A high forehead topped by disheveled black hair, a sickly pallor, and a look of deep intelligence and deeper exhaustion in his dark, sunken eyes. Edgar Allan Poe’s image is not just instantly recognizable – it’s perfectly suited to his reputation. From the prisoner strapped under a descending pendulum blade, to a raven who refuses to leave the narrator’s chamber, Poe’s macabre and innovative stories of gothic horror have left a timeless mark on literature.
很高的額頭,上面是凌亂的頭髮, 蒼白到像是生病, 外表看來是深深的智慧 和更深的疲累, 下陷的眼窩中是深色的眼睛。 愛倫坡的形象不只是 可以馬上認出來—— 而是到了已經被拿來研究的程度。 從被綁在不斷下降的 擺片刀底下的囚犯, 到不願離開講述者房間的烏鴉, 艾倫坡的哥德式恐怖故事 與死亡有關又有著創新, 在文學上留下了永恆的痕跡。
But just what is it that makes Edgar Allan Poe one of the greatest American authors? After all, horror was a popular genre of the period, with many practitioners. Yet Poe stood out thanks to his careful attention to form and style. As a literary critic, he identified two cardinal rules for the short story form: it must be short enough to read in one sitting, and every word must contribute to its purpose. By mastering these rules, Poe commands the reader’s attention and rewards them with an intense and singular experience – what Poe called the unity of effect.
但到底是什麼原因,讓艾倫坡成為 最偉大的美國作家之一? 畢竟,在那時, 恐怖題材是很熱門的, 很多人都在寫。 然而,艾倫坡因為對於形式和風格 非常注意,因而脫穎而出。 身為文學評論家, 他知道關於短篇故事的形式 有兩條重要規則: 必須要夠短,能在坐著 休息的一段時間內就看完, 且每個字詞都必須要 符合故事的目的。 因為精通這些規則, 艾倫坡得以操控讀者的注意力, 回報給他們的是 強烈又非凡的體驗—— 即艾倫坡所謂的「效果統一」。
Though often frightening, this effect goes far beyond fear. Poe’s stories use violence and horror to explore the paradoxes and mysteries of love, grief, and guilt, while resisting simple interpretations or clear moral messages. And while they often hint at supernatural elements, the true darkness they explore is the human mind and its propensity for self-destruction. In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” a ghastly murder is juxtaposed with the killer’s tender empathy towards the victim – a connection that soon returns to haunt him. The title character of "Ligeia" returns from the dead through the corpse of her husband’s second wife – or at least the opium-addicted narrator thinks she does. And when the protagonist of “William Wilson” violently confronts a man he believes has been following him, he might just be staring at his own image in a mirror. Through his pioneering use of unreliable narrators, Poe turns readers into active participants who must decide when a storyteller might be misinterpreting or even lying about the events they’re relating.
雖然這種效果通常很嚇人, 但它能超越恐懼。 艾倫坡的故事用暴力和恐怖 來探索矛盾和神秘的 愛、悲慟, 以及罪惡, 拒絕使用簡單的詮釋 或明確的道德訊息。 雖然他的故事通常 都有超自然元素的暗示, 但它們真正在探索的, 是人心的黑暗, 以及人心的自我毀滅的傾向。 在《告密的心》中, 一件可怕的謀殺 卻搭配著兇手對於 受害者的溫柔同理心—— 這個連結很快就回來困擾著他。 《麗姬亞》的主角起死回生, 透過她先生第二任太太的 屍體返回人間—— 至少講故事的人是這麼認為的, 不過他有著鴉片癮。 而《威廉威爾森》的主人翁 堅信有個人在跟蹤他, 因而火爆地與這個人對質, 但他可能只是在瞪著 鏡中自己的影像。 艾倫坡採用很前衛的做法, 藉由不可靠的人來說故事, 把讀者變成主動參與者, 必須要自己決定 說故事的人是否有誤解, 或甚至因為事件 和自己有關而說謊。
Although he’s best known for his short horror stories, Poe was actually one of the most versatile and experimental writers of the nineteenth century. He invented the detective story as we know it, with “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” followed by “The Mystery of Marie Roget” and “The Purloined Letter.” All three feature the original armchair detective, C. Auguste Dupin, who uses his genius and unusual powers of observation and deduction to solve crimes that baffle the police. Poe also wrote satires of social and literary trends, and hoaxes that in some cases anticipated science fiction. Those included an account of a balloon voyage to the moon, and a report of a dying patient put into a hypnotic trance so he could speak from the other side. Poe even wrote an adventure novel about a voyage to the South Pole and a treatise on astrophysics, all while he worked as an editor, producing hundreds of pages of book reviews and literary theory.
雖然艾倫坡最有名的 是短篇恐怖故事, 他其實是十九世紀 最多才多藝的實驗性作家之一。 我們現在所知的 偵探故事就是他發明的, 他寫了《莫爾格街兇殺案》, 接著還有《瑪麗羅傑奇案》 和《失竊的信》。 這三部作品的共同特色就是 一位無實際經驗的原創偵探, C. 奧古斯特杜邦, 他運用他的才智 和不凡的觀察推理能力, 來解決難倒警方的犯罪案件。 艾倫坡也會寫與社會 和文學趨勢相關的諷刺作品, 還有些惡作劇,在某些情況下 以科幻小說的形式呈現。 那些作品的內容包括 氣球航行到月球, 還有病危的病人進入催眠狀態時, 能夠從另一個世界說話。 艾倫坡甚至寫了 到南極旅行的冒險小說, 以及天體物理學的論文, 都是在他擔任編輯時的作品, 那時他產出了數百頁的 書評以及文學理論。
An appreciation of Poe’s career wouldn’t be complete without his poetry: haunting and hypnotic. His best-known poems are songs of grief, or in his words, “mournful and never-ending remembrance.” “The Raven,” in which the speaker projects his grief onto a bird who merely repeats a single sound, made Poe famous.
要讚頌艾倫坡的職涯, 萬萬不能漏掉他的詩: 縈繞在心頭且有催眠效果。 他最著名的詩作都是 悲慟之歌,或用他的說法: 「永遠無法忘懷的悲傷記憶」。 《烏鴉》的講述者把他的悲慟 投射到一隻鳥身上, 這隻鳥只會重覆一個單音, 這部詩作讓艾倫坡成名。
But despite his literary success, Poe lived in poverty throughout his career, and his personal life was often as dark as his writing. He was haunted by the loss of his mother and his wife, who both died of tuberculosis at the age of 24. Poe struggled with alcoholism and frequently antagonized other popular writers. Much of his fame came from posthumous – and very loose – adaptations of his work. And yet, if he could’ve known how much pleasure and inspiration his writing would bring to generations of readers and writers alike, perhaps it may have brought a smile to that famously brooding visage.
但儘管在文學上很成功, 艾倫坡在他的職涯中 一直都很貧窮, 他的私人生活通常 也和他的作品一樣黑暗。 他失去他的母親和妻子, 這失落感始終困擾著他, 她們都在 24 歲時 因為結核病而過世。 艾倫坡擺脫不了酒精, 且常常要對抗其他知名作家。 他大部分的聲望來自 他死後才出版的、 很鬆散的作品改編版。 但是,如果他能知道 他的作品帶給了 後世讀者和作家多少樂趣和靈感,