English Literature

One of the richest, most develop, and most important bodies of literature in the world. It encompasses both
written and spoken works by writers from the United Kingdom.

Notable Literary Forms

 Epic Poem

This is a long narrative poem usually about a hero and his deeds. A well-known example is Beowulf.

 Sonnet

This poem has fourteen lines that follow a rhyme scheme. A well-known example is sonnet 18 of
William Shakespeare. It starts with the famous line, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”

 Drama

This piece of writing tells a story through dialogue, and it is performed in stage. A well-known
example is the Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.

 Novel

This is a long prose narrative usually about fictional characters and events, which are told in a
particular sequence.

Literary Periods

 Old English Literature (600 – 1100)

Old English, the earliest form of the English language, was spoken by the Anglo-Saxons, a Germanic
tribe living in Britain during the fifth century. One significant work written in Old English is Beowulf,
the longest epic poem in Old English. It is known for its use of kennings, which are phrases or
compound words used to name persons, places, and things indirectly.

*Beowulf( Old English )

 Middle English Literature(1100 – 1500)

Middle English is a blend Old English and Norman French, the French dialect spoken by the
Normans (people of Normandy). The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of
English Literature, is the fine example of literature writes in Middle English.

*The Canterbury Tales( Middle English )

 Elizabethan Literature (1558 – 1603)

The Elizabethan period is the golden age of English literature. Also, it is the golden age of drama.
Known as the “Bard of Avon,” William Shakespeare wrote his plays during the period. His best plays
include Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Othelio, and The Merchant of Venice. Also, he wrote 154
sonnets, many of which are the best loved and the most widely-read poems in the English Literature.

*Bard of Avon( Elizabethan Period )

 The Romantic Period(1800 – 1837)

This period is the golden age of lyric poetry. Poetry became the expression of the poet’s personal
feelings and emotions. A few notable works of poetry of the period are Songs of Innocence and of
Experienced by William Blake, Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems by John Keats, “Don Juan” by Lord Byron, and “Ode to
the West Wind” by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

*Songs of Innocence( The Romantic Period )

 The Victorian Period (1837 – 1900 )

The period saw the rise of the novel. Charles Dickens, considered to be the greatest English novelist
of the 19th century, wrote Great Expectations. This novel was published as a serial in a weekly
periodical from December 1860 to August 1861.

After Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning each wrote fine poetry during the period, Tennyson’
s In Memoriam A.H.H. is a requiem for his friend Arthur Henry Hallam. It is widely considered to be
one of the great poems of the 19th century. Browning, who is known for his dramatic monologues,
wrote the famous poem, “My Last Duchess.” In a dramatic monologue, the poet addresses as
audience through assumed voice.

Oscar Wilde is the best dramatist in the period. He wrote the masterpiece The Importance of
Being Earnest.

*Great Expectations( The Victorian Period )

 Twentieth Century (1900 – 2000)

William Butler Yeats and Thomas Stearns Eliot wrote Modernist poems during the period. Yeats
wrote The Tower, The Winding Stair, and New Poems, all of which are known to have potent images.
Eliot’s masterpieces are “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “The Waste Land.”

*The Waste Land( Twentieth Century )

Virginia Woolf

In her story Mrs. Dalloway and James Joyce in his work Ulysses use stream of consciousness, a
literary technique in which the flow of thought of a character is describes in words.

A Tale of Two Cities

- Charles Dickens -

Characters

Sydney Carton

A London lawyer who had great potential but has fallen into a life of alcoholism and vice. He serves
as an informal legal advisor to Stryver, and he looks remarkably like Charles Darnay.

Roger Cly

A British spy who swears that his only motive is patriotism.

Jerry Cruncher
An odd-job man for Tellson's Bank whose side job is to act as a "resurrection man," which involves
digging up dead bodies and selling their parts to scientists.

Monsieur Ernest Defarge

Former servant of Doctor Manette and currently a revolutionary who helps orchestrate the French
Revolution from his wine-shop in the Parisian suburb of Saint Antoine. He assumes the name of
Jacques Four when engaging in revolutionary activity.

Monsieur Theophile Gabelle

A French postmaster whose harassment by revolutionaries causes Charles Darnay to return to

Paris.

Gaspard

A resident of Saint Antoine who is executed for the murder of Monseigneur.

Jarvis Lorry

A respectable elderly gentleman who is a confidential clerk at Tellson's Bank. He is also an old friend
of Doctor Manette. He carried Lucie Manette on the passage back to London after her father was
imprisoned.

Dr. Alexander Manette

A Parisian doctor who was imprisoned in the Bastille for eighteen years, he is a loving father to Lucie
Manette.

Solomon Pross a.k.a. John Barsad

A spy and informer who serves as a turnkey in the Conciergerie in Paris; brother of Miss Pross.

Charles Saint Evrémonde a.k.a. Charles Darnay

A French emigrant to England who renounces his French title and inheritance. After being acquitted
of charges that he acted as a spy, he marries Lucie Manette.

Mr. Stryver

An ambitious London lawyer with a large ego. He is an old friend of Sydney Carton's who informally
pays him to assist him.

Theme

Resurrection, Class Struggle, Fate, Social Injustice, Family

Setting

Paris, France, London,