Unscripted

Name: Unscripted
ISBN: 9787218177762

詹姆斯·B.斯图尔特 / 蕾切尔·艾布拉姆斯Guangdong People's Publishing House2024

4.3

Word count: 328K words
Chapters: 39
Series: Pulitzer Prize winners James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams deliver a news investigation into the real-life family behind HBO's hit series Succession. The story opens in 2018, when CBS chairman and CEO Les Moonves is ousted over sexual misconduct allegations: an email to The New York Times' tip line sends two reporters down parallel tracks—internal corporate investigation and boardroom maneuvering—until they uncover a war far more complex than a workplace scandal. Sumner M. Redstone, the media titan who built Paramount Global, declines in body and judgment in his later years, only to be wrapped in layers of affection and information by two mistresses: they vie with each other, separately controlling the old man, isolating his family, and even intervening in his will and vast estate arrangements. Shari Redstone, the daughter her father once overlooked, is forced into battle, fighting executives for control of the company while fending off lawsuits and public attacks from the two lovers; exploiting her opponents' sexual scandal, she advances step by step and ultimately seizes real control of the media empire. Drawing on award-winning reporting, extensive documents, and interviews, the authors weave the struggle of traditional media under pressure from new media, the mutual calculation among family members, and the collapse of human decency before money and desire into an unscripted real-life Game of Thrones. Structured in "seasons" borrowed from the series, the book moves at a tight pace, combining journalistic rigor with dramatic buildup and tension.
ISBN: 9787218177762

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Summary

Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy

Editor's review

追完剧还意犹未尽的读者，这本书会告诉你：真实版本往往比剧本更荒诞。两位普利策奖得主——写《贼巢》的詹姆斯·B.斯图尔特与《纽约时报》记者蕾切尔·艾布拉姆斯——把一篇获勒布奖的报道扩展成一部完整的家族兴衰史，材料来自文件、邮件、法庭记录与当事人访谈，几乎每一处惊人之语都有出处。书的结构本身就是一处巧思：以“季”“集”编排，把一场长达数年的继承拉锯拆成连续剧式的段落，读起来有追剧的推进感，却始终不越过事实的边界。它讲的不只是一个富豪家族的争夺，更是传统媒体帝国在流媒体时代被挤压、被资本觊觎、被内部人拆解的全过程——派拉蒙、哥伦比亚广播公司这些名字背后的权力结构，在这里被摊开在阳光下。中文版由李磊翻译，精装一册约 33 万字，译名统一、附译名对照表，注释齐备，适合想认真读完一段商业史的读者。

Who it's for

A good fit for

看过 HBO 剧集《继承之战》、想了解其现实原型的观众
对传媒集团、家族企业治理与并购博弈感兴趣的商业读者
喜欢《贼巢》《坏血》一类深度调查纪实的非虚构读者
新闻传播、MBA 与公司治理方向的学生及从业者

Not a good fit for

期待纯虚构豪门小说式阅读体验的读者
对性丑闻、权力倾轧等成人议题较为敏感的青少年读者
只想看八卦速览、不愿读长线调查叙述的读者

Reading tips

可先读“序言”和“尾声”，抓住事件起止与结局，再回头按“季”顺序读，人物关系会更清楚。
阅读时随手记下雷德斯通家族成员与高管名单，书中出场人物多且称谓相近，做一张关系表能大幅降低混淆。
把每一“集”当成一条时间线，留意董事会、诉讼与媒体舆论三条线索的交叉点。
读完可对照剧集看差异，重点体会作者如何处理“有据可查”与“叙事张力”之间的平衡。

About the publisher

Guangdong People's Publishing House China · Founded in 1951

Guangdong People's Publishing House is a comprehensive publisher whose list spans Eastern philosophy, philosophical works, history, foreign literature, documentary literature and classical literature. Its holdings include 255 titles, with representative books such as Wang Yangming's Instructions for Practical Living, Plato's Republic, Jiang Tingfu's Modern Chinese History, Natsume Soseki's I Am a Cat, Albert Camus's The Stranger, Nazi Germany and the Philosophers: A Man's Exile, The Winter of Literature: Artists under Hitler's Rule in 1933, and the five-volume Three Words and Two Slaps. Its authors and translators include Wang Yangming, Plato, Jiang Tingfu, Natsume Soseki, Albert Camus, Ding Wei, Xu Jianxiong and Li Yumin. The publisher balances philosophical classics, historical works and translated foreign literature, with attention to both classical and documentary literature. Public information is limited, so this introduction focuses on the publishing directions reflected in its catalog.

Prologue
Trailer
Season One, Episode 1: "I'm Going to Hell Anyway"
Season One, Episode 2: "Sumner in a Skirt"
Season One, Episode 3: Sumner Will Live Forever
Season One, Episode 4: The Inner Circle VIP Social Club
Season One, Episode 5: "What's Mine Is Yours"
Season One, Episode 6: "You Know How He Treats Women"
Season One, Episode 7: "I Want My 45 Million Back"
Season One, Episode 8: "This Is Your Family"
Season One, Episode 9: "Are You Trying to Start a War?"
Season Two, Episode 1: "I'd Better Not Tell Manuela"
Season Two, Episode 2: "Free to Act"
Season Two, Episode 3: "I Never Thought I'd See You Again"
Season Two, Episode 4: "I'm Not Going to Fire Him"
Season Two, Episode 5: "This Is Your War, Not Mine"
Season Two, Episode 6: "The Pillory"
Season Two, Episode 7: "A Modern Love Story"
Season Two, Episode 8: "Nobody Likes a Roller Coaster"
Season Two, Episode 9: "The Unbearable Stench of Greed"
Season Two, Episode 10: "Don't Touch This"
Season Three, Episode 1: "We've All Done It"
Season Three, Episode 2: "If Barbie Speaks"
Season Three, Episode 3: "I Used to Be a Good Person"
Season Three, Episode 4: "I've Always Found It Disgusting"
Season Three, Episode 5: "This Is Insane"
Season Three, Episode 6: "On Hold"
Season Three, Episode 7: "Total War"
Season Four, Episode 1: "A Blatant Abuse of Power"
Season Four, Episode 2: "I Was Never a Predator"
Season Four, Episode 3: "What on Earth Are You Doing?"
Season Four, Episode 4: "Let's Not Rush This"
Season Four, Episode 5: "He Wants to Destroy Me"
Season Four, Episode 6: "This Is a Big No-No"
Season Four, Episode 7: "An Outcome That Was Once Hard to Predict"
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Name Glossary

FAQ

这本书和 HBO 剧集《继承之战》是什么关系？

书是剧集的故事原型之一：剧集影射的正是萨姆纳·雷德斯通家族的继承风波，涉及派拉蒙、哥伦比亚广播公司等企业。但书是纪实调查，人物为真名实姓，事件以文件和访谈为依据，并非剧集小说版。

没有看过剧，能直接读这本书吗？

完全可以。本书是独立的新闻调查作品，不依赖剧集剧情；只要对传媒行业、家族企业权力斗争感兴趣，就能顺畅阅读，剧集只是提供了额外的对照乐趣。

中文版是哪位译者，翻译质量如何？

中文版由李磊翻译，译有《一人公司》《金斯伯格访谈录》等社科作品。全书约 33 万字，附有附注与译名对照表，人名、机构名处理较为统一。

这本书主要讲的是性丑闻还是继承之争？

性丑闻是切入口：从哥伦比亚广播公司高管的指控与离职写起，逐步揭开董事会博弈与家族内部的遗产争夺，主线仍是媒体帝国的控制权归属。

书的“季”“集”编排是虚构章节吗？

不是虚构内容，而是借用剧集结构对真实事件进行分段，每“集”对应一段时间内的调查进展，标题多取自当事人的原话或报道用语。

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About the author

詹姆斯·B.斯图尔特 Author

James B. Stewart is a writer of nonfiction. The library currently holds only one of his works, Succession. Publicly available information about his nationality, dates of birth and death, education, and professional career is limited, so a full account of his life cannot be given here. Judging from the common classification of Succession, his writing leans toward narrative nonfiction, with subjects often built around real events and human relationships and with an emphasis on presenting the chain of facts through storytelling. Writing of this kind generally requires the author to balance the organization of materials, the verification of details, and narrative pacing, respecting factual accuracy while allowing readers to follow the story and understand how events unfolded. On the available evidence, Stewart's work is best approached through his choice of subject matter and his nonfiction technique: he pays attention to subjects with real-world tension, and he organizes his material in a relatively restrained narrative manner, giving the work both informational density and readability.

蕾切尔·艾布拉姆斯 Author

Rachel Abrams is an author about whom limited public information is available. The library currently holds one work by her, the nonfiction book The Succession Battle. Based on the available information, her writing falls within the category of nonfiction, focusing on real-world subjects and presenting events and people in a nonfictional manner. Since no clear records have been found regarding her nationality, dates of birth and death, educational background, or writing career, it is not possible here to offer further details about her life, nor to determine the place of The Succession Battle within her body of work. As far as the currently available materials show, this work is the main way readers can come to know the author; the choice of subject matter and narrative approach reflected in the book provide the basic clues for understanding her writing. Readers who wish to learn more about her will need to wait for further public information to emerge.