《恩格斯致玛·哈克奈斯》（节选）

【导读】

艺术典型问题是马克思主义美学的根本问题,也是文学创作的核心问题。思格斯于1888年4月致《城市姑娘》的作者玛·哈克奈斯的信中阐述了现实主义创作原则,即“真实地再现典型环境中的典型人物”。

【箴言】

巴尔扎克,我认为他是比过去、现在和未来的一切左拉都要伟大得多的现实主义大师。……他汇集了法国社会的全部历史,我从这里, 甚至在经济细节方面(如革命以后动产和不动产的重新分配)所学到的东西,也要比从当时所有职业的历史学家、经济学家和统计学家那里学到的全部东西还要多。

在最伟大的人物中间，巴尔扎克是名列前茅者；在最优秀的人物中间，巴尔扎克是佼佼者之一。——雨果

【正文】

多谢您通过维泽泰利出版公司把您的《城市姑娘》转给我。我无比愉快地和急切地读完了它。的确，正像我的朋友、您的译者艾希霍夫所说的，它是一件小小的艺术品。他还说——您听了一定会满意的——，他几乎不得不逐字逐句地翻译，因为任何省略或试图改动都只能损害原作的价值。

您的小说，除了它的现实主义的真实性以外，给我的印象最深的是它表现了真正艺术家的勇气。这种勇气不仅表现在您敢于冒犯傲慢的庸人们而对救世军541所作的处理上，这些庸人也许从您的小说里才第一次知道救世军为什么竟对人民群众发生这样大的影响；而且还主要表现在您把无产阶级姑娘被资产阶级男人所勾引这样一个老而又老的故事作为全书的中心时所使用的朴实无华的手法。平庸的作家会觉得需要用一大堆生造的情节和曲意的修饰来掩盖这种他们认为是平凡的结构，然而他们终究还是逃不脱被人看穿的命运。您觉得您有把握叙述一个老故事，因为您如实地叙述了它，使它变成新故事。

您的阿瑟·格兰特先生是一个杰作。

如果要我提出什么批评的话，那就是，您的小说也许还不够现实主义。据我看来，现实主义的意思是，除细节的真实外，还要真实地再现典型环境中的典型人物。您的人物，就他们本身而言，是够典型的；但是围绕着这些人物并促使他们行动的环境，也许就不是那样典型了。

我决不是责备您没有写出一部直截了当的社会主义的小说，一部像我们德国人所说的“倾向性小说”，来鼓吹作者的社会观点和政治观点。我决不是这个意思。作者的见解越隐蔽，对艺术作品来说就越好。我所指的现实主义甚至可以不顾作者的见解而表露出来。让我举一个例子。巴尔扎克,我认为他是比过去、现在和未来的一切左拉都要伟大得多的现实主义大师,他在《人间喜剧》里给我们提供了一部法国“社会”，特别是巴黎“上流社会”的卓越的现实主义历史,他用编年史的方式几乎逐年地把上升的资产阶级在1816至1848年这一时期对贵族社会日甚一日的冲击描写出来,这一贵族社会在1815年以后又重整旗鼓,尽力重新竖起旧日的法国优雅生活的旗号。他描写了这个在他看来是模范社会的最后残余怎样在庸俗的、满身铜臭的爆发户的逼攻之下逐渐屈服,或者被这一暴发户所腐化；他描写了贵妇人怎样让位给专为金钱或衣着而不忠于丈夫的资产阶极妇女，而这些贵妇人对丈夫的不忠只不过是维护自己权利的一种方式,这和她们在婚姻上听人摆布的方式是完全相适应的。在这幅中心图画的四周,他汇集了法国社会的全部历史,我从这里, 甚至在经济细节方面(如革命以后动产和不动产的重新分配)所学到的东西,也要比从当时所有职业的历史学家、经济学家和统计学家那里学到的全部东西还要多。不错,巴尔扎克在政治上是一个正统派； 他的伟大的作品是对上流社会必然崩溃的一曲无尽的挽歌；他的全部同情都在注定要灭亡的那个阶级方面。但是,尽管如此,当他所深切同情的那些贵族男女在他笔下行动起来的时候,他的嘲笑是空前尖刻的,他的讽刺是无比辛辣的。而他经常毫不掩饰地加以赞赏的人物,却正是他政治上的死对头,圣玛丽修道院的共和主义的英雄们,这些人在那时(1830-1886 年)的确是代表人民群众的。这样,巴尔扎克就不得不违反自己的阶级同情和政治偏见；他看到了他心爱的贵族灭亡的必然性,从而把他们描写成不配有更好命运的人；他在当时唯一能找到未来的真正的人的地方看到了这样的人,——这一切我认为是现实主义的最伟大胜利之一 ，是老巴尔扎克最重大的特点之一。

为了替您辩护，我必须承认，在文明世界里，任何地方的工人群众都不像伦敦东头的工人群众那样不积极地反抗，那样消极地屈服于命运，那样迟钝。而且我怎么能知道：您是否有非常充分的理由这一次先描写工人阶级生活的消极面，而在另一本书中再描写积极面呢？

英文鉴赏

If I have anything to criticize, it would be that perhaps, after all, the tale is not quite realistic enough. Realism, to my mind, implies, besides truth of detail, the truthful reproduction of typical characters under typical circumstances. Now your characters are typical enough, as far as they go; but perhaps the circumstances which surround them and make them act, are not perhaps equally so.

I am far from finding fault with your not having written a point-blank socialist novel, a“Tendentiousness”, as we Germans call it, to glorify the social and political views of the authors. This is not at all what I mean. The more the opinions of the author remain hidden, the better for the work of art. The realism I allude to may crop out even in spite of the author’s opinions.Let me refer to an example. Balzac whom I consider a far greater master of realism than all the Zolas past, present and future, in “La Comédie humaine” gives us a most wonderfully realistic history of French ‘Society’, especially of the Parisian social world, describing, chronicle-fashion, almost year by year from 1816 to 1848 the progressive inroads of the rising bourgeoisie upon the society of nobles, that reconstituted itself after 1815 and that set up again, as far as it could, the standard of French refinement.He describes how the last remnants of this, to him, model society gradually succumbed before the intrusion of the vulgar monied upstart, or were corrupted by him; how the grand dame whose conjugal infidelities were but a mode of asserting herself in perfect accordance with the way she had been disposed of in marriage, gave way to the bourgeoisie, who horned her husband for cash or cashmere; and around this central picture he groups a complete history of French Society from which, even in economic details (for instance the rearrangement of real and personal property after the Revolution) I have learned more than from all the professed historians, economists, and statisticians of the period together. Well, Balzac was politically a Legitimist; his great work is a constant elegy on the inevitable decay of good society, his sympathies are all with the class doomed to extinction. But for all that his satire is never keener, his irony never bitterer, than when he sets in motion the very men and women with whom he sympathizes most deeply -the nobles. And the only men of whom he always speaks with undisguised admiration, are his bitterest political antagonists, the republican heroes of the Cloître Saint-Méry, the men, who at that time (1830-6) were indeed the representatives of the popular masses. That Balzac thus was compelled to go against his own class sympathies and political prejudices, that he saw the necessity of the downfall of his favourite nobles, and described them as people deserving no better fate; and that he saw the real men of the future where, for the time being, they alone were to be found that I consider one of the greatest triumphs of Realism, and one of the grandest features in old Balzac.

人物——左拉

自然主义创始人，1872年成为职业作家，左拉是自然主义文学流派的领袖。19世纪后半期法国重要的批判现实主义作家，自然主义文学理论的主要倡导者，被视为19世纪批判现实主义文学遗产的组成部分。