本书以身份认知（identity）、心理历程(spiritualgrowth)、爱(love)、家庭(family)、人与社会(manandsociety)、生活的思索（meditationsonlife）六个主题为线索，精选了以英美国家文学为主的优秀文学作品。其作品形式涵盖小说、诗歌、戏剧、散文等。每篇作品附有作家简介、相关文学知识介绍、并附有大量由浅入深的问题。本书各单元还配有与主题相关的插图。
周芳主编的《英语文学名篇欣赏》的主题编排以人的成长轨迹为线索，纵阅全书，自然引发读者产生共鸣，使读者在阅读文学作品的同时联系到个人人生旅程，激发积极思考。本书除了选编传统意义上的经典作品外，也选编了一些优秀的当代作品，同时选编了如歌词等鲜为收录的作品。其目的是引导读者突破迷信经典的心理，打破狭隘的文学界限，鼓励读者接受更广泛意义上的文学作品。本书所选的作品以英美作家的作品为主，也包括其他国家如俄国、德国、法国、瑞典、尼日利亚、中国等国家的英译作品。向读者介绍不同国家、不同文化背景的作品，旨在帮助读者开拓阅读视野，丰富读者的文化体验，并激发读者在比较中进行深入思考。本书附有详尽的文学知识注解，每篇作品后附有大量由浅人深的思考问题，既便于教师教学也便于学生自学。
总序
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 总序
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 总序
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