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 IMPORTANT WORKS
1. Absalom and Achitophel John Dryden
2. Adam Bede George Eliot
3. Advancement of Learning, The Francis Bacon
4. Agnes Grey Anne Bronte
5. Alchemist, The Ben Jonson
6. Alchemy Alexandrian Greeks
7. Amelia Henry Fielding
8. American, The Henry James
9. American Tragedy, The Theodore Dreiser
10. Anna of the Five Towns Arnold Bennett
11. Animal farm, The George Orwell
12. Arcadia, The Sir Philip Sidney
13. Arden of Fevershman, the tragedy of Mr -
14. Astrophell and Stella Sir Philip Sidney
15. As You Like It Shakespeare
16. Badman, The Life and death of Mr John Bunyan
17. Bartholomew fair Ben Jonson
18. Beowulf Unknown
19. Biographia Literaria S.T. Coleridge
20. Borough, The Crabbe
21. Bostonians, The Henry James
22. Brave New World Aldous Huxley
23. Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh
24. Cake and Ale Somerset Maugham
25. Caleb Williams, The Adventures of: Godwin
26. Can you Forgive Her Troloppe
27. Candida G.B. Shaw
28. Canterbury Tales, The [begun about 1387] Geoffrey Chaucer
29. Castle of Otranto, The Horace Walpole
30. Cenci, The P. B. Shelley
31. Chaste Maid in Cheapside, A Thomas Middleton
32. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage Lord Byron
33. Christabel S.T. Coleridge
34. Clarissa Samuel Richardson
35. Colin Clout‟s Come Home Again Spenser
36. Colonel Jack Daniel Defoe
37. Comical Revenge Etherege
38. Comus Milton
39. Confessio Amantis John Gower
40. Confessions of An English Opium – Eater Thomas De Quincey
41. Confidence Man, The Herman Melville
42. Coningsby Disraeli
43. Daniel Deronda George Eliot
44. Dombey and Son Charles Dickens
45. Don Juan Lord Byron
46. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde R.L. Stevenson
47. Dubliners James Joyce
48. Duchess of Malfi, The John Webster

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49. Edwin Drood, The Mystery of Charles Dickens
50. Egoist, The George Meredith
51. Emma Jane Austen
52. Endymion John Keats
53. Essay of Dramatic Poesy John Dryden
54. Essay on Man Alexander Pope
55. Essay in Criticism Matthew Arnold
56. Essays of Elia Charles Lamb
57. Euphues John Lyly
58. Eve of St. Agnes John Keats
59. Every Man in his Humour Ben Jonson
60. Far From The Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy
61. Forsyte Saga, The John Galsworthy
62. Four Quartets T.S. Eliot
63. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus Mary Shelley
64. Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay Robert Greene
65. Gulliver Travels Jonathan Swift
66. Hamlet Shakespeare
67. Hard Times Charles Dickens
68. Heart of Midlothian, The Sir Walter Scott
69. Hind and the Panther John Dryden
70. House of Fame, The Geoffrey Chaucer
71. Idler The Samuel Johnson
72. In Memoriam Alfred Tennyson
73. Instauratio Magna [The Great Renewal] Francis Bacon
74. Intimation of Immorality From Recollection
of Early Childhood William Wordsworth
75. The Invisible Man H.G. Wells
76. Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
77. Jonathan Wild The Great, The Life Of Henry Fielding
78. Joseph Andrews Henry Fielding
79. Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy
80. Julius Caesar Shakespeare
81. Kidnapped R.L. Stevenson
82. Kubla Khan S.T. Coleridge
83. Kim Rudyard Kipling
84. Kipps H.G. Wells
85. King Lear Shakespeare
86. Knight's Tale, The Geoffrey Chaucer
87. Lady Chatterley's Lovers D.H. Lawrence
88. Lady of Shalott, The Alfred Tennyson
89. Lives of the Poets, The Samuel Johnson
90. Lord Jim Joseph Conrad
91. Love's Labour's Lost Shakespeare
92. Lycidas John Milton
93. Macbeth Shakespeare
94. Mayor of Casterbridge, The Thomas Hardy
95. Merchant of Venice, The Shakespeare
96. Mill in the Floss, The George Eliot
97. Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe
98. Monk, The Mathew Lewis

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 99. Much Ado About Nothing Shakespeare
100. Nicholas Nickleby Charles Dickens
101. Nigger of the Narcissus, The Joseph Conrad
102. Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell
103. Of Human Bondage Somerset Maugham
104. Oliver Twist Charles Dickens
105. Pair of Blue Eyes Thomas hardy
106. Pamela or Virtue Rewarded Samuel Richardson
107. Passage To India E.M. Forster
108. Persuasion Jane Austen
109. Prelude, or Growth of A Poet's Mind, The William Wordsworth
110. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
111. Professor Charlotte Bronte
112. Prologue To The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer
113. Pygmalion G.B.Shaw
114. Rape of The Lock Alexander Pope
115. Religio Medici (The Religion of a Physician) Sir Thomas Browne
116. Return of the Native Thomas Hardy
117. Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare
118. Room with a View, A E.M. Forster
119. School for Scandal, The Richard Brinsley Sheridan
120. Scrutiny F.R. Levies
121. Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen
122. Sentimental Journey, The Laurence Sterne
123. Shepherd's Calender, The John Clare
124. Shoemaker's Holiday, The Thomas Dekker
125. Silas Marner George Eliot
126. Sons and Lovers D.H. Lawrence
127. Tale of A Tub, A Jonathan Swift
128. Tale of Two Cities, A Charles Dickens
129. Tempest, The Shakespeare
130. Tess of The D' Urbervilles, A pure Woman Thomas Hardy
131. Tom Jones Henry Fielding
132. Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson
133. Troilus and Criseyde Geoffrey Chaucer
134. Twelfth Night, or What You Will Shakespeare
135. To The Lighthouse Virginia Woolf
136. Ulysses James Joyce
137. Under the Greenwood Tree Thomas Hardy
138. Venus and Adonis Shakespeare
139. Vicar of Wakefield, Oliver Goldsmith
140. The Way of the World, William Congreve
141. Waverly Sir Walter Scott
142. Where Angels Fear to Tread E.M. Forster
143. The Woman in Love D.H. Lawrence
144. Woodlanders Thomas Hardy
145. Wuthering Heights Emil Bronte

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 ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL (1681)
A political satire in heroic couplets by John Dryden, published in 1681, and continued
(Part II) mainly by Nahum Tate, published in 1682. Dryden used the biblical story of King David and
his rebellious son Absalom to portray allegorically a current crisis about who should be the next king
after the death of Charles II. Charles had no legitimate son, so that his heir was his brother James,
Duke of York, a professed Catholic. His succession was feared as a menace to the Church of
England and the liberty of Parliament; in consequence, the opposition (Whig) party tried to pass a
law excluding James from the throne and substituting Charles‟s illegitimate son, the Duke of
Monmouth. Dryden’s poem was intended to influence the public against the Whigs and their leader,
Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury. His use of the biblical story simultaneously
blackened the opposition and sanctified the king, who supported his brother, and their party. The
biblical David stands for Charles; Absalom for Monmouth; Achitophel (Absalom‟s evil
Tempter) for Shaftesbury. This satire is Dryden’s most famous work.

ABSENTEE, THE
The novel by Maria Edgeworth, published in the second series of Tales of Fashionable Life,
in 1812. It is set on a large landholding in Ireland, whose absentee landlord, Landlord Clonbrony, is
finally persuaded to return to his responsibilities by his son.

ADAM BEDE (1859)

A novel by George Eliot. The setting is a village in the English Midlands, and the events take
place at the beginning of the 19 Century. Adam Bede is the village carpenter, a young man of stern
morals and great strength of character; he is in love with Hetty Sorrel, the vain and frivolous niece of
a farmer, Martin Poyser. She is seduced by a village squire. Another principal character is the young
and beautiful Dinah Morris, a Methodist preacher, whom Adam marries after Hetty has been
transported for the murder of her child. The novel belongs to the early phase of George Eliot’s art
when her principal subject was the rural civilization which had been the background of her youth; the
fine parts of the novel are those scenes, such as Poyser household, which are directly concerned with
his way of life.

ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, THE

A philosophical treatise by Francis Bacon published in 1605 in English. This book is
addressed to King James I, one of the most learned men ever to occupy the English throne. This book
is divided into two parts: Book I treats those characteristics of scholars which have lead to the
discredit of both. Book II is a survey of the branches of learning, and of the mental faculties. The
importance of The Advancement is of two kinds: as a work of philosophy and as a work of literature.
As a work of literature, it is distinguished for the terseness and lucidity of Bacon’s prose.

AGNES GREY
A novel by Anne Bronte, published in 1847. It is based on her experiences as a governess.
Agnes Grey, a rector’s daughter employed by the Murray family, is badly treated and her loneliness is
revealed only by the kindness of the curate, Weston, whom she eventually marries.

ALCHEMIST, THE
It is a comedy by Ben Jonson, first acted in 1610. The scene is a house in London during a
visitation of the plague; its master, Lovewit, has taken refuge in the country, leaving his servant, Face,
in charge. Face introduces two rogues: Subtle, a charlatan alchemist and Dol Common, a whore.
Together they collaborate in turning the house into a centre for the practice of alchemy in the
expectation that they can attract credulous clients who will believe that alchemical magic can bring
them their heart’s desire.

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 Sir Epicure Mammon dreams of limitless luxury and his satisfaction of his lust; Drugger, a
tobacco merchant, wants prosperity for his business; Dapper, a lawyer’s clerk, seeks a spirit to
guarantee him success in gambling; Kastril, a young country squire, desires a rich husband for his
sister (Dame Pliant). Each of the clients has to be deceived by a separate technique. And then Lovewit
suddenly returns – a crisis which only Face survives. He expels Subtle and Dol Common. The play is
one of the Jonson’s best. Moreover, the characterization has behind it the force of Jonson’s conviction
that human folly is limitless and can only be cured by exposure.

ALCHEMY
A pseudo-science started by the Alexandrian Greeks in the early Christian Centuries and
widely pursued in Europe until 17th Century. Essentially a primitive form of Chemistry, it was
popularly identified with experiments to transmute base metals into gold through the discovery of
what was called ‘the philosopher’s stone’. As such it was a field for dupes and charlatans, and is
ridiculed in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND
A fantastic novel by Lewis Carrol. It was composed originally for the amusement of a little
real – life Alice, but it soon grew into a nursery classic and has since become one of the most
commonly works in the whole range of English literature.

AMELIA
This is the last novel of Henry Fielding. It is the fruit of his later years and reflects Fielding
as the critic of legal administration and social machinery. It is very different from Tom Jones. It is
full of bitter conclusions and disillusionment and here we have Fielding's attack on law – courts and
the evils are associated with courts. The Fielding of Amelia is a far older man than the Fielding of
Tom Jones.

AMERICAN, THE
A novel by Henry James serialized in 1876-7 and published in volume form in 1877.
Christopher Newman, a wealthy American businessman, travels to Paris to find a wife. Mrs. Tristram,
an expatriate American, serves as his guide and confidante.

AMERICAN TRAGEDY, AN
A novel b y Theodore Dreiser, published in 1925. It is based on the Chester Gillette-Grace
Brown murder case of 1906. Anxious to escape his family’s dreary life, Clyde Griffiths gets a job in a
factory belonging to his wealthy uncle, Samuel Griffiths. He falls in love with a very rich girl, Sondra
Finchley, but also seduces Roberta, a young factory worker. When she becomes pregnant and
demands that he marry her, Clyde takes her to a lake resort and murders her. The rest of the novel
traces the investigation of the case, describing Clyde’s indictment, trial, conviction and execution in
relentless detail.

ANNA OF THE FIVE TOWNS

A novel by Arnold Bennett, published in 1902. The harsh codes of her father, Ephraim
Tellwright, and the economic realities of Bursley a Potteries town, weigh heavily on the heroine. The
news that she will inherit a fortune makes her attractive to a successful businessman, Henry Mynors,
whom she eventually marries. In the process she is estranged from another suitor, Willie Price, an
industrial tenant of her father, though she saves him from public disgrace when he and his father try to
pay her father with a forged bill of credit. Ephraim disinherits her. Willie, learning that his father has
embezzled £50 from the chapel building fund before committing suicide, commits suicide himself.

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 ANIMAL FARM, THE
A satirical novel by George Orwell. It is a witty parable of the "betrayal of the revolution",
the theory that violent social upheavals are always by a reactionary tyranny acting in the name of
revolutionary ideas. The plot of this novel closely follows the history of the U.S.S.R. since 1917.

ARCADIA, THE
This prose work by Sir Philip Sidney was written in 1580 during a period of retirement from
court, and published in 1590. The Arcadia is a long prose romance with a loose plot which
accommodates a number of subsidiary tales. The stories are heroic, amorous, or pastoral, with some
comic relief. The intention was to cultivate high aristocratic morality, as well as to entertain, and part
of the entertainment lay in the elaborate musical style which now makes the book unfashionable. The
prose is interspersed with poetry of delicate musicality, also important for its influence, though not so
distinguished as the best of Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella sonnets.

ARDEN OF FEVERSHAM, THE TRAGEDY OF MR

An anonymous play published in 1592 and once attributed to Shakespeare. An early domestic
tragedy, based on an actual murder which took place at Feversham in Kent, it follows the initially
frustrated but eventually successful attempts of Mistress Arden to rid herself of an unloved husband.
The murder is discovered and she is executed for the crime, with her lover and fellow conspirator.

ASTROPHEL AND STELLA

A sequence of sonnets by Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86) supposed to be addressed by the Star
lover (Astrophel) to the Star (Stella). They were in written about 1580 but not published until 1591.
The poets Wyatt and Surrey had already tried the sonnet form, introducing it from Italy. Sidney’s
sequence, contains some of the finest sonnets in English poetry. Stella is based on Penelope
Devereux, daughter of the Earl of Essex. Her marriage with Sidney was proposed in 1576, but instead
she married Lord Rich. There were 108 sonnets and 11 songs.

CANTERBURY TALES, The [begun about 1387]

Chaucer’s most famous poem, an unfinished collection of tales told in the course of a
pilgrimage to Becket’s shrine at Canterbury. A general Prologue briefly describes the 30 pilgrims and
introduces the framework: each pilgrim will tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two more on
the way back, the teller of the best tale winning a free supper. There follow 24 tales, including two
told by Chaucer himself.
The General Prologue introduces the pilgrims as they meet at the Tabard inn in Southwark
and begin their journey under the guidance of the Host, Harry Bailly. They come from all sections of
society. Some are described in vivid and realistic detail, combining elements from the traditional
representation of social types with individual characterization.
The Knight‟s Tale is a romance based on Boccaccio’s Teseida. Palamon and Arcite, sworn
brothers, became rivals for Theseus‟ niece, Emelye, whom they first see from their prison window.
The Miller‟s Tale is a bawdy fabliau told by drunken and quarrelsome character.
The Reeve‟s Tale answers the Miller’s abuse of carpenters, for the Reeve is himself a
carpenter. It tells how a miller is tricked by two clerks whom he has cheated. One sleeps with the
miller’s daughter and the other rearranges the furniture so that the miller’s wife gets into his bed
instead of her husband’s.
The Cooks Tale is only a 57-line fragment, whose opening tells how an apprentice loses his
position because of riotous living and moves in with a prostitute and her husband.
The Man of Law‟s Tale begins the second fragment of the poem. After a prologue
complaining that Chaucer has spoiled all the good stories and announcing his intention to speak in
prose, the Man of Law tells the tale of unfortunate Constance. She is married to a Sultan, converted to
Christianity, whose evil mother destroys all the Christians in the court and sets the widowed
Constance adrift in a boat. She lands in Northumberland, where she performs miraculous cures,
survives a false accusation of murder and marries the king, whom she has converted.

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 THE Wife of Bath‟s Tale begins the third fragment. Its prologue develops the wife’s strong
and pleasure-seeking personality as she recounts her eventful life with five husbands. Her tale, a
version of, The Wedding of Sir Gawen and Dame Ragnell, continues the theme of women’s
mastery over men.
The Friar‟s Tale, an animated and original version of a fabliau from an unknown source, is
an attack on the Summoner.
The Summoner‟s Tale Answers the Friar with another fabliau from an unknown source
about a corrupt mendicant friar who angers a dissatisfied benefactor by asking for more donations.
The Clerk‟s Tale, beginning the fourth fragment, gives a version of the folktale of Patient
Griselda, derived from Petrarch’s Latin translation of Boccaccio’s version of it in the Decameron.
The Merchant‟s Tale which has its source in Folktale, richly elaborated and expanded.
The Squire‟s Tale, at the start of the fifth fragment, is an unfinished romance similar to the story of
Cleomades.

The Franklin‟s Tale is introduced as a Breton Lay but its source is in Boccaccio’s Filocolo.
The Physician‟s Tale, the first in the sixth fragment, adapts the story of Virginia rather than
surrender her to the judge Apius. His corruption uncovered, Apius is imprisoned and kills himself; his
conniving servant Claudius is exiled.
The Pardoner‟s tale is precede by a prologue in which he explains how he preaches against al types
of sin but himself indulges in various vices and begs from the poor.

The Shipman‟s Tale, which begins the seventh fragment, is a fabliau. The merchant’s wife borrows
hundred francs from the monk, who in turn borrows it from her husband. In the merchant’s absence
his wife and the monk sleep together. On his return the monk tells him he gave the money to his wife;
she tells her husband that she thought it a gift and spent it on clothes.
The Prioress‟s tale follows the host’s polite request to her to speak next. A Christian child is
murdered be Jews but the Virgin gives his body the power of song, to reveal his whereabouts and
explain how he came to his death.

Sir Thomas is the first tale of Chaucer’s tales, a splendid pastiche of verse at its most trite.
The Monk‟s Tale follows a prologue in which the Host requests a tale in keeping with his character,
perhaps about hunting.

The Nun‟s Priests Tale is a vivid fable related to the French Roman de Renart. After a premonitory
dream which the cock, Chauntecleer, repeats to his favorite hen, Pertelote, he is approached by a fox
who appeals to his vanity to make him close his eyes and crow. The fox seizes him and carries him
off, but Chauntecleer tricks him into speaking and so escape fro his mouth.

The Second Nun‟s Tale, the first of two in the eighth fragment, is a saint’s life from the Legenda
aurea (later translated by Caxton as the Golden Legend). The virgin St Cecilia converts herb
husband, his brother, and some of his persecutors to Christianity before her martyrdom.

The invocation to the virgin in the prologue is based in part on lines from Dante’s Paradiso. After the
tale the Canon and his Yeoman, join the party, though the Canon soon leaves again.
The Canon‟s Yeoman‟s Tale tells of his own experiences helping his master in alchemy. The tale
gives details of alchemical processes and relates ho the canon cheated a priest by tricking him into
believing he could transmute mercury into silver.

The Manciple‟s Tale, the only one in the ninth fragment, narrates the story of the tell-tale bird also
found in The Seven Sages of Rome, though Chaucer adapted it from Ovid’s, metamorphosis.

The Parson‟s Tale, comprising the tenth fragment, is the final tale. A lengthy prose sermon on the
Seven Deadly Sins, it drives from the De poenitentia of Raymond de Pennaforte and Guilielmus
Peraldus’ Summa de vitiis.

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 CASTLE OF OTRANTO, THE (1764)
One of the first so-called gothic novels by Horace Walpole (1717-97). The fantastic events
are set in the Middle Ages, and the story is full of supernatural sensationalism. The story concerns an
evil usurper, a fateful prophecy about his downfall, a mysterious prince disguised as a peasant, and his
eventual marriage to the beautiful heroine whom the usurper had intended as his own bride. If reflects
the 18th C view of the medieval (gothic) period as barbarous but excitingly mysterious. The novel set a
powerful fashion which extended into 19th C.

CENCI, THE (1819)

A poetic drama by P. B. Shelley, concerning the hatred of the evil Roman nobleman, Count
Francesco Cenci, for his children, and the incestuous passion infecting him for his daughter Beatrice.
Beatrice, her brother Bernard, and her stepmother Lucretia succeed in killing the Count who has thus
darkened their days and are executed for the murder. The play is however one of the most successful
of the romantic school of drama.

CHASTE MAID IN CHEAPSIDE, A

A citizen comedy by Thomas Middleton first preformed in 1611 and published in 1630 the
misfortunes and humiliation of the dissolute Sir Walter Whorehound link its several plots.

CHILDE HAROLD‟S PILGRIMAGE

A poem by Lord Byron written in Spenserian stanzas and divided into four Cantos or parts.
Cantos I and II were published in 1812, Canto III in 1816, and Canto IV in 1818. From the start,
the poem is manifestly autobiographical and in the fourth Canto Byron abandons the fiction and
writes in the first person.
The subject is the wanderings through Europe of a young man seeking escape from his
disgust and disillusionment with a life of pleasure at home. The first two Cantos describe his
wanderings round the Mediterranean, and end with a lament for Greeks enslaved by Turks. The third
and fourth cantos are more concerned with events and people.
The first two, more ‘romantic’, Cantos made Byron famous in his own time, and present,
through Childe Harold, the image of the famous Byronic personality – self regarding, proud,
independent.

CHRISTABEL
An unfinished narrative poem by S. T. Coleridge. He wrote the first part in 1797 and the second in
1800; it was published in 1816. The story has the characteristics familiar from the popular folk
ballad tradition; Christabel, daughter of Sir Leoline, finds a distressed lady in the woods and takes
her back to the castle. The lady, Geraldine, is really an evil enchantress. Christabel discovers her evil
nature, but is forced by a spell to keep silent.

DOCTOR FAUSTUS
The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, commonly referred to simply
as Doctor Faustus, is an Elizabethan tragedy by Christopher Marlowe, based on German stories about
the title character Faust, that was first performed sometime between 1588 and Marlowe's death in
1593. Ravished by magic , Faustus turns to the dark arts when law, logic, science, and theology fail to
satisfy him. He undergoes to conquer the unconquerable.

EDWIN DROOD, THE MYSTERY OF (1870)

A novel by Charles Dickens unfinished at his death. The novel begins in Cathedral town;
the plot turns on the engagement of Edwin and Rosa Bud, who do not really love each other, and the
rivalry for Rosa’s love of Edwin’s sinister uncle, John Jasper, and an exotic new comer to the town,
Neville landless. Edwin disappears and Neville is arrested for his murder; Rosa flees to London to

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 escape Jasper; on her behalf the forces for good are rallying in the shape of Rosa’s guardian, Mr.
Grewgious, a clergyman called Crisparkle, and a mysterious stranger, Mr. Datchery, when the story
breaks off.

EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOUR (1598)

The first important play by Ben Jonson. By ‘humor’ is to be understood a passion generated
by irrational egotism, and amounting sometimes to a mania.
It is a comedy of misunderstandings bred largely through the deceitfulness of Brainworm, a
mischievous servant, acting on the absurd humors of the other characters; the jealousy of the merchant
Kitely, the credulity of his young wife, the susceptibility of his sister, the bullying boastfulness of the
cowardly soldier Bodabil, etc. The misunderstandings are cleared up at the end by the shrewd and
kindly Justice Clement.

FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD (1874)

A novel by Thomas Hardy. The title is a quotation from ‘Elegy In a Country Churchyard‟
by Thomas Gray. It is one of Hardy’s Wessex novels, and the first of real substance.
The central character is Bathsheba Everdene, who is loved by three men. Farmer Boldwood,
a solid but passionate squire; Gabriel Oak, a shepherd, who loves her with quiet constancy and wins
her in the end, and the glamorous soldier, Sergeant Troy, whom she marries first. Troy combines
fascinating gallantry with ruthless egoism; he allows his wife- to- be, Fanny Robin, to die in a work
house and is cruel to Bathsheba. Troy has meanwhile captivated and married Bathsheba, but soon
begins to neglect and ill treat her. When he hears of Fanny’s death he disappears, and is thought to
have been drowned.
Farmer Boldwood, now obsessed with Bathsheba, gives a party at which he pledges
Bathsheba to marry him sometime in the future. Troy reappears at the party and Boldwood, driven to
madness by his reappearance shoots him. Boldwood is pronounced insane. Gabriel and Bathsheba are
at last married.

FORSYTE SAGA, THE

A sequence of novels constituting a study of Victorian and Edwardian society by John
Galsworthy. They comprise:

1. The Man of Property (1906)

2. The Indian summer of a Forsyte (1918)
3. In Chancery (1920)
4. Awakening (1920)
5. To Let (1921)

FOUR QUARTETS
Four poems written 1935 and 1942 by T.S. Eliot eventually published as a single work.
They are contemplative, religions poems, each concerned with a distinct aspect of spiritual
experience.
The theme that unites the four is that of the human consciousness in relation to time and
the concept of eternity.
Burnt Norton centers on the rose garden of a ruined country house (Burnt Norton) in
Gloucestershire and plays on the differences and relationships between the actual present, the past in
memory, and speculation on what might have been.
East Coker is based on a village in Somerset from where Eliot’s own ancestor had departed
In 1669.
The Dry Salvages mingles the landscapes of Missouri and New England, the landscapes of
Eliot’s Youth.
Little Gidding derives its title from the religious community in the reign of Charles I, who is
supposed to have visited it when broken by defeat at the battle of Naseby. Fire in this poem is used as

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 destruction (with reference to the raids on London during W.W II), purification, illumination and an
emblem of Divine Love.

FRANKENSTEIN, or THE MODERN PROMETHEUS (1818)

A philosophical romance which is also a tale of terror by Mary Shelley, wife of the poet P.B.
Shelley. It belongs in part to the „gothic‟ tradition of tales of terror popular at the time, and partly to a
philosophical tradition going back to Rousseau, concerned with themes of isolation, suffering and
social injustice.
Frankenstein is a Swiss student of natural philosophy who constructs a monster and endows
it with life. Its impulses are benevolent, but it is everywhere regarded with loathing and fear; its
benevolence turns to hatred, and it destroys its creator and his bride.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1813)

A novel by Jane Austen. Mr & Mrs. Bennet live at Longbourne near London. Mr. Bennet is
witty and intelligent and bored with his foolish wife. They have five daughters, whose marriage
prospects are Mrs. Bennet’s chief interest in life. In the absence of a male heir, the property is due to
pass by entail to a cousin, William Collins.
The main part of the story is concerned with the relationship between the witty and attractive
Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, who later on finds that she is prejudiced against him. His
friend Charles Bingley is in love with the eldest daughter, Jane, but they are kept apart by the jealous
snobbishness of his sisters, and also the disapproval of Darcy. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is subjected to an
insolent offer of marriage by Mr. Collins.
Those who regarded the Bennet family as foolish and vulgar have their opinion justified when
Lydia Bennet elopes with an irresponsible young officer, George Wickham and despite the
family scandal, Darcy and Elizabeth are united.
Jane Austen herself said of this novel as “The work is rather too light and bright, and
sparkling.”

PROFESSOR,
It is the earliest work of Charlotte Bronte. In this novel she reveals her impressions of her
Brussels life. It is frankly autobiographical and the characters are drawn from her own personal
acquaintance.

PROLOGUE TO THE CANTERBURY TALES

This poem, by Geoffery Chaucer, opens The Canterbury Tales; it is in 10- syllable Couplet,
and is 858 lines long. It describes the meeting of 29 pilgrims in the Tabard Inn in Southwark. The
host (Harry Bailiy) proposes that the pilgrims should shorten the road by telling four stories each, two
on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back. The pilgrimage was to go to the shrine of St.
Thomas at Canterbury. The Host himself is to be judge of the best tales, and the prize to the winner
will be a supper at the Tabard, paid for by the rest of the pilgrims.
The work is incomplete; only 23 stories told altogether. The Prologue is especially famous
for its portraits of the characters of the pilgrims. These are lively and sometimes satirical, but are
always presented with a generous sympathy for the springs of vitality in each individual.

PYGMALION
In Greek myth Pygmalion is a king of Cyprus famous for his sculpture. He made an ivory
statue of a woman, so beautiful that he fell love with it, and was in despair because the statue could
not return his love. Venus, in answer to his prayer and having pity on him, brought the statue to life.

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 TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING
A novel by Henry Fielding, published in 1749. The central character beings life as a baby of
unknown parentage (i.e ‘a foundling’) who is discovered in the mansion of the enlightened landowner
Squire Allworthy. Allworthy adopts him, and he grows up a handsome and generous- hearted youth,
whose weakness is his excess of animal sprits and inclination to fleshy lusts. He falls in love with
Sophia Western, daughter of a neighboring land owner, Sophia Western, who is as gross, ignorant and
self- willed as Allworthy is refined and enlightened. Western intends Sophia for Blifil, Allworthy’s
nephew, a mean and treacherously hypocritical character who is supported against Tom by two
members of Allworthy household, the pedantic chaplain Thwackum and the pretentious philosopher,
Square, who counterbalance each other. They successes in disgracing Tom, whom Allworthy is
persuaded to disown. The central part of the novel describes his travels and amorous adventures in the
company of a comic follower, Partridge. Sophia also leaves home, to escape from Blifil and nearly
falls victim to a plot by lady Bellkaston, with whom Tom has become amorously entangled, to place
her in the power of Lord Fellamar. Tom is eventually indentified as the son of Allworthy’s sister; the
plots against him are brought to light; he is received again by Allworthy, and marries Sophia.
The novel, like its predecessor by Fielding, Joseph Andrews, is a comic epic. To some extent
the book was written in rivalry to Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa Harlowe, a novel written in a tragic
sprit and in a strenuous and idealistic moral tone. Tom Jones is both one of the first important English
novels, a new kind of imaginative work, and one that embodies highly traditional values.

TO THE LIGHTHOUSE,
A novel by Virginia Woolf. It is usually regarded as her finest novel. It is divided into three
parts, "The Window", "Time Passes", and "The Lighthouse". Mrs. Ramsay is the central character.

TRISTRAM SHANDY

Tristram Shandy is narrated by the title character in a series of digressions and interruptions
that purportedly show the "life and opinions" — part of the novel's full title — of Tristram.
Composed of nine "Books" originally published between 1759-1767, the novel has more to
do with Shandy family members and their foibles and history than it seemingly does with
Tristram himself. However, it is through Tristram's relating the actions, beliefs, and opinions
of his family members — primarily his father, Walter Shandy, and his paternal Uncle Toby
— that the reader gets a clearer picture of Tristram's character. Books 1-6 revolve around
Tristram's conception (the novel begins the evening of his conception); his birth (with a
smashed nose that supposedly bodes ill warnings for his future); his mistaken naming
(according to his father prior to Tristram's birth, "Tristram" is the worst possible name for a
child. the narration is continuously interrupted by stories, diatribes, and opinions concerning
family history, Walter Shandy's hypotheses and theories, and Uncle Toby's penchant for
military fortifications to the point that readers today might easily become frustrated with
Tristram's inability to get to the point (which, ironically, is the point — Tristram is relating
his "life and opinions," and they come to him in a disjointed fashion). Book 7 concerns an
older Tristram traveling in France for health reasons. The book seems isolated from the story
that precedes and follows it. Books 8 and 9 revolve around Uncle Toby's affair with the
Widow Wadman, who is concerned about Uncle Toby's supposed groin injury and seeks to
find out just how injured his groin is.

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 TREASURE ISLAND (1883)
A boy’s romance by the novelist Robert Louis Stevenson, and perhaps his best known
works. It is set in 18th C, and the plot concerns the search for hidden treasure buried in a desert island
by a historically actual 18th C pirate, Captain Kidd. The story contains the basic elements of an
traditional English boys’ romance- treasure, pirates, a island literature descending from Robinson
Crusoe, for long a favorite boy’s book.

TROILUS and CRISEYDE

A poem of tragic love by Geoffrey Chaucer written probably between 1372 and 1386, and
one of his two masterpieces, the other being The Canterbury Tales. The poem is over 8,000 lines
long, in the 7- lines stanza known as rhyme- royal. It is based on the Italian IL Filostrato, by
Boccaccio, but greatly lengthened, and changed in sprit. The chief characters are Troilus son of King
Priam of Troy; the young widow, Criseyde with whom he falls in love; Pandarus, her uncle, who
helps Troilus to win her, and Diomed, who seduces her among the Greeks, after she has been
surrendered to them by the Torjans at request of her father, Calchas, who has deserted Troy.

TWELFTH NIGHT, or WHAT YOU WILL

A comedy by Shakespeare, probably written in 1599-1600 or possibly a little later. Its main
source is a prose tale, Apolonius and Silla (1581) by Barnabe Rich, an English version of an Italian
tale by Cinthio (Elizabethan Novels).
The setting is the court of Orsino, Duke of Illyria, and the house of the wealthy Countess
Olivia, whom he is courting. He uses as a go- between his page Cesario, really a girl, Viola, disguised
as a boy. The page has already fallen in love with Orsino and express sentiments on love so
eloquently to Olivia that the Countess believes herself in love but with the page, not with the Duke.
Meanwhile Viola’s twin- brother, Sebastain, turns up, wearing the same style of clothes that his has
chosen to wear as Cesario; he has been rescued from shipwreck by a sea- captain, Antonio, who feels
a deep affection for him. The possibility of confusion is clearly various and great, and every possible
confusion occurs. A subplot on Olivia’s drunken kinsman, Sir Toby, and her conceited steward,
Malvolio; Sir Toby takes revenge on Malvolio for an insult, and incidentally gets mixed up in the
confusions occurring round Viola and Sebastian by playing a trick on his friend, Sir Andrew
Aguecheek, who is also courting Olivia. Sir Toby’s interference ends in a clearing- up of the
confusions of identity, and a subsequent suitable pairing off Orsino and Viola Sebastians and Olivia.
Twelfth night was the last night of the Christmas festival and a time of licensed disorder
presided over by a Lord of Misrule, such as Sir Toby Belch.

ULYSSES
A novel by James Joyce. It was first published in Paris in 1922, but was banned in England
for its alleged obscenity until 1936. In a number of ways the book is an innovation in methods of
presenting human experience through the novel form, and it is also the most ambitiously
comprehensive attempt to do so, except perhaps for Joyce’s next book, Finnegans Wake (1939). It is
an attempt to present a character more than ever before. The story shows in immense detail the life of
man during a single day of 24 hours. The man is Leopold Bloom, a Jew of Hungarian origin living in
Dublin; the day is 16 June 1904. To do this requires a method of conveying the process of thinking;
Joyce’s method has become known as the ‘stream of consciousness’ technique.

UNDER the GREENWOOD TREE (1872)

The first of the Wessex novel by Thomas Hardy. The story is a village love affair between a
school mistress, Fancy Day, and Dick Dewy, son of a ‘Tranter’ or carrier of goods. It includes the
theme of the rivalry of the village orchestra who have hitherto played the music in church service,
with Fancy, who takes over from them by substituting the harmonium. The story is thus slight and
idyllic compared to Hardy’s later Wessex stories, but it is written with delicacy and insight. The title
is the first line of song in Shakespeare’s As You Like It.

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 This novel is a wonderful picture of the rural life. Nature is present with all her charms. It is the
first successful novel of Hardy. The story runs in the village Mellstock. Dick Dewy is the son of a
poor peddler who passed his whole life without being settled to a single professional. Fancy Day is
school mistress. Both fall in love with each other. These young lovers face all the implications which
are usually created either by society or by Fate. Overcoming all difficulties both are happily wedded.
The bitterness which is mixed with sweetness throughout the novel makes it very interesting. The
delightful racy talk of the Mellstock musicians leaves an unending impression on the minds of the
readers. Fancy Day was allured by a vicar only for once when she was only engaged to Dick. But
soon she comes to her senses and about vicar's urges keeps her mouth shut. There are reflections of
immaturity here and there in the novel but the interesting feature of the novel and the qualities of the
idyll which the novel provides on one can deny.

VENUS and ADONIS (1593)

A narrative poem in six- lined stanza by William Shakespeare. It is dedicated to Henry
Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. It is based on the Romeo- Greek myth of the love of Venus
(Aphrodite), the goddess of sexual beauty, for the beautiful youth Adonis. The poem probably
emulates the love poem Hero and Lander by Marlowe (complicated by Chapman) and is
Shakespeare’s earliest published work.

VICAR of WAKEFIELD, The

A novel by Oliver Goldsmith, written 1761-62; the publisher did not expect it to be popular
and publication was delayed until 1766, when it was enthusiastically received. It has remained a
popular classic ever since. Dr Primrose is an unworldly parish priest, comically innocent- minded, but
devoted to his vocation and to his wife and six children. The Primroses live in circumstances of
comfort though they are not rich; their way of life is like an idyll in the pastoral tradition. They have
no vices except mild ones: Dr. Primrose has some literary vanity, and his wife is rather snobbishly
ambitious for their children. In spite of their blamelessness, a succession of disasters overcome them
and reduces them to ruin and disgrace. Eventually they recover their prosperity through the friendship
of a benefactor, Mr. Burchell, who turns out be Sir William Thorhill, uncle of the villainous squire
who first precipitated their misfortunes. The story closely recalls that of job in the Bible; the Vicar
endures all his troubles with a job-like patience and a more than job- like sweetness of temper. The
Narration is episodic, and includes an account of the eldest son’s adventures on the continent of
Europe, probably based on Goldsmith own, and several famous poems including Elegy on the Death
of a Mad Dog and When lovely woman stoops to fully.
The book is a compromise between a fable and a novel; it has the directness and didacticism
of the former, and some of the circumstantial realism of the latter form. Considered merely as a novel,
The Vicar is easily disparaged and added nothing to the development of the novel form in 18th C;
considered as essentially a comic and sentimental fable, the book has a charm which easily explains
its popularity.

WAVERLEY,
The first of the world famous series of that man by Sir Walter Scott. The publication of the
Waverley took the world by storm. The novel centers round the activities of Edward Waverley, a
young man of romantic disposition. This work of Scott at once showed that a novelist interested in
Scottish history was born who instead of presenting gimcrack castles and theatrical villains, was
actually interested in Scottish history.

WAY OF THE WORLD, The

A comedy of William Congreve, produced in 1700. The plot is a complicated succession of
intrigues which surround the love affair between the sparkling young rake, Mirabell (a hero in the
tradition of Etherege’s Dorimant in The Man of mode), and the urbane and witty heroine, Millamant.
Mirabell’s aim is to trick or persuade Millament’s aunt, Lady Wish fort, into consenting to their
marriage; and his efforts include pretending to make love to Lady Wifhfort herself. This intrigue is

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 frustrated by Mrs. Marwood, embittered against Mirabell because he has previously rejected her.
Mirabell then attempts further intrigue, and this leads to counter- intrigues by Mrs. Marwood in
alliance with Mirabell’s treacherous friend Finfall, who combines them with conspiracies against his
wife, a former mistress of Mirabell’s and blackmail of Lady Wishfort. Mirabell finally succeeds in
defeating his enemies and saving Lady Wishfort from the threats against her; in gratitude, she
consents to his marriage to Millamant. The intrigues serve as a framework for theatrically very
successful comic scenes and imaginatively witty dialogues. The central out from the general tone of
Restoration comedy in riding clear of the heartlessness so usual to it, yet without losing wit and poise,
Millamant’s charm and independence have made her role a start for great actress, and supply a main
reason for the play’s reputation as the masterpiece of all Restoration Comedies.
Manners, comedy of

WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD

The first novel of E.M. Forster. Though short and slight and quiet, it contains in manner and
theme all his later fiction. The novel has the, Italian background. It has the directness and simplicity
of a young man's vision. In it Forster criticized the Sawston – like environment which breeds
conventionally and hinders personal relationship.

WOMEN IN LOVE
A novel by D.H. Lawrence. It continues the lives of two of the characters in The Rainbow,
but it is not a sequel to the earlier book. Ursula Brangwen is a school- teacher, and her sister Gudrun
is an artist. The other two main characters are Gerald Crich, a mine- owner and manager, and Rupert
Birkin, a school- inspector. The main narrative is about the relationships of these four: the union of
Rupert and Urusla after conflict, the union of Gerald and Gudrun ending in conflict and Gerald’s
death, the affinities and antagonisms between the sisters and between the men. The setting include
Shortlands, the mansion of the mine- owning Crich family; Breadalby, the mansion of lady Hermione
Roddice, a meeting- place of the leading intellectuals of the day; the Café pompadour in London, a
center for the artist, and a winter resort in the Austrian Tyrol. The theme is human relationship in the
modern world, where intelligence has become the prisoners of self- consciousness, and spontaneous
life- force are prevented into violence, notable in Gerald, Hermione, and the German sculptor Loerke.
Sumbolic episodes centered on animal and other natural imagery are used to present those forces of
the consciousness that lie outside rational articulation, and personal relationship is so investigated as
to illuminate crucial aspects of modern: the life of industry, the life of art, the use and misuse of
reason, and what is intimate considered as the nucleus of what is public. Rupert Birkin is a sufficiently
to be exposed to criticism.

WOODLANDERS
To give a more realistic picture of his age, Hardy comes to the wooded country in the vale of
Blackmoor for the story of the woodlanders. Honest Guiles Winterbourne is a dealer in apples and
cider (wine of apple). He is betrothed to Grace Melbury, the daughter of the timber merchant of Little
Hincock. Grace Melbury had been to school. When she returns after completing her education, every
one realizes her superiority to the rustic Honest Guiles. A calamity falls on this poor apple-trader and
financially he becomes very weak. Grace's father brings the engagement to an end. Her father was
very ambitious. He marries his daughter with the young fascinating doctor. Grace had a suspicion
about the character of Edred Fitzpiers, because she had heard a love intrigue between him and Suke
Damson, a village damsel. Even then she consents to her father and marries the doctor. Fitzpiers was a
fluctuating type of gallant youth. He is loved away by a wealthy widow Felice Charmond. The ray of
hope of a reunion again comes to Grace and Guiles and they come near each other expecting that
Grace will be divorced soon. But the expectations remain an illusion.
Fitzpier returns from abroad with Mrs. Charmond without being married. Grace could not
face him because of continuous relations with Guiles. She runs to her lover-who then lives in a
cottage in the woods. She is very delicate and sensitive to the proprieties of the actions. She is left
alone in the cottage by her lover who at the news of the return of Fitzpiers feels upset and takes a

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 shelter in the hurdles. After few days he is exposed and dies. After her return from abroad Mrs.
Charmond also dies. Grace and Fitzpiers are ultimately wedded.
One more girl of plain features whose name in Marty is in love with Guiles. She is never
given a lift in her life till he dies. Before the reconciliation of Grace with Fitzpiers both the beloveds
Marty and Grace go to the tomb of their lover Guile and pray for the peace of his soul. But when
Grace and Fitzpiers settle their differences, Marty alone stands beside his tomb with tears in her eyes.

WUTHERING HIGHTS (1847)

The sole novel by Emily Bronte. The title of the book is the name of an old house, high up
on the Yorkshire moors, occupied by the Earnshaw family. The period is the very end of 18th C.
Because of their remoteness, the Earnshaws live in a style more traditional than that characteristic of
households in mire domesticated part of England.

SAMPLE QUESTIONS
1. The Modern Promethean is the alternative title of
(A) Dracula (B) Frankenstein (C) Caleb Williams (D) The Italian
Ans. B
(June 2013, Paper III)

2. Here is a list of woman abandoned by their lovers in Hardy's novel. Pick the odd one
out:
(A) Fanny Robin (B) Tess D' Urberville
(C) Marty South (D) Bathsheba Everdene
Ans. D
(Dec. 2012, Paper III)

3. One of the following Canterbury Tales is in prose, identify?

(A) The Pardoner's Tale (B) The Parson's Tale
(C) The Monk's Tale (D) the Knight Tale
Ans. B
(June 2012, Paper III)

4. Christopher Marlowe's heroes are said to be larger than life, exaggerated both in their
faults and in their qualities. They have a desire for everything in extreme. In one of his
plays the hero wants to conquer the whole world. The name of the play is .
(1) The Jew of Media (2) Doctor Faustus
(3) Tamburlaine the Great (4) Edward II
Ans. B
(June 2015, Paper II)

5. In which novel, does the hero, driven by passion and revenge, add a new dimension to
the concept of suffering?
(A) Wuthering Heights (B) Jude the Obscure
(C) Mill on the Floss (D) Hard Times
Ans. A
(June 2014, Paper II)

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