-
731
Bede
The Venerable Bede, in his monastery at Jarrow, completes his history of the English church and people. -
800
THE FIRST GREAT WORK
Beowulf, the first great work of Germanic literature, mingles the legends of Scandinavia with the experience in England of Angles and Saxons -
1300
SUBTLE DOCTOR
Duns Scotus, known as the Subtle Doctor in medieval times, later provides humanists with the name Dunsman or dunce -
1469
COMPILATION
Thomas Malory, in gaol somewhere in England, compiles Morte d'Arthur – an English account of the French tales of King Arthur -
1567
BEGINNINGS OF THE BIBLE
The Book of Common Prayer and the New Testament are published in Welsh, to be followed by the complete Bible in 1588 -
ENGLISH POETRY
Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock introduces a delicate vein of mock-heroic in English poetry -
JERUSALEM
William Blake includes his poem 'Jerusalem' in the Preface to his book Milton -
MOCKERY
The Aesthetic Movement and 'art for art's sake', attitudes personified above all by Whistler and Wilde, are widely mocked and satirized in Britain -
JOSEPH CONRAD
Joseph Conrad publishes his novel Lord Jim about a life of failure and redemption in the far East -
FLANN O'BRIEN'S
Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman is rejected by numerous publishers before becoming, decades later, his best-known novel -
TRILOGY
The Amber Spyglass completes Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials
