英语小说网

IN a second gleaning of the fields of Fairy Land we cannot expect to find a second Perrault. But there are good stories enough left, and it is hoped that some in the Red Fairy Book may have the attraction of being less familiar than many of the old friends.

国作家弗朗西斯·斯科特·基·菲茨杰拉德创作的一部以以20世纪20年代的纽约市及长岛为背景的中篇小说，出版于1925年。20世纪末，美国学术界权威在百年英语文学长河中选出一百部最优秀的小说第二位，并被多次搬上银幕和舞台。内容简介：尼克从中西部故乡来到纽约，在他住所旁边正是本书主人公盖茨比的豪华宅第。这里每晚都在举行盛大的宴会。尼克和盖茨比相识，故事就这样开始了。 尼克对盖茨比充满探究的兴趣。探究的结果是：尼克了解到盖茨比内心深处有一段不了之情。年轻时的盖茨比并不富有，他是一个少校军官。他爱上了一位叫黛茜的姑娘，黛茜对他也情有所钟。后来第一次世界大战爆发，盖茨比被调往欧洲。似是偶然却也是必然，黛茜因此和他分手，转而与一个出身于富豪家庭的纨绔子弟汤姆结了婚。黛茜婚后的生活并不幸福，因为汤姆另有情妇。物欲的满足并不能填补黛茜精神上的空虚。盖茨比痛苦万分，他坚信是金钱让黛茜背叛了心灵的贞洁，于是立志要成为富翁。几年以后，盖茨比终于成功了。他在黛茜府邸的对面建造起了一幢大厦。盖茨比挥金如土，彻夜笙箫，一心想引起黛茜的注意，以挽回失去的爱情。

A Bend in the Road tells the story of Miles Ryan and Sarah Andrews. It is written in both first and third-person, the primary third-person narrative emphasis is equally split between Miles's and Sarah's stories. The first person narrator remains unknown through the majority of the novel; however, the first person narrator is somehow stated in the story to be the one who was the driver who killed Miles' wife, Missy Ryan. The majority of the story takes place in 1988. Miles Ryan, a deputy sheriff in the North Carolina town of New Bern, loses his wife Missy in a hit-and-run accident. He wants to bring the driver that killed his wife to justice. Miles meets his son's teacher Sarah Andrews, who moved to his town from Baltimore after a difficult divorce. Drawn together by Jonah's school troubles, the two start to date and eventually fall in love. The most significant date is when they go on the town's Ghost Walk and listen to a ghost story about a couple who lived in war times. The couple were forbidden to see each other, however, they communicated through the use of candles, which signified that they missed and loved each other. The man is killed by an order of the girl's father, sending the girl into depression. The night before, he had sent her a letter, asking her to marry him. Her response would be two candles for yes or one candle for no. She lights two candles and commits suicide over grief of her lost love. Everything is going perfect between the two. Miles and Jonah meets Sarah's entire family and is somewhat sure of his future with her.

The Turn of the Screw, first published in serial format in 1898, is the chilling tale of a young woman who accepts a job as governess—that is, as teacher—of two lovely young children who seem to be haunted by the spirits of a former governess and her lover, both now dead. David Gorman’s introduction is designed to help first-time readers of the tale by providing a brief historical backdrop to this tale of a haunted house and by laying out the central critical controversy that surrounds it: whether this ghost story is not about ghosts at all, or rather a probing of the psyche of a narrator who madly imagines that two ghosts threaten her young charges.　　《螺丝在拧紧》是一部描写心理的恐怖小说，它的作者是美国十九世纪的作家亨利·詹姆斯。 　　一些批评家把它归入幻想文学、恐怖文学或哥特式小说。实际上它还是一部心理剧，讲述女主人公意识经受考验的过程。女主人公作为家庭女教师受雇去一个庄园照顾小孩子迈尔斯和弗罗拉。这位女教师在她任职期间，感到她的前任和庄园男仆的鬼魂时常在庄园显现，同时她又想从迈尔斯、弗罗拉和女管家格罗斯太太那里证实自己看到的并非幻像。这些鬼魂有意伤害庄园里的孩子们，使他们变得狡黠，女主人公的营救过程变得更加复杂。

《幸运符》是《纽约时报》畅销书排行榜榜首作家爱情小说圣手尼古拉斯·斯帕克思最“斯帕克思味”的真爱之篇，一个男人与死亡擦身而过，命运的力量却引领他找到一生的挚爱。在战火纷飞的伊拉克，前美国海军陆战队队员蒂伯在废墟里捡到一张照片，照片上一个年轻女人微笑着。自此，洛根经历了一连串好运：不仅赢了纸牌游戏，还在战场上屡屡化险为夷。他最好的朋友维克多对此了解释——这张照片带给他幸运。回到家乡后，蒂伯穿过半个美国，终于找到了照片上的女人——单身妈妈伊丽莎白。他被这个女人深深吸引，在迎接崭新爱情的同时，独自体会着他所承担的过去。蒂伯把照片和好运的故事当作秘密隐藏了起来。 然而这个秘密不仅会毁灭了他们的爱情，更毁了他们的生活…… 在这部作品中，尼古拉斯·斯帕克思为我们讲述了一个让人难以忘怀的故事——一个男人与死亡擦身而过，命运却引领他找到一生的挚爱。故事充满了温情、浪漫，却又不失恐怖和悬疑，被誉为为尼古拉斯·斯帕克思的巅峰之作。

《化身博士》，出自英国著名作家史帝文生笔下，书中讲述杰克（又译杰奇、杰基尔）喝了一种试验用的药剂，在晚上化身成邪恶的海德先生四处作恶，他终日徘徊在善恶之间，其内心属灵的内疚和犯罪的快感不断冲突，令他饱受折磨。这种貌似荒诞无稽的故事，其实蕴含了最深刻的人性命题：人，到底是黑白分明，一成不变的非善即恶，还是既善亦恶，时善时恶？《化身博士》是史帝文生得意的代表作之一，因为书中人物杰奇和海德善恶截然不同的性格让人印象深刻，後来“Jekyll and Hyde”一词竟成为心理学「双重人格」的代称。另外有同名音乐剧、电影。

A Study in Scarlet is a detective mystery novel written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which was first published in 1887. It is the first story to feature the character of Sherlock Holmes, who would later become one of the most famous literary detective characters, with long-lasting interest and appeal. The book's title derives from a speech given by Holmes to his companion Doctor Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the story's murder investigation as his "study in scarlet": "There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it." Conan Doyle wrote the novel at the age of 27 in less than three weeks. As a general practice doctor in Southsea, Portsmouth, he had already published short stories in several magazines of the day, such as the periodical London Society. The story was originally titled A Tangled Skein, and was eventually published by Ward Lock & Co. in Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887, after many rejections. The author received ￡25 in return for the full rights (although Conan Doyle had pressed for a royalty instead). It was illustrated by D. H. Friston. The novel was first published as a book on July 1888 by Ward, Lock & Co., and featured drawings by the author's father, Charles Doyle. A second edition appeared the following year and was illustrated by George Hutchinson; a year later in 1890, J. B. Lippincott & Co. released the first American version. Numerous further editions, translations and dramatisations have appeared since. The story, and its main character, attracted little public interest when it first appeared. Only 11 complete copies of Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887 are known to exist now and they have considerable value. Although Conan Doyle wrote 56 short stories featuring Holmes, A Study in Scarlet is one of only four full-length novels in the original canon. The novel was followed by The Sign of Four, published in 1890. A Study in Scarlet was the first work of fiction to incorporate the magnifying glass as an investigative tool.

A Wizard of Earthsea, first published in 1968, is the first of a series of books written by Ursula K. Le Guin and set in the fantasy world archipelago of Earthsea depicting the adventures of a budding young wizard named Ged. The tale of Ged's growth and development as he travels across Earthsea continues in The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore and is supplemented in Tehanu and The Other Wind. The series has won numerous literary awards, including the 1990 Nebula for Tehanu, the 1972 Newbery Silver Medal Award for The Tombs of Atuan, 1972 National Book Award for Children's Books for The Farthest Shore, and 1979 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award for A Wizard of Earthsea.

Written towards the end of the second century AD, "The Golden Ass" tells the story of the many adventures of a young man whose fascination with witchcraft leads him to be transformed into a donkey. The bewitched Lucius passes from owner to owner - encountering a desperate gang of robbers and being forced to perform lewd 'human' tricks on stage - until the Goddess Isis finally breaks the spell and Lucius is initiated into her cult. Apuleius' enchanting story has inspired generations of writers such as Boccaccio, Shakespeare, Cervantes and Keats with its dazzling combination of allegory, satire, bawdiness and sheer exuberance, and remains the most continuously and accessibly amusing book to have survived from Classical antiquity.