6.Mr. Imagination(1750)

Passage Six

George Kent is an American reporter and writer, He worked for the United Press and then became an editor for the Reader’s Digest for many years. In the course of his career, he has published many poems, stories and articles.

乔治·肯特是一位美国记者和作家，他曾在联合通讯社工作，后来成为《读者文摘》的编辑多年。在他的职业生涯中，他发表了许多诗歌、故事和文章。

Mr. Imagination

George Kent

【1】Back in the 1880s, a big red-bearded man came to call one day on the French Minister of Education. The receptionist looked at the card and his face lighted up. “Monsieur Verne,” he said reverently, “pray be seated. With all the traveling you do, you must be tired.”

【2】Jules Verne should have been worn out. He had gone around the world 100 times or more, once in eighty days. He had voyaged 60,000 miles under the sea, whizzed around the moon, hitchhiked on comets, explored the center of the earth, chatted with cannibals in Africa and Bushmen in Australia. There was very little of the world's geography that Jules Verne, the writer, had not visited.

【3】Jules Verne, the man, was a stay-at-home. If he was tired, it was merely writer's cramp. For forty years, he sat in a small room of the red brick tower of his home, in Amiens, turning out, year in, year out, one book every six months—more than 100 altogether. Verne himself had made visits around Europe and North Africa, and one six-week tour of New York State. And that was all. The world's most extraordinary tourist spent less than one of his seventy-seven years on voyage.

【4】His books are crowded with hunting and fishing expeditions, but Jules went hunting only once. Then he raised his gun and—poof!—shot the red ribbon off the hat of a game warden. The only fish he ever caught was on a plate at the end of a fork.

【5】Though he never held a test tube in his hand, Jules Verne became a stimulus and inspiration to the scientist in the laboratory. He had TV working before simple radio had been invented. He had helicopters a half century before the Wright brothers. There were, in fact, few twentieth-century wonders that this man did not foresee: neon lights, air conditioning, skyscrapers, guided missiles, tanks, submarines, airplanes.

【6】Beyond any doubt, Verne was the father of science fiction; he was years ahead of H. G. Wells, Conan Doyle, and the other great visualizers of things to come. Nor was he simply an entertainer.

【7】He wrote about the marvels of tomorrow with such precise, indisputable detail that he was taken seriously. Learned societies argued with him. Mathematicians spent weeks checking his figures. When his book about going to the moon was published, 500 people volunteered for the next expedition.

【8】France's famous Marshall Lyautey once said that modern science was simply a process of working out in practice what Jules Verne had envisioned in words. Verne, who lived to see many of his fancies come true, was matter-of-fact about it all. “What one man can imagine,” he said, “another man can do.”

【9】Jules’ father was a lawyer, his mother was descended from one of the great families of France. Their son was born on the island of Feydeau, near Nantes, in 1828. Napoleon had just died. Wellington was prime minister of England. The first railroad was only five years old.

【10】Steamers were crossing the Atlantic but they still carried sail to supplement their engines. From the windows of his home, the boy Jules could see the masts of sailing ships, watch fishermen's nets drying, smell hides and spices.

【11】At the age of eleven, he was playing on the wharves with a childhood sweetheart who said she would like a string of red coral beads like those the sailors brought back from their voyages. Jules solemnly promised she would have one, and that same afternoon was on board a boat about to sail for India, signed on as a cabin boy. Fortunately for his later admirers, a friend of the family saw him go on board and told the family. His father fetched him home, spanked him, and put him to bed.

【12】At eighteen, Jules was in Paris to study law, but he was more interested in writing poetry and plays. One evening, bored with a fashionable party which he was attending, he left abruptly and slid down the banister. At the bottom, he slipped off and landed squarely on a stout gentleman about to ascend the stairs. Jules blurted out the first thing that came into his head. “Have you had your dinner, sir?” he asked.

【13】The other replied that he had. He had dined wonderfully on an omelet made in the style of Nantes. To this, Verne retorted, “Bah, no one in Paris can make one!” “Can you?” asked the stout fellow.

【14】“Of course—I am from Nantes,” said Jules.

“Very well, then, come to dinner next Wednesday—and cook the omelet.” With that, he handed the young man his card and continued up the steps. It was Alexander Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers. You could have knocked Jules over with a breadstick.

【15】Knowing Dumas confirmed young Verne's desire to be an author. Jules, urged on by the older man, made up his mind he would do for geography what Dumas had done for history. He began spending his days reading and writing and forgot completely that he was in Paris to become a lawyer. His father, impatient with the boy's neglect of his studies, cut off his allowance.

【16】Jules obtained a small job in a theater, but the years that followed were lean ones. “I eat beefsteak that a few days ago was pulling a cart through the streets of Paris,” he wrote to his mother. Once he ate nothing but dried prunes for three days because he had spent his food money on a set of Shakespeare. He was ragged and cold. “My stockings,” he told a friend, “are like a spider-web in which a hippopotamus has been sleeping.”

【17】Though his father had deprived him of his allowance, Jules remained the devoted, loving son. He wrote regularly, even when he was a middle-aged man. He discussed his books, his projects, his dreams, and rarely took a step without first seeking parental advice. It was this strong family feeling which kept him a church-goer and a religious, even puritanical man in gay and pleasure-loving Paris.

【18】Cocky, good-looking, and “irresistible” to the ladies, Jules promptly fell in love. Monsieur Verne recovered, fell in love again, and this time married the girl—a handsome widow with two children. With the help of his father, he became a stockholder. His financial position improved, but he continued to live in an attic and to write.

【19】His first book was “Five Weeks in a Balloon.” Fifteen publishers looked at it, sniffed, and sent it back. In a rage, Jules flung it into the fire. His wife rescued it and made him promise he would try once more. So Jules tucked the slightly charred manuscript under his arm and went around to show it to Pierre Hetzel.

【20】The publisher read the book through as the fidgeting young author waited. Hetzel said he would publish it if Jules would rewrite it in the form of a novel. In two weeks, Jules was back. “Five Weeks in a Balloon” became a bestseller, was translated into every civilized language. In 1862, at the age of thirty-four, its author was famous and a success.

【21】His next book, “Voyage to the Centre of the Earth,” started his characters off down the crater of a volcano in Iceland. They went through a thousand adventures and finally came sliding out on a lava stream in Italy. Perhaps the best known of Verne's books is “Around the World in 80 Days.” Serialized in Le Temps, of Paris, the progress of its hero aroused so much interest that New York and London correspondents sent cables daily to their newspapers reporting the imaginary Phileas Fogg's whereabouts.

【22】In every country of Europe, people made bets on whether Fogg would arrive in London in time to win the bet. Verne artfully kept this popular interest alive: his hero rescued an Indian widow from death, fell in love with her, and almost missed connections on her account; crossing the American plains, he was attacked by Red Indians, and arrived in New York to see the ship that was to take him to England only a small speck on the horizon.

【23】Every transatlantic steamship company offered Verne large sums of money if he would place Phileas Fogg aboard one of their ships. The author refused and had his hero charter a vessel. As the world held its breath, Fogg reached London with only minutes to spare, and won his bet.

【24】In “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” Verne developed a submarine which was not only double-hulled and propelled by electricity but was able to manufacture electricity from the sea. Simon Lake, father of the modern submarine, credits Verne with giving him virtually a blueprint for his invention.

【25】Reading through Verne’s books, one finds it hard to believe that they were written almost 100 years ago. The people of his fancy made diamonds synthetically, developed a convertible automobile-ship-helicopter-plane, and fired glass bullets containing an electric spark instantly fatal.

【26】The last years of Jules Verne were not happy ones. Intellectual circles sneered at him. He was not elected a member of the French Academy. Gossips said that there was no such man as Jules Verne. The Russians claimed him as a Slav, a Pole and former espionage agent who had taken to letters.

【27】Italian intellectuals said Jules Verne was the pen name of a group of French scientists and delegated a novelist to go to France to find the proof. The man examined the manuscripts and departed wholly convinced. To his colleagues he wired:“There is no Jules Verne and Company-there is only Jules.”

【28】Jules Verne died in 1905. The world attended his funeral, including all who had sneered and gossiped, the thirty members of the French Academy, the diplomatic corps, and special representatives of kings and presidents.

【29】Of all the thousands of words of praise uttered at his death, Jules Verne would have liked best these two sentences from a Paris newspaper: “The old story teller is dead. It is like the passing of Santa Claus.”

想象力先生

乔治·肯特

【1】早在19世纪80年代，有一天，一个红胡子的大个子来拜访法国教育部长。接待员看了看卡片，脸上亮了起来。“凡尔纳先生，”他恭敬地说，“请坐。你经常出差，一定很累吧。”

【2】儒勒·凡尔纳应该已经筋疲力尽了。他曾环游世界100次甚至更多，一次是在80天内。他在海底航行了6万英里，在月球上飞驰，在彗星上搭便车，探索了地球的中心，与非洲的食人族和澳大利亚的布须曼人聊天。作家儒勒·凡尔纳几乎走遍了世界各地。

【3】儒勒·凡尔纳是个宅男。如果他累了，也不过是作家抽筋罢了。四十年来，他坐在亚眠家中红砖塔的一个小房间里，年复一年，每六个月出一本书，总共一百多本书。凡尔纳本人曾游历欧洲和北非，并在纽约州进行了为期六周的旅行。这就是全部。这位世界上最杰出的旅游者在他77年的旅途中只花了不到一年的时间。

【4】他的书中充斥着狩猎和钓鱼探险的故事，但儒勒只打猎过一次。然后他举起枪，砰!，把猎场看守人帽子上的红丝带打了下来。他唯一钓到的鱼是放在叉子末端的盘子里的。

【5】虽然儒勒·凡尔纳从未拿过试管，但他对实验室里的科学家来说是一种激励和灵感。在简单的收音机发明之前，他就有了电视。他比莱特兄弟早半个世纪发明了直升机。事实上，几乎没有什么二十世纪的奇迹是他没有预见到的:霓虹灯、空调、摩天大楼、导弹、坦克、潜艇、飞机。

【6】毫无疑问，凡尔纳是科幻小说之父;他比h·g·威尔斯、柯南·道尔以及其他对未来事物有远见卓识的人早了好几年。他也不仅仅是一个艺人。

【7】他以如此精确、无可争议的细节描写了未来的奇迹，以至于他受到了认真的对待。学术界与他争论。数学家们花了几个星期的时间来核对他的数字。当他关于登月的书出版时，有500人自愿参加下一次探险。

【8】法国著名的马歇尔·利奥特伊曾经说过，现代科学只不过是在实践中实现儒勒·凡尔纳在文字上所设想的过程。凡尔纳在有生之年见证了他的许多幻想成真，他对这一切都是实事求是的。“一个人能想到的，”他说，“另一个人也能做到。”

【9】儒勒的父亲是一名律师，他的母亲是法国一个大家族的后裔。1828年，他们的儿子出生在南特附近的费杜岛上。拿破仑刚刚去世。威灵顿是英国首相。第一条铁路只有5年的历史。

【10】轮船正在横渡大西洋，但它们仍然带着帆以补充发动机。从家里的窗户望出去，小男孩儒勒可以看到帆船的桅杆，看到晾晒渔网，闻到兽皮和香料的味道。

【11】十一岁时，他和青梅竹马在码头上玩耍，青梅竹马说她想要一串红珊瑚珠，就像水手们从航海中带回来的那样。儒勒郑重地答应她一定要有一个。就在那天下午，他登上了一艘即将驶往印度的船，签约做了一名船舱侍应生。对他后来的崇拜者来说，幸运的是，他们家的一个朋友看到他上船并告诉了他们家。他的父亲把他带回家，打了他的屁股，然后让他上床睡觉。

【12】18岁时，儒勒在巴黎学习法律，但他对写诗和戏剧更感兴趣。一天晚上，他对参加的一个时髦的晚会感到厌烦，就突然离开，从栏杆上滑了下去。到了楼梯底部，他滑了下来，正好落在一个正要上楼的胖绅士身上。儒勒脱口而出他想到的第一件事。“您吃过饭了吗，先生?”他问。

【13】另一个回答说他吃过了。他美美地吃了一顿南特风味的煎蛋卷。凡尔纳对此反驳道:“呸，在巴黎没人能造出这样的东西!“你能吗?”那个胖家伙问。

【14】“当然，我是南特人，”儒勒说。

“很好，那么，下星期三来吃饭吧，做煎蛋卷。”说完，他把名片递给年轻人，继续走上台阶。是亚历山大·大仲马，《三个火枪手》的作者。你可以用面包棒把儒勒撞倒。

【15】认识大仲马坚定了年轻的凡尔纳想当作家的愿望。儒勒在老人的催促下，决心要像大仲马在历史上所做的那样，在地理上再创辉煌。他开始把时间花在读书和写作上，完全忘记了他来巴黎是为了成为一名律师。他的父亲对男孩不专心学习感到不耐烦，不再给他零用钱。

【16】儒勒在一家剧院找了个零活干，但随后的几年都很艰苦。他在给母亲的信中写道:“我吃的牛排是几天前在巴黎街头拉车时吃的。”有一次，他一连三天只吃干梅干，因为他用伙食费买了一套莎士比亚的剧本。他衣衫褴褛，浑身冰凉。“我的长袜，”他对一个朋友说，“就像一张蜘蛛网，里面有只河马在睡觉。”

【17】虽然他的父亲剥夺了他的零用钱，儒勒仍然是一个孝顺、慈爱的儿子。他经常写信，即使到了中年也不例外。他讨论他的书，他的项目，他的梦想，很少在没有征求父母意见的情况下迈出一步。正是这种强烈的家庭感情，使他在欢天喜地、寻欢作乐的巴黎，成为一个常去教堂做礼拜的人，一个信教的人，甚至是一个清教徒。

【18】狂妄自大，相貌出众，对女士们来说是“不可抗拒的”，儒勒很快坠入爱河。凡尔纳先生恢复了健康，再次坠入爱河，这次娶了那个姑娘，一个有两个孩子的英俊寡妇。在他父亲的帮助下，他成为了一名股东。他的经济状况有所改善，但他继续住在阁楼上写作。

【19】他的第一本书是《气球上的五个星期》。15家出版商看了看，嗤之以鼻，然后把它退回去了。儒勒一怒之下，把它扔进了火里。他的妻子救了它，并让他承诺再试一次。于是儒勒把那份略微烧焦的手稿夹在腋下，转过去给皮埃尔·赫泽尔看。

【20】出版商把书从头到尾读了一遍，坐立不安的年轻作者在一旁等待。赫策尔说，如果儒勒把它改写成小说，他就把它出版。两周后，儒勒回来了。《气球上的五个星期》成了畅销书，被翻译成各种文明的语言。1862年，34岁的作者声名鹊起，事业有成。

【21】他的下一本书《地心之旅》以冰岛火山口为起点。他们经历了千辛万苦，终于在意大利的熔岩流上滑了出来。凡尔纳最著名的作品可能是《八十天环游世界》。这个故事在巴黎的《时代报》上连载了，故事主人公的行踪引起了人们极大的兴趣，纽约和伦敦的记者每天都给他们的报纸发电报，报告这个虚构的福克的下落。

【22】在欧洲的每一个国家，人们都在打赌，看福克是否能及时到达伦敦，从而赢得这场赌注。凡尔纳巧妙地保持了这种流行的兴趣:他的主人公从死亡中救出了一个印第安寡妇，爱上了她，差点因为她错过了一些联系;在穿越美洲平原时，他遭到了红印第安人的袭击，到达纽约后，他看到那艘要带他去英国的船只是地平线上的一个小斑点。

【23】每一家跨大西洋轮船公司都给凡尔纳一大笔钱，只要他能让斐利亚·福克登上他们的一艘船。作者拒绝了，并让他的主人公租了一艘船。正当全世界都屏息以待的时候，福克在只剩下几分钟的时候就到达了伦敦，他赢了。

【24】在《海底两万里》中，凡尔纳发明了一种潜艇，这种潜艇不仅有双层外壳，靠电力推进，而且能够利用海水发电。现代潜艇之父西蒙·雷克称赞凡尔纳给了他发明潜艇的蓝图。

【25】通读凡尔纳的作品，人们很难相信它们是近百年前写的。像他这样的人合成了钻石，发明了可转换的汽车，船舶，直升机，飞机，发射了含有立即致命的电火花的玻璃子弹。

【26】儒勒·凡尔纳的最后几年并不幸福。知识界对他嗤之以鼻。他没有被选为法兰西学院的成员。流言蜚语说没有儒勒·凡尔纳这个人。俄罗斯人声称他是斯拉夫人，波兰人，前间谍，喜欢写信。

【27】意大利知识分子说儒勒·凡尔纳是一群法国科学家的笔名，并派一名小说家去法国寻找证据。那人检查了手稿，然后深信不疑地离开了。他给他的同事发电报说:“没有儒勒·凡尔纳和他的同伴，只有儒勒。”

【28】儒勒·凡尔纳死于1905年。全世界的人都参加了他的葬礼，包括所有嘲笑他和议论他的人、法国文学院的三十名院士、外交使团以及国王和总统的特别代表。

【29】凡尔纳去世后，人们对他的赞美有千言万语，他最喜欢巴黎一家报纸上的这两句话:“老说书人死了。这就像圣诞老人的去世。”