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Instead of being placed, as was normal, in the end wall, where it could command the whole room, it was in the longer wall, opposite the window. | Он помещался не в торцовой стене, откуда мог бы обозревать всю комнату, а в длинной, напротив окна. |
To one side of it there was a shallow alcove in which Winston was now sitting, and which, when the flats were built, had probably been intended to hold bookshelves. | Сбоку от него была неглубокая ниша, предназначенная, вероятно, для книжных полок, -- там и сидел сейчас Уинстон. |
By sitting in the alcove, and keeping well back, Winston was able to remain outside the range of the telescreen, so far as sight went. | Сев в ней поглубже, он оказывался недосягаемым для телекрана, вернее, невидимым. |
He could be heard, of course, but so long as he stayed in his present position he could not be seen. | Подслушивать его, конечно, могли, но наблюдать, пока он сидел там, -- нет. |
It was partly the unusual geography of the room that had suggested to him the thing that he was now about to do. | Эта несколько необычная планировка комнаты, возможно, и натолкнула его на мысль заняться тем, чем он намерен был сейчас заняться. |
But it had also been suggested by the book that he had just taken out of the drawer. | Но кроме того, натолкнула книга в мраморном переплете. |
It was a peculiarly beautiful book. | Книга была удивительно красива. |
Its smooth creamy paper, a little yellowed by age, was of a kind that had not been manufactured for at least forty years past. | Гладкая кремовая бумага чуть пожелтела от старости -- такой бумаги не выпускали уже лет сорок, а то и больше. |
He could guess, however, that the book was much older than that. | Уинстон подозревал, что книга еще древнее. |
He had seen it lying in the window of a frowsy little junk-shop in a slummy quarter of the town (just what quarter he did not now remember) and had been stricken immediately by an overwhelming desire to possess it. | Он приметил ее на витрине старьевщика в трущобном районе (где именно, он уже забыл) и загорелся желанием купить. |
Party members were supposed not to go into ordinary shops ('dealing on the free market', it was called), but the rule was not strictly kept, because there were various things, such as shoelaces and razor blades, which it was impossible to get hold of in any other way. | Членам партии не полагалось ходить в обыкновенные магазины (это называлось "приобретать товары на свободном рынке"), но запретом часто пренебрегали: множество вещей, таких, как шнурки и бритвенные лезвия, раздобыть иным способом было невозможно. |