Читайте также:
|
(speaks of, describes, shows….., depicts…) (Give an outline of the story following the pattern suggested.)
(Mrs. Forrester’s unobtrusive and well-mannered husband, who was tolerated but ignored by her guests; the shattering news that Mr. Forrester has eloped with the cook and Mr. Simmons’ advice to get him back at once; Mrs. Forrester’s celebrated luncheons, where she provided first-class conversation, as well as uncommonly good food and wine; her exquisite tea-parties; her handsome drawing-room; her failure to battle for her husband’s affection with Mrs. Bulfinch; her decision to try her distinguished hand at a detective-story; the financial failure of her previous books in spite of the critics’ praise; the success that attended the publication of her detective novel.)
4. Give a summary of the story following the plan suggested below.
¨ У м-с Форестер был дар собирать у себя самых разнообразных людей. Быть приглашенным к ней на чашку чая почиталось за особую честь.
¨ Но она не ограничивалась еженедельными чаепитиями. По субботам она давала обеды, где гости наслаждались не только отменной едой, но и пищей духовной.
¨ Её муж, м-р Форестер, был заурядным и немногословным человеком. Он держался в тени и никогда не мешал. Как говорила его супруга, он являл для неё живую связь с миром обывателей.
¨ Однажды М-с Форестер узнает, что повариха ушла, не известив её заранее, и что М-р Форестер сбежал вместе с ней.
¨ М-р Симмонс, издатель, настаивает, чтобы м-с Форестер любыми средствами вернула мужа, ибо она не может позволить себе стать посмешищем.
¨ Однако м-с Форестер обнаруживает, что мужу очень уютно у м-с Булфинч и что они прекрасно сошлись характерами. Ничто не заставит его вернуться. М-с Форестер ему не подходит, и его решение окончательно.
¨ М-р Форестер предлагает супруге одну треть своего дохода – 300 фунтов в год. Но как на это прожить?! Ведь её утонченные произведения не распродаются. И тут М-с Булфинч советует своей бывшей хозяйке написать детективный роман.
¨ Вначале м-с Форестер находит эту идею нелепой, но затем решает поднять детектив до уровня искусства. Её роман «Статуя Ахиллеса» с восторгом встречен и критиками, и публикой и ограждает её на всю дальнейшую жизнь от финансовых забот.
5. Vocabulary study. Choose the vocabulary items that the author uses to characterise his protagonists, to speak about the literary circle and their ways.
6. What‘s the climax of the story? (= the culminating point of the highest tension).Explain why you think so.
7. What’s the resolution of the story? (развязка).
8. Irony is a stylistic device which consists in saying just the opposite of what you mean. It usually creates a humorous effect, but, unlike pure humour, it can be biting and acid. Give cases of irony. Explain what is really meant in each case.
9. What is your impression of the story? Why is it called “The Creative Impulse”.
Lesson 8. Maugham. The Moon and Sixpence. Chapter 1.
You’ll analyse a piece of fiction which the author tries to represent as a kind of report, assuming the position of an objective onlooker.
1. Pronunciation drill + vocabulary study.
| Discern Disturb Extol Ridicule Recollect Estimate | Break the calm Succeed in remembering Give your judgment Praise Make fun of See | Authentic Eccentric Sublime Significant | Important Real Strange, abnormal Highest | Adulation Fascination Manifestation Oblivion Notoriety Immortality disparagement | Charm Living for ever Show Being forgotten Being well-known for smth. bad Much praise criticism |
a) Pronounce the words in bold italics;
b) Ask each other to supply the necessary word or to explain what this or that word means: “What does “….”mean?” “What’s the English for “…..”?
2. Supply the missing word (sometimes more than one can be possible.
(a) It isn’t always easy to …. A truly talented work of art. (b) Few writers can hope for…; most of them sink into ….soon after they are dead. (c) It isn’t the plot that makes a novel really…. (d) A true genius takes little notice of the … of his critics or of the …of his admirers. (e) It’s wrong to … a work of art just because you don’t understand it. (f) artists who make a point of being eccentric usually succeed in achieving … instead of fame.
3. Chapter 1 can serve as a kind of introduction to Maugham’s novel. There is no narrative as yet. The story of Charles Strickland’s life is given in retrospect. The writer assumes the position of an objective reporter. We are supposed to take it for granted that Charles Strickland is recognized as a famous painter now. We also learn….
Add a few facts about Charles Strickland’s work and life that you have learned from the introductory chapter. (E.g.: «Он жил в неизвестности (= не на виду у публики)». «Он приобретал врагов, а не друзей.»).
4. The story-teller says that the most fascinating thing in art is the personality of the artist. What is it, then, that he gives to prove the authentic greatness of Charles Strickland? (e.g., «Он смущает и приковывает внимание.» «Его тайну пытаешься раскрыть, словно захватывающий детектив.», etc.
5. Asking the question, “What is man’s real self?” Maugham shows that biographers often obscure the answer. And in the chapter, he gives us two sets of characteristic features of Strickland: those that appeal to the general public and those that don’t.
What are the features that appeal to the general public and what are those that don’t? (Mind that Maugham has a sarcastic attitude to both sets of biographers because he knows that both are not sincere).
6. Choose the phrases that most clearly show Maugham’s sarcasm when he speaks of Strickland’s critics and biographers. Explain what drawbacks of human nature he mocks at (=ridicules, makes fun of). E.g.:
7. Give Maugham’s attitude to the following problems:
¨ Has one a right to discuss an artist and his work without being a professional?
¨ Is the faculty for myth really innate in the human race?
8. Does Maugham agree with the statement of Weitbrecht-Rotholtz that ”human nature is not only about as bad as it can be, but a good deal worse”?
9. Why did Maugham decide to begin his novel in such a way instead of starting with a straight narrative?
Paul Gauguin [go:'gaen] has become a legendary figure: the Parisian stockbroker, who suddenly forsook his home, his career, and even his family to devote himself wholly to painting. He wanted to find some earthly paradise in which his genius could be fully released. In his struggle to give artistic expression to his deepest emotions and ideas he ultimately rejected Western civilisation.
Gauguin had moments of illumination alternating with periods of doubt, negation, and discomfort. Some critics say that there were moments when he "should conserve his moral energy by closing the doors of his heart". He declared to his wife that the duty of an artist "is to work and become strong". His reaction against circumstances gave him his reputation as a strong man who had won "the right to do what he liked".
Gauguin was 45 years old when he flew from Europe to Tahiti in 1891, driven by a “terrible craving for novelty”, and for a land still unspoilt by civilisation.
He settled on Tahiti on a strip of land about 40 miles from the city. He adopted the costume and shared the life of the Maoris who were his only neighbours, and tried to discover the secret of their unchanging existence. “I am gradually shedding my civilisation”, he wrote with satisfaction. “ I am beginning to think simply”…
Before leaving France Gauguin sold some thirty of his pictures. But the money soon ended. Promises made to him were not kept and he was soon almost destitute. Weakened by poverty he began to spit blood in March 1892. In spite of his material difficulties, and his mental and physical sufferings, Gauguin’s achievement during these months had been considerable. Gauguin makes no attempt at a facile exploitation of an exotic and picturesque setting; what his pictures are, is a return to the sources of all human emotions, in a Garden of Eden miraculously preserved. Pagan though they are, they possess a profound, almost mystical gravity.
Because of the financial trouble Gauguin has to return to France, but after another sale of paintings he set sail again for Tahiti, this time never to return.
It would be difficult to imagine a more tragic life than Gauguin’s in the years that followed. His letters are a long series of cries of agony. “Today I am prostrate, weak, almost worn out by the merciless struggle I had undertaken; I kneel and I lay aside all pride. I am nothing but a failure”.
In the face of all difficulties, Gauguin went on painting. For him, reality was no more than a canvas, which he covered with yellow leaves, red streams, and amethyst meadows. Gauguin gave up all attempts at realistic representation, in favour of a simplified manner, in which decorative lines and flat areas of bright colour are the dominant elements. A simplified technique gives a marvellous purity to the colours and harmonious lines of his pictures. They are full of mysterious poetry as of witchcraft, and massive figures with their unwavering gaze and stiff gestures are timeless and eternal.
Gauguin was interested in the old Maori religions. But it was the essence of the cult rather than the details which the artist sought to capture and transcribe. One of the largest pictures – bears the significant title “Whence do we come? What are we? Whither do we go?”.
Yet his life was becoming daily more intolerable. His health and his temper grew worse. He was dissatisfied with everything, even with Tahiti, which he found “too civilised”. His one desire was to escape to a “more barbarous region”. In 1901 he left Tahiti and moved to Hiva-Oa. He was, in fact coming to an end of his spiritual pilgrimage. “We have exhausted all the words can express, and have relapsed into silence. I look at the flowers, motionless like us; I listen to great birds, suspended in space, and I understand the Great Truth”. But now his days were numbered. One morning 1903 he was found dead in his hut. On his easel stood an unfinished painting, looking strange in this home of eternal spring. “A Breton Village in the Snow”.
Дата добавления: 2015-08-27; просмотров: 207 | Нарушение авторских прав
| <== предыдущая страница | | | следующая страница ==> |
| Lesson 5. Home reading. S. Maugham. “Footprints in the Jungle”. | | | CHAPTERS 2,3. |