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439
The old english period (439 - 1066)
(731) The venerable bede, in his monastery at Jarrow, completes his history of the English church and people.
(975 - 1023) Beowulf, the first great work of Germanic literature, mingles the legends of Scandinavia with the experience in England of Angles and Saxons. -
1066
The middle English period (1066 - 1500)
(1367) A narrator who calls himself Will, and whose name may be Langland, begins the epic poem of Piers Plowman.
(1469) Thomas Malory, in gaol somewhere in England, compiles Morte d'Arthur. -
1500
The renaissance period (1500 - 1660)
(1510) Erasmus and Thomas More take the northern renaissance in the direction of Christian humanism.
(1601) Shakespeare's central in Hamlet expresses both the ideals of the renaissance and the disillusion of a less confident age. -
The noeclassical period (1660 - 1785)
(1667) Paradise Lost is published, earning its author John Milton.
(1726) Jonathan Swift sends his hero on a series of bitterly satirical travels in Gulliver's Travels. -
The romantic period (1785 - 1832)
(1792) English author Mary Wollstonecraft published a passionately feminist work, a Vindication of women's rights.
(1813) Pride and Prejudice based on a youthful work of 1797 called first impressions, is the second of Jane Austen's novels to be published. -
The victorian period (1832 - 1901)
(1843) Ebenezer Scrooge mends his ways just in time in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.
(1900) Frank Baum introduces children to Oz, in his book the wonderful Wizard of Oz. -
The edwardian period (1901 - 1914)
(1901) Beatrix Potter publishes at her own expense The tale of Peter Rabbit.
(1908) Lucy Maud Montgomery's first novel, Anne of Green Gables, brings her instant fame and fortune.
(1910) H.H publishes the history of Mr. Polly, a novel about an escape from drab everyday existence. -
The georgian period (1914 - 1936)
(1915) Rupert Brooke's 1914 and other poems are published a few months after his death in Greece.
(1925) Virginia Woolf published her novel, Mrs. Dalloway.
(1928) Irish author Frank Harris publishes the fourth and final volume of My life and loves. -
The modern period (1936 - 1950)
(1936) US author Margaret Mitchell publishes her one book, which becomes probably the best-selling novel of all time-Gone with the Wind.
(1940) Ernest Hemingway publishes the novel for Whom the Bell Tolls, set in the Spanish Civil War.
(1945) In George Orwell's fable Animals Farm a ruthless pig. -
The postmodern period (1950 - 2000)
(1950) C.S Lewis gives the first glimpse of Narnia in the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe.
(1979) US author Maya Angelou publishes her autobiographical first novel. I know Why the caged bird sings.
(1997) A schoolboy wizard performs his first tricks in J.K Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. -
The contemporary period (2000 - Present)
(2010) Mockingjay completes Suzanne Collins's trilogy, The hunter games.
(2013 - present) J.K Rowling (under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith) starts Comoran Strike, a series of crime fiction novels.