British literature

[6][7] Although the Romans withdrew from Britain in the early 5th century, Latin literature, mostly ecclesiastical, continued to be written, including Chronicles by Bede (672/3–735), Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum; and Gildas (c. 500–570), De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae.

Some Old Norse poetry survives relating to this period, including the Orkneyinga saga, an historical narrative of the history of the Orkney Islands, from its capture by the Norwegian king in the 9th century until about 1200.

Interest in King Arthur continued in the 15th century with Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur (1485), a popular and influential compilation of some French and English Arthurian romances.

Piers is considered by many critics to be one of the early great works of English literature along with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight during the Middle Ages.

A contemporary of Langland and a personal friend of Chaucer, Gower is remembered primarily for three major works, the Mirroir de l'Omme, Vox Clamantis, and Confessio Amantis, three long poems written in Anglo-Norman, Latin, and Middle English respectively, which are united by common moral and political themes.

Poems intended to be set to music as songs, such as those by Thomas Campion, became popular as printed literature was disseminated more widely in households (see English Madrigal School).

Influenced by continental Baroque, and taking as his subject matter both Christian mysticism and eroticism, Donne's metaphysical poetry uses unconventional or "unpoetic" figures, such as a compass or a mosquito, to achieve surprise effects.

Their style was witty, with metaphysical conceits – far-fetched or unusual similes or metaphors, such as Marvell's comparison of the soul with a drop of dew;[37] or Donne's description of the effects of absence on lovers to the action of a pair of compasses.

Writing in English, Latin, and Italian, he achieved international renown within his lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica (1644), written in condemnation of pre-publication censorship, is among history's influential and impassioned defences of free speech and freedom of the press.

Behn's depiction of the character Willmore in The Rover and the witty, poetry-reciting rake Dorimant in George Etherege's The Man of Mode (1676) are seen as a satire on John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647–1680), an English libertine poet, and a wit of the Restoration court.

He is also notable for his impromptus,[48] Voltaire, who spoke of Rochester as "the man of genius, the great poet", admired his satire for its "energy and fire" and translated some lines into French to "display the shining imagination his lordship only could boast".

His The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748) is the first major novel written in English to have a Scotsman as hero,[53] and the multinational voices represented in the narrative confront Anti-Scottish sentiment, being published only two years after the Battle of Culloden.

The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771) brings together characters from the extremes of Britain to question how cultural and linguistic differences can be accommodated within the new British identity, and influenced Charles Dickens.

Joseph Addison and Richard Steele's The Spectator established the form of the British periodical essay, inventing the pose of the detached observer of human life who can meditate upon the world without advocating any specific changes in it.

The English novel has generally been seen as beginning with Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Moll Flanders (1722),[56] though John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678) and Aphra Behn's, Oroonoko (1688) are also contenders.

Claiming to have found poetry written by the ancient bard Ossian, he published translations that acquired international popularity, being proclaimed as a Celtic equivalent of the Classical epics.

Largely disconnected from the major streams of the literature of the time, Blake was generally unrecognised during his lifetime, but is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.

[86] After Blake, among the early Romantics were the Lake Poets, a small group of friends, including William Wordsworth (1770–1850), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834), Robert Southey (1774–1843) and journalist Thomas De Quincey (1785–1859).

[88] Among Wordsworth's important poems, are "Michael", "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey", "Resolution and Independence", "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" and the autobiographical epic The Prelude.

Generally regarded as among the great lyric poets in the English language, Shelley is perhaps best known for poems such as Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark and Adonaïs, an elegy written on the death of Keats.

[95] Although sticking to its forms, Felicia Hemans began a process of undermining the Romantic tradition, a deconstruction that was continued by Letitia Elizabeth Landon, as "an urban poet deeply attentive to themes of decay and decomposition".

Lord Jim has also been praised for its innovative psychological exploration of cowardice, self knowledge, and personal growth, as well as its experimental narrative structure anticipating literary modernism.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) also wrote works in this genre, including Kidnapped (1886), an historical novel set in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745, and Treasure Island (1883), the classic pirate adventure.

While their Victorian predecessors had usually been happy to cater to mainstream middle-class taste, 20th-century writers often felt alienated from it, so responded by writing more intellectually challenging works or by pushing the boundaries of acceptable content.

Forster's A Passage to India 1924, reflected challenges to imperialism, and his earlier works such as A Room with a View (1908) and Howards End (1910) examined the restrictions and hypocrisy of Edwardian society in England.

An essayist and novelist, George Orwell's works are considered important social and political commentaries of the 20th century, dealing with issues such as poverty in The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) and in the 1940s, his satires of totalitarianism included Animal Farm (1945).

Evelyn Waugh satirised the "bright young things" of the 1920s and 1930s, notably in A Handful of Dust and Decline and Fall, and his novel Brideshead Revisited has a theological basis, aiming to examine the effect of divine grace on its main characters.

Among the more famous works created for radio, are Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood (1954), Samuel Beckett's All That Fall (1957), Harold Pinter's A Slight Ache (1959) and Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons (1954).

Hugh Lofting created the character Doctor Dolittle who appears in a series of 12 books, and Dodie Smith's The Hundred and One Dalmatians featured the villainous Cruella de Vil.

Roald Dahl is a prominent author of children's fantasy novels, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 1964, which are often inspired from experiences from his childhood, with often unexpected endings, and unsentimental, dark humour.