It has sold more than 20 million copies since it was written two centuries ago and has had generations of schoolgirls swooning over the ultimate romantic hero.
经典名著《傲慢与偏见》自两个世纪之前出版以来累计销量已超过两千万本,而其中的主人公达西先生更是俘获了万千少女的芳心。
But the great unspoken background of Jane Austen's world is that both Mr Darcy and Mr Bingley in Pride and Prejudice got rich from the slave trade, says author Joanna Trollope.
但是最近英国作家乔安娜·特罗洛普却称,在这部小说中,作者简·奥斯汀没有点明的一个背景信息其实是,主人公达西和宾利的财富都是靠贩卖奴隶获得的。
The novelist, speaking at the Festival of Literature in Dubai, dispelled the myth about Mr Darcy and Mr Bingley being the perfect men and described the 'very dark underbelly' to Austen's books.
特罗洛普在迪拜文学节上打破了好男人达西和宾利的“神话”,并讲述了奥斯汀小说中包含的一些“黑暗面”。
She said: 'Why does Mr Bingley in Pride and Prejudice have all this leisure to sort of drift between Netherfield and London?
她说:“《傲慢与偏见》中的宾利为什么能有空闲时间在内瑟菲尔德和伦敦两地之间穿梭?”
'He is a young man with means because of the slave trade. The slave trade is lightly touched upon in several of the novels but not very heavily.
“他是一个靠贩卖奴隶赚钱的年轻人。一些小说中提到了贩卖奴隶,但着墨不多。”
'What built Pemberley? Pemberley was built, one imagines, on proceeds of the coal mines in Derbyshire. What was the life of an 18th century miner like? Not much fun.'
“彭伯利庄园是靠什么建造起来的?有人认为是德贝郡的煤矿。可是十八世纪矿工的生活可并不怎么有趣。”
Trollope, 71, decided to shatter the illusion surrounding Austen's heroes after being approached by publishers Harper Collins to write an updated version of Sense and Sensibility for the Austen Project in 2013.
71岁的特罗洛普在2013年启动了更新奥斯汀计划,重写了《理智与情感》并由哈勃·柯林斯出版社出版,那时她就决定打破大家对奥斯汀小说主人公的美好幻想。
The series marked the 200-year anniversary of the author's most popular work, Pride and Prejudice.
这个更新奥斯汀计划是为了纪念奥斯汀最畅销小说《傲慢与偏见》出版200周年而进行的。
Pride and Prejudice describes how Mr Darcy earned £10,000 a year - more than £200,000 in modern money - while Mr Bingley inherited £100,000, the equivalent of £2 million today, and raked in another £5,000 a year, or £100,000 in modern money.
据《傲慢与偏见》中的描述,达西一年赚1万英镑—相当于现在的20多万英镑,宾利继承了10万英镑—相当于现在的200万英镑,每年赚5000英镑—相当于现在的10万英镑。
But in her adaptation, Ms Trollope had to make one crucial change - she gave her protagonists jobs.
但是乔安娜·特罗洛普在其改编版本中做了一项关键性的变动—她让小说主人公有了工作。
Despite her reservations about how Austen's heroes made their money, Ms Trollope said she ended the project thinking the author was 'an absolute genius'.
虽然对奥斯汀笔下的主人公的赚钱方式有所保留,但是特罗洛普称赞奥斯汀是个“绝对的天才”。
She also blamed Andrew Davies' BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice for sparking an obsession with Mr Darcy with the infamous scene by the lake, which did not exist in the book. The real Mr Darcy was 'stiff-necked and painfully shy' with 'not much humour', said Ms Trollope.
特罗洛普还表达了对安德鲁·戴维斯改编的BBC版《傲慢与偏见》的不满,她认为这部剧中用湖边的那场戏来增加观众对于达西的迷恋并不合适,这段在原著中并没有。真正的达西应该是“顽固的、害羞的、不太有幽默感的”,特罗洛普说。
上一篇: 李克强总理答中外记者问之“金句”
下一篇: 政协委员声援北京申冬奥