【英文文學】茵夢湖 Immene

2024年3月25日發(作者：感恩是什么)

【英文文學】茵夢湖 Immene

Introduction

Theodor W. Storm, poet and short-story writer (1817-1888), was born in

Schleswig. He was called to the Bar in his native town, Husum, in 1842, but had his

licence to practi cancelled in 1853 for 'Germanophilism,' and had to remove to

Germany. It was only in 1864 that he was able to return to Husum, where in 1874

he became a judge of the Court of Appeals.

As early as 1843 he had made himlf known as a lyrical poet of the Romantic

School, but it was as a short-story writer that he first took a prominent place in

literature, making a most happy début with the story entitled Immene.

There followed a long ries of tales, rich in fancy and in humour, although

their inspiration is generally derived from the humble town and country life which

formed his immediate environment; but he wrote nothing that excels, in depth and

tenderness of feeling, the charming story of Immene; and taking his work all in

all, Storm still ranks to-day as a master of the short story in German literature, rich

though it is in this form of pro-fiction.

The Old Man

0ne afternoon in the late autumn a well-dresd old man was walking slowly

down the street. He appeared to be returning home from a walk, for his

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buckle-shoes, which followed a fashion long since out of date, were covered with

dust.

Under his arm he carried a long, gold-headed cane; his dark eyes, in which the

whole of his long-lost youth emed to have centred, and which contrasted

strangely with his snow-white hair, gazed calmly on the sights around him or

peered into the town below as it lay before him, bathed in the haze of sunt. He

appeared to be almost a stranger, for of the pasrs-by only a few greeted him,

although many a one involuntarily was compelled to gaze into tho grave eyes.

At last he halted before a high, gabled hou, cast one more glance out

toward the town, and then pasd into the hall. At the sound of the door-bell some

one in the room within drew aside the green curtain from a small window that

looked out on to the hall, and the face of an old woman was en behind it. The

man made a sign to her with his cane.

"No light yet!" he said in a slightly southern accent, and the houkeeper let

the curtain fall again.

The old man now pasd through the broad hall, through an inner hall,

wherein against the walls stood huge oaken chests bearing porcelain vas; then

through the door opposite he entered a small lobby, from which a narrow stairca

led to the upper rooms at the back of the hou. He climbed the stairs slowly,

unlocked a door at the top, and landed in a room of medium size.

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