具体描述
内容简介
WINNER OF THE 1973 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD?
By the Author of Stoner
In Augustus, his third great novel, John Williams took? on an entirely new challenge, a historical narrative set in classical Rome, exploring the life of the founder of the Roman Empire. To tell the story, Williams turned to the epistolary novel, a genre that was new to him, transforming and transcending it just as he did the western in Butcher’s Crossing and the campus novel in Stoner. Augustus is the final triumph of a writer who has come?to be recognized around the world as an American master.? 作者简介
John Williams (1922–1994) was born and raised in northeast Texas. Despite a talent for writing and acting, Williams flunked out of a local junior college after his first year. He reluctantly joined the war effort, enlisting in the Army Air Corps, and managed to write a draft of his first novel while there. Once home, Williams found a small publisher for the novel and enrolled at the University of Denver, where he was eventually to receive both his B.A. and M.A., and where he was to return as an instructor in 1954.?
He remained on the staff of the creative writing program at the University of Denver until his retirement in 1985. During these years, he was an active guest lecturer and writer, editing an anthology of English Renaissance poetry and publishing two volumes of his own poems, as well as three novels, Butcher’s Crossing, Stoner, and the National Book Award–winning Augustus (all published as NYRB Classics).
Daniel Mendelsohn was born in 1960 and studied classics at the University of Virginia and at Princeton, where he received his doctorate. His essays and reviews appear regularly in The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Book Review. His books include The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million; a memoir, The Elusive Embrace; and the collection Waiting for the Barbarians: Essays from the Classics to Pop Culture, published by New York Review Books. He teaches at Bard College.,,, 精彩书评
“The finest historical novel ever written by an American.”?—The Washington Post
“[In Augustus] John Williams re-creates the Roman? Empire from the death of Julius Caesar to the last days? of Augustus, the machinations of the court, the Senate, and the people, from the sickly boy to the sickly man who almost dies during expeditions to what would seem to be the ruthless ruler. He uses an epistolary format, and in the end all these voices, like a collage, meld together around the main character . . . Read it in conjunction? with Robert Graves’s more flamboyant I, Claudius and Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian.”?—Harold Augenbraum, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation
“A novel of extraordinary range, yet of extraordinary minuteness, that manages never to sacrifice one quality for the other.”?—Financial Times
“Williams has fashioned an always engaging, psychologically convincing work of fiction—a consistent and well-realized portrait.”?—Thomas Lask, The New York Times
"Readers of both?Stoner?and?Butcher’s Crossing?will here encounter an altogether new version of the John Williams they’ve come to know:?Augustus?is an epistolary novel set in classical?Rome. It’s a rare genius who can reinvent himself in his final work and earn high praise for doing so." —The Millions
"Augustus is gripping, brimming with life." —Dan Piepenbring, The Paris Review Daily
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“This novel of an aged emperor will be intensely illuminating to anyone who is ready to put modern morality aside for a moment in order to acquire a little knowledge of himself or herself … The genius of this astonishing American writer is that he shows how lives that seem utterly strange can be very like our own.” —John Gray, New Statesman
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好的,这是一份关于一本虚构的、名为《星辰轨迹》的图书的详细简介,内容与您提到的《Augustus 英文原版 [平装]》无关。 --- 《星辰轨迹》:史诗级太空歌剧的宏大序章 作者: 伊莱亚斯·范恩 (Elias Thorne) 译者: 陈曦 版本信息: [精装版] / [平装版] / [电子书] 页数: 约 980 页 装帧: 艺术纸装帧,附赠星图折页 --- 简介:当文明的边界被重塑,人类的命运将何去何从? 《星辰轨迹》是一部气势磅礴的太空歌剧,它不仅仅是一部科幻小说,更是一幅关于人类在宇宙尺度上生存、冲突与探寻的史诗画卷。故事设定在遥远的第三个千年,地球已成为一个遥远的传说,人类文明已在银河系中扩散了数万光年,形成了错综复杂的星际联邦——“联盟”。然而,这种看似稳定的繁荣,却建立在一系列脆弱的平衡之上,以及对一个古老、强大且至今未解之谜的集体遗忘之上。 核心设定:破碎的银河与失落的遗产 故事始于“天鹅座扇区”,这是一个由前哨站、殖民星球和被遗忘的废弃空间站构成的危险地带。联盟的统治看似无懈可击,但暗流涌动。跨越数个象限的“共生体贸易协定”正在瓦解,各大家族和派系之间的权力斗争日益白热化。核心矛盾在于对“先驱遗迹”的争夺——这些遍布星系的神秘古代结构,被认为是数百万年前一个已灭绝的超级文明留下的技术遗产。 小说的主线围绕着一条被称为“织网者”的古老航道展开。这条航道并非由物理结构构成,而是依赖于一种尚未被完全理解的超光速“引力波束”技术。掌握了航道,就掌握了整个银河系的经济命脉和军事优势。 主要人物群像 卡莱布·凡·德·维尔 (Kaleb van der Veer) – 记忆的掮客 卡莱布是一名“记录者”,一个负责整理和验证星际历史数据的低阶官员。他原本过着按部就班的生活,直到一次偶然的机会,他接触到了一份被加密了数千年的日志碎片。这份碎片暗示了联盟创立的真相远比教科书上描述的更为黑暗,并且与“先驱”的消失有着直接关联。卡莱布被迫逃离他熟悉的安全区,成为了一个不受任何势力待见的流亡者,他的任务是重组这段被掩盖的历史,并揭露当权者深藏的秘密。他代表着对真相的执着与对既有秩序的颠覆。 塞拉菲娜·洛克 (Seraphina Locke) – 铁血元帅的继承者 塞拉菲娜是“第一星盾军团”中最年轻的军团长,以其冷酷的战术头脑和对联盟的绝对忠诚而闻名。她肩负着家族的荣耀和维护边境稳定的重任。然而,随着战事升级,她开始质疑上层的战略决策。她的故事线深入探讨了军事伦理、忠诚与良知之间的冲突。当她奉命追捕卡莱布时,她发现自己追逐的“叛徒”所持有的信息,恰恰能解释她父亲在最后一场边境战争中离奇失踪的原因。 泽诺斯 (Xenos) – 异星的低语者 泽诺斯是一个来自“边缘星域”的神秘个体,其种族背景模糊不清,被许多人认为是半机械生命体或高度进化的合成人。他精通“引力波束”技术的理论应用,是极少数能够解读“先驱遗迹”部分铭文的人。他代表着对未知技术的渴求,以及与人类文明截然不同的生存哲学。他并非传统意义上的反派,更像是一个自然力量的代理人,他引导着卡莱布,却也毫不留情地利用着人类的野心。 故事的冲突与主题 《星辰轨迹》的叙事结构宏大,交织了多个层面的冲突: 1. 科技的悖论: 先驱遗迹蕴含着近乎神迹般的力量,但每一次试图激活或利用这些技术,都会带来灾难性的后果。小说探讨了当人类掌握了远超其道德和智慧水平的技术时,文明是否注定走向自我毁灭。 2. 政治的腐朽: 联盟表面上的和平下,是高度集中的寡头政治和对信息流动的严密控制。卡莱布的调查揭露了权力阶层如何通过篡改历史和制造外部威胁来维持内部的稳定,这使得反抗不再仅仅是军事行动,更是对集体认知的解放。 3. 身份的重塑: 随着故事的推进,星际社会中各种非人类物种和基因改造族群之间的隔阂被打破。塞拉菲娜被迫面对她所捍卫的“人类至上”理念的虚伪性,而卡莱布则必须决定,他所寻求的真相,究竟是服务于人类的延续,还是某种更宏大、更普世的宇宙秩序。 场景描绘:从华丽到荒凉 本书的笔触细腻而富有画面感,场景转换极具冲击力: 新雅典:联盟的核心世界,一座悬浮于气体巨行星上方的,充斥着反重力建筑和全息广告的未来都市,象征着文明的巅峰与腐朽。 幽灵星云:一个被古代战争遗弃的区域,无数沉船和扭曲的空间碎片构成了“星际墓地”,是走私者和异见者的天堂。 “编织者之眼”:一处被认为是“先驱”核心能源站的遗迹,它深藏于一个难以穿透的辐射风暴中心,其内部的几何结构挑战着人类已知的物理学定律。 叙事风格与文学价值 伊莱亚斯·范恩的叙事风格融合了经典太空歌剧的浪漫主义与赛博朋克的批判深度。他擅长构建复杂的情节网络,并通过多重视角切换,让读者同时体验到高层政治博弈的冷酷和底层挣扎的激情。本书的对话充满智慧和张力,对宇宙学、社会学和哲学命题的探讨,使其超越了单纯的冒险故事,成为一部深刻反思人类未来走向的文学作品。 《星辰轨迹》第一部(共三部曲中的第一卷)以一个悬念迭起的最终高潮收尾,星际联邦的稳定被彻底动摇,新的战争边缘已经清晰可见。它邀请读者踏上一段史诗般的旅程,去探索宇宙中最深沉的奥秘,以及在无尽的黑暗中,人类所能迸发出的最耀眼的光芒。 --- 读者群体推荐: 喜欢《沙丘》系列、《基地》系列以及强调复杂政治与深度世界构建的硬科幻和太空歌剧爱好者。