这部《简明英国文学史》教材是应外语教学与研究出版社之邀,为广大青年学子,特别是那些需要参加外国文学类考试的学生编写的。通观目前国内书市上已有的各种英国文学史、文学选读及文学词典,用英文写的简明版英国文学史并不多见,*具代表性的要算河南大学刘炳善教授于1981年出版的那一部。刘炳善教授是业内非常受尊敬的老先生,治学严谨,他编写的文学史直到今天在材料翔实、评介简明和体例清晰方面仍然是值得称道的。然而,毕竟二十多年过去了。随着文学创作的发展和新文学理论的出现,国际上对文学作品和作家的研讨都有了创新,加之我国改革开放后吸收了不少过去被我们忽视,甚至排斥的批评观念和理论,这样,编写一部新的《简明英国文学史》的任务就被提到了日程上来。编者在受命后,参照了过去的一些教材,拟订了自己的编写和选材原则。经过了近两年的努力,编者在日常繁忙的教学和科研任务中见缝插针,终于完成了这项有意义的工作。在这部教材即将出版并投入使用之际,我们想就编写的想法和使用方法做一些介绍,仅供读者参考。

Part I Old and Middle English Periods (450-1485)
Chapter 1 Old English Period and Beowulf
I. Old English Period
II. Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem Beowulf
Chapter 2 Middle English Period and Chaucer
I. Middle English Period
II. Geoffrey Chaucer
Part II English Renaissance and Shakespeare (1485-1616)
Chapter 3 The English Renaissance Literature
I. Introduction of the Period
II. Ten Renaissance Writers
Chapter4 William Shakespeare
I. Shakespeare's Life and Achievements
II. Discussions of Shakespeare's Major Works
Part III The Seventeenth Century (1616-1688)
Chapter 5 The Bourgeois Revolution and Milton
I. Background Knowledge
II. John Milton
Chapter 6 The Metaphysical Poets and the Restoration Drama
I. The Metaphysical Poets
II. The Restoration Drama
Chapter 7 Dryden and Bunyan
I. John Dryden
II. John Bunyan
Part IV The Eighteenth Century (1688-1780)
Chapter 8 The Age of Classicism
I. Background Knowledge of the First Half of the Eighteenth Century
II. Discussions of the Chief Representatives
Chapter 9 The Rise of the Novel
I. Background Knowledge About the Rise of the Novel in England
II. Discussions of the Major Novelists
Chapter 10 The Pro-Romantic Literature
I. Background Knowledge About the Literature at the Turf of the Century
II. Pre-RomanticPoetry
III. The Gothic Novel
Part V The Romantic Period (1780-1830)
Chapter 11 Wordsworth and Coleridge
I. Background Knowledge
II. The Romantic Sage, William Wordsworth
III. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Poet and Critic
Chapter 12 Byron, Shelley and Keats
I. George Gordon Byron and the Byronic Hero
II. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Poet and Utopian Socialist
III. John Keats, the Poet of Beauty
Chapter 13 Walter Scott and Jane Austen
I. Walter Scott, Romantic Writer of Historical Themes
II. Jane Austen, Novelist of Social Manners
Part VI The Victorian Literature (1830-1880)
Chapter 14 The Victorian Age
I. Background Knowledge
II. Major Literary Achievements
Chapter 15 Victorian Novelists
I. Charles Dickens
II. William Makepeace Thackeray
III. Charlotte and Emily Bront
IV. George Eliot
Chapter 16 Victorian Poets
I. Alfred Tennyson
……