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History of English Literature

  • 731

    BEDE

    BEDE
    The Venerable Bede, is known as a writer and scholar, his best known work is"History ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum", which earned him the title of "Father of English History." in 731 in his monastery at Jarrow, completes his history of the English church and people.
  • 800

    BEOWULF

    BEOWULF
    The first great work of Germanic literature, mingles the legends of Scandinavia with the experience in England of Angles and Saxons. Is an anonymous Anglo-Saxon epic poem that was written in Old English in alliterative verse. It has 3182 verses. Both the author and the date of composition of the poem are unknown although academic discussions often propose dates ranging from the eighth century VIII al XII d. C.
  • 950

    EDDAS

    EDDAS
    The material of the Eddas, which takes shape in Iceland, is derived from earlier sources in Norway, Great Britain and Burgundy. The main source of knowledge that exists in this mythology are the Eddas, mythological, religious, heroic and poetic texts that date from the Codex Regius that preserves them from the 13th century. These poems were memorized by poets before written language existed. Perhaps the most famous poem of the eddas is the Voluspá, or Prophecy of the Seer.
  • 1300

    DUNS SCOTUS

    DUNS SCOTUS
    John Duns Scoto, known as the Subtle Doctor in medieval times, later gives the humanists the name of Dunsman or dunce. Among his works stand out Ordinatio (Opus oxoniense) and Reportata parisiensa (Opus parisiense). Regarding his minor works, the most important is the First Principle.
  • 1340

    WILLIAM OF OCKHAM

    WILLIAM OF OCKHAM
    William of Ockham advocates paring down arguments to their essentials, an approach later known as Ockham's Razor, was an English Franciscan friar and scholastic philosopher and theologian, who is believed to have been born in Ockham, a small village in Surrey. He is considered to be one of the major figures of medieval thought.
  • 1385

    CHAUCER

    CHAUCER
    Chaucer was an English writer, philosopher, diplomat and poet, best known as the author of the Canterbury Tales. He is considered the most important English poet of the Middle Ages, in 1385 complete Troilus and Criseyde, his long poem about a legendary love affair in ancient Troy.
  • 1387

    CANTERBURY TALES

    CANTERBURY TALES
    Chaucer begins an ambitious scheme for 100 Canterbury Tales, of which he completes only 24 by the time of his death, is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400.
  • 1469

    THOMAS MALORY

    THOMAS MALORY
    Thomas Malory, in gaol somewhere in England, compiles Morte d'Arthur - an English account of the French tales of King Arthur. His description of himself in the culmination of Arturo's death has led to speculate about the possibility that he was a priest, although this is not generally accepted.
  • 1524

    WILLIAM TYNDALE

    WILLIAM TYNDALE
    William Tyndale studies in the university at Wittenberg and plans to translate the Bible into English. He was an English Bible priest and translator who was in charge of translating the first English Bible that was extracted directly from the Hebrew and Greek texts.
  • 1549

    THOMAS CRANMER

    THOMAS CRANMER
    The first version of the English prayer book, or Book of Common Prayer, is published with text by Thomas Cranmer. Thomas Cranmer during his tenure as archbishop of Canterbury was responsible for establishing the first doctrinal and liturgical structures of the Reformed church.
  • 1567

    NEW TESTAMENT

    NEW TESTAMENT
    The Book of Common Prayer and the New Testament are published in Welsh, to be followed by the complete Bible in 1588
  • EDMUND SPENSER

    EDMUND SPENSER
    English poet Edmund Spenser celebrates the Protestant Elizabeth I as The Faerie Queene. Which is an epic poem with a fantastic allegory that honored the house of Tudor and Elizabeth I of England. He is recognized as one of the first architects of modern English verse and is considered one of the best poets in the English language.
  • HAMLET

    HAMLET
    Shakespeare's central character in Hamlet expresses both the ideals of the Renaissance and the disillusion of a less confident age. It is a tragedy of the English playwright William Shakespeare.
  • JOHN DONNE

    JOHN DONNE
    John Donne, England's leading Metaphysical poet, becomes dean of St Paul's. Metaphysical poetry is more or less equivalent to the conceptualist poetry of the Spanish Golden Age of which it is contemporary.
  • ANNE BRADSTREET

    ANNE BRADSTREET
    The poems of Massachusetts author Anne Bradstreet are published in London under the title The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America. Anne Bradstreet was the first American writer and poet to publish a book.
  • JOHN LOCKE

    JOHN LOCKE
    John Locke publishes his Essay concerning Human Understanding, arguing that all knowledge is based on experience. John Locke was an English philosopher and physician, considered one of the most influential thinkers of English empiricism and known as the Father of Classical Liberalism.
  • ROBINSON CRUSOE

    ROBINSON CRUSOE
    Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, with its detailed realism, can be seen as the first English novel. Robinson Crusoe is one of the most famous works of the famous English writer Daniel Defoe, published in 1719, It is a fictional autobiography of the protagonist, an English castaway who spends 28 years on a remote desert island.
  • CLARISSA

    CLARISSA
    Samuel Richardson's Clarissa begins the correspondence that grows into the longest novel in the English language.
  • SAMUEL JOHNSON

    SAMUEL JOHNSON
    Samuel Johnson usually known simply as Dr. Johnson, publishes his magisterial Dictionary of the English Language. He is one of the most important literary figures in England: poet, essayist, biographer, lexicographer, is considered by many to be the best literary critic in the English language.
  • RICHARD BRINSLEY

    RICHARD BRINSLEY
    Richard Brinsley Sheridan's second play, The School for Scandal, is an immediate success in London's Drury Lane theater. It is a comedy of customs, it is considered a classic of English theater.
  • WALTER SCOTT´S

    WALTER SCOTT´S
    Walter Scott's poem Lady of the Lake brings tourists in unprecedented numbers to Scotland's Loch Katrine. Walter Scott's was a prolific writer of British Romanticism, specializing in historical novels, a genre he created as we know it today, as well as a Scottish poet and publisher.
  • FRIEDRICH ENGELS

    FRIEDRICH ENGELS
    Friedrich Engels, was a philosopher, sociologist, journalist, revolutionary and German socialist theoretician. After running a textile factory in Manchester, publishes The Condition of the Working Class in England.
  • CHARLES DARWIN AND CHARLES DICKENS

    CHARLES DARWIN AND CHARLES DICKENS
    Charles Darwin puts forward the theory of evolution in On the Origin of Species, the result of 20 years' research. Charles Dickens publishes his French Revolution novel, A Tale of Two Cities.
  • THOMAS HARDY

    THOMAS HARDY
    English author Thomas Hardy has his first success with his novel Far from the Madding Crow. He was an English novelist and poet, who overcame the naturalism of his time.
  • JOHN BUCHAN AND RUDYARD

    JOHN BUCHAN AND RUDYARD
    John Buchan publishes Prester John, the first of his adventure stories. Rudyard Kipling publishes If, which rapidly becomes his most popular poem among the British.
  • VIRGINIA WOOLF

    VIRGINIA WOOLF
    Virginia Woolf publishes the most fluid of her novels, The Waves, in which she tells the story through six interior monologues.
  • GEORGE ORWELL

    GEORGE ORWELL
    George Orwell publishes Nineteen Eighty-Four, a novel set in a terrifying totalitarian state of the future, watched over by Big Brother. He was a British writer and journalist, whose work bears the mark of the personal experiences lived by the author in three stages of his life.
  • JOHN FOWLES

    JOHN FOWLES
    English novelist John Fowles publishes The French Lieutenant's Woman, set in Lyme Regis in the 1860s.
  • NIKOLAUS PEVSNER

    NIKOLAUS PEVSNER
    German-born British art historian Nikolaus Pevsner completes his monumental 46-volume Buildings of England. His main publications are the following books: Outline of European Architecture 1942, Pioneers of Modern Design 1936, I have Englishness of English Art and volumes in the series Buildings of England.
  • SALMAN RUSHDIE

    SALMAN RUSHDIE
    Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children uses the moment of India's independence to launch an adventure in magic realism. He is an Indian-British writer and essayist, whose two most famous novels are Sons of Midnight and The Satanic Verses.
  • THOM GUNN´S

    THOM GUNN´S
    English poet Thom Gunn's The Man with Night Sweats deals openly with AIDS. He was a British nationalized American poet, famous for his liberal poetic style. In the last years of his career, he devoted himself to writing about homosexuality, drug use, sex and topics related to his bohemian lifestyle.
  • PHILIP PULLMAN´S

    PHILIP PULLMAN´S
    The Amber Spyglass completes Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials. Philip Pullman's won the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year Award.