具体描述
The Rivals, a comedy in five acts, established Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s reputation in the London theatre in 1775. When the first performance was not well received, Sheridan cut it by an hour, strengthened the idiosyncratic characters, and produced the new version in a highly successful second performance that proved his merit as a great comic playwright. The Rivals is one of a small handful of eighteenth-century plays that continues to be produced to this day. While the plot is complex, the characters are stock comic caricatures of human folly, aptly named.
The plot centres around the two young lovers, Lydia and Jack. Lydia, who reads a lot of popular novels of the time, wants a purely romantic love affair. To court her, Jack pretends to be "Ensign Beverly", a poor officer. Lydia is enthralled with the idea of eloping with a poor soldier in spite of her guardian, Mrs. Malaprop, a moralistic widow. Mrs. Malaprop is the chief comic figure of the play, thanks to her continual misuse of words that sound like the words she intends but mean something completely different.
Lydia has two other suitors: Bob Acres (a somewhat buffoonish country gentleman), and Sir Lucius O'Trigger, an impoverished and combative Irish gentleman. Sir Lucius pays Lucy to carry love notes between him and Lydia (who uses the name "Delia"), but Lucy is swindling him: "Delia" is actually Mrs. Malaprop!
A Comedy of Manners, the play satirizes sentimentalism and sophisticated pretensions, without the typical eighteenth-century moralizing. The dialogue crackles with wit even today, over two hundred years after it was first penned. This play is the source of the term "malapropism," named for Mrs. Malaprop, whose delightful ‘‘derangement of epitaphs’’ consists of using sophisticated-sounding words incorrectly. The Rivals is an example of what Oliver Goldsmith called in his 1773 "An Essay on the Theatre," "laughing comedy," in contrast with the "weeping sentimental comedy" that dished out heavy handed moralizing in every act. Sheridan wrote his most theatrical works, including the more well-known The School for Scandal during the five-year period at the beginning of his career. He went on to manage the Drury Lane Theatre for nearly thirty years and to pursue a successful career in politics, becoming famous for his oratorical abilities.
作者简介
目录信息
读后感
用户评价
说实话，这本书的内容深度远超我的预期。我原本以为这会是一部纯粹的类型小说，但它却用引人入胜的情节包装了一个关于“选择的代价”的沉重主题。作者似乎毫不避讳地将人性的灰色地带摊开来给我们看，没有绝对的好人与坏蛋，只有在特定压力下做出不同反应的个体。我最欣赏的一点是，它拒绝提供廉价的答案。每一次看似明确的转折，都可能在下一章被推翻，这种不确定性反而让整个阅读体验更加真实和引人入胜。那种智力上的挑战感，迫使你不断地去猜测、去质疑，甚至去审判书中的人物。它不是那种读完就扔的书，它更像是邀请你进行一场长期的思辨，让你不断地在脑海中重构故事情节的逻辑链条。
这本书的对话设计简直是一绝，简直可以作为剧本写作的教科书。人物之间的交流充满了张力，很多时候，真正重要的信息都不是直白地说出来的，而是隐藏在那些欲言又止的停顿、那些精心设计的反问和那些表面平静实则暗流汹涌的回应之中。我反复阅读了其中几段关于两位核心人物的争执场面，每次都能发现新的层次感。作者对潜台词的运用达到了炉火纯青的地步，让你在阅读时必须全神贯注，否则就会错过那些决定人物命运的关键暗示。这种叙事上的留白和技巧上的克制，使得整个故事充满了呼吸感和生命力，而不是那种被作者牵着走的刻板叙事。读完后，我甚至开始模仿书中的一些说话方式，可见其对我的影响之深远。
关于这本书的结构，我必须给予高度评价。它采用了非线性的叙事手法，通过不同角色的视角来拼凑一个完整的事件全貌，这种碎片化的信息给予读者极大的参与感。就像在玩一个巨大的三维拼图，你需要将A视角的模糊信息和C视角的偏颇观点结合起来，才能拼凑出接近真相的面貌。这种设计极大地增强了叙事的悬念感和复杂性，也避免了任何单一角色叙述带来的偏见或局限。对于习惯了传统线性叙事的读者来说，这可能需要适应，但一旦适应，那种抽丝剥茧、层层深入的阅读快感是无与伦比的。它考验的不仅仅是你的阅读能力，更是你的信息整合和逻辑推理能力，这使得它在众多文学作品中显得独树一帜，绝对是值得珍藏的一部佳作。
这本小说简直是文字的盛宴，作者的笔触细腻得让人惊叹，每一个场景、每一个人物的内心活动都描绘得入木三分。我尤其欣赏它那种对人性和社会现象的深刻洞察力，读起来绝不仅仅是打发时间，更像是一次对自我和周遭世界的重新审视。故事的节奏掌控得非常巧妙，高潮迭起却又张弛有度，让人忍不住一口气读完，但读完后又会情不自禁地回味那些精妙的对白和伏笔。那种读完后内心久久不能平静，想要立刻找人分享却又觉得言语苍白的感受，是衡量一部好书的重要标准，而这本书无疑做到了。它成功地构建了一个复杂而又真实可信的世界，里面的角色仿佛就活在我们的身边，他们的挣扎、他们的胜利、他们的妥协，都深深触动了我。我很少遇到能将叙事技巧和哲学思考结合得如此天衣无缝的作品，它不卖弄技巧，但处处可见匠心。
我必须承认，这本书的开篇稍微有些慢热，需要一点耐心去适应作者那种略显疏离但又极富画面感的叙事风格。然而，一旦你跨过了最初的门槛，就会发现作者铺设的细节如同精密的钟表齿轮，最终会合力推动一个宏大而震撼的结局。它不像那些流水账式的畅销书那样追求即时满足，它更像是一部需要细细品味的古典音乐，初听可能觉得旋律晦涩，但深入其中，便能领略到那份深沉而复杂的和声之美。我特别喜欢它对环境氛围的营造，那种淡淡的忧郁感贯穿始终，却又在关键时刻爆发出人性的光辉，对比强烈，极具艺术张力。读完之后，我感觉自己的词汇量都仿佛被拓宽了，作者对语言的驾驭能力，那种对不同语境下词语选择的精准拿捏，是令人叹服的。
非常喜欢，真逗
非常喜欢，真逗
非常喜欢，真逗
非常喜欢，真逗
非常喜欢，真逗
