簡單英文短篇小說推薦（6篇超經典英文短篇小說）
2023-06-11 07:54:20
不久前，雙語君（微信ID：Chinadaily_Mobile）為大家推薦了6篇短小精悍的英語短篇小說，。
這些作品篇篇經典，耐人尋味，讀起來也不難。關鍵是每篇閱讀時長都不超過10分鐘！
這篇推文受到了小夥伴的熱烈歡迎。後臺收到了好多的小心心！
大家紛紛表示，再也不擔心地鐵上沒事做啦！
於是，貼心的雙語君為大家帶來了第二彈，話不多說，上文章！
❶
《入職介紹》
Orientation
by 丹尼爾·奧羅斯科
Daniel Orozco
▌閱讀時長：8分鐘
▌內容簡介
這篇帶有荒誕色彩的短篇小說以獨白的形式（monologue），講述了一個新員工入職時被引導參觀辦公室的全過程，相信能引起職場小夥伴們的共鳴。
▌精彩選段
小說的開篇是這樣的：
Those are the offices and these are the cubicles. That’s my cubicle there, and this is your cubicle. This is your phone. Never answer your phone. Let the Voicemail System answer it. This is your Voicemail System Manual. There are no personal phone calls allowed.
那邊是領導的辦公室，這邊是員工的辦公格子間。那個格子間是我的，這個是你的。這是你的座機。電話你不用接，語音信箱系統會自動接聽。這是語音信箱系統的操作指南。嚴禁電話私用。
之後，這位主管程式化的介紹慢慢變得私人化，開始八卦起員工們的私生活：
Amanda Pierce, who tolerates Russell Nash, is in love with Albert Bosch, whose office is over there. Albert Bosch, who only dimly registers Amanda Pierce’s existence, has eyes only for Ellie Tapper, who sits over there. Ellie Tapper, who hates Albert Bosch, would walk through fire for Curtis Lance. But Curtis Lance hates Ellie Tapper.
阿曼達·皮爾斯容忍著拉塞爾·納什的示愛，卻暗戀著那邊辦公室裡的阿爾伯特·博施，後者基本上對阿曼達視而不見，他眼裡只有坐在那邊的艾麗·塔伯。可艾麗·塔伯討厭阿爾伯特·博施，卻願意為柯蒂斯·蘭斯赴湯蹈火。但是柯蒂斯·蘭斯討厭艾麗·塔伯。
八卦的內容也越來越黑暗，從辦公室戀情到性虐待、連環殺手，奇聞異事層出不窮。
▌評論
Here are these people in close proximity, spending their time together, knowing the private details of one another’s lives and yet ignoring them, and thereby ignoring each other, retaining their isolation even within a crush of human need and longing. For them, personal intimacy creates separation rather than connection—the more intimately the characters know each other, the greater their alienation.
這群人相處在狹小親密的空間裡，一起共度大量時間，知道彼此生活的私密細節，卻選擇無視，進而無視彼此，儘管他們內心充滿著人性的需求和渴望，卻始終保持孤立。對於他們來說，距離上的親密只造成隔離而非溝通。這些人物對彼此所知越多，就越疏離。
▌全文連結：
❷
《需求》
Wants
by 格蕾絲·佩雷
Grace Paley
▌閱讀時長：6分鐘
▌內容簡介
這篇短篇小說非常簡短，講述了一個女人在圖書館門口與前夫短暫邂逅，兩人交談了彼此對那段婚姻的看法。之後，女人陷入沉思，並做了一個決定。
The story is so short that the experience of reading it is akin to a flashback to a forgotten memory or a dream about a stranger’s conversation overheard in passing.
這個故事非常短，閱讀體驗像極了對一段遺忘記憶的瞬間閃回，或是夢境中重現偶然聽見的陌生人的對話。
▌精彩選段
I saw my ex-husband in the street. I was sitting on the steps of the new library.
我在街上看見前夫。我當時正坐在新圖書館的臺階上。
Hello, my life, I said. We had once been married for twenty-seven years, so I felt justified.
你好，我的人生，我說。我們有過一段27年的婚姻，所以我覺得這樣叫他很合理。
He said, What? What life? No life of mine.
他說，什麼？什麼人生？不是我的人生。
▌全文連結：
❸
《一小時的故事》
The Story of an Hour
by 凱特·蕭邦
Kate Chopin
▌閱讀時長：5分鐘
▌內容簡介
《一小時的故事》最初名為「The Dream of an Hour」，1894年發表時改為「The Story of an Hour」，講述了女主人公露易絲·瑪拉爾德從聽說丈夫死訊到發現丈夫還活著中間一小時的心理歷程。
Chopin's The Awakeningis a quintessential work of feminist literature, about a woman who feels restricted by the confines of her marriage. The same themes are at play here; it's more than worth a look.
蕭邦的《覺醒》是女性文學的經典之作，講述了一個深感被婚姻束縛的女人的故事。這則短篇也是類似主題，值得反覆品讀。
▌精彩選段
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.
她能看到房前空地上的樹梢搖曳著，充滿新春的生機，空氣中瀰漫著雨水的芬芳。下面街上的小販在吆喝著他的貨品，遠處某個人唱著歌，音符隱隱入耳。而屋簷下，有數不清的麻雀正在嘰嘰喳喳地叫著。
She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.
她知道，等她看到死者那交叉著的善良溫柔的雙手，那張一向含情脈脈望著她，如今卻僵硬蒼白、毫無生氣的臉龐時，她還是會哭的。不過她知道那痛苦的時刻之後，是完完全全屬於自己的來日方長，她張開雙臂歡迎這歲月的到來。
▌全文連結：
❹
《一個漂浮物無序的房間》
A Lack of Order in the Floating Object Room
by 喬治·桑德斯
George Saunders
▌閱讀時長：10分鐘
▌內容簡介
這個故事出自新晉「布克獎」得主喬治·桑德斯（雙語君之前介紹過他，），是他早年申請美國雪城大學文學碩士學位的作品。
It's not hard to see why; his stories, some of them science fiction, some of them literary realism, often portray the human spirit at odds with a consumerist culture.
不難發現，他的故事中有的是科幻類，有的是現實主義，常常描繪人文精神和消費主義文化之間的矛盾衝突。
▌精彩選段
A velour basketball, half the size of a real basketball, hangs mid-aired over a crib. In the closet, the arms of tiny jackets and sweaters wave and salute wildly. The threads of the carpet flatten out like grass under a helicopter, and then circular waves run outward from the middle of the room. When the waves die down, it’s just a regular carpet again. The whole cycle takes three and a half minutes.
一個只有真籃球一半大的絲絨籃球漂浮在嬰兒床上方；衣櫃裡，小夾克和毛衣的袖子亂舞，狂野地行著禮。地毯上的織線平鋪開，像直升機下方的草坪一樣，接著圓形波紋從屋子中間向四周湧動著。當波紋平靜下來，它又成了一塊尋常地毯。這整套動作一共要花上三分半。
▌全文連結：
❺
《熟路》
A Worn Path
by 尤多拉·韋爾蒂
Eudora Welty
▌閱讀時長：10分鐘
▌內容簡介
Welty was a Pulitzer-winning author from the South, known for writing about southern life in America. The Atlantic published 「A Worn Path」 in 1941. It tells the story of an old woman walking a long distance from her home to the center of town.
韋爾蒂來自美國南部，作品以描寫美國南部生活為人所熟知。1941年，《大西洋月刊》發表了她的作品《熟路》。作品講述了一個年邁的婦人從家徒步遠行到市中心的故事。
▌精彩選段
Phoenix heard the dogs fighting, and heard the man running and throwing sticks. She even heard a gunshot.
菲尼克斯聽到狗打架的聲音，聽到那人跑動並拋擲木棍的聲音，她甚至還聽到了槍聲。
But she was slowly bending forward by that time, further and further forward, the lids stretched down over her eyes, as if she were doing this in her sleep. Her chin was lowered almost to her knees. The yellow palm of her hand came out from the fold of her apron. Her fingers slid down and along the ground under the piece of money with the grace and care they would have in lifting an egg from under a setting hen. Then she slowly straightened up; she stood erect, and the nickel was in her apron pocket.
但在這個時間裡，她一點一點緩慢彎下身來，眼皮耷拉著，像是在睡夢中。她的下巴幾乎觸到了膝蓋。黃色的手掌從圍裙褶裡伸了出來。她的手指悄悄順著地面摸到硬幣底下，就像是從抱窩的母雞身下取蛋似的，那麼謹慎，那麼從容。然後她慢慢直起腰來，直挺挺地站著，硬幣早已裝到了圍裙口袋裡。
A bird flew by. Her lips moved. 'God watching me the whole time. I come to stealing.'
一隻小鳥飛過。她的嘴唇蠕動著。「上帝一直在瞧著我。我落到偷東西的地步了。」
▌全文連結：
❻
《如何成為一名作家》
How to Become a Writer
by 洛麗·摩爾
Lorrie Moore
▌閱讀時長：10分鐘
▌內容簡介
Moore’s pithy and hilarious writing has won her both attention and critical acclaim, and 「How to Become a Writer,」 a story originally published in her first collection, Self Help, is no exception. It’s a funny chronicling of the hurdles an aspiring writer has to clear, including backup plans and confused college roommates.
摩爾作品的簡練和幽默為她贏來關注和如潮好評。《如何成為一名作家》這則故事最初發表在她的第一部合集《自助》當中，沿襲了她簡練和幽默的風格。該文講述了那些有志於成為作家的人必須克服的障礙，比如有後備計劃，有一幫糊塗的大學舍友等等。
▌精彩選段
It is best if you fail at an early age - say, 14. Early, critical disillusionment is necessary so that at 15 you can write long haiku sequences about thwarted desire. It is a pond, a cherry blossom, a wind brushing against sparrow wing leaving for mountain. Count the syllables. Show it to your mom.
如果你早年失敗，比如14歲，那再好不過了。失敗的幻滅是必須的，這樣，你到15歲就能以你挫敗為靈感寫出長俳句了。池塘、櫻花、微風拂過飛向山間的麻雀羽翼。數數音節，讓你母親讀讀。
She is tough and practical. She has a son in Vietnam and a husband who may be having an affair. She believes in wearing brown because it hides spots. She'll look briefly at your writing then back up at you with a face blank as a doughnut. She'll say: ''How about emptying the dishwasher?'' Look away. Shove the forks in the fork drawer. Accidentally break one of the freebie gas station glasses. This is the required pain and suffering. This is only for starters.
你母親是個強勢且實際的人。她還有個在越南的兒子，丈夫可能有外遇。她堅信要穿棕色，因為看不清汙漬。她會匆匆掃過你寫的東西，然後抬起頭看你，表情空洞得好像甜甜圈。她會說：「你來清理洗碗機好嗎？」你要轉開頭，把叉子塞進櫥櫃，不小心摔碎一隻加油站送的杯子。這是必經的痛苦和折磨，初學者獨享。
▌全文連結：
雙語君（微信ID：Chinadaily_Mobile）的英語短篇小說推薦第二彈就到這裡啦！
如果你想多讀讀英文，從這些短篇入手是個好主意，讀著讀著，你就可以開始啃那些大部頭啦！
趕快收藏轉發，留著讀起來吧！
編輯：左卓 唐曉敏 李雪晴
參考：《赫芬頓郵報》
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