The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

商家名称	信用等级	购买信息	订购本书
		The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
		The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

基本信息·出版社：Vintage
·页码：144 页
·出版日期：2007年11月
·ISBN：0307389251
·条形码：9780307389251
·装帧：平装
·正文语种：英语
·丛书名：Vintage International
·外文书名：潜水钟和蝴蝶

内容简介 在线阅读本书

In December 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby, the 43-year-old editor of French Elle, suffered a massive stroke that left him permanently paralyzed, a victim of “locked in syndrome.” Once known for his gregariousness and wit, Bauby now finds himself imprisoned in an inert body, able to communicate only by blinking his left eye. The miracle is that in doing so he was able to compose this stunningly eloquent memoir.

In a voice that is by turns wistful and mischievous, angry and sardonic, Bauby gives us a celebration of the liberating power of consciousness: what it is like to spend a day with his children, to imagine lying in bed beside his wife, to conjure up the flavor of delectable meals even as he is fed through at tube. Most of all, this triumphant book lets us witness an indomitable spirit and share in the pure joy of its own survival.
作者简介 Jean-Dominique Bauby was born in France in 1952. He attended school in Paris. After working as a journalist for a number of years, Bauby became the editor-in-chief of Elle magazine in Paris in 1991. On December 8, 1995 he had a stroke which left him with the condition known as locked-in syndrome. Bauby died on March 9, 1997, two days after the French publication of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. He was the father of two children, Theophile and Celeste.
媒体推荐 The New York Times Book Review, Thomas Mallon
His startling book from Berck-sur-Mer is best experienced by remaining mindful of having the luck to be reading it between the many blinks of one's eyes. I myself read most of Bauby's words during an uncomfortable train ride, astonished and finally humbled that he should be relieving my feelings of confinement. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From AudioFile
In 1995 the editor-in-chief of the French version of ELLE magazine suffered a debilitating stroke of the brain stem, which left him a paraplegic, able to communicate only by slight facial expressions. Painstakingly, Bauby dictated this journal--one letter at a time--of what it's like to have "locked-in syndrome." As eloquent as Bauby's phrases is Rene Auberjonois's performance of them. The slightest tinge of a French accent brings to life the author's lyrical language now made silent by a freak tragedy. Auberjonois also relays Bauby's somber emotions and memories, switching tone effortlessly to express the witty anecdotal reflections that make this an inspiring audio production. R.A.P. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
On December 8, 1995, at the very beginning of a weekend with his 10-year-old son, Bauby, editor-in-chief of the world's most famous fashion magazine, Elle, suffered a massive stroke. When he emerged from coma more than a month later, his mind was perfectly clear, but he could move only his left eyelid. So he remained until his death on March 9, 1997. In the interim, however, with the help of an alphabet arranged in the order of the letters' frequency in French (e occurs most frequently and so appears first) and recited until Bauby signaled the desired letter with a blink, Bauby dictated, letter by letter, the 28 tiny personal essays of this book. They demonstrate indisputably Bauby's irrepressible love of life. Although trapped as if in a diving bell by his situation, "my mind takes flight like a butterfly," he says, and he ranges through memories, dreams, and reflections, keeping his wits sharp. Never maudlin or religiose, his observations become inspirational, in the manner of much literature about enduring physical adversity, only after they have impressed us--just like good "regular" literature--with their author's strength, affability, curiosity, and gusto. They are a best-seller in France, and with a 100,000-copy first printing, Knopf hopes they will do as well here. Ray Olson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews
``Through the frayed curtain at my window, a wan glow announces the break of day. My heels hurt, my head weighs a ton, and something like a giant invisible cocoon holds my whole body prisoner.'' Thus begins the remarkable testimony of Bauby, who was editor-in-chief of French Elle when he was felled by a stroke in December 1995. The stroke left every inch of his body paralyzed- -except for his left eyelid, which he could blink. But his mind was fully alive, capable of the whole range of thought and feeling from dry wit to sadness to tenderness, and by blinking in response to letters recited by an amanuensis, he dictated ``these bedridden travel notes'' about being locked inside his body. It shows that his rich heart, too, was alive and beating, but it finally gave way in March of this year, two days after the French publication of his book. (First printing of 100,000) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
“A book of surpassing beauty, a testament to the freedom and vitality and delight of the human mind.”
—Oliver Sacks

“A wistful, poetic, ironic and whimsically affirmative statement by a man who refused to die in spirit.”
—The New York Times

“One of the great books of the century. . . . You read it at one go, so gripping is the voyage to the inner heart and mind.”
—Financial Times


编辑推荐 Amazon.com
We've all got our idiosyncrasies when it comes to writing--a special chair we have to sit in, a certain kind of yellow paper we absolutely must use. To create this tremendously affecting memoir, Jean-Dominique Bauby used the only tool available to him--his left eye--with which he blinked out its short chapters, letter by letter. Two years ago, Bauby, then the 43-year-old editor-in-chief of Elle France, suffered a rare stroke to the brain stem; only his left eye and brain escaped damage. Rather than accept his "locked in" situation as a kind of death, Bauby ignited a fire of the imagination under himself and lived his last days--he died two days after the French publication of this slim volume--spiritually unfettered. In these pages Bauby journeys to exotic places he has and has not been, serving himself delectable gourmet meals along the way (surprise: everything's ripe and nothing burns). In the simplest of terms he describes how it feels to see reflected in a window "the head of a man who seemed to have emerged from a vat of formaldehyde." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


专业书评 From Library Journal
On December 8 1995, Elle magazine editor-in-chief Bauby suffered a stroke and lapsed into a coma. He awoke 20 days later, mentally aware of his surroundings but physically paralyzed with the exception of some movement in his head and left eye. Bauby had Locked-in-Syndrome, a rare condition caused by stroke damage to the brain stem. Eye movements and blinking a code representing letters of the alphabet became his sole means of communication. It is also how he dictated this warm, sad, and extraordinary memoir. Bauby's thoughts on the illness, the hospital, family, friends, career, and life before and after the stroke appear with considerable humor and humanity. Actor Rene Auberjonois's narration adds to the poignancy of the story. Sadly, Bauby died of his condition in 1997. This is a fine companion to works like Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face (LJ 7/94). For all audio collections.?Stephen L. Hupp, Univ. of Pittsburgh at Johnstown Lib.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The New England Journal of Medicine
The locked-in syndrome is a complication of a cerebrovascular accident in the base of the pons. The patient is alert and fully conscious but quadriplegic, with lower-cranial-nerve palsies. Only vertical movements of the eyes and blinking are possible. At the age of 43, Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was editor of Elle and a robust bon vivant, suffered such a stroke. After 20 days in a deep coma, he gradually regained consciousness. His right eyelid was sutured shut to prevent corneal ulcerations, he was fed through a gastric tube, he drooled uncontrollably, he breathed through a tracheostomy tube, his urine drained from a catheter, and his bottom was wiped by others. He felt as if he were trapped in a diving bell, but his mind was free as a butterfly. Bauby wrote The Diving Bell and the Butterfly solely by blinking his left eye in response to the reading of an alphabet, arranged according to the frequency with which each letter occurs in French (E, S, A, R, I,... W). A friend read off the letters, pausing when Bauby blinked. Letters laboriously became words, and then sentences.

I brought this book along on an airplane that took me to a meeting in a distant city. Reading it made me hope that air traffic would delay our arrival. It is a remarkable tribute to the human spirit -- a book that will inspire any physician, medical student, nurse, or patient. There is no self-pity and no thought of physician-assisted suicide. The tone is as ironic and dry as perhaps only the French can be. In a seaside hospital, Bauby, imprisoned in his paralyzed body, recounts his days. He notes that a stroke such as his is usually fatal, but "improved resuscitation techniques have prolonged and refined the agony."

Now, instead of directing one of France's leading fashion magazines, he is strapped in a wheelchair, completely dependent on others for the simplest demands of life: shut the door, roll me over, fluff up a pillow. "A domestic event as commonplace as washing can trigger the most varied emotions." And then there was the boor who, with a conclusive "Good night," turned off the Bordeaux-Munich soccer game at halftime and left. Bauby's attendants dressed him not in hospital garb, but in his own clothes ("Good for the morale," according to the neurologist). Bauby comments, "If I must drool, I may as well drool on cashmere." He is, as he says, a "voiceless parrot" who has made his nest in a dead-end corridor of the neurology department. When the stretcher-bearer who returns him to his room leaves with a hearty "Bon appetit!" the effect on Bauby is the same as "saying `Merry Christmas' on August 15."

Fed by two or three bags of brownish fluid instilled into a gastric tube, Bauby recalls his culinary skills -- boeuf en gelee and homemade sausage -- and melon, red fruit, and oysters, but above all, sausage. He imagines spending a day with his children, lying in bed beside his lover, and flying to Hong Kong, and he dreams that Radovan Karadzic, leader of the Bosnian Serbs, is performing a tracheotomy on him. In the Cafe de Flore, noxious gossip from the lower depths of Parisian snobbery poisons the air: "Did you know that Bauby is now a total vegetable?" Bauby, "to prove that my IQ was still higher than a turnip's," begins a remarkable correspondence, not by pen but by blinks. "The arrival of the mail [had] the character of a hushed and holy ceremony." Every sentence of this arduously written book is a jewel burnished by a rare disease and still rarer intelligence.

Bauby died only two days after the publication of his book in France.

Reviewed by Robert S. Schwartz, M.D.
Copyright © 1998 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

查看更多 下一篇