History of English Literature - Timeline

Old English Period

Period: 450 to 1066

The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes who invaded Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries brought with them the common Germanic metre; but of their earliest oral poetry, probably used for panegyric, magic, and short narrative, little or none survives. For nearly a century after the conversion of King Aethelberht I of Kent to Christianity about 600, there is no evidence that the English wrote poetry in their own language.
Read more: https://www.britannica.com/art/English-literature/The-Old-English-period

Ecclesiastical History of the English People

731

The Venerable Bede, in his monastery at Jarrow, completes his history of the English church and people (Latin: Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum), written by the Venerable Bede in about AD 731, is a history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between the pre-Schism Roman Rite and Celtic Christianity.

Beowulf

800

The first great work of Germanic literature, mingles the legends of Scandinavia with the experience in England of Angles and Saxons. The Beowulf manuscript contains Beowulf, Judith, and three prose tracts; the Exeter Book is a miscellaneous gathering of lyrics, riddles, didactic poems, and religious narratives;the Junius Manuscript, also called the Caedmon Manuscript, contains biblical paraphrases; and the Vercelli Book contains saints’ lives, several short religious poems, and prose homilies.

Edda

950

The material of the Eddas, taking shape in Iceland, derives from earlier sources in Norway, Britain and Burgundy. Edda, body of ancient Icelandic literature contained in two 13th-century books commonly distinguished as the Prose, or Younger, Edda and the Poetic, or Elder, Edda. It is the fullest and most detailed source for modern knowledge of Germanic mythology.

Middle English Period

Period: 1066 to 1500

From about 1100, is the development of Middle English - differing from Old English in the addition of a French vocabulary after the Norman conquest. French and Germanic influences subsequently compete for the mainstream role in English literature.
Piers Plowman and Sir Gawain: 14th century
Geoffrey Chaucer at court: 1367-1400
Troilus and Criseyde: 1385
The Canterbury Tales: 1387-1400
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/plaintexthistories.asp?historyid=aa08#ixzz68m9aSwYk

The Proslogion

1078

The Proslogion (Latin Proslogium; English translation, Discourse on the Existence of God), written in 1077–1078, was written as a prayer, or meditation, by the medieval cleric Anselm which serves to reflect on the attributes of God and endeavours to explain how God can have qualities which often seem contradictory.

John Duns Scotus

1300

John Duns Scotus, (Doctor Subtilis), beatified March 20, 1993. Franciscan realist philosopher and scholastic theologian who pioneered the classical defense of the doctrine that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was conceived without original sin (the Immaculate Conception). He also argued that the Incarnation was not dependent on the fact that man had sinned, that will is superior to intellect and love to knowledge, and that the essence of heaven consists in beatific love rather than the vision of God.

Ockham's Razor

1340

William of Ockham advocates paring down arguments to their essentials, an approach later known as Ockham's Razor. Occam's razor (or Ockham's razor) is a principle from philosophy. Suppose there exist two explanations for an occurrence. In this case the one that requires the smallest number of assumptions is usually correct. Another way of saying it is that the more assumptions you have to make, the more unlikely an explanation.

Piers Plowman

1367

A narrator who calls himself Will, and whose name may be Langland, begins the epic poem of Piers Plowman.Piers the ploughman is one of a group of characters searching for Christian truth in the complex setting of a dream. Though mainly a spiritual quest, the work also has a political element. It contains sharply observed details of a corrupt and materialistic age (Wycliffe is among Langland's English contemporaries).

Geoffrey Chaucer

1367

One of four new yeomen of the chamber in Edward III's household is Geoffrey Chaucer, then aged about twenty-seven. The young man's wife, Philippa, is already a lady-in-waiting to the queen. A few years later Chaucer becomes one of the king's esquires, with duties which include entertaining the court with stories and music. There can rarely have been a more inspired appointment. Chaucer's poems are designed to be read aloud, in the first instance by himself.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

1375

The courtly poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight tells of a mysterious visitor to the round table of King Arthur. It is a late 14th-century Middle English chivalric romance.The characters derive partly from Arthurian legend. A mysterious green knight arrives one Christmas at the court of King Arthur. He invites any knight to strike him with an axe and to receive the blow back a year later. Gawain accepts the challenge. He cuts off the head of the green knight, who rides away with it.

Troilus and Criseyde - Geoffrey Chaucer

1385

Chaucer completes Troilus and Criseyde, his long poem about a legendary love affair in ancient Troy. Chaucer's first masterpiece is his subtle account of the wooing of Criseyde by Troilus, with the active encouragement of Criseyde's uncle Pandarus.Chaucer adapts to his own purposes the more conventionally dramatic account of this legendary affair written some fifty years earlier by Boccaccio. His own very long poem (8239 lines) is written in the early 1380s and is complete by 1385.

The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer

1387

Chaucer begins an ambitious scheme for 100 Canterbury Tales, of which he completes only 24 by the time of his death. Collections of tales are a favourite literary convention of the 14th century. Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales outshines his predecessors. He does so in the range and vitality of the stories in his collection, from the courtly tone of 'The Knight's Tale' to the rough and often obscene humour of those known technically as fabliaux.

Le Morte d'Arthur - Thomas Malory

1469

Thomas Malory, in gaol somewhere in England, compiles Morte d'Arthur – an English account of the French tales of King Arthur. Le Morte d'Arthur (originally spelled Le Morte Darthur, Middle French for "The Death of Arthur")[1] is a reworking by Sir Thomas Malory of existing tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table. Malory interpreted existing French and English stories about these figures and added original material.

English Renaissance Period

Period: 1500 to 1660

The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the late 15th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that is usually regarded as beginning in Italy in the late 14th century. Began with the Protestant Reformation's call to let people interpret the Bible for themselves instead of accepting the Catholic Church's interpretation.

Erasmus's Praise of Folly (1509) and Thomas More's Utopia (1516)

1510

Erasmus and Thomas More take the northern Renaissance in the direction of Christian humanism. The interest which unites them can be described as Christian humanism. These men wish to use the classics not as an alternative to Christianity but as a means of strengthening Christian life. Erasmus learns Greek so as to edit the New Testament in its original form, stating in his preface that he wants the holy text translated into every language to bring the Gospel truth closer to ordinary men and wome

Translation of the Bible into English (incomplete)

1524

William Tyndale studies in the university at Wittenberg and plans to translate the Bible into English. William Tyndale was an English scholar who became a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation in the years leading up to his execution. He is well known for his (incomplete) translation of the Bible into English. Tyndale was influenced by the work of Desiderius Erasmus, who made the Greek New Testament available in Europe, and by Martin Luther.

The Book of Common Prayer - Thomas Cranmer

1549

The first version of the English prayer book, or Book of Common Prayer, is published with text by Thomas Cranmer. The Book of Common Prayer has also influenced or enriched the liturgical language of most English-speaking Protestant churches. The First Prayer Book, enacted by the first Act of Uniformity of Edward VI in 1549, was prepared primarily by Thomas Cranmer, who became archbishop of Canterbury in 1533.

Elizabethan Period

Period: 1558 to 1603

The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personification of Great Britain) was first used in 1572, and often thereafter, to mark the Elizabethan age as a renaissance that inspired national pride through classical ideals, international expansion, and naval triumph over Spain.

Tamburlaine the Great - Christopher Marlowe

1587

Marlowe makes his mark first, (1587) in which his life and his writings are equally dramatic. From his time as a student at Cambridge Marlowe seems to have been involved in the Elizabethan secret service. Marlowe's first play, acted with great success in 1587, is an event of profound significance in the story of English theatre. Tamburlaine the Great introduces the supple and swaggering strain of blank verse which becomes the medium for all the glories of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama.

The Faerie Queene - Edmund Spenser

1590

English poet Edmund Spenser celebrates the Protestant Elizabeth I as The Faerie Queene (1590). It is an epic poem by Edmund Spenser (1552–1599), which follows the adventures of a number of medieval knights. The poem, written in a deliberately archaic style, draws on history and myth, particularly the legends of Arthur. It is an allegorical work in praise of Elizabeth I (represented by Gloriana, the Faerie Queene herself, and the virgin Belphoebe) and of Elizabethan notions of virtue.

Richard III - William Shapeskeare

1593

After tentative beginnings in the three parts of Henry VI, Shakespeare achieves his first masterpiece on stage with Richard III. Richard III is an historical play by William Shakespeare believed to have been written around 1593. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of King Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified as such.

William Shakespeare

1600

By 1600 Shakespeare has conclusively demonstrated his genius in every kind of play except tragedy. In dramatizing English history he has progressed from the fumbling beginnings of the three parts of Henry VI (1590-92) to the magnificent melodrama of Richard III (1592), the subtle character study of Richard II (1595), Romeo and Juliet (1595), the jingoistic glories of Henry V (1600) and, most successful of all, the superb pair of plays about Henry IV and his wayward son Prince Hal.

Hamlet - William Shakespeare

1601

Shakespeare's central character in Hamlet expresses both the ideals of the Renaissance and the disillusion of a less confident age. Hamlet is a great example of how the renaissance period affected the plays that were written during that time. Hamlet is a play about the character prince Hamlet and how he wants to exact revenge on his uncle Claudius for murdering Hamlet’s father, King Hamlet. Hamlet wants to kill King Claudius for killing his father.

Tragedies and dark comedies: 1601-1608

1601

Shakespeare's first attempt at full-scale tragedy, in 1601, brings to the stage a character, Hamlet, whose nature and weaknesses have prompted more discussion than any other Shakespearean creation.
Othello is the next of the major tragedies, in about 1603, with the 'green-eyed monster' jealousy now the driving force on the path to destruction. King Lear, in about 1605, is the most elemental of the tragedies. Macbeth makes guilt itself the stuff of tragedy after ruthless ambition.

Jacobean Period

Period: 1603 to 1625

The Jacobean era refers to the period in English and Scottish history that coincides with the reign of James VI of Scotland (1567–1625), who also inherited the crown of England in 1603 as James I. The Jacobean era succeeds the Elizabethan era and precedes the Caroline era. The term "Jacobean" is often used for the distinctive styles of Jacobean architecture, visual arts, decorative arts, and literature which characterized that period.

King James Bible

1604

James I commissions the Authorized version of the Bible, which is completed by forty-seven scholars in seven years. King James Version (KJV), also called Authorized Version or King James Bible, English translation of the Bible published in 1611 under the auspices of King James I of England. The translation had a marked influence on English literary style and was generally accepted as the standard English Bible from the mid-17th to the early 20th century.

King's Men (playing company)

1604

The King's Men was the acting company to which William Shakespeare (1564–1616) belonged for most of his career. Formerly known as the Lord Chamberlain's Men during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, they became the King's Men in 1603 when King James I ascended the throne and became the company's patron. The royal patent of 19 May 1603 which authorised the King's Men company named the following players, in this order: Lawrence Fletcher, William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, Augustine Phillips...

The Masque of Blackness - Ben Jonson

1605

The Masque of Blackness was an early Jacobean era masque, first performed at the Stuart Court in the Banqueting Hall of Whitehall Palace on Twelfth Night, 6 January 1605. It was written by Ben Jonson at the request of Anne of Denmark, the queen consort of King James I, who wished the masquers to be disguised as Africans. Anne was one of the performers in the masque along with her court ladies, all of whom appeared in black face makeup.

Volpone - Ben Jonson

1606

The satirical voice of the English playwright Ben Jonson is heard to powerful effect in Volpone. Volpone (Italian for "sly fox") is a comedy play by English playwright Ben Jonson first produced in 1605–1606, drawing on elements of city comedy and beast fable. A merciless satire of greed and lust, it remains Jonson's most-performed play, and it is ranked among the finest Jacobean era comedies.

Shakespeare's Sonnets

1609

Shakespeare's sonnets, written ten years previously, are published. Shakespeare's Sonnets Published (1609) Detail: Shakespeare's Sonnets is the title of a collection of 154 sonnets accredited to William Shakespeare which cover themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. It was first published in a 1609 quarto with the full stylised title: SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS.

The Tempest - William Shakespeare

1611

Shakespeare's last completed play, The Tempest, is performed. The Tempest was played before King James on 'Hallowmas nyght' (1 November) 1611: this was its first recorded performance. It had another court performance two years later as one of a number of plays laid on as part of the festivities marking the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth to Frederick, the Elector Palatine of Bohemia.

A Description of New England - John Smith

1616

John Smith publishes A Description of New England, an account of his exploration of the region in 1614. John Smith (1580-1631) made one voyage to the coast of Massachusetts and Maine in 1614, and attempted a second one the following year, only to be captured by French pirates and detained for several months near the Azores before escaping and making his way back to England. This book is the story of these two voyages.

William Shakespeare's death

Apr 23, 1616

William Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, his 52nd birthday. In truth, the exact date of Shakespeare's death is not known, but assumed from a record of his burial two days later, 25 April 1616, at Holy Trinity Church. Stratford Upon Avon, where his grave remains.

Metaphysical poet - John Donne

1621

John Donne, England's leading Metaphysical poet, becomes dean of St Paul's. He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are noted for their strong, sensual style and include sonnets, love poems, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor, especially compared to that of his contemporaries.

Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies

1623

John Heminge and Henry Condell publish thirty-six Shakespeare plays in the First Folio. Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, published in 1623, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio. It is considered one of the most influential books ever published in the English language. Printed in folio format and containing 36 plays.

Caroline Period

Period: 1625 to 1653

The Caroline or Carolean era refers to the era in English and Scottish history during the Stuart period (1603–1714) that coincided with the reign of Charles I (1625–1642), Carolus being Latin for Charles. Caroline theatre unquestionably saw a falling-off after the peak achievements of William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, though some of their successors, especially Philip Massinger, James Shirley, and John Ford, carried on to create interesting, even compelling theatre.

The Temple - George Herbert

1633

George Herbert's only volume of poems, The Temple, is published posthumously. The Temple is organised into three sections: ‘The Church Porch’, ‘The Church’ (having the same number of poems as the number of psalms as divided up for liturgical use in the Church of England calendar) and ‘The Church Militant’.

Lycidas - John Milton

1637

John Milton's Lycidas is published in memory of a Cambridge friend, Edward King. Written in 1637 as a pastoral elegy. It first appeared in a 1638 collection of elegies, entitled Justa Edouardo King Naufrago, dedicated to the memory of Edward King, friend of Milton's at Cambridge who drowned when his ship sank in the Irish Sea off the coast of Wales in August 1637. The poem is 193 lines in length, and is irregularly rhymed. While many of the other poems in the compilation are in Greek and Latin.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America - Anne Bradstreet

1650

The poems of Massachusetts author Anne Bradstreet are published in London under the title The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America. It was Bradstreet's only work published in her lifetime. Published purportedly without Bradstreet's knowledge, Bradstreet wrote to her publisher acknowledging that she knew of the publication. She was forced to pretend she was unaware of the publication until afterwards, or she would have risked harsh criticism.

The Compleat Angler - Izaak Walton

1653

Devoted fisherman Izaak Walton publishes the classic work on the subject, The Compleat Angler. It was first published in 1653 by Richard Marriot in London. Walton continued to add to it for a quarter of a century. It is a celebration of the art and spirit of fishing in prose and verse.

Puritan Period

Period: 1653 to 1660

Puritanism, begun in England in the 17th century of dinosurs, was a radical Protestant movement to reform the Church of England. The idea of a Puritan poet may seem a bit of a contradiction as Puritans disagreed with the practice of using metaphor and verbal flourishes in speech and writing, with their beliefs in God. Puritan poets such as John Milton, Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor and John Dryden produced some of the greatest verse of their old age.

Samuel Pepys' Diary

1660

On the first day of the new year Samuel Pepys gets up late, eats the remains of the turkey and begins his diary. Samuel Pepys has launched into the great adventure of recording the minutiae of his daily life. The experiment lasts nine years (until trouble with his eyes brings it to an end), and it bequeaths to the world perhaps the greatest of all diaries.

Restoration Age

Period: 1660 to 1700

The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland took place in 1660 when King Charles II returned from exile in Europe. The preceding period of the Protectorate and the civil wars, came to be known as the Interregnum (1649–1660). Comedy of manners is used as a synonym of Restoration comedy. After public stage performances had been banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, the re-opening of the theatres in 1660 signalled a renaissance of English drama.

Paradise Lost - John Milton

1667

Paradise Lost is published, earning its author John Milton just £10. Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arranged into twelve books with minor revisions throughout. It is considered by critics to be Milton's major work, and it helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of his time.

Samuel Pepys ends his diary

1669

Samuel Pepys ends his diary, after only writing it for nine years. Pepys stopped writing his diary in 1669. His eyesight began to trouble him and he feared that writing in dim light was damaging his eyes. He did imply in his last entries that he might have others write his diary for him, but doing so would result in a loss of privacy and it seems that he never went through with those plans. In the end, Pepys' fears were unjustified and he lived another 34 years without going blind.

The Pilgrim's Progress - John Bunyan

1678

Part I of The Pilgrim's Progress, written during John Bunyan's two spells in Bedford Gaol, is published and is immediately popular. The Pilgrim's Progress, religious allegory by the English writer John Bunyan, published in two parts in 1678 and 1684. The work is a symbolic vision of the good man's pilgrimage through life. At one time second only to the Bible in popularity, The Pilgrim's Progress is the most famous Christian allegory still in print.

The Life and Death of Mr Badman - John Bunyan

1680

John Bunyan publishes The Life and Death of Mr Badman, an allegory of a misspent life that is akin to a novel. It was designed as a companion to The Pilgrim's Progress and was published by Nathaniel Ponder. The two characters have a dialogue about sin and redemption over the course of a long day.

Oroonoko - Aphra Behn

1688

Aphra Behn's novel Oroonoko makes an early protest against the inhumanity of the African slave trade. Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave is a short work of prose fiction, published in 1688 by William Canning and reissued with two other fictions later that year. The eponymous hero is an African prince from Coramantien who is tricked into slavery and sold to British colonists in Surinam where he meets the narrator. Behn's text is a first-person account of his life, love, rebellion, and execution.

An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding - John Locke

1690

John Locke publishes his Essay concerning Human Understanding, arguing that all knowledge is based on experience. It first appeared in 1689 (although dated 1690) with the printed title An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. He describes the mind at birth as a blank slate filled later through experience. The essay was one of the principal sources of empiricism in modern philosophy, and influenced many enlightenment philosophers, such as David Hume and George Berkeley.

18th Century Period

Period: 1700 to 1798

During the 18th century literature reflected the worldview of the Age of Enlightenment (or Age of Reason): a rational and scientific approach to religious, social, political, and economic issues that promoted a secular view of the world and a general sense of progress and perfectibility. Led by the philosophers who were inspired by the discoveries of the previous century by people like Isaac Newton and the writings of Descartes, John Locke and Francis Bacon.

Augustan Period

Period: 1700 to 1750

Literary life in England flourishes so impressively in the early years of the 18th century that contemporaries draw parallels with the heyday of Virgil, Horace and Ovid at the time of the emperor Augustus. The new Augustan Age becomes identified with the reign of Queen Anne (1702-14), though the spirit of the age extends well beyond her death. The oldest of the Augustan authors, Jonathan Swift, first makes his mark in 1704 with The Battle of the Books and A Tale of a Tub.

Augustan Age

1702

The Augustan Age begins in English literature, claiming comparison with the equivalent flowering under Augustus Caesar. The oldest of the Augustan authors, Jonathan Swift, first makes his mark in 1704 with The Battle of the Books and A Tale of a Tub. These two tracts, respectively about literary theory and religious discord, reveal that there is a new prose writer on the scene with lethal satirical powers.

The Tatler

1709

The Tatler launches a new style of journalism in Britain's coffee houses. The Tatler was a British literary and society journal begun by Richard Steele in 1709 and published for two years. It represented a new approach to journalism, featuring cultivated essays on contemporary manners, and established the pattern that would be copied in such British classics as Addison and Steele's Spectator, Samuel Johnson's Rambler and Idler, and Goldsmith's Citizen of the World.

Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge - George Berkeley

1710

25-year-old George Berkeley attacks Locke in his Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (commonly called Treatise when referring to Berkeley's works) is a 1710 work, in English, by Irish Empiricist philosopher George Berkeley. This book largely seeks to refute the claims made by Berkeley's contemporary John Locke about the nature of human perception.

Rape of the Lock - Alexander Pope

1712

Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock introduces a delicate vein of mock-heroic in English poetry. One of the most commonly cited examples of high burlesque, it was first published anonymously in Lintot's Miscellaneous Poems and Translations (May 1712) in two cantos (334 lines); a revised edition "Written by Mr. Pope" followed in March 1714 as a five-canto version (794 lines) accompanied by six engravings. Pope boasted that this sold more than three thousand copies in its first four days.

Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe

Apr 25, 1719

Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, with its detailed realism, can be seen as the first English novel. Robinson Crusoe (/ˈkruːsoʊ/) is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a travelogue of true incidents.

Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift

1726

Jonathan Swift launches his hero on a series of bitterly satirical adventures in Gulliver's Travels. Gulliver's Travels, or Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships is a prose satire of 1726 by the Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, satirising both human nature and the "travellers' tales" literary subgenre. It is Swift's best known full-length work, and a classic of English literature.

Treatise of Human Nature - David Hume

1739

David Hume publishes his Treatise of Human Nature, in which he applies to the human mind the principles of experimental science. Considered by many to be Hume's most important work and one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy. The Treatise is a classic statement of philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism. In the introduction Hume presents the idea of placing all science and philosophy on a novel foundation: namely, an empirical investigation into human nature.

Clarissa - Samuel Richardson

1747

Samuel Richardson's Clarissa begins the correspondence which grows into the longest novel in the English language. It tells the tragic story of a young woman, Clarissa Harlowe, whose quest for virtue is continually thwarted by her family. The Harlowes are a recently wealthy family whose preoccupation with increasing their standing in society leads to obsessive control of their daughter, Clarissa, who ultimately dies as a result. It is considered one of the longest novels in the English language.

Tom Jones - Henry Fielding

1749

Henry Fielding introduces a character of lasting appeal in the lusty but good-hearted Tom Jones. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, often known simply as Tom Jones, is a comic novel by English playwright and novelist Henry Fielding. It is both a Bildungsroman and a picaresque novel. It was first published on 28 February 1749 in London, and is among the earliest English prose works to be classified as a novel.

Age of Sensibility

Period: 1750 to 1798

This period is known as the Age of Sensibility, but it is also sometimes described as the "Age of Johnson". Samuel Johnson often referred to as Dr Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Johnson has been described as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history". Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755.

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard - Thomas Gray

1751

English poet Thomas Gray publishes his Elegy written in a Country Church Yard. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard is a poem by Thomas Gray, completed in 1750 and first published in 1751. The poem's origins are unknown, but it was partly inspired by Gray's thoughts following the death of the poet Richard West in 1742. Originally titled Stanzas Wrote in a Country Church-Yard, the poem was completed when Gray was living near St Giles' parish church at Stoke Poges.

Dictionary of the English Language - Samuel Johnson

1755

Samuel Johnson publishes his magisterial Dictionary of the English Language, sometimes published as Johnson's Dictionary, is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language.

Parson Woodforde's Diary - James Woodforde

1758

James Woodforde, an English country parson with a love of food and wine, begins a detailed diary of everyday life. The first volume of Parson Woodforde's Diary was published in the spring of 1924. The welcome accorded to this obscure Country Parson, the existence of whose diaries had hitherto been completely unknown, even to the Historical Manuscripts Commission, was immediate and widespread.

Tristram Shandy - Laurence Sterne

1759

Laurence Sterne publishes the first two volumes of Tristram Shandy, beginning with the scene at the hero's conception. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, also known as just Tristram Shandy, is a novel by Laurence Sterne. It was published in nine volumes, the first two appearing in 1759, and seven others following over the next seven years. It purports to be a biography of the eponymous character. Its style is marked by digression, double entendre, and graphic devices.

Fingal - James Macpherson

1762

Fingal, supposedly by the medieval poet Ossian, is a forgery in the spirit of the times by James MacPherson. Ossian is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson from 1760. Ossian is based on Oisín, son of Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill, anglicised to Finn McCool, a legendary bard who is a character in Irish mythology.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon

1764

English historian Edward Gibbon, sitting among ruins in Rome, conceives the idea of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. It traces Western civilization (as well as the Islamic and Mongolian conquests) from the height of the Roman Empire to the fall of Byzantium. The six volumes cover the history, from 98 to 1590, of the Roman Empire, the history of early Christianity and then of the Roman State Church, and the history of Europe, and discusses the decline of the Roman Empire among other things.

Castle of Otranto - Horace Walpole

1764

English author Horace Walpole provides an early taste of Gothic thrills in his novel Castle of Otranto. First published in 1764 and generally regarded as the first gothic novel. In the second edition, Walpole applied the word 'Gothic' to the novel in the subtitle – "A Gothic Story". The novel merged medievalism and terror in a style that has endured ever since. The aesthetic of the book has shaped modern-day gothic books, films, art, music and the goth subculture.

Encyclopaedia Britannica - Colin Macfarquhar and Andrew Bell

1768

A Society of Gentlemen in Scotland begins publication of the immensely successful Encyclopaedia Britannica. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's earliest period as a two-man operation founded by Colin Macfarquhar and Andrew Bell, in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was sold unbound in subscription format over a period of 3 years. Most of the articles were written by William Smellie and edited by Macfarquhar, who printed the pages. All copperplates were created by Bell.

Thomas Chatterton

1770

17-year-old Thomas Chatterton (born November 20, 1752, Bristol, Gloucestershire, England—died August 24, 1770, London), chief poet of the 18th-century “Gothic” literary revival, England’s youngest writer of mature verse, and precursor of the Romantic Movement, later hailed as a significant poet, commits suicide in a London garret. Chatterton’s first known poem was a scholarly Miltonic piece, “On the Last Epiphany,” written when he was 10.

She Stoops to Conquer - Oliver Goldsmith

1773

Oliver Goldsmith's play She Stoops to Conquer is produced in London's Covent Garden theatre. She Stoops to Conquer is a comedy by Oliver Goldsmith, first performed in London in 1773. The play is a favourite for study by English literature and theatre classes in the English-speaking world. It is one of the few plays from the 18th century to have retained its appeal and is regularly performed. The play has been adapted into a film several times, including in 1914 and 1923.

Samuel Johnson and James Boswell undertake a journey together

1773

Samuel Johnson and James Boswell undertake a journey together to the western islands of Scotland. Johnson was then in his mid sixties and well known for his literary works and his Dictionary. The two travellers set out from Edinburgh and skirted the eastern and northeastern coasts of Scotland, passing through St Andrews, Aberdeen and Inverness. They then passed into the highlands and spent several weeks on various islands in the Hebrides, including Skye, Coll, and Mull.

Thomas Paine emigrates to America

1774

Encouraged by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine emigrates to America and settles in Philadelphia. He authored the two most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution and inspired the patriots in 1776 to declare independence from Great Britain. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era ideals of transnational human rights. Historian Saul K. Padover described him as "a corsetmaker by trade, a journalist by profession, and a propagandist by inclination"

First volume of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon

1776

English historian Edward Gibbon publishes the first volume of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

The Wealth of Nations - Adam Smith

1776

Scottish economist Adam Smith analyzes the nature and causes of the Wealth of Nations. First published in 1776, the book offers one of the world's first collected descriptions of what builds nations' wealth, and is today a fundamental work in classical economics. By reflecting upon the economics at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the book touches upon such broad topics as the division of labour, productivity, and free markets.

The School for Scandal - Richard Brinsley Sheridan

1777

Richard Brinsley Sheridan's second play, The School for Scandal, is an immediate success in London's Drury Lane theatre.

Songs of Innocence - William Blake

1789

William Blake publishes Songs of Innocence,a volume of his poems with every page etched and illustrated by himself was Blake's first great demonstration of“illuminated printing,”his unique technique of publishing both text and hand-coloured illustration together.The rhythmic subtlety and delicate beauty of both his lyrics and his designs created rare harmony on his pages.The poems transformed his era’s street ballads and rhymes for children into some of the purest lyrics in the English language.

Principles - Jeremy Bentham

1789

In his Principles Jeremy Bentham defines 'utility' as that which enhances pleasure and reduces pain. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation is a book by the English philosopher and legal theorist Jeremy Bentham "originally printed in 1780, and first published in 1789."Bentham's most important theoretical work," it is where Bentham develops his theory of utilitarianism and is the first major book on the topic.

Reflections on the Revolution in France - Edmund Burke

1790

Anglo-Irish politician Edmund Burke publishesReflections on the Revolution in France, a blistering attack on recent events across the Channel.One of the best-known intellectual attacks against the French Revolution,Reflections is a defining tract of modern conservatism as well as an important contribution to international theory.It has been one of the defining efforts of Edmund Burke's transformation of"traditionalism into a self-conscious and fully conceived political philosophy ofconservatism"

Tam o' Shanter - Robert Burns

1791

Scottish poet Robert Burns publishes Tam o' Shanter, in which a drunken farmer has an alarming encounter with witches. "Tam o' Shanter" is a narrative poem written by the Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1790, while living in Dumfries. First published in 1791, it is one of Burns' longer poems, and employs a mixture of Scots and English.

The Rights of Man - Thomas Paine

1791

Thomas Paine publishes the first part of The Rights of Man, his reply to Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. Rights of Man (1791), a book by Thomas Paine, including 31 articles, posits that popular political revolution is permissible when a government does not safeguard the natural rights of its people. Using these points as a base it defends the French Revolution against Edmund Burke's attack in Reflections on the Revolution in France.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman - Mary Wollstonecraft

1792

English author Mary Wollstonecraft publishes a passionately feminist work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.

Thomas Paine moves to France

1792

Thomas Paine moves hurriedly to France, to escape a charge of treason in England for opinions expressed in his Rights of Man.

'Tyger! Tyger! burning bright' - William Blake

1794

William Blake's volume Songs of Innocence and Experience includes his poem 'Tyger! Tyger! burning bright'. "The Tyger" is a poem by the English poet William Blake published in 1794 as part of the Songs of Experience collection. Literary critic Alfred Kazin calls it "the most famous of his poems", and The Cambridge Companion to William Blake says it is "the most anthologized poem in English". It is one of Blake's most reinterpreted and arranged works.

Age of Reason - Thomas Paine

1795

Thomas Paine publishes his completed Age of Reason, an attack on conventional Christianity. The Age of Reason was a series of influential pamphlets written by Thomas Paine throughout the 1790s and into the early 1800s, written and published in three parts in 1794, 1795, and 1807. His work attacked the church as being corrupt and too institutionalized. It follows in the tradition of 18th-century British deism, and challenges institutionalized religion and the legitimacy of the Bible.

Kubla Khan - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

1797

Samuel Taylor Coleridge says that while writing Kubla Khan he is interrupted by 'a person on business from Porlock'. 'Kubla Khan' was composed in 1797 during an excursion to nearby Linton and the Valley of the Stones. Although Coleridge recited the poem in company on several occasions it was not published until nearly 20 years later, in Poems (1816), in which he referred to it as 'a psychological curiosity'.

Lyrical Ballads - Wordsworth and Coleridge

1798

English poets Wordsworth and Coleridge jointly publish Lyrical Ballads, a milestone in the Romantic movement. Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems is a collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published in 1798 and generally considered to have marked the beginning of the English Romantic movement in literature. The immediate effect on critics was modest, but it became and remains a landmark, changing the course of English literature and poetry.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

1798

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' is published in Lyrical Ballads. It is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–98 and published in 1798 in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads. Some modern editions use a revised version printed in 1817 that featured a gloss.

Romanticism

Period: 1798 to 1837

The Romantic movement in English literature of the early 19th century has its roots in 18th-century poetry, the Gothic novel and the novel of sensibility.This includes the graveyard poets, from the 1740s and later, whose works are characterised by gloomy meditations on mortality, and an interest in ancient English poetic forms and folk poetry. The poets include Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard in and Edward Young, The Complaint, or Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality.

Jerusalem - William Blake

1804

William Blake includes his poem 'Jerusalem' in the Preface to his book Milton.

The Lay of the Last Minstrel - Walter Scott

1805

Walter Scott publishes The Lay of the Last Minstrel, the long romantic poem that first brings him fame.

Lady of the Lake - Walter Scott

1810

Walter Scott's poem Lady of the Lake brings tourists in unprecedented numbers to Scotland's Loch Katrine. The Lady of the Lake is a narrative poem by Sir Walter Scott, first published in 1810. Set in the Trossachs region of Scotland, it is composed of six cantos, each of which concerns the action of a single day.

The Necessity of Atheism - Percy Bysshe Shelley

1811

Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from Oxford university for circulating a pamphlet with the title The Necessity of Atheism. It is an essay on atheism.

Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

1811

English author Jane Austen publishes her first work in print, Sense and Sensibility, at her own expense. Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen, published in 1811. It was published anonymously; By A Lady appears on the title page where the author's name might have been. It tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor (age 19) and Marianne (age 16 1/2) as they come of age. They have an older half-brother, John, and a younger sister, Margaret, 13.

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage - Lord Byron

1812

The first two cantos are published of Byron's largely autobiographical poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bringing him immediate fame. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage is a long narrative poem in four parts written by Lord Byron. It was published between 1812 and 1818 and is dedicated to "Ianthe". The poem describes the travels and reflections of a world-weary young man who, disillusioned with a life of pleasure and revelry, looks for distraction in foreign lands.

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

1813

Pride and Prejudice, based on a youthful work of 1797 called First Impressions, is the second of Jane Austen's novels to be published. The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and eventually comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.

Ozymandias - Percy Bysshe Shelley

1818

Percy Bysshe Shelley publishes probably his best-known poem, the sonnet Ozymandias. The poem was included the following year in Shelley's collection Rosalind and Helen, A Modern Eclogue; with Other Poems, and in a posthumous compilation of his poems published in 1826. Shelley's most famous work, "Ozymandias" is frequently anthologised.

Northanger Abbey and Persuasion - Jane Austen

1818

Two of Jane Austen's novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, are published in the year after her death. Northanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication, in 1803. However, it was not published until after her death in 1817, along with another novel of hers, Persuasion. Northanger Abbey is a satire of Gothic novels, which were quite popular at the time, in 1798–99.

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

1818

Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, a Gothic tale about giving life to an artificial man. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel written by English author Mary Shelley that tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a hideous sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18, and the first edition was published anonymously in London on 1 January 1818, when she was 20.

Don Juan - Lord Byron

1819

Byron begins publication in parts of his longest poem, Don Juan an epic satirical comment on contemporary life.Don Juan is a satiric poem by Lord Byron, based on the legend of Don Juan, which Byron reverses, portraying Juan not as a womaniser but as someone easily seduced by women. It is a variation on the epic form. Byron himself called it an "Epic Satire" (Don Juan, c. xiv, st. 99). Byron completed 16 cantos, leaving an unfinished 17th canto before his death in 1824.

Ivanhoe - Walter Scott

1819

Walter Scott publishes Ivanhoe, a tale of love, tournaments and sieges at the time of the crusades. Ivanhoe is a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, first published in late 1819 in three volumes and subtitled A Romance. Ivanhoe is set in 12th-century England with colourful descriptions of a tournament, outlaws, a witch trial and divisions between Jews and Christians.

Ode to a Nightingale - John Keats

1820

English poet John Keats publishes Ode to a Nightingale, inspired by the bird's song in his garden of the Spaniards Inn, Hampstead, London or, according to Keats' friend Charles Armitage Brown, under a plum tree in the garden of Keats' house at Wentworth Place, also in Hampstead. According to Brown, a nightingale had built its nest near the house of Keats and Brown shared in the spring of 1819. Inspired by the bird's song, Keats composed the poem in one day.

Ode to the West Wind - Percy Bysshe Shelley

1820

English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley publishes Ode to the West Wind, written mainly in a wood near Florence. Perhaps more than anything else, Shelley wanted his message of reform and revolution spread, and the wind becomes the trope for spreading the word of change through the poet-prophet figure. Some also believe that the poem was written in response to the loss of his son, William (born to Mary Shelley) in 1819.

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater - Thomas De Quincey

1821

English author Thomas De Quincey publishes his autobiographical Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, about his laudanum addiction and its effect on his life. The Confessions was "the first major work De Quincey published and the one which won him fame almost overnight.

English radical William Cobbett begins his journeys round England

1821

Rural Rides is the book for which the English journalist, agriculturist and political reformer William Cobbett is best known. At the time of writing in the early 1820s, Cobbett was a radical anti-Corn Law campaigner, newly returned to England from a spell of self-imposed political exile in the United States. Cobbett disapproved of proposals for remedies for agricultural distress suggested in Parliament in 1821.

Table Talk - William Hazlitt

1821

Table-Talk is a collection of essays by the English cultural critic and social commentator William Hazlitt. It was originally published as two volumes, the first of which appeared in April 1821. The essays deal with topics such as art, literature and philosophy. Duncan Wu has described the essays as the "pinnacle of [Hazlitt's] achievement", and argues that Table-Talk and The Plain Speaker (1826) represent Hazlitt's masterpiece.

Domestic Manners of the Americans - Milton Trollope

1832

Domestic Manners of the Americans, based on a 3-year stay, is a 2-volume 1832 travel book by Frances Milton Trollope, which follows her travels through America and her residence in Cincinnati, at the time still a frontier town. The text now resides in the public domain.

Pickwick Papers - Charles Dickens

1836

24-year-old Charles Dickens begins monthly publication of his first work of fiction, Pickwick Papers (published in book form in 1837). The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (also known as The Pickwick Papers) was Charles Dickens's first novel. He was asked to contribute to the project as an up-and-coming writer following the success of Sketches by Boz, published in 1836 (most of Dickens' novels were issued in shilling instalments before being published as complete volumes).

Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

1837

Oliver Twist; or, the Parish Boy's Progress is Charles Dickens's second novel, and was first published as a serial from 1837 to 1839. The story centres on orphan Oliver Twist, born in a workhouse and sold into apprenticeship with an undertaker. After escaping, Oliver travels to London, where he meets the "Artful Dodger", a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal Fagin.

Victorian Period

Period: 1837 to 1901

It was in the Victorian era (1837–1901) that the novel became the leading literary genre in English. Women played an important part in this rising popularity both as authors and as readers, and monthly serialising of fiction also encouraged this surge in popularity, further apheavals which followed the Reform Act of 1832. Significant early examples of this genre include Sybil, or The Two Nations (1845) by Benjamin Disraeli, and Charles Kingsley's Alton Locke (1849).

The Pied Piper of Hamelin - Robert Browning

1842

The Pied Piper of Hamelin (German: Rattenfänger von Hameln, also known as the Pan Piper or the Rat-Catcher of Hamelin) is the titular character of a legend from the town of Hamelin (Hameln), Lower Saxony, Germany. The legend dates back to the Middle Ages, the earliest references describing a piper, dressed in multicolored ("pied") clothing, who was a rat-catcher hired by the town to lure rats away with his magic pipe.

Lays of Ancient Rome - Thomas Babington Macaulay

1842

English author Thomas Babington Macaulay publishes a collection of stirring ballads, Lays of Ancient Rome. Lays of Ancient Rome is a collection of narrative poems, or lays, by Thomas Babington Macaulay. Four of these recount heroic episodes from early Roman history with strong dramatic and tragic themes, giving the collection its name. Macaulay also included two poems inspired by recent history: Ivry (1824) and The Armada (1832).

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

1843

A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, commonly known as A Christmas Carol, is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. A Christmas Carol recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. After their visits, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man.

Coningsby - Benjamin Disraeli

1844

Coningsby, or The New Generation is an English political novel by Benjamin Disraeli, published in 1844. It is rumored to be based on Nathan Mayer Rothschild. According to Disraeli's biographer, Robert Blake, the character of Sidonia is a cross between Lionel de Rothschild and Disraeli himself. Benjamin Disraeli develops the theme of Conservatism uniting 'two nations', the rich and the poor.

The Condition of the Working Class in England - Friedrich Engels

1845

The Condition of the Working Class in England (German: Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England) is an 1845 book by the German philosopher Friedrich Engels, a study of the industrial working class in Victorian England. Engels' first book, it was originally written in German as Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England; an English translation was published in 1885.

Book of Nonsense - Edward Lear

1846

Edward Lear publishes his Book of Nonsense, consisting of limericks illustrated with his own cartoons. Edward Lear’s A Book of Nonsense was first published in 1846 under the pseudonym ‘Derry down Derry’. The limericks and illustrations (which Lear himself drew) were adapted from those Lear produced to amuse the children of Lord Stanley while he was staying with the family at Knowsley.

Poems - Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell

1846

Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell was a volume of poetry published jointly by the three Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne in 1846 (see 1846 in poetry), and their first work to ever go in print. To evade contemporary prejudice against female writers, the Brontë sisters adopted masculine first names. All three retained the first letter of their first names: Charlotte became Currer Bell, Anne became Acton Bell, and Emily became Ellis Bell.

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë

1847

Jane Eyre (originally published as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography) is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë, published under the pen name "Currer Bell", on 16 October 1847, by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first American edition was published the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York. Jane Eyre follows the experiences of its eponymous heroine, including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr. Rochester, the brooding master of Thornfield Hall.

Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

1847

Vanity Fair is an English novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, which follows the lives of Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley amid their friends and families during and after the Napoleonic Wars. It was first published as a 19-volume monthly serial from 1847 to 1848, carrying the subtitle Pen and Pencil Sketches of English Society, reflecting both its satirisation of early 19th-century British society and the many illustrations drawn by Thackeray to accompany the text.

Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë

1847

Wuthering Heights is a novel by Emily Brontë published in 1847 under her pseudonym "Ellis Bell". Brontë's only finished novel, it was written between October 1845 and June 1846. Wuthering Heights and Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey were accepted by publisher Thomas Newby before the success of their sister Charlotte's novel Jane Eyre. After Emily's death, Charlotte edited the manuscript of Wuthering Heights and arranged for the edited version to be published as a posthumous second edition in 1850.

David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

1849

Charles Dickens begins the publication in monthly numbers of David Copperfield, his own favourite among his novels. David Copperfield is the eighth novel by Charles Dickens. The novel's full title is The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account). It was first published as a serial in 1849–50, and as a book in 1850.

In Memoriam - Alfred Tennyson

1850

"In Memoriam" is a poem by the British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, completed in 1849. It is a requiem for the poet's beloved Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died suddenly of a cerebral haemorrhage in Vienna in 1833, aged 22. It contains some of Tennyson's most accomplished lyrical work, and is an unusually sustained exercise in lyric verse. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest poems of the 19th century. It captures perfectly the Victorian mood of heightened sensibility.

Dictionary of synonyms, the Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases - Peter Mark Roget

1852

Roget's Thesaurus is a widely used English-language thesaurus, created in 1805 by Peter Mark Roget (1779–1869), British physician, natural theologian and lexicographer. It was released to the public on 29 April 1852. The original edition had 15,000 words, and each new edition has been larger.

Charge of the Light Brigade - Lord Tennyson

1854

The Charge of the Light Brigade was a failed military action involving the British light cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War, Tennyson publishes a poem finding heroism in the disaster. British commander Lord Raglan had intended to send the Light Brigade to prevent the Russians from removing captured guns from overrun Turkish positions, a task for which the light cavalry were well-suited.

Maud - Lord Tennyson

1855

The poem was inspired by Charlotte Rosa Baring, younger daughter of William Baring (1779–1820) and Frances Poulett-Thomson (d. 1877). Frances Baring married, secondly, Arthur Eden (1793–1874), Assistant-Comptroller of the Exchequer, and they lived at Harrington Hall, Spilsby, Lincolnshire, which is the garden of the poem (also referred to as "the Eden where she dwelt" in Tennyson's poem "The Gardener's Daughter").

The Warden - Anthony Trollope

1855

English author Anthony Trollope publishes The Warden, the first in his series of six Barsetshire novels. The Warden concerns Mr Septimus Harding, the meek, elderly warden of Hiram's Hospital and precentor of Barchester Cathedral, in the fictional county of Barsetshire.

Tom Brown's Schooldays - Thomas Hughes

1857

Tom Brown's School Days (sometimes written Tom Brown's Schooldays, also published under the titles Tom Brown at Rugby, School Days at Rugby, and Tom Brown's School Days at Rugby) is an 1857 novel by Thomas Hughes. The story is set in the 1830s at Rugby School, a public school for boys, depicts the often brutal aspects of an English public school. Hughes attended Rugby School from 1834 to 1842.

Adam Bede - George Eliot

1859

Adam Bede, the first novel written by George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans), was published in 1859. It was published pseudonymously, even though Evans was a well-published and highly respected scholar of her time. The novel has remained in print ever since and is regularly used in university studies of 19th-century English literature.

On Liberty - John Stuart

1859

On Liberty is a philosophical essay by the English philosopher John Stuart Mill. Published in 1859, it applies Mill's ethical system of utilitarianism to society and state. Mill suggests standards for the relationship between authority and liberty. He emphasizes the importance of individuality, which he considers prerequisite to the higher pleasures—the summum bonum of utilitarianism. Furthermore, Mill asserts that democratic ideals may result in the tyranny of the majority.

Self-Help - Samuel Smiles

1859

Samuel Smiles provides an inspiring ideal of Victorian enterprise in Self-Help, a manual for ambitious young men. Arguing for the importance of character, thrift and perseverance, the book also celebrates civility, independence and individuality. As such it reflects concerns and values that were central to working class efforts at self-improvement and study in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Idylls of the King - Lord Tennyson

1859

Idylls of the King, published between 1859 and 1885, is a cycle of twelve narrative poems by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892; Poet Laureate from 1850) which retells the legend of King Arthur, his knights, his love for Guinevere and her tragic betrayal of him, and the rise and fall of Arthur's kingdom. The whole work recounts Arthur's attempt and failure to lift up mankind and create a perfect kingdom, from his coming to power to his death at the hands of the traitor Mordred.

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

1859

A Tale of Two Cities is an 1859 historical novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie, whom he had never met. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám - Edward FitzGerald

1859

Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his 1859 translation from Persian to English of a selection of quatrains (rubāʿiyāt) attributed to Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), dubbed "the Astronomer-Poet of Persia".

On the Origin of Species - Charles Darwin

Nov 24, 1859

On the Origin of Species (or, more completely, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life), published on 24 November 1859, is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Darwin's book introduced the scientific theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection.

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

1860

Charles Dickens begins serial publication of his novel "Great Expectations".Great Expectations is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel, that depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip (a bildungsroman). It is Dickens's second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person. The novel was first published as a serial in Dickens's weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 December 1860 to August 1861.

The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot

1860

George Eliot publishes The Mill on the Floss, her novel about the childhood of Maggie and Tom Tulliver. The novel begins in the late 1820s or early 1830s – several historical references place the events in the book after the Napoleonic Wars but before the Reform Act of 1832. In chapter 3, the character Mr Riley is described as an "auctioneer and appraiser thirty years ago", placing the opening events of the novel in approximately 1829, thirty years before the novel's composition in 1859.

East Lynne - Henry Wood

1861

East Lynne is an English sensation novel of 1861 by Ellen Wood, writing as Mrs Henry Wood. A Victorian best-seller, it is remembered chiefly for its elaborate and implausible plot, centring on infidelity and double identities. There have been numerous stage and film adaptations, which becomes the basis of the most popular of all Victorian melodramas.

Alice Liddell - Lewis Carroll

1862

Oxford mathematician Lewis Carroll tells 10-year-old Alice Liddell, on a boat trip, a story about her own adventures in Wonderland. Alice Pleasance Hargreaves, was, in her childhood, an acquaintance and photography subject of Lewis Carroll. One of the stories he told her during a boating trip became the children's classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. She shared her name with the heroine of the story, but scholars disagree about the extent to which the character was based upon her.

The Water-Babies - Charles Kingsley

1863

The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby is a children's novel by Charles Kingsley. Written in 1862–63 as a serial for Macmillan's Magazine, it was first published in its entirety in 1863. It was written as part satire in support of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species.The book was extremely popular in England, and was a mainstay of British children's literature for many decades, but eventually fell out of favour in part due to its prejudices against Irish, Jews, Catholics and Americans.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

1865

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a young girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre.

Poems and Ballads - Algernon Charles Swinburne

1866

First Series is the first collection of poems by Algernon Charles Swinburne, published in 1866. The book was instantly popular, and equally controversial, scandalizes Victorian Britain with his first collection. Swinburne wrote about many taboo topics, such as lesbianism, sado-masochism, and anti-theism. The poems have many common elements, such as the Ocean, Time, and Death. Several historical persons are mentioned in the poems, such as Sappho, Anactoria, Jesus (Galilaee) and Catullus.

Das Kapital - Karl Marx

1867

The first volume of Das Kapital is completed by Marx in London and is published in Hamburg. Das Kapital, also called Capital. A Critique of Political Economy (German: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Oekonomie, pronounced [das kapiˈtaːl kʁɪˈtiːk deːɐ poˈliːtɪʃən økonomˈiː]; 1867–1883), is a foundational theoretical text in materialist philosophy, economics and politics by Karl Marx.

Culture and Anarchy - Matthew Arnold

1869

English author Matthew Arnold publishes Culture and Anarchy, an influential collection of essays about contemporary society. Culture and Anarchy is a series of periodical essays by Matthew Arnold, first published in Cornhill Magazine 1867-68 and collected as a book in 1869. The preface was added in 1875. Arnold's famous piece of writing on culture established his High Victorian cultural agenda which remained dominant in debate from the 1860s until the 1950s.

Middlemarch - George Eliot

1871

Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by the English author George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans), appearing in eight instalments (volumes) in 1871 and 1872, in which Dorothea makes a disastrous marriage to the pedantic Edward Casaubon. Set in a fictitious Midlands town from 1829 to 1832, it follows distinct, intersecting stories with many characters. Issues include the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism, self-interest, religion, hypocrisy, political reform, and education.

Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll

1872

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) (also known as "Alice through the Looking-Glass" or simply "Through the Looking-Glass") is a novel by Lewis Carroll and the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Alice again enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a mirror into the world that she can see beyond it.

Far from the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

1874

The novel is the first to be set in Thomas Hardy's Wessex in rural southwest England. It deals in themes of love, honour and betrayal, against a backdrop of the seemingly idyllic, but often harsh, realities of a farming community in Victorian England. It describes the life and relationships of Bathsheba Everdene with her lonely neighbour William Boldwood, the faithful shepherd Gabriel Oak, and the thriftless soldier Sergeant Troy.

Roderick Hudson - Henry James

1875

Henry James's early novel Roderick Hudson is serialized in the Atlantic Monthly and is published in book form in 1876.
Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RoderickHudson.jpg

Bulgarian Horrors - William Gladstone

1876

Bulgarian Horrors, atrocities committed by the forces of the Ottoman Empire in subduing the Bulgarian rebellion of 1876; the name was given currency by the British statesman W.E. Gladstone. Publicity given to the atrocities, especially in Gladstone’s pamphlet “The Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East” (1876), served to arouse public sympathy in Europe for the Bulgarians and other southern Slavs attempting to gain independence from the Ottoman Empire.

Sprung rhythm - Gerard Manley Hopkins

1876

Sprung rhythm is a poetic rhythm designed to imitate the rhythm of natural speech. It is constructed from feet in which the first syllable is stressed and may be followed by a variable number of unstressed syllables. The British poet Gerard Manley Hopkins said he discovered this previously unnamed poetic rhythm in the natural patterns of English in folk songs, spoken poetry, Shakespeare, Milton, et al.

The Hunting of the Snark - Lewis Carroll

1876

Lewis Carroll publishes The Hunting of the Snark, a poem about a voyage in search of an elusive mythical creature. It is typically categorised as a nonsense poem. Written from 1874 to 1876, the poem borrows the setting, some creatures, and eight portmanteau words from Carroll's earlier poem "Jabberwocky" in his children's novel Through the Looking-Glass (1871).

Daisy Miller - Henry James

1879

Daisy Miller is a novel by Henry James that first appeared in Cornhill Magazine in June–July 1878, and in book form the following year. It portrays the courtship of the beautiful American girl Daisy Miller by Winterbourne, a sophisticated compatriot of hers. His pursuit of her is hampered by her own flirtatiousness, which is frowned upon by the other expatriates when they meet in Switzerland and Italy.

The Aesthetic Movement and "art for art's sake"

1881

Aestheticism (also the Aesthetic Movement) is an intellectual and art movement supporting the emphasis of aesthetic values more than social-political themes for literature, fine art, music and other arts. This meant that art from this particular movement focused more on being beautiful rather than having a deeper meaning — "art for art's sake". It was particularly prominent in Europe during the 19th century, supported by notable figures such as Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde.

Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson

1883

Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "buccaneers and buried gold." Its influence is enormous on popular perceptions of pirates, including such elements as treasure maps marked with an “X,” schooners, the Black Spot, tropical islands, and one-legged seamen bearing parrots on their shoulders.

New English Dictionary - Oxford University Press

1884

Oxford University Press publishes the A volume of its New English Dictionary, which will take 37 years to reach Z. On this day in 1884, the first portion, or fascicle, of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), considered the most comprehensive and accurate dictionary of the English language, is published. Today, the OED is the definitive authority on the meaning, pronunciation and history of over half a million words, past and present.

The Arabian Nights - Richard Burton

1885

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (1885), subtitled A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, is an English language translation of One Thousand and One Nights (the Arabian Nights) – a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age (8th−13th centuries) – by the British explorer and Arabist Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890).

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson

1886

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a gothic novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. The work is also known as The Strange Case of Jekyll Hyde, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, or simply Jekyll & Hyde. It is about a London legal practitioner named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr Henry Jekyll, and the evil Edward Hyde.

The Mayor of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy

1886

The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character is an 1886 novel by the English author Thomas Hardy. One of Hardy's Wessex novels, it is set in a fictional rural England with Casterbridge standing in for Dorchester in Dorset where the author spent his youth. It was first published as a weekly serialisation from January 1886.

A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

1886

A Study in Scarlet is an 1887 detective novel by Scottish author Arthur Conan Doyle. The story marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who would become the most famous detective duo in popular fiction. The book's title derives from a speech given by Holmes, a consulting detective, to his friend and chronicler Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the story's murder investigation as his "study in scarlet":

The Wanderings of Oisin - William Butler Yeats

1889

The Wanderings of Oisin is an epic poem published by William Butler Yeats in 1889 in the book The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems. It was his first publication outside magazines, and immediately won him a reputation as a significant poet. This narrative poem takes the form of a dialogue between the aged Irish hero Oisín and St. Patrick, the man traditionally responsible for converting Ireland to Christianity.

Fabian Essays in Socialisman - Bernard Shaw

1889

This collection of essays by the so-called “Fabian Socialists” (who advocated socialism by means of gradual political and economic reform instead of by revolution as preferred by the Marxists) prompted a vigorous defense of laissez-faire economic policies by leading English classical liberals in the early 1890s. Two volumes of these rebuttals of Fabian socialism were edited by Thomas Mackay. The 3 volumes together make interesting reading.

The Golden Bough - James Frazer

1890

The Golden Bough was first published in two volumes in 1890; in three volumes in 1900; and in twelve volumes in the third edition, published 1906–15. It has also been published in several different one-volume abridgments. The work was aimed at a wide literate audience raised on tales as told in such publications as Thomas Bulfinch's The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and Heroes (1855). The influence of The Golden Bough on contemporary European literature and thought was substantial.

The Young Visiters - Daisy Ashford

1890

9-year-old Daisy Ashford imagines an adult romance and high society in The Young Visiters. The Young Visiters or Mister Salteena's Plan is a 1919 novel by English writer Daisy Ashford (1881–1972). She wrote it when she was nine years old and part of its appeal lies in its juvenile innocence, and its unconventional grammar and spelling. It was reprinted 18 times in its first year alone.

Tess of the Durbervilles - Thomas Hardy

1891

Thomas Hardy publishes his novel Tess of the Durbervilles, with a dramatic finale at Stonehenge. Though now considered a major nineteenth-century English novel and possibly Hardy's fictional masterpiece, Tess of the d'Urbervilles received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual morals of late Victorian England.

The Highland Association

1891

A Gaelic pressure group, the Highland Association, is founded to preserve the indigenous poetry and music of Scotland. In Scotland the first Gaelic pressure group is founded two years earlier, in 1891, as An Comunn Gaidhealach (The Highland Association). From 1892 it organizes the Mod, a national festival of Gaelic music and poetry inspired by the Welsh Eisteddfod. Read more: http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?HistoryID=lm18&paragraphid=oap#oap#ixzz68OuvqF4x

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

1891

The Picture of Dorian Gray, in which the ever-youthful hero's portrait grows old and ugly, is a Gothic and philosophical novel by Oscar Wilde, first published complete in the July 1890 issue of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. Fearing the story was indecent, the magazine's editor deleted roughly five hundred words before publication without Wilde's knowledge.

National Literary Society

1892

William Butler Yeats founds the National Literary Society in Dublin, with Douglas Hyde as its first president.The members first met in John O’Leary's rooms on Mountjoy Square, and later formally at the Rotunda. Its first president was Douglas Hyde. On 25 November 1892 Hyde delivered a lecture to the society on The Necessity for De-Anglicising Ireland, a precursor to the founding of the Gaelic League.

Widowers' Houses - Bernard Shaw

1892

Widowers' Houses (1892), deals with the serious social problem of slum landlords. It was the first play by George Bernard Shaw to be staged. It premièred on 9 December 1892 at the Royalty Theatre, under the auspices of the Independent Theatre Society — a subscription club, formed to escape the Lord Chamberlain's Office censorship.

The Diary of a Nobody - George and Weedon Grossmith

1892

Mr Pooter is the suburban anti-hero of the The Diary of a Nobody, by George and Weedon Grossmith.The Diary records the daily events in the lives of a London clerk, Charles Pooter, his wife Carrie, his son William Lupin, and numerous friends and acquaintances over a period of 15 months.

Lady Windermere's Fan - Oscar Wilde

1892

Oscar Wilde's comedy Lady Windermere's Fan is a great success with audiences in London's St. James Theatre. The story concerns Lady Windermere, who suspects that her husband is having an affair with another woman. She confronts him with it but although he denies it, he invites the other woman, Mrs Erlynne, to his wife's birthday ball. Angered by her husband's supposed unfaithfulness, Lady Windermere decides to leave her husband for another lover.

The Countess Cathleen - William Butler Yeats

1892

W.B. Yeats publishes a short play The Countess Cathleen, his first contribution to Irish poetic drama. The Countess Cathleen is a verse drama by William Butler Yeats in blank verse (with some lyrics). It was dedicated to Maud Gonne, the object of his affections for many years.

Trilby - George du Maurier

1894

French-born artist and author George du Maurier publishes his novel Trilby. Trilby is set in the 1850s in an idyllic bohemian Paris. The late nineteenth century novelist George Gissing read the "notorious" novel in May 1896 with "scant satisfaction". Though Trilby features the stories of two English artists and a Scottish artist, one of the most memorable characters is Svengali, a rogue, masterful musician and hypnotist.

The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling

1894

Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book surrounds the child Mowgli with a collection of vivid animal guardians. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, who is raised in the jungle by wolves. The stories are set in a forest in India; one place mentioned repeatedly is "Seonee" (Seoni), in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde

1895

Oscar Wilde's most brilliant comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest is performed in London's St. James Theatre, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personæ to escape burdensome social obligations. Working within the social conventions of late Victorian London, the play's major themes are the triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways.

The Time Machine - H.G. Wells

1895

The Time Machine is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895 and written as a frame narrative. The work is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle or device to travel purposely and selectively forward or backward through time. The term "time machine", coined by Wells, is now almost universally used to refer to such a vehicle or device.

A Shropshire Lad - A.E. Housman

1896

English poet A.E. Housman publishes his first collection, A Shropshire Lad. It is a collection of sixty-three poems. After a slow beginning, it rapidly grew in popularity, particularly among young readers. Composers began setting the poems to music less than ten years after their first appearance. Many parodies have also been written that satirise Housman's themes and stylistic characteristics.

Liza of Lambeth - William Somerset Maugham

1897

Somerset Maugham publishes his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, which he wrote while he was a medical student and obstetric clerk at St Thomas's Hospital in Lambeth, then a working-class district of London. It depicts the short life and death of Liza Kemp, an 18-year-old factory worker who lives with her aging mother in the fictional Vere Street off Westminster Bridge Road (real) in Lambeth.

Dracula - Bram Stoker

1897

Dracula is an 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. It introduced the character of Count Dracula, and established many conventions of subsequent vampire fantasy. The novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to move from Transylvania to England so that he may find new blood and spread the undead curse, and of the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and a woman led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing.

The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells

1898

H.G. Wells publishes his science-fiction novel The War of the Worlds, in which Martians arrive in a rocket to invade earth. The novel is the first-person narrative of both an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and of his younger brother in London as southern England is invaded by Martians. The novel is one of the most commented-on works in the science fiction canon.

The Turn of the Screw - Henry James

1898

The Turn of the Screw is an 1898 horror novella by Henry James that first appeared in serial format in Collier's Weekly magazine (January 27 – April 16, 1898). In October 1898 it appeared in The Two Magics, a book published by Macmillan in New York City and Heinemann in London. Classified as both gothic fiction and a ghost story, the novella focuses on a governess who, caring for two children at a remote estate, becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted.

The Story of the Treasure Seekers - E. Nesbit

1899

The Story of the Treasure Seekers is a novel by E. Nesbit. First published in 1899, it tells the story of Dora, Oswald, Dicky, Alice, Noel, and Horace Octavius (H. O.) Bastable, and their attempts to assist their widowed father and recover the fortunes of their family; its sequels are The Wouldbegoods (1901) and The New Treasure Seekers (1904). The novel's complete name is The Story of the Treasure Seekers: Being the Adventures of the Bastable Children in Search of a Fortune.

Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad

1900

Lord Jim is a novel by Joseph Conrad originally published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine from October 1899 to November 1900. An early and primary event in the story is the abandonment of a passenger ship in distress by its crew, including a young British seaman named Jim. He is publicly censured for this action and the novel follows his later attempts at coming to terms with himself and his past.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter

1901

The Tale of Peter Rabbit is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter that follows mischievous and disobedient young Peter Rabbit as he gets into, and is chased about, the garden of Mr. McGregor. He escapes and returns home to his mother, who puts him to bed after dosing him with chamomile tea.

Kim - Rudyard Kipling

1901

Rudyard Kipling's experiences of India are put to good use in his novel Kim. Kim is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning English author Rudyard Kipling. It was first published serially in McClure's Magazine from December 1900 to October 1901 as well as in Cassell's Magazine from January to November 1901, and first published in book form by Macmillan & Co. Ltd in October 1901. The story unfolds against the backdrop of The Great Game, the political conflict between Russia and Britain in Central Asia.

Modern Literature

Period: 1901 to 1940

English literary modernism developed in the early twentieth-century out of a general sense of disillusionment with Victorian era attitudes of certainty, conservatism, and belief in the idea of objective truth. The movement was influenced by the ideas of Charles Darwin, Ernst Mach, Henri Bergson, Friedrich Nietzsche, James G. Frazer, Karl Marx (Das Kapital, 1867), and the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud, among others.

Just So Stories for Little Children - Rudyard Kipling

1902

Just So Stories for Little Children is a 1902 collection of origin stories by the British author Rudyard Kipling. Considered a classic of children's literature, the book is among Kipling's best known works.

Cathleen ni Houlihan - W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory

1902

Cathleen ni Houlihan is a one-act play written by William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory in 1902. It was first performed on 2 April of that year and first published in the October number of Samhain. The play centres on the 1798 Rebellion. The play is startlingly nationalistic, in its last pages encouraging young men to sacrifice their lives for the heroine Cathleen ni Houlihan, who represents an independent and separate Irish state.

Sea Fever - John Masefield

1902

John Masefield's poem 'Sea Fever' is published in Salt-Water Ballads

The Wings of the Dove - Henry James

1902

Henry James publishes the first of his three last novels, The Wings of the Dove. It tells the story of Milly Theale, an American heiress stricken with a serious disease, and her effect on the people around her. Some of these people befriend Milly with honourable motives, while others are more self-interested.

Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

1902

Heart of Darkness (1899) is a novella by Polish-British novelist Joseph Conrad about a narrated voyage up the Congo River into the Congo Free State in the Heart of Africa. Charles Marlow, the narrator, tells his story to friends aboard a boat anchored on the River Thames.

The Hound of the Baskervilles - Conan Doyle

1902

The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the four crime novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin.

The Riddle of the Sands - Erskine Childers

1903

Erskine Childers has a best-seller in The Riddle of the Sands, a thriller about a planned German invasion of Britain. The Riddle of the Sands: A Record of Secret Service is a 1903 novel by Erskine Childers. The book, which enjoyed immense popularity in the years before World War I, is an early example of the espionage novel and was extremely influential in the genre of spy fiction. It has been made into feature-length films for both cinema and television.

The Ambassadors - Henry James

1903

The Ambassadors is a 1903 novel originally published as a serial in the North American Review (NAR). This dark comedy, seen as one of the masterpieces of James's final period, follows the trip of protagonist Lewis Lambert Strether to Europe in pursuit of Chad Newsome, his widowed fiancée's supposedly wayward son; he is to bring the young man back to the family business, but he encounters unexpected complications. The third-person narrative is told exclusively from Strether's point of view.

Principia Ethica - G.E. Moore

1903

Principia Ethica is a 1903 book by the British philosopher G. E. Moore, in which the author insists on the indefinability of "good" and provides an exposition of the naturalistic fallacy. Principia Ethica was influential, and Moore's arguments were long regarded as path-breaking advances in moral philosophy, though they have been seen as less impressive and durable than his contributions in other fields.

Nostromo - Joseph Conrad

1904

Joseph Conrad publishes his novel Nostromo, about a revolution in South America and a fatal horde of silver. Set in the fictitious South American republic of "Costaguana". It was originally published serially in two volumes of T.P.'s Weekly. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Nostromo 47th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It is frequently regarded as amongst the best of Conrad's long fiction.

The Golden Bowl - Henry JAmes

1904

Henry James publishes his last completed novel, The Golden Bowl. Set in England, this complex, intense study of marriage and adultery completes what some critics have called the "major phase" of James' career. The Golden Bowl explores the tangle of interrelationships between a father and daughter and their respective spouses.

Peter Pan - J.M Barrie

1904

Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up or Peter and Wendy is J. M. Barrie's most famous work, in the form of a 1904 play and a 1911 novel. Both versions tell the story of Peter Pan, a mischievous yet innocent little boy who can fly, and has many adventures on the island of Neverland that is inhabited by mermaids, fairies, Native Americans and pirates.

Reginald - H.H. Munro

1904

Under the pseudonym Saki, H.H. Munro publishes Reginald, his first volume of short stories.

De Profundis - Oscar Wilde

1905

Oscar Wilde's De Profundis, a letter of recrimination written in Reading Gaol to Lord Alfred Douglas, is published posthumously. In its first half Wilde recounts their previous relationship and extravagant lifestyle which eventually led to Wilde's conviction and imprisonment for gross indecency. He indicts both Lord Alfred's vanity and his own weakness in acceding to those wishes. In the second half, Wilde charts his spiritual development in prison and identification with Jesus Christ.

Major Barbara and Man and Superman - Bernard Shaw

1905

Bernard Shaw has two new plays opening in London in the same year, Major Barbara and Man and Superman. Major Barbara is a three-act English play, written and premiered in 1905. The story concerns an idealistic young woman, Barbara Undershaft, who is engaged in helping the poor as a Major in the Salvation Army in London.
Man and Superman is a four-act drama written by George Bernard Shaw in 1903. The series was written in response to a call for Shaw to write a play based on the Don Juan theme.

The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy

1905

The Scarlet Pimpernel is the first novel in a series of historical fiction by Baroness Orczy, published in 1905. It was written after her stage play of the same title enjoyed a long run in London, having opened in Nottingham in 1903.

Kipps - H.G. Wells

1905

H.G. Wells publishes Kipps: the story of a simple soul, a comic novel about a bumbling draper's assistant. Humorous yet sympathetic, the perceptive social novel is generally regarded as a masterpiece, and it was his own favourite work.

Everyman's Library - Joseph Dent

1906

The first volume of the inexpensive Everyman's Library is issued by Joseph Dent, a London publisher. Everyman's Library is a series of reprints of classic literature, primarily from the Western canon. It was originally an imprint of J. M. Dent (latterly a division of Weidenfeld & Nicolson and presently an imprint of Orion Books), who continue to publish Everyman Paperbacks.

The Railway Children - Edith Nesbit

1906

The Railway Children is a children's book by Edith Nesbit, originally serialised in The London Magazine during 1905 and first published in book form in 1906. It has been adapted for the screen several times, of which the 1970 film version is the best known. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography credits Oswald Barron, who had a deep affection for Nesbit, with having provided the plot.

The Man of Property - John Galsworthy

1906

John Galsworthy publishes The Man of Property, the first of his novels chronicling the family of Soames Forsyte. In The Man of Property, Galsworthy attacks the Forsytes through the character of Soames Forsyte, a solicitor who considers his wife Irene as a mere form of property. Irene finds her husband physically unattractive and falls in love with a young architect who dies.

Playboy of the Western World - J.M. Synge

1907

The Playboy of the Western World is a three-act play written by Irish playwright John Millington Synge and first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on 26 January 1907. It is set in Michael James Flaherty's public house in County Mayo (on the west coast of Ireland) during the early 1900s. It tells the story of Christy Mahon, a young man running away from his farm, claiming he killed his father.

Dubliners - James Joyce

1907

James Joyce completes the eight short stories eventually published in 1914 as Dubliners.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubliners

Father and Son - Edmund Gosse

1907

Father and Son (1907) is a memoir by poet and critic Edmund Gosse, which he subtitled "a study of two temperaments." Edmund had previously published a biography of his father, originally published anonymously. The book describes Edmund's early years in an exceptionally devout Plymouth Brethren home. His mother, who died early and painfully of breast cancer, was a writer of Christian tracts.

The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp - W.H. Davies

1908

The Welsh poet W.H. Davies has a success with The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp, his account of life on the road and in dosshouses. A large part of the book's subject matter describes the way of life of the tramp in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States in the final decade of the 19th century.

The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp - W.H. Davies

1908

The Welsh poet W.H. Davies has a success with The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp, his account of life on the road and in dosshouses. The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp is an autobiography published in 1908 by the Welsh poet and writer W. H. Davies (1871–1940). A large part of the book's subject matter describes the way of life of the tramp in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States in the final decade of the 19th century.

The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

1908

The Wind in the Willows is a children's novel by Scottish novelist Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternately slow-moving and fast-paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animals (Mole, Rat (a European water vole), Toad, and Badger) in a pastoral version of Edwardian England.The novel is notable for its mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality, and camaraderie, and celebrated for its evocation of the nature of the Thames Valley.

Ann Veronica - H.G. Wells

1909

Ann Veronica describes the rebellion of Ann Veronica Stanley, "a young lady of nearly two-and-twenty", against her middle-class father's stern patriarchal rule. The novel dramatizes the contemporary problem of the New Woman. It is set in Victorian era London and environs, except for an Alpine excursion. Ann Veronica offers vignettes of the Women's suffrage movement in Great Britain and features a chapter inspired by the 1908 attempt of suffragettes to storm Parliament.

Cargoes - John Masefield

1910

In his poem Cargoes John Masefield compares a 'dirty British coaster' with two romantic boats from the past. Masefield began a love-hate relationship with ships and the sea when he took his first and only overseas voyage as a teenager. This trip left indelible marks—some of them scars—on his character and work. “Cargoes” was included in Masefield’s second volume of verse, Ballads, published in 1903.

Prester John - John Buchan

1910

John Buchan publishes Prester John, the first of his adventure stories. It tells the story of a young Scotsman named David Crawfurd and his adventures in South Africa, where a Zulu uprising is tied to the medieval legend of Prester John.

The History of Mr Polly - H.G. Wells

1910

H.G. Wells publishes The History of Mr Polly, a novel about an escape from drab everyday existence. The protagonist of The History of Mr. Polly is an antihero inspired by H. G. Wells's early experiences in the drapery trade: Alfred Polly, born circa 1870, a timid and directionless young man living in Edwardian England, who despite his own bumbling achieves contented serenity with little help from those around him.

If - Rudyard Kipling

1910

Rudyard Kipling publishes If, which rapidly becomes his most popular poem among the British. "If—" is a poem by English Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), written circa 1895 as a tribute to Leander Starr Jameson. It is a literary example of Victorian-era stoicism. The poem, first published in Rewards and Fairies (1910), ch. ‘Brother Square-Toes’, is written in the form of paternal advice to the poet's son, John.

Howard's End - E.M. Forster

1910

E.M. Forster publishes Howard's End, his novel about the Schlegel sisters and the Wilcox family. About social conventions, codes of conduct and relationships in turn-of-the-century England. Howards End is considered by many to be Forster's masterpiece. The book was conceived in June 1908 and worked on throughout the following year; it was completed in July 1910. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Howards End 38th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

The White Peacock - D.H. Lawrence

1911

D.H. Lawrence's career as a writer is launched with the publication of his first novel, The White Peacock. Lawrence started the novel in 1906 and then rewrote it three times. The early versions had the working title of Laetitia. Maurice Greiffenhagen's 1891 painting 'An Idyll' inspired the novel. The painting had "a profound effect" on Lawrence, who wrote: "As for Greiffenhagen's 'Idyll', it moves me almost as if I were in love myself. Under its intoxication, I have flirted madly this Christmas.

Poems - Rupert Brooke

1911

Rupert Brooke publishes Poems, the only collection to appear before his early death in World War . He was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially "The Soldier". He was also known for his boyish good looks, which were said to have prompted the Irish poet W. B. Yeats to describe him as "the handsomest young man in England".

The Innocence of Father Brown - G.K. Chesterton

1911

Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective who is featured in 53 short stories published between 1910 and 1936 written by English novelist G. K. Chesterton. Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intuition and keen understanding of human nature. Chesterton loosely based him on the Rt Rev. Msgr. John O'Connor (1870–1952), a parish priest in Bradford, who was involved in Chesterton's conversion to Catholicism in 1922.

In a German Pension - Katherine Mansfield

1911

In a German Pension is New Zealand author Katherine Mansfield's first collection of stories. All but three of the stories were originally published in The New Age edited by A. R. Orage; the first to appear was "The Child-Who-Was-Tired". The last three were first published in this collection, and Alpers thinks that two (The Swing of the Pendulum and The Blaze) were probably rejected by Orage for The New Age.

Everyman ('Jedermann') - Hugo von Hofmannsthal

1911

Hugo von Hofmannsthal adapts the English medieval morality play Everyman ('Jedermann') for performance in Salzburg. It is based on several medieval mystery plays, including the late 15th-century English morality play Everyman. It was first performed on 1 December 1911 in Berlin, directed by Max Reinhardt at the Circus Schumann. From 1920, it has been performed regularly at the Salzburg Festival.

Zuleika Dobson - Max Beerbohm

1911

Max Beerbohm publishes his novel Zuleika Dobson, in which the beauty of his heroine causes havoc among the students at Oxford. It includes the famous line "Death cancels all engagements" and presents a corrosive view of Edwardian Oxford.

The Listeners - Walter De la Mare

1912

Walter de la Mare published "The Listeners" in 1912, as the title poem of his second collection of poetry. It remains one of his most famous pieces of writing, and reflects the author's fascination with mystery and the supernatural. The poem tells the story of an unnamed Traveller approaching an abandoned house seemingly inhabited by ghosts, but leaves the reader's many questions as to who these entities actually are unanswered.

New Statesman - Beatrice and Sidney Webb

1913

The New Statesman is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was connected then with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members of the socialist Fabian Society, such as George Bernard Shaw who was a founding director.

Sinister Street - Compton Mackenzie

1913

Compton Mackenzie publishes the first volume of his autobiographial novel Sinister Street. It is a kind of bildungsroman or novel about growing up, and concerns two children, Michael Fane and his sister Stella. Both of them are born out of wedlock, something which was frowned upon at the time, but from rich parents.

Principia Mathematica - Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell

1913

Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell complete a work of mathematical logic, Principia Mathematica. it appeared in a second edition with an important Introduction to the Second Edition, an Appendix A that replaced ✸9 and all-new Appendix B and Appendix C. PM is not to be confused with Russell's 1903 The Principles of Mathematics.

Sons and Lovers - D.H. Lawrence

1913

D.H. Lawrence publishes a semi-autobiographical novel about the Morel family, Sons and Lovers. While the novel initially received a lukewarm critical reception, along with allegations of obscenity, it is today regarded as a masterpiece by many critics and is often regarded as Lawrence's finest achievement.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce

1914

James Joyce's novel Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man begins serial publication in a London journal, The Egoist. A Künstlerroman in a modernist style, it traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young Stephen Dedalus, a fictional alter ego of Joyce and an allusion to Daedalus, the consummate craftsman of Greek mythology. Stephen questions and rebels against the Catholic and Irish conventions under which he has grown, culminating in his self-exile from Ireland to Europe.

Dubliners - James Joyce

1914

The stories were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak, and a search for a national identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas and influences. They centre on Joyce's idea of an epiphany: a moment where a character experiences a life-changing self-understanding or illumination, and the idea of paralysis where Joyce felt Irish nationalism stagnated cultural progression, placing Dublin.

The Times Literary Supplement

1914

The Times Literary Supplement is published in London as an independent paper, separate from The Times

Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - Robert Tressell

1914

The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists (1914) is a semi-biographical novel by the Irish house painter and sign writer Robert Noonan, who wrote the book in his spare time under the pen name Robert Tressell. Published after Tressell's death from tuberculosis in the Liverpool Royal Infirmary in 1911, the novel follows a house painter's efforts to find work in the fictional English town of Mugsborough (based on the coastal town of Hastings) to stave off the workhouse for himself, his wife and his son.

Of Human Bondage - Somerset Maugham

1915

Of Human Bondage is a 1915 novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It is generally agreed to be his masterpiece and to be strongly autobiographical in nature, although Maugham stated, "This is a novel, not an autobiography; though much in it is autobiographical, more is pure invention." Maugham, who had originally planned to call his novel Beauty from Ashes, finally settled on a title taken from a section of Spinoza's Ethics.

The Voyage Out - Virginia Woolf

1915

Woolf began work on The Voyage Out in 1910 and had finished an early draft by 1912. The novel had a long and difficult gestation and was not published until 1915.It was written during a period in which Woolf was especially psychologically vulnerable. She suffered from periods of depression and at one point attempted suicide. The resultant work contained the seeds of all that would blossom in her later work: the innovative narrative style, the focus on feminine consciousness, sexuality and death.

The Rainbow - D.H. Lawrence

1915

The Rainbow is a novel by British author D. H. Lawrence, first published in 1915. It follows three generations of the Brangwen family living in Nottinghamshire, particularly focusing on the individual's struggle to growth and fulfilment within the confining strictures of English social life. Lawrence's 1920 novel Women in Love is a sequel to The Rainbow.

Thirty-Nine Steps - John Buchan

1915

The Thirty-Nine Steps is an adventure novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. It first appeared as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in August and September 1915 before being published in book form in October that year by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh. It is the first of five novels featuring Richard Hannay, an all-action hero with a stiff upper lip and a miraculous knack for getting himself out of sticky situations.

1914 and Other Poems - Rupert Brooke

1915

1914 & Other Poems was published shortly after Rupert Brooke died of blood poisoning on his way to the Dardanelles in Turkey. His five war sonnets caught the spirit of the times with a country yet to feel the full impact of the devastation that war would bring. Brooke’s sonnet ‘The Soldier’ is one of the most famous war poems ever written. This collection of poetry outsold most others of the time, reaching an incredible 24th reprint by 1918.

Over the Brazier - Robert Graves

1916

Robert Graves publishes his first book of poems, Over the Brazier. ROBERT GRAVES'S verses have a quality which renders them
memorable. Though in many ways they conform to the new fashions of literary attack, soon to grow old and conventional, they have a touch of true originality, both in the s yle and in the thoughts underlying the style. His poems (1 he will pardon us for saying anything so appallingly commonplace) have all the faults of youth, but they have also a great many of its virtues

H.H. Munro ('Saki') is killed

1916

The author H.H. Munro ('Saki') is killed by a sniper's bullet on a battlefield in France

The Man with Two Left Feet - Jeeves and Bertie Wooster

1917

Jeeves and Bertie Wooster make their first appearance in P.G. Wodehouse.The Man with Two Left Feet, and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by British author P. G.Wodehouse, first published in the UK on 8 March 1917 by Methuen & Co.,London, and in the US on 1 February 1933 by A. L. Burt and Co., New York. All the stories had previously appeared in periodicals, usually The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom and The Red Book Magazine or The Saturday Evening Post in the United States

The Return of the Soldier - Rebecca West

1918

The Return of the Soldier is the debut novel of English novelist Rebecca West, first published in 1918. The novel recounts the return of the shell shocked Captain Chris Baldry from the trenches of the First World War from the perspective of his cousin Jenny. The novel grapples with the soldier's return from World War I with mental trauma and its effects on the family, as well as the light it sheds on their fraught relationships.

Eminent Victorians - Lytton Strachey

1918

Eminent Victorians is a book by Lytton Strachey (one of the older members of the Bloomsbury Group), first published in 1918 and consisting of biographies of four leading figures from the Victorian era. Its fame rests on the irreverence and wit Strachey brought to bear on three men and a woman who had until then been regarded as heroes: Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Arnold and General Gordon (although Nightingale is actually praised and her reputation was enhanced).

The Economic Consequences of the Peace - Maynard Keynes

1919

After the First World War, Keynes attended the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 as a delegate of the British Treasury. In his book, he argued for a much more generous peace, not out of a desire for justice or fairness – these are aspects of the peace that Keynes does not deal with – but for the sake of the economic well-being of all of Europe, including the Allied Powers, which the Treaty of Versailles and its associated treaties would prevent.

Bull-dog Drummond - H. C. McNeile "Sapper"

1920

Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond is a fictional character, created by H. C. McNeile and published under his pen name "Sapper". Following McNeile's death in 1937, the novels were continued by Gerard Fairlie. Drummond is a First World War veteran who, fed up with his sedate lifestyle, advertises looking for excitement, and becomes a gentleman adventurer. The character has appeared in novels, short stories, on the stage, in films, on radio and television, and in graphic novels.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie

1920

The Belgian detective Hercule Poirot features in Agatha Christie's first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. It introduced Hercule Poirot, Inspector (later, Chief Inspector) Japp, and Arthur Hastings. Poirot, a Belgian refugee of the Great War, is settling in England near the home of Emily Inglethorp, who helped him to his new life. His friend Hastings arrives as a guest at her home. When the woman is killed, Poirot uses his detective skills to solve the mystery.

Women in Love - D.H. Lawrence

1920

Women in Love (1920) is a novel by British author D. H. Lawrence. It is a sequel to his earlier novel The Rainbow (1915), and follows the continuing loves and lives of the Brangwen sisters, Gudrun and Ursula. Gudrun Brangwen, an artist, pursues a destructive relationship with Gerald Crich, an industrialist. Lawrence contrasts this pair with the love that develops between Ursula Brangwen and Rupert Birkin, an alienated intellectual who articulates many opinions associated with the author.

'Rain' (Short story) - W. Somerset Maugham

1921

Somerset Maugham's short story 'Rain' (in his collection The Trembling of a Leaf) introduces the lively American prostitute Sadie Thompson. "Rain" is a short story by the British writer W. Somerset Maugham. It was originally published as "Miss Thompson" in the April 1921 issue of the American literary magazine The Smart Set.
The story is set on a Pacific island: a missionary's determination to reform a prostitute leads to tragedy.

Tractatus Logico Philosophicus - Ludwig Wittgenstein

1921

Ludwig Wittgenstein publishes his influential study of the philosophy of logic, Tractatus Logico Philosophicus

The Forsyte Saga - John Galsworthy

1922

John Galsworthy publishes his novels about the Forsyte family as a joint collection under the title The Forsyte Saga

The Waste Land - T.S. Eliot

1922

American-born poet T.S. Eliot publishes The Waste Land, an extremely influential poem in five fragmented sections

Saint Joan - Bernard Shaw

1923

Bernard Shaw's play Saint Joan has its world premiere in New York

A Passage to India - E.M. Forster

1924

E.M. Forster's novel A Passage to India builds on cultural misconceptions between the British and Indian communities

Pastors and Masters - Ivy Compton-Burnett

1925

English writer Ivy Compton-Burnett finds her characteristic voice in her second novel, Pastors and Masters

Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

1925

Virgiinia Woolf publishes her novel Mrs Dalloway, in which the action is limited to a single day

The Preservation of Rural England - Patrick Abercrombie

1926

Patrick Abercrombie publishes The Preservation of Rural England, calling for rural planning to prevent the encroachment of towns

Seven Pillars of Wisdom - T.E. Lawrence

1926

T.E. Lawrence publishes privately his autobiographical Seven Pillars of Wisdom, describing his part in the Arab uprising

A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle - Hugh MacDiarmid

1926

Hugh MacDiarmid writes his long poem A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle in a revived version of the Lallans dialect of the Scottish borders

Tarka the Otter - Henry Williamson

1927

Henry Williamson wins a wide readership with Tarka the Otter, a realistic story of the life and death of an otter in Devon

The Hotel - Elizabeth Bowen

1927

Anglo-Irish author Elizabeth Bowen publishes her first novel, The Hotel

Postures - Jean Rhys

1928

Caribbean-born author Jean Rhys publishes her first novel, Postures, based on her affair with the writer Ford Madox Ford

Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man - Siegfried Sassoon

1928

Siegfried Sassoon publishes Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, the first volume of a semi-autobiographical trilogy

Journey's End - R.C. Sherriff

1928

Set in a World War I trench, the play Journey's End reflects the wartime experiences of its British author, R.C. Sherriff

Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh

1928

Evelyn Waugh succeeds with a comic first novel, Decline and Fall

A High Wiind in Jamaica - Richard Hughes

1929

Richard Hughes publishes his first novel, A High Wiind in Jamaica

The Good Companions - J.B. Priestley

1929

English author J.B. Priestley has an immediate success with his first novel, The Good Companions

Goodbye to All That - Robert Graves

1929

English poet Robert Graves puts behind him an England he dislikes in his autobiography, Goodbye to All That

Poems - W.H. Auden

1930

English author W.H. Auden's first collection of poetry is published with the simple title Poems

Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

1930

Swallows and Amazons is the first of Arthur Ransome's adventure stories for children

Murder at the Vicarage - Agatha Christie

1930

Agatha Christie's Miss Marple makes her first appearance, in Murder at the Vicarage

1066 and all that - Walter Sellar and Robert Yeatman

1930

A spoof history text book, 1066 and all that, is justifiably described by its authors, Walter Sellar and Robert Yeatman, as a Memorable History of England

The Waves - Virginia Woolf

1931

Virginia Woolf publishes the most fluid of her novels, The Waves, in which she tells the story through six interior monologues

Conquistador - Archibald MacLeish

1932

US poet Archibald MacLeish publishes a narrative epic, Conquistador, about the conquest of Mexico

The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis

1932

British author C.S. Lewis publishes a moral parable, The Screwtape Letters, about the problems confronting a trainee devil

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

1932

British author Aldous Huxley gives a bleak view of a science-based future in his novel Brave New World

A Glastonbury Romance - John Cowper Powys

1932

John Cowper Powys's novel A Glastonbury Romance is published first in New York

The Shape of Things to Come - H.G. Wells

1933

H.G. Wells publishes The Shape of Things to Come, a novel in which he accurately predicts a renewal of world war

Frost in May - Antonia White

1933

English author Antonia White publishes an autobiographical first novel, Frost in May

Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell

1933

In Down and Out in Paris and London English author George Orwell writes a sympathetic account of the people he meets on hard times

I, Claudius - Robert Graves

1934

In I, Claudius the autobiography of the Roman emperor is ghost-written by Robert Graves

A Handful of Dust - Evelyn Waugh

1934

In A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh sends his hero Tony Last to a disastrous fate, far away in the Amazon rain forest

Penguin Books - Allen Lane

1935

British publisher Allen Lane launches a paperback series to which he gives the name Penguin Books

The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money - John Maynard Keynes

1936

John Maynard Keynes defines his economics in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money

Language, Truth and Logic - A.J. Ayer

1936

In Language, Truth and Logic 26-year-old A.J. Ayer produces a classic exposition of Logical Positivism

Scoop - Evelyn Waugh

1938

British author Evelyn Waugh publishes a classic Fleet Street novel, Scoop, introducing Lord Copper, proprietor of The Beast

Homage to Catalonia - George Orwell

1938

In Homage to Catalonia George Orwell describes his experiences fighting for the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War

Brighton Rock - Graham Greene

1938

British author Graham Greene publishes Brighton Rock, a novel following 17-year-old Pinkie in the criminal underworld of the seaside town

At Swim-Two-Birds - Flann O'Brien

1939

Irish author Flann O'Brien publishes his first novel, At Swim-Two-Birds

Goodbye to Berlin - Christopher Isherwood

1939

British author Christopher Isherwood publishes his novel Goodbye to Berlin, based on his own experiences in the city

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats - T.S. Eliot

1939

T.S. Eliot gives cats a poetic character in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

The Third Policeman - Flann O'Brien

1940

Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman is rejected by numerous publishers before becoming, decades later, his best-known novel

Post Moderns

Period: 1940 to 2000

Though some have seen modernism ending by around 1939, with regard to English literature. In fact a number of modernists were still living and publishing in the 1950s and 1960, including T.S. Eliot, Dorothy Richardson, and Ezra Pound. Furthermore, Basil Bunting, published little until Briggflatts in 1965 and Samuel Beckett, continued to produce significant works until the 1980s, though some view him as a post-modernist. British writers were poet Dylan Thomas and novelist Graham Greene.

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon - Rebecca West

1941

British author Rebecca West publishes an account of Yugoslavia, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon

Five on a Treasure Island - Enid Blyton

1942

English children's author Enid Blyton introduces the Famous Five in Five on a Treasure Island

Four Quartets - T.S. Eliot

1944

The separate poems forming T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets are brought together for the first time as a single volume, published in New York

The Pursuit of Love - Nancy Mitford

1945

English author Nancy Mitford has her first success with the novel The Pursuit of Love

Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

1945

Evelyn Waugh publishes Brideshead Revisited, a novel about a rich Catholic family in England between the wars

Animal Farm - George Orwell

1945

In George Orwell's fable Animal Farm a ruthless pig, Napoleon, controls the farmyard using the techniques of Stalin

Titus Groan - Mervyn Peake

1946

Titus Groan begins British author Mervyn Peake's trilogy of gothic novels

Under the Volcano - Malcolm Lowry

1947

English author and alcoholic Malcolm Lowry publishes an autobiographical novel, Under the Volcano

An Inspector Calls - J.B. Priestley

1947

J.B. Priestley challenges audiences with An Inspector Calls, a play in which moral guilt spreads like an infection

The Lady's Not For Burning - Christopher Fry

1948

Christopher Fry's verse drama The Lady's Not For Burning engages in high-spirited poetic word play

Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell

1949

George Orwell publishes Nineteen Eighty-Four, a novel set in a terrifying totalitarian state of the future, watched over by Big Brother

Narnia The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis

1950

C.S. Lewis gives the first glimpse of Narnia in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The Grass is Singing - Doris Lessing

1950

British author Doris Lessing publishes her first novel, The Grass is Singing

The Family Moskat - Isaac Bashevis Singer

1950

The Family Moskat, about a Jewish family in Warsaw, is the first of Isaac Bashevis Singer's books to be published in English

The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham

1951

British author John Wyndham creates a dark fantasy in his novel The Day of the Triffids

The Buildings of England - Nikolaus Pevsne

1951

British art historian Nikolaus Pevsner undertakes a massive task, a county-by-county description of The Buildings of England

Men at Arms - Evelyn Waugh

1952

Evelyn Waugh publishes Men at Arms, the first novel in the Sword of Honour trilogy based on his wartime experiences

The Go-Between - L.P. Hartley

1953

English author L.P. Hartley sets his novel The Go-Between in the summer of 1900

Casino Royale - Ian Fleming

1953

James Bond, agent 007, has a licence to kill in Ian Fleming's first novel, Casino Royale

The Second World War - Winston Churchill

1954

Politician and author Winston Churchill completes his six-volume history The Second World War

Under the Net - Iris Murdoch

1954

Anglo-Irish novelist Iris Murdoch publishes her first novel, Under the Net

Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis

1954

English author Kingsley Amis's first novel, Lucky Jim, strikes an anti-establishment chord

Lord of the Flies - William Golding

1954

William Golding gives a chilling account of schoolboy savagery in his first novel, Lord of the Flies

The Quiet American - Graham Greene

1955

Graham Greene's novel The Quiet American is set in contemporary Vietnam and foresees troubles ahead

The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien

1955

British philologist J.R.R. Tolkien publishes the third and final volume of his epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings

Not Waving but Drowning - Stevie Smith

1957

English author Stevie Smith publishes her collection of poems Not Waving but Drowning

The Entertainer - Laurence Olivier

1957

Laurence Olivier brings the music-hall artist Archie Rice vibrantly to life in John Osborne's The Entertainer

The Hawk in the Rain - Ted Hughes

1957

The Hawk in the Rain is English author Ted Hughes' first volume of poems

Room at the Top - John Braine

1957

English author John Braine publishes his first novel, Room at the Top

Chicken Soup - Arnold Wesker

1958

Chicken Soup with Barley begins a trilogy by English playwright Arnold Wesker

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning - Alan Sillitoe

1958

English author Alan Sillitoe publishes his first novel, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

Billy Liar - Keith Waterhouse

1959

Keith Waterhouse has a wide success with his second novel, Billy Liar

The Caretaker - Harold Pinter

1959

Harold Pinter's second play in London's West End, The Caretaker, immediately brings him an international reputation

Summoned by Bells - John Betjeman

1960

English poet John Betjeman publishes his long autobiographical poem Summoned by Bells

A Man for All Seasons - Paul Scofield

1960

Paul Scofield plays Thomas More in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons

James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl

1961

British author Roald Dahl publishes a novel for children, James and the Giant Peach

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark

1961

British novelist Muriel Spark publishes The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, set in an Edinburgh school in the 1930s

War Requiem - Benjamin Britten

1962

Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, setting poems by Wilfred Owen, is first performed in the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral

The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing

1962

British author Doris Lessing publishes an influential feminist novel, The Golden Notebook

Cover Her Face - P.D. James

1962

British author P.D. James's first novel, Cover Her Face, introduces her poet detective Adam Dalgleish

A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

1962

Anthony Burgess publishes A Clockwork Orange, a novel depicting a disturbing and violent near-future

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John Le Carré

1963

English author John Le Carré publishes a Cold-War thriller The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

A Summer Birdcage - Margaret Drabble

1963

English author Margaret Drabble publishes her first novel, A Summer Birdcage

Annus Mirabilis - Philip Larkin

1963

Sexual intercourse begins in this year, according to Philip Larkin's 1974 poem Annus Mirabilis

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

1964

Roald Dahl publishes a fantasy treat for a starving child, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Shadow of a Sun - A.S. Byatt

1964

English author A.S. Byatt publishes her first novel, Shadow of a Sun

The Jewel in the Crown - Paul Scott

1966

English novelist Paul Scott publishes The Jewel in the Crown, the first volume in his 'Raj Quartet'

Death of a Naturalist - Seamus Heaney

1966

Irish poet Seamus Heaney wins critical acclaim for Death of a Naturalist, his first volume containing more than a few poems

Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys

1966

After a long period of obscurity, Wide Sargasso Sea brings novelist Jean Rhys back into the literary limelight

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - Tom Stoppard

1966

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, by Tom Stoppard, is produced at the Edinburgh Festival

The Magic Toyshop - Angela Carter

1967

English author Angela Carter wins recognition with her quirky second novel, The Magic Toyshop

Relatively Speaking - Alan Ayckbourn

1967

English playwright Alan Ayckbourn has his first success with Relatively Speaking

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg - Peter Nichols

1967

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, by English dramatist Peter Nichols, has its premiere in London

The French Lieutenant's Woman - John Fowles

1969

English novelist John Fowles publishes The French Lieutenant's Woman, set in Lyme Regis in the 1860s

Owners - Caryl Churchill

1972

English dramatist Caryl Churchill's first play, Owners, is produced in London

Terminal Moraine - James Fenton

1972

English poet James Fenton publishes his first collection, Terminal Moraine

Small is Beautiful - Ernst Friedrich Schumacher

1973

British economist Ernst Friedrich Schumacher publishes an influential economic tract, Small is Beautiful

The Rachel Papers - Martin Amis

1973

Martin Amis, son of Kingsley Amis, publishes his first novel, The Rachel Papers

Buildings of England - Nikolaus Pevsner

1974

German-born British art historian Nikolaus Pevsner completes his monumental 46-volume Buildings of England

Heat and Dust - Ruth Prawer Jhabwala

1975

English author Ruth Prawer Jhabwala wins the Booker Prize with her novel Heat and Dust

The Sea, the Sea - Iris Murdoch

1978

Iris Murdoch publishes The Sea, the Sea, and wins the 1978 Booker Prize

The Pleasure Steamers - Andrew Motion

1978

English author Andrew Motion publishes his first collection of poems, The Pleasure Steamers

The Cement Garden - Ian McEwan

1978

British author Ian McEwan publishes his first novel, The Cement Garden

Amadeus - Peter Shaffer

1979

Peter Shaffer's play about Mozart, Amadeus, has its premiere in London

War Music - Christopher Logue

1981

War Music is the first instalment of Christopher Logue's version of the Iliad

A Start in Life - Anita Brookner

1981

English author Anita Brookner publishes her first novel, A Start in Life

Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

1981

Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children uses the moment of India's independence to launch an adventure in magic realism

The Dresser - Ronald Harwood

1983

Ronald Harwood's play The Dresser is partly inspired by the British actor Donald Wolfit

The Economic Consequences of Mrs Thatcher - Nicholas Kaldor

1983

British economist Nicholas Kaldor attacks monetarism in The Economic Consequences of Mrs Thatcher

Flaubert's Parrot - Julian Barnes

1984

English author Julian Barnes publishes a multi-faceted literary novel, Flaubert's Parrot

The Dread Affair - Benjamin Zephaniah

1985

British Rasta poet Benjamin Zephaniah publishes his second collection as The Dread Affair

Partingtime Hall - John Fuller

1987

English poets John Fuller and James Fenton collaborate in a volume of satirical poems, Partingtime Hall

Talking Heads - Alan Bennett

1987

Talking Heads, a series of dramatic monologues by English author Alan Bennett, is broadcast on British TV

A Brief History of Time: from the Big Bang to Black Holes - Stephen Hawking

1988

British physicist Stephen Hawking explains the cosmos for the general reader in A Brief History of Time: from the Big Bang to Black Holes

Racing Demon - David Hare

1990

Racing Demon launches a trilogy on the British establishment by English playwright David Hare

The Madness of George III - Alan Bennett

1991

Alan Bennett's play The Madness of George III is performed at the National Theatre in London

The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje

1991

Canadian poet and novelist Michael Ondaatje publishes The English Patient

Regeneration - Pat Barker

1991

Regeneration is the first volume of English author Pat Barker's trilogy of novels set during World War I

The Man with Night Sweats - Thom Gunn

1992

English poet Thom Gunn's The Man with Night Sweats deals openly with AIDS

Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

1993

English novelist Sebastian Faulks publishes Birdsong, set partly in the trenches of World War I

A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

1993

Vikram Seth publishes his novel A Suitable Boy, a family saga in post-independence India

Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh

1993

Scottish author Irvine Welsh publishes his first novel, Trainspotting

Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de Bernières

1994

Louis de Bernières publishes Captain Corelli's Mandolin, a love story set in Italian-occupied Cephalonia

Birthday Letters - Ted Hughes

1997

The poems forming Ted Hughes's Birthday Letters describe his relationship with Sylvia Plath

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling

1997

A schoolboy wizard performs his first tricks in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Copenhagen - Michael Frayn

1998

Michael Frayn's play Copenhagen dramatizes the visit of Werner Heisenberg to Niels Bohr in wartime Denmark

Beowulf (translation) - Seamus Heaney

1999

A translation by Irish author Seamus Heaney brings many new readers to the Old English poem Beowulf

The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman's trilogy

2000

The Amber Spyglass completes Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials

Contemporary

Period: 2000 to 2019

In doing so, it also displayed another preoccupation of the 21st century’s early years: the imitation of earlier literary styles and techniques. There was a marked vogue for pastiche and revisionary Victorian novels (of which Michel Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White [2002] was a prominent example). McEwan’s Atonement (2001) worked masterly variations on the 1930s fictional procedures of authors such as Elizabeth Bowen. J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter serie)

Nobel Prize in Literature. - Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul

2001

Most commonly known as V. S. Naipaul, and informally, Vidia Naipaul, was a Trinidadian and Tobagonian British writer of works of fiction and nonfiction in English. He is known for his comic early novels set in Trinidad, his bleaker novels of alienation in the wider world, and his vigilant chronicles of life and travels. He wrote in prose that was widely admired, but his views sometimes aroused controversy. He published more than thirty books over fifty years.

Nobel Prize in Literature - John Maxwell Coetzee

2003

He is a South African–born novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He has also won the Booker Prize twice, the Jerusalem Prize, CNA Prize (thrice), the Prix Femina étranger, The Irish Times International Fiction Prize as well as other awards and honours, holds a number of honorary doctorates and is one of the most acclaimed and decorated authors in the English language. He became an Australian citizen in 2006.

Nobel Prize in Literature - Harold Pinter

2005

He was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1971), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Trial (1993), and Sleuth (2007).

Nobel Prize in Litearture - Doris May Lessing

2007

She was a British-Zimbabwean (Rhodesian) novelist. She was born to British parents in Iran, where she lived until 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she remained until moving in 1949 to London, England. Her novels include The Grass Is Singing (1950), the sequence of five novels collectively called Children of Violence (1952–1969), The Golden Notebook (1962), The Good Terrorist (1985), and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos.

Book of Negroes - Lawrence Hill

2008

Lawrence Hill's Book of Negroes won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize Overall Best Book Award

Man Booker International Prize - Alice Ann Munro

2009

Munro also received the Man Booker International Prize in 2009. The International Booker Prize is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom. Sponsored by the Man Group, from 2005 until 2015 the award was given every two years to a living author of any nationality for a body of work published in English or generally available in English translation. It rewarded one author's "continued creativity, development and overall contribution to fiction on the world stage".

Nobel Prize in Literature - Alice Ann Munro

2013

Alice Ann Munro is a Canadian short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Munro's work has been described as having revolutionized the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to move forward and backward in time. Her stories have been said to "embed more than announce, reveal more than parade."

Nobel Prize in Literature - Bob Dylan

2016

He is an American singer-songwriter, author, and visual artist who has been a major figure in popular culture for more than fifty years. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights movement and anti-war movement. His lyrics during this period incorporated a wide range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences, defied pop-music conventions.

Nobel Prize in Literature - Sir Kazuo Ishiguro

2017

He is a British novelist, screenwriter, and short-story writer. Ishiguro is one of the most celebrated contemporary fiction authors in the English-speaking world. He has received four Man Booker Prize nominations and won the award in 1989 for his novel The Remains of the Day. Ishiguro's 2005 novel, Never Let Me Go, was named by Time as the best novel of the year, and was included in the magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005.