1705005007

1705005008 ● destined原意是“命中注定的”，但通常并不含有“命运”的意义，只是指“将来有某种结果”而已。他这只船造成以后，将要在未来世世代代（for generations to come）读者的心灵中航行。enchanted：着迷的；这本书可以使人入迷，使读者犹如置身于十五世纪的西班牙一般。船在很多人的心灵中航行，就是说很多人要读它（读了还要着迷）。

1705005009

1705005010 It was the work of William Hickling Prescott, Ticknor’s young friend, the charming, amusing son of Judge Prescott, who lived in his ample house in Bedford Street, overlooking a beautiful garden. Prescott?—who could believe it? He was partly blind, and he had an extravagant love of jolly parties. He talked with a joyous abandon, running over with animal spirits, laughing at his own inconsequences, with always some new joke or witty sally. He could be happy in more ways, in spite of his defective eyes, and happier in every one of them, than anyone else his friends had ever seen. One met him in the street, with his gay blue satin waistcoat, tall, graceful, with light brown hair and a clear and ruddy complexion. He seemed to look younger everyday. It was known that, for twenty years, he and a group of his friends had carried on a literary club, reading their papers over a merry supper. He had printed a few essays in the review. But this was in a dilettantish spirit, everyone supposed. One of his relatives, meeting him on the street, not long before his book appeared, urged him to undertake some serious task. It would be so good for him. It would be more respectable than leading this unprofitable life.

1705005011

1705005012 ● George Ticknor（1791—1871）：当时有名学者，曾任哈佛大学法文、西班牙文教授，学识渊博，喜奖掖后进。普氏年龄比他轻五岁。

1705005013

1705005014 ● 第一句说明普氏家世，其父任法官，家里房子很大。社会人士对他的认识是如此。作者并不直叙普氏的家世与为人，这里只是描写当时的人看见普氏的巨著后的惊奇心理：凭这样一个人也能写出这样一部书来吗？

1705005015

1705005016 ● partly blind：半盲。jolly parties：热闹的社交宴会。

1705005017

1705005018 ● abandon：随便（名词）。说起话来总很高兴，想说什么就说什么。

1705005019

1705005020 ● animal spirits：活泼好动的劲儿（此二字为成语）。running over：滔滔不绝地说话。inconsequences：前言不对后语，自己也觉得好笑。running和laughing都是形容主语He，描写他说话的情形。sally：隽语，俏皮话。

1705005021

1705005022 ● in more ways：他的眼睛虽有病，但他作乐的方法很多，他的朋友们再也没有看见像他那样会多方面寻快乐的人了。his friends had ever seen是定语从句，关系代名词that（或whom）省掉。in every one of them：in every one of these ways。别人也许也有他这么多作乐的方法，但是他寻起快乐来，不论任何方式，总比别人还要高兴。本句than一字，既照应前面的more，复照应稍后的happier。

1705005023

1705005024 ● 接着一句描写他的服饰容貌。作者还不是直接描写，还是借用当时人的看法。

1705005025

1705005026 ● One met him的One没有确指什么人。gay：色彩鲜艳的。satin：缎子。waistcoat：马甲，背心。graceful：态度文雅。clear and ruddy complexion：面色清朗红润。看他样子，似乎愈活愈年轻了。

1705005027

1705005028 ● It was known：大家知道。literary club：文学联谊会。merry supper：大家一起吃晚饭，谈笑欢乐，同时再宣读各人的论文。

1705005029

1705005030 ● the review指当时有名的杂志The North American Review。

1705005031

1705005032 ● dilettante：以文艺作为消遣之人。in the dilettantish spirit：他举办文学联谊会，发表文章，大家认为他只是搞着玩的，并不是真正用心研究或埋首写作。

1705005033

1705005034 ● undertake some serious task：着手干一样正经的工作。

1705005035

1705005036 ● respectable：为人所重视。他那时所过的生活，对他自己太没有好处了。

1705005037

1705005038 Every evening the light from his study window glimmered through the pear-trees in the garden. But only George Ticknor, outside the household, knew that, for at least ten years, Prescott had been hard at work, harder, perhaps, than any Boston merchant. And, if everyone bought this book for a Christmas present, it was only because the author was so attractive. One of his cronies, who was not a reader, rose before dawn, on the day it was published, to buy the first copy; but, while everyone saw at once that it was good, no one was aware how good it was. There were scarcely twelve men living who were able to know. Within a year or two, the electoral returns came rolling in, from England, France and Spain. The book had been born a classic.

1705005039

1705005040 ● study window：书斋的窗户。pear-trees：梨树。写这部文学史的勃鲁克斯，把人家花园里种的什么树都考证出来了，但只是像小说家那样的随手拈来，并不在卖弄考据之学。

1705005041

1705005042 ● outside the household：除了他家里人以外，只有好友Ticknor知道他在那里用功写作，而且已经花了“十年寒窗”的功夫了。（前文那位亲戚不知道，所以还要劝他干正经事。）

1705005043

1705005044 ● harder用以加强hard。他的用功之苦，比之波士顿孳孳为利的商人，也许有过之而无不及。

1705005045

1705005046 ● everyone是夸大的说法，即“很多人”。大家都去买他的书，作为圣诞礼品送人。买的人所以如此之多，因为作者为人很可爱，平日人缘很好，至于书写得好不好，大家并不关心。

1705005047

1705005048 ● cronies：好朋友。此人平日并不读书（not a reader）。

1705005049

1705005050 ● while有“虽然”之意。大家都看出来这是一部好书，但是到底好得怎么样，那些买书的人没有人知道。当时有资格评定这部书的优劣者，全世界仅有（scarcely）十二人而已。

1705005051

1705005052 ● electoral returns：各地选举的开票结果。这里并没有谁在举行选举，作者只是借用一个成语，表示各地的好评源源不断而来。

1705005053

1705005054 ● a classic：名著，不朽之作。这是个subjective complement：一出版就成了名著。

1705005055

1705005056 It was a conquest of personality. Prescott was a first-rate human being, exuberant, gallant, wilful, firm, devoted, far removed from the clerkly sort of scholar, painstaking but wanting in vigour and sinew, who, in a world in which the most virile types adopted careers of enterprising action, ruled over the sphere of books.

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