《牛津英国文学史：英国的没落？》与传统的文学史不同，关注的焦点是这一历史时期的文化背景。全书分为“历史”“诗歌”“戏剧”和“小说”四大部分，清晰地总结和归纳了20世纪最后40年间英国文学的主要流派和特点。本书出版后，出版界和评论界反响热烈；他们普遍认可其在研究方面的深度和广度，称它是对当代英国文学感兴趣的读者的首选读物。

General Editor's Preface
List of Figures
A Note on References
Introduction: Last Things First
Part Ⅰ Histories
1. 'Gleaming Twilight': Literature, Culture, and Society
2. A Postmodern Age? Literature, Ideas, and Traditions
Ⅰ. The End of the Modern
Ⅱ. Modernist and Other Legacies
3. An Age of Theory? Critics, Readers, and Authors
4. A Golden Age? Readers, Authors, and the Book Trade
Ⅰ. The More Common Reader
Ⅱ. Commerce and Conscience, Ledgers and Literature
Part Ⅱ Poetry
5. Movement or Revival: The Late 1950s to the 1980s
6. Counter-movements and Modernist Memories:1960 to the 1980s
7. Politics and Postmodernism: The Late 1970s to 2000
8. Rosebay Revived: Language, Form, and Audience for 'This Unpopular Art'
Part Ⅲ Drama
9. A Public Art Form: The Late 195os to the 1970s
10. Last Year in Jerusalem: Politics and Performance after 1968
11. 'Real Revolutionaries': Politics and the Margins
12. Absurdism, Postmodernism, Individualism
13. Discovering the Body
14. Revolution, Television, Subsidy
Part Ⅳ Narrative
15. To the Crossroads: Style and Society in the 1960s and 1970s
16. A Darker Route: Morality and History in the 1960s and 1970s
17. Longer Shadows and Darkness Risible: The 1970s to 2000
18. 'Double Lives': Women's Writing and Gender Difference
19. 'The Century of Strangers': Travellers and Migrants
20. Genres, Carnivals, Conclusions
Author Bibliographies
Suggestions for Further Reading
Works Cited
Index

本书是“外国文学研究文库”系列第二辑的一本。该系列旨在将国外的文学学界的学术成果及时引进和介绍给我国外国文学学者、学生及爱好者，反映外国文学研究领域在世界范围的发展趋势与前沿探索。
该系列以英文原文的形式出版，并辅之以国内这一领域的资深学者撰写的导读，帮助读者把握作品的脉络，掌握其思想要点，更全面、更深入地理解作品要义。
本书清晰地总结和归纳了20世纪最后40年间英国文学的主要流派和特点，分为“历史”“诗歌”“戏剧”和“小说”四大部分分别加以论述，可以称得上是对当代英国文学感兴趣的读者的首选读物。