本书广泛比较了国内外现有同类教材,吸收了近几年国内外美国文学研究的*新成果,按照选取适合学生阅读又具代表性的常见作品为原则,并结合编者自己多年的教学和研究体会,以美国文学发展的历史为顺序,编选了各个历史时期主要作家的代表作品。在体裁上,注意了诗歌、小说、戏剧与散文的适当比例。每章的内容包括历史文化背景、作者简介、作品选读、注释和思考题等;与其他同类书相比,本书扩大了入选作者,调整了选读作品,增加了学习思考题,从而使教材内容更加充实,语言叙述更加简明,选读作品的难度也相对降低,这将有利于学生的理解与掌握。本书为普通高等院校英语专业教材,也可供独立学院、教育学院、广播电视大学、成人高等教育及社会上英语自学者学习使用。

Chapter 1 The Literature of the Colonial Period
1.1 An Introduction
1.2 Anne Bradstreet ( 1612 -- 1672)
"To My Dear and Loving Husband"
1.3 Edward Taylor (1542 -- 1729)
"Huswifery"
Chapter 2 The Literature of the Revolutionary Period
2.1 An Introduction
2.2 Benjamin Franklin (1706 -- 1790)
An Excerpt from Chapter VIII of The Autobiography
2.3 Patrick Henry ( 1736 -- 1799)
Speech in the Virginia Convention
2.4 Thomas Jefferson ( 1743 -- 1826)
Declaration of Independence
Chapter 3 The Literature of the Romantic Period
3.1 An Introduction
3.2 Washington Irving (1783 -- 1859)
An Excerpt from Rip Van Winkle
3.3 Edgar Allan Poe (1809 -- 1849)
"To Helen"
"Annabel Lee"
3.4 Henry David Thoreau ( 1817 -- 1852)
An Excerpt from Wa/den
3.5 Nathartiel Hawthorne ( 1804 -- 1854)
Chapter 23 from The Scarlet Letter
3.6 Herman Melville (1819-- 1891)
An Excerpt from Chapter 41 of Moby-Dick
3.7 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ( 1807 --1882)
"A Psalm of Life"
3.8 Walt Whitman (1819 -- 1892)
Excerpts from "Song of Myself "
3.9 Emily Dickinson ( 1830 -- 1886)
"I'm Nobody! Who are You?"
"Success is counted sweetest"
"Because I could not stop for Death"
Chapter 4 The Literature of the Realistic Period
4.1 An Introduction
4.2 Mark Twain ( 1835 -- 1910)
An Excerpt from Chapter 19 of Huckleberry Finn
4.3 O. Henry ( 1862 -- 1910)
"The Cop and the Anthem"
4.4 Henry James (1843 -- 1916)
An Excerpt from Chapter 1 of The Portrait of a Lady
4.5 Theodore Dreiser (1871 -- 1945)
An Excerpt from Chapter 47 of Sister Carrie
4.6 Robert Frost ( 1874 --1963)
"Fire and Ice"
"Nothing Gold Can Stay"
"The Road Not Taken"
"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
Chapter 5 The Literature of the Modecmlst Period
5.1 An Introduction
5.2 Ezra Pound ( 1885 -- 1972)
"In a Station of the Metro"
"A Pact"
5.3 William Carlos Williams (1883 -- 1963)
"The Red Wheelbarrow"
"Spring and All"
5.4 Langston Hughes ( 1902 -- 1967)
"Dreams"
"Cross"
5.5 E. E. Cummings (1894- 1962) "
"Your Little Voice"
5.6 Ernest Hemingway ( 1899 -- 1961 )
"Indian Camp"
5.7 F. Scott Fitzgerald ( 1896 -- 1940)
An Excerpt from Chapter 3 of The Great Gatsby
5.8 William Faulkner ( 1897 -- 1962)
"The Bear"
5.9 Eugene O'Neill (1888 -- 1953)
An Excerpt from ACT 2, SCENE II of Long Day's Journey into Night
Chapter 6 The Literature since World War II
6.1 An Introduction
6.2 Saul Bellow ( 1915 -- 2005)
An Excerpt from Seize the Day
6.3 ArChttr Miller ( 1915 -- 2005)
An Excerpt from Act II Of The Death of a Salesman
6.4 J. D. Salinger (19i9 -- )
An Excerpt from Chapters 21 of The Catcher in the Rye
6.5 Allen Ginsberg ( 1926 -- 1997)
An Excerpt from "Howl"
6.6 Sylvia Plath ( 1932 -- 1963)
"Daddy"
References