◎鄭寺音

It is a truth universally acknowledged that many of us who claim to have read a classic novel are telling porkies. Or have simply watched the film version instead.

這是普天承認的事實，我們許多宣稱曾讀過經典小說的人都在說謊，或只是看過電影版本。

This even applies, it seems, to literary agents and publishers. For when a budding author sent typed chapters of Jane Austen’s novels to 18 of them, changing just the titles and characters’ names, only one recognised her words.

顯然，這甚至也適用於文學經紀人與出版商，因為當一名新進作者把珍奧斯汀小說的一些篇章打字，只更改書名與人物名字，交給18名出版商，只有一個人認出是她的作品。

The rest simply rejected them or never responded, according to the man who posted the manuscripts, David Lassman.

郵寄這些文稿的男子拉斯曼說，其他人只是把它們退件，或是一直沒有回音。

"It was unbelievable," he said. "If the major publishers can’t recognise great literature, who knows what might be slipping through the net？

「真是令人難以想像，」他說。如果大出版社無法認出偉大的文學作品，誰知道漏網之魚會是什麼樣的作品。」

"Here is one of the greatest writers that has lived, with her oeuvre securely fixed in the English canon and yet only one recipient recognised them as Austen’s work."

「這是歷來最偉大作家的其中一人，她畢生的作品早已牢牢確立在英國作家原典中，但只有一名收信人認出它們是奧斯汀的作品。」

新聞辭典

porkie︰（英國幽默，俚語）謊言。

budding︰萌芽的、新進的。例句：While still at school she was clearly a budding genius.（她還在學校時，就很明顯地是個嶄露頭角的天才。）

slip through the net︰遺漏、漏網之魚。例句：Once again terrorists have slipped through the police net.（恐怖份子又再度逃過警方的法網。）

canon︰原指聖經的正經篇目集，在此指作家經公認的真作全集，或公認為可代表某種文學領域的作品。如︰the canon of American short fiction（美國短篇小說作品集）、the entire Shakespeare canon（莎士比亞真作全集）。