Seven Literary One-Hit Wonders1

By Richard Thomas

For55 years, Harper Lee had been one of the bestknown literary one-hit wonders: she won the Pulitzer prize for her only published novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.2Harper Lee： 哈珀·李（1926— ），美国作家，1960年发表她一生中唯一的长篇小说《杀死一只知更鸟》并获得普利策小说奖；此文中应不是“昙花一现”的意思；Pulitzer prize： 普利策奖，是美国最著名的文学奖项之一，根据美籍匈牙利人约瑟夫·普利策的遗愿设立，包括新闻界奖和创作界奖；To Kill a Mockingbird：《杀死一只知更鸟》，小说讲的是上世纪30年代，在美国大萧条时期南部的一个小镇，三个天真孩子的生活因为两桩冤案而改变的故事。But now the 88-year-old has revealed that she will publish a second novel this summer, which she technically wrote before To Kill a Mockingbird and which even inspired her only book to date.3technically： 严格意义上地；to date：至今。

Lee has revealed that Go Set a Watchman, which will be released with a print run of 2 million copies in July,features an adult woman called Scout, who “has returned to Maycomb from New York to visit her father, Atticus.”

But Lee leaves a number of literary one-hit wonders behind her. Here are a few of the best:

1. Margaret Mitchell4Margaret Mitchell： 玛格丽特·米切尔（1900—1949），美国现代著名女作家，1937年获普利策奖，只一部《乱世佳人》足可奠定她在世界文学史上不可动摇的地位。—Gone With the Wind (1936)玛格丽特· 米切尔和《乱世佳人》

Published in 1936, the sweeping tale of Scarlett O’Hara and the Rhett Butler was an instant success.5（《乱世佳人》）出版于1936年，其中斯嘉丽·奥哈拉和瑞特·巴特勒的故事迅速走红，获得了巨大的成功。sweeping：（范围或规模）广大的。Mitchell, a writer for her local Atlanta newspaper, won the Pulitzer Prize and saw her debut novel turned into a Hollywood epic6epic： 史诗般的作品。.

在世界文坛上，有一些作家终其一生只创作过一部作品，这些作品凝结了作者毕生的心血与感悟，成为了经典的传世之作。斯嘉丽对爱的狂热，倾注了作者米切尔的初恋情愫；一匹黑马的“自传”推动了动物保护法案；300万字的回忆，优雅托起的是现实的、充满激情的世界……一辈子只写一部长篇巨作的作家有哪些呢？

Mitchell hated fame and declared that she would not write another word as long as she lived. She died in a road accident in 1949. In 1995, an unpublished manuscript she had written as a teenager was discovered. It was published the following year as Lost Laysen, a romantic novella set in the South Paci fic.7Lost Laysen： 《失去的莱松岛》，本书描写了南太平洋小岛上的一段爱情故事；novella：中篇小说。

2. Oscar Wilde—The Picture of Dorian Grey8Oscar Wilde： 奥斯卡·王尔德（1854—1900），英国最伟大的作家与艺术家之一，以其剧作、诗歌、童话和小说闻名唯美主义代表人物；The Picture of Dorian Grey： 《道林·格雷的画像》，是王尔德的唯一一部小说，也是他美学思想的全面体现，因此被认为是唯美主义小说中的力作。故事围绕着年轻而又漂亮惊人的道林·格雷展开。(1890)

奥斯卡·王尔德和《道林·格雷的画像》

While Wilde built a career of writing poetry and plays, his arguably most controversial work was his only published novel.9arguably： 可能，大概；controversial： 有争议的。At the end of the 19th century its narrative of obsession,murder and hedonism offended Victorian society, with critics dubbing The Picture of Dorian Grey everything from“effeminate” to “unclean”.10在19世纪末，这本小说中对于痴迷、谋杀与享乐主义的描述与维多利亚时代的社会氛围格格不入，评论家们抨击此书“颓废”和“不洁”。obsession：痴迷；hedonism： 享乐主义；Victorian： 维多利亚时代；dub：授予称号；effeminate：（文化、艺术等）缺乏钢劲的，颓废的。Perhaps it rubbed off11rub off： 使显得黯淡。: Wilde never wrote another novel again.

3. J D S a l i n g e r—T h e Catcher in the Rye12JD Salinger： 杰罗姆·大卫·塞林格（1919—2010）， 美国作家；The Catcher in the Rye： 《麦田里的守望者》，被认为是20世纪美国文学的经典作品之一。小说探索了一个十几岁少年的内心世界。愤怒与焦虑是此书的两大主题，主人公的经历和思想在青少年中引起强烈共鸣，受到读者，特别是广大中学生的热烈欢迎。(1951)杰罗姆·大卫·塞林格和《麦田里的守望者》

Although he wrote short stories and the novella Franny and Zooey13Franny and Zooey： 《弗兰妮与祖伊》（1961年）是塞林格继《麦田里的守望者》后出版的第三部作品，由《弗兰妮》与《祖伊》这两个相互有关联的中短篇小说组成。, The Catcher in the Rye was Salinger’s only novel.The author was believed to have retreated from society to spend his last half century as a hermit, until letters published in January this year revealed that he had been travelling the world, visiting West End shows and popping into Burger King,14retreat from： 退出，文中指“隐居”；hermit： 隐士；West End： 伦敦西区，是与纽约百老汇齐名的世界两大戏剧中心之一，是表演艺术的国际舞台，也是英国戏剧界的代名词；pop into： 匆匆走进。all the while happily chatting to strangers who had no idea who he was.

4. Emily Bront—Wuthering Heights15Emily Bront： 艾米莉·勃朗特（1818—1848），19世纪英国作家与诗人，著名的勃朗特三姐妹之一；Wuthering Heights： 《呼啸山庄》，小说描写吉卜赛弃儿希斯克利夫被山庄老主人收养后，因受辱和恋爱不顺，外出致富，回来后对与其女友凯瑟琳结婚的地主林顿及其子女进行报复的故事。(1847)艾米莉·勃朗特和《呼啸山庄》

Bront published her one and only novel under the pseudonym16pseudonym： 笔名。Ellis Bell.She died the following year, aged 30, from tuberculosis17tuberculosis： 肺结核。. In 1850, a new edition of Wuthering Heights was published with a preface written by her sister, Charlotte.

5. Boris Paster nak—Dr Zhivago18Boris Pasternak： 鲍里斯·帕斯捷尔纳克（1890—1960），苏联作家、诗人、翻译家；Dr Zhivago：《日瓦戈医生》，描述俄国医生日瓦戈与妻子冬妮娅以及美丽的女护士拉娜之间的三角爱情故事，被认为是一部带有自传体裁的作品。(1957)鲍里斯·帕斯捷尔纳克和《日瓦戈医生》

While Pasternak was an acclaimed poet, he only published one novel:Dr Zhivago. The controversial tome19tome： 大部头（书），大本书。struggled to get published because of Pasternak’s controversial attitude to socialism in soviet Russia. The manuscript was smuggled20smuggle： 偷运。out of Russia before being published in Italy. When the novel won Pasternak the Nobel Prize in 1958, he was forced to turn it down by the Soviet authorities—or else face exile or prison.21turn down： 拒绝；exile： 流放。However, it was not this strife22strife： 冲突。which meant Pasternak never published another novel, but the fact he died two years later from lung cancer.

6. Anna Sewell—Black Beauty23Anna Sewell： 安娜·赛维尔（1820—1878），英国作家；Black Beauty：《黑骏马》，是19世纪下半叶轰动欧洲文坛的经典儿童小说，它在欧美畅销不衰，唤醒一代又一代读者去理解所有不会说话的动物。(1877)安娜· 赛维尔和《黑骏马》

English novellist Sewell wrote the equine children’s classic in the last years of her life while she was con fined to bed by ill health.24equine： 马的；be con fined to：被限制于。There she worked on it for seven years,finally being published six months before she died—just long enough for her to witness its instant early success.

7. Marcel Proust—In Search of Lost Time25Marcel Proust： 马塞尔·普鲁斯特（1871—1922），是20世纪法国最伟大的小说家之一，意识流文学的先驱与大师；In Search of Lost Time：《追忆似水年华》，被誉为20世纪最重要的文学作品之一的长篇巨著，以其出色的心灵追索描写、宏大的结构、细腻的人物刻画以及卓越的意识流技巧而风靡世界，并奠定了它在当代世界文学中的地位。(1913-1927)马塞尔·普鲁斯特和《追忆似水年华》

Its 4,215 pages are split over seven volumes, but In Search of Lost Time counts as one novel.26虽然全书共4,215页被分为七卷，但是《追忆似水年华》算是一部小说。volume：册，卷；count as： 算是。Proust started writing it in 1909, and was still working on until he fell ill for the final time, weeks before his death in November 1922. Although the sprawling27sprawling：蔓延式的，这里指篇幅庞大的。novel continued to be published five years after his death, Proust raised the funds to publish the first part of it himself in 1913.