Принц и нищий / The Prince and the Pauper

Принц и нищий / The Prince and the Pauper

Марк Твен

Карманное чтение на английском языке

«Принц и нищий» – одно из самых известных произведений писателя Марка Твена, рассказывающее о приключениях молодого принца Эдуарда Тюдора и простого оборванца Тома Кенти. Двум мальчикам, похожим друг на друга как две капли воды, приходится поменяться местами. Том оказывается в королевских покоях, а Эдуард – на улицах Лондона.

Текст произведения адаптирован и сопровождается словарем. Предназначается для продолжающих изучать английский язык нижней ступени (уровень Pre-Intermediate).

Марк Твен / Mark Twain

Принц и нищий / The Prince and the Pauper

© Глушенкова Е.В., адаптация текста, словарь

© ООО «Издательство АСТ», 2019

1

In the old city of London, on an autumn day in the sixteenth century, a boy was born to a poor family of the name of Canty, who did not want him. On the same day another English child was born to a rich family of the name of Tudor, who wanted him.

All England wanted him too. England had so wanted him, and hoped for him, that now the people were mad with joy. Everybody kissed each other and cried. Everybody took a holiday, and rich and poor ate and danced and sang for days and nights. There was no talk in all England but of the new baby, Edward Tudor, Prince of Wales[1 - Prince of Wales – принц Уэльский, традиционный титул наследника английского престола]. But there was no talk about the other baby, Tom Canty, except among the family of paupers whom he had only brought more trouble.

London was an old and great town. It had a hundred thousand inhabitants—some think double as many. The streets were very narrow and dirty, especially in the part where Tom Canty lived, which was not far from London Bridge. The houses were of wood, with the second storey projecting over the first, and the third projecting over the second. The higher the houses grew, the broader they were. The windows were small, and they opened outward, like doors.

The house in which Tom’s father lived was in a dirty little place called Offal Court[2 - Offal Court – переулок Потрохов], near Pudding Lane. It was packed full of poor families. Canty’s family had a room on the third floor. The mother and father had a bed in the corner; but Tom, his grandmother, and his two sisters, Bet and Nan, slept on the floor on bags of dirty straw.

Bet and Nan were fifteen-year-old twins.