本書按歷史年代編寫,集詩歌、小說和散文為一書。作家按出生年月排序。本書的編寫體例是:分成若干部分(Part),每部分含若干章(Chapter)。每章中內(nèi)容順序基本是:作家生平和作品介紹(Life and works)、故事梗概(The Story)(有的作家沒有)、簡單評論 (Brief comment)、作品選讀(Selection)、注釋(Notes)和思考題(For study and discussion)。本書囊括各時期重要作家及其代表作品,貫穿整個美國文學進程。本書旨在培養(yǎng)自主學習能力、研讀作品能力、跨文化能力、思辨能力、研討能力和評論能力。本書讀者對象包括英語專業(yè)、翻譯專業(yè)和商務(wù)英語專業(yè)本科生,還可供自學考試本科英語專業(yè)和廣大英國文學愛好者。
Part I The Literature of Colonial America Introduction Chapter 1 John Smith Chapter 2 Anne Bradstreet Chapter 3 Edward Taylor Part II The Literature of Reason and Revolution Introduction Chapter 4 Benjamin Franklin The Autobiography Chapter 5 Thomas Paine The American Crisis Chapter 6 Thomas Jefferson Declaration of Independence Chapter 7 Philip Freneau The Wild Honey Suckle The Indian Burying Ground Part III The Literature of Romanticism Introduction Chapter 8 Washington Irving The Author’s Account of Himself Rip Van Winkle Chapter 9 James Fenimore Cooper The Last of the Mohicans Chapter 10 William Cullen Bryant Thanatopsis Chapter 11 Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature Self-Reliance Chapter 12 Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter Chapter 13 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow A Psalm of Life The Slave’s Dream Daybreak The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls Chapter 14 Edgar Allan Poe To Helen The Raven Annabel Lee Chapter 15 Henry David Thoreau Walden Chapter 16 Herman Melville Moby Dick Part IV The Literature of Realism Introduction Chapter 17 Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle Tom’s Cabin Chapter 18 Walt Whitman Song of Myself O Captain! My Captain! Cavalry Crossing a Ford Chapter 19 Emily Dickinson Success I Died for Beauty—But Was Scarce I Heard a Fly Buzz—When I Died— I’m Nobody! Who Are You? Chapter 20 Mark Twain The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Chapter 21 Henry James The Portrait of a Lady Chapter 22 Kate Chopin The Story of an Hour Chapter 23 O. Henry The Cop and the Anthem Chapter 24 Theodore Dreiser Sister Carrie Chapter 25 Jack London The Call of the Wild Chapter 26 Sherwood Anderson Winesburg, Ohio