牛津英国文学百科全书（套装全5册）

进入21世纪以来，上海外语教育出版社相继出版了《MIT认知科学百科全书》、《不列颠简明百科全书》（英文版）、《语言与语言学百科全书》（第2版），受到广大读者的热烈欢迎，获得了良好的社会效益。
英国文学在世界文学中的地位不言而喻，追溯其起源，把握其发展的脉搏，为海内外世代学子共同的心声。牛津大学出版社于2006年推出《牛津英国文学百科全书》这一力作。为满足国内读者研习的需要，上海外语教育出版社现引进出版这套百科全书。本套全书共分5卷，含有约500篇学术论文，对英国文学史上的重要作家进行深度评析，阐述其生平、作品、学术和政治观点等；同时对英国文学的流派、作品体裁、当时的社会运动、对文学产生重大影响的事件以及其他重要主题也做了深入的记述和探讨；每篇论文后面附有学界对该主题的研究和评论文章书目，涵盖了该领域的最新研究成果。5卷本的卷首有按照时间顺序编排的作家或者文学事件列表，5卷的末尾是涵盖全书的索引。全书内容翔实，条理清晰，作者均为在相关领域中卓有成就的著名专家。对于英语专业教师、学生，英国文学的研究人员以及对英国文学感兴趣的读者来说，《牛津英国文学百科全书》是一部不可多得的工具书。
秉承着“传播学术经典，支持外语研究”的出版理念，外教社将继续推出百科系列项目，以满足国内外读者更深层次和更高目标的科研与教学需求。

牛津英国文学百科全书：1
List of Articles
Preface
Chronology
THE OXFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
BRITISH LITERATURE
Directory of Contributors volume
Index volume
牛津英国文学百科全书：2
牛津英国文学百科全书：3
牛津英国文学百科全书：4
牛津英国文学百科全书：5

POETRY, POLITICS, FRIENDSHIP,AND THE NEOCLASSICAL IDEAL
Although the Spectator overshadows his other writing, in the eighteenth century Addison had a significant role as a literary critic who focused contemporary attention on the importance of style. In his time he was considered an influential, if minor, poet and an impressive classical scholar. These talents, in combination with his literary posture of objective perspective and balanced judgment, manifested in learning lightly worn, helped to define the social and literary ideal of neoclassicism. Early in his life he was renowned for his Latin verses, which won him the attention of Dr. William Lancaster, a fellow （and soon to be provost） of his Oxford College, Queens. He rapidly obtained a demyship （scholarship） at Magdalen College, which led to a fellowship that he held from 1698 until 1711. These, and his continual Latin compositions, stamped him as a literary professional, but his social skills also deeply shaped his success.
He first won public attention with his poem "To Mr. Dryden" （1693）, a panegyric on the poets classical translations that appeared in the important Examen Poeticum, which was itself edited by the sometime poet laureate, John Dryden. The third of a multivolume series of poetical miscellanies, this collection established the taste for heterogeneous, light verse that shaped taste for the next half century. It was a coup for Addison to publish in such a collection, but the conglomeration of ballads, prologues, satire, translations, and light verse in these volumes also made them an apt venue for Addisons poetry. His poems characteristically elide genres, merging panegyric with description, and wit with reverence while addressing a diverse range of subjects. He wrote not only on politics and divinity, but also penned verses on a barometer, a puppet-show, and a mock-heroic battle between pygmies and cranes. Four more of his poems, all infusing classical forms with conversational lightness, appeared in subsequent volumes of Tonsons Miscellany Poems, including "An Account of the Greatest English Poets" and "Poem to His Majesty." This blend of tact, politics, and classical learning characterized the literary man of the time, but Addisons contribution was greater. His concern for stylistic questions, manifested in his translations as well as his essays, helped to make aesthetic technique a central criterion for literary evaluation.
In his prose works, too, Addison had an important talent for showing how immersion in classical culture could enrich the perception of contemporary life, even as he also saw all culture and history in a political light. While traveling on the Continent from 1699 to 1703 with the aid of a government grant, he published the verse Letter from Italy, and probably composed Dialogues upon the Usefulness of Ancient Metals, published posthumously. Fusing history, politics, and social observation, Addisons popular travelogue exemplified intellectual reflection and an enthusiastic sense of the power of learning to elucidate experience, features that also appear in his discussion of medals as illustrated by Latin verse. His comments on Italy, nonetheless, are saturated with his advocacy of progress, republicanism, and trade. This ability to infuse political perception into entertaining literary fare was pre- cious in the early eighteenth century. Upon his return in 1703, Addisons political cronies urged him to compose a celebration of Marlboroughs victory at Blenheim. The resuit, The Campaign, written in heroic couplets, and published in December 1704, was so successful that Tonson immediately published Addisons Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, which itself quadrupled in price before the second edition of 1718. In The Campaign, Addison heroicizes Marlborough while retaining a good portrait of his real character. The poem is also an accurate narrative of the battle. Like the Spectator, this blend of fact and fiction demonstrated the emerging technique of literary realism.

最早接触牛津大学出版社的文学工具书是在20世纪80年代初。记得在美国读学位的第一学年（1981-1982）上了一门文学专业研究生的必修课：Bibliography and Literary Research。几乎所有美国大学的英文系都把这门课列为硕士研究生的必修课（我就读的那所大学英文系有3门硕士生必修课，另外两门是“乔叟”和“莎士比亚”）。如果直译，课程的题目应该被称为“目录学和文学研究”。其实，那实际上是一门方法论的课程。而从内容来看，课程的宗旨就是教会学生如何使用图书馆的工具书。给我们上课的是一位资历颇深的老教授。记得有两次课是在大学图书馆上的，停留时间最长的是图书馆的工具书库，由他在现场为我们逐一介绍不同工具书的类别、用途和特点。有趣的是，这门课的期末考试也是在图书馆进行的：每个学生用抽签的形式拿到一份“任务书”，上面有10个小问题，要求我们在3个小时内从图书馆查找到这些问题的答案。
美国大学的图书馆是我在美国读书五年半后觉得最值得留恋的地方。虽然，中国的许多大学近年来盖了不少非常漂亮、甚至堪称奢华的图书馆，但是，似乎没有一家中国大学的图书馆在实际的馆藏上能与美国大学图书馆相比，特别是在工具书方面，因为原文工具书普遍价格较高，许多中国大学图书馆缺乏这方面的资金。
正是在这门课上我第一次使用了牛津大学出版社的文学工具书，The Oxford Companion to English Literature（《牛津英国文学词典》）。记得期末“任务书”中的一道题“yahoo’也是从这本工具书中找到了答案。当时大学图书馆收藏的是1967年出版的（第4版），我1986年底回国时，带了一本从旧书店淘来的《牛津英国文学词典》，一直珍藏在手边随时翻阅，觉得非常方便和实用。直到几年前才从亚马逊购书网上订了一本2000年推出的《牛津英国文学词典》（第6版）。
这也许就是我与牛津大学出版社文学工具书结缘的开始吧。1998年我去美国克利弗兰市参加美国莎士比亚学会第26届年会。因为会上有一个名为“莎士比亚在中国”的小型讨论会，我应邀担任这一专题讨论会的评论员。共有来自世界各地的8位学者提交了论文，所有对这一议题感兴趣的人都在会前通过互联网阅读了这些文章。讨论会上首先由我对8篇文章逐一做了点评，然后就是与会者与文章的作者自由交换意见。讨论会结束后，一位坐在后排的中年学者走了过来，他自我介绍说他叫麦克·道布森（Michael Dobson），是正在编写中的《牛津莎士比亚词典》（The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare）的主编，他问我是否有兴趣参加他的编写团队。就这样，我成了2001年出版的《牛津莎士比亚词典》的编撰者之一。
2006年由牛津大学出版社推出的5卷本《牛津英国文学百科全书》虽然也属于牛津大学出版社的文学工具书系列，但是，与词典系列丛书（companion）相比，它有着两个明显的特点：
1.信息量大。与词典系列丛书相比，《牛津英国文学百科全书》收入的词条数量不大，但是，每个词条下的内容非常丰富。以A为例：《牛津英国文学词典》收入了455个词条，共55页。