-
731
Bede (Baeda; ‘The Venerable Bede’
The Venerable Bede, in his monastery at Jarrow, completes his history of the English church and people. -
800
Beowulf
This Old English epic of 3,182 lines, probably composed in the 8th century, is set in Scandinavia 200 years -
950
Edda
The Old Norse name given to two important collections of early Icelandic writing -
1340
Ockham's razor
The principle of economy of explanation according to which entities (usually interpreted as assumptions) should not be multiplied. -
1367
Piers Plowman
Late 14th‐cent. poem by William *Langland. Cast in the familiar medieval form of a ques -
1385
Troilus and Criseyde
Chaucer's longest complete poem, in 8,239 lines of rhyme‐royal probably written in the second half of the 1380s. -
1524
Tyndale, William
(c.1494–1536).Translator of the Bible. Tyndale was probably from a Gloucestershire family and entered Magdalen College -
Description of New England
Smith established the first English colony in North America, at Jamestown (1607). Exploring Chesapeake Bay, he was captured -
Folio, the first
A folio is a book made of sheets of paper folded only once, and thus of large size -
Augustan age
A term derived from the period of literary eminence under the Roman emperor Augustus (27 bc–ad 14 -
Clarissa: or The History of a Young Lady
An epistolary novel by S. Richardson, published 1748 (for 1747)–1749, in 8 vols -
Gray, Thomas
(1716–71).Gray led a sheltered existence: ‘a life so barren of events as mine’, he wrote -
She stoops to Conquer
Wealthy countryman Mr. Hardcastle arranges for his daughter Kate to meet Charles Marlow, the son of a wealthy Londoner, hoping the pair will marry. Unfortunately Marlow is nervous around upper-class women, yet the complete opposite around lower-class females -
The Lay of the Last Minstrel,
A poem in six cantos by Sir W. Scott, published in 1805. Scott's first important original work -
East Lynne
A *sensation novel by Ellen *Wood (Mrs Henry Wood), published 1861. It tells the story of Isabel Vane, a refined lady who, finding herself unprotected in the world, marries Archibald Carlyle, a rising lawyer. Her marriage is unsatisfying, and she imagines that her husband loves a neighbour, Barbara Hare. In a moment of undisciplined passion, she runs away with Sir Francis Levison, an unscrupulous seducer, who abandons her and the child born from their illegitimate union. -
Das Kapital
Karl Marx’s projected multi-volume study of capitalism occupied him from 1849, when he moved to London, until his death -
Far from the Madding Crowd
A novel by T. Hardy, published 1874. The title is a quotation from Gray's Elegy Written -
Lord Jim
A novel by J. Conrad, published 1900.Jim is chief mate on board the Patna, -
The tale of Peter Rabbit
Beatrix Potter, 1902, Frederick Warne. (There was also a privately printed edition in 1901.) -
The Ambassadors
A novel by H. James, published 1903.Chadwick Newsome, a young man of independent fortun -
De profundis
A heartfelt cry of appeal expressing one's deepest feelings of sorrow and anguish, from the opening words (Latin, ‘from the depths’) of Psalm 130 -
Dubliners
A volume of short stories by Joyce, published in 1914. Focusing on life in Dublin -
To the Lighthouse
A novel by V. Woolf, published 1927, which draws powerfully on the author's recollections of family holidays -
Goodbye to All That
Robert Graves's autobiography of his early life, written at the age of 33 and published in 1929, -
The waves
A novel by V. Woolf, published 1931, and regarded by many as her masterpiece.It traces the lives -
Brideshead Revisited
A novel by E. Waugh, published 1945.Narrated by Charles Ryder, it describes his emotional involvement with Fernando. -
The go between
A novel by L. P. Hartley, published in 1953. Leo, now aged 60-plus -
Lady Chatterley's Lover
A novel by D. H. Lawrence (privately printed, Florence 1928; expurgated version, London 1932 text, London 1960). -
Rushdie Affair
Incident arising from the publication of a novel entitled The Satanic Verses, by British author Salman Rushdie -
The Madness of George III
With the King's mind unravelling at a dramatic pace, ambitious politicians and the scheming Prince of Wales threaten to undermine the power of the Crown, and expose the fine line between a King and a man. -
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Extravagant, inventive, emotionally sweeping, Captain Corelli's Mandolin is the story of a timeless place that one day wakes up to find itself in the jaws of history. -
His Dark Materials
These thrilling adventures tell the story of Lyra and Will—two ordinary children on a perilous journey through shimmering haunted otherworlds. They will meet witches and armored bears, fallen angels and soul-eating specters. And in the end, the fate of both the living—and the dead—will rely on them.
