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都鐸王朝那些事兒
Bring Up the Bodies.By Hilary Mantel.
《死尸示眾》拉里·曼特爾著。
HILARY MANTEL'S Man Booker prize-winning novel, “Wolf Hall”, was a momentous work about the court of Henry VIII, as seen through the lens of Thomas Cromwell. A blacksmith's boy, Cromwell claws his way up to become Henry's ruthless fixer and one of history's great villains. The book captured the upheavals of the Tudor period and was a critical and popular hit that rescued historical fiction from its bodice-ripper reputation.
希拉里·曼特爾布克獎獲獎小說《狼廳》講述了亨利八世王朝的故事，其重要意義可通過主人公湯馬斯·克倫威爾體現。克倫威爾是打鐵匠的兒子，他一步步地攀到了亨利八世的身邊，成為其冷酷無情的爪牙，也因此遺臭萬年。該書描寫了都鐸王朝的種種動亂，摘下了歷史小說總被冠以哥特風格愛情小說的帽子[注1]，因此，《狼廳》也是一本重要的風行讀物。
“Bring Up the Bodies”, Ms Mantel's sequel, takes up where “Wolf Hall” left off, and it is an outstandingly good read. The year is 1535 and Henry is in middle age, “a massive man, bull-necked, his hair receding, face fleshing out”. His “carriage, his person, are magnificent; his rages are terrifying”. In the first book Henry casts off Catherine of Aragon for Anne Boleyn. Here he tires of Boleyn—who has failed to produce a male heir—and sets to luring Jane Seymour, “modest as a drift of green-white hellebore”.
作為《狼廳》的姊妹篇，《死尸示眾》絕對不容錯過。1535年，正值亨利八世壯年，“他身材魁梧，體格健壯，雖說開始脫發，但依然容光煥發”。他的“人馬聲勢浩大；他的性格也可謂雷霆萬鈞。在《狼廳》中，亨利為了安妮·博休掉了來自亞拉岡（西班牙一個城市）的凱瑟琳皇后；而在《死尸示眾》中，亨利厭倦了未能給他誕下王儲的博林皇后，轉而追求“保守得像一簇綠白色藜蘆”的簡·西摩。
Fans of “Wolf Hall” will relish this book, but “Bring Up the Bodies” also stands alone. Covering a shorter period and with fewer characters, it demands less of the reader than the earlier instalment, in which significant historical figures walked on with little introduction. And the story of Boleyn, a glittering queen tamed to a “small voice, empty of everything except politeness”, provides a better narrative arc than Cromwell's clamber to the top, and a more grimly dramatic conclusion.
《狼廳》的粉絲們會喜歡《死尸示眾》，這本書雖是《狼廳》的后續，但它仍有自己的特色。《死尸示眾》的跨時更短，人物更少，因此，對讀者歷史背景知識的要求也就相應更少。不像在上本書中，重大歷史人物出場時，作者只有只言片語的介紹。博林皇后曾經光芒萬丈，但最后卻淪落到“說話輕聲細語，除了禮節一無所有”的田地。比起克倫威爾攀龍附鳳的經歷，博林皇后的故事被敘述得更加跌宕起伏，其戲劇性的結尾也更加悲涼。
Like much historical fiction, the pages of this novel are full of lust and splendid outfits. But Ms Mantel achieves much more than that. Her characters are real and vivid people who bring to life the clash of ideals that gripped England at the time. She makes the past present and vital. Boleyn's dreadful end is known before the book is even cracked opened, yet her contemplation of her last moments—“I have only a little neck”—is lonely, sad and shocking.
雖然《死尸示眾》和大多歷史小說一樣，未能免去淫欲橫流，華服遍地的俗套，但曼特爾所呈現的，遠不止這些。她筆下的歷史人物取材真實，活靈活現，其思想的碰撞對當時的英國有著深遠的影響。曼特爾讓歷史重現，恍如眼前。盡管翻開書之前，人們就已知博林皇后不堪的下場，但她在被斬首前最后一刻的思考/念頭——“我有的只是一個細小的脖子”——卻落寞悲傷，震懾人心。
Cromwell's thirst for power, meanwhile, has continuing resonance. He finds the product of his scheming less satisfying than the work that went into its contrivance; his whole career, he reflects, “has been an education in hypocrisy”. “Those who are made can be unmade,” Boleyn notes, an idea that echoes through the book. His hard-won power and riches earn him neither love nor succour—he is a man whose only friend is the king of England. As in “Wolf Hall”, Cromwell draws the reader's admiration, but never envy.
不過，克倫威爾對權力的渴求一直都能引起共鳴。他發現，人算不如天算。他的整個謀權生涯，他反思道，“都是一場關于虛偽的教育。”博林皇后寫道，“造就的也可以被摧毀”，這一觀點貫穿全書。克倫威爾獲得了來之不易的權力與財富，但他孤苦伶仃，無人相助——唯一的朋友只有英國國王。正如在《狼廳》中，克倫威爾讓讀者羨慕，但不忌妒。
