The Death of Virgil

赫尔曼·布洛赫Yilin Press2024

Rating 4.4
Chapters
5
ISBN
9787575302227

Tags

Literature Foreign Literature Human NatureStream of ConsciousnessLiterary MissionDeathPhilosophical NovelFull-Length NovelAncient PoetsGerman LiteratureModernism

Summary

This is a novel written by the Austrian writer Hermann Broch during his years of exile and his most important life's work. It draws on the legend of the Roman poet Virgil's deathbed: in 19 AD, Virgil crossed the Adriatic with Augustus's fleet to return to Italy, and on the last day of his life, lying on a sickbed in the palace, from night to day, he looked back on his life, reexamined the Aeneid he had written, and at one point resolved to burn the epic. The book proceeds in chapters named for the four elements—water, fire, earth, and ether: the first describes the arrival at port by sea, with Virgil sensing the light and dark of life among crowds and the city; the second his conversations in illness with the emperor Augustus and friends, unfolding a debate on artistic value and the responsibility of power; the third his self-questioning of his literary mission and wavering will; the fourth the ascent of the soul and the return home, reaching a state of union with all things. The work is written in dense long sentences, poetic language, and a heavy monologic cast; the characters are confined almost to a single room, yet in the depths of consciousness they traverse an entire age. Through this ancient poet, Broch asks whether art can bear responsibility for a suffering reality and whether the individual can save himself in an age of collapsing values. It is often ranked with Ulysses as a summit of modernism and has been championed by Hannah Arendt, Thomas Mann, Stefan Zweig, Milan Kundera, and others. This edition, translated over many years by Liang Xijiang and Zhong Haonan, is the first complete simplified-Chinese translation in the eighty years since the novel's publication, and includes a translator's afterword of twenty thousand characters.

Editor's review

《维吉尔之死》是那种「听说很多年，终于读到中文」的书。布洛赫1938年在纳粹吞并奥地利后被捕，出狱后流亡美国，用八年时间五易其稿完成这部小说；它1945年以德语和英语同时面世，此后八十年间，简体中文读者始终只能隔着二手转述去想象它。 这个译本来之不易。上海外国语大学教授梁锡江多年研究布洛赫，写有《神秘与虚无——布洛赫小说〈维吉尔之死〉的价值现象学阐释》，翻译与他的研究同步推进，并与青年译者钟皓楠合作完成。译后记长达两万字，从作家生平讲到四元素结构，像一位耐心的向导，先把读者送到山脚。 翻开它需要一点勇气：全书不过四个章节，句子却常常绵延七八页而不分段，读起来像被海水一层层往下带。但正是这种几乎令人窒息的文本节奏，把「临终一日的意识」变成了可感的经验。合上书后会发现，书中那位诗人对声名、权力与作品的怀疑，落的正是我们这个时代的痛处。

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. 先读两万字译后记，了解四元素结构与维吉尔其人，再回读正文，会顺畅许多。
  2. 按水、火、土、以太四章分四次读，每章之间停一停，不要追求速度。
  3. 手边备好《埃涅阿斯纪》的梗概或相关背景，理解维吉尔焚稿传说的分量。
  4. 遇长句可出声朗读或分段摘句，先感受语言节奏，再追究哲理含义。

About the publisher

Yilin Press China · Founded in 1988

Yilin Press focuses mainly on translated foreign literature. Its current catalogue of 318 titles covers common categories such as mystery and detective fiction, foreign literature, world classics, biography, and social novels. Representative books include The Complete Sherlock Holmes 2: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, To the Lighthouse, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, and Lives of the Artists: Michelangelo, often presented in bilingual or English-language editions that serve both original-text reading and language learning. Its author resources include foreign writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, and Romain Rolland, as well as translators including Li Jiazhen, Gao Fen, and Ma Ye. The catalogue also includes Chinese works such as Li Jieren's Ripples Across Stagnant Water. The press shows a concentrated publishing strength in foreign classics and bilingual readers; given limited public information, this overview is based only on catalogue data.

Contents

  1. 1 Water—Arrival
  2. 2 Fire—The Descent
  3. 3 Earth—Expectation
  4. 4 Ether—Homecoming
  5. Translator's Afterword

FAQ

这本书讲的是一个真实历史事件吗？ 小说取材于古罗马诗人维吉尔临终想焚毁《埃涅阿斯纪》的传说，属历史虚构，并非史实记录。布洛赫用这个传说承载自己对艺术价值与时代危机的思考，书中大段独白与哲学论辩都是文学创作。
没读过《埃涅阿斯纪》能读懂吗？ 可以。不懂原史诗也能读，只需知道维吉尔是罗马最负盛名的诗人、写了歌颂罗马建国史诗《埃涅阿斯纪》即可。正文重在诗人临终的心理与思辨，而非原诗情节。
为什么全书只有四章，章节标题是元素？ 布洛赫以水、火、土、以太四种自然元素命名四章，既对应维吉尔临终前从海上抵达、病中煎熬、自我质询到灵魂升华的过程，也构成一种类似音乐四乐章的结构，有评论者认为它模仿了弦乐四重奏。
这个中文版是完整全译本吗？ 据出版方与译者介绍，这是《维吉尔之死》问世八十年来首个简体中文全译本，由梁锡江、钟皓楠翻译，并附有两万字长篇译后记；实际收录内容与完整性，建议拿到书后核对版权页与目录。
读起来很难吗，大概需要多久？ 以长句和意识流独白为主，难度不低，属于需要慢读的书。若每天读四五十分钟，全书五百余页通常要两三周；建议按四章分解，读不动时先读一段译后记，或换到下一章的开头。

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

赫尔曼·布洛赫 Author

Hermann Broch was an Austrian writer. Public information is limited; the library holds four of his works, including the three-volume set The Sleepwalkers and individual volumes such as 1888: Pasenow or Romanticism and 1903: Esch or Anarchism. These works are classified as foreign literature. Judging from the titles available, The Sleepwalkers unfolds as a trilogy, with each volume named after a year and a character, carrying clear historical markers and character threads and showing a writing approach that uses fiction to bear witness to history and spiritual conditions. His narratives often center on the individual's situation amid shifting values, with a style weighted toward intellectual and analytical reflection. Readers may thereby encounter a strand of twentieth-century German-language literature devoted to conceptual and formal exploration.