Jane, talk about it.

Read for a lifetime, read for a lifetime, and then realize after reading (6)

? A dream is floating, but all roads lead to the same goal.

? -Thoughts on Reading Daphne Du muriel's Dream of a Floating Life

? 20 17.05.26

My Cousin, published in 195 1, is the work of Daphne Du Maurier, a famous British writer. Dream of a Floating Life is a companion piece of Butterfly Dream.

Daphne Du Maurier is a British woman writer who is very familiar to readers in China. She has the largest number of books borrowed by libraries in the world. Her masterpiece Butterfly Dream, as one of the world famous works, often appears with glittering names such as Hamlet, Notre Dame de Paris and Jane Eyre.

Daphne Du Maurier was born in an artist's family in London from 65438 to 0907. His father, Sir Gerald Du muriel, is a famous British performing artist and theater manager, and his mother, muriel, is an actress. Sister Angela later became a writer like her, while sister Jenny became a painter. Daphne's elder sister Angela and younger sister Jenny have long been public companions with women, and Daphne also had several romantic relationships with many women in her later years. The word "lace" comes from her positioning of her relationship with female friends. She was married once. Her husband, Boyle Browning, was one of the founders of the British Airborne Force. After marriage, she had three children. After her husband died, she was depressed for a long time, and she calmed down by wearing her husband's clothes and doing what he had done. She hates city life and communication, and has long lived in Cornwall on the Atlantic coast of southwest England. Many of her works are based on the social customs and habits of this county.

Butterfly Dream published by 1938 not only established Du muriel's position as a world-class writer, but also became popular with his unique writing mode of "Gothic Mystery+Romantic Love", which influenced the trend of emotional novels in the whole era since 1950s. 1940, Hitchcock's first movie into Hollywood was Butterfly Dream, which was adapted from Du muriel's novel. Hitchcock also put Du muriel's Jamaican Inn and Birds on the screen, which made her novels hot. Therefore, she is called the female writer whose works have been borrowed by libraries the most times in the world.

However, compared with Butterfly Dream, another masterpiece of Du muriel, A Dream of a Floating Life, has long been unknown to domestic readers for various reasons. Only Jin Yong once said, "I prefer floating dreams to butterfly dreams." Later, the dream of a floating life was introduced to China.

"A Dream of a Floating Life" is a male perspective, which tells the story of how a little boy who has not yet been wet behind the ears falls into madness in love. This is a story about an ignorant boy who falls in love with the widow of his late cousin and is crazy about it. "A Dream of a Floating Life" is based on the customs of southwest England, adhering to the suspense style of "Butterfly Dream", allowing the living to live in the shadow of the dead, telling stories in a mysterious atmosphere shrouded in terror and suspense, and portraying a passionate first love story.

Du muriel once commented on this work: "This is my own story." In the biographical work Daphne and Her Sisters, and in the eyes of many book critics, the protagonist Philip in A Dream of a Floating Life is a projection of Daphne's inner male self and a self-portrait that she tries to express to all readers.

The core figure in A Dream of a Floating Life is Rachel (cousin Rachel), who expresses her words and deeds as a real living person in most occasions in the story. Like most writers, the author chooses another person's first perspective to watch the protagonist. From the first perspective, Rachel in A Dream of a Floating Life is a petite woman in Philip's eyes. The author focuses on her hand through his eyes, sometimes describing how slender her hand is, and sometimes telling readers that she touches her ring in time when she shows emotional fluctuations. In characterization, the author has been repeatedly using these expressions, and the vocabulary is not rich. It can be considered that the author did not spend too much ink on highlighting the characteristics of the characters.

Philip was an orphan who lost his parents, but he was taken care of by Ambrus for twenty-four years. Ambrus hasn't remarried for twenty-four years. In a sense, Philip is happy and unfortunate. Ambrus went to Florence and met his cousin Rachel, who was a widow and had an unhappy childhood. At first, he just sympathized with her. Later, gradually, he fell in love with this clever and gentle woman, and soon they got married. Like all marriages, Ambrus was so obsessed with Rachel that she couldn't take care of herself at first, but I don't know when she began to hate some of Rachel's styles, saying that she spent money like water and went her own way. Later, Ambrus had a high fever and was bedridden, but just then, he said in his letter that Rachel would poison him, together with his mistress lawyer. He made a will and left nothing to Rachel after his death, but all to Philip. He hates her. From acquaintance to death, less than a year.

Later, Philip went to see the place where his brother died. Shortly after he returned to China, his cousin Rachel came to Philip's estate. Philip gradually fell in love with Rachel. Finally, on the eve of his birthday, he inherited all the property and gave Rachel the most precious jewelry. Two people were together that night. But the next day, Rachel denied it, and things went on like this. Rachel has been talking about leaving, but she has been building a manor and a garden. Finally, Philip found all the doubts, but none of them seemed to be doubts.

When we don't know a person, but we are attracted to her, we often fantasize that she is a perfect person, but in fact such a person doesn't really exist. After contact, you will find each other's shortcomings and produce contradictions and differences. For Ambrus and Philip, two bachelors who have hardly touched women (even if they have, they are dull, provocative and unattractive women in the English countryside), they are quickly attracted by Rachel, an Italian woman who is noble and elegant, knows the way of the world and knows how to please people. For a woman who is as smart as Rachel, knows how to read and write, and knows how to please men, she can certainly understand. In addition, both Ambrus and Philip have rich property, which can meet her material needs. It is inevitable to marry Ambrus, and so is Philip's proposal. When Rachel successfully unloaded Ambrus and Philip's inner defense step by step, she got the luxury she wanted. When Ambrose and Philip discovered her shortcomings, their image of "perfect goddess" gradually collapsed, and from then on, their inner defenses were tied back layer by layer, just as Philip's godfather said: truly elegant London women would not be so extravagant. Who stipulates that elegant women can't be extravagant, and Rachel is not from London; How noble, luxurious and elegant is it to have no money? Under the influence of this thought, they began to suspect that Rachel was a bad woman. She approached them only for money. Her relationship with Renati was impure. They even teamed up to cheat money. Rachel tried to poison Bruce and Philip.

Besides material things, did Rachel love Ambrus and Philip? Let's start with Philip Rachel's feelings for Philip are more about adults' feelings for children, or her sister's feelings for her brother. In addition, Philip is the cousin of her husband Ambrus. Rachel sometimes calls Philip a "child" and says "good" to Philip. Suppose Rachel has feelings for Ambrus, and Philip looks too much like Ambrus, and even some behaviors are exactly the same as Ambrus. How can Rachel feel nothing in the face of Philip who looks so much like her husband all day? Moreover, in Renati's last letter, she also explained that Rachel could not bear to part with Philip, but in her mind Philip was just the shadow of Ambrose, which was mentioned in many places in the article.

What about Ambrus? It should be a little emotional. The portrait of Ambrose found in her room not only proves that she didn't poison Ambrose, but also shows that she has feelings for him. Otherwise, there is no need to leave a portrait. Some people may say that it is only for others to see, but the portrait has been found. If she wants to perform, she should put it outside openly. Why not put it away? Finally, when Rachel died, she knew it was impossible, but she still took Philip as Ambrus. At this time, Rachel's heart is clear.

The dream of a floating life has thrown a big mystery from the beginning. How did Ambrus die? What kind of woman is cousin Rachel? Love or not? Is Rachel guilty or not? Did Rachel ever love Ambrus? Does Rachel love Philip? Did Rachel poison Philip? Did Rachel have anything to do with Ambrus's death? It was not until the last few pages of the article that the truth gradually surfaced, but it was not pointed out, giving readers a lot of imagination. I really don't know what the truth is.

"A Dream of a Floating Life" has no answer. Finally, I don't know if the heroine poisoned the male cousin. So this leaves a classic puzzle: does she have it or not? Did she kill it, or did she kill it? ), become the same as "to be or not to be" in Hamlet. Nowadays, this puzzle has even entered the daily life of ordinary British people and has become a common expression.

Dream, but all roads lead to the same goal.

How much truth there is, we don't know!