Classics of British Literature is a nonfiction book written by John Sutherland. Released in 2008, it recounts the history of British literature.
Notable People Within[]
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- Edmund Spenser
- Christopher Marlowe
- William Shakespeare
- Ben Jonson
- John Webster
- Jonathan Swift
- Samuel Johnson
- Daniel Defoe
- Aphra Behn
- Edward Gibbon
- Olaudah Equiano
- Mary Wolstonecraft
- William Blake
- Walter Scott
- Robert Burns
- George Gordon Byron
- John Keats
- Jane Austen
- Charles Dickens
- George Eliot
- Thomas Hardy
- Oscar Wilde
- George Bernard Shaw
- James Joyce
- W.B. Yeats
- Henry James
- Salman Rushdie
rest to be added
Works Discussed[]
- Beowulf
- Caedmon's Hymn
- The Wanderer
- The Seafarer
- The Battle of Maldon
- The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
- Paradise Lost by John Milton
- Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
- Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
- Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
rest to be added
Publisher's Summary[]
For more than 1,500 years, the literature of Great Britain has taught, nurtured, thrilled, outraged, and humbled readers both inside and outside its borders.
Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, Swift, Conrad, Wilde - the roster of powerful British writers is remarkable. More important, Britain's writers have long challenged readers with new ways of understanding an ever-changing world.
This series of 48 fascinating lectures by an award-winning professor provides you with a rare opportunity to step beyond the surface of Britain's grand literary masterpieces and experience the times and conditions they came from and the diverse issues with which their writers grappled.
The unique insights Professor Sutherland shares about how and why these works succeed as both literature and documents of Britain's social and political history can forever alter the way you experience a novel, poem, or play.
More than just a survey, these lectures reveal how Britain's cultural landscape acted upon its literature and how, in turn, literature affected the cultural landscape. Professor Sutherland takes a historical approach to the wealth of works explored in these lectures, grounding them in specific contexts and often connecting them with one another.
All the great writers that come to mind when you think of British literature are here, along with unique looks at their most popular and powerful works. You also enjoy the company of less-familiar voices and contemporary authors who continue to take literature into new territories.
Full Summary[]
(PLACEHOLDER)
Sources[]
- Goodreads