免费2008-01-01故园风雨后The memoirs of Captain Charles Ryder who is stationed at Brideshead Castle during WWII and remembers his involvement with the owners of the Brideshead estate: the aristocratic yet Catholic Flyte family and in particular brother and sister Sebastian and Julia.查尔斯·莱德作为故事的讲述者同时也是故事的男主角,是牛津大学一个不知名学院的学生,他与出身豪门的塞巴斯蒂安·弗莱特在一次偶然的相遇中结为好友。之后,塞巴斯蒂安将查尔斯带回他那富丽堂皇的家——布莱兹海德城堡之中,在那里查尔斯见到了塞巴斯蒂安的家人,包括他美丽的妹妹朱丽叶·弗莱特。塞巴斯蒂安的家庭信仰天主教,而在塞巴斯蒂安母亲的影响下,宗教对于他们整个家族都有着十分巨大的影响力。他们的生活和对话中充斥着天主教的内容。而这一切都让查尔斯感到不可思议,因为对于他来说,天主教是既无实际内容又没有高尚品德的东西,而这种信念又进一步在塞巴斯蒂安那控制欲强烈的狂热天主教徒母亲身上得到了加强。对于塞巴斯蒂安来说,宗教也不如酒精那样能够给他带来超凡的解脱与快乐。于是,渐渐的塞巴斯蒂安开始酗酒成性。最终塞巴斯蒂安离开了布莱兹海德城堡,在外漂泊,一走就是两年。塞巴斯蒂安的离开也间接的导致了查尔斯与弗莱特家族的生疏。不过多年后,查尔斯的命运还是再一次与弗莱特家族牵扯到了一起。这一次,他与朱丽叶·弗莱特擦出了爱情的火花——尽管此时的朱丽叶已经是一个嫁给一个加拿大富商的有夫之妇了。查尔斯盘算着要和自己的妻子离婚,这样他才能和朱丽叶结婚。然而,在兄长的劝服和父亲病危的感召之下,朱丽叶越来越无法面对这份不合宗教伦理的爱,一种深深的负罪感让她无法再想象自己和查尔斯的婚姻。同时,查尔斯也被朱丽叶父亲临终前涂油礼的厚重庄严所触动,开始对这份爱产生了动摇。
免费2008-02-29誓约Some years ago, while conducting an English language workshop on a hot, dreary afternoon for a large group of students in Singapore, I suddenly felt sorry for them, and decided to tell them a story. It was a romantic love story calculated to make any sixteen-year-old sit up and listen with full attention. I told them about a young Singaporean girl who unexpectedly meets her dream man on a special day - 29 February 1988 - when a quaint old Leap Year custom allows women to make the first move in a romantic encounter. Our heroine does precisely that. Hereafter she and the dream man, both exceptionally attractive and brimming with life's hopes and dreams, are caught in a dizzying spin of events that Fate seems to like visiting upon young lovers. "You will come together at last. But not yet, not yet," says Fate mischievously.The lovers meet every 29 February over 12 years, in breathless negotiations of the many pitfalls along the path of true love which has never run smooth anyway, before their hopes are finally fulfilled in a spectacular millennial culmination worthy of love's loftiest dreams.