The Golden Compass (US)
映画化されたのでご存知の方も多いと思いますが、日本版『ライラの冒険シリーズ』の第１巻『黄金の羅針盤』がこれにあたります。
私達の世界と酷似したイギリスや北極を舞台にしていますが、この世界の人間は「daemon」と呼ばれる動物の形をした自分自身の魂を必ず伴うParallel Worldに住んでいます。ストーリーには"elementary particles（素粒子）"、"photons（光子、光量子）"etc...、文系向きではない単語が多数出てきますが、そこはあまり神経質にならず、ストーリーのテンポの良さと、お転婆どころではないLyraの行動力、Lyraを取り巻く様々な謎や個性的な登場人物達をトコトン楽しみましょう♪
英語としては、最初の２章は難しい単語も少なく、初っ端からLyraが事件に巻き込まれたりする為、ストレスなく読めます。が、Lyraを取り巻く世界や状況説明が始まる３章からは、辞書との格闘を余儀なくされます（私の場合）。その後、Part.２以降はまた読みやすくなりますが・・・。「上手いなぁ～」と思うのは、まず１＆２章で読者をストーリーに惹き込んでから、少しだけ面倒な状況説明に入るとこ。私達英語初心者は言わずもがなですが、例え英語を母国語とする人達でも、小さな子供達にしてみたら、イマイチ盛り上がりに欠ける状況説明から入るより、イキナリ事件に巻き込まれ、いくつもの謎を突きつけられてからの方が挫折しにくいだろうというのは想像に難くありませんから。
・・・というわけで、英文抜粋は１章と３章からそれぞれ少しずつさせていただきます。（少しずつじゃ、あまり意味はないと思うけどね~(=^‥^A）
（6/4-6/26 所要日数：23日間
ページ数：399ページ
One. The Decanter of Tokay
Lyra and her daemon moved through the darkening hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen. The three great tables that ran the length of the hall were laid already, the silver and the glass catching what little light there was, and the long benches were pulled out ready for the guests. Portraits of former Masters hung high up in the gloom along the walls. Lyra reached the dais and looked back at the open kitchen door, and, seeing no one, stepped up beside the high table. The places here were laid with gold, not silver, and the fourteen seats were not oak benches but mahogany chairs with velvet cushions.
Three. Lyra's Jordan
Jordan College was the grandest and richest of all the colleges in Oxford. It was probably the largest, too, though no one knew for certain. The buildings, which were grouped around three irregular quadrangles, dated from every period from the early Middle Ages to the mid-eighteenth century. It had never been planned; it had grown piecemeal, with past and present overlapping at every spot, and the final effect was one of jumbled and squalid grandeur. Some part was always about to fall down, and for five generations the same family, the Parslows, had been employed full time by the College as masons and scaffolders.
最後に、お気に入りの台詞♪
・"It is the Alethiometer. It tells the truth. As for how to read it, you'll have to learn by yourself."
・"I wish..." she said, and stopped. There was nothing that could be gained by wishing for it. A final deep shaky breath, and she was ready to go on.
お薦め度：★★★★★ |
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The Remains of the Day (UK)
Kazuo Ishiguro氏のブッカー賞受賞作品で、私にとっては「Never Let Me Go」に続いて２冊目のIshiguro作品です。諸々の雑用が重なり、読むのにやたらと時間がかかってしまいましたが、読み終わった時は「何だか虚しいのだけれど、かつ清々しい」という妙な読後感が病みつきになりそう。(^m^*)
作品全体に流れる「静かな深い愛情」というのが、Ishiguro氏の持ち味なのかな・・・？ 今回は古き良きイギリスの高名な紳士に長年仕えてきた執事さんの旅行記＆回顧録。いえ、「過去への旅行記」というべきかな？ 今は亡き主人への確かな忠誠心と自分の仕事への誇り、自分でさえ気付くことのなかった愛情の、そしてその破局の突然の自覚。その一生を振り返り、悔やまずにおれないのは、人生の終盤につきものの事ではあるけど、それを「一日の終わり」になぞらえ、来るべき明日に、未来に思いを馳せている点が、常に高みを目指してきた執事さんらしい・・♪
英語は某HPに「Never Let Me Go」より簡単っぽいことを書いていましたが、間違いなく「Never Let Me Go」より難しいでしょう。
特に古き良きイギリス紳士たちが集まるシーンでは、辞書が手放せない状態でした。逆に言うと、それ以外のシーンでは、比較的楽に読めるんじゃないかと思います。
手に汗握るシーンなどは皆無ですし、「Never Let Me Go」のような衝撃的な展開もありませんが、静かな感動が欲しい人、必読です♪
↑のリンク、品切れかもしれませんが、私が買ったのはこのUK版なので無理矢理リンク。
初心者向けに書き直されたペンギンズ・リーダー版(?)の「The Remains of the Day」もあるので、買う際は要注意☆
（4/31-6/2 所要日数：34日間~(=^‥^A）
ページ数：258ページ
It seems increasingly likely that I really will undertake the expedition that has been preoccupying my imagination now for some days. An expedition, I should say, which I will undertake alone, in the comfort of Mr Farraday's Ford; an expedition which, as I foresee it, will take me through much of the finest countryside of England to the West Country, and may keep me away from Darlington Hall for as much as five or six days. The idea of such a journey came about, I should point out, from a most kind suggestion put to me by Mr Farraday himself one afternoon almost a fortnight ago, when I had been dusting the portraits in the library. In fact, as I recall, I was up on the step-ladder dusting the portrait of Viscount Wetherby when my employer had entered carrying a few volumes which he presumably wished returned to the shelves. On seeing my person, he took the opportunity to inform me that he had just that moment finalized plans to return to the United States for a period of five weeks between August and September. Having made this announcement, my employer put his volumes down on a table, seated himself on the chaise-longue, and stretched out his legs. It was then, gazing up at me, that he said.
お薦め度：★★★★☆ |
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Harry Potter And the Order of the Phoenix (UK)
シリーズ最長の第５巻！３→６→７→１→２→４→５巻と、奇妙奇天烈な順序になってはしまいましたが、私にとって英語版ハリー・ポッタ・シリーズへの最後の挑戦となった巻です。散々な仕打ちに＋反抗期で、１巻の可愛いハリーとは別人かと思うほど短気なHarryが、新しく加わった仲間達とともに、Ministry of Magic相手に、そしてもちろんDeath Eaters や Voldemort 相手に大暴れします。が、痛快とは決して言えないエンディングが待っております。この『やるせなさ』は最終巻を読み終えるまでは消えないどころか、益々度を増していくので、最終巻が出てから一気に読破しようと思っている人が、一番ストレスを感じない正しい読み方かも。
英語のレベル的には４巻よりも少しアップしたのかなとは思いますが、１巻から読んできた人にとってはお馴染みの単語がおおいので、特に苦にならずに読める程度です。
（3/8-4/8 所要日数：32日間）
総語数：258,220語
The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and drowsy silence lay over the large, square house of Privet Drive.Cars that were usually gleaming stood dusty in their drives and lawns that were once emerald green lay parched and yellowing ― for the use of hosepipes had been banned due to drought. Deprived of their usual car-washing and lawn-mowing pursuits, the inhabitants of Privet Drive had retreated into the shade of their cool houses, windows thrown wide in the hope of tempting in a nonexistent breeze. The only person left outdoors was a teenage boy who was lying flat on his back in a flowerbed outside number four.
He was a skinny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who had the pinched, slightly unhealthy look of someone who has grown a lot in a short space of time. His jeans were torn and dirty, his T-shirt baggy and faded, and the soles of his trainers were peeling away from the uppers. Harry Potter's appearance did not endear him to the neighbours, who were the sort of people who thought scruffiness ought to be punishable by law, but as he had hidden himself behind a large hydrangea bush this evening he was quite invisible to passers-by.
お薦め度：★★★★☆ |
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (US)
１～３巻までは読み切りの本同様、もしくはそれ以上に、読み終えた時に『あぁ、良かった。面白かった』と本を置くことができますが、４巻以降は幾つかの試練を乗り越え、謎を突き止めた喜びよりも、今後の展開への不安を募らせながら本を閉じる人が多くなるのではないでしょうか。１～３巻までも７巻のラストにたどり着くためには欠かせない要素となってはおりますが、４巻以降は７巻のラストにたどり着くための長い道のりの一行程としての側面が強くなってきている感じです。では４巻だけを振り返って面白くなかったのかと聞かれると、とっても面白かったです♪『無駄に長い巻』という印象のあった４巻ですが、意外なオチの数々は流石です。英語的にはイディオムなどが増えてきて、少し難易度がアップしている感があります。
（2/7-3/7 所要日数：約28日間）
総語数：約191,694語
The villagers of Little Hangleton still called it "the Riddle House," even though it had been many years since the Riddle family had lived there. It stood on a hill overlooking the village, some of its windows boarded, tiles missing from its roof, and ivy spreading unchecked over its face. Once a fine-looking manor, and easily the largest and grandest building for miles around, the Riddle House was now damp, derelict, and unoccupied.
The Little Hangletons all agreed that the old house was "creepy." Half a century ago, something strange and horrible had happened there, something that the older inhabitants of the village still liked to discuss when topics for gossip were scarce. The story had been picked over so many times, and had been embroidered in so many places, that nobody was quite sure what the truth was anymore.
お薦め度：★★★★☆ （★3.5ぐらいかな～？） |
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Roald Dahlによる原作も有名ですが、映画化された事でも有名な『チャーリーとチョコレート工場』。奇想天外なキャラクターや設定・ストーリーにワクワクしながら、ブラックすぎるユーモアに込められた教訓を読みとるというのが、この本の本来の読み方かもしれませんが、個人的にはWonka氏の孤独を何故か想像してしまう、そして作者の子供達への深い愛情が印象的な本でした。子供達を生かすも殺すも大人次第という意味では、大人達こそ読むべきなのかも。Roald Dahlらしいブラックで予想外なストーリーを楽しみたいなら、ショートストーリー集の方がお薦めです。★の数はハリ・ポタなど他の本との対比において少な目設定。
（2/3－2/5 所要日数：約３日間）
ページ数：155ページ
They were looking down upon a lovely valley. There were green meadows on either side of the valley, and along the bottom of it there flowed a great brown river. What is more, there was a tremendous water curled and rolled in a solid sheet, and then went crashing down into a boiling churning whirlpool of froth and spray. Below the waterfall (and this was the most astonishing sight of all), a whole mass of enormous glass pipes were dangling down into the river from somewhere high up in the ceiling! They really were enormous, those pipes. There must have been a dozen of them at least, and they were sucking up the brownish muddy water from the river and carrying it away to goodness knows where.
お薦め度：★★☆☆☆ |
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Harry Potter and the Chamber of the Secrets (US)
もはや内容を説明するまでもないハリーポッター・シリーズ第二巻。英語のレベル的には１巻とさして変わらず、１巻を既に読み終えていて、ハリ・ポタ独自の単語やハグリッドの訛りに慣れていれば、読むのは苦ではないかと思います。ハリ・ポタには意外と、日常でも使いやすい文章表現・会話表現が満載じゃないかと思うので、英語学習の一環として読んでみたい人にもいいのではないかと。（使える表現を盗んでやろうと思いつつ、なかなか身に付かない私が言っても説得力はゼロですが）もちろん、細かいことは気にせず、怪物やゴースト達が闊歩し、火の鳥が舞い飛ぶ世界に思いっきり没頭してみたい人にももってこいの作品です。数時間の映画では表しきれない不思議な世界をトコトン楽しみましょう。
（1/16－1/26 所要日数：約11日間）
総語数：約84,993語
Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive. Mr. Vernon Dursley had been woken in the early hours of the morning by a loud, hooting noise from his nephew Harry's room. "Third time this week!" he roared across the table. "If you can't control that owl, it'll have to go!" Harry tried, yet again, to explain. "She's bored," he said. "She's used to flying around outside. If I could just let her out at night -" "Do I look stupid?" snarled Uncle Vernon, a bit of fried egg dangling from his bushy mustache. "I know what'll happen if that owl's let out." He exchanged dark looks with his wife, Petunia. Harry tried to argue back but his words were drowned by a long, loud belch from the Dursleys' son, Dudley.
お薦め度：★★★★★ |
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Bridge to Terabithia
ディズニーが映画化したので日本でも有名な『テラビシアにかける橋』の原作です。
５年生で一番早いランナーになる為に練習に励んでいた絵を描くのが大好きなJessが、転校生のLeslieと出会い、二人だけの王国を築きながら友情を育んでいき・・・。友情・家庭・勇気そして死など、多くのテーマから何をどう感じるかは読者次第かも。－誰も知らない二人だけの秘密の王国 ― 『そんなこと、私も昔はしてたっけ』と感慨に耽ってみるも良し、Jessの素直で情熱的かつストレートな気持ちに微笑むも良し、思いっきり泣いてみるも良し。英文は短めで初心者向けですが、会話文はかなりカジュアル。★の数はハリ・ポタなど他の本との対比において少な目。 個人的には★３つ。
（1/3－1/11 所要日数：約９日間）
ページ数：約191ページ
"Do you know what we need?" Leslie called to him. Intoxicated as he was with the heavens, he couldn't imagine needing anything on earth. "We need a place," she said, "just for us. It would be so secret that we would never tell anyone in the whole world about it." Jess came swinging back and dragged his feet to stop. She lowered her voice almost to a whisper. "It might be a whole secret country," she continued, "and you and I would be the rulers of it."Her words stirred inside of him. He'd like to be a ruler of something. Even something that wasn't real. "OK," he said. "Where could we have it?" "Over there in the woods where nobody would come and mess it up." There were parts of the woods that Jess did not like. Dark places where it was almost like being underwater, but he didn't say so. "I know" - she was getting excited - "it could be a magic country like Narnia, and the only way you can get in is by swinging across on this enchanted rope."
お薦め度：★★☆☆☆ |
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (US)
言わずもがなのハリーポッター・シリーズ第１巻。
ハリ・ポタ７巻を読み終えた今では、かなり簡単な英文に思えますが、初めてハリ・ポタを読む方には、ファンタジー特有の日常生活ではまずお目にかかることのない単語の数々が少し鬱陶しいかもしれません。１巻は特に最初から最後まで新鮮な驚きと感動に溢れ、十二分に満足のいくラストも待ち受けているので、苦労した以上に楽しめる本だと思います。唯一の不満は、"Philosopher's Stone（賢者の石）” が US版では "Sorcerer's Stone（魔法使いの石）" になっていることぐらいかな。
（12/20－1/1 所要日数：約13日間
総語数：約77,618語
Mr. and Mrs. Dursely, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense. Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbors. The Dursley had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.
お薦め度：★★★★★
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