Old photo

Willie, 10 years old, came to strange England to live with his aunt and uncle. This childhood experience gave him a complete sense of desolation, and even in his later years, memories still made him tremble all over. However, this painful memory provides inspiration and rich material for Chains of Life, making it a great autobiographical novel.

When The Chains of Life 19 15 was published, Mao Mu, who was in his forties, found that he could finally let go of the childhood misfortune that had been tormenting him. The childhood life of the protagonist Philip in the book is mostly the reappearance of Mao Mu's real childhood, especially the priest's uncle and aunt, which can be said to be a complete prototype.

When Mao Mu was in the pastor's house, he was sensitive and autistic, and kept company with books, which was his refuge. At school (nine months after he went to England), he was the object of ridicule: no parents, no friends, no rules and slang, never playing cricket (British national football), never playing football, speaking English with a French accent, not fluent enough, stuttering. All this makes Mao Mu more accustomed to loneliness. He is often regarded as a loner by his neighbors.

However, Mao Mu is an excellent student. He is clever and has a good memory. He has won prizes in music, theology, history and French classes. In addition, he has a highly developed visual sense, and has a strong interest in painting all his life (therefore, there are many painters in Mao Mu's works, not just the Moon and Sixpence). Of course, this is also related to his later contact with many painters.

There are two happy things at this time: Mao Mu really likes his aunt; He owned a bicycle that young people were crazy about at that time (this can be seen in the shackles of life and pleasure). /kloc-Mao Mu, 0/5 years old, is not tall, but he is already a beautiful boy, with thick black hair, brown eyes and pale complexion. He is well dressed: elegant white flannel pants, blue coat and black and white hard straw hat.

Mao Mu studied at the famous King's School in Canterbury, where several famous alumni were born, and Dickens also asked david copperfield to study here. This boarding school is full of boys. Since then, Mao Mu has the same-sex sexual orientation, because everyone around him is like this, and he can't be immune to it.

However, after Mao Mu dropped out of school for a period of time because of pleurisy, he returned to school, and everything was very uncomfortable. Originally intended to study at Cambridge University like his brothers, he began to get tired of studying, and finally gave up the opportunity to go to Cambridge and left King Canterbury School forever at the end of that semester. After Mao Mu's death, his ashes were buried in the Mao Mu Library of this school. That was seventy-five years later. )

Mao Mu has three brothers, and one brother behind him died a few days later, so Mao Mu is the youngest in the family.

When his mother was still alive, Mao Mu's brothers went to England to study, and Mao Mu had little correspondence with his brothers. Later, they never visited Father Mao Mu's residence, which was only 20 miles apart. In fact, they have no idea of the poverty in Mao Mu. Although his second brother Freddie is also in foster care with another relative, his situation is much better than that of Mao Mu.

Later, my brothers all inherited their father's business and became lawyers. As a junior partner of his own law firm, eldest brother Charlie worked in Paris for five years, then worked in Seville and Mao Mu, and got to know his wife who was studying in the Conservatory of Music at that time. After their marriage, they returned to Paris and lived the life of Mao Mu's parents.

Freddie, Mao Mu's second brother and the last one to meet, stayed in London and joined Lincoln Law School. Everyone calls him F.H., handsome, strong and gloomy, and his cold silence effectively masks his sensitivity and fragility. He married the daughter of a High Court judge and became a permanent judge of the Court of Appeal. In his later years, he was awarded the title of "Baron Mao Mu".

Harry, the third brother, is also a judge, but he is not a man who follows the rules. He is not interested in law. Like Mao Mu, his real ambition is to be a writer. He and Mao Mu have a lot in common: gentle and kind, like art, sharp-minded, shy, lacking inner security; They are all unorthodox sexual behaviors. However, the two never approached (Mao Mu and his brother never established a strong brotherly relationship). Harry moved to Italy, but after returning to England from Italy, he lived a lonely life, slowly fell into chronic depression and committed suicide.

In fact, all four brothers in Mao Mu suffer from depression: Charlie, the eldest brother, is a "pale, serious, melancholy and very sad person" in the eyes of his family. The second child, F.H., often defines his mental state as "depression" ... very sad. Mao Mu was unhappy since he was a child, but when he grew up, he was deeply depressed and "extremely pessimistic", as he described himself.

Mao Mu and F.H. were often haunted by nightmares later. One of Mao Mu's nieces commented, "These two people tend to cry when they are watching a play or reading a novel ... but they never cry when they encounter tragic things in life. Maybe they try to isolate themselves from unbearable sadness, and sometimes they are particularly cold, thus cooling or even destroying interpersonal relationships. "

Mao Mu, who has a stuttering problem, missed his career as a lawyer. After leaving King's School, he went to Heidelberg to study languages for a year. During this period, he was exposed to drama and became interested in the stage. He often drafts plots, writes dialogues and learns writing skills, which is the source of his later becoming a playwright.

After I came back from Heidelberg, I tried in an accounting firm for a while, but I left after a few weeks because I couldn't stand the boredom of this kind of work. With the death of my aunt, the life of the pastor's family became more boring. Mao Mu wanted to escape from his present situation as soon as possible, so he struggled for several weeks and was admitted to St. Thomas Medical College. Mao Mu, aged 65,438+08, became a medical student. Five years later, he came here and found himself good at using scalpels. He was inspired by a teacher's words and accepted that his sexual orientation was only a slight disorder.

While studying medicine, he made up his mind to make a living by writing. He is very self-disciplined and reads an amazing amount. He reads books in English, French, German, Russian, Italian and other languages, and often writes a story outline, plot dialogue, and his own observations and thoughts are all over the pages. Therefore, when he graduated from medical school five years later, Mao Mu didn't work as a doctor for a day, so he gave up medicine and began his difficult career as a writer.

Attachment: King's College of Canterbury

King Canterbury School is an excellent school in Britain. This school has always been regarded as the oldest school in England, ranking in the top 40 according to the proportion of A-level "A-level students". It is located in the area of Canterbury Cathedral and St. Austin Abbey. It is one of the world heritages. Since Catholicism was introduced to England from St. Austin in 597 BC, it has been the holy land of education. Canterbury Cathedral is the main church of the Anglican Church, and this school is part of the church building. 13% of students can enter Oxford and Cambridge for further study after graduation.

Old photos | Look at the pictures and talk 1: Mao Mu before the age of ten.

Old photo | Look at the picture and talk 3: The only woman Mao Mu loved in her life.