香港铭基书院英文系推荐阅读书单.docx

1、香港铭基书院英文系推荐阅读书单香港铭基书院英文系推荐阅读书单 我爱英语网【本站优秀栏目，最佳听力训练资源：VOA慢速英语（点击进入）、VOA常速英语】Classics Author Pride and Prejudice Jane AustenStill one of the most popular romantic novels of all time, but it is also a wonderful and humorous description of 19th century manners, morals and society.Our heroine, Elizabeth

2、Bennett, is a thoroughly modern girl, being clever and witty and not afraid to show it. Her family is relatively well off, but has five daughters and no sons a real tragedy in those days the book traces the way in which the girls set about acquiring husbands. Elizabeth meets the dashing but arrogant

3、 Mr. Darcy at a party, and takes an instant dislike to him when she thinks he has insulted her. How does their relationship end up? What do you think? The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar WildeThis story is set in about 1890 in London. A handsome, talented but weak young man Dorian Gray is having his po

4、rtrait painted. He wishes that he could always look as young and beautiful as he does in the painting. Somehow, his wish is granted. He grows older, and more unpleasant and selfish, but remains the same while his portrait which he hides in his attic gets older and uglier. Stylishly written by the br

5、illiant Oscar Wilde, this is a parable for all of us. Never wish for what you want you might just get it!The Great Gatsby F. Scott FitzgeraldA classic love story set in the Roaring 20s among the extremely rich New York set who spend their time at parties and the theatre and driving fast, beautiful c

6、ars. Jay Gatsby buys a huge estate among the wealthy socialites of Long Island. His wealth comes from somewhere mysterious and possible illegal, but he tries to buy his way into society by throwing huge, expensive parties. He falls in love with Daisy, an upper class girl who lives on a nearby estate

7、. But Daisy does not return his love and tragedy beckons the unhappy Jay.The Invisible Man H.G.WellsH.G. Wells is often called the Father of science Fiction writers. War of The Worlds has just been made into a major film, and The Invisible Man has been filmed many times. The original book is not lik

8、e a Hollywood movie, though, and takes a serious look at the consequences of the scientists quest for knowledge. The scientist cannot reverse the effects of his invisibility potion, and the story describes the destructive effects of his powered and how it drives him insane.Brave New World Aldous Hux

9、leyA look at the future in the 26th century in which everything seems to be fine. Humanity is carefree, healthy and technologically advanced. Warfare and poverty have been eliminated and all races are equal. The irony is, however, that all of these things have been achieved by eliminating many thing

10、s the family, art, religion, philosophy, and literature generally considered to be essential to being human.As in 1984, the main characters are rebels against this rigid society in that they represent the quest for freedom of thought and choice.1984 George OrwellA highly influential and well-known b

11、ook about the future (1984) as seen by the writer 50 years before. Winston Smith lives in 1984, when every poet of your life is regulated and overseen by a corrupt government that will allow no freedom of thought or expression. Rebels are punished by being taken to the infamous Room 101, where all a

12、re made to confront their greatest fears until they become obedient again.The ideas of Big Brother is watching you! and the State controlling every part of our lives come from here. This is more straightforward and therefore possibly easier to approach than the similarly themed Brave New World.Brigh

13、ton Rock Graham GreeneBritain in the 1940s. Pinky is a 17-year-old clever but psychopathic gangster in the seaside town of Brighton. The book follows his rise, and inevitable fall, and gives s a good picture of the criminal side of England just after the last war, when gangsterism became common as m

14、en came back from war with no chance of finding a job.Graham Greene is one of Englands most renowned 20th century authors and this is one of his more approachable books. You could also try This Gun for Hire, about an amoral assassin.The Old Man and the Sea Ernest HemingwayErnest Hemingway is not jus

15、t a famous author, but was famous for the way he lived life to the full, beachcombing in Cuba, gunrunning in the Spanish Civil War, running with the bulls in Pamplona any thing that he considered manly. His style is deceptively simple and plain, making this a good choice if you are not too confident

16、 about your reading ability! However, the simply told story of the old fisherman who never gives up looking for the elusive big fish - despite everything being against him - has a message for all of us.Of Mice and Men John SteinbeckSteinbeck is a favourite American author because of the way he makes

17、 small-town and rural America and its people come alive on the page, through his wonderful descriptive skill and sympathy for his characters/.George and Lenny are two brothers who move around from farm to farm seeking work. George is not just an ordinary farm hand though he has the soul of a poet ev

18、en though he is uneducated, and sacrifices every hope of the future for his brother. Lenny is a large, amiable but slow giant with the mind of a child. Their touching relationship is the backbone of this haunting and poignant tale.To Kill a Mockingbird Harper LeeOne of Americas best loved boos, this

19、 tells the story of an honest lawyer called Atticus Finch in a sleepy and backward town in the Deep South when racism and segregation divided the black and white people. This is where black people used to be kept as slaves. He is called upon to defend a black man accused of raping a white girl, and

20、has to face all the prejudices of the townspeople.The tale is told through the voice of his young daughter, Rumer, making this quite simple to read in terms of vocabulary and structure.A Town Like Alice Neville ShuteThis has become a modern classic but is also a rattling good war story and romance.

21、Set amongst the British and Australian male and female prisoners of war in Malaysia, it follows the unlikely romance between two of them as they are marched from camp to camp in that tropical country. The title refers to Alice Springs, a town in central Australia, which is the mans hometown, and whe

22、re some of the story takes place after the end of the war. Neville Shute writing is clear and easy to follow, and this is a very entertaining book.Catcher in the Rye J.D. SalingerThe story of a young man in the 1950s, Holden Caulfield, who is a 17-year-old student suddenly expelled from school. The

23、story relates his lonely, life-changing, two-day stay in New York as he attempts to deal with the death of his younger brother and his fear of change as he leaves childhood behind. It is told from his point of view so it is easy tio identify with him and his problems.Possibly the most well-known rit

24、es of passage (this means growing up, in other words) book ever written. Salinger truly captures what it is to be a confused teenager not yet ready to be thrown into the adult world.Catch-22 Joseph HellerHave you ever heard of this phrase? It means, to be given an impossible choice or put in an impo

25、ssible position and was invented in this book set in and around an American air base in WW II.The pilots know they have little chance of surviving the war as the planes keep being shot down by the Japanese, but if they try to get reassigned on the grounds of being mad which is the only way you can g

26、et out of flying - they are told they are obviously sane enough to fly since they dont want to do it and back they go. Catch-22.This is a semi-comic anti-war book with a serious centre but still fun to read. But you wont be laughing when you find out why Snowden is so cold (on ongoing scene in the b

27、ook).Lord of the Flies William GoldingA deceptively easy read, this is in fact an allegory, or a symbolic story, in which the lost boys represent humanity, and how easily mankind would turn into lawless animals if civilization suddenly disappearedRalph, Piggy and Jack are three of the group of boys

28、who find themselves on a desert island with no adults after a plane crash. There is plenty of fruit to eat and fresh water to drink, but over time the differences between the boys start to show, and Jack becomes arrogant and obsessed with his own power. The boys become more and more savage under his

29、 leadership. He represents the dictator and bully. Ralph is the voice of reason who finds that in the end reason is not enough. And Piggy - poor, fat, shortsighted, clever Piggy represents the outsider or intellectual that every dictator will always try and crush or kill. Planet of the Apes Pierre BoulleYou must have at least heard of this, even if you haven