《黑玉兰花》选译自1968年出版的短篇小说集《野樱桃树》,它既保持了贝茨早期作品的幽默讽刺的风格,也表现出他后期作品的熟练的技巧。哈特莱·威尔金逊·斯本塞是一位快满五十岁的单身汉。他既是地方长官,又是治安法官,还是做慈善事业的大人物,举办募捐等等事情,很有名望。在一次去伦敦的火车上,他三次在三个不同的时间遇见了同一个女人,她便是瓦尼莎·拉·法格太太,四十多岁。她主动介绍了自己,并请求斯本塞先生为她将要举办的一次募捐帮忙。斯本塞先生先同意了,后来因为她的募捐形式的庸俗而有所犹豫。于是拉·法格太太和她的一位女朋友想尽各种办法拉拢他,请他吃饭,邀他赏花、游泳;她们还施展出女人的一切本领诱惑他。而斯本塞先生却始终本分得可爱,他按照自己制定的“不管怎么说,公事公办”以及“你不应该骗人,或者至少注意不要被骗”等等宗旨行事处人,他最后没有同意为拉·法格太太的募捐帮忙。小说情节并不曲折,人物也不复杂,但作者在对故事情节的描写和人物的刻画方面充满了强烈的讽刺性的幽默,达到了高度的艺术成就,反映了英国上层阶级的虚伪、庸俗。 Selected as a collection of short stories “Wild Cherry Tree,” which was published in 1968, Black Magnolia preserves both the humorous and satirical style of Bates’s early works and his skill in later works. Hartley Wilkinson Spencer is a bachelor almost 50 years old. He is famous both as magistrate and magistrate, as a charity, as host of fundraising and so on. On a train to London, he met the same woman three times at three different occasions, Mrs. Vanisha Lafarge, in her forties. She introduced herself voluntarily and asked Mr. Spenser to help her with a solicitation of her contribution. Mr. Spenser agreed, and later hesitated because of the vulgar nature of her fundraising. Mrs Lafargue and one of her girlfriends tried every possible means to win over him, invited him to dinner, invited him to enjoy the flowers, and swim; they also showed all the power of a woman to seduce him. However, Mr.Spencer has always been lovely points, he made his own “anyway, the public affairs” and “you should not lie, or at least take care not to be cheated,” and so the purpose of acting people, he did not last Agreed to help Mrs Lafargue’s donation. The plot is not tortuous, the characters are not complicated, but the author in the description of the story and characterization is full of a strong irony of humor, reached a high degree of artistic achievement, reflecting the British upper class hypocrisy.