備受期待的《小婦人》最新改編電影于12月25日在北美上映，該片聚集了西爾莎·羅南、艾瑪·沃森、“甜茶”提莫西·查拉梅、梅麗爾·斯特里普等眾多明星大腕，堪稱“神仙陣容”。

距離《小婦人》原著出版已經(jīng)過去了150年，但它還是打動了一代又一代讀者，這本書的影響力可見一斑。也許你已經(jīng)讀過路易莎·梅·奧爾科特的《小婦人》，但下面這些事實你可能從來沒有聽說過。

1. LOUISA MAY ALCOTT DIDN'T WANT TO WRITE LITTLE WOMEN.

路易莎·梅·奧爾科特本來不想寫《小婦人》

Louisa May Alcott was writing both literature and pulp fiction when Thomas Niles, the editor at Roberts Brothers Publishing, approached her about writing a book for girls. Alcott said she would try, but she wasn’t all that interested, later calling such books “moral pap for the young.”

羅伯茨兄弟出版社的編輯托馬斯·奈爾斯找上路易莎·梅·奧爾科特時，她正在寫文學作品和通俗小說。奈爾斯請路易莎為女孩們寫一本書。路易莎說她會寫寫看，但不是很感興趣，她后來將這種書稱為“給年輕人讀的道德教化書”。

When it became clear Alcott was stalling, Niles offered a publishing contract to her father, Bronson Alcott. Although Bronson was a well-known thinker who was friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, his work never achieved much acclaim. When it became clear that Bronson would have an opportunity to publish a new book if Louisa started her girls' story, she caved into the pressure.

奈爾斯看出路易莎有意拖延，就給她父親布朗森·奧爾科特發(fā)了一份出版合同。雖然布朗森是一位著名思想家，也是拉爾夫·沃爾多·愛默生和亨利·戴維·梭羅的朋友，但他的作品始終沒有得到多少贊譽。當出版方明確表示如果路易莎開始寫這個女孩故事，布朗森就有機會出版一本新書時，路易莎迫于壓力才答應。

cave[ke?v]: v. 屈服

2. LITTLE WOMEN TOOK JUST 10 WEEKS TO WRITE.

《小婦人》只花了10個星期就寫完了

Alcott began writing the book in May 1868. She worked on it day and night, becoming so consumed with it that she sometimes forgot to eat or sleep. On July 15, she sent all 402 pages to her editor. In September, a mere four months after starting the book, Little Women was published. It became an instant bestseller and turned Alcott into a rich and famous woman.

1868年5月，路易莎動筆寫這本書。她夜以繼日地寫作，有時候甚至專注到廢寢忘食的地步。7月15日，她將402頁的原稿寄給編輯。同年9月，距離她開始寫這本書才過了四個月，《小婦人》就出版了。它迅速成為了暢銷書，也讓路易莎變成了富有的女名人。

3. MEG, BETH, AND AMY WERE BASED ON ALCOTT'S SISTERS.

梅格、貝絲和艾米的原型是路易莎的姐妹

Meg was based on Louisa’s sister Anna, who fell in love with her husband John Bridge Pratt while performing opposite him in a play. The description of Meg’s wedding in the novel is supposedly based on Anna’s actual wedding.

梅格的原型是路易莎的姐姐安娜，她在一場戲劇中愛上和她演對手戲的約翰·布里奇·普拉特并與之結(jié)為夫婦。小說中對梅格婚禮的描寫應該是基于安娜的真實婚禮。

Beth was based on Lizzie, who contracted scarlet fever in 1856. Though she recovered, the disease permanently weakened her; Lizzie passed away in her sleep from a “wasting condition” on March 14, 1858—just shy of her 23rd birthday. Like Beth, Lizzie caught the illness from a poor family her mother was helping.

貝絲的原型是麗茲，她于1856年感染了猩紅熱。盡管她康復了，但這場病讓她從此以后身體一直很虛弱。1858年3月14日，麗茲因油盡燈枯在睡夢中去世，時年不足23周歲。和貝絲一樣，麗茲是從母親幫助的一個窮困家庭那里感染了猩紅熱。

Amy was based on May (Amy is an anagram of May), an artist who lived in Europe and whose paintings were displayed in the Paris Salon.

艾米的原型是梅（艾米是梅的變位詞），她是一個住在歐洲的藝術(shù)家，她的畫作曾在巴黎藝術(shù)沙龍展出。

anagram[??n?ɡr?m]: n. 相同字母異序詞，易位構(gòu)詞，變位詞

Jo, of course, is based on Alcott herself.

喬的原型當然是路易莎自己。

4. THE BOOK AS WE KNOW IT WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN TWO PARTS.

我們現(xiàn)在所熟悉的《小婦人》原先是分成兩部分出版的

The first half was published in 1868 as Little Women: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. The Story Of Their Lives. A Girl’s Book. It ended with John Brooke proposing marriage to Meg. In 1869, Alcott published Good Wives, the second half of the book. It, too, only took a few months to write.

第一部《小婦人：梅格、喬、貝絲和艾米的人生故事（女孩篇）》于1868年出版，以約翰·布魯克向梅格求婚結(jié)尾。1869年，路易莎出版了第二部《好妻子》，這本書也是只花了幾個月就寫成了。

5. ALCOTT REFUSED TO HAVE JO MARRY LAURIE.

路易莎拒絕讓喬嫁給勞里

Alcott, who never married herself, wanted Jo to remain unmarried, too. But while she was working on the second half of Little Women, fans were clamoring for Jo to marry the boy next door, Laurie. “Girls write to ask who the little women marry, as if that was the only aim and end of a woman’s life," Alcott wrote in her journal. "I won’t marry Jo to Laurie to please anyone.”

終身未婚的路易莎想讓喬也不結(jié)婚。但是在她寫第二部《小婦人》時，粉絲們強烈要求讓喬嫁給鄰居勞里。路易莎在她的日記中寫道：“女孩們寫信來問小婦人嫁給了誰，似乎這是一個女人一生的唯一目標和結(jié)局。我不會為了取悅?cè)魏稳硕褑碳藿o勞里?！?/p>

As a compromise—or to spite her fans—Alcott married Jo to the decidedly unromantic Professor Bhaer. Laurie ends up with Amy.

作為折衷方案——或許是為了讓粉絲們氣惱——路易莎讓喬嫁給了一點也不浪漫的巴爾教授。勞里最后和艾米結(jié)了婚。

6. THERE ARE LOTS OF THEORIES ABOUT WHO LAURIE WAS BASED ON.

關(guān)于勞里的原型是誰有很多種理論

People have theorized Laurie was inspired by everyone from Henry David Thoreau to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s son Julian, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. In 1865, while in Europe, Alcott met a Polish musician named Ladislas Wisniewski, whom Alcott nicknamed Laddie. The flirtation between Laddie and Alcott culminated in them spending two weeks together in Paris, alone. According to biographer Harriet Reisen, Alcott later modeled Laurie after Laddie.

人們提出理論說，勞里的靈感來自很多人，從亨利·戴維·梭羅到納撒尼爾·霍桑的兒子朱利安，但這似乎又說不通。1865年，路易莎在歐洲遇到了一位名為拉迪斯拉斯·維希涅夫斯基的波蘭音樂家，路易莎對他的昵稱是拉迪。拉迪和路易莎的調(diào)情最后發(fā)展成孤男寡女在巴黎共度兩星期。據(jù)傳記作者哈里特·雷森稱，路易莎后來以拉迪為原型塑造了勞里的人物形象。

How far did the Alcott/Laddie affair go? It’s hard to say, as Alcott later crossed out the section of her diary referring to the romance. In the margin, she wrote, “couldn’t be.”

路易莎和拉迪的這段情后來發(fā)展到什么程度了呢？很難說，因為路易莎后來劃掉了日記中提到這段浪漫史的部分。在日記的邊緣處，她寫道：“不能”。

7. YOU CAN STILL VISIT ORCHARD HOUSE, WHERE ALCOTT WROTE LITTLE WOMEN.

你仍然可以拜訪路易莎寫作《小婦人》的果園屋

Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts was the Alcott family home. In 1868, Louisa reluctantly left her Boston apartment to write Little Women there. Today, you can tour this house and see May’s drawings on the walls, as well as the small writing desk that Bronson built for Louisa to use.

馬薩諸塞州康科德的果園屋是奧爾科特一家住的房子。1868年，路易莎不情愿地離開了她在波斯頓的公寓，到果園屋來寫作《小婦人》。今天，你可以到果園屋游覽，看梅留在墻上的畫，還有布朗森給路易莎做的小書桌。

8. LIKE THE MARCH FAMILY, THE ALCOTTS KNEW POVERTY.

和馬奇家一樣，奧爾科特一家嘗過貧窮的滋味

Bronson Alcott’s philosophical ideals made it difficult for him to find employment—for example, as a socialist, he wouldn't work for wages—so the family survived on handouts from friends and neighbors. At times during Louisa’s childhood, there was nothing to eat but bread, water, and the occasional apple.

布朗森·奧爾科特的哲學理想讓他很難找到工作——舉例來說，作為社會主義者，他不愿為工資而工作——因此一家人只能靠朋友和鄰居的接濟過活。在路易莎的童年時期，有時候家里除了面包和水沒有任何吃的東西，偶爾可以吃個蘋果。

When she got older, Alcott worked as a paid companion and governess, like Jo does in the novel, and sold “sensation” stories to help pay the bills. She also took on menial jobs, working as a seamstress, a laundress, and a servant. Even as a child, Alcott wanted to help her family escape poverty, something Little Women made possible.

年紀大一點后，路易莎便去做有償伴侶和女家庭教師，就像喬在小說里做的事一樣，并為了貼補家用出售“聳人聽聞的”故事。她還做過一些卑微的工作，比如針線活、洗衣、幫傭。路易莎從小就想幫助家庭擺脫貧困，而《小婦人》讓她成功做到了。

menial[?mi?ni?l]: adj. 卑微的；仆人的；適合仆人做的

9. LITTLE WOMEN HAS BEEN ADAPTED A NUMBER OF TIMES.

《小婦人》被改編過很多次

In addition to a 1958 TV series, multiple Broadway plays, a musical, a ballet, and an opera, Little Women has been made into more than a half-dozen movies. The most famous are the 1933 version starring Katharine Hepburn, the 1949 version starring June Allyson (with Elizabeth Taylor as Amy), and the 1994 version starring Winona Ryder. It's also been adapted for the small screen a number of times, most recently in 2018 for PBS's Masterpiece, by Call the Midwife creator Heidi Thomas. Oscar nominee Greta Gerwig’s version of the story, which will star Saoirse Ronan as Jo and Timothée Chalamet as Laurie, will arrive in theaters on Christmas Day 2019.

除了1958年版電視劇，《小婦人》還被改編成多部百老匯戲劇、一部音樂劇、一部芭蕾劇、一部歌劇，還有不止6部電影。最著名的改編作品是1933年凱瑟琳·赫本主演的電影、1949年瓊·阿利森主演的電影（伊麗莎白·泰勒飾演艾米）和1994年薇諾娜·瑞德主演的電影?！缎D人》還被多次搬上小熒幕，最近的一次是2018年《呼叫助產(chǎn)士》制作人海蒂·托馬斯為公共電視網(wǎng)Masterpiece欄目制作的劇集。獲得奧斯卡獎提名的格蕾塔·葛韋格導演的新版《小婦人》電影將由西爾莎·羅南飾演喬，提莫西·查拉梅飾演勞里，2019年圣誕節(jié)登陸各大院線。

10. IN THE 1980S, A JAPANESE ANIME VERSION OF LITTLE WOMEN WAS RELEASED.

20世紀80年代曾播出過日本動畫版《小婦人》

In 1987, Japan made an anime version of Little Women that ran for 48 half-hour episodes.

1987年，日本制作了動畫版小婦人，一共48集，每集半小時。

英文來源：Mental Floss

翻譯&編輯：丹妮