这篇小说维尔加用致友人书简的形式写成。小说很短，可能是因为维尔加意识到，他的朋友能领会据他说是省略了的“中间部分”——事实上，他说，这样一种使人人都能发挥想象力的写作方法，最终有可能使“人人都感到很够了”——那就是，到了他们学会怎样去感受小说的内在动机和感情，不再依赖于作家的进一步解释和干预的时候,换句话说，维尔加试图让读者也卷进小说的创作中去。 回到小说本身：这里我们只把这篇作品当做一个引言，因为至少在表面上，这是一篇强调情节，剧烈的具体情节的故事——在西西里晒得焦干的乡野，对大盗格拉米格纳进行大规模的追捕。就像“在村间，在农庄上，在小酒馆的树阴下，在俱乐部和大会堂里”所叙述的那样，这是一个逐日展开的故事，不过它却从格拉米格纳被放逐的故事转向了另一个“放逐”的故事。年轻、美丽的佩帕和全村的骄傲，既有钱又“像太阳那样漂亮”的菲努订了婚，忽然声称她不爱他，爱的是人们日夜追捕着的格拉米格纳，一个她素不相识的强盗。后来，消息传来说他被包围了，受了伤，断了水，她就逃奔到他那儿去，非但得不到他的感激，反而受到粗暴的对待。当格拉米格纳被抓住，拘禁起来，终于被关进监狱时，她自己也受了伤，怀着孩子，为人们所不齿。确实，小说中有不少情节，但这些情节掩盖着一个不可思议的东西，这就是作者没有讲述的故事的“中间部分”。是一种什么样的“非法行为”吸引着佩帕去寻找被追捕的格拉米格纳？为了一个素昧平生的强盗——而且据我们所知，他一点也不爱她，她竟然失去了体面、舒适、富裕和菲努对她的真诚的爱，这是一种什么性质的爱情呢？当调皮的孩子们嘲笑她的儿子，管他叫“格拉米格纳的小崽子”时，她就朝他们扔石头，是什么驱使她在孤独和贫困中以这种奇特的方式对她的强盗始终忠贞不渝呢？ 因此，这篇着重情节的小说终究也是一篇着重人物和心理描写的小说，还是一篇有主题的小说。它让我们去思索一个关于爱情性质的神秘问题，一个涉及到爱情与舒适和冒险之间的关系，涉及到献出爱情和接受爱情之间的关系的问题。 不过，我们能否把小说中的情节、人物和主题这些部分截然区分出来呢？不，它们都是同一个重要事件的各个侧面，是一个整体的必不可少的组成部分。 思考题 1．显然，大多数年轻姑娘不会像佩帕那样行事，她们会按照村里的习俗和菲努一起幸福地生活。佩帕期望从这与众不同的爱情中得到什么？你是如何评价她所期望的一切的？ 2．我们怎样来理解佩帕和格拉米格纳的关系？怎样来理解他们的初遇？后来，她还生养下他的孩子，然而我们能否从某种意义上假定他“爱”她呢？ 3．如果要你用较长的篇幅来写这篇小说，你将在省略掉的神秘的“中间部分”增加些什么内容呢？现在，你是如何理解佩帕最后采取的根本立场的？它是否是一种后悔、怨恨、屈从于命运、对价值看法改变的表现呢？姚梅琪 译） This story is in the form of a letter to a friend of Verga. It is very short,presumably because Verga sensed that his friend would seize on the “middie” that he says is missing—and he says, in fact, that presumably such an act of participatory imagination will eventually be“enough for everybody”—that is, when they have learned to sense the inner motivations and feelings of fiction and not to depend on mere explanation or intrusion by the author. (The whole question of realism and imagination (see Glossary) is suggested here, as is the relation of the author to his material. In other words, Verga seeks to involve the reader’s own creative power in the story itself. To return to the story: we use it here as an introduction because it is, superficially at least, a story emphasizing action, violent physical action—the massive hunt across the parched countryside of Sicily for the outlaw Gramigna. This is the story that day by day unfolds as it is told“in the villages, in the farmsteads, under the boughshelter of the inns, in the clubs and meetingplaces.”But to Cramigna’s tale of outlawry is grafted the tale of another kind of“outlawry.”The beautiful young Peppa, engaged to the pride of the village, Finu, who is both prosperous and“handsome as the sun,”announces that she is in love not with Finu but with the outlaw Gramigna, who is being hunted day and night, and whom she has never seen. Finally, when word comes that he has been surrounded and wounded and is cut off from water, she flees to him, to be received not gratefully but gruffly, and in the end to be wounded, left pregnant,and outcast, when Gramigna is taken and jailed,eventually to be sent off to a prison. Gramigna, who is being hunted day and night, and whom she has never seen. Finally, when word comes that he has been surrounded and wounded and is cut off from water, she flees to him, to be received not gratefully but gruffly, and in the end to be wounded, left pregnant, and outcast, when Gramigna is taken and jailed, eventually to be sent off to a prison. There is action enough here, certainly, hut there is a mystery in the story beyond the action, the mystery that the author leaves in the untold “middle” of the story. What kind of “outlawry” draws Peppa to seek the hunted Gramigna? What is the nature of the “love” that makes her forfeit respectability, comfort, prosperity, Finu’s true adoration for her, all for an outlaw she has never seen—and who, as far as we ever know, cares nothing for her? What makes her remain, through isolation and poverty, faithful to the end, in her strange way, to her outlaw, as she throws stones at the brats who tease her son, shouting at him,“Gramigna’s kid”? So the story of action is a story of character and psychology after all, and a story of theme, leaving us to ponder a mysterious question about the nature of love, a question involving the relation of love to ease and risk, to receiving and giving. But can we sort out these elements of action, character, and theme as distinct elements in the story? No,they are all aspects of the same massive event. They are part of a vital unity. There is action enough here, certainly, hut there is a mystery in the story beyond the action, the mystery that the author leaves in the untold “middle” of the story. What kind of “outlawry” draws Peppa to seek the hunted Gramigna? What is the nature of the “love” that makes her forfeit respectability, comfort, prosperity, Finu’s true adoration for her, all for an outlaw she has never seen—and who, as far as we ever know, cares nothing for her? What makes her remain, through isolation and poverty, faithful to the end, in her strange way, to her outlaw, as she throws stones at the brats who tease her son, shouting at him,“Gramigna’s kid”? So the story of action is a story of character and psychology after all, and a story of theme, leaving us to ponder a mysterious question about the nature of love, a question involving the relation of love to ease and risk, to receiving and giving. But can we sort out these elements of action, character, and theme as distinct elements in the story? No, they are all aspects of the same massive event. They are part of a vital unity. 1. Clearly, most young girls would not act as Peppa does. They would settle down happily with Finu and village conventionality. What does Peppa expect from love that is different? How do you assess the value of her expectations? 2. What are we to make of the relation of Peppa and Gramigna? What are we to make of their first encounter? Later on, she is to have a child by him, yet in any sense can we assume that he“loves”her? 3. If you were to write the story on a larger scale, what would you put into the mysterious and missin “middle” ? What do you now make of Peppa’s basic attitude at the end? Is it one of regret, bitterness, acceptance of fate, a change of values?