Chapter 55 postscript

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was born in a poor family in Portsmouth, England. His father was a clerk in the navy. When he was ten years old, his family was forced to move to the debtor's prison. Since he was eleven years old, he began to undertake heavy housework.When he was an apprentice in a shoe polish workshop, because of his skillful packaging, he was placed in the window by his employer to perform in public and watched as an advertisement, which left a permanent scar on Dickens' heart. He felt that he was "famous and loved". wish was shattered. However, Dickens's first novel achieved amazing success. The ridiculously fat gentleman in the book is more famous than the British Prime Minister at that time, and Dickens himself also gained a great reputation.In the second half of 1836, the twenty-five-year-old Dickens was invited by the publisher Richard Bentley to serve as the editor-in-chief of "Bentley" magazine, and wrote two more novels under the pseudonym "Boz". One of them was serialized in "Bentree" magazine for two years from February of the following year, and was published as a single book in October 1838.The novel of fifty-three chapters in this book is the original name "The Adventures of Oliver Twist". The earliest translation in China is "The History of Thieves" by Lin Qinnan. Here I use the title that is more familiar to readers.

It is Dickens's first great social novel and occupies an important position in the history of world literature.The novel mainly reflects the life at the bottom of British society which has just passed the Poor Law.The author has clear loves and dislikes in creation, and the characteristics of vivid images have also been fully reflected.The characters in his works are full of distinct personalities, and the whole work has a strong appeal.Dickens can be regarded as an outstanding language master who is good at using irony, humor and exaggeration. His characters and language style are full of strong romantic characteristics.

Marx once wrote: "Modern England has produced a group of outstanding novelists, who have revealed to the world through their vivid masterpieces more political and social truths than all professional politicians, political commentators and moralists put together. There are many more." Among the English novelists listed by Marx in his article "The English Bourgeoisie", there are Thackeray, the author of "Vanity Fair", Mrs. Gaskell, the author of "Mary Barton", and Charlotte, the author. Ty Bronte, and Dickens tops the list of outstanding novelists. It is often said that Dickens was a great humorist, but more importantly, he was a great innovator in literature.He described a large number of small people in the middle and lower classes, which can be said to be unprecedented in literary works.With a high degree of artistic generalization, vivid description of details, witty humor and meticulous psychological analysis, he has created many unforgettable images, which truly reflect the appearance of Duohui in the early 19th century in Britain and have great appeal. And recognize the value, and formed his unique style.He reflects the breadth and variety of life, and digs deep and powerfully.He does not express his tendencies in a preaching or conceptual way, but often arouses readers' indignation and hatred with vivid artistic images.Compassion and love.Most of the characters in his works have distinct personalities.He is good at using artistic exaggeration to highlight the description characteristics of the characters, and reveal their inner life and ideological outlook with their habitual movements, postures and words.He is also good at drawing vivid people's language from life, and expressing the characteristics and character of the characters in their unique language.

① See Dickens' article in the foreign literature volume of "Encyclopedia of China". It has been published for more than 100 years and has already become the favorite classic of readers all over the world.The stupid, greedy, and cruel parish official "Bumble" in the novel has become synonymous with arrogant petty officials in English, and the meanings of words such as "arrogance and habit of petty officials" are derived from it.After marriage, Mr. Bumble reprimanded his wife, "Crying can relax the lungs, wash the face, exercise the eyes, and calm the anger."The novel was later adapted into a variety of movies, cartoons, comics, and put on the screen and stage.In China, it can probably be regarded as the most familiar world literary masterpiece for generations of readers. The section "Oliver asks for more porridge" has been compiled into many English textbooks published in our country.In the 1990s, the audience who loved Dickens saw it again on the TV screen. In a cartoon released in the United States, all the characters were played by small animals.

While being warmly welcomed as soon as it came out, it has also caused fierce debates for a long time.Today, many controversies have been dispelled by the passage of time, but as the famous American literary critic Edward Lecomte pointed out, "what still strikes us so far is the author's preference for The character Fagin in the work frequently uses the nickname 'Old Jew'." Lecomte said in the postscript of the New American Literature Series in 1961: "There are almost three hundred places where 'Old Jew' is used in the novel." This usage is indeed very dazzling today.In fact, Dickens seems to have discovered this problem almost a hundred years ago. When publishing the 1867-1868 edition, the author changed a large number of "old Jews" to "Fagin ".Lecomte pointed out that the author's frequent use of the nickname has nothing to do with "anti-Semitism": "'Old Jew' is not even used by Sykes, who is extremely contemptuous of people, but only by the author himself. (Oliver)." Dickens told us in his autobiography that Fagin, the thieves in the novel, was named after a companion who took good care of him in the shoe polish workshop where the author was a child laborer. Bob Fagin, "he's several years older than I am, and much taller."

The fate between me and me began in the raging Cultural Revolution.In 1968, a friend of the same age borrowed a book published in the early years, saying that it was a book about how to teach thieves. Unfortunately, the young man pronounced the title of the book and the author's name backwards, and even made two mistakes. words.In fact, my father, who once studied in the UK, told me the story of "Orphan in the Twist" long ago.This time, I passed by.In 1976, a young friend who had now immigrated to the United States brought a copy of the original text, and we agreed to translate half of it each, but my brother backed out before he even started.That summer, I felt that I was really at the end of the road: my father died the previous year, and my mother wore the best-selling products of that year: a "rightist" hat and three "counter-revolutionary" hats.During the summer vacation, I only received twelve yuan as a salary, and I couldn't even get five yuan to help my family every month.I had no choice but to hide in.For the next fifteen months, I stayed alone with the tall buildings.No one who heard about it believed it. When I talked to a colleague from Chongqing University, he also thought it was absolutely impossible. He didn’t believe it until I sent all the translations to the University.I still feel sorry when I think about it. For this reason, I even missed the grand festival to celebrate the smashing of the "Gang of Four".In 1978, the first draft was completed, and I contacted People's Literature Publishing House and Shanghai Translation Publishing House. The editor comrades gave me great encouragement when I was still a self-taught young man.

Since then, I have been dating my husband for twenty years.In the past 20 years, like our country, my situation has also undergone great changes. I have been teaching for more than 20 years, and I have also been engaged in translation teaching for English majors for more than 10 years, and I have translated more than 20 books.In the winter of 1996, Mr. Shi Ziyun from Yilin Publishing House called, and the agency agreed that I would be responsible for the retranslation.Being able to reunite an old dream of youth, the excitement at this time goes without saying.Another condition that is far from being comparable to that of the past is that the world has entered the era of the information superhighway. I browse Microsoft's "Bookshelf" and "Encyclopedia" on the multimedia computer that I never even dreamed of in the past, and check the latest version of "Weber Sterling Dictionary of the English Language, look up sources from the CD-ROM version of the Bible.I often have a pride that I am omnipotent.

The original book for this retranslation is the 1961 American New Literature Series edition, which is slightly different from the one I used twenty years ago.While reading the original manuscript for the third time, I also carefully read the translation "Oliver Twist" in the 1970s. This translation was written by Mr. Rong Rude, whom I have admired for many years but have never met.Reading Mr. Rong's translation, I deeply feel that the original translation has put a lot of effort into this world literary masterpiece, which is completely different from the feeling when reading some other translations of masterpieces against the original text.Translation work, both Chinese and foreign, is a thankless task.If it is said that any translation may have flaws, then the flaws in existing translations can only be attributed to the limitations of historical conditions.Although it has come to the turn of the century, translators are still extremely careful in their work, for fear of leaving some regrets that should not be left, that is, as Mr. Fu Lei said, "try to catch as many lice as possible", so as to be worthy of This masterpiece has lived up to the trust of readers and publishers.

He Wenan First draft of November 16, 1977 Completed the third reading in June 1997 Chongqing Southwest Normal University