The Short Oxford History Of English Literature

A guide to the literature of the British Isles from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day. The volume includes information on Old and Middle English, the Renaissance, Shakespeare, the 17th and 18th centuries, the Romantics, Victorian and Edwardian literature, Modernism, and post-war writing.

The Short Oxford History of English Literature 2e provides a comprehensive beginners guide to the literature of the British Isles from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day in one volume. This book is an established introduction to English literature, with separate chapters tracing the development from Beowulf to the post-modern fictions of Seamus Heaney and Angela Carter including a new section on late 20th century prose and British and Irish poetry of the 60s. The Historyprovides detailed discussion of Old and Middle English literature, the Renaissance, Shakespeare, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Romantics, Victorian and Edwardian literature, Modernism, and post-war writing. Discussions of key writers and works from Anselm and Chaucer to Spenser andBunyan, and from Swift and Johnson to Dickens and DH Lawrence, are combined with analysis of the impact on literature of contemporary political, social, and intellectual developments. The book includes Scottish, Irish, and Welsh writers, and it asks about the future of the canon in the light of thefragmented condition of British writing in the post-imperial period. Lively, accessible, and up-to-date, The Short Oxford History of English Literature will be an invaluable source for general readers and a key textbook for sixth-form students, first year undergraduates, and foreign students of English literature.

This text traces the language from its obscure Indo-European roots to its 21st-century position as the world's first language. It describes the history of English within the British Isles, its changing roles in different places, and its rise to global pre-eminence.

English Literature: A Very Short Introduction discusses why literature matters, how narrative works, and what is distinctly English about English literature. Jonathan Bate considers how we determine the content of the field, and looks at the three major kinds of imaginative literature - English poetry, English drama and The English novel.

This volume offers a survey of American short fiction in 59 tales that combine classic works with 'different, unexpected gems', which invite readers to explore a wealth of important pieces by women and minority writers. Authors include: Amy Tan, Alice Adams, David Leavitt and Tim O'Brien.

The first comprehensive history of New Zealand literature, this volume includes chapters on the novel, poetry, and the short story, as well as sections on drama, non-fiction, children's literature, popular literature, and the history of publishing, patronage, and literary magazines. While it features major authors, this history also contains information on little-known authors and forgotten periods in New Zealand's literary history, providing more comprehensive information on the subject than has ever appeared in a single volume before.

Traces the history of English literature from Anglo-Saxon poetry to the present day.