登陆注册
5380500000122

第122章

The weather continued bad in France and they left there in July to find it little better in England.They had planned a journey to Scotland to visit Doctor Brown, whose health was not very good.In after years Mark Twain blamed himself harshly for not making the trip, which he declared would have meant so much to Mrs.Clemens.

He had forgotten by that time the real reasons for not going--the continued storms and uncertainty of trains (which made it barely possible for them to reach Liverpool in time for their sailing-date), and with characteristic self-reproach vowed that only perversity and obstinacy on his part had prevented the journey to Scotland.From Liverpool, on the eve of sailing, he sent Doctor Brown a good-by word.

To Dr.John Brown, in Edinburgh:

WASHINGTON HOTEL, LIME STREET, LIVERPOOL.

Aug.(1879)

MY DEAR MR.BROWN,--During all the 15 months we have been spending on the continent, we have been promising ourselves a sight of you as our latest and most prized delight in a foreign land--but our hope has failed, our plan has miscarried.One obstruction after another intruded itself, and our short sojourn of three or four weeks on English soil was thus frittered gradually away, and we were at last obliged to give up the idea of seeing you at all.It is a great disappointment, for we wanted to show you how much "Megalopis" has grown (she is 7 now) and what a fine creature her sister is, and how prettily they both speak German.There are six persons in my party, and they are as difficult to cart around as nearly any other menagerie would be.My wife and Miss Spaulding are along, and you may imagine how they take to heart this failure of our long promised Edinburgh trip.We never even wrote you, because we were always so sure, from day to day, that our affairs would finally so shape themselves as to let us get to Scotland.But no,--everything went wrong we had only flying trips here and there in place of the leisurely ones which we had planned.

We arrived in Liverpool an hour ago very tired, and have halted at this hotel (by the advice of misguided friends)--and if my instinct and experience are worth anything, it is the very worst hotel on earth, without any exception.We shall move to another hotel early in the morning to spend to-morrow.We sail for America next day in the "Gallic."We all join in the sincerest love to you, and in the kindest remembrance to "Jock"--[Son of Doctor Brown.]--and your sister.

Truly yours, S.L.CLEMENS.

It was September 3, 1879, that Mark Twain returned to America by the steamer Gallic.In the seventeen months of his absence he had taken on a "traveled look" and had added gray hairs.A New York paper said of his arrival that he looked older than when he went to Germany, and that his hair had turned quite gray.

Mark Twain had not finished his book of travel in Paris--in fact, it seemed to him far from complete--and he settled down rather grimly to work on it at Quarry Farm.When, after a few days no word of greeting came from Howells, Clemens wrote to ask if he were dead or only sleeping.Howells hastily sent a line to say that he had been sleeping "The sleep of a torpid conscience.I will feign that I did not know where to write you; but I love you and all of yours, and I am tremendously glad that you are home again.When and where shall we meet? Have you come home with your pockets full of Atlantic papers?" Clemens, toiling away at his book, was, as usual, not without the prospect of other plans.Orion, as literary material, never failed to excite him.

To W.D.Howells, in Boston:

ELMIRA, Sept.15, 1879.

MY DEAR HOWELLS,--When and where? Here on the farm would be an elegant place to meet, but of course you cannot come so far.So we will say Hartford or Belmont, about the beginning of November.The date of our return to Hartford is uncertain, but will be three or four weeks hence, I judge.I hope to finish my book here before migrating.

I think maybe I've got some Atlantic stuff in my head, but there's none in MS, I believe.

Say--a friend of mine wants to write a play with me, I to furnish the broad-comedy cuss.I don't know anything about his ability, but his letter serves to remind me of our old projects.If you haven't used Orion or Old Wakeman, don't you think you and I can get together and grind out a play with one of those fellows in it? Orion is a field which grows richer and richer the more he mulches it with each new top-dressing of religion or other guano.Drop me an immediate line about this, won't you? I imagine I see Orion on the stage, always gentle, always melancholy, always changing his politics and religion, and trying to reform the world, always inventing something, and losing a limb by a new kind of explosion at the end of each of the four acts.Poor old chap, he is good material.I can imagine his wife or his sweetheart reluctantly adopting each of his new religious in turn, just in time to see him waltz into the next one and leave her isolated once more.

(Mem.Orion's wife has followed him into the outer darkness, after 30years' rabid membership in the Presbyterian Church.)Well, with the sincerest and most abounding love to you and yours, from all this family, I am, Yrs ever MARK.

The idea of the play interested Howells, but he had twinges of conscience in the matter of using Orion as material.He wrote:

"More than once I have taken the skeleton of that comedy of ours and viewed it with tears.....I really have a compunction or two about helping to put your brother into drama.You can say that he is your brother, to do what you like with him, but the alien hand might inflict an incurable hurt on his tender heart."As a matter of fact, Orion Clemens had a keen appreciation of his own shortcomings, and would have enjoyed himself in a play as much as any observer of it.Indeed, it is more than likely that he would have been pleased at the thought of such distinguished dramatization.From the next letter one might almost conclude that he had received a hint of this plan, and was bent upon supplying rich material.

To W.D.Howells, in Boston:

同类推荐
  • The Wood Beyond the World

    The Wood Beyond the World

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 吕纯阳真人沁园春丹词批注

    吕纯阳真人沁园春丹词批注

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 心赋注

    心赋注

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 飞花咏

    飞花咏

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 华严游意

    华严游意

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • Canterbury Pieces

    Canterbury Pieces

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 豪门独宠:星光俏佳人

    豪门独宠:星光俏佳人

    六年前,电影学院操场上的初见,一颗脱了手的篮球砸出了他的爱情。动心之后,却发现,他的爱情还未开始,就已经结束。六年后,天帝娱乐的总裁专属电梯里,她像是一只跳脱的小鹿再次闯进了他的生活。这次,他选择死死的抓住,再也不会放手!终于在某个浓情缱绻的暗夜,他得到了梦寐以求的她。“你这人,怎么没完没了?”女人面色酡红。“少废话,你不知道我为你隐忍了多久,从现在开始,我要一点一点的全部讨回来!”
  • 剑恩刀怨

    剑恩刀怨

    刀剑之下有恩有怨,笔墨之下有喜有悲,但愿无愧于心。
  • 每天懂一点饮食心理学

    每天懂一点饮食心理学

    本书以饮食心理为基础,结合生理学、营养学等知识深入地解析了人们饮食行为背后的秘密,全面介绍了国内外诸多科学家,尤其是心理学家对饮食行为的研究,揭示了贪吃、馋嘴、挑食、偏食、暴饮暴食、爱吃零食、夜间进食、厌食等行为背后的真相,引导人们在认清饮食恶习危害的同时,从心开始,冲破内心的贪念,塑造适合自己的健康饮食习惯。
  • 鬼相

    鬼相

    鬼相之人通阴阳,不以常人度之。亲人惨死,坟茔被毁,一切因何而起?尽在鬼相之谜……
  • 浩森,我等你从早晨到黄昏

    浩森,我等你从早晨到黄昏

    富二代的婚约无奈又沉重,他的世界除了复仇毫无期待;遇见她,就像萤火虫遇到星光,美好似乎慢慢靠近。她如一颗清晨的露珠,晶莹透明,碰巧被他的镜头看到。……浩森的镜头下明媚美好,他对生活却充满绝望花天酒地。除了报复和自我放弃,他似乎找不到生命里还有什么事值得期待的。直到遇到千沐。他如久渴的树木不顾一切的靠近千沐,却屡屡被迫止步在她的世界之外。他身负不可抗拒的家族使命,她身边有一直守护的温柔骑士,既然不能在一起,那么履行家族婚约当行尸走肉也没啥不同吧……
  • 废材的穿越:无赖嫡女惹桃花

    废材的穿越:无赖嫡女惹桃花

    这是一个从精英变成废材的穿越……<br/>这是一个优良品种变成劣质品种的穿越……<br/>她,帝罗国相府嫡女,人见人爱,花见花开,车见车载……<br/>一次闭关练武,她走火入魔,昏厥在密室中……一朝醒来,前程往事尽忘。<br/>从此,精英变废材……不仅武艺尽失,召唤无门,灵术不灵,而且,性情大变……<br/>
  • 边戎

    边戎

    杨应麟,因为时空倒错的空难,他穿越来到了北宋政和年间,因为被花石纲逼得家破人亡,他与哥哥杨开远逃难出海,结果被异族俘虏成为了奴隶,因为一场瘟疫,他死里逃生反而获得自由之身。但还是没钱,他与哥哥甚至过上了抢粮的日子,但他并不想一辈子过奴隶的日子,他要改变自己的命运,他以现代人的数学计算本领成功做了折彦冲的军师,最后甚至当上了国师,开始了大宋王朝的征战史,改变天下。
  • 出行

    出行

    小岸:70年代出生,现居山西阳泉。2002年开始小说创作,有中短篇小说被《小说精选》、《短篇小说选刊》等选载,本刊去年第六期曾发表其中篇小说《夏丽英》、《你是你,我是我》。午后,任雪娜闲着没事,便去阅览室借来一摞晚报,一张张摊在办公桌上读起报纸来。她看到一则有关凶杀案的报道:一名来本市出差的外地女子,晚饭后在酒店附近散步,不幸遇害身亡。报纸上还附有一张被害人的相片,是个戴着眼镜,模样娟秀的年轻女子。
  • 巧合未解之谜(世界未解之谜精编)

    巧合未解之谜(世界未解之谜精编)

    本书是《世界未解之谜精编》系列之一,该系列精心收集了众多千奇百怪、扑朔迷离的世界未解之谜,内容涉及宇宙、生物、地理、飞碟、人体、恐龙、宝藏、百慕大、历史、金字塔、文化等多个领域,书中令人耳目一新和不可思议的未解之谜,给予了人类新的思索。人类究竟创造了多少奇迹,又留下了多少谜团,有待我们进一步探索和研究……我们深信,通过不断的努力,未知一定会变为已知。让无数探寻声化做利刃,刺破一桩桩人类千年未解之谜。