Tender is the night / Ночь нежна. Книга для чтения на английском языке

McKisco turned challengingly to Rosemary, “Antheil and Joyce[19 - Joyce – Джеймс Джойс (1882–1941), англо-ирландский писатель, один из основоположников школы «потока сознания»]. I don’t suppose you ever hear much about those sort of people in Hollywood, but my husband wrote the first criticism of Ulysses[20 - Ulysses – «Улисс» (1922), центральное произведение Джойса, в романе описан один день из жизни нескольких жителей Дублина] that ever appeared in America.

”

“I wish I had a cigarette,” said McKisco calmly. “That’s more important to me just now.”

“He’s got insides[21 - inside – (разг.) внутренний, скрытый смысл] – don’t you think so, Albert?”

Her voice faded off suddenly. The woman of the pearls had joined her two children in the water, and now Abe North came up under one of them like a volcanic island, raising him on his shoulders.

The child yelled with fear and delight and the woman watched with a lovely peace, without a smile.

“Is that his wife?” Rosemary asked.

“No, that’s Mrs. Diver. They’re not at the hotel.” Her eyes, photographic, did not move from the woman’s face. After a moment she turned vehemently to Rosemary.

“Have you been abroad before?”

“Yes – I went to school in Paris.”

“Oh! Well then you probably know that if you want to enjoy yourself here the thing is to get to know some real French families.

What do these people get out of it?” She pointed her left shoulder toward shore. “They just stick around with each other in little cliques. Of course, we had letters of introduction and met all the best French artists and writers in Paris. That made it very nice.”

“I should think so.”

“My husband is finishing his first novel, you see.”

Rosemary said: “Oh, he is?” She was not thinking anything special, except wondering whether her mother had got to sleep in this heat.

“It’s on the idea of Ulysses,” continued Mrs. McKisco. “Only instead of taking twenty-four hours my husband takes a hundred years. He takes a decayed old French aristocrat and puts him in contrast with the mechanical age —”

“Oh, for God’s sake, Violet, don’t go telling everybody the idea,” protested McKisco.