奥威尔在世界文学史上有着非常重要的地位，在思想界也备受推崇，我的几位理性派偶像也是他的粉丝。但是，很多人对奥威尔的了解仅停留在《1984》这本书，其实是有缺憾的。所以，我会连续用几期来分享他的其它几本书，有小说也有文集，每本书可能就挑一两个精彩片段，让大家从不同角度来了解这位杰出的英国作家。
乔治·奥威尔
虽然《1984》是他的代表作，但对于某些读者来说，主题还是有点灰暗和压抑。特别是对于刚接触英语文学的朋友来说，冲着奥威尔的大名来，第一本书就读《1984》可能有点扛不住，所以我推荐大家还是先读另一本书打个底，那就是《动物农庄》（Animal Farm）。
《动物农庄》（Animal Farm）
《动物农庄》几乎和《1984》齐名，但由于它表面上是一个童话故事，所以经常被误解为初级读物其实，这个构思巧妙的政治讽刺寓言无论从可读性还是从思想深度上，都丝毫不比《1984》逊色，而且它的故事节奏还带有几分喜剧色彩，阅读过程不至于太沉闷，甚至还有点欢乐。
读过这本书的朋友应该都能明显感受到，它的故事架构和角色设定都是在影射前苏联。如果你历史知识够丰富就可以自己来一一对应，当然网上也有人总结出了对应表，比如哪个角色对应斯大林，哪个角色对应托洛斯基等，一目了然。甚至有中国读者进行了更发散的联想，说那匹身强力壮的老马之所以叫Boxer，是为了暗指中国历史上的义和团（Boxer Rebellion），但只是猜测没有实证，因为奥威尔的这本书其实只暗喻了俄国和前苏联的一段历史。
我们不谈它的政治色彩，只从英语语言角度进行探讨，就能学到很多东西。首先，奥威尔对动词的使用十分精准。我们来看看第一章的第一段：
Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the popholes. With the ring of light from his lantern dancing from side to side, he lurched across the yard, kicked off his boots at the back door, drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery, and made his way up to bed, where Mrs. Jones was already snoring.
一共两句话，就出现了十几个动词：locked, was too drunk to remember, shut, dancing, lurched across, kicked off, drew, made his way, snoring. 既生动又传神，可见奥威尔的用词功力。
另外，我还非常喜欢第五章的开头情节--Mollie的行为越来越异常，引起了Clover的怀疑，她终于忍不住去找Mollie对峙……这段描写简直就是一场精彩的谍战戏，几句话就调出了浓浓的悬疑色彩，气氛的紧张程度也随着对话的展开而直线飙升。大家如果有兴趣可以找朋友分角色朗读一下，一人旁白，一人扮演Clover，一人扮演Mollie，应该会相当有趣。
As winter drew on, Mollie became more and more troublesome. She was late for work every morning and excused herself by saying that she had overslept, and she complained of mysterious pains, although her appetite was excellent. On every kind of pretext she would run away from work and go to the drinking pool, where she would stand foolishly gazing at her own reflection in the water. But there were also rumours of something more serious. One day, as Mollie strolled blithely into the yard, flirting her long tail and chewing at a stalk of hay, Clover took her aside.
“Mollie,” she said, “I have something very serious to say to you. This morning I saw you looking over the hedge that divides Animal Farm from Foxwood. One of Mr. Pilkington’s men was standing on the other side of the hedge. And — I was a long way away, but I am almost certain I saw this — he was talking to you and you were allowing him to stroke your nose. What does that mean, Mollie?”
“He didn’t! I wasn’t! It isn’t true!” cried Mollie, beginning to prance about and paw the ground.
“Mollie! Look me in the face. Do you give me your word of honour that that man was not stroking your nose?”
“It isn’t true!” repeated Mollie, but she could not look Clover in the face, and the next moment she took to her heels and galloped away into the field.
李哲
李哲：资深英语讲师，从教16年，英文藏书3000册；翻译出版过《可怕的科学》系列等多部英文著作；企鹅图书纪念莎士比亚诞辰450周年大型活动武汉站主讲嘉宾；互联网预言大师、《失控》&《必然》作者凯文·凯利读者见面会特邀现场翻译；用英语讲述的个人故事被BBC选用并在国际频道BBC World Service中播出。
