5 Of The Best Popular Books You Can Use To Learn English

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is kind of a literary Rosetta Stone， the inspiration， basis， and model for so many modern novels. You’re probably more familiar with its plot and characters than you think. For a book written in the early 19th century， it’s modernity is surprising only until you realize that this is the novel that in many ways defined what a modern novel is.

Ulysses

Ulysses did “stream of consciousness” before the term existed， and it’s also a sprawling novel dense with allusions， wordplay， obscure jokes， and intensely， opaquely personal ruminations by the characters.

Moby-Dick / The Whale

Moby-Dick has an unearned reputation for being， well， dull. Melville’s novel wasn’t received well on publication （it took decades before people really started to “get” how great it is）， and the negative sentiment is echoed every year when groaning students are forced to read it.

To Kill A Mockingbird

It’s rare for a novel to remain as on-point as To Kill A Mockingbird for more than five decades. If you want to know how Harper Lee managed the trick， you’re gonna have to read it. At about seven hours to read， you can totally squeeze it in.

The Big Sleep

It’s true that the book is written in what seems to modern audiences like a self-consciously tough style， peppered with old-fashioned slang， and the plot is famously complex， even for a mystery， and actually has several loose ends that never get resolved， but it doesn’t matter.

第一本：《傲慢與偏見》

《傲慢與偏見》可以說是文學界的一塊羅塞塔石碑，同時也是許多現代小說的靈感、基礎和模板，所以你對其中的情節和人物可能比你自己想象中要熟悉。作為一本寫于19世紀早期的書，它的現代性是非常驚人的，而你會發現這是因為現代小說在很大程度上就是被這本書定義的。

第二本：《尤利西斯》

《尤利西斯》在“意識流”這個概念出現之前就開始使用它了。同時，它也是一本相當錯綜復雜的小說，充滿了隱喻、文字游戲、隱晦的玩笑，以及角色們欲說還休的個人沉思。

第三本：《白鯨》

好吧，其實《白鯨》是出了名的乏味。梅爾維爾的小說在出版時反響并不好（過了幾十年人們才意識到這本書到底有多棒）。而每年都有滿腹牢騷的學生被迫讀這本書，使得這種負面評價一直揮之不去。

第四本：《殺死一只知更鳥》

很少有一本小說能像《殺死一只知更鳥》一樣50年多年保持經典。如果你想知道哈柏·李是如何做到的，那你就得讀讀這本書。而只需要7小時的閱讀時間，你就能讀完這本書了。

第五本：《長眠不醒》

誠然，對于現代讀者來說，這本書有一股過于刻意的粗獷風，其中穿插著很多老套的黑話；至于情節呢，即使是對于一本懸疑小說來說也是出了名的復雜，而且書中的很多未講明的故事結局直到今天也沒有被破解；但這些都不叫事兒。