清晨朗读137: The Rise of Ransom City

文／王渊源John

Good morning!

今天的练习内容是很有意思的一本小说的开头。Felix Gilman的《Ransom City》描述了一个跟我们的世界既很像有很不一样的世界，有点Wild West的感觉。

朗读部分是小说的“编辑者前言”。作者在扮演编辑的角色，编辑说他是整理了另外一个人的笔记完成的这本书。Hope that makes sense. :)

I'm back to replying to comments. Tell me how your practice is going. And please share with your friends. 

Thanks,

John  

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朗读内容

The Rise of Ransom City

By Felix Gilman

EDITOR’S FOREWORD 

BY ELMER MERRIAL CARSON 

It seems I have worked half my life on this account of Mr. Harry Ransom and his adventures. I have published more books in my life than I can now recall, I have founded two newspapers and run three into the ground, I have rewritten my own autobiography four times—one of the hazards of longevity—and it seems to me now that this book has cost me more labor than all the rest put together. Ever since I first met him, Mr. Harry Ransom has made my life difficult. 

This is Mr. Ransom’s story, and for the most part it is told in his own words. I have corrected the man’s unorthodox spelling, and in a few places where his pages were torn or fouled or never recovered, I have had to guess at his meaning. Some of his punctuation appears to be of his own invention, and I have forced it into a more standard mold. I have preserved all his digressions from the point and I have corrected only a small percentage of his errors. What I believe Mr. Ransom intended as his title was one hundred and sixty-six words long, which is an abomination that no publisher can abide. I have shortened it. 

I do not intend to say anything much about Mr. Ransom here. I do not intend to express an opinion on whether he was a good man or a bad one, a genius or a charlatan, an honest man or a traitor. He was the kind of odd fellow one used to meet back in the century gone by, in the days when the Great War was at its height. 

All that is to say that my editorial duties have been light. The labor I speak of has mostly been a matter of tracking down the pages of Ransom’s manuscript. But that has taken me half a lifetime.

https://www.amazon.cn/The-Rise-of-Ransom-City-Gilman-Felix/dp/B008E8NO76/