本書以身份認知（identity）、心理歷程(spiritualgrowth)、愛(love)、家庭(family)、人與社會(manandsociety)、生活的思索（meditationsonlife）六個主題為線索，精選了以英美國家文學為主的優秀文學作品。其作品形式涵蓋小說、詩歌、戲劇、散文等。每篇作品附有作家簡介、相關文學知識介紹、并附有大量由淺入深的問題。本書各單元還配有與主題相關的插圖。
周芳主編的《英語文學名篇欣賞》的主題編排以人的成長軌跡為線索，縱閱全書，自然引發讀者產生共鳴，使讀者在閱讀文學作品的同時聯系到個人人生旅程，激發積極思考。本書除了選編傳統意義上的經典作品外，也選編了一些優秀的當代作品，同時選編了如歌詞等鮮為收錄的作品。其目的是引導讀者突破迷信經典的心理，打破狹隘的文學界限，鼓勵讀者接受更廣泛意義上的文學作品。本書所選的作品以英美作家的作品為主，也包括其他國家如俄國、德國、法國、瑞典、尼日利亞、中國等國家的英譯作品。向讀者介紹不同國家、不同文化背景的作品，旨在幫助讀者開拓閱讀視野，豐富讀者的文化體驗，并激發讀者在比較中進行深入思考。本書附有詳盡的文學知識注解，每篇作品后附有大量由淺人深的思考問題，既便于教師教學也便于學生自學。
總序
前言
Introduction What Is Literature and How to Read Literature
Unit One Identity
I. I'm Nobody! Who are you ? by Emily Dickinson
II. Song of Myself by Walt Whitman
III. Theme for English B by Langston Hughes
IV. Two Songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
V. Dumplings by Yi Sha
VI. "Hamlet's Soliloquy" from Hamlet (Act III, Scene 1) by William Shakespeare
VII. A Clean, Well-lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway
VIII. A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka
IX. Rice by Mary Loh Chieu Kwuan
X. Luck by Mark Twain
Unit Two Spiritual Growth 總序
前言
Introduction What Is Literature and How to Read Literature
Unit One Identity
I. I'm Nobody! Who are you ? by Emily Dickinson
II. Song of Myself by Walt Whitman
III. Theme for English B by Langston Hughes
IV. Two Songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
V. Dumplings by Yi Sha
VI. "Hamlet's Soliloquy" from Hamlet (Act III, Scene 1) by William Shakespeare
VII. A Clean, Well-lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway
VIII. A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka
IX. Rice by Mary Loh Chieu Kwuan
X. Luck by Mark Twain
Unit Two Spiritual Growth
I. I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth
II. Anecdote of the Jar by Wallace Stevens
III. lncident by Countee Cullen
IV. When I Was One-and-Twenty by A. E. Housman
V. Araby by James Joyce
VI. A Handful of Dates by Tayeb Salih
VII. The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
VIII. Three Days to See by Helen Keller
Unit Three Love
I. "Guan Ju" from Shijing (Book of Verse)
II. La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad by John Keats
III. The Lorelei by Heinrich Heine
IV. A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns
V. SONNET 130 by William Shakespeare
VI. When You Are Old by William Butler Yeats
VII. How Do ILove Thee by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
VIII. Variations on the Word Love by Margaret Atwood
IX. Under the Willow Tree by Hans Christian Andersen
X. "Balcony Scene" from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
XI. The Blue Jar by Isak Dinesen
XII. The Beggar by Anton Chekhov
Unit Four Family
I. The Princess by Alfred Lord Tennyson
II. From "On Children" of The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
III. My Father's Song by Simon J. Ortiz
IV. A Story Wet as Tears by Marge Piercy
V. The Victims by Sharon Olds
VI. The Photos by Diane Wakoske
VII. My Oedipus Complex by Frank O'Connor
VIII. "Chapter 1" from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
IX. A Selection from A Doll's House (Act III) by Henrik Ibsen
Unit Five Man and Society
I. Two Poems by W. H. Auden
II. Mending Wall by Robert Frost
III. Trust by Andy Rooney
IV. The Man Who Married Himself by Charlie Fish
V. Dead Men's Path by Chinua Achebe
VI. The Bad Zouave by Alphonse Daudet
VII. Two Friends by Guy de Maupassant
VIII. The Law of Life by Jack London
Unit Six Contemplations
I. The Lamb by William Blake
II. God's Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins
III. Design by Robert Frost
IV. Gimpel the Fool by Isaac Bashevis Singer
V. To Hell with Dying by Alice Walker
VI. Allegory of the Cave by Plato
VII. How Much Land Does a Man Need by Leo Tolstoy
VIII. "Solitude"from Walden by Henry David Thoreau
References 總序
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