求一本英文小说（名著）的英语内容概要任意一本你看过的,英文的内容概要500字左右最好易懂些的.能用来讲滴

求一本英文小说（名著）的英语内容概要任意一本你看过的,英文的内容概要500字左右最好易懂些的.能用来讲滴
求一本英文小说（名著）的英语内容概要
任意一本你看过的,英文的内容概要500字左右
最好易懂些的.能用来讲滴

求一本英文小说（名著）的英语内容概要任意一本你看过的,英文的内容概要500字左右最好易懂些的.能用来讲滴
《A Tale of Two Cities》（双城记）
"A Tale of Two Cities" begins in 1775, with Mr. Lorry, a respectable London banker, meeting Lucie Manette in Paris, where they recover Lucie's father, a doctor, and mentally enfeebled by an unjust and prolonged imprisonment in the Bastille. This assemblage, on their journey back to England, meets Charles Darnay, an immigrant to England from France who makes frequent trips between London and Paris. Upon their return to England, Darnay finds himself on trial for spying for France and in league with American revolutionaries. His attorney, Stryver, and Stryver's obviously intelligent, if morally corrupt and debauched, assistant, Sydney Carton, manage to get Darnay exonerated of the charges against him. Darnay, a self-exiled former French aristocrat, finds himself compelled to return to France in the wake of the French Revolution, drawing all those around him into a dangerous scene.
Dickens portrays the French Revolution simplistically, but powerfully, as a case of downtrodden peasants exacting a harsh revenge against an uncaring aristocratic, even feudal, system. The Defarge's, a wine merchant and his wife, represent the interests of the lower classes, clouded by hatred after generations of misuse. Darnay, affiliated by birth with the French aristocracy, is torn between sympathy for his native country in its suffering, and his desire to be free of his past.
"A Tale of Two Cities" is a novel driven by historical circumstance and plot, much like the works of Sir Walter Scott, wherein the characters themselves assert less agency, finding themselves forced to deal with the tide of epic events. Richard Maxwell's introduction to this newest Penguin edition does a good job outlining the themes of doubling and literary influence that Dickens works with. One specific influence I discerned in reading "A Tale" that Maxwell doesn't metion is Edmund Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France," which if nothing else, gives the feeling that the rampant violence of the early revolution and the later Reign of Terror has brought about an irreversible change in human nature. While Dickens remains cautiously optimistic throughout the novel that France can recover, the tone of the novel speaks to the regression of humanity into a more feral, primal state, rather than advertise any real hope for its enlightened progress.
Despite the supposed dichotomy between England and France in the novel, Dickens seems to suggest throughout that there are no real differences, due to the way that human nature is consistently portrayed. With England in between two revolutions, American and French, Lucie's sensitivity early in the novel to hearing the "echoing" footsteps of unseen multitudes indicates a palpable fear that the "idyllic" or "pastoral" England he tries to portray is not exempt from the social discontent of America or France. In this light, stolid English characters like Miss Pross, Jerry Cruncher, and Jarvis Lorry appear to almost overcompensate in their loyalty to British royalty. In a novel that deals with death, religion, mental illness, I could go on and on for a week, but I won't. One of those novels whose famous first and last lines are fixed in the minds of people who've never even read it, "A Tale of Two Cities" demands to be read and admired.
1757年12月的一个月夜,寓居巴黎的年轻医生梅尼特（Dr.Manette）散步时,突然被厄弗里蒙地侯爵(Marquis St. Evremonde)兄弟强迫出诊.在侯爵府第中,他目睹一个发狂的绝色农妇和一个身受剑伤的少年饮恨而死的惨状,并获悉侯爵兄弟为了片刻淫乐杀害他们全家的内情.他拒绝侯爵兄弟的重金贿赂,写信向朝廷告发.不料控告信落到被告人手中,医生被关进巴士底狱,从此与世隔绝,杳无音讯.两年后,妻子心碎而死.幼小的孤女路茜(Lucie Manette)被好友劳雷(Jarvis Lorry)接到伦敦,在善良的女仆普洛斯(Miss Pross)抚养下长大.
18年后,梅尼特医生获释.这位精神失常的白发老人被巴黎圣安东尼区的一名酒贩、他旧日的仆人德法奇(Defarge)收留.这时,女儿路茜已经成长,专程接他去英国居住.旅途上,他们邂逅法国青年查理·代尔纳(Charles Darnay),受到他的细心照料. 原来代尔纳就是侯爵的儿子.他憎恨自己家族的罪恶,毅然放弃财产的继承权和贵族的姓氏,移居伦敦,当了一名法语教师.在与梅尼特父女的交往中,他对路茜产生了真诚的爱情.梅尼特为了女儿的幸福,决定埋葬过去,欣然同意他们的婚事. 在法国,代尔纳父母相继去世,叔父厄弗里蒙地侯爵继续为所欲为.当他那狂载的马车若无其事地轧死一个农民的孩子后,终于被孩子父亲用刀杀死.一场革命的风暴正在酝酿之中,德法奇的酒店就是革命活动的联络点,他的妻子不停地把贵族的暴行编织成不同的花纹,记录在围巾上,渴望复仇.
1789年法国大革命的风暴终于袭来了.巴黎人民攻占了巴士底狱,把贵族一个个送上断头台.远在伦敦的代尔纳为了营救管家盖白勒(Gabelle),冒险回国,一到巴黎就被捕入狱.梅尼特父女闻讯后星夜赶到.医生的出庭作证使代尔纳回到妻子的身边.可是,几小时后,代尔纳又被逮捕.在法庭上,德法奇宣读了当年医生在狱中写下的血书：向苍天和大地控告厄弗里蒙地家族的最后一个人.法庭判处代尔纳死刑.
就在这时,一直暗暗爱慕路茜的律师助手卡尔登(Sydney Carton)来到巴黎,买通狱卒,混入监狱,顶替了代尔纳,梅尼特父女早已准备就绪,代尔纳一到,马上出发.一行人顺利地离开法国. 德法奇太太(Madame Defarge)在代尔纳被判决后,又到梅尼特住所搜捕路茜及其幼女,在与普洛斯的争斗中,因枪支走火而毙命.而断头台上,卡尔登为了爱情,从容献身.
文章名句：
那是最美好的时代,那是最糟糕的时代；那是智慧的年头,那是愚昧的年头；那是信仰的时期,那是怀疑的时期；那是光明的季节,那是黑暗的季节；那是希望的春天,那是失望的冬天；我们拥有一切,我们一无所有;我们全都在直奔天堂,我们全都在直奔相反的方向--简而言之,那时跟现在非常相象,某些最喧嚣的权威坚持要用形容词的最高级来形容它.说它好,是最高级的；说它不好,也是最高级的.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
这是我一生中最乐意做的事 这里是我最好的安息之所.
It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done;
it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.
中文名著网址：
http://www.thn21.com/Article/chang/11314.html
更多双城记相关英文资料：http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities

Oliver Twist, one of the most famous works of Charles Dickens’, is a novel reflecting the tragic fact of the life in Britain in 18th century.
The author who himself was born in a poor family wrot...

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Oliver Twist, one of the most famous works of Charles Dickens’, is a novel reflecting the tragic fact of the life in Britain in 18th century.
The author who himself was born in a poor family wrote this novel in his twenties with a view to reveal the ugly masks of those cruel criminals and to expose the horror and violence hidden underneath the narrow and dirty streets in London.
The hero of this novel was Oliver Twist, an orphan, who was thrown into a world full of poverty and crime. He suffered enormous pain, such as hunger, thirst, beating and abuse. While reading the tragic experiences of the little Oliver, I was shocked by his sufferings. I felt for the poor boy, but at the same time I detested the evil Fagin and the brutal Bill. To my relief, as was written in all the best stories, the goodness eventually conquered devil and Oliver lived a happy life in the end. One of the plots that attracted me most is that after the theft, little Oliver was allowed to recover in the kind care of Mrs. Maylie and Rose and began a new life. He went for walks with them, or Rose read to him, and he worked hard at his lessons. He felt as if he had left behind forever the world of crime and hardship and poverty.
How can such a little boy who had already suffered oppressive affliction remain pure in body and mind? The reason is the nature of goodness. I think it is the most important information implied in the novel by Dickens-he believed that goodness could conquer every difficulty. Although I don’t think goodness is omnipotent, yet I do believe that those who are kind-hearted live more happily than those who are evil-minded.
For me, the nature of goodness is one of the most necessary character for a person. Goodness is to humans what water is to fish. He who is without goodness is an utterly worthless person. On the contrary, as the famous saying goes, ‘The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose’, he who is with goodness undoubtedly is a happy and useful person. People receiving his help are grateful to him and he also gets gratified from what he has done, and thus he can do good to both the people he has helped and himself.
To my disappointment, nowadays some people seem to doubt the existence of the goodness in humanity. They look down on people’s honesty and kindness, thinking it foolish of people to be warm-hearted. As a result, they show no sympathy to those who are in trouble and seldom offer to help others. On the other hand, they attach importance to money and benefit. In their opinion, money is the only real object while emotions and morality are nihility. If they cannot get profit from showing their ‘kindness’, they draw back when others are faced with trouble and even hit a man when he is down. They are one of the sorts that I really detest.
Francis Bacon said in his essay, ‘Goodness, of all virtues and dignities of the mind, is the greatest, being the character of the Deity, and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing, no better than a kind of vermin.’
That is to say a person without goodness is destined to lose everything. Therefore, I, a kind person, want to tell those ‘vermin-to-be’ to learn from the kind Oliver and regain the nature of goodness

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