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I mean he was a leading exponent of the sensation novel that
我想说他是奇情小说的代表人物
gave the readers lots and lots of very wild and lured adventures.
这类小说让读者体验很多狂野与诱惑的冒险
He saw the potential of the who done it genre.
他预见到了寻凶流派的前景
But he didn't push it towards
但他并没有去推动
what became its ultimatum almost platonically ideal form,
而寻凶最终成熟，几乎成为柏拉图式的
the murder mystery.
理想形式
The writer who nearly did this was Charles Dickens.
差点做成此事的人是查尔斯.狄更斯
His last novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood,
他最后一部小说，埃德温·德鲁德之谜
which was published in 1870,
于1870年出版
did actually put what seems to be a murder,
写得很像是谋杀题材
the disappearance in murky circumstances
在黑暗的环境里
of a young men Edwin Drood.
年轻人埃德温·德鲁德离奇失踪
It puts that right to the center.
这正是小说的中心内容
And again when you read Edwin Drood,
我想当你读这本小说时
I think you feel that you are in the role of detective fiction.
你会感觉这像是一本侦探小说
That's a small circle of suspects again.
嫌疑人的范围很小
There are clues, evidence of disguise, plenty of suspicious behavior.
有证据，伪装，众多可疑的行为
Especially from Edwin's opium addicted uncle Jasper.
埃德温的叔叔，瘾君子贾斯伯尤为可疑
Jasper is normally a name that rings warning bells
贾斯伯这个名字在19世纪的小说和戏剧中
in 19th century fiction and plays.
通常是敲响警钟的角色
And anyway Jasper living out to his name really seems to
不管怎样，这次贾斯伯真的是人如其名
have dark designs on the girl that Edwin is in love with.
他看上去对埃德温喜欢的女孩居心叵测
There's even something that later
书中甚至包含一些
plays a very prominent role
之后在黄金时代侦探小说中
in detective fiction during the Golden Age.
有突出作用的设定
And that's an ulterior respectable very genteel setting.
看上去温文尔雅的上流人士背后却藏有不可告人的秘密
Detective writers love to, especially in the 20s and 30s,
19世纪20 30年代的侦探小说作家
they love to juxtapose the deadly and the decorous to
尤其喜欢让彬彬有礼却内心歹毒的角色
make terrible things happen in places like Tolkeer and Cheltenham.
在类似于切尔滕纳姆的地方制造恐怖事端
And very very vicarages and so.
特别是发生在教区
So what Dickens does in Edwin Drood
狄更斯在，埃德温·德鲁德之谜，中
is to place the mystery inside a cathedral close.
将事发地点选择大教堂内
It is all sounds promisingly as though
听起来都像是在证明
he come up with the first murder mystery.
狄更斯写出了第一部神秘谋杀小说
But of course he didn't,
但是他并没有做到
because he died before he could complete the mystery of Edwin Drood.
因为他没有完成此书便去世了
We don't in fact know, we don't know who the murderer was,
事实上我们并不知道谁是凶手
and in fact we can't even be 100% certain that was a murder,
我们甚至不能百分之百确定这是个谋杀案
and that Edwin Drood isn't going to reappear alive
说不定在小说的最后
before the end of the novel.
发现埃德温仍然活着
And it's although frustrating and tantalizing.
这让人觉得沮丧和惋惜
Especially Dickens told a close associate of his
特别是狄更斯曾对他的亲密助手谈到
that he changed his mind about the plot of Edwin Drood.
他在小说的情节上改变了主意
As he was writing it
因为在创作的过程中
and he thought of something incredibly ingenuous
他想实现更为直白的表达
rather hard to pull off in the plot.
情节上却比较难以实现
But he was sure he could do it
但他相信自己能做到
Annoyingly, you know, he didn't lived to do it.
可惜的是，他没能活到那一天
I would say it's a pity that Dickens didn't finish it,
我想说，狄更斯没能完成这部小说很让人惋惜
because given his lifelong fascination with murder and its affects,
因为考虑到他对谋杀题材的毕生迷恋和钟爱
it would have been nicely appropriate
他非常适合
if he'd pioneered the murder mystery story.
做神秘谋杀小说的先驱
