The Pursuit of the Heiress is a new, greatly enlarged and more widely focused version of what the late Lawrence Stone described as ‘a brilliant long essay or short book on the subject of the role of heiresses among the Irish aristocracy’, which was published by the Ulster Historical Foundation under the same title in 1982 and has long been out of print.
The new book comes to the same broad conclusions about heiresses -- namely that their importance as a means of enlarging the estates or retrieving the fortunes of their husbands has been much exaggerated. This was because known heiresses were well protected by a variety of legal devices and, in common with many aristocratic women of the day, also had minds and strong preferences of their own -- which meant that they were not generally an object of deliberate or profitable pursuit.
It also ranges more widely than its central theme of heiresses and addresses other aspects of aristocratic marriage such as abductions, elopements, mésalliances, the supposed ‘rise of the affective family’, and the disadvantaged situation of even the richest and most privileged women in an age when both adultery and divorce were largely the prerogative of men.
In short, it places the evidence of between fifty and a hundred Irish ‘big house’ archives at the centre of the international debate about love, marriage and inheritance in the halcyon era of the British aristocracy. As Lawrence Stone said of the original and now superseded version: ‘It is based on deep research, makes very amusing reading and postulates an entirely new theory about heiresses which has a strong ring of truth’.
A.P.W. Malcomson was educated at Campbell College, Belfast, and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and was awarded a PhD in history by QUB in 1970. Most of his working life was spent in the Public Record Office Northern Ireland, of which he was director from 1988 until his retirement in 1998. His publications include John Foster: The Politics of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, Archbishop Charles Agar: Churchmanship and Politics in Ireland, 1760-1810, Primate Robinson, and Nathaniel Clements: Government and the Governing Elite in Ireland, 1725-75.
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从主题深度来看,这本书远远超出了普通小说的范畴,它触及了关于身份认同、阶层固化以及个人自由意志在社会结构中的挣扎等宏大议题。但它处理这些主题的方式极为巧妙,不是通过说教式的宣言,而是将其渗透到角色对日常选择的权衡之中。例如,一个微不足道的宴会邀请,背后可能牵扯着家族荣耀与个人良知之间的巨大拉扯。作者对于人性的弱点和矛盾之处的描写真实得近乎残酷,没有角色是全然的善或恶,每个人都在特定环境下做出了最符合其生存逻辑的选择,即便这些选择最终带来了毁灭性的后果。这种对复杂人性的坦诚直面,让故事拥有了持久的生命力,它迫使读者反思自己在类似困境下会如何抉择。读完之后,我感受到的不仅仅是故事的结束,而是一种深刻的、关于“我是谁,我该如何生活”的持续性叩问,这种思想上的回响,才是一本真正好书的标志。
评分我必须承认,这本书的布局结构非常大胆,它敢于在叙事高潮之后插入一段看似“离题”的回溯,这在很多作品中是致命的缺陷,但在这里,它却成为了增强戏剧张力的关键。这段插入的过去,如同打开了一个尘封的密室,让我们看到了所有现在行为背后的真正驱动力,那种被压抑已久的情感和误解,此刻得到了彻底的释放。作者的叙事胆识令人佩服,她没有遵循传统的“起承转合”,而是构建了一个环形的、自我指涉的结构,使得结局并非简单的答案,而是一个新的起点。每一次翻页,都像是在解开一个更深层次的结,而那些看似散落的线索,最终都在一个意想不到的点上完美汇合。这种精妙的编织,让重读的欲望变得极其强烈,因为我相信,初读时一定错过了许多潜藏在字里行间的伏笔和暗示。这是一部结构为故事服务,而非故事迁就结构的典范之作。
评分我得说,这本书的视角转换简直是一场教科书级别的示范。作者巧妙地在宏大叙事和微观情感之间游走,让人既能感受到时代洪流的巨大推力,又能清晰地捕捉到个体在命运面前的无助与挣扎。它不满足于讲述一个线性的故事,而是通过多重视角,如同一个多棱镜,折射出同一事件的不同侧面,每种解读都提供了新的维度。尤其是在处理历史背景时,它没有堆砌枯燥的史料,而是将历史的重量融入到日常生活的琐碎之中,比如一件衣物的磨损,一封未寄出的信件,这些小小的物件承载的却是整个时代的重量与变迁。读到中间部分时,我曾一度停下来,不是因为情节复杂,而是因为作者对某种哲思的阐述过于精妙,需要时间去消化吸收。这种深度思考的内容,并没有让叙事变得晦涩,反而像一条隐藏的暗流,推动着表面的故事向前奔涌。阅读体验是极其丰富的,像是在进行一场智力与情感的双重探险。
评分这本书的叙事节奏把握得令人赞叹,从第一个章节开始,作者就用一种近乎无声的紧迫感将读者拽入了故事的核心。它没有那种浮夸的开场白,而是通过对环境细节的精准描摹,比如清晨雾气中泥土散发出的湿冷气息,以及人物之间微妙的眼神交流,来构建起一个充满张力的世界。我特别欣赏作者处理冲突的方式,它不是那种一蹴而就的爆炸,而更像是一块巨石在缓缓滑落,每一步都伴随着不可逆转的后果。角色塑造方面,尤其是一些配角的刻画,简直入木三分,他们或许只在某个关键场景出现寥寥数语,但其动机和背景却能让人在脑海中自动补全一个完整的故事线。这种不把话说死的技巧,极大地增强了阅读的参与感,让我忍不住去猜测那些未言明的往事。全书的对话流畅自然,充满时代特有的韵味,既有古典的优雅,又不失尖锐的讽刺,仿佛能听见那个特定阶层人士在壁炉边低语的声音。这种对细节的苛求,使得整部作品的质感如同打磨多年的古董,沉甸甸的,值得细细品味。
评分这本书的语言风格是极其独特且富有音乐性的,它拥有一种近乎巴洛克式的复杂结构,句子常常拉得很长,充满了从句和修饰语,但令人惊奇的是,这种复杂性丝毫没有损害清晰度,反而像精心编排的乐章,层层递进,最终达到一个和谐的高潮。我尤其喜欢作者在描述自然景象时所用的比喻,它们既不落俗套,又精准地捕捉到了事物的本质,例如将暴风雨比作一场积压已久的争吵,或是将黄昏描绘成一段即将结束的、略带伤感的旋律。这种对词汇的精挑细选,使得阅读过程本身就成了一种享受,仿佛在品尝陈年的佳酿,需要慢下来,让味道在舌尖充分扩散。此外,作者在处理幽默感时也拿捏得非常到位,那种微妙的、带有自嘲意味的讽刺,总能在紧张的情节中带来一丝喘息,让人在会心一笑后,更能体会到人物内心的复杂性。这是一本需要用“听”来阅读的书,其韵律感是其最迷人的特质之一。
评分In the 18th century Irishmen would often kidnap ladies for their dowries. LOL 在亚洲,送彩礼不如掳走,在爱尔兰以及欧洲,掳走带嫁妆的贵族女子仍然是上策。总而言之,看上了女人就应该掳走。
评分In the 18th century Irishmen would often kidnap ladies for their dowries. LOL 在亚洲,送彩礼不如掳走,在爱尔兰以及欧洲,掳走带嫁妆的贵族女子仍然是上策。总而言之,看上了女人就应该掳走。
评分In the 18th century Irishmen would often kidnap ladies for their dowries. LOL 在亚洲,送彩礼不如掳走,在爱尔兰以及欧洲,掳走带嫁妆的贵族女子仍然是上策。总而言之,看上了女人就应该掳走。
评分In the 18th century Irishmen would often kidnap ladies for their dowries. LOL 在亚洲,送彩礼不如掳走,在爱尔兰以及欧洲,掳走带嫁妆的贵族女子仍然是上策。总而言之,看上了女人就应该掳走。
评分In the 18th century Irishmen would often kidnap ladies for their dowries. LOL 在亚洲,送彩礼不如掳走,在爱尔兰以及欧洲,掳走带嫁妆的贵族女子仍然是上策。总而言之,看上了女人就应该掳走。
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