《雾都孤儿》的英文简介

《雾都孤儿》的英文简介
《雾都孤儿》的英文简介

《雾都孤儿》的英文简介
Jean Valjean was an honest man who,through force of desperate circumstance committed the relatively minor crime of stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family,and paid a price out of all proportion with the severity of his crime.
Captured and sentenced to a term of five years’ imprisonment,Valjean spends nineteen years doing hard labour as a result of four failed escape attempts.He emerges from prison on parole,a hardened and bitter man,having encountered little kindness in the course of these nineteen years,and having adapted to the company he was forced to keep.
Because of his criminal record he encounters problems in finding employment,lodgings,and indeed any place in society.Exhausted and demoralised,he finds comfort and accommodation at the home of the Bishop of Digne who shows Valjean kindness and compassion.However,during the night Valjean surrenders to his experience and degradation of the previous nineteen years which,combined with a sense of hopelessness and worthlessness he has felt since his release,lead him to behave as he has been condemned to do – he steals the Bishop’s silverware.
He is captured and returned to the Bishop who,contrary to Valjean’s expectations,not only tells the police that he gave Valjean the silverware,but insists that Valjean should take two silver candlesticks as well.
This is the first act of kindness and generosity Valjean has encountered in all those nineteen years.Accustomed to having to fight for his very survival,this act of compassion and understanding (whose existence he has long since abandoned and then forgotten) causes him confusion and bewilderment.
While still dazed by his meeting with the Bishop,Valjean reacts once again in an animal-like fashion,doing what he feels he has to do in order to survive,when he steals a coin from a passing young chimney sweep.
This act,contrasting violently with the kindness he has just been shown,brings home to him just what he has become and how far he has fallen.
With a clarity missing for some nineteen years,he sees he has a choice to make – continue upon the path of petty crime and self destruction upon which he is set,or start afresh and follow the example set by the Bishop.He can view people as a means to an end,as potential victims in his quest for survival,or he can live by compassion and understanding,offering help to others,just as he received help from the Bishop.
He determines to start a new life,adopting a new identity and a new mentality in the process.
While Valjean is clearly the principal character and our tale is largely concerned with his efforts to lead a worthwhile life,his destiny is inextricably linked with a whole gamut of characters whose lives become intertwined.This is equally the story of,among many others,Javert (the policeman who pursues Valjean in order to protect society from someone he regards as a dangerous criminal),Fantine (the tragic factory girl who sacrifices herself for the upkeep of her daughter),Cosette (the daughter of Fantine used and abused by the innkeepers into whose care her mother entrusted her),the Thénardiers (the self-centred innkeepers and petty criminals),Eponine (the daughter of the Thénardiers and victim of unrequited love),Marius (an idealistic student who falls in love with the adult Cosette),and the revolutionary students (who seek to incite rebellion against a heartless and uncaring government).

To Regain the Nature of Goodness
-- Review of ‘Oliver Twist’
Oliver Twist, one of the most famous works of Charles Dickens’, is a novel reflecting the tragic fact of the life in Britain in 1...

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To Regain the Nature of Goodness
-- Review of ‘Oliver Twist’
Oliver Twist, one of the most famous works of Charles Dickens’, is a novel reflecting the tragic fact of the life in Britain in 18th century.
The author who himself was born in a poor family wrote this novel in his twenties with a view to reveal the ugly masks of those cruel criminals and to expose the horror and violence hidden underneath the narrow and dirty streets in London.
The hero of this novel was Oliver Twist, an orphan, who was thrown into a world full of poverty and crime. He suffered enormous pain, such as hunger, thirst, beating and abuse. While reading the tragic experiences of the little Oliver, I was shocked by his sufferings. I felt for the poor boy, but at the same time I detested the evil Fagin and the brutal Bill. To my relief, as was written in all the best stories, the goodness eventually conquered devil and Oliver lived a happy life in the end. One of the plots that attracted me most is that after the theft, little Oliver was allowed to recover in the kind care of Mrs. Maylie and Rose and began a new life. He went for walks with them, or Rose read to him, and he worked hard at his lessons. He felt as if he had left behind forever the world of crime and hardship and poverty.
How can such a little boy who had already suffered oppressive affliction remain pure in body and mind? The reason is the nature of goodness. I think it is the most important information implied in the novel by Dickens-he believed that goodness could conquer every difficulty. Although I don’t think goodness is omnipotent, yet I do believe that those who are kind-hearted live more happily than those who are evil-minded.
For me, the nature of goodness is one of the most necessary character for a person. Goodness is to humans what water is to fish. He who is without goodness is an utterly worthless person. On the contrary, as the famous saying goes, ‘The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose’, he who is with goodness undoubtedly is a happy and useful person. People receiving his help are grateful to him and he also gets gratified from what he has done, and thus he can do good to both the people he has helped and himself.
To my disappointment, nowadays some people seem to doubt the existence of the goodness in humanity. They look down on people’s honesty and kindness, thinking it foolish of people to be warm-hearted. As a result, they show no sympathy to those who are in trouble and seldom offer to help others. On the other hand, they attach importance to money and benefit. In their opinion, money is the only real object while emotions and morality are nihility. If they cannot get profit from showing their ‘kindness’, they draw back when others are faced with trouble and even hit a man when he is down. They are one of the sorts that I really detest.
Francis Bacon said in his essay, ‘Goodness, of all virtues and dignities of the mind, is the greatest, being the character of the Deity, and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing, no better than a kind of vermin.’
That is to say a person without goodness is destined to lose everything. Therefore, I, a kind person, want to tell those ‘vermin-to-be’ to learn from the kind Oliver and regain the nature of goodness.

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