We Two

No rating yet

Chapters: 40

Summary

Among the vast sea of public-domain English classics, We Two is an often overlooked yet genuinely substantial late-Victorian novel. Its author, Edna Lyall, was one of Britain's most popular writers of fiction in the 1880s and 1890s, and this 1888 breakthrough was inspired by the public ordeal of the freethought leader Charles Bradlaugh: what price do a man's family pay when public opinion turns on him for his unbelief? Lyall does not answer in the form of a polemic but as a delicate story of love and growth—a young doctor's attention to a girl from a family of ill repute, with upbringing, respectability, gossip, and conscience all colliding. For today's readers it is at once a genre painting of Victorian urban life and a vivid text for understanding how freedom of speech and belief bears upon actual people. The prose is clean and the plot plain, making it a rewarding next step for readers of nineteenth-century English fiction.

Editor's review

在英文公版书的汪洋里，《We Two》是一部常被忽略、却颇有分量的维多利亚晚期小说。它的作者埃德娜·莱尔曾是19世纪八九十年代英国最受欢迎的通俗小说家之一，而这部1888年的成名作，取材于自由思想运动领袖查尔斯·布莱德洛（Charles Bradlaugh）的公众遭遇：一个因不信神而被舆论围剿的人，其家人会承受怎样的代价？莱尔没有把答案写成论战，而是写成一段细腻的感情与成长故事——年轻医生对一个“声名不佳”家庭出身的少女的注视，家教、体面、闲话和良知在其中彼此碰撞。对今天的读者，它既是维多利亚时代都市生活的风俗画，也是理解“言论与信仰自由如何落到具体人身上”的生动文本。文风清正、情节朴素，适合作为19世纪英文小说的进阶读物。

Who it's for

A good fit for

喜欢维多利亚时代英国小说、想看非主流名家的读者
对宗教、信仰与舆论议题感兴趣的读者
希望以英文原版练习长篇小说阅读的读者
研究19世纪英国社会思潮与自由思想运动的爱好者

Not a good fit for

偏好快节奏、强情节类型小说的读者
希望读到中文译本的读者（本书暂无通行中译本）
对宗教讨论与道德说教式叙事缺乏耐心的读者

Reading tips

建议配合查尔斯·布莱德洛与19世纪英国自由思想运动的背景资料阅读，理解小说的现实原型。
可先读前五章，把握男女主角的相遇与埃丽卡的处境，再按章节推进。
读英文原版时注意作者对伦敦街景与家庭内景的细节描写，它们是理解社会阶层的关键。
全书四十二章，可每周读六至八章，节奏适中不易中断。

Chapter 1 Brian Falls in Love
Chapter 2 The Cause and the Effect
Chapter 3 Life in Another Light
Chapter 4 "If It Were True!"
Chapter 5 Erica's Decision
Chapter 6 Paris
Chapter 7 What the New Year Brought
Chapter 8 "Why Do You Believe It?"
Chapter 9 Rose
Chapter 10 Hard at Work
Chapter 11 The Wheels Slow Down
Chapter 12 Raeburn Returns
Chapter 13 Losing a Friend and Gaining One
Chapter 14 Charles Osmond Speaks His Mind
Chapter 15 An Interval
Chapter 16 Hyde Park
Chapter 17 At the Gate of Death
Chapter 18 An Answer or No Answer?
Chapter 19 At the Museum
Chapter 20 The Storm
Chapter 21 What It Involved
Chapter 22 An Editor
Chapter 23 Erica to the Rescue
Chapter 24 New Relations
Chapter 25 Lady Caroline's Dinner
Chapter 26 A Friend
Chapter 27 At Oak Vale
Chapter 28 The Happiest Week
Chapter 29 Grey Short Again
Chapter 30 The Stain of Slander
Chapter 31 Brian Plays the Avenger
Chapter 32 Fiesole
Chapter 33 "Onward"
Chapter 34 The Cruellest Cut
Chapter 35 Raeburn v. Poghson
Chapter 36 Rose's Adventure
Chapter 37 Inch by Inch
Chapter 38 Quiet Years
Chapter 39 Ashborough
Chapter 40 Death Is the Gate of Life

FAQ

《We Two》是不是尼古拉斯·斯帕克斯的《我们俩》？

不是。斯帕克斯与兄长合著的《我们俩》（Three Weeks with My Brother 系列相关中文译名）是一本旅行回忆录；而《We Two》是英国作家埃德娜·莱尔1888年出版的长篇小说，二者同名但完全不同。

这本书有中文译本吗？

目前没有发现通行的中文译本。本文所列信息基于英文原著（1888年初版，Project Gutenberg 电子版编号 #2007），故译者、中译本出版社等信息留空。

小说的主人公是谁？

男主角是伦敦年轻医生布赖恩·奥斯蒙德，女主角是埃丽卡·雷伯恩——一位公开主张无神论、因而备受舆论攻击的公众人物的女儿。故事围绕两人的相遇、感情与他们所处的社会压力展开。

在哪里可以免费读到原文？

该书已进入公有领域，可在 Project Gutenberg 免费下载 EPUB、Kindle 或纯文本版本（电子书编号 #2007），全文约17.3万英文单词。

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.