第140期：夏洛蒂•勃朗特：从默默无闻到无人不晓

介绍: 想成为我们的主播，欢迎加微信 xdfbook 投稿。 一段美文，一首英文歌，或是一点生活感想，全由你做主。 《夏洛蒂•勃朗特：从默默无闻到无人不晓》 From Bell to Brontë Last month brought the 200-year anniversary of the birth of Charlotte Brontë, one of the most prominent figures in English Literature and the author of such revered1) works as Jane Eyre and Villette. The Brontës are one of the most prominent families in literature and the next five years bring three more Brontë bicentenaries. Next year will see Charlotte’s brother Branwell’s celebrations, followed by those of her sisters, Emily and Anne, in 2018 and 2020 respectively. The Brontë sisters remain staple2) authors on the bookshelves of libraries and shops everywhere. Charlotte’s Jane Eyre, Villette and Shirley continue to influence the world today; for example, Shirley was the first instance of the name being given to a woman, as prior to the novel, “Shirley” was a name for a man. Charlotte’s works also make the first known references to the “Wild West”, the “cottage-garden” and a “raised eyebrow”, plus 150 other well-known phrases. The Brontës’ attachment to literature began at an early age; the children created imaginary worlds named “Angria” and “Gondal”, displaying some of the earliest forms of fantasy writing. Charlotte’s sisters Emily and Anne were also successful authors in their own right; Emily is famed for Wuthering Heights and Anne for Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. All three women used pseudonyms, publishing their works as Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, male names which preserved their original initials. They took the decision to hide their female identities in order to be taken more seriously, alongside George Eliot3) and many other Victorian women writers. Despite their successes, the lives of the Brontës were filled with sadness. Charlotte was born in Thornton in 1816 and was the third of six children. Her father Patrick was an Irish Anglican clergyman, who moved the family to Haworth4) in 1820 to become the priest of St Michael and All Angels Church. In 1821 the first tragedy hit the Brontë family when Charlotte’s mother Maria died of cancer, and the children were then looked after by their father and their aunt Elizabeth. In 1824 Patrick sent his four daughters away to school at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire, but the poor conditions there are often blamed as the cause of the tuberculosis which caused the deaths of Charlotte’s sisters Maria and Elizabeth in 1825. After returning home, Charlotte looked after her younger siblings Branwell, Emily, and Anne. Here began the literary ambitions of the Brontë family, as the children passed the time by writing stories and articles together. Charlotte later attended Roe Head School in Mirfield before becoming a teacher there. She then became a governess and worked for many families. Charlotte and Emily moved to Brussels in 1842 to enrol in a boarding school where Charlotte taught English, and Emily music. They returned home prematurely after their Aunt Elizabeth’s death, but Charlotte travelled back to Brussels alone three months later. She fell hopelessly in love with the founder of the school Constantin Héger, an unrequited5) love story which would heavily influence her novel Villette. A year later she returned to Haworth for good but wrote heartbreaking love letters to Héger, sometimes as often as twice a week. Eventually Héger’s wife stepped in and instructed Charlotte to write once every six months at most. Héger attempted to destroy the letters before his death, but his wife reconstructed the torn pieces of paper and left them to their children. The general public did not know of Charlotte’s attachment until 1913, when Héger’s children donated the letters to the British library. This knowledge swiftly altered public opinion of her as a saintly and innocent Victorian woman. ………… 上个月(编著：原文发表于2016年5月)迎来了夏洛蒂•勃朗特诞辰200周年纪念日。夏洛蒂是英国文学史上最杰出的人物之一，也是备受尊崇的两部作品《简•爱》和《维莱特》的作者。勃朗特一家是文学界最杰出的家庭之一，今后五年将陆续迎来勃朗特一家另外三个人的200周年纪念日。明年是夏洛蒂的弟弟布兰韦尔的纪念日，接着2018年和2020年分别是她两个妹妹艾米莉和安妮的纪念日。 在各地的图书馆和书店的书架上，勃朗特三姐妹仍居主要作家之列。如今，夏洛蒂的《简•爱》、《维莱特》和《雪莉》依旧影响着世界；比如，Shirley (编著：做女性名，译为雪莉)第一次成为女性的名字就是在小说《雪莉》中，因为在这本小说问世之前，Shirley (编著：做男性名，译为雪利)是男性的名字。夏洛蒂的作品还首次提及“蛮荒西部”、“乡舍花园”、“扬起的眉毛”以及其他150多个众所周知的词组。 勃朗特姐妹对文学的喜爱萌生于幼年。孩子们幻想出名为“安格里亚”和“冈德尔”的虚幻世界，展现了奇幻文学某些最早的形式。夏洛蒂的妹妹艾米莉和安妮也是成功的作家：艾米莉以《呼啸山庄》闻名，安妮则凭借《阿格尼斯·格雷》和《女房客》著称。这三位女性用的都是笔名，分别以柯勒•贝尔、埃利斯•贝尔、阿克顿•贝尔这样的男性名字出版著作，其中保留了他们本名的首字母。她们当时做出隐匿女性身份的决定是为了引起更多的重视，采取同样做法的还有乔治·艾略特等诸多维多利亚时代的女性作家们。 尽管勃朗特姐妹很成功，但其生活却很不幸。1816年，夏洛蒂出生于桑顿，在六个孩子中排行第三。父亲帕特里克是一位爱尔兰国教的牧师，1820年他举家搬到霍沃斯，成为圣米迦勒与诸天使教堂的牧师。1821年勃朗特一家经历了第一场悲剧。那一年，夏洛蒂的母亲玛丽亚死于癌症，之后孩子们由父亲和姨妈伊丽莎白照顾。 1824年，帕特里克把四个女儿送去位于兰开夏郡的考恩桥寄宿学校，但学校的条件恶劣，人们认为正是这样的恶劣条件让夏洛蒂的两个姐姐玛丽亚和伊丽莎白染上了肺结核，此病导致两人于1825年去世。夏洛蒂从学校回到家里，负责照料她年幼的弟弟妹妹：布兰韦尔、艾米莉和安妮。自此，勃朗特一家的文学抱负便开始了，孩子们一起撰文创作打发时光。 之后，夏洛蒂去了米菲尔德的罗海德学校读书，随后又在那里任教。后来她成了一名家庭教师，为许多家庭工作过。1842年，夏洛蒂和艾米莉一起到了布鲁塞尔，被当地的一所寄宿学校录取。在那里，夏洛蒂教英语，艾米莉教音乐。姨妈伊丽莎白去世后，两人提前回家了，但是三个月后夏洛蒂又孤身一人回到了布鲁塞尔。她无可救药地爱上了学校的创办人康斯坦丁•黑格尔。这个单恋的爱情故事对她的小说《维莱特》产生了巨大的影响。 一年后她回到了哈沃斯，没再离开。但她给黑格尔写令人心碎的情书，有时每周写两封。最终黑格尔的妻子介入了此事，要求夏洛蒂最多每六个月写一次信。黑格尔去世之前试图毁掉这些信件，但他的妻子把撕碎的信纸重新拼接了起来，并把信留给了他们的孩子。直到1913年黑格尔的孩子们把信件捐赠给大英图书馆，公众才获悉夏洛蒂的这份恋情。这个消息迅速改变了公众对于她作为纯真圣洁的维多利亚时代女性的看法。………… 文章摘自：《新东方英语》杂志2016年8月号