笔花钗影录 (毛姆文集)

这部小说首先是一部讽刺作品,一部"谤书",它的嘲弄对象则是以书中的德律菲尔(影射哈代——虽然毛姆曾予以公开否认)和阿罗依·基尔(影射休·沃尔波尔)等为代表的当日英国文坛的种种窳风恶习,仿佛一部英国的《儒林外史》。《笔花钗影录》同时又是一曲赞歌,赞美的对象即德律菲尔的前妻、书中的女主角露西:这个风情万种的地母形象堪称毛姆笔下最迷人的女性角色,这个形象几十年来一直魂牵梦绕在作者的胸臆之中,久思将其写入自己的作品而苦于不得机会,直到《笔花钗影录》开笔,这个渴望已久的机会才终于水到渠成;毛姆本人也毫不隐讳地坦承这是他所创作的最动人的女性形象。(First, this novel is a satire, a "slanderous book ", the objects it mocks are the bad habits in present British literature represented by Delvphier (insinuating Hardy—though Maugham had publicly denied it) and Roy Kiel (insinuating Hugh Theo) and so on, as if a British The Scholars. At the same time, Cakes and Ale is a paean, the object of praise is the ex-wife of Delvphier and the heroine in the book Lucy: this charming female image can be said as the most charming female role written by Maugham, this image was always in the writer's heart for dozens of years, he thought for a long time and had no chance to write it in his work, until he started to write Cakes and Ale, the chance he expected for long time had realized; Maugham admitted to say that it was the most charming female image he had created.)