名利场《道德剧 Morality play》

译自http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/books/3083101/morality-play.thtml

EDWARD AVERY Spectator

Every year when winter descends on the country one of English literature’s great works always finds itself pulled down from my bookshelf: namely William Thackeray’s immortal Vanity Fair. The reason is simple: no degree of chilliness in the air can extinguish the book’s incredible warmth and humour. It is a tonic.

每年，随着冬季的降临，总有一部英国文学的伟大作品从我的书架上取下——威廉·萨克雷不朽的《名利场》。原因很简单：空气中的寒意无法驱散书中那不可思议的激情和幽默。它可是滋补品。

Being an accepted classic Vanity Fair is no doubt familiar to many readers. But its indelible characters and set-pieces still deserve mention. From the sly anti-***e Becky Sharp to the gentle-mannered Dobbin — and from the mistreatment of a dictionary to the battlefield death of one character (I won’t reveal whom!) — there is not one component of the story which detracts from the whole.

作为一部公认的经典，《名利场》无疑广为读者所熟知。然而书中不朽的人物和场景设置仍值得一提。从狡猾的反派女主人公贝姬·夏普到举止文雅的道宾；从不当地对待字典到一个人物战死沙场——没有一个组成部分是不为整体服务的。

The plot and characterisation are underpinned by Thackeray’s acute eye for social detail. He is cutting of course but never slips into crude caricature. The result is a portrait of 19th-century society which feels authentic and unpompous. If Vanity Fair succeeds it is because it is — like much of Dickens’s output — a great work of journalism.

情节和人物塑造都要归功于萨克雷对社会细节敏锐的捕捉。他的语言是尖刻的，那毫无疑问，但是，绝不沦为粗劣的歪曲的讽刺。而其结果就是一幅描绘十九世纪的肖像画，感觉如此真实，不虚夸。如果说《名利场》是成功的，那么它成功在于——如同很多狄更斯的作品一样——它是一部伟大的新闻学作品。

To paraphrase The Spectator’s own motto Vanity Fair is champagne for the soul. For that I give it my highest recommendation and raise a glass to Mr William Makepeace Thackeray.

套用一下《旁观者》杂志自己的座右铭——《名利场》是给灵魂享用的香槟。为此，我给予它最高的推荐，并举杯向威廉·萨克雷先生致敬。

http://www.yeeyan.com/articles/view/43912/24628