Don't Look Now

达芙妮·杜穆里埃Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House2018

Rating 3.5
Word count
180K words
Chapters
6
ISBN
9787559417862

Tags

Literature Foreign Literature SuspenseHuman NaturePsychological InsightMoral DilemmaGothic NovelShort Story CollectionVeniceBritish Literature

Summary

Don't Look Now is a short story collection by the British writer Daphne du Maurier, originally published in English as Don't Look Now and Other Stories (first issued in 1971 under the title Not After Midnight, and Other Stories). The Chinese edition, translated by Yu Dawei, was published by Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House in 2018. The volume contains five longer short stories: the title piece "Don't Look Now," "Not After Midnight," "A Border-Line Case," "The Way of the Cross," and "The Breakthrough." The title story is the collection's centerpiece: John and his wife Laura come to Venice to recover from the death of their young daughter. In a restaurant, a pair of twin sisters claim to see the dead and say the child behind Laura is her lost daughter; John does not believe them, yet in an alley he glimpses a small figure in red fleeing desperately, while Laura sees nothing. Meanwhile, Venice is gripped by a series of motiveless murders, of which the couple remain unaware. The other four stories share the same skeleton of travel and uncanny encounters abroad: "Not After Midnight" follows a teacher who goes alone to Crete to paint and becomes entangled in the secret dealings of an American couple; "A Border-Line Case" follows a young actress searching for an old friend of her late father and becoming caught up in violence in Ireland; "The Way of the Cross" follows a group of English pilgrims who encounter something that should not exist in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem; and "The Breakthrough," with a soft science-fiction flavor, concerns an experiment that tries to capture the "soul" at the moment of death. The book moves at a slow pace, driven by atmosphere, suggestion, and seeded detail, combining popular storytelling with literary quality. The title story was adapted by the British director Nicolas Roeg into the film Don't Look Now (1973).

Editor's review

如果只读过《蝴蝶梦》，你会以为杜穆里埃只是擅长写长篇哥特罗曼司；这五篇短篇会纠正这个印象。她写短篇的手法和长篇不同——不靠情节反转轰炸，而是把不安种在日常里：一段本应放松的假期、一间换了位置的木屋、一次顺路的拜访，然后让某种“不对劲”缓慢地渗出来。 同名篇《此刻不要回头》最值得细读。它几乎没有血腥描写，却让读者从第一句关于“回头”的警告开始就浑身发紧；结尾那层关于预知的意味，几十年后仍被悬疑写作者反复借鉴。罗格的电影《威尼斯疑魂》之所以成为经典，很大程度上来自这篇小说本身的质地。 译文出自于大卫之手，整体文字干净、节奏克制，适合不追求快节奏爽感、愿意被气氛慢慢包裹的读者。若你正在找一本能一次读完一篇、又能在合上书后久久回味的短篇集，这本值得放进书单。

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Reading tips

  1. 建议按原书顺序读，把同名篇放在第一位置，先建立氛围再进入其余四篇。
  2. 每读完一篇稍作停顿，留意作者埋下的细节伏笔，第二遍重读会有新发现。
  3. 读完同名篇后可对照尼古拉斯·罗格的电影《威尼斯疑魂》，比较小说与影像在叙事侧重上的差异。
  4. 不要在深夜独自一口气读完，短篇的余味需要留白消化。

About the publisher

Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House China · Founded in 1958

Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House focuses on literary publishing while also covering the humanities, social sciences, and books on art and daily life. Its approximately 1,535 titles in the database span social novels, world history, design, science fiction, classic works, and film and television: they include modern Chinese literary classics by Lu Xun such as A Madman's Diary: The Complete Short Stories of Lu Xun, Call to Arms, Four Generations Under One Roof, and Teahouse, as well as foreign literary memoirs like Stefan Zweig's The World of Yesterday. In science fiction it offers Asimov's Galactic Empire series, while in architecture and art it publishes Liu Dunzhen's Classical Gardens of Suzhou and design titles from Phoenix Space. Its authors are concentrated among classic writers such as Lu Xun, Zweig, and Asimov, with translators including Liang Xijiang, Zhong Haonan, and Ye Lihua. Its overall character is built on classic works while embracing genre fiction and visual culture. Public information is limited, and this introduction is based on the titles in the database.

Contents

  1. Copyright Information
  2. Don't Look Now
  3. Not After Midnight
  4. A Border-Line Case
  5. The Way of the Cross
  6. The Breakthrough

FAQ

这本书是长篇小说还是短篇小说集？ 是短篇小说集。中文版共收五篇：《此刻不要回头》《不要在午夜以后》《边界内外》《十字架之路》《突破》，因此不要按长篇的连贯情节来期待它。
书名里的“不要回头”是什么意思？ 这句是小说开篇劳拉的丈夫在威尼斯餐厅里对她的警告。劳拉最终回头看了，故事由此走向不可逆的方向。它是情节的触发点，不是严格的阅读禁忌。
和电影《威尼斯疑魂》是什么关系？ 电影《威尼斯疑魂》（1973）由尼古拉斯·罗格执导，改编自本书同名短篇。电影强化了红衣女孩等视觉元素，小说中的女儿死于脑膜炎，部分细节与影片不同，可以分开欣赏。
没读过杜穆里埃的作品，能直接读这本吗？ 可以。这本是独立短篇集，不需要预备知识。若先读《蝴蝶梦》，会对她的哥特笔法更熟悉；但直接从此书入门，也能感受到她写氛围与心理的功力。
这本书适合作为悬疑入门读物吗？ 部分适合。它属于气氛型悬疑而非解谜型推理，几乎不给读者推理线索的乐趣，更看重心理压迫感和宿命意味，喜欢解谜的读者可能觉得节奏偏慢。

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About the author

达芙妮·杜穆里埃 Author

Daphne du Maurier is a writer who has drawn considerable attention in the field of foreign literature and enjoys a steady readership among Chinese-language readers. The library currently holds one work by her, The Collected Works of Daphne du Maurier (8 volumes), which shows that her writing reaches Chinese readers in the form of a multi-volume collection. Because public information is limited, her nationality, dates of birth and death, full biography, and writing career cannot be described in detail at present. Judging from the size of the existing collection, however, her writing is sustained and coherent, and is well suited to concentrated reading as a series. Her works are classified as foreign literature, which usually implies attention to character portrayal, atmosphere, and narrative tension—qualities that match the way her collection is often presented as a whole. For readers who wish to understand this author systematically, this eight-volume collection can serve as the main entry point into her literary world.