一個二十世紀初期滇西驛妓的故事，少女烏珍被表哥賣入妓院。少女烏珍在各地馬幫商人云集的驛鎮，開始了她充滿異數的人生
1980年的一個世界，年僅18歲的我窺視到的一個他人的世界：一個男人最終總是坐在通往閣樓的樓梯上，等候我的鄰居回傢。由於某種奇特的原因，我和一個婦女共住在一座近百年的閣樓上。那時候，我總是以她作為我的夥伴，纔戰勝了來自小閣樓的恐懼
我講述的這個故事發生在中國的南方，在一個黑夜裏我在古老的騰越城中散步，偉大的地理學家徐霞客把這座城稱為“極邊第一城”，我就是在這座古城感受到了時間的流逝，這個典型的南方故事獻給在夢想的巨大悲劇中沉淪的讀者心靈。——海男
沉重不堪的私生活已經捆綁我們太久，米蘭·昆德拉說：“最沉重的負擔壓得我們崩塌了，沉沒了，將我們釘在地上。可是在每一個時代的愛情詩篇裏，##總渴望壓在男人的身軀之下。也許最沉重的負擔同時也是一種生活最為充實的象徵，負擔越沉，我們的生活也就越貼近大地，越趨近真切和實在。”所以，面對私生活，尤為重要的是為了鬆梆我們的私生活；讓我們由沉重走嚮輕盈或者走嚮遙遠的地平綫。
故事無拘束地自由道來，表明對自由生活的追求，這正是它經在世界文學史上占有重要地位的原因所在。
1934 年可怕的黑死病從地中漲沿岸漫延到中歐，為躲避瘟疫，有三男七女從佛羅倫薩逃離，移居一座別墅。為消磨時光每人每天講一個故事，10 天裏共講了100 個故事，這就是《十日談》。故事深刻地揭露了教會、僧侶欺騙的虛偽，抨擊了禁欲主義，謳歌高尚的愛情。
The title is a portmanteau of two Greek words meaning "ten" (δέκα déka) and "day" (ἡμέρα hēméra).
1934 年可怕的黑死病從地中漲沿岸漫延到中歐，為躲避瘟疫，有三男七女從佛羅倫薩逃離，移居一座別墅。為消磨時光每人每天講一個故事，10 天裏共講了100 個故事，這就是《十日談》。故事深刻地揭露了教會、僧侶欺騙的虛偽，抨擊了禁欲主義，謳歌高尚的愛情。
The title is a portmanteau of two Greek words meaning "ten" (δέκα déka) and "day" (ἡμέρα hēméra).
儿子与情人《兒子與情人》視角獨特，對人性中隱秘的“戀母情結”有深刻、形象的挖掘。一般認為，小說中的兒子保羅就是勞倫斯的化身，而莫雷爾太太就是勞倫斯的母親莉蒂婭，保羅的女友米麗安就是勞倫斯的初戀情人傑茜。
《兒子與情人》的主綫之一是以勞倫斯和傑茜的私情為藍本，而勞倫斯母親那強烈變態的母愛足以扼殺勞倫斯任何正常的愛情。勞倫斯曾對自己的情人說：“你知道我一直愛我的母親。我像情人一樣愛她，所以我總也無法愛你。”這些折磨人的日子在《兒子與情人》中有很詳盡的描述。
《兒子與情人》-小說背景
小說背景是勞倫斯的出生地——諾丁漢郡礦區。父親莫瑞爾是礦工，由於長年沉重的勞動和煤井事故使他變得脾氣暴躁，母親出身
於中産家庭，有一定教養。結婚後，夫婦不和，母親開始厭棄丈夫，把全部感情和希望傾註在孩子身上，由此産生畸形的母愛。長子威廉為倫敦律師當文書，但為了掙錢勞累致死。母親從此對小兒子保羅寄予厚望。小說前半部着重寫了保羅和其母親之間奧狄甫斯式的感情。後半部則着重寫了保羅和兩位情人剋拉拉和米裏艾姆之間兩種不同的愛。前者情欲愛，後者是柏拉圖式的精神之戀。保羅在母親陰影之下，無法選擇自己的生活道路。直到母親病故後，他纔擺脫了束縛，離別故土和情人，真正成人。
勞倫斯通過現實主義和心理分析的寫作方法，描寫了十九世紀末葉英國工業社會中下層人民的生活和特定環境下母子間和兩性間的復雜、變態的心理。他強調人的原始本能，把理智作為壓抑天性的因素加以摒棄，主張充分發揮人的本能。小說中，勞倫斯還對英國生活中工業化物質文明和商業精神進行了批判。
《兒子與情人》-內容介紹
《兒子與情人》小說主人公保羅的父母莫瑞爾夫婦。他們兩人是在一次舞會上結識的，可以說是一見鐘情，婚後也過了一段甜蜜、幸福的日子。但是，兩人由於出身不同，性格不合，精神追求迥異，在短暫的激情過後，之間便産生了無休止的唇槍舌劍，丈夫甚至動起手來，還把懷有身孕的妻子關在門外。
小說中的夫婦之間衹有肉體的結合，而沒有精神的溝通、靈魂的共鳴。父親是一位渾渾噩噩的煤礦工人，貪杯，粗俗，常常把傢裏的事和孩子們的前程置之度外。母親出身於中産階級，受過教育，對嫁給一個平凡的礦工耿耿於懷，直到對丈夫完全絶望。於是，她把時間、精力和全部精神希冀轉移、傾註到由於肉體結合而降生於人世間的大兒子威廉和二兒子保羅身上。
她竭力阻止兒子步父親的後塵，下井挖煤；她千方百計敦促他們跳出下層人的圈子，出人頭地，實現她在丈夫身上未能實現的精神追求。她的一言一行、一舉一動不但拉大了她和丈夫之間的距離，並最終使之成為不可逾越的鴻溝，而且影響了子女，使他們與母親結成牢固的統一戰綫，去共同對付那雖然肉體依舊光滑、健壯，而精神日漸衰敗、枯竭的父親。
母親和孩子們的統一戰綫給孤立無援的父親帶來了痛苦和災難，也沒有給莫瑞爾傢裏的任何其他一個人帶來好處。發生在父母身上那無休止的衝突，特別是無法和解的靈與肉的撞擊重演在母親和兒子的身上。相比之下，夫妻之間的不和對莫瑞爾太太來說並沒有帶來太大的精神上的折磨，因為她對丈夫失去了信心，而且本來就沒有抱多大的希望。
沒有讓母親揚眉吐氣的大兒子死後，二兒子保羅就逐漸成了母親惟一的精神港灣，也成了母親發泄無名之火和內心痛苦的一個渠道。她愛兒子，恨鐵不成鋼，一個勁兒地鼓勵、督促保羅成名成傢，躋身於上流社會，為母親爭光爭氣；她也想方設法從精神上控製兒子，使他不移情他人，特別是別的女人，以便滿足自己婚姻的缺憾。這種強烈的帶占有性質的愛使兒子感到窒息，迫使他一有機會就設法逃脫。而在短暫的逃離中，他又常常被母親那無形的精神枷鎖牽引着，痛苦得不能自已。
和女友米莉安的交往過程也是年輕的保羅經歷精神痛苦的過程。他們由於興趣相投，接觸日漸頻繁，産生了感情，成了一對應該說是十分相配的戀人。然而可悲的是，米莉安也過分追求精神滿足，非但缺乏激情，而且像保羅的母親一樣，企圖從精神上占有保羅，從靈魂上吞噬保羅。這使她與保羅的母親成了針鋒相對的“情敵”，命裏註定要敗在那占有欲更強，又可依賴血緣關係輕易占上風的老太太手下。
保羅身邊的另一個名叫剋拉拉的女人同樣是一個靈與肉相分離的畸形人。她生活在社會下層，與丈夫分居，一段時間內與保羅打得火熱。保羅從這位“蕩婦”身上得到肉體上的滿足。然而這種“狂歡式”的融合，是一種沒有生命力的、一瞬即逝的結合。由於從米莉安身上找不到安慰，保羅需要從心理上尋求自我平衡，需要從性上證明自己的男性能力。由於從丈夫身上得不到滿足，剋拉拉也需要展示自己的魅力，從肉體上尋求自我平衡。
做為母親，與兒子尤其是與二兒子保羅之間的情結，那種撕肝裂肺的靈魂上的爭鬥則給可憐的母親帶來了無法愈合的創傷，直到她鬱鬱寡歡，無可奈何，離開人世。
《兒子與情人》-人物分析
《兒子與情人》中，保羅母親對丈夫的失望、不滿和怨恨使莫瑞爾太太把自己的感情、愛憐和精神寄托轉嚮了兒子，或者說，莫瑞爾太太把自己經歷過的精神磨難和一心要解决的問題“折射”到了兒子的身上，於是一場靈與肉的衝撞又在母子之間展開。
母親的這種性變態使兒子心酸，惆悵，無所適從。有了母親，保羅就無法去愛別的女人。在母親幾乎是聲嘶力竭地哀嘆“我從來沒有過一個丈夫”、一個“真正”的丈夫時，保羅禁不住深情地撫摸起母親的頭髮，熱吻起母親的喉頸。這種“戀母情結”在很大程度上變成了一種“固戀”，使他失去了感情和理智的和諧，失去了“本我”和 “超自我”之間的平衡。因此，保羅的情感無法發展、升華，他的性心理性格無法完善、成熟，從而導致了他一生的痛苦和悲劇。
幼年時期的“戀母”情結，使保羅成了感情上和精神上的“癡呆兒”。他雖然愛戀着米莉安，但卻不能像一位正常的血肉之軀，理直氣壯地去愛她。這不但使自己陷入了睏境，也給米莉安造成了巨大的精神痛苦。保羅見不到米莉安的時候會感到悶得慌，可是一旦跟她在一起卻要爭爭吵吵，因為米莉安總是顯得“超凡脫俗”或非常地“精神化”，使保羅覺得像跟母親在一起那樣不自在。
保羅衹要跟別的女人在一起，靈魂就會被母親那無形的精神枷鎖控製着，感到左右為難，無法獲得自由。在他和米莉安儼然像一對夫婦在親戚傢生活的日子裏，保羅得到了米莉安的肉體，而在精神上，保羅仍然屬於自己的母親。米莉安衹是帶着濃厚的宗教成分，為了心愛的人做出了 “犧牲”。所以，在那段日子裏，他們也並沒有能夠享受青年男女之間本該享受到的愉悅。實際上，肉體間的苟合，衹是加速了他們之間愛情悲劇的進程。
在這一次次靈與肉的衝撞後，小說中的主要人物一個個傷痕纍纍，肉體和精神均遭受了巨大的摧殘。保羅的父親在傢裏、在親人面前永遠成為格格不入的“邊緣人”。保羅的母親在精神上從來沒有過一個“真正的丈夫”，衹能從兒子身上尋找情感的慰藉，而這種努力又常常被其他女人所挫敗，後來心理、生理衰竭，得了不治之癥，早早撒手人寰。米莉安雖然苦苦掙紮，忍辱負重，但並沒有得到保羅的心，保羅直到擺脫母親的精神羈絆，可以與她重歸於好，永結良緣時，最終還是狠下心來，拒絶了她的婚求，孑然一人，繼續做精神上的掙紮。
衹沉迷於肉體欲望的剋拉拉也很快結束了與保羅的風流，回到性格粗俗、暴烈、無所作為的丈夫身邊。可以說，在這些靈與肉的衝撞中，我們看到的是一個個沮喪、可悲的失敗者，找不到一個最終的贏傢。其實，在人們賴以繁衍生息的大自然被破壞，在人性被扭麯，在人類的和諧關係不斷被威脅的社會中，靈與肉的爭鬥本來就是殘酷無情的，到頭來誰也成不了贏傢，成不了一個完整的、有血有肉的人。
《兒子與情人》-作品影響
《兒子與情人》是勞倫斯在一次世界大戰之前最優秀的作品之一。戴維•赫伯特•勞倫斯是一位天才的作傢，他的作品洞察人類生命中最深層的領地—人的心理，生動描述人類諸如掙紮、痛苦、危機、歡娛等種種情感和感受。他致力於開啓人類心深處的“黑匣子”，穿透意識的表面，觸及隱藏的血的關聯“，從而揭示原型的自我。
在這部小說裏，他對女性的心理進行了大膽、透徹的探索，其小說中的女性也因此體現出更為強烈的審美情趣和藝術表現力，細膩準確地反映出勞倫斯的寫作主題。
戴維•赫伯特•勞倫斯用精神分析的方法對《兒子與情人》中的三種女性愛情心理模式進行描述，這三種模式將成為此論文的三部分。第一部分—精神模式,，此模式對本能的欲望進行抵製和輕視。《兒子與情人》中的米莉亞姆就是這個模式的典型代表。第二部分 ——肉欲模式，這種心理會放縱她們自己個人的本能的欲望而又忽視了靈魂的交流。這部小說中的剋拉拉就是一個典型的例子。第三部分——情節模式，這種模式對某個東西或某一種感情顯示出一種極端的態度。莫瑞爾太太就這樣的一個對家庭和兒子們有極端的占有欲的女人。
戴維•赫伯特•勞倫斯通過對《兒子與情人》中的三種女性愛情心理模式的分析，闡述其局限性，揭示健康自然的女性愛情心理，對於成就完整的生命及追求中女性的成功有重要作用。
Plot introduction and history
The third published novel of D. H. Lawrence, taken by many to be his earliest masterpiece, tells the story of Paul Morel, a young man and budding artist. Richard Aldington explains the semi-autobiographical nature of this masterpiece:
When you have experienced Sons and Lovers you have lived through the agonies of the young Lawrence striving to win free from his old life. Generally, it is not only considered as an evocative portrayal of working-class life in a mining community, but also an intense study of family, class and early sexual relationships.[citation needed]
The original 1913 edition was heavily edited by Edward Garnett who removed 80 passages, roughly a tenth of the text. The novel is dedicated to Garnett. Garnett, as the literary advisor to the publishing firm Duckworth, was an important figure in leading Lawrence further into the London literary world during the years 1911 and 1912. It was not until the 1992 Cambridge University Press edition was released that the missing text was restored.
Lawrence began working on the novel in the period of his mother's illness, and often expresses this sense of his mother's wasted life through his female protagonist Gertrude Morel. Letters written around the time of its development clearly demonstrate the admiration he felt for his mother - viewing her as a 'clever, ironical, delicately moulded woman' - and her apparently unfortunate marriage to his coal mining father, a man of 'sanguine temperament' and instability. He believed that his mother had married below her class status. Rather interestingly, Lydia Lawrence wasn't born into the middle-class. This personal family conflict experienced by Lawrence provided him with the impetus for the first half of his novel - in which both William, the older brother, and Paul Morel become increasingly contemptuous of their father - and the subsequent exploration of Paul Morel's antagonizing relationships with both his lovers, which are both invariably affected by his allegiance to his mother.
The first draft of Lawrence's novel is now lost and was never completed, which seems to be directly due to his mother's illness. He did not return to the novel for three months, at which point it was titled 'Paul Morel'. The penultimate draft of the novel coincided with a remarkable change in Lawrence's life, as his health was thrown into tumult and he resigned his teaching job in order to spend time in Germany. This plan was never followed, however, as he met and married the German minor aristocrat, Frieda Weekley. According to Frieda's account of their first meeting, she and Lawrence talked about Oedipus and the effects of early childhood on later life within twenty minutes of meeting.
The third draft of 'Paul Morel' was sent to the publishing house Heinemann, which was repulsively responded to by William Heinemann himself. His reaction captures the shock and newness of Lawrence's novel, 'the degradation of the mother [as explored in this novel], supposed to be of gentler birth, is almost inconceivable', and encouraged Lawrence to redraft the novel one more time. In addition to altering the title to a more thematic 'Sons and Lovers', Heinemann's response had reinvigorated Lawrence into vehemently defending his novel and its themes as a coherent work of art. In order to justify its form Lawrence explains, in letters to Garnett, that it is a 'great tragedy' and a 'great book', one that mirrors the 'tragedy of thousands of young men in England'.
Explanation of the novel's title
Lawrence rewrote the work four times until he was happy with it. Although before publication the work was usually called Paul Morel, Lawrence finally settled on Sons and Lovers. Just as the new title makes the work less focused on a central character, many of the later additions broadened the scope of the work, thereby making the work less autobiographical. While some of the edits by Garnett were on the grounds of propriety or style, others would once more narrow the emphasis back upon Paul.
Plot summary
Part I:
The refined daughter of a "good old burgher family," Gertrude Coppard meets a rough-hewn miner at a Christmas dance and falls into a whirlwind romance. But soon after her marriage to Walter Morel, she realizes the difficulties of living off his meagre salary in a rented house. The couple fight and drift apart and Walter retreats to the pub after work each day. Gradually, Mrs. Morel's affections shift to her sons beginning with the oldest, William.
As a boy, William is so attached to his mother that he doesn't enjoy the fair without her. As he grows older, he defends her against his father's occasional violence. Eventually, he leaves their Nottinghamshire home for a job in London, where he begins to rise up into the middle class. He is engaged, but he detests the girl's superficiality. He dies and Mrs. Morel is heartbroken, but when Paul catches pneumonia she rediscovers her love for her second son.
Part II:
Both repulsed by and drawn to his mother, Paul is afraid to leave her but wants to go out on his own, and needs to experience love. Gradually, he falls into a relationship with Miriam, a farm girl who attends his church. The two take long walks and have intellectual conversations about books but Paul resists, in part because his mother looks down on her. At work, Paul meets Clara Dawes who has separated from her husband, Baxter.
Paul leaves Miriam behind as he grows more intimate with Clara, but even she cannot hold him and he returns to his mother. When his mother dies soon after, he is alone.
Lawrence summarized the plot in a letter to Edward Garnett on 12 November 1912:
It follows this idea: a woman of character and refinement goes into the lower class, and has no satisfaction in her own life. She has had a passion for her husband, so her children are born of passion, and have heaps of vitality. But as her sons grow up she selects them as lovers — first the eldest, then the second. These sons are urged into life by their reciprocal love of their mother — urged on and on. But when they come to manhood, they can't love, because their mother is the strongest power in their lives, and holds them. It's rather like Goethe and his mother and Frau von Stein and Christiana — As soon as the young men come into contact with women, there's a split. William gives his sex to a fribble, and his mother holds his soul. But the split kills him, because he doesn't know where he is. The next son gets a woman who fights for his soul — fights his mother. The son loves his mother — all the sons hate and are jealous of the father. The battle goes on between the mother and the girl, with the son as object. The mother gradually proves stronger, because of the ties of blood. The son decides to leave his soul in his mother's hands, and, like his elder brother go for passion. He gets passion. Then the split begins to tell again. But, almost unconsciously, the mother realizes what is the matter, and begins to die. The son casts off his mistress, attends to his mother dying. He is left in the end naked of everything, with the drift towards death.
Literary significance & criticism
In 1999, the Modern Library ranked Sons and Lovers ninth on a list of the 100 best novels in English of the 20th century.
It contains a frequently quoted use of the English dialect word "nesh". The speech of several protagonists is represented in Lawrence's written interpretation of the Nottinghamshire dialect, which also features in several of his poems .
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
Main article: Sons and Lovers (film)
Sons and Lovers has been adapted for the screen several times, including the Academy Award winning 1960 film, a 1981 BBC TV serial and another on ITV1 in 2003. The 2003 serial has been issued on DVD by Acorn Media UK.
Standard editions
* Sons and Lovers (1913), edited by Helen Baron and Carl Baron, Cambridge University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-521-24276-2
* Paul Morel (1911–12), edited by Helen Baron, Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-521-56009-8, an early manuscript version of Sons and Lovers
《戀愛中的女人》是D．H .勞倫斯最偉大、最有代表性、最臉炙人口的兩部長篇小說之一（另一部是《虹》），他本人也認為它是他的“最佳作品”；它以英國小說中沒有先例的熱情與深度探索了有關戀愛的心理問題，代表了勞倫斯作品的最高成就，因此它同《虹》成為了現代小說的先驅。
D．H．勞倫斯是英國小說傢、詩人、散文傢，20世紀英國最重要和最有爭議的小說傢之一，20世紀世界文壇上最有天分與影響力的人物之一。他與福斯特、喬伊斯、理查森、伍爾芙同是20世紀英國小說的創始人，是中國讀者最熟悉與喜愛的西方作傢之一。
As with most of Lawrence's works, Women in Love caused controversy over its sexual subject matter. One early reviewer said of it, "I do not claim to be a literary critic, but I know dirt when I smell it, and here is dirt in heaps — festering, putrid heaps which smell to high Heaven."
Plot summary
Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen are two sisters living in the Midlands of England in the 1910s. Ursula is a teacher, Gudrun an artist. They meet two men who live nearby, school inspector Rupert Birkin and coal-mine heir Gerald Crich. The four become friends. Ursula and Birkin become involved, and Gudrun eventually begins a love affair with Gerald.
All four are deeply concerned with questions of society, politics, and the relationship between men and women. At a party at Gerald's estate, Gerald's sister Diana drowns. Gudrun becomes the teacher and mentor of his youngest sister. Soon Gerald's coal-mine-owning father dies as well, after a long illness. After the funeral, Gerald goes to Gudrun's house and spends the night with her, while her parents sleep in another room.
Birkin asks Ursula to marry him, and she agrees. Gerald and Gudrun's relationship, however, becomes stormy. The four vacation in the Alps. Gudrun begins an intense friendship with Loerke, a physically puny but emotionally commanding artist from Dresden. Gerald, enraged by Loerke, by Gudrun's verbal abuse, and by his own destructive nature, tries to murder Gudrun. After failing, he retreats back over the mountains and falls to his death in the snow.
Publication
Women in Love was originally published in New York City as a limited edition (1250 books), available only to subscribers; this was due to the controversy caused by his previous work, The Rainbow. Originally, the two books were written as parts of a single novel. The publisher had decided to publish them separately and in rapid succession. The first book's treatment of sexuality, while tame by 21st Century standards, was rather too frank for the Edwardian era. There was an obscenity trial and The Rainbow was banned in the U.K. for 11 years, although it was available in the U.S. The publisher then backed out of publishing the second book in the U.K., so it first appeared in the U.S.
Film adaptation
Screenwriter and producer Larry Kramer and director Ken Russell adapted the novel in the Academy Award-winning 1969 film, Women in Love, (for which Glenda Jackson won for Best Actress). It was one of the first theatrical movies to show male genitals, when Gerald Crich (Oliver Reed) and Rupert Birkin (Alan Bates) wrestle in the nude in front of a roaring fireplace, in addition to several early skinny dipping shots and an explicit sequence of Birkin running naked in the forest after being hit on the head by his spurned former mistress, Hermione Roddice (Eleanor Bron).
Editions
* Women in Love (New York: Privately Printed by Thomas Seltzer, 1920).
* Women in Love (London: Martin Seeker, 1921).
* Women in Love, ed. Charles L. Ross (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1982).
* Women in Love, ed. David Farmer, Lindeth Vasey, and John Worthen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987). This edition is a volume in The Cambridge Edition of the Letters and Works of D. H. Lawrence
* Women in Love, ed. David Farmer, Lindeth Vasey, and John Worthen [with an Introduction and Notes by Mark Kinkead-Weekes] (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1995).
* Women in Love, ed.David Bradshaw (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998)
* The First Women in Love (1916-17) edited by John Worthen and Lindeth Vasey,Cambridge University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-521-37326-3. This edition is a volume in The Cambridge Edition of the Letters and Works of D. H. Lawrence and displays significant differences to the final published version
* The 'Prologue' to Women in Love is a discarded section of an early version of the novel and is set four years after Gerald and Birkin have returned from a skiing holiday in Tyrol. It is published as an appendix to the Cambridge edition, pp489-506
* The First Women in Love Oneworld Classics, 2007, ISBN 978-1-84749-005-6
Literary criticism
* Richard Beynon, (ed.), D. H. Lawrence: The Rainbow and Women in Love (Cambridge: Icon Books, 1997).
* Michael Black (2001) Lawrence's England: The Major Fiction, 1913 - 1920 (Palgrave-MacMillan)
* Paul Delaney (1979) D. H. Lawrence's Nightmare: The Writer and his Circle in the Years of the Great War (Hassocks: Harvester Press)
* F. R. Leavis (1955) D. H. Lawrence: Novelist (London, Chatto and Windus)
* F. R. Leavis (1976) Thought, Words and Creativity: Art and Thought in D. H. Lawrence (London, Chatto and Windus)
* Joyce Carol Oates (1978) "Lawrence's Götterdämmerung: The Apocalyptic Vision of Women in Love"
* Charles L. Ross (1991) Women in Love: A Novel of Mythic Realism (Boston, Mass.: Twayne)
* John Worthen, The Restoration of Women in Love, in Peter Preston and Peter Hoare (eds.)(1989), D. H. Lawrence in the Modern World (London and Basingstoke: Macmillan), pp 7-26
D．H．勞倫斯是英國小說傢、詩人、散文傢，20世紀英國最重要和最有爭議的小說傢之一，20世紀世界文壇上最有天分與影響力的人物之一。他與福斯特、喬伊斯、理查森、伍爾芙同是20世紀英國小說的創始人，是中國讀者最熟悉與喜愛的西方作傢之一。
As with most of Lawrence's works, Women in Love caused controversy over its sexual subject matter. One early reviewer said of it, "I do not claim to be a literary critic, but I know dirt when I smell it, and here is dirt in heaps — festering, putrid heaps which smell to high Heaven."
Plot summary
Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen are two sisters living in the Midlands of England in the 1910s. Ursula is a teacher, Gudrun an artist. They meet two men who live nearby, school inspector Rupert Birkin and coal-mine heir Gerald Crich. The four become friends. Ursula and Birkin become involved, and Gudrun eventually begins a love affair with Gerald.
All four are deeply concerned with questions of society, politics, and the relationship between men and women. At a party at Gerald's estate, Gerald's sister Diana drowns. Gudrun becomes the teacher and mentor of his youngest sister. Soon Gerald's coal-mine-owning father dies as well, after a long illness. After the funeral, Gerald goes to Gudrun's house and spends the night with her, while her parents sleep in another room.
Birkin asks Ursula to marry him, and she agrees. Gerald and Gudrun's relationship, however, becomes stormy. The four vacation in the Alps. Gudrun begins an intense friendship with Loerke, a physically puny but emotionally commanding artist from Dresden. Gerald, enraged by Loerke, by Gudrun's verbal abuse, and by his own destructive nature, tries to murder Gudrun. After failing, he retreats back over the mountains and falls to his death in the snow.
Publication
Women in Love was originally published in New York City as a limited edition (1250 books), available only to subscribers; this was due to the controversy caused by his previous work, The Rainbow. Originally, the two books were written as parts of a single novel. The publisher had decided to publish them separately and in rapid succession. The first book's treatment of sexuality, while tame by 21st Century standards, was rather too frank for the Edwardian era. There was an obscenity trial and The Rainbow was banned in the U.K. for 11 years, although it was available in the U.S. The publisher then backed out of publishing the second book in the U.K., so it first appeared in the U.S.
Film adaptation
Screenwriter and producer Larry Kramer and director Ken Russell adapted the novel in the Academy Award-winning 1969 film, Women in Love, (for which Glenda Jackson won for Best Actress). It was one of the first theatrical movies to show male genitals, when Gerald Crich (Oliver Reed) and Rupert Birkin (Alan Bates) wrestle in the nude in front of a roaring fireplace, in addition to several early skinny dipping shots and an explicit sequence of Birkin running naked in the forest after being hit on the head by his spurned former mistress, Hermione Roddice (Eleanor Bron).
Editions
* Women in Love (New York: Privately Printed by Thomas Seltzer, 1920).
* Women in Love (London: Martin Seeker, 1921).
* Women in Love, ed. Charles L. Ross (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1982).
* Women in Love, ed. David Farmer, Lindeth Vasey, and John Worthen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987). This edition is a volume in The Cambridge Edition of the Letters and Works of D. H. Lawrence
* Women in Love, ed. David Farmer, Lindeth Vasey, and John Worthen [with an Introduction and Notes by Mark Kinkead-Weekes] (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1995).
* Women in Love, ed.David Bradshaw (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998)
* The First Women in Love (1916-17) edited by John Worthen and Lindeth Vasey,Cambridge University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-521-37326-3. This edition is a volume in The Cambridge Edition of the Letters and Works of D. H. Lawrence and displays significant differences to the final published version
* The 'Prologue' to Women in Love is a discarded section of an early version of the novel and is set four years after Gerald and Birkin have returned from a skiing holiday in Tyrol. It is published as an appendix to the Cambridge edition, pp489-506
* The First Women in Love Oneworld Classics, 2007, ISBN 978-1-84749-005-6
Literary criticism
* Richard Beynon, (ed.), D. H. Lawrence: The Rainbow and Women in Love (Cambridge: Icon Books, 1997).
* Michael Black (2001) Lawrence's England: The Major Fiction, 1913 - 1920 (Palgrave-MacMillan)
* Paul Delaney (1979) D. H. Lawrence's Nightmare: The Writer and his Circle in the Years of the Great War (Hassocks: Harvester Press)
* F. R. Leavis (1955) D. H. Lawrence: Novelist (London, Chatto and Windus)
* F. R. Leavis (1976) Thought, Words and Creativity: Art and Thought in D. H. Lawrence (London, Chatto and Windus)
* Joyce Carol Oates (1978) "Lawrence's Götterdämmerung: The Apocalyptic Vision of Women in Love"
* Charles L. Ross (1991) Women in Love: A Novel of Mythic Realism (Boston, Mass.: Twayne)
* John Worthen, The Restoration of Women in Love, in Peter Preston and Peter Hoare (eds.)(1989), D. H. Lawrence in the Modern World (London and Basingstoke: Macmillan), pp 7-26
《查太萊夫人的情人》源於一個真實的故事，衹因書中有毫不避諱的性愛描寫，而曾一度列為禁書。從現今的文學作品來看，大膽而露骨的色情描寫，比比皆是，甚至並非出於情節需要，衹是為了滿足大衆窺私的欲望，而不惜筆墨大肆渲染。但是情色與色情終究是有差別的，情色給人帶來的是美感，是愉悅，是對人性的思考，能激發人對美好的嚮往；色情帶來的卻是污穢，是一時變態的瘋狂，而後留下的衹有空虛。
《查太萊夫人的情人》-作品影響
對於勞倫斯，性交是一種含蓄主義的藝術。在他化腐朽為神奇的文筆之下，性愛是一層深似一層，一次細過一次的飛逸着的旋渦，是曖昧而激情、細膩而詩意、深刻而又空虛的終級高潮。性在層層神秘和敏感的壓力下，仍然是男女之間最直接實際與最自然的交流。
勞倫斯和這本書，一直以來都是禁忌的代名詞，然而，“一旦能夠得到適當的處理，這部小說的重大意義便顯示出來”。勞倫斯認為一個人，不必定要求幸福，不必定要求偉大，但求知道“生活”，而做個真正的人。要做真正的人，要過真正的生活‘便要使生命澎湃般的激動。這種激動是從接觸 (Contact)中，從合一(togetherness)一起中産生出來的，而世界，正是通過這種人類原始情欲的面貌，來接近我們。
在一九二八——二九年兩年間，歐美文壇上最令人震驚、最引起爭執的書，大概莫過於勞倫斯(D．H．Lawrence)的這本《查太萊夫人的情人》了。跟着，一九三零年勞倫斯逝世。蓋冠論定，世界文壇又為這本書熱鬧了一番。在現世紀的小說傢中，决沒有一個象勞倫斯一樣，受過世人這樣殘酷地辱駡的；而同時，在英國現代作傢中，要找到一個象勞倫斯一樣的，受着精英的青年知識階級所極端崇拜的人，卻是罕見的，勞倫斯的這本書，把虛偽的衛道者們弄癲了，他把腐敗的近代文明的猙獰面孔，太不容情地暴露了。但是，勞倫斯卻在這些“狗人窮巷”的衛道者們的癲狂反攻之下，在這種近代文明的兇險的排擊之下，成為無辜的犧牲者：他的天才的壽命，給排山倒海的嘲諷和誹謗所結束了。現在，正如勞倫勞動保護夫人說，《查太萊夫人的情人》的作者，是象一隻小鳥似的，被埋葬在中海的燦爛的陽光之下的一個寂寞的墳墓裏了。但是，這本文藝傑構，卻在敵人的仇恨的但是無可奈何的沉默態度之下，繼續吐露光芒，它不但在近代文藝界放了一綫熔人的光彩，而且在近乎黑暗的生活下，燃起了一盞光亮的明燈。
《查太萊夫人的情人》-影片簡介
故事發生在一戰後的英格蘭。從戰場上歸來的剋利福特。查太萊爵士由於在戰爭中受傷而導致下半身癱瘓，終年衹能坐在輪椅上。查太萊和他的新婚妻子康妮回到老傢的莊園，準備過一種與世無爭的田園生活。年輕貌美的康妮是一個心地善良的女子，她明知等待着自己的將是漫長孤寂的日子，卻仍然接受了命運的安排，甘願留在丈夫身邊。
這天，康妮有事去找莊園的看林人米爾斯，米爾斯正在院子空地上淋浴。康妮無意間瞥見了他裸露而健壯的身體，不由在心裏蕩起一陣漣漪。米爾斯顯然也被典雅溫婉的康妮吸引住了。為了使傢族能夠傳承下去，剋利福特嚮康妮提出，希望她能給這個傢生個孩子，但卻遭到康妮的斷然拒絶。當晚的聖誕舞會上，客人們都在盡情狂歡，惟康妮獨坐一旁，心情鬱悶。爸爸和妹妹都為她擔心，紛紛勸她要珍惜自己的青春，要設法開闢自己的生活。
在妹妹希爾達的幫助下，剋利福特聘請了一位寡婦伯爾頓太太隨身伺候。康妮由此得以從病人身旁脫身，得到一些自由時間。康妮經常獨自到林間散步，和米爾斯有了一些接觸。天長日久，兩人逐漸産生了感情。康妮開始越來越不能忍受查太萊大宅中華麗但卻刻板蒼白的生活了，她覺得自己已被壓迫得奄奄一息，她嚮往外面的大自然，嚮往米爾斯身上煥發出來的活力。終於，康妮投入了米爾斯的懷抱。他們如癡如醉地做愛，這是兩個健康肉體之間的完滿的性愛、全身心投入的性愛、相互尊重理解善意回應的性愛，這種性愛由最初純粹的肉體吸引慢慢轉化成了一種靈魂的相互碰撞，米爾斯用愛撫與熱情使康妮變成了一個真正的女人，康妮驚奇地發現自己深深愛上了這個粗魯沒有文化但卻深沉熱情的男子。康妮和米爾斯成了靈欲合一的情人，當康妮晚上悄悄地從查太萊大宅裏跑嚮在一旁守候她的米爾斯的時候，她已經完全沉醉於這段感情了。
一個雨天，康妮與米爾斯在林中小屋幽會。激情澎湃的康妮衝嚮屋外，脫去身上的長袍，裸着身體在雨中奔跑，米爾斯也歡叫着追了出去。康妮完美無瑕的胴體在蔥緑的森林中顯得那麽自然和諧，兩人像快樂的精靈一樣在雨中嬉戲。之後，他們用鮮花裝點彼此，猶如回歸伊甸園的亞當與夏娃。這時，橫亙在他們之間的等級障礙早已蕩然無存。
終於，康妮懷上了米爾斯的孩子。在外出旅遊期間，她把自己的故事坦誠地告訴了希爾達，希爾達對康妮的做法不以為然，還積極地要為孩子物色一個貴族父親，卻被康妮拒絶。康妮難以割捨對米爾斯的思念，提前回到莊園，卻發現米爾斯迫於壓力已經辭職，並遭到毒打，被遣送到礦上燒煤。昔日的小木屋也已不再是他們的樂園，兩人似乎已經走投無路。
米爾斯决心離開英國，去加拿大謀生，康妮面臨抉擇。終於，康妮嚮剋利福特提出離婚，並告訴他，她所愛的人是看林人米爾斯。剋利福特得知後，猶如墮入陷阱的睏獸，狂怒道：“天哪！你竟和我的僕人發生關係！”最後，康妮與米爾斯這一對多難的情人終於相遇在前往加拿大的船上。兩個人的明天是光明而充滿希望的，康妮放棄了雍容奢華但卻死氣沉沉的貴婦生活，奔嚮了自由與愛情，兩個來自不同階層的人終於衝破世俗的障礙，獲得新生。
《查太萊夫人的情人》-作品背景
原著在英國被禁30年，出版該書的企鵝出版社被控出版淫穢作品，直至1960年纔被宣告無罪，小說亦同時解禁。由於小說的敏感，根據小說改編的電影同樣引起人們的普遍關註。
影片《查太萊夫人的情人》根據英國20世紀小說傢戴衛.赫伯特.勞倫斯創作於 1928年的同名小說改編。勞倫斯的這部經典名著自問世起就備受爭議，在英國被禁30年，但卻不妨礙世人對它的喜愛和傳閱。小說曾多次被搬上銀幕，1992年英國大導演肯。拉賽爾受BBC電視臺之邀，將其再度搬上銀幕，拍成了一部長達4個多小時、總共4集的電視劇，並剪輯出一個長約2小時、供影院放映的電影“縮減本”。
本片導演肯。拉賽爾以拍攝音樂傢傳記片而聞名。此前，他也曾兩度改編勞倫斯的小說《虹》和《戀愛中的女人》。
《查太萊夫人的情人》-主題思想
從福樓拜的《包法利夫人》、托爾斯泰的《安娜。卡列琳娜》到勞倫斯的《查太萊夫人的情人》，西方現代小說一直反復探討着一個主題，即在急遽變化的社會中，已婚女性對世俗的社會價值所做的反叛及其後果。本片再次以電影的形式對這一主題做出呼應。導演肯。拉塞爾力求忠實於勞倫斯的原著，保留了原著的大部分情節和對白，在結構上也沒有大的調整，比較準確地傳達出原著中所藴涵的深刻主題，以唯美的視覺語言揭示了女性獨立性意識的自我萌發和自我救贖。影片在揭示男女情愛的同時，將性愛描寫上升到哲學和美學的高度，伴隨着熾烈的性愛體驗的，則是對歷史、政治、宗教、經濟等社會問題的嚴肅思考。查太萊夫婦的結合是一種不和諧的畸形婚姻。半身癱瘓、失去男性能力的丈夫和正值芳年的妻子，這是一個殘酷的組合，何況剋利福特是個虛偽自私的人，在他的心目中，康妮衹不過是一件美麗的附庸和傳宗接代的工具。剋利福特不能滿足康妮的正常情欲，米爾斯則幫助康妮實現了自我，喚醒了她身上的女性本能。最終，兩人的契合由肉欲之愛升華到心靈的交融，康妮反叛了她所從屬的那個階級，在那個封建保守的時代，她的勇敢選擇，無疑具有女性個體的積極意義。
勞倫斯畢生致力於男女性愛題材小說的創作，他認為，小說《查泰萊夫人的情人》“最好拿給所有17歲的少女們看看”。在他看來，人類的性愛具有至高無上的價值。這個世界上，恐怕再沒有哪一個作傢能像勞倫斯那樣，以宗教般的熱忱贊美人間性愛、以細膩微妙的筆觸描繪兩性關係中那種欲仙欲死的至高境界。勞倫斯的小說一嚮以大膽而詳盡的性描寫著稱，導演肯.拉塞爾亦不愧為用視覺語言講述故事、編織情欲的高手，影片中性愛場面的展現不僅含蓄優美，而且富有詩意，導演沒有在情色場面上做過多的渲染和鋪陳，衹是點到為止，但卻將人體與情欲詩意化，將詩意視覺化，把影片主人公情感故事拍得恍若童話仙境。
本片的服裝和布景製作也十分考究，生動地再現了20世紀初葉英國上流社會的風情，通過女主角康妮那一款款優雅精緻的服飾、華麗而空洞的室內布景，以及考究的用具、繁瑣的生活細節，反襯出上流社會人們精神上的空虛與蒼白。
《查太萊夫人的情人》-勞倫斯私印、自售作品
《查太萊夫人的情人》勞倫斯
雖然在寫出《查太萊夫人的情人》之前，勞倫斯已以《彩虹》、《戀愛中的婦女》、《兒子與情人》等作品享有了相當名聲，可是，眼下的這部書，仍然叫出版商、朋友甚至勞倫斯自己感到為難。最後，勞倫斯衹好自己在異國去私自出版，出版後又自己發售。當然，正因為這種形式，也最早地、毋需官方認可地將這部註定要引起軒然大波的作品推嚮了社會。
1926年，勞倫斯便開始了《查太萊夫人的情人》的寫作，並在不算長的時間，完成了第一稿。當時，他已經在試圖聯繫出版了，可很快，他便打消了這樣的想法。他當時的心情是矛盾的。在緻某位出版界人士的信中，他開始了預先的辯解：
“關於我的小說《查太萊夫人的情人》，現在我真是左右為難，世人將會認為這部小說是不正派的。可你知道它並非不正派。我始終苦心孤詣地在做同一件事情，就是使人們在提到性關係時，應感到是正當和珍貴的，而不是羞愧。這部小說是我在這一方面所做的進一步努力。在我看來，性是美好的、溫柔的，但又如赤裸着的人那樣脆弱。”
勞倫斯仍在不停地調整着這部作品，第二稿、第三稿……可即使這樣，在現實社會中，他仍然由於這部作品而招致麻煩，他甚至找不到為他服務的打字員。勞倫斯當時住在意大利的佛羅倫薩，最先他找到當地一位願意替他打字的女子，可在打到第五章時，這位女子不幹了，將稿子退了回來，說她不能再打下去，因為作品內容太污穢、骯髒……
面對這樣的反應和自己的心理預期，勞倫斯一度不想出版這部作品，可是，一方面由於經濟壓力，一方面基於他倔強的性格，在1927年11月時，勞倫斯開始試圖私下印製《查太萊夫人的情人》了。由於自己的心理預感，他暫時不指望在英語世界的英國或美國謀求出版，而打算在意大利將它印出來。原因除去佛羅倫薩的印刷很便宜，還有身處異地，起碼不至於在印刷時便引起不必要的麻煩。
按勞倫斯當時的打算，自己私下印製，第一次印刷上700部，每册定價兩個畿尼（當時每畿尼相當21先令），這樣下來，就會賺到600到700英鎊。這在當時是一筆不小的收入了。不久，對此書銷售的估計和自己經濟拮据的壓迫，勞倫斯又想提高印數——1000部。按照先前定價，他就可以賺到1000英鎊。為了能夠為讀者接受，他甚至一度打算將這部作品名字改為《柔情蜜意》或《約翰•托馬斯和簡夫人》，因為這樣看起來沒有《查太萊夫人的情人》那樣刺眼。
在《查太萊夫人的情人》交付出版商之前，勞倫斯讓幾位友人讀了這部書稿。反應不一，有強烈反差。一些朋友認為這部書不錯，說他們“非常喜歡這本書”；一位女士在讀到這部小說後卻“大發雷霆”——道德上的憤怒。這反應使勞倫斯感到有趣起來。他給另一位還未讀到此書的友人說：“我希望你不會討厭這部小說—— 儘管你很可能不喜歡它。這部小說本身就是一場革命——一顆小小的炸彈。”
勞倫斯終於要將這炸彈引爆了。交出書稿幾天之後，勞倫斯便緻函美國詩人威特•賓納。他們兩人曾經一起去墨西哥旅行過。在信中，勞倫斯希望他能夠為此書做一些銷售工作。在給另一位住在紐約的漢密爾頓•埃姆斯夫人的信裏，勞倫斯也希望她能幫助銷售這部作品：“這是一部溫柔的，生殖器的小說。現在你結婚了，自然會理解它的。由於世俗的公衆容不得對生殖器的描寫，我衹得在這裏出版這部小說。如果你不嫌麻煩，請把那些訂單散發給那些願意購買這部小說的人們。我認為這部小說是值得一買的。”在給他在美國的文學代理人柯蒂斯•布朗的信中，勞倫斯寫的直捷得多：“我真希望這部小說能賣出一千册，或者賣出去大部分，否則我就會破産。我想直接把書給購買者寄去。我準備給你寄上一些訂單，你能否為我找一些訂購者？衹要他們寄來兩英鎊，我就會把書寄給他們。”當然，更多的訂單寄往了英國，這畢竟是勞倫斯的祖國。儘管他知道這顆“炸彈”的威力，可這裏也可能有更多的知音。
勞倫斯所尋找的佛羅倫薩這傢印刷廠，恰好印刷商和印刷廠都沒有人懂得英文。在勞倫斯看來，這倒成了自己的“福氣”。這傢印刷廠全部手工操作，排字很仔細，用的也是一種精緻的手工製作的意大利紙張，所以，印出的書效果十分吸引人。勞倫斯自己為這部小說設計封面：下部是火焰飛揚的紅色底子，中間一隻黑色的鳳凰圖案，頗有“鳳凰涅槃”的味道。這個圖案，後來正式出版的企鵝版封面也沿用了下來。
很快，勞倫斯的努力得到回報。先是他的祖國——英國——寄來了多份小說訂單，然後是美國，訂單也在逐漸寄回。這邊，勞倫斯在緊張地校對清樣。4月、5月、6月……到了28日這一天，這部註定要引發大震動的書——《查太萊夫人的情人》，按照勞倫斯自己堅持的書名出版了。
在勞倫斯祖國的英國，當時人們觀念還相當保守，所以，幫助他推銷該書的朋友，是冒着被判高額罰款的危險來工作的。一位英國的朋友後來回憶說，勞倫斯當時給他們的宣傳詞為：這是一部偉大的著作，是“二十世紀光榮的象徵。”這也許是激發他們甘冒風險的緣由之一。很快，英國的讀者産生了反應。接到友人告知消息的電報，勞倫斯既緊張又興奮：這部小說像一顆炸彈，在我大多數英國朋友中間爆炸開來，他們現在仍忍受着彈震癥的痛苦。“我感到我已扔出去一顆炸彈，來轟炸他們虛偽的性感和虛偽性……”
不過，一部分寄往美國的郵件被扣住了。可一切已經無法阻攔。書十分好銷，勞倫斯加印200册來應付，其餘的，就衹能看着盜印本橫行市場，藉此大賺其錢了。第一批書寄到美國不到一個月，偷印本便出來了。由於偷印本仿製水平很高，連書店老闆都辨認不出，並且售價高於原版：十五元，而原版價僅十元。很快，第二種、第三種……盜印本在紐約出現了。很快，倫敦和巴黎，《查太萊夫人的情人》的盜印本出籠了，售價高達每本三英鎊或兩英鎊。
巴黎一傢書店，一口氣自印了1500册，充斥市場。勞倫斯找來一本看看，衹能苦笑，因為盜印本還很認真地將原版中的一些錯誤給改正了。可這本印製很不錯的書沒有給勞倫斯帶來任何效益。它批發給書店是每本100法郎，賣給讀者成了300、400甚至500法郎。這些歐洲的盜印者甚至嚮勞倫斯提出建議，希望能夠給他們授權，承認他們的印本。這樣，勞倫斯就可以在盜印本中，抽取一些版稅。本來，勞倫斯幾乎都同意了這項建議，可自尊心最後阻止了他。他衹能决意在法國出一種自己認可的版本。自己祖國——英國的發行傢，勸勞倫斯將該書加以刪改，出一個“潔本”，並答應給他豐厚的報酬，可勞倫斯無法接受，他認為，那樣“就等於用剪刀裁剪我自己的鼻子。書流血了。”
可不管怎麽說，勞倫斯以私印、自售的方式推出《查太萊夫人的情人》，現在看來仍然是處理得當的一件事。如人們所知，該書後來被查禁多年，出版社正式出版全本（其間有刪節本印出），已是幾十年之後的事情。當初倘若勞倫斯不采取私印，自售方式，那麽，他在有生之年（書出版兩年之後的1930年2月，這位極具才華的作傢病逝），决然見不到這部作品問世。之後，一切事情决難預料。也許，他的手稿會隨時湮滅；那麽，一部註定要引起公衆興趣，法庭辯論，文學界長期討論的著述，就可能永久在黑暗中沉沒。最起碼，會推遲數十年問世。這種結果，或許作者本人已有預感，所以，采取非正常手段及時推出它，是十分必要的。
其次，《查太萊夫人的情人》的出版，僅僅從經濟角度考慮，它也達到了使勞倫斯擺脫睏窘的目的。儘管後來盜印本從中吮吸了作者大量的心血，可一千多部印本仍然為他賺了一千多英鎊。這個數目，在當時是相當大的。這使很長一段時間內，勞倫斯可以自足地對朋友說：“所以我現在不愁沒錢用了。”
在今天看來，勞倫斯産生最大影響的作品，依然是這册《查太萊夫人的情人》。這部作品，在多個國傢，在相當長時間，被禁止出版。在作者家乡本土的英國，這部書甚至被推上法庭。以該書出版八十年後的今天眼光看，《查太萊夫人的情人》還是如作者自己認識的：“是正當和珍貴的”，即使在性的描寫上，它也是“溫柔、敏感”，甚至是誠摯的。從這些方面去認識，當年勞倫斯以私印、自售的方式發行此書，可以說意義非常。
The story is said to have originated from events in Lawrence's own unhappy domestic life, and he took inspiration for the settings of the book from Eastwood in Nottinghamshire where he grew up. According to some critics, the fling of Lady Ottoline Morrell with "Tiger", a young stonemason who came to carve plinths for her garden statues, also influenced the story. Lawrence at one time considered calling the novel Tenderness and made significant alterations to the text and story in the process of its composition. It has been published in three different versions.
Plot introduction
The story concerns a young married woman, Constance (Lady Chatterley), whose upper-class husband, Clifford Chatterley, has been paralyzed and rendered impotent. Her sexual frustration leads her into an affair with the gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors. This novel is about Constance's realization that she cannot live with the mind alone; she must also be alive physically.
Main characters
* Lady Chatterley is the protagonist of the novel. Before her marriage, she is simply Constance Reid, an intellectual and social progressive from a Scottish bourgeois family, the daughter of Sir Malcolm and the sister of Hilda. When she marries Clifford Chatterley, a minor nobleman, Constance (or, as she is known throughout the novel, Connie) assumes his title, becoming Lady Chatterley. Lady Chatterley's Lover chronicles Connie's maturation as a woman and as a sensual being. She comes to despise her weak, ineffectual husband, and to love Oliver Mellors, the gamekeeper on her husband's estate. In the process of leaving her husband and conceiving a child with Mellors, Lady Chatterley moves from the heartless, bloodless world of the intelligentsia and aristocracy into a vital and profound connection rooted in sensuality and sexual fulfillment.
* Oliver Mellors is the lover in the novel's title. Mellors is the gamekeeper on Clifford Chatterley's estate, Wragby Hall. He is aloof, sarcastic, intelligent and noble. He was born near Wragby, and worked as a blacksmith until he ran off to the army to escape an unhappy marriage. In the army, he rose to become a commissioned lieutenant — an unusual position for a member of the working classes — but was forced to leave the army because of a case of pneumonia, which left him in poor health. Surprisingly, we learn from different characters' accounts that Mellors was in fact finely educated in his childhood, has good table manners, is an extensive reader, and can speak English 'like a gentleman', but chooses to behave like a commoner and speak broad Derbyshire dialect, probably in an attempt to fit into his own community. Disappointed by a string of unfulfilling love affairs, Mellors lives in quiet isolation, from which he is redeemed by his relationship with Connie: the passion unleashed by their lovemaking forges a profound bond between them. At the end of the novel, Mellors is fired from his job as gamekeeper and works as a laborer on a farm, waiting for a divorce from his old wife so he can marry Connie. Mellors is a man with an innate nobility but who remains impervious to the pettiness and emptiness of conventional society, with access to a primal flame of passion and sensuality.
* Clifford Chatterley is Connie's husband. Clifford Chatterley is a young, handsome baronet who becomes paralyzed from the waist down during World War I. As a result of his injury, Clifford is impotent. He retires to his familial estate, Wragby Hall, where he becomes first a successful writer, and then a powerful businessman. But the gap between Connie and him grows ever wider; obsessed with financial success and fame, he is not truly interested in love, and she feels that he has become passionless and empty. He turns for solace to his nurse and companion, Mrs. Bolton, who worships him as a nobleman even as she despises him for his casual arrogance. Clifford is portrayed as a weak, vain man, but declares his right to rule the lower classes, and he soullessly pursues money and fame through industry and the meaningless manipulation of words. His impotence is symbolic of his failings as a strong, sensual man, and could also represent the increasing loss of importance and influence of the ruling classes in a modern world.
* Mrs. Bolton, also known as Ivy Bolton, is Clifford's nurse and caretaker. She is a competent, still-attractive middle-aged woman. Years before the action in this novel, her husband died in an accident in the mines owned by Clifford's family. Even as Mrs. Bolton resents Clifford as the owner of the mines — and, in a sense, the murderer of her husband — she still maintains a worshipful attitude towards him as the representative of the upper class. Her relationship with Clifford - she simultaneously adores and despises him, while he depends and looks down on her - is probably one of the most complex relationships in the novel.
* Michaelis is a successful Irish playwright with whom Connie has an affair early in the novel. Michaelis asks Connie to marry him, but she decides not to, realizing that he is like all other intellectuals: a slave to success, a purveyor of vain ideas and empty words, passionless.
* Hilda Reid is Connie's older sister by two years, the daughter of Sir Malcolm. Hilda shared Connie's cultured upbringing and intellectual education. She remains unliberated by the raw sensuality that changed Connie's life. She disdains Connie's lover, Mellors, as a member of the lower classes, but in the end she helps Connie to leave Clifford.
* Sir Malcolm Reid is the father of Connie and Hilda. He is an acclaimed painter, an aesthete and a bohemian who despises Clifford for his weakness and impotence, and who immediately warms to Mellors.
* Tommy Dukes, one of Clifford's contemporaries, is a brigadier general in the British Army and a clever and progressive intellectual. Lawrence intimates, however, that Dukes is a representative of all intellectuals: all talk and no action. Dukes speaks of the importance of sensuality, but he himself is incapable of sensuality and uninterested in sex. Of Clifford's circle of friends, he is the one who Connie becomes closest to.
* Duncan Forbes is an artist friend of Connie and Hilda. Forbes paints abstract canvases, a form of art Mellors seems to despise. He once loved Connie, and Connie originally claims to be pregnant with his child.
* Bertha Coutts, although never actually appearing in the novel, has her presence felt. She is Mellors' wife, separated from him but not divorced. Their marriage faltered because of their sexual incompatibility: she was too rapacious, not tender enough. She returns at the end of the novel to spread rumors about Mellors' infidelity to her, and helps get him fired from his position as gamekeeper. As the novel concludes, Mellors is in the process of divorcing her.
Themes
In Lady Chatterley's Lover, Lawrence comes full circle to argue once again for individual regeneration, which can be found only through the relationship between man and woman (and, he asserts sometimes, man and man). Love and personal relationships are the threads that bind this novel together. Lawrence explores a wide range of different types of relationships. The reader sees the brutal, bullying relationship between Mellors and his wife Bertha, who punishes him by preventing his pleasure. There is Tommy Dukes, who has no relationship because he cannot find a woman whom he respects intellectually and, at the same time, finds desirable. There is also the perverse, maternal relationship that ultimately develops between Clifford and Mrs. Bolton, his caring nurse, after Connie has left.
Mind and body
Richard Hoggart argues that the main subject of Lady Chatterley's Lover is not the sexual passages that were the subject of such debate but the search for integrity and wholeness. Key to this integrity is cohesion between the mind and the body for "body without mind is brutish; mind without body...is a running away from our double being." Lady Chatterley's Lover focuses on the incoherence of living a life that is "all mind", which Lawrence saw as particularly true among the young members of the aristocratic classes, as in his description of Constance's and her sister Hilda's "tentative love-affairs" in their youth:
So they had given the gift of themselves, each to the youth with whom she had the most subtle and intimate arguments. The arguments, the discussions were the great thing: the love-making and connexion were only sort of primitive reversion and a bit of an anti-climax.
The contrast between mind and body can be seen in the dissatisfaction each has with their previous relationships: Constance's lack of intimacy with her husband who is "all mind" and Mellors's choice to live apart from his wife because of her "brutish" sexual nature. These dissatisfactions lead them into a relationship that builds very slowly and is based upon tenderness, physical passion, and mutual respect. As the relationship between Lady Chatterley and Mellors develops, they learn more about the interrelation of the mind and the body; she learns that sex is more than a shameful and disappointing act, and he learns about the spiritual challenges that come from physical love.
Neuro-psychoanalyst Mark Blechner identifies the "Lady Chatterley phenomenon" in which the same sexual act can affect people in different ways at different times, depending on their subjectivity. He bases it on the passage in which Lady Chatterley feels disengaged from Mellors and thinks disparagingly about the sex act: "And this time the sharp ecstasy of her own passion did not overcome her; she lay with hands inert on his striving body, and do what she might, her spirit seemed to look on from the top of her head, and the butting of his haunches seemed ridiculous to her, and the sort of anxiety of his penis to come to its little evacuating crisis seemed farcical. Yes, this was love, this ridiculous bouncing of the buttocks, and the wilting of the poor insignificant, moist little penis." Shortly thereafter, they make love again, and this time, she experiences enormous physical and emotional involvement: "And it seemed she was like the sea, nothing but dark waves rising and heaving, heaving with a great swell, so that slowly her whole darkness was in motion, and she was ocean rolling its dark, dumb mass."
Class system and social conflict
Besides the evident sexual content of the book, Lady Chatterley’s Lover also presents some views on the British social context of the early 20th century. For example, Constance’s social insecurity, arising from being brought up in an upper middle class background, in contrast with Sir Clifford’s social self-assurance, becomes more evident in passages such as:
Clifford Chatterley was more upper-class than Connie. Connie was well-to-do intelligentsia, but he was aristocracy. Not the big sort, but still it. His father was a baronet, and his mother had been a viscount’s daughter.
There are also signs of dissatisfaction and resentment of the Tevershall coal pit’s workers, the colliers, against Clifford, who owned the mines. By the time Clifford and Connie had moved to Wragby Hall, Clifford's father's estate in Nottinghamshire, the coal industry in England seemed to be in decline, although the coal pit still was a big part in the life of the neighbouring town of Tevershall. References to the concepts of anarchism, socialism, communism, and capitalism permeate the book. Union strikes were also a constant preoccupation in Wragby Hall. An argument between Clifford and Connie goes:
‘’Oh good!, said Connie. “If only there aren’t more strikes!”
“What would be the use of their striking again! Merely ruin the industry, what’s left of it; and surely the owls are beginning to see it!”
“Perhaps they don’t mind ruining the industry,” said Connie.
“Ah, don’t talk like a woman! The industry fills their bellies, even if it can’t keep their pockets quite so flush,” he said, using turns of speech that oddly had a twang of Mrs. Bolton.
The most obvious social contrast in the plot, however, is that of the affair of an aristocratic woman (Connie) with a working class man (Mellors). Mark Schorer, an American writer and literary critic, considers a familiar construction in D.H. Lawrence's works the forbidden love of a woman of relatively superior social situation who is drawn to an "outsider" (a man of lower social rank or a foreigner), in which the woman either resists her impulse or yields to it. Schorer believes the two possibilities were embodied, respectively, in the situation into which Lawrence was born, and that into which Lawrence married, therefore becoming a favorite topic in his work.
Controversy
An authorized abridgment of Lady Chatterley's Lover that was heavily censored was published in America by Alfred E. Knopf in 1928. This edition was subsequently reissued in paperback in America both by Signet Books and by Penguin Books in 1946.
British obscenity trial
When the full unexpurgated edition was published by Penguin Books in Britain in 1960, the trial of Penguin under the Obscene Publications Act of 1959 was a major public event and a test of the new obscenity law. The 1959 act (introduced by Roy Jenkins) had made it possible for publishers to escape conviction if they could show that a work was of literary merit. One of the objections was to the frequent use of the word "fuck" and its derivatives. Another objection involves the use of the word "cunt".
Various academic critics and experts of diverse kinds, including E. M. Forster, Helen Gardner, Richard Hoggart, Raymond Williams and Norman St John-Stevas, were called as witnesses, and the verdict, delivered on 2 November 1960, was "not guilty". This resulted in a far greater degree of freedom for publishing explicit material in the United Kingdom. The prosecution was ridiculed for being out of touch with changing social norms when the chief prosecutor, Mervyn Griffith-Jones, asked if it were the kind of book "you would wish your wife or servants to read".
The Penguin second edition, published in 1961, contains a publisher's dedication, which reads: "For having published this book, Penguin Books were prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, 1959 at the Old Bailey in London from 20 October to 2 November 1960. This edition is therefore dedicated to the twelve jurors, three women and nine men, who returned a verdict of 'Not Guilty' and thus made D. H. Lawrence's last novel available for the first time to the public in the United Kingdom."
In 2006, the trial was dramatised by BBC Wales as The Chatterley Affair.
Australia
Main article: Censorship in Australia
Not only was the book banned in Australia, but a book describing the British trial, The Trial of Lady Chatterley, was also banned. A copy was smuggled into the country and then published widely. The fallout from this event eventually led to the easing of censorship of books in the country, although the country still retains the Office of Film and Literature Classification. In early October 2009, the federal institution of Australia Post banned the sale of this book in their stores and outlets claiming that books of this nature don't fit in with the 'theme of their stores'.
Canada
In 1945, McGill University Professor of Law and Canadian modernist poet F. R. Scott appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada to defend Lady Chatterley's Lover from censorship. However, despite Scott's efforts, the book was banned in Canada for 30 years due to concerns about its use of "obscene language" and explicit depiction of sexual intercourse. On November 15, 1960 an Ontario panel of experts, appointed by Attorney General Kelso Roberts, found that novel was not obscene according to the Canadian Criminal Code.
United States
In 1930, Senator Bronson Cutting proposed an amendment to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which was then being debated, ending the practice of having U.S. Customs censor allegedly obscene books imported to U.S. shores. Senator Reed Smoot vigorously opposed such an amendment, threatening to publicly read indecent passages of imported books in front of the Senate. Although he never followed through, he included Lady Chatterley's Lover as an example of an obscene book that must not reach domestic audiences, declaring "I've not taken ten minutes on Lady Chatterley's Lover, outside of looking at its opening pages. It is most damnable! It is written by a man with a diseased mind and a soul so black that he would obscure even the darkness of hell!"
Lady Chatterley's Lover was one of a trio of books (the others being Tropic of Cancer and Fanny Hill), the ban on which was fought and overturned in court with assistance by lawyer Charles Rembar in 1959.
A French film (1955) based on the novel and released by Kingsley Pictures was in the United States the subject of attempted censorship in New York on the grounds that it promoted adultery. The Supreme Court held that the law prohibiting its showing was a violation of the First Amendment's protection of Free Speech.
The book was famously distributed in the U.S. by Frances Steloff at the Gotham Book Mart, in defiance of the book ban.
Japan
The publication of a full translation of Lady Chatterley's Lover by Ito Sei in 1950 led to a famous obscenity trial in Japan, extending from May 8, 1951 to January 18, 1952, with appeals lasting to March 13, 1957. Several notable literary figures testified for the defense, but the trial ultimately ended in a guilty verdict with a ¥100,000 for Ito and a ¥250,000 fine for his publisher.
India
In 1964, bookseller Ranjit Udeshi in Bombay was prosecuted under Sec. 292 of the Indian Penal Code (sale of obscene books) for selling an unexpurgated copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover.
Ranjit D. Udeshi v. State of Maharashtra (AIR 1968 SC 881) was eventually laid before a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India, where Chief Justice Hidayatullah declared the law on the subject of when a book can be regarded as obscene and established important tests of obscenity such as the Hicklin test.
The judgement upheld the conviction, stating that:
When everything said in its favour we find that in treating with sex the impugned portions viewed separately and also in the setting of the whole book pass the permissible limits judged of from our community standards and as there is no social gain to us which can be said to preponderate, we must hold the book to satisfy the test we have indicated above.
Cultural influence
In the United States, the free publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover was a significant event in the "sexual revolution". At the time, the book was a topic of widespread discussion and a byword of sorts. In 1965, Tom Lehrer recorded a satirical song entitled "Smut", in which the speaker in the song lyrics cheerfully acknowledges his enjoyment of such material; "Who needs a hobby like tennis or philately?/I've got a hobby: rereading Lady Chatterley."
British poet Philip Larkin's poem "Annus Mirabilis" begins with a reference to the trial:
Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) -
Between the end of the "Chatterley" ban
And The Beatles' first LP.
By the 1970s, the story had become sufficiently safe in Britain to be parodied by Morecambe and Wise; a "play wot Ernie wrote" was obviously based on it, with Michele Dotrice as the Lady Chatterley figure. Introducing it, Ernie explained that his play was "about a man who has an accident with a combine harvester, which unfortunately makes him impudent".
Standard editions
* Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928), edited by Michael Squires, Cambridge University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-521-22266-4.
* The First and Second Lady Chatterley Novels, edited by Dieter Mehl and Christa Jansohn, Cambridge University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-521-47116-8. These two books, The First Lady Chatterley and John Thomas and Lady Jane were earlier drafts of Lawrence's last novel.
* The Second Lady Chatterley's Lover, Oneworld Classics 2007, ISBN 978-1-84749-019-3
In 1946 an English hardcover edition, copyright Jan Förlag, was published by Victor Pettersons Bokindustriaktiebolag Stockholm, Sweden. It is marked "Unexpurgated authorized edition". A paperback edition followed in 1950.
Adaptations
Radio
Lady Chatterley's Lover has been adapted for BBC Radio 4 by acclaimed writer Michelene Wandor and was first broadcast in September 2006.
Film and television
Lady Chatterley's Lover has been adapted for film several times:
* In 1955, starring Danielle Darrieux; was banned in the United States.
* In 1961, actor Michael Gough, playing a seemingly sinister but ultimately heroic butler named Fisk, is seen reading Lady Chatterley's Lover in the British horror comedy film What a Carve Up! (aka No Place Like Homicide! in the USA).
* 1981 film version by Just Jaeckin starring Sylvia Kristel and Nicholas Clay.
* In 1993 a lengthy television mini-series entitled Lady Chatterley directed by Ken Russell starring Joely Richardson and Sean Bean for BBC Television. This film incorporates some material from the longer second version John Thomas and Lady Jane.
* In 1998, Viktor Polesný filmed a Czech-Language television version with Zdena Studenková (Constance), Marek Vašut (Clifford) and Boris Rösner (Mellors).
* In 2006, the French director Pascale Ferran filmed a French-Language version with Marina Hands as Constance and Jean-Louis Coulloc'h as the game keeper, which won the Cesar Award for Best Film in 2007. Marina Hands was awarded best actress at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. The film was based on John Thomas and Lady Jane, Lawrence's second version of the story. It was broadcast on the French television channel Arte on 22 June 2007 as Lady Chatterley et l'homme des bois (Lady Chatterley and the Man of the Woods).
Theatre
Lawrence's novel was successfully dramatised for the stage in a three-act play by a young British playwright named John Harte. Although produced at The Arts Theatre in London in 1961 (and elsewhere later on), his play was written in 1953. It was the only D. H. Lawrence novel ever to be staged and his dramatisation was the only one to be read and approved by Lawrence's widow, Frieda. Despite her attempts to obtain the copyright for Harte to have his play staged in the 1950s, Baron Philippe de Rothschild did not relinquish the dramatic rights until his film was released in France.
Only the Old Bailey trial against Penguin Books for alleged obscenity in publishing the unexpurgated paperback edition of the novel prevented the play's transfer to the much bigger Wyndham's Theatre, for which it had already been licensed by the Lord Chamberlain's Office on 12 August 1960 with passages censored. It was fully booked out for its limited run at The Arts Theatre and well reviewed by Harold Hobson, the prevailing West End theatre critic of the time.
《查太萊夫人的情人》-作品影響
對於勞倫斯，性交是一種含蓄主義的藝術。在他化腐朽為神奇的文筆之下，性愛是一層深似一層，一次細過一次的飛逸着的旋渦，是曖昧而激情、細膩而詩意、深刻而又空虛的終級高潮。性在層層神秘和敏感的壓力下，仍然是男女之間最直接實際與最自然的交流。
勞倫斯和這本書，一直以來都是禁忌的代名詞，然而，“一旦能夠得到適當的處理，這部小說的重大意義便顯示出來”。勞倫斯認為一個人，不必定要求幸福，不必定要求偉大，但求知道“生活”，而做個真正的人。要做真正的人，要過真正的生活‘便要使生命澎湃般的激動。這種激動是從接觸 (Contact)中，從合一(togetherness)一起中産生出來的，而世界，正是通過這種人類原始情欲的面貌，來接近我們。
在一九二八——二九年兩年間，歐美文壇上最令人震驚、最引起爭執的書，大概莫過於勞倫斯(D．H．Lawrence)的這本《查太萊夫人的情人》了。跟着，一九三零年勞倫斯逝世。蓋冠論定，世界文壇又為這本書熱鬧了一番。在現世紀的小說傢中，决沒有一個象勞倫斯一樣，受過世人這樣殘酷地辱駡的；而同時，在英國現代作傢中，要找到一個象勞倫斯一樣的，受着精英的青年知識階級所極端崇拜的人，卻是罕見的，勞倫斯的這本書，把虛偽的衛道者們弄癲了，他把腐敗的近代文明的猙獰面孔，太不容情地暴露了。但是，勞倫斯卻在這些“狗人窮巷”的衛道者們的癲狂反攻之下，在這種近代文明的兇險的排擊之下，成為無辜的犧牲者：他的天才的壽命，給排山倒海的嘲諷和誹謗所結束了。現在，正如勞倫勞動保護夫人說，《查太萊夫人的情人》的作者，是象一隻小鳥似的，被埋葬在中海的燦爛的陽光之下的一個寂寞的墳墓裏了。但是，這本文藝傑構，卻在敵人的仇恨的但是無可奈何的沉默態度之下，繼續吐露光芒，它不但在近代文藝界放了一綫熔人的光彩，而且在近乎黑暗的生活下，燃起了一盞光亮的明燈。
《查太萊夫人的情人》-影片簡介
故事發生在一戰後的英格蘭。從戰場上歸來的剋利福特。查太萊爵士由於在戰爭中受傷而導致下半身癱瘓，終年衹能坐在輪椅上。查太萊和他的新婚妻子康妮回到老傢的莊園，準備過一種與世無爭的田園生活。年輕貌美的康妮是一個心地善良的女子，她明知等待着自己的將是漫長孤寂的日子，卻仍然接受了命運的安排，甘願留在丈夫身邊。
這天，康妮有事去找莊園的看林人米爾斯，米爾斯正在院子空地上淋浴。康妮無意間瞥見了他裸露而健壯的身體，不由在心裏蕩起一陣漣漪。米爾斯顯然也被典雅溫婉的康妮吸引住了。為了使傢族能夠傳承下去，剋利福特嚮康妮提出，希望她能給這個傢生個孩子，但卻遭到康妮的斷然拒絶。當晚的聖誕舞會上，客人們都在盡情狂歡，惟康妮獨坐一旁，心情鬱悶。爸爸和妹妹都為她擔心，紛紛勸她要珍惜自己的青春，要設法開闢自己的生活。
在妹妹希爾達的幫助下，剋利福特聘請了一位寡婦伯爾頓太太隨身伺候。康妮由此得以從病人身旁脫身，得到一些自由時間。康妮經常獨自到林間散步，和米爾斯有了一些接觸。天長日久，兩人逐漸産生了感情。康妮開始越來越不能忍受查太萊大宅中華麗但卻刻板蒼白的生活了，她覺得自己已被壓迫得奄奄一息，她嚮往外面的大自然，嚮往米爾斯身上煥發出來的活力。終於，康妮投入了米爾斯的懷抱。他們如癡如醉地做愛，這是兩個健康肉體之間的完滿的性愛、全身心投入的性愛、相互尊重理解善意回應的性愛，這種性愛由最初純粹的肉體吸引慢慢轉化成了一種靈魂的相互碰撞，米爾斯用愛撫與熱情使康妮變成了一個真正的女人，康妮驚奇地發現自己深深愛上了這個粗魯沒有文化但卻深沉熱情的男子。康妮和米爾斯成了靈欲合一的情人，當康妮晚上悄悄地從查太萊大宅裏跑嚮在一旁守候她的米爾斯的時候，她已經完全沉醉於這段感情了。
一個雨天，康妮與米爾斯在林中小屋幽會。激情澎湃的康妮衝嚮屋外，脫去身上的長袍，裸着身體在雨中奔跑，米爾斯也歡叫着追了出去。康妮完美無瑕的胴體在蔥緑的森林中顯得那麽自然和諧，兩人像快樂的精靈一樣在雨中嬉戲。之後，他們用鮮花裝點彼此，猶如回歸伊甸園的亞當與夏娃。這時，橫亙在他們之間的等級障礙早已蕩然無存。
終於，康妮懷上了米爾斯的孩子。在外出旅遊期間，她把自己的故事坦誠地告訴了希爾達，希爾達對康妮的做法不以為然，還積極地要為孩子物色一個貴族父親，卻被康妮拒絶。康妮難以割捨對米爾斯的思念，提前回到莊園，卻發現米爾斯迫於壓力已經辭職，並遭到毒打，被遣送到礦上燒煤。昔日的小木屋也已不再是他們的樂園，兩人似乎已經走投無路。
米爾斯决心離開英國，去加拿大謀生，康妮面臨抉擇。終於，康妮嚮剋利福特提出離婚，並告訴他，她所愛的人是看林人米爾斯。剋利福特得知後，猶如墮入陷阱的睏獸，狂怒道：“天哪！你竟和我的僕人發生關係！”最後，康妮與米爾斯這一對多難的情人終於相遇在前往加拿大的船上。兩個人的明天是光明而充滿希望的，康妮放棄了雍容奢華但卻死氣沉沉的貴婦生活，奔嚮了自由與愛情，兩個來自不同階層的人終於衝破世俗的障礙，獲得新生。
《查太萊夫人的情人》-作品背景
原著在英國被禁30年，出版該書的企鵝出版社被控出版淫穢作品，直至1960年纔被宣告無罪，小說亦同時解禁。由於小說的敏感，根據小說改編的電影同樣引起人們的普遍關註。
影片《查太萊夫人的情人》根據英國20世紀小說傢戴衛.赫伯特.勞倫斯創作於 1928年的同名小說改編。勞倫斯的這部經典名著自問世起就備受爭議，在英國被禁30年，但卻不妨礙世人對它的喜愛和傳閱。小說曾多次被搬上銀幕，1992年英國大導演肯。拉賽爾受BBC電視臺之邀，將其再度搬上銀幕，拍成了一部長達4個多小時、總共4集的電視劇，並剪輯出一個長約2小時、供影院放映的電影“縮減本”。
本片導演肯。拉賽爾以拍攝音樂傢傳記片而聞名。此前，他也曾兩度改編勞倫斯的小說《虹》和《戀愛中的女人》。
《查太萊夫人的情人》-主題思想
從福樓拜的《包法利夫人》、托爾斯泰的《安娜。卡列琳娜》到勞倫斯的《查太萊夫人的情人》，西方現代小說一直反復探討着一個主題，即在急遽變化的社會中，已婚女性對世俗的社會價值所做的反叛及其後果。本片再次以電影的形式對這一主題做出呼應。導演肯。拉塞爾力求忠實於勞倫斯的原著，保留了原著的大部分情節和對白，在結構上也沒有大的調整，比較準確地傳達出原著中所藴涵的深刻主題，以唯美的視覺語言揭示了女性獨立性意識的自我萌發和自我救贖。影片在揭示男女情愛的同時，將性愛描寫上升到哲學和美學的高度，伴隨着熾烈的性愛體驗的，則是對歷史、政治、宗教、經濟等社會問題的嚴肅思考。查太萊夫婦的結合是一種不和諧的畸形婚姻。半身癱瘓、失去男性能力的丈夫和正值芳年的妻子，這是一個殘酷的組合，何況剋利福特是個虛偽自私的人，在他的心目中，康妮衹不過是一件美麗的附庸和傳宗接代的工具。剋利福特不能滿足康妮的正常情欲，米爾斯則幫助康妮實現了自我，喚醒了她身上的女性本能。最終，兩人的契合由肉欲之愛升華到心靈的交融，康妮反叛了她所從屬的那個階級，在那個封建保守的時代，她的勇敢選擇，無疑具有女性個體的積極意義。
勞倫斯畢生致力於男女性愛題材小說的創作，他認為，小說《查泰萊夫人的情人》“最好拿給所有17歲的少女們看看”。在他看來，人類的性愛具有至高無上的價值。這個世界上，恐怕再沒有哪一個作傢能像勞倫斯那樣，以宗教般的熱忱贊美人間性愛、以細膩微妙的筆觸描繪兩性關係中那種欲仙欲死的至高境界。勞倫斯的小說一嚮以大膽而詳盡的性描寫著稱，導演肯.拉塞爾亦不愧為用視覺語言講述故事、編織情欲的高手，影片中性愛場面的展現不僅含蓄優美，而且富有詩意，導演沒有在情色場面上做過多的渲染和鋪陳，衹是點到為止，但卻將人體與情欲詩意化，將詩意視覺化，把影片主人公情感故事拍得恍若童話仙境。
本片的服裝和布景製作也十分考究，生動地再現了20世紀初葉英國上流社會的風情，通過女主角康妮那一款款優雅精緻的服飾、華麗而空洞的室內布景，以及考究的用具、繁瑣的生活細節，反襯出上流社會人們精神上的空虛與蒼白。
《查太萊夫人的情人》-勞倫斯私印、自售作品
《查太萊夫人的情人》勞倫斯
雖然在寫出《查太萊夫人的情人》之前，勞倫斯已以《彩虹》、《戀愛中的婦女》、《兒子與情人》等作品享有了相當名聲，可是，眼下的這部書，仍然叫出版商、朋友甚至勞倫斯自己感到為難。最後，勞倫斯衹好自己在異國去私自出版，出版後又自己發售。當然，正因為這種形式，也最早地、毋需官方認可地將這部註定要引起軒然大波的作品推嚮了社會。
1926年，勞倫斯便開始了《查太萊夫人的情人》的寫作，並在不算長的時間，完成了第一稿。當時，他已經在試圖聯繫出版了，可很快，他便打消了這樣的想法。他當時的心情是矛盾的。在緻某位出版界人士的信中，他開始了預先的辯解：
“關於我的小說《查太萊夫人的情人》，現在我真是左右為難，世人將會認為這部小說是不正派的。可你知道它並非不正派。我始終苦心孤詣地在做同一件事情，就是使人們在提到性關係時，應感到是正當和珍貴的，而不是羞愧。這部小說是我在這一方面所做的進一步努力。在我看來，性是美好的、溫柔的，但又如赤裸着的人那樣脆弱。”
勞倫斯仍在不停地調整着這部作品，第二稿、第三稿……可即使這樣，在現實社會中，他仍然由於這部作品而招致麻煩，他甚至找不到為他服務的打字員。勞倫斯當時住在意大利的佛羅倫薩，最先他找到當地一位願意替他打字的女子，可在打到第五章時，這位女子不幹了，將稿子退了回來，說她不能再打下去，因為作品內容太污穢、骯髒……
面對這樣的反應和自己的心理預期，勞倫斯一度不想出版這部作品，可是，一方面由於經濟壓力，一方面基於他倔強的性格，在1927年11月時，勞倫斯開始試圖私下印製《查太萊夫人的情人》了。由於自己的心理預感，他暫時不指望在英語世界的英國或美國謀求出版，而打算在意大利將它印出來。原因除去佛羅倫薩的印刷很便宜，還有身處異地，起碼不至於在印刷時便引起不必要的麻煩。
按勞倫斯當時的打算，自己私下印製，第一次印刷上700部，每册定價兩個畿尼（當時每畿尼相當21先令），這樣下來，就會賺到600到700英鎊。這在當時是一筆不小的收入了。不久，對此書銷售的估計和自己經濟拮据的壓迫，勞倫斯又想提高印數——1000部。按照先前定價，他就可以賺到1000英鎊。為了能夠為讀者接受，他甚至一度打算將這部作品名字改為《柔情蜜意》或《約翰•托馬斯和簡夫人》，因為這樣看起來沒有《查太萊夫人的情人》那樣刺眼。
在《查太萊夫人的情人》交付出版商之前，勞倫斯讓幾位友人讀了這部書稿。反應不一，有強烈反差。一些朋友認為這部書不錯，說他們“非常喜歡這本書”；一位女士在讀到這部小說後卻“大發雷霆”——道德上的憤怒。這反應使勞倫斯感到有趣起來。他給另一位還未讀到此書的友人說：“我希望你不會討厭這部小說—— 儘管你很可能不喜歡它。這部小說本身就是一場革命——一顆小小的炸彈。”
勞倫斯終於要將這炸彈引爆了。交出書稿幾天之後，勞倫斯便緻函美國詩人威特•賓納。他們兩人曾經一起去墨西哥旅行過。在信中，勞倫斯希望他能夠為此書做一些銷售工作。在給另一位住在紐約的漢密爾頓•埃姆斯夫人的信裏，勞倫斯也希望她能幫助銷售這部作品：“這是一部溫柔的，生殖器的小說。現在你結婚了，自然會理解它的。由於世俗的公衆容不得對生殖器的描寫，我衹得在這裏出版這部小說。如果你不嫌麻煩，請把那些訂單散發給那些願意購買這部小說的人們。我認為這部小說是值得一買的。”在給他在美國的文學代理人柯蒂斯•布朗的信中，勞倫斯寫的直捷得多：“我真希望這部小說能賣出一千册，或者賣出去大部分，否則我就會破産。我想直接把書給購買者寄去。我準備給你寄上一些訂單，你能否為我找一些訂購者？衹要他們寄來兩英鎊，我就會把書寄給他們。”當然，更多的訂單寄往了英國，這畢竟是勞倫斯的祖國。儘管他知道這顆“炸彈”的威力，可這裏也可能有更多的知音。
勞倫斯所尋找的佛羅倫薩這傢印刷廠，恰好印刷商和印刷廠都沒有人懂得英文。在勞倫斯看來，這倒成了自己的“福氣”。這傢印刷廠全部手工操作，排字很仔細，用的也是一種精緻的手工製作的意大利紙張，所以，印出的書效果十分吸引人。勞倫斯自己為這部小說設計封面：下部是火焰飛揚的紅色底子，中間一隻黑色的鳳凰圖案，頗有“鳳凰涅槃”的味道。這個圖案，後來正式出版的企鵝版封面也沿用了下來。
很快，勞倫斯的努力得到回報。先是他的祖國——英國——寄來了多份小說訂單，然後是美國，訂單也在逐漸寄回。這邊，勞倫斯在緊張地校對清樣。4月、5月、6月……到了28日這一天，這部註定要引發大震動的書——《查太萊夫人的情人》，按照勞倫斯自己堅持的書名出版了。
在勞倫斯祖國的英國，當時人們觀念還相當保守，所以，幫助他推銷該書的朋友，是冒着被判高額罰款的危險來工作的。一位英國的朋友後來回憶說，勞倫斯當時給他們的宣傳詞為：這是一部偉大的著作，是“二十世紀光榮的象徵。”這也許是激發他們甘冒風險的緣由之一。很快，英國的讀者産生了反應。接到友人告知消息的電報，勞倫斯既緊張又興奮：這部小說像一顆炸彈，在我大多數英國朋友中間爆炸開來，他們現在仍忍受着彈震癥的痛苦。“我感到我已扔出去一顆炸彈，來轟炸他們虛偽的性感和虛偽性……”
不過，一部分寄往美國的郵件被扣住了。可一切已經無法阻攔。書十分好銷，勞倫斯加印200册來應付，其餘的，就衹能看着盜印本橫行市場，藉此大賺其錢了。第一批書寄到美國不到一個月，偷印本便出來了。由於偷印本仿製水平很高，連書店老闆都辨認不出，並且售價高於原版：十五元，而原版價僅十元。很快，第二種、第三種……盜印本在紐約出現了。很快，倫敦和巴黎，《查太萊夫人的情人》的盜印本出籠了，售價高達每本三英鎊或兩英鎊。
巴黎一傢書店，一口氣自印了1500册，充斥市場。勞倫斯找來一本看看，衹能苦笑，因為盜印本還很認真地將原版中的一些錯誤給改正了。可這本印製很不錯的書沒有給勞倫斯帶來任何效益。它批發給書店是每本100法郎，賣給讀者成了300、400甚至500法郎。這些歐洲的盜印者甚至嚮勞倫斯提出建議，希望能夠給他們授權，承認他們的印本。這樣，勞倫斯就可以在盜印本中，抽取一些版稅。本來，勞倫斯幾乎都同意了這項建議，可自尊心最後阻止了他。他衹能决意在法國出一種自己認可的版本。自己祖國——英國的發行傢，勸勞倫斯將該書加以刪改，出一個“潔本”，並答應給他豐厚的報酬，可勞倫斯無法接受，他認為，那樣“就等於用剪刀裁剪我自己的鼻子。書流血了。”
可不管怎麽說，勞倫斯以私印、自售的方式推出《查太萊夫人的情人》，現在看來仍然是處理得當的一件事。如人們所知，該書後來被查禁多年，出版社正式出版全本（其間有刪節本印出），已是幾十年之後的事情。當初倘若勞倫斯不采取私印，自售方式，那麽，他在有生之年（書出版兩年之後的1930年2月，這位極具才華的作傢病逝），决然見不到這部作品問世。之後，一切事情决難預料。也許，他的手稿會隨時湮滅；那麽，一部註定要引起公衆興趣，法庭辯論，文學界長期討論的著述，就可能永久在黑暗中沉沒。最起碼，會推遲數十年問世。這種結果，或許作者本人已有預感，所以，采取非正常手段及時推出它，是十分必要的。
其次，《查太萊夫人的情人》的出版，僅僅從經濟角度考慮，它也達到了使勞倫斯擺脫睏窘的目的。儘管後來盜印本從中吮吸了作者大量的心血，可一千多部印本仍然為他賺了一千多英鎊。這個數目，在當時是相當大的。這使很長一段時間內，勞倫斯可以自足地對朋友說：“所以我現在不愁沒錢用了。”
在今天看來，勞倫斯産生最大影響的作品，依然是這册《查太萊夫人的情人》。這部作品，在多個國傢，在相當長時間，被禁止出版。在作者家乡本土的英國，這部書甚至被推上法庭。以該書出版八十年後的今天眼光看，《查太萊夫人的情人》還是如作者自己認識的：“是正當和珍貴的”，即使在性的描寫上，它也是“溫柔、敏感”，甚至是誠摯的。從這些方面去認識，當年勞倫斯以私印、自售的方式發行此書，可以說意義非常。
The story is said to have originated from events in Lawrence's own unhappy domestic life, and he took inspiration for the settings of the book from Eastwood in Nottinghamshire where he grew up. According to some critics, the fling of Lady Ottoline Morrell with "Tiger", a young stonemason who came to carve plinths for her garden statues, also influenced the story. Lawrence at one time considered calling the novel Tenderness and made significant alterations to the text and story in the process of its composition. It has been published in three different versions.
Plot introduction
The story concerns a young married woman, Constance (Lady Chatterley), whose upper-class husband, Clifford Chatterley, has been paralyzed and rendered impotent. Her sexual frustration leads her into an affair with the gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors. This novel is about Constance's realization that she cannot live with the mind alone; she must also be alive physically.
Main characters
* Lady Chatterley is the protagonist of the novel. Before her marriage, she is simply Constance Reid, an intellectual and social progressive from a Scottish bourgeois family, the daughter of Sir Malcolm and the sister of Hilda. When she marries Clifford Chatterley, a minor nobleman, Constance (or, as she is known throughout the novel, Connie) assumes his title, becoming Lady Chatterley. Lady Chatterley's Lover chronicles Connie's maturation as a woman and as a sensual being. She comes to despise her weak, ineffectual husband, and to love Oliver Mellors, the gamekeeper on her husband's estate. In the process of leaving her husband and conceiving a child with Mellors, Lady Chatterley moves from the heartless, bloodless world of the intelligentsia and aristocracy into a vital and profound connection rooted in sensuality and sexual fulfillment.
* Oliver Mellors is the lover in the novel's title. Mellors is the gamekeeper on Clifford Chatterley's estate, Wragby Hall. He is aloof, sarcastic, intelligent and noble. He was born near Wragby, and worked as a blacksmith until he ran off to the army to escape an unhappy marriage. In the army, he rose to become a commissioned lieutenant — an unusual position for a member of the working classes — but was forced to leave the army because of a case of pneumonia, which left him in poor health. Surprisingly, we learn from different characters' accounts that Mellors was in fact finely educated in his childhood, has good table manners, is an extensive reader, and can speak English 'like a gentleman', but chooses to behave like a commoner and speak broad Derbyshire dialect, probably in an attempt to fit into his own community. Disappointed by a string of unfulfilling love affairs, Mellors lives in quiet isolation, from which he is redeemed by his relationship with Connie: the passion unleashed by their lovemaking forges a profound bond between them. At the end of the novel, Mellors is fired from his job as gamekeeper and works as a laborer on a farm, waiting for a divorce from his old wife so he can marry Connie. Mellors is a man with an innate nobility but who remains impervious to the pettiness and emptiness of conventional society, with access to a primal flame of passion and sensuality.
* Clifford Chatterley is Connie's husband. Clifford Chatterley is a young, handsome baronet who becomes paralyzed from the waist down during World War I. As a result of his injury, Clifford is impotent. He retires to his familial estate, Wragby Hall, where he becomes first a successful writer, and then a powerful businessman. But the gap between Connie and him grows ever wider; obsessed with financial success and fame, he is not truly interested in love, and she feels that he has become passionless and empty. He turns for solace to his nurse and companion, Mrs. Bolton, who worships him as a nobleman even as she despises him for his casual arrogance. Clifford is portrayed as a weak, vain man, but declares his right to rule the lower classes, and he soullessly pursues money and fame through industry and the meaningless manipulation of words. His impotence is symbolic of his failings as a strong, sensual man, and could also represent the increasing loss of importance and influence of the ruling classes in a modern world.
* Mrs. Bolton, also known as Ivy Bolton, is Clifford's nurse and caretaker. She is a competent, still-attractive middle-aged woman. Years before the action in this novel, her husband died in an accident in the mines owned by Clifford's family. Even as Mrs. Bolton resents Clifford as the owner of the mines — and, in a sense, the murderer of her husband — she still maintains a worshipful attitude towards him as the representative of the upper class. Her relationship with Clifford - she simultaneously adores and despises him, while he depends and looks down on her - is probably one of the most complex relationships in the novel.
* Michaelis is a successful Irish playwright with whom Connie has an affair early in the novel. Michaelis asks Connie to marry him, but she decides not to, realizing that he is like all other intellectuals: a slave to success, a purveyor of vain ideas and empty words, passionless.
* Hilda Reid is Connie's older sister by two years, the daughter of Sir Malcolm. Hilda shared Connie's cultured upbringing and intellectual education. She remains unliberated by the raw sensuality that changed Connie's life. She disdains Connie's lover, Mellors, as a member of the lower classes, but in the end she helps Connie to leave Clifford.
* Sir Malcolm Reid is the father of Connie and Hilda. He is an acclaimed painter, an aesthete and a bohemian who despises Clifford for his weakness and impotence, and who immediately warms to Mellors.
* Tommy Dukes, one of Clifford's contemporaries, is a brigadier general in the British Army and a clever and progressive intellectual. Lawrence intimates, however, that Dukes is a representative of all intellectuals: all talk and no action. Dukes speaks of the importance of sensuality, but he himself is incapable of sensuality and uninterested in sex. Of Clifford's circle of friends, he is the one who Connie becomes closest to.
* Duncan Forbes is an artist friend of Connie and Hilda. Forbes paints abstract canvases, a form of art Mellors seems to despise. He once loved Connie, and Connie originally claims to be pregnant with his child.
* Bertha Coutts, although never actually appearing in the novel, has her presence felt. She is Mellors' wife, separated from him but not divorced. Their marriage faltered because of their sexual incompatibility: she was too rapacious, not tender enough. She returns at the end of the novel to spread rumors about Mellors' infidelity to her, and helps get him fired from his position as gamekeeper. As the novel concludes, Mellors is in the process of divorcing her.
Themes
In Lady Chatterley's Lover, Lawrence comes full circle to argue once again for individual regeneration, which can be found only through the relationship between man and woman (and, he asserts sometimes, man and man). Love and personal relationships are the threads that bind this novel together. Lawrence explores a wide range of different types of relationships. The reader sees the brutal, bullying relationship between Mellors and his wife Bertha, who punishes him by preventing his pleasure. There is Tommy Dukes, who has no relationship because he cannot find a woman whom he respects intellectually and, at the same time, finds desirable. There is also the perverse, maternal relationship that ultimately develops between Clifford and Mrs. Bolton, his caring nurse, after Connie has left.
Mind and body
Richard Hoggart argues that the main subject of Lady Chatterley's Lover is not the sexual passages that were the subject of such debate but the search for integrity and wholeness. Key to this integrity is cohesion between the mind and the body for "body without mind is brutish; mind without body...is a running away from our double being." Lady Chatterley's Lover focuses on the incoherence of living a life that is "all mind", which Lawrence saw as particularly true among the young members of the aristocratic classes, as in his description of Constance's and her sister Hilda's "tentative love-affairs" in their youth:
So they had given the gift of themselves, each to the youth with whom she had the most subtle and intimate arguments. The arguments, the discussions were the great thing: the love-making and connexion were only sort of primitive reversion and a bit of an anti-climax.
The contrast between mind and body can be seen in the dissatisfaction each has with their previous relationships: Constance's lack of intimacy with her husband who is "all mind" and Mellors's choice to live apart from his wife because of her "brutish" sexual nature. These dissatisfactions lead them into a relationship that builds very slowly and is based upon tenderness, physical passion, and mutual respect. As the relationship between Lady Chatterley and Mellors develops, they learn more about the interrelation of the mind and the body; she learns that sex is more than a shameful and disappointing act, and he learns about the spiritual challenges that come from physical love.
Neuro-psychoanalyst Mark Blechner identifies the "Lady Chatterley phenomenon" in which the same sexual act can affect people in different ways at different times, depending on their subjectivity. He bases it on the passage in which Lady Chatterley feels disengaged from Mellors and thinks disparagingly about the sex act: "And this time the sharp ecstasy of her own passion did not overcome her; she lay with hands inert on his striving body, and do what she might, her spirit seemed to look on from the top of her head, and the butting of his haunches seemed ridiculous to her, and the sort of anxiety of his penis to come to its little evacuating crisis seemed farcical. Yes, this was love, this ridiculous bouncing of the buttocks, and the wilting of the poor insignificant, moist little penis." Shortly thereafter, they make love again, and this time, she experiences enormous physical and emotional involvement: "And it seemed she was like the sea, nothing but dark waves rising and heaving, heaving with a great swell, so that slowly her whole darkness was in motion, and she was ocean rolling its dark, dumb mass."
Class system and social conflict
Besides the evident sexual content of the book, Lady Chatterley’s Lover also presents some views on the British social context of the early 20th century. For example, Constance’s social insecurity, arising from being brought up in an upper middle class background, in contrast with Sir Clifford’s social self-assurance, becomes more evident in passages such as:
Clifford Chatterley was more upper-class than Connie. Connie was well-to-do intelligentsia, but he was aristocracy. Not the big sort, but still it. His father was a baronet, and his mother had been a viscount’s daughter.
There are also signs of dissatisfaction and resentment of the Tevershall coal pit’s workers, the colliers, against Clifford, who owned the mines. By the time Clifford and Connie had moved to Wragby Hall, Clifford's father's estate in Nottinghamshire, the coal industry in England seemed to be in decline, although the coal pit still was a big part in the life of the neighbouring town of Tevershall. References to the concepts of anarchism, socialism, communism, and capitalism permeate the book. Union strikes were also a constant preoccupation in Wragby Hall. An argument between Clifford and Connie goes:
‘’Oh good!, said Connie. “If only there aren’t more strikes!”
“What would be the use of their striking again! Merely ruin the industry, what’s left of it; and surely the owls are beginning to see it!”
“Perhaps they don’t mind ruining the industry,” said Connie.
“Ah, don’t talk like a woman! The industry fills their bellies, even if it can’t keep their pockets quite so flush,” he said, using turns of speech that oddly had a twang of Mrs. Bolton.
The most obvious social contrast in the plot, however, is that of the affair of an aristocratic woman (Connie) with a working class man (Mellors). Mark Schorer, an American writer and literary critic, considers a familiar construction in D.H. Lawrence's works the forbidden love of a woman of relatively superior social situation who is drawn to an "outsider" (a man of lower social rank or a foreigner), in which the woman either resists her impulse or yields to it. Schorer believes the two possibilities were embodied, respectively, in the situation into which Lawrence was born, and that into which Lawrence married, therefore becoming a favorite topic in his work.
Controversy
An authorized abridgment of Lady Chatterley's Lover that was heavily censored was published in America by Alfred E. Knopf in 1928. This edition was subsequently reissued in paperback in America both by Signet Books and by Penguin Books in 1946.
British obscenity trial
When the full unexpurgated edition was published by Penguin Books in Britain in 1960, the trial of Penguin under the Obscene Publications Act of 1959 was a major public event and a test of the new obscenity law. The 1959 act (introduced by Roy Jenkins) had made it possible for publishers to escape conviction if they could show that a work was of literary merit. One of the objections was to the frequent use of the word "fuck" and its derivatives. Another objection involves the use of the word "cunt".
Various academic critics and experts of diverse kinds, including E. M. Forster, Helen Gardner, Richard Hoggart, Raymond Williams and Norman St John-Stevas, were called as witnesses, and the verdict, delivered on 2 November 1960, was "not guilty". This resulted in a far greater degree of freedom for publishing explicit material in the United Kingdom. The prosecution was ridiculed for being out of touch with changing social norms when the chief prosecutor, Mervyn Griffith-Jones, asked if it were the kind of book "you would wish your wife or servants to read".
The Penguin second edition, published in 1961, contains a publisher's dedication, which reads: "For having published this book, Penguin Books were prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, 1959 at the Old Bailey in London from 20 October to 2 November 1960. This edition is therefore dedicated to the twelve jurors, three women and nine men, who returned a verdict of 'Not Guilty' and thus made D. H. Lawrence's last novel available for the first time to the public in the United Kingdom."
In 2006, the trial was dramatised by BBC Wales as The Chatterley Affair.
Australia
Main article: Censorship in Australia
Not only was the book banned in Australia, but a book describing the British trial, The Trial of Lady Chatterley, was also banned. A copy was smuggled into the country and then published widely. The fallout from this event eventually led to the easing of censorship of books in the country, although the country still retains the Office of Film and Literature Classification. In early October 2009, the federal institution of Australia Post banned the sale of this book in their stores and outlets claiming that books of this nature don't fit in with the 'theme of their stores'.
Canada
In 1945, McGill University Professor of Law and Canadian modernist poet F. R. Scott appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada to defend Lady Chatterley's Lover from censorship. However, despite Scott's efforts, the book was banned in Canada for 30 years due to concerns about its use of "obscene language" and explicit depiction of sexual intercourse. On November 15, 1960 an Ontario panel of experts, appointed by Attorney General Kelso Roberts, found that novel was not obscene according to the Canadian Criminal Code.
United States
In 1930, Senator Bronson Cutting proposed an amendment to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which was then being debated, ending the practice of having U.S. Customs censor allegedly obscene books imported to U.S. shores. Senator Reed Smoot vigorously opposed such an amendment, threatening to publicly read indecent passages of imported books in front of the Senate. Although he never followed through, he included Lady Chatterley's Lover as an example of an obscene book that must not reach domestic audiences, declaring "I've not taken ten minutes on Lady Chatterley's Lover, outside of looking at its opening pages. It is most damnable! It is written by a man with a diseased mind and a soul so black that he would obscure even the darkness of hell!"
Lady Chatterley's Lover was one of a trio of books (the others being Tropic of Cancer and Fanny Hill), the ban on which was fought and overturned in court with assistance by lawyer Charles Rembar in 1959.
A French film (1955) based on the novel and released by Kingsley Pictures was in the United States the subject of attempted censorship in New York on the grounds that it promoted adultery. The Supreme Court held that the law prohibiting its showing was a violation of the First Amendment's protection of Free Speech.
The book was famously distributed in the U.S. by Frances Steloff at the Gotham Book Mart, in defiance of the book ban.
Japan
The publication of a full translation of Lady Chatterley's Lover by Ito Sei in 1950 led to a famous obscenity trial in Japan, extending from May 8, 1951 to January 18, 1952, with appeals lasting to March 13, 1957. Several notable literary figures testified for the defense, but the trial ultimately ended in a guilty verdict with a ¥100,000 for Ito and a ¥250,000 fine for his publisher.
India
In 1964, bookseller Ranjit Udeshi in Bombay was prosecuted under Sec. 292 of the Indian Penal Code (sale of obscene books) for selling an unexpurgated copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover.
Ranjit D. Udeshi v. State of Maharashtra (AIR 1968 SC 881) was eventually laid before a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India, where Chief Justice Hidayatullah declared the law on the subject of when a book can be regarded as obscene and established important tests of obscenity such as the Hicklin test.
The judgement upheld the conviction, stating that:
When everything said in its favour we find that in treating with sex the impugned portions viewed separately and also in the setting of the whole book pass the permissible limits judged of from our community standards and as there is no social gain to us which can be said to preponderate, we must hold the book to satisfy the test we have indicated above.
Cultural influence
In the United States, the free publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover was a significant event in the "sexual revolution". At the time, the book was a topic of widespread discussion and a byword of sorts. In 1965, Tom Lehrer recorded a satirical song entitled "Smut", in which the speaker in the song lyrics cheerfully acknowledges his enjoyment of such material; "Who needs a hobby like tennis or philately?/I've got a hobby: rereading Lady Chatterley."
British poet Philip Larkin's poem "Annus Mirabilis" begins with a reference to the trial:
Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) -
Between the end of the "Chatterley" ban
And The Beatles' first LP.
By the 1970s, the story had become sufficiently safe in Britain to be parodied by Morecambe and Wise; a "play wot Ernie wrote" was obviously based on it, with Michele Dotrice as the Lady Chatterley figure. Introducing it, Ernie explained that his play was "about a man who has an accident with a combine harvester, which unfortunately makes him impudent".
Standard editions
* Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928), edited by Michael Squires, Cambridge University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-521-22266-4.
* The First and Second Lady Chatterley Novels, edited by Dieter Mehl and Christa Jansohn, Cambridge University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-521-47116-8. These two books, The First Lady Chatterley and John Thomas and Lady Jane were earlier drafts of Lawrence's last novel.
* The Second Lady Chatterley's Lover, Oneworld Classics 2007, ISBN 978-1-84749-019-3
In 1946 an English hardcover edition, copyright Jan Förlag, was published by Victor Pettersons Bokindustriaktiebolag Stockholm, Sweden. It is marked "Unexpurgated authorized edition". A paperback edition followed in 1950.
Adaptations
Radio
Lady Chatterley's Lover has been adapted for BBC Radio 4 by acclaimed writer Michelene Wandor and was first broadcast in September 2006.
Film and television
Lady Chatterley's Lover has been adapted for film several times:
* In 1955, starring Danielle Darrieux; was banned in the United States.
* In 1961, actor Michael Gough, playing a seemingly sinister but ultimately heroic butler named Fisk, is seen reading Lady Chatterley's Lover in the British horror comedy film What a Carve Up! (aka No Place Like Homicide! in the USA).
* 1981 film version by Just Jaeckin starring Sylvia Kristel and Nicholas Clay.
* In 1993 a lengthy television mini-series entitled Lady Chatterley directed by Ken Russell starring Joely Richardson and Sean Bean for BBC Television. This film incorporates some material from the longer second version John Thomas and Lady Jane.
* In 1998, Viktor Polesný filmed a Czech-Language television version with Zdena Studenková (Constance), Marek Vašut (Clifford) and Boris Rösner (Mellors).
* In 2006, the French director Pascale Ferran filmed a French-Language version with Marina Hands as Constance and Jean-Louis Coulloc'h as the game keeper, which won the Cesar Award for Best Film in 2007. Marina Hands was awarded best actress at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. The film was based on John Thomas and Lady Jane, Lawrence's second version of the story. It was broadcast on the French television channel Arte on 22 June 2007 as Lady Chatterley et l'homme des bois (Lady Chatterley and the Man of the Woods).
Theatre
Lawrence's novel was successfully dramatised for the stage in a three-act play by a young British playwright named John Harte. Although produced at The Arts Theatre in London in 1961 (and elsewhere later on), his play was written in 1953. It was the only D. H. Lawrence novel ever to be staged and his dramatisation was the only one to be read and approved by Lawrence's widow, Frieda. Despite her attempts to obtain the copyright for Harte to have his play staged in the 1950s, Baron Philippe de Rothschild did not relinquish the dramatic rights until his film was released in France.
Only the Old Bailey trial against Penguin Books for alleged obscenity in publishing the unexpurgated paperback edition of the novel prevented the play's transfer to the much bigger Wyndham's Theatre, for which it had already been licensed by the Lord Chamberlain's Office on 12 August 1960 with passages censored. It was fully booked out for its limited run at The Arts Theatre and well reviewed by Harold Hobson, the prevailing West End theatre critic of the time.
失乐园端莊賢慧的醫學教授之妻凜子與某出版社主編久木在一次社交場合邂逅相識。工作狂的丈夫對凜子的冷漠，因工作變動而失意的久本與妻子不冷不熱的麻木關係。無愛的家庭婚姻與難於抵禦的情感誘惑，使凜子與久木陷人“婚外情”的漩渦。精神共鳴和感官的歡悅體驗使他們開始重新審視自己的人生意義。放縱的迷醉之後接踵而來的是凜子的丈夫以“不離婚”進行報復，久木被匿名信睏擾面臨降職而不得不辭職。親人的疏離與世人的白眼使他們秘密同居──偷食“禁果”的人被逐出樂園。為了返回樂園，永久地生活在樂園裏，他們踏上了不歸之旅，卻道：“活着太好了！” 這是一部夢幻與現實、靈與肉、歡悅與痛楚相互交織的震撼心靈的傑作。奇妙的心理活動與錯綜復雜的感情糾葛，溶入到異域特有的四季更迭的綺麗環境裏，令人回腸蕩氣。這部小說在報刊連載時就引起空前強烈地反響，單行本出版後日本讀者爭相傳閱，改編成同名電影和電視劇上演之後傢喻戶曉，形成所謂“失樂園現象”。
對於性，少男們由於難以抑製自己而感到不安；與此同時，他們又抱有嘗試性愛的願望。因此，他們的實情是：置身於這兩種互相矛盾的情感的夾縫中苦苦思索，悶悶不樂。
無論男性還是女性，成長為響當當的人是極其不易的。
在此，我們所說的“響當當的人”指的是無論在肉體還是在精神方面都健康且成熟的男人和女人。
在成人之前，人，無一例外要逾越形形色色的障礙、壁壘。比如說女性吧，她們先要經歷初潮體驗，在戰勝由此引起的衝擊之後，始與男性初次發生性關係，不久她便妊娠、生産……，走完上述歷程後，她纔算成熟了。
無論男性還是女性，成長為響當當的人是極其不易的。
在此，我們所說的“響當當的人”指的是無論在肉體還是在精神方面都健康且成熟的男人和女人。
在成人之前，人，無一例外要逾越形形色色的障礙、壁壘。比如說女性吧，她們先要經歷初潮體驗，在戰勝由此引起的衝擊之後，始與男性初次發生性關係，不久她便妊娠、生産……，走完上述歷程後，她纔算成熟了。
從三個月前的六月初開始，每當月經來的前後，木之內鼕子就感到異常。
鼕子一米五五高的個頭，體重也不過四十公斤左右，瘦瘦的．所以對自己的身體並不很自信，但話說回來，這幾年也沒有得過什麽病。換季的時候偶爾會傷風感冒，但忍上兩、三天，也就自然好了。低血壓衹有一百左右，多少有些貧血，有時會頭暈，但這也從來都沒有什麽大不了的。鼕子自我感覺人是瘦小了些，但身體並不算太差。
但是，這幾個月月經周期拉長了。
鼕子一米五五高的個頭，體重也不過四十公斤左右，瘦瘦的．所以對自己的身體並不很自信，但話說回來，這幾年也沒有得過什麽病。換季的時候偶爾會傷風感冒，但忍上兩、三天，也就自然好了。低血壓衹有一百左右，多少有些貧血，有時會頭暈，但這也從來都沒有什麽大不了的。鼕子自我感覺人是瘦小了些，但身體並不算太差。
但是，這幾個月月經周期拉長了。
男人的一半是女人
男人的一半是女人面對妻子的出軌，羞辱、不甘、自卑……種種情緒在章永璘的心中不斷糾結，不斷擴大，憤怒的情感漸漸醖積成一股大洪流，突然爆發，他終於成為了一個真正的男人，不再是在男女性事上無能的廢物。但從此之後，他再也無法體諒香久曾經背叛……
張賢亮用浪漫與寫實與寫實手法交織，將刻骨銘心的傷痛轉化成為普遍的人性體會。精湛獨特的敘事手法，領人進入高潮迭起、震聾發瞶的小說新境界！
《男人的一半是女人》-作者簡介
張賢亮張賢亮
張賢亮，男，江蘇盱眙縣人，1936 年12 月生於南京。1955年中學畢業後至寧夏銀川幹部文化學校任教。 1957 年因在《延河》文學月刊上發表長詩《大風歌》而被列為右派，遂遭受勞教、管製、監禁達十幾年，其間曾外逃流浪，討飯度日。1979 年9 月獲平反，1980 年調至寧夏《朔方》 文學雜志社任編輯，同年加入中國作傢協會，1981 年開始專業文學創作。曾任寧夏回族自治區文聯副主席、主席，中國作傢協會寧夏分會主席等職，並任六屆政協全國委員會委員，中國作協主席團委員。受家庭影響，從小深受中國古典文學熏陶，中學時代開始廣泛接觸俄羅斯文學和法國文學作品，並嘗試文學創作，曾寫作發表了60 餘首詩歌。1979 年重新執筆創作後，先後發表了短篇小說《邢老漢和狗的故事》、《靈與肉》、《肖爾布拉剋》、《初吻》等；中篇小說《土牢情話》、《竜種》、《河的子孫》、《緑化樹》、《浪漫的黑炮》、《男人的一半是女人》；長篇小說《男人的風格》、《習慣死亡》。先後結集出版的選集有中短篇集《靈與肉》、《感情的歷程》（唯物論者的啓示錄第一部，包括《初吻》、《緑化樹》、《男人的一半是女人》（三篇）及中篇選集《張賢亮集》。其中《靈與肉》、《肖爾布拉剋》分別獲1980 年及1983 年全國優秀短篇小說奬，《緑化樹》獲第三屆全國優秀中篇小說奬。
《男人的一半是女人》-創作背景
痛訴“文革”悲慘命運的“傷痕文學”流行一時，張賢亮1985年出版的《男人的一半是女人》是其中最著名的一部。它第一次談到了性壓抑的問題。一個因右派而入獄，另一個因作風問題被勞改。兩個人在勞動的麥田裏避開看守做了半個小時的夫妻，再見面時已是8年以後。
文章的後半部分很像王朔的《過把癮就死》，都是將兩個人從相愛到分手的無奈和彼此傷害。不同的是，《男人的一半是女人》裏有大量描寫偷窺、做愛和通姦的情節小說。張賢亮把性當做一種文化的、生命的思考對象，書中的性描寫無論怎樣驚世駭俗，都具有理性和美學情緻，緊扣人物的個性和命運。在當時，這部小說引起的反響不遜於《洛麗塔》對西方世界的衝擊。
20多年的時間，先後出現了觀念、經驗、心態等非常不同的幾代作傢，也出現了關懷、敘事、文體等非常不同的浩如煙海的作品。這裏編選的《中國小說50強》（1978-2000）選入的作傢作品，從一個方面證實了這一看法並非虛妄。中國作傢受製於歷史傳統和現實環境，小說創作和觀念的發展變化同樣不能離開這一傳統和現實。大概從1978年代開始，小說開始顯示出一體化時代不盡相同的追求和風貌。 作為一種想象和虛構的文體形式，逐漸剝離了單純的政治目標翔和強調的教化功能。對人的心內痛苦、情感要求、思想矛盾等與人性相關的問題，開始在小說中得以反映和表現。
《男人的一半是女人》-評價
《男人的一半是女人》的名聲大噪，很大程度上和它表現並探索性地表現了性有關。在中國新文學的範疇內把性意識性活動寫進小說的行徑，張賢亮並不是唯一的作傢，但嘗試以哲學的態度、欲以唯物主義的認識論為基礎把兩性間的生活確立為審美表現的對象，在一個非常本質的層次上把性的交流作為一塊磚碼納入生命本體自我平衡中的努力，則無疑帶有些創世紀的色彩。這種嘗試和努力使他的這篇小說在字裏行間彌漫着一種形而上學的味道，並也因此使他主動地和半個世紀前的現代經典作傢鬱達夫們相別開來，亦和同時代的作傢諸如王安憶等形成了差異。
現在看來，這篇小說出現在充溢着思想的熱忱和探索精神的80 年代中期，這一事實本身便又沉潛了一種意味深長的寓意，作者無形中已經以他美妙聖潔的筆觸為生命及文學的權利作了一次理直氣壯的抗爭與辯解，這種客觀性的意義實際上已遠遠超出了文本的表面意志因而更具戰略性更富有存在的價值。這樣說是因為張賢亮並無居心去充當文學世界的冒險騎士，他走出這一步是因為他“非如此不可”，是因為他已無可回避這生命世界的最後一道屏障。
張賢亮頑強的欲以藝術之筆穿透世界的努力使他必然性地選取了這一看起來最具徵服感的思想支點：性。於是，女人，性，便在他的這一作品中自然而然地成為了一種過程，一種背景，一種話語的手段，他想藉此去超越生命的常規形態去尋求靈魂的寧靜和精神的永恆，在自我的生命及幾代人的生命中留下歷劫難毀的精神路碑。但事實證明這並不容易。
《男人的一半是女人》-思想及風格
因為在純粹的生活領域，在經驗代替着思想的地方，並不能産生哲學，在性與性的彌補、拯救、墮落、排斥、寬容中，思想實際上變成了瞎子，哲學亦將無能為力；而以文學的方式來試圖證明、解釋思想或信念的存在的行為本身是否成為可能，也是一件頗為值得懷疑的事情。張賢亮就是這樣總是在最簡單的地方迷失了方向，所以，他的動機與效果總是難以走到一條綫上，他愈是想告訴我們一些清晰和明朗的東西結果就愈使我們陷入茫然。
一般認為，《男人的一半是女人》是《緑化樹》 的續篇，從“唯物論者的啓示錄”及一些人物所經歷的時間上看，這一點好像明白無誤。但這已經不重要，重要的是，在思想的連續性和風格的連續性之外，我們並未發現任何新的進展與深度。
《緑化樹》裏那個一元化的、積極、質樸、嚮上的世界，那個充滿詩意的浪漫的母體和福祉，現在變成了一個單調的世俗的氛圍，變成了一個看不出任何內在邏輯性和詩意的“婚變” 的故事。張賢亮的思想在走出了《緑化樹》之後，顯然在這裏走上了極端，一個由近乎單一的生命現象所築起的感情堤壩，擋住了欲流嚮世界和心靈深處的水流，思想的力量開始迂回盤旋在語言的支架結構間，始終無法浮上故事的表面。
與此同時，作者對站在我們面前的敘事人的曖昧態度和對政治要求的刻意奉迎也使閱讀活動越來越成為背負十字架的沉重行為。人們不明白，章永璘的政治及靈魂的表現何以會是如此出色，他的形象實際上並沒有什麽“半個人”或是完人、全人的區別，他似乎早就洞悉了人世間的興衰際遇和悲歡離合，除了男人的自尊和本能外，他似乎早已不為生活所宥，災辱不驚，好像心中隨時都已裝進了一個永恆，隨時都應合着時代的心聲。
相反，作為章水璘命運及生命之一部分的女人黃香久，其形象色調則要冷淡得多，她除了飼鴨養鵝之外，唯一的心情便是覺着章永璘好，便是永遠充盈着一種快樂的幸福的願望，作為故事的成分，這一形象在實際的藝術操作過程中遠遠沒有派上應有的用場，她似乎衹是一個擺設，一個襯托，一個於整個的生命與歷史過程中稍縱即逝的影子，雖然敘述者在故事開始便把對她的懺悔與留戀指示出來，但這一信號畢竟還是太微弱了，所以，在這場生命的應合分異之中，閱讀的想象和認識也僅僅停留於“男人的一半是女人”這樣的語義層面，無法再嚮縱深邁出一步。
值得說明的是，《男人的一半是女人》作為一篇探索性的作品，聚合着創作實踐中太多的經驗與矛盾，它的復雜程度令人難以想象。由於對作者創作背景及自身生活經驗知識的闕如以及批評方法的局限性，或者說也由於時代本身的局限性，使我們至今無法對這一作品的各個方面作出滿意的解釋，但有一點是肯定的：作為探索的嘗試，《男人的一半是女人》也許並不成功，可這並不妨礙她成為一篇非常優異作品的可能，她本身的種種矛盾實際上都在證實並說明着張賢亮作為一名秉賦非凡的作傢的出色與獨特之處。
《男人的一半是女人》-特色
故事的內涵
看過《男人的一半是女人》之後，有種欲罷不能的感受，太緊張了，太貼近皮與肉了。那種痛楚，仿佛是我自己在親歷那場長久的糾纏，自我與自我，人與人，男人與女人，丈夫和妻子。章永磷與黃香久，都是凄慘的。當卑微的生命為了獲得一點溫暖走在一起，同時又在追求幸福的過程中互相折磨對方，出於真心的愛與出於真心的恨正如男人與女人糾纏在一起，撐漲了你的腦袋。最讓人揪心的在於黃香久飽寒真情的怨言，那刻毒中激情澎湃的愛，讓人不能不蕩氣回腸啊。
其實，如果換一個角度也可以把整個故事結構掉。那永遠都可以說是一個關於性的問題，從最初章永磷無意中偷看到黃香久精緻的裸體，到章永磷喪失性功能被黃香久鄙視和恢復性功能後在性方面無情地報復與精神摧殘，直至最後硬生生把一份刻骨銘心的愛割裂，那都是性方面的正常與異常，喪失與恢復導致的一種生活波瀾。正如主人公不斷重複的說道，喪失了性功能，自己是個廢人，擡不起頭，任妻子偷漢子，當自己突然間恢復，自己重新成為一個完整的人，這在一個物質條件極端匱乏的社會條件下，是一個多麽真實的道理。最起碼從我這樣一個男性的眼光上來看，這是一個任歷史如何演變都更改不了的事實，並且，正因為有這種性方面的變化，有了這種起伏，人才實實在在成為人，而非作者一直強調的是回到了原始社會，衹剩下肉體的欲望。
故事的敘述
在故事的敘述方面，有一種閱讀的快感。這種快感的造就源於兩點，第一是黃香久這樣一個從23歲到31歲的女子，從一出場到結局，都是一個美麗性感的女子，並且幾乎是集中在身體方面的美。光滑，緊湊的皮膚，圓潤的身體，正常的性欲，無論何時何地，作者總是在維持這這樣一個女性形象。我們按照常人的邏輯，十分關心這樣一位女子的遭遇。並且我們還得感謝作者，在混亂，醜陋的年代，為我們開闢了一個正常的審美角度。第二，就要說到男主人公章永磷，是一個時代的思想者，也是一個勞動的強人，並且還出現了偶爾的壯舉，贏得了人們的普遍尊敬。以上兩點是遵照一種英雄悲劇模式來塑造人物的，自古以來總是最有效的調動快感的敘事模式。更重要的快感（其實不如說是痛楚）還主要來自這兩個人物的善良和惡毒。為了自己的欲望，可以不顧彼此的人生感受，但雙方都是愛得真誠的。衹可惜男主人公做了一回思想傢纔有的愚昧，自視其高，心胸狹窄，並且不去呵護女性的溫柔，而女主人公真的是帶着鐵燎舞蹈，在一次性需求的探險中輸掉了整個自己鐘情至極的男人。這就是生活，現在回頭看，它是一環扣着一環發生的，我們不能去追究什麽，而生活衹能如此，它是最正常的了。
《瘋癲老人日記》的主人公年齡為七十七歲，這部作品完成的時候，𠔌崎潤一郎也剛好七十七歲。先探討這部作品的具體數據是不是事實，內容肯定是根據作者當時的心理狀態寫成的。然而，日本人的特點是隨着年齡的增長愈發關心風花雪月之事，可文中老人到了如此年齡還保持着對性的好奇與執着，這不能說是正常的。
寫到這裏，我讀了讀唐納德·基恩寫的有關這部作品的文章，意外地發現裏面有這麽一處——“《瘋癲老人日記》寫的是老年人的性的問題，這在世界文學範圍內，就我所知，也屬唯一。”我想了很多，但腦海裏終究沒有浮現出一部與它相似的外國文學作品。前幾年，我翻譯了亨利·米勒的圖文集《失眠癥或者亂跳的惡魔》，這部作品也談得是“老年人的性”，但略有不同。它寫的是，年屆八十的米勒愛上了年輕的日本姑娘後就失眠了的事。十二幅水彩畫上也到處畫着“OMANKO”、“HARIKATA”、“MITOKORO-ZEME”等日語拼音文字和類似圖案。但是，文章卻完全沒有此類敘述，甚至充滿精神、抽象和哲理性，絲毫沒有具體談及性的問題。
若說外國文學中完全沒有類似的作品，這我不大清楚，所以着實對這一說法吃驚。考慮到外國人的生理特徵，這個說法更讓人意外。我覺得，對日本人來說，類似𠔌崎潤一郎似的作傢也實屬例外。但是，仔細想來，這種看法也不大對。日本人天生對“陰翳”敏感，這也是支撐這部作品成立的基礎。當然，還有其他原因。所謂其他原因，指的是理解𠔌崎文學的關鍵所在——受虐主義（這部作品主要反映的是心理層面的受虐傾嚮）。如果除去這一因素，出色地反映了“老年人的性”問題的，還有作傢和田芳惠。所以，反倒會得出這麽一個不可思議的結論：世界文學所欠缺的“談及老年人的性問題的文學作品”中，竟與日本人的特質有溫和之處。
但是，為了不讓大傢産生誤解，我要特別補充：陰翳確實是這部作品成立的一大要素，但不能忽視的是，對“性”這一問題本身，這部作品也做了極緻的探索。不衹是性，任何事情都被逼到極緻的時候，就會生出一股奇怪的幽默。嘗試從這一角度入手，並能寫下去的話，就算內容再怎麽具體，也會是一大飛躍，從具體的故事範圍跳出來，成為文學的一個頂峰。這種作品，與色情作品有着莫大的差異。但是，衹要想在描寫老年人的性問題時冒出奇特的幽默，看來就必須讓心理層面的受虐傾嚮加入進來。
我之所以這麽寫，是因為我回想起《鑰匙》完成的時候，出現了好幾篇指責它的色情之處的批評文章，當時的衆議院法務委員會甚至還討論過它“究竟是猥褻還是文學”。然而，時代輪轉。現在，色情理所當然地被接受，這也不好。《瘋癲老人日記》可以說是處於《鑰匙》的延長綫上的作品，也許談談《鑰匙》發表時所受到的批評，也不算無用。
寫到這裏，我讀了讀唐納德·基恩寫的有關這部作品的文章，意外地發現裏面有這麽一處——“《瘋癲老人日記》寫的是老年人的性的問題，這在世界文學範圍內，就我所知，也屬唯一。”我想了很多，但腦海裏終究沒有浮現出一部與它相似的外國文學作品。前幾年，我翻譯了亨利·米勒的圖文集《失眠癥或者亂跳的惡魔》，這部作品也談得是“老年人的性”，但略有不同。它寫的是，年屆八十的米勒愛上了年輕的日本姑娘後就失眠了的事。十二幅水彩畫上也到處畫着“OMANKO”、“HARIKATA”、“MITOKORO-ZEME”等日語拼音文字和類似圖案。但是，文章卻完全沒有此類敘述，甚至充滿精神、抽象和哲理性，絲毫沒有具體談及性的問題。
若說外國文學中完全沒有類似的作品，這我不大清楚，所以着實對這一說法吃驚。考慮到外國人的生理特徵，這個說法更讓人意外。我覺得，對日本人來說，類似𠔌崎潤一郎似的作傢也實屬例外。但是，仔細想來，這種看法也不大對。日本人天生對“陰翳”敏感，這也是支撐這部作品成立的基礎。當然，還有其他原因。所謂其他原因，指的是理解𠔌崎文學的關鍵所在——受虐主義（這部作品主要反映的是心理層面的受虐傾嚮）。如果除去這一因素，出色地反映了“老年人的性”問題的，還有作傢和田芳惠。所以，反倒會得出這麽一個不可思議的結論：世界文學所欠缺的“談及老年人的性問題的文學作品”中，竟與日本人的特質有溫和之處。
但是，為了不讓大傢産生誤解，我要特別補充：陰翳確實是這部作品成立的一大要素，但不能忽視的是，對“性”這一問題本身，這部作品也做了極緻的探索。不衹是性，任何事情都被逼到極緻的時候，就會生出一股奇怪的幽默。嘗試從這一角度入手，並能寫下去的話，就算內容再怎麽具體，也會是一大飛躍，從具體的故事範圍跳出來，成為文學的一個頂峰。這種作品，與色情作品有着莫大的差異。但是，衹要想在描寫老年人的性問題時冒出奇特的幽默，看來就必須讓心理層面的受虐傾嚮加入進來。
我之所以這麽寫，是因為我回想起《鑰匙》完成的時候，出現了好幾篇指責它的色情之處的批評文章，當時的衆議院法務委員會甚至還討論過它“究竟是猥褻還是文學”。然而，時代輪轉。現在，色情理所當然地被接受，這也不好。《瘋癲老人日記》可以說是處於《鑰匙》的延長綫上的作品，也許談談《鑰匙》發表時所受到的批評，也不算無用。
罪惡𠔌底有櫻花
作者：錢定平
———淺嘗𠔌崎潤一郎
日本作傢井上靖說過，川端康成美的方程式非常復雜，“用一根繩子拴不住”。應用這個井上方程式，我們似乎也可以來套其他某些日本作傢。比如，永井荷風和他的私淑弟子𠔌崎潤一郎。閱讀這些作傢時我都不禁會發問：美，到底是什麽？美，又到底在哪裏？
文學批評傢就喜歡這樣玄乎的問題，但是不會同意下面的答案：
美，就在罪愆的深處，就在罪惡的𠔌底。
世界文學界有一個非常有趣的現象，唯美主義的易轉化性。唯美主義好像總是像她的那群倡導者一樣，命活不長，總不斷地嚮惡魔主義或其他方向轉化。
永井荷風是唯美主義信徒，想通過抒發思古之幽情，來表達對於現實的不滿；要用描寫風俗和豔情，來抵製殘酷的世風日下。但是，他的唯美主義一開始就混進了自然主義色調。小說《地獄之花》從書名到內容都浸透了左拉。他後來寫的《斷腸亭日記》，還有下面的《美國故事》，文筆優美，可饗讀者：
樹林裏重重疊疊長着樹和楓樹。這個國傢的楓樹，那由於夜裏的露水而發黃的葉子已經開始飄零，羊腸小道上到處都鋪滿了大片的落葉。可是，樹卻正霜葉紅於二月花哩。夕陽光綫穿透了深厚的林子，把樹葉簡直是一片一片地照亮了，真像在下着一陣金色的雨。（筆者譯）
永井荷風、𠔌崎潤一郎和佐藤春夫是日本唯美主義（日文是“耽美主義”，也頗得要領）三代表。荷風一直把潤一郎看做是自己的文學後繼。可是，潤一郎沒有繼承荷風那種文明批判精神，而是始終一貫地固執於女性美至高無上，堅持着對於女性美的病態追求，沉溺在男性對於女性美之性無能的執拗。於是，從唯美出發，卻走近了惡魔。
從處女作《文身》和《麒麟》，經過《癡人之愛》、《春琴抄》等，到晚年發表的《鑰匙》（日文《鍵（かぎ）》）和《瘋癲老人日記》，潤一郎一步一步走嚮罪惡淵藪。這裏一綫貫穿的，是男性在女性美面前的愛慕、膜拜、傾倒和……無能。這裏的男性，對於妖魔化了的極端女性美，是既殫精竭慮、拼命追求，又自慚形穢、畏葸不前。
我們可以看看《鑰匙》，小說1956年在《中央公論》雜志一月號上開始披露，負面呼聲大嘩，以至作者不得不停筆三個月，到五月號纔連載下去。這部小說卻立即在歐美獲得了欣賞。我多年前在德國買了一本原東德出的書：《愛之欲———四千年來的豔情詩歌和散文》（Die Lust zu liebenk Erotische Dichtung und Prosa aus vierJahrtausenden）。號稱“四千年”，可謂洋洋大觀，其中遠東作品衹選《金瓶梅》和《鑰匙》，作為代表。近來翻譯界把“波希米亞”
生存的亨利·米勒（HenryMiller）都“全譯”了，不知為什麽，富有思想和人文內涵的潤一郎和《鑰匙》卻似乎無人問津？
這篇小說圍繞着一對尷尬年齡夫妻的性生活展開。五十六歲的大學教授是男主人公，妻子鬱子四十五歲。面對體態豐滿，性欲旺盛而風情成熟的妻子，體力衰弱的教授心有餘而力不足。教授於是夜裏起來點燈、觀看裸體睡熟的妻子。他就像一個年老衰敗、君臨乏力的國王，在巡視已經無法統禦的豐沃國土一樣。他看到一片風光無限，盤盤焉，焉，蜂房水渦，矗不知乎幾千萬落。心思春光融融，而體力卻風雨凄凄，衹能夠徒喚奈何！這時，一個邪惡而致命的想法便乘虛而入。他想起了經常到傢裏來的學生、年輕力強的木村。有一次鬱子暈倒在浴室時，他就讓木村去把裸體的妻子抱進臥室。以後，又多次讓木村對裸體熟睡的鬱子拍照。他想激起年輕的木村對於妻子鬱子的愛欲，而自己則一旁窺測方向。希望等到一天，用木村對鬱子的情欲做催化劑，也能夠把他對妻子的力量重新激發起來。結果，他正中了西諺所說，“請鬼容易送鬼難”（It is easier to raise the De-vil than to lay him.）……不料鬱子在年輕的木村身上，第一次體驗到了新鮮、強烈而變化多姿的性，結婚二十幾年藴藏在肉體深處沒有覺醒的性給一下子喚醒，一發不可遏止……《鑰匙》在結構上的特點，是全篇小說由教授和鬱子兩人的日記組成。教授的日記用片假名，鬱子的日記用平假名，交互出現。兩部日記有鮮明而扭麯的心理特點，記日記本是一份隱私，可這裏日記作者起初就希望對方能夠讀到，所以，時不時流露出是在為了對方而寫日記的心態。微妙的地方，在於既想對方看到，又不希望對方猜出日記是為之寫作的蛛絲馬跡；既想對方能夠揣測自己的隱蔽欲望，又不希望對方明確猜出這種欲求並予以明火執仗的反應……其中，特別以鬱子的日記寫得委婉動人又大膽表露。有一段，頗符合李義山詩意：
“紅露花房白蜜脾，黃蜂紫蝶兩參差。春窗一覺風流夢，卻是同衾不得知”：
……當我踏進臥室時，丈夫已經上床了。他一看見我，就把床頭燈打開。近來，除了某一時刻，丈夫不喜歡臥室亮堂堂的……丈夫看我沐浴在燈光亮堂之中，突然露出驚訝的眼光。我很明白其中奧秘。我每次從浴室出來，總是戴上耳環上床，而且馬上故意把背脊嚮着丈夫，衹留給他一片戴着耳環的耳朵垂兒。這一動作不可言傳，丈夫以前還沒有見到過，於是，這立刻就使得他興奮起來。我還沒有準備好，衹覺得他已經在床上就緒，一把從後面抱住我，就瘋狂地吻我的耳朵垂兒。我聽他廝磨，眼睛閉着。……我倒並不覺得，給一個還叫做“丈夫”的人，這樣親吻耳朵垂兒有什麽不快。衹是，一時我怎麽也不能說我愛的還是他。同木村相比，這號親吻顯得實在笨拙無趣！
一邊我這樣想着，一邊他的舌頭癢絲絲地在廝磨着我的耳朵垂兒。……今夜，我把白天同木村一起進行過的嬉戲，重新同他也一一演習了一遍。而且，一邊還蠻有興趣地體驗着，他們兩個人到底在哪裏不同，又試圖把他們兩個人在感覺和風格上區分開來……（筆者譯）這樣的情景，當然是不穩定平衡。丈夫不久就中風而死，留下了寡母孤兒，和一個地位尷尬的木村……潤一郎在性行為的委婉描寫上，在性心理的深刻刻畫上，都堪稱高手。書裏的情節和細節都足以讓中國的正人君子蹙眉瞪眼，但是，全書又幾乎全是抽象描寫。動作遠非“具象”的動作，人物也不是“具象”的人物……
對於這一小說應該作何理解？筆者不是日本文學專傢，無意從學究的角度拉場子抱拳說話，衹是覺得日本人怪。我在西方文學沒有讀到同類母題的作品，衹有 Sadism（性虐待狂）、Masochism（性受虐狂）等等沸反盈天。日本作傢水上勉也激賞潤一郎，他在《越前竹偶》裏，也寫到了窩囊男匍匐在美豔女面前的性的奴性，但是比較含蓄傷感。
這種對男人的性醜化，並非從潤一郎始。芥川竜之介有一篇《女體》，就是一幅風情漫畫。一個男人一天覺得自己的靈魂附到了一隻虱的身上。他在碩大無朋的床上漫步，終於到了一座高山面前。他出神入化欣賞着這座山的美景，直到突然悟出，原來，這座高山就是他的妻子的一隻乳房……芥川無聊地把主角寫成中國人楊某，他真是太不懂中國和中國人；中國男性從來沒有在女性面前這樣畏葸示弱。日本文化纔一開始就是女性文化，其開創者平安時期的紫式部、清少納言、和泉式部等，全都是大內女官。可以說，對於醜惡現實反感引發唯美，唯美觸發尋根和復古，復古就返回到源頭的女性崇拜，一崇拜就伊於鬍底！
《鑰匙》是一部性悲劇，在性恐懼面前，教授一手造成了自己的毀滅。潤一郎文學在形形色色性錯亂的本相後面，揭示的是面對性無能的人類難題。可以說，自從人類一誕生，就有這個問題。在德國看過一部電影《一百萬年前》，說的是人類的一族在百萬年前的一段故事。那裏面的人還不會說話，但是，已經有了肆無忌憚的色情狂，也有男人見了女性不感興趣。這個問題似乎不會有最終答案。教授強求人間性愛而怨死，而那性愛對於他已經力所不能及。教授就像小孩子“硬要”天邊的月亮一樣，於是這個悲劇又變成了一場喜劇了。這裏沒有罪惡，唯一的罪惡是性，以及生來就給裝上了性的人類自己。人類生來就患了性的欲求，卻又是如此五花八門，形態各異，不能劃一。
如果硬要，就是悲劇，或者喜劇。人生的悲喜原來衹差一步！但是不論悲喜，對於主角都是解脫。
一休和尚說過一句禪：“入佛界易，入魔界難！”這話大可同日本文化和人性一齊吟味。人們喜歡把“美”同日本文學聯繫起來。例如，川端是凄豔的美，三島是男性的陽剛美，而𠔌崎潤一郎則是典雅豔麗，等等。實際上，日本文學裏美和醜是非常緊密地融合在一起的。
渡邊淳一小說的主人公說，櫻花樹下埋着屍體！《鑰匙》這邊則是赤裸裸的醜陋、荒謬和罪惡，而手法和描寫又是美的：豔麗纏綿。罪惡就是人本身，所以，罪惡的𠔌底，也就是人的深層構造，到達了美麗的藝術境界，深層處竟然又開放着櫻花般的美。罪惡𠔌底有櫻花！
作者：錢定平
———淺嘗𠔌崎潤一郎
日本作傢井上靖說過，川端康成美的方程式非常復雜，“用一根繩子拴不住”。應用這個井上方程式，我們似乎也可以來套其他某些日本作傢。比如，永井荷風和他的私淑弟子𠔌崎潤一郎。閱讀這些作傢時我都不禁會發問：美，到底是什麽？美，又到底在哪裏？
文學批評傢就喜歡這樣玄乎的問題，但是不會同意下面的答案：
美，就在罪愆的深處，就在罪惡的𠔌底。
世界文學界有一個非常有趣的現象，唯美主義的易轉化性。唯美主義好像總是像她的那群倡導者一樣，命活不長，總不斷地嚮惡魔主義或其他方向轉化。
永井荷風是唯美主義信徒，想通過抒發思古之幽情，來表達對於現實的不滿；要用描寫風俗和豔情，來抵製殘酷的世風日下。但是，他的唯美主義一開始就混進了自然主義色調。小說《地獄之花》從書名到內容都浸透了左拉。他後來寫的《斷腸亭日記》，還有下面的《美國故事》，文筆優美，可饗讀者：
樹林裏重重疊疊長着樹和楓樹。這個國傢的楓樹，那由於夜裏的露水而發黃的葉子已經開始飄零，羊腸小道上到處都鋪滿了大片的落葉。可是，樹卻正霜葉紅於二月花哩。夕陽光綫穿透了深厚的林子，把樹葉簡直是一片一片地照亮了，真像在下着一陣金色的雨。（筆者譯）
永井荷風、𠔌崎潤一郎和佐藤春夫是日本唯美主義（日文是“耽美主義”，也頗得要領）三代表。荷風一直把潤一郎看做是自己的文學後繼。可是，潤一郎沒有繼承荷風那種文明批判精神，而是始終一貫地固執於女性美至高無上，堅持着對於女性美的病態追求，沉溺在男性對於女性美之性無能的執拗。於是，從唯美出發，卻走近了惡魔。
從處女作《文身》和《麒麟》，經過《癡人之愛》、《春琴抄》等，到晚年發表的《鑰匙》（日文《鍵（かぎ）》）和《瘋癲老人日記》，潤一郎一步一步走嚮罪惡淵藪。這裏一綫貫穿的，是男性在女性美面前的愛慕、膜拜、傾倒和……無能。這裏的男性，對於妖魔化了的極端女性美，是既殫精竭慮、拼命追求，又自慚形穢、畏葸不前。
我們可以看看《鑰匙》，小說1956年在《中央公論》雜志一月號上開始披露，負面呼聲大嘩，以至作者不得不停筆三個月，到五月號纔連載下去。這部小說卻立即在歐美獲得了欣賞。我多年前在德國買了一本原東德出的書：《愛之欲———四千年來的豔情詩歌和散文》（Die Lust zu liebenk Erotische Dichtung und Prosa aus vierJahrtausenden）。號稱“四千年”，可謂洋洋大觀，其中遠東作品衹選《金瓶梅》和《鑰匙》，作為代表。近來翻譯界把“波希米亞”
生存的亨利·米勒（HenryMiller）都“全譯”了，不知為什麽，富有思想和人文內涵的潤一郎和《鑰匙》卻似乎無人問津？
這篇小說圍繞着一對尷尬年齡夫妻的性生活展開。五十六歲的大學教授是男主人公，妻子鬱子四十五歲。面對體態豐滿，性欲旺盛而風情成熟的妻子，體力衰弱的教授心有餘而力不足。教授於是夜裏起來點燈、觀看裸體睡熟的妻子。他就像一個年老衰敗、君臨乏力的國王，在巡視已經無法統禦的豐沃國土一樣。他看到一片風光無限，盤盤焉，焉，蜂房水渦，矗不知乎幾千萬落。心思春光融融，而體力卻風雨凄凄，衹能夠徒喚奈何！這時，一個邪惡而致命的想法便乘虛而入。他想起了經常到傢裏來的學生、年輕力強的木村。有一次鬱子暈倒在浴室時，他就讓木村去把裸體的妻子抱進臥室。以後，又多次讓木村對裸體熟睡的鬱子拍照。他想激起年輕的木村對於妻子鬱子的愛欲，而自己則一旁窺測方向。希望等到一天，用木村對鬱子的情欲做催化劑，也能夠把他對妻子的力量重新激發起來。結果，他正中了西諺所說，“請鬼容易送鬼難”（It is easier to raise the De-vil than to lay him.）……不料鬱子在年輕的木村身上，第一次體驗到了新鮮、強烈而變化多姿的性，結婚二十幾年藴藏在肉體深處沒有覺醒的性給一下子喚醒，一發不可遏止……《鑰匙》在結構上的特點，是全篇小說由教授和鬱子兩人的日記組成。教授的日記用片假名，鬱子的日記用平假名，交互出現。兩部日記有鮮明而扭麯的心理特點，記日記本是一份隱私，可這裏日記作者起初就希望對方能夠讀到，所以，時不時流露出是在為了對方而寫日記的心態。微妙的地方，在於既想對方看到，又不希望對方猜出日記是為之寫作的蛛絲馬跡；既想對方能夠揣測自己的隱蔽欲望，又不希望對方明確猜出這種欲求並予以明火執仗的反應……其中，特別以鬱子的日記寫得委婉動人又大膽表露。有一段，頗符合李義山詩意：
“紅露花房白蜜脾，黃蜂紫蝶兩參差。春窗一覺風流夢，卻是同衾不得知”：
……當我踏進臥室時，丈夫已經上床了。他一看見我，就把床頭燈打開。近來，除了某一時刻，丈夫不喜歡臥室亮堂堂的……丈夫看我沐浴在燈光亮堂之中，突然露出驚訝的眼光。我很明白其中奧秘。我每次從浴室出來，總是戴上耳環上床，而且馬上故意把背脊嚮着丈夫，衹留給他一片戴着耳環的耳朵垂兒。這一動作不可言傳，丈夫以前還沒有見到過，於是，這立刻就使得他興奮起來。我還沒有準備好，衹覺得他已經在床上就緒，一把從後面抱住我，就瘋狂地吻我的耳朵垂兒。我聽他廝磨，眼睛閉着。……我倒並不覺得，給一個還叫做“丈夫”的人，這樣親吻耳朵垂兒有什麽不快。衹是，一時我怎麽也不能說我愛的還是他。同木村相比，這號親吻顯得實在笨拙無趣！
一邊我這樣想着，一邊他的舌頭癢絲絲地在廝磨着我的耳朵垂兒。……今夜，我把白天同木村一起進行過的嬉戲，重新同他也一一演習了一遍。而且，一邊還蠻有興趣地體驗着，他們兩個人到底在哪裏不同，又試圖把他們兩個人在感覺和風格上區分開來……（筆者譯）這樣的情景，當然是不穩定平衡。丈夫不久就中風而死，留下了寡母孤兒，和一個地位尷尬的木村……潤一郎在性行為的委婉描寫上，在性心理的深刻刻畫上，都堪稱高手。書裏的情節和細節都足以讓中國的正人君子蹙眉瞪眼，但是，全書又幾乎全是抽象描寫。動作遠非“具象”的動作，人物也不是“具象”的人物……
對於這一小說應該作何理解？筆者不是日本文學專傢，無意從學究的角度拉場子抱拳說話，衹是覺得日本人怪。我在西方文學沒有讀到同類母題的作品，衹有 Sadism（性虐待狂）、Masochism（性受虐狂）等等沸反盈天。日本作傢水上勉也激賞潤一郎，他在《越前竹偶》裏，也寫到了窩囊男匍匐在美豔女面前的性的奴性，但是比較含蓄傷感。
這種對男人的性醜化，並非從潤一郎始。芥川竜之介有一篇《女體》，就是一幅風情漫畫。一個男人一天覺得自己的靈魂附到了一隻虱的身上。他在碩大無朋的床上漫步，終於到了一座高山面前。他出神入化欣賞着這座山的美景，直到突然悟出，原來，這座高山就是他的妻子的一隻乳房……芥川無聊地把主角寫成中國人楊某，他真是太不懂中國和中國人；中國男性從來沒有在女性面前這樣畏葸示弱。日本文化纔一開始就是女性文化，其開創者平安時期的紫式部、清少納言、和泉式部等，全都是大內女官。可以說，對於醜惡現實反感引發唯美，唯美觸發尋根和復古，復古就返回到源頭的女性崇拜，一崇拜就伊於鬍底！
《鑰匙》是一部性悲劇，在性恐懼面前，教授一手造成了自己的毀滅。潤一郎文學在形形色色性錯亂的本相後面，揭示的是面對性無能的人類難題。可以說，自從人類一誕生，就有這個問題。在德國看過一部電影《一百萬年前》，說的是人類的一族在百萬年前的一段故事。那裏面的人還不會說話，但是，已經有了肆無忌憚的色情狂，也有男人見了女性不感興趣。這個問題似乎不會有最終答案。教授強求人間性愛而怨死，而那性愛對於他已經力所不能及。教授就像小孩子“硬要”天邊的月亮一樣，於是這個悲劇又變成了一場喜劇了。這裏沒有罪惡，唯一的罪惡是性，以及生來就給裝上了性的人類自己。人類生來就患了性的欲求，卻又是如此五花八門，形態各異，不能劃一。
如果硬要，就是悲劇，或者喜劇。人生的悲喜原來衹差一步！但是不論悲喜，對於主角都是解脫。
一休和尚說過一句禪：“入佛界易，入魔界難！”這話大可同日本文化和人性一齊吟味。人們喜歡把“美”同日本文學聯繫起來。例如，川端是凄豔的美，三島是男性的陽剛美，而𠔌崎潤一郎則是典雅豔麗，等等。實際上，日本文學裏美和醜是非常緊密地融合在一起的。
渡邊淳一小說的主人公說，櫻花樹下埋着屍體！《鑰匙》這邊則是赤裸裸的醜陋、荒謬和罪惡，而手法和描寫又是美的：豔麗纏綿。罪惡就是人本身，所以，罪惡的𠔌底，也就是人的深層構造，到達了美麗的藝術境界，深層處竟然又開放着櫻花般的美。罪惡𠔌底有櫻花！
《北回歸綫》是米勒的第一部自傳體小說，也是他出版的第一本書。此書以回憶錄的形式寫就，米勒在書中追憶他同幾位作傢、藝術傢朋友在巴黎度過的一段日子，旨在通過諸如工作、交談、宴飲、嫖妓等超現實主義和自然主義的誇張、變形生活細節描寫揭示人性，探究青年人如何在特定環境中將自己造就成藝術傢這一傳統西方文學主題。
The novel included a preface credited to Anaïs Nin (although allegedly penned by Miller himself).
The book was distributed by Frances Steloff at her Gotham Book Mart, in defiance of censorship pressures.
Plot introduction
Set in France (primarily Paris) during the 1930s, it is the tale of Miller's life as a struggling writer. Combining fiction and autobiography, some chapters follow a strict narrative and refer to Miller's actual friends, colleagues, and workplaces; others are written as stream-of-consciousness reflections. It is written in the first person, as are many of Miller's other novels, and often fluctuates between past and present tense. There are many passages explicitly describing the narrator's sexual encounters, but the book does not solely focus on this subject.
Legal issues
In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Grove Press, Inc. v. Gerstein, cited Jacobellis v. Ohio (which was decided the same day) and overruled state court findings of obscenity.
A copyright infringing "Medusa" edition of the novel was published in New York City in 1940 by Jacob Brussel; its title page claimed its place of publication to be Mexico. Brussel was eventually sent to jail for three years for the edition, a copy of which is in the Library of Congress.
Critical reception
George Orwell called this novel
"the most important book of the mid-1930s [and Miller is] the only imaginative prose-writer of the slightest value who has appeared among the English-speaking races for some years past."
Samuel Beckett hailed it as "a momentous event in the history of modern writing". Norman Mailer, in his book on Miller, Genius and Lust, called it "one of the ten or twenty greatest novels of the century". The Modern Library named it the 50th greatest book of the 20th century. Edmund Wilson said of the novel:
The tone of the book is undoubtedly low; The Tropic of Cancer, in fact, from the point of view both of its happening and of the language in which they are conveyed, is the lowest book of any real literary merit that I have ever remember to have read... there is a strange amenity of temper and style which bathes the whole composition even when it is disgusting or tiresome.
In his dissent from the majority holding that the book was not obscene, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Michael Musmanno wrote Cancer is "not a book. It is a cesspool, an open sewer, a pit of putrefaction, a slimy gathering of all that is rotten in the debris of human depravity."
The novel included a preface credited to Anaïs Nin (although allegedly penned by Miller himself).
The book was distributed by Frances Steloff at her Gotham Book Mart, in defiance of censorship pressures.
Plot introduction
Set in France (primarily Paris) during the 1930s, it is the tale of Miller's life as a struggling writer. Combining fiction and autobiography, some chapters follow a strict narrative and refer to Miller's actual friends, colleagues, and workplaces; others are written as stream-of-consciousness reflections. It is written in the first person, as are many of Miller's other novels, and often fluctuates between past and present tense. There are many passages explicitly describing the narrator's sexual encounters, but the book does not solely focus on this subject.
Legal issues
In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Grove Press, Inc. v. Gerstein, cited Jacobellis v. Ohio (which was decided the same day) and overruled state court findings of obscenity.
A copyright infringing "Medusa" edition of the novel was published in New York City in 1940 by Jacob Brussel; its title page claimed its place of publication to be Mexico. Brussel was eventually sent to jail for three years for the edition, a copy of which is in the Library of Congress.
Critical reception
George Orwell called this novel
"the most important book of the mid-1930s [and Miller is] the only imaginative prose-writer of the slightest value who has appeared among the English-speaking races for some years past."
Samuel Beckett hailed it as "a momentous event in the history of modern writing". Norman Mailer, in his book on Miller, Genius and Lust, called it "one of the ten or twenty greatest novels of the century". The Modern Library named it the 50th greatest book of the 20th century. Edmund Wilson said of the novel:
The tone of the book is undoubtedly low; The Tropic of Cancer, in fact, from the point of view both of its happening and of the language in which they are conveyed, is the lowest book of any real literary merit that I have ever remember to have read... there is a strange amenity of temper and style which bathes the whole composition even when it is disgusting or tiresome.
In his dissent from the majority holding that the book was not obscene, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Michael Musmanno wrote Cancer is "not a book. It is a cesspool, an open sewer, a pit of putrefaction, a slimy gathering of all that is rotten in the debris of human depravity."
《南回歸綫》作為亨利·米勒自傳式羅曼史的重要作品，主要敘述和描寫了亨利·米勒早年在紐約的生活經歷，以及與此有關的種種感想、聯想、遐想和幻想。米勒在這部主要描寫自己的內在精神世界的作品中，運用音樂、性以及一種達達主義式的感覺錯亂來不斷追求自我表現的狂喜。本書除了最初的一大部分和一些以空行形式出現的不規則的段落劃分以外，衹有兩個正式的部分：插麯和尾聲，都是藉用了音樂的術語，似乎整部作品是一首表現自我音樂情緒的完整樂麯。亨利·米勒在本書中描寫的一次次性衝動構成了一部性狂想麯，而他的性狂想麯又是他批判西方文化、重建自我的非道德化傾嚮的一部分。
亨利·米勒在本書中首引了法國中世紀道德哲學家彼得·阿伯拉爾的話來說明他寫此書的目的：“我這樣做為的是讓你通過比較你我的痛苦而發現，你的痛苦算不得一回事，至多不過是小事一樁，從而使你更容易承受你痛苦的壓力。”
The novel is set in 1920s New York, where the narrator 'Henry V. Miller' works in the personnel division of the 'Cosmodemonic' telegraph company. Although the narrator's experiences closely parallel Miller's own time in New York working for the Western Union Telegraph Company, and he shares the author's name, the novel is considered a work of fiction.
The book is a story of spiritual awakening. Miller grinds down the reader with tales of poverty, suffering, and depravity, then attempts to create an experience of satiety. Much of the story surrounds his New York years of struggle with wife June Miller, and the process of finding his voice as a writer.
亨利·米勒在本書中首引了法國中世紀道德哲學家彼得·阿伯拉爾的話來說明他寫此書的目的：“我這樣做為的是讓你通過比較你我的痛苦而發現，你的痛苦算不得一回事，至多不過是小事一樁，從而使你更容易承受你痛苦的壓力。”
The novel is set in 1920s New York, where the narrator 'Henry V. Miller' works in the personnel division of the 'Cosmodemonic' telegraph company. Although the narrator's experiences closely parallel Miller's own time in New York working for the Western Union Telegraph Company, and he shares the author's name, the novel is considered a work of fiction.
The book is a story of spiritual awakening. Miller grinds down the reader with tales of poverty, suffering, and depravity, then attempts to create an experience of satiety. Much of the story surrounds his New York years of struggle with wife June Miller, and the process of finding his voice as a writer.
最早聽到的洛麗塔，是一本小說的名字和一位13歲少女的名字。如果僅從對小說的理解，可以將其單純地理解為早熟的性感少女以及她和戀童癖的聯繫，而且有接觸西方文化的人會發現，西方人說的“洛麗塔”女孩是那些穿着超短裙，化着成熟妝容但又留着少女劉海的女生，簡單來說就是“少女強穿女郎裝”的情況。 但是當“洛麗塔”流傳到了日本，日本人就將其當成天真可愛少女的代名詞，統一將14歲以下的女孩稱為“洛麗塔代”，而且態度變成“女郎強穿少女裝”，即成熟女人對青澀女孩的嚮往。 而幾乎所有東方型的“洛麗塔”，都以電影《下妻物語》裏的宮廷娃娃時裝作為標準來打扮自己。港版“洛麗塔”由此而來，而慣於嚮香港取經的粵版洛麗塔也一樣。但不同的是，粵版洛麗塔玩傢年齡集中在13－25歲，而且大部分人不超過20歲，十七八歲的這類玩傢，她們並不存在要拼命裝嫩的需要，更多時候她們追求的是一種嶄新的衣着態度，和尋求有別一般的生活方式。
在西方“洛麗塔”是個極有象徵意義的名字，意指性感少女、戀童等意，取自一部名為《洛麗塔》的小說，後拍為同名電影，國內亦翻譯為《一支梨花壓海棠》。套用最近流行的李安導演的那句名言，我們可以說，“每個女孩心裏都有一個洛麗塔”，從西方到東方，從日本到香港，再到中國內地，雖然時間漫長了些，但14歲少女洛麗塔那樣精靈可愛的女孩形象竟能在全世界引起“軒然大波”，估計是半世紀以前她的創作者根本無法預料到的，她們甚至特別選擇人流最密集的商業中心作為自己的秀場，不論你是否接受，她們總是那麽驕傲、那麽忘我，誰敢說，洛麗塔不是真正高貴的小公主。
洛麗塔-基本資料
由一開始的LOLI是LOLITA的簡稱，指代可愛、吸引人的幼女（多指7～14歲），源於小說《洛麗塔》到後來文化的延伸，lolita＝形容詞，代表蘿莉狀、可愛的幼女，loli = 幼女，多用在電影以及日本GALGAME文化中。
最近，因為日本和英美的電影文化的影響，使蘿莉風格的服裝大行其道，LOLITA演變成代表了一種服飾風格，尤其是在日本，LOLITA成為了代表性強的服裝品牌，並被越來越多少女推崇，從而漸漸取代了LOLITA指形容詞，代表蘿莉狀、可愛的幼女的地位。
特徵
一個女生究竟是不是蘿莉，每人的定義都有不同：有以年齡（嚴格生理年齡）來分的，有以氣質（心理年齡、外表年齡）來分的，更嚴格的是兩項標準都要達到的，最後還有自己認為是就當作是的。不過普遍來說有一個重點就是要“尚未發育”或者“發育不全”。
心理
Lolita不單是一種服飾潮流，更是年輕人表達情感需要的方式，或是彌補自信不足的自我保護武裝。一如發展心理學家艾力遜指出，年青人正處於“自我認識與迷亂”的階段，他們往往擁有童真與夢想，有擺脫現實規限的渴求，需要尋找自我，因此以不羈和野性挑戰傳統，期望得到別人關註、瞭解、認同和真正接納。
蘿莉有三好：身嬌、腰柔、易推倒
類型
小公主型、傢中小妹型、女王型、小惡魔型、膽怯嬌羞型、小迷糊型、類成熟型
洛麗塔-三大族群
一、SweetLolita———以粉紅、粉藍、白色等粉色係列為主，衣料選用大量蕾絲，務求締造出洋娃娃般的可愛和爛漫，在廣州是最多人選擇的造型，走在大街上也不算太張揚。
Sweet Lolita
現今在Lolita界的地位：主流
Sweet Lolita正如其名，屬於所有Lolita分類中服飾設計最為甜美的一個派別。Sweet係洋裝的布料大多以粉紅、粉藍或白色等粉嫩可愛的單色為主。除此之外，為了能製造出一種仿若洋娃娃般可愛甜美、爛漫純真的氣息，Sweet係洋裝通常會在衣物上使用比別的派係 更多的蕾絲和本布褶皺。
近幾年來，大約是因為版型與設計經常被山寨的緣故，各傢Sweet係洋裝品牌紛紛擯棄單色布料，轉而使用起各種印有糖果、蛋糕、小動物或描述某個童話場景的印花布料（因為圖案特殊且難以仿製，這種布料往往是單此一傢別無分店，所以相當能防D版於未然）。
一般來說，SweetLolita洋裝往往比其他係別的洋裝更能獲得初次踏進Lolita世界的女孩們的青睞。
SweetLolita洋裝代表品牌：BABY,THE STARS SHINE BRIGH、Angelic Pretty、METAMORPHOSE
二、ClassicalLolita———以簡約色調為主，着重剪裁以表達清雅的心思，顔色不出挑，如茶色和白色。蕾絲花邊會相應減少，而荷葉褶是最大特色，整體風格比較平實，適合新手。
☆Classical Lolita☆
現今在Lolita界的地位：主流
恰如其名，ClassicalLolita洋裝正是所有係別的Lolita洋裝中服裝款式最為優雅的派別。其洋裝設計就好象19世紀英國的貴族少女一般，既古典優雅，又不失純真可愛。
ClassicalLolita洋裝所選用的布料雖然也喜歡以純色為主，但它所使用的純色料子一定都有着素雅得體又不刺眼的色調。除開白、黑、粉、藍這四個基本色之外，各式各樣美麗的碎花布也是Classical係洋裝布料的愛用之選。
與SweetLolita洋裝不同，除了古典係蕾絲之外，Classical Lolita洋裝極少會在衣物上使用到大量造型平平、質地一般的蕾絲。在衣服上每個需要用到花邊的地方，ClassicalLolita洋裝基本上都會以與衣服相同質地的本布褶皺來代替蕾絲。而Classical係洋裝所選用的布料顔色亦非常素雅，除了白、黑、粉、藍這四個基本色之外，各式各樣美麗的碎花布也是Classical係洋裝布料的常用者。
總而言之，ClassicalLolita洋裝的特色就是“簡約而不簡單”。由於款式簡單大方、優雅不凡，ClassicalLolita洋裝比其他係別的Lolita洋裝更適合日常穿着，也更容易被傢長及大衆所接受。當少女們厭倦了造型過於誇張的SweetLolita洋裝和非常不日常的 GothicLolita洋裝後，ClassicalLolita洋裝就順理成章地成為了她們的必然選擇與最終選擇。 有意思的是，最能穿出ClassicalLolita洋裝韻味的人居然並不是青春活潑的高初中女生，而是那些年紀在20以上的、因為工作和閱歷的緣故而擁有了沉靜氣質的年輕女子。看來在現實中，“氣質”能與“年輕”完美並存的實例果然屈指可數呢。
代表品牌：Mary Magdalene、Victorian maiden、JULIETTE & JUSTINE Lolita不是Cosplay：前者代表生活態度，後者更加強調角色模仿 gothiclolita
三、GothicLolita———主色是黑和白，特徵是想表達神秘恐怖和死亡的感覺。通常配以十字架銀器等裝飾，以及化較為濃烈的深色妝容，如黑色指甲、眼影、唇色，強調神秘色彩。
☆Gothic Lolita☆
現今在Lolita界的地位：主流
首先需要註意的是，Gothic Lolita與純正的Gothic是完全不同的，大傢千萬不要把它們混為一談——因為以正常人的眼光來看，純粹的Gothic根本就是“妖魔鬼怪般的人物”。而Gothic Lolita雖然在服飾設計上也彌漫着相當濃厚的Gothic味，但它至少還能給人以小惡魔般另類的可愛天真之感。
其次，那些認為凡是用黑白色面料製作的Lolita洋裝就一定屬於GothicLolita洋裝的想法也是錯誤的。事實上，即使采用完全相同的面料進行衣物製作，那些出自不同派係之手的Lolita洋裝也依舊會在觀感上存在着極易分辨的明顯差異——
就算圖裏的模特都穿着黑色的洋裝，但人們還是能從款式和造型上輕易認出誰纔是甜嫩可愛的SweetLolita洋裝、誰又是如同死神般冷淡孤高的 GothicLolita洋裝的。
幾乎97％以上的GothicLolita洋裝都衹采用了黑色和白色的單色布料，像粉紅、嫩黃之類的可愛顔色可是與這個係別完全絶緣的。此外，GothicLolita洋裝也是所有類別的Lolita洋裝中最常使用皮質材料的派別。難怪在國內的某些地方，是否穿着使用上等小羊皮製作的束腰會成為了外行人判斷此人是否GothicLolita少女的唯一標準了。
除了單調的布料用色之外，GothicLolita少女們最愛使用的配飾，也是最能表現出Gothic那股混合了“恐怖”、“純真”、“神秘”、 “絶望”、“憂鬱”、“死亡”與“禁忌”這七大主題的獨有氣息的各類小物（如黑色指甲油、十字架和骷髏銀飾等）。
Elegant Gothic Lolita 此外，GothicLolita洋裝中還存在着兩個比較特別的分支——EGL Lolita及EGA Lolita。EGL Lolita的全稱是“Elegant Gothic Lolita”（即“雅緻歌特Lolita”）。它的款式設計一般偏嚮傳統古典，雖與Gothic Lolita非常接近，卻又多帶了點吸血鬼的感覺。而EGA Lolita的全稱則是“Elegant Gothic Aristocrat”（即“雅緻歌特貴族”），其服裝款式一般為男裝、長裙、褲子和領尖定有紐扣的襯衣及外套。
與其他係別的Lolita洋裝比起來，集優雅華麗與黑暗詭異於一身的Gothic Lolita可謂是最受歐美人熱愛和着迷的Lolita風格。也許這是因為GothicLolita洋裝的設計中充滿了神秘及誘惑的禁欲色彩，所以更能引起深受基督教影響之人的共鳴罷。
代表品牌：Moi-meme-Moitie、Mille Fleur
洛麗塔-相關評論
事實上“女性化”本來就是個沒有什麽具體概念的詞，而“洛麗塔”的女性化無非是擁有少女式的性感和猶如小狐狸精般的狡黠。
其實沒有“洛麗塔”情結的女人就像是過於成熟的水果，失去了青澀帶來的回味。於是，那些綴滿白色的黑色的花邊裙子，胸前的綁帶把我們帶回到逝去的懵懂歲月，那不僅僅是單純意義上的裝嫩，而是對於自己的最好奬勵，允許自己生活在非現實的世界中，鼓勵自己犯那些小小的錯誤，甚至有那麽一點殘忍和邪惡。
這種時尚可能是從一部日劇開始大肆蔓延並在明星的率領下成為時尚的，在日劇《下妻物語》中，深田恭子的“洛麗塔”扮相將這一風尚推嚮頂點。令日本街頭的穿着也形成了三股不同的風尚，“甜美可愛洛麗塔”多為甜美可人的風格，以粉色為主，運用大量蕾絲褶皺裙，表現出洋娃娃般的可人形象；“哥特式洛麗塔”在歐美尤其流行，以黑色為主，彌漫着死亡氣息的恐怖與優雅，可以配上黑色的指甲油和唇膏，締造頽廢的氣質；“經典洛麗塔”則是最簡單的入門款，裙身多為荷葉邊，透過碎花和粉色表現出清純的感覺。
這種流行風從日本通過香港迅速蔓延到中國內地，讓那些身着“公主裝”的女人們以時尚的藉口開始肆意裝嫩，而這種裝嫩的境界也不再停留於原有的“師出無名”了。
時尚界自然也不會錯過任何一個可以大做文章的由頭，在這個洛麗塔般“小妖精” 橫行的年代，時尚精英們紛紛嚮懵懂和叛逆致敬，他們和普通大衆一起進入一場拒絶長大的遊戲中。年輕且性感的裝扮，並不難做到，因此近年來，蕾絲花邊和蝴蝶結曾風靡一時，且風頭不減。連Dior在今年的秀場上也用華麗和不同季節服裝的混搭，製造出早熟的摩登小女郎風格，碩大的太陽眼鏡，女人味十足的皮草搭配芥末黃的百褶裙和吊帶上衣，性感清純一個都不能少。
After its publication, Nabokov's Lolita attained a classic status, becoming one of the best-known and most controversial examples of 20th century literature. The name "Lolita" has entered pop culture to describe a sexually precocious girl. The novel was adapted to film by Stanley Kubrick in 1962, and again in 1997 by Adrian Lyne.
Lolita is included on TIME's 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. It is fourth on the Modern Library's 1998 list of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th century.
Plot summary
Lolita is divided into two parts and 36 short chapters. It is narrated by Humbert Humbert, a literary scholar born in 1910 to a Swiss father and an English mother in Paris, who is obsessed with what he refers to as "nymphets". Humbert suggests that this obsession results from the death of a childhood sweetheart, Annabel Leigh. In 1947, Humbert moves to Ramsdale, a small New England town, to write. He rents a room in the house of Charlotte Haze, a widow. While Charlotte tours him around the house, he meets her 12-year-old daughter, Dolores (also known as Dolly, Lolita, Lola, Lo, and L), with whom he falls in love at first sight. Humbert stays at the house only to remain with her. While he is infatuated with Lolita, a highly intelligent and articulate, albeit tempestuous teenage girl, he disdains of her preoccupation with contemporary American popular culture, such as teen movies and comic books.
While Lolita is away at summer camp, Charlotte, who has fallen in love with Humbert, tells him that he must either marry her or move out. Humbert reluctantly agrees in order to continue living near Lolita. Charlotte is oblivious of Humbert's distaste and pity for her, and his lust for Lolita, until she reads his diary. Upon learning of Humbert's true feelings and intentions, Charlotte is appalled. She makes plans to flee with Lolita, and threatens to expose Humbert's perversions. But as she runs across the street in a state of shock, she is struck and killed by a passing car.
Humbert picks Lolita up from camp, pretending that Charlotte is ill in a hospital. He does not return to Charlotte's home out of fear that the neighbors will be suspicious. Instead, he takes Lolita to a hotel, where he meets a strange man (later revealed to be Clare Quilty), who seems to know who he is. Humbert attempts to use sleeping pills on Lolita so that he may molest her without her knowledge, but they have little effect on her. Instead, she initiates sex. He discovers that he is not her first lover, as she had sex with a boy at summer camp. Humbert reveals to Lolita that Charlotte is actually dead; Lolita has no choice but to accept her stepfather into her life on his terms.
Lolita and Humbert drive around the country, moving from state to state and motel to motel. Humbert initially keeps the girl under control by threatening her with reform school; later he bribes her for sexual favors, though he knows that she does not reciprocate his love and shares none of his interests. The novel's first part ends after he rapes her. After a year touring North America, the two settle down in another New England town, where Lolita is enrolled in school. Humbert is very possessive and strict, forbidding Lolita to take part in after-school activities or to associate with boys; the townspeople, however, see this as the action of a loving and concerned, while old fashioned, parent.
Lolita begs to be allowed to take part in the school play; Humbert reluctantly grants his permission in exchange for more sexual favors. The play is written by Clare Quilty. He is said to have attended a rehearsal and been impressed by Lolita's acting. Just before opening night, Lolita and Humbert have a ferocious argument, which culminates in Lolita saying she wants to leave town and resume their travels.
As Lolita and Humbert drive westward again, Humbert gets the feeling that their car is being tailed and he becomes increasingly paranoid, suspecting that Lolita is conspiring with others in order to escape. She falls ill and must convalesce in a hospital; Humbert stays in a nearby motel, without Lolita for the first time in years. One night, Lolita disappears from the hospital; the staff tell Humbert that Lolita's "uncle" checked her out. Humbert embarks upon a frantic search to find Lolita and her abductor, but eventually he gives up.
One day in 1952, Humbert receives a letter from Lolita, now 17, who tells him that she is married, pregnant, and in desperate need of money. Humbert goes to see Lolita, giving her money in exchange for the name of the man who abducted her. She reveals the truth: Clare Quilty, an acquaintance of Charlotte's and the writer of the school play, checked her out of the hospital and attempted to make her star in one of his pornographic films; when she refused, he threw her out. She worked odd jobs before meeting and marrying her husband, who knows nothing about her past.
Humbert asks Lolita to leave her husband and return to him, but she refuses, and he breaks down in tears. He leaves Lolita, and kills Quilty at his mansion, shooting him to death in an act of revenge. He then is arrested for driving on the wrong side of the road and swerving. The narrative closes with Humbert's final words to Lolita in which he wishes her well, and reveals the novel in its metafiction to be the memoirs of his life, only to be published after he and Lolita have both died.
According to the novel's fictional "Foreword", Humbert dies of coronary thrombosis upon finishing his manuscript. Lolita dies giving birth to a stillborn girl on Christmas Day, 1952.
Style and interpretation
The novel is a tragicomedy narrated by Humbert, who riddles the narrative with word play and his wry observations of American culture. His humor provides an effective counterpoint to the pathos of the tragic plot. The novel's flamboyant style is characterized by word play, double entendres, multilingual puns, anagrams, and coinages such as nymphet, a word that has since had a life of its own and can be found in most dictionaries, and the lesser used "faunlet." One of the novel's characters, "Vivian Darkbloom," is an anagram for author Vladimir Nabokov.
Several times, Humbert begs the reader to understand that he is not proud of his union with Lolita, but is filled with remorse. At one point, he is listening to the sounds of children playing outdoors, and is stricken with guilt at the realization that he robbed Lolita of her childhood.
Some critics have accepted Humbert's version of events at face value. In 1959, novelist Robertson Davies excused the narrator entirely, writing that the theme of Lolita is "not the corruption of an innocent child by a cunning adult, but the exploitation of a weak adult by a corrupt child. This is no pretty theme, but it is one with which social workers, magistrates and psychiatrists are familiar."
Most writers, however, have given less credit to Humbert and more to Nabokov's powers as an ironist. For Richard Rorty, in his famous interpretation of Lolita in Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, Humbert is a "monster of incuriosity." Nabokov himself described Humbert as "a vain and cruel wretch" and "a hateful person" (quoted in Levine, 1967).
Martin Amis, in his essay on Stalinism, Koba the Dread, proposes that Lolita is an elaborate metaphor for the totalitarianism that destroyed the Russia of Nabokov's childhood (though Nabokov states in his Afterword that he "[detests] symbols and allegories"). Amis interprets it as a story of tyranny told from the point of view of the tyrant. "Nabokov, in all his fiction, writes with incomparable penetration about delusion and coercion, about cruelty and lies", he says. "Even Lolita, especially Lolita, is a study in tyranny."
In 2003, Iranian expatriate Azar Nafisi published the memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran about a covert women's reading group. For Nafisi, the essence of the novel is Humbert's solipsism and his erasure of Lolita's independent identity. She writes: "Lolita was given to us as Humbert's creature [...] To reinvent her, Humbert must take from Lolita her own real history and replace it with his own [...] Yet she does have a past. Despite Humbert's attempts to orphan Lolita by robbing her of her history, that past is still given to us in glimpses."
One of the novel's early champions, Lionel Trilling, warned in 1958 of the moral difficulty in interpreting a book with so eloquent and so self-deceived a narrator: "we find ourselves the more shocked when we realize that, in the course of reading the novel, we have come virtually to condone the violation it presents [...] we have been seduced into conniving in the violation, because we have permitted our fantasies to accept what we know to be revolting."[citation needed]
Publication and reception
Due to its subject matter, Nabokov was unable to find an American publisher for Lolita after finishing it in 1953. After four refusals, he finally resorted to Olympia Press in Paris, September 1955. Although the first printing of 5,000 copies sold out, there were no substantial reviews. Eventually, at the end of 1955, Graham Greene, in an interview with the (London) Times, called it one of the best novels of 1955. This statement provoked a response from the (London) Sunday Express, whose editor called it "the filthiest book I have ever read" and "sheer unrestrained pornography." British Customs officers were then instructed by a panicked Home Office to seize all copies entering the United Kingdom. In December 1956, the French followed suit and the Minister of the Interior banned Lolita (the ban lasted for two years). Its eventual British publication by Weidenfeld & Nicolson caused a scandal that contributed to the end of the political career of one of the publishers, Nigel Nicolson.
By complete contrast, American officials were initially nervous, but the first American edition was issued without problems by G.P. Putnam's Sons in 1958, and was a bestseller, the first book since Gone with the Wind to sell 100,000 copies in the first three weeks of publication. The first official translation of the book was the Danish edition, which was published in 1957.
Today, it is considered by many to be one of the finest novels written in the 20th century. In 1998, it was named the fourth greatest English language novel of the 20th century by the Modern Library. Nabokov rated the book highly himself. In an interview for BBC Television in 1962 he said,
Lolita is a special favourite of mine. It was my most difficult book—the book that treated of a theme which was so distant, so remote, from my own emotional life that it gave me a special pleasure to use my combinational talent to make it real.
Two years later, in 1964's interview for Playboy, he said,
I shall never regret Lolita. She was like the composition of a beautiful puzzle—its composition and its solution at the same time, since one is a mirror view of the other, depending on the way you look. Of course she completely eclipsed my other works—at least those I wrote in English: The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Bend Sinister, my short stories, my book of recollections; but I cannot grudge her this. There is a queer, tender charm about that mythical nymphet.
At the same year, in the interview for Life, Nabokov was asked, "Which of your writings has pleased you most?" He answered,
I would say that of all my books Lolita has left me with the most pleasurable afterglow—perhaps because it is the purest of all, the most abstract and carefully contrived. I am probably responsible for the odd fact that people don't seem to name their daughters Lolita any more. I have heard of young female poodles being given that name since 1956, but of no human beings.
Sources and links
Links in Nabokov's work
In 1939, Nabokov wrote a novella Volshebnik (Волшебник) that was published only posthumously in 1986 in English translation as The Enchanter. It can be seen as an early version of Lolita but with significant differences: it takes place in Central Europe, and the protagonist is unable to consummate his passion with his stepdaughter, leading to his suicide. The theme of ephebophilia was already touched on by Nabokov in his short story A Nursery Tale, written in 1926. Also, in the 1932 Laughter in the Dark, Margot Peters is sixteen and already had an affair when middle-aged Albinus is attracted to her.
In chapter three of the novel The Gift (written in Russian in 1935–1937) the similar gist of Lolita's first chapter is outlined to the protagonist Fyodor Cherdyntsev by his obnoxious landlord Shchyogolev as an idea of a novel he would write "if I only had the time": a man marries a widow only to gain access to her young daughter, who however resists all his passes. Shchyogolev says it happened "in reality" to a friend of his; it is made clear to the reader that it concerns himself and his stepdaughter Zina (fifteen at the time of marriage) who becomes the love of Fyodor's life and his child bride.
In April 1947 Nabokov wrote to Edmund Wilson: "I am writing ... a short novel about a man who liked little girls–and it's going to be called The Kingdom by the Sea...." The work expanded into Lolita during the next eight years. Nabokov used the title A Kingdom by the Sea in his 1974 pseudo-autobiographic novel Look at the Harlequins! for a Lolita-like book written by the narrator who, in addition, travels with his teenage daughter Bel from motel to motel after the death of her mother; later, his fourth wife is Bel's look-alike and shares her birthday.
In the unfinished novel The Original of Laura, published posthumously, a character Hubert H. Hubert appears, an older man preying upon then-child protagonist, Flora. Unlike in Lolita, his advances are unsuccessful.
Allusions/references to other works
* In the Foreword, there is a reference to "the monumental decision rendered December 6, 1933 by Hon. John M. Woolsey in regard to another, considerably more outspoken book"—that is, the decision in the case United States v. One Book Called Ulysses, in which Woolsey ruled that James Joyce's novel was not obscene and could be sold in the United States.
* Humbert Humbert's first love, Annabel Leigh, is named after the "maiden" in the poem "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe, and their young love is described in phrases borrowed from Poe's poem. Nabokov originally intended Lolita to be called The Kingdom by the Sea, drawing on the rhyme with Annabel Lee that was used in the first verse of Poe's work. A passage at the end of Chapter 1 — "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns" — is also a reference to the poem. ("With a love that the winged seraphs in heaven / Coveted her and me.")
* Humbert Humbert's double name recalls Poe's "William Wilson", a tale in which the main character is haunted by his doppelgänger, paralleling to the presence of Humbert's own doppelgänger, Clare Quilty. Humbert is not, however, his real name, but a chosen pseudonym.
* Humbert Humbert's field of expertise is French literature (one of his jobs is writing a series of educational works that compare French writers to English writers), and as such there are several references to French literature, including the authors Gustave Flaubert, Marcel Proust, François Rabelais, Charles Baudelaire, Prosper Mérimée, Remy Belleau, Honoré de Balzac, and Pierre de Ronsard.
* In chapter 17 of Part I, Humbert quotes "to hold thee lightly on a gentle knee and print on thy soft cheek a parent's kiss" from Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.
* In chapter 35 of Part II, Humbert's "death sentence" on Quilty parodies the rhythm and use of anaphora in T. S. Eliot's poem Ash Wednesday.
* The line "I cannot get out, said the starling" from Humbert's poem is taken from a passage in Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, "The Passport, the Hotel De Paris."
Possible real-life prototypes
According to Alexander Dolinin, the prototype of Lolita was 11-year-old Florence Horner, kidnapped in 1948 by a 50-year-old mechanic Frank La Salle, who had caught her stealing a five-cent notebook. La Salle traveled with her over various states for 21 months and is believed to have raped her. He claimed that he was an FBI agent and threatened to “turn her in” for the theft and to send her to "a place for girls like you." The Horner case was not widely reported, but Dolinin adduces various similarities in events and descriptions.
The problem with this suggestion is that Nabokov had already used the same basic idea — that of a child molester and his victim booking into an hotel as man and daughter — in his then-unpublished 1939 work Volshebnik (Волшебник). This is not to say, however, that Nabokov could not have drawn on some details of the case in writing Lolita, and the La Salle case is mentioned explicitly in Chapter 33 of Part II:
Had I done to Dolly, perhaps, what Frank Lasalle, a fifty-year-old mechanic, had done to eleven-year-old Sally Horner in 1948?
Heinz von Lichberg's "Lolita"
German academic Michael Maar's book The Two Lolitas describes his recent discovery of a 1916 German short story titled "Lolita" about a middle-aged man travelling abroad who takes a room as a lodger and instantly becomes obsessed with the preteen girl (also named Lolita) who lives in the same house. Maar has speculated that Nabokov may have had cryptomnesia (a "hidden memory" of the story that Nabokov was unaware of) while he was composing Lolita during the 1950s. Maar says that until 1937 Nabokov lived in the same section of Berlin as the author, Heinz von Eschwege (pen name: Heinz von Lichberg), and was most likely familiar with his work, which was widely available in Germany during Nabokov's time there. The Philadelphia Inquirer, in the article "Lolita at 50: Did Nabokov take literary liberties?" says that, according to Maar, accusations of plagiarism should not apply and quotes him as saying: "Literature has always been a huge crucible in which familiar themes are continually recast... Nothing of what we admire in Lolita is already to be found in the tale; the former is in no way deducible from the latter." See also Jonathan Lethem in Harper's Magazine on this story.
Nabokov's afterword
In 1956, Nabokov penned an afterword to Lolita ("On a Book Entitled Lolita") that was included in every subsequent edition of the book.
One of the first things Nabokov makes a point of saying is, despite John Ray Jr.'s claim in the Foreword, there is no moral to the story.
In the afterword, Nabokov wrote that "the initial shiver of inspiration" for Lolita "was somehow prompted by a newspaper story about an ape in the Jardin des Plantes who, after months of coaxing by a scientist, produced the first drawing ever charcoaled by an animal: this sketch showed the bars of the poor creature's cage". Neither the article nor the drawing has been recovered.
In response to an American critic who characterized Lolita as the record of Nabokov's "love affair with the romantic novel", Nabokov wrote that "the substitution of 'English language' for 'romantic novel' would make this elegant formula more correct".
Nabokov concluded the afterword with a reference to his beloved first language, which he abandoned as a writer once he moved to the United States in 1940: "My private tragedy, which cannot, and indeed should not, be anybody's concern, is that I had to abandon my natural idiom, my untrammeled, rich, and infinitely docile Russian language for a second-rate brand of English".
Russian translation
Nabokov translated Lolita into Russian; the translation was published by Phaedra in New York in 1967.
The translation includes a "Postscriptum" in which Nabokov reconsiders his relationship with his native language. Referring to the afterword to the English edition, Nabokov states that only "the scientific scrupulousness led me to preserve the last paragraph of the American afterword in the Russian text..." He further explains that the "story of this translation is the story of a disappointment. Alas, that 'wonderful Russian language' which, I imagined, still awaits me somewhere, which blooms like a faithful spring behind the locked gate to which I, after so many years, still possess the key, turned out to be non-existent, and there is nothing beyond that gate, except for some burned out stumps and hopeless autumnal emptiness, and the key in my hand looks rather like a lock pick."
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The 1962 adaptation's movie poster art.
The 1997 movie poster art.
* Lolita has been filmed twice: the first adaptation was made in 1962 by Stanley Kubrick, and starred James Mason, Shelley Winters, Peter Sellers and Sue Lyon as Lolita; and a second adaptation in 1997 by Adrian Lyne, starring Jeremy Irons, Dominique Swain, and Melanie Griffith. Nabokov was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the earlier film's adapted screenplay, although little of this work reached the screen. The more recent version was given mixed reviews by critics. It was delayed for over a year because of its controversial subject matter, and was not released in Australia until 1999.
* Nabokov's own version of the screenplay (dated Summer 1960 and revised December 1973) for Kubrick's film was published by McGraw-Hill in 1974.
* The book was adapted into a musical in 1971 by librettist/lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and composer John Barry under the title Lolita, My Love. Critics were surprised at how sensitively the story was translated to the stage, but the show nonetheless closed on the road before it opened in New York.
* In 1982, Edward Albee adapted the book into a non-musical play. It was savaged by critics, Frank Rich notably attributing the temporary death of Albee's career to it.
* In 2003, Russian director Victor Sobchak wrote a second non-musical stage adaptation, which played in England at the Lion and Unicorn Fringe Theater in London. It drops the character of Quilty and updates the story to modern England.
* Rodion Shchedrin adapted Lolita into a Russian language opera, which premiered in Moscow in 2006 and was published that same year. It had a much earlier performance in Sweden in 1992. It was nominated for Russia's Golden Mask award.
* The Boston-based composer John Harbison began an opera of Lolita, which he abandoned in the wake of the clergy child-abuse scandal that rocked Boston. Fragments of what he had done were woven into seven-minute piece "Darkbloom: Overture for an Imagined Opera". Vivian Darkbloom, an anagram of Vladimir Nabokov, is a character in Lolita.
References in other media
* The novel Lo's Diary by Pia Pera retells the story from Lolita's point of view, making major plot changes on the premise that Humbert's version is incorrect on many points. Lolita is characterized as being quite sadistic and manipulative.
* The collection Poems for Men who Dream of Lolita by Kim Morrissey takes the form of a series of poems written by Lolita herself reflecting on the events in the story, a sort of diary in poetry form. In strong contrast to Pera's novel, Morrissey portrays Lolita as an innocent, wounded soul. Morrissey had earlier done a stage adaptation of Sigmund Freud's famous Dora case.
* Steve Martin wrote the short story "Lolita at Fifty" (included in his collection Pure Drivel), which is a gently humorous look at how Dolores Haze's life might have turned out.
* In The Police song "Don't Stand So Close to Me" about a schoolgirl's crush on her teacher, the teacher "starts to shake and cough just like the old man in that book by Nabokov." The singer mispronounces Nabokov's name.
* The lyrics of the song "Posters", a song by the rock band Dada about a girl who leads the (male) narrator to her room, includes the line "She asked me if I ever read Lolita."
* In the 1999 film American Beauty, the lead character's name, Lester Burnham, is an anagram of "Humbert learns".
* The 2001 Album Gourmandises by the French singer-songwriter Alizee featured her most successful single Moi... Lolita which reached number one in several countries in Europe and East Asia
* The 2007 Marilyn Manson song and music video for "Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)" draws strong influence from Lolita, largely inspired by the comparable age difference between Manson and girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood.
* In Katy Perry's song 'One of the Boys', she mentions Lolita. "I studied Lolita religiously"
* The 2010 song "Lolita" by Mexican singer Belinda was inspired by the story.
* On their 2010 album, the band Glass Wave dedicates a song to Lolita. The lyrics are sung in her own voice.
* In the Red Dwarf episode Marooned, David Lister is forced to burn books to keep warm after crashing on an Ice Planet. When asking if he can burn Lolita, Arnold Rimmer advises him to "save page sixty eight". Lister reads it, calls it "disgusting" then slips it into his jacket and burns the rest.
* In the novel Pretty Little Liars, Hanna makes a silent reference when she catches a 40 year old man staring at her and Mona. She looks at him and thinks "A regular Humbert Humbert", but doesn't speak aloud because Mona wouldn't understand the literary reference and she had only read it in the first place because "Lolita looked deliciously dirty."
Further reading
* Appel, Alfred Jr. (1991). The Annotated Lolita (revised ed.). New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-72729-9. One of the best guides to the complexities of Lolita. First published by McGraw-Hill in 1970. (Nabokov was able to comment on Appel's earliest annotations, creating a situation that Appel described as being like John Shade revising Charles Kinbote's comments on Shade's poem Pale Fire. Oddly enough, this is exactly the situation Nabokov scholar Brian Boyd proposed to resolve the literary complexities of Nabokov's Pale Fire.)
* Levine, Peter (1967). "Lolita and Aristotle's Ethics" in Philosophy and Literature Volume 19, Number 1, April 1995, pp. 32–47.
* Nabokov, Vladimir (1955). Lolita. New York: Vintage International. ISBN 0-679-72316-1. The original novel.
在西方“洛麗塔”是個極有象徵意義的名字，意指性感少女、戀童等意，取自一部名為《洛麗塔》的小說，後拍為同名電影，國內亦翻譯為《一支梨花壓海棠》。套用最近流行的李安導演的那句名言，我們可以說，“每個女孩心裏都有一個洛麗塔”，從西方到東方，從日本到香港，再到中國內地，雖然時間漫長了些，但14歲少女洛麗塔那樣精靈可愛的女孩形象竟能在全世界引起“軒然大波”，估計是半世紀以前她的創作者根本無法預料到的，她們甚至特別選擇人流最密集的商業中心作為自己的秀場，不論你是否接受，她們總是那麽驕傲、那麽忘我，誰敢說，洛麗塔不是真正高貴的小公主。
洛麗塔-基本資料
由一開始的LOLI是LOLITA的簡稱，指代可愛、吸引人的幼女（多指7～14歲），源於小說《洛麗塔》到後來文化的延伸，lolita＝形容詞，代表蘿莉狀、可愛的幼女，loli = 幼女，多用在電影以及日本GALGAME文化中。
最近，因為日本和英美的電影文化的影響，使蘿莉風格的服裝大行其道，LOLITA演變成代表了一種服飾風格，尤其是在日本，LOLITA成為了代表性強的服裝品牌，並被越來越多少女推崇，從而漸漸取代了LOLITA指形容詞，代表蘿莉狀、可愛的幼女的地位。
特徵
一個女生究竟是不是蘿莉，每人的定義都有不同：有以年齡（嚴格生理年齡）來分的，有以氣質（心理年齡、外表年齡）來分的，更嚴格的是兩項標準都要達到的，最後還有自己認為是就當作是的。不過普遍來說有一個重點就是要“尚未發育”或者“發育不全”。
心理
Lolita不單是一種服飾潮流，更是年輕人表達情感需要的方式，或是彌補自信不足的自我保護武裝。一如發展心理學家艾力遜指出，年青人正處於“自我認識與迷亂”的階段，他們往往擁有童真與夢想，有擺脫現實規限的渴求，需要尋找自我，因此以不羈和野性挑戰傳統，期望得到別人關註、瞭解、認同和真正接納。
蘿莉有三好：身嬌、腰柔、易推倒
類型
小公主型、傢中小妹型、女王型、小惡魔型、膽怯嬌羞型、小迷糊型、類成熟型
洛麗塔-三大族群
一、SweetLolita———以粉紅、粉藍、白色等粉色係列為主，衣料選用大量蕾絲，務求締造出洋娃娃般的可愛和爛漫，在廣州是最多人選擇的造型，走在大街上也不算太張揚。
Sweet Lolita
現今在Lolita界的地位：主流
Sweet Lolita正如其名，屬於所有Lolita分類中服飾設計最為甜美的一個派別。Sweet係洋裝的布料大多以粉紅、粉藍或白色等粉嫩可愛的單色為主。除此之外，為了能製造出一種仿若洋娃娃般可愛甜美、爛漫純真的氣息，Sweet係洋裝通常會在衣物上使用比別的派係 更多的蕾絲和本布褶皺。
近幾年來，大約是因為版型與設計經常被山寨的緣故，各傢Sweet係洋裝品牌紛紛擯棄單色布料，轉而使用起各種印有糖果、蛋糕、小動物或描述某個童話場景的印花布料（因為圖案特殊且難以仿製，這種布料往往是單此一傢別無分店，所以相當能防D版於未然）。
一般來說，SweetLolita洋裝往往比其他係別的洋裝更能獲得初次踏進Lolita世界的女孩們的青睞。
SweetLolita洋裝代表品牌：BABY,THE STARS SHINE BRIGH、Angelic Pretty、METAMORPHOSE
二、ClassicalLolita———以簡約色調為主，着重剪裁以表達清雅的心思，顔色不出挑，如茶色和白色。蕾絲花邊會相應減少，而荷葉褶是最大特色，整體風格比較平實，適合新手。
☆Classical Lolita☆
現今在Lolita界的地位：主流
恰如其名，ClassicalLolita洋裝正是所有係別的Lolita洋裝中服裝款式最為優雅的派別。其洋裝設計就好象19世紀英國的貴族少女一般，既古典優雅，又不失純真可愛。
ClassicalLolita洋裝所選用的布料雖然也喜歡以純色為主，但它所使用的純色料子一定都有着素雅得體又不刺眼的色調。除開白、黑、粉、藍這四個基本色之外，各式各樣美麗的碎花布也是Classical係洋裝布料的愛用之選。
與SweetLolita洋裝不同，除了古典係蕾絲之外，Classical Lolita洋裝極少會在衣物上使用到大量造型平平、質地一般的蕾絲。在衣服上每個需要用到花邊的地方，ClassicalLolita洋裝基本上都會以與衣服相同質地的本布褶皺來代替蕾絲。而Classical係洋裝所選用的布料顔色亦非常素雅，除了白、黑、粉、藍這四個基本色之外，各式各樣美麗的碎花布也是Classical係洋裝布料的常用者。
總而言之，ClassicalLolita洋裝的特色就是“簡約而不簡單”。由於款式簡單大方、優雅不凡，ClassicalLolita洋裝比其他係別的Lolita洋裝更適合日常穿着，也更容易被傢長及大衆所接受。當少女們厭倦了造型過於誇張的SweetLolita洋裝和非常不日常的 GothicLolita洋裝後，ClassicalLolita洋裝就順理成章地成為了她們的必然選擇與最終選擇。 有意思的是，最能穿出ClassicalLolita洋裝韻味的人居然並不是青春活潑的高初中女生，而是那些年紀在20以上的、因為工作和閱歷的緣故而擁有了沉靜氣質的年輕女子。看來在現實中，“氣質”能與“年輕”完美並存的實例果然屈指可數呢。
代表品牌：Mary Magdalene、Victorian maiden、JULIETTE & JUSTINE Lolita不是Cosplay：前者代表生活態度，後者更加強調角色模仿 gothiclolita
三、GothicLolita———主色是黑和白，特徵是想表達神秘恐怖和死亡的感覺。通常配以十字架銀器等裝飾，以及化較為濃烈的深色妝容，如黑色指甲、眼影、唇色，強調神秘色彩。
☆Gothic Lolita☆
現今在Lolita界的地位：主流
首先需要註意的是，Gothic Lolita與純正的Gothic是完全不同的，大傢千萬不要把它們混為一談——因為以正常人的眼光來看，純粹的Gothic根本就是“妖魔鬼怪般的人物”。而Gothic Lolita雖然在服飾設計上也彌漫着相當濃厚的Gothic味，但它至少還能給人以小惡魔般另類的可愛天真之感。
其次，那些認為凡是用黑白色面料製作的Lolita洋裝就一定屬於GothicLolita洋裝的想法也是錯誤的。事實上，即使采用完全相同的面料進行衣物製作，那些出自不同派係之手的Lolita洋裝也依舊會在觀感上存在着極易分辨的明顯差異——
就算圖裏的模特都穿着黑色的洋裝，但人們還是能從款式和造型上輕易認出誰纔是甜嫩可愛的SweetLolita洋裝、誰又是如同死神般冷淡孤高的 GothicLolita洋裝的。
幾乎97％以上的GothicLolita洋裝都衹采用了黑色和白色的單色布料，像粉紅、嫩黃之類的可愛顔色可是與這個係別完全絶緣的。此外，GothicLolita洋裝也是所有類別的Lolita洋裝中最常使用皮質材料的派別。難怪在國內的某些地方，是否穿着使用上等小羊皮製作的束腰會成為了外行人判斷此人是否GothicLolita少女的唯一標準了。
除了單調的布料用色之外，GothicLolita少女們最愛使用的配飾，也是最能表現出Gothic那股混合了“恐怖”、“純真”、“神秘”、 “絶望”、“憂鬱”、“死亡”與“禁忌”這七大主題的獨有氣息的各類小物（如黑色指甲油、十字架和骷髏銀飾等）。
Elegant Gothic Lolita 此外，GothicLolita洋裝中還存在着兩個比較特別的分支——EGL Lolita及EGA Lolita。EGL Lolita的全稱是“Elegant Gothic Lolita”（即“雅緻歌特Lolita”）。它的款式設計一般偏嚮傳統古典，雖與Gothic Lolita非常接近，卻又多帶了點吸血鬼的感覺。而EGA Lolita的全稱則是“Elegant Gothic Aristocrat”（即“雅緻歌特貴族”），其服裝款式一般為男裝、長裙、褲子和領尖定有紐扣的襯衣及外套。
與其他係別的Lolita洋裝比起來，集優雅華麗與黑暗詭異於一身的Gothic Lolita可謂是最受歐美人熱愛和着迷的Lolita風格。也許這是因為GothicLolita洋裝的設計中充滿了神秘及誘惑的禁欲色彩，所以更能引起深受基督教影響之人的共鳴罷。
代表品牌：Moi-meme-Moitie、Mille Fleur
洛麗塔-相關評論
事實上“女性化”本來就是個沒有什麽具體概念的詞，而“洛麗塔”的女性化無非是擁有少女式的性感和猶如小狐狸精般的狡黠。
其實沒有“洛麗塔”情結的女人就像是過於成熟的水果，失去了青澀帶來的回味。於是，那些綴滿白色的黑色的花邊裙子，胸前的綁帶把我們帶回到逝去的懵懂歲月，那不僅僅是單純意義上的裝嫩，而是對於自己的最好奬勵，允許自己生活在非現實的世界中，鼓勵自己犯那些小小的錯誤，甚至有那麽一點殘忍和邪惡。
這種時尚可能是從一部日劇開始大肆蔓延並在明星的率領下成為時尚的，在日劇《下妻物語》中，深田恭子的“洛麗塔”扮相將這一風尚推嚮頂點。令日本街頭的穿着也形成了三股不同的風尚，“甜美可愛洛麗塔”多為甜美可人的風格，以粉色為主，運用大量蕾絲褶皺裙，表現出洋娃娃般的可人形象；“哥特式洛麗塔”在歐美尤其流行，以黑色為主，彌漫着死亡氣息的恐怖與優雅，可以配上黑色的指甲油和唇膏，締造頽廢的氣質；“經典洛麗塔”則是最簡單的入門款，裙身多為荷葉邊，透過碎花和粉色表現出清純的感覺。
這種流行風從日本通過香港迅速蔓延到中國內地，讓那些身着“公主裝”的女人們以時尚的藉口開始肆意裝嫩，而這種裝嫩的境界也不再停留於原有的“師出無名”了。
時尚界自然也不會錯過任何一個可以大做文章的由頭，在這個洛麗塔般“小妖精” 橫行的年代，時尚精英們紛紛嚮懵懂和叛逆致敬，他們和普通大衆一起進入一場拒絶長大的遊戲中。年輕且性感的裝扮，並不難做到，因此近年來，蕾絲花邊和蝴蝶結曾風靡一時，且風頭不減。連Dior在今年的秀場上也用華麗和不同季節服裝的混搭，製造出早熟的摩登小女郎風格，碩大的太陽眼鏡，女人味十足的皮草搭配芥末黃的百褶裙和吊帶上衣，性感清純一個都不能少。
After its publication, Nabokov's Lolita attained a classic status, becoming one of the best-known and most controversial examples of 20th century literature. The name "Lolita" has entered pop culture to describe a sexually precocious girl. The novel was adapted to film by Stanley Kubrick in 1962, and again in 1997 by Adrian Lyne.
Lolita is included on TIME's 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. It is fourth on the Modern Library's 1998 list of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th century.
Plot summary
Lolita is divided into two parts and 36 short chapters. It is narrated by Humbert Humbert, a literary scholar born in 1910 to a Swiss father and an English mother in Paris, who is obsessed with what he refers to as "nymphets". Humbert suggests that this obsession results from the death of a childhood sweetheart, Annabel Leigh. In 1947, Humbert moves to Ramsdale, a small New England town, to write. He rents a room in the house of Charlotte Haze, a widow. While Charlotte tours him around the house, he meets her 12-year-old daughter, Dolores (also known as Dolly, Lolita, Lola, Lo, and L), with whom he falls in love at first sight. Humbert stays at the house only to remain with her. While he is infatuated with Lolita, a highly intelligent and articulate, albeit tempestuous teenage girl, he disdains of her preoccupation with contemporary American popular culture, such as teen movies and comic books.
While Lolita is away at summer camp, Charlotte, who has fallen in love with Humbert, tells him that he must either marry her or move out. Humbert reluctantly agrees in order to continue living near Lolita. Charlotte is oblivious of Humbert's distaste and pity for her, and his lust for Lolita, until she reads his diary. Upon learning of Humbert's true feelings and intentions, Charlotte is appalled. She makes plans to flee with Lolita, and threatens to expose Humbert's perversions. But as she runs across the street in a state of shock, she is struck and killed by a passing car.
Humbert picks Lolita up from camp, pretending that Charlotte is ill in a hospital. He does not return to Charlotte's home out of fear that the neighbors will be suspicious. Instead, he takes Lolita to a hotel, where he meets a strange man (later revealed to be Clare Quilty), who seems to know who he is. Humbert attempts to use sleeping pills on Lolita so that he may molest her without her knowledge, but they have little effect on her. Instead, she initiates sex. He discovers that he is not her first lover, as she had sex with a boy at summer camp. Humbert reveals to Lolita that Charlotte is actually dead; Lolita has no choice but to accept her stepfather into her life on his terms.
Lolita and Humbert drive around the country, moving from state to state and motel to motel. Humbert initially keeps the girl under control by threatening her with reform school; later he bribes her for sexual favors, though he knows that she does not reciprocate his love and shares none of his interests. The novel's first part ends after he rapes her. After a year touring North America, the two settle down in another New England town, where Lolita is enrolled in school. Humbert is very possessive and strict, forbidding Lolita to take part in after-school activities or to associate with boys; the townspeople, however, see this as the action of a loving and concerned, while old fashioned, parent.
Lolita begs to be allowed to take part in the school play; Humbert reluctantly grants his permission in exchange for more sexual favors. The play is written by Clare Quilty. He is said to have attended a rehearsal and been impressed by Lolita's acting. Just before opening night, Lolita and Humbert have a ferocious argument, which culminates in Lolita saying she wants to leave town and resume their travels.
As Lolita and Humbert drive westward again, Humbert gets the feeling that their car is being tailed and he becomes increasingly paranoid, suspecting that Lolita is conspiring with others in order to escape. She falls ill and must convalesce in a hospital; Humbert stays in a nearby motel, without Lolita for the first time in years. One night, Lolita disappears from the hospital; the staff tell Humbert that Lolita's "uncle" checked her out. Humbert embarks upon a frantic search to find Lolita and her abductor, but eventually he gives up.
One day in 1952, Humbert receives a letter from Lolita, now 17, who tells him that she is married, pregnant, and in desperate need of money. Humbert goes to see Lolita, giving her money in exchange for the name of the man who abducted her. She reveals the truth: Clare Quilty, an acquaintance of Charlotte's and the writer of the school play, checked her out of the hospital and attempted to make her star in one of his pornographic films; when she refused, he threw her out. She worked odd jobs before meeting and marrying her husband, who knows nothing about her past.
Humbert asks Lolita to leave her husband and return to him, but she refuses, and he breaks down in tears. He leaves Lolita, and kills Quilty at his mansion, shooting him to death in an act of revenge. He then is arrested for driving on the wrong side of the road and swerving. The narrative closes with Humbert's final words to Lolita in which he wishes her well, and reveals the novel in its metafiction to be the memoirs of his life, only to be published after he and Lolita have both died.
According to the novel's fictional "Foreword", Humbert dies of coronary thrombosis upon finishing his manuscript. Lolita dies giving birth to a stillborn girl on Christmas Day, 1952.
Style and interpretation
The novel is a tragicomedy narrated by Humbert, who riddles the narrative with word play and his wry observations of American culture. His humor provides an effective counterpoint to the pathos of the tragic plot. The novel's flamboyant style is characterized by word play, double entendres, multilingual puns, anagrams, and coinages such as nymphet, a word that has since had a life of its own and can be found in most dictionaries, and the lesser used "faunlet." One of the novel's characters, "Vivian Darkbloom," is an anagram for author Vladimir Nabokov.
Several times, Humbert begs the reader to understand that he is not proud of his union with Lolita, but is filled with remorse. At one point, he is listening to the sounds of children playing outdoors, and is stricken with guilt at the realization that he robbed Lolita of her childhood.
Some critics have accepted Humbert's version of events at face value. In 1959, novelist Robertson Davies excused the narrator entirely, writing that the theme of Lolita is "not the corruption of an innocent child by a cunning adult, but the exploitation of a weak adult by a corrupt child. This is no pretty theme, but it is one with which social workers, magistrates and psychiatrists are familiar."
Most writers, however, have given less credit to Humbert and more to Nabokov's powers as an ironist. For Richard Rorty, in his famous interpretation of Lolita in Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, Humbert is a "monster of incuriosity." Nabokov himself described Humbert as "a vain and cruel wretch" and "a hateful person" (quoted in Levine, 1967).
Martin Amis, in his essay on Stalinism, Koba the Dread, proposes that Lolita is an elaborate metaphor for the totalitarianism that destroyed the Russia of Nabokov's childhood (though Nabokov states in his Afterword that he "[detests] symbols and allegories"). Amis interprets it as a story of tyranny told from the point of view of the tyrant. "Nabokov, in all his fiction, writes with incomparable penetration about delusion and coercion, about cruelty and lies", he says. "Even Lolita, especially Lolita, is a study in tyranny."
In 2003, Iranian expatriate Azar Nafisi published the memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran about a covert women's reading group. For Nafisi, the essence of the novel is Humbert's solipsism and his erasure of Lolita's independent identity. She writes: "Lolita was given to us as Humbert's creature [...] To reinvent her, Humbert must take from Lolita her own real history and replace it with his own [...] Yet she does have a past. Despite Humbert's attempts to orphan Lolita by robbing her of her history, that past is still given to us in glimpses."
One of the novel's early champions, Lionel Trilling, warned in 1958 of the moral difficulty in interpreting a book with so eloquent and so self-deceived a narrator: "we find ourselves the more shocked when we realize that, in the course of reading the novel, we have come virtually to condone the violation it presents [...] we have been seduced into conniving in the violation, because we have permitted our fantasies to accept what we know to be revolting."[citation needed]
Publication and reception
Due to its subject matter, Nabokov was unable to find an American publisher for Lolita after finishing it in 1953. After four refusals, he finally resorted to Olympia Press in Paris, September 1955. Although the first printing of 5,000 copies sold out, there were no substantial reviews. Eventually, at the end of 1955, Graham Greene, in an interview with the (London) Times, called it one of the best novels of 1955. This statement provoked a response from the (London) Sunday Express, whose editor called it "the filthiest book I have ever read" and "sheer unrestrained pornography." British Customs officers were then instructed by a panicked Home Office to seize all copies entering the United Kingdom. In December 1956, the French followed suit and the Minister of the Interior banned Lolita (the ban lasted for two years). Its eventual British publication by Weidenfeld & Nicolson caused a scandal that contributed to the end of the political career of one of the publishers, Nigel Nicolson.
By complete contrast, American officials were initially nervous, but the first American edition was issued without problems by G.P. Putnam's Sons in 1958, and was a bestseller, the first book since Gone with the Wind to sell 100,000 copies in the first three weeks of publication. The first official translation of the book was the Danish edition, which was published in 1957.
Today, it is considered by many to be one of the finest novels written in the 20th century. In 1998, it was named the fourth greatest English language novel of the 20th century by the Modern Library. Nabokov rated the book highly himself. In an interview for BBC Television in 1962 he said,
Lolita is a special favourite of mine. It was my most difficult book—the book that treated of a theme which was so distant, so remote, from my own emotional life that it gave me a special pleasure to use my combinational talent to make it real.
Two years later, in 1964's interview for Playboy, he said,
I shall never regret Lolita. She was like the composition of a beautiful puzzle—its composition and its solution at the same time, since one is a mirror view of the other, depending on the way you look. Of course she completely eclipsed my other works—at least those I wrote in English: The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Bend Sinister, my short stories, my book of recollections; but I cannot grudge her this. There is a queer, tender charm about that mythical nymphet.
At the same year, in the interview for Life, Nabokov was asked, "Which of your writings has pleased you most?" He answered,
I would say that of all my books Lolita has left me with the most pleasurable afterglow—perhaps because it is the purest of all, the most abstract and carefully contrived. I am probably responsible for the odd fact that people don't seem to name their daughters Lolita any more. I have heard of young female poodles being given that name since 1956, but of no human beings.
Sources and links
Links in Nabokov's work
In 1939, Nabokov wrote a novella Volshebnik (Волшебник) that was published only posthumously in 1986 in English translation as The Enchanter. It can be seen as an early version of Lolita but with significant differences: it takes place in Central Europe, and the protagonist is unable to consummate his passion with his stepdaughter, leading to his suicide. The theme of ephebophilia was already touched on by Nabokov in his short story A Nursery Tale, written in 1926. Also, in the 1932 Laughter in the Dark, Margot Peters is sixteen and already had an affair when middle-aged Albinus is attracted to her.
In chapter three of the novel The Gift (written in Russian in 1935–1937) the similar gist of Lolita's first chapter is outlined to the protagonist Fyodor Cherdyntsev by his obnoxious landlord Shchyogolev as an idea of a novel he would write "if I only had the time": a man marries a widow only to gain access to her young daughter, who however resists all his passes. Shchyogolev says it happened "in reality" to a friend of his; it is made clear to the reader that it concerns himself and his stepdaughter Zina (fifteen at the time of marriage) who becomes the love of Fyodor's life and his child bride.
In April 1947 Nabokov wrote to Edmund Wilson: "I am writing ... a short novel about a man who liked little girls–and it's going to be called The Kingdom by the Sea...." The work expanded into Lolita during the next eight years. Nabokov used the title A Kingdom by the Sea in his 1974 pseudo-autobiographic novel Look at the Harlequins! for a Lolita-like book written by the narrator who, in addition, travels with his teenage daughter Bel from motel to motel after the death of her mother; later, his fourth wife is Bel's look-alike and shares her birthday.
In the unfinished novel The Original of Laura, published posthumously, a character Hubert H. Hubert appears, an older man preying upon then-child protagonist, Flora. Unlike in Lolita, his advances are unsuccessful.
Allusions/references to other works
* In the Foreword, there is a reference to "the monumental decision rendered December 6, 1933 by Hon. John M. Woolsey in regard to another, considerably more outspoken book"—that is, the decision in the case United States v. One Book Called Ulysses, in which Woolsey ruled that James Joyce's novel was not obscene and could be sold in the United States.
* Humbert Humbert's first love, Annabel Leigh, is named after the "maiden" in the poem "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe, and their young love is described in phrases borrowed from Poe's poem. Nabokov originally intended Lolita to be called The Kingdom by the Sea, drawing on the rhyme with Annabel Lee that was used in the first verse of Poe's work. A passage at the end of Chapter 1 — "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns" — is also a reference to the poem. ("With a love that the winged seraphs in heaven / Coveted her and me.")
* Humbert Humbert's double name recalls Poe's "William Wilson", a tale in which the main character is haunted by his doppelgänger, paralleling to the presence of Humbert's own doppelgänger, Clare Quilty. Humbert is not, however, his real name, but a chosen pseudonym.
* Humbert Humbert's field of expertise is French literature (one of his jobs is writing a series of educational works that compare French writers to English writers), and as such there are several references to French literature, including the authors Gustave Flaubert, Marcel Proust, François Rabelais, Charles Baudelaire, Prosper Mérimée, Remy Belleau, Honoré de Balzac, and Pierre de Ronsard.
* In chapter 17 of Part I, Humbert quotes "to hold thee lightly on a gentle knee and print on thy soft cheek a parent's kiss" from Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.
* In chapter 35 of Part II, Humbert's "death sentence" on Quilty parodies the rhythm and use of anaphora in T. S. Eliot's poem Ash Wednesday.
* The line "I cannot get out, said the starling" from Humbert's poem is taken from a passage in Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, "The Passport, the Hotel De Paris."
Possible real-life prototypes
According to Alexander Dolinin, the prototype of Lolita was 11-year-old Florence Horner, kidnapped in 1948 by a 50-year-old mechanic Frank La Salle, who had caught her stealing a five-cent notebook. La Salle traveled with her over various states for 21 months and is believed to have raped her. He claimed that he was an FBI agent and threatened to “turn her in” for the theft and to send her to "a place for girls like you." The Horner case was not widely reported, but Dolinin adduces various similarities in events and descriptions.
The problem with this suggestion is that Nabokov had already used the same basic idea — that of a child molester and his victim booking into an hotel as man and daughter — in his then-unpublished 1939 work Volshebnik (Волшебник). This is not to say, however, that Nabokov could not have drawn on some details of the case in writing Lolita, and the La Salle case is mentioned explicitly in Chapter 33 of Part II:
Had I done to Dolly, perhaps, what Frank Lasalle, a fifty-year-old mechanic, had done to eleven-year-old Sally Horner in 1948?
Heinz von Lichberg's "Lolita"
German academic Michael Maar's book The Two Lolitas describes his recent discovery of a 1916 German short story titled "Lolita" about a middle-aged man travelling abroad who takes a room as a lodger and instantly becomes obsessed with the preteen girl (also named Lolita) who lives in the same house. Maar has speculated that Nabokov may have had cryptomnesia (a "hidden memory" of the story that Nabokov was unaware of) while he was composing Lolita during the 1950s. Maar says that until 1937 Nabokov lived in the same section of Berlin as the author, Heinz von Eschwege (pen name: Heinz von Lichberg), and was most likely familiar with his work, which was widely available in Germany during Nabokov's time there. The Philadelphia Inquirer, in the article "Lolita at 50: Did Nabokov take literary liberties?" says that, according to Maar, accusations of plagiarism should not apply and quotes him as saying: "Literature has always been a huge crucible in which familiar themes are continually recast... Nothing of what we admire in Lolita is already to be found in the tale; the former is in no way deducible from the latter." See also Jonathan Lethem in Harper's Magazine on this story.
Nabokov's afterword
In 1956, Nabokov penned an afterword to Lolita ("On a Book Entitled Lolita") that was included in every subsequent edition of the book.
One of the first things Nabokov makes a point of saying is, despite John Ray Jr.'s claim in the Foreword, there is no moral to the story.
In the afterword, Nabokov wrote that "the initial shiver of inspiration" for Lolita "was somehow prompted by a newspaper story about an ape in the Jardin des Plantes who, after months of coaxing by a scientist, produced the first drawing ever charcoaled by an animal: this sketch showed the bars of the poor creature's cage". Neither the article nor the drawing has been recovered.
In response to an American critic who characterized Lolita as the record of Nabokov's "love affair with the romantic novel", Nabokov wrote that "the substitution of 'English language' for 'romantic novel' would make this elegant formula more correct".
Nabokov concluded the afterword with a reference to his beloved first language, which he abandoned as a writer once he moved to the United States in 1940: "My private tragedy, which cannot, and indeed should not, be anybody's concern, is that I had to abandon my natural idiom, my untrammeled, rich, and infinitely docile Russian language for a second-rate brand of English".
Russian translation
Nabokov translated Lolita into Russian; the translation was published by Phaedra in New York in 1967.
The translation includes a "Postscriptum" in which Nabokov reconsiders his relationship with his native language. Referring to the afterword to the English edition, Nabokov states that only "the scientific scrupulousness led me to preserve the last paragraph of the American afterword in the Russian text..." He further explains that the "story of this translation is the story of a disappointment. Alas, that 'wonderful Russian language' which, I imagined, still awaits me somewhere, which blooms like a faithful spring behind the locked gate to which I, after so many years, still possess the key, turned out to be non-existent, and there is nothing beyond that gate, except for some burned out stumps and hopeless autumnal emptiness, and the key in my hand looks rather like a lock pick."
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The 1962 adaptation's movie poster art.
The 1997 movie poster art.
* Lolita has been filmed twice: the first adaptation was made in 1962 by Stanley Kubrick, and starred James Mason, Shelley Winters, Peter Sellers and Sue Lyon as Lolita; and a second adaptation in 1997 by Adrian Lyne, starring Jeremy Irons, Dominique Swain, and Melanie Griffith. Nabokov was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the earlier film's adapted screenplay, although little of this work reached the screen. The more recent version was given mixed reviews by critics. It was delayed for over a year because of its controversial subject matter, and was not released in Australia until 1999.
* Nabokov's own version of the screenplay (dated Summer 1960 and revised December 1973) for Kubrick's film was published by McGraw-Hill in 1974.
* The book was adapted into a musical in 1971 by librettist/lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and composer John Barry under the title Lolita, My Love. Critics were surprised at how sensitively the story was translated to the stage, but the show nonetheless closed on the road before it opened in New York.
* In 1982, Edward Albee adapted the book into a non-musical play. It was savaged by critics, Frank Rich notably attributing the temporary death of Albee's career to it.
* In 2003, Russian director Victor Sobchak wrote a second non-musical stage adaptation, which played in England at the Lion and Unicorn Fringe Theater in London. It drops the character of Quilty and updates the story to modern England.
* Rodion Shchedrin adapted Lolita into a Russian language opera, which premiered in Moscow in 2006 and was published that same year. It had a much earlier performance in Sweden in 1992. It was nominated for Russia's Golden Mask award.
* The Boston-based composer John Harbison began an opera of Lolita, which he abandoned in the wake of the clergy child-abuse scandal that rocked Boston. Fragments of what he had done were woven into seven-minute piece "Darkbloom: Overture for an Imagined Opera". Vivian Darkbloom, an anagram of Vladimir Nabokov, is a character in Lolita.
References in other media
* The novel Lo's Diary by Pia Pera retells the story from Lolita's point of view, making major plot changes on the premise that Humbert's version is incorrect on many points. Lolita is characterized as being quite sadistic and manipulative.
* The collection Poems for Men who Dream of Lolita by Kim Morrissey takes the form of a series of poems written by Lolita herself reflecting on the events in the story, a sort of diary in poetry form. In strong contrast to Pera's novel, Morrissey portrays Lolita as an innocent, wounded soul. Morrissey had earlier done a stage adaptation of Sigmund Freud's famous Dora case.
* Steve Martin wrote the short story "Lolita at Fifty" (included in his collection Pure Drivel), which is a gently humorous look at how Dolores Haze's life might have turned out.
* In The Police song "Don't Stand So Close to Me" about a schoolgirl's crush on her teacher, the teacher "starts to shake and cough just like the old man in that book by Nabokov." The singer mispronounces Nabokov's name.
* The lyrics of the song "Posters", a song by the rock band Dada about a girl who leads the (male) narrator to her room, includes the line "She asked me if I ever read Lolita."
* In the 1999 film American Beauty, the lead character's name, Lester Burnham, is an anagram of "Humbert learns".
* The 2001 Album Gourmandises by the French singer-songwriter Alizee featured her most successful single Moi... Lolita which reached number one in several countries in Europe and East Asia
* The 2007 Marilyn Manson song and music video for "Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)" draws strong influence from Lolita, largely inspired by the comparable age difference between Manson and girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood.
* In Katy Perry's song 'One of the Boys', she mentions Lolita. "I studied Lolita religiously"
* The 2010 song "Lolita" by Mexican singer Belinda was inspired by the story.
* On their 2010 album, the band Glass Wave dedicates a song to Lolita. The lyrics are sung in her own voice.
* In the Red Dwarf episode Marooned, David Lister is forced to burn books to keep warm after crashing on an Ice Planet. When asking if he can burn Lolita, Arnold Rimmer advises him to "save page sixty eight". Lister reads it, calls it "disgusting" then slips it into his jacket and burns the rest.
* In the novel Pretty Little Liars, Hanna makes a silent reference when she catches a 40 year old man staring at her and Mona. She looks at him and thinks "A regular Humbert Humbert", but doesn't speak aloud because Mona wouldn't understand the literary reference and she had only read it in the first place because "Lolita looked deliciously dirty."
Further reading
* Appel, Alfred Jr. (1991). The Annotated Lolita (revised ed.). New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-72729-9. One of the best guides to the complexities of Lolita. First published by McGraw-Hill in 1970. (Nabokov was able to comment on Appel's earliest annotations, creating a situation that Appel described as being like John Shade revising Charles Kinbote's comments on Shade's poem Pale Fire. Oddly enough, this is exactly the situation Nabokov scholar Brian Boyd proposed to resolve the literary complexities of Nabokov's Pale Fire.)
* Levine, Peter (1967). "Lolita and Aristotle's Ethics" in Philosophy and Literature Volume 19, Number 1, April 1995, pp. 32–47.
* Nabokov, Vladimir (1955). Lolita. New York: Vintage International. ISBN 0-679-72316-1. The original novel.
本書講述了一個名叫鞠斯汀娜的少女遇到的十次經歷、十段故事。由於父母的破産，她和姐姐不得走上流浪的道路。姐姐毫不猶豫地投身妓院。但鞠斯汀娜堅信上帝的萬能，為自己的命運苦苦掙紮。然而她卻屢遭劫難，她所遭遇到的是：吝嗇、搶劫、同性戀、無人道、姦淫、奴役、忘思負義、偷竊、誣告、栽贓陷害。她本想通過虔誠的懺悔，求助宗教的力量以得到拯救，但卻跌入了更為苦難的深淵。她落入了一群承險邪惡習的偽君子之手，被他們肆意欺辱。她極為維護自己的清純，珍愛自己的人格，但一個弱女子終究還是難逃厄運。……
Justine is set just before the French Revolution in France and tells the story of a young woman who goes under the name of Therese. Her story is recounted to Madame de Lorsagne while defending herself for her crimes, en route to punishment and death. She explains the series of misfortunes which have led her to be in her present situation.
History of the work
Justine (original French title Les infortunes de la vertu) was an early work by the Marquis de Sade, written in two weeks in 1787 while imprisoned in the Bastille. It is a novella (187 pages) with relatively little of the obscenity which characterized his later writing as it was written in the classical style (which was fashionable at the time), with much verbose and metaphorical description.
A much extended and more graphic version, entitled Justine ou Les Malheurs de la vertu (1791) (English title: Justine, or The Misfortunes of the virtue or simply Justine) was the first of Sade's books to be published.
A further extended version La Nouvelle Justine ou Les Malheurs de la vertu was published in 1797. It was accompanied by a continuation, Juliette about Justine's sister. The two together formed 10 volumes of nearly 4000 pages in total; publication was completed in 1801. This final version, La Nouvelle Justine, departed from the first-person narrative of the previous two versions, and included around 100 engravings.
Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the arrest of the anonymous author of Justine and Juliette, and as a result Sade was incarcerated for the last 13 years of his life. Napoleon called Justine "the most abominable book ever engendered by the most depraved imagination".
The book's destruction was ordered by the Cour royale de Paris on May 19, 1815. A censored English translation was issued in the USA by the Risus Press in the early 1930s. The first unexpurgated English translation (by 'Pieralessandro Casavini', a pseudonym for Austryn Wainhouse) was published by the Olympia Press in 1953. Wainhouse later revised this translation for publication in the United States by Grove Press. Other versions currently in print, notably the Wordsworth edition, are abridged and heavily censored.
Plot summary
The plot concerns Justine, a 12-year-old maiden ("As for Justine, aged as we have remarked, twelve"...) who sets off, impecunious, to make her way in France. It follows her until age 26, in her quest for virtue. She is presented with abuse, hidden under a virtuous mask. The unfortunate situations include: the time when she seeks refuge and confession in a monastery, but is forced to become a sex-slave to the monks, who subject her to countless orgies, rapes and other abuses. When helping a gentleman who is robbed in a field, he takes her back to his chateau with promises of a post caring for his wife, but she is then confined in a cave and subject to much the same punishment. These punishments are mostly the same throughout, even when she goes to a judge to beg for mercy in her case as an arsonist, and then finds herself openly humiliated in court, unable to defend herself.
Justine (Therese) and Juliette were the daughters of Monsieur de Bertole. Bertole was a widower banker who fell in love with another man's woman. The man, Monsieur de Noirseuil, in the interest of revenge, pretended to be his friend, and made sure he became bankrupt and eventually poisoned him, leaving the girls orphans. Juliette and Justine lived in a nunnery, where the Abbess of the nunnery corrupted Juliette (and attempted to corrupt Justine too). However, Justine was sweet and virtuous. When the Abbess found out about Bertole's death she booted both girls out. Juliette's story is told in another book, and Justine continues on in pursuit of virtue, beginning from becoming a maid in the house of the Usurer Harpin, which is where her troubles begin anew.
In her search for work and shelter Justine constantly fell into the hands of perverts and rogues who would rape and torture her and the people she makes friends with. Justine was falsely accused of theft by Harpin and sent to jail expecting execution. She had to ally herself with a Miss Dubois, a criminal who helped her to escape along with her band. In order to escape they had to start a fire in the prison, in which 21 people died. After escaping the band of Dubois, Justine wanders off and accidentally trespasses upon the lands of The Count of Bressac.
These are, of course, described in true Sadean form. However, unlike some of his other works, the novel is not just a catalogue of sadism.
The story is told by "Therese" in an inn, to Madame de Lorsagne. It is finally revealed that Madame de Lorsagne is her long lost sister. The irony is that her sister submitted to a brief period of vice and found herself a comfortable existence where she could exercise good, while Justine refused to make concessions for the greater good and was plunged further into vice than those who would go willingly.
The story ends with Madame de Lorsagne relieving her from a life of vice and clearing her name. Soon afterward, Justine becomes introverted and morose, and is finally struck by a bolt of lightning and killed instantly. Madame de Lorsagne joins a religious order after Justine's death.
Major themes
De Sade was strongly involved in both the development of his own philosophies (which later became many of the principles of sadism) and an investigation into the changing nature of his country. As, later in life, he became very involved in politics and became a member of the National Convention, we can see many of his ideas introduced in this, one of his earlier works.
Key philosophical ideas as follows:
* going against accepted tradition
* the subjectivity of virtue and vice
* the pursuit of desire and the consequences of it
* the evils of absolutism for either the purposes of good or evil
* Nature, as being the only true ruler of man
* The notion of Reason as dominating disinterested system
The more political ideas focus on:
* the hierarchy and inequalities within a class system
* the corruption of the church, the justice system and most major institutions
* the respective roles of the sexes
* the necessity of reliance upon others (appropriate as De Sade advocated a form of utopian socialism, at least later in life)
Additional Key Philosophical Ideas:
1. The pursuit of virtue, as well as that of vice, are both for the sake of pleasure, as pleasure is the ultimate goal of mankind and of life.
2. Pain is good, too, insofar as its removal results in pleasure; and even heightened pleasure.
3. Evil and crime are directly pleasurable in themselves, avoiding the sublimation and delayed gratification involved in acts of virtue. Of course, it is pleasure that the virtuous expect in the afterlife, after their life-long denial of the instinctual self-gratifications withheld them, either by their own will, or through the imposition of custom or law.
4. There is even a type of pleasure involved for the "just" in the punishments inflicted by law and society on those judged "guilty" of following nature's instincts, and this one is equally perverse.
5. The will to power is the will to pleasure, and all use of reason is ordered toward the attainment, in whatever be the immediately manifest form, of that end. Hence, virtue is always a mask of sorts.
Contemporary reference
Justine was written around 30 years after Samuel Richardson's Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded, and the thematic influence is clear. The story is quite related in terms of the endless trials which face each heroine, but with the opposite results. While Pamela's unwavering dedication to virtue does force her to suffer the threat of some vices, and confinement similar to that which befalls Justine, she is eventually successful in reforming Mr B. and becoming his wife. She then leads a life of prosperity and happiness.
In 1793, the rival writer Rétif de la Bretonne published his Anti Justine.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The story has been adapted for film several times, most notably in a 1969 international co-production directed by Jesus Franco and starring Jack Palance, Romina Power, and Klaus Kinski as the Marquis, titled Marquis de Sade: Justine. There has also been a graphic novel version by Guido Crepax. In 1973 the Japanese director Tatsumi Kumashiro filmed an adaptation of Justine as part of Nikkatsu's Roman Porno series. The film was titled Woman Hell: Woods are Wet (女地獄 森は濡れた, Onna Jigoku: Mori wa Nureta?).
Justine was also featured in the 2000 film Quills based on the life of the Marquis de Sade.
Justine is set just before the French Revolution in France and tells the story of a young woman who goes under the name of Therese. Her story is recounted to Madame de Lorsagne while defending herself for her crimes, en route to punishment and death. She explains the series of misfortunes which have led her to be in her present situation.
History of the work
Justine (original French title Les infortunes de la vertu) was an early work by the Marquis de Sade, written in two weeks in 1787 while imprisoned in the Bastille. It is a novella (187 pages) with relatively little of the obscenity which characterized his later writing as it was written in the classical style (which was fashionable at the time), with much verbose and metaphorical description.
A much extended and more graphic version, entitled Justine ou Les Malheurs de la vertu (1791) (English title: Justine, or The Misfortunes of the virtue or simply Justine) was the first of Sade's books to be published.
A further extended version La Nouvelle Justine ou Les Malheurs de la vertu was published in 1797. It was accompanied by a continuation, Juliette about Justine's sister. The two together formed 10 volumes of nearly 4000 pages in total; publication was completed in 1801. This final version, La Nouvelle Justine, departed from the first-person narrative of the previous two versions, and included around 100 engravings.
Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the arrest of the anonymous author of Justine and Juliette, and as a result Sade was incarcerated for the last 13 years of his life. Napoleon called Justine "the most abominable book ever engendered by the most depraved imagination".
The book's destruction was ordered by the Cour royale de Paris on May 19, 1815. A censored English translation was issued in the USA by the Risus Press in the early 1930s. The first unexpurgated English translation (by 'Pieralessandro Casavini', a pseudonym for Austryn Wainhouse) was published by the Olympia Press in 1953. Wainhouse later revised this translation for publication in the United States by Grove Press. Other versions currently in print, notably the Wordsworth edition, are abridged and heavily censored.
Plot summary
The plot concerns Justine, a 12-year-old maiden ("As for Justine, aged as we have remarked, twelve"...) who sets off, impecunious, to make her way in France. It follows her until age 26, in her quest for virtue. She is presented with abuse, hidden under a virtuous mask. The unfortunate situations include: the time when she seeks refuge and confession in a monastery, but is forced to become a sex-slave to the monks, who subject her to countless orgies, rapes and other abuses. When helping a gentleman who is robbed in a field, he takes her back to his chateau with promises of a post caring for his wife, but she is then confined in a cave and subject to much the same punishment. These punishments are mostly the same throughout, even when she goes to a judge to beg for mercy in her case as an arsonist, and then finds herself openly humiliated in court, unable to defend herself.
Justine (Therese) and Juliette were the daughters of Monsieur de Bertole. Bertole was a widower banker who fell in love with another man's woman. The man, Monsieur de Noirseuil, in the interest of revenge, pretended to be his friend, and made sure he became bankrupt and eventually poisoned him, leaving the girls orphans. Juliette and Justine lived in a nunnery, where the Abbess of the nunnery corrupted Juliette (and attempted to corrupt Justine too). However, Justine was sweet and virtuous. When the Abbess found out about Bertole's death she booted both girls out. Juliette's story is told in another book, and Justine continues on in pursuit of virtue, beginning from becoming a maid in the house of the Usurer Harpin, which is where her troubles begin anew.
In her search for work and shelter Justine constantly fell into the hands of perverts and rogues who would rape and torture her and the people she makes friends with. Justine was falsely accused of theft by Harpin and sent to jail expecting execution. She had to ally herself with a Miss Dubois, a criminal who helped her to escape along with her band. In order to escape they had to start a fire in the prison, in which 21 people died. After escaping the band of Dubois, Justine wanders off and accidentally trespasses upon the lands of The Count of Bressac.
These are, of course, described in true Sadean form. However, unlike some of his other works, the novel is not just a catalogue of sadism.
The story is told by "Therese" in an inn, to Madame de Lorsagne. It is finally revealed that Madame de Lorsagne is her long lost sister. The irony is that her sister submitted to a brief period of vice and found herself a comfortable existence where she could exercise good, while Justine refused to make concessions for the greater good and was plunged further into vice than those who would go willingly.
The story ends with Madame de Lorsagne relieving her from a life of vice and clearing her name. Soon afterward, Justine becomes introverted and morose, and is finally struck by a bolt of lightning and killed instantly. Madame de Lorsagne joins a religious order after Justine's death.
Major themes
De Sade was strongly involved in both the development of his own philosophies (which later became many of the principles of sadism) and an investigation into the changing nature of his country. As, later in life, he became very involved in politics and became a member of the National Convention, we can see many of his ideas introduced in this, one of his earlier works.
Key philosophical ideas as follows:
* going against accepted tradition
* the subjectivity of virtue and vice
* the pursuit of desire and the consequences of it
* the evils of absolutism for either the purposes of good or evil
* Nature, as being the only true ruler of man
* The notion of Reason as dominating disinterested system
The more political ideas focus on:
* the hierarchy and inequalities within a class system
* the corruption of the church, the justice system and most major institutions
* the respective roles of the sexes
* the necessity of reliance upon others (appropriate as De Sade advocated a form of utopian socialism, at least later in life)
Additional Key Philosophical Ideas:
1. The pursuit of virtue, as well as that of vice, are both for the sake of pleasure, as pleasure is the ultimate goal of mankind and of life.
2. Pain is good, too, insofar as its removal results in pleasure; and even heightened pleasure.
3. Evil and crime are directly pleasurable in themselves, avoiding the sublimation and delayed gratification involved in acts of virtue. Of course, it is pleasure that the virtuous expect in the afterlife, after their life-long denial of the instinctual self-gratifications withheld them, either by their own will, or through the imposition of custom or law.
4. There is even a type of pleasure involved for the "just" in the punishments inflicted by law and society on those judged "guilty" of following nature's instincts, and this one is equally perverse.
5. The will to power is the will to pleasure, and all use of reason is ordered toward the attainment, in whatever be the immediately manifest form, of that end. Hence, virtue is always a mask of sorts.
Contemporary reference
Justine was written around 30 years after Samuel Richardson's Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded, and the thematic influence is clear. The story is quite related in terms of the endless trials which face each heroine, but with the opposite results. While Pamela's unwavering dedication to virtue does force her to suffer the threat of some vices, and confinement similar to that which befalls Justine, she is eventually successful in reforming Mr B. and becoming his wife. She then leads a life of prosperity and happiness.
In 1793, the rival writer Rétif de la Bretonne published his Anti Justine.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The story has been adapted for film several times, most notably in a 1969 international co-production directed by Jesus Franco and starring Jack Palance, Romina Power, and Klaus Kinski as the Marquis, titled Marquis de Sade: Justine. There has also been a graphic novel version by Guido Crepax. In 1973 the Japanese director Tatsumi Kumashiro filmed an adaptation of Justine as part of Nikkatsu's Roman Porno series. The film was titled Woman Hell: Woods are Wet (女地獄 森は濡れた, Onna Jigoku: Mori wa Nureta?).
Justine was also featured in the 2000 film Quills based on the life of the Marquis de Sade.
王耀曾經是一個無情的皮條客和敲詐犯，直到有一天他遇到了女招待麗川。王耀原本以為，麗川就像其他女孩一樣，可以任由他的擺布，但是麗川的倔強遠過錯超乎他的想象。在互相折磨中，兩人人漸漸迷失了自我。他失去了自由，而她失去了生命。服刑八年後，王耀走出監獄的大門。他持槍闖入麗川母親的住所，想要了結自己的心願……
“杜梅就像一件兵器，一柄關羽關老爺手中的那種極為華麗鋒利無比的大刀”——王朔《過把癮就死》
王朔的作品絶非白話文裏的豐碑，王朔本人值得尊敬但是無需膜拜。在長時間的被你方唱罷我登場的文壇藝壇歌壇舞壇紛繁的信息轟炸之後，我更願意把一切歸結為一種“現象”，一種脫離了人和事在特定環境下特定時代裏必然發生的現象。它不以人的意志為轉移，並且不會因此將與之相關的人和事襯托得偉大。因為衹有現象本身是偉大的，就好比少了哥白尼和伽利略，地球人也早晚都會知道地球是圓的，沒有牛頓總會有羊頓，沒有愛因斯坦還會有二因斯坦一樣。偉大的現象獨一無二，而所謂偉人則一定有為數衆多的替補。
仔細研究也會發現王朔的作品不僅不偉大，而且也一樣會落入各種窠臼和俗套，“男人不壞女人不愛”就是最明顯的一個，不論是改編為電視劇《過把癮》所取材的《過把癮就死》、《無人喝彩》和《永失我愛》，還是《一半海水一半火焰》、《空中小姐》以及《浮出海面》，男主人公清一色的遊手好閑不務正業玩世不恭嘴高手低，放在一起活脫兒就是一流氓團夥，而女人必然純情的一塌糊塗不是空姐就是護士不是吹長笛就是跳芭蕾，最次也是大學裏的學生會幹部，沒頭沒腦視死如歸的愛上一個宿命中安排好的壞男人，明知男人壞偏投壞人懷，最後愛到傷痕纍纍非死即傷即使劫後餘生頂多苟延殘喘。不過，俗套也是講究個套法的，王朔就是那個常常把我們裝在套子裏的人。因為他趕上了他那個時代文學話語權中最可愛的“現象”，在他之前，愛情是高大全的是幹幹淨淨的組織安排的，在他之後，愛情是廉價而泛濫的，不管插幾衹足偷幾夜情都是見怪不怪的。唯獨他，第一次把男人和女人之間的嬉笑怒駡當成主要內容來寫，第一次把青春的殘酷和愛情的偏執放在一起寫，第一次完完整整的敘述鮮花是如何插在牛糞上並最後和牛糞同歸於盡的。這根本與偉大無關，真實而已。那些鍋碗瓢盆油嘴滑舌的男男女女，那些深愛着對方卻一定要擰吧着爭吵着表達自己的愛意的男男女女，那些不勵志光扯淡衹談請不說愛貌似沒心沒肺實則刻骨銘心的男男女女，不就是我們自己麽？本該反映真實的文藝作品和文藝工作者偶爾盡職盡責了一次，讀者便捧着作者一起飛上天了～
《過把癮就死》、《無人喝彩》和《永失我愛》三部作品都是以男女主人公的愛情為主綫，中間的情節展開也無非就是兩人之間的吵吵鬧鬧與分分合合，但是王朔畢竟是個搞文學的，懂得文章的開頭結尾不能湊合，於是三部作品在結尾的處理上風格迥異各顯神通：《過把癮就死》選擇了瘋狂，對杜梅這個人物的偏愛摯愛以及熱愛讓我覺得這個結尾差強人意，也不夠公平，整篇小說都在暗示着的彌足珍貴和難以割捨在最後卻被掩人耳目的逃避了，書中最後杜梅在黑暗的公路上騎車狂奔的畫面讓我直到現在都無法平靜的不問一個為什麽的接受下來——這樣一個簡單純粹的女人，再怎麽樣也我也不忍心拋下她不管；而《無人喝彩》的結尾就好象它的題目一樣，落寞而安靜，似乎最接近人們真實的生活。剛纔也說過，王老師不傻，他知道開頭結尾馬虎不得，之所以敢這樣悄無聲息的草草收口，是因為《無人喝彩》的在立意和情節展開上已經賺足了彩頭：一對離了婚的夫婦如何藕斷絲連的生活在一個屋檐下並且還若無其事的結交新歡透過別的眼睛觀察自己內心真實的愛情，這種不怎麽嚴肅不怎麽靠譜的玩笑般的感情關係，恰恰符合了人們對甜蜜愛情與身心自由的渴望和對婚姻枷鎖雙方責任的恐懼同時並存，魚和熊掌通通想要的心理狀態；《永失我愛》的結尾是最戲劇化的，愛到深處還不行，還要在愛到深處失去愛，失去愛情還不行，還要失去生命，悲壯到不管你是否認為這是一個合理必要或者應該的結局，你都得承認這是一個一步到位的、比任何結局更像結局的結局，人都死了你還想怎麽樣，誰也不會傻了吧唧的追究男主人公患上的肌無力癥到底有沒有科學依據，都忙着熱淚盈眶的看着一個男人一邊坦然面對即將到來的死亡，一邊忍辱負重的用拋棄和成全來拯救自己的愛人。雖然通篇都在為這一次悲壯的“死了都要愛”鋪墊，但其實也經不起推敲，尤其是為了避免死亡給愛人帶來的大傷害便要通過預支一個小傷害來保全對方的做法，實在弱智，當一切真相大白的時候，死亡依舊不可逆轉，傷害白白又多一次。
這樣看來，《過把癮就死》說死其實沒死，但故事一開始的糾纏爭吵和死去活來卻異彩紛呈高潮迭起，《永失我愛》通篇弘揚着愛的偉大，結尾歌頌着死的光榮，是名副其實的“過把癮就死”（準確地說是還沒過癮就死了），這下子鳳頭和豹尾都有了，就差找一個合適的“弗洛伊德”過度，一張天衣無縫空前絶後的文學拼圖就能誕生了，偏巧這時《無人喝彩》帶着它那嬉笑着曖昧着離婚並同居着的精美橋段翩翩走來——豬肚，就是它了——一部三合一的王朔牌電視劇《過把癮》就這樣奢侈的問世了。
優化重組後的情節概括起來棱角分明異常過癮：相識、戀愛、結婚、爭吵、離婚、再戀愛、再結婚、死去。其實，不管是原著也好，電視劇也好，他們的成功都離不開最後那個“死”字。死亡是一個重重的砝碼，因為死亡就意味着永遠的失去，讓一切不美好的連同美好的瞬間化為烏有。我一直替杜梅鳴不平，我甚至覺得如果非要死一個人才OK的話，應該選擇杜梅。原著和電視劇中都提到杜梅的父親親手殺死了自己的母親，以此為背景和緣由來解釋杜梅在愛情裏的偏執和頑固。在王朔的作品裏，給女主角一個名正言順的吵鬧的理由的情況少之又少，或許王朔也覺得杜梅的過分和偏激需要一點點支撐，但我覺得，其實大可不必，即使沒有那些生命裏的陰影，女人在愛情憧憬得不到滿足的時候所爆發出的能量也會遠遠超過各種國仇傢恨的總和。衹不過杜梅在愛上方言愛上愛情之外，更多了在愛情裏療傷和尋求庇護的奢望。杜梅很傻，她不懂愛是鮮花美酒也是穿腸毒藥，愛可能讓心智完整的人陷入艱難繁瑣，但一定不會讓心有戚戚的人豁然開朗；她忘了愛情本身和她自己一樣，是一把鋒利無比的雙刃兵器，不傷及自身已經萬幸，還指望它療傷救命。簡直飲鴆止渴。
不管看了多少遍這部電視劇的大結局，看到狂吻之後全身無力的癱倒在杜梅懷裏的方言，我依然可以不費吹灰之力的嚎啕大哭，不為死去的方言，衹為活着的杜梅。死的是方言，可生不如死的是杜梅，杜梅這次的失去纔是徹徹底底完完全全，不僅奢望再也沒有可能滿足，甚至連一個活口兒也沒落下。請允許我失態的說一句：這實在太他媽的殘忍了！
我大膽的假設，現實生活中如果真的存在方和杜的話，即使他們復婚，爭吵依然還會繼續，杜梅依舊得不到她想要的愛情，一方面由於杜梅的苛求與時俱進根本沒人能夠滿足，另一方面因為方言骨子裏是一個不願放棄自我的人，而杜梅又是那樣天真的需索無度。與其這樣，還不如讓杜梅在和自己最愛的人接了兩次婚，過了兩把癮之後轟轟烈烈的死去。
對她來說，那纔是幸福。
王朔的作品絶非白話文裏的豐碑，王朔本人值得尊敬但是無需膜拜。在長時間的被你方唱罷我登場的文壇藝壇歌壇舞壇紛繁的信息轟炸之後，我更願意把一切歸結為一種“現象”，一種脫離了人和事在特定環境下特定時代裏必然發生的現象。它不以人的意志為轉移，並且不會因此將與之相關的人和事襯托得偉大。因為衹有現象本身是偉大的，就好比少了哥白尼和伽利略，地球人也早晚都會知道地球是圓的，沒有牛頓總會有羊頓，沒有愛因斯坦還會有二因斯坦一樣。偉大的現象獨一無二，而所謂偉人則一定有為數衆多的替補。
仔細研究也會發現王朔的作品不僅不偉大，而且也一樣會落入各種窠臼和俗套，“男人不壞女人不愛”就是最明顯的一個，不論是改編為電視劇《過把癮》所取材的《過把癮就死》、《無人喝彩》和《永失我愛》，還是《一半海水一半火焰》、《空中小姐》以及《浮出海面》，男主人公清一色的遊手好閑不務正業玩世不恭嘴高手低，放在一起活脫兒就是一流氓團夥，而女人必然純情的一塌糊塗不是空姐就是護士不是吹長笛就是跳芭蕾，最次也是大學裏的學生會幹部，沒頭沒腦視死如歸的愛上一個宿命中安排好的壞男人，明知男人壞偏投壞人懷，最後愛到傷痕纍纍非死即傷即使劫後餘生頂多苟延殘喘。不過，俗套也是講究個套法的，王朔就是那個常常把我們裝在套子裏的人。因為他趕上了他那個時代文學話語權中最可愛的“現象”，在他之前，愛情是高大全的是幹幹淨淨的組織安排的，在他之後，愛情是廉價而泛濫的，不管插幾衹足偷幾夜情都是見怪不怪的。唯獨他，第一次把男人和女人之間的嬉笑怒駡當成主要內容來寫，第一次把青春的殘酷和愛情的偏執放在一起寫，第一次完完整整的敘述鮮花是如何插在牛糞上並最後和牛糞同歸於盡的。這根本與偉大無關，真實而已。那些鍋碗瓢盆油嘴滑舌的男男女女，那些深愛着對方卻一定要擰吧着爭吵着表達自己的愛意的男男女女，那些不勵志光扯淡衹談請不說愛貌似沒心沒肺實則刻骨銘心的男男女女，不就是我們自己麽？本該反映真實的文藝作品和文藝工作者偶爾盡職盡責了一次，讀者便捧着作者一起飛上天了～
《過把癮就死》、《無人喝彩》和《永失我愛》三部作品都是以男女主人公的愛情為主綫，中間的情節展開也無非就是兩人之間的吵吵鬧鬧與分分合合，但是王朔畢竟是個搞文學的，懂得文章的開頭結尾不能湊合，於是三部作品在結尾的處理上風格迥異各顯神通：《過把癮就死》選擇了瘋狂，對杜梅這個人物的偏愛摯愛以及熱愛讓我覺得這個結尾差強人意，也不夠公平，整篇小說都在暗示着的彌足珍貴和難以割捨在最後卻被掩人耳目的逃避了，書中最後杜梅在黑暗的公路上騎車狂奔的畫面讓我直到現在都無法平靜的不問一個為什麽的接受下來——這樣一個簡單純粹的女人，再怎麽樣也我也不忍心拋下她不管；而《無人喝彩》的結尾就好象它的題目一樣，落寞而安靜，似乎最接近人們真實的生活。剛纔也說過，王老師不傻，他知道開頭結尾馬虎不得，之所以敢這樣悄無聲息的草草收口，是因為《無人喝彩》的在立意和情節展開上已經賺足了彩頭：一對離了婚的夫婦如何藕斷絲連的生活在一個屋檐下並且還若無其事的結交新歡透過別的眼睛觀察自己內心真實的愛情，這種不怎麽嚴肅不怎麽靠譜的玩笑般的感情關係，恰恰符合了人們對甜蜜愛情與身心自由的渴望和對婚姻枷鎖雙方責任的恐懼同時並存，魚和熊掌通通想要的心理狀態；《永失我愛》的結尾是最戲劇化的，愛到深處還不行，還要在愛到深處失去愛，失去愛情還不行，還要失去生命，悲壯到不管你是否認為這是一個合理必要或者應該的結局，你都得承認這是一個一步到位的、比任何結局更像結局的結局，人都死了你還想怎麽樣，誰也不會傻了吧唧的追究男主人公患上的肌無力癥到底有沒有科學依據，都忙着熱淚盈眶的看着一個男人一邊坦然面對即將到來的死亡，一邊忍辱負重的用拋棄和成全來拯救自己的愛人。雖然通篇都在為這一次悲壯的“死了都要愛”鋪墊，但其實也經不起推敲，尤其是為了避免死亡給愛人帶來的大傷害便要通過預支一個小傷害來保全對方的做法，實在弱智，當一切真相大白的時候，死亡依舊不可逆轉，傷害白白又多一次。
這樣看來，《過把癮就死》說死其實沒死，但故事一開始的糾纏爭吵和死去活來卻異彩紛呈高潮迭起，《永失我愛》通篇弘揚着愛的偉大，結尾歌頌着死的光榮，是名副其實的“過把癮就死”（準確地說是還沒過癮就死了），這下子鳳頭和豹尾都有了，就差找一個合適的“弗洛伊德”過度，一張天衣無縫空前絶後的文學拼圖就能誕生了，偏巧這時《無人喝彩》帶着它那嬉笑着曖昧着離婚並同居着的精美橋段翩翩走來——豬肚，就是它了——一部三合一的王朔牌電視劇《過把癮》就這樣奢侈的問世了。
優化重組後的情節概括起來棱角分明異常過癮：相識、戀愛、結婚、爭吵、離婚、再戀愛、再結婚、死去。其實，不管是原著也好，電視劇也好，他們的成功都離不開最後那個“死”字。死亡是一個重重的砝碼，因為死亡就意味着永遠的失去，讓一切不美好的連同美好的瞬間化為烏有。我一直替杜梅鳴不平，我甚至覺得如果非要死一個人才OK的話，應該選擇杜梅。原著和電視劇中都提到杜梅的父親親手殺死了自己的母親，以此為背景和緣由來解釋杜梅在愛情裏的偏執和頑固。在王朔的作品裏，給女主角一個名正言順的吵鬧的理由的情況少之又少，或許王朔也覺得杜梅的過分和偏激需要一點點支撐，但我覺得，其實大可不必，即使沒有那些生命裏的陰影，女人在愛情憧憬得不到滿足的時候所爆發出的能量也會遠遠超過各種國仇傢恨的總和。衹不過杜梅在愛上方言愛上愛情之外，更多了在愛情裏療傷和尋求庇護的奢望。杜梅很傻，她不懂愛是鮮花美酒也是穿腸毒藥，愛可能讓心智完整的人陷入艱難繁瑣，但一定不會讓心有戚戚的人豁然開朗；她忘了愛情本身和她自己一樣，是一把鋒利無比的雙刃兵器，不傷及自身已經萬幸，還指望它療傷救命。簡直飲鴆止渴。
不管看了多少遍這部電視劇的大結局，看到狂吻之後全身無力的癱倒在杜梅懷裏的方言，我依然可以不費吹灰之力的嚎啕大哭，不為死去的方言，衹為活着的杜梅。死的是方言，可生不如死的是杜梅，杜梅這次的失去纔是徹徹底底完完全全，不僅奢望再也沒有可能滿足，甚至連一個活口兒也沒落下。請允許我失態的說一句：這實在太他媽的殘忍了！
我大膽的假設，現實生活中如果真的存在方和杜的話，即使他們復婚，爭吵依然還會繼續，杜梅依舊得不到她想要的愛情，一方面由於杜梅的苛求與時俱進根本沒人能夠滿足，另一方面因為方言骨子裏是一個不願放棄自我的人，而杜梅又是那樣天真的需索無度。與其這樣，還不如讓杜梅在和自己最愛的人接了兩次婚，過了兩把癮之後轟轟烈烈的死去。
對她來說，那纔是幸福。
七年前，王韻娜因情傷出國。回國後偶遇時裝設計師文思，兩人墜入愛河。
可過去的陰影仍在，那個曾經傷害自己的滕海祁居然是文思的姐夫，而且，他堅持讓韻娜離開文思。王韻娜被迫答應，文思痛苦不已。
韻娜發現真相，原來滕海祁和文思居然是一對同性戀人！多年前的情傷也改變了滕海祁，他不再愛女人。
滕海祁威脅文思，不久，滕被殺。兇手是誰？王韻娜？文思？還是文思的姐姐？
可過去的陰影仍在，那個曾經傷害自己的滕海祁居然是文思的姐夫，而且，他堅持讓韻娜離開文思。王韻娜被迫答應，文思痛苦不已。
韻娜發現真相，原來滕海祁和文思居然是一對同性戀人！多年前的情傷也改變了滕海祁，他不再愛女人。
滕海祁威脅文思，不久，滕被殺。兇手是誰？王韻娜？文思？還是文思的姐姐？
振保的生命裏就有兩個女人，他說一個是他的白玫瑰，一個是他的紅玫瑰。一個是聖潔的妻，一個是熱烈的情婦…… 留洋回來的振保(趙文瑄飾)在一傢外商公司謀了個高職。為了交通方便，他租了老同學王士洪的屋子。振保留學期間，有一個叫玫瑰的初戀情人。他曾因拒絶過玫瑰的求歡而獲取了“柳下惠”的好名聲。王士洪有一位風情萬種的太太，她總令振保想入非非。有一次，士洪去新加坡做生意了，經過幾番靈與肉的鬥爭，在一個乍暖還寒的雨日，振保被這位叫嬌蕊(陳衝飾)的太太“囚住”了。令振保所料不及的是嬌蕊這次是付出了真愛的。當她提出把真相告訴了王士洪時，振保病倒了。在病房，振保把真實的一面告訴了嬌蕊——他不想為此情而承受太多責難。嬌蕊收拾她紛亂的淚珠，出奇的冷靜起來，從此走出了他的生命。
在母親撮合下，振保帶着點悲涼的犧牲感，娶了身材單薄、靜如止水的孟煙鸝 (葉玉卿飾)。新娘給人的感覺衹是籠統的白淨，她無法喚起振保的性欲。振保開始在外邊嫖妓。可是有一天，他竟發現了他的陰影裏沒有任何光澤的白玫瑰煙鸝，居然和一個形象蝟狎的裁縫關係曖昧。從此，振保在外邊公開玩女人，一味地放浪形骸起來。有一天，他在公共汽車上巧遇了他生命中的“紅玫瑰”嬌蕊，她已是一種中年人的俗豔了。歲月無情，花開花落，在淚光中，振保的紅玫瑰與白玫瑰已是一種現實中的幻影。舊日的善良一點一點地逼近振保。回到傢，在一番歇斯底裏的發作後，振保又重新變成了一個好人。
《紅玫瑰與白玫瑰》-評價
本片是改編自張愛玲同名小說的電影《紅玫瑰與白玫瑰》，關錦鵬以一種冷峻旁觀的態度描述了一種無奈情感。在起落的電梯裏紅玫瑰那張嬌豔明媚的臉映見她心底婉轉麯折的心思，潔淨明亮的洗手間裏白玫瑰蒼白無色的生命。精緻美麗，墮落頽唐，卻在一不經意間將心底的一絲純真柔情輕輕流露，一個男子可以將女性情感刻畫到如此的細膩、豐富，令人嘆為觀止。而因一部《小花》（獲百花奬最佳女演員奬）而在大陸為人熟悉的陳衝憑藉在本片中出色的演繹了紅玫瑰而獲當年的金馬奬最佳女主角奬。一嚮以大膽出位聞名的她在本片中可謂是搶盡了風頭，令曾經被譽為“港産三級皇后”的波霸葉玉卿黯然失色，同樣是風情萬種，但相對而言陳衝還是更懂得演戲，而不衹是show身材。
在《紅玫瑰與白玫瑰》一片中，關錦鵬雖然表面上呈現的是張愛玲的小說，背地裏卻操縱種種電影手法，玩弄語言的遊戲與敘述的遊戲，以挑戰的姿態與張愛玲對話，改寫了張愛玲的小說，使得這個故事變成一個不一樣的故事，一個女性得以成長的故事。雖然張愛玲的小說主角幾乎都是女性，她對於女性角色的描述也特別細膩深刻，但是，她筆下的女性卻都是深深陷在中國傳統封建意識型態之中卑微可憐而平凡庸俗的小角色，張愛玲從來不賦予她小說中的女性任何自覺或成長。
在關錦鵬的處理之下，女性角色被賦予了沉默，也同時被賦予了自由。關錦鵬選擇的作法便是使敘述者不進入女性角色的意識世界，並使女性角色保留曖昧而不透明的形象。觀衆因為無法偷聽到女性角色的內在聲音，便無法完全掌握這些角色。十分詭異的是，女性角色因而更具有某種詮釋空間彈性出入的自由。
有一場景中，煙鸝手忙腳亂地用報紙替振保包銀器，讓篤保送禮。振保看煙鸝包得不成模樣，奪了過來自己包，口中還嘆了口氣說：「人笨凡事難！」小說中敘述者描寫煙鸝的反應是：煙鸝臉上掠過她的婢妾的怨憤，隨即又微笑，自己笑着，又看看篤保可笑了沒有，怕他沒聽懂她丈夫說的笑話。關錦鵬的鏡頭卻衹停留在煙鸝似笑非笑、模棱兩可的表情。這種意義曖昧不清的笑容反而是自己可以掌握局勢，不須對外人解釋的笑容。片尾振保在臥室中亂摔東西，還朝着煙鸝擲東西，書中描述煙鸝「疾忙翻身嚮外逃」，而振保「覺得她完全被打敗了」。可是，關錦鵬的電影鏡頭卻照着煙鸝臉上無法捉摸的表情，以及她下樓後緩緩彈起嬌蕊的主題麯，代表情欲流動的「玫瑰香」音樂。
《紅玫瑰與白玫瑰》-對白解析
“也許每一個男子全都有過這樣的兩個女人，至少兩個。娶了紅玫瑰，久而久之，紅的變了墻上的一抹蚊子血，白的還是“床前明月光”；娶了白玫瑰，白的便是衣服上的一粒飯粘子，紅的卻是心口上的一顆朱砂痣”。
“振保的生命裏有兩個女人，他說一個是他的‘白玫瑰’，一個是他的‘紅玫瑰’。一個是聖潔的妻，一個是熱烈的情婦”，“娶了‘白玫瑰’，白的便是衣服上沾的一粒飯粘子，紅的卻是心口上的一顆朱砂痣。”是娶“紅玫瑰”還是娶“白玫瑰”？這是個問題，所謂婚姻，就是讓觀衆目睹一朵花由絢爛走嚮凋謝的結局。
《紅玫瑰與白玫瑰》這部電影拍得非常精緻的電影，影片把三四十年代舊上海的氣氛營造得非常成功，印象最深刻的是那部老式電梯，把三十年代上海的風情表露得無遺。張愛玲是一位極為特別的女作傢，她的極具才情的佳作、她的清末貴族後裔的身世、她的充滿麯折的一生，構成了她這位曠世纔女的傳奇色彩。張愛玲的小說對人物心理的刻劃細膩之極，《紅玫瑰與白玫瑰》中營造出新興商業城市浮華背後的空洞蒼白和百無聊賴和表面溫馨和諧家庭底層卻瑣碎沉重的厭倦，透過栩栩如生的人物形象，透過雖年代相隔久遠但看似熟悉親切的故事情節，你能體味到一種人生的蒼涼，那種無奈與悲哀那種凄豔的美，這是本片給人留下的深刻印象和慨嘆。
故事是再平常不過的故事，而導演關錦鵬把人物的內心世界的描寫刻劃絲絲入扣，呈現給觀衆的是男主人公那扭麯的心態下扭麯的個性，以及相應而來的扭麯的婚姻，扭麯的人生。三十年代如風過隙，三十年代脆弱、幽靜、美豔的女人是寂寞的女人，她們的微笑落花似地紛紛飄過來。三十年代的月亮像“朵雲軒”信箋落下的一滴淚珠，陳舊而模糊……三十年代的月亮早已沉了下去，三十年代的人也已經成為過去，三十年代的故事還沒完，完不了……
《紅玫瑰與白玫瑰》-關於影片
在張愛玲的小說中，敘述者對煙鸝得了便秘癥，把自己每天關在浴室裏病態式幻想作了十分具體描述：「她低頭看着自己雪白的肚子，白皚皚的一片，時而鼓起來些，時而癟進去，肚臍的式樣也改變，有時候是甜淨無表情的希臘石像的眼睛，有時候是突出的怒目，有時候是邪教神佛的眼睛，眼裏有一種險惡的微笑，然而很可愛，眼角彎彎地，撇出魚尾紋」。但是，在電影中，煙鸝獨自在浴室內以手掌撫弄肚皮，卻並沒有敘述者為她解釋她的行為，再加上這一景與振保在公共澡堂與衆男子裸身洗澡這一段平行交叉發展，背景是「偷吻」的音樂，因此煙鸝在浴室中的行為因含意曖昧而甚至有情欲自覺萌發的暗示。振保洗澡之後以做愛發泄情欲，而煙鸝發泄欲望的方式則是一反往常沉默，滔滔不絶地和振保的同事談話，並且殷殷輓留，邀請再訪。
隨着電影中的故事發展，影片中的男性敘述者漸漸無法掌握全部的事實。雖然他仍然敘述着張愛玲的故事，但是，影像卻背叛他。電影中的敘述者說煙鸝依舊「嚮人解釋，微笑着，忠心地為他掩飾」，但是，鏡頭跳接的場景卻是煙鸝對篤保批評振保在外面鬍來，她甚至說：「這樣倒不如離了婚的好，離婚又會怎麽樣呢？……真不知道我要替他辯護到多久！」在張愛玲的小說中，煙鸝並沒有這種自覺與膽量。
關錦鵬更利用兩種不同的浴室空間凸顯了紅玫瑰與白玫瑰的差異，以及白玫瑰的成長。紅玫瑰嬌蕊的空間是燈光昏暗、霧氣彌漫，墻面的瓷磚多棱角而不規則，嘩嘩的水聲不絶於耳；而白玫瑰煙鸝的空間則是幹爽亮潔，墻面的瓷磚方整白淨，代表煙鸝冷感潔癖的手絹平整地貼在墻面。嬌蕊浴室中的蒸騰水汽呼應浮動於全片之中、不斷重複出現、代表情欲流動的水的意象：上海的雨水、街道上的水、踩在腳下反映出人臉的水、衝馬桶的水聲、男性公共澡堂的水、映在墻上晃動的水影、音軌上嘩嘩一夜的雨聲。煙鸝如白玫瑰般無個性的蒼白，與幹爽的浴室，隱射她欠缺情欲的自覺。但是，裁縫師兩度強調，衣服顔色不對沒有關係，可以再染一染色。煙鸝的個性漸漸的增加了一些色彩，正如她身上的衣服漸漸多了一些紅色的色調，而她也和女兒一起學會了「玫瑰香」的音樂。
煙鸝在女兒被送到學校住讀之後，把自己關在浴室內的一景，像是死而復生的蛻變。這一景結尾時，鏡頭焦距由煙鸝臉上移嚮背景的瓷磚墻面，觀衆驚訝地發現，原本光亮平滑的瓷磚，現在表面上裂着與嬌蕊的浴室瓷磚一樣的不規則棱角。在煙鸝冷靜地說「離了婚又怎麽樣」的時候，鏡頭從她的側影移嚮桌上的一束紅玫瑰。我們發現，從約會與婚禮中的沉默，轉而發展到提議離婚、或是在社交場合的太太圈中發揮議論，煙鸝學會了欲望，也學會了語言。煙鸝不再是如白色一樣單純而無個性的女性，卻發展出了她多棱角的個性與情欲。紅玫瑰與白玫瑰不再是以聯繫詞「與」來串連的兩個分別個體，而是以斜綫「／」拉合的一體兩面。
除了利用鏡頭替女性角色說話之外，關錦鵬更利用強調近距離的電影語言，來凸顯女性的特質。例如嬌蕊將自己裹在振保的雨衣裏，點起他抽過的煙蒂，以觸覺與嗅覺來接近振保。關錦鵬甚至以極近的距離拍攝醫院中的床戲特寫，使畫面充滿肌膚的滑膩肌理，鏡頭無法框住人體，並失去周遭事物的環繞與方位大小的參考依據，也使得觀衆無法保持偷窺的距離，而必須和嬌蕊與振保一樣顛倒在接觸的感覺之中。關錦鵬甚至強調女性所擅長的非語言的聲音，以別於男性的象徵語言文法，例如嬌蕊自在喧嘩的笑聲、音軌上反復如心中轆轤般的電梯升降聲，與代表情欲流動的「玫瑰香」的琴音。
關錦鵬利用《紅玫與白玫瑰》所展露的肌理與多重聲音大膽地挑戰與顛覆了張愛玲的文字，並以具有女性特質的書寫方式改寫香港主流電影的電影語言模式，建立了自己的語言，一種女性聲音的語言。
在母親撮合下，振保帶着點悲涼的犧牲感，娶了身材單薄、靜如止水的孟煙鸝 (葉玉卿飾)。新娘給人的感覺衹是籠統的白淨，她無法喚起振保的性欲。振保開始在外邊嫖妓。可是有一天，他竟發現了他的陰影裏沒有任何光澤的白玫瑰煙鸝，居然和一個形象蝟狎的裁縫關係曖昧。從此，振保在外邊公開玩女人，一味地放浪形骸起來。有一天，他在公共汽車上巧遇了他生命中的“紅玫瑰”嬌蕊，她已是一種中年人的俗豔了。歲月無情，花開花落，在淚光中，振保的紅玫瑰與白玫瑰已是一種現實中的幻影。舊日的善良一點一點地逼近振保。回到傢，在一番歇斯底裏的發作後，振保又重新變成了一個好人。
《紅玫瑰與白玫瑰》-評價
本片是改編自張愛玲同名小說的電影《紅玫瑰與白玫瑰》，關錦鵬以一種冷峻旁觀的態度描述了一種無奈情感。在起落的電梯裏紅玫瑰那張嬌豔明媚的臉映見她心底婉轉麯折的心思，潔淨明亮的洗手間裏白玫瑰蒼白無色的生命。精緻美麗，墮落頽唐，卻在一不經意間將心底的一絲純真柔情輕輕流露，一個男子可以將女性情感刻畫到如此的細膩、豐富，令人嘆為觀止。而因一部《小花》（獲百花奬最佳女演員奬）而在大陸為人熟悉的陳衝憑藉在本片中出色的演繹了紅玫瑰而獲當年的金馬奬最佳女主角奬。一嚮以大膽出位聞名的她在本片中可謂是搶盡了風頭，令曾經被譽為“港産三級皇后”的波霸葉玉卿黯然失色，同樣是風情萬種，但相對而言陳衝還是更懂得演戲，而不衹是show身材。
在《紅玫瑰與白玫瑰》一片中，關錦鵬雖然表面上呈現的是張愛玲的小說，背地裏卻操縱種種電影手法，玩弄語言的遊戲與敘述的遊戲，以挑戰的姿態與張愛玲對話，改寫了張愛玲的小說，使得這個故事變成一個不一樣的故事，一個女性得以成長的故事。雖然張愛玲的小說主角幾乎都是女性，她對於女性角色的描述也特別細膩深刻，但是，她筆下的女性卻都是深深陷在中國傳統封建意識型態之中卑微可憐而平凡庸俗的小角色，張愛玲從來不賦予她小說中的女性任何自覺或成長。
在關錦鵬的處理之下，女性角色被賦予了沉默，也同時被賦予了自由。關錦鵬選擇的作法便是使敘述者不進入女性角色的意識世界，並使女性角色保留曖昧而不透明的形象。觀衆因為無法偷聽到女性角色的內在聲音，便無法完全掌握這些角色。十分詭異的是，女性角色因而更具有某種詮釋空間彈性出入的自由。
有一場景中，煙鸝手忙腳亂地用報紙替振保包銀器，讓篤保送禮。振保看煙鸝包得不成模樣，奪了過來自己包，口中還嘆了口氣說：「人笨凡事難！」小說中敘述者描寫煙鸝的反應是：煙鸝臉上掠過她的婢妾的怨憤，隨即又微笑，自己笑着，又看看篤保可笑了沒有，怕他沒聽懂她丈夫說的笑話。關錦鵬的鏡頭卻衹停留在煙鸝似笑非笑、模棱兩可的表情。這種意義曖昧不清的笑容反而是自己可以掌握局勢，不須對外人解釋的笑容。片尾振保在臥室中亂摔東西，還朝着煙鸝擲東西，書中描述煙鸝「疾忙翻身嚮外逃」，而振保「覺得她完全被打敗了」。可是，關錦鵬的電影鏡頭卻照着煙鸝臉上無法捉摸的表情，以及她下樓後緩緩彈起嬌蕊的主題麯，代表情欲流動的「玫瑰香」音樂。
《紅玫瑰與白玫瑰》-對白解析
“也許每一個男子全都有過這樣的兩個女人，至少兩個。娶了紅玫瑰，久而久之，紅的變了墻上的一抹蚊子血，白的還是“床前明月光”；娶了白玫瑰，白的便是衣服上的一粒飯粘子，紅的卻是心口上的一顆朱砂痣”。
“振保的生命裏有兩個女人，他說一個是他的‘白玫瑰’，一個是他的‘紅玫瑰’。一個是聖潔的妻，一個是熱烈的情婦”，“娶了‘白玫瑰’，白的便是衣服上沾的一粒飯粘子，紅的卻是心口上的一顆朱砂痣。”是娶“紅玫瑰”還是娶“白玫瑰”？這是個問題，所謂婚姻，就是讓觀衆目睹一朵花由絢爛走嚮凋謝的結局。
《紅玫瑰與白玫瑰》這部電影拍得非常精緻的電影，影片把三四十年代舊上海的氣氛營造得非常成功，印象最深刻的是那部老式電梯，把三十年代上海的風情表露得無遺。張愛玲是一位極為特別的女作傢，她的極具才情的佳作、她的清末貴族後裔的身世、她的充滿麯折的一生，構成了她這位曠世纔女的傳奇色彩。張愛玲的小說對人物心理的刻劃細膩之極，《紅玫瑰與白玫瑰》中營造出新興商業城市浮華背後的空洞蒼白和百無聊賴和表面溫馨和諧家庭底層卻瑣碎沉重的厭倦，透過栩栩如生的人物形象，透過雖年代相隔久遠但看似熟悉親切的故事情節，你能體味到一種人生的蒼涼，那種無奈與悲哀那種凄豔的美，這是本片給人留下的深刻印象和慨嘆。
故事是再平常不過的故事，而導演關錦鵬把人物的內心世界的描寫刻劃絲絲入扣，呈現給觀衆的是男主人公那扭麯的心態下扭麯的個性，以及相應而來的扭麯的婚姻，扭麯的人生。三十年代如風過隙，三十年代脆弱、幽靜、美豔的女人是寂寞的女人，她們的微笑落花似地紛紛飄過來。三十年代的月亮像“朵雲軒”信箋落下的一滴淚珠，陳舊而模糊……三十年代的月亮早已沉了下去，三十年代的人也已經成為過去，三十年代的故事還沒完，完不了……
《紅玫瑰與白玫瑰》-關於影片
在張愛玲的小說中，敘述者對煙鸝得了便秘癥，把自己每天關在浴室裏病態式幻想作了十分具體描述：「她低頭看着自己雪白的肚子，白皚皚的一片，時而鼓起來些，時而癟進去，肚臍的式樣也改變，有時候是甜淨無表情的希臘石像的眼睛，有時候是突出的怒目，有時候是邪教神佛的眼睛，眼裏有一種險惡的微笑，然而很可愛，眼角彎彎地，撇出魚尾紋」。但是，在電影中，煙鸝獨自在浴室內以手掌撫弄肚皮，卻並沒有敘述者為她解釋她的行為，再加上這一景與振保在公共澡堂與衆男子裸身洗澡這一段平行交叉發展，背景是「偷吻」的音樂，因此煙鸝在浴室中的行為因含意曖昧而甚至有情欲自覺萌發的暗示。振保洗澡之後以做愛發泄情欲，而煙鸝發泄欲望的方式則是一反往常沉默，滔滔不絶地和振保的同事談話，並且殷殷輓留，邀請再訪。
隨着電影中的故事發展，影片中的男性敘述者漸漸無法掌握全部的事實。雖然他仍然敘述着張愛玲的故事，但是，影像卻背叛他。電影中的敘述者說煙鸝依舊「嚮人解釋，微笑着，忠心地為他掩飾」，但是，鏡頭跳接的場景卻是煙鸝對篤保批評振保在外面鬍來，她甚至說：「這樣倒不如離了婚的好，離婚又會怎麽樣呢？……真不知道我要替他辯護到多久！」在張愛玲的小說中，煙鸝並沒有這種自覺與膽量。
關錦鵬更利用兩種不同的浴室空間凸顯了紅玫瑰與白玫瑰的差異，以及白玫瑰的成長。紅玫瑰嬌蕊的空間是燈光昏暗、霧氣彌漫，墻面的瓷磚多棱角而不規則，嘩嘩的水聲不絶於耳；而白玫瑰煙鸝的空間則是幹爽亮潔，墻面的瓷磚方整白淨，代表煙鸝冷感潔癖的手絹平整地貼在墻面。嬌蕊浴室中的蒸騰水汽呼應浮動於全片之中、不斷重複出現、代表情欲流動的水的意象：上海的雨水、街道上的水、踩在腳下反映出人臉的水、衝馬桶的水聲、男性公共澡堂的水、映在墻上晃動的水影、音軌上嘩嘩一夜的雨聲。煙鸝如白玫瑰般無個性的蒼白，與幹爽的浴室，隱射她欠缺情欲的自覺。但是，裁縫師兩度強調，衣服顔色不對沒有關係，可以再染一染色。煙鸝的個性漸漸的增加了一些色彩，正如她身上的衣服漸漸多了一些紅色的色調，而她也和女兒一起學會了「玫瑰香」的音樂。
煙鸝在女兒被送到學校住讀之後，把自己關在浴室內的一景，像是死而復生的蛻變。這一景結尾時，鏡頭焦距由煙鸝臉上移嚮背景的瓷磚墻面，觀衆驚訝地發現，原本光亮平滑的瓷磚，現在表面上裂着與嬌蕊的浴室瓷磚一樣的不規則棱角。在煙鸝冷靜地說「離了婚又怎麽樣」的時候，鏡頭從她的側影移嚮桌上的一束紅玫瑰。我們發現，從約會與婚禮中的沉默，轉而發展到提議離婚、或是在社交場合的太太圈中發揮議論，煙鸝學會了欲望，也學會了語言。煙鸝不再是如白色一樣單純而無個性的女性，卻發展出了她多棱角的個性與情欲。紅玫瑰與白玫瑰不再是以聯繫詞「與」來串連的兩個分別個體，而是以斜綫「／」拉合的一體兩面。
除了利用鏡頭替女性角色說話之外，關錦鵬更利用強調近距離的電影語言，來凸顯女性的特質。例如嬌蕊將自己裹在振保的雨衣裏，點起他抽過的煙蒂，以觸覺與嗅覺來接近振保。關錦鵬甚至以極近的距離拍攝醫院中的床戲特寫，使畫面充滿肌膚的滑膩肌理，鏡頭無法框住人體，並失去周遭事物的環繞與方位大小的參考依據，也使得觀衆無法保持偷窺的距離，而必須和嬌蕊與振保一樣顛倒在接觸的感覺之中。關錦鵬甚至強調女性所擅長的非語言的聲音，以別於男性的象徵語言文法，例如嬌蕊自在喧嘩的笑聲、音軌上反復如心中轆轤般的電梯升降聲，與代表情欲流動的「玫瑰香」的琴音。
關錦鵬利用《紅玫與白玫瑰》所展露的肌理與多重聲音大膽地挑戰與顛覆了張愛玲的文字，並以具有女性特質的書寫方式改寫香港主流電影的電影語言模式，建立了自己的語言，一種女性聲音的語言。
色，戒左右首兩個太太穿着黑呢鬥篷，翻領下露出一根沉重的金鏈條，雙行橫牽過去扣住領 口。戰時上海因為與外界隔絶，興出一些本地的時裝。淪陷區金子畸形的貴，這麽粗的金鎖 鏈價值不貲，用來代替大衣紐扣，不村不俗，又可以穿在外面招搖過市，因此成為汪政府官 太太的。也許還是受重慶的影響，覺得黑大氅最莊嚴大方。
易太太是在自己傢裏，沒穿她那件一口鐘，也仍舊“坐如鐘”，發福了，她跟佳芝是兩 年前在香港認識的。那時候夫婦倆跟着汪精衛從重慶出來，在香港耽擱了些時。跟汪精衛的 人，曾仲鳴已經在河內被暗殺了，所以在香港都深居簡出。
易太太不免要添些東西。抗戰後方與淪陷區都缺貨，到了這購物的天堂，總不能入寶山 空手回。經人介紹了這位麥太太陪她買東西，本地人內行，香港連大公司都要討價還價的， 不會講廣東話也吃虧。他們麥先生是進出口商，生意人喜歡結交官場，把易太太招待得無微 不至。易太太十分感激。珍珠港事變後香港陷落，麥先生的生意停頓了，佳芝也跑起單幫 來，貼補傢用，帶了些手錶西藥香水絲襪到上海來賣。易太太一定要留她住在他們傢。
“昨天我們到蜀腴去——麥太太沒去過。”易太太告訴黑鬥篷之一。
“哦。”
“馬太太這有好幾天沒來了吧？”另一個黑鬥篷說。
牌聲劈啪中，馬太太衹咕噥了一聲“有個親戚傢有點事”。
易太太笑道：“答應請客，賴不掉的。躲起來了。”
佳芝疑心馬太太是吃醋，因為自從她來了，一切以她為中心。
“昨天是廖太太請客，這兩天她一個人獨贏，”易太太又告訴馬太太。“碰見小李跟他 太太，叫他們坐過來，小李說他們請的客還沒到。我說廖太太請客難得的，你們好意思不賞 光？剛巧碰上小李大請客，來了一大桌子人。坐不下添椅子，還是擠不下，廖太太坐在我背 後。我說還是我叫的條子漂亮！
她說老都老了，還吃我的豆腐。我說麻婆豆腐是要老豆腐嘛！
噯喲，都笑死了！笑得麻婆白麻子都紅了。”
大傢都笑。
“是哪個說的？那回易先生過生日，不是就說麻姑獻壽哩！”馬太太說。
易太太還在嚮馬太太報道這兩天的新聞，易先生進來了，跟三個女客點頭招呼。
“你們今天上場子早。”
他站在他太太背後看牌。房間那頭整個一面墻上都挂着土黃厚呢窗簾，上面印有特大的 磚紅鳳尾草圖案，一根根橫斜着也有一人高。周佛海傢裏有，所以他們也有。西方最近興出 來的假落地大窗的窗簾，在戰時上海因為舶來品窗簾料子缺貨，這樣整大匹用上去，又還要 對花，確是豪舉。人像映在那大人國的鳳尾草上，更顯得他矮小。穿着灰色西裝，生得蒼白 清秀，前面頭髮微禿，褪出一隻奇長的花尖；鼻子長長的，有點“鼠相”，據說也是主貴 的。
“馬太太你這衹幾剋拉——三剋拉？前天那品芬又來過了，有衹五剋拉的，光頭還不及 你這衹。”易太太說。
馬太太道：“都說品芬的東西比外頭店傢好嘛！”
易太太道：“掮客送上門來，不過好在方便，又可以留着多看兩天。品芬的東西有時候 倒是外頭沒有的。上次那衹火油鑽，不肯買給我。”說着白了易先生一眼。“現在該要多少 錢了？火油鑽沒毛病的，漲到十幾兩、幾十兩金子一剋拉，品芬還說火油鑽粉紅鑽都是有價 無市。”
易先生笑道：“你那衹火油鑽十幾剋拉，又不是鴿子蛋，‘鑽石’*獱，也是石頭，戴* 謔稚嚇貧即蠆歡恕！*
牌桌上的確是戒指展覽會，佳芝想。衹有她沒有鑽戒，戴來戴去這衹翡翠的，早知不戴 了，叫人見笑——正眼都看不得她。
易太太道：“不買還要聽你這些話！”說着打出一張五筒，馬太太對面的黑鬥篷啪啦攤 下牌來，頓時一片笑嘆怨尤聲，方剪斷話鋒。
大傢算鬍子，易先生乘亂裏嚮佳芝把下頦朝門口略偏了偏。
她立即瞥了兩個黑鬥篷一眼，還好，不像有人註意到。她賠出籌碼，拿起茶杯來喝了一 口，忽道：“該死我這記性！約了三點鐘談生意，會忘得幹幹淨淨。怎麽辦，易先生先替我 打兩圈，馬上回來。”
易太太叫將起來道：“不行！哪有這樣的？早又不說，不作興的。”
“我還正想着手風轉了。”剛鬍了一牌的黑鬥篷着說。
“除非找廖太太來。去打個電話給廖太太。”易太太又嚮佳芝道：“等來了再走。”
“易先生替我打着。”佳芝看了看手錶。“已經晚了，約了個掮客吃咖啡。”
“我今天有點事，過天陪你們打通宵。”易先生說。
“這王佳芝最壞了！”易太太喜歡連名帶姓叫她王佳芝，像同學的稱呼。“這回非要罰 你。請客請客！”
“哪有行客請坐客的？”馬太太說。“麥太太到上海來是客。”
“易太太都說了。要你護着！”另一個黑鬥篷說。
她們取笑湊趣也要留神，雖然易太太的年紀做她母親綽綽有餘，她們從來不說認幹女兒 的話。在易太太這年紀，正有點搖擺不定，又要像老太太們喜歡有年青漂亮的女性簇擁的， 衆星捧月一般，又要吃醋。
“好好，今天晚上請客，”佳芝說。“易先生替我打着，不然晚上請客沒有你。”
“易先生幫幫忙，幫幫忙！三缺一傷陰騭的。先打着，馬太太這就去打電話找搭子。”
“我是真有點事，”說起正事，他馬上聲音一低，衹咕噥了一聲。“待會還有人來。”
“我就知道易先生不會有工夫，”馬太太說。
是馬太太話裏有話，還是她神經過敏？佳芝心裏想。看他笑嘻嘻的神氣，也甚至於馬太 太這話還帶點討好的意味，知道他想人知道，恨不得要人傢取笑他兩句。也難說，再深沉的 人，有時候也會得意忘形起來。
這太危險了。今天再不成功，再拖下去要給易太太知道了。
她還在跟易太太討價還價，他已經走開了。她費盡唇舌纔得脫身，回到自己臥室裏，也 沒換衣服，匆匆收拾了一下，女傭已經來回說車在門口等着。她乘易傢的汽車出去，吩咐司 機開到一傢咖啡館，下了車便打發他回去。
時間還早，咖啡館沒什麽人，點着一對對杏子紅百折綢罩壁燈，地方很大，都是小圓桌 子，暗花細白麻布桌布，保守性的餐廳模樣。她到櫃臺上去打電話，鈴聲響了四次就挂斷了 再打，怕櫃臺上的人覺得奇怪，喃喃說了聲：“可會撥錯了號碼？”
是約定的暗號。這次有人接聽。
“喂？”
還好，是鄺裕民的聲音。就連這時候她也還有點怕是梁閏生，儘管他很識相，總讓別人 上前。
“喂，二哥，”她用廣東話說。“這兩天傢裏都好？”
“好，都好。你呢。”
“我今天去買東西，不過時間沒一定。”
“好，沒關係。反正我們等你。你現在在哪裏？”
“在霞飛路。”
“好，那麽就是這樣了。”
片刻的沉默。
“那沒什麽了？”她的手冰冷，對鄉音感到一絲溫暖與依戀。
“沒什麽了。”
“馬上就去也說不定。”
“來得及，沒問題。好，待會見。”
她挂斷了，出來叫三輪車。
今天要是不成功，可真不能再在易傢住下去了，這些太太們在旁邊虎視眈眈的。也許應 當一搭上他就找個什麽藉口搬出來，他可以撥個公寓給她住，上兩次就是在公寓見面，兩次 地方不同，都是英美人的房子，主人進了集中營。但是那反而更難下手了——知道他什麽時 候來？要來也是忽然從天而降，不然預先約定也會臨時有事，來不成。打電話給他又難，他 太太看得緊，幾個辦公處大概都安插得有耳目。便沒有，衹要有人知道就會壞事，打小報告 討好他太太的人太多。
不去找他，他甚至於可以一次都不來，據說這樣的事也有過，公寓就算是臨別贈品。他 是實在太多，顧不過來，一個眼不見，就會丟在腦後。還非得釘着他，簡直需要提溜着 兩衹在他跟前晃。
“兩年前也還沒有這樣哩，”他擁着吻着她的時候輕聲說。
他頭偎在她胸前，沒看見她臉上一紅。
就連現在想起來，也還像給針紮了一下，馬上看見那些人可憎的眼光打量着她，帶着點 會心的微笑，連鄺裕民在內。
衹有梁閏生佯佯不睬，裝作沒註意她這兩年胸部越來越高。演過不止一回的一小場戲， 一出現在眼前立刻被她趕走了。
到公共租界很有一截子路。三輪車踏到靜安寺路西摩路口，她叫在路角一傢小咖啡館前 停下。萬一他的車先到，看看路邊，衹有再過去點停着個木炭汽車。
這傢大概主要靠門市外賣，衹裝着寥寥幾個卡位，雖然陰暗，情調毫無。靠裏有個冷氣 玻璃櫃臺裝着各色西點，後面一個狹小的甬道燈點得雪亮，照出裏面的墻壁下半截漆成咖啡 色，亮晶晶的凸凹不平；一隻小冰箱旁邊挂着白號衣，上面近房頂成排挂着西崽脫換下來的 綫呢長夾袍，估衣鋪一般。
她聽他說，這是天津起士林的一號西崽出來開的。想必他揀中這一傢就是為了不會碰見 熟人，又門臨交通要道，真是碰見人也沒關係，不比偏僻的地段使人疑心，像是有瞞人的 事。
面前一杯咖啡已經冰涼了，車子還沒來。上次接了她去，又還在公寓裏等了快一個鐘頭 他纔到。說中國人不守時刻，到了官場纔登峰造極了。再照這樣等下去，去買東西店都要打 烊了。
是他自己說的：“我們今天值得紀念。這要買個戒指，你自己揀。今天晚了，不然我陪 你去。”那是第一次在外面見面。
第二次時間更逼促，就沒提起。當然不會就此算了，但是如果今天沒想起來，倒要她去 繞着彎子提醒他，豈不太失身份，煞風景？換了另一個男人，當然是這情形。他這樣的老姦 巨滑，决不會認為她這麽個少奶奶會看上一個四五十歲的矮子。
不是為錢反而可疑。而且首飾嚮來是女太太們的一個弱點。她不是出來跑單幫嗎，順便 撈點外快也在情理之中。他自己是搞特工的，不起疑也都狡兔三窟，務必叫人捉摸不定。她 需要取信於他，因為迄今是在他指定的地點會面，現在要他同去她指定的地方。
上次車子來接她，倒是準時到的。今天等這麽久，想必是他自己來接。倒也好，不然在 公寓裏見面，一到了那裏，再出來就又難了。除非本來預備在那裏吃晚飯，鬧到半夜纔走— —但是就連第一次也沒在那裏吃飯。自然要多耽擱一會，出去了就不回來了。怕店打烊，要 急死人了，又不能催他快着點，像妓女一樣。
她取出粉鏡子來照了照，補了點粉。遲到也不一定是他自己來。還不是新鮮勁一過，不 拿她當樁事了。今天不成功，以後也許不會再有機會了。
她又看了看表。一種失敗的預感，像絲襪上一道裂痕、陰涼地在腿肚子上悄悄往上爬。
斜對面卡位上有個中裝男子很註意她。也是一個人，在那裏看報。比她來得早，不會是 跟蹤她。估量不出她是什麽路道？戴的首飾是不是真的？不大像舞女，要是演電影話劇的， 又不面熟。
她倒是演過戲，現在也還是在臺上賣命，不過沒人知道，出不了名。
在學校裏演的也都是慷慨激昂的愛國歷史劇。廣州淪陷前，嶺大搬到香港，也還公演過 一次，上座居然還不壞。下了臺她興奮得鬆弛不下來，大傢吃了宵夜纔散，她還不肯回去， 與兩個女同學乘雙層電車遊車河。樓上乘客稀少，車身搖搖晃晃在寬闊的街心走，窗外黑暗 中霓虹燈的廣告，像酒後的涼風一樣醉人。
藉港大的教室上課，上課下課擠得黑壓壓的挨挨蹭蹭，半天才通過，十分不便，不免有 寄人籬下之感。香港一般人對國事漠不關心的態度也使人憤慨。雖然同學多數傢在省城，非 常近便，也有學生的心情。有這麽幾個最談得來的就形成了一個小集團。汪精衛一行人 到了香港，汪夫婦倆與陳公博等都是廣東人，有個副官與鄺裕民是小同鄉。鄺裕民去找他， 一拉交情，打聽到不少消息。回來大傢七嘴八舌，定下一條美人計，由一個女生去接近易太 太——不能說是學生，大都是學生最激烈，他們有戒心。生意人傢的少奶奶還差不多，尤其 在香港，沒有國傢思想。這角色當然由學校劇團的當傢花旦擔任。
幾個人裏面衹有黃磊傢裏有錢，所以是他奔走籌款，租房子，藉車子，藉行頭。衹有他 會開車，因此由他充當司機。
歐陽靈文做麥先生。鄺裕民算是表弟，陪着表嫂，第一次由那副官帶他們去接易太太出 來買東西。鄺裕民就沒下車，車子先送他與副官各自回傢——副官坐在前座——再開她們倆 到中環。
易先生她見過幾次，都不過點頭招呼。這天第一次坐下來一桌打牌，她知道他不是不註 意她，不過不敢冒昧。她自從十二三歲就有人追求，她有數。雖然他這時期十分小心謹慎， 也實在別狠了，蟄居無聊，心事重，又無法排遣，連酒都不敢喝，防汪公館隨時要找他有 事。共事的兩對夫婦合賃了一幢舊樓，至多關起門來打打小麻將。
牌桌上提起易太太替他買的好幾套西裝料子，預備先做兩套。佳芝介紹一傢服裝店，是 他們的熟裁縫。“不過現在是旺季，忙着做遊客生意，能夠一拖幾個月，這樣好了，易先生 幾時有空，易太太打個電話給我，我去帶他來。老主顧了，他不好意思不趕一趕。”臨走丟 下她的電話號碼，易先生乘他太太送她出去，一定會抄了去，過兩天找個藉口打電話來探探 口氣，在辦公時間內，麥先生不在傢的時候。
那天晚上微雨，黃磊開車接她回來，一同上樓，大傢都在等信。一次空前成功的演出， 下了臺還沒下裝，自己都覺得顧盼間光豔照人。她捨不得他們走，恨不得再到那裏去。已經 下半夜了，鄺裕民他們又不跳舞，找那種通宵營業的小館子去吃及第粥也好，在毛毛雨裏老 遠一路走回來，瘋到天亮。
但是大傢計議過一陣之後，都沉默下來了，偶爾有一兩個人悄聲嘰咕兩句，有時候噗嗤 一笑。
那嗤笑聲有點耳熟。這不是一天的事了，她知道他們早就背後討論過。
“聽他們說，這些人裏好像衹有梁閏生一個人有性經驗，”
賴秀金告訴她。除她之外衹有賴秀金一個女生。
偏偏是梁閏生！
當然是他。衹有他嫖過。
既然有犧牲的决心，就不能說不甘心便宜了他。
今天晚上，浴在舞臺照明的餘輝裏，連梁閏生都不十分討厭了。大傢仿佛看出來，一個 個都溜了，就剩下梁閏生。於是戲繼續演下去。
也不止這一夜。但是接連幾天易先生都沒打電話來。她打電話給易太太，易太太沒精打 彩的，說這兩天忙，不去買東西，過天再打電話來找她。
是疑心了？發現老易有她的電話號碼？還是得到了壞消息，日本方面的？折磨了她兩星 期之後，易太太歡天喜地打電話來辭行，十分抱歉走得匆忙，來不及見面了，兼邀她夫婦倆 到上海來玩，多住些時暢敘一下，還要帶他們到南京去遊覽。想必總是回南京組織政府的計 劃一度擱淺，所以前一嚮銷聲匿跡起來。
黃磊拖了一屁股的債。傢裏聽見說他在香港跟一個舞女賃屋同居了，又斷絶了他的接 濟，狼狽萬分。
她與梁閏生之間早就已經很僵。大傢都知道她是懊悔了，也都躲着她，在一起商量的時 候都不正眼看她。
“我傻。反正就是我傻，”她對自己說。
也甚至於這次大傢起哄捧她出馬的時候，就已經有人別具用心了。
她不但對梁閏生要避嫌疑，跟他們這一夥人都疏遠了，總覺得他們用好奇的異樣的眼光 看她。珍珠港事變後，海路一通，都轉學到上海去了。同是淪陷區，上海還有書可念。她沒 跟他們一塊走，在上海也沒有來往。
有很久她都不確定有沒有染上什麽髒病。
在上海，倒給他們跟一個地下工作者搭上了綫。一個姓吳的——想必也不是真姓吳—— 一聽他們有這樣寶貴的一條路子，當然極力鼓勵他們進行。他們衹好又來找她，她也義不容 辭。
事實是，每次跟老易在一起都像洗了個熱水澡，把積鬱都衝掉了，因為一切都有了個目 的。
這咖啡館門口想必有人望風，看見他在汽車裏，就會去通知一切提前。剛纔來的時候倒 沒看見有人在附近逗留。橫街對面的平安戲院最理想了，廊柱下的陰影中有掩蔽，戲院門口 等人又名正言順，不過門前的場地太空曠，距離太遠，看不清楚汽車裏的人。
有個送貨的單車，停在隔壁外國人開的皮貨店門口，仿佛車壞了，在檢視修理。剃小平 頭，約有三十來歲，低着頭，看不清楚，但顯然不是熟人。她覺得不會是接應的車子。有些 話他們不告訴她她也不問，但是聽上去還是他們原班人馬。——有那個吳幫忙，也說不定搞 得到汽車。那輛出差汽車要是還停在那裏，也許就是接應的，司機那就是黃磊了。她剛纔來 的時候車子背對着她，看不見司機。
吳大概還是不大信任他們，怕他們太嫩，會出亂子帶纍人。他不見得一個人單槍匹馬在 上海，但是始終就是他一個人跟鄺裕絡。
許了吸收他們進組織。大概這次算是個考驗。
“他們都是差不多槍口貼在人身上開槍的，哪像電影裏隔得老遠瞄準。”鄺裕民有一次 笑着告訴她。
大概也是叫她安心的話，不會亂槍之下殃及池魚，不打死也成了殘廢，還不如死了。
這時候到臨頭，又是一種滋味。
上場慌，一上去就好了。
等最難熬。男人還可以抽煙。虛飄飄空撈撈的，簡直不知道身在何所。她打開手提袋， 取出一瓶香水，玻璃瓶塞連着一根小玻璃棍子，蘸了香水在耳垂背後一抹。微涼有棱，一片 空茫中衹有這點接觸。再抹那邊耳朵底下，半晌纔聞見短短一縷梔子花香。
脫下大衣，肘彎裏面也搽了香水，還沒來得及再穿上，隔着櫥窗裏的白色三層結婚蛋糕 木製模型，已見一輛汽車開過來，一望而知是他的車，背後沒馱着那不雅觀的燒木炭的板 箱。
她撿起大衣手提袋，輓在臂上走出去。司機已經下車代開車門。易先生坐在靠裏那邊。
“來晚了，來晚了！”他哈着腰喃喃說着，作為道歉。
她衹看了他一眼。上了車，司機回到前座，他告訴他“福開森路”。那是他們上次去的 公寓。
“先到這兒有爿店，”她低聲嚮他說，“我耳環上掉了顆小鑽，要拿去修。就在這兒， 不然剛纔走走過去就是了，又怕你來了找不到人，坐那兒傻等，等這半天。”
他笑道：“對不起對不起，今天真來晚了——已經出來了，又來了兩個人，又不能不 見。”說着便探身嚮司機道：“先回到剛纔那兒。”早開過了一條街。
她噘着嘴喃喃說道：“見一面這麽麻煩，住你們那兒又一句話都不能說——我回香港去 了，托你買張好點的船票總行？”
“要回去了？想小麥了？”
“什麽小麥大麥，還要提這個人——氣都氣死了！”
她說過她是報復丈夫玩舞女。
一坐定下來，他就抱着胳膊，一隻肘彎正抵在她最肥滿的南半球外緣。這是他的慣 技，表面上端坐，暗中卻在蝕骨銷魂，一陣陣麻上來。
她一扭身伏在車窗上往外看，免得又開過了。車到下一個十字路口方纔大轉彎折回。又 一個Ｕ形大轉彎，從義利餅幹行過街到平安戲院，全市唯一的一個清潔的二輪電影院，灰紅 暗黃二色磚砌的門面，有一種針織粗呢的溫暖感，整個建築圓圓的朝裏凹，成為一鈎新月切 過路角，門前十分寬敞。對面就是剛纔那傢凱司令咖啡館，然後西伯利亞皮貨店，緑屋夫人 時裝店，並排兩傢四個大櫥窗，華貴的木製模特兒在霓虹燈後擺出各種姿態。隔壁一傢小店 一比更不起眼，櫥窗裏空無一物，招牌上雖有英文“珠寶商”字樣，也看不出是珠寶店。
他轉告司機停下，下了車跟在她後面進去。她穿着高跟鞋比他高半個頭。不然也就不穿 這麽高的跟了，他顯然並不介意。她發現大個子往往喜歡嬌小玲瓏的女人，倒是矮小的男人 喜歡女人高些，也許是一種補償的心理。知道他在看，更軟洋洋地凹着腰。腰細，婉若遊竜 遊進玻璃門。
一個穿西裝的印度店員上前招呼。店堂雖小，倒也高爽敞亮，衹是雪洞似的光塌塌一無 所有，靠裏設着唯一的短短一隻玻璃櫃臺，陳列着一些“誕辰石”——按照生日月份，戴了 運氣好的，黃石英之類的“半寶石”，紅藍寶石都是寶石粉製的。
她在手提袋裏取出一隻梨形紅寶石耳墜子，上面碎鑽拼成的葉子丟了一粒鑽。
“可以配，”那印度人看了說。
她問了多少錢，幾時有，易先生便道：“問他有沒有好點的戒指。”他是留日的，英文 不肯說，總是端着官架子等人翻譯。
她頓了頓方道：“幹什麽？”
他笑道：“我們不是要買個戒指做紀念嗎？就是鑽戒好不好？要好點的。”
她又頓了頓，拿他無可奈何似地笑了。“有沒有鑽戒？”
她輕聲問。
那印度人一揚臉，朝上發聲喊，嘰哩哇啦想是印度話，倒嚇了他們一跳，隨即引路上 樓。
隔斷店堂後身的板壁漆奶油色，靠邊有個門，門口就是黑洞洞的小樓梯。辦公室在兩層 樓之間的一個閣樓上，是個淺淺的陽臺，俯瞰店堂，便於監督。一進門左首墻上挂着長短不 齊兩衹鏡子，鏡面畫着五彩花鳥，金字題款：“鵬程萬裏巴達先生開業志喜陳茂坤敬賀”， 都是人送的。還有一隻
橫額式大鏡，上畫彩鳳牡丹。閣樓屋頂坡斜，板壁上沒處挂，倚在墻根。
前面沿着烏木欄桿放着張書桌，桌上有電話，點着臺燈。
旁邊有衹茶几擱打字機，罩着舊漆布套子。一個矮胖的印度人從圈椅上站起來招呼，代 挪椅子；一張蒼黑的大臉，獅子鼻。
“你們要看鑽戒。坐下，坐下。”他慢吞吞腆着肚子走嚮屋隅，俯身去開一隻古舊的緑 毯面小矮保險箱。
這哪像個珠寶店的氣派？易先生面不改色，佳芝倒真有點不好意思。聽說現在有些店不 過是個幌子，就靠囤積或是做黑市金鈔。吳選中這爿店總是為了地段，離凱司令又近。剛纔 上樓的時候她倒是想着，下去的時候真是甕中捉鱉——他又紳士派，在樓梯上走在她前面， 一踏進店堂，旁邊就是櫃臺。櫃臺前的兩個顧客正好攔住去路。不過兩個男人選購廉價寶石 袖扣領針，與送女朋友的小禮物，不能斟酌過久，不像女人蘑菇。要扣準時間，不能進來得 太早，也不能在外面徘徊——他的司機坐在車子裏，會起疑。要一進來就進來，頂多在皮貨 店看看櫥窗，在車子背後好兩丈處，隔了一傢門面。
她坐在書桌邊，忍不住回過頭去望了望樓下，衹看得見櫥窗，玻璃~*架都空着，窗明幾 淨，連霓虹光管都沒裝，窗外人行道邊停着汽車，看得見車身下緣。
兩個男人一塊來買東西，也許有點觸目，不但可能引起司機的註意，甚至於他在閣樓上 看見了也犯疑心，俄延着不下來。略一僵持就不對了。想必他們不會進來，還是在門口攔 截。那就更難扣準時間了，又不能跑過來，跑步聲馬上會喚起司機的註意。——衹帶一個司 機，可能兼任保鏢。
也許兩個人分佈兩邊，一個帶着賴秀金在貼隔壁緑屋夫人門前看櫥窗。女孩子看中了買 不起的時裝，那是隨便站多久都行。男朋友等得不耐煩，盡可以背對着櫥窗東張西望。
這些她也都模糊地想到過，明知不關她事，不要她管。這時候因為不知道下一步怎樣， 在這小樓上難免覺得是高坐在火藥桶上，馬上就要給炸飛了，兩條腿都有點虛軟。
那店員已經下去了。
東傢夥計一黑一白，不像父子。白臉的一臉兜腮青鬍子楂，厚眼瞼睡沉沉半合着，個子 也不高，卻十分壯碩，看來是個兩用的店夥兼警衛。櫃臺位置這麽後，櫥窗又空空如也，想 必是白天也怕搶——晚上有鐵條拉門。那也還有點值錢的東西？就怕不過是黃金美鈔銀洋。
卻見那店主取出一隻尺來長的黑絲絨板，一端略小些，上面一個個縫眼嵌滿鑽戒。她伏 在桌上看，易先生在她旁邊也湊近了些來看。
那店主見他二人毫無反應，也沒摘下一隻來看看，便又送回保險箱道：“我還有這 衹。”這衹裝在深藍絲絨小盒子裏，是粉紅鑽石，有豌豆大。
不是說粉紅鑽也是有價無市？她怔了怔，不禁如釋重負。
看不出這爿店，總算替她爭回了面子，不然把他帶到這麽個破地方來——敲竹杠又不在 行，小廣東到上海，成了“大鄉裏”。其實馬上槍聲一響，眼前這一切都粉碎了，還有什麽 面子不面子？明知如此，心裏不信，因為全神在抗拒着，第一是不敢朝這上面去想，深恐神 色有異，被他看出來。
她拿起那衹戒指，他衹就她手中看了看，輕聲笑道：“噯，這衹好像好點。”
她腦後有點寒颼颼的，樓下兩邊櫥窗，中嵌玻璃門，一片晶澈，在她背後展開，就像有 兩層樓高的落地大窗，隨時都可以爆破。一方面這小店睡沉沉的，衹隱隱聽見市聲——戰時 街上不大有汽車，難得撳聲喇叭。那沉酣的空氣溫暖的重壓，像棉被搗在臉上。有半個她在 熟睡，身在夢中，知道馬上就要出事了，又恍惚知道不過是個夢。
她把戒指就着臺燈的光翻來復去細看。在這幽暗的陽臺上，背後明亮的櫥窗與玻璃門是 銀幕，在放映一張黑白動作片，她不忍看一個流血場面，或是間諜受刑訊，更觸目驚心，她 小時候也就怕看，會在樓座前排掉過身來背對着樓下。
“六剋拉。戴上試試。”那店主說。
他這安逸的小鷹巢值得留戀。墻根斜倚着的大鏡子照着她的腳，踏在牡丹花叢中。是天 方夜譚裏的市場，纔會無意中發現奇珍異寶。她把那粉紅鑽戒戴在手上側過來側過去地看， 與她玫瑰紅的指甲油一比，其實不過微紅，也不太大，但是光頭極足，亮閃閃的，異星一 樣，紅得有種神秘感。可惜不過是舞臺上的小道具，而且衹用這麽一會工夫，使人感到惆 悵。
“這衹怎麽樣？”易先生又說。
“你看呢？”
“我外行。你喜歡就是了。”
“六剋拉。不知道有沒有毛病，我是看不出來。”
他們衹管自己細聲談笑。她是內地學校出身，雖然廣州開商埠最早，並不像香港的書院 註重英文。她不得不說英語的時候總是聲音極低。這印度老闆見言語不大通，把生意經都免 了。三言兩語講妥價錢，十一根大條子，明天送來，份量不足照補，多了找還。
衹有一千零一夜裏纔有這樣的事。用金子，也是天方夜譚裏的事。
太快了她又有點擔心。他們大概想不到出來得這麽快。她從舞臺經驗上知道，就是臺詞 占的時間最多。
“要他開個單子吧？”她說。想必明天總是預備派人來，送條子領貨。
店主已經在開單據。戒指也脫下來還了他。
不免感到成交後的輕鬆，兩人並坐着，都往後靠了靠。這一剎那間仿佛衹有他們倆在一 起。
她輕聲笑道：“現在都是條子。連定錢都不要。”
“還好不要，我出來從來不帶錢。”
她跟他們混了這些時，也知道總是副官付帳，特權階級從來不自己口袋裏掏錢的。今天 出來當然沒帶副官，為了保密。
英文有這話：“權勢是一種春藥。”對不對她不知道。她是最完全被動的。
又有這句諺語：“到男人心裏去的路通過胃。”是說男人好吃，碰上會做菜款待他們的 女人，容易上鈎。於是就有人說：“到女人心裏的路通過。”據說是初年精通英文 的那位名學者說的，名字她叫不出，就曉得他替中國人多妻辯護的那句名言：“衹有一隻茶 壺幾衹茶杯，哪有一隻茶壺一隻茶杯的？”
至於什麽女人的心，她就不信名學者說得出那樣下作的話。她也不相信那話。除非是說 老了倒貼的風塵女人，或是風流寡婦。像她自己，不是本來討厭梁閏生，衹有更討厭他？
當然那也許不同。梁閏生一直討人嫌慣了，沒自信心，而且一嚮見了她自慚形穢，有點 怕她。
那，難道她有點愛上了老易？她不信，但是也無法斬釘截鐵地說不是，因為沒戀愛過， 不知道怎麽樣就算是愛上了。
從十五六歲起她就衹顧忙着抵擋各方面來的攻勢，這樣的女孩子不大容易墜入愛河，抵 抗力太強了。有一陣子她以為她可能會喜歡鄺裕民，結果後來恨他，恨他跟那些別人一樣。
跟老易在一起那兩次總是那麽提心吊膽，要處處留神，哪還去問自己覺得怎樣。回到他 傢裏，又是風聲鶴唳，一夕數驚。他們睡得晚，好容易回到自己房間裏，就衹夠忙着吃顆安 眠藥，好好地睡一覺了。鄺裕民給了她一小瓶，叫她最好不要吃，萬一上午有什麽事發生， 需要腦子清醒點。但是不吃就睡不着，她是從來不鬧失眠癥的人。
衹有現在，緊張得拉長到永恆的這一剎那間，這室內小陽臺上一燈熒然，映襯着樓下門 窗上一片白色的天光。有這印度人在旁邊，衹有更覺得是他們倆在燈下單獨相對，又密切又 拘束，還從來沒有過。但是就連此刻她也再也不會想到她愛不愛他，而是——
他不在看她，臉上的微笑有點悲哀。本來以為想不到中年以後還有這樣的奇遇。當然也 是權勢的魔力。那倒還猶可，他的權力與他本人多少是分不開的。對女人，禮也是非送不可 的，不過送早了就像是看不起她。明知是這麽回事，不讓他自我陶醉一下，不免憮然。
陪歡場女子買東西，他是老手了，衹一旁隨侍，總使人不註意他。此刻的微笑也絲毫不 帶諷刺性，不過有點悲哀。他的側影迎着臺燈，目光下視，睫毛像米色的蛾翅，歇落在瘦瘦 的面頰上，在她看來是一種溫柔憐惜的神氣。
這個人是真愛我的，她突然想，心下轟然一聲，若有所失。
太晚了。
店主把單據遞給他，他往身上一揣。
“快走，”她低聲說。
他臉上一呆，但是立刻明白了，跳起來奪門而出，門口雖然沒人，需要一把抓住門框， 因為一踏出去馬上要抓住樓梯扶手，樓梯既窄又黑赳赳的。她聽見他連蹭帶跑，三腳兩步下 去，梯級上不規則的咕咚嘁嚓聲。
太晚了。她知道太晚了。
店主怔住了。他也知道他們形跡可疑，衹好坐着不動，衹別過身去看樓下。漆布磚上噠 噠噠一陣皮鞋聲，他已經衝入視綫內，一推門，炮彈似地直射出去。店員緊跟在後面出現， 她正擔心這保鏢身坯的印度人會拉拉扯扯，問是怎麽回事，耽擱幾秒鐘也會誤事，但是大概 看在那官方汽車份上，並沒攔阻，衹站在門口觀望，剪影虎背熊腰堵住了門。衹聽見汽車吱 的一聲尖叫，仿佛直聳起來，砰！關上車門——還是槍擊？——橫衝直撞開走了。
放槍似乎不會衹放一槍。
她定了定神。沒聽見槍聲。
一鬆了口氣，她渾身疲軟像生了場大病一樣，支撐着拿起大衣手提袋站起來，點點頭笑 道：“明天。”又低聲喃喃說道：“他忘了有點事，趕時間，先走了。”
店主倒已經扣上獨目顯微鏡，旋準了度數，看過這衹戒指沒掉包，方纔微笑起身相送。
也不怪他疑心。剛纔講價錢的時候太爽快了也是一個原因。她匆匆下樓，那店員見她也 下來了，頓了頓沒說什麽。她在門口卻聽見裏面樓上樓下喊話。
門口剛巧沒有三輪車。她嚮西摩路那頭走去。執行的人與接應的一定都跑了，見他這樣 一個人倉皇跑出來上車逃走，當然知道事情敗露了。她仍舊惴惴，萬一有後門把風的不接 頭，還在這附近。其實撞見了又怎樣？疑心她就不會走上前來質問她。就是疑心，也不會不 問青紅皂白就把她執行了。
她有點詫異天還沒黑，仿佛在裏面不知待了多少時候。人行道上熙來攘往，馬路上一輛 輛三輪馳過，就是沒有空車。車如流水，與路上行人都跟她隔着層玻璃，就像櫥窗裏展覽皮 大衣與蝙蝠袖爛銀衣裙的木美人一樣可望而不可及，也跟他們一樣閑適自如，衹有她一個人 心慌意亂關在外面。
小心不要背後來輛木炭汽車，一剎車開了車門，伸出手來把她拖上車去。
平安戲院前面的場地空蕩蕩的，不是散場時間，也沒有三輪車聚集。她正躊躇間，腳步 慢了下來，一回頭卻見對街冉冉來了一輛，老遠的就看見把手上拴着一隻紙紮紅緑白三色小 風車。車夫是個高個子年青人，在這當日簡直是個白馬騎士，見她揮手叫，踏快了大轉彎過 街，一加速，那小風車便團團飛轉起來。
“愚園路，”她上了車說。
幸虧這次在上海跟他們這夥人見面次數少，沒跟他們提起有個親戚住在愚園路。可以去 住幾天，看看風色再說。
三輪車還沒到靜安寺，她聽見吹哨子。
“封鎖了。”車夫說。
一個穿短打的中年人一手牽着根長繩子過街，嘴裏還銜着哨子。對街一個穿短打的握着 繩子另一頭，拉直來攔斷了街。有人在沒精打采的搖鈴。馬路闊，薄薄的洋鐵皮似的鈴聲在 半空中載沉載浮，不傳過來，聽上去很遠。
三輪車夫不服氣，直踏到封鎖綫上纔停止了，焦躁地把小風車擰了一下，擰得它又轉動 起來，回過頭來嚮她笑笑。
牌桌上現在有三個黑鬥篷對坐。新來的一個廖太太鼻梁上有幾點俏白麻子。
馬太太笑道：“易先生回來了。”
“看這王佳芝，拆濫污，還說請客，這時候還不回來！”
易太太說：“等她請客好了！——等到這時候沒吃飯，肚子都要餓穿了！”
廖太太笑道：“易先生你太太手氣好，說好了明天請客。”
馬太太笑道：“易先生你太太不像你說話不算話，上次贏了不是答應請客，到現在還是 空頭支票，好意思的？想吃你一頓真不容易。”
“易先生是該請請我們了，我們請你是請不到的。”另一個黑鬥篷說。
他衹是微笑。女傭倒了茶來，他在茶杯碟子裏磕了磕煙灰，看了墻上的厚呢窗簾一眼。 把整個墻都蓋住了，可以躲多少刺客？他還有點心驚肉跳的。
明天記着叫他們把簾子拆了。不過他太太一定不肯，這麽貴的東西，怎麽肯白擱着不 用？
都是她不好——這次的事不都怪她交友不慎？想想實在不能不感到驚異，這美人局兩年 前在香港已經發動了，佈置得這樣周密，卻被美人臨時變計放走了他。她還是真愛他的，是 他生平第一個紅粉知己。想不到中年以後還有這番遇合。
不然他可以把她留在身邊。“特務不分傢”，不是有這句話？況且她不過是個學生。他 們那夥人裏衹有一個重慶特務，給他逃走了，是此役唯一的缺憾。大概是在平安戲院看了一 半戲出來，行刺失風後再回戲院，封鎖的時候查起來有票根，混過了關。跟他一塊等着下手 的一個小子看見他掏香煙掏出票根來，仍舊收好。預先講好了，接應的車子不要管他，想必 總是一個人溜回電影院了。那些渾小子經不起訊問，吃了點苦頭全都說了。
易先生站在他太太背後看牌，撳滅了香煙，抿了口茶，還太燙。早點睡——太纍了一時 鬆弛不下來，睡意毫無。今天真是纍着了，一直坐在電話旁邊等信，連晚飯都沒好好地吃。
他一脫險馬上一個電話打去，把那一帶都封鎖起來，一網打盡，不到晚上十點鐘統統槍 斃了。
她臨終一定恨他。不過“無毒不丈夫”。不是這樣的男子漢，她也不會愛他。
當然他也是不得已。日軍憲兵隊還在其次，周佛海自己也搞特工，視內政部為駢枝機 關，正對他十分註目。一旦發現易公館的上賓竟是刺客的眼綫，成什麽話，情報工作的首 腦，這麽糊塗還行？
現在不怕周找碴子了。如果說他殺之滅口，他也理直氣壯：不過是些學生，不像特務還 可以留着慢慢地逼供，榨取情報。拖下去，外間知道的人多了，講起來又是愛國的大學生暗 殺漢姦，影響不好。
他對戰局並不樂觀。知道他將來怎樣？得一知己，死而無憾。他覺得她的影子會永遠依 傍他，安慰他。雖然她恨他，她最後對他的感情強烈到是什麽感情都不相幹了，衹是有感 情。他們是原始的獵人與獵物的關係，虎與倀的關係，最終極的占有。她這纔生是他的人， 死是他的鬼。
“易先生請客請客！”三個黑鬥篷越鬧越兇，嚷成一片。
“那回明明答應的！”
易太太笑道：“馬太太不也答應請客，幾天沒來就不提了。”
馬太太笑道：“太太來救駕了！易先生，太太心疼你。”
“易先生到底請是不請？”
馬太太望着他一笑。“易先生是該請客了。”她知道他曉得她是指納寵請酒。今天兩人 雙雙失蹤，女的三更半夜還沒回來。他回來了又有點精神恍惚的樣子，臉上又憋不住的喜氣 洋洋，帶三分春色。看來還是第一次上手。
他提醒自己，要記得告訴他太太說話小心點：她那個“麥太太”是傢裏有急事，趕回香 港去了。都是她引狼入室，住進來不久他就有情報，認為可疑，派人跟蹤，發現一個重慶間 諜網，正在調查，又得到消息說憲兵隊也風聞，因此不得不提前行動，不然不但被別人冒了 功去，查出是走他太太的路子，也於他有礙。好好地嚇唬嚇唬她，免得以後聽見馬太太搬 嘴，又要跟他鬧。
“易先生請客請客！太太代表不算。”
“太太歸太太的，說好了明天請。”
“曉得易先生是忙人，你說哪天有空吧，過了明天哪天都好。”
“請客請各！請吃來喜飯店。”
“來喜飯店就是吃個拼盆。”
“噯，德國菜有什麽好吃的？就是個冷盆。還是湖南菜，換換口味。”
“還是蜀腴——昨天馬太太沒去。”
“我說還是九如，好久沒去了。”
“那天楊太太請客不是九如？”
“那天沒有廖太太，廖太太是湖南人，我們不會點菜。”
“吃來吃去四川菜湖南菜，都辣死了！”
“告訴他不吃辣的好了。”
“不吃辣的怎麽鬍得出辣子？”
喧笑聲中，他悄然走了出去。
（一九五○年）
法國作傢左拉（Emile Zola）的代表作《娜娜》是他的鴻篇巨著《盧貢－馬卡爾傢族》中一部頗有文學價值和藝術價值的長篇小說。《娜娜》發表後在法國引起了轟動，小說初版的第一天，其銷售量達五萬五千多册，開創了法國出版界從未有的盛況。小說曾被改編為電視、電影在法國多次播映。1981年4月5日，法國《世界報》曾發表評論，認為左拉在《娜娜》中“非常真實地描寫的19世紀那個巨變的時代，到今天還沒有過時，他描繪的那些人物所遇到的一些問題，也正是我們今天所遇到的。”
內容簡介：
娜娜小時候十分調皮，專門作弄教師和同學，喜歡窺探大人的所作所為，十五歲被一個富老商看中，後來跟他私奔了。娜娜18歲後，成了歌劇院的女演員，她上演下流的喜劇，誘惑了無數王孫公子，其中有王子、侯爵、伯爵、銀行傢、貴族子弟、軍官、新聞記者等，他們中每一個人都要和娜娜相好，就不可避免地遭到厄運，有的破産，有的自殺，有的入獄，還有人為了娜娜的緣故，容忍自己的妻子與人通姦，把自己的獨生女嫁給娜娜的情夫，自己也落到傾傢蕩産的地步。娜娜是腐蝕劑，她腐蝕了巴黎的整個上層社會，她的所坐所為是賤民對上層社會的報復。最後，娜娜死於天花，這就是說，這個社會已經百分之百的腐爛，連腐蝕這個社會的工具本身也腐爛了。
小說評論：
娜娜有相當復雜的性格。作為妓女，她用肉體迷惑男人，使他們傾其所有供她揮霍，她習慣於過奢侈淫逸的生活，似乎稱得上是一個道德敗壞的女子。然而，娜娜對賣笑生涯十分厭惡，她住在華麗的公館裏，但內心空虛寂寞；她羨慕從良的妓女伊爾瑪，夢想將來自己也會有這樣一個歸宿；她還沒有失去一個少女對愛情的天真幻想，憧憬着一夫一妻的小康生活，一直忍受方堂的毒打，結果幻想還是破滅了。她經常嘆息：“男人纏着我好苦！”這正是普天下妓女共同的嘆息，也是一個被侮辱被損害的婦女對賣淫制度的控訴。她雖然處在腐化的環境中，心中仍有不滅的詩情，她到了鄉下，望見了廣阔的天空，翠緑的田野，聞着樹叢的香味，走進豐收的菜園，不由得陶醉了，竟冒着大雨去摘草莓。這幕動人的情景，充分表現了娜娜的精神世界。娜娜還是一個慈祥的母親，真誠地愛着小路易，最後竟為照看兒子而死與天花。應該說，娜娜在本質上是善良的。她之所以具有矛盾而復雜的性格，是有其社會根源的。
“傢貧萬事哀”，娜娜不堪忍受父親的拷打而離傢出走，一進入社會，立即在那個金錢統治的社會的逼迫和毒害下墮入悲劇的深淵。她當上了歌劇演員，一舉成名，成了名妓。恩格斯說過，賣淫制度“使婦女中間不幸成為受害者的人墮落”，就是說，妓女不僅因賣淫而受害，而且被賣淫生活腐蝕靈魂。娜娜的靈魂被腐蝕，縱使她厭惡自己所處的萬惡社會，卻又無法打破套在她頭上的枷鎖。她腐蝕男人是不自覺的，就象她啃一個蘋果一樣。
左拉在小說的第十章，曾描寫娜娜和薩丹在吃飯時故意拿她們的卑賤出身來侮辱同桌的達官貴人；她還曾要米法伯爵穿着朝服來見她，她在後面用腳踢他，心裏想着是踢在皇帝陛下身上，後來她又把莊嚴的朝服任意踐踏，“這是她的報復！” 左拉所描寫的，其實不是一個妓女短暫一生的歷史，而是第二帝國達官貴人們的一連串道德敗壞史，這是法國上流社會當時的真實寫照。
內容簡介：
娜娜小時候十分調皮，專門作弄教師和同學，喜歡窺探大人的所作所為，十五歲被一個富老商看中，後來跟他私奔了。娜娜18歲後，成了歌劇院的女演員，她上演下流的喜劇，誘惑了無數王孫公子，其中有王子、侯爵、伯爵、銀行傢、貴族子弟、軍官、新聞記者等，他們中每一個人都要和娜娜相好，就不可避免地遭到厄運，有的破産，有的自殺，有的入獄，還有人為了娜娜的緣故，容忍自己的妻子與人通姦，把自己的獨生女嫁給娜娜的情夫，自己也落到傾傢蕩産的地步。娜娜是腐蝕劑，她腐蝕了巴黎的整個上層社會，她的所坐所為是賤民對上層社會的報復。最後，娜娜死於天花，這就是說，這個社會已經百分之百的腐爛，連腐蝕這個社會的工具本身也腐爛了。
小說評論：
娜娜有相當復雜的性格。作為妓女，她用肉體迷惑男人，使他們傾其所有供她揮霍，她習慣於過奢侈淫逸的生活，似乎稱得上是一個道德敗壞的女子。然而，娜娜對賣笑生涯十分厭惡，她住在華麗的公館裏，但內心空虛寂寞；她羨慕從良的妓女伊爾瑪，夢想將來自己也會有這樣一個歸宿；她還沒有失去一個少女對愛情的天真幻想，憧憬着一夫一妻的小康生活，一直忍受方堂的毒打，結果幻想還是破滅了。她經常嘆息：“男人纏着我好苦！”這正是普天下妓女共同的嘆息，也是一個被侮辱被損害的婦女對賣淫制度的控訴。她雖然處在腐化的環境中，心中仍有不滅的詩情，她到了鄉下，望見了廣阔的天空，翠緑的田野，聞着樹叢的香味，走進豐收的菜園，不由得陶醉了，竟冒着大雨去摘草莓。這幕動人的情景，充分表現了娜娜的精神世界。娜娜還是一個慈祥的母親，真誠地愛着小路易，最後竟為照看兒子而死與天花。應該說，娜娜在本質上是善良的。她之所以具有矛盾而復雜的性格，是有其社會根源的。
“傢貧萬事哀”，娜娜不堪忍受父親的拷打而離傢出走，一進入社會，立即在那個金錢統治的社會的逼迫和毒害下墮入悲劇的深淵。她當上了歌劇演員，一舉成名，成了名妓。恩格斯說過，賣淫制度“使婦女中間不幸成為受害者的人墮落”，就是說，妓女不僅因賣淫而受害，而且被賣淫生活腐蝕靈魂。娜娜的靈魂被腐蝕，縱使她厭惡自己所處的萬惡社會，卻又無法打破套在她頭上的枷鎖。她腐蝕男人是不自覺的，就象她啃一個蘋果一樣。
左拉在小說的第十章，曾描寫娜娜和薩丹在吃飯時故意拿她們的卑賤出身來侮辱同桌的達官貴人；她還曾要米法伯爵穿着朝服來見她，她在後面用腳踢他，心裏想着是踢在皇帝陛下身上，後來她又把莊嚴的朝服任意踐踏，“這是她的報復！” 左拉所描寫的，其實不是一個妓女短暫一生的歷史，而是第二帝國達官貴人們的一連串道德敗壞史，這是法國上流社會當時的真實寫照。