《四个人的签名》幕后创作趣闻-听译

译文部分：

四签名·前言

由史蒂芬·弗莱朗读

若是悉数文学史上最著名的几场餐桌会晤，那么发生在1889年8月13号伦敦朗廷酒店的这顿晚餐定能在其中占有一席之地。正如任何精彩绝伦的故事一样，这顿晚餐的参与者来自五湖四海——苏格兰、爱尔兰，以及美国。美国人是主办方，他的名字叫乔瑟夫·M·斯托达特，时任美国文学杂志《利平科特月刊》的主编。当时，这位即将在未来的三四十年里成为好莱坞首屈一指电影大亨的年轻人，还在为下一期期刊的内容发愁。而许多英国才华横溢的作家令他眼前一亮，使他坚信只有他们才能提高本杂志的知名度以及威望。于是他找到时年35岁的爱尔兰作家奥斯卡·王尔德，并邀请他参加自己的晚宴。接着，他又邀请到了包括亚瑟·柯南·道尔在内的两名前途广大的作家，但另一位却最终没能出席。这就是时年24岁的拉迪亚德·吉卜林。但是没关系，这位作家之后也将有机会为《利平科特月刊》撰稿，刊登他《消失的光芒》。

在1924年出版的《冒险回忆录》一书中，道尔将他与王尔德、斯托达特在1889年的晚餐称为“黄金般的夜晚”。王尔德在对道尔的历史小说《麦克·克拉克》夸赞一番后，二人面很快熟络起来。没有比这更得道尔心意的了。他承认，亲耳听到这个踏遍伦敦和巴黎所有高级沙龙的爱尔兰文豪的知晓甚至读过这本书的事实令他受宠若惊。在他回忆录的相关文章中，道尔着笔墨仔细分析了这个令他从一开始就万分钦佩的作家的性格以及相关事实。在此之前，他从未与一个伟大的演讲者相处过。

“我难以忘却与他的谈话，”他写道，“他在精神上凌驾于我们所有人之上，但却拥有善于聆听我们每个人话语的美德。他情感细腻而又不失礼节，因为只会自己滔滔不绝讲大话的人永远也不能成为一名真正的绅士。他衣着光鲜，谈吐不凡，拥有对于人性的独到见解与掌握。同时为了他人便于理解，他边说话便用微小的手势做解释的习惯也是独树一帜。如此情景已无法再现。”

斯托达特用一笔丰厚的酬劳、和坚持不懈的赞美和邀请，最后成功给二人布置下每人一篇作品的任务。道尔指出，“那场晚宴的结果便是，王尔德和我都要为利平科特月刊写一本书。王尔德的贡献是《道林·格雷的画像》，这本书无疑处于一个更高的道德水平。”

有趣的是，道尔居然会在王尔德因“有伤风化罪”锒铛入狱、随后其声誉在至少两代人的眼里毁于一旦之后写出这样的话。《道林·格雷的画像》，事实上在审判中也作为王尔德性情不端的旁证出现在法庭上。这样一来，道尔的声明“这本书无疑处于一个更高的道德水平”在我看来更像是与当时大多数正经的英国家庭意见相左的固执对峙。

既然斯托达特能委托奥斯卡·王尔德写出《道林·格雷的画像》这般名作，那么他究竟督促柯南·道尔写了什么呢？难道还是一本早已过时的历史传说吗？

当然不。 这是一本《暗红色的研究》的续集，继一年半以前刊登在《比顿的圣诞年报》的第二个歇洛克·福尔摩斯的冒险故事。它的名字被定为《四个人的签名》，后简化成《四签名》。这本书进一步充实了公众眼中福尔摩斯和华生的人物形象，继而使福尔摩斯的故事名声大噪，并使道尔确信他的这个角色——用现在的话来讲——是栩栩如生的；或者我们可以这样说，他意识到这是自己霸业的开端。

《四签名》中囊括了许多主题：寻宝历险、印度民族起义、（还有两个听不懂::>_<::）。其中，1857年的印军反抗也确实对当时的大英帝国造成了持久而巨大的冲击。这本书还讲述了华生的浪漫史和订婚的来龙去脉，以及贝克街小分队的再次现身。这些敏锐的小淘气鬼在福尔摩斯的指挥下成为了散布在伦敦大街小巷的情报使者。与此同时，我们也将认识托比，一条拥有敏锐嗅觉的警犬，福尔摩斯和其他的私家侦探也经常被这样做比喻。“警犬”一词源自古挪威语，起先用来描述动物的气味或者踪迹，后来便逐渐应用于拥有这项能力的犬类当中。之后出人意料的是，“警犬”一词逐渐成为了侦探们的代名词（sleuth除了“警犬”也有“侦探”之意），尤其是在歇洛克·福尔摩斯的续作中。

我这样想着，自此之后，书中描写的一切福尔摩斯优雅的赞颂语调、着衣打扮、波西米亚情调的兴趣爱好，以及一切艺术性和知性的性格，是否都多多少少来自于1889年八月中旬这场晚宴中，道尔才华出众的同道中人呢？ 但我能确定的有一点，就是柯南·道尔在玛丽·摩斯坦出场的戏份中故意加入了朗廷酒店这个地点。他有充分的理由对这个地方充满感激之情，而这位女士的名字，也体现了以上各种感情。

所以，让我们启程，前往四签名的神秘之旅吧！

原文部分：

The Sign of Four-foreword by Stephen Fry One of the most significant dinners in literary history took place at London’s Langham Hotel① on the 13th of August in the year 1889. Like many good stories, it concerns assortment of nationality and in this case, Scotsman, Irishman, and the American. The American was the host, his name was Joseph M. Stoddart and he was the managing editor of Lippincott's Magazine②, A literary publication issued monthly in the United States. Stoddart, as the Hollywood mogul were to be three or four decades later, was hungry for content to feed the periodical and the slew of british talent was just what he felt he needed to lend Lippincott's prestige. With the knows for talent that such________ always seem to have, he approached the 35-year-old Irishman Oscar Wilde, and asked him to attend his dinner. He extended the invitational so to the Scotsman Arthur Conan Doyle. A promising English author was asked too but couldn’t make it. That was the 24-year-old Rudyard Kipling③who would nonetheless go on to produce a novel for Lippincott’s ‘The Light that Failed④’. In his 1924 autobiography Memoirs of Adventures, Doyle refers to the 1889 dinner with Wilde and Stoddart as a ‘golden evening’. He and Wilde heated off straight away after Wilde complimented Doyle on his historical novel ‘Michael Clark⑤’. There was no sure of way to Doyle’s heart than that. He confessed to be amazed and flattered that the famous literary Irishman that toes the intellectuals’ salons in London and Paris had even heard of the book let alone read it. In the relevant passages in his memoirs, Doyle spent some time analyzing Wilde’s character and fact which he admired enormously from the outset. He had never been in the company of a greater speaker. ‘His conversation left the indelible impression on my mind.’ He wrote, ’He towered above us all, and yet had the art of seeming to be interested in all that we could say. He had delicacy of feeling and tact for the monologue man however clever can never be a gentleman at heart. He took as well as gay but what he gave was unique. He had a curious precision of state that delicate flavor of human and a trick of small gestures to illustrate his meaning which were peculiar to himself. The affect cannot be reproduced.’ Such was Stoddart gives the flattery coercion and the enthusiasm that he managed to commission each writer to produce a new work of fiction for his magazine. As Doyle put it, ‘The result of the evening was that both Wilde and I promised to write books for Lippincott's Magazine. Wilde’s contribution was The Picture of Dorian Gray, a book, which is surely upon a high moral plane.’ It’s interesting, that Doyle should write these words after criminal trial on ‘Subsequent Discretion Imprisonment ’had ruined Wilde’s reputation in the eyes of at least two generations. The Picture of Dorian Gray was in fact one of Wilde’s works adduced that the trials as evidence of his immorality, decadence and perversion. Doyle’s clear statement that it is ‘a book which is surely upon a high moral plane’ shows to my mind a very deliberate siding with the name still blackened at that time by scandal in many if not most respectable British households. If Stoddart had secured for Oscar Wilde Dorian Gray for his magazine, what could he coke out of Conan Doyle? Another of his medieval historical tales? No. It was to be a sequel to A Study in Scarlet, the fist Sherlock Holmes story, the novel that appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual a year and a half earlier. This second appearance of the great detective was to be entitled The Sign of the Four later shortened to just The Sign of Four. It would be the book that truly sealed the success of A Study in Scarlet fully cemented the characters of Holmes and Watson, in the public minds and convinced Doyle that he had a hero, who as we would express it now, ‘had legs’. Or perhaps we would say ‘made him aware that he now had on his hands the beginnings of a franchise’. The Sign of Four is many things: A treasure hunt, a tale of the Indian mutiny, ____________________________. Apart of that, sepoy rebellion⑤ as it was also called had, from an imperial respective, a seismic and enduring affect on the British public, and it’s viewed itself in the world. The word sepoy incidentally used often in the novel, refers to native Indian soldiers in the British Indian Army. The novel also offers romance and betrothal for Watson and reacquaintance for us with the Baker Street Irregulars, those sharp young urchins whom Holmes used it as agile and visible spies in the streets, alleys and walls of London. We meet, too, Toby, the sleuth hound with the infallible nose, a breed dog with which Holmes and other detectives are often compared. Indeed, the word ‘sleuth’ derives from an old Norse word for animal scent or trial from which the blood hound and other smelling dog got their alternative name ‘sleuth hounds’. Then by distinction, the word ‘sleuth’ began to be applied to detectives, especially, literary descendants of Sherlock Holmes. Is it perhaps fanciful to suggest that from this point onwards, some of Holmes’ murmured elegant of praising, dressing gown lodging, bohemian habits, and range of intellectual and artistic reference might owe a little something to Doyle’s marvelous dinner companion that late August night in 1889? I am at least sure, it is deliberate that Conan Doyle particular rises the Langham Hotel in Mary Morstan’s account of her adventures. He has much to thank the place for, and that little name check, is a graceful and grateful acknowledgement of it. So let’s embark together now, on the adventure of The Sign of Four!