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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 looked down into a deep cliff with a river
at the bottom. He walked out onto the back platform.
The sky is coloured with the fires of dawn! he
wrote happily.
These mountains were covered with fresh pine forest.
He was in California at last! Somewhere here he would
find Fanny Osbourne.
That same day the train stopped at the city of
Sacramento, the city of gardens in a plain of corn. The
next sunrise that Robert Louis Stevenson saw was over
San Francisco Bay. He took his luggage and rushed with
the crowd to the ferry that would carry them to San
Francisco.
Now all I have to do is find Monterey, he said.
He was so excited that he felt as though he had much
more strength than he really did. To add to his excitement,
there was a letter from Mrs Osbourne waiting for him at
the post-office. She was feeling better.
The little money that Stevenson had had when he left
Scotland was just about gone. So was his health, although
he didnt quite realize it. Monterey was more than eighty
miles to the south. Such a journey would cost money, and
he could not earn money soon enough by writing a story
and hoping to sell it in faraway England or Scotland.
Ill start out, he decided, and try to find odd
jobs along the way.
He lived as cheaply as possible, even begging farmers
to let him sleep in their haylofts. His strength was
gone, and there was almost no flesh left on his bones.
He was so determined to reach Monterey that he even
tried to work as a cowboy.
Íå did not ride a horse very well. He was not familiar
with California country. He had never looked after cattle.
He lost his way. He rode along until he was so exhausted
that he just fell out of the saddle and lay on the ground.
He couldnt move. He lay there for three days almost
81
R
OBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
. HIS L
IFE
unconscious. A rancher who owned an Angora goat farm
finally carried Stevenson home with him. He was so sick
that he almost died. The goat farmer and his friend, a
bear hunter, kept him in bed and took care of him. These
new friends were real frontiersmen. The bear hunter was
seventy-two years old, and he had been a captain in the
Mexican War. Sometimes an Indian neighbour dropped
in to see how the patient was coming along.
As soon as they allowed him to sit up in bed,
Stevenson began to work on his next travel story.
The Amateur Emigrant
1
.
He wrote a letter to Sidney
Colvin, too, telling him the story of his latest adventure.
Stevenson was at last well enough to finish his
journey. He said good-bye to his two good friends and
set out, feeling weak and not quite well.
His first sight of the town of Monterey inspired
him to write to Colvin again:
Monterey is a place where there is no summer or
winter, and pines and sand and distant hills and a bay
all filled with real water from the Pacific.
When he came to the street where Fanny lived, he
saw only a high wall. But when he stepped through the
gate, he found himself in a garden full of bright flowers:
yellow roses, pink roses, strange red blossoms. In the
garden stood a small white house with a red-tile roof.
Fanny was well enough to be up and greet him.
She was living with her sister. There was Isabel,
old enough to talk about marriage. There was Lloyd,
eleven, and much taller.
My landladys name is Se
ñorita Bonifacior! Fanny
told him gaily.
Come! said Fannys sister, when they had finished
their dinner. Lets sit in the garden.
1
Òhå Amateur Emigrant
любитель»
['xmqtE: 'emIgrqnt]
83
«Эмигрант-
C. O. Peare
They all went out-of-doors and sat among the gay,
bright flowers. Stevenson could hear the surf on the
beach just a short walk away. He could smell the pine
forest that wasnt far away either.
Fanny had such a beautiful place to recover in. He
was going to recover his own health in Monterey.
Anyone could recover here!
Assignments
I. Answer the following questions:
1. Why was Stevensons journey to America hard?
2. What travellers did he make friends with?
3. How did Robert Louis feel during the journey?
4. What happened to him when he was in California?
5. Who found him lying on the ground?
6. Who took care of him?
7. Where did he go when he was well enough to
finish his journey?
8. How did he like the place Fanny lived in?
II. Analyse Stevensons feelings and the state of
health when he was travelling in the train across America.
III. Explain why Stevenson couldnt at once leave San
Francisco for Monterey where Mrs Osbourne lived.
IV. Speak about the reason of his illness in California
and the people who saved his life.
V. Recall the situations in which you came across
the following expressions:
to feel stiff and sore, to be
dog-tired, to fall dead asleep, to make friends with, to
lose ones temper, to be jolly, to go into partnership,
to be familiar with, to be exhausted.
84
R
OBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
. HIS L
IFE
VI. Speak on the features of the main character,
exposed in the following quotations:
1. Ill start out, he decided, and try to find odd
jobs along the way.
2. Stevenson lived as cheaply as possible, even
begging farmers to let him sleep in their
haylofts.
3. He was so determined to reach Monterey that he
even tried to work as a cowboy.
Chapter XII
H
OME
TO
S
COTLAND
When I was sick and lay a-bed,
I had two pillows at my head,
And all my toys beside me lay
To keep me happy all the day.
I was the giant great and still
That sits upon-the pillow-hill,
And sees before him, dale and plain,
The pleasant land of counterpane.
(The Land of Counterpane)
Stevenson found himself a room at a little inn in
Monterey. The inn was run by a Frenchman named
Jules Simoneau. The two men could speak by the hour
in French, and Stevenson and the innkeeper were like
old, old friends at once.
1
Перевод см. на с. 153.
85
1
C. O. Peare
You are an almost dead man! said Jules Simoneau
to the weak and thin Stevenson. He became Stevensons
nurse and made him eat properly and spend some time
in bed every day.
Stevenson wrote a little even in such a state,
because he had to earn his living.
1
Each afternoon
he went over to visit Fanny and her sister. They all
sat in the garden while he read what he had written.
He sold several essays to magazines in England.
William Ernest Henley looked after them for him and
sent him copies of the magazines as soon as they came
out.
Robert Louis and Fanny had long conversations
about their problems. They decided that they wanted
to be married. Lets ask a lawyer.
Her husband had been missing so long, maybe she
could get permission to marry again.
San Francisco is probably the best place for that,
they agreed.
They left Monterey. Stevenson found himself a room
in San Francisco, and Fanny and her sister and children
moved into a cottage not far away. Stevenson still
continued working, and Fannys sister soon became
his secretary. He even dictated to her, and that saved
his strength a great deal. Sometimes he became excited
about his story and jumped up and paced around as he
dictated. The two ladies knew he wasnt strong enough
to pace. Before he arrived, they placed chairs and tables
all over the room to block his path. When he jumped
up to pace, there was always furniture in his way. He
never caught on to their trick.
2
1
he had to earn his living он должен был зарабатывать на
жизнь
2
Не never caught on to their trick. Он никогда не догады-
вался об их уловках.
86
R
OBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
. HIS L
IFE
Money came in by dribs and drabs.1 Stevenson could
usually sell what he wrote, but magazines didnt pay
much. His books werent very popular; just so-so. Of
course there was no money coming from his father. He
became depressed and worried. He finished
The Amateur
Emigrant and sent it home, but books took a long time
to come out. While he and Fanny were waiting for the
lawyers to work out their problem, Stevenson began to
read American authors. He became so interested in
Henry David Thoreau
him and sold it to
I may write articles on Benjamin Franklin
William Penn,
4
2
that he wrote an article about
Cornhill
.
he told Fanny.
3
and
He worked whether he had enough strength or not,
and San Francisco climate in the winter wasnt
healthful for him either. Damp fogs rolled in from the
Pacific Ocean straight into Stevensons lungs. On top
of that,
5
his landlords four-year-old child fell ill, and
Stevenson insisted on taking care of him. He knew
how it felt to be a sick child.
Stevenson finally collapsed from too much of
everything.
He has pleurisy and he is tired out, said the
doctor.
But RLS knew in his heart what the trouble was.
He realized by then that he had tuberculosis and would
have to be careful all the rest of his life.
1
bу dribs and drabs слишком мало
2
Henry David Thoreau
вид Торо (американский писатель, 18171862)
3
Benjamin Franklin
Франклин
íûé, 17061790)
4
William Penn
политический деятель, 16441718)
5
On top of that В добавление к этому
(американский государственный деятель, уче-
['wIljqm 'pen]
['henrI 'deIvId 'TLrqV]
['benGqmIn 'frxNklIn]
Вильям Пенн
87
Генри Дэ-
Бенджамин
(английский
C. O. Peare
Happiness came to Robert Louis and Fanny all at
once. He had just about recovered when the papers
came through saying that Fanny was free to marry.
And so had a letter from Stevensons father.
1
News got back to Scotland about how much
Stevenson was suffering and how hard he was working
to earn his living. When his family found out that he
was planning to marry, they decided to forgive him for
going off without saying good-bye.
You may count on two hundred and fifty pounds a
year, wrote Thomas Stevenson.
With a joy and plenty of laughter, Robert Louis,
Fanny, and Lloyd planned for the wedding and their
return to Scotland. Fannys daughter was no longer
part of the planning. She had already married and was
living in a house of her own.
The wedding took place on May 19, 1880, in a priests
house, with two neighbours for witnesses. Stevenson
was still weak and had a cough. A party would have
been too tiring. Mr and Mrs Stevenson took a short
honeymoon in the California mountains and afterward
began to pack for Scotland. When the time came to start
the long journey, Mrs Stevenson put her foot down.
2
We are going to take a comfortable train and stop
for a rest in Chicago, she declared. And, she added,
a comfortable ship, too.
Robert Louis, Fanny, and Lloyd returned to Scotland.
Mrs Stevensons sister and daughter remained in
California.
Stevenson had been away from home a year. During
that year he had had one adventure after another. Even
1
And so had a letter from Stevensons father. È îá ýòîì æå
говорилось в письме отца Стивенсона.
2
Mrs Stevenson put her foot down миссис Стивенсон
приняла твердое решение
88
R
OBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
. HIS L
IFE
so, he realized as he rested in his chair that he had
been homesick all the time.
The sight of Sidney Colvin climbing aboard at
Liverpool to welcome him home filled his eyes with
tears. The sight of his parents waiting for him on the
pier was almost more than he could bear. They had
travelled all the way down from Edinburgh to welcome
their Smout and his bride and twelve-year-old stepson.
Feverish Stevenson! Home in the granite city of
Edinburgh! Home in the green hills of Scotland! He
could talk of nothing but Scotland.
Im going to write a great long history of
Scotland, he announced.
No one said anything. His family knew he wasnt
strong enough to fulfil such a heavy task. He wasnt
even strong enough to stay in Scotland, he soon
discovered. The cold, sunless climate brought on
coughs, head colds, sneezes.
Take him to Switzerland, the doctor told Fanny
Stevenson. I think Davos would be the best town for
him there.
Stevenson said good-bye to Scotland once more and
set out for the high, dry air of Switzerland. Fanny and
Lloyd went with him, and so did a new member of the
family a Skye terrier named Woggs. He was a present
from Walter Simpson.
I cant travel with you this time, said Walter
Simpson. But heres a little fellow who can.
The scenery of Switzerland took their breath away.
They pressed their noses against the train window to
watch. The mountainsides were steep, sometimes covered
with green; and goats and cows grazed on the sides.
The tallest peaks had snow-covered tops. Sometimes there
1
1
The scenery of Switzerland took their breath away. Ïåé-
заж Швейцарии поразил их.
89
C. O. Peare
was a lake far below, with little towns situated at the
edge.
Davos was far up in the mountains, beyond the
reach of the railway. The Stevensons finished their
journey in the horse-drawn land-coach. They smiled
happily when they saw Davos. It was a lovely town
with little houses and a high church spire in the middle.
It stood near Lake Davos, and behind it the mountains
stretched to great snowy heights.
The town was so far up in the mountains that it
was covered with snow, and the snow glistened white
in the bright sun.
We can go sledding and skating! cried Lloyd. RLS
sighed. It would be a while before he could skate again.
He must go straight to bed. So Smout returned to his land
of counterpane. Fanny looked after him instead of Cummy.
Woggs jumped to the top of the bed instead of Coolin.
His stepson played with him instead of Cousin Bob.
He and Lloyd liked the same games, especially toy
soldiers. They spent hours together fighting famous battles
until Lloyd had to return to England to go to school.
Soon Stevenson was allowed to write for two hours
a day nothing very long, just short essays and stories.
The winter passed slowly, even though Davos was
so beautiful, because they couldnt do very much. In
time Stevenson became strong enough to go out for
short drives through the mountains. Sidney Colvin came
to Davos for a visit in January.
The climate helped RLS, but it disagreed with
Mrs Stevenson.
1
The high altitude made her feel very
uncomfortable. Sometimes she herself had to go to bed
for a rest. At last spring came and the doctor gave
Stevenson permission to return to Scotland. Fanny
1
but it disagreed with Mrs Stevenson
дил миссис Стивенсон
90
çä. но он не подхо-
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