本書為讀者提供了一片視野、一面棱鏡，以看破生活的迷霧、透析人性的本質。本書將諸短篇小說按照主題分為6個單元：何為人？人所遭遇的逆境人該如何應對？人所應珍惜的價值 人所應擁有的生存觀 生命的歸宿。
本書每個單元薈萃3篇經典短篇，對上述哲學問題給予文學獨特的闡釋與解答。通過對經典作品與作家具有穿刺力的導讀與提問，每個單元圍繞上述6個環環相扣的主題，給予讀者*有靈性的啟迪。
本書可供高校英語專業和非英語專業的本科生使用。
Preface
15 years ago, Gary and I attended a conference in Toronto; 15 years later, I was in Toronto
alone. Gary had several wishes for meto publish this book and the collection of my poems.
This book is of great significance to us. Throughout his life, Gary was completely and
thoroughly in love with literature. We studied literature as if we were studying life. e framework
of this book shows our lifelong e ort of studying literature, understanding literature, studying life
and understanding life. And the most striking innovation is its thematic organization, not found
in other college-level short story anthologies: The Person: What Is Human Being? Personal
Struggle: What Adversaries Do Humans Face? Conduct: How Does a Person Act? Value: What
Should a Person Value? Outlook: What Views of Existence Can a Person Have? Purpose: To
What Ends Can a Person Live? is fresh organizational scheme re ects the great endeavor of
both ction writer and its readers to understand the truth of life.
e strength of this book partially lies in that its choices are not limited to any nation or age,
although its selected short stories mainly come from English literature. e best short stories of
Western literature have been included here for their power to touch our hearts. Glossary of literary
terms should have been provided, which we will surely make up in the second edition of this book
e teaching and reading of this book will be of great value to those seeking the meaning of
life, which is all Gary ever wanted.
Huaijing Xu
2018.9
I. The Person: What Is a Human Being? .................................................... 1
A&P / John Updike ............................................................................................................. 4
Lullaby / Leslie Marmon Silko ......................................................................................... 11
The Lady with the Dog / Anton Chekhov ....................................................................... 20
The Kiss / Anton Chekhov ............................................................................................... 34
II. Personal Struggle: What Adversaries Do Human Beings Face? ........... 51
My Kinsman, Major Molineux / Nathaniel Hawthorne ................................................ 54
On the Road / Langston Hughes ..................................................................................... 70
Coffee Break / Langston Hughes ..................................................................................... 75
How the Soviet Robinson Crusoe Was Written / Ilya Ilf and Eugeni Petrov............ 79
III. Conduct: How Should a Person Act? .................................................. 87
Soldiers Home / Ernest Hemingway ............................................................................... 89
Barn Burning / William Faulkner ................................................................................... 97
He / Doris Lessing ........................................................................................................... 113
The Heroine / Isak Dinesen............................................................................................ 120
IV. Values: What Should a Person Value? ................................................135
Greenleaf / Flannery OConnor ..................................................................................... 137
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow / Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. ..................................... 156
The Skylark and the Frog / Chuang-Tzu ...................................................................... 166
The Lottery / Shirley Jackson ......................................................................................... 169
V. Outlook: What Views of Existence Can a Person Have? .............................179
The Wall / Jean-Paul Sartre ........................................................................................... 181
The Story of an Hour / Kate Chopin ............................................................................. 197
The Maker / Jorge Luis Borges ....................................................................................... 201
Gimpel the Fool / Isaac Bashevis Singer ....................................................................... 204
VI. Purpose: For What Ends Can a Person Live? ....................................219
Flowering Judas / Katherine Anne Porter ..................................................................... 221
Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman / Harlan Ellison .......................................... 232
Quality / John Galsworthy ............................................................................................. 243
The Student / Anton Chekhov ...................................................................................... 250
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