Charles Dickens【查爾斯·狄更斯】

Charles Dickens

In 1812, the year Charles Dickens was born, there were 66 novels published in Britain.

1812年，查爾斯·狄更斯出生，那一年英國出版了66本小說。

People had been writing novels for a century-most experts date the first novel to

Robinson Crusoe in 1719-but nobody wanted to do it professionally.

人們寫小說已經有一個世紀之久了--大部分專家認爲第一本小說是1719年的《魯賓遜漂流記》

--可是沒人想專門從事這一行。

The steam-powered printing press was still in its early stages; the literacy rate in England was under 50%.

蒸汽驅動型印刷機還處於早期階段；英格蘭的識字率還不到50%。

Many works of fiction appeared without the names of the authors, often with something like "By a lady."

許多小說做品都沒有做者的名字，常常寫着相似「出自一位女士」這樣的字眼。

Novels, for the most part, were looked upon as silly, immoral, or just plain bad.

在很大程度上，小說被認爲是愚蠢的、不道德的，甚至是惡俗的。

In 1870, when Dickens died, the world mourned him as its first professional writer and 

publisher, famous and well-beloved,

1870年狄更斯去世時，全世界都在哀悼他，由於他是第一個職業做家和出版商，聞名中外而又受人愛戴。

Who had led an explosion in both the publication of novels and their readship and whose

characters-from Oliver Twist to Tiny Tim-were held up as moral touchstones.

他引領了小說的出版和讀者人數的爆炸性增加，他筆下的人物從奧利弗·退斯特到小提姆都被視爲道德的試金石。

Today Dickens' greatness is unchallenged.

今天，狄更斯的偉大是毋庸置疑的。

Removing him from the pantheon of English literatur would make about as much sense 

as the Louvre selling off the Mona Lisa.

把他從英國文學的萬神殿中移除，其意義就像盧浮宮賣掉《蒙娜麗莎》。

How did Dickens get to the top?

狄更斯是如何登峯造極的呢？

For all the feelings readers attach to stories, literature is a numbers game, and the test of

time is extremely difficult to pass.

關於讀者對故事的感覺，文學是一種數字遊戲，想經過時間的考驗是極其困難的。

Some 60,000 novels were published during the Victorian age, from 1837 to 1901;

從1837年到1901年，整個維多利亞時期出版了近六萬部小說；

today a casual reader might be able to name a half-dozen of them.

當今隨便一位讀者可能都能說出其中的六本。

It's partly ture that Dickens' style of writing attracted audiences from all walks of life.

在必定程度上能夠說狄更斯的寫做風格吸引了各行各業的讀者。

It's partly that his writings rode a wave of social, political and scientific progress.

他的著做在必定程度上掀起了一股社會、政治和科學進步的浪潮。

But it's also that he rewrote the culture of literature and put himself at the center.

但他也改寫了文學文化，將本身置於了核心地位。

No one will ever know what mix of talent, ambition, energy and luck made Dickens such a singular writer.

沒有人會知道是什麼樣的天賦、雄心、精力和運氣的結合使狄更斯成爲如此傑出的做家。

But as the 200th anniversary of his birth approaches, it is possible and important for our

 own culture to understand how he made himself a lasting one.

但隨着他200週年誕辰的臨近，對咱們本身的文化來講，瞭解他如何讓本身經久不衰是可能的，也是重要的。

 

2018年浙江卷A

文中單詞

單詞	釋意	單詞	釋意
experts	n.專家；高手	steam-powered	蒸汽驅動的
literacy rate	識字率	fiction	n.虛構；小說
appeared	v.出庭；出現	silly	adj.傻的；愚蠢的
immoral	adj.邪惡的；不道德的	plain	adj.平凡的；明白的
mourned	v.哀悼；爲···哀痛	publication	n.出版；發行
explosion	n.爆發；激增	touchstones	n.試金石
greatness	n.偉大	unchallenged	adj.未收質疑的
pantheon	n.名流；名人	sence	n.感官；感覺
extremely	adv.很是；極其	half-dozen	adj.六個的
audiences	受衆	ride a wave of	乘···之勢
social	adj.社會的	approaches	n.近似值
anniversary	adj.週年的	singular	adj.出生；創始
all walks of life	各行各業；各界