如数家珍, （九/2）
Jul. 19th, 2016 01:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fiefoeAnthony Trollope 的Barchester Towers 可能是我三年book club下来读得最愉快的一本了，符合我对‘轻喜剧’小说的各种理想 —— 我偏爱所谓‘wars about trifles’, stakes 很低，大部分冲突发生在聚会party上那种 comedy of manners，而这本里面最大程度的伤亡是主教夫人的蕾丝裙摆。 （“Gathers were heard to go, stitches to crack, plaits to fly open, flounces were seen to fall, and breadths to expose themselves; a long ruin of rent lace disfigured the carpet, and still clung to the vile wheel on which the sofa moved.”）
故事设在一个主教教区。 老主教去世了，他的儿子archdeacon （领班神父） Grantly 本来继承父位名正言顺，但因为新政府上台，这个位置给了Dr Proudie。 新主教是个妻管严，Mrs Proudie打算垂帘听政，但螳螂在后的是她的 chaplain （私人牧师？） Mr. Slope， 狼子野心两面三刀也想做大boss。 从此四方大战，在Barchester 兴风作浪。
新主教的整顿把多年在意大利白拿薪水度长假的 Dr. Stanhope 招了回来，这就引出了他的活宝儿子Bertie。 （"Is it?" said Bertie, opening wide his wonderful blue eyes. "Well, I never was afraid of responsibility. I once had thoughts of being a bishop, myself."） 他的小女儿 Signora Neroni 也是个妙人，借师太的话讲是蜘蛛精，跛了一只脚长年斜躺在沙发上颠倒众生。 她在人物设定里属于chaotic neutral 派系，对最后的大团圆起到了举足轻重的作用。 她大概是书里最接近proto feminist 的, 会说这样的话 - Marriage means tyranny on one side and deceit on the other. I say that a man is a fool to sacrifice his interests for such a bargain. A woman, too generally, has no other way of living."
新官的第二把火烧到了Archdeacon Grantly 的丈人Mr Harding身上， Mr Harding是个老好人，“心软得如果罗马教皇来借他的讲道坛都拉不下面子拒绝”。 本来属于他的肥差——附属教区的慈善院主管现在应该是还给他还是另寻人选，是书里最大的悬念。
故事到后半段渐渐围绕a marriage plot，Mr Harding的小女儿Eleanor 刚刚出了热丧，有貌有财有德，Bertie， Mr. Slope 和 archdeacon 搬来的救兵 Mr. Arabin 都开始追求她。
前面提到读Trollope的一大愉快是他的老式写作手法。 但叙事人其实没那么老实。他很会献殷勤，和读者简直有称兄道弟的亲密劲。故事2/3处悬念迭起，叙事人却停下来安抚读者说别担心，Eleanor不会嫁给Mr Slope的，我自己也最讨厌作者故弄玄虚调人胃口了：
Our doctrine is that the author and the reader should move along together in full confidence with each other. Let the personages of the drama undergo ever so complete a comedy of errors among themselves, but let the spectator never mistake the Syracusan for the Ephesian; otherwise he is one of the dupes, and the part of a dupe is never dignified.
有时还耍俏皮：
... the small remainder of this one volume. Oh, that Mr. Longman would allow me a fourth! It should transcend the other three as the seventh heaven transcends all the lower stages of celestial bliss.
故事里都是教职人士，本来觉得我这样连vicar和rector都分不清楚的读者，一定会很隔阂， 但其实书里信仰问题谈得很少，只要略知Angelican 教派对罗马天主教的别扭纠结就行了。 大家都是有情有欲的俗人，只是个性和立场的冲突，不是ideology， 和办公室政治差不多。 （Gopnik 多次把Trollope笔下的church 和当代的大学比。） 等级森严的神职工作对我这样无神论为主流的国度长大的人来说，是个难以理解的存在。想象他们的社会作用，我很雷地想到了政委。但官场小说里估计不会对政委们这样宽宏而现实的口气：
If we look to our clergymen to be more than men, we shall probably teach ourselves to think that they are less, and can hardly hope to raise the character of the pastor by denying to him the right to entertain the aspirations of a man.
后面还直接了当大不敬地说 There is, perhaps, no greater hardship at present inflicted on mankind in civilized and free countries than the necessity of listening to sermons.
感觉这两段分别出自Mr Harding 和Mr Arabin的话，是作者对信仰的本人态度的流露，
* "What," said he to himself, "can a man's religion be worth if it does not support him against the natural melancholy of declining years?"
* There is nothing god-like about us: we differ from each other with the acerbity common to man; we triumph over each other with human frailty; we allow differences on subjects of divine origin to produce among us antipathies and enmities which are anything but divine. This is all true. But what would you have in place of it? ... This dream of believing man has been tried, and we see in Italy and in Spain what has come of it.
Mr Harding 大概是作者的pet 人物，作者的立场常常借他的视角讲出来 -
"New men are carrying out new measures and are carting away the useless rubbish of past centuries!" What cruel words these had been; and.. the new era, an era in which it would seem that neither honesty nor truth is very desirable, but in which success is the only touchstone of merit.
故事设在一个主教教区。 老主教去世了，他的儿子archdeacon （领班神父） Grantly 本来继承父位名正言顺，但因为新政府上台，这个位置给了Dr Proudie。 新主教是个妻管严，Mrs Proudie打算垂帘听政，但螳螂在后的是她的 chaplain （私人牧师？） Mr. Slope， 狼子野心两面三刀也想做大boss。 从此四方大战，在Barchester 兴风作浪。
新主教的整顿把多年在意大利白拿薪水度长假的 Dr. Stanhope 招了回来，这就引出了他的活宝儿子Bertie。 （"Is it?" said Bertie, opening wide his wonderful blue eyes. "Well, I never was afraid of responsibility. I once had thoughts of being a bishop, myself."） 他的小女儿 Signora Neroni 也是个妙人，借师太的话讲是蜘蛛精，跛了一只脚长年斜躺在沙发上颠倒众生。 她在人物设定里属于chaotic neutral 派系，对最后的大团圆起到了举足轻重的作用。 她大概是书里最接近proto feminist 的, 会说这样的话 - Marriage means tyranny on one side and deceit on the other. I say that a man is a fool to sacrifice his interests for such a bargain. A woman, too generally, has no other way of living."
新官的第二把火烧到了Archdeacon Grantly 的丈人Mr Harding身上， Mr Harding是个老好人，“心软得如果罗马教皇来借他的讲道坛都拉不下面子拒绝”。 本来属于他的肥差——附属教区的慈善院主管现在应该是还给他还是另寻人选，是书里最大的悬念。
故事到后半段渐渐围绕a marriage plot，Mr Harding的小女儿Eleanor 刚刚出了热丧，有貌有财有德，Bertie， Mr. Slope 和 archdeacon 搬来的救兵 Mr. Arabin 都开始追求她。
前面提到读Trollope的一大愉快是他的老式写作手法。 但叙事人其实没那么老实。他很会献殷勤，和读者简直有称兄道弟的亲密劲。故事2/3处悬念迭起，叙事人却停下来安抚读者说别担心，Eleanor不会嫁给Mr Slope的，我自己也最讨厌作者故弄玄虚调人胃口了：
Our doctrine is that the author and the reader should move along together in full confidence with each other. Let the personages of the drama undergo ever so complete a comedy of errors among themselves, but let the spectator never mistake the Syracusan for the Ephesian; otherwise he is one of the dupes, and the part of a dupe is never dignified.
有时还耍俏皮：
... the small remainder of this one volume. Oh, that Mr. Longman would allow me a fourth! It should transcend the other three as the seventh heaven transcends all the lower stages of celestial bliss.
故事里都是教职人士，本来觉得我这样连vicar和rector都分不清楚的读者，一定会很隔阂， 但其实书里信仰问题谈得很少，只要略知Angelican 教派对罗马天主教的别扭纠结就行了。 大家都是有情有欲的俗人，只是个性和立场的冲突，不是ideology， 和办公室政治差不多。 （Gopnik 多次把Trollope笔下的church 和当代的大学比。） 等级森严的神职工作对我这样无神论为主流的国度长大的人来说，是个难以理解的存在。想象他们的社会作用，我很雷地想到了政委。但官场小说里估计不会对政委们这样宽宏而现实的口气：
If we look to our clergymen to be more than men, we shall probably teach ourselves to think that they are less, and can hardly hope to raise the character of the pastor by denying to him the right to entertain the aspirations of a man.
后面还直接了当大不敬地说 There is, perhaps, no greater hardship at present inflicted on mankind in civilized and free countries than the necessity of listening to sermons.
感觉这两段分别出自Mr Harding 和Mr Arabin的话，是作者对信仰的本人态度的流露，
* "What," said he to himself, "can a man's religion be worth if it does not support him against the natural melancholy of declining years?"
* There is nothing god-like about us: we differ from each other with the acerbity common to man; we triumph over each other with human frailty; we allow differences on subjects of divine origin to produce among us antipathies and enmities which are anything but divine. This is all true. But what would you have in place of it? ... This dream of believing man has been tried, and we see in Italy and in Spain what has come of it.
Mr Harding 大概是作者的pet 人物，作者的立场常常借他的视角讲出来 -
"New men are carrying out new measures and are carting away the useless rubbish of past centuries!" What cruel words these had been; and.. the new era, an era in which it would seem that neither honesty nor truth is very desirable, but in which success is the only touchstone of merit.
