영어로 읽는 고전 _ 리지웰 칼럼의 황금의 여인_몬태나 언덕 이야기
리지웰 컬럼의 『황금의 여인: 몬태나 언덕 이야기』는 20세기 초에 쓰인 것으로 추정되는 소설이다. 이야기는 냉혹한 성격의 점술사인 노부인 머시 라셀과 아름답고 독립적인 젊은 여성인 그녀의 조카 조앤 스탠모어 사이의 복잡한 관계를 중심으로 전개된다. 서사는 저주와 운명이라는 주제를 암시하는데, 머시는 조앤이 그녀의 존재 자체가 주변 사람들에게 재앙을 불러오는 버림받은 자라고 믿는다. 책의 서두는 차갑고 완고한 점술사로 묘사되는 머시 라셀과 이모의 불쾌한 성격에도 불구하고 함께 살기로 선택한 젊은 조카 조앤을 소개한다. 두 사람이 대화를 나누면서 긴장이 고조되는데, 특히 머시가 조앤의 최근 구혼자인 딕 솔리에 대한 가혹한 예언을 드러낼 때 그러하다. 이 대화는 조앤의 과거 연인들에게 닥친 운명에 대한 의문을 제기하며, 그녀가 그들의 불행에 책임이 있다는 무서운 비난으로 이어진다. 이모의 쓰라린 감정과 조카의 절박함이 지닌 감정적 무게는 비극, 가족의 유대, 그리고 초자연적 믿음 속에서 이해를 추구하는 여정의 요소들을 결합한 서사의 무대를 마련한다.
Classics Read in English _ The Golden Woman: A Story of the Montana Hills by Ridgwell Cullum
In The Golden Woman: A Story of the Montana Hills, Ridgwell Cullum crafts a tale steeped in fate, family, and the supernatural. At its heart lies a fractured bond between two women: Mercy Lascelles, an embittered crystal-gazer whose gaze sees only darkness, and her niece Joan Stanmore, a young woman of striking beauty and quiet resilience who has nonetheless chosen to remain under her aunt's unforgiving roof.
From the novel's opening pages, an atmosphere of dread takes hold. Mercy is convinced that Joan carries a curse?that love itself turns to ruin in her presence, leaving a trail of broken men in its wake. When she delivers a chilling prophecy about Joan's latest suitor, Dick Sorley, the accusation cuts deep: Joan, she insists, is not merely unlucky but dangerous, a pariah destined to destroy anyone who dares draw close.
Caught between her aunt's venomous certainty and her own desperate need to understand, Joan stands at the threshold of a story that weaves tragedy with the mysteries of destiny. Cullum sets a tone both intimate and foreboding, where the bonds of blood become chains and the search for truth leads into shadows shaped by belief and bitterness.
Among the contents
An elderly woman looked up from the crystal globe before her. The sound of horse’s hoofs, clattering up to the veranda, had caught her attention. But the hard, gray eyes had not yet recovered their normal frigidity of expression. There were still traces in them of the groping mind, searching on, amidst the chaos of a world unseen. Nor was Mercy Lascelles posing at the trade which yielded her something more than her daily bread. She had no reason for pose. She was an ardent and proficient student of that remote science which has for its field of research the border. land between earthly life and the ultimate.
For some moments she gazed half. vacantly through the window. Then alertness and interest came back to her eyes, and her look resumed its normal hardness. It was an unlovely face, but its unloveliness lay in its expression. There was something so unyielding in the keen, aquiline nose and pointed chin. The gray eyes were so cold.
