영어로 읽는 고전 _ 본 케스터의 B & A의 매니저
본 케스터의 《B & A의 매니저: 장편소설》은 20세기 초에 쓰인 소설이다. 이야기는 벅혼 앤 앤티옥 철도의 신임 매니저 댄 오클리를 소개하며 시작된다. 그는 매각 소문이 도는 허클베리 노선에 다시 활력을 불어넣으려 고군분투한다. 새로운 직책에서 여러 난관을 헤쳐나가는 한편, 오클리는 20년간의 수감 생활을 마치고 갑자기 자유의 몸이 된 전과자 아버지 로저 오클리의 예기치 못한 재등장과도 마주해야 한다.
소설의 도입부는 비 오는 날 철도 사무실을 배경으로, 오클리가 클래런스라는 어린 사환의 귀환을 기다리는 평범하면서도 긴장감 도는 분위기를 그려낸다. 오클리는 유능하고 성실한 인물로 빠르게 자리매김하지만, 범죄 경력이 두 사람의 관계에 그림자를 드리우는 아버지와 공유하는 과거에 시달린다. 서사는 또한 앤티옥이라는 작은 마을의 사회적 역학과 정치적 암류를 암시하는데, 특히 음모를 꾸미는 편집장 그리프 라이더 같은 인물들과의 상호작용을 통해 드러난다.
오클리의 삶을 향한 이 초반의 시선은 소설이 가족에 대한 책임, 개인의 구원, 그리고 과거의 결정에 의해 형성된 세계에서 성공을 향한 분투라는 주제를 탐구할 것임을 예고한다.
Classics Read in English _ The Manager of the B. & A.: A Novel by Vaughan Kester
Vaughan Kester's The Manager of the B. & A. is an early 20th-century novel that opens with Dan Oakley stepping into his new role as manager of the struggling Buckhorn and Antioch Railroad. With rumors swirling about a potential sale, Oakley is determined to revive the faltering Huckleberry line. But professional challenges are only part of his burden?his father, Roger Oakley, has just been released after twenty years in prison, and his sudden reappearance threatens to upend everything.
The story begins on a rainy day in the railroad office, where Oakley waits for a young office boy named Clarence to return. The atmosphere is at once mundane and charged with tension. Oakley emerges as a capable, driven man, yet one haunted by a past he shares with his father, whose criminal history casts a long shadow over their relationship. The narrative also hints at the social currents and political maneuvering in the small town of Antioch, particularly through Oakley's encounters with Griff Ryder, a scheming local editor.
This opening sets the stage for a story about family obligation, personal redemption, and the uphill fight for success in a world where the past refuses to stay buried.
Among the contents
OAKLEY was alone in the bare general offices of the Huckleberry line-as the Buckhom and Antioch Railroad was commonly called by the public, which it betrayed in the matter of meals and connections. He was lolling lazily over his desk with a copy of the local paper before him, and the stem of a disreputable cob pipe between his teeth.
The business of the day was done, and the noise and hurry attending its doing had given way to a sudden hush. Other sounds than those that had filled the ear since morning grew out of the stillness. Big drops of rain driven by the wind splashed softly against the unpainted pine door which led into the yards, or fell with a gay patter on the corrugated tin roof overhead. No. 7, due at 5.40, had just pulled out with twenty minutes to make up between Antioch and Harrison, the western terminus of the line. The six-o'clock whistle had blown, and the men from the car shops, a dingy, one-story building that joined the general offices on the east, were straggling off home. Across the tracks at the ugly little depot the ticket-agent and telegraph-operator had locked up and hurried away under one umbrella the moment No. 7 was clear of the platform.
