CATHY: OK, so now shall we think about a topic linked to each novel?

凯西：好的，那么我们要不要给每本小说想个有关联的主题？

GRAHAM: Yes. I’ve printed out a list of Dickens’s novels in the order they were published, in the hope you’d agree to focus on him!

格雷汉姆：是的，我已经将狄更斯的作品按照出版顺序打印了一份清单出来，希望你能同意我们只讲有关他的内容。

CATHY: You’re lucky I did agree! Let’s have a look.

凯西：太巧了，我之前也和你想的一样。让我们一起看看。

OK, the first was The Pickwick Papers, published in 1836.

好的，第一本叫做《匹克威克外传》，出版于1836年。

It was very successful when it came out, wasn’t it, and was adapted for the theatre straight away.

作品一经出版就大受欢迎，不是吗？当时就被改编成为戏剧在剧院演出了。

GRAHAM: There’s an interesting point, though, that there’s a character who keeps falling asleep, and that medical condition was named after the book - Pickwickian Syndrome.

格雷汉姆：但是，有个有趣的事情。那就是小说里有个嗜睡的角色，这种病症也是根据小说命名的，叫做匹克威克综合症。

CATHY: Oh, so why don’t we use that as the topic, and include some quotations from the novel?

凯西：是吗，那我们为什么不用这个作为主题，再引用一些小说里的句子呢？

GRAHAM: Right. Next is Oliver Twist.

格雷汉姆：没问题。下一本是《雾都孤儿》。

There’s a lot in the novel about poverty.

书里有很多关于贫困的描写。

But maybe something less obvious …

但是还有其它更隐晦的……

CATHY: Well Oliver is taught how to steal, isn’t he?

凯西：奥利弗跟人学会了偷东西，对不对？

We could use that to illustrate the fact that very few children went to school, particularly not poor children, so they learnt in other ways.

我们可以用这一点来陈述事实，那就是儿童，尤其是穷人家的儿童几乎没人去学校接受教育，所以他们得通过其它方式学习。

GRAHAM: Good idea. What’s next?

格雷汉姆：好主意。下一本是什么？

CATHY: Maybe Nicholas Nickleby.

凯西：好像是《少爷返乡》。

Actually he taught in a really cruel school, didn’t he?

事实上，他的学校环境特别残酷，是不是？

GRAHAM: That’s right. But there’s also the company of touring actors that Nicholas joins.

格雷汉姆：对的。但尼古拉斯还加入了巡演演员的行列。

We could do something on theatres and other amusements of the time.

我们可以再展示一些当时的戏剧和其他的娱乐活动。

We don’t want only the bad things, do we?

我们也不想只说阴暗面对吗？

CATHY: OK.

凯西：是的。

GRAHAM: What about Martin Chuzzlewit?

格雷汉姆：用《马丁·瞿述伟》怎么样？

He goes to the USA, doesn’t he?

主人公去了美国，是吗？

CATHY: Yes, and Dickens himself had been there a year before, and drew on his experience there in the novel.

凯西：是的，狄更斯自己也去过一年，他的小说灵感就是他的亲身经历。

GRAHAM: I wonder, though … The main theme is selfishness, so we could do something on social justice?

格雷汉姆：但我有点儿不明白……小说的主题是自私性，所以我们可以说一些有关社会公正的方面？

No, too general, let’s keep to your idea - I think it would work well.

不，这样太概括了，我们还是保留你的意见吧。我觉得那样应该不错。

CATHY: He wrote Bleak House next - that’s my favourite of his novels.

凯西：接着他又写了《荒凉山庄》，他所有的小说里我最喜欢这部。

GRAHAM: Yes, mine too. His satire of the legal system is pretty powerful.

格雷汉姆：是的，也是我最喜欢的。他对法律系统的嘲讽十分有力。

CATHY: That’s true, but think about Esther, the heroine.

凯西：确实是，但是想想女主人公艾瑟。

As a child she lives with someone she doesn’t know is her aunt, who treats her very badly.

小的时候她和她的阿姨一起住，但是她并不知道她们的亲戚关系。她的阿姨对她很不好。

Then she’s very happy living with her guardian, and he puts her in charge of the household.

接着，她很高兴地和她的监护人住在一起了，他还让她管家。

And at the end she gets married and her guardian gives her and her husband a house, where of course they’re very happy.

最终她结婚了。她的监护人给了她和她丈夫一所房子。当然，他们在那里快乐地生活了。

GRAHAM: Yes, I like that.

格雷汉姆：是的，我喜欢这个结局。

CATHY: What shall we take next? Little Dorrit?

凯西：接下来要讲什么？《小杜丽》？

Old Mr Dorrit has been in a debtors’ prison for years …

老杜丽先生因负债入狱多年。

GRAHAM: So was Dickens’s father, wasn’t he?

格雷汉姆：狄更斯的父亲也是这样，对不对？

CATHY: That’s right.

凯西：是的。

GRAHAM: What about focusing on the part when Mr Dorrit inherits a fortune, and he starts pretending he’s always been rich?

格雷汉姆：书中有一部分说到杜丽先生继承了一大笔财产，他开始假装他一直很有钱。我们关注这个情节怎么样？

CATHY: Good idea.

凯西：好主意。

GRAHAM: OK, so next we need to think about what materials we want to illustrate each issue.

格雷汉姆：好了。接下来我们需要想想要陈述的每个主题需要什么材料。

That’s going to be quite hard.

这一步的难度会很大。