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Файл:Жизнь Роберта Льюиса Стивенсона. Учебное пособие – книга для чтения на английском языке
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R
OBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
. HIS L
IFE
Chapter XV
SARANAC
Summer fading, winter comes
Frosty morning, tingling thumbs,
Window robins, winter rooks,
And the picture story-books.
(Picture-books in Winter)
The Stevensons got off in August, 1887.
Mrs Thomas Stevenson, Mrs Robert Louis Stevenson,
Lloyd Osbourne, and the author of
and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
were an interesting and famous family who went aboard
the ship at London. The most famous member, RLS,
was only thirty-six, although his illness made him look
older. There was a lot of fun and talk as a crowd of
friends and admirers saw them off, but as soon as they
were at sea, out of sight of land, all was peaceful and
quiet.
The peace and quiet lasted all the way across the
Atlantic until they reached New York. There a crowd
of reporters rushed aboard to interview Robert Louis
Stevenson. His most popular books had already been
published in America. The reporters bombarded him
with questions about himself, about his family.
Friends rescued him at last and he and his family
went away to a country place.
Stevenson came back to New York City a few days
later: to talk to Scribners magazine about a series of
articles, to talk to McClures about publishing
Kidnapped
in America, to talk to the sculptor Augustus
Treasure Island
. They
1
1
Перевод см. на с. 153.
111
C. O. Peare
Saint-Gaudens, who wanted to make Stevensons
portrait in stone.
Many times he stayed in bed, and his New York
friends came to his hotel room to visit him at his
bedside. One and all,
1
they expected a man as sick as
Stevenson to be tragic and depressing. They spent their
time with him laughing instead.
While Robert Louis Stevenson was busy laughing
and speaking to editors and artists, Fanny was busy
consulting doctors about his health. She heard that
Saranac Lake had helped a great many people suffering
from tuberculosis. It was far up in New York State,
almost as far as the Canadian border. She and Louis
talked it over. Yes, that would probably be a good
place to spend the winter.
Fanny and Lloyd went to Saranac first, loved it,
rented a cottage, and sent for Louis and his mother.
RLS and Ìàrgaret Stevenson took the train as far as
Loon Lake, and there they changed to a horse-drawn
buggy to travel the last twenty-five miles.
The cottage, they found, belonged to a hunters guide.
It was made of wood and painted white with green
shutters on all the windows. A porch ran all around it.
The rooms inside were heated with fireplaces and stoves.
It was autumn, and the air was already sharp. But
no one realized how very cold it would become. Soon
the first snow began to fall.
The stoves and fireplaces were lighted each morning
early by a maid. As soon as Stevensons room was warm
enough he sat up in bed, had breakfast, and began to
write. After luncheon they all went out in the buggy
or sledge for the fresh air.
It grew colder and colder as the weeks passed. A
thermometer inside the cottage often said freezing
1
Оne and all Все без исключения
112
R
OBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
. HIS L
IFE
when the fires were going,1 and the one hung outside
the door went to forty below zero.
Louis wore Indian clothing when he went out for
the air a coat made of buffalo skins, a fur hat, Indian
boots.
Look! said Louis to Fanny one day, holding up
his ink bottle. It was frozen solid.
In spite of the cold, Saranac Lake helped Stevenson.
He soon felt like getting about,
2
going for walks, even
skating on the pond near the cottage or sledging on
Saranac Lake.
And he was writing well. His articles began to appear
in Scribners magazine. One was
A Chapter on Dreams
In it he told about the dreams he had had as a child
and how he made the people of his dreams into stories.
Another was
The Lantern Bearers
3
.
That was about
the fun he had had as a boy on the links of North
Berwick. He finished one book,
started another,
The Master of Ballantrae
The Black Arrow
4
.
, and
He had been out walking on the porch one evening
when he began to have his idea for Ballantrae. It was a
dark night with some stars in the sky. The air was still
and cold. He paced along taking deep breaths of the
dry, clean air. He could smell the forest. This was a
night to write a tale! This was a night when his brain
should work!
When he finally opened the door and stepped inside,
his eyes were sparkling with his story. He went to bed
to let his dreams do the rest.
Only one sorrowful event happened while Stevenson
was at Saranac. His friendship with William Ernest Henley
.
1
when the fires were going
2
felt like getting about
3
The Lantern Bearers
4
The Master of Ballantrae
лантрэ»
çä. захотелось выходить
«Фонарщики»
çä. когда огонь затухал
["bxlqn'treI]
113
«Владелец Бал-
C. O. Peare
ended. It ended in a terrible quarrel. One day Stevenson
was opening his mail from Scotland and England. There
was a letter from Henley marked Confidential.
Fanny had written a story called
The Nixie
1
,
and
Henley had read it in a magazine.
It resembles a story written by a cousin of yours,
Henleys letter reminded Stevenson.
Stevenson was furious to think that Henley would
accuse his wife of copying, and angry letters travelled
back and forth across the Atlantic.
I demand your apology! said Stevenson to Henley.
My cousin gave my wife that story and told her to
write her own version.
Henley was just as hot-tempered as Stevenson. He
refused to apologize. And that was the end of the
friendship between the two writers.
Stevenson didnt tell Fanny what the trouble was.
Instead, he talked about another idea.
Its something Ive thought about from time to
time ever since I was a boy, he told her.
She sat and listened to his dream of exploring the
islands of the South Pacific. He had dreamed about it
when he was young. Then, when he was in San
Francisco, he had read a book called
South Sea Idylls
That had started the old wish all over again, and this
time he hadnt forgotten.
Well, thought Fanny, why not? The warm climate
might agree with him.
2
His six months in Saranac had
improved his health so much that he could risk the trip.
Ill take you and your mother and Lloyd back to
New York, she said. Ill go on to San Francisco to
arrange the trip.
.
1
The Nixie
2
The warm climate might agree with him. зд. Теплый
климат, возможно, подойдет ему.
['nIksI] «Русалка»
114
R
OBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
. HIS L
IFE
Back in New York, thanks to Saranac, Stevenson
was able to get about if he was careful. Friends
sometimes saw him walking through Washington
Square Park. One day they saw him there seated on a
bench with the popular American author, Mark Twain.
Twain wrote for young people, too, such stories as
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Huckleberry Finn
, and The Prince and the Pauper
, The Adventures of
. Both
men were famous talkers and so they had a lovely time
talking, talking and talking.
Im going to the South Pacific, said Stevenson.
Ive been there, said Twain. Youll love it. Its
wonderful, simply wonderful.
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Fanny had found a
racing schooner she knew her romantic husband would
love. It was a yacht, ninety-eight feet long, seventy
tons, with two tall white sails, named the
Casco. She
sent Louis a telegram at once and told him she could
rent it. He wired her right back and told her that he
and Lloyd and his mother were starting out for the
West Coast.
On a sunny June day they were all aboard the
Casco
ready to set out for the South Seas. The captain and
crew were all at their stations. Their supplies were
stored in the hold. Their cabins were full of bouquets
and going-away gifts.
Good-bye! Good-bye! shouted everyone from the pier
as the Casco was towed out through the Golden Gate.
Good-bye! Good-bye! the Stevensons called, and
waved from the rail.
Assignments
I. Answer the following questions:
1. How old was Robert Louis Stevenson when he
went to America?
115
C. O. Peare
2. Who saw the Stevensons off?
3. How was Stevenson met in New York?
4. Where did the Stevensons decide to spend winter?
5. How did they get to Saranac?
6. What kind of cottage did they rent?
7. What was the weather like in winter?
8. What did Stevenson put on when he went out?
9. Did Saranac Lake help his health?
10. What articles began to appear in Scribners
magazine?
11. What books did he work at?
12. What sorrowful event happened while Stevenson
was at Saranac?
13. What was the reason of the quarrel with Henley?
14. What idea came to his head?
15. How did the Stevensons travel to the South
Pacific?
II. Make up a dialogue between Stevenson and the
reporters who rushed aboard the ship to interview
Robert Stevenson when he reached New York.
III. Construct 8 statements that are not true to
facts and ask your classmates to correct them, e.g.:
1. When the Stevensons went to America nobody
saw them off. Oh, no. You are mistaken. A
crowd of friends and admirers saw them off.
2. Many times Stevenson had to stay in bed when
he lived in New York, and his friends didnt
come to his hotel to visit him at his bedside.
Just the opposite. They did. They spent much
time at his bedside talking and laughing.
IV. Say how Stevenson was dressed in winter when
he went out for the air while he lived at Saranac.
116
R
OBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
. HIS L
IFE
V. Describe in detail the passage in which it is said
how the idea for his book
The Master of Ballantrae
came to his head.
VI. Read through the chapter again and see if you
can find a fact to prove that Stevenson was hot-tempered.
VII. Dramatize the talk between Robert Stevenson
and Fanny about his dream of exploring the islands of
the South Pacific.
Chapter XVI
TUSITALA
When the golden day is done,
Through the closing portal,
Child and garden, flower and sun,
Vanish all things mortal.
(Night and Day)
1
The Casco
spread her white sails and skimmed over
the water. RLS had never been so happy. He loved the
sea. He loved ships.
The group of islands called the Marquesas was the
first place to stop. The Marquesas were south from San
Francisco far below the equator.
The Casco
sailed along for almost a month without
seeing land. The ladies sat on deck and knitted. They
watched Louis pace past them, and nodded to each
1
Перевод см. на с. 153.
117
C. O. Peare
other. The sea air was doing him a world of good. He
was nearer health than he had been in years. When
the sea grew rough, the ladies disappeared into their
staterooms and sent word out that they wanted nothing
to eat. Fanny had to make most of the decisions,
though, whether she felt like it or not.
1
Once they rode through a storm that lasted nearly
a week. Rain poured down. Giant waves rose high above
the schooner and flooded her decks. The storm finally
passed, and they were all alive to tell about it. They
agreed they could probably survive anything after that
storm. But the Pacific Ocean was so calm and beautiful
in fine weather that they soon forgot the storm.
They saw land at last just as dawn was breaking.
Stevenson stood at the rail and wondered if he would
ever find the words to describe what he was watching.
On the distant horizon the black tops of volcanoes
showed first. Às the
Casco
drew closer and the dawn
grew brighter the islands began to show. By the time
the sun was in the sky there the Marquesas were. They
were full of hills and valleys. The tops of the hills
were black. The valleys were full of giant ferns, banyan
trees, and strange plants he had never seen before.
The Casco sailed into the bay. Before she could
furl her sails, canoes appeared on the water and stopped
near the yacht. They were full of brown-skinned
islanders smiling and hospitable. The climate was so
hot that the men were dressed in loincloths.
Many of the Marquesans followed their chieftain
and came aboard for a visit. After the visit everyone
went ashore.
The Stevensons stayed in the Marquesas for more
than a month. They explored the different islands. They
1
though, whether she felt like it of not
хотелось ли ей этого или нет
118
çä. несмотря на то,
R
OBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
. HIS L
IFE
could go where and when they wished. Why hurry?
Fanny Stevenson learned how to bake breadfruit and
make sauce from coconuts. Robert Louis walked about
and chatted with the chieftain.
In September Robert Louis grew restless, as his wife
and mother and stepson knew he would. The
Casco
put to sea once more, pointing her bow southward
toward the island of Tahiti.
Tahiti was a lot like the Marquesas. There were
volcanoes showing on the horizon. There were the same
thick green trees in the valleys, and there were the
beautiful tropical flowers. The Stevensons landed at
the city of Papeete.
In spite of the warm climate Stevenson managed to
catch cold, and scarcely had he landed in Papeete than
the cold grew worse and Stevenson fell ill. Back came
the fever, coughing, and even a hemorrhage. Fanny
and Lloyd managed to take him to the sheltered side
of the island where they found a cottage for rent. There
Stevenson lay so still, that both Mrs Stevensons were
frightened.
Is this the end of our journey? they were thinking.
But it wasnt. Princess Ìî
ë came to the cottage
with a dish of food in her hand. It was food for the
patient, she explained in excellent English.
Im afraid the sick man cannot eat, Fanny told
her politely.
He must eat, said the Princess, and the two ladies
sat down beside his bed.
The Princess held the dish while Fanny put a bit of
food into Louis mouth. The food was so tasty that he
ate another piece. The Princess smiled. She knew what
food it was. Stevenson was eating a special Tahitian
recipe: bits ot raw fish covered with sauce made from
the wild coconuts and some tropical herbs. After that
the Princess brought him all his meals. As soon as
119
C. O. Peare
Stevenson was strong enough to move, the Princess
persuaded him and his family to move into the house
of one of the island chiefs, Ori.
Chief Ori could speak French, and soon he and
Stevenson were great friends, and Stevenson was made
a member of Oris clan.
Ive never been so happy, he said.
The
Casco was being repaired, and Stevenson really
didnt care how long it took.
Fanny agreed. She and the Princess were as close
friends as Ori and Stevenson.
But, said Lloyd sadly, the
Casco
is only
rented. We must return her to her owner. Yes, they
must all leave Tahiti, and the day came too soon.
The
Casco waited for them. Ori, Princess Ìî
ë, and
crowds of Tahitians came down to the beach to see
them off.
The schooner turned northward this time, back
across the equator, to the Hawaiian Islands. After
another month they dropped anchor at Honolulu,
Hawaii. Mrs Stevensons married daughter was living
in Honolulu, and she was there to welcome them. Soon
the four travellers were settled in a cottage near
Honolulu at Waikiki Beach.
The
Casco had to go back to San Francisco. But
Robert Louis wanted to stay and begin writing here.
Stevenson really set to work. He stayed in Hawaii
for five months, and during that time be finished
The Master of Ballantrae
. Of course he had books full
of notes of the islands.
A book on the South Seas? Fanny asked. He
nodded, and she laughed. Every journey gave him
material for another book.
While he was exploring the Hawaiian Islands he
heard about Father Damien and the leper colony. Who
was Father Damien? Stevenson asked.
120
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