English literature: Quick Facts

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Illuminated manuscript page showing Geoffrey Chaucer riding a horse, dressed in dark robes, with ornate decorative borders and Gothic script text from the Canterbury Tales.

English poet and monk John Lydgate with pilgrims

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville

Nicolaus Copernicus: heliocentric system

Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene

Engraving of the Globe Theatre

Historical map of London around 1600 highlighting the locations of major theatres such as The Globe, The Rose, The Swan, The Fortune, and The Curtain, along with city walls, administrative areas, halls, and other buildings used as theatres. The map shows the River Thames at the bottom and marks notable city features, streets, and neighborhoods, with theatres indicated by red squares.

Design by Inigo Jones for a procession in The Masque of Augures

The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus

Learn about women's contributions to English literature during the 16th and 17th centuries

Uncover the linguistic influence of King James Bible on English literature

Learn about the characters of Othello as discussed by the cast and crew of a Folger Shakespeare Library production

Open book with Regency-era illustration of Jane Austen holding a book; large script “J. Austen” across; background of handwritten text.

Learn about the life and work of novelist Jean Rhys

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Topics

Manx literature Middle English literature Court Wit Augustan Age Victorian literature Martian school of poetry New Apocalypse Scottish renaissance spasmodic school American literature French literature African literature Arabic literature Italian literature German literature Spanish literature Japanese literature Latin American literature Chinese literature Yiddish literature

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Key People

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Juliana Ewing

British author

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Ian Maclaren

Scottish author

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George Douglas Howard Cole

British economist

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Mary Novello Clarke

English author

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Martha Ostenso

Canadian author

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Sidney Colvin

English scholar

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Michael Morpurgo

British author

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John Banim

Irish author

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Michael Banim

Irish author

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Arthur Hailey

Canadian writer

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Mary Hayley Bell

British author and actress

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

English author

Engraved portrait of John Milton by Jacob Houbraken, showing Milton with shoulder-length hair, a lace collar, and period clothing, facing forward in an oval frame.

John Milton

English poet, pamphleteer, and historian

British prime minister Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

prime minister of United Kingdom

Portrait of Charles Dickens seated at a desk, writing with a quill pen, dressed in a suit with a bow tie.

Charles Dickens

British novelist

Painting of Samuel Johnson showing Johnson seated at a desk with a quill in hand and papers before him, wearing a brown coat and white wig.

Samuel Johnson

English author

William Blake

William Blake

English engraver, artist, and poet

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf

British writer

Portrait of Jane Austen seated, wearing a light blue dress and bonnet, holding a closed book on her lap with a thoughtful expression.

Jane Austen

English novelist

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift

Anglo-Irish author and clergyman

George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron. Lord Byron English poet (1788-1824) was a leading figure in the Romantic movement.

10 British Poets: A Quiz

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

Poetry: First Lines

Beginning of the old English poem, Beowulf, believed to have been composed between 700 and 750. (Old English literature)

Poets and Poetry (Part Two) Quiz

Hatter engaging in rhetoric illustration 26. by Sir John Tenniel for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Alice in Wonderland by British author Lewis Carroll. Cropped from source file asset 166534/ic code bolse1690 Mad Hatter tea party

The Life and Works of English Authors