OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE Anglo-Saxon Culture Mead-halls: Mead-halls were places where warriors would gather in the presence

of their lord to drink, boast, tell stories, and receive gifts. Hero-king: The best warrior and the leader of the band who would demonstrate himself as the greatest warrior. He would distribute gifts to his followers (thanes) who were expected to follow him loyally to death. Scop: Germanic kings used to keep professional poets called scop (gleeman). The scops function was to compose noble songs and sing them before a great lord. Wyrd: Fate (strong belief in fate) Comitatus: (loyalty).The warriors would swear to be loyal to the hero king and he would undertake to support them and would give gifts. This relationship is called comitatus. Wergild: Blood-price, death price or blood- feud. Old English period: (from the invasion of Britain by Germanic tribes (449) till the Norman Conquest of 1066) The Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian peoples had invaded the island of Britain and settled there several hundred years earlier, bringing with them several closely related Germanic languages that would evolve into Old English. Most of Old English literature is religious Oral tradition Many of the works of literature from the Old English period are anonymous. Early Germanic poetry was composed and recited by the scop, a professional bard who wandered from one court to another, hoping to acquire the patronage of some generous lords. Literacy was restricted to men of the church With the conversion of England to Christianity oral literature was written down by clerics. (lead to juxtaposition of pagan and Christian elements) The clerics generally preserved such materials as were considered serviceable to Christianity. Most of Old English poetry is contained in just four manuscripts:

The Junius manuscript, also known as the Caedmon manuscript, is an illustrated collection of poems on biblical narratives.( Contents: Genesis, Daniel, Christ and Satan, Exodus) The Exeter Book, is an anthology, located in the Exeter Cathedral since it was donated there in the 11th century.(Contents: The Wanderer, The Seafarer ,Widsith, Deor, Wulf and Eadwacer, The Wife's Lament, The Husband's Message, The Ruin, Juliana, The Rhyming Poem, The Fortunes of Men, The Whale, Guthlac A and B, Christ I, II, III, The Phoenix, Vainglory, Maxims I, The Gifts of Men, Precepts, Azarias, The Order of the World, The Panther, Soul and Body II, The Partridge, The Judgment Day I, Resignation, The Descent into Hell, Alms-Giving, Pharaoh, The Lords Prayer I, Homiletic Fragment II and ninety-six riddles preserved in the Exeter Book). The Vercelli Book, contains both poetry and prose;(Contents: Andreas, The Fates of the Apostles, Soul and Body I, Dream of the Rood, Elene, Homiletic Fragment I) The Nowell Codex, also known as the Beowulf Manuscript, contains prose and poetry, typically dealing with monstrous themes, including Beowulf and Judith.

The Wifes Lament and The Husbands Message: One of the very few female characters and speakers in an AngloSaxon poem, the wife of an outlawed man complains about her being kept in an earth-cave, the captive of her husbands relatives. The second poem has a more optimistic tone, the exiled husband has become a retainer in a foreign country and he hopes to get reunited with his wife. They are among the very few poems which survived an age of severe religious censorship. The Wanderer is the lament of a solitary man, once happy in the service of a loved lord, who now, after the death of his lord, has lost his place in society and has become an outcast in exile, across the icy sea.

Deor (s Lament) presents in 42 lines the complaint of a scop who, after years of service to his lord, has lost his position, being replaced by a rival. Allusions to four legendary events precede the description of his misfortunes. This is the only surviving Old English poem composed in stanzas with a variable number of lines and with a refrain (That passed away, this also may). The Seafarer was translated into modern English by Ezra Pound. Some critics consider it to be a dialogue, a for and against debate between an old sailor and an eager young man willing to take to the sea. Others consider it to be the monologue of an old sailor who mingles regret and self-pity while speaking about the loneliness and hardships of a life at sea, of self-imposed exile, on the one hand, and the fascination and rewards of such a life, on the other hand. Life at sea is equated with the renunciation of worldly pleasures and with the life dedicated to God. The Ruin is the 8th century poem describing the stone buildings of a ruined city the Roman Bath. The art of building in stone was unknown in early Anglo-Saxon England and the ruins of Roman towns and roads are referred to as the work of giants. The poet is aware that everything man-made will perish. And yet, there is no sense of loss, but rather of admiration and celebrations. The Dream of the Rood: The Dreamer in the poem sees at midnight a glorious cross rise to fill the sky, worshipped by all of creation. It is covered with gold and jewels, but at other times covered with blood. Wulf and Eadwacer is spoken by a woman married to Eadwacer but bearing the child of her lover Wulf. Widsith is a poem showing and ideal scop or gleeman. It explains the heros professional experience and success in composing songs and reciting them before the great lords. Widsith, meaning far traveler, is an idealized scop who boasts of the faraway places he has seen and mighty princes he has served. Battle of Brunanburgh: King Athelstan of England and his brother Edmund fight and win a battle against the invading force of Scots and Vikings. The poem celebrates the occasion. Battle of Maldon: A poem about the battle that was fought and lost in 991 near Maldon. The hero is Byrhtnoth, The Earl of Essex, fighting the Viking invaders. Beowulf: It is the most famous and the longest surviving epic poem in English. It was composed by an unknown poet in early 8th century. It records the great deeds of the heroic warrior Beowulf in his youth and maturity. The main protagonist, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrogar, the king of the Danes, whose great hall, Heorot, is plagued by the monster Grendel. Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands and Grendel's mother with a sword of a giant that he found in her lair. OLD ENGLISH POETS Although Cdmon is the first English poet whose words survive at all, the first known English poet is Aldhelm. Cdmon: We learn about him from Bedes history. He was originally ignorant of "the art of song" but learned to compose one night in the course of a dream, according to the 8th-century monk Bede. He later became a monk and an accomplished and inspirational poet. Cdmons only known surviving work is Cdmon's Hymn. Caedmons Hymnthe first poem in English recorded in Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. It is the first vernacular poem in English. Alliterative verse. Uses compound words or kennings. (The oldest surviving text is Cdmon's Hymn) Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, Christ and Satan may also be written by Cdmon. They are called as Caedmonian poems. Cynewulf: An unknown cleric of the 9th century is the only Old English poet to sign his poems. Like Caedmon, Cynewulf also underwent a sudden change. First, he was a man of pleasure. Thanks to the vision of the cross that he had, he changed from worldly to religious themes. Cynewulfs four poems, all religious in tone, celebrate the lives of the saints and other similar topics. Christ II- deals with the Incarnation, the Descent into Hell, the Ascension, and the Last Judgment. Elene- an account of finding the true cross, according to the legend, by Helena, the mother of Constantine. Juliana- a tale of Christian martyrdom. The Fates of the Apostles- In this poem Cynewulf records briefly the life, works and the death of each of the twelve apostles.

 Some unsigned poems, such as the Dream of the Rood, the Physiologus , and the Phoenix may be composed by Cynewulf. LITERARY ELEMENTS: Riddle (Bilmece): A riddle is a type of poetry that describes something without actually naming what it is, leaving the reader to guess. Those riddles that survive are found in the Exeter Book. Litotes is a figure of speech in which understatement is employed for rhetorical effect, principally via double negatives. For example, rather than saying that something is attractive (or even very attractive), one might merely say it is "not unattractive. Litotes is a form of understatement, always deliberate and with the intention of emphasis. However, the interpretation of negation may depend on context, including cultural context. In speech, it may also depend on intonation and emphasis; for example, the phrase "not bad" can be said in such a way as to mean anything from "mediocre" to "excellent".
As a means of saying: "[...] a very impressive city." "He was acquainted with the works of Dickens." "She's old." "He's ugly." "Like..." "You are correct."

Litotes: "[...] no ordinary city." "He was not unfamiliar with the works of Dickens." "She is not as young as she was." "He's no oil painting." "Not unlike..." "You are not wrong."

"That [sword] was not useless / to the warrior now." ( Beowulf lines 15751576) "The warrior has a use for the sword now."

Compounding: Old English poetry makes extensive use of compounding, the combining of two words to make a new word. An example is feorhseoc, literally "life-sick" (feorh =life, seoc = sick), which can be translated as mortally wounded. A more common example can be found in the first line of Beowulf: GarDena, literally "Spear-Danes" (gar = spear, Dena = Danes). Kenning (Dolaylama): A figurative expression, usually compound in form that is used in place of a name or noun. Skys candle= sun ring-giver=king bone-house=body Variation: Another common stylistic feature of Old English poetry is the use of variation, which is the restatement of a concept or term using different words. (Beowulf spoke, the son of Ecgtheow). Here the second half of the line provides a second identifier for Beowulf. [There he lost glory, the reputation for valor.] [Then the son of Ecgtheow, the champion of the Geats, would have fared badly under the spacious earth if (his) battle-corslet had not given him help] Each element has the same referent. Glory and the reputation for valor both name the same thing and the son of Ecgtheow and the champion of the Geats are the same person. Elegy: is a song or poem which expresses sorrow and usually praise for the one who is dead. Epic: long narrative poem or story that tells of the deeds and adventures of a hero. Alliteration: Repetition of the first sound (usually a consonant sound) in several words of a sentence or a line of poetry. Alliteration "depends not on letters but on sounds." Thus the phrase know-nothing is alliterative, but climate change is not. round the rugged rocks the sun sank slowly Caesura: is pause or break in a line of poetry. A caesura is usually indicated by the symbol //.The opening line of Beowulf : Hwt! We Gardena || in gear-dagum, eodcyninga, || rym gefrunon, To err is human; || to forgive, divine

hu a elingas || ellen fremedon

OLD ENGLISH PROSE Bede and King Alfred can be considered the founders of Old English prose. King Alfred The most important king of this Anglo-Saxon period, Alfred the Great (849 901) was also a scholar and writer. He supported the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describing the life, history and language of this time. To improve the clergy Alfred translated some popular Latin books to English. His five translations are: 1. Pope Gregorys Pastoral Care 2. Orosiuss The History of the World 3. Venerable Bedes Ecclesiastical History 4. Boethiuss Consolation of Philosophy 5. St. Augustines Soliloquies Alfreds prose is simple and straightforward. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle sponsored by him is the first original narrative prose in any European vernacular. Alfred also set out a Christian code of laws. Bede Bede was an English monk, an author and a scholar. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People gained him the title "The Father of English History. Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People) traces the history of England from Julius Caesars invasion to 731. Bede makes his narrative attractive through anecdotes, dramatic speech and miracles to show the Christian ideal. Bede's Death Song: A five-line poem in the vernacular that Bede composed on his deathbed. Aelfric and Wulfstan were the other prose writers of the time. Heroic poetry Religious poetry Elegies Beowulf, Battle of Maldon, Battle of Brunanburgh, Widsith,The Fight at Finnsburh Caedmons Hymn, The Dream of the Rood, Elene, Judith, Genesis, Christ, Juliana, Daniel, Christ and Satan, Exodus The Wifes Lament, The Husbands Message, Deors Lament, Wulf and Eadwacer, The Seafarer, The Ruin

Old English literature has had some influence on modern literature, and notable poets have translated and incorporated Old English poetry. Well-known early translations include William Morris's translation of Beowulf and Ezra Pound's translation of The Seafarer. The influence of the poetry can be seen in modern poets T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and W. H. Auden. Tolkien adapted the subject matter and terminology of heroic poetry ( Beowulf and The Wanderer) for works like The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and John Gardner wrote Grendel, which tells the story of Beowulf's opponent from his own perspective.

THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD 1066-1500 In the middle Ages, the English language evolved its modern nature and structure. Literature too found modern forms in the medieval period. HISTORICAL CONTEXT 1066 Battle of Hastings. England was conquered by Normans which quickened the development of feudalism. 1086 Domesday Book completed. William the Conqueror sent men all over England to find out what or how much each landholder had in land and livestock, and what it was worth. One of the main purposes of the survey was to determine who held what and what taxes had been liable. It was written in Latin. The book was known by the English as "Domesday", that is the Day of Judgment. 1095 Crusades begin. (Hal Seferleri): The series of expeditions from Western Europe to the eastern Mediterranean to recapture Jerusalem, taken by the Turks from the Byzantines in 1071. The crusades were not successful but many fortunes were made and profitable trading in spices, valuable textiles and jewels was established. Contact with Arab science brought mathematical, astronomical and medical knowledge of great value to Europe. 1215 Magna Carta ensures rights of barons 1315 Great Famine in England 1337 Hundred Years War begins (ends 1453) 1348 Black Death outbreak of plague 1362 English becomes official language. 1381 Peasants Revolt 1455 War of the Roses (Civil War) begins between houses of York and Lancaster (1455-1487) 1476 Invention of the printing press (William Caxton) SOCIETY Feudal system ---the king had absolute power. He lent pieces of land temporarily to men (known as vassals) who had served him well. Beneath the nobility and clergy came a class made up of peasant farmers. It was normal these people to have to give a proportion of what they produced to the nobility of clergy as a sort of tax. So the clergy acquired considerable wealth and power. People of the middle Ages lived with a persistent sense of mortality and, for many, a devout grasp on the Churchs promise of Heaven. Life on earth was viewed as a vale of tears, a hardship to endure until one reached the afterlife. In addition, some believed physical disabilities and ailments, including the plague, to be the judgment of God for sin. An important image in the middle ages was the wheel of fortune. Picturing life as a wheel of chance, where an individual might be on top of the wheel (symbolic of having good fortune in life) one minute and on the bottom of the wheel the next, the image expressed the belief that life was precarious and unpredictable. In 1170 a famous dispute happened between King Henry II and the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was the head of the English Church, and some of the Kings supporters murdered the bishop Thomas A Becket inside the Minster at Canterbury. He was canonized and Canterbury turned into a favorite place of pilgrimage. It was a world of constant war, diseases and violence thus, the medieval man turned to the Church. The church developed into an incredibly powerful institution. The prevalent religious restlessness of the middle ages inspired the famous religious movement known as the Crusades, whose object was to free the Holy Land from the Muslims. The wool-trade helped England to develop but the French interfered with English shipping. This resulted in the100 Years War between the France and England. The Feudal system gradually began to fall apart as the economy prospered. Craftsmen joined together in guilds and serfs began to find freedom. The powers and methods of the Church were being questioned. LANGUAGE At first the ruling Normans replaced Old English with French .French was the language of the noble, Latin was the language of church and science and English was spoken by common people. French became the official language but was never adopted as the common language. Wars against the French increased nationalist sentiments. English people realized that they were using the language of the enemy. In1362 English was declared the official language. The most important city was London and for that reason the dialect spoken in that part of England came to be considered the 'King's English'-the official dialect of England. It was in this dialect that the famous author Chaucer

chose to write. Caxton, who introduced printing to England, used the speech of London as the standard for printing, thus further establishing this dialect as 'Standard' English. LITERATURE Middle English literature in the first 300 years was imitative, repetitive and anonymous. It lacks originality because so many writers tried to reflect principles of medieval Christian doctrine. Christian teaching was concerned with the personal salvation. The emphasis was on world-hating doctrine. Many writes advised people to endure this world, not try to reform it. Religious writings are the most common part of the early medieval literature. Therefore medieval literature is didactic. A large body of the poetry written in England was in French. English poets adopted the themes and fashions of French literature. Latin and French verse used meter and rhyme and these were introduced into English poetry. Poems of Allegory and Courtly Romance were popular among the elite. Medieval allegory had a moral purpose and usually took the form of a dream narrative with a moral meaning. Because the Church and the concept of chivalry were dominant factors in the philosophy of the middle ages, these two ideas also figure prominently in medieval literature. During this period ballads were very popular and were sung and danced to by the common people. Chronological division of the Middle English period: 1066-1250: Period of Religious Record (for the common people, biblical, didactic) 1250-1350: Period of Religious and Secular Literature (mixture; moralistic as well as romances, Havelok and Horn) 1350-1400: Period of Great Individual Writers or Alliterative Revival 1400-1500: Period of Imitation or Transition (the period of the followers of Chaucer) ROMANCE Romance can be defined as a story of adventure-fictitious, frequently marvelous or supernatural-in verse or prose. Earlier romances in English are in verse; those in prose (Malory, for example) are generally late. The basic material of medieval romance is knightly activity and adventure. Love is either subordinate to adventure or a motive for adventure. The characters are knights, kings and ladies. Medieval romance usually idealizes chivalry The settings of medieval romance tend to be imaginary and vague. An important element of the medieval romance is the knight's love for his lady. Magic, fantastic setting, mystery, mythical animals, monsters, giants and supernatural events are usual ingredients of romances. Chivalric Code: Code of Chivalry was a moral system that stated all knights should protect others who cannot protect themselves, and have the strength and skills to fight. Knights vowed to be loyal to God and King. They were required to be generous and to tell the truth at all times and always respect the honor of women. Knights not only vowed to protect the weak but also vowed to guard the honor of all fellow knights. The quest: A quest is a heros journey towards a goal. The objects of quests require great effort on the part of the hero and the overcoming of many obstacles. The hero's must obtain something or someone by the quest and with this object return home. Courtly love was a medieval conception of nobly and chivalrously expressing love and admiration.Courtly love was not between husband and wife because it was an idealized sort of relationship that could not exist within the context of real life medieval marriages. In the middle ages, marriages amongst the nobility were typically based on practical and dynastic concerns rather than on love. The lady is typically older, married, and of higher social status than the knight. The symptoms of love were described as if it were a sickness. The lovesick knights typical symptoms: sighing, turning pale, and turning red, fever, inability to sleep, eat or drink. The knight's love for the lady inspires him to do great deeds, in order to be worthy of her love or to win her favor.

Medieval romance is classified into three major cycles:

a) The Matter of England deals with English and Germanic heroes of legend and history. King Horn (the earliest surviving English verse romance), Havelock the Dane, Guy of Warwick and Bevis of Hampton are good examples of this group. b) The Matter of Britain deals with King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table c) The Matter of Rome deals with the Alexander the Great and Trojan War. Exploits of Alexander the Great, Cease of Troy, the Destruction of Troy are examples of this group. d) The Matter of France deals with Charlemagne and his knights. Sir Ferumbrus is a good example of this group. e) Miscellaneous Romance deals with various themes and varies in quality. Floris and Blanchefleur tells of the love of a kings son for a captive maid, was one of the most charming of all these Romances. THE MATTER OF BRITAIN The first significant work to introduce the figure of Arthur into European literature was the Medieval British chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouths Historia Regum Britanniae - a mostly fictional history of the kings of Britain. We get details about Arthurs conception and his marriage to Guinevere from this material. Elements of chivalric romance including Arthurs Round Table and the magical sword Excalibur were infused into the legend through the Anglo-Norman poet Waces two verse chronicle Roman de Brut. The first account in the English language of Arthur and his knights was in Middle English poet Layamons romance-chronicle the Brut (c. 1200). It was modeled on Waces work and paints one of the first pictures of Arthur as a national hero. Marie de France wrote in the late twelfth century twelve Lais, a series of short romances based on unwritten Breton songs. Sir Gawain and The Green Knight **Sir Thomas Malory Morte dArthur (Death of Arthur) the last medieval English work of the Arthurian legend. Malory used 13th century French versions of Arthurian legends and rewrote them. Morte dArthur is a compilation of several romances about King Arthur. Malory's original book was called The Book of King Arthur and His Noble Knights of the Round Table and was made up of eight romances. William Caxton printed it in 1485 and gave it the title of Morte d'Arthur ("The Death of Arthur") Lyrics Lyrics- short melodic poems, usually expressing intense personal emotion- are fairly common in medieval literature, with religious lyrics greatly outnumbering secular ones. Lyrics were originally written to be sung. Religious Lyrics: frequent topics include Bible and liturgical themes, devotion to the Virgin Mary, other devotional themes. A Sacred Lullaby and Jesus Christs Mild Mother are typical. Secular lyrics: The most frequent topics in the Middle English secular lyric are spring time, the beauty of the beloved, the seasons, the pain of unrequited love and romantic love. The best known secular lyric is Cuckoo Song. Love lyric Alysoun is also well known. Middle English Lyrics were not meant to be read or written down. Consequently, the few that survive are probably a very small sample of lyrics. Surviving Lyrics appear in the Harley 2253 manuscript. Ballads Ballads- poems that tell stories, often of folk origin- are found in great numbers. Ballads were originally written to be sung. Most ballads treat tragic love, the pagan supernatural, historical and semi-historical events. Sir Patrick Spens, an early Scottish ballad, tells of Spens being ordered to sea in winter on a mission for the king. His foreboding of disaster and the tragic drowning of the crew are told. Barbara Allan, widely sung in America, tells of Sir John Grehmes dying of unrequited love for Barbara. Tam Lin, tells of Janets winning back to mortal life her elfin lover, Tam, from the queen of fairies, who had captured him. Robin Hood Cycle of Ballads: The best known of this genre is Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne. Robin kills Guy of Gisborne in a deadly fight, disguises himself in Guys horsehide garment and tricks the Sheriff of Nottingham. Thirty-six ballads were dedicated to the legendary figure of Robin Hood.

The Two Sisters is the story of a jealous girl who murders her sister by drowning; the dead body is discovered by a miller who takes it to the Kings Harper; the latter strings his harp with the dead girls hair and the song played in front of an audience reveals the murder. Sweet Williams Ghost narrates the return of a dead lover who forces his fiance to follow him to the Realm of the Dead. Religious Prose Writings about mystical experience make up the most intense, most emotional, and most controversial genre of medieval literature. Mystics lived inner lives that distinguished them sharply from their fellow humans and outer lives that often threatened the religious and secular institutions of their day. The development of mystical prose is represented by Walter Hilton's Scale of Perfection and the anonymous Cloud of Unknowing. The mystical tradition was continued by two women writers, Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe. Julian of Norwich At the age of 30 and suffering from a severe illness and believing she was on her deathbed, Julian had a series of visions of Jesus Christ. They ended by the time she recovered from her illness. Julian wrote down a narration of the visions immediately following them, which is known as The Short Text. Twenty to thirty years later she wrote a theological exploration of the meaning of the visions, known as The Long Text .These visions are the source of her major work, called Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love (or Showing of love). *This is believed to be the first book written in the English language by a woman. Margery Kempe is known for dictating The Book of Margery Kempe, *a work considered by some to be the first autobiography in the English language. This book chronicles, to some extent, her extensive pilgrimages to various holy sites in Europe and Asia, as well as her mystical conversations with God. Religious Poetry Poema morale: (Conduct of life or Moral Ode) is an early Middle English moral poem outlining proper Christian conduct. The narrator, a wise, old man, reflects on his life and his many failures; the homily ends with a description of the Last Judgment and the joys of heaven. Both personal sin and collective guilt are of concern. The poem is sometimes referred to as a sermon, sometimes as a homiletic narrative. Ormulum: a series of metrical homilies, in short lines without rime or alliteration written by a priest named Orm. The Cursor Mundi a versified scripture history together with many legends of the saints is an encyclopedic work. **The Owl and the Nightingale: (Fable and debate poem) it is in the form of debate between an owl and a nightingale. The owl represents a poet of the religious type, whereas the nightingale is a poet busy with writing love poetry. The poem actually mirrors the conflict between the traditional Anglo- Saxon religious poetry and the modern French literature. For the first time, the metaphor as a main device is replaced by unexpected similes such as: you chatter like an Irish priest (the owl about the nightingale) or you sing like a hen in the snow (the nightingale about the owl). Proverbs of Alfred: belongs to didactic literature and contains advice on a variety of matters such as how to choose and manage a wife, bring up children, live a good Christian life and the like. The Harrowing of Hell: Christs descent into Hell to release the souls of worthy who had died before his coming was a popular religious theme in the middle ages. The framework of the Harrowing Hell is narrative but after a forty line introduction, it proceeds entirely by means of dialogue in which Adam and Eve, Moses, David and Abraham call upon Christ and their claims are acknowledged. John Wycliffe was famous as a medieval religious reformer and the first person to translate the Bible into English. The Lollard Movement: was a political and religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century to the English Reformation. The term "Lollard" refers to the followers of John Wycliffe who was dismissed from the University of Oxford for criticism of the Church. Wycliffe sent his followers all over the country to tell people in their native language about the realities of Church. Lollards demands were primarily for reform of Western Christianity. Robert Manning was an English chronicler and monk. He is known chiefly for his Handling Sin which surveys in twelve thousand lines the entire range of Ten Commandments, The Seven Deadly Sins etc. deriving many of its exempla from the Anglo-Norman Manuel des Peches of Waddington. Manning is also the author of a chronicle The Story of England. The Story of England summarizes history from Noah to King Edward I. Secular Prose Sir John Maundeville is known for The Travels, a compilation from several popular books of voyages full of incredible descriptions and anecdotes.

John Trevisa translated a French encyclopedia and a Latin world history. **ALLITERATIVE REVIVAL (sudden reappearance of unrhymed alliterative poetry of Old English) Between the 1350 and 1400 over twenty significant Middle English poems in the alliterative style of Old English poetry were written and this period is regarded as an alliterative revival. The most important poems of this period are: Winner and Waster, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Pearl, Patience, Cleanness (or Purity) and Piers Plowman. These poems seem written to be recited, use myths and conventional subjects and seek to teach a lesson usually through allegory. Most of the poems are anonymous. THE PEARL POET (or Gawain poet): "Pearl poet" or "Gawain poet", is generally assumed to be the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Patience, Perl and Cleanness Sir Gawain is found in a manuscript with three other poems, Patience, Cleanness and Pearl. Pearl, is a dream allegory lamenting the death of the poets two-year-old daughter and envisioning of paradise. Cleanness (or Purity) promotes the virtue of purity by paraphrasing biblical stories of the Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the fall of Belshazzar. Patience illustrates the evil of impatience by retelling the story of Jonah in a humorous way. Winner and the Waster is an allegorical debate poem, in alliterative verse. It uses the debate form in a serious way, contrasting the man who wants wealth in society with the carefree person who spends all his money. This is one of the first allusions in literature to the importance of money, and contains a strong element of social criticism: the Pope and his greedy priests are contrasted with the noble lords and their followers. ** The Vision of William Concerning Piers Plowman- (William LANGLAND) Piers Plowman written by William Langland is a religious allegory, a social history and the first great satire in English. It is a diagnosis of a corrupt society. The poem describes major historical events, such as the Hundred Years' War, the Black Death, and the Peasants' Revolt. The poet was probably a poor cleric without a benefice. He reviews the problems of his time in allegoric form: vices and virtues appear as characters in the story. **Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a narrative poem, attributed by some to the pearl poet, is one of the most admired works of medieval literature. It is possibly the finest Arthurian poem in English. In it Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table, accepts a challenge from a mysterious "Green Knight" who challenges any knight to strike him with his axe if he will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts and beheads him with his blow, at which the Green Knight stands up, picks up his head and reminds Gawain of the appointed time. In his struggles to keep his bargain Gawain demonstrates chivalry and loyalty until his honor is called into question by a test involving Lady Bertilak, the lady of the Green Knight's castle. John GOWER He is remembered primarily for three major works, the Mirroir de l'Omme (written in French), Vox Clamantis (Written in Latin), and Confessio Amanti which are united by common moral and political themes. Confessio Amantis, (i.e. Lover's Confession) Gower's masterpiece is a collection of stories that illustrate the Seven Deadly Sins. Unlike his previous works, Gower wrote the Confessio in English. ***Geoffrey CHAUCER is considered to be the father of English poetry because he wrote in English rather than in French or Italian. By making a conscious choice to write in English, he symbolizes the rebirth of English as a national language. His works also helped the London dialect of English become a standard. Chaucer introduces the iambic pentameter line, the rhyming couplet and other rhymes used in Italian poetry. Chaucers writings are divided into 3 periods: 1. The French period. Chaucers earliest poems were written in imitation of the French romances. 2. The second period of Chaucers writings was that of the Italian influence (the influence of Dante and Boccaccio) 3. The third period of Chaucers creative work begins from the year (1384) when he left behind the Italian influence and became entirely English. The French Period The Romaunt of the Rose is an incomplete translation of a French allegory, Roman de la Rose, describing the pleasures of love, symbolized by Rose.

The Book of the Duchess is a dream-vision elegy upon the death of Blanche, wife of John of Gaunt, Chaucers friend and patron. The Parliament of Fowls is a dream vision in rhyme royal stanza and is interesting in that it is the first reference to the idea that St. Valentine's Day was a special day for lovers. The birds gather at Venuss temple to choose their mates in accordance with Natures rule. Elements of social satire appear in the parallel between various kinds of birds and the representatives of various social strata: the goose embodies the practical bourgeois, while the falcon embodies the proud courtier. The Italian Period Troilus and Cressida is Chaucers longest complete poem. Troilus is a noble Trojan knight who scorns love until he is shot by the God of Love and forced to love a beautiful young widow, Criseyde. She is loveable, but unfaithful, and after she is sent to the Greek camp to reunite with her father, she quickly falls out of love with Troilus and in love with a Greek, Diomede. Troilus battles furiously against the Greeks until he is killed. The poem was later used by Shakespeare as a source for his Troilus and Cressida. The House of Fame was written under the influence of Divine Commedia, written in octosyllabic couplets. The dreamer is snatched away from earth by an eagle, a medieval symbol of contemplation. The dreamer is supposed to receive enlightenment concerning love from some man of great authority. The Legend of Good Women is a collection of stories about famous women of antiquity who were faithful in love. Chaucer also introduced the heroic couplet for the first time in The Legend of Good Women. The English Period Canterbury Tales Chaucers Canterbury Tales follows a pattern known as frame-story. At a time when the plot had not yet been discovered as a literary device, the frame was a pretext for grouping together several stories. The work is made up of a general prologue, in which the characters are introduced to the readers, and of the tales of the pilgrims, preceded by their own prologues, called lesser prologues. The English custom of organizing yearly pilgrimages to the tomb of Thomas--Beckett in Canterbury suggested to Chaucer a broad plan for his tales. The pilgrims were twenty-nine in number, Chaucer himself being the thirtieth. They met at Tabbard Inn at Southwark quite accidentally. The inn-keeper proposed that each pilgrim should tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and another two stories on the way back; the best one was to receive a square dinner at the expense of the others. Out of the 120 tales planned only twenty-four were written. Chaucers characters belong to almost all the social strata and classes: the Knight and the Squire represent the nobility; the Prioress, the Monk, the Friar, the Parson and the Nuns represent the clergy; the Merchant, the Clerk of Oxford, the Doctor of Physics, the Wife of Bath, the Cook, the Sailor, the Dyer, the Weaver and the Miller represent the middle-class and the townsfolk; the Sergeant of Law and the Summoner represent the law. All these individuals representing every class from Plowman to Knight recreate the social scene of Chaucers age. Only three characters are treated without any touch of irony, namely: the Knight, who embodies the highest ideals of chivalry and courtesy; the Poor Parson, who displays genuine Christian behavior; the Plowman, who is an honest, good-hearted, hard-working fellow. The tales go in pairs. The Friar, for instance, tells a story in connection with the corrupt character of the Summoner. Taking the Friars story as an offence, the Summoner tells a story about a corrupt Friar. In the twenty-four tales, Chaucer employed several literary species such as: courtly romance (in the Knights tale); Fabliau (in the Millers tale and in the Reeves tale); Hagiographic legend of saints lives (the Second Nuns tale and the Prioresss tale); fable (the Nuns Tale); Sermon (the Parsons tale). Key Tales The Millers Tell is told by the drunken miller Robyn. He tells the story of a student named Nicholas who persuades his landlords (a carpenter) wife, Alisoun, to spend the night with him. The carpenter in his story offends The Carpenter. The Wife of Baths Tale In her tale, a young knight of King Arthurs court rapes a maiden; to atone for his crime, Arthurs queen sends him on a quest to discover what women want most. An ugly old woman promises the knight that she will tell him the secret if he promises to do whatever she wants for saving his life. He agrees, and she tells him women want control of their husbands and their own lives. They go together to Arthurs queen, and the old womans answer turns out to be correct. The old woman then tells the knight that he must marry her. When the knight confesses later that he is repulsed by her appearance, she gives him a choice: she can either be ugly and

faithful, or beautiful and unfaithful. The knight tells her to make the choice herself, and she rewards him for giving her control of the marriage by rendering herself both beautiful and faithful. The Reeves Tale is a fabliau about two clerks having been robbed by a miller, taking revenge by sleeping his wife and daughter. The Pardoners Tale is a sermon as well as a story of three young men who set out to find death and destroy it. Instead their greed destroys them. The Nuns Priests Tale is a fable about a cock that is flattered and caught by a fox. The cock in turn flatters the fox and escapes. The Clerks Tale The clerk tells a tale by the Italian poet Petrarch. Griselda is a hardworking peasant who marries into the aristocracy. Her husband tests her fortitude in several ways, including pretending to kill her children and divorcing her. He punishes her one final time by forcing her to prepare for his wedding to a new wife. She does all this dutifully; her husband tells her that she has always been and will always be his wife and they live happily ever after. Of the many 15th-century imitators of Chaucer the best-known are John Lydgate and Thomas Hoccleve. Other poets of the time include Stephen Hawes and Alexander Barclay and the Scots poets William Dunbar, Robert Henryson, and Gawin Douglas. The poetry of John Skelton, which is mostly satiric, combines medieval and Renaissance elements. MEDIEVAL DRAMA

Folk Plays

Small groups of traveling performers minstrels, jugglers, acrobats, bards, mimes, puppeteers - went from town to town to entertain people. They performed in taverns and at festivals for the commoners and at court for the nobility. Festivals usually contained both pagan and Christian elements Liturgical Plays Liturgical plays were acted within or near the church and relating stories from the Bible and of the saints. ( a way for the Church to teach Christian doctrine to illiterate people). Although they had their roots in the Christian liturgy, such plays were not performed as essential parts of a standard church service. The language of the liturgical drama was Latin, and the dialogue was frequently chanted to simple monophonic melodies. Music was also used. Mystery Plays As the 14th century began, drama was free of church control, and plays were performed by lay people from the craft guilds (lonca) which were called mysteries. To satisfy the growing public demand, the guilds constructed pageants (geit alay) wagons as stages for their cycles of plays. Mystery cycles were produced frequently on Corpus Christi Day, when the weather was suitable for open air performances. Mystery plays are medieval religious plays based upon Biblical history. Most of the English mystery plays are found in four major cycles, named after the localities where they were acted: The Chester Cycle of 25 plays; the York Cycle of 48 plays; the Wakefield Cycle of 32 plays and the Lincoln Cycle of 42 plays.

Miracle Plays Miracle plays are often considered as related to mystery plays, but these plays do not originate from Biblical sources they rely on saints life and their miracles. The best ones are: Mary Magdalene, the Croxton Play of the Sacrament and the Conversion of St. Paul. Morality Plays The morality plays were allegorical sermons with simple plots, using characters to personify such abstractions as gluttony, beauty, virtue and vice. Professional actors were used to perform these plays. **Everyman: In the best Known of the morality plays, the character, Everyman (representing all humankind) is summoned by death to the Day of Judgment. Everyman tries to find a companion for this journey, but all forsake him. Only Good Deeds go with him into the grave and helps him present his case.

The Castle of Perseverance: This oldest complete morality play has a plot similar to that of Everyman. The Bad Angle and Good Angle struggle for the soul of man and the Good Angle Places him in the Castle of Perseverance. Hells forces cant prevail against the castle; Greed lures the man out where he dies repentant. Mercy, Peace, Truth and Righteousness compete in a debate for the mans soul; Mercy wins. Mankind: In this unusual comic morality play, the vices compete for the soul of man. Titivullus, a devil who collects words mumbled or skipped in divine services was a favorite medieval character. He seduces Mankind from Mercy at first, but mercy triumphs at last. Magnyfycence: This is the earliest English drama whose writer is certain. Written by John Skelton, it depicts mankind being deceived by vices, but later redeemed by the virtues of Goodhope and Perseverance. Interlude: Interlude was a comic performance acted between courses of a great feast. The purpose is primarily entertainment rather than edification. It is more realistic and humorous than other medieval plays. Interludes are a bridge between morality plays and Elizabethan drama. William Caxton Caxton was the first English printer and a translator and importer of books into England. He set up a press in Belgium. The first book which Caxton ever produced was "The Recuyell of the Histories of Troy", translated by himself from the French original of Raoul Lefvre. This was the first book ever to be printed in English. Returning to England, he set up another press and produced the first dated book printed in English in England, Dictes and Sayenges of the Phylosophers. Among the books he printed were Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales', Gower's 'Confession Amantis' and Malory's 'Le Morte d'Arthur'

LITERARY ELEMENTS Cycles are groups of stories grouped around common figures, usually of different authorship Didactic literature refers to any literature whose purpose is to teach. A frame story is a literary device that binds together several different narratives. It is a story (or stories) within a story. Ballad: Traditionally, a folk song telling a story or legend in simple language, often with a refrain. Fable: A short prose or verse narrative, such as those by Aesop that illustrates a moral, which often is stated explicitly at the end. Frequently, the characters in a fable are animals that embody different human character traits. Romance: A nonrealistic story, in verse or prose that features idealized characters, improbable adventures, and exotic settings. Dream Vision: usually a narrative poem having a framework in which the poet pictures himself as falling asleep and envisioning in his dream a series of allegorical people and events Debate Poem: a debate poem depicts a dialogue between two natural opposites (e.g. sun vs. moon, winter vs. summer) in order to compare qualities of the speakers themselves or to determine some extraneous problem Allegory: A story with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning. The characters in an allegory often represent abstract concepts, such as faith, innocence, or evil. Lyrics are short melodic poems, usually expressing intense personal emotion, originally written to be sung. Chronicle: An extended account in prose or verse of historical events, sometimes including legendary material, presented in chronological order and without authorial interpretation or comment Breton Lai: A Breton lai, also known as a narrative lay or simply a lay, is a form of medieval French and English romance literature. Lais are short (typically 6001000 lines), rhymed tales of love and chivalry. Morality play is a play with a Christian moral, usually in an allegorical framework. Miracle plays dramatize saints life and their miracles.

EXAMPLES Robin Hood Cycles, King Arthur Cycles, Chester Cycle, York Cycle, Wakefield Cycle, Lincoln Cycle Gowers confessio amantis, fables and religious writings In The Canterbury Tales, the pilgrims journey is the outer story. The tales the pilgrims tell are stories within a story. Barbara Allan, Robin Hood Cycle of Ballads, Sir Patrick Spens The Two Sisters, Sweet Williams Ghost The Owl and The Nightingale, The Nuns Priests Tale

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Troilus and Cressida, The Knights Tale, The Wife of Baths Tale, Morte d Arthur, King Horn, Havelok Parliament of Fowls, Book of the Duchess, House of Fame Pearl, Piers Plowman

The Owl and The Nightingale, Winner and the Waster

The Owl and The Nightingale, Piers Plowman, Winner and the Waster A Sacred Lullaby, Jesus Christs Mild Mother, Cuckoo Song Alysoun Robert Manning-The Story Of England, Wace- Roman de Brut Layamon- Brut, Geoffrey of Monmouth- Historia Regum Britanniae (History of English Kings) Marie de France- The Lais

Everyman, The Castle of Perseverance, Mankind, Magnyfycence Mary Magdalene, the Croxton Play of the Sacrament, the Conversion of St. Paul. Chester Cycle, York Cycle, Wakefield Cycle, Lincoln Cycle Robert Manning- Handling Sin The Pardoners Tale Ormulum Miracle Plays

Mystery Plays are medieval religious plays based upon Biblical history. Exempla are moral anecdotes used to illustrate a point, tales told to exemplify good or evil lives. Sermon: A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Homily: A homily is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture or a lecture on a religious theme. Hagiography: refers to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders

LITERARY ELEMENTS Fabliau: short, comic, bawdy tales often involving triangles between a wife, her lover, and her husband. Allusion is a reference to something literary, mythological, or historical that the author assumes the reader will recognize. *A brief reference to a person, historical event, work of art, mythological situation or character. *Explicit allusions are signaled openly by the narrator, "As Chaucer said... *Allusions can include a citation (verbatim reference to another text) or an evocation (picks up on certain words, phrases, or ideas). Personification: The use of human characteristics to describe animals, things, or ideas. Simile: A comparison of two unlike things through the use of like or as. Metaphor: The comparison of two unlike things to illuminate a particular quality or aspect of one of those things. *A metaphor is distinct from, but related to a simile, which is also a comparison. The primary difference is that a simile uses the word like or as to compare two things, while a metaphor simply suggests that the dissimilar things are the same. * A metaphor is an equation where a simile is an approximation. Satire: A work that exposes to ridicule the shortcomings of individuals, institutions, or society, often to make a political point. It usually differs from other forms of laughter-evoking literature in its more serious content. Symbol: A symbol is the use of a concrete object to represent an abstract idea. There are three general types of symbols: Universal symbols that embody universally recognizable meanings: For example: heart= love A literary (or constructed) symbol is a symbol that has a possibility of multiple interpretations. The interpretation of a literary symbol is determined by the way the symbol is used in the text. For example, water could be used in the same story as both a redemptive and destructive force. Conventional symbols present things for the meanings people within a particular group have agreed to give them. For example, national flags. (Verbal) Irony: The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning; the words say one thing, but mean another.

EXAMPLES The Millers Tale, The Reeves Tale He was a real Romeo with the ladies. Romeo was a character in Shakespeares play, Romeo and Juliet, and was very romantic in expressing his love for Juliet. Chocolate was her Achilles heel. This means that her weakness was her love of chocolate. Achilles is a character in Greek mythology that was invincible. His mother dipped him in magical water when he was a baby, and she held him by the heel. The magic protected him all over, except for his heel.

She did not realize that opportunity was knocking at her door. The wind screamed as it raced around the house. The days crept by slowly, sorrowfully. My love is like a red, red rose. Her eyes twinkled like stars. A room without books is like a body without a soul. You were as brave as a lion. Laughter is the best medicine (metaphor) The entire world is a stage. (metaphor) A good book is like a good meal. ( a good book approximately equal to a good meal--- simile) A good book is a good meal. (a good book is equal to a good meal---metaphor)

William LANGLAND Piers Plowman

Owl : wisdom, rational knowledge White : innocence

It is easy to quit smoking. Ive done it hundreds of times. Water is as clear as mud.

THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD (14851660) I. Early Tudor Period (1485-1558): The War of the Roses ends in England with Henry Tudor (Henry VII) claiming the throne. Martin Luthers split with Rome marks the emergence of Protestantism, followed by Henry VIIIs Anglican schism, which creates the first Protestant church in England. Edmund Spenser is a sample poet. II. Elizabethan Period (1558-1603): Queen Elizabeth saves England from both Spanish invasion and internal squabbles at home. The early works of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Kyd, and Sidney mark Elizabeths reign. III. Jacobean Period (1603-1625): Shakespeares later work, Ben Jonson, Francis Bacon, and John Donne. IV. Caroline Age (1625-1649): John Milton, George Herbert, Robert Herrick, the "Sons of Ben" and others write during the reign of Charles I and his Cavaliers. V. Commonwealth Period or Puritan Interregnum (1649-1660): Under Cromwells Puritan dictatorship, John Milton continues to write, but we also find writers like Andrew Marvell and Sir Thomas Browne. The Renaissance (or rebirth of learning) which began in Italy in the 14 th century affected English attitudes toward learning and the arts from approximately 1485 the accession of the Tudor monarchs, to 1660 when Charles II was restored to the throne. The Renaissance worked in two ways in the development of literature- it did much to liberate thought from the bondage of medieval theology (scholasticdogmatic) and it presented writers with literary masterpieces as models Some of the ideas found in Renaissance literature include the doctrine of humanism, a philosophical school of thought that placed importance upon human potential and the ability to find meaning and value in earthly life, rather than merely in the afterlife. The universal tend of humanism in emphasizing mans dignity and his worldly happiness was reflected in the works produced in the period. The period is characterized by a rebirth among English elite of classical learning, a rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman authors. The first major revival of classicism occurred during the Renaissance. As a result of the intensified interest in Greek and Roman culture, especially the works of Plato and Cicero, classical standards were reinstated as the ideal norm in literature.( Classicism, a term that, when applied generally, means clearness, elegance, symmetry, and repose produced by attention to traditional forms. It is sometimes synonymous with excellence or artistic quality of high distinction. More precisely, the term refers to the admiration and imitation of Greek and Roman literature, art, and architecture. Because the principles of classicism were derived from the rules and practices of the ancients, the term came to mean the adherence to specific academic canons). Many works of Renaissance literature also expounded upon the idea, taken from antiquity, of the " Great Chain of Being," Its major premise was that every existing thing in the universe had its "place" in a divinely planned hierarchical order An objects "place" depended on the relative proportion of "spirit" and "matter" it contained--the less "spirit" and the more "matter," the lower down it stood. At the bottom, for example, stood various types of inanimate objects, such as metals, stones, and the four elements (earth, water, air, fire). Higher up were various members of the vegetative class, like trees and flowers. Then came animals; then humans; and then angels. At the very top was God. Within each of these large groups, there were other hierarchies. For example; human beings: a. king b. nobleman c. priest d. knight e. yeoman (small-land owner) f. tenant farmer g. peasant. If the chain is broken, then everything is disrupted throughout the natural and spiritual orders. For example, if the rightful king is deposed, the whole nation suffers. This can be clearly seen in Shakespeares Macbeth and in most of the works of the period. Renaissance thinkers viewed a human being as a microcosm (literally, a "little world") that reflected the structure of the world as a whole, the macrocosm The scholar went to study in Italy (Petrarch and Boccaccio) and brought back inspiration. The New Learning was established in Oxford and Cambridge. It was helped by the introduction of the Printing Press in 1476, by William Caxton. Renaissance scholars studied ancient Greek and Latin texts and advocated the imitation of classical styles in literature, art, and education. Closely related to secularism was the Renaissance emphasis on the individual and on the importance of developing human potential. The ideal "Renaissance man" was a person who cultivated his innate capabilities to the fullest. He was a many-faceted individual who might be an engineer, philosopher, and painter or an architect, astronomer, and poet. Perceiving himself as the centre of his own universe, he synthesized the emotional, rational, social, and spiritual forces in his life into a harmonious balance. The natural result of secularism and individualism was a general revolt against authority. The strong feeling of nationalism which had risen with the reign of Elizabeth awakened the peoples desire for knowledge about Englands past history. Humanists influenced a critical and scholarly study of scriptures, which partly led to a challenge of Roman Catholicism and the emergence of English Protestantism. New poetical forms introduced, e.g. blank verse and sonnet, enriched the native stock of English literature, and conventional ones were adopted to fit new subjects Translation occupied an important place in the period. Based itself on the models of Roman and Greek classics and the precedents from Italy, the English drama evolved from the interludes and morality plays and developed into a sophisticated art form. The philosophy of Neo-Platonism, which was widely held in Renaissance, advocates finding permanence in the ever-changing world of nature by practicing the virtues, particularly love. (Edmund Spenser) The literature of the sixteenth century and later was profoundly influenced by that religious result of the Renaissance which we know as the Reformation. Puritan Interregnum: The term refers to both the Puritan government established under Oliver Cromwell after civil war and those year in which that government lasted (1649- 1658). This interregnum marks the end of the English Renaissance. The puritans called their regime the Commonwealth and it was nominally a parliamentarian government but a dictatorship under Cromwell. Even the theaters that once showed the great dramas of Shakespeare and other playwrights were closed.

PROSE Desiderius Erasmus: The greatest humanist of the age, who was Dutch by birth, came to England during the reign of Tudors, stimulated interest in classical writings and exploratory thinking among such English humanists as Sir Thomas More, Sir Thomas Elyot, and Roger Ascham. His Praise of Folly, an essay written in Latin, is considered one of the most notable works of the Renaissance and was employed as one of the catalysts of the Protestant Reformation. In Praise of Folly he exalts the humanistic ideals and satirizes the corruption of religion and learning. ***Sir Thomas More: More is best known for his prose work Utopia (a Greek term meaning no place or nowhere). It was written in Latin in 1516. It entered English literature in 1551 when Ralph Robinson translated it. Mores Utopia is an imitation of Platos Republic. It portrays an ideal state, a communist rather than a Christian one. It consists of two books. Book I portrays an ideal world as opposed to the European world of corruption, war, poverty, cruelty and immoral conduct. Book II goes into details of Mores ideal state. (Laziness is forbidden, jewels are childrens play toys, gold and silver are used for chamber pots and as chains for criminals, property is held in common, everybody works, everybody receives good education, there is complete freedom of religion). Sir John Cheke: He was a professor of Greek at Cambridge University, popularized Greek studies in England. His Heart of Seduction, How Grievous It Is to a Commonwealth portrays the Tudor ideal of political order under a strong monarch and the Tudor fear of anarchy and rebellion. Sir Thomas Elyot prepared the first Latin- English dictionary. In the Book Named the Governor Elyot expresses his humanistic concept of education for princes and those in high places. The governor, which was strongly influenced by Xenophon and Plato, is the first full treatise in English on the theory of humanistic education and moral philosophy. Roger Ascham: An accomplished Greek scholar, who was tutor to Queen Elizabeth and her Latin secretary, was credited and honored for Queen Elizabeths interest in classics and humanistic learning. He strongly encouraged the use of English as a language of scholarship, and he was a purist who opposed the use of foreign words. Toxophilus: Aschams Toxophilus praises archery as a backbone of national defense and an excellent physical training and character building. The book is a Platonic dialogue in which Philologus (lover of Knowledge) and Toxophilus (lover of archery) discusses the use of bow and arrow. Schoolmaster is the first significant treatise on the theory of humanistic education in which patience, love and gentleness can accomplish more than whipping. He recommend edifying literature and condemns The Canterbury Tales and Morte d Arthur for immorality. Thomas Wilson wrote the Art of Rhetoric, the first handbook of English composition. He favors a simple and fluent prose style free of affection and excessive Latinism. The Art of Rhetoric is not a mere composition handbook; it is actually a humanistic treatise on the full education of a man for the full life. Sir Walter Raleigh: Raleighs prose is primarily historical, reflects the excitement at the expanding of British Empire from the point of view of a nationalistic Renaissance man. A Report of the Truth of the Fight about the Isles of Acores is a prose epic about the naval battle between Sir Richard Grevilles ships against an overwhelming Spanish Fleet. The Discovery of the Large, Rich, and Beautiful Empire of Guiana concerns the quest for gold, jungle with graphic accounts of hand-to- hand combat. The History of the World was written in prison contains history up to 130 B.C written in prose. Raleighs poetry: He is best known for such lyrics as The Nymphs Reply to the Shepherd (A reply to Marlowes idyllic pastoral poem), The Lie (written from prison), and Farewell, False Love (a lovers complaint written in metaphors). Francis Bacon: Bacons importance in the history of English prose is due to his naturalization of a new genre , essay, in English. He borrowed the concept of the essay from Montaigne and modified it so as to make it suit his own particular genius. Essays: Bacons primary purpose was to teach young aristocrats how to succeed. Advancement of Learning is a tract on education in two books: the first book praises knowledge and challenges prejudices against learning, the second is a survey of learning, laying a foundation for a national culture. Novum Organum (the New Instrument) is the best statement of Bacons philosophy. In Novum Organum, Bacon details a new system of logic he believes to be superior to the old ways of syllogism. This is now known as the Baconian method. For Bacon, finding the essence of a thing was a simple process of reduction, and the use of inductive reasoning. New Atlantis is a utopian novel published in Latin. In this work, Bacon portrayed a vision of the future of human discovery and knowledge, expressing his aspirations and ideals for humankind. The novel depicts the creation of a utopian land where "generosity and enlightenment, dignity and splendor, piety and public spirit" are the commonly held qualities of the inhabitants of "Bensalem". Thomas Hobbes: His philosophical works are considered the major English works of the type between Bacon and Locke. The Elements of Law Natural and Politic established him as the founder of modern empirical philosophy. He states that the ultimate reality is the ceaseless motion of matter, chief drive is self-preservation and free will is an illusion. Leviathan: In Leviathan, Hobbes set out his doctrine of the foundation of states and legitimate governments originating social contract theory. He argues that monarchs rule not by divine right but because humans, through self-interest, give the natural rights for the security of a strong ruler. Hobbes postulates what life would be like without government, a condition which he calls the state of nature. In that state, each person would have a right, or license, to everything in the world. Robert Burton was an English scholar at Oxford University, best known for the classic The Anatomy of Melancholy. Izaak Walton Best known as the author of The Compleat Angler, he also wrote a number of short biographies that have been collected under the title of Waltons Lives. John Selden: One of the first great critical scholars. He is chiefly known for Table Talk a book of sayings that were collected by his secretary. He also wrote The Titles of Honor and The History of Titles. Richard Hakluyt: He wrote the masterpiece of English travel literature: The Principal Voyages, Traffics and Discoveries of English Nation. Samuel Purchas: When Hakluyt died, his works was continued by Purchas. The completed work was entitled Hakluyts Posthumus, or Purchas His Pilgrimes, which inspired Coleridge to write Kubla Khan.

Sir Thomas Browne was an English author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including medicine, religion, science and the esoteric. Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial, is a work by Sir Thomas Browne, published in 1658 as the first part of a two-part work that concludes with The Garden of Cyrus. Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial begins with the discovery of some roman funeral urns near Norwich and grows into a treatise on all known burial practices as well as an investigation into the death itself. The Garden of Cyrus is Brownes Neo-Platonic vision of the interconnection of art, nature and the Universe via numerous symbols, primarily the number five, and the quincunx pattern. Religio Medici (a Physicians religion) is another work by Browne. Raphael Holinshed: the Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, known as Holinsheds Chronicles, is a history of Britain to 1575. From these chronicles Shakespeare borrowed the plot of Macbeth, parts of Cymbeline and possibly King Lear. Character Writers The seventeenth century witnessed the origin and development of another kind of essay, known as character writing. They wrote short sketches of various human types. The character writers were influenced by Theophrastus, Seneca and dramatists. They are also highly indebted to Bacon who provided them with a pattern of style. The following are the character writers: Thomas Dekker wrote the Bellman of London and A Strange Horse Race which are noticeable for the portrayal of vivid character sketches. He also wrote one of the best-loved English comedies, The Shoemakers Holiday. Joseph Hall was an English bishop, satirist and moralist. He wrote the Good Magistrate and Characters of Virtues and Vices. Satire distinguishes his character sketches. Halls Characters of Virtues and Vices consist of two books: Book I deals with virtuous types (such as the wise man, the honest man, and the true friend) and Book II with their vicious counterparts (such as the malcontent, the flatterer, and the unthrifty) Thomas Overburys Characters is a collection of numerous well portrayed characters. He usually packs the characters to some trade or occupation. The character takes color from the occupation from which it draws its virtues and vices. Well- known sketches include A Puritan and A Fair and Happy Milkmaid. John Earle is superior to both Hall and Overbury as a character writer. His Microcosmography is his collection of well portrayed characters. George Herbert differs from all other character writers of his time. His famous work A Priest in the Temple or A Country Parson is not a collection of unconnected sketches, but a short treatise in thirty seven chapters. Thomas Fuller wrote The History of the Holy War, The Holy State and the Profane State. POETRY Typical of Tudor poets were Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, aristocrats who wrote poetry to be circulated among acquaintances. Both Wyatt and Surrey translated Latin and Greek poems as well as contemporary French and Italian poets. They both used Italian verse forms and experimented with stanzaic forms, particularly sonnet, adapting the Italian sonnet to an English variant with three quatrains and a couplet (called the Shakespearean sonnet). The Renaissance Miscellanies: Many collections of poetry, called Miscellanies, were published during the Tudor period. They contained primarily lyric poems, many of them free translations by various poets. The best-known was Tottels Miscellany, which contains 97 poems by Wyatt and 40 by Surrey. ***Sir Thomas Wyatt: He was the first poet who introduced sonnet. He translated 26 Petrarchan sonnets left over 30 examples of his own in English. His poems were published in 1577 in Songs and Sonnets known as Tottels Miscellany which is one of the landmarks of English literature beginning lyric love poetry in English. Works of Sir Thomas Wyatt: They Flee From Me, Is It possible, My Lute Awake, Farewell Love, and Madam Withouten Many Words. ***Earl of Surrey (Henry Howard): He was the first to give to the sonnet its purely English form and he was the first poet to use blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) in his translation of two books of Virgils Aeneid. Surreys most famous poem is Prisoned in Windsor. ***Sir Philip Sidney: The first sonnet sequence was written by Sir Philip Sidney who was a poet, a literary critic and a schola r. Sidneys Astrophel and Stella (Star lover and star), the first English sonnet cycle, records a young courtiers love for a lady who is married. These 108 sonnets and 11 songs are the first direct expressions of personal feelings and experience in English poetry. Sidneys Prose: Arcadia: is a pastoral prose romance interspersed with poems was considered not only as a pastoral romance but as a courtesy book, moral treatise and a discussion of love and philosophy. It records the story of two ship-wrecked prices that fall in love with the daughters of King of Arcadia. Sidney wrote it to amuse his sister, the Duchess of Pembroke, to whom it was dedicated. The eclogues included in Arcadia are significant in the development of English pastoral poetry. An Apology for Poetry (or, The Defence of Poesy): Sidney defends the writing of imaginative literature against the Puritan charge that it is an enemy of virtue. The Lady of May: This is one of Sidneys lesser-known works, a masque written and performed for Queen Elizabeth in 1578 or 1579. Samuel Daniel: Though the content of his verse lacked originality, he was noted for artistry with language, particularly in Delia, a sequence of fifty sonnets. He took English poetry a giant step forward with the Complaint of Rosamund, a monologue in rime-royal stanza. Michael Drayton: His sonnet sequence was called Ideas Mirror. Later, he made revisions and added metaphysical poems in it and called it Idea. The Shepherds Garland, another work by Drayton, is a collection of pastoral eclogues. Thomas Sackville: Sackville was a great humanist whose only contribution to England poetry is The Induction. William Shakespeare: His non dramatic poetry consists of two narrative poems. Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece; and a sequence of 154 sonnets, the first 126 addressed to a man, W.H. and the remaining 28 addressed to a woman, the Dark Lady. Edward de Vere: considered best of the courtly poets for such sonnets as Who Taught Thee First to Sigh? or such lyrics as If women could be fair. Sir Edward Dyer: He is remembered for My mind to me a kingdom is, asserting the renaissance idea of intellectual self- sufficiency. Nicholas Breton was one of the most popular Elizabethan pastoral lyricists, his Phillida and Cordion was written to be sung under the Queen Elizabeths window. Thomas Campion was an English composer, poet, and physician. He wrote over a hundred lute songs, masques for dancing, and an authoritative technical treatise on music. Campion wrote four books of Airs (poems written to be sung) that include some of the most perfect lyrics written in English such as When to her Lute Corinna Sings and There is a Garden in Her Face.

Lady Mary Wroth (15871651/3) was an English poet of the Renaissance. Wroth was among the first female British writers to have achieved an enduring reputation. She is perhaps best known for having written The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania, the first extant prose romance by an English woman, and for Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, the first known sonnet sequence by an English woman. ***Edmund Spenser is the greatest non-dramatic poet in the Elizabethan period. Along with Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare and John Milton, he is considered to be one of the four supreme masters of English poetry. Spenser is one of the poets who influenced the poets who came after him and therefore he is also called the poets poet. The Shepherds Calendar made him known as a poet. The Shepherds Calendar is considered the first outstanding pastoral poem in English. Spenser invented a new verse form known as the Spenserian stanza. It is a stanza of nine lines, eight of five feet each and last of six feet, riming ababbcbcc. Spensers main poetical works are: The Shepherds Calendar: It is the first pastoral poem in English literature. It includes twelve eclogues, one for each month (January, February, March), idealizes shepherds and rural life. The poem introduces Colin Clout, a folk character originated by John Skelton, and depicts his life as a shepherd through the twelve months of the year. Amoretti is Spensers collection of 88 love sonnets. His love is called sweet warrior, in imitation of Petrarchs dolce guerrierra. In two sonnets he identifies his heroine with the Petrarchan or Neo-Platonic idea of beauty Epithalamion : a magnificent ode written on the occasion of his marriage with Elizabeth Boyle Prothalamion: an ode on marriage Astrophel and Stella : is the first pastoral elegy in English on the death of Sir Philip Sidney Four Hymns: written to glorify beauty, heavenly love and heavenly beauty. The Faerie Queen: The original plan of the poem included twelve books, each of which was to recount the adventure of a Knight, who represented a moral virtue. The work is purely allegorical in its personification of virtues and in its representation of life as a struggle between good and evil. Spenser could complete only six books, celebrating Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friendship, Justice and Courtesy. INTERLUDES Although didactic like the morality plays, these were more comic and realistic, ant the heroes more individualized. Henry Medwall was the first known English vernacular dramatist. His interlude Fulgens and Lucres, whose heroine must choose between two suitors, is probably the first purely secular drama in English. It was written for presentation between the courses of a banquet. The other play of Medwall is titled Nature. John Heywood: The best known interlude is Heywoods short comedy, The Play called the foure PP; a newe and a very merry interlude of a palmer, a pardoner, a potycary, a pedler. In a match to determine the most fantastic lie, the Palmer wins by saying he had never in all his travels seen a woman lose her temper. DRAMA The English drama evolved from Miracle and Mystery plays and the Moralities and then developed into a very fine artistic form. The drama form rose to perfection during the Elizabethan period. The First English Comedy: The earliest English comedy was influenced by the Latin comedy writers, Terence and Plautus. Nicholas Udalls Ralph Roister Doister, was written about 1550 is the first comedy. Udall, master of Westminster school, meant his play to be acted by school boys. The play is about a fop who is in love with a widow. But the widow is already engaged to another man. The play is an adaptation of Plautuss comedy, Miles Gloriosus. Ralph Roister Doister has a clear plot and natural dialogue. It is composed in rhyming couplets. It is divided into acts and scenes in the Latin style. Gamar Gurtons Needle (1575), written by an unknown writer is another comedy in the classical style. The First English Tragedy: The first English tragedy was produced in 1562 by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Morton. It was called Gorboduc (or Ferrex and Porrex). It was an imitation of Senecan tragedy, written primarily for representing during the Christmas festives of 1561. It had the unique distinction of being the first play to be written in blank verse and the first play to be based on history. The Elizabethan Romantic Drama: When the first tragedy, Gorboduc was produced on the English stage in 1561, there was some confusion in the minds of scholars. Some wanted to follow the classical type of drama as introduced by Seneca and others wanted to cater to the unscholarly public who wanted only amusement. They expected exciting plots and vigorous action and finer details about art. Hence, gradually, the Elizabethan Romantic drama emerged. Principles of Classical Drama: To understand the conventions of the Elizabethan Romantic Drama, we must have an idea about the principles of the classical drama. 1. The classical drama adhered to unity of the subject and tone. Comedy and tragedy were kept separate. There were no humorous episodes of any kind in a tragedy. 2. There was little or no dramatic action. Main events in the play were only reported to the audience by dialogue or narration. 3. The dramatists were expected to follow the three classical unities of time, place and action to control the construction of the plot. The Romantic Drama: The Elizabethan dramatists opposed these classical principles 1. The Romantic drama makes free use of variety in theme and tone. Often in one play, we can find the blending of the tragic and the comic. 2. The Romantic drama is essentially a drama of action. Much of the action is shown on the stage. 3. It repudiates the three classical unities of time, place and action. The Elizabethan Romantic drama, in the hands of the University-educated scholars, acquired a suitable form to please the theatre-going public.

UNIVERSITY WITS (PRE-SHAKESPEAREAN DRAMA) The University Wits were a group of late 16th century English playwrights who were educated at the universities (Oxford or Cambridge) and who became playwrights and popular secular writers. Members of this group were Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene and Thomas Nashe from Cambridge, and John Lyly, George Peele and Thomas Lodge from Oxford. Thomas Kyd is also considered sometimes as one of the University Wits but Kyd did not read in any university. They were romantic by nature and they represented the spirit of Renaissance. They were the founders of the new forms of drama. The contribution of the university Wits to the development of drama needs to be highlighted: 1. John Lyly was an English writer, poet, dramatist, playwright, and politician, best known for his books Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit. (Euphues is one of the books which have been claimed as the first novel in English).Lyly wrote eight comedies: The Woman in the Moon, Endymion, Campaspe, Sapho and Phao, Gallathea, Midas, Mother Bombie and Loves Metamorphosis. In Gallathea the scene is an English country cursed by Neptune who demands the sacrifice of fair virgins. To save their daughters from being sacrificed two fathers disguise their daughters as boys and the disguised girls fall in love with each other. John Lylys Gallathea is the first English use of the device of girls disguised as boys. In Endymion Lyly introduces fairies into English drama. Shakespeare employs all the devices contributed to English drama by Lyly (especially disguise device). 2. Robert Greene: His most popular play is The Honorable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay which is a romantic comedy. This play is notable because it introduces Margaret, the first great romantic heroin of the English drama and a prototype for Shakespeares women. Robert Greenes prose: Greenes best known prose, Pandosta the Triumph of Time, is the source of Shakespeares The Winter Tale. A Notable Discovery of Coinage is another important prose by Greene. 3. George Peele: Peeles the Old Wives Tale, which is the first English romantic comedy, is a dramatic fairy tale based on a love affair. 4. Thomas Kyd: His Spanish Tragedy, the most popular play before 1600, was the first English revenge tragedy, outdoing Seneca in violent horror. Kyd made original use of feigned madness and a play-within- a- play. 5. Thomas Lodge: His Rosalynde a prose containing sonnets and eclogues was the source of Shakespeares As You like It. 6. Thomas Nashe: He wrote an entertainment called Summers Last Will and Testament, a "show" with some resemblance to a masque. Nashe may also have contributed to Henry VI, Part 1, the play later published under Shakespeares name as the first part of the Henry VI trilogy. In 1597 Nashe co-wrote the play The Isle of Dogs with Ben Jonson. The work caused a major controversy for its "seditious" content. The play was suppressed and never published. Jonson was jailed, but Nashe was able to escape. The Unfortunate Traveler: or, the Life of Jack Wilton by Thomas Nashe is the first picaresque novel in English. The narrator, Jack Wilton, describes his adventures as a page during the wars against the French, and his subsequent travels in Italy as page to the Earl of Surrey 7. ***Christopher Marlowe was the most brilliant and interesting of all university wits . Marlowe for the first time made blank verse a powerful vehicle for the expression of varied human emotions. He is the first tragic dramatist who used the device of Nemesis in an artistic and psychological manner. He created authentic romantic tragedy in English. He broke from the ordered conventions of the Elizabethan life and drama. Tamburlaine the Great is a dramatized epic. It follows the Fall of Princes tragedy. Tamburlaine (Timur) a ruthless ambitious shepherd becomes King of Persia. Tamburlaine turns his attention to Bajazeth, Emperor of the Turks. He defeats Bajazeth capturing the Emperor and his wife Zabina. Tamburlaine keeps the defeated ruler and his wife in a cage. Bajazeth later kills himself by bashing his head against the bars and upon finding his body Zabina does likewise. Tamburlaine displays further acts of cruelty during the play and dies in the end. This was the first English play to use blank verse. Dr. Faustus: The German scholar Faustus, bored with conventional learning, sells his soul to the Devil for superhuman powers. He misuses his powers by playing tricks on the Pope and calling Helen of Troy. At the end, though Faustus is repentant, Lucifer claims his soul. The Jew of Malta: Half of the wealth of the Barabas is confiscated by the Governor of Malta and his plot for revenge begins a slaughter in which his daughter Abigails lover is killed and Abigail herself is poisoned. At the end Barabas dies by falling into a boiling caldron. Edward II is the first historical (or chronicle) play. An English king is involved in political intrigue and assassinated in this Fall of Princes tragedy. Marlowes non-dramatic poetry includes Hero and Leander, the Passionate Shepherd to His Love Other Dramatists John Fletcher was a Jacobean playwright. He is commonly assumed to have collaborated with Shakespeare on Henry VIII, The Two Noble Kinsmen, and the lost Cardenio. His mastery is most notable in two dramatic types, tragicomedy and comedy of manners. Some of his plays are: The Wild Goose Chase, Wit Without Money, The Womans Prize, The Island Princess The Mad Lover, Wife for a Month, Valentinian. Francis Beaumont was a dramatist in the English Renaissance theatre, most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher. The plays he wrote alone include; The Knight of the Burning Pestle and the Masque of the Inner Temple and Grays Inn. The plays he wrote with John Fletcher include; The Woman Hater, Cupids Revenge, Philaster, The Maids Tragedy, A King and No King, The Scornful Lady, The Captain, Loves Pilgrimage and The Noble Gentleman George Chapman was an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a classical scholar whose work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman is best remembered for his translations of Homers Iliad and Odyssey, and the Homeric Batrachomyomachia. His comic masterpiece, All Fools, combines two comedies by Terence into one comedy. John Marston was an English poet, playwright and satirist during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. The Malcontent is a revenge tragedy written by Marston. Thomas Heywood: was a prominent English playwright, actor, and author whose peak period of activity falls between late Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre. A Mayden-Head Well Lost, the Late Lancashire Witches and A Woman Killed with Kindness. John Webster was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his sensational tragedies The White Devil , based on a real-life murder story, and The Duchess of Malfi. Thomas Middleton was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. Middleton wrote in many genres, including tragedy, history and city comedy. His best-known plays are the tragedies The Changeling and Women Beware Women, and the satirical city comedy A Chaste Maid in Cheapside.

***William Shakespeare*** Shakespeare wrote 37 plays. The period of Shakespeares dramatic activity spans twenty four years (1588 1613) which is divided into the following four sub-periods: The Two Gentlemen of Verona (15891591) The Taming of the Shrew (15901594) Henry VI, Part 2 (15901591) Henry VI, Part 3 (1591), Henry VI, Part 1 (1591) Titus Andronicus (15911592) Richard III (1592) Edward III (1592-1593) The Comedy of Errors (1594) Loves Labours Lost (15941595) Loves Labours Won (15951596) Richard II (1595) Romeo and Juliet (1595) The Life and Death of King John (1596) As You Like It (15991600) Julius Caesar (1599) Henry V (15981599) Much Ado About Nothing (15981599) Henry IV, Part 2 (15961597) The Merry Wives of Windsor (15971598) The Merchant of Venice (1596) Henry IV, Part 1 (15961597) Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1607) Alls Well That Ends Well (16061607) Antony and Cleopatra (1606) Macbeth (1606) Troilus and Cressida (1602) Timon of Athens (16051606) King Lear (16051606) Othello (16031604) Measure for Measure (16031604) Twelfth Night (1601) Hamlet (15991601) Coriolanus (1608) The Winters Tale (16091610) Cymbeline (16101611) The Tempest (16101611) Cardenio (16121613) Henry VIII, or All is True (1613) The Two Noble Kinsmen (1613)

The First Period (1588 96)

The Second Period (1596 1600)

The Third Period (1601 08)

The Fourth Period (1608 1613)

Comedies Alls Well That Ends Well** As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Loves Labours Lost Measure for Measure ** The Merchant of Venice** The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Nights Dream Much Ado About Nothing Pericles, Prince of Tyre * The Taming of the Shrew The Winters Tale* The Tempest* The Two Noble Kinsmen* The Two Gentlemen of Verona Twelfth Night Cymbeline

Histories King John Richard II Henry IV, Part 1 Henry IV, Part 2 Henry V Henry VI, Part 1 Henry VI, Part 2 Henry VI, Part 3 Richard III Henry VIII

Tragedies Romeo and Juliet Coriolanus Titus Andronicus Timon of Athens Julius Caesar Macbeth Hamlet Troilus and Cressida King Lear Othello Antony and Cleopatra

Poems Shakespeares sonnets Venus and Adonis The Rape of Lucrece The Passionate Pilgrim The Phoenix and the Turtle A Lovers Complaint

Lost Plays Loves Labours Won The History of Cardenio

Plays marked with an asterisk (*) are now commonly referred to as the 'romances'. Plays marked with two asterisks (**) are sometimes referred to as the 'problem plays'.

Comedies The Comedy of Errors : A farce comedy about mistaken identities. The Comedy of Errors tells the story of twin brothers and twin slaves that were accidentally separated at birth and years later get mistaken for each other. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humor coming from mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. Alls Well That Ends Well is a tragicomedy. This play concerns a maid, Helena, who cures the King of France of a disease, then asks for Lord Bertrams hand in marriage. Bertram goes to war hoping to not marry Helena. Helena follows, and (pretending to be one of Bertrams other girlfriends) sleeps with Bertram. Bertram, matured, marries Helena. Loves Labours Lost is a romantic comedy. Four noblemen swore to study three years, avoiding all contact with women. The princess of France and her beautiful attendants soon foil the plan. Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy of mistaken identity. Being shipwrecked, Viola comes to believe that her twin brother Sebastian is lost in the storm. She disguises herself as a boy, calls herself Caesario, and enters the service of Duke Orsino as a page. The Duke uses Viola as a messenger to his beloved, Olivia, who falls in love with the messenger. Sebastian, who is looking for his sister is mistaken for Caesario by Olivia and quickly agrees to marry her. Orsino is angered, but the appearance of Sebastian explains the mix-up. The Duke discovers his love for Viola and marries her. The Winters Tale is a dramatic romance. Leontes, king of Sicilia, falsely believes that his friend king Polixenes is the lover of his wife queen Hermione. He asks his servant, Camillo, to poison Polixenes, Camillo warns Polixenes instead and they flee leaving Hermione and her little boy, Mamillius, to face the Kings displeasure. Leontes imprisons Hermione. In prison Hermione gives birth to a daughter who is exiled by Leones order. The oracle of Apollo at Delphi states that Hermione and Polixenes are blameless and the kind Leontes shall live without an heir if the lost daughter is not found. Leontes son Mamillius dies and Hermione is reported dead. The baby girl, who is abandoned on the seacoast, is brought up by a shepherd as his daughter, Perdita. Polixenes son Florizel fall in love with Perdita, but the shepherd is opposed to their marriage and they sail to Sicilia where Leontes finds that Perdita is his long-lost daughter. It also becomes clear that Hermione is not dead. The play ends with the arrangement for the marriage of Perdita and Florizel. Pericles, Prince of Tyre is a dramatic romance. Pericles in a tournament wins and weds Thasia, daughter of king Simonides. Husband and wife sail for Tyre, but Thasia is mistakenly thought to have died after giving birth to a daughter. Her body is set afloat in a casket which is washed ashore. Thasia enters the temple of Diana. Pericles leaves his baby daughter Marina with Governor Cleon and his wife Dionyza. Sixteen years later Marina becomes a beautiful girl and Dionyza plots to kill her because of jealousy. Dionyzas servant, who is entrusted with the job, cannot carry it out when Marina is captured by pirates; the servant reports back that Marina is dead, and Cleon mournfully raises a monument to her memory. Pericles encounters the tomb on a visit to Tarsus and falls into a deep despair. The pirates, meanwhile, sell Marina into a brothel in Mitylene, but she is soon freed by the governor Lysismachus. Pericles sails into Mitylene. While there, he encounters Marina, and after some talking, Pericles eventually recognizes her for his daughter; the two are happily reunited. Lysismachus, the governor, asks for Marinas hand, which Marina accepts. Then, Pericles is visited by a dream that instructs him to visit Ephesus. There he is reunited as well with Thasia (who is now the head priestess of Diana), and the whole family is together again. The Merchant of Venice: Antonio borrows money from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, in order to lend money to his friend Bassanio. Bassanio uses the money to successfully woo Portia, a wealthy and intelligent woman with a large inheritance. Unfortunately, a tragic accident makes Antonio unable to repay his debt to Shylock, and he must be punished as agreed by giving a pound of his flesh to the moneylender. Portia, disguised as a lawyer, comes to the court and saves Antonio by pointing out that Shylock may only take flesh, and not any blood. Shylock is foiled, Portia reveals her identity, and Antonios wealth is restored. Cymbeline is a tragicomedy. Cymbeline, the King of Britain, is a widower with three children. His two boys (Guiderius and Arviragus) were kidnapped 20 years ago at age three, leaving his daughter, Imogen, as the only heir to the throne. Cymbeline marries a wicked queen. Imogen, Cymbelines daughter is in love with Posthumus, but her stepmother wants Imogen to marry Cloten, the queens son. When Imogen secretly marries Posthumus, Cymbeline banishes Posthumus from Britain and imprisons Imogen. Posthumus gives Imogen a bracelet before he leaves for Rome. In Rome, Iachimo (a Frenchman) bets Posthumus that he (Iachimo) can woo Posthumus wife Imogen. Posthumus takes Iachimo up on the bet, and Iachimo heads to Britain. Iachimo cannot woo Imogen, however, so he sneaks into her bedroom, steals her bracelet, and returns to Rome to successfully convince Posthumus that he has succeeded. Posthumus, in anger, orders his servant, Pisanio, to kill Imogen. Pisanio cannot, though he makes it look like Imogen is dead by taking her to Milford Haven and disguising her as a male named Fidele. In Milford Haven, Imogen (as Fidele) meets her brothers living with Belarius, a lord banished years ago by Cymbeline. Imogen, of course, does not know this, though. It turns out that Belarius had kidnapped the boys in anger towards Cymbeline for banishing him. In the last scene of the play, Imogen returns to her father, Iachimo confesses of his evils and the stealing of Imogens bracelet ,Belarius admits to kidnapping the princes, Cymbeline allows Imogen and Posthumus to stay married. The Merry Wives of Windsor is a realistic farce comedy. It was written for Queen Elizabeth who requested a Falstaff comedy. Falstaff arrives in Windsor very short on money. He decides to obtain financial advantage that he will court two wealthy married women, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. Falstaff decides to send the women identical love letters. When the women receive the letters, each goes to tell the other and they quickly find that the letters are almost identical. The merry wives conspire with their husband to humble Falstaff in a comic way. Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare Henry IV, part 1,Henry IV, part 2 and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Falstaff, the most popular Shakespearean character throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, has been labeled as a character loaded with faults, and with those faults which naturally produce contempt. As You like It is a romantic pastoral comedy. Rosalind, the daughter of Duke Senior (the banished duke), is raised at the court of Duke Frederick (who is younger brother to Duke Senior and took over his dukedom), with her cousin Celia (daughter to Duke Frederick). She falls in love with a young man named Orlando, but before she can even think twice about it, she is banished by Duke Frederick, who threatens death if she comes near the court again. Celia, being Rosalinds best friend, goes with Rosalind (who is disguised as a boy, Ganymede) and Touchstone, the courts fool, to the Forest of Arden where Rosalinds father and his men live in exile. Upon their arrival in the forest, they come across with Orlando and his manservant, who are fleeing the wrath of Orlandos eldest brother Oliver. Rosalind re-emerges as a woman and her father gives her to Orlando. Touchstone is the first of Shakespeares wise fools.

Much Ado about Nothing: Don Pedro, Prince of Arragon, pays a visit to Leonato, the governor of Messina. Two of his officers, Benedick and Claudio accompany him. While in Messina, Claudio falls for Leonatos daughter, Hero. Benedick and Beatrice, the governors niece, have a strong dislike of each other. The trickery begins as Don Pedro (with the help of Leonato and Claudio) attempts to make Benedick and Beatrice fall in love. They really fall in love and Benedick asks Leonato for Beatrices hand in marriage. The Taming of the Shrew is a romantic farce comedy. Baptista, a wealthy merchant of Padua, has two daughters: Katherina and Bianca. He declares that no one shall wed Bianca until Katherina has been married. Lucentio of Pisa, one of many suitors to the younger and kinder Bianca, devises a scheme in which he and Tranio (his servant) will switch clothes, and thus disguised, Lucentio will offer his services as a tutor for Bianca in order to get closer to her. At his point, enter Petruchio of Verona, in Padua to visit his friend Hortensio (another suitor to Bianca). Attracted by Katherinas large dowry, Petruchio resolves to woo her. To the surprise of everyone, Petruchio claims that he finds Katherina charming and pleasant. A marriage is arranged, and Petruchio immediately sets out to tame Katherina through a series of increasingly worse tricks. By the end of the play, Lucentio has won Biancas heart and Hortensio settles for a rich widow in Padua. The Two Gentlemen of Verona: Valentine and Proteus are two young gentlemen of Verona who are best friends. Valentines father sends him to take a position in the Duke of Milans court, and Proteus accompanies him reluctantly, not wanting to leave his beloved Julia. While in Milan, Valentine falls for the Dukes daughter, Silvia. Silvia is engaged with Thurio, a wealthy courtier, although Silvia prefers Valentine. The two decide to escape but, Proteus who falls in love with Silvia betrays Valentine in order to get Valentine out of the way Valentine is banished, Silvia is confined to a jail, and Proteus becomes a confidant of the Duke in matters concerning Thurio and Silvia. Valentine joins a band of outlaws and is elected their leader. Juliadisguised as a boy pageenters Milan in search of Proteus, who is trying unsuccessfully to woo Silvia. Silvia finally escapes in search of Valentine. As fate would have it, Silvia is captured by Valentines band of outlaws. The Duke has soon learned of Silvias escape, and he, Proteus, and Thurio all set off to rescue her. Proteus recovers Silvia before the outlaws can bring her to Valentine. Valentine encounters them as Proteus makes the case for his love to Silvia; the two confront and eventually make peace with each other. The Duke and Thurio arrive upon the scene, but Thurio backs off his claim to Silvia when challenged by Valentine. As the play ends, Valentine gets Silvia with the Dukes approval, Proteus and Julia are reconciled, and the Duke grants a pardon to the band of outlaws. A Midsummer Nights Dream is a masque fantasy. Lysander loves Hermia, and Hermia loves Lysander. Helena loves Demetrius; Demetrius used to love Helena but now loves Hermia. Egeus, Hermias father, prefers Demetrius as a suitor, and enlists the aid of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, to enforce his wishes upon his daughter. According to Athenian law, Hermia is given four days to choose between Demetrius, life in a nunnery, or a death sentence. Hermia, ever defiant, chooses to escape with Lysander into the surrounding forest. Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of Fairies, are locked in a dispute over a boy whom Titania has adopted. Oberon instructs his servant Puck to bring him magic love drops, which Oberon will sprinkle on the Queens eyelids as she sleeps, whereupon Titania will fall in love with the first creature she sees upon awakening. Meanwhile, Helena and Demetrius have also fled into the woods after Lysander and Hermia. Oberon, overhearing Demetriuss denouncement of Helena, takes pity upon her and tells Puck to place the magic drops upon the eyelids of Demetrius as well, so that Demetrius may fall in love with Helena. Puck, however, makes the mistake of putting the drops on the eyelids of Lysander instead. Helena stumbles over Lysander in the forest, and the spell is cast; Lysander now desires Helena and renounces a stunned Hermia. Oberon himself anoints Demetrius with the love potion and ensures that Helena is the first person he sees. At the end of the play, Oberon puts Lysander, Hermia, Helena, and Demetrius to sleep and gives Lysander the antidote for the love potion so that he will love Hermia again when they all wake up. Next, Oberon gives Titania the antidote, and the King and Queen reconcile. The Two Noble Kinsmen is essentially an adaptation of Chaucers Knights Tale. The two kinsmen Palamon and Arcite are captured while fighting for Thebes against Athens. While imprisoned, the two cousins find themselves attracted to Emilia, who is the sister of Hippolyta, wife of Theseus. Theseus exiles Arcite from Athens and leaves Palamon in jail. Arcite disguises himself as a peasant in order to keep an eye on Emilia. Meanwhile, the jailers daughter has fallen in love with Palamon. She helps him to escape and aids him once hes hiding in the nearby forest. There Arcite encounters him. The two men decide to duel for Emilia. However, as they prepare for the duel, the two are discovered by Theseus. Theseus asks Emilia to choose between them, with the loser being put to death. Emilia, however, cant decide, so Theseus declares that the matter will be settled by combat, Palamon and Arcite will fight for Emilias hand, with the loser to be executed. The time for the contest comes about, and Arcite defeats Palamon. However, fate twists dramatically as Palamon awaits execution. A messenger arrives bringing news of Arcites mortal wounding suffered in a horse riding accident. Arcite gives Emilias hand to Palamon before he dies. Measure for Measure is a tragicomedy. The Duke of Vienna, who is accused of not punishing seducers, appoints Angelo as his deputy and pretends to visit Poland, but he stays in Vienna as a disguised friar. Claudio is arrested for getting his fiance, Juliet, pregnant before they are married; Angelo condemns him with a death sentence. Claudios sister, Isabella, hastens to Angelo to plead for her brothers life. Angelo tells her that he will grant a pardon to Claudio if she sleeps with him. Isabella relates her tale to Claudio, who understandably is more willing to trade his sisters virtue for his life. While in the jail, the Duke (in disguise) eavesdrops upon the conversation and sets into motion a plot to save both Claudio and Isabella. The Duke knows of one Mariana, formerly engaged to Angelo, who still loves him. He persuades Isabella to accept Angelos offer; when the moment comes, Mariana will switch places in the dark with Isabella. Mariana agrees readily to the plot, and the events transpire as planned. Angelo, however, decides to execute Claudio anyway. When the Duke gets this news, he reveals himself. The Duke orders that Angelo should marry Mariana and Claudio should marry Juliet. The Duke makes his own arrangements to be married with Isabella. The Tempest : Shakespeares last play is a dramatic romance. Prospero, the Duke of Milan, who is absorbed in books and magic, is expelled by his brother Antonio and cast adrift with his baby daughter Miranda in a leaky boat. Prospero dwells on a desert island and makes servants out of the ethereal spirit Ariel and the subhuman Caliban. Twelve years later when magic reveals that a ship bearing his old enemies is sailing near the island; Prospero summons a storm to wreck their ship. The survivors make it to shore in scattered groups. Among these is Ferdinand, the son of Antonio. Ferdinand falls in love with Miranda. Prospero frees Ferdinand from his spell and entraps Antonio who is forgiven but must restore the dukedom to Prospero who renounces his magic, frees Ariel and sails for Italy, leaving Caliban the sole resident of the island. Prospero is often considered as Shakespeare, the magician- dramatist himself. Prospero buries his magic books just as Shakespeare leaves the theatre with this last play.

Tragedies Romeo and Juliet: Shakespeares first romantic tragedy in which the lovers fall in love at first sight, but they- are star- crossed lovers, cursed in a world made by their elders. Vendetta between the houses of Montague and Couplet leads to the deaths of two lovers. Macbeth, a tragedy of evil, is the story of an ambitious general who encounters three witches called Weird Sisters. They tell him that he will be king and greet Banquo as the father of kings. Encouraged by his wife, Macbeth kills King Duncan who, as his kinsman and lord, has honored him by visiting him as a guest. Aiming at capturing the future, Macbeth kills Banquo and many others. Lady Macbeth becomes insane from guilt and commits suicide. The enemy troops headed by Duncans son Malcolm, approach Macbeth castle. Macbeth is killed and Malcolm is proclaimed king of Scotland. Troilus and Cressida King Lear deals with the error of judgement, moral blindness and gaining insight through suffering. The aging king Lear decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. In the love test Cordelia, the youngest and the dearest daughter, fails and she is disinherited. The kingdom is divided between two elder daughters. Kent is banished for protesting and Cordelia marries the King of France. The elder daughters display ingratitude toward the old king who dashes out alone into a wild storm where he goes mad. Gloucester is blinded for helping Lear. Edgar helps his blinded father to Dover where Cordelia has landed with French troops to help Lear who regains his sanity. Cordelia and Lear are defeated and Lear dies in grief while carrying the dead body of Cordelia. Othello: Othello is a general in Venetian army. He secretly marries Desdemona, the daughter of a senator. Since the Turks have attacked Cyprus, Othello proceeds to the islands defense. In Cyprus, Iago, Othellos ensign who is jealous of Cassio who is promoted, makes a plot to ruin Othello. He convinces Othello that Cassio is Desdemonas lover. Othello smothers his wife; Iagos treachery is revealed and Othello commit suicides. Hamlet: Prince Hamlet is visited by his fathers ghost and ordered to avenge his fathers murder by killing King Claudius, his uncle. After struggling with several questions, including whether what the ghost said is true and whether it is right for him to take revenge, Hamlet, along with almost all the other major characters, is killed. Timon of Athens seems unfinished. Timon, a noble Athenian, ignores the warnings of his faithful steward Flavius and loses his wealth by entertaining his friends who later desert him when he seeks help in his poverty. He invites the ungrateful friends to a pretended banquet where the uncovered dishes reveal only warm water. Timon goes mad, flees to a cave in the woods, finds buried treasure, but eventually dies poor and insane. Antony and Cleopatra is a Fall of Princes tragedy. Antony, though married to Fluvia, lives in Alexandria, Egypt with his mistress Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt. Fueled by a disgust at his lifestyle in Egypt and anger over the wars caused by Antonys relatives, Caesar calls Antony home to Rome. Antony agrees, but only after Fluvia dies of an illness. Once in Rome, Caesar and Antony try to make amends through the marriage of Antony to Caesars sister Octavia. Antony soon deserts Octavia, and returns to live with Cleopatra. Caesar, enraged, vows to attack and regain control of Egypt from Antony and Cleopatra. Antony, facing defeat, asks Eros (a friend) to kill him. Eros cannot, and instead kills himself. Antony then kills himself by falling on his sword. Cleopatra, in grief over Antonys death and determined never to fall under Caesars command commits suicide by allowing poisonous asps to bite her. Titus Andronicus is Shakespeares bloodiest play and a revenge tragedy. Tamora is the queen of the Goths. She and her sons are captured by Titus, a Roman general and brought to Rome. Saturnius sets her free and she sets out to take revenge on Titus and to destroy his family. Demetrius and Chiron, Tamoras sons kill Bassianus in the woods, then rape and mutilate Lavinia, leaving her without a tongue to speak or hands to write. Titus ensnares Demetrius and Chiron (who Lavinia has identified as her attackers), slays them, and sets to making a pie from their remains. When Tamora and Saturnius arrive Titus offers them a dinner, featuring pie as the main course. In the midst of the feasting, Titus slays Lavinia to relieve her misery, reveals the secret ingredient of his pie, and then turns his sword on Tamora, slaying her. Saturnius slays Titus in turn. Lucius slays Saturnius and becomes king. Tragedy of Coriolanus: The Roman military leader Caius Martius, after leading Rome to several victories against the Volscans, returns home as a war hero with a new last name, Coriolanus, given for the city of Corioles which he conquered. However, after an attempt at political office turns sour, he is banished from Rome as a traitor. Hungry for revenge, Coriolanus becomes leader of the Volscan army and marches to the gates of Rome. His mother, his wife, and his son, however, beg him to stop his attack. He agrees and makes peace between Romans and Volscans, but is assassinated by enemy Volscans. Julius Caesar is a Fall of Princes tragedy. Cassius persuades his friend Brutus to join a conspiracy to kill Julius Caesar, whose power seems to be growing too great for Romes good. After killing Caesar, however, Brutus fails to convince the people that his cause was just. He and Cassius eventually commit suicide as their hope for Rome becomes a lost cause. Troilus and Cressida: The Trojans are under siege by the Grecian army of Agamemnon. Troilus, a Trojan, falls in love with Cressida, a Greek captive. When Cressida is given back to the Greeks as part of a prisoner exchange, Troilus fears that she will fall in love with one of them. His fears prove to be true when he crosses enemy lines during a truce and sees her and a Greek man together. Characteristics of Shakespearean Comedy A struggle of young lovers to overcome problems, often the result of the interference of their elders There is some element of separation and reunification Mistaken identities, often involving disguise A clever servant Family tensions that are usually resolved in the end Complex, interwoven plot-lines Frequent use of puns All Shakespearean comedies end happily. Most often, this happy ending involves marriage or pending marriage. Love always wins out in the end. Use of all styles of comedy

Characteristics of Shakespearean Tragedy Characters become isolated or there is social breakdown Ends in death There is a sense that events are inevitable or inescapable There is usually a central figure who is noble but with a character flaw which leads them towards their eventual downfall Shakespeares Influence In Shakespeares day, English grammar, spelling and pronunciation were less standardized than they are now, and his use of language helped shape modern English. Scholars have identified 20,000 pieces of music linked to Shakespeares works. These include two operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Othello and Falstaff. His work heavily influenced later poetry. The Romantic poets attempted to revive Shakespearean verse drama, though with little success. Shakespeares work has made a lasting impression on later theatre and literature. In particular, he expanded the dramatic potential of characterization, plot, language, and genre. Shakespeare influenced novelists such as Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner, and Charles Dickens. The American novelist Herman Melvilles soliloquies owe much to Shakespeare; his Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick is a classic tragic hero, inspired by King Lear. The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud drew on Shakespearean psychology, in particular that of Hamlet, for his theories of human nature Until Romeo and Juliet romance had not been viewed as a worthy topic for tragedy. Soliloquies had been used mainly to convey information about characters or events; but Shakespeare used them to explore characters. Shakespeare used no less than 297 figures of speech. Shakespeares favorite stylistic devices were the antonyms and the linguistic repetitions. The combination of linguistic repetition and antonym results in frequent puns or wordplays. More than 200 puns occur in Loves Labours Lost and more than 100 in Alls Well that Ends Well. Many well-known English sayings come from Shakespeares work, and he had a great influence on the English language. He expanded the scope of English literature by introducing new words and phrases, experimenting with blank verse, and also introducing new poetic and grammatical structures. He is the most quoted writer in the history of the English-speaking world.

***Ben JONSON (1572-1632) Jonsons chief contribution to drama was to enrich the possibilities of the genre called comedy of humors, in which stock characters- cheeky slaves, miserly oldsters and braggart soldiers- are played against each other. Every Man in His Humor: The play belongs to the subgenre of the "humors," in which each major character is dominated by an overriding humor or obsession. Stock characters- a jealous husband, country bumpkin, deceived father and simple squire are linked together. The play overtly about a fathers concern over his sons morals. But the father, Kno-well, doesnt express that concern directly. Instead, he resorts to indirect, questionable means by having a servant spy upon his sons activities. Volpone (or The Fox) is a satiric comedy, drawing on elements of city comedy, black comedy and beast fable. A merciless satire of greed and lust, it remains Jonsons most-performed play, and it is among the finest Jacobean comedies. Volpone, a rich Venetian, has no relative to make his heir; he must name someone his beneficiary. So, he pretends to be fatally ill. Several rivals try to attain his favor by bringing the sick Volpone gifts that they hope will be returned tenfold. The Alchemist: With his master Lovewit resting in the country to avoid an outbreak of plague in London, a clever servant named Face develops a scheme to make money and amuse himself. He gives Subtle, a charlatan, and a prostitute named Dol Common access to the house. Subtle disguises himself as an alchemist, with Face as his servant; Doll disguises herself as a zealous Puritan. Together, the three of them cheat foolish clients. Epicoene, or the Silent Woman is a farce. It is the story of Morose, a wealthy old man who cannot stand noise and marries a young girl, Epicoene, who is supposed to be quiet all day long. She turns out to be an incessant talker and a boy in disguise, a friend of the old mans disinherited nephew. His famous comedies are The Case is Altered, Every Man in His Humor, Every Man out of His Humor, Epicone or The Silent Woman, The Alchemist, The Bartholomew Fair, The Devil is an Ass, The Light Heart, Humor Reconciled and A Tale of A Tub. Ben Jonson also wrote two tragedies Sejanus and Cataline. In The Masque of Blackness Queen Anne held the leading role. Jonson as a poet wrote epigrams, epistles, odes. His most often mentioned poems are To Celia, the egocentric Ode to Himself and especially To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author (also known as Jonsons Eulogy). In 1616 Ben Jonson was named Englands first poet laureate; however, the title did not become an official royal office until 1668, when John Dryden assumed the honored post. Since that time, the office has been awarded for life. The poet laureate is responsible for composing poems for court and national occasions. At the time of each laureates death, it is the duty of the prime minister to nominate successors from which the reigning sovereign will choose. It is the Lord Chamberlain who appoints the poet laureate by issuing a warrant to the laureate-elect. The life appointment is always announced in the London Gazette.

The Cavalier Poets Called the tribe of Ben (or Sons of Ben) because they were greatly influenced by Ben Jonson, they were sophisticated poets who supported the King and opposed the sober Puritans. Robert Herrick: the greatest of the Cavalier poets and the only one not a courtier, he extolled the ides of Carpe diem (size the day) and wrote many love poems. The best-known is To the Virgins to Make Much of Time. Thomas Carew.: He wrote lyric poems. He used analogy, euphemism, and paradox. Ask Me No More, A Cruel Mistress, the Unfading Beauty. Sir John Suckling: His greatest contribution to poetry was the use of the language of ordinary conversations among courtiers. He used irony and realism in dealing with conventional love themes as in Why So Pale and Wan, Fair Lover? Richard Lovelace: His best known works are "To Althea, from Prison," and "To Lucasta, Going to the Warres." ***John DONNE (1572-1631) - Metaphysical Poetry The poetry of Donne represents a sharp break with that written by his predecessors and most of his contemporaries. The clichs of earlier love poetry (bleeding hearts, checks like roses, lips like cherries, cupid shooting the arrows of love) appear in Donnes poetry only to be mocked. Donne was the leading exponent of a style of poetry called metaphysical poetry. Metaphysical poetry synthesizes passion and intellect to display both feeling and learning. Metaphysical poetry typically employs unusual verse forms, complex figures of speech, surprising metaphorical conceits, and learned themes discussed according to eccentric and unexpected chains of reasoning often by deliberate harshness or rigidity of expression. In addition to conceits, Donne makes frequent use of paradoxes, imagery, puns and relies on conversational language to give the lyrics a sense of immediacy. Go and Catch a Falling Star wittily comments on the impossibility of finding a faithful woman. The Indifferent is spoken by a bachelor who demands disloyalty in love. A Valediction Forbidding Mourning Donne uses the metaphor of compass to show the union of the two lovers even as they are separated. The Flea The poem uses the conceit of a flea, which has sucked blood from the male speaker and his female lover, to serve as an extended metaphor for the relationship between them. The speaker tries to convince a lady to sleep with him, arguing that if their blood mingling in the flea is innocent, then sexual mingling would also be innocent. The Ecstasy makes a mystical religious experience of the joining souls of two lovers The Canonization The speaker begs his friend not to dissuade him from loving, but to insult him for other reasons instead, or to focus on other matters entirely. He supports his plea by asking whether any harm has been done by his love. The speaker describes how dramatically love affects him and his lover, claiming that their love will live on in legend, even if they die. They have been canonized by Love. Good Friday 1613, Riding Westward has the poet turn his back to the scene of Crucifixion to receive corrections. John Donne was the leading Metaphysical poet; others include George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Andrew Marvell, and Abraham Cowley. George Herbert: Virtue, the Collar and the Temple, the Elixir are his best-known poems. All of Herberts English surviving poems are religious, and some have been used as hymns Herberts "Easter Wings", a pattern poem in which the work is not only meant to be read, but its shape is meant to be appreciated. In this case, the poem was printed on two facing pages of a book, sideways, so that the lines suggest two birds flying upward, with wings spread out Henry Vaughan: His best- known poem is The Retreat. Andrew Marvell was an English metaphysical poet and politician. His poems include To His Coy Mistress, The Garden, An Horatian Ode upon Cromwells Return from Ireland, The Mowers Song and the country house poem Upon Appleton House. Abraham Cowley: The Mistress is a sequence of love poems that includes the popular lyric The Wish a eulogy of country life. He was also praised for his Pindaric odes in which he introduced the type of irregular ode much imitated by John Dryden. ***John MILTON (1608- 1674) Areopagitica is among historys most influential defenses of free speech and freedom of the press. Paradise Lost the blank-verse epic poem in twelve books was composed by the blind Milton .As a blind poet, Milton dictated his verse to a series of aides in his employ. Based on the Bible and other writing available in Renaissance, the epic begins with the fall from the Heaven of the rebel angels, and continues through Satans temptation of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Lycidas is a pastoral elegy on the death of his friend, the poet Edward King. Paradise Regained is an epic poem in four books describing Christs temptation in the wilderness. Samson Agonistes is a closet tragedy (i.e. not intended for the stage)

DRAMA Drama or play is a literary composition written to be performed on a stage by actors in front of an audience. TERMINOLOGY Script the written form of a play Characters Characters are the people (sometimes animals or ideas) portrayed by the actors in the play. It is the characters, who move the action, or plot, of the play forward. Cast of characters list of all the characters or players at the beginning of the script. Stage directions Notes incorporated in or added to the script of a play to indicate the moment of a characters appearance, character and manner; the style of delivery; the actors movements; details of location, scenery and effects are the stage directions Scene It is a minor division in a play. If a play has no acts, then the play is usually divided into scenes. If a play has acts, they are the minor divisions in an act. Like acts, they usually signal a change in the theme, the situation, setting or characters. ActIt is the main division of a play. They usually signal a change in the theme, the situation, the phase of the plot, setting or characters. Doubling One actor taking more than one part in a play. Prologue speech or a short scene preceding the main action of the play that sets a mood and defines or defends the script. Monologue uninterrupted speech delivered by one character in a play to other characters. Dialogue lines of conversation spoken by characters. Soliloquy inner thoughts of a character spoken alone on stage to explore the characters private thoughts; often lyric in style and highly emotional. Soliloquy is very important in drama because it is the only moment that the audience directly learns the immediate thoughts and feelings of a character. Aside The words usually spoken directly to the audience. These words are not heard by the other characters on stage. Aside may rarely take place between two characters on stage. Pathos A quality of a plays action that stimulates the audience to feel pity for a character. Pathos is always an aspect of tragedy, and may be present in comedy as well. Poetic justice We can call this basically as Good are rewarded, bad are punished. It is the fair distribution of rights in a play. However, it is usually found unrealistic. Dramatic ironyThis type of irony occurs when the audience knows something that the character on stage does not know. ELEMENTS OF DRAMA 1. PLOT This is what happens in the play. Plot is the sequence of events in a play. It is the pattern that the playwright arranges for the presentation of the characters and events. An effective plot should: maintain the interest of the audience from the beginning to move the action on from one episode to the next arouse interest of the audience in character create high points or moments of crisis at intervals create expectation and surprise There are four types of plot structure: triangular plot structure, open-ended plot structure, linear plot structure and circular plot structure. Triangular Plot Structure: It is also called Freytags Pyramid. It consists of two main parts: rising action and falling action. Exposition: The introductory material, which often creates the tone. Gives the setting, introduces the characters, and supplies other facts necessary for understanding The exposition ends with the inciting moment, which is the one incident in the story without which there would be no story. The inciting moment sets the rest of the story in motion. Rising Action: It can also be called the complication. Rising action is an increase in tension or uncertainty developing out of the conflict the protagonist faces.

Conflict: It is the opposition between the main character and another person or inanimate force. Conflict may occur in different forms: Man versus man Man versus system Man versus self Man versus society Man versus nature Man versus God Climax: The climax is also called the crisis. It is the peak of the action and the turning point in a play. It may not be the point which we feel the tension most, but it is the point that changes the course of action. After the climax everything changes. Falling action: It follows the climax. During the falling action, the conflict unravels with the main character either winning or losing. The tension is relieved and the events come to an end with the resolution. Resolution: the end of the falling action and the solution of the conflict. Denouement involves not only the resolution of the conflict but an explanation of all the secrets and misunderstandings connected with the plot; the tying up of loose ends, exposure of a villain, clearing up a mistaken identity, reuniting characters, etc.

Sometimes the ending of a play is not satisfactory or the human beings are too weak to solve these problems. At such moments a device called deus ex machina appears on the stage with the help of stage properties and solves the problems. This device is a kind of supernatural power, sometimes the representation of god and helps the humans to solve the conflicts and establishes the equilibrium. Deus ex machina was a frequently used device especially in Classical Greek and Roman drama. It is however quite unrealistic. Open-Ended Plot Structure: In this type of plot structure, we again have the exposition and the rising action, but we do not have a resolution. The play usually ends in climactic moment and the readers and the spectators are left to imagine the rest of the play themselves. Linear Plot Structure: In this type of plot structure there is almost no tension and there is no climax. Nothing very drastic occurs. Circular Plot Structure: In this type, the play opens at a specific time with certain characters. At the end, the play ends at the similar time with the same characters doing similar actions. This type of plot structure is also very frequently used in films. 2. CHARACTERS The characters in a play can be categorized according to their functions in a play: Protagonist: The main character of a play. S/he is the character who experiences and is influenced by the conflict most. The protagonist doesnt need to be a good character. S/he can also be evil. Antagonist: The person or the thing that struggles against the protagonist. The antagonist is the thing or person that creates the conflict. The antagonist may do this consciously or unconsciously. Like the protagonist, the antagonist is not necessarily a bad character, but s/he or it is always the other party in a conflict. Stock characters or stereotypes: These are the characters whose function in different plays is the same. They are usually used to represent a certain characteristic. Dumb blonde or evil stepmother can be given as examples. They are usually portrayed in similar ways. Confidant (Male) or Confidante (Female): It is a character who shares the secrets of the main character in a play. This character usually helps the main character by carrying letters or advising him/her. S/he is usually the servant or the maid of the house. Foil or Counterpart: In order to highlight a personal trait of one character, the playwright presents a character that has the opposite traits. For instance, in order to show that one character is really a good character, the playwright juxtaposes him/her with a very bad character, so we understand the value of the former one. The hardworking and the lazy, the honest and the liar can be given as foils. However, this should not be confused by the protagonist and antagonist relationship. The antagonist doesnt need to be the foil of the protagonist. Chorus: Chorus was a commonly used device in the Classical Greek and Roman Drama. It was a group of people who commented on the events that took place on the stage. They usually voiced the common sense. In the Elizabethan Age in England, chorus was a single person who announced the prologue and the epilogue, and introduced each act Narrator: Although narration is not typical in drama, some plays have narrators who narrate the story of the play. These narrators may be a character from the play or they may be an external narrator who does not take place in the action. Sometimes the narrators relate to the audience the events that do not take place on the stage, especially the unpleasant ones such as murder and rape. 3. THOUGHT Thought is the themes, arguments, overall meaning of the action. These ideas unify the plays dramatic action. Meaning is implied through conflicts, resolutions, spectacles, music and the relationships between characters. 4. DICTION / LANGUAGE Dramatists depend largely on dialogue and stage directions to convey their tone. Diction here is used to give information, to reveal characters, themes and ideas. The use of language is also important in establishing the pace of a play. No matter how realistic a play is, the playwright selects, arranges and plays with the language for a specific dramatic effect. The language in a play should be judged for its appropriateness to the characters, situation, probability and type of play. For instance, it would be improbable if a person who has never received an education speak highly elaborate language. 5. MUSIC The term includes all patterned sounds. The performers use of pitch, stress, volume, tempo, duration and quality can be considered as music. The background music is also in this element. Music in drama, especially with lyrics can establish mood, help characterization, suggest ideas, create variety and transmit ideas. Music can sometimes be used as a symbol. 6. SPECTACLE All the visual elements including the movement and spatial relationships of characters, lighting, costumes, setting and properties in a play are named as spectacle. Spectacle is everything that the audience sees as they watch the play. 7. SETTING Setting is the time and the place of a literary work. Setting constitutes a significant part of drama. Sometimes the motives of the characters, the events and even the language of a play are largely determined by the places that the play takes place and the times when the events in the play happen. Setting can be geographical / regional, specific / universal, physical /mental. TYPES OF DRAMA There are three basic types of drama: tragedy, comedy and tragicomedy. TRAGEDY Tragedy is a form of drama which deals with serious themes and dignified characters. The purpose of tragedy is to evoke pity and fear. There are six basic features in a tragedy: a. At the beginning of the play there is order in the society, but something disrupts this order. b. This event results in chaos or disorder. c. There are extreme emotions. d. Social restraint disintegrates. e. The main character usually dies or is left miserable along with many characters. f. The equilibrium and order in society is reestablished at the end.

In tragedies, the central character is the tragic hero who is usually from nobility or the aristocratic class. This noble character is chosen deliberately because his/her fall will affect not only himself but the people around him and even the whole nation so that the tragic effect can be more intensified at the end of the play. The tragic hero is of higher class and is of good morality, yet he is not perfect. This imperfection in the hero makes the hero tragic as it eventually leads to a weakness which is called tragic flaw. It is usually hubris, the heros excessive pride that paves the way for his/her destruction. The hero is overconfident and cannot see some of the future events, which makes him make wrong decisions. This error of judgment which is also called hamartia brings the downfall, destruction of the tragic hero. The destruction of the tragic hero is called catastrophe Tragic flaw: the imperfection in the character of the tragic hero Hubris: excessive pride Hamartia: error of judgment because of excessive pride Catastrophe: the death or the destruction of the tragic hero , the concluding action Catharsis or Purgation describes the release of the emotions of pity and fear by the audience at the end of a tragedy. COMEDY Comedy is a type of drama that deals with light or serious issues with a humorous or satirical manner. Unlike tragedy, the protagonist of comedy is an ordinary person. Comedy deals with comic situations concerning certain stereotypes who are not really interested in serious social or political issues. The incidents dealt with in comedies usually concern people worse than us. The main purpose of comedy is entertainment and some light criticism and it aims at satire and humor and the revelation of human folly. The main stereotypes used in comedy are The cunning slave or servant The libertine father or husband The boastful soldier or captain The unfaithful, intriguing wife The greedy pimp or go-between The melancholy, love-sick lover The prodigal son The changeling (the young kidnapped or adopted girl whose identity is later reveled. The main elements of comedy are: Intrigue Unreturned love and suffering Gossip or rumor Disguise or mistaken identity Exaggeration Fantasy or fantastic situations Surprise Music and dance Farce and mimicry Ridiculous types Loquaciousness (talkative manner) and boastfulness Separation and reunion Comedy can be divided into two basic groups: high comedy and low comedy. High comedy can be defined as intellectual comedy. In this type of comedy, laughter is attained through exchange of witty remarks, and humorous comments and epigrams, expressing an idea in a very clever way. Low comedy, on the other hand, relies on mostly physical humor, slapstick jokes. The purpose of low comedy is primarily to entertain the audience for a specific time. It doesnt aim at long term intellectual thought. TYPES OF COMEDY Romantic comedy: Romantic comedy usually deals with love affairs in which the lovers take love too seriously and behave foolishly. The characters are usually young and inexperienced and they face difficulties, yet at the end of these plays the problems are solved and the play ends happily Well known examples of romantic comedies are Shakespeares As You Like It and A Midsummer Nights Dream. Satiric Comedy: These plays primarily satirize the literary, philosophical, and political or the social matters of their period. Some examples of satirical comedy are Ben Johnsons The Alchemist and Volpone. Comedy of Manners: Although comedy of manners has its roots in the Greek Drama, it gained popularity and a new dimension in the eighteenth century. With the industrial revolution, middle class began to lead a more comfortable life and they adopted new tastes of luxury and art. However, as most of them come from poorer backgrounds they were considered to be social climbers and they were criticized for exaggerating their behavior and morality. Therefore, in comedy of manners, the morality and the manners of the upper middle-classes and the upper classes are ridiculed. The purpose is usually to give a moral lesson and highlight the corruption in the society. Therefore, the characters are portrayed as ridiculous personalities. In comedy of manners, there are a lot of stock characters, nevertheless, this genre is sometimes considered as unrealistic because of the superficial depiction of the characters. The most famous example of the genre is The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde. Farce It is a type of comedy that aims at simple laughter or belly laughter. The plots are usually improbable, the characters are exaggerated, sometimes caricaturized. There are stereotypes. It is usually considered a type of low comedy as there is no emphasis on witticism and the characterization is not very important. The significant thing in farce is to present comic situations one after another. Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare can be given as an example.

Comedy of humors It is based on the ancient belief that a persons character is influenced by the fluids (blood, phlegm, choler and black bile) of his/her body. If these fluids are not balanced in the body, the character has a kind of characteristic distortion or eccentricity of disposition. In this type of comedy the audience laughs at the character himself. Every Man in His Humour by Ben Johnson is an example of comedy of humors. Comedia dell Arte It was a type of comedy that aroused in the mid-sixteenth century, and staged especially by Italian actors. There is no real text, but just an outline of the main actions and the entrance of the main characters. The rest is completed by the actors on the stage and the actors improvise the dialogue on the scenario. In a typical play, young lovers deceive a rich old father who is aided by a clever and intriguing servant. Comedy of Errors As the name suggests, the plot of comedy of errors includes a lot of mistakes, mistaken identities. The plot introduces one error after another which puts the characters in comic situations. Dramatic irony is one of the most frequently devices in Comedy of Errors. Shakespeares Comedy of Errors is an example to this type of comedy. Sentimental Comedy Although the name of the genre is comedy, the main purpose of this type of comedy is to evoke sorrow and make the audience cry.The characters are usually Casanovas and flirtatious sophisticated women. The Casanova changes at the end of the play and learns his lesson. As a result, there is a moral touch given with the happy ending. However, like the comedy of manners, sentimental comedies are considered to be unrealistic. Richard Steeles The Conscious Lovers is an example of sentimental comedy. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TRAGEDY AND COMEDY The most essential difference between tragedy and comedy, particularly scornful comedy, is in their depiction of human nature. Where tragedy emphasizes human greatness, comedy delineates human weakness. Tragedy celebrates human freedom, comedy points up human limitation. Wherever men fail to measure up to their own resolutions or to their own self-conceptions, wherever they are guilty of hypocrisy, vanity or folly wherever they fly in the face of good sense and rational behavior, comedy exhibits their absurdity and invites us to laugh at them. In tragedies, the tragic hero is responsible for his own actions and his catastrophe is purely a result of his own decisions. On the other hand, in comedies the main character is not isolated like the tragic hero whose uniqueness is emphasized; s/he is usually portrayed in a group to highlight the ordinariness of the character. These are of course not the only differences between comedy and tragedy. Below is a list of differences between tragedy and comedy. SOME DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN CLASSICAL TRAGEDY AND COMEDY COMEDY: Purpose and Effect Purpose and Effect Emphasizes human suffering Emphasizes renewal of human nature Ends with rigid finality Moves from rigidity to freedom Moves with solemnity and foreboding Plays with prevailing high spirits Emotional Response (pity and fear) Intellectual response (ridicule and absurdity) Identification with the hero Scorn/approval of protagonist/others Laments mans fate Celebrates life Criticizes hubris, self-delusion, and complacency Criticizes folly, self-delusion, and complacency Offers some hope (men can learn), but stresses limitations of the Suggests cynicism (men are fools), but offers hope of renewal. human condition. [Hope is only after the play ends not during the play] Tragic Hero Comic Protagonist Hero recognizes his great mistake, but too late to change it "Hero" awakens to better nature after folly exposed. Hero demonstrates a personal flaw or error in perception "Hero" undergoes improbable improvement. Hero frequently hubristic Hero" frequently intolerant or prudish Hero isolated from community in individuality "Hero" finds selfhood by joining flow of society and community, rejecting individuality Hero exercises free will "Hero" is a comic mechanism Hero suffers terrible downfall Hero" loses and recovers his equilibrium Hero fails through error "Hero" triumphs by luck, wit, acceptance Hero aspires to more than he can achieve "Hero" pretends to be more than he is Hero is larger than life, considerably above the audience in status or Hero" is just like everyone else, or might even be an anti-hero or responsibility buffoon. Tragic Struggle Comic Struggle Serious and painful struggle Less serious and painful struggle Life and societal norms at odds Norms valid and necessary Struggle against unchangeable Struggle against movable Struggle dominated by Fate or necessity Struggle dominated by Fortune (chance) Discovery of true nature leads to heros isolation Discovery of true nature leads to heros conformity with group norms. Struggle against predictable and inevitable Struggle against coincidence (unpredictable) Struggle between man and destiny, or between Struggle between individual and group or between groups (e.g., men man and social forces beyond mans control and women) TRAGEDY:

Tragic Methods Tragedy depends on validity of universal norms Cohering episodes clarify action Causality dominates pattern of (a) deed, which leads to (b) suffering, which leads to (c) recognition or understanding Plot moves from freedom of choice to inflexible consequence

Comic Methods Comedy exploits conflicting values Plot more intricate, less plausible Coincidence dominates a patternless grappling with the unpredictable and the absurd. Plot forwarded by chance discoveries and accidental encounters. Plot moves from rigidity at the beginning to greater freedom for characters at end.

TRAGICOMEDY Tragicomedy is a type of play which combines the elements of tragedy and comedy. Specifically, the general outline of the play is suitable for tragedy as there is a good deal of suffering, but the play ends happily which adds a comic touch to the play. ROMANCE PLAYS Romances are plays in which fantastic and magical elements are used to explore the themes. These plays are best known for their unrealistic plots and characterization. In these plays, The action centers on a noble family and a king; An evil or misguided deed is done; There is separation for long years as a result of this misdeed; Through suffering a sort of salvation happens (sometimes with deus ex machina); In the end the old evil is transformed and there is reconciliation. A BRIEF HISTORY OF DRAMA It is usually accepted that drama dates back to ancient Greece. These early plays were performed in the celebrations for the god Dionysus (the god of wine and theatre) in spring and summer. The first examples of comedy and tragedy also originate from Greece. Later on, the Roman Empire is also inspired by the Greek theatre and borrowed especially Greek comedy. Yet, most of these plays were not real literature and they involved plenty of violence. MEDIEVAL DRAMA With the acceptance of Christianity as the official state religion, the Roman emperors banned theatrical actions. For approximately five centuries almost no plays were staged and no theatres were built because the emperors believed that the nudity, gladiatorial representations, false representations of truth and the impersonation of one man by another and -even worse of a woman by a man by means of transvestism were against Christianity and biblical teachings. It is ironic that drama again emerged within the Christian church. This new form of drama was however quite different from the immoral drama of the five centuries earlier. This drama was highly religious and it was called liturgical drama. These plays were performed on religious fests like Easter and Christmas and they were performed by the priests to highlight the significance of the day. There are two types of liturgical drama: mystery plays and miracle plays. Mystery plays: the mystery plays took their subject matter from the biblical stories. In fact they were the staging of the biblical stores. These were usually very short episodes from the Bible. Miracle plays: They were usually dramatizations of the lives of Christian saints and were staged especially on the religious festivals. Liturgical drama became so popular that people were too crowded to watch the performances in churches. As a result, plays began to be performed on the streets. Later, they began to use the conventions of street theatre and incorporate humor and parody. As a result of this shift, liturgical drama was transformed into a non-liturgical one, and the plays that were peculiar to this period were called morality plays. Morality plays were still religious, yet their subject matter was neither biblical stories nor the lives of saints. Morality plays were the allegorical representations of the individual Christians who try to resist the temptations of the world and reach salvation. The development of drama in England was also triggered by the popularity of morality plays. RENAISSANCE DRAMA: ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN DRAMA (1558-1642) The Renaissance drama also originates from the morality plays. Nevertheless, with the reign of Henry VIII, the Anglican Church was separated from the Roman Catholic Church and Henry VIII prepared the end of the religious drama. Later, Companies of players attached to households of leading noblemen and performing seasonally in various locations existed before the reign of Elizabeth I. These became the foundation for the professional players that performed on the Elizabethan stage. The tours of these players gradually replaced the performances of the mystery and morality plays by local players, and a 1572 law eliminated the remaining companies lacking formal patronage by labeling them vagabonds [a homeless and unemployed person who moves from one place to another]. At court as well, the performance of masques by courtiers and other amateurs, apparently common in the early years of Elizabeth, was replaced by the professional companies with noble patrons, who grew in number and quality during her reign. The reason for such an enactment was that vagabonds (tramp, unemployed, homeless people who can be involved in robbery) were quite common during those times. To keep law and order Elizabeths parliament passed an act that ensured everybody having a patron, including the theatre companies. These companies had to have the recognition of an eminent, respective person in the society, so they were supported by an earl or the like. With these theatre companies that were supported by the rich patrons, theatre moved from the streets to playhouses. The most famous playhouses built in London were The Theatre, The Rose, The Swan and The Globe. This popularity of drama enabled all people from the upper classes to the lowest enjoy theatre. (It shouldnt however be forgotten that at this time in history drama was primarily the entertainment for the noble public as they were the ones that supported the theatre companies.) Most of the plays written during this period were written in verse, and they mostly used iambic pentameter. However, although the plays were written in verse, the language of the plays was comparatively simple, so everybody could understand. The characters in the plays were also more realistic in that they were no longer the representations of virtue as in the miracle and mystery plays of the medieval drama. They had their own passions, flaws and deeds which appealed to audiences. The most well-known playwrights during this period were Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe. At the end of this period the theaters were closed by the Puritans who claimed that they were places of immorality and the theatres remained closed for eighteen years until 1660.

RESTORATION DRAMA Restoration Drama takes its name from the restoration of Stuart dynasty to the throne of England. Charles II, who was in France during the Puritan period, became the king, and his experiences in France were immediately reflected on the intellectual and literary life of England. The theatres were reopened and plays began to be staged. In this period, the newly opened theatres were indoors unlike the outdoor theatres of the previous period, and less people could see the plays. Moreover, because the lower and middle classes were still under Puritan influence, they rejected going to the theatre, so theatres became an entertainment for the upper classes. Comedies and tragedies were still popular, but the most popular dramatic genre was heroic drama. Heroic drama is a genre in which a man of character and honor pursues glory and is also in love as lover. This hero is usually stuck between his love and his patriotic duty. Another popular form of drama in this period was melodrama, a kind of drama with an unrealistic plot of the combating forces of good and evil ending with the punishment of the bad and the rewarding of the good. There is also extensive use of music to intensify the dramatic effect. With the restoration period, there was a good deal of change in the English drama. Characters, plots and themes were borrowed from French and Spanish drama unlike the Elizabethan drama in which English drama had its own flow. Perhaps the most drastic change after the Elizabethan and Jacobean drama was that in the Restoration period the women characters in the plays were acted by women unlike the Elizabethan period when women characters were acted by young boys. Richard Doyle, Sir Robert Howard, Thomas Killigrew were among the important dramatists of the period. THE VICTORIAN AGE (1837-1901) The Victorian Period was considered to be quite a sterile period for drama because of the rise of the novel as a literary genre. With the prospering middle-classes, the favorite intellectual activity of following drama competed with the increasingly popularized novel reading, which eventually led to a halt in the development of drama. However, the period was marked by two very important dramatists Oscar Wilde and through the end of the age Bernard Shaw. Oscar Wilde followed the Aesthetic Movement, which was funded by Walter Pater, and followed the aesthetic principle of Art for Arts Sake which is the privileging of form and beauty of art over the thematic concerns. Wilde believed that the only responsibility of the artist was to his art and himself, and that art should not have didactic concerns. With this principle, he produced plays that present a mastery of language and technique, and was praised by another significant dramatist of his time Bernard Shaw as the best playwright ever written since Shakespeare. Bernard Shaw who admired Wildes sharp wit however wrote in a completely different view. He did not think that the only responsibility of art was for itself, but rather advocated the idea that the primary concern of an artist should be to educate society with the literary works s/he produces. To this purpose, he wrote distinguishably didactic plays with very long prefaces and epilogues in which he discussed his political and social ideas. He also dealt with his subject matter realistically as he believed that art should reflect upon the realities. With these, he is considered to have written plays to be read not staged, unlike the common definition of drama. THE TWENTIETH CENTURY - THE MODERN DRAMA Twentieth century is a very revolutionary period for drama in terms of both technique and style. From the early 1900s to the late 1900s, many philosophical and literary movements gave shape to drama. Realism Realism in drama became popular at the end of the 19th century and continued to be popular in the twentieth century. In drama, realism is the loyal representation of real life on the stage. It was a reaction against romanticism that treated its subject matter idealistically and symbolically. Realistic drama includes life like situations, realistic plots without the intervention of fantastic elements and the use of natural language. While presenting the characters in real life situations, realism also concentrates on the characters and the inner thoughts and conflicts. Most well known realist playwrights are Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Anton Chekhov, Maksim Gorky, and Eugene ONeill. Naturalism Naturalism developed in the early twentieth century as a reaction to romanticism (like realism). The idea of naturalism is driven from the Darwinian Theory that ones character is shaped by heredity and social conditions he lives in. Unlike realism, naturalism does not simply concentrate on the inner conflicts of the characters, but rather focuses on and questions the conditions that lead the characters into conflict. In naturalistic drama even harsher aspects of life including poverty, sex, violence, racism, and etc. are presented with vividness. The characters of naturalistic drama are also from all walks of life, including the working class people who were not presented in drama until that time. Most well-known naturalist playwright is Emile Zola. Political Drama Especially after the Second World War, dramatists were more politically concerned. With the twentieth century, the effects of capitalism were felt by the working classes. Especially after the Second World War, many socially concerned playwrights began to reflect the problems of the working classes on stage. The characters are taken from the working classes and the setting is moved from the drawing rooms of the upper or middle classes to the kitchens or the living rooms of the working class. It was with this movement that the attic rooms or even ironing boards were seen on the stage. One type of political drama was Kitchen Sink Drama (or kitchen sink realism) that depicted the harsh conditions of the working class life. The most well known example of this type of drama is Kitchen by Arnold Wesker. Angry Young Men was also a political movement in England during the 1950s advocating political plays. They were really a group of young men who were angry because of Englands loss of prestige over the world especially with the loss of India as a colony in 1947.They questioned the reasons for the political decay and wanted to have some reason to fight for as the past generations did (England was considered to be the empire over which the sun never sets, but from the beginning of 1900s she began to lose its colonies and lost her prestige especially with Americas becoming a world power). John Osbornes Look Back in Anger is perhaps the most well known example for the drama produced at this period in time. Harold Pinter, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2005, is also a representative of political drama. Theatre of the Absurd Theatre of the Absurd became popular from the beginning of 1940s to late 1960s. It emerged from the existentialist idea that life is meaningless and human beings are thrown into the world by an indifferent god. The main characteristics of absurd drama are: The characters are usually trapped in hopeless situations; therefore, act repetitively or meaninglessly. As the characters are entrapped, the plots are usually circular starting and ending with the same situation, highlighting the impossibility of improvement. The language is futile, and there are frequent communication breakdowns. Wordplays and clichs are very common. The most well known Absurd dramatists are Ionesco and Samuel Beckett.

The Enlightenment (Neoclassical) Period (1660-1790) "Neoclassical" refers to the increased influence of Classical literature upon these centuries. The Neoclassical Period is also called the "Enlightenment" due to the increased reverence for logic and disdain for superstition. The period is marked by the rise of Deism, intellectual backlash against earlier Puritanism. I. Restoration Period (1660-1700): This period marks the British king's restoration to the throne after a long period of Puritan domination in England. Its symptoms include the dominance of French and Classical influences on poetry and drama. Sample writers include John Dryden, John Locke, Samuel Pepys, and Aphra Behn. The period also marks the first great age of English literary criticism. II. The Augustan Age (1700-1750): refers to literature with the predominant characteristics of refinement, clarity, elegance, and balance of judgment. This period is marked by the imitation of Virgil and Horace's literature in English letters. The principal English writers include Addison, Steele, Swift, and Alexander Pope. III. The Age of Johnson (Age of Sensibility) (1750-1790): Literature reflected the worldview of Enlightenment and began to emphasize instinct and feeling, rather than judgment and restraint. This period marks the transition toward the upcoming Romanticism though the period is still largely Neoclassical. Major writers include Dr. Samuel Johnson, Boswell, and Edward Gibbon who represent the neoclassical tendencies, while writers like Robert Burns, Thomas Gray, Cowper, and Crabbe show movement away from the Neoclassical ideal.

Neoclassicism may be viewed as a kind of continuation of the Renaissance tradition. It worshipped antiquity, tried to model its achievements on classical examples, and attempted to follow classical standards. Neoclassicism was also characterized by intellectual curiosity concerning details of the surrounding world. The drive towards the acquisition and spread of knowledge was so powerful that the epoch is often called the Enlightenment. This general thirst for knowledge immediately influenced literature: its aesthetic function rapidly diminished and literature was considered primarily as a means of education, becoming mostly didactic and moral. Here neoclassicism loses its similarity to the Renaissance. One of the trends was rationalism. The people of those years were chiefly interested in human beings and in the observation of human activities. They thought that man's greatness lies primarily in his being a rational entity. Rationalism- the belief in reason and experiment - led to the observation of life as it was. Imagination was controlled; it was enclosed in the frame of probability. Neoclassical literature was as a whole rational. In time this tendency underwent slight modification: The imposed burden of didactic duties not only made the authors strive for clarity of thought and elegance of style in order to be better understood and enjoyed but also forced them to look for new ways to interest and move their readers: in the course of time more and more works began to temper strict rationalism smuggling in a substitute for the expression of feelings in the form of sentiment. Another trend was deism. Deism is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world are sufficient to determine the existence of God, accompanied with the rejection of revelation and authority as a source of religious knowledge. Particular local groups of people began to meet in coffee-houses which took the function of both lunch or refreshment rooms and meeting places, evolving into regional city clubs in which people discussed the most varied topics: they commented upon political events, talked on party strategies, retold the news and town gossip, decided trade and insurance matters, exchanged opinions on cultural, artistic and literary events of the day. The institution of coffee-houses developed cliques and parties, taught people the art of conversation, became the breeding place of the 18th century standards and tastes as well as started two important cultural innovations. The coffee-houses gave birth to the typically British institution of a club (for example, The Scriblerus Club was an informal group of friends that included Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, John Gay, John Arbuthnot, Henry St. John and Thomas Parnell) and constituted the direct stimulus for the rise and development the modern British journalism. Augustan Age brought a sudden rise in the number of both newspapers and periodicals published. This development of English journalism owes much to the activity of Sir Richard Steele and Joseph Addison. The neoclassical poetry continued the Restoration emphasis on satiric and argumentative genres - the lyric almost died out. But prose appeared a still better instrument of reason: among the literature of the period we meet a number of journalists, diarists, letter writers, essayists, and then, novelists. John Locke was the major English political philosopher of the seventeenth century. In Essay Concerning Human Understanding Locke puts forth his idea that mans mind is a blank slate and that man can subsequently learn and improve through conscious effort. Essay Concerning Human Understanding deeply influenced the writers of the period.

 General Characteristics The rise of the novel as a popular genre The growth of journalism and magazines, with a corresponding growth in professional authorship; A noticeable increase in literary criticism, A decline in the reputation of contemporary drama A reaction to Augustan neoclassicism in poetry, with moves towards the funereal mode, or the rediscovery of simpler values Towards the end of the eighteenth century, an attraction for the fantastic, the exotic and the primitive Comedy of manners and heroic drama were introduced. POETRY Sir John Denham: Denham began his literary career with a tragedy, The Sophy , but his poem, Cooper's Hill (a poem that is popular for its landscape description) is the work by which he is remembered. It is the first example in English of a poem devoted to local description, of the Thames Valley scenery round his home at Egham in Surrey. Denham wrote many versions of this poem, reflecting the political and cultural upheavals of the Civil War. Denham exerted an influence on versification and poetical utterance (which along with his contemporary Edmund Waller), earned them the title of 'Sons of British Poetry'. He also received praise from Samuel Johnson. Edmund Waller was a Royalist, was praised in the Neo-Classical period as the most celebrated lyric poet that England ever produced. His best- known lyrics are Go, lovely rose and On a Girdle. Samuel Butler: Butlers Hudibras, a burlesque romance, is a great a satiric mock-heroic poem on Puritan hypocrisy, on intellectual pretension and folly, which greatly amused Charles II and his court. Hudibras consists of three parts, each containing three cantos and the whole is written in octosyllabic couplets. Hudibras, the mock-hero, is a Presbyterian colonel and knight. Ralpho, an Independent in religion, is Hudibrass squire. Hudibras and Ralpho involve in various comic misadventures and are shown to be stupid, greedy and dishonest. Burlesque (Talama) is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects. Burlesque overlaps in meaning with caricature, parody and travesty, and, in its theatrical sense, with extravaganza, as presented during the Victorian era. Mock-heroic, mock-epic or heroic-comic works are typically satires or parodies that mock common classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature. Typically, mock-heroic works insert the heroic work by either putting a fool in the role of the hero or by exaggerating the heroic qualities to such a point that they become absurd. John Oldham: His poetic life did not last very long for he died when he was thirty years old. The excitement over the Popish Plot during those few years led him to political satire. He wrote A Satire upon a Woman, A Satire against Virtue and Four Satires upon the Jesuits in the aftermath of the discovery of the Popish Plot by Titus Oates. The Popish Plot was a fabricated or hysterical conspiracy involving a plan to kill Charles II, massacre Protestants, and put the Catholic Duke of York on the English throne. The discovery of the plot led to widespread panic and the execution of about thirty-five Catholics. John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester: His works includes The Satire against Mankind and Upon Nothing. Allusion to Horaces 10th Satire of the First Book is Rochesters most important satire. Much of Rochester's poetry censored during the Victorian era, began a revival from the 1920s onwards. Sir Charles Sedley: He is the author of three plays (The Mulberry-Garden, Bellamira: or, The Mistress, Antony and Cleopatra) and some satirical poems, but now he is remembered for his love songs. Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset: He wrote relatively few satirical poems. He is now remembered for Song Written at Sea. Charles Cotton: In his lifetime his fame was based on his burlesques and his excellent translation of Montaignes Essays. His nature lyrics, Poems on Several Occasions, The Retirement and The Ode to winter were admired by Wordsworth and Coleridge. He is much interested in describing storms, especially at sea. Ode is a lyrical stanza in praise of, or dedicated to someone or something which captures the poet's interest or serves as an inspiration for the ode. (Kaside) John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave: His prose Essay on Satire was mistakenly ascribed to Dryden. His Essay upon Poetry, written in heroic couplets, anticipates Popes Essay on Criticism. He also wrote a number of love lyrics and several prose pieces. He reworked Shakespeares Julius Caesar into two plays with additional love interest. Sheffield was a generous patron to Dryden and he financed Drydens monument in Webminster Abbey.

Wentworth Dillon, Earl of Roscommon is famed as the first critic to praise Paradise Lost and recognize the greatness of John Milton. He translated Horaces Ars Poetica into blank verse. In his Essay on Translated Verse, in heroic couplets, Dillon formulated the concept of poetic diction. He was interested in founding a British Academy to refine and fix the standard of English language. George Crabbe He is best known for his early use of the realistic narrative form and his descriptions of working and middle-class lives. Crabbe's poetry was predominantly in the form of heroic couplets. Some of his poems are an English Peasant, The Marriage Ring, The Village and Late Wisdom. The Graveyard Poets The "Graveyard Poets, also termed Churchyard Poets or "the Boneyard Boys were a number of preRomantic English poets of the 18th century characterized by their gloomy meditations on mortality, 'skulls and coffins, epitaphs and worms' in the context of the graveyard. In the 18th Century they became more about just the lament of a death, their purpose was rarely sensationalist. Added, by later practitioners, was a feeling for the 'sublime' and uncanny, and an interest in ancient English poetic forms and folk poetry. They are often reckoned as precursors of the Gothic genre. The Graveyard Poets include: Edward Young is famous for his long didactic poem The Complaint, or Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality, generally known as Night Thoughts. It was inspired by the death of his wife. Written in blank verse, it is made up of 10, 000 lines that build up an atmosphere of profound sadness. This somber and melancholy poem made him a leading figure in the graveyard school of English poets. James Thomson His most popular poetic work, The Seasons, is a blank verse poem about the tapestry of nature throughout the year. Influenced by Spenser, he wrote The Castle of Indolence in Spenserian stanza. Thomas Warton attracted attention with a poem; The Pleasures of Melancholy. From 1785 to 1790 he was the Poet Laureate of England. William Collins achieved a remarkable synthesis between traditional and original elements. His poetry includes; Persian Eclogues, Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegorical Subjects, Ode on the Death of Thomson. His Epistle Addressed to Sir Thomas Hammer in heroic couplets surveys the history of poetry, leading up to the praise of Shakespeare. An epistle is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. Thomas Gray The Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard is his masterpiece. The poem is the outcome of about eight years careful composition and polish. It is more or less connected with the melancholy event of the death of Richard West, Grays intimate friend. In this poem, Gray reflects on death, the sorrow of life, and the mysteries of human life with a touch of his personal melancholy. Other poems include Ode on the spring, Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, Ode on the death of a Favorite Cat, Hymn to Adversity, and two translations for Old Norse: The Descent of Odin and the Fatal Sisters. William Cowper The Task, a blank-verse poem in six books, is the great achievement of Cowper. It was one of the most lastingly popular of poems on the theme of nature and the simple life. Its famous distinction God made the country, and man made the town underlines the search for tranquility in a hectic world. He wrote The Castaway shortly before his death, lyric deals with the mans isolation and helplessness. Robert Blair published only three poems. One was a commemoration of his father-in-law and another was a translation. His reputation rests entirely on his third work, The Grave which is a poem written in blank verse on the subject of death and the graveyard. Other graveyard poets include: Thomas Parnell, Oliver Goldsmith, Christopher Smart, James MacPherson, Thomas Chatterton, Mark Akenside, Henry Kirke White.

***Alexander POPE*** Alexander Pope, the most important English neoclassicist poet of the 18th century, started his literary career by imitating Chaucer and the ancients. His art and genius were limited by the neoclassical emphasis on being correct in following the rules of art, on expressing universal truths rather than personal emotion and in using exclusively the heroic couplet rather than the more liberating poetic forms. An Essay on Criticism In his didactic poem An Essay on Criticism he defined the doctrine of neoclassicism.The poem was said to be a response to an ongoing debate on the question of whether poetry should be natural, or written according to predetermined artificial rules inherited from the classical past. The poem begins with a discussion of the standard rules that govern poetry. Pope comments on the classical authors who dealt with such standards, and the authority that he believed should be accredited to them. He discusses the laws to which a critic should adhere while critiquing poetry, and points out that critics serve an important function in aiding poets with their works, as opposed to the practice of attacking them. The final section of An Essay on Criticism discusses the moral qualities and virtues inherent in the ideal critic, who, Pope claims, is also the ideal man. As a piece of literary theory, An Essay on Criticism lacks original ideas. Its significance comes from its assertion that literary criticism is an art form and should function actively like a living organism. The Rape of the Lock: The Rape of the Lock is a brilliant satire written in the form of a mock-heroic poem. It is based on the actual quarrel between two families, resulting from Lord Petres clipping a lock of Miss Arabellas hair without her permission.In fact, Pope not only ridicules a trivial incident that sparks a serious feud, but also mocks the high-flown style and language of epic poetry itself. The Essay on Man: The Essay on Man is a philosophical poem, written in heroic couplets. The poem is made up of four epistles. Epistle I praises reason as the particular attribute that separates Man from other animals, and the faculty by which he can understand his true position in nature. Epistle II is concerned with Mans abilities, weaknesses, emotions and his nature. Man is depicted as involved in a moral conflict between Reason and Passion. Epistle III presents Man integrated in the chain that binds all things to one another in an interdependent society. In Epistle IV, having considered Man in relation to the Universe, his individuality and society, the poet turns to a study of Man in terms of happiness. His conclusion is that virtue alone can lead to happiness. The Dunciad : The Dunciad is a satire, full of witty allusions. Pope denounces dunces (his literary rivals), dullness and pedantry in the art by celebrating the goddess Dullness in her kingdom of confusion and bad poetry. Aphra BEHN Aphra Behn was a prolific dramatist of the English Restoration, *the first English professional female writer. Her Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave uses a tale of a noble African, who is carried off to slavery in the English colony of Surinam, to illustrate the violence of the slave trade and the corruption of the primitive peoples by treacherous and hypocritical Christian colonizers. It is a novel of violence and cruelty and is ahead of its time in its defense of the noble savage and its affirmation of an anti-colonial stance. Love Letters between a Nobleman and his Sister is an epistolary novel. Some her plays include; Abdelazer, The Rover, The City Heiress, The Roundheads, Sir Patient Fancy and The Emperor of the Moon. ***John BUNYAN*** th John Bunyan is considered to be the 17 century Milton of English prose. John Bunyans The Pilgrims Progress, published in two parts in 167879 and 1684, and probably the most widely read text in all English literature over the next two hundred years, uses two forms which are pre-Renaissance: allegory and the dreamvision. The Pilgrims Progress deals with the archetypal theme of mans life as a journey from this World to that which is to come. It is a simple story, very traditional in its use of allegory and personification, suggesting morality plays like Everyman in its delineation of life as a pilgrimage to the next world. The book opens with the authors dream in which he sees a man with a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back. The man is Christian the Pilgrim, the book is the Bible, and the burden on his back is the weight of worldly cares and concerns. It tells how Christian starts his pilgrimage from his home to the kingdom of Heaven and of his experiences and adventures on his journey. Christian travels to the Eternal City, having been warned that the town in which he and his family live the City of Destruction is to be destroyed by fire. His family will not go with him, so he goes alone. His story takes up the first part of the book. The second part tells of the journey of Christiana his wife and their children to the same destination. Bunyan drew personal portraits and gave concrete presentations of vices and virtues. Bunyans characters are not shadowy abstractions moving about in a mystical world far away from us, but real men and women; his abstractions are said to be clothed in flesh and blood. On his way to Heaven, Christian is accompanied by two virtuous fellows, Faithful and Hopeful. The road is full of obstacles: Christian has to pass through Vanity Fair, the Valley of Humiliation, and the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Bunyans other works include Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, The Life and Death of Mr. Badman, The Holy War and The Pilgrims Progress, Part II.

Samuel JOHNSON Johnson was an energetic and versatile writer. He had a hand in all the different branches of literary activities. He was a poet, dramatist, biographer, essayist, critic, lexicographer and publicist. Johnson was the last great neoclassicist enlightener in the later eighteenth century. He was very much concerned the theme of the vanity of human wishes: almost all of his writings bear this theme. His chief works include poems: London, The Vanity of Human Wishes; a romance: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia; a tragedy: Irene; a moral allegory: The Vision of Theodore, the Hermit of Tenerife. As a lexicographer, Johnson distinguished himself as the author of *the first English dictionary by an Englishman, A dictionary of the English Language. The publication of Johnsons Dictionary of the English Language was the most important linguistic event of the 18th century; it fixed English spelling and established a standard for definition. With the help of six assistant, the volume was completed in slightly over eight years. His last and best work was Lives of English Poets, which gives biographical sketches, critical judgments, and criticism of the individual works of 52 poets. There are brilliant insights and some faulty judgment based on personal bias: for example, he disliked Milton for his religious and political beliefs. Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature (shortly writing about writers and their works) James BOSWELL James Boswell was a lawyer, diarist, and author. He was called as the Shakespeare of Biographers and he had a great biographical subject; Dr. Samuel Johnson. Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson was unique in that, unlike other biographies of that era, it directly incorporated conversations that Boswell had noted down at the time for his journals. He also included far more personal and human details than those to which contemporary readers were accustomed. Instead of writing a respectful and dry record of Johnson's public life in the style of the time, he painted a vivid portrait of the complete man, brought to life through a 'dramatic' style of dialogue. It has often been described as the greatest biography ever written. A biography is a detailed description or account of a person's life. It entails more than basic facts (education, work, relationships, and death) - a biography also portrays a subject's experience of these events. Unlike a profile, a biography presents a subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of his or her life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of the subject's personality. Sir Richard Steele and Joseph Addison Londoners gathered in coffee houses to read the news sheets and literary periodicals. The best periodicals were The Tatler and The Spectator, written by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. The personalities of Addison and Steele differed widely, but they supplemented each other in the most successful literary partnership in English literature. The superiority of The Tatler and The Spectator over all other such periodicals was due to the happy combination of these two authors. They set out to improve public taste by providing information and discussing with wit and originality a multitude of topics from Milton to appropriate make-up for ladies. They both wrote periodical essays for the Tatler and The Spectator. Their aim was first to teach and improve and then to amuse the reader. Periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar examples are the newspaper, often published daily, or weekly; or the magazine, typically published weekly, monthly or as a quarterly. Other examples would be a newsletter, a literary journal or learned journal, or a yearbook. These examples are typically published and referenced by volume and issue. "Volume" typically refers to the number of years the publication has been circulated, and "Issue" refers to how many times that periodical has been published during that year. For example, the April 2011 publication of a monthly magazine first published in 2002 would be listed as, "Volume 9, Issue 4.

COMEDY Sir George Etherege: He is the author of three plays which established his fame as a leading comedian of the age. The Comical Revenge: or Love in a Tub was the first play written by Sir George Etherege. Etherege takes the theme revenge, which was previously a subject for tragedy, and balances it with a realistic, up-to-date love plot involving a country knight with more money than sense, a valet with ideas above his station, and a rich widow who is in pursuit of a libertine hero. She Would if She Could is an amoral, cynical and ironic comedy in prose. Lady Cockwood is a hypocritical country wife who wants to cuckold her husband. She is courted and finally cheated by Courtall and Freeman. Old womens affairs are mercilessly ridiculed. The Man of Mode or Sir Fopling Flutter is Ethereges best play. Two of the main characters, Dorimant and Harriet are the two who are most immersed in the game of love. Although it seems evident the couple is destined to be together, an obstacle is placed in Dorimant's way in the form of Harriet's mother, Mrs. Woodville, who has made arrangements for her to marry Young Bellair, a young gentleman who already has his eye on someone else, Emilia. Threatened with disinheritance, Young Bellair and Harriet agree to pretend to accept the idea, while Harriet and Dorimant engage secretly. Mrs. Loveit, who is in love with Dorimant, defenseless against Dorimant's cruel words and in the end she represents the tragic side effect of the game of love. Having long since lost interest in her, Dorimant continues to lead her on, giving her hope, but leaves her in despair. Her unrequited love only brings Mrs. Loveit ridicule and scorn. By the end of the play, we see one marriage, as expected, but it is between Young Bellair and Emilia, who broke with tradition by marrying secretly. The young couple is nonetheless forgiven for their actions. William Wycherley was the author of four comedies, and an aristocrat educated in France and at Oxford. Love in a Wood presents a series of love intrigues. The Gentleman Dancing-Master is Wycherleys simplest play. It concentrates on a single intrigue, that of Hippolita, who avoids marrying a Frenchified and finds herself a true gentleman who acts as her dancing-master and finally becomes her husband. The Country Wife has frequently been held up as the most obscene and amoral of Restoration plays. It is a comedy of manners. Harry Horner spreads a false rumor of his own impotence, in order to convince married men that he can safely be allowed to socialize with their wives. Margery, who is married with jealous and suspicious Pinchwife, has an affair with Horner. The Plain Dealer: Manly, the main character is brutally honest with everybody around him. Manly, has been wronged by his mistress Olivia and his closest friend, Vernish. He is aided throughout his misfortunes by the virtuous and lovely Fidelia, who has long followed him, disguised as a man. Thomas Shadwell had produced eighteen plays. His first play, The Sullen Lovers is a successful satire. His best plays are Epsom Wells, and the Squire of Alsatia and Bury Fair. In Bury Fair, a comedy of humor, Gertrude, a sensible young woman, determines to reform her lover before marriage. Sir John Vanbrugh was an English architect and dramatist, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restoration comedies, The Relapse and the Provoked Wife. In The Relapse, Loveless, who is bored with the faithful Amanda, conducts an affair with her cousin, Berinthia. Worthy seeks to seduce Amanda, but the faithful wife maintains her virtue in spite of alluring seduction, and consequently, Loveless is reformed. John Gay wrote the first ballad opera- The Beggars Opera. In Beggars Opera thieves and prostitutes mimic and burlesque the manners of fine ladies and lords, allowing Gay to satirize the inequalities of social classes.

RESTORATION DRAMA After the flourishing Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, the decadent Caroline drama was finally brought to a halt in 1642, when a Puritan ordinance commanded the closing down of theatres and the total suppression of stage plays. During the civil war, performances could still be seen secretly outside London or in the households of noblemen. Naturally, all the players were royalists. Immediately after the restoration of the Stuarts, the theatres were reopened and plays began to be staged. Actresses could now perform on stage, the first being a Mrs. Coleman, in a private performance of Sir William Davenants The Siege of Rhodes in1656. Comedies and tragedies were still popular, but the most popular dramatic genre was heroic drama. It is, however, for comedy that Restoration drama is better known. It was called the comedy of manners because it mirrored directly the manners, modes, and morals of the upper-class society which was its main audience. It was, however, the element of political satire which was to bring trouble to the theatre in the 1730s. Sir Robert Walpole, the Whig prime minister from 1721 to 1742, objected to satirical attacks on him in The Beggars Opera by John Gay. The Theatres Licensing Act of 1737 finally introduced censorship in the person of the Lord Chamberlain, who could grant or refuse a license to any play on political, religious, or moral grounds. The Theatres Licensing Act of 1737 did not altogether kill drama, plays continued to be written and produced successfully, but the genre went into critical decline for a long period. The flourishing of the novel in the 18th century also caused a serious decline of interest in drama.

Colley Cibber was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. The first four acts of his play, Loves Last Shift, are those of a comedy of manners, but the last act makes it a sentimental comedy. The comedy is the story of Amanda who has been separated from her husband, Loveless, for eight years. When her husband returns from abroad, he fails to recognize her. She presents herself to Loveless as a mistress, and the next day, he is a reformed husband, convinced that the real happy life can be found only in the arms of a virtuous wife. William Congreve is the greatest and the most popular Restoration writer of comedy. , he had written four comedies, including Love for Love ,The Old Bachelor, The Double Dealer and The Way of the World, and one tragedy, The Mourning Bride. Love for Love Valentine has fallen under the displeasure of his father by his extravagance, and is besieged by creditors. His father, Sir Sampson Legend, offers him 4000 (only enough to pay his debts) if he will sign a bond engaging to make over his right to his inheritance to his younger brother Ben. Valentine, to escape from his embarrassment, signs the bond. He is in love with Angelica, who possesses a fortune of her own, but so far she has not yielded to his suit. Sir Sampson has arranged a match between Ben, who is at sea, and Miss Prue, an awkward country girl, the daughter of Foresight, a superstitious old fool who claims to be an astrologer. Valentine, realizing the ruin entailed by the signature of the bond, tries to move his father by submission, and fails; then pretends to be mad and unable to sign the final deed of conveyance to his brother. Finally Angelica intervenes. She induces Sir Sampson to propose marriage to her, pretends to accept, and gets possession of Valentine's bond. When Valentine, in despair at finding that Angelica is about to marry his father, declares himself ready to sign the conveyance, she reveals the plot, tears up the bond, and declares her love for Valentine. The Way of the World is often called a masterpiece and the best Restoration comedy. Mirabell loves Millamant, and in order to marry her, he has to win the consent of her aunt, Lady Wishfort. His best hopes lie in Lady Wishforts eagerness for a lover of her own. Mirabell disguises his servant Waitwell (already married) as a nobleman, hoping for his marriage to Lady Wishford. Then, on the threat of telling the world how she was duped, Mirabell can blackmail Lady Wishford into giving him Millamant and her property. George Farquhar: Farquhars first two plays, Love and a Bottle and The Constant Couple established him as a popular playwright, and he produced eight comedies before he died. His reputation rests chiefly on his last two plays, The Recruiting Officer (1706) and The Beaux Stratagem both based on his experience in the provinces as a recruiting officer. In The Recruiting Officer, one of the recruits is Sylvia Ballance, who is in love with the Captain Plume and pursues him, disguised as a boy. Another recruiting officer, Captain Brazen, seeks the wealthy Melinda, but is tricked into marrying Melindas maid. In The Beaux Stratagem, Archer and Aimwell, two young gentlemen who have fallen on hard times, plan to travel through small towns, entrap young heiresses, steal their money and move on. In the first town, Lichfield, they set their sights on Dorinda. Aimwell falls truly in love. However, in the end Archer marries Dorinda. Aimwell almost seduces Mrs. Sullen, but she is saved because a gang of thieves breaks into the house. Finally Mrs. Sullen and her husband agree to divorce. Aimwell is to be her next husband. Richard Brinsley Sheridan His plays, especially The Rivals and The School for Scandal, are generally regarded as important links between the masterpieces of Shakespeare and those of Bernard Shaw, and as true classics in English comedy. The School for Scandal mainly tells a story about two brothers. The elder one Joseph Surface is hypocritical, and the younger one Charles Surface kind, imprudent and spendthrift. Lady Sneerwell, one of the scandalmongers in the play, instigates Joseph to run after Maria, the ward of Sir Peter. But, Joseph, while pursuing Maria, the love of his younger brother, tries to seduce Lady Teazle, the young wife of Sir Peter. Misled by the scandal of Lady Sneerwell and Joseph, Sir Peter Teazle believed Charles was the person who flirted with his wife until one day, Lady Teazle made the truth known that person who intended to seduce her was Joseph. Thus, the latters hypocrisy was exposed. At the same time, Sir Oliver Surface, the rich, old uncle of the two brothers, wanted to choose one of them to be his heir. He first visited Charles in the guise of a usurer. Charles sold to him all the family portraits except that of his uncle, and thus won the favor of his uncle. Then he went to Joseph as a poor relative. But Joseph refused giving him any help by saying that he himself was in trouble. For a second time, Josephs hypocrisy was exposed. The play ends with Lady Teazles reconciliation with her husband and Charles winning of the hand of Maria and the inheritance of his uncle. The Rivals: The plot centers on the two rich young lovers, Lydia and Jack. Lydia, who reads a lot of popular novels of the time, wants a purely romantic love affair. Jack pretends to be a poor soldier in the hopes of sweeping Lydia off her feet with the romantic idea of running off with a poor officer.

HEROIC DRAMA Heroic drama is a type of tragedy or tragicomedy that developed in the Restoration period. It is characterized by excessive spectacle, violent emotional conflicts in the main characters, extravagant bombastic dialogue, and excessive use of music and epic personages as the chief characters. Heroic play usually has its setting in some distant land such as Mexico, Morocco, or India. Its hero rivals Achilles in warlike deeds and easily surpasses him in love. The beloved is usually a captive princess or the daughter of the heros greatest enemy. The hero is constantly torn between his passion for the beloved and his honor or duty to his country. If he is able to satisfy the demands of both love and duty, the play ends happily for the hero and heroine and unhappily for the villain and villainess. The heroine is always a paragon of virtue and honor, often torn between her loyalty to her villain-father and her love for the hero. The villain is usually a tyrant and usurper with an unlimited passion for power or else with a base love for some beautiful and virtuous lady. The villainess is a passionate rival of the heroine. The heros rival in love is sometimes the villain and sometimes the heros best friend. All are unreal; all speak in hyperbole, all rant and rage. These plays are usually written in heroic couplets, the scenery is elaborate, and the action of the play is grand, often revolving around the conquest of some empire. Although the elements of heroic play appear in William Davenants Siege of Rhodes, Roger Boyle, the Earl of Orrey, wrote the first full-fledged heroic drama, The General. Dryden is, however, the greatest writer of heroic drama, and his Conquest of Granada is its best example. Roger Boyle, the Earl of Orrey was one of the first writers of heroic tragedy. He uses English materials in two historical plays, Henry V and The Black Prince. The Black Prince deals with the historical career of Edward, the Black Prince and his defeat and capture of King John II of France at the Battle of Poitiers. In The General, the hero is torn between love and honor. Mustapha is Boyles most typical play. It is based on the story of Mustapha, the Son of Suleiman the Magnificent. Thomas Otway Otway's first play, Alcibiades is a tragedy, written in heroic verse. The first of Otway's two tragic masterpieces was The Orphan or the Unhappy Marriage. Written in blank verse, modeled on that of Shakespeare, its success was due to the tragic pathos, of which Otway was a master. Otways second masterpiece is Venice Preserved; or, a Plot Discovered. The Orphan or the Unhappy Marriage: Half the youth of Europe is at war but Acasto, a nobleman retired from court and living in the country, encourages his sons Castalio and Polydore to stay home, study art and politics, and avoid the company of women. As well as having a daughter, Serina, Acasto is the guardian of a young girl, Monimia. Both Castalio and Polydore are in love with Monimia but Castalio, being the first-born twin, claims to have the right to woo her first. He secretly contracts himself to Monimia in marriage but Polydore overhears and makes plans to replace Castalio on the wedding night. Using the wedding-night signal of "three soft strokes on the chamber door" he is allowed access to Monimia's bedroom. When Castalio then attempts to enter the room using the same signal he is believed to be Polydore, and turned away. When everything is discovered and explained the next day, there is only the prospect of death for those involved. Venice Preserved; or, a Plot Discovered: The play concerns Jaffeir, a noble Venetian who has secretly married Belvidera, the daughter of a proud senator named Priuli, who has cut off her inheritance. Jaffeir is impoverished and is constantly rebuffed by Priuli. Jaffeir's friend Pierre, a foreign soldier, stokes Jaffeir's resentment and entices him into a plot against the Senate of Venice. Pierre introduces Jaffeir to the conspirators, led by blood-thirsty Renault. To get their trust, Jaffier must put Belvidera in Renault's care as a hostage. In the night, Renault attempts to rape her, but she escapes to Jaffeir. Jaffeir then tells Belvidera about the plot against the Senate, and against her father. She devises a plan of her own. Jaffeir will reveal the conspiracy to the Senate and claim the lives of the conspirators as his reward. It is only after Belvidera informs him of the attempted rape that Jaffeir agrees to do this, but the Senate breaks its word and condemns all the conspirators to death. When the conspirators are condemned to death, Jaffeir threatens Belvideras life unless she can get a pardon for the conspirators. She fulfills the mission, but too late. Jaffeir commits suicide, and Beividera goes mad and then dies of the broken heart. Nathaniel Lee is one of the gifted Restoration writers of tragedy. Madness was Lees favorite subject. For Lees second play, Sophonisba, Purcell wrote music for the stage for the first time. His Oedipus is a heroic play with the appearance of classicism. The Rival Queens; or, The Death of Alexander the Great is Lees most popular tragedy in which Alexander is the subject of contention between his first wife Roxana and his second wife Statira who is stabbed by Roxana. Cassander, one of the conspirators, poisons Alexander, who becomes mad and dies. George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham used to ridicule heroic tragedy and he is ridiculed by Dryden in the character of Zimri in Absalom and Achitophel. Buckinghams Rehearsal is one of the greatest mock-heroic dramas in the English language. Its main aim is to ridicule Drydens plays. A man called Johnson takes his country visitor, Smith, to a stage rehearsal of a new play by Mr. John Beyes (Dryden). The humor arises mainly from the burlesque of the heroic plays of Dryden and partly from the comments of Smith and Johnson. The plot of the play rehearsed is so confused that the actors cannot follow it. Its incidents are plagiarized, and the action lacks motivation. An actor mocks the love-versus-honor conflict in a long formal debate. Finally, everyone walks on Mr. Beyes in disgust. Thus, Buckingham lampoons all the weak aspects of heroic tragedy, and he remains in the history of drama as the writer of a mock-heroic drama rather than a dramatist. Thomas Southerne was an Irish dramatist. His Fatal Marriage and Oroonoko brought a new element to the Restoration tragedy an independent comic plot sandwiched into a serious story. For the plot of Oroonoko he was indebted to the novel by Aphra Behn.

***JOHN DRYDEN*** John Dryden was a prose writer, essayist, theorist, translator, dramatist and poet. Drama: Dryden as a dramatist is the author of about 30 plays. As a playwright, he was deeply influenced by the French theatre. He wrote his early comedies in prose mingled with rare instances of blank verse. Later on he started writing tragicomedies in heroic couplets. Dryden then started writing his heroic plays. Aureng Zebe, The Conquest of Granada, and The Indian Emperor best illustrate Drydens heroic tragedies. Dryden was bitterly attacked and mocked in Buckinghams famous burlesque The Rehearsal Dryden also refashioned and rewrote Shakespeares plays The Tempest, Troilus and Cressida and Antony and Cleopatra. The theme of Shakespeares play is narrowed down to and concentrated on the conflict between love and honor, thus simplifying the heroes psychology. The Conquest Of Granada The play concerns the Battle of Granada fought between the Moors and the Spanish at the historical fall of Granada. The hero is Almanzor, who fights for the Moors. He falls in love with Almahide, who is engaged to Boabdelin, king of the Moors. She loves him, too, but she will not betray her vows to Boabdelin, and Boabdelin is torn between his jealousy and need for Almanzor. Almanzor and Almahide remain separated until the death of Boabdelin in the last act, when impediments are removed and the forbearing lovers can be united. It turns out during the play that Almanzor is the lost son of the Duke of Arcos, a Spaniard, but he fights for the Moors for his duty. All for Love or, the World Well Lost, is a heroic drama. It is an imitation of Shakespeares Antony and Cleopatra, and focuses on the last hours of the lives of its hero and heroine. The Tempest, or The Enchanted Island is a comedy adapted by John Dryden and William Davenant from Shakespeare's comedy The Tempest. Truth Found Too Late is an adaption of Shakespeares Troilus and Cressida. This time Cressida remains faithful to Troilus and she prefers rather to commit suicide than to betray her love. Poetry: He was appointed poet laureate in 1668. He was also appointed historiographer royal after he had published Annus Mirabilis, a patriotic poem. Absalom and Achitophel is a landmark poetic political satire. It attacks those who supported Charless illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, to succeed him. The Medal, written at the kings suggestion, was an attack directed against Earl of Shaftesburys hypocrisy. Mac Flecknoe is a short satirical poem against Thomas Shadwell, Shaftesburys literary supporter. Religio Laici is a poem summing up Drydens views, who wanted to know where in the matter of religion he stood. In 1686 he became a Roman Catholic. The Hind and the Panther is an allegory in heroic couplets. It is the longest of Dryden's poems. The Hind and the Panther falls into three parts: the first is a description of the different religious denominations, in which the Roman Catholic church appears as "A milk-white Hind, immortal and unchanged" the Church of England as a panther, the Independents as a bear, the Presbyterians as a wolf, the Quakers as a hare, the Socinians as a fox, the Freethinkers as an ape, and the Anabaptists as a boar; the second part deals with the controversial topics of church authority; and the third part argues that the Crown and the Anglican and Catholic Churches should form a united front against the Nonconformist churches. Literary Criticism: His masterpiece, Essay of Dramatic Poesy defends English drama against French, which he believed was too strictly tied up with neoclassical rules. He objected to triteness and faulty morals of the plots taken from Roman plays, and defended the use of rhymed verse in plays.

***Jonathan SWIFT*** Jonathan Swift was one of the famous English writers of the Age of Enlightenment. Moreover, he was a bitter satirist of the beginning of the 18th century. Swift remains one of the very few who have made satire an effective weapon with which he attacks the enemy. A Tale of A tub was the first major work written by Jonathan Swift. It is a prose parody which is divided into sections and a "tale" of three brothers, each representing one of the main branches of western Christianity: Peter (standing for Roman Catholics), Martin (Lutherans or Anglicans) and Jack ( extreme Protestants). They each inherit coats from their fathers, with the warning that the coats are not to be altered in any way. The brothers gradually disobey, finding fanciful excuses for adding shoulder-knots or gold lace (just as the orthodox churchmen find ways to modify their doctrines). Battle of the Books is a prose mock-epic that satirizes conflict between advocates of modern and ancient literature. It opens with a discussion between a spider and a bee entangled in the spiders web Gullivers Travels has long been considered a comic fable for children. In fact, it is a severe attack on the political parties of the time, and on the pointlessness of religious controversies between different denominations within Christianity. Consisting of four parts, the novel tells four stories of the hero. In part one, the hero is in Lilliput where he becomes Man Mountain, for the inhabitants are only six inches tall, twelve times smaller than human beings. Yet, as a kind of man their sayings and doings forms a miniature of the real world. Part Two brings the hero to Brobdingnag. This time, he comes to dwarf, for the Brobdingnagians are ten times taller and larger than normal human beings. Also superior in wisdom, they look down upon the ordinary human beings for the latters evil or harmful doings. The third part depicts Gullivers travel on the flying Island where the so called philosophers and scientists devoted themselves to absurd doings, for example, to extract sunlight from cucumbers. The last part tells the heros adventure in the Houyhnhnm Land. There horses are endowed with reason and all good and admirable qualities, while the hairy, man-like creatures, Yahoos are greedy and disgusting brutes. A Modest Proposal He wrote the most extraordinary piece of satire in the literature having witnessed three years of famine and destitution in the mid 1720s. He called it: A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of the Poor in Ireland from being Burdensome, and for making them Beneficial. Swift suggests that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food for rich gentlemen and ladies. This satirical hyperbole mocks heartless attitudes towards the poor, as well as Irish policy in general. Journal to Stella It consists of 65 letters to his friend, Esther Johnson, who he called Stella and who he may have secretly married. They were written between 1710 and 1713, from various locations in England, and though clearly intended for Stella's readership was sometimes addressed to her companion Rebecca Dingley. Drapier's Letters is the collective name for a series of seven pamphlets against the monopoly granted by the English government to William Wood to provide the Irish with copper coinage. It was widely believed that Wood would need to flood Ireland with debased coinage in order make a profit. In these "letters" Swift posed as a shop-keeper a draperin order to criticize the plan. A pamphlet is an unbound booklet (that is, without a hard cover or binding). It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths (called a leaflet), or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book. (Bror)

NOVEL ***Daniel DEFOE*** Daniel Defoe has always been considered as a pioneer in the rise of English novel. He is also called the first English novelist, though he was a journalist who wrote romances, not what can truly be called novels. The Defoes style was deeply influenced by his journalistic experience. Things are put together as they occurred, without the narrators bothering about their coherence. Defoes method was somewhat journalistic: his narratives are always fictional autobiographies pretending to be true. He didnt fully understand the complex possibilities of structure in novel, but he created a variety of superbly detailed episodes. He loved strange stories and he wrote Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe which is a fictional grafting upon the story of Alexander Selkirk, who had lived alone on Juan Fernandez from 1704 to 1709, and whose return to England caused the publication of many narratives of his history. Robinson Crusoe The novel Robinson Crusoe tells the story of the titular heros adventure on a deserted island. Robinson Crusoe, longing to see the wonders of the world, runs away from home, and after many setbacks, settles down in Brazil. The call of the sea attracts him to second voyage in which he is brought along to an island after the shipwreck in a storm through many hardships; he finds ways to get daily necessities from the wrecked ship to the shore, and settles on the island for twenty four years. During the years, he tries to make himself a living in one way or another, rescues a savage whom he names Friday, and tries to civilize him, builds up a comfortable home for himself. Finally they are picked up and saved by an English ship and return to England. Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress The novel concerns the story of an unnamed "fallen woman", the second time Defoe created such a character (the first was a similar female character in Moll Flanders). In Roxana, a woman who takes on various pseudonyms, including "Roxana," describes her fall from wealth thanks to abandonment by a fool husband and movement into prostitution upon his abandonment. Roxana moves up and down through the social spectrum several times, by contracting an ersatz marriage to a jeweler, secretly courting a prince, being offered marriage by a Dutch merchant, and is finally able to afford her own freedom by accumulating wealth from these men. The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders (commonly known simply as Moll Flanders) Moll Flanders is another first-person picaresque novel of the fall and eventual redemption of a lone woman in 17th century England. A Journal of the Plague Year turns history into fiction as Defoe creates an imaginary narrator- observer who records in his dairy the terrible year in which 70.000 Londoners died of the bubonic plague. The Life, Adventures and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton It is believed to have been partly inspired by the exploits of English pirate Henry Every. The narrative describes the life of an Englishman, stolen from a wellto-do family as a child and raised by Gypsies who eventually makes his way to sea. One half of the book concerns Singleton's crossing of Africa and the later half concerns his life as a pirate in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. Colonel Jack (1722) follows an orphaned boy from a life of poverty and crime to colonial prosperity, military and marital imbroglios and religious conversion, driven by a problematic notion of becoming a "gentleman. ***Samuel RICHARDSON*** As Defoe established the novel or romance of incident, Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) created the novel of character. Defoe may be challenged as a true novelist, but no one can deny that Richardson wrote genuine novels. Richardson established the following kinds of novels: (1) The novel of personality, portraying human beings struggling for self-realization, while Defoe's characters very often seem healthy, determined animals fighting their way out of the traps of circumstances, Richardsons characters appear as complex human beings. (2) Richardson wrote novels of sensibility or novels with sentimental patterns in which the quality and intensity of feeling are the criteria of his characters; (3) Richardson wrote the novel of moral conflict in society: his presentation of human problems, as distinguished from Defoe's animalistic problems, makes him the true father of English novel. He was the first genuine creator of fully round characters in English novel. Richardson's Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded is the first example of what may be called the Modern English novel of character. Richardson is considered to be the father of the epistolary novel. He wrote three novels which contributed the development of the genre. He was a printer who was once asked to produce a volume of letters which could serve as models for people unskilled at expressing themselves. This gave him the idea for his novel: Pamela or Virtue Rewarded. An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. Pamela or Virtue Rewarded Pamela is a young country girl working as maidservant in London and whose letters home tell her story. The girl's mistress has died; the son, Squire B. tries to seduce Pamela, who sees through and resists all his efforts. This brings him to fall in love with her and to marry her. Clarissa; or, The History of a Young Lady appeared in seven volumes, told in 547 letters totaling over a million words; one of the longest novels in English. The story is told by means of letters, written by the heroine Clarissa to her friend Miss Howe, and by Robert Lovelace to his friend John Belford. Clarissa is a young lady of a good family. Clarissas suitor Lovelace drugs and rapes her and Clarissa not only begins to lose her reason but also her very identity Clarissa dies of shame and Lovelace is killed in a duel by her cousin Colonel Morden. The History of Sir Charles Grandison, commonly called Sir Charles Grandison. The novel incorporates an epistolary format similar to Richardson's previous novels, Clarissa and Pamela. Charles Grandison, the leading male character, is a morally good man. He must decide which of two young ladies would make the appropriate wife.

***Henry FIELDING*** Richardson and Defoe represented forces of the new. Each represented in his own way an impact on their contemporaries imagination: Defoe by presenting a world of action; Richardson by presenting a world of feeling. Fielding presents quite a different world in terms of background, outlook and experience. He represents the conservative, aristocratic view which did not question the prevailing values of society. Fielding was not interested in psychology and motivation; he felt attracted by the world of appearances, by the masks displayed in public life, by the social game with its strict and definite set of norms and rules. Henry Fielding was a highly successful satiric dramatist until the introduction of censorship in 1737. During his career as a dramatist, Fielding had attempted a considerable number of forms of plays: witty comedies of manners or intrigues in the Restoration tradition, farces or ballad operas with political implications, and burlesques and satires that bear heavily upon the status of England. Of all his plays, the best known are The Coffee-house Politician, The Tragedy of Tragedies, Pasquin and The Historical Register for the Year 1736 .These successful plays not only contributed to a temporary revival of the English theatre but also were of great help to the playwright in his future literary career as a novelist. He began his novel-writing career with, An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews, or simply Shamela a pastiche of Pamela, which humorously attacked the hypocritical morality which that novel displayed. Fielding has been regarded by some as Father of the English Novel, for his contribution to the establishment of the form of the modern novel. Of the entire eighteenth-century novelist he was the first to set out, both in theory and practice, to write specifically a comic epic in prose, the first to give the modern novel its structure and style. Before him, the relating of a story in a novel was either in the epistolary form (a series of letters), as in Richardsons Pamela, or the picaresque form (adventurous wanderings) through the mouth of the principal character, as in Defoes Robinson Crusoe, but Fielding adopted the third-person narration, in which the author becomes the all-knowing God. Joseph Andrews is a parody of Pamela by Samuel Richardson. Its hero is supposed to be the brother of Pamela, a servant in the household of Lady Booby, whom Fielding makes an aunt of Richardsons Squire B. Joseph, is handsome, and gifted with all graces and all virtues. Joseph's virtue is tempted by his widowed mistress, Lady Booby, and when he repulses her, she dismisses him from her service. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling Fielding's masterpiece consists of 18 books, each preceded by an introductory chapter in the nature of an essay on some theme more or less connected with the story. Tom Jones is a foundling, discovered one night in the bed of the wealthy and benevolent Mr. Allworthy, a country gentleman. He becomes the baby's guardian and gives him a home, later shared by Blifil, Mr. Allworthy's nephew and heir, who is mean-spirited and resents Tom. As he grows up, Tom gains the favors of Molly, the gamekeeper's daughter, but falls in love with Sophia Western, the Squire's daughter, who is intended for Blifil. Sophia detests Blifil and wants to marry Tom. Molly claims that she is pregnant, and Tom is prepared to marry her, but it becomes clear that Molly has been free in her favors and Tom is under no obligation. But Blifil's malice succeeds and Mr. Allworthy closes his house to Tom who sets out without having any plan. Tom encounters Sophia who has run away from her father who insisted on her marriage with Blifil, and now she is going to London to shelter with a relative. Tom finds a pocket book belonging-to Sophia and follows her to London in order to return it. In London, Tom drifts into an affair with Lady Bellaston. Sophia discovers Tom's relationship with Lady Bellaston and rejects him. Tom is forced into a duel and apparently kills his opponent. He is going to be arrested and imprisoned, but the opponent is not dead and it becomes clear that Tom is the son of Mr. Allworthy's sister and as such he is Mr. Allworthy's proper heir. Sophia forgives Tom and they get married. The Life and the Death Jonathan Wild, the Great a story of a criminal, and presents one of the first real anti-heroes in English literature. Tobias George SMOLLETT The picaresque novel (the realistic novel of travels and adventure) was not absolutely new; nor was the device of stringing the episodes of the story together along the thread of a single character. Smollett was the novelist who showed how much could still be done with this form, introduced new life and new types and presented them with unequalled brilliance and energy. Although Smollett is not a great novelist, he made some contribution to the development of novel: (1) he wrote the novel of the sea and shipboard life; (2) he is the writer of eccentric characters and the first caricaturist in English novel, (3) he is a precise observer of the senses, especially the brutal and violent, while his photographic naturalism surpasses Fielding's; and (4) he anticipates the Gothic novel. The Adventures of Roderick Random In his first novel Roderick Random, Smollett follows the outline of his own life, but he has loaded the story with innumerable invented incidents and episodes that are violent and cruel. His hero is a young Scot who, after the disappearance and supposed death of his father, is left alone and goes to London to embark on a series of adventures by land and sea. Eventually he discovers his father, marries his beloved Narcissa, returns to Scotland and lives happily. The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle Smollett's longest novel consists of various violent incidents. At the beginning of the novel Peregrine is a young country gentleman. Rejected by his cruel mother, ignored by his indifferent father and hated by his brother, he is raised by Commodore Hawser Trunnion who is greatly attached to the boy. Peregrine's upbringing, education at Oxford, journey to France, his debauchery, bankruptcy, jailing at the Fleet, unexpected succeeding to the fortune of his father, his final repentance and marriage to his beloved Emilia all provide scope for Smollett's satire on human cruelty, stupidity and greed. Expedition of Humphry Clinker is Smollett's last novel. Humphry Clinker is a hostler, a stableman at an inn. He is taken on by Matthew Bramble and his family while they are travelling through England. Various adventures befall them, especially after their meeting with Lieutenant Lismahago, a Scotsman, who joins their party. After various romantic interludes, Humphry suffers false imprisonment but is rescued and returned to his sweetheart, the maid Winifred Jenkins. It is then discovered that Humphry is Mr. Bramble's illegitimate son from a relationship with a barmaid during his wilder university days.

*Laurence STERNE What distinguishes Sternes writing is its originality and wit: he has been seen as the originator of what came in the twentieth century to be known as streams of consciousness. Stream of consciousness is a narrative device used in literature "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind. Another phrase for it is 'interior monologue'. What passes in a mans own mind is Sternes main concern; in this, his writing owes a great deal to John Lockes Essay Concerning Human Understanding. It was Sterne who took up Lockes ideas on the relativity of time, on random association, on the nature of sensation to break the newly set rules of novel writing, and to escape from the moral and social restrictions of the genre. The plot of the novel in the early eighteenth century followed the natural order of things: beginning, middle, and end. Sterne was the first to employ these not necessarily in that order. He also played with digressions, episodes going off at a tangent from the main line of the plot. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman was published in nine volumes. Told in the first person, it is a patchwork of anecdotes, digressions, jests, parodies, and dialogues.The book is Tristram's narration of his life story. But it is one of the central jokes of the novel that he cannot explain anything simply, that he must make explanatory diversions to add context and color to his tale, to the extent that Tristram's own birth is not even reached until Volume III. A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy It is an account of a journey in which the narrator, the parson Yorick from Tristram Shandy, only gets as far as Lyons in France. Oliver GOLDSMITH Oliver Goldsmith was a many-sided talent. Although he wrote most of his works under pressure, in perpetual need of money, Goldsmith brought major contributions to several literary genres. As a poet, Goldsmith is mostly remembered for The Deserted Village a melancholy poem dedicated to rural England. It is a protest against the effects of the industrial revolution. Goldsmiths most important play, She Stoops to Conquer is an extremely complex comedy dealing with serious social aspects. Goldsmiths essays, published as Chinese Letters, were later collected in a volume entitled The Citizen of the World. Goldsmith is also remembered as the author of The Vicar of Wakefield, one of the most important 18 th century English novels. The Vicar of Wakefield is a sentimental novel. Dr. Primrose, the vicar of Wakefield, is a man who combines learning with innocence. His greatest happiness is found by the domestic hearth with his wife and children. His fortune is lost, his eldest daughter is seduced and ruined by the local squire; he is deceived in numerous ways until he finds himself in the jail with his eldest daughter apparently dead and his eldest son a fellow prisoner. But the novel ends happily: the lost fortune is restored, the ruined daughter is found to be alive and really married to the squire after all, the younger daughter marries a wealthy baronet, and the eldest son marries his beloved. Henry Mackenzie His novel The Man of Feeling is the purest example of sentimental novel. It is in many ways an absurd novel, but it is important in the history of sentimentalism. Mackenzie's second novel, The Man of the World is similarly sentimental and moral. The sentimental novel or the novel of sensibility is an 18th century literary genre which celebrates the emotional and intellectual concepts of sentiment, sentimentalism, and sensibility. Sentimentalism, which is to be distinguished from sensibility, was a fashion in both poetry and prose fiction beginning in the eighteenth century in reaction to the rationalism of the Augustan Age. Sentimental novels relied on emotional response, both from their readers and characters. They feature scenes of distress and tenderness, and the plot is arranged to advance emotions rather than action. THE GOTHIC NOVEL Gothic novel, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. The Gothic novel or Gothic romance marks the transition to the 19th century novel. It reflects the crisis of sensibility that affected the pre-romantic writers. As in poetry, the search for the mysterious, the feeling of wonder combined with terror, the melodramatic and sentimental attitudes were cultivated with great success. The main aim of the writers was to create suspense and tension. The Gothic romance became the most fashionable type of narrative between 1760 and 1820. In the Gothic novels reason collapses, it is replaced by violence, horror, mysteries, supernatural phenomena, black magic, and ghosts. The setting of the plot is usually a piece of Gothic architecture; haunted dwellings, ruined abbeys, decayed castles, ruins, dungeons, labyrinths, secret passages make up a terrifying setting. The narrated events occur in the middle Ages, in dark, unstable periods. ***The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole was the first gothic novel, and the sub-genre has flourished ever since. It is a story of mediaeval times, set in Southern Italy, with castles, vaults, ghosts, statues which come to life, appearances and disappearances, sudden violent death, forest caves, and the whole paraphernalia of horror. Ann Radcliffe was the most successful practitioner of the Gothic novel. She draws the highest excitement from supernatural incidents, which are finally found to be produced by natural causes. Her most popular novels are The Mysteries of Udoipho and The Italian. Jane Austen parodied Radcliffe's novel The Mysteries of Udolpho in Northanger Abbey. Her final novel, The Italian, was written in response to Matthew Gregory Lewis's The Monk. Clara Reeve, with The Old English Baron enjoyed even greater success than her model, Walpoles The Castle of Otranto. Her virtuous hero undergoes all sorts of horrific trials until he reaches his rightful reward: an example of the Gothic novel affirming the good. Among her other works, Clara Reeves critical study in dialogue form, The Progress of Romance (1785), is interesting as one of the comparatively few analyses of the novel by a novelist in this period.

NOVEL Novel is a long prose narrative that describes fictional characters and events in the form of a sequential story, usually.

BACKGROUND TO THE NOVEL Although the traces of novel date back to ancient times, the novel took its modern form at the beginning of the 1500s. Cervantess Don Quixote (1605) can be considered as one of the earlier examples of the genre. The novel as a literary genre came into being in the 18th century. Especially what is known as The English Novel began to rise with Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Moll Flanders (1722). Jonathan Swifts Gullivers Travels (1726) is one of the pioneering English novels in the 18th century. With the rise of the middle class by the middle of the 18 th century, more people could read and they had money to spend on literature. As the 18th century progressed, the novel began to take shape with the publication of Samuel Richardsons Pamela (1740) and Clarissa (1748). Henry Fieldings Tom Jones (1749) contributed much to the development of the novel as a genre. In the 19th century, the literary movement Romanticism influenced the novel. Romanticism emphasized a return to nature and romantic writers valued imagination over reason and emotion over intellect. James Fenimore Coopers The Last of the Mohicans, Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter and Herman Melvilles Moby Dick are some examples of romantic novels in the 19th century. Within Romanticism, Gothic style novels included tales of horror and the supernatural. Emily Brontes Wuthering Heights and Mary Shelleys Frankenstein are examples of Gothic style romantic novels. The Victorian novel in the 19th century has a great influence on the development of the novel. Victorian novelists emphasized the problem of the individuals adjustment to his society by prioritizing middle-class characters. Some of the important examples of Victorian novel are Charles Dickenss David Copperfield and Thomas Hardys Tess of the dUrbervilles American novelists Mark Twains Tom Sawyer, Henry Jamess The Portrait of the Lady, and Kate Chopins The Awakening are examples of 19 century novels. In the 20th century, the novel genre has been influenced by the great events of the century such as World War I, The Great Depression, World War II, The Cold War and the advances in technology. Questioning the existence of God, the supremacy of reason in human affairs and the nature of reality affected the novel as a literary genre. The literature of the 20 century gave importance to the self, the nature of consciousness, and the processes of perception. Novels in this century are often subjective, and personal and internal. Some of the important examples of the pioneering novels in this century are Franz Kafkas The Metamorphosis, James Joyces Ulysses, D.H. Lawrences Sons and Lovers and Virginia Woolfs Mrs. Dalloway. 1945 to the present is the contemporary period of the novel. The novel in this period is influenced by race riots, assassinations and assassination attempts, protests against the Vietnam War, the rise of the feminist movement, the decline of the family and the rise of the divorce rates, the AIDS epidemic and the war on terrorism. NOVEL AND OTHER GENRES Novel and Short Story A novel is longer and more complex than a short story. In a short story, the writer is restricted to tell his/her story in a more limited time compared to a novel. There is usually insufficient time in a short story for the main character or characters to experience a life-changing event. In a novel, one can find sub-plots, numerous shifts in time and place (it can simultaneously talk about past and present), and continuous fictitious narratives which are not limited as in short stories. A novelist can offer more possibilities and richer stories than a short story writer. Novel and Romance In basic terms, romance and novel have a similar narrative in length, but each has different aims. Generally speaking, romance is a type of tale that describes the adventures, both natural and supernatural, of some heroes. Novel brings a greater sense of realism to the narrative and novels can be considered as more complex works of literature when compared to romances. Novel and Drama Drama is usually written for performance; therefore, highly based on the dialogues between the characters. Thus, it has limitations to portray different events at the same time. In a novel, a narrator can speak to the reader throughout the events, even s/he can be the one telling the whole story, but in drama narrators speak rarely and all the action is displayed through the characters. Novel and Poetry Since poetry has the economic use of language, it has restrictions to tell something through various figures of speech. A novel does not have a concern like this. The novel can pay attention to even the slightest details of everyday life without the limitation of structure. However, poetry does not have this luxury hence; it focuses on details through an economical and short language use bounded by the structural and metrical restrictions. In short, the novel has characteristics peculiar to itself and compared to other genres, it becomes obvious that novel is a flexible type of literature and can deal with events and characters in a more complex manner.

NOVEL TYPES The novel as a literary genre has many types. It is important to note that a single novel may belong to more than one type. Historical Novel In this type of novel, characters and events are placed in past time. The main action of the novel evolves around historical events. The atmosphere of the novel is created thorough some historical places, time and setting. Alexander Dumass The Count of Monte Cristo and Charles Dickenss A Tale of Two Cities are examples of historical novel. Epistolary Novel In this type of novel, the story is told through letters written by one or more of the characters. It presents an intimate view of the characters thoughts without the interference of the author and contributes to the dramatic atmosphere of the novel. Samuel Richardsons Pamela is an example of epistolary novel. Realistic Novel This type of novel is sometimes referred to as the novel of manners. In this type of novel, characters are usually complex ones with mixed motives often rooted in their social class. The novel of manners deals with aspects of behavior, language, customs and values characteristic of a particular class of people in a specific historical context. Thomas Hardys Far From the Madding Crowd and Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice are examples of realistic novel. Picaresque Novel The name of this type of novel comes from the Spanish word picaresco or rascal. The adventures of an eccentric or disreputable hero are told in an episodic form. Henry Fieldings Tom Jones is an example of picaresque novel. Bildungsroman This type of novel is originated in Germany and flourished in the Europe especially in England thereafter. The long term development of a character or the maturation process of the hero is being told. Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre is one of the famous examples of Bildungsroman. Gothic Novel In this type of novel, the atmosphere of the novel is created through supernatural and mystic elements like monsters, ghosts and demons. The plot includes secret, mysterious murders and the heroes are marked with a seal of demonic lot. Mary Shelleys Frankenstein is an example of a gothic novel. Psychological Novel In this type of novel, attention is given to the thoughts, feelings, motives and inner states of the characters. These elements are usually more important than the external action in the novel. Emotional reactions and psychology of the characters are in the foreground. Virginia Woolfs Mrs. Dalloway is an example of psychological novel. An antinovel is any experimental work of fiction that avoids the familiar conventions of the novel. THE COMPONENTS OF NOVEL A good novel has six components to work through. These are: Characters, Plot, Point of View, Setting, Style and Language and Theme. 1) CHARACTERS Characters are the fictional beings created by the novelist and instead of flesh and blood they are made of words. However, the novelist try to make them seem as real people in order to create a realistic atmosphere and give us the feeling that those characters are one of us. Hence, the readers can build up empathy and sympathy towards the characters in a story. Types of Characters Flat character: This character type is only known by his/her most important one or more traits. It is a one-dimensional character. Round Character: This character type is complex and many sided. It has multiple qualities. Static Character: This character type remains the same from the beginning of the story to the end and does not experience any changes. Stock Character: This character type is a stereotype and has some universal characteristics (a cheating husband, an absent minded professor, a cruel step-mother etc.). Dynamic Character: This character type experiences changes and develops throughout the story. Protagonist: It is the central character in the story. It can be a sympathetic hero or an unsympathetic anti-hero and this character is considered as dynamic most of the time. Protagonists actions and aims drive the plot forwards. It may be an individual or a group. Antagonist: It is the opponent of the protagonist in the story. Antagonist can be any force in a story that is in conflict with the protagonist. It may be another person or an aspect of the physical or social environment. The main objective of the antagonist is to stop the protagonist from reaching his/her/their goal. 2) PLOT It is in basic terms, the story of the novel and the sequence of events or actions of which the story is composed. A good plot offers an artistic arrangement of events all of which are linked as a chain. The plot of a novel has an emphasis which can be described as what the author decided to focus on or deliberately ignore. It also has pace, which shows us how the novelist is fast to cover certain materials that build up the plot.

The Characteristics of Plot Conflict Conflict may be emotional, physical or ethical, but it gives way to a kind of tension that the characters resolve and struggle against. The conflict may be related to the protagonists (the central character) struggle against an antagonist (the opponent of the protagonist) or an opposing force. There are four types of conflict: 1. Human- versus- Human: In this type, the protagonist is typically against an antagonist and struggles against him/her 2. Human- versus- Society: In this type, the protagonist struggles against the society or the larger organizations, institutions of the society. 3. Human-versus- Nature: In this type, the conflict is created by a component of nature against which the protagonist has to battle. Human beings can be helpless against the power of nature and they experience a kind of conflict to struggle against it. 4. Human-versus-Himself: This is a kind of internal conflict which stands for a struggle of opposing forces within a character. This internal conflict of the protagonist may be related to his physical, mental, emotional or moral nature. Consequently, the conflict gives the reader the interaction and clash of actions, goals, and desires in the story. Plot Manipulation and Fabulation As a nature of novel, sometimes the writer creates suspense and tension. However, in a good plot the writer leaves no question in the readers mind. Therefore, the function of plot manipulation is to create a unified and coherent plot. When we come to fabulation, it is the introduction of unrealistic, fabulous, supernatural and gothic elements to the plot which seems, to be realistic and happens in a realistic setting. Artistic Unity It is an important part of a good plot. There should be nothing irrelevant in the development of the story. Since the plot is the planned arrangement of actions and events in a narrative, it should be carefully arranged to create artistic unity. Story Ending In happy endings, the protagonist solves all the conflicts and complications and readers are left with a feeling that the protagonist will live happily ever after. However, in many real life situations there are unhappy endings and the writers may prefer unhappy endings since unhappy endings are more likely to raise important issues concerning life and living. The Ways of Describing Structure in Plot: Exposition In this stage, we are introduced to the story, the characters and the setting. The readers are given the necessary background information about the characters and their circumstances. It introduces the conflict and gives the critical information readers need to understand the rest of the story. Rising Action It refers to a series of events in a story that move the action forward and build toward the climax. Rising action involves conflicts and complications, and builds toward the climax of the story. Climax Tension and conflict reaches the highest point with climax. It stands for the turning point of the action when the rising action becomes the falling action. At this point the conflict takes a definite turn toward solution. Falling Action It stands for all of the action in a novel that follows the turning point (climax).The falling action leads to the resolution or conclusion of the story. Resolution This is also called denouement. Resolution is the solutions of the main complications and conflicts in the story and the point at which the readers expectations about what will happen to the characters are finally satisfied or denied. Types of Plot: Generally, there are four types of plot structure we may come across in a novel. Linear Plot Structure: There is no climax in this type of plot structure. It has an anti-climax in which the turning point does not take place. Triangular Plot Structure (Freytags Pyramid): It is a way to analyze a plot that consists of five elements in an ascending and descending manner (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution). Circular Plot Structure: In this type the action finishes where it is started. At the end of the story we should find ourselves in the same place where the action started. Open -ended Structure: This type of plot structure ends with a climax. This time we do not have falling action or resolution. 3) POINT OF VIEW The point of view of a literary work is the perspective from which the reader views the action and characters. It may be a fictional character in the story or some unknown voice outside the story. There are different types of point of view that can be used by the novelists. Types of Point of View Omniscient Point of View The story is told by a god-like narrator who knows all, hears all, and sees all in this type. We can enter the mind and inner thoughts of the characters. The narration is not restricted to only one of the characters. the narrator is all-knowing and is

able to tell us what each character is thinking using the third person.

Limited Omniscient Point of View In this type, the powers of the omniscient narrator are restricted to a central character. The author tells the story in the third person, but s/he tells it from the view point of one character in the story. First Person Point of View In this type, the story is told using the pronoun I. The character in the story tells the story, often about his or her own life. Third Person Point of View It is the outside voice that tells the story. In this type, the narrator can be omniscient or limited omniscient. The technique of stream of consciousness can be used in this type. Stream consciousness is a form in which the writer aims to give a sense of how a characters mind works by tracking his/her thoughts as they flow one topic to another Objective or Dramatic Point of View In this type, the narrator is objective towards the actions and characters in the story. 4) SETTING In basic terms it is the physical background, time, and location of the story. Setting is important for creating the mood and atmosphere of the story. There can be different settings in a novel. Sometimes, the setting can also be symbolic. 5) STYLE AND LANGUAGE The novelist put the words, sentences and paragraphs together in a kind of style. Style is the language conventions that are used to construct the story. The period, in which the novel is written, is also important for its style, because the style of a novel is affected by the period it is written and certain periods may have different styles. Some novelists may also have specific styles. The style of the novel has influence on its tone. Tone can be described in terms of adjectives. The tone of the novel can be dramatic, serious, humorous, etc., and the style of the novel is important at this point to establish the tone. Symbol Symbol is a word or phrase that signifies an object or event which in turn signifies something else. Symbols are used to deepen the meaning in the story. Through the use of symbolism, the novelist may talk about controversial topics (like religion, sex or politics) without being obvious. Symbols can be subtle and multi-layered in their significance. Names, objects, actions even the setting can be used as symbols in a novel. Irony Another important figure of speech that we can come across in a novel is irony. In basic terms, it means saying one thing while meaning another. Irony occurs where a word or phrase has one surface meaning but another contradictory, possibly opposite meaning is implied. As a consequence, the literary devices give readers the opportunity to discover themselves the layers of meaning in a novel; hence they should be given importance in order to build up an appropriate and sound interpretation of the novel. 6) THEME Theme is in basic terms the main idea or controlling idea of the story. It gives us the answer of the question what did you learn from the story? It stands for the idea that holds the story together. The Characteristics of Theme: 1. A theme should be expressed in the form of a statement, not in the form of a single word. For example, love cannot be the theme, but the devastating effects of love can be a good theme. 2. A theme should be stated as a generalization about life, the names of the specific characters or situations cannot be used while stating a theme. 3. A theme should not be a generalization larger than is justified by the terms of the novel. It should always be related to the story in the novel. 4. A theme should not be in contrary to any of the details in the story. 5. A theme can be stated by using more than one way. There is no just one single way of stating theme. The following works of literature have each been claimed as the first novel in English.

Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, (1470) William Baldwin, Beware the Cat, (1553) John Lyly, Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578) Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (1581) Margaret Cavendish, The Blazing World (1666) John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress (1678) George Ashwell , Philosophus Autodidactus (1686) Aphra Behn, Oroonoko (1688) Simon Ockley, The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan (1708) Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719) Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders (1722) Samuel Richardson, Pamela (1740)

Romanticism was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850. Partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution it was also a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. The Romantic Period in English literature begins with the publication of Wordsworth and Coleridge`s Lyrical Ballads and ends with the death of the novelist, Sir Walter Scott. The early Romantic period coincides with what is often called the "age of revolutions" including, the American (1776) and the French (1789) and Industrial revolutions. The Napoleonic Wars were another big event at that time. Those were the wars led by Napoleon Bonaparte against Europe from the end of the 18th century until the year of 1815. The wars ended in 1815 when Napoleon lost the battle of Waterloo. The Romantics celebrated spontaneity, imagination, subjectivity, and the purity of nature. First and foremost, Romanticism is concerned with the individual more than with society. The individual consciousness and especially the individual imagination are especially fascinating for the Romantics. Romantic literature can be characterized by its personal nature, its strong use of feeling and symbolism, and its exploration of nature and the supernatural. The writings of the Romantics were considered innovative based on their belief that literature should be spontaneous, imaginative, personal, and free. Imagination and emotion are more important than reason and formal rules; imagination is a gateway to transcendent experience and truth. Romantic literature tends to emphasize a love of nature, a respect for primitivism, and a valuing of the common, "natural" man; Romantics idealize country life and believe that many of the ills of society are a result of urbanization. Romantics were interested in the medieval past, the supernatural, the mystical, the gothic, and the exotic. Romantics were attracted to rebellion and revolution, especially concerned with human rights, individualism, freedom from oppression; There was emphasis on introspection, psychology, melancholy, and sadness. The art often dealt with death, transience and mankinds feelings about these things. The artist was an extremely individualistic creator whose creative spirit was more important than strict adherence to formal rules and traditional procedures. (The Byronic hero) Emphasis on the individual and subjectivity. Poetry becomes the most popular literary form and the best way of individual expression. French Revolution brings new ideals: freedom, equality, brotherhood. As a result of Industrial Revolution the working class becomes the most important class. Every day language and clarity is important in literature.

The Romantic Period (1790-1830)

THE FIRST GENERATION OF ROMANTIC POETS (EARLY ROMANTICISM) William BLAKE William Blake achieved little fame in his own lifetime but in the twentieth century he has come to be recognized as a poetic genius. Blake was also an engraver, and illustrated many of his poems so that they could be read visually as well as verbally. His life was spent in rebellion against the rationalism of the eighteenth century and he rejected, in particular, the formal restrictions of Augustan poetry, writing in a lyrical visionary style and developing, in the process, an individual view of the world. A characteristic feature was a tendency to see the world in terms of opposites. Blake wrote that Without Contraries is no Progression (The Marriage of Heaven and Hell) and much of his poetry illustrates this. Blake makes extensive use of symbolism in his poetry. Some of the symbols are straightforward: innocence is symbolized by children, flowers, lambs, or particular seasons. Oppression and rationalism are symbolized by urban, industrial landscapes, by machines, by those in authority (including priests), and by social institutions. The symbolism in some of his later poems, such as the epic Milton, is less easy to interpret. Blakes best known symbol is that of the tiger in his poem The Tyger. (Its opposite poem is the Lamb). Images of childhood have a central place in Blakes poetry, as they do in the work of many Romantic poets. The child in Blakes poetry stands for the poets dissatisfaction with society and for his belief in the power of uncorrupted feeling and imagination. Through the images of childhood, Blake dramatizes the conflict between nature and social order, between natural innocence and the pressures of social experience. In the volume Songs of Innocence and Experience, several poems are written in pairs, contrasting states of human innocence and experience. Blake also wrote a series of allegorical or prophetic books such as the Book of Thel, the Daughters of Albion, Jerusalem and many others. These books have puzzled critics to this day. Because in them Blake creates a mythological world of his own. Songs of Innocence: The Shepherdthe Echoing Greenthe Lambthe Little Black BoyThe Blossom The Chimney SweeperThe Little Boy lostThe Little Boy foundLaughing Song A Cradle Songthe Divine ImageHoly ThursdayNightSpringNurse's Song Infant Joya DreamOn Another's Sorrow Songs of Experience: Earth's Answerthe Clod and the PebbleHoly Thursdaythe Little Girl Lost The Little Girl Foundthe Chimney SweeperNurse's Songthe Sick Rose The Fly The AngelThe TygerMy Pretty Rose TreeAh! Sunflowerthe Lilly The Garden of Lovethe Little VagabondLondonthe Human Abstract Infant Sorrow A Poison Treea Little Boy Losta Little Girl LostTo Tirzahthe Schoolboy The Voice of the Ancient Bard The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is a series of texts written in imitation of biblical prophecy but expressing Blake's own intensely personal Romantic and revolutionary beliefs. It attacks sexual and social morality as interpreted by organized religion because it restrains creative energy and genius. The section Proverbs of Hell is especially striking. The Book of Urizen is a complex poem about the fall of man, uses Blake mythology; Urizen is reason, Los is imagination, and Orc is anarchy, Enitharmon is inspiration and Luvah is passion. The Song of Los is one of Blake's epic poems, known as prophetic books. The poem consists of two sections, "Africa" and "Asia". In the first section Blake catalogues the decline of morality in Europe, which he blames on both the African slave trade and enlightenment philosophers. The book provides a historical context for The Book of Urizen, The Book of Ahania, and The Book of Los, and also ties those more obscure works to The Continental Prophecies, "Europe" and "America". The second section consists of Los urging revolution. The prophetic books of the 18th-century English poet and artist William Blake are a series of lengthy, interrelated poetic works drawing upon Blake's own personal mythology. The books contain a rich invented mythology, in which Blake worked to encode his revolutionary spiritual and political ideas into a prophecy for a new age. This desire to recreate the cosmos is the heart of his work and his psychology. His myths often described the struggle between enlightenment and free love on the one hand, and restrictive education and morals on the other. Robert BURNS He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a light Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in Standard English. He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic Movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism. As well as making original compositions, Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, often revising or adapting them. His poem (and song) "Auld Lang Syne" is often sung at Hogmanay (the last day of the year), and "Scots Wha Hae" served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem of the country. Other poems and songs of Burns that remain well known across the world today include "A Red, Red Rose"; "A Man's A Man for A' That"; "To a Louse"; "To a Mouse"; "The Battle of Sherramuir"; "Tam o' Shanter"; and "Ae Fond Kiss".

William WORDSWORTH Wordsworth was in group of poets called the Lake Poets. The Lake Poets are a group of English poets who all lived in the Lake District of England at the turn of the nineteenth century. As a group, they followed no single "school" of thought or literary practice then known; their works were uniformly disparaged by the Edinburgh Review. They are considered part of the Romantic Movement. The three main figures of what has become known as the Lakes School are William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey. The publication, in 1798, by the poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge of a volume entitled Lyrical Ballads is a significant event in English literary history, though the poems were poorly received and few books sold. Most historians of English Literature mark the beginning of Romantic period as 1798 when Wordsworth and Coleridge changed the course of English poetry by publishing Lyrical Ballads. Wordsworths poetry is essentially empirical: that is, he records the evidence of his senses, looking inward rather than outward. Nevertheless, he does describe the world of nature and of the characters that inhabit the natural landscape. In fact, Wordsworth gives detailed accounts of the lives of ordinary people in poems such as The Old Cumberland Beggar and The Leech Gatherer characters of a low social position not normally represented in Augustan poetry. The Prelude or, Growth of a Poet's Mind; an Autobiographical Poem is an autobiographical epic poem in blank verse. The Prelude is an extremely personal and revealing work on the details of Wordsworth's life. Wordsworth began ' The Prelude in 1798 at the age of 28 and continued to work on it throughout his life. The poem was unknown to the general public until published three months after Wordsworth's death. The poem has been referred to as the first psychological epic. Other poem by Wordsworth include: Ode: Intimations of Immortality, Tintern Abbey, The World Is Too Much with Us, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, Laodamia, The Excursion.

Samuel Taylor COLERIDGE Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. Coleridge was an innovative poet, writing strange poems of supernatural as well as personal meditations called conversation poems. He wrote the poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as the major prose work Biographia Literaria. Supernatural Poems: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the longest and best-known poem of Coleridge. An old sailor or mariner narrates the terrible sequence of events which followed when he shot an albatross and was cursed. His ship is becalmed; he is subjected to nightmare visions and to a long period of suffering and his water supply runs out in punishment for his deed. When the mariner blesses some sea-creatures, his offence against the power of nature is forgiven and he is able to return home as a wiser man through his suffering. The whole poem is written in the form of a mediaeval ballad. Christabel is an unfinished, long narrative poem. Christabel goes in the woods to pray to the large oak tree, where she hears a strange noise. Upon looking behind the tree, she finds Geraldine (a witch), who says that she had been abducted from her home by men on horseback. Christabel pities her and takes her home with her. They spend the night together, but while Geraldine undresses, she shows a terrible but undefined mark. Her father, Sir Leoline, becomes enchanted with Geraldine, ordering a grand procession to announce her rescue. The unfinished poem ends here. Kubla Khan: This poem describes Xanadu, the palace of Kubla Khan, a Mongol emperor and the grandson of Genghis Khan. The poem's speaker starts by describing the setting of Emperor's palace. The speaker then goes on to describe Kubla Khan himself. All of a sudden the speaker moves away from this landscape and tells us about a vision he had, where he saw a woman playing an instrument and singing. The memory of her song fills him with longing, and he imagines himself singing his own song, using it to create a vision of Xanadu. Toward the end, the poem becomes more personal and mysterious. He has a final vision of a terrifying figure with flashing eyes. Conversation Poems: The conversation poems are a group of eight poems composed by Coleridge. Each details a particular life experience which lead to the poet's examination of nature and the role of poetry. They describe virtuous conduct and man's obligation to God, nature and society. These are descriptive and highly personal poems. Conversation poem include: The Eolian Harp Fears in Solitude Reflections on having left a Place of Retirement The Nightingale: A Conversation Poem This Lime-Tree Bower my Prison Dejection: An Ode Frost at Midnight To William Wordsworth Literary Criticism: Biographia Literaria contains autobiography, literary criticism and philosophy. He analyses works of Wordsworth and Shakespeare. He emphases the superiority of imagination over logic.

THE SECOND GENERATION OF ROMANTIC POETS (LATER ROMANTICISM) John KEATS A main theme of Keatss poetry is the conflict between the everyday world and eternity: the everyday world of suffering, death and decay, and the timeless beauty and lasting truth of poetry and the human imagination. His earliest poetry consists mainly of long poems. Endymion is written in four books and is derived in style and structure from Greek legends and myths, the main theme being the search for an ideal love and happiness beyond earthly possibility. A more ambitious long poem is The Fall of Hyperion which is heavily influenced by John Milton and was not finished by Keats, in part because he wished to develop his own style and identity as a poet. It tells of the downfall of the old gods and the rise of the new gods who are marked by their strength and beauty. The poetry of Keats is characterized by sensual imagery, most notably in his series of odes. His great odes include: Ode to Psyche, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on Indolence, Ode to autumn, Ode on Melancholy, and Ode on a Grecian Urn. The poems Isabella, Lamia, the Eve of Saint Agnes and La Belle Dame Sans Merci explore familiar Romantic themes: the relationship between emotion and reality; the impermanence of human love; the search for an elusive beauty. Keatss admiration for the Middle Ages allows him to make particular use of the ballad form to explore aspects of the irrational, unconscious and super-natural world. In the following lines from Ode to a Nightingale the poet asks for a drink of cool wine: O, for a draught of vintage! That hath been Cooled a long age in the deep-delved earth, Tasting of Flora and the country green, Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth! The description is an example of synaesthesia a feature which recurs frequently in Keatss poetry. Synaesthesia is a use of imagery and language choices which describe sensory impressions in terms of other senses. In the lines above, Keats manages to appeal to sight, color, movement, sound, and heat almost simultaneously. For example, the movement of dancing and the sound of song are described as a taste. Sunburnt mirth describes the sight of sunburnt faces at the same time as we hear the same people laughing. Synaesthesia (duyular aras aktarm- sense mixing) is a description of one sense in terms of another. A simple example is "cool colors." The adjective "cool" is normally associated with temperature, whereas colors are visual.(warm sounds, fragrant words) Percy Bysshe SHELLEY One of Shelleys first major poems was Queen Mab. In the poem he attacks institutional religion and codified morality, portraying a utopian vision of mans need for simple virtue and straightforward happiness. In a pamphlet entitled The Necessity of Atheism, Shelley argued that the existence of God could not be proved. His refusal to withdraw the pamphlet led to his being expelled from Oxford by the university authorities Other major poems by Shelley also addressed social and political issues. The Mask of Anarchy was a direct response to the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. Like the sonnet England, it closes with a vision of the future revolution of the working classes. In Prometheus Unbound, generally regarded as one of Shelleys most successful long poems, he employs the Greek myth of Prometheus, who was punished for stealing the gift of fire from the gods and giving it to mankind; but in Shelleys poem he is redeemed by the power of love and acts as a symbol of human fulfillment resulting from a change in his imaginative vision. Alastor is a blank verse allegory of the poets quest for the ideal woman. Shelleys first major poem . Mont Blanc and Hymn to Intellectual Beauty are idealistic poems. In them Shelley attempts to convey an idea of the ultimate being or power of the universe. Ode to the West Wind depicts the dual nature of the west wind, as both destroyer and preserver, blowing away the leaves, but scattering the seeds for a rebirth. To a Skylark is Shelleys most popular lyric, uses imagery to convey the spirit of this songbird and compare its role to that of the poet. Adonais is a pastoral elegy on the death of John Keats, adapts the myth of Adoniss death in celebrating Keatss rebirth into an ideal world. Ozymandias The traveler told the speaker a story about an old, fragmented statue in the middle of the desert. The statue is broken apart, but you can still make out the face of a person. The face looks stern and powerful, like a ruler. The sculptor did a good job at expressing the rulers personality. On the pedestal near the face, the traveler reads an inscription in which the ruler Ozymandias tells anyone who might happen to pass by, basically, My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! (Look around and see how awesome I am!) But there is no other evidence of his awesomeness in the vicinity of his giant, broken statue. There is just a lot of sand, as far as the eye can see.

GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON Like Shelley, Byron was heavily involved with contemporary social issues and became particularly well known for his verse satires. The heroes of his long narrative poems were often imitated; in fact, the Byronic hero almost became a literary fashion. The hero is usually a melancholy and solitary figure who in his actions often defies social conventions. The long poem Childe Harolds Pilgrimage the term childe is a mediaeval word for a young nobleman waiting to become a knight was the work which made Byrons name. The hero, Childe Harold, is often identified with Byron himself. He is a restless wanderer, alternating between despair and great energy and commitment to new, usually forbidden experiences. A more developed example of the Byronic hero comes in his dramatic poem Manfred. It contains supernatural elements, in keeping with the popularity of the ghost story in England at the time. It is a typical example of a Romantic closet drama. Manfred is internally tortured by some mysterious guilt, which has to do with the death of his most beloved, Astarte; he uses his mastery of language and spell-casting to summon seven spirits, from whom he seeks forgetfulness. The spirits, who rule the various components of the corporeal world, are unable to control past events and thus cannot grant Manfred's plea. For some time, fate prevents him from escaping his guilt through suicide. At the end, Manfred dies defying religious temptations of redemption from sin. Byrons semi-autobiographical Don Juan is an example of the more satiric side to his poetry. The tone of the poem is light-hearted and comic. It is based on the legend of Don Juan. The Vision of Judgment is a satirical poem which depicts a dispute in Heaven over the fate of George III's soul. It was written in response to the Poet Laureate Robert Southey's A Vision of Judgment which had imagined the soul of King George triumphantly entering Heaven to receive his due. ENGLISH NOVEL IN THE ROMANTIC PERIOD Jane AUSTEN Jane Austen is accepted as one of the greatest writers of novel of manners. She is quite different from any novelist before her, and an important part of the difference is that for many years she was not consciously writing for publication. Austen began to write poems, stories, and plays for her own and her family's amusement. Austen later compiled "fair copies" of 29 of these early works into three bound notebooks, now referred to as the Juvenilia, containing pieces originally written between 1787 and 1793. What Jane Austen did and no author before her had attempted it so successfully was to apply the techniques of the novel to the acute observation of society in microcosm. She deliberately avoids effect, exaggeration and excess. Going against the trend of the novels of her time, she applies the microscope to human character and motivation, with no great didactic, moral, or satiric purpose, but with a gentle irony. Throughout Jane Austen's writing career the Napoleonic wars were going on, romantic poems such as Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience and Lyrical Ballads were published, and she had heard about the French Revolution and Romantic Movement, but due to her own sense of order and control, she keeps all of them out of her novels in which soldiers appear only as attractions for girls, not as warriors. The tiny stage of Jane Austen's novels is a microcosm of some larger moral universe. She is a critical observer of humanity and human beings who finally realize their own mistakes and correct themselves. She gives her characters the opportunity to settle the issue among themselves and realize their own potentiality. Most of her heroines go through the process of awakening. They painfully discover that they have made mistakes both about themselves and about the world in which they live. Austen's novels have often been characterized as "country house novels" or as "comedies of manners", however they also include fairy tale elements (her heroines are Cindrellas) Austen's plots are fundamentally about education; her heroines undergo a "process through which they come to see clearly themselves and their conduct" and thereby "become better people. Morality, characterized by manners, duty to society, and religious seriousness, is also a central theme of her works. Austen's novels raise and explore a variety of issues relating to money and property and the power they convey. If there is one striking common theme in Jane Austens novels, it would be marriage. Some characters marry for security, some marry for wealth, and some marry for love. The idea of marriage is very important throughout her works, primarily because it was often the only way for a woman of the period to secure her freedom, social status, and living standard.

Sense and Sensibility is also directed against the contemporary novels' fashionable taste, against the enthusiasm for picturesque beauty and sentimentality. Marianne, the heroine, is a lover of the picturesque and a believer in sensibility. She falls passionately in love with John Willoughby, an attractive but unprincipled young man, who suddenly departs for London. He writes her an insolent letter, informing her of his approaching marriage to a rich heiress. She cannot hide her grief because of her extreme sensibility. Finally she finds a more realistic happiness with Colonel Brandon, her old admirer and a serious man of five-and-thirty.

Northanger Abbey is Jane Austen's shortest novel makes fun of the Gothic novels, especially those of Ann Radcliffe. It is story of Catherine Morland, a rather ordinary girl who is good-hearted and rather simple. She is excessively fond of reading Gothic novels, among which Ann Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho is a favorite. She spends some weeks in Bath as the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Allen. In Bath she makes various friends including Henry and Eleanor, the son and daughter of the eccentric General Tilney. Henry Tilney is a rich and intellectually superior young man who is attracted by Catherine's simple good-heartedness. Catherine also falls in love with Henry. General Tilney, who imagines that Catherine is rich and therefore a good match for Henry, invites her to the Tilneys' home, the Northanger Abbey, where she humiliates herself by expecting gruesome secrets and horror she had learned from Mrs. Radcliffe's novels. When General learns that Catherine is not rich, he orders her out of his house. Catherine returns home. Two days after she returns home, however, Henry pays a sudden unexpected visit. He explains that his father, believing her to be penniless, had tried to keep her away from his son. Henry breaks with his father and tells Catherine he still wants to marry her despite his father's disapproval. In the end, the General gives his blessing to Henry's marriage to Catherine. Pride and Prejudice is the most popular of all Jane Austen's novels. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet live with their five daughters at Longbourn. In the absence of a male heir, the property will pass by entail to a cousin, William Collins. Charles Bingley, a rich Bachelor, takes a house near Longbourn, and brings there his two sisters and his rich friend, Fitz William Darcy. Bingley and Jane, the eldest Bennet girl, fall mutually in love. Darcy, though attracted to Elizabeth Bennet, offends her by his insolent behavior. Darcy and Bingley's sisters, who are disgusted with the behavior of Mrs. Bennet and her younger daughters, cause the separation of Bingley and Jane. Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth and he is rejected. He proposes to Charlotte Lucas who accepts him, and they marry. Staying with them, Elizabeth is again thrown into contact with Darcy. Strongly attracted to Elizabeth in spite of himself, Darcy proposes to her in terms that do not conceal his pride. Elizabeth indignantly rejects him. On a trip to Pemberley, Darcy's place, with her uncle and aunt, Elizabeth is surprised to come across Darcy who welcomes the visitors, showing his greatly improved manners. News reaches Elizabeth that her sister Lydia has eloped with Wickham, son of the steward of Darcy's property. By Darcy's help the fugitives are traced, their marriage is brought about, and they are suitably provided for. The attachment between Bingley and Jane is renewed and leads to their engagement. In spite of the insolent intervention of Lady Catherine, Darcy and Elizabeth are engaged. Mansfield Park: Sir Thomas Bertram of Mansfield Park has two sons, Tom and Edmund, and two daughters, Maria and Julia. Lady Bertram, a selfish woman, has two sisters, Mrs. Norris and Mrs. Price who has a large family of young children. In order to help her sister, the Bertrams undertake the charge of Fanny Price, a girl of nine. By her honesty and modest disposition, Fanny becomes an indispensable part of the household. When Sir Thomas leaves for the West Indies and the family discipline is relaxed, Fanny refuses to take part in the flirtation of her cousins. She rejects the proposal of the attractive but unprincipled Henry Crawford in spite of the displeasure of Sir Thomas. Loving her cousin Edmund, Fanny grieves to see him fascinated by the worldly-minded Mary Crawford. A series of elopements opens Edmund's eyes. He turns for comfort to Fanny, falls in love with her, and marries her. Emma: Emma, a clever and very self-satisfied young girl, is the daughter old Mr. Woodhouse and the mistress of the house. She takes under her wing Harriet Smith, a pretty but foolish girl of seventeen. She attempts to manipulate Harriet into what she calls a good marriage. A young farmer named Robert Martin proposes to Harriet, but Emma rejects it and Harriet turns him down. Emma tries instead to affect a match for Harriet with Mr. Elton, a young clergyman who despises Harriet and has set his eyes on Emma herself. Emma is in love with Frank Churchill. Harriet becomes interested in George Knightley's unaffected warmth and intelligence. The realization that Harriet might supplant her in Knightley's affections, together with the discovery that Frank Churchill is engaged to Jane Fairfax, forces Emma to examine her own conduct and resolve to behave better. Knightly proposes to her and they marry. Harriet marries Robert Martin. Persuasion is Jane Austen's last novel. It is the most complex, the most romantic, and the most argumentative of all Jane Austen's novels. More than eight years before the novel opens, Anne Elliot, a lovely, thoughtful, warm-hearted 19 year old, accepts a proposal of marriage from the handsome young naval officer Frederick Wentworth. He is clever, confident, and ambitious, but poor and with no particular family connections to recommend him. Sir Walter, Anne's fatuous, snobbish father and her equally self-involved older sister Elizabeth are dissatisfied with her choice, maintaining that he is no match for an Elliot of Kellynch Hall, the family estate. Her older friend and mentor, Lady Russell, acting in place of Anne's late mother, persuades her to break the engagement .Now 27 and still unmarried, Anne re-encounters her former lover when his sister and brother-in-law, the Crofts, take out a lease on Kellynch. Wentworth is now a captain and wealthy from maritime victories in the Napoleonic wars. However, he has not forgiven Anne for rejecting him. While publicly declaring that he is ready to marry any suitable young woman who catches his fancy, he privately resolves that he is ready to become attached to any appealing young woman except for Anne Elliot. However, in the end he proposes to Anne and he is accepted. John William POLIDORI John William Polidori was a writer and physician. He is known for his associations with the Romantic movement and credited by some as the creator of the vampire genre of fantasy fiction. His most successful work was the 1819 short story, The Vampyre, one of the first vampire stories in English.

Sir Walter SCOTT Sir Walter Scott published his early novels anonymously, fearing that turning to novel may ruin his already achieved reputation as a poet. Scott was the first English-language author to have a truly international career in his lifetime with many contemporary readers in Europe, Australia, and North America. Scott's Waverley Novels, which brought him fame and fortune, began with Waverley in 1814 and continued with Guy Mannering, Antiquary, Rob Roy, Ivanhoe,Heart of Midlothian, Kenilworth, The Pirate, The Fortunes of Nigel, Peveril of the Peak, Quentin Durward, St. Ronan's Well, Redgauntlet, Tales of the Crusaders, Woodstock, Chronicles of the Canongate, Anne of Geierstein, The Siege of Malta and Bizarro.. Many of his novels take the form of a kind of pilgrim's progress: the character makes the journey, gets involved in the passions and activities of the Scott and, then, returns to where he came from. Waverley or Tis Sixty Years Since is Scott's first novel. Waverley is often regarded as the first historical novel. Captain Edward Waverley is sent by his uncle to intercede with the clan head, Fergus Mac Ivor, but he falls in love with Flora Mac Ivor, the chieftain's daughter. He is wounded by a stag. He is proclaimed a deserter and arrested for treason, but he is rescued by Highlanders. After some heroic deeds, Waverley marries Rose Bradwardine. Heart of Midlothian is now considered as the finest of Scott's novels and Jeanie Deans as his best-realized character. The story opens with the Porteous riot of 1736. The Heart of Midlothian is the Talboolh prison. Porteous, the commander of the city guard is acquitted after the trial for opening fire on people. Common people, led by Robertson, storm the prison, drag Porteous from prison and lynch him. Robertson loves Effie Deans, who is imprisoned on charge of murdering her child. Effie refuses to escape because she knows that she is innocent. At her trial Jeanie tells the truth and Effie is sentenced to death. Jeanie goes to London and gains audience with Queen Caroline who is moved by Jeanie's honesty and pardons Effie. Robertson marries Effie, who finds out that her son is alive, not murdered. Robertson is the real father of Effies son, but he is unknowingly killed by his own son when he tries to retrieve him from the robber band. Ivanhoe is the most popular novel by Scott. It is the first novel set in medieval times, in England during the reign of Richard I, 1189-1199. Here Scott goes to a distant past and gives it life, but his novel makes his readers misunderstand English history. Scott emphasizes the hostility between Saxons and Normans in England of the late 12th century, but such hostility was never as sharp as Scott imagines. Mary SHELLEY Mary Shelley, wife of Percy Shelley, is best known for her gothic novel Frankenstein. Mary began composition of Frankenstein influenced not only by the ghost stories but primarily by the developments of science and the studies on electricity. There are two principal narrators in Frankenstein Robert Walton, the Captain of a ship and Victor Frankenstein, the unfortunate scientist. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus: The novel Frankenstein is written in epistolary form, documenting a correspondence between Captain Robert Walton and his sister, Margaret Walton Saville. Walton sets out to explore the North Pole. During the voyage the crew rescues a nearly frozen man named Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein starts to recount a story of his life's miseries to Walton. Frankenstein is determined to gain forbidden knowledge and use it for the benefit of mankind. He transgresses Gods laws of creation by creating a monster and is punished as it kills all whom he loves. The nameless monster disappears right after it is brought to life. Victor becomes ill from the experience. He is nursed back to health by his childhood friend, Henry Clerval. After a four-month recovery, he determines that he should return home when his brother William is found murdered. William's nanny, Justine, is hanged for the murder based on the discovery of William's locket in her pocket. Victor, though certain the monster is responsible, doubts anyone would believe him and is unable to stop the hanging. Ravaged by his grief, Victor retreats into the mountains to find peace. The monster approaches him and tells Victor his own tale. The Creature tells Victor of his own encounters with people, and how he had become afraid of them and spent a year living near a cottage, observing the DeLacey family living there and growing fond of them, the monster became educated and self-conscious. He also discovered a lost satchel of books and learned to read. Seeing his reflection in a pool, he believes that his physical appearance is hideous compared to the humans he watches. Though he eventually approached the family with hope of becoming their friend, they were frightened by his appearance and drove him away, and then left the residence permanently. The creature burned the cottage and left. In his travels some time later, the monster saw a young girl tumble into a stream and rescued her from drowning. A man, seeing him with the child in his arms, pursued him and fired a gun, wounding him. Traveling to Geneva, he met a little boy, Victor's brother William, but upon his approach, William cried out. The creature grabbed the boy by the throat to silence him. He removed a locket from the boy's body and placed it in the folds of the dress of a young woman, William's nanny, Justine who had been sleeping in a barn nearby, assuming she would be accused of the murder. The monster concludes his story with a demand that Frankenstein create for him a female companion like himself. Fearing for his family, Victor reluctantly agrees. He realizes that creating a mate for the creature might lead to the breeding of an entire race of creatures that could plague mankind. He destroys the unfinished female creature after he sees his first creation looking through the window. The monster witnesses this, murders Clerval and leaves the corpse on an Irish beach. Victor is imprisoned for the murder of Clerval. After being acquitted, he returns home with his father. Once home, Victor marries Elizabeth but the creature murders Elizabeth. Grief-stricken by the deaths of William, Justine, Clerval, and now Elizabeth, Victor's father dies. Victor vows to catch the monster. After months of pursuit, the two end up in the Arctic Circle, near the North Pole. At the end of Victor's narrative, Captain Walton resumes the telling of the story. Frankenstein dies shortly thereafter. Walton discovers the creature on his ship, mourning over Frankenstein's body. Frankenstein's death has not brought him peace. Rather, his crimes have increased his misery and alienation; he has found only his own emotional ruin in the destruction of his creator. He vows to kill himself so that no others will ever know of his existence. Walton watches as he drifts away on an ice raft that is soon lost in darkness.

The Essayists in the Romantic Period Although poetry was the most important medium of the romantic period, an innovation in prose-the personal essay- was also significant. Personal essay is a short work autobiographical nonfiction characterized by a sense of intimacy and a conversational manner. The subject matter of personal essays traditionally concerns common things; human relations with family and friends is a frequent topic, as are childhood reminiscences, and the consideration of pastimes such as travel, walking, and sheer idleness. While the personal essayist often has a serious point to make, it is rare that the essay's subject will be overtly political. The essayists Thomas DeQuincey, Charles Lamb and William Hazlitt abandoned the traditions of the formal essay for this more impressionistic, less structured essay that disclosed more of the personality of the writer. Thomas DeQUINCEY Confessions of an English Opium-Eater is an autobiographical account, about his opium and alcohol addiction and its effect on his life. The Confessions was the first major work De Quincey published and the one which won him fame almost overnight .As originally published De Quincey's account was organized into two parts. Part I begins with a notice "To the Reader," to establish the narrative frame: "I here present you, courteous reader, with the record of a remarkable period in my life...." It is followed by the substance of Part I, Preliminary Confessions, devoted to the author's childhood and youth, and concentrated upon the emotional and psychological factors that underlay the later opium experiences especially the period in his late teens that de Quincey spent as a homeless runaway in Oxford Street in London in 1802 and 1803. Part II is split into several sections: o A relatively brief introduction and connecting passage, followed by o The Pleasures of Opium, which discusses the early and largely positive phase of the author's experience with the drug. o Introduction to the Pains of Opium, which delivers a second installment of autobiography, taking De Quincey from youth to maturity; and o The Pains of Opium, which recounts the extreme of the author's opium experience with insomnia, nightmares, frightening visions, and difficult physical symptoms. Another "Notice to the Reader" attempts to clarify the chronology of the whole. Some the other works of DeQuincey include: On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth, On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts, Recollections of the Lake Poets, Lake Reminiscences, Suspiria de profundis, and The English Mail-Coach. William HAZLITT Hazlitt's short essays published in The Examiner were collected in The Round Table that includes papers on Milton. It was followed by three other books: Lectures on the English Poets, Lectures on the English Comic Writers, and Lectures on the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth. Characters of Shakespeares Plays is a book of criticism of Shakespeare's plays in which Hazlitt ignores historical and philosophical research and shares with the readers the enjoyment of Shakespeare's profound and varied views of human life. Table-Talk ranges over literature and life, and contains some of the best essays of Hazlitt such as On Going a Journey, On the Fear of Death and The Epistle to William Clifford. Liber Amoris (Book of Love) When Hazlitt was at the top of his powers, he got involved in an unhappy and sordid love affair. He madly fell in love with Sarah Walker, the daughter of his landlord and a hypocrite. This shameful love affair, which led him to divorce his wife, is recorded in Liber Amoris. The Spirit of the Age is a collection of character sketches. Charles LAMB Charles Lamb is best known for his Essays of Elia and for the children's book Tales from Shakespeare, which he produced with his sister, Mary Lamb. Essays of Elia is a collection of essays. The essays in the collection first began appearing in The London Magazine. The personal and conversational tone of the essays has charmed many readers. Lamb himself is the Elia of the collection, and his sister Mary is "Cousin Bridget." Among the essays included in Essays of Elia, "Dream-Children" and "Old China" are the most highly and generally admired. Tales from Shakespeare also known as All the Tales from Shakespeare is an English children's book. The book reduced the archaic English and complicated storyline of Shakespeare to a simple level that children could read and comprehend. Mary WOLLSTONECRAFT Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelleys mother, was a philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason. Today Wollstonecraft is regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers.

POETRY Poetry is a literary form characterized by a strong sense of rhythm and meter and an emphasis on the interaction between sound and sense. Poetry and Other Genres Poetry can be considered as one of the most ancient forms of literature. The difference of poetry from other genres of literature lies in its form, language and style. The rhythms of poetry are organized into lines. This difference of poetry from other genres such as novel, short story and drama provides a framework for a range of devices of sound and syntax to make up a creative form which is particular to poetry. Within the lines, poetry makes use of figurative language to create an effect and invoke emotions. It has the economic use of language. A single line may tell more than a novel can tell and includes distinct emotions that may affect us deeply. The language and style of a poem are not similar to that of a novel or a short story. There may not be a grammatical word order and the words are put together for artistic creation. In a novel, the descriptions and plot guide you to understand the story line; however in a poem you have to look beyond the lines. Since the language is economic, meaning is created by using few words compared to other genres. A word may mean many different things and the poet plays with language deliberately to create an effect. It may be the reason why everyone gets a different meaning out of a single poem. Poetry is different from drama in the sense that drama is written for performance and the characters, the setting and the action are all identified. Some works of drama may have similar use of language to that of poetry, but in poetry the setting, actions and the characters are not identified in detail and poetry is not written originally for performance on stage. Shortly, the difference of poetry lies in its distinctive use of language, form, style and power to evoke different emotions. COMPONENTS OF POETRY Poetry has distinctive components such as tone, mood and voice peculiar to itself. TONE: Tone is the attitude of the writer toward the subject matter of the poem. The tone tells us how the speaker feels about himself/herself or in the face of an event. In order to talk about the tone of a poem, adjectives are used to indicate the speakers attitude. Some examples of adjectives used for tone are; celebratory, laudatory, expectant, wistful, sad, mournful, dreary, tragic, elegiac, solemn, somber, earnest, disillusioned, straightforward, curt, hostile, sarcastic, cynical, ambivalent, bitter, ironic, etc. In order to find out the tone of a poem ask what attitude does the speaker take toward a theme or subject? MOOD: Mood is the feeling that the poem creates in the reader. The mood is very closely related to the tone of a poem. However, the mood is not the same as the tone. When we refer to the mood of a poem we are really talking about the atmosphere that the poem creates. Very often tone and mood in a poem are closely linked and a certain tone produces a certain mood. However, sometimes tone and mood dont match. For example: A poet may use ironic tone to create humorous mood or atmosphere. VOICE: Voice is the speaker of the poem and is often referred to as the poetic voice. The voice in the poem may be the poet himself, but it may also be another character created by the poet who speaks in a poem. Elements of Poetry Prosody is the study of the elements of poetry, the study of the meter, rhythm, and intonation of a poem. Rhythm is the pattern of sound created by the varying length and emphasis given to different syllables. Meter is the rhythmic pattern created in a line of verse. Foot: The foot is the basic rhythmic unit into which a line of verse can be divided. When reciting verse, there usually is a slight pause between feet. When this pause is especially pronounced, it is called a caesura. The process of analyzing the number and type of feet in a line is called scansion. These are the most common types of feet in English poetry. Iamb: An unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable: to day Trochee: A stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable: car ry Dactyl: A stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables: diff icult Anapest: Two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable: it is time Spondee: Two successive syllables with strong stresses: stop, thief Pyrrhic: Two successive syllables with light stresses: up to

Most English poetry has four or five feet in a line, but it is not uncommon to see as few as one or as many as eight. Monometer: One foot Dimeter: Two feet Trimeter: Three feet Tetrameter: Four feet Pentameter: Five feet Hexameter: Six feet Heptameter: Seven feet Octameter: Eight feet Iambic pentameter: Each line of verse has five feet (pentameter), each of which consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (iamb). Iambic pentameter is one of the most popular metrical schemes in English poetry. Blank verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter. Blank verse bears a close resemblance to the rhythms of ordinary speech, giving poetry a natural feel. Shakespeares plays are written primarily in blank verse. Ballad: Alternating tetrameter and trimeter, usually iambic and rhyming. Ballad form, which is common in traditional folk poetry and song, enjoyed a revival in the Romantic period with such poems as Samuel Taylor Coleridges The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Free verse: (Poetry written without a regular rhyme, rhythm and form) Verse that does not conform to any fixed meter or rhyme scheme. Free verse is not, however, loose or unrestricted: its rules of composition are as strict and difficult as traditional verse, for they rely on less evident rhythmic patterns to give the poem shape. Walt Whitmans Leaves of Grass is a seminal work of free verse. Enjambment: The running over of a sentence or thought into the next couplet or line without a pause at the end of the line; a run-on line. For example, the first two lines here are enjambed: Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds Or bends with the remover to remove. . . . Shakespeare Line and Stanza: Poetry generally is divided into lines of verse. A grouping of lines, equivalent to a paragraph in prose, is called a stanza. On the printed page, line breaks normally are used to separate stanzas from one another. Couplet: two- line stanza Triplet (tercet): three-line stanza Quatrain: four-line stanza Quintet (cinquain): five-line stanza Sestet: six-line stanza Septet: seven-line stanza Octave: eight-line stanza Refrain: A phrase or group of lines that is repeated at significant moments within a poem, usually at the end of a stanza. (nakarat) Rhyme (rime): Two or more words which match in the same last sound. The system of rime in a poem is called rime (rhyme) scheme. Types of Rhyme One common way of creating a sense of musicality between lines of verse is to make them rhyme. End rhyme: A rhyme that comes at the end of a line of verse. Most rhyming poetry uses end rhymes. Internal rhyme: A rhyme between two or more words within a single line of verse, as in Gods Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins: And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil. Masculine rhyme: A rhyme consisting of a single stressed syllable, as in the rhyme between car and far. Feminine rhyme: A rhyme consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, as in the rhyme between mother and brother. Perfect rhyme: An exact match of sounds in a rhyme Cage-Rage Slant rhyme: An imperfect rhyme, also called oblique rhyme or off rhyme, in which the sounds are similar but not exactly the same, as between port and heart. Modern poets often use slant rhyme as a subtler alternative to perfect rhyme.

Poetic Forms Certain traditional forms of poetry have a distinctive stanza length combined with a distinctive meter or rhyme pattern. Here are some popular forms. Haiku: A compact form of Japanese poetry written in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables, respectively. Limerick: A fanciful five-line poem with an AABBA rhyme scheme in which the first, second, and fifth lines have three feet and the third and fourth have two feet. Ottava rima: In English, an eight-line stanza with iambic pentameter and the rhyme scheme ABABABCC. This form is difficult to use in English, where it is hard to find two rhyming triplets that do not sound childish. Its effect is majestic yet simple. William Butler Yeats poem Among School Children uses ottava rima. Sestina: Six six-line stanzas followed by a three-line stanza. The same six words are repeated at the end of lines throughout the poem in a predetermined pattern. The last word in the last line of one stanza becomes the last word of the first line in the next. All six endwords appear in the final three-line stanza. Sir Philip Sidneys Arcadia contains examples of the sestina. Sonnet: A single-stanza lyric poem containing fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter. In some formulations, the first eight lines (octave) pose a question or dilemma that is resolved in the final six lines (sestet). There are three predominant sonnet forms. Italian or Petrarchan sonnet: Developed by the Italian poet Petrarch, this sonnet is divided into an octave with the rhyme scheme ABBAABBA or ABBACDDC and a sestet with the rhyme scheme CDECDE or CDCCDC. Shakespearean sonnet: Also called the English sonnet or Elizabethan sonnet, this poetic form, which Shakespeare made famous, contains three quatrains and a final couplet. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Spenserian sonnet: A variant that the poet Edmund Spenser developed from the Shakespearean sonnet. The Spenserian sonnet has the rhyme scheme ABAB BCBCCDCD EE. Villanelle: A nineteen-line poem made up of five tercets and a final quatrain in which all nineteen lines carry one of only two rhymes. There are two refrains, alternating between the ends of each tercet and then forming the last two lines of the quatrain. Dylan Thomass Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night is a famous example. POETRY TYPES Narrative Poetry: In narrative poetry there is the description of series of events and its aim is to tell a story. This story is not told in prose form, but through lines in the form of a poem. Narrative poetry is closely linked to fiction. There are characters and a brief reference to setting. However, these are not presented in detail as in the novel or short story. Dramatic Poetry: In dramatic Poetry, the voice of an imaginary character/s is presented with direct speech and without any intervention by the author. Dramatic poetry may also be described as any verse written for the stage. But the term most often refers to as dramatic monologue, a poem written as a speech made by a character at some certain moment. Dramatic Monologue A poem consisting of a self-revealing speech delivered by one person to a silent listener; for instance, Robert Brownings My Last Duchess. Lyric Poetry is defined as a short poem expressing the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker. a lyric may describe an object or recall an experience. Epic Poetry is often defined as lengthy poems concerning events of a heroic or important nature to the culture of the time. It recounts, in a continuous narrative, the life and works of a heroic or mythological person or group of persons. Didactic Poetry: Poetry that teaches a lesson, usually of a practical, religious, or moral nature. Idyll: (meaning literally little picture ) is a short pastoral poem whose description suggests a mood of innocence and peace. The term has also come to be applied to longer narrative poems which are idealized in content and serious in theme. Elegy is a poem of lament and praise and consolation, usually formal and about the death of a particular person. Elegies can also mourn the passing of events or passions. Ode is a poem praising and glorifying a person, place or thing. Pastoral: A celebration of the simple, rustic life of shepherds and shepherdesses, usually written by a sophisticated, urban writer. Christopher Marlowes poem The Passionate Shepherd to His Love epitomizes pastoral themes. Confessional poetry: An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness. The genre was popular from the late 1950s to the late 1960s, due in part to Robert Lowells Life Studies.

Dirge: A short poetic expression of grief. A dirge differs from an elegy in that it often is embedded within a larger work, is less highly structured, and is meant to be sung. Ariels song Full fathom five thy father lies in Shakespeares The Tempest is an example of a dirge. Eclogue is a short pastoral poem, usually in dialogue, on the subject of rural life and the society of shepherds, depicting rural life as free from the complexity and corruption of more civilized life. Acrostic is any poem in which the first letter of each line forms a word or words. Epistle: Poems written in the form of a letter are called epistles. Concrete poetry (also shape poetry or pattern poetry) is poetry in which the typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect as the conventional elements of the poem, such as meaning of words, rhythm, and rhyme and so on. Meaning is represented not only by the way words sound but how they look. The print of the poem itself takes shape as a collage or picture that conveys meaning. FIGURES OF SPEECH We call literary devices used in poetry as the figures of speech. Figures of speech are forms of expression that depart from normal word or sentence order or from the common dictionary meanings of words for the purpose of achieving a special effect. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE - Language that is based on, or uses, figures of speech such as similes and metaphors. Denotation: The literal dictionary definition of a word, apart from any emotional or intellectual association or connotation it may evoke. Connotation: The suggested or implied meaning of a word, as contrasted with its literal meaning or denotation. These additional associations may be personal (the result of individual experience) or universal (the product of the collective human experience). All the meanings, definitions or associations that a word suggests. Alliteration: The repetition of similar sounds, usually consonants, at the beginning of words. sweet scented stuff Let us go forth to lead the land we love

Assonance: The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sequence of nearby words. For example, Alfred, Lord Tennyson creates assonance with the o sound in this line from The Lotos-Eaters: All day the wind breathes low with mellower tone. And murmuring of innumerable bees on a proud round cloud in white high night Consonance is the repetition of a consonant sound within a series of words to produce a harmonious effect. Consonance should not be confused with assonance, which is the repetition of vowel sounds. Alliteration is a special case of consonance where the repeated consonant sound is at the beginning of each word. The dove moved above the waves. Ringed with the azure world he stands. Norm, the worm, took the garden by a storm this morn Cacophony: The clash of discordant or harsh sounds within a sentence or phrase. Cacophony is a familiar feature of tongue twisters but can also be used to poetic effect, as in the words anfractuous rocks in T. S. Eliots Sweeney Erect. Although dissonance has a different musical meaning, it is sometimes used interchangeably with cacophony. (Words with ks, gs, chs, ts, ps, and other gutturals and explosives.) With throats unslaked, with black lips baked, Agape they heard me call

Euphony: When the sounds of words in a line create an effect that is pleasing to the ear pleasant sounds, words with ls, ss, fs, ms, os, ns, and other softly produced sounds. (Opposite of cacophony - i.e. pleasant sounding) The mild-eyed melancholy Lotos-eaters came. Kenning is a figurative expression, usually compound in form that is used in place of a name or noun. Swan-road= sea ring-giver=king twilight-spoiler= dragon Skys candle= sun Conceit is an elaborate image or metaphor in which two dissimilar objects or situations are compared. John Donnes The Flea.

Onomatopoeia is a word that phonetically imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes. buzz, ouch, splash, bang, beep, hiss, murmur, growl, honk, slap, moo quack, bark, woof roar, meow, baa, boom, knock, tick tock, zip, tweet, chatter, phew, sniff , bump, rattle, purr, plop, crack, splash, whisper, gurgle, boo, squelch, pop, howl, squash, cheep, swish, rustle Hyperbole (Overstatement) is extreme exaggeration used for either comic or dramatic effect. All the perfumes of Arabia, will not sweeten this little hand. (Shakespeare, Macbeth) Understatement: A figure of speech in which a writer or speaker deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is, the opposite of hyperbole. I have to have this operation. It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain. Paradox is a statement which seems to contradict itself but does contain a basic truth. Art is a form of lying in order to tell the truth. I know one thing: that I know nothing

Oxymoron is the deliberate combination of contradictory words cold fire , honest thief, dark light, living dead, violent relaxation, wise fool, harmonious madness, bittersweet, controlled hysteria, pure sin, sweet pain, lonely crowd, roaring silence, serious joke, deafening silence

Metaphor: An implied comparison between two unlike things that actually have something important in common. The leaves of life keep falling one by one. ( life is likened to a tree) All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances;

Simile: A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two things through some connective, usually "like," "as," "than," or a verb such as resembles. My face looks like a wedding cake left out in the rain. My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose.

Irony: The writer uses a word or phrase to mean the opposite of its literal or normal meaning. Three forms of irony commonly used: dramatic irony, verbal irony, and situational irony. a) Verbal irony refers to a statement in which the opposite of what is said is meant. It s easy to quit smoking. I have done it hundreds of times. b) Dramatic irony: Where the audience or reader is aware of something important, of which the characters in the story are not aware. In Romeo and Juliet, the other characters in the cast think Juliet is dead, but the audience knows she only took a sleeping potion. c) Situational irony is a contrast between what we expect and what happens. d) Cosmic irony occurs when divine forces (gods or Fates) conspire against human beings to destroy them. When the outcome of a story seems like a cruel joke, or implies that fate is harsh and unforgiving. In O. Henry's story "The Gift of the Magi", a young couple is too poor to buy each other Christmas gifts. The wife cuts off her treasured hair to sell it to a wig-maker for money to buy her husband a chain for his heirloom pocket watch. She's shocked when she learns he had pawned his watch to buy her a set of combs for her long, beautiful, prized hair. Euphemism: Fine speech or nice words used to express something unpleasant. passed away instead of died bathroom, restroom instead of toilet underachiever instead of lazy sleep for die

Personification (Anthropomorphism) is attribution of human form or other characteristics to anything other than a human being. The wind whispered through the night

Metonymy is a figure of speech that substitutes the name of an entity with something else that is closely associated with it. the throne for king suits instead of businessmen He has always loved the stage (the stage = the theater) Queen Elizabeth controlled the crown for years. (the crown = the monarchy) He will follow the cross. (The cross = Christianity) Allusion is a direct or indirect reference, to a well-know person, place or event in literature, history, or mythology. "To An Artist, To Take Heart" "Slipping in blood, by his own hand, through pride, Hamlet, Othello, Coriolanus fall. Upon his bed, however, Shakespeare died, Having outlived them all." (Louise Bogan) As Vergil said Dust hath closed Helens eye (An explicit allusion to Helen of Troy)

Pun (also called paronomasia) is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. (When a word or phrase is used in two (or more) different senses) The Importance of Being Earnest is a pun on the word earnest, which means serious or sober, and the name Ernest, Ask for me tomorrow and you shall Find me a grave man. (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet) (Grave = serious/dead) In her eyes, the love light lies; and lies and lies, and lies. Allegory: A story with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning. The characters in an allegory often represent abstract concepts, such as faith, innocence, or evil. George Orwell's Animal Farm

Litotes is a figure of speech in which understatement is employed for rhetorical effect, principally via double negatives. For example, rather than saying that something is attractive (or even very attractive), one might merely say it is "not unattractive. Litotes is a form of understatement, always deliberate and with the intention of emphasis. However, the interpretation of negation may depend on context, including cultural context. In speech, it may also depend on intonation and emphasis; for example, the phrase "not bad" can be said in such a way as to mean anything from "mediocre" to "excellent". Satire: A work of literature that ridicules vice or folly in ideas, institutions or individuals. Although a satiric work treats its subject with varying degrees of amusement and scorn, its ultimate purpose is to bring about improvement by calling attention either directly or indirectly to higher standards of human behavior. Jonathan Swifts A Modest Proposal

Symbol: A symbol is the use of a concrete object to represent an abstract idea. There are three general types of symbols: Universal symbols that embody universally recognizable meanings: For example: heart= love A literary (or constructed) symbol is a symbol that has a possibility of multiple interpretations. The interpretation of a literary symbol is determined by the way the symbol is used in the text. For example, water could be used in the same story as both a redemptive and destructive force. Conventional symbols present things for the meanings people within a particular group have agreed to give them. For example, national flags.

Imagery: Language that appeals to one or more senses and creates pictures and impressions in the reader's mind. Although imagery most often creates visual pictures, some imagery appeals to the senses of touch, taste, smell, and hearing as well. Imagery often involves the use of figurative language and vivid description. Auditory imagery appeals to the sense of hearing. Which has its sounds, familiar, like the roar Of trees and crack of branches, common things, But nothing so like beating on a box" Gustatory imagery appeals to the sense of taste I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold Kinetic imagery pertains to movement, or an action, imagery that recreates a feeling of physical action or natural bodily function (like a pulse, a heartbeat, or breathing). The clay oozed between Jeremy's fingers as he let out a squeal of pure glee Olfactory imagery appeals to the sense of smell. I was awakened by the strong smell of a freshly brewed coffee Tactile imagery pertains to a texture or sensation of touch. hardness, softness, wetness, heat, cold Verbal imagery is created with words (a "mental picture" is a commonly used metaphor for the operation of verbal imagery). Visual imagery stimulates the sense of sight. The shadows crisscrossed the rug while my cat stretched languidly in one of the patches of sun. Organic imagery pertains to feelings of the body, including hunger, thirst, and fatigue. It's when I'm weary of considerations, And life is too much like a pathless wood Synecdoche: A gure of speech in which a part signies the whole or the whole signies a part the gray beard= old men referring to a car simply as wheels The word bread can be used to represent food in general or money (e.g. he is the breadwinner; music is my bread and butter). The word sails is often used to refer to a whole ship The phrase "hired hands" can be used to refer to workmen. "The world treated him badly." The whole world did not treat him badly only a part. - The whole is used as the part 1. A part of something is used to represent the whole (all hands on deck) hand=men 2. A whole is used to represent a part (Canada met the Soviet Union at hockey) 3. The material from which something is made is used for the thing itself (steel" for a sword)

Epithet: An adjective or phrase that describes a prominent feature of a person or thing. It can be described as a glorified nickname. Richard the Lionheart and Shoeless Joe Jackson are both examples of epithets. In William Shakespeare's famous play Romeo and Juliet, epithets are used in the prologue, used in "starcrossed lovers" and "death-marked love." Synaesthesia: The use of one kind of sensory experience to describe another (two senses are combined) I am hearing the shape of the rain sweet sound, bitter wind, loud color, cool color, frozen silence, bitter cold, warm color, Heard melodies are sweet John Keats Ode on a Grecian Urn. Clich: An expression that has been used so frequently that it has lost its expressive power. turn over a new leaf Anagram: A word or phrase formed by the transposition of letters in another word. Shakespeare's Hamlet is an anagram for the Danish Prince Amleth Samuel Butlers novel Erewhon derives its title from the word nowhere

Parody is a work that imitates another work for comic effect by exaggerating the style and changing the content of the original. The Scary Movie series are parodies of scary movies in general. Henry Fieldings Shamela is a parody of Samuel Richardsons Pamela.

Adynaton is a figure of speech in the form of hyperbole taken to such extreme lengths as to suggest a complete impossibility. Part heat from fire, then, by that notion, Part frost from snow, wet from the ocean! Ask less! when pigs fly In Turkish, the expressions "balk kavaa knca, kar krmz yadnda Apostrophe is an exclamatory rhetorical figure of speech, when a speaker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an imaginary person or abstract quality or idea. Love, O love, O careless love Careless Love Rise you rugged rocks and do battle in my cause The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. O Captain, My Captain

Antithesis is a figure of speech involving the bringing out of a contrast in the ideas by an obvious contrast in the words, clauses, or sentences, within a parallel grammatical structure. When there is need of silence, you speak, and when there is need of speech, you are dumb; when you are present, you wish to be absent, and when absent, you desire to be present; in peace you are for war, and in war you long for peace; in council you descant on bravery, and in the battle you tremble. Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing. Rude words bring about sadness, but kind words inspire joy. Too black for heaven, and yet too white for hell. Aposiopesis is a figure of speech wherein a sentence is deliberately broken off and left unfinished, the ending to be supplied by the imagination, giving an impression of unwillingness or inability to continue usually because of rising emotion or excitement. Touch me one more time, and I swear "Get out, or else!" For he hath fastly founded it above the seas to stand, Hold off! Unhand me, grey-beard loon!" Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

Anastrophe is a figure of speech in which a language's usual word order is inverted: for example, saying "smart you are" to mean "you are smart".

Chiasmus: Two phrases in which the syntax is the same but the placement of words is reversed. A reversed order of the grammar in two or more clauses in a sentence will yield a chiasmus. He knowingly led and we blindly followed (Subjectadverbverbconjunctionsubjectadverbverb.) Inverting into chiasmus: "He knowingly led and we followed blindly" (Subjectadverb verbconjunctionsubjectverbadverb.)

Asyndeton is a stylistic scheme in which conjunctions are deliberately omitted from a series of related clauses. Caesar: Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered). He has provided the poor with jobs, with opportunity, with self-respect. Polyptoton is the repetition of words derived from the same root. Thou art of blood, joy not to make things bleed Sir Philip Sidney With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder William Shakespeare Richard II

Periphrasis: An elaborate and roundabout manner of speech that uses more words than necessary. Saying I appear to be entirely without financial resources instead of Im broke is an example.

Pleonasm is the use of more words or word-parts than is necessary for clear expression. black darkness burning fire This was the most unkindest cut of all." William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar Zeugma is a figure of speech where a word applies to multiple parts of the sentence. She opened her door and her heart to the orphan He lost his coat and his temper She looked at the object with suspicion and a magnifying glass.

Repetition is the technique of repeating a word, phrase, or idea for emphasis and effect. Repetition Types Epizeuxis or palilogia is the repetition of a single word, with no other words in between. "Words, words, words." (Hamlet) Anaphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or lines. And she forgot the stars, the moon, and sun, And she forgot the blue above the trees... Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition! William Shakespeare, King John, II, It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way... Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities Five years have passed; Five summers, with the length of Five long winters! and again I hear these waters... William Wordsworth, Tintern Abbey Anadiplosis is the repetition of the last word of a preceding clause. The word is used at the end of a sentence and then used again at the beginning of the next sentence. "Mine be thy love, and thy love's use their treasure." Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. Turn the lights out now / Now, I'll take you by the hand / Hand you another drink / Drink it if you can / Can you spend a little time / Time is slipping away / Away from us, so stay / Stay with me I can make / Make you glad you came Antistrophe (also known as Epistrophe) is the repetition of same words at the end of successive phrases or sentences. She is the object of my affection and love, just as I am the object of her affection and love. Where affections bear rule, their reason is subdued, honesty is subdued, good will is subdued, and all things else that withstand evil, forever are subdued. Epanalepsis is a figure of speech defined by the repetition of the initial word (or words) of a clause or sentence at the end of that same clause or sentence. Nice to see you, to see you, nice. Severe to his servants, to his children severe. Antanaclasis is repeating a single word, but with a different meaning each time. If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired, with enthusiasm. If you dont look good, we dont look good. Mesodiplosis is the repetition of a word or phrase at the middle of every clause. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. Diaphora is the repetition of a name, first to signify the person or persons it describes, then to signify its meaning. The president is not the president when he compromises his morals and our trust so basely. Boys will be boys. Conduplicatio is the repetition of a word in various places throughout a paragraph. The strength of the passions will never be accepted as an excuse for complying with them; the passions were designed for subjection, and if a man suffers them to get the upper hand, he then betrays the liberty of his own soul"

Parallelism means giving two or more parts of the sentences a similar form so as to give the whole a definite pattern. Repetition of words, groups of words, sentence structures or grammatical phrases from line to line. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.

Polysyndeton is the use, for rhetorical effect, of more conjunctions than is necessary or natural. But all you have to do is knock on any door and say, 'If you let me in, I'll live the way you want me to live, and I'll think the way you want me to think,' and all the blinds will go up and all the windows will open, and you'll never be lonely, ever again. Symploce is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is used successively at the beginning of two or more clauses or sentences and another word or phrase is used successively at the end of the same. It is the combination of anaphora and epistrophe. When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it. Synonymia is the use of several synonyms together to amplify or explain a given subject or term. It is a kind of repetition that adds emotional force or intellectual clarity. You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things Gwyn is beautiful, pretty, gorgeous Tautology is the needless repetition of an idea using different words, using different words to say the same thing, pleonasm. Widow woman Free gift . . . a group for one-parent single mothers I made it with my own hands In my opinion, I think that... new innovation the reason is because necessary essentials Paralipsis: Also known as praeteritio, the technique of drawing attention to something by claiming not to mention it. I know who did it, but I won't mention Bobby's name (the person has already mentioned the name). I need not mention that everything should be done within the deadline. The music, the service at the feast, The noble gifts for the great and small, The rich adornment of Theseus's palace . . . All these things I do not mention now." From "The Knight's Tale," The Canterbury Tales Pathetic fallacy is the treatment of inanimate objects as if they had human feelings, thought, or sensations. The pathetic fallacy is similar to personification. the clouds will weep The stars will awaken / Though the moon sleep a full hour later Rhetorical question: A question that is asked not to elicit a response but to make an impact or call attention to something. Isnt she great? mighty Caesar! dost thou lie so low? Archetype: A literary archetype is a character or theme that recurs frequently. For example; the heroic adventurer, the death and re-birth idea in mythology, isolation, the journey to the underworld and selfrecognition motif in tragedy. Anachronism: An error in chronology; placing an event, item or expression in the wrong period. Shakespeare referred to a cannon in King John, a play set in time long before those weapons were used in England, and he placed a clock in Julius Caesar. Jargon: The specialized words and expressions belonging to certain profes sions, sports, hobbies, or social groups. Analogy is a form of comparison that points out the likeness between two basically dissimilar things; it attempts to use a familiar object or idea to illustrate or to introduce a subject that is unfamiliar or complex. Trope: A category of figures of speech that extend the literal meanings of words by inviting a comparison to other words, things, or ideas. Metaphor, metonymy, and simile are three common tropes. Double Entendre is a phrase or figure of speech that could have two meanings or that could be understood in two different ways. Miners refuse to work after death.

Literary Techniques Whereas figures of speech work on the level of individual words or sentences, writers also use a variety of techniques to add clarity or intensity to a larger passage, advance the plot in a particular way, or suggest connections between elements in the plot. Allusion: An implicit reference within a literary work to a historical or literary person, place, or event. For example, the title of William Faulkners novel The Sound and the Fury alludes to a line from Shakespeares Macbeth. Authors use allusion to add symbolic weight because it makes subtle or implicit connections with other works. For example, in Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick, Captain Ahabs name alludes to the wicked and idolatrous biblical king Ahaba connection that adds depth to our understanding of Ahabs character. Anagnorisis: A moment of recognition or discovery, primarily used in reference to Greek tragedy. For example, in Euripides The Bacchae, Agave experiences anagnorisis when she discovers that she has murdered her own son, Pentheus. Bathos: A sudden and unexpected drop from the lofty to the trivial or excessively sentimental. Bathos sometimes is used intentionally, to create humor, but just as often is derided as miscalculation or poor judgment on a writers part. An example from Alexander Pope: Ye Gods! Annihilate but Space and Time / And make two lovers happy. Caricature: A description or characterization that exaggerates or distorts a characters prominent features, usually to elicit mockery. For example, in Candide, Voltaire portrays the character of Pangloss as a mocking caricature of the optimistic rationalism of philosophers like Leibniz. Deus ex machina: Greek for God from a machine. The phrase originally referred to a technique in ancient tragedy in which a mechanical god was lowered onto the stage to intervene and solve the plays problems or bring the play to a satisfactory conclusion. Now, the term describes more generally a sudden or improbable plot twist that brings about the plots resolution. Epiphany: A sudden, powerful, and often spiritual or life changing realization that a character reaches in an otherwise ordinary or everyday moment. Many of the short stories in James Joyces Dubliners involve moments of epiphany. Foreshadowing: An authors deliberate use of hints or suggestions to give a preview of events or themes that do not develop until later in the narrative. For example, in Emily Bronts Wuthering Heights, the nightmares Lockwood has the night he spends in Catherines bed prefigure later events in the novel. In Medias rest: Latin for in the middle of things. The term refers to the technique of starting a narrative in the middle of the action. For example, John Miltons Paradise Lost, which concerns the war among the angels in Heaven, opens after the fallen angels already are in Hell and only later examines the events that led to their expulsion from Heaven. Interior monologue: A record of a characters thoughts, unmediated by a narrator. Interior monologue sometimes takes the form of stream-of-consciousness narration (see Point of View, above) but often is more structured and logical than stream of consciousness. Invocation: A prayer for inspiration to a god or muse usually placed at the beginning of an epic. Homers Iliad and Odyssey both open with invocations. Irony: A wide-ranging technique of detachment that draws awareness to the discrepancy between words and their meanings, between expectation and fulfillment, or, most generally, between what is and what seems to be. Verbal irony: The use of a statement that, by its context, implies its opposite. For example, in Shakespeares Julius Caesar, Antony repeats, Brutus is an honorable man, while clearly implying that Brutus is dishonorable. Sarcasm is a particularly blunt form of verbal irony. Situational irony: A technique in which one understanding of a situation stands in sharp contrast to another, usually more prevalent, understanding of the same situation. For example, Wilfred Owens Dulce et Decorum Est comments on the grotesque difference between politicians high-minded praise of the noble warrior and the unspeakably awful conditions of soldiers at the front. Romantic irony: An authors persistent reminding of his or her presence in the work. By drawing attention to the artifice of the work, the author ensures that the reader or audience will maintain critical detachment and not simply accept the writing at face value. Laurence Sterne employs romantic irony in Tristram Shandy by discussing the writing of the novel in the novel itself. Dramatic irony: A technique in which the author lets the audience or reader in on a characters situation while the character himself remains in the dark. With dramatic irony, the characters words or actions carry a significance that the character is not aware of. When used in tragedy, dramatic irony is called tragic irony. One example is in Sophocles Oedipus Rex, when Oedipus vows to discover his fathers murderer, not knowing, as the audience does, that he himself is the murderer.

Cosmic irony: The perception of fate or the universe as malicious or indifferent to human suffering, which creates a painful contrast between our purposeful activity and its ultimate meaninglessness. Thomas Hardys novels abound in cosmic irony. Melodrama: The use of sentimentality, gushing emotion, or sensational action or plot twists to provoke audience or reader response. Melodrama was popular in Victorian England. Charles Dickenss The Old Curiosity Shop, for example, is a particularly melodramatic work. Parallelism: Similarities between elements in a narrative (such as two characters or two plot lines). For instance, in Shakespeares King Lear, both Lear and Gloucester suffer at the hands of their own children because they are blind to which of their children are goodhearted and which areKing Lear, evil. Parallelism can also occur on the level of sentences or phrases (see Figures of Speech, above). Pathos: From the Greek word for feeling, the quality in a work of literature that evokes high emotion, most commonly sorrow, pity, or compassion. Charles Dickens exploits pathos very effectively, especially when describing the deaths of his characters. Poetic diction: The use of specific types of words, phrases, or literary structures that are not common in contemporary speech or prose. For example, Wilfred Owens Sonnet On Seeing a Piece of Our Artillery Brought Into Action, though written in the 20th century, uses antiquated diction and the time-tested sonnet form. The intentional discrepancy creates an ironic contrast between the horrors of modern war and the way poets wrote about war in the past: Be slowly lifted up, thou long black arm, / Great gun towering toward Heaven, about to curse. Poetic license The liberty that authors sometimes take with ordinary rules of syntax and grammar, employing unusual vocabulary, metrical devices, or figures of speech or committing factual errors in order to strengthen a passage of writing. For example, the poet e. e. cummings takes poetic license in violating rules of capitalization in his works. Wit: A form of wordplay that displays cleverness or ingenuity with language. Often, but not always, wit displays humor. Oscar Wildes plays are famous for their witty phrases, which expose the hypocrisies of the intellectual beliefs of Wildes time. Thematic Meaning Literature becomes universal when it draws connections between the particular and the general. Often, certain levels of a literary works meaning are not immediately evident. The following terms relate to the relationship between the words on the page and the deeper significance those words may hold. Archetype: A theme, motif, symbol, or stock character that holds a familiar and fixed place in a cultures consciousness. For example, many cultures across the world feature an archetype of the resurrected god to herald the coming of spring. The Fisher King, Jesus Christ, and the goddess Persephone are three familiar instances of this archetype in Western culture. Emblem: A concrete object that represents something abstract. For example, the Star of David is an emblem of Judaism. An emblem differs from a symbol in that an emblems meaning is fixed: the Star of David always represents Judaism, regardless of context. Imagery: Language that brings to mind sense-impressions, especially via figures of speech. Sometimes, certain imagery is characteristic of a particular writer or work. For example, many of Shakespeares plays contain nautical imagery. Motif: A recurring structure, contrast, or other device that develops or informs a works major themes. A motif may relate to concrete objects, like Eastern vs. Western architecture in E. M. Forsters A Passage to India, or may be a recurrent idea, phrase, or emotion, like Lily Barts constant desire to move up in the world in Edith Whartons The House of Mirth. Symbol: An object, character, figure, or color that is used to represent an abstract idea or concept. For example, the two roads in Robert Frosts poem The Road Not Taken symbolize the choice between two paths in life. Unlike an emblem, a symbol may have different meanings in different contexts. Theme: A fundamental and universal idea explored in a literary work. For example, a major theme of John Steinbecks East of Eden is the perpetual contest between good and evil. Thesis: The central argument that an author makes in a work. Although the term is primarily associated with nonfiction, it can apply to fiction. For example, the thesis of Upton Sinclairs The Jungle is that Chicago meatpacking plants subject poor immigrants to horrible and unjust working conditions, and that the government must do something to address the problem. Tone: The general atmosphere created in a story, or the narrators attitude toward the story or reader. For example, the tone of Fyodor Dostoevskys Notes from Underground is outraged, defiant, and claustrophobic.

VICTORIAN PERIOD (19th Century)1832-1901 The Victorian period was characterized by imperialism, colonization and industrialization. During the Victorian Age the British Empire reached its largest extension: it was called the Empire where the sun never sets. Though it began in the 1760s, the Industrial Revolutions impact was fully realized in the Victorian period. On the one hand it created many jobs, improved standard of living for some by creating wealth and offered the lower classes hope of climbing to the middle classes. On the other hand, it promoted exploitation of workers, caused pollution and contributed to overcrowding and dismal living conditions for lower classes. Upper and industrial middle-classes believed in a policy of laissez-faire i.e. Non-interference with industry or with national economy in order to promote free trade and free competition (=Liberalism) The discoveries of science have particular effects upon the age. The telegraph, telephone, photography (Victoria was the first royal to have her portrait taken rather than painted) the advent of the automobile and electric lighting changed not only the way people lived, but their view of the world in which they lived. The Victorian Compromise: It was a complex era characterized by stability, progress and social reforms, and, in the mean time, by great problems such as poverty, injustice and social unrest; thats why the Victorians felt obliged to promote and invent a rigid code of values that reflected the world as they wanted it to be. This code of values, known as Victorian Compromise based on duty and hard work, respectability, possessions of good manners, regular attendance at church and charitable activity. This code of values meant getting married and being responsible for housework and children for women. For men it meant being the center of the family, havin an honorable position and showing no emotional weakness. Also Darwinism played a key role in this period: scientific discovery (especially geology and biology) disturbed many moral and religious certainties, giving a new view of the Universe as incessantly changing and governed by the laws of chance; Charles Darwins work On the origin of the species (1859) argued that man is the result of a process of evolution based on the fight for life; this theory discarded the version of the Creation given by the Bible. Aestheticism is an art movement supporting the emphasis of aesthetic values more than socio-political themes for literature, fine art, music and other arts. It was related to other movements such as symbolism or decadence represented in France. The aesthetic movement developed as reaction against the materialism and moral code of the middle class. The Decadent movement was a late 19th century artistic and literary movement of Western Europe. It flourished in France, but also had devotees in England and throughout Europe, as well as in the United States. They were influenced by the tradition of Gothic novels and by the poetry and fiction of Edgar Allan Poe, and were associated with Symbolism and Aestheticism.[ Writers of the Decadent movement used the slogan "Art for Art's Sake" Art for art's sake expresses a philosophy that the intrinsic value of art, and the only "true" art, is divorced from any didactic, moral or utilitarian function. Realism is the presentation in art of the details of actual life. It stressed the actual as opposed to the imagined or the fanciful. The Realists tried to write truthfully and objectively about ordinary characters in ordinary situations. Realists aimed at accurate detailed portrayal of ordinary, contemporary life. They reacted against Romanticism, rejecting heroic, adventurous, unusual, or unfamiliar subjects.George Eliot's novel Middlemarch stands as a great milestone in the realist tradition. Naturalism was a literary movement that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character. The Naturalists traced the effects of heredity and environment on people who are helpless to change their situations. (Naturalism affected late Victorian writers) Novel was the dominant genre of the period. Novelists felt they had a moral and social responsibility to fulfill. So, they depicted society as they saw it (realism) and denounced its evils (criticism) they aimed at making readers realize social injustices POETRY Alfred, Lord TENNYSON Alfred, Lord Tennyson was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland. He was the most popular British poet in Victorian period and the only English author elevated to the rank of lord for his writings. Much of his verse was based on classical mythological themes and Arthurian legend. He has been praised for the beautiful and musical qualities of his writing. Ulysses is a poem in blank verse. it is popularly used to illustrate the dramatic monologue form. Ulysses describes, to an unspecified audience, his discontent and restlessness upon returning to his kingdom, Ithaca, after his far-ranging travels. Facing old age, Ulysses yearns to explore again, despite his reunion with his wife Penelope and son Telemachus. Locksley Hall is a dramatic monologue. It narrates the emotions of a weary soldier come to his childhood home, the fictional Locksley Hall to find her true love married. In Memoriam is an elegy on the death of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam. It was written over a period of 17 years. Idylls of the King is a cycle of twelve narrative poems which retells the legend of King Arthur, his knights, his love for Guinevere and her tragic betrayal of him, and the rise and fall of Arthur's kingdom. Poems, Chiefly Lyrical includes Tennysons earlier lyrics such as The Dying Swan, The Kraken, and Mariana. Poems includes some of the best known poems: The Lady of Shallot, a medieval allegory; The Place of Art which ask whether the poet should only pursue art or use poetry to help mankind and The Lotos-Eaters, a descriptive poem based on an incident in the Odyssey.

Robert BROWNING After unsuccessfully attempting to write dramas and long blank verse dramatic poems, Browning began writing his dramatic monologues. He adopted the technique of indirection in his dramatic monologues, showing action in the character, rather than character in action. Men and Women is a collection of fifty-one poems in two volumes. Dramatis Personae, marked by Brownings grief over his wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, contain some of his most often anthologized dramatic monologues. Rabbi Ben Ezra, A Death In the Desert, Caliban Upon Setebos. My Last Duchess is one of his best- known poems. The Ring and the Book, a blank verse poem in over 21.000 lines, is based on an actual 17th century Italian murder trial. It tells the story of a murder trial in Rome in 1698, whereby an impoverished nobleman, Count Guido Franceschini, is found guilty of the murders of his young wife Pompilia Comparini and her parents, having suspected his wife was having an affair with a young cleric, Giuseppe Caponsacchi. Having been found guilty despite his protests and sentenced to death. Dramatic monologue (also known as a persona poem) is a poem written in the form of a speech of an individual character; it compresses into a single vivid scene a narrative sense of the speakers history and psychological insight into his character. Though the form is chiefly associated with Robert Browning, who raised it to a highly sophisticated level in such poems as My Last Duchess, The Bishop Orders His Tomb at St. Praxeds Church, Fra Lippo Lippi, and Andrea del Sarto, it is actually much older. Many Old English poems are dramatic monologuesfor instance, The Wanderer and The Seafarer. Brownings contribution to the form is one of subtlety of characterization and complexity of the dramatic situation, which the reader gradually pieces together from the casual remarks or digressions of the speaker. Dramatic monologues can also be used in novels to tell stories, as in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Elizabeth Barrett BROWNING Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era. Her eager humanitarianism, courage and intellectual energy were great. The Seraphim and the Other Poems was her first work to gain attention. Poems contain two poems of social sympathy, Cry of the Children and Cry of the Human. In Lady Geraldines Courtship she alludes to Brownings poetry, leading to their romance. Sonnets from the Portuguese is a sonnet cycle about her lover for her husband. Aurora Leigh, a 11.000 line novel verse is her masterpiece. It tells the story of Aurora, the heroine of the novel verse. It contains witty comments on the position of women in Victorian society. Edward LEAR Edward Lear was an artist, illustrator, author and poet, and is known now mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularized. Though not the first to write this hybrid kind of nonsense, Edward Lear developed and popularized it in his many limericks (starting with A Book of Nonsense) and other famous texts such as "The Owl and the Pussycat", "The Dong with a Luminous Nose," "The Jumblies" and "The Story of the Four Little Children Who Went Around the World." Lewis Carroll continued this trend, making literary nonsense a worldwide phenomenon with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass . Literary nonsense (or nonsense literature) is a broad categorization of literature that uses nonsensical elements to defy language conventions or logical reasoning. Even though the most well-known form of literary nonsense is nonsense verse, the genre is present in many forms of literature. Limerick is a humorous and nonsense poem usually consisting of five lines. An example by Edward Lear: There was a Young Lady of Dorking, Who bought a large bonnet for walking; But its color and size, So bedazzled her eyes, That she very soon went back to Dorking Gerard Manley HOPKINS He was among the leading Victorian poets. His experimental explorations in prosody (especially sprung rhythm) and his use of imagery established him as a daring innovator in a period of largely traditional verse. He took time to learn Old English, which became a major influence on his writing. He is notable for his use of what he calls sprung rhythm. He also invented the curtal sonnet, and used in three of his poems. Hopkins's only examples of the form are Pied Beauty, Peace, and Ash Boughs. His extensive use of alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia added richness to his poems. The Wreck of the Deutschland, Spring, Moonrise, The Windhover, and The Sea and the Skylark are some of his poems. Hopkins' work was not well-known until very long after his death. Sprung rhythm is a poetic rhythm designed to imitate the rhythm of natural speech. It is constructed from feet in which the first syllable is stressed and may be followed by a variable number of unstressed syllables. Gerard Manley Hopkins claimed to have discovered this previously unnamed poetic rhythm. The curtal sonnet is a form invented by Gerard Manley Hopkins. It is an eleven-line (or, more accurately, ten-anda-half-line) sonnet.

PRE-RAPHAELITE POETS In 1848 a group of poets and painters met to form the Pre- Raphaelite Brotherhood, dedicated to carrying on a romantic revolt against academic painting and a return to clarity, brightness, and fidelity to nature of the painting before Raphael. They also romanticized the medieval past. The poetry of the Pre-Raphaelite poets - was a revolt and reaction against the conventionality of poetry represented by Tennyson. They revolted against the idea of harnessing the use of poetry to the service of social and political problems of the age. They were the votaries of art for art's sake. Dante Gabriel ROSSETTI Known first as a painter, he had no interest in writing poetry about political or scientific controversies of the day. He wrote primarily about women and often set his poems in the middle ages. A Last Confession, My sister's sleep, Rose Mary, Jenny, The Blessed Damozel, Sister Helen, Troy Town, The House of Life are some of his best poems. William MORRIS Morris was at heart an artist and remained an artist throughout his life. As a poet and an artist his interest lay in the past rather than in the sordidness of his own times. The Defence of Guinevere and other poems, Jason and Earthly Paradise, The Havestock in the flood reveal his love for the middle ages. In the 'Life and Death of Jason' we have the finest pictures of the Middle Ages in their heroism, super naturalism, witchery and magic. Sigurd the Volsung, showing his interest in Scandinavian literature, is a tragic version of the Siegfried story. Algernon Charles SWINBURNE He revolted sensationally against Victorian religious assumptions and middle-class concerns. His hypnotic poetic virtuosity in every conceivable meter and stanza attracted young rebels of his day, particularly in his poems about freedom. He invented the roundel form, wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Atalanta in Calydon, Poems and Ballads, Songs Before Sunrise, Heptalogia, Tristram of Lyonesse are some of his best poems. Christina ROSSETTI Christina, younger sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems. Under the pseudonym Ellen Alleyne, she contributed seven poems to the Pre-Raphaelite journal The Germ, which had been founded by her brother William Michael and his friends. Rossetti is best known for her ballads and her mystic religious lyrics. Her poetry is marked by symbolism and intense feeling. Rossetti's best-known work, Goblin Market and Other Poems, was published in 1862. The collection established Rossetti as a significant voice in Victorian poetry. The Prince's Progress and Other Poems, appeared in 1866 followed by Sing-Song, a collection of verse for children, in 1872 (with illustrations by Arthur Hughes). She is perhaps best known for her long poem Goblin Market, her love poem Remember, and for the words of the Christmas carol In the Bleak Midwinter. PROSE Thomas CARLYLE Thomas Carlyle was a philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era. His main works are Sartor Resartus. The French Revolution, Heroes and Hero worship, Past and Present, Letters and Speeches of Oliver Crownwell, Life of John Sterling, The history of Frederick, the Great and Letters and Reminiscenes. John Henry NEWMAN John Henry Newman, best known as Cardinal Newman, is an important figure in the history of Religion in England. His important works are 'Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Via Mediacallista, Grammar of Assent, The idea of a university. His Idea of a University provides to the modern university leaders the basic principles concerning the concept of a university. The primary aim of the university in Newman's view is to impart liberal education and make them gentlemen and ladies in life and not to prepare them only for professional courses. John RUSKIN John Ruskin was the leading art critic of the Victorian era. His principal works are 'Modern painters, Seven Lamps of Architecture, The stones of Venice, Unto this last, Munera pulveris, Time and Tide ,The Crown of wild olive, Sesame and Lilies and Practerita, is his unfinished autobiography. Walter PATER Art for Art's sake was Pater's ideal and all his prose works, and works of criticism are saturated with the spirit of aestheticism. Studies in the History of the Renaissance and Appreciations, with an Essay on Style are his major works. John Stuart MILL John Stuart Mill was a philosopher, political economist and civil servant. He was an influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy. He has been called the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century. On Liberty, Utilitarianism, The Subjection of Women, A System of Logic, On Social Freedom, A Few Words on Non-intervention, The Principles of Political Economy are his major works. Matthew ARNOLD Matthew Arnold was a British poet and cultural critic. Matthew Arnold has been characterized as a sage writer, a type of writer st nd who chastises and instructs the reader on contemporary social issues. His best- known works are Essays in Criticism (1 and 2 series) and Culture and Anarchy. He is also famous for his poems: Dover Beach, The Scholar-Gypsy, The Buried Life, Sohrab and Rustum, Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse, Thyrsis, Isolation and Rugby Chapel. Sage writing was a genre of creative nonfiction popular in the Victorian era. Sage writing is a development from ancient wisdom literature in which the writer chastises and instructs the reader about contemporary social issues, often utilizing discourses of philosophy, history, politics, and economics in non-technical ways. Prominent examples of the genre include writings by Thomas Carlyle, Matthew Arnold, John Ruskin, and Henry David Thoreau.

NOVEL The NOVEL became the most popular form of literature and also the main form of entertainment since they were read aloud within the family. The phenomenal progress of the novel took place because it was the pleasantest form of literary entertainment chosen by the rising middle class and also because of the different education acts and opening of libraries, press and publishing houses which led to an unprecedented growth in the numbers of reading public and demand for books to which the novelists of the age responded with a will. Characteristics of the Victorian novel: Good characters are rewarded, bad ones punished. The adjustment of the individual to the society is the major human problem presented, with a general acceptance of the values of middle class. The major character types were recognizable Victorian types, with typical aspiration. The poor were usually treated patronizingly, the rich scorned and envied. In an a era in which human nature is considered basically good, the heroes and heroines are people of virtue, even though sometimes weak. Characters lives and psychology is analyzed deeply. Most of the novels focus on social position and society. Realism was the prototypical trait of Victorian novelists who drew themes for their novels not from the Middle Ages or the world of Romance but from the life which unfolded in front of their eyes. Novels usually had long complicated plots and sub-plots. The city was the most common setting the main symbol of industrial civilization as well the expression of anonymous lives and lost identities Main themes: money, wealth, marriage, realistic portrait of society denouncing its injustices and iniquities Most popular genre was Bildulgsroman. Most of the novels were illustrated. Major sub-genres in Victorian Novel Bildungsroman:("Formation novel"or novel of formation, also coming-of-age story) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood (coming of age) and in which character change is thus extremely important. Psychological Novel: A psychological novel, also called psychological realism, is a work of prose fiction which places more than the usual amount of emphasis on interior characterization, and on the motives, circumstances, and internal action which springs from, and develops, external action. The first rise of the psychological novel as a genre is said to have started with the sentimental novel of which Samuel Richardson's Pamela is a prime example. Industrial Novel: The term industrial novel was originally used to designate a sub-genre of novel published in Victorian England during and after the period of the Hungry Forties. It is also referred to as the condition of England novel, as well as social novel, or social problem novel and portrays the difficult conditions of life of the urban working class during the Industrial Revolution. Newgate Novels: The Newgate novels (or Old Bailey novels) were novels published in England from the late 1820s until the 1840s that were thought to glamorize the lives of the criminals they portrayed. Most drew their inspiration from the Newgate Calendar, a biography of famous criminals published at various times during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but usually rearranged or embellished the original tale for melodramatic effect. The novels caused great controversy and notably drew criticism from William Makepeace Thackeray, who satirized them in several of his novels and attacked the authors openly. Silver- Fork Novels (also known as fashionable novels) This genre, which aims to depict elegant and aristocratic manners in detail, was named silver fork novels by William Hazlitt after the upper-class practice of eating fish with two silver forks. The genre started with Theodore Hooks Sayings and Doings followed by Robert Plumer Wards Tremaine and Disraelis Vivian Grey. The most influential and popular novels were written by female novelists such as Lady Blessington, Catherine Gore and Lady Bury. Science fiction is a genre of fiction with imaginative but more or less plausible content such as settings in the future, futuristic science and technology, space travel, parallel universes, aliens, and paranormal abilities. New Woman Novels often expressed dissatisfaction with the contemporary position of women in marriage and in society. These novels represented female heroines who fought against the traditional Victorian male perception of woman as angel in the house and challenged the old codes of conduct and morality. The New Woman novelists were mostly women, although a few male authors also contributed to the genre. Some of the most prominent female New Woman novelists include Olive Schreiner, Sarah Grand, and George Egerton (Mary Chavelita Dunne). The male authors who dealt with the New Woman theme include George Meredith, George Gissing, Grant Allen and Thomas Hardy. Sensation Novel was a literary genre of fiction popular in Great Britain in the 1860s and 1870s, following on from earlier melodramatic novels and the Newgate novels, which focused on tales woven around criminal biographies, also descend from the gothic and romantic genres of fiction. Ellen Wood's controversial East Lynne was the first novel to be critically dubbed "sensational" and began a trend whose main exponents also included Wilkie Collins (The Woman in White, The Moonstone), Charles Reade, and Mary Elizabeth Braddon (Lady Audley's Secret). Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which a investigator or a detective - either professional or amateur - investigates a crime, often murder.

Charles DICKENS Charles John Huffam Dickens created some of the world's most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. He is the major representative of Victorian realistic fiction.The great success which Dickens achieved as a novelist was the outcome of a certain training that he had undergone in the school of life and experience. As a child, poor and lonely, longing for love for society, he laid the foundation for those heartrending pictures of children which have moved so many readers to unaccustomed tears. When we turn from his outward training to his inner disposition we find two strongly marked elements. The first is his excessive imagination which made good stories out of incidents that ordinarily pass unnoticed, and which described the commonest things - a street, a shop, a fog, and a lamp-post, a stage-coach with a wealth of detail and romantic suggestion that makes many of his descriptions like lyric poems. The second element is his extreme sensibility, which finds relief only in laughter and tears. Like shadow and sunshine these follow one another closely throughout all his books. Dickens began his career as a creative artist with Sketches by Boz, a series dealing with London life. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (also known as The Pickwick Papers) is the first novel by Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers is a sequence of loosely-related adventures. The novel's main character, Samuel Pickwick, is a kind and wealthy old gentleman, and the founder and president of the Pickwick Club. To extend his researches into the quaint and curious phenomena of life, he suggests that he and three other "Pickwickians" (Mr. Nathaniel Winkle, Mr. Augustus Snodgrass, and Mr. Tracy Tupman) should make journeys to remote places from London and report on their findings to the other members of the club. Their travels throughout the English countryside provide the chief theme of the novel. Oliver Twist Oliver Twist is the story of an innocent boy whose parentage is left unknown because of the inheritance. He is brought up under cruel conditions. He falls into the hands of a gang of thieves headed by the old Jew Fagin. Oliver Twist was reared in Fagin's academy and every effort was made to convert him into a thief. He is rescued by Mr. Brownlow, but he is kidnapped by the gang. He is wounded by gunshot when Sikes takes him to a burgling expedition. His identity is revealed after years of pain and suffering. David Copperfield David Copperfields father dies 3 months before his birth. His mother marries again. Mr. Murdstone, Davy's stepfather, up sends David away to a boarding school run by a cruel schoolmaster Mr. Creakle. When Davy's mother dies, Mr. Murdstone sends him to London, to work at a blacking factory. After many trials, David decides to run away and search for his aunt, Betsy Trotwood, who eventually adopts him. The second part of this novel shows the grown-up David Copperfield, he has completed his education and is apprenticed as a clerk to work in a law firm. He meets his boss's daughter Dora and falls in love. His feelings are returned, but Dora's father is furious when he finds out about the engagement. David marries Dora, who dies after failing to recover from a miscarriage early in their marriage. David then searches his soul and marries the sensible Agnes, who had always loved him and with whom he finds true happiness. David and Agnes then have three children, including a daughter named after his aunt Betsey Trotwood. Great Expectations Pip lives with his fearsome sister who is married to the blacksmith Joe because his parents have passed away. He is called to work in Satis House for a lady named Miss Havisham. Many years ago, Miss Havisham had been left at the altar, and had never seen the light of day again. She is obsessed with getting revenge on the male population. One step she took towards accomplishing this was to adopt a girl named Estella. Miss Havisham raises Estella to be cruel to men, playing with their hearts and affections. Pip falls madly in love with Estella. Years later, Pip receives word that he has come into a fortune from an unknown benefactor. He assumes that Miss Havisham is his benefactor. Heading for London, Pip lives the life of a rich man. Pip works hard to be worthy of Estella, who he assumes he is destined to marry. However, Estella marries Bentley Drummle. Pip finds that his benefactor is indeed Estella's father. Eleven years later, Pip visits the ruins of Satis House and meets Estella. Her husband is dead. She asks Pip to forgive her, assuring him that misfortune has opened her heart. Pip takes Estella's hand and leaves the ruins of Satis House. Novels The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club*The Adventures of Oliver TwistThe Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby*The Old Curiosity Shop Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty The Life and Adventures of Martin ChuzzlewitDombey and Son*Bleak House Little Dorrit* David CopperfieldOur Mutual Friend* Hard Times *Great Expectations The Mystery of Edwin Drood The Christmas books: *A Christmas Carol The Chimes The Cricket on the Hearth The Battle of Life The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain Short story collections Sketches by Boz The Mudfog Papers Reprinted Pieces The Uncommercial Traveller

William Makepeace THACKERAY Though a Victorian, he had his sympathies with the past, with the 18th century writers. He took Fielding as his model. Barry Lyndon, Vanity fair, Henry Esmond, the History of Pendennis, The New comes, The Virginians were his major works. Catherine is Thackerays first novel. Thackeray's original intention in writing it was to criticize the Newgate school of crime fiction. He based his story on Catherine Hayes (an eighteenth century criminal who was burned at the stake for murdering her husband in 1726). The History of Henry Esmond is a historical novel. The book tells the story of the early life of Henry Esmond, a colonel in the service of Queen Anne of England. Vanity Fair is concerned with the parallel careers of two strongly contrasted characters: Rebecca (Becky) Sharp, who is clever, unscrupulous, and courageous; and Amilia Sedley, who is a pretty, gentle, and unintelligent girl, whose father is a rich man of business. The pair are brought together at Miss Pinkerton's academy. Becky is employed as a governess at the house of old Sir Pitt Crawley. She captivates both him and his rich sister Miss Crawley. Sir Pitt Crawley on the death of his wife proposes to her, but it becomes clear that Becky has secretly married Rawdon, Sir Pitt's second son. Sir Pitt and his sister become furious, and Rawdon loses his aunt's inheritance. Amilia's father is ruined and her intended marriage with the young officer, George Osborne, is forbidden by George's father. Amilia is brokenhearted at the desertion of George, a worthless person whom she blindly loves. Captain Dobbin, George's fellow-officer and Amilias honest and unselfish worshipper, persuades George, and the marriage takes place, but old Osborne disinherits his son. George, before his death in the battle, engages in an intrigue with Becky. The rest of the novel deals with the way Becky wins her way in the highest society. Amilia, plunged in grief by the loss of her husband, lives a life of poverty, and Dobbin secretly helps her. After ten years Dobbin returns home from India, but the memory of Amilia's husband still stands between her and Dobbin. It is only after Becky has revealed to her George's infidelity that Amilia agrees to marry the devoted Dobbin. George ELIOT (Mary Ann Evans) Mary Anne Evans, better known by her pen name George Eliot is the author of seven novels, including Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Middlemarch , Romola, Felix Holt, the Radical and Daniel Deronda, most of them set in provincial England and known for their realism and psychological insight. She used a male pen name, to ensure her works would be taken seriously. Female authors were published under their own names during Eliot's life, but she wanted to escape the stereotype of women only writing lighthearted romances. She is also accepted as the founder of psychological Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life Dorothea Brooke is a young woman living with her uncle and sister in the small-but-growing town of Middlemarch. She is an idealistic, well-to-do young woman, engaged in schemes to help the lot of the local poor. Her main ambition in life is to take on a noble project so she marries an old scholar named Casaubon, thinking that helping him in his research will be the project she's after. Dorothea quickly discovers that he cares more for his own scholarly pursuits than he does for her. Meanwhile, an idealistic young doctor named Tertius Lydgate moves to Middlemarch to set up a practice with his new-fangled ideas about medicine and science. But he encounters a lot of obstacles. First of all, most of the residents of Middlemarch have lived in the town for their whole lives, and they don't trust newcomers. Second, they don't trust new ideas, and Lydgate is all about scientific progress. Lydgate falls in love with Rosamond Vincy, the sister of one his patients, and marries her. Lydgate discovers that Rosamond is a superficial and selfish, and Rosamond learns that Lydgate will always be married to his work as a doctor. And then they run out of money because neither of them knows how to stick to a budget. These two unhappy couples (the Lydgates and the Casaubons) are connected by Mr. Casaubon's young cousin, Will Ladislaw. Mr. Casaubon was always jealous of the friendly bond between his cousin, Will, and his wife. So he leaves will saying that Dorothea will lose all the money she's supposed to inherit from him if she remarries Will Ladislaw. Dorothea hadn't even thought about marrying Will until she reads the will. After some serious thinking, and some misunderstandings (Dorothea thinks that Will likes Rosamond), Dorothea and Will decide to get married. And Lydgate dies at a tragically early age, leaving Rosamond free to remarry. Benjamin DISRAELI Benjamin Disraeli was an intimate friend of Queen Victoria and twice the prime minister of England. He wrote his first novel, Vivian Grey, when he was only twenty-two. The theme is the incursion into politics of a young adventurer who knows that a man must have blood, genius, or a million if he wants to enter into a high society. As a novelist, he is at his best in the great set scenes. Another quality is his attitude to women. His ladies are ravishing and highly intelligent His heroes are always larger than life and unbelievably talented. They are either of the finest Norman blood or millionaires. Most of Disraeli's novels are political ones, the only true political novels in English. His characters and actions come alive only through politics. He combines Romantic imagination with genius for the necessary compromises and the calculation of the realism of ordinary politics. Sybil, or the Two Nations talks about the English society as the two nations of the rich and the poor. The novel traces the plight of the working classes of England. Disraeli was interested in dealing with the horrific conditions in which the majority of England's working classes lived or, what is generally called the Condition of England question. Sybil, or the Two Nations is a significant early example of industrial novel. Anthony TROLLOPE Anthony Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Trollope was regarded as male Jane Austen unaware of the stress and storm of the world. He surpassed his contemporaries in literary output. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire. The Chronicles of Barsetshire (or the Barchester Chronicles) is a series of six novels. The novels in the series are: The Warden, Barchester Towers, Doctor Thorne, Framley Parsonage, The Small House at Allington and The Last Chronicle of Barset.

BRONTE SISTERS Charlotte, Emile, Anne - Bronte sisters occupy a distinctive place in the history of English fiction. They brought about the imaginative revival of fiction and gave it the color of poetry and passion. Charlotte Bront Charlotte, the eldest of the three Bront sisters, began as a poet and then drifted to novel writing. She wrote four novels in succession: Jane Eyre, Shirley, Vilette and The Professor. Her novels are autobiographical in character. Jane Eyre is a bildungsroman, written under the pen name "Currer Bell." Jane Eyre is an orphaned girl living with her aunt Mrs. Reed at Gateshead Hall. Mrs. Reed and her children treat Jane cruelly. Mrs. Reed sends Jane to a harsh charity school for girls. There she learns to become a teacher and advertises for a job as a private tutor. She is hired to become the governess of the young Adle Varens. Adle is the ward of Mr. Rochester-the older, swarthy, and commanding master of Thornfield Hall. While in residence at Thornfield, Jane frequently hears strange laughter, and one night rescues Mr. Rochester from a fire in his bedroom. On another occasion, Jane helps Mr. Rochester secretly bandage and send away a man named Mr. Mason. Mr. Rochester brings a party of English aristocrats to Thornfield, including the beautiful Blanche Ingram. She aims to marry him, but Mr. Rochester turns Blanche away, as he is in love with Jane. Mr. Rochester asks Jane to marry him and Jane accepts. Rochester hastily prepares the wedding. But during the ceremony, a London lawyer intervenes and declares that Mr. Rochester already has a wife, Bertha Mason. Her brother, Mr. Mason, appears to confirm this. Mr. Rochester reluctantly admits to it, and takes everyone to the third floor, where Bertha is revealed as a raving lunatic. Rochester was tricked into the marriage and he appeals to Jane to come away with him anyway, but Jane refuses and Jane runs away from Thornfield. Jane experiences three bitter days of begging, sleeping outside, and nearly starving. Eventually St. John gives Jane a position teaching in a rural school. St. John discovers Jane's true identity, and astounds her by showing her a letter stating that her uncle John Eyre has died and left her his entire fortune of 20,000 pounds. When Jane questions him further, St. John reveals that John is also his and his sisters' uncle. They had once hoped for a share of the inheritance, but have since resigned themselves to nothing. Jane, overjoyed by finding her family, insists on sharing the money equally with her cousins. St. John asks Jane to marry him and to go with him to India, not out of love, but out of duty. Jane initially accepts going to India, but rejects the marriage proposal. As soon as Jane's resolve against marriage to St. John begins to weaken, she mysteriously hears Mr. Rochester's voice calling her name. Jane then returns to Thornfield to find only blackened ruins. She learns that Mr. Rochester's wife set the house on fire and committed suicide by jumping from the roof. In his rescue attempts, Mr. Rochester lost a hand and his eyesight. Jane reunites with him, but he fears that she will be repulsed by his condition. When Jane assures him of her love and tells him that she will never leave him, Mr. Rochester again proposes and they are married. He eventually recovers enough sight to see their first-born son. Emily Bront She is known by her one single, masterly production 'Wuthering Heights It is a masterpiece work of art extremely strange, wild and elemental in character. Wuthering Heights is written under the pseudonym "Ellis Bell." It was her first and only published novel. Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw lives in a farm house Wuthering Heights' .They have two children Hindley and Catherine. Another family, the family of the Lintons lived in Thrushcross Grange. They also have two children Edgar and Isabella. One day Mr. Earnshaw comes back from a business trip, with a homeless boy whom he picked up from the street. He wants the boy to live with them in the house. He gives him the name of 'Heathcliff', the name of one of his sons who had died earlier. Hindley hates him, Catherine and her father likes him. A few days later Mr.Earnshaw dies and Hindley becomes the master of the house. He degrades Heathcliff to a servant's level and treats him badly. Hindley wants her Catherine to marry Edgar Linton. Catherine accepts Edgars proposal even though she does not love him, she loves Heathcliff but cannot marry him because of his low birth and lack of education. Heathcliff overhears Catherines words and in despair runs away. Three years later he comes back, rich, polished gentleman but with fire in his heart. Hindley now welcomes him and Heathcliff stays again at Wuthering Heights. Edgar's sister, Isabella falls in love with Heathcliff and they marry.Catherine, already married to Edgar Linton, is torn in conflict between the love for her husband and her lover. She cannot bear the strain of this conflict and dies giving birth to daughter, Cathy. The day after Catherine's funeral, Isabella leaves Heathcliff and takes refuge in the south of England. She too is pregnant, and gives birth to a son, Linton. Hindley dies six months after Catherine and Heathcliff found himself master of Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff hopes Linton and Cathy would marry so Linton would become the heir to Thrushcross Grange. Linton and Cathy begins a secret friendship, echoing the childhood friendship between his father and her mother.Edgar Linton dies, thus Heathcliff possesses of all the Linton and Earnshaw property. Heathcliff begins to act strangely and has visions of Catherine. He stops eating and after four days is found dead in Catherine's old room. He is buried next to Catherine. Anne Bront She was the youngest of the Bronte sisters. Agnes Grey is the debut novel of Anne Bront. Her other novel is The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. These two works are inferior in quality in comparison to the work of her sisters. She wrote her novels under the pen name Acton Bell. Bram STOKER Abraham Stoker was a novelist and short story writer, best known today for his Gothic novel Dracula. The book inspired many films and literary works afterwards. Stoker wrote other novels including The Jewel of Seven Stars and the Lair of the White Worm; however, none of them caught the same success as Dracula. A debut novel is the first novel an author publishes.

Wilkie COLLINS He was very popular during the Victorian era and wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, 14 plays, and more than 100 nonfiction essays. His best-known works are The Woman in White, The Moonstone, Armadale, and No Name. The Woman in White is an epistolary novel. It is considered to be among the first mystery novels and is widely regarded as one of the first in the genre of 'sensation novels'. The story is considered an early example of detective fiction. The Woman in White Late one night on a lonely road a young art teacher, Walter Hartright, meets a strange woman dressed all in white. He helps her on her way to London, they talk and Walter is puzzled by the fact that the woman knows a member of the family he is about to start work with. but later learns that she has escaped from an asylum. Walter goes to Limmeridge House and starts his new job, teaching art to two half sisters, Laura Fairlie and Marian, whose parents are both dead. He falls in love with Laura, who closely resembles the woman in white, but Laura marries with Sir Percival Glyde, as she promised to her father. She is unhappy, as her husband is interested only in her money. He also has a terrible secret that the woman in white knows. He and his sinister friend plot to steal Lauras money by substituting the woman in white for Laura. But Lauras husband dies in a fire trying to eliminate the traces of his forgery. Laura and Walter reunite and get married. Thomas HARDY A Victorian realist, in the tradition of George Eliot, he was also influenced both in his novels and poetry by Romanticism, especially by William Wordsworth. Charles Dickens is another important influence on Thomas Hardy. Like Dickens, he was also highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society. While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life, and regarded himself primarily as a poet, he gained fame as the author of such novels as Far from the Madding Crowd, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and Jude the Obscure . Hardy classified his novels as: Novels of Character and Environment The Poor Man and the Lady, Under the Greenwood Tree, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Woodlanders, Wessex Tales, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Life's Little Ironies, Jude the Obscure Romances and Fantasies A Pair of Blue Eyes, The Trumpet-Major, Two on a Tower, A Group of Noble Dames, The Well-Beloved Novels of Ingenuity Desperate Remedies, The Hand of Ethelberta, A Laodicean

Far From Madding Crowd is a story of love and murder. Gabriel Oak, the shepherd, serves the capricious Bathsheba. Sergeant Troy wins Bathsheba's love and marries her and then ill-treats her. Troy is murdered by Farmer Boldwood who loves Bathsheba. Boldwood becomes a lunatic. Gabriel and Bathsheba are at last united. Tess of DUrbervilles is often regarded as Hardy's tragic masterpiece. It is certainly his most ambitious novel. Tess Durbeyfield is the daughter of a poor, foolish villager of Blackmoor Vale who learns that he is the descendent of the ancient family of the D'Urbervilles. Tess is seduced by Alec, and gives birth to a child who dies. When Tess is working as a dairymaid on a large farm, she becomes engaged to Angel Clare, a clergyman's son. On their wedding night she confesses to him the affair with Alec. Consequently, he abandons her. Misfortune and hardship come upon her and her family. She kills Alec; she is arrested and hanged. Jude the Obscure is Hardy's last novel. Jude, a poor country boy with visions of academic glory, teaches himself Greek and Latin. Before he can try to enter the university, he marries, Arabella Donn, who deserts him within two years. Jude moves to Christminster and supports himself as a mason while studying alone, hoping to be able to enter the university later. There, he meets and falls in love with Sue Bridehead. Jude introduces Sue to his former schoolteacher, Mr. Phillotson, whom she later marries. Sue eventually leaves Phillotson for Jude. They are both afraid to get married because they think that being legally bound to one another might destroy their love. They have two children. They are also bestowed with a child from Jude's first marriage to Arabella, whom Jude did not know about earlier. He is name is also Jude. Jude and Sue are socially ostracized for living together unmarried, especially after the children are born. Jude's employers always dismiss him when they find out, and landlords evict them. Their socially-disturbed boy, Jude comes to believe that he and his half-siblings are the source of the family's woes. He murders Sue's two children and commits suicide by hanging. Sue blames herself for Judes actions and comes to believe that the children's deaths were divine retribution for her relationship with Jude. Although horrified at the thought of resuming her marriage with Phillotson, she becomes convinced that, for religious reasons, she should never have left him. Arabella discovers Sue's feelings and informs Phillotson, who soon proposes they remarry. This results in Sue leaving Jude for Phillotson. Jude is devastated and remarries Arabella after she plies him with alcohol to once again trick him into marriage .After one final, desperate visit to Sue in freezing weather, Jude becomes seriously ill and dies within the year. It is revealed that Sue has grown "staid and worn" with Phillotson. Arabella fails to mourn Jude's passing, instead setting the stage to ensnare her next suitor. Elizabeth GASKELL Elizabeth Gaskell rst made her name with the industrial novel, Mary Barton. It deals with relations between employers and workers. Dickens recognized her worth, and published much of her writing in his magazines Household Words and All the Year Round. Her novels include: Cranford, Ruth, North and South, Sylvia's Lovers, Wives and Daughters: An Everyday Story .She also wrote The Life of Charlotte Bront, a biography of Charlotte Bront.

Herbert George WELLS Herbert George Wells was *the first writer of science fiction in English literature. His first scientific romance - The Time Machine - was published in 1895. It was followed by other tales: The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, and The First Men in the Moon. All of them are based on various scientific discoveries and hypotheses. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing textbooks and rules for war games. George GISSING George Gissings novels, from Workers in the Dawn and The Unclassed to The Nether World and New Grub Street, show a concern and sympathy for the deprived which is not far removed from Dickens. Gissing was a naturalist writer in that he described everyday life in great detail. Gissings naturalism was partly based on the writings of the French novelist Emile Zola.The Odd Women is one of his best- known novels. Its themes are the role of women in society, marriage, morals and the early feminist movement. George MEREDITH Merediths novels are distinguished by psychological studies of character and a highly subjective view of life that, far ahead of his time, regarded women as truly the equals of men. His best known works are The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, Beauchamps Career and The Egoist. the Egoist, his masterpiece, satirizes the egoism of the Victorian gentleman through his anti-Victorian hero, Vernon Withford. Samuel BUTLER Samuel Butler is a severe critic of the Victorian moral system. He is a satirist who wages war against the Victorian hypocrisies and conventions. Erewhon is a dystopian novel, a satire on the Victorian concepts of society, duty, morality, and religion. The Way of All Flesh is an autobiographical novel that attacks the despotism of the Victorian family life, and the cruelty and as well the inadequacy of the Victorian education. Dystopia is an imaginary world in which everything is wrong; the opposite of utopia (a good place). Erewhon is an anagram of Nowhere, utopia (no place). CHILDRENS LITERATURE Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, and poems that are enjoyed by and targeted primarily towards children. The second half of the nineteenth century saw a new genre of literature: children's books. By the 1800s all middle and lower-middle class women could read, as could servants such as nannies; the popular religious tracts read by these women in the eighteenth century had given way to lighter material. Now it was the children's turn to read for fun. John Newbery called The Father of Children's Literature was an English publisher of books who first made children's literature a sustainable and profitable part of the literary market. A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, intended for the Amusement of Little Master Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly with Two Letters from Jack the Giant Killer is the title of a 1744 children's book by British publisher John Newbery. It is generally considered the first children's book, and consists of simple rhymes for each of the letters of the alphabet. William ROSCOE William Roscoe was an English historian and miscellaneous writer, perhaps best known today for his poem for children the Butterfly's Ball. The Butterfly's Ball is considered a landmark publication in fantasy literature. It tells the story of a party for insects and other small animals. Thomas HUGHES He is most famous for his novel Tom Brown's School Days, a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had attended. It was read with pleasure by those boys whose parents could not afford expensive education in the so-called public schools. Tom Brown's School Days is considered the founding book in the school story tradition. Robert Michael BALLANTYNE He gave up his business for the profession of literature, and began the series of adventure stories for the young with which his name is popularly associated. The Young Fur-Traders, The Coral Island, The World of Ice, Ungava: a Tale of Eskimo Land, The Dog Crusoe, The Lighthouse, Fighting the Whales, Deep Down, The Pirate City, Erling the Bold, The Settler and the Savage. Henry Rider HAGGARD Sir Henry Rider Haggard was a writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. The hugely popular King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard is sometimes considered the first of the Lost World genre. Haggard's novel shaped the genre and influenced later "lost world" narratives, including Rudyard Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King, Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, Edgar Rice Burroughs's The Land That Time Forgot, A. Merritt's The Moon Pool, and H. P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. King Solomon's Mines is the first adventure story set in Africa. It is an exciting tale of the search for priceless treasure hidden in tribal territory ruled by an evil priestess and cruel usurper; it is undertaken by three brave Britons with their Zulu servant in southern Africa. The Lost World literary genre is a fantasy or science fiction genre that involves the discovery of a new world out of time, place, or both.

Charles KINGSLEY He produced The Water Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby. It describes with pathos and humor the sad life of a little boy apprenticed to a cruel chimney-sweep, how he runs away, falls into a river, becomes a water-baby and begins a new life in the underwater kingdom. Kingsley's Westward Ho is a historical novel. The novel is set in the Elizabethan era, and follows the adventures of Amyas Leigh who sets sail with Francis Drake and other privateers to the Caribbean, where they battle with the Spanish. They come back home with a Spanish galleon and a princess. Rudyard KIPLING Joseph Rudyard Kipling was a short-story writer, poet, and novelist chiefly remembered for his poems and his tales for children. He is regarded as a major "innovator in the art of the short story" and his children's books are enduring classics of children's literature. In 1907 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and to date he remains its youngest recipient. *The Jungle Book recounts the adventures of an abandoned Indian baby adopted by jungle animals and who ultimately becomes their leader. The Man Who Would Be King is about two British adventurers who become kings of Kafiristan, a remote part of Afghanistan. Rudyard Kiplings Poems: "Mandalay, Gunga Din, the White Man's Burden and *If. Robert Louis STEVENSON Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde a novel about dual personality much depicted in plays and films, also influential in the growth of understanding of the subconscious mind through its treatment of a kind and intelligent physician who turns into a psychopathic monster after imbibing a drug intended to separate good from evil in a personality. Treasure Island is Stevensons first major success, a tale of piracy, buried treasure, and adventure. It tells the story of young Jim Hawkins and his adventures in the search for the buried treasure of the evil Captain Flint. Lewis CARROLL Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll, was a writer, mathematician, logician, and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the Snark" and "Jabberwocky", all examples of the genre of literary nonsense. Lewis Carroll's fantasy Alice's Adventures in Wonderland appeared in 1865 in England. The first "English masterpiece written for children", its publication opened the "First Golden Age" of children's literature in Great Britain and Europe that continued until the early 1900s. It was also a founding book in the development of fantasy literature. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre and its narrative course and structure, characters and imagery have been enormously influential in both popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre. Alice dreams she falls into a well and finds a world at the bottom inhabited by rather odd characters such as playing cards come to life, a Mad Hatter, a disappearing Cheshire Cat and a Mock Turtle. Alice becomes in turn a giant and a mite, but though perplexed by all these events, she behaves with the politeness and good sense expected of a young lady even in somewhat illogical and absurd situations. Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It is another dream vision. Alice is sitting in a chair scolding her kitten, Kitty, when she notices the alternate world inside the Looking Glass. She determines to explore this other world. She encounters a smiling clock, animate chess pieces and becomes a part of a giant chess game. James Matthew BARRIE Sir James Matthew Barrie was an author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan.A mischievous boy who can fly and who never ages, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys. One night Peter Pan took Wendy, John, and Michael to his home, Never NeverLand. Wendy enthusiastically takes up the role of loving mother to Peter and the lost boys. Lost Boys were very happy playing in Neverland. Peters fairy friend Tinker Bell dusted the lost boys with fairy dust so they could fly. Captain James Hook, a pirate, is Peter Pan's enemy and is set on his destruction. He kidnaps lost boys. Peter and Tinker Bell rescue the children. In the end, Wendy, John, Michael and the lost boys find their way home. Helen Beatrix POTTER Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author and illustrator, best known for her childrens books, which featured animal characters. In her thirties, Potter published the highly successful children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902. Potter eventually went on to publish 23 children's books. Her books along with Lewis Carrolls are read and published to this day.

DRAMA Oscar WILDE Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde upheld the theory of Art for Art's sake and carried forward the aesthetic movement to its culminating point, throwing morality out of view altogether for him, Art had no other aim save to gratify the taste of the artist, and had no bearing on social problems. He tried several kinds of writing. He wrote poems, novels, stories for children and plays. His best plays were comedies of manners that were closer to Restoration comedies than the other Victorian plays. An Ideal Husband is a comedy which revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honor. A Woman of No Importance is a dark comedy. The upper classes have gathered for a weekend house party at Lady Hunstanton's country estate. The wildly attractive Lord Illingworth is free to show off his seduction skills. The ladies, including the young American, Hester Worsley, must hide their lust for him. When it's announced that Gerald Arbuthnot has been appointed as Illingworth's secretary, his mother Mrs. Arbuthnots scandalous secret threatens to ruin her son's success. Lord Illingworth finds out that Gerald is his illegitimate son. A sordid past between Mrs. Arbuthnot and Lord Illingworth is revealed. Gerald declines the position with Lord Illingworth, and marries the American puritan Miss Hester Worsley. Lord Illingworth is banished from the affections of Gerald and Mrs. Arbuthnot forever. Lady Windermere's Fan, a Play about a Good Woman is a four-act comedy. It satirizes the morals of Victorian society, particularly marriage. The story concerns Lady Windermere, who discovers that her husband may be having an affair with another woman. She confronts her husband but he instead invites the other woman, Mrs. Erlynne, to his wife's birthday ball. Angered by her husband's unfaithfulness, Lady Windermere leaves her husband for another lover. Mrs. Erlynne attempts to persuade Lady Windermere to return to her husband. She sacrifices herself and her reputation in order to save Lady Windermere's marriage as Mrs. Erlynne is Lady Windermeres mother, who abandoned her family twenty years before the time the play is set. The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People Two young gentlemen living in 1890's England have taken to bending the truth in order to put some excitement into their lives. Jack Worthing has invented a brother, Earnest, whom he uses as an excuse to leave his dull country life behind to visit the ravishing Gwendolyn. Algy Montcrieff decided to take the name 'Earnest' when visiting Worthing's young and beautiful ward, Cecily. Things start to go awry when they end up together in country and their deceptions are discovered - threatening to spoil their romantic pursuits. The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only published novel by Oscar Wilde. Basil Hallward has painted a portrait of a handsome young man, Dorian Gray. Thrilled by the beauty of the painting, Dorian Gray wishes that he could always stay as young as his image in the picture. He gives up his soul to achieve this wish. His wish comes true. The portrait begins to show a corrupted man while he remains unchanged physically. Frightened of what is happening, Dorian hides the picture in a locked room. The years pass and Dorian leads an increasingly depraved life, but the years have no effect on him; he looks as young and beautiful as ever. One night, Basil arrives to question Dorian about rumors of his indulgences. Dorian does not deny his debauchery. He takes Basil to the portrait. In anger, Dorian blames Basil for his fate and stabs Basil to death. Dorian tries to carry on with his immoral life but he is tormented by feelings of guilt and decides that the only way he can make up for what he has done is to destroy the painting. Dorian tries to kill the man in the portrait. He picks up the knife that killed Basil Hallward and plunges it into the painting. His servants wake hearing a cry from inside the locked room, and passersby on the street fetch the police. The servants find Dorian's body, stabbed in the heart and suddenly aged, withered and horrible. It is only through the rings on his hand that the corpse can be identified. Beside him, however, the portrait has reverted to its original form. The Happy Prince and Other Tales is a collection of stories for children. It contains five stories, "The Happy Prince", "The Nightingale and the Rose", "The Selfish Giant", "The Devoted Friend", and "The Remarkable Rocket". It is most famous for its title story, "The Happy Prince". Its a story of a prince who by his good deeds won the heart of hundreds of people in his town. When he dies, people make his statue with heavy gold stones and jewels in his loving memory. The statue is gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, its eyes are made of two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glows on his swordhilt. Everybody likes the happy prince because they are glad that there is someone who is always happy. One day a little Swallow who was on the way to Egypt, wants a place to sleep comes to the statue. When he wants to sleep under the statue, he notices that the Happy Prince is crying. When the Swallow asks why he is crying he answers that he is sad because there are so many unhappy and poor people in the country he wanted to help. So the little Swallow stays the night with the happy prince and takes the red ruby from the Princes sword shield to poor people. The next day the Swallow wants to fly to Egypt but the prince asks him to stay and take the sapphires from his eye to the poor. That happens also the next day, but now the Happy Prince is blind and the Swallow wants to stay with him. Finally the winter comes and the little Swallow dies, but he comes in heaven together with the Happy Prince.

SHORT STORY A short story is a brief work of literature, usually written in narrative prose. At its most prototypical the short story features a small cast of named characters, and focuses on a self-contained incident with the intent of evoking a "single effect" or mood. As in a novel the elements of plot, characters, theme and setting are interwoven. A novel may go on for hundreds of pages, mix plots, introduce and eliminate characters, develop several themes and roam from one setting to another but a short story does not have the space to do so. CLASSIFICATION OF SHORT STORIES Short stories can be categorized in several different ways. It is possible that one short story may fit into several different categories. The plot short story: It is a narration telling a series of events that has a traditional pattern of structure. A conflict is identified at the beginning, the action bundles until it reaches a climax, and then the story either ends or gradually goes to the end. The action story: A type of plot story, the action story is dependent primarily upon what the characters do, not upon deep development of characters or theme. Most of the actions are physical. The plotless short story: In this type, there apparently is no action or very little action. The story appears to be mostly the description of a character or the creation of a mood. While this may seem like a useless type of short story in fact the author does not want to come to a firm conclusion. The plotless story may well be more realistic than any other type since as life cannot always be said to be organized. The episodic story: This type of story also referred to as the slice of life type. It consists of one main incident. What has happened may be told, hinted at, or not told at all. What happens after the incident is left up to the reader, although the author makes that clear. While the incident may not appear to be important, it may capture some aspect of life quite well and may even reveal more. The character story: This type of short story has, as its main purpose, the revealing of something about one main character; for this reason there may be very little plot. The character may be involved in only one episode, and he may be the only character in the tale. At the end of the story, the reader usually knows a good deal about the character. The thematic story: In this type, the authors main purpose is to develop one particular theme; the theme may attempt to reveal some great truth about life such as humanity is corrupted or a simple statement about life such as mothers are always worrying about their children. The psychological short story: Sometimes the character of the story fits into this category. Typically any action in the story takes place within the character-such as changes in feelings, states of mind, beliefs, desires, and attitudes. One leaves such a story knowing a great deal about what the character is like internally. ELEMENTS PLOT Plot, in general definition, is the sequence of incidents or events that composes the story. A story plot may include what a character says or thinks, as well as what s/he does. Yet it leaves out description and analysis and concentrates ordinarily on major happenings. On the other hand, plot, in a very common definition, is a connected chain of events. The Phases of a Plot A good plot is consisted of five phases. These are initial balance (exposition), rising action, climax, falling action and denouement (resolution). All these phases can be shown in Freytags Pyramid. Freytags Pyramid is a way to analyze a plot that consists of these five elements in an ascending and descending manner. Initial Balance (exposition): In exposition the setting, characters and the plot are introduced. In other words, the background information that is necessary to understand the story is provided. Exposition ends as the motion in the story starts and this motion leads to rising action. Rising Action: In rising action the conflict is developed and intensified. Conflict is a clash of actions, ideas, desires or wills. The protagonist meets with some obstacles that frustrate him to reach his goal. Conflict: Conflict is the tension or the struggle between characters or opposing forces in a plot. It is the conflict which provides the elements of interest in a play or a novel or a short story. There are four types of conflicts that may become an obstacle for the protagonist. Person against Self: An internal conflict of feelings. This may be physical, mental, emotional or moral. Person against Person: This is a typical protagonist verses antagonist scenario. The good guy and the bad guy have some kind of battle in this type of conflict. Person against Society: The protagonist battles against the larger organizations of the society, or a system of beliefs held by the society. Person against Nature: The protagonist is threatened by a component of nature. Climax: Climax is the highest dramatic tension of the story that the reader can find. In other words, climax is the turning point in the story which shows that nothing will be the same again. Falling Action: In falling action the tension subsides and the plot moves towards its conclusion. Namely, the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist is resolved with the protagonists victory or defeat against the antagonist. The falling action, then, is made up of the events that follow the climax and lead to the resolution.

Denouement (resolution): It is the final outcome of the story. The main event or the conflict unravels. In resolution loose ends are tied up, the fate and perhaps, the future of the characters is revealed. There are three types of plot structure other than the triangular plot structure mentioned within the illustration of Freytags pyramid. These are: Linear Plot Structure: There is no climax in this type of plot structure. It has an anti-climax in which the turning point does not take place and the protagonist relieves all the tension. Circular Plot Structure: In this type the action finishes where it is started. The same setting (place) and the same characters are the key words for a circular plot structure. Time is also important in this type. At the end of the story we should find ourselves in the same place where the action started. Open-Ended Structure: This type of plot structure does not offer a complete resolution and ends with a climax. This time we do not have falling action or resolution. The reader is left to imagine the fate of the characters. POINT OF VIEW Point of view determines through whose perspective the story is viewed. So to determine the point of view the reader should ask, Who tells the story? and How much is s/he allowed to know? and especially To what extend does the author look inside his/her characters and report their thoughts and feelings? The point of view informs us how the story is told and how we know about what happens in a story. The narrator of a story shapes the readers perception of reality in the story. The narrator may be a character in the story or some unknown voice outside of the plot. Narrative voice falls into two categories: third person voice (he or she) or first person voice (I, we).Briefly, stories are told from the point of view of a narrator and the narrator as a participant may appear in a major or minor character. When the story is narrated by using the first person I, it is clear that the narrator is there as a major character, protagonist, or one of the minor characters in the story. I. Participant A. As a major character B.As a minor character First Person: First person narrators embody the first person autobiographical (the character in the story tells the story, often about his or her own life, sometimes in a confessional tone); first person observer (the character in the story tells story, but this time s/he talks about the other characters. In other words the narrator is a reflector of the action); first person interior monologue (narrator speaks to us either in non-linear or stream-of-consciousness style or in a linear, focused or edited monologue). In the first person voice, the character refers to himself or herself as I in the story and addresses the reader as you, either explicitly or by implication. In the stories sometimes the narrator is a voice from outside; the narrator is not a participant. II. Non-Participant A. Omniscient (talks about all the characters) B. Selective Omniscient (talks about some of his characters) C. Objective (does not enter into the minds but objectively reports what he hears or sees.) When the narrator is non-participant, he or she does not appear in the story as a character. Rather the narrator is the viewer. When the narrator refers to characters as he, she or they, it is clear that the narrator is non-participant, and then it is true to say that the storys point of view is third person. Third person: It is the voice outside the action who tells the story. Third person narrator includes: The omniscient: In this type, the narrator is all-knowing and is able to tell us what each character is thinking using the third person. The narrator in such circumstances can direct the readers attention to the inner thoughts of any of the characters and controls the sources of information. The narrator, usually assumed to be the author, tells the story. He or she can move at will through time, across space, and into the mind of each character to tell us anything we need to know to understand the story. Limited omniscient: Although the author is still the narrator, he or she gives up total omniscience and limits the point of view to the experience and perception of one character in the story. Instead of knowing everything, the reader knows only what this one character knows or is able to learn.The author tells the story in the third person, but s/he tells it from the view point of one character in the story. The author places him/herself at the elbow of one character in the story. This way the author looks at the events of the story through his/her eyes and through his/her mind. The author moves inside and outside this character. Yet never leaves this character side. The writer tells us what this character sees and hears and what s/he thinks and feels. The writer knows everything about this character, more than the character knows about him/herself. However, the author shows no knowledge about what the other characters are thinking. The chosen character may be a minor or major character, participant or an observer. Objective: This is the most drastic third person point of view, the story is told simply by no one. The narrator disappears into a kind of roving sound camera. This camera can record only what is seen and heard. There is no way of entering into the minds of the characters. The reader is permitted to view the work only externally, from the outside. In other words, the reader is Plot Manipulation: A situation in which an author gives the plot a twist or turn unjustified by preceding action or by the characters involved.

placed in the position of a spectator at a movie or a play. The readers see what the characters do and hear only what they say. So this point of view is sometimes called Dramatic Point of View. Here the author is not there to explain anything about the events or the characters.

CHARACTERS The simplest definition of a character is an imagined person who inhabits a story. Character refers to a person or an animal in fables that has a part in the story and has motivation to talk and act and do something. Characterization is the introduction, presentation and description of characters in a work of fiction. Moreover, characterization is the creation of imaginary persons so that they seem lifelike. There are three fundamental methods of characterization in fiction. 1. The explicit presentation by the author of the character. This may be done through the authors own description or by means of the comment, thoughts, feelings of another characters concerning the character in question. 2. The presentation of character in action with little or no explicit comment by the author. 3. The representation from within a character of the impact of actions and emotions upon his inner self. This type of characterization is best represented by the stream of consciences novel where through interior monologues, the subconscious or unconscious mind of the character is revealed. Character Types Flat character: It is the character type that has one or two traits- one dimensional. In other words this type of character is built around a single idea or quality and is presented with much individual detail, and therefore can be summarized in a single sentence. Round character: It is the character type who is many sided, complex, has multiple qualities and unique. To describe these characters is not easy. This character type may require an essay for full analysis. Stock character: (A stereotype character) a stock character is a familiar figure that appears regularly in certain literary forms. Among the most familiar stock character of contemporary fiction and cinema are the tough (often insensitive) realistic and cynical detective and the absent minded professor. Static character: This character type remains the same from the beginning of the plot to the end. Dynamic character (developing): The character undergoes a permanent change, changes and develops in the story. The character grows as a person, learns a vital lesson, or becomes something else. This change must be Within the possibilities of the character Sufficiently motivated allowed sufficient time for change Protagonist: The most important character in a story, play or other literary work. The terms principal character and central character are often used synonymously. It is the central character, sympathetic or unsympathetic or a hero and is considered dynamic. Antagonist: The rival of a protagonist, the major character in opposition to the central one. Anti-hero: A central character who does not conform to the patterns of the hero of the old fashioned kind (e. g. Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man). An anti-hero is not necessary capable of heroic deeds. Confidant: (female- Confidante) Someone to whom the secrets, especially love affairs are confided. A foil: It is the character who serves to bring out the qualities of another. A foil makes character seem better, more prominent or different in an important way. Fool: A familiar character in drama who speaks wisely under the appearance of folly. In dramatic use of fools are often used as vehicles for social satire. SETTING AND ATMOSPHERE Setting is the locale in which the readers find the characters. In other words it is the imagery world of a fiction into which the readers are invited to meet the characters and see the location and the place of the fiction. Description of setting is a way to establish the atmosphere, mood or tone of the story. There may be many different settings during the course of the story. The setting of the environment, not mere geography, provides an atmosphere, an air that the characters breathe, and a world in which they move. Narrowly speaking, the setting is the physical surroundings, the furniture, the architecture, the landscape, the climate, and there are characters that are associated with them. Setting in a story means the time and place where the events of the story occur. Setting can be divided into two categories; place and time. Place: Dramatic Place: This is exactly where the story takes place. For example, a living room, a house or a bar Geographical Place: In which country, which city, which town, etc the story takes place. Time: Dramatic Time: How long the story takes place. Maybe two hours, may be a year. Historical Time: The real time, or the exact time. For example, in 1986, in April, in the summer etc. TONE AND STYLE Style in a story refers to the language codes used to build the story. To create a style, a fiction writer can conduct diction, sentence structure, phrasing, dialogue, and other aspects of language. The time period in which a fiction is written often influences its style. For example, Nathaniel Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown, was written in the nineteenth century and the writer uses diction and sentence structure that might seem somewhat artistic and formal to contemporary readers: With this excellent resolve for the future, Goodman Brown felt himself justified in making more haste on his present evil purpose.

Authors style can create a communicative effect with the readers, and this effect can be named as the storys voice. In order to identify the storys voice, the readers should ask themselves, What kind of person does the narrator sound like?A storys voice may be serious and straightforward, richly comic, or dramatically tense. A storys style and voice contribute to its tone. Tone refers to the attitude that the story creates toward its subject matter. Tone in writing is the attitude that the writer conveys to the reader. Its designed to create a specific response or emotion in the reader. Tone creates a personality that can either engage or repel readers. For example, a story may convey an earnest and sincere tone toward its characters and events, signaling to the reader that the material is to be taken in a serious, dramatic way. On the other hand, an attitude of humor or sarcasm may be created through subtle language and content manipulation. THEME Theme of a work is its central or dominating idea. In other words it is the idea that holds the story together, such as a comment about society, human nature, or the human condition. It is the controlling idea of the story. It is a generalization about life arising from details or specifics of the work itself. Theme is the unifying generalization about life stated or implied by the story. Not all stories have themes. The purpose of a horror story is to thrill the reader; the purpose of an adventure story is to take the reader to exiting places; the purpose of a murder mystery may be simply pose a problem for the reader and to try to solve the murder; the purpose of some stories is to entertain the reader and to make them laugh or surprise them at the end. Theme exist only When an author has seriously attempted to record life accurately or to reveal some truth about it When s/he has mechanically introduced some concept or theory of life into it that s/he uses as a unifying element and that his/her story is meant to illustrate. Theme can be; A revelation of human character may be stated briefly or at great length A theme is not the moral of the story. When analyzing the theme of a story, the readers should consider some important items, such as; A theme must be expressible in the form of a statement - not children but being a child sometimes mean freedom in thoughts. A theme must be stated as a generalization about life; names of characters or specific situations in the plot are not to be used when stating a theme. A theme is the central and unifying concept of the story. It must adhere to the following requirements: 1. It must account for all the major details of the story. 2. It must not be contradicted by any detail of the story. 3. It must not rely on supposed facts - facts not actually stated or clearly implied by the story. There is no one way of stating the theme of a story. Any statement that reduces a theme to some familiar saying, aphorism, or clich should be avoided. Do not use all roads lead to Rome, you cant please everyone, seeing is believing and so on. SYMBOLS Symbolism in short story deals with the abstract layer of meaning. More specifically, a symbol is something that stands for or suggests something else by reason of relationship, association, convention, or accidental resemblance. In literature, symbols are often used deliberately to suggest and reinforce meaning, to help to organize and unify the whole work. In short story, symbols are more often used since a short story should be economical in language. Some symbols have associations shared universally (for example, water for fertility). Symbols can be personal to the writer; in that case the reader can distinguish the symbols by reading multiple works of the author. Literary symbols can have multiple possible meanings. Symbols, especially complex ones, may be ambiguous or uncertain. Symbols acquire their full meaning in the context of a story or other literary work. It is possible to say that names, objects or actions can be used as symbols. IRONY

This term always includes some elements of saying or implying the reverse of, the literal meaning of the words used. There are three types of ironies in literary works. Verbal irony: In this type of irony one meaning is stated and a different meaning is intended. Situational irony: Inconsistency between appearance and reality, or between expectation and fulfillment, or between what is and what would seem appropriate. Dramatic irony: depends on the structure of a literary work more than on the actual words of the characters. Dramatic irony is a plot device according to which; a. The spectators know more than the protagonist. b. The character reacts in a way contrary to that which is appropriate or wise. c. Characters or situations are compared or contrasted for ironic effects d. There is a marked contrast between what the character understands about his acts and what the play demonstrates about them.

MODERN PERIOD (1901-1945) HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The 20th Century in Britain began with the death of Queen Victoria in1901, she was succeeded by her son Edward VII (1901-1910) and this marked the beginning of the Edwardian Period of peace and prosperity; however, this was not too last for long, Edward died in1910 and his successor George V (1910-1936) saw the outbreak of the World War I which lasted 1914 to 1918 and which cost Britain a great deal, consequently the 1920's were a period of Great Depression, both social and economical which culminated in the Wall Street Crash in the USA in 1929 and let to worldwide economic chaos. The 1930's were not only a period of economic tension, but also vast political changes, Stalin came to power in Russia and Germany saw the development of Nazism with the Hitler. These two factors were also in part responsible for the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). This war influenced many English intellectuals who went to Spain to fight for the republicans and to demonstrate their opposition to the Fascism. In 1939 World War II broke out and it lasted six years. Despite the victory Britain was almost economically ruined. LITERATURE Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. Modernism is characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional styles of poetry and verse. Modernists experimented with literary form and expression, adhering to the modernist maxim to Make it new. The Modernist Period in English literature was first and foremost a reaction against the Victorian culture, aesthetic, and conservatism which had prevailed for most of the nineteenth century. Artists and writers tended towards the creation of avantgarde art, conveying ideas of experiment and revolt against tradition. The movement was influenced by the ideas of Charles Darwin (On Origin of Species) , Ernst Mach, Henri Bergson, Friedrich Nietzsche , James G. Frazer, Karl Marx (Das Kapital), and the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud, among others. Important literary precursors of modernism, were: Fyodor Dostoevsky (Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov); Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass), Charles Baudelaire (Les Fleurs du mal), Rimbaud (Illuminations); August Strindberg especially his later plays. Modernism also borrowed techniques from other art forms such as music and visual arts; hence this led to appearance of trends such as impressionism, cubism, symbolism, Dadaism, surrealism, futurism and expressionism. Impressionism in literature was a tendency which borrowed its theoretical foundations from French painting at the time. Impressionism concentrated on representing fleeting mental impressions of the character. Authors such as Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, and Joseph Conrad have written works that are Impressionistic in the way that they describe, rather than interpret, the impressions, sensations and emotions that constitute a character's mental life. Symbolism was largely a reaction against naturalism and realism. Symbolists believed that art should represent absolute truths that could only be described indirectly. They aimed at suggestion rather than direct commentary evoking subjective moods through the use of symbols. E.M. Forster frequently uses symbolism in his novels to suggest subjective opinions rather than direct statement. Dadaism (or Dada) was born out of negative reaction to the horrors of World War I. It was also a direct protest against bourgeois society, religion and art. Dada rejected reason and logic, prizing nonsense, irrationality and intuition. Cubism was a style in art that emphasized flat, two- dimensional reality. According to cubists, artists were not to represent reality but create new realities depicting radically fragmented objects whose several dimensions were seen simultaneously. Surrealism was influenced by Dadaism and symbolism as well as Freuds theories of psychology. According to surrealists art and literature should reach beyond the real and obliterate the boundaries between the real and unreal, rational and irrational. Surrealism led dreams and hallucinations in literary works. Expressionism was also a reaction against realism and naturalism. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. Expressionist artists sought to express meaning or emotional experience rather than physical reality. So, literature was to express feelings and emotions rather than describe reality. Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy. It emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane and the industrial city.

 This era heralded the loss of the hero in literature. One of the major themes was technologies destruction of society. Poetry began to be written in a style called free verse. Many novelists began writing in a style call stream of consciousness. Many works from this time period contain "epiphanies" (a sudden realization of great truth). Some Victorian writers such as Thomas Hardy, H.G. Wells, and Rudyard Kipling continued writing in Modern Period. As a result, they are also accepted as modern period writers. POETRY W.B YEATS William Butler Yeats (1865 1939) was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. He was acclaimed the greatest poet since Wordsworth, led the Irish Literary Renaissance of the 20th century in its turning to Irish myths and folkways for inspiration. Yeats founded the Abbey Theatre, where he served as its chief during its early years. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature as the first Irishman so honored. Yeats is generally considered one of the few writers who completed their greatest works after being awarded the Nobel Prize; such works include The Tower and The Winding Stair and Other Poems. Yeats poetry falls into three distinctive periods: The Aesthetic Period: Yeats early poetry, influenced by Pre- Raphaelites and the French symbolists. The Wanderings of Oisin is an epic poem. This narrative poem takes the form of a dialogue between the aged Irish hero Oisin and St. Patrick, the man traditionally responsible for converting Ireland to Christianity. Poems use the symbol of the rose in The Rose upon the Rood of Time, The Rose of Peace and The Rose of the World. The Wind among the Reeds is autobiographical, centering on his love for Maud Gonne. In the Seven Woods has poems arising from his despair at Mauds marriage. The Mask Period: Now an important public figure, Yeats Began writing poem about the realities of the Irish problems. The Green Helmet and The Other Poems continue to lament the loss of Maud Gonne. The Wild Swans of Coole moves to a complex cosmological system. The principal themes are life and death. The Prophetic Poet: In his later years Yeats had a remarkable burst of creative energy that resulted in his best poetry, which was complex, yet realistic and humorous. The Tower, written out of the fear that the world is approaching the end, contains some of his best known poems: Sailing to Byzantium, Leda and the Swan, Among School Children and Crazy Jane. The Countess Cathleen is a verse drama by Yeats. It caused a sensation when first performed in Dublin in 1899 the political allegory in which the countess sells her soul to the devil in order to save the starving people incensed some nationalists, who objected to the devil being involved in the saving of the Irish. The Irish Literary Revival (also called the Irish Literary Renaissance, nicknamed the Celtic Twilight) was a flowering of Irish literary talent in the late 19th and early 20th century. The literary movement was associated with a revival of interest in Ireland's Gaelic heritage and the growth of Irish nationalism from the middle of the 19th century. T.S. ELIOT Thomas Stearns Eliot was an American publisher, playwright, literary and social critic and the most important English-language poet of the 20th century Although he was born an American, he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 (at age 25) and was naturalized as a British subject . The poem that made his name, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is seen as a masterpiece of the Modernist movement, and was followed by some of the best-known poems in the English language, including Gerontion, The Waste Land, The Hollow Men, Ash Wednesday, and Four Quartets He is also known for his seven plays, particularly Murder in the Cathedral. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. Prufrock and Other Observations is Eliots first volume, attacks the trivialities of modern life. It includes The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Sweeny among the Nightingales. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock presents a dramatic interior monologue. It is about an intellectual trapped in social and sexual failure. With its weariness, regret, embarrassment, longing, emasculation, sexual frustration, sense of decay, and awareness of mortality, "Prufrock" has become one of the most recognized voices in modern literature. The Waste Land is divided into five parts: The Burial of the Dead, A Game of Chess, The Fire Sermon, Death by Water, and What the Thunder Said.

George William RUSSEL George William Russell started his literary career encouraged by Yeats. In 1894 he published Homeward: Songs by the way, a volume of mystical verses. His other volumes of poetry were The Divine Vision, the Gods of War, the Interpreters, Midsummer Eve. His best known poem is The House of the Titans, a long poem on Celtic mythology. Dame Edith SITWELL Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell published her first poem The Drowned Suns in the Daily Mirror .She edited Wheels, an annual poetic anthology compiled with her brothersa literary collaboration generally called "the Sitwells". Her poetry was influence by the paintings of Picasso and the Cubists. Gold Coast Customs, a poem about the artificiality of human behavior and the barbarism that lies beneath the surface. Poems in Facade reveal a fantastic dream-world. In The Shadow of Cain, she hopes humankind will rise from such inhumane acts as the bombing of Hiroshima to higher planes of love and religious faith. Her only novel, I Live under a Black Sun was based on the life of Jonathan Swift. Dylan THOMAS Dylan Marlais Thomass poetry, which is full of surrealistic imagery, had a tremendous influence on the younger poets of his generation. His volumes of poetry include Eighteen Poems, Twenty-Five Poems, The Map of Love, New Poems, Deaths and Entrances, Twenty-Six Poems, In Country Sleep and Collected Poems. The Force that Through the Green Fuse Drives The Flower, The Hand that Signed the Paper , Death Shall Have No Dominion, Do not Go Gentle into That Good Night are his best-known poems.
GEORGIAN POETRY The poetry which is termed Georgian takes its name from the King George V who reigned from 1910 to 1936. The Georgian poets were those whose works appeared in a series of five anthologies named Georgian Poetry. Rupert Brooke, John Drinkwater, Harold Monro, Wilfred Wilson Gibson and Edward Marsh were among the Georgian poets. Five volumes appeared between 1912 and 1922 containing the poetry not only the original founding poets, but also poems by William H. Davies, Walter de la Mare, D.H. Lawrence, John Masefield, Robert Graves, James Elroy Flecker and others. Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot later severely criticized these volumes, but the reputations of many of the individual poets have remained high. Wilfred Wilson Gibson: His experiences of the World War I are recorded in works such as Breakfast Walter de la Mare: He is probably best remembered for his works for children and for his poem "The Listeners". He also wrote some subtle psychological horror stories, amongst them "Seaton's Aunt" and "Out of the Deep". William Henry Davies: The Souls Destroyer and Other Poems, Songs of Joy and Raptures are his best known poetry collections. He also published a prose work ; The Autobiography of a Super- Tramp Harold Edward Monro was chiefly remembered for his Poetry Bookshop. He founded and edited Poetry Review. John Drinkwater: He was a poet and a dramatist. His first volume of poetry, Poems, appeared in 1903. He also wrote plays including Abraham Lincoln, Oliver Cromwell, Mary Stuart and a comedy Bird in Han d. John Edward Masefield John was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until his death in 1967. He is remembered as the author of the classic children's novels The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights, and poems, including "The Everlasting Mercy" and Sea-Fever. Edward Thomas: His poetry collections include; Poems, Six Poems, Collected Poems and Last Poems. FIRST WORLD WAR POETRY War poetry maintained the formal patterns of Georgian poetry but concentrated on firsthand experiences of the soldiers. Poetry was written in order to express a sense of honor and to celebrate the glories of war. Rupert Chawner Brooke was known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War. Brooke also belonged to literary group; the Georgian Poets. The Soldier and the Hill are his best known poems. Siegfried Sassoon: His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirized the patriotic pretensions of those who were responsible for war. His published works include The Old Huntsman, Counter-Attack, Satirical Poems, the Hearts Journey, Vigils and Collected Poems. Wilfred Owen: His shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was heavily influenced by his friend Siegfried Sassoon. Among his best-known works most of which were published posthumously are "Dulce et Decorum Est", "Insensibility", "Anthem for Doomed Youth", "Futility" and "Strange Meeting". Robert Graves: His Poem such as The Beach, Recalling War, Warning to Children and The Shot recall the terrifying experiences of the trenches. He also wrote an autobiography Goodbye to All that. A. E Housman (Alfred Edward Housman): He is best known for his cycle of poems A Shropshire Lad. His best-known poems include Loveliest of Trees in which the poet realizes that he has only fifty spring seasons left and must seize the day in its natural beauty. Another is To an Athlete Dying Young, in which the hero dies at a peak moment, preserving his triumph.

IMAGIST POETS Imagism was a movement in early 20th-century poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It has been described as the most influential movement in English poetry since the activity of the Pre-Raphaelites. As a poetic style it gave Modernism its start in the early 20th century, and is considered to be the first organized Modernist literary movement in the English language. The Imagists rejected the sentiment and discursiveness typical of much Romantic and Victorian poetry, in contrast to their contemporaries, the Georgian poets, who were generally content to work within that tradition. Imagist poets first anthology Des Imagistes was edited by the American exile Ezra Pound. One of the chief exponents of imagism was Ezra Pound, an American poet who became Familiar with ancient Chinese poetry. Pound combined this influence with Japanese haiku tradition to help him introduce his own conception according to imagist principles. In the early years of the 20th century the Imagist poets adopted the form as an ideal poem. Haiku is a Japanese lyric verse form having traditionally three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables; feelings are suggested by images rather than directly stated. The imagist poets include Richard Aldington, Hilda Doolittle, Amy Lowell, and Charlotte Mew.

THE THIRTIES POETS The Auden Group is the name given to a group of British and Irish writers active in the 1930s that included W. H. Auden, Louis MacNeice, Cecil Day-Lewis, Stephen Spender, Christopher Isherwood, and sometimes Edward Upward and Rex Warner. They were sometimes called simply the Thirties poets. W.H. AUDEN Wystan Hugh Auden was born in England, later he became an American citizen. He greatly influenced the succeeding generation of poets, presenting them with variety of models as he progressed from didactic, satiric poems of his youth to the complexity of his later work. British Period: Auden wrote poem satirizing the middle-class. Poems contain the forceful poem, XVI about the dissolution of modern culture. Look, Stranger is the most Marxist of Audens collection of poetry. Letters from Iceland written with Louis MacNeice contains the witty Letter to Lord Byron. Another Time contains his majestic tribute To Yeats, In Memory of W.B. Yeats and his poem on the beginning of the World War II September, 1939. American Period: the communist ideal is replaced by the position of the Christian intellectual. The Double Man, For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio and The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue are his collections of poems in this period. Louis MACNEICE Frederick Louis MacNeice was a poet and playwright. He was associated with the Thirties Group but was less politically involved than they were. His works include Poems, The Earth Compels, Autumn Journal, Plant and Phantom. One of his most famous Poems is Snow. Cecil Day-LEWIS Cecil Day-Lewis was a poet and the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake and his autobiography The Buried Day. His poetry collections include Transitional Poem, From Feathers to Iron, Collected Poems, A Time to Dance and Other Poem, Overtures to Death, Short Is the Time, Collected Poems, Pegasus and Other Poems, The Whispering Roots and Other Poems and The Complete Poems of C.Day-Lewis. Stephen SPENDER Sir Stephen Harold Spender was an English poet, novelist and essayist who concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle in his work. He has been called the Modern Shelley both for his liberalism and lyricism. Much of Spenders best poetry contemplates the difficulties of the machine age. His works includes Collected Poems, a verse play Trial of a Judge, and political and literary studies such as Forward from Liberalism, Life and the Poet, The Destructive Element, The Creative Element and The Struggle of the Modern.

NOVEL

Influenced by the works of William James (an American philosopher and psychologist) and Henri Bergson (a major French philosopher), novelists developed stream of consciousness technique. The term "Stream of Consciousness" was coined by William James. Stream of consciousness is a literary technique that presents the thoughts and feelings of a character as they occur. This technique was intended to give the reader a direct insight into a characters mind. Stream of consciousness is usually presented through the device of interior monologue. Stream of consciousness had already been practiced by Laurence Sterne in Tristram Shandy, but writers like James Joyce and Virginia Woolf perfected it. John GLASWORTHY John Galsworthy was a novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932. The Forsyte Saga is a series of three novels which trace the story of a typically English upper-class family from Victorian days to the nineteen-twenties presenting their reactions to great events including World War I, the growth of Socialism, the General Strike of 1926. His plays, The Silver Box, Strife and Justice, address social issues in a moral spirit. Dorothy RICHARDSON Dorothy Miller Richardson was an author and journalist. In 1915 Richardson published her first novel Pointed Roofs, the first complete stream of consciousness novel published in English. Pointed Roofs is the first of thirteen books comprising Pilgrimage, a multivolume novel to which Richardson devoted herself until her death. Pilgrimage follows the life of its protagonist, Miriam Henderson, from March 1893 through the autumn of 1912, and Pointed Roofs covers the first four months of this time period. Ivy Compton BURNETT Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett was a novelist whose stories are told within the strict conventions of her own style. The plots often concerned with crime and violence. Her first novel Dolores was followed by Pastors and Masters. Subsequent novels included Brother And Sister, Men and Wives, More Women than Men, Mother and Son, The Mighty and Their Fall, Parents and Children, A House and Its Head and others. Compton-Burnett is creator of what is commonly known as the play-novel, a novel which employs many of the conventions of the Greek tragedy and also Shakespearian drama, which emphasize dialogue, something between a novel and a play. Alfred Edgar COPPARD Alfred Edgar Coppard was a poet and writer, noted for his influence on the short story form. He wrote more than 100 short stories in seventeen volumes. Adam and Eve and Pinch Me, Ugly Anna, Fearful Pleasures, Lucy in Her Pink Coat, Emergency Exit, and The Dark Eyed Lady are some of his short story collections. Evelyn WAUGH Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh was a writer of novels, biographies and travel books. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer. His best-known works include his early satires Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies and A Handful of Dust, his novel Brideshead Revisited and his trilogy of Second World War novels collectively known as Sword of Honor. Waugh is widely recognized as one of the great prose stylists of the 20th century. Elizabeth BOWEN Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen was a novelist and short story writer. Among her novels are The Hotel, The Last September, Friends and Relations, To the North, The House in Paris, The Death of the Heart, The Heat of the Day, A World of Love, The Little Girls and Eva Trout. The Death of the Heart is considered her best novel. Bowen also published volumes of short stories including Encounters, The Cat Jumps and The Demon Lover. The Death of the Heart Portia Quayne is orphaned, and at the age of 16 she must go live with her relatives, Anna and Thomas Quayne. Portia keeps a diary detailing the lives of those around her, particularly Anna. Anna finds and reads Portia's diary. She is incensed by the idea of the girl observing her every move, and rages about the girl to her friend St. Quentin. Portia's love interest is a man named Eddie. Eddie works at Thomas's advertising agency. He also has a flirtatious relationship with Anna. St. Quentin tells Portia that Anna has been reading her diary. As a result of this Portia runs away. She first goes to Eddie who becomes overwhelmed by her and sends her away telling her that he is Anna's lover. Portia then takes refuge with an acquaintance of Anna's named Major Brutt. Portia goes to Major Brutt's hotel and begs him to run away with her and to marry her. Major Brutt then calls Thomas and Anna to tell them where Portia is. The novel ends with Thomas and Anna sending their maid, Matchett, to Major Brutt's hotel in order to fetch Portia.

Virginia WOOLF

Adeline Virginia Woolf was one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth century. During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a central figure in the influential Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals. Woolf is considered a major innovator in the English language. In her works she experimented with stream of consciousness and the underlying psychological as well as emotional motives of characters. Influenced by James Joyce and Marcel Proust, she experimented with fiction that ignored plot and discarded conventional characterization. Her first novel The Voyage Out and second novel Night and Day are more conventional in form and narration when compared to her later novels. Jacob's Room is Woolfs first stream of consciousness novel. It is a departure from her earlier two novels, The Voyage Out and Night and Day. The novel has no plot. It centers, in a very ambiguous way, on the life story of the protagonist Jacob Flanders. Set in pre-war England, the novel begins in Jacob's childhood and follows him through college at Cambridge, and then into adulthood. The story is told mainly through the perspectives of the women in Jacob's life, including the repressed upper-middle-class Clara Durrant and the uninhibited young art student Florinda, with whom he has an affair. His time in London forms a large part of the story, though towards the end of the novel he travels to Italy, then Greece. We then learn that he has been killed in World War I. Mrs. Dalloway details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a fictional high-society woman in post-World War I England. Clarissa Dalloway goes around London in the morning, getting ready to host a party that evening. The nice day reminds her of her youth spent in the countryside in Bourton and makes her wonder about her choice of husband. Septimus Warren Smith, a veteran of World War I suffering from deferred traumatic stress, spends his day in the park with his Italian-born wife Lucrezia. Septimus is visited by frequent hallucinations, mostly concerning his dear friend Evans who died in the war. Later that day, after he is prescribed involuntary commitment to a psychiatric hospital, he commits suicide by jumping out of a window. Clarissa's party in the evening is a slow success. It is attended by most of the characters she has met in the book, including people from her past. She hears about Septimus' suicide at the party and gradually comes to admire the act of this stranger, which she considers an effort to preserve the purity of his happiness. To the Lighthouse is considered Woolfs masterpiece. The novel centers on the Ramsays and their visits to the Isle of Sky in Scotland. Its set at the Ramsays summer home, where the Ramsays and their eight children are entertaining a number of friends and colleagues. The novel begins with James Ramsay, age six, wanting to go to the Lighthouse thats across the bay from the Ramsays summer home. His mother, Mrs. Ramsay, holds out hope that the weather will be good tomorrow so they can go to the Lighthouse, but Mr. Ramsay is adamant that the weather will be awful. Lily Briscoe, a family friend and an uncertain painter attempts a portrayal of Mrs. Ramsay. Ten years pass, during which the four-year First World War begins and ends. One of the sons of Mrs. And Mr. Ramsays dies in the war. Mrs. Ramsay passes away and one of her children also dies from complications of childbirth. The family turns back to the summer house. This time they go to the Lighthouse and Lily finishes her painting. The Waves is Virginia Woolf's most experimental novel. It consists of soliloquies spoken by the book's six characters: Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny, and Louis. Also important is Percival, the seventh character, though readers never hear him speak through his own voice. The novel gradually unfolds the consciousness of six characters from youth to age as they search for identity in a machine- age world. Flush: A Biography is a biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning from the viewpoint of her dog. Orlando is the story of a Renaissance English boy being transformed into a woman. It is suggested that the novel is an allegory of Englands change from a masculine-dominated society to a more feminine one. A Room of One's Own is an extended essay. The essay is generally seen as a feminist text. The title of the essay comes from Woolf's conception that, a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction. Woolf notes that women have been kept from writing because of their relative poverty, and financial freedom will bring women the freedom to write. The Bloomsbury Group or Bloomsbury Set was an influential group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists, the best known members of which included Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strachey. This loose collective of friends and relatives lived, worked or studied together near Bloomsbury, London, during the first half of the 20th century. They shared similar views on art and literature, asserting that the most important thing in this world were love, enjoyment of aesthetic experience and pursuit of knowledge.

James JOYCE James Joyce was born in Dublin. He left for Europe in 1904 and spent the rest of his life writing about Dublin. He was a remarkable combination of realist and symbolist, was a brilliant and rebellious experimenter with the form and language of the novel. He was the master of stream of consciousness. Joyce is best known for his novel Ulysses. Other major works are the short-story collection Dubliners (The Boarding House, Araby, After the Race, Eveline, Two Gallants, A Little Cloud, An Encounter, Clay, Counterparts, Grace, A Mother, The Sisters and A Painful Case) and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Finnegans Wake. Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce. They form a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a semi-autobiographical novel written in Joyce's characteristic free indirect speech style. It is a major example of the Knstlerroman (an artist's Bildungsroman) in English literature. Joyce's novel traces the intellectual and philosophical awakening of young Stephen Dedalus as he begins to question and rebel against the Catholic and Irish conventions with which he has been raised. He finally leaves for abroad to pursue his ambitions as an artist. The work is an early example of some of Joyce's modernist techniques that would later be represented in a more developed manner by Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. The novel, which has had a huge influence on novelists across the world, was ranked by Modern Library as the third greatest English-language novel of the 20th century. A Knstlerroman, meaning "artist's novel" in German, is a narrative about an artist's growth to maturity. It may be classified as a specific sub-genre of Bildungsroman. Ulysses is one of the most important works of Modernist literature; it has been called "a demonstration and summation of the entire movement". Ulysses chronicles the passage of Leopold Bloom through Dublin during an ordinary day (16 June 1904: the day Joyce met his wife Nora). Ulysses is the Latinized name of Odysseus, the hero of Homer's poem Odyssey, and the novel establishes a series of parallels between its characters and events and those of the poem. (The modern Ulysses is the Jew Leopold Bloom, a Dublin travelling salesman; Penelope is his unfaithful wife Molly and Telemachus his friend the student Stephen Dedalus, who reminds Bloom of his dead son). The inner thoughts of each character are revealed through stream of consciousness as they pass through Dublin. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Ulysses first on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Edward Morgan FORSTER Edward Morgan Forster was a novelist, short story writer, and essayist. He is known best for his ironic and wellplotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society. He is more traditional in his approach to novel writing. His first novel is Where Angels Fear to tread. Forsters next two novels The Longest Journey and The Room with a View are largely autobiographical. The Longest Journey is a bildungsroman. Frederick (Rickie) Elliot is a student at Cambridge and almost alone in the world. He has finally attained some degree of contentment in his life after a rather unhappy childhood. Born with a lame left foot that kept him from most of the normal activities of children, he has grown up virtually without friends. He is full with the hope of becoming a writer. He marries Agnes Pembroke. He finds his half-brother Stephen. His marriage becomes loveless and he dies suddenly when he tries to pull a drunken Stephen off some railroad tracks. A Room with a View The book explores the young Lucy Honeychurch's trip to Italy with her cousin and the choice she must make between the free-thinking George Emerson and fianc Cecil Vyse. George's father Mr. Emerson quotes thinkers who influenced Forster. Howards End is considered by some to be Forster's masterpiece. It tells a story of social and familial relations in turnof-the-century England. The book is about three families in England at the beginning of the 20th century: the Wilcoxes, rich capitalists with a fortune made in the Colonies; the half-German Schlegel siblings (Margaret, Tibby, and Helen), who have much in common with the real-life Bloomsbury Group; and the Basts, a struggling couple in the lower-middle class. The Schlegel sisters try to help the poor Basts and try to make the Wilcoxes less prejudiced. A Passage to India A young British schoolmistress, Adela Quested accuses Aziz (an Indian doctor) of attempting to assault her. Aziz's trial, and its run-up and aftermath, bring out all the racial tensions and prejudices between indigenous Indians and the British colonists who rule India. She admits that she was mistaken and the case is dismissed.

Katherine MANSFIELD Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp Murry was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. She contributed to the short story genre what Virginia Woolf gave to the novel, using the stream of consciousness technique to follow the wanderings of the human mind. Her best known short story collections are Bliss and Other Stories, the Garden Party and the Other Stories and Something Childish. Her best known short stories are The Fly, The Garden Party, The Child Who Was Tired, Bliss, Her First Ball, Miss Brill, and The Dolls House. Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) Hector Hugh Munro, better known by the pen name Saki, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirized Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story. Beside his short stories, he wrote a full-length play, The Watched Pot, in collaboration with Charles Maude; two oneact plays; a historical study, The Rise of the Russian Empire, the only book published under his own name; a short novel, The Unbearable Bassington; the episodic The Westminster Alice (a Parliamentary parody of Alice in Wonderland), and When William Came, subtitled A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns, a fantasy about a future German invasion of Britain. His favorite device is to use animals as agents of revenge upon humans. The Interlopers, Gabriel-Ernest, The Toys of Peace, The Storyteller, The Open Window, Tobermory and Sredni Vashtar are some of his short stories. Arnold BENNETT Arnold Bennett, influenced by Balzac and Flaubert, he Wrote naturalistic novels about narrow- minded, lowermiddle class, interested only in money. His best- known works are The Old Wifes Tale and The Clay hanger Trilogy. The Old Wives' Tale deals with the lives of two very different sisters, Constance and Sophia Baines. The book is broken up into four parts. The first section, details the adolescence of both Sophia and Constance, and their life in their father's shop and house. The father is ill and bedridden, and the main adult in their life is Mrs. Baines, their mother. By the end of the first book, Sophia has eloped with a travelling salesman. Constance meanwhile marries Mr. Povey, who works in the shop. The second part, details the life of Constance from that point forward up until the time she is reunited with her sister in old age, including the death of her husband, Mr. Povey, and her concerns about the character and behavior of her son. The third part carries forward the story of what happened to Sophia after her elopement. Abandoned by her husband in Paris, Sophia eventually becomes the owner of a successful pensione. The final part details how the two sisters are eventually reunited. Joseph CONRAD Joseph Conrad was a Polish author who wrote in English after settling in England. He was granted British nationality in 1886. Conrad is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English though he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties. An Outcast of the Islands, Almayer's Folly, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, Typhoon, Nostromo, Under Western Eyes, The Secret Agent, Chance, Victory, The Shadow Line, and The Rover are some of his novels. Heart of Darkness is a short novel. It is a story within a story. Five men on board the Nellie are anchored in the Thames Estuary at dusk. One of them narrates what happened aboard but mainly retells the story told by another crew member, Charlie Marlow, about his journey to Africa and up the River Congo as a representative of a trading company. Marlow shares his experiences as a steamboat captain transporting ivory downriver but particularly focuses on the lack of efficiency of white trading agents and how they mistreated the natives. However, the centre of his story is his search for the mysterious Kurtz, an ivory trader, who gathers huge quantities of ivory through very peculiar and secret methods and who has raised himself as the god of the tribes surrounding his station. It is through Kurtz that Marlow discovers the various forms of darkness in Congo. Ford Madox FORD Ford Madox Ford was a novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals, The English Review and The Transatlantic Review, were instrumental in the development of early 20th-century English literature. He is now remembered best for his publications The Good Soldier , the Parade's End tetralogy and The Fifth Queen trilogy. The Good Soldier is frequently included among the great literature of the 20th century. Ford also wrote essays, poetry, memoirs and literary criticism, and collaborated with Joseph Conrad on three novels, The Inheritors, Romance and the Nature of a Crime. The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion is set just before World War I and chronicles the tragedy of Edward Ashburnham, the soldier to whom the title refers, and his own seemingly perfect marriage and that of two American friends. The novel is told using a series of flashbacks in non-chronological order.

W. Somerset MAUGHAM William Somerset Maugham was a playwright, novelist and short story writer. Maugham's masterpiece is generally agreed to be Of Human Bondage. The Magician, the Moon and Sixpence, Cakes and Ale and the Razor's Edge are among his major works. Although he I better known as a novelist, he wrote five plays: Our Betters, the Circle, the Constant Wife, East of Suez and For Services Rendered. D.H. LAWRENCE David Herbert Lawrence was a novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter. He approached the writing of fiction with religious intensity, using it to reveal the subconscious feeling of human beings. He wrote novel in which the central figure moves from mechanical existence to wholly realized life. Although best known for his novels, Lawrence wrote almost 800 poems. His early works clearly place him in the school of Georgian poets. Lawrence's best-known short stories include The Captain's Doll, The Fox, The Ladybird, Odour of Chrysanthemums, The Princess, The Rocking-Horse Winner, St Mawr, The Man Who Died, The Virgin and the Gypsy and The Woman who Rode Away. His Novels are The White Peacock , The Trespasser , Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love, The Lost Girl, Aaron's Rod, Kangaroo, The Boy in the Bush, The Plumed Serpent, Lady Chatterley's Lover, The Escaped Cock and The Virgin and the Gypsy . The White Peacock is Lawrence's first novel. The l novel is set in the Eastwood area of his youth and is narrated in the first person by a character named Cyril Beardsall. It involves themes such as the damage associated with mismatched marriages, and the border country between town and country. The Trespasser tells the experiences of a friend of Lawrence, Helen Corke, and her relationship with a married man that ended with his suicide. Lawrence worked from Corke's diary with her permission. Sons and Lovers is a poetical autobiographical novel. Gertrude Coppard meets a miner, Walter Morel, at a Christmas dance and falls in love with him. But soon after her marriage to Walter Morel, she realizes the difficulties of living off his salary in a rented house. The couple fight and drift apart and Walter retreats to the pub after work each day. Gradually, Mrs. Morel's affections shift to her sons beginning with the oldest, William. As William grows older, he defends his mother against his father's occasional violence. Eventually, he leaves their home for a job in London, where he begins to rise up into the middle class. He is engaged, but he dies and Mrs. Morel is heartbroken, but when Paul catches pneumonia she rediscovers her love for her second son. Paul is afraid to leave his mother but wants to go out on his own, and needs to experience love. Gradually, he falls into a relationship with Miriam, a farm girl who attends his church. The two take long walks and have intellectual conversations about books but Paul resists, in part because his mother looks down on her. At Miriam's family's farm, Paul meets Clara Dawes, a young woman with, apparently, feminist sympathies who has separated from her husband, Baxter. Paul leaves Miriam behind as he grows more intimate with Clara, but even she cannot hold him and he returns to his mother. When his mother dies soon after, he is alone. Henry JAMES Henry James was an American-born writer. He became a British subject in 1915. An extraordinarily productive writer, in addition to his voluminous works of fiction he published articles and books of travel, biography, autobiography, and criticism, and wrote plays. The Portrait of a Lady, The Wings of the Dove, The Golden Bowl, The Princess Casamassima, The Tragic Muse, Roderick Hudson, Daisy Miller, and The Turn of the Screw, The American and The Ambassadors are some of his novels. G. K. CHESTERTON Gilbert Keith Chesterton wrote on philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction. Chesterton is often referred to as the "prince of paradox. The Man Who Was Thursday, The Innocence of Father Brown and The New Jerusalem are his best known works.

Aldous HUXLEY Aldous Leonard Huxley Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel writing, film stories and scripts. Aldous Huxley was a humanist, and satirist, and he was latterly interested in spiritual subjects such as parapsychology and philosophical mysticism. Huxley completed his first novel at the age of 17 and began writing seriously in his early 20s. His first published novels were social satires, beginning with Crome Yellow. Crome Yellow is the first novel by Huxley. In Crome Yellow he invented what can be labeled as the novel of ideas. Such novels concentrate on conversations, discussions and debates. Crome Yellow tells the story of a gathering of friends hosted by one of them in his house. They spend most of their time eating, drinking, and holding forth on their personal intellectual conceits. Antic Hay is a comic novel. The story takes place in London, and depicts the aimless or self-absorbed cultural elite in the sad and turbulent times following the end of World War I. Point Counter Point is Huxley's longest novel, and was notably more complex and serious than his earlier fiction. The novel's title is a reference to the musical technique of counterpoint, and the story is constructed after the fashion of a work of music. Instead of a single central plot, there are a number of interlinked storylines and recurring themes. Many of the characters are based on real people, most of whom Huxley knew person. Eyeless in Gaza The title of the book, recalls the biblical story of Samson, who was captured by the Philistines, his eyes burned out, and taken to Gaza, where he was forced to work grinding grain in a mill. The chapters of the book are not ordered chronologically. The novel focuses on the life of Anthony Beavis, with flashbacks into different moments of his life, as he discovers pacifism and then mysticism. Brave New World is Huxleys best-known novel. The novel opens in London in 632 (AD 2540 in the Gregorian calendar). The vast majority of the population is unified under the World State. Children are created and raised in Hatcheries and Conditioning Centers, where they are divided into five castes. They are designed to fulfill predetermined positions within the social and economic strata of the World State. At the age of sixty, people have to go to hospital to report to die. Nobody has a family, marriage is seen unnecessary. People take a drug called soma produced by the government. Soma keeps everyone so happy that they do not question anything. Consumerism is encouraged by the government. The nature of the new world is illustrated through a character, Ford whose genetic manipulation has gone wrong and who is able to question. DRAMA George Bernard SHAW Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays. He was also an essayist, novelist and short story writer. He advocated replacing light artificial dramas with plays depicting social and moral problems. He is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938), for his contributions to literature and for his work on the film Pygmalion(adaptation of his play of the same name), respectively. Mrs. Warren's Profession, Arms and the Man, Candida, Man and Superman, Major Barbara, The Doctor's Dilemma, Pygmalion, Saint Joan, Back to Methuselah, and Heartbreak House are some of his plays. Pygmalion is a comedy about a phonetics expert Henry Higgins who makes a bet as a kind of social experiment, and attempts to make a lady out of an uneducated Cockney flower-girl, Eliza Doolittle. Major Barbara Andrew Undershaft, a millionaire armaments dealer, loves money and despises poverty. His energetic daughter Barbara, however, is a devout major in the Salvation Army. She sees her father as just another soul to be saved. But when the Salvation Army needs funds to keep going, it is Undershaft who saves the day.

John Millington SYNGE Edmund John Millington Synge was a playwright, poet, prose writer, travel writer and collector of folklore. He was a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival and was one of the cofounders of the Abbey Theatre. He is best known for his play The Playboy of the Western World, which caused riots in Dublin during its opening run at the Abbey Theatre. In the Shadow of the Glen is a one-act play in which a husband wants to test his wifes faithfulness. Nora Burke is married to Dan, a sheep farmer many years her elder. A tramp seeking shelter in the isolated Burke farmhouse finds Nora tending to the corpse of Dan. Nora goes out to find Michael, and Dan reveals to the tramp that his death is a mere ruse. He plays dead again when Nora and Michael return, but leaps up in protest when Michael proposes to Nora. Dan kicks Nora out to wander the roads, and she leaves with the tramp, who promises her a life of freedom. Riders to the Sea is a one-act tragedy. Maurya is grieving for her missing son, Michael, and is in a fitful sleep. Her daughter Cathleen is taking care of the household tasks while her younger daughter Nora enters with a bundle of clothing from the priest. When Maurya shows signs of waking up the girls hide the bundle from their mother, for it might be Michaels clothing. Besides grieving for Michael, Maurya now begins to worry about her only remaining son, Bartley. She has already lost 5 sons and her husband to the sea but Bartley is determined to cross over to the mainland regardless of the rough weather. With protest Maurya lets him go without her blessings. The girls persuade her to go after Bartley to bless his voyages. While Maurya is gone the girls open the bundle and find out that the clothes are Michaels. Maurya returns home claiming to have seen the ghost of Michael riding behind Bartley and begins lamenting the loss of the men in her family to the sea, after which some villagers bring in the corpse of Bartley, who has fallen off his horse into the sea and drowned. The Well of the Saints Martin and Mary Doul are two blind beggars who have been led to believe that they are beautiful by the lies of the townsfolk, when in fact they are old and ugly. A saint cures them of their blindness with water from a holy well, and at first sight they are disgusted by each other. Martin goes to work for Timmy the smith and tries to seduce his betrothed, Molly, but she viciously rejects him, and Timmy sends him away. He and Mary both lose their sight again, and when the saint returns to wed Timmy and Molly, Martin refuses his offer to cure their blindness again. The saint takes offense and the townsfolk banish the couple, who head south in search of kinder neighbors. The Playboy of the Western World On the west coast of County Mayo, Christy Mahon stumbles into Flaherty's tavern. There he claims that he is on the run because he killed his own father. Flaherty praises Christy for his boldness, and Flaherty's daughter (and the barmaid), Pegeen, falls in love with Christy, to the dismay of her betrothed, Shawn. Because of the novelty of Christy's exploits and the skill with which he tells his own story, he becomes something of a town hero. Many other women also become attracted to him. Eventually Christy's father, Mahon, who was only wounded, tracks him to the tavern. When the townsfolk realize that Christy's father is alive, everyone (including Pegeen) shuns him as a liar and a coward. In order to regain Pegeen's love and the respect of the town, Christy attacks his father a second time. This time it seems that Old Mahon really is dead, but instead of praising Christy, the townspeople, led by Pegeen, bind and prepare to hang him. Christys life is saved when his father, beaten and bloodied, crawls back onto the scene, having improbably survived his son's second attack. As Christy and his father leave to wander the world, Shawn suggests he and Pegeen get married soon, but she spurns him. Deirdre of the Sorrows is a three-act play. The play is based on Irish Mythology, in particular the myths concerning Deirdre and Conchobar. The work was unfinished at the author's death, but was completed by William Butler Yeats and Synge's fiance, Molly Allgood.

Sean O CASEY Sean O'Casey was an Irish dramatist. His plays are informed by his own experiences of poverty and violence and show a strong sense of tragic irony as well as humor. Cock-a-Doodle Dandy is a comic fantasy in which a magic cockerel appears in the parish of Nyadnanave and forces the characters to make choices about the way they live their lives. It is a parable of mid-century Irish rural life, symbolizing the struggle between repression and liberty. The Shadow of a Gunman is the first of O'Casey's "Dublin Trilogy". Donal Davoren is a poet who has come to room with Seumas Shields in a poor, Dublin tenement slum. Many of the residents of the tenement mistake Donal for an IRA volunteer (gunman on the run). Donal does not refute this notoriety, especially when it wins him the affection of Minnie Powell, an attractive young woman in the tenement. Meanwhile, Seumas' business partner, Mr. Maguire hides a bag full of Mills Bombs in Seumas' apartment before participating in an ambush in which he is killed. The city is put under curfew as a result of the ambush, and Donal and Seumas do not discover the grenades until the Auxies are raiding the tenement. Minnie Powell takes the bag and hides it in her own room. The Auxies find nothing of note in Seumas' room, but take off Minnie Powell, who is later killed trying to escape. Juno and the Paycock is the second of Dublin Trilogy. The play concerns the Boyle family, who live in the Dublin tenements during the Irish Civil War. The father, Jack Boyle constantly tries to evade work by pretending to have pains in his legs and spends all his money at the pub with his friend Joxer Daly. The mother, Juno, is the only member of the family working, as the daughter Mary is on strike, and the son, Johnny, lost his arm in the War of Independence. Johnny betrayed Tancred, a neighbor and fellow comrade in the IRA, who was subsequently killed by Free State supporters; Johnny is afraid that he will be executed as punishment. Mr. Bentham brings news that the family has come into an inheritance. The family buys goods on credit, and borrows money from neighbors with the intent of paying them back when the fortune arrives. Mr. Bentham, who had been courting Mary, ceases all contact with the family, and it becomes apparent that no money will be forthcoming. As the goods bought with the borrowed money are being taken back, Mr. and Mrs. Boyle learn that Mary has been impregnated by Mr. Bentham. "Captain" Boyle goes with Joxer to a pub to spend the last of his money and take his mind off of the situation. While he is gone, Mrs. Boyle learns that her son, Johnny, has been killed. The Plough and the Stars is the third of Dublin Trilogy, set during the Easter Rebellion, portrays tragicomically eight separate defeats for eight characters. Within the Gates is the first fully expressionistic OCasey drama. The theme is the conflict between repression of life and the celebration of life. Red Roses for Me is a four-act play. The story is set against the backdrop of the Dublin Lockout of 1913, events in which O'Casey himself had participated.

POST-MODERN (POST-WAR) LITERATURE (1945 to Present) Postmodernism is in general the era that follows Modernism. Like modernist literature, postmodern literature is part of socio-cultural and historical development and can be seen as a specific way of a depiction of the postmodern life and culture. CHARACTERISTICS OF POSTMODERN LITERATURE Irony, playfulness, black humor: Postmodern authors were certainly not the first to use irony and humor in their writing, but for many postmodern authors, these became the hallmarks of their style. Postmodern authors will often treat very serious subjectsWorld War II, the Cold War, conspiracy theoriesfrom a position of distance and disconnect, and will choose to depict their histories ironically and humorously. Pastiche: Many postmodern authors combined, or pasted elements of previous genres and styles of literature to create a new narrative voice, or to comment on the writing of their contemporaries. A work that chiefly consists of motifs or techniques borrowed from one or more sources. Intertextuality: An important element of postmodernism is its acknowledgment of previous literary works. The intertextuality of certain works of postmodern fiction, the dependence on literature that has been created earlier, attempts to comment on the situation in which both literature and society found themselves in the second half of the 20th century: living, working, and creating on the backs of those that had come before. Metafiction: Many postmodern authors feature metafiction in their writing, which, essentially, is writing about writing, an attempt to make the reader aware of its fictionality, and, sometimes, the presence of the author. Historiographic metafiction: This term refers to novels that fictionalize actual historical events and characters. Temporal distortion: Temporal distortion is a literary technique that uses a nonlinear timeline; the author may jump forwards or backwards in time, or there may be cultural and historical references that do not fit. Paranoia: Many postmodern authors write under the assumption that modern society cannot be explained or understood. From that point of view, any apparent connections or controlling influences on the chaos of society would be very frightening, and this lends a sense of paranoia to many postmodern works. Maximalism refers to disorganized, overly long, and emotionally disconnected literary works. Minimalism is a style of writing in which the author deliberately presents characters that are unexceptional and events that are taken from everyday life. Faction is very similar to historiographic metafiction, in that its subject material is based on actual events, but writers of faction tend to blur the line between fact and fiction to the degree that it is almost impossible to know the difference between the two, as opposed to metafiction, which often draws attention to the fact that it is not true. Magical realism: Arguably the most important postmodern technique, magical realism is the introduction of fantastic or impossible elements into a narrative that is otherwise normal. Magical realist novels may include dreams taking place during normal life, the return of previously deceased characters, extremely complicated plots, wild shifts in time, and myths and fairy tales becoming part of the narrative. Participation: Many postmodern authors, as a response to modernism, which frequently set its authors apart from their readers, attempt to involve the reader as much as possible over the course of a novel. This can take the form of asking the reader questions, including unwritten narratives that must be constructed by the reader, or allowing the reader to make decisions regarding the course of the narrative. Technoculture: In his essay, Frederic Jameson called postmodernism the cultural logic of late capitalism. According to his logic, society has moved beyond capitalism into the information age, in which we are constantly bombarded with advertisements, videos, and product placement. Many postmodern authors reflect this in their work by inventing products that mirror actual advertisements, or by placing their characters in situations in which they cannot escape technology. From the thirties onwards, literature became increasingly politically conscious. Many writers were directly or indirectly involved with the war in Spain and the Second World War. Writers produced a lot of literature that is a direct result of the war experience in an attempt to create a new philosophy, or system of values to replace that which had been destroyed. Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts. Jean- Paul Sartre put forward a thesis that literature, properly employed, can be a powerful means of liberating the reader from the kinds of alienation which develop in particular situations. By writing the writer also frees himself and overcomes his own alienation.

NOVEL George ORWELL Eric Arthur Blair known by his pen name George Orwell was a novelist and journalist. His work is marked by clarity, intelligence and wit, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and commitment to democratic socialism. Considered perhaps the 20th century's best chronicler of English culture Orwell wrote literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. He is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four and the allegorical novella Animal Farm , which together have sold more copies than any two books by any other 20thcentury author. His book Homage to Catalonia, an account of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, is widely acclaimed, as are his numerous essays on politics, literature, language and culture. Animal Farm is an allegorical novel. It is in fable form about Russian communism. The book is set on a farm where the pigs revolt against their human masters. When Old Major, the old boar on the Manor Farm dies, two young pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, assume command and consider it a duty to prepare for the Rebellion. The animals revolt and drive the drunken and irresponsible Mr. Jones from the farm, renaming it "Animal Farm". They adopt Seven Commandments of Animalism, the most important of which is, "All animals are equal. Years pass, and the pigs learn to walk upright, carry whips, and wear clothes. The Seven Commandments are reduced to a single phrase: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. The pigs, led by their leader Napoleon, are corrupted by power. 1984 is a dystopian and satirical novel set in Oceania, where society is tyrannized by the Party and its totalitarian ideology.Winston Smith is an Outer Party member in Oceania, and he begins to question the validity of the Party and its doctrines. He feels the Party is restrictive and overpowering free thought and will but he is fearful of the Thought Police who patrol people's heretical thoughts and make people "disappear" (into "nonpersons") if they think poorly about the Party and its leader, Big Brother. His job working for the Party involves falsifying history for Party purposes, but he is tormented by the idea that soon, no one will have a sense of true history, since the Party can change it whenever it wants to say whatever it wants. One day, he meets Julia, and together, they decide to take the risk of outwardly combating the Party. They arrange with O'Brien, an Inner Party member, who leads them into the world of the "Brotherhood," an underground organization dedicated to fighting against the Party. However, their relationship is destroyed when it turns out O'Brien is really an agent of the Party, who has set them up to be discovered and re-habituated. Winston is taken to the Ministry of Love (which maintains law and order in Oceania) and tortured endlessly until his thoughts change from hatred of the Party to undying love to the organization and its purpose in controlling the masses. After his exhaustive torture, Winston is a new man, completely loyal to the Party and Big Brother. The Party has won out over humanity. Orwells other writings include A Clergymans Daughter, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Coming up for Air, and Burmese Days. He also wrote essays such as The Road to Wigan Pier, Inside the Whale, Critical essays and Shooting and Elephant. William GOLDING Sir William Gerald Golding was a novelist, poet, and playwright. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983, he has written ten novels in strikingly varied settings. His usual method is to isolate individuals or groups in a desperate situation where humans lose their veneer of civilized behavior. His novels are Lord of the Flies, The Inheritors, Pincher Martin, Free Fall, The Spire, The Pyramid, The Scorpion God, Darkness Visible, The Paper Men, To the Ends of the Earth Trilogy (Rites of Passage, Close Quarters, Fire Down Below) and The Double Tongue. Lord of the Flies is his best- known and most typical novel. A small group of boys, isolated on a desert island after a plane crash quickly fails in an attempt at democracy. Savagery, which in Goldings novels underlies mans true nature, soon takes over. Anthony POWELL Anthony Dymoke Powell started his writing career with satirical novels such as Afternoon Men, Venusberg, From A View to a Death, and Whats Become of Waring? He was best known for his twelve-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time. A Dance to the Music of Time is a twelve-volume cycle of novels, inspired by the painting of the same name by Poussin. It is one of the longest works of fiction in literature. The story is an often comic examination of movements and manners, power and passivity in English political, cultural and military life in the mid 20th century. Leslie Poles Hartley was a novelist and short story writer. His best-known novels are the Eustace and Hilda trilogy and The Go-Between.
L. P. HARTLEY

Agatha CHRISTIE Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie was a crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote six romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for the 66 detective novels and more than 15 short story collections she wrote under her own name most of which revolve around the investigations of such characters as Hercule Poirot, Miss Jane Marple and Tommy and Tuppence. She also wrote the world's longestrunning play The Mousetrap. The Murder on the Orient Express, Ten Little Niggers, The Mysterious Affair at Styles and the Murder of Roger Ackryod are her best known novels. The Detection Club was formed in 1930 by a group of British mystery writers, including Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ronald Knox, Freeman Wills Crofts, Arthur Morrison, John Rhode, Jessie Rickard, Baroness Emma Orczy, R. Austin Freeman, G.D.H. Cole, Margaret Cole, E.C. Bentley, Henry Wade, and H.C. Bailey. Anthony Berkeley was instrumental in setting up the club, and the first president was G.K. Chesterton. Graham GREENE Henry Graham Greene was a writer, playwright and literary critic. He represented a trend of social fiction primarily concerned with ethical problems. His novels include The Man Within, Stamboul Tain, and Journey without Maps, Brighton Rock, The Lawless Roads, the Power and The Glory, The Heart of The Matter, The End of the Affair, The Quiet American and the others. Charles Percy SNOW Charles Percy Snow began his writing career as a scientist and turned to writing with the detective story, Death under Sail. He is best known for his series of novels known collectively as Strangers and Brothers, and for The Two Cultures. J.R.R. TOLKIEN John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. He became internationally appreciated as the author of books of fiction based on mythology of his own invention. He fashioned an entire primitive world, with its own language and legends that confronts its characters with many of the same problems our modern era faces. The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel. The Dark Lord Sauron who had in an earlier age created the One Ring to rule the other Rings of Power as the ultimate weapon in his campaign to conquer and rule all of Middleearth. Frodo Baggins ( a Hobbit from Shire), sets out accompanied by Sam, Merry, Pippin (hobbits), Aragorn, (a human),Boromir (a man from Gondor), Gimli (a dwarf warrior), Legolas (an Elf prince)and Gandalf, (a Wizard) to destroy the ring. The Hobbit, or There and Back Again is a fantasy novel. It follows the quest of home-loving hobbit Bilbo Baggins to win a share of the treasure guarded by the dragon, Smaug. Bilbo's journey takes him from light-hearted, rural surroundings into more sinister territory. The Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic works. High fantasy (also referred to as epic fantasy) is a sub-genre of fantasy fiction, defined either by its taking place in an imaginary world distinct from our own or by the epic stature of its characters, themes and plot. C.S. LEWIS Clive Staples Lewis is best known both for his fictional work, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain. The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven high fantasy novels. Set in the fictional realm of Narnia, a fantasy world of magic, mythical beasts, and talking animals, the series narrates the adventures of various children who play central roles in the unfolding history of that world. William SANSOM William Sansom was a novelist, travel and short story writer known for his highly descriptive prose style. His novels include The Body, The Face of Innocence, The Last Hours of Sandra Lee, The Guilt in Wandering, Christmas, Hans Feet in love, The marmalade bird, Proust, Skimpy, A Young Wife's Tale, the Cautious Heart, the Loving Eye, and A Bed of Roses. Elizabeth TAYLOR Elizabeth Taylor was a novelist and short story writer. Taylor was a writer who dedicated herself to the observation of middle-class life. She was influenced by Jane Austen. Her novels include The Soul of Kindness, At Mrs. Lippincote's, Palladian, A View of the Harbor, A Wreath of Roses, A Game of Hide and Seek, The Sleeping Beauty, The Real Life of Angel Deverell , In a Summer Season , The Wedding Group, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and Blaming.

Olivia MANNING Olivia Mary Manning was a novelist, poet, writer and reviewer. Her fiction and non-fiction, frequently detailing journeys and personal odysseys, were principally set in England, Ireland, Europe and the Middle East. She often wrote from her personal experience, though her books also demonstrate strengths in imaginative writing. The Wind Changes is her first serious work. Her best known works are the six novels making up The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy, known collectively as Fortunes of War. Iris MURDOCH Dame Iris Murdoch was an Irish-born British author and philosopher, best known for her novels about good and evil, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her novels are primarily philosophical. Her first published novel is Under the Net. The Sea, the Sea, The Black Prince, The Bell, The Sandcastle, Bruno's Dream, A Fairly Honorable Defeat, The Flight from the Enchanter, A Severed Head, The Unicorn , The Time of the Angels, The Red and the Green ,and The Italian Girl are some of her novels. Malcolm LOWRY Clarence Malcolm Lowry was an English poet and novelist best known for his novel Under the Volcano and Ultramarine. Of his two novels, Under the Volcano is now widely accepted as his masterpiece and one of the great works of the 20th century. The novel tells the story of Geoffrey Firmin, an alcoholic British consul in the small Mexican town of Quauhnahuac, on the Day of the Dead (a Mexican holiday). Muriel SPARK Dame Muriel Spark began writing seriously after the war beginning with poetry and literary criticism. Her first novel is The Comforters. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Loitering with Intent, The Bachelors, The Mandelbaum Gate, The Public Image and The Driver's Seat are some of her major works. William COOPER Harry Summerfield Hoff was a novelist, writing under the name William Cooper. Scenes from Provincial Life, Scenes from Married Life, Scenes from Life, Scenes from Later Life and Immortality at Any Price are some of his books. Anthony BURGESS John Anthony Burgess Wilson wrote under the pen name Anthony Burgess. Although Burgess was predominantly a comic writer, the dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange remains his best known novel. Burgess produced numerous other novels, including the Enderby quartet, and Earthly Powers, regarded by most critics as his greatest novel. A Clockwork Orange (Otomatik Portakal) is a dystopian novel. Alex, a violent juvenile in the near future, is caught after a number of brutal rapes and murders. While imprisoned, he submits to a controversial experiment to make criminals ill at the mildest suggestion of violence or conflict. When he is eventually let out, he hates violence, but the rest of his gang members are still after him. Mervyn Laurence PEAKE Mervyn Laurence Peake was a writer, artist, poet and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the Gormenghast books. Peake also wrote poetry and literary nonsense in verse form, short stories for adults and children. Gormenghast series consists of three novels, Titus Groan , Gormenghast , and Titus Alone . The series is regarded as the first fantasy of manners. Titus Groan begins with the birth of the Titus, as the heir to the throne of the House of Groan. Gormenghast, the second book, follows Titus from the age of seven to seventeen. Titus Alone follows Titus as he travels far from Gormenghast and finds a futuristic world of industrialists and advanced technology. The fantasy of manners is a subgenre of fantasy literature that also partakes of the nature of a comedy of manners. Doris May Lessing Doris May Lessing is a novelist, poet, playwright, biographer and short story writer. Her novels include The Grass Is Singing , the sequence of five novels collectively called Children of Violence, The Golden Notebook , The Good Terrorist, and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos. Lessing was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. Lessing was the eleventh woman and the oldest person to ever receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. Arthur C. CLARKE Sir Arthur Charles Clarke was a science fiction writer and inventor. He is famous for his short stories and novels, including Rendezvous with Rama and 2001: A Space Odysse. In 1956, Clarke immigrated to Sri Lanka, largely to pursue his interest in scuba diving. That year, he discovered the underwater ruins of the ancient Koneswaram temple in Trincomalee.
Ian MCEWAN Ian Russell McEwan is a novelist and screenwriter. McEwan began his career writing Gothic short stories. The Cement Garden and The Comfort of Strangers were his first two novels. In 1997, he published Enduring Love, which was made into a film. He won the Man Booker Prize with Amsterdam . In 2001, he published Atonement, which was made into an Oscarwinning film. This was followed by Saturday, On Chesil Beach , Solar, and Sweet Tooth.

John Robert FOWLES John Robert Fowles was a novelist, much influenced by both Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, and critically positioned between modernism and postmodernism. His novels include The Collector, Shipwreck, The French Lieutenant's Woman, the Ebony Tower, Daniel Martin, Mantissa, and A Maggot. ANGRY YOUNG MEN The "angry young men" were a group of mostly working and middle class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950s. It was a new sociocultural movement based on the nonconformity and anger that a group of writers felt towards society. The Angry Young Men concept comes from Leslie Allen Pauls autobiography. The protagonist of their novels or plays is an anti- hero, usually a young man of working class origin who undergoes a test of his intelligence. He is an angry man determined to conquer the big world. The stereotype of Angry Young Men was marked by John Osborne with Look back in Anger. Angry Young Men and Their Works John Wain: Hurry on Down ( the first novel of the Angry young men movement) John Braine: Room at the Top Kingsley Amis: Lucky Jim Alan Sillitoe: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Bernard Kops: The Hamlet of Stepney Green Arnold Wesker: Chicken Soup with Barley Keith Waterhouse: Billy Liar John Osborne: Look Back in Anger DRAMA J. B. PRIESTLEY John Boynton Priestley, known as J. B. Priestley, was a novelist, playwright and broadcaster. He published 26 novels, notably The Good Companions, as well as numerous dramas such as An Inspector Calls. His output included literary and social criticism. An Inspector Calls is one of Priestley's best known works for the stage and considered to be one of the classics of mid-20th century English theatre. The play takes place on a single night. It focuses on the prosperous middle-class Birling family who live in a comfortable home in Brumley. The family is visited by a man who calls himself, Inspector Goole. Goole questions the family about the suicide of a young working-class woman, Eva Smith. The family are interrogated and revealed to have been responsible for the young woman's exploitation, abandonment and social ruin, effectively leading to her death. However, it becomes clear that Goole is not a policeman. Terence RATTIGAN Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan was one of England's most popular 20th-century dramatists. His plays are generally set in an upper-middle-class background. His plays are concerned with the lack of communication between people. He is known for such works as The Winslow Boy, The Browning Version , The Deep Blue Sea and Separate Tables , among many others. Nol COWARD Sir Nol Peirce Coward was a playwright, composer, director, actor and singer. Coward achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards. Among his best known plays are Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter, Bitter Sweet and Blithe Spirit. Christopher FRY Christopher Fry was the pen name of Christopher Harris who gained popularity as a writer of comedy. He started with the play The Boy with a Cart .His best plays are The Lady's Not for Burning, The Dark is Light Enough, Venus Observed, Ring Round the Moon, The Lark, Judith, and A Ringing Of Bells. Shelagh DELANEY Shelagh Delaney was a dramatist and screenwriter. A Taste of Honey is the first play by Delaney. It comments on, and puts into question, class, race, gender and sexual orientation in mid-twentieth century Britain. It became known as the landmark of kitchen sink realism". Other notable plays include The White Bus, Charlie Bubbles, and Dance With a Stranger. Kitchen sink realism (or kitchen sink drama) is a term coined to describe a British cultural movement which developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art, novels, film and television plays, whose 'heroes' usually could be described as angry young men. It used a style of social realism, which often depicted the domestic situations of working-class Britons living in rented accommodation and spending their off-hours drinking in grimy pubs, to explore social issues and political controversies.

John OSBORNE John James Osborne was a playwright, screenwriter, and actor. Osbornes play Look Back in Anger was one of the most important examples of angry young man movement. It is about a love triangle involving an intelligent and educated but disaffected young man of working class origin (Jimmy Porter), his upper-middle-class, impassive wife (Alison), and her haughty best friend (Helena Charles). The Entertainer, Inadmissible Evidence, Epitaph for George Dillon and the World of Paul Slickey are other notable plays of Osborne. John ARDEN John Ardens work was influenced by Bertold Brecht and angry young man movement. Live like Pigs, the Waters of Babylon, the Happy Haven, the Workhouse Donkey, and Armstrong's Last Goodnight are some of his plays. Arnold WESKER Sir Arnold Wesker is a dramatist known for his contributions to kitchen sink drama. He is the author of 42 plays, 4 volumes of short stories, 2 volumes of essays, a book on journalism, and a children's book. The Kitchen, Chicken Soup with Barley, Chips with Everything, Roots, I'm talking about Jerusalem, Groupie, Longitude, and The Friends are some of his plays. Samuel BECKETT Samuel Barclay Beckett wrote most of his plays in French first, translating them into English later. He is one of the key writers of Theater of the Absurd. Beckett was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature. Strongly influenced by James Joyce, he is considered one of the last modernists. As an inspiration to many later writers, he is also sometimes considered one of the first postmodernists. Waiting for Godot, Krapp's Last Tape, Endgame, Happy Days, Come and Go, Breath, and Not I are some of his important play. His novels include Murphy, Molloy, Malone Dies and Watt. Waiting for Godot is an absurdist play in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for the arrival of someone named Godot. The Theatre of the Absurd became popular from the beginning of 1940s to late 1960s. It emerged from the existentialist idea that life is meaningless and human beings are thrown into the world by an indifferent god. Playwrights expressed the belief that human existence has no meaning or purpose and therefore there is no need for logic, harmony and reason. Absurd means out of harmony, illogical, and ridiculous. The main characteristics of absurd drama are: The characters are usually trapped in hopeless situations; therefore, act repetitively or meaninglessly. As the characters are entrapped, the plots are usually circular starting and ending with the same situation, highlighting the impossibility of improvement. The language is futile, and there are frequent communication breakdowns. Wordplays and clichs are very common. The most well known Absurd dramatists are Ionesco and Samuel Beckett. Harold PINTER Harold Pinter was a Nobel Prize-winning playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming, The Caretaker, No Man's Land, Old Times and Betrayal , each of which he adapted for the screen. Thomas STOPPARD Sir Tom Stoppard s theatrical career began with the writing of radio and television plays, but his first international success came with the prizewinning Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. His best known plays are Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, Jumpers, and Travesties. POETRY Seamus HEANEY Seamus Heaney is a poet, playwright, translator, lecturer and recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. His poetry collections include Door into the Dark, Wintering Out, Stations, North, Field Work, Station Island, The Haw Lantern, Seeing Things, The Spirit Level, Electric Light, District and Circle and Human Chain. John BETJEMAN John Betjeman was named poet laureate in 1972. He stands as the bridge between pre- and post- war poetry. His poetry is primarily satiric, but there is also an underlying melancholy. His first volume of poetry was Mount Zion. It was followed by Continual Dew, Old Lights for New Chancels, New Bats in Old Belfries, A Few Late Chrysanthemums, Poems In The Porch, Summoned By Bells, High and Low and A Nip In The Air.

Edwin MUIR Edwin Muir was a poet, novelist, critic and translator. He was an optimistic poet, he thought the power of goo were greater than the powers of evil. He was more interested in myths and archetypal symbols than in the problems of contemporary world. Collected Poems, First Poems, the Voyage and Other Poems and the Labyrinth are some of his poetry collections. Edmund Charles BLUNDEN Edmund Charles Blunden was a poet, author and critic. He wrote poems about the English countryside and rural life. His poems about his World War I experiences reveal feelings of guilt about his own survival. Poems, an Elegy and Other Poems, Cricket Country, Poems on Japan, the Shepherd and Other Poems, Pastorals, Winter Nights, and After the Bombing are some of his poetry collections. Roy Broadbent FULLER Roy Broadbent Fuller was a writer, known mostly as a poet. The Middle of a War, a Lost Season, Epitaphs and Occasions, Counterparts, New poems, From the Joke Shop, the Reign of Sparrows, and Consolations are his poetry collections. POET OF THE MOVEMENT A group of young poets influenced by T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden were given the label The Movement in a Spectator article. Their poetry was characterized by a conversational style, allusions to everyday events, simplicity and directness. The main premise of the Movement was that poetry should be readable and should be written for common readers not for fellow writers or critics. The main representatives of the group were Kingsley Amis, Philip Larkin, Donald Davie, D.J. Enright, John Wain, Elizabeth Jennings, Thom Gunn, and Robert Conquest. Philip LARKIN Philip Arthur Larkin was a poet and novelist. He is the best known member of The Movement. He was strongly influenced by Thomas Hardy. His poetry collections include The North Ship, The Less Deceived, The Whitsun Weddings, and High Windows. Thom GUNN Thom Gunn wrote poetry that celebrated men of action, like soldiers, motor- cyclists and though boys. His poetry displays an admiration to those strong individuals. On the Move, the Man with Night Sweats, Fighting Terms, the Sense of Movement, My Sad Captains and Other Poems, the Passages of Joy and Jack Straw's Castle are some of his major works. Donald DAVIE Donald Alfred Davie was a Movement poet, and literary critic. His poems in general are philosophical and abstract. A Winter Talent and other poems, Selected Poems, Brides of Reason, In the Stopping Train and other poems and Events and Wisdoms are his poetry collections. Elizabeth JENNINGS (1926 2001) Elizabeth Jennings was connected with the Movement because of quality of her early collections of verses; Poems, A Way of Looking and a Sense of the World. In her later collections, Lucidities, Growing points and Moments of Grace, her poetry is highly personal. Her other volumes include Celebrations and Elegies, Extending Territory, Tributes, Times and Seasons and Familiar Spirits. Her best- known poem is One Flesh. BRITISH WINNERS OF THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE 1907 1923 1925 1932 1948 1950 1953 1969 1983 1995 2005 2007 RUDYARD KIPLING WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS GEORGE BERNAD SHAW JOHN GALSWORTHY T.S ELIOT BERNARD RUSELL (PHILOSOPHY) WINSTON CHURCHILL (ESSAY, HISTORY) SAMUEL BECKETT WILLIAM GOLDING SEAMUS HEANEY HAROLD PINTER DORIS LESSING

AMERICAN LITERATURE (SOME IMPORTANT WRITERS AND THEIR WORKS) WASHINGTON IRVING HERMAN MERVILLE The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Moby-Dick Rip Van Winkle Bartleby, the Scrivener The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent Billy Budd Benito Cereno MARK TWAIN (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) JOHN STEINBECK The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Grapes of Wrath Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Of Mice and Men The Prince and the Pauper The Pearl A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court East of Eden The Innocents Abroad In Dubious Battle Life on the Mississippi Cannery Row The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson The Moon Is Down A Horse's Tale Cup of Gold The Pastures of Heaven Burning Bright The Long Valley ROBERT FROST KATE COPIN Poems Short Stories The Road Not Taken The Story of an Hour Mending Wall Desiree's Baby The Death of the Hired Man The Storm Acquainted with the Night The Awakening Dedication A Pair of Silk Stockings Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening The Kiss The Pasture Nothing Gold Can Stay Fire and Ice NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE Novels Short Stories The Scarlet Letter Twice-Told Tales The Dolliver Romance The Birth-Mark The House of the Seven Gables The Old Manse The Blithedale Romance Childrens Literature The Marble Faun A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys Septimius Felton; or, the Elixir of Life Tanglewood Tales F. SCOTT FITZGERALD Novels Short Stories The Great Gatsby Head and Shoulders Tender Is the Night The Curious Case of Benjamin Button The Beautiful and Damned Winter Dreams This Side of Paradise A New Leaf The Love of the Last Tycoon The Freshest Boy The Bridal Party WILLIAM FAULKNER Novels Short Stories The Sound and the Fury A Rose for Emily Soldiers' Pay Red Leaves Absalom, Absalom! That Evening Sun As I Lay Dying Barn Burning Mosquitoes Dry September Sartoris The Tall Men Sanctuary Spotted Horses The Unvanquished
Novels For Whom the Bell Tolls A Farewell to Arms The Old Man and the Sea The Sun Also Rises To Have and Have Not The Garden of Eden ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Short Stories Hills Like White Elephants The Cat in the Rain The Snows of Kilimanjaro Big Two Hearted River Indian Camp The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber Fathers and Sons

EDGAR ALAN POE Short Stories The Black Cat The Cask of Amontillado The Murders in the Rue Morgue The Tell-Tale Heart The Masque of the Red Death The fall of the House of Usher The Pit and the Pendulum The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar The Gold-Bug The Oval Portrait Ligeia A Descent into the Maelstrm The Premature Burial Hop-Frog The Imp of the Perverse The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether The Purloined Letter Novels The Call of the Wild White Fang Martin Eden The Sea-Wolf The Iron Heel The Game The Star Rover The Little Lady of the Big House A Daughter of the Snows Burning Daylight The Valley of the Moon WALT WHITMAN O Captain! My Captain! Song of Myself Leaves of Grass The Voice of the Rain To Think of Time There Was a Child Went Forth Song for All Seas, All Ships Camps of Green On The Beach At Night Alone ARTHUR MILLER Plays All My Sons A View from the Bridge The Crucible Death of a Salesman The Price Some Kind of Love Story A Memory of Two Mondays After the Fall Incident At Vichy Elegy for a Lady Mr. Peters' Connections LOUISA MAY ALCOTT Little Women Hospital Sketches Little Men Rose in Bloom Jo's Boys JACK LONDON

Poems The Raven Annabel Lee Al Aaraaf The Bells A Dream within a Dream The City in the Sea The Conqueror Worm Eldorado Eulalie The Haunted Palace To Helen Tamerlane Ulalume

Short Stories To Build a Fire The Iron Heel The Red One A Thousand Deaths The Leopard Man's Story Moon-Face

EMILY DICKINS Hope is the Thing with Feathers Because I Could Not Stop For Death Behind me dips Eternity If I Can Stop Im Nobody! Who are you? Another Sky The Brainis wider than the Sky I heard a Fly buzzwhen I died The Soul selects her own Society TENNESSEE WILLIAMS Plays The Glass Menagerie Cat on a Hot Tin Roof A Streetcar Named Desire The Night of the Iguana The Rose Tattoo Camino Real Summer and Smoke Sweet Bird of Youth Suddenly, Last Summer ALICE WALKER The Color Purple Everyday Use The Third Life of Grange Copeland Possessing the Secret of Joy Meridian The Temple of My Familiar

TONI MORISSON Beloved The Bluest Eye Song of Solomon Sula Paradise

J. D. SALINGER The Catcher in the Rye Franny and Zooey Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction AYN RAND Atlas Shrugged The Fountainhead We the Living SYLVIA PLATH The Bell Jar The Colossus Crossing the Water Winter Trees Ariel Lady Lazarus Fog Autumn HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW Paul Revere's Ride The Song of Hiawatha Evangeline EUGENE ONEILL Long Day's Journey into Night Beyond the Horizon Anna Christie Strange Interlude Harriet Beecher StoweUncle Tom's Cabin Harper LeeTo Kill a Mockingbird Joseph HellerCatch-22 Henry David Thoreau Walden Ezra PoundThe Cantos L. Frank BaumThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz Ken KeseyOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

FLANNERY OCONNOR Wise Blood The Violent Bear It Away A Good Man Is Hard to Find Everything That Rises Must Converge VLADIMIR NABOKOV Lolita Pale Fire Speak, Memory Transparent Things Pnin Bend Sinister Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle TRUMAN CAPOTE Breakfast at Tiffany's In Cold Blood Other Voices, Other Rooms KURT VONNEGUT Cat's Cradle Slaughterhouse-Five Breakfast of Champions JOHN IRVING The World According to Garp The Cider House Rules A Prayer for Owen Meany Upton SinclairThe Jungle James Fennimore CooperThe Last of the Mohicans Margaret MitchellGone with the Wind

1930 1936 1938 1949 1954 1962 1976 1978 1993

Sinclair Lewis Eugene O'Neill Pearl S. Buck William Faulkner Ernest Hemingway John Steinbeck Saul Bellow Isaac Bashevis Singer Toni Morrison

AMERICAN WINNERS OF THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE