The Great Novelists.
The novel, since the days of the mediaeval romances, and the Elizabethan prose stories from Sidney's "Arcadia" to the tales of Greene and Nash, was never quite unrepresented in England, for example, there were translations and imitations of the huge French "Heroic" romances; Bunyan's stories are religious and moral novels, and under the Restoration Mrs. Aphra Behn (1640-1689) wrote short novels of love which do not quite deserve the bad reputation conferred on them by an anecdote1 told by Sir Walter Scott. Eliza Haywood (1693-1756) was prolific2 in prose tales, and is the author of a little romance of Prince Charles's adventures in 1749-1750, disguised as "A Letter of H— G—," Henry Goring3, the Prince's equerry. But in literary circles, the novel was held in as high disdain4 as it was later, before Scott produced "Waverley" (1814).
The novel of modern life, manners, and sentiment first came to its own as the universal joy of reading mankind in Richardson's "Pamela"; advertised as it was, in modern fashion from the pulpits of all denominations5.
Samuel Richardson, the son of a Yorkshire joiner, was born in 1689, and after being educated at the Charterhouse was apprenticed6 to a London printer. As a boy he made small sums by writing love-letters for maid-servants and others who were unable to write for themselves; and when, as a middle-aged7 man, he turned to writing novels, he cast them in the form of letters.[Pg 459] "Pamela," which he began to publish in 1740, is the story of a girl who is a waiting-maid to a lady and is persecuted8 by her mistress's son; in the end he marries her and becomes a model husband. It may annoy us from the very strange and unnatural9 way in which all the characters behave. Pamela strikes us less as a being of equal innocence10 and virtue11, mistress of her own passion for "the dear obliger," Mr. B. (only the initial is given), than as a young woman who knows her game and plays her cards most adroitly12. Her snobbishness14 was, no doubt, in the manner of her class in her day, but we approve of Pamela no more than Fielding did, when he overwhelmed it with the sturdy laughter of his parody15, "Joseph Andrews," brother of Pamela, and as virtuous16 as that paragon17, yet no milksop. But "Pamela" was admired beyond "this side idolatry".
"Clarissa" (1748) is another novel of Virtue in danger and distress18, but Clarissa is a lady of good family and fortune, and of a pure and heroic spirit. Decoyed from her home and friends by the wiles19 of the professional seducer20, Lovelace, a rake so brilliant and witty21 and reckless as to win the hearts, if not of Clarissa, of all Richardson's lady readers, Clarissa is exposed to the last extreme of misery22, steadily23 refuses to marry the scoundrel who has wronged her, and dies slowly among the sobs24 of the congregation.
"Sir Charles Grandison," whose name has become a proverb in the English language, appeared in 1753, and is one of the longest books that ever was printed. It is very badly constructed too, and contains lengthy25 episodes which have nothing to do with the story, and only puzzle and confuse the reader. Properly speaking it is not so much a novel as a series of incidents, all tending to the glorification26 of the hero, who is made up of long words, fine sentiments and whalebone. The women of the tale are less exasperating27 than the men, though they can hardly be considered attractive. The reason of this may be found in the fact that Richardson neither sought nor was sought by men, while he was in the habit of reading his manuscripts to a group of enthusiastic young ladies (among whom was the future Mrs. Chapone) in his garden at Fulham. Unluckily his audience, who might have been of service to him in pointing out that well-bred people[Pg 460] had other manners than those of the characters of Richardson, were too deeply engulfed28 in admiration29 to be capable of criticism; or possibly they may not have been aware, as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was, that Richardson did not know the society which he described. The letters themselves, besides showing a frankness and lack of reticence30 which it may confidently be said few real letters could ever parallel, are of a length which even on a desert island no one could write. The genuine letters in his correspondence, between him and the unknown but worshipping Lady Bradshaigh, and their romantic and elaborate arrangements to discover each other in Hyde Park, are far more amusing reading. Richardson has been accused, and justly, of a portentous31 lack of humour, but if his reader has any of his own, he will not read the novels in vain.
These censures32 are the candid33 criticism of the modern reader who finds that he cannot think himself back into the circle of Richardson, who finds its Virtue and its Sentiment hardly intelligible34, though he is entirely35 at home with the society of all degrees that Fielding describes, or that lives in Boswell's "Life of Johnson," and in the "Letters" of Horace Walpole and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, expressing themselves like people of this world. But though Richardson lived in a kind of moral and sentimental36 hothouse, where one can scarcely breathe; though he had a more than feminine liking37 for accumulated minutenesses of details and a more than mediaeval prolixity38; yet his full-length pictures of his personages, stippled39 like a miniature in a ring, delighted not only English but continental40, especially French readers. It was an age when people took little exercise, were little in the open air, and passed endless hours in conversation on the ethics41 and philosophy of love and sentiment. The Memoirs42 of Madame d'épinay are partly a romance in the manner of Richardson, and to read them is to understand the society which found in him its ideal novelist. "The man would hang himself who tried to read 'Clarissa' for its story," said Dr. Johnson, a friend of the author, partly because the author was the friend of Virtue. We, if we please, may detest43 and disbelieve in Lovelace, who was, none the less, the conqueror44 of the hearts of the ladies of the time, that implored[Pg 461] Richardson to convert a hero so brilliant, witty and amiable45. But for Richardson it had been enough to convert Mr. B., and he was artist enough to refuse to gratify tastes which, in the manner of Charles II., demanded that all tragedies should end happily. Scott, with the resurrection of Athelstane; Dickens, with the conversion46 of Estella, were more good-naturedly and erroneously amenable47 to the requests of friends.
There was a blush between Charles Lamb and the girl who sat down beside him to read "Pamela," and, in fact, Richardson's way of educating girls in virtue may seem apt to have effects which he did not contemplate48. Other times, other manners.
Henry Fielding.
To say anything at once new and true about Henry Fielding passes the power of man. His defects and his qualities; the good in him and in his work, and the not so good, are so conspicuous49 that his contemporaries, and later generations down to our own, have passed on them the same remarks. There are the admirers of Fielding, who justly see in him one of the three very greatest of English novelists of contemporary life and manners as exhibited in the portions of society which he knew and illustrated50. But he did not take all contemporary society for his province. Born at Sharpham Park, in Somerset, in 1707, he had far greater advantages of birth than other men of the pen. The House of Fielding is ancient and noble, though, unlike Gibbon in his monumental compliment to Fielding, Mr. Horace Round cannot accept its connexion with the House of Hapsburg.
The Fieldings had two Earldoms, of Desmond (in Ireland) and of Denbigh; Fielding's father was of a cadet branch of the family: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was a kind of cousin of the novelist. He was educated at Eton and in the law-loving University of Leyden; but when he "came upon the town," in 1728, he did not associate himself with the circle of Pope and Bolingbroke and the wits and the great ladies; he does not draw his characters from that splendid society, though Lady Bellaston, in "Tom Jones," is a member thereof.
Fielding had to live by his brains, by writing comedies, and by[Pg 462] journalism51. He showed his genius for parody of the heroic tiresome52 tragedy that was "such an unconscionable time adying," in "Tom Thumb the Great"; and his dangerous turn for political satire53 in "The Historical Register" (1737). But the Licensing54 Act, making the Lord Chamberlain, or his subaltern, Licencer of Plays, excluded Fielding from that course; he was called to the Bar (1740), where he did not practise much. He was married in 1735 to the original, it is said, of the exquisite55 Sophia of "Tom Jones"; he wrote in the Press; in 1745 he took the Hanoverian side, in "The True Patriot," and "The Jacobite's Journal," in mockery so named; and during all this period he saw a great deal of the world, especially the world of the stage and of light literature.
But of all this he makes little display in his novels. He falls back on the humours of the country: on the country parson, Adams; the Tory Squire56, Squire Western; a neighbour, in character of Sir Tunbelly Clumsey, and so good an Englishman that he rejoices when he hears that "twenty thousand honest Frenchmen are landed in Kent" to back the Rightful King, and the landed interest, against Hanoverians, financiers, and Whigs in general. His excellent Allworthy is no townsman; Mr. Thomas Jones, a Foundling, is country born and country bred; most of the adventures of Joseph Andrews take place in the country; in "Amelia" we are in town, and in taverns59 and prisons often, but by no means "in society".
"Jonathan Wild" is a tale of town villains60 and rogues61; and Fielding's minor62 characters, from postilions to philosophers, like Philosopher Square, landlords, landladies63, serving-men, lawyers, parsons, unfortunate ladies, people on the road, are of ordinary humanity, with a considerable sprinkling of hypocrites. He had heard the chimes at midnight and much later; he had hunted; he had lived the tavern58 life, the life of debts and expedients64, but he "had kept the bird in his bosom," the sterling65 excellence66 of his heart; pity for the poor and oppressed; honour, good humour, tolerance67, and manly68 indignation.
To Fielding, Richardson's "Pamela," the text of many a sermon, the snow-pure prudent69 Pamela, with Virtue rewarded by the hand of the enterprising Mr. B., was even as a red rag to a[Pg 463] bull. He did not weep over Pamela's tears, these "pearly fugitives70". He no more believed in Mr. B.'s return to virtue than in that of Vanbrugh's Loveless. Respectability was so far from being his favourite virtue, that, like many very inferior writers, he inclined to identify it, unjustly, with hypocrisy71.
Consequently he began "Joseph Andrews" as a parody or burlesque72 of "Pamela". That paragon had a brother, appropriately named Joseph; and the virtue of Joseph is assailed73 like that of his sister, but in vain. Joseph is invincibly74 respectable, yet no hypocrite, but a very manly young fellow with an honest love in his own rank. The story soon ceased to be a parody; that grotesque75, learned, excellent and extremely muscular Christian76, Parson Adams, came into the tale with the egregious77 Mrs. Slipslop; and the thing became a "picaresque" novel, a tale of the road and of chance meetings: with the lesson that kind hearts are more than coronets, and a postilion, later guilty of robbing a hen roost, is a better Christian than a whole coach-load of Pharisees. Indeed St. Augustine, once at least, robbed an orchard78, yet became a shining light, having been misled (as regards the apples and pears) by his sense of humour.
"Joseph Andrews," though its language is occasionally coarse, as regards its meaning is not obscure, and it is certainly one of the most amusing works in our language: though it is not written for small boys and little girls. We meet Pamela and Mr. B. (cruelly styled Mr. Booby), again at the close, and they behave ill in church, when Joseph is married.
Richardson was very much hurt, of course, and spoke79 very ill of Fielding; if he forgave Fielding, he "forgave him as a Christian," like Rowena in Ivanhoe, "'which means,' said Wamba, 'that she does not forgive him at all'".
There is an endless discussion about Fielding's morality. Natural goodness of heart is everything with him. Of his Tom Jones the epitaph might be that devised by Joe Gargery in "Great Expectations" for his reprobate80 of a father,
Whatsume'er the failings on his part,
Remember reader he were that good in his hart.
Thomas was "that good at his heart" and lectures young[Pg 464] Nightingale very nobly on the infamy81 of corrupting82 virtue. But where there is no virtue to corrupt83 in others, Thomas pays no attention to his own. Perhaps he could have resisted temptation, in Nightingale's circumstances, but he is wisely kept out of it by the author. He does what is thought the very basest thing that a man can do; Colonel Newcome never forgave him; if we are to pardon Tom it must be, as Dumas urges in the case of Porthos, because, "other times, other manners".
This affair is the dangerous step in "Tom Jones" (1749), that epic84 of the eighteenth century. Fielding thought of it as an epic in prose; he is fond of burlesquing85 Homer and of quoting Aristotle. The plot has been praised by Coleridge and justly, as on a level with that of the "?dipus Tyrannus" of Sophocles. The construction of plots has not been the strong point of most great novelists, but Fielding set this good example, not immaculate of course, but admirable.
The real merit of the book lies in its pell-mell of characters, all delineated with exquisite humour, wit, and observation, from the mysterious mother of the hero, and the adorable Sophia, to the adroit13 hypocrite, Blifil; the uproarious stupid fox-hunter, the Jacobite who drinks healths, Squire Western; the philanthropic yet really good Allworthy; the delightful86 pedantic87 Partridge, with his tags of Latin quotations88; the rural ruffian, Black George; the harmless vanity of Miss Western (the aunt), the sternly Protestant and Anglican, but not immaculately virtuous Philosopher Square, and all the attendant crowd.
The moral introductory reflections may, of course, be skipped, yet not by wise readers, for they are full of Fielding's humour, and display his confidence in the immortality89 of his book.
Fielding was Thackeray's master and model; in his too frequent reflections he follows Fielding too closely. If all men were equally fortunate, they would all read "Tom Jones" in the six small volumes of the First Edition: but in any edition the book is delightful. Charlotte Bront? thought it corrupting to such young fellows as her brother, the unhappy Branwell, but Branwells will go their own way, with or without the aid of the too fortunate Foundling.
[Pg 465]
Fielding was a sturdy Hanoverian, but he was mortal and an author. He must have been pleased had he known that the hero of 1745 (the year in which the tale is cast), that Prince Charles then lurking91 in a Parisian convent, purchased "Tom Jones," both in French and English.
Earlier than "Tom Jones" is "Jonathan Wild the Great," the romance of a thief-taker and sharer of spoils with thieves, who was gibbeted in 1725. It is customary to speak of this book, a satire of the "greatness" of men like Julius C?sar, as a masterpiece of irony92, and as a success in the field where Thackeray, on the same estimate, failed with "Barry Lyndon". If irony is to be openly and noisily unveiled in every page, then "Jonathan Wild" may be a masterpiece of irony. The reader may be left, if he can read "Jonathan Wild," to compare it with "Barry Lyndon" for himself, and to draw his own conclusions as to the relative merits of these books. The deliciously absurd adventures of Mrs. Heartfree, like those of the heroines of late Greek romances, are, at all events, intentionally93 or unintentionally funny. Sir Walter Scott disliked this masterpiece, and after reading it, and the commendations which eminent94 modern critics bestow95 upon it, the writer cannot honestly dissent96 from the disrelish of Sir Walter. He is said not to have understood Fielding's meaning which Fielding constantly proclaims and avows98, namely that greatness of intellect and ambition without goodness of heart is a mischievous99 monstrosity. Mr. Carlyle, in some moods of hero-worship, might have differed, but we can give a general assent100 without wading101 through "Jonathan Wild".
Fielding's own heart was as good as Steele's. He adored his beautiful wife as Steele adored Prue. But, while "the greatest blessing102 is a faithful and beloved wife," says our author in "Amelia," "it rather tends to aggravate103 the misfortune of distressed104 circumstances from the consideration of the share which she is to bear in them". But the circumstances were distressed because Fielding, like Amelia's Captain Booth, was "a good fellow," and, like Johnson's friend, Savage105, was at no time of his life the first to leave any company,—over the punch bowl. And Amelia was listening for every footstep, and dreading106 every accident of the streets, and money was a minus quantity, and a scrag[Pg 466] of mutton was a rare festival, because Captain Booth had every generosity107 except that of a little self-denial.
By 1749 Mr. Fielding, as his friendly biographer says, "was a martyr108 to gout". "He had not stolen it," and we have heard of another sufferer, "a martyr to delirium109 tremens". By this time his wife was dead; later he married her maid, an excellent woman, Mary Daniel, probably of an old and ruined Jacobite family of Daniel. At the end of 1748 Fielding had been made a stipendiary magistrate110 for Westminster. Unlike his Jonathan Thrasher, Esq., J.P., who was infamously112 corrupt, and as ignorant of the law as the country justice before whom Frank Osbaldistone appears in "Rob Roy," Fielding brought to his work his honesty, courage, and sympathy with the poor.
The first chapters of his "Amelia" (1751) contain pictures of the contemporary corruption113 of justice, and the laxity of the prisons. Thence came the misfortunes of Captain Booth, a true lover, but also a young man in the prime of life. From this error of the Captain's, who met a Circe in prison, and from the greatness of his wife's character, the beautiful Amelia, the plot of the novel adroitly develops itself. She was "too good to be true". On the other hand the high spirit and temper of Miss Matthews make her a kind of shady Brynhild; and only coincidences in which Captain Booth recognized the hand of Providence114 prevent the most tragical115 catastrophe116. "Men worship women on their knees; when they get up they go away," says Fielding's great successor. They never get up and go away when they worship Amelia.
The book, in addition to her and Miss Matthews, presents the delightfully117 amusing characters of Colonel Bath, "old honour and dignity," who fights Booth in Hyde Park from motives118 of the purest friendship; Colonel James, with a philosophy of love rather like Lord Foppington's; Sergeant119 Atkinson, a kind of later Great Heart; Mrs. Ellison, a lady "not of the nicest delicacy"; Murphy, a Jonathan Wild as attorney; and a score of other characters worthy57 of their creator. With "Joseph Andrews" and "Tom Jones," "Amelia" is an immortal90 glory of English fiction.
Fielding's experiences led him into plans for suppressing lawlessness, and for important social reforms. In 1753 he took the[Pg 467] side of Elizabeth Canning in that unsolved mystery of a girl who, if not a good girl, "has been too hard for me," says Fielding. His own behaviour, in the case of Miss Virtue's examination, is rather startling to the modern student; and whether he ended as a partisan120 of the Gipsy or of Elizabeth Canning is uncertain (1753-1754). Elizabeth made a good marriage, in America, whither she was banished121, and lived and died respected.
In his pamphlet on Elizabeth's affair, which excited and divided London for more than a year, Fielding speaks of his illness and overtaxed strength. He spent what was left of it in his public duties; was advised to voyage to Portugal, and his "Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon," written with a dying hand, is the record of his sufferings and reflections. He sailed in the "Queen of Portugal" (Captain Veal), had intervals122 of enjoyment123, and sketched124, with his usual humour, the events and incidents of the expedition. He died at Lisbon on 8 October, 1754.
Tobias Smollett.
The name of Smollett is coupled as familiarly with that of Fielding as the name of Thackeray with that of Dickens. Smollett and Fielding were contemporaries: both came of ancient families: each had a profession;—Smollett was a physician while Fielding was a barrister,—but each lived mainly by journalism, literature and fiction. If opinions as to their relative merits were divided in their day, posterity125 has awarded the crown to Fielding. The reason is obvious: Fielding is full of good humour; in him there is no rancour; he admires good women almost to adoration126, and paints them as only the very greatest poets have done. Again, his tales are well constructed, especially "Tom Jones". On the other hand Smollett allows his story to wander in the roads and haunt the inns, and encounter grotesque adventures; he has bitter grudges127 against all and sundry128, especially against his patrons and his kinsfolk. His heroines are regarded by his heroes rather as luxuries than as ladies; his heroes, to be plain, are not merely libertines129, but often behave like selfish ruffians; and his relish97 for odious130 images and thoughts is hardly surpassed by that of Swift. These faults in temper and taste have[Pg 468] made Smollett unpopular, despite his wide knowledge of life; his irresistible131 power of compelling laughter, his swaggering vein132. But, if he drew Roderick Random133 and Peregrine Pickle134 from himself, he gave them bad qualities far in excess of his own, and did not endow them with many of his own better attributes. Smollett would never have used the loyal Strap135 as Roderick Random often does; and was incapable136 of what may be styled the dastardly plot in which Peregrine was fain to have imitated Richardson's Lovelace.
Smollett was born in 1721, a younger son of a younger son of the ancient house of Smollett of Bonhill, on the Leven near Loch Lomond. An ancestor of his, he says, blew up a galleon137 of the Spanish Armada in Tobermory Bay. He did indeed, by an act of suborned treachery. Like Burns, Tobias celebrated138 in verse his native stream; like Burns in boyhood he devoured139 the truculent140 romance of "Wallace" by Blind Harry141. He was poor, and believed himself to be badly treated by his kinsfolk; after studying at Glasgow University he was apprenticed to a surgeon. In 1739 he went to London to push his fortunes, carrying with him a foolish tragedy on the murder of James I, which was the apple of his eye. No manager would accept it, wherefore Smollett raged against Garrick and Lord Lyttelton: he puts the story of his woes142 into "Roderick Random," where Mr. Melopoyn, unhappy poet, is the sufferer. He got what Chatterton and Goldsmith failed to obtain, the post of surgeon's mate in a ship of war; lived through the distresses143 of the siege of Carthagena (1741), and obtained that knowledge of naval144 squalor and brutality145, and of the good qualities of sea-men, which he used in "Roderick Random" and in the characters of Bowling146 and Trunnion. Leaving the navy, he married in Jamaica, came to town, practised as a physician, and certainly lived in most fashionable quarters. He speaks of Bob Sawyer's method of advertisement by being hastily called out of church as an old trick; perhaps Dickens, a reader of Smollett from his childhood, borrowed here from "Count Fathom147". His patriotism148 was stirred by the fatal disaster of Culloden, and he boldly published his "Tears of Scotland" (1746).
In 1748 he published "Roderick Random," the history of a[Pg 469] meritorious149 orphan150 who lives on his servant, cheats his tailor, is a gambler, and enriches himself in the slave trade; but all is to be forgiven to Roderick's ebullient151 vigour152 and occasional sentimentalism. There are countless153 changes of scene and varieties of character, from the ocean to the Marshalsea Prison, to adventures in French service, from Strap and Bowling to the literary Miss Snapper and the unfortunate Miss Williams. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu supposed her cousin, Fielding, to be the author, which showed little discrimination, though her ladyship's letters are among the wittiest154 and most brilliantly amusing of her century. Smollett had a bitter feud155 with Fielding; we do not know, or care, for what cause. The briskness156 of the book, and the novelty of the nautical157 horrors, made Smollett's reputation.
Going to Paris in 1750, Smollett found some of the characters who appear in the crowd of "Peregrine Pickle" (1751), of which the first edition aroused censures on passages later pruned158 by the author. It is a work of amazingly careless vigour and humour: the irrepressible Peregrine is even a less desirable hero than Roderick; and an infamous111 Jacobite spy was not ill-advised in choosing Pickle for his pseudonym159. Emilia is more than too good for the rascal160 to whom she descends161 in marriage, after escaping plots of his which might have disgusted Pamela's Mr. B. But Cadwallader Crabtree, Hatchway and Pipes, and Commander Hawser162 Trunnion are immortal characters; it is cruel to call Trunnion caricatured; he is a comic masterpiece.
The "Ferdinand, Count Fathom" (1753), the adventurous163 son of a suttler and murderess, is not a much worse man than Peregrine, but, in place of Trunnion and Pipes, we are entertained with a queer attempt at romance in the loves of Rinaldo and Monimia, who meets her lover as he weeps over her empty tomb. "Sir Lancelot Greaves," a modern Don Quixote, armour164 and all, was preferred by Scott to "Jonathan Wild," and, despite the patent absurdity165 of the armed knight166, is really a much more agreeable story. In 1763 Smollett visited Italy, and his grumbling167 hypochondriacal narrative168 of his tour was ridiculed169 by that more sentimental traveller, Sterne. His "Adventures of an Atom" (1769) is a scurrilous170 political satire. On the other hand his "Humphry[Pg 470] Clinker" (1771), a narrative, in letters, of a journey by English travellers in Scotland, is both more good-humoured and more amusing than any of his other stories—Matthew Bramble is a favourable171 study of his later self; Lieutenant172 Lismahago is a kind of Dugald Dalgetty, born more than a century later than the laird of Drumthwacket, and the spelling and innocent good-hearted absurdity of Winifred Jenkins endear her to every reader, as a contrast to Tabitha Bramble, a bad kind of old maid. Here we meet Ferdinand, Count Fathom, as a sincerely converted character!
Smollett is not only remarkable173 for variety, humour, vigour, as a social observer: he strongly influenced both Fanny Burney and Dickens. His History of England has been justly described by Sir Pitt Crawley as less interesting but less dangerous than that by Hume. Smollett, revisiting Italy, died at Monte Nero, near Leghorn, in the early autumn of 1771.
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anecdote
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| n.轶事，趣闻，短故事 | |
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prolific
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| adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的 | |
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goring
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| v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破( gore的现在分词 ) | |
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disdain
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denominations
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| n.宗派( denomination的名词复数 )；教派；面额；名称 | |
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apprenticed
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| 学徒，徒弟( apprentice的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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middle-aged
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persecuted
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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unnatural
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innocence
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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adroitly
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adroit
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snobbishness
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parody
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virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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paragon
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distress
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wiles
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seducer
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witty
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misery
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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24
sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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25
lengthy
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| adj.漫长的，冗长的 | |
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26
glorification
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| n.赞颂 | |
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27
exasperating
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| adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
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28
engulfed
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| v.吞没，包住( engulf的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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29
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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30
reticence
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| n.沉默，含蓄 | |
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31
portentous
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| adj.不祥的，可怕的，装腔作势的 | |
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32
censures
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| v.指责，非难，谴责( censure的第三人称单数 ) | |
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33
candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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34
intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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35
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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36
sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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37
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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38
prolixity
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| n.冗长，罗嗦 | |
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39
stippled
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| v.加点、绘斑，加粒( stipple的过去式和过去分词 )；（把油漆、水泥等的表面）弄粗糙 | |
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40
continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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41
ethics
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| n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准 | |
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42
memoirs
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| n.回忆录；回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数) | |
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43
detest
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| vt.痛恨，憎恶 | |
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44
conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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45
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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46
conversion
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| n.转化，转换，转变 | |
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47
amenable
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| adj.经得起检验的；顺从的；对负有义务的 | |
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48
contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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49
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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50
illustrated
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| adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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51
journalism
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| n.新闻工作，报业 | |
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52
tiresome
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|
| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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53
satire
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| n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品 | |
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54
licensing
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| v.批准，许可，颁发执照( license的现在分词 ) | |
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55
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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56
squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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57
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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58
tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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59
taverns
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| n.小旅馆，客栈，酒馆( tavern的名词复数 ) | |
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60
villains
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| n.恶棍( villain的名词复数 )；罪犯；（小说、戏剧等中的）反面人物；淘气鬼 | |
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61
rogues
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| n.流氓( rogue的名词复数 )；无赖；调皮捣蛋的人；离群的野兽 | |
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62
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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63
landladies
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| n.女房东，女店主，女地主( landlady的名词复数 ) | |
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64
expedients
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| n.应急有效的，权宜之计的( expedient的名词复数 ) | |
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65
sterling
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| adj.英币的(纯粹的，货真价实的)；n.英国货币(英镑) | |
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66
excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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67
tolerance
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| n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差 | |
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68
manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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69
prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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70
fugitives
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| n.亡命者，逃命者( fugitive的名词复数 ) | |
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71
hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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72
burlesque
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| v.嘲弄，戏仿；n.嘲弄，取笑，滑稽模仿 | |
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73
assailed
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| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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74
invincibly
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| adv.难战胜地，无敌地 | |
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75
grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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76
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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77
egregious
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|
| adj.非常的，过分的 | |
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78
orchard
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| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
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79
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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80
reprobate
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|
| n.无赖汉；堕落的人 | |
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81
infamy
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| n.声名狼藉，出丑，恶行 | |
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82
corrupting
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|
| （使）败坏( corrupt的现在分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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83
corrupt
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| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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84
epic
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| n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的 | |
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85
burlesquing
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| v.（嘲弄地）模仿，（通过模仿）取笑( burlesque的现在分词 ) | |
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86
delightful
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|
| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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87
pedantic
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| adj.卖弄学问的；迂腐的 | |
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88
quotations
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| n.引用( quotation的名词复数 )；[商业]行情（报告）；（货物或股票的）市价；时价 | |
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89
immortality
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| n.不死，不朽 | |
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90
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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91
lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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92
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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93
intentionally
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| ad.故意地，有意地 | |
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94
eminent
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|
| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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95
bestow
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| v.把…赠与，把…授予；花费 | |
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96
dissent
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| n./v.不同意，持异议 | |
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97
relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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98
avows
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| v.公开声明，承认( avow的第三人称单数 ) | |
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99
mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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100
assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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101
wading
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| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的现在分词 ) | |
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102
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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103
aggravate
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| vt.加重(剧)，使恶化；激怒，使恼火 | |
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104
distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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105
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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106
dreading
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| v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的现在分词 ) | |
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107
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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108
martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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109
delirium
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| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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110
magistrate
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| n.地方行政官，地方法官，治安官 | |
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111
infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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112
infamously
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| 不名誉地 | |
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113
corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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114
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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115
tragical
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| adj. 悲剧的, 悲剧性的 | |
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116
catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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117
delightfully
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| 大喜，欣然 | |
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118
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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119
sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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120
partisan
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| adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒 | |
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121
banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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122
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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123
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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124
sketched
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| v.草拟（sketch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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125
posterity
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| n.后裔，子孙，后代 | |
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126
adoration
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| n.爱慕，崇拜 | |
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127
grudges
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| 不满，怨恨，妒忌( grudge的名词复数 ) | |
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128
sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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129
libertines
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| n.放荡不羁的人，淫荡的人( libertine的名词复数 ) | |
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130
odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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131
irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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132
vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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133
random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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134
pickle
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| n.腌汁，泡菜；v.腌，泡 | |
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135
strap
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| n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎 | |
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136
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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137
galleon
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| n.大帆船 | |
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138
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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139
devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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140
truculent
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| adj.野蛮的，粗野的 | |
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141
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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142
woes
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| 困境( woe的名词复数 )； 悲伤； 我好苦哇； 某人就要倒霉 | |
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143
distresses
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| n.悲痛( distress的名词复数 )；痛苦；贫困；危险 | |
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144
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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145
brutality
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| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
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146
bowling
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| n.保龄球运动 | |
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147
fathom
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| v.领悟，彻底了解 | |
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148
patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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149
meritorious
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| adj.值得赞赏的 | |
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150
orphan
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| n.孤儿；adj.无父母的 | |
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151
ebullient
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| adj.兴高采烈的，奔放的 | |
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152
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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153
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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154
wittiest
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| 机智的，言辞巧妙的，情趣横生的( witty的最高级 ) | |
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155
feud
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| n.长期不和；世仇；v.长期争斗；世代结仇 | |
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156
briskness
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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157
nautical
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| adj.海上的，航海的，船员的 | |
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158
pruned
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| v.修剪（树木等）( prune的过去式和过去分词 )；精简某事物，除去某事物多余的部分 | |
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159
pseudonym
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| n.假名，笔名 | |
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160
rascal
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| n.流氓；不诚实的人 | |
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161
descends
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| v.下来( descend的第三人称单数 )；下去；下降；下斜 | |
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162
hawser
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| n.大缆；大索 | |
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163
adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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164
armour
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| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
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165
absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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166
knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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167
grumbling
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| adj. 喃喃鸣不平的, 出怨言的 | |
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168
narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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169
ridiculed
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| v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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170
scurrilous
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| adj.下流的，恶意诽谤的 | |
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171
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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172
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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173
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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