Yo-ho, that's amazing I really don't know if I don't check I was shocked when I checked.
Speaking of Nobel Prize nomination, Haruki Murakami is definitely the first thing that most readers think of.
But compared with Haruki Murakami who ran with him for seven years, Green is the biggest loser in Nobel Prize in Literature's history.
He was nominated as many as 2 1 time in his life! It is exactly three times the nomination number of Haruki Murakami!
And the reason why it didn't win the prize is incredible, even because: his book is too popular!
196 1 year, which is also the closest year for Green to win the Nobel Prize. But in the end, in order to balance the award-winning areas, the Nobel Prize judges awarded the Nobel Prize to a writer in Yugoslavia. Since then, Green has not won the Nobel Prize until 19 1 died.
In this regard, Lars forssell, one of the Nobel Prize judges who has been aggrieved by Green, pointed out sadly: "It is a huge mistake not to award the Nobel Prize to graham greene." Anders Austrin, another Nobel Prize judge, also said, "His name will add luster to our list of winners.
However, looking at Green's life's creation, many people have to admit that such a mistake is an achievement for graham greene himself. He is a veritable uncrowned king. 1976, won the highest honor award of American Inferior Writers Association-Master Award. 198 1 year, and won the Jerusalem Prize. 1986, Queen Elizabeth II awarded the British Medal of Merit. Until his death, Green was regarded as "the greatest writer of the 20th century". William golding rated him as "the most outstanding recorder of human consciousness and anxiety in the 20th century".
Although he didn't win the Nobel Prize, Green gained a lot of die-hard powder. For example, john owen, the idol of Haruki Murakami mentioned above, let the heroine read the biography of Green every day, and gave birth to a child named Graham to pay tribute to the master.
It is said that Green's "number one fan" is the famous Marquez, and Marquez's public confession of Green was recorded three times.
On one occasion, after Marquez won the Nobel Prize, he confessed from a distance:
"Although Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to me, it was also indirectly awarded to Green. If I haven't read Green's book, I can't write anything. "
Another time, in front of Green himself, Marquez patted Green on the shoulder. When he looked back, he said:
"I am a loyal reader of yours, Mr Green."
The third time was in the book Guava Xiang. Marquez recalled reading Green's works in college:
"Green is one of the most serious writers I have ever read. He is also one of the writers who have helped me the most in exploring tropical mysteries. "
Marquez also mentioned such a story in Guava: When he was flying with Green, he asked Green, "Why don't you think you should be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature?" Green quickly replied, "Because they don't think I'm a serious writer."
Besides (extremely difficult to read) One Hundred Years of Solitude, Marquez also has a novel called Love in Cholera Period. This novel is easy to read. Students who want to know about Marquez's works but are afraid of One Hundred Years of Solitude can read this one first. It's beautiful. It's about love. Next, Green's book is also about love. There will be a comparison between them.
Green has been traveling all his life, wandering in "the most primitive and remote area in the world".
He has been to Mexico, West Africa, South Africa, Vietnam, Cuba, the Middle East and other war-torn places, and even walked across Africa.
During World War II, he joined the British MI6 as a special agent under the recommendation of his sister.
These legendary adventures have become the best source of inspiration for his creation.
For example, "The End of Love" comes from his extramarital affairs;
The core of fate comes from his personal experience as a spy.
When Green recorded human nature, the struggle and redemption in the soul and the inner moral and spiritual struggle one by one, his works became enduring literary classics.
During World War II, British writer Morris fell in love with Sarah, the wife of Henry, a civil servant. Since then, all kinds of communication, love, hate, doubt, jealousy, faith ... all kinds of strong emotions are tormenting these people day by day. However, this love affair did not escape Morris's own prediction in the end, and finally it just became a "love affair with a beginning and an end".
The End of Love is about such a seemingly ordinary love triangle. However, it is the most autobiographical novel by British writer graham greene. Judging from the background of World War II in the novel, Morris's career as a writer and Sarah's status as a married woman, its authenticity can even correspond to an extramarital affair that Green experienced in reality. So aside from literariness itself, this book is also an indispensable way to understand Green in the eyes of many readers who like him.
There are many great love novels. One is China's Dream of Red Mansions (though Dream of Red Mansions is more than love), The West Chamber and The Peony Pavilion, as well as Shakespeare's Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. (Speaking of which, interject. I am reading an interesting book recently, which was written by neil mcgregor, curator of the British Museum. I chose 20 cultural relics collected by the British Museum to restore Shakespeare's life from the perspective of cultural relics. The name is Shakespeare's Turbulent World, published by Henan University Press, which is not bad. )
Some of the books listed above belong to grand narrative works, all of which are classics, and many people may feel that the distance is far away and are unwilling to read them. For example, we are familiar with the love during the cholera period, and even all kinds of romance novels, such as, Tong Hua, Hua, Sansheng, and even the recently hit "Little Beauty". This is all about love, and today there is "the end of love" to write.
As mentioned above, The End of Love is Greene's most autobiographical novel. There is even information that Green wrote this novel from his love affair with Catherine Walston, the wife of a rich American farmer, and the novel is dedicated to her. Specifically, it tells how the love between a writer and his lover begins and ends.
The book is set in London during World War II. At a party hosted by the heroine Sarah's husband Henry, Sarah met the hero Morris for the first time, and soon they fell in love. Frankly speaking, although this is love, it is actually just an affair, and insecurity has been bothering it. This creates conditions for the author to create many feelings of love, about love, about hate, about jealousy, about missing, about pain, about doubt and about faith. Everything is vividly displayed. If love in the cholera period exhausted all the possibilities in love, then the end of love exhausted all the fanatical emotions in love.
Although I said I haven't read many books, I have read dozens of romance novels, big and small, thin and thick. There is really no better book about the emotion in love than The End of Love.
Of course, classic love needs plot to promote it. The novel begins with Sarah and Morris meeting again. Sarah's husband suspected that Sarah was cheating, so he confided the secret to his friend Morris. As an old lover, Morris was jealous that Sarah didn't know whose new lover it was, and found a private detective company to investigate Sarah. Then, the life before Morris and Sarah fell in love was described by interpolation. Later, I learned a secret, and they never let go of this relationship. There are various plots after that, so I won't explain them here.
Because this book is really worth reading, there are too many spoilers and it is boring.
One of the most impressive fragments of this book is that after Sarah died, Morris was invited to move into Henry and Sarah's house. Does that sound ironic? But that's all. As for the reason, I think Morris loves and misses Sarah too much. So I'd like to live in the house in front of her, even with her husband, but it's all for you. I try my best to search everything about you, live in the house where you lived and drink coffee at your breakfast table every day. All this is just because I miss you. Whether love is an all-inclusive partner or just a humble existence, I just want to contact her again.
Another clip is that Morris found a row of bookshelves in Sarah's room, on which were all kinds of books kept by Sarah when she was a child. Then Morris lay on the floor with a book in his hand. When Sarah was a child, she scribbled notes on the book and thought about Sarah. Think about what Sarah was like when she was a child and how she grew up.
This scene reminds me of a fragment of a movie I have seen before, that is, "One Day" played by Anne Kaiserwei. The woman died in a car accident, and then the man lay on their bed, holding her pajamas and crying silently. The specific screenshot can't be found, it is this movie.
This passage really touched me and reminded me of the sentence in my favorite poet Su Dongpo's "Jiang Chengzi", "If you don't think about it, you won't forget it." A lonely grave thousands of miles away is sad everywhere. "
John owen, the famous contemporary American novelist mentioned above, commented on this book and said, "This is an extremely cold and pungent anti-love novel, poor Morris! Poor Sarah! Poor Henry! " Evelyn waugh, a contemporary English writer, commented on this novel as "extremely touching and beautiful, which perfectly describes his relationship with his lover and husband, from pity to hatred, jealousy and contempt."
Writers in both periods spoke highly of The End of Love written by Green in 1950s. For Green himself, this novel is more like a souvenir he gave to his true lover, Catherine Wallston, and himself.
This Catholic writer has never divorced or remarried in his life. However, in the three-volume biography compiled by Norman Shelley, we can often read a woman's name-Catherine Walston. It is said that Green was very unhappy with their relationship. Although they meet occasionally, Catherine always avoids Green's request and refuses to leave her husband and children to live with Green. After several disappointments, Green burned all her letters, but he kept his own letter to Catherine. Even, in order to avoid the emotional harm caused by Catherine, Green started another relationship, retaliating and demonstrating against Catherine. ...
Of course, these are only an episode in Green's life experience as a writer, but his growth and understanding of love are presented in the form of literature and become an interface to communicate with later generations.
"The only true and lasting love is to accept everything, all disappointments, all failures and all betrayals. I can even accept such a sad fact. In the end, the deepest desire is only companionship. "
This is the definition of love given by Green in the book, and it also hits the pain points of many readers.
"You are good to me, to some extent, is a very cruel thing. We lost touch. We are in the same desert, looking for the same spring, but we can't see each other, and we will always be alone. I say this because if we are together, the desert will no longer be a desert. "
And the original text of this passage:
I hung up. At first I was happy, and then I was miserable. I don't know where he is. We have no contact. In the same desert, I may be looking for the same puddle, but I am always alone in an invisible place. Because if we were together, it wouldn't be a desert. I said to God,' So that's it. I began to believe you. If I believed you, I would hate you. I have the free will to break my promise, don't I, but I have no power to get anything from breaking my promise. You asked me to call, but you closed the door in front of me. You made me commit a crime, but you took away the fruits of my crime. You made me try to escape with d, but you didn't let me enjoy it. You told me to drive away love, and then you said you had no desire. What do you want me to do now, God? Where should I go?
There are many such golden sentences in the book. This book was selected as one of the 100 English novels in the history of the Guardian in 20 15. 2065438+05 Top English Novels in BBC History 100; 20 14 the greatest love novel ever written by the British Daily Telegraph. William faulkner rated it as "one of the most authentic and touching novels of my time, written in any language."
All right, stop it. Go and have a look!
Wish you all the best.