灵犬莱西 (1940)

《灵犬莱西》（英语：Lassie Come-Home），也称为《莱西回家》，香港译《神犬拉西》，是英国小说家瑞克·奈特（Eric Knight）创作的长篇小说，1940年出版。内容提到一只名叫莱西的苏格兰牧羊犬长途跋涉，回到它喜欢的小男孩身边之故事。这部小说多次改编为电影及动画。

故事情节

故事发生在20世纪30年代英格兰东北部的约克郡，第二次世界大战前夕那段艰难的岁月里，小男孩乔的一家的生活非常艰难，但有非常一只纯种苏格兰牧羊犬莱西来陪他，莱西每天下午都准时出现在乔的校门口接乔放学。因为主人乔的父亲山姆处于失业危机而不得不把它卖给公爵，使得一家人原本单纯快乐的生活起些变化。

到放学时间，被关在养狗场铁笼子里的莱西焦急地要去见乔，它趁管理员不注意刨洞逃到学校。乔见到莱西喜出望外怕莱西回家会被送回公爵的养狗场，就带着莱西躲藏到山洞里促使管理员找上门来，爸爸找到乔让他把莱西送回公爵的养狗场。乔含泪和莱西告别告诉它：“你已经不再跟我们在一起了。”，几天后公爵把莱西送至几百英里外苏格兰的庄园。

莱西思念乔，也受不了养犬师的虐待下，公爵孙女帮助它逃走踏上回家的征途，莱西在风雨兼程躲过猎人的枪口和捕狗者的绳套，忍饥挨饿跋山涉水，它历尽千辛万苦终于从苏格兰回到约克郡与乔重聚。山姆被莱西的忠诚和坚韧所感动，“它这么想我们的孩子身边和我们的家，我们就把它留下来吧”。公爵和他的孙女发现回家的莱西，为了让莱西能继续留在乔的家里，佯装没有认出它，还邀请山姆到养狗场当管理员，解决他们家的生活困难。

外币连结

Lassie Come-Home - 古滕堡分布式校对（加拿大）

Lassie Come-Home is a novel written by Eric Knight about a Rough Collie's trek over many miles to be reunited with the boy she loves. Knight had introduced the reading public to the canine character of Lassie in a magazine story published on 17 December 1938, in The Saturday Evening Post, a story which he later expanded to the novel and published in 1940 to critical and commercial success. In 1943, the novel was adapted to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer feature film Lassie Come Home starring Roddy McDowall as the boy Joe Carraclough, Pal as Lassie, and featuring Elizabeth Taylor. The motion picture was selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry. A remake of Lassie Come Home, entitled Lassie, was released in 2005.

The hyphen in the title is both an adjective referring to Lassie's purpose as a dog that must turn home and it is the name given to the dog in the final chapter where the boy says to the dog: "Ye brought us luck. 'Cause ye're a come-homer. Ye're my Lassie Come-Home. Lassie Come-Home. That's thy name! Lassie Come-Home". In another part of the book, Hynes, a cynical character who oversees the Duke of Rudling's animals, falsely accuses the Carraclough family of training such dogs for fraud: "I know all about yer and yer come-home dogs. Training 'em to break loose and run right back 'ome when they're sold, so then ye can sell 'em to someone else." Film adaptations of the novel do not include the hyphen.

Reception

Lassie Come-Home won the 1943 Young Reader's Choice Award.