查爾斯·狄更斯的“家居情結(jié)”

Jon： Charles Dickens had a turbulent childhood， which rose and fell with the fortunes of his father. This constant 1）flux meant that Charles was 2）barometrically sensitive， not just to the standards of accommodation but also to its location.

I’m Jon Henley， and in this walk we’ll take you ’round the house in which he was born 200 years ago. It’s now the Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum in 3）Portsmouth. And I’m here with the journalist Veronica Hallwell.

Veronica： John Dickens， Charles’ father， had rented in this area when he married in his midtwenties.

Jon： And...and he did what for...for a living？

Veronica： He worked for the Navy Pay Office， an accountant， we’d call him.

Just five months after Charles was born， the family had to trade down to a much smaller house in a meaner area—no more front garden， no more blossom view—then they went up another 4）notch as the family expanded. All Charles’childhood was like that， up a bit， down a lot， a house with a parlour among hay meadows， then...crash， the boy， alone in a garage in a slum. By the time he was a teen， he could evaluate exactly the social degree and likely income， not just for any street， but for each house， each 5）sublet room within it.

Jon： Hmm. Pretty precious asset for a sort of socially aware novelist then. Dickens was very 6）exacting in the way he would arrange his living quarters， wasn’t he？

Veronica： He chose his own furniture and furnishings. I don’t think his wife got much of a 7）look-in， and he was so exacting a tenant that the moment he got into a hotel room or a hired holiday lodging， he’d rearrange all the furniture.

One side effect of living in and visiting such different houses and ways of life， when he was just an observant child， was that he enjoyed imagining fantasy interiors in minute detail. It was almost like making a model inside his head， and， of course， he exactly reported those that revealed the characters he wrote about.

Jon： Hmm， and...and tell us how this obsession with all things domestic sort of manifested itself through his characters then.

Veronica： He wasn’t prejudiced in favour of the neat doll’s house for a 8）nuclear family， like this one. He had a very strong conviction that， with love and care and cleanliness， any combination of unlikely people on even unlikelier premises could be a happy home. Think of the romantic idea of the 9）Peggotty home in 10）Yarmouth， which was a recycled 11）barge on dry land. He imagined David Copperfield having this boyhood dream of a cabin， right down to oyster shells framing the mirror and a 12）nosegay of seaweed in a blue mug. He could be really world of interiors sometimes.

Jon： Extraordinary！

喬恩：查爾斯·狄更斯的童年極為動(dòng)蕩，隨著他父親財(cái)產(chǎn)的增減而時(shí)起時(shí)落。家中境況的不斷變遷使得查爾斯對(duì)住宅的水平及其坐落的地段都極度敏感。

我是喬恩·亨利，這次我們將會(huì)帶你參觀二百年前狄更斯出生的房子。這座房子位于樸茨茅斯，現(xiàn)在是查爾斯·狄更斯出生地博物館。記者維羅妮卡·豪爾維爾和我一起來(lái)到這里。

維羅妮卡：查爾斯的父親約翰·狄更斯二十多歲結(jié)婚時(shí)在這一帶租了房子。

喬恩：他是做什么謀生的？

維羅妮卡：他在海軍出納室做事，就是我們現(xiàn)在說(shuō)的會(huì)計(jì)。

查爾斯出生才五個(gè)月，他們家就不得不搬到一個(gè)條件更差的地區(qū)，租了一所比這小得多的房子——前花園沒(méi)有了，繁花盛開(kāi)的美景也看不到了——然后家里人多起來(lái)，他們又搬到稍好一點(diǎn)的住所。查爾斯的整個(gè)童年都是這樣，家里的境況一會(huì)兒有點(diǎn)起色，一會(huì)兒又急轉(zhuǎn)直下，這段時(shí)間住上了芳草繞室的好房子，不久又……嘩啦一下跌落谷底，查爾斯孤零零一人待在貧民區(qū)的車庫(kù)里。到了少年時(shí)期，對(duì)于任何一條街，甚至街上的每一座屋子、每一間轉(zhuǎn)租房的居住者所屬的社會(huì)層次及收入水平，他都可以準(zhǔn)確估算出來(lái)。

喬恩：唔，這對(duì)于一位比較關(guān)注社會(huì)問(wèn)題的小說(shuō)家來(lái)說(shuō)確實(shí)是一筆很寶貴的財(cái)富。狄更斯對(duì)自己住所的布置要求挺苛刻的，對(duì)吧？

維羅妮卡：他的家具和家居用品都是自己親手挑選的，我想他的妻子都不怎么插得上手。他是個(gè)要求非常苛刻的租客，他住進(jìn)旅館或者度假宿地的第一件事就是把里面的所有家具都重新擺放一遍。