character Ahab, however, the whale represents only evil.这条船皮跨德成了人类社会和追求真理历程的缩影。白鲸则象征着自然，复杂，深不可测，也很美丽。但对埃哈布，白鲸则代表着邪恶。白鲸像一堵墙，隐藏着未知和神秘。
45. Melville?s great gifts of language, invention, psychological analysis, speculative agility, and narrative power are
fused to make Moby-Dick a world classic.麦尔维尔的语言才华，创造才华，心理分析能力，观察的敏捷及生动地描述都使该书成为世界名著。
Chapter 2 The Realistic Period现实主义时期
1. This new attitude was characterized by a great interest in the realities of life.由于对现实生活产生了浓厚的兴
趣，产生了新的创作灵感。
2. The three dominant figures of the period are William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, and Henry James.这一时期
的三个代表作家是豪威尔斯，亨利.詹姆斯和马克.吐温。
3. In short, they set the example and charted the future course for the subjects, themes, techniques and styles of
fiction we still call modern.总之，他们为后来的现实文学在题材，技巧和风格上都树立了典范。 4. Howells focused his discussion on the rising middle class and the way they lived, while Twain preferred to have
his own region and people at the forefront of his stories.豪威尔斯讨论上升的中产阶级及其生活方式，而马克.吐温则喜欢把他自己家乡的人放在故事的最前沿。
5. In a word, naturalism is evolved from realism when the author?s tone in writing becomes less serious and less
sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic.总之，自然主义产生现实主义，只是在创作上更富讽刺，更加悲观。自然主义只有另一种哲学途径的现实主义。 (I)
Mark Twain马克.吐温
6. Mark Twain is considered as “the true father of American national literature.”马克.吐温被认为是“我们真正的
民族文学之父”。
7. Two of the best books during this period are The adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn. The former is usually regarded as a classic book written for boys about their particular horrors and joys, while the latter, being a boy?s book specially written for the adults, is Twain?s most representative work, describing a journey down the Mississippi undertaken by two fugitives, Huck and Jim.这一期间他最伟大的作品是《汤姆.索亚历险记》和《哈克贝里.芬历险记》。前者是就儿童的恐惧和高兴的事儿写的一部儿童经典。而后者虽然是儿童故事，却为大人而写。这是马克.吐温最有代表性的小说，描写两个流浪儿童哈克和吉姆沿密西西比河而下历险的旅程。
8. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and, especially, its sequence Adventures of Huckleberry Finn proved
themselves to be the mile stone in American literature. 《汤姆.索亚历险记》，尤其是《哈克贝里.芬历险记》是美国文学的里程碑。
9. The childhood of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn in the Mississippi is a record of a vanished way of life in the
pre-Civil War Mississippi valley and it has moved millions of people of different ages and conditions all over the world; and the books are noted for their unpretentious, colloquial yet poetic style, their wide-ranging humor, and their universally shared dream of perfect innocence and freedom. 汤姆.索亚和哈克.芬在密西西比河上度过的童年是内战前该条河谷生活方式的实录，感动了数以万计的各种年龄的人。书中的率直，口语化而又不失诗意的语言风格，广泛的幽默，天真和自由的梦想都是令人难忘的。
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10. Hemingway once described the novel the one book from which “all modern American literature comes.” The
profound portrait of Huckleberry Finn is another great contribution of the book to the legacy of American literature. 《哈克贝里.芬历险记》----海明威曾把该书看作是”所有现代美国文学之源”.。哈克贝里的深刻形象是该书给美国文学做出的又一贡献。
11. The climax arises with Huck?s inner struggle on the Mississippi, when Huck is polarized by the two opposing
and the laws of the society against those who help slaves escapes哈克在密西西比河的内心争斗室小说的高潮。哈克在理想与现实，对吉姆的感情与社会反对奴隶逃跑的法律之间被抛到了巅峰。
12. Huck?s final decision--- to follow his own good-hearted moral impulse rather than conventional village morality.
哈克最后决定：遵循自己内心的良知，而非世俗的道德。
13. Twain is also known as a local colorist, who preferred to present social life through portraits of local characters
of his regions, including people living in that area, the landscape, and other peculiarities like the customs, dialects, costumes and so on.马克.吐温善于描绘地方风物，包括地方任务，风光，风俗，方言和服饰等等。 14. Another fact that made Twain unique is his magic power with language, his use of vernacular. His words are
colloquial, concrete and direct in effect, and his sentence structures are simple, even ungrammatical, which is typical of the spoken language.马克.吐温独特的另一个方面是他乡土气息的语言风格。他的用词口语化，具体可感，直率有力。句子结构简单，不合语法。
15. Mark Twain?s humor is remarkable.马克.吐温的幽默是突出的。
16. Twain?s works, containing some practical jokes, comic details, witty remarks, etc., and some of them are
actually tall tales.他的作品生动有趣，充盈着实用的笑话，喜剧情节，智慧的语言以及动听的故事。 17. His humor is a kind of artistic style used to criticize the social injustice and satirize the decayed romanticism.他
的幽默是对社会不公正和沦丧的浪漫主义的讽刺和批判。
18. Adventures of Huckleberry: “Huck”, a typical American can Boy whom its creator described as a boy with “a
sound heart and a deformed conscience”. Through the eyes of Huck, the innocent and reluctant rebel, we see the pre-Civil War American society fully exposed and at the same time we are deeply impressed by Mark Twain?s thematic contrasts between innocence and experience, nature and culture, wilderness and civilization. 《哈克贝里.芬历险记》---该小说最精彩的形象是哈克，他是被作者称为一个“有正常心理和畸形良知”的美国男孩。通过天真又叛逆的哈克的眼睛，我们看到内战的美国社会的真正面目，同时，通过马克.吐温对比性的描写，我们还看到了率真与世故，自然与文化，野蛮与文明的对立。
（II） Henry James亨利.詹姆斯
19. While Mark Twain and William Dean Howells satirized European manners at times, Henry James was an
admirer of ancient European civilization.马克.吐温和豪威尔斯不时的讽刺欧洲传统，而詹姆斯却羡慕欧洲文明。
20. In the first period of his, James took great interest in international themes. James treated with great care the
clashes between two different cultures and the emotional and moral problems of Americans in Europe, or Europeans in America. The works include “The American”, “Daisy miller”, “The Europeans”, “The Portrait of Lady”.在詹姆斯的早期作品中，他对国际主题很感兴趣。这一时期几乎他的每一部小说都有关欧美在文化，情感和道德方面的冲突，每篇作品都处理了重要的问题。著作有《美国人》，《黛西.米勒》，《欧洲人》，《贵妇人的画像》。
21. In his middle period, the works contain “The Bostonians”, “The Princess Casamassima”, and so on.中期创作包
括《波士顿人》，《卡撒玛西玛公主》等等。
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22. In his last and major period, James returned to his “international theme”.后期他又回到了“国际主题”。 23. These novels are always set against a larger international background, usually between Europe and America,
and centered on the confrontation of the two different cultures with two different groups of people representing two different value systems.（国际主题的小说）这些小说以国际，主要是欧美为大背景，集中表现两种人群的两种价值观在两种文化制度中的冲突。
24. The theme of his essay “The Art of Fiction” clearly indicates that the aim of the novel is to present life.《小说的
艺术》一文明确指出，小说的目的是现实生活。
25. The artist should be able to “feel” the life, to understand human nature, and then to record them in his own art
form.艺术家应能够“感受”生活，理解人性，然后忠实地将这些录入作品。
26. James?s realism is characterized by his psychological approach to his subject matter.詹姆斯的现实主义还具有
分析方法的倾向。
27. One of James?s literary techniques innovated to cater for this psychological emphasis is his narrative “point of
view”.詹姆斯文学创作技巧的一个方面就是强调这种心理分析，以叙述着的视角为线索。
28. As to his language, James is not so easy to understand. He is often highly refined and insightful.詹姆斯的文学
语言不易读懂。
29. “Daisy Miller”: Miller has ever since become the American Girl in Europe, a celebrated cultural type who
embodies the spirit of the New World.《黛西.米勒》---黛西.米勒从此成为在欧洲的美国姑娘的形象，是美国精神的代表。
(III). Emily Dickinson艾米莉.狄金森
30. Dickinson?s poems are usually based on her own experience, her sorrows and joys.狄金森的诗都是根据自己
的经历和悲欢而创作的。
31. Within her little lyrics Dickinson addresses those issues that concern the whole human beings, which include
religion, death, immortality, love, and nature. In some of her poems she wrote about her double and belief about religious subjects. 在她的短篇抒情诗里所涉及到的问题却是有关人类的，包括宗教，死亡，不朽，爱情和自然。她的一些诗还怀疑宗教信仰。
32. Although she believed in God, she sometimes doubted His benevolence. Closely related to Dickinson?s
religious poetry are her poems concerning death and immortality, ranging over the physical as well as the psychological and emotional aspects of death.虽然她相信上帝但有时却怀疑它的善。狄金森与宗教有关的诗是关于死亡和不朽，包括身体，心理和情感三个方面。
33. One group of her love poems are clearly the reflection of her own unhappy experience.她的一组爱情诗明确地
反映了她自己不幸的经历。
34. More than five hundred poems Dickinson wrote are about nature, in which her general skepticism about the
relationship between man and nature is well-expressed.狄金森有500多首诗是关于自然的，诗中表达了作者对人与自然关系得怀疑。
35. her acute observations, her concern for precise details and her interest in nature are pervasive.她对自然的观察
敏锐，描写细致，兴趣丰饶。
36. Her poems have no titles, hence are always quoted by their first lines. In her poetry there is a particular stress
pattern. eg. Capital letters as a means of emphasis. The form of her poetry is more or less like that of the hymns in community churches, familiar, communal, and sometimes, irregular.她的诗大多无题，常以首句引用，诗中节奏特别，例如用大写表示强调。她的诗形式上多少有点像教堂的圣歌，不讲规则，为人喜闻乐见。
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37. Her poetic idiom is noted for its laconic brevity, directness and plainness. 她用词简洁，直率，平易。 38. Dickinson?s poetry, despite its ostensible formal simplicity, is remarkable for its variety, subtlety and richness.
狄金森的诗虽然表面浅显，但内容多样化，微妙而又深刻。
(IV)
Theodore Dreiser西奥多.德莱塞
39. In 1911, Jennie Gerhardt came out, followed by two volumes of his “Trilogy of Desire”, The Financier and The
Titan, the third, The Stoic, being published posthumously in 1947.1911年，Jennie Gerhardt出版，随后他的《欲望》三部曲头两部《金融家》，《巨头》相继出版，第三部《斯多葛》是死后出版。
40. In his words, man is a “victim of forces over which he has no control”.用他的话来说，人类是“各种力量交织
在一起得受害者，这些力量人类是无法控制的”。
41. From the first novel Sister Carrie on, Dreiser set himself to project the American values for what he had found
them to be ---materialistic to the core.在第一部小说《嘉莉妹妹》出版过后，德莱塞一直把美国的价值观推向彻底的物质享受主义。
42. For lack of concision, his writings appear more inclusive and less selective, and the readers are sometimes
burdened with massive detailed descriptions of characters and events.由于不够简洁，他的作品包容有余，选择不足。读者深受他冗繁的描写之累。
43. His style is not polished but very serious and well calculated to achieve the thematic ends he sough.他的写作风
格虽显粗糙，但内容严肃，与表现主题十分相符。
Chapter 3 The Modern Period现代时期
1. The idea of “seize the day” or “enjoy the present ” was pervasive, as opposed to placing all hope in the future.“及时行
乐”的思想十分横行，他们不把希望寄托在将来。
2. The most recognizable literary movement that gave rise to the twentieth century American literature, or we may say, the
second American Renaissance, is the expatriate movement.美国20世纪的文学运动，也可说是美国第二次文艺复兴，就是移居国外的运动。
3. These writers were later named by an American writer, Gertrude Stein, also an expatriate, “The Lost Generation”.
(why)---Disillusioned and disgusted by the frivolous greedy, and heedless way of life in America, they began to write and they wrote from their own experiences in the war.这些作家后来被美国作家斯坦恩称为“迷惘的一代”（原因）--由于他们已厌倦美国那种轻浮，贪婪的生活，于是开始动手写下他们的战争经历。
4. Ezra Pound?s role as a leading spokesman of famous Imagist Movement in the history of American literature.庞德在美国
文学史上意象派运动中是个重要的人物。
5. F.Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner are considered to be the masters in the field of American
fiction.费兹杰拉德，海明威和福克纳被认为是美国小说大师。
6. O?Neill is remembered for his tragic view of life and most of his plays are about the root, the truth of human desires and
human frustrations.奥尼尔以对生活的悲剧性观点而著称。他的大多数剧本都是有关人类欲望和挫折根本原因的。 7. J.D.Salinger?s The Catcher in the Rye is regarded as a students? classic.塞林杰的《麦田里的守望者》被认为是学生的经
典作品。
8. In general terms, much serious literature written from 1912 onwards attempted to convey a vision of social breakdown
and moral decay and the writer?s task was to develop techniques that could represent a break with the past. Thus, the defining formal characteristics of the modernistic works are discontinuity and fragmentation.总之，1912年以后许多严肃
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文学都力图表达社会崩溃，道德沦丧的观点，作家也使用新技巧，告别老传统。
9. A typical modern work will seem to begin arbitrarily, to advance without explanation, and to end without resolution.现代
文学的典型特征是开端任意，发展不做解释以及没有结果的收场。
10. There are shifts in perspective, voice, and tone, but the biggest shift is from the external to internal, from the public to the
private, from the chronological to the psychic, from the objective description to the subjective projection.作品在现实，语气上较前有变化，其中最大的变化是从描写外部世界转到内部世界，从公众生活转到私生活描写，从时间线索转到以心理感觉为线索，从客观描述转到主观渲染。
11. Traditional fiction featured an authoritative narrator in telling a story, while modern fiction tended to employ the first
person narration or limit the reader to the “central consciousness” or one character?s point of view.传统小说强调叙述的人物的权威性和可信性，而现代小说叙述的总是用第一人称，或者把读者限制到“中心的意识”上或以一个人物的视线进行叙述。 (I) Ezra Pound埃兹拉.庞德
12. Before graduating from university, he had mastered nine language.大学毕业前已掌握了九门语言。
13. Pound?s poetic works include twelve volumes of verse which were later collected and published in Collected Early Poems
of Ezra Pound, and Personae.庞德的诗作包括十二卷诗集，后以《埃兹拉.庞德早期诗集》，《人物》的书名出版。 14. Pound?s earlier poetry is saturated with the familiar poetic subjects that characterize the 19th century Romanticism: songs
in praise of a lady, songs concerning the poet?s craft, love and friendship, death, the transience of beauty and the permanence of art. 庞德的早期诗歌充满表现19世纪浪漫主义特色的为人熟知的诗题：歌颂女性，有关诗人自己的诗，爱情与友谊，死亡，美丽的易逝和艺术的常青。
15. Later he is more concerned about the problems of the modern culture: the contemporary cultural decay and the possible
sources of cultural renewal as well. Take his epic poem, The Cantos, for example. Pound traces the rise and fall of eastern and western empires, the moral and social chaos of the modern world, especially the corruption of America after the heroic time of Jefferson.后来，他更关注现代文化问题：当代文化的堕落以及文化更新的可能途径。以《诗章》为例，庞德追溯东西方帝国的兴亡，现代世界道德和社会的混乱，尤其是美国自杰斐逊后的腐败。
16. Pound?s artistic talents are on full display in the history of the Imagist Movement, which flourished from 1909 to 1917.庞
德的艺术才华在意象主义运动中得到了充分发挥，这场运动从1909年到1917年发展得如火如荼。
17. This is a movement that advanced modernism in arts which concentrated on reforming the medium of poetry as opposed
to Romanticism, especially Tennyson?s wordiness and high-flown language in poetry.这一运动推动了现代派艺术的发展。在诗歌中，反对精工细琢夸夸其谈的语言，主张改革诗歌的媒体。
18. Pound endorsed the group?s three main principles, which include direct treatment of poetic subjects, elimination of merely
ornamental or superfluous words, and rhythmical composition in the sequence of the musical phrase rather than in the sequence of a metronome.庞德提出诗歌改革的三个原则：一。直接处理诗歌主题；二。舍去装饰浮华的词藻；三/诗歌应有有机节奏，不要单词重复。
19. “The point of Imagism” , Pound wrote in 1914, “is that it does not use images as ornaments. The image itself is the speech.
The image is the word beyond formulated language”.庞德曾于1914年写道：“意象主义的实质是意象不是装饰，意象本身就是语言。意象是超语言形式的词汇”。
20. The poet, he argued, cannot relate a delightful psychic experience by speaking out directly in the first person: he must
“screen himself” and speak indirectly through an impersonal and objective story, which is usually a myth or a piece of the earlier literature, or a “mask”, that is, a persona.他认为，诗人不能直接用第一人称叙述心理感受，必须“把自己笼罩起来”，通过客观的非人格化的故事间接说话，那就是神话或文学典故。
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