(名家名著名释导读版)

    Jane Eyre

    简·爱

    Charlotte Bronte

    【英】夏洛蒂·勃朗特◎著

    黄璐◎注释

    人民邮电出版社

    北京丛书总序

    文学作品犹如一杯佳酿，经过漫长的时间沉淀，它越加醇厚、迷

    人。它不仅为我们展现了不同的世界，也提供了各方面的知识，丰富了

    我们想象力的同时也提升了我们的文学素养。让我们可以通过阅读了解

    社会乃至整个世界，为我们打开了另一扇窗。英语原版读物也是如此。

    对于许多文学爱好者、英语专业的学生以及想提高英语水平的人而言，英语原版读物的确是一个不错的选择。

    阅读英语原版作品，可以帮助读者扩大词汇量，欣赏动人的情节，了解英美文化常识，提高阅读能力。但是在阅读的过程中，会有生词、复杂句式、人物名称、各类历史事件、典故等影响因素出现，这使得读

    者不能顺畅地阅读，有时候甚至不能完全理解书中作者所表达的思想。

    为此，我们特意推出了这一套丛书。

    在本套丛书中，我们精心挑选了欧内斯特·米勒·海明威、丹尼尔·笛

    福、戴尔·卡耐基、亨利·戴维·梭罗以及夏洛蒂·勃朗特这五位作家的经

    典作品《老人与海》、《鲁滨逊漂流记》、《人性的弱点》、《瓦尔登

    湖》和《简·爱》。这五位作家都是当时的文学巨匠，对后世影响深

    远；精选的《老人与海》、《鲁滨逊漂流记》、《人性的弱点》、《瓦

    尔登湖》和《简·爱》这五部作品均为经典英语原版读物，自出版以

    来，深受广大读者的欢迎，作品所宣扬的精神影响着一代代人；本套丛

    书是由资深的英语学者执笔，为这些作品做出注释。在《老人与海》

    中，通过描写老人与一条大马林鱼的搏斗，作者宣扬了“一个人可以被

    毁灭，但不能被打败”的精神，塑造了一位经典的“硬汉”形象；《鲁滨

    逊漂流记》，英国的第一部现实主义长篇小说，主人公鲁滨逊富有冒险

    精神，在一次出海中遭遇了风暴，他随海水漂流到了一座荒岛附近，随

    后他荒岛求生，向读者展示了他敢于冒险、不畏艰难的人格魅力；在《人性的弱点》中，美国著名的成功学大师戴尔·卡耐基教你如何结交

    朋友，如何处理人际关系，如何提升个人修养等；在《瓦尔登湖》中，作者梭罗展示了自己在瓦尔登湖生活了两年的点滴、感想，让处于喧嚣

    之中的世人平心静气地感受大自然的美好；《简·爱》讲述了简·爱同罗

    彻斯特先生的经典爱情故事，塑造了一位崇尚自由与独立、敢于追求、充满智慧的女性形象。

    本套丛书注释的范围与内容：

    1.单词。 本套丛书挑选的单词大多数是英语四级以上的词汇，单词

    后面紧跟汉语意思，有的相应做了延伸——形音相近的单词、动词原

    形、形容词形式等；有的列举出了常见搭配；有的结合具体语境给出了

    其在文中的含义；有的通过例句具体解释了用法。

    2.词组。 在词组的注释中不仅给出了汉语意思，而且后面附带例句

    帮助读者理解其用法。

    3.句子。 对于句式复杂的句子以及经典语句，在文中一律改为加粗

    体，醒目显眼。注释中均给出了参考译文，有的附带具体语境的分析，使读者更易理解。

    4.专有名词。 书中的人名、地名、各类历史事件、作者引用的典故

    等都带有具体注释，可以帮助读者在阅读的时候理解背景常识，扩大知

    识面，更好地理解原文。

    5.外来词汇。 小说中出现的非正式英语词汇，如古英语词汇、西班

    牙语、拉丁语等，这些在注释中均给出了具体的解释，并结合语境具体

    分析其用法。

    衷心地希望本套丛书能够协助读者扫清阅读过程中存在的障碍，帮

    助读者增大词汇量，掌握地道的英语表达手法，同作者一起体验小说的

    情节，理解小说的深层象征意义，了解英美文化常识，增进对英美文学

    的认识，提高阅读理解能力和写作能力等。相信本套丛书会对文学爱好

    者、英语专业的学生以及想提高自身英语水平的读者有很大的帮助!导读

    夏洛蒂·勃朗特(Charlotte Bronte)，英国著名的小说家，于1816年

    出生在约克郡的豪渥斯。夏洛蒂的父亲为一名牧师，她是家中的第三个

    孩子，有两个姐姐、两个妹妹以及一个弟弟。1847年出版的《简·爱》

    使夏洛蒂在英国文坛中一举成名，她同两个妹妹——艾米丽·勃朗特、安妮·勃朗特被人誉为“勃朗特三姐妹”，三者的作品对后世均产生了深

    远影响。

    夏洛蒂的母亲在其5岁时逝世，在她们的童年中，父亲常常用自己

    的知识充实她们的世界，这不但给她们带来了乐趣，同时也培养了她们

    对于文学的热爱。1824年，她的两个姐姐被父亲送入了一所寄宿学校学

    习，之后夏洛蒂和其弟弟也进入了这所学校。当时，这种寄宿学校管理

    严格，食宿条件差，在校学生多为穷苦孩子。在第二年时，学校的学生

    开始感染伤寒，夏洛蒂的两个姐姐也得了这种病，没过几天便离开了人

    世，父亲赶快把她和弟弟接回了家。在家中，她和妹妹开始练习钢琴、绘画等，同时也发挥丰富的想象力进行创作。在1824年，在她们姨妈的

    经济支援下，夏洛蒂和妹妹艾米丽来到了布鲁塞尔的一所法语学校进修

    法语，在这里，教授法语的埃热先生为她们打开了法国文学名著的大

    门，埃热先生逐渐吸引了夏洛蒂，这一点随后被埃热夫人察觉了，夏洛

    蒂不得不终止了自己的学业，回到了故乡。在夏洛蒂15岁时，她进入罗

    海德学校学习。几年后，由于家庭经济困难，为了支持弟弟妹妹学习，夏洛蒂开始在这所学校任教。三年之后，她和两个妹妹都成为了家庭教

    师，但是当时的人们都认为这种工作低下卑贱。1847年，夏洛蒂使用化

    名柯勒·贝尔向出版社寄出了自己的作品——《简·爱》，此书的出版轰

    动了当时的文学界，取得了成功。但在1848年9月，夏洛蒂的弟弟去

    世，三个月之后，妹妹艾米丽由于肺结核去世，五个月之后，安妮也离开了人世。怀着沉痛的心情，夏洛蒂开始创作《谢利》，这本书在1849

    年10月出版，也获得了世人的欢迎。在1854年，夏洛蒂同牧师阿贝尼科

    尔斯结为夫妇，但在六个多月后，夏洛蒂在一次外出后受寒，于1855年

    5月31日去世。

    在夏洛蒂的小说中，她塑造了一位追求自由、独立与平等的女性形

    象。代表作品有《教师》、《谢利》以及《维莱特》。她的作品带有一

    定的自传色彩，在文学史上都占有重要的地位。

    《简·爱》讲述了简·爱同罗彻斯特先生的爱情故事。作者本身的经

    历在书中也有一定的体现。简·爱儿时被舅父里德一家收养。在舅父去

    世后，她开始遭受虐待以及歧视，有一次，她对表哥对她的殴打做出了

    反抗，就被舅母关进了舅父生前所住的红房子中。之后舅母将简·爱送

    进了罗沃德孤儿院。这所孤儿院的院规苛刻，学生的食宿条件差，不

    久，一场斑疹伤寒袭击了学校，简·爱最好的朋友海伦·彭斯也因此去

    世。简·爱在罗沃德孤儿院学习了六年之后，又在这里教学两年，之

    后，简·爱成为了桑菲尔德府的家庭女教师，小女孩阿黛拉·瓦朗是她的

    学生。一天黄昏，简·爱在野外遇见了罗彻斯特先生。在桑菲尔德府，她在晚上偶尔会听到奇怪的笑声。一天夜晚，罗彻斯特先生的房间着火

    了，她被怪异的笑声吵醒后，赶快叫醒了罗彻斯特先生。逐渐地，简·

    爱爱上了这位喜怒无常的先生。罗彻斯特先生在一次晚宴期间，试探了

    简·爱对他的爱，随后简·爱答应了他的求婚。在婚礼的当天，简·爱得知

    罗彻斯特先生已经娶妻，他的妻子就是那位在三楼房间里的疯女人，她

    随之便离开了桑菲尔德府，期间她饥寒交迫，处境艰难，牧师圣·约翰

    收留了她，在身体康复后，简爱开始在当地教授小学生。简·爱后来得

    知叔父在临死前留下了一笔遗产，并且自己和圣·约翰是表兄妹关系，于是他们同约翰的两个妹妹平分了这笔遗产。约翰是一名基督教的牧

    师，他打算去印度传教，同时要求简·爱成为他的妻子，但简·爱拒绝了

    他。简·爱在回到桑菲尔德府之后，只看到了一片废墟，原来这座庄园被罗彻斯特先生的疯妻子放火烧掉了，她坠楼身亡，罗彻斯特先生也因

    此受伤。简·爱随之找到了他，最终两人结为夫妇，在一起幸福地生

    活。夏洛蒂运用了心理描写，书中的自然景物烘托了气氛，讲述了简·

    爱同罗彻斯特先生的经典爱情故事，成功地塑造了一位敢于追求自由、独立的女性形象。

    本书对以下内容做出了注释：单词、词组、复杂句、经典语句、专

    有名词(人名、地名、事件名称、典故等)、其他非正式英语词汇。同

    时，本书中出现了许多法语的单词、句子以及出自《圣经》的语句、典

    故，在注释中都相应地做出了解释。希望在本书中的帮助下，读者能更

    好地理解本书，并能快速地提高英语水平。目 录

    封面

    扉页

    丛书总序

    导读

    Chapter 1

    Chapter 2

    Chapter 3

    Chapter 4

    Chapter 5

    Chapter 6

    Chapter 7

    Chapter 8

    Chapter 9

    Chapter 10 Chapter 11

    Chapter 12

    Chapter 13

    Chapter 14

    Chapter 15

    Chapter 16

    Chapter 17

    Chapter 18

    Chapter 19

    Chapter 20

    Chapter 21

    Chapter 22

    Chapter 23

    Chapter 24

    Chapter 25

    Chapter 26

    Chapter 27 Chapter 28

    Chapter 29

    Chapter 30

    Chapter 31

    Chapter 32

    Chapter 33

    Chapter 34

    Chapter 35

    Chapter 36

    Chapter 37

    Chapter 38

    版权Chapter 1

    There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been

    wandering

    [1]

    , indeed, in the leafless shrubbery

    [2]

    an hour in the morning;but

    since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold

    winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre

    [3]

    , and a rain so

    penetrating

    [4]

    , that further out-door exercise was now out of the question.

    [5]

    I was glad of it: I never liked long walks, especially on chilly

    afternoons:dreadful

    [6]

    to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with

    nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings

    [7]

    of Bessie,the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority

    [8]

    to

    Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed.

    The said Eliza, John, and Georgiana were now clustered round their

    mama in the drawing-room: she lay reclined on a sofa by the fireside, and

    with her darlings about her (for the time neither quarrelling nor crying)

    looked perfectly happy. Me, she had dispensed from

    [9]

    joining the group;

    saying, “She regretted to be under the necessity of

    [10]

    keeping me at a

    distance; but that until she heard from Bessie, and could discover by her own

    observation, that I was endeavouring in good earnest to acquire a more

    sociable and childlike disposition, a more attractive and sprightly manner—

    something lighter, franker, more natural, as it were—she really must exclude

    me from

    [11]

    privileges intended only for contented, happy, little children.”

    “What does Bessie say I have done?” I asked.

    “Jane, I don’t like cavillers or questioners; besides, there is something

    truly forbidding in a child taking up her elders in that manner. Be seated

    somewhere; and until you can speak pleasantly, remain silent.”

    [12]A breakfast-room adjoined

    [13]

    the drawing-room, I slipped in there. It

    contained a bookcase: I soon possessed myself of a volume, taking care that

    it should be one stored with pictures. I mounted into the window-seat:

    gathering up my feet, I sat cross-legged, like a Turk

    [14]; and, having drawn

    the red moreen curtain nearly close, I was shrined in double retirement.

    Folds of scarlet

    [15]

    drapery shut in my view to the right hand; to the left

    were the clear panes of glass, protecting, but not separating me from the drear

    November day. At intervals

    [16]

    , while turning over the leaves of my book, I

    studied the aspect of that winter afternoon. Afar, it offered a pale blank of

    mist and cloud; near a scene of wet lawn and storm-beat shrub, with ceaseless

    rain sweeping away wildly before a long and lamentable blast.

    I returned to my book—Bewick’s History of British Birds

    [17]

    : the

    letter-press there of I cared little for, generally speaking; and yet there were

    certain introductory pages that, child as I was, I could not pass quite as a

    blank. They were those which treat of the haunts of sea-fowl; of “the solitary

    rocks and promontories

    [18]” by them only inhabited; of the coast of Norway,studded

    [19]

    with isles from its southern extremity, the Lindeness, or Naze, to

    the North Cape—

    “Where the Northern Ocean, in vast whirls,Boils round the naked, melancholy isles

    Of farthest Thule; and the Atlantic surge

    Pours in among the stormy Hebrides.”

    [20]

    Nor could I pass unnoticed the suggestion of the bleak shores of

    Lapland, Siberia, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, Iceland, Greenland, with “the

    vast sweep of the Arctic Zone, and those forlorn regions of dreary space—

    that reservoir of frost and snow, where firm fields of ice, the accumulation of

    centuries of winters, glazed in Alpine heights above heights, surround thepole, and concentre the multiplied rigours of extreme cold.”

    [21]

    Of these

    death-white realms

    [22]

    I formed an idea of my own:shadowy, like all the

    half-comprehended notions

    [23]

    that float dim through children’s brains, but

    strangely impressive. The words in these introductory pages connected

    themselves with the succeeding vignettes

    [24]

    , and gave significance to the

    rock standing up alone in a sea of billow and spray

    [25]; to the broken boat

    stranded on a desolate

    [26]

    coast; to the cold and ghastly

    [27]

    moon glancing

    through bars of cloud at a wreck just sinking.

    I cannot tell what sentiment haunted the quite solitary church-yard, with

    its inscribed headstone; its gate, its two trees, its low horizon, girdled by a

    broken wall, and its newly-risen crescent, attesting

    [28]

    the hour of eventide.

    [29]

    The two ships becalmed on a torpid sea, I believed to be marine

    phantoms.

    The fiend pinning down the thief’s pack behind him, I passed over

    quickly: it was an object of terror.

    So was the black horned thing seated aloof on a rock, surveying a distant

    crowd surrounding a gallows.

    Each picture told a story; mysterious often to my undeveloped under-

    standing and imperfect

    [30]

    feelings, yet ever profoundly interesting: as

    interesting as the tales Bessie sometimes narrated on winter evenings, when

    she chanced to be in good humour

    [31]; and when, having brought her

    ironing-table to the nursery hearth, she allowed us to sit about it, and while

    she got up Mrs. Reed’s lace frills, and crimped her nightcap borders, fed our

    eager attention with passages of love and adventure taken from old fairy tales

    and other ballads; or (as at a later period I discovered) from the pages of

    Pamela

    [32]

    , and Henry, Earl of Moreland

    [33]

    .With Bewick on my knee, I was then happy: happy at least in my way. I

    feared nothing but interruption, and that came too soon. The breakfast-room

    door opened.

    “Boh! Madam Mope!” cried the voice of John Reed; then he paused: he

    found the room apparently empty.

    “Where the dickens

    [34]

    is she!” he continued. “Lizzy! Georgy! (calling

    to his sisters) Joan is not here: tell mama she is run out into the rain—bad

    animal!”

    “It is well I drew the curtain,” thought I; and I wished fervently

    [35]

    he

    might not discover my hiding-place: nor would John Reed have found it out

    himself; he was not quick either of vision or conception; but Eliza just put her

    head in at the door, and said at once—

    “She is in the window-seat, to be sure, Jack.”

    And I came out immediately, for I trembled at the idea of being dragged

    forth by the said Jack.

    “What do you want?” I asked, with awkward diffidence

    [36]

    .

    “Say, ‘What do you want, Master Reed?’” was the answer.“I want you

    to come here;” and seating himself in an arm-chair, he intimated

    [37]

    by a

    gesture that I was to approach and stand before him.

    John Reed was a schoolboy of fourteen years old; four years older than

    I, for I was but ten: large and stout

    [38]

    for his age, with a dingy and

    unwholesome skin

    [39]; thick lineaments

    [40]

    in a spacious visage, heavy

    limbs and large extremities

    [41]

    . He gorged

    [42]

    himself habitually at table,which made him bilious

    [43]

    , and gave him a dim and bleared eye and flabby

    cheeks. He ought now to have been at school; but his mama had taken him

    home for a month or two, “on account of his delicate health.” Mr. Miles, the

    master, affirmed that he would do very well if he had fewer cakes andsweetmeats sent him from home; but the mother’s heart turned from an

    opinion so harsh, and inclined rather to the more refined idea that John’s

    sallowness

    [44]

    was owing to over-application and, perhaps, to pining after

    home.

    John had not much affection for his mother and sisters, and an antipathy

    [45]

    to me. He bullied and punished me; not two or three times in the week,nor once or twice in the day, but continually: every nerve I had feared him,and every morsel

    [46]

    of flesh in my bones shrank when he came near. There

    were moments when I was bewildered by the terror he inspired, because I had

    no appeal whatever against either his menaces

    [47]

    or his inflictions

    [48]; the

    servants did not like to offend their young master by taking my part against

    him, and Mrs. Reed was blind and deaf on the subject: she never saw him

    strike or heard him abuse me, though he did both now and then in her very

    presence, more frequently, however, behind her back.

    Habitually obedient to John, I came up to his chair: he spent some three

    minutes in thrusting out his tongue at me as far as he could without damaging

    the roots: I knew he would soon strike, and while dreading the blow, I mused

    [49]

    on the disgusting and ugly appearance of him who would presently deal

    it. I wonder if he read that notion in my face; for, all at once, without

    speaking, he struck suddenly and strongly. I tottered

    [50]

    , and on regaining

    my equilibrium

    [51]

    retired back a step or two from his chair.

    “That is for your impudence

    [52]

    in answering mama awhile since,” said

    he, “and for your sneaking way of getting behind curtains, and for the look

    you had in your eyes two minutes since, you rat!”

    Accustomed to John Reed’s abuse, I never had an idea of replying to it

    my care was how to endure the blow which would certainly follow the insult.

    “What were you doing behind the curtain?” he asked.“I was reading.”

    “Show the book.”

    I returned to the window and fetched it thence.

    “You have no business to take our books; you are a dependent

    [53]

    ,mama says; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg,and not to live here with gentlemen’s children like us, and eat the same meals

    we do, and wear clothes at our mama’s expense. Now, I’ll teach you to

    rummage

    [54]

    my bookshelves: for they are mine; all the house belongs to me,or will do in a few years. Go and stand by the door, out of the way of the

    mirror and the windows.”

    I did so, not at first aware what was his intention; but when I saw him

    lift and poise

    [55]

    the book and stand in act to hurl it, I instinctively started

    aside with a cry of alarm: not soon enough, however; the volume was flung,it hit me, and I fell, striking my head against the door and cutting it. The cut

    bled, the pain was sharp: my terror had passed its climax; other feelings

    succeeded.

    “Wicked and cruel boy!” I said. “You are like a murderer—you are like

    a slave-driver—you are like the Roman emperors!”

    I had read Goldsmith’s History of Rome

    [56]

    , and had formed my

    opinion of Nero

    [57]

    , Caligula

    [58]

    , etc. Also I had drawn parallels in silence,which I never thought thus to have declared aloud.

    “What! what!” he cried. “Did she say that to me? Did you hear her, Eliza

    and Georgiana? Won’t I tell mama? but first—”

    He ran headlong

    [59]

    at me: I felt him grasp my hair and my shoulder: he

    had closed with a desperate thing. I really saw in him a tyrant, a murderer.I

    felt a drop or two of blood from my head trickle down my neck, and was

    sensible of somewhat pungent

    [60]

    suffering: these sensations for the timepredominated

    [61]

    over fear, and I received him in frantic sort. I don’t very

    well know what I did with my hands, but he called me “Rat! Rat!” and

    bellowed out

    [62]

    aloud. Aid was near him: Eliza and Georgiana had run for

    Mrs. Reed, who was gone upstairs: she now came upon the scene, followed

    by Bessie and her maid Abbot. We were parted: I heard the words—

    “Dear! dear! What a fury to fly at Master John!”

    “Did ever anybody see such a picture of passion!”

    Then Mrs. Reed subjoined—

    “Take her away to the red-room, and lock her in there.” Four hands were

    immediately laid upon me, and I was borne upstairs.

    [1]

    wander：漫游；闲逛。例句：People wander the streets after

    dinner.晚饭后，人们在街上闲逛。

    [2]

    shrubbery：灌木丛；灌木林

    [3]

    sombre：阴沉的；昏暗的。sombre color意为“暗色”。

    [4]

    penetrate：穿透；渗入；刺入。例句：Light cannot penetrate the

    wall.光线穿不透墙壁。

    [5]

    参考译文：但从晚饭时开始(没有客人来时，里德太太会早早地

    吃晚饭)凛冽的寒风便开始肆虐，接着乌黑密布，大雨滴随之落下，室

    外活动就泡汤了。out of the question意为“不可能；根本谈不上”。例

    句：Seeing stars at daytime is out of the question.在白天不可能看到星星。

    而out of question意思为“毫无疑问；一定”。例句：People have much free

    time, which is out of question.人们有大量的空闲时间，这一点是肯定的。

    [6]

    dreadful：糟糕的；令人不快的。此句中，因主语较长，将其置

    后，以平衡句子结构，避免头重脚轻。dreadful news即为“坏消息”。

    [7]

    chiding：责备[8]

    inferiority：自卑；次等；低劣，常与to搭配使用。inferior是其形

    容词形式，与to搭配，构成固定短语inferior to，意为“不如；次于”。例

    句：Other houses are inferior to our houses.其他房子不如我们的房子。反

    义词为superior to，意为“优于；级别高于”。

    [9]

    dispense from：免除；省却

    [10]

    under the necessity of：迫不得已。例句：The schedule made him

    under the necessity of leaving for Beijing.日程安排让他迫不得已出发去北

    京。

    [11]

    exclude from：排斥，把……排除在外。例句：The little boy was

    excluded from the bars.小男孩被拒绝进入酒吧。“ex-”为一种前缀，表

    示“出；外”。

    [12]

    参考译文：简，我不喜欢故意挑刺以及打破砂锅问到底的人，小孩子顶撞大人真是没教养。自己找个地方待着去，不好好说话就闭

    嘴。caviller意为“吹毛求疵者；苛责者”。questioner意为“发问者；质问

    者”。

    [13]

    adjoin：毗连；邻接。例句：Our two seats adjoin.我们俩的座位

    邻接着。

    [14]

    Turk：土耳其人

    [15]

    scarlet：深红的；猩红色的。The Scarlet Letter意为“《红

    字》”；scarlet fever意为“猩红热”。

    [16]

    at intervals：不时；每隔。例句：At intervals, it rained this month.

    这个月时不时地下雨。

    [17]

    Bewick’s History of British Birds：比尤伊克的《英国鸟类史》。

    比尤伊克是英国版画家及插图画家，木口木刻之父(木口木刻是使用木

    头的横截面进行雕刻)，对后来英国以及全欧的木刻艺术产生了影响。

    [18]

    the solitary rocks and promontories：孤零零的岩石和海角

    [19]

    stud：散布；镶嵌。例句：The streets are studded with many cars.许多汽车停在街道上。

    [20]

    此处出自James Thomson的诗篇Autumn。他是一位苏格兰诗

    人，这一诗篇被收入他的诗集The Seasons中。译为：那里，北冰洋的巨

    大漩涡，奔腾在光秃凄凉的群岛四周，而遥远的极北之地，大西洋的波

    涛骇浪，倾入了狂暴的赫布里底群岛。

    [21]

    参考译文：书中还有些部分我不能连看都不看一眼就翻篇，那

    就是书中提到的拉普兰、西伯利亚、斯匹次卑尔根群岛、新地岛、冰岛

    和格陵兰荒凉无人的海岸。广阔无边的北极和那些阴森的贫瘠地带，犹

    如冰冻室。坚冰历经数万个寒冬形成，像阿尔卑斯山处高耸的山峰，光

    亮圆润，它们遍布在极地四周，汇集着越积越多的严寒。

    [22]

    realm：领域；王国。the realm of biology意为“生物领域”。

    [23]

    notion：意图；概念。a notion of stranger意为“陌生人的概念”。

    [24]

    vignette：小插图

    [25]

    a sea of billow and spray：波涛汹涌的大海

    [26]

    desolate：荒凉的；无人烟的。例句：He spent the rest of his life

    on a desolate island.他在一个荒岛上度过了余生。

    [27]

    ghastly：惨白的；可怕的

    [28]

    attest：证明；证实；作证。例句：Time attests to his persistence.

    时间证明了他的坚持。

    [29]

    参考译文：我无法言明是何种情绪笼罩着寂静无人的墓地：这

    里有刻着铭文的碑石、一扇门、两棵树、不高的地平线、破败的围墙。

    刚爬上来的新月表明是日暮。

    [30]

    imperfect：有缺点的；有瑕疵的；未完成的。例句：Everyone is

    imperfect.人无完人。

    [31]

    in good humour：高兴；心情好

    [32]

    Pamela：《帕美拉》，作者为英国著名小说作家理查逊。《帕

    米拉》是感伤主义文学的杰出的代表作，它把社会环境的描写与人物心理活动的分析结合起来，通过有趣的故事使读者受到道德教育。

    [33]

    Henry, Earl of Moreland：《莫兰伯爵亨利》，是韦斯利根据爱

    尔兰小说家和剧作家布鲁克的小说《显赫的傻瓜》删节而成的一部畅销

    书，首次出版于1781年。

    [34]

    the dickens：到底。它常出现在口语的疑问句中，起到加强语气

    的作用。

    [35]

    fervently：热烈地；热诚地。例句：He hugs his wife fervently in

    the airport.他在机场热情地拥抱了他妻子。

    [36]

    diffidence：内向；羞怯

    [37]

    intimate：暗示；通知。例句：His mother intimates that he should

    go to work earlier everyday.他的母亲暗示他应该每天早点去上班。

    [38]

    stout：矮胖的；结实的

    [39]

    dingy and unwholesome skin：肤色暗沉、不健康

    [40]

    lineament：轮廓

    [41]

    extremity：四肢；手足

    [42]

    gorge：拼命吃；狼吞虎咽。例句：The little girl gorges on

    candies.这个小女孩拼命吃糖。

    [43]

    bilious：坏脾气的；怒气冲天的

    [44]

    sallowness：肤色灰黄；病态

    [45]

    antipathy：反感；厌恶。“anti-”是一种前缀，意为“反；反对”。

    have an antipathy to sb.意为“厌恶……；对……反感”。

    [46]

    morsel：小份；少量

    [47]

    menace：威胁；恐吓

    [48]

    infliction：处罚

    [49]

    muse：沉思；冥想。例句：He muses on his work and his future.

    他在沉思他的工作和未来。

    [50]

    totter：蹒跚；踉跄。例句：The soldier totters to the castle.这个士兵摇摇晃晃地向城堡走去。

    [51]

    equilibrium：平衡

    [52]

    impudence：冒失。形容词形式为impudent，意为“鲁莽的；无礼

    的”。

    [53]

    dependent：受赡养者；依赖他人者

    [54]

    rummage：仔细检查；翻找

    [55]

    poise：平衡；准备好。文中指的是把书在手中拿稳。

    [56]

    Goldsmith’s History of Rome：哥尔德斯密斯的《罗马史》。哥

    尔德斯密斯是英国的一位小说家、诗人和剧作家。

    [57]

    Nero：尼禄。他是古罗马时的一位暴君，在被元老院斥责后自

    尽。

    [58]

    Caligula：卡里古拉，罗马的一位皇帝，他统治残暴，最后被反

    叛者杀死。

    [59]

    headlong：头向前地；猛然用力地

    [60]

    pungent：苦痛的；刺激性的

    [61]

    predominate：支配；在……中占优势。例句：In his opinion,time predominates everything.他认为时间支配着一切。

    [62]

    bellow out：大声喊出。例句：He bellowed out his anger at the

    sea.他在海边大声地发泄了自己的怒气。Chapter 2

    I resisted all the way: a new thing for me, and a circumstance which

    greatly strengthened the bad opinion Bessie and Miss Abbot were disposed

    [1]

    to entertain of me. The fact is, I was a trifle beside myself; or rather out of

    myself, as the French would say: I was conscious that a moment’s mutiny

    had already rendered me liable to strange penalties,[2]

    and, like any other

    rebel slave, I felt resolved, in my desperation, to go all lengths.

    “Hold her arms, Miss Abbot: she’s like a mad cat.”

    “For shame! for shame!” cried the lady’s-maid. “What shocking

    conduct, Miss Eyre, to strike a young gentleman, your benefactress’s

    [3]

    son!

    Your young master.”

    “Master! How is he my master? Am I a servant?”

    “No; you are less than a servant, for you do nothing for your keep.

    There, sit down, and think over your wickedness

    [4]

    .”

    They had got me by this time into the apartment indicated by Mrs. Reed,and had thrust me upon a stool: my impulse was to rise from it like a

    spring;their two pair of hands arrested me instantly.

    “If you don’t sit still, you must be tied down,” said Bessie. “Miss Abbot,lend me your garters

    [5]; she would break mine directly.”

    Miss Abbot turned to divest

    [6]

    a stout leg of the necessary ligature

    [7]

    .

    This preparation for bonds, and the additional ignominy

    [8]

    it inferred, took a

    little of the excitement out of me.

    “Don’t take them off,” I cried;“I will not stir.”

    In guarantee whereof, I attached myself to my seat by my hands.

    “Mind you don’t,” said Bessie; and when she had ascertained

    [9]

    that Iwas really subsiding, she loosened her hold of me; then she and Miss Ab-bot

    stood with folded arms, looking darkly and doubtfully on my face, as

    incredulous

    [10]

    of my sanity.

    “She never did so before,” at last said Bessie, turning to the Abigail.

    “But it was always in her,” was the reply. “I’ve told Missis

    [11]

    often my

    opinion about the child, and Missis agreed with me. She’s an underhand little

    thing: I never saw a girl of her age with so much cover.”

    Bessie answered not; but ere long, addressing me, she said—“You ought

    to be aware, Miss, that you are under obligations to Mrs. Reed: she keeps

    you:if she were to turn you off, you would have to go to the poorhouse

    [12]

    .”

    I had nothing to say to these words: they were not new to me: my very

    first recollections of existence included hints of the same kind. This reproach

    of my dependence had become a vague sing-song

    [13]

    in my ear: very painful

    and crushing, but only half intelligible. Miss Abbot joined in—

    “And you ought not to think yourself on an equality with the Misses

    Reed and Master Reed, because Missis kindly allows you to be brought up

    with them. They will have a great deal of money, and you will have none: it

    is your place to be humble, and to try to make yourself agreeable to them.”

    “What we tell you is for your good,” added Bessie, in no harsh voice,“you should try to be useful and pleasant, then, perhaps, you would have a

    home here; but if you become passionate and rude, Missis will send you

    away, I am sure.”

    “Besides,” said Miss Abbot, “God will punish her: He might strike her

    dead in the midst of her tantrums

    [14]

    , and then where would she go? Come,Bessie, we will leave her: I wouldn’t have her heart for anything. Say your

    prayers, Miss Eyre, when you are by yourself; for if you don’t repent

    [15]

    ,some-thing bad might be permitted to come down the chimney and fetch youaway.”

    They went, shutting the door, and locking it behind them.

    The red-room was a square chamber, very seldom slept in, I might say

    never, indeed, unless when a chance influx

    [16]

    of visitors at Gateshead Hall

    rendered

    [17]

    it necessary to turn to account all the accommodation it

    contained:yet it was one of the largest and stateliest

    [18]

    chambers in the

    mansion. A bed supported on massive pillars of mahogany

    [19]

    , hung with

    curtains of deep red damask

    [20]

    , stood out like a tabernacle

    [21]

    in the centre;

    the two large windows, with their blinds always drawn down, were half

    shrouded in festoons

    [22]

    and falls of similar drapery; the carpet was red; the

    table at the foot of the bed was covered with a crimson

    [23]

    cloth; the walls

    were a soft fawn colour with a blush of pink in it; the wardrobe, the toilet-

    table, the chairs were of darkly polished old mahogany. Out of these deep

    surrounding shades rose high, and glared white, the piled-up mattresses

    [24]

    ,and pillows of the bed, spread with a snowy Marseilles counterpane

    [25]

    .

    Scarcely less prominent was an ample cushioned easy-chair near the head of

    the bed, also white, with a footstool before it; and looking, as I thought, like a

    pale throne.

    This room was chill, because it seldom had a fire; it was silent, because

    remote from the nursery and kitchen; solemn, because it was known to be so

    seldom entered. The house-maid alone came here on Saturdays, to wipe from

    the mirrors and the furniture a week’s quiet dust: and Mrs. Reed herself, at

    far intervals, visited it to review the contents of a certain secret drawer in the

    wardrobe, where were stored divers parchments

    [26]

    , her jewel-casket, and a

    miniature

    [27]

    of her deceased husband; and in those last words lies the secret

    of the red-room—the spell which kept it so lonely in spite of its grandeur

    [28]

    .Mr. Reed had been dead nine years: it was in this chamber he breathed

    his last; here he lay in state; hence his coffin was borne by the undertaker’s

    men;and, since that day, a sense of dreary consecration

    [29]

    had guarded it

    from frequent intrusion

    [30]

    .

    My seat, to which Bessie and the bitter Miss Abbot had left me riveted,was a low ottoman near the marble chimney-piece; the bed rose before me; to

    my right hand there was the high, dark wardrobe, with subdued, broken

    reflections varying the gloss of its panels; to my left were the muffled

    windows;a great looking-glass between them repeated the vacant majesty of

    the bed and room. I was not quite sure whether they had locked the door; and

    when I dared move, I got up and went to see. Alas! yes: no jail was ever more

    secure. Returning, I had to cross before the looking-glass; my fascinated

    glance involuntarily

    [31]

    explored the depth it revealed. All looked colder and

    darker in that visionary

    [32]

    hollow than in reality: and the strange little figure

    there gazing at me, with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and

    glittering

    [33]

    eyes of fear moving where all else was still, had the effect of a

    real spirit: I thought it like one of the tiny phantoms

    [34]

    , half fairy, half imp

    [35]

    , Bessie’s evening stories represented as coming out of lone, ferny

    [36]

    ,dells in moors, and appearing before the eyes of belated travellers. I returned

    to my stool.

    Superstition was with me at that moment; but it was not yet her hour for

    complete victory: my blood was still warm; the mood of the revolted

    [37]

    slave was still bracing me with its bitter vigour; I had to stem a rapid rush of

    retrospective thought before I quailed to the dismal present.

    All John Reed’s violent tyrannies, all his sisters’ proud indifference, all

    his mother’s aversion, all the servants’ partiality

    [38]

    , turned up in my

    disturbed mind like a dark deposit in a turbid well. Why was I alwayssuffering, always browbeaten, always accused, for ever condemned? Why

    could I never please? Why was it useless to try to win any one’s favour?

    Eliza, who was headstrong and selfish, was respected. Georgiana, who had a

    spoiled temper, a very acrid spite, a captious and insolent carriage, was

    universally indulged. Her beauty, her pink cheeks and golden curls, seemed

    to give delight to all who looked at her, and to purchase indemnity

    [39]

    for

    every fault. John no one thwarted, much less punished; though he twisted the

    necks of the pigeons, killed the little pea-chicks, set the dogs at the sheep,stripped the hothouse vines of their fruit, and broke the buds off the choicest

    plants in the conservatory: he called his mother “old girl,” too; sometimes

    reviled

    [40]

    her for her dark skin, similar to his own;bluntly disregarded

    [41]

    her wishes; not unfrequently tore and spoiled her silk attire

    [42]; and he was

    still “her own darling.” I dared commit no fault: I strove to fulfil every duty;

    and I was termed naughty and tiresome, sullen

    [43]

    and sneaking

    [44]

    , from

    morning to noon, and from noon to night.

    My head still ached and bled with the blow and fall I had received: no

    one had reproved John for wantonly striking me; and because I had turned

    against him to avert

    [45]

    farther irrational violence, I was loaded with general

    opprobrium

    [46]

    .

    “Unjust!—unjust!” said my reason, forced by the agonising stimulus

    into precocious though transitory power: and Resolve, equally wrought up,instigated some strange expedient to achieve escape from insupportable

    oppression—as running away, or, if that could not be effected, never eating

    or drinking more, and letting myself die.

    What a consternation

    [47]

    of soul was mine that dreary afternoon! How

    all my brain was in tumult, and all my heart in insurrection!

    [48]

    Yet in what

    darkness, what dense ignorance, was the mental battle fought! I could notanswer the ceaseless inward question—why I thus suffered; now, at the

    distance of—I will not say how many years, I see it clearly.

    I was a discord in Gateshead Hall: I was like nobody there; I had

    nothing in harmony with Mrs. Reed or her children, or her chosen vassalage

    [49]

    . If they did not love me, in fact, as little did I love them. They were not

    bound to regard with affection a thing that could not sympathise with one

    amongst them;a heterogeneous

    [50]

    thing, opposed to them in temperament, in

    capacity, in propensities; a useless thing, incapable of serving their interest,or adding to their pleasure; a noxious thing, cherishing the germs of

    indignation

    [51]

    at their treatment, of contempt of their judgment. I know that

    had I been a sanguine

    [52]

    , brilliant, careless, exacting, handsome, romping

    child—though equally dependent and friendless—Mrs. Reed would have

    endured my presence more complacently

    [53]; her children would have

    entertained for me more of the cordiality

    [54]

    of fellow-feeling; the servants

    would have been less prone

    [55]

    to make me the scapegoat

    [56]

    of the nursery

    [57]

    .

    Daylight began to forsake the red-room; it was past four o’clock, and the

    beclouded afternoon was tending to drear twilight. I heard the rain still

    beating continuously on the staircase window, and the wind howling in the

    grove behind the hall; I grew by degrees cold as a stone, and then my courage

    sank. My habitual mood of humiliation, self-doubt, forlorn depression, fell

    damp on the embers of my decaying ire

    [58]

    . All said I was wicked, and

    perhaps I might be so; what thought had I been but just conceiving of

    starving myself to death? That certainly was a crime: and was I fit to die? Or

    was the vault under the chancel of Gateshead Church an inviting bourne? In

    such vault I had been told did Mr. Reed lie buried; and led by this thought to

    recall his idea, I dwelt on it with gathering dread. I could not remember him;but I knew that he was my own uncle—my mother’s brother—that he had

    taken me when a parentless infant to his house; and that in his last moments

    he had required a promise of Mrs. Reed that she would rear and maintain me

    as one of her own children. Mrs. Reed probably considered she had kept this

    promise; and so she had, I dare say, as well as her nature would permit her;

    but how could she really like an interloper

    [59]

    not of her race, and

    unconnected with her, after her husband’s death, by any tie? It must have

    been most irksome

    [60]

    to find herself bound by a hard-wrung pledge to stand

    in the stead of a parent to a strange child she could not love, and to see an

    uncongenial

    [61]

    alien permanently intruded on her own family group.

    [62]

    A singular notion dawned upon me. I doubted not—never doubted—that

    if Mr. Reed had been alive he would have treated me kindly; and now, as I

    sat looking at the white bed and overshadowed walls—occasionally also

    turning a fascinated eye towards the dimly gleaning mirror—I began to re-

    call what I had heard of dead men, troubled in their graves by the violation of

    their last wishes, revisiting the earth to punish the perjured and avenge the

    oppressed; and I thought Mr. Reed’s spirit, harassed

    [63]

    by the wrongs of his

    sister’s child, might quit its abode

    [64]

    —whether in the church vault or in the

    unknown world of the departed—and rise before me in this chamber. I wiped

    my tears and hushed my sobs, fearful lest any sign of violent grief

    [65]

    might

    waken a preternatural

    [66]

    voice to comfort me, or elicit

    [67]

    from the gloom

    some haloed face, bending over me with strange pity. This idea, consolatory

    in theory, I felt would be terrible if realised: with all my might I endeavoured

    to stifle it—I endeavoured to be firm. Shaking my hair from my eyes, I lifted

    my head and tried to look boldly round the dark room; at this moment a light

    gleamed on the wall. Was it, I asked myself, a ray from the moon penetrating

    some aperture

    [68]

    in the blind? No; moonlight was still, and this stirred;whileI gazed, it glided up to the ceiling and quivered

    [69]

    over my head. I can now

    conjecture

    [70]

    readily that this streak of light was, in all likelihood, a gleam

    from a lantern carried by some one across the lawn: but then, prepared as my

    mind was for horror, shaken as my nerves were by agitation, I thought the

    swift darting beam

    [71]

    was a herald

    [72]

    of some coming vision from another

    world. My heart beat thick, my head grew hot; a sound filled my ears, which

    I deemed the rushing of wings; something seemed near me; I was oppressed,suffocated

    [73]

    : endurance broke down; I rushed to the door and shook the

    lock in desperate effort. Steps came running along the outer passage; the key

    turned, Bessie and Abbot entered.

    “Miss Eyre, are you ill?” said Bessie.

    “What a dreadful noise! It went quite through me!” exclaimed Abbot.

    “Take me out! Let me go into the nursery!” was my cry.

    “What for?Are you hurt?Have you seen something?”again demanded

    Bessie.

    “Oh! I saw a light, and I thought a ghost would come.” I had now got

    hold of Bessie’s hand, and she did not snatch it from me.

    “She has screamed out on purpose,” declared Abbot, in some disgust.

    “And what a scream! If she had been in great pain one would have excused it,but she only wanted to bring us all here: I know her naughty tricks.”

    “What is all this?” demanded another voice peremptorily

    [74]; and Mrs.

    Reed came along the corridor, her cap flying wide, her gown rustling

    stormily. “Abbot and Bessie, I believe I gave orders that Jane Eyre should be

    left in the red-room till I came to her myself.”

    “Miss Jane screamed so loud, ma’am,” pleaded Bessie.

    “Let her go,” was the only answer. “Loose Bessie’s hand, child: you

    cannot succeed in getting out by these means, be assured. I abhor

    [75]

    artifice,particularly in children; it is my duty to show you that tricks will not

    answer:you will now stay here an hour longer, and it is only on condition of

    perfect submission and stillness that I shall liberate you then.”

    “O aunt! have pity! Forgive me! I cannot endure it—let me be punished

    some other way! I shall be killed if—”

    “Silence! This violence is all most repulsive:” and so, no doubt, she felt

    it. I was a precocious

    [76]

    actress in her eyes; she sincerely looked on me as a

    compound of virulent passions, mean spirit, and dangerous duplicity.

    Bessie and Abbot having retreated, Mrs. Reed, impatient of my now

    frantic anguish

    [77]

    and wild sobs, abruptly thrust me back and locked me in,with-out farther parley. I heard her sweeping away; and soon after she was

    gone, I suppose I had a species of fit

    [78]

    : unconsciousness closed the scene.

    [1]

    disposed：有……的倾向；打算做……。常跟to或toward连用，后

    接对象，意为“有……的倾向”。例句：The mother is disposed to the

    second decision.母亲倾向于第二个决定。

    [2]

    参考译文：一时的冲动招致了各种古怪的惩罚。

    [3]

    benefactress：女施主；女恩人。benefactor意为“施主；恩人”。

    [4]

    wickedness：邪恶；卑鄙

    [5]

    garter：吊袜带

    [6]

    divest：脱去

    [7]

    ligature：绷带；绳索

    [8]

    ignominy：耻辱；不体面

    [9]

    ascertain：确定；查明。例句：They take efforts to ascertain the

    feasibility of the project.他们在努力确定这个项目的可行性。

    [10]

    incredulous：怀疑的；不相信的。名词形式为incredulity。形容词credulous意为“轻信的；易受骗的”。名词形式为credulity，意为“轻

    信；易受骗”。例句：The doctor was incredulous of what he said.医生对他

    所说的话表示怀疑。

    [11]

    Missis：太太。这是一种俚语，相当于Missus。

    [12]

    poorhouse：救济院；贫民收容所

    [13]

    sing-song：抑扬顿挫的声音

    [14]

    tantrum：发怒；发脾气

    [15]

    repent：忏悔；悔悟。例句：You should repent if you are wrong.

    如果你错了，你应该悔悟。

    [16]

    influx：涌入；汇集

    [17]

    render：致使；使……变得

    [18]

    stately：庄严的；宏伟的。文中的stateliest是stately的最高级形

    式。

    [19]

    mahogany：红木

    [20]

    damask：锦缎；花缎

    [21]

    tabernacle：临时房屋

    [22]

    festoon：垂花雕饰

    [23]

    crimson：深红色

    [24]

    mattress：床垫；底垫

    [25]

    counterpane：床罩

    [26]

    parchment：羊皮纸文稿

    [27]

    miniature：微型画

    [28]

    grandeur：宏伟；壮丽

    [29]

    consecration：奉献；神圣化。动词形式为consecrate，意为“奉

    献；使神用”。

    [30]

    intrusion：侵入；闯入

    [31]

    involuntarily：无心地；不自觉地[32]

    visionary：幻影的

    [33]

    glittering：闪闪发光的。动词形式为glitter。

    [34]

    phantom：幽灵；幻影

    [35]

    imp：小妖

    [36]

    ferny：多蕨的

    [37]

    revolted：起义的；反抗的。revolt意为“反感；厌恶”。

    [38]

    partiality：偏袒；偏爱

    [39]

    indemnity：补偿；赔偿

    [40]

    revile：憎恨；谩骂

    [41]

    disregard：不理会；漠视。例句：The boss disregarded the

    requirements of the workers.老板漠视员工的要求。

    [42]

    attire：服装；穿着。动词attire意为“打扮；穿衣”。

    [43]

    sullen：沉闷的

    [44]

    sneaking：鬼鬼祟祟的；卑鄙的

    [45]

    avert：防止；转移。avert attention意为“转移注意力”。

    [46]

    opprobrium：耻辱；责骂

    [47]

    consternation：惊慌失措；惊恐

    [48]

    参考译文：我的脑子一片混乱，内心愤愤不平。

    [49]

    vassalage：侍从；家仆

    [50]

    heterogeneous：异质的；多样化的

    [51]

    indignation：愤慨；愤怒

    [52]

    sanguine：乐观的；满怀希望的

    [53]

    complacently：沾沾自喜地；得意地

    [54]

    cordiality：热诚；真挚。形容词形式为cordial，意为“热忱的；

    兴奋的”。副词形式为cordially。

    [55]

    prone：有……倾向的；易于……的。error-prone意为“易犯错误

    的；易出错的”。[56]

    scapegoat：替罪羊

    [57]

    句子中，主语为I，谓语是know，随后部分为宾语从句。在宾语

    从句中，出现了虚拟语气，表示与过去事实相反，而且作者省略了引导

    词if，并且had被提到I之前。

    [58]

    ire：忿怒

    [59]

    interloper：闯入者；入侵者

    [60]

    irksome：讨厌的；令人苦恼的

    [61]

    uncongenial：志趣不相投；不相宜的。congenial意为“意气相投

    的；一致的”。名词形式为congeniality。

    [62]

    在此句中，it是形式主语，真正的主语是后面的不定式部分。

    [63]

    harass：使……困扰；使……烦恼。例句：He was harassed by

    the future of his son.他正在为他儿子的未来烦恼着。

    [64]

    abode：住处

    [65]

    grief：悲痛；忧伤。动词形式为grieve，意为“悲痛；哀悼”。

    [66]

    preternatural：异常的；不可思议的

    [67]

    elicit：引出；引起。例句：He elicits some information from the

    dialogue.他从这次谈话中得到了一些信息。

    [68]

    aperture：孔隙；光圈

    [69]

    quiver：颤抖；震动。例句：That little boy quivers under his quilt.

    那个小男孩在他的被子下颤抖着。

    [70]

    conjecture：推测；揣摩。例句：He conjectures that it will be

    colder from next week.他推测从下周开始天气会更冷。

    [71]

    beam：光线

    [72]

    herald：预兆；先驱

    [73]

    suffocate：使……窒息；压制。例句：He was suffocating in his

    room because all the windows are closed.他在房间里感到窒息，因为所有

    的窗户都紧闭着。[74]

    peremptorily：断然地；蛮横地

    [75]

    abhor：痛恨；憎恶。例句：He abhors cowardliness.他痛恨懦

    弱。

    [76]

    precocious：早熟的；早成的

    [77]

    anguish：极度痛苦；苦恼

    [78]

    fit：昏厥；痉挛Chapter 3

    The next thing I remember is, waking up with a feeling as if I had had a

    frightful nightmare, and seeing before me a terrible red glare, crossed with

    thick black bars. I heard voices, too, speaking with a hollow sound, and as if

    muffled by a rush of wind or water: agitation

    [1]

    , uncertainty, and an all-pre-

    dominating sense of terror confused my faculties. Ere long

    [2]

    , I became

    aware that some one was handling me; lifting me up and supporting me in a

    sitting posture, and that more tenderly than I had ever been raised or upheld

    before. I rested my head against a pillow or an arm, and felt easy.

    In five minutes more the cloud of bewilderment dissolved: I knew quite

    well that I was in my own bed, and that the red glare was the nursery fire. It

    was night: a candle burnt on the table; Bessie stood at the bed-foot with a

    basin in her hand, and a gentleman sat in a chair near my pillow, leaning over

    me.

    I felt an inexpressible relief, a soothing

    [3]

    conviction of protection and

    security, when I knew that there was a stranger in the room, an individual not

    belonging to Gateshead, and not related to Mrs. Reed. Turning from Bessie

    (though her presence was far less obnoxious

    [4]

    to me than that of Abbot, for

    instance, would have been), I scrutinised

    [5]

    the face of the gentleman: I knew

    him; it was Mr. Lloyd, an apothecary

    [6]

    , sometimes called in by Mrs. Reed

    when the servants were ailing

    [7]

    : for herself and the children she employed a

    physician.

    “Well, who am I?” he asked.

    I pronounced his name, offering him at the same time my hand: he took

    it, smiling and saying, “We shall do very well by-and-by.” Then he laid medown, and addressing Bessie, charged her to be very careful that I was not

    disturbed during the night. Having given some further directions, and

    intimates that he should call again the next day, he departed; to my grief: I

    felt so sheltered and befriended while he sat in the chair near my pillow; and

    as he closed the door after him, all the room darkened and my heart again

    sank: inexpressible sadness weighed it down.

    “Do you feel as if you should sleep, Miss?” asked Bessie, rather softly.

    Scarcely dared I answer her; for I feared the next sentence might be

    rough. “I will try.”

    “Would you like to drink, or could you eat anything?”

    “No, thank you, Bessie.”

    “Then I think I shall go to bed, for it is past twelve o’clock; but you may

    call me if you want anything in the night.”

    Wonderful civility this! It emboldened

    [8]

    me to ask a question.

    “Bessie, what is the matter with me? Am I ill?”

    “You fell sick, I suppose, in the red-room with crying; you’ll be better

    soon, no doubt.”

    Bessie went into the housemaid’s apartment, which was near. I heard her

    say—

    “Sarah, come and sleep with me in the nursery; I daren’t for my life be

    alone with that poor child to-night: she might die; it’s such a strange thing

    she should have that fit: I wonder if she saw anything. Missis was rather too

    hard.”

    Sarah came back with her; they both went to bed; they were whispering

    together for half-an-hour before they fell asleep. I caught scraps

    [9]

    of their

    conversation, from which I was able only too distinctly to infer the main

    subject discussed.“Something passed her, all dressed in white, and vanished”—“A great

    black dog behind him”—“Three loud raps on the chamber door”—“A light in

    the churchyard just over his grave,” etc., etc.

    At last both slept: the fire and the candle went out. For me, the watches

    of that long night passed in ghastly wakefulness; strained by dread: such

    dread as children only can feel.

    No severe or prolonged

    [10]

    bodily illness followed this incident of the

    red-room; it only gave my nerves a shock of which I feel the reverberation

    [11]

    to this day. Yes, Mrs. Reed, to you I owe some fearful pangs

    [12]

    of

    mental suffering, but I ought to forgive you, for you knew not what you did:

    while rending my heart-strings, you thought you were only uprooting my bad

    propensities

    [13]

    .

    Next day, by noon, I was up and dressed, and sat wrapped in a shawl

    [14]

    by the nursery hearth. I felt physically weak and broken down: but my worse

    ailment

    [15]

    was an unutterable wretchedness

    [16]

    of mind: a wretchedness

    which kept drawing from me silent tears; no sooner had I wiped one salt drop

    from my cheek than another followed.

    [17]

    Yet, I thought, I ought to have

    been happy, for none of the Reeds were there, they were all gone out in the

    carriage with their mama. Abbot, too, was sewing in another room, and

    Bessie, as she moved hither and thither, putting away toys and arranging

    drawers, addressed to me every now and then a word of unwonted

    [18]

    kindness. This state of things should have been to me a paradise of peace,accustomed as I was to a life of ceaseless reprimand

    [19]

    and thankless

    fagging

    [20]; but, in fact, my racked nerves were now in such a state that no

    calm could soothe, and no pleasure excite them agreeably.

    Bessie had been down into the kitchen, and she brought up with her a

    tart

    [21]

    on a certain brightly painted china plate, whose bird of paradise,nestling in a wreath of convolvuli

    [22]

    and rosebuds, had been wont to stir in

    me a most enthusiastic sense of admiration; and which plate I had often

    petitioned

    [23]

    to be allowed to take in my hand in order to examine it more

    closely, but had always hitherto been deemed unworthy of such a privilege.

    [24]

    This precious vessel was now placed on my knee, and I was cordially

    invited to eat the circlet of delicate pastry

    [25]

    upon it. Vain favour! coming,like most other favours long deferred and often wished for, too late! I could

    not eat the tart; and the plumage of the bird, the tints of the flowers, seemed

    strangely faded: I put both plate and tart away. Bessie asked if I would have a

    book: the word book acted as a transient

    [26]

    stimulus, and I begged her to

    fetch Gulliver’s Travels

    [27]

    from the library. This book I had again and again

    perused with delight. I considered it a narrative of facts, and discovered in it a

    vein of interest deeper than what I found in fairy tales: for as to the elves

    [28]

    ,having sought them in vain among foxglove

    [29]

    leaves and bells, under

    mushrooms and beneath the ground-ivy

    [30]

    mantling old wall-nooks, I had at

    length made up my mind to the sad truth, that they were all gone out of

    England to some savage country where the woods were wilder and thicker,and the population more scant; whereas, Lilliput and Brobdignagy

    [31]

    being,in my creedy

    [32]

    , solid parts of the earth’s surface, I doubted not that I might

    one day, by taking a long voyage, see with my own eyes the little fields,houses, and trees, the diminutive people, the tiny cows, sheep, and birds of

    the one realm; and the corn-fields forest-high, the mighty mastiffs

    [33]

    , the

    monster cats, the tower-like men and women, of the other. Yet, when this

    cherished volume was now placed in my hand—when I turned over its

    leaves, and sought in its marvellous pictures the charm I had, till now, never

    failed to find—all was eerie

    [34]

    and dreary; the giants were gaunt goblins

    [35]

    , the pigmies malevolent and fearful imps, Gulliver a most desolate wandererin most dread and dangerous regions. I closed the book, which I dared no

    longer peruse

    [36]

    , and put it on the table, beside the untasted tart.

    Bessie had now finished dusting and tidying the room, and having

    washed her hands, she opened a certain little drawer, full of splendid shreds

    of silk and satin, and began making a new bonnet

    [37]

    for Georgiana’s doll.

    Meantime she sang: her song was—

    “In the days when we went gipsying,A long time ago.”

    [38]

    I had often heard the song before, and always with lively delight; for

    Bessie had a sweet voice,—at least, I thought so. But now, though her voice

    was still sweet, I found in its melody an indescribable sadness. Sometimes,preoccupied with

    [39]

    her work, she sang the refrain

    [40]

    very low, very

    lingeringly;“A long time ago” came out like the saddest cadence of a funeral

    hymn. She passed into another ballad, this time a really doleful

    [41]

    one.

    “My feet they are sore, and my limbs they are weary;

    Long is the way, and the mountains are wild;

    Soon will the twilight close moonless and dreary

    Over the path of the poor orphan child.

    Why did they send me so far and so lonely,Up where the moors spread and grey rocks are piled?

    Men are hard-hearted, and kind angels only

    Watch o’er the steps of a poor orphan child.

    Yet distant and soft the night breeze is blowing,Clouds there are none, and clear stars beam mild,God, in His mercy, protection is showing,Comfort and hope to the poor orphan child.

    Ev’n should I fall o’er the broken bridge passing,Or stray in the marshes, by false lights beguiled,Still will my Father, with promise and blessing,Take to His bosom the poor orphan child.

    There is a thought that for strength should avail me,Though both of shelter and kindred despoiled;

    Heaven is a home, and a rest will not fail me;

    God is a friend to the poor orphan child.”

    “Come, Miss Jane, don’t cry,” said Bessie as she finished. She might as

    well have said to the fire, “don’t burn!” but how could she divine the morbid

    [42]

    suffering to which I was a prey? In the course of the morning Mr. Lloyd

    came again.

    “What, already up!” said he, as he entered the nursery. “Well, nurse,how is she?”

    Bessie answered that I was doing very well.

    “Then she ought to look more cheerful. Come here, Miss Jane: your

    name is Jane, is it not?”

    “Yes, sir, Jane Eyre.”

    “Well, you have been crying, Miss Jane Eyre; can you tell me what

    about? Have you any pain?”

    “No, sir.”

    “Oh! I daresay

    [43]

    she is crying because she could not go out with

    Missis in the carriage,” interposed

    [44]

    Bessie.

    “Surely not! why, she is too old for such pettishness

    [45]

    .”

    I thought so too; and my self-esteem being wounded by the false charge,I answered promptly

    [46]

    , “I never cried for such a thing in my life: I hate

    going out in the carriage. I cry because I am miserable.”

    “Oh fie, Miss!” said Bessie.The good apothecary appeared a little puzzled. I was standing before

    him;he fixed his eyes on me very steadily: his eyes were small and grey; not

    very bright, but I dare say I should think them shrewd now: he had a hard-

    featured yet good-natured looking face. Having considered me at leisure, he

    said—

    “What made you ill yesterday?”

    “She had a fall,” said Bessie, again putting in her word.

    “Fall! why, that is like a baby again! Can’t she manage to walk at her

    age? She must be eight or nine years old.”

    “I was knocked down,” was the blunt

    [47]

    explanation, jerked out of me

    by another pang of mortified pride;“but that did not make me ill,” I added;

    while Mr. Lloyd helped himself to a pinch of snuff

    [48]

    .

    As he was returning the box to his waistcoat pocket, a loud bell rang for

    the servants’dinner; he knew what it was. “That’s for you, nurse,” said

    he;“you can go down; I’ll give Miss Jane a lecture till you come back.”

    Bessie would rather have stayed, but she was obliged to go, because

    punctuality

    [49]

    at meals was rigidly

    [50]

    enforced at Gateshead Hall.

    “The fall did not make you ill; what did, then?” pursued Mr. Lloyd when

    Bessie was gone.

    “I was shut up in a room where there is a ghost till after dark.”

    I saw Mr. Lloyd smile and frown at the same time.

    “Ghost! What, you are a baby after all! You are afraid of ghosts?”

    “Of Mr. Reed’s ghost I am: he died in that room, and was laid out there.

    Neither Bessie nor any one else will go into it at night, if they can help it; and

    it was cruel to shut me up alone without a candle,—so cruel that I think I

    shall never forget it.”

    “Nonsense! And is it that makes you so miserable? Are you afraid nowin daylight?”

    “No: but night will come again before long: and besides,—I am

    unhappy,—very unhappy, for other things.”

    “What other things? Can you tell me some of them?”

    How much I wished to reply fully to this question! How difficult it was

    to frame any answer! Children can feel, but they cannot analyse their

    feelings; and if the analysis is partially effected in thought, they know not

    how to express the result of the process in words. Fearful, however, of losing

    this first and only opportunity of relieving my grief by imparting it, I, after a

    disturbed pause, contrived to frame a meagre, though, as far as it went, true

    response.

    “For one thing, I have no father or mother, brothers or sisters.”

    “You have a kind aunt and cousins.”

    Again I paused; then bunglingly enounced

    [51]

    —

    “But John Reed knocked me down, and my aunt shut me up in the red-

    room.”

    Mr. Lloyd a second time produced his snuff-box.

    “Don’t you think Gateshead Hall a very beautiful house?” asked he.

    “Are you not very thankful to have such a fine place to live at?”

    “It is not my house, sir; and Abbot says I have less right to be here than

    a servant.”

    “Pooh! you can’t be silly enough to wish to leave such a splendid

    place?”

    “If I had anywhere else to go, I should be glad to leave it; but I can

    never get away from Gateshead till I am a woman.”

    “Perhaps you may—who knows? Have you any relations besides Mrs.

    Reed?”“I think not, sir.”

    “None belonging to your father?”

    “I don’t know. I asked Aunt Reed once, and she said possibly I might

    have some poor, low relations called Eyre, but she knew nothing about

    them.”

    “If you had such, would you like to go to them?”

    I reflected. Poverty looks grim to grown people; still more so to

    children: they have not much idea of industrious, working, respectable

    poverty; they think of the word only as connected with ragged clothes, scanty

    food, fireless grates, rude manners, and debasing vices: poverty for me was

    synonymous with degradation.

    [52]

    “No; I should not like to belong to poor people,” was my reply.

    “Not even if they were kind to you?”

    I shook my head: I could not see how poor people had the means of

    being kind; and then to learn to speak like them, to adopt their manners, to be

    uneducated, to grow up like one of the poor women I saw sometimes nursing

    their children or washing their clothes at the cottage doors of the village of

    Gates-head: no, I was not heroic enough to purchase liberty at the price of

    caste

    [53]

    .

    “But are your relatives so very poor? Are they working people?”

    “I cannot tell; Aunt Reed says if I have any, they must be a beggarly set:

    I should not like to go a-begging

    [54]

    .”

    “Would you like to go to school?”

    Again I reflected: I scarcely knew what school was: Bessie sometimes

    spoke of it as a place where young ladies sat in the stocks, wore backboards,and were expected to be exceedingly genteel and precise: John Reed hated

    his school, and abused his master; but John Reed’s tastes were no rule formine, and if Bessie’s accounts of school-discipline (gathered from the young

    ladies of a family where she had lived before coming to Gateshead) were

    somewhat appalling

    [55]

    , her details of certain accomplishments attained by

    these same young ladies were, I thought, equally attractive. She boasted of

    beautiful paintings of landscapes and flowers by them executed

    [56]; of songs

    they could sing and pieces they could play, of purses they could net, of

    French books they could translate; till my spirit was moved to emulation

    [57]

    as I listened. Besides, school would be a complete change: it implied a long

    journey, an entire separation from Gateshead, an entrance into a new life.

    “I should indeed like to go to school,” was the audible

    [58]

    conclusion of

    my musings.

    “Well, well! who knows what may happen?” said Mr. Lloyd, as he got

    up. “The child ought to have change of air and scene,” he added, speaking to

    him-self;“nerves not in a good state.”

    Bessie now returned; at the same moment the carriage was heard rolling

    up the gravel-walk.

    “Is that your mistress, nurse?” asked Mr. Lloyd. “I should like to speak

    to her before I go.”

    Bessie invited him to walk into the breakfast-room, and led the way out.

    In the interview which followed between him and Mrs. Reed, I presume

    [59]

    ,from after-occurrences, that the apothecary ventured to recommend my

    being sent to school; and the recommendation was no doubt readily enough

    adopted;for as Abbot said, in discussing the subject with Bessie when both

    sat sewing in the nursery one night, after I was in bed, and, as they thought,asleep, “Missis was, she dared say, glad enough to get rid of such a tiresome,ill-conditioned child, who always looked as if she were watching everybody,and scheming

    [60]

    plots underhand

    [61]

    .” Abbot, I think, gave me credit forbeing a sort of infantine Guy Fawkes

    [62]

    .

    On that same occasion I learned, for the first time, from Miss Abbot’s

    communications to Bessie, that my father had been a poor clergyman; that

    my mother had married him against the wishes of her friends, who considered

    the match beneath her; that my grandfather Reed was so irritated

    [63]

    at her

    disobedience, he cut her off without a shilling; that after my mother and

    father had been married a year, the latter caught the typhus

    [64]

    fever while

    visiting among the poor of a large manufacturing town where his curacy

    [65]

    was situated, and where that disease was then prevalent: that my mother took

    the infection from him, and both died within a month of each other.

    [66]

    Bessie, when she heard this narrative, sighed and said, “Poor Miss Jane

    is to be pitied, too, Abbot.”

    “Yes,” responded Abbot;“if she were a nice, pretty child, one might

    compassionate her forlornness; but one really cannot care for such a little

    toad as that.”

    [67]

    “Not a great deal, to be sure,” agreed Bessie:“at any rate, a beauty like

    Miss Georgiana would be more moving in the same condition.”

    “Yes, I doat

    [68]

    on Miss Georgiana!” cried the fervent Abbot. “Little

    darling!—with her long curls and her blue eyes, and such a sweet colour as

    she has; just as if she were painted!—Bessie, I could fancy a Welsh rabbit

    [69]

    for supper.”

    “So could I—with a roast onion. Come, we’ll go down.” They went.

    [1]

    agitation：烦乱；激动

    [2]

    ere long：不久。例句：Ere long, I realized what happened.没过多

    久，我就意识到发生了什么事。[3]

    soothing：抚慰的；使人宽心的

    [4]

    obnoxious：讨厌的；可憎的

    [5]

    scrutinise：细看；仔细观察。相当于scrutinize。例句：The

    worker scrutinises this form.工作人员仔细检查了这张表格。

    [6]

    apothecary：药剂师

    [7]

    ailing：生病的；身体不舒服的。ail意为“困扰；使……烦恼”。

    例句：He told his mother what ailed his study.他把困扰学习的事情告诉了

    母亲。

    [8]

    embolden：使……勇敢；使……大胆。例句：The light

    emboldens the girl to move on.灯光给了小女孩继续前进的勇气。

    [9]

    scrap：碎片，残余物。文中指的是她们会话的只言片语。

    [10]

    prolonged：拖延的；持续很久的

    [11]

    reverberation：反响；回响

    [12]

    pang：剧痛；苦闷

    [13]

    propensity：习性；癖好

    [14]

    shawl：长方形披巾

    [15]

    ailment：疾病；病痛

    [16]

    wretchedness：悲惨；不幸

    [17]

    参考译文：我把脸上的一滴咸泪水擦去，紧接着又流出一滴。

    [18]

    unwonted：不习惯的；不寻常的

    [19]

    reprimand：谴责；训斥

    [20]

    fagging：苦差事；杂务

    [21]

    tart：果馅糕点

    [22]

    convolvuli：旋花植物，它是convolvulus的变形。

    [23]

    petition：请求；恳求。例句：This couple petition to adopt this

    orphan.这对夫妇请求收养这个孤儿。

    [24]

    此句中，有一个并列句子，其中and连接两个并列分句。在第二个分句中，有两个定语从句，引导词分别为whose和which，这两个句子

    都是修饰plate这一物体的。

    [25]

    pastry：油酥糕点

    [26]

    transient：短暂的；瞬时的

    [27]

    Gulliver’s Travels：《格列佛游记》，作者为Jonathan Swift。小

    说中的主角格列佛曾到达小人国、巨人国、飞岛国和慧骃国。作者通过

    游历这种形式，反映了英国当时的社会现状。

    [28]

    elves：它是elf的复数形式，意为“侏儒”。下文中出现的pigmy意

    为“矮人；侏儒”。

    [29]

    foxglove：毛地黄

    [30]

    ground-ivy：金钱薄荷

    [31]

    Lilliput and Brobdignag：指的是《格列佛游记》中的小人国和巨

    人国。

    [32]

    creed：信条；教义

    [33]

    mastiff：獒；大驯犬

    [34]

    eerie：怪异的；可怕的

    [35]

    goblin：地精

    [36]

    peruse：精读，细读。名词形式为perusal，意为“熟读；精读”。

    例句：He never peruses this kind of novels.他从不精读这一类的小说。

    [37]

    bonnet：软帽

    [38]

    出自歌曲In the days when we were gipsying。在1839年，这首歌

    于美国发行，Nathan James Sporle为其谱曲，填词者为Edward

    Ransford。

    [39]

    be preoccupied with：全神贯注于……；沉浸在……。例句：The

    young girl is preoccupied with the fantastic plot of the movie.这个年轻的女

    孩沉浸在小说奇妙的情节之中了。

    [40]

    refrain：叠句；副歌[41]

    doleful：悲哀的；忧郁的。doleful expression意为“忧郁的表

    情”。

    [42]

    morbid：病态的；不健康的

    [43]

    daresay：料想；猜想。它只适用于第一人称和现在时态中，意

    为“我相信”。

    [44]

    interpose：插入；提出异议。例句：He interposes this file

    between the books.他把这份文件插进了书中。

    [45]

    pettishness：容易发怒，是pettish的变形。

    [46]

    promptly：立即地；迅速地

    [47]

    blunt：迟钝的；生硬的

    [48]

    snuff：鼻烟

    [49]

    punctuality：严守时间；准时。形容词为punctual，意为“准时

    的；守时的”。

    [50]

    rigidly：严格地；坚硬地。形容词形式为rigid，意为“严格的；

    死板的”。

    [51]

    enounce：说出；声明

    [52]

    参考译文：贫穷让成年人变得冷漠无情，对孩子而言更是如

    此，他们对勤勉努力、值得尊敬的贫穷没有什么概念；一说到这个词，他们就会想到破烂的衣物、匮乏的食物、冰凉的壁炉、粗暴的言行以及

    各种恶习；对我而言，贫穷就意味着堕落。

    [53]

    caste：种姓

    [54]

    a-begging：乞讨，行乞。“a-”为前缀，后面跟动词的现在分词形

    式，意思与动词的现在分词一致，表示动作正在进行。相同的还有a-

    fishing等。

    [55]

    appalling：可怕的；令人震惊的。a piece of appalling news意

    为“一则令人震惊的消息”。

    [56]

    execute：执行；处死。例句：Our committee will execute thisnew plan next week.我们的委员会将于下周执行这项新的计划。

    [57]

    emulation：仿真；模拟 ......