Charlotte Bronte《好传记永远少不了八卦》

lyndall gordon将此书题献给她业已辞世的牛津同学--in memory of linda brandon (st. hilda's college 1978-81): who continued to share thoughts on charlotte bronte--虽是短小的一句，实在忍不住遐想联翩：两人是有多爱聊夏洛蒂阿！还continued to share。。经年八卦沉香气十足，更叫人神往呐。。

夏洛蒂同学这位不凡女性，笔下的故事有多热烈，背后之缘起亦有多汹涌--连毛姆叔叔亦大赞其性感。考察这等性感的人生，自不必担心无料可爆，然而well researched后要做到有声有色的呈现，其实又是另一种本领--就像夏洛蒂，空有情节设计成不了大作家，跟修辞学教授埃热先生玩暧昧玩神交的同时，练就出招牌式的典雅并野趣、血脉激昂又收放自如的表达风格，汩汩文思才有优良的倾泻--就此而言，lyndall虽不如夏洛蒂那样前无古人后无来者，还是非常成功地做到了引人入胜：

mr heger's letters to charlotte have vanished but 40 years later writing to another english pupil his engaging ways remained undimmed. in this late letter we hear his voice as he talks to a favoured pupil: his enlivened response to english reserve his bristle at the independence of a protestant. his belief in the silent communication of 'two distant hearts' and his wish to penetrate the emotional guard had the cover-and licence-of a firmly married man. m. heger was adept at verbal caresses:

i have only to think of you to see you. i often give myself the pleasure when my duties are over. when the light fades i postpone lighting the gas lamp in my library i sit down smoking my cigar and with a hearty will i evoke your image-and you come (without wishing to i dare say) but i see i talk with you-you with that little air affectionate undoubtedly but independent and resolute...demanding to be convinced before allowing yourself to submit...

this voice is like rochester's as he contemplates jane in his library and becomes aware of a resolute woman who does not deny feeling but who will not allow it to shake her reason.

the heger encounter central to charlotte's writing had to be surpressed in mrs gaskell's biography and began to emerge only after heger's death in 1896. when frederika macdonald (who had been at the pensionnat) spoke to his daughter louise in 1894 she commented to a correspondent how absurd that such an ordinary man should have been in a position of power over a child of genius. but heger was in fact exceptional. despite his lip service to women's domestic destiny-the refrain of his day-his wish to induce expressiveness in his pupils was special in the context of contemporary norms of feminine passivity.

真是一旦拿起就难放下的一本阿~