唐顿庄园作者用手机应用发行新作

There are few literary mediums that Julian Fellowes has not dabbled in.

朱利安·费罗斯(Julian Fellowes)未曾涉足的文学领域已经不多了。

Mr. Fellowes, the creator of the hit historical British melodrama “Downton Abbey,” has worked on screenplays, stage plays, novels and a children’s book. He wrote the book for “School of Rock,” a raucous new Broadway musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber adapted from the 2003 Richard Linklater movie, and he is working on his new NBC series “The Gilded Age,” set in New York in the late 19th century.

费罗斯是英国热门的通俗历史剧《唐顿庄园》(Downton Abbey)的编剧，他写过电视剧本、舞台剧本、小说和一本童书。他还为《摇滚校园》(School of Rock)写了一本书，这部喧嚣的新百老汇音乐剧是安德鲁·劳埃德·韦伯(Andrew Lloyd Webber)根据理查德·林特莱克(Richard Linklater)2003年的同名电影改编的。目前费罗斯正在忙于创作NBC新剧《流金岁月》(The Gilded Age)，该剧背景发生在19世纪末的纽约。

Now, for his next project, “Belgravia,” Mr. Fellowes is marrying an old narrative form — the serialized novel, in the tradition of Charles Dickens’s “The Pickwick Papers” — with the latest digital delivery system: an app.

而在他的下一个项目《贝尔格莱维亚》(Belgravia)中，费罗斯采用了古老的叙事形式——查尔斯·狄更斯(Charles Dickens)创作《匹克威克先生外传》(The Pickwick Papers)时延续下来的连载小说传统；而且采用了全新的数字传播方式——手机应用。

“Belgravia” takes place in London in the 1840s and opens decades earlier during the Battle of Waterloo. It explores the class divisions between the established aristocracy and newly wealthy families who made their fortunes through the Industrial Revolution. But instead of having the sweeping narrative arc of a novel, it will unfold more like a new network TV series, in 10 weekly digital installments that will arrive automatically on readers’ phones, tablets or computers. The chapters cost $1.99 each, and $13.99 all together. The app will also incorporate an audio version, music, video, character portraits, family trees, images of period fashion and maps of Belgravia.

《贝尔格莱维亚》发生在19世纪40年代的伦敦，故事开始于几十年前的滑铁卢战役。它探索旧有贵族阶层与工业革命期间发家的新富家族之间的的阶级差异。但是它并没有给出小说完整的叙事弧，而是像一部新电视剧一样徐徐展开。小说将做10个星期的网络连载，届时电子下载会自动出现在读者的手机、平板设备或电脑上。每一章价格是1.99美元，共计13.99美元。这个手机应用还将结合语音版、音乐、视频、人物画像、家族树、时代风情画和贝尔格莱维亚地图。

“To marry the traditions of the Victorian novel to modern technology, allowing the reader, or listener, an involvement with the characters and the background of the story and the world in which it takes place, that would not have been possible until now, and yet to preserve within that the strongest traditions of storytelling, seems to me a marvelous goal and a real adventure,” Mr. Fellowes said in a statement released through Grand Central Publishing, which will publish the novel in hardcover in July.

“把维多利亚时代小说传统和现代科技结合起来，让读者或听众可以参与到人物和故事背景之中，乃至小说里的世界当中，这种事只有到了如今才能实现。而对于我来说，保持最有力量的讲故事传统是最宏伟的目标，也是真正的冒险，”费罗斯先生在通过Grand Central出版社发表的声明中说，该出版社将于7月出版这本小说的精装本。

With “Downton Abbey,” an addictive series about an upper-class British family and its household servants, Mr. Fellowes has already proven himself adept at fashioning soap opera-worthy cliffhangers. On Sunday, PBS’s “Masterpiece” will begin airing the show’s sixth and final season. The show drew an average of more than 13 million viewers in its fourth season, and became the top rated PBS drama of all time.

《唐顿庄园》是一部会让人上瘾的电视剧，讲述一个英国上层家庭及其佣仆们的故事，通过这部剧，费罗斯先生已经证明自己擅长创作扣人心弦的、适合肥皂剧形式的连载剧集。星期日，PBS台的“杰作”(Masterpiece)栏目将播放《唐顿庄园》的第六季，也就是最后一季。这部剧的第四季平均吸引了1300多万名观众，成了PBS台有史以来收视率最高的剧集。

The first chapter of “Belgravia” will arrive in April, shortly after the last season of “Downton Abbey” concludes. The app will be available through a website and individual chapters can be purchased for download through major e-book retailers like and Barnes & Noble’s website.

《贝尔格莱维亚》的第一章将在4月推出，也就是《唐顿庄园》最后一季完结后不久。这个手机应用将通过一个网站推出，每一章节都可以通过和Barnes & Boble等主要的图书零售商网站购买下载。

App-based novels remain a relatively new and unproven format, but they could begin to catch on as some prominent authors experiment with the interactive possibilities of apps.

通过手机应用推出的小说是相对新鲜而且未经检验的形式，但是随着一些著名作家开始试着运用可供互动的手机应用，这种做法可以变得流行起来。

Last year, the British novelist Iain Pears released his new book “Arcadia” as an app that allowed readers to toggle among 10 different story lines, and Eli Horowitz published his comic dystopian novel “The Pickle Index” as a hardcover, paperback and interactive app simultaneously. This spring, the best-selling novelist Wally Lamb will publish a new novel, “I’ll Take You There,” exclusively as an app via the digital publishing company Metabook.

去年，英国小说家伊恩·皮尔斯(Iain Pears)以手机应用的形式发表了自己的新书《阿卡迪亚》(Arcadia)，读者可以在10个不同故事线之间切换，伊利·霍洛维茨(Eli Horowitz)同时以精装书、平装书和互动手机应用形式出版了自己的滑稽反乌托邦小说《泡菜目录》(The Pickle Index)。今年春天，畅销小说作家瓦利·兰姆(Wally Lamb)将出版新小说《我会带你去那儿》(I’ll Take You There)，通过数字出版公司Metabook，只以手机应用形式发行。

With its episodic delivery schedule, “Belgravia” will test whether “appointment reading” can become as habit-forming as a recurring TV show or serialized podcast. Jamie Raab, the president and publisher of Grand Central Publishing, said the concept behind “Belgravia” appealed to her because of Mr. Fellowes’s television background and his knack for keeping audiences engaged in a story over months and even years.

《贝尔格莱维亚》有着松散的发行计划，它将检测“预订阅读”是否能够同电视连续剧与系列podcast广播一样，培养人们的习惯。Grand Central出版社的总裁兼出版人杰米·拉布(Jamie Raab)说，她对《贝尔格莱维亚》的概念感兴趣，是因为费罗斯先生的电视背景，以及他可以让观众长达几个月乃至几年都沉浸在一个故事之中的能力。

“I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of publishing a novel in short episodic bites,” she said. “He gets how to keep the story paced so that you’re caught up in the current episode, then you’re left with a cliffhanger.”

“我一直对以短篇连载形式出版一本小说感兴趣，”她说。“他明白该怎样保持故事的节奏，让你沉浸在当下的这一集里，然后还能保持悬念。”

The thematic overlap with “Downton Abbey,” and the timing of the release, as “Downton Abbey” comes to an end, could help attract fans of the show who are experiencing withdrawal, she said.

本书与《唐顿庄园》主题上有所交叉，而且出版的时间正赶在《唐顿庄园》播出结束之后，可以吸引怅然若失的剧迷来看这本书，她说。

“ ‘Belgravia’ deals with the different classes in England, and I think that’s what people like so much about ‘Downton Abbey’ and before that, ‘Upstairs Downstairs,’ ” she said, referencing a show that ran in the 1970s. “There’s a lot of drama and melodrama.”

“《贝尔格莱维亚》涵盖了英国的不同阶层，我觉得这也是为什么人们如此喜爱《唐顿庄园》，以及之前的《楼上楼下》(Upstairs Downstairs)，”她说。《楼上楼下》是20世纪70年代的一部剧集。“书中有很多有戏剧性的、伤感的情节。”