去英国留学，提前了解一些英国的历史文化和人情世故是必不可少的，能帮助大家快速融入英国留学生活，不管你是什么专业的，可以借以扫除一下偏见。去英国留学前必须读的5本书，现在读还不晚！希望对去英国留学的的同学们有所帮助。
1. The English: A Portrait of a People，By Jeremy Paxman
《The English: A Portrait of a People》，作者：杰里米·帕克斯曼
In The English, the famously no-nonsense journalist and broadcaster Jeremy Paxman assesses what it means to be English today – specifically English, that is, not Welsh, Scottish, or Irish. In this wide-ranging work, Paxman charts the rise of a peculiar stereotype of Englishness that arose abroad in response to British colonialism, and its subsequent obsolescence following the disintegration of Empire. Emphasising the pluralistic interconnections between England's regions, cultures, and classes, The English gives historical grounding to some of the country' scurious social quirks and places them in the context of its people’s fluctuating identities.
在《The English》里头，以坦爽著称的记者、主持人Jeremy Paxman开门见山地评估当代英格兰人对自我的认识，并且分析其与威尔士人、苏格兰人、爱尔兰等人的差别。此作品内容广泛，Paxman在书中写道，大英帝国因在世界各地开拓殖民地，引起了当地人对英国人诸多的奇特偏见。如今，虽然大英帝国早已瓦解，但许多国家仍然保持着陈旧的偏见。通过描述英格兰各个地区、文化和社会阶级之间多样化的关系，Paxman描绘了英国社会的一些奇特怪癖的历史背景，并将它们和现代人变化多端的自我认知作比较。
2. White Teeth, By Zadie Smith
《白牙》，作者：查蒂·史密斯
Treating a broad sweep of British post-war history,White Teeth deals with the issues of London's immigrant population and their often conflicting desires to both assimilate and preserve their indigenous cultural identities. In an inimitable style that is now painfully funny, now heartrending, Smith also satirises the British middle and working classes while writing sensitively on such social issues as the generation gap in immigrant families, and even religious fundamentalism. A must-read for those seeking to know more about the diversity of Britain's cities.
《白牙》以二战后的英国历史为背景，探寻了伦敦移民的困难境遇，他们陷入了既渴望融入英国社会、又想保留自己祖国文化的矛盾当中。Smith用一种笑中带泪的独特方式，讽刺了英国的中产阶级和工人阶级，同时还用细致入微的笔触描写了一些社会问题，例如移民家庭内部的代沟、宗教原教旨主义等等。如果你想了解英国城市中的多元文化，这是你的必读之物。
3. Porterhouse Blue, Tom Sharpe
《Porterhouse Blue》，作者：汤姆·夏普
Whether you're looking to throw yourself bodily into life at Britain's most traditional educational institutions, or searching for a stick to beat them with, look no further than Tom Sharpe's rip-roaring parody of life at the fictional Cambridge college, Porterhouse. Crippled by the need to adhere to its own traditions, Porterhouse is thrown into disarray when the College Master dies before naming his successor; meanwhile, research student Lionel Zipser's desperation to keep a lid on his attraction to his maid leads him through a series of preposterous plotlines towards a hilarious finale. A taste at the cordon bleu end of fine British humour.
无论你是渴望去最传统的英国高校求学，还是想嘲笑它们不合实际的习俗，都得来读读汤姆·夏普的这部作品，他在书中创造了一所虚拟的剑桥学院——Porterhouse，里面的故事肯定会令你捧腹大笑。按照Porterhouse学院悠久的传统，只有学院院长能够选定自己的接任者。现任院长的突然死亡使得整个学院陷入混乱之中。同时，研究生Lionel Zipser暗恋他的仆人，又要死命隐瞒，因而发生了一系列荒谬可笑的事件，结局也令人开怀大笑。读Porterhouse能让你体验最经典的英式幽默。
4. The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell
《通往威根码头之路》，作者：乔治·奥威尔
In Wigan Pier, a middle-class writer composes one of the finest examples of working-class journalism ever set down on paper. The British are a nation acutely aware of social class, and navigating the proverbial minefield of class distinctions can often prove challenging for visiting students. Orwell documents living conditions for workers in the impoverished north of England in the late 1930s, before discussing the practical solutions to the problem. Very much a document of its time, but still one of great use for those interested in the roots of Britain’s ongoing class tensions
本书的作者是中产阶级，而它是关于工人阶级的有史以来最佳的调查研究报告之一。英国人对社会阶级极端敏感，而错综复杂的阶级差别常令留学生感到莫名其妙。书的开头讲述了英国北部的劳动人民在30年代的艰苦生活条件，接着提出了解决该社会问题的几个实在的方案。作家的一些论点无疑已过时了，但本书仍能令人深入了解英国不同阶级之间长久矛盾的历史背景。
5. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
《远大前程》，作者：查尔斯·狄更斯
Great Expectations may seem like an obvious choice, but it will do more than reward the Chinese penchant for Victorian high society. As well as being one of the most recognisable English-language stories, the novel explores social mobility, the contemporary class system, and empire, all backed up with a number of Dickens' larger-than-life characters and the first-person voice of the ever hopeful Pip. For the Chinese reader, it’s a cultural exploration of Britain at one of the most important points in her history, and a classic piece of literature by the second-most famous British writer of all time.
本书单包括《远大前程》似乎理所应当，但它的作用其实不只局限于满足中国人对维多利亚时代上流社会的兴趣。该小说不但是英文名著，还探究社会流动性、维多利亚时代的社会阶级系统和大英帝国的历史。此书始终用第一人称——永远充满希望的“皮普”来叙事，并充斥着诸多非同凡响的人物故事。对于中国读者而言，《远大前程》是一场文化之旅，探究英国历史中最重要的一章，同时也是英国第二大作家的名垂千古的经典之作。