本教材共设计了18讲的内容，每讲选取一个或两到三个英国作家的作品，使学生进行有重点地阅读和理解，更好地掌握作家作品的特点和风格。学生通过积极主动地阅读学习，可以打下良好的文学基础，并成为真正的文学爱好者。

Lecture 1 Geoffrey Chaucer(1343--1400)

1. Background questions

2. Selected readings

  Text A: The General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales

  Text B: The Prologue of "The Wife of Bath's Tale"

3. Assigned readings

Lecture 2 Christopher Marlowe(1564--1593 )

1. Background questions

2. Selected readings

  Text A: Dr. Faustus, Scene 3

  Text B: Dr. Faustus, Scene 13 & the Epilogue

3. Assigned readings

Lecture 3 William Shakespeare(1564--1616)

1. Background questions

2. Selected readings

  Text A: Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1

  Text B: Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2

3. Assigned readings

Lecture 4 John Dnne(1572--1631)

1. Background questions

2. Selected readings

  Text A. The Sun Rising

  Text B.. Holy Sonnets, 14

3. Assigned readings

Lecture 5 John Milton(1608--1674)

1. Background questions

2. Selected readings

  Text A. When I Consider How My Light Is Spent

  Text B. Paradise Lost, Book 1

3. Assigned reading

Lecture 6 Alexander Pope(1688--1744)

1. Background questions

2. Selected readings

  Text A. An excerpt from An Essay on Criticism

  Text B. An excerpt from An Essay on Man

3. Assigned readings

Lecture 7 Daniel Defoe(1660--1731)

1. Background questions

2. Selected readings

  Text A. An excerpt from Chapter 4 of Robinson Crusoe

  Text B. Excerpts from Chapters 14 and 15 of Robinson Crusoe

3. Assigned reading

Lecture 8 Jonathan Swift(1667---1745}

1. Background questions

2. Selected readings

  Text A: Chapter 3 of Part 1 of Gulliver's Travels

  Text B. A Modest Proposal

3. Assigned reading

Lecture 9 Henry Fielding(1707--1754)

1. Background questions

2. Selected readings

  Text A: Chapter 8 of Book 4, Vol. 1 of The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

  Text B: Chapter 1 of Book 14, Vol. 2 of The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

3. Assigned reading

Lecture 10 William Blake(1757--1827)

1. Background questions

2. Selected readings

  Text A: The Chimney Sweeper (from Songs of Innocence)

  Text B: The Chimney Sweeper (from Songs of Experience)

3. Assigned readings

Lecture 11 William Wordsworth(1770--1850) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge(1772--1834)

1. Background questions

2. Selected reading 1

  Text A.I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

3. Selected reading 2

  Text B. Kubla Khan

4. Assigned readings

Lecture 12 Lord Byron(1788--1827), Percy Bysshe Shelley(1792--1822), and John Keats(1795--1821)

1. Background questions

2. Selected reading 1

  Text A: Man fred, Act 3

3. Selected reading 2

  Text B: Ode to the West Wind

4. Selected reading 3

  Text C: Ode to a Grecian Urn

5. Assigned readings

Lecture 13 Jane Austen(1775--1817)

1. Background questions

2. Selected readings

  Text A. Volume 1, Chapter 1 of Pride and Prejudice

  Text B. Volume 3, Chapter 14 of Pride and Prejudice

3. Assigned reading

Lecture 14 William Makepeace Thackeray(1811--1863)

1. Background questions

2. Selected readings

  Text A: Chapter 1 "Chiswick Mall" of Vanity Fair

  Text B. An excerpt from Chapter 36 "How to Live Well on Nothing a Year" of Vanity Fair

3. Assigned readings

Lecture 15 Charles Dickens(1812--1870)

1. Background questions

2. Selected readings

  Text A: An excerpt from Chapter 4 of David Copper field

  Text B: Chapter 3 of Oliver Twist

3. Assigned reading

Lecture 16 Charlette Bronte(1816--1855) and Emily Bronte(1818 m1848)

1. Background questions

2. Selected readings 1

  Text A: An excerpt from Chapter 14 of Jane Eyre

  Text B: An excerpt from Chapter 23 of Jane Eyre

3. Selected readings 2

  Text C: An excerpt from Chapter 9 of Wuthering Heights

  Text D: An excerpt from Chapter 15 of Wuthering Heights

4. Assigned readings

Lecture 17 Alfred Tennyson(1809--1892) and Robert Browning(1812--1889)

1. Background questions

2. Selected readings 1

  Text A: Crossing the Bar

  Text B: Ulysses

3. Selected reading 2

  Text C: My Last Duchess

4. Assigned readings

Lecture 18 Thomas Hardy(1840--1928)

1. Background questions

2. Selected readings

  Text A: An excerpt from Chapter 19 of Tess of the D'Urbervilles

  Text B: Excerpts from Chapter 42 and Chapter 43 of Tess of the D'Urbervilles

3. Assigned readings