Books and Arts; Book Review;The English gentry;Happy landings;

文艺；书评；英国乡绅；一路顺风；

The gentry: story of the English. By Adam Nicolson.

《乡绅：英国的故事》，亚当·尼克森著。

Adam Nicolson has written many books on history and the countryside, including two about his family's properties at opposite ends of the British Isles, Sissinghurst Castle in Kent and the Shiant Isles in the Outer Hebrides. Now he has turned his attention to the class to which his family can be said to belong. His grandmother, Vita Sackville-West, was unashamedly a member of the aristocracy but Mr Nicolson states that the gentry has always been composed of “Gentle Ungentles”, younger sons and daughters of old families who have declined into the gentry, and “Ungentle Gentles”, people of more humble origin who through their ability and achievements have advanced up the social ladder.

亚当·尼克森写过很多以历史和农村为题材的著作，其中包括介绍他家位于不列颠群岛两端的两处房产：肯特州的悉心赫斯特城堡和外赫布里斯群岛的西恩特群岛。现在他已经将注意力转向他家族所在的阶层。他的祖母，维塔·萨克维尔·维斯特，是一位生活无所顾忌贵族。 但是尼克森指出乡绅阶层是由两种人组成的：“出身绅士的平民”，他们出身于已退变为乡绅阶层的旧式家族的年轻一代；“出身平民的绅士”，也就是那些出身卑微，但是凭借自己的能力和成就挤入上层社会的人。

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