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最新成果，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。

本书适合从事相关研究工作的人员参考阅读。

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最新成果，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 ( 1642 -- 1729)

 "Huswffery"

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 -- 1862)

  An Excerpt from Wa/den

  3.5 Nathaniel Hawthorne ( 1804 -- 1864)

  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 Modernist 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 Arthur Miller ( 1915 -- 2005)

  An Excerpt from Act II of The Death of a Salesman

 6.4 J. D. Salinger (1919 -- )

  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