The Monster
Deems Taylor

This essay on a famous man, whose
name is not revealed until almost the end
of the piece, is a study of monstrous
conceit. Filled with biographical details
that keep the reader guessing to the last
moment, the essay concludes with a
challenging view on the nature of genius:
If a genius was so prolific, "is it any
wonder that he had no time to be a man?"
Background information:
About the text:
 This text first appeared as a radio talk,
entitled A Monster. Later it was published
with the title Of Men and Music in the
United States in 1937.
 About the author:
 Deems Taylor, American musician and
critic


Richard Wagner: German composer, born
in Leipzig on 22 May 1813 and died in
Venice on 13 February 1883. he did more
than any other composer to change
music, and indeed to change the art and
thinking about it. His works are hated as
much as they are worshipped, but no one
denies their greatness.

瓦格纳（Richard Wagner，１８１３－１８８３年）：１
８１３年５月２２日生于莱比锡。自幼喜爱贝多芬、莫扎
特和韦伯的音乐，自学钢琴和作曲。同时，也受莎士比亚、
歌德、席勒的戏剧影响，１５岁时就写了一出５幕的诗悲
剧，晚年又受叔本华、尼采甚至弗洛伊德等哲学家的影响。
１８３３年夏天在维尔茨堡担任歌剧指挥，并开始歌剧创
作。１８４０年写成《黎恩济》，１８４１年创作了他的
第一部歌剧代表作《漂泊的荷兰人》。１８４３年被任命
为德累斯顿宫廷歌剧院指挥。１８４５年演出他根据德国
传说所作的《汤豪塞》。１８４９年后，在国外流亡１５
年。１８７５年完成了《指环》的全部写作，并于１８７
６年８月在新落成的拜罗伊特剧院上演，获极大成功。其
著名的作品尚有《罗亨格林》、《特里斯坦与伊索尔德》、
《纽伦堡的名歌手》等。其著作有《论德国音乐》、《艺
术与革命》、《未来的艺术作品》以及《歌剧与戏剧》等。
１８８３年２月１３日逝世。他的音乐戏剧的舞台作品具
有极为深远的意义，特点是都是由自己创作的（包括情节、
人物、剧词、表现方法和音乐）。他对音乐形式本身从不
感兴趣，只把它作为情感的和心理的表现手段而已。他彻
底改革了作曲的技术，从而对音乐作为一种艺术的发展具
有决定性的影响，并导致表现主义音乐的形成。

瓦格纳的３幕歌剧《漂泊的荷兰人》，作于１８
４１年，１８４３年首演于德累斯顿。由瓦格纳
自己根据德国诗人海涅的《施纳贝莱沃普斯基的
回忆》第７章自撰脚本。剧情描述荷兰人乘红帆
船在海上航行，魔鬼罚他终生漂泊，７年方可登
陆一次。只有找到一个忠贞地爱他的女子，方可
得救。船长达兰德的女儿森塔从画中认识了荷兰
人，对他产生思慕之情，渴望救他上岸。一天，
荷兰人在海上漂泊又满７年，上岸寻找救星，被
船长约到家里，见到森塔。两人一见倾心，荷兰
人为自己即将得救而暗自庆幸。此时恰逢森塔以
前的恋人，猎人埃里克前来求婚，并提醒森塔不
要忘记过去的誓言。荷兰人闻言大失所望，离开
森塔，沮丧地奔回船去。森塔追到海边，见红帆
船远去，悲不自胜，投海而死。红帆船此时亦沉
人海中。剧终时，海中庄严地出现荷兰人与森塔
的身影，他们在朝阳中拥抱着，向天空升去。

《纽伦堡的名歌手》序曲又名《纽伦堡的
名歌手前奏曲》。三幕歌剧《纽伦堡的名
歌手》完成于1867年，但其序曲早在1862
年便已创作。歌剧的脚本为瓦格纳本人所
作，取材于十六世纪德国纽伦堡的一个民
间故事。这部作品不仅在瓦格纳的歌剧创
作中具有非常特殊的地位，也是歌剧史上
最著名的杰作之一。这部歌剧构思的时间
很长，所要体现的中心思想几经更迭，在
这一过程中它的形象和情节不断深化。因
此在瓦格纳后期创作中，这部歌剧显得十
分突出。

《尼伯龙根的指环》瓦格纳的不朽歌剧。
是瓦格纳最优秀的作品之一，也是世界歌
剧史上最有影响力的其中一部。《尼伯龙
根的指环》是瓦格纳根据冰岛历史学家施
图鲁孙的北欧神话《埃达》与12至13世纪
德国民间史诗《尼伯龙根之歌》，自撰脚
本，提赠给巴伐利亚国王路德维希二世。
整套歌剧于1876年在拜鲁伊特首演。全剧
由四部分组成：莱茵河的黄金、女武神、
齐格费里德、众神的黄昏。
Analysis
This text can be divided into three parts.
 Part I describe a man who seems to have
rolled all kinds of demerits into one, a real
monster.
 Part II clarifies who this monster really is,
i.e. a famous musician by the name of
Richard Wagner.
 Part III justify all the peculiar behaviors of
Richard Wagner. He, as “one of the
world’s greatest dramatists … a great
thinker … one of the most stupendous
musical geniuses”, has every reason to be
a monster

Part I paragraph 1-9


1. Does the man’s appearance, described in
the first paragraph, give one any impression of
“grandeur”?
No. He is a little man with the sign of illness,
sick in both body and nerves. This is by no
means an appearance that may bring one a
sense of grandeur. Then what makes the man
with such a poor look have “delusion of
grandeur”? The only explanation is that he is a
“monster of conceit”.
Words and expressions
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Undersized: too small or smaller than usual,
especially because of lack of growth.
Sickly: habitually ill, weak and unhealthy
a ~ person or animal is weak, unhealthy, and
often ill
a sickly child / She looked pale and sickly.
especially British English a sickly smell, taste etc
is unpleasant and makes you feel sick
A sickly smell clung to his clothes and hair.
a sickly color or light is unpleasantly pale or
weak
The walls were painted a sickly green. a pale,
sickly moon
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Agony: very severe pain
the agony of arthritis (关节炎）
in agony
I was in agony. He groaned in agony.
a very sad, difficult, or unpleasant experience
It was agony not knowing if she would live.
agony of
He was in agonies of remorse （悔恨）.
agony column： a part of a newspaper or
magazine in which someone gives advice to
readers about their personal problems
agony aunt：someone who writes an agony
column
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And he had delusions of grandeur: and he had
a false belief that he was a man of importance.
delusion: a false belief about yourself or the
situation you are in
under a delusion (that)
He is under the delusion that I am going to
cheat him.
delusions of grandeur
the belief that you are much more important or
powerful than you really are
That sick man is under the delusion that he is
Napoleon.
In what way was Wagner physically odd?
 He had a short stature with a
disproportionately large head. And he had
skin diseases.

What are the further evidences of the
monster’s conceit?
 To prove his conceit, the second para
describes him as so egocentric that he
cared about nothing but himself; he had
such a strong sense of self-appreciation
that he saw himself not just as the
greatest musician, polemist( 评论家）
and philosopher, but also as the world’s
finest living poet and playwright. And the
third para tells that he never expected
criticism or allowed disagreement.

What kinds of grammatical devices are
used to emphasize the extreme extent of
his peculiar conceit?
 inverted sentence: Never for one minute
did he look at the world or at people,
except in relation to himself.
 The superlative forms of adjectives:
greatest…most …slightest…
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conceit：an attitude that shows you have too
high an opinion of your own abilities or
importance
synonym conceitedness
He was a monster of conceit.--- He was an
unusual person with excessive self-pride.
Monster: an imaginary or ancient creature that
is large, ugly, and frightening / someone who is
very cruel and evil /an object, animal etc that is
unusually large
音乐的天才
He had never cared about other people
and things in this world if they had
nothing to do with him.
 He was often heard to boast of being a
genius with a combined quality of
Shakespeare, the greatest English poet
and dramatist, Beethoven, the greatest
German composer and Plato, the
greatest Greek philosopher.
 Roll into one: integrate several things or
features into one.
 She has became his assistant and
secretary rolled into one.
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William Shakespeare
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Hamlet, Prince of
Denmark (1600-1601)
Othello, the Moor of
Venice (1604)
King Lear (1605)
Macbeth ( 1606)
Beethoven
Plato
Maddeningly: very annoying
 He moved carefully and maddeningly
slowly.
 Mania: a strong desire for something or
interest in something, especially one that
affects a lot of people at the same time.
 癖好，狂热 mania for
 a serious mental illness
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Why did he always take himself as the
centre of his conversations?
 He believed he was one of the greatest
men in the world, a great composer, a
great thinker and a great dramatist
combined into one. A man of such
arrogance cannot help but take himself as
the centre of conversations.

He has an extremely strong desire of
being right. 他狂热的相信自己总是正确的。
If anyone disagreed with him, no matter
how small the sign of disagreement was
and how trivial the point was, he would
make a lengthy speech for hours to prove
himself right...
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… in the end his hearer was too tired and
surprised to say anything, and would agree with
him in order to stop him from talking.
Harangue: verb, to speak in a loud angry way,
often for a long time, in order to criticize
someone or to persuade them that you are right
harangue somebody about something
He stood on the street corner, haranguing
passers-by about the stupidity of the
forthcoming war.
N.: a speech addressed to a public assembly.
Volubility: ( derogatory) the characteristic of
always being ready to produce a
continuous flow of words, or being
talkative 滔滔不绝，没完没了
Voluble: characterized by a ready and
continuous flow of words; fluent; talkative
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Ted’s a voluble speaker at meetings;
he doesn’t give much chance to others to
say anything.
 For the sake of
 1)
For the good or advantage of
 2)
For the purpose of
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Para：If anyone showed slight
disagreement with him, he would make a
lengthy and aggressive speech for hours
to prove himself to be in the right. This
would force his dazed and deafened
hearers to surrender.
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Para: He had never thought whether
other people around him would have as
great interest in him and his doing as he
himself did.他从来不会觉得，对于跟他接触的人来说，
他和他的所作所为并不是使人产生强烈兴趣而为之倾倒
的事情。
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Vegetarianism: the belief or practice of a
vegetarian who does not eat or does not
believe in eating meat, fish, fowl, or in
some cases, any food derived from
animals.
Pamphlets: a very thin book with paper
covers, that gives information about
something
 Cf: leaflet
a political pamphlet
 at someone’s expense: with someone
paying the cost He had his book at his
own expense.
 At the expense of: causing the loss of
He finished the job at the expense of his
health.
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What kind of versatile man is he?
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Besides his activity as a composer and a
librettist Wagner wrote an astonishing number
of books and articles, in fact about 230 titles.
His literary spectrum ranges from theories of
opera to political programs. He has been
classified as an anarchist and a socialist and,
simultaneously, as a proto-fascist and
nationalist, as a vegetarian and an antiSemite… In fact, his name has appeared in
connection with almost all major trends in
German history of the 19th and 20th centuries.
How does the writer describe him as an
emotional person?
 He had a mood as changeable as a sixyear-old child. For example, he would get
mad when something was against his
desire, and forget all about it when
something pleasant happened. And he
would be grieved on one occasion but
become merciless on another.
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out of sorts: feeling a little ill or upset; in a bad
temper
Louise went back to work feeling rather out of
sorts.
rave: talk wildly as if mad He raved all night in
his fever./ Father is raving against the
government again.
to talk in an angry, uncontrolled, or crazy way
rave at
He started raving at me.
Raving : crazy
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Sink into suicidal gloom: fall into a gloomy state
which makes one wish to kill himself.
Sank into: gradually get into a worse condition
~ depression/poverty
Darkly: in a vaguely threatening or menacing
manner 态度中带有威胁的
He spoke darkly of
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trouble to come.
Grief-stricken: overcome with, characterized by, or
resulting from great sorrow 极度忧伤 feeling very sad
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because of something that has happened
The grief-stricken widow refused to leave her
dead husband's side.
cf: panic-stricken
Callous: not caring that other people are
suffering, unkind, without feelings无情冷酷
 We were shocked at the callous disregard
for human life. a callous attitude
 Shudder: shake uncontrollably from fear,
cold, or strong dislike
 She shuddered at the sight of the dead
body.
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…he could be so merciless that even the
cruel Roman emperor would have felt
fearful.
 Paragraph 6-7
 How was he financially supported? Did he
earn himself a good living with his great
talents?
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He lived on others’ money. Through his wife, he found
many benefactors, among whom King Ludwig II and
Otto ～were two of the most generous ones. In 1864
King Ludwig II, his great benefactor, invited him to settle
in Bavaria, near Munich, discharging all his debts and
providing him with money. Another generous patron
Otto~, whose wife was stolen away by Wagner,
supported him economically by buying the publishing
rights of his works. However, later it turned out that he
had to give up his publishing rights because Wagner
had sold them again to others.
Although these benefactors had provided him with a
great sun of money and never got any repayment,
Wagner kept ling in debts and in a narrow escape from
being thrown into jail for debts because he was a lavish
spender.
be innocent of : uninformed, unaware,
ignorant; not guilty of a crime; not having
much experience of the bad things in the
world, so that you are easily deceived
 He firmly believed that the world had to
support him for a living.
 Grovel: flatter, be shamefully humble and
eager to other people, to praise someone
a lot or behave with a lot of respect
towards them because you think that they
are important and will be able to help you
in some way - used to show disapproval
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Loftily: in a manner showing belief of
being better than other people 傲慢地
 lofty mountains, buildings etc are very
high and impressive； lofty ideas, beliefs,
attitudes etc show high standards or high
moral qualities - use this to show
approval lofty ideals of equality and
social justice；seeming to think you are
better than other people - used to show
disapproval
 She has such a lofty manner.
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Para: He wrote large numbers of letters to
his patron begging shamelessly for
money, but in a manner that it seemed to
be an honor for the patron to be offered
the chance to provide his support to him.
That’s why he would be greatly offended
if the patron refused to take this honor.
 By the score: large number of, a great
many
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Whatever money coming into his hands
he spent lavishly like an Indian ruler did.
 Rajah: the king or ruler of an Indian state
 Pressing: needing to be discussed or
dealt with very soon, urgent 紧急，紧迫的
 Poverty is a more pressing problem than
pollution.
 Survival is the most pressing concern of
any new company.
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Para 8
What is his attitude toward love?
 It seems that he was a playboy. He
divorced his first wife Minna Planer after
26 years’ marriage and stolen way other
people’s wives, eg. Jessie, Mathilde,
Cosima von ~, the last one was the wife
of the conductor Hans Von, and Liszt’s
daughter.
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Wagner and Cosima
Unscrupulous: behaving in an unfair or
dishonest way, having and showing no
moral principles毫无顾及，不择手段，不道德的
 unscrupulous employers
 Infidelity：disloyalty, unfaithfulness when
someone has sex with a person who is
not their wife, husband, or partner
marital infidelity
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Para: In his whole life, he had never
stopped having affairs with women, who
had come and gone like the marching of
an army. A lot of women came into his life
as a result of his pursuit, and were
abandoned by him in the end.
Paragraph 9
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Why do you think Wagner made so many
enemies?
The reason for Wagner to have made many
enemies is also his conceit, because he could
not tolerate anyone who disagreed with him,
even over some trivial points like weather. He
was under such delusion of grandeur that he
would do anything to defeat them in order to
defend his image as a perfect genius rather
than keep them as friends.
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Pull wires: use influence, esp. secretly ,
from people concerned with something
one needs 暗中操纵，在幕后牵线
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He had to pull a few wires to get the job.
He would use influence from as many as
possible secretly to meet some man who
admired his works and was able and anxious to
be useful.他会想法设法见到仰慕他作品的人，
允许其使用自己的作品。
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Caricature：a representation of a person in
literature or art made so that parts of his
character appear more noticeable , odd, or
amusing than they really are.讽刺
a funny drawing of someone that makes them
look silly
caricature of caricatures of politicians.
Countable a description of someone or
something that is only partly true and makes
them seem silly
The report presents a caricature of the true
situation.
Burlesque： speech, acting, or writing in
which a serious subject is made to seem
silly or an unimportant subject is treated
in a serious way
 He was still unsatisfied mocking him,
therefore he invited the critic to his house
and read him the libretto aloud in front of
his friends.
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这样嘲弄还不满意，他又邀请这位评论家
到他家里，当着他的朋友的面大声朗读这
一剧本。
 Libretto：the words of an opera or
musical play
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Part 2 paragraph 10
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Why do you think the writer postpones the
presentation of the monster’s name till the 10th
paragraph?
Describing the features of this monster first
without introducing his name helps the readers
draw a picture of Richard Wagner faithful to the
reality. Presenting Richard Wagner’s name first
may interfere with their objective conclusion on
what kind of person Wagner really was.
Postponed appearance of Wagner’s name not
only holds the reader in suspense, but, more
importantly, inspires the reader to find excuses
for all the monster’s demerits illustrated
previously.
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Has your attitude towards this monster changed
a little when you finally find out who this
monster is?
Yes. Before knowing who this monster is, the
readers may feel annoyed at his personality and
behavior, However, after knowing that he is
Richard Wagner, they would , though being
aware that the descriptions are all facts on
record, still hold that Wagner’s outstanding
contributions to the world justify all his behavior.
He deserved what he had obtained in his life, no
matter how unacceptably he behaved.
Testimony: a formal statement that sth. is
true, as made by a witness in a court of
law. In his testimony, he denied that the
company had ignored safety procedures.
 be a testimony to/of something
 Between the lines: hidden meanings
 Some kinds of poetry make you read
between the lines.
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Para: And the curious thing about this
record is that it doesn’t matter in the least:
Although the monster’s peculiar
personality and behavior described
previously are all facts on record, people
just care nothing about them at all.
 Not…in the least…

Part III paragraph 11-13
How does the writer justify every piece of
evidence of the monster, which he has
presented previously?
 The writer tries to provide a reasonable
explanation for each of the monster’s
characteristics in both his personality and
behavior: as regards his conceit of being
right, he argues that Wagner did so
because he was really right all the time;
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and though Wagner had been talking
about himself twenty-four hours a day, he
still had so much unsaid concerning all
kinds of disputes over him; Wagner’s
great contribution to the world could
repay any debts and release all kinds of
heartaches he had brought to people;

he certainly had had so many live affairs
with different women, however, he had
never been unfaithful to music through his
life. In short, the writer concludes that it is
reasonable for Wagner to act in a
Monster’s way since he was such a great
genius who had done a miracle in music.
Stupendous: surprisingly large or
impressive
(magnificent) a stupendous achievement
 What if?: what would occur if; suppose
that
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即使他无时无刻不在谈论自己又如何？
即便他终其一生每天24小时谈他自己， 他所说
的也还不及他死后人们关于他所说和所写文字的
一半多。
Hold the stage: be performed, be the
centre of attention 继续上演，仍然卖座
 We had only one hour to discuss the
question and Mr. Hones held the stage for
most of it.
 …when you listen to his music, all his
debts seem to be repaid and the
heartaches he brought to people seem to
be relieved.
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Compromise: to reach an agreement in
which everyone involved accepts less
that what they wanted at first
 She admitted that she was unable to
compromise.
 compromise with
 His work-mates demanded that he never
compromise with the bosses.
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Conceive：to imagine a particular situation or
to think about something in a particular way
(cannot) conceive of (doing) something
Many people can‘t conceive of a dinner without
meat or fish.
The policy was ill-conceived (not planned well )
and wrong-headed.
to become pregnant
Downright: thoroughly
It makes me downright angry to see food
thrown away.
他从不曾与他的信念和梦想妥协。渺小的灵魂根
本无法理解他的音乐。即使在他乏味甚至非常糟
糕的时候，他也是乏味地高贵着。
Para: His music was so great that people
would forgive him for all the misdeeds
that he had done and the good deeds that
he failed to do. As a matter of fact, what
his music arouses in people’s mind is not
anything like forgiveness at all, but
admiration.
 听他的音乐，人们不会原谅他的所见未闻。
这不是原谅的问题。


Para： It must be a surprise that inside inside
his sickly little body, there lived a strong force of
creativity, which was so eager to burst out of his
body that it would have been a torture for him
not to write music.

这简直是令人瞠目结舌的，他的脆弱的大脑和身
体饱受体内创造力的恶魔的折磨竟没有爆发；这
一恶魔挣扎，抓爬。挖刮以求释放；冲他撕扯、
尖叫以写出体内的音乐。
It is reasonable for him to act like a
monster in other respects when he was
wholly engaged in composing music.
 The tremendous creative power, which
propelled him to produce so many
memorable works in his little span of life,
could have crushed his poor brain and
body. However, he miraculously survived
and made all the immortal
accomplishments. In this sense he was a
monster rather than a human being.

What is the writer’s real intention of
writing this article?
 By writing this article the writer tries to
justify the peculiar behavior of Wagner.
 What is your final conclusion about
Richard Wagner?
 He is a genius as well as a monster.

Structural Analysis




In the first 10 paras, we can find the following words
and expressions used by the author to describe Richard
Wagner as a monster of conceit:
delusions of grandeur/ monster of conceit/ believed
himself to be one of the greatest dramatist/one of the
greatest thinkers
In the remaining paras, we can find the following
words and expressions used to describe him as a great
genius:
right all the time/ one of the world’s greatest
dramatists/ a great thinker/ one of the most stupendous
musical geniuses
Rhetorical Features

The repetitious use of the third person
pronoun he creates suspense in the reader’s
mind. This is one of the effective ways to hold
the reader’s attention and make him move on.
To use the terminology of functional linguistics
and discourse analysis, this use of he is
anaphoric in nature. The anaphoric use of he
can be found in sentences such as “I have a
friend and he is working in New York”, in which
he refers back to “my friend”.
Unit 8 Translation
1.For the sake of your family, you should
look before you leap and not take so
many risks.
 2. I felt a bit out of sorts after last night’s
heavy drink.
 3. His father pulled endless wires and got
him a position in an inflated government
department.

4. If you read his letter carefully ,you can
find his real intention between the lines.
 5. I knew I was downright rude to him, but
I found excuses for myself.
 6. Many of the outstanding figures of the
past were exceptionally versatile.
Leonardo da vinci, for instance, rolled a
paiterrr and an inventor into one.

7. He finally killed himself after being
under the torment of insomnia for many
years.
 8. He was struck dumb with amzement.

Unit 7 translation



1. The tape recorder secretly installed in the
office of the Secretary of Treasury brought the
government down in no more than 3 months.
2. Any action that is detrimental to the cause of
peace will be condemned by the people of the
world.
3. The decisions made by the two ministers to
resign are departures from the hard-nosed,
fight-to-the-finish tradition of politics.
4. The negotiations with the workers got
bogged down for the third time on the
question of working hours.
 5. Louisa Clarke is a very pleasant girl,
yet sometimes her judgment is clouded
by her hot temper and jealousy.
 6. He had to work harder o to be sent
away from school. In this circumstance,
what alternatives were left to him? He
had to choose the former.

7. Richard is too much at home here to
need the host’s invitation for lengthening
his visit.
 8. She was badly taken in by his honestlooking appearance.

Unit 6 Translation
1. The hall resonated with the notes of the
trumpet solo.
 2. I saw, in mind’s eye, the pale face of
the mother when she heard the news of
her son’s death.
 3. His walk reminds me of the way his
father used to walk.
 4. I mixed the dates up and arrived on a
wrong day.

5. Her heart swelled with pride when she
learned that her daughter was accepted
by Oxford University.
 6. Theoretically speaking, the whole
population should have direct access to
information without waiting for being
filtered by the government or the media.

7. The Democrats have launched a
campaign to win women voters over in
this presidential election.
 8. After he inherited his father’s estate, he
was immersed in all kinds of pleasure.

Unit 5 translation
1. Your remarks border on rudeness.
 2. Any unemployed person counts as
deserving government help.
 3. On the whole I am quite satisfied with
the experiment.
 4. A person’s appearance makes a
difference in how others judge him.

5. Advertising tends to portray women in
very traditional roles.
 6. Having inherited a considerable wealth,
the twin sisters were eager to show off
their jewelry.
 7. Public interest has once again shifted
focus to the changes in the urban
environment.
 8. In contrast, even the most modern
aircraft look clumsy and slow.
