British literature
England's written canon
British literature is the body of written works produced in Great Britain, encompassing poetry, prose, drama, and essays from Old English through the present.
The canon includes Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Austen, Dickens, and countless others.
The term typically excludes Irish literature after independence, though boundaries blur with figures like Yeats and Beckett.
She's studying British literature at university.
- MiltonBaroque English verse master
- AustenLiterary family name
- WoolfCanine surname variant
- SwiftMoving with great speed
Orwell · Defoe · Joyce · Lawrence · Forster · Waugh · Greene · Golding
Surname of Victorian novelist
- BrontëLiterary sisters' surname
- HardyName connoting toughness
- George EliotPseudonymous Victorian novelist
- ThackerayWrote satirical fiction
Oliver Twist · Great Expectations · Middlemarch · Tess · Vanity Fair · serialization · industrialization · social reform
New and unusual
- poetryMetrical literary composition
- dramaTheatrical art or turmoil
- essayShort argumentative prose work
- romanceLove and its excitement
tragedy · comedy · satire · gothic · detective fiction · spy fiction · dystopia · fantasy
Fourteen-line metered poem
couplet · stanza · verse · rhyme · meter · quatrain · epic · pastoral
Danish prince's revenge tragedy
- MacbethAmbitious thane's downfall
- OthelloVenetian military commander
- Midsummer Night's DreamShakespearean fairy romantic comedy
- Romeo and JulietTragedy of rival households
King Lear · sonnets · Globe Theatre · Elizabethan · Stratford-upon-Avon · iambic pentameter · soliloquy · Falstaff
Gothic novel's mad scientist
- DraculaLegendary Transylvanian vampire
- Wuthering HeightsYorkshire gothic novel
- MonkShalhoub's anxious investigator role
- hauntingDisturbingly unforgettable
Jane Eyre · specter · macabre · uncanny · melancholy · sublime · terror · ruins
- Animal FarmSatirical novella about rebellion
- Nineteen Eighty-FourDystopian totalitarianism novel
- Brave New World1932 dystopian fiction
- Jonathan SwiftDublin's savage satirist
Aldous Huxley · parody · irony · wit · mockery · caricature · lampoon · social commentary
Chaucer
Orwell · Swift · Defoe · Joyce · Lawrence · Forster · Waugh · Greene · Golding · Keats
Dickens
Surname of Victorian novelist
- BrontëLiterary sisters' surname
- HardyName connoting toughness
- George EliotPseudonymous Victorian novelist
Thackeray · Oliver Twist · Great Expectations · Middlemarch · Tess · Vanity Fair · serialization · industrialization · social reform · morality
novel
New and unusual
- poetryMetrical literary composition
- dramaTheatrical art or turmoil
- essayShort argumentative prose work
romance · tragedy · comedy · satire · gothic · detective fiction · spy fiction · dystopia · fantasy · science fiction
sonnet
Fourteen-line metered poem
ballad · couplet · stanza · verse · rhyme · meter · quatrain · epic · pastoral · Spenserian
Hamlet
Danish prince's revenge tragedy
- MacbethAmbitious thane's downfall
- OthelloVenetian military commander
- Midsummer Night's DreamShakespearean fairy romantic comedy
King Lear · Romeo and Juliet · sonnets · Globe Theatre · Elizabethan · Stratford-upon-Avon · iambic pentameter · soliloquy · Falstaff · Puck
Frankenstein
Gothic novel's mad scientist
- DraculaLegendary Transylvanian vampire
- Wuthering HeightsYorkshire gothic novel
- MonkShalhoub's anxious investigator role
Jane Eyre · haunting · specter · macabre · uncanny · melancholy · sublime · terror · ruins · doppelganger
Gulliver's Travels
- Animal FarmSatirical novella about rebellion
- Nineteen Eighty-FourDystopian totalitarianism novel
- Brave New World1932 dystopian fiction
Jonathan Swift · Aldous Huxley · parody · irony · wit · mockery · caricature · lampoon · social commentary · mock-heroic
- literaturebooks, book, fiction, poetry, stories
- school subjectsmath, English, science, history, reading
- English LiteratureShakespeare, Dickens, Jane Austen, Bronte, Chaucer
- English StudiesShakespeare, Milton, Chaucer, Old English, Middle English
- British Studiesmedieval studies, English Renaissance, Romantic poetry
- literary termsmetaphor, character analysis, symbolism, prologue, epilogue
British literatureAmerican literature
U.S. written works
American fiction · French literature · German literature · Russian literature · Japanese literature
British literatureBritish theatre
Performing arts from England
oral tradition · folk songs · British cinema · British television · British music
literature, literary, literate, literacy, illiterate, British, Britain, illiteracy, Britons