查頓村 全球簡奧斯汀迷心中的聖地

Standing in the Steventon churchyard on a September morning, the dew glistening on the closely mowed grass between the gravestones, I heard the wind whispering in the 900-year-old yew tree that stands at the west end of the church. I could imagine Mr. Bingley and Jane or Eliza and Mr. Darcy bursting through the doors, arrayed in Regency wedding garb, greeted by a crowd of onlookers. But Steventon was quiet, except for the breeze.

9月的清晨，我站在史蒂文頓小村一座教堂的庭院裏。墓碑之間新近修剪的草地上，露珠閃爍着光芒，教堂的西邊，輕風在九百歲古老紫杉的樹葉間悄然私語。我可以想象賓利先生和簡，或者伊麗莎白和達西先生穿着攝政時期的結婚禮服，走出大門迎接親友祝福的一幕。但此刻的史蒂文頓，除了輕風，只有靜謐。

This tiny village in the English county of Hampshire is where Jane Austen was born on Dec. 16, 1775, lived the first quarter century of her short life, and wrote the first drafts of three of her novels, including “Pride and Prejudice” — originally called “First Impressions.” I had come to Hampshire hoping to soak up some of Austen’s world in preparation for writing my next novel, also called “First Impressions,” which would feature Jane Austen as a character. Immediately I sensed that the first scene should be set in this churchyard.

這個村莊位於英國的漢普郡，1775年12月16日，簡·奧斯汀(Jane Austen)誕生於此。在短暫一生的最初25年中，她住在這裏，寫出了三本名著的初稿，包括《傲慢與偏見》(Pride and Prejudice)。最開始時，這本書的名字是《第一印象》(First Impressions)。我之所以來到漢普郡，是希望從奧斯汀的世界汲取靈感，因爲我正在寫一本新小說，書名也叫《第一印象》，主角正是簡·奧斯汀。很快我就發覺，遊覽的第一個景點應該是這座墓園。

Tourists tend to associate Jane Austen with the Georgian facades of Bath, a bustling city in Somerset; but she lived most of her life, and did most of her writing, in two villages in Hampshire, in south central England. She died and was buried in Hampshire’s cathedral city of Winchester. In her tribute to English books and booksellers, “84 Charing Cross Road,” Helene Hanff writes of telling a friend that if she ever goes to England, she’ll go looking for the England of English literature, to which he replies, “It’s there.”

很多遊客一想到奧斯汀，就會想起薩默塞特繁華的巴斯市喬治王朝的華美建築，但其實，她的一生幾乎都生活在英格蘭中南部漢普郡的兩個村莊（史蒂文頓和查頓）裏，著作也基本在這裏完成。去世之後，她被埋葬在漢普郡的溫徹斯特大教堂。在《查令十字街84號》(84 Charing Cross Road)中，海蓮·漢芙(Helene Hanff)向英文名著與書商致敬時寫道，她曾告訴朋友如果去英國，她將會尋找英國文學中的英格蘭，也就是這個地方。

Nearly 200 years after her death, the Hampshire of Jane Austen is certainly there. Steventon feels as isolated now as it was in 1775. One would hardly guess that the busy road to London, which Jane knew as a stagecoach route, lies less than two miles away. My walk down the aptly named Church Walk from the village center to the Church of St. Nicholas, where Jane’s father served as rector, felt like stepping back in time. With woods on my right and open fields on my left, I saw no modern buildings. Even the rectory in which Austen was born and lived, and which stood along this route, was pulled down in the 1820s.

簡·奧斯汀去世近200年之後，她的漢普郡當然還在。史蒂文頓依然像1775年那樣遺世獨立。人們很難猜到，通向倫敦的繁忙大道，即當年簡·奧斯汀的公共馬車路線，就在2英里之外。沿着那條名符其實的教堂之路，我從村莊中心走到了聖尼古拉斯教堂，彷彿步入了往日的時光。簡·奧斯汀的父親曾是這座教堂的牧師。我的右邊是樹林，左邊是開闊的田野，視野中沒有任何現代的房屋。路旁曾是當年的教區，奧斯汀出生與成長的地方，但早在19世紀20年代就推平了。

St. Nicholas is a simple medieval structure, little changed from the Austen years, save for the addition of a Victorian steeple. The church is generally unlocked during daylight hours and, though redecorated in the Victorian period, still has the feel of an 18th-century country chapel. On the walls hang memorials to many members of the Austen family.

聖尼古拉斯教堂是一座樸素的中世紀建築，自奧斯汀時代以來就幾乎不曾改變，只增加了一座維多利亞時期的尖塔。白天教堂一般不上鎖，儘管在維多利亞時期重新裝潢過，卻仍有18世紀鄉村教堂的氛圍。室內的牆壁上掛滿了奧斯汀家族的紀念品。

To the west of the church lies open farmland, backed by a small forest called West Wood. It was easy to imagine, as I wandered among the gravestones, Miss Austen enjoying long walks through this landscape. She seems to have loved Steventon: When she heard the news that her father was retiring in 1801 and moving the family to Bath, she fainted dead away.

教堂西邊是開闊的農田，遠處是一片叫做西部森林的林子。走在墓石之間，我不禁想起奧斯汀小姐穿過這片美景悠然漫步的模樣。她是那麼的熱愛史蒂文頓，聽說父親即將在1801年退休並闔家搬到巴斯，竟昏了過去。

While Bath is full of Regency buildings, which would have been well known to Jane Austen, my novel would focus on Jane Austen as a writer, and her years in Bath (as well as those spent in Southampton following the death of her father in 1805) were not a time of great creative output. However, soon after her 1809 move to another quiet Hampshire village, she began to write again.

而巴斯市卻到處是攝政時期的建築，簡·奧斯汀早已知曉。我的小說會着重描寫奧斯汀身爲作家的生活，也涉及她在巴斯的日子（還有1805年父親去世之後，她在南漢普郡度過的時光），那段時間她的作品非常少。可是沒多久，1809年，她又搬到了漢普郡另一個安靜的村莊，重新開始了創作。

The village was Chawton, and it is a mecca for Janeites. Here stands Chawton Cottage, where Jane lived with her mother and sister, Cassandra, for the last eight years of her life — years of great productivity that saw the publication of four major novels. The drive from Steventon to Chawton covers just 15 miles, but while the former village is generally void of visitors, tourists disgorge in the latter by the busload, especially in the summertime. I came in the off-season, though, and found the village almost as peaceful as it was when Miss Austen lived here.

那個村莊就是查頓，全球奧斯汀迷心中的聖地。簡·奧斯汀與母親及姐姐卡桑德拉一起，在查頓小屋度過了她一生中最後的八年。在這極爲多產的八年裏，她出版了四部鉅著。從史蒂文頓到查頓的路程其實只有15英里，但前者門可羅雀，後者卻總會迎來整車整車的遊客，尤其是夏天。我來的時候正值淡季，只覺得這個村莊幾乎像奧斯汀小姐生活的時代那樣寧靜。

Chawton Cottage is now the Jane Austen’s House Museum. Here the visitor can walk through the rooms where Austen lived and worked, and view many relics of her family: her father’s bookcase; a quilt made by the Austen women; and, famously, a turquoise ring belonging to Austen, which the museum was able to purchase in 2013, preventing its export to America by Kelly Clarkson. To me, though, the most moving object was a simple 12-sided walnut table, barely wide enough to hold an inkwell, a quill pen and a few sheets of paper. Here, Jane Austen revised her early work (including transforming “First Impressions” into “Pride and Prejudice”), and wrote her later novels “Mansfield Park,” “Emma” and “Persuasion.”

而今，查頓小屋就是簡·奧斯汀故居博物館。在這裏，遊人可以在簡·奧斯汀當年生活與寫作的各個房間裏穿行，瀏覽她與家人的衆多遺物：奧斯汀父親的書櫃、奧斯汀母女手縫的被子，最知名的是奧斯汀的一枚綠松石戒指，2013年，博物館爲了防止它被美國歌手凱利·克萊森(Kelly Clarkson)帶走，花大錢贖了回來。然而對我來說，最動人的物品是一張簡陋的十二面胡桃木桌，寬度只夠放下墨水池、鵝毛筆和一沓紙。就在這張桌前，簡·奧斯汀修訂了她早年的幾部作品（包括將《第一印象》改名爲《傲慢與偏見》），寫下了後來的幾本小說——《曼斯菲爾德莊園》(Mansfield Park)、《愛瑪》(Emma)和《勸導》(Persuasion)。

I lingered by the table for several minutes, trying to imagine plying the trade of novelist, and plying it at Austen’s heights, on this modest surface. It is humbling enough as a writer to feel the presence of Jane Austen, more humbling still to consider with what meager tools she achieved so much.

我在書桌邊停留了幾分鐘，想象自己就是奧斯汀，想象她的身體坐在這張粗樸的桌前是什麼情景。身爲一名小說作者，面對簡·奧斯汀足以讓我赧顏，更讓我慚愧的是，她用如此簡陋的工具，竟做出了那樣偉大的成就。

A short walk up the road from the museum is Chawton House. Behind the chapel of this impressive country home, set in a large sheep-dotted park, are the graves of Jane’s mother and sister. The house itself once belonged to Jane’s brother Edward Austen Knight who, when he was about 15, in a scene right out of “Downton Abbey,” was adopted by childless distant relatives and became heir to the Chawton estate and other properties.

從博物館出門步行一小段，就是查頓莊園。這座美麗的鄉村宅邸裏，小禮拜堂後面是一座大公園，草地上有綿羊在吃草。那是簡的母親與姐姐的墓地。過去，這座莊園是簡的哥哥愛德華·奧斯汀爵士(Edward Austen Knight)的家產。他在15歲那年被過繼到遠親家，由此成爲查頓莊園及其他家產的繼承人，簡直如同《唐頓莊園》(Downton Abbey)中的情節。

The house was renovated in the 1990s by the American philanthropist and book collector Sandy Lerner and now serves as a study center housing her collection of early British woman writers. Chawton House is open only on certain days, and tours must be arranged in advance. My group consisted of myself and one other couple plus our two tour guides.

20世紀90年代，美國慈善家兼圖書收藏家珊迪·勒內(Sandy Lerner)修繕了這座莊園，而今此地成了研究中心，收藏着許多早期英國女作家的著作。查頓莊園僅在某些特定日子開放，遊覽必須提前預約。我們一行除了我，還有一對夫婦及兩名導遊。

In the dining room we sat comfortably around a highly polished table. Our guides pointed out the late-19th-century decorated paneling, then casually mentioned that Jane Austen had frequently dined at the very table on which we were resting our elbows; we instantly sat upright with respect. The gem of Chawton House for me is a painting hanging in the former “Ladies Withdrawing Room.” The 1780 gouache by Adam Callender shows the house from across the park. It is now intimately familiar to me, as it graces the dust jacket of my new novel.

我們走進餐廳，在一張光潔的桌子前舒適地坐下。導遊指給我們看那些19世紀晚期的裝飾嵌板，又不經意地提到，簡·奧斯汀常在我們落座的這張桌子前吃飯，我們好幾次肅然起敬，坐直了身軀。對我來說，查頓莊園的瑰寶是掛在昔日女士休息廳裏的一張畫。那是一張1780年的水粉畫，作者亞當·卡倫德(Adam Callender)，畫的是莊園對面的一座房屋。在我眼中它散發着私密的熟稔，因爲它就在我新小說的封面上，爲我的封面平添了幾分優雅。

In May 1817 Jane Austen went to Winchester for medical treatment. Here, on July 18, she died, and six days later was buried in Winchester Cathedral. The house in which she died stands just outside the cathedral precincts and bears a plaque marking its place in literary history. After the short drive from Chawton, I arrived in Winchester in time to have a look around the cathedral before evensong began at 5:30.

1817年5月，簡·奧斯汀去溫徹斯特治病，7月18日，她在這裏與世長辭，六天後在溫徹斯特大教堂下葬。她去世時的莊園就在大教堂的界域之外，如今那裏掛着一塊牌子，標明它在文學史上的地位。我從查頓坐車，很快就到了溫徹斯特大教堂，趕在5:30晚課開始之前，把它裏裏外外看了個遍。

The soaring nave of Winchester holds twin inspirations for me — one of the final scenes in my novel “First Impressions” is the death of Jane Austen, while one of the early scenes in my novel “The Bookman’s Tale” takes place on the north side of the nave at the elaborate tomb of Bishop William of Wykeham. Before paying my respects to Austen, I walked through a heavy wooden door in the north transept and up a creaking flight of stairs to the cathedral library. Well hidden, and not always open, the library displays a short manuscript by Jane Austen: “To the Memory of Mrs. Lefroy,” a poem of mourning written when Austen was just 23.

溫徹斯特大教堂高聳的中殿對我來說，寓意着兩處靈感：我的小說《第一印象》中，最終場景之一是簡·奧斯汀之死，而我的小說《學者傳說》(The Bookman’s Tale)中最初幾個場景就發生在威廉·威克姆主教(Bishop William of Wykeham)精美陵墓的中殿南側。爲了向奧斯汀表達敬意，我穿過北側袖廊一道厚重的木門，踏上一段吱吱作響的樓梯，來到大教堂圖書館。此地深藏不露，不常開放，裏面陳列着簡·奧斯汀的一小段手稿：《紀念勒弗羅伊太太》。寫這首悼亡詩的時候，奧斯汀年僅23歲。

Back in the nave I reached the final stop in my tour — a slab of black marble marking the grave of Jane Austen. Much has been made of the fact that the stone’s inscription makes no mention of her writing career, but this was not unusual at the time. I had read for years (and still do in most sources) that the Biographical Note composed by her brother Henry for the posthumous edition of “Persuasion” and “Northanger Abbey” (published in December 1817) was the first public identification of her as an author.

在中殿，我抵達了遊覽的最後一步——一塊黑色大理石板，簡·奧斯汀的墓碑。碑上的銘文沒有提及她的寫作生涯，但在當時這不算奇怪。她去世之後，哥哥亨利爲她的小說《勸導》和《諾桑覺寺》(Northanger Abbey)寫了一本註釋筆記（1817年12月出版），這本書我早已讀過並時常查閱。那是她第一次以作家身份被衆人知曉。

However, while researching my novel I discovered this note, which local residents could have read in the Salisbury and Winchester Journal on July 28, 1817, 10 days after her death:

然而，當我爲自己的小說做研究時，發現了一份告示。本地人有可能在1817年7月28日，奧斯汀去世10天后的《索爾茲伯裏與溫徹斯特雜誌》(Salisbury and Winchester Journal)上讀到這條公告。它寫着：

“On Friday the 18th inst. died in this city Miss Jane Austen, youngest daughter of the late Rev. George Austen, Rector of Steventon, in this county, and the Authoress of Emma, Mansfield Park, Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility. Her manners were most gentle, her affection ardent, her candour was not to be surpassed, and she lived and died as became an humble christian.”

“本月18日星期五，簡·奧斯汀小姐在本城去世。她是已故的史蒂文頓教區牧師喬治·奧斯汀的小女兒，也是《愛瑪》《曼斯菲爾德莊園》《傲慢與偏見》及《理智與情感》(Sense and Sensibility)的作者。她的儀態極其溫和，她的感情格外熱烈，她的正直無法超越，從生至死，她都是一位謙遜的基督徒。”

The wonderful thing about English cathedrals is that, in spite of the changes in décor and furnishings over the years, many spots remain unchanged from centuries past. The floor of Winchester’s south nave aisle, and the gravestone set into it, are, but for the wear of pilgrims’ feet, much the same as when the first mourners paid tribute to Jane Austen.

英國的大教堂真好，儘管裝飾和傢俱在歲月的風雨中有所變化，但許多地方在幾百年後依然不變。溫徹斯特南側中殿走廊地板上鑲嵌的墓石，在承受朝聖者多年的足印磨損之後，依然與簡·奧斯汀最早一批哀悼者所見的差不多。

Her gravestone elaborates on the qualities of her character: The benevolence of her heart, the sweetness of her temper and the extraordinary endowments of her mind obtained the regard of all who knew her, and the warmest love of her intimate connections.

墓碑上詳細記述了她的優秀品行：善良的心、溫和的脾性、傑出的才華令所有認識她的人都尊敬不已，她對親人懷有無比溫柔的愛。

As I sat in the cathedral choir, listening to the soaring music of evensong — repeating prayers that Austen would have known well — I felt I had come a little closer to the great “authoress,” to whom life in the small villages of Hampshire had given the peace and the insight to create works that are more widely loved than she could have imagined.

我坐在大講堂的唱詩班裏聆聽清越的晚課歌聲，奧斯汀當年再熟悉不過的歌聲，感覺自己與這位偉大的女作家更近了一分。在漢普郡村莊裏度過的一生賦予了她一種寧靜與洞察，讓她寫出煌煌鉅著，受到了遠超自己想象的愛戴。