Fanny Kemble (1809-93) was the niece of two Shakespearean tragedians, Sarah Siddons and Siddons's brother, John Philip Kemble. Her father and her French mother were also actors. In fact her whole extended family constituted the foremost theatrical dynasty of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Handsome and gifted, they crop up in letters and diaries throughout the period, and were generally regarded as a kind of royalty: a race apart.
   
The real competition for any biographer of Kemble is Kemble herself. As her friend Henry James noted: “in two hemispheres, she had seen everyone, had known everyone”. What's more, she recorded it all in many volumes of vividly written memoirs, all swarming with people, criticism, social commentary, anecdote, scenery, political opinion and superb set-pieces: the digging of Brunel's Thames tunnel, for instance.

Kemble's memoirs, especially her “Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation”, are as important historically as they are engrossing. But what fascinates us now is the way that Fanny, clever and reckless as she was, broke the rules—or the way she appropriated and revised the role prescribed to her by gender politics. She never cared about such prescriptions. She spoke her mind and thought nothing of walking into a stream fully clothed if it was hot. It wasn't until her marriage that her gender collided with the realities of power and money. Though she was never intended for the stage, the looming bankruptcy of her father obliged her to try her chances. Overnight, she became the toast of London. Money flowed, and yet more on a tour of America, where she met a seductive young man, Pierce Butler, heir to huge rice and cotton slave-plantations in Georgia. Hoping to escape the shallow emotionalism of the theatre, assuming a companionship of equals and somehow managing to forget the slaves, she married him.

At a stroke she lost everything. Butler, deeply illiberal, exerted his rights. He appropriated her earnings, censored her writing and when she woke to the horrors of slavery, forbade her public opposition to it. She wept, she ran away, she returned. The birth of children, in whom she had no legal rights, further enchained her.

The rest of Kemble's life was sheer indomitability. The Butlers did divorce. She did lose the children. But on their majority, she recovered them. She made her own money again. Criss-crossing the Atlantic, she gave Shakespeare readings to packed audiences. Every summer, she climbed the Alps, startling the guides by singing loudly as she went. She met James in 1872 and he fell under her spell, fascinated by her proud idealism, her eccentric honesty and above all by her talk of “old London”. “She reanimated the old drawing rooms,” he wrote, “relighted the old lamps, retuned the old pianos.” When at last she died, he felt it, he said, “like the end of some reign or the fall of some empire”.

注（1）：本文选自Economist, 06/21/2007

注（2）：本文习题命题模仿对象为2003年真题Text 4。

1． What is implied in the first paragraph?

  [A] The Kemble family keep a lot of diaries and letters.

    [B] Fanny Kemble was an actress of Shakespearean plays.

    [C] This passage talks about Fanny Kemble.

    [D] The Kemble family was once a royal family.

2． The author uses Fanny’s memoirs to show that _______.

  [A] Fanny was a good biographer of herself.

    [B] Fanny wrote biographers for others.

    [C] Fanny competed with other biographers.

    [D] Fanny knew everyone.

3． The author’s attitude towards Fanny Kemble is probably one of_______.

  [A] strong hatred

    [B] enthusiastic support

    [C] mild satire

    [D] objective

4． Fanny decided to marry Pierce Butler for the following reasons EXCEPT _______.

  [A] She did not want to be an actress anymore.

    [B] She wanted to have a life company.

    [C] She was attracted by the handsome Pierce Butler.

    [D] She supported the slave system.

5． The text intends to express the idea that _______.

    [A] Fanny Kemble had a life of bad luck.

    [B] Fanny Kemble didn’t enjoy much during her life.

    [C] Fanny Kemble had an optimistic attitude towards life.

    [D] Fanny Kemble

篇章剖析

    本文通过主人公自己的传记介绍了女演员范妮·肯布尔的一生。第一段介绍了范妮的家庭背景；第二段简介范妮为自己出版了内容丰富的传记，暗示本文基于范妮的传记对其进行介绍和回顾；第三段先对范妮的一生进行了总体评价，然后描述了她的早期生活、成名过程直至其结婚；第四段描述了范妮失败的第一次婚姻和她经历的痛苦；第五段描述了范妮乐观地度过了自己的下半生。

词汇注释

hemisphere [`hemisfiE] n.半球               collide [kE`laid] vi. 碰撞, 抵触

memoir [`memwB:] n. 回忆录                loom [lu:m] v. 隐现, 迫近

swarm [swC:m] v. 涌往, 挤满, 密集          stroke [strEuk] n. 一次努力, 打击

anecdote [`AnikdEut] n.轶事, 奇闻            illiberal [i`libErEl] adj. 狭碍的, 偏执的

engross [in`grEus] vt. 吸引, 使全神贯注       indomitability [7indCmitE`biliti] n. 不屈不挠

fascinate [`fAsineit] vt. 使着迷, 使神魂颠倒    startle [`stB:tl] v. 震惊

appropriate [E`prEupriit] adj. 适当的          eccentric [ik`sentrik] adj. 古怪的

prescribe [pris`kraib] v. 指示, 规定

难句突破

Hoping to escape the shallow emotionalism of the theatre, assuming a companionship of equals and somehow managing to forget the slaves, she married him.

主体句式  She married him.

结构分析  这个长句把句子的主干放到了最后，前面的两个分词短语在一般情况下都放在主干句的后面，这里放在前面不是“头重脚轻”的问题，而是强调“她嫁给他”的前提。

句子译文  肯布尔想逃离肤浅的戏剧情感主义，想有个平等的知心人陪伴自已，于是她在一定程度上忘记了奴隶制，嫁给了他。

题目分析

1．C. 推理题。文章第一段开门见山地介绍范妮·肯布尔的身份及其家族，可以推出这篇文章将主要介绍范妮·肯布尔。

2．A. 推理题。根据文章第二段，范妮·肯布尔自己就是自己的传记作家，她出版了好几卷关于自己经历的各种材料。

3．B. 态度题。文章第三段第二句称范妮“clever and reckless”，之后又说她用于冲破世俗制度和性别政治，可见作者是在盛赞范妮。

4．D. 细节题。文章第三段最后一句话说明了范妮出嫁的原因，第四段提到了范妮对于奴隶制度感到震惊，可见她并不支持奴隶制。

5．C. 推理题。文章最后一段提到了范妮的后半生中她一直不屈不挠地生活，她积极地参加各类活动，到处旅游，而且最终得到了爱情，可见她对于生活的态度还是非常乐观的。

参考译文

范妮·肯布尔是（1809-93）两位莎士比亚悲剧演员莎拉·席登斯和她哥哥约翰·菲利浦·肯布尔的侄女。她的父亲和法国籍母亲也是演员。事实上，庞大的肯布尔家族是18世纪末19世纪初戏剧时代的重要组成部分。那时，他们英俊的外表和表演天赋吸引来了成堆的信和日记。他们被视为皇亲贵胄——高高在上的一族。

对于肯布尔的传记作者们来说，真正的竞争来自肯布尔本人。就像她的朋友亨利·詹姆斯说的那样：“在两个半球，她见过所有人，知道所有人。”不仅如此，她还把这些生动的经历写进了自己的回忆录里，足足有好几卷。回忆录的内容包括人物、评论、社论、轶事、风景、政见和戏剧布景等：比如布鲁内尔的泰晤士隧道挖掘场景。

肯布尔的回忆录，尤其是“佐治亚庄园的生活日记”一章，不仅引人入胜，而且具有重要历史意义。但是，现在吸引我们的是聪明且勇往直前的肯布尔冲破世俗的方式，或者说她如何改变和推翻性别政治强加给她的角色。肯布尔从来都不在乎这些所谓的规定。她怎么想就怎么说，如果天气太热的话，穿着衣服走到小溪里去也无所谓。直到结婚以后，她的性别主义才与权力和金钱这些现实发生抵触。尽管她从没想过登上舞台，但是父亲的破产迫使她不得不去试试运气。一夜之间，她成为了伦敦的街头巷尾谈的话题。金钱滚滚而来，而美国之行让她得到了更多。在美国，她邂逅了风度翩翩的皮尔斯·巴特勒——佐治亚盛产大米和棉花的大型奴隶庄园的继承人。肯布尔想逃离肤浅的戏剧情感主义，想有个平等的知心人陪伴自已，于是她在一定程度上忘记了奴隶制，嫁给了他。

一时的冲动让她失去了所有。巴特勒有着根深蒂固的传统观念，并滥用自己作为丈夫的权力。他拿走肯布尔的钱，审查她的作品，在得知她对奴隶制感到震惊时，禁止她公开表示反对。她哭了，离开了这个家，可又回来了。孩子的出生进一步束缚了她，但她却不能合法权力拥有孩子。

    肯布尔彻底不屈不挠地度过了后半生。她最终与巴特勒离婚，也失去了孩子们，但陪审团还给了她抚养权。她又开始赚钱了：她不停往返于大西洋两边，给人山人海的观众们分发各种莎士比亚读物。每年夏天，她都要去爬阿尔卑斯山，走到哪都大声唱歌，甚至还吓到了导游。在1872年，她遇到了詹姆斯。他为她的魅力所折服，为她的高傲的理想主义、前所未见的诚实感到着迷，但最重要的还是她对“旧伦敦”的描述。“她修复了旧画室”，他写到：“重新点燃了古老的灯，让沙哑的旧钢琴重新响了起来。”当她去世时，他说自己觉得“像是某种统治结束了，一个帝国覆灭了。”