精彩书摘:
"But I had plans of my own, seeing that not only the tobacco but the flour and molasses were near gone. And further, I felt it my duty to prove the white man's wisdom and bring sore distress to Moosu, who had waxed high-stomached, what of the power I had given him. So that night I went to my meat caches and toiled mightily, and it was noted next day that all the dogs of the village were lazy. No one suspected, and I toiled thus every night, and the dogs grew fat and fatter, and the people lean and leaner. They grumbled and demanded the fulfilment of prophecy, but Moosu restrained them, waiting for their hunger to grow yet greater. Nor did he dream, to the very last, of the trick I had been playing on the empty caches.
"When all was ready, I sent Angeit, and the faithful ones whom I had fed privily, through the village to call assembly. And the tribe gathered on a great space of beaten snow before my door, with the meat caches towering stilt-legged in the rear. Moosu came also, standing on the inner edge of the circle opposite me, confident that I had some scheme afoot, and prepared at the first break to down me. But I arose, giving him salutation before all men.
"'O Moosu, thou blessed of God,' I began, 'doubtless thou hast wondered in that I have called this convocation together; and doubtless, because of my many foolishnesses, art thou prepared for rash sayings and rash doings. Not so. It has been said, that those the gods would destroy they first make mad. And I have been indeed mad. I have crossed thy will, and scoffed at thy authority, and done divers evil and wanton things. Wherefore, last night a vision was vouchsafed me, and I have seen the wickedness of my ways. And thou stoodst forth like a shining star, with brows aflame, and I knew in mine own heart thy greatness. I saw all things clearly. I knew that thou didst command the ear of God, and that when you spoke he listened. And I remembered that whatever of the good deeds that I had done, I had done through the grace of God, and the grace of Moosu. "'Yes, my children,' I cried, turning to the people, 'whatever right I have done, and whatever good I have done, have been because of the counsel of Moosu. When I listened to him, affairs prospered; when I closed my ears, and acted according to my folly, things came to folly. By his advice it was that I laid my store of meat, and in time of darkness fed the famishing. BY his grace it was that I was made chief. And what have I done with my chief ship? Let me tell you. I have done nothing. My head was turned with power, and I deemed myself greater than Moosu, and, behold, I have come to grief. My rule has been unwise, and the gods are angered. Lo, ye are pinched with famine, and the mothers are dry-breasted, and the little babies cry through the long nights. Nor do I, who have hardened my heart against Moosu, know what shall be done, nor in what manner of way grub shall be had.'
"At this there was nodding and laughing, and the people put their heads together and I knew they whispered of the loaves and fishes. I went on hastily. 'So I was made aware of my foolishness and of Moosu's wisdom; of my own unfitness and of Moosu's fitness. And because of this, being no longer mad, I make acknowledgment and rectify evil. I did cast unrighteous eyes upon Kluktu, and lo, she was sealed to Moosu. Yet is she mine, for did I not pay to Tummasook the goods of purchase? But I am well unworthy of her, and she shall go from the igloo of her father to the igloo of Moosu. Can the moon shine in the sunshine? And further, Tummasook shall keep the goods of purchase, and she be a free gift to Moosu, whom God hath ordained her rightful lord.
……
作者简介:
JACK LONDON(1876—1916), American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone.
London is best remembered as the author of Call of the Wild and V7hite Fang, both set in the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories To Build a Fire, An Odyssey of the North, and Love of Life. He also wrote of the South Pacific in such stories as The Pearls of Parlay and The Heathen, and of the San Francisco Bay area in The Sea Wolf.
内容简介:
LONDON's "strength of utterance" is at its height in his stories, and they are painstakingly well-constructed. Western writer and historian Dale L. Walker writes:"London's true metier was the short story…. London's true genius lay in the short form, 7,500 words and under, where the flood of images in his teeming brain and the innate power of his narrative gift were at once constrained and freed."
Although his writings suggest a complexity of ideas, he is commonly categorized as a literary naturalist. His adventure stories of Alaska and the Pacific continue to fascinate new generations of readers.
目录:
A HYPERBOREAN BREW
A PIECE OF STEAK
A THOUSAND DEATHS
ALL GOLD CANON
AN ODYSSEY OF THE NORTH
BALD-FACE
BROWN WOLF
FLUSH OF GOLD
FOUR HORSES AND A SAILOR
IN A FAR COUNTRY
LOVE OF LIFE
MOON-FACE
NAM-BOK, THE UNVERACIOUS
OLD BALDY
ON THE MAKALOA MAT
PLUCK AND PERTINACITY
SAMUEL
SMALL-BOAT SAILING
SOUTH OF THE SLOT
THAT DEAD MEN RISE UP NEVER
THAT SPOT
THE APOSTATE
THE "FUZZINESS" OF HOOCKLA-HEEN
THE "FRANCIS SPAIGHT"
THE HANDSOME CABIN BOY
THE HEATHEN
THE KING OF MAZY MAY
THE LAW OF LIFE
THE LEAGUE OF THE OLD MEN
THE MEXICAN
THE PEN
THE PRIESTLY PREROGATIVE
THE SHADOW AND THE FLASH
THE SON OF THE WOLF
THE WHITE MAN'S WAY
THE WIFE OF A KING
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