THE DARKNESS OF WALLIS SIMPSON
Book ID/图书代码: 12100005B03223
English Summary/英文概要: A wonderful new collection of short stories, most of which are published here for the first time.
Wallis Simpson, the twice-divorced American woman for whom Edward VIII abdicated in 1936, ended her life (as the Duchess of Windsor) as the prisoner of her lawyer who would not allow anyone — friend, foe or journalist — to visit her in her Paris flat. Rose Tremain takes this true story and transforms it into an imaginative and ironic fiction. Her thesis is that Wallis, gaga and bed-ridden, had forgotten the king who gave up an empire for love of her.
This superb story plays with the selectiveness of memory: why does Wallis recall the seemingly unimportant, while forgetting the glory days of her notoriety? She can remember her first two husbands — one a bit of a brute, the other very boring — but not the world-famous third one.
The other stories in this magnificent collection range over a variety of themes, equally original and unexpected: an East German border guard, redundant after the Berlin Wall comes down in 1989, imagines that he might still have a purpose in life. He tries to reach Russia by bicycling across the hostile wastes of Poland. A jilted man gets his revenge. A baby grows wings. A character in an Impressionist painting escapes from his “frame” — or does he? And there’s a Christmas story set in a seedy hotel.
Chinese Summary/中文概要: 1936年,爱德华八世为离过两次婚的美国女人沃利斯•辛普森放弃了皇位,(作为温莎公爵夫人),在晚年,她的律师禁止任何人— 朋友、敌人或记者 — — 去巴黎的公寓看望她。罗斯•特瑞美将这个真实的故事,转换为一部富有想象力的讽刺小说。她把目光聚焦在这位曾让国王为了爱情放弃了帝国而逐渐被世人淡忘的,即将走完生命旅程的女人身上。
这部华丽的作品中还汇集了其他许多精选的回忆,每一段真实的再现都让人顿感以为。一位在前东德的边境的守卫,在1989年柏林墙被推倒后的落寞,幻想着生活中仍然可能存在的目标。他试图骑着单车通过当时敌对的波兰边境抵达俄罗斯。一个心怀抱负的被抛弃的男人。一个长着翅膀的婴儿。一个从印象派画境中逃离的人物,而这个幻象般的圣诞故事背景来自于一家破旧旅馆之中…… (Sandy)
Awards/获奖情况:傾國之戀
沃利斯(辛普森夫人)究竟是怎樣一位女人?值得溫莎公爵為他放棄英國王位?這位曾經轟動一時的女士在垂暮之年的蕭瑟之境。在她晚年所處的八十年代之際,世界風雲的變化,人生滄桑的浮沉,曾經的風華已漸漸遠去,只有君王摯愛依然伴隨再側。
1936年1月,威爾士親王愛德華繼位,成為愛德華八世。國家大事的重任絲毫沒有減低他對沃利斯的愛,他向王室宣佈要和沃利斯結婚。這時,沃利斯與丈夫歐尼斯特的離婚宴也擺上了日程。
愛德華八世的決定遭到朝野強烈的反對,他們無論如何也接受不了一人結過兩次婚的女人成為王后。多次交涉未果之後,愛德華八世決定遜位來完成這樁亙古未有的婚姻。頂著來自皇室、首相以及新聞界的各種壓力(沃利斯也成為英國早期“狗仔隊”捕獵的對象),愛德華八世遜位而成為溫莎公爵,1937年終於在法國與沃利斯成婚。
對於失去王位以及永遠不能回到自己的國家,溫莎公爵對沃利斯說:“你可別後悔,我絲毫也不。我只知道幸福永遠維繫在你的身上……”
Globe & Mail
“This collection is a jewel-box containing gems of near perfection … She’s a consistently superior writer. Do yourself – and literature – a service: Read her.”
Express
“. . . moving and tragic. The Darkness of Rose Tremain is never far from the surface in this brilliantly written short story collection.”
Good Housekeeping
“Written with the deft imagination we’ve come to know and love from Rose Tremain.”
About the Author/作者介绍: 小說家Rose Tremain (羅斯•特裡梅因)1943年生於倫敦。她畢業于索邦神學院和東英吉利大學,1988年-~1995年她曾在那裡她教授創意寫作。她的出版作品包括小說和短篇小說集,她還是許多的廣播和電視劇的作者,作品包括獲得過賈爾斯•庫珀獎的《臨避難所》,和由英國廣播公司第四電臺在2001年12月首播的《冬夜》。2000年她獲得東英吉利大學的文學博士榮譽獎。
羅斯•特裡梅因小說贏得過無數獎項,包括:年度惠特佈雷德小說獎(音樂和沉寂);布萊克紀念獎和費米娜外國小說獎(神聖國度);年度《周日快報》獎,天使文學獎,而她的最新之作《復原》入圍了布克獎,她為英國廣播公司撰寫的《臨時避難所》獲得了賈爾斯•庫珀獎。她的小說《色彩》,曾被遴選為橘子獎,並被英國《每日郵報》讀書會所推選。2007年6月,羅斯在英女王生日之際榮得二等爵士封號。
Rose Tremain won the Dylan Thomas Short Story Award for The Colonel’s Daughter. Her novels have won many prizes including the Whitbread Novel of the Year and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Her most recent novel, The Colour, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize.
Format:GALLEY
Rights Status/版权销售情况:Simplified Chinese/简体中文:不确定
Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文:不确定
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