Classic English Literature
Last updated: November 19, 2024
The best books on Adam and Eve, recommended by Stephen Greenblatt
Who were Adam and Eve, really? Over many centuries, the origin story has undergone countless transformations. The Pulitzer Prize-winner and Harvard professor Stephen Greenblatt chooses five books that explore the history of Adam and Eve, and tells us why the world isn’t ready to leave the narrative of Eden behind
Katie Kitamura on Marriage (and Divorce) in Literature
Love and marriage may go together like a horse and carriage, but what happens when the horses are spooked and the whole procession is run off the road? Katie Kitamura, whose new novel A Separation charts the disastrous—and tragic—failure of a marriage, considers some of literature’s most heartfelt accounts of relationship failure
The Best Gothic Novels, recommended by Sarah Perry
The Gothic puts flesh on the bones of our darkest fears, British novelist Sarah Perry tells Five Books. Here, she chooses five favourite novels in this ‘irresistible’ genre.
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1
William Wordsworth: The Major Works
by Stephen Gill (editor) -
2
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Major Works
by H. J. Jackson (Editor) -
3
Willam Blake: Selected Poetry
by William Blake -
4
Percy Bysshe Shelley: The Major Works
by Michael O'Neill (Editor) & Zachary Leader (Editor) -
5
John Keats: The Major Works
by Elizabeth Cook (Editor)
The Greatest Romantic Poems, recommended by Gillen D'Arcy Wood
The Greatest Romantic Poems, recommended by Gillen D'Arcy Wood
Freud said he owed them everything and even people who have never read a poem in their lives speak their language today. Gillen D’Arcy Wood, Professor of Environmental Humanities and English at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, explains who the Romantic poets were and recommends five of the greatest Romantic poems.
Reading the Romantics, recommended by William St Clair
Who read Byron in his time? How much did a copy of Wordsworth cost? The scholar guides us through the astonishing history of reading in the Romantic period of English literature
The Best Victorian Novels, recommended by John Sutherland
The Victorian era was a golden age for fiction, says Victorian literature specialist John Sutherland, Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London. He talks us through the some of the best novels written during the Victorian period, and what they reveal about the people who wrote them.
The best books on Modernism, recommended by Alexandra Harris
Modernism is about form more than content, says literary scholar and critic Alexandra Harris, author of Romantic Moderns: English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper. She tells us about the history of the modernist movement, and picks five books that exemplify or explain it.
The Best American Stories, recommended by Simon Winchester
Modern America is a story of expanding frontiers, says bestselling author Simon Winchester. He tells us about five novels that shed light on the social history of his adopted homeland, from the late 19th century to the Great Depression.
Essential New York Novels, recommended by Jay McInerney
The author of Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney, tells us what changed after 9/11 and which books best capture the ambition, romance and creativity of New York. He chooses his list of “essential New York novels”
Fran Lebowitz on New York Writers
‘The authors of these five books are people who came to New York for freedom – not so they could get rich, but so they could be free to pursue their interests and live their lives the way they wanted.’ New Yorker par excellence Fran Lebowitz recommends the writers who best capture her immutably mutable city.