具體描述
內容簡介
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.? 作者簡介
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.,,, 精彩書評
“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,這是一份關於一本虛構的、名為《星辰軌跡》的圖書的詳細簡介,內容與您提到的《Augustus 英文原版 [平裝]》無關。 --- 《星辰軌跡》:史詩級太空歌劇的宏大序章 作者: 伊萊亞斯·範恩 (Elias Thorne) 譯者: 陳曦 版本信息: [精裝版] / [平裝版] / [電子書] 頁數: 約 980 頁 裝幀: 藝術紙裝幀,附贈星圖摺頁 --- 簡介:當文明的邊界被重塑,人類的命運將何去何從? 《星辰軌跡》是一部氣勢磅礴的太空歌劇,它不僅僅是一部科幻小說,更是一幅關於人類在宇宙尺度上生存、衝突與探尋的史詩畫捲。故事設定在遙遠的第三個韆年,地球已成為一個遙遠的傳說,人類文明已在銀河係中擴散瞭數萬光年,形成瞭錯綜復雜的星際聯邦——“聯盟”。然而,這種看似穩定的繁榮,卻建立在一係列脆弱的平衡之上,以及對一個古老、強大且至今未解之謎的集體遺忘之上。 核心設定:破碎的銀河與失落的遺産 故事始於“天鵝座扇區”,這是一個由前哨站、殖民星球和被遺忘的廢棄空間站構成的危險地帶。聯盟的統治看似無懈可擊,但暗流湧動。跨越數個象限的“共生體貿易協定”正在瓦解,各大傢族和派係之間的權力鬥爭日益白熱化。核心矛盾在於對“先驅遺跡”的爭奪——這些遍布星係的神秘古代結構,被認為是數百萬年前一個已滅絕的超級文明留下的技術遺産。 小說的主綫圍繞著一條被稱為“織網者”的古老航道展開。這條航道並非由物理結構構成,而是依賴於一種尚未被完全理解的超光速“引力波束”技術。掌握瞭航道,就掌握瞭整個銀河係的經濟命脈和軍事優勢。 主要人物群像 卡萊布·凡·德·維爾 (Kaleb van der Veer) – 記憶的掮客 卡萊布是一名“記錄者”,一個負責整理和驗證星際曆史數據的低階官員。他原本過著按部就班的生活,直到一次偶然的機會,他接觸到瞭一份被加密瞭數韆年的日誌碎片。這份碎片暗示瞭聯盟創立的真相遠比教科書上描述的更為黑暗,並且與“先驅”的消失有著直接關聯。卡萊布被迫逃離他熟悉的安全區,成為瞭一個不受任何勢力待見的流亡者,他的任務是重組這段被掩蓋的曆史,並揭露當權者深藏的秘密。他代錶著對真相的執著與對既有秩序的顛覆。 塞拉菲娜·洛剋 (Seraphina Locke) – 鐵血元帥的繼承者 塞拉菲娜是“第一星盾軍團”中最年輕的軍團長,以其冷酷的戰術頭腦和對聯盟的絕對忠誠而聞名。她肩負著傢族的榮耀和維護邊境穩定的重任。然而,隨著戰事升級,她開始質疑上層的戰略決策。她的故事綫深入探討瞭軍事倫理、忠誠與良知之間的衝突。當她奉命追捕卡萊布時,她發現自己追逐的“叛徒”所持有的信息,恰恰能解釋她父親在最後一場邊境戰爭中離奇失蹤的原因。 澤諾斯 (Xenos) – 異星的低語者 澤諾斯是一個來自“邊緣星域”的神秘個體,其種族背景模糊不清,被許多人認為是半機械生命體或高度進化的閤成人。他精通“引力波束”技術的理論應用,是極少數能夠解讀“先驅遺跡”部分銘文的人。他代錶著對未知技術的渴求,以及與人類文明截然不同的生存哲學。他並非傳統意義上的反派,更像是一個自然力量的代理人,他引導著卡萊布,卻也毫不留情地利用著人類的野心。 故事的衝突與主題 《星辰軌跡》的敘事結構宏大,交織瞭多個層麵的衝突: 1. 科技的悖論: 先驅遺跡蘊含著近乎神跡般的力量,但每一次試圖激活或利用這些技術,都會帶來災難性的後果。小說探討瞭當人類掌握瞭遠超其道德和智慧水平的技術時,文明是否注定走嚮自我毀滅。 2. 政治的腐朽: 聯盟錶麵上的和平下,是高度集中的寡頭政治和對信息流動的嚴密控製。卡萊布的調查揭露瞭權力階層如何通過篡改曆史和製造外部威脅來維持內部的穩定,這使得反抗不再僅僅是軍事行動,更是對集體認知的解放。 3. 身份的重塑: 隨著故事的推進,星際社會中各種非人類物種和基因改造族群之間的隔閡被打破。塞拉菲娜被迫麵對她所捍衛的“人類至上”理念的虛僞性,而卡萊布則必須決定,他所尋求的真相,究竟是服務於人類的延續,還是某種更宏大、更普世的宇宙秩序。 場景描繪:從華麗到荒涼 本書的筆觸細膩而富有畫麵感,場景轉換極具衝擊力: 新雅典:聯盟的核心世界,一座懸浮於氣體巨行星上方的,充斥著反重力建築和全息廣告的未來都市,象徵著文明的巔峰與腐朽。 幽靈星雲:一個被古代戰爭遺棄的區域,無數沉船和扭麯的空間碎片構成瞭“星際墓地”,是走私者和異見者的天堂。 “編織者之眼”:一處被認為是“先驅”核心能源站的遺跡,它深藏於一個難以穿透的輻射風暴中心,其內部的幾何結構挑戰著人類已知的物理學定律。 敘事風格與文學價值 伊萊亞斯·範恩的敘事風格融閤瞭經典太空歌劇的浪漫主義與賽博朋剋的批判深度。他擅長構建復雜的情節網絡,並通過多重視角切換,讓讀者同時體驗到高層政治博弈的冷酷和底層掙紮的激情。本書的對話充滿智慧和張力,對宇宙學、社會學和哲學命題的探討,使其超越瞭單純的冒險故事,成為一部深刻反思人類未來走嚮的文學作品。 《星辰軌跡》第一部(共三部麯中的第一捲)以一個懸念迭起的最終高潮收尾,星際聯邦的穩定被徹底動搖,新的戰爭邊緣已經清晰可見。它邀請讀者踏上一段史詩般的旅程,去探索宇宙中最深沉的奧秘,以及在無盡的黑暗中,人類所能迸發齣的最耀眼的光芒。 --- 讀者群體推薦: 喜歡《沙丘》係列、《基地》係列以及強調復雜政治與深度世界構建的硬科幻和太空歌劇愛好者。