Love Story / История любви. Эрик Сигал
Читать онлайн.| Название | Love Story / История любви |
|---|---|
| Автор произведения | Эрик Сигал |
| Жанр | |
| Серия | Abridged Bestseller |
| Издательство | |
| Год выпуска | 2019 |
| isbn | 978-5-907097-51-3 |
In the fall of my senior year[1], I often studied at the Radcliffe library[2]. The place was quiet, nobody knew me, and the reserve books were less in demand[3]. The day before my history exam, I still hadn’t read the first book on the list, a widespread Harvard disease. I walked over to the reserve desk to get one of the tomes that would help me out the next day. There were two girls working there. One a tall highbrow, the other a bespectacled mouse type. I chose the latter.
“Do you have The Waning of the Middle Ages[4]?”
She looked up.
“Do you have your own library?” she asked.
“Listen, Harvard is allowed to use the Radcliffe library.”
“I’m not talking about legality, Preppie[5], I’m talking about ethics. You have five million books. We have just a few thousand.”
“Listen, I need that goddamn book.”
“Would you please watch your language, Preppie?”
“What makes you so sure I went to prep school?”
“You look stupid and rich,” she said, removing her glasses.
“You’re wrong,” I protested. “I’m actually smart and poor.”
“Oh, no, Preppie. I’m smart and poor.”
She was staring straight at me. Her eyes were brown. Okay, maybe I look rich, but I wouldn’t let some “Clifeif ”[6] – even one with pretty eyes – call me stupid.
“Why do you think you are so smart?” I asked.
“Because I wouldn’t go for coffee with you,” she answered.
“Listen – I wouldn’t ask you.”
“That is why you are stupid,” she replied.
Let me explain why I took her for coffee. By pretending that I suddenly wanted to invite her – I got my book. And since she couldn’t leave until the library closed, I had plenty of time to study. I got an A minus[7] on the exam. It was the same grade that I gave Jenny’s legs when she first walked from behind that desk.
We went to a nearby cafe. I ordered two coffees and a brownie with ice cream (for her).
“I’m Jennifer Cavilleri, an American of Italian descent,” she said. “My major is music.”
“My name is Oliver,” I said.
“First or last?” she asked.
“First,” I answered, and then confessed that my entire name was Oliver Barrett. (I mean, that’s most of it.)
“Oh,” she said. “Barrett, like the poet[8]?”
“Yes,” I said. “We are not relatives.”
In the pause that followed, I gave inward thanks that she hadn’t asked the usual distressing question: “Barrett, like the hall?” For it is my special burden to be a descendant of the guy that built Barrett Hall, the largest and ugliest structure in Harvard Yard, a colossal monument to my family’s money and vanity.
After that, she was pretty quiet. She simply sat there, semi-smiling at me. For something to do, I checked out her notebooks. She was taking some incredible courses: Comp. Lit.[9] 105, Music 201.
“Music 201? Isn’t that a graduate course?”
She nodded yes, and looked proud.
“Renaissance polyphony.”
“What’s polyphony?”
“Nothing sexual, Preppie.”
Why was I putting up with this? Doesn’t she read the Crimson[10]? Doesn’t she know who I am?
“Hey, don’t you know who I am?”
“Yeah,” she answered with kind of contempt. “You’re the guy that owns Barrett Hall.”
She didn’t know who I was.
“I don’t own Barrett Hall,” I replied. “My great-grandfather gave it to Harvard.”
“So his not-so-great grandson would get in!”
That was the limit.
“Jenny, if you’re so convinced I’m a loser, why did you make me buy you coffee?”
She looked me straight in the eye and smiled.
“I like your body,” she said.
As I walked Jenny back to her dorm, I still hoped to win a victory over this Radcliffe bitch.
“Listen, you Radcliffe bitch, Friday night is the
Dartmouth hockey game.”
“So?”
“So I’d like you to come.”
She replied with the usual Radcliffe respect for sport:
“Why should I come to a lousy hockey game?”
I answered casually:
“Because I’m playing.”
There was a brief silence. I think I heard snow falling.
“For which side?” she asked.
2
Oliver Barrett IV
Ipswich, Mass.
Age: 20
Major: Social Studies
Dean’s List[11]: 61, 62, 63
All-Ivy First Team[12]: 62, 63
Career Aim: Law
Senior
Phillips Exeter[13]
5 11', 185 lbs.[14]
By now Jenny had read my biography in the program. I made triple sure that Vic Claman, the manager, saw that she got one.
“Oh, Barrett, is this your first date?”
“Shut up, Vic.”
As we warmed up on the ice, I didn’t wave to her or even look her way. And yet I think she thought I was glancing at her.
By the middle of the second period, we were beating Dartmouth 0–0. That is, Davey Johnston and I were about to perforate their nets. The Green bastards sensed this, and began to play rougher.
It had always been my policy to attack anything wearing enemy colors. Somewhere beneath our skates was the puck, but for the moment we were concentrating on beating each other.
A ref blew his whistle.
“You – two minutes in the box[15]!”
I looked up. He was pointing at me. Me? What had I done to deserve a penalty?
“Come on, ref, what did I do?”
Somehow he wasn’t interested in further dialogue. So I skated toward the penalty box.
I sat, trying to catch my breath, not looking up or even out onto the ice, where Dartmouth outmanned us.
“Why are you sitting here when all your friends are out playing?”
The voice was Jenny’s. I
последний год обучения
Библиотека женского колледжа Рэдклифф, организационно связанного с Гарвардским университетом (до 1999 г. имел отдельную администрацию, но общие помещения и профессорско-преподавательский состав)
востребованные
«Осень Средневековья» – философско-культурологический трактат голландского автора Йохана Хёйзинги
Соответствует оценке пять с минусом
Имеется в виду Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) – известная английская поэтесса
Comparative literature
Ежедневная студенческая газета Гарвардского университета
список лучших студентов
Член хоккейной команды – победителя чемпионатов Лиги плюща. (Лига плюща (Ivy League) – неформальное название группы старейших и самых престижных университетов США, обеспечивающих высокий уровень образования)
Выпускник Phillips Exeter Academy – престижной частной старшей школы в городе Эксетер, штат Нью-Гэмпшир, США
рост 5 футов 11 дюймов (примерно 1 м 80 см), вес 185 фунтов (около 84 кг)