,帶著他受過良好教育的妻子伊莎貝爾和尚在繈褓中的兒子,懷揣著對發現“最後一片未被觸碰的礦脈”的執念,深入瞭育空河的上遊。 亞瑟並非魯莽之輩,他受過嚴謹的科學訓練,深信知識的力量可以徵服自然。然而,當他們遭遇一場突如其來的、史無前例的鼕季風暴時,科學的地圖和計算變得一文不值。小說細緻入微地描繪瞭他們如何在飢餓、極寒和日益增長的偏執中,一步步放棄文明的規範。伊莎貝爾,一位受過素描和音樂教育的女性,被迫學習辨認可食用的苔蘚,並在冰雪覆蓋的荒野中,用僅存的工具製作陷阱。 這一部分是對人類適應力的殘酷考驗。亞瑟的理想主義在生存的鐵律麵前崩塌,他開始依賴當地一位神秘的、幾乎隱居的毛皮商人——“影子”洛根。洛根代錶著一種與自然和諧共處的古老智慧,他既是救贖者,也是一個潛在的威脅。讀者將跟隨亞瑟的視角,體驗到城市生活的舒適是如何像薄冰一樣,在真正的野性麵前瞬間瓦解。我們看到的不是英雄的勝利,而是對文明界限的不斷試探。 第二部:繼承者的睏境與土地的低語 (The Heir's Dilemma and the Land's Whisper) 時間快進至 1940 年代,二戰的陰影籠罩全球。亞瑟的兒子,年僅二十歲的詹姆斯·布萊剋伍德,繼承瞭一筆微薄的遺産和一捲模糊不清的手繪地圖,那是他父親在失蹤前留下的唯一綫索。詹姆斯從小生活在波士頓的學術氛圍中,他痛恨父親所選擇的、犧牲傢庭幸福去追逐虛妄的“偉大發現”的生活方式。 然而,一場突如其來的健康危機讓他不得不離開高壓的都市生活,他選擇前往父親最後齣現過的地方——“寂靜之喉”。詹姆斯的目的不再是黃金,而是尋求一種答案:父親為何寜願選擇在荒野中受苦,也不願迴傢? 詹姆斯抵達的這片土地,已經被時間和自然的力量重塑。他發現“寂靜之喉”已經成為一個非官方的庇護所,居住著一群逃避戰爭、稅收或社會壓力的邊緣人物:一位失去記憶的德國工程師、一位拒絕迴歸印第安保留地的部落長者,以及一位堅信未來依賴可持續農業的年輕女醫生。 詹姆斯試圖用現代的組織和管理方法來規範這個鬆散的群體,但他的努力屢屢碰壁。他必須學習如何尊重土地的節奏,如何區分植物的藥用價值和毒性,如何理解部落長者眼中“土地的低語”。在這裏,他不再是布萊剋伍德傢族的繼承人,而是一個學徒。小說深入探討瞭知識與經驗之間的鴻溝,以及詹姆斯如何在一個完全沒有既定規則的社會結構中,重塑他對自己“傢”的定義。 第三部:迴聲與未來之約 (The Echo and the Covenant of Tomorrow) 第三部分聚焦於冷戰初期,氣候變化和資源開發的威脅開始侵蝕“寂靜之喉”的寜靜。詹姆斯的女兒,艾琳娜,一位堅定的環保主義者和野生動物攝影師,接到瞭一個意想不到的召喚:一個大型能源公司計劃在“寂靜之喉”的核心地帶修建一條輸油管道,這條路綫將穿過她祖父和父親為之奮鬥、甚至犧牲瞭部分人性的那片淨土。 艾琳娜擁有她祖父的韌性,以及她父親在睏境中學到的務實精神。她麵對的敵人不再是飢餓或嚴寒,而是龐大、無形且由法律和資本構築的體係。她必須利用自己掌握的現代工具——無人機、衛星圖像和媒體宣傳——來對抗那些聲稱擁有“開發權利”的勢力。 艾琳娜在尋找反擊證據的過程中,重新發現瞭傢族的曆史。她找到瞭祖母伊莎貝爾在風暴中留下的日記殘頁,記錄瞭在絕境中,人類如何以最樸素的方式相互支持。這些文字不僅是曆史的見證,更是對她當前鬥爭的精神鼓舞。 小說的核心衝突在於:人類是否能從過去的錯誤中吸取教訓,學會與自然共存,而不是徵服自然? 艾琳娜能否在保護這片土地的同時,避免重蹈祖輩那種極端的、被自然吞噬的命運? 主題與深度: 《獵風者的挽歌》不僅僅是一部關於地域的史詩,它更是一部關於“身份的遷徙”的探討。 1. 文明的幻象: 小說挑戰瞭讀者對“文明”的固有認知。在舒適的城市裏,道德感是廉價的;隻有在生死存亡的邊緣,一個人的真正品格纔會暴露無遺。 2. 時間的層次性: 通過三代人的敘事,小說展示瞭時間如何在一個固定的地理空間中留下印記。每一代人都繼承瞭上一代的“遺産”,這個遺産既是寶貴的經驗,也是沉重的包袱。 3. 非人類的視角: 敘事中穿插瞭對當地野生動物群落(尤其是狼群和灰熊)行為的細緻觀察,並非擬人化,而是作為一種衡量環境健康與人類行為後果的自然參照係。土地本身,成為瞭一個沉默但具有決定性影響力的角色。 4. 救贖的代價: 故事探討瞭救贖是否可能。對於亞瑟來說,救贖是精神上的迴歸,即使這意味著肉體的消亡;對於詹姆斯來說,救贖是重建傢庭的紐帶;而對於艾琳娜來說,救贖是保護尚未被破壞的未來。 閱讀體驗: 凡恩的筆觸冷峻而富有詩意,充滿瞭對北境風光的精準描繪。他擅長運用冗長而富有節奏感的句子,營造齣一種廣闊、寂靜且略帶壓抑的氛圍。讀者在閱讀過程中,仿佛能感受到刺骨的寒風、泥土的芬芳和鬆木燃燒時的劈啪聲。這部作品要求讀者投入時間去感受角色內心的掙紮,而非僅僅追逐情節的轉摺。它適閤那些喜愛嚴肅文學、曆史小說以及探討人與環境復雜關係的讀者。 --- 本書收錄瞭詳盡的育空地區曆史年錶、主要植物及動物的圖譜,以及三代人使用的關鍵地理坐標手稿的復印件,增強瞭閱讀的沉浸感和真實性。