關於夏洛克·福爾摩斯的十大誤解(上)

We have all heard of Sherlock Holmes, and in the eyes of most of the world he is the greatest fictional detective of all time. His popularity is so great that there is an entire society devoted to Sherlock Holmes fan fiction and sometimes to pretending he is real, called the Baker Street Irregulars. It is inevitable that with such popularity there will be many mistaken notions about the character. Its mythology becomes distorted and things that are not at all true become commonly repeated as fact. Below are ten things most people think about Sherlock Holmes, that are completely wrong.

我們都聽說過夏洛克·福爾摩斯，在世界上大多數人眼中他是有史以來最厲害的小說版偵探。他深受歡迎，甚至有一整個協會都致力於夏洛克福爾摩斯粉絲小說的創作，有時候還假裝他真實存在，稱之爲貝克街小分隊。如此流行的人物，人們有所誤解也在所難免。他的傳奇被扭曲，許多不盡不實的事情卻成爲了人們口口相傳的事實。以下是大多數人對於福爾摩斯的十大誤解。

cent People

10.清白的人

Misconception: He wouldn't treat an innocent person badly just to solve a case.

誤解: 他不會爲了破案而傷害無辜的人們。

Many people see Sherlock Holmes as a white knight of the detective world: he solves cases using only the power of his mind and innocent people never get hurt in the process. He is universally beloved as the greatest fictional detective in the world, but he had more of a dark side than just his drug use and other eccentric habits. Sherlock Holmes was not at all averse to doing whatever it took to win a case, and he often played the game for the games own sake. In one story The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton, he becomes engaged to a housemaid to get closer to a villain he is trying to expose. After he solves the case, he simply leaves the woman, presumably upsetting her greatly. He never makes any effort to explain the situation to her and we never hear about it again. He also employed a small group of street urchins to do his dirty work, which he affectionately called "The Baker Street Irregulars." We see them in The Sign of the Four, A Study in Scarlet, and The Adventure of the Crooked Man.

許多人認爲福爾摩斯是偵探世界裏的白馬騎士：在破案時他只需要運用他的智慧，無辜的人也不會受傷。他深受人們喜愛，是世界上最偉大的小說偵探，但是除了吸毒和其他怪癖之外，他還有一些陰暗面。他爲了破案不折手段，常常玩花樣。在《查爾斯·奧古斯塔斯·米爾沃頓》這個故事中，爲了揭發一個惡棍，他接近他的女僕並與之訂婚。破案之後，他就離開了那個女人，讓她傷透了心。他也不曾向她做出任何解釋，而此事很多人都矇在鼓裏。而且，他還僱傭一些街童做非法勾當，美其名曰"貝克街小分隊"。我們可以在《四簽名》、《血字的研究》和《駝揹人》中看見他們的身影。

ally Advanced

9.思想開明

Misconception: Sherlock Holmes was a socially-forward thinker

誤解: 福爾摩斯是一個思想開明的人。

In The Adventure of the Three Gables Sherlock Holmes engages in some very cruel and racist conversations with black people. He basically calls a black boxer stupid based on his skin color and then goes so far as to make fun of the size of his lips. An excerpt from Holmes encounter with Steve Dixie, a black boxer: "‘That's my name, Masser Holmes, and you'll get put through it for sure if you give me any lip.' ‘It is certainly the last thing you need,' said Holmes, staring at our visitor's hideous mouth." After The boxer left Sherlock Holmes comments: "I am glad you were not forced to break his woolly head, Watson. I observed your maneuvers with the poker. But he is really rather a harmless fellow, a great muscular, foolish, blustering baby, and easily cowed, as you have seen." There are other times where more commonplace comments are made about people from Africa in general, that are somewhat disparaging. There are a couple of important things to note, however. When the stories were written, these attitudes were fairly commonplace, it doesn't excuse them, but it doesn't make the character much different from anyone else in England at the time. It is also interesting to note that many scholars believe The Adventure of the Three Gables, which had the most obvious racism, was actually a forgery and not written by Arthur Conan Doyle at all. This would not be particularly surprising as Sherlock Holmes fan fiction has been popular for a long time.

在《三角牆山莊》中，福爾摩斯和一名黑人的談話非常殘忍並帶有種族歧視。他只是基於他的膚色就把黑人拳擊手叫做笨蛋，而且還取笑了他的嘴脣大小。摘錄中，福爾摩斯遇見了一名名叫史蒂夫·迪克西（Steve Dixie）的黑人拳擊手。"我就是福爾摩斯，如果你說些好話我或許會放過你""那你倒用不着"，福爾摩斯使勁盯着他奇醜無比的嘴巴說。拳擊手離開後，福爾摩斯評價道："華生，幸虧你沒有敲破他那結實的腦袋。我看見你拿撥火棒的動作了。其實他倒是一個不妨事的，別看渾身是肌肉，倒是個愚蠢的、放空炮的小孩子，很容易把他鎮住，就象剛纔那樣。"在其他時候他對非洲人的評價普遍如此，還帶有一些侮辱性的言辭。但是，我們也要注意到一些重要的事情。寫故事的時候，這種態度非常普遍，我不是在找藉口，但人物的態度和當時其他英格蘭的人們一樣，沒有什麼不同。很有意思的是，許多學者認爲《三角牆山莊》中種族歧視最爲明顯，事實上是贗品，根本不是出自柯南·道爾之手。福爾摩斯同人小說一直都很流行，出現這種事情也不足爲奇。

holding Information

8.隱瞞信息

Misconception: Sherlock Holmes withholds information from the police.

誤解：福爾摩斯對警察隱瞞了信息。

In the recent Sherlock Holmes movies, he is pictured taking evidence from crime scenes and hiding it from the police on multiple occasions. This allows him to stay several steps ahead at all times and ensures he solves the case before they do. The only problem here is that this is totally the opposite of how he behaved in the books. Sherlock Holmes would always leave enough evidence for the police to figure out the same things he did if they were so inclined as we see in The Adventure of the Devils Foot. And he would often share information with them if he thought they were pursuing a useless line of inquiry, which we can see in The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge. Sherlock Holmes stayed ahead of the police because he was simply better at deduction than they were; it does a disservice to his character to suggest that he would ever misappropriate evidence.

在最近的一些福爾摩斯電影中，他被塑造爲從犯罪現場帶走證物多次對警察隱瞞信息的人物形象。這樣的話，他可以一直比警察快一步，在警察之前破案。唯一的問題是他的這些行爲與書中所寫完全相反。在《魔鬼之足》中，我們可以看到警方如果配合他的話，福爾摩斯總是會給警方留下線索，讓他們推理出自己知道的一切。在《藤荘》中，福爾摩斯如果認爲警方追蹤的是一條無用的線索，也會與警方分享信息。他總是比警方快一步僅僅是因爲他比他們更加擅長推理；他盜用證據只會貶低他的人物形象。

Friend

7.最好的朋友

Misconception: Holmes trusts his best friend Dr. Watson.

誤解：福爾摩斯信任他最好的朋友華生。

Sherlock Holmes's best friend is Dr. John Watson, and he relies on him as his biographer and companion, especially on very dangerous missions. The pair are incredibly close and remain good friends throughout most of their lives. Holmes even comments that he would be "lost without his Boswell," in reference to the famous 18th century biographer of Samuel Johnson. However, while Holmes may have trusted his best friend to defend him in a scrape, and trusted his medical knowledge, he does not truly trust Dr. Watson. In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes sends Dr. Watson to keep an eye on the situation at Baskerville hall, and then sneaks out to the moor to keep an eye on the situation himself rather than trusting his friends account. And to make matters worse he does not even tell Dr. Watson of his arrival. Also, in The Adventure of the Dying Detective, he tricks his best friend into thinking he is dying of a deadly disease because he does not believe that Dr. Watson would be able to keep the secret that he was faking it if he told him. While he claims respect for Dr. Watson's medical skills, it's a poor show that he doesn't think his friend could go along with his game.

福爾摩斯最好的朋友就是約翰·華生醫生。尤其是在執行極其危險的任務時，華生作爲他的夥伴和傳記作家，是他最依賴的人。兩人親密無間，一生都維持着摯友的關係。福爾摩斯甚至評價說："沒有他的博斯韋爾，他的人生就迷失了。"（參考18世紀著名傳記作家塞繆爾·約翰遜的話，博斯韋爾是爲密友撰寫傳記的人）。然而，或許福爾摩斯相信華生會在他處於困境時維護他，信任他的醫藥知識，但他不是真的信任華生醫生。在《巴斯克維爾的獵犬》中，他派華生去監視巴斯克維爾莊園裏的一舉一動，然後自己偷偷溜去沼澤暗中觀察情形，這無疑是不信任華生。更糟糕的是，他甚至沒有告訴華生他的行蹤。而且在《臨終的偵探》中，他欺騙華生，讓他認爲他病入膏肓而死去。因爲他不相信如果他告訴華生真相，華生會隱瞞住他假死的祕密。雖然他敬佩華生的醫術，但這也是掩飾自己不認爲華生可以和他一起玩偵探遊戲的無聊作秀罷了。

ntric Manners

6.古怪的穿着

Misconception: Holmes dresses in an eccentric manner and is often dirty or unkempt.

誤解：福爾摩斯穿着古怪，蓬亂，骯髒不堪。

Not all movies are guilty of this particular offense, but the horrible monstrosity that was the recent two part movie series with Robert Downey Jr is a huge offender. Robert Downey Jr portrays Holmes as dressing in an extremely eccentric manner, including ill fitting clothes, strange ensembles that don't make sense and as having a general air of bad hygiene. However, Sherlock Holmes is actually described in The Hound of the Baskervilles as having a cat like approach to cleanliness. He dressed in very traditional, conservative clothes for his time and was always impeccably neat. In fact, in The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sherlock Holmes is out on the moor investigating a case in secret, living in an old shack, and still arranges to have fresh linen and other luxuries brought to him so that he can remain neat and clean.

不是所有的電影都要承擔這樣的罪名，但是可怕的是，由美國演員小羅伯特·道尼主演的兩部福爾摩斯的電影卻是重犯。小羅伯特·道尼將福爾摩斯刻畫爲穿着古怪（穿着不合身、古怪的讓人費解的衣着搭配）和衛生習慣差的人。然而，事實上福爾摩斯在《巴斯克維爾的獵犬》中被描繪得像貓一樣有潔癖。他穿着傳統保守的衣服而且總是一塵不染。在《巴斯克維爾的獵犬》中，福爾摩斯前往沼澤調查一宗神祕案件，他還是帶了一些乾淨的亞麻布和其他一些奢侈品，讓自己保持整潔和乾淨。

翻譯：高陳影 編輯：陳豔衝 來源：前十網