Chapter One The Medieval Period 1
Ⅰ．Introduction 1
Ⅱ．Geoffrey Chaucer(ca 1343—1400) 2
Ⅲ．Selected Writing 2
Excerpts from the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales 2
Chapter Two The Elizabethan Age 8
Ⅰ．Introduction 8
1.1 Renaissance 8
1.2 Renaissance in England 8
Ⅱ．Francis Bacon(1561—1626) 9
Ⅲ．William Shakespeare(1564—1616) 9
3.1 Life and Career 9
3.2 Major Works 10
Ⅳ．John Donne(1572—1631) 12
Ⅴ．Selected Writings 13
5.1 An Excerpt from ACT IV of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare 13
5.2 An Excerpt from Act Ⅲ of Hamlet by William Shakespeare 27
5.3 "Sonnet 18" by William Shakespeare 28
5.4 "Sonnet 29" by William Shakespeare 28
5.5 "The Flea" by John Donne 29
5.6 "The Sun Rising" by John Donne 30
5.7 "The Canonization" by John Donne 31
5.8 "Death Be Not Proud" by John Donne 32
5.9 "Of Studies" by Francis Bacon 33
5.10 "Of Marriage and Single Life" by Francis Bacon 34
Chapter Three The Restoration 37
Ⅰ．Introduction 37
1.1 The Restoration 37
1.2 Literary Characteristics 37
Ⅱ．John Milton(1608—1674) 38
Ⅲ．John Bunyan(1628—1688) 38
3.1 Life and Career 38
3.2 The Pilgrim's Progress(synopsis) 39
Ⅳ．Selected Writings 40
4.1 Excerpts from Book I of ParadiseLost by John Milton 40
4.2 "On His Blindness" by John Milton 42
4.3 An Excerpt from Part I of The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan 42
Chapter Four The Enlightenment Period 46
Ⅰ．Introduction 46
1.1 Enlightenment Ideas 46
1.2 British Literature during the Enlightenment Period 46
Ⅱ．Daniel Defoe(1660—1731) 47
2.1 Life and Career 47
2.2 Robinson Crusoe(synopsis) 47
Ⅲ．Jonathan Swift(1667—1745) 48
3.1 Life and Career 48
3.2 Gulliver's Travels(synopsis) 49
Ⅳ．Joseph Addison(1672—1719) 49
Ⅴ．Alexander Pope(1688—1744) 50
Ⅵ．Samuel Richardson(1689—1761) 51
6.1 Life and Career 51
6.2 Clarissa(synopsis) 51
Ⅶ．Samuel Johnson(1709—1784) 52
Ⅷ．Henry Fielding(1707—1754) 52
8.1 Life and Career 52
8.2 The History of Tom Jones,a Foundling(synopsis) 53
Ⅸ．Selected Writings 54
9.1 "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift 54
9.2 "Sir Roger at Church" from The Spectator(July 9,1711) by Joseph Addison 60
9.3 An Excerpt from An Essay on Man:EpistleⅡby Alexander Pope 63
9.4 "To the Right Honourable the Earl of Chesterfield" by Samuel Johnson 64
Chapter Five The Romantic Period 66
Ⅰ．Introduction 66
1.1 Historical Background 66
1.2 Romanticism 66
1.3 British Romanticism 67
Ⅱ．William Blake(1757—1827) 68
Ⅲ．Robert Burns(1759—1796) 68
Ⅳ．William Wordsworth(1770—1850) 69
Ⅴ．Samuel Taylor Coleridge(1772—1834) 70
Ⅵ．Walter Scott(1771—1832) 70
6.1 Life and Career 70
6.2 Ivanhoe(synopsis) 71
Ⅶ．Jane Austen(1775—1817) 72
7.1 Life and Career 72
7.2 Pride and Prejudice(synopsis) 72
Ⅷ．Charles Lamb(1775—1834) 73
Ⅸ．George Gordon Byron(1788—1824) 74
Ⅹ．Percy Bysshe Shelley(1792—1822) 75
Ⅺ．John Keats(1795—1821) 75
Ⅻ．Selected Writings 76
12.1 "London" by William Blake 76
12.2 "The Tyger" by William Blake 77
12.3 "The Chimney Sweeper" by William Blake 78
12.4 "A Red,Red Rose" by Robert Burns 79
12.5 "Scots Wha Hae" by Robert Burns 80
12.6 "A Man's a Man for A'That" by Robert Burns 81
12.7 "She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways" by William Wordsworth 82
12.8 "I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud" by William Wordsworth 83
12.9 "The Solitary Reaper" by William Wordsworth 84
12.10 "To the Cuckoo" by William Wordsworth 85
12.11 "Composed Upon Westminster Bridge,September 3,1802" by William Wordsworth 86
12.12 "London,1802" by William Wordsworth 87
12.13 "Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge 87
12.14 "Dream Children;a Reverie" by Charles Lamb 89
12.15 "She Walks in Beauty" by George Gordon Byron 93
12.16 "The Isles of Greece" (from Canto Ⅲ,Don Juan)by George Gordon Byron 94
12.17 "Ode to the West Wind" by Percy Bysshe Shelley 98
12.18 "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley 101
12.19 "To—" by Percy Bysshe Shelley 102
12.20 "To a Skylark" by Percy Bysshe Shelley 103
12.21 "Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats 106
12.22 "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats 109
12.23 "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" by John Keats 111
Chapter Six The Victorian Age 112
Ⅰ．Introduction 112
1.1 Historical Background 112
1.2 Literary Characteristics 112
Ⅱ．Alfred Lord Tennyson(1809—1892) 114
Ⅲ．Robert Browning(1812—1889) 115
Ⅳ．Charles Dickens(1812—1870) 115
4.1 Life and Career 115
4.2 Great Expectations(synopsis) 116
Ⅴ．The Brontё Sisters 116
5.1 Life and Career 116
5.2 Wuthering Heights(synopsis) 117
5.3 Jane Eyre(synopsis) 118
Ⅵ．George Eliot(1819—1880) 120
6.1 Life and Career 120
6.2 Middlemarch(synopsis) 121
Ⅶ．Thomas Hardy(1840—1928) 122
7.1 Life and Career 122
7.2 Tess of the D'Urbervilles(synopsis) 122
Ⅷ．George Bernard Shaw(1856—1950) 123
8.1 Life and Career 123
8.2 Mrs.Warren's Profession(synopsis) 124
Ⅸ．Selected Writings 125
9.1 "Ulysses" by Alfred Tennyson 125
9.2 "Break,Break,Break" by Alfred Tennyson 128
9.3 "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning 128
9.4 "Home Thoughts,from the Sea" by Robert Browning 131
9.5 An Excerpt from Chapter 3 of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 131
9.6 "Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell" by Charlotte Brontё 136
Chapter Seven The Twentieth Century 142
Ⅰ．Modernism 142
1.1 Social Background 142
1.2 Modernism 142
1.3 Literary Characteristics 143
Ⅱ．Joseph Conrad(1857—1924) 144
2.1 Life and Career 144
2.2 Heart of Darkness(synopsis) 145
Ⅲ．William Butler Yeats(1865—1939) 145
Ⅳ．E.M.Forster(1879—1970) 146
4.1 Life and Career 146
4.2 A Passage to India(synopsis) 147
Ⅴ．James Joyce(1882—1941) 148
5.1 Life and Career 148
5.2 Ulysses(synopsis) 148
Ⅵ．Virginia Woolf(1882—1941) 149
6.1 Life and Career 149
6.2 To the Lighthouse(synopsis) 150
Ⅶ．D.H.Lawrence(1885—1930) 151
7.1 Life and Career 151
7.2 Sons and Lovers(synopsis) 152
Ⅷ．T.S.Eliot(1888—1965) 153
Ⅸ．Samuel Barclay Beckett(1906—1989) 154
Ⅹ．Wystan Hugh Auden(1907—1973) 154
Ⅺ．Selected Writings 155
11.1 "Down by the Salley Gardens" by W.B.Yeats 155
11.2 "Leda and the Swan" by W.B.Yeats 155
11.3 "Sailing to Byzantium" by W.B.Yeats 156
11.4 "The Second Coming" by W.B.Yeats 157
11.5 "My Wood" by E.M.Forster 158
11.6 "Araby" by James Joyee 162
11.7 "Dorothy Wordsworth" by Virginia Woolf 167
11.8 "The Mark on the Wall" by Virginia Woolf 174
11.9 "Tiekets,Please" by D.H.Lawrence 181
11.10 "The Hollow Men" by T.S.Eliot 191
11.11 An Excerpt from Act One of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett 194
11.12 "Who's Who" by W.H.Auden 206
11.13 "Their Lonely Betters" by W.H.Auden 207
Bibliography 209