A short note on Jane Austen 一点关于简奥斯丁的想法

Jane Austen - I like her, but not to the extent that I want to read all her works; six is not many, but two is enough for now. She was extremely observant and intelligent, and she found so much amusement in ridiculing stupidity (a trait smart people share), which delights and even enlightens her readers, but she failed to provoke in them deeper reflections due to her lack of compassion for her characters, which are lively but not complex, their emotions vivid but not profound. Moreover, despite her sharp insight into humanity, she was optimistic and idealistic, reflected through her insistence on happy endings. Did she really believe one can have true love, happiness, and wealth all at once as long as one's kind and just? Or did she lose all hope for the reality that she could only desperately realize her ideals in her books (Austen didn't marry in her whole life and lived in relative poverty)? Which one was her motive for holding on to happy endings, I'm not sure, but such a settlement of characters that, at one point, everything just clicks, and they just walk toward happiness is contrived, unconvincing, and stops engaging vigilant readers. I know these comments are too harsh for works written 200 years ago, and I should stop and be content with the fact that literature has advanced so much in almost every aspect since then that it made me so picky. Still, personally, I regard Wuthering Height as a better book than Austen's, at least better than the two I read, Mansfield Park and Pride and Prejudice. Doubtlessly, they are classics and should always be read with reverence, but for me, their historical value exceeds their literary value now, for many works after hers have surpassed hers.

简奥斯汀—我喜欢她，但没有达到我想读完她所有作品的程度；六部作品不多，但目前两部就够了。她观察力极强，也很聪明，她从嘲笑愚蠢行径中找到了很多乐趣（聪明人共有的特征），这给她的读者带来欢乐，让他们得到启迪，但她对人物缺乏同情心，没法引起读者更深层的思考，她的人物有趣，但不够复杂，他们的情感生动，但不够深刻。此外，尽管她对人性有敏锐的洞察，她仍十分乐观和理想主义，这点反映在她对圆满结局的坚持上。她是否真的相信，只要一个人善良、公正，就能同时拥有真爱、幸福和财富？还是她对现实失去了所有的希望，只能在书中拼命实现她的理想(奥斯汀一生没有结婚，生活相对贫困）？是哪个动机让她如此坚持大团圆结局，我不确定，但这样的人物安置，即在某一点上，一切都变得很顺利，人们就这样走向了幸福，是不自然的，没有说服力的，也无法继续吸引机警的读者。我知道这些评论对两百年前的作品来说太苛刻了，我应该停下来，满足于这样一个事实：从那时起，文学在几乎所有方面都有了很大进步，以至于让我如此挑剔。不过，就我个人而言，我认为《呼啸山庄》比奥斯汀的书更好，至少比我读过的《曼斯菲尔德庄园》和《傲慢与偏见》这两部好。无疑，它们是经典之作，我们应该永远怀着敬畏之心阅读，但对我来说，现在它们的历史价值已经超过了文学价值，因为在她之后的许多作品都超过了她。