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Books We Recommend
compiled by
the students and staff of
the Department of English
University College London
Introduction
The UCL English Department already has on its website a reading list of books for first-year undergraduates which might be helpful to those applying to university to read English. This is quite short, however, concentrates on the classics, and may look forbidding to some younger readers. We have now tried asking students, graduates and staff which books they loved reading in their teens. From many enthusiastic responses we have compiled the following unwieldy and heterogeneous list, arranged in age sections, which we hope may be of use to some readers.
This list has been edited a bit. Of course many books were suggested over and over again. Some, such as Matilda and Harry Potter, seemed, however delightful, rather elementary for fourteen-year-olds. Others, such as Pride and Prejudice or The Lord of the Rings, seemed a bit obvious. Opinions varied a lot about the age at which someone might want to read a book, and therefore the age sections need not be taken too seriously. The number of books listed by each author has been limited; probably most people understand that if you like a book it is worth trying other works by the same writer.
Most of the books suggested are fiction, but if you are seriously thinking about reading English Literature at university you should also experiment with poetry, history, literary history and literary criticism. A useful starting point is a fat, chronologically arranged poetry anthology, such as The Norton Anthology of Poetry or The New Oxford Book of English Verse. Illuminating history books include Linda Colley, Britons and Roy Porter, Enlightenment. Andrew Sanders, The Short Oxford History of English Literature offers explorers a useful map of the territory. It is difficult to recommend the perfect introduction to the excitements of literary criticism; suggestions include Ezra Pound, The ABC of Reading, Fay Weldon, Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen, Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory and William Empson, Seven Types of Ambiguity.
Sometimes people can have their lives changed by the oddest books. I was given J. A. Cuddon's Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms for my fourteenth birthday, and I found it a rich source of inspiration and entertainment for many years. It is hard to predict which books will be loved: these are books which some of us have loved.
Charlotte Mitchell
Books for 14-year-olds
Adams, Douglas, The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Alcott, Louisa May, Little Women
Austen, Jane, Northanger Abbey
Blake, William, Songs of Innocence and Experience
Bradbury, Ray, Fahrenheit 451
Buchan, John, The Thirty-Nine Steps Card, Orson Scott, Ender's Game
Collins, Wilkie, The Woman in White
Cope, Wendy, Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis
Dickens, Charles, David Copperfield
du Maurier, Daphne, Rebecca
Dumas, Alexandre, The Count of Monte Cristo
Durrell, Gerald, My Family and Other Animals
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compiled by
the students and staff of
the Department of English
University College London
Introduction
The UCL English Department already has on its website a reading list of books for first-year undergraduates which might be helpful to those applying to university to read English. This is quite short, however, concentrates on the classics, and may look forbidding to some younger readers. We have now tried asking students, graduates and staff which books they loved reading in their teens. From many enthusiastic responses we have compiled the following unwieldy and heterogeneous list, arranged in age sections, which we hope may be of use to some readers.
This list has been edited a bit. Of course many books were suggested over and over again. Some, such as Matilda and Harry Potter, seemed, however delightful, rather elementary for fourteen-year-olds. Others, such as Pride and Prejudice or The Lord of the Rings, seemed a bit obvious. Opinions varied a lot about the age at which someone might want to read a book, and therefore the age sections need not be taken too seriously. The number of books listed by each author has been limited; probably most people understand that if you like a book it is worth trying other works by the same writer.
Most of the books suggested are fiction, but if you are seriously thinking about reading English Literature at university you should also experiment with poetry, history, literary history and literary criticism. A useful starting point is a fat, chronologically arranged poetry anthology, such as The Norton Anthology of Poetry or The New Oxford Book of English Verse. Illuminating history books include Linda Colley, Britons and Roy Porter, Enlightenment. Andrew Sanders, The Short Oxford History of English Literature offers explorers a useful map of the territory. It is difficult to recommend the perfect introduction to the excitements of literary criticism; suggestions include Ezra Pound, The ABC of Reading, Fay Weldon, Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen, Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory and William Empson, Seven Types of Ambiguity.
Sometimes people can have their lives changed by the oddest books. I was given J. A. Cuddon's Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms for my fourteenth birthday, and I found it a rich source of inspiration and entertainment for many years. It is hard to predict which books will be loved: these are books which some of us have loved.
Charlotte Mitchell
Books for 14-year-olds
Adams, Douglas, The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Alcott, Louisa May, Little Women
Austen, Jane, Northanger Abbey
Blake, William, Songs of Innocence and Experience
Bradbury, Ray, Fahrenheit 451
Buchan, John, The Thirty-Nine Steps Card, Orson Scott, Ender's Game
Collins, Wilkie, The Woman in White
Cope, Wendy, Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis
Dickens, Charles, David Copperfield
du Maurier, Daphne, Rebecca
Dumas, Alexandre, The Count of Monte Cristo
Durrell, Gerald, My Family and Other Animals
читать дальше