But all this is by the way.
但这都是无关紧要的。

I was very young when I wrote my first book. —
当我写下我的第一本书时，我还很年轻。 —

By a lucky chance it excited attention, and various persons sought my acquaintance.
幸运的是，它引起了注意，吸引了各种人的交往。

It is not without melancholy that I wander among my recollections of the world of letters in London when first, bashful but eager, I was introduced to it. —
逐渐回忆起我初次踏入伦敦文坛时，我感到有些忧郁。 —

It is long since I frequented it, and if the novels that describe its present singularities are accurate much in it is now changed. —
我已经很久没有频繁出没于那里了，如果现在描述它独特之处的小说是准确的，那么它现在已经发生了很多变化。 —

The venue is different. Chelsea and Bloomsbury have taken the place of Hampstead, Notting Hill Gate, and High Street, Kensington. —
地点也不同了。切尔西和布卢姆斯伯里取代了汉普斯特德、诺丁山门和肯辛顿高街。 —

Then it was a distinction to be under forty, but now to be more than twenty-five is absurd. —
在那时，不到四十岁是一种荣幸，但现在超过二十五岁就显得可笑了。 —

I think in those days we were a little shy of our emotions, and the fear of ridicule tempered the more obvious forms of pretentiousness. —
我想在那些日子里，我们有时候对自己的情感有些羞怯，对被嘲笑的恐惧缓和了更明显的做作形式。 —

I do not believe that there was in that genteel Bohemia an intensive culture of chastity, but I do not remember so crude a promiscuity as seems to be practised in the present day. —
我不相信在那个优雅的波希米亚，纯洁的文化很浓厚，但我不记得那个现在似乎被实践着的粗俗的淫乱。 —

We did not think it hypocritical to draw over our vagaries the curtain of a decent silence. —
我们没有认为掩盖我们的怪癖是虚伪的。 —

The spade was not invariably called a bloody shovel. —
铲子并不总是被称为该死的铲子。 —

Woman had not yet altogether come into her own.
女性还没有完全地实现自己的地位。

I lived near Victoria Station, and I recall long excursions by bus to the hospitable houses of the literary. —
我住在维多利亚车站附近，我还记得乘巴士去文人们热情款待的房子的长途旅行。 —

In my timidity I wandered up and down the street while I screwed up my courage to ring the bell; —
因为胆怯，我在街上徘徊，一边鼓起勇气按门铃； —

and then, sick with apprehension, was ushered into an airless room full of people. —
然后，充满恐惧，被领进一间密不透风的房间里，坐满了人。 —

I was introduced to this celebrated person after that one, and the kind words they said about my book made me excessively uncomfortable. —
在之后与这位备受尊敬的人物相识后，他们对我的书所说的赞美之词让我感到极不舒服。 —

I felt they expected me to say clever things, and I never could think of any till after the party was over. —
我觉得他们希望我说出聪明的话，但我直到派对结束后都想不出任何聪明的事情来。 —

I tried to conceal my embarrassment by handing round cups of tea and rather ill-cut bread-and-butter. —
我试图通过端上茶水和和不太整齐的奶油面包来掩饰我的尴尬。 —

I wanted no one to take notice of me, so that I could observe these famous creatures at my ease and listen to the clever things they said.
我希望没有人注意到我，这样我就可以轻松观察这些著名人物，并倾听他们说的聪明话。

I have a recollection of large, unbending women with great noses and rapacious eyes, who wore their clothes as though they were armour; —
我记得有些高大、刻薄的女人，拥有大鼻子和贪婪的眼睛，她们穿戴着衣服就好像是在穿甲胄一样； —

and of little, mouse-like spinsters, with soft voices and a shrewd glance. —
还有一些身形矮小像老鼠的老处女，声音柔和而目光犀利。 —

I never ceased to be fascinated by their persistence in eating buttered toast with their gloves on, and I observed with admiration the unconcern with which they wiped their fingers on their chair when they thought no one was looking. —
我对她们总是用手套吃涂了黄油的烤面包的坚持感到着迷，也惊讶于她们在认为没有人在看的时候，毫不在意地用椅子擦拭手指的举动。 —

It must have been bad for the furniture, but I suppose the hostess took her revenge on the furniture of her friends when, in turn, she visited them. —
这对家具肯定是有害的，但我想，主人在轮流拜访朋友时也会对他们的家具进行报复。 —

Some of them were dressed fashionably, and they said they couldn’t for the life of them see why you should be dowdy just because you had written a novel; —
有些人穿着时尚，他们说他们无论如何也想不明白，为什么写了一本小说就得穿得邋遢； —

if you had a neat figure you might as well make the most of it, and a smart shoe on a small foot had never prevented an editor from taking your “stuff. —
如果你拥有匀称的体态，那你最好让别人看到，而且漂亮的鞋子并不会阻止编辑接收你的“东西”。 —

” But others thought this frivolous, and they wore “art fabrics” and barbaric jewelry. —
但其他人则认为这太轻率了，他们穿着“艺术面料”和野蛮的珠宝。 —

The men were seldom eccentric in appearance. They tried to look as little like authors as possible. —
男士们的外表很少古怪。他们尽可能不想看起来像作家。 —

They wished to be taken for men of the world, and could have passed anywhere for the managing clerks of a city firm. —
他们希望被视为世故之人，他们可以在任何地方被视为城市公司的经理助理。 —

They always seemed a little tired. I had never known writers before, and I found them very strange, but I do not think they ever seemed to me quite real.
他们总是略显疲倦。我以前从未见过作家，我觉得他们非常陌生，但我觉得他们似乎从未在我眼中显得真实。

I remember that I thought their conversation brilliant, and I used to listen with astonishment to the stinging humour with which they would tear a brother-author to pieces the moment that his back was turned. —
我记得我认为他们的对话很精彩，我常常惊讶地倾听他们用尖刻的幽默批评一个作家，就在他转身离开的瞬间。 —

The artist has this advantage over the rest of the world, that his friends offer not only their appearance and their character to his satire, but also their work. —
画家有一个优势，就是他的朋友们不仅让他拿他们的外貌和性格来讽刺，还让他拿他们的作品来讽刺。 —

I despaired of ever expressing myself with such aptness or with such fluency. —
我绝望地觉得自己永远无法用如此恰当和流畅的方式表达自己。 —

In those days conversation was still cultivated as an art; —
那时候，交谈仍然被当作一门艺术来培养； —

a neat repartee was more highly valued than the crackling of thorns under a pot; —
一个巧妙的回答胜过了壶底之蛇的噼啪声； —

and the epigram, not yet a mechanical appliance by which the dull may achieve a semblance of wit, gave sprightliness to the small talk of the urbane. —
警句，尚未成为一种机械装置，让笨拙者能够显得机智，为潇洒而丰富了文雅小谈。 —

It is sad that I can remember nothing of all this scintillation. —
可悲的是我对这些犀利言辞一无所记忆。 —

But I think the conversation never settled down so comfortably as when it turned to the details of the trade which was the other side of the art we practised. —
但我觉得，当话题转向我们所从事的艺术的另一面——即行业的细节时，谈话便变得更加舒适。 —

When we had done discussing the merits of the latest book, it was natural to wonder how many copies had been sold, what advance the author had received, and how much he was likely to make out of it. —
当我们讨论完了最新书籍的优点之后，自然而然地会思考有多少本书已售出，作者得到了多少预付款，以及能赚多少。 —

Then we would speak of this publisher and of that, comparing the generosity of one with the meanness of another; —
然后我们会谈论这个出版商和那个出版商，比较其中一个慷慨和另一个吝啬的程度； —

we would argue whether it was better to go to one who gave handsome royalties or to another who “pushed” a book for all it was worth. —
我们会争论是去给出大额版税的那个出版商，还是那个极力推广书籍的。 —

Some advertised badly and some well. Some were modern and some were old-fashioned. —
有些人做广告做得不好，有些做得很好。有些是现代的，有些是过时的。 —

Then we would talk of agents and the offers they had obtained for us; —
然后我们会谈论代理人和他们为我们获得的报价； —

of editors and the sort of contributions they welcomed, how much they paid a thousand, and whether they paid promptly or otherwise. —
编辑和他们喜欢的作品类型，他们每千字支付多少钱，以及是否及时支付。 —

To me it was all very romantic. It gave me an intimate sense of being a member of some mystic brotherhood.
对我来说这一切都很浪漫。让我感到自己是某种神秘兄弟会的成员。