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600
Old English (Anglo-Saxon)
About 400 Anglo-Saxon texts survive from this era, including many beautiful poems, telling tales of wild battles and heroic journeys. The oldest surviving text of Old English literature is “Cædmon's Hymn”, which was composed between 658 and 680, and the longest was the ongoing “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”. But by far the best known is the long epic poem “Beowulf”. -
1200
Middle English
Texts in Middle English (as opposed to French or Latin) begin as a trickle in the 13th Century, with works such as the debate poem “The Owl and the Nightingale” (probably composed around 1200) and the long historical poem known as Layamon's “Brut” (from around the same period). Most of Middle English literature, at least up until the flurry of literary activity in the latter part of the 14th Century, is of unknown authorship. -
1500
The English Renaissance
The English Renaissance roughly covers the 16th and early 17th Century (the European Renaissance had begun in Italy as early as the 14th Century), and is often referred to as the “Elizabethan Era” or the “Age of Shakespeare” after the most important monarch and most famous writer of the period. The additions to English vocabulary during this period were deliberate borrowings, and not the result of any invasion or influx of new nationalities or any top-down decrees. -
1500
Tudor Period
The beginning of the Tudor dynasty coincided with the first dissemination of printed matter. William Caxton 's press was established in 1476, only nine years before the beginning of Henry VII's reign. Caxton's achievement encouraged writing of all kinds and also influenced the standardization of the English language. Writers in this period like Thomas More and John Skelton -
1558
Elizabethan Period
Accounts by men such as Richard Hakluyt, Samuel Purchas, and Sir Walter Raleigh were eagerly read. The activities and literature of the Elizabethans reflected a new nationalism, which expressed itself also in the works of chroniclers (John Stow, Raphael Holinshed, and others), historians, and translators and even in political and religious tracts. -
Jacobean Period
The poet and playwright Ben Jonson led the Jacobean literature, after Shakespeare's death. Several authors followed his style as Beaumont and Fletcher, all of them were called "sons of Ben." Another popular style of the time was the theater of revenge that became popular with John Webster and Tomas Kyd. -
Caroline Period
Period contains the early works Milton.
The 'Cavalier poets' Sir John Suckling, Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace & Thomas Carew are from this period.
The period also marks the watershed between the culture of Elizabethan literature & Jacobean literature in England.
English writer & physician Thomas Browne was a successor to Francis Bacon with his publications - Religion medici / The Religion of a Doctor (1643). -
Commonwealth the Protectorate
Includes the literature produced during the time of leader Puritan Oliver Cromwell. This period produced the political writings of John Milton, Thomas the political treatise Leviathan of Hobbes and the prose of Andrew Marvell. In September 1642, the Puritans closed down the porous and religiously illusive rooms. During the next eight years of adolescence, the theaters remained closed, which explains the lack of drama produced during this period of time. -
The Restoration
The reopening of the theaters gave the opportunity to represent satirical works on the new nobility and the growing bourgeoisie. The mobility of society, which followed the social upheavals of the previous generation, provided the ideas for the creation of the comedy of manners. Aphra Behn was the first female novelist and professional dramatist. The allegory of John Bunyan, The Pilgrim, is one of the most read works of this period. -
The Eighteenth Century
The era of the early eighteenth century is known as the era of Augustus or neoclassical literature. The works of Alexander Pope show that the poetry of these years was very formal. The English novel was not very popular until the 18th century, although many works were very important, such as Robinson Crusoe (1719) by Daniel Defoe. In the middle of the XVIII the novel settled down of the hand of authors like Henry Fielding, Laurence Stern and Samuel Richardson, who perfected the epistolary novel. -
Romanticism
The reaction to industrialization and urbanism pushed poets to explore nature, such as the group of "Lake Poets" in which we include William Wordsworth. These romantic poets brought to English literature a new degree of sentimentality and introspection. Among the most important authors of the second generation of romantic poets are Lord Byron, Percy Bysse Shelley and John Keats. -
Victorian Period
The novel was the most important literary form of Victorian literature. Most of the authors were more focused on knowing the tastes of the middle class they read, than on satisfying the aristocrats. Among the best-known works of this era we highlight: the works of strong emotional content of the Brontë sisters; the Vanity Fair satire of William Makepeace Thackery; George Eliot's realistic novel.
Charles Dickens appeared on the scene in 1830 under the trend of delivery publication. -
Modern Period
The most prominent novelists of the period between wars were D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf, this last member of the Bloomsbury group. The Sitwells also gained strength between literary and artistic movements, but with less influence. The most important popular literature writers were P.G. Wodehouse and Agatha Christie. -
Postmodern and Contemporary Period.
Two examples of English postmodern literature are: John Fowles and Julian Barnes. Some important writers of the early 21st century are: Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, Will Self, Andrew Motion and Salman Rushdie.
