18th-century courtship
18世纪的“窈窕淑女，君子好逑”
An inept Pygmalion
笨手笨脚的“皮格马利翁”
A darkly amusing tale about the struggle to create the perfect wife
让人苦笑的故事：努力为自己打造一个完美妻子
How to Create the Perfect Wife. By Wendy Moore.
《如何打造完美妻子》。作者：温蒂·摩尔。
WENDY MOORE, a British historian, is developing a nice line in non-fiction 18th-century marital horror stories. “Wedlock”, her previous book, followed the misfortunes of a certain countess at the hands of her abusive husband, who gets his comeuppance to the cheers of every reader. Now, in “How to Create the Perfect Wife”, the man in question is not so obviously a villain and the woman never actually becomes his wife. But he certainly comes close, and she escapes by the skin of her teeth.
英国历史家温蒂·摩尔以十八世纪的婚姻故事为蓝本，写了一系列优秀的悲情纪实小说。她之前的小说《婚姻》，讲述的是某位公爵夫人受丈夫虐待折磨的悲惨人生。后来她丈夫得到了应有的报应，让每位读者都拍手称快。现在轮到了《如何打造完美妻子》，这位男主身上的恶人品性不是那么明显，事实上女主也没成为他的妻子。但他肯定和恶人差不多了，而她也差点儿陷入虎口。
Though less ripping than “Wedlock”, this story is told with gusto. At its centre is Thomas Day, a complex man. Heir to a large fortune, he abhorred fashionable society, denied himself every luxury and gave to the poor. He belonged to a group in Lichfield known as the “Lunar Men”, who believed in political reform and the rights of man. An early abolitionist, in 1773 he wrote a poem with his friend John Bicknell called “The Dying Negro”, which caused an anti-slavery sensation. Day was socially inept and uncouth, his hair unkempt, but he was generally admired for his honesty and idealism.
尽管没有《婚姻》那么精彩，但人们却可以从故事的字里行间中感受到作者写作时的热情。故事的中心是一个性格复杂的人—托马斯·戴。虽然继承了一大笔遗产，但他憎恶上流社会，拒绝任何奢侈享受，还把钱财施舍给了穷人。他加入了利奇菲尔德一个叫“月球人”的组织。该组织支持政治改革、信仰人权。作为一名早期废奴主义者，他在1773年和朋友约翰·比克内尔写了首诗，名为“即将消亡的黑人奴隶”，因此引发了一场反奴隶制的轰动。虽然在社交场合戴总是笨手笨脚、不懂礼数，头发也是乱蓬蓬的，但他却因刚正不阿、乐观理想受到众人的敬重。
Apart from the bad hair, what's not to like? Alas, Day had a problem with women. He courted them, got engaged, but they all balked at the altar, unable to stomach his fierce virtue. Like his favourite philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, he blamed society for corrupting man's innate goodness. What Day needed was someone young and unformed, a Galatea to his Pygmalion. With Bicknell he hatched a scheme to solve his problems. They went to an orphanage, pretended to need a girl apprentice, picked out the prettiest and made off with her. Then they did it again at another orphanage.
除了糟糕的头发，还有什么理由不喜欢他呢？唉，他不太懂得如何与女人相处。他追求过几个，也订了婚，但一到神坛上她们就都退缩了，因为无法忍受他强烈的操守观。就像他最喜欢的哲学家让·雅克·卢梭一样，戴怨社会侵蚀了人善良的天性。戴需要的是一个未定型的年轻女性—他这位“皮革马利翁”的“伽拉特亚”。在比克内尔的帮助下，他想出了一个解决自己问题的方案。他们去了一家孤儿院，假装是要收留一个女孩儿当学徒。两人选了最漂亮的一个，带着她跑了。然后他们在另一家孤儿院又故伎重演。
Ann and Dorcas, aged 12 and 11, became Sabrina and Lucretia and began, without realising it, an educational programme designed to fit them for the role of Mrs Day. Unfortunately the programme involved some violence, as Rousseau believed in teaching fearlessness by way of pain and terror. Having chosen Sabrina once the girls hit puberty, Day worked to toughen her up by dripping sealing wax on her skin, standing her up to her neck in a lake and shooting bullets at her skirts.
12岁的安和11岁的多尔卡斯分别改名为萨布丽娜和卢克缇娜，开始接受教育培训。但她们没意识到，这是为了日后能扮演好“戴夫人”这个角色而为之设计的。不幸的是，教育培训涉及一些暴力元素，这正是卢梭信仰的一套，通过肉体的疼痛和精神上的恫吓来传授无畏之道。两个女孩儿到了青春期后，他选了萨布丽娜做未来的“戴夫人”。戴努力“训练”她：在她的皮肤上滴密封用的蜡油，让她站在齐脖深的湖水中，向她的裙子开枪。
The whole experiment failed. Each girl rebelled. Lucretia married a draper and Sabrina married Bicknell.
整场实验失败了。两个女孩儿都反抗了。卢克缇娜嫁给了一个布商，萨布丽娜嫁给了比克内尔。
The story does not end there, but as far as Day is concerned, it has been told before. The real discovery here is Sabrina and her background. Some of the most fascinating parts of the book are about the foundling hospitals and orphanages of the period, and the unhappy mothers who gave up their babies to them. Ms Moore has combed the orphanage's archives, read the forms for each baby and seen the tokens left with them—a single earring, a piece of fabric, a playing card torn in half—in the hope of a future reunion. Sadly, stories of mothers rediscovering long-lost children were rare, the stuff of plays and novels.
故事到这里并没有结束，但就戴而言，他的结局之前已经提到了。此时真正浮出水面的却是萨布丽娜和她的身世。本书最精彩的一部分是关于育婴堂的剧情，以及那些伤心的母亲把孩子丢在这儿的描述。摩尔女士翻遍了孤儿院的档案记录，看了每个孤儿的资料以及家人留给他们的纪念物—一个耳环，一块布，一个撕成两半的纸牌。令人悲伤的是，母亲找回失散多年孩子的故事少之又少，而且往往只出现在戏剧和小说里。 |