British Literature

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“The Battle of Maldon” is a heroic poem, also classified as an epic, dating from the 10th century. Originally written in Old English, the text details a violent battle between the Anglo-Saxon warriors and the raiding Vikings. The Anglo-Saxons are led by Earl Byrhtnoth, who held land in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Essex and fought for his ruler, King Æthelred the Unready. The poem depicts some of the central tenets of Anglo-Saxon culture, praising loyalty... Read The Battle of Maldon Summary

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Daphne du Maurier’s short story “The Birds” was first published in her 1952 collection, The Apple Tree: A Short Novel and Several Long Stories. It is a Gothic horror story about a man who must protect his family from the brutal and inexplicably organized attacks perpetrated by the birds. Du Maurier’s tale evokes the social isolation of individuals in 1950s England, the British civilians’ memories of helplessness during the Blitz, and the fear of destructive... Read The Birds Summary

Harold Pinter (1930-2008) had an extensive career as an activist and as one of the most significant English playwrights of the 20th century. The Birthday Party, his first full-length play, was first performed at the Arts Theatre in Cambridge in 1958, under the direction of Pinter himself. The play toured to positive reviews, landing on the West End in London with a different director the following month, where reception was significantly chillier.The Birthday Party closed... Read The Birthday Party Summary

The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness, published in 1993 by Harvard University Press, combines historical, social, political, and cultural dimensions to reconceptualize the contours of Western modernity. Paul Gilroy, noted sociologist and cultural historian, proposes that modernity can be better understood through the analytical frame of the Black Atlantic, a transnational, intercultural, fractal structure of Black political and expressive cultures in the West. Reflections of experiences of modernity by early Black Atlantic intellectuals and... Read The Black Atlantic Summary

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The Book of Thel was written and etched by William Blake in 1789. It is one of his prophetic illuminated books, crafted after Songs of Innocence but before The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Blake’s recognition as an influential figure in the British Romantic literary movement only came after his death. The Book of Thel is a narrative, allegorical, and symbolic poem written in 14-syllable lines. Its themes include the expansiveness of God’s love, interconnectedness... Read The Book of Thel Summary

Introduction Written by British author Mary Norton in 1952, The Borrowers is the first in a five-part series along with The Borrowers Afield (1955), The Borrowers Afloat (1959), The Borrowers Aloft (1961), and The Borrowers Avenged (1982). The book follows the story of the Clock family, a trio of tiny people who live beneath the kitchen floorboards in a large house in the British countryside. Norton was born in London in 1903 and grew up... Read The Borrowers Summary

Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Bottle Imp” is a short and comedic story in the parable genre. The story features themes of Self-Sacrifice for Love, Money Can’t Buy Happiness, and The Reality of Evil. “The Bottle Imp” was first published as a serialized newspaper story in 1891 and was included in Stevenson’s collection, Island Nights’ Entertainment (1893). The story is a humorous take on the trope of “making a deal with the devil,” where the protagonist... Read The Bottle Imp Summary

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The Buddha of Suburbia, by Hanif Kureishi, is a coming-of-age novel that explores significant themes of identity, class, and race in 1970s London. Karim Amir, the protagonist and narrator, tells the story of his maturation against a backdrop of political and social change, as he attempts to create himself, discover his place in life, and grow up. Told in the first person, Karim narrates his life from age 17 to about age 23.The Buddha of... Read The Buddha of Suburbia Summary

Set in Arthurian Britain just after King Arthur’s death,The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro’s seventh novel, is told in four parts and focuses on an elderly couple, Axl and Beatrice, and their journey to find their son. Along the way, they must deal with issues of memory, aging, love, loss and death. While the voice of a narrator frames the novel, much of the story is told from the shifting perspectives of the major characters of... Read The Buried Giant Summary

Written in the late 1300s, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is one of the greatest surviving works of Middle English literature, and was a huge influence on later writers from Shakespeare to Keats, among many others.This guide refers to Neville Coghill’s modern English translation (Penguin, 2003).Plot SummaryThe Canterbury Tales tells the story of a group of pilgrims traveling from London to Canterbury to visit the holy shrine of St. Thomas Becket. This is a story... Read The Canterbury Tales Summary

The Castle of Otranto, first published in 1764 by English author Horace Walpole (1717-1797), is considered the first supernatural work of Gothic fiction, influencing many well-known 19th century writers such as Clara Reeve, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, and Robert Louis Stevenson.The five-chapter long novella revolves around the mysterious supernatural events at the titular castle, whose owner goes to villainous lengths to maintain control of it. Walpole introduces Gothic elements that drive the... Read The Castle of Otranto Summary

When the story begins, a man named Erwin Martin, who never smokes, is buying cigarettes. Mr. Martin works for a company called F & S, where he is in charge of the filing department. Mr. Martin has already been contemplating—and planning—the murder of a coworker for over a week. Two years prior, a woman named Ulgine Barrows joined F & S, where she quickly proposed changes to the department—changes that Mr. Martin finds intolerable.Later, as... Read The Catbird Seat Summary

The Changeling is a Jacobean tragicomedy written in collaboration between established playwrights Thomas Middleton and William Rowley. It was first performed in 1622 and published in 1653. The play is adapted from John Reynolds’s 1621 story collection titled The Triumphs of Gods Revenge Against the Crying and Execrable Sinne of Willful and Premeditated Murther.The play has two plots: a tragic main plot and a comedic subplot. Scholars believe Middleton wrote the majority of the main... Read The Changeling Summary

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