作為現(xiàn)代情愛(ài)小說(shuō)的先驅(qū),勞倫斯在這部小說(shuō)中以前所未有的深度和熱情探索了厄休拉和古蘭迪姐妹倆的情感問(wèn)題。作為藝術(shù)家的妹妹古迪蘭遇上礦主的獨(dú)生子杰拉德,原始的欲望點(diǎn)燃了愛(ài)的激情;然而在狂暴的激情過(guò)后,失望和痛苦的她又與另一位藝術(shù)家陷入了愛(ài)的狂歡。作為中學(xué)教師的姐姐厄休拉溫柔美麗,在與督學(xué)伯基的相愛(ài)中,她一心要讓對(duì)方成為愛(ài)情的囚鳥(niǎo),而對(duì)方卻希望在靈與肉的交融中保持彼此心靈上的距離……
勞倫斯畢生致力于性愛(ài)題材小說(shuō)的原創(chuàng),在揭示男歡女愛(ài)的同時(shí),也深入探討了政治、歷史、經(jīng)濟(jì)、宗教等社會(huì)問(wèn)題,因而將這一題材上升到哲學(xué)和審美的高度!稇賽(ài)中的女人》與他的另一部小說(shuō)《虹》并稱(chēng)為勞化斯最膾炙人口的兩部長(zhǎng)篇。他本人也認(rèn)為此書(shū)是他的“最佳作品”。
1.勞倫斯對(duì)他的母語(yǔ)具有嫻熟的駕馭能力,且筆端充滿(mǎn)激情,敘事簡(jiǎn)潔生動(dòng),十分富有生活氣息,這在他創(chuàng)作成熟期的“情愛(ài)三部曲”之一的《戀愛(ài)中的女人》中表現(xiàn)得是十分突出的。
2.勞倫斯一生落魄,早年曾當(dāng)過(guò)會(huì)計(jì)、工廠雇員、小學(xué)教師,又曾漂泊歐陸和美洲十余年,因而,他對(duì)本國(guó)的內(nèi)政及社會(huì)痼疾有著清醒的認(rèn)識(shí),筆鋒犀利,這在他同時(shí)代的作家中也是十分突出的。
3.勞倫斯是長(zhǎng)于描寫(xiě)情愛(ài)的大師,尤其擅長(zhǎng)刻畫(huà)女性在特定生活環(huán)境中的狀貌及心理特征,現(xiàn)代小說(shuō)在這方面的寫(xiě)作技巧通過(guò)勞倫斯的創(chuàng)作發(fā)展到一個(gè)展新的階段。英國(guó)著名作家、評(píng)論家伍爾芙評(píng)論說(shuō):“(勞倫斯是個(gè))對(duì)物質(zhì)世界,對(duì)其顏色、質(zhì)地及形狀格外敏感的作家;在他看來(lái),身體是活生生的,而有關(guān)身體的問(wèn)題既迫切,又十分重大!
4.此外,為了幫助讀者進(jìn)一步理解原著,并對(duì)勞倫斯一生的創(chuàng)作有一個(gè)整體的把握,本書(shū)還選取了國(guó)外學(xué)者近年來(lái)發(fā)表的幾篇論文。
5.本書(shū)附贈(zèng)一枚由設(shè)計(jì)師精心設(shè)計(jì)的藏書(shū)票。
(英)D.H.勞倫斯,在19、20世紀(jì)之交,D.H.勞倫斯可謂英國(guó)最富有創(chuàng)造力、最有爭(zhēng)議的作家。勞倫斯出身于諾丁漢郡一個(gè)礦工家庭,從他的成名作《兒子和情人》開(kāi)始,勞倫斯即將目光投向性與情愛(ài)這一敏感領(lǐng)域,接連創(chuàng)作了《虹》、《戀愛(ài)中的女人》(這兩部小說(shuō)與前者構(gòu)成“性愛(ài)三部曲”)和《查泰萊夫人的情人》等作品,不僅聚訟紛紜,且屢遭當(dāng)局查禁。盡管后來(lái)勞倫斯也寫(xiě)過(guò)《袋鼠》、《羽蛇》等反大國(guó)沙文主義、反天主教傳統(tǒng)的作品,但其主要成就仍表現(xiàn)在情愛(ài)主題方面,難怪時(shí)至今日,人們一直將其目為“現(xiàn)代情愛(ài)小說(shuō)之父”。
勞倫斯以其獨(dú)特的視角和敏感的心靈體驗(yàn)著工業(yè)文明對(duì)人性的戕賊,體驗(yàn)著人類(lèi)本能的被扭曲與迷失!霸谑澜绲拈_(kāi)端和末日之間出現(xiàn)了人。人既不是創(chuàng)世者,也不是被創(chuàng)者,但他是創(chuàng)造的核心!眲趥愃谷缡钦f(shuō)?梢哉f(shuō),勞倫斯是人類(lèi)的性與美的永不疲倦的發(fā)現(xiàn)者。
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1 SISTERS
CHAPTER 2 SHORTLANDS
CHAPTER 3 CLASS-ROOM
CHAPTER 4 DIVER
CHAPTER 5 IN THE TRAIN
CHAPTER 6 CREME DE MENTHE
CHAPTER 7 FETISH
CHAPTER 8 BREADALBY
CHPTER 9 COAL-DUST
CHPTER 10 SKETCH-BOOK
CHPTER 11 AN ISLAND
CHPTER 12 CARPETING
CHPTER 13 MINO
CHPTER 14 WATER-PARTY
CHPTER 15 SUNDAY EVENING
CHPTER 16 MAN TO MAN
CHPTER 17 THE INDUSTRIAL MAGNATE
CHPTER 18 RABBIT
CHAPTER 19 MOONY
CHAPTER 20 GLADIATORIAL
CHAPTER 21 THRESHOLD
CHAPTER 22 WOMAN TO WOMAN
CHAPTER 23 EXCURSE
CHAPTER 24 DEATH AND LOVE
CHPTER 25 MARRIAGE OR NOT
CHAPTER 26 ACHIR
CHAPTER 27 FLITTING
CHAPTER 28 GUDRUN IN THE POMPADOUR
CHAPTER 29 CONTINENTAL
CHAPTER 30 SNOWED UP
CHAPTER 31 EXEUNT
APPENDIX
I Birkin's"nitro-glycerine,"used in both explosives and the treatment of heart disease,neatly encapsulates the contradiction.Linguistic ties between Birkin and Loerke show the sculptor to be,in part,a caricature or ironic double of the ideologue.In"An Island,"Birkin treats love as a relativistic phenomenon of no speaal account that one may or may not feel"according to circumstance".Loerke maintains that love is the same old instinct masquerading under a multiplicity of guises and that sexual choice is a matter of convenience as arbitrary as the difference between words for love in different languages.Birkin talks of love as an emotion too often idealized and absolutized,Loerke as an appetite that can be indiscriminately satisfied;but their irritation and boredom with the subject link them as critics of the prevailing ideology.
They even use the same metaphor-a hat-to symbolize identity(as in Freud),albeit with different assoaations.For Birkin and his interlocutors in"Shortlands,"the hat stands for property and one's liberty and independence,rightly or wrongly based on it;for Loerke the hat represents sexual possession.As property or sexuality the hat,a disposable part of one's apparel,is something that alienated intellectual and artist alike despise.But there the resemblance ends:Loerke's reductive cyniasm is a caricature of Birkin's serious criticism of love.Birkin does love Ursula,but he wants to liberate himself from the inertia and falsity that linguistic and social codes attach to the word and its interpretation."The point about love,"he insists,"is that we hate the word because we have vulgarised it.It ought to be proscribed,tabooed from utterance,for many years,till we get a new,better idea".The issue for Birkin is whether being can flow through the hardened arteries of a soaalized language.In"An Island,"he arrests the automatic flow of consciousness so that Ursula"could not know.She could only watch the brilliant little discs of the daisies veering slowly in travel on the dark,lustrous water".But the return to language,with its witty anthropomorphic conceits metaphorizing daisies as social orders,is parodic,demonstrating the tendency of language to turn natural facts into artifiaal concepts,a logocentric imperialism that substitutes culture for nature.
Birkin and Loerke are set apart by their quickness and vitality,critical sense,and awareness of corruption to the point of seeming antihuman.They live unto themselves and are contemptuous of the social contract.Birkin tells Ursula:"I don't believe in the humanity I pretend to be a part of,I don't care a straw for the soaal ideals I live by,I hate the dying organic form of mankind".His attitude toward corruption is ambivalent,but he shows personal integrity in his search for understanding and fulfilment.Loerke,however,is cynically corrupt:he conspires with the mechanical principle,and his art,subserving industry,undermines life.Basing his identity on a compulsive work ethicu he cross-examines Gudrun in a tri-lingrustic diatribe:He broke into a mixture of Italian and French,nstinctively uszng a foreign language when he spoke to her.
"You have never worked as the world works,"he said to her with sarcasm.
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