George Meredith (1828-1909)
1.Life
George Meredith, novelist and poet in the Victorian era, was born in a tailor family. He wrote more than 20 novels and many poems. Different from other English novelists in the second half of the 19th century, he laid little emphasis on structure and technique. He was famous for his excellent conversation, witty and poetic scenes and mental description. He was far beyond his age for his treating women as totally independent persons as men.
2.Major Works
Modern Love (1862)
Poems and Lyrics of the joy of Earth (1883)
The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859)
The Egoist (1879)
Diana of the Crossways (1885)
The Idea of Comedy and the Uses of the Comic Spirit (1897)
3.Selected Work
◆The Egoist
Willoughby Patterne is the heir of the established family Patterne. Since his childhood, he has been a prominent figure in his county. His soul has been soaked with extreme egoism. He asks his fiancé to fix her mind and emotion on him. He does not want to marry Laetitia Dale who likes him, but he keeps her from leaving. He asks his cousin to completely depend on him and does not allow the cousin to leave their plantation. He proposes to Constantia Durham and she agreed. However, as she gradually sees his egoism, she elopes with a Calvary officer. Willoughby also forces his two unmarried aunts to do as what he tells. In a word, he wants everybody to listen to his order. In the end, everyone gets disgusted with his egoism and abandon him.
This novel describes the emotional experience of an English nobleman Willoughby Patterne, an extreme egoist. It bitterly satirizes the hollowness and decadence of English Bourgeoisie in terms of comedy and reveals the harm of egoism and the author’s critical attitude through the egoist’s end of his self-destruction.
| 乔治·梅瑞狄斯(1828-1909)
1．生平
乔治·梅瑞狄斯是英国维多利亚时代的小说家、诗人。出生於一个裁缝家庭，一生写有20多部小说和许多诗歌。与19世纪后半叶其他英国小说家不同，他不注重结构和技巧，而以精彩的对话，充满机智和诗意的宏伟场面，以及对人物心理的刻画著称。他远远超越其时代，把妇女看成和男子平等的完全独立的个人。
2．主要作品
《现代爱情》(1862)
《大地欢歌》(1883)
《理查德·法弗尔的考验》(1859)
《利己主义者》(1879)
《傍徨中的戴安娜》(1885)
《喜剧的概念和喜剧精神的作用》(1897)
3．选读作品
◆《利己主义者》
威洛比·柏登是望族柏登氏的继承人，自小就是郡里众目所瞩的人物，但他的灵魂浸透了极端自私自利的思想。他要求他未婚妻无论思想还是感情以他为转移。他并不想与喜欢他的丽蒂西娅结婚，却也不让她离开他。他要求表弟完全依赖他，不允许他离开庄园。他向康斯坦西娅·德拉姆求婚，对方表示同意。但当她逐渐认识到威洛比的自私自利后，她和一名骑士军官私奔了。威洛比还要求他两个姑姑听命于他。总之，他希望所有人能听从他的意志。最后，众人厌恶他的自我中心主义而离开了他。
这部作品着重描绘了英国贵族青年威洛比·柏登这个极端利己主义者的情感经历，以喜剧的形式嘲弄英国资产阶级的空虚与堕落，并通过利己主义者自我毁灭的结局揭示了利己主义的危害性和作家的批判态度。
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