About the author
Guy De Maupassant (莫泊桑) Maupassant was born in France in 1850. His parents separated when he was about six, and he went to live with his mother. At the age of thirteen , he was sent to school, but was forced(被迫) to leave there. He went to another school and there he was praised for an excellent poem he wrote. In this way he began his writing at an early age. During the Franco-Prussian War(普法戰爭), he had to give up writing. After the war, he went to Paris to look for a job which he hoped that would leave him free time to write. It was in Paris that he met one of the greatest writers, form whom he learned a great deal. Though he found material(素材) for many stories while working as a clerk, he found life in the office restricted( 受限制的) . After one of his stories was published, he left his office in order to spend full time writing. By the age of thirty-four, he became quite famous. During this time, he wrote some of his best-known works, including The Diamond Necklace, one of the most Famous short stories in the world.
Chapter I
She was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans. She had no marriage portion, no expectations, no means of getting known, understood, loved, and wedded by a man of wealth and distinction; and she let herself be married off to a little clerk in the Ministry of Education.
Her tastes were simple because she had never been able to afford any other, but she was as unhappy as though she had married beneath her; for women have no caste or class, their beauty, grace, and charm serving them for birth or family. their natural delicacy, their instinctive elegance, their nimbleness of wit, are their only mark of rank, and put the slum girl on a level with the highest lady in the land.
She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury. She suffered from the poorness of her house, from its mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains. All these things, of which other women of her class would not even have been aware, tormented and insulted her. The sight of the little Breton girl who came to do the work in her little house aroused heart-broken regrets and hopeless dreams in her mind. She imagined silent antechambers, heavy with Oriental tapestries, lit by torches in lofty bronze sockets, with two tall footmen in knee-breeches sleeping in large arm-chairs, overcome by the heavy warmth of the stove. She imagined vast saloons hung with antique silks, exquisite pieces of furniture supporting priceless ornaments, and small, charming, perfumed rooms, created just for little parties of intimate friends, men who were famous and sought after, whose homage roused every other woman's envious longings.
When she sat down for dinner at the round table covered with a three-days-old cloth, opposite her husband, who took the cover off the soup-tureen, exclaiming delightedly: "Aha! Scotch broth! What could be better?" she imagined delicate meals, gleaming silver, tapestries peopling the walls with folk of a past age and strange birds in faery forests; she imagined delicate food served in marvellous dishes, murmured gallantries, listened to with an inscrutable smile as one trifled with the rosy flesh of trout or wings of asparagus chicken.
She had no clothes, no jewels, nothing. And these were the only things she loved; she felt that she was made for them. She had longed so eagerly to charm, to be desired, to be wildly attractive and sought after.
She had a rich friend, an old school friend whom she refused to visit, because she suffered so keenly when she returned home. She would weep whole days, with grief, regret, despair, and misery.
One evening her husband came home with an exultant air, holding a large envelope in his hand.
"Here's something for you," he said.
Swiftly she tore the paper and drew out a printed card on which were these words:
"The Minister of Education and Madame Ramponneau request the pleasure of the company of Monsieur and Madame Loisel at the Ministry on the evening of Monday, January the 18th."
Instead of being delighted, as her husband hoped, she flung the invitation petulantly across the table, murmuring:
"What do you want me to do with this?"
"Why, darling, I thought you'd be pleased. You never go out, and this is a great occasion. I had tremendous trouble to get it. Every one wants one; it's very select, and very few go to the clerks. You'll see all the really big people there."
She looked at him out of furious eyes, and said impatiently: "And what do you suppose I am to wear at such an affair?"
He had not thought about it; he stammered:
"Why, the dress you go to the theatre in. It looks very nice, to me . . ."
He stopped, stupefied and utterly at a loss when he saw that his wife was beginning to cry. Two large tears ran slowly down from the corners of her eyes towards the corners of her mouth.
"What's the matter with you? What's the matter with you?" he faltered.
But with a violent effort she overcame her grief and replied in a calm voice, wiping her wet cheeks:
"Nothing. Only I haven't a dress and so I can't go to this party. Give your invitation to some friend of yours whose wife will be turned out better than I shall."
He was heart-broken.
"Look here, Mathilde," he persisted. "What would be the cost of a suitable dress, which you could use on other occasions as well, something very simple?"
She thought for several seconds, reckoning up prices and also wondering for how large a sum she could ask without bringing upon herself an immediate refusal and an exclamation of horror from the careful-minded clerk.
參考譯文
項 鏈
世上有這樣壹些女子，面龐兒好，豐韻也好，但被造化安排錯了，生長在壹個小職員的家庭裏。她便是其中的壹個。她沒有陪嫁財產，沒有可以指望得到的遺產，沒有任何方法可以使壹個有錢有地位的男子來結識她，了解她，愛她，娶她；她只好任人把她嫁給了教育部的壹個小科員。
她沒錢打扮，因此很樸素；但是心裏非常痛苦，猶如貴族下嫁的情形；這是因為女子原就沒有什麽壹定的階層或種族，她們的美麗、她們的嬌艷、她們的豐韻就可以作為她們的出身和門第。她們中間所以有等級之分僅僅是靠了她們天生的聰明、審美的本能和腦筋的靈活，這些東西就可以使百姓的姑娘和最高貴的命婦並駕齊驅。
她總覺得自己生來是為享受各種講究豪華生活的，因而無休止地感到痛苦。住室是那樣簡陋，壁上毫無裝飾，椅凳是那麽破舊，衣衫是那麽醜陋，她看了都非常痛苦。這些情形，如果不是她而是她那個階層的另壹個婦人的話，可能連理會都沒有理會到，但給她的痛苦即很大並且使她氣憤填胸。她看了那個替她料理家務的布列塔尼省的小女人，心中便會產生許多憂傷的感慨和想入非非的幻想。她會想到四壁蒙著東方綢、青銅高燈照著、靜悄悄的接待室；她會想到接待室裏兩個穿短褲長襪的高大男仆，如何被暖氣管悶人的熱度催起睡意，在寬大的靠背椅裏昏然睡去。她會想到四壁蒙著古老絲綢的大客廳，上面陳設著珍貴古玩的精致家具和那些精致小巧、香氣撲鼻的內客廳，那是專為午後五點鐘跟最親密的男友娓娓清談的地方，那些朋友當然都是所有的婦人垂涎不已、渴盼青睞、多方拉攏的知名之士。
每逢她坐到那張三天末洗桌布的圓桌旁去吃飯，對面坐著的丈夫揭開盆蓋，心滿意足地表示?quot;啊！多麽好吃的燉肉！世上哪有比這更好的東西……"的時候，她便想到那些精美的筵席、發亮的銀餐具和掛在四壁的壁毯，上面織著古代人物和仙境森林中的異鳥珍禽；她也想到那些盛在名貴碟裏的佳肴；她也想到壹邊吃著粉紅色的鱸魚肉或松雞的翅膀，壹邊帶著莫測高深的微笑聽著男友低訴綿綿情話的情鏡。
她沒有漂亮的衣裝，沒有珠寶首飾，總之什麽也沒有。而她呢，愛的卻偏偏就是這些；她覺得自己生來就是為享受這些東西的。她最希望的是能夠討男子們的喜歡，惹女人們的欣羨，風流動人，到處受歡迎。
她有壹個有錢的女友，那是學校讀書時的同學，現在呢，她再也不願去看望她了，因為每次回來她總感到非常痛苦。她要傷心、懊悔、絕望、痛苦得哭好幾天。
可是有壹天晚上，她的丈夫回家的時候手裏拿著壹個大信封，滿臉得意之色。
"拿去吧！"他說，"這是專為妳預備的壹樣東西。"
她趕忙拆開了信封，從裏面抽出壹張請帖，上邊印著：
茲訂於壹月十八日（星期壹）在本部大廈舉行晚會，敬請準時蒞臨，此致
羅瓦賽爾先生暨夫人
教育部部長喬治?朗蓬諾暨夫人謹訂
她並沒有像她丈夫所希望的那樣歡天喜地，反而賭氣把請帖往桌上壹丟，咕噥著說：
"我要這個幹什麽？妳替我想想。"
"可是，我的親愛的，我原以為妳會很高興的。妳從來也不出門作客，這可是壹個機會，並且是壹個千載難逢的機會！我好不容易才弄到這張請帖。大家都想要，很難得到，壹般是不大肯給小職員的。在那兒妳可以看見所有那些官方人士。"
她眼中冒著怒火瞪著他，最後不耐煩地說：
"妳可叫我穿什麽到那兒去呢?"
這個，他卻從未想到；他於是吞吞吐吐地說：
"妳上戲園穿的那件衣服呢?照我看，那件好像就很不錯……"
他說不下去了，他看見妻子已經在哭了，他又是驚奇又是慌張。兩大滴眼淚從他妻子的眼角慢慢地向嘴角流下來；他結結巴巴地問：
"妳怎麽啦?妳怎麽啦?"
她使了壹個狠勁兒把苦痛壓了下去，然後壹面擦著被淚沾濕的兩頰，壹面用壹種平靜的語聲說：
"什麽事也沒有。不過我既沒有衣飾，當然不能去赴會。有哪位同事的太太能比我有更好的衣衫，妳就把請帖送給他吧。"
他感到很窘，於是說道：
"瑪蒂爾德，咱們來商量壹下。壹套過得去的衣服，壹套在別的機會還可以穿的，十分簡單的衣服得用多少錢?"
她想了幾秒鐘，心裏盤算了壹下錢數，同時也考慮到提出怎樣壹個數目才不致當場遭到這個儉樸的科員拒絕，也不會把他嚇得叫出來。
她終於吞吞吐吐地說了：
"我也說不上到底要多少錢；不過有四百法郎，大概也就可以辦下來了。"
他臉色有點發白，因為他正巧積攢下這樣壹筆款子打算買壹支槍，夏天好和幾個朋友壹道打獵作樂，星期日到南泰爾平原去打雲雀。
不過他還是這樣說了："好吧。我就給妳四百法郎。可是妳得好好想法子做件漂漂亮亮的衣服。"
Chapter II
At last she replied with some hesitation:
"I don't know exactly, but I think I could do it on four hundred francs."
He grew slightly pale, for this was exactly the amount he had been saving for a gun, intending to get a little shooting next summer on the plain of Nanterre with some friends who went lark-shooting there on Sundays.
Nevertheless he said: "Very well. I'll give you four hundred francs. But try and get a really nice dress with the money."
The day of the party drew near, and Madame Loisel seemed sad, uneasy and anxious. Her dress was ready, however. One evening her husband said to her:
"What's the matter with you? You've been very odd for the last three days."
"I'm utterly miserable at not having any jewels, not a single stone, to wear," she replied. "I shall look absolutely no one. I would almost rather not go to the party."
"Wear flowers," he said. "They're very smart at this time of the year. For ten francs you could get two or three gorgeous roses."
She was not convinced.
"No . . . there's nothing so humiliating as looking poor in the middle of a lot of rich women."
"How stupid you are!" exclaimed her husband. "Go and see Madame Forestier and ask her to lend you some jewels. You know her quite well enough for that."
She uttered a cry of delight.
"That's true. I never thought of it."
Next day she went to see her friend and told her trouble.
Madame Forestier went to her dressing-table, took up a large box, brought it to Madame Loisel, opened it, and said:
"Choose, my dear."
First she saw some bracelets, then a pearl necklace, then a Venetian cross in gold and gems, of exquisite workmanship. She tried the effect of the jewels before the mirror, hesitating, unable to make up her mind to leave them, to give them up. She kept on asking:
"Haven't you anything else?"
"Yes. Look for yourself. I don't know what you would like best."
Suddenly she discovered, in a black satin case, a superb diamond necklace; her heart began to beat covetously. Her hands trembled as she lifted it. She fastened it round her neck, upon her high dress, and remained in ecstasy at sight of herself.
Then, with hesitation, she asked in anguish:
"Could you lend me this, just this alone?"
"Yes, of course."
She flung herself on her friend's breast, embraced her frenziedly, and went away with her treasure. The day of the party arrived. Madame Loisel was a success. She was the prettiest woman present, elegant, graceful, smiling, and quite above herself with happiness. All the men stared at her, inquired her name, and asked to be introduced to her. All the Under-Secretaries of State were eager to waltz with her. The Minister noticed her.
She danced madly, ecstatically, drunk with pleasure, with no thought for anything, in the triumph of her beauty, in the pride of her success, in a cloud of happiness made up of this universal homage and admiration, of the desires she had aroused, of the completeness of a victory so dear to her feminine heart.
She left about four o'clock in the morning. Since midnight her husband had been dozing in a deserted little room, in company with three other men whose wives were having a good time. He threw over her shoulders the garments he had brought for them to go home in, modest everyday clothes, whose poverty clashed with the beauty of the ball-dress. She was conscious of this and was anxious to hurry away, so that she should not be noticed by the other women putting on their costly furs.
Loisel restrained her.
"Wait a little. You'll catch cold in the open. I'm going to fetch a cab."
But she did not listen to him and rapidly descended-the staircase. When they were out in the street they could not find a cab; they began to look for one, shouting at the drivers whom they saw passing in the distance.
They walked down towards the Seine, desperate and shivering. At last they found on the quay one of those old nightprowling carriages which are only to be seen in Paris after dark, as though they were ashamed of their shabbiness in the daylight.
It brought them to their door in the Rue des Martyrs, and sadly they walked up to their own apartment. It was the end, for her. As for him, he was thinking that he must be at the office at ten.
She took off the garments in which she had wrapped her shoulders, so as to see herself in all her glory before the mirror. But suddenly she uttered a cry. The necklace was no longer round her neck!
參考譯文
她終於吞吞吐吐地說了：
“我也說不上到底要多少錢；不過有四百法郎，大概也就可以辦下來了。”
他臉色有點發白，因為他正巧積攢下這樣壹筆款子打算買壹支槍，夏天好和幾個朋友壹道打獵作樂，星期日到南泰爾平原去打雲雀。
不過他還是這樣說了：“好吧。我就給妳四百法郎。可是妳得好好想法子做件漂漂亮亮的衣服。”
晚會的日子快到了，羅瓦賽爾太太卻好像很傷心，很不安，很憂慮。她的衣服可是已經齊備了。有壹天晚上她的丈夫問她：
“妳怎麽啦?三天以來妳的脾氣壹直是這麽古怪。”
“我心煩，我既沒有首飾，也沒有珠寶，身上任什麽也戴不出來，實在是太寒倫了。我簡直不想參加這次晚會了。”
他說：“妳可以載幾朵鮮花呀。在這個季節裏，這是很漂亮的。花上十個法郎，妳就可以有兩三朵十分好看的玫瑰花。”
這個辦法壹點也沒有把她說服。
“不行……在那些闊太太中間，顯出壹副窮酸相，再沒有比這更丟臉的了。”
她的丈夫忽然喊了起來：“妳可真算是糊塗!為什麽不去找妳的朋友福雷斯蒂埃太太，跟她借幾樣首飾呢?拿妳跟她的交情來說，是可以開口的。”
她高興地叫了起來：
“這倒是真的。我竟壹點兒也沒想到。”
第二天她就到她朋友家裏，把自己的苦惱講給她聽。
福雷斯蒂埃太太立刻走到她的帶鏡子的大立櫃跟前，取出壹個大首飾箱，拿過來打開之後，便對羅瓦賽爾太大說：
“挑吧!親愛的。”
她首先看見的是幾只手鐲，再便是壹串珍珠項鏈，壹個鹹尼斯制的鑲嵌珠寶的金十字架，做工極其精細。她戴了這些首飾對著鏡子裏左試右試，猶豫不定，合不得摘下來還主人。她嘴裏還老是問：
“妳再沒有別的了?”
“有啊。妳自己找吧。我不知道妳都喜歡什麽?”
忽然她在壹個黑緞子的盒裏發現壹串非常美麗的鉆石項鏈；壹種過分強烈的欲望使她的心都跳了。她拿它的時候手也直哆嗦。她把它戴在頸子上，衣服的外面，對著鏡中的自己看得出了神。
然後她心裏十分焦急，猶豫不決地問道：
“妳可以把這個借給我嗎?我只借這壹樣。”
“當然可以啊。”
她壹把摟住了她朋友的脖子，親親熱熱地吻了她壹下，帶著寶貝很快就跑了。
晚會的日子到了。羅瓦賽爾太太非常成功。她比所有的女人都美麗，又漂亮又撫媚，面上總帶著微笑，快活得幾乎發狂。所有的男子都盯著她，打聽她的姓名，求人給介紹。部長辦公室的人員全都要跟她合舞。部長也註意了她。
她已經陶醉在歡樂之中，什麽也不想，只是興奮地、發狂地跳舞。她的美麗戰勝了壹切，她的成功充滿了光輝，所有這些人都對自己殷勤獻媚、阿諛贊揚、垂涎欲滴，婦人心中認為最甜美的勝利已完完全全握在手中，她便在這壹片幸福的雲中舞著。
她在早晨四點鐘才離開。她的丈夫從十二點起就在壹間沒有人的小客廳裏睡著了。客廳裏還躺著另外三位先生，他們的太太也正在盡情歡樂。他怕她出門受寒，把帶來的衣服披在她的肩上，那是平日穿的家常衣服，那壹種寒倫氣和漂亮的舞裝是非常不相稱的。她馬上感覺到這壹點，為了不叫旁邊的那些裹在豪華皮衣裏的太太們註意，她就急著想要跑出大門。
羅瓦賽爾還拉住她不讓走：
“妳等壹等啊。到外面妳要著涼的。我去叫壹輛馬車吧。”
不過她並不聽他這套話，很快地走下了樓梯。等他們到了街上，那裏並沒有出租馬車；他們於是就找起來，遠遠看見馬車走過，他們就追著向車夫大聲喊叫。
他們向塞納河壹直走下去，渾身哆咳，非常失望。最後在河邊找到了壹輛夜裏做生意的舊馬車，這種馬車在巴黎只有在天黑了以後才看得見，它們是那麽寒傖，白天出來好像會害羞的。
這輛車壹直把他們送到殉道者街，他們的家門口，他們淒淒涼涼地爬上樓回到自己家裏。在她說來，壹切已經結束。他呢，他想到的是十點鐘就該到部裏去辦公。
她褪下了披在肩上的衣服，那是對著大鏡子褪的，為的是再壹次看看籠罩在光榮中的自己。但是她忽然大叫壹聲。原來頸子上的項鏈不見了。
Chapter III
"What's the matter with you?" asked her husband, already half undressed.
She turned towards him in the utmost distress.
"I . . . I . . . I've no longer got Madame Forestier's necklace. . . ."
He started with astonishment.
"What! . . . Impossible!"
They searched in the folds of her dress, in the folds of the coat, in the pockets, everywhere. They could not find it.
"Are you sure that you still had it on when you came away from the ball?" he asked.
"Yes, I touched it in the hall at the Ministry."
"But if you had lost it in the street, we should have heard it fall."
"Yes. Probably we should. Did you take the number of the cab?"
"No. You didn't notice it, did you?"
"No."
They stared at one another, dumbfounded. At last Loisel put on his clothes again.
"I'll go over all the ground we walked," he said, "and see if I can't find it."
And he went out. She remained in her evening clothes, lacking strength to get into bed, huddled on a chair, without volition or power of thought.
Her husband returned about seven. He had found nothing.
He went to the police station, to the newspapers, to offer a reward, to the cab companies, everywhere that a ray of hope impelled him.
She waited all day long, in the same state of bewilderment at this fearful catastrophe.
Loisel came home at night, his face lined and pale; he had discovered nothing.
"You must write to your friend," he said, "and tell her that you've broken the clasp of her necklace and are getting it mended. That will give us time to look about us."
She wrote at his dictation.
By the end of a week they had lost all hope.
Loisel, who had aged five years, declared:
"We must see about replacing the diamonds."
Next day they took the box which had held the necklace and went to the jewellers whose name was inside. He consulted his books.
"It was not I who sold this necklace, Madame; I must have merely supplied the clasp."
Then they went from jeweller to jeweller, searching for another necklace like the first, consulting their memories, both ill with remorse and anguish of mind.
In a shop at the Palais-Royal they found a string of diamonds which seemed to them exactly like the one they were looking for. It was worth forty thousand francs. They were allowed to have it for thirty-six thousand.
They begged the jeweller not to sell it for three days. And they arranged matters on the understanding that it would be taken back for thirty-four thousand francs, if the first one were found before the end of February.
Loisel possessed eighteen thousand francs left to him by his father. He intended to borrow the rest.
He did borrow it, getting a thousand from one man, five hundred from another, five louis here, three louis there. He gave notes of hand, entered into ruinous agreements, did business with usurers and the whole tribe of money-lenders. He mortgaged the whole remaining years of his existence, risked his signature without even knowing it he could honour it, and, appall