【导读】 世界名著《呼啸山庄》是19世纪英国文学的代表作之一。小说全篇充满强烈的反压迫、争幸福的斗争精神,又始终笼罩着离奇、紧张的浪漫气氛。阅读下面的节选,对比中外文化中对收养弃儿态度的异同。
Wuthering Heights (excerpt)
Ellen Dean's story-Catherine and Heathcliff as children
1770.When I was a child,I was always at Wuthering Heights,because my mother was a servant of the Earnshaw family.They are a very old family who have lived in that house for centuries,as you can see from their names on the stone over the front door.I grew up with Catherine and Hindley Earnshaw,and we three played together as children.
One day,their father Mr.Earnshaw came back from a long journey.He had travelled sixty miles to Liverpool and back on business,and was very tired.
"Look what I've brought you!" he told us all,unwrapping something he was holding carefully in his arms.Catherine and Hindley were expecting presents,and they rushed eagerly to see what it was.They were very disappointed to see only a dirty,blackhaired gipsy child.
"I found him all alone in the busy streets of Liverpool,"Mr.Earnshaw explained to them,"and I couldn't leave him to die.He can sleep in your room." But Hindley and Catherine were angry because they had not received any presents,and refused to let the strange child share their room.However Mr.Earnshaw insisted,and little by little the boy became accepted by the family.He was called Heathcliff,as a first and last name.No one ever discovered who his parents had been.
Catherine and he became great friends,but Hindley hated him,and was often cruel to him.Old Mr.Earnshaw was strangely fond of this gipsy child,and frequently punished his son for behaving badly to Heathcliff.Hindley began to be jealous of his father's feelings for Heathcliff,and saw them both as enemies.
This situation could not last.As Mr.Earnshaw grew old and ill,Heathcliff became