阅读厄尔·斯坦利·加德纳 Erle Stanley Gardner在小说之家的作品!!! |
加德纳的作品融合法律与推理,在侦探小说中独树一帜。
厄尔·斯坦利·加德纳的主要作品有:漂亮的女招待,受骗的模特儿,
厄尔·斯坦利·加德纳,美国最具代表性的侦探小说作家,早年曾为执业律师,立志为少数民族服务,执业期间即发表过以法律为背景的短篇侦探小说,由于颇受欢迎,因而改写长篇侦探小说,在《梅森探案系列》轰动了世界文坛之后,正式成为专业作家。加德纳的作品融合法律与推理,在侦探小说中独树一帜。
西方侦探小说创始人是19世纪的美国作家爱伦·坡,他的《莫格街凶杀案》、《金甲虫》和《被窃的文件》,由于故事情节富于戏剧性,注重细节描写,推理合乎逻辑,至今脍炙人口。随后经英国的柯南·道尔、陶乐赛·赛耶斯和阿加莎·克里斯蒂等作家的仿效推进,使侦探小说逐渐成为一种流行的通俗文学样式。自本世纪30年代起,它在美国的特定环境中又有了新的发展,除了出现以达谢尔·哈默特和雷蒙·钱德勒开创的硬汉派侦探小说之外,还衍生了许多旁支,诸如法庭侦探小说、犯罪小说、警察小说、间谍小说、惊险小说、神秘小说、国际政治小说等等。这些名目繁多的小说占据了西方通俗文学的很大一部分市场。
厄尔·斯坦利·加德纳是一位擅长写法庭侦探(——译公堂戏剧性派)小说的高手。他一生写了146部著作,其中最引人入胜的是以律师佩里·梅森为主人公的85部探案小说,每部均在美国销售百万余册,而这套小说全球总销量已超过三亿册。美国影视界自1957年把他的这些小说陆续改编成电视连续剧《佩里·梅森》,由著名影星雷蒙德·布尔主演,一连放映达8年之久,更使梅森律师成为美国家喻户晓的人物。
加德纳,1889年出生于马萨诸塞州莫尔登市,父亲为矿业工程师。他早年随父母到处旅行,曾在印第安纳州瓦尔帕莱索大学学习,中途辍学,不久去加里佛尼亚州定居,在一家律师事务所当打字员,1911年获该州律师资格,开始为穷苦的亚裔(包括中国人)和墨(西哥)裔人等出庭辩护。他一生同情没有亲朋好友而遭受诬告的人们,专门帮助无辜入狱的人,为他们仗义执言。他一方面从事律师工作,一方面开始为他报撰稿,正确地揭示了美国法庭的内幕。直到1932年,他除了每周从事两天律师工作之外,每月均能写出20万字的作品。自《移花接木案件》(一译《丝绒爪案件》,1933年)和《拗姑娘案件》(1933年)大获成功后,他就完全脱离了法律界,成为一名专业作家,后来一共发表了85部梅森探案小说。他的第二套系列作品是以地方检察官道格拉斯·赛尔比为主人公的侦探小说。第三套系列作品写的是私人侦探库尔和法学家拉姆的神秘离奇的故事。他还写过有关加里福尼亚半岛和终审法庭等方面的非小说类作品。1970年,加德纳以81岁高龄病逝。
Erle Stanley Gardner, who also wrote under the pseudonyms of A. A. Fair, Carleton Kendrake and Charles J. Kenny, was born in Malden, Massachusetts in 1889. From there the family emigrated to the West? first in Oregon, then the Klondike area, finally settling in a little town called Oroville. Mr. Gardner?s father was a mining engineer, and some of the mining knowledge Erle assimilated is reflected in some of the later novels.
Erle Stanley Gardner graduated from the Palo Alto High School in 1909? then located in the San Francisco Bay area. Mr. Gardner went on to Valparaiso University in Indiana, but was expelled for being in a fistfight. Working as a typist for a California law firm, Erle Stanley Gardner picked up information about the legal profession, and although he hadn?t formally read law, he passed the requirements and was admitted to the bar in 1911. Mr. Gardner then opened his own law office at the ripe age of twenty-one. It was not a success.
When he left his own office, he worked for a corporate attorney, I. W. Stewart located in Oxnard, California, where he defended Chinese clients from 1911 to 1918. Erle Stanley Gardner married Natalie Frances Talbert in 1921, and had one child by her. Mr. Gardner moved to Ventura, and after a stint as a salesman for the Consolidated Sales Company, he had a law firm along with a lawyer named Frank Orr. In the courtroom he exuded the same feelings of confidence and expectancy of success that he later attributed to his famous character, Perry Mason.
1920 saw Erle Stanley Gardner contributing to the pulps, and Mr. Gardner was a very successful writer even before he began writing entire books. E. S. Gardner wrote at least 144 short stories as well as 301 novelettes before turning to whole novels of mystery fiction. His very first Perry Mason mystery was published in 1933. Erle Stanley Gardner ended his marriage to Natalie in 1935, but although they lived apart after that and he continued to send her money, they never divorced. After her death Mr. Gardner married his private secretary, Agnes Jean Bethell in 1968.
Erle Stanley Gardner has had much of his work adapted to TV and the big screen as well. Mr. Gardner was the recipient of the Fact Crime Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Erle Stanley Gardner died on March 11, 1970.