喬治·奧威爾是英國文學史乃至世界文學史上的重要人物

奧威爾在世界文學史上有著非常重要的地位，在思想界也備受推崇，我的幾位理性派偶像也是他的粉絲。但是，很多人對奧威爾的瞭解僅停留在《1984》這本書，其實是有缺憾的。所以，我會連續用幾期來分享他的其它幾本書，有小說也有文集，每本書可能就挑一兩個精彩片段，讓大家從不同角度來了解這位傑出的英國作家。

喬治·奧威爾

雖然《1984》是他的代表作，但對於某些讀者來說，主題還是有點灰暗和壓抑。特別是對於剛接觸英語文學的朋友來說，衝著奧威爾的大名來，第一本書就讀《1984》可能有點扛不住，所以我推薦大家還是先讀另一本書打個底，那就是《動物農莊》（Animal Farm）。

《動物農莊》（Animal Farm）

《動物農莊》幾乎和《1984》齊名，但由於它表面上是一個童話故事，所以經常被誤解為初級讀物

其實，這個構思巧妙的政治諷刺寓言無論從可讀性還是從思想深度上，都絲毫不比《1984》遜色，而且它的故事節奏還帶有幾分喜劇色彩，閱讀過程不至於太沉悶，甚至還有點歡樂。

讀過這本書的朋友應該都能明顯感受到，它的故事架構和角色設定都是在影射前蘇聯。如果你歷史知識夠豐富就可以自己來一一對應，當然網上也有人總結出了對應表，比如哪個角色對應斯大林，哪個角色對應托洛斯基等，一目瞭然。甚至有中國讀者進行了更發散的聯想，說那匹身強力壯的老馬之所以叫Boxer，是為了暗指中國歷史上的義和團（Boxer Rebellion），但只是猜測沒有實證，因為奧威爾的這本書其實只暗喻了俄國和前蘇聯的一段歷史。

我們不談它的政治色彩，只從英語語言角度進行探討，就能學到很多東西。首先，奧威爾對動詞的使用十分精準。我們來看看第一章的第一段：

Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the popholes. With the ring of light from his lantern dancing from side to side, he lurched across the yard, kicked off his boots at the back door, drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery, and made his way up to bed, where Mrs. Jones was already snoring.

一共兩句話，就出現了十幾個動詞：locked, was too drunk to remember, shut, dancing, lurched across, kicked off, drew, made his way, snoring. 既生動又傳神，可見奧威爾的用詞功力。

另外，我還非常喜歡第五章的開頭情節--Mollie的行為越來越異常，引起了Clover的懷疑，她終於忍不住去找Mollie對峙……這段描寫簡直就是一場精彩的諜戰戲，幾句話就調出了濃濃的懸疑色彩，氣氛的緊張程度也隨著對話的展開而直線飆升。大家如果有興趣可以找朋友分角色朗讀一下，一人旁白，一人扮演Clover，一人扮演Mollie，應該會相當有趣。

As winter drew on, Mollie became more and more troublesome. She was late for work every morning and excused herself by saying that she had overslept, and she complained of mysterious pains, although her appetite was excellent. On every kind of pretext she would run away from work and go to the drinking pool, where she would stand foolishly gazing at her own reflection in the water. But there were also rumours of something more serious. One day, as Mollie strolled blithely into the yard, flirting her long tail and chewing at a stalk of hay, Clover took her aside.

“Mollie,” she said, “I have something very serious to say to you. This morning I saw you looking over the hedge that divides Animal Farm from Foxwood. One of Mr. Pilkington’s men was standing on the other side of the hedge. And — I was a long way away, but I am almost certain I saw this — he was talking to you and you were allowing him to stroke your nose. What does that mean, Mollie?”

“He didn’t! I wasn’t! It isn’t true!” cried Mollie, beginning to prance about and paw the ground.

“Mollie! Look me in the face. Do you give me your word of honour that that man was not stroking your nose?”

“It isn’t true!” repeated Mollie, but she could not look Clover in the face, and the next moment she took to her heels and galloped away into the field.

李哲

李哲：資深英語講師，從教16年，英文藏書3000冊；翻譯出版過《可怕的科學》系列等多部英文著作；企鵝圖書紀念莎士比亞誕辰450週年大型活動武漢站主講嘉賓；互聯網預言大師、《失控》&《必然》作者凱文·凱利讀者見面會特邀現場翻譯；用英語講述的個人故事被BBC選用並在國際頻道BBC World Service中播出。