科学网-听《大卫•科波菲尔》-陈立群的博文

听《大卫•科波菲尔》

2024-12-16 22:56

阅读：776

听完了《大卫·科波菲尔》，播讲者是女声，读得很好，堪称声情并茂。是本很不错的小说，名家毕竟是名家。

狄更斯的小说本质上多是个充满温情的团圆故事，《大卫·科波菲尔》尤其如此。听时想到《红楼梦曲》的《收尾·飞鸟各投林》中的词，“有恩的，死里逃生。无情的，分明报应。欠命的，命已还。欠泪的，泪已尽。”这些都有些俗套。狄更斯的长处是人物形象栩栩如生，尤其是传统小说的人物多少有些“类型”化，就更难能可贵。有些出场不多的小人物，寥寥数笔，形象也挺丰满。结构也很完整，每个出场人物，几乎也都有退场，不会突然消失。从现代阅读习惯看，小说的节奏有些太慢，主线不突出，有时候并非人物成长史，而是社会风情图。此外，巧合有些太多，有些地方缺乏逻辑上的必然性，或许无法让多疑的当代人信服。

听书过程中，我时常感叹没有想到这个故事如此不熟悉。只记得主人公出场时是穷小孩，历尽磨难，最后是成功作家；主人公两次婚姻，单纯可爱但不谙世事的第一位妻子病逝，然后与位聪明练达的童年好友结婚。这些当然都不太离谱，但是过于粗线条，记忆中缺少细节。

奇怪的是，在我即将退场，不需要人生教训的时候，我反而特别注意其中的人生信条。有时候还专门翻阅阅了手头纸质版的原著，印度印刷的UBSPD的World Classics版。英文与寒汉译有时有些细微差别。贝蒂姨奶奶给大卫的告诫，确实也是大卫的人生信条。“对得起你自己。……永远不要在任何方面行为卑鄙；永远不要弄虚作假；永远不要残忍狠毒。远离这三种罪恶。Be a credit to yourself …Never be mean in anyting; Never be fales; Never be cruel. Avoid those three vices (p. 242)”。更广泛些的哲学，“无论你做什么，都应该是自然的、合理的。Whatever you do will always be natural and rational (p. 292)”期待他成为“一个优秀坚定有意志的人，有决心，有品格，有品性的力量，除非有正当的理由，否则绝不受任何事、任何人的影响。A fine firm fellow, with a will of your own, with resolution, with determination, with strength of character that is not to be influencted, except on good reason, by anybody, or by anything (p. 293)”又例如，男主人公的童年好友后来的终身伴侣爱妮斯Agnes给他的建议，“或许最好只考虑这样做是否正确，如果正确就去做。” Perhaps it would be better only to consider whether it is right to do this; and, if it is, to do it. (p. 587)这正是董仲舒对“仁人”的定义，“正其谊不谋其利，明其道不计其功。”此外，在常人认为很不协调的老夫少妻组合中那位少妻安妮Annie所说，“在婚姻中没有任何悬殊能超过思想和信念的不合。”There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose. (p. 680)，mind and purpose似乎应该译为“心灵和目的”，前者形而上，后者形而下。这句话在小说中出现多次，促使男主人公反思自己的婚姻。

小说中有段男主人公对往事的回顾，我觉得也是作者的夫子自道。文字很长，我就略去汉语了。I have been very fortunate in worldly matters; many men have worked much harder, and not succeeded half so well; but I never could have done what I have done, without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one object at a time, no mater how quickly its successor should come upon its heels, which I then formed. …The man who reviews his own life, as I do mine, in going on here, from page to pare, had need to have been a good man indeed, if he would be spared the sharp consciousness of many talents neglected, many opportunities wasted, many erratic and perverted feelings constantly at war within his breast, and defeating him. I do not hold on natural gift, I dare say, what I have not abused. My meanig simply is, that whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; that whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest. I have never believed it possible that any natural or improved ability can claim immunity from the companionship of the steady, plain, hard-working qualities, and hope to gain its end. There is no shcu thing as such fulfillment on this earth. Some happy talent, and some fortunate opportunity, may form the two sides of the ladder on which some men mount, but the rounds of that ladder must be made of stuff to stand wear and tear; and there is no substitute for thorough-going, ardent, and sincere earnestmess. Never to put one hand to anything, on which I could throw my whole self; and never to affect depreciation of my work, whatever it was; I find, now to have been my golden rules. (p. 624) 在我看来，这是个常人甚至庸人在这个世界上的体面立身的规范。这些实际上是传统中产阶级就是英国小店主的道德。上个世纪在里根、撒切尔夫人领导下的英美中兴，本质上或许就是这种小店主传统道德的胜利。在这种传统的认知中，挨饿的第一步是提供免费午餐。或许最有象征意义的是，撒切尔夫人担任教育大臣时，因取消学校免费供应牛奶而有“抢夺牛奶者”的恶名。我个人认同这种价值观，至于做到何种程度，就另当别论了。

小说中也写了好坏两类学校。坏的就不说了，好学校，“它严谨、有序、制度健全，一切都为学生的名誉和好处着想，这样就显然对学生是抱着信任，除非他们证明不值得信任。这种信任收到了奇妙的效果。我们都觉得，在学校管理方面我们也有份，也富有维护它的品格和尊严的责任。It was very gravely and decorously ordered, and on a sound system; with an appeal, in everything, to the honour and good faith of the boys, and an avowed intention to rely on their possession of those qualities unless they proved themselves unworthy of it, which worked wonders. We all felt that we had a part in the management of the place, and in sustaining tis character and dignity. (p. 255)”

小说对所谓上流社会多少有些讽刺态度。男主人公最好的朋友，是世家子弟。在条件恶劣的学校中就对男主人公关照有加。后来也鼓励他积极进取。“我们不应该被人人免不了的命运吓住。如果我们听到那公平的脚步来敲别人的门时，就把握不住自己的命运了，那我们就要失去这世上的一切。不！需要向前时，不妨狂奔疾驰。过得去时，不妨缓步徐行。总之，向前，胜过一切障碍；向前，在竞争中获胜。”We mustn’t be scared by the common lot. If we failed to hold our own, because that equal foot at all men’s doors was heard knocking somewhere, every object in this world would slip from u. No! Ride on! Rough-shod if need be, smooth-shod if that will do, but ride on! Ride on over all obstacles, and win the race! (p. 445) 虽然说“白发多时故人少”，也不妨“老夫聊发少年狂”。但这位公子哥后来勾引并遗弃了男主人公童年时的玩伴，她已经与表哥订婚。公子哥在海难中死于非命，而表哥为救人也殉职。小说中这样写富二代，“把一个人的经历表现的淋漓尽致。这人出生时不必说是衔着着银钥匙，有带着一架云梯，他以一级一级越过了人生各个高度，此时就站在城堡最高处，以一个哲学家和保护人的眼光，瞧着那深陷沟堑中的不幸之人。”It completely conveyed the idea of a man who had been born, not to say with a silver spoon, but with a scaling-ladder, and had gone on mounted all the heights of life one after another, until now he looked, from the top of the fortifications, with the eye of a philosopher and a parron, on the people down in the trenches. (p. 391)

小说挺有意思，因此才会看看原文，原文更有意思。至于下本书，过去只听了半本的梯利《西方哲学史》有新的资源，我接着听一下。