Chapter 37 postscript

The first time I saw this book was in December 2000 at a bookstore in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.I've loved Maugham's novels since college and bought them right away. After reading it slowly, I appreciate and enjoy Maugham's straightforward, concise, yet full of wit and humor.At that time, I felt that it would be very meaningful if this book could be translated into Chinese.But it was too late to make a move.Until two or three years later, one day I suddenly thought, why not translate one or two pages every day as a kind of study or practice?It can also be a change of mind from work.Thus began my seven or eight years of intermittent book translation.

During this period, I was sent to work in Hong Kong. Because I was busy adapting to the new environment, the work rhythm was much more busy and tense than in the United States, so I stopped writing for a while.It was not until three years later that I moved to Sham Tseng in the New Territories of Hong Kong, in an apartment far away from the hustle and bustle, facing the sea and backed by green hills, and had my own study, that I started writing again.Finally, the translation of the whole book was completed in the spring of 2015. There are two main threads running through this novel.One is the diplomatic struggle between Machiavelli, who is a diplomatic envoy, and Duke Valentino (Cesare Borgia), the head of the country where he is stationed.Another main line is Machiavelli's attempt to seduce the young and beautiful wife of a local gentry as an uninhibited man.The two main lines do not contradict each other, interspersed and intertwined, and they have climaxes one after another in the smooth and orderly development, but the ending is unexpected.

This novel is created on the background of real historical facts.The story takes place in Italy during the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century.At that time, Italy was invaded by strong neighbors outside, and vassal regimes were separated inside, wars continued frequently, and the people were in dire straits.Florence, represented by Machiavelli, is a city-state republic representing freedom and democracy.The Papal State, represented by the Duke of Valentino, represents an autocratic and dictatorial regime.The novel contains a lot of Duke Valentino's views and discussions on political and military struggles and international relations, most of which come from Machiavelli's political masterpiece "The Prince".In the novel, Duke Valentino is an energetic, ambitious, resourceful and ruthless monarch.But Machiavelli viewed the duke with an admiring attitude, thinking that a monarch should be like this, otherwise nothing can be done.But if things cannot be done, the country will not be unified, the war will not be quelled, and the people will suffer more.In Machiavelli's view, the evaluation of the merits and demerits of a monarch depends on whether he has the ability to achieve his goals and bring order, peace and prosperity to the country, and cannot be measured by general religious or secular morality.

After five hundred years, Machiavelli's political views are still full of vitality.The famous American political scientist Samuel Huntington also expressed the same point of view in his book "Political Order in Transitional Societies" published in 1968.Huntington believed that in a transitional society, a government must be able to strongly guarantee social order and bring people a peaceful and peaceful life. In short, it must be effective. Classified as a good government, regardless of its ideology and method of governance.If the above-mentioned purpose is not achieved, no matter what its ideology or political system is, it can be classified as an inefficient or incompetent government, or simply a failed state (meaning that the government cannot afford it at all). to the basic functions it should have), that is the most undesirable and extremely bad result.

The above political views are realistic as well as ruthless.Unfortunately, however, it conforms to the basic law of human social development.In the first fifteen years of the 21st century, the Middle East and North Africa region saw the second Gulf War that toppled Saddam Hussein, the internal uprising and external intervention that brought down the Gaddafi regime in Libya, and the Syrian civil war .As a result, dictators are overthrown, or in trouble, but entire countries and regions are plunged into continual turmoil and war.The evil forces expanded rapidly, the social order disappeared, and the people suffered so much damage and pain that they left their homes and became refugees.

Of course, because Maugham was writing a novel, he did not present the above viewpoints to readers in a long way.Rather, it expresses Machiavelli's, and perhaps Maugham's, views implicitly at the end of the novel in a concise, finishing touch, and meaningful way. Maugham's novel is grippingly written and the characters are vividly portrayed.The book also contains many detailed descriptions of the life of the Italian people at that time.Read it slowly, as if watching a movie with ups and downs and fascinating plots.I hope that this translation of mine can also bring readers the same feeling.