英语名人堂：伊莎贝尔·阿连德

1942年，伊莎贝尔·阿连德生于秘鲁，但她真正作为作家横空出世是在40年后的1982年，那一年，她出版了小说《幽灵之家》。《幽灵之家》的出版几乎可以说是轰动性的。当时由于加西亚·马尔克斯的获奖，拉美文学大爆炸的冲击波达到了顶峰，魔幻现实主义的光环耀眼得无以复加。阿连德作为这一阵营中少有的女性，被某些出版商冠以“穿裙子的加西亚·马尔克斯”，从此迅速走红。

 

Isabel Allende is considered to be among the greatest ever Latin American novelists. Her very successful novels are a mix of reality and mysticism. They are often based on her own experiences of life and of being a woman. She travels the world giving lectures and promoting her books. In 2003 she became a US citizen and currently lives in California with her family.

 

Allende was born in Lima, Peru in 1942. Her father was the Chilean ambassador. She is a distant cousin of former Chilean president Salvador Allende. Her family moved around a lot when she was young because of the political uncertainty¹ in Chile in the 1960s. She grew up and went to school in Chile, Bolivia and Lebanon, where she learnt English.

 

Allende got married when she was 20. She became successful early on and had a variety of jobs. She was a well-known TV personality and a journalist for a feminist² magazine. Between 1959 and 1965, she worked for the UN in Chile and Belgium. She also translated romantic novels from English to Spanish, which sparked her desire to write.

 

Pablo Neruda, a famous Chilean poet, told Allende she had too much imagination to be a journalist and should write novels instead. In 1981, she started writing her dying grandfather a letter. This eventually transformed into her first best seller ‘The House of the Spirits’ (1982). Allende was immediately compared to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. More best sellers, awards and international acclaim³ followed.

1 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

2 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
• From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起，男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。

3 acclaim   

v.向…欢呼，公认；n.欢呼，喝彩，称赞

参考例句：

• He was welcomed with great acclaim.他受到十分热烈的欢迎。
• His achievements earned him the acclaim of the scientific community.他的成就赢得了科学界的赞誉。