书名：The Thorn Birds 荆棘鸟

难度：Lexile蓝思阅读指数990

作者：Colleen McCullough考琳·麦卡洛

出版社名称：Avon Books

出版时间：1978

语种：英文

ISBN：9780380018178

商品尺寸：10.6 x2.7 x 17.2 cm

包装：简装

页数：692

The Thorn Birds《荆棘鸟》是澳大利亚当代作家考琳·麦卡洛的成名作，这部时间跨度从1915年至1969年的澳大利亚家族小说，有关梦想、挣扎、郁积于胸的热望和禁爱的家世传奇故事吸引了一代代读者，被誉为澳大利亚的《飘》。 小说情节曲折生动，结构严密精巧，文笔清新婉丽。在描写荒蛮广漠的澳大利业风光时，颇有苍凉悲壮之美；同时女作家对女人爱情心态的探索，又十分细腻感人。

本版本为简装便携全英文版，文字难度不大，采用再生纸印刷，体积轻巧，方便随身携带阅读。 Now, twenty-five years after it first took the world by storm, Colleen McCullough's sweeping family saga of dreams, titanic struggles, dark passions, and forbidden love in the Australian Outback returns to enthrall a new generation. As powerful, moving, and unforgettable as when it originally appeared, it remains a monumental literary achievement—a landmark novel to be read… and read again!Review

“Beautiful… Compelling entertainment.”  —New York Times“A heart-rending epic… truly marvelous.” —Chicago Tribune

The Thorn Birds《荆棘鸟》是一部澳大利亚的家世小说，以女主人公梅吉和神父拉尔夫的爱情纠葛为主线，描写了克利里一家三代人的故事，时间跨度长达半个多世纪。拉尔夫一心向往教会的权力，却爱上了克利里家的美丽少女梅吉。为了他追求的“上帝”，他抛弃了世俗的爱情，然而内心又极度矛盾和痛苦。以此为中心，克利里家族十余名成员的悲欢离合也得以展现。 In the rugged Australian Outback,The Thorn Birds follows three generations of the extraordinary Cleary family through joy and sadness, bitter defeat and magnificent triumph—driven by their dreams, sustained by remarkable strength of character… and torn by dark passions, violence and a scandalous family legacy of forbidden love. 

考琳·麦卡洛（Colleen McCullough），澳大利亚当代著名作家，1937年6月1日生于澳大利亚新南威尔士州的惠灵顿。原先是一名品学兼优的医科学生，不甘心一辈子做医生和研究，从小喜欢写作的她尝试写作，她的第一部小说是1974年出版的《Tim》。 1977年，考琳·麦卡洛利用业余时间创作的《荆棘鸟》出版，小说一问世，长列《纽约时报》畅销书排行榜59周，并很快在全球畅销3000万册。包括《荆棘鸟》在内，考琳·麦卡洛一共写了25部小说，还创作了传记，写散文或杂文，甚至写音乐剧。 考琳·麦卡洛自1983年嫁给了诺福克岛人Ric Robinson之后，她就一直生活在这个远离悉尼和澳大利亚本土的岛屿，岛上居民只有2000多人。 2015年1月29日，考琳·麦卡洛因肾衰竭在澳大利亚诺福克岛的医院去世， 享年77岁。 Colleen McCullough was born in Australia. A neuropathologist, she established the department of neurophysiology at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney before working as a researcher and teacher at Yale Medical School for ten years. Her writing career began with the publication of Tim, followed by The Thorn Birds, a record-breaking international bestseller. She lives on Norfolk Island in the South Pacific with her husband, Ric Robinson. 

ONE1915-1917   MeggieTWO1921-1928   RalphTHREE1929-1932   PaddyFOUR1933-1938   LukeFIVE1938-1953   FeeSIX1954-1965   DaneSEVEN1965-1969   Justine

On December 8th, 1915, Meggie Cleary had her fourth birthday. After the breakfast dishes were put away her mother silently thrust a brown paper parcel into her arms and ordered her outside. So Meggie squatted down behind the gorse bush next to the front gate and tugged impatiently. Her lingers were clumsy, the wrapping heavy ; it smelled faintly of the Wahine general store, which told her that whatever lay inside the parcel hadmiraculously beenbought, not homemade or donated. Somethingfine and mistily gold began to poke through a comer; she attacked the paper faster, peelingit away in long, ragged strips. “Agnes! Oh, Agnes!” she said lovingly, blinking at the doll lying there in a tattered nest. A miracle indeed. Only once in her life had Meggie been into Wahine; all the way back in May, because she had been a very good girl. So perched in thebuggy beside her mother, on her best behavior, she had beentoo excited to see or remember much. Exceptfor Agnes,the beautiful doll sitting on the store counter, dressedin a crinoline of pink satin with cream lacefrills all over it. Right then and therein her mind she had christened it Agnes, the only name she knew elegant enough forsuch a peerless creature.Yet overthe suing months her yearning after Agnes contained nothing of hope; Meggie didn't own a doll and had no idea little girls and dolls belonged together. She played happily with the whistles and slingshots and battered soldiers her brothers discarded, got her hands dirty and her boots muddy. It never occurred to her that Agnes was to play with. Stroking the bright pink folds of the dress, grander than any she had ever seen on a human woman, she picked Agnes up tenderly. The doll had jointed arms and legs which could be moved anywhere; evenher neck and tiny, shapely waist were jointed. Her golden hair was exquisitely dressed in ahigh pompadour studded with pearls, her pale bosom peeped out of a foamingfichu of cream lace fastened with a pearl pin. Thefinely painted bone china face was beautiful, left unglazed to give the delicately tinted skin a natural matte texture. Astonishingly lifelike blue eyes shone between lashes of realhair, their irises streaked and circled with a darker blue; fascinated, Meggie discovered that when Agnes lay back far enough, her eyes closed.High on one faintlyflushed cheekshe had a black beauty mark, andher dusky mouth was parted slightly to show tiny white teeth.Meggie put the doll gently on her lap, crossed her feet under her comfortably, and sat just looking.