New Releases by Charlotte BRONTE

大学生必读

It’s as old as time: the breakup letter. The kiss-off. The Dear John. The big adios. Simple in its premise, stunningly perfect in its effect. From Anne Boleyn to Sex and the City writer/producer Cindy Chupack, from women both well-known and unknown, imaginary and real, the letters here span the centuries and the emotions—providing a stirring, utterly gratifying glimpse at the power, wit, and fury of a woman’s voice. In a never-before-published letter, Anaïs Nin gives her lover, C. L. Baldwin, a piece of her mind. Charlotte Brontë, in formal fashion, refuses the marriage proposal of Henry Nussey. In a previously unpublished letter, Sylvia Plath writes to her childhood friend and brief lover, Phillip McCurdy, expressing her wish to maintain a platonic relationship. And “Susie Q.” lets “Johnny Smack-O” know that she’s onto his philandering. The brilliance of the mad missives, caustic communiqués, downhearted dispatches, sweet send-offs, and every other sort of good-bye that fills these pages will surely resonate with anyone who has ever loved, lost, left, languished, or laughed a hearty last laugh.

प्राचीन साहित्य में नायिका का चित्रण प्रेम की प्रतिमा के रूप में, पति की छाया के रूप में, आज्ञाकारिणी दासी के रूप में ही हुआ है । अपवाद के रूप में नारी कभी-कभी कुटिल और दुष्टा के रूप में भी चित्रित हुई है, परन्तु बुद्धिमान, विवेकशील और पति को सही सलाह देनेवाली दृढ़ नारी का रूप साहित्य में कम ही देखने को मिलता महाभारत की गांधारी को देखें...गांधारी जैसी विवेकशील नारी ने यदि पातिव्रत धर्म की गलत व्याख्या के कारण आँखों पर पट्u200cटी न बाँधी होती, तो महाभारत की कथा आज दूसरी होती -नीति-निपुण मंदोदरी यदि उतनी विनम्र और सहनशील नहीं होती, और उसने वीर पुत्र और विवेकशील सम्बन्धियों को समझा-बुझाकर अपना पक्ष मजबूत कर लिया होता, तो पराक्रमी रावण अपनी लालसा के कारण यूँ पूरे परिवार को नष्ट नहीं कर पाता । प्रस्तुत उपन्यास में नायिका जेन आयर के व्यक्तित्व के कई पहलू हमें देखने को मिलते हैं-प्रथम तो वीरांगना किशोरी; फिर एक विवेकशील संयमी नवयौवना, निष्ठावान और दृढ़ चरित्र की युवती और अन्त में शरीर की अपेक्षा आत्मा को महत्त्व देनेवाली एक परिपक्व स्त्री का रूप! जेन आयर में अपनी क्षमता पर विश्वास, अपने स्वतन्त्र व्यक्तित्व की अनुभूति और उसके महत्त्व की समझ स्पष्ट दिखलाई पड़ती है । प्यार के ऊष्ण, पिघला देनेवाले प्रस्ताव के समक्ष भी वह विवेक का दामन नहीं छोड़ती और अपने व्यक्तित्व का गौरव बनाए रखने में सदा सजग रहती है । स्त्री-पुरुष समानता की प्रबल पक्षधर तथा नारी की आर्थिक स्वाधीनता की सशक्त समर्थक शार्लोट ब्रॉन्टे की बहुचर्चित-बहुप्रशंसित नायिका-प्रधान कृति है- जेल आयर?

From the author of Jane Eyre, a strikingly modern story of a young woman starting over—with an introduction by Weike Wang, PEN/Hemingway Award–winning author of Chemistry “Villette! Villette! Have you read it?” exclaimed George Eliot when Charlotte Brontë’s final novel appeared in 1853. “It is a still more wonderful book than Jane Eyre. There is something almost preternatural in its power.” Arguably Charlotte Brontë’s most refined and deeply felt work—Virginia Woolf called it Brontë’s “finest novel”—Villette draws on its author’s own experiences as a governess, and her profound loneliness following the deaths of her three siblings. It tells the story of parentless, friendless Lucy Snowe, who flees from an unhappy past in England to begin a new life as a teacher at a boarding school in the small French town of Villette. Soon Lucy’s struggle for independence is challenged by both her friendship with a worldly English doctor and her feelings for an autocratic schoolmaster. Brontë’s strikingly modern heroine must decide if there is any man in her society with whom she can live and still be free. The Modern Library Torchbearers series features women who wrote on their own terms, with boldness, creativity, and a spirit of resistance. AMERICAN INDIAN STORIES • THE AWAKENING • THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY • THE HEADS OF CERBERUS • LADY AUDLEY’S SECRET • LOVE, ANGER, MADNESS • PASSING • THE TRANSFORMATION OF PHILIP JETTAN • VILLETTE • THERE IS CONFUSION • THE SELECTED POEMS OF EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

Jane Eyre has dazzled generations of readers with its depiction of a womans quest for freedom. Having grown up an orphan in the home of her cruel aunt and at a harsh charity school, Jane Eyre becomes an independent and spirited survivor-qualities that serve her well as governess at Thornfield Hall. But when she finds love with her sardonic employer, Rochester, the discovery of his terrible secret forces her to make a choice. Should she stay with him whatever the consequences or follow her convictions, even if it means leaving her beloved?