我终于把《双城记》读完了。
这个小说，当年在国内学英文的时候读过简写版，大概几十页，故事经过讲全了，但是文采的东西就简化了。现在读一个大概一百年前印刷的老版书，有三百多页。
DICKENS那年代，很多作家都是卖文为生，每星期写一段发表在报纸或杂志上。像福尔摩斯的作者也是一样的，每段得写出点彩来，不然人家下期不看了。
你比如这个小说的开始，这段文字就非同小可，其实拿到我们现在也不失色:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
诸位可以试着用英国口音读一遍。。
故事其实是个恩仇记。受法国贵族迫害的医生决心复仇，谁知命运使然他的女儿后来同自愿放弃身份地位的贵族的后代在英国结婚。法国革命了，受压迫的人民要杀尽贵族阶级及其后代，这个清白的贵族后代面临被砍头。一直深爱医生女儿的浪荡公子此时挺身而出愿意代他去死。。。
这两个城市，其实是两个虚拟化戏剧化标志的代表，一个是爱，一个是仇恨。爱引向和平与幸福，而恨导致血腥和毁灭。医生受到迫害被打进死牢，决心复仇写了个绝命书藏在牢房里。他从牢房里出来以后同仇人家的后代和解了，但是这个仇恨终于又返回来祸害他自己。革命的时候这个信被人翻出来作为证据，差点让他的女婿以及自己和女儿一家都被砍头。而那些以血腥复仇为终极目的的人，也纷纷在以革命的名义下毁灭于断头台。生活无目的浪荡公子，终于在为爱的人作出终极的牺牲时找到了人生的升华。。。
