书名：The Pearl 珍珠
难度：Lexile蓝思阅读指数1000L
作者：John Steinbeck
出版社名称：Penguin
出版时间：2016
语种：英文 
ISBN：9780141368979
商品尺寸：12.9 x 0.9 x 19.8 cm
包装：平装
页数：152

The Pearl《珍珠》是美国著名作家斯坦贝克创作的一部脍炙人口的自然主义寓言小说，长期以来作为美国中学文学课本的必选篇目。本篇发表于一九四七年，是根据墨西哥民间故事改写的一部优秀中篇小说。一对贫穷的印第安年轻夫妻采到一颗稀世珍珠，他们由此产生了朴素、单纯的遐想，却勾起了城里各色人等的种种邪念。他们在迫害中奋起反抗，以抛掉珍珠来重新求得安宁与纯真。这里，美与丑、善与恶的尖锐对比激起人们返璞归真的愿望。

The Pearl is a haunting and timeless tale of the dangers of unexpected wealth by Nobel prizewinner John Steinbeck, author of The Grapes of Wrath. It is one of The Originals from Penguin - iconic, outspoken, first.
Kino is a desperately poor Mexican pearl diver. But when he finds The Pearl of the World he believes that his life will be magically transformed. Obsessed by his dreams, Kino is blind to the greed, fear and even violence the pearl arouses in his neighbours - and himself.
Review
“[The Pearl] has the distinction and sincerity that are evident in everything he writes.”—The New Yorker

“Form is the most important thing about him. It is at its best in this work.” —Commonweal

“[Steinbeck has] long trained his prose style for such a task as this: that supple unstrained, muscular power, responsive to the slightest pull of the reins.”—Chicago Sunday Times

在墨西哥北部的采珠中心托巴斯城，渔民奇诺一家过着贫赛安宁的日子，有一天，奇诺的儿子小狗子被蝎子螯了，生命危在旦夕却无钱求医，奇诺在海里捞到一颗巨大的珍珠，满以为从此可以过上幸福的生活，可是珍珠商们却联合起来杀价，还有人半夜去偷他的珍珠，奇诺的妻子胡安娜认为这是一颗不祥之物，准备偷偷把它扔回海里，奇诺追上夺了回来，在回家的路上他们又遭到伏击，奇诺杀了敌人，他和妻子回家却发现自己的茅屋被大火吞噬，他们赖以生存的小船也被人毁了。在向京城逃亡的途中，奇诺一家三口又遇到了追杀，小狗子被流弹击中而亡，奇诺杀了几个敌后踏上归途。把那颗带来灾难的大珍珠还给了大海。
whenpoor diver Kino discovers“the greatest pearlin theworld”, he dreams of comfort, security and safety for his wife and baby son. He does not suspect the terrifying greed, desire and fear that they will soon encounter in this timeless fable about the potential danger of unexpected wealth.

约翰·斯坦贝克（John Steinbeck，1902-1968），美国著名作家，其作品深爱受读者喜爱。1962年，斯坦贝克因为“现实主义的、富于想象的创作”以及“富于同情的幽默和对社会的敏感观察”被授予诺贝尔文学奖。代表作有长篇小说《愤怒的葡萄》，中篇小说《人鼠之间》、《煎饼坪》及《小红马》等。
John Steinbeck (1902-68) is remembered as one of the greatest and best-loved American writers of the twentieth century. During the 1930s, his works included The Red Pony, Pastures of Heaven, Tortilla Flat, In Dubious Battle, and Of Mice and Men. The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939, earned him a Pulitzer Prize. In 1962, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Kino awakened in the near dark. The stars still shone and the day had drawn only a pale wash of light in the lower sky to the east. The roosters had been crowing for some time, and the early pigs were already beginning their ceaseless turning of twigs and bits of wood to see whether anything to eat had been overlooked. Outside the brush house in the tuna clump, a covey of little birds chittered and flurried with their wings.
Kinos eyes opened, and he looked first at the lightening square which was the door and then he looked at the hanging box where Coyotito slept. And last he turned his head to Juana, his wife, who lay beside him on the mat, her blue head shawl over her nose and over her breasts and around the small of her back. Juanas eyes were open too. Kino could never remember seeing them closed when he awakened. Her dark eyes made little reflected stars. She was looking at him as she was always looking at him when he awakened.
Kino heard the little splash of morning waves on the beach. It was very good- Kino closed his eyes again to listen to his music. Perhaps he alone did this and perhaps all of his people did it. His people had once been great makers of songs so that everything they saw or thought or did or heard became a song. That was very long ago. The songs remained; Kino knew them, but no new songs were added. That does not mean that there were no personal songs. In Kinos head there was a song now, clear and soft, and if he had been able to speak of it, he would have called it the Song of the Family.
His blanket was over his nose to protect him from the dank air. His
eyes flicked to a rustle beside him. It was Juana arising, almost
soundlessly. On her hard bare feet she went to the hanging box where Coyotito slept, and she leaned over and said a little reassuring word. Coyotito looked up for a moment and closed his eyes and slept again. Juana went to the fire pit and uncovered a coal and fanned it alive while she broke little piesh over it.
Now Kino got up and wrapped his blanket about his head and nose and shoulders. He slipped his feet into his sandals and went outside to watch the dawn.
Outside the door he squatted down and gathered the blanket ends about his knees. He saw the specks of Gulf clouds flame high in the air. And a goat came near and sniffed at him and stared with its cold yellow eyes. Behind him Juanas fire leaped into flame and threw spears of light through the chinks of the brush-house wall and threw a wavering square of light out the door. A late moth blustered in to find the fire. The Song of the Family came now from behind Kino. And the rhythm of the family song was the grinding stone where Juana worked the corn for the morning cakes.