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BCS preliminary and other job preparation examination on English Literature
MCQ questions
Jacobean period of English literature reference to--1603-1625
Who is not a Victorian poet-Alexander Pope
Which period is known as the golden age of English literature-the Elizabeth I Age
Restoration period in English literature refers to-1660
Robert Browning was a - poet-Victorian
Which of the writers belong to the romantic period in English literature-S.T.Coleridge
David Copperfield is a/an---novel. Victorian
The romantic age in English literature began with the publication of --- Preface to lyrical ballads.
Which writer belongs to the Elizabethan period? Christopher Marlowe
What is the meaning of Renaissance? The revival of learning
Who is not a romantic poet? T.S.Eliot who was the first recipient of the Nobel prize for literature? RFA Sully Prudhomme
Which century was the Victoria period? 19th century
450-1500 - Old English period for the Anglo Saxon period
1066-1500 -the Middle English period
a Anglo Norman period-1066-1340
b. The age of Chaucer-1340-1400
c. Barren age-1400-1485
1500-1660-The Renaissance period
a. Elizabethan age (1558-1603)
d. Commonwealth period (1649-1660)
b. Jacobean age (1603-1625)
c. Caroline age (1625-1649)
1660-1798 the Neoclassical period
a. The Restoration period (1660-1700)
b. The Augustan Age for the age of Pope (1702-1745)
c. The age of Sensibility or the age of Johnson (1745-1798)
1798-1832 the Romantic Period
1832-1901 The Victorian Period
i. The pre Raphaelites (1848-1860)
ii. Aestheticism and Decadence (1880-1901)
1901-1939 the Modern period till the World War II
I) The Edwardian Period (1901-1910)
ii) the Georgian Period (1910-1936)
1939 The Postmodern Period
Important information on different ages
Though in 1453 The Renaissance began in Italy but the influence on English literature was started after 1500. The Renaissance period is divided into four groups.
a Elizabethan age 1558-1603
b Jacobean age 1603-1625
c Caroline age 1625-1649
d Commonwealth age 1649-1660
What is Elizabethan period in English literature 1558-1603
The name of Elizabethan period was named after Elizabeth 1. In Renaissance period in English literature we notice a huge tendency towards remote, wonderful and beautiful aspects of things and people. The Elizabethan period is called golden age of English literature. The notable writers of this period are William Shakespeare Edmund Spencer , Sir Philip Sidney, Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe.
What is Jacobean period in English literature 1603-1625
This age was named after James 1. Playwrights followed classical rules in their plays. The drama written during this time were written in absence of love and Romance mostly. Metaphysical poetry has started to originate from this period. The most notable writers during this period are Ben Jonson, John webster, John Donne, George Herbert, Robert Herric.
What is Caroline period 1625-1649 in English literature?
Caroline period is named after James 1. The metaphysical poetry got much popularity in this period. The trends in writing were sermons, history, pamphlets, philosophical prose. John Milton was the most notable poet during this period, besides John Donne, Herbert, Vaughan wrote in this period.
What is Commonwealth period 1649-1660 in English literature?
The Renaissance influence got less importance during Commonwealth period. Not only that the romantics that flourished in Elizabethan period also became pale. The most notable writers in this period were Thomas Hobbes, Jeremy Taylor, Henry Vaughan, Andrew Marvel.
Neo-classical period 1660-1798
The other name of this period is Pseudo Classical Age. The writers in this period followed Greek and Roman literature and got much influenced with their rules and principles. The writers in this period were much interested on sophistication and technical perfection in writing Literature. The most notable ideal or standard behind writing literature was art for humanity's sake. This age is divided into three short ages like: Restoration period 1660 - 1700, Augustan period 1702 - 1745 and the age of sensibility 1745 - 1798.
Restoration period 1660 - 1700
The age has been named after the Restoration of throne by Charles II. Among the writers of English literary age, the writers of this age got more freedom in their writing and this freedom took them to wilder pleasure. The spirit of this literary age was satire. The most notable writers of this age were Samuel Butler, John Bunyan, John Dryden, William Congreve.
Augustan period 1702 - 1745
This literary age was named after Roman emperor Augustus. This Augustan period is also called Age of Pope. Some notable writers of this period were Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding.
The Age of Sensibility 1745 - 1798
This literary ages has another name which is 'The Age of Johnson' named after Dr. Samuel Johnson. In the period, we notice a significant decrease in writing heroic couplet and significant increase in writing Ballad. The most notable writers in this period were Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Thomas Gray, Edward Gibbon, Edmund Burke.
Romantic Period (1798-1832)
Romantic Age is called Golden Age of Lyrical Poetry. After the Elizabethan period, Romantic age is the second creative period. the main feature of this period is subjectivity, high imagination, love for the remote past and freedom, supernaturalism revolutionary zeal. This age has been modelled by the hands of Wordsworth and Coleridge together.
The most notable writers of this period are William Wordsworth, S T Coleridge, Lord Byron, PB Shelley, John Keats, Jane Austen, William Hazlitt.
Victorian Period (1832-1901)
This age has been named after Queen Victoria. The first part of this age is called (1848-1860) The Age of Pre-Raphaelite, and the last part of this age is called Age of Aestheticism and Decadence. Thee most important feature of this age is symbolism and sensuousnes. The most notable writers of this age are Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, Matthew Amold, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte.
Modern Period (1901-1939)
In Modern Period literary works mainly focus on social problem and reality of human life. Writers of this age in their works presented social problem and at the same time provided Intellectual solutions.
In modern period writers wrote about social problem and reality of human life. The writers of this age sought help from the intellectuals for problems prevalent in the society. This age is divided into two short periods- one is Edwardian period 1901-1910) and another is Georgian period (1910-1936). The most notable writers of modern age are G B Shaw, Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling, W.B. Yeats, D.H. Lawrence, Virginia woolf, George Orwell.
The age has started after the Second World War 1939 and it is continuing... Alienation, isolation, absurdity, fragmentation of life, identity crisis are the main theme of postmodern literature. The most notable writers of this period are John Masefield, Bertrand Russell, E.M. Forster, T. S Eliot, W. H Auden, Samuel Beckett, William Golding, Ezra Pound, Ted Hughes, Chinua Achebe, Sylvia Plath, Arundhati Roy.
Writers and their works based on literary age
The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope is a/an- mock-heroic poem.
The poet who is not an Amencan poet-W.B.Yeats.
william Shakespeare was born in-1564.
Tennyson's In Memoriam is an elegy on the death of- Arthur Henry Hallam.
The translator of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam' into English- Edward
Fizgerald.
Ulysses is a novel written by- James Joyce.
The short story The Diamond Necklace was written by- Guy de Maupassant.
The poet who worte the poem The Good-Morrow is- John Donne.
A Christian Carol is a- by Charles Dickens-short novel.
Who is author of Man and Superman?-G.B. Shaw.
Who among the Indian English writers is a famous novelisl?- RK Nazayan.
The most famous satirist in English literature is- Jonathan Swift
Of the authors, who wrote an epic- John Milton.
The play 'The Spanish Tragedy' is written by-- Thomas Kyd.
Gerontion is a poern by- TS. Eliot.
-- is a Shakespeare's last play- Termpest.
Who has written the poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard ?-Thomas Gray
Who has written the play Volpone- Ben Jonson
Who weole "Biographia Literaria ?-ST.Coleridge
P.B.Shelley's Adonais is an elegy on the death of- John Keats
The Sun Also Rises writen by-- Ernest Hemingway.
Othello gave Desdemon--as a token of love. Handkerchief
Shakespeare's 'Measure for Measure is a- successful comedy.
Which book is written by Thomas Hardy?-The Return of the Native.
The poem The Solitary Reaper' is written by- W. Wordsworth.
The Merchant of Venice' is a Shakespearean play about-a Jew.
'The play Candida' is by-G. B. Shaw.
"A Passage to India" is written by-E. M. Forster.
Gitanjali" of Rabindranath Tagore was translated by-W. B. Yeats.
Who was not a novelist?-W.B. Yeats.
London town is found a living being in the works of-Charles Dickens.
Who is not a Nobel Laureate?-Grahame Greene
The play Arms and the Man is by-George Bernard Shaw.
Othello is a Shakespeare's play about a- Moor.
The poem 'Isle of Innisfree' is written by- W.B. Yeats.
Riders to the Sea is-a one-act play.
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet' is a- tragedy
The type of writing The Luncheon' is-Satire
The writer of the b0ok "The Waste Land'-T.SEliot
The Rainbow' is -a novel by D.H. Lawrence.
T.S. Eliot was born in...USA
The author of "A Farewell to Arms' is- Ernest Hemingway
The author of India wins freedom-Abul Kalam Azad
"A Brief History of Time" - Stephen Hawking
Alfred Tennysot is a-poet
'Saint Joan' is written by-George Bernard Shaw.
'On his blindness' is written by- John Milton.
Mark Twain was an -- American novelist.
Hamlet' is a-by shakespeare. -Drama.
'Oliver Twist' is a -Novel.
Wordsworth's I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud is about-Daffodils.
The writer of first English dictionary-Samuel Johnson
'All for Love' is a-Drama
War and Peace' isa-Fiction
"Sons and Lovers" is a novel by- D. H. Lawrence
Pride and prejudice' is a-novel
William Wordsworth was a- poet
The drama 'Macbeth' was written by- William Shakespeare.
Who is not a poet?-Charles Dickens.
The book 'A Tale of Two Cities' is written by-Charles Dickens.
Who wrote The Taming of the Shrew'?-William Shakespeare.
Who wrote 'Paradise Lost?--John Milton.
Who rejected the Nobel Prize for literature?Jean Paul Sartre.
Shakespeare is known mostly for his- Drama.
Who is an essayist-Francis Bacon.
Which drama is not a tragedy-The Tempest.
Hamlet is written by- William Shakespeare.
Which one is about Sin and Punishment--The Ancient Mariner.
Who is the author of "The Origin of Species"-C. Darwin.
The Merchant of Venice' is written by- Shakespeare.
King Lear is a- Tragedy.
Shakespeare is famous mostly for his- plays.
'A Tale of Two Cities' refers to-London and Paris.
Heart of Darkness' is a novel written by-Conrad.
"Much Ado About Nothing" is written by-William Shakespeare.
Paradise Lost is- an epic.
Beethoven is considered one of he greatest personalities in the field of -Music
Who wrote the book Paradise Regained'?-John Milton.
Who is the writer of Treasure Island'?-Stevenson.
Paradise Lost' aftempted to-Justify the ways of God to man.
In The Luncheon, the writer is exploited by- lady admirer.
Subject-based Discussion on English Literature
The Renaissance Period (1500-1660)
Thomas More (1478-1535)--
Utopia, History of King Richard Ill
Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)-- Doctor Faustus, Tamburaline the Great, Edward-II, The Jew of Malta
Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)--
The Faerie Queene, The Shepherd's Calendar, The Ruins of Time
Drama (Comedy)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)--
The Tempest, All's Well that Ends Well, As you like It, Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Measure for Measure.
Historical
Julius Caeser, Richard II, Richard-IIL, Henry-V, Henry-vIII
Tragedy
Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Othello.
Robert Herrick (1591-1674)
To Anthea, The Night Piece to Julia, Hesperides, To Daffodils (poem)
Ben Jonson (1573-1637)
Volpone, The Alchemist, The Silent Woman.
John Webster (1580-1625)
The White Devil, The Duchess of Malfi
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Novum Orgaum, Advancement of Learning, Essays
Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)
To His Coy Mnistress, My Vegetable Love (poem)
John Donne (1572-1632)
The Good-Morrow, The Sun Rising
Canonization, Love's Alchemy (poem)
John Milton (1608-1674)
Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained. (epic), Areopagitica
Neo-classical period (1660-1798)
William Congreve (1670-1729)
The Way of the World, The Double Dealer, Love for Love
John Dryden (1631-1700)
Mac Flecknoe, The Medal of John Bayes, Al for Love
Alexander Pope (1644-1744)
The Rape of the Lock, The Imitation of Horace, Dunciad
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
The Battle of the Books, Tale of A Tub, Gulliver's Travels
Henry Fielding (1707-1745)
Joseph Andrews, Amelia
Daniel Defoe (1659-1731)
Robinson Crusoe (1719)
Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774)
The Citizen of the World, The Traveller, The
Vicar of the Wakefield.
Thomas Gray (1716-1771)
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.
Romantic Period (1798-1832)
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Tintern Abbey, The Solitary Reaper,
The Daffodils (poem)
S. T.Coleridge (1772-1834)
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Christabel, Ode on Dejection.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830)
The Spirit of the Age, Elizabeth
William Blake (1757-1827)
Songs of Innocence and of Experience.
P.B. Shelley (1792-1822)
Adonais, Ode to the West Wind, The Revolt of Islam, Prometheus Unbound, Ode to a Skylark
John Keats (1792-1821)
Ode to a Nightingale, Ode to Autumn,
Eve of S.T. Agnes, Ode on a Grecian Urn
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
The Devil's Work, The Curse of Kehama
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832]
The Lay of the Last Ministrel, Murmoin, The Lord of the Isle
Lord Byron (1788-1824)
Don Juan (poem), The Vision of Judgement
Jane Austen (1775-1817)
Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility
Victorian Period (1832-1901)
Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)
The Lotos Eaters, In Memoriam (elegy), Ulysses.
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Oliver Twist, David Copperfield/36th BCS), A
Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Hard Times
Robert Browning (1812-1889)
Men and Women, Dramatic Lyrics
Swinburme
Poems and Ballads, The White C Zar. (poem)
Matthew Amold (1822-88)
Thyrsis (elegy), Dover Beach (poem)
The Scholar Gypsy, Westminister Abbey, Rugby Chapel.
Emily Bronte(1818-1848)
The Wuthering Heights
Thomas Hardy (1840-1926)
Tess of the D'Urbervilles, The Return of the
Native.
Charlotte Bronte (1816-1865)
Jane Eyre, The Professor, Shirley.
George Eliot (1819-1880)
Adam Bede, Silas Marner (novel)
W. Makepeace 1Thackeray (1811-1863)|
Vanity Fair, The Virginians, The Newcomer
R.LStevenson (1850-1894)
Kidnapped, Treasure Island, The New Arabianl Nights
Modern Age (1901-1939)
T.S. Eliot (1888-1995)
The Waste Land, The Cocktail Party, The Love, Song of Alfred J. Prufrock. (poem)
Ezra Pound (1885-1972)
Shop Girl, Alba (poem)
W.B. Yeats (1805-1939)
The Second Comming, A Prayer for My
Daughter (poem)
W.H.Auden (1907-1973)
The Shield of Achilles, In Praise of Limeston
An Unknown Citizen, In Memory of W. B.
Yeats, Musee des Beaux Art. (poem)
E. M. Forster (1879-1970)
A Passage to Indial36th BCS1, The Longest
Journey (novel)
James Joyce (1882-1970)
Ulysses (Novel) I40th BCS) A Portrait of the
Artist As a Young Man (Novel)
W.Somerset Maughum (1874-1965)
Luncheon (Short story), Ot Human Bondage (novel)
D. H.Lawrence (1885-1930)
The Rainbow, Sons and Lovers, Lady Chatteriy s Lover.
Virginia Wolf (1882-1941)
Mrs Dallawy, To the Lighthouse
G. B. Shaw (1856-1950)
Man and Superman, Arms and the Man,
Pygmalion, Candida
George Orwell
Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-four.
American Literature
Emest Hemingway (1899-1961)
The Oldman and the Sea, A Farewell to Arms
Mark Twain(1835-1910)
Life on Mississippi, The Innocents Abroad.
LW.Emerson (1803-1882)
The American Scholar, Self-Reliance
Henry James (1843-1916)
Daisy Miller, The Turn of the Screw
William Faulkner (1897-1962)
The Mansion, Light in August
Marorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896-1953)
The Yearling, Gedal Younf Un, A Mother in
Manville (Short story)
Ted Hughes (1930-1998)
Pike, Jaguar Crow, Hawk (poem)
Saul Bellow (1915-2005)
Seize the Day, Herzog, Humboldt's Gifs.
Toni Morrison (1931-)
The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Beloved
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
Politin (play), Al Aaraf, The Bells, The City
the Sea, The Raven (Poetry)
French Literature
Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)
Madame Bovary, Salammbo, Sentimental Education
Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
The Social Contract, Confessions, Emile
Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
Les Miserable, Nienty-Three, Hans of lceland
Voltaire (1694-1 778)
nd
Candide, Zadig, The White Bull, Treatise
on Tolerance
Alexander Dumas (1802-18700)
The Three Musketeers, The Black Tulip.
Greek Literature
Plato
The Republic, The Statesman, Ihe Laws, Symposium
Homer
The Iliad, The Odyssey, Homeric Hymns
Euripides
Alcestis, Medea, The Trojan Women
Virgil
The Aeneid, Eclogues, Georgies
Sophocles
Electra, Oedipus Rex, Antigone
Aristotle
Poetics, Politics, Metaphysics.
Aeschylus
Agamemnon, The Persians, Promethus Bound
Important Authors and their Works
Adlof Hitler-German Fiejrer-Mein Kamf
Aeschylus-Father of Greek Tragedy-Prometheos Bound, Agamemnon
Alexander Pope-English Poet and Satirist- The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad
Alfred Tennyson-English Poet-In Memoriam, The Lady of Shalot,
ldylls of the King, Ulysses
Andrew Marvell- English Poet -The Garden, To His Coy Mistress
Aristophanes-Greek Poet and Playwright-The Peace, The Clouds, Frogs
Aristotle-Greek Philosopher-Poetics
Ben Jonson-English Poet and Dramatist-Volpone, Everyman in His Humour
Bertrand Russel-British Philosopher-Marriage and Morals, The
Impact of Science upon Society
Charles Darwin-English Writer-Origin of Species, Descent of Man
Charles Dickens- English novelist-The Pickwick Paper, Oliver Twist,
David Copperfield, Great Expectations
Charlotte Bronte- British novelist-Jane Eyre, Professor, Shirley
Christopher Marlowe - British Dramatist of Elizabethan Age-Dr. Faustus, The Jew of Malta,
Tamburlaine
D.H Lawrence- English Novelist and Poet-Lady Chatterley's Lover
Daniel Defoe- English Journalist and Novelist - Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders
Dante- Italian Poet-La Divina Comedia
Dr. Samuel Johnson - English Lexicographer and Writer - Vanity of the Human Wishes, Dictionary
Dylan Thomas- English Poet and Journalist - Under Milk Wood, Eighteen Poems
E.M. Forster- English Novelist- A Passage to India, Longest Journey
Francis Bacon- English Philosopher and Essayist -Novum Organum, Essays
Edger Allan Poe- American short story writer-
The Raven
Geoffrey Chaucer- Father of English Poetry-Canterbury Tales, The Legend of Good Women
George Barnard Shaw -Irish Dramatist and Critic - Man and Superman, Candida, Apple Cart, Arms and the Man, Saint Joan
George Eliot- Author- Adam Bede, The Mill on the
Eloss, Silas Marner
George Orwell- Novelist- Nineteen Eighty Four, Animal Farm
H.G. Wells- English Science Fiction Writer -The Time Machine, The Invisible Man
H.W. Longfellow- American Poet- A Psalm of Life
Henry Fielding- English Novelist- Tom Jones, Joseph Andrews
Homer- Greek Epic Poet- Odessey, lliad
James Henry Leigh Hunt - English Poet, Politician and Essayist- Abu Ben Adhem
Jane Austen- English Woman Novelist - Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility
John Bunyan- English Prose Writer- The Pilgrim's Progress
John Milton- English Poet- Samson Agonistes, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained
John Webster- English Playwright- The White Devil, The Duchess of Malfi
Karl Marx- German Philosopher and Economist - Das Capital, Communist Manifesto
Leo Tolstoy- Russian Author- War and Peace
Lord Byron - Romantic Poet- Don Juan
Matthew Arnold - English Poet and Critic-
Sohrab and Rustum, The Scholar Gypsy, Dover Beach
Maxim Gorky- Russian Author- Mother, My Childhood
Mrs. Virginia Woolf - English Novelist- Night and Day, A Room of One's Own
Oliver Goldsmith - Irish Writer, Poet, Novelist and Playwright - The Vicar of Wakefield
Oscar Wilde- English Poet ard Novelist- An ldeal Husband
PB Shelley- English Poet- Adonias, Prometheus Unbound, Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To Skylark
Robert Frost- American Poet- West Running Brook
Robert Herrick- English Poet- Hesperides, To Daffodils
Robert Louis Stevenson - Scottish Author and Poet Kidnapped, Treasure Island
Rudyard Kipling- Enghish poet and Novelist- The Jungle Book, Kim
S.T. Coleridge-English Poet- Kubla Khan, Biographia Literararia
Samuel Butler- English Author- The Way of All Flesh
Samuel Johnson- English Writer- The Vanity of Human Wishes
Saul Bellow- American Novelist (Bom in Canada) - Seize the Day
William Shakespeare - Greatest Engish poet and dramatist - Macbeth, Hamlet, As You Like lt, etc
Sigmund Freud- Austrian Founder of Psycho-Analysis - Delusion and Dream
Sir Arthur C. Doyle- English Novelist- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Sir Philip Sidney- English Soldier and Poet- Apology for Poetry
Sir Winston Churchill - Politician of England-
The Gathering Storm; The Second
World War
TS Eliot- English Poet and Playwright - Murder in the Cathedral
Thomas Carlyle - English Writer- Past and President
Thomas Gray- English Poet- Ode to Adversity
Thomas Hardy- Novelist- The Mayor Casterbridge
Thomas Kyd- Playwright- The Spanish Tragedy
Thomas Moore- Irish Poet- The Epicurean, The Minstrel Boy, The Last Rose of Summer
Virginia Woolf- English Novelist- Mrs. Dalloway
W.B. Yeats- Irish Poet and Dramatist - The Tower, Isle of Innisfree
William Blake-English Poet- Songs of Experience; Songs of Innocence
William Faulkner - American Novelist- Light in August
William Langland- Prose Writer -Piers Plowman
William Makepeace Thackeray -- English Novelist
Henry Esmond; Vanity Fair
William Wordsworth - English poet- Lyrical Ballads, The Prelude, The Daffodils, Michael, Tintern Abbey
Important Works and Their Authors
A Brief History of Time- History-Stephen W. Hawking
A Doll's House- Social Drama-Henrik Ibsen
A Farewell to Arms- Novel- Ernest Hemingway
A Haunted House- Novel- Virginia Woolf
A Kiss for Cinderella- Play- J. M. Barrie
A Midsummer Night's Dream- Comedy- William Shakespeare
A Passage to England- Novel- Nirad C. Chowdhury
A Passage to India- Novel- E. M. Forster
A Tale of Tub- A Satire on Extremist - Jonathan Swift
A Tale of Two Cities- Novel- Charles Dickens
A Woman of No Importance -Novel-
Oscar Wilde
Adam Bede- Novel- George Eliot
Adonias- Poem (Elegy)- P.B.Shelley
Adventure of Sherlok Holmes- Thrill Story- Arther Conan Doyle
Adventures of Tom Sawyer- Travelogue- Mark Twain
Aeneid- Epic Poem- Virgil
Ain-i-Akbari- Abul Fazal- Law Book
Akbar Nama- Biography- Abul Fazal
All's Well that Ends Well- Comedy- Shakespeare
An Ideal Husband- Oscar Wilde- Novel
Ancient Mariner- S.T. Coleridge- Poem
Animal Farm- George Orwell- Novel
Anna Karenina- Leo Tolstoy- Novel
Antony and Cleopatra- W.Shakespeare- Comedy
Arabian Nights- Sir Richard Burton- Fairy Tales
Arms and the Man- G. B.Shaw- Play
Around the World in Eighty Days - Novel- Jules Verne
Asian Drama- Gunnar Myrdal
Battle of the Books- Jonathan Swift- Satire
Biographia Literaria- Samuel Taylor Coleridge- Literary Criticsim
Break, Break, Break- Tennyson- Lyrical Poem
Canterbury Tales- Jeoffrey Chaucer- Collection of Tales
Ceasar and Cleopatra- G. B. Shaw- Play
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage- Lord Byron- Religious Poem
Comedy of Errors- W.Shakespeare- Comedy
Crime and Punishment- Dostoevsky- Novel
Das Capital- Theory- Karl Marx
David Copperfield- Novel- Charles Dickens
Divine Comedy- Poetical Work- Dante
Doctor's Dilemma- Play- G. B. Shaw
Don Juan- Epic Satire- Lord Byron
Emma- Novel-Jane Austen
Essay of Man- Poem- Alexander Pope
Fairie Queene-Allegorial Poem- Edmund Spenser
Far From Madding Crowd- Novel- Thomas Hardy
For Whom the Bell Tols- Novel- Earnest FHemingway
French Revolution- Historical Work- Thomas Carlyle
God of Small Things-Novel- Arundhuty Roy
Great Expectations- Novel- Charles Dickens
Gulliver's Travels- Novel- Jonathan Swift
Hamlet- Tragedy- W.Shakespeare
Hard Times- Novel- Charles Dickens
Idylls of the King- Verse- Tennyson
lliad- Epic- Homer
lmportance of Being Earnest- Comedy- Oscar Wilde
Tennyson- Verse- In Memoriam
India Wins Freedom- Autobiography- Abul Kalam Azad
Rajendra Prasad- Autobiography- India Divided
H.G. Wells- Novel- Invisible Man
John Keats- Long verse- Isabella
Walter Scott- Novel- Ivanhoe
William Shakespeare- Tragedy- Julius Caesar
Jungle Book- Fairy Tale- Rudyard Kipling
King Lear- Tragedy- William Shakespeare
Kubla Khan- Poem- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
La Divine Comedia- Verse- A. Dante
Lady Chatterly's Lover- Novel- D. H. Lawrence
Lady of the Lake- Novel- Sir Walter Scott
Love's Labour's Lost- Comedy- W.Shakespreare
Lycidas- Elegy- John Milton
Man and Superman- Drama- G.B.Shaw
Marriage and Morals- Essay-Bertrand Russel
Measure for Measure-Comedy- W.Shakespeare
Merchant of Venice- Comedy- W.Shakespeare
Middle March- Novel-George Eliot
Mill on the Floss- Novel-Grorge Eliot
Murder in Cathedral-Play- T.S. Eliot
New Arabian Nights-R. L. Stevenson
Ode to the West Wind-Poem-P.B. Shelley
Odyssey- Epic- Homer
Old Man and the Sea- Novel- Ernest Hemingway
Oliver Twist- Novel- Charles Dickens
One World and India- Historical Work- Arnald Toynbee
Origin of Species- Scientific Writing- Charles Darwin
Othello- Tragedy- W.Shakespeare
Paradise Regained- Epic- John Milton
Pilgrim's Progress- Allegorical Novel- John Bunyan
Plays Pleasant and Plays Unpleasant-:Collection of Plays- G. B. Shaw
Prelude-Verse- W. Wordsworth
Pride and Prejudice- Novel- Jane Austen
Prince- Political treatise- Machiavelli
Rape of the Lock- Mock heroic poem - Alexander Pope
Robinson Crusoe- Novel- Daniel Defoe
Romeo and Juliet- Tragedy- Shakespeare
Satanic Verses- Ficticious Story- Salman Rushdie
Scholar Gipsy-Poem-:Matthew Arnold
Sense and Sensibility- Novel- Jane Austen
Silent Woman- Drama- Ben Jonson
Sohrab and Rustum- Poem- Matthew Arnold
Sons and Lovers- Novel- D. H. Lawrence
Sound and the Fury- Novel- William Faulkner
St. Joan- Play- G. B. Shaw
The Tempest- Comedy- Shakespeare
Tess of the D'Urbervilles- Novel- Thomas Hardy
The Alchemist- Play- Ben Jonson
The Return of the Native - Novel- Thomas Hardy
The Virginians-Essay-William M. Thackeray
Three Musketeers- Novel- Alexander Dumas
Time Machine- Science Fiction- H.G. Wells
To a Skylark- Verse- P.B. Shelley
Tom Jones- Novel- Henry Fielding
Tom Sawyer-Novel- Mark Twain
Top Secret- Novel- Henry Fielding
Travel With a Donkey-Travelogue- R. L. Stevenson
Treasure Island- Romancee- R. L. Stevenson
Twelfth Night-Comedy- W.Shakespeare
Ulysses-Novel- James Joyce
Uncle Tom's Cabin- Novel- Mrs. Harriet Stowe
Utopia-Speculative Work-Sir Thomas More
Vanity Fair- Novel-W. M. Thackeray
Vicar of Wakefield- Novel- Oliver Goldsmith
Vision of Judgement- Poem- Lord Byron
Vision of Mirza- Allegory- Addison
Voyage to Liliput- Satire- Jonathan Swift
War and Peace- Novel- Tolstoy
Waste Land-:Poem- T.S. Eliot
Way of the World- Comedy- Congreve
Winter's Tale- Play- W.Shakespeare
Wuthering Heights- Novel- Emile Bronte
Special Titles of Some Literary Persons
The central character of 'Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is- Heathcliff.
Who is known as 'the poet of nature' in English literature? - William Wordsworth.
The main character in Paradise Lost Book I and Book II is: -Satan
William Wordsworth is pre-eminently- a poet of nature.
Who is the famous satirist in English literature?-Jonathan Swift.
Who wrote the first English dictionary- Samuel Johnson.
Father of English literature- Chaucer.
Who is known as 'the poet of nature' in English iterature-William Wordsworth.
Who is called the Poet of Beauty?-John Keats.
Special Titles of Some Literary Persons
Venerable Bede- Father of English learning.
Alfred the Great- The founder of English prose.
Chaucer- Father of English poetry.
John Wycliff- Father of English prose.
Sir Thomas Wyatt- First sonneteer in English literature.
William of Newbury- Father of historical criticism
Caedmon- First poet in English literature.
Edmund spenser- The poet of poet.
William Shakespeare- Bard of Avon.
John Donne- Poet of love/Metaphysical poet.
John Milton- Epic poet/ The great master of verse.
John Dryden- Father of English criticism.
Alexander Pope- Mock heroic poet.
Henry Fielding- Father of English novel.
William Wordsworth - Poet of Nature/ Lake poet/ Poet of children.
S.T. Coleridge- Poet of supernaturalism/Opium eater.
Lord Byron- Rebel poet.
P.B. Shelley- Revolutionary poet/Poet of hope and regeneration.
John Keats- Poet of beauty.
William Blake- Both poet and painter
George Bernard Shaw- The greatest modern dramatist and Psychiatrist.
Sigmund Freud- A great psycho-analysist and psychiatrist
Jane Austen- Anti-romantic in Romantic age.
Francis Bacon- Father of English Essay.
Lindley Murray- Father of English Grammar.
Coleridge & Wordsworth - Father of Romanticism.
Nicholas Udall- First English comedy writer.
Christopher Marlowe- Father of English tragedy.
James Joyce- Father of English stream of conscious novel.
Edgar Allen Poe- Father of English mystery play.
Samuel Johnson- Father of English one act play.
Important Characters of Some Literary Pieces
William Shakespeare
King Lear (Play)- King Lear; Goneril; Regan; Cordelia
Hamlet (Play)- Hamlet; Ophelia; Claudius; Gertrude
Othello (Play)- Othello; Desdemona
Macbeth (Play)-Macbeth; Lady Macbeth; Duncan; Banquo; Three Witches.
Twelfth Night (Play)- Viola; Duke Orsino; Malvolio; Olivia, Sebastan.
Measure for Measure (Play) - Isabella; Juliet; Lucio; Angelo; Claudio.
The Tempest (Play)- Prospero; Miranda; Ferdinand; Caliban; Ariel.
vierchant of Venice (Play) - Shylock; Portia; Antonio; Bassanio; Jessica.
John Milton- Paradise Lost (Epic)-Adam, Eve, Satan,
Raphael; Michael.
Jane Austen- Pride and Prejudice (Novel-) - Mr. Darcy; Elizabeth Bernnet; Jane
Bennet; Charles Bingley; Mr. William
Collins; Kitty Bennet; Lydia Bernet
Charlotte Bronte- Jane Eyre (Novel)- Jane Eyre; Edward Rochester; Georgiana, Reed; Bertha Mason; Helen Burns.
Aeschylus- Agamemnon (Play)- Agamemnon; Clytemnestra; Cassandra; Aegisthus; Watchman
Homer- The Iliad (Epic)- Achilles; Hector; Agamemnon; Helen; Paris; Cassandra; Chraseis; Nestor; Priam; Menelaus; Apollo; Athena; Thelis
Christopher Marlowe- Doctor Faustus (Play)- Faustus; Mephistopheles; Cornelius; Good Angel; Bad Angel.
Thomas Hardy - Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Novel) - Tess Durbeyfield; Alec d'urberville; Angel Clare
Ben Jonson-Volpone (Play)- Volpone; Mosca; Celia; Bonario; Lady Would-be; Corvino; Voltore.
William Congreve - The Way of the World (Play) - Mirabell; Millamant; Fainall, Mrs. Fainall:
Lady Wishfort.
Daniel Defoe - Robinson Crusoe (Novel) - Robinson Crusoe; Friday; Xury
D.H. Lawrence -Sons and Lovers (Novel) - Paul Morel; Gertrude Morel; William Morel; Annie Morel; Arthur Morel; Walter Morel
George Bernard Shaw - Arms and the Man (Play) - Captain Bluntschli; Raina Petkoff; Catherine Petkoff; Louka, Nicola
Man and Superman (Play) - Hector Malone; Ann Whitefield; John, Tanner; Medoza
Ernest Hemingway - A Farewell to Arms (Novel)- Lieutenant Frederic Henry; Catherine, Barkley; Helen Ferguson; Lieutenant Rinaldi.
Emily Bronte- Wuthering Heights (Novel) - Catherine Earnshaw; Cathy Linton; Edgar Linton; Heathcliff (maincharacter) Lockwood
Lord Byron- Don Juan (Poem)- Don Juan; Donna Inez; Donna Julia;Don Alfonso
Sophocles- Oedipus Rex/Oedipus
the King (Play)- Oedipus; Jocasta; Teiresias; Creon.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge -The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Poem)- The Mariner; Wedding Guest; Albatross. The Nightmare, Lite-in-Death.
Edward Morgan Forster- A Passage to India (Novel) Dr. Aziz; Cyril Fielding; Miss Adela Quested; Ronny Heaslop; Professor Godbole; Hamidullah; Mahmoud Ali; Stella Moore.
Jonathan Swift- Gulliver's Travels (fiction)- Gulliver; Blefuscudian; Brobding- nagians; Glumdalclitch; Houyhnhnms; Laputans; Lilliputians; Yahoos.
Toni Morrison-The Bluest Eye (Novel)- Pecola Breedlove; Claudia Macteer; Cholly Breedlove; Sammy Breedlove.
Joseph Conrad- Heart of Darkness (Novel)- Marlow; Kurtz; Fresleven.
John Millington - Riders to the Sea (Play) - Maurya; Bartley; Cathleen; Nora Synge
Arthur Miller- Death ofa Salesman (Play) - Willy Loman; Biff Loman; Howard Wagner; Linda Loman; Happy Loman; Charley
Leo Tolstoy- Anna Karenina (Novel)- Anna Karenina; Alexis Karenin; Count Vronsky
Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist (Novel)- Oliver Twist; Fagin; Bill Sikes; Alexei, Alexandrovich Karenin
Great Expectations (Novel) -Philip Pirrip (Pip); Mis Havisham; Estella
Some Important Literary Terms
The literary term euphemism' means- in offensive expression.
Shakespeare composed much of his plays in what sort of verse?- lambic pentameter.
The repetition of beginning consonant sound is known as--alliteration.
Which of the following is not a poetic tradition?-The Comic.
What is a funny poem of five lines called?-Limerick.
The comparison of unlike things using the words like or as is known to be- simile.
The Climax of a plot is what happens-at the height.
Class relations and societal conflict is the key understanding of-Marxism.
A fantasy is-an imaginary story
I wondered lonely as a cloud' is an example of- a simile.
The sentence Who would have thought Shylock was to unkind' expresses - wonder.
'In English literature the word 'limerick' refers to- Funny poems of five line.
A formal composition or speech expressing high praise of somebody-eulogy.
A Sonnet is a poem having-lines.-14
A poem of fourteen lines is called - sonnet
The term 'Fiction' is related to - Imagination.
The patriot is the star of the country. Here the 'star' is used as a/an - metaphor
What is an epic A long narrative poem.
What is catastrophe? The tragic end of dramatic events.
Some Important Literary Terms
Act : A major division of the action of a play.
Allegory : An allegory is a story of double meanings. In it one story is told in the guise of another story. John Dryden's 'Absalom and Achitophel' is a political allegory in verse that uses names of Biblical personages and events to mean the political situation of his time.
Aside : A dramatic technique of speaking alone with the presence of other characters on the stage with a view to giving his/her own ideas, thoughts and feelings to the audience.
Ballad : A narrative poem that tells a grave story through dialogue and action.
Blank Verse : Poetry without rhyme.
Canto: A part of a long poem.
Climax : In a play or story, it is the peak point at which the rise of action ends and the fall of action begins.
Comic Relief: The purpose of comic relief is to relieve the tension and heighten the tragic effect by contrast.
Couplet: Two lines of verse rhyming together.
Denouement: The final scene of a drama or fiction in which all the problems are solved
Diction: The selection of words or language in a writing or speech.
Dirge: A funeral hymn; a song expressing griet.
Dramatic monologue: A form of poetry in which a single speaker speaks to a silent listener/listeners.
Elegy: A lyric poem mourning for the death of an individual or lamenting over a tragic event.
Epic: An extended narrative poem, exalted in style and heroic in theme.
Epilougue: A poem or speech at the end of a play.
Epitaph: Inscription on a tomb or a monument.
Fable: Allegorical story of animal characters which teaches a moral for human beings.
Genre/Form: A kind' or type' of literature such as tragedy, comedy, novel, essay etc.
Hamartia/Tragic Flaw : An error or a flaw for which the hero of a tragedy falls from the zenith of his success to the nadir of his misery.
Heroic Couplet: A pair of iambic pentameter verse lines which rhyme together.
Hymn: Song in praise of God.
Hyperbole: Exaggerated statement not to be taken literally such as 'O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.'
Idyl: A short poem describing simple, rural, pastoral scenes.
Irony: It is a statement or a situation or an action which actually means the opposite of its surface meaning.
Lyric: A short poem expressing personal thoughts and feelings of a single speaker.
Metaphor: It is an implicit comparison between two dissimilar objects such as--Diana is a rose.
Novelette: A short novel usually of thirty to forty thousand words. Example: Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
Ode: A long lyric poem that is serious in subject and treatment, elevated in style, and elaborate in its stanzaic structure.
Oxymoron: A figure in which contradictory words are placed side by side for raising a striking effect.
Example: "I fear and hope,I burn and freeze in ice." (Wyatt)
Parable: An allegorical story of human characters which teaches a religious moral.
Plot: The logical arrangement of events designed to excite curiosity or suspense. It is the structure of a literary work.
Satire- A literary attack on the follies and vices of an individual or a society with a view to correcting them through laughter and ridicule. Example: Pope's The Rape of the Lock.
Simile: An explicit comparison between two unlike objects usually using 'like or 'as such as Rubel is as brave as a tiger.
Soliloquy: A dramatic technique of speaking alone on the stage.
Sonnet: A lyric poem of fourteen iambic pentameter lines. Sonnet is of three types such as Petrarchan, Shakespearean and Spenserian. The first eight lines of a Petrarchan sonnet are called Octave and the last six lines of it are called 'sestet. Shakespearean sonnet includes four stanzas and the last two lines (last stanza) of it are called 'couplet,
Stanza: A division of a poem.
Quotations from Drama/Poetry of Different Ages
Sweet Helen make me immortal with a kiss.'
The sentence has been taken from the play - Doctor Faustus.
'What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet as' the dialogue said by- Juliet.
Man's love is of man's life a thing apart, Tis woman's whole existence' This is taken from the poem of Lord Byron.
All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.-The character who said this-Lady Macbeth.
Where are the songs of Spring? Aye, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too. The poet who wrote this is-John Keats.
The old order changeth, yielding place to new,-This line is extracted from Tennyson's poem-Morte d' Arthur.
To be, or not to be that is the question,-is a famous soliloquy from- Hamlet
Where do the following lines occur in?
Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide, wide sea . -The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love.
This line is written by-John Donne.
Who quoted Justice is truth in action'?-Benjamin Disraeli.
One swallow does not make a- summer.
Frailty thy name is woman-is a famous dialogue from- W. Shakespeare.
Child is the father of man' is taken from the poem of-W.Wordsworth.
Man is a political animal-who said this?-Aristotle.
Who wrote the following lines: "all at once I saw/a crowd, a host of golden daffodils"?-Wordsworth.
A friend-- need is a friend indeed.- in.
The writer of this famous line, Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought-P.B. Shelley.
The speaker of this quote: 'No man is above the law and no man is below it--Roosevelt.
I have a -- that one day this nation will
live out the true meaning of its creed that
all men are created equal-dream
Speech is silver, but silence is- Golden
A stitch in time saves --nine.
To err is human, to forgive--divine.
Blood is always thicker than -water
A correct word in the gap: Man is the -- of his own fate. architect
A friend- need is a friend indeed.-in
If winter comes, can--be far behild?-Spring.
Heard melodies are sweet but those unheard are sweeter is taken from--John Keats
When wisdom brings no profit, To be wise is to suffer, is taken from-King Oedipus.
Justice delayed is justice denied. was stated by--Gladstone.
The upright judge condemns crimes but he does not hate the criminals." -William Shakespeare.
It is the judges who are the guardians of justice in this land.--Lord Denning (MR)
A little learming is a dangerous thing-is a quotation from-Alexander Pope.
Know thyself is written by--Socrates.
Subject-based Discussion
Quotation - Source
Aristotle 384 – 322 BC
Greek philosopher
We make war that we may live in peace.
- Nicomachean Ethics bk. 10
Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to
improbable possibilities.- Poetics ch. 24, 1460a 267
Man is by nature a political animal.- Politics bk. 1, 1253 a 23
He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.- Politics bk. 1, 1253a 279
A flatterer is a friend who is your inferior,
or pretends to be so.
A friend is a second self.
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to
entertain thought without accepting it.
Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime
Neil Armstrong 1930-2012
American Astronaut: First Man on the Moon
That's one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind.-In New York Times, 21 July 1969, p.5
Matthew Amold, 1822-88
English Poet and Essayist
Eternal Passion!
Eternal Pain!- Philomela (1853)1.31
Truth sits upon the lips of dying men -
Sohrab and Rustum (1853)1.65
Francis Bacon, 1561-1626
English Lawyer, Courtier, Philosopher and Essayist
A crowd is not company, and faces are but a
gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love. - Essays (1625) Of Friendship
Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses - Essays (1625) Of Marriage and the Single Life
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested; - Essays (1625) Of Studies
Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man and writing an exact man. - Essays (1625) Of Studies
Histories make men wise; poets, witty:
the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep moral, grave, logic and rhetoric, able to contend. -Essays (1625) Of Studies
Opportunity makes a thief.- A letter of Advice to the Earl of Es
A wise man will make more opportunities
than he finds.
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in
doubts; but if he will be content to begin with
doubts he shall end in certainties.
Praise from the common people is generally false,
and rather follows the vain than the virtuous.
William Blake, 1757-1827
English Poet
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. -The Marriage of
To Mercy Pity Peace and Loves.
All pray in their distress. - Songs of Innocence (1789) The Divine Image
Robert Browning, 1812-89
English Poet
So absolutely good is truth, truth never hurts the teller. - Fifine at the Fair (1872) st. 32
gnorance is not innocence but sin. -The Inn Album (1875) canto 5
Oppression makes the wise man mad. - Luria (1846) act 4, 1.16
Edmund Burke, 1729-97
Irish-born Whig Politician and Man of Letters
Tyrants seldom want pretexts. - Letter to a Member of the National Assembly (1791) p. 25
Between craft and credulity, the voice of reason is stifled. - Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol (1777) p3
A perfect democracy is therefore the most shameless thing in the world. - Reflections on the Revolution in
The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse. - Speech on the Middlesex Election, in the Speeches (1854) p.3
The people are the masters. -Speech, Hansard 11 February 1780, col.6
Lord Byron, (George Gordon, 6tlh Baron Byron) 1788-1824
English Romantic Poet
Sweet is revenge- especially to women -Don Juan (1819 24) canto 1, st. 124
Pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin's a pleasure -Don Juan (1819 24) canto 1, st. 133
Man's love is of man's life a thing apart, Tis woman's whole existence. - Don Juan (1819 24) canto 1, st. 194
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772-1834
English Romantic Poet, Critic, and Philosophe
Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea!
And never a saint took pity on
My soul in agony. - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798)
O Lady! we receive but what we give,
And in our life alone does Nature live. - Dejection: an Ode (1802) st. 4
Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.- The Rime of the Anicent Mariner (1798)
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and smal - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798) pt.7
John Donne, 1572-1631
English Poet and Divine
For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love. - Songs and Sonnets (The Canonizaton)
Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time. -Songs and Sonnets (The Sunne Rising)
This bed thy centre is, these walls thy sphere. - Songs and Sonnets (The Sunne Rising
Robert Frost, 1874-1963
American Poet
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep, - Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (1923)
Good fences make good neighbours. - Mending Wall (1914)
John Keats, 1795-1821
English Romantic Poet
Beauty is truth, truthh beauty, 'that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. - Ode on a Grecian Urn (1820) st. 5
My heart aches, anda drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, - Ode to a Nightingale (1820) st. 1
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard - Ode on a Grecian Urn (1820) st. 2
John Milton, 1608-74
Greatest English Epic Poet
Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven. - Paradise Lost (1667) bk. 1,1. 261
The childhood shows the man,
As morning shows the day - Paradise Regained (1671) bk. 4, 1.220
Just are the ways of God,
And justifiable to men;
Unless there be who think not God at all. - Samson Agonistes (1671) 1.293
Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end. - Samson Agonistes (1671) 1. 1008
A good book is the prelious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life. Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay they do preserve as in vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. -Areopagitica (1644) p. 4
As good almost kill a man as kill a good book: who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye. - - Areopagitica (1644) p. 4
Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties. - Areopagitica (1644) p.3
Christopher Marlowe, 1564-93
English Playwright and Poet
Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures proOve,
That valleys, groves, hills and fields,
Woods or steepy mountain yields. - The Passionate Shepherd to his Love.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792-1822
English Romantic Poet
I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky; -The Cloud (1819)
Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear! - Ode to the West Wind (1819) 1.1
Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed! - Ode to the West Wind (1819) 1.53
IF Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? - Ode to the West Wind (1819) 1.66
We look before and after,
And pine for what is not
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. - To a Skylark (1819)
Poets are the unacknowledged legislature of the world. - A defence of Poetry (1821).
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712-78
French Philosopher and Novelist
Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains. - Du Contrat Social (1762) ch. 1
Gladstone 1809-98
British Liberal Politician; Prime Minister
"Justice delayed is justice denied"
Nepoleon I 1769-1821
Emperor of France, 1804-15
The career open to the talents.
England is a nation of shopkeepers.
Give me good mothers,
Iwill give you a good nation
Alexander Pope, 1688-1744
English Poet
To err is human; to forgive, divine. - An Essay on Criticism (1711) 1.525
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. -An Essay on Criticism (1711) 1.625
Amusement is the happiness of those who cannot think.
An honest man is the noblest work of God.
A little learning is a dangerous thing; - An Eassy on Criticism
Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he
shall never be disappointed. - Letter to Gay, October 6, 1727
Thomas a Kempis, 1380-1471
German Ascetical Writer
Man proposes, but God disposes. - De Imitatione Christs bK. I1, ch. 19, sec. 2
William Shakespeare, 1564-1616
English Playwright
Cowards die many times before their
deaths. (Uttered by CAESAR) - Julius Caesar (1599) act 2, sc.2,
To be, or not to be: that is the question.
(Uttered by HAMLET) - Hamlet (1601) act 3, sc. 1,
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. - Hamlet (1601) act 1, sc. 5.
Brevity is the soul of wit. - Hamlet (1601) act 2, sc. 2.
Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude:
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude. - As you Like It (1599) act 2, sc. 7
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entra
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. - As You Like It (1599) act 2, sc. 7.
All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this
little hand. (Uttered by Lady Macbeth) - Macbeth (1606) act 5, sc. 1.
Life is a tale
told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing. - Macbeth (1606), act 5, sc.5.
Fair is foul, and foul is fair: - Macbeth (1606) act 1, sc. 1
A young man married is a man that's marred. - All's Well that Ends Well (1603 4) act 2, sc. 3
Sweet are the uses of adversity - As You Like It (1599) act 2, sc.1.
Under the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me,
And turn his merry note
Unto the sweet bird's throat,
Lome hither, come hither, come hither:
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather. - As You Like It (1599) act 2, sc. 5.
When we are born, we cry, that we are come
To this great stage of fools. - "King Lear, act 4, sc.6
Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none.
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man
knows himself to be a fool. "All's Well That Ends Well", Act I scene 1
Frailty, thy name is woman! - "Hamlet", Act 1,Sc.2
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking
makes it so. - Hamlet'", Act 2, Sc2.
I must be cruel, only to be kind:
Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind. - Hamlet. Act 3, Sc. 4
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and
some have geatness thrust upon them - W.Shakespeare (Twelfth Night)
What 's in a name? A rose by any name would
smell as sweet. - W.Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)
Shall I compare thee to a summer s day ? - W.Shakespeare (Sonnet 18)
William Wordsworth, 1770-1850
English Romantic Poet
Ten thousands saw at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. - I wandered lonely as a cloud
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here or gently pass - The Solitary Reaper (1807)
The Child is father of the Man - My heart leaps up when I behold (1807)
Thomas Gray, 1716-1771
English Poet
Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:
Full manya flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air. - Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751) 1. 53
Lord Horatio Nelson, 1758-1805
British Admiral
England expects that every man will do his duty.
Socrates 469-399 BC
Greek Philosopher
I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.
Philosophers bk. 2, sect. 3
The unexamined life is not worth living. - In Plato Apology 38a
It is never right to do wrong or to requite wrong
with wrong, or when we suffer evil to defend
ourselves by doing evil in return. - In Plato Crito 49d
It is perfectly certain that the soul is immortal and imperishalble, and our souls will actually exist in another world. - In Plato Phaedo 107a
By all means marry; if you get a good wite, you ll be happy. If you get a bad one,
Do not do to others what angers you if done
to you by others.
Envy is the ulcer of the soul.
If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not
be praised until it is known how he employs it.
The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance. Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat.
Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the gods. - from Diogenes Laertius, Lives
of Eminent Philosophers.
I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world. - From Plutarch, of Banishment.
Know thyself. - Plato, Inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi
Plato 429-347 BC
Greek Philosopher
Ignorance, the root and the stem of every evil.
Laws are partly formed for the sake of good men, in order to instruct them how they may live on friendly terms with one another, and partly for the sake of those who refuse to be instructed, whose spirit cannot be subdued, or softened, or hindered from plunging into evil.
If women are expected to do the same work as men,
5ource we must teach them the same things
Never discourage anyone.. who continually makes
progresS, no matter how slow.
Thinking is the talking of the soul with itself.
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the
dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are
afraid of the light.
Wise men talk because they have something to say;
fools, because they have to say something
You can discover more about a person in an hour
of play than in a year of conversation. - Dialogues, Phaedo
False words are not only evil in themselves,
but they infect the soul with evil. - Dialogues, Phaedo
Mankind censure injustice fearing that they may be
the victims of it, and not because they shrink fromn
committing it. - The Republic
Before God we are all equally wise and equally foolish. The beginning is the most important part of the work. Wealth is the parent of luxury and indolence, and poverty of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent. - The Republic
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
German Philosopher
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything
Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you
become one.
Great men's errors are to be venerated as more fruitful than little mens truths.
Insanity in individuals is something rare-but in
groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
Man is the cruelest animal.
Many people wait throughout their whole lives for
the chance to be good in their own fashion.
No price is too high to pay for the privilege ot
Owning yourself.
Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.
The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys
several times the same good things for the first time.
To forget one s purpose is the commonest form
of stupidity.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
US(German-borm) P'hysicist
Before God we are all equally wise and equally foolish.
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide
the conditions in which they can learn.
I never think of the future-it comes soon enough.
Imagination is more important than knowledge...
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.
It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.
Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity,and I'm not sure about the former.
Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking
Charles Dickens (1812 -1870)
English Novelist
There is a passion for hunting something deeply
implanted in the human breast. - A Tale of Two Cities
It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known. - A Tale of Two Cities
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was
the epoch of incredulity, it was the season
of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was
the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. A Tale of Two Cities
Annual income twenty pounds, annual
expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. - David Copperfield
Annual income twenty pounds, annual
expenditure twenty pound ought and six,
result misery -David Copperfield
Jane Austen (1775 - 1817)
English Novelist
To be claimed as a good, though in an improper style, is at least better than being rejected as no good at all. - Persuasion, 1818
To flatter and follow others, without being flattered Persuasion, an followed in turn, is but a state of half enjoyment. - Persuasion, 1818
For what do we live, but to make sport for our
neighbours, and laugh at thenm in our turn?
Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. - Pride and Prejudice
If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well
known to each other or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. - Pride and Prejudice
Vanity and pride are different things, though the
words are often used synonymously... Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us. - Pride and Prejudice, first line
It is a truth universally acknow ledged, that a
single man in possession of a good fortune,
must be in want of a wife. - Pride and Prejudice, first line
One half of the world cannot understand the
pleasures of the other. - Emma
Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done
by sensible people in an impudent way. - Emma
I cannot think well of a man who sports with
any woman's feelings; and there may often be a great deal more suffered than a stander-by can judge of. - Mansfield Park
It will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the
clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation. - Mansfield Park
Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love. - Northanger Abbey
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleter and poet
"Books, the children of the brain." - A Tale of a Tub And other Writings
"I cannot but conclude that the Bulk of your
Natives, to be the most pernicious Race of
little odious Vermin that Nature ever suffered
to crawl upon the Surface of the Earth." - Gulliver's Travels
Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right
when they tell us that nothing is great or little
otherwise than by comparison" - Gulliver's Travels
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
Irish dramatist & socialist
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - Man and Superman (1903)
Youth, which is forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing age, which forgives itself everything, is forgiven nothing. - Man and Superman (1903)
There is no love sincerer than the love of food. - Man and Superman (1903)
A learned man is an idler who kills time with study. - Man and Superman (1903)
Beware of his false knowledge: it is more dangerous than ignorance. - Man and Superman (1903)
Liberty also means responsibility. That is why
most men dread it. - Maxims for Revolutionists.
He who has never hoped can never despair. - Caesar and Cleopatra.
When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty. - Caesar and Cleopatra.
We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. - Candida
There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get
your heart's desire. The other is to get it. - Man and Superman
When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity. - Man and Superman
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
US essayist & poet
All our progress is an unfolding, like a vegetable
bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion,
then a knowledge as the plant has root, bud, and
fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you
can render no reason.
Character is higher than intellect.... A great soul
will be strong to live, as well as to think.
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead
where there is no path and leave a trail.
Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against
the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.
Every great and commanding moment in the
annals of the world is the triumph of some enthusiasm.
Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good.
If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.
Insist on yourself; never imitate.. Every great man is unique.
No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.
Some Special Quotations
Ability is a poor man's wealth.- M. Wern
Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant, is a mind distressed.--Cowper
Economy is half the battle of life, it is not so hard to earn money as to spend it well. -Charles H. Spurgeon.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.-John Philpot Curran.
Example teaches better than precept.- Samuel Smiles.
Goverment of the people, by the people, for the people- Abraham Lincon.
Help thyself and God will help thee.-George Herbert.
Humanity is the solid foundation of all Virtues.- Confuscius.
God didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent him.-Voltaire.
Knowledge is power- Hobbes.
King is dead, long live, the King-English Political Proverb.
Live and let live is a rule of common justice.- Lord Mansfield.
Man proposes, but God disposes.- Thomas a Kempis.
None but a fool is always right. -David Hare.
No man can be wise on empty stomach. - George Eliot.
One should eat to live, not live to eat. Moliere (The Miser)
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely,--Lord Acton.
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.-Rousseou.
Riches are not an end of life, but an instrument of life.- H. W. Beecher.
Speech is great, but silence is greater.-Carlyle.
Success makes success, as money makes money.-Chamfort
They think too little who talk much.-John Dryden.
We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.-John Dryden
God made the country and man made the town. -Cowper.
God is on the side of big battalions.- Bernard Shaw.
Man's conscience is the oracle of God.- Lord Byron.
Supersttion is a religion of feeble minded persons.- Edmund Burke.
Self-preservation is the first law of nature.-Sumuel Butler.
Men are woman's playthings, Woman is the devil's.- Victor Hugo.
The paths of Glory lead but to the grave.-Gray.
People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little-Rousseou
The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved. -Victor Hugo
Common sense is not so common.- Voltaire
Love is a serious mental disease-Plato
One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.-Euripides
Fortune sides with him who dares-Virgil
Happiness depends upon ourselves.-Aristotle
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the univese-Albert Einstein
An uneamined lite is not worth living- Socrates
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.-Steve Jobs
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up,-Pablo Picasso
The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why - Mark Twain
Tou can do anything, but not everything-David Alled
What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do-John Ruskin
The person who reads too much and uses his brain too little will fall into lazy habits of thinking-Albert Einstein.
Some Important Information on Literature
Elizabethan literature was inspired by-Renaissance spirit.
Shakespeare has the reputation for -Objective presentation about human psychology -
Sir Philip Sydney.
The most famous contemporary playwright after Shakespeare- Christopher Marlowe
University wits were present in the- Elizabethan period (16th century).
The most terseness of writing is found in the wrilings of--Francis Bacon
Comedy of Humours is related to-Medical theory
Though blind but famous in English literature- John Milton
Though not Litterateurs but got Nobel prize for Literature -Bertrand Russel (philosopher), Winston Churchill (Statesman)
Nobel Peace Prize for Literature started from- 1901
Both poet and painter-William Blake
Famous as Shakespeare of Divines -Jeremy Taylor.
Among Litterateurs one was Vice chancellor - Jeremy Taylor (Dublin University)
Similarity between Kazi Nazrul Islam and Lord Byron- both of them were rebel poets.
Who helped to translate Rabindranath's Gitanjali (Song Offerings)?-W. B. Yeats
Among English Litterateurs who was born in India - William Makepeace Thackeray (Kolkata), Rudyard Kipling (Bombay)
The most satiric comment in English literature- Natives, to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.
The famous satirist writer in English literature - Jonathan Swift
The most mysterious dialogue in English literature-To be or not to be : that is the question (Hamlet)
Who refused the Nobel Prize in literature?- Jea-paul Sartre.
Who was anti-romantic in Romantic Age?-Jane Austen.
Dramatic monologue' occurs in-Poetry.
Psychoanalytical treatment (unconscious sexual desire) between mother and son referes to
Oedipus Complex, and between father and daughter refers to Electra Complex.
Protagonist- the leading character in a play or novel.
Antagonist-Opponent or villainous character.
Song in praise of God or hero-Hymn.
Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and Measure for Measure are a kind of play-Black comedy
Positive aspects in negative statement- Litotes.
He is a lion' is an expample of -Metaphor.
Catastrophy is a part of-Tragedy.
The final scene of any play is called-Denouement.
Romantic Age was commenced with the publication of-Preface to Lyrical Ballads
Who is called 'A most glorious saint'-?-George Herbert.
The epic 'Faerie Queene' was written by celebrating-Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I
Milton wrote Areopagitica for-The liberty of unlicenced printing.
What are the two cities in A Tale of the Two Cities?-London and Paris.
The real name of George Eliot-Mary Ann Evans.
Ben Jonson's Volpone represents the nature of-Vulture.