暖冬cool夏
这里一年四季温暖如春，没有酷暑没有严寒......
*********************************************
Mary Carson is not a main character in the novel The Thorn Birds, but she is really a character! She was the owner of a vast sheep station Drogheda in the northwestern Australia. Rich she was, she was a widow, whose husband died young and whose only child died in infancy. At age 65, she wrote to her only living brother Paddy, inviting him and his family to live on her land, and intended to leave her fortune to him after her death. Ralph was a young good-looking priest , whom Mary was very enamored of. For quite a few years, he was like a cub to a cougar. But the appearance of Meggie changed him. Sensing the love between Ralph and Meggie, Mary was jealous and spiteful. She devised a new will before her death, in which her assets, a total of 13 million pounds, was donated to the Church in the hand of Ralph, as she was sure that Ralph would not give up his world for Meggie. “I must lose you to Meggie, but I’ve made sure she doesn’t get you, either.”, said Mary. And just as she predicted, Ralph failed the test, selling his “soul” for the 13 million pounds, as the ambition of advancing his career outweighed his love towards Meggie.
Mary is a shrewd woman with brain. She managed her land with an iron fist and autocratically, and thus wielded much power in the area. Her fortune was amassed not just through running the sheep station, but through setting up an investment company called Michar Limited. She was a successful woman in business. She chose not to remarry in her long 40 years’ widowhood, maintaining her status of being indisputably a queen. Being “a staunch pillar of the Church all her life”, she fell in love with Ralph for his youth, wits and charm. But in Ralph’s eye later, she was a poisonous and vicious spider, who spun the web that tangled him inside. When Ralph turned down in disgust her last plea of kissing her in the mouth like lovers, Mary was enraged, calling him a “sham”, “an impotent and useless sham”, poignantly reminding Ralph of his offer to make love with her seven years ago.
What still echoed in my mind is what she told Father Ralph the night before she died. Quoted below are the two passages, the revelations of a 72-year-old woman:
“Well, Father de Bricassarrt, let me tell you something.Inside this stupid body I’m still young—I still feel, I still want, I still dream, I still kick up my heels and chafe at restrictions like my body. Old age is the bitterest vengeance our vengeful God inflicts upon us. Why doesn’t He age our minds as well?”
“Ralph, you’ll never know how I’ve longed to throw thirty years of my life out of the window. If the Devil had come to me and offered to buy my soul for the chance to be young again, I’d have sold it in a second, and not stupidly regretted the bargain like that old idiot Faust.”
Mary’s pain was acute to realize that her still throbbing young heart was buried in a dying body, and there is nothing she can do, however longing she is of being young again. She is like a withered flower, envying an unfolding rose, in the knowledge that it will never bloom again.
She won the game, but then so what? She died and could only see her achieved revenge from the heaven. Rich as she was, she was powerless over the priceless youth. She could not buy it back. Neither could she ever buy the love, the true love from Ralph. Her revenge was a bitter attack, to torment Ralph between his spiritual pursuit and his worldly lust. But that was all she can do. Money may bring the glory, fame, and power when one lives. But in face of death, everybody is equal. Rich or poor, we are from ashes to ashes, holding nothing before death except dust and ashes.
************************************************
Below is copied from the book covers and preface.
The Thorn Birds is a robust, romantic saga of a singular family, the Clearys. It begins in the early part of this century, when Paddy Cleary moves his wife, Fiona, and their seven children to Drogheda, the vast Australian sheep station owned by his autocratic and childless old sister; and it ends more than half a century later, when the only survivor of the third generation, the brilliant actress Justine O’Neil, sets a course of life and love halfway around the world from her roots.
The central figures in this enthralling story are the indomitable Meggie, the only Cleary daughter, and the one man she truly loves, the stunningly handsome and ambitious priest Ralph de Bricassart. Ralph’s course moves him a long way indeed, from a remote Outback parish to the halls of the Vatican; and Meggie’s, except for a brief and miserable marriage elsewhere, is fixed to the Drogheda that is part of her bones—but distance does not dim their feelings though it shapes their lives.
Wonderful characters people this book: strong and gentle Paddy, hiding a private memory; dutiful Fiona, holding back love because it once betrayed her; violent, tormented Frank and the other hardworking Cleary sons who give the boundless lands of Drogheda the energy and devotion most men save for women; Meggie; Ralph; and Meggie’s children, Justine and Dane. And the land itself: stark, its flowering, prey to gigantic cycle of drought and flood, rich when nature is bountiful, surreal like no other place on earth.
Australian-born Colleen McCullough found devoted readers for her fine, compact first novel, Tim. The Thorn Birds, entirely different in story and scope, is that most exhilarating of reading experiences—a book that enfolds the reader in its capacious arms. There is simply no way to put it down once you have begun, or to separate yourself from the lives and loves of this fascinating family.
From the preface:
2. There is a legend about a bird which sings just once in its life, more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. From the moment it leaves the nest it searches for a thorn tree, and does not rest until it has found one. Then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. And, dying, it rises above its own agony to out-carol the lark and the nightingale. One superlative song, existence the price. But the whole world stills to listen, and God in His heaven smiles. For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain.... Or so says the legend.
书和电视都没有看过。但是，你的精彩书评让书中的几个人物在我心中活了起来。足见妹妹的用心和写作功力。看好你。
谢谢暖儿！可能以后会开博写点什么，目前还是感觉读博比较轻松。:-)暖儿说 Mary为了报复改了遗嘱，那原来的遗嘱是什么样的？钱是“无条件”地全部留给Ralph吗？
我发现自己有时特别没有主见，听听这，有道理，听听那，也对的。或许这世界就是没有黑和白截然分明的人，人情感的复杂，人性的特点给这个世界增添了无数的色彩，也给大作家们留下了很多经典的作品。《荆棘鸟》这小说这么轰动，Ralph这个人物被这么多人粉、追，一定有其道理所在，魅力所在。是我对人物的要求太高，把Ralph放在一个圣人的位置，角度也有点偏，只能是个人的一点看法感受。谢谢燕儿这么肯定、暖心的评论。周日快乐！
对Ralph这个人物，因为我没看过电视，也没读过《荆棘鸟》，你第一篇的书评又比较简略，因你只读了一半儿，所以我的第一感觉就是个“人渣”，但读完三篇文章，冷静地思考后，我同情Ralph。有野心有能力的男人，处在他的境况，大都会做出同样的选择的。而一个男人的野心和能力，对于女人也是极具魅力的。女人一般不喜欢绣花枕头。:-) Ralph的悲剧在于他还保有真情和羞耻心，所以他纠结痛苦终生。我觉得他是个很真实的人物，正是因为真实，《荆棘鸟》这本书才会拥有如此强大的经久不衰的生命力。
================================================================
+1，Ralph毕竟是人，不能以圣人的标准要求他，他也有追求幸福和权欲的人权。 这有些象《牛虻》中的红衣主教，他也和一位贵妇人私通，并有了私生子牛虻，他一直照顾着牛虻，直到牛虻成年后无意中发现了真相，而最后做为起义军领袖的牛虻不幸被捕，红衣主教又试图让他向政府投诚来保全性命，牛虻拒绝后，他又不得不同意当局把他的私生子牛虻处于死刑。多么矛盾的人物啊
Mary的命运其实也反映了争取独立的女性的命运，在女性属于依附地位的社会里，女性好像必须在情感家庭和自由意志之间进行取舍。Mary当初既然选择了自己掌握自己的命运，就已经知道自己放弃了什么，即使到晚年有一些伤感，再让她选择，她还会做出同样的选择。
像Ralph这样的伪君子，其实是很煎熬的，他内心还是有一点点真情，只不过这点真情被他用来当作交换利益的筹码，他把真情和灵魂都出卖给了魔鬼，而这个魔鬼就是他的野心他的贪婪。
说实在的小说的细节我都不大记得清楚了，谢谢暖冬的书评带我重温故事的情节。
至于你说的青春，那是因为我们当年出国的艰辛所致，我们的付出就是希望我们的下一代能充分品尝青春的甜蜜和活力吧。谢谢思韵妹妹的鼓励、真诚的心得交流。祝周末好！
再读这篇，更不能忍受Ralph了！看来在荒漠的地方，人很难战胜灵魂的孤寂，这是值得同情的地方。还有，关于对自己青春的评价，其实完全取决于青春不在后现实里的幸福感。对我而言，青春的奋斗太艰难，未来太迷茫，而现今，一切美丽尽在怀，真好啊，再也不想回到青春了，那罪遭的!
姐的英文真好，cougar这个词我还是近来才知道的。:) 人世间千百种所谓的"情"呢，多情深情却不被情困，也是实现"人生不苦"必须修炼的功课。