영어로 읽는 고전 _ 본 케스터의 탕아 판사
본 케스터의 《탕아 판사》는 19세기 후반에 쓰인 소설이다. 이야기는 가문의 마지막 혈통인 퀸타드 장군의 죽음으로 시작된다. 그의 삶은 고립과 방치로 점철되어 있었다. 서사는 상속, 개인적 갈등, 그리고 장군의 은둔 생활과 그가 남긴 어린 피보호자 해니벌 웨인 해저드를 둘러싼 마을 사람들의 호기심을 주제로 전개된다. 해니벌은 자신의 출생 배경에 관한 비밀과 풀리지 않는 의문 속에 홀로 남겨진다.
작품의 도입부에서 독자는 퀸타드 장군의 장례를 둘러싼 침울한 분위기를 마주하게 된다. 수십 년간 세상과 담을 쌓았던 노장군의 죽음을 애도하는 이는 몇몇 늙은 노예들과 그를 거의 알지 못하는 마을 주민들뿐이다. 한편, 사업가 조너선 크렌쇼와 변호사 블레이든 두 남자가 장군의 쇠락한 재산과 오래전 한 여인이 장군의 집에 맡기고 간 소년 해니벌에 대해 이야기를 나눈다. 그들이 장군의 유산과 소년의 존재가 지닌 함의를 파헤치면서, 끈끈하면서도 편협한 공동체의 단면이 드러난다.
이 도입부는 해니벌의 소유권과 후견권을 둘러싼 갈등의 무대를 마련하며, 이야기가 전개됨에 따라 등장인물들의 삶에 영향을 미칠 분쟁을 예고한다.
Classics Read in English _ The Prodigal Judge by Vaughan Kester
Vaughan Kester's The Prodigal Judge is a novel from the late 19th century that opens with the death of General Quintard, the last of his bloodline. His life had been defined by isolation and neglect. The narrative explores themes of inheritance, personal struggle, and the prying curiosity of a community fascinated by the general's reclusive existence?and by the young ward he left behind, Hannibal Wayne Hazard, a boy shrouded in mystery and unanswered questions about his origins.
The story begins amid the somber atmosphere of General Quintard's funeral. The old man, who had shut himself off from society for decades, is mourned only by a handful of aging slaves and townsfolk who barely knew him. Meanwhile, two men?Jonathan Crenshaw, a businessman, and Bladen, a lawyer?discuss the general's crumbling estate and the boy Hannibal, who was mysteriously left at his doorstep by a woman years ago. As they probe the legacy of the deceased and the implications of the boy's presence, we catch glimpses of a tight-knit yet judgmental community.
This opening sets the stage for looming conflicts over Hannibal's custody and guardianship, foreshadowing the struggles that will shape the lives of all involved as the story unfolds.
Among the contents
The Quintards had not prospered on the barren lands of the pine woods whither they had emigrated to escape the malaria of the low coast, but this no longer mattered, for the last of his name and race, old General Quintard, was dead in the great house his father had built almost a century before and the thin acres of the Barony, where he had made his last stand against age and poverty, were to claim him, now that he had given up the struggle in their midst. The two or three old slaves about the place, stricken with a sense of the futility of the fight their master had made, mourned for him and for themselves, but of his own blood and class none was present.
Shy dwellers from the pine woods, lanky jeans-clad men and sunbonneted women, who were gathering for the burial of the famous man of their neighborhood, grouped themselves about the lawn which had long since sunk to the uses of a pasture lot. Singly or by twos and threes they stole up the steps and across the wide porch to the open door. On the right of the long hall another door stood open, and who wished could enter the drawing-room, with its splendid green and gold paper, and the wonderful fireplace with the Dutch tiles that graphically depicted the story of Jonah and the whale.
