London’s hot and busysummer of 1858
1858年的夏天倫敦炎熱繁忙
July 25, 2017 | Filed under:Book Review and tagged with:
"One Hot Summer: Dickens Darwin Disraeli and
the Great Stink of 1858.",Book Review
2017年7月25日/歸檔：書評(píng)，標(biāo)簽：一個(gè)炎熱的夏天：“狄更斯、達(dá)爾文、迪斯雷利和1858年‘大惡臭’”，書評(píng)
Dickens, Disraeli and Darwin made a sweltering year a
memorable one in England's history
狄更斯、迪斯雷利和達(dá)爾文讓火熱的那一年彪炳英格蘭史冊(cè)
One Hot Summer: Dickens, Darwin, Disraeli and
the Great Stink of 1858.By Rosemary Ashton.
Yale University Press; 338 pages; $30and ￡25.
一個(gè)炎熱的夏天：狄更斯、達(dá)爾文、迪斯雷利和1858年的‘大惡臭’
羅斯瑪麗·阿什頓著，耶魯大學(xué)出版社，全書338頁，售價(jià)30美元/25英鎊
IF YOU wanted to devote an entire book to a year
in Victorian Britain,1858 would not be an obvious choice.
Rosemary Ashton, who has done just that,admits as much.
No famous novel was published, and the government,
like manyjust before it, collapsed in a vote of no confidence.
Historians prefer 1859: Charles Darwin published
his “On the Origin of Species”, the Liberal Party was founded,
and Dickens, Tennyson, Eliot and Mill all produced major works.
1861 brought the death of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria’s
withdrawal from public life. So why 1858?
如果要為維多利亞時(shí)期英國的某一年專門寫本書，你肯定不會(huì)選1858年。即便羅斯瑪麗·阿什頓剛剛做到，但也同樣承認(rèn)這一點(diǎn)。這一年佳作鮮有問世，當(dāng)值政府同往屆一樣，在無信任票中倒臺(tái)。史學(xué)者卻青睞1859年：查爾斯·達(dá)爾文《物種起源》橫空出世，自由黨成立，狄更斯、丁尼生、艾略特和米爾均有代表作面世。1861年阿爾伯特王子與世長辭，女王維多利亞時(shí)代退出人們視線。那為何卻是1858年？
Ms Ashton sees the year’s importance reflected in the
lives of three Victorians. Benjamin Disraeli would have
to wait until 1868 to become prime minister. But his
second run as chancellor, beginning in 1858, proved
hisworthiness as he steered important bills through
Parliament, at times acting in place of the gout-ridden
Prime Minister Lord Derby. Dickens began his popular
reading tours, earning fantastic sums. And Darwin,
after years of pondering evolution, was panicked into
finalising his theory after realising that otherswere
reaching conclusions similar to his.
阿什頓女士認(rèn)為這一年的重要性在于它反映了維多利亞三個(gè)時(shí)期的生活。看來本杰明·迪斯雷利確有必要等到1868年才就任首相一職。但他第二次出任財(cái)政大臣，任期始于1858年，卻證明其價(jià)值。他向議會(huì)提出重要法案，因德比勛爵首相正飽受通風(fēng)病痛之苦，迪斯雷利甚至一度行使首相之職。狄更斯讀書巡演大受追捧，自己也收入不菲。達(dá)爾文經(jīng)過數(shù)年思想蛻變，也急忙對(duì)進(jìn)化論定稿。他知道有人已經(jīng)開始得出類似結(jié)論。
The book’s real strength is its description of London
quivering between modernity and the dark ages.
Amid record-breaking heat and the stench of afilthy Thames,
engineers proposed an improved sewer system,
still believing the(soon to fall from favour) airborne theory of infection.
Laws making divorce easier were accompanied by infamous cases
in which husbands tried to have their wives declared insane.
While the government allowed the first non-Christians tosit in Parliament,
pious scientists vehemently opposed Darwinian evolution.
倫敦在當(dāng)時(shí)現(xiàn)代和黑暗時(shí)代中不寒而栗，本書對(duì)其描述筆力深厚。城市熱度屢創(chuàng)新高，泰晤士河臭氣熏天，工程師們一面建議改善排污系統(tǒng)，一面仍認(rèn)同霍亂空氣感染理論（這一理論很快就站不住腳）。法院判定離婚不僅離經(jīng)叛道，案情套路也卑鄙可恥，常是丈夫試圖強(qiáng)迫妻子宣稱精神失常。英國政府第一次有這位非基督徒（迪斯雷利）入主議會(huì)時(shí)，純粹的科學(xué)家們卻對(duì)達(dá)爾文式進(jìn)化論竭力反駁。
Against this backdrop Ms Ashton narrates scandals of high society,
drawing on private correspondence and the penny papers.
A well-known doctor was accused of an affair with a married patient,
preventing him from verifying her sanity in the divorce court
(presided over by the wonderfully named Sir Cresswell Cresswell).
A “hot headed and almost paranoid” Dickens,
who tormented his wifeand resented his “numerous and expensive family”,
read rumours of his infidelities in the press.
The book focuses a bit too much on these squabbles,
when it could give more space to the completion of a transatlantic
telegraph cableor the downfall of the East India Company.
But there is plenty to enjoy in this panorama of Victorians in their heyday.
依托如此背景，阿仕頓女士著眼家書信函和大眾報(bào)紙講述上流社會(huì)丑態(tài)。一位人盡皆知的女醫(yī)生因和一名已婚男病人有染而遭到控訴，罪名是該醫(yī)生阻止這名已婚病人確認(rèn)其在婚姻中表現(xiàn)正常。（該案由名字如此驚艷的克羅斯韋爾·克羅斯韋爾先生審理）。一個(gè)“魯莽并幾近偏執(zhí)”的狄更斯，折磨著他的妻子，憎恨著自己家財(cái)萬貫的身世，在報(bào)紙上朗誦著他不忠于伉儷的流言蜚語。本書對(duì)這些雞毛蒜皮的故事關(guān)注略多，更多的篇幅可以用來關(guān)注跨洋電話線的架成，亦或是東印度公司的轟然倒塌。但維多利亞全盛時(shí)期的風(fēng)光足夠你領(lǐng)略。
