名著阅读

It was gone. Denver wandered through the silence to the stove. She ashed over the fire and pulledthe pan of biscuits from the oven. The jelly cupboard was on its back, its contents lying in a heapin the corner of the bottom shelf. She took out a jar, and, looking around for a plate, found half ofone by the door. These things she carried out to the porch steps, where she sat down.
The two of them had gone up there. Stepping lightly, easy-footed, they had climbed the whitestairs, leaving her down below. She pried the wire from the top of the jar and then the lid. Under it was cloth and under that a thin cake of wax. She removed it all and coaxed the jelly onto one halfof the half a plate. She took a biscuit and pulled off its black top. Smoke curled from the soft whiteinsides. She missed her brothers. Buglar and Howard would be twenty two and twenty-three now.
Although they had been polite to her during the quiet time and gave her the whole top of the bed,she remembered how it was before: the pleasure they had sitting clustered on the white stairs —she between the knees of Howard or Buglar — while they made up die-witch! stories with provenways of killing her dead. And Baby Suggs telling her things in the keeping room. She smelled likebark in the day and leaves at night, for Denver would not sleep in her old room after her brothersran away.
Now her mother was upstairs with the man who had gotten rid of the only other company she had.
Denver dipped a bit of bread into the jelly. Slowly, methodically, miserably she ate it.NOT QUITE in hurry, but losing no time, Sethe and Paul D climbed the white stairs. Overwhelmedasmu(a) ch by the downright luck of finding her house and her in it as by the certaintyof giving her his sex, Paul D dropped twenty-five years from his recent memory. A stair stepbefore him was Baby Suggs' replacement, the new girl they dreamed of at night and fucked cowsfor at dawn while waiting for her to choose. Merely kissing the wrought iron on her back hadshook the house, had made it necessary for him to beat it to pieces. Now he would do more.
She led him to the top of the stairs, where light came straight from the sky because the second-story windows of that house had been placed in the pitched ceiling and not the walls. There weretwo rooms and she took him into one of them, hoping he wouldn't mind the fact that she was notprepared; that though she could remember desire, she had forgotten how it worked; the clutch andhelplessness that resided in the hands; how blindness was altered so that what leapt to the eye wereplaces to lie down, and all else — door knobs, straps, hooks, the sadness that crouched in corners,and the passing of time — was interference.
It was over before they could get their clothes off. Half-dressed and short of breath, they lay sideby side resentful of one another and the skylight above them. His dreaming of her had been toolong and too long ago. Her deprivation had been not having any dreams of her own at all. Nowthey were sorry and too shy to make talk.
它走了。丹芙穿过死寂，晃到炉边。她用柴灰盖住炉火，从烤箱里抽出那锅烤饼。盛果酱的碗橱仰躺在地上，里面的东西在底格的一角挤作一团。她拿出一个罐子，然后四处去寻盘子，只在门旁边找到半个。她拿着这些东西，在门廊的台阶上坐下。
他们两个上去了。步履轻快、不慌不忙地，他们爬上了白楼梯，把她扔在下面。她撬开罐子的封口和盖子。盖子下边是布，再下边是薄薄的一层蜡。她一一揭掉，慢慢地把果酱倒在半拉盘子里。她拿起一块烤饼，揭掉黑黑的焦皮。又白又软的饼里冒出袅袅热气。
她思念哥哥们。巴格勒和霍华德现在该有二十二和二十三了。虽说在她听不见声音的那阵子他们待她很是彬彬有礼，还把整个上铺让给她，她记得的却仍是那以前的光景：他们乐融融地团坐在白楼梯上———她夹在巴格勒或者霍华德的膝盖中间———那时他们编了好多“杀巫婆!”故事，想出种种确凿的方法来杀死巫婆。她还想起贝比·萨格斯在起居室对她讲的事。奶奶白天闻起来像树皮，晚上闻起来像树叶———自打哥哥们出走以后，丹芙就不在自己原来的屋里过夜了。
现在她的妈妈正和那个男人一起待在楼上，就是他，赶跑了她唯一的伙伴。

丹芙将一小块面包蘸进果酱。慢吞吞地，有条不紊地，凄苦不堪地，她吃掉了它。并不很急，但也不浪费一点时间，塞丝和保罗·D爬着白楼梯。能够如此幸运地找到她的房子和当中的她，而且肯定要同她云雨一番，保罗·D彻底昏了头，把记忆中最近的二十五年丢个精光。前面一磴楼梯上就是那个顶替贝比·萨格斯的姑娘，那个他们夜里梦想、黎明为之去操母牛、同时等待她挑选的新来的姑娘。单是亲吻她后背上的锻铁，已经晃动了整座房子，已经逼着他把它打了个稀巴烂。现在他还要做得更多呢。
她把他领到楼梯的上面，那儿的光线从天空直射进来，因为二楼的窗户不是开在墙上，而是装在倾斜的屋顶上。楼上一共有两个房间，她带他进了其中一间，心下希望他不会介意她还没准备好———虽然她还能唤起欲望，却已经忘了欲望是如何作用的：挥之不去，手中的紧迫与无力；意乱情迷之下，跳进眼帘的只有可以躺下的地方，而其余的一切———门把手、皮带、挂钩、蜷在屋角的悲伤，以及时光的流逝———不过是干扰。
在他们把衣服脱光之前那事就都完了。胴体半裸，气喘吁吁，他们并排躺着，相互怨恨，也怨恨上面的天光。他对她的魂牵梦萦已是太久太久以前的事了，而她压根就被剥夺了梦想的权利。现在他们很难过，而且实在羞于彼此交谈。
背景阅读

本书简介：

《宠儿》是托妮·莫里森最震撼人心、最成熟的代表作，现已经成为当代文学史上不朽的经典，也是美国文学史上最畅销的作品之一。小说完成于1987年，1988年即获得美国普利策小说奖。2006年《纽约时报》召集125位知名作家、评论家、编辑及文坛泰斗等选出自己心目中“25年来最佳美国小说”，《宠儿》得票最高，名列第一。

“你的爱太浓了！”——一个不可能重复的故事！！！
女黑奴塞丝怀着身孕只身从肯塔基的奴隶庄园逃到俄亥俄，奴隶主循踪追至；为了使儿女不再重复自己做奴隶的悲惨命运，她毅然杀死了自己刚刚会爬的幼女宠儿……十八年后宠儿还魂重返人间，和塞丝、塞丝的女儿丹芙以及塞丝的情人保罗•D生活在同一幢房子里。她不但加倍地向母亲索取着爱，甚至纠缠和引诱保罗•D，不择手段地扰乱和摧毁母亲刚刚回暖的生活……全书充满苦涩的诗意和紧张的悬念。

作者简介：

托妮·莫里森，美国当代最重要的女作家之一。1931年生于美国俄亥俄州，曾担任兰登书屋编辑、资深编辑，1989年起任普林斯顿大学教授。主要代表作有《最蓝的眼睛》、《秀拉》、《所罗门之歌》、《宠儿》、《爵士乐》、《天堂》等，曾获美国普利策小说奖、美国图书评论协会奖等多项大奖。1993年获诺贝尔文学奖，是历史上得此殊荣的唯一黑人女作家。