'Here [is] a new order of short story,' said H. L. Mencken when Winesburg, Ohio was published in 1919. 'It is so vivid, so full of insight, so shiningly life-like and glowing, that the book is lifted into a category all its own.' Indeed, Sherwood Anderson's timeless cycle of loosely connected tales--in which a young reporter named George Willard probes the hopes, dreams, and fears of the solitary people in a small Midwestern town at the turn of the century--embraced a new frankness and realism that ushered American literature into the modern age. 'There are moments in American life to which Anderson gave not only the first but the final expression,' wrote Malcolm Cowley. 'Winesburg, Ohio is far from the pessimistic or morbidly sexual work it was once attacked for being. Instead it is a work of love, an attempt to break down the walls of loneliness, and, in its own fashion, a celebration of small-town life in the lost days of good will and innocence.'

安德森在《小镇畸人》中栩栩如生地刻画了一群气愤而孤独的人物，一群传统而又被现实的功利主义所扭曲的人，一群渴望爱与自由而又缺乏交流的“小镇畸人”。这群畸人因其对美国乡镇生活的普遍意义而成为美国文学史研究中不可忽视的对象。 本系列读本由国内知名学者撰写导读文字并加以详细的中文注释，将原著中的各种典故注明出处，且将难于理解的语句加以解释。读者通过导读可以了解作家的生平事迹、创作进程和作品的背景，通过详细的注释可以更好地理解作品，同时从文学语言中提高英语水平，并从简单的语言习得进入语言与文化两者并重的高层次学习。