By Richard Thomas

For55 years, Harper Lee had been one of the bestknown literary one-hit wonders: she won the Pulitzer prize for her only published novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.2Harper Lee： 哈珀·李（1926— ），美國作家，1960年發(fā)表她一生中唯一的長篇小說《殺死一只知更鳥》并獲得普利策小說獎；此文中應(yīng)不是“曇花一現(xiàn)”的意思；Pulitzer prize： 普利策獎，是美國最著名的文學(xué)獎項之一，根據(jù)美籍匈牙利人約瑟夫·普利策的遺愿設(shè)立，包括新聞界獎和創(chuàng)作界獎；To Kill a Mockingbird：《殺死一只知更鳥》，小說講的是上世紀(jì)30年代，在美國大蕭條時期南部的一個小鎮(zhèn)，三個天真孩子的生活因為兩樁冤案而改變的故事。But now the 88-year-old has revealed that she will publish a second novel this summer, which she technically wrote before To Kill a Mockingbird and which even inspired her only book to date.3technically： 嚴(yán)格意義上地；to date：至今。

Lee has revealed that Go Set a Watchman, which will be released with a print run of 2 million copies in July,features an adult woman called Scout, who “has returned to Maycomb from New York to visit her father, Atticus.”

But Lee leaves a number of literary one-hit wonders behind her. Here are a few of the best:

1. Margaret Mitchell4Margaret Mitchell： 瑪格麗特·米切爾（1900—1949），美國現(xiàn)代著名女作家，1937年獲普利策獎，只一部《亂世佳人》足可奠定她在世界文學(xué)史上不可動搖的地位。—Gone With the Wind (1936)瑪格麗特· 米切爾和《亂世佳人》

Published in 1936, the sweeping tale of Scarlett O’Hara and the Rhett Butler was an instant success.5（《亂世佳人》）出版于1936年，其中斯嘉麗·奧哈拉和瑞特·巴特勒的故事迅速走紅，獲得了巨大的成功。sweeping：（范圍或規(guī)模）廣大的。Mitchell, a writer for her local Atlanta newspaper, won the Pulitzer Prize and saw her debut novel turned into a Hollywood epic6epic： 史詩般的作品。.

在世界文壇上，有一些作家終其一生只創(chuàng)作過一部作品，這些作品凝結(jié)了作者畢生的心血與感悟，成為了經(jīng)典的傳世之作。斯嘉麗對愛的狂熱，傾注了作者米切爾的初戀情愫；一匹黑馬的“自傳”推動了動物保護法案；300萬字的回憶，優(yōu)雅托起的是現(xiàn)實的、充滿激情的世界……一輩子只寫一部長篇巨作的作家有哪些呢？

Mitchell hated fame and declared that she would not write another word as long as she lived. She died in a road accident in 1949. In 1995, an unpublished manuscript she had written as a teenager was discovered. It was published the following year as Lost Laysen, a romantic novella set in the South Paci fic.7Lost Laysen： 《失去的萊松島》，本書描寫了南太平洋小島上的一段愛情故事；novella：中篇小說。

2. Oscar Wilde—The Picture of Dorian Grey8Oscar Wilde： 奧斯卡·王爾德（1854—1900），英國最偉大的作家與藝術(shù)家之一，以其劇作、詩歌、童話和小說聞名唯美主義代表人物；The Picture of Dorian Grey： 《道林·格雷的畫像》，是王爾德的唯一一部小說，也是他美學(xué)思想的全面體現(xiàn)，因此被認為是唯美主義小說中的力作。故事圍繞著年輕而又漂亮驚人的道林·格雷展開。(1890)

奧斯卡·王爾德和《道林·格雷的畫像》

While Wilde built a career of writing poetry and plays, his arguably most controversial work was his only published novel.9arguably： 可能，大概；controversial： 有爭議的。At the end of the 19th century its narrative of obsession,murder and hedonism offended Victorian society, with critics dubbing The Picture of Dorian Grey everything from“effeminate” to “unclean”.10在19世紀(jì)末，這本小說中對于癡迷、謀殺與享樂主義的描述與維多利亞時代的社會氛圍格格不入，評論家們抨擊此書“頹廢”和“不潔”。obsession：癡迷；hedonism： 享樂主義；Victorian： 維多利亞時代；dub：授予稱號；effeminate：（文化、藝術(shù)等）缺乏鋼勁的，頹廢的。Perhaps it rubbed off11rub off： 使顯得黯淡。: Wilde never wrote another novel again.

3. J D S a l i n g e r—T h e Catcher in the Rye12JD Salinger： 杰羅姆·大衛(wèi)·塞林格（1919—2010）， 美國作家；The Catcher in the Rye： 《麥田里的守望者》，被認為是20世紀(jì)美國文學(xué)的經(jīng)典作品之一。小說探索了一個十幾歲少年的內(nèi)心世界。憤怒與焦慮是此書的兩大主題，主人公的經(jīng)歷和思想在青少年中引起強烈共鳴，受到讀者，特別是廣大中學(xué)生的熱烈歡迎。(1951)杰羅姆·大衛(wèi)·塞林格和《麥田里的守望者》

Although he wrote short stories and the novella Franny and Zooey13Franny and Zooey： 《弗蘭妮與祖伊》（1961年）是塞林格繼《麥田里的守望者》后出版的第三部作品，由《弗蘭妮》與《祖伊》這兩個相互有關(guān)聯(lián)的中短篇小說組成。, The Catcher in the Rye was Salinger’s only novel.The author was believed to have retreated from society to spend his last half century as a hermit, until letters published in January this year revealed that he had been travelling the world, visiting West End shows and popping into Burger King,14retreat from： 退出，文中指“隱居”；hermit： 隱士；West End： 倫敦西區(qū)，是與紐約百老匯齊名的世界兩大戲劇中心之一，是表演藝術(shù)的國際舞臺，也是英國戲劇界的代名詞；pop into： 匆匆走進。all the while happily chatting to strangers who had no idea who he was.

4. Emily Bront—Wuthering Heights15Emily Bront： 艾米莉·勃朗特（1818—1848），19世紀(jì)英國作家與詩人，著名的勃朗特三姐妹之一；Wuthering Heights： 《呼嘯山莊》，小說描寫吉卜賽棄兒希斯克利夫被山莊老主人收養(yǎng)后，因受辱和戀愛不順，外出致富，回來后對與其女友凱瑟琳結(jié)婚的地主林頓及其子女進行報復(fù)的故事。(1847)艾米莉·勃朗特和《呼嘯山莊》

Bront published her one and only novel under the pseudonym16pseudonym： 筆名。Ellis Bell.She died the following year, aged 30, from tuberculosis17tuberculosis： 肺結(jié)核。. In 1850, a new edition of Wuthering Heights was published with a preface written by her sister, Charlotte.

5. Boris Paster nak—Dr Zhivago18Boris Pasternak： 鮑里斯·帕斯捷爾納克（1890—1960），蘇聯(lián)作家、詩人、翻譯家；Dr Zhivago：《日瓦戈醫(yī)生》，描述俄國醫(yī)生日瓦戈與妻子冬妮婭以及美麗的女護士拉娜之間的三角愛情故事，被認為是一部帶有自傳體裁的作品。(1957)鮑里斯·帕斯捷爾納克和《日瓦戈醫(yī)生》

While Pasternak was an acclaimed poet, he only published one novel:Dr Zhivago. The controversial tome19tome： 大部頭（書），大本書。struggled to get published because of Pasternak’s controversial attitude to socialism in soviet Russia. The manuscript was smuggled20smuggle： 偷運。out of Russia before being published in Italy. When the novel won Pasternak the Nobel Prize in 1958, he was forced to turn it down by the Soviet authorities—or else face exile or prison.21turn down： 拒絕；exile： 流放。However, it was not this strife22strife： 沖突。which meant Pasternak never published another novel, but the fact he died two years later from lung cancer.

6. Anna Sewell—Black Beauty23Anna Sewell： 安娜·賽維爾（1820—1878），英國作家；Black Beauty：《黑駿馬》，是19世紀(jì)下半葉轟動歐洲文壇的經(jīng)典兒童小說，它在歐美暢銷不衰，喚醒一代又一代讀者去理解所有不會說話的動物。(1877)安娜· 賽維爾和《黑駿馬》

English novellist Sewell wrote the equine children’s classic in the last years of her life while she was con fined to bed by ill health.24equine： 馬的；be con fined to：被限制于。There she worked on it for seven years,finally being published six months before she died—just long enough for her to witness its instant early success.

7. Marcel Proust—In Search of Lost Time25Marcel Proust： 馬塞爾·普魯斯特（1871—1922），是20世紀(jì)法國最偉大的小說家之一，意識流文學(xué)的先驅(qū)與大師；In Search of Lost Time：《追憶似水年華》，被譽為20世紀(jì)最重要的文學(xué)作品之一的長篇巨著，以其出色的心靈追索描寫、宏大的結(jié)構(gòu)、細膩的人物刻畫以及卓越的意識流技巧而風(fēng)靡世界，并奠定了它在當(dāng)代世界文學(xué)中的地位。(1913-1927)馬塞爾·普魯斯特和《追憶似水年華》

Its 4,215 pages are split over seven volumes, but In Search of Lost Time counts as one novel.26雖然全書共4,215頁被分為七卷，但是《追憶似水年華》算是一部小說。volume：冊，卷；count as： 算是。Proust started writing it in 1909, and was still working on until he fell ill for the final time, weeks before his death in November 1922. Although the sprawling27sprawling：蔓延式的，這里指篇幅龐大的。novel continued to be published five years after his death, Proust raised the funds to publish the first part of it himself in 1913.