书信足心灵沟通的桥梁，是生命的慰藉。而名人书信是历史的精神财富，足人类的艺术瑰宝，让我们通过感人争至深的言语，随意而饱含深情的笔触，品味伟人血浓于水的亲情融会……本书收录了书信史上最感人的百余封书信，既有才子佳人互通款曲，也有亲人朋友互诉衷肠；有成功者的欢欣鼓舞，也有失意者的怨艾泣诉。细细体味伟大心灵中那深邃的思想、智慧的光芒和隐秘的悲欢。本书既是英语爱好者、文学爱好者的必备读物，也是忙碌现代人的一片憩息心灵的家园。

法国思想家伏尔泰曾说：“书信是生命的慰藉。“名人书信是历史的精神财富，它能使我们欣赏到伟大心灵中那深邃的思想、智能的灵光和隐秘的悲欢。名人书信也是人类的艺术瑰宝，透过感人至深的语句，随意而抒情的笔调，享受文字之美、意境之美与艺术之美。

本书收录了书信史上最感人的百余封书信，既有才子佳人互通款曲，也有亲人朋友互诉衷肠；有成功者的欢欣鼓舞，也有失意者的怨艾泣诉。这些感人肺腑、脍炙人口的名篇佳作不仅在历史上具有一定的代表性，而且在文学史上也有一定的感染力。为了便于读者更深层次地了解这些名人的情感世界，本书不仅篇首配以凝练生动的作者简介，同时篇尾附有丰富的背景链接，使读者能够多角度、全方位、深层次地解读作品。

致我的家人

Agrippina to Nero

Benjamin Franklin to Miss E. Hubbard

John Brown to His Family

Ernest Hemingway to His Mother

Thomas Gray to His Mother

William Cullen Bryant to His Mother

Lord Chesterfield to His Son (Ⅰ)

Lord Chesterfield to His Son (Ⅱ)

Eugene O'Neill to His Son

Theodore Roosevelt to Ted

Francis Scott Fitzgerald to His Daughter

Fyodor Dostoevsky to His Brother Mihail

Ludwig Van Beethoven to His Brothers

Abraham Lincoln to John D. Johnston

Elizabeth Barrett Browning to His Sisters

Charles Dickens to His Wife

Thomas Hardy to Mary Hardy

Emily Dickinson to William Austin Dickinson

William Cowper to Mrs. Cowper

Mozart to His Wife

致我的爱人

Napoleon Bonaparte to Josephine

Josephine to Napoleon Bonaparte

Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett

Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning

Percy Bysshe Shelley to Elizabeth Hitchene

Percy Bysshe Shelley to Mary Godwin

Henry Ⅷ to Anne Boleyn

Karl Marx to Jenny Marx

Voltaire to Olympe Dunoyer

Bettina Brentano to Goethe

John Keats to Fanny Browne

Victor Hugo to Adele Foucher

Sarah Bernhardt to Victorien Sardou

James Joyce to His Wife Nora

Eugene O'Neill to Beatrice Ashe

John Murry to Katherine Mansfield

Denis Diderot to Sophie Voland

Robert Burns to Ellison Begbie

William Hazlitt to Sarah Walker

Heinrich Heine to Camille Selden

Ludwig Van Beethoven to the "Immortal Beloved"(Ⅰ)

Ludwig Van Beethoven to the "Immortal Beloved"(Ⅱ)

Ludwig Van Beethoven to the "Immortal Beloved"(Ⅲ)

Balzac to Madame Hanska

Emily Dickinson to Master

致我的友人

Mme Von Meck to Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to Mme Von Meck

Robert Southey to Charlotte Bronte

Charlotte Bronte to Robert Southey

Ralph Waldo Emerson to Walt Whitman

Emily Dickinson to Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Thomas Paine to George Washington

Joseph Conrad to Edward Gamett

P. B. Shelley to John Keats

John Keats to Percy Bysshe Shelley

D.H. Lawrence to John Middleton Murray

Francis Scott Fitzgerald to Marya Mannes

E.B. White to MissR

Virginia Woolf to Lady Robert Cecil

Thomas Hardy to Evangeline Smith

Jonathan Swift to Miss Katharine Richatdson

William Wordsworth to Thomas Quincey

Samuel Johnson to Lord Chesterfield

Benjamin Franklin to a Young Friend

William James to His Students

Abraham Lincoln to Mrs. Bixby

    夏洛蒂·勃朗特致罗伯特·骚塞

[英国]夏洛蒂·勃朗特(1816～1855)夏洛蒂·勃朗特(1816～1855)，英国文学史上著名的三姊妹作家之一。她出生于英格兰北部约克郡一个与世隔绝的村子里，父亲是个牧师，她曾和其他几个姐妹一起被送进一家生活条件恶劣、教规严格的寄宿学校读书。夏洛蒂当过教师，也曾与妹妹艾米莉一起于1842年去比利时布鲁塞尔学习法语和古典文学。夏洛蒂的作品主要描写贫苦的小资产者的孤独、反抗和奋斗，《简·爱》是她的处女作，也是代表作，至今仍受到广大读者的欢迎。夏洛蒂还出版过诗集，她的其他小说有《雪莉》(1849)、《维莱特》(1883)和《教师》(1857)等。

先生，——不回复您的来信我就不安心，虽然我当突地给您写了第二封信，可是我必须对您那友善而睿智的赐教表示感谢射。我从来不敢奢求能收到这样一封回信：它语气体贴，让人精冲振奋。我不得不控制住自己的感情，否则，您会认为我的热情有些傻气。

第一次仔细阅读您的来信时，我只感剑惭愧和懊丧，我怎么能烦您审阅我的愚作。一想到那些写满诗句的稿纸我两颊就发烧，我曾为这些诗感到欣喜万分，但现存我只是迷惑疑虑。可是，我思考一阵后又反复读了几遍您的来信，这时前景似乎明晰起来。您没有让我停止写作；您没有说我的诗毫无可取之处；您只是反复劝诫我不要愚蠢地只顾着想象的乐趣而忘记真正的职责；不要只为名声而写；不要只顾寻求模仿快乐而写。您好心地要我为诗歌本身写作，不要耽误自己应该做的事情，而只为追求那种独一无二、让人着迷、近平完美的满足。先生，您也许会觉得我很傻。我知道我给您写的第一封信全是胡言乱语，可我并不像信中所描绘的那样：游手好闲，异想天开。我父亲是位牧师，收入虽有限，但足够养活家入，我是他最大的孩子。虽然在其他方面他不能给我太多，但在我的教育问题上却是倾其所有。因此，从学校毕业时，我认为自己有义务去当家庭教师。做了家庭教师就有足够多的事情让我去考虑和处理，再没有时间去胡思乱想。坦白地说，每到晚上，我的确在思考，但我从不让任何人受我思想的干扰。我平时小心谨慎，避免表现出丝毫聚精会神和古怪的样子，因为这可能让那些和我住在一起的人猜出我所要追求的东西。我听从父亲的忠告——在我还是孩子时，他就给我忠告，他语气友好，才智丰富，这和您来信的语气完全一样……我已做出努力，不仪要注意履行一个女子应尽的所有职责，还要对此表现出浓厚的兴趣。我并非总能成功，因为有时候，在我教书或做针线活时，我倒更愿意去读书或写作，但是我努力克制自己，这种努力的最好回报就是父亲的表扬。让我再一次向您真诚致谢。我相信，我将不再殷切期望自己的诗作发表。要是滋生了这种愿望，我就看看骚塞的来信，将它抑制住。单是给他写信并收到回信就足以使我引以为荣。这封信是神圣的，除我父亲和弟妹们外，谁也别想看到它。我再一次感谢您。我想这样的事将永远不会再发生了，要是我能长寿，以后的三十年，我将把它当成一场美梦铭记在心。那个被您怀疑是伪造的签名确实是我的真名，因此我必须再一次签下它。

                  夏洛蒂·勃朗特

                   1837年3月16日

附言：另外，先生，请原谅我再一次给您写信，我是忍不住才写的，一方面是告诉您，我非常感激您的好意，另一方面让您知道您的忠告没有白费，尽管开始做起来非常痛苦和不情愿。

                        夏·勃

     Charlotte Bronte to Robert Southey

 March. 16,1837  Sir, I cannot rest till I have answered your letter, even though by addressing you a second time I should appear a little intrusive, but I mustthank you for the kind and wise advice you have condescended to give me. I had notventured to hope for such a reply; so considerate in its tone, so noble in its spirit. Imust suppress what I feel, or you will think me foolishly enthusiastic.

 At the first perusal of your letter I felt only shame and regret that I had everventured to trouble you with my erude rhapsody; I felt a painful heat rise to my facewhen i thought of the quires of paper I had covered with what once gave me so muchdelight, but which now was only a sourec of confusion; but after I had thought a little,and read it again and again, the prospect seemed to clear. You do not forbid me towrite; you do not say that what I write is utterly destitute of merit. You only warn meagainst the folly of neglecting real duties for the sake of imaginative pleasures; ofwriting for the love of fame, for the selfish excitement of emulation. You kindly allowme to write poetry for its own sake, provided I leave undone nothing which I ought todo, in order to pursue that single, absorbing, exquisite gratification. I am afraid, sir,you think me very foolish. I know the first letter I wrote to you was all senseless trashfrom beginning to end: but I am not altogether the idle dreaming being it would seemto denote. My father is a clergyman as much in my education as he could afford injustice to the rest. I thought it there for my duty, when I left school, to become agoverness3. In that capacity I find enough to occupy my thoughts all day long andmy head and hands too, without having a moment time for one dream of the imagination.In the evenings, confess, I do think, but I never trouble any one else with thoughts.I carefully avoid any appearance of preoccupation and eccentricity4, which mightlead those I live amongst suspect the nature of my pursuits. Following my father'sadvice who from my childhood has counselled me, just in the wise and friendlytone of your letter-- I have endeavoured not only attentively to observe all theduties a woman ought to fulfill, but to feel deeply interested in them. I don't alwayssucceed, for sometimes when I'm teaching or sewing I would rather be reading orwriting; but I try to deny myself; and my fathers' approbation amply rewarded me forthe privation. Once more allow me to thank you with sincere gratitude. I trust I shallnever more feel ambitious to see my name in print; if the wish should rise, I'll look atSouthey's letter, and suppress it. It is honor enough for me that I have written to him,and received an answer. That letter is consecrated, no one shall ever see it but papaand my brother and sisters. Again I thank you. This incident, I suppose, will berenewed no more; if I live to be an old woman, I shall remember it thirty years henceas a bright dream. The signature which you suspected of being fictitious is my realname. Again, therefore, I must sign myself.

                     C. Bronte

 PS. Pray, sir, excuse me for writing to you a second time; I could not helpwriting, partly to tell you how thankful I am for your kindness, and partly to let youknow that your advice shall not be wasted ,however sorrowfully and reluctantly itmay at first be followed.

                       C.B.