1. Literature is commonly divided into three major genres: poetry, prose, and drama. Each major genre can in turn be divided into lyric, concrete, dramatic, narrative and epic.

Prose: / fiction (novels, novellas & short stories) & nonfiction (biography, j autobiography, letters, essays & reports)Novel is a long fictional story written in prose. Its one of the most popular forms of l-re.The subject matter of novels covers the whole range of human experience & imagination. Some novels portray true-to-life characters & events. Writers of such realistic novels try lo represent life as it is.Some novels point out evils that exist in society & challenge the reader to seek social or political reforms.The novel has 4 basic features: 1.novel-narrative (story is presented by a teller). 2. Novels are longer than short stories, fairy tales and most other types of narratives. They vary greatly in length. 3. A novel is written in prose rather than verse, (this feature distinguish N from narrative poems.) 4.N-s are works of fiction. They differ from histories, biographies & other long prose narratives that tell about real events and people. Novelists sometimes base their stones on actual events or the lives of real people. But they also make up incidents and characters.Novelists can arrange incidents, describe places and represent characters in an almost limitless variety of ways. They also may narrate their story from different point of view. In some novels, for ex.. one of the characters may tell the story. In others, the events may be describes from the viewpoint of a person outside of the story. Novelists also may vary their treatment of time. They may devote hundreds of pages to the description of the events of 1 day, or they may cover many years within a few paragraphs.Poetry: is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to its ostensible (очевидный) meaning. Poetry may be written independently, as discrete poems, or may occur in conjunction with other arts, as in poetic drama, hymns or lyrics.Poetry is often full of ideas. And sometimes poems can be powerful experiences of the mind, but most poems are primarily about how people feet rather than how people think. P. can be the voice of our feelings.Thought prose and poetry have much in common and a number of poets also write prose fiction, commonly accepted differences between the two genres.Rhythm is a characteristic feature of poetry. Poetry distills compresses and refines knowledge through selective use of language.

Poets employ various strategies and elements of poetic technique to frame their vision of human experience in verse: theme, tone, imagery, symbolism, simile & metaphor, personification and apostrophe, rhythm and rhyme, sound, structure and form.

Drama: /serious drama, tragedy, comic drama, melodrama, farce. D. demands a stage and performances. It can be enjoyed by both spectators and readers. Bui the most plays are written to be produced and must be performed.Poetic elements of technique in a play must be made visible. Through plot, a playwright "imitates" movements of existence, adjusting the rhythm to fit the mode of presentation, whether that mode is comedy or farce, tragedy or melodrama, tragicomedy or pantomime.

2. There are two types of Old English poetry: the heroic, the sources of which are pre-Christian Germanic myth, history, and custom; and the Christian. Although nearly all Old English poetry is preserved in only four manuscripts—indicating that what has survived is not necessarily the best or most representative—much of it is of high literary quality. Moreover, Old English heroic poetry is the earliest extant in all of Germanic literature. It is thus the nearest we can come to the oral pagan literature of Germanic culture, and is also of inestimable value as a source of knowledge about many aspects of Germanic society. The 7th-century work known as Widsith is one of the earliest Old English poems, and thus is of particular historic and linguistic interest.Beowulf, a complete epic, is the oldest surviving Germanic epic as well as the longest and most important poem in Old English. It originated as a pagan saga transmitted orally from one generation to the next; court poets known as scops were the bearers of tribal history and tradition. The version of Beowulf that is extant was composed by a Christian poet, probably early in the 8th cent. However, intermittent Christian themes found in the epic, although affecting in themselves, are not integrated into the essentially pagan tale. The epic celebrates the hero's fearless and bloody struggles against monsters and extols courage, honor, and loyalty as the chief virtues in a world of brutal force.

The elegiac theme, a strong undercurrent in Beowulf, is central to Deor, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, and other poems. In these works, a happy past is contrasted with a precarious and desolate present. The Finnsburgh fragment, The Battle of Maldon. and The Battle of Brunanburh (see Maldon and Brunanburh), which are all based on historical episodes, mainly celebrate great heroism in the face of overwhelming odds. In this heroic poetry, all of which is anonymous, greatness is measured less by victory than by perfect loyalty and courage in extremity.Much of the Old English Christian poetry is marked by the simple belief of a relatively unsophisticated Christianity; the names of two authors arc known. Cadmon— whose story is charmingly told by the Venerable Bede, who also records a few lines of his poetry—is the earliest known English poet. Although the body of his work has been lost, the school of Cadmon is responsible for poetic narrative versions of biblical stories, the most dramatic of which is probably Genesis B.Cynewulf. a later poet, signed the poems Elene. Juliana, and The Fates of the Apostles; no more is known of him. The finest poem of the school of Cynewulf is The Dream of the Rood, the first known example of the dream vision, a genre later popular in Middle English literature. Other Old English poems include various riddles, charms (magic cures, pagan in origin), saints' lives, gnomic poetry, and other Christian and heroic verse.The verse form for Old English poetry is an alliterative line of four stressed syllables and an unfixed number of unstressed syllables broken by a caesura and arranged in one of several patterns. Lines are conventionally end-stopped and unrhymed. The form lends itself to narrative; there is no lyric poetry in Old English. A stylistic feature in this heroic poetry is the kenning, a figurative phrase, often a metaphorical compound, used as a synonym for a simple noun, e.g.. the repeated use of the phrases whale-road for sea and twilight-spoiler for dragon.

3. The Medieval Period saw many of its finest literary works influenced by events of the day. A new order is in place as the Normans conquer and bring feudalism along with them and Christianity has established a firm hold. Yet the supernatural still mystifies readers through the French influenced romances. The oral ballads also add to the literary tapestry we find in this age.Ballad, a folk song or orally transmitted poem telling in a direct and dramatic manner some popular story usually derived from a tragic incident in local history or legend. The story is told simply, impersonally, and often with vivid dialogue. Ballads are normally composed in quatrains with alternating four-stress and three-stress lines, the second and fourth lines rhyming (see ballad metre); but some ballads are in couplet form, and some others have six-line stanzas. Appearing in many parts of Europe in the late Middle Ages, ballads flourished particularly strongly in Scotland from the 15th century onward. Since the 18th century, educated poets outside the folk-song tradition—notably Coleridge and Goethe— have written imitations of the popular ballad's form and style: Coleridge's 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1798) is a celebrated example.Folk song, Alongside with ballads there appeared different folk songs about harvest, also mowing, spinning, weaving, wedding songs. They were created by the country-folk and were learnt by heart, performed under the accompaniment of musical instruments and dancing. They are highly melodious and rhythmical creations performed in the rhythm of a job or dance.Dramatic works. Popular also were plays. They were of different kinds: mystery plays, which were based on stories from the Bible, miracle plays which portrayed the lives of saints, and morality plays - allegorical dramas intended lo teach ethical and moral values in which characters represented ' virtues and vices. Such plays were first performed outside churches, in towns and in inns.Chivalrous romance. The country tradition of the Medieval P was expressed in the eh. R. - love stories and lyrical poems about brave knights and their ladies, adventurous tales that celebrate the courage and loyally of the knights who obey their king and honor womanhood. Early romances were related by troubadors or minstrels.Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 - October 25, 1400) was an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat courtier, and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales. Sometimes called the father of English literature, Chaucer is credited by some scholars with being the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language, rather than French or Latin.Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London. Little is known of his early education, but his works show that he could read French, Latin, and Italian. In 1359-1360 Chaucer went lo France with Edward Ill's army during the Hundred Years' War.

Chaucer took his narrative inspiration for his works from several sources but still remained an entirely individual poet, gradually developing his personal style and techniques.

Chaucer did not begin working on The Canterbury Tales until he was in his early 40s. The book, which was left unfinished when the author died.According to tradition, Chaucer died in London on October 25, 1400. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, in the part of the church, which afterwards came to be called Poet's Corner. A monument was erected to him in 1555.

The Canterbury y Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century' (two of them in prose, the rest in verse). The tales, some of which are originals and others not, are contained inside a frame tale and told by a collection of pilgrims on a pilgrimage from Southwark to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The Canterbury Tales are written in Middle English. Although the tales are considered to be his magnum opus, some believe the structure of the tales are indebted lo the works of The Decameron which Chaucer is said to have read when he visited Italy in the 14th century.The characters, introduced in the General Prologue of the book, tell tales of great cultural relevance. The first part of the prologue begins with "Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote" indicating the start of spring and the end of a brutal winter. The themes of the tales vary, and include topics such as courtly love, treachery, and avarice. The genres also vary, and include romance, Breton lai, sermon, beast fable, and fabliaux. Though there is an overall frame, there is no single poetic structure lo the work: Chaucer utilizes a variety of rhyme schemes and metrical patterns, and there are as well two prose tales.

4. Renaissance. The dark middle Ages were followed by a more progressive period R. which means "rebirth" of ancient Greek and Roman art and literature. R Europeans delighted in art and lit., in the beauty of nature, in human impulses. Hence, another name for this period is the Age of Humanism. The ideal R-man was a many-sided person who might be of any occupation - an engineer, philosopher, a painter. But who was attracted by ancient culture full of joy of life and glorification of the beauty of manand who was greatly interested in science, especially in natural science, based on experiments and investigations. They studied ancient Greek and Latin texts and advocated the imitation of classical styles in art, literature and education.Great men appeared also in art and literature, first in Italy, which is the cradle of R. The Italian painters and sculptor Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo glorified the beauty of man. Writers Italy - Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio. Spanish wr Cervantes, French Rabelais and Eng - Thomas More and W. Shakespeare.The reading audience was eager for popular romances, religious tracts, accounts of travel, political pamphlets, literary criticism.

E.Poetry: sir Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard, Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney

E.Drama: Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Willian Shakespeare.

5. Enlightenment in English literature.

With the defeat of Jacobite forces in 1746, new ways of thinking about philosophy, science and civil society emerged in Britain, particularly in Scotland. This module examines the second-half of the eighteenth century, a period often thought of as a time of 'enlightenment' in literature and philosophy. Paradoxically, writing that was meant to be both loyal and moral often exposed the cultural fractures Hun would herald revolution in France and America, and the 'Romantic' period in Britain. Novels by writers such as Sterne, Richardson, Goldsmith and Mackenzie arc examined. The module also examines poetry by writers such as Thomson. Collins. Gray. Bums and Ferguson. (D.Defoe. J.Swift, Alexander Pope, Henry Fielding. Laurense Sterne. Oliver Goldsmith R.Bums)Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seeks to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained. It can also refer to the other periods of classicism. Classicism is a force which is always present in post-medieval European and European influenced traditions, however, some periods fell themselves more connected to the classical ideals than others, particularly the Age of Reason, the Age of Enlightenment and some movements in Modernism. The Enlightenment in particular formed movements labeled "classical" or were referred from the perspective of the 20th century as having been classical. This includes classical economics and classical

physics, both of which were related to the more general ideals of classicism from that time period.Daniel Defoe (1659/1661-1731) was an English writer, journalist and spy, who gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest practitioners of the novel and helped popularize the genre in Britain. In some texts he is even referred to as one of the founders, if not the founder, of the English novel. A prolific and versatile writer, he wrote over five hundred books, pamphlets, and journals on various topics (including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychologyAnd the supernatural). He was also a pioneer of economic journalism.Jonathan Swift (November .10. 1667 - October 19. 1745) was an Irish cleric, satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for Whigs then for Tories), and poet, famous for works like Gulliver's Travels. A Modest Proposal, A Journal lo Stella. The Drapier's Letters. 'Die Battle of the Books, and A Tale of a Tub. Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English language, although he is less well known for his poetry. Swift published all of his works under pseudonyms — such as Lemuel Gulliver.

Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier — or anonymously. He is also known for being a master of 2 styles of satire; the Horatian and Juvenalian styles.

6. The hard-fought American Revolution against Britain (1775-1783) was the first modern war of liberation against a colonial power Enlightenment in America. The 18th-century American Enlightenment was a movement marked by an emphasis on rationality rather than tradition, scientific inquiry instead of unquestioning religious dogma, and representative government in place of monarchy. Enlightenment thinkers and writers were devoted to the ideals of justice, liberty, and equality as the natural rights of man.Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) Benjamin Franklin, whom the Scottish philosopher David Hume called America's "first great man of letters," embodied the Enlightenment ideal of humane rationality. Practical yet idealistic, hard-working and enormously successful, Franklin recorded his early life in his famous Autobiography. Writer, printer, publisher, scientist, philanthropist, and diplomat, lie was the most famous and respected private figure of his time. He was the first great self-made man in America, a poor democrat born in an aristocratic age that his fine example helped to liberalize. While a youth Franklin taught himself languages, read widely, and practiced writing for the public. Franklin was noted for his curiosity, his writings (popular, political and scientific), and his diversity of interests. As a leader of the Enlightenment, he gained the recognition of scientists and intellectuals across Europe. An agent in London before the Revolution, and Minister to France during it, he more than anyone defined the new nation in the minds of Europe. His success in securing French military and financial aid was a great contributor to the American victory over Britain. He invented the lightning rod; he was an early proponent of colonial unity; historians hail him as the "First American."

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) The passion of Revolutionary literature is found in pamphlets, the most popular form of political literature of the day. Over 2,000 pamphlets were published during the Revolution. The pamphlets thrilled patriots and threatened loyalists; they filled the role of drama, as they were often read aloud in public lo excite audiences. American soldiers read them aloud in their camps; British Loyalists threw them into public bonfires.

Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense sold over 100,000 copies in the first three months of its publication. It is still rousing today. "The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind," Paine wrote, voicing the idea of American exceptionalism still strong in the United States — that in some fundamental sense, since America is a democratic experiment and a country theoretically open to all immigrants, (he fate of America foreshadows the fate of humanity at large.Political writings in a democracy had to be clear to appeal to the voters. And lo have informed voters, universal education was promoted by many of the founding fathers. One indication of the ' vigorous, if simple, literary life was the proliferation of newspapers. More newspapers were read in America during the Revolution than anywhere else in the world. Immigration also mandated a simple style. Clarity was vital to a newcomer, for whom English might be a second language. Thomas Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration or Independence is clear and logical, but his committee's modifications made it even simpler. The Federalist Papers, written in support of the Constitution, arc also lucid, logical arguments, suitable for debate in a democratic nation.

Philip Frencau (1752-1832) One poet, Philip Freneau, incorporated the new stirrings of European Romanticism and escaped the imitativeness and vague universality of the Hartford Wits. The key lo both his success and his failure was his passionately democratic spirit combined with an inflexible temper. As a poet and editor, Freneau adhered to his democratic ideals. His popular poems, published in newspapers for the average reader, regularly celebrated American subjects. "The Virtue of Tobacco" concerns the indigenous plant, a mainstay of the southern economy, while "The Jug of Rum" celebrates the alcoholic drink of the West Indies, a crucial commodity of early American trade and a major New World export. Common American diameters lived in "The Pilot of Haiteras," as well as in poems about quack doctors and bombastic evangelists.

7. Romanticism in British literature developed in a different form slightly later, mostly associated with the poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whose co-authored book "Lyrical Ballads" (1798) sought to reject Augustan poetry in favour of more direct speech derived from folk traditions. Both poets were also involved in Utopian social thought in the wake of the French Revolution. The poet and painter William Blake is the most extreme example of the Romantic sensibility in Britain, epitomised by his claim "I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's." Blake's artistic work is also strongly influenced by Medieval illuminated books. The painters J.M.W. Turner and John Constable are also generally associated with Romanticism. Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley and John Keats constitute another phase of Romanticism in Britain. The historian Thomas Carlyle and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood represent the last phase of transformation into Victorian culture. William Butler Yeats, born in 1865, referred to his generation as "the last romantics."Lake Poets, a school of English poets, the chief representatives of which were Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge, who adorned the beginning of the 19th century, and were so designated by the Edinburgh Review because their favourite haunt was the Lake District (q.v.) in die N. of England, and the characteristic of whose poetry may be summed as a feeling of and a sympathy with the pure spirit of nature. William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, G.G.Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley. Waller Scott, Jane Austen.

8. In the United Stales, the romantic gothic makes an early appearance with Washington Irving`s Legend of Sleepv Hollow (1819) and Rip Van Winkle (1821), followed from 1823 onwards by the fresh Leatherstocking tales of James Fenimore Cooper, with their emphasis on heroic simplicity and their fervent landscape descriptions of an already-exotic mythicized frontier peopled by "noble savages", similar lo (he philosophical theory of Rousseau, like Uncas, "The Last of the Mohicans". There are picturesque elements in Washington Irving's essays and travel books. Edgar Allan Poe's tales of the macabre and his balladic poetry were more influential in France than al home, but the romantic American novel is fully developed in Nathaniel Hawthorne's atmosphere and melodrama. Later Transcendentalist writers such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson still show elements of its influence, as does the romantic realism of Walt Whitman. But by the 1880s, psychological and social realism was competing with romanticism. The poetry which Americans wrote and read was all romantic until the 1920s: Poe and Hawthorne, as well as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poetry of Emily Dickinson - nearly unread in her own time - and Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick can be taken as the epitomes of American Romantic literature, or as successors to it. As elsewhere (England, . Germany, France), literary Romanticism had its counterpart in the visual arts, most especially in the exaltation of untamed America found in the paintings of the Hudson River School.

9. Chartist literature stands as an important source of historical and cultural information about working-class life in nineteenth-century Great Britain. The movement from which the literature arose flourished from about 1837 to 1854. Committed to improving the lives of working-class people and achieving democratic political reforms, Chartism was a powerful and influential response to the industrial revolution and the growth of an entrepreneurial middle class. The movement's Charter of 1838 advocated six points: universal suffrage, yearly elections, secret ballots, no property-owning qualifications for members of Parliament, equal electoral districts, and salaries for members of Parliament. While the six points of the Charter dealt specifically with voting and electoral reform. Chartism came to encompass much broader social, political and cultural goals. Notably a movement of a literate and often self-educated working class. Chartism from the start inspired a large body of literature, including speeches, essays, poetry and songs, stories, and novels—all of which appeared in the extensive Chartist press. In addition to producing its own literature, the movement was sometimes represented, usually critically, in the industrial novels of middle-class writers such as Elizabeth Gaskell and Charles Kingsley. The organized movement had dissolved by the mid 1850s, yet it left an important legacy for the later development of socialist literature and the Labour Movement in England.Much of the literature produced by Chartists is considered weak and not especially memorable. As such it has greater historical than literary value. All of the leading Chartist writers were movement leaders as much as—or often more than—poets and novelists. Their verse typically aimed, like popular ballads or protest songs, for a wide and uncritical audience. Some of the poets, notably Thomas Cooper, aspired to the highest literary standards and used complex forms and meters, but such efforts were less than successful, and generally failed lo reach the intended audience. Chartist novels borrowed plot structures and styles from popular romantic fiction and struggled with the tension between artistic aims and didactic purpose. Along with their own self-representations, Chartism and its concerns and leaders were portrayed by middle-class industrial and social reform novelists. Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton (1848) and Benjamin Disraeli's Sybil; or, the Two Nations (1845) both deal with Chartist concerns, while Charles Kingsley's Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet. An Autobiography (1850) is generally considered to have been inspired by Thomas Cooper's works.

10. Modernism as a theory refers to love to whatever is modern. It has to do with a literary writing. It aims at a deep-seated alteration from outer issues to more philosophical ones. When we have a cocktail of literary genres such as realism, humanism, naturalism, etc, tins means that we are working as modernist writers or critics. According to Modernist upholders, God is responsible for nature. They believe also that the world around them is losing meaning and altering to garbage; consequently they lost faith in religion. The only faith they admit of its existence is found in art / literature. Modernist work also is too imaginative. That is to say, it depends on imagers' and symbolism that stops the reader and defamilirize his perceptions about reality. The language too should not be that transparent; to some extent it is complicated. In addition, Modernist literature relays on modern themes. Characters and participants experience the lack of beliefs; it is highly individual.

11. The Lost Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who were rebelling against what America had become by the 1900's. Al this point in lime, America had become a great place to, "go into some area of business" (Crunden, 185), However, the Lost Generation writers fell that America was not such a success story because the country was devoid of a cosmopolitan culture. Their solution to this issue was to pack up their bags and travel lo Europe's cosmopolitan cultures, such as Paris and London. Here they expected 10 find literary freedom and a cosmopolitan way of life.A cosmopolitan culture is one which includes and values a variety of backgrounds and cultures. In the 1920's the White Anglo Saxon Protestant work ethic was the only culture that was considered valued by the majority of Americans. It was because of ethics such as this which made tire cosmopolitan culture of Paris so alluring.American Literature went through a profound change in the post WW1 era. Up until this point, American writers were still expected to use the rigid Victorian styles of the 19th Century. The lost generation writers were above, or apart from, American society, not only in geographic terms, but also in their style of writing and subjects they chose to write about. Although they were unhappy with American culture, the writers were instrumental in changing their country's style of writing, front Victorian lo modem. ANGRY YOUNG MEN term applied to a group of English writers of the 1950s whose heroes share certain rebellious and critical attitudes toward society. This phrase, which was originally taken from the title of Leslie Allen Paul's autobiography. Angry Young Man (1953). became current with (he production of John Osborne's play Look Hack in Anger (1956). The word angry is probably inappropriate: dissentient or disgruntled perhaps is more accurate. The group not only expressed discontent with the staid, hypocritical institutions of English societyU+2(114Ihe so-called EstablishmenlU+2014 but betrayed disillusionment with itself and with its own achievements. Included among the angry young men were the playwrights John Osborne and Arnold Wesker and the novelists Kingsley Amis, John Braine, John Wain, and Alan Sillitoe. In the 1960s these writers turned to more individualized themes and were no longer considered a group.

12. Victorian literature is the literature produced during the reign of Queen Victoria and corresponds to the Victorian era. It forms a link and transition between the writers of the romantic period and the very different literature of the 20^th century.

The 19^th century the novel become the leading form of literature in pre-Victorian writers such as: Jane Austen. and Walter Scott had perfected both closely-observed social satire and adventure stories. Popular works opened a market for the novel amongst a reading public. The 19^th century is often regarded as a high point in British literature as well as other countries such as France, the United States of America and Russia, and novels in particular, became ubiquitous, and the ‘Victorian Novelist’ created legacy works with continuing appeal.

Significant Victorian novelists and poets include: the Bronte sisters, (Anne, Emily and Charlotte Bronte). Robert Browning. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Lewis Carroll, Wilkie Collins, Charles Elizabeth Gaskell, George Gigging, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde.

13. In most people's minds, the years following the Civil War symbolized a time of healing and rebuilding. For those engaged in serious literary circles, however, that period was full of upheaval. A literary civil war raged on between the camps of the romantics and the realists and later, the naturalists. People waged verbal battles over the ways that fictional characters were presented in relation to their external world. Using plot and diameter development, a writer stated his or her philosophy about how much control mankind had over his own destiny. For example, romantic writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson celebrated the ability of human will to triumph over adversity. On the other hand, Mark Twain, William Dean Howells and Henry James were influenced by the works of early European Realists, namely Balzac's La Comedic Humaine (begun in the 1830s): Turgenev-s Sportsman's Sketches (1852); and Flaubert's Madame Bovary (1856). These American realists believed that humanity's freedom of choice was limited by the power of outside forces. At another extreme were naturalists Stephen Crane and Frank Morris who supported the ideas of Emilу Zola and the determinism movement. Naturalists argued that individuals have no choice because a person's life is dictated by heredity and the external environment. Plot and Character. -Character is more important than action and plot: complex ethical choices are often the subject.

-Characters appear in the real complexity of temperament and motive; they are in explicable relation to nature, to each other. to their social class, to their own past. -Humans control their destinies; characters act on their environment rather than simply reacting to it.

-Renders reality closely and in comprehensive detail. Selective presentation of reality with an emphasis on verisimilitude, even at the expense of a well-made plot. -Events will usually be plausible. Realistic novels avoid the sensational, dramatic elements of naturalistic novels and romances. -Class is important; the novel has traditionally served the interests and aspirations of an insurgent middle class.

14. The major lyric poet of the first decades of the 20th century was Thomas Hardy, who concentrated on poetry after the harsh response to his last novel, Jude the Obscure. The most widely popular writer of the early years of the 20th century was arguably Rudyard Kipling, a highly versatile writer of novels, short stories and poems, often based on his experiences in British India. Kipling was closely associated with imperialism and this has damaged his reputation in more recent times.From around 1910, the Modernist Movement began to influence English literature. Whereas their Victorian predecessors had usually been happy to cater to mainstream middle-class taste, 20th century writers often felt alienated from it, and responded by writing more intellectually challenging works or by pushing the boundaries of acceptable content.The major poets of this period included the American-born T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and the Irishman William Butler Yeats. Free verse and other stylistic innovations came to the forefront in this era. The experiences of the First World War were reflected in the work of war poets such as Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, Isaac Rosenberg, Edmund Blunden and Siegfried Sassoon. Many writers turned away from patriotic and imperialist themes as a result of the war, notably Kipling. Important novelists between the two World Wars included the Irish writer James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence, and Virginia Woolf. Joyce's increasingly complex works included Ulysses, an interpretation of the Odyssey set in Dublin, and culminated in the famously obscure Finnegans Wake. Lawrence wrote with understanding about the social life of the lower and middle classes, and the personal life of those who could not adapt to the social norms of his time. He attempted to explore human emotions more deeply than his contemporaries and challenged the boundaries of the acceptable treatment of sexual issues in works such as Lady Chatterley's Lover. Virginia Woolf was an influential feminist, and a major stylistic innovator associated with the stream-of-consciousness technique. Her novels included To the Lighthouse, Mrs Dalloway, and The Waves.

Novelists who wrote in a more traditional style, such as John Galsworthy and Arnold Bennett continued to receive great acclaim in the interwar period. At the same time the Georgian poets maintained a more conservative approach to poetry.

One of the most significant English writers of this period was George Orwell. An acclaimed essayist and novelist, Orwell's works are considered among the most important social and political commentaries of the 20th century. Dealing with issues such as poverty in The Road to Wigan Pier and Down and Out in Paris and London, totalitarianism in Nineteen Eighty-Four and colonialism in Burmese Days. Orwell's works were often semi-autobiographical and in the case of Homage to Catalonia, wholly autobiographical. The leading poets of the middle and later 20th century included the traditionalist John Betjeman, Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes and the Northern Irish Catholic Seamus Heaney, who lived in the Republic of Ireland for much of his later life.Major novelists of the middle and later 20th century included the satirist Evelyn Waugh, Henry Green, Anthony Powell, William Golding, Anthony Burgess, Kingsley Amis, V. S. Naipaul, Graham Greene and Iris Murdoch.In drama, the drawing room plays of the post war period were challenged in the 1950s by the Angry Young Men, exemplified by as John Osborne's iconic play Look Back in Anger. Also in the 1950s, the bleak absurdist play Waiting for Godot, by the Irish playwright Samuel Beckett profoundly affected British drama. The Theatre of the Absurd influenced playwrights of the later decades of the 20th century, including Harold Pinter, whose works are often characterized by menace or claustrophobia, and Tom Stoppard. Stoppard's works are however also notable for their high-spirited wit and the great range of intellectual issues which he tackles in different plays.

15. From roughly the early 1970s until present day, the most well known literary category though often contested as a proper title, has been Postmodernism. Notable, intellectually well-received writers of the period have included Thomas Pynchon, Tim O'Brien, Don DeLillo, Toni Morrison. Authors typically labeled Postmodern have dealt with and are today dealing directly with many of the ways that popular culture and mass media have influenced the average American's perception and experience of the world, which is quite often criticized along with the American government and in many cases, with America's history, but especially with the average American's perception of his or her own history.

Many Postmodern authors are also well known for setting scenes in fast food restaurants, on subways, or in shopping malls; they write about drugs, plastic surgery, and television commercials. Sometimes, these depictions look almost like celebrations. But simultaneously, writers in this school take a knowing self-conscious, sarcastic, and (some critics would say) condescending attitude towards their subjects. David Eggers and Chuck Palahnjuk are, perhaps most well known for these particular tendencies.Sidney Sheldon ( February 11. 1917 - January 30. 2007) was an American writer who won awards in three careers—a Broadway playwright, a Hollywood TV and movie screenwriter, and a best-selling novelist. His TV works spanned 20-year period during which he created I Dream of Jeannie(1965), Hart to Hart (1979-84). and The Pally Duke Show(1966), but it was not until after he turned 50 and began writing best-selling novels such as Master of the Game.(1982). The Other Side of Midnight (1973)that he became most famous.

16.Nineteenth-century Decadent literature either describes aspects of decadent life and society or reflects the decadent literary aesthetic.Decadence (from the Latin de, down, and cadere, to fall) has three related principal meanings. In its most general sense, the term refers to a society's decay, its fall from a position of strength and prosperity to a state of weakness and ruin. Decadence also refers to any ideological appreciation, and therefore support, of social decay.Whereas the first definition presents the term as an inevitable process signified by a society's relation to past societies, the second definition suggests that decadence is an individual approach to life and that social decay can be consciously perpetrated.During the nineteenth century, decadence acquired a third, closely related, aesthetic meaning that led to the information of the Decadent Movement.Wilde became particularly well known for his role in the aesthetic and decadent movements. He began wearing his hair long and openly scorning so-called "manly" sports, and began decorating his rooms with peacock feathers, lilies, sunflowers, blue china and other objets d'art.Legends persist that his behaviour cost him a dunking in the River Cherwell in addition to having his rooms (which still survive as student accommodation at his old college) trashed, but the cult spread among certain segments of society to such an extent that languishing attitudes, "too-too" costumes and aestheticism generally became a recognised pose. Publications such as the 'Springfield Republican' commented on Wilde's behaviour during his visit to Boston in order to give lectures on aesthetiscism. suggesting that Wilde's conduct was more of a bid for notoriety rather than a devotion to beauty and the aesthetic. Wilde's mode of dress also became under attack by critics such as Higginson, who wrote in liis paper 'Unmanly Manhood', at his general concern that Wildes' effemininity would influence the behaviour of men and women, arguing that liis poetry "eclipses masculine ideals [..that..] under such influence men would become effeminate dandies'. He also scrutinises the link that Oscar Wildes' writing, personal image and homosexuality may have, resulting in calling liis work and lifestyle 'Immoral'.In 1879 Wilde started to teach Aesthetic values in London. In 1882 he went on a lecture tour in the United States and Canada. He v.'as tern apa/l uy no small number of critics — The Wasp, a San Francisco newspaper, published a cartoon ridiculing Wilde and Aestheticism — but he was also surprisingly well received in such rough-and-tumble settings as the mining town of Leadville. Colorado. On his return to, the United Kingdom, he worked as a reviewer for the Pall Mall Gazette in the years 1887-1889. Afterwards he became the editor of Woman's World.Kipling. Among the most popular children's books ever written, The Jungle Book comprises a series of stories about Mowgli. a boy raised in the jungle by a family of wolves after a tiger has attacked and driven off his parents. Threatened throughout much of his young life by the dreaded tiger Shere Khan, Mowgli is protected by his adoptive family and leans the lore of the jungle from Baloo, a sleepy brown bear, and Bagheera, the black panther.

Subtle lessons in justice, loyalty, and tribal law pervade these imaginative tales, recounted by a master storyteller with a special talent for entertaining audience of all ages. Included are such tales as "Rikki-tikki-tavi," a story about a brave mongoose and lus battle with the deadly cobra Nag; Mowgli's abduction by the monkey people; and "Toomai of the Elephants," In which a young boy witnesses a secret ritual and is honored by his tribesmen. Recommended for ages 9 to 12.

17. Their are many different opinions on the written works of George Gordon Byron which could include one very big question. Was he a natural born poet or simply a product of abuse and mental illness. His writings may have been more a way to ease his pa and suffering rather than a natural talent. Perhaps his writings were a form of self therapy? Throughout his writings and life history there is much evidence to suggest that his poetry was being greatly influenced by his mental instability.I have lerned much on this great poet and I too believe that his writings were influenced greatly because of the pain and abuse he suffered in his youth. I will attempt to point out the many possibilities to this.Childe Harold's Pilgrimage is a lengthy narrative poem written by the British poet George Gordon. Lord Byron when at Kinsham. It was published between 1812 and 1818. 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; in a wider sense, it is an expression of the melancholy and disillusionment felt by a generation weary of the wars of the post-Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras The title comes from the term childe, a medieval title for a young man who was a candidate for knighthood.The poem is quite autobiographical, and the earlier portion of the work is | based upon lus travels tlirough the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea between 1809 and 1811. Despite the fact that Byron did not think the poem was all that good . feeling it revealed too much of himself, it was an instant sensation when published by John Murray, and made Byron famous in England practically overnight. Women, especially, swooned over the poem, fascinated by the character of Childe Harold, lus foreboding, and his nameless vices. Lord Byron quickly became the darling of the influential female aristocrats of the day; they recognized bits of Childe Harold in him, and he felt compelled to live up to this reputation.In the second part of the book, James Brodie's business as a hatter is destroyed. A rival company moves next door and attracts all his customers. However, part of this is due to Brodie's pride, as the customers are driven away by his delusions of superiority. As his profits decrease, so does the weekly salary, so Mamma is left to deal with making the most of what little they have left for the family. Her illness, cancer of the womb, and the chronic stress of living with such a monstrous man liasten her death.The work introduced the concept of the Byronic hero, which is still somewhat popular today and shows up in novels, films and plays on a regular basis. The Byronic hero is usually described as an outsider, and with a contradictory nature; sometimes cruel, sometimes kind, devoted but unfaithful, and never contented, but eternally seeking out new sensations.It has four cantos written in Spenserian stanzas, which consists of eight iambic pentameter lines followed by one alexandrine (a twelve syllable iambic line), and rhyme pattern ABABBCBCC.After her death, Brodie's mistress. Nancy, moves in. Later she goes off abroad with Brodie's son Matt, and Brodie is left on his own with his youngest daughter. Nessie. and lus aged mother, Grandma Brodie

Childe Harold became a vehicle for Byron's own beliefs and ideas; indeed in the preface to book three Byron acknowledges the fact that his hero is just an extension of himself. By masking lumself behind a literary artifice, Byron was able to achieve what critic Jerome McGann depicts as "man's greatest tragedy is that he can conceive of a perfection which he cannot I attain".In the third part of the book, Brodie forces Nessie to study hard so as to win "the Latta." a special scholarship. He wants this not so much to provide a good future for his daughter, as to show that she is better than his rival's son. who is also going in for it. Under his threats and the dreadful fear of failure, she labours on with it, making herself mentally and physically ill. Nessie secretly writes to Mary asking her to come back, so she will have her company, and comfort. Under pretext of coming to help with housework, Mary writes to her father, who initially refuses her return. After discovering that Nancy has deserted him, he writes again permitting Mary to come back, so she does.Though the original poem contained a number of risque passages, such as mentions of Albanian pederasty, these were mostly suppressed, either by his own hand or at the time of publication.Nessie contrives to obtain advance notice of the "Latta" result before her father sees it. Finding tliat her rival lias won it and fearing her father, she sends Mary out to the chemist on the pretext of getting some medicine, then dresses up and hangs herself.The story concludes with Dr. Renwick, who has been seeing Mary, taking her away with him to mam her.

18. Many of Cronin's books were bestsellers that were translated into numerous languages. His strengths included his narrative skill and his powers of acute observation and graphic description. Some of his novels and stories draw on his medical career, dramatically mixing realism, romance, and social criticism. The Citadel is said to have contributed to the establishment of the National Health Service in Great Britain by exposing the injustice and incompetence of medical practice at the time.Hatter's Castle. The novel begins with some insight into the life of the Brodie household, where James Brodie seems to have everyone under his thumb. The main event that triggers the series of unfortunate events in the novel is that of Mary Brodie's relationship with her Irish beau. Dennis. Early in the story. Mary (who has occasionally met Dennis at the library) is invited by Dennis to go to the fair in the town. She sneaks out without her family's knowledge and during the course of the evening makes many decisions which change her life forever. She not only goes to the fair, but later on that night kisses and eventually makes love to Dennis (the first man she's ever loved), which, we later learn, results in pregnancy.This event of her unwanted pregnancy is the main plot in the first third of the novel, titled "Section One". We realise that Mary is pregnant, and when she is six months pregnant she makes a plan with Dennis to run away and get married without her parents noticing. Even though Mary was only 17, there would have been no legal problem with her marriage since the English law which, until 1970, generally required people under 21 to have parental consent to marry, did not apply in Scotland. But one misfortune leads to the next, and three days before Dennis is due to whisk Mary away from her brutal father, there is a massive storm, and she begins to go into labour whilst carrying the child. Mrs. Brodie stumbles into Mary's room and begins to scream at the fact that her daughter is with child, and calls James himself to sort it out. After being kicked in the stomach repeatedly by her father and thrown out on her face into the pouring rain (whilst in labour), she tries to reach safety. Mary nearly drowns in a river before finding a bam where she gives birth to her premature child, which dies due to these appalling circumstances. To put the arsenic icing on the cake, the moment the baby utters his first cry, Dennis, who was. ironically, travelling on a train to rescue Mary-, is killed when the train derails and plunges into the River Tay below. The collapse of the bridge is a dramatic retelling of the actual Tay Bridge disaster of 1879.

19._Herbert George Wells (September 21. 1866 - August 13. 1946). better known as H. G. Wells, was an English writer best known for such science fiction novels as The Time Machine. The War of the Worlds. The Invisible Man and The Island of Doctor Moreau. He was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction, and produced works in many different genres, including contemporary novels, history, and social commentary. He was also an outspoken socialist. His later works become increasingly political and didactic, and only his early science fiction novels are widely read today. Wells, along with Hugo Gernsback and Jules Verne, is sometimes referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction"The Tune Machine is a book by H. G. Wells, first published in 1895 and later directly adapted into at least two theatrical films of the same name as well as at least one television and countless comic book adaptations. It also indirectly inspired many more works of fiction in all media. Technically a novella (it is a mere 38.000 words in length) The Time Machine is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposefully and selectively.Mark Twain's 1889 time travel story A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court predates The Time Machine, but Twain had not provided his protagonist with any machine or control over his travel in time, which is in fact left completely unexplained.The War of the Worlds (1898). by H. G. Wells, is an early science fiction novella which describes an invasion of England by aliens from Mars. It is one of the earliest and best-known depictions of an alien invasion of Earth, and has influenced many others, as well as spawning several films and a television series based on the story. When it was broadcast on the radio, it caused a public panic because it was in such a realistic style that people thought tliat it was a news broadcast describing current real events of a real alien invasion. The Invisible Man is a famous 1897 science fiction novella by H.G. Wells. Wells' novel was originally serialized in Pearson's Magazine in 1897, and published as a novel the same year. The Invisible Man of the title is Griffin. a scientist who theorizes that if a person's refractive index is changed to exactly that of air and his body does not absorb or reflect light, then he will not be visible. He successfully carries out this procedure on himself, but cannot become visible again, becoming mentally unstable as a result.

21.Jonathan Swift (November 30 1667 - October 19. 1745) was an Irish cleric, satirist, essayjst. political pamphleteer (first for Whigs then~for~ Tones), and poet, famous for works like Gulliver's Travels;A Journal to Stella. The Drawer's Inters The Battle of the &eti, and A Tale of a Tuh. Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English language, although he is less well known for his poetry Swift published all of his works under pseudonyms - such as Lemuel Gulliver He is also known for being a master of two styles of satire; the Horatian and JuvenalianGulliver, is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the "travellers' tales literary sub-genre. It is Swift's best known and most esteemed work and a classic of English literature.The book became tremendously popular as soon as it was published (Alexander Pope stated that "it is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery"), and it is likely that it has never been out of print since then t is claimed the inspiration for Gulliver came from the sleeping slow boy profile of the Cavehill in Belfast.

20.John Robert Fowles (March 31. 1926 - November 5. 2005) was an English novelist and essayist.He was born in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex. England, the son of Robert J Fowles, a prosperous cigar merchant, and lu's wife. Gladys Richards. Aftei attending Bedford School and Edinburgh University, he studied at Nevi College. Oxford, where he studied both French and German, although he dropped German and concentrated on French for his BA. After his studies he worked as a teacher in France. Greece (where he met Elizabeth Whitton the woman he would later marry), and England. The success of his first published novel. The Collector (1963). meant that Fowles was able to stop teaclu'ng and start a literary career.In 1968 Fowles moved to Lyme Regis in Dorset, which he used as the setting for his novel The French Lieutenant's Woman. In that same year he adapted The Magus (a novel based on his experiences in Greece and writter before The Collector) for cinema, but the film was not a success. The French Lieutenant's Woman was made into a film in 1981 with a screenplay by the British playwright Harold Pinter (subsequently a Nobel laureate in Literature) and was nominated for an Oscar.The collector. The book is about a lonely young man, Frederick Clegg. who works as a clerk in a city hall, and collects butterflies in lu's free time. The first part of the novel tells the story from his point of view. Clegg is attracted to Miranda Grey, an art student who he thinks is very beautiful. He admires her from a distance, but is unable to make any contact with hei because of his nonexistent social skills. One day, he wins a large prize in the pools. This makes it possible for him to stop working and buy an isolated house in the countryside. He feels lonely, however, and wants to be with Grey. Unable to make any normal contact. Clegg decides to add her to lu's 'collection' of pretty, petrified objects, in hopes that if he keeps her captive long enough, she will grow to love him. After careful preparations, he kidnaps Grey using chloroform and locks her up in the cellar of his house. He is convinced tliat the girl will start to love him after some time. However, when she wakes up, Grey confronts him with his actions. Clegg is embarrassed, and promises to let her go after a month. He promises to show her "every respect", pledging not to sexually molest her and to shower her with gifts and the comforts of home, on one condition: she can't leave the cellar.Clegg rationalizes every step of his plan in eerily emotionless language; he seems truly incapable of relating to other human beings and sharing reai intimacy with them; it could be inferred that he is a sociopath. He takes great pains to appear normal, however, and is greatly offended at the suggestion that lu's motives are anything but reasonable and genuine.The second part of the novel is narrated by Grey in the form of fragments from a diary tliat she keeps during her captivity. Clegg scares her, and she does not understand him in the beginning. Grey reminisces over her previous life throughout this section of the novel, and many of her diary entries are written either to her sister, or to a man named G.P., whom she respected and admired as an artist. Grey reveals that G.P. ultimately fell in love with her. and subsequently severed all contact with her. Through Grey's confined reflections. Fowles discusses a number of philosophical issues, such as the nature of art, human nature, and God. At first Grey thinks tliat Clegg lias sexual motives for abducting her, but as his true character begins to be revealed, she realises that this is not true. She starts to have some pity for her captor, comparing him to Caliban in Shakespeare's play The Tempest because of his hopeless obsession with her and his warped behavior. She tries to escape several times, but Clegg is always able to stop her. She also tries to seduce him in order to convince him to let her go. The only result is tliat he becomes confused and angry. When Clegg keeps refusing to let her go, she starts to fantasize about killing him. After a failed attempt at doing so. Grey passes through a phase of self-loathing, and decides that to kill Clegg would lower her to liis level. As such, she then refrains from any further attempts to do so. Before she can try to escape again, she becomes seriously ill and dies, probably of pneumonia.

The third part of the novel is again narrated by Clegg. At first he wants to commit suicide after he learns of Grey's death, but after he reads in her diary that she never loved him. he decides that he is not responsible and is better off without her. Finally, he starts to plan the kidnapping of another girl.

22. Robert Burns (January25, 1759 – july,1796) was a poet and a lyricist He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best-known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a 'light' Scots dialect which would have been accessible to a wider audience than simply Scottish people. At various times in his career, he wrote in English, and in these pieces, his political or civil commentary is often at its most blunt.Bums is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement and after his death he became an important source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism. A cultural icon in Scotland and among Scots who have relocated to other parts of the world (the Scottish Diaspora) h celebration became almost a national charismatic cult during periods of I 19th and 20th centuries, and his influence lias long been strong on Scottish literature.Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, often revising or them. His poem (and song) "ScotsWhaHae" served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem of the country. Other poems and I songs of 1 ms that remain well-known across the world today, include ARed RedRose - a MW. A Man for A' That". Bums Night, effectively a second national day, is celebrated on 25 January with Burns suppers around the world, and is still more widely observed than the official national day, Saint Andrew's Day, or the proposed North American celebration Tartan Dav. The format of Bums suppers has changed since Robert's death in 1796. The basic format starts with a general welcome and announcements followed with the Selkirk Grace. Just post the grace comes the piping and cutting of the Haggis, where Roberts famous ode To a Haggis is read, and the haggis is cut open. The event usually allows for people to start eating just after the haggis is presented, where the reading called the "immortal memory" which is an overview c Robert's life and work is given. Lastly the event will usually conclude witl the singing of Auld Lang Syne.

23._Thomas Hardy (1840-1928). English poet and novelist, famous for his depictions of the imaginary county "Wessex" . Hardy's work reflected his stoical pessimism and sense of tragedy in human life.Thomas Hardy was born on Egdon Heath, in Dorset, near Dorchester on June 2. 1840. His father was a master mason and building contractor. Hardy's mother, whose tastes included Latin poets and French romances, provided for his education. After schooling in Dorchester. Hardy was apprenticed to an architect. He worked in an office, which spcciali/ed in restoration of churches. In 1874 Hardy manned Emma Lavinia Gilford.

Tess Of The D'urbervilles(lX9l) came into conflict with Victorian morality. Hardy's next novel, Jude The Obscure (1895) aroused even more debate. The story dramatized the conflict between carnal and spiritual life. In 1896. disturbed by the public uproar over the unconventional subjects of two of liis greatest novels. Tess of the D'Vrbervilles and Jude the Obscure . that he would never write.fictipn again

24. William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 - died 23 April 1616 the birthday is unknown) was an English poet and playwright. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer of the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He wrote approximately plays and sonnets, as well as a variety of other poems. Already well-known in his lifetime, liis fame grew considerably after his death and his work lias been adulated by eminent figures through the centuries. He is often called England's national poet. the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard") or the "Swan of Avon".Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. although the exact dates and clironology of the plavs attributed to him are uncertain. He is one of the few playwrights considered to have excelled in both tragedy and comedy. His plays combine popular appeal and poetic grandeur, with complex characterisation and philosophical depth.Shakespeare's works have been translated into every major living language, and his plays are continually performed all over the world. Shakespeare is the most quoted writer in the history of the English-speaking world and many of his quotations and neologisms have passed into everyday usage in English and other languages. Many have speculated about his SjexuaJity.. religious affiliation, and the authorship of his works.

25. Samuel Butler (December 4, 1835 - June 18 1902) was a British writer strongly influenced by his New Zealand experiences. He is best known for his Utopian satire Erewhon and his posthumous novel The Way of All Flesh.He was born in Langar Rectory, near Bingham. Nottinghamshire. England. into a long line of clerics, preordained as it were to a career in church in his father's wish and expectation. His father was the Rev. Thomas Butler, Rector of Langar and his mother Fanny (nee Worsley). He went to Shrewsbury School, where his grandfather, also called Samuel, former Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, had been headmaster before retiring. He then went up to his father's alma mater. St John's College. Cambridge, in 1854. taking a First in Classics in 1858. The graduate society of St. John's is named the Samuel Butler Room (SBR) in liis honour.Butler developed a theory that the Odyssey came from the pen of a young Sicilian woman, and that the scenes of the poem reflected the coast of Sicily and its nearby islands. He described the evidence for this theory in his The Authoress of the Odyssey (1897) and in the introduction and footnotes to his prose translation of the Odyssey. Robert Graves elaborated on this hypothesis in his novel Homer's Daughter. Butler also translated the Iliad. His other works include Shakespeare's Sonnets Reconsidered (1899), a theory that the Bard's sonnets, if rearranged, tell a story about a homosexual affair.The English satirist Aldous Huxley openly admitted the influence of Erewhon on his novel Brave New World.The way of all fresh. The story is narrated by Mr. Overton who was born in 1802, son of a clergyman in Palem, England, a town about 50 miles from London. He is 80 years old at the end of the novel and has known the children of George Pontifex all his life and attended Cambridge College with both John and Theobald Pontifex. Overton is a playwright and moderately wealthy. He is 2nd Godfather to Theobald's son Ernest and he takes a particular, caring and lifelong interest in Ernest's life.

The novel traces the history of four generations of the Pontifex family from 1727 to 1882. The patriarch, John Pontifex was born 1727 and died at age 85 in 1812. In 1750 he married Ruth (1727-1811). After 15 years of childless marriage they finally had a son. George, born 1765 in Palem. George is a quick, intelligent lad learning both Greek and Latin. Ruth's sister is married to a successful London publisher (Mr. Fairlie) of religious works. George is so bright tliat. when 15. he is offered a position with the firm. George takes to the business eagerly and 10 years later is made a full partner with his uncle. He is now moderately wealthy and in 1792 at the age of 27 he marries. His wife dies in 1805 after 13 years of marriage and bearing 5 children: 3 daughters and 2 sons. Of the five only two play important parts in the novel: Alethaea, the youngest child was born 1805 and dies at age 45 in 1850; and Theobald, the youngest son, born 1802. The other children are Eliza. Maria and John.

26. Romeo and Juliet is a world-renowned tragedy by William Shakespeare concerning two young "star-cross'd lovers" and the role played by their tragic suicides in ending a long-running family feud. It is one of the most famous of Shakespeare's plays, one of his earliest theatrical triumphs, and is thought to be the most archetypal love story of the Renaissance and indeed the history of Western culture.Romeo and Juliet is a dramatization of Arthur Brooke's narrative poem The Trasical History of Romeus and Juliet (1562). Shakespeare followed Brooke's poem closely¹¹¹ but enriched its texture by adding extra detail to both major and minor characters, in particular the Nurse and Mercutio. Shakespeare also knew "The goodly History of the true and constant love of Romeo and Julietla", a prose retelling of the story by William Painter. Brooke's poem was not original either, being a translation and adaptation of Giuletta e Romeo, by Matteo Bandello. included in his Novelle of 1554. This story of ill-fated lovers Iiad obvious parallels with similar tales told tliroughout history, including those of Hero and Leander. Pyramus and Tliisbe. Floris and Blanchefleur. Troilus and Cressida. Antony and Cleopatra. Lavla and Mainua Tristan and Iseult. Shirin and Farliad and Hagbard and Signy. Shakespeare was familiar with these stories, some of which were included in lu's other plays. The tale of Pyramus and Tliisbe appears in comic mode in A Midsummer Night's Dream, while the Trojan War lovers. Troilus and Cressida. were given a history play of their own.

27. Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 - 22 December 1880). better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist. She was one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. Her novels, largely set in provincial England, are well known for their realism and psychological perspicacity.She used a male pen name, she said, to ensure tliat her works were taken seriously. Female authors published freely under their own names, but Eliot wanted to ensure tliat she was not seen as merely a writer of romances. An additional factor may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny and to prevent scandals attending her relationship with the manned George Henry Lewes.The novel details the lives of Tom and Maggie Tulliver. a brother and sister growing up on the fictional river Floss near the fictional village of St. Oggs, evidently in the 1820's. after the Napoleonic Wars but prior to the first Reform Bill (1832). The novel spans a period of 10-15 years, from Tom and Maggie's childhood up until their deaths in a flood on the Floss. The book is loosely autobiographical, reflecting the disgrace tliat George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) herself had while in a relationship with a married man. George Henry Lewes.Maggie Tulliver holds the central role in the book, as both her relationship with her older brother Tom, and her romantic relationships with Philip Wakem. a hunchbacked, but sensitive and intellectual, friend, and with Stephen Guest, a vivacious young socialite in St. Oggs and fiance of Maggie's cousin Lucy Deane. constitute the most significant narrative threads.Like other of George Eliot's novels, The Mill on the Floss articulates the tension between circumstances and the spiritual energies of individuals struggling against those circumstances. A certain determinism is at play tliroughout the novel, from Mr. Tulliver's grossly imprudent inability to keep himself from "going to law," and thereby losing his patrimony and bankrupting liis family, to the series of events which sets Maggie and Stephen on their way to eloping. Individuals, such as Mr. Tulliver, are presented as unable to determine their own course rationally, or forces, be it the drift of the river or the force of a flood, are presented as determining the courses of individuals for them. On the other hand, Maggie's ultimate choice not to marry Stephen, and to suffer both the privation of his love and the ignominy of their botched elopement is a triumph of free will.

28. King Lear is based on the legend of King Lear, a legendary king of Britain, and is considered to be one of William Shakespeare's greatest tragedies. The part of King Lear has been played by many great actors, but despite the fact that Lear is an old man, it is usually not taken on by actors at an advanced age in stage versions, because it is so strenuous both physically and emotionally. There are two distinct versions of the play: The True Chronicle of the History of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters, which appeared in quarto in 1608. and The Tragedy of King Lear which appeared in the First Folio in 1623. a more theatrical version. The two texts are commonly printed in a conflated version, although many modern editors have argued that each version has its individual integrity.After the Restoration, the play was often modified by theatre practitioners who disliked its nihilistic flavour, but, since World War II. it has come to be regarded as one of Shakespeare's supreme achievements. The tragedy is particularly noted for its probing observations on the nature of human suffering and kinship on a cosmic scale.

29.Charles Dickens(7 February 1812 - 9 June 1870). pen-name "Boz", was the foremost English novelist of the Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner. Considered one of the English language's greatest writers, he was acclaimed for lus rich storytelling and memorable characters, and achieved massive worldwide popularity in his lifetime. The popularity of Dickens' novels and short stories has meant that none have ever gone out of print. Dickens wrote serialised novels, which was the usual format for fiction at the time, and each new part of his stories would be eagerly anticipated by the reading public.Dombey and Son. The main subject of the novel is money and the tilings that go with it - power, position, and relationship/ is a novel by the Victorian author Charles Dickens. It was first published in monthly parts between October 1846 and April 1848 with die full title Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation. Dickens started writing the book in Lausanne. Switzerland, but travelled extensively during the course of its writing, returning to England to begin another work before completing Dombey and Son.The story concerns Paul Dombey, the wealthy owner of the shipping company of the book's title, whose dream is to have a son to continue his business. The book begins when his son is born, and Dombey's wife dies shortly after giving birth.The child, also named Paul, is weak and often ill, and docs not socialize normally with others; adults call him "old fashioned". He is intensely fond of his elder sister. Florence, whom Mr Dombey neglects as irrelevant and a distraction. He is sent away first for his health, and then to a school near the sea. but he dies, still only six years old. Dombey pushes his daughter away from him after the death of his son, while she futilely tries to earn his love. She also develops a close friendship with Walter Gay. who once rescued her when she liad gotten lost and been kidnapped as a child. Walter works for Dombey and Son. but through the manipulations of the firm's manager, Mr Carker, he is sent off to work in Barbados. His boat is reported lost and he is presumed drowned. Walter's uncle, the navigation instrument maker Solomon Gills, leaves to go in search of Walter. Florence is left alone with few friends most of the time. Dombey goes to Leamington with Major Bagstock, where he meets Mrs. Skewton and her daughter. Edith Granger. After they return to London. Dombey remarries; effectively he buys Edith in marriage. The marriage is a loveless one; his wife despises him as greedy and herself as shallow and worthless. Her love for Florence initially prevents her from leaving, but finally she conspires with Mr Carker that they shall ruin Dombey's public image by running away together. They do so after she fights with Dombey. when he discovers tliat she has left, he blames Florence, hits her in liis anger, and makes her run away in fright. In Paris, Mrs Dombey informs Carker that she sees him in no better a light than she sees Dombey, and that she will not stay with him. Distraught, with both his financial and personal hopes lost, Carker falls under a train and is killed.

After Carker's disappearance, it is discovered that he had been running the firm far beyond its means; within a year it collapses and is sold off and Dombey is left a shambles; nearly mad living alone in his decaying house. Meantime Florence has found refuge with Captain Cuttle, who has been running Gills' store in his absence. Wultcr Gay returns home after being fortuitously saved from his shipwreck. He and Florence marry, and she reconciles with her father. Dombey finds happiness in the marriage of his daughter, and all ends well.

30.John Galsworthy was born in a wcll-lo-do family in Surrey. He got his first education ai home. $ At the age of fourteen he was sent lo Harrow School, a very old and famous public sdwol for boys. At Harrow Galsworthy dutinguishcd himself as an excellent pupil After Harrow he studied fcm at Oxford; but he did not find ^Vl his studies in law exciting though he received an honours degree in law in 1889 and \vas ad-mined to the Bar. i£| Bui very soon he gave up law entirety for literature. His decision was influenced greatly by Ada Galsworthy, his wife.In 1899 Galsworthy published his first novel Jocelyn. Afterwards, at frequent intervals he wrote plays, novels and essays.His first notable work was The Island of Pharisees (1904) where he attacked the stagnation of thought m the English privileged classes, with their reject of any emotion and their preference for a dull. settled way of life. Five following works entitled The Country House (1907). Fraternity (1909). The Patrician (191IX The Dark Flower (1913) and The Freelands (1915) show a similar altitude Here lite author criticizes country squires, the aristocracy and artists, and professes his deep sympathy towards strong passions, sincerity and true love.However he gained popularity only aflcr the publication of The Man ofProperty( 1906) - the first part of The Forsyte Saga. Galsworthy had not intended lo write a scqud to The .1 Ian of Property The Forsyte SagaThe first throe books of The Forsyte Sago for which John Galsworthy was awarded The Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932 - The Man of Property. It look Galsworthy 22 years lo accomplish this monumental work. It is both a family chronicle and the history of the English bourgeois society during fifty years of gradual decay. We sec

World War I altering the aspect of many things, the workers movement threatening to o\-crtluow uk: old economic system, uncertainty growing in morals as well as economics.

Galsworthy was also a great playwright of his lime. Galsworthy is not only a novelist and a dramatist, but also a short story writer and an essayist. His short stories give a most complete and critical picture of English bourgeois society in the first part of lite XX century.The Man of Property. At the beginning of the novel we sec the Forsyte family in full plumage. All fc Forsytes gamer at Ihc house of old Joryon to celebrate the engagement of Miss June Forsyte, old Jolyon's granddaughter, to Mr. Phillip Bosinney. Old Jolyon is tlte head of the (amity, eighty years of age will) ; his white hair, his domelike forehead and an immense white moustaclie, he holds himself extremely uprighi : and seems master of perennial youth. He and his five brotltcrs and four sisters represent the first generation of the Forsytes. All of lliem are rich businessmen. Having married Irene, 20-year old daughter of a poor professor, a woman who has never loved him. Soamcs treats her as though she were his property. "Out of his other property, out of all the tilings he had collected, his : silver, his pictures, his houses, his investments, he got a secret and intimate fcding: out of her ik got none. ' ! In this house of his there was writing on even- wall. His business-like temperament protested against a mysterious warning that site was not made for him. He asks Bosinncy lo design the house, because ik thinks that Bosinncy will be easy to deal with in money matters. Irene falls in love with the young . architect, and Soamcs, driven by jealous)', brings a suit against Bosinncy for having exceeded to sum ofmoney which had been fixed for the construction of the house. On the day of the trial Bosinney ^: meets with a tragic death. Being passionately in lo\-c with Irene aid depressed by tic liopcless suite of affairs he wanders aimlessly in Ihc foggy streets of London and is run over by an omnibus Irene leaves Soamcs. Bui she is forced to return lo him though not for a long time. The new house remains empty and deserted."The Man of Property" represents a typical bourgeois who is a slave of property, which is to him not only money,houses and land but also his wife, the works of art and the talcnt of artists whose works he buys.

31.Macepeace Thackera was born in the family of an English civil servant in India. When his father died the boy, aged five, was sent to England where he attended the famous Charterhouse School. Thackeray was disgusted with the educational system there, with the corporal punishment and cramming. He was also disappointed in Cambridge University and left it without taking a degree.The first book which attracted attention was The Book of Snobs (1847). followed by his novels Vanity Fair ,The History of Henry Esmondf 1852).W. M. Thackeray is also known as an essayist. His essays The English Humorists and The Four Georges arc remarkable for their exquisite style, gentle humour and keen literary criticism. Charlotte Bronte wrote that there was a man in her days whose words were not framed to tickle delicate cars, who spoke the truth. The Russian democrat Chemishevsky said that of all European writers of that time Dickens alone could be placed on a level with die author of Vanity Fair.Vitnity Fair. The novelist called that society "Vanity Fair* where iylliing could be sold and bought. He turned his satire against the vanity of upper classes, the baseness of their aspirations, the power of money.I Ic created so varied and so immortal characters: businessmen, landlords, officers, etc. The author of Vanity Fair wished to describe n and women as they really were: good and kind, silly and vain, wicked I heartless. He knew upper-class society and bad no illusions about it.The plot of the novel is built around the fates of Amelia Sedley and Decca Sharp. Amelia is the daughter of a rich merchant in London. She is jet, honest and naive. Her friend Rebecca Sharp-or Becky is given in ilrast to Amelia, She is clever, talented, charming and energetic. The girls el at. the boarding school. Becky father was a teacher of drawing there, or his death Becky has to earn her own living. She understands that society pi it into the rich and the poor. She decides to get to the top of it through triage. Rebecca tries to entrap Amelia's brother Joseph, is lazy and foolish, but rich.She secretly marries Sir Pitt's son, Rawdon , who is to inherit his rich aunt's money. But old Miss Crawlcy not forgive her favourite nephew this foolish step and leaves her money Hawdon's brother. Nevertheless "Rebecca's wit, cleverness and flippancy de her speedily the vogue in London among a certain class. You saw nurc chariots at her door, out of which stepped great people. You beheld carriage in the Park, surrounded by dandies of note... butit must be ilcssed that the ladies held aloof from her, and that their doors were shut our little adventurer."The Sedleys go bankrupt Old Osbomc disinherits his son because he has married Amelia, the daughter of his bankrupt friend. Soon after their marriage George is sent to Belgium to fight against Napoleon's army. He is killed on Uie field of Water-loo. Life is very difficult for Amelia and her son George. Her father in law denied her any financial support They only receive occasional presents from little George's god-father. Colonel Dobbin. He loves Amelia and u'ttle Gcorgy and after his friend's death proposes to Amelia But she remains faithful to her husband.Captain Rawdon Crawley returns a colonel. Her relations with Lord Steyne are disclosed, and her husband leaves her. Her son is adopted by Rawdon's brother. Rebecca becomes an adventuress.Old Osbornc dies loving his money to his grandson, Dobbin is appointed as Georgy's guardian.In the end Amelia lernes that her husband, before he went to the war. wanted to leave her and flee with Beckv and she consents to marry Dobbin.

32. William Gerald Golding (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) was a British novelist, poet and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate best known for his novel Lord of the Flies. He was also awarded the Booker Prize for literature in 1980, for his novel Rites of Passage, the first book of the trilogy To the Ends of the Earth. William Golding was born at his maternal grandmother's house, Newquay, Cornwall,and he spent many childhood holidays there. He grew up at his family home in Marlborough, where his father was a science master at Marlborough Grammar School.Alec Golding was a socialist with a strong commitment to scientific rationalism, and the young Golding and his elder brother Joseph attended the school where his father taught. In 1930 Golding went to Oxford University as an undergraduate at Brasenose College, where he read Natural Sciences for two years before transferring to English Literature.Later that year his first book, Poems, was published in London, through the help of his Oxford friend.Golding was an avid animal rights activist.During World War II, Golding fought in the Royal Navy and was briefly involved in the pursuit.He also participated in the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, commanding a landing ship.At the war's end he returned to teaching and writing.Novel Lord of the Flies was published in September 1954.It was shortly followed by other novels, including The Inheritors, Pincher Martin and Free Fall.

Golding's often allegorical fiction makes broad use of allusions to classical literature, mythology, and Christian symbolism. No distinct thread unites his novels and the subject matter and technique vary. However his novels are often set in closed communities such as islands, villages, monasteries, groups of hunter-gatherers, ships at sea or a pharaoh's court. His first novel, Lord of the Flies dealt with an unsuccessful struggle against barbarism and war, thus showing the ambiguity and fragility of civilization. It has also been said that it is an allegory of World War II. The book is about a group of schoolboys who are stranded on a desert island without any adults. At first they seem very excited about the situation and vote for one of the boys, Ralph, to be their leader. Another one of the boys, Jack, leaves the group to form his own tribe, which becomes more and more violent and obsessed with hunting pigs and the so-called beast that the boys believe lives on the island. At the end of the book, they try to kill Ralph before they are all rescued by a naval officer. The title of the book comes from a direct translation of the Hebrew word Beelzebub, meaning the devil. Ralph, the main character in the story, is a fair and decent boy; he is the only boy who will listen to Piggy. Piggy is an overweight boy who is made fun of by everyone else for being fat and because he wears glasses and suffers from asthma, even though he is smarter than the rest, and is the brains behind most of Ralph's ideas.As a matter of fact, in the final page of the novel the boys are rescued by a British navy officer. He arrives on the island just when Jack and his wild band are about to finally overcome and maybe kill Ralph. The officer is completely unaware of what is really at stake and thinks that the boys are playing a childish war game. Meaning that civilization or democracy has just not yet given way to barbarism.Ironically, the arrival of the rescue ship, a cruiser, on one hand has the effect of interrupting the boys' violent behavior on the island and can be seen as a victory of civilization on barbarism. But on the other hand the vessel, being part of a military fleet heading towards the enemy, is a symbol of violence in itself.