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Periods of English Literature chart

Periods of English Literature are a very Important part of English Literature. These periods are named after famous kings, queens or important writers of their respective times. This article provides a detailed discussion of the Periods of English Literature chart.

Periods of English Literature

 

 

1. The Old English Period or The Anglo-Saxon Period (450-1066)

2. The Middle English Period (1066-1500)

             A) The Anglo-Norman Period (1066-1340)

             B) The Age of Chaucer (1340-1400)

 

3. The Renaissance Period (1500-1660)

             A) Elizabethan Age (1558-1603)

             B) Jacobean Age (1603-1625)

             C) Caroline Age (1625-1649)

             D) Commonwealth Period (1649-1660)

 

4. The Neoclassical Period (1660-1785)

             A) The Restoration Period (1660-1700)

             B) The Augustan Age or The Age of Pope (1700-1745)

             C) The Age of Sensibility or The Age of Johnson (1745-1785)

 

5. The Romantic Period (1798-1832)

6. The Victorian Period (1832-1901)

            A) The Pre-Raphaelites (1848-1860)

            B) Aestheticism and Decadence (1880-1901)

 

7. The Modern Period (1901-1939)

            A) The Edwardian Period (1901-1910)

            B) The Georgian Period (1910-1936)

 

8. The Post-modern Period (1939…:)

 

Periods of English Literature chart

 

1.Old English Period (450–1066)

This period started in the fifth century. It is the oldest period in English literature. During this time Angles and Saxon came to England. Many remarkable literary works of this age. Most works are anonymous. Romantic love is absent. Strong religious belief is reflected in the literature. This period ended in 1066.

Major Writers and Their Major Works

  • Beowulf (Anonymous), The earliest epic in English.
  • The Wanderer (Anonymous
  • The Seafarer (Anonymous

 

Caedmon

  • Caedmon’s Hymn

 

Cynewulf

  • Elene

 

 

2. The Middle English Period (1066-1500)

The Middle English Period started in 1066. It is a very important period in English literature. During this time William Caxton established printing press. It was a great revolution in English literature. The Middle English Period is divided into two ages. 1066 to 1340 is called Anglo-Norman period and 1340 to 1400 is called the age of Chaucer because Geoffrey Chaucer dominated this age. 1066 to 1500 is called Middle English period. It’s called the Dark age.

Major Writers and Their Major Works

John Wycliffe (1324-84)

  • The Bible (translated into English from Latin)

 

John Gower (1325-1408)

  • Confessio Amantis

 

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) Father of English Modern poetry.

  • Troilus and Criseyde (1387)
  • Canterbury Tales (1385-1400)

 

William Langland (1332-1386)

  • “Piers Plowman” (1362)

 

Sir Thomas Malory

  • Morte d’ Arthur (1485), the first romance in prose

 

 

3. The Renaissance Period (1500-1660)

This period started in 1500. It is called the Renaissance Period because the spirit of the Renaissance is reflected in the literature of this time. This period is divided into four short ages based on the political history of England.

A) Elizabethan Age (1558-1603)

B) Jacobean Age (1603-1625)

C) Caroline Age (1625-1649)

D) Commonwealth Period (1649-1660)

 

 

A) Elizabethan Age (1558-1603)

This Age is named after Queen Elizabeth I. It is also known as the Golden Age of English literature. Secularism is reflected in the literature of this age.

Major Writers and Their Major Works

Thomas More (1478-1535)

  • Utopia (or Kingdom of Nowhere)

 

Norton (1532-84) and Sackville (1536-1608)

  • Gorboduc (1562), the first English tragedy

 

Edmund Spenser (1552-99)

  • He is called the poet of the poets because many later English

 

poets followed his art of poetry.

  • The Faerie Queene (1590)
  • The Shepherd’s Calendar (1579)

 

Nicholas Udall:

  • Ralph Roister Doister (1553), the first English Comedy

 

Thomas Kyd (1557-1595):

  •  He is another university wit.
  • The Spanish Tragedy (1585)

 

Robert Greene (1558-92):

  • He is another university wit.
  • Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (1589)
  • James- IV (1591)

 

Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

  • He is called natural philosopher.
  • Essays (1597)

 

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

The greatest English dramatist. He is often called the Bard of Avon and wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets.

Tragedy 

  • Romeo & Juliet
  • Hamlet
  • Macbeth
  • Antory & cleopatra
  • Othello
  • Timon of Athens
  • King Lear
  • Julius Ceasar

Comedy

  • The taming of the shrew
  • The tempest
  • The comedy of error
  • As you like it
  • he merchant of venice
  • All’s well that end’s well
  • A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream
  • Measure of Measure
  • Twelfth Night

 Poem

  • A Lover’s complaint
  • The passionate pilgrim
  • The phoenix and the Turtle
  • The Rape of Lucrece
  • Venus and Adonis

 

 

B) Jacobean Age (1603-1625)

The Jacobean Age started in 1603. This age is named after King James I, who reigned over England from 1603 to 1625

Major Writers and Their Major Works

John Webster (1580-1625)

  • The White Devil (1612)
  • The Duchess of Malfi (1614)

 

Cyril Tourneur (1575-1626)

  • The Revenger’s Tragedy (1600)
  • The Atheist’s Tragedy (1611)

 

 

C) Caroline Age (1625-1649)

The Caroline Age started in 1625. It is named after King Charles I. Drama declined significantly during this age. It is an important period in English literature.

Major Writers and Their Major Works

Henry Vaughan (1621-95) 

Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)

  •  metaphysical poem

 

John Milton (1608-74)

  • Comus (1634)
  • Lycidas (1637)
  • “Of Education” (1644)
  • “Areopagitica” (1644)

 

 

D) Commonwealth Period (1649-1660)

 

Major Writers and Their Major Works

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), a political philosopher.

  • Leviathan (1651)

 

Jeremy Taylor (1613-67)

  • Holy Living (1650)
  • Holy Dying (1651)

 

Vaughan (1621-95) 

Marvell (1621-78) 

 

 

4. The Neoclassical Period (1660-1785)

This period started in 1660. Writers of this period followed the Greek and Roman literary traditions. They emphasized sophistication, reason, and order. This period is divided into three ages.

A) The Restoration Period (1660-1700)

B) The Augustan Age or The Age of Pope (1700-1745)

C) The Age of Sensibility or The Age of Johnson (1745-1785)

 

 

A) The Restoration Period (1660-1700)

This period is named after the Restoration of the monarchy in England. During this period, the English literary tradition was restored. Great English epics were written this period. Drama also returned, and the translation of great classical texts starts.

Major Writers and Their Major Works

John Milton (1608-74)

  • Paradise Lost (1667), the great epic in English
  • Paradise Regained (1671)
  • Samson Agonistes (1671)

 

Samuel Butler (1612-80)

  • Hudibras (1663), a satire in verse

 

John Locke (1632-1704)

  • An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)

 

William Wycherley (1640-1715)

  • The Country Wife (1675)
  • The Plain Dealer (1676)

 

William Congreve (1670-1729)

  • The Double Dealer (1693)
  • Love for Love (1695)
  • The Way of the World (1700)

 

George Farquhar (1678-1707):

  • The Recruiting Officer (1706)
  • The Beaux’s Stratagem (1707)

 

B) The Augustan Age or The Age of Pope (1700-1745)

This period started in 1700. This age is named after the Roman Emperor Augustus. This age is also called the Age of Pope. During this period, the novel and journalism flourished. The first English daily newspaper, The Daily Courant, was published in London in 1702.

Major Writers and Their Major Works

Daniel Defoe (1659-1731)

  • Robinson Crusoe (1719)

 

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

  • The Battle of the Books (1704)
  • A Tale of a Tub (1704)
  • Gulliver’s Travels (1726)

 

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

  • The Rape of the Lock (1712)
  • Dunciad (1728)
  • Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot (1735)
  • An Essay on Criticism (1711)

 

Samuel Richardson (1689-1761)

  • Pamela or Virtue Rewarded (1740)

 

Henry Fielding (1707-54)

  • Joseph Andrews (1742), a novel

 

 

C) The Age of Sensibility or The Age of Johnson (1745-1785)

Major Writers and Their Major Works

Samuel Richardson (1689-1761)

  • Clarissa Harlowe (1748)
  • Sir Charles Grandison (1754)

 

Henry Fielding (1707-54)

  • Tom Jones (1749)
  • Amelia (1751)

 

Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-84):

  • Dictionary (1755)

 

Thomas Gray (1716-71)

  • “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” (1751)

 

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-74)

  • The Citizen of the World (1759)
  • The Vicar of the Wakefield (1766)

 

 

5. The Romantic Period (1798-1832)

The Romantic Period started in 1798. It is a very important period in English literature. The Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution influenced the literature of this period.

Major Writers and Their Major Works

William Blake (1757-1827)

  • Songs of Innocence (1789)
  • Songs of Experience (1794)

 

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

  • Lyrical Ballads (1798)

 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

  • Biographia Literaria (1817)

     

    Sense and Sensibility (1797-98)

    • Mansfield Park (1814)
    • Emma (1816)

     

    Charles Lamb (1775-1834)

    • The Essays of Elia (1823)
    • The Last Essays of Elia (1833)

     

    William Hazlitt (1778-1830)

    • The Spirit of the Age (1825)

     

    Lord Byron (1788-1824)

    • The Vision of Judgement (1822)
    • Don Juan (1824)

     

    Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

    • Prometheus Unbound (1820)
    • Adonais (1821) and other poems

     

    John Keats (1795-1821)

    • Endymion (1818)
    • Hyperion (1820)
    • Odes and Other Poems
    • Letters

     

     

    6. The Victorian Period (1832-1901)

    The Victorian Period is named after Queen Victoria, who reigned over the United Kingdom from 1837 to 1901. The Fabian Society was founded during this period in 1884. It is also a very important period in English literature.

    Major Writers and Their Major Works

    Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-59)

    • History of England (1849-61)

     

    Cardinal Newman (1801-1890)

    • The Idea of a University

     

    Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92)

    • Poems (1833)
    • In Memoriam (1850)
    • Maud and other Poems (1855)

     

    Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865)

    • She is popularly known as Mrs. Gaskell.
    • Mary Barton (1848)
    • Cranford (1853)
    • Ruth (1853)
    • North and South (1855)
    • Sylvia’s Lovers (1863)

     

    Robert Browning (1812-89)

    He is famous for his dramatic monologues.

    • Dramatic Lyrics (1842)
    • Men and Women (1855)
    • Dramatis Personae (1864)

       

      George Eliot (1819-80)

      • The Mill on the Floss (1860)
      • Scenes of Clerical Life (1858)
      • Adam Bede (1859)
      • Silas Marner (1861)
        • Romola (1863)

         

        Matthew Arnold (1822-88)

        He was a poet and a critic, known for his strong moral voice.

        • “Essays in Criticism” (1888)
        • Culture and Anarchy (1867) 

           

          Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

          • The Return of the Native (1878)
          • The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886)
          • Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891)

           

          George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950):

          He was a modern dramatist, famous for his ‘drama of ideas’.

          • Arms and the Man (1894)
          • You Never Can Tell (1998)

          • Mrs. Warrens’s Profession (1898)

           

           

          7. The Modern Period (1901-1939)

          This age started in 1901 and ended in 1939. It is generally accepted as the Modern Age of English literature. This age is divided into two short ages.

          A) The Edwardian Period (1901-1910)

          B) The Georgian Period (1910-1936)

           

           

          A) The Edwardian Period (1901-1910)

          The first decade of the twentieth century is called the Edwardian Period. The period is named after King Edward VII. The first Nobel Prizes were awarded during this period. World War I changed the world economy, and its impact was reflected in the literature. Women’s issues also became important themes in literature.

          Major Writers and Their Major Works

          Henry James (1843-1916)

          • The Wings of the Dove (1902)
          • The Ambassadors (1903)
          • The Golden Bowl (1904)

           

          Andrew Cecil Bradley (1851-1935)

          He is better known as A. C. Bradley, a famous critic on Shakespeare.

          • Shakespearean Tragedy (1904)
          • Oxford Lectures on Poetry (1909)

           

          George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

          He is a modern dramatist, famous for his ‘drama of ideas’.

          • The Devil’s Disciple (1901)
          • Caesar and Cleopatra (1901)
          • The Philanderer (1902)
          • Man and Superman (1903)
          • Major Barbara (1905)

           

          John Millington Synge (1871-1909)

           He was an Irish dramatist.

          • In the Shadow of the Glen (1903)
          • Riders to the Sea (1904)

           

           

          B) The Georgian Period (1910-1936)

          This period started in 1910 and ended in 1936. This period is named after King George V. This age is ended 1939 for the second World War.

          Major Writers and Their Major Works

          George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

          • Pygmalion (1913)
          • Heartbreak House (1921)
          • Saint Joan (1924)
          • The Apple Cart (1929)
          • Too True to Be Good (1932)

             

            William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

            He was a poet, dramatist and critic, famous for his use of symbolism and mysticism.

            • The Resurrection (1913)
            • The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)
            • The Cat and the Moon (1926)
            • The Tower (1928)
            • The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)

             

            William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

            • The Sacred Flame (1928)
            • Cakes and Ale (1930)

             

            Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965)

            • Prufrock and Other Observations (1917)
            • “The Waste Land” (1922)
            • Poems (1919)
            • Selected Essays 1917-1932 (1932)
            • Four Quartets (1942)
            • Murder in the Cathedral (1935)
            • The Family Reunion (1939)
            • The Cocktail Party (1950), published in the Post-modern age.

             

            Henry Miller (1891-1980)

            • Tropic of Cancer (1934)

             

             

            8. The Post-modern Period (1939…)

            The Postmodern Period started in 1939, when the Second World War destroyed many social values. Writers introduced many modern ideas in this period.

            Major Writers and Their Major Works

            Henry Miller (1891-1980)

            • The Rosy Crucifixion (1949-59), a trilogy

             

            George Orwell (1903-50)

            • Animal Farm (1945)
            • Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

               

              R. K. Narayan (1906-2001)

              • The Dark Room (1938)
              • The Financial Expert (1952)
              • The Guide (1958)
              • A Tiger for Malgudi (1983)

               

              Samuel Beckett (1906-89)

              • Waiting for Godot (1952)
              • Endgame (1955)
              • Happy Days (1961)

               

               

              পরীক্ষার জন্য গুরুত্বপূর্ণ তথ্য

              • Father of English Poetry: Geoffrey Chaucer
              • National Poet of England: William Shakespeare-কে প্রায়ই ইংরেজি সাহিত্যের সর্বশ্রেষ্ঠ নাট্যকার হিসেবে বিবেচনা করা হয়।
              • Epic of Old English: Beowulf
              • Greatest Epic of Puritan Age: Paradise Lost
              • Romantic Manifesto: Lyrical Ballads
              • Masterpiece of Modern Poetry: The Waste Land

               

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