| 词条 | The Sylph |
| 释义 |
The Sylph is a 1778 novel by Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. It was her second printed work and was published anonymously under the name 'A Young Lady'. The Sylph is an epistolary novel. It centres on Julia Grenville, a Welsh beauty and ingenue (with whom there are parallels with Cavendish herself) who leaves her idyllic rustic life to marry a rich member of the aristocracy. Over the course of time she uncovers the fact that her husband is a rake and a libertine, lavishing his wealth on gambling and mistresses.[1] The letters are chiefly written to her sisters and provide narrative detail about Julia's life in London and her disillusionment with the mores of the inhabitants of the city as well as her miscarriage. We also discover that she has a long-term admirer, Henry Woodley, that she has growing affections for another man (the Baron Ton-hausen) and also that she has a mysterious and enigmatic protector and guardian, who is the 'sylph' of the title.[2] The sylph helps provide advice to Julia on the way to negotiate the labyrinth of metropolitan high society, appearing in the work only in the double fictional form of a masquerade.[3]Eventually Julia's husband commits suicide as a result of his hefty gambling debts and Julia returns to her family in Wales. The book's epigraph is taken from The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope and was influenced by The Sylph, a one-act play by Germain-François Poullain de Saint-Foix (1771). There has been some controversy over the authorship of the work, with some claims having been made that it was not written by Cavendish but was instead produced by Sophia Briscoe. The question of gambling debts is an interesting one, since at her death Cavendish herself left an extremely large bill behind based on her own gambling activity. References1. ^{{cite web|title=The Sylph Paperback|url=https://www.amazon.com/The-Sylph-Georgiana-Duchess-Devonshire/dp/1452805644|website=Amazon.co.uk|accessdate=25 June 2014}} 2. ^{{cite web|title=The Sylph (European Classics)|url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Sylph-European-Classics-Georgiana/dp/0810122294|website=Amazon.co.uk|accessdate=25 June 2014}} 3. ^{{cite book|last1=Lewis|first1=Jayne Elizabeth|title=Air's Appearance: Literary Atmosphere in British Fiction, 1660-1794|date=2012|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=0226476693|page=90|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uZrrhSFgh28C&pg=PA90&dq=Sylph+Cavendish&hl=en&sa=X&ei=wg2rU473E4KjPZ27gZAK&ved=0CDcQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Sylph%20Cavendish&f=false|accessdate=25 June 2014}} External links
3 : 1778 novels|English novels|Novels about nobility |
| 随便看 |
|
开放百科全书收录14589846条英语、德语、日语等多语种百科知识，基本涵盖了大多数领域的百科知识，是一部内容自由、开放的电子版国际百科全书。