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The two world wars changed all that, but authors born before the cataclysms retained their concept of what a novel should be and do.
兩次世界大戰改變了這一切，但是在這兩場大災難之前出生的作家仍然保留著他們對小說應該是什么和應該做什么的概念。
Reconciling beliefs nurtured in a stable world with an unstable one produced towering works.
對穩定世界和不穩定世界所孕育的不同信念進行調和，這就催生了煌煌巨著。
For example, “The Magic Mountain” (1924) by Thomas Mann, a German writer, is a long series of digressions and meditations that “preserves an image of unity by telling the story, down to the last detail, of a world whose pieces no longer come together”, writes Mr Frank.
例如，德國作家托馬斯·曼于1924年出版的《魔山》是一部篇幅超長的偏題散漫和內心沉思之作，弗蘭克寫道，它“通過事無巨細地講述一個世界的故事而留下了一個統一的畫面，但這個世界已經在四分五裂”。
“In Search of Lost Time” by Marcel Proust did something similar.
馬塞爾·普魯斯特的《追憶似水年華》也是類似的寫法。
Despite its languid tone and convoluted sentences, it has at its centre a desire to remember and tell readers everything about a vanished world (including the transporting aroma of madeleines).
盡管這部小說語氣慵懶、句式復雜，但它的核心還是一種渴望，它想要記住并告訴讀者一個已經逝去世界的一切（包括讓人身臨其境的瑪德琳蛋糕的香氣）。
Vasily Grossman, a Soviet writer, displayed the same encyclopedic bent in two works, “Stalingrad” and “Life and Fate”, which are among the most ambitious and best fiction written about the second world war.
蘇聯作家瓦西里·格羅斯曼在《斯大林格勒》和《生活與命運》中展現了同樣的百科全書式傾向，這兩部作品是關于第二次世界大戰的最具野心和最出色的小說之一。
Penned in a plain style and a self-conscious attempt to mirror “War and Peace”, Russia’s greatest novel from the 19th century, his writing fell foul of censors (who wanted him, among other things, to remove a sympathetic Jewish character).
這兩部作品文筆洗練，格羅斯曼有意模仿了19世紀俄羅斯最偉大的小說《戰爭與和平》，卻遇到了審查麻煩（除了其他要求，審查人員還希望他刪除一個富有同情心的猶太人物）。
Grossman died in 1964; “Life and Fate” would not be published in Russia for another 24 years.
格羅斯曼于1964年去世，《生活與命運》又過了24年才在俄羅斯出版。
After the war, Mr Frank’s survey turns almost perversely idiosyncratic.
對于二戰之后的小說，弗蘭克的調查開始執拗地劍走偏鋒。
He mentions great writers including Saul Bellow, Toni Morrison and Philip Roth only in passing, yet devotes an entire chapter to the banal, unreadable “Life: A User’s Manual” by Georges Perec, a French novelist.
他對于索爾·貝婁、托妮·莫里森、菲利普·羅斯等偉大作家只是一筆帶過，卻用了整整一章來寫法國小說家喬治·佩雷克的那本平淡、難懂的《人生拼圖版》。
Still, one of the pleasures of reading “Stranger Than Fiction” is arguing with it.
不過，讀《比虛構更離奇》的樂趣之一就是與它爭論。
And the number of impassioned arguments that this book starts proves that the literary novel is not dead to everyone.
而且這本書引發的激烈爭論之多證明，文學小說并非在所有人心里都死了。
Nor is it still the unquestioned king of narrative expression.
小說也不再是敘事表達的無可爭議的王者。
Television has grown more sophisticated: “The Wire” drew justified comparisons to Charles Dickens.
電視劇已經變得更加精深復雜：美劇《火線》堪與查爾斯·狄更斯相比。
Millions of books are published each year, but the number of people who read daily for pleasure, as well as the amount of time they read, have been steadily declining.
每年有數百萬本書出版，但是為了樂趣而每天讀書的人數以及他們的閱讀時長一直在穩步下降。
From 2017 to 2023 Americans aged 15 and older spent just 15-16 minutes a day reading “for personal interest”, 18% less than in 2013-15, according to America’s Bureau of Labour Statistics.
根據美國勞工統計局的數據，從2017年到2023年，15歲及以上的美國人每天僅花費15至16分鐘進行“出于個人興趣”的閱讀，比2013-15年減少了18%。
Meanwhile, they watch TV for more than two and a half hours a day, on average.
同時，他們平均每天看電視超過兩個半小時。
This century’s novelists will need to grapple with this shift.
本世紀的小說家們將需要努力應對這種轉變。
Writers in the last century benefited from increased literacy rates, cheap mass production and the rise of chain bookstores, which all helped create a culture more receptive to their works.
上個世紀的作家們受益于識字率的提高、廉價的大規模生產、連鎖書店的興起，這些都有助于創造一種更容易接受他們作品的文化。
Novels could also easily hold their own against films; it is harder now that people have a giant film and TV library in their pockets.
當時小說也可以輕松地與電影抗衡，但現在人們的口袋里就有一個巨大的電影和電視庫，要抗衡就更難了。
What might a book written in 2124, looking back at the 21st-century literary novel, argue?
如果在2124年寫一本書，回顧21世紀的文學小說，這本書會提出什么論點呢？
That the novel continued to expand its focus outward, by engaging with genre fiction, for instance, as Colson Whitehead and Haruki Murakami do brilliantly; or with nature and science, as Richard Powers and Kim Stanley Robinson do.
它可能會認為小說繼續向外擴展其焦點，或與類型小說相結合，就像科爾森·懷特黑德和村上春樹的出色作品那樣，或與自然和科學相結合，就像理查德·鮑爾斯和金·斯坦利·羅賓遜那樣。（注：懷特黑德主要寫種族問題，村上春樹主要寫青春故事，鮑爾斯探討科技對人類和環境的影響，羅賓遜是科幻小說家。）
Novel-reading will become even more of a niche, worthy hobby, like going to a classical-music concert or ballet today.
閱讀小說將變成一種更加小眾、高雅的愛好，就像如今去聽古典音樂會或看芭蕾舞表演一樣。
The story of the 20th-century novel is one of artistic triumph.
20世紀的小說講述了藝術取得勝利的故事。
In this century, the novel will experience a different story.
在本世紀，小說將經歷一個不同的故事。
