圣物碎片美国侦探小说大师的阅读清单

2021年1月1日发(作者：常宝堃)

【雅思阅读素材】美国侦探小说大师的阅读清单

今天雅思阅读素材给大 家带来的是美国侦探小说大师的阅读清单。你是否想成为各侦探
小说家？或者醉心于侦探小说呢？以下是 雅思阅读的全部内容。

The author of the V. I. Warshawski novels, most recently “Critical Mass,” was
hugely influenced by “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”: “I felt as though
I’d fallen into words and wanted to drown in them.”

“女侦探沃莎斯基”系列小说的作者深受《一个青年艺术家的画像》的影响：“我感觉自己好像掉进了文字里，想一直沉浸在其中。”她最近出版了《临界物质》一书。

What books are currently on your night stand?

你的床头柜上现在放着什么书？

I’m trying hard to read Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty- First Century”
but keep returning to fiction. Right now: John Williams’s “Stoner,” Claude Izner’
s “Strangled in Paris.”

我努力想读托 马斯·皮克迪的《二十一世纪资本论》，但总想转去看小说。现在正在看的
是约翰·威廉姆斯的《斯托纳 》和克劳德·艾兹内的《巴黎扼杀案》。

Who is your favorite novelist of all time? And your favorite novelist writing
today?

有史以来你最喜欢的小说家是谁？现在仍在写作的小说家中你最喜欢的是谁？

I don’t have an all-time favorite. There are books I reread or wish I’d written.
I love the Victorians: Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, in that order.
I loved “Gilead” and “Wolf Hall,” which is a staggering achievement. I reread
Barbara Pym and Jane Austen and my old detective favorites when I’m stressed out.

我没有最喜欢的小说家。有些小说我会反复读，希望是自己 写的。我很喜欢维多利亚时
代的小说家：依次是伊丽莎白·盖斯凯尔、查尔斯·狄更斯和乔治·艾略特。 我很喜欢《基
列家书》和《狼厅》，后者是了不起的成就。压力大的时候，我会重读芭芭拉·皮姆和简· 奥
斯汀的小说以及我最喜欢的老侦探小说。

Who are your favorite writers of detective fiction?

你最喜欢的侦探小说作家是谁？



Margery Allingham among the classics. Peter Dickinson, Dorothy Salisbury Davis,
Dorothy Hughes.

玛格丽·阿林厄姆是其中一位经典作家。还有彼得·迪金森、多萝西·索尔兹伯里·戴
维斯和多 萝西·休斯。

Which do you consider the best detective stories of all time, and why?

你认为有史以来最好的侦探故事是哪些？为什么？

Anna Katharine Green, for defining the consulting detective for the 19th century;
Wilkie Collins, for playing with the form and transforming it; Dashiell Hammett, for
reinventing the form for the 20th century; the Holmes oeuvre, for making detective
fiction popular in both Great Britain and America; Amanda Cross and Lillian O’Donnell,
for opening the door that enabled Marcia Muller, Linda Barnes, Sue Grafton and me
to challenge the form in new ways.

安娜·凯瑟琳·格 林描绘了19世纪的顾问侦探；威尔基·科林斯尝试并改造了这个题材；
达希尔·哈米特在20世纪重新 创作了该题材；福尔摩斯系列让侦探小说在英国和美国都很流
行；阿曼达·克罗斯和莉莲·奥唐奈打开了 一扇门，让马西娅·马勒、琳达·巴尔内斯、苏·格
拉夫顿和我能够用新的方式挑战这种题材。

What makes a good detective novel?

怎样才能写出一部好看的侦探小说？

Believable characters first, a good story, an understanding of how to pace
dramatic action. I like commitment by a writer, to the form, to the story — there
are lots of slick writers of crime fiction who aren’t writing out of passion, but
for the market. They write good English sentences, but for me, the lack of commitment
makes them uninteresting.

首先要有可信的人物， 然后得有个好故事，而且要知道如何推动情节发展。我喜欢作家
的投入，对这种题材和这个故事的投入— —有很多圆滑的犯罪小说作家不是出于热爱而是为
了市场写作。他们写出了很好的英文句子，但是在我看 来，他们不够投入，所以写出的小说
没有趣味。

Of the books you’ve written, which is your favorite?

你最喜欢自己写的哪本小说？

My books all have different strengths and weaknesses, but if I had to choose,


I’d pick “Hardball.” It’s very personal because the back story is in the civil
rights movement in Chicago in the 1960s. That’s when I first came here, working as
a volunteer on the city’s extremely turbulent South Side.

我的书各有优缺点，但是如果我必须选一本的话，我会选《强硬手段》。它非 常有个人色
彩，因为它是以20世纪60年代芝加哥的民权运动为背景的。那时候我刚到这里，在极度混
乱的南区做志愿者。

You earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago. Do you still enjoy
reading history? Who are your favorite historians to read?

你在芝加哥大学获得了历 史学博士学位。现在你还喜欢读历史学方面的书吗？你最喜欢
读哪些史学家的作品？

Richard Hofstadter was a great stylist; 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of his
“Paranoid Style in American Politics,” which is as insightful a dissection of our
country today as it was when he first published it. My dissertation dealt with the
19th-century roots of fundamentalism in America. I read a fair amount of natural
history as background — Darwin, some of the early geologists, a lot of the moral
philosophers. I still like to read natural history — Neil Shubin’s “Your Inner
Fish” is also on my night stand.

理查德·霍夫施塔特有独特的风格。 2014年是他的《美国政治的偏执风格》出版50周
年。这本书是对我们国家的深刻剖析，和它刚出版 时一样意义重大。我的学位论文与19世纪
美国基要主义的根源有关。为此我读了大量自然历史方面的书 ——达尔文的书、一些早期地
质学家的书和很多道德哲学家的书。现在我仍然喜欢读自然历史方面的书， 尼尔·舒宾的《你
是怎么来的》也在我的床头柜上。