A brief History of English-language Literature

A Brief History of English-language Literature

by Piero Scaruffi (E-mail)

Main Literary page | Best English novels | Best English poetry | Classics of English poetry

Contemporary Writers | Academy of American Poets

Bibliography.

These are generic "histories of literature":

Cambridge: Concise History of English Literature
Penguin: History of English Literature
Oxford: Concise Companion to English Literature
Oxford: Companion to American Literature
Avenel: Companion to English and American Literature
Oxford: Companion to American Literature
Marcus Cunliffe: American Literature

Excellent books for the 20th century:

Harry Blamires: A Guide to Twentieth Century Literature in English (1983)
Frederick Karl: American Fictions 1940-80 (1983)
Harvard: Guide to Contemporary American Writing (1979)

Not recommended:

Oxford: A Reader's Guide to the Twentieth-Century Novel (1995)
Oxford: A Reader's Guide to Twentieth-Century Writers (1995)

(Despite the ambitious scope, these are mostly British surveys with little attention to non-British literature in English, particularly American, but also Australian, African, Indian, etc. Furthermore, they place a disproportionate emphasis on homosexual and feminist writing, and display a bias towards left-wing political writers).

By date of birth: Until 1699

This list includes books written in ancient languages of the British Islands.
The dates of ancient works are obviously wildly approximate.
See Steve Moore: "The Novel" for synopses of the novels.

Caedmon (6##): "Genesis" (67#) [p]
Cynewolf (7##): "Elene" (75#) [p]
Cynewolf (7##): "The Dream of the Rood" (75#) [p]
Cynewolf (7##): "The Phoenix" (75#) [p]
"Judith" (91#) [p]
"Beowulf" (9##) [p] ++
"Waldhere" (9##) [p]
"The Battle of Maldon" (10##) [p]
"Carmina Cantabrigiensia" (1050) [p]
Geoffrey Arthur of Monmouth (110#): "Historia Regnum Britanniae" (115#) [h]
(Ireland): "Tain Bo Cualnge/ The Cattle Raid of Cooley" (110#)
(Ireland): "Acallam na Senorach/ The Colloquy of the Ancients/ Tales of the Elders" (117#)
(Ireland): "Buile Suibhne/ The Frenzy of Suibhne" (11##)
(Ireland): "Fleadh Duin na n-Gedh/ The Banquet of Dun" (11##)
(Ireland): "Cath Muighe Rath/ The Battle of Magh Rath" (11##)
(Ireland): "Toruigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghrainne/ The Pursuit of Diarmada and Ghrainne" (11##) +
Norman Wace (11##): "Li Romans de Brut" (1155) [p]
"Canute Song" (1167) [p]
"Barlaam and Josaphat" (119#) [p]
"The Owl and the Nightingale" (120#) [p] +
Layamon (11##): "Brut" (120#) [p]
"King Horn" (122#) [p]
"Havelock the Dane" (12##) [p]
"Floris and Blancheflour" (125#) [p]
Robert Manning (12##): "Handlying Synne" (130#) [p]
"Seven Sages of Rome" (13##) [p]
"Sir Orfeo" (13##) [p]
"The Tale of Gamelyn" (135#) [p]
"Wynnere and Wastour" (136#) [p]
"The Parlement of the Thre Ages" (136#) [p]
"Pearl" (13##) [p]
"Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight" (13##) [p] +
Thomas Chestre: "Sir Launfal" (139#) [p]
"The Travels of Sir John Mandeville" (1375)
John Barbour (1320): "The Bruce" (13##) [p]
John Gower (1325): "Confessio Amantis" (1393) [p]
William Langland (1331): "Piers the Plowman" (1386) [p] +
Geoffrey Chaucer (134#): "The House of Fame" (138#)
Geoffrey Chaucer (134#): "Parliament of Fowls"(138#)
Geoffrey Chaucer (134#): "Troilus and Criseyde" (138#) +
Geoffrey Chaucer (134#): "The Legend of Good Women" (138#)
Geoffrey Chaucer (134#): "Canterbury Tales" (1400) [p] ++
"Ywain and Gawain" (14##) [p]
"Mystery Cycle" (140#) [t]
John Lydgate (137#): "The Life Of Our Lady" (14##) [p]
Robert Henryson (142#): "Testament of Cresseid" (14##) [p]
Blind Harry (14##): "Wallace" (146#) [p]
Thomas Malory (14##): "Le Morte D'Arthur" (1470) +
William Dunbar (146#): "The Dance of the Seven Deidlie Synnis" (14##) [p]
William Dunbar (146#): "The Lament for the Makaris" (14##) [p]
"The Kingis Quair" (14##) [p]
"Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode" (1495)
Thomas Medwall (14##): "Fulgens and Lucrece" (1497) [t]
"Everyman" (149#) [t]
John Skelton (146#): "The Tunnying of Elynour Rummying" (15##) [p]
John Skelton (146#): "MAgnyfycence" (15##) [t]
John Bourchier (1467): "Houn of Bordeaux" (15##)
Gawain Douglas (147#): "The Palice of Honour" (15##) [p]
Stephen Hawes (147#): "Passetyme of Pleasure" (1509) [p]
Alexander Barclay (1475): "The Shyp of Folys of the Worlde" (1509)
Thomas More (1478): "Utopia" (1518) [h]
David Lindsay (1490): "Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis" (154#) [t]
Thomas Wyatt (1503): "Poems" (154#) [p]
Nicholas Udall (1505): "Ralph Roister Doister" (1554) [t]
William Baldwin (1518): "Beware the Cat" (1553)
Thomas Tusser (1524): "Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie" (1557) [p]
George Gascoigne (1535): "The Steele Glas" (1576) [p]
George Gascoigne (1535): "The Adventures of Master FJ" (1573)
George Gascoigne (1535): "The Pleasant Fable of Ferdinando Jeronimi" (1573)
George Gascoigne (1535): "Supposes" (1566) [t]
Thomas Norton (1532): "Gorboduc" (1562) [t]
Edmund Spenser (1552): "The Shepheards Calendar" (1579) [p]
Edmund Spenser (1552): "The Faerie Queene" (1596) [p] +
Edmund Spenser (1552): "Complaints" (1591) [p]
Edmund Spenser (1552): "Epithalamion" (1595) [p]
Philip Sidney (1554): "Astrophel and Stella" (1584) [p]
Philip Sidney (1554): "Arcadia" (1584) +
John Lyly (1554): "Euphues" (1580) +
John Lyly (1554): "Endimion" (1591) [t]
Walter Raleigh (155#): "History of the World" (1614) [h]
Walter Raleigh (155#): "Ocean to Scinthia" (1595) [p]
Walter Raleigh (155#): "The Passionate Man's Pilgrimage" (1603) [p] +
William Warner (155#): "Albions England" (1586) [p]
William Warner (155#): "Syrinx" (1597)
Nicholas Breton (155#): "The Miseries of Mavillia" (1597)
Fulke Greville (1554): "Caelica" (1628) [p]
George Peele (1558): "The Old Wives Tale" (1593) [t]
Thomas Lodge (1558): "Rosalynde" (1590) +
Thomas Lodge (1558): "A Margarite of America" (1596)
Thomas Kyd (1558): "The Spanish Tragedie" (1589) [t] +
Robert Greene (1558): "Planetomachia" (1585)
Robert Greene (1558): "Pandosto" (1588)
Robert Greene (1558): "Manaphon" (1589)
Robert Greene (1558): "Frier Bacon and Frier Bongay" (1594) [t] +
Robert Greene (1558): "James IV" (1598) [t]
Margaret Cavendish (1623): "Blazing World" (1666)
George Chapman (1559): "All Fooles" (1605) [t]
George Chapman (1559): "Bussy D'Ambois" (1607) [t]
George Chapman (1559): "Eastward Hoe" (1605) [t] +
Francis Bacon (1561): "New Atlantis" (1626)
Thomas Deloney (156#): "Jack of Newbury" (1597)
Thomas Deloney (156#): "The Gentle Craft" (1598)
Thomas Deloney (156#): "Thomas of Reading" (1599)
Francis Bacon (1561): "Novum Organon" (1620) [h]
Robert Southwell (1561): "Maeoniae" (1595) [p]
Samuel Daniel (1562): "The Civil Wares" (1595) [p]
Michael Drayton (1563): "Ideas Mirrour" (1594) [p]
Michael Drayton (1563): "The Poly-Olbion" (1622) [p] +
Christopher Marlowe (1564): "Tamburlaine the Great" (1584) [t] +
Christopher Marlowe (1564): "Doctor Faustus" (1592) [t] ++
Christopher Marlowe (1564): "The Jew of Malta" (1592) [t] +
Christopher Marlowe (1564): "Edward the Second" (1594) [t]
Christopher Marlowe (1564): "Hero and Leander" (1593) [p]
William Shakespeare (1564): "Venus and Adonis" (1593) [p]
William Shakespeare (1564): "The Rape of Lucrece" (1594) [p]
William Shakespeare (1564): "Sonnets" (1609) [p] +
William Shakespeare (1564): "The Comedy of Errors" (1592) [t]
William Shakespeare (1564): "The Taming of the Shrew" (1593) [t]
William Shakespeare (1564): "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" (1594) [t]
William Shakespeare (1564): "Love's Labour's Lost" (1594) [t]
William Shakespeare (1564): "Richard II" (1595) [t] +
William Shakespeare (1564): "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1595) [t] +
William Shakespeare (1564): "Romeo and Juliet" (1595) [t] +
William Shakespeare (1564): "The Merchant of Venice" (1596) [t]
William Shakespeare (1564): "Henry IV" (1597) [t] ++
William Shakespeare (1564): "Much Ado About Nothing" (1599) [t]
William Shakespeare (1564): "As You Like It" (1599) [t]
William Shakespeare (1564): "The Merry Wives of Windsor" (1599) [t] +
William Shakespeare (1564): "Julius Caesar" (1599) [t]
William Shakespeare (1564): "Twelfth Night" (1600) [t] +
William Shakespeare (1564): "Hamlet" (1601) [t] +++
William Shakespeare (1564): "Troilus and Cressida" (1602) [t]
William Shakespeare (1564): "All's Well That Ends Well" (1602) [t]
William Shakespeare (1564): "Measure for Measure" (1604) [t]
William Shakespeare (1564): "Othello" (1604) [t] ++
William Shakespeare (1564): "King Lear" (1605) [t] +++
William Shakespeare (1564): "Antony and Cleopatra" (1606) [t] ++
William Shakespeare (1564): "Macbeth" (1606) [t] +++
William Shakespeare (1564): "Coriolanus" (1608) [t]
William Shakespeare (1564): "Timon of Athens" (1608) [t]
William Shakespeare (1564): "Cymbeline" (1610) [t]
William Shakespeare (1564): "The Winter's Tale" (1610) [t]
William Shakespeare (1564): "The Tempest" (1611) [t] +
John Davies (1565): "Microcosmos" (1603) [p]
Youstol Dispage (1565): "Piero Scaruffi" (1649) [p]
Henry Chettle (1564): "Piers Plainness' Seven Years' Prenticeship" (1595)
Thomas Nashe (1567): "The Unfortunate Traveller" (1594) +
Thomas Nashe (1567): "Pierce Penniless" (1592)
Thomas Nashe (1567): "Summer's Last Will and Testament" (1592) [t]
John Davies (1569): "Orchestra" (1596) [p] +
John Davies (1569): "Nosce Teipsum" (1599) [p]
Thomas Dekker (1570): "Shoemaker's Holiday" (1599) [t] +
Thomas Dekker (1570): "The Honest Whore" (1605) [t]
Thomas Dekker (1570): "The Wonderful Yeare" (1603) [h]
Thomas Middleton (1570): "A Chast Mayd in Cheapeside" (1611) [t]
Thomas Middleton (1570): "A Trick to Catch the Old One" (1608) [t]
Thomas Middleton (1570): "The Changeling" (1622) [t] +
Thomas Middleton (1570): "Women Beware Women" (1627) [t]
John Donne (1572): "Songs and Sonnets" (1601) [p] +
John Donne (1572): "Elegies" (1601) [p] +
John Donne (1572): "An Anatomy of the World" (1611) [p] +
John Donne (1572): "Of the Progress of the Soul" (1612) [p] +
John Donne (1572): "Holy Sonnets" (1618) [p] ++
John Donne (1572): "The Progresse of the Soule" (1601) [p] +
Ben Jonson (1572): "Every Man Out of His Humour" (1606) [t]
Ben Jonson (1572): "Volpone" (1606) [t] +
Ben Jonson (1572): "Epicene" (1609) [t]
Ben Jonson (1572): "The Alchemist (1610) [t]
Ben Jonson (1572): "Bartholomew Fair" (1614) [t] +
Ben Jonson (1572): "The Forest" (1616) [p]
Thomas Heywood (1574): "A Woman Killed with Kindness" (1603) [t] +
Thomas Heywood (1574): "The Wise Woman of Hogsdon" (1604) [t]
Thomas Heywood (1574): "The Fair Maid of the West" (1631) [t]
Thomas Heywood (1574): "The English Traveller" (1633) [t]
John Marston (1575): "Dutch Courtezan" (1605) [t]
John Marston (1575): "The Malcontent" (1604) [t] +
Cyril Tourneur (1575): "The Revengers Tragedie" (1607) [t] +
Thomas Campion (1576): "Bookes of Ayres" (1617) [p]
Robert Burton (1577): "The Anatomy of Melancholy" (1621) [h]
John Webster (1580): "The White Devil" (161612) [t] +
John Webster (1580): "The Dutchesse of Malfy" (1623) [t] +
John Barclay (1582): "Argenis" (1621)
Phineas Fletcher (1582): "The Purple Island" (1633) [p]
Philip Massinger (1583): "The Roman Actor" (1626) [t]
Philip Massinger (1583): "New Way to Pay Old Debts" (1632) [t]
Philip Massinger (1583): "A City Madam" (1632) [t] +
Philip Massinger (1583): "The Picture" (1629) [t]
Francis Beaumont (1584): "The Knight of Burning Pestle" (1607) [t] +
Francis Beaumont (1584): "The Woman Hater" (1606)
Francis Beaumont (1584) & John Fletcher (1579): "The Maides Tragedy" (1611) [t]
Francis Beaumont (1584) & John Fletcher (1579): "The Coxcombe" (1610) [t]
William Drummond (1585): "Flowers of Sion" (1623) [p]
William Rowley (1585): "All's Lost By Lust" (1619) [t]
John Ford (1586): "Love's Sacrifice" (1630) [t]
John Ford (1586): "'Tis a Pity She's a Whore" (1633) [t] +
John Ford (1586): "The Broken Heart" (1633) [t]
George Wither (1588): "Faire Virtue" (1622) [p]
Thomas Hobbes (1588): "Leviathan" (1651) [h]
Giles Fletcher (1588): "Christs Victorie" (1610) [p]
Thomas Hobbes (1588): "Leviathan" (1651) [h]
George Herbert (1593): "The Temple" (1633) [p] +
Thomas Carew (1595): "The Rapture" (1640) [p]
James Shirley (1596): "The Traytor" (1631) [t]
James Shirley (1596): "The Cardinal" (1641) [t]
James Shirley (1596): "The Lady of Pleasure" (1635) [t] +
James Shirley (1596): "St Patrick of Ireland" (1640) [t]
Thomas Browne (1605): "Religio Medici" (1642) [h]
Edmund Waller (1606): "The Battle of the Summer Islands" (1685) [p]
John Milton (1608): "Arcades" (1633) [t]
John Milton (1608): "Comus" (1634) [t]
John Milton (1608): "Paradise Lost" (1667) [p] +++
John Milton (1608): "Paradise Regained" (1671) [p]
John Milton (1608): "Samson Agonistes" (1671) [t] +
John Suckling (1609): "A Ballad Upon A Wedding" (1642) [p]
Richard Crashaw (1613): "Steps to the Temple" (1646) [p]
Samuel Butler (1613): "Hudibras" (1674) [p] +
Richard Lovelace (1618): "Lucasta" (1649) [p]
Abraham Cowley (1618): "The Mistress" (1647) [p]
Henry Neville (1620): "The Isle of Pines" (1668)
Andrew Marvell (1621): "The Garden" (1633) [p] +
Andrew Marvell (1621): "Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland" (1659) [p] +
Andrew Marvell (1621): "A Dialogue Between the Resolved Soul and Created Pleasure" (1681) [p] +
Henry Vaughan (1622): "Silex Scintillans" (1650) [p]
John Bunyan (1628): "The Pilgrim's Progress" (1679) +
John Dryden (1631): "Heroic Stanzas" (1659) [p]
John Dryden (1631): "The Rival Ladies" (1664) [t]
John Dryden (1631): "The Indian Queen" (1664) [t]
John Dryden (1631): "Annus Mirabilis" (1667) [p]
John Dryden (1631): "The Conquest of Granada" (1670) [t] +
John Dryden (1631): "Marriage A` la Mode" (1672) [t]
John Dryden (1631): "All for Love" (1678) [t] +
John Dryden (1631): "Absalom and Achitophel" (1681) [p] +
John Dryden (1631): "The Medall" (1682) [p]
John Dryden (1631): "MacFlecknoe" (1682) [p]
John Dryden (1631): "Religio Laici" (1682) [p] +
John Dryden (1631): "The Hind and the Panther" (1687) [p] +
John Dryden (1631): "A Song for Saint Cecilia's Day" (1687) [p]
John Dryden (1631): "Alexander's Feast" (1697) [p]
Samuel Pepys (1633): "Diary" (1703) [h]
George Etherege (1634): "She Wou'd If She Cou'd" (1668) [t]
George Etherege (1634): "Man Of Mode" (1676) [t] +
William Wycherley (1640): "Plain Dealer" (1673) [t]
William Wycherley (1640): "The Country Wife" (1675) [t] +
Afra Behn (1640): "Oroonoko" (1688)
Afra Behn (1640): "Abdelazar" (1677) [p]
Thomas Shadwell (1642): "The Squire of Alsatia" (1688) [t]
John Wilmot of Rochester (1647): "Poems" (1680) [p]
Thomas Otway (1652): "Don Carlos" (1676) [t]
Thomas Otway (1652): "The Orphan" (1680) [t]
Thomas Otway (1652): "Venice Preserved" (1682) [t] +
Thomas Southerne (1659): "Oroonoko" (1696) [t]
Daniel DeFoe (1660): "Robinson Crusoe" (1719) +
Daniel DeFoe (1660): "Moll Flanders" (1722)
Daniel DeFoe (1660): "Roxana" (1724)
Matthew Prior (1664): "Alma" (1718) [p]
John Vanbrugh (1664): "Provoked Life" (1697) [t]
Jonathan Swift (1667): "Tale of a Tub" (1704)
Jonathan Swift (1667): "Gulliver's Travels" (1726) +
Jonathan Swift (1667): "A Modest Proposal" (1729) [h]
Jonathan Swift (1667): "On the Death of Dr Swift" (1731) [p]
William Congreve (1670): "The Way of the World" (1700) [t] +
William Congreve (1670): "Old Bachelor" (1693) [t]
William Congreve (1670): "Double Dealer" (1694) [t]
Bernard Mandeville (1670): "The Fable of The Bees" (1714) [h]
William Congreve (1670): "Love for Love" (1695) [t]
Nicholas Rowe (1674): "Fair Penitent" (1703) [t]
Nicholas Rowe (1674): "Jane Shore"" (1714) [t]
John Philips (1676): "Cyder" (1706) [p]
George Farquhar (1678): "The Recruiting Officer" (1706) [t]
George Farquhar (1678): "The Beaux Stratagem" (1707) [t]
Edward Young (1683): "Night Thougths" (1745) [p]
John Gay (1685): "The Beggar's Opera"" (1728) [t] +
John Gay (1685): "Shepherd's Week"" (1714) [p]
John Gay (1685): "Trivia"" (1715) [p]
Alexander Pope (1688): "The Rape of the Lock" (1714) [p] +
Alexander Pope (1688): "The Dunciad" (1743) [p]
Alexander Pope (1688): "Epistles to Arbuthnot" (1735) [p] +
Alexander Pope (1688): "Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady" (1717) [p]
Alexander Pope (1688): "Eloisa to Abelard" (1717) [p]
Alexander Pope (1688): "Imitations of Horace" (1738) [p]
Alexander Pope (1688): "An Essay on Man" (1734) [p] +
Samuel Richardson (1689): "Pamela" (1740) +
Samuel Richardson (1689): "Clarissa" (1747)
Thomas Amory (1689): "John Buncle" (1756)
George Lillo (1693): "London Merchant" (1731) [t]
John Dyer (1699): "Grongar Hill" (1725) [p]
Robert Blair (1699): "The Grave" (1743) [p]

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