高级英语第一册Blackmail的赏析

自己写的赏析

Blackmail

About the author.

This novel is written by Arthur Hailey.He is a bestsellers novelist. Born in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, Hailey served in the Royal Air Force from the start of World War II during 1939 until 1947, when he went to live in Canada. Hailey's last novel, Detective(1997), is a mystery told from the perspective of a Miami homicide detective. This detective also happens to be a former Catholic priest who has lost his religion; the work deals with themes of religion and questions the Catholic Church. Hailey told the Walden Book Report that his aim in writing this book was to share his own thoughts about religion without "mak[ing] it a lecture." He says that he lost his own faith while serving in Cyprus during World War II, and that since ex-priests have many occupations he might as well give his protagonist an exciting one.After working at a number of jobs and writing part-time, he became a writer full-time during 1956.Following the success of Hotel during 1965, he moved to California; in 1969, he moved to the Bahamas to avoid Canadian and U.S. income taxes, which were claiming 90% of his income.His best sellers include:Hotel,Airport,Wheels,The Final Diagnosis and Moneychangers.

About the best sellers of author The

自己写的赏析

Each of his novels has a different industrial or commercial setting and includes, in addition to dramatic human conflict, carefully researched information about the way that particular environment and system functions and how these affect society and its inhabitants.

Critics often dismissed Hailey's success as the result of a formulaic "potboilera" style, in which he caused an ordinary character to become involved in a crisis, then increased the suspense by switching among multiple related plot lines. However, he was so popular with readers that his books were almost guaranteed to become best-sellers.

He would spend about one year researching a subject, followed by six months reviewing his notes and, finally, about 18 months writing the book. That aggressive research—tracking rebel guerrillas in the Peruvian jungle at age 67 for The Evening News(1990), or reading 27 books on the hotel industry for Hotel—gave his novels a realism that appealed to readers, even as some critics complained that he used it to disguise a lack of literary talent.

Many of his books reached 1 on the New York Times bestseller list and more than 170 million copies have been sold worldwide in 40 languages. Many have been made into movies and Hotel was made into a long-running television series.Airport became

自己写的赏析

a successful film with dramatic visual effects.

About the background.

The story happened in a hotel named St. Gregory in New Orleans, Louisiana which is in the south of US.The text is only a part of the nove,Hotel.We can see three main characters in this text. Ogilvie: chief house officer.the Duke of Croydon: newly appointed British ambassador to the United States.the Duchess of Croydon: wife of the Duke.

This kind of novels are called thrillers. Generally defining, a thriller is a work of fiction or drama designed to hold the interest by the use of a high degree of intrigue, adventure or suspense. Others can be called cop-criminal novels, detective novels. The main purpose is for entertainment, amusement. Very often this kind of novels contain a lot of action, usu. suspension, not very much deep thought, without moral intention, not considered classic.

The basic technique is to make the whole story of crime into sth. like a jigsaw puzzle. You can not see the outcome until the final part is put in.

About the plot.

Gregory was now at the brink of bankruptcy, but Peter McDermott is trying every means he could to save it.Several events happened during the week with the present text as part of it.The Duke of

自己写的赏析

Croydon was an internationally famous statesman and the newly appointed British ambassador to Washington. They occupied the best suite of the hotel. Monday evening, the Duke went to the gambling house. Later, his wife pursued and found him. On their way back, the car Jaguar knocked down a woman and her child. Both killed.Ogilvie found the crime and blackmailed the Duke and the Duchess.He managed to make the Duke and the Duchess believe that he would bring the crime to light if his demand was not satisfied.The Duchess came up with a good idea in order to avoid punishment.She would like Ogilvie drive the car away from the city.In the end,the couple paid Ogilvie money and the dirty deal was done.And then, At one o'clock Thursday morning, Ogilvie drove the car north. But he was seen leaving the hotel by McDermott. Later in the afternoon, McDermott witnessed the funeral of the two victims of the accident. He suddenly realized the relation between these two events and contacted police.

Ogilvie was caught in Tennessee and sent back to New Orleans.

The Duke decided to go to the police to confess his crime (to surrender himself / to give himself up). But he was hurled out the elevator due to the breakdown of it. He hit the cement ground and died instantly.

自己写的赏析

Anyway, the novel had a pleasant ending.

One of the guests, who looked old and sick, turned out to be a millionaire. Earlier he was seriously ill and was saved by McDermott and his girl friend. To show his gratitude and to repay the hotel staffs' kindness, he bought the hotel and appointed McDermott executive vice president of the hotel.

About the structure.

The novel is writed by the order of time.We can see the prelude,the process of unveiling the crime and the dirty deal. I think this novel can be devided into four parts. Parts 1,from the chief house officer to “In what way conceivable way”.Three main characters stepped into the stage and we can feel the tension of the atmosphere.Ogilvie acted in a vugal and uncouth way and showed contempt to the Duke and the Duchess. And the Duchess, although nervours,are still brash and thrusting.The part one provided characters and suspense for us.Why did Ogilvie act so rudely to the the Duke and the Duchess?Part 2, from As if the question from to p96 The Duke licked his lips.In this part, Ogilvie exposed the truth of car accident and the Duke admitted the crumbled was him .And the brash expression of Duke and the Duchess was faded away.They were feared and weak .Ogilvie became more proud and ruder.Part 3,from You might have something there to I reckon that’s so.In this part ,Ogilvie disclosed more hiden

自己写的赏析

thing in the accident and revealed the evidence he knew and tried to confirm all the detailed. The Duchess tried to win back the upper hand.And then, The Croydons realized that they were convicted of the crime. The conviction was undeniable.Part 4,from Today was Tuesday to the end.The Duchess eliminated the possibility of having the car repaired in New Orleans and found no possibility.So she agreed to pay Ogilvie and let him drive the car away. The dirty deal reached.

About the details.

I found some interesting details in the text. The novel is colourful and impressive beacause these details.

Details 1, the cigar of Ogilvie.The cigar is mentioned five times in this text and the number of the descriptions of the conflict about putting out the cigar between the Duchess and Ogilvie are three.The cigar is a imorpant prop of Ogilvie.Sometimes it was waved violently, indicting the anger and excitment of the master.At the beginning of the text,A wave of cigar smoke accompanied Ogilvie in. ThisAbout the conflict about putting out the cigar，we can see the converstion below.the Duchess looked pointedly at the half-burned cigar in the fat man’s mouth.“My husband and I find strong smoke offensive.Would you kindly put that out.”Proper polite,but firm and proud.Although the Duchess was nervours,she still kept the noble

自己写的赏析

class.She didn’t know what happened.However, when Ogilvie unveiled the crime , we can dramaly see: The house detective took his time,leisurely puffing a cloud of blue cigar smoke,his eyes sardonically on the Duchess as if challenging her objection.But beyond wrinkling her nose in distance, she made no comment.This is a contrast, which show the change of the attitude of the Duchess. She had the handle in hand of Ogilvie.So she chose silence and beared the impolite behaviour.And Ogilvie was smoking leisurely all the time after that.When the Duchess agreed to pay Ogilvie money ,the situation bagan to change.At length Ogivie spoke,This cigar botherin’ you ,Duchess?”As she nodded,he put it out.Ogilvie got the promise that he can get dollars,so his attitude towards the Duchess changed.He became the slave of money.

Detail 2,the change of Ogilvie’s eye in the end of the text.

Eyes bored into him. The house detetive’s eyes bulged. His beady eyes,as if unbelieving, were focused upon her own.The description go forward one by one,implying the greedy and surprising of the detetive.

About the writing technique

In order to depict Ogilvie, the author added many informal,ugrammatical and slangy language into the conversitions of Ogilvie.For example, This cigar botherin’

自己写的赏析

you ,Duchess?,gotta,shulda,etc. so we can infer that Ogilvie is uneducated .Besides ,the author use a lot of physical descriptions to Ogilvie and he emphasize his eyes.The house detective’s eyes .the piggy eyes blinked.

Compared to the Duch, the Duchess is more acttrctive and impressive.In the text ,the autor use two long paragraphs psychological description to depict the careful calculation and strict budgeting of the Duchess. It seems that she faced Ogilvie by her own.

About the rhetoric

Metaphor:

...the nerves of both ... were excessively frayed...

his wife shot him a swift, warning glance.

The words spat forth with sudden savagery.

Her tone ...withered...

...self-assurance...flickered...

The Duchess kept firm tight rein on her racing mind.

Her voice was a whiplash.

eyes bored into him

I’ll spell it out.

Euphemism:

自己写的赏析

...and you took a lady friend.

Metonymy:

won 100 at the tables lost it at the bar

they'll throw the book,...

Onomatopoeia:

appreciative chuckle clucked his tongue

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