The Warlow Experiment

　　什麼樣的人，會想到將一個人監禁七年？而又有誰會同意參加這樣的實驗？

　　18世紀後期，赫伯特‧包伊斯(Herbert Powyss)在威爾斯擁有房產、收入和閒暇時間，足以讓他去追求紳士們流行的異國植物園藝。但比起這個，他更加渴望能夠取得某些厲害到足以引起皇家學會注意的成就，讓他能夠在科學領域留下自己的名聲。

　　赫伯特於是進行了一場激進的「孤獨實驗」：他計畫將自己莊園宅邸的地下室打造成「實驗室」──一個完全封閉的空間，沒有窗戶，只有書籍、畫作、樂器相伴，食物將由喑啞的侍者送至地下室。實驗對象將在此獨居七年，他與社會的所有聯繫將被完全切斷，並且，他必須忠實將七年間的想法和舉止紀錄在日誌本中。而他將獲得的酬勞，是一年五十英鎊，終生供應。

　　赫伯特好奇，如果一個人長期處在孤獨的狀態，會發生什麼事？

　　唯一一個前來應徵的，是幾乎不識字的勞工、家有多個孩子需要餵養的約翰‧沃羅(John Warlow)。地下室供作「娛樂」的藏書，對如同文盲的約翰來說毫無用處，他也無法寫下赫伯特預期可以當成實驗記錄的日誌，隨著實驗的時間慢慢過去，約翰逐漸變得困惑，甚至是野性。而當赫伯特與約翰的妻子漢娜(Hannah)接觸，並產生情愫，赫伯特也開始懷疑，她是真心回應他的感情，或者只是出於擔憂仍關在地下室的丈夫，害怕他可能遭受赫伯特的報復？

　　宅邸的樓下發生的事，充分說明了：樓上的世界，有能力及權力作出多麼殘酷的舉動。與此同時，莊園裡的僕役們，也正關切著社會的脈動，彼時，在工業革命推動下，新興中產階級與勞工階級對貴族的挑戰蠢蠢欲動，看著約翰遭的遭遇，他們因此更加相信，階級革命有其必要......。

　　這場啟蒙運動下的實驗，朝向瘋狂的方向發展，將為牽扯其中的人們帶來無法預見的後果。

　　'This is an extraordinary, quite brilliant book' - C. J. Sansom

　　What kind of person keeps a man underground for seven years?
　　And who would agree to be part of such an experiment?

　　Herbert Powyss lives on a small estate in the Welsh Marches, with enough time and income to pursue a gentleman's fashionable cultivation of exotic plants and trees. But he longs to make his mark in the field of science - something consequential enough to present to the Royal Society in London.

　　He hits on a radical experiment in isolation: for seven years a subject will inhabit three rooms in the cellar of the manor house, fitted out with books, paintings and even a chamber organ. Meals will arrive thrice daily via a dumbwaiter. The solitude will be totally unrelieved by any social contact; the subject will keep a diary of his daily thoughts and actions. The pay? Fifty pounds per annum, for life.

　　Only one man is desperate enough to apply for the job: John Warlow, a semi-literate labourer with a wife and six children to provide for. The experiment, a classic Enlightenment exercise gone more than a little mad, will have unforeseen consequences for all included. In this seductive tale of self-delusion and obsession, Alix Nathan has created an utterly transporting historical novel which is both elegant and unforgettably sinister.

Review

　　Praise for Alix Nathan:
　　'She cuts against cliché, against the received version, against cosiness. She leaves her reader restless, curious, wanting more. She is an original, with a virtuoso touch.'

　　(Hilary Mantel)

　　A powerful and unsettling novel, both fascinating and infinitely strange (Andrew Taylor)

　　Unusual, gripping and emotionally complex - I loved this book. (Sally Magnusson, author of The Sealwoman's Gift)

　　This is an extraordinary, quite brilliant book. It captures the language and mental framework of the late eighteenth century perfectly, the characters are beautifully drawn people of real depth, and we are shocked and chastened by how easily the scientific rationalism of the "Age of Reason" could turn into appalling cruelty and oppression. We are in the 1790s, and across the Channel the rule of reason has turned into the crunch of the guillotine; in England the Warlow Experiment shows us a less savagely dramatic, smaller-scale, but scarcely less cruel, example of the worship of Reason gone terribly wrong. (C. J. Sansom)