Chapter One The English Renaissance (1500-1625) 1
Introduction to the Background 1
About the Author 4
William Shakespeare 4
Selected Reading 6
Sonnet 6
The Merchant of Venice 7
Chapter Two The Seventeenth Century (1625-1700) 23
Introduction to the Background 23
About the Author 25
John Donne 25
Selected Reading 26
A Valediction, Forbidding Mourning 26
Sonner 10 28
About the Author 30
John Milton 30
Selected Reading 31
Paradise Lost 31
Chapter Three The Eighteenth Century (1700-1798) 36
Introduction to the Background 36
About the Author 39
Daniel Defoe 39
Selected Reading 41
The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe 41
About the Author 56
Robert Burns 56
Selected Poems 57
Selected Reading 57
William Blake 62
About the Author 62
Selected Reading 63
Selected Poems 63
Chapter Four The Romantic Period (1798-1832) 66
Introduction to the Background 66
About the Author 70
William Wordsworth 70
Selected Reading 71
Selected Poems 71
About the Author 74
John Keats 74
Ode to a Nightingale 75
Selected Reading 75
About the Author 80
Jane Austen 80
Selected Reading 81
Emma 81
Chapter Five The Victorian Age (1832-1901) 93
Introduction to the Background 93
About the Author 98
Charles Dickens 98
Selected Reading 100
Oliver Twist 100
William Makepeace Thackeray 119
About the Author 119
Seleeted Reading 121
Vanity Fair 121
About the Author 133
Emily Bronte？ 133
Selected Reading 134
Wuthering Heights 134
About the Author 149
Thomas Hardy 149
Selected Reading 150
Tess of the D Urbervilles 150
The Darkling Thrush 160
George Bernard Shaw 162
About the Author 162
Selected Reading 164
Mrs. Warren s Profession 164
Chapter Six The Twentieth Cantury 179
Introduction to the Background 179
About the Author 183
Joseph Conrad 183
Selected Reading 184
Heart of Darkness 184
About the Author 209
D.H.Lawrence 209
Selected Reading 211
Women in Love 211
Kathberine Mansfield 223
About the Author 223
Selected Reading 225
The Garden Party 225
About the Author 238
Virginia Woolf 238
Selected Reading 240
Mrs Dalloway 240
About the Author 249
William Somerset Maugham 249
Selected Reading 250
Of Human Bondage 250
Edward Morgan Forster 264
About the Author 264
Selected Reading 265
A Passage to India 265
About the Author 285
Samuel Beckett 285
Selected Reading 287
Waiting for Godor 287
About the Author 317
William Golding 317
Selected Reading 318
Lord of the Files 318
Key 339
References 348