"The Shunned House" is one of my favorite stories by H. P. Lovecraft, although that is probably a minority opinion. One of the things that is notable about it is the detail with which he describes the eponymous haunted house, starting right near the beginning of the story. Despite Lovecraft's reputation, he did not usually lavish this much attention on the physical structures of buildings.
“The Shunned House”是H. P. Lovecraft最喜欢的故事之一,尽管这可能是少数意见。其中一个值得注意的事情是他描述了同名鬼屋的细节,从故事的开头就开始了。尽管洛夫克拉夫特的名声,但他通常并没有对建筑的物理结构给予如此多的关注。
The house was—and for that matter still is—of a kind to attract the attention of the curious. Originally a farm or semi-farm building, it followed the average New England colonial lines of the middle eighteenth century—the prosperous peaked-roof sort, with two stories and dormerless attic, and with the Georgian doorway and interior panelling dictated by the progress of taste at that time. It faced south, with one gable end buried to the lower windows in the eastward rising hill, and the other exposed to the foundations toward the street. Its construction, over a century and a half ago, had followed the grading and straightening of the road in that especial vicinity; for Benefit Street—at first called Back Street—was laid out as a lane winding amongst the graveyards of the first settlers, and straightened only when the removal of the bodies to the North Burial Ground made it decently possible to cut through the old family plots.
房子是 - 并且就此而言仍然是一种吸引好奇心的注意力。它原本是一座农场或半农场建筑,沿袭了十八世纪中叶的新英格兰平均殖民地线 - 繁华的尖顶屋顶,两层楼和无屋顶阁楼,以及格鲁吉亚的门口和内部镶板由那个时候的味道。它面向南方,一个山墙的一端埋在东面上升的山上的下窗户,另一个暴露在朝向街道的地基上。一个半世纪以前,它的建造遵循了特殊附近道路的分级和矫直;因为福利街 - 最初称为后街 - 在第一批定居者的墓地中被布置成一条蜿蜒的小巷,只有在将尸体移到北葬地时才能将其切断,以便能够切断旧的家庭地块。
At the start, the western wall had lain some twenty feet up a precipitous lawn from the roadway; but a widening of the street at about the time of the Revolution sheared off most of the intervening space, exposing the foundations so that a brick basement wall had to be made, giving the deep cellar a street frontage with door and two windows above ground, close to the new line of public travel. When the sidewalk was laid out a century ago the last of the intervening space was removed; and Poe in his walks must have seen only a sheer ascent of dull grey brick flush with the sidewalk and surmounted at a height of ten feet by the antique shingled bulk of the house proper.
一开始,西墙已经铺设了大约二十英尺高的路面上一条陡峭的草坪;但是,大约在革命时期,街道的扩大剪掉了大部分干预空间,暴露了地基,使得必须制作砖地下墙,使深窖成为街道正面,门上方有两扇窗户,接近新的公共旅行线。人行道在一个世纪前布置时,最后一个介入空间被移除;而在他的散步中,坡一定看到只有一块灰暗的砖块与人行道齐平的上升,并且在房屋的古董屋顶上铺满了十英尺的高度。
The farm-like grounds extended back very deeply up the hill, almost to Wheaton Street. The space south of the house, abutting on Benefit Street, was of course greatly above the existing sidewalk level, forming a terrace bounded by a high bank wall of damp, mossy stone pierced by a steep flight of narrow steps which led inward between canyon-like surfaces to the upper region of mangy lawn, rheumy brick walls, and neglected gardens whose dismantled cement urns, rusted kettles fallen from tripods of knotty sticks, and similar paraphernalia set off the weather-beaten front door with its broken fanlight, rotting Ionic pilasters, and wormy triangular pediment.
农场般的场地向山深处延伸,几乎延伸到惠顿街。房子以南的空间,靠近Benefit街,当然大大超过现有的人行道水平,形成一个露台,由一排潮湿的苔藓石头围起来,被一道狭窄的台阶穿过,在峡谷之间向内引导 - 喜欢在莽草坪的上部区域,风化的砖墙和被忽视的花园的表面,其拆除的水泥瓮,生锈的水壶从棘手的三脚架上掉下来,以及类似的随身用品打破了风雨如磐的前门,破碎的扇形灯,腐烂的离子壁柱和蠕虫状的三角形山形墙。
...
But after all, the attic was not the most terrible part of the house. It was the dank, humid cellar which somehow exerted the strongest repulsion on us, even though it was wholly above ground on the street side, with only a thin door and window-pierced brick wall to separate it from the busy sidewalk. We scarcely knew whether to haunt it in spectral fascination, or to shun it for the sake of our souls and our sanity. For one thing, the bad odour of the house was strongest there; and for another thing, we did not like the white fungous growths which occasionally sprang up in rainy summer weather from the hard earth floor. Those fungi, grotesquely like the vegetation in the yard outside, were truly horrible in their outlines; detestable parodies of toadstools and Indian pipes, whose like we had never seen in any other situation. They rotted quickly, and at one stage became slightly phosphorescent; so that nocturnal passers-by sometimes spoke of witch-fires glowing behind the broken panes of the foetor-spreading windows.
但毕竟,阁楼并不是房子里最可怕的部分。这是一个潮湿,潮湿的酒窖,不知何故对我们产生了最大的排斥力,尽管它在街道一侧完全在地面上,只有一扇薄薄的门和窗户穿过的砖墙将它与繁忙的人行道隔开。我们几乎不知道是否在光谱迷恋中困扰它,或者为了我们的灵魂和理智而避开它。一方面,房子的恶臭在那里最强烈;另一方面,我们不喜欢在炎热的地面上偶尔会出现在多雨的夏季天气中的白色真菌生长。这些真菌,就像外面院子里的植被一样,在它们的轮廓上真的很可怕;可怕的毒蕈和印度烟斗的模仿,就像我们在任何其他情况下从未见过的那样。它们迅速腐烂,在一个阶段变得轻微磷光;因此,夜间行人有时会谈到在发射窗户的破窗玻璃后面发出的女巫火焰。
Unlike so many of Lovecraft's stories, which were set in his fictional witchery-infested cities and towns—Arkham, Innsmouth, Dunwich—"The Shunned House" takes place in Lovecraft's real hometown of Providence, Rhode Island. He also mentions that Edgar Allan Poe must have walked many times past the frontage. The connection to Poe was possible because Poe really did live for a time in Providence, while he was courting Sarah Helen Whitman, whose house can still be visited. Given the detail with which he places the location of the house, it seems likely that the actual spot—and whatever structure(s) stood there in the early twentieth century—ought to be identifiable.
与许多Lovecraft的故事不同,这些故事发生在他虚构的巫术出没的城市和城镇--Arkham,Innsmouth,Dunwich-“The Shunned House”发生在Lovecraft真正的家乡罗德岛普罗维登斯。他还提到埃德加爱伦坡必须经过多次走过正面。与Poe的联系是可能的,因为Poe确实在普罗维登斯住了一段时间,而他正在向Sarah Helen Whitman求婚,他的房子仍然可以参观。鉴于他放置房屋位置的细节,似乎可能是二十世纪初的实际地点和任何结构 - 应该是可识别的。
So, was there an old house answering to Lovecraft's description at the location in question, and did its appearance thus inspire him to write the story? And, if the house was standing in Lovecraft's time, what has since become of the site?
那么,是否有一个老房子回答了Lovecraft在相关位置的描述,并且它的外观是否因此激发了他写故事的灵感?而且,如果房子站在洛夫克拉夫特的时代,那么该网站的内容是什么?
1 个解决方案
#1
32
Yes, it was based on the Stephen Harris House, 135 Benefit Street, Providence. Here's a picture by Flickr user Andrew Kuchling:
是的,它是基于普罗维登斯135 Benefit Street的Stephen Harris House。这是Flickr用户Andrew Kuchling拍摄的照片:
And here's Lovecraft on his letter to Lillian Clark, 4 November 1924 (from Letters from New York 82):
1924年11月4日,来自Lillian Clark的信(这是来自纽约82的信件)中的Lovecraft:
And on the corner of Bridge St. & Elizabeth Ave. is a terrible old house—a hellish place where night-black deeds must have been done in the early seventeen-hundreds—with a blackish unpainted surface, unnaturally steep roof, & an outside flight of steps leading to the second story, suffocatingly embowered in a tangle of ivy so dense that one cannot but imagine it accursed or corpse-fed. It reminded me of the Babbitt house [=the Stephen Harris House] in Benefit St., which as you recall made me write those lines entitled “The House” in 1920. Later its image came up again with renewed vividness, finally causing me to write a new horror story with its scene in Providence & with the Babbit house as its basis. It is called “The Shunned House”, & I finished it last Sunday night.
在Bridge St.和Elizabeth Ave的拐角处。是一个可怕的老房子 - 一个地狱般的地方,在17世纪初必须完成黑夜事迹 - 黑色未涂漆的表面,不自然的陡峭屋顶,以及通往第二层的外面的台阶,令人窒息地被赋予了一团常春藤如此密集,人们不禁想象它被诅咒或尸体喂食。它让我想起了在Benefit St.的Babbitt房子[= Stephen Harris House],你回忆起让我在1920年写下了那些名为“The House”的线。后来它的形象再次以新的生动形式出现,最终导致我在普罗维登斯以及以巴比特房屋为基础的场景中写下一个新的恐怖故事。它被称为“The Shunned House”,我在上周日晚上完成了它。
The 1763 house has been restored and is still inhabited; quahog.org has details.
1763年的房子已经修复,仍然有人居住; quahog.org有详细信息。
I found out this via the wonderfully informative Facts in the Case of Alan Moore’s Providence blog [spoiler alert], without which 95% of the references in Moore’s Providence would have flown right over my head. I recommend both the comic and the blog for Lovecraft fans.
我通过Alan Moore的普罗维登斯博客[剧透警告]案例中的精彩信息发现了这一点,没有这些事实,摩尔普罗维登斯中95%的参考文献都会飞过我的脑海。我推荐Lovecraft粉丝的漫画和博客。
#1
32
Yes, it was based on the Stephen Harris House, 135 Benefit Street, Providence. Here's a picture by Flickr user Andrew Kuchling:
是的,它是基于普罗维登斯135 Benefit Street的Stephen Harris House。这是Flickr用户Andrew Kuchling拍摄的照片:
And here's Lovecraft on his letter to Lillian Clark, 4 November 1924 (from Letters from New York 82):
1924年11月4日,来自Lillian Clark的信(这是来自纽约82的信件)中的Lovecraft:
And on the corner of Bridge St. & Elizabeth Ave. is a terrible old house—a hellish place where night-black deeds must have been done in the early seventeen-hundreds—with a blackish unpainted surface, unnaturally steep roof, & an outside flight of steps leading to the second story, suffocatingly embowered in a tangle of ivy so dense that one cannot but imagine it accursed or corpse-fed. It reminded me of the Babbitt house [=the Stephen Harris House] in Benefit St., which as you recall made me write those lines entitled “The House” in 1920. Later its image came up again with renewed vividness, finally causing me to write a new horror story with its scene in Providence & with the Babbit house as its basis. It is called “The Shunned House”, & I finished it last Sunday night.
在Bridge St.和Elizabeth Ave的拐角处。是一个可怕的老房子 - 一个地狱般的地方,在17世纪初必须完成黑夜事迹 - 黑色未涂漆的表面,不自然的陡峭屋顶,以及通往第二层的外面的台阶,令人窒息地被赋予了一团常春藤如此密集,人们不禁想象它被诅咒或尸体喂食。它让我想起了在Benefit St.的Babbitt房子[= Stephen Harris House],你回忆起让我在1920年写下了那些名为“The House”的线。后来它的形象再次以新的生动形式出现,最终导致我在普罗维登斯以及以巴比特房屋为基础的场景中写下一个新的恐怖故事。它被称为“The Shunned House”,我在上周日晚上完成了它。
The 1763 house has been restored and is still inhabited; quahog.org has details.
1763年的房子已经修复,仍然有人居住; quahog.org有详细信息。
I found out this via the wonderfully informative Facts in the Case of Alan Moore’s Providence blog [spoiler alert], without which 95% of the references in Moore’s Providence would have flown right over my head. I recommend both the comic and the blog for Lovecraft fans.
我通过Alan Moore的普罗维登斯博客[剧透警告]案例中的精彩信息发现了这一点,没有这些事实,摩尔普罗维登斯中95%的参考文献都会飞过我的脑海。我推荐Lovecraft粉丝的漫画和博客。