English Literature
English Literature (since 2005/6)
This is a high school level course spanning two years. We use the book, Barron’s English Literature, as a springboard — it gives themes, keys, quotations, and a glossary of introductory terms for your introductory college course (I believe in challenging high school courses!). We also use the series Masterplots (8 volumes; newer versions are 12 volumes) for indepth studies into each book that we study. (Masterplots is a *very* expensive series — I bought our set on ebay for much less than retail!)
Here’s an awesome website for great literature — TheGreatBooks
Ancient Britain
Major study: “Beowulf” (anon.)
Extra reading:
“The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” (King Alfred the Great)
Medieval England
Major study: “Canterbury Tales” (Geoffrey Chaucer)
Extra reading:
“Second Shepherd’s Play” (anon.)
“Le morte d’Arthur” (Sir Thomas Malory)
Renaissance Prose
Major study: “The Compleat Angler” (Izaak Walton)
Extra reading:
“Utopia” (Sir Thomas More)
“Novum Organum” (Sir Francis Bacon)
“King James Bible”
Renaissance Poetry
Major study: “The Holy Sonnets” (John Donne)
Extra reading:
“The Temple” (George Herbert)
“Paradise Lost” (John Milton)
“The Complete English Poems” (John Milton)
Renaissance Drama
Major study: “Hamlet” (William Shakespeare)
Extra reading:
“The Taming of the Shrew” (William Shakespeare)
“Doctor Faustus” (Christopher Marlowe)
“The Shoemaker’s Holiday” (Thomas Dekker)
The Restoration and the 18th Century
Major study: “Pilgrim’s Progress” (John Bunyan)
Extra reading:
“Gulliver’s Travels” (Jonathan Swift)
“Robinson Crusoe” (Daniel Defoe)
“Tom Jones” (Henry Fielding)
The Romantic Period
Major study: “Ivanhoe” (Sir Walter Scott)
Extra reading:
“Heart of Midlothian” (Sir Walter Scott)
“Pride and Prejudice” (Jane Austen)
“Emma” (Jane Austen)
Victorian Prose
Major study: “David Copperfield” (Charles Dickens)
Extra reading:
“A Tale of Two Cities” (Charles Dickens)
“The Importance of Being Earnest” (Oscar Wilde)
“Apologia Pro Vita Sua” (John Henry Newman)
“Middlemarch” (George Eliot)
Victorian Poetry
Major study: “Alfred Lord Tennyson: Selected Poems”
Extra reading:
“Brownings: Poems”
20th Century Fiction
Major study: “Lord Jim” (Joseph Conrad)
Extra reading:
“Heart of Darkness” (Joseph Conrad)
“The Secret Sharer” (Joseph Conrad)
“Brave New World” (Aldous Huxley)
“The Lord of the Flies” (William Golding)
20th Century Poetry
Major study: “Poems” (Gerard Manly Hopkins)
Extra reading:
“The Four Quartets” (T. S. Eliot)
20th Century Drama
Major study: “Pygmalioin” (George Bernard Shaw)
Extra reading:
“Arms and the Man” (George Bernard Shaw)
“Waiting for Godot” (Samuel Beckett)
