Literature for BCS Preparation

 Literature

Anglo-Saxon period (AD450 - 1066).

1. The oldest period in English literature.
2. The first epic of this period is ‘Beowulf’ (poem). Unknown Writer
3. Venerable Bade’ was the 1^st historian in English literature. He was the ‘Father of English learning’.
4. King Alfred the great is sometimes regarded as ‘The founder of English prose’.

Middle English period (1066-1500)

  

      a. Anglo Norman period (1066-1350AD)

1. Roger Bacon – Opus Minus,

b.The age of Chaucer (1350-1400)

2. The father of English poem – Geoffrey Chaucer (also a politician).
3.  His works – The House of Fame, The Canterbury Tales, The parliament of Fouls.

John Wycliffe

4. ‘The father of English prose’. He translated the Bible into English for the first time.

The Renaissance (1500-1660)

     a. Preparation for the Renaissance (1500-1558)

1. Renaissance is an Italian word which means Rebirth. *
2. The salient features of the Renaissance are – Humanism, Nationalism, Aestheticism

Sir Thomas Wyatt

3. The first sonneteer in English literature.

Sir Thomas Moor (essayist)  

4. Utopia,

b. The Elizabethan Age (1558-1603)

1. The golden age of English literature – the Elizabethan age
2. Elizabethan tragedy is centered on – revenge
3. The Elizabethan age was replete with songs & lyrics. This is why; this age is called ‘a nest of singing birds’.
4. The first English tragedy – Ferrex & Porrex.
5. University Wits – Those playwrights who were highly educated in Oxford & Cambridge University. 5 of them born same year 1558. Thomas Kyd, Bacon, Marlowe etc.

Edmund Spenser.

6. The poet of poets
7. Works –The Ruins of Time

Christopher Marlowe

8. Was an English playwright & poet. The greatest dramatist of English literature before Shakespeare.
9. Works – Doctor Faustus, Edward-II

Thomas Kyd (playwright)

10. The Spanish Tragedy(1^st revenged tragedy),

William Shakespeare (23^rd April 1564-1616)

11. William Shakespeare is famous for English playwright of sixteenth century. (37 plays)
12. Tragedy –  ‘Romeo & Juliet’, ‘Julius Caesar’ , ‘King Lear’, Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet,
13. Comedy – Love’s Labour Lost, The Tempest(last plays), All’s well that Ends well*, As you like it*, The Merchant of Venice*, Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the shrew*,
14. Historical- Anthony & Cleopatra,
15. Poem – Venus & Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece.
16.  ‘To be or not to be, that is a question’ a quotation from – Hamlet. *
17. There are more things in haven & earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophy - Hamlet. *
18. There is a divinity that shapes our ends’ is expressed from – Hamlet. *
19. Fair is foul, & foul is fair’ is quoted by – Macbeth (1606).
20. Calliban is a character in - Tempest
21. Cowards die many times before their death – is quoted from Julius Caesar.
22. A Shakespearean plays consists of five acts.
23. ‘Brevity is the soul of wit’ is quoted by Shakespeare
24. Called ‘The bird of Avon’

Ben Johnson(1573-1637)

25. Comedy - The Silent Woman*, The Alchemist

Francis Bacon(1561-1626) (essayist)

26. Works- Novum Organum, The advancement of Learning
27. Considered to be the father of English prose. *

Robert Herrick (1592-1674)(poet)

28. To Daffodils, Hesperides,
29. In the poem ‘To Daffodils’ the poet weeps over – short-lived human life. *

c. Puritan period (1620-1660)

John Milton (1620-1674) (epic poet)

30. ‘Paradise Lost’ attempted to – justify the ways of God to man.(14^th BCS)
31.  He was called the ‘great master of verse,
32. Works- On the Blindness (sonnets), Paradise Regained* (epic), Lycidas*, Areopagitica(prose)

John Bunyan (1628-1688)

33. works – The pilgrims Progress,

Neo-Classical period (1660-1798)

 

John Dryden (1631-1700)

1. Known as ‘Father of modern English criticism’

b. Augustan period (1700-1745)

Daniel Defoe (1661-1731)

1. The father of English novel
2. works - Robinson Crusoe,

Alexander pope (1688-1744)

3. Fools rush in where angels fear to treat’ is quoted by – Alexander pope.
4. To err is human, to forgive is diving - Alexander pope. *
5. A little learning is a dangerous thing.
6. Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
7. He was called ‘Mock heroic poet’*
8. works – The Rape of the Lock*,

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

9. Most famous satirist in English literature**
10. works – Gulliver’s Travels

Samuel Richardson (1681-1761)

11. The first English novel ‘Pamela’ has been written by him

Henry Fielding (1707-1754)

12. Tom Jones’ was first published in – 1^st half of 19 century. **
13. Considered to be the father of English Novel. *

c. The age of Johnson (1751-1798)

Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

1. The first English Dictionary was compiled by – Dr. Samuel Johnson. **

Thomas Gray (1716-1771)

2. Full man a flower is born to blush unseen, & waste its sweetness in the desert air. *

Romantic period (1798-1832)

William Blake (1757-1828)

1. both a poet & painter**
2. Works - Marriage of Heaven & Hell

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

3. He is called ‘Poet of Nature’*, ‘Poet of Childhood’ , ‘Lake poet’
4. Wordsworth was inspired by – the French Revolution
5. Works - The Solitary Reaper(romantic poem), The Daffodils(poem), The Escursion,
6. The child is father of a man’ is taken from his writings
7. Ten thousand saw at a glance tossing their heads in sprightly dance - Daffodils

S.T. Coleridge (1772-1834)

8. He is also called ‘Lake poet’ , poet of Supernaturalism, Opium Eater
9. The English poet who addicted to opium
10. He prayeth best who loveth best*
11. Works - Kubla Khan(a verse)**
12. Water, water everywhere... not a drop to drink occurs in – The Ancient Mariner. *

Lord Byron (1788-1824)

13. The Rebel poet in English literature. *
14. Death is ‘a short sleep’*

Percy Byssi Shelley’s (1792-1822)

15. He was called the ‘Revolutionary poet’ , ‘Poet of Hope & Regeneration’
16. Works –The Revolt of Islam,
17. Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thoughts’ quotation from – To a Skylark*
18. We look before & after & pine for what is not – To a Skylark*
19. Oh lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud; I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed.’ – Ode to the west wind. *
20. If winter comes can spring be far behind - Ode to the west wind. *
21. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world*

John Keats (1795-1821)

22. Is called the ‘poet of beauty’.
23. Was the poet of Romantic Age. Died of Tuberculosis.
24. A famous English poet who was professionally known as a man of medicine.
25. A thing is joy for ever’ was state by – John Keats.
26. Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter’ is quoted by – Keats.
27. Works – Ode on a Grecian Urn , ‘Beauty is truth, truth is beauty’
28. My heart aches, & a drowsy numbness pains. My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk’ – Ode to a Nightingale.

Jane Austen (1775-1832), Novelist

29. Sense & Sensibility, Pride & prejudice,

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), Novelist

30. Patriotism, Ivan Hoe*

Charles Lamb 1775-1834), British essayist

1. Some books are to be tested, others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed & digested – Charles Lamb

Victorian period (1832-1901)

1. The Victorian period was – 19^th Century. **
2. New Arabian Nights’ is written by – R.L. Stevenson.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

3. works – Ulysses*, In Memoriam(poem)(an elegy)

Robert Browning (1812-1889)

4. works – Man & women, The Patriot(Poem)
5. Robert Browning was the composer of – Andrea Del Sarto. **
6. The poet of Victorian age**

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)(Novelist)

7. A Tale of Two Cities* (novel), Professor Shirly, David Copperfield*

George Eliot (1818-1880) (Novelist)

8. Her real name is Mary Ann Evans. *

W.M. Thackeray (1811-1863) (Novelist)

9. Vanity Fair(novel)

Thomas Hardy (1840-1880) (Novelist)

10. The Return of the Native,

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish

11. The Picture of Dorian Gray

Modern Age (1901- )

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) (Novelist) (born in India)

1. The Jungle Book

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) Novelist

2. Lord Jim

H.G. Wells (1866-1946) Novelist

3. The time Machine (science fiction)

E.M. Forster (1879-1924) Novelist

4. A passage to India

Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) Novelist

5. The Luncheon(short story), Of Human Bondage,

D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930) (Novelist)

6. Lady Chatterley’s Lover(novel), The Rainbow(novel)**, Son & Lovers,

Bertrand Russell (1872 –1970)

1. Road to Freedom,
2. The modern British Philosopher who was awarded Novel Prize for literature. **

Gorge Orwell (1903-1950) (Novelist)

7. Real name Eric Arthur Blair
8. works – Animal Farm** , Nineteen Eighty Four,

William Golding (1911-1993) (Novelist)

9. Lord of the Flies(novel)

Winston Churchill (Novelist)

10. The statesman but awarded novel prize (1953) in literature. *
11. England expects every man to do his duty. *

T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) (Modern poet)

12. Murder in the Cathedral, The Waste Land*(novel prize),
13. Born in USA**
14. Is famous for the theory of ‘Objective Co-relative’.

George Bernard Shaw (1850-1950)

15. Works – Caesar & Cleopatra(play) **, Man & Superman
16. Who is the greatest modern English Dramatist/ Playwright **

American

O’Henry

1. Real name William Sydney Porter. **
2. The Gift of the Magi

3. Famous for short story.

Ernest Hemingway (Novelist) (1899 – 1961)

4. works - A Farewell to Arms**, For whom the Bell Tolls **, The Old Man & the Sea*, Indian Camp

William Faulkner

5. American*

Her Man Melville

6. ‘Moby Dick’ deals with – a whale*

Mrs. Harriet Stowe (1811-1896)

7. Uncle Tom’s Cabin*

Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) American

8. The Good Earth

Alex Haley (1921 – 1992)

9. Novel – Roots,

French

Alexander Dumas* 1829–1870

1. Three Musketeers*

Rousseau (1712 – 1778)

2. “Man was born free, but everywhere hi is in chains’ is quoted from - The Social Contract
3. works - Émile: or, on Education

Russian

Leo Tolstoy 1828- 1910),

1. Works - war & Peace*, Anna Karenina

Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), Novelist

2. works - Cancer Word*

Others

1. A Machiavellian character is - - a selfish person*
2. Epic is a – Long poem
3. The meaning of the word ‘Hymn’ is – the song in praise of God
4. ‘Canto’ means – a section or division of a long poem
5. ‘Glossary’ means – an alphabetical list of unfamiliar or technical or special words or phrases.
6. ‘Epilogue’ means poem or speech at the end of a play.
7. ‘Parody’ means imitation of a poem or writing.
8. ‘Novella’ means a tale or short story.
9. ‘Couplet’ means two successive rhyming lines.
10. ‘Minstrel’ means a wandering poet.
11. A famous short story of Maupassant is – The Diamond Necklace.
12. A song of morning’ means – Lyric*
13. A lexicographer is a person who writes – dictionaries*
14. Protagonist indicates the leading character in a play. *
15. Melodrama is a kind of play of violent & sensational themes*
16. ‘Blank verse’ is a kind of verse having no rhyming end.
17. Catastrophe is the tragic end of – dramatic events.
18. A person who writes about his own life writes an autobiography. **
19. Edmund Burke belongs to – 18^th Century.
20. ‘Alice in the wonderland’ belongs to – Juvenile literature
21. Man proposes, but God disposes’ is quoted by – Thomas Kemps.
22. The country is good if its Universities are good’ – Pandit Neheru.
23. Arabian Nights’ is a fairly tales.
24. A.S. Hornbly is famous for writing dictionaries.
25. When there were on general dictionaries of English & no English grammars – before 1600. *
26. The woman is a novel. *
27. what is Elegy – song of Lamentation*
28. Most important feature of a romantic poetry is – subjectivity, Love of nature.*
29. Death, thou shalt not die’ is an example of – paradox.
30. ‘An unexamined life is not worth living’ is said by – Socrates. *
31. Time, You Old Gypsy Man’ is written by – Ralph Hodgson. *
32. Early to bed & early to rise, that makes a man healthy, wealthy, & wise – Franklin
33. God made the country & man made the town – Cowper (1731 – 1800) was an English poet
34. Reading make a full man – Bacon *
35. Justice delayed is justice denied’ was state by – William Ewart Gladstone(1809-1898) *
36. But I have promises to keep & miles to go before I sleep – Robert Frost.
37. The ‘Poet Laureate’ is – the Court poet of England**
38. A fantasy is – an imaginary story. **
39. ‘Euphemism’ means – in offensive expression. **
40. Who is the first printer of English – William Claxton.
41. A salient feature of all Literature’s – Sensuous quality
42. Romanticism is mainly connected with – Love & beauty*
43. Good face is the best letter of recommendation’ state by – Queen Elizabeth*.
44. Who is well known for his translation of ‘The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam’ – Edward Fitzgerald? * 1809 – 1883) was an English writer,
45. Who is William Haslett - essayist 1778 – 1830) was an English writer,
46. Who is the most translated author of the world – V.I. Lenin*
47. Author of ‘Around the world in eighty Days’ – Jules Verne* French
48. Author of ‘Sherlock Holmes’ – Sir a Conan Doyle*. Scottish
49. Author of Affluent Society – J.K.Galbrath*
50. Author of The End of History & the Last Man’ – Francis Fukuyama* American
51. Author of Spirit of Islam – Syed Amir Ali. *
52. Author of brick Lane  -  Monica Ali
53. Author of Lorna Donne – Blakemore
54. Author of Asian Drama – Gunner Myrdal (1898-1987), Swedish
55. Author of India wins Freedom – Abul Kalam Azad**
56. Author of The God of Small Things – Arundhuti Ray**
57. Limerick is – a sort form of light verse. *?
58. Ballad is – a kind of short - - -
59. School of Literature – Comedy of Humors. **

Goethe (1749-1832)

1. greatest poet of Germany

Homer (Greek, epic poet, around 850BC)

1. ‘The Odyssey’*, ‘The Iliad’*