《飄》是美國女作家瑪格麗特·米切爾(1900—1949)十年磨一劍的作品，也是惟一的作品。小說以亞特蘭大以及附近的一個種植園為故事場景，描繪了內(nèi)戰(zhàn)前后美國南方人的生活。作品刻畫了那個時代的許多南方人的形象，占中心位置的斯佳麗、瑞德、艾希禮、梅勒妮等人是其中的典型代表。他們的習俗禮儀、言行舉止、精神觀念、政治態(tài)度，通過對斯佳麗與白瑞德的愛情糾纏為主線，成功地再現(xiàn)了林肯領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的南北戰(zhàn)爭，美國南方地區(qū)的社會生活。下面是文中的一些經(jīng)典段落，供大家欣賞：

　　《飄》經(jīng)典段落一

　　He liked the South, and he soon became.

　　In his own opinion, a Southerner.

　　There was much about the South—and Southerners—that he would never comprehend;

　　But, with the wholeheartedness that was his nature.

　　He adopted its ideas and customs, as he understood them, for his own—poker and horse racing, red-hot politics and the code duello, States’ Rights and damnation to all Yankees, slavery and King Cotton, contempt for white trash and exaggerated courtesy to women.

　　He even learned to chew tobacco.

　　There was no need for him to acquire a good head for whisky, he had been born with one.

　　他喜歡南方，并且自己以為很快就成了南方人。的確，關(guān)于南方和南方人，有許多東西是他永遠也不會理解的，不過，南方人有些思想習慣，如玩撲克，賽馬，爭論政治和舉行決斗，爭取州權(quán)和咒罵北方佬，維護奴隸制和棉花至上主義，輕視下流白人和過分討好婦女，等等，他一旦理解便全心全意地接受，并成為他自己的了。他甚至學會了咀嚼煙葉。至于喝威士忌的本領(lǐng)，他生來就已經(jīng)具備，那是不用學的。

　　《飄》經(jīng)典段落二

　　But Gerald remained Gerald. His habits of living and his ideas changed, but his manners he would not change, even had he been able to change them. He admired the drawling elegance of the wealthy rice and cotton planters, who rode into Savannah from their moss-hung kingdoms, mounted on thorough bred horses and followed by the carriages of their equally elegant ladies and the wagons of their slaves. But Gerald could never attain elegance. Their lazy, blurred voices fell pleasantly on his ears, but his own brisk brogue clung to his tongue. He liked the casual grace with which they conducted affairs of importance, risking a fortune, a plantation or a slave on the turn of a card and writing off their losses with careless good humor and no more ado than when they scattered pennies to pick aninnies.

　　然而，杰拉爾德還是杰拉爾德。他的生活習慣和思想變了，但他不愿改變自己的態(tài)度，即使他能夠改變。他羨慕那種稻米棉花的富裕地主，羨慕他們慢條斯理，溫文爾雅地騎著純種馬，后面是載著他們文質(zhì)彬彬的太太們馬車和奴隸們的大車，從他們的古舊王國向薩凡納迤邐而來�？墒墙芾瓲柕掠肋h也學不會文雅。他們那種懶洋洋的含糊不清的聲音，他沉得特別悅耳，但他們自己那輕快的土腔卻總是吊在舌頭上擺脫不了。他們處理重大事務(wù)時，在一張牌上賭押一筆財產(chǎn)、一個農(nóng)場或一個奴隸時，以及像向黑人孩子撒錢幣僅的將他們的損失愜意地輕輕勾銷時，那種滿不在乎地神氣是他十分喜愛的。

　　《飄》經(jīng)典段落三

　　If the educational equipment which Gerald brought to America was scant【缺乏的】, he did not even know it.

　　Nor would he have cared if he had been told.

　　His mother had taught him to read and to write a clear hand.

　　He was adept at ciphering【計算】.

　　And there his book knowledge stopped.

　　The only Latin he knew was the responses of the Mass and the only history the manifold wrongs of Ireland.

　　He knew no poetry save that of Moore and no music except the songs of Ireland that had come down through the years.

　　While he entertained the liveliest respect for those who had more book learning than he, he never felt his own lack.

　　And what need had he of these things in a new country where the most ignorant of bogtrotters【愛爾蘭農(nóng)人】 had made great fortunes?

　　In this country which asked only that a man be strong and unafraid of work?

　　到美國來之前，杰拉爾德沒有受過多少教育，可是他對此并不怎么有自知之明。其實，即使別人給他指出，他也不會在意。他母親教過他讀書寫字。他很善于作算術(shù)題。他的書本知識就只這些。他唯一懂得的拉丁文是作彌撒時應(yīng)答牧師的用語，唯一的歷史知識則是愛爾蘭的種種冤屈。他在詩歌方面，只知道穆爾的作品，音樂則限于歷代流傳下來的愛爾蘭歌曲。他盡管對那些比他較有學問的人懷有敬意，可是從來也不感覺到自己的缺陷。而且，在一個新的國家，在一個連那些最愚昧的愛爾蘭人也在此發(fā)了大財?shù)膰�家，在一個只要求你強壯不怕干活的國家，他需要這些東西干什么呢?