to cultivate one’s taste in english prose, the most effectiveway is to read english books extensively. yet one may be at a lossto choose the appropriatebooks, especially as abeginner. i would like to share some of myexperience.
my first english novel was janeausten’spride and prejudice, recommendedby many english teachers and professors as an ideal book forenglish learners. but my experience was somewhat bling along the lines, i had great difficulty in understandingthe novel, let alone enjoying it. it’s not the vocabulary thattroubled me, but rather the way austen constructs sentences, andher way of thinking, which seemed too remote to me at that time. myfading enthusiasm was much recovered after reading hemingway’snovelfarewell to arms. no long andcomplicated sentences. and i particularly liked his concise andstraightforward style. so my first suggestion is, as a beginner,you’d better choose contemporary novels instead of classical can easily engage yourself in reading, get fun out of it, andgradually build up confidence. i do not mean to exclude classicalnovels for ever. actually, the second readingofpride andprejudicegreatly pleased me (probably theresult of my improved english comprehension). it is only thatclassical novels are less accessible to beginners due to theirlanguage styles and social background. i’d like to recommend threecontemporary novelists to you－ursula le guin, ernest hemingway, anddoris lessing.
however, reading novels is not the only way to improve yourenglish. in fact, if you restrict yourself to novels you will missa lot of treasures. english essays can at once inform you,entertain you, and refine your taste in english. the best exampleis bertrand russell’s work. its language is plain, yet you cannothelp feeling the elegance and the peculiar sense of humor. hissi-mp-le language enables his philosophy within the reach of ordinarypeople. the same is true of george orwell’s work. here comes mysecond suggestion－essays are indispensable.
