引用文章 我們不甘但也不必畏懼淪為少數

那天清晨，因為太過早起，去了一趟敦南的誠品，一爬上二樓迎面看到新書區擺著《巴黎 1922 ，普魯斯特》，心中突然有種莫名的悸動以及隨之而來的感傷

悸動的是自己不停的尋覓有關普魯斯特的書籍，終於出現了新書；但令人感傷的是：這本書的銷售量會好嗎？還是說就只是曇花一現？

想起最近讀到 Roger Shattuck 在 PROUST’S WAY 一書中提到的問題：

“Joyce and Kafka, Faulkner and Camus sell hundreds of thousands of copies.

Proust sells barely in the thousands. “

其實心中還真的蠻感慨的 ….

但有時候，身為普迷，身為這樣的少數，卻也常常為自己的特立獨行感到怡然自得，很喜歡詩人羅智成在少數宣言中所寫的一段話：

“ 在創作或生活中追求理想，我們不甘但也不必畏懼淪為少數。 ”

這個普魯斯特討論區彌足珍貴，希望透過我們這群 ” 少數 ” 持續灌溉自己從閱讀興趣轉化出來的熱誠，孕育出豐碩且甜美的果實。

引用文章 To hesitate to recommend you the captioned book

雖然在上星期已經唸完這本書，但如同市長所提的 ” 沒有讀過追憶與傳記的人恐不會讀得下去 …” 這也正好是自己遲遲無法下筆推薦的原因

然而，在看似雜亂無章、人言言殊，混合著眾多評論家、作家、 somebody 的回憶、證詞或散落的奇聞軼事，似乎都被作者 Davenport-Hines 一一考察出來而拼湊成一幅 Proust 晚年的畫像

畫出這幅畫像的正是 ” 一對富有、文雅、具國際視野的英籍夫婦 -- 薇歐拉（ Violet Schiff ）與席夫（ Sydney Schiff ） ” ，他們夫婦倆佔據了 Proust 晚年不少寶貴的時間： ”1922 年初夏，席夫夫婦在普魯斯特的生活中緩緩流動，如顏料渲染布料。 ”

閱讀的樂趣可能要從自己熟悉的人、事、物找到：喬伊斯和普魯斯特的對話版本、眾人對索多姆和戈摩爾的評論，追憶似水年華的翻譯過程 … 等等

恰巧，我搞不清楚為何當初英譯本最後一冊《重現的時光》不是 Moncrieff 孟克利夫翻譯，而翻譯的 Stephen Hudson 史蒂芬‧哈德森又是誰？

在這本書我居然找到了答案 ……………

欲知後事如何，請看下回分曉

引用文章 上回分解

在上回提到的 Stephen Hudson，其實就是 Sydney Schiff 的筆名，1930年， Moncrieff 因癌症病故，留下最後一冊沒有翻譯，而最終由 Schiff 接手完成。

本書作者對於 Schiff 翻譯的水準評價不高，但網路上搜尋的資料卻有不同看法，事實上，翻譯的好壞還是留給讀者自己感受吧

http://www.bookrags.com/biography/stephen-hudson-dlb/

Dictionary of Literary Biography on Stephen Hudson

Best known as the replacement translator of Marcel Proust's work following the death of C. K. Scott-Moncrieff, Sydney Schiff, who published most of his work under the name Stephen Hudson, is rarely mentioned in lists of prominent writers. In a review in the New Statesman and Nation (21 May 1949), however, Walter Allen claimed that Hudson "added something to the English novel, and no account of our fiction during the past thirty years would be complete without reference to him." His biographer, Theophilus E. M. Boll, asserts that "Stephen Hudson is second to none in the honesty and lucid art with which he has given reality to his novels of insight into individuation." To this comment Boll adds the praise of many contemporary authors and critics, including Edwin Muir, Katherine Mansfield, Thomas Mann, Aldous Huxley, Humbert Wolfe, Richard Aldington, W. Somerset Maugham, and Louis Kronenberger.

Until 1962, when Hudson's widow, Violet Schiff, published an edited version of his Richard, Myrtle, and I (1926), virtually nothing was known about the man born as Sydney Schiff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Schiff 

Stephen Hudson was a pseudonym of the British novelist Sydney Schiff (1868 – 1944). He is now better remembered for his place as a piece in the social jigsaw around more celebrated artists. Independently wealthy, he divided his time mostly between London and the south of France.

He was the host at a now-celebrated party in Paris on May 18, 1922, when Marcel Proust met James Joyce (without the slightest rapport), and other guests included Diaghilev, Stravinsky and Picasso. The occasion was the first night of Stravinsky's Renard. Schiff tried to get Picasso to paint a portrait of Proust, again abortively.

He translated Proust, completing the Scott-Montcrieff version; Sodome et Gomorrhe II was dedicated to him and Violet. Céleste, a story of Schiff's, was published in The Criterion in 1924. In it Proust appears as the character Richard Kurt. Proust reciprocated by helping his novels into French translation.