영어로 읽는 고전 _ 앤드류 랭의 이상한 낙원과 이야기들
"In the Wrong Paradise and Other Stories"는 19세기 후반에 쓰여진 것으로 추정되는 Andrew Lang의 단편소설 모음집입니다. 첫 번째 이야기인 "The End of Phaeacia"는 가상의 태평양 섬에서 봉사하던 중 기이하고 위험한 사건들에 휘말리게 되는 토마스 고울스 목사라는 인물을 소개합니다. 이 책은 고울스의 시각을 통해 원주민들의 이상한 관습과 믿음을 탐색하면서 문화적 충돌과 식민지적 인식의 부조리를 탐구합니다.
이 이야기의 도입부는 토마스 고울스 목사의 배경을 설명하며, 그의 강한 신념과 난파 후 신비로운 땅에 도착하게 된 과정을 상세히 다룹니다. 그가 섬에서 깨어났을 때, 인신제물을 포함한 원주민들의 특이한 행동들을 관찰하게 됩니다. 원주민들의 폭력적인 관행들로 인해 갈등을 겪으면서도, 자신이 신으로 오해받을 것을 두려워하면서도 선교사로서의 목적을 유지하기로 결심합니다.
이야기는 그가 원주민 문화의 가혹한 현실과 자신의 결점 모두와 맞닥뜨리며 겪는 고군분투를 따라가며, Lang의 이야기 속에 풍자와 모험이 혼합된 기반을 마련합니다.
Classics Read in English _ In the Wrong Paradise, and Other Stories by Andrew Lang
"In the Wrong Paradise and Other Stories" by Andrew Lang is a collection of short stories likely written during the late 19th century. The opening tale, "The End of Phaeacia," introduces the character of the Rev. Thomas Gowles, a missionary who becomes embroiled in bizarre and perilous events while serving in a fictional Pacific island setting. The book explores themes of cultural clash and the absurdities of colonial perceptions, as seen through the eyes of Gowles, who navigates the strange customs and beliefs of the natives. The opening of this story describes the background of the Rev. Thomas Gowles, detailing his fierce conviction in his beliefs and his arrival in the mysterious land after a shipwreck. As he awakens on the island, he observes the peculiar behaviors of the natives, including a human sacrifice. Conflicted by the violent practices of the islanders, he becomes determined to maintain his missionary purpose despite his fears of being mistaken for a deity. The narrative follows his struggles and encounters with both the harsh realities of the indigenous culture and his own shortcomings, laying the groundwork for a blend of satire and adventure in Lang’s storytelling.
Among the contents
The Rev. Thomas Gowles, well known in Colonial circles where the Truth is valued, as “the Boanerges of the Pacific,” departed this life at Hackney Wick, on the 6th of March, 1885. The Laodiceans in our midst have ventured to affirm that the world at large has been a more restful place since Mr. Gowles was taken from his corner of the vineyard. The Boanerges of the Pacific was, indeed, one of those rarely-gifted souls, souls like a Luther or a Knox, who can tolerate no contradiction, and will palter with no compromise, where the Truth is concerned. Papists, Puseyites, Presbyterians, and Pagans alike, found in Mr. Gowles an opponent whose convictions were firm as a rock, and whose method of proclaiming the Truth was as the sound of a trumpet. Examples of his singular courage and daring in the work of the ministry abound in the following narrative. Born and brought up in the Bungletonian communion, himself collaterally connected, by a sister’s marriage, with Jedediah Bungleton, the revered founder of the Very Particular People, Gowles was inaccessible to the scepticism of the age.
