Personal Library -- Tess

Author: (British) Hardy Zhang Jin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-09-01
Features: The ancients said, "Travel ten thousand miles and read ten thousand books." For modern people, traveling ten thousand miles is easy, but reading ten thousand books is difficult. The wheels of technology are sweeping across the world at an astonishing speed. The modern people, busy in front of computers and all kinds of machines all day, have turned the Earth into a village with wires, optical cables, tracks, or air routes. With a click of the mouse, we can paste ourselves anywhere in the world. However, facing the vast civilization, without the foundation of reading ten thousand books, we not only frequently encounter the awkwardness of "meeting face to face but not recognizing each other," but we also accumulate those strangenesses that come from the depths of our hearts. For this, we long for a deeper understanding, for a connection of the soul; we long for a return to a way of traveling—before traveling ten thousand miles, put a few books in our spiritual backpack to allow our steps and souls to go further. A spiritual journey does not require "writing essays in youth and exhausting oneself in studies in old age," nor does it require hanging on a beam, gnawing through walls to steal light, or having a red sleeve add fragrance while never putting down a book. A spiritual journey only requires reading a few classics in leisurely moments. Novels, essays, and poems can all be made into soup for the soul; buses, subways, and even our palms can be our desks. Therefore, we have tailored a "pocket library" for busy urban dwellers. Classics are the soul of the library; easy to absorb is the essence of the library; carrying it with you, reading anytime, anywhere, and in any state is the purpose of the library. The selected titles in the library are all the timeless classics that have been refined through the trials and tribulations of different civilizations; the illustrations, carefully selected and painstakingly collected from hundreds of rare books and private collections, are a true restoration of the essence of the classics. The small format design makes it as clever as a wallet; the special printing technology makes every book "filled with the fragrance of osmanthus." Classics are not afraid of time, but life cannot withstand the erosion of "the passage of time is like this." The charm of classics is better seen than heard. It is better to use them to mend the gaps in our time, to add value to the fragments of our days; it is better to use on-the-go reading to gather wisdom bit by bit, and to understand life in the spiritual journey. Reading classics, with the least travel expenses, to the furthest distance of life. Tess tells the story of how society pushed a pure, simple, upright, hardworking, intelligent, and beautiful rural girl to the brink of despair, eventually leading her to kill someone. Her loss of innocence is mainly Alex's responsibility; her second fall into Alex's hands is the responsibility of her parents, Angel, and Alex, and her killing Alex is the last resistance of the oppressed. Throughout Tess, we see her pure nature struggling against the forces that her. In the end, she was forced onto the gallows, becoming a sacrifice on the altar, while society and readers still discussed her chastity coldly—how callous the world is! Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840, in Upper Bockhampton, Dorset, England, and spent most of his life in his hometown of Dorset. On the occasion of Hardy's birthday, Dr. Winifred of the Department of Literature at Viveca University invited me to visit the birthplace of the great writer in Dorset. Dr. Winifred is not only an expert on the Bront? sisters but also has in-depth research on Hardy. His speech in London on the topic of "Hardy and Jane Austen," with its novel ideas and meticulous analysis, left a deep impression on me. Dr. Winifred warmly offered to guide me, and I gladly accepted, riding in his car to Hardy's hometown.