Sweeping across two millennia and every literary genre, acclaimed scholar and biographer Jonathan Bate provides a dazzling introduction to English Literature. The focus is wide, shifting from the birth of the novel and the brilliance of English comedy to the deep Englishness of landscape poetry and the ethnic diversity of Britain's Nobel literature laureates. It goes on to provide a more in-depth analysis, with close readings from an extraordinary scene in King Lear to a war poem by Carol Ann Duffy, and a series of striking examples of how literary texts change as they are transmitted from writer to reader. The narrative embraces not only the major literary movements such as Romanticism and Modernism, together with the most influential authors including Chaucer, Donne, Johnson, Wordsworth, Austen, Dickens and Woolf, but also little-known stories such as the identity of the first English woman poet to be honoured with a collected edition of her works. Written with the flair and passion for which Jonathan Bate has become renowned, this book is the perfect Very Short Introduction for all readers and students of the incomparable literary heritage of these islands. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

This introduction to the tools required for literary study provides all the skills, background and critical knowledge which students require to approach their study of literature with confidence.

This undergraduate textbook introduces English literature students to the application of linguistics to literary analysis.

This innovative and intriguing introduction to Old English literature is structured around what the author calls ‘figures’ from Anglo-Saxon culture: the Vow, the Hall, the Miracle, the Pulpit, and the Scholar. An innovative and intriguing introduction to Old English literature. Structured around ‘figures’ from Anglo-Saxon culture: the Vow, the Hall, the Miracle, the Pulpit, and the Scholar. Situates Old English literary texts within a cultural framework. Creates new connections between different genres, periods and authors. Combines close textual analysis with historical context. Based on the author’s many years experience of teaching Old English literature. The author is co-editor with Seamus Heaney of Beowulf: A Verse Translation (2001) and recently published with Blackwell Lady Godiva: A Literary History of the Legend (2003).

Introduction to Literature (English 1) is a one year, college-preparatory literature and composition course for classroom, co-op, or homeschool use. It is the first volume of the Excellence in Literature curriculum, and is suitable for grades 8 and up.Students study and write about the books listed below. A four-week lesson plan guides the study of each classic, with background information and writing assignments. Instructions and a student-written model for each type of paper assigned, and instructions and a rubric for evaluation are included. Short Stories by Welty, O. Henry, and others, Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur¿s Court by Mark Twain, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, Animal Farm by George Orwell, The Tempest by William Shakespeare, Gulliver¿s Travels by Jonathan Swift.There are nine four-week modules within the school year, ensuring that the student will have plenty of time for completion of the complete, unabridged text. The curriculum website provides supporting resources, including brief author biographies, art, music, and related poetry. An optional Honors track adds additional reading and writing, including a research paper and an optional CLEP exam.