阅读理解。
Does knowledge of a writer's private life help to explain his works? It's an age-old question, but it's
also one in which interest is aroused (激起) again by Antonia Fraser's book about her life with Harold
Pinter, Must You Go?. The book is obviously a personal account rather than a study of the plays. All the
same, I'd argue it throws a good deal of light on Pinter the dramatist (剧作家).
I start from the belief that all information about a writer is helpful. In fact, one of the pleasures of
writing Pinter's biography was discovering that nearly all his plays were started by some strong personal
memory. This got me into trouble with some scholars. I remember Martin Esslin, a great Pinter scholar,
arguing that I had reduced the value of Pinter's Betrayal by linking it to the dramatist's seven-year-long
love affair with Joan Bake well. But, as I saw it, that was simply the play's origin. All I had done, I hoped, was to remind people that Pinter was a writer who would make use of his own life experience.
That point can also be seen from Antonia's book. There's an interesting account of a dinner with Tom
Stoppard where Pinter says that he doesn't plan his characters' lives and then asks his fellow dramatist:
"Don't you find they take you over sometimes?", to which Stoppard firmly replies: "No." That says a lot.
One reason why The Homecoming is a great play is that Pinter allows his characters, almost unconsciously, to take over. Despite Stoppard's many strengths, he tends to keep his characters under a much tighter
control.
Again, there's an eye-opening passage in Antonia's book where she recalls a moment in 1983 when
Pinter refers back to his relationship with his former wife, Vivien: "While she was alive, if you think about
it, so much of my work was about unhappy frozen married relationships."
In short-as Stoppard once wrote-information, in itself, about anything, is light. And modern biography, particularly in the hands of masters, has been helpful to literature by opening writers' lives to public eyes.
For that reason, among many others, I welcome Antonia Fraser's book.
1. What is TRUE about Antonia Fraser's book?
A. It is well received by the public.
B. It carries Antonia's views about biography.
C. It is helpful to the study of Pinter's works.
D. It includes serious studies of Pinter's works.
2.What do the author of this article and Martin Esslin disagree on?
A. The literary value of Pinter's Betrayal.
B. The literary value of the accounts of Pinter's life.
C. The truthfulness of the contents of Antonia's book.
D. The truthfulness of Pinter's love affair with Joan Bakewell.
3.What can we infer about Pinter and Stoppard?
A. They treat their characters in different ways.
B. Stoppard has more strengths than Pinter.
C. They often have dinners together.
D. They often argue with each other.
4. This article is probably ______.
A .a feature story
B. a book review
C. a news report
D. a biography
