Selections from Novels by Nobel Prize-winning Authors

Author: Song Zhaolin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-04-01
Features: Since 1901, the awarding of the Nobel Prize has been considered "a gift left to humanity by a person who promotes the progress and welfare of humanity with purely idealistic purposes." However, it has been said that understanding and executing the will has always been like a silent mystery shared by the world, to the extent that "the history of the Nobel Prize in Literature seems to be a history of interpreting a will with ambiguous wording." This mystery has puzzled the world for a century and has also caused the Swedish Academy difficulty for a century. Theoretically, the Literature Prize is awarded to those "who have created the best works with an idealistic tendency in literature." After World War II, the selection of the Nobel Prize in Literature has placed greater emphasis on "literary pioneers," while also believing that only a true portrayal of the value and dilemmas of human existence is a "idealistic tendency" with historical depth. To date, there have been 101 Nobel Prize-winning authors in literature; he will become a permanent prize that lasts as long as history. This book collects fifty-seven works, primarily novels, awarded from 1901 to 2004. The translators are mostly renowned translators, and many are experts in the study of their respective countries' literatures. Most of the translations are direct translations from the original texts, with only a small number being translated from other languages, making them highly authoritative. The author compiled these collections of Nobel Prize-winning literature with the intention of introducing the Nobel Prize in Literature to Chinese readers, including the representative and outstanding works of the award-winning authors, the reasons for their awards, their biographies, the historical context, their literary concepts, literary achievements, and creative experiences, for the appreciation and reference of Chinese readers. It allows readers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the Nobel Prize, and also enables them to further explore the general picture of the world literary scene and the changes in literary trends since the 20th century, from which they can draw inspiration and benefit. This book is divided into two volumes, collecting fifty-seven works of fifty-seven award-winning authors from 1901 to 2005, primarily short and medium-length stories, with some excerpts from long novels. Among the selected works, except for a small number that are translated from other languages, the majority are direct translations from the original texts. These novels include works in English, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Czech, Greek, Polish, Swedish, Arabic, and Bengali. The translators are mostly renowned translators and experts in the study of their respective countries' literatures.