文档介绍：Good Wives
by Louisa May Alcott
作者简介
阿尔科特路易莎( ),作
家,生于宾夕法尼亚州日尔曼敦。布朗森·阿尔科特之女。
年,她根据自己家庭生活的亲身经历写成《小女人》(
),获得巨大的成功,该书成为经典儿童读物。紧接着,
《好妻子》()于年面世。以后又相继出版了《墨
守陈规的姑娘》( )、《小男人》
( )和《乔的男孩们》(’)。
Good Wives 1
CHAPTER 1
Gossip
In order that we may start afresh and go to Meg’s wedding with free
minds, it will be well to begin with a little gossip about the Marches. And
here let me premise that if any of the elders think there is too much ‘lovering’
in the story, as I fear they may (I’m not afraid the young folks will make
that objection), I can only say with Mrs. March, “What can you expect
when I have four gay girls in the house, and a dashing young neighbor over
the way?”
The three years that have passed have brought but few changes to the
quiet family. The war is over, and Mr. March safely at home, busy with his
books and the small parish which found in him a minister by nature as by
grace, a quiet, studious man, rich in the wisdom that is better than learning,
the charity which calls all mankind ‘brother’, the piety that blossoms into
character, making it august and lovely.
These attributes, in spite of poverty and the strict integrity which shut
him out from the more worldly esses, attracted to him many admirable
persons, as naturally as sweet herbs draw bees, and as naturally he gave
them the honey into which fifty years of hard experience had distilled no
bitter drop. Earnest young men found the gray-headed scholar as young at
heart as they, thoughtful or troubled women instinctively brought their doubts
to him, sure of finding the gentlest sympathy, the wisest counsel. Sinners
told their sins to the pure-hearted old man and were both rebuked and saved.
Gifted men found panion in him. Ambitious men caught glimpses of
nobler ambitions than their own, and even worldlings confessed that his
beliefs were beautiful and true, although ‘they wouldn’t pay’.
To outsiders the five energetic women seemed to rule the house, and so
they di