我終於把《雙城記》讀完了。
這個小說，當年在國內學英文的時候讀過簡寫版，大概幾十頁，故事經過講全了，但是文采的東西就簡化了。現在讀一個大概一百年前印刷的老版書，有三百多頁。
DICKENS那年代，很多作家都是賣文為生，每星期寫一段發表在報紙或雜誌上。像福爾摩斯的作者也是一樣的，每段得寫出點彩來，不然人家下期不看了。
你比如這個小說的開始，這段文字就非同小可，其實拿到我們現在也不失色:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
諸位可以試著用英國口音讀一遍。。
故事其實是個恩仇記。受法國貴族迫害的醫生決心複仇，誰知命運使然他的女兒後來同自願放棄身份地位的貴族的後代在英國結婚。法國革命了，受壓迫的人民要殺盡貴族階級及其後代，這個清白的貴族後代麵臨被砍頭。一直深愛醫生女兒的浪蕩公子此時挺身而出願意代他去死。。。
這兩個城市，其實是兩個虛擬化戲劇化標誌的代表，一個是愛，一個是仇恨。愛引向和平與幸福，而恨導致血腥和毀滅。醫生受到迫害被打進死牢，決心複仇寫了個絕命書藏在牢房裏。他從牢房裏出來以後同仇人家的後代和解了，但是這個仇恨終於又返回來禍害他自己。革命的時候這個信被人翻出來作為證據，差點讓他的女婿以及自己和女兒一家都被砍頭。而那些以血腥複仇為終極目的的人，也紛紛在以革命的名義下毀滅於斷頭台。生活無目的浪蕩公子，終於在為愛的人作出終極的犧牲時找到了人生的升華。。。
