The Biographer 传记作家

莱斯利·斯蒂芬(Leslie Stephen)

The biographer should sternly confine himself to his functions as introducer; and should give no more discussion than is clearly necessary for making the book an independent whole. A little analysis of motive may be necessary here and there;when, for example, your hero has put his hand in somebody's pocket and you have to demonstrate that his conduct was due to sheer absence of mind. But you must always remember that a single concrete fact, or a saying into which a man has put his whole soul, is worth pages of psychological analysis. We may argue till Doomsday about Swift's character; his single phrase about “dying like a poisoned rat in a hole” tells us more than all the commentators. The book should be the man himself speaking or acting, and nothing but the man. It should be such a portrait as reveals the essence of character; and the writer who gives anything that does not tell upon the general effect is like the portrait-painter who allows the chairs and tables, or even the coat and cravat, to distract attention from the face. The really significant anecdote is often all that survives of a life; and such anecdotes must be made to tell properly, instead of being hidden away in a wilderness of the commonplace ; they should be a focus of interest, instead of a fallible extract for a book of miscellanies . How much would be lost of Johnson if we suppress the incident of the penance at Uttoxter! It is such incidents that in books, as often in life, suddenly reveal to us whole regions of sentiment but never rise to the surface in the ordinary routine of our day.

- sternly [ˈstɜːnlɪ] ad. 严格地

- Doomsday [ˈduːmzdeɪ] n. 世界末日，最后审判日

- commonplace [ˈkɒmənpleɪs] a./n. 平凡的；平凡的事物

- fallible [ˈfæləbl] a. 易犯错误的，难免有错误的

- miscellany [mɪˈselənɪ] n. 杂货，混合物

- penance [ˈpenəns] n. (赎罪的)苦行，苦修

传记作家必须严格局限在介绍者的功能范围内，为了使书自成独立体系，不要妄加评论。有时也许有必要稍许分析一下动机，例如传记对象把手伸进旁人兜里，传记作家必须表明这个是出于心不在焉。但是传记作者必须记住，有时要把一个具体事实、一个座右铭分析清楚，要花上好几页篇幅，我们可能对斯威夫特的性格争论到世界末日；而仅仅“像中了毒的耗子那样死在洞穴里”他的这样一个短语，告诉我们的内容比所有评论家加在一起还多。传记中应该是传记角色说话、做事，只能是角色本身。传记中的描写应该能揭示角色的本质，写的东西如果有任何无助于表达总体效果，这样的传记作者就像是肖像画家，突出桌子椅子、外套领带，而对于人物的面部表情反倒不加重视。真正有意义的逸事常常是终生难忘的，这样的逸事必须恰当地加以叙述，而不能淹没在平凡琐事的荒原里。这些逸事应是关注的焦点，而不是一本杂书中错误百出的选段。如果我们不写在尢托克希特悔罪那件事，那就是失去多少有关约翰逊人品个性的重要信息啊！正是这样的事件，在书中亦如在生活中一样，突然向我们展现了广阔的情感领域，而它们在我们日复一日的日常生活中，从来没有引起注意。

莱斯利·斯蒂芬(1832—1904)，英国传记作家、文学批评家、哲学家。作品有《书房时光》(Hours in a Libray ，1874—1879)，《18世纪英国思想史》(The History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century ，1876)，《伦理学》(The Science of Ethics ，1882)。其作品结构严谨，文笔简洁，语意深长。

斯蒂芬在文学评论、哲学和历史方面有着丰富的研究和贡献。他是维多利亚时代文学批评的重要代表之一，他的文学评论作品对当时文学界产生了深远的影响。

除了他的文学批评作品，斯蒂芬还是一位著名的传记作家。他的传记作品包括《维多利亚时代的著名人物》(Biographies of Famous Victorians)等，其中对一些著名人物如威廉·莎士比亚(William Shakespeare)和亨利·德维登(William Wordsworth)进行了深入的研究和阐述。