《英国文学选读新编》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。《英国文学选读新编》在设计每讲的内容时，从实际授课的需要出发，各教学环节基本上以问题的形式串联起来，既有背景知识问题及导人性的问题，又有启发性和拓展性的问题，有利于教学活动的循序渐进，层层深入。

Lecture 1 Geoffrey Chaucer(1343-1400)
1.Background questions
2.Selected readings
Text A:The General Prologue ofThe CanterburyTales
Text B:The Prologue of "The Wife of Bath'sTale"
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'sTravels
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 ofThe History ofTom Jones,a Foundling
Text B:Chapter 1 of Book 14,Vol.2 ofThe History ofTom 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 SamuelTaylor 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:OdeToThe West Wind
4.Selected reading 3
Text C:OdeTo 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 MakepeaceThackeray(1811-1863)
1.Background questions
2.Selected readings
Text A:Chapter 1 "Chiswick Mall" of Vanity Fair
Text B.An excerpt from Chapter 36 "HowTo 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 OliverTwist
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 AlfredTennyson(1809-1892)and Robert Browning(1812-1889)
1.Background questions
2.Selected readings 1
Text A:CrossingThe 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 ofTess ofThe D'Urbervilles
Text B:Excerpts from Chapter 42 and Chapter 43 ofTess ofThe D'Urbervilles
3.Assigned readings