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牛津大學齣版百年旗艦産品,英文版本原汁原味呈現,資深編輯專為閱讀進階定製,文學評論名傢妙趣橫生解讀。
內容簡介
弗朗茨·卡夫卡的小說閤集,包括中篇小說《變形記》和短篇小說《沉思錄》《判決》《在流放地》和《緻父親的信》。《變形記》是形成卡夫卡獨創風格的第一部作品,是20世紀影響深遠的小說之一。
作者簡介
弗朗茨·卡夫卡(1883—1924)奧地利偉大的作傢之一,被認為是現代派文學的鼻祖,錶現主義文學的先驅,其作品大都用變形荒誕的形象和象徵的手法,錶現被充滿敵意的社會環境所包圍的孤立、絕望的個人,成為席捲歐洲的“現代人的睏惑”的集中體現,並在歐洲掀起瞭一陣又一陣的“卡夫卡熱”。主要作品有《城堡》《變形記》《飢餓藝術傢》《審判》《鄉村醫生》等。
精彩書評
卡夫卡的巨大貢獻並不全在於他跨齣瞭曆史發展中決定性的一步,更為重要的是,他齣人意料地打開瞭一扇門,讓人們看到:在小說這個領域,幻想能夠如同在夢中一樣爆炸,小說能從看似難以擺脫的逼真性要求中解放齣來。
——米蘭·昆德拉
是卡夫卡使我發現我會成為一個作傢的。我十七歲那年,讀到瞭《變形記》,當時我認為自己準能成為一個作傢。我看到主人公格裏高爾·薩姆沙一天早晨醒來居然會變成一隻巨大的甲蟲,於是我就想:“原來能這麼寫呀。要是能這麼寫,我倒也有興緻瞭。”
——加西亞·馬爾剋斯 目錄
Biographical Preface
Introduction
Note on the Text
Note on the Translation
Select Bibliography
A Chronology of Franz Kafka
MEDITATION
THE JUDGEMENT
THE METAMORPHOSIS
IN THE PENAL COLONY
LETTER TO HIS FATHER
Explanatory Notes 精彩書摘
卡夫卡的巨大貢獻並不全在於他跨齣瞭曆史發展中決定性的一步,更為重要的是,他齣人意料地打開瞭一扇門,讓人們看到:在小說這個領域,幻想能夠如同在夢中一樣爆炸,小說能從看似難以擺脫的逼真性要求中解放齣來。
——米蘭·昆德拉
是卡夫卡使我發現我會成為一個作傢的。我十七歲那年,讀到瞭《變形記》,當時我認為自己準能成為一個作傢。我看到主人公格裏高爾·薩姆沙一天早晨醒來居然會變成一隻巨大的甲蟲,於是我就想:“原來能這麼寫呀。要是能這麼寫,我倒也有興緻瞭。”
——加西亞·馬爾剋斯
前言/序言
This collection includes four of the seven books that Kafka published during— or just after— his lifetime. Even if Kafka’s three novels had remained unpublished, in keeping with his professed wish, his short fiction would have given him a secure place in the modernist canon. During his life they brought him, if not fame, at least the respect of many fellow-writers. Robert Musil invited him to write for the Neue Rundschau (New Review), the leading literary magazine in Germany, though Kafka was unable to accept the invitation; Rainer Maria Rilke attended the public reading of In the Penal Colony that Kafka gave in Munich, and revealed in conversation that he knew and admired Kafka’s previous stories. Kafka was not as obscure an author as is sometimes imagined.
Yet Kafka’s literary output is small, and was produced under difficult conditions. He held down a day job as an extremely able and valued employee in a state-run workers’ accident insurance firm. Officially his working hours were from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. without a break, but of course he often had to stay in the office for longer, and after the outbreak of war in 1914 the absence of many staff serving in the army increased the workload for those who, like Kafka, were exempted from military service on the grounds that they were indispensable. In his early years Kafka also paid many visits to factories in the industrial zone of northern Bohemia to report on the safety standards of the machinery in use. On leaving work he would walk, swim, or rest. Since he lived with his parents in their flat until he was 30, he could not find peace to write until everyone else had gone to bed.
Having such limited writing time, Kafka tended to favour short fiction. Even his novels, especially The Trial, are very much series of episodes. The mood-pictures which make up Meditation are very short; eight of them appeared in the Munich periodical Hyperion in 1908, marking Kafka’s debut as a published author. Brevity had the advantage that the initial impulse could be sustained throughout the text. With longer texts, Kafka, who never planned his work, found that his original inspiration tended to flag. The great exception was The Judgement, written in a single night, but he never again achieved such a unified, coherent piece of writing; he was dissatisfied with the end of The Metamorphosis, perhaps because of the change of perspective required by the protagonist’s death.
As an author, Kafka was not only self-critical, but as perplexed by his own works as his readers have subsequently been. He wrote to Felice Bauer: ‘Can you discover any meaning in The Judgement — some straightforward, coherent meaning that one could follow? I can’t find any, nor can I explain anything in it.’ His writing is sharp, precise, and beautifully paced, yet his descriptions become enigmatic and bewildering on close scrutiny, and he packs into his narratives a wealth of suggestions and implications which refuse to yield any simple or single interpretation. The philosopher Adorno wrote of Kafka: ‘Each sentence says “Interpret me”, and none will permit it.’ At the same time, Kafka’s narratives and images are frighteningly direct. A father condemns his son to death. A commercial traveller is turned into an insect. Colonial justice is administered by an elaborate machine. Themes of power and violence are given palpable form. Yet the messages of the stories are complex, ambivalent, and inexhaustible.
Kafka’s literary skill is apparent also in the long autobiographical letter he wrote to his father (but fortunately never delivered) in November 1919. The ability to argue a case that Kafka had developed as a lawyer is exercised with eloquence, passion, cunning, and a precise and vivid recall of crucial episodes from his childhood. How far the Letter to his Father should be seen as literature is still undecided, but as a text on the borders of autobiography and imaginative fiction it remains a painful masterpiece.
《失落的星圖:剋萊因的最後一次航行》 深入被遺忘的秘境,探索人類精神的邊界 《失落的星圖:剋萊因的最後一次航行》是一部融閤瞭十九世紀末歐洲哲學思潮、海洋探險的宏大敘事與細膩的心理刻畫的史詩級長篇小說。故事圍繞著瑞典裔天文學傢兼哲學傢奧古斯特·剋萊因展開,這位被譽為“星辰之子”的學者,在一次震驚學界的理論發布後,突然銷聲匿跡。他留下的,隻有一艘被遺棄在挪威北部峽灣的科考船“奧丁之眼”,以及一本殘缺不全的航海日誌。 小說伊始,我們將跟隨剋萊因的昔日學生,年輕的語言學傢伊娃·桑德伯格,重返那片被冰雪覆蓋的禁地。伊娃的任務是解讀剋萊因留下的謎團:他究竟是發現瞭宇宙的終極真理,還是在科學的邊緣走嚮瞭徹底的瘋狂? 第一部分:理性與失序的邊緣 剋萊因在小說開篇時,正處於他學術生涯的巔峰與崩潰的交界點。他畢生緻力於研究“絕對時間”與“空間維度”的統一性,相信宇宙的運行法則並非牛頓或愛因斯坦所描述的那樣綫性或可預測。在維也納的沙龍中,剋萊因發錶瞭他顛覆性的理論——“迴聲宇宙論”,認為每一個瞬間都在無限重復,而我們所感知到的“現在”,不過是無數個微小錯位的時間切片重疊的結果。 這一理論使他聲名鵲起,但也引來瞭保守學派的猛烈抨擊。正當他遭受道德和學術上的圍剿時,一封來自格陵蘭海域的匿名信件,揭示瞭一個關於古代北歐神話中“永恒之光”的秘密。剋萊因相信,這束光是證明他理論存在的唯一物理證據。他變賣瞭所有傢産,購置瞭改裝過的“奧丁之眼”,開始瞭這場旨在“觸碰時間盡頭”的航行。 伊娃在解讀日誌時,發現剋萊因的文字風格隨著航程的深入而發生瞭戲劇性的變化。早期的記錄嚴謹精確,充滿瞭復雜的數學公式和對星象的細緻描繪;而航行至北極圈附近後,日誌中充斥著對光怪陸離的幻覺、對“深海低語”的恐懼,以及對船員們日益怪異行為的記錄。這些記載揭示瞭遠航如何一步步侵蝕瞭剋萊因的理智,或者,正如他自己所堅信的,如何讓他更接近真相。 第二部分:冰封的信仰與異化的航程 “奧丁之眼”的航程是一場對人類耐受力的終極考驗。船隊深入人類文明的空白地帶,他們遇到的不僅僅是極端的低溫和永恒的黑夜,更是一種存在主義的虛無感。剋萊因的船員大多是社會邊緣人物——被學術界放逐的流亡者、尋求遺忘的退伍軍人,以及對“舊世界”秩序感到厭倦的理想主義者。 小說細緻地描繪瞭船上群體的心理動態。在絕對的孤立中,人與人之間的關係變得異常脆弱且扭麯。船長,一位沉默寡言的挪威老水手,開始堅信船艙裏有某種“非我族類”的生物在操縱航綫;而負責醫藥的醫生則沉迷於使用從當地因紐特部落獲取的草藥,試圖製造一種能讓人“看穿時間薄紗”的緻幻劑。 剋萊因本人則在船上建立瞭一套私人的觀測係統,他將望遠鏡對準冰層下的深海,而非天空。他堅信,在他理論中缺失的那個維度,存在於海洋深處,被遠古的冰層所封存。伊娃發現,剋萊因開始用他自己創造的符號來記錄觀測結果,這些符號既像古老的如尼文,又像某種高度抽象的代數結構,令所有試圖破譯的人感到絕望。 其中最引人入勝的章節,是關於船員集體“失語癥”的記錄。在經曆瞭一場持續數日的極光風暴後,船上絕大多數人失去瞭用已知語言交流的能力,他們開始使用一種基於手勢、音樂節奏和色彩辨識的復雜交流係統。這讓伊娃不得不重新審視剋萊因理論的核心——語言本身是否就是限製我們感知現實的枷鎖? 第三部分:迴聲的盡頭 隨著“奧丁之眼”到達預定的坐標——一片被當地人稱為“無聲之海”的冰蓋區域——剋萊因的日誌達到瞭高潮。他描述瞭一次突破性的“下潛”,並非物理意義上的潛水,而是一種精神上的“沉入”。 他記錄道: > “並非時間在流動,而是我們被時間之河推著嚮前。但如果我能找到那條河岸的泥土,我便能站立不動。那光,那曾被視為神跡或幻覺的光,不是來自外部,而是從存在的底層湧齣的……它並非永恒,而是‘永恒的開端’,一個從未被開始的瞬間。” 小說的後半部分,伊娃必須麵對一個殘酷的現實:剋萊因的最終記錄隻剩下瞭一句話,潦草地寫在一張摺疊的星圖背麵:“我已找到地圖,但航道本身已不存在。” 緊接著,伊娃抵達瞭“奧丁之眼”被發現的地點。船體雖然受損,但內部結構卻詭異地完整,仿佛被一種無形的力量小心翼翼地安放在那裏。船員們不知所蹤,但實驗室中堆滿瞭成百上韆的、被磨光的海玻璃,這些玻璃的內部似乎封存著某種微小的光斑。 伊娃最終的探索導嚮瞭一個哲學上的悖論:剋萊因是否真的成功地觸及瞭時間之外的結構,卻因此付齣瞭人類身份的代價?他留下的遺産,是關於宇宙的終極奧秘,還是對人類心智極限的一次殘忍的、無法復製的演示? 《失落的星圖》不僅是對一次偉大探險的追憶,更是一場關於記憶、感知與知識邊界的深刻冥想。它邀請讀者跟隨伊娃的腳步,進入那片寒冷、寂靜、卻又孕育著宇宙最宏大秘密的北境深處。這部作品是對所有試圖超越人類已知範疇的探索者們,獻上的一麯宏偉而又哀傷的挽歌。