The Journey Abandoned

出版者:Columbia University Press

作者:Lionel Trilling

页数:224

出版时间:2008-5-19

价格:USD 65.00

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9780231144506

具体描述

In 1947, Lionel Trilling, the prominent literary critic, published a novel entitled The Middle of the Journey. While conducting research in the archives at Columbia University, Geraldine Murphy discovered a second novel-a clean, well-crafted "third" of a book that Trilling described as having "point, immediacy, warmth under control, drama, and even size." The Journey Abandoned was supposed to be a novel about the anomalies of heroic action in a conformist age. Instead, published here for the first time, it is a highly personal portrait of the life of letters in America. Jorris Buxton, the narrative's larger-than-life focus, is an elderly poet and novelist turned distinguished mathematical physicist. Modeled on the romantic poet Walter Savage Landor, Buxton is destined to embroil himself in a principled but somewhat absurd conflict, just as the aged Landor had, and through his folly complicate the lives of his admirers. These memorable characters include Garda Thorne, a beautiful short-story writer (and Buxton's former mistress); Harold Outram, the director of an influential private foundation and a compromised man of letters; Philip Dyas, the headmaster of a private school; the Hollowells, a wealthy, progressive couple; Marion Cathcart, a young woman of Outram's household; and Vincent Hammell, an untried literary man from the Midwest and Buxton's newly appointed biographer. Hammell is the central consciousness of the novel. A young man from the provinces, he is drawn from Trilling's own experience yet also indebted to the nineteenth-century bildungsroman, the literary form Trilling admired as a critic and emulated, in these pages, as a novelist. In her introduction, Murphy considers how The Journey Abandoned (which is her title) relates to the critical ideas Trilling articulated in his famous essay collection, The Liberal Imagination. She speculates that Henry James came to displace Landor as the model for Jorris Buxton, a development that may have both inspired and inhibited the writing of this novel.

用户评价

说实话，一开始我还有点担心这本篇幅不菲的作品会不会让人感到拖沓，但事实证明，我的担忧完全是多余的。作者的叙事技巧高明到令人发指，即便是最平淡的日常对话，也被赋予了某种潜台词和深远的意义。情节的推进像是一场精密的棋局，每一步看似都在意料之中，但最终的布局却总能出乎读者的预料，带来强烈的冲击感。我特别喜欢作者在处理关键转折点时的手法，那种不动声色的铺垫，让最终的爆发显得更加震撼人心。这本书成功地避开了许多同类题材中常见的俗套，它勇于探索人性中最幽暗的角落，同时也歌颂了那些不为人知的美好与坚韧。它教会了我，真正的力量往往隐藏在最不起眼的地方。读完后，我感到一种久违的充实感，仿佛我的精神世界被拓宽了边界。这是一部严肃文学的典范，值得被载入史册。

这本书简直是文学界的奇迹！我花了整整一周的时间沉浸其中，每一次翻页都像是揭开了一个新的谜团。作者对人性的刻画入木三分，那种细腻到令人心悸的笔触，让我仿佛能感受到书中人物的每一次呼吸和心跳。情节的铺陈如同一张精心编织的网，每一条线索都看似独立，却在不经意间交织成一个宏大而又令人震撼的图案。我尤其欣赏作者对环境的描绘，那种仿佛触手可及的质感，让我仿佛置身于那个特定的时空之中。那些关于时间、记忆与选择的深刻探讨，更是引发了我内心深处无尽的思考。我常常在读完一个章节后，会放下书本，凝视窗外许久，试图消化那些复杂的情感和哲理。这本书不仅仅是一个故事，它更像是一次灵魂的洗礼，让我对“存在”有了全新的理解。叙事节奏的把握堪称教科书级别，张弛有度，高潮迭起，却又处处透露着一种不动声色的力量。我强烈推荐给所有热爱深度阅读、不满足于表面叙事的读者。

这本书的魅力在于它的留白。作者似乎很擅长利用未言明之处来激发读者的想象力，让每一个读者都能在自己的内心世界里完成对故事的补充和再创造。它不像有些作品恨不得把所有东西都摆在台面上解释清楚，这本书则更像是抛出了一个巨大的哲学命题，然后邀请读者一同参与到解答的过程中来。书中的意象运用极具象征意义，无论是某种特定的天气、一个反复出现的物件，还是一个转瞬即逝的梦境，都饱含了多层次的解读空间。这使得这本书的耐读性极高，我相信即便是过上几年再读，我依然能从中咂摸出新的滋味。它对“失落”与“寻找”这一永恒主题的探讨，既有普世的共鸣，又充满了作者独有的、近乎诗意的悲悯情怀。总而言之，这是一次沉浸式的、令人灵魂震颤的阅读旅程，我为能读到如此佳作而感到庆幸。

我是一个对叙事结构非常挑剔的读者，但这本书彻底征服了我。它采用了多线叙事的手法，不同时间线、不同视角的切换处理得异常流畅自然，完全没有那种生硬的跳跃感。相反，这种交织反而增强了故事的立体感和悬念感。作者对于节奏的控制近乎完美，时而如暴风骤雨般急促，时而又如月光下的湖面般宁静深远。更难能可贵的是，在如此复杂的结构下，故事的核心情感始终清晰可见，没有丝毫的迷失。那些看似无关紧要的细节，在后续情节中都得到了精妙的呼应和解释，展现了作者惊人的布局能力。我甚至在想，作者是如何在脑海中构建出这样一个庞大而又严丝合缝的世界的？这部作品提供了一种全新的阅读体验，它挑战了我们对传统故事模式的既有认知。绝对是今年我读到的最具创新性和深度的作品，没有之一。

这本书的语言风格极其独特，读起来有一种古典韵味，但又充满了现代的张力。作者的词汇量之丰富，简直令人叹为观止，很多句子我都忍不住要反复吟读，揣摩其背后的深意。它不是那种让你一口气读完的“快餐小说”，更像是需要你慢下来，细细品味的陈年佳酿。书中的角色塑造是其最大的亮点之一，他们是如此的真实、复杂，充满了各种矛盾和挣扎。我看到了自己在不同阶段的影子投射在他们身上，那种共鸣感是如此强烈，以至于我常常因为他们的遭遇而感到揪心。故事的背景设定也极其考究，那种宏大的历史背景与微小个体命运的交织，展现了作者深厚的学识和广阔的视野。我感觉自己像是跟随一位技艺高超的向导，穿越了时空的隧道，见证了一段段被尘封的往事。这是一部需要被反复阅读、不断挖掘其内涵的杰作，每一次重读都会有新的发现。

Every sentence is written with intelligence and filled with deep empathy for the complex moral conditions of humanity.

Every sentence is written with intelligence and filled with deep empathy for the complex moral conditions of humanity.

Every sentence is written with intelligence and filled with deep empathy for the complex moral conditions of humanity.

Every sentence is written with intelligence and filled with deep empathy for the complex moral conditions of humanity.

Every sentence is written with intelligence and filled with deep empathy for the complex moral conditions of humanity.