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The history of English Literature starts with the Germanic tradition of Anglo-Saxon settlers which were around 5th to 11th century AD and the first long narrative poems in the history of English Literature were Beowulf and Widsith.
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The Venerable Bede, in his monastery at Jarrow, completes his history of the English church and people -
The material of the Eddas, taking shape in Iceland, derives from earlier sources in Norway, Britain and Burgundy. -
Beowulf, the first great work of Germanic literature, mingles the legends of Scandinavia with the experience in England of Angles and Saxons. -
It begins with the Norman conquest in 1066 and ends at the end of the fifteenth century. There are two stages in this period.
1066 to 1340 Anglo-Norman period, the literature of that period was written primarily in the French dialect spoken by England's new ruling class, Anglo-Norman.
1340 to 1400 Age of Chaucer because Chaucer, the great poet, dominated this period. -
A narrator who calls himself Will, and whose name may be Langland, begins the epic poem of Piers Plowman. -
Chaucer begins an ambitious scheme for 100 Canterbury Tales, of which he completes only 24 by the time of his death. -
Thomas Malory, in gaol somewhere in England, compiles Morte d'Arthur - an English account of the French tales of King Arthur. -
The Renaissance Period in English literature is also called the Elizabethan Period or the Age of Shakespeare. Renaissance means the rebirth of learning and denotes in its broadest sense the gradual enlightenment of the human mind after the darkness of the Middle Ages.
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Erasmus and Thomas More take the northern Renaissance in the direction of Christian humanism. -
English poet Edmund Spenser celebrates the Protestant Elizabeth I as The Faerie Queene -
Shakespeare's central character in Hamlet expresses both the ideals of the Renaissance and the disillusion of a less confident age, -
The neoclassical period or Age of reason. Writers of this era emphasized classical ideals of order and rational control even more than their Renaissance predecessors, for which it is known as the Age of Reason.
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When Paradise Lost was published in London in 1667, Milton had fallen out of favour. -
Jonathan Swift sends his hero on a series of bitterly satirical travels in Gulliver's Travels -
Samuel Johnson publishes his magisterial Dictionary of the English Language. -
The Romantic age of the history of English literature experimented with the earlier forms of poetry and brought many interesting genres of prose fiction. The key feature of the poetry of this period was the emphasis laid on individual thought and personal feeling.
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English author Mary Wollstonecraft publishes a passionately feminist work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. -
Pride and Prejudice, based on a youthful work of 1797 called First Impressions, is the second of Jane Austen's novels to be published -
Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem The Last Leaf is inspired by an aged survivor of the Boston Tea Party. -
The period of Queen Victoria's reign was marked by great progress and ingenuity. Time of the world's first industrial revolution, political reform and social change.
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Ebenezer Scrooge mends his ways just in time in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol -
H.G. Wells publishes The Time Machine; the time traveler appears in the year 800,000, a time in which our species has evolved into a being called the Eloi. Mentally very limited individuals, the result of having adapted to an environment without aspirations. -
Frank Baum introduces children to Oz, in his book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. -
Beatrix Potter publishes at her own expense The Tale of Peter Rabbit -
Known for elegance and luxury among Britain's rich and powerful, also for moral laxity and general unpreparedness for some of the challenges of the 20th century.
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Lucy Maud Montgomery's first novel, Anne of Green Gables, brings her instant fame and fortune. -
H.G. Wells publishes The History of Mr Polly, a novel about an escape, from drab everyday existence -
The Georgian period saw Britain establish itself as an international power at the center of an expanding empire.
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The Soldier, published in 1915 in the collection 1914. Perhaps his most famous poem, it reflects British sorrow over and pride in the young men who died in World War I. -
Virginia Woolf publishes her novel Mrs Dalloway, in which the action is limited to a single day -
Irish author Frank Harris publishes the fourth and final volume of My Life and Loves. -
US author Margaret Mitchell publishes her one book, which becomes probably the best-selling novel of all time -Gone with the Wind -
It seeks to change reality from the perspective of the subject itself, they expose how society does not make the individual, but rather the individual shapes society.
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Ernest Hemingway publishes the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, set in the Spanish Civil War. -
In George Orwell's fable Animal Farm a ruthless pig, Napoleon, controls the farmyard using the techniques of Stalin -
C.S. Lewis gives the first glimpse of Narnia in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe -
Postmodern literature is a form of literature that is characterized by the use of metafiction, unreliable narration, self-reflexivity, intertextuality, and which often thematizes both historical and political issues.
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US author Maya Angelou publishes her autobiographical first novel, Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. -
A schoolboy wizard performs his first tricks in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone -
The word contemporary literature means belonging to or occurring in the now. The writing styles can vary, but the main idea is to convey realistic characters and experiences.
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Mockingjay completes Suzanne Collins' trilogy, The Hunger Games. -
J. K. Rowling (under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith) starts Cormoran Strike, a series of crime fiction novels.