영어로 읽는 고전 _ 그레이스 리빙스턴 힐의 광야의 음성
그레이스 리빙스턴 힐의 『광야의 음성(A Voice in the Wilderness)』은 20세기 초에 쓰인 장편 소설이다. 이야기는 마거릿 얼(Margaret Earle)이라는 젊은 여성이 애리조나의 시골 학교 교사로 부임하기 위해 떠나는 여정을 따라간다. 그녀는 그 길 위에서 사막에 홀로 남겨진 채 보내는 끔찍한 밤, 그리고 어딘가 음험해 보이는 거친 말 탄 사내와의 불안한 조우 등, 여러 위험과 시련을 차례로 마주하게 된다.소설의 도입부에서 마거릿은 기차에서 내리는데, 곧 자신이 한밤중에 문명과는 한참 떨어진 황량한 장소에 잘못 내렸다는 사실을 깨닫는다. 처음의 들뜬 기대는 순식간에 두려움과 외로움에 자리를 내어 주고, 그녀는 어둠 속에 펼쳐진 검은 세이지브러시 덤불과 멀리서 들려오는 코요테의 음산한 울음소리 한가운데에서 점점 더 깊은 공포에 짓눌린다. 그러던 중 술에 취한 한 사내가 다가와 그녀를 위협하는 아찔한 순간이 찾아오지만, 다행히 마거릿은 "보이(The Boy)"라 불리는 친절한 청년의 도움을 받게 되고, 그는 그녀를 안전한 곳으로 데려다주겠다고 자청한다. 짧은 만남이지만 두 사람 사이에는 어렴풋한 끌림이 감지되며, 이 장면은 앞으로 펼쳐질 마거릿의 광야 모험과 그곳에서 맺어 갈 인간관계의 출발점이 된다.
Classics Read in English _ A Voice in the Wilderness by Grace Livingston Hill
A Voice in the Wilderness, an early twentieth-century novel by Grace Livingston Hill, follows a young schoolteacher-to-be named Margaret Earle as she sets out across the vast and unfamiliar landscapes of Arizona to take up a teaching post in a remote frontier school. Almost from the moment her journey begins, Margaret finds herself confronted by hardships and dangers she could scarcely have imagined — a terrifying night left stranded alone in the desert, and an uneasy encounter with a rough, watchful horseman whose intentions she cannot read.
The opening chapter places her at the very moment of her ill-fated arrival: stepping down from a train in the dead of night, she realizes with a dawning chill that she has mistakenly disembarked at the wrong stop, far removed from any town or settled habitation. Whatever excitement had carried her thus far evaporates in an instant, giving way to a deep, lonely fear as she takes in the dark expanses of sagebrush stretching away on every side and listens to the mournful howls of unseen coyotes drifting through the cold air. Her unease sharpens into genuine danger when a drunken stranger lurches out of the shadows and accosts her, but rescue arrives in the form of a courteous young man whom the narrative simply calls "the Boy," who quietly offers to see her safely to shelter. Their brief encounter, charged with an unspoken stir of attraction, opens the door upon all that is to come — Margaret's trials in the wilderness, and the human bonds she will, by slow degrees, learn to forge there.
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With a lurch the train came to a dead stop and Margaret Earle, hastily gathering up her belongings, hurried down the aisle and got out into the night.
It occurred to her, as she swung her heavy suit-case down the rather long step to the ground, and then carefully swung herself after it, that it was strange that neither conductor, brakeman, nor porter had come to help her off the train, when all three had taken the trouble to tell her that hers was the next station; but she could hear voices up ahead. Perhaps something was the matter with the engine that detained them and they had forgotten her for the moment.
The ground was rough where she stood, and there seemed no sign of a platform. Did they not have platforms in this wild Western land, or was the train so long that her car had stopped before reaching it?
