本书在参考国内几乎所有的英美文学教材的基础上，同时根据参编兄弟院校的特点精心编写而成。

本书精选了美国文学中公认的经典作品作为选读材料，每篇选读材料都配有简单的介绍和文学评论、难点注释和针对该选读材料进行的提问。每个章节前还附有该文学历史阶段的纲要、文学术语、作家、代表作品及对重要作品简单扼要的评价。

本书的读者对象为英语专业高年级学生，同时也可供非英语专业高年级英美文学辅修课程使用。本书还可作为报考英语专业英美文学方向的硕士生入学考试的参考教材使用。

本书共4章，每章以美国文学史各阶段为主线，精选了美国文学中公认的经典作品作为选读材料，每篇选读都配有对该选读材料的简单介绍、文学评论、难点注释及针对该选读材料进行的提问。每个章节前还附有该文学历史阶段的纲要、文学术语、作家、作品及重要作品的简单扼要的评价。

本书的读者对象为英语专业高年级学生，同时也可供非英语专业高年级学生辅修英美文学课程使用。

Chapter I The Literature of Early and Revolutionary Periods

 I. An Outline of the Literature of This Period

 II. Benjamin Franklin

   Poor Richard's Almanac (Excerpt)

III. Thomas Jefferson

   The Declaration of Independence

IV. Philip Freneau

   The Wild Honey Suckle

Chapter 2 The Literature of Romanticism

I. An Outline of the Literature of This Period

II. William Cullen Bryant

   Thanatopsis

   To a Waterfowl

III. Ralph Waldo Emerson

     Nature (Excerpt)

   Self-Reliance (Excerpt)

IV. Henry David Thoreau

     Walden (Excerpt)

V. Nathaniel Hawthorne

   The Scarlet Letter (Excerpt)

   Young Goodman Brown

VI. Edgar Allan Poe

   The Raven (Excerpt)

   To Helen

   Annabel Lee

VII. Herman Melville

    Moby-Dick (Excerpt)

VIII. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

    A Psalm of Life

IX. Walt Whitman

   Inscriptions

   Song of Myself (Excerpt)

   O Captain！ My Captain

   Cavalry Crossing a Ford

X. Emily Dickinson

   Success

   There's a Certain Slant of Light

   I'm Nobody！ Who Are you？

   A Bird Came down the Walk

   After Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes

   Much Madness Is Divine Sense

   I Died for Beauty--But Was Scarce

   I Like to See It Lap the Miles

   I Dwell in Possibility

   Because I Could Not Stop for Death

   I Never Saw a Moor

   Tell All the Truth but Tell It Slant

   There Is No Frigate like a Book

   A Route of Evanescence

   To Make a Prairie It Takes a Clove and One Bee

Chapter 3 The Age of Realism and Naturalism

 I. An Outline of the Literature of This Period

II. Mark Twain

   The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Excerpt)

III. Henry lames

   Daisy Miller (Excerpt)

IV. lack London

   The Law of Life

V. Theodore Dreiser

   Sister Carrie (Excerpt)

VI. Kate Chopin

   The Awakening (Excerpt)

   The Story of an Hour

VII. O. Henry

    The Last Leaf

    The Cop and the Anthem

VIII. Stephen Crane

    The Open Boat

Chapter 4 The Modem Period

 I. An Outline of the Literature of This Period

 II. Ezra Pound

   In a Station of the Metro

   A Pact

 III. Robert Frost

   Mending Wall

   The Road Not Taken

   Fire and Ice

    Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

    Acceptance

    Design

    Nothing Gold Can Stay

 IV. Arthur Miller

    Death of a Salesman (Excerpt)

 V. Ralph Ellison

   Invisible Man (Excerpt)

 VI. Iohn Steinbeck

    The Grapes of Wrath (Excerpt)

VII. Eugene O'Neill

    The Hairy Ape (Excerpt)

VIII. William Faulkner

    A Rose for Emily

IX. Ernest Hemingway

   A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

X. F. Scott Fitzgerald

   Great Gatsby (Excerpt)

XI. Sherwood Anderson

   Winesburg, Ohio (Excerpt)

XII. Joseph Heller

    Catch-22 (Excerpt)

References