高级英语第6课blackmail

Hotel
• The novel was adapted Into a movie in 1967 and later into television series.
Background of hotel
• In this novel, the manager of a New Orleans hotel must deal with his tough boss, business headaches, thieves, and a variety of demanding guests. Peter McDermott is managing the hotel at a particularly problematic time. For one thing, business has been on the decline and the owner, Trent, needs to raise enough money to save the hotel by modernizing it. Action has to be taken quickly because a ruthless hotel magnate is desperately trying to get his hands on the business.
Lesson Six
背景知识 徐琳 课文1-59 张俊洋 课文60-109 高妍 修辞 孔令霞
objectives
• To understand the whole text • To learn the Character analysis • To comprehend the implied meaning
• And to make the situation even more hectic, a union chief is at odds with Trent over the owner's unwillingness to unionize his workers. McDermott's work isn't made any easier by his boss's whites-only guest policy. Meanwhile, the guests have their own troubles -including the Duke of Croydon, who is blackmailed by the hotel's detective after getting involved in a hit-andrun accident.
• Many have been made into movies and Hotel was made into a long-running television series. Airport became a successful film with dramatic visual effects. A Canadian citizen whose children live in Canada and California, Hailey made his home in Lyford Cay, an exclusive residential resort on New Providence Island in the Bahamas with his second wife Sheila (who wrote "I Married a Best-Seller" published in 1978). • Hailey's grandchildren include Paul Hailey, Emma Hailey, Charlotte Hailey and Brooke Hailey, who are students in Northern California, Angela Hailey, Ryan Hailey and Christopher Hailey. Hailey died in November 2004.
• The Duke decided to go to the police to confess his crime (to surrender himself / to give himself up). But he was hurled out the elevator due to the breakdown of it. He hit the cement ground and died instantly.
• He would spend about one year researching a subject, followed by six months reviewing his notes and, finally, about 18 months writing the book. That aggressive research — tracking rebel guerrillas in the Peruvian jungle at age 67 for The Evening News (1990), or reading 27 books on the hotel industry for Hotel – gave his novels a realism that appealed to readers, even as some critics complained that he used it to disguise a lack of literary talent. Many of his books have reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and more than 170 million copies have been sold worldwide in 40 languages.
The End of the Story (Blackmail)
• At one o'clock Thursday morning, Ogilvie drove the car north. But he was seen leaving the hotel by McDermott. Later in the afternoon, McDermott witnessed the funeral of the two victims of the accident. • He suddenly realized the relation between these two events and contacted police. • Ogilvie was caught in Tennessee and sent back to New Orleans.
Arthur's writing features • He is good at transferring the daily story into a detective novel. Under the background of competition in finance and hotel business, the author always depict the hero as manager or doctor.
Each of his novels has a different industrial or commercial setting and includes, in addition to dramatic human conflict, carefully researched information about the way that particular environment and system functions and how these affect society and its inhabitants. Critics often dismissed Hailey's success as the result of a formulaic "potboiler" style in which he caused an ordinary character to become involved in a crisis, then increased the suspense by switching among multiple related plot lines. However, he was so popular with readers that his books were almost guaranteed to become best-sellers.
Background information
• • • • • • • • • • Born in Lupton, Bedfordshire, England, Hailey served in the Royal Air Force from the start of World War II during 1939 until 1947, when he went to live in Canada. After working at a number of jobs and writing part-time, he became a writer fulltime during 1956, encouraged by the success of the CBC television drama, Flight into Danger (in print as Runway Zero Eight). Following the success of Hotel during 1965, he moved to California; in 1969, he moved to the Bahamas to avoid Canadian and U.S. income taxes, which were claiming 90% of his income.
Arthur Hailey(1920-2004)
• ●Born in England • ●Began his writing career while an RAF (British Royal Air Force) pilot during the Second World War • ●Became a Canadian citizen as well as British • ●Hailey‟s novels have been published in thirtynine languages • ●Most of his books have been made into films or TV series
The text
Structure analysis
Part Ⅰ Prelude Para.1—Para.13
Part Ⅱ Process of the unveiling the crime Para .14—Para.47
PartⅢ The dirty deal Para.48—Para.109
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Major works
• • • • • • • • • Fight into danger—(1958) The final diagnosis—(1959) In high places—(1960) Hotel—(1965) Airport—(1968) Wheels—(1971) The moneychangers—(1975) The evening news—(1990) Detective—(1997)