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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
Stevenson was returning to his most favourite place,
Mentone in France on the Mediterranean Sea.
Assignments
I. Answer the following questions:
1. What booklet did Louis write?
2. What society was Robert Louis a member of?
3. What did he decide to tell his father about?
4. What joke did Robert Louis and his cousin enjoy
most?
5. Why did Robert Louis feel miserable?
6. What did the doctor order him to do?
II. Analyse Louis feelings when he saw his booklet
called The Charity Bazaar
III. Reproduce in detail the passage where it is
said about the
Speculative Society
IV. Compose a dialogue between Louis and
Mr Stevenson in which Louis told him that he did not
want to be an engineer.
in print.
.
V. Discuss the character of Cousin Bob. Speak about
his way of living, his features.
VI. Comment on the following sentences:
1. When Thomas Stevensons hopes were highest,
Robert Louis Stevensons were the lowest.
2. Mr Libbel! was the joke Louis and Cousin Bob
enjoyed most.
3. Hes a madcap, one of Stevensons professors
once said of him.
51
C. O. Peare
Chapter VII
O
RDERED SOUTH
Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven without repose:
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.
Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip, his golden fingers through.
(Summer Sun)
The journey from Edinburgh to London to Dover
to France, and all through France down to Mentone,
was tiring, especially for anyone as worn out as Robert
Louis Stevenson. He thought he would collapse before
he finally reached his room at the H
He looked out of his window at the Mediterranean
Sea. The water was still glistening in the warm sun.
He began to relax. This winter there would be no snow
and cold, no worries, no law.
Ill rest a while, be thought, then I will write.
After just a few weeks at Mentone he received the
most important news of his life. He had made his first
real sale to a commercial magazine! He had written an
essay just the summer before called
Portfolio Magazine
bought it. He knew who had helped
him a new friend, someone he had met shortly before
coming to Mentone Sidney Colvin. Colvin was the
same age as Stevenson, and he was interested in the
ötel du Pavillon.
On Roads,
2
and
1
1
Перевод см. на с. 151.
2
În Roads
«О дорогах»
52
C. O. Peare
same things art and literature. He himself wrote
articles for magazines, and he had shown Stevensons
essay to an editor friend.
When Stevenson saw the December issue of
Portfolio
with his article in it, he shouted for joy.
Im started on my career at last!
He began to write another essay immediately. The
new one was to be called
Ordered South
1
.
Stevenson worked. He gained strength. He felt
happier. To make life even better, Sidney Colvin came
to Mentone in December. The two young men spent
three months together talking and walking about.
Stevenson now could speak excellent French, and that
made it easier for both of them.
One happiness came after another. Colvin read
Ordered South, and he said, I am going to send
this to Macmillans Magazine
for you.
And the magazine bought it.
With so much good fortune, Stevenson could have
stayed in a lucky place like Mentone forever. But holidays
never last forever. In April he had to start home.
When RLS finally walked into the house in Heriot
Row in Edinburgh, his mother and Cummy and even
his father burst into smiles. He looked so much better
with his suntan!
Why, Smout! declared Cummy. I think youve
gained a little bit of weight.
Aye! said his father gladly.
Although Smout still had to finish his law studies,
his father was pleased to hear of the two articles he
had sold.
Instead of a pound a month pocket money, said
his father, Ive decided to give you a yearly allowance
of eighty-four pounds.
1
Ordered South
«Сослан на юг»
54
R
OBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
. HIS L
IFE
That meant seven pounds a month, much better
than his school-boys allowance. But Stevenson usually
spent money as soon as he had it, or gave it to someone
who needed it. His father soon shook his head. His
son didnt seem to be any better off than when he had
had a pound a month.
What of it? That was Louis thought. He had his
writing. He worked in his top-floor room in the spring,
and in the Swanston Cottage in the summer. He finished
an article on Victor Hugo,
1
the French author.
Cornhill
magazine bought it.
Stevenson was only twenty-three, and he was
already on his way to a literary career. Colvin proposed
him for membership in the Savile Club in London.
There Stevenson could meet other authors.
Assignments
I. Answer the following questions:
1. Was the journey from Edinburgh to London,
Dover to France, and all through France down
to Mentone tiring for Robert Louis?
2. What news did he receive after just a few weeks
at Mentone?
3. Who helped him to sell his essay to
Magazine
?
4. What was his second essay?
5. How old was Stevenson when he was already on
his way to a literary career?
6. Who proposed him for membership in the Savile
Club in London?
Portfolio
II. Characterize Louis new friend Sidney Colvin.
1
Victor Hugo
цузский писатель XIX века, 18021885)
['hju:gqV]
Виктор Гюго
55
(знаменитый фран-
C. O. Peare
III. Explain the sentence Im started on my career
at last!
IV. What is the mood prevalent in the chapter? Is it
happiness, nervousness, excitement, grief, cheerfulness?
Prove your statement.
Chapter VIII
WIG AND
The lamps now glitter down the street;
Faintly sound the falling feet;
And the blue even slowly falls
About the garden trees and walls.
Now in the falling of the gloom
The red fire paints the empty room;
And warmly on the roof it looks,
And flickers on the backs of books.
G
OWN
(Armies in the Fire)
Stevensons good luck and good spirits went on all
summer, and so did his good health.
My health is a miracle, he told someone. I walk
in rain and row and overeat myself. I eat, I drink, I
bathe in the sea, I sleep.
He was rowing and bathing on the west coast of
Scotland with Walter Simpson when he wrote that.
He and Walter Simpson liked going on trips together,
ever since their trip to Belgium and Germany. On the
Scottish coast they did a lot of canoeing and sailboating
and yachting among the Hebrides Islands.
56
R
OBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
. HIS L
IFE
Lets take another boating trip together some day,
they agreed when their holiday was ended.
Soon the weather turned so cold that Swanston
Cottage had to be closed, and the Stevensons returned
to Edinburgh.
Òró to work hard this winter, said Mr Stevenson.
Remember, its your last year îf law. If you pass your
exams next summer youll be a lawyer.
And Stevenson really did work at his law that
winter. He showed that he did have a serious side. His
disposition changed in many ways as he grew from boy
to man. As a small boy he had been selfish, because his
family spoiled him so much. But as he became older he
learned to think of others.
He had been a sensitive child, and so he loved
children. Because he was sick so often, he grew to
have a deep sympathy for sick persons.
One day in February an acquaintance said to him,
Im going to visit a sick friend of mine in the hospital.
Why dont you come with me? I think you could cheer
him up. Hes a writer, too.
Stevenson had a head cold and was feeling bad
himself. He could imagine how the man in the hospital
must feel. He went.
That was the beginning of a friendship between
two important writers: Robert Louis Stevenson and
William Ernest Henley.
Stevenson walked into the shadowy hospital room
and saw Henley sitting up in bed. Two children were
playing dominoes with him. Stevenson remembered the
long hours he had spent in bed with nothing but his
land of counterpane. Henley had tuberculosis of the
bone. He had already lost one foot and one hand was
lame. He had come to the Edinburgh hospital because
the famous Dr Joseph Lister was there. Dr Lister was
working hard to save Henleys other foot.
57
R
OBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
. HIS L
IFE
Henley and Stevenson talked and chattered. They
were both young, almost the same age. They both loved
books. They both liked to study languages. They both
wrote poetry. Stevenson was excited when he left the
hospital.
He cant stay there all the time! said Stevenson.
That room is too gloomy.
He visited Henley often from then on. As soon as
the weather was warm enough he arrived in a carriage
and took Henley for drives in the fresh air.
I had a business to carry him down the long stair,
and more of a business to get him up again, but while
he was in the carriage it was splendid. It is now just
the top of spring with us. The whole country is mad
with green. To see the ñherró-blossom and the blue sky
was a sight. You may imagine what it was to a man
who has been eighteen months in a hospital ward. The
look of his face was wine to me.
1
Cherry-blossom time and blue skies soon took the
Stevensons back to Swanston. Stevenson had not quite
finished his law. His classes were done, but he had to
pass his final examination. For that the family carriage
drove him into Edinburgh in the morning and dropped
him in front of the Parliament House.
Well be back for you, Smout!
In he went to pass the exam. Nobody knew better
than Stevenson how much he had studied. And the
exam was oral! Soon he was standing before one of
the professors waiting for the questions. It was one of
the luckiest days in Robert Louis Stevensons life. He
was asked three questions, and he knew the answers
to all three. Through the corridors, out of the door,
and down the street he flew. Where was the carriage?
1
The look of his face was wine to me.
лица очень обрадовало меня.
59
çä. Выражение его
C. O. Peare
Where was everybody? He had passed! He was a
lawyer!
He saw the carriage and was into it with one jump.
His family didnt have to ask whether he had passed.
They could tell it easily enough. He took the seat
between his parents. But that wouldnt do. As the top
of the carriage was folded back, he jumped up and sat
on top with his feet on the seat.
Gallop the horses! he ordered. I want speed.
Not in these crowded streets, declared his father.
Mr Stevenson was too happy himself to be very strict.
Robert Louis held his hat in his hand and waved it
to everyone they passed.
I passed! he called out to them, whether he knew
them or not. I passed my exam!
And he behaved in that crazy manner all the way
back to Swanston Cottage.
At last he could wear a white wig and black gown
and parade up and down the halls of Parliament House
with the other advocates.
As soon as the Stevensons returned to Heriot Row
for the winter, they had a brass plate put up on the
outside of the door for the new lawyer. But very few
Scotsmen ever came to the Madcap Stevenson with
their legal problems. His career as a lawyer lasted less
than a year.
Assignments
I. Answer the following questions:
1. How did Robert Louis spend time with Walter
Simpson on the west coast of Scotland?
2. How did he get acquainted with William Ernest
Henley?
3. What was one of the luckiest days in Robert
Louis Stevensons life?
60
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