Learning to Speak

Name: Learning to Speak
ISBN: 9787532772568

希拉里·曼特尔 / 马丹Shanghai Translation Publishing House · ChinaOct 2018

4.0

Word count: 58K words
Chapters: 10
ISBN: 9787532772568

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Summary

A memoir-inflected collection of short stories by the Booker Prize-winning British author Hilary Mantel. The book gathers six stories—"King Billy Is a Gentleman," "Destruction," "Curved Is the Line," "Learning to Talk," "Third Floor Rising," and "Clean Slate"—alongside a selection of passages from Mantel's memoir Giving Up the Ghost. Learning to Talk bears the strong imprint of Mantel's own life, dramatizing childhood in several forms: in "King Billy Is a Gentleman," a boy must come to terms with the loss of his father and with the fading pull of his Irish heritage; "Curved Is the Line" is a story of friendship, faith, and near-disaster in a scrapyard; in "Learning to Talk," the narrator, with the help of a faded actress, corrects her northern accent. With a beguiling lightness of touch, Mantel captures a haunted time of childhood and transformation.

Editor's review

Learning to Talk is a work of nonfiction by the British author Hilary Mantel, collecting her speeches and essays on writing, reading, and life. Mantel won the Booker Prize twice, for Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, and her historical fiction is celebrated for its intricate storytelling and deep psychological insight; this book reveals another side of her as a thinker. In these pages Mantel speaks candidly about her creative principles, her view of literature, and her reflections on history, memory, and illness, writing with a sharp and intelligent pen. She explores how a writer draws material from personal experience and how one "learns to talk"—that is, finds a voice of one's own. For readers, this is not only a book about the craft of writing but a profound guide to observing the world, understanding oneself, and conversing with the past. Mantel's prose is dense and charged with tension; she combines private experience (such as her long struggle with illness) with a broad historical vision, so that each essay rises above mere technical instruction into a philosophical inquiry into the relationship between life and art. Reading this book is like listening to the monologue of a wise mind: it can kindle your love of language and prompt you to reconsider the power of story.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers with a strong interest in writing, creative expression, or the literary creative process
Devoted readers of Hilary Mantel who want a deeper understanding of her thought and creative background
Literature lovers who enjoy essays and reflections that are profound in thought and beautiful in prose
Thinkers seeking their own voice and curious about the relationship between identity, memory, and narrative

Not a good fit for

Practical-minded readers looking for a systematic, step-by-step tutorial on writing technique
Readers expecting stories in the historical fiction style for which Mantel is known

Reading tips

This need not be read straight through; pick pieces by interest, for example starting with "On Writing Autobiography" or "Shakespeare's Ghost."
Keep a notebook at hand while reading to record the incisive observations that strike you and Mantel's lovely metaphors about language.
Read alongside Mantel's fiction (such as Wolf Hall) for a fuller understanding of the roots of her view of history and her narrative aesthetic.

About the publisher

Shanghai Translation Publishing House China · Founded in 1978

Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.

版权信息
版权申明
学说话
比利王是位好绅士
消杀
美丽曲线
学说话
四楼往上
干净的石板
气绝

FAQ

How is this book different from a typical "writing guide"?

The core of this book is not a set of replicable writing templates but Mantel's philosophical reflection on the nature of writing, the writer's mind, and how stories are born from life. It is more about principles than techniques, more inspiring than instructive.

Can I understand this book without having read Mantel's novels?

Absolutely. The pieces stand on their own, and their value lies in Mantel's profound personal thought and expression. That said, some familiarity with her fiction will help you grasp the specific context of certain views.

Is the content too personal or obscure?

Mantel does start from personal experience (including illness), but her thinking always moves beyond the individual to touch on universal human experience—memory, loss, creation. Her expression is clear and forceful; the ideas are dense, but never needlessly obscure.

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About the author

希拉里·曼特尔 Author

Hilary Mantel is a writer who has drawn considerable attention in contemporary English-language letters and has a steady readership among Chinese readers as well. The library holds fourteen of her works, with representative titles including Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, The Mirror and the Light, the three-volume Wolf Hall trilogy and its tenth-anniversary edition, as well as the two volumes of A Place of Greater Safety. These works are commonly classified under foreign literature, classic works, essays and miscellaneous writings, and otherworldly fantasy, showing her ability to move between historical fiction and essayistic writing. Mantel is best known for her series of novels set in the Cromwell era: the narration is meticulous, the psychological portrayal dense, and the present tense is used to advance historical scenes so that readers stay close to the characters' situations. Her writing combines the rigor of historical research with the tension of literary imagination, and the Chinese editions have continued to spark discussion. Beyond biographical details, public information is limited; her literary reputation rests mainly on the narrative depth and linguistic texture of the works mentioned above.

马丹 Author

Ma Dan is an author about whom little public information is available, yet nine works appear under this name, spanning a notably wide range of subjects. Judging from the representative titles, Ma Dan has taken part in translating or compiling foreign literature and language-related books such as the Complete Plays of W. Somerset Maugham (four volumes), A Delicate Truth, and Learning to Speak, while also producing finance and business titles including Microcredit Technology and Microfinance Studies, as well as a medical work on the origins and prevention of epidemic diseases in traditional Chinese medicine. This spread across literature, finance, medicine, and general computing suggests work closer to editing, compilation, or cross-disciplinary reference organization than to specialized writing in a single field. With no reliable records of birth and death dates, nationality, or education, little can be said about Ma Dan's personal background; readers can only glimpse a broad range of interests and an editorial orientation through the diversity of these works.