London’s hot and busysummer of 1858
1858年的夏天伦敦炎热繁忙
July 25, 2017 | Filed under:Book Review and tagged with:
"One Hot Summer: Dickens Darwin Disraeli and
the Great Stink of 1858.",Book Review
2017年7月25日/归档：书评，标签：一个炎热的夏天：“狄更斯、达尔文、迪斯雷利和1858年‘大恶臭’”，书评
Dickens, Disraeli and Darwin made a sweltering year a
memorable one in England's history
狄更斯、迪斯雷利和达尔文让火热的那一年彪炳英格兰史册
One Hot Summer: Dickens, Darwin, Disraeli and
the Great Stink of 1858.By Rosemary Ashton.
Yale University Press; 338 pages; $30and £25.
一个炎热的夏天：狄更斯、达尔文、迪斯雷利和1858年的‘大恶臭’
罗斯玛丽·阿什顿著，耶鲁大学出版社，全书338页，售价30美元/25英镑
IF YOU wanted to devote an entire book to a year
in Victorian Britain,1858 would not be an obvious choice.
Rosemary Ashton, who has done just that,admits as much.
No famous novel was published, and the government,
like manyjust before it, collapsed in a vote of no confidence.
Historians prefer 1859: Charles Darwin published
his “On the Origin of Species”, the Liberal Party was founded,
and Dickens, Tennyson, Eliot and Mill all produced major works.
1861 brought the death of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria’s
withdrawal from public life. So why 1858?
如果要为维多利亚时期英国的某一年专门写本书，你肯定不会选1858年。即便罗斯玛丽·阿什顿刚刚做到，但也同样承认这一点。这一年佳作鲜有问世，当值政府同往届一样，在无信任票中倒台。史学者却青睐1859年：查尔斯·达尔文《物种起源》横空出世，自由党成立，狄更斯、丁尼生、艾略特和米尔均有代表作面世。1861年阿尔伯特王子与世长辞，女王维多利亚时代退出人们视线。那为何却是1858年？
Ms Ashton sees the year’s importance reflected in the
lives of three Victorians. Benjamin Disraeli would have
to wait until 1868 to become prime minister. But his
second run as chancellor, beginning in 1858, proved
hisworthiness as he steered important bills through
Parliament, at times acting in place of the gout-ridden
Prime Minister Lord Derby. Dickens began his popular
reading tours, earning fantastic sums. And Darwin,
after years of pondering evolution, was panicked into
finalising his theory after realising that otherswere
reaching conclusions similar to his.
阿什顿女士认为这一年的重要性在于它反映了维多利亚三个时期的生活。看来本杰明·迪斯雷利确有必要等到1868年才就任首相一职。但他第二次出任财政大臣，任期始于1858年，却证明其价值。他向议会提出重要法案，因德比勋爵首相正饱受通风病痛之苦，迪斯雷利甚至一度行使首相之职。狄更斯读书巡演大受追捧，自己也收入不菲。达尔文经过数年思想蜕变，也急忙对进化论定稿。他知道有人已经开始得出类似结论。
The book’s real strength is its description of London
quivering between modernity and the dark ages.
Amid record-breaking heat and the stench of afilthy Thames,
engineers proposed an improved sewer system,
still believing the(soon to fall from favour) airborne theory of infection.
Laws making divorce easier were accompanied by infamous cases
in which husbands tried to have their wives declared insane.
While the government allowed the first non-Christians tosit in Parliament,
pious scientists vehemently opposed Darwinian evolution.
伦敦在当时现代和黑暗时代中不寒而栗，本书对其描述笔力深厚。城市热度屡创新高，泰晤士河臭气熏天，工程师们一面建议改善排污系统，一面仍认同霍乱空气感染理论（这一理论很快就站不住脚）。法院判定离婚不仅离经叛道，案情套路也卑鄙可耻，常是丈夫试图强迫妻子宣称精神失常。英国政府第一次有这位非基督徒（迪斯雷利）入主议会时，纯粹的科学家们却对达尔文式进化论竭力反驳。
Against this backdrop Ms Ashton narrates scandals of high society,
drawing on private correspondence and the penny papers.
A well-known doctor was accused of an affair with a married patient,
preventing him from verifying her sanity in the divorce court
(presided over by the wonderfully named Sir Cresswell Cresswell).
A “hot headed and almost paranoid” Dickens,
who tormented his wifeand resented his “numerous and expensive family”,
read rumours of his infidelities in the press.
The book focuses a bit too much on these squabbles,
when it could give more space to the completion of a transatlantic
telegraph cableor the downfall of the East India Company.
But there is plenty to enjoy in this panorama of Victorians in their heyday.
依托如此背景，阿仕顿女士着眼家书信函和大众报纸讲述上流社会丑态。一位人尽皆知的女医生因和一名已婚男病人有染而遭到控诉，罪名是该医生阻止这名已婚病人确认其在婚姻中表现正常。（该案由名字如此惊艳的克罗斯韦尔·克罗斯韦尔先生审理）。一个“鲁莽并几近偏执”的狄更斯，折磨着他的妻子，憎恨着自己家财万贯的身世，在报纸上朗诵着他不忠于伉俪的流言蜚语。本书对这些鸡毛蒜皮的故事关注略多，更多的篇幅可以用来关注跨洋电话线的架成，亦或是东印度公司的轰然倒塌。但维多利亚全盛时期的风光足够你领略。