本选读主要以英语专业高年级本科生或者研究生为对象，可作为外国文学课的补充读物或选修教材。通过学习选读，学生可以拓宽视野，提高对文学的理解与欣赏力，同时也能很好地熟悉各类英语的特点与用法。

考虑到一般读者的需要，本书对所选作家作品作了简单的介绍，并对文中的难词、难句进行了注释。

1. Henry Kinsley The Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn

2. Rolf Boldrewood Robbery Under Arms

3. Adam Lindsay Gordon The Sick Stockrider

4. Marcus Clarke For the Term of His Natural Life

5. Joseph Furphy Such Is Life

6. Henry Lawson The Drover's Wife

7. A. B. Paterson The Man from the Snowy River

8. Steele Rudd On Our Selection

9. Louis Stone Jonah

10. Henry Handel Ri- The Fortunes of Richard Mahony chardson

11. Miles Franklin My Brilliant Career

12. Katherine Susannah Coonardoo Prichard

13. Vance Palmer Tobacco

14. Frank Dalby Davison Man-shy

15. Martin Boyd Lucinda Brayford

16. Xavier Herbert Capricornia

17. Christina Stead For Love Alone

18. John Morrison Christ, the Devil and the Lunatic

19. Judah Waten To a Country Town

20. A. D. Hope The Death of the Bird

21. Judith Wright Eve to Her Daughters

22. Hal Porter First Live

23. Patrick White The Tree of Man

24. Ray Lawler Summer of the Seventeenth Doll

25. Bruce Dawe Homecoming

26. Thomas Keneally Bring Larks and Heroes

27. Peter Carey The Journey of a Lifetime

28. Katherine Mansfield Miss Brill

29. Frank Sargeson A Man of Good Will

30. John Mulgan Man Alone

31. Janet Frame Owls Do Cry

32. Maurice Duggan A Small Story

33. Vincent Eri The Crocodile

34. Albert Wendt The Banyan