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☆☆☆☆☆

Susan Tyler Hitchcock 著

图书标签:

• Frankenstein
• Mary Shelley
• Gothic Fiction
• Science Fiction
• Horror
• Cultural History
• 19th Century Literature
• Monsters
• Literature
• Classic Literature

出版社： W.W. Norton & Co.

ISBN：9780393061444

商品编码：19223535

包装：精装

出版时间：2008-05-30

页数：352

正文语种：英文

商品尺寸：14.73x2.79x21.08cm

内容简介

Frankenstein began as the nightmare of an unwed teenage mother in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1816. At a time when the moral universe was shifting and advances in scientific knowledge promised humans dominion over that which had been God's alone, Mary Shelley envisioned a story of human presumption and its misbegotten consequences. Two centuries later, that story is still constantly retold and reinterpreted, from Halloween cartoons to ominous allusions in the public debate, capturing and conveying meaning central to our consciousness today and our concerns for tomorrow. From Victorian musical theater to Boris Karloff with neck bolts, to invocations at the President's Council on Bioethics, the monster and his myth have inspired everyone from cultural critics to comic book addicts. This is a lively and eclectic cultural history, illuminated with dozens of pictures and illustrations, and told with skill and humor. Susan Tyler Hitchcock uses film, literature, history, science, and even punk music to help us understand the meaning of this monster made by man.

作者简介

Susan Tyler Hitchcock’s last book was Mad Mary Lamb: Lunacy and Murder in Literary London. Married with two children, she lives near Charlottesville, Virginia.

精彩书评

Louis Bayard As Susan Tyler Hitchcock's delightful cultural history reminds us, the monster that Mary fashioned from her slumbers is still alive and kicking: "in our bookstores, on our film and television screens, from morning cartoons to wee-hours rerun movies. He plays roles in advertising and political debate, he appears at public library story hours and on graduate-level reading lists. He is both a joke and a profound ethical dilemma." —The Washington Post Publishers Weekly Literary historian Hitchcock (Mad Mary Lamb: Lunacy and Murder in Literary London) leads readers on a guided tour of Frankensteinappearances in this colorful and consistently entertaining narrative. The history begins, appropriately, with the monster's unlikely creation by Mary Shelley as a result of a ghost story challenge (also taken up by John William Polidori, whose tale of a vampyre would later inspire Bram Stoker). Hitchcock then lays bare the publishing world of the 19th century, a veritable Wild West of unauthorized stage adaptations, parodies and continuations in which Frankensteinthrived. James Whale's Karloff classic gets its due, as do the disturbing and innovative 1910 Edison Company production and the 1952 live television broadcast starring a drunk Lon Chaney Jr. Running throughout the book is the parallel story of the invocation of Frankenstein in the public discourse as a metaphor for subjects ranging from the Crimean war to genetically modified organisms. While some Frankensteindilettantes might find the narrow focus of the book somewhat tedious, there are enough strange and delightful anecdotes to keep most readers engaged. B&w; illus. (Oct.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information Fewer Reviews Library Journal The word Frankensteinconjures images and ideas ranging from the horrific to the comic. This iconic creature has appeared in novels, plays, films, comic books, and even political cartoons. Hitchcock (Mad Mary Lamb: Lunacy and Murder in Literary London) explores the evolution of this classic character from a young unwed mother's nightmare to Hollywood icon to an embodiment of the fears inherent in the technological age. She begins with a detailed biographical analysis of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel and follows with a descriptive study of the various incarnations the tale and its principles (both creator and monster) have taken on over nearly 200 years of cultural development. While she particularly emphasizes Boris Karloff's interpretation of the creature in the 1931 Universal film, her exploration is not limited to pop culture imagery; she also explores how the tale has become shorthand for describing various sociopolitical positions in the public debate. In this way, Hitchcock reveals how the universal themes of the novel have been embedded into our modern consciousness. The analysis is scholarly but presented in an engaging style that will appeal to any adult audience. Recommended for all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ6/1/07.] —Shedrick Pittman-Hassett Kirkus Reviews A thoroughly entertaining look at the iconic monster. How did the unwed, 18-year-old mother of a toddler come to invent this nightmare creature with neck bolts, flattop head and that power unibrow? Hitchcock (Mad Mary Lamb: Lunacy and Murder in Literary London, 2005, etc.) suggests that Mary Shelley, soul mate of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, daughter of radical philosopher William Godwin and pioneering feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, had heard about ghoulish experiments with electricity on corpses of criminals, which momentarily seemed to twitch back to life. She may also have drawn inspiration from her own life-altering trauma in 1815-the year before she thought of Frankenstein's monster-when her first baby died after less then a month. Hitchcock fondly details how a novel prompted by a summer of reading ghost stories in Geneva has imbedded itself in popular culture. Frankenstein inspired hundreds of stage productions before the classic 1931 film and the not-so-classic '60s TV series The Munsters, Young Frankenstein and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The author smoothly charts the monster's transformation from cosmic and creepy to comic and campy, alongside Shelley's slow evolution from overlooked to appreciated novelist. One memorable section details how Boris Karloff's daughter Sara successfully sued Universal Studios for licensing products with his likeness on them; Hitchcock slyly notes that the monster once again broke free from its creator. In addition to selling 50,000 copies a year in America alone, Frankenstein lives on as a reference point in public discussions of genetic engineering and cloning. But the author doesn't neglect one of the monster's most enduring non-academiclegacies: its ubiquity at Halloween. Cogent vivisection of a literary legend animated by the universal human fascination with the dark side. Agent: Jane Dystel/Dystel & Goderich Literary Management

前言/序言

《失落的伊甸园：一部关于文艺复兴晚期人文主义与科学萌芽的编年史》 作者： 维多利亚·艾尔斯沃斯 (Victoria Ainsworth) 出版社： 牛津大学出版社 出版日期： 2022年秋季 装帧： 精装 页数： 680页 --- 图书简介 《失落的伊甸园：一部关于文艺复兴晚期人文主义与科学萌芽的编年史》深入剖析了16世纪中叶至17世纪初，欧洲思想界经历的深刻剧变。本书聚焦于一个关键的转折点——人文主义的辉煌余晖如何与新兴的、基于观察与实验的自然哲学（即早期科学）相互作用、冲突并最终融合的过程。艾尔斯沃斯博士摒弃了传统的线性叙事，采用了一种更为精妙的“编年史”视角，通过梳理一系列影响深远的学术通信、私人日记、未出版的手稿以及地方性的学术社团活动，重构了知识如何在精英阶层、宫廷学者和民间炼金术士之间流动、转化和被误解的复杂图景。 第一部分：知识的地理学——从佛罗伦萨到新教的港口 本书的开篇聚焦于知识传播的地理空间。艾尔斯沃斯详细考察了美第奇家族赞助下的古典文献复兴如何向北欧新教国家渗透，以及这种渗透带来的张力。她认为，人文主义对语言学和修辞学的强调，在面对伽利略等人对数学化宇宙观的追求时，显得愈发无力。 语言的边界与宇宙的秩序： 详细分析了伊拉斯谟学派的学者如何试图用古典希腊语的精确性来“校准”亚里士多德的物理学，却在面对哥白尼日心说的数学严谨性时遭遇瓶颈。书中特别呈现了莱比锡大学内部关于“天体运动的完美性”与“实际观测数据偏差”的激烈辩论，这些辩论往往被包裹在对拉丁文措辞的争论之下。 手稿的地下网络： 艾尔斯沃斯揭示了在官方学术机构之外，存在一个由旅行中的学者、商人以及外交官构成的秘密通信网络。这个网络负责交换那些因宗教或政治敏感性而被官方审查的文本。她通过对一位巴塞尔印刷商的税务记录分析，推测出当时未经授权的“异端”科学著作的流通速度远超历史学家此前的估计。 第二部分：人性的尺度——解剖学的肖像与精神的炼金术 本书的第二部分将焦点从天体转向人体，深入探讨了文艺复兴人文主义“以人为中心”的思想如何塑造了早期的解剖学探索和精神探究。 维萨里与古典的幽灵： 艾尔斯沃斯并未将安德烈·维萨里的工作视为对盖伦的简单推翻。相反，她认为维萨里在解剖台上所做的，是试图在古老的文本权威和自己亲眼所见的事实之间寻找一种新的“修辞平衡”。书中收录了大量当时的教学插图，分析了这些图画如何借鉴了文艺复兴的艺术透视法来“证明”人体的真实结构，这本身就是一种对古典权威的微妙颠覆。 心灵的蒸馏： 本部分着重探讨了“精神的炼金术”——即早期化学探索与宗教冥想的交汇点。许多早期的化学家（如帕拉塞尔苏斯学派的追随者）并非仅仅为了制造黄金，他们更关注如何通过物质的提纯来达到精神的纯洁。书中考察了这种“内在炼金术”如何与新教强调的个人救赎经验相互呼应，为后来化学实验的客观性奠定了充满宗教内涵的动机。 第三部分：僭越的界限——自然哲学与神圣的边界 在全书的第三部分，艾尔斯沃斯探讨了早期自然哲学家们在探索自然规律时，所面临的来自教会和世俗权力的巨大压力。她尤其关注那些“僭越”了传统神学解释权的领域。 奇观、预兆与机械论的萌芽： 16世纪的欧洲沉迷于对“奇观”（Marvels）的记录——从罕见的动物到反常的天气现象。作者指出，这种对异常现象的痴迷，为后来的实验者提供了研究自然“偶然性”的土壤。早期的机械论思想并非凭空出现，而是对那些无法被预兆解释的事件的系统化分类尝试。书中详细分析了宫廷术士如何试图将占星术的预测能力，转化为基于计算和几何学的因果关系，从而引发了神学家关于“自由意志”与“自然决定论”的争论。 图书馆的终结与田野的开启： 编年史的高潮部分集中讨论了知识获取方式的转变。随着关键文本的翻译和流通，学者们开始意识到，单纯依赖亚历山大图书馆或君士坦丁堡的抄本已经无法解决新的科学问题。艾尔斯沃斯通过对早期植物学图鉴的分析，展示了探险家们从新大陆带回的标本是如何迫使欧洲的植物学家走出书房，去观察和记录那些前所未见的生命形式。这种对“活生生”知识的追求，标志着人文主义的终结和现代科学的明确开端。 结论：被遗忘的桥梁 《失落的伊甸园》最终论证道，文艺复兴晚期并非一个思想的真空期，而是一个充满张力的“过渡态”。它既是古典知识的最后一次盛大庆典，也是对这种权威体系进行系统性解构的序曲。本书不仅为研究早期现代科学提供了全新的方法论视角——即将科学史视为文化史的必然产物，更细致入微地还原了那些在宏大叙事中被忽略的、充满矛盾和激情的学者群像。这是一部对欧洲知识遗产进行深刻反思的里程碑式著作。 读者对象： 文艺复兴史、早期现代科学史、知识史、人文主义研究领域的学者、研究生以及对西方思想史有浓厚兴趣的严肃读者。

评分☆☆☆☆☆

这本书的装帧设计简直是一次视觉盛宴。那种厚实的精装封面，摸上去就知道是用料扎实，纸张的质感也相当出色，带着一种沉甸甸的历史厚重感。内页的排版非常讲究，字体的选择和行距的拿捏都透露出编辑团队的用心，即便是大段的文字阅读起来也不会感到压迫。装帧上的一些细节处理，比如书脊的烫金工艺或者扉页的微小纹饰，都让人联想到经典文学作品应有的仪式感。我猜测，这本书的装帧设计本身就是一种文化的致敬，它不仅仅是内容的载体，更像是一件可以长久珍藏的艺术品。光是把它放在书架上，那种存在感就已经非常引人注目，散发出一种内敛而高雅的气质，让人忍不住想去触摸和翻阅，这对于一部严肃的文化史著作来说，无疑是加分项，体现了对阅读体验的尊重。

评分☆☆☆☆☆

这本书的叙事节奏处理得非常巧妙，它避免了许多学术著作常见的枯燥和晦涩。虽然主题宏大，涉及历史、哲学和美学等多个领域，但作者总能找到一个引人入胜的切入点，使得复杂的概念被平易近人地呈现出来。我尤其欣赏作者在论述过程中展现出的那种平衡感——既保持了必要的学术严谨性，又通过生动的案例和恰到好处的引用，时刻抓住读者的注意力。有时候，我会发现自己沉浸在某个特定历史时期的文化氛围中，仿佛能亲眼目睹这些思想是如何渗透到社会肌理的。这种行云流水的叙述风格，让阅读变成了一种享受而非负担，即使是面对某些相对晦涩的理论部分，也能顺畅地跟上作者的思路，非常适合希望全面了解该主题的非专业读者。

评分☆☆☆☆☆

深入阅读之后，我发现作者在梳理其文化影响力的脉络时，展现出了惊人的跨学科洞察力。他似乎没有满足于仅仅停留在文学批评的层面，而是像一个细致的考古学家，挖掘出这个经典形象如何在不同的时代语境中被重新解读和挪用。从早期的哥特式恐怖美学，到启蒙运动后期对“科学僭越”的反思，再到后来的弗洛伊德式的心理分析，乃至更近代的生物伦理学辩论，作者都游刃有余地穿梭其中。这种广阔的视野使得本书的论述不再是线性的叙事，而更像是一张不断延展、相互交织的文化地图。读到一些关于它在不同国家和不同艺术媒介中变奏的章节时，我深感震撼，原来一个故事能够承载如此复杂的文化重量，这种深度的剖析非常引人入胜。

评分☆☆☆☆☆

这本书的资料搜集工作令人印象深刻，其详尽程度超出了我的预期。在很多地方，作者似乎穷尽了所有相关的原始文献、早期评论乃至鲜为人知的传教士笔记和民间传说。我注意到其中引用了大量一手资料，这些资料的挖掘和呈现，为整个文化史的论证提供了坚实的基石，避免了许多二手研究中常见的以讹传讹。这种对细节的执着，使得本书的权威性不言而喻。尤其是在追溯某些特定图像或概念在不同文化圈的传播路径时，那种步步为营、无可辩驳的考据链条，让人由衷佩服。它不仅仅是在讲述一个故事的文化史，更是在展示一种扎实、严谨的学术研究方法论。

评分☆☆☆☆☆

从一个纯粹的文化消费者角度来看，这本书极大地丰富了我对这个经典故事的理解深度。在此之前，我可能更多地是将它视为一个恐怖传说或科幻原型，但通过这本书的梳理，我开始意识到其内核所蕴含的关于“创造者责任”、“异化”、“他者凝视”的永恒母题。它不再仅仅是关于科学怪物的怪诞故事，而是被提升到了对现代性焦虑的深刻反思层面。每次读完一个章节，我都会情不自禁地停下来，反思现实世界中那些相似的伦理困境和被社会边缘化群体的境遇。这种将经典文本置于社会历史洪流中进行再审视的方法，激发了我强烈的共鸣，让我对我们所处的时代有了更复杂、更具批判性的认识。