-
450
Old English
Starts the old English period -
731
History of the English church and people
The venerable Bede -
800
Beowulf
The first great work of Germanic literature, mingles the legends of Scandinavia with the experience in England of Angles and Saxons -
1066
Middle English
Ends the old English period, starts the middle english. -
1367
Piers Plowman.
A narrator who calls himself Will, and whose name may be Langland, begins the epic poem of Piers Plowman -
1375
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
This poem tells of a mysterious visitor to the round table of King Arthur -
1387
100 Canterbury Tales
Chaucer begins an ambitious scheme for 100 Canterbury Tales, of which he completes only 24 by the time of his death. -
1500
English Renaissance
Start English Renaissance period -
1524
Bible into English
William Tyndale studies in the university at Wittenberg and plans to translate the Bible into English. -
1564
Marlowe and Shakespeare
Marlowe and Shakespeare are born in the same year, with Marlowe the older by two months -
Tamburlaine the Great
Marlowe's first play, Tamburlaine the Great, introduces the swaggering blank verse of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama -
Hamlet
Shakespeare's central character in Hamlet expresses both the ideals of the Renaissance and the disillusion of a less confident age. -
The Tempest
Shakespeare's last completed play, The Tempest, is performed -
The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America
The poems of Massachusetts author Anne Bradstreet are published in London under the title The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America -
Puritan
Stars the Puritan period -
The Compleat Angler
Devoted fisherman Izaak Walton publishes the classic work on the subject, The Compleat Angler -
Restoration Age
Start Restoration Age -
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is published, earning its author John Milton just £10 -
The Pilgrim's Progress
Part I of The Pilgrim's Progress, written during John Bunyan's two spells in Bedford Gaol, is published and is immediately popular -
18th Century
-
Elegy written in a Country Church Yard.
English poet Thomas Gray publishes his Elegy written in a Country Church Yard. -
Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, with its detailed realism, can be seen as the first English novel -
Gulliver's Travels
Jonathan Swift sends his hero on a series of bitterly satirical travels in Gulliver's Travels -
Encyclopaedia Britannica
A Society of Gentlemen in Scotland begins publication of the immensely successful Encyclopaedia Britannica -
Songs of Innocence
William Blake publishes Songs of Innocence, a volume of his poems with every page etched and illustrated by himself -
The Rights of Man
Thomas Paine publishes the first part of The Rights of Man, his reply to Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France -
Romanticism
Start the Romanticism period -
Sense and Sensibility
English author Jane Austen publishes her first work in print. -
Ode to a Nightingale
English poet John Keats publishes Ode to a Nightingale, inspired by the bird's song in his Hampstead garden -
Victorian
Start the Victorian period -
Oliver Twist
Charles Dickens' first novel, Oliver Twist, begins monthly publication -
A Christmas Carol
Ebenezer Scrooge mends his ways just in time in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol -
The Origin of Species
Charles Darwin puts forward the theory of evolution in On the Origin of Species, the result of 20 years' research -
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll publishes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a development of the story he had told Alice Liddell three years earlier -
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde publishes his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray in which the ever-youthful hero's portrait grows old and ugly -
Modern Literature
-
Peter Pan
J.M Barrie's play for children Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up has its premiere in London -
Winnie-the-Pooh
Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and the others make their first appearance in A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh -
Post Moderms
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Casino Royale
James Bond, agent 007, has a licence to kill in Ian Fleming's first novel, Casino Royale -
The Lord of the Rings
British philologist J.R.R. Tolkien publishes the third and final volume of his epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings -
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Roald Dahl publishes a fantasy treat for a starving child, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -
Harry Potter
A schoolboy wizard performs his first tricks in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone -
Contemporary
