奥斯汀有秘密情人吗？

 

译自2005年5月27日英国《海峡时报》

 

一些新的电影和书籍指出：奥斯汀故事中的爱情故事的灵感来自她自己的多舛的求爱经历。

 

澳大利亚，悉尼：简. 奥斯汀写过一些英语文学中最持久的恋情，但她却从来没有过一段属于她自己充满激情的恋情。

这还是她吗？ 一部新的传纪电影指出，《傲慢与偏见》以及《理智与情感》的年轻作者是不是历史学家长期以来想象中的孤独天才，而是一个自由的精灵，其想象力来自于一段充满激情而命运多舛的求爱经历。

历史学家乔恩. 斯宾塞在他的新书《成为简奥斯汀》中提出的理论，已被松散地改编成电影，主演为安妮. 海瑟薇和玛吉.史密斯，七部奥斯汀灵感的电影和电视短剧将于今年发布。

观众仍然被她的爱与失去，渴望与失望的故事引入胜景，尽管他们看似过时地将兴趣集中在早在19世纪的英国复杂的求偶仪式。 但是，奥斯汀进军这些普遍主题的智慧，是她丰富的想象力的产物，还是她自己未了的对爱情的渴望所启发呢？

斯彭斯先生与他之前的许多史学家一样，试图以检查奥斯汀的信件的方式来回答这个问题，这些信件包括奥斯汀于1795年至1796年冬季与她的姐姐卡桑德拉之间的通信，她当时正留在伯克希尔她的未婚夫的家庭中。

年轻的作家吐露了她对汤姆. 勒夫罗伊的诱惑，他是一位邻居的侄子，当时正在访问奥斯汀的故乡斯蒂文郡。两人都是20岁，身无分文，但吸引力在瞬间发生。

“自己想象一下吧，一切最为挥霍和令人震惊的事情都是以一起跳舞和座谈发生的，”奥斯汀写到她与勒夫罗伊在晚会和家庭聚会上的举止行为。

在另一封信中，她带着轻浮的预判写道到关于勒夫罗伊的阿姨抛出的彩球。  “我以极大的不安期待着，我宁愿在晚上从我的朋友那儿收到请柬。”

是求婚吗？ 信中从未证实这件事的前景，但斯彭斯先生认为她期待正是这个。

在夫妻分居后不久，勒夫罗伊来到汉普郡开始他在伦敦的法律学习，在那里他与他的叔叔及恩人本杰明. 朗格卢瓦一起住，奥斯汀来到肯特郡与她的两个兄弟一起住。

按照传统思维，他们再也没有见过对方。 但斯彭斯先生的侦探工作提出，当时的习俗导致浪漫的前景的挫败。

她在去肯特中在伦敦停留，奥斯汀写了一封简短而措辞含糊的信给她的妹妹，地址来自“科克街”,答应她将在下次会面期间透露她与勒夫罗伊的关系。

斯彭斯先生检查历史记录，发现勒夫罗伊的叔公住在科克街。 他还发现，科克街当时没有旅馆或出租屋。

他承认，有没有证据证明奥斯丁与勒夫罗伊住在一起，但他表示，这一对在同一时间住在同一条街上是一个“奇怪的巧合”。

斯彭斯先生认为最有可能的是，奥斯汀旅行的理解是，她与勒夫罗伊的未来取决于他的叔公的批准。

  勒夫罗伊是10个孩子中的长子，肩负家庭重担，婚姻美满将提供稳定收入，确保他的兄弟姐妹安全。 他本来需要他大叔公的批准，继续与奥斯汀的浪漫史，因为一个牧师的女儿是没有家庭前途的。

奥斯汀期待勒夫罗伊重新点燃他们的爱，但他没有。

斯彭斯先生是第一个推测奥斯丁访问科克街的意义的学者，并假设她和勒夫罗伊抱有婚姻将因受到亲戚反对而作罢的想法。 但他不是唯一相信奥斯丁与勒夫罗伊短暂的浪漫史助长了她的创作精神的人。

乔纳森. 霍尔珀林先生，1995年奥斯汀传记《简. 奥斯汀的生活》的作者，相信由于勒夫罗伊的关系，为奥斯丁的写作感觉和形式丰富了色彩。  “他们的关系，虽然是单纯的，但对简. 奥斯汀的破坏性却是巨大的，并且随着年纪的增长，她认识到这是她追求美满婚姻的唯一机会。”

但一些研究奥斯汀的学者都拒绝了这样的意见，即她的小说是明确基于自己的经历。

  简. 奥斯汀学会北美总裁，玛莎. 赫夫女士说：“一段浪漫的情感，在20岁的年纪，肯定影响了奥斯汀。 但她在遇见勒夫罗伊之前早已开始写作了，如果他们从未遇到过，她也会成为一个伟大的作家。”

 

Did Austen have a secret love?

From The Straits Times 2007年5月23日

 

May 23, 2007

Did Austen have a secret love?

New movie and book suggest that the author's tales of love and loss were inspired by her own ill-fated courtship

SYDNEY, Australia - Jane Austen wrote some of English literature's most enduring romances, but she never enjoyed a passionate love affair of her own.

Or did she? A new film and biography suggest the young writer of Pride And Prejudice and Sense And Sensibility was not the solitary genius long imagined by historians, but a free spirit whose imagination was fed by a passionate, ill-fated courtship.

 

The theory, presented by historian Jon Spence in his book Becoming Jane Austen, has been loosely adapted into a film starring Anne Hathaway and Maggie Smith, one of seven Austen-inspired movies and TV miniseries due for release this year.

 

Audiences remain entranced by her tales of love and loss, desire and disappointment, despite their seemingly outdated focus on the intricate courtship rituals of early 19th-century Britain. But was Austen's ability to tap into these universal themes a product of her rich imagination or was she inspired by her own unfulfilled longing?

 

Mr Spence, like many historians before him, has attempted to answer the question by examining letters Austen wrote during the winter of 1795-96 to her sister, Cassandra, who was staying with her fiance's family in Berkshire.

 

The young writer confided of her attraction to Tom Lefroy, the nephew of a neighbour visiting Austen's hometown of Steventon, Hampshire. Both were 20 years old and penniless, but the attraction was instantaneous.

 

'Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way of dancing and sitting down together,' Austen wrote of her behaviour with Lefroy at parties and family gatherings.

 

In another letter, she wrote with giddy anticipation about an impending ball thrown by Lefroy's aunt. 'I look forward with great impatience' to the party, 'as I rather expect to receive an offer from my friend in the course of the evening.'

 

A marriage proposal? The prospect is never confirmed in the letters, but Mr Spence believes she was anticipating it.

 

The couple separated soon afterwards - Lefroy to Hampshire to begin his law studies in London, where he lived with his great-uncle and benefactor Benjamin Langlois, and Austen to Kent with her two brothers.

 

Conventional thinking has been that they never saw each other again. But detective work by Mr Spence raised the tantalising prospect of a romance frustrated by the mores of the time.

 

Stopping in London on her way to Kent, Austen wrote a terse, vaguely worded letter to her sister addressed from 'Cork Street', promising to reveal all about her relationship with Lefroy at their next meeting.

 

Mr Spence checked historical records and found that Lefroy's great-uncle lived in Cork Street. He also discovered there were no inns or lodgings at that time on Cork Street.

 

He concedes there is no proof Austen lodged with Lefroy, but says it would have been a 'strange coincidence' for the pair to be staying on the same street at the same time.

 

Most likely, Mr Spence believes Austen travelled there with the understanding that her future with Lefroy depended on the approval of his elderly patron.

 

Lefroy was the eldest son of 10 children, with heavy responsibilities to marry well and provide income and security for his siblings. He would have needed his great-uncle's approval to continue the romance with Austen, a clergyman's daughter with no family fortune.

 

Austen waited for Lefroy to re-ignite their courtship, but he never did.

 

Mr Spence is the first scholar to speculate on the meaning of Austen's visit to Cork Street, and to suppose that she and Lefroy entertained thoughts of marriage that were swept away by a disapproving relation. But he is not alone in believing that Austen's brief romance with Lefroy fuelled her creative spirit.

 

Mr Jonathan Halperin, author of the 1995 biography, The Life Of Jane Austen, believes the Lefroy connection coloured much of Austen's writing, in both feeling and form. 'The relationship, though innocent, was devastating for Jane Austen, and as she grew older, she came to see that it had been her one chance for married happiness.'

 

But some Austen scholars have rejected the suggestion that her novels were based explicitly on her own experiences.

 

Ms Marsha Huff, president of the Jane Austen Society of North America, said: ' A romantic attachment at the age of 20 must have influenced Austen. But she had begun writing long before she met Lefroy, and would have been a great writer had they never met.'