欧·亨利短篇小说《麦琪的礼物》相关介绍

【内容简介】

《麦琪的礼物》讲述的是一个圣诞节里发生在社会下层的小家庭中的故事。男主人公吉姆是一位薪金仅够维持生活的小职员，女主人公德拉是一位贤惠善良的主妇。他们的生活贫穷，但吉姆和德拉各自拥有一样极珍贵的宝物。吉姆有祖传的一块金表，德拉有一头美丽的瀑布般的秀发。为了能在圣诞节送给对方一件礼物，吉姆卖掉了他的金表为德拉买了一套“纯玳瑁做的，边上镶着珠宝”的梳子；德拉卖掉了自己的长发为吉姆买了一条白金表链。他们都为对方舍弃了自己最宝贵的东西，而换来的礼物却因此变得毫无作用了。

Gifts of the Magi

【人物介绍】

德拉

德拉对她的一头秀发是珍爱有加、引以自豪的。她天性爱美，再穷也要把自己打扮得干净漂亮，在丈夫面前展示自己的美丽。但为了给丈夫买一件“精致、珍奇而真正有价值”的圣诞礼物，她忍痛割爱，以爱换钱，为丈夫买了珍贵的白金表链。

吉姆

吉姆全身心地投入工作，薪水却极菲薄，且在不断缩减。只能住在贫民窟一般的公寓里，每周的入除房租、伙食费之外，几近于无。但他非常喜爱妻子这头美丽的褐发，深知爱妻为了装扮头发对百老汇路上一家商店橱窗里陈列的王代猖发梳渴望已久，为了在圣诞前夕给爱妻赠送礼物，忍痛卖掉了三代祖传的金表。

Jim's Gold Watch

英文小说正文：

Gifts of the Magi

By O. Henry

Gifts of the Magi

This story was written at the time when men did not wear their watches on their arms as they do now, but in their pockets, with a chain. Women had long hair of which they were very proud, and they put combs at the sides and back.

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. Della counted it three times. One dollar and eighty-seven cents, and the next day would be Christmas. She sat down and cried. Della was Mrs. James Dillingham-Young. She and her husband lived in two rooms at the top of a building in a poor part of New York. once Jim Della’s husband, had work which paid him thirty dollars a week; but now he got only twenty. Jim and Della loved each other very much.

Della stopped crying. She stood by the window and looked out. Tomorrow would be Christmas day and she had only one dollar eighty-seven cents with which buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, and this is all she had got. She had spent many happy hours planning something nice for him, something fine and beautiful which was really worth for Jim.

Suddenly she turned quickly round and stood in front of the looking-glass. Her eyes were shining brightly, but her face had lost its color. She quickly pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.

There were two possessions of Mr. and Mrs. Young in which they took great pride. One was Jim’s gold watch. That watch had belonged to his father and before that to his grandfather. The other proud possession was Della’s hair: it was beautiful hair: it flowed down her back like a golden river.

She quickly did up her hair again. She put on her old coat and the old brown hat, ran down the stairs and out into the street. She stopped at a shop: “Madame Sofrone, Hair-goods of all kinds”. She ran up the stairs.

“Will you buy my hair?” said Della.

“I buy hair,” said Madame. “Take off your hat and let me see it.”

Down flowed the river of gold.

Madame lifted the hair in her hand. “Twenty dollars.” she said.

“Give me quickly,” said Della.

For the next two hours Della was searching the shops for Jim’s present. She found the present at last. It had certainly been made for Jim and for no one else. It was good enough to go with his watch. In the past Jim sometimes did not like to take out his watch because it had no chain; but, with that chain on his watch, Jim might look at the time in any company.

When Della reached home she set to work to do something to her hair, and her head was covered with little curls which made her look like a schoolboy.

At seven o’clock the evening meal was ready.

Jim was never late. She held the watch-chain in her hand and sat on a corner of the table near the door though which he always came in. Then she heard his step on the stairs. She said a little prayer: “Please, God, make Jim think I am still pretty.” The door opened and Jim came in. He looked very thin and serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two. He needed a new coat.

Jim stopped inside the door and stood there. His eyes were fixed on Della. There was a strange look in them. It was not anger, nor surprise. Della could not understand that strange look. He simply stood there looking at her----looking.

Della got off the table and went to him.

“Jim dear,” she said, “don’t look at me in that way. I ---- I had my hair cut off and I sold it, because I couldn’t have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. My hair will grow again. You don’t mind, do you? I had to do it. My hair grows very fast. Say ‘Happy Christmas’, Jim, and let’s be happy. You don’t know what a beautiful present I’ve got for you.”

“You’ve cut off your hair?” said Jim, as he hadn’t quite understood the fact yet.

“Yes, I’ve cut it off and sold it,” said Della. “Don’t you like just as well without my hair? I’m just the same girl without my hair, aren’t I?”

Jim looked about the room. “You say your hair is gone?” he said.

“You don’t need to look for it,” said Della. “I tell you it’s sold. It’s sold; it’s gone. And this is the evening before Christmas, Jim. I sold it for you. It may be that ‘ the hairs of my head are numbered’, but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I get the meal ready, Jim?”

Jim took Della in his arms and kissed her. Then he took a packet out of his coat pocket and put it on the table.

“Don’t make any mistake, Della,” he said. “I don’t think there is anything that you could do to your hair which would make me love my girl any less. But, if you will undo the packet, you will see why I was rather surprised at first.”

Della undid the packet and gave a cry of joy. Then she began to cry. For there lay the combs! The set of combs, side and back, which she had looked at so long in the window of a shop. They were beautiful combs with jewels in them, just the right color for her hair. She had looked at them and wanted them, yet never hope to possess them. Now they were hers; but the hair for which she had wanted them was gone.

She looked up at Jim with tear-filled eyes. Then, with a smile, she said, “My hair grows so fast, Jim.”

She jumped up and cried, “Oh! Oh! Oh!”

Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him in her open hand. The bright gold shone.

“Isn’t it beautiful, Jim? I hunted all over the town to find it. You’ll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch, I want to see how it looks on it.”

Jim did not obey. He sat down, and put his hands behind his head and smiled.

“Della,” he said, “let’s put our Christmas present away and keep them for a time. They’re too nice to use just at present… I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. Now shall we have our evening meal?”

The Magi brought presents to Jesus Christ on the first Christmas of all Christmases. They first had the idea of giving Christmas presents. They were wise. Here I have told you this story of two foolish children in a poor set of rooms who gave up for each other his or her greatest treasure. They chose their presents unwisely; but those gifts which are the sign of real love are the best gifts of all.

They are the Magi.

作者简介

作者：（美国）欧·亨利（O.Henry.）

欧·亨利（O.Henry.）

欧·亨利原名威廉·西德尼·波特(William Sydney Porter)，是美国最著名的短篇小说家之一，曾被评论界誉为曼哈顿桂冠散文作家和美国现代短篇小说之父。他出身于美国北卡罗来纳州格林斯波罗镇一个医师家庭。

他的一生富于传奇性，当过药房学徒、牧牛人、会计员、土地局办事员、新闻记者、银行出纳员。当银行出纳员时，因银行短缺了一笔现金，为避免审讯，离家流亡中美的洪都拉斯。后因回家探视病危的妻子被捕入狱，并在监狱医务室任药剂师。他创作第一部作品的起因是为了给女儿买圣诞礼物，但基于犯人的身份不敢使用真名，乃用一部法国药典的编者的名字作为笔名。1901年提前获释后，迁居纽约，专门从事写作。

欧·亨利善于描写美国社会尤其是纽约百姓的生活。他的作品构思新颖，语言诙谐，结局常常出人意外；又因描写了众多的人物，富于生活情趣，被誉为“美国生活的幽默百科全书”。代表作有小说集《白菜与国王》、《四百万》、《命运之路》等。其中一些名篇如《爱的牺牲》、《警察与赞美诗》、《带家具出租的房间》、《麦琪的礼物》、《最后一片藤叶》等使他获得了世界声誉。

名句：“这时一种精神上的感慨油然而生，认为人生是由啜泣、抽噎和微笑组成的，而抽噎占了其中绝大部分。”（《欧·亨利短篇小说选》）

《欧·亨利短篇小说选》作品目录

The gift of the magi

A cosmopolite in a cafe

Between rounds

The skylight room

A service of love

The cop and the anthem

The love-philtre of lkey schoenstein

Mammon and the archer

Springtime ala carte

An unfinished story

Sisters of the golden circle

The romance of a busy broker

The furnished room

Telemachus,friend

The handbook of hymen

The pendulum

The buyer from cactus city

Vanity and some sables

The social triangle

The lost blend

A harlem Tragedy

The last leaf

The count and the wedding guest

Jeff peters as a personal magnet

The exact science of matrimony

Conscience in art

The man higher up

A ramble in aphasia

Proof of the pudding

Past one at rooney's

‘The rose of Dixie’

The third ingredient

Buried treasure

The moment of victory

The sleuths

Witches'loaves

At arms with morpheus

Jimmy hayes and muriel

The duplicity of hargreaves

Law and order

‘Next to reading matter’

A double-dyed deceiver

The passing of black eagle

A lickpenny lover

‘Little speck in garnered fruit’

While the auto waits

The shocks of doom

A technical error

Ruler of men

The atavism of john tom little bear

The End

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2018年3月10日