爱华网The story opens at MissPinkerton's Academy for Young Ladies, where the principalprotagonists Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley have just completedtheir studies and are preparing to depart for Amelia's house inRussell Square. Becky is portrayed as a strong-willed and cunningyoung woman determined to make her way in society, and AmeliaSedley is a good natured, loveable though simple-minded young girl.
At Russell Square, Miss Sharp isintroduced to the dashing and self-obsessed Captain George Osborne(to whom Amelia has been betrothed from a very young age) and toAmelia's brother Joseph Sedley, a clumsy and vainglorious but richcivil-servant fresh from India. Becky entices him and hopes tomarry him, though eventually fails as a result of warnings fromCaptain Osborne and his own native shyness and embarrassment thatBecky had witnessed his foolish behaviour at Vauxhall.
With this Becky Sharp saysfarewell to Sedley's family and enters the service of the baronetSir Pitt Crawley who has engaged her as a governess to hisdaughters. Her behaviour at Sir Pitt's house gains the favour ofSir Pitt, who after the premature death of his second wife,proposes to her. However, it soon transpires that she is alreadysecretly married to his second son, Rawdon Crawley.
Sir Pitt's half sister, thespinster Miss Crawley, is very rich having inherited her mother'sfortune of ￡70,000. Where she will leave her great wealth is asource of constant conflict between the branches of the Crawleyfamily who vie shamelessly for her affections; initially herfavourite is Sir Pitt's younger son, Captain Rawdon Crawley. Forsome time, Becky acts as Miss Crawley's companion, supplanting theloyal Briggs in an attempt to find favour before breaking the newsof her elopement with her nephew. The misalliance so enrages MissCrawley, that she eventually disinherits her nephew in favour ofhis elder brother, who also bears the name Pitt Crawley. The coupleconstantly attempt to reconcile with Miss Crawley and she relents alittle. However, she will only see her nephew and refuses to changeher will.
While Becky Sharp is rising in the world, Amelia's father, JohnSedley, is bankrupted. The relationship between the two families,the Sedleys and Osbornes, who were once close allies disintegratesand the marriage of Amelia and George is forbidden. Georgeultimately decides to marry Amelia against his father's will,primarily due to the pressure of his friend Dobbin, and George isconsequently disinherited by his father.
When all these personal incidentsare going on, the Napoleonic Wars have been ramping up, and GeorgeOsborne and William Dobbin are suddenly deployed to Brussels, butnot before an encounter with Becky and Captain Crawley at Brighton.The holiday is interrupted with orders to march to Brussels.Already, the newly wedded Osborne is growing tired of Amelia, andhe becomes increasingly attracted to Becky.
At a ball in Brussels(based on theDuchess of Richmond's famous ball on the eve of the battle ofWaterloo) George gives Becky a note inviting her to run away withhim. He regrets this shortly afterwards, and reconciles withAmelia, who has been deeply hurt by his attentions towards herformer friend. The morning after, he is sent to Waterloo, withCaptain Crawley and Dobbin, leaving Amelia distraught. Becky, onthe other hand, is virtually indifferent about her husband'sdeparture. She tries to console Amelia, but Amelia respondsangrily, disgusted by Becky's flirtatious behavior with George andher lack of concern about Captain Crawley. Becky resents this snuband a rift develops between the two women that lasts foryears.
Captain Crawley survives, butGeorge dies in the battle. Amelia bears him a posthumous son, whois also named George. She returns to live in genteel poverty withher parents. Meanwhile since the death of George, Dobbin, who ishis son's godfather, gradually begins to express his love for thewidowed Amelia by small gestures directed towards her and her son.Most notably is the recovery of an old piano, which Dobbin picks upat an auction following the Sedley's ruin, which Amelia mistakes asa gesture from her late husband. She is too much in love withGeorge's memory to return Dobbin's affections. Saddened, he goes toIndia for many years. Dobbin's infatuation with Amelia is a themewhich unifies the novel and one which many have compared toThackeray's unrequited love for a friend's wife.
Meanwhile, Becky also has a son,also named after his father, but unlike Amelia, who dotes on andeven spoils her child, Becky is a cold, distant mother. Shecontinues her ascent first in post-war Paris and then in Londonwhere she is patronised by the great Marquess of Steyne whocovertly subsidises her and introduces her to London society. Hersuccess is unstoppable despite her humble origins and she iseventually presented at court to the Prince Regent himself.
At the summit of her success,Becky's pecuniary relationship with the rich and omnipotentMarquess of Steyne is discovered by Rawdon, after he is arrestedfor debt. His brother's wife, Lady Jane, bails him out and hesurprises the couple in a compromising position. Rawdon leaves hiswife and through the offices of Lord Steyne is made Governor ofCoventry Island to get him out of the way, after Rawdon challengesthe elderly marquess to a duel. Mrs Crawley, having lost bothhusband and credibility, is warned by Steyne to quit England andwanders the continent. Rawdon and Rebecca's son is left in the careof Pitt Crawley and Lady Jane. However wherever Becky goes, she isstalked by the shadow of Lord Steyne. No sooner has she establishedherself in polite society, than someone turns up who knows herdisreputable history and spreads rumours; Steyne himself hounds herout of Rome.
As Amelia's adored son Georgegrows up, his grandfather relents and takes him from poor Ameliawho knows the rich and bitter old man will give him a much betterstart in life materially than she or her family could ever manage.After twelve years abroad both Joseph Sedley and William Dobbinreturn to England. Dobbin professes his unchanged love to Amelia,but although Amelia is affectionate to Dobbin, she tells him shecannot forget the memory of her dead husband. Dobbin also becomesclose to George, and his kind firm manner with him proves a goodinfluence on the spoilt child.
While in England, Dobbin mediatesa reconciliation between Amelia and her father-in-law. The death ofAmelia's mother prevents their meeting but following Osborne'sdeath soon after, it is revealed that he had amended his will andbequeathed young George half his large fortune and Amelia agenerous annuity. The re st is divided between his daughters, MissOsborne and Mrs Bullock who begrudges Amelia and her son for thedecrease in her annuity.
After the death of old Mr Osborne,Amelia, Joseph, George and Dobbin go on a trip to Germany, wherethey encounter the destitute Becky. She meets the young GeorgeOsborne at a card table and then enchants Jos Sedley. FollowingJos' entreaties, Amelia agrees to a reconciliation (when she hearsthat Becky has had her ties with her son severed), much to Dobbin'sdisapproval. Dobbin quarrels with Amelia, and finally realizes thathe is wasting his love on a woman too shallow to returnit.
However, Becky, in a moment ofconscience, shows Amelia the note that George (Amelia's deadhusband) had given her, asking her to run away with him. Thisbreaks George's idealised image in Amelia's mind, but not beforeshe has already sent a note to Dobbin professing herlove.
Becky resumes her seduction ofJoseph Sedley and gains control over him. He eventually dies of asuspicious ailment after signing a portion of his money to Becky aslife insurance. In the original illustrations, which were done byThackeray, Becky is shown behind a curtain with a phial (presumablyof poison) in her hand; the picture is labelled 'Becky's secondappearance in the character of Clytemnestra.' (She had playedClytemnestra during charades at a party earlier in the book.) Hisdeath appears to have made her fortune.
By a twist of fate Rawdon Crawleydies weeks before his elder brother whose son has already died.Thus the baronetcy descends to Rawdon's son. Had he outlived hisbrother by even a day he would have become Sir Rawdon Crawley andBecky would have become Lady Crawley - the title she usesregardless in later life.
【内容简介】
小说题目“名利场”取自班扬的寓言小说(天路历程)。主要情节可分两条线索。一条线索描写已故穷画师的女儿蓓基在离开平克顿女子寄宿学校后，暂住在富家小姐爱米丽亚家中，企图勾引爱米丽亚的哥哥以进入上流社会。此事失败后，蓓基去毕脱·克劳雷爵士家当家庭教师，同时施展逢迎、拍马和勾搭等乖巧手段。而当毕脱丧偶后向蓓基求婚时，她却已秘密嫁给了爵士的儿子罗登。另一条线索写纯洁的姑娘爱米丽亚钟情于轻浮空虚的军官乔治·奥斯本，冲破重重障碍终于和他结婚。但丈夫很快就厌弃她，另寻新欢。爱米丽亚一味痴情，即使在丈夫死后仍不肯改嫁。最后，蓓基道出乔治生前曾约自己私奔的事实，爱米丽亚才另结了婚。蓓基后来又与年老丑陋的斯丹恩勋爵私通，因私情为丈夫窥破而遭抛弃。而斯丹恩则误以为罗登夫妇设局诈骗，也与蓓基一刀两段，蓓基就此潦倒。她晚年从另一情夫约瑟夫手中得到一笔遗产，开始热心于慈善事业。
作者萨克雷在小说中栩栩如生地勾勒出一幅现实中的名利场的画面，把生活中尔虞我诈、欺骗背叛、势利虚荣等丑恶行径表现得淋漓尽致。作者最后写道：“啊!虚荣中的虚荣!在这世界上我们又有谁是幸福的呢?我们又有谁如愿以偿了呢?而就算如此，又有谁满足了呢?”
回答者： 岁月不寒 - 同进士出身 七级 2-1818:23
Rebecca did not care much to go and see the son and heir. Once hespoiled a new dove-coloured pelisse of hers. He preferred hisnurse's caresses to his mamma's, and when finally he quitted thatjolly nurse and almost parent, he cried loudly for hours. He wasonly consoled by his mother's promise that he should return to hisnurse the next day; indeed the nurse herself, who probably wouldhave been pained at the parting too, was told that the child wouldimmediately be restored to her, and for some time awaited quiteanxiously his return.
In fact, our friends may be saidto have been among the first of that brood of hardy Englishadventurers who have subsequently invaded the Continent andswindled in all the capitals of Europe. The respect in those happydays of 1817-18 was very great for the wealth and honour ofBritons. They had not then learned, as I am told, to haggle forbargains with the pertinacity which now distinguishes them. Thegreat cities of Europe had not been as yet open to the enterpriseof our rascals. And whereas there is now hardly a town of France orItaly in which you shall not see some noble countryman of our own,with that happy swagger and insolence of demeanour which we carryeverywhere, swindling inn-landlords, passing fictitious chequesupon credulous bankers, robbing coach- makers of their carriages,goldsmiths of their trinkets, easy travellers of their money atcards, even public libraries of their books--thirty years ago youneeded but to be a Milor Anglais, travelling in a private carriage,and credit was at your hand wherever you chose to seek it, andgentlemen, instead of cheating, were cheated. It was not for someweeks after the Crawleys' departure that the landlord of the hotelwhich they occupied during their residence at Paris found out thelosses which he had sustained: not until Madame Marabou, themilliner, made repeated visits with her little bill for articlessupplied to Madame Crawley; not until Monsieur Didelot from Bouled'Or in the Palais Royal had asked half a dozen times whether cettecharmante Miladi who had bought watches and bracelets of him was deretour. It is a fact that even the poor gardener's wife, who hadnursed madame's child, was never paid after the first six monthsfor that supply of the milk of human kindness with which she hadfurnished the lusty and healthy little Rawdon. No, not even thenurse was paid--the Crawleys were in too great a hurry to remembertheir trifling debt to her. As for the landlord of the hotel, hiscurses against the English nation were violent for the rest of hisnatural life. He asked all travellers whether they knew a certainColonel Lor Crawley--avec sa femme une petite dame, tresspirituelle. "Ah, Monsieur!" he would add--"ils m'ont affreusementvole." It was melancholy to hear his accents as he spoke of thatcatastrophe.
Rebecca's object in her journey toLondon was to effect a kind of compromise with her husband'snumerous creditors, and by offering them a dividend of ninepence ora shilling in the pound, to secure a return for him into his owncountry. It does not become us to trace the steps which she took inthe conduct of this most difficult negotiation; but, having shownthem to their satisfaction that the sum which she was empowered tooffer was all her husband's available capital, and having convincedthem that Colonel Crawley would prefer a perpetual retirement onthe Continent to a residence in this country with his debtsunsettled; having proved to them that there was no possibility ofmoney accruing to him from other quarters, and no earthly chance oftheir getting a larger dividend than that which she was empoweredto offer, she brought the Colonel's creditors unanimously to accepther proposals, and purchased with fifteen hundred pounds of readymoney more than ten times that amount of debts.
Mrs. Crawley employed no lawyer inthe transaction. The matter was so simple, to have or to leave, asshe justly observed, that she made the lawyers of the creditorsthemselves do the business. And Mr. Lewis representing Mr. Davids,of Red Lion Square, and Mr. Moss acting for Mr. Manasseh ofCursitor Street (chief creditors of the Colonel's), complimentedhis lady upon the brilliant way in which she did business, anddeclared that there was no professional man who could beather.
Rebecca received theircongratulations with perfect modesty; ordered a bottle of sherryand a bread cake to the little dingy lodgings where she dwelt,while conducting the business, to treat the enemy's lawyers: shookhands with them at parting, in excellent good humour, and returnedstraightway to the Continent, to rejoin her husband and son andacquaint the former with the glad news of his entire liberation. Asfor the latter, he had been considerably neglected during hismother's absence by Mademoiselle Genevieve, her French maid; forthat young woman, contracting an attachment for a soldier in thegarrison of Calais, forgot her charge in the society of thismilitaire, and little Rawdon very narrowly escaped drowning onCalais sands at this period, where the absent Genevieve had leftand lost him.
And so, Colonel and Mrs. Crawleycame to London: and it is at their house in Curzon Street, MayFair, that they really showed the skill which must be possessed bythose who would live on the resources above named.
