文字难度：★★★☆
One summer evening in 1889, a young medical school graduate named Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle arrived by train at London’s Victoria Station and took a 1)hansom cab two and a half miles north to the famed Langham Hotel on Upper 2)Regent Street. Then living in the coastal town of Southsea, near Portsmouth, the 30-year-old 3)ophthalmologist was looking to advance his writing career. The magazine Beeton’s Christmas Annual had recently published his novel, 4)A Study in Scarlet, which introduced the private detective Sherlock Holmes. Now Joseph Marshall Stoddart, managing editor of Lippincott’s Monthly, a Philadelphia magazine, was in London to establish a British edition of his publication. At the suggestion of a friend, he had invited Conan Doyle to join him for dinner in the Langham’s5)opulent dining room.
1889年夏天的一个夜晚,一位年轻的医学院毕业生阿瑟·伊格纳修斯·柯南·道尔乘火车到达伦敦维多利亚火车站,然后转乘一辆双轮双座马车朝北行驶了2.5英里(约4.02公里),来到位于上摄政街的著名酒店——朗廷酒店。那时候道尔住在朴次茅斯市附近一个名叫南海的海边小镇上,这位当年30岁的眼科医生正寻找机会发展自己的文学创作事业。《比顿圣诞年刊》这本杂志新近刊登了他的小说《血字的研究》,这部小说让大家认识了私家侦探夏洛克·福尔摩斯。当时,美国费城的一本杂志《利平科特月刊》的执行总编约瑟夫·马歇尔·斯托达德正在伦敦筹备出版该刊物的英国版。在朋友的引荐下,斯托达德邀请柯南·道尔到朗廷酒店的豪华餐厅和他共进晚餐。
Amid the 6)bustle of waiters, the 7)chink of 8)fine silver and the hum of dozens of conversations, Doyle found Stoddart to be “an excellent fellow,” he would write years later. But he was captivated by one of the other invited guests, an Irish playwright and author named Oscar Wilde. “He had a curious precision of statement, a 9)delicate flavour of humour, and a 10)trick of small gestures to illustrate his meaning,” Doyle remembered. For both writers, the evening would prove a turning point. Wilde left with a commission to write his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which appeared in Lippincott’s June 1890 issue. And Doyle agreed to produce a second novel starring his 11)ace detective; 12)The Sign of Four would 13)cement his reputation. Indeed, critics have speculated that the encounter with Wilde, an 14)exponent of a literary movement known as 15)the Decadents, led Conan Doyle to deepen and darken Sherlock Holmes’ character: in The Sign of Four’s opening scene, Holmes is revealed to be addicted to a “seven-percent solution” of cocaine.
侍者来去匆匆,银器餐具碰得哐当响,周遭人声沸腾,其间,道尔发现斯托达德是个“很棒的人”,几年后他这样写道。但更吸引道尔的是另一位和他一同受邀的客人——来自爱尔兰的剧作家和作家奥斯卡·王尔德。“他表述时极其严谨,带着一丝幽默,阐述观点时还会伴着些小手势。”道尔回忆道。从那以后的日子可以看出,那晚是两位作家的人生转折点。座上,王尔德接下了创作小说《道林·格雷的画像》的约稿,后来这部小说刊登在《利平科特月刊》1890年6月号里。而道尔则承诺撰写第二部由他那位一流侦探福尔摩斯担当主角的小说《四签名》,正是这部小说让他名声大噪。评论家们猜测,正是这次与“颓废主义”这一文学运动的拥护者王尔德的相遇,使得柯南·道尔进一步深化了福尔摩斯个性中的黑暗面,并为其蒙上了一层阴暗色彩:在《四签名》的开头,就有文字透露福尔摩斯对“7%浓度”的可卡因上瘾。
Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of Charles Doyle, an alcoholic who would spend much of his later life in a mental institution, and Mary Foley Doyle, who loved literature and, according to biographer Andrew Lycett, 16)beguiled her children with her storytelling. Marking the 17)sesquicentennial of Conan Doyle’s birth, Edinburgh held a marathon of talks, exhibitions, walking tours, plays, films and public performances. Harvard University sponsored a three-day lecture series examining Holmes’ and Conan Doyle’s legacy. And last December, of course, Holmes took center stage in director 18)Guy Ritchie’s Hollywood movie Sherlock Holmes.
柯南·道尔1859年5月22日出生于苏格兰爱丁堡,他的父亲查尔斯·道尔是个酒鬼,后半生基本上是在精神病院里度过的;他的母亲玛丽·福利·道尔热爱文学。据传记作家安德鲁·莱西特所述,她经常给孩子们讲故事,给他们解闷。去年,为了纪念柯南·道尔150周年诞辰,爱丁堡举办了一系列活动,包括一场接一场的演讲、展览、徒步游、戏剧、电影和公演;哈佛大学也举办了为期3天的专场系列讲座,主题是探究福尔摩斯和柯 南·道尔共同缔造的传奇;而去年12月,在盖·里奇执导的好莱坞大片《大侦探福尔摩斯》中,福尔摩斯自然是焦点人物。
A persuasive case can be made that Holmes exerts just as much hold on the world’s imagination today as he did a century ago. The Holmesian 19)canon—four novels and 56 stories—continues to sell 20)briskly around the world. The coldly calculating genius in the 21)deerstalker cap, wrestling with his inner demons as he solves crimes that 22)befuddle 23)Scotland Yard, stands as one of literature’s most vivid and most alluring creations.
无庸置疑,时至今日,福尔摩斯仍像一个世纪以前那样牢牢占据着全球大众的想象空间。福尔摩斯系列经典作品——包括4部小说和56个故事——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. 
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?”
