An Introduction to Literature (eds. YANG Jincai and WANG Haimeng, Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2010) realizes a moderated balance between literary concepts and selected texts whose 1:2 ratio recognizes the ontological value of literature on the one hand, and conveys a largely complete conceptual framework of Western literature on the other. While keeping the difficulty of the textbook to a moderate degree, the editors made thoughtful innovations in selecting and arranging literary texts, which enables the interactions between multiple learning factors and a dynamic balance thereby, hence a highly recommended textbook for English literary studies.