《苔絲》的靈感源自何處？

It’s just a 1）trickle， really， in southwest England. It cuts through the County of Dorsetshire， an area that was once occupied by Celtic tribes. Then the Romans held on to the region until the 2）Dark Ages when the Saxons took over.

Much later， the novelist Thomas Hardy took inspiration from this river and the surrounding villages.

Neil Herbert （Local）： If you look closely， just outside the church， there are a couple of graves called the Dumbervilles. And Thomas Hardy used those grave names for his Tess of the d’Urbervilles. And just down the road is 3）Bathsheba’s house in Far From the Madding Crowd.

Naomi Lewin （Reporter）： I’m sitting by the banks of the River Piddle， in Piddletrenthide， in Dorset， England. “River” is a bit of an exaggeration—at the widest point， this is maybe 12 feet. It’s a gentle stream—you can hear it bubbling in the background. In Piddletrenthide， you can drink a Piddle Ale at the Piddle Inn， and that’s where I caught up with Neil Herbert， who lives here.

Neil： Everybody thinks Piddletrenthide is a funny name. I’m used to it now， it doesn’t bother me， but every time you meet somebody， and they say where do you live， and we live in Piddletrenthide， and they laugh.

There are two villages close together here—Piddletrenthide and Piddlehinton， about two miles downstream. And after that， the villages on the Piddle are called Puddle. There’s Puddletown， there is Affpuddle， there is Tolpuddle， Briantspuddle. And the story goes that the names were changed from “Piddle” to “Puddle” because Queen Victoria was visiting this area as a young girl， and the locals thought that the word “piddle” might have been slightly offensive， so they changed the names to“puddle.”

其實這只是英格蘭西南部的一條涓涓細流，它流經多塞特郡，此地曾為凱爾特部落的領地，后來被羅馬人占領，到中世紀前期又落入撒克遜人手中。

多年以后，小說家托馬斯·哈代從這條河和它周圍的村莊中找到了靈感。

尼爾·赫伯特（當地人）：仔細看的話，你會發現教堂外面有幾座墳墓刻著“鄧伯維爾”。托馬斯·哈代就是用了墓碑上面的名字來命名他的小說《德伯家的苔絲》。沿著這條路走，還能看到《遠離塵囂》里芭絲謝芭的房子。

娜奧米·魯伊恩（記者）：我現在就坐在皮德爾河（譯者注：piddle在英語中意為“小便”，此處譯作“皮德爾”，下同）的岸邊，這條河位于英格蘭多塞特郡的皮德爾特倫海德村。說它是條“河”，其實有點夸張了——它最寬的地方也才12英尺（約3.66米）左右。這是一條水流輕緩的小溪——你能聽到背景里的潺潺水聲。在皮德爾特倫海德村，你可以在皮德爾酒館喝上一杯皮德爾啤酒，我就是在那里遇到了當地人尼爾·赫伯特。

尼爾：人人都覺得皮德爾特倫海德村這個名字很好笑。我現在對這個已經習慣了，不再覺得煩了，但是每次碰到不認識的人問我住在哪里，我說住在皮德爾特倫海德村的時候，他們就會笑起來。

往溪流下游走約兩英里，有兩個挨在一起的村莊——皮德爾特倫海德村和皮德爾希恩頓村。再過去，皮德爾河沿岸的村莊就叫帕德爾了，有帕德爾鎮、阿夫帕德爾村、托爾帕德爾村和布賴恩茲帕德爾村。據說，村莊的名字由“皮德爾”改為“帕德爾”，是因為維多利亞女王在少女時期曾經來到此地，當地人覺得“皮德爾”這個詞可能會對女王有點不敬，所以就把村莊的名字改成了“帕德爾”。……