英語名著讀后感
英語名著讀后感【呼嘯山莊】【1】
Published in 1847, WUTHERING HEIGHTS was not well received by the reading public, many of whom condemned it as sordid, vulgar, and unnatural--and author Emily Bronte went to her grave in 1848 believing that her only novel was a failure.
It was not until 1850, when WUTHERING HEIGHTS received a second printing with an introduction by Emily's sister Charlotte, that it attracted a wide readership.
And from that point the reputation of the book has never looked back.
Today it is widely recognized as one of the great novels of English literature.
Even so, WUTHERING HEIGHTS continues to divide readers.
It is not a pretty love story; rather, it is swirling tale of largely unlikeable people caught up in obsessive love that turns to dark madness.
It is cruel, violent, dark and brooding, and many people find it extremely unpleasant.
And yet--it possesses a grandeur of language and design, a sense of tremendous pity and great loss that sets it apart from virtually every other novel written.
The novel is told in the form of an extended flashback.
After a visit to his strange landlord, a newcomer to the area desires to know the history of the family--which he receives from Nelly Deans, a servant who introduces us to the Earnshaw family who once resided in the house known as Wuthering Heights.
It was once a cheerful place, but Old Earnshaw adopted a "Gipsy" child who he named Heathcliff.
And Catherine, daughter of the house, found in him the perfect companion: wild, rude, and as proud and cruel as she.
But although Catherine loves him, even recognizes him as her soulmate, she cannot lower herself to marry so far below her social station.
She instead marries another, and in so doing sets in motion an obsession that will destroy them all.
WUTHERING HEIGHTS is a bit difficult to "get into;" the opening chapters are so dark in their portrait of the end result of this obsessive love that they are somewhat off-putting.
But they feed into the flow of the work in a remarkable way, setting the stage for one of the most remarkable structures in all of literature, a story that circles upon itself in a series of repetitions as it plays out across two generations.
Catherine and Heathcliff are equally remarkable, both vicious and cruel, and yet never able to shed their impossible love no matter how brutally one may wound the other.
As the novel coils further into alcoholism, seduction, and one of the most elaborately imagined plans of revenge it gathers into a ghostly tone: Heathcliff, driven to madness by a woman who is not there but who seems reflected in every part of his world--dragging her corpse from the grave, hearing her calling to him from the moors, escalating his brutality not for the sake of brutality but so that her memory will never fade, so that she may never leave his mind until death itself.
Yes, this is madness, insanity, and there is no peace this side of the grave or even beyond.
It is a stunning novel, frightening, inexorable, unsettling, filled with unbridled passion that makes one cringe.
Even if you do not like it, you should read it at least once--and those who do like it will return to it again and again
英語名著讀后感【特洛伊傳說】【2】
I have never been to Troy, but David Maule made me feel as if I were standing on the high wall of Troy, watching the fierce war.
Thanks to this British author, who adapted the famous Homer’s poem into a lively story, I found it easier to understand this story.
Though the story happened over 3000 years ago in a remote place, I was deeply fascinated by it.
The mysterious plot is one of the reasons why I loved The Story of Troy so much, yet I am more interested in the human heroes of the war.
Hector was the eldest son of king of Troy, Priam.
He was not only a real hero of Trojan, but was regarded the highest moral hero in Greek classic by later historians.
The war started because of the mischief of his brother, Paris, whom he didn’t appreciate.
However, since Hector was the commander of the Trojan army, he was obliged to fight with all force.
It was really a tragedy that such a valiant man died in the duel with another great warrior, Achilles.
It is natural to see death in a war.
As a famous Chinese parable says, “A life can be as slight as a piece of feather, or as weighty as Mount Tai.” Sometimes, one’s glory walks hand in hand with one’s doom.
Achilles was such a typical person.
His personal charm made The Story of Troy more attractive.
He was so crucial because his every appearance in a war encouraged his fellow soldiers and terrified the enemies.
Actually, Achilles was half-god who was almost invincible in people’s mind.
That’s why his name was memorized long after his death.
Besides the two great men, the wisdom of Odysseus also proved him to be a great hero.
He didn’t want to attend the war because he was happily married and had a lovely son.
However, since his country was allied to Mycenae, he had to take the command given by the king of Mycenae.
I’m quite sure that the story of the wooden horse is widely known, however, few people know who thought of the brilliant idea, that’s why I admired Odysseus so much because he was the person who got the idea.
Thanks to the horse, the ten-year war came to an end at last.
If you want to know how the wooden horse worked, just read the book.
The ancient Greeks believed that the gods and goddesses also played important roles in the origin, process and ending of the whole story.
The story of the golden apple was such an example.
When Eris, the goddess of argument and disagreement, threw out the golden apple to a wedding ceremony on Mount Olympus, a dispute happened.
Hera, the queen of gods, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, were all involved in the argument for the apple.
None of them was willing to give way, so they turned to Paris for a final judgment.
Tempted by Aphrodite’s beauty and promise, Paris handed the apple to her.
To keep her word, Aphrodite helped him to get Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, as his wife.
That was the cause of the war.
Paris’s choice obviously annoyed the other two goddesses.
So during the war, they helped the Greek alliance army while some other gods, such as Apollo and Aphrodite, guarded Troy.
When Paris dueled with Helen’s former husband Menelaus, Aphrodite saved Paris when he was about to be finished off.
After the duel between those two people, there was a truce between the Greek alliance and Troy.
However, both Hera and Athena were not happy to see it.
Hera pursued her husband ZEUS:“ Now, will you send Athena to make the Troyjans break the peace?”(Page 22) Then with Zeus’s permission, Athena went down to start the war again and finally she brought the Greeks to success.
From the whole story, we can see that in ancient Greeks’ view, gods sometimes played a much more important role in their life.
However, with the rapid development of science, we have learned that the Greek gods never existed.
This is why a recent movie of Troy has not mentioned a single god.
Everything happened due to men’s ambition, love, loyalty or jealousy.
With those emotion and people’s effort, we human beings can accomplish wonders and be master of the world.
God are of less importance than they used to be.
Nonetheless, the gods and goddesses made The Story of Troy more mysterious and marvelous.
I have learnt from the book more than the wonderful story of history, love and war.
I believe that human can determine their destiny by their own.
I highly recommend this book to my friends with the same interest.