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Period: 730 BCE to
Unit 1: Task 2 - English Literature
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731
The Venerable Bede
In his monastery at Jarrow, completes his history of the English church and people -
745
Beowulf
The first great work of Germanic Literature, mingles the legends of scandinavia with the experience in england of angles and Saxon. -
950
The material of the Eddas
Taking shape in Iceland, derives from earlier sources in Norway, Britain and Burgundy. -
1300
Duns Scotus
Known as the Subtle Doctor in medieval times, later provides humanists with the name Dunsman or dunce -
1340
William of Ockham
Advocates paring down arguments to their essentials, an approach later known as Ockham's Razor -
1385
Chaucer
Chaucer completes Troilus and Criseyde, his long poem about a legendary love affair in ancient Troy -
1387
Canterbury Tales
Chaucer begins an ambitious scheme for 100 Canterbury Tales, of which he completes only 24 by the time of his death. -
1524
William Tyndale
William Tyndale studies in the university at Wittenberg and plans to translate the Bible into English. -
1567
Published in Welsh
The Book of Common Prayer and the New Testament are published in Welsh, to be followed by the complete Bible in 1588 -
Shakespeare achieves his first masterpiece
After tentative beginnings in the three parts of Henry VI, Shakespeare achieves his first masterpiece on stage with Richard III -
Shakespeare's in Hamlet
Shakespeare's central character in Hamlet expresses both the ideals of the Renaissance and the disillusion of a less confident age -
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 -
Part I of 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 -
John Locke publishes his Essay
John Locke publishes his Essay concerning Human Understanding, arguing that all knowledge is based on experience -
Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
25-year-old George Berkeley attacks Locke in his Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge -
Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, with its detailed realism, can be seen as the first English novel -
Encyclopaedia Britannica
A Society of Gentlemen in Scotland begins publication of the immensely successful Encyclopaedia Britannica -
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
English historian Edward Gibbon publishes the first volume of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire -
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
English author Mary Wollstonecraft publishes a passionately feminist work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman -
Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice, based on a youthful work of 1797 called First Impressions, is the second of Jane Austen's novels to be published -
Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus
Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, a Gothic tale about giving life to an artificial man -
Pickwick Papers
24-year-old Charles Dickens begins monthly publication of his first work of fiction, Pickwick Papers (published in book form in 1837) -
Oliver Twist
Charles Dickens' first novel, Oliver Twist, begins monthly publication (in book form, 1838) -
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
English poet Robert Browning publishes a vivid narrative poem about the terrible revenge of The Pied Piper of Hamelin -
On the Origin of Species
Charles Darwin puts forward the theory of evolution in On the Origin of Species, the result of 20 years' research -
Lewis Carroll
Oxford mathematician Lewis Carroll tells 10-year-old Alice Liddell, on a boat trip, a story about her own adventures in Wonderland -
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 -
Second story of Alice's adventures
Lewis Carroll publishes Through the Looking Glass, a second story of Alice's adventures -
New English Dictionary
Oxford University Press publishes the A volume of its New English Dictionary, which will take 37 years to reach Z -
The Arabian Nights
Explorer and orientalist Richard Burton begins publication of his multi-volume translation from the Arabic of The Arabian Nights -
The Strange Case
Robert Louis Stevenson introduces a dual personality in his novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde -
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 -
The Jungle Book
Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book surrounds the child Mowgli with a collection of vivid animal guardians -
Dracula
English author Bram Stoker publishes Dracula, his gothic tale of vampirism in Transylvania -
The War of the Worlds
H.G. Wells publishes his science-fiction novel The War of the Worlds, in which Martians arrive in a rocket to invade earth -
Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up
J.M Barrie's play for children Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up has its premiere in London -
The Voyage Out
The English writer Virginia Woolf publishes her first novel, The Voyage Out -
Winnie-the-Pooh
Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and the others make their first appearance in A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh -
The Waves
Virginia Woolf publishes the most fluid of her novels, The Waves, in which she tells the story through six interior monologues -
The Road to Wigan Pier
George Orwell reveals the harsh realities of contemporary British life in The Road to Wigan Pier -
Narnia in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
C.S. Lewis gives the first glimpse of Narnia in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe -
The Second World War
Politician and author Winston Churchill completes his six-volume history The Second World War -
A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess publishes A Clockwork Orange, a novel depicting a disturbing and violent near-future -
The Sea, the Sea
Iris Murdoch publishes The Sea, the Sea, and wins the 1978 Booker Prize -
A Brief History of Time: from the Big Bang to Black Holes
British physicist Stephen Hawking explains the cosmos for the general reader in A Brief History of Time: from the Big Bang to Black Holes -
Trainspotting
Scottish author Irvine Welsh publishes his first novel, Trainspotting -
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
A schoolboy wizard performs his first tricks in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone -
Copenhagen
Michael Frayn's play Copenhagen dramatizes the visit of Werner Heisenberg to Niels Bohr in wartime Denmark -
The Amber Spyglass
The Amber Spyglass completes Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials
