不说不知道:第一部侦探小说作者之谜

Who Wrote The First Ever Detective Novel？

Host： Who done it？ You know， who wrote the first detective novel？ Maybe somebody who wrote it in the 1）parlor with a quill pen. With all the clues and answers， our own literary detective， Paul Collins has done some 2）sleuthing and figured out who wrote the first detective novel. So， uh， what was it， Paul？

Paul： The Notting Hill Mystery. You know， the usual suspects are Edgar Allen Poe， ’cause he wrote The Murder in the Rue Morgue in 1841， which， you know， most people would consider to really be the first piece of detective fiction. It’s the first short story with a detective at the center of it. Or 3）Wilkie Collins， who wrote The Moonstone， and he， he kind of married Poe’s idea with the 4）sprawling novels of Dickens. And that was in 1868. Almost all of the elements

that we associate with detective fiction you can actually find in those early works. You know， they’re typically thought of as， kind of， the parents of the 5）genre. It turns out that there is， kind of， an 6）eccentric uncle living in the attic though.

Host： Who done it？

Paul： Well， Charles Felix did it. But the real mystery is we don’t know who Charles Felix is， or at least didn’t. I actually first came across this a while back when I was reading The Moonstone. And there was a footnote in it mentioning， you know， most people consider this sort of the first detective novel， but by the way， there’s an earlier one， called The Notting Hill Mystery that came out in 1862， and nobody knows who wrote it. And I went，“What？！” And so I started to look into it.

Host： Wow. And？

Paul： Well...

Host： Don’t leave us hanging， man， you know.

Paul： So， yeah， the…The Notting Hill Mystery， it’s a mystery that appeared initially in a magazine， a once-aweek magazine which was kind of a direct competitor to Charles Dickens’s magazine， which was Household Words. It started to run in late 1862 and it ran in eight 7）installments going into 1863.

And when the book came out， it attracted very favorable reviews. And reviewers were really struck by…this hadn’t been done before. The whole idea of a detective novel was basically new to them. And， in fact， the genre didn’t even really exist at that point， so they had to explain to readers the whole idea behind this is that you’ve been handed a puzzle.

Host： Of course， the， the question that remains， Paul： Who was Charles Felix？

Paul： His identity has been hidden for a hundred and forty-nine years， but his real name is Charles Warren Adams. And， in fact， they didn’t know back then either. There was absolutely no hint of who this was. And， in fact， I went to the publisher’s archives. There were no letters from the publisher to the author， which was really weird.

This guy， the so-called Charles Felix， had written another book， so I started looking around for the authorship of that. And after going through hundreds and hundreds of documents and old newspaper articles， I finally hit upon it. I can read it to you. It’s the one clue to his identity：

“It is understood that Velvet Lawn， by Charles Felix， the new novel announced by Saunders Otley and Company， is by Mr. Charles Warren Adams， now the sole representative of the firm.”

So the reason there was no 8）correspondence between the publisher and the author...

Host： Oh， because he， he is the...

Paul： He is the publisher.

Host： Yes！ He’s the publisher and the author！

Paul： Yeah！

Host： Oh my！ Paul， thanks so much for clearing this mystery up.

Paul： Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be here.

主持人：“犯人”是谁？你瞧，是谁写出了世界上第一部侦探小说呢？也许是某个人在起居室里用鹅毛笔写出来的。我们的文学侦探保罗・柯林斯根据所有的线索和答案侦查了一番，终于找出了第一部侦探小说的作者。好了……答案是什么呢，保罗？

保罗：《诺丁山疑案》。你知道，人们通常会怀疑到埃德加・爱伦・坡的头上，因为他于1841年创作了《莫格街谋杀案》。你知道，大多数人将这部作品视为第一篇侦探小说，因为这是第一篇围绕一名侦探展开的短篇小说。也有可能是威尔基・柯林斯，他创作了《月亮宝石》，把爱伦・坡的创意与情节复杂的狄更斯小说结合在一起。这本小说成书于1868年。我们一提起侦探小说就会想到的要素，你在这些早期作品里几乎都能找到。你知道，这两位作家通常被视为这个体裁的创派宗师――但是呢，原来在阁楼上还住着一位怪叔叔。

主持人：那到底是谁呢？

保罗：查尔斯・费利克斯。但真正的谜团是：我们不知道查尔斯・费利克斯是谁，至少以前一直不知道。不久前，我在读《月亮宝石》时第一次注意到这个问题。书中有一条脚注提到，你知道，大多数人认为这是第一部侦探小说，但顺便提一句，还有一部更早的作品，那就是1862年面世的《诺丁山疑案》，但没人知道那是谁写的。我当时想：“什么？！”于是我开始寻找真相。

主持人：哇！接下来呢？

保罗：嗯……

主持人：不要吊我们的胃口，伙计，你知道的。

保罗：啊，好的……《诺丁山疑案》是本神秘小说，最初刊登在一本杂志上――这本周刊还是查尔斯・狄更斯办的《家常话》的竞争对手。这个故事于1862年末开始连载，一直连载到1863年，一共登了八期。

这本书出版后赢得了一片好评。评论家们深受震动……这可是前所未有的类型。侦探小说这个概念对他们来说可是新事物。事实上，当时并不存在这种体裁，因此他们不得不向读者解释说，这种小说的理念就是将一个谜团呈现在你眼前。

主持人：当然了，保罗，答案仍未揭晓呢：查尔斯・费利克斯到底是谁？

保罗：他的身份被隐藏了149年之久，其真名是查尔斯・沃伦・亚当斯。实际上，当时的人们也不知情，我完全找不到任何表明作者身份的线索。我其实还去过出版商的档案库。那里也没有任何出版商与作者之间的来往信件，这真是太奇怪了。

这位化名为查尔斯・费利克斯的仁兄还写了另一本书，于是我开始查探那本书的作者身份。在翻查了几百份文件和旧报纸文章后，我在偶然间发现了答案。我可以读给你听听，这就是关于其真实身份的惟一线索――

“据悉，桑德斯・奥特利公司即将发行查尔斯・费利克斯的新小说《天鹅绒草坪》，其作者实为查尔斯・沃伦・亚当斯先生，即该公司的惟一法人代表。”

所以，出版商不曾和作者通信的原因就是……

主持人：噢，因为他就是……

保罗：他就是出版商。

主持人：是的！他既是出版商，又是作者！

保罗：没错！

主持人：我的天啊！保罗，非常感谢你为我们解开了这个谜团。

保罗：谢谢。我很高兴上来做节目。

文化交流站

Who done it？ 凶手是谁？

这是一个省略了has的推理小说惯用表达，来源于古典推理小说三大要素：

Whodunit？ = Who （has） done it？ 谁干的？犯人/凶手是谁？

Howdunit？ = How （has） done it？ 怎么干？犯罪手法是什么？

Whydunit？ = Why （has） done it？ 为什么？犯罪动机是什么？

然而，并不是每一个作家都能将这三个要素交代清楚，Whodunit、Howdunit和Whydunit后来成了推理文学的三大分支，不同的作家对三大要素有不同的侧重。另外，whodunit这个词在美国俚语中还可以泛指侦探小说。