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：《傲慢与偏见》

《傲慢与偏见》可以说是文学界的一块罗塞塔石碑，同时也是许多现代小说的灵感、基础和模板，所以你对其中的情节和人物可能比你自己想象中要熟悉。作为一本写于19世纪早期的书，它的现代性是非常惊人的，而你会发现这是因为现代小说在很大程度上就是被这本书定义的。

第二本：《尤利西斯》

《尤利西斯》在“意识流”这个概念出现之前就开始使用它了。同时，它也是一本相当错综复杂的小说，充满了隐喻、文字游戏、隐晦的玩笑，以及角色们欲说还休的个人沉思。

第三本：《白鲸》

好吧，其实《白鲸》是出了名的乏味。梅尔维尔的小说在出版时反响并不好（过了几十年人们才意识到这本书到底有多棒）。而每年都有满腹牢骚的学生被迫读这本书，使得这种负面评价一直挥之不去。

第四本：《杀死一只知更鸟》

很少有一本小说能像《杀死一只知更鸟》一样50年多年保持经典。如果你想知道哈柏·李是如何做到的，那你就得读读这本书。而只需要7小时的阅读时间，你就能读完这本书了。

第五本：《长眠不醒》

诚然，对于现代读者来说，这本书有一股过于刻意的粗犷风，其中穿插着很多老套的黑话；至于情节呢，即使是对于一本悬疑小说来说也是出了名的复杂，而且书中的很多未讲明的故事结局直到今天也没有被破解；但这些都不叫事儿。