(单词翻译:单击)
Chapter 1
第一章
On a January evening of the early seventies, Christine Nilsson was singing in Faust at the Academy of Music in New York.
七十年代初的某个一月的一个晚上，克里斯汀·尼尔森在纽约歌剧院演唱《浮士德》。
Though there was already talk of the erection, in the remote metropolitan distances "above the Forties," of a new Opera House which should compete in costliness and splendour with those of the great European capitals,
虽然已经有传言说，要在距离大都市很远的“四十街之外”建造一座新的歌剧院，其奢华壮丽程度足以与欧洲各大首都的歌剧院相媲美，
the world of fashion was still content to reassemble every winter in the shabby red and gold boxes of the sociable old Academy.
但时尚界仍然满足于每年冬天在这个方便社交的旧歌剧院的红色和金色的破旧包厢里重新聚集。
Conservatives cherished it for being small and inconvenient, and thus keeping out the "new people" whom New York was beginning to dread and yet be drawn to;
保守的人珍视它，因为它小而不方便，从而把纽约开始害怕但又被吸引的“新人”拒之门外；
and the sentimental clung to it for its historic associations, and the musical for its excellent acoustics, always so problematic a quality in halls built for the hearing of music.
多愁善感的人因为它的历史底蕴而依恋它，音乐爱好者因为它出色的音响效果而喜爱它，在为聆听音乐而建造的大厅里，音响却总是有问题的。
It was Madame Nilsson's first appearance that winter, and what the daily press had already learned to describe as "an exceptionally brilliant audience" had gathered to hear her,
这是尼尔森夫人那年冬天第一次露面，日报媒体已经习惯描述的“出类拔萃的佳客们”已经聚在歌剧院准备听她演唱了，
transported through the slippery, snowy streets in private broughams, in the spacious family landau, or in the humbler but more convenient "Brown coupe."
在湿滑、积雪的街道上，他们乘坐私人马车，或宽敞的家庭四轮马车，或者更简朴但更方便的“布朗马车”中。
To come to the Opera in a Brown coupe was almost as honourable a way of arriving as in one's own carriage;
乘坐布朗马车去歌剧院几乎和坐自己的私人马车一样体面；
and departure by the same means had the immense advantage of enabling one (with a playful allusion to democratic principles) to scramble into the first Brown conveyance in the line,
用同样的方式离开，有一个巨大的好处，就是使一个人(这里开玩笑地提到民主原则)能够排队爬上第一辆布朗马车，
instead of waiting till the cold-and-gin-congested nose of one's own coachman gleamed under the portico of the Academy.
而不是一直等着，直到自家马车夫因寒冷和喝金酒而堵塞的鼻子出现在歌剧院的门廊下。
It was one of the great livery-stableman's most masterly intuitions to have discovered that Americans want to get away from amusement even more quickly than they want to get to it.
发现美国人想要享受娱乐，但也想更快地摆脱娱乐，这是身穿制服的车夫们最高明的直觉之一。
When Newland Archer opened the door at the back of the club box the curtain had just gone up on the garden scene.
当纽兰·阿切尔打开俱乐部包厢的后门时，花园的场景刚刚拉开帷幕。
There was no reason why the young man should not have come earlier, for he had dined at seven, alone with his mother and sister,
这个年轻人没有理由不早点来，因为他七点钟就和母亲和妹妹一起吃饭了，
and had lingered afterward over a cigar in the Gothic library with glazed black-walnut bookcases and finial-topped chairs which was the only room in the house where Mrs. Archer allowed smoking.
之后在哥特式书房里慢悠悠地抽雪茄，这间书房里有黑亮的胡桃木书柜和尖顶靠背椅，这是整个家里阿切尔太太唯一允许抽烟的房间。
