영어로 읽는 고전 _ 본 케스터의 랜드레이 가문의 운명
본 케스터의 《랜드레이 가문의 운명》은 20세기 초에 쓰인 소설이다. 이 작품은 개인의 여정에 관한 이야기의 무대를 마련하며, 주로 트루먼 로저스라는 인물에 초점을 맞춘다. 그는 20년 만에 고향 벤슨으로 돌아오는데, 아들과 함께 캘리포니아 골드러시에 얽힌 부의 꿈을 품고 있다. 서사는 향수, 열망, 그리고 귀향의 복잡함이라는 주제를 엮어내며, 관계와 야망에 대한 풍부한 탐구를 예고한다.이야기의 시작에서 독자는 벤슨으로 향하는 역마차 여정을 만나게 된다. 트루먼 로저스와 그의 어린 아들이 추억과 오랜 약속이 깃든 곳으로 돌아가는 중이다. 도입부는 피로와 그리움의 분위기를 조성하며, 트루먼이 마부 바틀렛 씨의 회의적인 시선을 받으면서 과거를 회상하는 모습을 그린다. 마을에 가까워질수록 트루먼의 태도에서 긴장감이 드러나는데, 이는 번영하는 미래에 대한 희망과 변해버린 고향의 냉엄한 현실 사이에 놓인 한 남자의 모습을 보여준다.장의 끝에서 트루먼은 아들 베니를 깨워 그들의 새로운 세계를 보여주는데, 이는 캘리포니아 금광에 있을 더 나은 날들을 위해 고된 삶을 뒤로하고 싶은 아버지의 소망을 암시한다. 초반부는 다가올 모험에 대한 기대감을 자아내면서도, 세월 속에 잃어버린 것들의 우울한 무게를 함께 전한다.
Classics Read in English _ The Fortune of the Landrays by Vaughan Kester
Vaughan Kester's The Fortune of the Landrays is an early 20th-century novel that follows the personal journey of Truman Rogers, a man returning to his hometown of Benson after twenty years away. He brings with him his young son and a dream of striking it rich in the California gold rush. The narrative weaves together themes of nostalgia, ambition, and the bittersweet complexity of coming home, setting the stage for a rich exploration of relationships and aspirations.
The story opens aboard a stagecoach bound for Benson, where Truman and his son make their way toward a place filled with old memories and long-deferred promises. The tone is one of weariness and longing, as Truman reflects on his past while enduring the skeptical gaze of the driver, Mr. Bartlett. As the town draws near, tension surfaces in Truman's manner?he is a man torn between hope for a prosperous future and the harsh reality of a hometown that has changed in his absence.
The chapter closes with Truman waking his son Benny to show him their new world, revealing a father's quiet wish to leave behind years of hardship for the golden promise of California. These opening pages stir a sense of adventure on the horizon, yet they also carry the melancholic weight of all that has been lost along the way.
Among the contents
THE boy on the box was surfeited with travel. Glancing back over the swaying top of the coach, he had seen miles upon miles of hot dusty road, between banked-up masses of forests or cultivated fields, dwindle to a narrow thread of yellow. Day after day there had been the same tiresome repetition of noisy towns and sleepy cross-road villages, each one very like the other and all having a widely different appearance from that which he conceived Benson would present.
The wonderful life of the road, varied and picturesque, no longer claimed his attention. The black dot a mile distant was unnoticed. It was a long line of freight wagons north-bound to some lake port, laden with pork, flour and hides. Presently, these wagons would be passed by a party of mounted traders, travelling south to Baltimore for supplies, with their sacks of Spanish dollars loaded upon pack horses. Next they would journey for a little space with a cattle dealer and his men, who were taking a drove of Marino sheep across the state to Indiana. But the boy's curiosity had been more than satisfied; he had only to close his eyes to see again the vivid panorama of the road in the blaze of that hot June sun.
