暖冬cool夏
這裏一年四季溫暖如春，沒有酷暑沒有嚴寒......
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Mary Carson is not a main character in the novel The Thorn Birds, but she is really a character! She was the owner of a vast sheep station Drogheda in the northwestern Australia. Rich she was, she was a widow, whose husband died young and whose only child died in infancy. At age 65, she wrote to her only living brother Paddy, inviting him and his family to live on her land, and intended to leave her fortune to him after her death. Ralph was a young good-looking priest , whom Mary was very enamored of. For quite a few years, he was like a cub to a cougar. But the appearance of Meggie changed him. Sensing the love between Ralph and Meggie, Mary was jealous and spiteful. She devised a new will before her death, in which her assets, a total of 13 million pounds, was donated to the Church in the hand of Ralph, as she was sure that Ralph would not give up his world for Meggie. “I must lose you to Meggie, but I’ve made sure she doesn’t get you, either.”, said Mary. And just as she predicted, Ralph failed the test, selling his “soul” for the 13 million pounds, as the ambition of advancing his career outweighed his love towards Meggie.
Mary is a shrewd woman with brain. She managed her land with an iron fist and autocratically, and thus wielded much power in the area. Her fortune was amassed not just through running the sheep station, but through setting up an investment company called Michar Limited. She was a successful woman in business. She chose not to remarry in her long 40 years’ widowhood, maintaining her status of being indisputably a queen. Being “a staunch pillar of the Church all her life”, she fell in love with Ralph for his youth, wits and charm. But in Ralph’s eye later, she was a poisonous and vicious spider, who spun the web that tangled him inside. When Ralph turned down in disgust her last plea of kissing her in the mouth like lovers, Mary was enraged, calling him a “sham”, “an impotent and useless sham”, poignantly reminding Ralph of his offer to make love with her seven years ago.
What still echoed in my mind is what she told Father Ralph the night before she died. Quoted below are the two passages, the revelations of a 72-year-old woman:
“Well, Father de Bricassarrt, let me tell you something.Inside this stupid body I’m still young—I still feel, I still want, I still dream, I still kick up my heels and chafe at restrictions like my body. Old age is the bitterest vengeance our vengeful God inflicts upon us. Why doesn’t He age our minds as well?”
“Ralph, you’ll never know how I’ve longed to throw thirty years of my life out of the window. If the Devil had come to me and offered to buy my soul for the chance to be young again, I’d have sold it in a second, and not stupidly regretted the bargain like that old idiot Faust.”
Mary’s pain was acute to realize that her still throbbing young heart was buried in a dying body, and there is nothing she can do, however longing she is of being young again. She is like a withered flower, envying an unfolding rose, in the knowledge that it will never bloom again.
She won the game, but then so what? She died and could only see her achieved revenge from the heaven. Rich as she was, she was powerless over the priceless youth. She could not buy it back. Neither could she ever buy the love, the true love from Ralph. Her revenge was a bitter attack, to torment Ralph between his spiritual pursuit and his worldly lust. But that was all she can do. Money may bring the glory, fame, and power when one lives. But in face of death, everybody is equal. Rich or poor, we are from ashes to ashes, holding nothing before death except dust and ashes.
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Below is copied from the book covers and preface.
The Thorn Birds is a robust, romantic saga of a singular family, the Clearys. It begins in the early part of this century, when Paddy Cleary moves his wife, Fiona, and their seven children to Drogheda, the vast Australian sheep station owned by his autocratic and childless old sister; and it ends more than half a century later, when the only survivor of the third generation, the brilliant actress Justine O’Neil, sets a course of life and love halfway around the world from her roots.
The central figures in this enthralling story are the indomitable Meggie, the only Cleary daughter, and the one man she truly loves, the stunningly handsome and ambitious priest Ralph de Bricassart. Ralph’s course moves him a long way indeed, from a remote Outback parish to the halls of the Vatican; and Meggie’s, except for a brief and miserable marriage elsewhere, is fixed to the Drogheda that is part of her bones—but distance does not dim their feelings though it shapes their lives.
Wonderful characters people this book: strong and gentle Paddy, hiding a private memory; dutiful Fiona, holding back love because it once betrayed her; violent, tormented Frank and the other hardworking Cleary sons who give the boundless lands of Drogheda the energy and devotion most men save for women; Meggie; Ralph; and Meggie’s children, Justine and Dane. And the land itself: stark, its flowering, prey to gigantic cycle of drought and flood, rich when nature is bountiful, surreal like no other place on earth.
Australian-born Colleen McCullough found devoted readers for her fine, compact first novel, Tim. The Thorn Birds, entirely different in story and scope, is that most exhilarating of reading experiences—a book that enfolds the reader in its capacious arms. There is simply no way to put it down once you have begun, or to separate yourself from the lives and loves of this fascinating family.
From the preface:
2. There is a legend about a bird which sings just once in its life, more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. From the moment it leaves the nest it searches for a thorn tree, and does not rest until it has found one. Then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. And, dying, it rises above its own agony to out-carol the lark and the nightingale. One superlative song, existence the price. But the whole world stills to listen, and God in His heaven smiles. For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain.... Or so says the legend.
書和電視都沒有看過。但是，你的精彩書評讓書中的幾個人物在我心中活了起來。足見妹妹的用心和寫作功力。看好你。
謝謝暖兒！可能以後會開博寫點什麽，目前還是感覺讀博比較輕鬆。:-)暖兒說 Mary為了報複改了遺囑，那原來的遺囑是什麽樣的？錢是“無條件”地全部留給Ralph嗎？
我發現自己有時特別沒有主見，聽聽這，有道理，聽聽那，也對的。或許這世界就是沒有黑和白截然分明的人，人情感的複雜，人性的特點給這個世界增添了無數的色彩，也給大作家們留下了很多經典的作品。《荊棘鳥》這小說這麽轟動，Ralph這個人物被這麽多人粉、追，一定有其道理所在，魅力所在。是我對人物的要求太高，把Ralph放在一個聖人的位置，角度也有點偏，隻能是個人的一點看法感受。謝謝燕兒這麽肯定、暖心的評論。周日快樂！
對Ralph這個人物，因為我沒看過電視，也沒讀過《荊棘鳥》，你第一篇的書評又比較簡略，因你隻讀了一半兒，所以我的第一感覺就是個“人渣”，但讀完三篇文章，冷靜地思考後，我同情Ralph。有野心有能力的男人，處在他的境況，大都會做出同樣的選擇的。而一個男人的野心和能力，對於女人也是極具魅力的。女人一般不喜歡繡花枕頭。:-) Ralph的悲劇在於他還保有真情和羞恥心，所以他糾結痛苦終生。我覺得他是個很真實的人物，正是因為真實，《荊棘鳥》這本書才會擁有如此強大的經久不衰的生命力。
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+1，Ralph畢竟是人，不能以聖人的標準要求他，他也有追求幸福和權欲的人權。 這有些象《牛虻》中的紅衣主教，他也和一位貴婦人私通，並有了私生子牛虻，他一直照顧著牛虻，直到牛虻成年後無意中發現了真相，而最後做為起義軍領袖的牛虻不幸被捕，紅衣主教又試圖讓他向政府投誠來保全性命，牛虻拒絕後，他又不得不同意當局把他的私生子牛虻處於死刑。多麽矛盾的人物啊
Mary的命運其實也反映了爭取獨立的女性的命運，在女性屬於依附地位的社會裏，女性好像必須在情感家庭和自由意誌之間進行取舍。Mary當初既然選擇了自己掌握自己的命運，就已經知道自己放棄了什麽，即使到晚年有一些傷感，再讓她選擇，她還會做出同樣的選擇。
像Ralph這樣的偽君子，其實是很煎熬的，他內心還是有一點點真情，隻不過這點真情被他用來當作交換利益的籌碼，他把真情和靈魂都出賣給了魔鬼，而這個魔鬼就是他的野心他的貪婪。
說實在的小說的細節我都不大記得清楚了，謝謝暖冬的書評帶我重溫故事的情節。
至於你說的青春，那是因為我們當年出國的艱辛所致，我們的付出就是希望我們的下一代能充分品嚐青春的甜蜜和活力吧。謝謝思韻妹妹的鼓勵、真誠的心得交流。祝周末好！
再讀這篇，更不能忍受Ralph了！看來在荒漠的地方，人很難戰勝靈魂的孤寂，這是值得同情的地方。還有，關於對自己青春的評價，其實完全取決於青春不在後現實裏的幸福感。對我而言，青春的奮鬥太艱難，未來太迷茫，而現今，一切美麗盡在懷，真好啊，再也不想回到青春了，那罪遭的!
姐的英文真好，cougar這個詞我還是近來才知道的。:) 人世間千百種所謂的"情"呢，多情深情卻不被情困，也是實現"人生不苦"必須修煉的功課。