刘意青、刘炅所著的《简明英国文学史》是一部学术价值和阅读性兼具的英国文学教材，适合高等学校英语专业或具有同等水平的学习者使用。作者集多年英国文学教学经验与研究成果之精华，精心编写而成。介绍自古英语时期至20世纪90年代英国文学发展脉络，流派和主要作家及其作品。突出文学研究的评介性，用国内外有争议的观点启发读者的兴趣，培养学习者的独立思考意识。配有丰富、珍贵的图片，直观性、趣味性强。每部分均配测试题，书后附专有名词、大事年表、参考书目和索引，便于学习者和教师参考使用。

Part Ⅰ Old and Middle English Periods (450-1485)

 Chapter 1 Old English Period and Beowulf

Ⅰ.Old English Period

Ⅱ. Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem Beowulf

 Chapter 2 Middle English Period and Chaucer

Ⅰ.Middle English Period

Ⅱ. Geoffrey Chaucer

Part Ⅱ English Renaissance and Shakespeare (1485-1616)

 Chapter 3 The English Renaissance Literature

Ⅰ.Introduction of the Period

Ⅱ. Ten Renaissance Writers

 Chapter4 William Shakespeare

Ⅰ.Shakespeare's Life and Achievements

Ⅱ. Discussions of Shakespeare's Major Works

Part Ⅲ The Seventeenth Century (1616-1688)

 Chapter 5 The Bourgeois Revolution and Milton

Ⅰ.Background Knowledge

Ⅱ. John Milton

 Chapter 6 The Metaphysical Poets and the Restoration Drama

Ⅰ.The Metaphysical Poets

Ⅱ. The Restoration Drama

 Chapter 7 Dryden and Bunyan

Ⅰ.John Dryden

Ⅱ. John Bunyan

Part Ⅳ The Eighteenth Century (1688-1780)

 Chapter 8 The Age of Classicism

Ⅰ.Background Knowledge of the First Half of the Eighteenth Century

Ⅱ. Discussions of the Chief Representatives

 Chapter 9 The Rise of the Novel

Ⅰ.Background Knowledge About the Rise of the Novel in England

Ⅱ. Discussions of the Major Novelists

 Chapter 10 The Pre-Romantic Literature

Ⅰ.Background Knowledge About the Literature at the Turn of the Century

Ⅱ. Pre-RomanticPoetry

Ⅲ. The Gothic Novel

Part Ⅴ The Romantic Period (1780-1830)

 Chapter 11 Wordsworth and Coleridge

Ⅰ.Background Knowledge

Ⅱ. The Romantic Sage, William Wordsworth

Ⅲ. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Poet and Critic

 Chapter 12 Byron, Shelley and Keats

Ⅰ.George Gordon Byron and the Byronic Hero

Ⅱ. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Poet and Utopian Socialist

Ⅲ. John Keats, the Poet of Beauty

 Chapter 13 Walter Scott and Jane Austen

Ⅰ.Walter Scott, Romantic Writer of Historical Themes

Ⅱ. Jane Austen, Novelist of Social Manners

Part Ⅵ The Victorian Literature (1830-1880)

 Chapter 14 The Victorian Age

Ⅰ.Background Knowledge

Ⅱ. Major Literary Achievements

 Chapter 15 Victorian Novelists

Ⅰ.Charles Dickens

Ⅱ. William Makepeace Thackeray

Ⅲ. Charlotte and Emily Bronte

Ⅳ. George Eliot

 Chapter 16 Victorian Poets

Ⅰ.Alfred Tennyson

Ⅱ. Robert Browning

Ⅲ. Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Ⅳ. Matthew Arnold as a Poet

 Chapter 17 Victorian Prose Writers

Ⅰ.Thomas Carlyle

Ⅱ. Thomas Macaulay

Ⅲ. John Stuart Mill

Ⅳ. John Ruskin

Ⅴ. Matthew Arnold

Part Ⅶ Fin de siecle and Modernist Literature (1880-1930)

 Chapter 18 Fin de siec/e

Ⅰ.Historical Background

Ⅱ. Intellectual Background

 Chapter 19 Later Victorian to the First World War

Ⅰ.Fin de siecle Aestheticism

Ⅱ. Late Victorian Poetry

Ⅲ. Novels of This Period

Ⅵ. Drama of This Period

Ⅴ. Other Writers of This Period

 Chapter 20 Modernist Literature

Ⅰ.Background Knowledge

Ⅱ. Modernist Novel and Novelists

Ⅲ. Modernist Poetry

 Chapter 21 Non-Modernists Between the Wars

Ⅰ.Reflections on War and History

Ⅱ. Writers Between the Wars

Ⅲ. The Rise of Academic English Studies

Part Ⅷ Mid-Twentieth Century (1930-1990)

 Chapter 22 The Second World War

 Chapter 23 Literature of the Second World War

Ⅰ.Surrealism

Ⅱ. War Poets

Ⅲ. Other Writers of This Period

 Chapter 24 Postwar Literature

Ⅰ.Novels of This Period

Ⅱ. Drama of This Period

Ⅲ. Poetry of This Period

 Chapter 25 Towards the New Century

Self Test

References

Chronology

Glossary of Literary Terms

Key to the Quizes and Self Test

Index of British Writers