After enduring an injury at Dunkirk during World War II, Laurie Odell is sent to a rural veterans' hospital in England to convalesce. There he befriends the young, bright Andrew, a conscientious objector serving as an orderly. As they find solace and companionship together in the idyllic surroundings of the hospital, their friendship blooms into a discreet, chaste romance. Then...
After enduring an injury at Dunkirk during World War II, Laurie Odell is sent to a rural veterans' hospital in England to convalesce. There he befriends the young, bright Andrew, a conscientious objector serving as an orderly. As they find solace and companionship together in the idyllic surroundings of the hospital, their friendship blooms into a discreet, chaste romance. Then one day, Ralph Lanyon, a mentor from Laurie's schoolboy days, suddenly reappears in Laurie's life, and draws him into a tight-knit social circle of world-weary gay men. Laurie is forced to choose between the sweet ideals of innocence and the distinct pleasures of experience.
Originally published in the United States in 1959, The Charioteer is a bold, unapologetic portrayal of male homosexuality during World War II that stands with Gore Vidal's The City and the Pillar and Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories as a monumental work in gay literature.
作者简介
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Mary Renault (1905-1983) was born in London and educated at St Hughs, Oxford. She trained as a nurse at Oxford's Radcliffe Infirmary, where she met her lifelong partner, Julie Mullard. Her first novel, Purposes of Love, was published in 1937. In 1948, after North Face won a MGM prize worth $150,000, she and Mullard emigrated to South Africa. There, Renault was able to write for...
Mary Renault (1905-1983) was born in London and educated at St Hughs, Oxford. She trained as a nurse at Oxford's Radcliffe Infirmary, where she met her lifelong partner, Julie Mullard. Her first novel, Purposes of Love, was published in 1937. In 1948, after North Face won a MGM prize worth $150,000, she and Mullard emigrated to South Africa. There, Renault was able to write forthrightly about homosexual relationships for the first time - in her masterpiece, The Charioteer (1953), and then in her first historical novel, The Last of the Wine (1956). Renault's vivid novels set in the ancient world brought her worldwide fame. In 2010 Fire From Heaven was shortlisted for the Lost Booker of 1970.
The party had warmed up by this time. A momentary detachment came upon Laurie as he looked on. After some years of muddled thinking on the subject [of his homosexual desire], he suddenly saw quite clearly what it was he had been running away from; why he had refused Sandy's first invitation, and what the trouble had been with Charles. It was also the trouble, he perceived, with nine-tenths of the people here tonight. They were specialists. They had not merely accepted their limitations [i.e. attraction to men], as Laurie was ready to accept his, loyal to his humanity if not to his sex, and bringing an extra humility to the hard study of human experience. They had identify themselves with their limitations; they were making a career of them. They had turned from all other reality, and curle... (查看原文)
They had come to a bridge over the river. The ground was high here, the river ran between cliffs. Laurie thought how in peacetime, from here, the town would have lain below them like a starry sky. Now, as the bridge gave gently on its chains in the wind that swept along the gorge, there was only a darkling sense of loneliness and height. Ralph showed a pass to a cloaked shadow. It was like a transit of the Styx. (查看原文)
当你在钢筋水泥的建筑中冥视那些欢快跳跃的小动物们，我的内心只能不断告诫自己宽容是一种能力。然而空气中充满腐烂的绝望，不论悲伤还是快乐。我这个充满适应性的灵魂，为什么却没有勇气去照照镜子呢？Should I find a wicked runt with congenitally short neck and receding...
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"Well, we have to face that sooner or later, of course. I wasn't ready for it when it happened, but I suppose no one ever is." Now that the sudden light had gone it could be felt that the neutrality of twilight was over; it was almost dark. There was a mome...
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0 有用 FRIDA 2022-12-02 22:13:55 浙江
💔..make sense
1 有用 久田 2018-05-18 09:20:31
看到最后真的非常心疼Ralph。一开始没怎么看仔细，以至于到中间喜欢Laurie和Andrew,然后后知后觉地意识到Ralph几乎完美，对Laurie是真爱，反而觉得Laurie太犹豫不决模棱两可了。
0 有用 树枝能抵达开始 2019-09-26 11:35:59
历史
0 有用 larkspur 2018-06-13 23:32:55
这篇真的很晦涩，看评论有提到这版有删节，不知道是不是因此影响了阅读
1 有用 二十八度左倾 2017-05-08 00:08:52
奶奶的文笔没得说，很多不甚出奇的场景在她的笔下都美好得如诗如画。然而Laurie这个角色实在是越看越不讨喜，后来甚至连Andrew也变得面目模糊起来，到最后只希望Ralph不要重新接受Laurie，因为觉得他根本就不值得。有意思的是，Laurie误会Ralph故意挑衅了Andrew，而Ralph则误会Alec把他的私事透露给了Bunny，人们会错怪会伤害的果然还是自己不够爱却深爱自己的人啊。
0 有用 FRIDA 2022-12-02 22:13:55 浙江
💔..make sense
0 有用 mo酱 2022-10-23 17:48:34 天津
英国第一部queer小说（《莫瑞斯》作者生前拒绝出版，美国早几年出版了vidal的《城与柱》），也是Renault最后一部现代小说，写作时间是在剑桥左派同性恋者被KGB策反叛国曝光导致恐同进一步严重的50年代初。故事背景是敦刻尔克撤退之后，把以爱国名义歧视贵格会和平反战者和以道德名义歧视同性恋并置，很勇敢了。小说里面到处可见Renault超越时代的思想闪光，甚至讨论到了男权社会必然导致同妻、性向政... 英国第一部queer小说（《莫瑞斯》作者生前拒绝出版，美国早几年出版了vidal的《城与柱》），也是Renault最后一部现代小说，写作时间是在剑桥左派同性恋者被KGB策反叛国曝光导致恐同进一步严重的50年代初。故事背景是敦刻尔克撤退之后，把以爱国名义歧视贵格会和平反战者和以道德名义歧视同性恋并置，很勇敢了。小说里面到处可见Renault超越时代的思想闪光，甚至讨论到了男权社会必然导致同妻、性向政治化等等，70年后再看也未过时。在“limbo”的草地上读《斐德若篇》那段太美好，和《莫瑞斯》里对柏拉图的粗暴理解比起来Renault才是真的精神希腊人啊 (展开)
0 有用 S 2020-12-11 18:49:04
…需要找时间重读一遍
0 有用 树枝能抵达开始 2019-09-26 11:35:59
历史
0 有用 Niggle 2019-04-02 18:01:46
发烧在家两天，读完全书。我以后一定会再重新读一遍，或许更多遍。惊叹于Renault对人物的处理，有意思的是，Andrew是Laurie认为“最真实”的人，作者却只从Laurie的主观视角进行描写，反而显得遥远而理想化，并不令人厌烦，但越看越和其他的主要人物有所区别。微妙精准的心理描写和具有英国特色的人物对话也是值得琢磨的地方，看到外网上有美国读者评价说单是拨开层层英式对话的外衣看懂人物想表达什么就... 发烧在家两天，读完全书。我以后一定会再重新读一遍，或许更多遍。惊叹于Renault对人物的处理，有意思的是，Andrew是Laurie认为“最真实”的人，作者却只从Laurie的主观视角进行描写，反而显得遥远而理想化，并不令人厌烦，但越看越和其他的主要人物有所区别。微妙精准的心理描写和具有英国特色的人物对话也是值得琢磨的地方，看到外网上有美国读者评价说单是拨开层层英式对话的外衣看懂人物想表达什么就花了不少功夫（扶额） (展开)