作品簡介：索菲亞?托爾斯泰，列夫?托爾斯泰的妻子，在她的日記中詳述了兩人的婚姻逐漸走向不幸的過程。索菲亞和托爾斯泰都喜歡記日記，在這本日記中，我們也許能觸摸到這對舉世聞名的夫妻的人生中，不為人知的一面。

The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy

So you think you have an unhappy marriage? On Oct 8 1862, just two weeks after she wed the 34-year-old novelist Leo Tolstoy, the former Sofia Behrs was writing in her diary:"The whole of my husband's past is so ghastly that I don't think I shall ever be able to accept it " Tolstoy had just let his sheltered , 18-year-old bride read his own youthful diaries , in which he described his gambling , drunkenness and debaucheries . A few days later , Sofia confesses that she doesn't make her husband happy and that his " coldness will soon be unbearable."By Nov.23, she is talking of killing him. Later, she spoke frequently of killing herself and attempted to do so on at least two occasions .

On Nov 13 1863, the young wife describes her existence:

“ I am left alone morning , afternoon and night. I am to gratify his pleasure and nurse his child , I am a piece of household furniture . I am a woman . I try to suppress all human feeling .When the machine is working properly it heats the milk , knits a blanket , makes little requests and bustles about trying not to think and life is tolerable . But the moment I am alone and allow myself to think , everything seems insufferable. Whenever Sofia shows a little spirit or playfulness , Tolstoy finds her “stupid and irritating ” She starts to copy his manuscripts for him-she would go on to transcribe the manuscript of War and Peace over and over , parts of it seven times –and there she does find a kind of peace:” As I copy I experience a whole new world of emotions , thoughts and impressions . Nothing touches me so deeply as his ideas , his genius.

詞匯注釋：
ghastly:恐怖的,驚人的
1. You look ghastly ; are you all right? 你臉色很難看，是不舒服了嗎?

gambling:賭博
2. Gambling is a compulsion with him 賭博對他來說是一種沖動

confesses:承認
3 .He confessed to the priest before he died 臨死前他向神父懺悔

gratify 使?jié)M足
4. The act of gratifying 使人滿意的

suppress 壓抑
5.The police suppressed the riot. 警察鎮(zhèn)壓了暴動

bustle 鬧哄哄的
6. We must bustle up a bit. 我們必須稍微快點兒

insufferable難以忍受的
7. His insufferable insolence cost him many friends.
他那令人難以容忍的蠻橫態(tài)度使他失掉了許多朋友

manuscript 手稿
8.The editor labored over the manuscript till early morning.
編輯辛辛苦苦修改稿件直到清晨

transcribe 抄寫謄寫
9.a word transcribed literatim 逐字抄下的詞

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