本书精选法国著名作家莫泊桑的39篇中短篇小说，有《羊脂球》《我的叔叔于勒》《项链》等不朽名篇，内容丰富多彩，结构巧妙动人。
小说以主人公夏冲从4岁到31岁的经历、见闻为主要线索，时间跨度为1976年至2008年。 夏冲是一个对悲剧非常敏感的人，发现周围生活中到处是被忽略的悲剧，他的父母、少年时代的朋友等人都在各种悲剧之中，与传统悲剧不同的是，这些悲剧往往被看作是理所当然，不足为奇。小说叙述的半个爱情故事则是悲剧中的一抹暖色，女主人公戚敏与夏冲同样年轻、聪明，但更平静，也懂得安之若素。夏冲经历了三次“寂静”时期，他不清楚为什么生活如此平淡又令人激动，无论时代如何变化，这国家这生活都像一条龙，庞大、强力、野心勃勃，而主人公则像一只蝉，疏离、弱小、难以平静。当他到了成熟的年纪，成了一名律师，却仍受制于往日记忆，不得自由。2008年北京奥运会之前，中国已经成了一个崭新的国家，生活完全变了。这时夏冲回首往事，就像蝉发出了一
This novel, Hardy's last, is quite a delightful tale, almost comical in tone, and its wry, tongue-in-cheek flavor is beautifully realized by reader Robert Powell. It concerns sculptor Jocelyn Pierston and his 40-year quest for the incarnation of the ideal woman. This phantom eludes him as it flits from woman to woman most especially Avice Caro, his sweetheart at 20; then Avice's daughter, Anne Avice, who charms him when he is 40; and finally Avice the third, the granddaughter, whom he courts at 60. Alas, none of these romances reach fruition, and he loses both his artistic abilities and drive and his interest in the old quest. At 62, he can pass for 75, and in his old age he finds an old flame who sees him into his dotage. Hardy classed this work with his "Romances and Fantasies," and it is indeed almost an allegory or fable. Very enjoyable and excellently read, this is a good addition to fiction collections that feature important British writers. Harriet Edwards, East Meadow P.L., NY Copyright 20
Hans Christian Andersen is the best-loved of all tellers of fairy tales. This collection of over forty of Andersen'smost popular stories includes The Mermaid,The Real Princess, The Red Shoes, The LittleMatch Girl, The Snow Queen, The Tinder Box,The Ugly Duckling and many more. It is delightfully illustrated in black-and-white by those remarkable brothers, Charles,Thomas and William Heath Robinson.
Our Mutual Friend, Dickens' last complete novel, gives one of his most comprehensive and penetrating accounts of Victorian society. Its vision of a culture stifled by materialistic values emerges not just through its central narratives, but through its apparently incidental characters and scenes. The chief of its several plots centres on John Harmon who returns to England as his father's heir. He is believed drowned under suspicious circumstances - a situation convenient to his wish for anonymity until he can evaluate Bella Wilfer whom he must marry to secure his inheritance. The story is filled with colourful characters and incidents - the faded aristocrats and parvenus gathered at the Veneering's dinner table, Betty Higden and her terror of the workhouse and the greedy plottings of Silas Wegg.
Epic historical novel by Leo Tolstoy, originally published as Voyna i mir in 1865-69. This panoramic study of early 19th-century Russian society, noted for its mastery of realistic detail and variety of psychological analysis, is generally regarded as one of the world's greatest novels. War and Peace is primarily concerned with the histories of five aristocratic families--particularly the Bezukhovs, the Bolkonskys, and the Rostovs--the members of which are portrayed against a vivid background of Russian social life during the war against Napoleon (1805-14). The theme of war, however, is subordinate to the story of family existence, which involves Tolstoy's optimistic belief in the life-asserting pattern of human existence. The heroine, Natasha Rostova, for example, reaches her greatest fulfillment through her marriage to Pierre Bezukhov and her motherhood. The novel also sets forth a theory of history, concluding that there is a minimum of free choice; all is ruled by an inexorable historical determinism. --
From its first publication in 1719, Robinson Crusoe has been printed in over 700 editions. It has inspired almost every conceivable kind of imitation and variation, and been the subject of plays, opera, cartoons, and computer games. The character of Crusoe has entered the consciousness of each succeeding generation as readers add their own interpretation to the adventures so thrillingly 'recorded' by Defoe. Praised by eminent figures such as Coleridge, Rousseau and Wordsworth, this perennially popular book was cited by Karl Marx in Das Kapital to illustrate economic theory. However it is readers of all ages over the last 280 years who have given Robinson Crusoe its abiding position as a classic tale of adventure.
