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1、Unit 2Active reading (1)Danger! Books may change your lifeCulture pointsLewis Carroll (18321898) is the pen-name of Charles Dodgson. He was a priest, a mathematician whotaught at Oxford University, a photographer, humorist and writer of childrens literature. Alices Adventuresin Wonderland (1865) was
2、 immediately successful, a masterpiece which revolutionized childrens literature,giving coherence and logic through wit and humour to unlikely or impossible episodes in which imaginarycreatures embody recognizable human characteristics. He is also known for Through the Looking Glass andwhat Alice fo
3、und there (1871) and nonsense poems, such as The Hunting of the Snark (1876).William Cowper (17311800): a notable English poet, writer of hymns and letter-writer. He wrote gentle,pious, direct poems about everyday rural life and scenes of the countryside which have been seen asforerunners of the Rom
4、antic movement: Coleridge called Cowper “the best modern poet”. He translatedHomers Greek epics. The Odyssey and The Iliad into English. Another example of his verses which havebecome common sayings is “God moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform”John Steinbeck (19021968): American novelist
5、 who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is a well-known, long tragic novel about an American family of farmers who aredriven off their land in Oklahoma by soil erosion in the famous “dust bowl” era. They flee to California towhat they hope will be a better
6、life. The book won the Pulitzer Prize and was made into a film in 1940. Otherwell-known novels include Of Mice and Men (1937), Cannery Row (1945), The Pearl (1947), East of Eden(1952) and an account of a personal rediscovery of America, Travels with Charlie (1962).John Irving (1942 ): American novel
7、ist and screenwriter who taught English at college and was a wrestlingcoach. The Fourth Hand (2001) is a comic-satirical novel about a TV journalist, Wallington, whose hand isseen by millions of viewers to be bitten off by a circus lion. A surgeon gives him a hand transplant (a thirdhand) but the wi
8、fe of the dead donor wants to visit her husbands hand and have a child by Wallington, whofeels where his original hand used to be (the fourth hand).Audrey Niffenegger (1963 ): American college professor who teaches writing to visual artists and showsstudents how to make books by hand. Her first nove
9、l, The Time Travellers Wife (2003) filmed in 2009 is ascience fiction and romance bestseller about a man who travels uncontrollably in time to his own history andvisits his wife in her childhood, youth and old age. His wife needs to cope with his absences and dangerouslife while he travels. The stor
10、y is a metaphor for distance and miscommunication in failed relationships.Paul Torday (1946 ): a British businessman who worked for a company that repaired ships engines formany years. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2007) was his first novel. It is a political satire and comedy abouta dull civil serva
11、nt who becomes involved in a plan to populate the desert with Scottish salmon. Politiciansmanage the media to “spin” this as a plan they support in order to divert attention from problems in theMiddle East. There are themes of cynicism and belief, and East-West culture clashes.Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
12、 (19182008): a Russian writer who was imprisoned in Soviet labour camps in1945; after eight years, he was exiled to Kazakhstan and not freed until 1956, when he became a teacher.In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature but not receive it until 1974. He went to Germany,Switzerland and th
13、e USA, returning to Russia in 1994. His best known novels were based on his experiencesas a prisoner and include: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962), Cancer Ward (1968), The GulagArchipelago (19741978). His later works were about Russian history and identity.Graham Greene (19041991): a Br
14、itish novelist, short-story writer, playwright, travel writer and essayist.He wrote a number of thrillers (he called them entertainments) which dramatize an ambiguous moraldilemma, often revealing guilt, treachery, failure and a theme of pursuit. Greene was also a film critic andall of these novels
15、have been made into films: Brighton Rock (1938), The Power and the Glory (1940),The Heart of the Matter (1948), The Third Man (1950), The Quiet American (1955), and Our Man inHavana (1958).E. M. Forster (18791970): a British novelist and writer of short stories and essays. He lived at differentperio
16、ds in Italy, Egypt and India and taught at Cambridge University. His best known novels include A Roomwith a View (1908), Howards End (1910), A Passage to India (1924) which have all been made into films.His writing about reading and writing includes a book of lectures, Aspects of the Novel (1927).Thomas Merton (19151968): an American Catholic writer, who was a Tra
