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柯南·道尔:“神探福尔摩斯”之父 Sherlock Holmes' London(2)

事——一如既往地热销全球。这个戴着猎鹿帽、机敏却冷酷的天才侦探在破解让伦敦警察厅束手无策的案件的同时,也在和自己的心魔较量,福尔摩斯已成为文学史上最生动、最吸引人的形象之一。

  Conan Doyle’s other alluring creation was London. Although the author lived only a few months in the capital before moving to the suburbs, he visited the city frequently throughout his life. Victorian London takes on almost the presence of a character in the novels and stories, as fully realized—in all its fogs, back alleys and shadowy 24)quarters—as Holmes himself. “Holmes could never have lived anywhere else but London,” says Andrew Lycett. “London was the 25)hub of the empire. In addition to the Houses of Parliament, it had the sailors’ hostels and the opium 26)dens of the 27)East End, the great railway stations. And it was the center of the literary world.”
  柯南·道尔的另一个颇为吸引人的创造是“伦敦”。尽管他只在首都居住过几个月,之后便搬去郊外了,但他一生中频繁往返于伦敦。维多利亚时代的伦敦几乎像一个角色那样在其小说和故事中出现,就像福尔摩斯那样成形活现——浓雾、后街小巷、阴暗的街区这一切都在刻画着“伦敦”这一角色。“福尔摩斯只能存在于伦敦,”安德鲁·莱西特说道,“伦敦当时是大英帝国的中心,不仅有国会大厦、雄伟的火车站,东区还有水手客栈和鸦片交易场所。它同时还是当时文学界的中心。”
  
  Conan Doyle first encountered London at the age of 15. Escorted around the city by his uncles, young Conan Doyle took in the Tower of London,28)Westminster Abbey and the 29)Crystal Palace, and viewed a performance of Hamlet at the Lyceum Theatre in the West End. And he went to the Chamber of Horrors at 30)Madame Tussaud’s wax museum, then located in the Baker Street 31)Bazaar (and on Marylebone Road today). Doyle viewed with fascination wax models of those who had died on the 32)guillotine during the French Revolution as well as 33)likenesses of British murderers and other 34)arch-criminals.
  柯南·道尔在15岁那年第一次来到伦敦。叔父带着小柯南·道尔游览了伦敦塔、威斯敏斯特教堂和水晶宫,并在西区的兰心大剧院看了一场《哈姆雷特》。他还去了当时位于贝克街(如今位于马里波恩路)的杜莎夫人蜡像馆里的恐怖屋。道尔看着那些在法国大革命期间死在断头台上的人的蜡像,还有一些英国杀人犯或其他主犯的蜡像,为之着迷不已。
  
  More than a decade later, having graduated from medical school in Edinburgh and settled in Southsea, the 27-year-old physician chose London for the backdrop of a novel about a “consulting detective” who solves crimes by applying keen observation and logic. Conan Doyle had been heavily influenced by Dr. Joseph Bell, whom he met at the Edinburgh Infirmary and whose diagnostic powers amazed his students and colleagues. Also, Conan Doyle had read the works of 35)Edgar Allan Poe.
柯南·道尔  十几年后,已从爱丁堡医学院毕业的道尔在南海镇定居,这位当时27岁的医生选择伦敦作为他的一部小说的背景,这部小说的主人公是一位凭借敏锐的观察力和缜密的逻辑来破案的“侦探顾问”。柯南·道尔的创作深受约瑟夫·贝尔医生的影响,他是在爱丁堡皇家医院遇见贝尔的,这位医生的诊断力让他的学生和同事都惊叹不已。柯南·道尔也阅读了埃德加·爱伦·坡的大量作品。
  
  Between 1891 and 1893, at the height of his creative powers, Conan Doyle produced 24 stories for 36)The Strand. As the stories caught on, The Strand’s readership doubled; on publication day, thousands of fans would form a crush around London bookstalls to 37)snap up the detective’s latest adventure.
  1891年到1893年年间,道尔处于创作高峰期,他为《海滨》这本杂志创作了24个故事。这些故事大受欢迎,《海滨》的读者数量也随之翻了一倍;每到杂志出版当天,他成千上万的“粉丝”们都会争先恐后蜂拥至伦敦各大书报摊,抢购刊有福尔摩斯最新惊险探案的杂志来一睹为快。
  
  Although Holmes made his creator wealthy and famous, Conan Doyle quickly wearied of the character. According to 38)David Stuart Davies, Conan Doyle “wanted to prove that he was more than just a mystery writer, a man who made puzzles for a 39)cardboard character to solve. He was desperate to cut the 40)shackles of Holmes from him,” so much so that in 1893, Conan Doyle sent Holmes 41)plummeting to his death over the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland along with42)Professor Moriarty.
  尽管福尔摩斯给他的创造者带来了财富和名气,但柯南·道尔很快便厌恶了这个角色,据戴维·斯图亚特·戴维斯所述,柯南·道尔“想证明他远非一个探案故事作家——只会为一个虚构的人物设计难题让其解决。他极其渴望摆脱福尔摩斯的桎梏。”这种渴望如此强烈,以致在1893年,柯南·道尔安排了福尔摩斯从瑞士的莱辛巴赫瀑布跳下,与莫里亚蒂教授同归于尽。
  
  But less than a decade later—during which Conan Doyle wrote a series of 43)swashbuckling pirate stories and a novel, among other works, which were received with indifference—popular demand, and the promise of generous 44)remuneration, eventually persuaded him to 45)resuscitate the detective, first in the masterful novel 46)The Hound of the Baskervilles, which appeared in 1901, then in a 47)spate of less well-regarded stories that he continued writing until he died of a heart attack in 1930 at age 71. In addition to the Holmes stories, Conan Doyle had written some 60 works of nonfiction and fiction, including plays, poetry and such science-fiction classics as 48)The Lost World. “Conan Doyle never realized what he’d created in Sherlock Holmes,” says Davies. “What would he say today if he could see what he 49)spawned?”
  然而,在之后不到10年的时间里——这期间柯南·道尔写了很多作品,包括一系列有关虚张声势的海盗的故事和一部小说,但读者反响冷淡——大众的要求以及丰厚报酬的保证,最终说服了他让神探福尔摩斯在他1901年出版的精彩小说《巴斯克维尔的猎犬》中复活,然后出现在他一直不间断创作的大批量不那么受追捧的故事里。他写福尔摩斯的故事一直写到1931年,那年71岁的他因心脏病突发而去世。除了福尔摩斯系列故事以外,他还写了60部小说和非小说类作品,包括剧本、诗歌,以及像《失落的世界》这样的科幻小说。“柯南·道尔从未意识到自己在夏洛克·福尔摩斯身上创造了些什么,”戴维斯说道,“如果他看到自己当时播下的种子现在开出的花朵,今天的他会说些什么呢?”






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