THE PRECEDENT OF DETECTIVE NOVEL , THE PORTRAIT OF SOCIAL REALITY

—— From 《The Woman In White》

Wilkie Collins

Fortunately，I have a chance to read The Woman In White written by Wilkie Collins which was a collection of manuscript narratives by individual characters and an epistolary novel . It was the author’s first detective novel which was published in 1860 and also initiated an additional way for English literature.

PART ONE: About Wilkie Collins

William Wilkie Collins, writer of short stories and originator of detective novels in English, was born in 1824. The son of a respected landscape painter, he was named after his painter godfather, David Wilkie. Educated in London, Collins studied to become a lawer, although it was never his intention to practise, and by 1848 he had turned to writing. He was hugely popular in his time ,and 27 novels ,more than 50 short stories , at least 15 plays and over 100 pieces of non-fiction work.His best -known works are The woman In white , The Moonstone and Armadale.

PART TWO: About the work

The Woman in White is an epistolary novel written by Wilkie Collins.Taking the characteristic of heroes' similar appearance as the main background, the author expresses human being's spirits of risking one's life for great love .It is consi -dered to be among the first mystery novels and is wildly regarded as one of the first and finest in the genre of ‘sensation novels’. Besides, his narrative style —the use of multiple narratives, which moves from character to character,makes the novel

specially wonderful, as Collins points out in his preamble, ‘the story here presented will be told by more than one pen, as the story of an offence against the law is told in court by more than one witness.’

The novel famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter with the woman in white on the moonlit London road,which has laid a solid foundation to the whole story and has transmitted to us a picture full of suspenses. When engaged as a drawing master to beautiful Laura Fairlie, whose appearance presents something analogous to the woman in white concerned above, He deeply fell in love with the heroine Laura. However, she had to marry percival absolutely without character in his father's arrangement who had been coveted her property and marry her for it alone. Sir and Laura's uncle Fosco colluded with each other and persecuted her sister anne to death ,whose appearance presented something analogous to Laura in the vile way of bait -and-switch ,and then held a public funeral by taking anni as the Percival's wife. At the same time ,they brought Laura into delimma instead of anne.

Afterwards, the novel turns back to Hartright’s angle and recounts his reunion with Laura and Marian. Finally, failing to resort to the law, they helped Laura escape from delimma with their own witness and brave.At the end of the book, Hartright tells in detail how he looks for evidence of Sir Percival and Fosco’s crime and how the two evil men are stewed in their own juice, what’s more, the real identity of the woman in white is finally uncovered . After all, the story had a happy ending.Laura and Walter got married and had a son,who became the master of Limmerig House after Mr Farlie's death. Through the whole story , the author aims to express human being's spirits of risking one's life for great love,specifically including friendship, affection and love in this novel !

PART THREE: About Writing Styles

This book is wonderfully written . Firstly, it is considered to be among the first mystery novels and is wildly regarded as one of the first and finest in the genre of ‘sensation novels’,which has been confirmed than shaken by many authoritative literary critics ,and Since the novel's first publication in 1860, generations of readers have experienced just this sensation..The whole story is so suspenseful that when reading it, the reader is always looking for the answer in a sense of curiosity. The second One is about the narrative method.Collins uses different narrators--perh- aps eight altogether, but two or three main ones—to tell different aspects of the whole story, and then he puts each of them in order to infer the clues, finally annouces the surprisingly real facts. In this way, Collins creates vivid, memorable characters (ranging from brave intelligentto the surprising and sinister Count Fosco) who tell the story from the angle of their own interest.

PART FOUR : Character Analysis

There are many characters in this story, such as the heroine Laura,her half-sister Marian ,the woman in white Anne and the painter Walter Hartright and so on . For example, Laura is gentle,sensitive,and it can be said that in man's eyes, she is a perfect woman, but somehow in other words, Soft words, fine sentiments, noble taste ,all of these are just a byword for weakness. it was laura's weakness that caused her to the tragedy. Different from Laura, Marian is strong ,ugly, independent and wearing two kinds of gender roles . If it is said that Jane Eyre is the first heroine with a mediocre appearence in the history of English literature,

while Marianne is the first ugly woman ."the woman is dark," "she is young," "she's ugly," "a firm, man's big mouth and chin." ,all of which are the descriptions to her. However, she left a memorable, special impression to the reader .She is a noble woman ,her irresistible charm is not her appearance but her beautiful soul, intelligent minds and independent personality ! In a word , no matter what kinds of traits, all characters left the social imprint at that time.

When reading the book for the first time, I inferred from the title that the woman in white was a ghost (who knows why!)so I fully expected some specter to rise out of the misty moors. Instead, I was surprised to find myself in the grip of a diabolical and tragic tale told by several different and distinct voices .This book kept me in wanting more after every page and it was very hard to set it down to get other stuff done.Let it be read over again and there will be found on every page the reason why it is called a classic literature work!

康媛璐

S104403

胡雪松班

第二篇：《纳粹女人》读书笔记

《纳粹女人》读书笔记

“纳粹”这个词在我的记忆里一直是罪恶的代名词，希特勒靠着“国家社会主义”登上了政治舞台，维持了一段时间的统治。当时，德国很多纯日耳曼血统的普通民众，特别是小资产阶级合一部分工人，是支持希特勒政权的，因为这一政权从理论上给了他们心理上的优势。法西斯理论使他们认为自己的血统高于犹太人，而他们的社会地位又优于知识分子。希特勒政权初期还给了他们一些实惠，例如给他们提供免费旅游的机会等。“纳粹”，使很多德国人有了一种兴奋感，这种兴奋感使他们产生了要重新称霸欧洲的梦想，也使他们陷入一种非理性的狂热之中。

在这群狂热的人当中，当然也有不少女人。她们确确实实以为自己进入了一个新时代，负有振兴德国的历史重任，所以心甘情愿地支持“纯日耳曼血统”的邪说，并愿意为保持纯日耳曼血统而生儿育女。她们全然看不到灾难正在身边发生，因为她们太热衷于眼前的利益，也太相信希特勒“富国强民”的承诺了。当战争使她们成为寡妇，使她们的子女成为孤儿，使她们居住的地方成为废墟时，她们中的一些人才明白过来，可为时已晚。

这本《纳粹女人》说的就是这些处于特殊位置的女人们。她们有的是妻子，为了丈夫的权利事业而奉献自己；有的是情妇，虽没有得到所谓的名分，但仍狂热的沉迷于纳粹活动；有的是职业女性，用自己的职业优势为纳粹的宣传和发展贡献自己的一份力量……这些女人们经历各不相同，但不要忘了，她们有一个共同的特点，那就是与权力结盟。她们在选择人生伙伴和生活取向时，起码在下意识里选择的都是权力。她们不可能对周围发生的残暴行为浑然不觉，却仍醉心其中。我们不禁要问：这是为什么？她们在官方场合又扮演什么角色？带着这样的疑问，我走入了这14个女人的世界。

这14个纳粹女人，有人们所熟知的希特勒的情妇爱娃·布劳恩；有第三帝国的传奇女飞行员汉娜·赖奇；有盖世太保头儿的妻子莉娜·海德里希；有纳粹妇女领袖格特鲁德·朔尔茨—克林克……她们当中可以分为几种类型：一类是妻子，她们的丈夫都是“声名显赫”同时又是臭名昭著的纳粹高官，戈林的两任妻子，盖世太保头儿的妻子……一类则是我们所称的“女强人”，她们自己有不输男儿的本领，却甘愿为希特勒“俘虏”，如飞行员汉娜，女导演莱妮；剩下的这一类，只有一位，她的名字叫尤妮蒂·瓦尔基里·米特福德。她的特殊是因为——她是英国人。

第二次世界大战一结束，媒体就对那些接受审判的纳粹名媛做了大量的报道，但当时许多引起轰动的揭密材料，以及当事人颇动感情的自我辩解，事后证明都是失实的。但这本书的作者则是通过查阅事后公开的保密档案，比较大量当事人和第三者的描述来完成此书，力

求再现历史。

14位纳粹女人中，让我印象颇为深刻的有2位。

第一位就是纳粹党办公厅主任兼“元首”秘书马丁·博尔曼的妻子格尔达·博尔曼。

在现在看来，如果一个男孩子“脚踏两只船”，或者一个丈夫搞外遇，都是对爱情极为不忠诚的表现，作为女友或妻子，应该感到震惊与失望，然而，格尔达却是一个典型的一夫多妻制的倡导者！这真让我费解。到底是什么样的一个男人，会让女人如此甘愿？马丁·博尔曼脑袋圆圆的，身材又肥又胖，按照汉斯·君特教授在其纳粹种族经典论著中定下的标准，必属“劣等种族”无疑。甚至于，他比身高苗条、相貌迷人的格尔达还要矮上几乎一个头！如此不和谐的夫妻搭配，在我看来几乎相当于两个极端的结合，但格尔达却仍旧甘心呆在丈夫身后，无论是马丁与自己的父亲闹别扭，又或是马丁背叛自己，与电影演员曼妮娅·贝伦斯亲密无间。在外人看来，格尔达像她父亲一样正派、内向、有教养，却偏偏和一个最粗暴的男人绑在了一起，此人还把在外人面前像对待牲畜一样侮辱自己的妻子当成一种乐趣……可是就这样，格尔达仍为马丁剩下了九个孩子，其中有一个夭折。丈夫是希特勒幕后的策划者，格尔达作为妻子，也从不爱出风头，在纳粹聚会场合，她总是“整个晚上一句话不说，一副孩儿他妈的模样。她这样倒让希特勒特别尊敬地待她。”人人都同情格尔达，以为她不得不默默认命，一定痛苦不堪。实际情况却恰恰相反，纳粹社交界的正统夫人们可能会感到震惊，格尔达的确不仅不反对丈夫有外遇，而且还鼓励他这样。博尔曼有和妻子通信的习惯，他们的私人通信可以说明一切。就是这样一个女人，在临终的时候也没忘记纳粹，但为了下一代，格尔达抛弃了一切纳粹主义的想法，将孩子托付给天主教的神甫。

格尔达是可悲的，至少在我看来是如此。她似乎认为纳粹理想高于一切，却忽视自己身为一个女人的根本。她觉得“大度”是纳粹者应做的，所以对丈夫寻花问柳毫不在意，可是她真的不在意吗？我很怀疑。她的可怜也就在此，又哭不能说，还要装出一副满不在乎的样子，更何况她引以为豪的“元首”，坚定不移追随的“党”，竟是那么的不堪。

第二位是希特勒的英国女战神——尤妮蒂·瓦尔基里·米特福德。

尤妮蒂出生在英国的一个勋爵家庭中。她的父亲，里兹代尔勋爵，和母亲悉尼，一共有7个孩子。尤妮蒂排行第四，从小到大，尤妮蒂就很野，他们把她送进无数个学校念书，但是哪个学校她都没呆多久。长大后，尤妮蒂的大个儿和一头浓密的金发使得她在社交界格外引人注目。后来，经历一番波折，尤妮蒂和姐姐来到了德国，见到了希特勒。希特勒本来就敬仰英国上流社会，现在居然有个英国贵族小姐完全是为了见他来到德国，他也受宠若惊，于是，尤妮蒂一步步地接近了希特勒，接近了德国纳粹党。希特勒的亲信净是些稀奇古怪的

人物，作为唯一的外国女子，尤妮蒂居然受到如此礼遇，并且在短时间内能在纳粹社会中占据如此显要的位置，这本身就很能说明问题。她到处不知疲倦地宣扬英国人和德国人应该结成兄弟般的友谊，随后数年，她经常在英德之间往来穿梭，充当传声筒。尤妮蒂对希特勒是狂热的英雄崇拜，因而当最后她所敬爱的“元首”要对英国爆发战争时，尤妮蒂的世界崩溃了，她朝自己的太阳穴开了一枪……尽管没有死，但她脑中却永久留下了那枚子弹，最后痛苦的生活了十年的孤单日子，死于自杀后遗症。

尤妮蒂命好苦，她曾说过“我有两个祖国”，当一个祖国向另一个祖国宣战时，她又能怎么办？自杀是为了逃避现实，可事实终究不会因此而改变。在我看来，尤妮蒂走入歧途的首要原因是对希特勒的个人崇拜，由此进一步地接受了令人难以置信的“纳粹观”，并乐意为此效力。

这些女人们都忘记了一点，纳粹党本身对女人的主张就是很变态的。早在19xx年，纳粹党全体党员大会就一致决定：纳粹党领导层和党内主要委员会不得接纳女性。希特勒把话说的更简单明了“我最讨厌女人干预政治，我敢说，99%的讨论议题都是男人的事务，女人是没这份儿判断力的……”

看了《纳粹女人》这本书，让我从另一个角度观看了这场战争，德国哲学家叔本华说过：洗牌的是上帝，玩牌的是人。我们既然扮演了如此重要的角色，就应该在自己的信仰上多下点功夫。也许，恶魔会永远与人类做伴，但如果我们有了人性，有了如何做人的素质，恶魔打出的牌就不会令那么多人晕头转向，悲剧也就不会再发生了。

人文学院 07对外汉语

吴保宜

20xx年4月3日