評論
打印
The victim in Hercule Poirot's Christmas is found deranged in blood
赫丘勒·白羅的圣誕節中的受害者尸體在血泊中被發現
the murder scene is very untypical for her.
兇案現場完全不同于她的典型風格
Absolutely dripping with it.
絕對不是一個流派
But this turns out eventually just to be
然而漸漸顯露出來的是
another instance of her customary trickiness.
這只是她的另一種慣常的詭計
That blood isn't at all what it first seems to be.
血完全不是起初看起來那樣
And in fact the plot turns out to depend not on bloodshed,
事實上情節最終不是依靠流血
but it's upon blood lines on ancestry and the parentage.
而是血緣血統上的線索
Well bamboozling the readers' expectations is of course
讓讀者大感意外的無疑是
the main aim of Agatha Christie's writing.
阿加莎·克里斯蒂作品的主要目的
And also of a lots of others Golden Age writers as well.
同樣，很多黃金時代的作家也是如此
With Agatha Christie's books,
阿加莎·克里斯蒂的書
I mean I think she is absolutely
我想說我認為她絕對是
she is unrivaled as an ingenious deviser of who done it.
尋兇手法上有著無比的獨創性的創作者
It's very very hard to guess who the murderer is going to be
在阿加莎·克里斯蒂的小說中實在很難猜出
in Agatha Christies' novels.
誰才是兇手
And that was partly because in many cases
很多時候一部分原因在于
she hadn't the faintest idea herself as she was writing the book.
她寫作的時候完全沒有方案
Fairly recently her notebooks were published
最近她的記事本得以出版
and they are extraordinary.
它們非同一般
They were scribbled down into like cheap jotters
它們潦草得好像便宜的便簽本
exercise books and so on.
就像練習本這樣
Her ideas for plot and things are all jumbled up with
她對情節的構思以一種令人不安的方式
telephone messages and recipes in a way that is a bit disconcerting.
和電話留言記錄，烹飪法等雜亂地混在一起
You know because you find things like trying strychnine in mouthwash
你懂的，因為你會發現諸如漱口水里摻士的寧
or prussic acid in smelling salt question mark.
或是在問號上發現嗅鹽中摻氫氰酸
And then buy asparagus for tea.
然后買龍須菜當茶喝
So the other thing is very very surprisingly
另一件非常非常驚人的事
very surprisingly to me is that
對我來說非常驚人的事
she would often would be half way through a novel
是她往往小說寫到一半
before she decided who the killer was.
心中都還沒有決定兇手是誰
And I think that turned out to be terrific strength
我覺得這結果反而成了了不起的強項
because that's why you keep thinking
因為這使你不停思考
is it this person? is that person? is another person?
是這個人嗎?那個人嗎?還是另一個人?
She hadn't decided either you know.
連她自己都還沒拿定主意呢
So you go along with that.
你只能被她牽著鼻子走
And of course she is an absolute mistress of
當然她絕對擅長于描寫
fiendish cunning plotting.
邪惡而狡猾的情節
She must have used just about every possible plot per mutation
她在每個轉折點肯定都用了一切可能的情節
and means of misleading her readers.
還有各種誤導讀者的手段
In her books the murderer may turn out to be the narrator,
在她的書中兇手最終可能是敘述者
the person who was apparently intended as the victim,
一個明顯被當做被害者的家伙
the investigating policeman, even a child.
調查案件的警員，甚至可能是個孩子
In one novel, all of the suspects committed the murder together.
在一部小說中所有的嫌煩共同犯下罪行
In others, characters you barely notice
另一些小說中，你幾乎注意不到元兇
because they seem not much more than walk on paths
因為他們看上去就是個路人
are actually killers.
卻是真兇
So Agatha Christie sometimes sniffed for that
阿加莎·克里斯蒂有時能夠嗅到這些
for producing characters who seem stereotype.
塑造看上去毫無新意的人物
But in fact I think that can be a very useful device for her purposes
但是我想這或許是她達到目的的有力武器
because the reader's mind eye glides over these characters
因為讀者的思緒里忽略了這些人物
without paying too much attention to them.
沒有關注他們
Because they seem just like just some stock figure in the background.
因為他們就像是背景里的群眾演員
Until Poirot or Miss Marple showed,
直到白羅或是馬普爾小姐出現
they have got hidden murderers depth.
他們才發現深深隱藏的兇手
