英语翻译The Importance of letters in “Pride and Prejudice” 1 Int

英语翻译
The Importance of letters in “Pride and Prejudice”
1 Introduction
The English author Jane Austen lived from 1775 to 1817.Her novels are highly prized not only for their light irony,humor,and depiction of contemporary English country life,but also for their underlying serious qualities.Among all the novels written by her,Pride and Prejudice has been valued as the most successful and popular masterpiece.Before the advent of devices such as the telegraph or telephone,letter writing was a very important mode of communication.
In “Pride and Prejudice”,Jane Austen’s usage of letters allows the reader to fully comprehend the situation and certain feelings of the characters.In this novel,the plot is developed entirely through letters.Some epistolary novels present an exchange of letters between several characters.In others,the letters of only one character make up the narrative.Readers of the novel in Jane Austen’s time,being frequent letter writers and readers would have been very comfortable with this genre.Letter writing helped to maintain social and family ties and communicated important information; thus,the ability to write a good letter was greatly admired.Letters play an important role in this novel.
2 History and Social Background
2.1 History
To reveal how useful the letters are in “Pride and Prejudice”,we need to look at the history behind letter writing.Jane Austen’s novel,“Pride and Prejudice” was written in 1813.The main form of communication then was by letters.However,they did not have a Central Postal system that we have today,where if you want to send a letter or parcel urgently then it could arrive within a few hours,whereas they had their mail sent by Mail Coach.Moreover,you could send the mail by “express”,which was where you would pay an extra amount of money to have your mail sent faster.
2.2 Social Background
And in Jane Austen’s day,there were no envelopes (or postage stamps),and the “envelope” mentioned in connection with Caroline Bingley’s letter and Darcy’s letter was merely another sheet of paper folded around the rest.At the time,letters were charged according to the number of sheets of paper,so the smaller you could make your writing,the more you could fit in.To save postage,letters were frequently “crossed”:i.e.after a sheet of paper had been written on,it was turned 90°,and further lines were written crossing the original writing (there is a reference to this practice in Emma).It was the recipient,rather than the sender,who paid the postage.

1.介绍《傲慢与偏见》是英国作者简?奥斯丁（1775—1817）的代表作.这部作品以日常生活为素材,一反当时社会上流行的感伤小说的内容和矫揉造作的写作方法,生动地反映了18世纪末到19世纪初处于保守和闭塞状态下的英国乡镇生活和世态人情.在当时,没有电报、电话等现代通讯设备,信件便是最方便,最常用的沟通方式.而本篇小说中,作者正是以信件为线索,以风趣诙谐的语言来烘托人物的性格特征.这种艺术上的创新使这部社会风情画式的小说不仅在当时吸引着广大的读者,时至今日,仍给读者以独特的艺术享受.在《傲慢与偏见》中作者在信件的运用上恰到好处.不仅让读者体会到当时的时代背景,还让读者让深切地感受到了人物内心的矛盾变化.这篇小说一改以往小说中运用信件的常态,使书信不仅仅只在主人公之间流通,也不再单单起到叙事作用.而是巧妙的将信件作为联络家庭,联系社会的线索,推动故事情节的发展.2.历史和社会背景 书信在《傲慢与偏见》中起了举足轻重的作用,这一点不妨让我们来看一下当时的历史背景.《傲慢与偏见》写于1813年,那时,人们主要的交流方式是写信.然而,他们却不像我门一样拥有完整的邮政体系,可以让你的加急信件或包裹几个小时内便到达,而他们的邮件靠的是邮寄马车.此外,你可以发送特快邮件,而为此你将付出额外的金钱.简奥斯丁所処的时代是没有信封（或邮票）的.在提到卡罗琳宾利和达西先生的信件时,所说的“信封”只不过是一张纸折过来包住剩下的纸张.当时,信件是按照纸张的页数来收费的,所以纸用的越少邮资越少.为节省邮资,信通常被“对折”,也就是说：写完一页纸之后,翻过90度,再在原来信件的背面继续写（这种做法在《艾玛》中可以看到）.为邮资付费的是收信人,而不是寄信人.