简·奥斯汀，英国最伟大的女作家之一。她终身未婚，将所有情感注于文学创作；虽然一生只有六部作品，但部部都是精华。她以细致入微的观察力和风趣有力的文字为我们展现了她那个时代的英国，也展现了她对这个世界的理解和希望。读她的作品，体会这个遗世而独立的女子关于爱情、金钱以及人情世故的感悟，或许我们也会豁然开朗。

http://s5/mw690/001IzyYFzy6RGRv6pfK54&690#翻译#" TITLE="小艾双语时间：简·奥斯汀教会我们的事 #翻译#" />

    Jane Austen is loved mainly as a charming guide to fashionable life in the Regency period. She is admired for portraying a world of elegant houses, dances, servants and fashionable young men driving barouches. But her own vision of her task was radically different. She was an ambitious—and stern—moralist. She was acutely conscious of human failings and she had a deep desire to make people nicer: less selfish, more reasonable, more dignified and more sensitive to the needs of others.
    我们喜爱简·奥斯汀，主要是因为她的作品将我们带到了摄政时期的时尚生活中去。她因描绘了一幅别墅、舞蹈、仆人，和驾着四轮马车时尚男青年的世界而备受推崇。但在她自己看来，这些与她的本意南辕北辙。简·奥斯汀是一位野心勃勃且坚定不移的道德论者。她敏锐地察觉到了人性的弱点，并从心底渴望人们能变得更完美：不再自私，更加理性，更加高尚，更多地关注他人的需求

1.Let your lover educate you 向你的爱人学习
    In Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet start off heartily disliking each other and then, gradually realise they are in love. They make one of the great romantic couples. He is handsome, rich and well connected; she is pretty, smart and lively. But why actually are they right for one another?
    在《傲慢与偏见》中，达西先生和伊丽莎白·班内特起初非常讨厌对方，但最终他们陷入爱河。他们成为著名的浪漫情侣之一。达西先生很英俊富有，社会关系优越；伊丽莎白则漂亮、聪明、有活力。但是，他们真正般配的原因是什么？
    Jane Austen is very clear. It’s for a reason we tend not to think of very much today: It is because each can educate and improve the other.
    简·奥斯汀很清楚原因，但我们如今已经很少会想到：这是因为恋人可以相互学习，互相改变。

http://s16/bmiddle/001IzyYFzy6RGRygwdVdf&690#翻译#" TITLE="小艾双语时间：简·奥斯汀教会我们的事 #翻译#" />
2. We shouldn't stop judging people; but we have to judge more carefull   我们可以去评价判断一个人，但要更加小心谨慎
    Austen exchanges the normal lens through which people are viewed in society, a lens which magnifies wealth and power, for a moral lens, which magnifies qualities of character. Rather than focus on who has the nicest dress, the best carriage, or the most servants, she examines who is vain, selfish or cruel; who has integrity, humility and true dignity.
    社会中的人们透过财富和权力的透镜观察他人，而简·奥斯汀把它换成了道德的透镜，推崇一个人性格的魅力。不去关注谁的礼服最美，谁的马车最棒，谁的仆人最多，简·奥斯汀审察一个人是否自负、自私或者残暴；什么人又正直、谦卑而高尚。
    Jane Austen is not the enemy of status. She just wants to see it properly distributed and at the end of her novels it always is.
    简·奥斯汀并不仇视社会地位，她只是想在评价他人时给社会地位这一选项分配合适的权重。这常常体现在她小说的结局上。

3. Take money seriously  慎重对待金钱
    Jane Austen is quite frank about money. She takes aim at two big mistakes people make around money. One is to get over-impressed by what money can do.
    简·奥斯汀对金钱的态度很坦率。她指出了人们常犯的两个关于金钱的错误。其中之一就是过于看重金钱的作用。
    Jane Austen is steering her way towards an elusive—but crucial—attitude. Money is in some ways extremely important and in other ways unimportant. We can’t just be for it or against it. It sounds simple, of course, to assert this; and yet we are continually going wrong in practice.
    简·奥斯汀想要教给我们的是一种难以把握但至关重要的心态：金钱在有些时候极其重要，而在另一些时候一文不值。我们不能一味追求金钱，也不能一味厌恶金钱。当然，嘴上说说很简单，但现实中我们一直在犯错误。

4. Don't be snobbish  不要有势利眼
    Jane Austen does not think that the cure for snobbery is to think that everyone is equal. In her eyes, that would be immensely unjust. Rather, the real cure is to pay attention to true merit.
    简·奥斯汀认为势利眼的解决办法并不是将所有人平等看待。在她看来，这是非常不公平的，而真正的办法是应关注他人真正的优点。
    Few people are deliberately snobbish. Jane Austen does not mock snobbery as the behaviour of ghastly and contemptible people. Instead, she regards the snob with pity—as someone who lives a blighted life (however materially comfortable); they are in need of instruction, guidance and reform. But mostly, of course, they don’t get this help.
    极少有人是有意变得势利的。简·奥斯汀也没有把势利眼嘲弄为恶劣而可鄙之人的行为。相反，她对之表示怜悯，就像看到有人活的非常悲惨一样（无论物质上多么舒适）；这些人需要教育、指导和重塑。但诚然，大多数人没有这种机会。

    文章来源：《英语学习》2015年第5期 “The Great Novelist: Jane Austen”。