The real Jane Austen(真实的简.奥斯丁)

The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things. By Paula Byrne. Harper; 380 pages; $29.99. HarperPress; £25. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk

“A LIFE of usefulness, literature, and religion, was not by any means a life of event, ” wrote Henry Austen of his spinster sister Jane. This image of the sequestered author persisted for years. But contemporary scholars have reappraised “dear Aunt Jane” as an independent and worldly-wise woman who wielded a sardonic pen. She continues to fascinate, 200 years after the publication of “Pride and Prejudice”. This is the charm of a new biography from Paula Byrne, a British author, who breathes yet more life into Austen and her works by considering the objects that populated her days.

“生活的实用性、文学和宗教，决不是大量事件的集合。”亨利.奥斯丁的未婚妹妹简曾说过。这位隐退的作者把这种形象坚持了多年。但是，当代的学者重新评价“亲爱的简婶婶”为一个挥舞着批判的笔的独立的、精于世故的女士。她的作品《傲慢与偏见》出版了200年后，人们开始对她着迷起来。这都归功于保罗.拜涅尔，一个英国的作家最新写的传记。通分析思考她的一生，他多年从事对奥斯丁以及她的作品的研究。

Each chapter is organised around a single thing. Some are Austen’s possessions, such as a topaz cross she received from her brother. Others are simply from the period, such as a barouche (an upmarket carriage), which helps to illustrate how well-travelled she was and how transport indicates status in her novels. In “Northanger Abbey” Catherine Morland finds a trip in Henry Tilney’s curricle erotic, whereas she is nonplussed by John Thorpe’s gig. Broadly chronological, this thematic approach offers a revealing picture of Austen and a lively social history.

每一章都围绕一个主题而展开。有些是讲她的财产，比如她哥哥送给她的黄玉十字架。其他仅仅是来源于第一章，比如一辆四匹马拉的马车（一种高档的马车），用于表明她是多么喜欢旅行以及交通在她的小说中占有多高的地位。在“诺桑觉寺”中，凯瑟琳.莫兰发现在亨利.蒂尔尼的轻便马车的一次旅行中，然而她困惑约翰.索普的轻便马车。通过按年代先后顺序排序，这种主题法揭示了奥斯丁的生活蓝图，生动地展现了社会历史。

Austen’s formative years are the most interesting. Three vellum notebooks contain her “Juvenilia”—the stories and poems she wrote as a teenager. Her “greatest gifts are here in embryo”, writes Ms Byrne, clearly relishing Austen’s satire and lack of restraint. The young author lampooned famous figures and offered parodies of sentimental novels. But she reserved her choicest words of wit for her sister Cassandra. When they were not living together they corresponded frequently, and Austen often tried out different voices—“gossipy, jokey, affectionate”—to make her laugh.

奥斯丁的成长期最为有趣。三大卷牛皮纸的笔记囊括了她的少年读物——青少年时期她写的故事和诗歌。拜涅尔小姐写道，“她的伟大才华正在萌芽期”，非常喜欢奥斯丁的嘲讽风格达到了孜孜不倦的地步。年轻的作家讽刺了著名的人物，把感伤的小说改写为诙谐幽默风格的。当她不再与妹妹住在一起时，她以精湛的文笔和妹妹卡桑德拉经常书信往来。奥斯丁经常尝试不同的语气——“漫谈式的，玩笑式的，充满真挚感情的”使得妹妹开怀一笑。

 

During this time the movements of family followed the flows of inheritance; a vexatious matter that drives Austen’s narratives. Old maids and mothers were often housed by rich cousins; a child might be made heir to childless relatives. An East Indian shawl introduces Aunt Phila—who at 21 sailed to Bengal in order to find a husband—and her daughter, Eliza. A romantic figure, and presumably illegitimate, Eliza first married a man who fell under the guillotine in the French Revolution, and later married Austen’s brother Henry. This coquettish cousin is fictionalised as Mary Crawford in “Mansfield Park”. Austen also drew on Henry’s militia experience for her depiction of flirtatious redcoats in “Pride and Prejudice”. Her midshipman brothers helped inform references to the navy.

在家庭遗产带来的变化期间，一件让人烦心的事驱动了奥斯丁记叙事情。老女佣和妈妈往往是富裕的表亲赡养，无子嗣的亲戚常常收养一个小孩。一方印度丝巾描述了21岁的比亚婶婶乘船去本格尔寻在她的丈夫和女儿爱丽莎的故事。这个浪漫的人物是个私生子，爱丽莎首先嫁给一个男人，死于法国大革命时的断头台。后来嫁给了奥斯丁大的哥哥亨利。以这个真实的故事改编为小说《曼斯菲尔德》的主人公玛丽.克劳福德。奥斯丁采用了亨利的军旅生活塑造了《傲慢与偏见》的爱调情的红衣军官的原型。她的海军准尉哥哥提供了海军的生活的描述。

The book’s liveliest passages are about city life and romance. Austen frequently visited London and lived in Bath for years. She was probably not a beauty—only one authenticated portrait exists (although Ms Byrne makes a strong case for another with uncertain provenance). But her wit and intelligence lured many a suitor. None of them stuck, but many are recalled with mirth in her letters. Austen was no prude. Her novels feature illicit liaisons and she gives Mary Crawford a sexually loaded naval joke about “Rears and Vices”. But she had high standards and a mortal fear of childbirth. She was all too aware of the way women either died during labour or “grew old by confinements and nursing”.

这本书生动活泼的描述了城市的生活和浪漫的情怀。奥斯丁参观了伦敦，住在柏斯多年。也许她并不是一个大美人——仅有一张鉴定了的画像存世（尽管拜涅尔小姐找到一个不知道出处的另一幅画像）。她的智慧和才能吸引了诸多求婚者。并没有一个人被阻挡了，但是很多人只是收到她 报以一笑的回信。奥斯丁并不是故作正经的人。她的小说见长于违法的暧昧关系，并通过海军上膛的玩笑给玛丽.克劳馥得冠以”厕所和恶习“的臭名。但是她对生小孩有恐惧感，她过于担心妇女的未来——要么”过劳而死“要么”由于分娩和哺乳而渐渐衰老“。

Ms Byrne has an obvious affection for her subject. This book may offer few revelations, but it paints a fresh and vivid picture of an inimitable woman.

显然，拜涅尔小姐对自己的课题很着迷。这本书很少给出一些启示，却生动地刻画了一个鲜活的独特的妇女形象。