Jane Austen is the first novelist for whom we have a substantial body of manuscript remains,

珍・奧斯丁是第一位我們收有大量遺稿的小說家，

ranging from fair copies of teenage writings, through to manuscript drafts of experimental

從青少年時期的作文副本、帶有實驗性質的手寫草稿，

or aborted novels and the novel she was writing in the year she died.

或中途捨棄的小說，到她過世那年撰寫的小說。

Writers not only reveal themselves in their choice of materials, they also reveal themselves in the way they use their materials.

作家不僅僅透過他們對於素材的選擇來顯露自我，亦從處理素材的方法來展現自己。

The first thing you notice when you look at one of Jane Austen's draft manuscripts in these tiny booklets,

當你端詳這些小書冊裡珍・奧斯丁的手寫草稿時，你第一件會注意到的事，

is how densely she filled the writing surface.

是她將整個書寫版面填得密密麻麻。

Right from the very start, she starts at the top, she leaves no margins on either side,

她從最頂端開始寫，最上面的地方，每一側都沒有留邊界。

she leaves very little space between the lines - and she just writes forward continuously.

她留了非常窄的行距，而且她不停流暢地寫著。

It's as though she already has a sense of what she wants to say

就好似她對於自己要說什麼已經很有概念，

and that this is firmly in place before she begins to write.

而且那些都在她開始寫之前已然成形。

If she does indeed need to go back and correct,

倘若她真的需要回去修正，

she squeezes in the corrections in the very small interlinear space.

她會將修訂內容擠在非常小的行距之間。

You can also see from Jane Austen's manuscripts, patterns of composition and development.

你也能夠從珍・奧斯丁的手稿中看出她組織小說的架構與發展。

One of the things that you see time and time again, is that when she reaches a point

有一件事你會一而再再而三地注意到，那便是當她寫到一定程度時，

where the characters are in conversation, her hand runs smoothly - often without a pause,

通常都是角色間在對話的時候，她行文流暢，沒有一絲停頓，

often without a mistake, often without a slip or correction.

往往也不會出任何差錯、缺漏或修正。

In other passages where she's setting up a scene or introducing a new character and having to describe him with some detail -

在其他的段落中，例如當她在設定一個場景，或是用一些細節來介紹、描述一個新角色——

before he actually becomes animated by conversation - those are the passages she struggles with.

在那個角色尚未能在與他人的對話中顯得栩栩如生時——那都是讓她苦思的段落。

But she does come through in the manuscripts as essentially and most confidently a conversational novelist.

但她確實在手稿中顯露出她在本質上確信是一位受爭議的小說家。

She doesn't use paragraphs - or very very rarely.

她不用段落來呈現故事——或者可以說，鮮少使用。

Her favourite punctuation mark is a dash.

她最喜歡的標點符號是破折號。

She tends to avoid what we think of as correct, grammatical punctuation

她傾向於避免使用我們認為正確、合乎文法的句讀

- so when she's not using a dash, she'll happily use a whole series of commas

——因此，當她不使用破折號時，她會樂於使用一連串的逗號，

and then eventually a full stop - usually followed by a dash.

然後最終完全停止 ——通常緊接著一個破折號。

This rather sits at odds with what we're told about her as a polished stylist.

這跟我們所知她是一位文字精練作家的評論相去甚遠。

It's also much closer to the way that we might use punctuation, especially in our e-mail culture.

這也較接近於我們可能會使用標點符號的方式，特別在我們的電子郵件文化中。