The Letters of Penelope Fitzgerald (Excerpts)佩内洛普·菲茨杰拉德信札（节选）

【导读】此处节选的三封短信均出自英国布克奖女作家佩内洛普·菲茨杰拉德（1916—2000）的书信集《所以我想到了你：佩内洛普·菲茨杰拉德信札》（So I have Thought of You： The Letters of Penelope Fitzgerald， 2008）。

第一封是写给编辑理查德·加尼特先生的，信里道出了很多作家初涉文坛的郁闷和纠结：“当你告诉我，我只是个业余作家，我感到非常困扰。我问自己：要写多少书，舍弃多少个分号，才能摆脱‘业余’的身份？”。这封信写于1977年11月，此时的佩内洛普已经出版了2部传记［《爱德华·伯恩·琼斯》（1975）、《诺克斯兄弟》（1977）］和1部小说［《金孩》（1977）］，加尼特给她贴上的“业余作家”标签似乎暗含着“不优秀”的意思。佩内洛普用随后20年左右的时间证明了她的优秀。1977年之后，她又发表了1部传记和8部小说，其中《离岸》获1979年的布克奖，《书店》《早春》《天使之门》均进入了布克奖短名单。她本人两次荣当布克奖评委，还被吸纳进了英国皇家文学学会。1995年她发表的最后一部小说《蓝花》获美国全国书评家协会奖（小说），19次被媒体选为“年度最佳图书”。1996年，佩内洛普·菲茨杰拉德获海伍德-希尔文学终身成就奖（The Heywood Hill Literary Prize）1。

本篇节选的第二封和第三封信是写给英国德高望重的文学评论家弗兰克·克莫德爵士（1919—2010）的。细心的读者也许还记得《英语世界》2022年第3期“聚焦文化伦敦”专栏中的“《离岸》（节选）”一文。克莫德在《离岸》出版不久，即在《伦敦书评》上发表了对该小说的评论，佩内洛普对大评论家的关注表示了感激，同时低调地解释了一下《离岸》结尾的目的和意义，回应克默德对《离岸》结尾的误读。在第三封信中，佩内洛普诚挚地表达了她从这位大评论家那里得到的鼓舞和感动。

佩内洛普·菲茨杰拉德是英国文坛公认的“大器晚成”者（a late bloomer）——她在别人计划退休的年龄，即60岁左右，才开始专心从事文学创作。从这三封信中，读者可一窥佩内洛普晚年进军文坛并走向成名的坎坷之路。

特别感谢特伦斯·杜利先生——诗人、翻译家、本书信集的编辑、佩内洛普·菲茨杰拉德的大女婿兼她的文学遗产执行人——授权刊发书信集选段。

［特别说明：本文中，英文注释为原文的原注，其他注释为译注。］

25 Almeric Road， sw11

16 November 1977

Dear Richard，

Thank you so much for your letter—I was just wondering a bit whether there were any advance copies， as I have had mysterious messages from the reviewers and I’m not sure where they got their copies2 from， all a failure as usual， the Spectator person， in spite of， or possibly because of， being plied with drink by Oliver， says the whole book was quite beyond him， and as for the TLS， I asked Dick Usborne if he’d go and extract it from the heap as he is always amiable and would have put anything he was asked but unfortunately it had already been asked for by M. Muggeridge， I can only hope he’s in sunny mood.

I did write this mystery story3， largely to get rid of my annoyance： 1. about the Tutankhamen Exhib： as I’m certain everything in it was a forgery， and： 2. about someone who struck me as particularly unpleasant when I was obliged to go a lot to museums &c. to find out about Burne-Jones， I’d very much have liked to show it to you， （the story I mean）， but it had a cipher in it， and I thought if I produce any more ciphers I shall get thrown out into Little Essex St—I thought quite well of the book at first but it’s now almost unintelligible， it was probably an improvement that the last chapters got lost， but then 4 characters and 1000s of words had to be cut to save paper， then the artwork got lost （by the printer this time） so we had to use my roughs and it looks pretty bad， but there you are， it doesn’t matter， and no-one will notice， and Colin4 works so hard， I wouldn’t be surprised to find him， sitting in the Old Piano Factory with a bottle of whisky doing all the packing and despatch himself， so everyone has to do the best they can.

It worried me terribly when you told me I was only an amateur writer and I asked myself， how many books do you have to write and how many semi-colons do you have to discard before you lose amateur status？

I shouldn’t write such a long letter as I know that reading can’t be a recreation for you， but it was so nice to have a letter that didn’t enclose a bread recipe， particularly as bread-making is one of the things I can do and be sure it’ll turn out right， unlike my attempts to get good notices. —I’m just taking an Oxford entrance class and the wretched children are trying to work out—of which of the following can it be said that it has a right and a left？ A person， a street， a boat， a pair of scissors， a tree， —a cat？ I know they’re confident I’ll be able to answer this—best wishes Penelope

1977年11月16日

于伦敦阿尔梅里克路25号，（邮政编码）SW11

亲爱的理查德：

来信收悉，万分感谢——我那时正好在想是否有发行前的样书，因为我已经读到了书评人谜一样的评论，我也不知道他们从哪里拿到的样书，与之前一样，一切努力都白费了。《旁观者》5的那个书评人说整本书让他完全看不懂，尽管（也可能是因为）被奥利弗灌了酒；至于《泰晤士报文学增刊》，我问迪克·厄斯本能不能从书堆里把那本书拿出来——因为迪克总是很和善，并且会把人家拜托他的事都记下来——但不幸的是，马尔科姆·马格里奇已经先要了那本书，我只能希望马尔科姆读书时心情愉快。

我确实写了那部悬疑小说6，主要是为了发泄我的烦恼：1. 关于图坦卡蒙展览，我确信展出的一切都是假的；2. 关于某个我认为特别讨厌的人，我为了了解伯恩-琼斯不得不经常去博物馆等地方时碰上的。我本来很想给你看看（我指的是这个故事），但故事里设了个悬疑，我估计如果我在故事里再多设计几个悬疑，就会被扔到小埃塞克斯街了。我一开始觉得这本书写得还不错，但现在却觉得它几乎不知所云。也许最后几章丢了是个好事，但之后为了节省篇幅，我不得不删掉四个角色和千把个词。接着插图也丢了（这次是印刷工弄丢的），所以我们不得不用我的草图，而它看起来很糟糕，但就这样吧，无所谓了，没人会注意到。7科林工作太卖命了，如果我看到他拿着一瓶威士忌在老钢琴厂里独自做着所有的打包和发货工作，我也不会感到惊讶——每个人都只能尽力而为。

当你告诉我，我只是个业余作家，我感到非常困扰。我问自己：要写多少书，舍弃多少个分号，才能摆脱“业余”的身份？

我不该写这么长的信，因为我知道阅读对你来说可不是消遣，但收到一封没有夹带面包食谱的信真是太好了，尤其面包制作是我能确保成功的事情之一，不像我试图获得好评的努力。——我正在教牛津入学班，那些可怜的孩子正试图解答：以下哪些事物可以分“左”“右”？一个人、一条街道、一艘船、一把剪刀、一棵树——还有一只猫？我想他们确信我能答出来8。——致以最好的祝愿，佩内洛普

25 Almeric Road

London， sw11

2 November 1979

Dear Professor Kermode9，

I hope you won’t mind my writing to you， partly because I’ve relied so long and so much on The Sense of an Ending in trying to teach university candidates something about fiction—most of them， too， with a half-finished novel of their own in a drawer back at home—but also to thank you for what you wrote about me in The London Review of Books. Could I make one comment—you said in passing that the ‘apocalyptic flood’ at the end of Offshore wasn’t a success and I expect it isn’t， but it isn’t really meant as apocalyptic either—I only wanted the Thames to drift out a little way with the characters whom in the end nobody particularly wants or lays claim to. It seems to me that not to be wanted is a positive condition and I hoped to find some way of indicating that. —I realise too that the danger of writing novels， even very short ones， is that you get to take yourself too seriously—