早在1920年,吴宓就曾在《中国留美学生月报》上发表的《新文化运动》与“Old and New in China”两篇文章中,首次向国内介绍了“比较文学”这一概念。1921年,吴宓留学归国后,任南京国立东南大学西洋文学系任教,除教授“英国诗”“欧洲文学史”之外,还特别开设了“中西诗之比较”的课程,第一次把比较文学引入中国高等学府的课堂。其后,吴宓在他任教的多所学校都开设了比较文学课程,为我国培养了第一代比较文学研究的人才。他认为,如果虚心多读中外书籍,深入探索,就能知西方文化与我国文化多有互为裨益之处,可以取长补短,开启新途。
上世纪三十年代,与吴宓同时执教于清华大学的温源宁教授曾用英文写过一本人物记,Imperfect Understanding,钱锺书受邀为其作序,并将书名翻译为《不够知己》,书中评论了十七位当时的社会名流,文风幽默、调侃。其中极有名的一篇就是关于吴宓的 “Mr. Wu Mi, a Scholar and a Gentleman”(《吴宓先生,一位学者和君子》),开篇一段外貌描写极为传神。摘引如下,与读者共赏。
MR. Wu Mi is like nothing on earth, once seen, never forgotten. But Wu Mi’s face is worth a fortune: it is peculiar to the point of caricature. A head shaped like a bomb, and just as suggestively explosive, gaunt, wan in color, with hair threatening to break out all over the face, but always kept well within bounds by a clean shave every morning, rugged, with very prominent cheek-bones and sunken cheeks, and eyes which stare at one like glowing coals — all this set on a neck too long by half; and a thin body, as strong and as little elastic as a rod of steel!