Lecture Notes on The Girls in Their Summer Dresses by Irwin ShawWord文件下载.docx

1、Michael laughed again. How did you know I was looking at her?”Frances cocked her head to one side and smiled at her husband under the brim of her hat. Mike, darling, she said.O. K., he said. Excuse me.Frances patted his arm lightly and pulled him along a little faster toward Washington Square. Lets

2、not see anybody all day, she said. s just hang around with each other. You and me. Were always up to our neck in people, drinking their Scotch or drinking our Scotch; we only see each other in bed, I want to go out with my husband all day long. I want him to talk only to me and listen only to me. （W

3、hat does it say about Frances?Whats to stop us? Michael asked.The Stevensons. They want us to drop by around one oclock and theyll drive us into the country.The cunning Stevensons, Mike said. Transparent. They can whistle. They can go driving in the country by themselves. Is it a date?Its a date.Fra

4、nces leaned over and kissed him on the tip of the ear.Darling, Michael said, this is Fifth Avenue.Let me arrange a program, Frances said. A planned Sunday in New York for a young couple with money to throw away.Go easy.First let s go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Frances suggested, because Mich

5、ael had said during the week he wanted to go. I havent been there in three years and there re at least ten pictures I want to see again. Then we can take the bus down to Radio City and watch them skate. And later we 11 go down to Cavanagh s and get a steak as big as a blacksmith s apron, with a bott

6、le of wine, and after that there s a French picture at the Filmarte that everybody says say, are you listening to me?Sure, he said. He took his eyes off the hatless girl with the dark hair, cut dancer-style like a helmet, who was walking past him. Thats the program for the day, Frances said flatly.

7、Or maybe youd just rather walk up and down Fifth Avenue.No, Michael said. Not at all.You always look at other women,Everywhere. Every damned place we go. No, darling,I look at everything. God gave me eyes and I look at women and men in subway excavations and moving pictures and the little flowers of

8、 the field. I casually inspect the universe. “You ought to see the look in your eye,” Frances said, “as you casually inspect the universe on Fifth Avenue. “Im a happily married man.” Michael pressed her elbow tenderly. “Example for the whole twentieth centuryMr. and Mrs. Mike Loomis. Hey, lets have

9、a drink,” he said, stopping.“We just had breakfast.”Now listen, darling, Mike said, choosing his words with care, its a nice day and we both felt good and theres no reason why we have to break it up. Lets have a nice Sunday. All right. I dont know why I started this. Lets drop it. Lets have a good t

10、ime. They joined hands consciously and walked without talking among the baby carriages and the old Italian men in their Sunday clothes and the young women with Scotties in Washington Square Park. At least once a year everyone should go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Frances said after a while, h

11、er tone a good imitation of the tone she had used at breakfast and at the beginning of their walk. And its nice on Sunday. Therere a lot of people looking at the pictures and you get the feeling maybe Art isnt on the decline in New York City, after allI want to tell you something, Michael said very

12、seriously. I have not touched another woman. Not once. In all the five years. All right, Frances said.You believe that, dont you? All right.They walked between the crowded benches, under the scrubby city-park trees.I try not to notice it, Frances said, but I feel rotten inside, in my stomach, when w

13、e pass a woman and you look at her and I see that look in your eye and that s the way you looked at me the first time. In Alice Maxwells house. Standing there in the living room, next to the radio, with a green hat on and all those people. “I remember the hat, Michael said.The same look,And it makes

14、 me feel bad. It makes me feel terrible. Sh-h-h, please, darling, sh-h-h. I think I would like a drink now,They walked over to a bar on Eighth Street, not saying anything, Mike automatically helping her over curbstones and guiding her past automobiles. They sat near a window in the bar and the sun s

15、treamed in and there was a small, cheerful fire in the fireplace. A little Japanese waiter came over and put down some pretzels and smiled happily at them.What do you order after breakfast?Brandy, I suppose,Courvoisier, Michael told the waiter, Two Courvoisiers. The waiter came with the glasses and

16、they sat drinking the brandy in the sunlight. Michael finished half his and drank a little water.I look at women,Correct. I dont say its wrong or right. I look at them. If I pass them on the street and I dont look at them, Im fooling you, Im fooling myself.You look at them as though you want them, F

17、rances said, playing with her brandy glass. Every one of them.In a way, Michael said, speaking softly and not to his wife, in a way thats true. I dont do anything about it, but it s true. I know it. Thats why I feel bad. Another brandy, Michael called. Waiter, two more brandies. He sighed and closed

18、 his eyes and rubbed them gently with his fingertips. I love the way women look. One of the things I like best about New York is the battalions of women. When I first came to New York from Ohio that was the first thing I noticed, the million wonderful women, all over the city, I walked around with m

19、y heart in my throat. A kid,s a kid s feeling. Guess again,Guess again. Im older now. Im a man getting near middle age, putting on a little fat, and I still love to walk along Fifth Avenue at three o clock on the east side of the street between Fiftieth and Fifty-seventh Streets. They re all out the

20、n, shopping, in their furs and their crazy hats, everything all concentrated from all over the world into seven blocks the best furs, the best clothes, the handsomest women, out to spend money and I feeling good about it. The Japanese waiter put the two drinks down, smiling with great happiness.Ever

21、ything is all right? he asked. Everything is wonderful,If it s just a couple of fur coats,and forty-five dollar hats- s not the fur coats. Or the hats. Thats just the scenery for that particular kind of women. Understand, he said, you dont have to listen to this. I want to listen.I like the girls in

22、 the offices. Neat, with their eyeglasses, smart, chipper, knowing what everything is about. I like the girls on Forty-fourth Street at lunchtime, the actresses, all dressed up on nothing a week. I like the salesgirls in the stores, paying attention to you first because youre a man, leaving lady cus

23、tomers waiting. I got all this stuff accumulated in me because Ive been thinking about it for ten years and now youve asked for it and here it is. Go ahead,When I think of New York City, I think of all the girls on parade in the city. I dont know whether its something special with me or whether ever

24、y man in the city walks around with the same feeling inside him, but I feel as though Im at a picnic in this city. I like to sit near the women in the theatres, the famous beauties whove taken six hours to get ready and look it. And the young girls at the football games, with the red cheeks, and whe

25、n the warm weather comes, the girls in their summer dresses. He finished his drink. s the story. Frances finished her drink and swallowed two or three times extra. You say you love me?I love you. Im pretty, too,As pretty as any of them. re beautiful,m good for you, Frances said, pleading. “a good wi

26、fe, a good housekeeper, a good friend. Id do any damn thing for you. I know, Michael said. He put his hand out and grasped hers.d like to be free to- Sh-h-h. Tell the truth. She took her hand away from under his.Michael flicked the edge of his glass with his finger. 0. K. , he said gently.Sometimes

27、I feel I would like to be free. Well,any time you say. Dont be foolish. Michael swung his chair around to her side of the table and patted her thigh.She began to cry silently into her handkerchief, bent over just enough so that nobody else in the bar would notice. Someday, she said, crying, youre going to make a move. Michael didnt say anything. He sat watching the bartender slowly peel a lemon.Aren Frances asked harshly. Come on, tell me. Talk. ArenMaybe, Michael said. He moved his chair back again. Ho