Jane Austen: The Evergreen Storyteller

2018-01-04By

英语世界 2017年10期

ByNandini Nair

When Jane Austen’s fi rst novelSense and Sensibilitywas published in 1811, the title page simply read, “A Novel. In Three Volumes. By a Lady”.What could be greater justice than the fact that on her 200th death anniversary,that same anonymous lady gets her very own bank note1此处指将简·奥斯丁的肖像印在英镑纸钞上。? Austen is only the third writer to grace an English note(following William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens) and the first woman writer to do so. And really, no one can grudge2grudge怀恨；妒忌；不满。her the honour. (One can hope that Virginia Woolf might similarly be commemorated in the future.)

简·奥斯丁的第一部小说《理智与情感》于1811年出版，扉页上只写着“一部小说，三卷本，一位女士著”。这位匿名的女士在其逝世200周年纪念日上，拥有了自己的专属钞票，还有什么比这更加公道的呢？奥斯丁是第三位为英镑纸钞增辉添彩的作家（另两位是威廉·莎士比亚和查尔斯·狄更斯），是第一位享此殊荣的女性作家。说真的，她获得这项荣誉，没有人会心怀不满。（或许弗吉尼娅·伍尔夫今后也会以类似的方式得到纪念。）

[2] When Austen died at 41, on July 18th, 1817, her profession as a writer did not make it to her epitaph3epitaph墓志铭，碑文。. Her brother Henry chose instead to focus on her “charity, devotion, faith and purity”.While she never got to embrace the title of an author when she was alive, death has ensured her legacy. Her books have been translated into 40 languages andPride and Prejudiceitself has sold over 20 million copies. If her epitaph were to be written today, we could, perhaps,borrow from Virginia Woolf who wrote in The TLS4=The Times Literary Supplement《泰晤士报文学增刊》，创刊于1902年，涉及人文学术和艺术的各个领域，被誉为当代最杰出的人文性书评及文化杂志。弗吉尼娅·伍尔夫从1905年开始为其写稿。of 1913, “More than any other novelist she fi lls every inch of her canvas with observation, fashions5fashion制作，塑造。every sentence into meaning, stuffs up6stuff up堵塞，堵住。every chink7chink裂缝；裂口。and cranny8cranny裂缝，裂隙。of the fabric until each novel is a little living world, from which you cannot break off a scene or even a sentence without bleeding it of some of its life. Her characters are so rounded and substantial that they have the power to move out of the scenes in which she placed them into other moods and circumstances.”

[2]奥斯丁于1817年7月18日逝世，年仅41岁，墓志铭上并未写明她是位作家。她的哥哥亨利为她写的墓志铭是“慈爱、奉献、真诚与纯洁”。尽管奥斯丁生前从未获得过作家的称谓，但身后却功成名就。她的书被译成40种语言，仅《傲慢与偏见》就售出超过2000万本。如果今天为她写墓志铭，我们或许可以借用弗吉尼娅·伍尔夫的话。她在1913年的《泰晤士报文学增刊》中写道：“与其他小说家相比，她将所见所闻涂满每寸画布，将每个句子都赋予意义，填满画布的每处缝隙，每一部小说都成了一个活生生的小世界，裁掉任何一处情景，或删除任何一个句子，那个世界都会少了些许活力。她笔下的人物圆润丰满，完全可以抛开设定的情景，融入其他的情感世界中。”

[3] The greatness of Austen is not only that she created the prototype of the modern novel, but that she continues to be relevant. Her novels have been endlessly adapted and modi fi ed because they still make sense today, because they can decode current sensibilities. Her characters can easily move out of London or Pemberley or Mans fi eld Park and be placed in Delhi or Shanghai or Beijing. Indianise the names, and we can all conjure our own comedy of manners9comedy of manners风俗喜剧，风尚喜剧（讽刺某群体行为的戏剧、电影或书籍）。本文作者为印度人，故此处指印度喜剧。. Mrs. Bennet,the mimsy busybody, could easily be Mrs. Batra, your Punjabi10Punjabi旁遮普人（的）；旁遮普语（的）。neighbour with an axe to grind11with an axe to grind有城府的，别有用心的。and daughters to wed. Emma Woodhouse, the selfabsorbed, privileged damsel could be Aisha of south Bombay, whose arti fi ce12artifice诡计，奸计。overwhelms her potential. Mr.Darcy could be your Mr. Dasgupta,the dignified Bengali bachelor whose reticence will be misunderstood as snobbery.

[4] A fascinating study of Austen’s novels in facts, figures and charts published inThe Guardian13《卫报》，英国全国性综合内容日报，创办于1821年5月5日。brings to light the world she knew and the only world she wrote about. All her characters (in her six novels) are independently wealthy who have no professions. Balls and picnics feature14feature (in sth)在……中起重要作用。in all of her books. Evenings and afternoons are spent playing cards.And if romance is the fulcrum15fulcrum（杠杆的）支点，枢轴；最重要的部分。of her novels, then elopement16elopement私奔；潜逃。is also a prerequisite. The servants speak no lines. The only historic event of the time that gets a mention is the Napoleonic War (1803-1815). The Industrial Revolution and French Revolution17法国大革命，于1789年7月14日在法国爆发。get no airtime18airtime（广播或电视节目的）播放时间；（移动电话计费的）通话时间。at all. The lovers will marry by the end.

[3]奥斯丁的伟大之处，不仅在于树立了现代小说的典范，还在于一直具有时代意义。她的小说不断被改编、被修订，因为它们仍具有现实意义，仍能解读当今的情感问题。她笔下的人物可以放在伦敦、彭伯利庄园或曼斯菲尔德庄园，也可以置于德里、上海或北京。只要改个印度名字，就可以变成我们自己的风俗喜剧。古板好事的贝内特太太可以改为有女待字闺中的巴特拉太太，你那别有用心的旁遮普邻居；自以为是、养尊处优的少女爱玛·伍德豪斯可以改为诡计多端的南孟买少女阿以莎；达西先生也可以改为高贵的孟加拉单身汉达斯古普塔，其沉默寡言被误解为自命不凡。

[4]一项有关奥斯丁小说的事件安排、人物塑造和情节展开等方面的精彩研究在《卫报》上发表，揭示了奥斯丁所熟知并详加描述的世界。她笔下（六部小说中）的所有人物都没有职业，但享有财务自由。每部小说中，舞会和野餐都不可或缺，下午和晚上都要打牌消遣。另外，如果爱情是其小说中的重中之重，那么私奔就是其必要条件。仆人们从来都不言语。当时的历史事件中，唯一有所提及的只有拿破仑战争（1803—1815），工业革命和法国大革命根本没有出镜机会。结局都是有情人终成眷属。

[5] Even if the nuts and bolts of her six novels are simple enough, the triumph of Austen is her singular wit.It is a cleverness born from immediate observation but one which is universal in nature. She says it well inNorthanger Abbey: “The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”

[6] Two hundred years after her death,you have to be a dud to not enjoy her novels.

[5]奥斯丁的六部小说虽然具体内容十分简单，但胜在充满无与伦比的智慧。这种智慧源于直接观察，但实质上普遍适用。她在《诺桑觉寺》中写的很清楚：“一个人，无论是绅士还是淑女，若是对优秀的小说不感兴趣，那么肯定是愚蠢得不可救药。”

[6]在奥斯丁去世后两百年的今天，你若是不喜欢她的小说，那一定是你不识货。