狄更斯《圣诞礼物》.pdf

A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
作者简介
狄更斯( ),小说
家,生于英国汉普郡的兰波特,为海军军需办公室一名职员的儿子。
年迁居伦敦,后又迁至查塔姆,在那里接受一定教育。先从一位
律师处得到一份低下的工作,后入新闻界,成为民法博士协会的一名
通讯员。岁时入伦敦报界工作。他在《月刊》杂志(
)上发表各种文章。后为《记事晚报》(
)供速写等文稿,年,他的《博兹速写集》(
)和《匹克威克外传》( )问世。同年与其
好友霍格思之女凯瑟琳结为伉俪。他们生有个子女,但于年分
居。狄更斯发奋工作,写出数部成功的小说。这些作品创造了又一个
莎士比亚式的人物,鞭笞了当时社会各种丑恶现象。他最早发表小说
是在一份月刊上连载的著名的《雾都孤儿》(
)、《尼古拉斯·尼克尔贝》(
),《老古玩店》()。之后,
他的大部分时间在国外度过。后期的小说包括《大卫·科波菲尔》
()、《荒凉山庄》(
)、《双城记》( )、《远
大前程》( ),以及未完成的《埃德
文·德鲁德之谜》( )。此外,
他还发表演说,朗诵撰写小册子、剧本和书信。他的小说为改编许多
成功的戏剧、广播和电视提供了素材基础。
A Christmas Carol 1
Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol
Preface
I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea,
which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each
other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and
no one wish to lay it.
Their faithful Friend and Servant, .
December, 1843.
Chapter 1 - Marley’s Ghost
Chapter 2 - The First of the Three Spirits
Chapter 3 - The Second of the Three Spirits
Chapter 4 - The Last of the Spirits
Chapter 5 - The End of it
2 A Christmas Carol
Next Chapter
Chapter 1 - Marley’s Ghost
Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The
register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the under-
taker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge’s name was
good upon ‘Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley
was as dead as a door-nail.
Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is
particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to
regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But
the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands
shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. You will therefore permit me
to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be othe