The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete — Page 5

谜团揭晓——又一次相认，希望读者事先未能预料到

The Mystery unfolded—Another Recognition, which, it is to be hoped, the Reader could not foresee

第六十五章：回顾性的衔接，对于串联这些回忆录来说不可或缺

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE. A retrospective Link, necessary for the Concatenation of these Memoirs

第六十六章：历史临近终结

CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX. The History draws near a Period

第六十七章：最长的一章，也是最后一章

CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN. The Longest and the Last

插图

ILLUSTRATIONS

第一部分卷首页

Titlepage of Part One

第一部分卷首插图

Frontispiece of Part One

他打开了存放处

He Opened the Repository

第二部分卷首页

Titlepage of Part Two

第二部分卷首插图

Frontispiece of Part Two

您就是梅尔维尔伯爵

You Are the Count de Melvil

简介

INTRODUCTION

《费迪南德·法瑟姆伯爵历险记》是斯摩莱特的第三部小说，于1753年问世。

The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom, Smollett's third novel, was given to the world in 1753.

玛丽·沃特利·蒙塔古夫人一年多后（1755年1月1日）在写给她女儿、布特伯爵夫人的信中提到，"我的朋友斯摩莱特……无疑具有创作才华，尽管我认为他在最新作品中才思稍有减退。"

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, writing to her daughter, the Countess of Bute, over a year later [January 1st, 1755], remarked that "my friend Smollett . . has certainly a talent for invention, though I think it flags a little in his last work."

玛丽夫人的评价既有对之处，也有不当之处。

Lady Mary was both right and wrong.

我们通常所认为的斯摩莱特的创造力，是指他将自身经历转化为现实主义小说的能力。

The inventive power which we commonly think of as Smollett's was the ability to work over his own experience into realistic fiction.

在这方面，《费迪南德·法瑟姆伯爵历险记》所展现的相对较少。

Of this, Ferdinand Count Fathom shows comparatively little.

同样，斯摩莱特那充沛的个人风格在书中也体现得相对有限——在他早期的作品中，这种风格几乎贯穿每一章，无论是描写街头斗殴、滑稽场面、奇特人物，还是以刻毒的偏见对某个敌人大加挞伐，都充满生机与趣味。

It shows relatively little, too, of Smollett's vigorous personality, which in his earlier works was present to give life and interest to almost every chapter, were it to describe a street brawl, a ludicrous situation, a whimsical character, or with venomous prejudice to gibbet some enemy.