Английский с Оскаром Уайльдом. Кентервильское привидение / Oscar Wilde. The Canterville Ghost

He remembered the terrible night when the wicked Lord Canterville was found choking in his dressing-room, with the knave of diamonds half-way down his throat, and confessed, just before he died, that he had cheated Charles James Fox out of lb50,000 at Crockford’s by means of that very card, and swore that the ghost had made him swallow it. All his great achievements came back to him again, from the butler who had shot himself in the pantry because he had seen a green hand tapping at the window-pane, to the beautiful Lady Stutfield, who was always obliged to wear a black velvet band round her throat to hide the mark of five fingers burnt upon her white skin, and who drowned herself at last in the carp-pond at the end of the King’s Walk.

With the enthusiastic egotism of the true artist (с эгоистическим энтузиазмом подлинного художника), he went over his most celebrated performances (он вспомнил свои наиболее знаменитые выступления; to go over smth. – рассматривать), and smiled bitterly to himself (и горько улыбнулся сам себе) as he recalled to mind his last appearance as “Red Reuben, or the Strangled Babe” (когда он вспомнил свое последнее появление в качестве «Рыжего Рубена или Задушенного Младенца»),” his d'ebut as “Guant Gibeon, the Blood-sucker of Bexley Moor (свой дебют /франц./ в «Тощем Гибеоне, Кровопийце из Бексли-Мур»),” and the furore he had excited one lovely June evening (и тот фурор, /который/ он произвел в один прекрасный июньский вечер) by merely playing ninepins with his own bones upon the lawn-tennis ground (всего лишь играя в кегли своими собственными костями на лужайке для тенниса). And after all this (и после всего этого) some wretched modern Americans were to come (должны были появиться какие-то жуткие современные американцы) and offer him the Rising Sun Lubricator (и предложить ему машинное масло «Встающее солнце»), and throw pillows at his head (и бросать подушки ему в голову; to throw)! It was quite unbearable (это было совершенно невыносимо). Besides, no ghost in history had ever been treated in this manner (кроме того, ни с одним привидением за всю историю не обращались таким образом). Accordingly, he determined to have vengeance (соответственно, он решил отомстить), and remained till daylight in an attitude of deep thought (и до восхода солнца находился в состоянии глубокого раздумья).