《简•爱》

About the Author :

Charlotte Bronte(夏洛蒂·勃朗特) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the threeBrontesisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels have become classics of English literature.Her younger sisterEmily Jane Bronte wrote the greatest love story calledWuthering Heights（呼啸山庄）.

About the novel:

The novel is a first-person narrative（叙述的）from the perspective（观点，看法）of the title character. The novel's setting is somewhere in the north of England, during the reign ofGeorge III(1760–1820), and goes through five distinct stages: Jane's childhood at Gateshead Hall, where she is emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins; her education at Lowood School, where she gains friends and role models but suffers privations（困苦）and oppression（压迫）; her time asgovernessat Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with herByronicemployer, Edward Rochester; her time with the Rivers family, during which her earnest but cold clergyman（牧师）cousin, St. John Rivers, proposes to her; and her reunion（重逢）with, and marriage to, her beloved Rochester.

Highlights:

“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! -I have as much soul as you,-and full as much heart!And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh;-it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave and we stood at God’s feet, equal,--as we are!”

难道就因为我一贫如洗、默默无闻、长相平庸、个子瘦小，就没有灵魂，没有心肠了？－你不是想错了吗？－我的心灵跟你一样丰富，我的心胸跟你一样充实！要是上帝赐予我一点姿色和充足的财富，我会使你同我现在一样难分难舍，我不是根据习俗、常规，甚至也不是血肉之躯同你说话，而是我的灵魂同你的灵魂在对话，就仿佛我们两人穿过坟墓，站在上帝脚下，彼此平等——本来就如此！

编辑：外国语学院13英3班 黄浩存

指导老师：外国语学院姚小文