Chinese name Frankenstein
Don't call it "the story of artificial man"
Author mary shelley
Translator Zhang Jian
Quasi-science fiction
Release time: 18 18.
catalogue
1 author profile
original work
Brief introduction of translator
2 Creative experience
3 story content
4 works analysis
5 summary
6 translation list
1 author profile
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original work
MaryShelley, a famous British novelist, is known as the mother of science fiction because of her first science fiction novel Frankenstein (or Frankenstein's translation) in the history of literature. She is the wife of the famous British romantic poet Shelley.
Brief introduction of translator
Zhang Jian, a graduate of Foreign Languages Department of East China Normal University and Beijing Normal University, studied at the University of the West of England in the UK and the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He is currently an associate professor in the English Department of the School of Foreign Languages, Beijing Institute of Technology, and a tutor for master students.
2 Creative experience
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Due to the abnormal climate and constant rain, Shelley, Byron, Mary and Byron's personal doctor Polly Dolly are often forced to stay indoors. When chatting, the four of them decided to start a competition. Each of them created a horror story, but only Mary handed in the last paper. Encouraged by Shelley, Mary wrote Frankenstein. This work is not only influenced by famous works such as The Tempest, Paradise Lost and Song of the Old Sailor, but also includes Mary's own experience. For example, Dick Ljevar in the book seems to be Shelley's incarnation, and Frankenstein's monsters are all vegetarians, just like Mary and Shelley. At that time, Dr. polidori's story was only written at the beginning, and it was finished a few years later. It was called Vampire. Dracula (1847 ~ 19 12), an Irish horror novelist, was deeply influenced by it.
But Frankenstein is an immortal masterpiece, which made Mary famous and once surpassed Shelley. In September 2006, Mary and Shelley returned to London. Soon, tragedy struck again. 654381October 9, Mary's half-sister Fanny Imlay left quietly and committed suicide in a small hotel. 65438+February 10, Shelley's wife Harriet committed suicide by drowning in Hyde Park in London because she didn't want to accept Shelley's suggestion and form a fashionable "family of three" with Mary. At that time, Harriet was pregnant. Twenty days after Harriet committed suicide, Shelley and Mary formally tied the knot, and the marriage was approved by godwin. After marriage, although Mary needs to take care of the two sons left by Harriet to Shelley, she can still find time to write. 18 17 In the spring, Mary finished writing Frankenstein and published it the following year.
3 story content
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Frankenstein, the hero, is a scholar engaged in the research of human life science. He tried to create life artificially. In his laboratory, through countless explorations, he created an abominable and ugly monster. At first, this man-made monster was very kind and full of kindness and gratitude to people. He asked his creator and people to give him all kinds of rights in life, and even asked to create a spouse for him. However, when he was disgusted and discriminated against by his creator and people everywhere, he felt very painful. He hates everything. He wants to destroy everything. He killed Frankenstein's younger brother William and murdered Frankenstein's fiancee Elizabeth. Frankenstein angrily chased the demonic monster he created. Finally, in the struggle, Frankenstein died, and the monster regretted it and finally committed suicide by jumping into the sea.
This book reveals the author's philosophical views. She believes that people have dual personalities-good and evil. Being hated, discriminated and persecuted for a long time will make people become evil, do all kinds of bad things, and even get out of hand. It also added a new word Frankenstein to English, which eventually destroyed its creator.
Frankenstein has become one of the classic images of Hollywood.
4 works analysis
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According to Yanwu, a famous science fiction writer in China, Frankenstein has the following characteristics:
First of all, it is a sentimental literary work created by Gothic tradition.
Gothic novels were popular in18th century, and their contents were mostly horror, violence, ghosts and longing for medieval life. It was named because its plot mostly happened in the desolate and dark Gothic castle (/kloc-an architectural form popular in Britain in the 0/8th century, similar to a church). therefore
Frankenstein related film books
Frankenstein's related film books (15)
Things are full of suspense and end in destruction; There are many famous books of the same type. Sentimentalism refers to a literary school after the Industrial Revolution and before the French Revolution. Its main feature is that writers use emotion and kindness instead of reason as critical tools, mainly praising kindness, sympathy, selflessness and nature, but the characters they portray are somewhat pedantic and naive.
Second, the development of characters has a very clear track.
In the works, the monster created by the author is kind and helpful, but in the end it develops into a destroyer of social order and a real demon, but even so, it still retains a certain conscience; Frankenstein himself began to think that his behavior was not wrong, and then gradually became guilty. Finally, he dared to take responsibility and duel with the monster. Since then, science fiction writers-including jules verne and William Wells-are not as good as mary shelley in this respect.
Thirdly, the form of alternating epistolary style and narrative style is adopted to make the form not too monotonous.
The epistolary style was a popular literary creation technique at that time.
Fourth, the theme is profound, expressing the author's anxiety about the introduction of science and technology into human society.
The development of science and technology makes human society and mankind feel at a loss. In a sense, monsters represent science and technology that is developing and infiltrating into human society. We can see that the author's anxiety is fully expressed in his works, and gloomy emotions run through the book and are projected into the text. For example, the four storms in the works just indicate the coming of change. Reading the whole work, we will find that the author has a very nervous mood.
5 summary
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The work begins with four letters.
These letters tell the story of a stranger who met a fleet exploring the North Pole.
It turns out that this man is a Swiss aristocrat Frankenstein. He studied in Germany, studied electrochemistry and life, discovered the secret of death and decided to start making life. He first looked for materials from the corpse, then assembled them, and finally activated them by electrochemical method. However, this monster, which was originally made of good materials and was as high as 8 feet, became ferocious and ugly after being given life. Frankenstein subconsciously escaped from the laboratory and woke up to find that the monster was gone.
In fact, the monster still loved the world when he was born. He hid in the mountains and learned to use fire. He met a blind grandfather and a pair of young men and women who lived in seclusion in the mountains. He was moved by this and began to love human society. During the day, while young men and women are away, monsters secretly help blind grandfathers collect firewood, steal books, learn Arabic, French and other languages, read a lot of literary and philosophical masterpieces such as Young Werther, and begin to yearn for art and love. But at the same time, I deeply regret my situation, thinking that "Satan represents my present situation" and strongly hope to change the present situation. So the monster sneaked into this house and found that only blind grandpa was at home, so he chatted with him. At this time, the young man and woman suddenly returned, and the girl fainted with fear, and the young man angrily drove her out of the house. This seriously hurt the monster's self-esteem. When he calmed down, he thought that he might as well go to the founder instead of begging others. But as soon as it appeared in the street, it was beaten and scolded by many people, repeatedly hated and scared by everyone, and even someone shot at it. The monster finally lost the last trace of kindness and thought it all came from its maker.
From then on, the shadow began to cover Frankenstein. The monster killed his brother and framed the maid. When Frankenstein arrived at the scene, he finally found out that all this was done by monsters, so he began to chase all the way to the Alps. The monster thinks that he has not been treated fairly and can't get the love of the opposite sex. I want everything. So it asked Frankenstein to create another woman for it, and then they lived in seclusion together.
Frankenstein began to agree, but at the moment when electricity was made, he suddenly hesitated: if they really love each other and reproduce, how much trouble will it bring to mankind? What if the female monster doesn't want to live in seclusion with the male monster? So he immediately destroyed the female monster. When the monster saw all this, he flew into a rage, completely despaired of human society and his future, killed Frankenstein's good friend and killed Frankenstein's bride on the wedding day. At this time, Frankenstein became angry, and the two began to chase each other as far as the North Pole. ...
Finally, the creator Frankenstein finally died after telling this man all this, and then a great man came from a distance, repented on the sleigh where Frankenstein's body was put, and then claimed that revenge was over and went to the ice sheet without hesitation. ...
6 translation list
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Chinese translation of Frankenstein;
1982, Frankenstein, translated by Chen Yuan and He Jian, Jiangsu Science and Technology Press.
1986, The Story of Artificial Man, translated by Luo Jin and Li Shu, Foreign Literature Publishing House.
1998, Frankenstein, translated by Liu Xinmin, Shanghai Translation Publishing House.
In 2004, Hu Chunlan and Hou Minggu translated Frankenstein, People's Literature Publishing House.
In 2004, Ding Chao translated Frankenstein, which was published by Renmin University of China Press.
In 2005, You Yunfeng translated Jumper: Frankenstein, Liaoning Education Press.
In 2005, The Weird Man of Frankenstein, translated by Wang, Yu Jinghua and Xue Ruili, will be published tomorrow.
In 2008, honest and frank and Liu Yi translated Frankenstein, which was published by Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House.
In 2009, Frankenstein, translated by Zhang Jian, China City Press.